#illusory records

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Janus being awkward with literally anyone. Weird kids on the street? Sure. Other vigilantes or heroes? Absolutely. Just pure silliness.

Vigilante Autographs

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus & His Disdain for People, Janus & His Taco He Just Wants to Eat Kid

Characters: Janus, a random kid named Skylar

Summary: Janus gives an autograph

“Can I have your autograph?”

Deceit looked down in surprise at a small child holding a pen out for him. He hadn’t even noticed the thing approach. “What?” Deceit asked blankly. “No.”

The small being frowned at him. “Why not?” it asked.

Deceit frowned back at it. “I’m not a hero kid,” he said. “Go get the dumb bird to sign something.”

The kid stared at him so intensely, Deceit was surprised he didn’t feel some mental power probe at his mind. “You saved my daddy on the bridge.”

God dammit. He should have let them all perish. This was not the first time since the Onslaught that people had decided to treat the vigilante weirdly all of a sudden. Deceit sighed and shifted the taco he’d been eating to his other hand, so he could grab the pen. “What am I signing?”

“My baseball hat!”

“Sure,” Deceit replied. “Whatever.” He grabbed the hat when he was offered it, trying not to get salsa and sour cream on it.

“My name’s Skylar.”

“I literally do not care at all, kid.”

“Aren’t you supposed to write something like ‘To Skylar’ and then a message on it?”

“I’m a f- I’m a vigilante. You get my fake name and nothing else.”

“Okay!” the kid said, seeming unperturbed.

Deceit scribbled ‘Deceit’ on the visor of the hat and practically threw it back at him. “Satisfied?” he asked.

“Thank you, Mr. Deceit!”

“You’re not welcome. Scram.” It had already scrammed, before he’d rejected it’s thanks however, so it probably did not know his distain for it.

He was going to disguise himself as a fire hydrant from now on. No one would care that a fire hydrant was eating a taco, would they?

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[snowdice]

Any more Janus lore? What made him decide to be a vigilante?

I know this was probably a prompt, but I’m just going to answer it. 

Janus kind of just fell into being a vigilante. He went out on his own after A Life That is Yours with the vague idea that he wanted to help people maybe. He always felt like he had a debt to society for being one of Blight’s chosen ones even though she was gone literally before he was born. So, when he would see people doing bad things, he’d stop it.

However, he has a bit of a thing against heroes. That’s because Blight, though she was a villain, had framed herself as a hero during her rein, and no matter that it is a different situation with most heroes, he cannot help but recognize the same things his mother told him about Blight in most heroes: the self-aggrandizing, the excusing of their actions because they are a hero, the hero worship. So, he always made a conscious effort to be prickly to avoid people idolizing him and mostly worked from the shadows. 

He does tend to linger closer to what we’d call a hero a lot of the time. A darker hero, but a hero still. As he’s grown, he’s drifted more towards a hero for a few reasons. One of those being that Bluebird is just actually a good hero without all of the petty stuff that usually comes with them. This has made him less resistant to people thinking of him as a kind of almost hero. He’s also gotten softer towards civilians in his old age lol. The Onslaught and how the public was thankful to him for his actions that day also has chipped away at the vigilante visage.

And then. Remus happened.

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A Bird Meets a Snake (Illusory Records Series)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus & Logan

Characters: Janus, Logan

Summary:

Janus meets the city’s newest hero. The conversation is unlike any he has had with a superhero before. That is. Civil?

Notes:

This is part of the Labeled Universe dealing with events set before my story Sometimes Labels Fail.

Deceit had literally just wanted a snickers bar. Was that too much to ask for?

That was a stupid question. Of course, it was. Deceit didn’t even have his costume with him. He’d been too lazy to change out of his pajamas and was sporting bright yellow pants and a black t-shirt with two holes in it that were not ripped in it for any sort of stylistic choice. Plus, he was tired.

So, of course, some dick attacked the park across the street from the gas station he was in. Deceit tried to ignore it just for a moment. Sure, it had been clear skies when he’d walked into the gas station and now there were bolts of lightening lighting up the window, but surely, surely, it was just a storm.

They city alarms went off half a second later. He sighed and grabbed a snickers bar from the shelf in front of him. “I paid for this,” he informed the person standing at the front before shoving it into his pocket. They nodded, without taking their eyes off their magazine. He probably hadn’t even needed to bother using his powers on them.

