Atrophy

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@FernStone@Surtr Inc}

Grand Ridge Academy - Conference Room.

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“Why don’t you stay out of this, bitch?” snapped Penny when Claire butted into her argument with Billy. Claire wasn’t actually in the wrong: Billy was a tool. However, Penny didn’t like the idea that Claire was talking to her brother like that. Hell, she didn’t even like the idea that Claire was talking period. And then Britney had to chime in, backing her old BFF up. Penny was almost certain that her eye had started to twitch.

Billy, in his defense, did back down slightly at the urging of the two girls. He was only trying to have a little fun and bring a bit of levity to this situation, but as usual he didn’t recognize when it was time to pump the brakes. He was about to apologize when Rien finished their drawing. Instead of saying “I’m sorry”, Billy shrieked and swatted his hands in front of his face as a bat flew at him. Penny took a few steps forward and, just as Martin hit the lights, she blasted the bat against the wall, the crack of its body drowned out by Martin shouting, “Quiet!”

When the lights came back on, Billy sunk down in his chair. Clearly, all of this was too much for the guy, and he was (thankfully) stunned into a state of silence. Rita, having experienced Martin’s abstraction before, was still caught off-guard by it but more concerned about where the bat was—she hadn’t noticed Penny repulsing it to its doom. Penny’s hands were balled into fists, and her face was set in a sneer. Now that Martin and Rien had gone ahead and shown of their abstractions, there was no point in playing things close to her chest.

In fact, she was pretty certain there was no point to this at all. It was a failure. Considering who was in charge of it all, she wasn’t surprised.

“What do you mean most of us have powers?” asked Min.

It wasn’t a question meant for Penny, but she fielded it anyway.

“She means that, like Scott Reese, most of us have turned into freaks with extremely fucking dangerous abilities. And…” She turned her head towards Britney, a look of utter disgust on her face as she registered that the rich bitch had the gall to whine at them. “And you, like, seriously want us to believe that you put any fucking effort into this at all? Anybody can get a goddamn clipboard and send out a group text. The only joke here is that you actually think that there’s someone to blame here for this little shit show besides yourself. Shit, like, are you for real?”

Penny took a step towards Britney, bumping—or more like shoving, really—Claire out of her way.

“You want us to hold our grudges at the door. You want us to talk about our feelings and emotions,” continued Penny, mockingly. “But then you spend the entire goddamn time whispering to your croney and playing favorites. Seriously, Williams, what the hell? Billy’s not allowed to talk because he’s a tool, but it’s cool for a bitch like Claire to run her fucking trash mouth just because you’re buddy-buddy?” Penny folded her hands over her chest. “Why don’t you drop that holier-than-thou act? Stop pretending that you don’t love shit like this.”

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_@FernStone

Grand Ridge Academy - Conference Room.

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The look of befuddlement on Billy’s face grew as part of their collective admitted to having his dream as well. This was his first time hearing about any of the weird threads connecting all of the survivors from the camp together, and it was kind of blowing his mind. He hadn’t forgotten about the bizarre being that had come after them when they escaped the park, but he had assumed that he had just hallucinated the whole thing. And then Blue said that they could pull a goddamn butterfly out of a piece of paper, and Billy forgot about anything else except for that. He leaned forward and gestured towards Rien, the confusion on his face shifting into mild amusement.

“Bro, are you sure you didn’t just get stoned watching the Reading Rainbow?” asked Billy, chuckling to himself. “Did you turn into an astronaut and blast off into space afterwards? Pull a ship in from the ocean?”

“Billy, shut up,” growled Penny. So Rien was one of...whatever they were, and judging by the way Martin had said weird things she could assume that he also had something up his sleeve. Penny’s eyes began to roll when Claire partially pulled up her shirt—Seriously? Nobody wants to see your gross body—but they stopped and stared when she was momentarily glowed like a neon light. Great, so even pond scum had been given freak abilities. Penny frowned; she hated always being right, but she knew that someone like Claire O’Sullivan having powers would only be a catastrophe.

