Month: July 2018

BioQuest: Scarred

Read how to join this choose your own adventure story here.
Read the previous chapter.
To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

An assistant put his hand up in front of Elizabeth’s path, leveling a steady look at her. “I’m sorry, ma’am–”

“Dr. DeWitt,” she corrected, pulling her badge from her lanyard tucked beneath her shirt. “Please step aside.”

A curt nod and the man stepped aside, scanning the people past her skeptically. He was built for a nurse, but with the kind of lab work done in Rapture, they always needed at least one of those types on hand.

She slid past, shouts behind her. “Hey, why’s she let in? Hey!”

The groaning and screaming only got worse inside, and she fell right into rhythm. Patients on beds, large tables, even the floor, doctors and nurses whirring around her like a hive.

Elizabeth went unnoticed in the chaos, reaching the supplies without trouble. “Alright,” she said to the glass cabinets lined with pills, bandages, everything Booker would need. Maybe others.

Definitely those people outside.

We haven’t saved all the girls yet. They come first.

Elizabeth wiped her hands on her skirt, grabbing a satchel tucked beside the shelves and packing it with supplies. And as she did, one scream cut through the rest as familiar.

“Where–” A sob cut her off, and Elizabeth slowed as she zipped up the satchel. “Where am I? Andrew?” Her voice was thick, sedated, but unmistakable. Sliding the bag over her shoulder, Elizabeth walked towards her crying.

“No, oh no, no no, no,” Diane continued as Elizabeth turned the corner, watching from a distance. Steinman stood over her, humming absently as a nurse counted down to Diane falling unconscious…

I am sorry, Diane. So very sorry.

What do you want to do, Elizabeth?

Read the next chapter.

– – –

Suggestions from last chapter:

To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

BioQuest: Aftermath

Read how to join this choose your own adventure story here.
Read the previous chapter.
To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

“Booker, wait,” she pleaded, catching up to him and holding him back with a hand on his shoulder. “You need to rest, please… Just let Jack take you home.”

With faint footsteps, Jack came up beside her and nodded once. He seemed lost in thought, but there would be time to talk to him later. First, they had to get Booker to safety. And who knew what state Jack himself may be in? The VitaChamber had never been tested before tonight… She played with the end of her pinky, looking away from Jack.

There will be time.

“I’m fine,” Booker muttered, unconvincing. He took shallow breaths and honestly, she doubted that she was the only thing keeping him from going on ahead.

“It’s alright to not be fine, Booker,” Jack reassured him, keeping his gaze on Booker now. “You remember what you told me? During guitar practice?”

“Yeah,” Booker rushed to answer. “And I’m in no grand hurry to talk about it.”

Jack breathed a laugh and Elizabeth traded places as he put Booker’s arm over his shoulder. “We don’t have to talk. I’ve got you.”

It was an odd picture to be sure, but lucky for them, neither man was on the tall side. She glanced to the gift box in her other hand, running her thumb over the corner. Jack watched her when she looked back up and he smiled.

“We can open it together when you come back.”

gift-2677_1280259527637.jpg

“We will,” she agreed, watching them shuffle ahead for a few moments before taking the fork towards the pavilion. They would be safe, she calmed herself. Both of them knew how to handle a fight.

Pulling herself up from the tunnel exit, Elizabeth came out into a closet with a turret set up inside– once the realization hit that it was off, she exhaled and stepped out into chaos.

Pained screams and groans filled the air, mixed with smoke, sterilizers, and sweat. Some people just waited in corners, legs pulled in tight, and muttered to themselves while they waited for someone to notice they were there. Others cried at the desk, demanding to see someone inside or be seen by a doctor…

Looking down at herself, Elizabeth had enough dirt on herself to pass as a patient and enough decorum to pass as a frazzled scientist. She threw her mask out from the ball and ran to the pavilion.

What do you want to do?

Search the Medical Pavilion labs with Elizabeth?

Help Booker and Jack with Tenenbaum?

– – –

Suggestions from last chapter:

To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

BioQuest: Down One

Read how to join this choose your own adventure story here.
Read the previous chapter.
To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

“Hm,” Elizabeth stalled and tried to do a quick recount in her mind of their supplies in Olympus. They’d need them for Booker for sure, maybe Jack too depending on where all that blood was from… She closed her eyes and rested a hand against the craggy wall. “What does Tenenbaum have for supplies?”

“Bandages, antiseptic ointment, a small lab of chemicals…” His voice strayed and she opened her eyes as he looked at the tunnel roof. “Footsteps above us,” he dismissed. “They can’t hear.”

“What’s it matter?” Booker interrupted, exhaling sharply. He had to be feeling that injury now, the adrenaline was fading. He shifted to take a knee, continuing. “Anything she needs, you can find easier at your lab.”

