#oc: Kuali’i | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dioles-writes · 9 months

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• OC FIC •

Masterlist | Characters: Felix (he/him), Hiraya (she/her), January (he/him), Maddox (he/him), Alzena (she/her), Nyssa (she/her), Astley (he/they), Rory (they/she), Kuali’i (he/him), Wilder (he/him), Ensio (he/him), Ilona (she/her), Akali (he/him), Della (she/her), Winola (she/her), Vincent (he/him), Howard (he/him), Haven (she/they), Una (he/they), Reese (they/them), Shehani (she/her), Paisley (she/they/he)

Credits also to @jiphenn as the characters in purple are hers 😋😋

Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

Before Felix knew it, over two months had flown by in Paradise.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, he was genuinely happy again. He had slowly fell into the routine of day-to-day life, and by now it was almost easy to forget about Chumps Jr., or the concert. Everything in his life had finally settled down. He really understood now why this was called “Paradise” in the first place.

Training with the Top Five was incredible. It was probably the highlight of his day, meeting up with Hiraya as the two of them fought and sparred with each other, refining their physical abilities. He had even learned a new skill: “Portal Mutilation”, as the two of them had named it. (Although he wasn’t very good at it yet and almost passed out every time he tried to use it.) He even felt like his and Hiraya’s friendship might actually become something more, as the two of them grew closer and closer. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Akali’s face when he finally took her out on a date. He was sure it’d be priceless.

His fights in the arena had been improving too. For about a month or so, he had been quickly rising in rank, defeating each opponent that crossed his path with ease. It felt good to be finally good at something again - and it felt even better to see the large cash prizes that he was getting off each fight.

Paradise had almost started to feel like home. He wrote to Reagan every day, and sometimes he could almost pretend that she was here with him. The Board Game Club had even started to have frequent meetings at the Mansion, laughing and playing board games as they sat in January’s impossibly large room. It was everything he could have ever wanted. Paradise really seemed like it would be the place that he could spend the rest of his life, perfectly happy and content, surrounded by his best friends.

Today, however, was a special day in Paradise. Today, May twentieth, was the day that the people called “The Day of New Waves”. Everyone was in a bustling mood, all preparing for the huge party that was supposed to be happening at the Lim Residency later.

Felix couldn’t wait. He got ready excitedly, pulling on the most lavish suit he owned, making sure his makeup looked perfect, and styling his hair into a fancy up-do.

By the time he had finished with everything, it was already time to start heading down to the Mansion.

“Hi Felix!” As he started his walk to the Lim Residency, in high spirits, like usual, he heard someone call out his name.

It was Hiraya, looking drop-dead gorgeous in her party attire (though he couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t looked stunningly beautiful). He smiled and waved to her. “Hi!”

“Excited?” She asked, coming to walk right beside him. Felix wondered if this day could get any better.

“Mhm!” He grinned. “You?”

“Mhm,” She hummed, pulling at the sleeve of her dress.

“You look nice.”

She smiled. “Thanks. You do too.”

The two of them continued to walk, eventually reaching the huge ebony-black gates of the Mansion. Felix let Hiraya walk in first, the two of them trailing down the expansive halls and entering the ballroom, where they were greeted by hundreds of happy people talking and laughing with each other. The party was already in full-swing.

“Felix!” January called him, sidling up next to the two of them, dressed in what must’ve been the most expensive suit to exist.

“Hi Hiraya!”

“Hi January!”

“You look nice.”

“You do too.” She gave him a grin.

“Well, I’m gonna go meet with the rest of the Top Five, see you guys around!” She smiled before disappearing into the crowd.

January turned to Felix with a knowing smirk. “Woah, did you two come here together?”

“Yeah.” Felix grinned back.

“Maybe you can ask her on a date soon!”

January led him over towards the rest of the Board Game Club. “I’m back with Felix!”

“Hey, y’know what this whole ‘Day of New Waves’ thing is about?” Rory asked, turning to him.

“I’m not too sure, but it is my dad’s birthday today.”

“Guess we’ll figure out sooner or later.” She shrugged.

“Oh look, there’s Astley!”

It was hard to miss him with his tall figure weaving through the crowd, his bright raspberry-pink streak of hair making him stand out even more. He emerged from the wave of people, Nyssa popping up from behind him. “You guys look nice!” January said, taking in Astley’s nice formal suit and Nyssa’s dress.

He looked around. “Have any of you guys seen Akali?”

“He might be with his family.” Alzena said as everyone shook their heads.

“Oh well, he’ll meet up with us eventually!”

The next few hours passed by quickly, the ten of them contentedly chatting and walking around, meeting with all the guests.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed down and a spotlight was shined on the balcony. Vincent stood in the middle of it, the rest of the unit leaders in a row behind him. “Good evening everyone. I’m glad that you could all join us for this very special day.” He smiled and everyone clapped. “Today on the Day of New Waves we celebrate the birth of my dear friend Howard Restall.” The crowd erupted into a chorus of boos, which made Vincent’s smile grow. “But today, we also celebrate the day that will become his anniversary with death.”

“Soon I will be off to kill Howard Restall.” Vincent grinned and the whole crowd listened in anticipation, hanging onto his every word. “But I cannot do it alone. As a society we rely on each other, and tonight I rely on all of you here. As you may know, Howard Restall has many highly guarded warehouses. Once I kill him tonight, they will send out all those vaccines without a second thought.”

“Get rid of the vaccines, the warehouses, the guards! I want to see ALL OF THEM go down in flames tonight!” His grin widened and everyone cheered loudly. Felix smiled; this day could get better. He couldn’t believe his ears. It was finally going to be over. Howard Restall would soon be gone. He was getting everything he ever wished for.

“But this is just the beginning, our waves will crash and consume all of society. We will make the whole world OUR DIOLE-ONLY SOCIETY. OUR PARADISE.” The cheers from the crowd grew even louder and became more erratic. Felix could feel people pushing and shoving, yelling in excitement. “For fifty-four years they’ve divided us and forced us to hide. But tonight, we reform their puny society into something GREATER!”

Felix stopped cheering.

“Guys what the fuck is going on?” Alzena hissed to the rest of them. Felix turned to January in horror, thinking that if anyone could’ve known about Vincent’s plan it would’ve been his cousin. January didn’t even acknowledge him, his eyes locked onto Vincent with a look of shock.

“LET’S KILL ALL HUMANS! THEY WANT TO SEPARATE US? SO BE IT. THEY’LL BE THE ONES TO DISAPPEAR.” The crowd went crazy, yelling and shouting and pushing at each other. Vincent grinned even wider than before, his purple eyes twinkling with this crazed light that Felix remembered very clearly from the Winter Concert. He looked exactly like Gunther.

“He’s fucking crazy.” He whispered under his breath, his smile gone.

“Haven will dispatch you at different places in exactly two hours, when the clock strikes seven.” Vincent continued, and Haven stepped forward from her spot in the back, looking around and waving. “Once the warehouses are taken down, they will open a door and bring you all back to Paradise.”

“Everyone, enjoy the rest of your time here! This is the last day Paradise will ever be this small.”

“One more thing to add.” Haven grabbed the mic from Vincent. “If you don’t plan to co-operate with tonight’s plan, you better start running now.” She smiled and it sent a chill down Felix’s back.

“Thank you everyone and enjoy your night.” The spotlight turned off and the lights switched back to normal, the crowd bursting into applause.

“We have to get out of here.” Maddox mumbled as soon as Haven and Vincent disappeared from view, making his way through the crowd and leading the rest of the Board Game Club away from the party, which was now two times as loud and rowdy.

“We gotta find Akali.” Felix said, glancing around wildly for the familiar head of dark blue hair.

“You find him, we’ll wait in the hall.” Alzena told him, still following behind Maddox.

Felix turned and pushed through the crowd, trying to make his way through the swarm of bodies, as he instantly realized, just like his first time here, that it was very hard to find anyone in a crowd of people this large. It was even harder with how wild Vincent’s speech had made everyone. And even worse - his portals had stopped working. Again. Not at a worse time.

But he wouldn’t leave someone behind. Not again. Determined, he pushed past the happily chattering people, ignoring the weird looks they were giving him and searching desperately for his best friend.

“Felix!”

Felix whipped around, seeing Akali hurriedly weaving through the crowd towards him, Ensio, Ilona and Della right behind him.

“We have to get outta here. Right now.” Felix whispered.

“Where are the others?” Akali looked around.

“In the hall, waiting for us.” He replied, leading Akali and his family out into the hall as fast as he could.

“Let’s follow that crowd.” Maddox said as they met up with the rest of the group, pointing towards other people that were rushing out the door.

“Where ya guys going?” A familiar voice popped up beside them. Una. He ran ahead of them with a grin. “You gonna leave too?”

“Are you leaving?” Felix retorted defensively. He wasn’t sure who he could trust, if Haven was going to send out the Top Five to deal with the unwilling citizens. One thing he knew for certain is that Una could easily pulverize the whole Board Game Club with ease. He prayed that they weren’t crazy like Mr. Lim.

“Yup, I just gotta wait for my buddies before I go.” Una said, seeming not so stressed about the whole ‘kill all humans’ thing. He was somehow his usual chipper self, smiling at them without any worries.

“You know how to get out of here?”

“You gotta run to the edge of Paradise, but I don’t exactly know the way there.” Una said. “Reese knows the way though!”

“Aren’t they with Mr. Lim?”

“Nope, they took off as soon as he finished his little speech. I’m sure they’ll be here any minute now!” They stopped at the doorway.

The next couple minutes felt like hours as they waited for Reese to show up. The doors swung open and shut as more and more people left in a hurry, the sounds of the citizens enjoying the party still loud in the background.

Felix looked to January again, realizing that he had been unusually quiet since Vincent’s big announcement. He stood there silently, staring out into the void. His eyes weren’t shining like they normally did. He didn’t seem to notice Felix staring, or Maddox anxiously glancing around for Reese. He didn’t seem to notice anyone. His posture was slightly slouched over, his expression completely unreadable. It was like he wasn’t even really there.

With a pang, Felix realized exactly when he had seen that look last. Chumps Jr.

“Una!” A voice caught his attention, and he looked up, momentarily forgetting to worry about January. It was Reese, followed by Shehani. “Are you ready to go?”

“Mhm, these guys are all coming with!”

“Okay, then let’s go.” Reese ran out the door and everyone followed.

Well, mostly everyone.

Maddox tugged on January’s arm. “Hey, c’mon, we have to go.”

January blinked, like he was just seeing Maddox. He pushed his hand away, taking a step back. “Do you think he’s right?” It came out just below a whisper.

Felix stopped, hesitating at the doorway. “What are you talking about?”

“Ever since coming to Paradise our lives have been so much better… do we really want to go back?” January took another step back, even further away from the door.

“Didn’t you hear him? He’s going to kill all humans. He’s just trying to replace your dad.”

“Those humans KILLED AVIL.” He snapped.

It went dead silent.

“Are you listening to yourself?!” Felix shot back, staring at January incredulously. “You want to wipe out thousands upon thousands of innocents just because some of them are murderers?”

“Shut up Felix. Like you weren’t first cheering at the news.” January’s voice hardened, his eyes narrowing. It was a look Felix hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Yeah, maybe when he said we were taking down warehouses. Not every single human to exist.”

“January please, let’s just go, you don’t know what you’re saying.” Maddox kept stepping closer to January, reaching out for him with a look of complete desperation.

“I don’t want to live in a society where they kill my friends on the daily. I don’t want to live the rest of my life hiding in fear.” January’s words became more venomous and his aura flickered, growing more dangerous than before.

“What about Adelio? Wasn’t he your friend?” Felix narrowed his eyes right back at January, clenching his fists, uncontrollable anger bubbling up to the surface. “You’re acting like an idiot. You really think wiping out every human is going to fix things?”

“If you want to call me an idiot then go ahead and leave already.” He looked at them, his pupils shrinking as he took larger and larger steps back.

“I’m-“ He took a deep breath, pausing to calm his shaking voice. “I’m staying here.”

Felix stared at him speechlessly. He couldn’t believe that January was saying this. January, who had been by his side from the very beginning. January, who had promised Felix from the start that he’d protect him. January, who couldn’t be seen without a smile on his face. January, who saw the good in everyone, even Felix when he did nothing but scream and throw insults. January, who was kind. January, who was his friend. No, not just that, but January, who was one of the only people Felix had left.

“January, we’re your friends. We care about you, just please, come with us. We can talk once we get out of here!” Maddox pleaded, grabbing onto January’s hand desperately, his eyes wide and shiny. But it didn’t shake him.

“If you’re really my friends then you’ll respect my decision.” January paused, his multicoloured eyes flickering dangerously, scanning between each of them, before he turned his back and slowly started to walk away. Felix felt frozen in time, standing there watching him. It was as if everything was playing in slow motion.

“Well, gotta go follow my leader.” Rory began to walk towards him. “It was nice while it lasted, guys. Get out of here safely.” She turned around slightly, giving them a bittersweet smile before waving and following January. Kuali’i didn’t even spare the rest of them a glance as he left, right behind them.

The atmosphere around them suddenly started to get hotter, the sound of flames crackling to life disturbing the silence. “YOU FUCKING BITCHES!” Wilder stepped forward, pushing in between Maddox and Felix and screaming after the three of them. His fingers twitched, and small but violent eruptions of flames emerged from his palms, white hot. “AVIL DIED TRYING TO PROTECT EVERYONE THAT DAY, NOT JUST US. DON’T USE HER AS AN EXCUSE FOR YOUR ACTIONS.” His face was contorted with fury, eyes bright with pure rage, as the flames started to multiply, forming at his feet, growing in height. For a second Felix could see the Wilder he knew five months ago, not the sullen and quiet boy that had replaced him.

“AVIL PROTECTED THEM AND WHAT’D THEY DO? THEY KILLED HER. SHE SAVED THEM AND GOT A BULLET TO THE HEAD AS A REWARD.” January yelled back, whipping around. “THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US. GUNTHER WAS RIGHT. THEY ONLY SEE US AS MONSTERS.” Despite the way he was screaming, louder and more aggressive than Felix had ever heard before, January looked just as confused and hurt as the rest of them.

“SHE DIED TRYING TO SAVE YOUR SORRY EXCUSE OF A LEADER!” Wilder screamed.

“WELL I’M NOT YOUR LEADER ANYMORE.” January ripped his bracelet off his wrist and whipped it at the ground in front of them. The string snapped, and the pale blue beads spilled everywhere, sliding across the floor. Felix watched as January’s specially made charm - the ace - shattered into a million pieces.

The hall went absolutely silent. The flames around Wilder started to grow even hotter, blazing up around his body, flickering angrily.

“Guys we need to go. Now.” Akali said, grabbing Wilder’s wrist.

January turned around again. And this time, he didn’t look back.

Una led them outside, looking around and trying to remember the path that Reese and Shehani went, considering they were long gone now. He followed along the path of blood spots on the ground, quickly turning to glance back at them. “Be careful guys, as soon as we leave the estate is when the monsters come out!” He warned them. “So all of you be sure this is what you want. There’s no coming back.”

Maddox looked back at the mansion longingly, like there was nothing he wanted more than to be by January’s side, but he didn’t turn back.

As soon as they left through the Mansion’s gates, the same eerie feeling that fell along Paradise at night surrounded them. “Look, there they are!” Una pointed towards the distance.

It was hard to make out exactly what they were looking at. The creatures in the distance were large and disfigured, with these horrifyingly wide, pitch-black eyes that watched Felix’s every move. They walked very slowly towards them, never once looking away.

“Be careful, they can run too!” As soon as Una said that the monsters started sprinting, faster than should’ve been possible with their massive and bulky size. Una started running faster, him and Nyssa easily outpacing everyone.

Felix tried to open up a portal, but it still wouldn’t work. “Shit.” He mumbled under his breath, starting to pick up speed and sprinting as fast as his legs would allow.

“CoMe hErE!” The monsters screamed in a distorted, high-pitched tone, running even faster. They extended a misshapen arm, swiping at the slowest of their group.

Winola.

They snatched her up before any of them could react, their long twisted fingers closing around her body, trapping her.

Una’s body made a crackling noise as a clone splintered away, running at the monster. It leapt into the air, kicking the monster’s hand and sending Winola flying out. Winola fell on the ground roughly, rolling through the dirt with a grunt as her ankle twisted in an odd angle.

More clones separated from Una, running to deal with the monsters. One scooped up Winola, who was trailing behind even more than before with her injured ankle. The rest all started to fight, slowing the monsters down bit by bit.

They sprinted for another thirty minutes.

“Shehani!” Una perked up, spotting his two buddies up ahead. When Shehani saw him she let out a little sigh of relief. “You saw the trail?”

“Mhm!” Una smiled.

Una and Shehani continued to take out more of the monsters as the group kept running, Reese leading them in the front. The more that they ran, the more dead bodies they could see scattered around, surrounded by pools of dark blood. Some were missing limbs, others contorted in ways so horrific that Felix couldn’t make himself look. He focused in on running, not allowing his mind to drift any further. They just had to get out of here. That’s all that mattered now.

He just had to get out of here.

“Oh look, someone over there isn’t dead! Let’s go get them!” Una said, pointing to a person in the distance. Felix looked over, and for a second, time stopped.

Paisley.

They stood in front of a pile of monsters, their back turned to him, but it was definitely her. His hair wasn’t the purple that it had been the last time he had seen them, instead a gentle blue, but Felix would’ve recognized her anywhere.

“PAISLEY!” He screamed, loud enough that it could have been heard back at the Mansion. He shoved past Akali and Una, forgetting about January, about Rory, about the monsters that were swarming them. Forgetting about what they were fleeing from. Nothing else in the world mattered to him at that moment, all except that she was okay. That she was alive.

He tackled her in a hug from behind, grinning from ear to ear.

Paisley didn’t turn to face him. They stood there for a second before elbowing him harshly. “Get off of me.”