“Does it only have to be something lame like a butterfly?” continued Billy, still joking. “Could you do a bat, man? Oh, oh, could you do a really tiny Batman?”

“Billy. Shut. Up.”

Rita felt herself ease when Martin put his hand on her own, and there was a slight comfort in knowing that he also had the same dream—a comfort that went away when Claire reminded them all of the final moments of Camp Nightmare. The girl that had been put into a coma had prevented Claire from kicking Rita’s teeth in. Rita didn’t know her, but she felt bad for her regardless. However, she doubted Claire would want to hear her express sympathies towards her friend. Hell, she doubted Claire would want to hear her speak at all, considering what had happened yesterday.

“Why should I shut up? I was invited along to talk about my feelings, and right now I feel like I’m on a hidden camera show. Is Kimberly secretly filming this? Was I supposed to get a script? I didn’t get my script, man,” said Billy, smiling at the ridiculousness of this entire thing.

“C’mon asshole, you know this isn’t a joke,” hissed Penny. It was impossible for her not to be drawn into a fight with her brother.

“Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, sorry, sorry. I was just playing. I got powers too. I can totally shoot laser beams out of my dick.” He laughed. “Seriously, y’all must be high. Gotta hook me up with your supplier, man. Listen, I get that some of you kids got PTSD, and I’m no psychiatrist, but I think playing make believe is a little unhealthy.”

“Billy, I’m fucking serious, you need to stop,” said Penny, her voice raising. It was taking every ounce of her will to not completely go off on her brother like an atomic bomb. She shot a look over at Britney, whispering away to her new friend, and she could feel the rage in herself continue to boil up. Wasn’t that bitch supposed to be leading this? Things were spiraling out of control. If things kept up like this, Penny would blow.

Rita leaned over Martin so that she could speak to Rien as the siblings continued to bicker, “Please tell me you’re drawing something to shut them up. I think this is actually killing me.”

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@Surtr Inc@FernStone@Prosaic}

Grand Ridge Academy - Conference Room.

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Rita watched and stewed in vicarious embarrassment as Penny, the one and only girl who had pulled her out of the cabin where Rita would otherwise had been turned into firewood by Scott Reese, drew contention from her peers for her little outburst. The blonde seemed to only be pleased by the feathers that she had ruffled and, with a sneer, turned to look out the window, as if anything was more interesting than this little gathering. When the blue-haired person (Rita could not tell if they were a boy or girl, nor could she tell if that was necessarily what they were going for) sat down next to her and Martin she gave a small smile of acknowledgment, trying to hide the fact that Martin introducing her mildly peeved her. She could talk for herself. It wasn’t like she was going to start ripping Rien’s secrets right out of them—way too many people around to play that game.

Penny was pretending to ignore what Claire had said. She was also pretending that it hadn’t struck a nerve. It didn’t last long. When she looked away from the group her face had immediately soured, and insults were flooding into her mouth and trying to break through her lips. Making fun of Britney was the only possible thing that would make this little get together bearable. They didn’t have to talk about their little high school drama bullshit, but she refused to act like it didn’t exist. Neutral territory? More like coward territory. She fumed silently as Edward Scissorhands broke down his experience at the camp. She would’ve said something herself, but, well, most of it was now lost in a haze.

She caught Aliana’s glance as Martin wrapped up his story. If this punk had the mark, she could imagine what he meant by weird things. Still, right now it was better to have deniability than to put themselves right out. She mouthed a “no” to Aliana, but she did not turn to look back out the window. Instead, she was observing everyone, looking for marks or reactions to Martin’s spiel.

“I got one of those,” said Billy, rolling up his sleeve to show the spiral at the top of his skinny arm. “Buddy of mine said he couldn’t see it. Like, I thought he was just trying to pull a goof on me or something.”

