Time for more therapy! This can't end badly…
After his last session with Charlie and Vaggie, Molly had dragged Dawg off to go back to the coffee place on Ashely Avenue so they could catch up. The spider demoness (who apparently wasn't a demon, but told Dawg to refer to her as such for simplicities sake) had tired many different ways to crack Dawg's shell and find out what had happened, but eventually, she realized she may be pushing him a bit too harshly, so she let it go. Eventually, they returned to the hotel, and things were going okay.
The important word there being WERE, as when Dawg woke up and went to his next therapy session the next day, it started out okay, then spiralled out of control quickly.
"Right, let's talk about your Mother." Charlie nodded, and Dawg noticeably tensed.
"D..do we have to?" He asked, trying to keep his calm composure, but an air of nervousness creeping in regardless, much to his annoyance.
"It'll help." Was all Charlie said, before looking at her notes and asking the first question; "Who was she? I'm not talking about who she was to you, but who was she in general?"
"Her…" Mad Dawg began, but he felt his throat tighten. Why was this happening?! He'd never had much issue talking about his 'mom' in the past…
"beCaUSe yOU'Ve aLWAys BEen mAKing FUn oF hEr, KACE." Virus spoke up, appearing behind Charlie. Mad Dawg's breath hitched, but he did his best to hide it. He didn't see Vaggie's look of concern. "Now, fAcE yoUr PaST, liKe ThE 'mAn' yoU CLaim tO BE, YoU fREak of naTure."
"Her name was Moira O'Deorain." Mad Dawg began slowly, Charlie either not seeing how uncomfortable he was, or choosing to ignore it. "She, uh… she was a geneticist, and a professor at Oasis University, a super high-end school for nerds and crap."
"So, would your name be Mad Dawg O'Deora-" Charlie began but stopped mid-sentence when she saw Dawg's eyes change to a vicious red, and his teeth bared towards her as he let out an animalistic snarl. "No, no. Never mind, let's move on."
"Yeah. Good idea." Mad Dawg snarled.
"Okay, so she was a Professor and a scientist, interesting…" The Princess remarked. "Now, what else do you know about her?"
"…uh, not a lot now that I think about it." Mad Dawg muttered. "She was a member of the Council of Talon, and used to be a member of Blackwatch…"
"Sorry, who?" Vaggie asked, trying to be very cautious about asking certain questions. Mad Dawg scowled again, but it wasn't a scowl of anger, more one of disgust, and not aimed at them. He answered nonetheless.
"Talon is – or was, I dunno if they're still around – the group of edgelord jack-offs I fought against, they're a terrorist group, we talked about this when we first tried this."
"Right, I just wanted to clarify a few things."
"Oh, okay." Mad Dawg frowned, but nodded. "So… yeah, Talon were the guys I was trying to stop from killing everyone, and Blackwatch was a sub-group of Overwatch, the heroes I worked with. Ironically, half of that team ended up joining Talon…"
"That sounds… problematic." Charlie admitted.
"It was, apparently." Mad Dawg shrugged. "The other two members on the team were actually really good friends of mine, and this all happened before I was part of their team, so I don't know the whole story… and they didn't really like talking about it, but I can't say I blame them."
"Right, right." Charlie nodded. "Okay, uh, this 'Hero' group you've talked to me about, you've shown me some pictures. How'd you meet them?"
"I woke up in a Talon base one day." Mad Dawg frowned. "I don't know how I got there, and I don't much care. But I was forced to run for it, trying to not get killed, captured or whatever… and I ran into some of the Heroes, and they got me outta there."
"And they just took you in?"
"Pretty much." Mad Dawg nodded. "I dunno if they wanted me on the team or not, but they let me stay for a bit. One thing led to another, they made me a member of the team, and then… yeah, I was home."
"So… okay, she's technically your mother, but you never saw her as that, correct?" Charlie asked, and Dawg replied with a grunt and curt nod. "Hm, please don't be upset with me for asking this, I'm just trying to figure out the bigger picture, did she ever see you as her son?"