As her eyes adjusted to the weak lighting, she saw Booker brace a hand against his head. Elizabeth turned to him so quickly she nearly stumbled on debris by her feet and she hovered a hand near him. “Booker, what is it? Are you–”

“Tell me someone else sees this blue light,” he mumbled, wincing. The tunnel had sparse orange lights burning low, some flickering, and even that was enough to catch the sweat beading on Booker’s face.

“Lot 192,” Jack whispered. He put his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder, moving past her to Booker. “He got the dose…?”

“Listen, Jack, it– ngh,” Booker grunted and dull blue electricity arced on his forearm, blinking out just as suddenly.

“Down to one.” Jack breathed the sentence, sinking to the floor. “And Booker could die.” He pulled at his tie, ripping the shirt collar open so forcefully that the top button rattled off down the tunnel somewhere.

“I’m not going to die,” Booker forced out the sentence, getting to his feet with the wall as support. He shuffled ahead against the wall… going nowhere fast. “Not here. We’re getting out of here.”

What do you want to do, Elizabeth?

Read the next chapter.

– – –

Suggestions from last chapter:

To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

BioQuest: Runaway

Read how to join this choose your own adventure story here.
Read the previous chapter.
To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

Footsteps and rose petals fell, coming closer as the three of them waited behind cover. The crossbow was gone and they had two weapons between them… If they didn’t know about the tunnels, they’d have nowhere to go but the dead end in Kashmir.

So this is what it looks like when he’s not faking his own death.

Elizabeth kept low and reminded herself – this was good intel against Fontaine. “The tunnels,” she whispered to Booker. He nodded, tapping Jack on the shoulder. “Take the lead.”

By Pirate Cashoo on dA

Following him again by the hand, Elizabeth went with Jack to the tunnel’s entrance. Nothing but a vent beside the restaurant to the regular citizens and even smugglers. These tunnels, they belonged to Tenenbaum and her runaway family.

“There’re plenty o’ ways to find you, son,” Atlas taunted. Jack crawled into the tunnel ahead of her, waving her in once he’d shuffled forward enough. “And I will save you from Ryan’s men, you mark my words.”

Keep talking, Fontaine. Tell me your story.

Yet Fontaine wasn’t using his other code words against Jack… Tenenbaum knew about them, so they all know. His men didn’t know.

Elizabeth slid into the vent behind Jack with a smirk. That was leverage in the right hands. Booker hunkered into the tunnel behind her, pulling the vent cover on behind him, and put his hand on her back with a little too much force.

“We need to move,” he said as plain as small talk. Jack picked up the pace with them in line behind her, although…

“Booker, what did you do?” She ran her hand along the wall as they rushed forward, bumps and nicks mapping a mental image for her as they went.

“I got him a little present too.” The explosion rocked the frame of the tunnel and only Booker kept steady.

“Come on,” he ordered, helping Elizabeth hang onto her balance.

“Wait,” Jack interrupted. She could see the curve of the wall ahead… They were at a fork in the tunnel. “Which way? The medical pavilion or home?”

What do you want to do, Elizabeth?

– – –

Suggestions from last chapter:

To see more content like this regularly, please support me on Patreon or leave me a tip on Ko-Fi.

Found Poetry: Tenenbaum

Originally posted for the Mood Challenge in BioShock Amino.

One of my favorite forms of poetry to write in is found poetry, which is made by taking lines from another source and reframing them to give it enhanced or new meaning.

That said, here we go!

0829ff1ee7ef8a5978e2437cbeda73f625e8fa6br1-500-278_hq.gif

All I care about

I did not find

Tormentors

In the prison camp but

Kindred spirits

 

Never do I see the

Blueprints of sin

 

Only sixteen years old

When I realize

I have love

For science

 

The first home for Little Sisters will open

And the problem will be

Solved

 

All that killing

You think they could have been

Interested in something

Useful

 

They deliver

And they don’t ask questions

 

They call me

Das Wunderkind

The wonder child

 

What makes something like me?

 

Sometimes

I just know

 

These children I

brutalized have

Awoken something in me that

For most

Is beautiful and natural

 

But in me is an

Abomination

 

My maternal instinct

 

How can a child

Know such a thing

 

I know why it has to be children

But

Why just girls?

 

I feel hatred

Like I never felt before

In my chest

Bitter, burning fury

I can barely breathe

 

They are still children

They play

Sing

 

Sometimes they

Look at me

And they don’t

Stop

 

Sometimes they smile

c0091c896790da127ef8dec40cab17ba1e3d8947r1-500-500_hq.gif

One of the children sat in my lap

I push her off

I shout

get away from me

 

Filthy hair hanging in her face

Dirty clothes

And

That dead glow in her eye

 

Suddenly

I know

It is not this child

I hate

 

Well

If you are going to do such things

At least you should do them

Properly