#sonya kravinova

[ask-octoberotto]

It’s been a while since I last spoke with Sonya..

Mostly because she (like most of the other survivors save for MJ, Miles, and Billie) aren’t particularly fond of Pax nor my sympathy for her. Sonya has outright told me that I can never fully trust Pax... She has argued with me regarding Pax and I’m fairly certain our relationship is somewhat soured at this point..

I suppose I understand where she is coming from as… well, I definitely remember times where I have been at her mercy. And in many cases, she killed me in brutal ways. Even when Pax didn’t kill me, she, along with other NH infected people, tormented us for months as we all tried to survive. The other survivors are terrified of her.

However, no one seems to be more aggrieved with my choice to give Pax a second chance than Ed Brock and Venom. They (erm, maybe more Venom than Ed but still) believe that Pax shouldn’t have been given a second chance at life. I actually had to keep them away from Pax when she was still unconscious from her post-exposure vaccine… Otherwise, they would’ve.. eaten her. But unlike Pax, Venom does not eat out of relentless hunger. They eat because they were fundamentally designed to kill B.O.W.s/Irregular Mutants unrelated to the LIFE Foundation and Pax fits that description to a T. After all, the symbiotes were intended to clean up the “messes” that bio terrorism/bio crime causes.

Although.. maybe I can still remain in contact with Caryl. She reached out to me to get a letter of recommendation since some of her previous contacts… didn’t survive the NH Viral Outbreak. Of course I was absolutely willing to, seeing that she was a big help in creating the vaccines. And I know letters of recommendation are always nerve racking to ask for.

This post was quite a ramble, but I know a few of you might’ve been curious. I.. I just wish it wasn’t like this. I would’ve loved to stay in contact with the others, really, but… I highly doubt it’d work out at this moment.

- 🔬

[ask-octoberotto]

Confrontation Part 1

“Alright. Here we are.” October says as the group of nine others reaches the large, sterile private elevator to Nora Osborn’s floor. This was quite possibly the cleanest elevator anyone has seen in months.

Tension weighed heavy in the air, everyone had an inkling that something was wrong the moment they saw the pristine interior of the elevator. Considering the absolute bloodbath the lower levels of Oscorp (and by extension, the rest of Baltimore) had, something didn’t quite add up.

“Max, Quinn, and Adrian, you’re going go the communications room and try to reach out to someone on the outside.” October directs with a firmness that was finally forming into something like real leadership. “Miles, Billie, and Ed, your job is to scour Nora’s stuff, and take the most incriminating evidence you can find on her or OsCorp.”

“Sonya, Caryl, and MJ… you’re all coming with me to find the Osborns. Hopefully, this won’t become too messy,” he says, though seeing the sudden uptick ammo and healing items beforehand was already a forewarning for things to come.

At this point, he was grateful that at least the universe at large had a habit of subtly warning people before a big fight. Whatever was going to happen next.. it probably wasn’t going to be pleasant based on the sheer amount of items left behind for the taking. But nobody aside from him really picked up on it.

MJ looked October, a worried look in her eyes. “Wait, are you sure? I don’t really know how to fight..”

“Well, I’m thinking that if we do encounter Hera, maybe you can reach out to her. You know her better than any of us,” October explains, “We’ll do our best to keep you safe if everything goes south.”

“Man, I hope we can get something more than a couple of seconds of connection,” Max sighs, “I got maybe a few words out to the folks working at the Tidewater Border before the connection fizzled out and fucking Chameleon decided it’d be funny if he ambushed us and destroyed the computer we were just using.”

Sonya grimaced at the mention of Chameleon, though she elected to stay quiet on the matter. The more important thing was getting out of here.

“So, when we get the things we need to do done, where do we meet?” Adrian asks, crossing his arms.

“Wait for us at the rooftop,” Sonya answers without missing a beat. “Most likely, the BSAA will be sending in helicopters to check for survivors and case the situation here.”

With a ding, the elevator finally reached the top floor. The doors open to reveal sterile, empty floor, not a drop of blood on the lithium floors. But, like everywhere else in the tower, the lights were flickering and the only reliable source of light was photo-luminescent strips that gave a green glow to the architecture.

The group emptied out of the elevator, separating into their respective teams.

“Good luck, everyone,” Quinn says, though it was clear that they were trying to comfort themself as much as they were trying to inject some form of positivity.

