Umhhmm I've been inactive here for like half a year and there have been asks of people in Palestine (which may or may not be real)
I'll spread the word. Please donate to trustable organizations and/or people who really need help instead of fakers that use this genocide as a means of cashgrab.
You finally found the cabin. It was hard navigating through the cold forest that was surrounding the cabin. You opened the door to your new home, The Everglaze Cabin. You have recently moved into this place, and you've heard that several other people are going to live together with you here. Well, it was good enough for you since you didn't like the loneliness your former living place gave off.
As you step into the cabin, you can see the interior was brown and ivory in general. It felt extremely welcoming and warm, contrast to the cold and dark forest with pine cone trees that was right where you just were. Anyway, you felt excited and kind of tense as you imagine who you would meet... And you suddenly feel your head bumping into something pretty hard in front of you, you let out a yelp and move backwards a bit to see what or maybe, who you've bumped into.
"... You must be the newcomer, are you? May I ask your name?"
You look up a little bit and meet eyes with a woman. Her voice was surprisingly low. She used formal languages, which made you assume she was a soldier or some other job that requires you to be formal. Seemingly in her thirties, she was pretty tall and buff. What caught your attention more than that was that her eyes had purple irises. She stared at your eyes directly, as if trying to dissect your thoughts. It was pretty threatening even though she probably... didn't have any malicious intent. You decide to tell her your name since if you don't, it was apparent you won't end up well.
"Ah, sorry for crashing into you, haha... My name is Y/N, nice to meet you. And... your name is?"
"That's okay. I'm Seolhwa Choi. Just call me Choi, or whatever you want to refer me as."
'It's a pretty name', you thought as you nodded and went toward the center of the cabin. She followed you behind as you notice some people being there, either sitting on a big red velvet couch, some on the pink and blue bean bag couches that were laid around the fireplace, thankfully not too close from it, the cabin would all burn if so. You wondered how it even works properly since it seemed dangerous to use fire inside a wooden cabin. Let's just say it's magic for now.
The people who were gathered around the fireplace all looked different and some could even say they seemed to be from different universes. Anyway, they all - or most of them, to be precise - greeted you with smiles. You were very excited to meet them and wanted to know all about them all in this new cabin, this seems like a very good new start!
Red Hands, or Blue? (Warning: Mentions of blood, Violence, Death)
(Listen while reading for better immersion)
I ran along the dark streets of Manhattan. The streetlights were all on and made my eyes hurt. My breath was white from all the coldness of winter. I never looked back. The sirens ringing behind me was getting smaller and smaller until I couldn't hear them at all.
It was complete silence. I went into a nearby alley and caught my breath. I didn't know where to go, I was all alone without anybody else. I had nowhere to go, nothing else to hold onto. It was cold and I had nothing warm in my grasp, hell, not even myself was warm. I was far, very far from being warm.
-
I was known as the only one who can always cross the line of brutality and never get caught. I was seemingly... a well-known criminal, known well by the dark corners of Manhattan. I actually had a good family but when my wife knew my 'real self' that I tried to hide from her so badly... She left me without a word. A few months had passed from her leaving, and I was now here, caught by Evan.
"Well, sorry for tying you up, but I think you... hurt one of my friends, and I had to do this for him."
There was a group that grasped the whole dark society. Respria. Their leader, Evan, 'hired' me to deal with his problems for a while, then he just let me go on and live my life. Then some time later, I had an argument with him.
"I already told you that you shouldn't mess with me, Henry. You know who I am, since you've worked with me for quite a long time. And I thought that was enough time for you to understand me. Or was I wrong?"
-
I got into a fight with one of the trusted men of Respria, at a small bar. To defend myself, it wasn't totally my fault since he was the one to spit at me and punch my face. And I'm not short-tempered but... I lost it when he kicked me and talked about my wife, that he actually killed her. I didn't think about holding back anything.
After some time of beating him up, when I calmed down, all the people at the bar were looking at me. And when I looked down there was something red, blood on my hands. And no, it wasn't a symbolism or anything. It really was literal blood of the man. I punched him until he bled. I lost myself so much. When I looked at the man's face, which was almost mangled at that time... The realisation struck me at the back. 'Oh, I did it again.' It didn't really feel bad though. It was rather... good. Nobody called the police and they all frose there in fear, looking at me as if I was some monster or beast.
-
"Are you listening to me?"
"Yes, I am."
"You messed with the wrong person. You should pay for that, right?"