He strode out of the door, digging his hand into his pocket. He’d brought his mask and hat at the very least, so he pulled those out and buttoned his coat to cover the t-shirt the best he could. He’d at least be recognizable and, if he had some energy left to spare, he could probably convince the people around him that he was wearing his normal costume with his powers.

Looking around, he could immediately pinpoint the problem. There was a dumb bastard wearing some really stupid hat made of irregularly sized grey metal spikes that Deceit was 95% sure was for some sort of (grotesque) aesthetic rather than a function. He was wearing yellow, which Deceit honestly took as a personal insult, and there was some sort of emblem on his chest. Considering Deceit did not recognize it and it looked like bird shit, it was probably of his own design. If Deceit was a hypocrite for being judgmental about the man’s outfit while wearing pajama pants, he refused to acknowledge it. The outfit was truly an act of villainy. Also, he was shooting lighting out of his hands at civilians.

Deceit didn’t particularly want to get fried before getting close enough to use his powers on him, so he was taking a moment to strategize the best way to get in range, when another player entered the field.

Deceit had never seen the city’s newest superhero in person, but it had been bound to happen at some point. He sighed, readying himself for a migraine as the man flew into the park. One good thing was that the supervillain was easily distracted. He let up on his barrage of lightning bolts to redirect it all at ‘Bluebird.’ The man was easily able to dodge the attack, and it allowed Deceit to step into range. The man’s mind didn’t put up any resistance. He’d probably be confused later as to why a giant spider had suddenly appeared in the middle of the park, but for now, he immediately started shooting lightning at the ‘spider’ (which was actually a bush) while screaming. He seemed to completely forget about Bluebird’s presence. Bluebird immediately knocked the man to the ground.

Bluebird landed next to him. He looked at Deceit, consideringly. Great.

“Deceit,” he said.

Deceit let his eyes dispassionately look him up and down. “Bluebird, wasn’t it?”

Deceit could see the man’s face screw up even behind his mask. “Apparently,” he said, voice dripping with disdain.

Deceit almost chuckled at his tone. It seemed someone wasn’t fond of his bestowed superhero name. “The media does as it wills.”

“One would think they’d be more original,” he grumbled.

“It seems perfectly original to me,” Deceit drawled.

The sarcasm seemed to fly straight over his head. “They combined the color of my suit with the fact that I can fly. I cannot see the originality of that.”

“Yes, well. Perhaps it will grow on you.”

He scoffed his disagreement and looked down at the man crumped at his feet. “I will wait for the police,” he said. “Thank you for the assist.”

Deceit blinked. “You’re not going to try to arrest me?” The man shrugged. This was… the weirdest conversation Deceit had ever had with a superhero. “Most heroes are eager to fight me, either out of some ideological bullshit or for clout.”

“I am concerned with neither of these things,” Bluebird said with a dismissive eyeroll. “Our means may be different, but our goals align. Wasting energy fighting each other takes away from both of our efforts to keep the city safe. It is impractical.”

“Most heroes don’t think that way.”

“Most heroes are imbeciles.”

Deceit snorted. “Well, you’ll certainly hear no argument from me.”

Bluebird nodded. “Very well. Then this conversation is complete.”

…

Well… he guessed that was a dismissal. Deceit stared at him for a moment, honestly feeling a bit unbalanced by the interaction, though he would never admit to that. He shook his head and turned away.

At least he’d gotten the candy bar.

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Labeled Master Post.

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[snowdice]

The Labeled Universe is Currently Making Me Sad; Take Fluffy Head Cannons

1. Emile makes the mistake of suggesting a couples board game night. Guess why it goes badly?

Logan’s competitive streak

Logan’s cheating streak

Remy’s tendency to not take anything seriously and also simultaneously blow everything out of proportion

Remy and Logan’s long standing rivalry

The fact that Emile suggested halfway through to have Remy and Logan try being on the same team

The fact that upon combining these two forces, they become an unstoppable force

All of the above

2. Remus had to have his apartment fumigated at one point and decided Janus needed to cat sit Diesel Fuel. Janus hates the cat. Obviously.

3. Logan attempts to get Patton out of bed every morning before work for a run. They end up averaging about 3-4 days a week where they actually do get up. Patton is just far too cuddly especially when tired and he weaponizes this for evil.

4. Patton has many novelty cooking items that he’s bought over the years. Sometimes Virgil will find one of these in a closet and Logan gets to eat eggs on a stick for a week for the second time in his life.

