CAN A MONSTER REMINISCE?
Protector M2-Theta was…confused. Why was her Sister trying to stop her? It was a monster, monsters were evil, monsters needed to die!
"Sissy, please! He saved me from the scary lady you unzipped, and scared the big monster away!"
The monster must have threatened her, told her it would kill her if she didn't help! Growl rising in volume, Theta moved to kill the monster.
"Sissy, no! Don't hurt Mr. Ordinary! His Daddy's sleeping too! He told me! See? See? These are his Daddy's beanoclears!" Looking down towards the strange object her Sister was brandishing, Theta paused, they looked similar to the things Mother always wore, but elongated and encased in metal.
Taking the mysterious object from her Sister's hand, Theta inspected them with detached curiosity. There were letters on the side of each tube, concentrating Theta attempted to remember how letters worked.
A slight gurgle from the monster she was holding by the throat broke Theta's concentration, its face was turning blue! Fighting the urge to laugh, she realized that she might be holding its throat a bit tighter then was strictly necessary, especially if she was actually considering letting it live. Dropping the monster, it wasn't as if she couldn't kill it if it attempted to fight, she took a few steps back, watching as it desperately took in heaving gulps of air.
Standing slowly, the monster stumbled into the wall, upsetting the balance of the some of the objects resting against it. Looking up, Theta saw a heavy metal container falling directly towards her. Unable to react in time, it hit her directly in the visor, a metal crash mixed with the sound of cracking glass echoed through the small room.
Stumbling backwards, slightly dazed, Theta felt something she wasn't expecting…air brushing gently against her face. Her helmet was broken. The monster had broken her helmet! It had been cracked during her fight with the brute, but had still been structurally sound. The metal container must have been the final straw. Rage clouded her mind once again.
It had broken her helmet! She was going to kill it! That helmet reminded her of Daddy! It had helped her feel brave, made her feel strong like Daddy had been. Now all she had from Daddy was her name. Stepping towards the monster responsible, Theta prepared herself to kill it.
"No Sissy! He didn't mean it! Mr. Ordinary, say you're sorry!" Her Sister's voice stopped her once again, seemingly quite set on letting the monster live.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to drop that damn thing on your head!" The monster's voice, still hoarse from near suffocation, took Theta several seconds to decipher.
It was apologizing? Monsters don't apologize. Breathing in the fresh air circulating her damaged helmet, Theta noticed something odd. The room was caked with the stench of Adam, not surprisingly given that the monsters had lived here and reeked of it themselves. Her Sister smelled strongly of Adam, as all Gatherers did. Even she reeked of Adam, being an ex-Gatherer and new Protector. The monster was almost completely free of Adam, the only Adam she could smell on it was the latent Adam that permeated Rapture, and even that was far weaker then she had ever seen.
How did a monster not have Adam? The only other person she had encountered remotely close to the monster, Adam wise, was Mother, and she smelled more strongly of Adam. Adam permeated everything in Rapture, how was this monster so…clean? To her irritation she could only come to one conclusion, the monster had never used Adam in its lifetime.
The behemoth's dieing words came back to her as she contemplated the confusing monster. It called her a child, and said that the monster in front of her was one too. It said that the monster didn't know what they were going to do to her Sister. How was that possible?
As the monster watched her warily, she detected something else, something faint, but it was there without a doubt. Vaguely sweet, and clean, she had never smelled anything like it before. The unfamiliar smell reminded her of Arcadia, the monster smelled a bit like the trees that filled that verdant section of Rapture.
All of this only reinforced what Theta already knew, she was…confused.
()
Recently broken hand throbbing in agony and his burnt back probably oozing through its bandages, David stared at the thing standing in front of him. It had put him down and was now staring into space, while this was an obvious improvement to the earlier situation, he still wasn't entirely sure it wasn't going to gut him like a pig.
He had been planning on getting some bandages for his back, but a rumbling growl ended that idea fairly quickly as soon as he took a step. With a resigned sigh he glared slightly at the creature staring at him. "Look, if your going to kill me, just kill me, otherwise I'm going to go and rewrap my back and see what I can do with my hand."
An outraged gasp sounded in the small room, "You hurt Mr. Ordinary? Zip him back up, Sissy! Now!" Staring in shock at her smaller sister, the creature loosed an irritated shriek, pointing at the box of first aid kits sitting high up on the wall.
"FIX HIM! NOW!" Growling in irritation, his houseguest pulled one of the first aid kits through the air, and stormed towards him. This is probably going to suck! Stopping a foot away from him, it shoved the first aid kit into his face.
"Umm, those things don't-" David was cut off as the creature, whose patience had apparently expired, raised the small metal box over his head and broke it in half. To his surprise his head was promptly drenched by a red, foul smelling, viscous liquid, accompanied by an unpleasant tingly feeling.
