I am here for the blorbos from your head! I'm gonna be that one customer and ask, what are the chef's recommendations?! For someone who enjoys deeply repressed characters who will probably cry if they receive a good, heartfelt, tight hug. Anyone?
So I read this and I went "Oh, Denis! Absolutely Denis!"
And then I tried to go through all of the moments in Denis Archibald's history that would make a good introduction to his character and I remembered how profoundly depressing it is. So- one of the highlights of Denis Archibald's existence, about as wholesome as he gets, here is... uh. Him rescuing a suicidal teenager and softly inducting her into a cult. CWs: That. Basically That. + Murder, violence, implied domestic violence, references to drowning (none details)
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Denis Archibald very rarely bothers to think about how much he hates his job.
It’s a moot point. It’s not just a job, it’s a duty. A calling. A responsibility. He’d lost his right to live any other way when his mother died and he’d lost control and made a forest her funeral pyre. His hopes had died with her. And with her gone, he’s an Archibald, studying under his father’s tutelage and his father’s hands and not infrequently his father’s steel toed boots. He had learned his lesson, been broken in over and over. He’d never really healed.
So he’s fucked up. It’s fine.
He’d never wanted to fuck up anyone else.
But here he is.
June Adams is from a good family. The Adams were involved in the town’s founding, have been wealthy and established about as long, if not longer. June Adams’s mother is on the town council, and on the other council, the one with actual sway around here. June Adams is the heir to a powerful name, even at fifteen years old. And about twenty-four hours ago, he pulled June Adams out of Lake Michigan.
Alive.
Unwillingly.
Twenty-four hours. June’s swaddled in blankets on the borrowed couch of one of Denis’s least favorite employees, because he trusted the old guard to at least pretend to be hospitable. Because it’s only pretending, he hasn’t left. She’s been sleeping in fits as she warms up— it’s December, she was barely alive when he got to her, he’d used so much magic, is in debt to at least three people to keep her alive— he doesn’t care. She’s alive. The trick is going to be to convince her that she wants to be.
He knows what he has to do, because he remembers being her age. A purpose. He’s just— struggling. With it. And there’s no space to doubt now, no room to question, no point in wondering if he’s doing the right thing now, he’s given everything up for this cause what’s asking someone else to do the same thing? Even if it’ll save her? He’s pacing the hall, trying to keep his steps quiet, trying to make the rhythm of them drive the message into his head like nails in a coffin. Tries to make each step a pulled trigger, a punch connecting. All the things he’s done that he can’t take back now. It’s too late for you, but is it too late for—
A floorboard creaks, footsteps. He stops, turning, an angry reminder on his lips that he’s the paradigm and he can walk down their hallways at 3am if he damn well wants, but it freezes on his lips when he sees June.
She’s dry, now, but her hair is clumped together and hanging limp. There’s dark makeup smudged around her eyes, and she looks miserable, hugging a quilt around her shoulders, wearing clothes the Williams had dug out of their late child’s closet. Eri hadn’t been much older than she is. Denis didn’t want to think about that right now. He’s moving back towards her before he even fully knows what he’s doing.
“It’s 3am.” He says. “You should—”
“I’m hungry.” She says, and ah. Right. Food. His own stomach’s probably been protesting a while, but he doesn’t pay much attention to it anymore.
He sighs. “—okay.”
She eyes him for a second. “I don’t remember where the kitchen is,” She says.
Denis is almost certain that’s a lie, if only because the Adams and the Williams families have a working relationship. She’s surely been here before, the rich and influential people in town having their dinners and the kids sitting between them. Or so he assumed. He’d stopped attending social functions after he’d killed his father.
He sighs, gesturing with one hand, and she turns and heads back the way she came— shamelessly leading the way now that she’s sure he’s following. He almost smiles.
It’s quiet as they get to the kitchen— Denis leaning on the counter as June opens the fridge and shuffles through it. There’s something about the quiet that feels expectant, so Denis is prepared for it when she says—
“So you saved me.”
