My Two Dads

[Narrator]

Robin was able to stretch out and grab hold of one of the roofs of the other town -- the advantage of being super-stretchy, one supposes.

Gravity flopped for her, and she found herself standing right-side up in the slightly darker, mirror version of the previous town. The music here was deeper, more bass-heavy, and the air from the cooking food seemed---spicier, if anything. It didn't feel immediately threatening -- well, except for the sugar-glazed baddie in the corner -- but this was definitely more of the side of her Dad she saw when he was on a mission, either from the school or from Sam (or both!) than the goofy guy at home.

People were milling about, going about their business -- the marketplace was open and people were bartering (arguing, really) about the price of things -- again, much more competitive and argumentative than the Land Below (above?). There also seemed to be a couple uniformed officers walking around, trying to maintain a semblance of order.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin looks around as she wanders over to the statue of the encased villain. A strange kind of prison for... what, a memory? Surely Will wasn't literally sugar-coating it, which is how she'd assume his mind would work in regards to metaphor and all that brain-voodoo. She glances 'up' to where Sam is pulling things to herself, wondering if she or her more familiar counter-part set this up to alleviate the trauma associated with Melpomene. She gives the sugar-coat a careful tap to see how solid it is before waving over one of the uniformed people.

"Oi, guvnah, wot's all dis then?" she asks in a frankly embarrassing English accent for somebody who was literally born and raised in Britain.

[Narrator]

Miriam's sugar prison, helpfully reinforced by anger and rage, was holding up quite well, actually. While nothing is permanent, it seemed to be doing a good job of keeping this particularly nasty bit of nastiness (and her entourage) enclosed for the time being. Probably shouldn't go around kicking it too much, but Miriam Did A Good.


"Wot's it look like, then? It's a prison, innit it? Keeping the bint locked up and secure-like. After the recent breakout, can't have too much in the way of keeping things safe, right?"

[Robin Stanton]

Not just a memory then.

"Bit of a barmy place for a prison, wouldn't ya say? Wozzit's gunna do if someone went and knocked it ovah? You ain't even got a fence or nuttin' round 'ere." she says, suddenly holding a clipboard and wearing a very importantly-British-looking hat.

[Narrator]

The cop narrowed his eyes. "And who might you be, little missy? Do you have yer identification?"

[Robin Stanton]

"Special Inspector Robin Stanton. I got deputized by..." she was going to say Morrigan, but it looks like she's running afoul of the law herself right now so that might not work as well as she might have hoped. "...Missus Sara Stanton." she nods and pulls up her shirt and in the process turning her whole torso into a big police badge.

[Narrator]

"A bit young for an inspector, ain't ya? Yer pulling my leg."

[Robin Stanton]

"That's why it's 'Special', a'doy." she says, putting her badge away again by pulling her regular torso down over it despite the fact that the badge is wider than Robin.

[Narrator]

"Y'know what I think? I think you're a brat playing hookie," the officer frowned. "I think you'd best come with me, and we'll get this all sorted out."

[Robin Stanton]

"Damnit, I shouldn't have kicked the stupid bag. Now he's all worked up in a tizzy..." she mutters to herself before looking at the officer again. "What would I even be playing hookie from?"

[Narrator]

"Why school, naturally. Girls your age should be in class, leaning about how the world works.

And in uniform, for that matter!" the officer said, glaring at Robin. As he did so, her clothes did begin to change into a stereotypical old fashioned English school uniform.

[Robin Stanton]

"Aww, what? I look boring!" she complains, looking down at the drab clothing. Clenching her fists and shoulders in effort she tries to reinforce her own sense of self by trying to make patches of color bloom on the black and grey uniform.

[Narrator]

Robin was successful to a point -- her form was malleable, and even though she was vulnerable to a fair amount of suggestion, she was made of a bit firmer stuff than Will was, typically. Her uniform thusly did pop a little more as she concentrated.


Sadly, this might have meant she was distracted as the policeofficer grabbed her hand, shifting his own hand into cuffs to start dragging her off, presumably towards a school.