5. Patton has some biological family that he talks to! He has an older cousin who is a trans woman. They met up a couple years after he and Logan got married and had an awkward exchange before figuring out that they were both LGBT. She has two kids and one grandkid.

6. Virgil does get in actual trouble at school in his senior year. (The principal is a bit leery of calling Patton at that point.) He and his teacher got into a disagreement in a chemistry lab. It was a perfectly civil and Virgil wouldn’t have gotten into trouble about that. Except... then the words “here I show you” came out of his mouth and... he started a small chemical fire despite his teacher’s vehement protests. Logan was like “...Patton you’re going to have to pick him up because I will not be able to physically restrain myself from high-fiveing the child.”

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Did Janus remember to influence Bluebird or does Logan remember his pajama pants?

This conversation 100% happened with Logan able to see Janus's pajama pants.

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I love how in Labeled, Janus is just... done. He's done with the world. he's been alive for too long and he's Tired(tm). Then All of a sudden this rowdy child barges headfirst into his life and decides "Fuck this, I'm going to reteach you the meaning of life and actually get you back on your feet"

Remus drags his adoptive grandpa into self care kicking and screaming.

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Illusions of Grandeur… Or Perhaps Just Illusions (Part 2) [A part of the Illusory Records Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Remus & Janus

Characters: Remus, Janus

Summary: Remus is training to be an undercover super-agent, but training is boring. So, being Remus, he… finds some “fun” (read trouble) with the city’s resident vigilante Deceit.

Janus is confused as to why this toddler dressed as a traffic cone won’t leave him alone.

This story is set in the Labeled Universe and takes place about 4 years after Sometimes Labels Fail, but runs pretty adjacent to Virgil, Logan, and Patton’s story.

Notes: Superhero AU, mind manipulation

AO3 Part 1

Stupid superheroes, Deceit thought to himself as he strode down an alley towards his secret base. Since when had superheroes gotten effective. Back in his day, superheroes were blundering idiots who were only good for punching things and creating property damage. When had all of these young brats decided to come out here and be good at things like subtlety and undercover investigation? When had they started caring about actual fundamental problems in the system instead of just showing up when some supervillain tried to make a death ray? That was Deceit’s job. They were stepping on the toes of vigilantes everywhere. Just because one of them lived cloaked in shadows and mystery did not give their little preschooler team-up the right to perform covert ops.

Janus had been doing surveillance on the Riddlon family for months now trying to figure out just what they were doing, and those two heroes had the audacity to show up at the exact right moment, clearly already well-aware that it would be the exact right moment, and tore down their entire smuggling operation a moment before Janus had planned to. How dare they?

He blamed the bloody bird.

Setting a good example and being a mentor to the younger generation. Who did he think he was? Deceit grumbled to himself and started putting his gloves on as he walked. He wouldn’t need to use his powers any time soon and, while he didn’t strictly need them as he was going back to base, it felt weird to be without them.

He paused at the end of the alleyway to use his powers to scan for any missed onlookers before opening the secret entrance to his base. He paused, eyes narrowed and turned his head to look behind him when he felt a presence.

“Halt villain!” a grandeurs voice said when he saw him looking. He put on a show at looking heroic, but it was a hard sell considering his costume.

Deceit wearily turned around. “You’ve got to me kidding me,” he almost groaned. Speaking of young superhero brats. It was Traffic Cone. Ever since the man, no child, had first seen him that day with Brigs, he’d been trying to track Deceit down. One would think that after seeing what Deceit had done to Mr. Penguins that the boy would get the message not to mess with the vigilante who’d been working in the city for probably decades before he was even born. Yet, the kid must have a chip on his shoulder or something, because he’d been persistent in following him around ever since. Deceit had managed to avoid him up until now, but he’d been tired and apparently had a lapse in vigilance.

“Fight me!” Traffic Cone insisted, shucking off his hero stance and tone to replace it with a slightly maniacal grin. Stupid idiot hero with delusions of grandeur. Did he really think he’d even get close to winning against Deceit?

“Look, kid,” Deceit ground out. “I don’t feel like kicking your ass today.”

“Well I do! And I finally caught up with you, so you’re not getting away from me without a fight!”

Deceit arched an eyebrow. “You do?” he clarified with a smirk. “You do feel like you want me to kick your ass today?”

Instead of getting all stuttery or angry and arguing that, no he’d meant he felt like kicking Deceit’s ass, he just stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry.