"I am afraid that... I shouldn't be messed with too, just like you. You know who I am. Even you won't be able to stop me then, I assure you."
"Well yes I do, of course. You're The Red Hands of Manhattan... or whatever those assholes call you as. But tell me,"
The leader slowly walked towards me and firmly grabbed my neck with his gloved hands.
"Do you even regret it? What you've done to him?"
I couldn't answer him. When if I say the truth I will die or go through something terrible. Even if I lie I had a scarce chance of getting out alive. The leader let go of my neck then came closer to me and stared into my eyes.
"... No, just forget about what I've said. Anyways, I should tell you a secret since you've helped me for so long..."
He turned back and grabbed something that was on the wooden table. Probably was a knife, now I had no choice. Right behind me was a door.
"Actually, I got rid of her myself."
I was on the verge of losing it again. I could hear my teeth grit.
"She knew too much about us. She was a journalist, right? Poor Percy dug in too deep. Do you want to know about her last words? ... She said 'Please help me, Henry'."
That's when I lost it. I failed to protect my wife. It was because of me. Because I was a criminal. I didn't know she would get hurt. Maybe deep within I knew it but tried to hide that feeling. I felt so bad. I couldn't even protect my loved one when I am feared among this world. I was worthless. If I could, I would've died and saved her. But I couldn't.
But then, a realisation came into my head. It was Evan that killed her. He killed her. And I have enough strengh to make him suffer.
I broke out of the ropes and pushed him. I heard something crack when he hit the floor, powerlessly. I managed to make Evan drop his knife on the floor. I grabbed his knife and... made my way out. I got rid of every single Respria member I met eyes with. I destroyed them. There was red on my hands and even on my face, and my clothes. I just kept running after that.
-
Anyways, that was what happened at 1990. It was such a cold day, and I had to keep running from the police until I fainted. Then I woke up at a small town's house. The woman who saved me told me that I could live with her until I get better. When I saw her, tears fell from my eyes. Maybe it was because she looked so badly like Percy. The woman told me that everything's okay and hugged me.
I hoped she never knew about my past... and after that I became a deputy of this county, because I regretted how much of a terrible person I've been. I've been so bad to my wife, and I couldn't say anything to her now, since she's gone. I couldn't apologise, which is my deepest regret in my life. And I'm trying to pay for what I've done in my life by doing good things. I hope... I can repent myself. And I hope nothing about my past gets known by anyone in the county. My hands were red, but I covered them blue.
I looked up to my father. He stared at me as if he was looking at some dog. He sighed as he said.
"Yes, you have to. Now go back to your room and finish your assignment."
I just stood in front of him.
"I think I told you many times what you need to be? You need to be perfect, you have to be the next chairwoman of Icarus, but you aren't even close to me. Now go."
I always hated his voice. He wasn't old enough to sound like a dying bird croaking, but he did. How I hated how he looked. He was extremely skinny compared to usual men which was, frankly saying -I was afraid of it, though I do not remember why. Maybe it was just an instinct, maybe I already knew that in this world, rich yet skinny people aren't mostly in their right minds. He closed my room's door slowly after I went in. I heard the sound of his footsteps and the wooden floor's creaking getting smaller and smaller.
I sat on my antique chair -which maybe isn't that old- and opened my neurological science book to do my assignment that my father told me to do. My parents didn't send me to school and instead decided to make me study alone in this house that I loathed. I sighed and started reading the easiest part to make my brain run properly. I needed some warm-up every time I did something.
'The human brain is surely interesting. Controlling people, even me myself, to do things that most animals can not. Though the most intriguing fact is that the nerves, connected to the brain, that are almost everywhere of our bodies can transmit electrical signals to order our body parts what to do...'
I was happy, and only happy when I tried to delve deeper into the mysteries of nerves and brains. Perhaps I wanted to get a hold of what my father and mother are thinking about when they see me, they always were frowning at me, my father always told me that I should follow him to become the next chairwoman of his PMC even though I hated guns and soldiers because of their brutality- or at least I thought so. I hated them because they weren't delicate enough.
After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that I should do my assignment to avoid trouble.
I heard the door suddenly opening when I just started to actually do my assignment. When I turned my head back, I saw my mother.
"Honey, what were you doing?"
"I was doing my assignment, mother."
"Honey, I don't think so. I couldn't hear anything from your room."