Felix’s smile started to fade. “Huh?”

“You have someplace to be. Hurry up and go.” They turned around to look at him for the first time in five months, but when they stared down at Felix, it wasn’t their familiar look of gentle kindness that he had come to expect. Instead, he stared at him like he was nothing but a bug. Nothing but an annoyance.

“Paisley?”

“Didn’t you hear me?” He started walking away.

This was all wrong. This was all wrong.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Paisley was supposed to hug him back; she was supposed to turn to him with a soft smile, eyes gentle and kind. And then Felix would apologize a million times over. He’d tell her everything, starting from all the way back in September, starting from his very day at school. And Paisley was going to cup his face, her hands rough against his cheeks, and give him this look that meant “it’s okay”.

And he would knew it would be. Because it was Paisley, and as long as he had her and Reagan then everything would end up fine.

Everything was going to be fine.

“Paisley, wait!” He grabbed his arm, tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m so, so sorry. Please don’t be mad. I’ve missed you so much. I’m sorry I lied, I promise I’ll explain everything as soon as we get out of here.”

“I told you to get off!” Paisley snarled. He punched Felix, sending him to the ground.

Felix looked up at her in shock. “Paisley please, I just wanna go home. Please don’t go.” His voice cracked.

“I’m no longer a part of your home, so don’t make it sound like I’m going there with you.” Her dark eyes swirled, the gray contrasting against the black. Her gaze made him feel so incredibly small. No one had ever looked at him like he was such a disappointment, like he was so… insignificant. But especially not Paisley. He was sure this had to be an imposter. This couldn’t actually be her standing in front of him, because Paisley would never say that. Paisley would never look at him like that.

It couldn’t be her. It couldn’t be her.

“You are! You are.” Felix shakily got to his feet again, looking at her desperately and reaching out with trembling hands. “I’m so sorry. I’ll fix things, I promise. I was just trying to protect you.”

They slapped him, their jewelry raking across his face. His mouth was filled with a metallic taste, which was oh so familiar, but never from Paisley. He reached up to touch his burning cheek, looking at them with wide eyes. “You’re nothing but a burden.” They spat. “You always have been and always will be.”

She punched him in the face again, just as hard, if not harder, than the first time. But the calmness in her voice stayed unwavering. “You’re always making sorry excuses and promises you can’t keep.”

“I’m sorry.” Tears slipped down Felix’s cheeks, hot and salty. His chin wouldn’t stop trembling. “I’m so sorry, I promise I’ll be better. I can- I can control my powers now. Just let me fix things.” His voice didn’t sound right. It was whiny and shaking, as much as he tried to force it not to be. He swallowed hard, trying to push down the lump in his throat, trying to look up at Paisley, trying to make her see that he was sorry. He was so, so, sorry.

They grabbed Felix by a clump of his hair, pulling him up to his feet again so that his face was only inches away from theirs. “There’s nothing to fix, we aren’t family anymore.” He said in a low voice, staring at him with a hollow gaze. His eyes burned with a pure hatred that shouldn’t have been there - not on Paisley - as she punched him to the ground again.

Felix choked out a broken sob. “Please, I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have left.”

She kicked Felix on the ground, the heel of her boot connecting with his stomach harshly, making him cough and gag. “I don’t know why your sister wasted her life for someone as pathetic as you.”

“I’m sorry, please, don’t go. I’m so, so sorry.” Felix stared at her pleadingly. She had been the only person he could think about for over two months. The one person that he had searched endlessly to see. He would’ve given anything to know that she was okay, to have her at his side again. He would have given anything. He couldn’t even recall the amount of times he’d asked Haven about her, just begging to hear about them. And now here they were, standing before him, alive.

And all they could do is stare at him like he was the last person they would ever want to see. Like he was the root of all their problems.

Like he wasn’t their son.

“I don’t know why I stuck around all those years. I wish I never signed those papers.” She said coldly. She gave him another well-placed kick, this time in the face, and his nose started to gush blood, his face stinging all over in pain.

“I love you.” Felix sobbed harder. “Please forgive me. We can just go home. I just want to go home.”

“There’s no home for us to go to together.” Paisley kicked him more violently than before, no longer holding back. Little bursts of pain shot up his body for every time her foot came back down, but he couldn’t make himself move. He couldn’t make himself do anything other than stare at her, silently begging for her to please, understand. Begging for her to just take him home. Just take me home.

“There is, there is. Please don’t say that.” He begged. “Please.”

Paisley delivered one final kick, a million times rougher than the past ones, before squatting down and yanking Felix’s hair, forcing him to look in her eyes. “We’re no longer family. You’re nothing but a stranger to me.” They shoved his head into the ground, hard enough to make his ears ring. Felix sobbed harder, wretching and coughing as she forced him down.

Slowly, she stood back up, keeping their harsh gaze on Felix’s curled up and shaking body for a second longer. He could feel their eyes sweeping over him, filled with nothing but loathing and disgust. She turned her back to him, stepping over his sprawled out limbs, and began to walk away. She didn’t respond to his cries, to his begging, to his pleading apologies, simply leaving him to sob on the ground. Alone.

And this time, they didn’t look back.

Someone leaned down next to him, rubbing small circles on his back. Felix sobbed harder, not daring to look in their direction, all while knowing exactly who it was. “Let’s get back to the others.” Una said, picking him up with ease. His voice was uncharacteristically soft and almost awkward.

Una took him to the others, quickly catching up to them almost effortlessly. Felix buried his face into their shoulder, sobbing broken-heartedly. He could feel Akali’s gaze, looking between him and the Una clone, probably wondering what the hell had happened in the ten minutes that they had been gone. Felix didn’t look up. Couldn’t stand to look up. He pressed himself as closely to Una as he could, like maybe if he made himself small enough, he could disappear. Maybe he could make it all just disappear.

The group continued to run for what seemed like forever. They weaved through the streets, speeding past the once-lively parks and shops, which now were now unfamiliar to everyone, empty and dark, littered by bloody corpses. They passed by the Entertainment hall, the Arena, passed by rows and rows of hotels. But finally, Reese stopped.

“We’re here.”

It was a seemingly normal area, no different from the rest of Paradise. The buildings, the ground, the nature, the sky - none of it gave any indication that this was the way out. Reese ran their hand along the side of the building, feeling along the bricks and thinking for a second, before looking towards the rest of the group. Their eyes landed on Felix, still curled up crying in Una’s arms.

Slowly, they walked towards him, reaching out and softly touching his shoulder. “Hey, Felix, I need you to do us a little favour.” Their voice was calm and soothing, unlike its usual monotone pitch. Felix looked up, his crying dying down, just slightly. “I don’t know exactly how to rip out of this dimension, but I do know your portals will work here.”

Hesitantly, he got to his feet again. “I don’t know where to go.” He said, voice barely above a whisper as he tried to blink back the tears that stubbornly kept falling.

“You can open a portal anywhere, right?” Reese stared him directly in the eyes, their gray ones stormy and dark.

“Bring us to Haru.”

2 notes · View notes

dioles-writes · 11 months

Text

• OC FIC •

Masterlist | Characters: Felix (he/him), January (he/him), Maddox (he/him), Akali (he/him), Avil (she/her), Alzena (she/her), Nyssa (she/her), Astley (he/they), Rory (they/she), Kuali’i (he/him), Wilder (he/him), Gunther (he/him), Adelio (they/he), Bliss (she/her), Winola (she/her), Mr Prader (he/him), Cora (she/her), Reagan (she/her)

Characters in purple all belong to @jiphenn and Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

“Excited?”

Bliss smiled at Felix, stepping closer to him. She wasn’t in uniform yet, her short hair pulled back by barrettes. He grinned at her, already feeling jittery. “Mhm.”

Bliss glanced around, watching the cast members prepare for the play, but she seemed more subdued than usual. It was obvious something was bothering her.

“You nervous?” He asked. Bliss turned away from him, frowning slightly. “I’m not, but someone else is.” She motioned over to Kuali’i.

He was staring off into space, his expression unreadable. Bliss’ eyebrows furrowed. “He’s usually really confident but something’s up with him today.”

Kuali’i didn’t even seem to notice their staring, too wrapped up in his own thoughts. People bumped past him, but it was like they weren’t even there.

Felix hummed thoughtfully. This was his last year here, so maybe that was the reason for the nerves. And the vaccine did come out tomorrow, which was when they would find out if January was telling the truth about knowing how to hack their files…

“I’m probably just overthinking it.” Bliss elbowed him playfully, pulling him out of his thoughts with another smile. This one was genuine. “It’s fine, tonight will go perfectly.” She reassured him. Standing with her, he was sure it would be fine. Kuali’i was probably just stressed for no reason. And after this would be Winter Break, where he finally would get to relax. The whole Board Game Club was going over to January’s for a sleepover. He had nothing to worry about. Life was actually peaceful, for once.

A few minutes later, now fully dressed up in costume, Felix peered through the curtains, looking out at the crowd. It was completely packed. The theatre was filled to the brim, people whispering amongst each other. He saw Reagan and Paisley sitting in the front row, Reagan looking more anxious than Kuali’i had been.

“Nervous?”

Kuali’i stood behind him, putting a hand gently on his shoulder. “No,” he smirked up at him. “Are you?”

Kuali’i just grinned. “Nope.” He said it with so much confidence that Bliss’ judgement of him being nervous was now hard to believe. He was back to his usual smiling self.

“Excited, then?”

“Yeah!” Kuali’i’s smile grew wider. “We’ve all been working so hard so I know we’ll do great.”

“Okay, is everyone ready?” He could hear Mr. Blackburn calling out to everyone backstage. “Starting scene with Alard and Amanda, so the wind instruments get ready!”

Kuali’i fixed his hair one last time before waving goodbye to Felix. “That’s my cue to go, good luck!” And with that he ran off.

The play ran smoothly all the way to the start of the second act.

Felix’s big moment had come. He strapped into his harness quickly, getting into place. His first lines were delivered with ease. It was all going perfectly, just like Bliss had said.

“This is why humans and Dioles can never get along! All you care about are your own selfish ideals!” Desiree’s actor shouted with passion.

Felix scoffed. “Are you not the same?”

“No.” She retorted with disgust. “Because unlike you, we humans have a heart! You Dioles will always be nothing but heartless monsters.”

Felix felt himself begin to lift in the air. This was it. The percussion started building, the band growing louder and louder. This was what he had practiced for, his big moment, at the climax of the play.

“DIOLES WILL WIN!” He finished his monologue, his voice conveying pure, raw conviction, carrying through the audience.

But instead of Kuali’i shouting his next lines, Felix’s entire world was flipped upside down.

Alarms started blaring, the whole room filling with red flashing lights. “ALERT. ALERT. DIOLE ON THE PREMISES. DIOLE ON THE PREMISES.”

Felix’s blood ran cold. The entire band stopped playing, yet no one else moved. The entire theatre was still in anticipation.

There was a deafening crash. Cracks formed along the roof, splintering away, as a majority of the back wall collapsed. Debris rained down on the audience. Felix watched helplessly as people were thrown and crushed. Blood splattered the walls, the ground, the stage. Smoke filled the room. He was hanging mid-air, still tightly secured by his harness. He couldn’t move, couldn’t get down. He was completely stuck. Fear tightened around his chest. His friends were in that audience. Paisley was in that audience. Reagan was sitting in that audience.

“I came at the perfect time.” A booming voice echoed from above, laughing at the scene. Felix saw a flash of black, as a large creature emerged from the missing wall.

It was as tall, if not even taller, than the school. Its hands were jagged, pitch-black in colour, flinging pieces of debris everywhere. “‘Dioles will win!’” It repeated with another laugh. “Great delivery Felix!” It turned its head, revealing its piercing yellow eyes.

Felix was frozen in terror. He couldn’t look away from it. He could hear screaming from below, growing louder as more people ran in. Dioles. They blocked all of the exits, attacking the audience. Felix managed to reach for his harness, desperately trying to claw at the lock and tear it open. It wouldn’t budge.

“Winola!”

It was Adelio on the ground, trying to lower Felix down. “Come here and help me!” Winola ran up to him, abandoning her screaming band members and helping him with the ropes. More blood splattered on the ground as the monster threw even more debris at people, Dioles overwhelming others.

Felix’s feet finally touched on the ground, his harness making a clear clicking noise as it was unlocked. Felix had never been more relieved. He ripped it off of himself, shaking all over.

Gunfire rang off, the gym teachers aiming bullets at the monster. It just laughed, swatting the bullets away. “C’mon, you’ll have to try a little harder than that! How about a real hero fights me?” It grinned, looking around. This all seemed to be nothing but amusing to the creature. Felix couldn’t believe his eyes. It couldn’t really be him. There was no way it was really who he thought that was.

“Fine. Guess I’ll have to use a hostage.” The monster laughed, scanning around the screaming crowd. Its glowing eyes finally fell on the stage. “Oh, how about you?” It reached down, giant hand stretching towards Felix, Winola and Adelio. It had claws that must have been taller than Felix himself.

It brushed past Felix, hands closing around the person only five feet away. Felix was finally free from his harness, yet he couldn’t even make himself move. Couldn’t make himself speak. He watched helplessly as the creature snatched his friend away.

“Let’s see, who will save this poor little defenceless human?” It dangled Adelio around, holding onto them by nothing more than his arm. Adelio’s face was twisted up in pain. The monster held them out tauntingly to the crowd. “Anyone?” It asked with a grin. “Maybe I’ll have to make things more dire.” It slowly squeezed Adelio’s arm, and his piercing scream filled the theatre. Blood exploded from its fist, showering the people below.

Felix sprinted at the monster, abandoning all logical thought. Adelio’s scream wouldn’t stop ringing in his ears. He dodged debris, leaping towards the creature.

He had to save his friend.

The monster kicked him squarely in the chest, and he went flying. He crashed into a wall, pain spasming through his entire body. Felix gasped, the breath sucked out of his chest. His head pounded. It felt like he had broke something. His vision blurred.

“No takers, huh?” The monster said to Adelio, dangling them directly in front of its face. “Guess I’ll have to find a more valuable hostage.”

Felix shakily got to his feet, just in time to see Adelio get tossed through the air, discarded like he was nothing. He ran at the monster again, his side burning in white hot pain.

“RODRIGUEZ STAND BACK!” Someone screamed.

It was Mr. Prader. He grabbed onto him, pulling him back. Felix could only watch as the monster reached down again, plucking up another victim. “Oh you’ll definitely have people willing to save you.” It laughed.

Felix screamed.

The monsters hand was closed around none other than his best friend, a horrified look on her face.

It was Bliss.

“Well who’s gonna save her?” It laughed gleefully. Like it was a fucking joke. Felix fought desperately against Mr. Prader, staring up at Bliss, panicked. He couldn’t let her get hurt. Not her.

“NO!” He screamed. “PUT HER DOWN! DON’T HURT HER!” He tried to wriggle free from Mr. Prader’s grip, to escape and save his best friend, but Mr. Prader wouldn’t let go.

“DO YOU WANT TO DIE RODRIGUEZ? I SAID STAND BACK!”

Teachers kept aiming bullets at the monster, all for naught, as they were deflected with ease. “NO!” Felix kept screaming, begging, “DON’T DO THIS. DON’T HURT HER.” His voice cracked with emotion. Anyone but her. Anyone but Bliss.

“HOLD HIM BACK.” Mr Prader ordered some random people, and they all grabbed at Felix, keeping him still. Felix fought against them, but it was five adults versus him. They pinned his arms back.

He just needed to get to his friend. He needed to do something.

The creature looked around again. No one else was running to Bliss’ assistance, other than the teachers whose bullets accomplished nothing. “Man.” The monster sounded almost disappointed. “Nobody’s willing to save you either? Guess you’re just not that valuable.”

It’s fist started to squeeze, closing in around Bliss. Felix’s voice was raw, yelling and screaming and praying for the monster to notice him. Just look at me already.

“GUNTHER.” He pleaded, “Please, don’t hurt her!”

Gunther didn’t even look at him. His friend, someone he had trusted, joked with, laughed with, who now just stood there, holding one of the people Felix cared about most and laughing as he squeezed the life out of her.

Cracks formed in the ground, snaking between his feet. Below him he could hear rumbling. The floor burst, and out came a violent stream of…

Water?

Gunther’s hand was forced open as it got sliced by a giant blade of water. Bliss went flying. Felix focused in on her, opening a portal underneath her and safely transporting her a few feet away from the fight.

Gunther was laughing maniacally. “FINALLY.” He yelled, shaking his hand. “THANK YOU AVIL!” His eyes focused on the girl with a familiar blue-and-purple ponytail, now standing in front of him, water floating around her.

Felix finally pushed away from the people holding him, instantly sprinting towards Bliss’ side. He dodged water and fallen debris, landing next to her and checking her pulse.

She was alive. He sobbed, eternally grateful for Avil.

“GUNTHER WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Avil shouted, hurling more water blows at him. He laughed and flashed a row a razor-sharp teeth. “Killing these humans.”

Blood was dripping from Bliss’ head, her eyes glazed over. She was sprawled out in the rubble, unresponsive.

Felix didn’t know what to do. Gunther and Avil were still fighting, debris and water going everywhere. He needed to get her somewhere safe. He couldn’t leave her here. She’d be crushed. He had to find Reagan and Paisley… had to find Akali. He didn’t even know if Adelio had survived. He couldn’t focus, the sounds of Dioles fighting and gunshots firing too distracting. Bliss needed a hospital now. But there was no way he’d get out in time. He glanced back at Gunther, terrified and completely lost.

“BUT WHY?” Avil screamed again, hurling even more water at Gunther.

“BECAUSE I’M A DIOLE CAN’T YOU SEE? YOU SHOULD GET IT. ALL TWELVE OF YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND.”

Felix turned back to Bliss, carefully picking her up and slinging her across his shoulders. His heart was racing. He had to bring her somewhere safe. He had to get her out of here. He glanced around. The entire theatre was coming down.

