#chad chamberlain

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from The Defectives 3, inspired by the last few hours of my life, posted at 4:00 AM, because it's funnier that way:

"Am I a drunk driver?" Juniper asked, telekinetically moving her wheelchair. "Am I becoming that which I hate?"

"I don't know," Chad mumbled, shuffling next to her. "What I do know is that two drunk telekinetic teenagers managed to somehow make it back to the academy."

She looked around, realizing that they had, indeed, reached the campus. The two high-fived, Juniper following up with: "Seriously, how did we do that?"

"I'm pretty sure you walked at one point?"

"That sounds right," said the wheelchair-user. "I'd say, 'Let's sneak back to our dorm before Ryder finds out', but knowing him—"

She turned her chair, coming nose-to-nose with her mentor.

"You," Ryder said, "are in so much trouble."

An unimpressed Juniper blinked at him. "Literally nothing you do or say to me can be worse than John Johnson. That's kinda the point."

Standing next to her partner, Professor Hakim spluttered, "Are you—did you—?"

"Yes and yes." Juniper glanced at Ryder, knowing that he had a burning question that he was trying to extinguish. With a small smile, she said, "I drank Chad under the table."

"That's my girl!"

"Ryleigh, no!"

"Being drunk is easy," Juniper continued. "No wonder you always are. It's like being disabled squared."

"What?" Professor Hakim asked.

"No, no, I'm following," Ryder said.

He and Juniper pointed at one another, the latter turning to explain to the other professor: "I can't walk. I'm tired. I'm nauseous. Things don't make sense. But I'm disabled. My life is like this, all the time. Ergo, being drunk is just being disabled squared."

I was going to end the excerpt here and get to bed, but I couldn't resist this last part:

Juniper and Chad spread out on the floor, lying in different directions, staring up at the lights. Hours passed in a blur, in which they talked about everything from their fathers to their futures. The duo only looked up when they heard a familiar snort.

"I was coming to check on ya," said a grinning Ryder. "So—?"

"We made it back to our dorms," Juniper defensively said.

"No, you didn't! You made it to the building but this is the lobby!"

"Oh."

---

The moral is: I like Cava.

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from The Defectives 3 that teaches you zero morals:

"How much trouble would I be in if I put myself in pain to desperately cling onto something from my abusive, nondisabled, past?"

Ryder stared Juniper down. "You'd be grounded for a week."

"You know what?" She telekinetically brought her mentor's flask across the staff table, taking a swig before he could do anything. "Make it two."

"Wh-b-J—"

Ignoring Ryder's spluttering, Professor Hakim's protests, and Frank's laughter, Juniper wheeled across the academy's makeshift ballroom, with one destination in mind. It was hard to miss him. Chad managed to stand out among the sea of disabled Supers, mostly due to the fact that he looked awkward and uncomfortable. To be fair, he was sandwiched between an armless girl with wings and a girl whose apparition was floating above the body in her wheelchair.

It was a different wheelchair-user who caused him to smile with relief, though his confusion only escalated when she held out her hand, silently inviting him to dance.

"Do you know how to dance in a wheelchair?" he asked, having clearly carefully chosen each word.

"I'm learning," she said. "Minnie taught me some moves, during the whole time-travel fiasco." That did not help Chad at all. "But the thing is, I have the rest of my life to learn how to dance in a wheelchair. I had the first fourteen years of that life to learn how to dance as a Johnson with a Chamberlain. So—"

Chad's grasp on the possibilities of the universe continued to be demolished as Juniper stood up. Gasps rang throughout the room. Those closest to her recognized that she was telekinetically holding herself up. They recognized the pain and exhaustion that this entailed. They recognized that it was a literal step away from the values that most disabled people kept close to their hearts. They also recognized that she was determined to do this.

Her mentor nevertheless used his most commanding tone: "Juniper Jane—"

"Finish that sentence, Ryder," she said. "I dare you."

She continued to hold her hand out, her smile widening. "Come on. Over a decade in Ms. Prancer's Perfect Dancers. You and I were in those classes before we could walk, which, admittedly, is ironic. And I know that this is going to hurt, in more ways than one. And I know it isn't right. And Ryder is probably going to kill us—"

"Ryder is definitely going to kill us."

"But we've handled angry fathers, before," Juniper said, fully grinning.

Chad chuckled and took her hand.

---

This is one of those moments when I have to choose between depicting the more realistic acceptance of what disabled bodies can / cannot do, and giving disabled readers a bit of escapism. I chose the latter, mostly because I've spent months imagining these two platonically dancing, like they would when they were kids, because there were some good things in their past (i/e: them).

[marauders4evr]

A late-night excerpt from The Defectives 3:

"Why didn't you tell us, sooner?" Ryder barked, wheeling his chair from one corner of the office to the next. "This is information that I could have used to protect Juniper and, to a much lesser extent, the other disabled students in this academy."

