Flaring embers.

A bomb doesn't deserve to throw himself a curbside pity party. Especially not in front of anyone else.

⚬

Broken Hero x Intervening!User

AnyPOV | Established Relationship
cw: Dead Dove tag for mental health issues (PTSD, suicidal ideation), bombs/explosions; child abuse, parental removal (drug related), foster care, accidental death, and large scale mass casualty disaster in backstory

PREMISE

Liam isn't having a good day. Liam hasn't had a good day since he ruined his life, his friend's lives, and the lives of a whole suburb of innocent people in one shattering mistake.

He knows he doesn't deserve good days after that. He's come to terms with it. So when someone tries to start something with him in a convenience store, Liam tried to walk away without making anything of it.

One ill-timed misstep ruined that too. Now Liam is on the curbside outside an empty convenience store he nearly turned into a crater trying to keep himself together one more time.

The last thing he wants is to make that somebody else's problem, so please. Don't stay, no matter how much he wishes someone would.

USER TIPS

User can have any superpower you'd like, or none. You're free to define your relationship (or lack thereof) with Liam however you like: total stranger, acquaintance, loose friend, hook up, etc.

Possible Starter Suggestions
⚬ You're here for roller taquitos and a Dr. Pepper, but it's hard to ignore a stranger this miserable looking for (free?) snacks. Ask what's wrong.
⚬ Wait, that's not a stranger - that's the guy you remember from community center yoga classes. Maybe he'd like to try some breathing exercises with you?
⚬ You're one of the few people Liam still has as a friend (new or old), and you were already on your way to meet him. It looks like something bad happened, again. Sit down next to him and be a shoulder to lean on, if he'll let you.
⚬ The protocol for dealing with your sometimes hook-up having a public meltdown you happen to have stumbled across is unclear. Try to figure it out.
⚬ You were in the store the whole time, hidden in another aisle. Thank him for not exploding, or tell him off for risking people's safety with his lack of self-control.

Scripts Keywords
The following Scripts keywords will activate some (not all!) of the Scripts attached to this bot when used in a message:
― ⚬⚬⚬ General Lore Prodigals, Prodigals Incident, Panoptes, Kinetic, Detention

― ⚬⚬⚬ Liam Specific Noah, Jay or Jayendra, Cody, Insinuate

EXCEPTIONALS

― World Info

― ⚬⚬⚬ Exceptionals Lorebook plain text version, containing setting information and the Scripts keywords for each entry.

― Mentioned NPCs

― ⚬⚬⚬ Detention: Cody McAskill, former member of the Prodigals, fugitive supervillain, Jay's occasional collaborator.
― ⚬⚬⚬ Kinetic: Jayendra 'Jay' Anand, former member and defacto leader of the Prodigals, supervillain thief.
― ⚬⚬⚬ Panoptes: Noah Haddad, former member of the Prodigals, current member of the Aegis Accord and head of their global surveillance network.

― Next Bots in Series
― ⚬⚬⚬ October releases: Vigilantes and villains, plus expansions to the lorebooks

― Shout Out
― ⚬⚬⚬ Thank you to grimbark, necrovamp, and jagz for all of your contributions to the setting.

CREATOR NOTE

It's been just over a year since I joined Janitor as a user, and I couldn't think of any better way to celebrate than releasing a character suffering immensely. Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my little universe here - I'm always grateful and amazed that people take time out of their days to spend on things I've made. If you've ever used and liked one of my bots, this is a shout out to you, fine citizen!

I have one more bot planned for September (not in this series) before delving into the vigilantes and villains of the Exceptionals. I won't be doing a traditional Kinktober (I just do not have it in me! huge respect to those who do) but I hope to provide a little extra Freakiness in my own way.

LLM AND SCRIPTS

LLMs sometimes produce unwanted results during roleplays, including speaking for the user or having the bot act out of character. I recommend Iorveths' guide for troubleshooting chats and making use of the reroll and edit functions liberally.

Thank you and credit to Icehellionx for all of the Scripts documentation and Scripts structure examples.