Manjusha Magic Funhouse - Blog Posts

Chapter Two: We fucked up.

Part 1

My ao3

That same scenario runs through his head over and over on repeat the entire walk home, and it was bad enough that he was out of cigs or else he'd be turning to crying or something.

It's all he's thinking.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘰, 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵. 𝘛𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵, 𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘰. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴? 𝘈 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵?

Sighing, he drags his feet over and over to get home with a deep pout and frown on his lips. He just wants to go home. He doesn’t want this lifestyle anymore. Not the fame or… not the fame it brings. He's not happy. It's doesn't feel right to be here, controlling and being supposed to look after people when he can't even look after himself. Twenty eight years old and he can't even do that: take care of himself. It's pathetic.

__

Opening the door to he and Manjusha's shared.. apartment(?), he drags himself inside with slumped shoulders and a pout. Making the smart decision to at least close the door before slowly trudging his way to the kitchen after stopping by the couch and grabbing a blanket to tightly wrap around himself like his mom used to - But it's /his/ blanket, his worn to softness, rocket blanket that nobody else can touch, not even Manny- before trudding all the way to the fridge. Cool-aid seems like the only thing Manjusha will let him drink these days, after what happened.. he doesn’t think the scar will fade. But at least it wasn’t all that bad.. right? Right-?

But a loud clatter coming from his bedroom tears him out of his thought, already in a bad enough mood given today, not to mention that he's all out of red cool aid.

Taking in a sharp and shakey breath -don’t fucking cry, you pussy- he waddles a little closer to where the sound had come from. His upset pout quickly gone when hearing the commotion, just to be replaced by a scared kid. Arlo may be an odd 6ft something, but helped by the day he's had with all the sounds, bright coulors and lights, he though it was safe enough for him to put his gaurd down even just for a little bit. But he was wrong. He's always wrong.

So instead of walking closer, he quietly whimpers to himself. Stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen with a kids blanket wrapped tight around him and unshed tears in his eyes, he watches as what made the loud sound walks out of his room.. he can't move from the spot he's in, there's so many monsters it could be..

𝘧𝘶- 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵, 𝘔𝘴. 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪'𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘥-

And oh.

It's…. Dave.

"Ah- shit. I /seriously/ need to ask Arlo what the hell that is-"

Oh.

Of all people, It's Dave who has to see a scared, younger looking Arlo stood terrified in his kitchen. Eyes glasses over with what could be tears, or just that childlike way his eyes get when seeing something particular. Not that he'd know exactly, but he's seen it first hand, and yep- okay. He's crying.

"Uh, shit, hey man. It's- hey, it's okay. I wasn't trying to rob you guys-" and, okay. Internally he's cursing himself for not parking his car out front, but he didn't know this would happen, okay??? He wad just trying to do something kind, and..

"I am NOT doing that, are you kidding me??? Look, Sasha-"

"No, Dave, shut UP. /You/ are going to fix this, and /you/ are going to cheer him up if it costs you fucking everything just because I can’t be there for him. You're basically like an older brother to Arlo" Sasha exclaims while looking at Dave through her glammed out mirror, trying to get 'these damn lashes on-'

"I have known him for two MONTHS! How does that make me- I'm just not. That guy fucking hates me and I'm not going to go babysit him because he can't take care of himself"

And oh did that hit something in Sacha.

Tightening the grip on her tweazers, Sasha visibly shakes in anger with a glare as she turns in her stool. Trying and failing to fully control herself as she stands up, dropping her prized tweazers and poking Dave hard in the chest when face to face.

"Arlo is, /NOT/ a fucking child" she grits, voice thinly avoiding the tone of pure murder before continuing.

"That boy has been through so fucking much just to be here, and don't think for a /second/ that he's keeping you here out of pity and not because he's the sweetest fucking person you'll ever meet. That 'Manchild' is who's giving you a fucking job and you're going to help him when I can't. Say no one more fucking time and you can see what it's like being in a coma for twenty years. Got it?" she says lowly through gritted teeth as she looks Dave dead in the eye. Shit she's gotten closer-

"Yes. Yeah- I- I've got it. Got it." He says with shaken breath and a stiff nod acompanied with a tight smile to sell that he knows Sasha's being seriously, and that he much appreciates being alive once she mentioned it.

And with that, she nods and steps back enough for Dave to realise he needs to breath. Not realising he'd been holding his breath.

"Good. You better make sure he's okay, I'm not fucking kidding /Dave/." Sasha spits as she backs up, putting on a fake smile after checking her hair in the mirror and throwing the thin strap of her bag over he shoulder. Spitting out his name like it was some sort of poison she didn't want on her breath anymore.

Daddy issues, Mommy issues. He's got issues, doesn't he?

Part 1 of my new Arlo fic :)

She drops the fucking cards, all of-

"No- stop that, stop." He sighs leaning forward to rest his face in his hand before getting up with a huff.

"I'm jus' gone have a little bit of private time, jus' one moment.." he says with a faked, happy tone an smile. Not denting that it's faked anymore.

As Arlo walks away and behind the set of hit Tv30 kids show 'Magic FunHouse', all that is heard is a raw, loud "FUUUUUUUUUCK!" before loud footsteps grow quieter and quieter. The show left on and running.

