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uglymanchronicles · 6 years

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UMC:R Chapter 3: Reinstall

Exposition time! This one gets a bit gory in places, so be forewarned if that sort of thing gets to you.

“Monsters exist.”

It was, by all means, a useless statement. It sounded stupid. It sounded like something a little kid telling a ghost story would say, or something one of those wannabe Banksy types would spraypaint on the side of a police station or something. But, nonetheless, an electric shiver, so potent that it made his breath catch in his throat, ran through his body.

Because it was him saying it to himself. He knew his own tells, his own voice… he was being sincere. While it was possible this was all a trick, that password…

“I don’t mean that in a metaphorical sense. You’ll probably eventually notice some big scars on your back. Those are from a wendigo. Or is it pronounced when-dee-go? I don’t know, not the point. Superhumanly strong cannibalistic former humans. Tough, but they still die if you cut their heads off. Try not to freak out when you see the skull in the bedroom.”

“WHAT.”

“So yeah, there’s all kinds of really bad things out there. I’ve kept notes. But there’s also so many good things!” Old Evan’s eyes lit up and he scooted forward on the chair. “New things we couldn’t have imagined! Things outside of physics! New sciences! Actual, real magic! I saw a guy actually jump over a building! Superpowers exist! And here’s the best part: I’ve—shit, we’ve—got one!”

Evan felt his face slacken into an expression of incredulous confusion as the recorded Evan stood up and walked towards the camera. His form loomed over it and ate up most of the frame, but he held the fingertip of his right hand up in front of the lens.

“Watch this.”

From offscreen, a small knife appeared and Evan watched himself drag the blade across his own fingertip. There was an irritated-sounding hiss of discomfort—Jesus, he was cutting deep! His past self shook out his hand, then held up the wounded digit to the camera.

Evan covered his mouth in shock as he realized how bad the cut was. The other him’s bone was visible through the pooling blood. It would require stitches, at least! But…

He looked down at his own, present-time finger. Aside from familiar little cuts, calluses, and blemishes that had been there for years, there was no sign that anything was amiss. Even if this happened months ago, there would still be a scar from it, surely! But there was nothing new.

“Look, here it goes.”

His attention was drawn back to the screen by his own voice. The gashed finger was still front and center, but something was different.

The blood was barely flowing any more. The bone wasn’t visible. As Evan watched, the wound began to visibly narrow, the skin creeping along the edge of the cut like a time-lapse video of lichen growing on a rock. When the opposite edges of the cut grew closer, raw pink skin grew across the gap. Evan swore he could see fibers of skin reach across and connect to the other side. In less than a minute, all that was left of a pretty serious self-inflicted wound was some slightly discolored skin and a scab that looked like it was days old.

“I don’t know why I’m like this, but I don’t think it’s something new,” Old Evan said, sitting back in the chair and idly picking at the skin. “Remember all the times we got hurt and it didn’t seem as bad as it should have been? Getting gored and stomped on by that bull? Getting lost in the woods and finding our way out with that broken leg? The cancer surgery? All the shit Mary did to us? We heal! We heal fast! And from a lot of stuff, too…”

Vid-Evan paused, sounding slightly troubled. “Look, I’m not sure how strong this is yet, but… okay, if you haven’t yet, you’re going to notice there’s a gigantic, awful-looking scar right here on the left side of your…our…dammit, these tenses are fucking me up. Here.” He ran his fingers along his left side, a few inches below his pectoral… right where the mangled hoodie had been repaired. “I can’t go into all the details, but someone I was hanging out with got…enchanted, mind controlled, something like that. It didn’t work on me for some reason, but I’d probably have been better off if it did, because he came after me. And he was a HUGE guy, plus he had superhuman strength, so... I didn’t stand much of a chance. After he beat me down, he took this huge ax he carried around and…” The recording pantomimed an overhand swing. “If I hadn’t rolled he’d have split me in half. As it was, the cut stopped just a couple inches from my spine. Organs pulped, bones shattered… I was out in seconds. I woke up about an hour later and, well, it still hurt and my shirt was ruined, and I got a MASSIVE scar from it, but…” he spread his hands in front of him. “I was alive. Breathing, blood pumping, the whole nine yards. And that’s not all. I’ve been shot a few times, stabbed, clawed, punched by things a lot stronger than people… it heals in less than a day. I don’t know why some of them leave scars and some don’t, but… well, let’s just say we’re not gonna win any beauty pageants. Sorry.”