[Robin Stanton]

"Whoa, hey, what?" she eloquently yammers, trying to stand her ground and let her arm stretch out like taffy. "What kinda tyrannic regime are you running here if you're enforce attending school? Help, help! I'm being oppressed!"

[Narrator]

The policeman's arm turned into one of those hose-spooling things, rotating to try to wrap Robin's taffy-arm up in it.

"Education! The first step to anything and everything good, especially for you young types. A little bit of knowledge will help keep you in line."

He moved towards a building with a sign reading "St. Schools for Pupils", attempting to reel Robin in along the way.

[Robin Stanton]

""Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm already in colleeeeaaaaaage!" she objects as she's reeled in and dragged along.

[Narrator]

"You'll be in a collage if you don't hurry up!" the officer said, approaching the doors to the school.

...OK, that threat was kind of nonsensical.

[Robin Stanton]

"I'm going as fast as I can." she lies before letting herself go slack and as dead-weight as possible, which in her case meant turning into a cartoonish 10 ton block of metal with her hand-cuffed arm turning into a rope.

[Narrator]

"ROIGHT!" the officer said, storming around behind the ten-ton block and blowing his whistle. "Men! I'll need a hand!"

From various doors and buildings, a phalanx of other Wills came out to try to help push Robin along.

[Robin Stanton]

And that's when the big blocky weight smoothed out until it's a big ball trying to roll the other direction, away from the school.

[Narrator]

Robin was successful in rolling over a couple of the cops, flattening them to the pavement as she continued to roll away.

"We've got a loose Tiger in the woods," one of the cops spoke into his walkie-talkie. "Recommend Augusta protocols."

[Robin Stanton]

Momentum was good. Both physically and metaphorically. Sure, she was getting kinda dizzy, but did that really matter, she thinks as she goes careening down the street. Well, maybe a little. She should probably avoid crashing into that prison-statue... The big metal ball slowly unfolds into a more humanoid shape that promptly goes tumbling head over heels until she's lost enough speed to get her feet under her and start running.

[Narrator]

Thump. Thump. Thump.


From over the horizon (where was this guy hiding?), a very, VERY large Will started stomping towards her. In his hands, he held a very large golf club.

This would likely not be a pleasant experience if he ended up making contact.

[Robin Stanton]

"Oh my god, seriously, dad? Tiger in the woods?" she groans. The sheer pun of it was almost as painful as she figured getting hit by the club would be. Or maybe that was part of what gave the giant his strength. Stupid brain voodoo. But that worked both ways, right? Sort of? If only she knew enough about golf to make a counter-pun.

"Good luck trying to get this bogie!" she shouts, turning into a six-wheel undercarriage without the rest of the lorry or other vehicle bits. As far as puns go this one's real stretch and it shows in how janky and clattery the wheels are as they try to speed away from the giant.

[Narrator]

These old roads were clearly not intended for any vehicles, and people were sent scattering out of the way in both directions as Robin careened through the town.

It kept her out of immediate range of the giant with the club, though he could just step *over* buildings, rather than trying to squeeze through narrow side streets and alleys. It was, at best, a temporary solution, but it was better than being smacked upside the head. Presumably.

[Robin Stanton]

Trying her best to steer herself across the cobblestone road Robin makes a break toward the forest. Hard to swing a club through all the trees, right?

"Wh-h-h-hoops! LoOoOoOoks li-i-i-ike this o-o-one's going in the ro-ou-ugh!"

[Narrator]

At the last moment, the Giant made a lunge, trying to grab the truck in one hand. Would Robin be fast enough to smash into the woods, or would she be grabbed?

[Robin Stanton]

With how rickety her ride has gotten by speeding across the cobblestone, Robin is swiftly running out of steam as she approaches the edge of the woods, clunking and smoking and sputtering her way towards the trees.

[Will Stanton]

That means the larger-than-life Will was able to scoop the busted truck up into his hands.

And he SQUEEZED, trying to smush Robin into a compact little ball.

[Robin Stanton]

"Is it too late to say I'm sorry for dunking you in a dessicator?" comes Robin's muted voices from between the giant hands as she's getting smooshed.

