Sidestory: Severe Cases of Out Of Character

Not as much severe as they can be, really. So, beware, that's a sidestory, that implies sexual relationship between two teenagers and they are talking about having sex and kisses.
Well, have a nice read.
What would've been with my ShadowStalker SI fanfiction if I wrote OOC all around, but they are not as severe as they can be, so you'll probably recognize them all not only by names.
BEWARE
Language, sex themes, kisses, accidents that make the plot. MAYBE EVEN SPOILERS WHO THE HELL KNOWS

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Hellhound, Skitter, Regent, Tattletale, Grue and, apparently, his quite successfully triggered sister were surrounding me with all the ill intentions they were able to accumulate. They got me taped to the chair and there was electricity around me. Not the first time I really hated my rash decisions, but I tried to believe it wasn’t for nothing. I could’ve avoided it because there are some other ways to do what they wanted to accomplish.

“You know that I’m not working alone, don’t you?” - I decided to clarify what they knew about my involvement with any fractions. - “You do know who I’m working with, don’t you?”

“Yeah, your partner, what’s his name? The Hound? He’s not here.” - Grue coughed. - “Skitter?”

She shook her head and stayed silent, watching me like she wanted me to suffer. Perhaps she did, even if I had nothing to do with her trigger. It’s kinda obvious, because I was getting cured from severe radiation poisoning after what Behemoth did with that city, and that’s how I started to hang out with Panacea out of costume, really. When I came back, I had one sexual partner more and one, kinda, friend less. I gathered, they were able to do all this shit with tampons and blood without any intervention or help from me. Truly, people don’t need powers to fuck someone up. One thing made me happier - Mads didn’t even know about their plans. She was so fucking stuck on thinking that’s her fault as well, I had to revitalise our connection, so the number of sexual partners at once was two for the first time in my not so long life.

So, about all this situation I’m in right now… I wasn’t in the Wards this time around, but I did have affiliation with the PRT because Piggot knew her needs and she clearly needed someone like me. So, I had some minor access and all that. That’s why this Under-villains could use me. I was sure when I was scheduled to patrol with Flechette and we did the whole patrol thing quite successfully until I got the message from my Stalker about the Nazi-gathering, if today I run into Skitter, I’d run into them all, and I went with it anyways.

Chased her, silently and methodically, seeing red and feeling the need to finally make it somehow more honest. Well, my Stalker told me what happened to me in that story as he remembered it. I knew what would happen after Leviathan if Taylor saw my face in the hospital. I knew this would happen, because he knew it as one of those things that made the plot of the story he told me. And the thing was - apparently, Taylor becoming Khepri was one of those points that Contessa needed to happen when her Shard knew that it will make Scion fail.

It’s still too hard to grasp, but I’m living it, I’m changing it in little things, but it feels like it doesn’t work. But I try, no, We try, and the day he told me that I should go and find something good in all the shit around me, was the day I first went to play sax for public. Also the first day I met her. The runaway blonde girl in worn out clothes, who basically accused me of playing on the stolen instrument after asking me about the meaning of the engraving on it. Talkative, smart, pretty. Last one I was ready to admit without any doubt when she used my bathtub.

She told me then, her name’s Liv.

Me and my Stalker didn’t even get that’s Tattletale, until I heard her talking with Grue one day. Not whispering, not shouting in the fight, but talking.

I was angry that day. I shot Grue, a lot, that day. He lived, I got scolded by my Stalker and, well, it seemed not right to end things with her leaving me. And I was feeling used and a bit more broken than before, as my accidental helper said the day I was slobbering in that same bathtub. The day I thought, that it was all lies, and even if I never told her about being parahuman, she never said she’s ace. I didn’t even care she said nothing about her own parahuman abilities, but we had sex! I never wanted to force anything on her. I would’ve never even tried to do anything more than kiss her, if I knew she doesn’t like it.

That’s why I couldn’t believe she’s Tattletale at first. It seemed so real.

“It’s you,” - I choked it out, biting my cheek from the inside, and they, all of them, stared in the eyes of my hound-mask. - “It’s you, Liv. I heard you talking. And you smile right now. You smiled and talked a lot, even if I know now…” - now I choked on the fuckin’ lump in my throat but I’m not going to let her hear that. - “You weren’t fuckin’ real!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tattletale’s smile looked strained, but I knew she doesn’t care for real, well, she didn’t when we were an item, so why would she start now?