“Oh, right, um, hello people. I’m Billy, I was at the camp, I saw Scott Reese be a total dick, and I’m pretty sure your girlfriend there stole my pipe.” Rita’s eyes went wide and she gripped Martin’s knee, avoiding Billy’s gaze. “Um, that was all you needed right Britney? Cool, man, cool. Anyway, I don’t know where I got that tat from, but things haven’t really been that weird since the camp. I mean, besides—”

Penny coughed loudly, worried that he was about to spill the beans about Karma. Billy caught on and shut his mouth. Rita did not.

“Um, besides what?” Rita asked, catching Billy’s eyes.

“I have had some really weird dreams lately. Super bizarre. Like, let’s see, the other night I dreamed that I was watching these kids in the woods and…” Billy, as if in a trance, proceeded to describe a dream that would sound familiar to all of those in the room. Rita looked away as he talked; Penny stared at him in shock. “And then the Illuminati dude was like ‘He’s an Awakened’ and then I woke up, which is pretty crazy timing, if you think about it, right?”

“I had the same nightmare,” muttered Rita, staring at the table.

Penny frowned. She had too; what the fuck was going on?

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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@Surtr Inc

Grand Ridge Academy - Conference Room.

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The questioning had been long but relatively painless. Between his parents and the waitress at the diner, Billy’s time frame did not match up with the estimated time of death, no DNA evidence pointed his way, and it really seemed like the detective questioning him did not want to be there super long. He was commended for calling the cops, given a firm handshake, told not to mention anything about this as it might hinder the investigation, given a small snack and a cup of joe, and then sent merrily on his way. Overall, not a bad experience outside of the mental image of Karma’s twisted body burned on to the inside of his eyelids. Still, he had managed to keep the details under wraps for an entire twenty four hours before he had ran into Penny outside of Grand Ridge Academy.

Penny had taken to staying in the dorms, even though they only lived a few minutes away. Physically, she looked healthier than yesterday, but the scowl on her face offset the warmness of her orange dress and Billy knew that she was glaring at him from beneath her sunglasses. Possibly she was judging him for still wearing cargo shorts—not just because it was fall, but because he even owned them at all—or, also very likely, she was just upset that he was approaching her in public. Although, she would’ve been just as upset if he had approached her in private.

“Penny, am I glad to see you,” said Billy.

“Really?” she said, the word dragging its way out of her mouth as if even acknowledging him was a great struggle.

“Well, maybe not glad. You’re going to the meeting right?”

Penny sighed. She was, thanks to Lynette and Aliana, although she had been mulling over the idea of ditching the thing entirely. Yes, she needed to know more about these bizarre, terrifying abilities, but the idea that they would all be gathered together in one place filled her with trepidation. She just knew things would turn rotten. Or, even worse, maybe it would turn into an actual support group, and they would sit around and talk about their feelings for an hour and cry together and then go get ice cream afterwards and—Penny shook her head. No way was she going to have a bonding session with a bunch of assholes.

“I think I’m gonna…” She didn’t get a chance to finish before Billy cut her off.

“That one chick, Carmen? Camilla? Karma? Karma. She was at the camp, right? Somebody totally Jack the Rippered her yesterday. It was nuts, dude. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but—”

It was Penny’s turn to interrupt. “It’s not.” She bit her lip. As far as she knew, there had been no reports or even rumors about Karma’s death at all. Looks like she was going to the meeting after all. “Do you know who did it?”

“My first guess would be Scott Reese.”

“Yeah.” Penny’s eyes narrowed. Maybe. Maybe not. “Don’t say anything about this, okay? At least not right away. We don’t want to...start a panic,” she said, changing what she was going to say halfway through the sentence.

“Sure, I get that, man, but maybe we should warn people that that asshole is out picking off survivors.”

“We will, we will,” said Penny, frowning. “Just let’s be thoughtful about it, okay? I know it’s tough for you to use your brain, but trust me, this is the best way to go about it.”