There wasn’t anywhere to go.

“ALL OF THE BOARD GAME CLUB SHOULD UNDERSTAND. RIGHT GUYS?” He smacked the water away, laughing again. He sounded deranged.

Felix didn’t care about him anymore. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get Bliss help. There was no use hiding anymore, not after Gunther’s announcement.

Still holding onto Bliss, he opened up a portal and stepped through, praying this was the right decision.

Winola limped, pain shooting up her leg for every step she took.

Adelio hadn’t woken up.

He was slung over her shoulders, his mutilated arm slowly pouring blood, soaking her clothes. Winola didn’t know how much time he had left, didn’t know if he would even make it, if she found a way to a hospital.

Still, she searched for an exit, trying to stay undetected by the other Dioles. There seemed to be no escape to this place. Water bursted out of the cracks in the ground, the blood from her gunshot wound and the dead audience members making it slippery to walk. Smoke burned her eyes, but she kept pushing on. She wasn’t going to give up now. She had to get Adelio to a hospital.

The blood loss was making her dizzy. She had tied her sweater around her leg, but Adelio was weighing her down even further. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest.

“YOU!” Someone yelled.

She picked up her pace, trying to readjust Adelio in some way that was less painful for the both of them. He was completely out of it, his arm still gushing blood.

“COME BACK HERE!” The person screeched again, and Winola could hear them sprinting after her. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but Winola didn’t care about anything except getting Adelio to safety. She didn’t care if she died doing it. She would have preferred it, honestly.

A hand closed around her shoulder. She ignored it, praying they weren’t armed. She couldn’t deal with another bullet wound right now.

She could still hear Gunther raving as Avil fought him. “JANUARY, MADDOX, FELIX, WINOLA, NYSSA, ALZENA, WILDER, RORY, KUALI’I, AKALI, ASTLEY, AND YOU, AVIL. WHY DON’T YOU JOIN ME? YOU’RE ALL DIOLES AFTERALL.”

Winola pulled away, glancing around for another way out. Gunther laughed again. “Looks like I broke the club oath. Guess you’ll have to kill me.” She could hear the grin in his voice.

Someone stepped in front of Winola, stopping her in her tracks. It was Felix’s older sister, Reagan. Her brown eyes were wide, her face ghostly pale from Gunther’s announcement. She looked nauseous.

“WHERE IS FELIX?”

“I don’t know.” Winola mumbled, really tired of the Rodriguez siblings. She moved around Reagan, still determined to find some way out.

Gunther’s screams echoed through the theatre, deafening. “SO WHO WILL IT BE? AKALI, AVIL, JANUARY? MAYBE YOU SHOULD WORK TOGETHER SINCE THE REST OF YOU CAN’T DO MUCH.”

“YOU WERE WITH HIM, WHERE IS HE?” Reagan gripped her hand, oh so desperate. She looked at her with tears in her eyes, like she would die if she didn’t find him.

“I already told you I don’t know.” Winola said, getting annoyed. Adelio was bleeding out. He needed help more than Felix. “I need to leave.” She tried pulling away again.

“FELIX CAN GET US OUT OF HERE.” Reagan screamed. “I NEED TO FIND HIM, PLEASE.”

“Then stop talking to me and look for him.” Winola rolled her eyes.

Reagan opened her mouth to protest, before her eyes landed on someone behind them. “FELIX!”

Winola kept looking for a way out.

All the exits were being blocked, either by debris or Dioles she was in no condition to fight.

There was a large hole in the wall, except Gunther was blocking it.

But she had no other options.

Avoiding the falling debris, she quietly made her way to it, carrying Adelio.

“SHE’S A DIOLE!”

People started pointing Winola out, all staring at her with animosity. She tried to escape them, to just get to the exit, to help Adelio.

A blast went off, stunning Winola. She blinked, trying to ignore it, to just keep going, but she found that she couldn’t move. Something warm seeped through her other pant leg, stinging.

Someone had shot her again.

Her legs buckled, and she was knocked to the ground. She couldn’t move her legs. Adelio was laying just in front of her, unconscious. People ran away from her in fear, leaving her laying there on the ground.

She propped herself up on her elbows, gritting her teeth at the fiery burning in her legs. Her head spun. Her vision faded in and out.

Her arms shook, giving out underneath her. She was so weak. She could feel herself slipping away, barely able to even stay awake now.

Then something started to lift her up. She closed her eyes, and everything went fuzzy.

Felix found himself in Bliss’ house.

He’d been in this exact foyer probably a hundred times over the years, all the way back to when he was only five. He’d spent countless days here, hanging out with Bliss, talking to her about anything and everything, gossiping, complaining to each other, laughing and joking around.

But tonight the house was cold, dark. Unbearably quiet. He wished there was somewhere else to go, somewhere else he could portal that wouldn’t immediately get him killed.

“HELLO? SOMEONE? HELP!” He screamed, met with nothing but complete silence. Her parents weren’t here, they would have been in the audience, watching Bliss play on the cello with the band. There was nobody home. He could feel blood seeping through his clothes. Bliss was even worse off. He couldn’t think straight, panic taking over.

He leaned down, laying her on the ground, trying to be as gentle as possible. He reached into his pants pocket, where he thankfully had left his phone in. With shaking hands he called 911.

“PLEASE, HELP. A DIOLE ATTACKED MY FRIEND. SHE’S GOING TO DIE.” He screamed into the phone. He rushedly gave her address, his voice trembling with pure desperation. “SEND AN AMBULANCE. PLEASE. HELP HER.”

He was met by a steady but firm tone on the other end of the line. “Sir, we’re going to need you to calm down. Please tell us what happened.”

He looked down at Bliss again. Her head was bleeding worse now. She was scarily pale. He needed to stay here with her, make sure that she got the help she needed. He needed to protect her.

But his sister was still at the theatre. She was defenceless. She wasn’t a Diole. And she was stuck there with Gunther. He needed to find her. He couldn’t leave his family. If Reagan got hurt, got hurt because of the Board Game Club, because of Felix, he would never forgive himself. He had to go back, had to go find her. He couldn’t just abandon her, abandon Paisley, abandon the Board Game Club.

He remembered a few months ago, laying on his bed, Bliss’ head resting on his chest. It was the night after his 16th birthday party, the first time she’d ever slept over with him. It was just the two of them. They’d stayed up all night, talking and eating birthday cake.

Laying with her, talking about nothing really important, the two of them trying to suppress their laughter, he’d felt completely content. It was perfect. His life was finally settling down. His powers were under control, he had the Board Game Club, and he was even passing most of his classes. She’d smiled at him, so full of warmth and happiness. He could never stay in a bad mood around Bliss. She was just so full of complete love for the people around her. And when she smiled at him, he’d felt so normal. It was the best feeling in the world.

But he was a Diole and she was not.

And he couldn’t stay here and wait with her, as much as it killed him. Reagan could be hurt, could be dying. He needed to get back and help the rest of the club. He stared at his phone. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes.

“I have to go.” He said hoarsely, wanting nothing more than to just stay with her, to ride to the hospital with her, make sure she was safe. “Please, please send an ambulance.”

He took in her face one last time. He prayed that he would get to see her again. Hug her again. He opened up another portal, back into the theatre, and Bliss’ house disappeared.

He landed back in the rubble.

The theatre was still in chaos. He glanced around, looking for Reagan, holding back tears. He didn’t even have time to grieve, not when he was surrounded by blood and fighting and gunfire.

“FELIX!”

He whipped around. Reagan was sprinting at him, her eyes wild. She didn’t seem to be hurt. Her hair was out of its original braid, flying around her face, and she was covered in dust, but other that that, in one piece. He ran towards her, unbelievably relieved that she was okay, that Gunther hadn’t crushed her. She grabbed him tight. “WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE.”

“Where’s Paisley?!”

“THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT. WE NEED TO LEAVE.” She screamed again, looking at him in despair.

Avil and Gunther were still fighting, water splashing everywhere. “No, not yet!” Paisley was nowhere to be seen. “We have to find her! And I can’t leave them!” He gestured to Avil and Gunther. “I have to go help!”

She gripped his shoulders, fingernails digging into his skin. “SHE ALREADY LEFT.” Her voice cracked, she looked like she was two seconds from bawling her eyes out. “SHE SAID THAT SHE’LL MEET US. WE NEED TO GO.” She was pleading with him, begging.

“THERE, THE DIOLE.” Someone Felix didn’t know screamed, pointing at him angrily.

He hesitated, wondering for a second if he should just leave with her, let January figure this out on his own. But he couldn’t. They’d signed an oath. He wasn’t like Gunther, he wouldn’t break it like that. He had to help them. Gunther would kill them all if he left. He couldn’t lose both of his best friends.

“GET SOMEWHERE SAFE! I’LL BE BACK I PROMISE.” He stepped back from Reagan, opening up a portal.

“FELIX-“ Reagan screamed, reaching for him. He’d never heard her sound so desperate before.

But it was too late.

He landed on top of Gunther, trying to keep his balance as Gunther swung out and ripped more of the wall apart.

“Huh? A fly?” Gunther laughed, ignoring Felix. Felix kicked him in the eye as hard as he could, enough to at least stun him a bit.

“FUCK YOU!” He screamed.

Gunther just blinked, barely even phased. He laughed again. “You’ve been training for how long and that’s all you can do?” He reached up, giant hand closing around Felix before he could think to dodge.

Felix clawed at him, trying to squirm out of his grasp. He screamed in frustration. “I HATE YOU!” He tried to kick at his eye again, but Gunther just pulled him away. He dangled him by his arm, just like he had with Adelio. Felix was probably fifty feet up in the air. Enough to kill him if he fell. Gunther’s lips curled into a smirk.

“You always did amuse me, you know.”

Felix had never hated someone more.

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? YOU RUINED EVERYTHING.”

Gunther used his free hand to swipe away the bullets and water that were still being shot at him, but he seemed slower. The water pressure had evidently started to affect him. “Oh, I’m doing you all a FAVOUR.”

“MY LIFE WAS FINALLY GOING TO BE NORMAL!” Felix screamed back, so overcome by rage that he didn’t even care if Gunther dropped him. “I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND. HOW COULD YOU?”

“Normal?” Gunther laughed harder. “Your life never WAS and never WILL BE normal.” He threw Felix. “You have to accept that in this society you’ll be nothing but a MONSTER.”

Felix flew through the air, opening up another portal and landing in a heap on Gunther’s shoulder. He got to his feet again, staring at him in disbelief.

“LOOK AT YOURSELF.” He yelled. “LOOK AT WHAT YOU’RE DOING. I WOULD NEVER DO THAT. I WOULD NEVER HURT SOMEONE LIKE THAT.” He motioned to the mess of blood and bodies below, the Dioles that kept attacking. “IF YOU HAD JUST PLAYED ALONG THEN WE COULD’VE HAD A NORMAL LIFE!”

“THERE’S NOTHING NORMAL ABOUT US. HAS JANUARY RESTALL TAINTED YOUR MIND WITH SO MUCH FALSE HOPE?” He laughed. “I’M NOT LIKE YOU GUYS, I DON’T RUN AWAY FROM MYSELF. I DON’T CARE HOW MANY PEOPLE I HAVE TO HURT FOR MY OWN FREEDOM!”

Gunther grabbed onto more debris and hurled it.

“YOU’RE FUCKING CRAZY!” Felix couldn’t believe this was the same guy who had sat and laughed with him on Monday, sitting in the club room, playing board games with the rest of them. Had he known all along? Had he sat there while knowing he was going to do this?

“WHAT ABOUT YOUR GIRLFRIENDS? YOUR FAMILY? YOU HAD FRIENDS. DON’T YOU CARE?”

“I’m doing this for THEM.” He hissed, flicking Felix away. He stomped, cracking the ground and causing several chunks of the roof to collapse.

Felix opened another portal, landing on the ground lightly. “YOU THINK THEY’RE GONNA LIKE YOU NOW, AFTER YOU MURDERED A BUNCH OF HUMANS?”

Gunther narrowed his eyes, laughing. “This truly shows how we were never really friends.”

Felix thought about all the times he had hung out with Gunther. How Gunther had saved him when he had broken his leg in a fight, how Gunther had been one of his closest friends in the Board Game Club. Months of jokes and conversations. Gunther was one of the only people he could be fully himself, not having to worry about being a Diole. Gunther was cool, strong, and good at fighting. He was charming. Felix respected him; looked up to him, even. He was everything he wanted to be.

He didn’t want to admit how much that all really hurt, how much Gunther’s words stung. He had trusted him. And it was all nothing?

“HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY WANT ALL THIS?”

“OH YOU REALLY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.” Gunther spit back, seething.

“THEN TELL ME!” Felix screamed, waving his arms around. “TELL ME HOW ANY OF THIS IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE SENSE?”

“Maybe you’ll find out, if you make it to Paradise.” He started to morph again, growing larger in size, the ground collapsing even further. Cracks formed under Felix’s feet, and he was forced back farther.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

But Gunther was finally finished. He didn’t even look at him, instead using his sharp claws to continue to break the building.

Felix gave up trying to reason with him, portaling back up to his head and trying to poke his eyes out, distract him, do any sort of damage against him.

Gunther was seemingly getting stronger and stronger, effortlessly deflecting Avil and Felix’s attacks while dodging bullets. Felix had never made so many portals consecutively. His whole body shook with effort. His face was dripping with sweat. He stumbled, and Gunther tossed him through the air again. He managed to create another portal, this time rolling roughly on the ground. He felt sick. He couldn’t keep going like this for much longer, and he was sure that Avil couldn’t either. Gunther was still standing tall, wrecking the school. He didn’t even look bothered.

Gunther was always stronger than all of them, better than all of them. He knew it. Everyone knew it. Felix’s portals were nothing compared to him. He was no match. He wasn’t even sure if the entire club working together could overpower Gunther. It didn’t matter anyway, because the rest of the club was nowhere to be found. Maybe January really had abandoned them all.

There was a sharp bang. Felix’s shoulder exploded with pain. He coughed, blood soaking his jacket.

For a split second he could almost understand Gunther. Their bullets were doing nothing against Gunther’s monstrous form. The only person causing any real damage was Avil. The two of them were on their own against him. And yet the teachers were still shooting at them. Only a few minutes ago Mr. Prader had held him back, tried to protect him. Felix hadn’t hurt anyone, he was actively trying to distract Gunther long enough for Avil to finally land a hit on him. Yet it didn’t matter, all they heard was “Diole” and suddenly he was the enemy, a criminal; not a student.

Felix had been hiding - running - since he was six years old. He couldn’t remember what his life had been like, for the short time that he was normal. Before his parents died. Before Reagan found out he was a Diole. Before she took him away from their grandmother, before it was just them. He was only six. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He wasn’t evil, or wicked, or some sort of murderer. He was just a scared kid who had just lost his parents. But suddenly the world had decided that he was too dangerous.

“You’ll be nothing but a MONSTER.” Gunther’s words repeated in his head. There were people running away from him, staring at him like he was the one that had wrecked the school, that had crushed those people. They were scared of him. He could hear them screaming, shouting “DIOLE!” at him. Like there was no difference between him and Gunther, not in their eyes. He wondered bitterly if Gunther was right. If he really was running away from himself, if he was a coward.

But Bliss was somewhere bleeding out, possibly dead, because of Gunther. She was innocent, the one person Felix knew who didn’t seem to hate Dioles. She always spoke lightly about them, commenting on how neither humans nor Dioles could be inherently good or evil. “If a Diole can kill someone, then so can a human, and vice versa.”

Gunther wasn’t right. He was no different than them, attacking the school, laughing as he crushed Adelio’s arm and discarding them as if they were nothing more than a toy.

Felix crouched behind the rubble, trying to catch his breath. He wouldn’t let Gunther hurt anyone else. He had to find a way to be actually useful, because kicking Gunther in the eye wasn’t doing anything but annoying him and tiring Felix out. His shoulder stung. He was pretty sure that he was going to pass out from exhaustion. Every single muscle in his body hurt.

Keeping low, he searched the rubble for something sharp. His hands closed around a piece of jagged metal. Standing up shakily, he managed to open another portal, and slipped into it.

He landed on Gunther’s head once again, but this time he wasted not a second before attacking. Gunther didn’t seem to notice him, and he was becoming much more sluggish against both Felix, Avil, and the constant gunfire. Felix prayed this meant that they were actually chipping away at him, even if it was just slowly. Felix raised his arms above his head, arcing the weapon down with all his strength and impaling Gunther’s eye.

Gunther hissed, grabbing Felix and flinging him in the air. Felix flew up at least twenty feet, away from the school this time. Disoriented, he created another portal, slashing out at Gunther’s other eye.

Gunther merely closed his eye, the debris deflecting off of his hide. Felix twisted in the air, caught off balance, and Gunther took advantage of it, swatting him away. Felix opened up another portal, almost missing it, and fell back down to the ground, this time rolling roughly through the rubble.

The debris had started to float into the air, raising around Felix and Avil as they continued to fight. Gunther didn’t seem to pay it any mind, destroying more of the school.

January.

Felix hoped he was somewhere around here, hoped January had some sort of plan. Because Felix sure didn’t have one. He prayed the rest of the Board Game Club was safe. That someone would come to help them. He really wished Akali was here right now. He was the strongest in the club, next to January and Avil. He would’ve been able to take down Gunther much more easily than Felix was.

Gunther grabbed him again, but this time he was caught off guard, catching his breath down in the rubble. His claws closed around Felix, pinning his arms down. This time Gunther didn’t throw him, instead raising him higher into the air. His yellow eyes flickered dangerously. Felix’s heart sunk. It was the same amused look he had while holding Bliss.

Slowly, Gunther started to squeeze.

Felix screamed. His entire body lit up with pain. He had never felt like this before, every single muscle and bone in his body in agony. He couldn’t see, couldn’t think. All he could hear was himself screaming, his throat raw. Blood gushed from his bullet wound, dripping down Gunther’s fist. He screamed louder.

