do you think most of the cortexi-kids, now as adults obviously, could have PTSD and/or BPD? I have been diagnosed with both and after watching Fringe I'm definitely on board with headcanoning that
Short answer: YES.
Long answer: It is incredibly hard to generalize the other cortexikids... because they don’t nearly get as much screentime. I focus so much in my meta about Nick & Olivia specifically because a: they get the most screentime, & b: they’re naturally PAIRED together since the beginning of the trials.
I do think that every cortexikid has PTSD, to varying degrees. But BPD... is a much more harder to generalize.
James Heath [hey I can “exchange energy” with you & give you my cancer!!!] is specifically hard to place. When we’re first introduced to him... he’s incredibly destructive - destroying other lives for his own benefit [staying alive.] He has an incredible sense of self-perseverance, unlike Olivia & Nick. Everything that James does in Olivia. In The Lab. With The Revolver. is to keep himself from dying - all Nick [& Olivia passively] want to do IS DIE; they want their pain to STOP... whereas James inflicts pain on others so that his pain is combated.
Nancy Lewis is also incredibly hard to place. Like Olivia, like every cortexichild, she needs to be “activated” by an emotion in order to use her abilities. But unlike Nick & Olivia, her activating emotions aren’t toxic - but incredibly realistic. Nancy & Olivia are being held captive by Sanford Harris; Olivia helps Nancy channel her feelings of anger & desperation into pyrokinesis. But, Nancy couldn’t control her powers on her own; they were beginning to overwhelm her [& she would have combusted like her sister had.] Olivia NEEDED to step in & help guide her elsewhere. Olivia has lost control of her pyrokinesis many times - but only because she was triggered to the Extremes [... Walter & Belly... fake killed Nick... in order to elicit a reaction from her... & she nearly killed Nick... engulfing the room in flames... um] so guiding Nancy under these circumstances... was sort of a walk in the park. But Nancy’s abilities are considered “unstable” ... even though her state of mind is WAY more stable than Nick’s & Olivia’s. Perhaps having toxic emotions [aka actually being borderline] on a consistent basis are what make cortexiphan effective.
From what little we saw from Sally Clark... she doesn’t seem to be as sself-destructive / destructive as Nick & Olivia... but again... we barely saw anything. She successfully seriously burns Agent Lee, but because of medical advances Over There, he is able to recover.
So again, not incredibly sure any of them have abuse-induced BPD. But Nick & Olivia [to me!] do... & unfortunately, that’s what makes their powers so... powerful.
. . . in my comparative religion class i was both taking notes & making notes for a oneshot fic:
some lame season 5 fic with nick as a leader of the remaining [& perhaps new] cortexichildren aiding the resistance, covering his development with his abilities & possible actualization during the invasion & how he might treat etta in olivia's absence... especially how he might treat etta... i was choking up
i'm a person that tends to stay away from present tense & more screenwriting styles of writing... but i'm going to push myself... because it fits with nick's stream of consciousness that i want to develop
& i'm hoping to weave in ZFT-style writing [both from the show & dialogues i'll construct hopefully mirroring that style & nick's interpreations of the manifesto] thru the fic ... like nick reciting them to himself in his morning routine or to other recruits
i'm supposed to be doing the scpfringe thing... but i need to do this
also marcus if we're ever going to do that cortexikid series i need practice
this stands for rn but i'll probably redo HELLA of it in the morning... or later morning welp
“Olive, what do we do?” Nick was beside her. He was always beside her. He was loyal to her, especially in the mess of things.
“Nick.” She honestly didn’t know what to do. But he couldn’t know that. He should never know her weaknesses, especially in a time like this. She was Olivia, his Olive, his protector and golden companion. She couldn’t fail him at a time like this. “Nick, stay with me. Don’t leave me. I won’t leave you.”
“I’ll never leave you, Olive.”