Deceit gave him an irritated look, feeling his already steaming agitation boil over. “Fine,” he snapped.

“Really?!” he looked almost excited, like a puppy wagging its tail. “So, ho- where did you go?”

Deceit rolled his eyes and took a step towards him, feet light even if they didn’t have to be since the illusion that Deceit was no longer in the alley that he’d just placed in the kid’s mind would supersede his natural senses. Traffic Cone’s eyes bopped around the space in confusion.

“Oh, I see,” Traffic Cone said after a brief moment of confusion, causing Deceit to pause a few feet away from him. “This is part of it. You’re still here, you just are making me think you’re not.”

Deceit hummed. Astute. Most people were panicking by now, but Traffic Cone was calm and accurately able to piece together what had happened.

“Alright then,” the man said cheerfully. He put his hands up in a typical boxing stance. “Let’s go!”

Deceit just shook his head, unwillingly amused with him and side stepped him. He positioned himself so the kid wouldn’t be able to lash out and hit him with his super-strength in the split second between when he’d feel Deceit’s touch and when the illusion would take hold. Then, Janus stripped off one of his gloves. He didn’t need to touch someone to activate his powers anymore. He was long past that. Yet, physical contact still gave Deceit more precise control over what he did to someone, and he didn’t want to accidently shove the dumb toddler into a nightmare if he resisted too hard.

Gentle, he reminded himself as he reached out. He’s an annoyance not an enemy. His fingers descended on his forearm, and the boy went still.

“Oh,” he said, blinking fast as though trying to remove something from his eye. Deceit made the alleyway around them fold and spiral away from his perceptions. “T-that’s weird.” There was a spike of fear, but it was more instinctual than anything real and was easy to bat away. It was surprising, actually, the lack of real fear. Most of the newbie cops and baby supers that came after him were doing so because they considered him a threat. So, most panicked when they felt themselves slipping under his power. Yet, Traffic Cone was steady under it. Deceit didn’t even sense any embarrassment about being taken out so fast. “It’s like a tilt-a-whirl,” he breathed.

Deceit arched an eyebrow. They were usually too trapped in their own minds at this point in the process to speak. That was strange, but what was even stranger was how the boy’s mind held steady in the transitional phase of fuzzy white and black that rippled like TV static across all of his senses. Usually one’s mind would start filling in the gaps automatically, grappling for some sort of calm in the storm, and Deceit would just push it away from anything dangerous. Yet, Traffic Cone seemed to be oddly be content to rest in the nothing. Deceit didn’t know what to make of it.

Despite his curiosity, Deceit still shoved at him gently until he teetered off the edge into what Deceit thought was the memory of three different locations. Most of the space Deceit saw was a childhood bedroom with cheery aquatic animals on the walls and a colorful rug, but what tipped him off to the fact that it wasn’t just one location was the out of place full sized bed with the dark green comforter and the matching nightstand with a murder mystery novel on it’s top. It was an adult bedroom, likely his current one, familiar and comfortable but not sentimental. The last location bled through only in the structure of the walls and a fireplace. It seemed to be based off a cabin in the woods if the view of the sun setting over a lake outside the large window on one wall was anything to go by. It was probably a place he’d visited a few times and had a good time at.

Even though it was a mixture of locations, the memory seemed strong. Nothing was fuzzy around the edges and the inclusions from each place were logical in its construction. It was tidy and calm. The fireplace gave off waves of warmth and it smelled vaguely of cedar. He imagined the blankets on the bed were soft to the touch and all was quiet except for the crackle of the fire. Deceit was impressed. He’d expected a mess of a mind from how he’d seen the boy act, but this was decidedly not.

After a pause, Deceit drew away, leaving him inside that illusion. “Let’s get you back to Brigs.” His eyes flickered to Janus to Janus’s surprise. He shouldn’t be taking in any external stimulus yet with the attack so recent and Deceit still so near.

“Okay,” he agreed, voice distant. If Janus didn’t know any better, he’d say that the kid must have some sort of mental power. The problem with that conclusion was that he’d already read up on him when he’d started following Deceit around, and his power was reportedly super-strength. He shook the idea of the boy having a mental power away. Surely, he would have met at least some resistance if that were true, and Deceit had met less than normal.

“Come on, Traffic Cone,” Janus said, physically and mentally nudging him back towards the street. Deceit threw up a small field around them to keep passersby from seeing them and then checked the hacked security cameras on his phone. As expected, Brigs was sitting in his car in one of his usual spots. It wasn’t too far, and they could walk there easily.

