maskormenace

Entry tags:

video

[Eddie paces as he talks. There's a cast on his arm with the word loser written in black, with a red V written over the s to spell lover.]

Hello? Can you hear me? We're all kidnapping victims here; you guys know that right?

This nanite stuff sucks. There are tiny germ sized robots crawling around inside us! Something's gotta be powering them. They could be hanging out in our stomachs eating our food. Or they could be eating us and making tiny little holes inside our bodies. They could all build up in one place and block off the blood flowing through our arteries and our veins. Or build up in our organs, our lungs and our brains! And, our bodies are mostly water. They could be rusting inside us.

[He stops pacing and starts scratching his face with his cast-free hand]

I think I'm allergic to them! Everything's itchy. I'm gonna break out into hives!

[He starts wheezing and rubs his chest.]

I could be allergic to the tattoo too. I'm just a kid. I shouldn't have one. I think it's starting to swell up. I could have an infection. Or a blood disease. I don't trust these government people to be clean.

[The wheezing continues and his voice becomes strained with each word. He takes his inhaler out of a fanny pack and uses it, only speaking again when he's breathing is back to normal.]

How are we supposed to deal with this shit?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ There is... A very blue, very shiny robot staring into the feed. Squinting, maybe. Hard to say with that metal face. ]

May I suggest breathing?
That seems to be a helpful coping mechanism for your species.

[ He's been fiddling around with the communicator, just to see exactly what he can do, and Eddie's video is the first real thing that pops up. Ordinarily, he'd dismiss it — because kid — but the wheezing grabs his attention as little else can.

This kid looks nothing like Steve, sounds nothing like him either. But that raspy attempt to get air into his lungs. That is exactly the same. So, ]

One day at a time. That's how. [ And then, in a lower tone. ] Are you okay?

Problems could be adding up each day! And we won't know it until we're too late. Has anyone been around for years? Decades? We have to think about long term effects of this place.

[He pauses for a moment and a hint of embarrassment creeps into his voice.]

Yeah, I'm okay. It's just asthma.

[Except it isn't really asthma and he has no idea how to get refills for a ~~gazebo~~ placebo in this world.]

What the - ?

[He manages to stop himself before he swears at the blue face, wondering if this is a new danger to worry about. He's from the 80s - terminator was popular.]

Is that what you really look like? Are you a machine?

They could, but there's no sense borrowing trouble. [ He frowns, although Eddie can't see it. These are not the kind of questions that should be bothering a child. ] I'm not sure? Just got here myself.

[ Hah. 'Just' ~~panic-induced?~~ fake asthma. It still sounds real. ]

Good. That's — good. Who are you here with?

I like to be safe and prepared. I like everyone else to be safe too.

[He wouldn't go as far as his mom did and convince everyone they're sick to keep them controlled. He simply worries and warns people.]

My friend Richie's here too. We're not in the same house though.

Well, uh, if it helps, people have been here for years and the nanites have never done any of that stuff...

I think you need to take a deep breath first.

Nah, the itchiness is just a side effect from getting dragged through the multiverse. [Like you’re an expert, Richie.] It fades in a couple days. I itched worse than your mom before I peeled her out of her underwear when I first got here.

Plus the tattoo’s super cool. You get into a ton of places way faster than you would’ve when you flash it. I got a discount the other day on a fucking milkshake ‘cause of it!

[A shrug.] I’unno. As long as it’s not the end of the world, or It, this shit’s not all that bad. You get superpowers out of the whole deal.

Relax. Humans get abducted for alien experiments all the time. Just pretend it's like that.

Edited 2020-01-06 00:15 (UTC)

That does help! That's the kind of shit that should be in the information they give out. How many years?

[He reaches for his inhaler again, then stops himself.]

I'll try. Deep breaths are hard right now.

I get it. It's a strange place with weird shit happening and a lack of adult supervision.

Just... follow my lead. Okay? [ So he inhales and exhales slowly, hoping that it would help the other. Something he learned from being at camp. ]

[ ooooookay, that sounds like a panic attack in progress. and he's, y'know, distinctly non-human and that's always a shock for people. he... could just connect with audio, but this is gonna be a shock one way or another. ]

Hey, it's gonna be alright. My name's Josh. I'm a doctor, I work outta De Chima General. I can't do much for the kidnapping, but I can take a look at the rest of it for you.

