For my List of Shame - WIP Game ask. Your wish is my command @five-by-seven 😘
Bootstrap Paradox
Klaus was still retching in the corner while the rest of the Academy discussed what had happened.
“You teleported all of us?” Luther asked again.
“I believe we already covered this, Number One.” Five said hotly.
“You can’t usually do that.” He replied defensively.
“Well usually we’re not seconds away from dying.”
“It doesn’t matter how we got here,” Allison interjected, “I want to know where here is.”
“A police station.” Klaus supplied unhelpfully, still hunched over while Ben patted his back.
“I think we’re in the future.”
“Five, you can’t move through time.” Allison huffed.
“I’ve never done it before.” He corrected. “That doesn’t mean I can’t. And it’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense.”
“H-how do you mean?” Diego asked.
Pushing his hair out of his eyes, Five listed off what he had observed when they first landed. “We landed on the same street we left, but things were different. New shops and street furniture. There was technology around us I haven’t seen before – did you see the cars, those large televisions? They’re more advanced than anything we have. And I don’t think I have to remind you how everyone around us reacted? The public are used to seeing our powers, but they weren’t. The police reacted hostilely too, that’s why we’re in here.” He pointed out, gesturing to the room around them. It wasn’t a cell, rather a detention room for interrogation with a two-way mirror Diego had already suspiciously pressed an eye to. An armed police officer was stationed outside.
“The police wouldn’t have taken us in.” Luther nodded.
“All right.” Ben said slowly. “So how do we get back?”
“I didn’t exactly intend to bring us here in the first place. I’ll have to make some calculations before I can try.”
“Meaning?” Allison pushed.
“We’ll be here for a while.” Five sighed. What he left unspoken was the concern he wouldn’t be able to get them back at all. The guilt that thought inspired – and the image of sad brown eyes, half-hidden behind meticulously straightened bangs – forced him to stay positive. They would get home. He needed to.
“So this means that we’ve been gone for… what? Months? Years?”
“How much has changed?”
“Why hasn’t Dad come to get us yet?”
“I’m asking.” Diego decided, quickly moving over to the door and pounding it loudly. “Hey!”
“Yes?” A voice came from the other side.
“We get to make a phone call right? We’re minors, you have to let us call home.”
“Your guardian has been contacted.” The officer replied, still keeping the door shut. The Academy didn’t mind, however, sharing a look of relief. Even Five, who detested the old man, felt calmed by the news. While Reginald Hargreeves had never approved of Five’s desire to time travel, he didn’t seem to think it impossible. Perhaps he would have an insight into how they could return.
With that announcement, they settled more comfortably into the room. Ben helped Klaus into a seat and sat with his back to his knees. Diego hopped up on the table while Allison and Luther took two of the three remaining chairs. Five didn’t claim the last, however, preferring to pace as he began to run numbers through his head. His fingers twitched for a pen or a piece of chalk, but apart from the bolted furniture there was nothing in the room he could use.
There was also no clock, and therefore no way of knowing how much time had passed until the door finally opened. To Five, who was occupied, it felt like minutes; to the others, eons.
The police officer ushered in a well-dressed man, suitcase in hand and an expensive watch on his wrist. A lawyer if he ever saw one.
“Good evening, Hargreeves.” He greeted, settling his suitcase on the table and taking the spare seat. “I’m Declan Bell and I manage the Hargreeves estate on behalf of its proprietor. Now, I’ve been informed by the officers in charge here that you materialised on East 17th Street opposite Union Square at three forty-seven this afternoon, causing minor damage to a vendor’s cart and the public sidewalk. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” Five replied, to the echoes of his teammates.
“Our Dad’s lawyer is Lucas Fraser.” Luther said, clearly confused.
Mr Bell nodded. “I’ll see if I can find a record of him. You should understand, quite some time has passed since you disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” Allison asked.
“Yes.”
Unclipping his suitcase, Mr Bell withdrew some papers with an assortment of headlines collated together. Each professed to their strange disappearance mid-battle, with calls for information on their whereabouts and the criminals who remained at large.
“No one knew what happened to us?” Ben asked, inspecting one of the sheets closely.
“Never. There were speculations of course, but CCTV was not what it is today and the street had been evacuated in light of the incident you were attending. Which meant no witnesses.”
Luther tried to ask about the criminals they were fighting, but Five spoke over him.
“How long have we been gone?”
“Almost seventeen years.” At their collective inbreath, Mr Bell hastily added, “I know this must be a shock.”
“No shit.” Klaus exclaimed.
Quantum mechanics had given way to basic addition. Vanya would be twenty-nine years old.
“Given the circumstances, no charges will be filed although a fine will be issued to the estate to pay for property damage,” he explained, continuing over the few voices of complaint, “which I will inform the proprietor they need to pay. The incident may have been unavoidable but, considering what is happening in the press, it seems the best way to avoid any further scrutiny into your vigilantism.”
“What do you mean? What’s happening in the press?” Allison queried. “You just said we’ve been gone for seventeen years.”
“Yes, however, some details have recently emerged about practices within the Umbrella Academy, which have garnered a lot of negative publicity. As such, it would be wise to avoid drawing additional attention. Which is why I want to get up out of this station and into private premises as soon as possible; before the press catch wind of your reappearance.”
Warning: This fanart piece contains gore! Sure enough it's only the linework, but the finished product will have gore themes!
Haven't drawn gore in the long run, this helps me get rid of my sorrow and stress, etc. So here's a Hanako-kun MLP gore WIP! I'll be doing gore for every fandom I'm in so far or at least the ones I'm mostly in for now.
As some of you know I’m trying to create a clear plot line and most of the art for a future video game project, and I’ve already got my fancy shmancy shop menus down!
Need some new equipment? Click away to Ruden’s Weapon Emporium! Need healing or revitalizing items? Click away to Ten’s Kitchen!
Life has been very difficult to deal with lately. I've had a lot of bad days and just wanted to lay in bed and ignore the world for a while. But now I have friends forcing me to get through these rough times so im really grateful to them^^
I hope to post more art here in the near future °♡°