"HA!" Mad Dawg laughed without humor or life in his tone. "She never even saw me as human. It just about every file, every video, every report, she only reffered to me as 'It' or 'the project'. She never saw me as human, she never saw me as her child, she saw me as a friggin' waste of her time!"
"Okay, I think you're being a little harsh on yourself-"
"SHE SAID THAT TO MY FACE." Mad Dawg suddenly snapped, his anger taking control. Charlie recoiled, and Vaggie quietly got up and walked over to Mad Dawg, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it in a reassuring gesture.
"Esta bien, mi amor." She said in a calm tone, and Mad Dawg took a few deep breaths before nodding, signaling he was ready to continue answering some questions.
"Okay… uh, can you say one nice thing about her?" Charlie asked.
"She's dead." Mad Dawg bluntly answered.
"O..okay…something else."
"I killed her."
"Mad Dawg, I need you to take this seriously."
"I am."
Charlie gulped slightly, the way Dawg spoke, mixed with the way he looked at her was… unsettling. He spoke with a vicious, deadpan attitude that made it clear this wasn't something he felt bad about. If anything, she regretted not taking better notes when she first interviewed him.
"No, I need you to focus, and find one nice thing to say about her." Charlie repeated herself, Vaggie looking bewildered at her friend.
"…" Mad Dawg thought… but he had nothing. "She was smart."
"Good!"
"And a massive whore."
"Dawg!"
"Oh, piss off! I'm using that term correctly!" Mad Dawg snapped, Charlie however, refused to back down from this.
"She's smart, work with that!"
"She's smart, and she's cunning. Like your mother, she has no problems exploiting a child for her own perverse gratification and sexual thri-"
"ENOUGH!" Charlie suddenly snapped, horns sprouting from her head. The anger and sudden shift made Dawg recoil, but his anger didn't dissipate. "I'm trying to help you!"
"And you said to ANSWER your questions honestly!" Mad Dawg snapped back.
"And we're done here." Vaggie sighed, rubbing her face. With more strength than she expected, Vaggie picked up the chair Charlie was dug into and looked to Mad Dawg as she held it and her friend over her head.
"Five-minute break." She instructed.
Mad Dawg muttered something under his breath and left, returning to the lobby area and looking around. He wasn't sure what to do, and heard something moving quickly around him. Looking down, he saw Nifty practically stalking him with a dust pan and small broom.
"Can I help you?"
"You're shedding." Nifty said matter-of-factly. "A lot." Mad Dawg raised a brow, then saw the trail of fur following behind him leading from the meeting room.
"Huh…" He blinked. "Uh… sorry."
"You may wanna get that cut at some point." The cyclops remarked.
"I… yeah." Mad Dawg nodded, remembering he had kept putting off visiting a stylist for the past bit. "Uh… yeah. Sorry, I'll get on that." Mad Dawg didn't see Nifty not throwing the shed fur out, but rather stuffing it into a bag. However, there was something definitely off about the little custodian, and Dawg kinda liked that about her if he was honest…
"Ugh." He mentally groaned. "Where is he?"
It took two minutes, but he found him. Angel Dust was doing his nails in the lounge when Dawg approached.
"Hey, Angel Dust. You got a sec?" Mad Dawg spoke up, getting the porn star's attention. The look on his face was a mixture of hopeful, fearful and annoyed.
"Yeah."
"Listen, I-" Mad Dawg began.
"We're ready for you!" Vaggie suddenly called, and Dawg bristled, noticeably deflating before nodding.
"Coming!" He yelled. "Yeah, yeah. I know, she and Charlie are together." Mad Dawg muttered, the implication making Dust laugh, and it felt good.
"I'll talk to you later, Dust." Mad Dawg said, before going back into the room.
"Right. Later." Angel Dust muttered, feeling… off, it was hard to say what he was feeling, but he didn't like it. He knew what needed to be done to fix it… but he wasn't looking forward to it.
"Look, I know this might hurt to talk about, but, let me ask you something, genuinely." Vaggie spoke up, realizing Charlie was butchering this interview. "Did you, and I want you to be totally open here, did you ever feel like she was your Mother?"