It was a few minutes of walking later that the boy looked up slowly. “I told you I didn’t choose the costume,” he grumbled.

Deceit blinked at him but didn’t comment on his unusual lucidness.

Upon Deceit allowing the man to see him and Traffic Cone, Brigs laid his head briefly on his steering wheel. If Deceit cracked a smile, there was no one around to see it.

Brigs exited his car and looked Traffic Cone over with a sigh. “I told him not to.”

“You always do.”

“This was fun,” Traffic Cone said with an out-of-it giggle. “We should do it again some time.”

“Is he always like that?” Deceit asked tiredly.

Brigs looked over at the man with annoyance and maybe an iota of affection. “Unfortunately.”

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Deceit’s Follow Up Questions (Relabeled; Refiled Series)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus & OC

Characters: Janus, OC

Summary:

So what, if his actions could possibly be construed to look like they were in some way related to helping Bluebird. Maybe an outside might think he was in some way angry about what had happened to the superhero, but that wasn’t what was happening. It just… hit a nerve; it wasn’t a big deal. It did not mean he liked the man. It barely meant he respected him.

Ugh.

When had he started respecting a superhero?

Notes: Superhero AU (really doesn’t matter at all), human experimentation implied, child abuse

This probably takes place either during the last few chapters of Gaps in His Files or within a couple days of it’s end.

Deceit was almost mad at himself for doing this. It nearly went against his philosophy and completely went against his image. He told himself that he was just doing this shit because he needed to know where the thing came from. After all, everyone knew that memory manipulation was dangerous, rather from a weapon or not; Deceit knew it most of all. So, he was just trying to make sure another weapon like that didn’t get made again or if some already had, that they got promptly destroyed.

So what if he was technically, almost, working with the cops? He was just sharing information, and it made sense to do so when they were in possession of the original weapon. Plus, it wasn’t like he was following their rules or anything.

And, so what, if his actions could possibly be construed to look like they were in some way related to helping Bluebird. Maybe an outside might think he was in some way angry about what had happened to the superhero, but that wasn’t what was happening. It just… hit a nerve; it wasn’t a big deal. It did not mean he liked the man. It barely meant he respected him.

Ugh.

When had he started respecting a superhero? He despised them on principle with all their pomp and desire for glory… though, even he had to admit, Bluebird was a different breed than most. He didn’t stick around to be hero worshiped if he could help it. He came in, did his hero thing, and bolted shortly afterwards. Deceit didn’t know what he was in it for, but he wasn’t in it for the glory. Which to Deceit made him… tolerable.

That didn’t mean Deceit was going to go around boo-hooing about what had happened to him like most of the people in the city seemed to be. No, Deceit was doing something actually useful.

“Tell me,” he hissed, and he wasn’t using his powers in earnest, not yet, but he was pushing the image that he was a lot bigger and scarier than he truly was into the mind of the man he was currently pinning to a wall. He tightened his grip around the man’s neck. “Now.”

He was shaking in fear. Good. He should be afraid of Deceit, especially right now. “I don’t know man,” he sobbed, “I dunno. Something about some guy who’s a tecnopath and a kid. That’s all I know.”

“A kid?”

“Yeah, she’s like 10 or something. Blond. I just saw her once when Lightwave brought her in. I haven’t seen her since.”

“Is she here?”

“I don’t know,” he cried. “Probably, man.”

Deceit frowned at him and loosened his hold a bit. “Turn yourself into the police,” he said.

“W-what?”

Deceit moved one of his hands from his neck to place his thumb in the middle of the man’s forehead. “Turn yourself into the police,” he repeated, “or your brain will explode in 24 hours, understand?” He couldn’t actually do that, but he could certainly convince him that he could. The guy whimpered and nodded, “Tell them everything you just told me.” Deceit then released him completely and he stumbled away. “You’re fucking lucky you might have more information the police or I need,” he grumbled to himself. “Now, fuck off.”

The man did not need to be told twice; he raced out of the building on stumbling feet.

Deceit turned from his retreating form in disgust. The old run-down building was barely a house. Most of the first floor was the living room and there was no longer a door to the kitchen. The staircase upstairs didn’t even look like it could hold a full-grown man’s weight. Honestly, this place should be condemned. It might be, actually; he doubted these people were the actual owners.