The image on the screen raised his hand to his cheek, and Evan suddenly felt a deep sadness coming from his doppelganger. He could see something sparkling in his own blue eyes, and realized it was the backlight reflecting off his tears. The recording took a deep, shaky breath, and continued.

“Look, I have to get to the point. There’s a lot of bad shit out there, but there’s a lot of good, too, and I want to be a part of it. With all the things we know, the things we know how to do… with the right tools, we could really make a difference. Save people from things they can’t protect themselves from. But don’t just hunt things down if they’re not hurting anyone. Everything’s got a right to exist as long as they don’t impede on that right of others, right? And go out and make the world better, don’t just fight, y’know? We’ve always had big ideas. We’ve got money, we know how to fight. And we were bored, just tooling around staying out of trouble. Let’s put all our skills and talents to good use, yeah? Um…”

Film-Evan’s gaze drifted away from the camera. He pursed his lips and shifted his jaw, twisting his expression as he seemed to struggle with what to say next. After a few seconds of silence, he reached behind himself and pulled something out of the back pocket of his pants. He stared down at it for a few moments, then held it up.

“Just being able to heal fast won’t be enough to make a difference, though. I’ve built some weapons and gathered supplies—there’s an inventory on this computer—but this is the key to us really making this whole thing work.”

It was a small, worn-looking book, bound in faded leather with a cover decorated with several small inset beads. It wasn’t much bigger than the average paperback novel and a little over an inch thick, and some of the pages were clearly made of different materials than others. It had a distinctly cobbled-together look, but the man on the screen ran his fingers over the cover with something resembling reverence.

“This thing’s had a lot of names, but in more recent times it’s referred to as the Book of Fate. Kinda cliché, I know, but it’s the real deal. This thing is both the instruction manual and a key reagent for a magical ritual that’s been in development for centuries. No, make that millennia. And, like, tons of cultures. Most of this thing isn’t in English. Some of it is later translations, but… anyway, a whole lot of people have been working on this thing for a very long time, but it’s never actually been cast. Performed. Whatever.

“But what this thing is intended to do, as far as I’ve been able to decipher, is to give the, uh, ‘target’ probably isn’t the right word, but you get what I mean, right? The target of the ritual. It’s supposed to give them the ability to develop their own… powerset? God, it feels weird to use that term to refer to a real thing, but that’s the gist of it. It’s a bit vague on how, but… well, I always wanted to be the first one to try to do something, didn’t I? We? Fuck.

“Anyway, I don’t have time to explain everything here, but I’ve got tons of notes and personal research stashed away on this computer, and there’s backups in the filing cabinet in the bedroom if something happens. I’ve gathered most of the ingredients for the ritual, and I’ve got all the steps written down. Do it. Go through with it. And after that, well, don’t worry. Trouble will find you.

“So why am I telling you this instead of you just remembering it? Well, I can’t go into any details beyond I learned something literally dangerous. Just me having the knowledge in my head has the potential to make something very bad happen. So I have to get rid of it.”

The recorded Evan stood up and pulled the cloth off the chair. The chair was huge, made of dark wood, and clearly very heavy. The angle of the lens cut off the bottom of the legs, but Evan thought he could see angle brackets anchoring the bulky thing to the floor. There were straps, made of leather even more aged and ragged than the book’s cover, on the arms and legs of the chair. Attached to the top was a strange colander-shaped device studded with wires, lights, and glass tubes filled with several colors of liquid. Topping it off was what seemed to be the innards of a power drill, tipped with a strangely gleaming bit and angled to point straight down towards the top of the wearer’s head.

