Chapter Text
Marvin gasped as his entire being was yanked into reality. His existence felt wrong, yet he still belonged to it at the same time. It was a weird itch of sorts inside of him, one that couldn’t be scratched but that feeling slowly soothed itself as he adjusted into his...form? That was a weird thought to have.
“Where am I?” Marvin asked the air as he looked around. He was on the roof of a building, the sounds of traffic giving him a clue that it was a city, and as he neared the edge, he saw a stunning display of bright lights and colors.
“We’re not in Kansas anymore.” A sudden voice and laugh made Marvin flinch, turn, and hold up a glowing hand as a threat.
“Who are you?” Marvin glared at the stranger.
“Jackieboyman!” The stranger answered with a way too bright and cheery smile. “Or Jackie or Jackie space Boimen when I gotta be like a person. Well, the ‘space’ isn’t part of that name, it means that it’s two different words. But everyone just calls me Jackie.” The man, Jackie, spoke a lot with his hands.
“You sound like an off-brand superhero put on the cover of cheap cereal boxes.” Marvin huffed, not in the mood to deal with this. He lowered his hand and started walking to the center of the roof, needing space to use some magic to find his location.
“Give me more credit than that. I can actually lift a car and stuff. You should see me run. I’m like if Flash and Superman had a child.” Jackie did some poses while he followed Marvin.
“Personal bubble.” Marvin waved Jackie away when he started nearing him. “I need at least sixty feet.”
“I don’t think the roof is that big.” Jackie hummed as if he was trying to measure the roof in his head.
“Then jump.” Marvin rolled his eyes. “If you’re a superhero, then you’ll be fine.”
“You’re right. I can totally do that, but like, you gotta come with me.” Jackie laughed as he rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Marvin tried to shut out Jackie as he inhaled, channeling his magic and reaching out to-
“But I was sent to get you so you don’t blow anything up or blow yourself up or blow other people up and, there is a lot of blowing up in those worries. Although, I’m kind of the one to blame for that. You should have seen me when I first arrived. I had no idea-”
“Would you shut up ?” Marvin scrunched his face, finding it really hard to concentrate with Jackie’s ramblings. He then paused when he properly registered the things Jackie had been saying. “When you first arrived?”
“Yeah! I showed up in one of those like big parking lot things and I panicked and tried to use the elevator but I hit it too hard and broke the summon button thing and then I broke the door when trying to use the fire exit and the alarm was so loud and when I tried to turn it off, I broke that and it sparked and then things went on fire and-” Jackie’s long-winded explanation was cut short by Marvin slapping a hand over his mouth.
“I need you to shorten your answers to a max of two sentences, you’re giving me a headache.” Marvin used his other hand to rub at his temple. “Oh, my God!” He shouted and pulled his hand away. “Did you lick me!?”
“It worked.” Jackie casually shrugged.
“Whatever, moving past that.” Marvin wiped his palm on his pants. “You arrived like I did? Just out of nowhere popping up in a new location?”
“Yep! We all did.”
“We?”
“All the Septiceyes and Ipliers and-”
“I beg your pardon? What kind of names are those?”
“It’s what we are. Me and you and the others at the House are Septiceyes. We’re Egos.” Jackie looked proud, chest puffed out and everything while Marvin stared at him like he’d grown a second head.
“I have to be dreaming or hallucinating or something.” Marvin groaned, rubbing his face with both hands. “Maybe I drank too much melatonin tea, and this is my consequence.”
“If it makes you feel better it took all of us time to adjust to this. It’s like really complicated. We’ve got one super smart guy that gets it, and he tries to explain it, but it’s filled with a lot of mega-big words and fancy science stuff that the literal robot-dudes don’t understand.” Jackie was always moving, walking, waving his arms around, just doing something. It was like his body had too much energy to contain.
“I’m calling my-where is my phone?” Marvin reached into his pocket and discovered that his phone was missing.
“Yeah, everything that would be yours is at the House. The whole-um-’reality changing distortion’ adjusts the place and adds a new room when one of us comes into existence.” Jackie changed his tone when saying a part of the sentence, showing that he was quoting someone else's words. “We’re lucky to show up with clothes. Although it would be Terminator style if we didn’t and that’s cool.”
“I literally work with magic and all of that sounds ridiculous.” Marvin turned away from Jackie and tried to go back to his spell to find his location. “I’m going home.”
“I mean, yeah, that’s what I’m here for. I’m in charge of taking you back to the House.” Jackie gestured over his shoulders in the direction of said House.
“Let me repeat myself from earlier since you clearly don’t remember. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Marvin had to resist the urge to clap his hands between words.
“But you’re supposed to. I was the one sent out because we have a connection.” Jackie ended up being the one clapping as he put his hands together at his last word.
“A connection? Is that your way of flirting with me?” Marvin scoffed, letting his spell drop again. He was never going to get anything done with Jackie around.
“What!? N-No!” Jackie stiffened. “That’s not how-I'm like-I'm like really bad at flirting.” He was now sputtering as his face slowly turned as red as the hoodie he wore. “I’d be like-saying that your hair is nice or that-that your eyes are pretty or-you know-you-like-you're like really hot or something.”
“‘Really hot or something’?” Marvin echoed and he started laughing.
“Yeah-I-I mean. I’m not-I'm-you-I-” Jackie panicked and tugged on his hood, covering his face with it. Marvin’s laugh turned into a giggle as an idea of how to be left alone came to mind.
“That’s adorable.” Marvin hummed.
“Adorable?” Jackie peeked out from under his hood.
“Very adorable.” Marvin slowly strolled his way over to Jackie, noticing how Jackie took some steps back. The poor man was so flustered, and Marvin was going to use that to his full advantage. “Although, you need to get some more confidence with it. You seem like such a proud hero; strong, fast, I bet you have endless stamina.”
“I’ve-I’ve been told I am-uh-that I have endless energy.” Jackie felt his heart flutter with the smirk Marvin had on his face and wasn’t aware that he was practically standing on the edge of the roof.
“I bet any partner you’ve had adores that fact. It’s always nice when someone can easily keep up with you.” Marvin stopped his walking and that got Jackie to do the same.
“M-Matching energies is-is nice.” Jackie thickly swallowed.
“It is. And I do have to admit, you are kind of cute.” Marvin placed one hand on Jackie’s chest and the other was hidden behind his back.
“I am?”
“A little.” Marvin winked and pushed, sending the other man falling off the roof.
Jackie barely had time to finish his yell before landing in a dumpster. It was a strangely soft fall for that kind of landing, almost magically soft.
“Aw, man.” Jackie groaned, looking up and seeing Marvin waving down at him before walking away and out of view. A flash of green told Jackie he likely used magic to leave that location completely. Jackie groaned again, fished his phone out of his pocket, and called a number, sighing as he waited for the person to pick up.
“Everything good?” The voice on the other end of the call asked.
“Hey Chase, so, I have good news and I have bad news,” Jackie said.
“Bad news first.”
“He got away.”
“Did you at least get his name?”
“No.”
“Then what the hell is the good news?”
“He thinks I’m cute.”
“Damn it, Jackie!”