“I need you to stay calm. Because we ARE going to get out of this.” If she said it to Nick, if she said it aloud, maybe they would. Maybe they could survive this mess. With shots and screams and growls raging on every side of them. They had survived so far, through will alone almost; they would survive again. And unlike the masses of men with their guns, falling from the rafters just from the roars of the creature [producing some sort of shockwave Olivia didn’t even have time to understand], they had their abilities. They had Cortexiphan and they had each other. “I need you to concentrate on it, Nick. I need you to calm it down. I need you to be calm so it can be calm. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try.”
That wasn’t good enough. His eyes were still pale, still shaking. She needed him to be stronger – like when he had fearlessly approached SCP-682 when she was down. “No. I need you to DO it, Nick. I’m going to distract it and the rest of the men. I need you to focus on calming it down.” She put her hand on his shoulder, hoping to spark something between them. “I believe in you. I believe that we’re going to live. And I need you to believe in yourself and believe that we’ll get out of this. Can you do that?”
“Yes.” He turned his eyes to the beast, its limbs touching down on the sizzling ground. “I’ll do it, Olive.”
She nodded. And ran right toward it. There were probably yells from the Overseer for her to step down, to disengage. The voice was probably begging for her to stop, that they had made a mistake, that they wanted to reclaim her. Or maybe it was urging her on, understanding that she really was the only chance they had. But it didn’t matter. She was doing this for Nick and for Nick alone. Fuck the rest of the men behind her. Fuck the rest of the employees and the other SCPs contained her. Hell, even fuck the rest of the people in this universe. Right now, she needed to protect Nick and Nick only. Nick was her world and Nick alone. And this beast was either getting in her way or needed to march alongside her.
It was so much larger than her. It was almost comical to compare the two in terms of scale. But she was not afraid of it, this thing with all of its teeth and its eyes. Menacing and glowing yellow eyes. Staring at her. Sizing her up. And was the end of its snout curling up in a smile?
“Did you mean all the words you screamed? Or was it a show to prove and persuade?”
It was Olivia’s turn to snarl back at the… thing. “I meant every word.”
“Like I said before, you’re different. You’re not as disgusting as the rest of filth here.”
She took a few steps toward him, eyes locked onto the ones closest to her. She hoped that Nick was keeping the beast at bay, keeping those powerful jaws from snapping and tearing her in two. But she didn’t have time to look back or mentally check in on him. She needed to keep her focus on the reptilian thing in front of her. With spikes beginning to protrude from certain areas of skin and matts of hair forming on its head.
“Did you mean what you said? That we could assist each other?”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?” It looked away from her and opened its mouth. It issued forth another roar, but instead of merely tossing back the ten or so agents back, the force tore into their skin. It ripped flesh to shreds. It rendered them immobile and twitching on the floor. “Buying time to escape?”
Olivia clenched and unclenched her hands, “But when we escape, what then? You said I’m not as disgusting – that’s not good enough for me. How do I know I can trust you? And how do I know that we’re from the same place?”
It chuckled at her and pawed the ground. Still calm, still cautious. “The rest of your kind have never been given this privilege – that’s for you to decide.” It bowed its head, waiting for her response.
And Olivia was going to make that decision. She was going to open her mouth. She was going to give the beast a chance. She was going to see where it took her – her and Nick. But then-
“Only you, not that waste of life behind you. Seeing that walking abortion sickens me. With its blue eyes crying for help, crying for the release of death. I’ll put it out of its misery.” SCP-682 rose up, ready to pounce at Nick, ready to kill him. Ready to slash Nick to pieces with its claws as large and sharp as swords. Five of them ready to carve him and the remaining agents; glorious carnage.
“No!” A wall of fire shot up between the two of them. It was much larger than any blast that had come from Olivia. It was almost as tall as the beast before her, towering above her, ready to scorch her as well as the monster. It shocked the creature, not expecting such a maneuver from her. It circled back and paced, calculating its next move. She used this time to look back at Nick. Nick was on his knees, screaming with his hands over his head. With an agent behind him. Multiple agents behind him.
