BIOSHOCK + STAR WARS: EU = CRACK.
Feb. 23rd, 2010 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenel_kaSO. Remember that Star Wars: EU/BioShock crossover I rambled about awhile back? Here, let me repeat the intro post for you I made awhile back, with some added info AND THEN GIVE YOU THE FIRST CHAPTER TO CELEBRATE THE NEWEST NEW BIOSHOCK 2 GAME. >D
I figure this post is needed for anyone who is into the Star Wars: EU (post-RotJ) and has no idea what the hell a BioShock is. I would do one of these for the Star Wars aspect of the story too, but there's really nothing Star Wars-specific to it. If you've read the EU, you'll know these characters and their traits. If you haven't then it'll just be like a cracktastical BioShock fanfiction, complete with crack, wtf moments and more crack. :D
Just a short little intro of many yays to TEH UNDERWTAER WOLRD OF BOISHOCK. XD
(And if you ever need to look up anything at all that you find in this story THE BIOSHOCK WIKI is a treasure trove. <333)
BioShock is a (COMPLETELY AWESOME AND AMAZING) video game from 2007 (and it's sequel, just released at the beginning of February 2010 with a different storyline) surrounding the underwater city of Rapture and how your character, Jack, ends up there (and why). It takes place awhile after the fall of the city, so a lot of it is wrecked and in shambles and the people left in the city are either effed up beyond repair and on all kinds of plasmids and drugs (these people are called "splicers") or they're unharmed by plasmids but batshit crazy (Atlas, Tenenbaum, Langford, Ryan -- aka everyone else).
The game is set in 1960, while the fall of Rapture happened near the end of 1958 and into 1959 -- the city flourished from 1946 - 1958 and the mid to late-50's is when this crossover takes place.
Bioshock characters mentioned/possibly mentioned in the story at some point:
-- ANDREW RYAN (the mind behind Rapture and the leader; at odds with Frank Fontaine over business and other matters)
-- FRANK FONTAINE (mob boss on the surface, came to Rapture and used his street smarts to build an empire; leader of the plasmid craze; head of a smuggling ring -- unbeknownst to Ryan -- on the side)
-- DR. J. STEINMAN (a surgeon who, uh, plays Picasso with his patients)
-- JASMINE JOLENE (Andrew Ryan's favorite girl at Eve's Garden; she had his baby, except said baby was bought by Frank Fontaine)
-- SANDER COHEN (the most adored [and messed up] artist in Fort Frolic)
RAPTURE: Andrew Ryan spearheaded this project after World War II. It's an underwater city on the sea bed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
TRAILERAGE - a slick trailer that shows you the wtf cool Big Daddy, a Little Sister and Rapture.
THE GAME'S INTRODUCTION - the opening to the game. At about 3:15 - 5:22 you get a really perfect idea of what Rapture looks like and the spoken intro from Andrew Ryan is BASICALLY RAPTURE IN A NUTSHELL. This is all needed for the story since if you start reading without it you're like, "WAIT, WHY IS HE LOOKING OUT HIS WINDOW TO WATER?? AND WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS ANDREW RYAN DUDE WANT??" Plus, awesome view of the city. <3 ALSO, the thing the main character gets into at about 3:00 in is a BATHYSPHERE -- which is something that gets used a lot in the story. XD
PLASMIDS/ADAM/EVE: "The development of ADAM — stem cells created from a species of sea slug — by Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum further upset the social balance. ADAM's prevalence greatly accelerated genetic engineering research, creating a plasmid industry that sold everything from a cure for male pattern baldness to skills like telekinesis, with non-passive types like the latter requiring a serum, EVE."
So basically, you needed ADAM (a mutagen, which allows genetic changes) and EVE (the serum to activate and fuel plasmids) to use plasmids (things that change your genes so you can shoot fire and cool shit like that). For more on plasmids, click here. And yes, I am still calling Tenenbaum BRIDGETTE. None of this Brigid crap. :|
ALL UP IN THE CITY, BEEYATCH: Rapture is basically divided into different sections. There is an arts and entertainment district (Fort Frolic) and the garden and arboretum (Arcadia) among many others. There are a boatload of places in Rapture, but the ones I mentioned below are the places mentioned in the story... and I might be missing some. D:
Fort Frolic (the arts and entertainment district) --
EVE'S GARDEN: Rapture's uber-leet gentlemen's club. Jane (Jaina) works here every night. As do the twins, Kristen and Karen (Trista & Taryn) and also Victoria (Tahiri).
Farmer's Market (the main marketplace of Rapture) --
FARMER'S MARKET: This is where the Soloman's go to get their food. LOL, it's Jane's turn!
Arcadia (the gardens) --
TEA GARDEN: A quaint little area where the flora is lush and there's a cute stream and blah blah. Jase (Jacen) and Tanith (Tenel Ka) meet here one night (and possibly later take a trip to the RAPTURE ZOO!!1 which was a level cut from the game, but Jase totally needs to go all Dr. Dolittle, you guys, SO THE ZOO MIGHT MAKE AN APPEARANCE).
Neptune's Bounty (the fishing wharf) --
FONTAINE FISHERIES: The fisheries are situated in Neptune's Bounty and Andy (Anakin) works here every day gutting fish. It's owned by Frank Fontaine, who is also the man behind the plasmid industry -- as well as the head of a smuggling operation that brings in items from the surface that Andrew Ryan doesn't want in his city (religious items, more of the hardcore science equipment, etc.). Jase is a part of this smuggling operation -- something his siblings don't know.
Apollo Square (Rapture's transportation hub and middle class living):
ARTEMIS SUITES: The Soloman's have an apartment here -- they also have an ongoing fear of getting kicked out of it.
Medical Pavilion (SELF EXPLANATORY XD):
MEDICAL PAVILION: Everything doctor/dentist/health/etc. related is done in this pavilion. Tanith heals and gets fixed up here after her accident. Steinman works here in his special surgery place: "Dr. Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals" -- LOL creep. <3
Olympus Heights (the rich/upper class section of town):
MERCURY SUITES: This is where all of Rapture's1337 elite live. Tanith Kendall's (Tenel Ka) apartment is here. Rich bitch!
HAPPY NOODLE: Obviously it's a noodle place. Jase (Jacen) works here, delivering food.
Welcome to Rapture (the welcoming party!) --
KASHMIR RESTAURANT: A fancy-schmancy restaurant near the single way into Rapture. It is a place that holds lush welcoming parties for new people coming to the city. It's also the site of the NEW YEARS 1959 Massacre, in which Fontaine and a bunch of his uber-splicer cronies decided to beat the shit out of the upper class during a New Year's Eve party they were holding. There is a screenshot of the ruined restaurant here. And in my icon, LOL.