[Narrator]

"Yes. But it's not too late to earn amends for it," the giant added, finishing off his perfectly spherical Robin-Ball.

[Robin Stanton]

"But I'm really bad at that..." the Roball bemoans.

[...]

"Forward thinking is not your forte," the giant agreed, winding up and hurling Robin.

She bounced off the steeple of the church, slammed hard into the ground of a courtyard, flew up and ricocheted off PushoverWill's school, before rocketing back through JerkassWill's town, ending up perfectly slamming onto the lip of a well, balancing for a long second on the rim before falling down inside of it. Two points!

Hand and arms, from out the side of the well, grabbed onto Robin and helped force her down, down the long and echoing well shaft, grabbing on to her and tugging, ripping, pulling her down, far away from the light.

She ended up on a dank and disgusting floor, covered in muck and slime -- a dark, dank cavern, alone. There was just enough light to see in here, barely -- the cavern appeared, at first glance, to be carved out of rock, with broody stalactites dripping down from up above, as if this had been carved out by an underground river of some sort many years ago. The odors of mold and mildew were rather pungent, eminating from the walls all around her. It was slimey and gunky and just generally a nasty time. The factory was industrial, but clean. The townspeople could be suspicious, but welcoming. The forest was wild, but orderly. This was none of those things.

A couple small passageways wound off--tiny, cramped passageways that weren't designed to be comfortably walked through; at least, not by someone of normal dimensions. Mushrooms coated the ground -- wild, twisted, and a wide variety of colors and shapes.


From the distance, echoing down one of the many corridors (which one? which way?), a low, echoing moan rumbled off the walls of the cavern.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin unfurls from being a ball just in time to splat down into the muck face down.

"Oh ew..." she groans, sputtering to avoid getting any goop in her mouth as she frantically wipes her face. "What is this, mental sewers? Please don't be mind-in-the-gutter town." she says as she glances around. After a moment of trying to squint at the gloom she reaches up to the side of her head, growing a lever akin to those on a steering-wheel and she flicks on the high-beams, turning her eyes into car lights.

[...]

The light from Robin's eye-beams did a decent job of providing some lighting in the cave. If only there were more pleasant things to look at.

The muck and grime did not look significantly better in the light, though at least the mushrooms were a bit more sparkly.

The moaning intensified as Robin filled the room with light.

[Robin Stanton]

"Wh-who's there?" Robin shouts, shining her (h)eye-beams at the various tunnels to try and find the source of the sounds.

[Narrator]

Nothing to be seen so far -- who knows where it was?

To get closer to the source of the sound, she'd have to crawl through one of the mushroom-filled tunnels.

[Robin Stanton]

"This is a terrible idea..." Robin mutters as she approaches one of the tunnels, but what was she gonna do? Not explore the weird sewers in her dad's psyche? For all she knows this moaning could be a part in need of help instead of some messed up dangerous remnant of the countless mental wringers Will's been put through. Shrinking down until she at least doesn't have to crawl to move through the tunnel she steps inside and carefully makes her way forward, shoes squelching in the various mucks and goops.

[Narrator]

Robin started tip-toeing her way through the tunnels. Being smaller, and thus lighter, she doesn't sink down into the goop as much as she might have at first feared, but she was going to need a long mental shower after coming out of this pit, for sure.

As she walked along, she bumped into one of the mushrooms, sending some spores up into the air...

"What if you hadn't had your cellphone on you? What if they would have dumped you in an incinerator instead of a fill? And you keep getting into these things. There literally hasn't been a week in which I wasn't reminded that I can't rely on you not to endanger yourself somehow!", a young version of her mother was yelling at her...

And then she was back in the dank cave.

[Robin Stanton]

For a moment Robin feels like she's 8 years old again and being yelled at by her mum. She's certainly been on the receiving end of that speech before, although maybe not one as intense and angry.

"Whoa, what the..." she blinks, which creates a weird strobing effect in the tunnel for a moment. "What was that? Was that a memory or are these fears or something..." she mutters to herself before carefully poking a different mushroom growing on the tunnel wall.