“Thank you,” Caryl says, glancing at the others. “See you soon,”

With that, the teams split off.

Though, something had Miles take pause for just a moment. He could’ve sworn he felt the heartbeats of living, breathing entities in the penthouse area further down the floor..A chill ran up his spine as he wondered if this was his just mind playing tricks on him

“Miles? Are you alright?” Billie asks, looking up at him, “We gotta go,”

“Yeah yeah, I’m alright,” Miles chuckles nervously as he cautiously took Billie by the hand. He briefly looks back at October’s group before walking with his sister to catch up with Ed…

[Part 2]

[ask-octoberotto]

As much as I do have some trusted colleagues (namely Dr. Mason and Dr. Kafka) and found a lovely, caring boyfriend in the BSAA in Kane… I must admit that it’s hardly an enjoyable place to work, especially when I feel like I need to fight others just get them to respect Pax even a little. She never asked to be infected with NH, but they act like she had a choice in the matter.

I’ve even made an enemy out of a senior doctor/medical advisor here, Dr. Bate. We don’t usually squabble or anything but the tension between us is… palpable to an uncomfortable degree. Not to mention he NEVER uses the title “Dr.” for me—it’s always just “Otto” this and “Otto” that. I did NOT go through 8 years of schooling and several years in residency/post grad studies just to be called “Otto” at work! I’m sure he’d be pissed off too if I just started omitting his “Dr.” title when speaking to him.

Worse yet, he has so many supporters compared to me. And they tend to view me as a bleeding heart who is putting too much time and effort in helping Pax.. it’s ridiculous.

Ugh.

Then there’s Sonia.. I don’t hate her like Dr. Bate, but she never agreed with my choice to save Pax over Hera… several of the survivors didn’t. Or at the very least, they were shocked to see that I’d save the very person who had been at the time relentlessly chasing us throughout Baltimore. I’m not sure how to respond to her disapproval with my choice. It kinda hurts to see a formerly friendly relationship sour like that. I still stand by my decision regardless though.. I do feel sorry for Hera. It’s complicated.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this exactly. Maybe this is venting, I suppose? Mostly it’s just me complaining about work.

- 🔬

[ask-octoberotto]

Had a run-in with the Chameleon earlier today. Emjay and I are still trying to travk him down, but it got me wondering. Does Earth-2 have a Dmitri Smerdyakov, as far as you're aware?

-@ask-spider-man-61610

Short answer is yes. While I only met him once, but I have heard most about him from his half-sister and fellow survivor, Sonya Kravinova. This gets a bit lengthy so I will put it in a readmore:

To establish some context about Sonya: from our short interactions, I learned she’s a former member of the BSAA (or the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance).. which seems to be the closest equivalent to an “Avengers” we have here. Which explains her aptitude for multiple types of firearms and how she seems to already be fairly familiar with conditions brought about by an Outbreak such as this. I first met her during my brief encounter with what I would learn to be her half-brother..

Now.. she didn’t disclose much about what happened (well, to be honest, she rarely discloses anything about herself to begin with), what I understand is that Sonya and Dmitri weren’t particularly close due to their very different lives they chose to follow. According to Sonya, Dmitri was a talented impressionist, and even as a young child, he showed an incredible prowess for acting. But at one point, Sonya lost all contact with him after Dmitri began his final year at a drama school in Belgium. Last she heard from him before he disappeared was that he was approached by a talent agent who was impressed by his abilities and offered him a job shortly after seeing a performance of his. After excitedly telling his family about it over the phone, he was never heard from again.

… That is until recently. Though my interactions with Dmitri were brief, I know for a fact that he is no longer who he used to be. I hypothesize that, as the Chameleon, he was specifically developed to be an infiltrator and assassin.

Unlike most, you could be forgiven if you initially saw him as a human.. or, more accurately, as someone you know and care about. The Chameleon, unlike the others, can blend far too easily in a crowd, and he is able to take on the appearance of virtually any human so long as he’s given enough visual information to achieve accuracy and precision. And due to the acting talent he was known for, he is able to successfully impersonate them with little flaws. He may be physically weaker than most B.O.W.s, he is far more devious than them and is able to use various weapons with ease.