Evan suddenly felt a wave of nausea as the twice forces of confusion and understanding smashed into each other in his brain. He suddenly knew what he was about to witness. He realized why his head was so empty. He knew the path he’d set himself on and was, in a sort of giddy, manic way, excited about what he’d told himself. He knew everything he needed to know. But he couldn’t stop watching. He didn’t even realize he’d been squeezing Mr. Nex like a stress ball until his knuckles cracked from the force. He could hear himself on the recording: “blah blah combination of drugs and corrosive chemicals blah blah specially coated enchanted drill bit blah blah many calculations blah lots of expert help blah blah prevent regenerating brain tissue from retaining recent memories blah blah reset pattern of consciousness upon completion of healing process blah”, but Evan was focusing on very gently setting Mr. Nex out of his arm’s reach. If what he thought was coming was indeed coming, he was worried that he might accidentally pulp the stuffed giraffe between his fingers.

After setting his old friend well out of reach on the passenger’s seat, Evan sat back down in the kitchen just as his recorded self finished strapping himself to the awful machine. There was a small remote control clenched in the shaking fingers of his left hand, and his head had been fixed in place by several thick straps. He locked eyes with the camera again.

“I’ve been wondering if this counts as me actually dying, since this portion of my consciousness won’t be sustained. I honestly haven’t come to an answer, but…” Decisively, he thumbed the button. The drill began to whir. Somewhere off-camera, something large and volatile crackled to life. “Fortune favors the bold!” The vials on the helmet started to bubble and drain. Already shaking slightly from the electric charge, Film-Evan reached out with his tongue and pulled a block of wood on a string between his teeth. Evan watched his own eyes bulge and start to roll wildly. The drill had hit bone.

Since his head was strapped in place and largely obscured by the helmet and bandages, there wasn’t much to watch. The sound was the bad part. The former Evan was screaming as the bit ground noisily through his skull, the gag doing little to muffle the sound. The machinery, the screaming, the wet crunching of pulverizing bone—it all blended together into a nightmarish vomit of noise, and Evan realized he was screaming, too, a low, guttural scream, one of low volume and pitch but utterly panicked intensity.

The background noise suddenly stopped and Evan found his scream lowering to a drawn-out groan. His digital counterpart had stopped screaming and the drill had gone silent; as he watched, the machine slowly withdrew the bit, dripping with blood and pink-gray pulp, from his own ruined skull. The other him groaned softly and spit out the gag, his eyes struggling to focus on the camera. Though blood was leaking from his mouth, he managed to grin. His lips trembling, he took a breath and slurred weakly:

“It’ll be worth it. We’re going to make a real difference. We’ll be a force to be reckoned with, I just know it. I believe in myself. I believe in you.”

He’d just taken another breath, perhaps to try to continue his inspiring farewell, but suddenly the lights on the helmet lit up and there was a soft sound of liquid sloshing. A split second of a sharp hissing was audible, then old-Evan shrieked as wisps of smoke began to rise from the top of this head. The scream was so sudden, so shrill, so agonized, and so ear-piercingly loud that it only lasted for a couple seconds before a hideous gurgling-tearing noise preceded the noise lowering to a hoarse wail.

Despite what he’d seen thus far, the scream took Evan by surprise. He involuntarily jerked backwards, the chair’s legs caught, and he toppled over backwards. Luckily, the corner of the kitchen counter was waiting to break his fall, and graciously did so with a tap to the back of the head. Pain surged from the impact, but was rapidly overtaken by surging, suffocating darkness.

Just before it all went black, Evan found himself thinking:

Well, I’ve had worse.

