Vim & Vigor 9 (A Worm/Bioshock Fanfic)

Vim & Vigor 9

Until today, I thought that hiding a girl in my room would be exciting. In hindsight, it was just stressful. Very stressful.

Cienna had taken over my bed after eating the food that I heated up, sitting on it in a pair of track-pants. That and a t-shirt that made the outline of her chest pretty evident, for what it was. I wouldn’t say she was flat, but she wasn’t exactly stacked either.

The rest of her clothes, unmentionables and all, were in the washing machine. They needed a thorough washing just to deal with the stench of alcohol alone. Then a heavy-dry to get them back into a state that could reasonably be considered clean.

She wasn’t exactly probing every corner of my room to invade my privacy, but I wasn’t exactly expecting visitors today and didn’t clean it up too well. Not to mention she looked like she was starting to get settled in, which was a problem since I was already hoping that Dad didn’t come home early and Mom didn’t wake for the next two or so hours. I’ve caused them enough problems as it was—Mom especially, who I wanted to check up on after I thought about what I was going to say to her about everything.

I mean, I was technically attacked by members of a gang. Just not the ABB. But that’s not much better, since I went out looking for something to do. Dad would be pissed and Mom would be disappointed, both things I didn’t like dealing with or wanted them to feel.

Granted, if I hadn’t gone looking for trouble, I probably wouldn’t be in this mess… but I just wanted to do something useful with the time and power I had. That’s what a hero does, right?

I’ll have to lay low for a while until things settle down on my end. Make an effort to get home early. Spend some time with Mom and Dad. At least until Taylor finished getting a new power ready for me to test—

“So, how’d it happen?” Cienna asked out of the blue.

“What?”

“Your trigger,” she clarified. “You’re a Parahuman, but if your parents don’t know then you can’t be like the chick from the family of Blasters that got busted for being a hypocrite.”

“You mean Glory Girl and New Wave? They’re not all Blasters.”

“Either way, since you must’ve gotten your powers some other way if not from them, and you don’t seem like the type who’s gotten a raw deal from your parents, that leaves something going on outside the home. And since you don’t seem like the type to get into trouble with that baby-face of yours, I’m guessing you’re bullied in school?”

I don’t give her an answer. Partly because I was sick of lying more than I had to. And the other part was because it was a reminder that the whole reason I had these powers were because Taylor was bullied instead of me.

I was just… there. Someone people didn’t talk to unless they had to. Taylor was the exception though. She was nice like that and we usually worked together in class because we at least meshed somewhat and got work done.

“I mean, I get it,” Cienna continued. “People tend to be assholes if they can get away. See it every day.”

“Some people, yeah,” I admitted, thinking of Sophia’s gang. “Never really got why they enjoyed that. There’s not much of a point in being mean most times. Much less to people who didn’t do anything to you aside from exist.”

“It’s because it makes them feel bigger than they are.” She stretched out on my bed, shifting the pillow so that it was laying beneath her. “Some people just get off on seeing others lower than them because then they feel that they’re better than someone else.”

“I don’t see what’s so fun about putting someone else down to put yourself up—it doesn’t change anything, besides making someone else miserable.”

“Misery loves company, and as long as the other person is more miserable than you… well, you get it.”

Despite the fact that she’s getting far more comfortable than she should be on my bed, and I don’t think I’ve washed the sheets for a bit now either, I tried to think of a reason under that logic for Sophia being… herself. I couldn’t really come up with anything. She was a track-star, she didn’t do drugs or get messed with by anyone affiliated with the E88 as far as I knew. Maybe she’s had issues with her parents or I was missing something?

And whatever was going on with Emma and Taylor wasn’t something I was privy to either. Only that whatever bad-blood was between them was largely instigated by the former. And the fact that she targeted Taylor even after she got hurt and the locker thing doesn’t really make me sympathetic to whatever happened to her.

“You seem like a good kid and all, so it must be hard for you to go through things like that and people just watch it happen. They’re just as bad.”

“…Some people want to, but just can’t. The ones who don’t join in or laugh, but have sit there and watch it happen. They want to do something, but they’re afraid they’d make things worse, or they’d get hurt too. So they feel really bad about it afterwards, because they know they should have done something but couldn’t. They’re victims too, in a way.”

I knew that from personal experience. When it happened, you tell yourself that there was nothing you could do to stop it. That you’d try to make it up in some other way, like I was now. Because that was all you could do. People who exploited that were the worse.