But the most disturbing thing about him (aside from imagining what monstrous procedures had to take place in order for Dmitri to go from a regular man to the Chameleon) is how he achieves his impersonations. He is able to physically alter his size and proportions so long as they remain in the humanoid category, change the shape of his vocal chords, and restructure his facial features to match up with who he’s impersonating. However, his true appearance looks like a pale, almost skeletal looking being. This is only seen when the flesh, hair, and skin of who he’s pretending to be starts to fall off from what looks like bone underneath.

[ask-octoberotto]

It’s times like this that I fear that what Mihai said about me becoming an anomaly has some truth to it.

I wish I never left my dimension. I wish I wasn’t able to acknowledge these discrepancies I notice everywhere now. I wish I could go back to not knowing. Maybe I wouldn’t be feeling so distant from everyone as time goes by. Even Caryl, Miles, and Sonya feel less real to me. It’s horrible.

… This is a stretch but… do any of you out there feel distant from people you care about? If you do, how do you deal with that?

- 🔬

[ask-octoberotto]

I am gradually approaching completion of the post-exposure vaccine! Though… as I make my travels through the city, I found myself looking towards the outskirts of the city tonight. For a moment I wondered if it were possible to move past the city limits. Not that I’m about to abandon everyone and run away. But a part of me is admittedly curious.

And yet… It seems like nearly every potential way out that has nothing to do with OsCorp is blocked off by the surroundings. Or just of of reach. Or just too dangerous to trek. There’s always something that prevents me or really anyone from coming in or going out. It’s so strange… It’s almost ridiculous how ever present it is once you stop to think about it.

Sonya told me not to mess around with these “other ways out”. She told me that she’s been in “situations” like this and these barriers are “difficult to cross for a reason” and that “bad things happen to people who manage to cross the barriers”… she refused to elaborate, so I can only speculate about what that could possibly mean. I’m trying not to think about it but I wonder what exactly is she afraid of regarding these barriers. Is it really impossible to pass through them? Obviously the rest of the world is beyond it, so why would passing it be any different now? Would it be wise to try experimenting with it?

….

No no, I need to focus on the vaccine.

I can’t afford to think like that.

- 🔬

[ask-octoberotto]

Confrontation Part 2

[Part 1]

It took a bit of puzzle cracking but the moment the locks were bypassed with a click, October’s group had access to the Osborn suite. The group enters in cautiously, with everyone readying their available weapons as they began to explore the area.

The suite was just about as luxurious as they could’ve imagined: high ceilings, minimalist color palette, marble floors, strange historical masks displayed on the walls like trophies, expensive furniture that looks way too geometric to be comfortable, skyline view of the city below… a place suited for a CEO and her family. It would’ve been photogenic had the furniture not been knocked over and one of the windows shattered, leaving an opening for a chilling drop below.

“Jesus..” MJ mutters as she looks over the mess.

October takes out his flashlight and shines it on the broken glass scattered on the floor. “Looks like something burst in rather than was thrown out.” he observes.

“Hm,” Sonya mutters. “Whatever it was, it had to be strong enough to do so. Surely Nora didn’t install sugar glass in her penthouse.”

“Right,” Caryl says, gripping her gun tightly.

They all silently agreed to avoid that area altogether as they maneuvered over the ravaged living room. On both sides, the main living room branched off into smaller hallways that lead to more areas of the penthouse.

Even without the presence of the Infected roaming around on the other floors, they couldn’t help but flinch a bit at every little noise. Living this way for months on end certain didn’t do them many favors.

They all froze when they heard strained, raspy breathing coming from the end of the left hallway. Though it was distant and muffled, it was obvious they weren’t alone. MJ’s blood went cold as she recognized where it was coming from.

“… It’s coming from Hera’s room,” she murmured.

October turned to the direction of the breathing noise before he looks back the rest of the group. “Should we..?”

“Careful, Doc.” Carly says.

October sighs, slowly leading the others down the hallway. Upon reaching Hera’s bedroom, October hesitated for a moment. Something deep within him had his hands take pause as he reached out for the door handle. But now wasn’t the time for this.

With a gentle turning of the knob, he opens the door a crack. Peeking inside, the what would’ve been a regular bedroom seemed to have been turned into a makeshift hospital room. Strange OsCorp branded monitors October didn’t recognize were quietly beeping, a curtain was obscuring where the bed was, spare hospital robes were seen tossed onto the floor haphazardly… the setup was clearly rushed and yet…

He opened the door further to let the others in. Despite them entering into the frigid room, there doesn’t seem to be much rustling from the bed.