Olivia snarled and incinerated them from existence.
“We’re not so different, you and I.”
She snapped her body back to look at the creature, still pacing behind the flames. “We’re very different. I care about life and you don’t.”
“I DO care about life – just not human life. And you’re not so different from me. You’ll care about the cowering creature behind you, but not the creatures screaming as they burst into flame. You have your own hierarchy in your mind. Don’t play with me, girl.”
She didn’t want to be insulted by this non-human thing. “You cross that line of fire and I won’t hold back.”
“Moments ago you were ready to leave. And now you want to be the hero? Cute.”
“You threatened my friend; I’m not being the hero. I’ve protected him from The Foundation and I’ll protect him from you.”
The beast started to step through the flickering red barricade. It sneered at her, “So he’s your mate? Something you irrationally cherish above all else?”
“He’s more than that. He’s was forced into this mess and I promised I’d get him out of it. All of it.” Her eyes narrowed at SCP-682, “If you try to hurt Nick again, I’ll destroy you.”
“Oh? You and what power? You can blow up a few humans but you won’t be able to damage me. Many have tried. The Foundation has exhausted every scientific experiment on me and I still exist. You’re nothing. You’ll end up just like him.” It flashed all of its teeth at her, laughing. “Curled up on the floor. Crying. Whimpering. Waiting to die.”
But even though Nick was on the ground. Even though Nick was doubled over in pain, she felt his presence. She still felt him right alongside her. He was still there, helping her focus. Helping her remain calm in the presence of this monster. He was still with her, even when his body couldn’t.
He believed in her. He would always believe in her. And she believed in herself. She could hurt this beast. She could ram him into the wall until it was screaming for mercy, just like Nick had screamed for mercy.
She wouldn’t worry about any agents getting in her way. She assumed most of them were dead and she assumed that none would dare get in the way of the battle that would commence.
But the battle was going to be very one-sided. It was a strain, but she rammed SCP-682 into the side of the room. Repeatedly. Smashing the entire weight of the creature into the meta repeatedly. Slicing it open. Breaking off those useless spikes.
Olivia’s hair on the back of her neck stood on end. It was talking to her. And the huge reptilian head encased in acid turned its gaze to her. She remembered what the Foundation had told her, and yet… she felt like it demanded a response back.
She was about to upon her mouth, she was about to engage, but something jarred her mute and left her breathless. One of the doctors brushed past her on his way to Nick. And she shuddered at the contact. And at the harsh jab to the back of Nick’s neck. And the cry that followed traveled up and down her spine making her wince.
“What is this?” The beast stirred in its acid again. And began to growl with growing menace. “What IS this fuckery? You’ve sent in more of your precious resources to kill me?” It laughed. “The human struggle is hopeless.”
Nick whimpered more at the sound of the beast. And Olivia still couldn’t breathe. It continued to lash against the Foundation. Brutally.
“You’ve kept me in captivity and achieved nothing, you sacks of petty flesh.” The growls continued to pound out of its cell, out of the acid. It bubbled viciously as the creature spoke, striking the pane with its jaw and its words. “You are mere asinine animals, the most repugnant of creatures. Your existence begs eradication and I crave it.”
No. This could not be happening. Olivia called their bluff. This was madness itself. She was not a Class-D personnel; she was a valuable scientific phenomenon. ‘They wouldn’t terminate me so easily, not unless they had to.’ Olivia’s eyes narrowed. She looked the SCP right in its jaw. “Let. Us. Go. I won’t go through with it. Get something or someone else to do your dirty work.”
“What did you say?”
