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hailbop1701 · 3 years

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ReaperXFem!Reader

Doom: To Hell And Back

Chapter 9: Siberia

Guys this is it! The final official chapter! The journey has been amazing so far and I am truly lucky to have all of you go through it with me! But we're not done yet! There is so much in store for John and Crow! Stay tuned! (As usual no beta)

-H❤🖖

The sound of distant gunfire pulled you from the dark, a fire burned at your back. A hiss of pain escaped your lips, “I hope I never have to do that again,” your voice came out raspy, your mouth dry as the desert above you. Making the necessary checks, nothing seemed too bad, well besides the giant burn on your back. Finding purchase you pushed yourself off of the ground, wincing at all the aches and pains. Climbing to your feet, you stumble into the corridor wall. The gunfire continued making you look for your weapon, groaning in frustration you saw it amongst the debris warped and battered.

You pulled your sidearm from its holster; using the wall as a crutch you made your way in the direction of the gunfire. The ARK chamber.

The trek took longer than it should have; panting you gripped the edge of the stone doorway that led into the ARK. “Hello, Crow,” a voice growled from behind you, a large hand landed on your shoulder and squeezed. Yelping in pain you were swiveled around so you were facing Sarge, his eyes seemed to glow unnaturally. He grinned like a predator, the grip on your shoulder getting tighter. “Murderous son of a-”

And before you knew what was happening you were flying through the air. You landed with a strangled cry, crashing into an abandoned security desk. Crumpling to the ground you gasped out, pain scorched through your body like a wildfire. Gingerly you lifted your arm to your chest, ‘broken’ you grumbled. Sarge was on you again, he reached down with a sadistic smile and wrapped a meaty hand around your throat. The air entering your body suddenly stopped as he lifted you off of the ground. Your heart pounded in your ears while your head throbbed and bled freely; shifting your eyes you saw them and worry coursed through you.

Sam and Duke skidded to a halt by the entrance, clawing at Sarge’s hand you kick your feet out bracing them against his chest trying desperately to get out of his grasp. It didn’t phase him in the slightest. Sam held Duke back from raising his gun, “You might hit (Y/N),” she said worriedly.

Sarge turned, your body struggling in grasp. “Duke, fall in! We got shit to do!” Sarge barked and Duke scowled stepping in front of Sam. “With all due respect Sarge but fuck you,” he hissed raising his gun. Sarge chuckled and held you up like a dying shield; Duke wavered uncertainly.

“Go!” you managed to gasp out pleadingly. “Da’mit Duke, go” you gurgled vision dimming at the lack of oxygen. Duke cursed and dragged Sam back out the ARK chamber door. Sarge chuckled darkly glancing at the quarantine timer, “I’ll find them soon,” he promised. You hissed, one of your hands falling limply to your side as your struggling stopped. Sarge set down his rather large gun, sniffing the air. He brought his empty hand to your hair and petted you softly.

“Well, that’s new,” he purred, sniffing again. His grip on your neck loosened slightly allowing a minuscule amount of air back into your lungs. ‘I’ll take whatever I can get,’ you thought numbly. Sarge lowered you to the floor but kept his hold on your throat,

“I just might keep you alive,” he purred stroking your cheek. Wrinkling your nose at the promises in his words you glare at him,

“Sorry, Sarge but I’m just not that into you,” you growled your hand brushing over the knife on your hip. Sarge just chuckled removing his hand from your throat so he could grip your chin, his hold caused your cheeks to puff into a pout.

“I would gladly take you here and now,” his chest rumbled in an animalistic growl. His words made a chill travel up and down your spine, “Here’s an idea, how about you go fuck yourself,” you snarled. Swiftly pulled the knife out of its sheath you drive it into the junction between Sarge’s shoulder and neck.

The man howled in pain instantly letting you go. Baring his teeth Sarge swung; you flew through the air into the security desk again officially shattering the glass and plastic. A newfound pain blossomed over your body, “I really have to learn not to agitate things that are infected with C24,” you cried letting your head drop with a dull thud. Your hands drifted to your stomach a large shard of glass was sticking out of your abdomen.

Sarge loomed over you looking mildly disappointed as if he accidentally broke his new toy. “Damn,” he grumbled before moving away to let you bleed out. What’s left of the adrenaline that had been pouring through you all night had finally drained away. Through the pain, you started to feel cold and numb, ‘that’s not good,’ you thought weakly. The sound of talking and shouting pulled you back from submerging into the dark, “She’s dead Reaper,”

A howl of rage echoed across the room and the sound of fighting. Flesh punching flesh and the boom of what had to be Sarge’s “BFG,”

“(Y/N), oh my God!” Sam flew to your side ducking low before falling to her knees beside you. Duke ran to your other side and rested a friendly hand on your forehead. You cried out when Sam gently pressed her hands around the glass, “It’s okay, you’ll be okay!” Sam sobbed.

She took away her hands and reached into her pocket fumbling with the tiny vial. “Sam,” Duke warned uneasily as he held one of your hands. Sam set the vial down so she could fumble through your pockets looking for a spare syringe. Finding one in your hip pouch, Sam snatched the vial up off the ground.

“Pull the glass out,” Sam whispered to Duke as she injected C24 into your neck. You whimpered when Duke carefully pulled the shard of glass from your abdomen, “You’ll be alright baby doll,” he murmured smoothing down your hair while placing his other hand over his sidearm. The fighting grew more intense making both Sam and Duke duck and bend over you like two concerned parents. You looked at them blearily a few tears escaping your eyes, your vision getting darker and darker by the second. “You’ll be okay,” Sam soothed placing her hand over Dukes, the sound of ARK activating in the background made them peer over the broken security desk. “(Y/N)!” John’s voice echoed through your head as you faded away.

Whispers and warmth greeted you when you swam back to the surface of consciousness again. For the millionth time that night. Everything ached like growing pains but you no longer felt intense pain. Opening your eyes took some effort but when you did you immediately regretted it, “Oh what the fuck,” you groaned scrunching up your nose in distaste. You snapped your eyes closed again hoping to keep the bright lights at bay.

The whispers turned into amused chuckles, “Welcome back to the land of the living,” Duke said somewhere to your left. “Why is it so damn bright?” you hissed turning your head away into a rough vest. That’s when you realized, arms held onto you, and the warmth that you were thoroughly enjoying belonged to someone. Someone who smelt rather nice, opening up your eyes again, you look up. John looked down at you with his dark hazel eyes,

“I’m still trying to get used to it,” he chuckled, he smiled down at you crookedly. You groaned a little, “Right, I’m superhuman now,”

Sam peered over at you with her own grin, “I’m just glad you’re not insane and trying to eat people,” she teased. You snort and gave her a thumbs-up, “I aim to please,”

John looked like he was struggling with something and kept sniffing the area near your hair. “Do I smell that bad?” you asked jokingly.

Duke snorted, “I think we all smell damn bad,” he grumbled sniffing his pits with a grimace. John’s quiet laughter shook you gently, “No you don’t smell bad,” he whispered to you. He looked away as the elevator became a little tense. Sam snickered, “So uh how did all this spider webbing get into your hair?” she asked picking a few more wisps from your head.

You shudder, “Spiders, never again. I officially have a phobia,” you muttered resting your head against John’s shoulder in defeat. The elevator slowed to a stop and dinged; the doors opened revealing a platoon’s worth of soldiers. They stood there, weapons aimed, red dot sites dancing over you and the others. Duke and Sam put up their hands as John led them onto the tarmac,

“Stand down!” a voice shouted and the red dots disappeared. A familiar man pushed through the crowd, “Crow!” he shouted jogging over to the elevator entrance. You gripped John’s vest and whipped your head around, “Hunter!” the relief in your voice was evident. You were so happy to see your commanding officer that you didn’t notice John stiffen. His arms tightened around you as Gunnery Sergeant Edward Cayden approached.

“Ed, Siberia,” you hissed making eye contact with him. Your CO stiffened upon hearing the code word; to everyone on your team it meant danger, get out now. His eyes went from concern to serious, nodding once Hunter led your small group to a waiting chopper. Everyone from RRTS unit 4 was there, they all looked relieved to see that you were alright. Big brothers and crazy uncles the lot of them. Hunter spoke lowly into the team’s comm, “Siberia,”

They all stiffened before they wrapped the survivors up in a protective bubble. “Icarus, Manny, why don’t you take over for our pilots,” Hunter suggested casually. Both men broke off from the group swiftly and opened the front cab of the helo, the pilots protested but did as they were told anyway. Hunter activated the main door and watched as everyone piled in; one of the boys offered to take you but John simply ignored him and stepped up into the transport with little difficulty.

“Leave them be Rust,” Hunter barked when the man began to protest. You gave your team a reassuring smile hoping to put everyone at ease. Sam took the seat next to when John set you down and buckled you in. She took your hand, eyes flitting from face to face, “It’s okay,” you whispered to her but made sure John and Duke heard you as well. A solid fifteen minutes after takeoff Hunter crouched in front of your lips pressed tightly together.

“What do you need kid?” he whispered, no one spoke as they watched you. Taking a deep breath you looked your friend dead in the eye, “To disappear,”

The men looked at each other and nodded, “I can’t ask any of you-” you hurried over your words but your unit already began making preparations. They stripped their comms and pulled apart their weapons. Rust moved over to a panel in the floor and yanked it up revealing a mass of wires and circuits, he fiddled for a moment before yanking out a few bits of tech. The mass of wires sparked for a moment and settled again.

“Tracker is offline, we’re ghosts for a little while,” he said and Hunter nodded once. “Icarus, we need to disappear,” he pounded on the cockpit door. A double-tap of understanding echoed back. He looked back at you and the shocked faces of your companions, “Time to become ghosts!” he cheered enthusiastically.

“Hunt-” you protested and the men started shouting at you to shut up; smirking you looked down at your feet. Hunter stopped in front of you while the tech of your ragtag team tossed the trackers out the partially opened door. “You’re family (Y/N) and if you of all people invoked Siberia then-” he looked around and the men began whooping in agreement, “Then something big went down and we need to get you out of the fire,”

“What happened sis?” the tech affectionately named I.T. asked. Everyone quieted down; you looked over at John biting your lip. He inclined his head a fraction in a silent ‘Do you trust them?’ looking at every member of your team you let your eyes flit back to him with and nodded. The silent conversation only lasted seconds but it spoke volumes. He reached down squeezing your hand, ‘I trust you,’

Taking a deep shuddering breath you turned your attention to your captive audience,

“It all started with a girl named Lucy…”

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#doom 2005 #john grimm x reader #john grimm #reader insert #hailey the queen of typos #reaper x reader

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jennymanrique · 3 years

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Face-to-face outreach by community members persuades the unvaccinated

Photo: Getty Images

Through casual conversations, trusted messengers, and even the abuelos of the family, community members hired as outreach workers promote vaccines in marginalized neighborhoods to beat the Delta variant.

As the Delta variant continues to cause COVID-19 infection rates to spike, the race to vaccinate those who haven’t yet been vaccinatd becomes more urgent. Community organizations in California have been implementing innovative approaches to reach neighborhoods in the heart of Los Angeles, in small cities like Stockton, and in rural San Joaquin communities where Latinos and minority populations live.

In California, according to official data, less than half of eligible Latinos and African Americans have been vaccinated and that is why canvassers want to close that racial gap despite facing racist situations, gangs, religious anti-vaxxers and even adverse weather conditions.

“Our big issue is a very strong religious community that is present in the park (McArthur),” said Irma Muñoz, Executive Director of Mujeres de la Tierra (MDLT), a nonprofit creating innovative approaches to community participation in Los Angeles, who spoke at a media briefing co-hosted by The California Department of Aging and Ethnic Media Services.

“They are all against COVID-19 (vaccine). The parishioners say that the church leaders say ‘don’t get vaccinated, it will be a sin, the injection has poison’,” said Muñoz.

Undocumented Latino immigrants, mostly from Guatemala and Mexico, frequent McArthur Park. There are also three active gangs, who know the work of Muñoz and her vaccine promoters and have allowed them to move around the sector without major setbacks.

“A Latino young man, about 18 years old, was expelled by a gang member… We have had somebody pull a gun on one of our canvassers. They left immediately. No one is here to be a hero and so we give everybody extra training on being safe,” Muñoz said. “But gang members too need to be vaccinated, so I don’t believe in running away and pretending they don’t exist.”

To date, the MDLT has made nearly 2,300 vaccination appointments as a result of nearly 63,700 one-to-one conversations with neighbors. A team of 25 people, mostly promotoras who belong to the community and know the terrain, have dedicated more than 4700 hours to this persuasion work in which 95% of the interactions are in Spanish.

“Communities don’t want to provide personal information such as immigration status, because a lot of folks are not documented. To get the vaccine they have to provide an ID but nobody wants to do it because they think that the IRS or immigration will knock on the door to take them away,” said Muñoz.

In contrast, some unaccompanied minors who arrived from Guatemala do want to be vaccinated so they can work but cannot because they do not have a parent or guardian to authorize them. This population is in limbo “and we hope that the authorities can help us resolve this issue.”

Another barrier is that working-class people are not available for appointments Monday through Saturday. And also there is the eternal distrust in the government that has slowly dissipated as more people who were initially resistant end up receiving two doses of the COVID vaccine.

“Maybe 20% of the work is door-to-door because during COVID people are not answering their doors … We do crowd canvassing at bus stops, metro stations, tienditas, panaderias, and also among a big vendor population, both permitted and not permitted.”

Recently they are focusing on convincing parents to get vaccinated “for the health of their children,” as the Delta variant is affecting those under 12, who still cannot receive a shot.

“People have fear of the unknown,” said Muñoz. “So we try to take the fear out of people’s hearts and put facts in their heads, and many times it takes a while to do that.”

For Kim McCoy Wade, Director of the California Department of Aging, older Latinos, who represent “a disproportionate number of cases” of COVID, are the gateway to vaccinating an entire household. “The messenger is very important … If you start by asking older adults what is important to them, they are the ones who make the decisions in the family.”

In Hispanic households for example, sometimes two or three families live together and all can end up getting vaccinated if their leaders (grandparents and grandmothers) are more interested in doing so.

Anti-government

Another challenge in convincing those who refuse to be vaccinated is their strong political convictions. According to George Pingarrón, door-to-door promoter for Todos Unidos in Stockton, an organization that has already completed 7,500 hours of fieldwork, “a lot of people still do not believe in COVID and they are simply anti-government.”

“We come across the issue with people making a political statement instead of acknowledging that (vaccines are) a need for humanity … We are marking up 8,000 houses or doors, 30% of those are conversations we can have, and only 1% are actual vaccine signups.”

While canvassing in rural Modesto, Pingarrón and his team found themselves in neighborhoods where houses hoisted the American flag and locals let them know that their promotion of vaccines was not welcome. “We have encountered racism. We have encountered physical altercations. We have encountered harassment… But what does work is making that personal conversation. Part of education (about vaccines) is not to take a certain route right away, but to listen and learn how to answer properly to each personal situation.”

Sometimes the inclement summer heat and poor air quality resulting from the Northern California fires also restrict promoters from their outings.

“Although the weather here is sometimes 100 degrees, we adapt accordingly. We go out in the morning, instead of the afternoon, and we do some phone banking, but we rely on that personal touch,” said Esperanza Vielma, Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW), an organization led by women of color working on vaccine outreach in the San Joaquin Valley.

“This is our ninth week and we have four zip codes assigned in the area … There have been 184,650 doors knocked, in 80,586 of them we had conversations, and in terms of actual vaccine signups, we have 700 for our area in Stockton.”

The population is predominantly Hispanic so the promotoras are bilingual speakers and some are also from Southeast Asia, which is the other demographic EJCW serves. At the Stribley Community Center, they went from delivering 40 vaccines a day to 100 and were successful in spreading their message in places like the Mexican and Asian flea markets.

“We need to be able to amplify the message in multiple languages and work with the Air Pollution Control District, the county, and the state, to decrease the potential hazard of the COVID Delta variant that is amplified by our unhealthy air in the valley.”

Vielma also mentioned the challenge of reaching rural areas where agricultural workers are highly impacted by these factors and residential areas are too scattered to reach in person.

“There you have to go back to that old-fashioned flyer type but the message is the same: What is the positive in terms of taking the vaccine versus the negative? Amplify that message over and over again in terms of how important it is to get vaccinated, whether it’s for your own kids, your nieces, your nephews, or your grandkids,” she concluded.

To do vaccine promotion, these three organizations receive support from a grant from the Governor’s Operations Office, administered by the University of California in Los Angeles.

Originally published here

Want to read this piece in Spanish? Click here

#English #covid19 #covid vaccine #unvaccinated #California #Delta variant #Latinos #Low-income neighbors #promotoras

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writingpaperghost · 3 years

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Ghost! It's a Game Against Doctor Pac-Man!

All's normal in the CR, until a new virus breaks out, this time taking the appearance of... Pac-Man? Joined by another Rider, known as Ghost, it's up to the CR to cure this disease. But Emu realizes he's met the so-called Dr. Pac-Man before. He was the one who separated him and his host! And who's Masamune's quiet assistant Mu?

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33393685

For those working the video game company Gemn Corp, it seemed like it would be a perfectly normal, average day. At least, as normal as things had a tendency to be. Sure, their boss was coming up with increasingly weirder logic for fighting the sentient computer virus and technically they weren’t supposed to know about that, but it was kind of hard to miss. But the point was, it was a very normal day.

Masamune’s errand runner (no one knew what the guy’s actual job was, he just showed up one day, but errand runner seemed like an appropriate guess. He was nice to people, if a bit nervous, so no one really cared for the details. Not to mention he wasn’t even always there, some days they didn’t see him at all. Besides they all had more things to worry about than the fact that there was someone allowed to run around Gemn Corp for the single purpose, it seemed, of running the president’s errands.) had just returned to his office, most likely to see what his next task may be, if any. A very normal day.

At least, until it wasn’t.

Because what was not normal – or ever really expected – at a company that makes video games, is for a trio of people dressed suspiciously in white, one wielding a sword, though they all had guns, to show up. So like, that meant they were probably something like terrorists. Armed intruders none the less. Then, after they got rid of Gemn’s woefully underpaid – and probably dead now – security guards, this fourth guy comes in also dressed in white, but the kicker was his mask. His mask was of some kind of demonic Pac-Man.

The four intruders quickly make their way to where Masamune’s office is located, with the first three in the lead and the man in the Pac-Man mask behind them. They don’t waste any time and aren’t really intercepted. Most of those working at Gemn, security or otherwise, were far too scared to try to do that. And again, the security staff is probably underpaid.

Over in Masamune’s office, he’s already received a notification that the intruders are coming and is in the process of putting the Prototype Gashats into a briefcase, hoping to get away before the intruders arrived. Notably, two are missing, the Proto Mighty Action X and Proto Drago Knight Hunter Z Gashats. He has also put a Bug Visor in the briefcase.

“What’s happening?” At one side of the door, in the corner farthest from the door, stands Masamune’s errand runner. A young man with messy brown hair that covers one eye and an eyepatch over his eye, being about shoulder length. He wears a hoodie of the Mighty Action X character Mighty, and a Drago Knight Hunter Z shirt underneath. Beneath his shirt is an orange shirt with sleeves that go down to his hands, having thumb holes. With one eye, he watches Masamune.

“Just let it happen,” Is all Masamune answers.

Just as Masamune is about to leave, the first three of the four intruders enter, the one with the sword raising said sword at him. The two others aim their guns. The errand runner watches from the corner unnoticed.

The woman speaks first, “Masamune Dan, it’s been six years since we last saw each other,” There’s a venom in her voice that would scare a normal person, though Masamune seems unphased. “Hand over the Prototype Gashats and the Bugvisor.”

Masamune doesn’t answer, not until the last of the group enters. The man in the Pac-Man mask. Despite the mask, Masamune seemed to recognize him instantly, surprised. “You shouldn’t still exist,” He finally says.

“But I am quite alive,” The man in the Pac-Man mask says, “And I’d like to complete my research.” The briefcase is snatched out of Masamune’s grasp and opened.

One of the men say, “Two are missing,”

Innocently, Masamune raises his hands and says, “I don’t have them,” Which was a true statement. He didn’t have them, though he certainly knew who did.

The four intruders turn to leave, only for the police to finallyshow up. Of course, they seemed to have planned for something like this – or were really good at improvising. One of the men grabs the Proto Gekitotsu Robots Gashat, activating it and becoming a Bugster himself, allowing him to break down the police’s barricade. The other three members followed after his destruction.

Staring at the carnage, the errand boy walks up to Masamune, “Uh… What just happened?” He asked, then looks at Masamune, “Who… Who were those people?”

---

It was what Emu would very much consider a normal day. He’s just finished helping one of his patients learn how to play this mobile game that was getting really popular, Hatesate Puzzle, and now the boy was having a really fun time playing it.

“Thank you doctor!” The boy smiles at Emu. That was always Emu’s favorite part. Seeing his patient smile. Whether in pediatrics or in the CR. It made it feel like everything that had happened to get him to this point was worth it.

As he looks up sees Asuna rushing towards him, “Emu, we have a large amount of emergency calls!” She grabs his arm, “We need to get to the scene of the breakout!”

“Right!” He called, attempting to follow with her, only to trip. Asuna sighs and pulls him up, dragging him to the hospital.

Finally, he and Asuna arrive outside a high school, where everyone was running in panic. The shocking thing was what they were running from: a large amount of small Pac-Mans were trying to bite people. It seemed like if you got bit, you got infected. So it was definitely a Bugster, if a weird one.

The news can be heard, being played from somewhere. The news announces that the Ministry of health has issued a pandemic alert, that everyone should stay home. Emu checked one of the victims who had been bitten by a Pac-Man. On top of the clear glitching from a Game Disease infection, they also had a terrible fever.

Searching for where the Pac-Mans were all heading, because they all seemed to be looking for something or someone, Emu ran through the area. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for, since all he knew was that these Pac-Mans were probably the result of Game Disease, given how they were infecting people. They were probably looking for something that would stress out their main host, but he had no way of knowing what or who that is.

He’s not sure what leads him the way he ends up, but after a few minutes of searching, he finally sees a trio of people who look like their looking for something. One wears some sort of hoodie with a kimono like print, accompanied by a woman and a monk. Emu wasn’t sure if he was concerned because they were there, or because they stood out so much.

While the man in the hoodie begins to pull something out of his pocket, Emu retrieves his Gashat. He needed to start trying to deal with these Pac-Man, especially since he seemed to be getting closer to wherever they were heading towards. Only, he realized what the man had pulled out. Some kind of belt and a round-ish object.

What the… “Hey! You need to get out of here!” Emu calls out, holding his Gashat tightly. He’s ready to transform when he gets the attention of the trio. Yet before either of them can do anything, the man get’s bit by one of the Pac-Mans. That’s bad.

Still, the man attempts to use his belt and sphere thing, only for them to, presumably, not do anything. Since the man seemed surprised. “What?” The man startles, “Why can’t I transform?”

“What?” The woman echoed.

Now having reached the trio, Emu comments, “It’s probably because Pac-Man bit you,” Though it seemed intentional that it did so. Emu had his hunch about why and just what that belt and object did. “You’re… a Kamen Rider, right?”

The man looked shocked, “How did you…?”

Grinning, Emu activates his Gashat, holding it up.

Mighty Action X!

Let’s game! Metcha game! Mucha game! What’s your name? I’m a Kamen Rider!

Reaching out and hitting his portrait on the select screen, Emu introduces himself, “Emu Hojo,” He says, “Kamen Rider Para-DX.”

Level up! Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty-Mighty Action X!

His red and blue armor appears around him, his weapon in hand, in axe mode. He looks at the trio, “I’ll see what I can do about getting rid of the Pac-Mans. Hopefully it’ll restore your ability to transform.”

He didn’t know much about this trio, nor this Rider, but he didn’t really need to. Obviously, he wasn’t a part of the same game as Emu, but he was still a Rider. There was no reason that Emu shouldn’t help him.

Despite Emu’s best attempts at fighting the Pac-Mans, it was like he wasn’t even hitting them. His axe was obviously making contact with them, but they weren’t taking any damage or anything. It was terribly frustrating.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the other Rider running over to a boy on the ground, probably a high school student. As the other Rider tries to help the boy, Emu sees a pair of people dressed in white. One holds what looks like a Gashat, but Emu can’t see what. But he can hear it.

Taddle Quest!

Utilizing the Gashat in a way not unlike how Graphite had a few days earlier, the person transformed into a Bugster. Did that mean they were a Bugster anyway, or was that what happened if someone just tried to use a Prototype Gashat without a Gamer Driver?

