#// I have known Shar for an ask and a thread and I love her already

[sanguine-salvation]

Even the sunlight in "her" territory has a slight difference to the rest of springtime Gotham: soft and buttery yellow. The gentle brightness stretches its fingers a bit too far into corners and alleyways, waving away the natural play of shadow against light. Birds hop merrily along grassy medians and through the parks, their feathers a chiaroscuro sweep against their plump bodies.

A one-eyed alley cat gazes at them from atop a sun-warmed brick wall, flicking its tail even as it gives a slow blink.

Oh, and there are flowers, the edges of each petal so delineated that the space surrounding them seems to blur unless they squint.

"With regards from ma'am."

(Oh, ma'am, is it?)

The man who places the bouquet on the ground before them is much the same, etched deeper into the world. He's forgettable enough, with a thin face and receding hairline, but his eyes have the same relaxed alertness as the old tom on the wall.

He flicks his finger against the glass vase before straightening. Plink. And then, he's striding away, his back brazenly exposed to Viktor, whose hiding places have been scoured of their comforting darkness.

(Soft and welcoming to the more civic-minded citizens of Gotham, the day is very bright for one used to the shadows.)

The flowers are a gentle spray of springtime color, and the card reads:

With regards for a lovely evening

-- S.

Ugh.

They have half a mind to just drag the entirety of their hoodie over their head and smother themself in darkness— and from oxygen, why not— to try and prolong their fickle concept of sleep.

But spring has other ideas. This... place has other ideas. It has for as long as they've decided to be here, they lost count of the days since their little surprise meeting with the lady who could rend the world.

They blink blearily as the honey soaked light pours into their alleyway, encroaching on their peace more cheerily and aggressively with every passing second they try to ignore it. After a moment or two, the silhouette of a man unknown to them— most zombies were, really—forms in their vision, his voice aching in their ears as they grumpily sit up to stare him down with tepid threat.

They are not in the mood for company, even brave company.

And that's when the abrasively warm flowers catch their eyes. A glittering myriad of oranges and yellows and hints of sunset pinks, their existence as they are presented to them is nothing short of baffling. As soon as they are down, with little more than that one sentence and an aggravatingly painful tink of the glass vase, the man was gone with an unfazed stride.

If they had less of a headache, they've have hands full of his blood right now. What an unlucky zombie to be spare by their limits...

Wait. Ma'am.

They tear the card irritably from the neck of the vase and stare it down, the elegant writing as pleasant as chicken scratch.

"Ugh. How very cute. Could this not have waited until tonight..." They toss the card aside and stare at the obnoxious colors blooming delightfully in front of them, not a care in the world for beheaded plants. The damn nerve. But not ill-placed.

One like her could afford to have nerve.

[kariachi]

So @mellenabrave and I were discussing a youtuber au this morning, then spent the afternoon discussing a fostercare au, so I ended up sorta melding the two into tonight’s fic.

Kevin Levin shows off his family.

“Hey everybody!” Kevin’s grin seemed to fill his face, to fill the screen, a flash of bone in a sea of metal and scars. “I know a lot of you have been wondering how the fuck I know so many youtubers who are into such different things, so I decided today I’m doing something special. Since everyone’s here for my older brother’s birthday, you all get to meet the family!” He rose from his seat, leaning into the camera.

“This is gonna be great.”

~~

“First up, the three lowest grade disasters in my life- about half my sisters.”

“What the fuck Kevin?”

“Seriously?”

“I’m calling lowest grade disaster.” Kevin was still grinning when he came back into view, swinging an arm around the reptilian alien.

“And that’s why you’re my favorite.” He gave her a kiss on the temple before turning back to the camera, the other two girls rolling their eyes bemusedly in the background. “This is Helen, along with Shar and someone you may recognize- MagicCat250, or as we know her, Hey You.” A stuffed cat flew across the room and collided with his head.

“Kevin Ethan-!”

“Okay, okay, my other lovely younger sister, Gwen. Better?”

“Much.” Sighing, Kevin shook his head.

“Just, say hello to the internet people girls.”

“Hello, Internet People.”

“Hi guys.”

“Hello.”

~~

“And here we see the Heroboy-”

“Holy fuck Kevin get out of here!”

“Taking a shit.”

“Out!!” Kevin burst into laughter as a roll of toilet paper flew passed his head, stumbling backwards out of the bathroom. When he swung the camera back up is was full of a blue a white furred face, trying very hard not to smile.

“Also my older brother Blonko, who you may recognize from his cooking channel, Tastes of Home.” Blonko shook his head, waving at the camera.

“Hello, Kevin’s viewers.” He looked around the camera. “Why are you accosting Ben in the bathroom?”

“For views.”

“Of course.” With a sigh, he shook his head again. “Please show the rest of our family with their clothes on.”

“I make no promises.”