He couldn’t breathe.

He could feel his ribs folding in on each other, and his lungs felt like they were being crushed. The edges of his vision were blurring red. He could feel all the blood rushing to his head. he felt like he was going to explode. He wished he had said goodbye to Reagan. Wished he had said “I love you” one last time.

He was going to die, killed by one of his only friends.

Tears streamed down his face, he gagged. Stop, he wanted to beg. Please stop. He couldn’t make himself do anything except yell out in pain. Things were falling out of the sky, but his vision was so blurred that he couldn’t tell what it was. He didn’t even really care anymore, too focused on the way poison seemed to be sloshing around in his rib cage.

Someone grabbed the collar of his shirt, and the pressure ceased. The last thing he saw was a mountain of rubble come crashing down on Gunther with alarming speed, before he melted into shadow.

“You’re such an idiot.”

Someone grumbled, their monotone voice familiar. He was laid down on the ground gently. Bright LED lights blinded him. He must have been far away from the theatre now.

He blinked, and Akali in all his sweaty, blood-covered glory came into focus.

Felix shook, unable to say anything. His entire body still hurt, and his head felt foggy. Akali stood up, giving Felix a once-over quickly to make sure he was okay. “I’ll be back.” He vanished into a cloud of black smoke again.

The entire school was eerily quiet now. Felix couldn’t hear Gunther any longer. He laid there, shaking all over, his adrenaline rush finally fading.

“FELIX!”

Someone grabbed him, helping him to his feet. “WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE.”

It was Reagan, looking even more terrified than before. He managed to stand, feeling dizzy. He leaned against her, holding onto her side for support. “My friends,” he croaked. “I need to find them.”

Reagan just scooped him up, the action both done with utmost care but also urgency. “NO.” She was still screaming. “WE NEED TO LEAVE.”

Felix pushed against her weakly, but she wouldn’t let him go this time. “NO.” He yelled back, determined to not leave his friends. Not when they needed him the most. “They’ll die!”

Reagan looked at his shoulder wound, which was bleeding even worse after Gunther had almost crushed him. “You’ll die!” She stared at him incredulously, her voice taking on a desperate edge.

“Please. They need help!”

Reagan’s face hardened. Her jaw was set stubbornly, and she shifted so that she held him more tightly against her chest. “Reagan, I made a promise! I can’t just abandon them!” Felix pleaded with her. He couldn’t lose Akali and Bliss in one night. Paisley was gone. He wasn’t even sure if she made it out alive. Reagan started running down the hall, ignoring Felix’s protests. “YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE THEY ARE.” She shot back angrily, turning down a hallway.

Someone sprinted past them, and Felix noticed a flash of bright red hair. It was Wilder, running in the opposite direction.

Felix tried to jump from her arms and follow him, but he was too weak from the fight, and Reagan too stubborn. He screamed Wilder’s name, hoping Wilder would hear him, notice him, tell him where Avil was, where the rest of the Board Game Club was.

Wilder blatantly ignored him, disappearing into the dust.

Of course. Felix had never been more frustrated, being held back by his sister while Wilder ran away from him, not able to get over his petty grudge when they all were probably going to die. He punched at Reagan, each action causing his shoulder to burn even worse.

Reagan picked up her pace, not even paying attention to his weak attempts at fighting her. He’d never felt so utterly pathetic.

He started screaming, begging her to please, just help him find his friends. Please, let go. He couldn’t get Bliss out of his head, the way she looked laying in her empty house, blood pooling around her, as Felix left her, alone. He couldn’t stop the images of Akali, Avil, January… all with their eyes rolled back in their head, blood soaking through their clothes. He knew they wouldn’t survive if he left with Reagan. He would never see them ever again. He knew he’d never be able to forgive himself if they died.

Reagan didn’t even acknowledge his screams, looking around wildly for some sort of exit.

A door beside them swung open. Standing there was Maddox, looking more disheveled than usual, face wide with shock. His eyes were glowing blue, searching behind the two of them hopefully, like maybe January might be there.

“MADDOX!” Felix screamed, never more relieved to see him in his entire life.

Maddox grabbed onto Reagan, pulling the both of them inside and shutting the door once again.

Reagan stumbled, almost dropping Felix. The Board Game Club was gathered around the room, all behind Maddox. “WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?”

Felix used the distraction to break free, landing on his feet clumsily and managing to lean against a desk. Maddox looked at Reagan, his eyes were wide. “Is it just you two?” He asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.

Reagan glanced around, suddenly panicked again. “WHO ELSE IS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE?”

Felix took in his surroundings, and his heart ached. This was the room where he had broken Gunther’s rotting old guitar. He could recognize the closet in the back, where Gunther kept all his school supplies. He’d hung out here a few times, on the days when he was too bored to make himself go to class. Gunther had always greeted him with a crooked smile.

He hated how much he wished Gunther were here right now, hated how much he missed his friend.

Maddox continued to stare at Reagan, his blue eyes making him look unnerving. He tapped his foot, becoming even more impatient, but didn’t respond.

“Akali was with me,” Felix said, his voice ragged. “I don’t know where he went.”

Maddox nodded, looking like he would have done anything to hear January was okay. He stared down at his watch nervously.

The room went completely silent as a huge explosion rang off in the distance. Felix was horrified. Had Gunther survived being buried by debris? Was it not over yet?

A heat wave hit the room, and everything clicked into place.

Wilder.

Felix had no clue what he was doing, but he hoped he was helping Avil. He hoped January and Akali made it to the room soon.

“One minute left and we’re leaving.” Maddox declared, looking up from his watch again.

“What about January?”

Felix couldn’t have been more shocked. Maddox and January were a pair, and you would rarely find one without the other. The two were constantly together, laughing, joking, walking to class with each other. They were best friends. Maddox knew January better than anyone else, even knew how to calm him down when he got into those freaky states where he seemed like he wanted to kill you. Maddox and January were two halves of a whole. Even Felix knew that. Maddox couldn’t seriously be thinking about leaving without him.

Maddox kept glancing at the door. “He’ll…” He faltered for a second. “He’ll be fine.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

The sound of rushed footsteps echoed outside in the hall. Maddox was immediately at the door, having practically thrown himself across the room. He swung it open.

Akali, January, and Astley carrying Wilder.

There was no Avil.

“January!” Maddox ran up to his friend. “Are you hurt?”

January shook his head, in a daze. He had a faraway look in his eyes.

“Is Avil…?” Felix trailed off, already knowing the answer. His voice sounded incredibly small. This didn’t feel real. No one would look at him. They all stayed silent. He swallowed, his throat suddenly very dry. She’d been his first friend in the club, the first one who actually seemed to like him. She was kind, compassionate, and probably the only person who had genuinely been impressed by him.

She was only fifteen.

More footsteps sounded from down the hall, stomping loudly towards them. Maddox looked around at the group, his face was set. “We need to get out of here.”

“Where?” Felix asked, feeling lost. Maddox glanced back at the door again, his answer immediate, said without hesitation.

“Chumps Jr.”

Any other instance Felix would have groaned, protested, rolled his eyes. But right now he didn’t even care. He was grateful Maddox was taking charge, because he felt like he was about to fall apart. He’d lost too much tonight. He moved robotically, opening up another portal, the simple action taking everything he had left.

It weakly flickered to life, not big enough to even crawl through. Felix could feel everyone’s eyes on him. He was their one ticket out of here, yet he could barely even stand, barely even create a portal. The footsteps were growing louder and louder by the second.

The portal slowly opened wider, Felix feeling like he would pass out any second now. The footsteps were even closer now. Felix’s whole body shook with the effort of it all.

Finally, the portal opened. But so did the door.

Rory was the first one through. They hopped through without a second thought, dragging Kuali’i in behind them.

At the door was Ms. Cora. Her dark brown eyes were wide. At her side was a familiar large gun, the one that she kept in her classroom at all times. But it wasn’t pointed at them, instead resting on her hip, her hands already occupied, holding a scared-looking kid. He was curled up in her arms, and he couldn’t have been older than seven. With a start, Felix realized it was one of Winola’s siblings. He couldn’t remember his name. The kid had bit him at the beach once, that he was sure.

Ms. Cora looked at the club, and then the portal. Her hand twitched, instinctively reaching for her gun.

Felix grabbed Reagan, shoving her into the portal. She screamed, but by then she was already gone. Astley picked up Winola, who was bleeding from both of her legs, too weak to move, and stepped through as well, Wilder still slung across his back.

Ms. Cora disconnected the gun from its holster, kicking it to the side. “Look, look, I’m not here to hurt you.” She looked toward the figure laying on the ground, which Felix realized for the first time was Adelio. It was hard to tell if they were still alive or not. “I just need you to leave so I can take him.”

One by one, the remains of the Board Game Club stepped through. Felix took one last glance at Ms. Cora, who was patiently waiting so that she could pick up Adelio and get him help.

He stepped through the portal, and the school faded away around him.

#this is my roman empire #dioles tag #oc: Felix #oc: Bliss #oc: Kuali’i #oc: Gunther #oc: Avil #oc: Mr Prader #oc: Winola #oc: Reagan #oc: Akali #oc: January #oc: Cora #ocs: The Board Game Club #my ocs #oc fic #oc writing #ocs

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dioles-writes · 11 months

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• OC FICLET •

Masterlist | Characters: Felix (he/him), January (he/him), Akali (he/him), Rory (they/she), Kuali’i (he/him)

Credits to @jiphenn as the characters in purple are all hers!

There was a knock at the door.

Felix was with the rest of the Board Game Club, sitting next to Akali as they all drank hot chocolate, chatting and playing board games.

“Can you go open the door Felix?” January asked, taking a sip of his drink.

Felix stood up from his seat, leaving Akali who was absolutely destroying him at Monopoly and swinging open the door.

Standing before him was Kuali’i, multicoloured hair loosely curled, an awkward smile on his face. He looked like he was regretting everything. Felix smirked at him. “Oh, hi.”

“Hey guys, your new club members are here!” Rory popped up from behind Kuali’i with a grin, pushing him through the door. January was immediately all smiles, springing up with his usual enthusiasm. “Oh, you guys are here!” He ran up quickly to lock the door, completely ecstatic. He turned to the rest of the club. “You guys know what that means.” He was grinning from ear to ear. Felix took his seat next to Akali again.

“Power sharing!”

January was absolutely brimming with excitement. “This also gives us a chance to see how we’ve improved!” He continued. “I’ll go first!”

January retrieved a freshly sharpened pencil from his bag, like the very first club meeting. Felix got flashbacks to his freaky aura switch, as he stabbed himself clean through his hand, blood slicking the table. “My power is weight! Meaning I can change the rate at which gravity pulls it down.” He said with a smile, dangling the pencil over his hand.

At the last second he pulled his hand away with a chuckle. “Just kidding!” He stared at the horrified expressions of the original members, his green and purple eyes twinkling. “I’m not doing that again.” Astley, Rory, Kuali’i, Wilder and Gunther looked extremely confused.

“I can do it normally like this.” January placed his thumb over the eraser, and the pencil came crashing down at the table with a large thud, faster than ever. Felix was relieved he didn’t stab himself again.

January stood up, continuing his demonstration. “I can also make it work like this now!” He grabbed the pencil and chucked it across the room. He tapped his thumb against his index finger almost immediately, and the pencil stopped mid-flight, falling harshly into the table again.

“And I can do this now too!” He said, cracking his fingers. He touched the chair he was just sitting on, and the whole club watched, captivated, as the chair slowly started to lift off the ground and float. “Now the gravitational pull is less than it was before, meaning I can float things.” January explained, tapping his thumb against his finger again and causing the chair to fall back down.

“Next is Akali!” January said, taking a seat once more.

Akali pulled his gloves off, and shadows immediately started seeping from the cracks in his palms, his familiar shadow creatures emerging.

This time, instead of three, four came out. They were larger now too, probably nine feet tall, and the air around the creatures seemed colder, more sinister, radiating an ominous presence. “I can make shadow creatures.” Akali said. “I can also switch positions with them.” He flickered to each spot with ease, before finally teleporting back down to his spot. He put his gloves back on. “That’s it.” He said with a shrug.

“Next up is Felix!”

Felix stood up, taking a deep breath. Ever since the club had practiced their powers at January’s mansion he had been working day and night to improve his portals. He’d practiced portaling different objects around his room, then also around their house. He spent most nights when he was free after school at January’s, the two of them working together. He’d been determined to not make a fool of himself again. This would be the ultimate test - to see if he’d actually made any real improvements.

“I can make portals.” He said with a smile, swiping his hand through the air. Below his feet an electric blue portal crackled to life, expanding underneath the entire table and sucking the club in.

When they resurfaced, they were standing on a random hilltop in Germany. Mountains rose up around them, surrounded by large rolling hills, all of it a majestic green. Felix wondered why this place had popped up in his mind, out of all the other countries. The whole club looked extremely alarmed, besides January, Rory, Gunther and Astley, who were probably used to this sort of thing by now. With a swipe of his hand, Felix landed them back in the club room, like they’d never even left.

“WOW!” January exclaimed, clapping loudly and looking genuinely impressed.

Felix grinned at him and sat back down.

One by one, the rest of the club showed off their powers. No one else had improved as much as January and Felix (with Maddox and Astley not being able to improve at all) but the club all had much better control over their abilities from when they last showed them off three months ago.

Eventually, it reached Kuali’i.

He glanced around, looking like he was debating if he should escape or not, before seemingly deciding he was in it too deep to walk away now. He swallowed. “I’m Kuali’i and this is my power.”

He swiped his two fingers up and a red holographic screen appeared in front of him. “I guess you can kind of call it getting my way.” He broadcasted the screen into a bigger one that faced the rest of the Board Game Club. “If I have a goal in mind, I’m able to achieve it as long as I meet three requirements.” The entire club watched him curiously as he continued to explain.

“So, for example, say I wanna grow two inches,” A header with the title ‘GROW TWO INCHES’ popped up on the screen. He clicked it and it expanded, turning into a three-item checklist:

GROW TWO INCHES TALLER

[] Run for five miles

[] Sleep for eleven hours straight

[] Make five new friends

MONTHLY POWER UPS REMAINING: 3

“So as long as I complete these three tasks my goal will happen.” Kuali’i said. “Monthly power ups help me complete a task easier. So in this case I could increase my stamina or speed for a while so I could run five miles more effortlessly.” Kuali’i exited out of the goal.

“That’s why I didn’t join the club at first. Cause I didn’t really need to.” He swiped back a little bit, revealing a goal that read, “AVOID GETTING INJECTED AND FOUND OUT BY THE DIOLE VACCINE”.

Felix thought about how hard January had been pushing the club to recruit him. How many times Felix had brought up the club, trying to convince him to join. How confused he had been for the last few months, on why Kuali’i, who was tall, attractive, well-liked, and had seemingly everything, would want to lose it all when the vaccine came out.

“I still don’t really need to join…” Kuali‘I mumbled. “But it was a task on one of my other goals.”

Felix almost laughed at the irony of it all. He couldn’t believe it. Kuali’i didn’t even want to join them now - he was simply doing it to complete a task. Months of trying to get closer to him, to have him feel more comfortable, and the guy still didn’t really trust them. Felix was absolutely shocked.

“That’s about all I can do.” Kuali’i said, swiping down and making the screen vanish.

#dioles tag #oc: Felix #oc: January #oc: Akali #oc: Kuali’i #oc: Rory #oc fic #my ocs #oc ficlet #Kuali’i is my fav honestly he’s so silly #oc writing #writerscorner #writeblr #ocs #writers on tumblr #writers community

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dioles-writes · 3 months

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CHARACTER SHEET: KUALI’I

[UPDATED VERSION: PARADISE]

Name: Kuali’i Alana

Gender/Pronouns: Cisgender He/Him

Sexuality: Gay Asexual

Age: 18

D.O.B.: March 27 (Aries)

Ethnicity: Hawaiian

Appearance: Shoulder-length, loosely curled black hair. Tall with tan skin and a muscular build. Glossy pale red eyes and perfect pearly white teeth.

Height: 6’2

Aesthetic: A very sporty aesthetic. Wears a lot of neutral colours + blues. Can be seen in a lot of baggy pants, button-ups, and sweater vests.

Personality: Severely depressed.

Likes: Rory, when his family was still alive

Dislikes: GUNTHERRRRRR, violence, fighting, when people are late to rehearsal, being alive 💀, all of Paradise

Role: Member of the Board Game Club and Shehani Indika's representative

Other:

Diole

Best friends with Rory

Him, Rory, and Wilder have grown strangely close ever since their time in Chumps Jr.

A ranked fighter in the Combat Unit

Has a room at the VIP hotel with Wilder and Rory

#Spotify #dioles tag #oc writing #updated character sheet #oc: Kuali’i

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dioles-writes · 4 days

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• THEME SONG TAG GAME •

Masterlist | Full Character Playlist

Tagged by @seastarblue

Rules: Pick three ocs and assign them a song!

Rory Hattie: Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People) - Will Wood

Kuali’i Alana: Fog (Again) [Live] - Radiohead

Alzena Midori: I Bet On Losing Dogs - Mitski

Gently tagging: @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @good-blog-name-pending @lostcryptidinthewoods @astor-and-the-endless-ink + anybody that wants to join

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dioles-writes · 24 days

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• OC FICLET •

Masterlist | Characters: Rory (they/she), Alzena (she/her), Kuali’i (he/him), Winola (she/her), Una (he/they), Akali (he/him)

Characters in purple belong to @jiphenn and Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

“Where’d you all gooooooo?” Rory wandered through the rubble, Kuali’i and Alzena by their side.

Winola’s eyes widened at the sight of Alzena, guilt, anger and grief bubbling to the surface. She walked next to Rory like a robot, no, it was more as if she was a puppet being moved along on strings. Her body jerked forwards, her figure slowly growing smaller as Rory led her further and further away.

