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It had been the umpteenth time that month that once again they were on TV. It was to be expected, they both were part of the Flag [4] and there were plenty of villains coming out of the woodwork.
Arthur cringed. 'Ugh, my face looks weird.' On the news the camera had picked up the odd face the hero made when trying to push up against the weight of the villain's overly large hammer.
"Woah! Look at you, Arthur! Like an ant trying to lift an overly large piece of sugar- and succeeding!"
Of course Tick would see the positives in Arthur's negatives. The moth hero smiled. The other continued to gush over the recorded battle.
They were really popular now. It's gotten to the point where he's been asked to sign autographs when taking the short walk from his apartment to Goat's store to get coffee on the mornings he wakes up late. He wasn't even in his moth suit.
'Wait. If there's fans, would that mean there's stuff about us on the internet?' He himself had been- and still is- a fan of heroes and he was well aware of the stuff people made surrounding them.
Arthur leaned down and grabbed his computer that was sitting on the coffee table and flipped it open.
It was astonishing. All he had to do was type in his name and there he was. News articles, videos, wikis, images. And that was what showed up on the first page.
The wiki had a fair amount of information about him, a good portion of it coming from Aegis' site itself along with links to most the battles that he's partaken in.
He'd already read and seen the news about him. Hard not to with Tick binging the TV and/or gushing to him things that would probably be in an article and more.
The images were mostly of screenshots. There were a few he found that were taken on his patrols with Tick, both unknowing. It was kind of creepy if he were being honest, but this is his destiny and if there were random pictures of him, then what's the harm?
His words were in his mouth when he saw a drawing of him. It was a good caricature. A bit on the simple side but good.
He hadn't accounted for the fan entries and he wasn't sure if he wanted to open that can of worms. Or, more aptly, Pandora's box.
Arthur was aware of what people did with their favorite celebrities and was afraid of what he might find.
With a glance at the tv-enraptured Tick, Arthur clicked on the image to arrive at the site it was posted on. It was an art site. The image had its own page with people's comments underneath.
It was easy to enter the search results page. To his surprise, there were tons of results for just him. There was a side bar that detailed what other tags were associated with his name. He'd be sure to check that later if he decided to get to that.
There were sketches, line art, colored and uncolored, and finished pieces just from a glance.
Arthur was flattered. He hadn't quite grasped the idea of having legit fans, even more than those who'd greet him on the street.
The drawings were pretty tame so far. The sketches were pretty cool as he got to see the pure, barely filtered thought process of the person who drew it. It was interesting to see some people's "blueprints" about him and some drew him doing and saying some funny things.
A lot of the drawings weren't just him though. Tick was usually included as well, and it was amusing what people thought their interactions might be like.
He hadn't been perusing for long and was gazing at the last few results on the second page. There was a large image, determined by the eye-squinting size of the drawings, that seemed to be a group's sketches.
Clicking, he found that there were a few other supers included as well. There were several unique styles that looked cool in their own right.
One sketch typically influenced another sketch next to it in some way. The bottom corner was a good example. They had drawn the Flag [4] as the Ninja Turtles with Ty Rathbone as Master Splinter, three different styles going on.
There had been a sketch where someone had switched the type of bug he and Tick were. The result was a little funny, given someone's related sketch of an actual, huge moth next to the moth!Tick with the text "lorge moth like lamp".
It was more the sketches on the right side of the canvas that things got a little... weird. There were drawings of supers being rather affectionate towards each other. It wasn't just him, but he couldn't help but focus on that.
Then there was a sketch that was a slap in the face. It was of him and Tick passionately making out.
Nerves got him glancing at the still engrossed Tick and scooching a bit on the couch to subtly try and hide what he was seeing. He hoped his blue friend wouldn't look over, his face was probably embarrassingly flushed.
He tried moving on but the sketches next to that one were even worse. Licking, biting, strok-
And he was back to the second page. He wasn't looking at the screen and was instead looking through the floor. Unwanted thoughts and feelings whorled around his head. He could feel his pulse in his veins.
A heavy but gentle hand landed on his shoulder. "You alright, chum? You seem frazzled."
"Oh, yea, I'm fine. Th-thanks Tick." He had jolted but the grounding pressure was quickly calming him down.
"I think you should let your amazing thinking machine rest for a while," he said, lifting his hand from Arthur's shoulder to lightly tap the side of his forehead.
The moth hero smiled and nodded. Yea, that was enough for now.
"Doooot!"
"..."
"Dot, I'm bored! Let's see some action already!" Tick once again complained. Dot once again rolled her eyes. She schooled herself before turning around.
"Tick. I told you we have to wait until Arthur's done scouting from above and for Overkill to arrive. Please be patient- Here," she spotted Arthur's phone sitting on the center console and grabbed it, "Why don't you go on Arthur's phone? There should be some games on there."
Tick gently took the tiny phone in his gigantic hands.
Dot winced, almost regretting her split-second solution. "Just be careful with it."
Tick nodded and Dot went back to gazing outside. Tick had to look on either side of the phone to find the power button. He had seen several of his friends operate the same device on multiple occasions, so he had somewhat of a clue of what to do.
The screen lit up and in front of his eyes were lines and lines of text.
"Huh! Looks like Arthur has some doing some reading!"
"Not surprised," was all he got.
It was of no matter. He was saying that to himself for the most part.
He wondered what his buddy had been reading.
The battle was a sweeping success. They had been relatively unharmed and nothing too unexpected happened. It was akin to releasing mink in a tunnel full of rats.
Didn't mean they weren't tired though. Back at their apartment, Arthur sluggishly took his helmet off and slumped down onto the couch. The air from his lungs was pushed out of him in a plume of a heavy sigh.
Tick was also tuckered out, though to what degree, no one will know, but the fact that he wasn't bouncing up and down and itching to go back out was testament to how tired he was. He was still awake as ever, but Arthur knew that the big blue behemoth tended to quickly nod off as if a switch was flipped.
"Today is so refreshing, don't you think chum?"
"Mm."
"Not much may have happened, but I sure have learned a lot!" He sat down next to his slowly slumping companion. "Like- who knew it was possible to drink cereal from a cup? And if you leave honey on the shelf for too long it turns into hard amber?- doesn't amber come from trees or is it that the bees live in the tree- Oh!" Tick leaned in to the listening tired puddle, "And did you see that guy with a pig for a foot?! Ah-mazing! What's also amazing is that a petri dish can make you see rainbows of colors you could only dream of seeing!-- And that people write stories about us, Arthur! Stories of things we haven't even done yet!"
Arthur's eyes opened fully, granted there were a few concerns with that list but- 'When? How?' He was starting to freak out, but it would be good to proceed with some tact if he wanted his internal questions answered.
"Uh, where-- Tick, how--... stories?" What a well worded question that was, Arthur.
"Yes! Stories! You would know, Arthur, it was on your phone, after all."
"My phone."
"Uh huh! Your sister, Dot, gave it to me. It sure helped me wait out that long period of 'no action'."
The moth hero slumped back down, mumbling curses to his sister under his breath.