There were no signs of life in the house that he could observe through normal means, so he reached out tendrils of his powers to feel around a bit. Something pushed back. Deceit froze as it tapped back against his presence in its mind curiously.

Down.

But down where? Deceit wondered. After a bit of searching, he found a small almost invisible door under the staircase to the upstairs. It opened into another set of stairs that went down. He reached up and found a string to turn on the single lightbulb at the top of the steps. It barely gave off enough light for someone to get down the stairs intact. Yet, Deceit slowly descended the cement stairs.

He found the light switch at the bottom of the steps easily enough and the lights flickered on. A work desk and a lot of wires and parts were strewn around as well as some schematics. Deceit swept those up on his way by; he’d burn them later. He made his way through the empty room until he found another door which was bolted from the outside. He unbolted the door and cautiously opened it.

Dark eyes from a curled-up form on the other side of the room met his when he opened the door. Deceit paused to take her in. It was a little girl like the man upstairs had said, though she looked closer to 8 then 10. She was very much not clean and had been injured by her captors. She was also chained to the wall with power dampening cuffs.

“Hello,” he said softly. “Can I come closer to you?”

She nodded and Deceit entered the room. He approached her slowly.

“I’m De-” he cut himself off. ‘Deceit’ was probably not the best name to use with a kid he was trying to get to trust him. “Dee,” he said. “What’s your name?” She said nothing. “Okay, that’s fine, can I see your wrist?”

She held out her wrist to him and Deceit reached into his pocket to pull out a lock pick. He started working on the cuffs. He could feel her eyes on him as worked, and quickly they were off. Deceit threw them aside. The second the cuffs were off, her powers reached out for him.

She was a Mind Warper.

Deceit breathed slowly through his nose and smothered his reaction to that particular revelation. She wasn’t trying to do anything, and he had the impression that she wouldn’t (couldn’t to Deceit at least; he’d be able to throw most adults off, let alone one so young.) Instead, she just kind of poked at him inquisitively.

Hi? It was not really a word, but an impression sent towards him.

He sent a greeting back and her little fingers reached up to grab at his face. He did his best not to flinch.

Like me? Safe?

“Yes,” Deceit answered out loud. “I’m like you and you’re safe.”

Her hands drew away from him. “Kiri,” she said.

“That’s your name?”

She nodded.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kiri. Can you tell me where you’re hurt?”

She pointed at her ankle which was swollen up and at the raw skin where the cuffs had been. Then she pointed at the patches of burnt skin on either side of her head. They must have… done something to her, manipulated her powers to build the weapon and Deceit was pretty sure he didn’t want to know what. Last, she pointed to a few bruises on her arms.

“It sounds like there’s a lot of things that hurt right now,” he said softly. “If you let me, I’ll make it hurt a bit less, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Very good. Now sit still and be calm.” He brushed his fingers against the side of her cheeks and thought gentle thoughts. He’d never used his powers in such a soft way before, but he found it wasn’t difficult at all when faced with someone so fragile. He was extremely careful with her as he weaved an illusion of painlessness to her. He spun a web of warmth and contentment, like a soft blanket was wrapped around her. Instead, he undid his cape and wrapped that around her shoulders.

The tension in her face eased as he gave her the illusion. She relaxed, eyes flickering and tired. Yet, she still looked up at him with a hug smile. “Thank you,” she said.

“Be careful,” he warned. “You are still injured, and pain is there for a reason. You don’t want to harm yourself more. This is just temporary until I can get you out of here and find someone who can fix you for real.”

She nodded. “Thanks still.”

Deceit nodded back. “What’s your favorite animal, Kiri?” he asked.

“I like turtles.”

“Okay,” Deceit replied. He leaned forward to press his forehead against hers and softly pressed an image of a turtle into her head. It was likely gentle enough for the typical person to shake off if they wished, let alone one with her powers, yet she willingly accepted it. She giggled and reached out to pat the imaginary turtle in her lap. “Good,” he said with a smile. “Now I’m going to pick you up okay?”

She nodded, allowing herself to be distracted by the images in her head. He picked her up, carful of her injuries even though she shouldn’t be able to feel them at the moment. He carried her out of that crumbling house. He easily convinced a neighbor that he was there to take his car to get its engine fixed and used that car to drive her to the hospital.

He hated working with the police, but he still called Silvia’s daughter and waited until she got there to leave Kiri’s side.

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Labeled Master Post.

My Masterpost.