Welcome to Rapture.
Rapture… city of the people, new beginnings, the great chain had been all that had mattered, but like any 'great' civilisation, revolution happened, war happened.
They were in a war like no other. Here, people were splicing their genes up to become less and less like a human being and more and more like a monster, the kind you tell stories about to your children to keep them behaving themselves.
Abigail Bright had once been one of the beekeepers of Rapture, she did not come from a wealthy background but at the steep prices she sold her honey at she soon went up in Rapture's ranks, becoming one of it's upper class citizens, despite the fact that her choice in footwear or stylish accessories cost her the rent more times then she could count. When her friends asked her why she moved she'd shrug it off as simply saying she'd grown bored of living in that apartment building and had moved to another.
Abigail Bright no longer had friends.
She had… well she hesitated to call them allies but she supposed that's what they were now, there was no other thing they could be, because they were certainly not her friends. Not the type of people she would waste her time with.
Thomas Raymond was a former business man of Rapture and a complete pig and cheap skate in her opinion. Never worked a day in his life, always looking for the easy way, even if the easy way wasn't the right way. Gruff and often crude with his remarks, always chewing on cheap cigars.. she was often surprised the splicers hadn't killed them all when they hid because of his damn smoker's cough he had going for him.
Everything about him was cheap. Cheap cigars, cheap shoes, cheap suits… even his damn character was cheap.
As if he was bad enough, she then had to deal with the riff raff that was Daniel Warren.
It was true when it came to electrical engineering the man was a genius… sadly though he wasn't near sober enough to really be useful in that regard. Always drinking, whenever Abigail turned her head he'd be leaning against a wall and drinking, his other hand nursing a cigaret and his hands would do an intricate dance of swapping places as he took a drag on his cigaret, before washing the smoke and addiction down with a healthy swig of alcohol to follow.
He was gambler or at least had been when Rapture's casino had once been open in Fort Frolic. She hadn't gone there often, she preferred the more upper class venues such as bars and the tea house, but she had sometimes seen Warren there too, usually trying and failing to impress some young pretty thing who promptly turn him away and then it was off to Fort Frolic he went to get drunk and find comfort at the bottom of a bottle, his sixth or seventh it was hard to tell.
Both of these men were men she would not have mixed with, would have even spoken to, but now? Now she had to rely on them to have her back as they navigated the once lively and well kept halls that now resembled nothing short of a ghost town… sometimes the halls even came equipped with the ghosts… Adam induced ones of course but.. well she supposed you could count Splicer's as ghosts of the people that once lived and thrived in Rapture.
She did not deserve to suffer like this with these.. pigs of human beings but what choice did she have?
"Hey Bright," Raymond huffed, chewing on another of his cheap cigars, god the things stank. "What's eatin' you?"
Abigail pushed her slightly cracked and decidedly mucky glasses up her straight and upturned nose. "Only the filth I have to spend my time with," she scoffed giving both men dismissive looks.
"Hey.. you.. you can't be sayin' stuff like that 'bout us!" Daniel twitched, scratching at his skin again. Always twitching always scratching, itching… it was a shame really. If the poor man had found comfort in reading when upset and actually knew how to talk to women he could've been a real lady killer, sadly it was not to be. Now his eyes were red rimmed, bloodshot and watery, clearly advertising he was drunkard, it was like he'd stapled the title across his forehead.
"Relax, Danny," Thomas chuffed as he removed the cigar from his mouth. "Miss busy body here is simply trying to remind us of our 'place', isn't that right, sweetheart?"
"It's Daniel," Warren twitched, his fingers tapping against the metal pipe he had as one of his makeshift weapons, a wrench hung from his belt.
"Sure, kid, sure," Thomas pat him on the back and the other twitched.
Bright side and pushed her blonde hair out of her face, secure it with a pin. "You need to remember who it is you're talking to."
"Oh I remember alright, Bright-spark," she twitched at the nick name. "I'm talkin' to a beekeeper and that's all you were and all you ever would be. You think you're better then me?"
"I know I am better then you, Mister Thomas," she checked her gun, making sure she still had bullets left in the chamber, adjusting the shotgun on her back. "You, sir, are a cheap skate."
"And you, doll, used to spend money you didn't have."
She went to retort but stopped at the sound of things being dropped on the floor.
They both turned to the noise and found Danny running his hands through a trashcan, digging out bits of paper and broken bottles, casting them to the side, before he pulled out an old bear bottle, still with the cap on, but it was slightly opened, it just needed prying a little more and that's what he did before he began to take gulps of the liquid.
Abigail scrunched her nose up in disgust. "You don't know where that's been."
"It's been in Rapture," he mumbled, drinking up the liquid. "Ain't nowhere else it could've been that's worse."
"Ugh," she rolled her eyes before pinching the bridge of her nose. "I am surrounded by animals."
"Look in the mirror darlin' I can assure you, you'll find an animal staring right back," Thomas grinned. "This one though, is quite obviously a female dog."
"Oh you must think you're so clever," she smarmared. "Well you're not clever. You're crude and rude and an utter waste of my time."
"Then by all means," he gestured to one of the corridors. "Go on right ahead. I'd hate to waste anymore of your precious time."
She glared at him, still hearing Daniel drink and gulp down the bear that was left in the bottle, before all parties froze at the sound of mumblings and mutterings heading in their direction.