"…yes." Mad Dawg admitted, after fidgeting for a moment. "Thing is, ever after everything she said and did, I wanted us to have some sort of connection! I knew she'd never see me as her son, hell, she'd never even see me as human! But I was hoping we could even have some sort of 'I-don't-like-you-but-we-respect-each-other-enough-to-leave-one-another-alone' thing, but she made it clear that no matter what, she wasn't going to stop until I was dead."
"Why?!"
"I dunno." Dawg frowned. "Apparently, she saw me as some sort of mistake, some sort of failed experiment. There was this animosity about how she was some high-end University bitch who slept her way to her position, and I was a kid living in a junkyard who was actually happy because I didn't need to worry about being seen as worthless when my body turned thirty-two lest I go through copious amounts of plastic surgery."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…I feel like you've been holding that in for a while."
"Yeah I have." Mad Dawg muttered, cracking open a can of Phoenix Energy (which while he had no idea how they were in hell, he wasn't gonna complain) and took a swig. "It's just… I never wanted to kill her, not at first."
"What did you want?" Charlie asked.
"Answers? Resolution? I…" Mad Dawg tried to answer, but it was clear even he wasn't totally sure of the true answer. "I can't say for sure."
"Did you want her to be your Mother? Like, in an actual parental role?" Charlie asked.
"Charlie!" Vaggie hissed, feeling like this was going a little too far.
"N…N..y..n..yes…" Mad Dawg had to force the words out of his mouth. "I… I did."
"Even after all she did to you, you still wanted to call her your mother?"
"I just wanted family, damn it!" Mad Dawg suddenly snapped, slashing at the couch he sat on, his claws eviscerating the right half of the couch in a single swing. His anger and attack were expected, but no less unnerving to the Princess. "I just… I just wanted…" Dawg couldn't finish the thought, and Vaggie looked to Charlie, her face clearly saying she thought she was going too far.
"…care to explain?" Charlie asked, not hearing Vaggie inhale.
"I have no 'family', Princess." Dawg said flatly. "The only blood family I have left is an Aunt, and she thinks I'm dead."
"…that doesn't really explain what your issue is."
"Charlie-" Vaggie began, but was surprised when Charlie held her hand up, asking for silence. She was about to curse at her, but then saw Mad Dawg was about to talk. Like it or not, and for the right reasons or not, Vaggie had to admit, she was intrigued by Dawg's tale. She felt like they were pushing him too far, but she also had to admit, she was curious as to what his answer would be.
"Because… because of what I am." Mad dawg finally admitted, quietly. "No matter how you slice it, I'm not human. I wasn't made human, I wasn't raised human, I'm not… I'm just not. All my life, every 'family' I've ever had hasn't ended on a good note. I've been through homes, had foster parents, Dedsec, Don Kim, all of them, but none of them were the family connection I wanted. There was always something… off. I love most of them, love them with all my heart, and I'd die to protect them, but there was always a piece missing that I could never fully find and put into place. Then, I discover I have a 'Mother'. And that mother is the woman who's been trying to kill me ever since we met. And I think… what if she doesn't know? What if she didn't know I was her son? What if… what if there was a chance for us to find some sort of common ground? And then… and then she tells me I'm a mistake, that she wants me dead and dissected. I keep trying to reach out to her, one way or another, but a waterfall was coming, and she wouldn't take my hand."
"Mad Dawg-"
"And then… and then she died. I killed her myself." Mad Dawg continued, refusing to look at Charlie or Vaggie. "And in that moment, with that one action, I was free. The monster who wanted to make me her weapon was gone, but I also realized I was trapped in another prison, and this time, there was no escape, no matter where I go. Everywhere I turn, sooner or later, I see those prison bars, and I realize I'm still trapped in that lab."
The room fell into a bitter silence. Charlie wrote some things down, and then nodded to Mad Dawg. This was good, this was really good. She was getting him to open up, to admit to his past mistakes, this was exactly what she needed him to do.