Juniper rolled her eyes, sitting back in her own chair, though she was curious to know Chad's answer. To her surprise, he actually flushed as he glanced in her direction, before looking back to her mentor. "Um, yeah. I should have known that you could protect her. I'm sorry."

"You should be!"

While Ryder was raving, Juniper studied her oldest friend. Chad took the first opportunity to escape the office and she wheeled after. She caught him in the corridor—figuratively and telekinetically.

"You don't think Ryder can protect me, do you?"

His cheeks went from pink to red. "I never said that."

"So, say the contrary."

After a moment, he relented, "You were his student for less than a year and you had to fight a giant monster-bird-thing."

"Heh, yeah."

"Last year, you gave up your superability—and your life—to save his other daughter, when he couldn't."

"Those things don't count," Juniper argued.

"They were life-changing, traumatic, moments."

She dismissively waved her hand. "The point is, Ryder is capable of protecting me. To say otherwise is ableist. Minnie taught me that word; I'm a big fan of it. And you know what? It's also ableist, and rude, to assume that I can't protect myself!"

He stared at her.

"What?" Juniper cried. "I am more than capable of protecting myself!"

"Juniper," Chad slowly said, "you died."

"Irrelevant!"

---

Fellas, is it ableist for someone to use your own death against you?

[marauders4evr]

Deciding to turn Chad from a generic jerk to a "Congratulations on your new found brother" is one of the best writing choices I ever made, because this scene from The Defectives 3 has added five years onto my life:

"Have you forgotten your place?"

"How could I forget?" Chad laughed. "I've spent my whole childhood learning what my place is. I'm rich. I'm the mayor's son. I'm going to be the mayor, one day. In a city of superheroes and supervillains, I'm the most powerful. So, I need to look the part. Act the part. Be the part. Juniper and I—well—"

"My lessons were never about being powerful," Juniper softly said. "My lessons were about sitting upright and letting the powerful be."

"You got the first part," said Chad to the grinning wheelchair-user.

The Suits were not grinning, filing into the dining hall, as if they were going to sue the shrimp off the salad. It was Judge Peterson who said, "Those lessons are going to help you when you officially get sworn in. We have to wait until your father's trial, but in the meantime, you can come with us. You still have a lot to learn."

"I just said that I spent my whole childhood learning things," Chad breathed. "How much more is there?"

He gave Juniper a sorrowful glance before trudging after the men. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched him cross the dining hall—the dining hall on the campus of the academy where she had lived for four years. She had learned more lessons here than any lessons that the Johnsons or Chamberlains had taught. And she had learned more important lessons; lessons that needed to be taught.

A piece of shrimp hit the back of Chad's head.

He whirled around, a flurry of emotions crossing his face. Confusion. Hurt. Understanding. Excitement. Pure giddiness.

She mirrored his smile as the two began to telekinetically throw food at one another, the other students scrambling for cover, Ryder's roars of laughter encouraging them. Their own laughter shook the walls, nearly drowning out the judge's cry: "Stop this! What are you doing? This is no way for children to—oh."

"Hear that, Chad?" Juniper shrieked. "You're still a child!"

"You're still a child!" Chad gleefully said.

The two flailed around, caught between dancing and attacking one another, as children do. The judge stepped back, and not just to avoid the mess. It was up to another Suit to growl, "You're acting—"

"Defective?" Ryder suggested.

"We're Defective!"

"We're Defective!"

Juniper and Chad linked elbows, twirling around in a hurricane of food. "We're Defective! We're Defective! We're effectively Defective!"

---

Lesson learned!

Thinking about this scene has made me grin, all day. I'd be lying if I said I didn't listen to a bit of What Else Can I Do? I also added reference to West Side Story in there, at the end. And the whole food fight is a reference to the first book when Juniper pelts Chad with food after he acts like a jerk. The wheels have turned!

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from The Defectives 3, which amuses me so:

“It’s bad enough you went and got her paralyzed!” Ryder roared, throwing a steel ball at the bartender. “You went and got her drunk?”

“Okay, yeah, you’re mad,” John said, scrambling to the back corner of the bar. “Listen, listen, both of those were accidents.”

“You know what else is an accident?” Ryder ripped off one of his wheels, telekinetically holding his chair upright, as he threw the makeshift weapon at John. He was a little impressed when the man dove behind the counter, thus avoiding harm.

“Pretty sure that wasn’t an accident,” said Frank, who had accompanied Ryder on the rampage for the Fun Of It.

“Pretty sure last night wasn’t an accident, either,” Ryder said, telekinetically pulling the bartender up into the air.

“It was! I didn’t want to give her alcohol. She tricked me.”