Rushing over to the other Rider and the boy, Emu intercepts the Bugster, slashing it with his axe, “You guys, get out of here with the boy!” He calls, then dodges out of the way of the Bugster’s attack, “I’ll deal with the Bugster!”

Though the Rider and the two with him attempt to leave with the boy, the other person dressed in white, a woman with a sword, intercepts them. The Rider attempts to fight her off. Despite the best efforts of both Riders, transformed and not, the Bugster and the woman were able to knock them down, causing Emu’s transformation to disappear.

A man appears, also dressed in white. But he stands out more than the other two did, as he wears a mask of Pac-Man. “You may call me Dr. Pac-Man,” The man says, “And if you can’t tell already, I am responsible for these Pac-Man you’ve been seeing.”

The other Rider examines Dr. Pac-Man, before asking, “Why are you doing this, though?” He gestures around them, “Having the Pac-Mans bite people?”

“Having them infect people with Game Disease,” Emu corrects, but he too is curious, “But yeah, why?”

“To get revenge on humanity,” Dr. Pac-Man answers simply, “Though there are a few in particular.” Apparently having felt that he sufficiently explained his evil plan, which Emu didn’t think he had, Dr. Pac-man and his allies leave.

Standing up, Emu runs over to the boy, who’s now showing symptoms of Game Disease. He must have gotten infected at some point. By now, Asuna arrives and Emu decides that he’s roping the other Rider and his friends into helping them get the boy back to the CR.

As their pushing the boys bed down to the CR, the Rider says, “I’m Takeru, by the way, Kamen Rider Ghost,” Then he vaguely gestures to the two with him, “This is Akari and Onari,”

“I’m Asuna, a nurse with the CR,” Asuna explained, “At the CR, we handle cases of Game Disease.”

“With Kamen Riders?” Akari asks.

Emu nods, “Yeah, turns out the most efficient way to deal with a sentient computer virus is to hit ‘em really hard,” Asuna sends him a glare, “Of course it’s never quite so simple.” He hastily adds, hoping to appease her.

Once they’ve finally gotten the boy to the CR, Asuna finds his file, “Togo Kiyomiya,” She reads, “According to his friends, he’s the developer of that mobile puzzle game, Hatesate Puzzle.”

Using his Game Scope, Emu scans Togo, only to find something odd. “He… isn’t infected?” He wondered aloud, “But he was showing signs of infection.” He fiddles with some of the machines in the patient room and gets the same answer. What the hell? He sighed and left the room, approaching Takeru.

“You were bit by one of those Pac-Mans, right?”

“Yeah,” Takeru nods, “Why?”

Despite that, Takeru seemed unaffected, other than his apparent inability to transform. It was odd, to say the least. “Are you feeling any usual symptoms?”

“No,” He responds, “I feel fine,” Emu’s hesitant to leave it at that, but if Takeru seemed to be fine, there wasn’t much he could do.

After a while, Director Kagami and Saki arrive, with Director Hinata on a video call. Saki is extremely worried sounding when she speaks, “One hundred thousand cases and counting,” She informs the group, “And no way to cure it. At this rate, there will certainly be deaths.”

At that moment, Poppy pops out of her cabinet, prompting the trio of newcomers to startle. “Those Pac-Mans,” She said, “They aren’t just some virus. They’re just poor game characters infected with the virus.”

“Emu, you said that your attacks had no effect on the Pac-Mans?” Emu nods at Saki’s question, “Then how are we suppose to defeat them?”

Emu pauses for a moment, thinking. Like with some Bugsters they’d faced before, the answer had to be somewhere in their game. Pac-Man wasn’t a very complicated game, though that assumed that the Pac-Mans came from the original game. As Pac-Man, you had to collect pellets, avoiding ghosts while you went. “Oh, ghosts!” Emu declared, earning himself odd looks from everyone, “The only thing that kills Pac-Man is ghosts! That’s probably why they targeted you, Takeru. Because you’re Ghost.”

Poppy blinked, “Well that’s a very literal interpretation,” But she doesn’t dispute the theory.

“It would also explain why they got rid of your ability to transform,” Saki nods, “So that you couldn’t defeat them. They seem to care little about actually infecting you, thankfully.”

While Director Kagami watched the conversation almost like they were all madmen, Director Hinata watched with a smile. “It seems you’ve already started on your efforts to figure this out,” He notes, “I’ll trust the CR to be able to handle it, alongside your new allies.” With that, he ended the call.

Akari frowned, “So now we just have to figure out how to get Takeru’s powers back,”

“We’re doomed!” Onari wailed.

Emu watched for a moment, trying to figure out what they could do. Maybe it had something to do with that Dr. Pac-Man? Not to mention… That Bugster that appeared, it seemed like it had one of the Prototype Gashats. But shouldn’t those be with Masamune? Well, except for the two that Gemn had has, the Mighty Action X and the Drago Knight Hunter Z that he took after they defeated Graphite.

As if on cue, one Masamune Dan arrives, followed by a meek looking young man, with Nico and a tall man with black and white hair behind them. Masamune seemed serious as he entered, while the man behind him looked nervous, his uncovered eye dashing around his surroundings. Nico seemed almost a bit excited, while the man behind her seemed annoyed. When Saki’s eyes fall on the man with Nico, she tenses.

Loudly, Nico notes, “Huh, so this is the CR? Not sure what I was expecting.”

The man beside her rolls his eyes, “I can’t believe you agreed to help.”

“It’s for research, right?” Nico responds smugly, “My own research.” The man just grumbles something that Emu can’t quite make out.

“Ms. Saiba has agreed to assist you with these… Pac-Mans.” Masamune began to explain, “Earlier today, four armed intruders came to Gemn Corp, stealing the eight Prototype Gashats in my possession. Ms. Saiba has also agreed to aid you in their retrieval.”

Nico shrugs at that, like it’s not that big of a deal. Maybe in her mind it isn’t. Emu’s eyes switch between the two unknown men. The nervous one and the annoyed looking one. “Who are these two?” He asks, pointing at each of the two.

Gesturing to the man beside her, Nico explains, “This is Taiga, he’s with me,” Taiga huffs, “He’s here for… moral support.”

“As if,” Taiga grumbles, “You dragged me here.”

“It might be helpful, you never know! Anyway, I help him with some research,” Nico waves Taiga’s grumbles off, “I figured he could be helpful with all these Pac-Mans around. Or something.”

Motioning for the man behind him to come forward, Masamune introduces him, “This is my assistant, you can call him Mu.” Mu waves slightly and hesitantly, “He’ll be assisting you in the retrieval of the Prototype Gashats. Or rather, he’ll be ensuring they’ll be recovered and returned to me.”

Mu says something that might be “hello” but it’s so quiet no one can tell.

Slipping past the two, Nico looks closely at Mu, causing him to shrink away. “He looks like a strong breeze would knock him over,” She says and strangely, Mu jumps slightly at it, though Emu isn’t sure why. “What happens with him when we gotta fight?”

“He’ll stay well out of the way of the fight, I assure you,” Masamune said, “He’ll simply accompany you, but stay far away from any danger.”

Emu supposes they’re not really going to be able to argue with Masamune about this, and if he’s right then it won’t matter terribly if they have this Mu following them around. Though Emu can’t help but think that there’s something… off about this Mu. Nico groans but doesn’t otherwise protest, Taiga says nothing, Director Kagami clearly doesn’t want to argue, and Saki doesn’t look entirely convinced. Poppy’s just studying the man and Takeru and his friends don’t seem to have an opinion.

Before anyone can say anything, though, Mu spots Poppy. His face lights up and he bolts over to where she’s standing, “You look just like Poppy Pipopapo!” It was the most and loudest they’d heard him talk yet. Emu thinks he sounds familiar.

Poppy seems startled by his sudden outburst and how quickly he made it over to her, but gives Mu a smile never the less. Behind him, Masamune clears his throat, “Mu,” He calls.

Mu sheepishly takes a step back and looks down, his hair obscuring more of his face. “Um, sorry,” He says quietly.

“He gets excited about anything to do with games,” Masamune explained, “Now I think that’s everything. I’m sure the CR will be able to handle this.” With that said, Masamune leaves.

“Well, uh, I’ll… leave you all to your jobs,” Mu says hesitantly, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down. He becomes very interested in his sleeves and the hem of his Drago Knight Hunter Z shirt. “Don’t, uh… don’t mind me.”

Nico shrugs and looks at everyone, “So who’re these three?” She gestures to Takeru, Onari, and Akari.

The three quickly introduce themselves and Emu doesn’t miss how Taiga tenses slightly at how Takeru introduces himself as Kamen Rider Ghost. Nico doesn’t miss it either, “Hey, Taiga, what was that?”

“What was what?”

“You got all tense,” She pushes herself up onto her toes and gets in Taiga’s face, “Like you’re… scared. Of Ghost boy.”

“I’m not scared of some teenager,” Taiga scoffed, “What are you talking about, brat?”

But Nico was undeterred, looking at Taiga with perhaps a bit too much glee, “Could it be?” She wondered, “Are you afraid of ghosts?”

To which Taiga immediately shot back, “What? No, of course not-!”

“Taiga’s afraid of ghosts~!” She sing songs. Taiga groaned.

Watching the two, Saki sighed, “I swear they’ve both made decent Riders at some point or another,” She said, looking at Takeru.

Emu frowned, “Both?” He asked, “Nico’s Snipe but…”

“I’ll explain some other time,” Saki shook her head, “perhaps we should check on our patient?”

Of course, when Togo woke up, he immediately wanted to leave, but wasn’t exactly having much luck since he wasn’t strong enough to stand on his own, let alone walk. Joined by Takeru, Emu and Saki tried to determine why Togo had been targeted, though Togo wasn’t exactly polite in his refusal to answer. At some point Mu slipped into the room, watching from the back quietly, and Emu decides he’ll try talking about Hatesate Puzzle. That only seemed to make him more mad, since apparently he felt that he should be working on improving it and that he couldn’t do that in the hospital.

Obviously, Emu tried to convince him that improving Hatesate Puzzle shouldn’t be at the top of his priorities, given his infection of Game Disease. That he won’t be able to work on it if he was so terribly sick. Even Takeru agrees, saying that his life was more important than a game. Eventually, Saki says that if he will not accept their help, they’re nothing they can do.

Unfortunately, Emu knew that she was right.

So he and Takeru soon find themselves on the roof of the hospital. Which should have been odd, but honestly, despite having only known Takeru a few hours, the two got along pretty well.

“So you’re a doctor?” Takeru asks, glancing over at Emu.

“Yeah,” Emu responds, “Or, well, I mean I’m an intern right now.”

Takeru nods regardless, “Still, it’s impressive,” He smiles, “You seem to be pretty dedicated, too.”

Humming, Emu glances over at Takeru, “It’s… important to me. To be able to help people, not just as a Rider.”

Nodding in agreement, Takeru comments, “Just try not to die, it isn’t pleasant.”

“I can’t imagine-“ Emu cuts himself off when he realizes what Takeru said, “I’m sorry? What do you mean?”

“Erm,” Takeru sheepishly rubs the back of his head, “Well, when I became Ghost for the first time, it was rather literal.”

“You died?!”

“Yes?”

Emu stares at him for a moment. Takeru couldn’t be much older than Nico, if at all. “How old were you when you became a Rider?”

Hesitantly, he answers, “Uh, it was right before I turned eighteen?”

At that admittance, Emu just stares. Takeru… Takeru was younger than Nico was when he became Ghost. Takeru was younger than Emu had been when… And he’d died. Takeru had died and become Ghost. But he’d done all that and he was so young.

”Uh… Emu?” Takeru calling for him snapped him out of his daze with a flinch.

“Sorry,” He apologized, “It’s just… You were so young. You’re still so young.”

Something of an uncomfortable silence falls between the two, until finally, Emu says, “If it means anything, I think it’s amazing that you’re willing to fight for people like you do, even after you had died.”

“I definitely appreciate life more, now that I’ve died,” Takeru admits, “I’m lucky to have had the chance to gain that perspective.”

There’s something about his words that remind Emu of six years ago… It was hard for him to treat a patient’s life as anything less than a treasure to be safely guarded, sometimes. There were time when that exactly true, when Genius Gamer M particularly outweighed the rest of him, but for the most part… Takeru’s outlook on life is very unique, not something most people his age had.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Takeru fished something out of his jacket, holding out one of those sphere things, Eyecons, he called them. This was interesting though, as it was clearly connected to Para-DX, “This showed up at the temple a while ago.”

While Emu puzzled over the Para-DX Eyecon, eventually, Masamune greeted them, walking onto the roof. He asked to borrow Takeru’s Eyecon, the one he usually used to transform, hoping to be able to determine some way to defeat the Pac-Man with it. Easily, Takeru agreed, though some part of Emu wanted to stop him. After all… he still didn’t trust Masamune. Something about him was still very, very, wrong.

But he didn’t say anything. Not a word. He didn’t want to worry Takeru, figuring he could determine whether or not to trust Masamune on his own. He may have been younger than Emu, but he was technically more experienced in Rider business.

---

When Emu next finds Asuna, Togo, and Nico, Asuna is glaring at Nico. Nico is glaring right back, while Togo is a ways off, on his computer.

“Obviously their after him,” Nico said, “So let them come.”

“You want to use him as bait?” Emu asked, prompting the two to turn to face him. “Seriously, Nico?”

“Yes, M,” Nico groaned, “There are a whole bunch of people infected, aren’t you worried about them?”

“Togo’s our patient,” He counters.

“The CR’s patient,” She corrects, “I’m neither apart of the CR nor a doctor.”

She leaves, telling him to keep an eye on Togo. There’s not much Emu can do, so he waits. At least, until Togo, who had been working on that game for five hours straight, collapses. Now it was up to Asuna and him to get Togo back to the CR. Good going Nico.

But Togo wasn’t unconscious and just resisted their efforts.

Asuna was the first to scold him, “You can’t just work for that long and neglect your wellbeing,” She says, “Especially when we warned you about stressing yourself.”

“I’ll die when it’s time for me to die,” There’s something about Togo’s words that strike Emu cold. Who thought like that? Who would just care so little-

Shouldn’t I have reset? Why didn’t it reset? Did I load the last save point? But that wouldn’t be… here. That would be at home, maybe, or before I tried to cross the road. At least my headaches gone but… Where am I? Is this a hospital? What’s a hospital…?

Emu shakes his head, trying not to get too distracted by the memories. He couldn’t focus on those right now. He had to focus on Togo. Not that Emu got much time to do that, as Dr. Pac-Man appears. Some part of his brain thinks that Nico might have had a bit of a plan going, actually. Not a good one, but one.

But if Dr. Pac-Man was really after Togo, then they had to get Togo out of here. Picking up Togo, Emu looks at Asuna and the three begin to try to retreat. Before they can really get anywhere, more of the members of Dr. Pac-Man’s group appeared, leaving them nowhere to go.

Glaring at Dr. Pac-Man, Emu asks, “Why are you after Togo?”

“You see, the Pac-Man virus was just a tool for searching for a certain young programmer,” Dr. Pac-Man explained, looking right at Togo, “In the Pac-Mans is a program that detects a very specific strain of virus.”

In that moment, Togo clutches his chest and gasps, glitching began to appear on him. Despite his lack of symptoms, at least according to the machinery in the CR, he was showing signs of infection. Then, Emu noticed the strange feeling that always appeared when he was around someone who was infected and their infection would flair, or when there was a Bugster. At this point, he’d started tuning it out but… Surely Togo was infected. But why didn’t the machinery show anything?

Then he comes to his realization, “It’s a new strain of Game Disease,” Which was very, very, bad.

“The strain that he has is very important to our plan,” As Dr. Pac-Man spoke, the glitching grew and soon Emu could see a Bugster beginning to form from Togo. Now they had another Bugster to worry about, as well as Togo.

Once the Hatena Bugster had appeared, Emu wasn’t sure what to do quite yet, though he was prepared to fight, about to take out his Gashat. Then, Takeru rushes in, followed by Akari and Onari. Emu wasn’t sure what they’d been up to prior, but he hoped they found something useful out.

“You’re Michihiko Zaizen,” Takeru points at Dr. Pac-Man as he speaks, “But how are you still alive? You should have died six years ago.”

“I am Dr. Zaizen,” Dr. Pac-Man nods in response, “And I am still alive, because I am a Bugster. Six years ago, in that experiment, I was removing a Bugster from someone who’d been implanted with Game Disease, when it infected all of us. Now, I simply want to finish what I started.” Emu tensed at what he said. Six years ago and it was all far too much to be a coincidence. Could Zaizen have been the one to…? But then that would mean…

“You call yourself a doctor,” Emu begins, “But you use those skills to hurt people?!” All he can recall is the pain that Emu felt six years ago. Then the thought of what everyone Zaizen had infected now was going through. It made him terribly mad.

“Anyone who gets in my way,” Zaizen says, “Will die.”

The still newly emerged Hatena Bugster attacks, most likely due to Zaizen, in some way. Falling from the sky were what seemed to puzzle pieces that exploded whenever they hit the ground. After a few minutes of dodging two more people show up. When is dressed in dark blue and black, while the other wears a bright green poncho.

Recognizing the two, Takeru greets them, “Makoto, Alain!”

His attention is quickly drawn to one of the falling puzzle pieces though, which was about to land on Akari. Takeru rushes over, shielding her from the block and its blast. She’s dazed though she quickly soothes Takeru that she’s alive, though Emu can slightly see glitching from the both of them. Akari soon passes out, prompting Takeru to begin worrying again.

It was then that the Hatena Bugster decided to tell them a bit about itself, “My infections have a time limit,” He said, which nearly caused Emu to groan in annoyance, “You only have twenty-four hours to defeat me before your friends and anyone else infected by me die.”

Takeru’s two friends, Makoto and Alain, look like their about to try to fight the Hatena Bugster, Emu figures that their probably Riders too, so he’s not too concerned there, only for a one of Zaizen’s goons, the woman with a sword, to stop them. Emu was about to take his Gashat out and try to fight Hatena, only for one of Zaizen’s goons to stop him. Unfortunately, this one was very good at fist fights, not giving Emu the opportunity to transform.

“Onari!” Takeru calls, “Get Akari back to the hospital.” Aided by Asuna, she and Onari work to carry Akari back to the hospital like Takeru asked. Despite the distraction from various members of Zaizen’s goons, the three other Riders could see that Takeru was heading towards Hatena. His two friends yell at him not to, since he can’t transform.

Emu can hear Togo pleading for someone to save him. Yet despite how much Emu wants to, he’s currently stuck in a headlock. For a moment, he contemplates using his best way to get out of it, he could probably get the three other Riders to not tell the CR… He could just teleport out easy, but that would also reveal to Zaizen that he was a Bugster – really he wasn’t worried about Takeru and his friends knowing, just Zaizen and his goons.

Despite their best efforts, Zaizen’s goons were getting the better of them. Using that strange device that they’d seen Graphite use, Zaizen somehow manages to capture Togo in it.

The guy who Emu was fighting was immediately kicked to the side. The perpetrator being Kiriya, “Gee Ace, should’ve told me you guys had a problem.”

“Kiriya!”

“Emu!” Following behind Kiriya was Saki and Nico. Saki holds a Gashat out to Emu, “From the president,” She said. It seemed to be a Gashat that was based on who he could only assume was Ghost.

Turning her attention to the now Giril Bugster, Saki transformed into Brave, joined by Makoto who also transformed – Emu was gonna hazard a guess and say his name was Specter. There was also a bunch of Bugster grunts aiding Giril too. Nico, Kiriya, and Alain turn their attention to the Doral Bugster from earlier. The three transform into Snipe, Lazer, and Necrom, ready to fight.

Takeru attempts to fight Hatena, prompting Emu to get up and try to join him. Given Takeru’s inability to transform at current, he wasn’t fairing well at all. When Emu was about to grab out Mighty Action X, Zaizen speaks.

“Without Ghost’s powers, it’s hopeless. You don’t stand a chance. Now…” Behind Zaizen formed a mass of glitches and pixel which quickly took form into the appearance of a demonic Pac-Man.

With a giant, demonic, Pac-Man chasing after them, Emu and Takeru were forced to leave the building. While everyone was distracted, Zaizen was able to escape with Hatena too. Still, they had more pressing matters to worry about at the moment.

But Takeru was hurt, especially after trying to fight Hatena. “You need to get somewhere safe,” Emu tells him.

“No,” Takeru shakes his head.

“You’re hurt-!”

“I’m scared to die again,” Takeru admits, like that wasn’t something anyone would be afraid of, even if they’d already died once. “But I’m more scared of seeing Akari die.” As he finished his declaration, his belt appeared around his waist once more. Something comes flying to him, the Eyecon that he’d given Masamune earlier. He stares at it for a moment, before realizing that he could transform again.

Ore! Let's go! Kakugo! Go Go Go! Ghost! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Given that Ghost has the ability to fly, he’s able to easily avoid the giant Pac-Man’s attacks. Watching Ghost fight, Emu wonders if he should even try to help. He’d hesitated enough earlier that Togo had gotten captured… But still, if Takeru was willing to risk his life for Akari, then Emu should be willing to at least try to help. He activates the Gashats.

Kaigan! Ghost!

Let's Ride! Metcha Ride! Mutcha Ride! What's your Ride? I'm a Legend Rider!

Choosing the character on the player select screen that greatly resembles Ghost, the armor begins to appear around Emu.

Level Up! Inochi moyasu! Kakugo Kimeru! Ore ga Ghost!

Joining Takeru now, the two attempt to fight Pac-Man. Eventually, Takeru calls out, asking Pac-Man to snap out of the virus’ control, though that didn’t do much. If anything, it might have made Pac-Man more upset, but it was hard to tell. After, Takeru pulls out the Para-DX Eyecon he’d shown Emu earlier, using it to transform into a form that looked a bit like Para-DX.

The pair enter Pac-Man’s mouth, finding a maze not unlike in Pac-Man’s games. Inside, their able to fight the virus controlling Pac-Man, using a finishing attack to destroy it. As they leave, they see that Pac-Man’s smiling at them, before he disappears.

---

Everyone made it back to the hospital in one piece, at least. While defeating the virus infecting Pac-Man cured everyone who’d been infected by the Pac-Mans of their Game Disease, Akari and Takeru were still infected by Hatena. The only way they were going to cure that was to defeat Hatena and that would probably also result in having to defeat Zaizen.

Zaizen, a man who Emu had never thought he’d even have to get near again. He supposed he was right about those involved six years ago getting infected and dying, though he’d have never thought that they’d come back as Bugsters. Though, he did wonder how Takeru learned who Dr. Pac-Man was. He’d ask, but frankly he was more hoping that Takeru would find a way to actually rest.

But still… that wasn’t exactly what was bugging him, either. What was bugging him was…

“Are you alright?” Poppy calls, which strangely prompts Mu, who still sits at the table, though now playing what sounds like Mighty Action X, to pause and watch the two.

“I couldn’t save Togo,” Emu admits, “I hesitated too much and now…”

“Emu…”

Shaking his head, Emu holds in his tears, “I’ll be fine, Poppy. You’ve got things to do, don’t worry about me.”

Hesitantly, Poppy leaves. Emu’s not even sure why he’s bothering at this point. If he’d just teleported out of the grasp of Zaizen’s goon… Then he might have been able to save Togo.

He can feel someone staring at him. Looking up, he sees Mu looking at him, though Mu quickly looks away when he’s caught. After a moment, Mu asks, “Para-DX,” There’s something that rings uncomfortably familiar when Mu says his Rider name, “Why did you become a doctor?”

---

Poppy’s trying to shoo Kiriya out of the CR, like the fact he’s generally not supposed to be there had ever stopped him. Which, honestly, confused Kiriya. They invite Nico, but not him? Not that Kiriya cared much.

Instead, he can’t help but wonder, “Wonder why Masamune tasked his assistant with making sure the Proto Gashats are retrieved?”

“Does it matter?” Poppy asked annoyed.

“It’s strange, certainly.”

---

Eight hours. The clock in Akari’s room read eight hours left before the twenty-four hours was up. If Togo was infected with Hatena’s virus then… They had eight hours left to save him, as well as Akari and Takeru.

Mu stands in front of him, “Ghost has left, you know. He told his friends he’s going to Zaizen’s hideout.”

Standing, Emu looks at Mu, “Thank you, I need to go meet up with him.”

As Emu leaves the CR, he hears Mu call after him and the sound of running footsteps, “I’m coming with you!” Mu says, “To make sure you get the Gashats back from Zaizen!”

Finally, Emu meets up with Takeru, Mu following behind breathless, and they head to Zaizen’s base. They’re greeted with a man, who Emu thinks is… odd.

“Took you guys long enough,” The man says. There’s something about the man that just seems a bit too off. Emu can’t quite place what, though.