Cienna doesn’t see it that way though. “All the guilt and pity in the world doesn’t help when you’re suffering. It just makes you feel worse when the people pitying you could be doing something.”

“It’s easy to say that, but not everyone is like us. They don’t have powers, and when they do they have to keep their heads down because no one will help them if they get into trouble. If the teachers and staff did their jobs and prevented that in the first place, it wouldn’t even be a problem.”

Mister Gladly claimed he knew that some people were giving us a hard time, but if he really did then he wouldn’t have paired us with Julia and the others. He would have been the one to report those three for what they did. Yet he didn’t, so either he was lying or he let it happen.

“In a perfect world, they would,” she said. “But we don’t live in a perfect world. Just one that sucks and you try to get through day-by-day.”

“…Can we drop this now,” I asked. “That stuff isn’t something you talk to others about in the first place and I’m already tense enough.”

She yawned and shifted the pillow again so it was just under her head. “Fine. Just wake me up when my clothes are dry.”

Wait, what? “You’re sleeping here!?”

“It’s not like I can go anywhere with my clothes wet and I can’t think of anything else to talk about with you, so…night.”

I just stared at her as she turned her head and curled up in my sheets. Judging from her breathing it sounded like she was slipping into a deep sleep already, so she was probably already tired. If she stayed up and waited for me to wake up after Circus got me, like Mom did, then it made sense. Everyone’s got limits on how long they can stay awake, and between the food and shower I guess she reached hers…

Still, who sleeps in the bed of the person they were blackmailing?

I wanted her gone, but there was no point in waking her up for no reason and when I couldn’t actually force her to. I…really hoped I was making the right decision here, considering how the last day went between being nearly crushed, set on fire, and stabbed. After which I was blackmailed by a homeless girl, who I was lying about having powers to, while lying to Taylor about the latter’s existence and role in my survival…

There’s no way this is going to end well in the long-run.

Fortunately, a bink sound from my computer distracted me from that train of thought. I had a private message waiting for me now, from GstringGirl. She must’ve just noticed I was logged in again.

GstringGirl: you missed the game last night. what happened?

Right, I was going to get in a quick game with her after I got back from practicing with Telekinesis. She could only get access to her computer for a limited time, so that was probably a hassle on her end too. Better explain so she doesn’t get upset with me too—it was hard to find people on the forums who didn’t have it out for me or accuse me of baiting for attention.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Ran into some trouble on the way back home last night. Gang dudes.

GstringGirl: Are u ok!?

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Got roughed up a bit. Woke up in alley in morning. On pain-killers but fine.

GstringGirl: it’s getting dangerous there.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: I’ll stay clear of gang territory when I can.

GstringGirl: not just gangs. new uncontrollable trigger happened last night. check uber & leet thread.

I left-clicked a link and opened it into a new tab before browsing over to that thread. Uber and Leet caused a monstrous trigger with one of their stupid pranks again. The video of them actually doing so has been taken down, but apparently Nemean and Heimal worked with the Cyborg of Brockton Bay to stop the trigger before someone could get seriously harmed.

That being said, it’s safe to say they’re getting cage’d for that one the moment they stick their heads up again. I’m actually a bit ashamed I used to like their show until that GTA episode. But things… were really getting worse, aren’t they?

The ABB and E88 were reaching a pretty bad tipping point. New Wave’s been discredited somewhat due to Glory Girl. These idiots caused someone to trigger for a stupid prank. The Undersiders got away with knocking over a bank. And then there was that thing with Circus and whoever Trainwreck was working for.

It’d be nice to be able to warn Nemean and Heimal, rather than just not saying anything and then one day reading they ended up dead in an alley somewhere. But they don’t exactly list their contact information or have a visible account. And I can’t do anything right now about the other things beyond stealing money from the Merchants to benefit Taylor, at least until she got back onto her feet and we tag-teamed the issue together.

I glanced over to the sleeping girl in my bed, now splayed out unladylike as she turned in her sleep. Her powers would be useful against bullets and anything non-organic that entered her field of influence, if I had her pegged right. We need more heroes out there, so maybe I could convince her to work with Taylor and me…

Someday, maybe.

Right now, she was treating me like a kid and blackmailing me. And Taylor was probably only reluctantly letting me continue with testing her powers after what Circus did and that screw up with the Merchants. I couldn’t push things with them by trying to bring them together to form our own team.

