(A/N): Sorry kids, no cameos in this chapter. Most of my request e-mails were somehow deleted from the system. If you want to appear in the next chapter, remember to fill out a form and e-mail it to me.
Session Four: Damion Goes To Town
Miss Maya cleared her throat. "Ahem. Now that you're all properly secured…" She glanced around at the passengers. Some of them were a rather interesting shade of blue or purple. However, these certain unlucky travelers were ones who had attempted to fake their being buckled down. Now, they were paying the price.
"Now that you're all secured, we can begin the next section. This time, we'll have some original characters speak on their own behalf. You're welcome to ask them a little about their background, but we'd appreciate it if you tried to learn some of the advantages to creating a truly original and interesting 'OC'.
"We'll begin with Master Damion Reisert, featured in the story titled 'Stitches'."
Out of the entrance that led to Lisa's half of the first class cabin came the teenage boy. He stepped up to the podium, a rather sullen expression on his mistreated face, and frowned at the congregation.
"So why am I the only one to suffer in silence?" he demanded of them. "How come there's no more like me? Jesus Christ, all you girls do is piss and moan about 'Oh, Lisa's in love with him even though he tried to kill her!' God forbid you come up with something more than a whiny little rant on how she gets kidnapped again a month later and suddenly this entirely unbelievable relationship spawns!"
There was a pause while he took a deep breath and made a disgusted sound. "But I guess you've heard that enough tonight. Go on. Ask me anything."
More silence. Most of them were afraid to invoke this obviously unstable boy's wrath.
"Come on. You're not mute. Or did I not hear one of you screaming about the pants you pulled off the bas-…"
"MASTER REISERT, YOU'LL KEEP YOUR TONGUE IN CHECK. SINCE YOU TOOK THE STAGE, YOU'VE MADE RELIGIOUS REFERENCES, USED THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN, AND OUTRIGHT AND UNPROVOKEDLY INSULTED THE GENERAL POPULATION. WE'RE NOT AGAINST STRAPPING A PARACHUTE ON YOU, YOU KNOW."
Damion glanced to the speaker and sneered. "Whatever." Turning back to the women, he shrugged. "So go on. Ask me something. Make this trip not a total waste of my time."
A girl with light-brown hair and grayish-blue eyes put up her hand. "Um, how did you fit into the Red Eye universe?"
He shrugged. "My creator told you. She saw a room in the house and thought it could go with a brother. Then she made me up."
"But…how? I mean, how does she just see something so…insignificant and just make up a character?"
"Why don't you ask her? And I don't appreciate you calling my room 'insignificant'. To me, it's a big detail." He frowned.
Another girl put up her hand. "Why should we bother creating major original characters when there are so many ways to re-use Jackson and Lisa?"
Damion rolled his eyes. "Because there aren't. You're not getting this: the fact that one or two of you decided to give them a romance is forgivable. Why not? No one outlaws 'A.U.'s', or 'alternate universes' for those of you who don't know fanfiction acronyms. But when almost every last story encompasses a romance between the two, people start believing it's canon and then they write more of it until it's way to used up. Seriously, the genre's been beaten to death and peed on by dingo dogs.
"The advantage to making a major O.C. – besides alleviating some of the pressure on me – is that you're not only breaking the mold, you're being forced to explore new territory. You're being forced to get inside someone else's head who wasn't there before, someone new and fresh and deep enough for you to develop and get your readers to love or hate. Hell, properly executed, you could probably get them hooked on someone other than Rippner."
The girls seemed to accept this and a few looked like they were making mental notes to try it. However, most of the population remained indignant; they didn't like their work being criticized by this non-canon character who hadn't even been in the movie, bedroom excuse be damned.
Another girl, one of the slightly insulted, pouted and folded her arms. "Why do you not like Jackson?"
Damion broke out a manic smile and threw back his head, laughing. "Hah ha ha…! Ah…oh God, did you seriously just ask me that?"
She nodded, dumbfounded. "Uh, yes."
"You're not just pulling my leg? You seriously don't know?"
"No…"
"Where the hell do you think I got all these cuts? I suppose this massive collection of scars just popped up overnight!"
"Well, how are we supposed to know? Jackson gave them to you?"
"Rippner. Yeah."
"And you're not…you know…mad?"
"Mad?" Damion cocked his head and leaned over the podium. "Mad? God, no. I'm insane with how much I hate the man. Not just because he slit my throat and filleted me slowly, but because of all the other crap he did to my family. You think that kind of stuff is forgivable?
"If I could get away with it, I'd go in there right now and tear him apart with my bare hands. My bare hands. I'd want to pull his eyes out and peel his skin off like mine was."
A few girls gagged and one threw up in her baggie. Miss Maya commented, "Dame, try not to get too graphic."
"I'm just sayin', is all. I honestly though it would have gone without saying."
"Well, not everyone's read your story, honey. They don't know why you're covered with those scars or why you're infuriated with Mr. Rippner."
"Well you're the one to blame for all of it, but you don't see me pissing off at you."
"Yes, dear, but then again I am the one who created you, and you never bite the hand that feeds you."
He turned back to the audience. "Any other questions?"
"Just one, Mr. Reisert," one of the girls in the middle blushed. "Can I get your number?"
He paused and there were mass giggles. "Um…ask Maya."
With that, he went back up front again and Miss Maya shook her head at the last girl. "Sorry, honey. Dame's not available."
"Why not?"
"Well, for one he's a fictional character and when you have an imaginary boyfriend, people think you're not alright upstairs. For two, I'm thinking of involving him with a nice girl at Florida State. You haven't got a snowball's chance in Hell."
"Oh." Her face crestfallen, the girl retreated to hide in her seat.
Sorry, no major humor for this chapter. Since Damion is mostly unknown and his story isn't even finished, I can't right well make a big joke out of him. He's just there to voice my concerns for the serious lack of OC's.
The next few chapters, I'm planning on bringing Cynthia out and Jackson back. Again, I need re-submitted bios if you want to be included. Thanks for your patience, guys. It means a lot to me that people are still interested, and even more that people like to be involved.
Till next time!
EDIT A/N: Ok, I seem to be getting a bit of negative feedback because I didn't include anyone else's character in this chapter. Let me make this perfectly clear: it is NOT because I did not want to. If I didn't want to, I wouldn't have advertised it, would I have? I did not include any simply because no major OC's were sent to me! At least, none in usable condition. Please don't critisize me for something I have no control over. I simply published this chapter because I wanted to get it out and not waste my time waiting around for submissions that were obviously not coming. If someone has a big problem with that, then you can send me an OC and I'll include it in another chapter.
In other news, apparently I've been pinned for a one-minded skeptic of any type of fic that I don't write. Now, I can't hope to defend this, because if I said I wasn't one-minded it would imply that I have multiple minds and then they'd cart me off to the crazy-house. But let's turn back time and go back to the first chapter, where I placed the disclaimer, and I quote:
"This is purely meant as a work of comic humor and fanfiction. It is not intended to offend or impugne the writing skills of any of my fellow writers. It is simply my take on how I would like to voice my own God-given right to an opinion."
This fic wasn't originally meant to cater to the likes and dislikes of every single author out there. When I ask to include other authors, I simply thought maybe they'd like the concept. I even try to include their ideas that they send to me about what their characters will do.
Now usually, I accept all reviews;faves and founded flames all stay on the site. But from here on in, comsider yourselves warned. I don't take kindly to flames for a fic I'm just having fun with and am not intending to be my greatest life work. So if you've got something nasty to say, you better make sure it's backed by cold fact and not just your opinion of me.
In summary, I'll quote my single and steadfast maxim: "If you don't like it, don't read it."