I think that's all the basic stuff. If there's anything else that pops-up in the story pertaining specfically to the game then I will be sure to mention it before I post said part.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ON BIOSHOCK, OR BIOSHOCK RELATED THINGS IN THE STORY WHEN I POST IT -- FEEL FREE TO ASK. XD
And next is theCAST LIST DRAMATIS PERSONAE, LOL. Well, okay, not really. Just characters in/mentioned in the story. I mean some of these are characters who are only even just mentioned once -- and their Star Wars counterparts. I just had to make a list of Star Wars counterparts. MUAHAHAHAH~
Alana Dooley Soloman (Allana)
Andrew "Andy" Soloman (Anakin Solo)
Drake (Droekle)
Ezekiel/"Zeke" (Zekk)
Isaak (Isolder)
Jackson Fellows (Jagged Fel)
Jane Soloman (Jaina Solo)
Jase Soloman (Jacen Solo)
Karen Wells (Taryn Zel)
Kip Durant (Kyp Durron)
Kristin Wells (Trista Zel)
Louie (Lowbacca -- "Lowie")
Raymond Thurston (Raynar Thul)
Tanith Kendall Dooley (Tenel Ka Djo)
Teneil Dooley (Teneniel Djo)
Victoria "Torry" Tela (Tahiri Veila)
I... I may or may not be going through and making audio diary portrait photoshops of some of the characters. XD
LET'S GET ON WITH IT. STAR WARS/BIOSHOCKCROSSOVER MASH-UP.
(TECHNICAL THINGS!: Moth to the Flame -- Star Wars/BioShock; Jacen/Tenel Ka mainly, with a smattering of Anakin/Tahiri, Zekk/Trista, Jaina/Jag and SOME CRACK.)
The fruit juice was stale.
Jase wasn't sure how fruit juice could really be stale, but it left a flavor in his mouth that made him want to retch every time his tastebuds got a touch of it. Tossing the container to the side, he listened to it land on the dock with a hollow plop before he went back to digging in his lunch bag. He had forgotten what he packed for himself that morning -- besides stale fruit juice, of course -- but a little searching in his brown paper bag brought out a mushy apple and a cheese and onion sandwich.
Wow, cheese and onions. He was really living it up now.
Taking an angry and very large bite of the sandwich, he reminded himself to tell Jane again that it was her turn to go to the Farmer's Market and pick up the groceries that week. He had done it himself last week and Andy had done it the week before.
Not that Jane ever listened to him. Or listened to Andy. Or anyone for that matter.
Jase's mother was a politician and his father had grown up as a smuggler. When he was little, Jase wanted to follow in his mother's footsteps -- but he found, especially in Rapture, that his father's were so much easier to fall into. His siblings were in Rapture too -- the three of them had been living together since they arrived. Their parents had high hopes for them by sending them down to live under the sea. They were special. They exceled at their schoolwork and studies at very young ages and Andrew Ryan, the founder and mind behind Rapture, had called for future scholars and businessmen and scientists and artists. Their parents thought it would be better in Rapture for them than it would be on the surface. They thought their children would have more of a chance at a better life.
Except now Jase was working at Happy Noodle, delivering food every day. His twin sister, Jane, was dancing at Eve's Garden, usually for a fan club gaggle of boys and Andy was gutting fish down at Fontaine Fisheries every morning and afternoon. Besides delivering food, Jase was one of the few people in Rapture helping Frank Fontaine smuggle items from the surface into the city -- little to his siblings knowledge. Things Andrew Ryan didn't want in his utopia -- bibles and crosses were a big import. Jase really wasn't a religious man at all, but he liked the money.
He recalled the first few months the Soloman children had lived in Rapture. He and his sister were only nine and their little brother a mere seven. They had started at school, making friends and absorbing every piece of knowledge they could get their hands and eyes on. They had lived at the school with some of the other children who had been sent to Rapture and their lives seemed like they were going great. The school had a series of accidents after that, once plasmids were introduced to the city -- students fighting, instructors quitting. They had been training and planning and living like they were supposed to; they were supposed to grow up and become part of the people who spearheaded the city's growth and well-being.
They were going to be part of Rapture's elite.
And now here they were, ten years later, one barely making a living on two jobs, another getting objectified every night and the last arriving home after work every day reeking of fish innards.
The worst part was that they couldn't leave. Once they were in Rapture, they were in Rapture for good. And their parents knew this when sending them. That was the fact that always managed to slap Jase square in the jaw when he thought of it. Did their parents have that much faith in them when they sent them down here? Did they really trust in the city so much to take care of their three children? Did they even care?
"Jase!"
Twisting his head while still gnawing on a mouthful of bread, cheese and onions, Jase spotted a black-haired man trotting down the docks towards him. His mess of ebony hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail and his eyes were wide and alert.
"Hey Zeke," he turned back to his sandwich and took another bite, letting his eyes drift back to his friend once he sat down on the docks in front of him. He had met Ezekiel in school when they had arrived in Rapture. Much like the Soloman kids, he was forced out of his home and studies once the learning establishment failed. But unlike the Soloman's, he had taken to the streets of Rapture instead of trying to settle down somewhere. He slept in vents, got food whatever way he could manage day by day and picked up a quick buck here or there whenever he could find the offers for work.
"How's things?"
"How do they look?" Jase dropped his sandwich on the brown paper bag and batted it off of his lap, stretching out and planting his hands behind him.
"Same as always." A few beats passed. "Guess who I saw at the Kashmir Restaurant the other night?" He said suddenly and cocked a slender eyebrow as he reached over and took the apple from where Jase had discarded it behind him.
"What were you doing at the Kashmir Restaurant?"
"I was sneaking into the kitchens and stealing food. What else?" Ezekiel scoffed and took an enthusiastic bite from the fruit.
Jase scowled. "How about you get a job?"
"How 'bout you shut up?" He responded, flecks of apple flying from his lips.
Jase absently listened to Zeke munch on the old apple as his eyes scanned the glass above them, his gaze drifting through the water and across the wavering line of the city through the sea. Rapture was definitely a technological marvel, no doubt about that. But at the same time it was basically an underwater hell for people in his situation.
"Anyways," Ezekiel started, tossing the core over Jase's reclining form and into the water under the docks beyond. "Guess who I saw at Kashmir the other night?"
Delivering a lazy shrug, Jase rolled his head and let his eyes move from the sea above to Zeke, whose posture very much mirrored his own at that point.
"Miss Tanith Kendall Cherish Dooley."
The full name rolled off of Zeke's tongue and hit Jase's ears like a melody. That was it. That was Jase's one bright spot in the dank world of Rapture.