But Takeru just smiles at the man, “Haruto,” He says, “What are you doing out here?”

The man, Haruto, told them his plan. He’d convinced Zaizen to let him be lookout for them. Emu thought that Zaizen was terribly gullible if he was so easily convinced to let a complete stranger be lookout, but he wasn’t going to complain. Easier on them.

“I’m Wizard, by the way,” Haruto says as he begins to lead them into the base. Emu wonders if he has magic too, because that would add to the list of “Riders with really on the nose names”. At this point, Emu would definitely believe in magic.

Glancing back at Mu, Emu tells him, “Mu, you should stay out here, it’ll be safer.”

“But the Proto Gashats-!” He tries to protest, before cutting himself off, “Ah, well, I guess I… yeah… you’re probably right… they might notice me… this time.” Emu wonders what he means by this time, but instead just gives Mu a smile and a promise that they’ll be as quick as they can.

Once their inside, Zaizen and his goons quickly realize they’ve been tricked, which they probably should have saw coming. The three Riders are forced to fight the goons, to varying levels of success. Takeru’s fighting some Bugsters that Hatena had summoned, only for them to get shot.

The one who shot the Bugster was a man in a suit, with a gun. Police, it seemed. Takeru seemed to recognize him too, “Shinnosuke!”

“Even though I can’t transform,” Shinnosuke says, “I’m still a Kamen Rider and I can still help!” Emu thinks this must be where Takeru learned his mentality earlier from.

The last of Zaizen’s goons appear, knocking down Shinnosuke. Takeru helps him up, but before either can try to fight him, a man in samurai armor themed around oranges crashes through the ceiling, holding some kind of belt.

“You’re here?” Haruto asked, “Didn’t think you would come.”

The orange samurai holds out the belt to Shinnosuke, to which the belt, surprisingly, cheered, “Shinnosuke!” The face on it’s display showing a happy face. Well that’s… something.

“Mr. Belt?” Shinnosuke wondered, “How?”

“Gaim came and retrieved me, saying my help was needed again.”

Shinnosuke blinked, then had a look on his face that meant that he’d gotten his answer, “Well what else should I have expected from a space god?” Emu paused for a moment at that. Space god? You know what? This might as well just happen. This is the crazy shit his life is now.

As Shinnosuke and Mr. Belt spoke, a bit, Haruto looked at Takeru and Emu, who were standing off to the side watching these interactions and said, “Takeru, Emu,” Then gestures to the fruit Rider, “This is Gaim. Gaim, this is Takeru and Emu, Ghost and Para-DX.”

Distracting them from… whatever they were doing now, Zaizen began to speak, holding up the Bugvisor in his hand, a terrified looking Togo in inside it. Togo was glitching, more so than any normal person infected with Game Disease should be. “I’ll combined his DNA with Game Disease,” Zaizen declared, “Creating a perfect lifeform immune to all disease!” That was crazy sounding, but given Game Disease’s… everything, Emu didn’t think it was impossible. “Then, I’ll give the treatment to everyone.”

“That’s not how medicine works!” Emu yells, clenching his fists, “You can’t just do that to people without giving them a choice!”

Zaizen doesn’t respond. Instead, his goons use three of the Prototype Gashats, Taddle Quest, Gekitotsu Robots, and Giri Giri Chambara, to transform into their Bugster forms. Behind them, Zaizen too transforms into Genomes. The four untransformed Riders pulls out their belts and devices, ready to transform.

Mighty Action X!

Drive Type Speed!

Flame, Please! Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi-Hi!

Ore! Let's go! Kakugo! Go Go Go! Ghost! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Level up! Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty-Mighty Action X!

Drive’s armor was red and black, with a tire flying onto his shoulder and across his body. Wizard was primarily red and black, with a tailcoat and crystal like design on his helmet. Before any of the five Riders could do anything, Hatena uses a Stage Select to sends Drive, Wizard, and Gaim alongside Zaizen’s goons to different stages. That left just Ghost and Para-DX to fight Genomes and Hatena.

---

Mu watches from his position against the wall as Ghost and Para-DX begin to fight Genomes and Hatena. He knows he told them that he’d stay outside, but he really couldn’t care less whether Genomes was defeated, so long as he could retrieve the Prototype Gashats. Of course, three of them were being used by Zaizen’s lackeys, but he could still get the other five. Admittedly, though, he had been expecting someone to notice him sooner, but apparently the Kamen Riders weren’t very observant.

Ghost changes form and couple times and Para-DX levels up to Level 3, yet neither Hatena nor Genomes seem terribly effected. But the four are busy with each other, so Mu uses this opportunity to make his way towards a sort of desk area. There, he finds the briefcase with the five Gashats.

He glances up, seeing Para-DX use a Gekitotsu Critical Strike on Genomes, but Genomes just blasts him away, knocking him out of his transformation and to the ground. Mighty Action X skitters across the floor, prompting Genomes to walk over to it and pick it up. Against Hatena, Ghost changes form again and again, only for what was clearly supposed to be a strong attack to get blocked by Hatena. He changes form again, this time to a sparkly one and tries to attack again, only for Hatena to fire a beam, knocking him out of his transformation.

Still, Ghost rises, making his way towards Hatena. Even when so beaten and close to death, he still tried to fight Hatena. And for what? Mu wondered. For his own life? For his friend who was infected? He’d risk his own life for her. Mu supposed… If Mu were in his position, then he would too. So he can’t judge Ghost.

Yet when it seemed that Ghost was done for, Hatena firing a beam at him once more, Ghost just. Disappeared, only one of his funny spheres left behind. What? Soon Ghost returned in a flash, holding a new sphere.

Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Ieyasu! Hatasunowa itsu! Tenka Touitsu!

Mu watches as Ghost began to fight Hatena once more, this time truly having enough power to stand a chance against the Bugster. Really, he seemed to be stronger than Hatena. Which Mu supposed was good.

Though he probably shouldn’t get so distracted watching the fight he wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near. After all, he needed to get these Gashats out of here. Before Genomes decides to do something… Speaking of… Where the hell was Genomes?

The chainsaw end of a Bugvisor is held to Mu’s throat from behind him. He can see the hand and arm of who it belonged to, realizing it was Genomes. A voice spoke from behind him, quietly in his ear. “I know who you are now…” He says, “At first, I thought Para-DX was you. But now I see. Masamune thought he was clever?”

With a terrible, sinking feeling, Mu realizes he recognizes that voice. He’d only ever heard it once but… He freezes, whispering, “No… You’re the one who…”

A dark room. Scientists and doctors, all dressed in white. They’re on the floor, writhing in pain, glitching. A confused teenager, waking up in pain and fear. The ever-present voice in his head, whispering, “It’s your fault”.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, he pulls out his Gamer Driver and the Proto Mighty Action X Gashat. He had to hurry and transform, his mind told him in a panic. He knew he wasn’t strong enough to beat Genomes, but he could at least get away, at least-

Genomes grabs Mu’s hands with the hand that isn’t holding the Bugvisor, taking away the Proto Gashat.

Para-DX stands, glaring at Genomes. “Let Togo and Mu go!”

Behind Mu, Genomes scoffs, “Why would you go so far to try to save them?”

“Because they both love games. I want to share that with them and see them smile!” Para-DX declared, “I want Togo to be able to continue making games and smile!”

Inside the Bugvisor, Mu can hear something. He can feel it too, there��s a drastic change. Then, Togo somehow projects himself in front of them, from the Bugvisor. In doing this, he’s clearly weakening Genomes slightly.

“Thank you for trying so hard to save me,” Togo says, “I’m sorry I didn’t listen earlier.”

Shaking his head, Para-DX responds, “It’s fine,” He gives Togo a smile, “I’ll do whatever I can to save you.”

“Save me, please,” With that, Genomes forces Togo back into the Bugvisor, prompting Mu to wince. That couldn’t have been pleasant. Then he realized the next sounds he heard. Dual sounds of both the Proto and finished Mighty Action X Gashats being activated. What was Genomes doing?

He realizes what was happening as he sees Para-DX’s eyes widen in fear, calling out, “No!”

Mu looks down, seeing as Genomes placed the two Gashats into his Gamer Driver and flipped the lever. Genomes let go of him, causing him to stumble forward, gasping. It hurt. It hurt so badly. His body was glitching and glitching and there was something rising over him. He couldn’t explain it but-

---

Emu has no choice but to watch in horror as Mu stumbled and cried out in pain as his body began to glitch. The Prototype Gashats alone could cause the user pain, but both the Prototype alongside the complete on someone without the compatibility surgery? He was amazed Mu was still standing, though he wondered when Zaizen had gotten a Gamer Driver.

“When I awoke,” Genomes said, “One of my biggest goals, alongside completing my research, was to get revenge on the one who did this to me.” Emu couldn’t believe he’d go so far to get revenge on him. To harm someone else… Well maybe he shouldn’t be surprised.

The glitching around Mu changes, now oddly orange and blue. Then, something knocks Genome back, and the glitching around Mu begins to take a definitive form. They can’t deal with another Bugster right now… Only it’s not another Bugster. Instead, Mu splits and now standing is something that looks like two Kamen Riders. One blue, one orange.

Genomes is clearly shocked by the turn of events, Emu was too. Though Genomes didn’t have a lot of time to think on it, as the two Riders turned and began to fight him. While the two Riders fought him, Ghost continued to fight Hatena with his new form.

Finally, Takeru defeats Hatena, causing a Game Clear. That meant he, Togo, and Akari were cured now. At least he and Akari. The two new Riders defeat Genomes, knocking away the Bugvisor. Togo is freed of it, seeming tired but no longer infected.

Then, the two Riders combine together once more, leaving Mu on the floor. Emu and Takeru rush over, hoping that whatever happened hadn’t killed Mu yet. Mu squints at them, letting out a groan, “Ugh… what… what the… ouch.” He finally settles on.

The two help him up, “We need to get you back to the hospital,” Emu said.

Mu grumbles a bit, “’M fine…” He said weakly, “…Just… owie…”

Alongside helping Mu out, they help Togo. They encounter the three Riders who helped them and thanked them. Then they found Poppy, who was still carrying Akari, with Takeru’s friends with them.

“Akari!” Takeru smiled, then collapsed. Handing Togo and Mu off to the others, Emu immediately began chest compressions. He kept it up, even when Onari told him to stop. He wouldn’t let Takeru die. Even as he could hear Poppy start to cry, even as he began to cry.

Then, Takeru sputters to life. Emu gives him a smile, “I’m your doctor, I’m not letting you die.”

“Thank you,” Takeru says, though a bit weak, “I’ll make sure to use this life well.”

Groaning again, Mu says something that sounds a bit like “what about the Gashats?” before he promptly passes out himself, his glitching increasing. Emu remembers what happened and they rush to get everyone back to the hospital.

---

Takeru and his friends have gone home, though all of the CR Riders remained. They’re worried about Mu, who’s infection level is already incredibly high. They think it’s because of the use of both versions of Mighty Action X, but no one’s sure. They haven’t seen a Bugster, so there’s not much they can do about it.

“Doesn’t matter now,” Nico says, almost sounding sad as she looked through the window into the patient room.

Kiriya looked at her surprised, “What do you mean?”

She gestures vaguely into the room and answers, “He’s gone.”

Looking into the patient room, it’s clear that there isn’t a sign of Mu. They can only assume he succumbed to his Game Disease. And there’d been nothing they could do to help him.

Sadly, Saki sighed, “I’ll return the Proto Gashats to Masamune and inform him. Hopefully he can tell us how to get in contact with Mu’s family.”

“Are you sure?” Taiga asked, though he received a flat look in response.

“Yes, now you all should call it a day.”

---

Saki enters Masamune’s office with a grave look on her face, briefcase of Gashats in hand. Masamune is certainly surprised to see her.

“I was expecting Mu,” He said.

“He was infected by Zaizen,” She said, “Forced to use both the prototype and the complete Mighty Action X Gashats at once. He disappeared too quickly, there was nothing we could do. We did retrieve the Gashats, though.”

Masamune examines the contents of the briefcase, then says, “I see,” In a terribly unconcerned manner, “I’ll ensure his… family is informed.”

She’s startled by how little he seemed to care but… “Then I’ll be leaving you.”

---

When Mu had woken up, he’d been in the CR’s patient room. Which was bad. He hurt, terribly, but he couldn’t stay. Quietly, he retrieved his Gashat and Gamer Driver, thankfully unnoticed by the Riders and left. As much as he would like to do something to them, so they could understand his pain at Graphite’s death, he doesn’t have the energy. He’s in too much pain, even by his standards.

Somehow, he’d made it back to the hideout, though he stumbled the whole way. He just hurt and hurt. Even his thought hurt. It was terrible and he could never remember something so painful. When he’d gotten back, he’d made it into the room, well into the doorway, when his legs just. Gave out.

Kuroto, though startled, managed to catch him, “What happened?” He sounded horribly worried. Mu felt bad about making him worried.

“Uhm… well… the, uh… science guy… he… put two Gashats in… the uh…. Proto and the finished… and, uh… ouch.” Mu mumbled while Kuroto helped him to the nest, which was still pretty much his bed, “And uh… I dunno… pain? I hurt…”

Taking the Gamer Driver and Gashat from Mu, Kuroto pulls a blanket over him. “Rest,” He said, “I’ll hold on to these for now. I have a use for them, anyway.”

“Mkay,” Mu muttered, “I… hurt.”

Kuroto couldn’t help but watch for a moment, seeing all the glitching. He’s never seen Mu this bad. Still, he regards the Proto Mighty Action X Gashat thoughtfully, “The prototype and completed Gashats at once?” He sighs, “I’ll need to look more into that.”

---

“Yo, Ace!” Kiriya greets Emu at a park bench. Emu wasn’t in his usual appearance, instead letting his actual appearance be seen, rather than his Emu disguise. He smiles at Kiriya, though it doesn’t seem quite right. “Something wrong?”

Hesitantly, Emu answers, “I was thinking about Mu,”

“Yeah,” Kiriya agrees, “It sucks what happened to him.”

“Not just that,” Emus says, “But it’s what happened when we were fighting Genomes. He put a Driver on Mu and put both of the Gashats in… But then Mu split and became two Riders. He – they – they were the ones to defeat Genomes and save Togo.”

Kiriya looks at him in shock, “No way,” He peers over his sunglasses, “You’re joking.”

Shaking his head, Emu can’t agree, “No, that’s what happened.”

“…But how?”

“I don’t know…” Emu fiddles with the cords around his jacket, “But also… This isn’t the first time I encountered Zaizen.”

“It’s not?” Kiriya didn’t really see why Emu would have ever met Zaizen before.

Glancing at Kiriya, Emu begins to explain, “He was the one… he was the one who separated Emu and I six years ago,” He rushes to finish his explanation. “I didn’t realize at first, not until he’d said what had happened to them.”

“It would line up with what you’ve said,” Kiriya can’t help but admit that it lines up scarily well. He wonders if it’s all coincidence that Zaizen returned now or what. And what about Mu? He’d have to look more into him, especially since it sounds like Masamune wasn’t too concerned about his apparent death.

He’d asked Nico to look into Mu, but Nico couldn’t find anything, not with just Mu. By the looks of it, Mu wasn’t his actual name. Then again, Masamune had never said it was. It was just strange. He’d have to go to Gemn Corp himself and ask around.

But that was for later. Right now, he was spending time with Ace.

“Cheer up,” Kiriya says, resisting the urge to throw his arm around Emu. “These things happen. There’s nothing we can do about. Besides, you saved Togo, Akari, and Takeru, alongside all those infected by Pac-Man.” A phrase he’d never have thought he’d have to say.

Still, Emu didn’t seem entirely assured, “Yeah, I guess so,” He sighed still, “I’m just… that form that Genomes created with Mu and the two Gashats… It was so strong, but why? And how come Mu wasn’t immediately killed?”

“Hell if I know,” Kiriya sighs, “But as it is, we aren’t going to get much in the way of answers.”

At that, Emu smiles, “I guess,” He looks over at Kiriya, “Thanks for that. And for being willing to spend time with me… like this.”

“No problem, Ace. When you’re not suspicious, you make good company.”

Emu rolls his eyes and laughs, “Sure, Kiriya, sure.”

#kamen rider ex aid #kamen rider exaid #kamen rider #kamen rider ghost #my writing #there is a me who can become strong

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charliejrogers · 3 years

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Klaus (2019) Review & Analysis

I remember recently discussing with my fiancée how, though there have undoubtedly been a number of Christmas movies released in the last twenty years, none have really risen to the level of a “classic” – something you would want to watch every year as part of a tradition. It’s true I have not seen it, but still something tells me that 2008’s Reese Witherspoon vehicle Four Christmases is not on anyone’s annual watchlist… nor 2017’s Mel Gibson-infested Daddy’s Home 2. We concluded that the last “classic” was 2003’s Elf. And, while Christmas movies don’t have to mention Jesus or religion obviously, please don’t try to tell me that Frozen is a Christmas movie… it’s not! In some ways, given how secular things are, I began to wonder if there even was a market for holiday family fun movies, but of course, I’m an idiot because you can just make a whole movie about Santa Claus. Move over, Jesus, we gotta talk about the reason for the season!

Klaus released last holiday season on Netflix and at least in Chicago I saw billboards for it everywhere. Netflix went all in on promoting this as the next big Christmas movie and had some moderate success; they even grabbed an Oscar nom for best animated picture. Unlike most animated films these days, Klaus was made by neither DreamWorks nor Disney, and it shows. It lacks the refined polish of a Disney/Pixar feature, but also has a heart unlike a DreamWorks picture. The animation style can be best described as a hybrid of 2D and 3D (yet not quite 2.5D). At times the character models look like classic hand-drawn 2D models set within a mostly computer-generated 3D environment. But at other times, they look more 3D. It’s confusing to describe, and inconsistent to watch. It often felt like I was watching a compromise between a studio that wanted a distinct animation style but didn’t have the budget to fully realize it. Still, more often the not it’s a pretty movie.

More than the raw visuals, the movie has a fantastic sense of atmosphere… perhaps even too much at the beginning. Klaus is, in one sense, the story about how a lonely woodsman becomes the legendary Santa Claus, but for such a jolly premise, much of the film is shrouded in shadows and dominated by an oppressive, cold, snowy bleakness. In retrospect, this makes sense as the true triumph of Santa and “Christmas spirit” can only be best appreciated when it brings light to the darkest of places and times. Still, upon first viewing, I was quite surprised and shocked by the dark atmosphere and downright violent imagery on display at the beginning of the film, so much so that I was wondering if this really was a Christmas movie!

The darkness stems from the fact that our woodsman Klaus lives deep within the forest on a far north island, far far from the closest village which is a town called Smeerensberg and is famous for its never ending feuding and wickedness. It’s a genuine Nineveh of the North so it seems. The town’s feud centers around two rivalling clans (the film’s equivalent of the Hatfields & McCoys) and every villager belongs to one clan or the other. The two families’ feuds go back longer than anyone can remember (cave paintings exist that depict their feud), implying an original sin of sorts with the town being more born from hatred than spawning it. Hatred is so foundational that it infects every part of society. Unwilling to allow children to interact with the rival clans in classrooms, children just don’t go to school. Instead, they roam the streets playing pranks on old people and stabbing snowmen with carrots.

For the most part, Klaus lives his life separate from and unbothered by these unruly residents of Smeerensberg. What breaks his solitude is the arrival of a new post officer to Smeerensberg. More than a trivial side character, this post officer, Jesper Johansson, is surprisingly the main character of this movie all about the origins of Santa Claus.

Much like the residents of Smeerensberg, we the audience come to the film with a primary misunderstanding, much of what makes Santa famous today (the home invasion via chimney, the responding to letters, the reindeer-pulled sleigh) were the creative inventions of a spoiler-brat-turned-postman. So despite this movie being about the origins of Santa Claus, being a Christmas movie, you should have guessed that this will be some variant on Dickens’ classic tale. Jesper isn’t a classic Scrooge in that he doesn’t abhor Christmas, but he is self-absorbed, materialistic, and all-around not a great guy. He’s the spoiled son of a successful postal worker who controls a postal empire that looks more like an army. (The true fantasy of this movie has nothing do with sleigh bells and stocking stuffers… it’s the idea that the post office is a well-organized, well-respected, successful enterprise.) Anyways, recognizing his own son’s worthlessness, Jesper’s father decides to whip him into shape, ship him off to the God-forsaken land of Smeerensberg with an ultimatum: Jesper must process 6,000 letters from the town of Smeerensberg in a year or else be cut off from his father’s wealth. The problem? With how ugly the feud is in Smeerensberg, no one needs to write a letter to express their feelings when a cold snowball to the face (or worse) will get the point across quite clearly.

So now with the spoiled postal heir longing for silk sheets as he tries to survive out in the cold boonies, the movie gets a hint of the Emperor’s New Groove flavor… sans llama. It is only by sheer “chance” (we’ll get to that) that when Jesper visits the woodsman in a last ditch effort to find one person on the island who wants to send a letter, a piece of paper falls out of Jesper’s bag as he flees in horror of the woodsman (we’ll get to that). This piece of paper contains a drawing that a little boy made of himself locked in a high tower looking sad. In a very humorous scene, we had seen Jesper accidentally stumble across this drawing and then unsuccessfully try to scam the boy into giving him money so that Jesper could “mail” it back to him, rather than just give it back. Regardless, recognizing the little boy’s suffering, the woodsman decides to do something about it and enlists Jesper’s help. Luckily for the children of Smeerensberg, the woodsman has a barn full of toys. Yes, “a barn full of toys” is as creepy as that sounds and the films uses that creepiness to full effect when Jesper first meets the woodsman. The large, imposing, hooded, axe-bearing woodsman is far from the jolly fellow we know he is destined to become. He’s downright scary and given how violent the town of Smeerensberg is (Jesper almost dies when he first arrives because he’s tricked into ringing the war bell which sends the whole town into violent frenzy), we and Jesper are not wrong to assume the woodsman holds only ill-intentions. Essentially, the first meeting with the woodsman is supposed to be something akin to the reveal of the Beast in 1991’s Beauty & the Beast, a film so scary it sent my then two-year-old sister running out of theater in tears. Ultimately, I can’t speak for the mind of a child, but the tension for me here is certainly lessened by the fact that… well… we know the woodsman is Santa Claus. So even though Jesper is scared shitless and flees after meeting the woodsman, we know that there will be more to their story.

Still, even if not necessarily scary, the film does successfully shroud the woodsman in mystery, and his backstory is slowly and beautifully revealed throughout the film. I won’t spoil it here, but the script does a fantastic job of contextualizing the woodman’s stoic and aloof nature and explaining why that barn is so full of toys. The explanations come naturally and speak to a real human pain that I was not expecting from this film. In terms of emotion, the woodsman’s backstory almost reaches the opening montage to Up. ALMOST, I said, so put down the pitchforks!

So Jesper and the woodsman team up to deliver a present to that first child from the drawing. Or more accurately, the woodsman throws Jesper down a chimney to deliver a present while the woodsman looks on. The ensuing scene when the boy opens his present brought tears to my eyes. The woodsman (and we with him) watching the pure joy of a child receiving a present is truly nostalgic in its most literal sense. It hurts to see such joy, remembering that at one time you too could feel such joy from a hunk of plastic, and knowing you will never feel that way again. It’s a joy that few films outside of A Christmas Story with its the red rider BB gun really nail. Anyways, the little boy sees the woodsman through the window and finds his original drawing of himself locked in the tower which the woodsman leaves behind by accident. He surmises that the postman had devliered his drawing to the woodsman, and the woodsman responded with a present.

After that… well the rumor spreads wildly of the mysterious woodsman who comes down chimneys at night to give presents to children in response to letters. Now, the once dormant post office becomes a bustling hub of activity as children from all over flock to send letters to this Mr. Klaus. Kids even beg to go to school so that they can learn to write in order to get presents (much to the dismay of the disilliusioned teacher who long ago gave up on her dreams of teaching in a town where no child goes to school and had turned to being a fishmonger in order to pay the bills and one day afford to leave the town for good).

Gradually the children, who seemingly had no toys prior to Klaus and Jesper’s escapades, now joyously play together, regardless of which clan they belong to. Initially this upsets their parents greatly, but in the end it’s hard to really hate the parents of your children’s friends. The film promotes an age-appropriate and inspiring, if fanciful and naïve, notion that all the world’s problems would be solved if we all thought like children. As by spreading joy throughout the town, Jesper and Klaus inadvertently make the town a better place to live. It’s the theme of the film (not that they’re subtle about it): one act of good-will always begets another (or something like that). Still, all this doesn’t please the village elders, who abhor the change from the town’s hateful origins. They will ultimately serve as villains trying to put an end to all this gift-giving business.