Realistically, I’d probably be lucky just to be able to go out at night again once Mom woke up and we had a long talk about how this would make twice that I’ve been attacked, if you include the lie I told about how Taylor got injured in the first place. I didn’t want to lie to her face again, but I have to or it’ll all come crumbling down.

This sucks, I couldn’t help but think as I replied back to the private message.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Depressing stuff with that.

GstringGirl: i know. be careful.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: I will.

GstringGirl: k. have to go now.

After that, I spent some time just trying to get a grasp on everything I’d missed online until the dryer tumbled to a stop a few hours later, and the buzzer that signaled the laundry being done rang out. Crap, I knew I forgot something!

It was loud enough that Cienna shot up in my bed, her head whipping around and eyes wide open in alarm. I held my hands up to stop her before she activated her power and tore my room apart. She exhaled when she noticed me, tension flowing out of her body as she started to lay back down while I got up and went over to the dryer.

Her clothes… well, they were cleaner than before. I guess. I didn’t really look at them as I moved them from the washer into it. She probably does need some new clothes though. I reached down to grab them—

“Greg?”

—when Mom’s voice came through her door, soft but clearly. Crap, I woke her up too.

“Y-Yeah, Mom. It’s me!” I shouted as I grabbed the clothes and rushed over to my door, tossing them through it and onto the bed. Cienna glared at me for that, but I pointed to the window and said, “Mom’s up. You gotta go!”

Then I shut the door and rushed over to Mom’s room before she came out to check on me. It was just in time as I heard the sound of her bed’s springs creaking, meaning she was getting out of it. I knocked on the door lightly to let her know that I was outside, not wanting to step in without permission just in case she was indecent.

“Mom, can I come in?”

“Yes.”

I stepped inside, closing the door after me, to see that Mom was sitting on the bed. She looked… tired. There were rings around her eyes that were a bit bloodshot from exhaustion, and probably crying too. “Sorry I woke you up.”

She just shook her head and stood up. Then she hugged me against her body tight as though she didn’t want to let me go, sniffling as her voice came out hoarse and soft. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know what happened to you… I thought you…you…”

“…I’m sorry.” It was all I could say to her as I tried to think of a way to get free when she started crying on my shoulder. I still hadn’t thought of everything I was going to say, and if Cienna was still there I’d feel even more guilty after seeing her like this. “I’ll get you some water, okay?”

She nodded and then sat back down on the bed.

I turned away as she started wiping away her tears. It was hard to look at her in that state, a far-cry from when she was happy that I was going out to my ‘gaming-club’ at night. All because of Circus.

Thankfully, when I got back to my room Cienna, her clothes, and her bag were all gone. The window was opened too, so I guessed she climbed back out that way. I hoped no one spotted her, but for now it was a relief that one thing hadn’t blown up in my face today after everything else. I shut the window closed and then went into the kitchen to get Mom some water like I said. Then I spent hours trying to convince her that everything would be okay and I was fine.

All while swearing in my head that if I ever crossed paths with Circus again, I was going to make her pay for everything.

September 15, 2017 | Categories: Fanfiction, Vim x Vigor | Tags: Bioshock, Cienna, Fanfic, Greg Veder, whirlygig, Worm, worm webserial | Leave a comment

Vim & Vigor 8 (A Worm/Bioshock Fanfic)

Vim & Vigor 8

Hours later, near-evening, I’m stuck at home. The painkillers are mostly working, but I was still feeling a dull throb where I’d been stabbed. Not to mention I feel like crap after everything was said and done.

I had gotten in touch with Taylor once I arrived at the hospital that Cienna took me to. I told her I survived because Circus left me for dead after I passed out. It was a lie, but I felt it was the best that I could come up with that kept the promise I made with Cienna and didn’t want Taylor to know that I got exposed.

She didn’t exactly question it, but she did tell me my parents called her. She stuck with the excuse I gave her, that she didn’t know what happened to me after we parted ways. That gave me some relief, right up until I called home.

Mom had sounded frantic when she picked up the phone. Her voice rasp and cracking like glass on the verge of shattering. And, when I told her that I was at the hospital because I was attacked by a bunch of ABB members who thought I was a member of the Empire Eighty-Eight because of how I looked, it was as if the glass itself shattered along with her heart.

I wasn’t proud of it. I wish that I was smart enough to come up with a better excuse. But I couldn’t at the time, so I had to listen to her crying over the line after telling her they stabbed me in the hand and stole my wallet before leaving in an alley somewhere.

