we dance to the sound of sirens (oktoberfest '09 fic by moot)

[sixtyeighth.livejournal.com]

Title: we dance to the sound of sirens
Author: moot
Beta: none - if you see any mistakes please point them out!
Word Count: 2,479
Rating: R for violence, I suppose?
Character(s): Giovanni, Badou, Haine, Alkaid, some people from Dogs that are not in Landel's, mentions of Landel and Head Nurse, mentions of some other characters
Pairing(s): n/a
Summary: Giovanni’s wrong about a lot of shit, but he was right about every dictatorship having a revolution. He was right about Landel’s Rev failing, too.
Notes: I DONT KNOW WHAT IM DOING GOD. also this is so fucking incoherent i don't even know if the plot i was trying to convey got across at all so uh if you guys need any clarification on this, go ahead and ask.

I : I

When I was eight years old, I woke up in a dark room with my mind blank and a metal collar around my neck. I didn’t know who I was or where I had come from. Everything was black. A woman appeared, then, with blonde hair and who smelled like honey. She wrapped her twelve fingers around my collar and told me that her name was Angelica Einstellsehn. She told me that my name was Giovanni. I knew nothing else. She pushed me into an arena and whispered in my ear. She told me to fight. She told me to rip up everything in my path. I bared my teeth – my fangs – and dug my nails into the flesh of the enemies she set before me. She unleashed the wild dog inside of me. I did what I was told.

I : II

Some time around when I was like fourteen – I tell this story fairly often, so sorry if you’ve heard it before - me and my older brother would go adventuring together. It was a pretty badass deal for a kid to be stuck in, and I’d complain to Dave – that’s my older brother – I’d complain to Dave a lot, but actually I thought it was kinda great. He was a journalist on a mission, and I was his kid brother, his sidekick. If I had known about superheros back then, I’d have thought I was the Robin to his Batman. Anyway, he was on the search for this underground place, even if neither of us really knew exactly what it was. Looking to find the underground, though, even if it’s literal and not figurative, tends to get you in deep shit. We weren’t no exception. But I bet you know how this goes, right? Just like how I told Haine – some guys with weird masks came through and murdered Dave and stabbed out my right eye. That’s that. No use in getting sentimental now. It was pretty shitty, though, watching him look up at me and smile and then slide off the edge of the roof we were on. Just a trail of blood left behind.

I : III

I don’t like to talk about it. Not a lot of people I know now are aware of what happened. It’s better if I keep it that way. If you heard Giovanni’s story, you know some of mine. My first memory is of waking in a cold, damp room with a metal collar around my neck. That was the beginning of my life. That woman (Angelica Einstellsehn, but I hate saying her name) was the first person I saw. She told me that she loved me because I was so perfect, so wonderful at killing everything she threw at me. I fucking hated her with every bone in my body. Still do. I had a “little brother” named Giovanni and a “little sister” named Lily. Giovanni is alive now. Lily isn’t. At the time, I must have thought it was for the best. She asked me, “Why is everything red? Why isn’t anyone moving?” I loved her, so I wanted to put her out of her misery. I snapped her neck and I ran away. Running away is a specialty of mine, just like it is Badou’s.

II : I

Sixteen years after I opened my eyes and saw honey-hair curling around my “mother’s” face, I opened my eyes and saw fluorescent lights against a sterile blue ceiling. I had been torn away from my station as Einstellsehn’s attack dog, and I had been brought to a place called Landel’s Institute. Nurses loaded me with drugs that made me warm and slow and lazy, and they told me my name was Johann. A man’s voice crackled over the radio. He told all of us that everything was going to be okay. As is often the case with statements like those, it was a lie. He released us into the halls at night and pitched us up against monsters that brought my mind back to when I was eight years old and terrified. I remembered what she told me. I let the wild dog out. I fought. I ripped up everything in my path.

II : II

Usually when folks wake up in another world, they’re either one of two things: on acid, or really fucked. I was the latter. Maybe a little of the former, too, ‘cause who knows what those nurses put through your veins. After being there for more than a month, though, it was hard to keep thinking it was all just a dream and that I’d wake up eventually. Now, don’t get me wrong, Landel’s was shit – it was complete shit. But weirdly enough, it was a lot like home. There were things to fight, cool guys to hang out with, hot girls to hit on…the only thing it was missing was Kiri’s spaghetti, but that was just a detail. The cafeteria food was pretty fucking gross when I thought about it, but after a long night of getting your ass kicked, it tasted like heaven. After long enough I started being alright with it. Then shit started going down.

