Together at Last

[Robin Stanton]

"What?"

[Will Stanton]

"It's noth..." he began, before pausing.

"Keep too much buried, do I. Alright, alright," he muttered, sotto voice.


"It's just...I know. I get it. I'm weird and embarrassing, and some of that is just 'I'm your dad, and anything I do is weird and embarrassing', but, you know. There's a level of truth to that; at least, in everyone's mind's eye. I often feel like, well, almost no one out there has ever really gotten me. Not you, not your mother, not Sam, not Onyx.

I guess that's true, on some level, for anyone and everyone. But it does feel it's more for me, and that I always have to be careful about what and where I'm vulnerable. A slip of the tongue, a drop of the filter, can really put people off for...well, sometimes just for a day or two. Sometimes worse. So when this Sam says I'm bottling things up and letting them fester...well, sometimes the alternative is worse. That's all."

[Robin Stanton]

"Dad, nothing you will ever do is going to be more embarrassing to me than the 'Dad Stuff'. You're right, I don't get you the way you get yourself and... I saw how much that realization disappointed you. When I was in your brain, I mean. But I think sometimes you expect too much. Cause you hung around Sam and Nailah so much and they 'get' things on levels that make my head spin to even try to follow."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, yes and no. Sam and Nailah get things in their way, but, you know, it's very much their way. I'm playing a role when I'm over there as much as anything; it's just a different role from what I play with your mother, or with you, or with the teams.

What they do, and what you do, and what your mother does, is acceptance. And that's really great, and I love and appreciate it every day. But there's a difference between acceptance and understanding. They're related, but they're not necessarily connected. And...

...And it feels, sometimes, that the one person who really understood, in any real way, was Mel. How fucked up is that? The woman who kidnapped me, and...and tortured me, and subjected me to no end of indignities and torments, and who ultimatley sacrificed me as a pawn in her crazy, fucked up revenge scheme.. it feels like she had a better grip on what makes me me than anyone else ever has, before or since. Understanding without acceptance, aye?

And, yes, I know about Stockholm Syndrome, and we'll never, truly, be fully clear about what she put in and what she just pulled out, I know, I know. I've talked about all this, at length, with Dr. Clayborn. You remember, the one with the toupee you were not supposed to mention despite it being perhaps the least subtle toupee in the history of the world? Yeah. Lots of therapy, lots of counseling, lots of good talks. No real solutions, but then, it's not a problem with an easy fix."

[Robin Stanton]

"It's easy to 'get' somebody if you ram your brain right through theirs without giving a shit what it does to them. Like taking apart someone's soul. I don't think anybody's meant to understand anybody else on that level. Not really." she says, sounding the most serious anybody has probably ever heard her be.

[Will Stanton]

"Maybe you're right. In which case, add that to the list of her crimes -- giving me something, however briefly, that I wasn't meant to touch.

Still! I hope one day you find someone who not only accepts your weirdness, but joins on in and gets you, yeah? That's the dream."

[Robin Stanton]

"You're lucky Mum's a whole world away and didn't hear that." she jokes a little.

[Will Stanton]

"Your mom and I have gone through this song and dance a dozen times or more. I know how lucky I am to have her, and I know how many times I've come close to losing her. She's perfect, and don't you forget that," he smiled.

"But yeah, no, she doesn't 'get' it. I mean, heck, she doesn't get you sometimes. She's far too normie, yeah?"

[Robin Stanton]

"Yeah... I remember how she freaked out when I got stuck in that Bionicle figure and it broke into a buncha pieces."

[Will Stanton]

"Or how angry she was when you, what's the word, yeeted the chair out from under Kurt when he came for dinner?"

[Robin Stanton]

"That's... not how you use that word, Dad." she says, slowly shaking her head in mock-disappointment.

[Will Stanton]

"Well, whatever you did, I thought she was going to literally turn red. Like, second-mutation change color.

So yeah. I may not get you all the time, but I do accept you, and that's good.

And you don't have to "get" why, between you me and the fencepost over there, I quite enjoyed Victoria's pale, goth-ass ass," he whispered, mock-conspiratorially. "Even with the threat to murder me in my sleep afterwards. I'm pretty sure that's just how she said 'hello'."

[Robin Stanton]

"God damnit, Dad!" she laughs. "I did not need to hear that!"

[Will Stanton]

"Hey, your brain took it to weird places, not mine.

...OK, as previously stated, my brain started in weird places. But they're different weird places, and ones no one will ever get. Apart from Mel, apparently."

[Robin Stanton]

"But you'll always have people who'll try."

[Will Stanton]

"Ehhhh," Will said, shaking his hand back and forth. "You should have seen the look on Viv's face when I -- or, uh, half of me, that is -- suggested me replacing their bed, as they were trying to figure out the logistics of their new roommate. And I think Tereza may have lost her lunch after realizing the implications of 'buying' me from the school. The split did no one any favors; no filter, you know? At least that part of me didn't have the willpower to push forward."

[Robin Stanton]

"Their loss. You're a fantastic bed."

[Will Stanton]

"See, that's what I said. Didn't sway 'em; my persuasive half was busy being a stuck up jerk elsewhere."

[Robin Stanton]

"The only proper payback is to show 'em how terrible their bed is." she nods with a mischievous grin.

[Will Stanton]

"This sounds like you want to do a prank. Is this what we're talking about now? A prank? On three perfectly innocent young maidens?"

[Robin Stanton]

"That is exactly what I want to do. A big ol' prank!" she grins.

[Will Stanton]

"And getting back at a young Morrigan, before she's at the peak of her know-everythingness, has nothing in it for you?"

[Robin Stanton]

"I fail to see what that has to do with anything whatsoever." she chuckles.

[Will Stanton]

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you don't like having the upper knowledge hand for once. How many times did Sam have to send you packing back to our apartment?"

[Robin Stanton]

"That is completely irrelevant to the current situation." she nods sagely.

[Will Stanton]

"Well, then, miss high-and-above everything...

...what did you have in mind?"

[Robin Stanton]

"I was thinking Mattress in the Quad's a classic..." she grins.

[Will Stanton]

"They're wolves, sweetheart; sleeping outside probably wouldn't bug them too much.

Well, two-thirds of them are wolves, at any rate."

[Robin Stanton]

"It's about the waking up elsewhere, possibly with a bunch of people laughing. Come on, this is pranks 101."

[Will Stanton]

"You propose to move a telepath and two wolves, in their sleep, without them knowing?

Bold move, cotton."

[Robin Stanton]

"It's no fun if it's not a challenge, yeah?"

[Will Stanton]

"Alright! Alright, we'll try it your way.

It'll be a good learning experience when they catch you," he nodded, sagely.