Prepare for Trouble - and make it Double! (Kenny Liu x OC)
Summary: Bug wants to know how the electricity in town works, and Kenny gets dragged into it. After Jade arrives, he brings up flashbacks.
Pairings: One sided!Kenny Liu x Bug Mendes (OC) (Bug is whipped); platonic!Jade Herrera x Bug Mendes (OC).
Warnings: canon typical swearing, electricity tinkering (for God's sake do not reproduce what I wrote, that's dangerous and VERY harmful!!), Bug is a STEM person, Jade has found a partner in crime.
Kenny hesitated on the porch, the wood creaking under his weight as he pushed the door open. The bright light from the hallway spilled onto his sneakers, and the faint scent of something burning tickled his nose.
“Hello?” he called out, stepping inside cautiously.
From the brightly lit hallway, a familiar voice answered. “Hey, Kenny!”
Kenny turned the corner to find Bug sitting there, holding a kitchen knife in one hand and wearing bright rubber gloves that went up to their elbows. Their stance screamed mischief, and Kenny immediately regretted not locking the tools away.
“What are you doing?” Kenny asked, eyes narrowing.
Bug grinned as they gestured at the outlet with the knife. “Just seeing how this shit works.”
Kenny pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t.”
“It won’t hurt—”
“It’s not about you! It’ll mess up the electricity!” Kenny snapped.
Bug’s grin widened. “Bet you it won’t.”
Before Kenny could stop them, Bug jammed the knife into the outlet. A loud 'crack!' echoed through the hallway as sparks flew, one landing on Bug’s shirt and igniting a tiny flame. The house plunged into darkness.
The knife clattered to the ground, and Bug stumbled back, slapping frantically at their shirt. Kenny cursed under his breath and lunged forward, batting at the fire until it fizzled out.
Bug looked up, glasses askew and foggy from the commotion. “If you wanted to touch me, you could just ask,” they said, with reddened ears.
Kenny’s face was a mix of exasperation and disbelief. “Next time, do it without the gloves.”
Bug’s eyes followed him as he turned and stormed out of the house, muttering to himself. They smirked to themselves. “Cute.”
The lights flickered back on just then, bathing the hallway in their soft glow. Bug threw their arms up in triumph. “I knew it!”
When they saw the blackened end of the knife, they jolted something down on a tiny notepad. "Outlets are 220v."
A Few Months Later
The kitchen was a disaster zone of wires. Jade crouched on the floor, a pair of pliers in hand. “We gotta pick up the wires. Take them off!"
Across the room, Kenny sat slumped at the table, his head in his hands. Tian-Chen stood beside him, patting his shoulder sympathetically.
“I can’t, Ma,” Kenny groaned, his voice muffled by his palms. “There’s two of them now.”
In the background, Bug and their newfound partner-in-crime, a frazzled-looking individual in similarly ridiculous gloves, leaned over a toaster.
A loud 'zap!' followed by a cheer erupted from the corner.
Tian-Chen sighed. “Strong, Kenny. You survive this.”
“Not like this, Ma." Kenny shook his head. "Not like this.”
A little snippet of Jade and Bug's (my OC) friendship!!
I'm planning on writing about Bug's arrival in town soon enough ;)
Warnings: canon compliant swearing, Jade Herrera is a warning by himself, mentions of attempted murder. lowercase, i think?
“d’you think i’m annoying?”
jade looked up from his little notepad of horrors, brows furrowed in mock thought.
“yes.”
bug whined. the sound echoed through the semi-empty bar, where the older man tried to put something - he still didn’t know what, exactly, yet - together, hair mussed up from his frantic hands.
“i hate it when you do that.” they mumbled, rotating on the stool, that squeaked with the movement, and their own hair was a curly, dry mess.
(‘it woke up like this, and i ain’t got any leave-in cream in this hellhole’, bug grumbled when jade asked what the fuck hit them that morning.)
“when i say the truth?” he asked, genuinely curious. he decided to indulge the younger a little, just to give his mind a break from the situation at hand.
“when you’re so honest.” bug replied, stopping just as they faced jade. “reminds me of myself.”
the man sighed, and sat on the stool closest to them. “please, do continue. sounds like you want to say something, but i can’t promise i’ll pay attention to all of it.”
“just half is fine.”
“you settle for low, huh.”
“can’t expect much from you.”
“fuck off.” jade grumbled, receiving a chuckle from his friend.
“sorry.” they picked at their own fingers, onyx eyes focused on the dusty ground. “it’s just- i’ve always been blunt, tried to be honest most of the time. not to the point of hurting people, but doing my best not to lie, you know? to not lose the trust i’ve gained from the people around me.”
bug sighed and turned back around, picking at the wooden counter instead of their own skin. “look where that got me. got two friends, and they tried to kill me in some kind of shitty ritual.”