"S-splicer!" Daniel shrieked, quickly taking off at a run in the other direction, Thomas and Abigail right behind him as they ran back through the streets and halls of rapture, stopping at one of the small houses as they heard a noise.
They all rose their gun's at the door, Daniel raising his pipe, the bottle still in his other hands. It was so pleasing to see he hadn't dropped it.
The door opened and a gun was pointed at them in return but no one fired.
"You're normal," Abigail stated as she stared at the young coco skinned woman, hair done up in a classic style, a party dress one and satin gloves covering her arms, make up still decorated her face.
"You're right about that," she returned looking them over. "And you all seem like normal folk too."
"Not, Bright here," Thomas smirked. "She's ah' you know ahead of the curve."
Daniel twitched and tilted his head. "I know you," he pointed. "You're Opal Delores, one of the biggest singers in Rapture."
"That I am, why? You a fan?"
"A little," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Y- you're very pretty."
Thomas pulled Daniel back. "Okay, that's enough Danny, think the poor woman's been through enough.. doesn't need your skinny hide trying to flirt with her."
Opal smirked slightly. "It's fine, always pleased to meet a fan."
"Most of your fans are splicers now," Abigail pointed out.
"Well aren't you just a stick in the mud, huh?" Opal rested her hands on her hips. "Tell me, hun, do you even know how to smile?"
"Think she lost the ability at childhood," Thomas declared.
"I don't see what any of us have to be happy about," Abigail declared. "We're all stuck here in this.. disaster and you all think it's perfectly normal to be smiling? You'd have to be insane."
"The way this place is going? I think we could all do with a little bit of insanity, it might just be the thing that keeps us alive," the singer turned towards the house. "Rosa, O'Riley, it's okay, these people aren't splicers!"
As if on cue another coco coloured woman came into view, a tattered nurse's uniform hugged her frame as she carried a small pistol and several first aide packs, her hands were glowing with the electrobolt plasmid as she stood next to Opal.
"This is my sister, Rosa," Opal introduced them. "She's the brains and certainly the medical expert in our little group. I'm obviously the distraction and the beauty and Mister O'Riley here," she looked up to see a dark haired man with his hair slicked back, smoking, dressed in dark but smartly dressed clothes from the middle-class, a pocket knife hanging from her belt as well as a revolver. "He is our muscle."
"Clayton O'Riley," Thomas spoke up as he narrowed his eyes at the other. "I remember you… you're one of the smugglers. You're looking well for one of the lower class."
O'Riley smirked. "Found one of them dead splicers near Fort Frolic, dressed in these fancy threads… Rapture may have gone to hell but… I sure am not gonna pass up a nice suit like this," he ran his fingers along the edge.
Abigail suddenly became enraged. "You! You're the reason all this is happening! Ryan said-."
"You wanna know the reason all this is happenin' lady, you're standin' in it," Clayton snapped, gesturing around the area they were in. "The only reason there was a war in the first place was because of Rapture. I could be anywhere right now and instead I'm right here. If Ryan hadn't been such a damn sweet talker and Fontain hadn't a been a damn good liesmith I might be somewhere different, but I'm not. I'm here."
He tossed the cigarette away, pulling out another one before snapping his finger and lighting it using the plasmid running through his veins, turning away from them and walking towards the exit on the far side of the room.
Opal sighed. "That's O'Riley for you," she hummed. "Keeps mostly to himself, isn't much of a talker," she tilted her head. "Come to think of it… I think that's the most I've ever heard him say."
Rosa seemed to be looking over Daniel and frowning. "You.. don't look well…"
He twitched. "Mm fine.." he mumbled looking away before taking another swig of the bottle.
"Where did you find that drink?" O'Riley spoke up, from the end of the corridor. "A dumpster?"
"He said Rapture," Thomas remarked as he began to walk over. "So.. eh.. yes."
Abigail rolled her eyes and began to storm away, following behind Thomas, the two sisters shrugged, Opal turning to Daniel and smiling kindly at him.
"Come on, hun. Wouldn't want my last remaining fan to bite it now would I?"
Daniel seemed to perk up a bit and quickly followed, finishing his bottle of booze as the group of three suddenly became a group of six.
They needed to find somewhere safe for the night or at least somewhere to rest a moment. It was hard to tell when day and night was.. most of the lights didn't work anymore either broken or just not turned on and Rapture was so deep in the ocean, not a single ounce of sunlight could reach her.
Abigail glanced around the group she now found herself with. A businessman, a gambler, a singer, a nurse and a smuggler… you couldn't make this up, but she was stuck here with them it seemed for the foreseeable future… however long that future may be...
She looked up at one or Ryan's big golden statues… the banner read 'no gods or kings, only man' and she supposed that was the problem. It was only man.
What an ironic twist that man's greatest enemy would be man itself… and that all Rapture was now a dog eat dog world, but wasn't that how it always had been?
Everyman for themselves?
She sighed, welcome to Rapture, she supposed.
THE END.
Note: Okay so this is my first Bioshock fic :D I'm really happy with this. Basically this will be a group of one shots, following a group of survivors who's cast is going to alternate and change. I don't know how long it's going to be but this is the first chapter.
Let me know what you think! :D Likes, faves, reviews and follows, see you in the next one!