Virals

"Whatever we’d contracted had warped us. In our brains? Our DNA? I didn’t know. But I knew that we were transformed. Twisted, to the core. Viral."

[thelastsarahbender]

i should probably revisit my hunger games virals fic also i have not touched that doc in years.

plot outline (since the odds are low i will finish and post it):

all the characters are from different districts

tory is from district 10. kit is tory's mentor, he does not yet know he's her father. tory does know

whitney is tory's cinna/effie figure obviously

the arena is a winter setting with mountains, snow, and pine forest. there's wolf monsters that carry a strange rabies-adjacent virus when they attack tributes

cooper is a wolf that is attracted to tory and doesn't bite her. he prevents her from freezing at night and helps her hunt for food

ben is from district 4, not a career tribute. he and tory team up for a few days, he catches the virus when bitten by another tribute and takes his own life

shelton is from district 3. he teamed up with hi, but then he tries to break through the arena ground into the facility underneath in an act of hubris. it works, but he immediately gets killed by the capitol

hi is from district 8, and he improbably makes it to the final 3 despite doing nothing to hide himself or fight other tributes and having almost no survival skills. he is essentially the jester of the games and gets capitol support for being funny. he briefly allies with tory, chance kills him

chance is from district 1 and is the favorite to win the games. he and tory have both been bitten and infected by the time they have their showdown as the final two in the games and both of them are going nuts. its very dramatic, chance expresses remorse for the choices that led him to this point. tory kills him

tory returns to her district to live with her father. the capitol cured her of the strange virus...or did they? the end

[thelastsarahbender]

its also funny to think about a version of virals where they were evil, or at least behind a lot of the crimes, and chance (and madison maybe) were the heroes. i think this is how it looks in chance's head already but imagine if he was the teen detective trying to prove that his classmates were evil werewolves

[thelastsarahbender]

i mean all of them should be in jail. or not. i have a loose grasp of the law but i think most of their crimes were breaking and entering, trespassing, or vandalism which i don't think would escalate to jail for minors. the exceptions are stealing from the museum, which seems like it should have had more severe consequences, and breaking into the police station and going through police evidence, which they just had no justification for doing and which seems very illegal. also hi bodied a police officer but it was okay that time. their instances of gun use and hiding bodies were under duress so legally its ok i bet.

[thelastsarahbender]

i think there were a couple fics where ben was either sent to military school or in mandated therapy after code but i can't recall any where he served time. its making so upset to think about but also like...could you imagine

[thelastsarahbender]

i do think tory would have forgiven ben much quicker if he hadn't gotten expelled bc she softens within a few days of regular proximity to him and i also think she would have forgiven him immediately if he had actually gone to juvie but they would have had much worse problems on their hands and i'm upset just thinking about it

[thelastsarahbender]

the worst case scenarios for the virals in my mind were

one of them/all of them gets killed by one of their enemies

kidnapped by government forever

they die together from the virus

cooper dies of natural causes

one of them/all of them go to jail

their parents find out

they move away from each other

the first 4 and the last 1 are plot threads. the other 2 are concerns but never become plotlines. parents would become less of a concern in a sequel series but moving away would be a bigger one

[thelastsarahbender]

i do think tory would have forgiven ben much quicker if he hadn't gotten expelled bc she softens within a few days of regular proximity to him and i also think she would have forgiven him immediately if he had actually gone to juvie but they would have had much worse problems on their hands and i'm upset just thinking about it

[dogposts]

[ginaluvr]

i was bored on my lunch break today and immediately had to answer this question

here is a list from memory of crime scenes the virals have thrown up at:

katherine heaton’s grave (hi)

jonathan brincefield’s resting place (hi)

where they trespassed onto bull island (tory)

the anne bonny treasure site (shelton)

the gamemaster’s final trap (tory)

where ella disappeared (ben)

where tory disappeared (shelton)

the bolton gym showdown (tory)

honorary mention: ben throwing up at the mere presence of the gamemaster

[gorgiamind]

community rewatch 2.02 ⇸ Full scene in four parts (2/4)

[clonetrobed]

troy and abed being “normal”

[thelastsarahbender]

i swear there was an interview with brendan reichs or a question on his website where he said hi and shelton would be roomates in college and he pictured it as a jonah hill - donald glover dynamic and i can't find it. anyway that confirms that troy and abed inspired hi and shelton.

[thelastsarahbender]

[tackminyard]

when i was younger and read virals i was so confused as to why they were not flaring at every opportunity. i was so convinced that if i had the opportunity for superior vision literally whenever i wanted i would be doing it all the time regardless of consequences. and now i don’t even wear my glasses most of the time because they’re annoying to keep on

[thelastsarahbender]

i like how virals is a spring book seizure is a summer book and code is a fall book they all have that mood to them. i respect that exposure took a big jump in the time skip and finally let the characters age although i do sort of wish for a virals winter book. charleston's weather does not really get worse in the winter but i think it could have been cool idk. not important. terminal doesn't really take advantage of its setting. you could say it was unseasoned.

[thelastsarahbender]

shock is a winter story. shift is a fall story. spike is a summer story. swipe is also a summer story but it takes place in the multiverse where chance and the trinity never became viral. its set in july, but the gang has golden eyes and full control of their hivemind, even without cooper, which is impossible before code and also impossible after terminal. therefore, the events of terminal, and some of the events of exposure, could not have happened in this story's timeline. we also see this in characterization. the characters have no real objections flaring in public anymore, and ben and tory's relationship, though unlabeled, is completely comfortable, indicating group growth and reconciliation. this is why swipe is so good but tragically they are going to die someday from having such awesome powers.

[thelastsarahbender]

i like how virals is a spring book seizure is a summer book and code is a fall book they all have that mood to them. i respect that exposure took a big jump in the time skip and finally let the characters age although i do sort of wish for a virals winter book. charleston's weather does not really get worse in the winter but i think it could have been cool idk. not important. terminal doesn't really take advantage of its setting. you could say it was unseasoned.

[thelastsarahbender]

my most ambitious idea for a virals fic was downloading those social media skins on ao3 to do a fic of people reacting to the game master case. like news articles, reddit threads, tweets, youtube videos, news comment sections, the tumble accounts, the true crime media. just the range of reactions to the group and the case. the general public, the analysis of the weak spots of their case that didn’t add up, the connections to other cases, the conspiracy theories, and the odd online investigators who successfully linked them to the claybourne case and then mysteriously were scrubbed from the internet or sent cease and desist letters.

[thelastsarahbender]

i actually started this! turns out those skins are hard to use so i might just do image editing instead and post it here. we'll see. all i know is that after the hurricane evacuation hi had the craziest ao3 update of all time

[thelastsarahbender]

i don't actually know if i think hi would write fanfiction or read it but i also get a harry potter and the methods of rationality enjoyer vibe from him so he does for this fic

[thelastsarahbender]

my most ambitious idea for a virals fic was downloading those social media skins on ao3 to do a fic of people reacting to the game master case. like news articles, reddit threads, tweets, youtube videos, news comment sections, the tumble accounts, the true crime media. just the range of reactions to the group and the case. the general public, the analysis of the weak spots of their case that didn’t add up, the connections to other cases, the conspiracy theories, and the odd online investigators who successfully linked them to the claybourne case and then mysteriously were scrubbed from the internet or sent cease and desist letters.

[thelastsarahbender]

i actually started this! turns out those skins are hard to use so i might just do image editing instead and post it here. we'll see. all i know is that after the hurricane evacuation hi had the craziest ao3 update of all time