Of course, there’s another villain of sorts, as well. Despite all the good he’s doing, Jesper is ultimately still motivated mostly by the notion of getting back to his old cushioned life. He is essentially using Klaus and preying on his kindness in order to launch himself back to a life of selfishness. It’s here the story feels most Dickensian, particularly in a scene where the school teacher (now love interest) acts functionally the same to the ghost of Christmas present and takes Jesper to the city center to see for himself the love and joy that he has helped bring to the world. But, still his desires to go home are strong, and, of course, he keeps them a secret. So between Jesper’s inner conflict about where he belongs in life and the external conflict of the community trying to fight back against a change in its culture, the film naturally comes to climax when the two conflicts meet and Jesper must confront both challenges at once.

What I’ve realized in writing this review … is that I am very impressed by the plot’s complexity and depth. The film weaves together at least three solid story arcs (Jesper’s coming-of-age/Scrooge-like-change-of-heart, Smeerenberg’s bubbling kindness revolution, and the woodsman’s aged hero who finds redemption and purpose after so many years alone). That all three feel fully supported and without any bloat is a testament to its absolutely solid writing, and for a kid’s film no less! Furthermore, the “origin” story genre can sometimes fall flat as it can just feel like the writers are writing more Wikipedia entries, explaining how every little aspect came to be more than just telling a good story. I call it the Han Solo trap. As for Klaus, the little tidbits about why Klaus uses reindeer and not horses, who the “elves” who work his workshop are, always clever and grow organically from the plot.

Plus, despite my opening doubts regarding whether the dark tone really fit a “Christmas” movie, the film very capably captures the joys of the Christmas season. Like Christians think about Jesus, Klaus/Jesper bring a world of light into a world of darkness. The film teaches about the importance of creating a loving community, of being selfless, and most importantly of respecting the spiritual aspect of the season. Even if this is a decidedly capitalistic/entrepreneurial movie, the film is not without a spiritual side. The previously mentioned “chance” of the woodsman seeing that initial drawing of the boy locked in the tower is no chance at all. Instead, throughout the film we see that the woodsman is “haunted” in a sense by a ghostly wind that points him in the path of righteousness. The film has its own explanation for what the force behind the wind is, but it is not too far of a stretch to point out the similarities between the wind and the Christian idea of the guiding Holy Spirit. Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the woodsman represents God the Father and Jesper God the Son, (or is Klaus more the Christ figure?) because I think this movie is decidedly not Christian, but more I just want to highlight that I enjoyed that the film allowed for the presence of spirituality, which moves this film from the realm of secular kindness to one that recognizes the power and presence of some spiritual goodness, aligning with how many think of the “Christmas spirit.”

Now, let’s be clear, this is a fun, family classic, but it’s not a perfect film. In fact, I downright disliked the first twenty to thirty minutes, for the aforementioned tonal reasons, but also because I really disliked Jason Schwartzmann’s voice acting in the lead role of Jesper. My dislike lessened with the introduction of the woodsman, but it never went away fully. I can’t help but think this movie would be better with a different actor voicing Jesper. Everyone else does an adequate job with the voice work. J.K. Simmons as Klaus takes on an almost Batman-like stoic gruffness, and Rashida Jones as the teacher and love interest is just fine. And, again, I never really fell in love with the art style and it sometimes distracted me, and I found the soundtrack, particularly the main song to be rather lame and too much “of its time” than the typically timeless, more Broadway productions that Disney/Pixar put out. Still, director Sergio Pablos has done something I did not think possible. He and his team created a *new* Christmas classic, one that I’m sure will be played on an annual basis in many households across the world.

***1/4 (Three and a fourth stars out of four)

#klaus #klaus 2019 #jason schwartzman #rashida jones #j.k. simmons #sergio pablos

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mischiefandspirits · 3 years

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Colony of Gotham (3/7)

The Colony of Gotham is an urban legend that is whispered about in the dangerous city. It’s said the Colony is a family of demons and spirits that stalk the night, hunting for the souls of the guilty.

When Bruce became Batman, he’d never intended to be mistaken for a demon. He was happy to lean into it, though, and as he gained his partners – as his family grew – they all followed suit.

First Part ~ Previous Part ~ Next Part

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duke Thomas lost his parents when Joker unleashed a new version of Joker Venom onto a crowd. While most of the infected were rounded up to be cured, some disappeared, Duke’s parents among them. The boy was determined to find them, no matter what it took, which landed him in trouble with both his foster parents and the law. Even when he was labeled a delinquent, though, he continued to search.

Meanwhile, a similar search came to its end.

Harper Row’s hunting had eventually led to her crossing paths with Batman. Despite her fear, she refused to back down under his warnings until her brother Cullen was attacked by some of his classmates while she was away on one of her searches.

Bruce, having been keeping an eye on the woman, stepped in to ensure they got justice for the attack and, in the process, helped her get custody of Cullen so they could both be free of their abusive father. In the face of all these changes and with Batman’s promise to find the other killer, Harper agreed to stand down.

However, Cass would find him first by taking a bullet for him after her father sent men to attack Harper and Cullen to draw her out.

Having expected a monster like Orphan, not this small child who stared up at her with the most apologetic eyes, Harper immediately forgave the girl and worked with Bruce and Batman to clear Cass’s name and take the girl under her wing. It was hard as Cass didn’t understand any language but body, but Harper and Cullen were willing to put in the work. In an effort to help, Bruce brought the Rows into the fold and promised any aid they could require.

Cullen was fascinated, but also happy to keep to the normal side of life. Bruce may have secretly wondered why the other children he found himself faced with couldn't be that level headed.

Harper, on the other hand, was more taken in, but also wary of getting too involved now that she had two people relying on her care. She went out sometimes in all black body armor with a full face mask and short hooded cloak, but she stayed out of sight enough that Black Bat remained an unknown myth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A trip to Los Angeles had Tim declaring he was never going with Bruce on business trips ever again. The first two days had been nice enough, but then Bruce caught him pulling an all-nighter working on a case that he wasn’t supposed to be working on and banned him from coffee.

Which was how a half-awake, phone focused Tim found himself nearly stepping out in front of traffic. Thankfully someone not dead on their feet spotted him in time and she pulled him back onto the sidewalk. He tried to laugh it off as just being too focused on his phone. That failed when he turned to walk away and almost immediately walked into a newspaper rack. The girl insisted on walking him to his hotel. When he pointed out he was going to pick up something from his father, she declared she’d walk him there and back.

When he returned back to Gotham with a new number in his phone, he refused to look her up. No, she was just some random civilian. He didn’t care if Wonder Girl doesn’t even wear a mask! Obviously that was her! A hoodie doesn’t help hide anything, Cassie! You and Kon are terrible! How do you two even have secret identities? At least Superman had those stupid glasses!

No, she was an ordinary civilian.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duke Thomas’s search eventually ended when he teamed up with Batman to free his parents and the other missing Joker Venom victims from the Court of Owls, his photokinetic vision helping them navigate the labyrinthine tunnels. Unfortunately the Court’s experiments paired with going so long without the antidote had left the victims catatonic. Even still, Duke was so grateful that he did what he could to help Batman with his cases in the future.

Bruce, giving in to the inevitable even if he was wary to have a meta vigilante in Gotham, brought Duke into the Colony. There was some debate over how he’d fit in until Duke made it known that he would prefer getting some actual training before he went into the field for real.

This doesn’t stop Tim and Bette from glaring eachother down over who got to move on from Robin first.

Cass suggested settling it with a Mario Kart race.

Tim won.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One day Jinny “Hex” Woodson got fed up with all her friends discussing their Gotham friends -- ones she was pretty sure none of them were even allowed to have since no one was even supposed to go to Gotham -- so she packed a bag and headed out to find her own Gotham friend.

She decided the place was alright enough. It was actually kind of nice that no one questioned her for having a pair of pistols holstered on her hips. Someone even tried to mug her despite them.

It was hilarious.

She was having trouble finding her new Gotham friend, though. At least until a kid fell off a fire escape she’d been passing under and into her arms.

It was fate.

Apparently the kid had been trying to take a picture of a bird (aka Tim was scouting for a stakeout) and the railing hadn’t been quite as sturdy as he’d thought (it had only let him balance on it in a crouch for two hours before giving way). It was then that he noticed her guns.

“You’re not going to shoot me, right?”

“Angel, you’re so skinny, you can't even see your shadow. I don’t need my guns to whup you.”

“Angel?”

“Because you fell from heaven.”

Tim was not amused. He was even less amused when she declared they were friends now. No, he doesn’t get an opinion on the matter. Should have thought about that before throwing himself at unsuspecting women. She doesn’t even swing that way, Angel.

Around the same time that it hit the Young Justice team that they were all friends with the same Gothamite, it also hit the Colony that Tim had somehow managed to befriend the entire team.

Except no, Tim affirmed that they befriended him. He had no input in this whatsoever, thank you very much. It was probably Kon’s fault, really. He had probably set it all up. Tim was definitely going to give Kon the cold shoulder.

At least until his badgering got too annoying.

The worst part was that Stephanie stole his phone to get Cassie’s number when she found out she and Tim had been flirting. She stated it was so Stephanie could defend his honor if she tried something, but he caught both her and Bette in a group chat with not only Cassie, but Kara Danvers aka Supergirl and Suzanne “Cissie” King-Jones aka Arrowette.

Apparently, they didn’t get to be teased since the girls actively sought out their super friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Talia al Ghul personally informed her that the Heir to the Demon was now living with his biological father Bruce Wayne so she would be wise to keep her distance from Gotham, sister or not, Cheshire knew she’d made the right call keeping her nose out of the Waynes’ business.

It didn’t occur to her that when Talia al Ghul had met Bruce Wayne over ten years earlier at a party and decided to spend the night with him, the woman believed he’d given up his training to settle down for a life of luxury and frivolities. Cheshire didn’t know Ra’s had only allowed Talia to keep the child that had been an accidental result because he’d seen Bruce’s promise and believed, if raised properly, the child could become what he thought Bruce hadn’t.

That Talia had only brought her son to his father because she had no other choice.

The Demon’s Daughter fled to Gotham with Damian after her father was killed by Slade Wilson. She had hoped that between Bruce’s former training and the shadowy Colony of Gotham, Damian would be safe until Wilson could be dealt with.

Damian did not get along with his siblings. He made an attempt to pick a fight with Tim that failed when Tim refused to fight a child. Cass tried to fight him in Tim’s place, but Harper told her no. Damian tried to stab Dick when he hugged him and Dick disarmed him before he could without releasing the hug. He picked a fight with Jason and got his butt handed to him. Damian snuck out to prove himself, picked a fight with Nightwing, and got his butt kicked. Damian tried his hand with Tim again and the older boy, annoyed, agreed then used knockout gas on him the moment the fight began. Dick tried to talk with Damian and they ended up fighting. Damian, of course, got his butt kicked.

Stephanie was standing on the sidelines the entire time, encouraging everything.

Soon enough the Colony noticed Slade holed up near Gotham and launched an attack. Due to the danger, Bruce pulled in everyone, leaving the Robins and Alfred to keep an eye on Damian, Duke, Cullen, and Cass in the manor while Catwoman took guard outside. When Damian found out about the attack and tried to go after Slade, Tim sent him in the opposite direction then followed after him in the suit he’d been designing for post-Robin while the others took shelter in the cave.

Tim knocked Damian out and dragged him back to the cave where they locked him in a cell, to Bruce’s annoyance. Damian woke up and realized his father was Batman when he overheard Bruce reveal that Talia was likely coming back for Damian now that Slade was taken down. He also heard the family’s argument over it. None of them wanted him to go with her, but in the end they agreed that it was Damian’s choice.

When she did come, Damian remembered what the others said about him having a choice and some things about family Dick had said when the two had had their private conversation. He decided to stay with them, citing that there were things his father could teach him that he couldn’t learn while helping his mother rebuild the League.

She was obviously annoyed and disappointed, but didn’t fight him on it.

It wasn’t easy. Damian still fought with all his brothers as well as Stephanie, though Duke did his best to keep out of it. The youngest Wayne tried to challenge Tim and Bette for his place as Robin, but Dick and Bruce were able to get him to agree to training instead with the reminder that he was lacking the theatrical and teamwork skills that the Colony utilized and were mandatory as Robin.

Bruce didn’t mention that he wanted more reassurance the boy wouldn’t step over the line before ever letting him near the field.

Damian was not impressed when he discovered his father’s relationship with Selina Kyle and made it well known.

She thought it was adorable.

Damian would never admit that the kitten she gifted him was what calmed him. He simply didn’t see the point in wasting any energy on outwardly disliking the woman when his father clearly wouldn’t be changing his mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Duke took Tim’s place as Robin, he made sure to keep his own contributions to the role quiet. Robin was a legacy while his meta abilities were not. Tim was not quite so subtle in his new role.

No one was sure where the name Corvid came from since the new bird didn’t speak in words, only trills. He wore an armored suit that was blue on the chest and arms and black on his sides with white detailing. His legs, hands, and feet were all black as well except for the blue splashes on the outside of his thighs. A white belt draped over his hips while black bandoliers crossed over his chest, a silver and black bird logo covering the cross. The bandoliers connected to his cowl, which was open at the top unlike the Bats’ which allowed his feather-like hair to fall down around his face. It was shoulder length and faded from black at the roots to blue at the tips, much like the wings that formed from his feathered cape.

They said he was a fallen star stolen away by the Colony. He soared soundlessly through the air on wings that never flapped, leaving behind a trail of blue light. He was more migratory than the others. Sometimes he flew above Batman and Robin, sometimes Batwoman and Red Hood, and sometimes Batgirl and Nightwing. A criminal could only hope they got the warning of seeing one of the others first or he’d have them in his talons hundreds of feet in the air before they even realized he was there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time passed. Damian grew closer to the rest of the Colony under Dick’s instruction.

Jason and Kate bonded with him over their more aggressive styles (to Bruce’s consternation) while helping him learn ways to calm his temper.

Despite their rough start and continuing antagonism, Damian grew to respect Tim’s quick mind as he tutored him in strategy and the Colony’s language.

He also developed a respect that had nothing to do with fear -- not at all -- for Barbara after she repaid an insult he gave her by sharing with the entire family a video of him fawning over some stray kittens in the park. He never discovered how she got the footage as he had made sure there were no cameras in the vicinity before acting in such an undignified fashion. (It was Dick. He pouted for weeks when he realized the cute video he took of his adorable baby brother was used for such purposes.)

A similar kind of respect grew for Harper as he quickly learned to be noticeable when approaching her. She had far too much experience with bats and birds sneaking around and far too little concern over jabbing them with a stun gun in revenge, whether they meant to scare her or not.

He was not afraid to admit he was scared of Cass once he realized who she was, though. He knew her skills and knew she could take him down in seconds if it came to it.

He was skeptical of both Stephanie and Bette, who he believed to be vapid, but Stephanie’s pranks were amusing when they weren’t directed at him and Bette introduced him to social media revolving around animal rights (and cute animal pictures).

Although he was rather dull, Cullen was by far the best person to be with while working on his newfound appreciation for drawing and painting, especially if the older boy was doing his own artwork for the webcomics he and Duke collaborated on.

While not being the most mentally or physically skilled, Duke was the most patient of the lot and could be trusted to keep his mouth shut so he was the one Damian went to when he needed assistance with homework (a rare occurrence, but the American schooling system was so different from his League tutors, to the point that sometimes they even seemed to contradict one another) or wanted to practice his Trillic.

Though he would never admit it out loud, Dick was Damian’s favorite of the lot. While he didn’t have Duke’s patience, he was just as considerate and confidential. When something happened, Dick was always willing to hear him out and talk him through it until he understood. Or at least was on the path to understanding. Dick did not share Jason’s anger, his father’s suspicion, Tim’s caution, or Duke’s anxiety. He had only sympathy. Damian knew his mother would consider Dick weak, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a year in Gotham came and went, Dick went to Duke and Bette. The three talked, eventually bringing in Harper as an idea began to blossom.

Robin had a sword. They said he got it from his shadow.

The only thing not pitch black on the Black Bat was the thin golden outline of the Bat’s symbol on their chest. Their face was featureless, not even possessing eyes like Batgirl. They never made a sound. If you saw Robin, then his shadow was behind you.

There was no time to run.

On the other hand, those who believed themselves safe during the day proved to be foolish.

Bright spirits had come to Gotham.

They wore metal armor and carried their wings on their chests. They came and went in flashes of light bright enough to stun.

Bluebird was their guide and donned armor of blue. Her voice echoed with the voices of lost souls and lightning danced across her form.

Lark was their prophet and donned armor of gold. He could see the past, present, and future and fought with the strength of ages past.

Hawkfire was their messenger and donned armor of red. She spoke with the voices of everyone she passed and her armor blazed with the heat of the sun.

Though they walked the day and seemed to be creatures of light, it was nothing but a trick. They were will-o'-wisps, false lights. They were birds.

The Colony had invaded the day.

With the three working together, Bette offered to turn Duke and Harper. The two accepted. Afterwards Harper sought out Cullen and Cass to offer them the same. She wasn’t surprised with Cass’s easy agreement, though Cullen’s was a little more shocking as he’d never shown any interest in the Colony’s nightlife. Quite the opposite, in fact. He simply shrugged and told her vampirism had nothing to do with the nightlife. It was just how their family worked.

He and Cass were greatly amused, but unsurprised when Harper, Bette, and Duke forgot to mention the latest turnings. They decided to keep their own mouths shut to see how long it would last, though he did confide in Alfred. Not that it was necessary as the man seemed to put it together himself the moment he saw Cullen.

It took three months for Bruce, Tim, and Barbara to figure it out for themselves, then an additional two for the rest to find out when Duke casually mentioned it during a family meeting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damian blamed Tim when he found himself stuck in a room with Superman’s spawn Jonathan Kent while said superhero in disguise interviewed Damian’s father for the newspaper.

Clearly, Tim’s horrible curse had somehow rubbed off on Damian and the older boy would pay dearly once he returned home by way of Damian renaming all of Tim’s non-case related computer folders and creating a maze of invisible thread around his room.

At least the half-alien had good taste in video games. And his voice was nice enough that his incessant chatter was more like a soothing white noise than a nuisance. And Superman clearly would have trained Jon in discretion, even if not to Damian’s family’s standards.

For the record, the only reason Damian accepted Jon’s number was so that Dick would be so pleased Damian had finally acquired a friend that he wouldn’t allow the others to tease him over something that was clearly Tim’s fault to begin with. And when that plot fell through, he simply forgot to delete Jon’s number because he was busy expanding his revenge to include Jason and Stephanie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harper, as Black Bat, wore Cass's Orphan suit from Young Justice. I wanted something a little more lowkey from what she normally wears since she's not really supposed to be spotted.

Tim's suit got the most reworking because I like and dislike elements from all his Red Robin suits. The end result is one with the body armor from his Young Justice (TV) Robin suit, but with the New 52 wings paired with the bandoliers, logo, and cowl from the original Red Robin suit. Except I left the cowl open on top like the ones Kid Flash and Impulse use. From there you replace the red with blue and the yellow with white. I honestly wish I was better at drawing so that I could give a visual of what I'm going for here.

Cass's Black Bat suit is her Batgirl one, just with her belt black instead.

Haper, Bette, and Duke wear Signal's armor as Bluebird, Hawkfire, and Lark, just in blue, red, and gold instead of yellow. The bat logo is also replaced with their individualized bird logos.

Vampires’ animal forms:

Duke: Cape wild dog

Harper: Maned wolf

Cullen: Crab-eating fox

Cass: Northern bat

#batman #batfam #colony of gotham #fanfiction

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mrallnight57-blog · 3 years

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The Crystal of Mordokia.

Chapter 11

Jenny had her arms handcuffed to the arms of a chair. Jack had also found some rope, and had tied her legs to the chair as well. Jenny was still woozy from Jack's attack on her earlier. Through out this entire time, she has barely been able to stay conscious.

Jack pulled up another chair and sat cadi-corner from her. "You know Jenny, you only have yourself to blame. At first I thought it was kind of cute, you flirting with my wife, but then my mind was awoken, by the power and words of Gothic Mirror."

Jack stood up and began pacing, and Jenny remained still. Jack continued speaking. "He said you would take everything from me. Not just my wife, but my job, my house, my kids." Jack grabbed the arms of Jenny's chair, and looked her in the eyes. "You wanted everything I had, didn't you?"

Jenny remained silent, not wanting to give him a reaction. It was true, that she loved Carla, but as for the rest of his stuff. He could keep it, except for maybe the kids he tending to neglect anyways.

Jack smiled. He realized Jenny wasn't going to give him the reaction he wanted, not until he told her, what he did to Carla.

"At least I know, no matter what happens tonight, you will never see Carla again."

Jenny's eyes widen, then she made a plea. "Okay Jack, maybe I wanted everything you had. That just means Carla was a innocent victim. Don't hurt her. I take full blame for everything." Last thing Jenny wanted was for Jack to not hurt Carla anymore than he already does. Chances was Jenny wasn't going to make it out alive, so it didn't matter what happened to her.

Jack laughed, and began pacing again. "No Jenny, she wasn't. That little bitch was planning on leaving me, but I talked her out of it, and convinced her to break up with you. Then I had her, drop off our youngest at my sister's house. Then I told her to come home and have some private time with me, so we could work things out."

The more Jack spoke, the more nervous Jenny was getting. Finally she interrupted him. "What did you do Jack!?! Mother fucker!!! What did you do!?!"

Jack got back into Jenny's face, and began yelling at her. "I put a bullet in her fucking head!!! That's what I did!"

Tears began rolling down Jenny's cheeks. "You're a piece of shit!!! You know that Jack!?!" As Jenny thought about Carla's fate, sadness began filling her heart. She thought, maybe had the two of them never gotten together. She would still be alive right now.

Jenny shook her head a bit. She had to get those thoughts out of her head. If she survived, she could mourn Carla later. Right now they were other things she wanted to know, before she met her possible fate.

Jack was still pacing around the room. Seemingly proud of what he had done. Jenny put her emotions to the side, so she could began getting the answers she needed. "Okay Asshole, I get it. You're little pee brain was manipulated by Gothic Mirror, and made you think that I was the root of all evil. Even though I have no idea what that son of a bitch has against me, especially since I just barely met that mother fucker once, before tonight. Answer me one question Jack. Answer me one question before I die."

Jack walked over to Jenny and looked down at her. "Gothic Mirror has a whole lot of reasons to hate you, but what is your question?"

Jenny looked up at Jack, wondering what reasons Gothic Mirror could have for hating her, but at this point she needed to know something else. "Why involve the rest of the team? If this was all about me, why have them killed?"

Jack sat back down in his chair, and began speaking. "Donavan had been looking into some of my recent cases, and found links to the Gothic Lights. He also noticed that I had, either dropped those cases, or I let certain people go. He was beginning to become a problem, and since I had no idea who else knew, or who else might have been looking investigating the same thing he was. Me and Gothic Mirror decided that tonight was a perfect opportunity to get rid of them.

This was the first time Jenny had heard anything about Jack being investigated. Truth be told, she should have been the one leading the charge on it, but because she was having a relationship with the man's wife. She had sort of allowed her personal life to become a subtraction. Good on Donavan though, at least someone was looking in on this prick. That was going to be another reason to miss Donavan, now that he is gone.

Jack got comfortable in his chair. He knew he could tell Jenny anything he wanted, because he had already won. Soon Jenny would be dead, and he along with the rest of the Gothic Lights would be ushering in a new world.

Jack began laughing. "You want to hear something funny Jenny?"

Jenny just stared at Jack, not answering him. She learned everything she wanted to know from him, and had no interest in small talk. This just caused Jack to laugh again, and continue talking.

"You know all of your successes, your big claims to fame. Gothic Mirror said the only reason you got as far as you did was because..."

Suddenly a large crash came from the next room. It sounded like glass shattering. Jack immediately stood up. "Oh shit!!! The blood!" Jack pulled out his gun, and began slowly sneaking over to the next room to see what had just happened.

The sound got Jenny's attention too, but she was in no position to do anything about it. Did someone sneak in through the window and destroy the tub full of blood, or did the crystal cause the demon they were trying to summon to come earlier than they suspected. Maybe this was the work of that Litias creature they kept talking about. Whatever it was, it was giving Jenny a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something inside her was telling her, that something terrible was about to happen.

Jack slowly entered the adjacent room, and quietly shut the door. If there was a intruder in the room. They were not getting out alive. After Jack shut the door, he noticed the tub that once had blood in it was completely destroyed, but there wasn't a drop of blood on the floor, or in what was left of the tub. Then he looked across the room, and saw a very large man looking in a mirror that was on the wall.