“well, that’s not your fault though, is it?”
bug looked up, and found jade’s eyes staring right at them; they moved, uncomfortable, and averted their own eyes.
“guess so.”
“you did your best. if they fucked up, that’s their own shit, not yours.” the older man huffed, and placed the notepad on the counter. “‘sides, you got rid of two fakes and got what, three friends here?”
bug looked up again, glasses a little speckled with unshed tears, as their wet lashes brushed against the lens. “you consider me a friend?”
“i meant kenny, victor and your chicken.”
bug let out a choked laugh at the response, mumbling a ‘bitch’ under their breath.
“jellybean is family.”
“yeah, i consider you my friend. a very annoying, nuts, kinda intelligent friend.”
they smiled, and jade saw their eyes light up - a genuine, happy smile.
“thank you. you’re a very nice friend, even though i’m pretty sure you’’d be part of a mean girl group out of this place.”
“i’d bully you.”
“definitely.”
they sat in comfortable silence, until bug leaned towards the man.
“...can i see your notepad of secrets?”
“you have to level up your friendship stat first.”
“‘kay. i’ll leave you to your dark business, then. shout if you need anything.”
"hold still," another daisy goes in. the white had a good contrast with the golden, shiny hair that ben prided himself on.
sky-blue meets obsidian; then, a smile breaks on his perfect face. "how do i look?"
bug smiles back. "like fairy royalty or something. very cottagecore of you."
his smile widens. then, he pats the place in front of him. "come on, your turn."
bug sighs, but entertains their best friend. this field, near victor's secret truck hideout, turned out to be full of little flowers and cute plants. benjamin was the one who spotted the daisies - bug was way too nearsighted to notice the white spots were actually flowers.
"anything i should be mindful of?" he asked, just as his friend sat on the grass, between his spread legs.
"just don't brush out the curls, i think. they usually knot a lot and you might snap the strands."
"noted." he replied, nose scrunched up and eyes laser focused on creating a masterpiece.
"come on, benny." bug whispered, relaxed for the first time in a long while. "make me bonita."
To Victor: "No, I'm- let me go! I'm going with them, LET ME GO! Boyd! Auntie!"
To Julie: "I'm staying with you. And believe me, when I say your mother is alive - I know she is."
To Marielle: "I... know first-aid. Is that enough to help around for a while?"
To Fatima: "My brother is almost 13 years younger than me, and I have 33 cousins on my father's side. Trust me when I say I have experience with pregnancy."
To Kenny: "I should've stayed with them. I should've been stronger. I'm sorry."
To Boyd: "I know how it feels. The guilt- it's too much, too painful, squeezing around my throat and lungs. It's hard to breathe. Even though it feels like it - it's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. It's this fucking town."
To Tabitha: "It's gotten worse, hasn't it? I can feel it. The pressure is stronger. They're everywhere. It's coming."
To Ben: "You remind me of someone... Yeah, my dog. Her name's Maya. It's a compliment, don't worry."
To Sara: "I can see you're trying to change, and that's a good thing. Sorry I was so hard on you before."
To Randall: "Believe me when I say it's not so bad. Dunno which you prefer, but people usually like scars. They're badass. It's gonna hurt, but you're still alive."
To Kristi: "Can you look after Ken, please? I... don't think he's going to want to see me after this. No, no, he- what do you mean?"
To Tian-Chen: "...my fault? Ha! That's your biggest flaw - you try too hard, fuckass. She would never, ever say that."
Bonus quote: "D'you have a spare room in the station for Jellybean and I? I love having Tabby back, but her and Jim really need to sort out their shit without yelling in the middle of the night."
Summary: Bug's abilities are inherited. They're not very cool, though. (Set before fromville)
Warnings: canon typical swearing, ghosts and demons, the usual.
Bug Mendes had seen weird shit since they were thirteen.
Before they knew their own identity, their eyes had been trained to look for shifty shadows and fleeting shapes.
The first truly remarkable one happened one evening, after taking a shower, when they were fifteen years old. Parents working late, three year old brother taking a nap after they had dinner.
They lived in a rented house that was always too cold, felt like it hid something in its brick walls (even though brazilian houses had no space between walls to hide corpses), and their brother's room had that kinda oppressive energy that got the kid so spooked, he never slept there.
The kitchen had a door that led to an open space outside, where the washing machine was, beside a few clothes lines. It was open, but there were houses on every side, so it had that weird limbo feeling where something was and wasn't at the same time.
