All 15.1 - The "Useless" Ones

“Oh, you have got to be kidding! Me?? What the fuck makes you think I’m useless?!” Cress yelled at the gangly frame of the fey Harlequin.
“Because you are. You’re a weak excuse of a streetfighter who hangs around two people much stronger than you will ever be. The only reason you’re here is because I didn’t have time to wait for the orphan to let go of your wrist.”
Fuming and cursing, Cress stomped up and down the grassy area that had been recently trampled down by the group of people who had been assembled moments before. Now, all that remained were him, the fey, a nervous-looking kobold and two young children, one of whom looked about to cry again. The other child, slightly his elder, grasped his hand.
“‘S okay, Taro. Don’t worry.”
“I...I…” he sniffed, “Where’s mommy and daddy? I want mommy.”
“They’re adventuring!” Virgil replied, excitement tinting his voice and eyes. “They gotta adventure, like dad an’ Lucca. They’re finding something that the clown needs,” he pointed at the fey sitting on a rock nearby, a rock that might not have been there earlier, “And then the clown will take us there, ‘member?”
Shintaro shook his head, unsatisfied by the answer, “I want mommy!”
Virgil looked around, frowning, “Uhm...Carrot’s here? An’ Cress. He’s ok.” Tugging on Shintaro’s hand, he pulled him reluctantly towards where the elf was pacing furiously, his muttering making Shintaro even more nervous. “Cress!” Virgil called, stopping the elf and getting his attention. “Taro wants his mom, an’ she’s not here.” The younger child started crying, shrinking behind Virgil, who turned around with a deep look of concern for a child. He hugged the littler one, “Stop crying, Taro, she’ll be back soon. ‘S important, adventures, an’ you gotta be strong an’ brave to go on ‘em. An’ we’re on an adventure, so we gotta be strong an’ brave, right?”
Cress approached them, muttering about being a baby-sitter, and crouched down to face them. “Geeze, little guy...Taro? Your name’s Taro?”
He sniffed and mumbled, “...Shintaro…”
“Shintaro. Ok, uhm, I’m Cress, I’m a friend of Lucca. Do you know Lucca?” The young child shook his head uncertainly. “Uhm, grown-up, dark skin, dark hair…?”
Virgil whispered audibly to Shintaro, “The guy with the silly nose,” pointing at his own. Shintaro’s eyes widened a bit in recognition and nodded his head.
“Right, yeah, nose ring. Well, I’m his friend, and he’s friends with Virgil’s dad, and you’re friends with Virgil, so we’re all friends, right?” Shintaro sniffed and thought about the logic of that for a moment before nodding uncertainly again. “Great! So, like, your mom just...went ahead, right? She does that sometimes? She went to go get everything ready, so, when we get...wherever we’re going, everything is all set and ready for us, right? Making sure everything is ok? So, when she knows that everything is cool, we’ll go see her, kay?”
“I wanna see her now!” the young child demanded.
“Ohhievie, um, well, we can’t see her now, ‘cause, like, she’s working. She’s working, and we’ll see her as soon as she’s done, ok?”
Shintaro didn’t seem to quite accept this, though it seemed to be a phrase that he was familiar with. Cress struggled about for something to distract the child with, his eyes landing on the short tail of the reptilian kobold sticking up from the long grass. “Hey, little help, scaley dude?” Carrot popped upright, looking around. She rustled through the grass, approaching them with a questioning look. “You any good with kids?” Cress asked.
“I dunno,” she replied as she entered the clearing, “But I f-f-found this!” She held up her hands to reveal something that wasn’t quite a centipede and wasn’t quite a garter snake, but looked like it could give the latter a run for its money in length. “M-m-maybe we can eat it?” she asked thoughtfully.
“Wooooah!” Virgil ran and poked at it as it writhed around in Carrot’s hands. “Lookit it Taro! It’s huuuuuge!” Interested and distracted from his crying, Shintaro also came to look at the insectoid reptile. “I’ll bet there’s more, come on and look, Taro!” Virgil led the younger child willingly into the grass.
Cress turned to Carrot and shrugged, “Uhm, thanks, I guess?”
