maskormenace

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[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?

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Uhhhhhhh...

[The groaning continues a bit while she contemplates that.]

Wait, I just remembered- without the nanites we can't survive here. A few months ago we had creatures appearing from other worlds- really cool stuff like unicorns. And they got sick really fast without nanites. So they can't be all that bad, right?

[She smiles.]

I don't know him, no, but that's good. It'll help you adjust, I think, to have a friend around, someone from your world. My mom was here for a while, but right now I'm the only person from my world here.

[Uh.Oh. A new worry.] What the fuck? We die without them?! They break down and that's it. Holy shit. [He grabs his inhaler and takes another puff.] How is everybody here so brave?

[He smiles.] Yeah, it will. Richie's the best, uh, he's my best friend. We had a group back home, all best friends. Was it okay having your mom here? If my mom was here, she'd make me live in a hospital.

[He drops his voice down to a whisper.] Are the unicorns okay now? [He's a little embarrassed that he thinks unicorns are cool. That's the kind of thing that he would have been teased for back home.]

Like I said, we don't think too much about it, for one... and for two, that's never been known to happen. The government's been doing this for a really long time, so they know how to keep stuff going and keep us alive.

[She nods.]

My family's always been really close, but since we work together in my dad's restaurant we're kind of on top of each other and in each others' business and personal space pretty much 24/7, too. It was a chance for Mom and I to have some one on one time. And for me to get to know her as a person and not just my mom.

[She nods vigorously, then silently sends a few pictures of one along- he's free to acknowledge them, or no, if he so chooses. Consider it a bit of a welcome gift.]

Some of them got adopted out to residents here, in fact. The therapy horse company I work for took one. I wanted one for myself, but I didn't want my horse to get jealous. ... that and he's expensive enough on his own.

There's a first time for everything. With my luck, it'll be me. They'll name the nanite breaking down disease after me.Eddie syndrome or Kaspbrak syndrome. [Another puff.]

I just have my mom.I don't know if I'd want to know her as a person. She says mean stuff. Not about me. About my friends. She's good as a mom. [No, she isn't.] She's always worrying about stuff that other people don't even think about, always protecting me. [Always making him think he's weak and sick.]

This is cool! There's a picture on my communicator thing! Did you do that? Thanks!

Holy shit! That's so cool. You get to work with horses and a unicorn! I have to work as a model. Richie's got a job delivering papers and he might get me a job there - so I can ride a bike instead of having people take my picture all day.

Are you alright? Like, with your breathing and stuff? 'cause I know some doctors I could direct you to if you need...

[Of course, she realizes if he's scared of the nanites he may not want to or may not trust doctors from this world, but she has to try. It's her big sister instinct.]

Well, I'm glad she protects you, at least, even if she's not nice to other people. Worrying too much can be a bad thing, though... but what's "too much" can depend on the kind of world you're from, I guess. I came from a pretty normal one and didn't have a whole lot to worry about.

[She smiles.]

Yeah, these communicators can send pictures and video. And all sorts of other things. ... it's way too easy to waste a lot of time on them.

Well, the good thing is you are welcome to move jobs any time you want. I drifted around a while before I settled on this, and on being a cook on the side, so I can remember where I came from but also have my dream of working with horses. The government also doesn't make you go to school, but I still choose to go.

It's just asthma. Gets worse with allergies. [None of that's true. He's still in denial about his anxiety attacks.] There must be something here I'm allergic to. That's another reason I thought I could be allergic to the tattoo. Do you know any pulmonologists or internists or allergist-immunologists?

My world was mostly normal. There was a killer clown monster. But my mom didn't know about that. She would have had a heart attack if she did,so we didn't tell her. [Plus, none of the adults would have believed them.] My mom just worries 'cause I'm weak and cause she doesn't wanna lose me like she lost my dad.

[He returns the smile.]

That's awesome. I can send Richie all kinds of stuff. Oh! And I can send doctors a picture of an allergy rash or hives instead of having to see them.

Do kids get bullied at school here too? For being imports and for the usual shit?

Not specifically, but I can send you to a clinic I know, and I'm sure they can find a specialist for you. I've never had issues with allergies, but it's also possible it could just be, like, pollen and stuff in the air. Not even freaky pollen.

Oh, God, a killer clown sounds horrifying. I've never been too awfully scared of clowns, but put killer in front of anything and it's the worst. Even horses, and I love horses more than anything.

[She smiles.] And play games or watch videos. The sky's the limit, really.

Nah, people native to this world tend to either be indifferent to us or they kind of admire us. I've never had any trouble with bullying, though I try to do good stuff in the community, too.

Okay, yeah. A clinic would be good. Better than a hospital. [He nods.] Yeah, could be. I'm allergic to a lot of stuff.

He was the worst. He wasn't always a clown. He could become whatever you're most scared of. Like I'm scared of germs, so he was leper to me. Not just a leper, like a walking infection. And he kept things from all the kids he killed in his lair. It was really creepy. [He nods.] I read somewhere that some horses do kill, like they trample people. But only when people are mean to them. So I guess that's more like horse self-defense.

There's games on this? That's awesome. I might not see Richie's face again 'cause he'll be playing games all the time. Still cool.

Oh, that's good. The bullies back home were real assholes.

Ugh, that sucks. Luckily this world is pretty normal. ... although that doesn't help when we all come from different places, does it? If you're from Earth, though, that gives you a frame of reference.

[Tina wrinkles her nose at that.]

That's awful. I mean, really, REALLY awful. Did you end up being able to beat him? [She nods.] Horses are prey animals, so it's rare for them to just up and decide to kill someone. Of course, that doesn't stop some of them from just being mean.

Oh, there's a lot. I mostly play dating sims, but there's puzzles or shooting games... anything you can imagine, really.

Bullies suck. I try my best to be kind to everyone, myself.

Yeah, I'm from Earth. An Earth without porters. And superpowers were only in movies, comic books and TV.

[Eddie nods.]

Yeah, me and my friends killed him. We had to all work together and not be scared, so his powers couldn't work on us. Like our friendship was stronger than his evilness.

Horses sound a lot like people.

That's so cool. The games in this world are way better than the one at home. I guess 'cause this is the future.

That's cool too. My friends are like that, nice to everyone. That's kind of how we met. Ben got hurt and we all helped him. And when Mike was in trouble,we helped him too. And then Ben and Mike became our friends.

Same here. So coming here was... super bizarre to me at first. Although I'm sure the people that came from, like, medieval worlds that didn't even have phones or the internet yet had it worse.

[She listens with interest.]

I'm glad to hear that. Friendship and kindness can go a long way sometimes, even if it can't fix everything.

[She smiles.]

It's good to have people around you who are on your side. My siblings are my best friends, but they're not here... luckily I've still made a lot of friends here.

The phones back home weren't like these communicator things. They had cords. We didn't have internet, at least not in Derry. It was 1989. Medieval times would be worse. They wouldn't know about vaccines or hand sanitizer or anything important.

[He smiles back.]

Yeah, the losers' club, that's what we called each other, we were best friends. Most of us didn't have siblings. We all got bullied at school, so that's how we came up with the name. I think the rest of them will show up here or me and Richie will get sent back. Losers always stick together.

We had the internet back home, but my family could only afford one computer for the 5 of us to share. And the one time we got a router for wi-fi in our restaurant it ended up being confiscated as evidence for a police case.

[She laughs.]

Hey, I like that name. If everyone else called you losers, it's better to embrace it, right? I'm glad to hear you and your friend are together.

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