They draped their arm around Alzena’s shoulders, pulling her in closer. “I think we killed everybody here. Let’s go home now Orla.” They giggled and continued to walk closely attached to her.

The sight made Winola’s skin crawl. Let go of her, she wanted to scream. Get your filthy hands off of her.

Alzena obediently leaned into Rory’s touch, her face blank as she allowed herself to be led away. Winola watched her from where she and Una were hidden behind the rubble, every nerve in her body screaming at her to go after them. She’d felt useless for her entire life, but this… it was like never before. She could only watch as her best friend - the one person she cared about the most in the entire world - was dragged away from her.

All she wanted was to save her. She would have gladly given her life if it meant Alzena was okay. That she was safe. Yet here she was, free, while Alzena was trapped with Rory, all their attempts at getting her back proving to be pointless.

A blur of movement pulled Winola from her thoughts as Rory was suddenly jumped by a shadowy figure.

Akali appeared from behind the rubble, shadow creatures flanking his sides. He lashed out at Rory, fighting like Winola had never seen before, not from Akali. His movements were more as if he was fuelled by anger, instead of the moral compass that he usually followed.

Una popped out some clones to go help him. “Shit, we have to find the others.” He mumbled, sending out some more to look for them.

Akali leapt onto Alzena, wrapping his arms and legs around her body and latching on with all his might. She thrashed around and foamed at the mouth, poison bubbling from her lips, yet still he kept his tight hold on her, his face set with a look of pure determination. No matter how hard Alzena tried to shake him off, whipping her whole body around in an attempt to loosen his hold on her, he just wouldn’t let go.

Rory was screaming at the top of their lungs, full of a pure rage that Winola had never seen present on them. “LET GO OF HER!”

“Borislava, Tindra, we need help.” Winola said into the earpiece.

She was met with silence.

Rory started to go absolutely psychotic, desperately fighting off Akali’s shadow creatures while trying to grab Alzena, her eyes shining with a crazed light. “LET GO OF MY SISTER! SHE’S GOING HOME WITH ME!”

Kuali’i was slowly making his way through Una’s clones, tearing each of them down. Winola glanced around wildly. No one was coming to help.

She jumped up from her hiding spot, charging in to help Akali. Before she had the time to form an attack, a barrage of acid went flying at her, spread out in a wide arc. Too wide to dodge. It splashed her onto her front, her body lighting up in pain as her skin started to bubble and peel off.

Suddenly a guttural scream came from Akali.

He finally let go of Alzena and she ran free, leaving him as he fell into a ball on the ground, his skin smoking and bubbling as poison seeped through it.

She headed straight towards Rory and didn’t look back.

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dioles-writes · 24 days

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• OC FICLET •

Masterlist | Characters: Atiah (he/him), Rory (they/she), Winola (she/her), Kuali’i (he/him), Alzena (she/her), Vincent (he/him)

Characters in purple belong to @jiphenn and Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

“Ugh, that fucking bitch. This hurts like shit.”

Atiah groaned on the ground, his face scrunched up in pain. Blood was pooled around him in a thick puddle, staining his clothes scarlet. But what was most startling about his appearance was the cause of the blood: where his arms used to be were now two disfigured stumps.

“There you guys are! Here, call Haven!” Rory looked up from her spot crouched over Atiah, tossing her phone up to Winola.

Winola’s hands moved obediently, dialling up Haven’s number. She answered on the third ring. “Need me to pick you guys up?”

“Yes, quickly please.”

A door instantly materialized in front of Winola. Rory stepped through, leading Kuali’i who was carrying Atiah bridal-style. Alzena and Winola followed behind them, popping back into Paradise.

The five of them all landed in the Medical Unit base. Rory and Kuali’i quickly made their way down the hall, towards the main healing hall.

Rory knocked before swinging open the door. “Hey Vincent! We need a little bit of help!”

“Oh what is it?” Vincent glanced up from what he was doing, looking towards them.

“I don’t got arms.”

“Oh!”

Kuali’i walked in behind Rory, placing Atiah down on one of the tables. “I wrapped some rope around them to stop the blood flow.” Rory said.

“Well done Rory, I’m glad I can count on you.” Vincent gave her a small smile before walking towards his son.

“How’d this happen?” He asked gently.

“Dad hurry up, I’m about to pass out from blood loss.” Atiah complained.

“My bad, my bad.” Vincent placed his hands on Atiah’s shoulders, beginning to wind his body back in time.

Atiah’s whole body tensed up in pain as his screams of agony filled the room, the four of them watching on as his arms slowly started to form and grow.

“Just breathe, you’re doing good.” Vincent said softly, only to get a yell of pain in response. Winola was left to watch as all the bones and muscles reformed, Atiah’s skin slowly growing over it.

It seemed like forever passed of Atiah screaming and hollering, but finally, his arms were whole again, and as strong as ever.

“Does it have to hurt so much?” Atiah grumbled, clenching his fists and flexing his arms to make sure that they were working properly.

“Well, your body is growing at a rapid rate, so it’s only natural to hurt.” Vincent replied, plopping down in a chair. “Now tell me what happened.”

“Shehani exploded my arms off.”

“Oh did she now?”

“Yes, while I was busy stabbing whoever was in that portal. I managed to slice her up but I doubt it was enough to do any real damage.” Atiah furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed and dissatisfied.

Vincent stood up, ruffling Atiah’s hair. He gave him a small smile. “You did good.”

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dioles-writes · 9 months

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• DIOLES MASTERLIST •

All credits go to the very talented amazing @jiphenn as the story belongs to her!!

SYNOPSIS: Fifteen years ago, the government decided to wipe out all magic users, known as Dioles. Now, Felix Rodriguez and Winola Higgins, two teenage Dioles, find themselves struggling to live a normal life while trying to conceal their magic. That is, until the first day of 11th grade, when two of their classmates discover their secret.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Heavy violence, major character death, suicidal ideation, implied/referenced suicide attempts, implied/referenced self harm, substance abuse, torture, body horror

FIC/FICLETS IN ORDER:

OC Ficlet: January Restall

OC Ficlet: The Text

OC Fic: Room 2703

OC Fic: Dodgeball to the Death

OC Ficlet: January’s Secret Chest

OC Ficlet: The Sleepover

OC Fic: Babysitting

OC Fic: The Woods

OC Ficlet: Felix & Reagan’s Fight

OC Fic: Board Game Club Introductions

OC Fic: Howard Restall

OC Ficlet: Diole Camp 82

OC Fic: Parent-Teacher Interviews

OC Ficlet: Taskbar

OC Fic: The Winter Concert

OC Ficlet: Chumps Jr. - Week 4

OC Fic: Chumps Jr. - Week 5

OC Fic: Chumps Jr. - Week 7

OC Ficlet: The Infirmary

OC Fic: Welcome to Paradise!

OC Fic: The Mansion

OC Ficlet: Reese’s Question

OC Ficlet: The Board Game Club Meeting

OC Fic: The Day of New Waves

OC Ficlet: Haru

OC Ficlet: The Aftermath

OC Ficlet: Breaking News

OC Ficlet: AX68299H

OC Fic: Venus

OC Ficlet: Ensio and Ilona's talk

OC Ficlet: The Underground Diole Training Headquarters

OC Fic: Adelio’s House

OC Ficlet: The Accident

OC Ficlet: Orla

OC Ficlet: Atiah’s Arms

OC BLORBS:

OC Blorb: One Year

OC Blorb: Slipping Through My Fingers

OC Blorb: What Is Home Like? (by @jiphenn 🥰)

OC Blorb: Gunther’s Decision (by @jiphenn 🥰)

OC Blorb: Kuali’i’s Promise (by @jiphenn 🥰)

CHARACTER INFO:

Dioles Character Songs

The Board Game Club

BGC Fun Facts

Timeline

Diole Camps

Powers

CHARACTERS:

Seperate character bios will have updated appearances and character info from later on in the story.

FELIX • Character Bio | Update | Update

WINOLA • Character Bio | Update | Update

JANUARY • Character Bio | Update

MADDOX • Character Bio | Update | Update

AKALI • Character Bio | Update | Update

BLISS • Character Bio

ADELIO • Character Bio

AVIL • Character Bio

ALZENA • Character Bio | Update | Update

NYSSA • Character Bio | Update | Update

ASTLEY • Character Bio | Update | Update

RORY • Character Bio | Update

KUALI’I • Character Bio | Update

WILDER • Character Bio | Update | Update

GUNTHER • Character Bio

VINCENT • Character Bio

HAVEN • Character Bio

MANON • Character Bio

REESE • Character Bio

BORISLAVA • Character Bio

EINAR • Character Bio

SHEHANI • Character Bio

ATIAH • Character Bio

UNA • Character Bio

HIRAYA • Character Bio

MR PRADER •

CORA • Character Bio

HARU • Character Bio

ENSIO • Character Bio

ILONA • Character Bio

DELLA • Character Bio

REAGAN • Character Bio

PAISLEY • Character Bio

VENUS •

TINDRA •

SEIJUN •

BARBARA •

CALIX •

AMARYLLIS •

[ Felix, Paisley, and Reagan are all mine, but the rest of the characters belong to @jiphenn ]

CHARACTER QUESTIONS

93 OC Questions: January, Una, & Paisley

9 notes · View notes

dioles-writes · 18 days

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• OC FICLET •

Masterlist | Characters: Winola (she/her), Hiraya (she/her), Rory (they/she), Alzena (she/her), Kuali’i (he/him), Manon (she/her), January (he/him)

Characters in purple belong to @jiphenn and Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

Winola found herself back in the arena. Back in Paradise.

“Good job today Rory!” Hiraya exclaimed, stepping through the door and giving her a high five. “Where are you gonna go now?”

“I think I might visit January!”

“Okay, just be careful with Winola.”

“I will!” Rory smiled. “Let’s go guys!” She made her way towards the exit, Kuali’i, Winola, and Alzena instantly falling in pace beside her.

For the first time in months, Winola could sense Alzena’s presence next to her. Alzena, inches away from her, right in arms reach. And she couldn’t move her body to even so much as glance at her.

Her heart ached. Since they had lost her, she had wished nothing more that she could switch places with her, that she could’ve been the one taken, stuck in Paradise with Rory. All as long as Alzena was safe. Now, part of her wish had come true - here she was, forced to walk alongside Rory, with no control over her movements or actions. It was a cruel joke. Now, she had no way to help Alzena, no way to get her out of here. She was completely and utterly helpless.

“What kind of ice cream do you guys want?” Rory asked, skipping along. “I know Kuali’i likes cherry and January likes chocolate! But what about you two?” She turned to them. “Mint chip and strawberry? I like those too!” Rory decided herself, considering Winola and Alzena could not move on their own, much less open their mouths to protest. “My favourite is tiger swirl though.”

They continued to walk as Rory chatted with the three of them happily, leading them out of the arena. She seemed to be having quite the lovely, amazing time, despite the fact that neither Kuali’i, Alzena, or Winola were able to engage in the conversation with her.

The four exited the dark, gloomy halls of the Combat Unit, heading out into the bright and sunny streets of Paradise.

Everything looked just like Winola remembered it. Vibrant and beautiful, with vast green parks overflowing with colourful flowers and plants, the streets lined by quaint little shops bustling with happy customers. What once would’ve spurred up emotions of contentment and pleasure now just left a bitter taste in her mouth. She had, for a time, almost considered this place something akin to a home. She had never belonged to somewhere that she could consider home - not with Freida and Fergus Higgins to call family; but her time at Einar’s cozy cottage, working at the orchestra with her friends, going to Board Game Club meetings every Friday, it was the one time she had felt…. truly happy.

Except now the memory was tainted and ugly, a reminder, like everything else in her life, of what could’ve been. What could’ve been, if she hadn’t left, what could’ve been, if Vincent hadn’t made his announcement that fateful night. A life with something close to what she was sure a real family was like, a job doing her favourite thing in the entire world, all her closest friends to surround her….

She wished she’d never come back.

“We haven’t visited January in forever!” Rory was saying, still talking away. “I wonder if he’s home!”

They kept leisurely cruising along, twisting and turning through the different streets, passing by the same sights that were all too familiar to Winola, sights she wished she could turn her gaze away from. But finally, the four pulled up to the large ebony-black gates of the Lim Estate.

The last place Winola had seen before she left.

She had never expected to be setting foot in this place ever again. Where the Board Game Club had spent so many meetings in January’s room, laughing and joking happily as they played board games and snacked. Where she had first met the mighty leader of Paradise, where she had found out the truth about Gunther’s betrayal. All the memories came rushing back, flooding her brain. Where she had watched as Vincent stood before all of Paradise, laughing as he announced his plan. Where she had turned her back on January’s angry figure, and fled.

And here she was. Right back at the start.

The gates swung open and Rory skipped up the steps, greeted at the front door by a very familiar face. “Hi Rory!” Manon waved at them excitedly before turning her attention on the rest of the group. Her gaze landed on Winola, and her eyes went wide, jaw dropping to the ground.

“WOOOOOOAHHH WINOLA’S HERE???” She gasped loudly, her face lighting up at the sight of the girl standing in front of her.

“Yup! Winola decided she missed Paradise and came back!”

“Really??!” Manon grinned up at Winola.

Winola felt her head nod against her will, her lips curving up into a smile. “Thanks for having me.” The words left her mouth before she could even think to fight it.

“No problem! Come in! Come in!!” Manon swung the door open with a wide smile, ushering all of them inside.

She skipped through the halls, leading them away. “You’re here to see January, right?”

“Yup, but we also came to see you!” Rory smiled. “Where’s Atiah and your dad?”

“Dad’s working and Atiah’s helping him.”

“That’s nice, I’m glad they’re working so hard!”

“Yeah they work very hard!” Manon sounded so proud of her happy little family. “How did your mission go?”

“Oh, very well! We saw Felix, Akali, Wilder, Maddox, and Akali’s sister.”

“Oh really?!”

“Yup! It was pretty fun!”

The five of them continued down the halls. Winola could feel her eyes drifting as they walked along, her gaze flickering to all the family portraits that hung along the walls. She could see a couple new ones along the bunch, especially of January, but not compared to the numerous photos of Gunther. It was jarring, seeing him grinning happily, looking pretty and fresh, when all she had been seeing of him lately was his ghost form, his skin marred by scars.

“I think January’s in his room! That or he might be in the training room.” Manon said, pulling Winola’s attention away from the pictures.

“Let’s go check his room first!” Rory said.

Manon continued to pull them through the seemingly never-ending halls of the mansion, but finally she came to a stop in front of a door. It was marked by a large sign that read out ‘JANUARY’, one that Winola easily recognized from all her days spent here with the rest of the Board Game Club. Days that, right now, she kind of found herself missing.

Manon knocked. No answer.

“Hellooooo, I’m coming in!” She knocked again before opening the door.

The four were greeted by the view of January’s expansive bedroom, complete with a crystal-clear waterfall that spilled into its own pond with koi fish drifting near the surface - but no January. It was completely empty.

“Not in here!” Manon said, glancing around the room before stepping out and shutting the door behind her.

“Let’s go to the gym then!” Rory and Manon really seemed to match each other’s energy. They spun around, skipping through the halls alongside each other as Rory’s three mindless drones followed along silently, the two friends talking about anything and everything.

After more long, weaving hallways, confusing turns, and a lot of walking, they reached a door. Inside Winola could hear a lot of commotion and banging, whoever that was inside evidently hard at work.

The commotion came to a sudden halt as soon as they approached the door. “I think he heard us!” Manon skipped over, swinging open the door and flashing the person inside a bright smile. “There you are!”

“Hey! Watcha doing?”

That was voice Winola hadn’t heard in a long, long while - and one she was no more pleased to hear than she was to be back in Paradise.

“I was coming to find you! Some people came to visi-“

January popped his head out of the door, his gaze instantly falling onto Winola. They locked eyes, January’s stare piercing, burning into hers with such an intensity that the boy was almost unrecognizable. The whole atmosphere of the hall shifted, the air going thick and uncomfortable, and Winola could feel her body shake, almost as if it was in the presence of danger.

“Surprise! Winola’s with us now!” Rory cheered.

“Really?” The aura completely disappeared, January’s eyes returning to normal as he glanced at her curiously. Winola could feel herself nod.

“Why’d you come back?” January asked, his eyes still not leaving hers.

Winola could feel her body shrug slightly before her mouth began moving again. “The more I thought about it the more I thought you were right.” The words tasted bitter in her mouth, so utterly wrong, yet Winola was unable to do anything to stop it.

January watched her carefully for a second, before seeming to be satisfied with her answer. He gave her a smile. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Winola couldn’t disagree more. Talking to January, standing in the Lim mansion, alongside Rory… it all made her skin crawl.

“Do you wanna get some ice cream with us?” Rory asked.

“Yeah sure!” January fully emerged from behind the door. “From the fridge or from the shop?”

“The ones from your house are yummier!”

The six made their way towards the kitchen. “What kind of ice cream do you like Winola?” January asked, glancing back to look at her.

She had absolutely no control over her words. “Mint chip.”

January frowned for a split second, before his expression instantly fixed back into that easy-going smile of his. “That’s a good flavour!”

After a bit of walking and chatting they arrived at the kitchen. Everyone plopped down at the island and January made his way over to the freezer, pulling out several different ice cream containers of different flavours. He then grabbed a scooper and several bowls, setting them on the counter before beginning to ask everyone what flavour they wanted. He scooped a nice filling of mint chip ice cream for Winola, handing it over to her.

As she took the bowl their fingers brushed, just slightly. January’s fingertips were rough and callous, not soft and smooth like they once used to be. All the training and missions had evidently changed a lot.

Winola patiently waited until everyone else had their scoops before she digged in. The ice cream melted on her tongue, bursting with flavour that made her mouth water for more, almost bringing her body to tears. Instinctively, her body acted like she had been starving for months (because she had), and began to quickly gobble up the ice cream, ravenously shovelling bite after bite into her mouth. She practically inhaled her serving, the ice cream disappearing in what seemed like just seconds.