Tanith.
He had met her when the Soloman children had arrived in the underwater utopia. Along with Zeke, she had gone to school with them, but because of her parents and their status in Rapture, she was more than well off when their academia went under. Her parents were politicians, her mother more than her father. And they were usually found in meetings with Andrew Ryan concerning policies and events around Rapture. They were a couple of his top advisors -- and Andrew Ryan had many advisors.
"Oh yeah?" Jase tried to sounded mildly disconnected and disinterested, but he knew the way his muscles tensed when Zeke mentioned her name probably didn't go unnoticed by the other, who had always been a wildly observant companion.
"Yeah, she was with some stuffy knob who was probably just trying to bag her, you know?"
Jase stayed silent.
"I watched 'em for a few minutes while snacking on some of the stuff I swiped. He was pretty offensive looking. Combed-over red hair, beady little eyes. He was like a big buffoon and he talked with his mouth full. She really didn't look amused."
That caused the slightest upturn of Jase's lips.
He finally looked over to Zeke and gulped before asking a simple question. "How's her arm?"
"Healed over. Still gone. She hasn't had surgery." Shifting, he leaned towards Jase and lowered his voice, reaching out and patting his friend on the shoulder. "Jase, it's been five years."
"I know."
In between the plasmid introduction at school and their last days there, an accident had occured. Jase remembered it like it was yesterday. He and Tanith had been two of the closest students in the school and they were often teased for their relationship and how much time they spent with each other in class and out. He sat behind her in lectures and spent many of those long days staring at the back of her head or leaning up to tell her horrible jokes or passing notes back and forth with her. Sometimes he found himself fingering the copper curls that she pushed behind her shoulders as they brushed his desk, lightly pulling at them and causing her to reach back and smack his knee.
One day, the two of them and a group of their friends were fiddling with some of the plasmids the school had. They had correctly injected the EVE, like they were taught to, and then after that they were ready to use the mind-controlled substances -- or so they thought. It was exciting, it was dangerous and when that day ended they all realized how stupid they had been to even bother playing with them in the first place. Jane and Zeke were marveling at the fact that they could shoot fire from their fingertips. Two of their other friends, Raymond and Louie, had been goofing around with bolts of electricity between their fingertips and he and Tanith had been experimenting with the Telekenisis plasmid. Luckily, Andy had been in his room sick that day. Lord knows what would've happened to him if he had been out there messing with the plasmids like they had.
They had been juggling items back and forth in an arc between their outstretched hands. He would toss something to her without even touching it and she would stop it before it got near her and send it back to him, the item coasting through the air like it weighed nothing. They had been getting increasingly more risky with what they were shifting between them, each one picking up something heavier or more awkward and showing off how well they could handle it with their plasmid and a simple swipe of the wrist.
He had flicked a finger in her direction, casually coasting a tall file cabinet across the room to her and Jase had watched her toss him a lazy grin and lift her left arm to stop it, like she had stopped everything else. It stopped, but not completely. And Jase remembered the way her face had changed, from a calm and collected expression of pride to a faltering and frantic sense of dread. Something happened and she couldn't keep the item above her any more. He remembered watching Tanith try to bolt out from under it, but it fell too fast. Jase recalled the way she collapsed on the ground beside it -- her left arm was pinned under it. He ran to her and fell to his knees beside her, yelling for one of the others to call for help. Tanith made no noise, she just bit her lip and pressed her eyes shut while Jane had gone to call the medics. Jase had remembered the exact moment Tanith had went unconscious. The way the muscles in her neck relaxed and her eyes had rolled back into her head. He could still see the beads of his sweat that had rolled from his chin and landed on her jaw line and he could see the thick pool of red spreading from under the file cabinet on the other side of her.
It seemed like such a stupid thing. A file cabinet! Of all things, a damn file cabinet. But that was it. The bones in her arm were shattered beyond repair and the pressure the weight of it had caused in her veins and muscles had been a major enough reason, along with the loss of bones, to amputate her arm.
He had visited her every day at the Medical Pavilion while she healed and they talked for hours on end, sometimes even through the night. About what they wanted with their lives, why they were in Rapture, the accident -- he told her more jokes, she told him she didn't blame him for what happened. She always said if she had bothered to use enough EVE to power her own plasmids then she would've been able to block the shot with no problem.
Once the students scattered after the school was abandoned, he hadn't talked to her much. Their last day together, she had told him to stay in touch and she had planted an innocent kiss at the corner of his lips. Then she was gone. She had been back in the wealthy part of Rapture with her parents. He had seen her here and there around the city, but it was no more than a few seconds of eye contact or an awkward glance. They hadn't talked in five years. They had been best friends and they hadn't talked in five years.
Jase figured she had most likely moved on to the rich boys up in Olympus Heights and had forgotten about him. And he was sure they fawned all over her when she stepped out to the Kashmir Restaurant or to Fort Frolic, tongues hanging out of their heads, tails wagging -- they followed her all around, he bet. Jase figured she probably had a good twenty suitors now. More than half were most likely disgusted by her left arm, which he just learned from Zeke was still only a stump, but he was damn sure they weren't disgusted by her money.
A scowl marred his features.
"What is it?" Zeke asked.
Glancing back to his friend, Jase tried to force a smile. "Nothing. I was just thinking about Tanith."
"I'll bet. I still can't believe she hasn't had the surgery."
"Of course you can believe it," Jase reponded as he pulled his feet under him and sat indian-style, facing Zeke. "She blamed the accident on herself for not injecting enough EVE. She blames the accident on herself and not bothering with the surgery to fix it is her way of coping with it."
"You mean punishing herself for it."
Jase sighed. "If you want to look at it that way..."
They sat in silence for a few moments until Zeke broke it, his eyes narrowed and his voice lowered to a whisper.
"You still have feelings for her, don't you?"
Jase pulled a stray thread from the cuff of his sleeve and balled it up between his pointer finger and thumb, tossing it across the dock. He didn't answer Ezekiel's question.
"That's what I thought."
Zeke had noticed that the subject seemed to be grating on his friend's nerves -- or maybe it was certain aspects of the subject -- so he quickly changed it at that point, not wanting to upset Jase more than the man already seemed.
"How're Andy and Jane?"
"They're okay." His eyes widened for a moment before he shot to his feet. "Speaking of them, I need to go get Andy. He should be off work by now."
Zeke stood, picking up Jase's trash as he did. He balled up the paper bag and handed it to him. "Isn't Andy old enough to walk himself home?"
"Yeah, but we always walk home together. It's been like that for years."
With a nod and a pat to his friend's shoulder, Zeke nodded. "I get it. He's lucky to have a brother like you."