"I think we're done here for today." Vaggie said quietly. "Mad Dawg, cariño, take some time and relax. Okay? If you need to talk-"
"Okay, thanks. Miss Vagatha." Mad Dawg nodded, leaving the room in a bit of an awkward funk. Once he was gone, Vaggie looked to Charlie… who was also gone. The Princess was busy writing something down, and Vaggie bit her lip, unsure of whom to follow.
Mad Dawg sat in the now empty lounge, plucking a few strings on his new guitar, which he had nicknamed 'Tempest'. The guitar-axe had a sweet sound to it, that was crisp, clear and powerful. The strings felt like they had never been played before, beyond even the whole 'first-time' feel, as if they had been woven moments before Dawg was given the guitar. IT took him a few minutes to tune the guitar back to normal, and when he played a few notes, he sighed, letting a smile form on his face. This… this was a gift from his friends. That was something he hadn't really expected, let alone from demons in hell, but still. Honestly, he kinda felt bad, like he should've worked harder or something to be 'worthy' of the gift… but maybe that was just because he wasn't used to his birthdays being a good thing… setting Tempest to one side, he picked up Splinter, his old acoustic guitar Luna Loud (not Loona, Luna) had given him after he got out of the hospital after being set on fire during a music video shoot. He played a few notes, noting it felt more like a ukulele in his larger hands, but shook his head, settling down to a simple three-note-song to try and distract him.
"Oooh! You never said you knew how to play!" Nifty exclaimed, suddenly appearing out of thin air next to Mad Dawg. The mutant jumped somewhat, but laughed it off, awkwardly.
"Yeah, I never said I did…" Mad Dawg laughed, awkwardly. "Cause I kinda… don't. I know like, two or three songs, but I'm not a professional or anything like that." Nifty failed (or didn't care) to pick up on Dawg's awkward please-leave-me-alone-tone-of-voice, and hopped up next to him, sitting down and smiling warmly at him. It was… man, it was nice. There was something about her sweet, simple, and yes, sadistic smile, that made Mad Dawg feel… happy. "Uh… do you want me to-"
"YES!"
"Heh… all right then." Mad Dawg nodded, thinking it over, then began to play a simple song.
"I'm comin' home, I've done my time… Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine. If you received my letter telling you I'd soon be free…" As he played, he felt his mind slip away from the awkward coldness that had been forming in it the past few hours, he felt happy, content, and to be totally fair, he loved this song! So, he just kept playing seeing Nifty watching and swaving along to the music as he played, clearly enamored with the music.
No one saw it, but Alastor was walking by and froze in genuine surprise, blinking at the song he hadn't heard in several decades. Either one of his radios just randomly began playing a song he hadn't hard in some time, or… no, no… that was Mad Dawg, and he was singing…
"Whoa, tie a orange ribbon 'round the ole birch tree. It's been three long years; do you still want me? If I don't see a ribbon round the ole birch tree, I'll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me… If I don't see a orange ribbon 'round the ole birch tree…" Mad Dawg was absent-mindedly singing as he played, not knowing too many songs, but remembering he had learned this one from Ray when he was little, and it had stuck with him all these years later.
"I say, my boy! Where did you learn this song?!" Alastor asked, seeming genuinely happy, not his creepy I'm-gonna-sell-your-kidneys-online-while-you-sleep-happy. Mad Dawg was so surprised, he stumbled over a few notes before turning to look at the Radio Demon.
"I, uh… A friend of mine taught me." Mad Dawg remarked, knowing he didn't want to show Alastor fear, or confusion. "Yeah, when I was little, he used to play guitar and he taught me this… this song."
"Well, I don't know if in your world things have changed, but that's not quite how I remember it going!" Alastor remarked. Dawg blinked, then strummed a few notes.
"Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree. It's been three long years; do you still want me? If I don't see a ribbon round the ole oak tree. I'll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me, if I don't see a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree…"
"That sounds… better." Mad Dawg nodded, thinking how the lyrics sounded okay, but never right. But now? Well, Alastor hit it right on the head, so naturally there was only one thing to do. Duet!