-

"That fuckin' bitch, embarrassing me like that in front of- move!" He mutters to himself as he strips of his disguise 'Mr. Marble', who the fuck even thinks of that, I mean really. A fucking marble is what I could come up with? I'm such a fucking idiot.

"Oh, hey. So Arlo- what the hell!?" Sasha backs up with a sour expression as Arlo shoves by, throwing off his wig and hat as if it was offending him to the highest degree.

"I don’t want to hear it Sacha, fuck off"

And, okay, rude. Arlo's an asshole and all, but he 's never been this bitter towards her, not even when… she's supposed to be his friend.

"Arlo-??"

But he's gone and out of sight before there's any more protest to be had.

-

With stomping feet he rushes past Sasha, save for their fucked interaction, but right now he just want to. Just doesn’t. He can feel like shit about talking to Sasha like that later, right now he just wants to get home and away from all this fucking coulor. Which, great. It was the uber driver that he'd had on the fucking show, way to go numbnuts. Walking home again, aren't you smart.

*

"I don’t want to be heere, my feet huuurt" he whines, tugging on his moms pant leg as he looks up to her with a pout. He never really liked the park, always had to play by himself in the sand. Nobody else wanted to play astronauts with him.

"Who don't you go play with the others, sweetie? I'm sure they wont mind, hun." His mother, Darla, sweetly says. A not-so-there smile on her face.

"But momm-"

"Arlo. You're a big boy now, go play with the others. Daddy said your his big strong boy, okay? Show 'em that you are." She says with a softer tone, bending down to wipe the mud off of Arlo's cheek with the reassurance. But even at six, Arlo knew that wasn't true. Mommy and Daddy fight all the time, Ms.Bory said so too.

With a huff and a deeper pout, he stomps off into the sand. His little feet making a small thud as he marches over to the swing set hoping to find a friend. But nothing's ever been easy for little Arlo, has it. Looking up from his journey to the swings, he sees a little girl getting pushed off some sort of box. So /that's/ where the music was coming from. But before he can come to that full realisation, he sees five kids ganging up on that girl and throwing hackey sacks at her. Her singing was nice, and he didn't like that it was gone now.

Without a second thought, he stands up as tall as he can, and stomps on over to the bullies. Punching one square in the nose just like he seen Daddy do to make the man at the arcade to give Arlo his tickets back. That man was loud, but so is he.

Nodding to himself he moves onto the next one and does the same thing. Quickly moving to punch the other in the gut, uppercutting the next just like he seen that wrestler guy do, and head butting the last boy. Daddys big, strong boy. Didn’t even cry this time, even if he hurt his nose hurting the last boy.

"Thank you, my hero!"

Arlo turn his head to see the girl stepping down off her box with a smile and an arm held out politely.

He nods a little to himself at seeing her and does the same, because that's the right thing he's supposed to do, right?

"I'm Arlo, Arlo Dittman" he says looking down to her hand before quickly remembering 'its not polite to not look someone in the eyes, sweetie'.

"Sacha, Sacha Barbican" the girl says with a grateful smile, shaking Arlo's hand.

"ARLO-!" A voice yells from across the park, breaking the peace and staring at the two as she approaches.

"Arlo, it's time to go, honey" she says with a sweeter… fake, tone. A cracked smile to match with it it, too.

Later that day, Arlo had Sacha over for dinner. Mom heard all about how he was a big boy today and helped Sacha from trouble, but dear old Dad wasn't having it. Especially not when Sacha went as far as to compliment Moms cooking.

"Oh fuck you, /she/ microwaved it-"

He knows better than to act shocked, but he thought that- he thought that his time might be different…

"It's because you haven't fixed the goddamn oven! I am so sick of-"

"OH IM GONNA KILL YA BITCH-!"

Turning to quickly grab Sacha's hand, he knew it was time to go when Mom and Dad started to reach for each others neck over the table. Mom said he wasn’t supposed to know that part happened.

"I'm sorry my Mom an Dad had too much juice today and became expressive.." he says with a slightly sad, but sorry, tone.

"Thank you for rescuing me from my two bad situations today" Sacha says, sitting across from him on the sidewalk with a cool-aid, one of the cool blue ones. But he always preferred the red.

"You can count on me Sacha" he says with a new smile as he raises his red cool-aid in the air to cheers, to celebrate getting out of their situations together.

Yeah, yeah, whumptober with your favorite characters, yeah.. what about BRCU?? Sick Arlo, all at home trying to make mac 'n cheese before slumping down on the couch to feel better?? Tissues all over the ground, he doesn't know what he's doing, he hasn't been this sick in.. ever. His fever is high, nobody bothers to worry when he doesn't show up at the studio because it's a good day when he does show up. He doesn't know why he feels hot and cold at the same time, maybe he's dying? It's his best guess.

Maybe 2 days go by, Manjusha's wherever, maybe at work. And maybe Sasha eventually shows up, walks right on in because the door was left open and unlocked. Maybe she calls Arlos name a few times, get a sad sniff in response. Just maybe, she finds a sad, red nosed, sick Arlo huddled up in his rocketship blanket with enough tissues surrounding him to be a fire hazard and a half, looking more tired than usual. More... pathetic.

(Picture below is the scene for reference, more all over the place like. Just replace Ms.Bory with sasha :)) (NOT A SHIP BY THE WAY!! She's just worried)

(Also posted to me ao3(@Arloooh), and I hope to write it out fully there soon enough:))