Jase didn't have to force a smile at that point, because Zeke's words caused one to come naturally. "Thanks." He gave Ezekiel a clap on the back and then turned, tossing the paper bag into a trash can along the dock. "I'll see you later."
He heard Zeke call out a goodbye as he meandered along the docks of Neptune's Bounty towards Fontaine Fisheries.
Andy was waiting for him by the entrance when he got there, his glasses on top of his head and his left hand patiently picking at a scab on the back of his right hand where he had accidentally cut himself a few days earlier with one of the gutting knives.
"Stop picking at it," Jase grabbed his little brother's hand and pulled it, yanking him away from the wooden column he had been resting against. He dropped Andy's hand and shifted his arm around his shoulder instead and he felt his brother's fingers clasp around the strap of his messenger bag. The kid reeked of raw seafood, but Jase had grown used to it, and Andy had grown used to the looks he got while walking home with his brother -- the stench of fish following them all the way back to their apartment.
"I can't help it. I have to look at it all day while I work and it's like it just wants me to pick at it, y'know?"
"It'll just get worse if you do that."
With a loud sigh, Andy quickened his pace to keep up with his brother, worried that if he didn't stay in step with him, Jase would lose him in the crowd up by the bathyspheres. Reaching the end of Neptune's Bounty, Jase took his arm from his brother's shoulders and told him to stay close as they began dodging people and sidestepping crowds of citizens on their way home from work as well. Andy was behind Jase, both hands now tightened around the strap of his older brother's bag.
Once they had taken the bathysphere to Apollo Square, the crowds had thinned a little and and it was easier for the Soloman's to walk beside each other.
Jase had his eyes locked on their path ahead of them, blinking at the sight of the dimly lit sign for the Artemis Suites. Their apartments. Every day he worried that they wouldn't be able to scrape enough together for rent that month and would end up somewhere like Fontaine's Home for the Poor. It was bad enough that their apartment barely had any furniture in it and the shower only worked three-quarters of the time it should've -- and when it did it only spit out cool to cold water. They didn't have enough to pay to get it fixed.
At least the apartment had a nice view.
"Can we go see sis?"
Ripping his eyes from the sign, he turned his head to the right and looked to his little brother. "She's already left for work."
"I know, can we go see her at work tonight?" Andy's eyes lit up. Andy always worked days at the fisheries and Jane always worked nights at Eve's Garden -- Jase never knew if he was working nights or days until he woke up in the morning and called in to find out. For the three of them to get together -- no matter where it happened to be -- it was always something to look forward to. It was something cozy, something that reminded them that they were a family and things could always be worse.
"We should probably get cleaned up first." Jase scrunched his face up. "I don't think you're going to impress any ladies at the Garden smelling like that."
His brother laughed. It was his chirping chuckle that always made Jase grin when he heard it.
Once they entered the apartment, Jase motioned to the bathroom at the end of the apartment. "I'm gonna take a quick nap. You go ahead and take a shower first and then wake me up when you're done."
"'Kay." Andy shifted to the living area in the middle of their apartment and set his bag down on the lumpy couch he slept on in front of the old snowy television every night. It was the most comfortable piece of furniture to the Soloman's name and Jane and Jase had gladly let their little brother use it for a bed.
Jase watched him for a few moments, grabbing a glass from the counter and filling it up with tap water. He took a swig as Andy found clean clothes in the basket he stashed his garments in beside the tv and then threw his little brother a lopsided grin as he vanished into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Once he finished the water, he set the glass beside the sink and sighed quietly, eyeing the living room -- Andy's makeshift bedroom -- before he entered the hall towards the bathroom and veered off into the first room on the left, dropping his bag on the floor. His own bedroom.
There was no door on his room, but Jane had built him a small contraption over his doorframe that held a thick and ratty floor to ceiling curtain. It was a calming dark pink piece of fabric and Jane had asked her boss for it from work -- it was off of one of the dressing rooms at Eve's Garden. Jase remembered Jane telling him that she just whined to her boss about how they were ugly curtains and the dressing rooms deserved better. New curtains were installed on the dressing rooms the next week. He pulled the curtain shut a little ways and heard the shower switch on in the bathroom down the hall past Jane's room. Even though the water wasn't anywhere near a comfortable temperture, Jase knew Andy always took long showers. It took awhile to get the scent of his job off of him.
Stretching, Jase looked out to the city through his favorite part of his room. His window. It was a fairly large window for an apartment their size, but he didn't complain. He would often sit on his cot with his elbows on the sill and stare out it, watching schools of fish swim by or occasionally, if he got lucky, a whale or an octopus drifting overhead. Besides the window, the cot and the curtain, he had an old desk which he piled his clothes on. And a photograph stuck to the wall above it all. It was of Jane, Andy, Louie and Zeke in the foreground, at school when they were all younger, making silly faces and acting their ages -- but to the right of that little group was Jase himself, talking to a smiling girl with a head of copper hair. That was the part of this picture his eyes were always drawn to. They were fairly blurry there in the background of the shot, but it was all he had concerning Tanith. And it was better than nothing. Zeke's comments earlier had made him even bother to look at that picture on the wall again -- before it had just sort of blended in with the rest of his nothing that made up his bedroom.
Stripping his shirt and his pants off, both of which smelled like a sick mix of overcooked noodles and raw fish, Jase gently set himself down on the tall cot that passed as his bed. His skin instantly erupted in goosebumps against the cool air and he clenched his jaw against the threat of his teeth chattering. The shorts he was wearing stank of the food too, most likely, but he wasn't going to dirty another pair for a simple nap. Especially when he was going to take a shower afterwards. He turned his head to look out the window briefly before collapsing onto his back and curling up under the covers. Thoughts of work were going through his head, thoughts of visiting his sister, thoughts of grocery shopping and how to get the next shipment of contraband into Rapture and how to make sure --
He shut his eyes against it all, letting his mind drift back to lunch that day. Back to his conversation with Zeke.
He let his mind work it's way back to Tanith.
And not just to her in general. He threw all of his other thoughts out and focused on specifics. Her cool, gray eyes, the way her hair felt between his fingertips, the taste his tongue had picked up when she kissed him on the corner of his mouth that day so long ago. He imagined what it would be like to pull her close to him and drag his lips up her neck, reveling, all the while, in the feel of her bare skin under his hands --
Jase's face flushed slightly and he let his eyes open. They drifted to the picture on the wall to his left again. He felt how warm his skin had become and felt slightly embarrassed at the turn his thoughts had taken -- not to mention that the picture of his siblings and friends seemed to stare at him. Shuffling onto his right side, facing the blank wall that the cot was pushed against, Jase shut his eyes once more, the brief memory of Tanith kissing the corner of his lips flashing through his mind again.