I think she would have had a heart-attack of I’d revealed the full extent of it. That I had been nearly shot, crushed, and literally set on fire, while being chased by an apparently murderous villain.

A police report was filed for obvious reasons, but all I could do was tell them that I couldn’t really describe the attackers outside of being Asian. Again, I wasn’t proud of it and sincerely hoped that they chalk it up to being a random crime and didn’t bring anyone in. If they did, I’d feel even worse about getting someone else arrested for the lie I told.

Dad ended up leaving work afterwards to pick me up from the hospital, since knowing I was safe was enough for Mom to finally get some sleep after she had been up all night worrying about me. The conversation with him was just as awkward, what with me having to lie to his face about it. They thought it was just bad luck that I had ended up being targeted, but if they knew I had gone out specifically looking for trouble I got the feeling that all of that worrying would turn to anger.

Still, I needed to find some way to make it up to them. Not sure what I could do exactly about it, but hopefully I’d think of something by the time my hand could fully heal. The pain flared every now and again, but thankfully there wasn’t any nerve-damage.

While Mom was still sleeping and Dad was at work, I checked online for information to pass the time. Circus had been known as a burglar, but not a murderer. But like Taylor stated, they simply never found a body—and I imagine that a corpse would be easy to hide with her hammerspace power. That might be why Nemean and Heimal go after her so much.

Bzzz! Bzzz! My burner phone ringing in the desk takes my eyes off the computer and onto it. The number on the screen is probably Cienna’s, after she made me give her it on the way to the hospital to cash in those favors I owed her. Giving her my actual number wasn’t happening, and a dummy number was pointless since she knows my name and where I live.

‘It’s Cienna,’ was the first thing she said when I picked it up.

“I know.” After all, there were only two people who knew this number aside from me. “So I’m guess you want a favor now?”

‘What, I can’t call just to check up on you?’

“Did you?”

‘Partially.’

“And the other part is a favor, right?” The line went dead at that, leaving me to wonder if I pissed her off or something.  That could be a problem since she knew one of my secrets and I couldn’t really do anything to silence her. Leaving aside the fact that she did save my life, she actually had powers unlike me.

Tck. Tck.

Then I heard knocking on my window. The timing couldn’t be a coincided, could it? I found myself sincerely hoping so, considering the implications.

Tck. Tck. Tck.

Unable to ignore the fact that the volume increased that time, I got out of my swiveling chair and pulled open my blinds. She’s standing outside of my widow with a duffle bag slung over her shoulders. Crap.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as I opened the window and stuck my head out to look around. A lot of the homes in the neighborhood were landscaped to have natural barriers or fences. So while I don’t think someone spotted her, she really sticks out in this neighborhood and the last thing I needed right now someone calling the cops.

“I’m just calling in one of my favors,” she said, unslinging her bag from her shoulder and pushing it through the window. “Now let me in before someone spots me.”

I tried to get in a word against her coming into my room, but she pulls herself in through the window before I can. Just like that I have a girl in my room… while my mother is sleeping a room over and could wake up any second and find her!!! My mouth opened and closed as I looked between her and the door and tried to figure out what to do.

Do I kick her out? No, that’s a bad idea when I thought about it for more than a second. She had powers, I was currently powerless, and pissing her off while she had my secret identity and address will end up endangering my folks. That’s out, along with calling the police or anything else.

Okay, approach this carefully. I took a deep breath to calm down and looked over to her. She’s looking around my room where she’s standing, eyes wandering over the posters and books and stuff. I might not be the best at reading people, but I’d like to think I could at least recognize when someone’s about to kill me. She doesn’t look the part, and she’s been mostly reasonable, so violence wasn’t the immediate threat as long as things stayed as they were.

I walked over to the door and locked it to keep it that way. If Cienna went any further into the house, she could possibly wake my mom. Mom needed her sleep after last night and there was no way I could explain this so that it ended without the cops being called, yelling, and disappointment—or the house being torn down.

The sound of the lock clicking into the place caused her to turn her attention me. She frowned. “I’m not going to go steal anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I shook my head and held both my hands up. “That’s not it. My mom is asleep after being worried sick about me going missing last night. I already went with the story about getting mugged by the ABB, so if she finds you here…”

“A lot of secrets come out that no one wants,” she finished, nodding her head. “Saves everyone trouble if they stayed a secret.”