~~

“And here she is, the radiant, the powerful, the glorious-”

“This is the sort’ve introduction I could get used to.” The camera zoomed in in the brown-skinned woman’s face as she smirked.

“My older sister, Charm. Perfection. Best big sister.”

“Only big sister.”

“Still.” He turned the camera back on himself. “She doesn’t have a youtube channel, she deserves a youtube channel-” and the camera focused back on her- “leave a Like if you want to see her face on youtube regularly.” Charm rolled her eyes.

“Okay,” she said, leaning towards the camera, “I’m done.”

The screen went black.

~~

“Sorry about that,” Kevin said as video and sound returned. He was in a new room now, one with couches and a flatscreen tv. “I forgot to mention that Charm is also the worst sister ever born. But there are better things now! Look!” The camera’s focus was turned to the center of the room, where a preteen and two small children, all similar in appearance to Blonko and Shar, were putting together a puzzle. “Smalls!”

“Hi Kevin,” the preteen said, waving. The children perked up. In a heartbeat they were on one of the couches, crowding around the camera.

“Are you making a video?”

“Can we be in it?!” The was a very small gasp from the larger one.

“Can we?!” In the background, Kevin and the preteen were laughing.

“You already are,” Kevin said. The smallest suddenly rose up and disappeared from view, camera circling the couch until it turned to show Kevin sitting on the floor beside the preteen. The youngest was placed in his lap and the older one darted passed the camera to nestle into their sister’s. “These are the youngest, everybody. This is Shim-” he nudged her shoulder with his own as best he could. He was over twice her size- “and these are the nameless brats.”

“Revonnahganders,” Shim noted, “choose their own names. They are still too young.”

“Much too young.” The kids were visibly trembling with excitement, much to the older two’s amusement. “You gonna say hi to the internet people?”

“Hi!”

“Hi!!”

“We’re doing puzzles!” The look Kevin gave them was pure fondness. He grinned at the camera again.

“Congratulations,” he said, “you guys get to watch us do a puzzle.”

~~

“Wasn’t that the most fun you’ve all had in forever? I’m sure it was.” The camera was making its way down a hall, the walls covered in framed photos and children’s drawings. Some projects from earlier videos could be seen hanging on display. “But it’s time to move on to bigger, better things, things like food and the birthday boy-”

“There you are! Going around harassing everyone else with a camera.” Thankfully the new voice sounded amused, even as the ground went away. Kevin laughed and turned the camera back towards him.

A tetramand girl was holding him up by the back of his shirt, smiling and waving for the camera as he stretched to try to put his arm around her shoulders.

“Princess Looma Red Wind, everyone, of the Red Wind Kingdom. Another of my younger sisters.”

“Not quite.”

“Close enough.” There was more bemused headshaking, something that seemed to be a common thread among Kevin’s family so far.

“You’re impossible.”

“Impossibly awesome.” Looma moved the camera to focus on her face.

“I am so, so sorry for him.”

“Rude.”

~~

“Scratch what I said before, Looma is the worst sister ever. I have a lot of those. Now I still haven’t been able to track down the birthday boy, but I found the next best thing.” Kevin and camera rounded a corner and strode into a massive dining room. “More youtubers!”

“Goddamnit Levin!” A familiar face turned away from the camera with a familiar scowl. The other three just smiled and rolled their eyes.

“You may recognize Manny-” the focus went to a tetramand boy nearly a foot shorter than Looma- “and Alan-” an even younger black boy whose fingers blazed when he waved- “from their budding webshow, which you will all watch if you haven’t already because I’m linking it like five times.”

“Hey, Kev’s fans.”

“Adoring public.” Barely contained chuckles could be heard in the background.

“And I’ve done collabs with this one.” The camera refocused, this time on a chubby, blond white boy about Alan’s age. “Cooper, also known as TechLord, who still owes me twenty bucks for that cinnamon challenge bet.” Cooper blew him a raspberry, but smiled for the camera nonetheless.

“Hey guys, nice to be on the channel again, shame it isn’t kicking Kevin’s butt.” This time the raspberry came from behind the camera.

“Little shit.” Kevin turned the camera to the last person in the room. “Then, of course, we have somebody I know you all recognize-” he circled the blond to get a shot of his face, but he turned away- “the star of Fright Night-” more circling, more turning- “Sparkles, my beloved brother-” now he was flipping off the camera as he avoided it- “the biggest little shit in this house- Come on Mike, say hello.”

“Bite me.” How he wasn’t dizzy at this point… How either of them weren’t… Manny, Alan, and Cooper came into view with each rotation, fists against their mouths as they fought back laughter.

“Your fans love you, Mike, love them back.”

“No.”

“You callous bastard.”

“Go away, Kevin.” Finally, the turning stopped, Mike still facing away from the camera.

“Alright, you asshole,” Kevin said, scowl audible, “I hope your fans abandon you to an early grave.”

“Eat a dick.”

“Gladly.”