They continued to bicker back and forth as they walked together to the meeting room, their voices hushed and hurried. Their conversation faded away when they made it to the door, Penny feeling as if she had won the argument, and the siblings split apart. Billy seized the moment to take the chair at the end opposite of the table from Britney, giving her a wink before he kicked up his feet and leaned back, balancing the chair on two legs. There was something powerful about sitting at the head of a big table. Maybe he should grab a clipboard, make himself look official as well.

Penny had planned to grab three seats for Lynette, Aliana, and herself, but the sight of Britney boiled her blood so much that she refused to even sit at the same table as that woman. She stood away from the table, her arms folded across her chest as she leaned on the ledge of a window sill. Her sunglasses were pushed up, and anyone who looked her way would see the daggers she was shooting at Britney.

Seated near the middle of the table was Rita, her head hung and her phone out as she pretended to text someone that wasn’t there. She wore a crisp, collared shirt with the sleeves completely buttoned down, and her left hand was sandwiched between her overlapped knees. It was clear that she was uncomfortable being in that room, and she sunk even further into her chair as their host began to speak. She didn’t even notice that the girl who had rescued her from Scott Reese or the guy she had stolen skunk weed from had entered the room. Billy, however, had noticed her; an amused smirk appeared on his face.

"Let's give everyone a bit of time to get here," Britney said, "Then... I guess we'll start?"

“Oh, really?” said Penny with a snip. “Shit! That’s a brilliant plan. I’m really glad you’re running this. Seriously, like, I thought for sure we were all just gonna hang around looking at each other like a bunch of assholes for an hour and then go home. Gosh, clearly you put a lot of thought into this. I cannot wait to see how it goes.”

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Market Square - Diner

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Pancake heaven. That was where he was, resting on a fluffy cloud of fried batter and being smothered with sweet, sticky syrup. Billy had must’ve eaten over a dozen pancakes at this point, and the only thing that would slow him down was the increasingly irritated state the waitress appeared to be in when he demanded another round. Between inhalations, the boy scrolled through his phone, skimming over various local new stories that were interlaced with overused memes. Earlier that morning he had gotten a text from his buddy Chris, who worked security at Grand Ridge and had turned a blind eye to Billy’s dealings in favor of a hefty discount, about how his sister had been a mighty bitch. Billy had ultimately ignored the text. He had known that about Penny since she was a toddler; it wasn’t his fault that it took Chris that long to realize the simple truth.

The follow-up text was hard to ignore. The rent-a-cop wanted something to take off the edge of dealing with his kid sister, which added yet another person that he was going to have to kindly pretend to forget about. See, Billy’s supply had run a bit dry, and he wasn’t about to give up his own personal cache. His prescription only allowed him to get so much a month, but there were other means of obtaining more. They just were, well, a bit of a hassle, and pretty much a headache that Billy didn’t want to put up with. Alternatively, he could just ghost everyone, which ultimately seemed like the best plan because it was the simplest one. It wouldn’t be the first time he had let them all down, anyway.

So, he pretty much had an entire day free to do nothing which...was pretty much all of his days, really, excluding the ones where he had to go into his dad’s shop. He figured he would hit up the arcade, maybe work on the car a bit, go catch a flick, and then spend the rest of the day playing video games at home. All in all, a pretty good day. After killing another stack of flapjacks Billy bopped out of the diner, deciding to stretch his legs and walk the two blocks to the arcade instead of jumping in his car. Plus, he knew a shortcut. Billy turned a corner and cut through an alleyway.

Generally, Billy was pretty stoked when he saw a topless chick, especially one that he wasn’t viewing through the screen of his computer. Yet when he stumbled upon the burnt, battered, and slashed corpse of Karma Song, the only thing he felt were the pancakes in his stomach fighting to get out. Emptying the contents of his stomach, Billy managed to stumble out of the alley and grab his phone. The call was a blur, and the next thing he knew he was riding in a police cruiser on his way to the station to be questioned.