I made a mistake. I should've filpped my book's pages and written something a few times, bad that I forgot to do that. I sighed and followed her out of the room.
After a few hours-which felt like days-of her scolding and frequent beating ended, I was grounded. I went back into my room and I heard my mother lock the door behind me and leave. I collapsed onto the floor because of the sudden dizzyness.
I didn't know what to do to make them satisfied. They wanted me to be 'perfect', always telling me things to do. Well, I didn't want them to be happy with me though. Just that I didn't want to get beaten up for no big reason, and sometimes no reason at all. The beating went on since I was 10, so I was enduring that for 7 years which wasn't short, and I was tired from it. I wasn't their artwork to begin with, I was just their daughter. Then I came to the thought- why don't I try that?
During learning neurological science one thing I've noticed is that when the human brain comes into direct contact with a specific chemical it stops working in a few seconds. One could say 'just shoot them' but I didn't know how to use guns at all, and I didn't like guns like I said before. The most important thing was that I didn't want my house -which was almost a mansion- to become dirty. And I didn't want any evidence that's easy to trace remain.
Since I've had multiple concussions from getting beaten by the two for years, I thought of trying it. And another thing is that I have a syringe, and that the book in my room has the molecular formula for the chemical. So I made my bruised body stand up and scurried to my chair, then opened the book.
-
My parents sometimes called me 'Opus' as to refer me as their artwork. Just so that you know better about me, my father was German and my mother was Korean, so I was a half-blood. The word Opus was German but my mother had learnt German just to marry my father to get his power, so it wasn't hard for the both of them to use it. I was disgusted about it at first, but I got used to it. Then after I left my parents I named myself Opus after my leave. I thought hiding my real name was needed for me to stay alone without my father watching me every time. I stayed alone for a few years.
Well, you know what happened next. Though I wasn't completely that cruel to make the two both die. I let my father live. And I promised him that when the time comes, I will take his place. At first that promise was just to make him miserable. And to add, I left my home and my parent. But as time passed, I was interested in being the chairwoman of a company that can use power on every country, at any time, given the right reason. The best thing was that I can make any reason right. Any reason. I went to Icarus to make my father make me a vice - chairwoman of Icarus. Though I still don't know why he let me. Still, I am fine about it, since soon I will take him down by using his own stupidity and let him know that he made me a very wrong daughter.
"Maybe it wasn't the right choice to work on this project from the start. Well, I was one of the twelve people to lead it... I have been designated as Hermes, the codename coming from the twelve gods of Greek mythology. At the beginning it was great to be called as that, as if I really became some sort of godly being... But now it's just overwhelming me. I'm not fit enough for that name. And never will be. It isn't even the right kind of codename to be given to people who do unethical things for a damn company. It surely isn't right at all.
Anyways, now I deeply regret what I have done. I've sacrificed too much for a stupid human-controlling chip, what shouldn't have even been made. Even that idea of ARES itself shouldn't have been. ...
What I wanted to say is that I have the USB file for the internal information of Project ARES - including all the planning, blueprints for the chip. It's encoded for most people but I had access to it because I am, I mean was- a project manager- (sudden banging sounds, identified as a metal door being forced open)
Damn it, they're here now... Also, I'm sort of running away from them and- (the banging sounds become louder, almost making the voice uninteligible) I'll just say it quick. Only you, Choi, don't tell anybody of the task force, only you come to the address written on the notepad of that black jacket you have. That one I gave you, you know it, right? T- Then I'll give you the USB. If I'm alive I will be there. I- (gunshots ring, confirmed as one of Icarus-manufactured weapons) I... (coughing sounds) I trust you. Please... give me a chance to redeem myself-"
[The voice message ends here.]
"... Bad that it's just a voice message. I can't just identify him through voices."
"... I think we should go. I mean, we've met Hermes in person before, right? He looked trustable. I have experience in these situations, trust me."
"I still don't understand the reason he trusts me. What does he want from me? And I have to say that we cannot confirm whether he's even currently alive or not. Even though we decide that we go, I'm not going to take you there. The risk is too high. What if he's trying to decieve us? He could still be a part of Icarus."
"... Can't we just think about that later? Let's think of it as getting into his trap intentionally. And don't worry about me, I'm a police officer, come on."
"... I can say this; this is surely different from all cases you've ever experienced. You've never dealt with a whole PMC. So you should stay down this time, you've already helped me a lot."
"I guess I can't stop you from going... Good luck and please don't die or get hurt out there."