☀ Thank you Wasp for the format! ☀ ☀ warning- Dani has a backstory that deals with some hard topics. if you don't want to read about them then I don't recommend you read this. ☀ ⋆⁺₊⋆ 5 years ⋆⁺₊⋆ Daddy's mad at me again today. I don't know why. He kicked mommy out of the house and says he's going to do the same thing to me if I ask him why he's mad again. Why is it bad that I care about him? It's okay though, because know he loves me. Daddies and mommies always are supposed to love us. So why is he being so mean? ⋆⁺₊⋆ 7 years ⋆⁺₊⋆ Mommy's not here ever anymore. No one ever tells me anything. She didn't tell me where she was going, but I saw her drive away. I tried to tell her to stay, I kicked and screamed and everything, but she just gave me a hug and told me everything was going to be okay. I guess it is. It's just been me and Dad for a few months now, but he's always gone too. So it's mostly just me. It's okay though, because I get the whole house to myself. I can grab all the ice cream from the freezer that I want. Nothing else in there is good, it's all just glass bottles that smell awful, like the house whenever Dad gets home. I don't like to talk to him anymore because he only likes to say angry things. ⋆⁺₊⋆ 10 years ⋆⁺₊⋆ I'm convinced no one cares about me anymore. I never see Dad. Ever. He sometimes doesn't come home for a long time. I went out to try and find him yesterday. I stole one of his hoodies so people don't see I'm 10. It smells like the yucky bottles in the fridge and freezer but I need to wear it because he told me a few days ago right before he left that a big city is no place for a young girl like me and that I should just stay in my room. But I can't be alone forever and I need to find him. I got super lost. All the numbers confuse me, all the buildings are so tall, and everyone's always pushing me around. I couldn't find how to get home so I just slept behind a tree. It's okay though, because it didn't smell bad outside and the hoodie kept me warm. It was the best I had slept in years. ⋆⁺₊⋆ 11 years ⋆⁺₊⋆ I never found Dad. He never came back. It's just me now. Me and the money on his credit card that he left on the table a year ago. I don't know how much is on it so I try not to spend a lot. It's okay though, because Kaycee sometimes buys me lunch if I take over shop hours for her. Kaycee is so cool- she dyes her hair all sorts of bright colors- and she works at the Dragon's Lair- a comic book shop that I found while exploring one day. I'm so lucky that I did because that place is pretty much my new home. Kaycee can drive and she took me to my house to grab all my stuff. There's a small room on top of the shop that she's letting me use to sleep in when the boss is on vacation, which is most of the time. When he's here, I can usually hide behind a shelf and sleep in the shop, or I go back to that tree. It's not a bed, but if I pretend hard enough I can almost imagine it is. ⋆⁺₊⋆ 13 years ⋆⁺₊⋆ I wonder what it would feel like to be a superhero in a comic book. You'd be loved by everyone, even if they didn't know you. You could stop bad people from doing bad things that hurt other people. And superheroes always know that everything's going to be okay no matter what. Because good always beats evil in the end. Sometimes I spend a lot of time making cosplay outfits and then wear them when I go places. I don't even look that weird compared to other people in NYC. They give me confidence, you know? Cause if I look like I can fly, shoot webs from my wrists, or pick up a car effortlessly, sometimes I feel like I can, too. Customers love it. I think I might actually get a job at the Dragon's Lair. It would be such a dream- I'd get to read comic books and tell people about them and get paid for it? It's almost too good to be true. ⋆⁺₊⋆ 14 years ⋆⁺₊⋆ It's my birthday today. Doesn't feel like it. Dad showed up at the shop. It's been years, I'm surprised he remembers me at all. He still smells like alc0h0l. He told me he had come to get me and that I needed to go home with him. He grabbed my wrist and pretty much started dragging me out the door. Kaycee tried to fight him off but I think Dad kn0ck3d her out. I haven't screamed like that in years. I don't need him. I don't need him. I somehow managed to wrench myself free and ran like h3ll. I didn't even see where I was running. The tears were blinding. I didn't care. Anything's better than this. Anything. I'll start over. Get lost again. Find a new comic book shop. Everything will be okay. Everything will be okay. Anything but this will be okay. Then I hit my head on a lamppost. ☀ end ☀ so for some clarification, we can assume that dani's dad somehow got involved with some people at the facility who offered him money if he would give up his kid. and like- he never cared about dani so- i really want to make kaycee a thing cause the only thing we know about her is that she got kn0ck3d out-