#my writing #Ugly Man Chronicles #Ugly Man Chronicles: Reignition #chapters

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syxkat · 7 years

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1-150 ;)

This is so overdue BUT here u go❤️1:Name- Katerina 2:Age- 173:3 Fears- praying mantises4:3 things I love- my girlfriend, my friends, my dogs, eating, music5:4 turn ons- chewing on random things, confidence, good sense of style 6:4 turn offs- being mean to your parents or pets, chewing with your mouth open, bad body odor7:My best friend- my friend Nichole, my girlfriend @flowercoasts, and my bff @plumppeachprincess8:Sexual orientation- gay maybe bi9:My best first date- never had a real date10:How tall am I?- 5'8"11:What/Who do I miss?- my dad and sisters that live in another state 12:What time was I born?- I think around 4 pm13:Favourite color- mint green and purple 14:Do I have a crush?- yeah this girl I'm dating is pretty cool I guess15:Favourite quote- "if a man has no sauce than he is lost, but the same man can become lost in the sauce."16:Favourite place- golf courses at night??? Don't ask me why they have good vibes 17:Favourite food- any and all seafood, and fried rice 18:Do I use sarcasm?- sometimes 19:What am I listening to right now?- this probably means what song I'm into but all I can think about is the loud ass lawnmower outside my house20:First thing I notice in a new person- their sense of humor21:Shoe size- 8 1/222:Eye color- brown23:Hair color- brown 24:Favourite style of clothing- I really only wear flannels and tank tops 25:Ever done a prank call?- yeah.... I'm sorry Pizza Hut...they didn't have goat cheese and bean sprout...27:Meaning behind my URL- I play a lot of roadhog 28:Favourite movie- spirit: stallion of the cimmaron29:Favourite song- right now it's either daydreamin' by Ariana grande or love on the brain by Rihanna 30:Favourite band- is Cher Lloyd a band 31:How I feel right now- tired but content 32:Someone I love- my good and wonderful girlfriend 33:My current relationship status- taken34:My relationship with my parents- my mom is one of my best friends35:Favourite holiday- thanksgiving I love to EAT36:Tattoos and piercings i have- none37:Tattoos and piercings i want- I want to re-pierce my nose and probably get a partial sleeve on one arm. and a shoulder tattoo38:The reason I joined Tumblr- I saw something funny on my friends account 39:Do I and my last ex hate each other?- no40:Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts?- yeah 😊41:Have I ever kissed the last person you texted?- unfortunately not 😞42:When did I last hold hands?- like 2 hours ago with one of my friends43:How long does it take me to get ready in the morning?- 35 minutes 44:Have you shaved your legs in the past three days?- nope45:Where am I right now?- in my bed46:If I were drunk and can’t stand, who’s taking care of me?- probably my friend Nichole 47:Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level?- reasonable or else I get Noxious Stimuli™48:Do I live with my Mom and Dad?- yeah 49:Am I excited for anything?- to go see my girlfriend in a few weeks 😄😄50:Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to?- no51:How often do I wear a fake smile?- probably never if I'm unhappy I'll look as mad as I can 52:When was the last time I hugged someone?- today while my friend was hugging her boyfriend and I was like "I gotta get in on this here I come"53:What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me?- that's fine 54:Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?- not that I'm aware of 55:What is something I disliked about today?- some kid was spinning his fidget spinner on his desk and it was loud and annoying and I was feeling ...rather hostile...56:If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?- Zoe Saldana 57:What do I think about most?- my girlfriend... every god damn second of the day 58:What’s my strangest talent?- I can pick lots of things up with my feet and make various weird noises59:Do I have any strange phobias?- no60:Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?- behind I like to record and take pictures of things 61:What was the last lie I told?- "I'm not gay mom" 62:Do I perfer talking on the phone or video chatting online?- video chatting 63:Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens?- maybe and yes 64:Do I believe in magic?- maybe???? I really don't think about it 65:Do I believe in luck?- not really???? This is making me have a CRISIS 66:What’s the weather like right now?- well it's 103 degrees and I'm in the middle of the desert so yeah I love it67:What was the last book I’ve read?- secret life of bees by sue monk kidd68:Do I like the smell of gasoline?