Good, she at least understood why I did it instead of jumping to the telekinesis and tearing my room apart. I breathed a little easier at that and asked, “Okay, now what favor is it that you needed that was so bad that you tracked me home?”

She pointed to her duffle bag. “I want you to do my laundry for me.”

…What? “You came all the way here for laundry?”

“I did tell you this morning I’d need to use your washing machine and stuff.” She brought a hand to the collar of her shirt and pulled it open. “And I’ll want to use your shower, and some food.”

They weren’t unreasonable requests exactly. Simple things really. The kind that you would offer a friend, like if Taylor came over and spent the night. The only real worry would have been the twenty-questions Mom would put her through… at least before last night.

But I barely knew Cienna and having her here was just asking for trouble. “Can’t I just pay for a motel room or something?”

Her back straightened and she crossed her arms, giving me a sharp look. “Look, Kid. I’m not asking for much this time. Just do these little things for me and everyone comes out ahead.”

I noted the ‘this time’ part and the implication that there would be more requests in the future, but I don’t argue with her further. She held all the cards right now and, aside from the fact that I didn’t like being blackmailed, they weren’t that big of demands. But I was going to have to think of something eventually to cut things if she got to the unreasonable requests.

“Fine, but you can’t leave my room and you need to be gone before Dad gets back tonight,” I tell her, pointing a finger to the door opposite of my closet. “You can use my shower there.”

“Sounds good.” She nodded in approval and then turned her attention to her duffle bag, unzipping it and pulling out a smaller bag. She sat it on my bed before tossing over the larger bag. “Go ahead and put those in. I’ll leave the clothes I’m wearing in the smaller bag for you to dump in with them while I get into my clean ones.”

I caught it and cringed as the scent coming from inside of it catches me off-guard. That distillery smell from when I first spotted her was strong enough that the bag itself was probably in need of a wash. I hold it out at an arms-length by the straps as I opened the door and went out into the hall behind the Living Room to where the washer and dryer were.

I turned the bag upside down and dumped her clothes into the washing machine without sorting colors from whites, or really looking at it all since I didn’t want to ruin the illusion I’ve built up of what women should be like. Sure, I’ve handled Mom’s laundry at times, but your own mother doesn’t count as a woman—they’re different. Once the last of the clothes were in the wash, I poured in the detergent and left the machine to fill up with water.

That out of the way, I took the duffle bag back into my room. Leaving it around for my parents to find or smell was asking for trouble. I flipped it inside out to let it air and then hung it outside of my window as the door to my bathroom opened just a crack and the smaller bag was tossed out haphazardly onto my carpet.

“Greg?” Cienna stuck her bare arm out of the door with my bottle of body wash in her hand. “Why do you have a woman’s brand of body wash in here?”

“I like the smell after I take a shower since it helps me relax.” Plus, that brand doesn’t aggravate my skin the way the normal stuff does.

“Hmm… I’ll give it a try then.” Deciding that on her own, she pulled her arm back in through the gap and shut the door.

“There’s nothing saying men can’t use it,” I mumbled as I picked the smaller bag up. Just like before, I dumped the contents into the washing machine without looking, and shut it so that it could start. That just left me needing to fill the time until she got out of the shower.

Mom cooked last night so I checked the fridge for leftovers. It’s her favorite from the look of it, but it was almost untouched. Did… did she even eat while she was waiting for me?

…Tears sting my eyes as I took a deep, shuddering breath. I was careless and Mom had been worried herself to the point of starving. If she knew what I was doing, she’d definitely have a heart-attack or something.

But, at the same time, I owed Taylor for screwing up her leg. And she’s happy that I’m helping her. Or she appreciated my effort at making up for that. We’re on better terms than before at the very least.

And I was doing something meaningful for once, even if it was a little dangerous. I think I could deal with myself being at risk. But if this was what happened after a close call, how would Mom act if I ended up being killed?

…It was frustrating.

I wanted to keep helping Taylor. I had to, if only to make things right. But I couldn’t put Mom through this sort of thing again. I couldn’t let myself get caught like I did before, screwing up from the moment that can got crushed and turning my back on Circus before I put her down.

But first things first, I had to deal with Cienna’s demands until I could get her out of here.

April 29, 2017 | Categories: Fanfiction, Vim x Vigor | Tags: Bioshock, Cienna, Fanfic, Greg Veder, whirlygig, Worm, worm webserial | 1 Comment