So much for having a free day.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

@Surtr IncWe gotta Rita & Martin collab in the shop right now.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic}

Grand Ridge - Outside.

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Invisibility. Telekinesis. Summoning elements like she was trying to call forth goddamn Captain Planet. Perhaps it would be wise to view these bizarre phenomenons through a cautious lens, but Penny was too excited by the mere prospect that they had gotten, to borrow from Aliana, the freaking ability to use magic seemingly out of nowhere. Well, almost out of nowhere. She remembered her ability triggering for the first time when their little sleepaway camp turned Sleepaway Camp. She remembered Scott Fucking Reese. She remembered the eldritch shadow. She remembered little else, and when she tried she could feel her head hurt, as if a pressure was pushing upon her eyes.

“We’re fucking awesome, that’s what we are,” said Penny with a cheeriness that had been sadly uncommon for the past few years. She ran a hand to try and smooth out her hair that Lynette’s wind has furiously whipped in to her face. “And are you serious, Aliana? Invisibility is, like, single handedly the coolest ability ever. Lynette and I can’t just go around blasting things and blowing shit up, but you could go just about anywhere you aren’t allowed to, literally anywhere, and not get in trouble. Think about it: peek on the answers for a test, sneak inside of a bank vault, or,” with a wink, she added, “hang out in the boys’ showers. Hell, you could even probably get away with mur—”

A dark thought ripped the smile from her face.

“Son of a bitch,” she said quietly with a huff and then slung her backpack, repulsing it with such force that hit Lynette’s graffiti wall with a loud clap and bursted at the zipper. “Shit. Shit, shit.” Her words were muted; she was mostly talking to herself. She stomped back and forth like a caged bull, ready to charge the moment the gate was opened. “God, I’m like such an idiot. Acting like a total kid. Showing off and shit. So stupid. Why aren’t the two of you…”

She stood her ground and shot her friends an accusatory look. The gates opened, and her words, violent and angry, charged out of her mouth, ready to gore and trample.

“Why the fuck aren’t the two of you more freaked out by this?” she exploded. “I thought y’all were smarter. Don’t you realize what this means? Obviously, it’s not just the three of us that have, like, become goddamn mutants or whatever the hell you wanna call it. The same shit that happened to us is what happened to Scott Fucking Reese. Right? Of course I’m right. That dude was hardly bigger than me. Hell, it probably is happening to, like, a buncha people. And yeah, Reese was an asshole, but, but, but that doesn’t mean you just start murdering people.” Case and point: she was an asshole, she didn’t want to murder anyone. “What if this thing makes people snap at some point or, or, I don’t know, even if…”

Maybe it didn’t turn people into psychopaths. Case and point: she had her ability for awhile, and she still didn’t want to murder anyone.

“Even if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other people like Scott Reese. More dangerous than him, even. You blew up an entire bathroom, and you don’t even know what it is that your doodles do,” shouted Penny, pointing an accusatory finger at Lynette, before turning towards Aliana. “And who’s going to be able to point the blame at someone who wasn’t even there? You can get away with any fucking crime you want.” She pressed her hand against her collarbone, her fingers rubbing her sigil. “I embedded a quarter into an oak tree. What if that hits a fucking person? What if it kills them?”

Her voice softened, but only slightly. “I’m not saying I don’t trust the two of you.” She did. “But I’ve grown up here my whole life. There are a lot of Scott Reeses in this town. What’s gonna stop them? Who’s gonna stop...hah.”

She smirked in realization and gestured to the chaotic scene around them. Of course, of course. They would. At least, she would. Even alone. She hated this town, but she wasn’t about to let others ruin it. She glared at her friends, challenging them with her eyes that burned with disgust. They knew her well enough to know what she was thinking, she just hoped that she knew them well enough—she assumed they weren’t cowards, but then again, had there ever really been a chance for them to prove her correct before?