He was asleep within moments.
(This chapter cut above includes Jase/Jacen being emo! Zeke/Zekk being a VENTCRAWLER SURPRISE! Miss Tanith K./Tenel Ka getting her ARM CRUSHED! And Andy/Anakin being FISHY SMELLING AND CUTE.)
I figure this post is needed for anyone who is into the Star Wars: EU (post-RotJ) and has no idea what the hell a BioShock is. I would do one of these for the Star Wars aspect of the story too, but there's really nothing Star Wars-specific to it. If you've read the EU, you'll know these characters and their traits. If you haven't then it'll just be like a cracktastical BioShock fanfiction, complete with crack, wtf moments and more crack. :D
Just a short little intro of many yays to TEH UNDERWTAER WOLRD OF BOISHOCK. XD
(And if you ever need to look up anything at all that you find in this story THE BIOSHOCK WIKI is a treasure trove. <333)
BioShock is a (COMPLETELY AWESOME AND AMAZING) video game from 2007 (and it's sequel, just released at the beginning of February 2010 with a different storyline) surrounding the underwater city of Rapture and how your character, Jack, ends up there (and why). It takes place awhile after the fall of the city, so a lot of it is wrecked and in shambles and the people left in the city are either effed up beyond repair and on all kinds of plasmids and drugs (these people are called "splicers") or they're unharmed by plasmids but batshit crazy (Atlas, Tenenbaum, Langford, Ryan -- aka everyone else).
The game is set in 1960, while the fall of Rapture happened near the end of 1958 and into 1959 -- the city flourished from 1946 - 1958 and the mid to late-50's is when this crossover takes place.
Bioshock characters mentioned/possibly mentioned in the story at some point:
-- ANDREW RYAN (the mind behind Rapture and the leader; at odds with Frank Fontaine over business and other matters)
-- FRANK FONTAINE (mob boss on the surface, came to Rapture and used his street smarts to build an empire; leader of the plasmid craze; head of a smuggling ring -- unbeknownst to Ryan -- on the side)
-- DR. J. STEINMAN (a surgeon who, uh, plays Picasso with his patients)
-- JASMINE JOLENE (Andrew Ryan's favorite girl at Eve's Garden; she had his baby, except said baby was bought by Frank Fontaine)
-- SANDER COHEN (the most adored [and messed up] artist in Fort Frolic)
RAPTURE: Andrew Ryan spearheaded this project after World War II. It's an underwater city on the sea bed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
TRAILERAGE - a slick trailer that shows you the wtf cool Big Daddy, a Little Sister and Rapture.
THE GAME'S INTRODUCTION - the opening to the game. At about 3:15 - 5:22 you get a really perfect idea of what Rapture looks like and the spoken intro from Andrew Ryan is BASICALLY RAPTURE IN A NUTSHELL. This is all needed for the story since if you start reading without it you're like, "WAIT, WHY IS HE LOOKING OUT HIS WINDOW TO WATER?? AND WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS ANDREW RYAN DUDE WANT??" Plus, awesome view of the city. <3 ALSO, the thing the main character gets into at about 3:00 in is a BATHYSPHERE -- which is something that gets used a lot in the story. XD
PLASMIDS/ADAM/EVE: "The development of ADAM — stem cells created from a species of sea slug — by Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum further upset the social balance. ADAM's prevalence greatly accelerated genetic engineering research, creating a plasmid industry that sold everything from a cure for male pattern baldness to skills like telekinesis, with non-passive types like the latter requiring a serum, EVE."
So basically, you needed ADAM (a mutagen, which allows genetic changes) and EVE (the serum to activate and fuel plasmids) to use plasmids (things that change your genes so you can shoot fire and cool shit like that). For more on plasmids, click here. And yes, I am still calling Tenenbaum BRIDGETTE. None of this Brigid crap. :|
ALL UP IN THE CITY, BEEYATCH: Rapture is basically divided into different sections. There is an arts and entertainment district (Fort Frolic) and the garden and arboretum (Arcadia) among many others. There are a boatload of places in Rapture, but the ones I mentioned below are the places mentioned in the story... and I might be missing some. D:
Fort Frolic (the arts and entertainment district) --
EVE'S GARDEN: Rapture's uber-leet gentlemen's club. Jane (Jaina) works here every night. As do the twins, Kristen and Karen (Trista & Taryn) and also Victoria (Tahiri).
Farmer's Market (the main marketplace of Rapture) --
FARMER'S MARKET: This is where the Soloman's go to get their food. LOL, it's Jane's turn!
Arcadia (the gardens) --
TEA GARDEN: A quaint little area where the flora is lush and there's a cute stream and blah blah. Jase (Jacen) and Tanith (Tenel Ka) meet here one night (and possibly later take a trip to the RAPTURE ZOO!!1 which was a level cut from the game, but Jase totally needs to go all Dr. Dolittle, you guys, SO THE ZOO MIGHT MAKE AN APPEARANCE).
Neptune's Bounty (the fishing wharf) --
FONTAINE FISHERIES: The fisheries are situated in Neptune's Bounty and Andy (Anakin) works here every day gutting fish. It's owned by Frank Fontaine, who is also the man behind the plasmid industry -- as well as the head of a smuggling operation that brings in items from the surface that Andrew Ryan doesn't want in his city (religious items, more of the hardcore science equipment, etc.). Jase is a part of this smuggling operation -- something his siblings don't know.
Apollo Square (Rapture's transportation hub and middle class living):
ARTEMIS SUITES: The Soloman's have an apartment here -- they also have an ongoing fear of getting kicked out of it.
Medical Pavilion (SELF EXPLANATORY XD):
MEDICAL PAVILION: Everything doctor/dentist/health/etc. related is done in this pavilion. Tanith heals and gets fixed up here after her accident. Steinman works here in his special surgery place: "Dr. Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals" -- LOL creep. <3
Olympus Heights (the rich/upper class section of town):
MERCURY SUITES: This is where all of Rapture's
HAPPY NOODLE: Obviously it's a noodle place. Jase (Jacen) works here, delivering food.
Welcome to Rapture (the welcoming party!) --
KASHMIR RESTAURANT: A fancy-schmancy restaurant near the single way into Rapture. It is a place that holds lush welcoming parties for new people coming to the city. It's also the site of the NEW YEARS 1959 Massacre, in which Fontaine and a bunch of his uber-splicer cronies decided to beat the shit out of the upper class during a New Year's Eve party they were holding. There is a screenshot of the ruined restaurant here. And in my icon, LOL.