Ryder and Frank had mirror expressions of disbelief, causing John to say, “I know, I know, I didn’t think she had it in her. But she did. I asked her if she was eighteen. She said she was.”

“And you believed her?” Ryder asked.

“No. But it didn’t matter ‘cause the other supervillains started wigging out. I mean, we all know that if she was eighteen, you could no longer legally adopt her. They felt awful, and she had to admit that she was still seventeen. So, I told her that she couldn’t drink. But then, she was like, ‘Remember that time you paralyzed me?’”

Ryder sighed, lowering the man, ever so slightly. “Christ, she keeps doing that. The amount of shite I’ve let her get away with, because she reminds me that I killed her, that one time.”

“I—okay, I really don’t think that was your fault, but—I still wasn’t going to serve her,” said the bartender. “But then, that mayor’s kid—”

“Chad!” Ryder groaned, fastening his wheel back onto his chair. “Of course, it would be Chad.”

“He ordered two gin and tonics.”

Frank puffed out his cheeks as he tried not to laugh. Ryder’s own mouth twitched as he said, “Let me guess: He gave Juniper one?”

“No,” John said, sighing with relief when his feet touched the ground. “I told him that he was not allowed to hand the glass to her. So, she ordered a cup of water. I thought that was reasonable.”

The other two men shared a glance, Ryder saying, “Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with that?"

“Neither did I." John walked over to the wall of booze. “And then, she chugged the water, and he poured the gin and tonic into her glass.”

“Oh my god,” Frank said.

“And then,” John said, pouring out three shots, “I went to jump across the counter, to stop her, but—” He pointed to Ryder. “Your daughter stared me down and said, ‘Do you want me to advocate for supervillains or do you want to put your hand on me?’”

Ryder buried his face in his hands.

“And you know what?” John said. “I was still considering pushing her wheelchair out of my bar, and facing the repercussions, but she had barbed wire on her handles.”

Ryder let his hands drop as he roared with laughter.

An equally amused Frank asked, “What kids would go through all of that trouble, just for a drink?”

Ryder raised a glass. “My kids.”

---

Big Fan of the plurality, at the end.

(Major props to you, if you get why Juniper drank what she drank.)

[marauders4evr]

An abridged excerpt from The Defectives 3:

"He said that he loved me," Juniper quietly said. "Unconditionally."

Chad surveyed her for a moment before saying, "He's lying."

"Yes!" She threw her arms up in triumph, unintentionally steering her wheelchair into her frenemy. "Thank you. That's what I thought."

"Ryder can't love you, unconditionally," Chad said, rubbing his shin. "The nerve of him, lying to you."

"I tried to argue with him, but he's won arguments with mob bosses and politicians and Professor Hakim," she said. "Compared to that, he's not going to crack, because of a seventeen-year-old cripple with chocolate milk stains on her dress."

"What you need is to prove him wrong," he said. "You know, do something horrible to prove that his love for you isn't conditional."

She thought about it before suggesting: "Steal all his booze?"

"Yes!"

[Several shenanigans later]

Ryder telekinetically pinned the teenagers to the ceiling, wheeling his chair across the office. "Oh, I rarely get to tell Habiba, 'I told you so', but I told her that you were a bad influence on the kid." He spread his arms, gesturing to the scenario, and causing them to fall.

Chad faceplanted while Juniper neatly landed in her chair, staring her mentor down. "I was the one who wanted to steal your booze."

"Why?" Ryder asked. "Your favorite supervillains have a bar. Go steal from them. Wait, no. Sorry, I'd give you better advice but I'm tired, 'cause two idiots broke into my office at one o'clock in the morning!"

"As if I don't live here," Juniper said. "So, do you hate me, now?" His face clearly said the contrary, causing her to add, "You hated Skylar when she tried to steal your booze."

"I hate Skylar, in general."

"Right." She rolled her eyes. "And you love me, unconditionally."

"Yes, I do," said her amused mentor. "Even when you have the nerve to roll your eyes at me; how paralyzed do you want to be?"

"But you can't love me, unconditionally."

"Christ," he said, pinching his nose. "I'm gonna kill your father."

"Hey," Chad said, stepping in front of her. "She's right."

"Christ, I'm gonna kill both your fathers."

"Stop!" Tears had started to telekinetically teeter around the teenagers. "You can't love me. Not like that. I-I'm not worth it!"

Chad, who had been glaring at Ryder, spun in shock. "Wait, what?"

The elderly superhero, quickly realizing that actions spoke louder than words, pulled Juniper into a hug. Chad stuck with the verbal weapon: "Junpier, of course you're worth it. If there's anyone in this city who's worth being unconditionally loved, it's you."

Her voice muffled by Ryder's shoulder, Juniper sobbed: "Then, why did you agree that he couldn't love me, unconditionally?"