Winola had never been more ashamed of herself.

“Woah, you sure are hungry Winola.” January said, watching her eat. “Do you want some more?”

Winola could feel her body want to shake its head, but her eyes locked upon the container of ice cream again, shining hungrily, and she slowly nodded. January scooped her up some more from the goodness of his heart, sliding the bowl back to her with a slight smile.

They sat like that for a while, chatting together while finishing off their very yummy ice cream, before Manon hopped out of her chair. “Can we watch a movie January?” She asked, looking up at her favourite cousin.

“Sure! I’m just gonna wash the dishes though. Wanna help Winola?”

“Sure.” Winola said, sliding out of her seat and piling up the dishes to carry over.

“You guys go to the theatre, we’ll be there soon!”

“Okay!” Everyone skipped off, leaving just January and Winola.

They stood at the sink, side by side, the only sounds being the gentle running of tap water and the clinking of dishes as the two scrubbed off the leftover ice cream.

Slowly, Winola could feel January’s creepy aura start to spread. It was almost invisible at first, easy to ignore; then, the air grew thicker, the atmosphere around them going cold and stiff, until Winola was surrounded, her body trembling in fear.

“I’m not dumb.” He stated flatly, his eyes focused on the sponge in his hand. “I don’t know whether you came here as a spy or if Rory brought you here under their control, but I know you didn’t come here willingly.”

Winola could feel her sense of control begin to come back as she washed the dishes, her hands beginning to slow to a stop instead of robotically move like before. January’s aura only grew evermore, until Winola could almost feel herself almost choking on it, pure terror shooting through her veins from the boy next to her.

“I’ll treat you like a friend for as long as you’re here. But if you try to get in the way of Paradise or hurt anyone here…” He paused for a second, letting his words hang in the air between them. Winola felt her body stop completely, slowly turning to face him. He loomed over her, casting a dark shadow across her face, and when she finally made eye contact again, his gaze held the same look of terrifying bloodlust that she remembered so clearly seeing back on the mission in December, just before he had tried to crush her.

“I will kill you.”

5 notes · View notes

dioles-writes · 20 days

Text

• OC FICLET •

Masterlist | Characters: Felix (he/him), Akali (he/him), Ilona (she/her), Maddox (he/him), Wilder (he/him), Winola (she/her), Rory (they/she), Hiraya (she/her), Kuali’i (he/him)

Characters in purple belong to @jiphenn and Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

As soon as they stepped foot in the clearing bullets rang out from every direction.

Felix. BAM. Akali. BAM. Ilona. BAM. Maddox. BAM. One by one, they were all picked off.

Now only Winola and Wilder stood unharmed.

Thinking fast, Winola rose both her arms in one quick motion, and the dirt shot up around them, hardening into a protective shield. As everyone fell to the ground and began to quickly tend to their injuries, she glanced around, creating a peephole and peering through.

She found herself staring at the one person she didn’t want to see.

Rory.

“Yoohoo!! Guess who it is!” There was a knock on the shield as more bullets hammered against it, slowly weakening it bit by bit. Fortunately, Winola still managed to hold strong against it, skillfully blocking the gunfire.

“You guys are no fun.” Rory huffed. “Hiraya, break down the shield pretty please.”

The shield started to crumble as a large chunk of it was repeatedly hit, the gunfire ringing out louder than ever. “Come on guys, don’t make me shoot Winola too.”

A bullet ripped through Winola’s right leg.

The entire shield shattered, dirt raining down in clumps as all six of them took off running. Winola sprinted ahead, pain spiking through her leg for every step that she took. “Wait up guys!” Rory frolicked behind them, completely at ease.

A splash of liquid sprayed in front of them, and suddenly there was nowhere left for them to run. Where the ground previously had been now was a large, gaping chasm, bubbling as poison corroded it away.

Rory and Hiraya crept even closer.

Winola’s mind raced. There was nowhere left for them to go.

They were completely stuck; it would still be minutes before their powers came back, precious minutes that they didn’t have time to wait, and still then they were already weakened by their injuries. They were lucky Hiraya’s shots hadn’t been lethal - she could easily take out all six of them in a heartbeat. As soon as her and Rory grew bored of watching them desperately scramble away, they’d be sure to finish each of them off.

“Hey guys let’s talk!” Rory called out.

Winola noticed she looked different than before: Covering her left eye was now a black eyepatch with a white flower design in the middle of it. “You like my eyepatch?” She grinned.

“FELIX GET BACK HERE!” Akali screamed, turning around to stare at his friend with an incredulous look. Winola glanced back, momentarily pulled from her thoughts, only to see dumbass Felix charging straight towards Rank 3 at full speed.

“I got this after our last battle Akali!” Rory ignored Felix, her gaze still focused directly on Akali, her one charcoal-black eye watching his every move. Akali didn’t pay her any mind, taking off to go fetch Felix from death.

“You hurt my eye pretty badly, I couldn’t see out of it anymore.” Rory continued calmly, stepping backwards a little.

“Half of us can’t make this jump.” Wilder said, turning away from Rory to stare down at the rift - and then at Winola and Maddox.

“I can throw you over.” Ilona offered, making her way over to him. “We just have to stall until the bullet effects wear off.” She picked him up, effortlessly tossing him over the rift.

“Guys wait, before you go I wanna show you something!” Rory shouted from across the clearing, making sure to be extra loud so that even Wilder could hear.

She took a wide step back and tossed something up high into the air.

Instinctively, Winola’s eyes locked on it.

An eyeball.

Everything went blank.

But almost just as fast as it had happened, everything started to come back into hazy focus. She could see Rory and Hiraya charging towards Felix and Akali, could feel as Ilona lifted her up and chucked her over the rift. Yet despite being aware of her surroundings, her mind was fuzzy, her body numb and heavy.

Like she wasn’t in control of it.

Ilona began to lead them all away, sprinting as fast as she could manage with a gun wound to her side, yet Winola’s body would not oblige. She slowly turned around, walking back towards Rory instead of following the others like she so desperately wanted to. “Aww, I was going for someone else. You’re still a good pick though!” Rory smiled at her, waiting patiently on the other side of the rift.

Winola couldn’t decide who she hated more.

Rory -

Or herself.

Akali glanced back to see Winola making her way ever closer to Rory. He quickly tossed Felix over to rift, sprinting back to her rescue.

Winola had barely even heard the distant bang of the gun before a sharp pain lit up her side. Vines sprung up from the ground, fast as lightning. They shot towards Akali, twisting and weaving through the air as they started to wrap around his neck.

Akali gasped for air, his hands desperately clawing at the plants, but they only squeezed tighter at his resistance.

Winola could only watch as Akali choked, internally screaming in frustration as her hands moved against her will, causing the vines to start to lift Akali up into the air. No matter how hard she resisted the mind control, fighting desperately to let Akali go and lash out at Rory instead, she just simply couldn’t stop.

Akali began to fight back, not wanting to hurt or murder Winola, but not wanting himself to get choked out either. His power had begun to come back, bit by bit, and using a shadow clone, he sliced the vines away before throwing Winola off of himself.

But still, he was being choked to death.

Wilder huffed out a small breath of air before begrudgingly running to help him, since he was the only one whose powers still worked. He charred the plants off of Akali’s throat, freeing him from Winola’s grasp.

Suddenly Winola felt herself turn away from the two. Her body drifted closer to the rift, walking to the very edge. Someone scooped her up into their arms, effortlessly crossing it and landing beside Rory.

Kuali’i set her down and Rory grinned. “Good job today guys! You all did so well.” She said, affectionately patting each of their heads. They softly ruffled Winola’s hair, smiling down at her. “You did great too Winola! You’ll be an amazing fighter in no time!”

Winola boiled with anger, straining to shrink away from Rory’s touch, but still, her body wouldn’t budge.

Hiraya whipped out her phone and dialled up a number. “Hey Haven, we’re all done here.”

“Now you can join us in our room!!” Rory jumped in joy. “Hey, let’s get ice cream too! We can invite January.”

A door materialized in front of them, and Hiraya opened it, holding it out for the others. “Let’s go.”

One by one, they all walked through, leaving behind the blood stained clearing and heading into Paradise.

4 notes · View notes

dioles-writes · 24 days

Text

• OC FIC •

Masterlist | Characters: Felix (he/him), Una (he/they), Adelio (they/he), Wilder (he/him), Shehani (she/her), Winola (she/her), Akali (he/him), Alzena (she/her), Nyssa (she/her), Maddox (he/him), Ms Castro (she/her), ??? (he/him), Kuali’i (he/him), ??? (they/them)

Characters in purple belongs to @jiphenn and Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

“Boy, this is interesting.”

Una hummed to themself, looking up from their newspaper and at the rest of the gang, their gray eyes glittering. “What is it?” Felix asked, discarding the comic book that he had engrossed himself in to lean curiously over his shoulder.

“‘Young survivor looking for Diantha Rose Board Game Club.’ Adelio Castro, a survivor from the Diantha Rose Diole Attack, recently woke up from his nine-month coma.” Una read out loud before glancing back up at the others again. “You guys know him?”

Felix snatched the paper, his eyes going wide. “ADELIO?!”

“I’m guessing that’s a yes.” Una said, peering over Felix’s shoulder as he furiously scanned the article to read the rest of it for everyone to hear.

“In an interview with Wolf News, the young man says, ‘I know it sounds fabricated, but the club aren’t bad people. They had nothing to do with the attack.’ Despite his horrible injuries, resulting in a limb amputation, why does the young man seem to defend the Diantha Rose Board Game Club?” Una continued. “He even stated, ‘My friend Winola, she was part of the club, but she still risked her life to save me. I don’t think any of them knew about what was going to happen that night other than the attacker.’ He mentions Winola Higgins, the Diole who killed her father and three siblings. Even going so far as to say she ‘saved him’.”

Everyone turned to Winola. Her expression was, as always, unreadable.

“He left a final message during the interview. This message was however, not for the public, instead, it was for the Board Game Club. ‘If you ever need me for anything, don’t hesitate to come find me, I know you can.’” Una finished.

Felix couldn’t believe what he was reading. He didn’t know what came as more of a shock, the fact that Adelio was still alive, or the fact that he wanted to help them, instead of kill them like everyone else.

The last they’d seen of him, he was unconscious, blood seeping through his clothes, his face pale and tight with pain as Cora went to help him. Felix hadn’t thought he’d made it through the night, much less the past few months - not with an injury so severe. The fact that he had woken up from a nine-month coma was a miracle in itself. And the fact that he was offering to help them, after everything…

Well, Felix wasn’t sure he could believe it.

Adelio had every reason to hate Dioles - to hate the Board Game Club. They had been lied to for months, not even aware of the fact that they weren’t even a part of a real club. Then, the night of the Winter Concert, Gunther had brutally exploded their arm, leaving them in a coma and permanently disabled. That was as good of a reason as any to hate Dioles, not to mention this wasn’t the first attack to wreak havoc in their life, and their family.

So why… was he so determined to prove the Board Game Club’s innocence?

“So who’s this Adelio guy?” Una asked, looking around.

“He was in the Board Game Club with a few of us.” Felix said.

“So he’s a Diole?” Shehani asked.

“No, human.” Felix knit his eyebrows together, beginning to explain. “January made a fake one. Gunther, Akali, Alzena, Rory, Kuali’i, and Nyssa weren’t in it though.”

“Oh, why’d you need a fake club?” Una asked.

“So it didn’t look suspicious.”

Felix remembered how he ruined his relationship with Adelio the day of the club fair, trying to convince him not to join. He had practically begged with them. Guilt sprung up in his gut at the thought of their face so full of hurt, smile fading the longer he frantically tried to explain the Board Game Club away.

“Well if people find that out won’t they accuse him of being a Diole?” Una cocked his head.

The realization hit Felix like a semi truck. Slowly, he turned to face Una, the colour draining from his face. “He’s going to die.”

His mouth went dry. “That idiot just gave a whole interview about how pro-Diole he is, if they find out they’re an ex-member of the Board Game Club, they’re going to murder him.”

The room went dead silent.

“Well they’re nothing we can do about it.” Wilder stated matter-of-factly.

“We can’t just let him die!” Felix shot back, furrowing his brows at Wilder. He wouldn’t allow himself to have more blood upon his shoulders, wouldn’t stand back and watch as another one of his friends was taken from him. Not again. Adelio had believed in him, believed in all of them. He had to have realized what this interview would mean for him. Yet he still chose to go through with it in hopes that the Board Game Club would receive his message. They had risked everything with this, had put their life on the line.

And Felix was determined to not let him down.

“What’re you gonna do? bring him here?” Wilder’s grating voice pulled him from his thoughts. His mouth was drawn in a sharp line as he glared at him, his stare borderline pure hatred. (Not that it was a look Felix wasn’t well-used to receiving by now. Practically every time he so much as opened his mouth he could expect a scowling glare coming from Wilder’s direction.)

“Uh, YEAH.” Felix argued. “If they turn on him and start accusing him of being a Diole he’s basically in the same boat as us.”

The room went quiet for about two seconds. “I think that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

Felix crossed his arms defensively. “Well I’m not just gonna stand around and watch my friends die.” He snapped, levelling his stare.

“Yeah, like you helped him in the first place when he was dangling from Gunther’s grasp.” Wilder deadpanned.

That hit a nerve.

Felix narrowed his eyes. “I did more than you.”

“I’m guessing you weren’t running around the entire school.” Wilders eyes were practically slits at this point, his face twisted up in an angry scowl.

“I was actually helping Avil fight Gunther. Where were you, huh.”

“Maybe turning on all the taps and breaking the fucking pipes on the floor so my girlfriend could actually have water to use. By the time I got back all I saw you doing was getting your ass dragged away by your sister.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t run away from me I could’ve portalled us all to safety.” Felix glared back.

“Maybe you should’ve been doing something useful instead of being carried away while everyone else fought and ran away.” Wilder shot back pointedly.

“I WAS.”

“Woah guys, let’s all relax and focus on the bigger problem.” Una interrupted, reading over the newspaper again.

Felix scowled. His face was flushed red in anger, hands clenched, creasing the paper. Still, he obliged, biting back his urge to sock Wilder’s annoying, ugly face and going quiet.

“So is he like, good at anything?” Una asked again in regard to Adelio.

“He was really good at robotics and sports,” Felix remembered. “Uh, Gunther obliterated his arm though-“

“Oh!” Una did not think Adelio was really going to be of much help, but he didn’t say that. “Does he have family?” He asked, quickly changing the topic.

“Uh, I know he had a younger sister.”

“He had a mom.” Winola piped in.

“So a mom and a sister…. I don’t think they’d like to come down with him.”

“Well if they’re accusing him of being a Diole will he really have a choice?”

“Well instead of dragging him down here, the most logical thing to do is try to prove his innocence.” Alzena cut in, picking at her nails.

“And how are we gonna do that?” Wilder asked.

“We’ll probably have to do something that makes it look like we’re against him.” Akali said, leaning forwards.

“Wouldn’t that just make us look even worse to the public?”

“Well it’s not like they’ll be seeing us in a good light anytime soon.”

“So what’re we gonna do, attack his family?” Wilder evidently thought this was a terrible idea.

“No, we just have to make a scene.”

“Like what?” Felix asked with a frown. He was willing to do whatever it took to keep Adelio safe, but to completely ostracize himself from his former friend wasn’t his favourite plan. Adelio was the only one that seemed to be on their side since the Winter Concert. He wasn’t exactly ready to throw that away.

“Maybe we should just talk to them first.” Nyssa suggested.

“What, do I just portal to him-”

“Well that’s our only way to get to Adelio if any of you guys wanna salvage your relationship with him.”

“Well then, looks like you guys are gonna go for a little trip!” Una grinned.

Felix couldn’t help the excitement that came from those words. For the first time in months, he was going to leave the constraints of the base and go back out into the real world again. He was going to see Adelio again. He hadn’t even really realized it, but he missed them. After all this time of assuming they were dead, he was relieved to find out that they were okay and alive. Glad that they would get to see each other again, to talk again.

“So who’s going?” Alzena asked.

“Me.” Felix’s answer was instant, albeit obvious.

“I’ll go.” Winola offered.

“I wanna go.” Maddox said.

“Then I’ll go too.” Alzena added.

“I think four people is good, we don’t wanna draw too much attention.” Una said.

“Are we going now?” Alzena asked, looking towards Felix expectantly.

Felix stood up with a nod. “The sooner the better.”

“Let’s hope he’s home.” She mumbled, standing up and walking towards him.

Together, the four of them disappeared through the portal.

When they reappeared on the other side, they stood in the middle of Adelio’s little home, greeted by a comfy atmosphere, warm decorations, and a little altar in the corner. It was a stark difference to the base; dark, cold, encrusted with dried rust-brown blood from floor to ceiling, inescapable no matter what room you turned into. Adelio’s house was soft and welcoming, somewhere comfortable you could relax in. It was… calm. The exact opposite Felix had come to expect in his daily life. It was a nice change, he thought. Slowly, he glanced around, taking a few steps inside.

A bullet whipped past his head.

It collided into the wall with a loud bang, the sound of glass shattering instantly breaking Felix’s illusion of peace. “What are you doing here?! Get out!” A voice screamed.

Felix flinched, eyes darting towards the sound of the voice. Adelio’s sweet mom stood in the hallway, although she did not look so sweet when she had a gun levelled at their heads, her face set with a fiery determination that froze all of them in place.

Felix stared at her with wide eyes, too shocked to move, absolutely frozen in fear as he stared down the barrel of the gun. Out of all the possible scenarios he had been expecting, it certainly hadn’t been this.

Ms. Castro’s gaze flickered around the room, scanning each of their faces before landing on Winola. For a split second, her expression wavered, her eyes going wide, before hardening again. “I said what are you doing here?!” She repeated, her finger tightening around the trigger.