I think that's all the basic stuff. If there's anything else that pops-up in the story pertaining specfically to the game then I will be sure to mention it before I post said part.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ON BIOSHOCK, OR BIOSHOCK RELATED THINGS IN THE STORY WHEN I POST IT -- FEEL FREE TO ASK. XD
And next is the
Alana Dooley Soloman (Allana)
Andrew "Andy" Soloman (Anakin Solo)
Drake (Droekle)
Ezekiel/"Zeke" (Zekk)
Isaak (Isolder)
Jackson Fellows (Jagged Fel)
Jane Soloman (Jaina Solo)
Jase Soloman (Jacen Solo)
Karen Wells (Taryn Zel)
Kip Durant (Kyp Durron)
Kristin Wells (Trista Zel)
Louie (Lowbacca -- "Lowie")
Raymond Thurston (Raynar Thul)
Tanith Kendall Dooley (Tenel Ka Djo)
Teneil Dooley (Teneniel Djo)
Victoria "Torry" Tela (Tahiri Veila)
I... I may or may not be going through and making audio diary portrait photoshops of some of the characters. XD
LET'S GET ON WITH IT. STAR WARS/BIOSHOCK
(TECHNICAL THINGS!: Moth to the Flame -- Star Wars/BioShock; Jacen/Tenel Ka mainly, with a smattering of Anakin/Tahiri, Zekk/Trista, Jaina/Jag and SOME CRACK.)
The fruit juice was stale.
Jase wasn't sure how fruit juice could really be stale, but it left a flavor in his mouth that made him want to retch every time his tastebuds got a touch of it. Tossing the container to the side, he listened to it land on the dock with a hollow plop before he went back to digging in his lunch bag. He had forgotten what he packed for himself that morning -- besides stale fruit juice, of course -- but a little searching in his brown paper bag brought out a mushy apple and a cheese and onion sandwich.
Wow, cheese and onions. He was really living it up now.
Taking an angry and very large bite of the sandwich, he reminded himself to tell Jane again that it was her turn to go to the Farmer's Market and pick up the groceries that week. He had done it himself last week and Andy had done it the week before.
Not that Jane ever listened to him. Or listened to Andy. Or anyone for that matter.
Jase's mother was a politician and his father had grown up as a smuggler. When he was little, Jase wanted to follow in his mother's footsteps -- but he found, especially in Rapture, that his father's were so much easier to fall into. His siblings were in Rapture too -- the three of them had been living together since they arrived. Their parents had high hopes for them by sending them down to live under the sea. They were special. They exceled at their schoolwork and studies at very young ages and Andrew Ryan, the founder and mind behind Rapture, had called for future scholars and businessmen and scientists and artists. Their parents thought it would be better in Rapture for them than it would be on the surface. They thought their children would have more of a chance at a better life.
Except now Jase was working at Happy Noodle, delivering food every day. His twin sister, Jane, was dancing at Eve's Garden, usually for a fan club gaggle of boys and Andy was gutting fish down at Fontaine Fisheries every morning and afternoon. Besides delivering food, Jase was one of the few people in Rapture helping Frank Fontaine smuggle items from the surface into the city -- little to his siblings knowledge. Things Andrew Ryan didn't want in his utopia -- bibles and crosses were a big import. Jase really wasn't a religious man at all, but he liked the money.
He recalled the first few months the Soloman children had lived in Rapture. He and his sister were only nine and their little brother a mere seven. They had started at school, making friends and absorbing every piece of knowledge they could get their hands and eyes on. They had lived at the school with some of the other children who had been sent to Rapture and their lives seemed like they were going great. The school had a series of accidents after that, once plasmids were introduced to the city -- students fighting, instructors quitting. They had been training and planning and living like they were supposed to; they were supposed to grow up and become part of the people who spearheaded the city's growth and well-being.
They were going to be part of Rapture's elite.
And now here they were, ten years later, one barely making a living on two jobs, another getting objectified every night and the last arriving home after work every day reeking of fish innards.
The worst part was that they couldn't leave. Once they were in Rapture, they were in Rapture for good. And their parents knew this when sending them. That was the fact that always managed to slap Jase square in the jaw when he thought of it. Did their parents have that much faith in them when they sent them down here? Did they really trust in the city so much to take care of their three children? Did they even care?
"Jase!"
Twisting his head while still gnawing on a mouthful of bread, cheese and onions, Jase spotted a black-haired man trotting down the docks towards him. His mess of ebony hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail and his eyes were wide and alert.
"Hey Zeke," he turned back to his sandwich and took another bite, letting his eyes drift back to his friend once he sat down on the docks in front of him. He had met Ezekiel in school when they had arrived in Rapture. Much like the Soloman kids, he was forced out of his home and studies once the learning establishment failed. But unlike the Soloman's, he had taken to the streets of Rapture instead of trying to settle down somewhere. He slept in vents, got food whatever way he could manage day by day and picked up a quick buck here or there whenever he could find the offers for work.
"How's things?"
"How do they look?" Jase dropped his sandwich on the brown paper bag and batted it off of his lap, stretching out and planting his hands behind him.
"Same as always." A few beats passed. "Guess who I saw at the Kashmir Restaurant the other night?" He said suddenly and cocked a slender eyebrow as he reached over and took the apple from where Jase had discarded it behind him.
"What were you doing at the Kashmir Restaurant?"
"I was sneaking into the kitchens and stealing food. What else?" Ezekiel scoffed and took an enthusiastic bite from the fruit.
Jase scowled. "How about you get a job?"
"How 'bout you shut up?" He responded, flecks of apple flying from his lips.
Jase absently listened to Zeke munch on the old apple as his eyes scanned the glass above them, his gaze drifting through the water and across the wavering line of the city through the sea. Rapture was definitely a technological marvel, no doubt about that. But at the same time it was basically an underwater hell for people in his situation.
"Anyways," Ezekiel started, tossing the core over Jase's reclining form and into the water under the docks beyond. "Guess who I saw at Kashmir the other night?"
Delivering a lazy shrug, Jase rolled his head and let his eyes move from the sea above to Zeke, whose posture very much mirrored his own at that point.
"Miss Tanith Kendall Cherish Dooley."
The full name rolled off of Zeke's tongue and hit Jase's ears like a melody. That was it. That was Jase's one bright spot in the dank world of Rapture.
Tanith.
He had met her when the Soloman children had arrived in the underwater utopia. Along with Zeke, she had gone to school with them, but because of her parents and their status in Rapture, she was more than well off when their academia went under. Her parents were politicians, her mother more than her father. And they were usually found in meetings with Andrew Ryan concerning policies and events around Rapture. They were a couple of his top advisors -- and Andrew Ryan had many advisors.