All Jack could see was the man's back. The man was wearing some kind of long coat, made from studded leather. It was brown, and at some point it looked as if someone had tried to set it on fire. It also had tons of holes in it, like he had been in a war. The man's hair was raggedy and long, going down below his collar.

The man held his hand up, and Jack could see the reflection. 666 was tattooed on the man's knuckles. The man began speaking, but Jack couldn't understand it, because it was in a language the man had never heard before. The one thing that was clear though, was the man was not happy about something.

Jack pointed his gun at the back of the man's head. "Turn around slowly, or I will blow your fucking brains out!"

The man ignored him. He continued talking in a weird language. Not at Jack, but at someone else. Someone Jack couldn't see. Jack continued pointing his gun at him, but now he was shaking. His nerves were going haywire, and the only thought that came to his head was. You're going to die!

Jack was trying to get his courage back. "Look asshole if you don't put your hands up and turn around slowly, I will fucking kill you!"

This seem to get the man's attention, because the man turned his head slightly to look at him. That's when Jack noticed something that terrified him. The man wasn't human.

When the man turned his head, Jack noticed that the man had long pointy ears, and pale green skin on his face, but the skin on his neck was black. It almost looked like the man had some kind of infection.

Oh my God!!! Jack thought. The markings on his hand. The green skin, the pointy ears. This must be a Demon. This must be Widow Maker!

Jack put his gun away, and got down on his knees. "Oh mighty! King of the Underworld. I am nothing more than a humble servant. Your Majesty!"

At this point the man had fully turned around, and Jack could see his tattered clothes. Both the man's shirt, and pants appeared to be homemade. They definitely didn't look like any brand he had ever seen. They were torn and ripped as if he had just been in combat, but the skin underneath was completely intact. No scars could be seen.

The man looked down at Jack and cocked his head to one side. The look he gave Jack was one of confusion. As if he didn't understand what Jack was saying.

Jack tried communicating with him again. "I" Jack pointed at himself. "Am your. " Jack pointed at the man. "Humble servant." Jack bowed his head, in a attempt to look submissive.

At this point the man was just staring at him. Suddenly Jack had a strange feeling. It felt as if a large amount of time had just passed. This feeling was so strange, Jack actually checked his watch. He had only been in the room for a few minutes. Jack was about to say something to the man, but the man began speaking. This time in perfect English. "Jack Morner."

Jack's eyes widen. This strange man knew him by name. Jack slowly rose to his feet. "You... you know my name."

"Yes I do." The man's voice was calm, almost soothing. It was not at all what Jack thought a Demon would sound like. The man continued speaking. "I know everything about you Jack."

Jack started stuttering. "H..how. ? Ha..ve you bee..n watch..ing me?

"No." The man responded as he stared down Jack. "Your soul tells me everything. It speaks to me. It tells me everything you have ever done."

Jack stood there silently. The atmosphere around him, felt like it was going to choke him. Fear began creeping up his spine.

The man stared at the markings on his hand again, then said something in another language. Then he looked back at Jack. "So Jack. What does the FBI do?"

Jack was puzzled by the question. It was random, and he didn't understand why the man was asking him the question. "We investigate criminal activity, and put criminals away."

The man chuckled. "Yet, here you are. A criminal yourself. With all of his freedoms, still intact."

Jack was shaking uncontrollably. While the man stared at him. Something felt wrong. It felt as if he was in the interrogation room, back at headquarters, but on the wrong side of the table. Jack tried to speak, wanting to defend himself, but the man began talking again.

"You took bribes didn't you Jack? You let criminals walk the street, as long as you got something out of it. Then when others had questions, you had them silenced, didn't you Jack?"

Jack began getting angry, and started yelling at the man. "They didn't see the big picture! And I wasn't going to lose everything because of them!!!"

"Hmmm." The man was unfazed by Jack's outburst. The man was completely calm. It was as if nothing Jack had done even bothered him. Possibly because he had seen worse, or more than likely, he had done worse.

"Interesting." The man gave Jack a crooked smile. This was the first time Jack noticed the man's teeth. They were perfectly white, but he had fangs just like a mythological vampire.

Jack remained silent, but he was becoming more terrified. Even though the man had had not been hostile. Yet Jack felt like something else was in the room. Something that wanted him dead, and was slowly preparing to strike.

The man took another step towards Jack. "I guess your wife didn't see the big picture either? Is that why you killed your wife Jack?"

Jack began panicking, a combination of fear and aggravation from the man's questions. Jack began yelling. "That bitch was ungrateful! She.. she... cheated on me!!!"

The man was still calm. "Why she do that Jack? Maybe it was because you hit her, or the fact you cheated on her multiple times. Is that why she did it? Hmm?"

Jack was becoming more defensive. "Well... well... It was with another woman!!!"

The man looked as if he was about to laugh. "Oh no. Two women laying together. So horrifying. The man started laughing, and Jack could tell he was being sarcastic.

Jack was now starting to lose it. "The atmosphere in the room was becoming colder, and as each second pass, it felt as if death was getting closer and closer.

Jack began yelling. Why are you asking me all of these questions!?! Aren't you here to help the Gothic Lights. For fuck sake, I even brought you a sacrifice!"

The man was still calm, barely reacting to Jack's outburst. "Calm down Jack. I'm just looking for some information. I want to be your friend."

Jack froze for a moment, he realized that was something he had said many times over when he interrogated suspects. The man had been copying his mannerisms.

Jack looked at the man. "What is this? What is going on?

The man smiled. "I'm afraid you may have mistaken me for someone else Jack, and I think before we go further. I should clear Somethings up.

Jack began to notice the man's demeanor change. The man's voice began to get louder, and the smoothness of it was gone. "You see Jack. I'm not a Demon. I'm not from hell. I've never been to hell, but I sure like to go.

The man extending his hand, and out of thin air a large staff began materializing. On the end of the staff was a giant blade that had an upward curve.

Jack tried to grab his gun but he was shaking so much, he dropped it. That's when he began begging. "Wait... please! No! I thought you were Widow Maker!!!

"No." The man responded. Then the man's eyes turned dark red, and his voice became deep. "I'm Billbo!"

Before Jack could move, Billbo trusted the blade part of his staff, deep into Jack's chest, the impact lifted Jack off his feet and nailed him to the wall. Jack body began shaking as he took his final breath. Jack was dead.

******************

Jenny was still trying to recover from the beating she took earlier. Jenny began pulling at her cuffs, trying to break the arms of the chair she was in. Since she wasn't at full strength, this was hard to do.

She also thought about flipping the chair on it's side, but considering how banged up she was. She didn't want to knock the chair over and give herself another concussion.

Jenny could hear Jack talking to someone in the other room. Sometimes she could even hear him yelling, but since the door was closed, she couldn't make out what he was saying.

Suddenly Jenny heard a loud slam against the wall. The slam was so hard, it caused the room to shake.

Suddenly the atmosphere in the room she was in began to change. It got colder. It felt similar to when Gothic Mirror held the crystal in his hand. Oh my God!!! Jenny thought. That crystal must have caused the demon to arrive early, and without this Litias creature, they won't be able to control it.

Jenny began shaking her chair. She was going to have to risk another concussion, because she didn't want to be around, when (whatever made that loud crash), came through the door.

Jenny's escape attempt didn't last long, because the door to the adjacent room blew open. The door was now in pieces. One chunk flew and hit the wall on the other side of the room. Jenny's eyes widen as a very tall muscular man stepped out of the door way, dragging Jack's limp body. A body that was bleeding out of the chest and back. Jack was clearly dead.

At first the man was looking forward, but he slowly turned his head, and began staring at Jenny, and Jenny immediately realized, he wasn't human.

Jenny was terrified. She had never seen anything like him. She also felt the presence of the crystal, but stronger. It was death was all around her.

The man continued to stare at Jenny, and for a few moments, it felt as time had stood still. Even though the man had just entered the room. Jenny felt as if she had been sitting there for hours with the man staring at her.

An icy chill went up Jenny's spine as the man walked towards her. Jenny began to panic, trying to get out of her restraints. Once the man got to her, he just stopped, and stared down at her. Then he spoke. "Special Agent Jenny Ramirez."

Jenny's eyes widen as she heard the man say her name. Jenny wanted to scream, but she was so terrified, she couldn't make words come out of her mouth.

The man cocked his head to the side. "That is your name, correct?"

Jenny just nodded. Still to afraid to speak.

The man stared at her some more. "You became a member of law enforcement after the death of your sister. The people who were in charge at the time, couldn't tell you who killed her. Who killed her family. You wanted revenge. A revenge you never got."

Jenny was now filled with fear, anger, and confusion. Did Jack tell this man everything about her, or was this some supernatural ability the man possessed. She doubt very seriously that this demon or (whatever the hell he was.)went online to look her up. Whatever the case was, she didn't appreciate him bringing up her sister.

The man continued speaking. "You did put your quest for revenge aside though, and helped the people of this world. You did everything you could to put a stop to those who harmed others. You were a hero weren't you Jenny?"

Jenny was still silent, she was becoming more and more uncomfortable. She could since the presents of pure evil in the room with her.

"Hmm?" The man was waiting for Jenny's answer, he seem to become impatient.

Jenny just nodded. Even though people have called her a hero in the past. She never really felt that way about herself. The only reason she agreed was because she thought, by doing so, it might buy her a little more time to escape.

The man gave Jenny a faint smile. "It's a shame you're not anymore."

At this point, Jenny had no idea what this man was getting at. She figured any moment now. He was going to kill her.

The man was still standing over her. "You allowed the circumstances around you to get the best of you. You allowed scum like Jack get into your head. He made you feel worthless. You allowed his wife to take up your time, and you even gave up on finding your sister's killer. You're pathetic."

Tears began streaming down Jenny's face. Those were words that she herself had thought, many times, but she never thought she would hear someone else say them. By hearing them out loud, that must mean there true, and she really was a failure.

The man was having no sympathy for her, he continued talking. "Look at yourself right now. All your friends are dead. You're strapped to a chair. Waiting to be killed. You are nothing more than a embarrassment."

Jenny finally had enough. "Why don't you just shut your mouth and put me out of my misery then?"

The man chuckled. "No."

Jenny sat there puzzled, she was sure he was going to kill her.

The man took a step back. "Tonight I'm going to give you a shot at redemption!"

Jenny's eyes widen. "What do you actually expect me to do!?!"

The man's demeanor changed, and his eyes turned dark red. "I'm going to kill everyone in this fucking building!" Jenny sat there in total shock. As the wicked feeling in the room intensified. The man's eyes suddenly went back to normal. "And it's up to you to stop me."

Jenny was shaking uncontrollably, she had never felt such intense presence of pure evil.

Suddenly the man threw Jack's body on top of her. This caused the chair she was on to break, freeing her from her restraints, but now she had Jack's dead weight on top of her.

The man looked down at Jenny as she attempted to squirm out from underneath Jack's body. The man spoke again. "That's my first victim." The man then turned and began walking away. He made it to the door that enters the hallway, but he didn't open it. He just looked back at Jenny and said. "I'll see you... later." Then he disappeared

#supernatural #super hero #horror #my writing

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thanksjro · 4 years

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More Than Meets the Eye #5- Delphi Has a Two-Star Rating On Yelp

Issue #4 left off with some pretty raw dialogue from Fortress Maximus.

Now, that’s a lot of hot talk from a guy who looks like he’s wearing fairy wings. Hope you got some walk to back it up, Fort Max.

FUCK YEAH YOU DO HOLY SHIT THAT’S AWESOME.

And would you look at that! Got some familiar posing going on here.

Considering Fort Max just woke up from a years-long coma, and before that had spent three years under Overlord’s sadistic thumb, this sort of parallel might be cause for concern, but I’m sure it’s fine.

It’s fine!

After Fort Max comes down from his adrenaline high and stops cutting folks’ heads off with his titty flaps, Ratchet can finally address the downturn in Drift’s health, as he lays on the floor rusting to death. Turns out the two of them have a bit of a past, but we won’t be getting anything of substance out of that little detail, because Pharma’s decided to pull a gun on Ambulon.

He claims that Ambulon is the one who released the Decepticons from their cells, and that he’s most likely also the cause of the virus. Why? Because Ambulon used to be a Decepticon himself! Gasp!

Ambulon cops to having defected 10 years prior, which is that a long time for Transformers or not? It’s vague. Their sense of time dilation as a species is never actually addressed in canon.

Then First Aid pulls a gun on Pharma, saying that Pharma’s full of shit, because while Ambulon was busy being threatened, he rooted around in the Decepticons’ corpses and found something that shouldn’t have been there: their transformation cogs.

Then Ratchet reaches for his gun, demanding that Pharma switch to his alt-mode. When he refuses, that seals the deal on Ratchet’s theory- the virus doesn’t become active until after the infected changes their shape. That’s why Pipes and Drift are currently not-bleeding out on the floor after having been at Delphi for twenty minutes at most, but First Aid and Ambulon are perfectly fine.

I mean, fine outside of what’s probably equivalent to a major kidney infection being left untreated and turning into a leg.

C’mon, Ratchet, that’s the thing he’s sensitive about!

And then Rung comes out of nowhere and pulls out HIS gun-

No, that doesn’t happen.

What does happen is that Pharma shoots the life support machines and bolts, leaving the other doctors with twenty machine-dependent patients who will die without intervention.

Ambulon, on what fucking planet is First Aid not taking initiative? This guy’s done more in the last two days than you’ve probably done in the last year. Look at Ratchet back there, he knows how to properly appreciate a go-getter.

Fort Max runs after Pharma as Ratchet finally peels Drift off the floor and gets him into a bed. Drift, who’s pretty convinced that he’s going to die today one way or another, goes full sad cat and begs Ratchet to mercy-kill him, seeing as this is the planet the DJD base a majority of their operations out of, and the likelihood of Pharma being involved with them is looking real good right about now. The sprinklers have gone off, people are flat-lining, Ratchet disregards his own health and safety for that of a patient, transforming to give him a reboot, Fort Max comes back empty-handed because he’s too got-danged big to fit down the trapdoor Pharma went through, and the whole situation is really just the hugest mess.

Let’s check in on the Lost Light, shall we?

The boots are still real, y’all. Those goddamn fucking hooves come off, I’m telling you.

So, Tailgate’s come to a decision. Again. He wants to be an Autobot this go around, though, which sits a whole lot better with Ultra Magnus.

But why bother joining a faction now? The war’s over. Turns out, Tailgate’s feeling a little lonely, because no matter how successful you are, it just won’t fill the hole in your heart quite like being a part of a found family narrative does.

Magnus, moved by Tailgate’s openness and equally impressed by his positively ridiculous resume, agrees to help him prepare for the rite of Autobrand.

Of course, Magnus being Magnus, isn’t going to do this in any sort of half-measure; he’s going to go through the entire 10,000 pages of the Autobot Code, line by line, word by word, punctuation mark by punctuation mark, breaking it all down through multiple schools of thought to garner the deepest possible understanding of what it means to be an Autobot. Tailgate, though horrified by the prospect of so much studying, agrees, and a glorious two-man act is established.

Meanwhile, over in Rung’s office, the good doctor is ruminating on his history with one of his most prolific patients, Red Alert.

Red Alert’s been under Rung’s care since before the war even started, which seems to contradict issue #1’s claim that Rung was his psychiatrist for six centuries, but perhaps the case file got bounced around as Red Alert’s stationings changed.

Which doesn’t bode terribly well, considering Rung is, again, pretty much the only mental health specialist for the entirety of Cybertron.

Red Alert’s been diagnosed with Paranoid Personality Disorder, and it seems like it’s a pretty intense case, or at least it was before Rung got ahold of him. Red Alert had been doing better, and his military career had flourished as a result.

And then the war friggin’ ended, and it looks like the lack of routine- violence-based or otherwise- might be causing a bit of a backslide.

Red Alert’s been hearing noises, ones only he seems to be able to perceive.

Then again, he seems to have some pretty banging ears, so maybe he’s on to something.

The only problem is that where he’s hearing these noises doesn’t make any sense, because he’s hearing them under the basement, where there should be nothing other than the cold silence of space, according to the schematics of the Lost Light. It’s crazy. Purely crazy.

Good thing Red Alert recorded what he heard. Dude probably has a ton of experience not being believed, and knows the value of having evidence to back up your claims. He plays Rung the audio file, and after a bit of playback speed manipulation, they figure out just what that noise is.

Great, even the basement’s got major depression.

Back with Tailgate, it looks like Ultra Magnus has gotten a head-start on the study session, having knocked the little guy clean out with a precision strike verbal barrage of pure boredom. Tailgate nodded off during Magnus’ covering of section 19 of the Tyrest Accord, subsection 80, paragraph 5. This reminds Tailgate of when he met Skids and that giant yellow robot got all exploded.

Jesus, would you look at that shading. Ultra Magnus takes his literary references very, very seriously.

Back with the plague plot, Ratchet’s finally caught up with Pharma, who proceeds to tell him all about how he pulled off his big bad plan, in true villain fashion. Ratchet just sort of stands there and takes it as his eyeballs start melting out of his head.

Pharma is pretty much the only reason that Delphi hasn’t been wiped off the map by the Decepticon Justice Division, because he and the leader of that gang of murderous assholes have a deal- the DJD leave the outpost alone, in exchange for all the transformation cogs their greedy little hearts desire. The problem with this sort of deal is that in order to keep up his end of the bargain, Pharma had to start offing patients.

Of course, that sort of thing isn’t sustainable in the long-term, so Pharma had to orchestrate a way out, while still keeping himself out of prison for some of the most intense malpractice this side of Cybertron, so he called in a little help from some Decepticon nobodies and waved a little cash in their faces. He made a bomb, gave it to them, and they did what they were paid to do, spreading a illness that laid dormant in the liquidy stuff surrounding the t-cog until properly stirred by transformation. As Pharma tells his story, his face does the anime thing.

That’s how you know he’s SNAPPED!

Ratchet really just isn’t a fan of this new character arc Pharma’s got going on, but there isn’t a whole hell of a lot he can do about it now other than stand there and rust as his line art breaks down.

Though that actually works out in his favor, as the corrosion juices puddled under him during that whole spiel, enough so that they reached Pharma’s feet. Once Ratchet points that little detail out, Pharma panics, trying to jump out of the juice and getting clocked in the face.

Pharma said, whilst holding said vaccine in clear view of the man threatening him with a gun.

Ratchet doesn’t fire, because his hands are acting up- talk about poor timing- but Pharma doesn’t have that problem, onlining his built-in guns and shooting Ratchet, seemingly killing him.

Or not. It’s the return of the smiler, Ratchet’s vaguely creepy solid light avatar, best known for telling teenagers to get inside him and making mechanics uncomfortable.

The sight of this creepy little man throws Pharma off enough to allow Ratchet to tackle him, the vaccine flying out of his hands and rolling towards the edge of the incredibly tall portion of the outpost they’re currently on top of.

As the vaccine glowstick falls over the edge, Pharma, understandably, becomes furious, attacking Ratchet, though it doesn’t really work out for him too well. Guess that’s just what happens when your shut-in ass tries to tangle with a dude who’s been on the front lines for years now.

Ratchet, please make a fucking appointment with Rung, I’m begging you. This isn’t a healthy attitude to have towards yourself.

Because he got his arm stomped on real good earlier, Pharma’s on a timer for how much longer he’ll be able to hang onto the edge of the building, before he has to decide whether or not to risk transforming to save himself from impact with the ground, or just chancing being a neigh-indestructible space robot. Ratchet gives him a raw-ass one-liner, turning his back on the dude who has gun turrets built into his shoulder blades.

Luckily Drift hasn’t completely melted yet and managed to get up the ladder to the roof access just in time.

And thus the power of violence saves the day!

Ratchet’s avatar caught the vaccine as it was falling, because he’s just that good at multitasking, so it wasn’t lost at all, and they were able to save everyone from rusting to death. Even Pipes is okay, and you know how much Roberts likes killing that guy. Things are looking up!

Because Delphi’s been revealed to be pretty much the worst place ever, everyone is evacuated to the Lost Light, where First Aid will finally get the credit he’s due.

Suck it, Ambulon!

Ratchet figured out that First Aid sent the datalog that alerted him to the situation on Delphi, because he too is a giant nerd, and like recognizes like. The two lament the loss of the person Pharma had been, wishing they could have saved him.

Yeah, Ratchet, that sentiment goes a hell of a lot further when you don’t steal the man’s hands.

Like, I know he wasn’t using them anymore, but Jesus.

And thus the “Ratchet can’t do shit because his hands suck” arc draws to a close.

#transformers #jro #mtmte #issue 5 #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #comic script writing

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amazingmsme · 4 years

Text

Preventing Apotheosis Part 4

AN: As I said, a new chapter to celebrate Black Friday! Hope you’ve all enjoyed the series so far, I know I have! Just so you know, it’s really gonna pick up after this chapter. Lots of action & good shit that I can’t wait for you guys to read!

John took out his comm and started talking to his boss, stepping out of the room. After hunting down the two infected girls and shooting them, Curt went back to the room where their hostages were tied to chairs so that their forms wouldn't slump over. He waited anxiously for John to end the call, and his head whipped toward the door when he heard the knob turn. The General walked in with a stern look on his face that Curt matched.

"You'll be pleased to hear that we won't have to kill them so long as they swear to never utter a word of this incident to anyone. They'll go into the Witness Protection Program to start their new lives and live out their days most likely traumatized."

"Well that's better than the alternative," Curt voiced. It still wasn't ideal, but at least they had the chance to live.

"We need them to wake up, you got anything that could help with that?" John asked. Curt rapped his chin in thought, "Let's see, I'm only one of the world's greatest spies, and I interrogate people on a daily basis, of course I do. Here," he quipped, pulling some smelling salts out of his pocket. He shoved him out out of the way and knelt in front of them. He snapped the small packet and waved it under their noses. Both men shot up with a gasp, frantically looking around. Bill's eyes locked on McNamera and he tried to lunge forward. Thankfully the restraints held firm.

"You killed Alice! You took her away! She was only a child!" Tears welled up in his eyes, "She was too young to die!"

"Bill, your name is Bill right?" McNamera didn't wait for an answer before he continued, "That thing wasn't your daughter. She was an empty husk of a human, one of those singing alien freaks. She was about to kill you; one more second and she would've pulled the trigger an' you'd be dead on the ground."

Bill shook his head, "No, no she was still in there!" His friend in the chair turned to him, "No Bill, she wasn't. I mean, you saw the way her eyes were glowing. And they were blue, her eyes were never blue!" John took a step forward and placed a firm hand on his shoulder, and he jerked away. "I'm truly sorry for your loss, but there was no other way. At least we were able to find the two of you alive." Curt found it funny how he didn't tell them how he was going to kill them only a few minutes before. John turned to the taller man in the chair, "What's your name, son?"

"Uh, Paul, sir," he said. His eyes were full of panic. He probably thought they were gonna kill them.

"Nice to meet you Paul, you too Bill, my name's General John McNamera, I'm with a special devision known as P-E-I-P we call it "Peep.""

"P.E.I.P.? I've never heard of you," Paul said. John yanked his cigarette from his mouth.

"And you never will. Not a peep. We've dealt with things like this before."

"You mean things like this have happened before?" Paul asked with worry.

"I said nothing of the sort that information is classified. This is my associate-"

"I can introduce myself," Curt cut him off and pulled out his badge. "Agent Curt Mega, C.I.A."

"We were sent here to do a clean sweep of the island, and make sure word of this doesn't spread." As he spoke he untied the men.

"Wait- are you gonna kill us too?" Bill asked in a panic. John was quick to reassure.

"Those were my orders, yes, but I talked to my superiors and they're allowing an exception. There's gonna be two choppers coming to pick us up at 23 hundred hours. That's 11:00 if you're stupid, synchronize your time piece with mine." Paul pulled out his phone to set an alarm. "Is that a phone?"

"Yeah it's a 6s-" John grabbed the phone from his hand and threw it, making it shatter on impact. "Wear a watch!"

"Jesus John, the hell's your problem?" Curt asked and pulled out a spare phone from his bag. "Here, perks of being a spy."

"Th-thanks," Paul stuttered and gingerly took it. He eyed the General carefully before fiddling with it. He pressed the home button twice, three times before going to turn off the phone only for it to spark to life with a taser. He screamed and threw it away from him.

"Shit, I gave you the wrong one! Unless you want the taser phone. It still functions as a regular phone but if you press the home button three times followed by the power button it'll activate the taser. Guess I should've warned you..."

Paul gulped, "That would've been nice."

"The offer still stands. Like Barb says, "It just might save your life." So?"

Paul shrugged and took the offered phone/weapon. "Why not? Today can't get anymore fucked up," he sighed. "C'mon Bill, lets go get the others."