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic}

Grand Ridge - Outside Main Building.

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Rita had turned back. She had felt something, no, that wasn’t quite right, she had sensed something, and it had caused her to turn back around. Claire was glowing; first blue, and then red. Rita had no clue what was going on, but she knew it wasn’t a good thing. Something unnatural was occuring; something that reminded her of Scott’s freakout. She flinched when Claire raised her hand, her fingers shooting up to shield her face from a blow that didn’t come.

Rita didn’t wait around for Claire to finish her sentence. The other woman said go, and so she went, racing down the stairs as fast as her feet would take her. She didn’t know where she was going except for away. She pushed past a group of students, unable to comprehend how they were not freaking out too over what they, she assumed, had all seen. She eventually forced herself to slow down, the weight of stares making each step harder than the last. To the normal bystander, she was just a new kid freaking out over a little fire alarm. Rita paused next to a tree and caught her breath, her eyes glancing over her shoulder to make sure that no glowing red girl or giant mutant with an axe was chasing her.

“What the hell?” she muttered, leaning back against the tree. Had she imagined that glow? Was she going nuts? That was certainly the weirdest thing that had happened, but even before there was something off-kilter about their conversation. Why would what was basically a stranger volunteer that information about themselves? It was clear that Claire had appeared shocked when she had said it. And why would Rita ask something like that in the first place? When had she become so blunt, so mean? Rita twisted her bangs and gnashed her teeth as she rested there, uncertain and uncomfortable.

Then, she snatched her phone out of her pocket and typed, then deleted, then typed, then deleted, typed, deleted, typed, deleted, until sending:

To: Martin
Wanna grab some coffee? I’m about to head to Sucre.

She shoved the phone back in her pocket, despite knowing that until she actually got a text back she’d be checking it every thirty seconds. She had tried to make it seem casual. Hopefully it seemed casual. She figured it was better than sending him one saying that she felt like she might be losing her damn mind, and she needed a reality check. Rita headed to the bike racks. Maybe if Martin didn’t respond, she’d just ride past the cafe and keep going til she was out of town, or in front of a mental ward.

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_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic}

Grand Ridge - Outskirts, Near Dumpsters.

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After insisting to Aliana that she was fine and feverishing agreeing with Lynette to have her them what the heck had happened, Penny walked with her friends out of the main building. She slid her sunglasses down over her eyes and took the opportunity of being out in fresh air to smoke a much needed cigarette, protesting ever so slightly when she realized where Lynette was taking them. Folding one arm over the other, Penny watched with an amused smile as Lynette produced a marker and began sketching on the brick.

“First firecrackers in toilets, now graffiti? Oh man, are we going to go egg some signs next? Toilet paper the boys dorm? Maybe steal a horse, break into the dean’s office with it, and then accidentally give it a heart a—HOLY SHIT!” screamed Penny in unison with Lynette, jumping back as a pillar of fire erupted from the wall like a geyser. She ripped her sunglasses off.

"... Did you two see that?"

“If I say no will you do it again?” said Penny, with a laugh and a clap of her hands. Even while still looking a little green, she was buzzing with energy as she bounced back and forth, toeing the soot. “Oh my God, that was so freaking cool!” She realized she was shouting and, after snapping her head back and forth to make sure that the coast was clear, bounded over to Lynette and Aliana so that she could speak more discreetly. “Where did you learn to...how did you...that’s like some wild, crazy, magic bullshit. I gotta, wait, wait, I gotta show y’all something too. It’s no fire blast but this is gonna, hoo, this is gonna, just, just watch.”

Penny put her sunglasses back on the top of her head and dropped her backpack on the ground so that she could fish out a handful of pens. Standing at the end of the trail of soot opposite the wall, the blonde held the pens with her arm outstretched so that they were level with her head. She released her grip and, for a split second, the pens began to cascade from her hand before her sigil glowed and they suddenly and violently blew away from her as if blasted from a gun. They slammed against the wall in a shotgun pattern, the plastic casing shattering into tiny fragments as ink stained the wall.