Olivia breathed in deeply and turned around to glare at the speaker, to glare through the speaker to the coward on the other side. “You heard me. I’m tired of all this. Every single bit of it. I’m tired of your experiments. I’m tired of your methods. I’m tired of your entire fucking Foundation. You’re no better than the people who gave me this in the first place. You operate under the illusion that you’re doing what’s best for the world. What happens in here is disgusting. What happens in here isn’t necessary; it’s sick – all under the guise necessary. You’re not scientists; you’re monsters. You’re as much monsters as the things you contain. You’re disgusting. You’re-” Olivia was interrupted. Something was shot in her direction. It wasn’t a bullet. And it wasn’t gas. It was… it was pure electricity. And she didn’t see it coming and she hadn’t reflected it.
Olivia screamed as the energy soared through her, surged through her, slashed through her. It reminded her of Hendricks and his machine. It reminded her of the fear she had experienced – Nick had experienced. The Foundation was proving exactly what she had said.
“No.” Nick saw the electricity continue to flood into Olivia’s system. And he couldn’t do a thing. He was helpless to see her there, thrashing from the streams. Her knees buckled from under her and she fell to the floor. Convulsing. Violently. Eyes rolling and legs flailing. “No.” He was horrified. Horrified of the scene in front of him, of the pain Olivia was in, but also of himself. He was horrified how he could just stand there – watching her. He was horrified and disgusted at his own inaction.
No. Not again. This scene had repeated too many times before. It was his turn to protect Olivia. It was his turn to strike. He wasn’t going to be little Nick Lane waiting for something, dependent and helpless. He wasn’t going to be that Nick at all.
He turned to the beast before him and approached it. He saw the thing inside. It looked like the filth whispering to him from the shadows, cackling at him in the darkness. And it certainly spoke like the darker Nick, quick to maim with its words. Quick to describe others in terms of helplessness and hopelessness; quick to give into bloodlust and destruction. But he wasn’t scared of it. Not in this moment. Maybe in five minutes, he would be running for the exit, Olivia in his arms, but not now. Not in this moment. In this moment, he was calm. And the beast in front of him felt his pain. The beast in front of him continued to stir. And then began to violently thrash about, just like Olivia was on the floor.
It was furious. It was disgusted. The acid couldn’t contain it. The acid resembled more like water, sloshing about, utterly unable to suspend it there. It was nothing. And the metal and glass and any other substance Nick guessed made up the structure soon gave way. And the acid began to spill out. It didn’t reach the two of them, but it burned anything it touched with a roaring hiss. A scorching sizzle that would have killed a human with the faintest of drops.
What was happening? Olivia wasn’t in her cell. And she was moving.
This scene had played out too many times before. She felt like she knew the ending better than the Foundation did. It was all the same. They paraded her around the place in a drugged state and dropped her off in front of some cell. Then they expected her to best a SCP in some battle, which ultimately backfired. And then they paraded her back and had to deal with the consequences of their failure. It was almost comical initiating the same events yet waiting for a different outcome. It was madness.
But this time Nick was right beside her. And the two of them were being dragged through the blurs to the unknown. What would they see this time? An all-powerful blob? A supercomputer? Animals that weren’t really animals? Other humans that weren’t really humans with other abilities? Or would they see that yellow blob again, the one that moved fast?
Or were they being taken to that huge monster of a thing? The one in the acid? The one with the skull? Olivia’s heart stopped and her feet dragged on the floor. ‘No. Not that.’ She came to a halt and had to be prodded with the gun of the guard behind her. ‘No no no no no.’
They were, weren’t they?
***
They were now outside the containment chamber, just like before. Olivia swallowed, slowly coming out of the haze. Someone was talking, but she still couldn’t hear them. Only static from a distant radio. And the thundering footsteps and sonic coughs of force members she couldn’t see. And the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears, resonating so frantically she thought she would burst. Olivia took a deep breath, trying to flush all the unimportant sounds from her mind. She was falling apart, like that time in the apartment. She was falling apart, but that wasn’t an option. She couldn’t give into her fear. She took a deep breath and asked, “Repeat that, please?”
“SCP-1428-2: you are not to engage SCP-682 in any way. If you make any motion, if you try any means of communication, we will not hesitate. We will fire. You will be eliminated. Is this understood?”