The other boys collapsed in their laughter.

~~

The camera was looking into a bedroom with two beds. A redheaded young man similar to Gwen was sitting on one of them, strumming a bass. Beside him was a hispanic boy with quills and a skunk stripe, watching along.

“I don’t want to disturb them,” Kevin whispered, “because they’re awesome and busy, but here’s my oldest brother, Ken, and third oldest brother, Pierce. Don’t worry, Ken’s gonna be in a video soon, you’ll meet him properly then. Pierce is gonna be in one too, but that’s a little ways off. You guys’ll love them.”

~~

“Date, April 19th, 2009. Place, my family home. I still haven’t located the birthday boy. I’m not giving up though! I will find him before the day is out. But first, I’ve come across more family for you all to see.” Turning the camera from himself, Kevin pointed it out the window facing the backyard. There were two large aliens in it.

“I’d like you all to meet my dad-” the camera zoomed in on the shorter of the two, large and green with a scar across his eye and a stump where there had clearly once been a tail- “and my stepdad.” Shifting to the right, the massive tetramand came into full view, complete with his scars, eyepatch, and missing arm. “He’s Looma’s dad. Warlord Gar Red Wind. They only just started really dating but, damnit they’re a match.” The camera zoomed back out, just enough to get them both in frame. They were chatting about something, sharing brief, easy touches as they did.

“These two are-” the breath hitched in Kevin’s throat. “They’re the only parents I’ve had in my life that were worth bothering with. That were worth anything.” He took and released a deep breath.

“We’re all fucked up here, in some way or another,” he said. “Dad, he found me when I was at my worst. During my worst downward spiral, when I was in the worst headspace, when I wasn’t worth shit. But he, he took me under his wing. He helped me. If it weren’t for him, I can’t promise I’d be alive right now. I can’t promise a lot of us would be alive without him. He’s the greatest dad anyone could ever ask for.”

“And Gar- We met Gar and Looma a few years ago, when Dad took us to his auto show after Ken, Blonko, and I begged. He’s always been good to us, even though some of us have histories that really should have had him refusing to allow us in his presence, nonetheless letting us hang out with his daughter. Treating us like family from the word go. Shelling out the money for this place so we could have more space. We were so crowded before, I mean we still are but we were so fucking crowded you would not believe- And not even for some underhanded reason, just because he loves kids and even then he liked my dad. He just, he wanted us happy.”

“They’re the best dads ever.” There was a halfhearted chuckle as Kevin turned the camera back on himself, wiping at wet brown eyes. “Fuck, I’m rambling.” He grinned at the camera again. “I’m just, gonna take a few minutes, okay? Then I’m gonna finally track down my fucking brother. Promise.”

~~

“This mother fucker took me three hours to find in a nine thousand square foot house!” The rodent-like alien on screen smirked, setting the large black shirt he’d been mending on his lap.

“Not my fault you couldn’t find your own ass with both hands and a map.”

“You are no longer allowed to talk to Mike. What are you even doing in here?” The other boy looked around the room, which was full of children’s toys, and shrugged.

“I wanted some quiet.”

“Well, too bad.” Turning the camera as he went, Kevin dropped down beside his brother on the small bed. “This is the guy, everyone,” he said with a grin, “the birthday boy himself, sixteen as of today. How does it feel?”

“A lot like last year’s birthday, but with less cake.”

“There will be cake, Alan promised.”

“Well then a lot like last year.” Smiling, Kevin threw an arm around his narrow shoulders and pulled him in close. He rolled his eyes as Kevin did so, but relaxed into his side all the same.

“Seriously guys,” Kevin said into the camera, “all else being equal Argit here is my favorite sibling. Best brother, best friend, and the guy who’s drug me out of more death spirals than I’d care to admit on film. Which is why I chose today to make this video, why I’m uploading it today, because this guy as wonderful and I need for every single comment on this to be wishing him a happy birthday. Every. Single. One.” Argit’s ears were lowered and he looked blatantly embarrassed as his elbowed Kevin’s die. It had no effect.

“If that’s the sorta sappy-ass video this is,” he said, “then I got shit to say too.” He resettled himself on the bed and looked into the camera. “On behalf of our family, I gotta thank you guys for subscribing to Kev’s channel. He’s been through a lot of shit and knowing you guys like him, that you guys look forward to his videos, has been really good for him. You guys give him the confidence boost he needs and a reason to keep getting up in the morning. So, yeah, thanks for being here for him. We all really appreciate it.”

“Okay,” Kevin said, pale face going pink, “between that and the stuff with Dad I think that’s enough sap for one day.” He grinned at the camera, shifting around to rest his head on Argit’s. “That’s my family, guys, I hope you loved them as much as I do. Thanks for watching, be sure to check the links in the description below for everybody’s channels, remember to Like to help me get Charm a channel and to wish Argit a happy birthday in the comments section.”

“Have a good night, everybody.”