“Pretty fucking wild, right?” said Penny, absentmindedly wiping away the blood trickling from her nose and trying to ignore the headache that had just been retriggered. Her eyes narrowed on Aliana; her smile a childish, cheshire grin. “Well? You were being a bit cryptic earlier, you know. What did you bring to show and tell today?”

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

<Snipped quote by pokemad1>

It's up to me to save the day.

Now, I'm torn between writing a post now, and waiting for @Atrophy or someone else to post.

@Surtr Inc

Consider yourself un-torn.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Mason Square - Lawson Residence

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He’s...an awakened.

Nah, fuck that, man, he’s gonna sleep in today.

Billy groaned softly as he felt bittersweet consciousness come back to him. He looked at his phone, saw the time, and dropped it back on his bed before rolling over. So he had slept through his alarms, so what? It was just an art class, and spending an hour trying to not look at the junk of the male model they had gone with was not how Billy wanted to spend his Saturday. Sleeping was how Billy wanted to spend his Saturday, sleeping like how his arm was asleep from how he had weirdly spent the night on it, turning the limb into a mess of pins and needles that was now the only thing he could focus on and, great, he was awake, weekend ruined, thanks stupid, asshole arm. Billy flopped over onto his back and let out a loud groan like a bear coming out of hibernation. Okay, he was up.

But he wasn’t getting out of bed.

He lied there and let his mind drift back to the dream he had, and after careful consideration determined that whatever it was he had dreamt up had been some fucked up shit. It almost felt as if he was really there, just floating along with those kids before Ranger Rick revealed himself to be a total dick. Then again, ever since he had watched Scoot Reese reveal to the entire class that he was a closeted ICP fan by going through such great lengths to show off his hatchet to everyone a lot of Billy’s dreams were full of fucked up shit. Visions of viscus and vicious monsters coming to consume the town, the wholesale slaughter of his friends and family right before his eyes, Henry coming back from the dead to confront Billy and his sister for being such failures, and one particularly horrifying one where Billy showed up to school naked. All of it was bizarre; especially because he hardly remembered dreams until a month ago.

Then there was the spiral on his shoulder. That was a mystery. He had tried showing it off to Layne to see if his friend knew anything about it, to which the idiot acted as if Billy was so high that he was seeing shit. Which wasn’t the case, well, okay, Billy was high, but in the morning it was still there and he wasn’t high then, maybe. Well, he did partake in a wake and bake that morning which reminded him that he still needed to do that this particular morning. Reaching into his nightstand drawer, Billy rummaged around for his breakfast to inhale. He took a quick one-off and sunk back into his bed. Maybe he could lull himself back to sleep, get this Saturday really going.

Have another dream, perhaps.

Relax, perhaps.

Do not think about the park ranger shredding into that little kid aaannnd there it was, so much for relaxation. Sitting up, Billy eventually made his way to the bathroom and went about his morning routine before heading back to his room, hair still dripping wet as he searched for his glasses. He stepped into a pair of yesterday’s jeans and grabbed a tee from the “clean” pile. He grabbed his phone and went out the front door, shouting a goodbye to his folks as he ducked past them eating their breakfast. He jumped in his car and turned the key, the backfiring of the engine sounding like the blast of a rifle before it sputtered to life. As he turned down the long, pebble driveway and the ranch-style house shrunk away Billy cranked the tunes, a second-hand subwoofer kicking with the bass hit of every beat and rattling the failing infrastructure of his vehicle. Billy rolled down the window and let the air dry his hair. He had a few clients to meet at school, but not before he slammed a huge breakfast.

Before it even really started, he decided that the day was going to be a good day.

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_{@Surtr Inc}

Grand Ridge - Outside Main Building.

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Today was a bad day.

