NOVEL WEB 0. Cry Like a Bitch (OPTIONAL)
The best origin stories are memorable, full of 'feels, and can be skipped. This one is no exception. ENJOY!
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Picture a happy but tiny family.
A wonderful mother and her bright kid. A quiet and cozy home. A loving father working hard in the background. Nothing too fancy, and yet it meant the world.
Happiness. Pure and simple happiness.
Everything was perfect, a little too perfect, so perfect that life got jealous. As if an augur of all the shit to come, the loving father disappeared, MIA in the line of duty.
There wasn’t even a corpse.
One day he was “there”, somewhere, and then just gone the next. Ridiculous, ain't it? Try explaining this to a six-year-old kid. You don't. You just fucking don't. There's no point even trying.
“Where’s daddy? When will we see him?”
The wonderful mother nonetheless tried her best to explain. He had gone to save the world. Forever. "He's still here, in your heart, just like a guardian angel! " She assured with a shaky smile.
She hid the tears. She pushed the sorrow down. She forced herself not to break. After all, she couldn’t fucking afford to. She had a tiny family to protect.
What mattered was her son, their son…
“Can you feel him watching over you, Jack? You can, right?” She asked.
He did. It was faint, but he really could. If anything, he took the loss as well as one could expect. He happily resumed living, the only difference the lion plushie he sometimes called dad.
Leo the Lion, the bravest of all the animals!
Leo the Lion, a gift from the best father.
Leo the Lion, his way of coping.
Perhaps she should have stopped it, but she didn’t. She just kept doing her best, and soon the picture of a very happy family returned, if anything tinged with sorrow at times.
But such is life. One can’t appreciate its beauty while regretting the past, no matter how enchanting. Thus, life kept flowing, as did time. It became very normal again.
“Mom, look, I made the coolest drawing!”
“Mom, can we get a dog?! They’re so cute!”
“Mom, is it true that humans went to the Moon?!”
She could live like that forever. The bright kid had turned into a creative, loving, and ever so curious child.
He would have been so proud. He would have burned holes in his squad's ears from bragging too much... and turned them blind with pictures! She loved to imagine it, giggles escaping her.
But then tragedy struck once more. One day, the bright child suddenly disappeared. He was still there physically, but something changed, as if he had turned into someone else.
He stopped eating.
He stopped playing.
He even stopped sleeping.
Or rather, he never slept more than 2 hours and always had nightmares. He’d wake up in a sweat, seemingly disappointed at having woken up.
It made no sense, and he didn’t seem to be able to explain it either.
He had gone on an uneventful school trip and returned like this. Truly nothing special. Had trauma finally caught up? Had it been the trip itself? All the other kids were fine, so why him?!
Or maybe it was her fault…
As Mana spread across the world she could feel the poisons of old devour her body. What if it had affected him during the pregnancy?! But whatever it was, she’d fix it! She had to!
She went to healers and "psychologists" alike.
“Hehe, don’t worry! We see countless cases like this every year. He’ll be like new in no time! Who knows, maybe after one session, he’ll be out there laughing his little heart out!”
They’d all give the same confident speeches. They were all full of shit.
“Oh, he shows classic signs of depression!” It wasn’t.
“Don’t worry, it will pass for sure!” It didn’t.
“I’ll stake my reputation!” Useless.
Nothing worked. Nothing at all!
It ate her up inside. What good was she if she couldn’t even protect her own kid?! She was the shittiest mother of them all! She didn’t know how to make it better, and it was killing her.
That’s when she hit rock bottom… but not for long.
That night, she got hella drunk, puking her guts all over the checkered bathroom tiles. The next morning, they went away. Akin to a mother dragon, she went on a worldwide crusade.
If there was an expert, they knew her.
She didn’t have the money to pay them, but she could offer them a challenge. All she owned, all she had ever had, she’d give it all up for her child’s sake, EVERYTHING!
Some tried for greed. Others tried for fame. A few even for lust. All failed.
Actually, one half-succeeded.
“Mom. Let’s go home…”
That was the first time he addressed her in forever. For a brief instant, she even thought her bright child was back! He wasn’t, far from it, the old healer explained, sighing.
“He’s put a wall around his heart. Neither you nor I can break it down. All you can do is give him time and believe in him. No matter what happens, keep hoping. That is all.”
That day, the unfeeling child forced himself to eat, play, and even laugh. It was all fake, her ray of sunshine still cold, but it was already an improvement.
Maybe he’d learn to feel again, given time… She foolishly believed.
Turns out her patience paid off.
“Mom, Mom, look!”
The happy chipper of a child resounded. Was she dreaming again? She wasn’t. He was right there in front of their living room’s Universal Screen, watching the News?!
On there, an anchorman seemed shocked…
< It’s official! Superheroes are real! I can’t believe it! It seems all the online rumors are true! Magic is real! Supers are real! The portals aren’t CGI, either! >
That day, the entire world trembled. But HER world trembled even more!
Sitting in front of the screen, he was smiling.
SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING. SMILING.
It wasn’t fake this time around. He truly was.
That day, she became the #1 fan of the Supers. As for all the madness of the reveal? She had long known. Otherwise, she would have still had a husband.