Olivia swallowed again, her throat suddenly dry. “Yes.” But she was thankful the voice wasn’t Walter’s. She didn’t recognize it.
“SCP-1428-1: you are to approach SCP-682 when we give the signal. You are to make emotional contact with SCP-682. You are to form a bond with it. Is this understood?”
“I… I don’t know what I’m dealing with. But I’ll try.” Nick was shaking. Nick could barely stand. Nick’s breaths were coming in shallow pants.
“You will do more than ‘try’, SCP-1428-1. If you fail to do so, we will seek disciplinary action. Like before.”
Nick shivered. And ushered forth a whimpering sound.
“I’m here with you, Nick.” Olivia moved to hold his hand. And she squeezed it tight. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll be watching you the entire time.”
“Have you… been with it before?” His blue eyes met hers, shining a fretful and pale blue that made her tense her shoulders.
Olivia peeked back behind her. There were no guards; they were probably already inside. Still, she didn’t trust her chances. She would settle for telepathy. ‘Yes. I… I’ve actually been lying to you, Nick. They’ve taken me places… places I didn’t think they would take you. I was foolish to believe that and foolish not to prepare you for them, and I’m sorry.’
‘That’s fine. I understand. Everything you do is to protect me. You were lying, but you’re not like them, Olive. You’re not a monster like those doctors.’
She certainly hoped he was right. ‘But what we’re facing truly is a monster, Nick. But… it is like us. They want us to destroy it because it’s so dangerous, but I think – I don’t think we should. At least, not immediately. It told me, when I came into its area last time, that it was like me. That it’s not from here. It offered to help me escape and the doctors panicked and the guards dragged me out.’
‘Really? This might be our chance to escape then.’ His blue eyes were darkening. They were excited now. They were much more like the eyes she was used to seeing. Better.
‘Yes. But keep your guard up. It… it’s not human. And… it’s terrifying. I… I’ve never seen anything like it.’
“Please enter the containment chamber, SCP-1428-1, SCP-1428-2.”
When she entered it was just like before – a huge room with the rafters full of Task Force members, their guns aimed ready to kill. And the tank, the tank of the beast. It was still submerged in acid but… something had changed. Olivia didn’t know how to describe it, but something had changed. The beast, its skin was a different color. And she couldn’t help but feel… that SCP-682 had gotten stronger, so much stronger. She could see a lot more of its flesh, even inside the acid. And it seemed bigger, if that was possible. It all made her immensely uneasy. She slowed down her footsteps and took calculated, measured steps. As if one false move would bring about the destruction of the world.
Olivia placed her hand on her thigh, reaching for a gun that was not there. She only fingered dull white material. She swallowed and tried to steady her breathing, tried to keep it as measured as her footsteps. But she was afraid. Something was going to happen. Something was going to go horrendously wrong. She felt something and that something was telling her to head for the door. It was telling her to run and never look back.
But when she looked back she stared at the multitudes of guns and visors pointed in her direction. That wasn’t an option for her. She was trapped.
And Nick was feeling much of the same. “Olive, I’m scared. I don’t want to be here. I want to get out of here. I want to leave.” His voice was taking on a signature panicked tone, rising up and down. It was shaking and uncertain and meek. Underneath his haggard facial hair was a little boy that desperately wanted out. A little boy that never wanted this life for himself. A little boy with no control whatsoever.
And Olivia’s heart ached for that little boy. Olivia bit her lip, willing her body not to shake, not to surrender. She needed to be strong for him. She needed to be strong for both of them now, more than any other moment. “Nick, we are going to be okay. Listen to me – we are going to be okay.”
“I don’t want to be here I’m afraid I’m so afraid Olive I can’t breathe Olive I can’t I’m going into the darkness I’m going into the darkness and I can’t escape it’s all around me oh my god I’m so afraid.” Nick was hyperventilating. He was crying. He was shaking. He was about to collapse.
“Please administer a Class C sedative to SCP-1428-1.”