“I did.” He confirms.
“Why?”
It’s the question he expected, but it’s like a kick in the chest anyway. He breathes through it.
“—because.” he says. “I didn’t want you to die.”
It doesn’t feel like enough. It doesn’t feel like enough at all. He doesn’t know how to say it, but somehow, he finds more words.
“When I was your age, I was really miserable.” he says, studying the wooden ceiling. “—I never got to— I always had something to live for. But for a while there, I... forgot how it felt. To be happy. And that made it harder. Because even when I had a mission it was hard to care about it. Hard to find the world important enough to save. And then I was sixteen, and i... met a girl.”
June snorts. “Really?” She deadpans. “You’re gonna sell me a story that I should live because I’m gonna fall in love someday?”
“No.” Denis deadpans. “Actually I only got to date her for a few years and then my dad tried to kill her and we broke up.”
June’s eyes widen, a little, and Denis half-smiles at her. “Not a lot of happy endings. I’m not going to promise you one. What I’m going to promise you is that they’ll be good days. They’ll be reasons the world’s worth saving, even if it’s only your own.”
“I kinda feel like you’re not speaking metaphorically.”
“I’m not.”
June eyes him. “—Mom always said I shouldn’t talk to you.”
“She’s probably right.” Denis allows, even through the little flare of hurt. He’d barely spoken three words to Mary Beth Adams. That felt uncalled for. Fair. Correct. But to this town he’d only ever be his father’s son, after all.
“Is it true that you guys kill people?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Denis takes a deep breath, lets it out. “—because there’s something out past the stars.” He says, trying to find the words. He usually wasn’t the one giving this pitch. “It’s asleep. And when it wakes up, everything ends. And if we feed people to it, we can keep it asleep. But every once in a while, it....rolls over. Shifts. And things happen, here. The world shifts. There are monsters. And there are monsters anyway, ones that look like people. And sometimes the only way to beat them is to become a bigger one.”
June eyes him. “...so you’re stopping the world from ending.”
Denis meets her eyes. “Yes.”
She nods, once. “—and it. Helps you too?”
“It helps to have a purpose.” Denis says, only half sure he’s telling the truth. “—and to not be alone in it.”
“....I wouldn’t have to be alone?”
“You don’t have to be alone now.” Denis says. “—I didn’t save you to convince you to join a cult, June. I saved you because you’re worth saving. As you are. Now.”
He’s barely gotten the words out before she moves, and he tenses, his instincts flashing something bright and red and alarming, but she’s just thrown herself into his chest, pressing her face into his sweater, and after a tentative second, he lowers his arms and hugs her back, takes a deep breath, trying to remember how to—
She doesn’t seem concerned by his hesitation, clinging.
“Thank you.” She mumbles.
Denis manages to squeeze a little, gently. “—You’re going to be alright.” he murmurs.
Six from the server, with a truly cursed ask: You have to cast your OCs in Victorious, who's who?
Six <3 Questions about my OCs are always open <3 that said. I'm gonna fucking kill you
This is going to mean LITERALLY NOTHING. to VIRTUALLY EVERYONE. I'm doing it anyway.
Tori: Denis Archibald
Jade: Romeo Rhodora
Cat: Jesús Arriaga ((If spencer wouldn't hunt me for sport for bringing him into this i'd probably ask him about his OCs about here))
Beck: Sam Spade
Trina: Oswald Archibald
Robbie: Dustin Williams (ignoring the... creepy jokes Robbie makes. Dustin is sweet. he has a dog that I think would have to be the puppet?? I think he might just carry a plushie dog around. Don't worry about it)
Andre: Andre's personality changes constantly. I've got nothing for this one. Todd Copeland? Gonna go with tree fucker.
Sikowitz: Jack Darling
Sinjin: Russell Baker
Burf: Janet Baker
And that's it i'm done are you happy, Six? Are you happy now? Are you satisfied?