That day, she waved her credit card like a mighty empress. Whatever superhero program there was, she’d unlock without even a second of hesitation.
PG? Mature? Straight-up R-rated? She didn’t give a damn. Ratings were for the living! And as she kept unlocking programs, she felt as if it was Christmas Eve.
“How’s that? Let’s watch it together!”
He nestled next to her on the sofa, laughing.
Happiness. Pure and simple happiness. No, even better than that, exciting happiness! They drank hot cocoa, and they lived. She even took a day off from work for this.
“Pizza? Sushi? Chinese? Poutine? Which should I order?!”
“Hmmm. There’s a lot to watch? All of them?”
“All of them?! YES!”
As he wolfed down the food, she cried. She was crying too much to eat, yet she felt so full. She felt full even as she put him to bed, with 2 hours of sleep/nightmares ensuing.
That night, she dreamed of a proud soldier.
And as morning came, life settled back into its new normal. A VERY lively child whenever tales of Supers were involved, but one that would turn listless any other time.
It didn’t matter. Instead of looking at the ground, he was now looking at the sky. As she brought him to parks to play, he’d still be daydreaming about Supers.
Dreaming beat wallowing in despair by far!
She tried to “rehabilitate” him over time. She taught him to fake interactions with the other kids on the playground. As they say, fake it till you make it.
She almost expected him to stay like that forever.
But one day, there was an incident or rather another miracle. A shark showed up at the playground?! But even as all the kids were running away, one didn’t, his eyes glowing.
Like a mother dragon, she had approached.
A cute, chubby kid in a shark costume. Except there was something wrong with him. His teeth were shark-like, and he had eaten half the metallic monkey bars?! She froze.
“W-What happened here exactly?”
“Mom! I dared him to eat it!”
“You dared him to—”
“Isn’t that cool!”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. It was cool as hell! And she had to agree, but not for the same reasons. For the first time in 2 years, he was actively talking to someone?!
Her shock got even bigger when a black limousine pulled over, picking up the kid like a potato sack, the old butler in charge clearly showing little regard for the kid.
More importantly, her child's eyes never left the limousine.
Seeing this, she followed. It took three detectives and a flying pig, but she finally tracked the kid’s whereabouts. He lived in a manor that was far too regal for their kind.
But she didn’t bloody care. This was her son’s first friend!
“Jack, wanna go camping? It will be fun!”
The two of them awaited by the gates, ones they didn’t have the right to enter. The butler in charge kept giving them the stink eye, but she did not mind one bit.
A small fire, cans of tuna, beans, cozy sleeping bags. It was summer, and they wouldn’t die of hypothermia. It rained, it poured, it got windy as hell, yet they kept “camping”.
Any other child would have complained. But he endured it wordlessly, as he always did. He was even humming at times, babbling about what he'd ask the shark boy to eat next time.
It took 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, a snorting butler came out, spitting venom. “You shrew, what do you think you’re doing?! What is it you want, eh? Money? Food? A handout?”
He even pointed a gun at her head.
“A friend.”
The answer baffled him, so much that he dropped the gun. What the hell?! A friend?! She had come all this way to find a playmate for her son?! Was she crazy, or was she crazy?!
Stunned, he went back to the manor, feeling at a loss.
But a week later, he returned with a shark-toothed little boy. “The master has allowed one hour of playtime. I’ll be supervising.” All they did was go to the nearby park.
Yet, never had she smiled so damn much.
In the background echoed peerless laughter. Her child was alive again, truly this time. Her feet were sore, her body shivering, her skin chapped, but she felt ecstatic!
‘From now on, everything will be fine. Can you see this, darling? He's growing up...'
He was still obsessed with Supers.
He was still weird by all metrics.
But he was human again!
Just like that, everything fell into place, and the next few years truly felt like a dream. She got remarried to a sweet man. He brought along a daughter cuter than the world. Their two children got along well.
Her efforts had paid off. Everything had!
From that point on, they could simply be happy. School, work, afternoon picnics, the occasional outings as a family, and all that came with it. Smiles, laughter, and happiness all around.
Everything was perfect, just like a dream in fact. But like any other dream, it too had to end...
A car crash losing her yet another husband, a world-ending diagnostic, children that she’d never see grow, and a boy possibly cursed just like her.
Her world should have ended.
But amidst the despair, he stood strong. Her little boy had grown. “Leave it to me, Mom. Leave everything to me. Rest well.” This wasn’t just maturity; this was insanity!
That’s when she finally realized. The unfeeling monster was still here. It wasn’t HIM anymore, but it hadn’t left either. And that's when she felt incredible relief.
He would be fine. They would be fine.
She didn't know why, perhaps a mother's intuition, but she knew her children would thrive. And knowing that brought the brightest smile to her face, one that stuck till the very end.
The next weeks were as blissful, her heart almost exploding with happiness. Many never had time to say goodbye. She was lucky. All things considered, she was truly blessed!
To her daughter, she said a lot, and to her sweet boy, she made one thing clear.
"Remember, Jack. Mom will always love you, ALWAYS!"
That night, an unfeeling boy cried like a bitch...
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Welcome to Super Shadow! Get yourself a tent and hang on for dear god, 'cause you'll need it. Classless here, an idiot who quit his job for this. ENJOY! ^_^v