She just turned her face to Skitter, Taylor I mean, who was a bit startled when I accused her teammate of being someone I know. Well, that’s just awesome. I can’t really say that I know her as well, can I? She’d just get her creepy crawlies into my mouth and I end up like the alternate version of Alexandria, really. I’m a nutjob, as my Stalker loves to remind me, but it’s the life that makes us like that, not the… well, powers too, but the life was doing it to people even when Zion wasn’t in the picture. So, logically thinking…

“Did you hit her too hard?” - Tattletale asked without any hint of worry in her features or voice, interrupting my thought process, so it caused me to speak again.

I wasn’t really paying attention to whatever bullshit she was spitting out. I just said what I needed to say for so long. I was going to open this abscess up.

“Well, then, that just means that’s not your name and you’re going to pretend you don’t know me. Why’s that? What I did to you to deserve this shit?”

She didn’t answer. She nodded to Regent and he sat down. Others were going to leave us alone, but I didn’t want this to end like that. Her eyes were empty, she wanted nothing to do with me and I didn’t know why. We were alright. She could’ve just talked to me and wouldn’t be that stuck on her. And I’m not that Sophia whom my Stalker despised and pitied both. With his inability to move out of my body for the first time he had to take care of me when he deemed it necessary. That’s how he made me understand why I should care.

It’s easier when someone cares back.

So, I started humming, and they stopped their movements, looking at me like I grew the second head. What? I’m playing sax, music’s in my veins because of my Stalker, so, what did they want from me? Shouting? Pointless and not good for the voice, especially after the electrocution they put me through. Regent even joked again, and it was even funny somehow.

“You’re not the Canary, Stalker,” - he snickered. - “Not your power, really. You’ve seen your files, right?”

Tattletale’s eyes were wide and green and she locked them with mine. She remembered.

“Hail,” - I started, hoarsely. - “What’s the matter with your head? Ye-yeah! Hail, what’s the matter with your mind and your sign! Oh-oh, Hail, nothing the matter with your head, baby, find it, come on and find it, Ha-a-ail, with it baby ‘cause you're fine and you’re mine, look so divine! Come and get your lo-o-ve…Come and get your lo-o-ove!”

Regent used his scepter on me again and it wouldn’t be pleasant if he used taser, but he just hit me with it like it was a baton. I was quite used to it, so I din’t even flinch, but unfazed, while being unmoving, and he started swinging it again.

“Stop!” - I heard what I wanted to hear. - “Stop this.”

“Tell me why,” - I asked her almost solemnly. - “We were good. What happened?”

“It’s not me,” - she hissed, and I saw her crying like if she cared, but it said nothing if it weren’t words, loud and clear. - “It’s you.”

“What does she mean, Tattletale? Why does she… Knows whatever she knows?”

Grue was nervous but he wasn’t raising his voice. I didn’t like the guy, mostly because I felt we were almost alike, when my Stalker told me his story. And this dude never even thought to act like a hero. Or maybe he thought, but he didn’t act, so it doesn’t count, because of whatever was happening in his life, I don’t really want to know.

First, I thought that’s her thing, she just left me for that guy. And that’s actually why I start shooting before I think it through - if I don’t think at all and let myself get as cold as I can, as numb as I need. Not good, he always said. And I know why it isn’t good now, it lacks real control over the situation.

“You see...”

I started saying it very much patiently, controlling my anger and trying to settle with the thought that the wish to make things right with Liv… Tattletale, or whatever she’s calling herself now, wasn’t the best idea, when I knew how it ended in the story where I never played music and never told Emma to go fuck herself after my first Endbringer fight.

“I don’t think she has something good to say,” - this blonde bitch interrupted me and her eyes were flashing, but I didn’t know with what, I’m not a fuckin’ Gallant. - “She’s just messing with our heads.”