That broke Felix out of his stupor. “Uh, we’re here for, uhm, Adelio.” He mumbled, his voice coming out shakier than he would have liked to admit. “We got his uh, message.”

“Why did you come now?” Her eyes narrowed as she sharply enunciated the last word.

“Uh, we think he might be in danger.” Felix said, eying her gun nervously. “I’m sorry. I don’t- I didn’t have any other way of reaching them.”

“You THINK?”

A large crash, followed by an explosion, sounded from outside.

Their heads all snapped towards the noise. What…?

“Follow me.” Ms. Castro mumbled, before turning and sprinting down the hall.

She led them towards the basement door, quickly swinging it open and ushering them to go down. “You kids chose the worst time to come.”

“What’s going on?” Alzena asked, running down the stairs after her.

“Diole attack.”

“Where’s Adelio?” Maddox asked.

Ms. Castro fell silent.

Felix’s stomach filled with dread and he turned to stare at her with a horrified look. Were they already too late…?

“Do you need to send him a message?” She asked.

“Is he… alive?” Felix asked uncertainly, fearing the worst. This wasn’t going at all how he had expected. He hadn’t even considered the thought of a Diole attack - and all of them were definitely not prepared for one.

“Yes, he’s fine.” Ms. Castro replied. “Do you need to send him a message?”

“Where is he?” Felix asked, relief flooding through his veins.

“You don’t need to know that.” Ms. Castro snapped.

“Sorry.” Felix mumbled, glancing around. “We came here because we thought he might be in danger after the whole interview, but uh-“ He cut himself off. Diole attacks were most definitely worse.

A large crash resounded through the house.

Ms. Castro’s eyes flickered towards the basement door, her grip on the gun tightening. “Are you good guys?”

Felix hesitantly nodded yes.

“Then go get rid of the Dioles upstairs. You can talk to Adelio if you do that.”

Felix didn’t wait to be told twice. He quickly spun on his heels, sprinting back up the stairs, Winola at his feet.

Alzena turned to Maddox hesitantly, looking doubtful about so recklessly running into battle without even an idea about what they were getting themselves into; nonetheless, the two of them turned their backs on Ms. Castro and followed Felix and Winola upstairs.

Felix crashed through the door, not even having the time to blink or catch his bearings before a blade went flying at his head.

He managed to open a portal in the split-second before he was reduced to a headless body abandoned in the rubble, sending the blade flying towards his attacker. But just as fast as he dodged it, several more blades filled its place, shooting towards him.

Felix opened up another portal, larger this time, sending the blades out into the void. Before more could come flying towards him, he slipped through another portal, dropping down next to who - or what - was sending the knives towards him.

A fist went flying at his face the second he landed. Felix’s reflexes kicked in, a portal redirecting the punch before he even really had time to think about what he was doing. Smoke and debris filled the room, clouding his vision and making it hard to focus. He couldn’t see anything in this dust, much less where the attacker was.

He slipped into another portal before they could advance again, landing squarely on their back, his arms wrapping around their neck and starting to squeeze.

In an instant he felt something sharp dig into his side. Felix sucked in a sharp breath, blood seeping through his shirt. Fuck.

He portalled a knife into his hand, slashing it across their face with all his strength. It was as if their head was made of pure rock, chipping away at the blade. His attack hadn’t even seemed to affect them in the slightest. “That’s not a nice way to greet old friends, is it now, Felix?”

Felix’s blood ran cold. He stumbled away, his eyes going wide. That voice….

He knew that voice. He didn’t think it was one he’d ever forget, not as long as he lived. It was a voice he hadn’t heard in a long time, a voice that haunted his dreams and nightmares. A voice that he hadn’t heard since….

No. No. It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t really be-

Felix’s head felt foggy as he slowly crept away, terror driving his actions, screaming at him to run, just run far, far away. He couldn’t seem to control his legs, stuck between the urge to run and to fight. His heart pattered in his chest, the sound of its rhythmic beats so loud that it drowned out all sounds of fighting and explosions around him.

“Man, I thought you’d be a little more excited to see me.” They - no, Felix corrected himself, he - sounded almost disappointed.

Felix’s instincts took over at the sound of his voice again, a portal slicing through his stomach. The shadowy figure making its way through the dust did not lurch, did not give the slightest indication it could even feel the portal. Felix couldn’t even hear it pass through skin.

Slowly, the smoke started to clear….

Felix was met with bright green eyes towering over him. The same bright green eyes he remembered so clearly. The bright green eyes he thought he’d never have to see again, not alive. Green eyes that drove pure terror through his veins. Green eyes that belonged to the one person who ripped everything away from him.

Gunther stood before him, Kuali’i at his side.

“Surprised?” He grinned down at the four of them, taking in their four matching expressions of horror with delight.

He looked different from when they last saw him. Though his hair was the same style and length, still the wispy black-and-white mullet Felix used to think was so cool (just like everything else about Gunther), countless jagged scars now littered his body. Almost every inch of visible skin was marred by them. Not only that, but his hands looked rough and more calloused than before, and his left eye was glassy and disfigured.

“You-“ The words died on his tongue.

Felix was frozen to the spot, shock seeping into his core. He should’ve been running, should’ve been fighting, yet he found himself stuck, unable to move. When he finally managed to drag his mouth from off from where it hung at his feet, his voice came out as shaky and weak, more a question than a statement, trembling and choking over his words. “You’re supposed to be DEAD.”

“You didn’t think you could get rid of me that easily, did ya?” Gunther said with another grin, as if this whole thing was almost amusing to him.

Taking advantage of their shock, he transformed his arm, swiftly attacking all of them.

Felix disappeared through a portal, only to be caught by a knife to the gut the second he appeared on the other side. Kuali’i stared down at him, his pale red eyes emotionless.

Felix portalled another knife to his hand, aiming a shot back at his ex-friend. “What are you doing here?!” He screamed, anger boiling to the surface. Gunther was supposed to be gone, he was supposed to be dead. Why did he have to come back, why now? Why couldn’t just one thing go right in Felix’s life for once? “Vincent said you planned to get yourself killed! Why the fuck are you still here?!”

Kuali’i dodged Felix’s attack, aiming a punch at his face. He was a lot stronger and agile than he remembered. Despite Felix’s months and months of training at the base - with two former Top Five’s at that - he was still easily overpowered by him.

“We’re on a mission, aren’t we Kuali’i?” Gunther smiled and turned away from Winola to look at his partner, but Kuali’i didn’t even so much as acknowledge that he spoke, staying stone-faced.

Felix opened a portal to deflect Kuali’i’s punch back onto him, but Kuali’i quickly retracted his hand before he could hit himself. “How the fuck are you alive?” Felix screamed at Gunther. “January crushed you!”

“We all have our own little secrets.” Gunther said with a small grin, advancing into Alzena and Maddox now that he was finished with Winola.

Kuali’i swept Felix’s feet from under him, and he fell into a portal, landing back onto Kuali’i’s shoulders. He wasted no time, attempting to slit his neck in one swift motion.

Kuali’i dodged again. The rate he was moving at seemed to be impossible.

Gunther started to pummel Alzena and Maddox. They were no match against him, not even having the strength to block his repeated attacks.

Felix aimed a portal at Kuali’i’s leg, attempting to mutilate it into his shoulder, but Kuali’i, once again, effortlessly dodged. He swung Felix off of his back and punched him in the face, a large crack resounding as his fist made contact with his head. Felix stumbled back, managing to fall into a portal, but blood poured into his eyes, making it impossible to see. He glanced around wildly, disoriented. They were going to die.

He hastily opened up a portal for the four of them to escape through. He could get Adelio and his family to safety as soon as they arrived at the base, but even with the four of them against only two, they were greatly overpowered. They had to get out of here.

A hand closed around his neck.

Gunther grabbed him and Alzena by their throats before they could crawl away. Just as fast, Kuali’i surged forwards, grabbing Winola and kicking Maddox, knocking him over and resting his foot atop his head. Maddox groaned, blood smeared across his face, gushing out of his nose and dripping onto the ground beside him.

“You think you can get away that easily?” Gunther asked, his voice low, grinning widely.

Felix created a portal through his hand in a desperate attempt to get away, but it simply flashed before him, passing through Gunther’s wrist, almost as if there was nothing to chop off in the first place.

“I’m gonna finish what I started.” Gunther’s eyes darkened as his grip on them tightened. Felix could hear Winola gasping for breath behind him as Kuali’i strangled her, simultaneously crushing Maddox’s head under his foot.

Felix was trapped.

It was as if he was back in the crumbling remains of the school, the sounds of screaming and gunfire echoing around him as rubble rained down in the audience, Gunther’s claws closing around him and squeezing.

He felt just as puny and helpless as he did nine months ago, as if no time has passed at all since he’d left the burning crisps of Diantha Rose High School. He was still the useless, weak kid desperately fighting a losing battle against someone he would never be able to beat. The hours and hours he spent training meant nothing, not against Gunther’s pure power and strength. He was nothing against him.

His vision started to blur, Gunther’s grinning face fading in and out of focus as he choked, clawing at his neck in pure desperation.

Everything started to go black, his arms falling limply at his side. I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t-

“Stand back Gunther, Kuali’i.”

A voice boomed through the sounds of screaming and falling debris. Suddenly the pressure on Felix’s neck ceased, as he collapsed on the ground in a heap, choking and heaving for air alongside Alzena. Gunther and Kuali’i immediately stepped back, looking towards the voice obediently.

Felix weakly scrambled over to Maddox and Winola. They were both bleeding and out of it, Gunther and Kuali’i’s combined attacks leaving them curled up on the ground, barely conscious, but fortunately - alive.

“Are you Dioles?” The voice called out through the dust. The air grew colder as they stepped closer and closer to the group.

“Yes.” Felix coughed out, looking shakily towards the voice.

Blood and smoke clouded his vision, making the figure appear foggy as they continued to approach them through the debris. “Come with us.”

Felix slung Maddox and Winola across his shoulders, letting out a hysterical laugh.

They stood there, staring at him for a moment before their gaze flickered around the ruins of Adelio’s home. “Kuali’i, check upstairs. Gunther, go to the basement.” Their gaze returned to Felix’s shaking, bloodied body. “Why do you laugh?”

Felix picked up Alzena last. “I’m not going to Paradise with you.” He sneered, spitting Paradise like the word was made of pure poison.

“Suit yourselves.” Whoever this was didn’t seem to want to fight. Instead, they turned their back on the group and made their way back outside into the sunny street.

Felix was happy to leave the stranger behind. He portalled to Ms. Castro, landing in the basement again.

He collapsed, Alzena, Maddox and Winola tumbling from his arms, his body too beat-up and bruised to bear their weight any longer.

Gunfire rang out from in front of him, bullets zipping in all directions. Ms. Castro had her gun held up high, as she fired bullet after bullet at Gunther.

Felix quickly dropped Maddox, Alzena and Winola into a portal, safely transporting them back to the base before staggering forwards to help Ms. Castro.

The bullets just kept passing through Gunther, colliding with the wall behind him and leaving behind no real damage. He laughed, looking back at Felix with a wide smile before attacking Ms. Castro.

Before Felix could properly register what he was doing, he was leaping in between the two of them, roughly shoving Ms. Castro into a portal, using his body to shield her from the attack.

A tentacle impaled Felix straight through his stomach.

He let out an ear-piercing scream. Every nerve in his body lit up on fire, pain shooting through his torso, exploding across his body.

The tentacle disappeared, leaving him with a giant, gaping hole inside of him. Felix gagged, gasping for breath, as his legs finally buckled from underneath him. With the last bit of his strength, he opened a portal, leaving behind Gunther and Adelio as he fell into the base.

“GUNTHER.” He rasped, collapsing onto the ground into a ball, coughing and gasping for air as blood gushed out of him from all directions. He could feel himself fading away, could feel himself dying.

His eyes started to roll up into his head, and with his last seconds of consciousness, he managed to choke out three words.

“GUNTHER IS ALIVE.”

6 notes · View notes

dioles-writes · 9 months

Text

•OC FIC•

Masterlist | Characters: Felix (he/him), Maddox (he/him), Akali (he/him), Winola (she/her), Alzena (she/her), Nyssa (she/her), Astley (he/they), Rory (they/she), Kuali’i (he/him), Wilder (he/him), January (he/him), Haven (she/they), Manon (she/her), Atiah (he/him), Borislava (she/her), Reese (they/them), Einar (he/him), Shehani (she/her), Hiraya (she/her), Una (he/they), Mr Lim (he/him)

Credits go to @jiphenn as the characters in purple are hers!!

Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop

“Welcome to the Lim Residency.”

The front door swung open, revealing the biggest house Felix had ever seen in his entire life. You couldn’t even consider it a house, or even a mansion, seeing as it was even larger than January’s had been. They stepped into what seemed to be a huge ballroom, probably a hundred nicely-dressed Dioles all standing around, chatting and laughing happily. Felix glanced around in awe, shocked that a place so nice could even exist. Or that he was somehow standing inside it. Several people glanced in their direction, all giving them friendly smiles. Felix was too dumbfounded to even return the gesture.

“Well, go ahead and mingle around with the guests. I’ll come get you guys when it’s time for dinner.” Haven said, brushing past the Board Game Club and disappearing into the crowd.

“This is… a lot nicer than I imagined.” Alzena said, glancing up at the intricately designed chandeliers that hung from the domed ceiling, nothing like any of them had seen before. Felix nodded slowly in agreement, still taking it all in, absolutely mesmerized.

“We’ll go exploring, see you guys later!” Rory said, separating from the rest of the group and bringing Kuali’i and Wilder with her, melding in with the rest of the crowd like Haven had done. Felix stepped closer to Akali, deciding that there was no way he was ending up by himself in a place this vast and unknown.

“I’m gonna go too.” Astley said, and Nyssa trailed behind him, since they were basically besties now. Maddox scanned the crowd. “I’m going to look for January.” And with that, he was gone too, leaving just Felix, Akali, Winola, and Alzena.

Felix played with his Board Game Club friendship bracelet, running his thumb along the bright yellow beads nervously. He had been dying to get invited to the Mansion since his first day at Paradise, But standing here now, he felt even more anxious than before. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t this.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “We should look for January.” He said, turning to Akali.

Felix hadn’t been able to think about much other than January since they arrived in Paradise. Although it had only been three days since he last saw him, it felt so much longer. Probably because it had been so long since Felix had really seen his friend. January hadn’t spoken a word to him since the Winter Concert, much less even gave a glance in his direction. He’d been an entirely different person in Chumps Jr. Although he couldn’t really blame him, too much had happened, so much had changed.

He didn’t know if January would ever speak to him again. But nevertheless, he was determined to find him, to talk to him, to make sure that at least he was okay.

Akali followed closely behind Felix as he made his way through the crowd, slowly pushing past the seemingly never-ending sea of people, as the two of them started to realize it was very extremely hard to spot him with the hundreds of Dioles surrounding them and blocking their view. Felix still wasn’t deterred, looking for his friend desperately, glancing around for January’s familiar fluffy black-and-brown hair and dangly earrings.

Thirty minutes passed. Still no sign of January.

“There you two are!” Someone called from behind them. Felix glanced back hopefully, praying for it to be January. He was met with Haven staring down at him, to his immediate disappointment. “Time for dinner.” She said, turning around and signalling for them to follow.

She led them through the crowd, which easily dispersed at her wake, and met up with the rest of the Board Game Club and Manon as they continued to walk through the impossibly large ballroom. They entered an enormously gigantic hall, which seemed to go on forever, before eventually finding themselves in front of a pair of huge oak doors. “Behind these doors is the dining room. Be on your best behaviour.” Haven warned them.

She pushed open the doors, revealing another room so impressively large that Felix’s jaw almost dropped. There was a long wooden table in the middle, where all of only the most important people were seated.

No January.

Felix’s heart sunk. He was dying to see his friend again, to make sure he was actually okay, like Manon had said. He was starting to doubt if she had been joking about him being all knocked out and tied up. Maybe Mr. Lim really was a psycho. Maybe he had invited them to the mansion to kill them. Get revenge for Gunther. He was sure that Gunther’s father couldn’t be any less crazy than he had been. He paused, terrified that all his worries over the past few days were about to come true in front of his very own eyes.

Suddenly, the doors on the other side of the room started to slide open, creaking as they did so. There emerged January Restall in all his glory.

And he had a shiny bald head.

Felix went running at him, most of the Board Game Club right beside him, as they all tackled him, practically crushing him in a huge group hug. Instantly they started to bombard him with questions, unable to contain themselves any longer.

“January?!”

“Are you okay?!”

“What happened to you?”

“Why are you bald.”

January glanced over to Manon, who made her way over to the group along with Kuali’i, Wilder, and Winola. She laughed, giving him a thumbs up and a big grin. He smiled, reaching up and ripping the bald cap from off his head. “Surprise!”

His hair was reverted back to the original length it had been back in September, when they had first met, but instead of being a soft brown colour it was now fully black.

Alzena was the first to break the silence. “It suits you.” She said with a smile. January beamed.

“I missed you.” Felix grinned at him. He had never been more relieved; so, so glad to see his friend smile again.

“Sorry for worrying you guys.” January said with another smile, pulling away from the hug. He looked at Akali, whose jaw had now turned into a mess of cracks, black fog-like smoke filtering through. They both stared at each other for a long moment, before January finally spoke again. “You look good.”

Akali’s eyes softened. “You too.”

“Okay, okay, enough chitter chatter, everyone sit down.” Haven said from her seat.

Felix turned his gaze back to her. She was seated at the end of the table, the other side occupied by the Top Five, along with Reese, Borislava, and Manon who was now joining them, sitting across from her brother. Haven motioned for them to hurry up, and they all started to sit down, Felix taking a seat in between Maddox and Akali, with Alzena directly across from him.

He fiddled with the end of his shirt sleeves, feeling incredibly sweaty all of the sudden, as the table lapsed back into silence. The air was thick and Felix felt unbearably hot in his button-up, the atmosphere a million times more intense than before.