"Oh yeah?" Jase tried to sounded mildly disconnected and disinterested, but he knew the way his muscles tensed when Zeke mentioned her name probably didn't go unnoticed by the other, who had always been a wildly observant companion.
"Yeah, she was with some stuffy knob who was probably just trying to bag her, you know?"
Jase stayed silent.
"I watched 'em for a few minutes while snacking on some of the stuff I swiped. He was pretty offensive looking. Combed-over red hair, beady little eyes. He was like a big buffoon and he talked with his mouth full. She really didn't look amused."
That caused the slightest upturn of Jase's lips.
He finally looked over to Zeke and gulped before asking a simple question. "How's her arm?"
"Healed over. Still gone. She hasn't had surgery." Shifting, he leaned towards Jase and lowered his voice, reaching out and patting his friend on the shoulder. "Jase, it's been five years."
"I know."
In between the plasmid introduction at school and their last days there, an accident had occured. Jase remembered it like it was yesterday. He and Tanith had been two of the closest students in the school and they were often teased for their relationship and how much time they spent with each other in class and out. He sat behind her in lectures and spent many of those long days staring at the back of her head or leaning up to tell her horrible jokes or passing notes back and forth with her. Sometimes he found himself fingering the copper curls that she pushed behind her shoulders as they brushed his desk, lightly pulling at them and causing her to reach back and smack his knee.
One day, the two of them and a group of their friends were fiddling with some of the plasmids the school had. They had correctly injected the EVE, like they were taught to, and then after that they were ready to use the mind-controlled substances -- or so they thought. It was exciting, it was dangerous and when that day ended they all realized how stupid they had been to even bother playing with them in the first place. Jane and Zeke were marveling at the fact that they could shoot fire from their fingertips. Two of their other friends, Raymond and Louie, had been goofing around with bolts of electricity between their fingertips and he and Tanith had been experimenting with the Telekenisis plasmid. Luckily, Andy had been in his room sick that day. Lord knows what would've happened to him if he had been out there messing with the plasmids like they had.
They had been juggling items back and forth in an arc between their outstretched hands. He would toss something to her without even touching it and she would stop it before it got near her and send it back to him, the item coasting through the air like it weighed nothing. They had been getting increasingly more risky with what they were shifting between them, each one picking up something heavier or more awkward and showing off how well they could handle it with their plasmid and a simple swipe of the wrist.
He had flicked a finger in her direction, casually coasting a tall file cabinet across the room to her and Jase had watched her toss him a lazy grin and lift her left arm to stop it, like she had stopped everything else. It stopped, but not completely. And Jase remembered the way her face had changed, from a calm and collected expression of pride to a faltering and frantic sense of dread. Something happened and she couldn't keep the item above her any more. He remembered watching Tanith try to bolt out from under it, but it fell too fast. Jase recalled the way she collapsed on the ground beside it -- her left arm was pinned under it. He ran to her and fell to his knees beside her, yelling for one of the others to call for help. Tanith made no noise, she just bit her lip and pressed her eyes shut while Jane had gone to call the medics. Jase had remembered the exact moment Tanith had went unconscious. The way the muscles in her neck relaxed and her eyes had rolled back into her head. He could still see the beads of his sweat that had rolled from his chin and landed on her jaw line and he could see the thick pool of red spreading from under the file cabinet on the other side of her.
It seemed like such a stupid thing. A file cabinet! Of all things, a damn file cabinet. But that was it. The bones in her arm were shattered beyond repair and the pressure the weight of it had caused in her veins and muscles had been a major enough reason, along with the loss of bones, to amputate her arm.
He had visited her every day at the Medical Pavilion while she healed and they talked for hours on end, sometimes even through the night. About what they wanted with their lives, why they were in Rapture, the accident -- he told her more jokes, she told him she didn't blame him for what happened. She always said if she had bothered to use enough EVE to power her own plasmids then she would've been able to block the shot with no problem.
Once the students scattered after the school was abandoned, he hadn't talked to her much. Their last day together, she had told him to stay in touch and she had planted an innocent kiss at the corner of his lips. Then she was gone. She had been back in the wealthy part of Rapture with her parents. He had seen her here and there around the city, but it was no more than a few seconds of eye contact or an awkward glance. They hadn't talked in five years. They had been best friends and they hadn't talked in five years.
Jase figured she had most likely moved on to the rich boys up in Olympus Heights and had forgotten about him. And he was sure they fawned all over her when she stepped out to the Kashmir Restaurant or to Fort Frolic, tongues hanging out of their heads, tails wagging -- they followed her all around, he bet. Jase figured she probably had a good twenty suitors now. More than half were most likely disgusted by her left arm, which he just learned from Zeke was still only a stump, but he was damn sure they weren't disgusted by her money.
A scowl marred his features.
"What is it?" Zeke asked.
Glancing back to his friend, Jase tried to force a smile. "Nothing. I was just thinking about Tanith."
"I'll bet. I still can't believe she hasn't had the surgery."
"Of course you can believe it," Jase reponded as he pulled his feet under him and sat indian-style, facing Zeke. "She blamed the accident on herself for not injecting enough EVE. She blames the accident on herself and not bothering with the surgery to fix it is her way of coping with it."
"You mean punishing herself for it."
Jase sighed. "If you want to look at it that way..."
They sat in silence for a few moments until Zeke broke it, his eyes narrowed and his voice lowered to a whisper.
"You still have feelings for her, don't you?"
Jase pulled a stray thread from the cuff of his sleeve and balled it up between his pointer finger and thumb, tossing it across the dock. He didn't answer Ezekiel's question.
"That's what I thought."
Zeke had noticed that the subject seemed to be grating on his friend's nerves -- or maybe it was certain aspects of the subject -- so he quickly changed it at that point, not wanting to upset Jase more than the man already seemed.
"How're Andy and Jane?"
"They're okay." His eyes widened for a moment before he shot to his feet. "Speaking of them, I need to go get Andy. He should be off work by now."
Zeke stood, picking up Jase's trash as he did. He balled up the paper bag and handed it to him. "Isn't Andy old enough to walk himself home?"
"Yeah, but we always walk home together. It's been like that for years."
With a nod and a pat to his friend's shoulder, Zeke nodded. "I get it. He's lucky to have a brother like you."
Jase didn't have to force a smile at that point, because Zeke's words caused one to come naturally. "Thanks." He gave Ezekiel a clap on the back and then turned, tossing the paper bag into a trash can along the dock. "I'll see you later."
He heard Zeke call out a goodbye as he meandered along the docks of Neptune's Bounty towards Fontaine Fisheries.
Andy was waiting for him by the entrance when he got there, his glasses on top of his head and his left hand patiently picking at a scab on the back of his right hand where he had accidentally cut himself a few days earlier with one of the gutting knives.
