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Story about what Scarlet did before she became the well known medic she is now.

Word count: 1,000 words

CW: Heavily Implied child death

“-that’s why this one is delicate. The Host suffered from some trauma, meaning the kids will be harder to find - spread out all across the mindscape and sandbox and such, you'll have to coax them out carefully. Otherwise they'll run off and you'll never find them, and they'll grow up independently, and it'll become a whole thing- hey, this is important. Listen.” Scarlet blinked back to attention at the snap of fingers in her face, eyes darting to meet her supervisor’s. She nodded obediently, echoing back the instructions.

“Be gentle, coax them out slowly or there will be complications.”

“Good. I'm going to go after the more skittish sides - I want you to find Wonder and Confidence, from what the protector told me they'll be together in their room. They'll follow you easily, just lead them to the door we come in through, and the mindscape will do the rest.”

Scarlet nodded again, politely holding her hands in front of her. She had heard a version of this same speech every time they entered a new mindscape, so all she really needed to take in was who and where - the rest was her supervisor's job, and the protector’s, and the mindscape’s, and everyone's but hers.

“Good. Come on.”

And it was always the same. A big room, or park, or literal sandbox, or pillow fort, or other areas of that ilk would be the room they enter into - it would have corridors or paths or clearings branching off into further sections or rooms for every side, and in one of said rooms there'd exist a sandbox that she was Not Allowed to Touch Under Any Circumstance, and that she had in fact Touched Under Any and Many Circumstances. Nothing ever happened, so what was the big deal anyway?

Right turn here, left… the way there had been given to them as a pseudo memory before they had entered by the protector, directing them to the sides they needed to find. She had wondered for the lognest time why the protector couldn't simoly lead them there themselves - she had assumed the issue was some sort of emotional guilt on the protectors side that meant they didn't want to get rid of their kids, but that didn't explain her initial question about the pseudo memories being given.

Turns out, she wasn't initially wrong or right - while protectors getting attached was sometimes a problem, the bigger issue was of the sides getting attached to their protectors - while not an issue in normal mindscapes, since those would not require the appearance of their protector in the first place, traumatised mindscapes like the ones they often deal with had required the protector stepping in much more, and forming deeper bonds with the kids than was normally meant to happen. The protector tended to become the one good thing those kids had, often internally and externally.

So people like her were brought. Not just so the kids had a professional and easy transition from existing to not. But so the sides that grew from those kids didn't associate safety with betrayal, didn't associate their saviour with their death.

“Hello… hey hey, it's okay. I'm staying over here, see? That's a very cool sword you have there bud, you coloured it in all on your own?”

They were such sweet kids. Their janky creations and thoughts written across everything as they tried to figure out who they were on their own - how you could see each idea forming and being interrupted by another, back and forth and back, scrawled in chalk and crayon on the walls and floors and furniture. Kids being kids.

Sometimes.

…Maybe that's why she grew up to hate clean spaces. No one should be scared to let their home look lived in. Especially not kids.

“Wow, I love that blue touch there. Oh you added that? That's incredible, you both did such a wonderful job! Yeah, I know - those hospital crayons do suck, don't they? But, I have a surprise for you. I'm not meant to say, buuut it could have something to do with crayons-”

It hurt. The first few years of watching their trusting faces twist into pain when they looked up at her hurt. It was a feeling she couldn't rid herself of, cursed to be one of the few protectors to form not feeding off of those emotions. As caring as everyone in their district was, they needed to get paid somehow - unless like Scarlet they were bound there by their maker, everyone else relished in their cries and stole their tears and terror as their own, a daily meal to feast on while helping their world keep turning.

She couldn't do it. She had figured out a way around it a while back, but didn't dare utter a word about any of it to anyone - she took their memories early. As they took her hands and glued themselves to her sides, those core memories would bleed into her slowly. The control had taken a few years to master on its own, to be gentle enough to not be noticed by the kids, but quick enough to leave them empty shells by the time they reached the door. To make their last memories happy and painless, and to feed her, too - the suffering had kept her alive, but the laughter and smiles made her want to come back.

“I once knew a side just like you. He had black hair, and was incredibly shy, but loved drawing as well. Blue was his favourite colour, like there is on your sword. He never really had a name… but he was a good kid, just like you.”

She talked to them even after they were gone. In part to not get caught by her supervisor, in part because… because she wanted to. She wanted to keep talking to them, and pretending they could hear her too. She wanted their good memoirs to continue even after they were gone, even if it didn't matter.

She wanted to make them happy.

“I think that was the quickest wipe I've ever done with you. Well done.”

Scarlet smiled at the praise, straightening up again once she was fully back in their domain. “Thank you.”

“Thank *you*. You make my job easier here.” The supervisor pet her head, before heading further into the domain. “You'll go far, eventually. Just keep pushing as you are Scarlet.”

“Well done.”

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Liam and his alter ego/annoying headmate

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Scarlet and her gf (to scale)

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Intro Post!

This blog is dedicated to all things Interrobang, being a story that me and my partner are writing together.

Mostly drawings, but some writing as well, backstory bits and just bonus moments between characters.

Any questions about the story or characters present are welcome!

Tag list below cut

To keep the blog more organised than it needs to be, here is the tag list:

Liam's domain: #William?!

- Charlie

- Liam

- Control

- Timmy

- Morgan

- Sweeney

- Caled

- Nedia

- Oisin

- Pipper

- Jamie

- Amira

Scarlet's domain: #Scarlet?!

- X

- Scarlet

- Imp

- Lewis

Andy's domain: #Andy?!

- Bunny

- Mi

- Zia

- Andy

Water cooler: #Water Cooler?!

- The general space of the office

- Sheningans

- Propaganda

Rooms: #Places?!

- Designs for any spaces, tagged with characters if the space belongs to them

Characters: #People?!

- designs for characters

Multi: #They’re talking?!

- any number of characters interacting

The office: #DistrictCharlie?!

- Eden

- Ruth

Communications: #Communications?!

- Beckett

- Kevin

Archives: #MemoryArchives?!

- Farren

- Silver

Sidepiece: #_____sidepiece?!

- any sides, the blank being filled by the respective protectors name, for example #Amira sidepiece. This will be in addition to the characters name

Writing

#Backstory?! - backstory for characters

#Bonus?! - bonus writing for scenes that do not happen in the story, but happened at some point

Other

#Meta?! - talking about the story in any which way

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here is a short story my friend @zacdrawsstuff gave me permission to post for them (they’re still figuring out tumblr). it is about charlie and liam and it is adorable and i giggle and kick my feet forever.

word count: ~1300

tags: fluff, fluff, so much fluff, they’re in love and they’re gay and oh my god look at them i love them charlie’s giving liam a promise ring and im gonna cry

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