Why the fuck wasn't that in the information they give out? [He holds up the brochures he was given.] These dumb asses don't know what's important. [He scratches again, then stops, giving an annoyed look]. Shut up.

I guess that's cool. My mom's not here so I can get any kind of milkshake I want too. [No lectures on sugar or bullshit allergies.] What kind of other places can we get into?

[He looks down, chews on his lip for a moment while thinking, then looks up again.] Do any of your powers hurt you?

What the fuck?!

[Eddie does stare for a moment and decides he's not as scary as the robot person. Plus he really wants to know a doctor, even if doctors can be intimidating.]

My name's Eddie. I'd like that. I mean, I don't want to have to stay overnight in a hospital or anything. Just get checked out. Is that okay? Could I bring a friend?

[He pauses and adds.]

I had to take a lot of medicines back home. They might not all be, um, real. Some of them are gazebos. [He means placebos.] If I showed you the bottles can you tell me which ones are real? And can you tell if my allergies are real or all bullshit?

Yeah, dude, that's fine on all counts.

[ poor kid. like - seriously, poor kid. who gives their kid gaze- placebos and makes them think they've got more allergies than they've actually got? ]

My superpower is biokinesis, which is a really fancy way of saying I can run a full diagnostic on what's going on without even needing a blood sample.

Exactly! If my Mom knew I was here, she'd be having an aneurysm. This is all way too dangerous.

[She'd say he was too delicate for this and find a way to drag him home, which is actually what he misses now.].

[He follow's the guy's lead, breathing slightly better].

Look, calm down, calm down, it's like...back in my world, alien abductions just happen. Only most people don't know it, because your mind gets wiped after. But then, most of the time when you get abducted, the aliens really just want to see how you interact with some random Earth object, then they put you back without any memory that anything happened. This is like that. It's scary and invasive, but no one's going to hurt you, and when it's all over they just put you back and you don't even remember it.

Mind wipes? Your world sounds scary as fuck. Most of the time? What the fuck happens the rest of the time? What the hell do I tell my mom if I do get put back? If I'm gone for a long time and I can't remember where I've been, she'll, she'll...I don't know what the fuck she'll do. Make me get a ton of x-rays and needles and spend the rest of my life in a damn hospital. I'll never get to go outside again when I get back. My face is probably on every single milk carton on my world by now too. Every single one! I'll never live it down.

It doesn't matter, because this time isn't going to be like those 'rest of the times'.

And I've actually got some great news for you. When we get put back, we're put back the same moment we left, so no one ever knows we were gone.

Holy shit, Josh! Holy fucking shit! That is so cool! My mom made me get so many x-rays and shit back home. Like all the time. I hated it. No more of that? You must be super busy. When I can see you?

The biokinesis doesn't hurt, right?

Are you sure?

Wait, what? I heard people can be here for years. If I go back and I'm taller and older, how's anyone gonna know it's me? It'll be like I grew up in a second.

They didn’t tell me there was an apocalypse about to happen in six days when I came in last year, they wouldn’t say shit about any side effects. [He snickers, but wisely drops it for now.]

Anywhere! We can go to the beach any time, Florida has way less grandmas than I was expecting and way more hot chicks. Or we could go to the arcade, or to this paintball arena—you name it, we could go there, Eds. [And maybe Richie won’t have to worry about being caught looking at Eddie, if everyone else is looking elsewhere.]

Uh. No? [Wait.] I can turn into an old guy, and sometimes I fuck my back up and have to change back, but that’s the worst of it. Why, does yours hurt you? [Richie sits up now, pushing his glasses up with worry written clear across his face.]

Edited 2020-01-06 02:22 (UTC)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 13

video

permavid

Audio

no subject

Re: permavid

no subject

no subject

video

video;

video

Video

video

video;

Re: video;

video.

Re: video

Video

Re: video.

video.

video;

Video

Video

Video

video.

Video

no subject