"Stop picking at it," Jase grabbed his little brother's hand and pulled it, yanking him away from the wooden column he had been resting against. He dropped Andy's hand and shifted his arm around his shoulder instead and he felt his brother's fingers clasp around the strap of his messenger bag. The kid reeked of raw seafood, but Jase had grown used to it, and Andy had grown used to the looks he got while walking home with his brother -- the stench of fish following them all the way back to their apartment.
"I can't help it. I have to look at it all day while I work and it's like it just wants me to pick at it, y'know?"
"It'll just get worse if you do that."
With a loud sigh, Andy quickened his pace to keep up with his brother, worried that if he didn't stay in step with him, Jase would lose him in the crowd up by the bathyspheres. Reaching the end of Neptune's Bounty, Jase took his arm from his brother's shoulders and told him to stay close as they began dodging people and sidestepping crowds of citizens on their way home from work as well. Andy was behind Jase, both hands now tightened around the strap of his older brother's bag.
Once they had taken the bathysphere to Apollo Square, the crowds had thinned a little and and it was easier for the Soloman's to walk beside each other.
Jase had his eyes locked on their path ahead of them, blinking at the sight of the dimly lit sign for the Artemis Suites. Their apartments. Every day he worried that they wouldn't be able to scrape enough together for rent that month and would end up somewhere like Fontaine's Home for the Poor. It was bad enough that their apartment barely had any furniture in it and the shower only worked three-quarters of the time it should've -- and when it did it only spit out cool to cold water. They didn't have enough to pay to get it fixed.
At least the apartment had a nice view.
"Can we go see sis?"
Ripping his eyes from the sign, he turned his head to the right and looked to his little brother. "She's already left for work."
"I know, can we go see her at work tonight?" Andy's eyes lit up. Andy always worked days at the fisheries and Jane always worked nights at Eve's Garden -- Jase never knew if he was working nights or days until he woke up in the morning and called in to find out. For the three of them to get together -- no matter where it happened to be -- it was always something to look forward to. It was something cozy, something that reminded them that they were a family and things could always be worse.
"We should probably get cleaned up first." Jase scrunched his face up. "I don't think you're going to impress any ladies at the Garden smelling like that."
His brother laughed. It was his chirping chuckle that always made Jase grin when he heard it.
Once they entered the apartment, Jase motioned to the bathroom at the end of the apartment. "I'm gonna take a quick nap. You go ahead and take a shower first and then wake me up when you're done."
"'Kay." Andy shifted to the living area in the middle of their apartment and set his bag down on the lumpy couch he slept on in front of the old snowy television every night. It was the most comfortable piece of furniture to the Soloman's name and Jane and Jase had gladly let their little brother use it for a bed.
Jase watched him for a few moments, grabbing a glass from the counter and filling it up with tap water. He took a swig as Andy found clean clothes in the basket he stashed his garments in beside the tv and then threw his little brother a lopsided grin as he vanished into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Once he finished the water, he set the glass beside the sink and sighed quietly, eyeing the living room -- Andy's makeshift bedroom -- before he entered the hall towards the bathroom and veered off into the first room on the left, dropping his bag on the floor. His own bedroom.
There was no door on his room, but Jane had built him a small contraption over his doorframe that held a thick and ratty floor to ceiling curtain. It was a calming dark pink piece of fabric and Jane had asked her boss for it from work -- it was off of one of the dressing rooms at Eve's Garden. Jase remembered Jane telling him that she just whined to her boss about how they were ugly curtains and the dressing rooms deserved better. New curtains were installed on the dressing rooms the next week. He pulled the curtain shut a little ways and heard the shower switch on in the bathroom down the hall past Jane's room. Even though the water wasn't anywhere near a comfortable temperture, Jase knew Andy always took long showers. It took awhile to get the scent of his job off of him.
Stretching, Jase looked out to the city through his favorite part of his room. His window. It was a fairly large window for an apartment their size, but he didn't complain. He would often sit on his cot with his elbows on the sill and stare out it, watching schools of fish swim by or occasionally, if he got lucky, a whale or an octopus drifting overhead. Besides the window, the cot and the curtain, he had an old desk which he piled his clothes on. And a photograph stuck to the wall above it all. It was of Jane, Andy, Louie and Zeke in the foreground, at school when they were all younger, making silly faces and acting their ages -- but to the right of that little group was Jase himself, talking to a smiling girl with a head of copper hair. That was the part of this picture his eyes were always drawn to. They were fairly blurry there in the background of the shot, but it was all he had concerning Tanith. And it was better than nothing. Zeke's comments earlier had made him even bother to look at that picture on the wall again -- before it had just sort of blended in with the rest of his nothing that made up his bedroom.
Stripping his shirt and his pants off, both of which smelled like a sick mix of overcooked noodles and raw fish, Jase gently set himself down on the tall cot that passed as his bed. His skin instantly erupted in goosebumps against the cool air and he clenched his jaw against the threat of his teeth chattering. The shorts he was wearing stank of the food too, most likely, but he wasn't going to dirty another pair for a simple nap. Especially when he was going to take a shower afterwards. He turned his head to look out the window briefly before collapsing onto his back and curling up under the covers. Thoughts of work were going through his head, thoughts of visiting his sister, thoughts of grocery shopping and how to get the next shipment of contraband into Rapture and how to make sure --
He shut his eyes against it all, letting his mind drift back to lunch that day. Back to his conversation with Zeke.
He let his mind work it's way back to Tanith.
And not just to her in general. He threw all of his other thoughts out and focused on specifics. Her cool, gray eyes, the way her hair felt between his fingertips, the taste his tongue had picked up when she kissed him on the corner of his mouth that day so long ago. He imagined what it would be like to pull her close to him and drag his lips up her neck, reveling, all the while, in the feel of her bare skin under his hands --
Jase's face flushed slightly and he let his eyes open. They drifted to the picture on the wall to his left again. He felt how warm his skin had become and felt slightly embarrassed at the turn his thoughts had taken -- not to mention that the picture of his siblings and friends seemed to stare at him. Shuffling onto his right side, facing the blank wall that the cot was pushed against, Jase shut his eyes once more, the brief memory of Tanith kissing the corner of his lips flashing through his mind again.
He was asleep within moments.
(This chapter cut above includes Jase/Jacen being emo! Zeke/Zekk being a VENTCRAWLER SURPRISE! Miss Tanith K./Tenel Ka getting her ARM CRUSHED! And Andy/Anakin being FISHY SMELLING AND CUTE.)
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Date: 2010-02-26 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-23 02:11 am (UTC)I will definitely be continuing it!