alajaineko

Claire McCallister had never intended on having children. But when a breathless lieutenant came rushing into the station holding a sooty toddler and monkey that looked as though it would sooner die than let him go, her hand was forced. There was little that could rattle her, but the objectifying way in which she found her colleagues discussing the future of this child as though he was little more than tool they could use to their advantage was deeply unsettling.

For the best of the child and the city's future, Mrs. McCallister used her influence and standing amongst the force to convince them to let her take the child into her legal custody. It was important to her that he was given a chance at as normal and fulfilling of a childhood as possible. Though she knew he'd always be seen as different, she did her best to teach him to see his responsibility to use his gifts as a noble duty.

At first she feared that in her haste to protect him she had bitten off more than she could chew - with her job keeping her so busy and often requiring her to be away, she worried Tobey would suffer in her absence. But it didn't take long for her to realize that she wasn't raising him alone, the boy already seemed to have a mother in his curious, mysteriously intelligent primate companion, whom he called, "Bobbi". Outlandish as it may have been to anyone else, it put her heart at ease knowing he would be okay.

Roberta "Bobbi" McCallister A.K.A. Captain Huggyface: the most talented pilot of her generation, if you'd asked Huggyface how she thought her life would have gone, she'd never have envisioned any of this. Fighting small-town villains alongside a questionable teenage superhero who happened to be her adopted son was not how she imagined spending the rest of her projected career, or her hard-earned retirement. But hell, she wouldn't change a single thing - well maybe her idiot son’s damned attitude but, such was life.

The moment she held him in her arms - when he was still little more than a helpless bundle, squirming restlessly in her arms as her home planet grew smaller and smaller in her view - she knew nothing else was ever going to go as she'd initially planned. But she didn't mind. The planet she'd once known and loved had become unrecognizable, there was nothing left for her there - nothing left for either of them anymore.

When they crashed onto this little planet, she knew the only way for him to have a chance at living peacefully would be to hide his true origins. She hid their ship, and trekked far from it, so whoever found them could never trace them back to it. The native lifeforms explained his existence as the result of "some sort of illegal human experiment", which was fine with her. She just wanted him to be able to grow up safely. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but she was confident that someday he'd find his place in the world, and people he could trust.

Sally Botsford: Fair City's District Attorney and mother to Becky Botsford. A kind and chipper woman, and highly skilled prosecutor, she holds her duty to her children above all else, wanting nothing but the best for them and their happiness. Watching her daughter grow more distant from their family in the aftermath of the incident broke her heart. She believes she's only ever done what she was certain was best for her children. Now looking at her daughter, for the first time in her life all she can feel is an overwhelming sense of doubt.

...it felt like some variation of "with great power comes great responsibility" was chided to him daily. Discovered on the outskirts of Fair City by a police officer and adopted by well-respected former police chief deputy Claire McCallister, Tobey grew up openly adored but isolated. It wasn't long before he realized the eyes on him were not of genuine interest, but of a superficial, guarded sort of fascination that viewed him more as spectacle than equal. The connection he was denied in human company he sought within the pages of his favorite novels, consuming thousands before he had even reached two-digits of age. Upon making his young debut as WordBoy, defender of Fair City, the praise morphed from simple admiration to near worship. Without the privacy afforded by a secret identity, a sycophantic haze followed his every move. The heaping accolades of his perfection came with an implicit understanding of the fate awaiting him should he fall too far from that pedestal. And yet with every villain attack he found the idea of plain heroism increasingly uninteresting - unless he could turn it into a game. The villains of Fair City became a reliable source of amusement; they were idiotic enough to challenge him and toying with them was more stimulating than any slack-jawed, awe-filled stammering excuse for a conversation. Besides Two Brains, none of them were particularly interesting, but it was better than nothing... at least until he met her. The truth is, there was only one quiet yet elusive irregularity in his life; only one person who seemed to have no extreme response to the mere fact of his existence. Despite her humanity, her intellect easily rivaled his own, her quiet confidence baffled him. It was perplexingly clear that when she looked at him, she just saw another person - not a marvel but an equal. Before he realized, he was seeking any chance he could to speak to her, to just be near her, to just have her look at him - to be seen by her. While even all of his reading left him unsure of what love truly was, he was certain this was it - she was the one. So when the mysterious new villain "BOTS" appeared he was sent into a panic. The all-consuming descriptions of love and obsession abound in literature had seemed foolish and inconceivable until that fateful first battle. What kind of man was he if he could fall so utterly for a girl he'd just met while in love with another? If that was love, then what was this?

Though she had always felt different from her family, she found solace and belonging by the side of her dear mentor, Professor Steven Boxlietner - absorbing every bit of his knowledge and teachings with an eager insatiability. That is, until the infamous lab accident that plunged her life into controversy.

Overnight, she became the object of endless speculation, sympathy and concern; she despised every second of it. In her grief, she buried herself in her laboratory, focusing all of her emotions on her robotic creations, and it was in this deliberate self-isolation that “BOTS" was created. Villainy was her only chance at saving her mentor, at enacting retribution against what she now believed was a broken system; and it became her only escape from the mold of perfection that had begun to feel like a prison.

The only variable she couldn't have planned for was him. Tobey McCallister III, her annoyingly ‘illustrious’ (and egotistical) classmate intent on pestering her with his melodramatic declarations of their “rivalry”, elaborate (re: embarrassing) displays of his alleged “affections” - and the beloved hero of Fair City, WordBoy. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but she soon found there were consequences to knowing the enigmatic boy hero beyond the predictable confines of their classroom - before she knew it, her plans had become a lot more complicated."

inspired by this pic sent to me by my friend @th4li4-49 x)