II : III

When I came to Landel’s, I almost couldn’t believe it. It was exactly like Einstellsehn’s institute. I thought it was some sick joke of hers or Giovanni’s. Maybe it is. I still don’t really know. All I know is I constantly came up against monsters that had the same vapid look on their faces as the ones from my childhood. I mowed them all down just like I did at home. Sometimes the voice from the radio would talk to us, but I didn’t listen. I learned a long time ago not to listen to people like those, ‘cause they only lead you to ruin. The problem was that it was kind of hard to ignore Landel and the nurses when they controlled you. The difference between Landel’s and home was that there was no Lily at Landel’s. There wasn’t anyone I could save.

III : I

Badou will tell you that October 31st was when it started. Personally, I believe that it started as soon as the institute was founded, although to this day, nobody knows when or how it was created. We do know why, but that’s an altogether different story for an altogether different time. The important fact was that it started. ‘What started’, you must be asking. If you’re reading this, you already know, but keeping a record doesn’t hurt, does it? October 31st is when the revolution officially began. In every dictatorial society, a revolt is organized. Not every one of them succeeds. In fact, Landel’s Revolution did far from succeed. There’s no doubt that a large portion of it was my fault.

III : II

Kinda spooky that the aforementioned shit that went down did so on Halloween, right? During the day, they had us put on dinky little masks and give each other candy. We all thought it was a sweet deal. Night fell and we finished our pumpkin pie dessert and hopped in bed and waited ‘til the lights went out. At first it was just like it’d been every other night: the doors unlocked and the patients wandered through the halls. The thing that initially freaked me out was there were no monsters, no S-C’s, and none of those fucking radio broadcasts. It wasn’t until around midnight that things started to fall in – or out – of place. First word I got of it was from Alkaid, who ran up to me and told me there were some folks busting into the basement. I got her to run down with me and check it out, and now I wish I hadn’t. Too late for beating yourself up about mistakes, though, right?

III : III

I was one of the first ten who got down to the basement that night. I haven’t told anyone this before, not even Badou, but I was the one who began Landel’s Revolution. Giovanni’s wrong about a lot of shit, but he was right about every dictatorship having a revolution. He was right about Landel’s Rev failing, too. It fell on its fucking ass, and it was mostly Giovanni’s fault, but I share the blame. This is just stupid stuff, though. The main point is that I led a group of ten down to the basement. Nobody had been there before – it looked like nobody’d been there for a few centuries, save for the corpses everywhere. They coated the walls and the ceilings and the floors. It went on for miles, this cavern full of bodies in different states of decomposition. Some were crumbled down to ash. Some were fresh. Some were people we recognized. That’s what really sparked it, I guess. It’s always worse when it’s someone you know. Anyway, Schuldig, L and von Karma were the ones who ended up piecing it all together, what Landel and his army were doing. I knew he was exactly like Einstellsehn from the beginning, but I never expected it to go that deep. Instead of granting powers to us, though, Landel stripped ours away.

IV : I

Haine’s plan was ruined purely out of my spite. I was spiteful then, and I am spiteful now. I’m sure Haine is, too. He had the end of the institute’s reign at the tip of his fingers and I snatched it away from him. The way I brought about the revolution’s downfall? I told the Head Nurse. At the time, I had assumed it would be but a minor roadblock, something to irritate Haine, something to drag his wild dog out just like Einstellsehn had dragged out mine. I wasn’t aware that it would be the catalyst for the creation of an opposing army. They came in droves, things we had never seen before, things most people would never dream of. Landel spoke to us for nearly 24 hours straight through the intercom. He said that everything would be okay. It was then I realized that he wasn’t lying; it was only that he wasn’t addressing us. The tide hadn’t turned - fate was already against us. But then again, fate was only against me because I was on the side of the patients – and I thought about Einstellsehn’s lips against my ear, whispering to me. ‘Rip them all up,’ she said. It was the same thing Landel said, but his voice came through the static of a handheld radio. And I’m nothing more than a lapdog, so I obeyed my master. I ripped up all of the people who stood in my way: the people who stood in my way were the patients.