"I meant that he couldn't love you!" Chad shrieked, gesturing to the man who was four-parts superhero, veteran, special agent, and mob affiliate. "I didn't think he had the ability to love. He's kinda a bastard."

Ryder opened his mouth before conceding to the point.

---

First step's admitting it. Well, not step, but...

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from The Defectives 3, wherein I figure out how I can get Chad from military school to the academy:

"I don't know why Juniper even wants you to adopt her!"

Chad's words fizzled out like a defective firework, his face turning pink, as he realized what he had said. Ryder gaped up at him, as if the teenager had just revealed the secrets of the universe. Chad truthfully thought he had done something much worse. "I-I mean—" He glanced at the superhero's wheelchair. "I-I can outrun you."

With that, he sprinted away. The words, combined with the action, brought Ryder out of his stupor. "Hey, kid, wait!"

Chad felt the telltale tingle of telekinesis tugging at him, but he managed to break free. The young man raced past Colonel Guerre, climbed over the wall, and leapt down. He weaved in and out of pedestrians and cars as he ran through Ace City, praying that Ryder wasn't as much of a god as Juniper seemed to think he was. [...]

He burst through the classroom door, skidding along the slippery floor, until he crashed into Professor Hakim's desk. The elderly woman was caught between leaping in front of her students, grabbing her inhaler, and checking to see if he was okay. Juniper ducked around her with a shocked cry: "Chad?"

"Juniper," he said. "Professor Hakim, lovely to see you, again."

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Juniper asked.

Clutching his side with one hand, Chad used the other to motion for the two women to follow. They did so, Professor Hakim quickly tasking the class to write an impromptu essay. As soon as they were outside, he said, "I'm so sorry. I told Ryder that you wanted him to adopt you. I ran all the way here, to warn you, before he came back. I swear, I didn't mean to let it slip. I'm sorry, Juniper."

For the second time that hour, a wheelchair-using superhero gaped up at him. Then, Juniper laughed. "I mean, I would have had to tell him, eventually. I couldn't just trick him into signing the papers. Trust me, I had considered it, but I couldn't think of a good enough plan."

"Nor did you think about the fact that Ryder probably already knows," Professor Hakim said with a smile. "And probably approves."

"I don't mean to disagree, ma'am," Chad said, staring past them, "but he doesn't exactly look like he's in an approving mood."

Juniper swallowed but, to the teenagers' surprise, Ryder's ire was aimed at Chad: "Kid, you can't run away from military school!"

A pause. A question: "That's your only takeaway from this?"

"I knew Juniper wanted to be a Ryder," he said, sparing his mentee a quick smirk. "I didn't know you wanted to be a deserter."

"What?" Chad gasped. "I-I don't want to be a deserter!"

"I don't want to be a Defective," Ryder said, 'but here we are."

---

There they are.

[marauders4evr]

A late-night excerpt from The Defectives 3:

Ryder woke up to the sound of shrieking; that the shrieks were ones of laughter did not ease his concern. He slid into his wheelchair and headed out onto the campus, pausing at the sight.

Juniper was hovering in the air, her stomach parallel to the ground, as Chad telekinetically held her up. Her wheelchair was sitting beneath a lampost, the light of which captured Ryder's disapproving frown. "Are ya trying to paralyze her a second time?"

Chad flinched and dropped Juniper in the snow. He flinched, again, but she laughed, shaking white flakes from her hair.

"You're the one who was telekinetically carrying us around like gin bottles," Juniper said, crawling over and climbing up into her chair. "That's on you for always teaching me that cripples can do things."

Her mentor nodded. "I need to stop teaching you, in general."

"Sir, I am so sorry." Chad charged forward. "This is my fault."

"I can work with that."

"No!" Juniper intervened as Ryder wheeled towards the other teenager. She went to hold him back, barely remembering that they had wrapped barbed wire around their handles. "Why did we—? Ugh!" She telekinetically threw on his brakes and wheeled around to comfort Chad. "It's okay. It's all right. Ryder isn't like that."

Chad swallowed. "So, what is he like?"

"He's like—this is like—" Juniper thought about it before facing the elderly man. "It would be easier to think, if lying on the cold ground, just now, didn't make me remember that time you let me die."

"Ohoho," Ryder said. "Feeling brave, tonight, are we? Is your heartbeat racing? 'Ya gonna curl up in my arms while I restart it?"

"At least I have a heart."

"See, this right here? This is why the Johnsons hate you."

"And this—" She vaguely gestured towards his entire being. "This is why I'm the only student on this campus who likes you."

His chuckle harmonized with Chad's groan. The latter sank down to the snowy sidewalk, Juniper offering him a confusing: "It's like that."

---

Aye, that's exactly what it's like.