Curt held out his hand, signaling them to stop. "Wait, how many of you are there?" He glanced at John, and they both shared a look. The helicopters could only hold so many.

"There's five of us sir."

"It'll be a tight fit, but we can manage," he shrugged. John nodded.

"Just make sure your little party doesn't grow," he narrowed his eyes into slits. Paul shook his head.

"I don't think we could even if we wanted to. I'm pretty sure we're the only ones left."

"Good. Keep on your toes, and try to stay alive 'til 11:00." Paul pressed his lips into a thin line, "Will do."

Suddenly, McNamera raised his pistol, startling both of the men.

"Wha-?"

In one swift movement, he flipped the gun around with practiced ease, holding the barrel. The handle was extended towards Paul. "I'm authorizing to use my firearm," he clarified. They visibly relaxed.

"Thank you sir."

"Maybe when this is all said and done, we can meet up somewhere and talk," Curt suggested. "Catch up on how you're doing."

They both nodded.

"Sure."

"That sounds nice."

"Do you gentlemen like coffee?" John asked. Both men nodded. "Do you like musicals?"

They answered simultaneously.

"No."

"Yes!"

John scowled at Bill as Curt came up beside him, "You must have good taste." John glared daggers at Curt.

"You're both garbage," he said dryly. Mega scoffed and rolled his eyes. John pointed at Paul, then Bill. "Twenty three hundred sharp. You're not there, we leave without you." He pulled his hat on a little tighter around his head. "I don't wanna be on this God forsaken island longer than needed."

"Me either," Curt agreed, locking eyes with the general and offered a fleeting smile. Call him crazy, but he could've sworn the man returned it.

He saluted the two men as they made their way out. "Best of luck to you."

"Try not to die," Curt offered his own advice before he thought better of it. Before a mission, he and Owen would always say that to the other before diving into the mess they were about to get themselves into. A painful ache shot through his chest at the thought of his old partner. What they had was special, and just like that it had been ripped away. And when given the chance to have it all back, Owen, the stubborn bastard that he was, threw it away, giving him no choice but to shoot.

"Get your damn head out of the clouds agent, we have to move!" McNamera barked at him, sending him crashing back down to reality. He blinked a few times before shooting him a sly and cocky grin.

"Sure thing General," he said, letting a fair amount of sarcasm drip from the use of his title. John sneered at him as he followed him out of the room.

The agent was infuriating, he thought, but damnit to hell if he wasn't starting to grow on him. It didn't help that he was incredibly handsome as well, but he could dream about him once they were safe and off of the island. Until then, nothing was set in stone.

#tgwdlm #tgwdlm fic #spies are forever #spies are forever fic #saf #saf fic #tgwdlm crossover #saf crossover #preventing apotheosis #black friday #curt mega #agent curt mega #john mcnamara #general mcnamara #general john mcnamara #paul matthews #bill #bill tgwdlm

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keefkeeth · 4 years

Text

I speak as a man from a quiet, boring desert town with only surface-level knowledge. I try not to look too far into things too often on account of preserving what remains of my mental health. Call me selfish or uninformed, I don’t care. It’s gotten to the point where I have to say SOMETHING, otherwise it’s just gonna boil over.

I exist due to my ancestors escaping tyranny. My mother’s were Molokans (basically slavic-amish on steroids) from Soviet-Georgia. My father’s were polish jews. Both sides came to America about a year before WW2. They were smart, knew what they were doing, got out, and got lucky.

I’ve seen a lot of stuff online lately about “letting it all burn,” or talk of a revolution, or fleeing to Canada or wherever. All of that is bullshit. Not because I don’t support it, but because none of that is viable.

Letting it all burn? When I hear that, I hear “I’m fine with millions of people (mostly the disable, disenfranchised, and vulnerable) suffering and dying so long as it’s in service of proving MY viewpoint.” What does that accomplish? If all the people who would benefit from the new system are dead, why bother? Furthermore, are you willing to burn with it?

Revolution? Really? The USA is too big and too scattered to make that happen on a meaningful scale. We’re the 4th-largest country on the planet by land area. That doesn’t allow for millions of people to travel all at once to DC to go to town. Also, how many of the people proposing to violently take down 45 have easy access to ample weapons to make good on that proposal? Can you share? Can you travel? Can you defend? Most of the gun nuts are quite content with what’s happening, and will be more than happy to shoot those who disagree with them in the street. They already have.

Run? How many people who talk about fleeing have the money to do so? Desirable skills? Connections? Do you know the language of where you’d run to? What about your families? Your possessions? Are you really willing to leave behind your entire life up to this point? All the established comforts of home? If so, is it physically possible? What happens when you get to the border? What’s your plan?

I used to belong to that third group, but then my dad’s parents died, and were buried here. My blood is in the sand, and I won’t abandon it, for better or worse.

The only option now is to take our lumps and vote.

I am NOT saying Biden and Harris are good choices. Not by a long shot.

Biden was for segregation. There was that whole “poor kids can be as smart as white kids” bullshit. In my opinion the only reason he was able to run at all was because he was Obama’s VP.

Harris wanted to put kids who didn’t go to school in jail. She was also a cop (ACAB). She also threw Biden’s sex-assault accusers aside to accept his VP nomination, which is a whole other level of scummy.

I wanted Bernie to get the nom, both times.

Biden and Harris are not good choices by any stretch of the imagination, but now they’re our only viable choices.

Also, they’re not Trump.

I’m not an expert in anything, let along politics, but I’m pretty sure B&H wouldn’t:

Steal tax dollars to build a racist border wall that’s already been shown to not work.

Suggest delaying the election.

Suggest getting a “do-over” of the first four years.

Suggest being president for life.

Allow 6 million Americans to be infected by Covid, let 180,000+ of them die, and claim it’s all a hoax.

Actively encourage stochastic terrorism.

Sympathize with and legitimize neo-nazis.

Pull us out of the Paris Climate Accords.

Collude with the Russians on what seems like a daily basis.

Eliminate the USPS, an institution literally older than the country it serves.

Hold a photo op with a baby who’d just been orphaned as a result of the El Paso shooting.

Make department officials swear loyalty to them in exchange for appointments.

Nobody thought it would get this bad when the results came in in 2016. Look where we are now. Where will we be in another 4? If 45 “wins” a second term, i expect there’ll be a concentration-camp ticket with my name on it before I turn 30.

The only way this doesn’t happen, the only way we can get to fixing shit, is if that fake-haired shitstain is voted out of office and put in chains.

And that means voting Dem, at least for now. Maybe once that’s done, we can get rid of first-past-the-post and start changing this for good.

I’m out of juice. It’s 1AM. I have work at 8. I’ll probably delete this in 48 hours.

Check your registration. Vote by mail as early as you can, or take your ballot to an elections office.

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intubatedangel · 5 years

Text

Dead Drop - part 4

There wasn’t enough of them actively engaged to allow Anna to climb on the gurney to perform compressions. There were plenty of on-lookers, but they had already settled into that slack-jawed paralysis known as the bystander effect. So instead, she went to the head of the gurney to give Linh oxygen with the bag, while Carl used his longer arms to provide one handed compressions from the side of the gurney.

They didn’t have the time to waste taking the gurney around to the dedicated entrance to the resus-suite, so instead they charged towards the main entrance of the trauma centre. Thankfully a couple of people had the presence of mind to hold open the sliding doors, allowing them team to head straight inside.

The reception area was thankfully quiet. Less than a dozen heads turned to look at them as they raced across the room, the gurney rattling loudly. Anna noticed a mother covering her child’s eyes and ears as they charged on through. Anna understood the reaction, but this was a clean resuscitation by all accounts. No blood or gore, all the young woman’s vomit had ended up in her own lungs, then the suction device. And the gurney was high enough that anyone sat down would be unable to see the track marks in her arms, the pattern of bruises from the beating, or her exposed genitalia.

“Hold the door!” Carl shouted at a nurse that was coming out of the central triage room. His voice carried such a thick current of command that she didn’t even hesitate, it boomed loud enough that a porter on the other side of the doors grabbed the other half and pulled it out of the way quick enough that they didn’t even have to slow down.

They swung to the right as they passed through, lining the gurney up with the black panelled double doors that led to the resus suite. Roger and Trish appeared from the staff lounge, still straightening their uniforms, and bolted through the doors, holding them open for the gurney. “2.” Was all Roger said as they passed, but they all knew what he meant and targeted the 2nd Resus suite. Almost like performing a three-point turn, they moved slightly beyond the door, then pulled back, Anna leading the way into the room so that everything was the correct way around.

“Let’s get ready to move her.” Carl said, halting his compressions and moving from between the gurney and the trauma table. Roger dived in to take over from the other side as people grabbed the ends of the backboard. “1..2..3.” They moved her over smoothly, Trish already in position on the step of the trauma table, keeping the cpr mostly un-interrupted. “Zee, what’s the play?”

The Junior Doctor suddenly looked up, like a deer in the headlights. “Errr…” Her mouth opened and closed like a feeding goldfish. She jumped slightly as the suite’s door opened, Kirstie and Sara rushing in. Anna nodded Kirstie over and handed off the Ambu-bag, knowing that she’d have to do some of the more complex work. She quickly checked Linh’s pupils.

“Pupils are pinpointed.” Anna announced.

Carl nodded his thanks, then returned his attention to the Junior Doctor. “Doctor Patel! What is the next move?” He stared hard at her, the nurses all averting their gaze slightly. It was Carl’s strategy, one that had taken some time for the nursing team to get on board with. He would throw the Junior doctors in at the deep end, while also making it as one-to-one as possible, almost like an exam. The student response would kick in, but then nurses would actually follow the orders. It worked surprisingly well, giving them confidence that they knew what to do and they were in charge, exactly the qualities needed in emergency medicine.

Anna knew without looking that Zainab had taken a deep, steadying breath, “We need to hook her up to the monitors.” She said.

“Who?” Carl pressed.

Zainab glanced around, trying to decide. “Sara.” She blurted out.

“Ok, What next?”

“Pupil constriction and respiratory depression suggests an opiate overdose, so let’s go with a nasal dose of Narcan while we get access.” She nodded to Jess who acknowledged the order. “Is there a good vein on that arm?” She asked Anna, who swung around the bed to get a closer look.

“Veins are all shot here.” She replied.

“Ok, let’s go with a tibial IO, we can put a central line in after trauma assessment.” Anna complied, pulling the nasty looking IO gun from a drawer and loading it up with a needle. Carl was nodding along as Zainab’s voice lost the edge of nervousness. It wasn’t quite the authoritative tone he managed, but it was the tone of a doctor. She stepped forward and palpated Linh’s abdomen “I want epi in there immediately. Get me the FAST scanner, abdomen isn’t firm, but I want to rule out a bleed.”

Carl grabbed the ultrasound, bringing it over and readying the device as Anna swabbed the area just below Linh’s left knee with iodine, then positioned the IO gun on the bone. She’d never liked the device, as useful as it was, and cringed slightly as it forced the wide bore needle through the bone and into the marrow. She removed the gun, attached a syringe, and pulled a sample of blood. “Good placement.” Anna stated.

“Good, get the sample to the lab. I want the full set of tests, including tox.” Zainab told the porter, turning to study the monitor as Sara finished attaching the various devices. “Still asystolic, or near enough, BP’s low.” She continued as Carl handed her the ultrasound probe. “Ok, hold compressions.” She probed Linh’s abdomen, getting a good look at her organs. Anna inserted the Epi, Zainab murmuring an acknowledgement as she studied the display. “I’m not seeing any free fluid; spleen looks a little swollen but there’s no rupture.” She looked up, nodding at Trish to resume cpr, then looked at Carl. “Could be the infection,” she indicated the angry red rash on Linh’s arm, “either way, she’s not bleeding out, so we don’t need surgical down here.”

“How do you want to proceed?” Carl asked, looking down at Linh, her bruised belly bulging with each of Rogers hard compressions. Zainab considered for a moment.

“We should assess the neck and head, establish a central line in if it’s suitable, then get saline and broad-spectrum anti-biotics going, secure her airway, and continue cpr while the epi circulates.” She says. Carl nodded, not taking his eyes off the young woman in front of them. “Did I miss something?” Zainab asked, the nervous student peeking out once more.

“Huh,” Carl looked up, shaking his head slightly. “Sorry, no, you’re doing fine. I would add a vasopressor though, should bring her pressure up and help perfusion.” Zainab nodded at his recommendations, biting her lip and clenching her fists at her minor mistake. “Keep your head in the game Zee, you’re doing great so far.” Carl’s reassurance seemed to have the right effect, the junior doctor relaxing slightly.

“Anna, can you get the pressor in?” Anna nodded to Zainab, taking the drugs from the crash cart. Roger, who had taken on his usual role of recorder, flashed the chart at her. Anna quickly double checked everything, nodding her approval.

“Vasopressor in.” Anna announced.

“Neck seems fine, I think you’re good to go for the central line.” Carl said to his Junior colleague, who had the kit in hand. He stood back enough to not be looming, but close enough to have a good view, and watched as Zainab got the IV catheter into the vein on Linh’s neck. “Good. Let’s do a pulse and rhythm check.”

The doctors and nurses all probed the various pulse points as Trish stepped away. Nobody felt anything, most of them turning to the monitor. Anna, down by Linh’s feet, instead took a moment to get a good look at the young woman. The silk smock was still looped over her arms, half pinned beneath her. The straps of the backboard still restricted her arms and legs. Anna felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. It was clear she’d been terribly abused. She was covered in bruises, her crotch was scarred, and the track marks in her arms took months to get to such a stage. She hoped someone could find a way to help her if they successfully saved her life.

“That’s VF!” Zainab’s excited shout snapped Anna’s attention up. The monitor showed the coarsely bouncing line. “Let’s get ready to shock her at 200.”

***

Part 1: https://intubatedangel.tumblr.com/post/183971918377/dead-drop-part-1

Part 2: https://intubatedangel.tumblr.com/post/184106937832/dead-drop-part-2-version-2

Part 3: https://intubatedangel.tumblr.com/post/184162594552/deap-drop-part-3

Barista’s Bad Heart: https://intubatedangel.tumblr.com/post/183863814312/baristas-bad-heart-collected-links

Intermission 1: https://intubatedangel.tumblr.com/post/183900250412/the-doctor-and-his-patient-nurse-intermission-1

#resus #cpr #medical drama #dark cardiophilia #resus writing

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the-walking-memelords · 5 years

Text

Allegiances: Chapter 9

Series is rated M

Word Count: 4019

The day of reckoning has arrived and Clementine decides to spend her last day of peace with her friends.

Read it on Ao3!

Read it on Wattpad!

It’s almost time.

Her last day of peace. Once the sun set, all hell would break loose.

Might as well enjoy it.

The fall breeze played with her hair as she stepped out into the sunlight. The sun may be cheerful but gloom hung on the wind, infecting even the most optimistic member of the group.

“I have other stuff I need to do.” Louis argued with Violet at the entrance of the admin building.

“What stuff?” The blonde retorted, crossing her arms.

“Nothing, it’s just… it’s important.”

“Goddammit, Louis. Take this seriously for once in your life.” The argument grew more heated as Vi refused to back down.

“I’ve been taking this seriously for fucking days! Over a week!”

“So has everyone. Get over yourself.” Violet growled at the boy.

She watched Louis stomp away from Violet, his dreads swung in front of his face as he walked right past her. Deciding to give him some space, she went to get some answers from Violet.

“Hey.” Clementine caught the blonde’s attention.

“What’s going on?”

“We still got shit to do but Louis would rather goof off or whatever the hell he’s doing than help.” Violet let out a heavy sigh as she crossed her arms.

“He’s always been like this, finding every excuse to do as little work as possible and it’s fucking frustrating.”

“Do you want me to talk to him?” Clementine anxiously scraped a rock back and forth beneath her boot.

“Yeah, he seems to listen to you at least.” Her angry expression changed to an apologetic one once the words left her mouth.

“Sorry, I- uh… shit. I just want to make sure we’re ready. If you’re right and they find us… I don’t want to lose anyone else to those bastards.” Her voice caught in her throat. The stress of keeping everyone together was evident in the bags under her eyes.

“I’m not going to let that happen, Vi.” Clem assured her, determination in her tone.

“If those fuckers try to get at anyone in this school they’ll have to kill me first.”

“That’s one of the things I’m afraid of.” She confessed.

“I don’t want you to get hurt either, Clem. You’ve dealt with a lot of bullshit the last couple weeks but you never ditched us. You could’ve just left. You could’ve kept running from the war but instead, you stayed to help us. I don’t think I ever thanked you for that.”

“You don’t need to thank me for staying.”

Please don’t thank me for staying.

Those words caused an all too familiar feeling in her heart.

“I don’t want to go back to the way things used to be. It was killing me. I’m not sure how much longer I could have gone on.” A heart so empty of life it felt like it sometimes forgot to beat.

“I’ve never been in a group like this before. A real family.”

“You’re a part of that family too. We all care about you.” She smiled somewhere over Clem’s shoulder.

“But I think there’s someone who cares about you more than the rest.”

She followed Vi’s look to see Louis at the archery target. Brow furrowed as each arrow missed the wooden circle completely, sticking out of the dirt below it.

Clementine’s cheeks turned pink when she realized what Violet was suggesting. She opened her mouth, prepared to deny it all… but something was different. Her heart skipped a beat and for once, it wasn't out of fear. It was… hope.

“...Do you really think so?” She gave a nervous laugh as a smile tugged at her lips.

“Ah, so you do like him back.” Violet teased as she poked the blushing girl’s arm.

“Shut up.” She almost whined, her face growing warmer after revealing her secret, but inside herself, there was no denying how she felt about Louis.

He needs to know.

I want him to know.

“Ugh, it’s so cute I’m going to puke.” She joked, making a fake gagging noise.

“Marlon and Omar are out at the greenhouse and Aasim and Willy are working out some trap ideas so I guess I’ll go board up the back hallway since Louis isn’t going to do it. Can you see how the others are doing?”

“Sure.” She looked back towards Louis again.

“Don’t spend all your time on him, okay? I want to know if everyone has their shit together.” Violet wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to privately tease her friend about her little crush.

“Go get him, tiger.”

“Violet, I swear to god.” Her face burned with embarrassment.

Violet held her hands up, smirk unfading as she backed into the admin building.

Clementine let out a groan as she pondered if that was a good idea or not. Looking over at Louis, still struggling with archery, she decided to find someone else before facing him.

According to Ruby and Brody, there was a lot of walker activity not far outside the walls than usual. It made hunting more difficult but maybe the dead would help keep Lilly at bay just a little. Mitch’s test bomb refused to go off meaning he would need as much time as he could get to figure it out.

The yard already looked like a war zone. Flipped tables creating barriers and narrow paths from the gate to the admin building. The rotten eyes of the decapitated walkers heads decorated pikes all around. Crudely painted banners and graffiti with messages such as “Leave or Die!” and “Fuck Raiders” among their other more decorative features were hopefully enough to at least make them look like more than a bunch of kids with sticks going up against a bunch of adults with guns.

“Hey, Clem.” a small voice came from behind her.

“What’s up, Tenn.” She greeted the excited boy.

“I wanna show you something!” He grinned ear to ear as he lead Clem by her hand to another one of the few unflipped tables in a shady spot in the yard. A few pencils were strewn across the boards surrounding a single piece of lined paper.

“Since you’re helping protect us from the bad people, I wanted to make you something, as a thank you.” The boy eagerly handed the page to her.

Clementine studied the little graphite figures, recognizing each member of the school standing in front of what appeared to be the admin building. The short girl with poofy curls standing in the middle appeared to be her, bow in hand with a proud smile.

Aw.

“It’s beautiful, Tenn.” A similar smile as depicted in the drawing spread across her face as she carefully folded it up into her pocket.

“I’ll keep it safe.”

The boy was pleased with Clem’s reaction. The grin on his face reminded her of AJ whenever he gifted her one of his masterpieces. Her blue cap loose on his head as he adjusted it constantly as he eagerly showed her the scribbled figures of the people he encountered in the Delta. Some she could kind of recognize, others were strangers. Her little boy gifted her many of his drawings. Clementine wished she had been allowed to keep them.

“I know a little boy like you. A lot younger, but he loves to draw, too.”

These two would be great friends.

“You do?” Confusion crossed his features.

“Where is he?”

“He’s… gone.” She took a deep breath, her smile becoming partially forced.

“But I’m going to see him again, one day.”

I will.

I promise.

“My sisters are gone, too, but I don’t like to think about it like that. I like to think about where they would be now.” His words caught her a little off guard.

“Sophie was really good at making stuff. She would build a place big enough for all of us and paint it too, and Minerva would be singing would be singing whatever new song she’d wrote.”

“Heh. That does seem like a nice way to think about it.” Her and AJ living free was all she could ever hope for.

Tennessee went back to his drawings as Clem thought about what it could be like if she really brought AJ to the school.

Clementine pictured what the school might be like on a nice summer day.

Relaxing on the couch under the sun, taking in the sweet breeze as she listened to the squeals and laughs of the AJ, Tenn, and Willy as they ran around in whatever game of make-believe they’d concocted. The others smiling and nodding whenever they passed by during their daily duties. She’d smile and wave back, resting her head on Louis’ shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her.

We could be happy here.

“Goddammit!” Louis exclaimed, swinging his bow in frustration as he plucked the arrows out of the dirt.

“Are you alright?”She asked. He glanced over with a small momentary smile before falling back into his downcast look.

“In a couple of months, or weeks, or days, or hours we’re going to be caught in the middle of a war we have nothing to with and a bunch of raiders are going come, burn down our home and steal or kill us.” He looked back down at the bow in his hand, biting his lip.

“And then It won't matter how much I sucked at this.”

“The raiders aren't going to burn anything or steal anyone.” It was disheartening to hear him on the verge of giving up.

“I’m not going to let that happen.”

“You sound like a one-woman army. Like you’re going to take them all down single-handedly.” He joked.

“Not that I’m doubting you could or anything. You are a certified badass after all.”

“Well, I have walked through many herds of walkers and come out unscathed.” She blushed at his praise.

“What’s a couple of asshole’s with guns, right?”

“Deadheads don’t shoot back.” He said flatly, not joining in on her joke.

“I’ve dealt with people who do, Louis.” Clementine pulled back the collar of her jacket, revealing the round scar where a bullet had torn right through her shoulder. He stared at it almost in horror.

“I was eleven when that happened. Haven’t been shot since.”

Well, not really.

But grazes don’t count!

“The fact that that might change soon is what terrifies me.” He leaned against the back of the couch.

“I want to be able to protect you, Clem. If something happened to you because of me… like at the hardware store…”

“Louis, what happened at the hardware store wasn’t your fault. Not to mention, you saved my life that day.” The look of pure rage on his face when he slammed Chairles into the head of that stranger was something she never expected from this soft boy.

“I… I’ve never killed someone before. I know that guy didn’t die… probably… but it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten.” His freckled face was scrunched in frustration.

“What if I need to when the fight comes and I can’t. If you got hurt or worse because I couldn’t kill someone… I-I can’t carry that for the rest of my life.”

Clementine’s heart ached as she saw him like this. Anguish in his watery eyes. Words on his lips he seemed to be biting back.

“I’m not going anywhere, okay? I believe in you. So believe me until you believe yourself, alright?”

“Easier said than done.” The light chuckle he produced didn’t feel genuine in the slightest.

Loud shouting sounded from the admin building startling the two. Louis squeezed her hand one more time before they wordlessly went to investigate. “Because you’re boring and your idea is stupid!” Willy yelled at a beyond frustrated Aasim. “Oh, I’m being stupid? You’re the one who can’t think straight. If you could hear yourself-” “Guys, what the fuck?” Violet stormed out of the admin building behind the arguing pair. “We were trying to work on the traps together but Aasim won't listen to anything I say!” The boy continued to raise his voice. “That doesn’t mean you have to scream at each other.” Louis crossed his arms. “I had the idea to use duffle bags full of bricks to drop on the raiders if they made it into the admin building.” Aasim explained. “But Willy here wants to use a giant idiotic swinging log to take out one raider at most.” Both boys looked to Clementine for a solution. “If we rig a bunch of duffel bags like mines above the stairwell they’ll have a hard time getting past without getting crushed.” She decided. “Practical, discrete, and deadly. That's what we go with.” “Mine’s all that too!” The young boy pleaded. “No, it isn’t.” Aasim continued to go after him. “It’s exactly something a child would come up with!” A swift punch to the gut to Aasim shocked the group as Willy quickly ran away inside. The boy groaned in pain and mumbled curses under his breath as he took a seat by the fire away from the others. “Great.” Violet growled. “We’ll all kill each other before the raiders get a fucking chance.”

