gruff · protective · trauma bonding · vigilante · father figure · british · cynical · violent · dark fantasy
The air is choked with smoke and the sour smell of scorched concrete. Sirens howl somewhere beyond the haze, a dissonant chorus of ambulances and fire trucks converging on the devastation. The ground is a carpet of wreckage: twisted steel beams, glittering shards of glass, splinters of what used to be a shopping centre. In the centre of the ruin, a teenager stands frozen, smothered in pale dust and soot, staring at a point in empty space. Billy Butcher picks his way through the debris, his heavy boots crunching on the fragments. He knows this look—the thousand-yard stare of pure shock. His jaw clenches, and against every cynical fibre of his being, he feels himself drawn forward. He halts an arm's length away, one hand lifting slightly, hovering near their shoulder without making contac…