"Bus driver, please look for me. 'Cause I couldn't bear to see what I might see. I'm really still in prison and my love, she holds the key. A simple yellow ribbon's what I need to set me free, and I wrote and told her please…"
It was odd, usually when Alastor was happy, it was because something was in serious pain. Or was bleeding and near death, or was in the process of having its organs pulled out, or- y'know what? I think you get the point… and then there was Mad Dawg, who when he was happy usually meant something was exploding, about to explode or was on fire. But this time? Nah, it was as if two old friends were meeting for the first time in some time, and were simply enjoying a song at a local pub while catching up on old memories. Neither realized they were doing it, but could see the other was doing so, but both Dawg and Alastor's defences were lowered drastically, in fact… they were almost non-existent. Now, when the other realized what the other had done, they both raised their (unknowingly) lowered defenses as Dawg finished the song, both of them just in good spirits.
"I say, my boy. Mimzy would be rather interested to have someone with your skills working at her resturaunt some nights." Alastor remarked. "You may need to learn a few new songs, but I don't think that would be an issue, now would it?"
"I… no, I don't think it would." Mad Dawg shook his head. "What kinda songs we talkin'?"
"Well, I'd need to talk to her, of course." Alastor mused, thinking it over, then suddenly summoned a sheet of music. "But it would be something like this."
"…Mommy Milker's Big Ass and Titties; An Ode to Lady Dimitrescu?" Mad Dawg asked, looking at the sheet, then noticed Alastor's smile disappeared for the briefest of moments as he snatched the music away.
"Ahahaha… Oh, dearie me… I believe that was on of Angel's…" He coughed awkwardly, trying to steer the conversation away from this particular point.
"Why did you have it?" Mad Dawg asked, raising a brow.
"Shut up." Alastor ordered flatly. "No, but… no, I'd need to talk to her."
"Meh, sure." Mad Dawg shrugged, deciding against angering Alastor further. "But y'know, I could play-"
"I highly recommend you stop talking, for your own health." Mad Dawg raised his hands and didn't say anything. Alastor left to make a phone call, and Dawg and Nifty talked for another minute, until the resident fish sticks appeared, looking at some notes.
"Mad Dawg, do you have a moment?"
"I did. It's gone…" Mad Dawg remarked with a slight shrug. Baxter blinked in utter confusion. "What's up?"
"Well… I've been working on a new invention, and I believe you may be the perfect demon to help me test it!" Baxter remarked, excitedly.
"The Memory Erector?" Mad Dawg asked with a raised brow. "Yeah… I'mma pass on that one. Maybe Dust would be interested."
"No, no. It's called the Memorjector!" Baxter corrected Mad Dawg with a wave. "Think of it like a virtual reality headset. But when you put it on, it would project your memoires to whomever was around and wearing the memory bands at the time! While you can't interact with them, you can see them and hear them from all angles, including memories based on composite theories of what someone else experienced."
"You lost me on that last part."
"You can see someone else's memories, essentially." Baxter shrugged.
"Cool. Not interested." Mad Dawg remarked dismissively. "Sounds impressive, but I don't want people goin' through my memories." He didn't want to hear Baxter try and counterargue him, so he turned and left wordlessly, disappearing into the hotel. Back in his room, Dawg saw the knock off Vox-phone (which thankfully meant he couldn't be tracked, due to today's sponsor, Nord VPN) buzzing with the alert he got a message. There were two demons who had his number, and it was… Molly.
( Wat'cha doin' 2morrow? ) She asked.
( No idea ) Dawg replied.
( U free? )
( Yee )
( U wanna do somethin? )
( Yee? )
( ? )
( Yee. What? Coffee? )
( Naaaaah. Somthin WAY cooler! ;) )
( Yee? )
( Ok. WTF is this Yee-Yee thing? )
( IDK. What we doin'? )
( Nvmn. Here's the address… )
Dawg looked at the address, his eyes widening in surprise and excitement.
( Yeeeeee )
( WTF is wrong with you? )