“I thought that’s your thing, Tats,” - Regent cracked a joke, but I saw him play with his electrified skepter with more nervousness than before. - “Is she…”

“I fucked her and she fucked me up,” - I said it without any preamble, as if we needed more. - “We were together since she came into this city and saw me playing my sax on the Boardwalk, and that was late November, so she looked cold. I let her stay in my apartment because she seemed okay and I don’t have any valuables there anyways. At first it was an awkward friendship, but I made it clear that I don’t want to be friendzoned when I like someone as much as I liked her.”

“You play saxophone,” - whispered Taylor, forgetting that she supposed to talk with the help of her little friends.

She might’ve heard me playing, after all, sax is pretty loud and I was practising almost all the lunchtime and sometimes on the rooftop of the old building of our school. No one ever cared, except those who were in the repetition group. How are they, I wonder?

I was hanging a lot around Emma those days, so showing this lanky girl how things work in real life, or whatever I thought about our extracurricular activities, were part of my routine, but I wasn’t much into it when my time was possessed by making money for emancipation and finding fun and relaxation with saxophone or piano. Or visiting Grandmother, when she was inclined to accept my help and attention. Anyways, all this shit wasn’t about Taylor, and I’m not even afraid to butterfly anything, because I haven’t succeeded even after all these months of doing all kinds of things I would’ve never done in the timeline my Stalker knew.

“Well, you get that my identity is hardly a secret amongst your friends, Skitter. So, I decided to start with the beginning. Don’t you see it’s better?”

“Better than what, exactly?” - asked Grue and crossed his hands on his chest.

“Better than just tell you all something like, hullo, guys, there’s high probability I almost killed Grue because I was jealous of Tattletale, who is my ex. And I thought her being dead or whatever for more than two months, or something. And she obviously lied to me, used me even if she didn’t need to, and it’s not the fucking end of it! She didn’t even try to tell me that she’s gone for good and won’t be coming back! Thank you very much, you fucking stupid little bitch who couldn’t even think that it’s not fucking good to withdraw the information of your goddamn health especially in this shithole of the city! I was worried!”

“Shut your mouth! I don’t like to be called stupid! You’re...”

“Thank you fucking very much for putting my mask off my face! I so don’t like to be unable to look into your lying green eyes and ask just. One. Fucking! Thing!” - I was shouting right now and it was pretty much teenage drama I never really liked. - “Why the fuck didn’t you just write me a note? I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for this suspense!”

“Whad’da ya mean you wouldn’t be here?” - the girl, Grue’s sister, asked. - “Did you know it’s a trap?”

“Of-fuckin-course I knew it’s a trap! Not a crappy one, but I wanted to be here, so I’m here.”

“You do understand, that I’m a master, right?” - asked Regent, frowning. - “And you knew it when you came here.”

“You know, it really bothers me when you try to electrocute me. You see, my powers don’t let me feel everything like others. Can’t feel pain like a normie, it’s like sensory neuropathy or something, but power-induced. That’s what Amy said, anyways. Something with brain, too, but she doesn’t touch brain. I suspect, it’s partially empathy and all that kind of shit, because really, Liv, or whatever your real name is, all the time we were together I was thinking you’re okay with how things proceed. ”

“All the time… All the time you were lying to me, Sophia. And I wasn’t even interested in the relationship with you at first, really. You just made it seem so easy and…”

“I lied to you only in those things that were connected to cape shit,” - I shrugged and it hurt my wrists somehow, I don’t even know how exactly. - “You didn’t tell me your story too. I’ve been… burnt once. She was not the best person to know my identity, really. Ended up being mental...”

“You were in a relationship while being with me,” - she said it so tiredly, like it was obvious, but I couldn’t even fathom in what she said, but she continued, It wasn’t over then? - “You were telling me it’s your first time and my power was telling me that you know what you’re doing, and you’ve been doing it before many times. You were saying that you like my smile, so my power provided me with the fact that it reminds you of the person you truly despise. The only thing that was okay was sex, because your breaker power somehow changed my perception of your body, or I don’t know. It doesn’t work when you touch me.”

“You’re crimson,” - I smiled, satisfied, but she scoffed and others were clearly nervous, not knowing what to do with whatever their plans are. - “And I didn’t lie. Let me uncover you a little cape secret of mine. I work with Toybox, Liv, and I had access to the memory tinker because I’m that cool of a hero and, well, I was in the group that birdcaged Acidbath, you know that right? I had some cash those days.