Rita took a step back as Claire prodded her chest. Confrontation had been a mistake, and Rita did not know how to handle that confession. She felt her throat tighten as Claire mentioned the physical abuse, but there was a callousness inside of her that still felt that it did not justify her behavior. Rita’s relationship with her parents was never physically abusive, but there was a lingering presence of toxicity in regards to her mother that left her never feeling wanted. Yet even that did not mean that she had the right to be a bully and a bitch—which, she realized, was what she was being to Claire right now.

She couldn’t figure out how that made her feel.

Rita stumbled back a few more steps before catching her balance after Claire had shoved her. Perhaps the other girl had not noticed, but she had been dangerously close to falling down the stairs. Rita’s nostrils flared. So much for not wanting to hit me. Rita let her head hang, catching Claire’s own panicked reaction out of her peripheries; perhaps the girl had noticed how close she had been to sending Rita careening down the stairs before cracking her skull open upon the concrete. It’d be best for both of them for her to try and de-escalate things before one of them said, or did, something that would have permanent repercussions.

“I’m sorry,” began Rita slowly, as if her words were trying to cross a minefield, “but I don’t care …”

...about you or your fucking shitty parents, she thought, before swallowing the words and wincing like she had just drank a spoonful of expired cold medicine.

“...er, what I meant was, I didn’t mean to drag up something so, uh, uh, painful. That sucks. That really sucks,” she managed to say, her words sounding as if she had just sight read them off of a teleprompter. They were hollow. Empty. Forced. Her eyes stayed lowered, and her lips were pulled thin as she grimaced. Unless Claire was an idiot, she’d be able to tell that Rita was being anything but sincere. She tugged on one of her bangs. “Um, oh, is that the fire alarm?”

She turned, ready to bolt down the stairs like a frightened rabbit. If she was quick enough she could get lost in the crowd of students heading to the emergency meeting spot before Claire called her out on her half-hearted apology.

---

@Surtr Inc@Prosaic

Grand Ridge - Main Building, Hallway.

---

Penny smiled at the sound of her name being echoed by her two friends and she gradually slowed her pace to a stop, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she turned to greet them. As she saw Lynette and Aliana approach her from the direction of the bathroom her smile dipped and became slack jawed, a single eyebrow raising up on her forehead. She hadn’t seen them in the bathroom, but their hair and clothes looked damp. It was curious. Very curious. She didn’t know exactly why Aliana was calling her a life saver, but she felt the conclusion she drew wasn’t very far from the truth. The look of surprise shifted into smugness as the girls caught up with her, and she removed one hand from the pockets of her jacket, which was unzipped enough to reveal the sigil on her chest, to place it on her hip.

“Wow. Y’all look like absolute shit,” she said, turning her head to laugh. She didn’t look too good herself; there was a slightly off, almost feverish pallor pushing its way through the light fake-n-bake orange of her skin, and when she talked her lips peeled back to reveal the slight stain of red from when she had thrown up blood. She practically shoved herself between the two women and placed an arm around each of their shoulders with a playful clap as she began to guide them towards the entrance. “Let’s get the hell outta here before Professor Dickhead comes back with the entire SWAT team. All this talk about the school burning down totally shook me up really good. And I mean, who knows, maybe there’s like gonna be a ton of smoke that’ll enter our lungs and poison us if we linger around. Besides, I’m dying for a cigarette”

“So,” she said as they walked together, “did the two of you get wet by trying to hide in the toilet, or was it when you didn’t take cover after blowing up the toilet with a firework? Look, I’m not jealous or anything, but the next time you skanks decide to blow up something will one of you please give me a call. I always wanted to know what it would’ve been like to be a twelve year old boy stuck in the body of a technically adult woman.” She furrowed her brow at that last statement and quickly shook her head. “Actually, ew, God no, I don’t want to visualize that, gross.”

“But, seriously,” she whispered, “what did I miss?”