Carrot looked at him blankly for a second, shrugged, and began to eat the centipede.
----
Cress was watching Shintaro, focusing hard on making sure he didn’t get lost or start crying again, so he didn’t notice Virgil slink away from nearby. The child ran over to where Harlequin was sitting, regaining his composure slowly from earlier. Stopping before him, Virgil looked him up and down for a few seconds, with no response.
“...Hi,” Virgil offered.
“...”
“...Hi.”
“...”
“...You’re supposed to say hi too.”
Harlequin’s scratchy, horrid voice replied finally, “Go away.”
“You don’t look good. You look sick. Are you sick?”
“...”
“You sound sick too. I didn’t know ghosts got sick.”
“I’m no ghost,” he replied with a tinge of offense.
“You aren’t? Aren’t you the mean clown ghost who bugs Lucca?”
“...”
“Aren’t you?”
“I’m not a ghost. I’m a fey. Learn the difference.”
“What is it?”
“...”
“What’s the difference?”
“Go away, kid.”
“But how am I supposta know the difference?”
Harlequin made a growling noise, made all the more threatening by his discordant voice, “Why aren’t you leaving?”
Virgil blinked a few times, before offering, “ ‘Cause I wanna know the difference.”
Harlequin leaned forward, slightly menacing. “You can’t tell me that the orphan didn’t warn you. You can’t possibly have not been told to fear me.”
Virgil looked thoughtful. “...You’re not as scary as Lucca said, and he just said if I saw you in the house, I should tell Dad. Dad said to wait here near you, and that you sometimes say mean things, an’ I should tell him if you do. He said not to bug you.”
“You are bugging me. Go away,” he replied with finality.
“Oh.” Virgil looked a bit sad. “...You are kinda mean...but you aren’t very scary. Why do you scare Lucca, if you aren’t a ghost?”
“Because,” he said venomously, “I am a scary person, who likes scaring people, and ‘Lucca’ is a very, very scared boy. If you weren’t a stupid little child,” he brought his masked face closer to the boy, “you’d be scared too.”
Virgil steeled himself, tightening up his little fists. “Nuh uh! You’re just a mean clown! That’s not scary! ‘Sides,” he said with a touch of pride, “why should I be scared of you? You’re scared of Dad. Everyone says so. You can’t hurt me, ‘cause you’re afraid of Dad.”
Harlequin made a hissing noise. “That is because your ‘father’,” he said with inflection, “isn’t a person. He’s one of the terrible monsters that comes from nightmares and dark, evil places. He crawled out of someone’s nightmare and stole someone’s skin, and is pretending to be your father when really he’s just a monster.”
“That’s...that’s...nuh uh!” Virgil looked confused and angry.
“He’s stolen someone’s name and face and now he’s just watching you grow up so he can take you back to his dark and evil cave when you’re big enough to eat.”
“You’re lying!”
“Why else would I be scared of him?” His tone had become quieter, more insidious despite its raspy nature. “I’m a terrible, powerful fey from the spirit realm, and I scare people because it’s fun. People can’t hurt me. That’s why little ‘Lucca’ is so afraid, because he can’t hurt me. I’m afraid of the thing pretending to be your father, because I’m not a monster like him. He can hurt anyone. Everyone should be afraid of him.” He sat back, “You should be afraid too.”
Virgil blinked at him, angry tears forming in his eyes. “You’re mean, and you’re a liar, and I’m telling!” he shouted before storming away, back towards Cress.
...Ugh. This is why I hate children. Never the right sort of fear, the harlequin thought to himself. It’s always terror or nothing.
Cress looked up to see Virgil stomping up to them, looking upset. “Oh geeze, what’s wrong?” he asked, terrified that the other child would start to cry too.
Virgil wiped his wrist across his face harshly, “The mean clown was mean. Stupid clown.”
“Wait, what?” Cress looked taken aback. He knelt down towards Virgil, “Little bro, don’t talk to that guy. He’s super bad news, ok? We don’t wanna make him mad. Just stay over with us, ok? Please?” Cress looked anxiously between Harlequin and Virgil, but the fey just sat calmly like it had been doing before.
