A nice change

I wrote this during quaratine and I really miss Hot Topic

⚠️Trigger warning: trauma, mentions of blood and death and⚠️

Once they had acquired their caffeine the four of them walked back to the pop up shop. It was filled with Emerson's art all in frames he had stolen. It was almost magical to be surrounded by beautiful drawings of the world Alva had gotten a glimpse into last night. It was hard not to get lost in his immensely detailed city and impossible not to marvel at his work. But Emerson, who was already in this world 24/7 mainly seemed grateful Shadow had brung him coffee. He, Sebastian, and Autumn all introduced themselves to Gerard and the adults talked a little while the teens eagerly discussed their plans for the day. They promised to listen to Gerard, be responsible, and not go into the back of Spencer's as Emerson and Sebastian gave Alva and Autumn some money. And with that the teens were off with Gerard following behind. Of course Autumn dragged them to Hot Topic first, as a priority. Viola, Alva, and Gerard looked at tad bit hesitant at first but Viola spotted something in the nerdy front corner and immediately started taking pictures to show her internet friends later. Autumn, being an intelligent person, was eager to get to the band merch in the back but Shadow practically physically restrained her to let the others go at their own pace.

"But the good stuff's in the back!" Whined Autumn.

"You gotta stay where Gerard can see all of us at the same time."

"What's in the back?" Alva asked.

"Didn't your dad tell us not to go back there?" Viola reminded her, rejoining the group.

"That's Spencers, but seriously you'll love it." Autumn said as she tried to lead the group slow walking group.

Weirdly enough, it was Gerard who stopped them by halting in the middle of the aisle.

"Hey this is exactly it!" He grabbed a bottle of red hair dye that was brighter then any of the group's future's.

"Exactly what?"

"Exactly the hair color Party Posion has!"

"The character?" Asked Viola, who grew up hearing Gerard and Mikey's stories.

"Character?" Shadow asked, immediately somehow gaining more admiration for them "Are you an author?"

"Yeah, I, uh, write comic books."

"A superhero with bright red hair kinda sounds pretty cool," Said Viola.

"Uh, yeah I guess," Gerard said oddly, he was probably just bad at receiving compliments.

"No come on that sounds really cool," Assured Shadow "standing out like that is like putting a target on your head. It shows they're not scared of the villain." Gerard just shrugged so they asked Autumn for her thoughts on the matter.

"I think you sound like a huge nerd," teased Autumn "No offense to your work though." She added to Gerard.

"Oh come on Danzig, comics are just as valid a form of escapism as Nirvana is."

"You dare insult the sacred name of Nirvana in Hot Topic!"

"Wow Shadow, this is the second time you've insulted the sanctity of something today,"

"Well yeah, people need comic books just as much as they need any other form of art," Shadow said, ignoring Viola's last statement "Especially comic books on superheroes, so people can see a character they relate to fighting and beating the villain even though it's hard, it's empowering..."

⚠️"...Do you need to leave?" asked Gerard, being the only one who had noticed that Alva was starting to look pale when they saw the blood red hair dye.⚠️

"No I'm fine," Alva practically whispered

"Well tell me if you need anything if anything's too much to handle."

⚠️Alva nodded, but they weren't really thinking about what he had to say and more on what Shadow was saying about the red haired superhero 'showing they're not scared'. They wanted to not be scared. Not be scared of their mom's blood every time they closed their eyes. Well I guess I can't run away from red any longer.⚠️