IV : II

Some people say life comes full circle, and I’d never really believed that until then. Mostly I just thought life was a never-ending series of shitty coincidences. What made me until the guy I was then was an event a lot like what made me the guy I am today. It was what, three a.m.? When Haine busted into my room and said ‘Badou, we gotta get out.’ I knew Haine well enough to know he wasn’t fucking around. I got up and packed what little shit I had there – two packs of smokes, a lighter, some matches, and a small spiral-bound notebook. Then we took off. We fought our way through flames and pools of blood, and we ran through the recreational field just as a bomb exploded behind us. We were almost to the gate when I stopped and said, ‘Hold up. I wanna go back and get Alkaid.’ Haine looked at me like I was a fucking loon. Didn’t think so then, but now I know I was. What I wouldn’t give to redo that whole day over – but a lotta people say that, and I’m not any more special than the rest of ‘em. Anyway, I don’t remember how, but I managed to convince Haine to go back and get her. We found her on the roof with a few of her hall-mates, fighting off whatever came her way. I would’ve stopped to enjoy the view if my eyes weren’t cloudy from all the fires’ smoke. I yelled at her to come on, that me and Haine were booking it, and she swung a blade at a beast and felled it. Then she turned to me and started saying something like ‘Isn’t that sweet – you come all the way here just to drag my sorry butt out?’ I don’t remember the exact words, but I remember each fucking inch of the scene laid out in front of me: Alkaid still had a smile on her face when something swiped out from behind her and ran its claw through her gut. She was smiling just like Dave as she slumped forward and bled out and died. Haine ran, and he dragged me along with him. I didn’t get a chance to look back, but that’s one thing I don’t regret. I didn’t want the last sight I saw to be Alkaid sliding off the roof and leaving a blood trail in her wake. Actually, the last sight I saw was my sneakers against the dewy grass as I ran; then the same claw that’d ran through Alkaid ran through my left eye. It didn’t kill me, and it’s probably damn selfish of me to say this, but I sure wish it did.

IV : III

I saved Alkaid just like I saved Lily. She would have died anyway. She was outnumbered; all of us were outnumbered. Badou and I were lucky to make it out alive. Giovanni was lucky to nab himself a spot on Landel's team. Yeah, I guess Badou was right about things coming full circle. It’s more like things repeat themselves, when you really think about it. I was the one who ripped Lily up. I was the one who ripped Alkaid up. And what I did to Badou was out of what I thought was mercy. (It was supposed to kill him, but he’s always been stubborn as hell.) Nothing about that night was merciful, though, from the patients’ side or from Landel’s side: it was a revolution and it was a war. War isn't fucking merciful. It brings to mind how Giovanni and I are fundamentally different: I hurt people so I can save them. Giovanni hurts people so he can save himself. But in the end, is either of us right? After all, the end is the beginning is the end. Giovanni is a faithful servant and I am the rebellion; we always have been and we always will be. History is doomed to repeat itself, ain’t it? Hell, I guess we should all settle down and enjoy the ride.

Comments

[constellates.livejournal.com]

Wooow.

This is really well-written, really heart-rending, and extremely excellent. ♥ I found myself getting a little teary toward the end, not gonna lie. ALSO WOW GIOVANNI IS SUCH A BASTARD ♥♥♥

WELL DONE. And, eeeee, you wrote about Alkaid. ILU ILU ILU.

[sixtyeighth.livejournal.com]

OH GOD NO I CANT BELIEVE SOMEONE READ THIS ALREADY i had to sumbit it before doing a last-minute editing job and tacking on some stuff i had missed to create more of a theme BUT HEY IM GLAD YOU LIKED IT EVEN IN ITS POOR AMPUTEE FORM!

[constellates.livejournal.com]

COOL and ooh the fonts and - I MEAN I COULD TELL WHO WAS WHO ORIGINALLY BUT BUT no it's awesome. It was really good as an amputee and it's good as a... post-amputee? Did you put prosthetics on your fic?! (And ooooh the last part, it's all BAM and fff they're such bastards)

LOL it just happened to be posted when i reloaded the page, I was like "OOH ALKAID" and clicked; forgive me.