A flambert magic au I've been pondering: Robert pt 1
It took a while for Robert to catch on, the change gradual enough that it took a while for anyone, let alone Robert at 7 years old, to figure out something within his dad had become fundamentally twisted. It took even longer for Robert to connect that to the night his dad had come home with the Astral Pulse. He still remembered the night his dad came home with the Astral Pulse with almost startling clarity. “Look at the future.” Robbie had breathed out, showing Robert the glowing tube in his hands, “Do you see it?”
He had remembered agreeing after a brief moment of hesitation, something about the way he had looked or asked the question unnerving him. Still, Robert was impressed with the innovative energy source he had been overhearing bits and pieces about, the “star trapped in a bottle” as he heard Elliott jokingly describe it as. It wasn’t until later that Robert came to understand that his dad had been very literal about his question.
Since that night, Robbie began to go out even more as Mecha Man, and the news had praised how fast the Brave Brigade’s response time was becoming, almost as if they could predict where the next disaster would pop up. Robbie spent less and less time at home, less and less time with Robert. And Robert would’ve understood, his dad was a hero and there was always some sort of crime and danger lurking around the city, if it weren’t for how his dad started treating him differently than before.
Gone was the silent pride and caring glances, now replaced with an almost hollow gaze that seemed to see past Robert, and a cold indifference to Robert’s life outside of what could help him become Mecha Man in the future. The small amount of time Robbie had once always set aside to spend with Robert had dwindled to nothing, his dad instead spending his time in his lab. Robert used to think his dad was simply more focused on fixing and improving the mecha, but he had snuck his way into his dad’s lab one night, and that definitely wasn’t what was happening.
The man was sitting at his desk, hunched over with the Astral Pulse clutched within one hand, staring at it with a dazed sort of intensity. In his other hand was a pen, writing with furious motions on a nearby notepad. Robert had snuck back to his room, having decided that maybe his dad was trying to better understand the Astral Pulse. But that too, seemed incorrect, since every time Robert snuck down to his dad’s lab he would see the man in the same exact scenario as before. Never once did Robert ever see Robbie work on the mecha at his lab at home, only ever during the rare times Robbie allowed Robert into the Brave Brigade base.
What really caused Robert to realize his dad wasn’t his dad anymore was the barbeque after he turned 8. The brief worried look in his dad’s eyes when he saw Robert with a bleeding ear and a clearly dislocated shoulder had almost given the kid him hope that maybe his dad was back to normal now. His hope was blown to dust when the worried look quickly gave way to the callous gaze his dad now had towards him more frequently than not. “Get up.” cemented itself in Robert’s memories as the first time he lost his dad.