After several seconds the creature's head cocked in confusion. Running a quick self diagnosis, David tallied his injuries. Broken hand? Throbbing and considerably larger then normal. Scorched back? Burning even more then normal after being thrown into the wall. Was that lovely foul smelling goop supposed to do something?
"Alright, this has been fun, but I'm going to go attempt to patch myself up." Walking past the confused monster, he headed toward the bathroom.
"Sissy! Fix him!" Hearing the abhuman approaching, he spun around. "Alright look, it's nice that you're trying to help, but that damn ooze smells horrid. I can wrap bandages fine, thanks." An arrogant tilt of its head as it pointed at his broken hand was all the answer he needed.
"I'll find a way. I really don't need your help." With a skeptical huff, its hand shot out with shocking speed, catching the wrist of his broken hand. Before he could pull himself from its grip, both its hands moved to his, poking and prodding around the injured area. A second later, with a pop and a twinge of pain, it reset the bones of his hand.
Stepping backwards from the surprised human with something akin to a chuckle, the creature gestured him to continue. "Umm, thanks…I think?" With that, a bemused David walked into the bathroom.
()
Well the monster, or whatever it was, was distracted. Turning to her Little Sister, Theta lifted her off the ground and turned to leave the area. "NO! I want to make sure that Mr. Ordinary is all right! This Fort is fun! I don't want to leave!" Wait, what?
Growling softly in irritation, Theta knelt before her obviously confused Sister. Pointing out the window, towards the rest of Rapture, she attempted to reason with her obstinate younger sibling.
"No! I don't want to go home! Why can't this be my home?" Was she this stubborn at this age? With another, softer growl she pointed towards Rapture again.
Mammoth yellow eyes burrowing into Theta's soul, her Sister continued. "I want to stay! The fort is fun, and Mr. Ordinary is nice, and the Family people Mother sends to check on us scare me! Can't I just stay here for a little bit, please?" This couldn't be fair! Was there a plasmid for puppy dog eyes? If so, her Sister must have overdosed on it. Privately, Theta had to agree about the monsters Mother had check up on the younger Sisters. It wasn't that they had ever done anything; no they were too devoted to the Rapture Family for that. It was the way they looked at the girls, with a sort of hunger. It seemed to her that it was only a matter of time before one of them would be found crouched over a Sister's body.
Groaning to herself, Theta pondered the situation. Her better judgment was telling her to just pick her stubborn sister up off the ground and leave. Her heart was telling her that her Sister could stay here for at least a day. She would be there; the monster wouldn't harm the child for as long as she breathed.
If she was truthful with herself, Theta knew that the strange monster had had plenty of time to harm her Sister. Surprisingly it hadn't, according to her Sister, the monster had saved her from the female monster and convinced the big one to let them go. The complete lack of Adam in its blood meant that it had never consumed one of her Sisters, though it still could have killed some.
Another, surely ridiculous, idea passed through Theta's head. The monster had almost no Adam on it, even if it had never used it, it should smell more strongly of the near magical substance. As she noticed earlier, it smelled strange, a smell she had never encountered before. She was one of Rapture's alpha predators, she knew her city inside and out, no area inside the city smelled like the monster did. There was only one possible answer…the monster wasn't from Rapture.
The door groaning as it opened announced the monsters return. "Wow, I was expecting you two to be gone." Smirking slightly at the both of them, it sat down on a bed roll, scratching idly at its fuzzy chin.
Glaring through her cracked visor, Theta pointed an accusing finger at the monster, before pointing upward. "And what was that supposed to mean?" Growling in irritation, she repeated the gesture.
"Oh, yeah, I'm not from around here. There was a storm and the freighter I was on crashed." What was a freighter?
Apparently reading her confused body language the monster continued. "I was on a boat, there was a bad storm and it sunk. I barely survived. I was able to stay afloat and found a lighthouse. I went inside hoping to find a way to call for help, and wound up here. God, I miss the sun!"
"Mr. Ordinary, what's the sun?" Silently Theta agreed with her sister, the word seemed familiar but she couldn't place it. Storm was a word that was more familiar to her; it was one of the words used in the advertisements for Electro Bolt. Boats she knew were like floating partially enclosed bathyspheres, storms must be very bad if they could destroy one.
Pondering this, Theta came to a conclusion, the surface sounded very strange.
()
How does someone not know what the sun is? "The sun is…huge. It's this enormous fireball that floats in the sky. It lights up the entire surface, it's what causes day and night. It's so hot that even from millions of miles away you can still feel its gentle heat on your skin."