Well, other than Una.

“Hi Winola!” He said, grinning and happily turning to Winola, coincidentally sitting in the seat right next to her. “Isn’t this place nice?” They asked, which got nothing more than a quick glance and a small nod out of her. He continued to happily talk to her, unfazed by Winola’s obvious discomfort.

Just then, the big oak doors rattled. They swung open with a loud bang, revealing the one guest everyone had been waiting for…

It was an old man. He must’ve been older than even Ms. Hoompadoomp had been, his hair just tufts of pure white, his back unbelievably hunched over, wrinkles covering almost every inch of his sagging skin, pale blue veins visible beneath it. He staggered to the head of the table, knees almost buckling with each step he took, his whole body wobbling uncontrollably.

Everyone stood up at once. He shook and heaved, slowly and agonizingly pulling out his chair at the head of the table and sitting down. As soon as he got comfortable, he looked back up at everyone, and they bowed before sitting back down. Felix did the same, feeling even more nervous than before in his presence, and about a hundred times more confused, too. The man in front of them looked like he was on his deathbed. He had no clue how this was supposed to be the mysterious leader of Paradise.

“Good evening everyone.” Mr. Lim croaked out, hand shaking as he raised it. “I’m very honoured to welcome our eleven special guests.” He glanced to the end of the table with a welcoming smile. “Gunther’s friends and our new comrades.”

Felix watched him silently, Gunther’s name bringing a million bitter memories to the surface. But for once he kept his expression completely neutral, not allowing himself to show an ounce of emotion, not even daring to move.

“Now-“

“Cut out the grandpa act you loser.” Haven interrupted.

“Aw, you’re no fun Haven.” Mr. Lim sighed.

His body started to morph. It was almost as if he was going back in time right there in front of them, as he lost the hundreds upon hundreds of wrinkles on his face, his hair darkening back to a smooth black, becoming thicker, and his fixed posture making him grow a few inches. Eventually, his body reverted back to its “original” age, and the first thing Felix was able to notice is that he’s breathtakingly sexy. Undeniably so.

He combed his fingers through his dark slicked-back hair, a few strands falling loose in front of his face. He turned to Haven with a playful grin. “Really had to go and ruin my grand reveal, didn’t you?”

“You were breathing out dust onto the table.”

“Well, let me properly introduce myself.” He looked back to the Board Game Club and gave them all another smile. “I’m Vincent Lim, Founder of Paradise.”

Felix’s mouth dropped open in complete shock. If his mind wasn’t absolutely blown already, it was now. Vincent Lim. As in, Howard Restall’s best friend, Vincent Lim? His mind swirled with a million different thoughts and questions, desperately trying to grasp at what that statement really even meant. He’d heard the story about a million times over the years: Howard Restall had formed Diole Eradication Act back in 1996, after the disappearance of his childhood best friend Vincent, and seeing the horribly high crime rates caused by Dioles. Felix had never given it another thought, the story nothing more than another history lesson that he was forced to listen to each year in school. But now here he was, sitting mere feet away from him.

He wondered how he was ever friends with Howard Restall. It was almost incomprehensible to Felix.

Vincent laughed at their reactions. “I know you all must have a thousand questions and frankly, most of you probably don’t want to be here right now. Please feel free to ask me anything at all without fear or shame. I’ll make sure Haven doesn’t kick you out.” Felix for a second thought back to Gunther, the question that had been tormenting him for weeks, dying to ask, yet unable to actually bring himself to speak.

“Let’s start with introductions.” Vincent continued. “Like I said, I’m Vincent Lim, Founder of Paradise. I can rewind and fast forward the stages of objects, living or non-living.” He said with pride. “Hence how I did my little trick earlier.” He smiled. “Well let’s move down the line.” He looked at his left to Atiah.

“I’m Atiah Majok. I’m the son of Vincent Lim and Rank Three of the Top Five.” Atiah seemed much more formal and interested now that all the others were here. “I can control any string-like materials. Silk, thread, wires; even the thinnest of spider web.”

He turned to Manon, who looked more than excited to be at this big fancy dinner. “I’m Manon Naessens! And I’m the daughter of Vincent Lim. I can manipulate dreams and make hallucinations.” She turned to her dad to make sure she said it right and he nodded, giving her a smile of approval.

They all turned to the next person: Borislava. “I’m Borislava Volkov. Leader of the Entertainment Unit.” She said. “I have telepathy and telekinesis. So I can hear people’s thoughts as well as control inanimate objects.”

“Reese Carlin, Leader of the Medicinal Unit. I use kinetic, thermal, and electrical energy to speed up and enhance healing processes.”

“Einar Onesager, Leader of the Combat Unit and Rank One of the Top Five. I can slow down and speed up time around me, but I remain unaffected.”

“Shehani Indika. Rank Two of the Top Five.” Said the girl with the long curly hair which Felix recognized from the meeting with all the Top Five. “I can control blood.” Her explanation was short and sweet.

“I’m Hiraya Cortez, Rank Five of the Top Five.” Everyone in the Board Game Club (minus January, who was sitting beside her the entire time) blinked, evidently in shock at the sight of her, surprised to find that Felix had, indeed, not been lying. “I have perfect aim.” Hiraya said. “So I can hit any target I set.”

“Una Olearius, Rank Four out of the Top Five.” Una said with a smile. “All I can do is make clones.”

It was then back to the Board Game Club to introduce themselves, just like they had done thrice before in the club room. Everyone went, listing their names and powers, some sounding like they’d rather be doing anything else other than this.

Last but not least: “I’m Haven and I’m the Co-Founder of Paradise. Paradise is my own mind space, meaning I can monitor and choose basically everything that goes on around here.”

She looked back towards Vincent. “Now that introductions are over, let’s begin eating.” The lids of the dishes were lifted off, and a wonderful aroma filled the room. Each dish was overflowing with just about any and every food anyone could possibly want, all cooked to perfection. Felix’s mouth watered at the sight of it.

Before anyone could take anything, Vincent began to dish up the empty seat next to him. “This plate is to honour those who’ve helped make Paradise the society it is today, yet cannot be here.” He announced, continuing to dish it up with a million different exquisite foods. “I’d like to dedicate this plate specifically to my dear son Gunther.” He smiled at the Board Game Club once more. “I know how much he looked forward to this day.”

“If only things had gone a different way.” He said, placing the last bit of food on the plate and motioning for everyone to start on their own. Instantly everyone started to grab food, expensive silverware spooning up different delicacies and scraping against plates the only sound to be heard, as everyone silently enjoyed their delicious meals.

Felix bit into his, and although the food was absolute heaven, exploding with a million flavours unlike anything he had ever tasted, it couldn’t distract him from the one person that had tortured his dreams for weeks, the one person that despite spending every waking hour trying to forget, he couldn’t get out of his head. The one person that was missing from this dinner.

Gunther.

He looked up from his plate, to where Vincent was seated at the head of the table, eating his perfectly cooked and perfectly juicy steak. Felix couldn’t make himself speak, not yet, still too afraid. He wasn’t sure if it was because so many important powerful people were at the dinner, people he would not want to make a fool of himself in front of - or piss off. Or if it was the fact that finding out the truth of Gunther’s betrayal, finding out his reasoning behind murdering so many innocents, all without a care in the world, frankly kind of scared him. A part of him didn’t want to hear him out, wanted to stay clueless forever. Nothing changed either way, if he found out or if he didn’t. It wouldn’t bring back Gunther, wouldn’t erase what he did, wouldn’t make his life go back to the way it had been.

He could feel Akali pointedly glaring at him, instantly reading his thoughts, and silently begging him not to open his big mouth. To just shut up for once.

But Felix couldn’t. He had to know, even if it just hurt even more. He had to know why someone could do something like that, why someone could cause so much destruction, all whilst laughing at the damage. Why someone who had been his friend, who had, for the most part, been normal, could do that.

He cleared this throat. “Um…”

Everyone at the table whipped around, turning their heads to stare at him. He could feel all their eyes burning holes into him. Felix had never been more uncomfortable, or anxious, in his entire life. “Is it okay if I ask a question?” He asked, meeting Vincent’s gaze.

“Why, of course.” Vincent gave him a smile. Everyone else stared at him, completely stone-faced.

Felix was about two seconds from backing down, shutting up, and just muttering an apology before the question he’d been dying to ask finally slipped from his lips: “Um, do you know why Gunther uh… attacked the school?”

The whole table was absolutely silent for a moment, just staring at him with unreadable expressions, before Atiah loudly scoffed. “Were you not listening to that entire speech he gave?”

Felix recalled Gunther’s so-called “speech” like it was only yesterday - although, to him it had more sounded like deranged rambling. He’d spent hours every day trying to decipher what he could have possibly meant, how anything had made any sense to him. But even after weeks, playing Gunther’s words over and over in his head, trying to figure out if there was some hidden meaning behind them, Felix still didn’t have a clue. “Uh, yeah…” He mumbled, feeling like an absolute idiot in front of the entire Paradise Board. “I still don’t really understand why he did it.”

“He was yappin’ about freedom so much and the message still went through one year and out the other, didn’t it?”

Felix went bright red. He couldn’t even try and defend himself, the words that may have once been shot back without a care, hot and angry, dying on his tongue. He stared down at the table again, feeling more embarrassed than ever, everyone’s eyes not leaving his face. He wanted to shout back about how they were going to get their freedom, how they had been a mere day from finally getting to live perfect, normal lives before Gunther had betrayed them. How he was supposed to get everything he had ever wanted as soon as January hacked their files; but nothing came out. “Now, now, Atiah, be nice to our guest. They’ve only been here for a day or two so this place must really look like Paradise to them.” Vincent smiled at Atiah before turning back to the Board Game Club.

“Now let me ask you all, what does freedom mean to you?” He leaned forwards, eyes still on them. Felix didn’t dare to speak up, and neither did any of the other Board Game Club members, who all looked like they were just wishing Felix had kept his mouth shut.

“In a literal sense, it’s the ability to speak, think, and do whatever you please without restriction.” Vincent continued. “While the term freedom holds a singular meaning, the way we attain and feel it can look different for everyone. For example, although I may be completely free and comfortable here, who’s to say any of you feel the same way?” He smiled once again, his gaze flickering to the right side of the table, where Kuali’i, Wilder, and Winola all sat.

“Do you think it was easy to get to my position?” His tone changed into something more eerie.

“The main point is, to obtain freedom you have to make sacrifices. For Gunther that sacrifice was the Board Game Club.”

“Were you told much about what happened in the outside world during your time in hiding?” Vincent asked. Everyone shook their heads. During their time at Chumps Jr. they had been practically clueless, relying on only Maddox’s Grandpa R as a way to find any news on what was going on. The most Felix had heard while he was awake was that there had been a large rise in Diole attacks, specifically on GDEO warehouses that would be distributing the vaccine, but nothing more. Most days all he could do was stare at the window and watch the snow fall down onto the empty street, trying to pretend he was back at home.

“Well, the world is in a bit of an uproar right now.” Vincent laughed. “It’s been a good three months and still no Diole vaccine.” He hummed. “And I know that was what your guy’s main concern was.” He looked at January. “You all thought you would’ve been fine if your leader here just hacked your files and changed your data. Which, yes, you guys would have. But did you ever think of what would happen to all the other Dioles in the world?”

“The difference between you guys and Gunther is that he wasn’t selfish.” His gaze hardened just slightly. “I doubt any of you even pondered the thought of what would happen to other Dioles as long as you and the ones you cared about were safe. Never thought of the guilt or emptiness that would fill you watching countless people like you die in front of your very own eyes. And the whole time knowing you survived out of pure luck.” He paused for a moment, letting his words truly sink in.

“But unlike you, Gunther thought of all those things. They plagued his thoughts every night.” His eyes softened again and he chuckled. “He always was soft.”

Felix had to choke back his utter shock at that sentence. Soft was never a word he would use to describe Gunther. Felix was pretty sure he was the complete opposite.

“He was even so soft when fighting you.” Vincent smiled, laughing again. “He could’ve killed you all right then and there but he just kept throwing you around and shielding himself from your attacks.” He turned to Felix, light purple eyes locking with his brown ones. “Tell me, why do you think Gunther didn’t crush you in a second?”

“Um…” Felix faltered. He was completely speechless.

“The answer is simple,” Vincent gave him a small smile. “He couldn’t bring himself to do it.”

He couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Felix had thought back to that moment about a hundred times, could still feel Gunther’s claws wrapping around him, squeezing slowly, as pain exploded through every single muscle, every single bone. And Gunther just grinning at him, ignoring his screams and sobs, ignoring his pleas to please, please let go. He had thought back to every conversation with Gunther, had wondered how someone could be smiling and laughing with him, not a care in the world, and then try to kill him without a second thought only days later. He had never once framed the question that way, had never once thought of Gunther as being merciful.

“You think he just let go of the two hostages he was holding? You think he couldn’t have easily killed Avil who was the only one doing anything to him? You think he didn’t see the mountain of rubble flying over him?” Vincent asked. “And you know what happened in the end? All of you escaped with injuries that didn’t kill you. And the only one of you who didn’t make it was killed by a human.” He sneered the last word.

“Gunther would willingly give his own life in exchange for those he cared about. He’s always been like that.” He smiled and laughed.

“I remember when I first found him, he was shaking with the most fearful expression I’ve ever seen.” He said. Haven smiled, the memory flooding back for her as well. “Even though his eyes were as wide as saucers and his body trembled he still refused to cry or make a sound.” She added. “He always wanted to appear tough.”

“Ah, let’s save those stories for another time.” Vincent said. “My food will get cold before I even get through his full childhood.” Everyone turned their attention back to their plates, going back to eating in silence.

It didn’t taste good anymore.

After several excruciatingly long moments, Felix feeling about a million times worse as he tried to choke down his dinner, Una broke the silence. “So guys, how’s the pre-training going?” He asked with a smile, looking at Winola and Felix.

“It’s fine.” Winola mumbled, not bringing her eyes up from where they were fixed onto the table.

“Oh that’s right, you two are representatives.” Vincent smiled. “Maybe I’ll partake in training someone this time.”

All the Paradise Board slowly turned, staring at him in complete shock. “All your trainees die.” Haven said, which made Vincent laugh.

“Guess I’ll have to find someone who can handle it then.” He chuckled.

“I’m sure some of them wouldn’t mind.”

“Representatives always go quite far though. Shehani and Una used to be representatives.” Einar added, trying not to scare the Board Game Club with the thought of training to death. “Shehani was my own representative.”

“And Gunther trained me.” Una said with a grin. Felix looked up at them in shock and horror, still reeling from the news about Gunther’s sacrifice. He wasn’t sure if he could take much more of this dinner. He really wished he could have been anywhere but here right now, wished he didn’t have to be surrounded by Gunther’s friends and family, surrounded by constant reminders of him.

He should have never asked about him.

“His training sure was intense. No wonder he never wanted to train with you guys!” Una continued, unfazed by the looks he was getting, his energy completely different from the rest of the table (minus Atiah, who evidently found this hilarious).

“But if you complete the workouts then you should be fine.” Einar added again, trying to make training seem less frightening.

The rest of the dinner passed by fairly quickly, everyone eating in high spirits and talking happily about different topics, but everything was just a blur to Felix. He couldn’t get his mind off of Gunther. He didn’t know what to think of him anymore. Vincent had spoken of his betrayal as if it was the opposite: a huge heroic sacrifice, made for the freedom of all Dioles, and the Board Game Club. He had called him “soft”. Yet he couldn’t stop thinking about how he was supposedly so “soft” as he murdered hundreds of innocent people, innocent children, all in cold blood. How he obliterated Adelio’s arm, how he laughed while crushing Bliss. How his very best friend, the kindest person Felix had ever met, who had nothing but pure love for everyone, was in the hospital at this very moment, all because of Gunther.

Maybe he was being selfish. Maybe he was supposedly “wrong” for joining the Board Game Club, for not caring about what would happen to the rest of the Dioles as a whole. Maybe Gunther’s death was supposedly “heroic”. But Felix knew that what he did, hurting people like that, people who had not done anything, people that he had called his friends, Felix knew that was wrong. Gunther couldn’t have been right. He wasn’t right. He didn’t care what Vincent believed.

He would never forgive him.

“Well I’m stuffed. Let’s head back to the main lobby, shall we?” Vincent dabbed his mouth with a napkin and stood up, everyone following his lead and pushing in their chairs as he led them down the hall back to the big ballroom.

“This was Gunther’s first guitar.” He pointed to a little guitar hung up on the wall. “I remember stealing that like it was yesterday.” He laughed. There were a lot of cutely drawn family photos on the walls, all varying in skill. Drawings and portraits of Vincent, Haven, Gunther, Atiah, and Manon plastered over the place, some pictures appearing to be newer than others. Felix stared at his feet, trying to ignore the guilt that was bubbling to the surface seeing Gunther’s grinning face again, and the hate he felt towards himself for even feeling guilty.

Vincent stopped, bringing the group to another portrait, which was much larger than the others. Felix glanced at it, noticing the person in the middle of it looked very familiar.

It was the very same lady whose face was plastered all over the walls at January’s mansion.

“That’s my cousin, Olivia.” Vincent said, and Felix’s jaw dropped to the floor. “So that means January’s part of the family too.” He gave January a big grin and he smiled back. “We’ll have to get your portrait up here soon.” January could not look more pleased.

They reached the ballroom. As soon as Vincent was spotted by everyone they all started cheering and flooding over. “Aw, that’s my cue to go. Come find me if you guys need anything or want to talk!” Vincent was whisked away, leaving Felix to try and wrap his head around what everything that had just happened.

#dioles tag #ocs: The Board Game Club #oc: Vincent #oc: Atiah #oc: Manon #oc: Borislava #oc: Reese #oc: Einar #oc: Shehani #oc: Hiraya #oc: Una #oc: Haven #oc: Olivia #there’s too many characters in this story 💀#my ocs #ocs #oc fic

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