"Damn, it's colder than usual." Bug mumbled, already wearing their pajamas - a long sleeved shirt and some flimsy pair of pink pants with black polka dots. 'A fitting gift for a girl,' their grandma said, and Bug didn't know why that had felt so hollow.
Towel slung over one shoulder, they walked towards the kitchen door while trying not to shiver; even though the warmth of the shower - the electrical one that was present in every brazilian household, never running out of hot water - was still running through their system, it was fucking cold, and the house ran cold too, and their flip flops did jack shit to keep their toes warm.
"It's winter. Of course it's colder than usual." They said to no one at all, flinging the kitchen door open with such violence, the metal creaked a little. "We live on the top of a fucking mountain, too--"
They were going to hang the towel on the clothes line. In the cold of the open area, because it was open, and the 9 degrees were absolutely glacial to anyone from Minas Gerais.
Alas, there was no peace for the broke.
Standing near the clothes line was a thing. Actually, a thing might be an underestimation to just what the fuck was standing outside Bug's door, looking at them like it was normal to just be in someone's home, like it wasn't an absolute abomination.
The first thing they noticed, it's that the thing was tall. Easily two meters, standing nearly 40 centimeters taller than Bug, and the second things, it's that it was black. Not dark, because dark was the house when lights were off, and the lights outside were on, and that thing was pitch fucking black in a way they had never imagined could be seen at any point in their life.
The third thing, well. It was staring straight at them with two eyeballs that looked more like two tiny flashlights glowing amidst blackness. No features, just a vague human-shadow shape. And the last, and perhaps the worst one, was that it was floating. It had no legs, no feet, nothing. Where it was supposed to touch the floor, there was a gap, and black mist-like something - shifting like smoke trapped there.
It stared. Bug stared back.
"Out of all places," They said out loud, heart hammering in their chest. "I've gotta hang my damn towel."
Bug's brain came up with two choices: turn around, put the towel on the back of a chair and have their mom nag at them for it, or hang the fucking towel on the clothes line, walk beside the thing and ignore it.
Of course they chose the best option.
"I rebuke you, weird thing." Was the first thing to come out of their mouth, as they walked out, stood beside the thing, and hung the towel. Stopped for a good seven seconds, exhaled, and turned back around. "Leave me alone."
They walked back to the kitchen, looked outside, stared into the thing's eyes, and closed the door on its face.
Forty minutes later, their parents arrived home. Forty-three minutes later, they both had been debriefed on the thing. Forty-seven minutes later, their father had contacted a pastor, because their father had seen his fair share of weird shit in his life as well - though the first time he saw something was way earlier, when he was seven years old.
Ten years later, Bug arrived in a nightmare town.
And when they started to see more and more weird shit, well.
To Tabitha: "What do you mean the kids talk to you? Yes, I see them around all the time, but they don't- they just stare."
To Boyd: "I'm sorry, I tried to help them. They got stuck and we- it was getting dark and we had to rush inside, I'm sorry."
To Donna: "Do you have a spare hammer? I'll help you fix this part of the house."
To Jade: "I know you said there's a link and I wholeheartedly agree, but please take a fucking nap or else I'll knock you out myself."
To Kristi: "I'm happy for you, truly. I know what's happening and I'm... I'm okay. It's okay, the situation is just a little messy. We'll figure it out, alright? Just enjoy your time with your fiancee, you deserve it."
To Randall: "Point that gun at him again and I'll throw your pieces to the monsters with my bare fucking hands."
To Victor: "I know this is a bad situation but please- Don't. Don't do anything dangerous by yourself, Victor. Ask me for help, okay?"
To Tillie: "You knit as well? Nice! Got a spare pair of needles?"
To Tian-Chen: "I... I know I'm not the best at keeping myself in check, but I'll try. If anything happens, take care of Jellybean for me, please?"
To Julie and Ethan: "Your dad is a killjoy, but let's ignore what he said. Come on to my room, I'll let you guys play with my UNO cards. Get Victor and Auntie too, they love it."
To Kenny: "I know this is shitty and you're hurting, but it's no excuse to put yourself in danger! Think thoroughly, for fuck's sake- we care about you! You're the only thing your mom has left in this godforsaken place, you're the only thing keeping me sane-"
To Elgin: "I've seen those since I was a kid, you know? Feeling and seeing shit you can't- you don't know if they're actually there. But they are. Just waiting for a moment of weakness. That's when they get stronger."
Extra quote: "Yeah, this is my bible. Why are you laughing? Jesus is a cool guy. Got a problem with that? Luke said we gotta turn the other cheek, but I still have to work on that."
