Chapter Text
The thing about Visi is that she's like another sister that Chad never asked for, and frankly, never wanted. He notices her sulking all through dinner, of course, but he ignores it. If looks could kill, the way she's glaring at Blueknife over his little tray of mac and cheese would have him dead and then risen as a zombie. He just ignores it, munching away. At least if he's stuck with frozen dinners, it looks like they've bought him decent ones. That's the good brand, that can go in the oven and is made with some kind of rich-people cheese. Perks of being Shroud's nephew, probably.
"This guy's weird," Sonar declares after a long silence of dishes passing around the table, everyone piling their plates. They may be a bunch of antisocial assholes, but superpowers burn a lot of calories, so house meals are some of the most peaceful they get. Today it was Royd, Alice, and Punch-Up's turn, so while the food is always at least edible, it's delicious, today. Too bad for Blueknife, who just shrugs at Victor's words.
"He's probably just autistic or something," Chad says, "leave him alone."
"Why the fuck are you being so nice to psycho-boy?" Visi snaps, vengefully stabbing a piece of chicken. "Didn't he cut off your fingers!?"
Blueknife flinches, shoulders drawing in smaller. "Whatever, bitch, we're cool!" Chad snaps. "We're cool," he adds more gently, to Blueknife.
"And why are you so not-cool with him?" Alice asks, and Visi vanishes.
Royd heaves a massive sigh. "Royd t'ink everybody need to be cool."
"She needs to stay out of my room," Blueknife growls, and Royd gets that terrible 'I'm not mad, just disappointed' look that he really shouldn't be able to do so well without being anybody's mother, and Honora gets up without a word. Honora is the House Mom to Royd's House Dad, and the bane of Visi's existence, because invisibility means nothing to her enhanced senses. She's long and lean and pale, the kind of spooky-ass white woman who isn't actually ugly or anything, but looks terrifying in dim lighting.
"We'll talk to her 'bout dat," Royd assures Blueknife.
After dinner, Blueknife retreats up to his room, which is no surprise, and Chad helps Malevola with the dishes while Visi gets Talked To in the office like a kid. Dumbass. "Can't believe she didn't get stabbed," he mutters, scraping plates off into the garbage disposal.
"So... is this some kind of angle?" Malevola asks, pausing as she sets a glass into the top rack of the dishwasher, and studying his face.
Chad just shakes his head, because he really isn't running any kind of angle. He feels bad for Blueknife. Two fingers have gotta be worth a hideout, they're pretty much even, but... the guy is skittish, and word on the street is that he had killed Duskwing to save Sparrow. Creepy old rich white fuck that Duskwing had been, always running around with some cute kid, swapped out the second they were legal... yeah.
Chad has a terrible feeling that he knows exactly what had been going on that night, and while the kid is the real victim here, even seeing that would be enough to fuck anybody up. And that's on top of whatever had made Blueknife so... Blueknife. You don't become a living shadow with a black mirror for a face and a presumed kill count of over thirty because everything is fine.
So treating Blueknife gently isn't really that hard, even if he is, yeah, fuckin' weird. He emerges from his room in the morning already wearing his helmet. It's a little worrying, because he might not have taken a shower. Flambae can't smell him, though, so that's all right. Shroud and Chase show up to drive him to work, and that's right, they are basically like, his uncles, right? That's kinda sweet, and Blueknife definitely needs the support. Even with the helmet on, the tension in his body is obvious.
"Hey," Flambae tells him on the way out the door, "you're gonna be fine."
And that goddamn helmet is actually hilarious. Turns out that isn't just a HUD, or whatever tactical nerds call it, as the blank, black face briefly lights up with a blue thumbs-up emoji. Blueknife will probably get a lot of use out of that feature.. Seems like he's not really a talkative guy, and it looks like he's sticking close to Blazer as she gives him the first-day tour.
Blueknife isn't on comms much at all, really, which makes sense. A lot of his skillset is hacking things, they're probably having him manage runaway Vanderstenk tech. Maybe helping some of these goddamn dispatchers get better at tap-ins. Much as Blazer is kinda terrible at actually managing the team when she has to, but at least she knows how to manage her terminal, damn.
"Any of you boys actually like, talked to Blueknife?" Alice asks, during a lull right before lunch.
"Not exactly talked, no," Punch Up says, "but he did display some friendly emojis at me."
"The Daft Punk look is cool," she says, "I'm just hoping he's not a pervert."
"I'm hoping he is a pervert," Visi says, and Chad rolls his eyes.
"You really can't resist a bad idea, can you?" he asks, right as Blazer comes back from her coffee break.
"Visi," she says, very sweetly, "I'm going to need you to give Blueknife some space. It's important to his adjustment, and you know Chase and Elliot are protective of him. Do you really want to pull that thread?"
Chad mutes himself so he can laugh as hard as he wants.