video } I'm dancing on my own I'll make the moves up as I go

[honeybadgered]

[There’s a preteen girl in a yellow, blue, and black sweatshirt and goggles peering at the camera. She has a wolverine on her head. Yes, an actual wolverine.]

Hey, Jonathan! Look, we have fans!

[She lifts one of the wolverine’s paws in an awkward wave. He’s remarkably good natured about the whole thing.]

Hi fans! I’m Gabby. This is Jonathan. But you can call us the Honey Badger and… [A beat. She pulls Jonathan off her head and squints at him.] What do you wanna be called? Jonathan’s your real name. [A beat as Jonathan makes grunty grumbly noises. Gabby gasps.] Nope, I’m not calling you that! What about we stick with the Unstoppable? [More wolverine grunty noises.] Okay, okay, if you're sure. Jonathan the Unstoppable it is.

[She hoists Jonathan back on her shoulder and flexes an arm, posing for the camera.]

Don’t worry, Honey Badger and the Jonathan the Unstoppable to the rescue!

[She beams and Jonathan licks her face.]

Comments

[Video]

[by_candlelight]

[Gabby's video had caught her eye from the thumbnail alone. She looked young - probably younger than Ruby herself by a couple years - so she watched the video. It was a good choice, she decided, when she saw the communication happening between gabby and her Wolverine. She knew that expression, even if in her own case she was stopping to sense out the emotions or whatever the animal was giving off instead of literally hearing it out.

What harm could responding do? It was a lot more interesting than just laying in bed watching videos. At least she'd be sitting on it when she made her reply.]

Hey there Honey Badger and Jonathan the Unstoppable. I'm new here, and I'm guessing that since this is kinda an intro video, you are too? Uh, anyway. It's cool to meet you?

Have you always been able to talk to each other, or is that a new thing? I could be barking up the wrong tree, assuming you can talk to each other, but it really looks like you two are taking the time to, [she shrugs] communicate.

Uh, did I mention my name's Ruby? I can communicate with animals, always have been. Not like, talk-talk, just sorta network emotions and all that. That's one reason why I'm curious.

[Video]

[honeybadgered]

Thaaaaaat's complicated.

[No, she can't speak to him like this at home. Except when he's wearing the universal translator Rocket gave them.]

Hi Ruby! Are you a superhero too?

Re: [Video]

[by_candlelight]

It usually is. [She gives a grin] I mean, this is the first time I've talked to someone with a similar ability, but even just my own was pretty complicated at first. No one ever told me it wasn't normal to just sit there and communicate with animals, you see, so I was like ten by the time anyone realised I was doing it. Everyone just thought I was childish or weird.

As for superhero, I wasn't before, but I plan to be now. It'd be nice to defend something, for once. And maybe if I do a good job the being that brought me here will let me stay, you know?

[Video]

[honeybadgered]

[Gabby tilts her head.] You don't want to go home?

Re: [Video]

[by_candlelight]

Nope. [a shrug follows] I was, ah, not well liked. By the majority of at least one country, if not several others.

[Ruby pauses and rotates her wrist a few times while trying to decide how to continue.]

I was forced to work for the bad guys for a long time, and publicly so. People don't want to believe I was acting as a spy as soon as I got the chance. Can't really blame them with how public a figure I became for a while there, even if I don't like it.

[honeybadgered]

Eh, you can't make everyone like you. There was a whole hate club dedicated to my family for a while there. They had a newsletter.

[by_candlelight]

Wow. A newsletter? That's a little extreme. What type of info did they publish? Were they all 'This just in! Honey Badger seen eating vanilla ice cream! Boycott vanilla ice cream!' or were they just the regular creepy?

In my case there are a few forums that were talking about all the ways they'd kill me and-- [ She pauses, as if rethinking what she was about to say ] other horrible things they'd do to me. There were a ton of users, and I saw similar sentiments on social media platforms. So it was pretty obvious it wasn't safe for me to be in public. So I just decided 'screw it. I'm becoming a forest hobo!' and left protective custody.

[honeybadgered]

I dunno, I wasn't on the newsletter. But they liked wearing creepy x-faced masks and calling themselves the Orphans of X and then they found a sword made out of my sort-of-grandpa's soul.

[by_candlelight]

Okay so, before I comment on the rest, I want it known that I think people are getting pretty out there with what constitutes as proper sword-making materials. I admit they've been out there for a long time, since in my world there's plenty of history involving human sacrifices to forge legendary blades, but this sounds pretty modern.

Anyway, what got up their asses? Who is X anyway?

[honeybadgered]

I guess we've kinda collectively killed a lot of people related to them? But like, not cause we wanted to.

[by_candlelight]

Ahhh, yeah that kinda makes some sense. Kinda. They'd probably have had better luck with, I dunno, a civil suit? Dressing up all weird and harassing people really doesn't get anyone anywhere when the people they're harassing have super powers.