It was strange, how similar their body language was, both their heads tilted slightly to the left out of curiosity. One a small girl with a slightly greenish complexion, wearing a dirty dress, and small feet bare, the other a bit over six feet in height, armor plated, and armed to the teeth. Despite all the differences between the two, at this moment if he didn't know better, David would have sworn that they were related.
"Doesn't the sun hurt? It must be really hot, if you can feel it from so far away!"
"No, it feels nice, it's…soothing." Steeling himself, David voiced his thoughts; he had always preferred ripping a bandage off to pulling it off slowly. Look Amanda, I appreciate that you stayed to say goodbye. I'll…see you around."
Closing his eyes as he leaned back against the wall, David attempted to relax. He knew that he had no chance in this city alone, he'd be able to live here for awhile, but the second he needed supplies he was a dead man.
A small body bouncing off of his bed ruined his moment of peace. "Mr. Ordinary, Sissy says that we can sleepover!" The growl that echoed throughout the room clearly showed the Sister's opinion of this situation.
Attempting, and probably failing, to hide his surprise, David looked at the little girl grinning broadly at him, eyes alight with curiosity. "What's the surface like? Is the sun scary? What's a storm? Why can't boats work underwater?"
Amanda reminded David of his Sister's daughter, they both had insatiable curiosities, and if Amanda was anything like her, her curiosity would take a long time to quench. A chance to reminisce would probably help anyway.
As he looked at the smiling child, David found it impossible not to notice its sister, looming in the corner like a storm cloud, watching his every move. Any familial resemblance David had noticed between the two earlier was gone. Amanda was smiling at him happily, almost bouncing up and down in excitement for story time. Her sister on the other hand, was staring at him, cracked visor fixed on his face, and he would bet any amount of money that there was a vicious glare hidden behind it.
()
The monster and her young charge were both asleep. It had told her sister stories about the surface for what seemed like hours, before with a yawn, her Sister had curled up next to it and fallen asleep.
Her urges as a Protector where screaming at her to kill the monster and take her Sister from this place, but for a reason she didn't fully understand Theta hadn't. Despite herself, she had listened to its stories of the surface, of the fireball that burned constantly in the sky, of the animals that ran of four legs and didn't swim.
She had tried to imagine it and found she couldn't. It was unsettling to her, the thought that the world was so much bigger then she had ever believed. For the first time in her short, pain filled life; the lost soul turned her thoughts to the world beyond Rapture's walls. Could people really fly? Was the earth really floating in a black sea larger then she could fathom? Had people really been there? Surely it had been exaggerating. The thought that there wasn't just a world beyond Rapture's walls, but an entire universe was disturbing. A void larger then the ocean was unfathomable.
Suddenly, Theta found herself feeling very small.
With a shake of her head, she dismissed those pointless distressing thoughts. Things outside Rapture didn't matter! She couldn't control things out there, but she could control things here.
The monster thought it was clever, she knew it wasn't sleeping, it was too still. It could probably tell she was watching it for any sign of treachery; it had better behave itself if it knew what was good for it. She might have decided not to kill it for now, but that was a decision that she could revisit at any time.
Unable to avoid it any longer, Theta found her thoughts going back to Daddy, always back to Daddy.
Why had Daddy stopped protecting her? Why had he stopped meeting her at her hidey hole? Had she done something wrong? Had he been hurt? Was she not good enough?
()
Eleanor's Daddy was kind of scary, but Samantha knew that Daddy would protect her, Daddy always protected her. It was funny how similar Eleanor and her Daddies looked. The only difference she could see was the markings on their hands; her Daddy had a circle with a line through it on his hands, while Eleanor's had what looked like an unfinished A.
Turning towards her younger friend, Samantha smiled. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this excited! The two of them had made a play date, they knew they weren't supposed to but they were still gathering! After all, good girls gathered!
With a happy yell, Eleanor dashed away from her older friend. "Come on slowpoke! Can't you smell the Adam?" Laughing happily, Samantha gave chase to her friend as they raced towards the angel, Daddies lumbering after them.
()
Taking her helmet off with a hiss, Theta looked into the blood red porthole. It looked so similar to Daddy's, face hidden behind expressionless glass. Idly she wondered if Daddy had really loved her. Did he leave by choice? Was he taken away? Was he killed?
Glaring into the cracked blood red glass, she resisted the urge to crush the helmet between her hands. Had Daddy been able to tell? Had he seen that she was a monster? Had he left in order to escape from her? Had he seen what she would become? Was she really worse then the monsters Daddy had protected her from?
()
Glaring playfully at her friend, Eleanor attempted to diminish her recent victory. "You cheated! Your bigger then me! That's not fair!"