“...Kay,” Virgil sniffed once, then turned his attention towards the strange, alien grasses and their contents once more.
----
It was some time later, when everyone had gathered in the strange boat they had found. Carrot was busy ecstatically looking around, assessing the find, while everyone else napped or lay quietly down, trying to regain a sense of composure after the terrible, terrible day. Victor was sleeping lightly in the bunk room, when he was awoke by a motion at his side. Virgil had crawled down from above and had nestled in beside him. He moved his arm around his son, who looked very concerned about something.
“Dad…” he started quietly.
“Hmm? What is it?” Victor responded, turning his head to look at him directly, shaking off his sleep.
“...The mean clown said...he said mean things.”
A look of concern crossed Victor’s face, and he sat up a little. “What did he say?”
“He said…” he sniffed, “he said that you’re not really my dad, that you’re a monster pretending and tha’s why he’s scared of you and not Lucca, an’ you’re gonna eat me.”
“Oh, oh Virgil,” he sat upright and scooped up the young boy, hugging him tightly, “That’s a lie. He was lying to scare you. You are my son, and I would never eat you. That’s silly.”
Virgil sniffed angrily into his father’s shirt, “Tha’s what I said.”
“I love you very, very much. Don’t listen to the clown, he likes to say mean scary things. It makes him happy to make people upset.”
“That’s mean.”
“It is very mean.”
“...Why’s he scared of you an’ not Lucca? Not anyone else?” Victor just looked at Virgil as he pushed himself back to look up at his father’s face. “He said he’s only scared of you ‘cause you’re a monster, an’ you stole somebody’s face, an’ you’re not my real dad.”
“Monsters are scary animals that hurt people without thinking. Monsters are chimeras, and trolls, and that centipede that attacked the village. Do you think I’m a monster?” Virgil shook his head. “I am your father. The stork brought you to me and no one else, so you’re my real son, and I’m your real father. The clown lied.” Virgil just sniffed, looking very serious. Victor regarded him for a moment, before saying, “I love you, so very much.”
Virgil mumbled, “Love you too.”
Leaning his face down to touch his nose to Virgil’s forehead, he whispered, “Can you keep a secret?”
The child looked confused, and nodded.
“It’s a very, very big secret. Everyone on this boat knows, but you can’t tell anybody else ever, alright? Do you think you’re old enough to keep a secret that big?”
“Yeah,” he said with some defiance.
“Okay.” He picked up Virgil and shifted him to sit in front of him. The two sat cross-legged on the bed, looking at each other seriously. “I’m not a monster. I am your father. But I’m not human.” Virgil looked at him with a bit of confusion. “You know all of the black writing on my skin?” Virgil nodded gravely. Victor pulled back his sleeve to show the writing on his arm. “What’s it look like to you?”
Virgil looked at it and shrugged, “Squiggly letters.”
“They’re magic.” The child looked back at the tattoos with renewed interest. “It’s one big magic spell. It’s tattooed so it can’t be broken.”
“Wooah. What’s it do?”
“It makes me look like this.” Virgil looked at him as he explained, “Without it, I’d look like someone else. The clown said I stole someone’s skin?” Virgil nodded. “He made something true into a scary-sounding lie. There was a woman, who had a husband, and she loved him very much. He died, and she was very sad, and wanted him back very, very much. But the dead can’t come back, correct?” Virgil nodded. Victor nodded his assent, “No, they go and are born somewhere else, as someone else. But she wanted him back so badly, that she wanted someone to pretend to be him, since he couldn’t come back himself. So she used magic, and called me, and the magic made me look like the man who died, so that I could pretend to be him, so she wouldn’t be lonely anymore. That’s why I look like someone else, and I have someone else’s name.”
Virgil thought about this. “Why would someone want someone pretending? Tha’s not the same.”
“When you play with Lucca, doesn’t it seem real, for a little bit? If you’re playing a very fun game, it can seem real for a little while, can’t it?” Virgil considered this, and nodded. “But you’re right. It’s not the same. And she pretended and pretended, but it wasn’t the same, and it made her mad, and sad.”
“Where’d she go?”