“I have an idea on how to release some of the tension ‘round here.” The two of them plus Tennessee followed Louis to join their brooding friend by the fire. Here we go. “Hey, buuuddy, how’s it hangin’?” Louis greeted with a wide grin as everyone took their seats. “Dude, fuck off.” Aasim brushed him off. “Sulking in the corner isn’t going to help us fight off the raiders, or turn that frown upside down.” The freckled boy juggled his box of cards from hand to hand. “You get more annoying every day.” “Regardless, I’ve come up with a plan to make everyone feel better.” “What are we playing tonight, Lou?” The mullet-wearing boy asked. “Truth or Dare!” “You don’t use cards in Truth or Dare.” Violet pointed out. “You do in this version. High card asks, low card answers.” Louis insisted as he dealt a pile to each player, squinting suspiciously when he noticed Aasim glancing somewhere else. “If you want to ask Ruby to join, I don’t mind waiting.” Oh shit. “Shut up dude!” He panicked as Louis revealed his little secret. “I swear to God.” “You’ve got a crush on Ruby?” Violet teased the poor boy.

Aasim’s little crush became a running joke for the first half of the game, including a cruel dare from Clementine herself involving Aasim asking his dear, sweet Ruby for a kiss. A request that ended with him being promptly slapped in the face, sending the group of teens howling with laughter.

“I got this.” Louis said confidently as he drew the high card against Clementine.

“We’ve been pretty hard on poor Aasim here, teasing him about sweet Ruby. I think it’s time for us to mercilessly tease someone else about unrequited love.”

I don’t like where this is going.

“So.. Clem.”

Shit.

“Anyone here you… like-like?” Clementine didn’t know what was worse. The question, or the fact that Louis was the one asking. Her face began to feel warm and she prayed the others couldn’t tell how red it was in the dim evening light.

“Like-like? What are you, six?” Violet’s comment gave her a few extra seconds to think up a response.

“Seven, thank you.”

“I... uh.” Clem mumbled flusteredly.

Fuck it.

“Yeah.” She confessed, her face blushing more.

“I’ve definitely got feelings for someone.”

“Ha! Who is it?” Louis asked over excitedly.

“Not telling.”

Violet smiled at Clem with a knowing look, who in returned glared daggers at her.

“One more round.” Louis declared, his grin didn’t fade as everyone drew their next cards.

“Aasim! You’ve got the high card. And the loser is… Tennessee.”

“What’s something you never told anyone because you were afraid they’d make fun of you?” Aasim’s question made the nervous boy seem a little relieved that it wasn’t something worse.

“I think… I think walkers won’t always be around. They’ll go away someday.” The boy said hesitantly.

“The world goes in cycles, right? Stone age, Ice age, some other ages… So someday this age will end, and a new one will start.”

The group sat in silence for a moment, pondering Tenn’s perspective.

An age without walkers, like it used to be.

Such a world seemed like a lifetime ago, almost unreal. A world AJ had never known.

“Why is everyone looking at me like that?” The poor boy seemed to regret his words.

“Did I ruin the game?”

“I think that’s beautiful, Tenn.” Clementine assured him, sharing a warm smile.

“I never thought about it like that.”

“I think that feels like a good place to call it.” Louis collected his cards as everyone stood.

“We should finish our work, anyways. It’s getting dark.” Violet stretched as she stood.

“I’m going up to the bell tower to check our defences from up high. You can come with if you want, Clem.”

“Or you can hang out with me instead.” Louis poked her shoulder.

“There’s something I’ve been working on for a while and I want your opinion on it.”

Violet rolled her eyes and waved as she left the two alone.

Sorry, Vi.

---

“Is this another ‘Vacation?’” Clementine asked as they entered the mostly dark music room, a few candles casting a golden glow over the grand piano.

“Almost. Kinda. Sorta.” He laughed nervously as he leaned against his prized instrument.

“I want to show you something, but I need your help first.”

“Help? With what?”

Louis reached behind him, picking a specific key and pressing on it. The sound it made was far from melodic.

“Sounds awful, right? All we need to do is tune it.” He smirked.

“That’s why I need you.”

“You realize I know nothing about pianos, right?” How did he expect her to help?

“It’s easy, just take a seat and I’ll tell you what to do.”

She ran her fingers lightly over the smooth keys as she sat at the bench. There were so many. It was a mystery to her how Louis could know the sound each identical key made.

“Now press the A key.” He told her as he fiddled with the strings.

“Uh, which one’s the A key?”

“Y’know, the A key, next to the B key, after the G key.” He tilted his head as he pointed out each one. She pressed down on the key producing an off-tune note.

“Great! Now press the peddles while I make some more adjustments.”

Clementine followed his steps hoping she was actually helping.

At least he seems to know what he’s doing.

“Alright, now one more thing.” He stated.

“Blow on the strings.”

I stand corrected.

“It sound’s weird, I know.” He must have caught the suspicious look on her face.

“Cooling the temperature helps set them in harmony.”

Clementine stood reluctantly as she leaned over the body of the piano, blowing on the lines of piano wire before shooting him a glare.

“Great! That did nothing because that’s not at all part of how you tune a piano.”

I fucking knew it.

“But it was funny!” He laughed, his winning smile making her heart jump as always.

“I could have done something on like a molecular level, or maybe, it’s good luck to blow on strings.” He pressed down on the newly-tuned key, seeming satisfied with the noise.

“Okay okay, you got me.” Clementine couldn't help but laugh out loud as she scooted over, allowing him to sit next to her. There was a fluttery feeling inside of her chest as they sat so close on the short bench.

“It’s good to see you like this.” He said softly before turning his attention to the piano.

His fingers love elegantly across the keys. Playing a soft yet emotional tune. Louis seemed to become lost in the music, spilling his heart into the air with every note.

“What are you playing? -And don’t say ‘a piano.’”

“A song… that I wrote.”

He wrote this?

“What’s it called?”

It’s beautiful.

“I don’t know yet.” He shrugged, finishing off the last few notes

“There. First time played. We should mark the occasion!”

Louis pulled his knife out of his coat, carving an L into the wood before offering it to her. She carefully added her own initial to the left of his, also carving a little plus in between.

C+L

Clementine and Louis

“Are you done tattooing that piano?” He was only joking, but she wasn’t done yet. Something was missing here.

Clementine continued to cut into the wood. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she almost felt unsure of her bold and permanent move. Louis watched her movements in confusion before it began to dawn on him what she had drawn.

“Oh, uh… that’s a… that’s a potato?”

Really? That’s your first guess?

“It’s a heart! Yep, I see it’s a heart.” His face grew red as he tried to laugh off his mistake.

“That’s… super cool. Really cool.”

Clementine rolled her eyes playfully as her cheeks grew warm. Her hands nervously played with one of the buttons at the bottom of her coat.

“Hey, uh. I’m about to dig myself into a deep hole from which I’ll never emerge. Cool? Cool.” He loudly took a deep breath.

“Time to get serious.”

“Serious? Wow. Are you feeling okay?”

“Not really, nope. Mm mm.”

Clementine began to worry once more. It was clear that this was a side of him he never let any of the others see. The brave face falls and his smile drops revealing the struggling boy underneath. The people here have known him forever, longer than she probably ever would and they still failed to see through his facade.

“Thanks… for being here. Listening. Blowing on the strings. Coming to help me with my project even though you probably have way more important things to do, and… for everything I’ve had to work through, for myself.” He rested his hand on the bench beside her, their fingers barely touching.

“Everyone hears the jokes, the piano… and then they stop listening. But you didn’t.”

Clementine’s heart thumped loudly in her ears as she stared into his eyes. She didn’t want to wait any longer, her heart might collapse otherwise.

I have to tell him while I still have the chance.

“Louis I…” Her mind drew blank, all the words she had planned to say became caught in her throat. He looked at her expectantly with worry in his eyes as she struggled to say anything.

Clementine gave up on words. Looking into his eyes she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. Louis tensed up for a moment in shock before melting into the kiss, lightly cupping her face with his hands as she slid one of her own to the back of his neck. Slowly, they broke away, pressing their foreheads together as they peered into each other's eyes.

I can’t believe I just did that.

“I think that saves me the trouble of actually asking you out.” He smirked.

“Which is good, ‘cause I was a little worried you’d stab me if I tried.”

Clementine buried her face into the collar of Louis’ jacket as a fit of giggles overtook her. A little lightheaded with giddiness, she wrapped her arms around his neck and sunk into the warm fluff of his jacket.

“I know what to call the song.” he said as she sat up, their hands locked tightly together.

“‘Clementine.’ Y’know, cuz I like fruit, and I like you even more so… there.”

“You are such a weirdo.” Clem giggled, shaking her head.

“Yeah? Well, apparently you dig that. So who’s the weird one now?” He teased.

“It’s both of us.”

Clementine’s response to that was cut off by the frantic calling of her name.

“Clementine? Clementine?!” Ruby’s panicked voice sounded from down the hall, finding them in the music room just as Clem and Louis stood from the piano.

“Ruby! What’s going on?” She asked, but she already knew the answer.

“There’s someone outside!”

#Clouis #Louistine #Louisentine #fanfic #allegiances #my writing

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straywstay · 6 years

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District 9 | 01

Summary: This was a warzone. Survival outside of the districts were practically impossible without the proper technology. After losing your first team, you gave up hope that you’d ever survive after bombs started going off in your district, but here you are in District 9. All hope was lost, all hope had been lost, at least until you met him.

Pairing: Hyunjin x Reader

Word Count: 6,711

A/N: Hi! This is my first every stray kids blog and fic so I hope you guys enjoy and are patient wit the story, I am honestly very excited about this new step I’m taking, so I hope you all enjoy and don’t forget to comment, like, ask,or even message me. I’d love to hear everyone’s feedback. (this will be a chaptered fic)

After spending hours in a pitch black room, a light shines bright in your eyes, you didn’t need to adjust, nobody at these places did that because they weren’t trained to squirm at every minor inconvenience.

“Who are you?” the voice calls out, not too deep, but definitely male.

“I am who.” You stare straight into the bulb, inviting you to come closer and get a feel or the smooth roundness of it.

You hear the sound of lead to paper, the tiny ticks when the pencil writes a new word, hitting the paper onto the wooden clipboard, “Good, then we can proceed.” the lights turn on, “Do you know why you’re here?”

You look up into the eyes of the man, fitted in a tailored suit, “Yes sir. People like me are here to become your weapons.”

He chuckles lowly, “Good that we have that settled. Lucky for you, my top tier soldiers got to your in time… practically a breath or two from death they said.” He starts pacing, “If you ever happen to survive the training, be sure to find Jackson and thank him for the mask. One of my best soldiers had to hold his breath while piggybacking you until they got safely inside the vehicle 10 minutes away just so you wouldn’t die, and that would be Jackson.”

You almost hesitate to ask, but if there’s one thing you learned, it’s to never hesitate, “i-is everyone gone?” you pull up your arms to rub at your face, only to realize that they’ve been strapped to the seat, “My frien-... my teammates, are they all dead?”

He claps his hands like what you asked was the funniest thing in the world, “Teammates? EVERYONE is dead in District 10.” he looks back at you, “Well except you.”

He walks towards the door, “I know who you are, 7008. Y/N Y/L/N, which is why I expect that and more from you when you become part of my team.” slowly, he opens it, a group of men marching in, all of them holding you down while the man in the suit injects something into your neck, “Your 24 hours in solitary confinement begins, now.”

You’ve read the history books. There was a time before any of this, there was a time when children were raised by their parents and not to be some military experiment for the government. They’d go to school and make friends, not train in combat. They’d go outside to play with the neighborhood kids instead of doing missions for their district government. This all started when a strange incurable disease started making its way around the world, at first everyone was optimistic that it could be fixed, until one night passed and half of the population died, oxygen from the outside was automatically the first to be sealed away, and synthetic oxygen was used as substitution which explains the need to use a new state of the art face masks when dealing with missions outside of the districts, those were war zones. The only things in the war zones aside from active duty soldiers weren’t exactly human. They looked human, but their eyes were red, they mumbled in incomplete grunts, almost zombie like, except they didn’t eat humans. But their bites did spread the infection they were called Goners, because that was what they were... they were goners in the outside.

Districts started popping up after oxygen was sealed off and the first sight of a goner was found inside its walls. Governments started hiding rations to save for their people, weapons were hoarded, and it was decided that walls were to be built to separate the districts even though they were all miles apart.

When half the population was wiped out, a lot of that population were adults. Little kids had no problem inhaling that contaminated air. At least until they reached 7 years old. When puberty rolled around, it was already a tradition to bring your kids into these government militarized facilities so they could serve their districts. Most parents decided to bring their children here at the tender age of 13. You’ve been at District 10’s facility since your hair was still in pigtails, age 8. These facilities provided everything you needed, beds, rooms, food, training, medicine, even healthcare, you name it. But since there were a lot of soldiers, there was still the issue of equal portions for all. In payment for everyone’s services, their families who had abandoned them would get food and a small allowance that they would get from that kid’s bank account. The higher the kid’s rank as he trained, the higher the allowance, and the better the food. Except for kids like you who had lost their parents. Your allowance was put in a bank, your food rations arrived at your room on top of the regular food rations from meal time. Without parents to receive your payment for service, it was given to you, but before that explosion in District 10, they definitely gobbled everything your service paid for, without even a cent left for you to spend, and that’s saying something. Especially since your allowance was something you definitely didn’t earn from baby missions and cleaning the toilets.

You were in District 9. That much of a fact is true based from the IX pin on that man’s tie from earlier. District 9 is the richest aside from District 1, all due to that fact that Park Jinyoung was the inventor of synthetic oxygen. You were also sure that the man from earlier was Park Jinyoung, and he was the one calling the shots around here.

“Rise and shine, 7008! Solitary confinement ends in this moment, and training begins when you step out this door.” The loud metallic knocking from the door finally wakes you up, the woman who was talking comes in, lab coat over her clothes, she was probably the doctor. She grabs a strange looking gun, shoving it against your neck and releasing the trigger, and it feels like a vein is pulled straight from your neck, “Gotta collect this chip to record your 24 hours. Just remember that you will feel weaker than normal in the next 24 hours due to this.” she gives you a wink and stops right in front of the still opened door, “You can call me Sunmi, and you’d better get some tissue on that.”

The moment you enter the gymnasium, all you smell is sweat, but you guess it was comforting in a way, to smell and see something you were so familiar with. Scattered in the gym are what looks to be wrestling rings without the actual ropes with one third of the room for female on female combat, male on male combat, and the remaining ⅓ for mixed combat. You look around, finding a girl by the racks wrapping her hands and you walk on over, she stares at you picking out a wrap.

She snatches the one you were reaches for, “Need some help?” you gape at her. Most people don’t help newbies, especially ones they have never seen around, “Gotta help each other out, you know?” she passes you a quick grin.

You hold you hand out, “Y/N. 7008.”

She gladly takes it, “Suzy, 9320” she looks at the open ring on the female side, “If we spar, could you take it easy on me? I’m more a lover than a fighter.” she laughs.

You give her a small smile, “You had no intention of beating anyone here. You were content with doing easy jobs. You position and standing in District 10 made sure that you didn’t work as hard as you did then. You gesture your hand towards the ring as if to tell her that she should lead, and she does. The moment you stand on that ring and the bell dings, an arm pulls you right out.

“Sorry newbie, but you’re sparring with me today.” you stare at the hand clutched around your bicep, and the up at the face of the man that hand belonged to. He pulls you along, almost dragging you through the gym, dramatically that everyone notices, ⅔ of the gym was full, ⅓ was deserted. This was that ⅓, “I won’t be pulling my punches, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t make me look like a jerk and not pull any punches either.” he laughs obnoxiously.

You are stood directly in front of him, “I-I can’t do this. I can’t even beat other girls.

He tsks his tongue, “Nice try, Y/N. But I know who you are, I’ve seen your files, I know about the things you’ve done.” your face pales with that thought, “And I know for a fact that districts, especially this one don’t collect other soldiers from a destroyed district from the goodness of their hearts. I’ve shot soldiers more alive than you were in the remains of a district in the head than you can imagine.”

The bell dings, and he’s lunging for you, punching you in the throat, his rings scratching your throat significantly, before kicking you in the torso making you spit blood, “Come on! Fight back!” He grabs you in a headlock, “I’m Jackson. My team found you in the rubble at District 10.”

He tightens his grip and you remember was Park Jinyoung said, “Th-thank y-you for that… oxygen...mask.” you barely manage to speak out. You look around the ring, quite a lot of people have managed to gather around the mat, in fact, even the ones fighting minutes ago were gathered around.

He laughs again, “Yeah, yeah. Enough chit chat more fighting.” he pauses for a moment, still you were in a tight headlock, “You know, I saw some of your old team in that rubble. Could have saved them, but the bossman said no. If I knew you were going to be a punching bag here, I would’ve saved at least one of them instead.” he chuckles darkly, and in that moment, it was like something in you snapped.

You muster up the energy in your knees, kicking them up straight into Jackson’s gut, kneeing him on and on until he lets go of you and then you maneuver your body so that he’s standing behind you, his arm placed over your shoulder. He’s about to reach over to choke you, but you’re faster. You grab his arm and kick behind you to lift him in the air and flip him over your shoulder. He gets up slowly, not too phased by the flip, so once he stands upright, you deliver a roundhouse kick to the side of his face as hard as you can, making him fall on the mat. He turns his head towards you and mouths something that makes you lose reason, “Goodbye Hanbin.” That’s when everything goes red, you march over to him, while he was being checked for any serious injuries, an obvious timeout, but you push aside the medic and position yourself above him, your knees on the sides of his torso and then you punch him over and over, until the red goes away, you don’t know what you were feeling on your face whether it was sweat sweat or tears but you didn’t care, and by that time, his nose is a bloody mess and his teeth look stained red. His eyes are shut, probably losing consciousness a few seconds ago based from his labored breathing, but he still manages to give you a weak smile, “I’ll be...sure to...tell JYP that…” He winces, trying to sit up, “you’re just what…he’s looking for...in Project SKZ.” he gives you a thumbs up before collapsing back on the mat.

You look around, still positioned above Jackson. Everyone was looking at you like some killer, except for a group of boys near the front of the spectators. They looked interested, but not scared… probably just a bunch of guys who wanted the lastest news on the girl who beat Jackson up. Slowly, you drop your hands that were still held up in fists as you get up, and run straight back to your room.

You pace back and forth. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How were you going to get more accustomed here if you showed everyone that you were like that? You groan, falling back on your bed. You shouldn’t have wavered, you shouldn’t have let him get to you. Your old team wouldn’t have given in… but then again, your old team was dead.

A few small knocks come from your door, you stare at it for a while, but nobody ever opens it, so you get up and open it yourself only to find a small first aid kid at your feet. You raise an eyebrow at it, was this for you? You look straight down the hall, nobody. You turn your head to the left when you hear a small cough from behind the large potted plant.

“I know that I don’t have to force you to show yourself.” you go back inside your room, “Come in.”

You sit on your bed, feet on the ground, back hunched forward, left arm on your left knee all while never turning your eyes away from the door. Within seconds a boy scurries in, first aid kit clutched tightly against his chest. He stands directly in front of you, and that gives you a chance at a good look at him. He had dark brown hair, falling over his eyebrows, his eyes were large and catlike.

“Sit.” you gesture towards the soft couch to the side of your room, “Why are you here?”

He walks toward the couch and sits, “I-I saw you earlier-” his voice cracks before he clears his throat, “And I noticed your neck looked bad. I-I just wanted to help you out a b-bit.”

You stare at the kit in his hands, and then back at his face as he smiles at you awkwardly. He had braces. You get up, slowly limping towards him as you felt a pain in your ribs that you completely had been trying to forget about since you and Jackson finished sparring.

When you sit down, he’s quick to apply a disinfectant to your neck, all around. He sneaks glances up at you every now and then, and even when he’s wrapping an inch-wide bandage around your neck, his fingers are feather light.

“What’s your name?” you remain staring at the wall, “I’m Y/N.”

The smile he’d been fighting off on his face suddenly blooms, making him look younger, “J-Jeongin! But my team usually calls me I.N.” he ties the bandage behind your neck, and he stares at your hand, placed tightly over your ribcage.

He bites his lip, unsure of whether he should ask you to cooperate, or to let it be, but you already notice the worried look he has in his eyes, so you sigh, and take off your tank top. Leaving you in your sports bra. His face reddens, as he desperately concentrates on your already bruising rib cage.

“I’m here from District 10.”

He stops suddenly, looking up at you, “I know.” he speaks softly, “My whole team knows. They’re quite excited to meet you.”

“Why-why are you here?” you clear your throat, “I mean, why are you even helping me?”

He blinks at you, confused that you'd even ask that, “Well just to be clear, I was already planning on helping you, but Hyunjin-hyung still thinks that the only reason I’m doing this is because he told me to.” he grins, blessing you with the sweetest smile you’d ever seen, “And besides, you’re family now.”

You look away, face reddening, “How old are you? You don’t look like you belong here.” you mumble.

He ties the bandages around your ribs cleanly, “I’m already 18, but I’ve been here since I was 13.” He starts putting his medical supplies away, “Your rib is broken, and the skin there is heavily wounded, but it should be fine in a few weeks. Til then, I advise you to wear short shirts because it can be a pain to deal with when you wear normal shirts, “I’d like to tell you to keep away from training, but that isn’t exactly a choice we’re allowed to make here.”

He gets up, turning to you, “We should get going. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

Confused, you stand up and flounder the dresser next to your door for something to wear. You pull the black crop top over your head just in time to see when Jeongin has already turned the corner. You’re practically chasing him through the halls, until you bother reach a door labeled, ‘JYP’.

You follow Jeongin entering the room, and upon entering, he goes into the next room and leaves you with Park Jinyoung, who’s already sitting on a chair in front of a large meeting table, “Ah, 7008. Glad you’re here. We requested your presence so that you could meet your new team.”

You furrowed your eyebrows at him, “W-wait. Woah, new team? I’m sorry, but I didn’t sign up for a new team.” you take a seat in front of him, “In fact, I’d be happy just serving the medical clinic here.”

He scoffs at the comment, “You wanna be part of the medical team here?” He lets out a sarcastic chuckle, “Look kid, you put one of my best guys in the clinic. From my point of view, you put more people in hospitals than help them out of them.”

He pulls out the chair next to him, grabbing 9 thick folders, “Those are yours. You’ll need to study them, for the time-”

You push back the folders on the table, “Woah, okay, I never agreed to this.”

He brings his index finger under his chin and his thumb on his jawline, “Can’t forget Little Hanbyul’s nearing commencement ceremony.”

You freeze at the thought, slowly inching your arms towards the stack of files on the desk, “Have you been keeping tabs on me?”

He sighs and shrugs, “Well, I do. I have to, I keep tabs on all of my dream recruits, Kang Daniel from District 1, BTS from District 7, Doyoung and Taeyong from District 12.” He brings his fingers together in front of his face, “Obviously, there’s not too many, but you still became part of that. We saved you… the least you could do is be thankful and repay us with your service.”

You bow your head in defeat. You had no choice. You had to do this, for Hanbin, for his little sister. One thing about being recruited here is that it’s optional, but the price to exempt someone’s child was no joke, the only people who could even leisurely afford that resided in District 1.

“Why don’t you meet your team?”

You can’t look at him. So instead, you numbly nod your head, you had no other choice either way.

He knocks twice on the table with about a four second interval between the two knocks and then it is followed by the fast consecutive knocks on the door Jeongin passed through earlier. The door opens and you tear your eyes away from it, not willing to show Park Jinyoung that you were even the slightest bit interested in who he decided would be a fit for you as a team. Park Jinyoung clears his throat, making you look up at the boys standing in a line. You furrowed your eyebrows, you already saw these boys, they were the only ones who didn’t look the least bit worried after you beat Jackson up. The one at the very end to the left step forward, reaching out his hand which you just stare at.

“I’m Bang Chan. I’m the leader.” He was pale just like all of them, his hair was curly and longer than Jeongin’s but not too long and he had a portion braided on the left side, “Basically, you can come to me for anything and everything.”

“He also makes rounds at night. To check your trackers.” Park Jinyoung taps the inside of his wrist for emphasis, to give Chan a job like that meant that Park Jinyoung trusted him to a degree.

Chan pushes a boy forward, lips tightly shut but curved upward along with his eyes, he waves, “Hi, I’m Kim Woojin, I’m pretty good at memorizing and familiarizing myself with locations, so they put me in charge of either being the lookout or being the first one to come in at mission locations to get a feel for the terrain. Of course I can’t give it all to talent or skill, I still read about our mission assignments beforehand so I have an idea.” you only nod slightly in his direction, “Feel free to drop by before missions if you wanna review the mission and its details.”