- jesus no it's my worst enemy 69:Do I have any nicknames?- Katie I guess??? Everyone calls me that instead of Katerina 70:What was the worst injury I’ve ever had?- broke my skull on a tennis court 71:Do I spend money or save it?- spend it....72:Can I touch my nose with a tongue?- no 73:Is there anything pink within 10 ft from me?- yeah some colored ping pong balls im not sure why though 74:Favourite animal?- crocodiles and squid 75:What was I doing last night at 12 AM?- FaceTiming 76:What do I think is Satan’s last name is?- Peterson 77:What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?- Temperature by Sean Paul 78:How can you win my heart?- by being @flowercoasts79:What would I want to be written on my tombstone?- bye bitch80:What is my favorite word?- snatched 81:My top 5 blogs on tumblr- I don't know probably porn blogs 82:If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?- butthole83:Do I have any relatives in jail?- yeah 84:What superpower would I have?- shapeshifting is by far my favorite 85:What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on?- 86:What is my current desktop picture?- a picture of tracer with crying Michael Jordan's face photoshopped onto it87:Had sex?- yeah88:Bought condoms?- yeah but not for myself 89:Gotten pregnant?- no90:Failed a class?- no91:Kissed a boy?- yeah92:Kissed a girl?- yeah93:Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?- no94:Had job?- yeah95:Left the house without my wallet?- yeah96:Bullied someone on the internet?- I once told this girl on facebook that I was gonna eat her babies in like 7th grade97:Had sex in public?- .....kind of????98:Played on a sports team?- yeah football and softball99:Smoked weed?- yeah100:Did drugs?- no101:Smoked cigarettes?- no102:Drank alcohol?- yeah103:Am I a vegetarian/vegan?- no but I was for like 3 months a few years ago lmao104:Been overweight?- I'm really heavy but I wouldn't say I was overweight??? 105:Been underweight?- nopeeeee 106:Been to a wedding?- yeah my moms and I had to dance with my new weird step dad 107:Been on the computer for 5 hours straight?- oh yes108:Watched TV for 5 hours straight?- Oh Yes109:Been outside my home country?- no110:Gotten my heart broken?- no111:Been to a professional sports game?- yeah I've been to a baseball game it was terrible 112:Broken a bone?- yeah like 12113:Cut myself?- not on purpose 114:Been to prom?- yeah115:Been in airplane?- yeah116:Fly by helicopter?- yeah 117:What concerts have I been to?- none118:Had a crush on someone of the same sex?- yeah for my entire LIFE119:Learned another language?- kinda 120:Wore make up?- yeah 121:Lost my virginity before I was 18?- yeah122:Had oral sex?-yeah god damn these are really gettin into DETAIL123:Dyed my hair?- no124:Voted in a presidential election?- no125:Rode in an ambulance?- yeah126:Had a surgery?- no 127:Met someone famous?- I meet god in my dreams 128:Stalked someone on a social network?- not really129:Peed outside?- all the time 130:Been fishing?- yeah I'm not a fan 131:Helped with charity?- yeah132:Been rejected by a crush?- yeah133:Broken a mirror?- yeah I slammed into that bitch134:What do I want for birthday?- to go to my girlfriends house 135:How many kids do I want and what will be their names?- one and Alexandria 136:Was I named after anyone?- yeah my great grandma 137:Do I like my handwriting?- I don't really care but I know it's super bad 138:What was my favourite toy as a child?- Kim possible and avatar the last air bender139:Favourite Tv Show?- I haven't watched any recently but it's probably the legend of korra 140:Where do I want to live when older?- in Las Vegas or somewhere in California 141:Play any musical instrument?- guitar 142:One of my scars, how did I get it?- cut my elbow open on a random glass shard in my bathtub while I was drunk143:Favourite pizza toping?- pineapple and ham😎144:Am I afraid of the dark?- no I love it 145:Am I afraid of heights?- not really I'm pretty good with being in high places 146:Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad?- got caught by my mom coming home with McDonalds at 2 am and she was like ....you didn't even get me anything 147:Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end?- every time I take a math test148:What I’m really bad at- showing someone I really like them without being weird. 149:What my greatest achievements are- uhhhh getting best lineman in football, my ACT score, Gettin a smokin' gf150:What I’d do if I won the lottery- buy houses for all my friends. I'm talking the whole street and we're all gonna be neighbors. Buy my mom a house in the Bahamas

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