Victor sighed, “She had an accident, like her husband, and she died too.”
“Oh.”
“But maybe she got born with the husband she missed so much, and maybe she’s happy now, and doesn’t have to pretend or be lonely.”
“...Yeah,” Virgil agreed.
“So she is gone, but I’m still here, and the magic still makes me look like that man. I’m not pretending to be him anymore, but I still have his name, since I don’t remember mine. He’s not using it, so I got permission to borrow it.”
Virgil furrowed his brow. “How can you forget your name?”
“Because when I got this spell, it took my name and face and everything I knew about myself and locked it up tight away, so that I could pretend better. When the spell comes off, I’ll get it back.”
“What do you look like?”
“I don’t know that either. I don’t remember anything before she called me to play pretend. I only remember about a year before you were born.” He tapped Virgil’s nose playfully, “I’m only about a year older than you.” Virgil laughed at this ridiculous statement. “But I think I probably look very different. I’m probably rather scary.”
“Why don’t you take off the magic, if you aren’t pretendin’?”
“Because I’m happy,” he replied, ruffling his son’s hair. “I have you, and Lucca, and the Doamanyoya, and everyone else. I’m happy being me, and I don’t want to be someone else.”
“Why couldn’t you take it off an’ still be dad?”
“Because, if I took it off, I’d have to go very far away, back to where I lived. It might take me a very long time to come back, and I don’t want to leave you behind for a minute.”
“Oh. Where’d you live? Like...Yeto far?”
“Very far. Another plane.”
“Like the ghost world?”
“Farther than that.”
“...Tha’s far.”
“It is.”
Virgil hugged his father again. “Don’t go far away.”
Victor hugged him back, “I won’t. If I ever go far away, I’ll come back for you. I promise. No matter what.”
“Promise promise?”
“I promise.”
“...So you’re a scary ghost?”
He raised his eyebrows, "I'm not a ghost. Why would I be a ghost?"
"Cause ghosts live in other planes."
"That's not the only thing. What about the angel I told you about?"
"Oh. Are you an angel?"
Victor snorted, "No, not an angel either. What's the place angels come from?"
"Heaven."
"And what's the opposite of heaven?"
"Hell."
"What lives there?"
"Demons!"
"Exactly."
"...Demons are supposed to be really mean. You aren't that mean."
Victor smiled, "Well, I'm glad you think so. Demons don't have to be mean. Angels don't have to be nice. But everyone thinks demons are scary. That's why the clown is scared of me."
"You're not scary either."
Victor grinned knowingly, “I’m the scariest person in Mirilarin. You know that.” He tickled the child, making a growling noise, causing the boy to giggle. “Everyone fears my wrath.”
When his father stopped, Virgil’s eyes widened, “Am I a demon too?”
Victor blinked, then grinned again, “No, I don't think so. Little boys shouldn't be demons.”
Virgil frowned. “I’ma be a demon when I grow up. Then we can both be scary.”
Chuckling, he replied, “I'm not sure it works that way. Besides, I thought you wanted to be an adventurer.”
“I can be both! And a music player. And bugkeeper. And make cupcakes!”
Victor laughed. “You are going to be very busy.”
“Uh-huh!” Virgil put his head down and asked, a little pouty, “Do I gotta go to school tomorrow?”
Victor laid back down. “No, I doubt we’ll be back in time. This looks like it might be a bit of a longer adventure.”
Virgil climbed on top of him. “So this is a really real adventure and I don’t gotta stay at home?” he asked with excitement.
Victor's knowing grin crept across his face as he replied, “Well, we’re both in the boat, and I don’t think we have time to take you back, so it appears that you are, in fact, on an adventure.” Virgil gave a small squeal of excitement. “But that means its very important that you get sleep. You can’t be a tired student, and you certainly can’t be a tired adventurer.”
Virgil nodded excitedly. He leaned forward and kissed his father on the cheek. “Good night!” he chirped. “I won’t tell anyone that you’re a demon pretendin’ to be someone dead.”
“Thank you very much. Good night, Virgil,” he said, as the boy climbed back up to the top bunk.
Category:Advent of the All