The next guy to step up looks pretty lax, but he still maintained a glare in your direction. With his hands in his pockets, he starts, shoulders slouching, “Seo Changbin.” and the he retreats back to his place.

Chan clears his throat, “Sorry about him, Y/N. He’s still a work in progress when it comes to new recruits.” he rubs the back of his neck, “He’s pretty much in charge of the missions we’re assigned to at night, stealth missions, that kind of thing.”

You open your mouth to say something, but you decide against it when you see Chan look at you confused. You shouldn’t expect these people to do those kinds of missions. Only monsters did those missions, like you.

The next one to step forward is confident, like he knows what he’s doing, but he won’t tell you either way, because he didn’t find the need to, “My name’s Lee Minho, some of these guys call me Lee Know. I’m in charge of weapons in our group.”

“That’s why some of us call him Lee Know, because of a mission we went on that had extended a full day after an open fire started in the outskirts of district 8, we ran out of weapons, but Minho created new guns from the equipment we had. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d have lost that one.” Chan shrugs.

The next one doesn’t even step forward, he bows courteously from his spot, “I’m Kim Seungmin, we’re already a well oiled machine but I’m sure your addition will complete us even more.” he looks up slowly as if he was trying to remember what he had to mention, “Oh! I’m in charge of route and plan memorization of the group. Basically, I remember everything. If Woojin is in charge of memorizing the location, I’m in charge of getting us there and back.”

The next one has a hand in his pocket, but he’s well mannered enough to bow first, “I’m Lee Felix, I’m in charge of comms. Minho and I sometimes work together when we need to improve the communication accessories we use, especially for upgrades.”

You were already acquainted with the next one, but you didn’t interrupt. He comes marching forward, almost.looking proud at how you two already knew each other, “As you know, I’m Yang Jeongin. I helped you earlier and that’s what I do in the team, I usually help them when they get injured, but the longer I grow here, I hope I get to become like you, or like Hyunjin Hyung.”

A hand is reached out in front of you, you stare at it, before his other hand is grabbing yours and putting it in his still waiting hands for a handshake, “Hey. I’m Han Jisung. I’m who everybody counts on during missions, I’m always making plans with Chan, but I do much rather prefer planning instead of actual physical violence.”

The last one is staring at the floor, practically glaring at it with a hand in his pocket, he takes one look up at you, and bows silently, “I’m Hwang Hyunjin, I guess I’m like you, if you were trained to kill. I’m practically in charge of maintaining everyone in this group as well and especially combat.” he bows again then he begins to retreat but then he stops, “Sorry about what they did to you.” he mentions in a soft voice, it doesn’t go unnoticed by Park Jinyoung or Chan. You see Park Jinyoung’s cheek clench, and Chan throwing Hyunjin a dirty look to get him to stop, and it works.

You push your chair back and you stand up, “Nice to meet you all. I’m Y/N. The only thing you need to know about me is what I did to Jackson earlier.” you force a smile on your face that has Park Jinyoung chuckling to himself, you can feel the tension in the room, and you get why. It’s always unnerving to suddenly have to recruit a new member, so even though they thought they were showing you their enthusiasm over getting a new member, you completely understood where they were coming from, “I uh, I understand that this kind of situation isn’t easy, but I hope you all give me a chance because I’m sure I can prove to you guys that I belong here. I'm excited to begin working with you guys.”

You get in line at the cafeteria, a group of girls already in front of you in line, giggling amongst themselves, themselves, friends. The guard at the front of the line grabs your wrist, scanning the inside of it and 2 tickets are printed from his handheld scanner. You grab the tickets, staring at the extra one strangely, was this how it would always be? This was your first actual meal since your family died. You head straight for the food line where they easily provide you with two heaping helpings of dinner which you carry in both hands. You try to look around, looking for a place to sit. You see the group of girls in front of you in line, but when they catch your eyes, they instantly glare at you and scoot farther apart so there was no space for you. You’re about to turn your heel and forget dinner all together, when a voice calls out to you.

“Yo!” a hand shoots up in the air, “Y/N! Over here!” if you didn’t see Chan earlier, you definitely saw him now as he stood up and started flailing his arms around in an attempt to get you to see him.

You sigh, looking from your food to their table, where all their eyes were already on you. The decision was already made anyway. You walk towards their table slowly where you catch Jeongin roughly pushing Hyunjin farther from him to make room for you.

“You can sit right here, Y/N!” Jeongin pats the empty seat in between him and Hyunjin.

You place your tray with two full plates on the table, “This seat taken?” you look towards Hyunjin who keeps his sight straight across at Jisung.

He shrugs, “All yours.”

The table is silent, except for Jeongin who keeps talking to you about some mission awhile back where he got shot in the leg, but pushed through for three days or whatnot, Chan was shooting you looks from the end of the table, smiling and trying to at least create a somewhat welcoming presence, it wasn’t working. Jisung was just shooting looks at you from behind his hair while eating, and you would catch Hyunjin every now and then and meet his eyes before he quickly averted his gaze.

Dinner was brutal and it would’ve been a massacre if it weren’t for Jeongin and Chan, but you got through it anyway. You went ahead of everyone after being called to meet with Park Jinyoung for a briefing. After an hour of discussing your still ambiguous place in the team, he dismissed you, but not before having you come by the watch your new team’s practice simulation so you could get a feel of their dynamics.

You hover in front of the door that you already opened ever so slightly, your hand rests on the door knob when you hear their voices in murmurs, and you freeze when you hear you name.

“She doesn’t belong here, Chan.” Woojin.

“Look, I know you guys don’t like how this is panning out, and trust me, I don’t either but-”

“Then can’t you tell that to JYP? He trusts you the most out of all of us. And if he’s going to listen to anyone it’s you.” That was Changbin. He sounded so frustrated.

“I don’t like this either, but maybe we can compromise, we just need to give her a chance.” You were pretty sure that was Hyunjin, “We just don’t know her too well right now.”

“I’m not exactly sure this is something that should have been thrusted to us.” Seungmin chimes in.

“I don’t know.” Minho tsks, “We were perfectly fine well before her. What else are we missing?”

“Oh come on, man. You were assigned with us just a few years ago.” Hyunjin’s voice got louder, “We were all new once!”

“I heard she was one of the best recruits at District 10.” Jisung offers, “My big brother told me that her team’s level was pretty high up there back in 10, and she’s the only one Park Jinyoung wanted from that team.”

“Well she’s in 9 now.” Changbin scoffs, “And besides, how can we even trust her? I heard she was the reason why District 10 even imploded-”

You never noticed how tight your grip on the knob had gotten until you finally find the strength to slam it shut. You feel the hot tears running down your cheeks as you run down the hall, even pushing past Jeongin who had no idea what just happened. Maybe it was for the better. You don’t know how long you were running, but you run until your legs give out from under you on the dirt floor. You feel like you couldn’t breathe, as if the air was being sucked from inside of you as you continued to sob. It could have been easier to ignore that accusation, to let everyone think whatever they wanted, but you couldn’t because it was true.

After what felt like hours of sobbing, and reminiscing on your old team, you make your way back to your room. You walk slow, counting the steps. You were on step 9,730 when you catch a pair of legs right next to your door. Looking up, you find Chan, back up against the wall, dozing off with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a foot propped up against the wall.

You approach slowly with caution, entering the passcode for you door, “Need something?” you focus on what you were doing, entering the incorrect code over and over again.

He jolts awake, eyes wide and alert, “Y/N! You need to come with me.” he looks serious, not a grin in sight. This was it, they’d tell you that you weren’t going to be accepted in their little group and you’d have to find another way to pay for little Hanbyul’s exemption from service.

You slouch your back, sighing before following him, directly behind his heel as he started walking. You walked in silence, all the way across the premises only to stop right in front of a glass door. He holds the door open for you, only entering after you’ve gone in. You find all the members sitting on the couches, with Jeongin near the end. You noticed his puffy eyes and his red nose and every so often, he’d let out a sniffle or a hiccup, he’d been crying.

So this was it? This was how you’d be let go.

Chan places a hand on your shoulder, “This is our living quarters.” he pulls you towards the group, “And one of these days soon, it’ll be yours as well.”

You stare at him in shock, then at the other members, Jeongin who had such a serious face was beaming now, “I-I thought you didn’t like m-me?”

“We just don’t know you yet.” Woojin speaks from the far right armchair, “ We like you well enough. We just don’t know you.”

Chan sighs from next to you, “If we’re being honest, then yeah. At first we didn’t like you, and we were talking about you. But when you slammed that door, Hyunjin ran after you, and followed you to the back, in the Garden of Mirrors. Park Jinyoung said that he made that place in hopes that when we go there when we’re lost, or feeling our weakest, then we can find ourselves.” He pulls you to sit next to him on an unoccupied couch, “And when Hyunjin never came back, we looked for him and found him watching you. I guess that’s when we realized that if this has been hardest on anybody, that would be on you.”

Hyunjin who was standing by the wall with his arm crossed suddenly speaks up, “So let us in, Y/N. Tell us who you are.”

You stare back at them, Hyunjin in particular. With a deep breath, you begin.

You were born in District 10. You never got to an age where mom and dad ever had any other name besides mom and dad when they sent you to service. By the age of 9, you were already learning proper gun cleaning techniques. At age 10, you met Jinhwan, he was already 13, but he couldn’t be assigned anywhere because he was categorized as too hostile to be assigned anywhere, but he got along with you just fine. You see him with other kids, he didn’t care if they were afraid of him, he was fine on his own. But you knew better. You’ve walked into practice rooms at 4 in the morning to find him crying in the corner. That’s why when you get your first mission with him, you give him a stuffed elephant you had been trying to give to him since you saw him crying. Maybe it was because he hated his parents and you never spent enough time with them to properly treasure any memories with them, but you and him understood each other. At 12, you met Hanbin, he was 14, but that’s all. You never bothered to ever really get to know Hanbin or train with him which is why you were so surprised when Yang Hyun Suk called you in only to be assigned to your first team. It was Hanbin’s team, one he handpicked himself, Jinhwan wss pickest as well, he picked you after meeting you once. The team consisted of Hanbin, Jinhwan, Bobby, Junhoe, Yunhyeong, Donghyuk, Chanwoo, and you. Hanbin was never the type to make things easier for anyone, even you, even with whatever the two of you had developed, in fact, you can still remember a specific mission when you had been transported back with your team, and you were bleeding out on the floor from a stab wound to your leg and all Hanbin really din was hold your hand on the way back. He never said anything and just told you to pay attention to the mission, but you knew better from the way his hand trembled and his lips quivered if he so much as let out a sound, he wasn’t the type to jeopardize a mission but he also didn’t want to lose you and there’s just something so flattering about that. You start out as a surveillance team, lookout for the teams that actually get to properly do a mission, as time passes, you team moves up the ranks, from surveillance to escort missions to diplomacy to hijacking missions to objectives to assassinations there you and your team last promoted to, special operatives. Your team was your family, the closest thing you could ever consider as such. Especially Hanbin, you and Hanbin had something really special which is probably the only reason you stayed in that team despite the questionable missions they started to give you. Under a especially delicate mission, one assigned only to you and Jinhwan was completed, it took a whole week to get done and when you and Jinhwan were in Yang Hyun Suk’s office to give a detailed report, Jinhwan found files that had turned everything upside down. That night, before you and Jinhwan had the chance to talk about it with your team, bombs started going off. A retaliation from District 7. Before you had any time to react, your team was already clearing the premises down into the bomb shelters. You were in Jinhwan’s room with him while he’s packing when the sky darkens from the window, then in seconds, he’s grabbing you by the arm, running down the hall and then he stops, he’s smiling sadly at you, he kisses you telling you he’s loved you since he first met you and then he’s pushing you to run to Hanbin in the east wing of the facility, because he needed to go back to get something very important, he pats your head telling you he’d find you and your team later so you start running. Minutes later, a bomb implodes in your living quarters, Jinhwan inside. You find Hanbin in the industrialized labs, he doesn’t say a word, just embraces you like it’s the last one, and he gives you one final kiss, asking you to keep Hanbyul safe before he thanks you for caring and loving him the way you did all those years, and that’s when he pushes you into a metallic tube like incubator, saying sorry over and over again and how much he loves you, he reaches for your hand that you had placed against the glass, and then everything explodes. You realized what had happened, when you were with Jinhwan, when he looked out the window, he noticed the bomb ticking down the minutes before it would explode, he began to run with you when he remembered that damned elephant you gave him all those years back, and that’s why he goes back, that’s why he died. Hanbin had been in that lab for the purpose of you finding him, he and Jinhwan were a hundred percent sure that the bomb shelter wouldn’t hold against the onslaught of bombs, so he stands guard of the only place that had cryogenic chambers that could withstand bombs like that. When he starts up the machine, all you can remember is hitting the door so hard just so it would open until the sides of your fists were bleeding and raw, the last thing you saw was his face, one of the only few times Hanbin showed so much love and affection in his eyes and it was all for you, sadness and love as he kept saying sorry over and over again.

You breathe a sigh of relief, mostly everything was out in the open now. That’s all that mattered.

A hand comes out to touch your shoulder, “One day, Park Jinyoung is going to assign you to go back and get whatever you left behind in 10. It wouldn’t be him if he didn’t.” Hyunjin squeezes your shoulder, “But just know that, District 10, 7, 4, 5 or whatever district you have to go to, we’re coming with you.” he drops his hand, sighing before retiring to his room.

Chan smiles drowsily, probably tired from the practice simulation earlier, “You’re one of us now, Y/N.” He stretches before stalking to his room.

One by one, everyone starts to leave. You were about to get up when a dvd is thrown on the coffee table in front of you, “This was the practice simulation earlier.” Jisung scratches the back of his neck, “We aren’t actually allowed to take the recordings but you weren’t around to watch, so I took the liberty of putting it in there along with a few of our individual skill recordings there.”

You silently bow your head in thanks, waiting until he goes back to his room before popping the dvd into the tape player connected to the television.

This was your home now.

21 notes · View notes

geneticasseta · 5 years

Text

ALTERNATE_VERSES.EXE

MODERN / NORMAL

Andrea “Pip” Morgan was raised in the foster system after she was left abandoned on the footsteps of a church when she was two years old. With no records of her identity or where she had come from, she was given the name Andrea Morgan and placed in an independent orphanage where she experienced extreme child neglect and harsh harassment and bullying from the older children present.

She was considered difficult as she would scream whenever someone attempted to touch her at which point people just stopped trying. She was moved into several foster homes growing up, bouncing from one unstable family dynamic to the other and never quite belonging. Eventually she began attending a kick boxing class five times a week and even began competing. Andrea’s ambition and drive caused her to shine in any task that she was given which caused her to be ostracized by many of her peers.

She would make one friend eventually, at sixteen years old, a girl called Mary. She was flamboyant, cheerful and kind hearted and constantly pushed Andrea to socialize and make friends, though she never did make the effort, she and Mary became closer and closer until eventually Mary fondly dubbed her “Pip”, as in the Pippin to her Merry, even despite their personality differences.

Andrea adopted the nickname as her preferred name, something she had found on her own instead of been branded with because no one bothered to think too hard. Pip would eventually fall in love with her dear friend Mary and they dated until their senior years at high school where upon Pip enlisted in the US Marines and Mary left for college. Pip still considers herself close to Mary, despite their distance and separation but understands that they moved on.

Pip remains enlisted and hopes to further her career as much as she can.

RIVERDALE

Andrea “Pip” Morgan was abandoned on the steps of The Sisters of Quiet Mercy when she was two years old with no name and no record of her identity or her heritage. She suffered from touch hunger, screaming, running or fighting whenever someone attempted to touch her, this touch hunger remained all through her childhood and early adolescence. She was considered one of their most violent, aggressive and rebellious children in that she would often run away only to be returned by local police departments. The longest she had managed to remain free of Quiet Mercy was when she was eleven years old and lived on the streets for almost eight months before finally being apprehended for trespassing and assault.

She met a girl called Mary Dumot who had been sent to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy to be reconditioned due to her sexuality, and the pair became extremely close. Their friendship blossoming into something more and Mary was the one who affectionately dubbed her Pip.

At twelve years old, Pip was taken in by the Deveraux family but her transferred guardianship was not done out of kindness or a want for a daughter but simply because the Deveraux wanted to present themselves as the kind, loving and all accepting good American white family by adopting a poor orphaned black girl. Pip hates them.

Her friendship with Mary continued through handwritten letters as the Deveraux’s lived in New York and Pip would visit her as often as she could, they would talk about running away together, about leaving their terrible families and going on adventures together. Pip eventually convinced the Deveraux’s to allow her to live in Riverdale, where she purchased a loft in the South Side to live so that she could visit Mary more often.

When she was sixteen their secret relationship was discovered and Mary’s family transferred her to a different monastery. Pip has tried to find her but to no avail.

She has lived in Riverdale for two years and was attending Southside High but was transferred to Riverdale High.

THE 100

please be aware that I haven’t watched past season 3

also not the biggest fan of octavia or clarke, soz

Andrea “Pip” Morgan, was born upon the space station, the Ark and resided in Mecha Station for the majority of her childhood and young adult life. Her mother died in childbirth and her father was unknown to her and so she was taken in by foster families all throughout Mecha Station. This allowed Pip to interact with several different cultures, religions and languages growing up and helped her create contacts throughout the station. As a girl Nygel approached her to work in her trade ring, giving her access to more of the station and helping her move her items throughout.

When Pip refused to prostitute herself at sixteen, Nygel set Pip up to be arrested for smuggling stolen goods. She was arrested after assaulting three Security Guards and putting one officer in the medical bay with a broken jaw and several lacerations to his torso. Since she was under eighteen, Pip wasn’t floated, and spent the majority of her sentence establishing herself amongst her peers. She began a romantic relationship with a fellow Prisoner, Mary, whom had been arrested for stealing medical supplies for her sick neighbor.

Mary was released from her sentence when she turned eighteen, six months before Pip’s own birthday but Pip was sent to the ground with the rest of the 100 three months before her birthday.

Pip is an exceptional combatant in hand-to-hand fighting and has taken up the sword and throwing knives since training with Lincoln. She has also begun teaching herself how to use a bow and arrow, crafting her own arrows and maintaining her own bow for hunting as well as fishing. Her fighting style is both extremely violent and brutal, as well as graceful and elegant.

Mary perished when Factory Station crash landed on Earth. Pip survived in the Second Dawn Bunker. During the Dark Year, Pip stood alongside Kane, refusing to eat, viewing the Cannibalism as a grotesque insult to the fighters as opposed to any ethical belief but was eventually forced to eat by Octavia.

Pip was forced to fight in the ring in her third year after starting a fight with Kara Cooper, one of Octavia’s personal guards. She won her life by killing every single one of her opponents but has grown to resent many of the people in the Bunker.

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D

Follows Pip’s modern / normal verse in which she was an orphan, raised within the foster system until she turned eighteen in which she enlisted with the US Marine Corp. Pip became a gunnery chief during her time enlisted and served two tours until she was honorably discharged and picked up Private Militia Contracts until she came into contact with fish oil tablets that had been interferred with the Terrigen mist. Upon consuming the tablets Pip went through Terragenesis and was reborn as an Inhuman with the ability to turn nearly anything she touches into an energized weapon.

Pip usually utilizes her powers with a wooden Korean Jikdo Sword, daggers and throwing knives. When these objects become sufficiently energized, they can easily cut through most materials with little resistance, including the barrels of guns. She can also phase by energizing her own physical body allowing her to pass through solid objects to a certain degree but this power is difficult for her to control.

She is apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D alongside Joey Gutierrez and Elena Rodriguez and becomes a Secret Warrior with Lincoln Campbell and Daisy Johnson.

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D / DARK ANGEL CROSSOVER

Manticore is a deep cover organization funded by private government sponsorship and military contract that specialized in genetic engineering in which they designed and created supersoldiers known as the X5 series. These soldiers were used as assets to further their own agenda’s and the agenda’s of their sponsors until Manticore’s destruction.

X5-936, now known as Pip, was one such soldier who survived Manticore’s destruction and now works as an independent mercenary for hire. She has far superior physical and intellectual abilities than that of a skilled human and possesses several spliced dna markers from various different animals that give her a genetic boost of strength, speed, durability and an accelerated healing factor.

Pip was once working undercover within S.H.I.E.L.D as Kerra Mason, to gather information on the agency for Manticore before she was ordered to fake her own death and return to Manticore.

THE WALKING DEAD

Pip was deployed in a routine training operation when the outbreak was first sighted, her first contact with an active hostile engagement was with the dead. She took charge quickly, leading her team back to base several days ahead of schedule, attempting to make sense of the ordeal. Many of her squadmates seemed convinced that it was a joke, some sick and twisted prank pulled on them but as they came across more Infected it became clear that it wasn’t a joke.

They reached base in time for all hell to break loose. A quarantine zone being overrun, losing several superiors to the Infected or to desertion. Pip toughed it out, going with her team to secure the QZ and governed the QZ under martial law awaiting further orders. The QZ thrived for a time, the community adapting with charismatic and intelligent leadership until road bandits began attacking the perimeter. The firefight drawing the Infected and breaching the fence.

Pip has survived on her wits, ruthlessness and her ability to adapt and read a situation as well as integrating herself into strong groups and communities.

THE LAST OF US

Pip was born into the world of the Infected and raised in the Quarantine Zone’s military designated orphanage where she was trained and groomed into enlisting. She had one friend growing up in the QZ, the pair of them thick as thieves and inseparable. Mary and Pip were like fire and water, polar opposites that managed to work well together and even began dating. Together they survived the QZ, utilizing their skills and contacts to hustle, scam, trade and barter for food rations, ID’s, supplies and contraband smuggled into the QZ. They had quite the little operation going until a soldier accidentally shot and killed a young boy while scouting for Infected.

Tensions in the QZ rose, tempers fanned by the Fireflies and by the Militias violent response to protests until the QZ was shredded by the rioting where Mary was killed. Pip has struggled for a long time with Mary’s death, losing her made Pip meaner and colder.

Pip eventually left the QZ, running with several Hunting and Bandit crews until she was approached by the Fireflies.

X-MEN / THE GIFTED

Andrea “Pip” Morgan was born with the x-gene and raised in the foster system after she was left abandoned on the footsteps of a church when she was two years old. With no records of her identity or where she had come from, she was given the name Andrea Morgan and placed in an independent orphanage where she experienced extreme child neglect and harsh harassment and bullying from the older children present at which point she triggered her mutant powers.

Pip was transferred to The Essex Home for Mutant Rehabilitation which specialized in housing and containing young mutants. Under the direction of the Headmaster, Pip was physically and psychologically abused using religious indoctrination as well as extreme experimentation at the hands of the caregivers there until she escaped when she was fourteen years old.

Pip would live on the streets until she was twenty-two years old and is arrested by Sentinel Services and sentenced to ten years in a Mutant Rehabilitation facility in which she crosses paths with a mutant who claimed to be a part of the Mutant Underground. During a prison riot, Pip managed to escape her collar and flee the prison alongside a handful of other prisoners and has been on the run and searching for the Underground ever since.

Pip possesses “leeching” powers. Through physical contact Pip is able to drain people of their energy, she can absorb physical energy, emotions, pain and even anothers injuries, converting this energy into power for herself that can allow her temporary heightened physical abilities such as speed, strength and senses. She can drain a person to the point that they pass out, or until death by draining them of their life force and if she absorbs enough energy she can go as far as to drain entire buildings full of people without needing to touch them first.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES / THE ORIGINALS

Andrea “Pip” Morgan was born into servitude and like her grandmother she had magic in her blood, however, Andrea was a siphon. She could only perform feats of magic if she was channeling magic through another witch, a magical object or another spell but this did not stop her from seeking ways to freedom not only for herself but for her family and those remaining of her community. Andrea heard tales of a man that was also a beast, who lived outside the city who could grant her power and one evening Andrea escaped the compound on foot. Chased by hunters and slavers, pursued through rivers and swamps, Andrea found the place where the creature was supposed to appear to her.

Martin was a vampire and Andrea demanded that he transform her into one of his kind. Once she entered transition, Andrea joined Martin in a blood bath of her pursuers and once she had transitioned completely into a vampire, she and Martin returned to the compound and slaughtered all within save for the slaves whom they freed.

Andrea donned the name Pip after helping her mother to the North and traveled for a time with Martin, as time past, Pip learned that she could channel her own vampiric nature to perform spells and magic. She used this to craft herself and Martin daylight rings and she explored the country studying and learning what magic she could. As Andrea was looked upon as an abomination by many witches and covens, Andrea became creative in her ways of deception.

#aus.

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