“You weren’t just in the group, Shadow Stalker,” - Tattletale gasped and her tears were almost gone already. - “You… you put it together? Why?”

“Do you remember my dream you laughed that much about?”

“Oh, yeah. I laughed because that lie was at least funny, Sophia. You always lied, I told you already…”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh.”

“What’s the dream, huh? And why Tat’s face is that pale?” - Regent was bored out of his ass, but he at least tried.

“I dream of having picnic on the grave of Heartbreaker while drinking my coffee from the skull of Jack Slash. ”

“And for that, she said, she needed to befriend Bonesaw.”

“Well, that part was a lie. Panacea can do too, really.”

Regent was laughing like a madman and I joined him but he poked me with his stick and I didn’t appreciate it.

“Oi, what for! Why did you hit me? I’m cooperating here!”

“He’d master you, idiot.”

“That’s why I needed Bonesaw, you see, the girl is awesome with nervous system control, she could’ve probably made the unmastering device and get rid of Jack Slash indoctrination.”

“She believes that Bonesaw is misunderstood. And Jack Slash is a secret master of the whole Slaughterhouse, so if you kill Jack others would try to kill each other,” - explained Tattletale. - “She’s like that, okay, don’t look at me, guys! My power didn’t work when I touched her, so I used it for having an experience…”

“Awesome one,” - I was smug because the main worry of her not being satisfied or even interested but still having sex with me was evaporated. That’s the worst thing! - “It was the awesome experience, I have to add. And he can’t master me.”

“Why not?” - Tattletale clenched her fists. - “And how’s that you haven’t lied to me all those times? You were in that relationship, and you weren’t honest with me! I can’t be mistaken…”

“Well, my only continuous relationship except you was the girl who knew my identity because I got some kind of childhood crush on her while saving her. And we weren’t fucking, god bless me from that shit. I’m pretty sure she’s straight or too closeted for anyone’s liking. Now I’m kinda having it with Amy, I mean, Panacea because we were hanging around for some time. I got too much radiation on the last Behemoth attack, you see. She needed to relax and I gathered, the best method is to fuck it out.”

“You… you attended.” - Tattletale was close to me now, was touching my face now. - “You fucking attended. How… Oh, yes, you’re emancipated, yes.”

“And I’m quite suicidal. Uh-huh. Heroic, I mean. It’s okay, you either save people, or save yourself if you can’t save people. My power is quite useless in use on other people if I’m not trying to attack them, but if I have a tinker tech medkit and some means to communicate. And, er… What’s wrong with Skitter?”

The bugs were buzzing and skittering around but they were kinda chaotic. I didn’t like the view, like, at all.

“The last attack of Behemoth was just before my trigger.” - she managed to squeeze it out of her creepers and I almost gulped.

“Well, okay, and? Are you… connected?”

“You were… in the hospital those days?” - she didn’t answer on my question, but she asked her own. And I didn’t get why at first.

“All my Christmas and New Year, yes. The best New Year was with you, though, - I looked at Tattletale. - “You remember the song, so you had some good feelings as well.”

“You’re kind of… innocent?” - Taylor neither stated, nor asked.

“Hm, I’m… I’ve killed people? That helps? And innocent in what?”

She started to do something weird with her mask and I heard a short “fuck” from Grue.

Whatever. I already knew it’s Taylor when I chased her, so when her hair fell down on her cheeks I looked at Tattletale and asked.

“Now tell me if I’m lying. I had a guess that’s Taylor the first time I saw Skitter in action.”

“You are. Fuck you and your bitch of a power,” - Tattletale smiled and I saw something warm blossoming in her eyes, so I angled my face and tried to reach her face in a caring peck.

I wished to do that since the day she fuckin’ left without any warning.

We kissed like I wasn’t taped to the chair and that wasn’t making my hands hurt.

“It’s not love,” - she said without any doubt.

“It’s not love,” - I confirmed half-heartedly.

“You’re lying.”

“You’re wrong.”

The kiss was good, and Taylor was standing there, blushing and trying to avert her eyes.