Finishing her victory dance as their Daddies caught up, Samantha couldn't help but grin at her younger friend. "I'm older, I'm s'possed to be bigger silly! Come on, we shouldn't leave the Angel waiting." With that, both girls turned to the beautiful angel at their feet, harvesters at the ready.
()
Was harvesting people wrong? Theta could still remember how she had seen Rapture as a child, all chrome and spotless gold. No twisted monsters, only beautiful people. No decaying bodies, only peaceful angels. She remembered the confusion and horror she felt as Rapture seemed to decay around her, as whatever mental conditioning she had as a child wore off.
If harvesting from dead bodies was the right thing to do, why had they brainwashed little girls into doing it? Why couldn't someone else do it? Those scientist, the ones that took her humanity, the ones that were changing other little girls, they were monsters! She killed monsters, but they were part of the Family. Mother said that they were doing the right thing, that they must put the needs of the many above the needs of the few.
The Rapture Family, The Rapture Family was not a family that she felt any loyalty towards. It was made up of monsters, and she killed monsters. Mother insisted that the monsters were good, that they were part of the Family and weren't attempting to hurt her Sisters, she had her doubts. At times, she wasn't entirely sure Mother was always right, but Mother had their best interests at heart, or so she claimed. Mother's claims didn't mean much to her, after all, deep down Mother was just a different type of monster.
()
It was some kind of holiday for the walking angels, there was ballroom music echoing throughout the entire city. Navigating in between hundreds of dancing angels was difficult, even with two Daddies attempting to keep people away. Reaching an unspoken decision, the Sisters turned from the large crowded room. Together they headed towards lesser populated areas of the beautiful city.
Little did the Sisters know that amidst the crowds of people flowing around each other, a frustrated Protector was attempting to locate its charge.
As the two Sisters walked through the gorgeous back alleys of the city, bellies full, they came across two masked angels, leaning against the wall, limbs intertwined, kissing each other.
Giggling Eleanor turned towards her friend, "Ewwww! Samantha, what are they doing?"
Turning from each other the angels looked at the two girls, and suddenly Samantha found herself felling very exposed. Turning around to hide behind Daddy's legs she had a most unwelcome surprise, her Daddy wasn't with them. The Sisters stepped towards each other unconsciously, those weren't angels they were monsters!
Rubbing suggestively against its male partner, the female monster pouted up at him, "Look James, a twofer, and I would love a present."
Smiling at its female counterpart, the male monster nodded, "Fine Veronica, I am a gentleman after all."
With a happy squeal, the female monster kissed its friend on the cheek. "That's so sweat, James!" Voice lowering it continued, "I'll make it worth your while later."
Lightning flowed along the male monsters arms as it began to advance towards the girls. With a rumbling growl Eleanor's Daddy lifted her off the ground carrying her away from the monster, and leaving Samantha alone.
"Wait, Daddy! You're forgetting Samantha! No, Daddy stop!" Eleanor's Daddy, ignoring her desperate pleading, rounded the corner.
Looking into the monster's eyes Samantha tried not to cry. "P-please, don't hurt me Mr. I-I'll be good, I promise."
The monster paused, looking conflicted, its female friend wasn't as sympathetic. Shoving past her friend with a disgusted huff, it backhanded Samantha across the face. Falling to the ground with a yelp, Samantha screamed, and her Daddy's furious roar answered her.
A chunk of concrete impacted the ground in between the two monsters. As they attempted to regain their bearings, her Daddy barreled into their midst. Grabbing the female monster by the throat, Daddy threw her into the wall before turning to her male friend. Daddy's spinning lance activated briefly, the monster's scream didn't last long.
Turning back to the female monster, Daddy advanced towards it, raised lance leaving rose petals in its wake. Spitting at Daddy, it sneered, "Thanks for that Tin Daddy, you just did me a favor. That pitiful fuck wasn't worth my time, but he was rich, and a girl's got to eat." With a final laugh, the monster disappeared in a cloud of red smoke.
After briefly surveying the area, Daddy turned towards Samantha, still sitting on the ground. Walking to its charge, the beast extended an armored hand, a circular rune on the back.
"I love you, Daddy."
()
Returning to the present with a surprised jolt, Theta looked around the small room, nothing had changed. Her Sister was sleeping soundly, the monster was still pretending to, and behind the window, life carried on as always in the deep.
Looking at the familiar circular marking on her hand, Theta found herself missing Daddy; after all, he'd given her his name. Theta, it was a good name, a strong name, strong like Daddy had been. Theta, Daddy's name was now her own. Theta, Θ, Theta.
She wasn't Samantha anymore, Samantha had been a weak, scared little girl, crying out for Daddy. Theta wasn't weak, she couldn't be, Daddy was with her, and Daddy would always protect her, no matter what.