“Hera..?” MJ said, cautiously approaching the bed. Her voice seemed to be getting choked by her own tears. “Are you there? It’s me, MJ..”

“Wait,” Sonya directed, placing her hand on MJ’s shoulder, “We don’t know if it’s safe to get close, Ms. Watson. Let me go ahead.”

MJ wanted to object, but ultimately she stood down and let Sonya go ahead of her. “Ok.. just. Can you please keep the gun down for now?”

Sonya nods, complying with MJ’s request. She steps forward, her gun pointed to the floor.

Tugging the curtain away, the group found a decrepit looking Hera. Her stringy, dull, unkempt red hair seemed to be growing out of control. Her body was too deathly thin for her hospital gown and her eyes looked sunken in... and her darkened limbs looked far too long for her body. Hera is asleep, though seeing that medical bed restraints were attached to her, Sonya couldn’t help but keep her guard up as she held on tighter to her magnum.

Sonya steps aside for October, Caryl, and MJ to look at Hera Osborn. She seemed to be unresponsive but still breathing.

[What will you do now, Doctor?]

- [Give her the vaccine]

- [Wait]

[ask-octoberotto]

What about your friends? How are they doing?

In general, they’re all doing okay, though they’re all dealing with the resulting trauma from our previous living conditions. But I’d imagine you’d want some specifics beyond that (without barging in on privacy too much), so I’ll briefly tell you about how they’re doing.

Pax is… well, in custody of the BSAA, currently in what is essentially extreme intensive care (which I am overseeing) as we are trying to help her reduce the remaining symptoms. The current treatment plan shows some promise, though there’s still much work to be done.

Sonya has return to work with the BSAA alongside me, though she is working with the more combative aspect while I’m designated more towards research. She’s a combat specialist and consultant these days.

MJ has relocated herself to Chicago back to her mother’s home to try to reassess her next move.

Miles and Billie are both being relocated to NYC to live their nearest living relative, their uncle. Others heading to NYC include Max, Adrian, and Caryl.

Finally, Ed and Quinn ended up heading west to San Francisco.

That’s about as much as I’ll say but we are still mostly in touch. But, I am already pushing what I can and can’t really say as it is.. Most of us are trying to repair our lives and try to move on but.. it’s easier said than done.

[ask-octoberotto]

Eliminated my step-brother. Returning to the meeting point to reconvene with Dr. Otto.

- 🪓

[ask-octoberotto]

Hey, Sonya. This is a speaker from, uh...let's just say from outside of your area, for privacy's sake. How's everything going on your end so far? Made any progress?

Right. I’m not sure how you’re managing to reach us since communications to the world outside Tidewater (or Baltimore for that matter) are down but…

Could be better, absolutely could be far worse. Honestly, the worst thing about this venture is navigating.. how the hell did anyone get anything done in this Tower?

I digress. So far, we’ve managed to get access to some of the lower levels but… considering that OsCorp is 1000% the reason any of this is happening, I can guarantee that we’ll be running into some of their creations. Technically, we’ve seen some of OsCorp’s own patented BOWs before, but there’s a good chance we’ll run into more down here. And of course, we’ve already ran into groups of Infected people.. which we had to dispatch.

- 🪓

[ask-octoberotto]

[Adding new User… please wait.]

[Welcome, Sonya]

Right. It’s.. been a while since I last wrote my thoughts done like this. Actually, last time I did this, I still worked with the BSAA.. That’s not really important right now.

It’s odd to see what I’m typing down on this computer here in this room seems to be.. connected with some sort of blog, attached to Dr. Otto’s name? Again, not important and I really don’t want to look too deeply into it. I have a job to do right now, and that’s trying to locate OsCorp’s Archives. The goal for the moment is to grab some incriminating information so we can actually have a leg to stand on in terms of speaking out against the Osborns (It’s becoming increasingly clear that Nora Osborn might’ve planned for this to happen and was preparing extensively for this supposedly unforeseen incident)… should we get out of here (finally). It hasn’t been easy, though thankfully, my companions have been quite helpful in assisting me.

More will follow from me, and presumably, Dr. Otto. I’m not sure who I’m writing to exactly but… it’s better to not think about it too much. I already have seen such curiosity taking its toll on Dr. Otto. He seems to be deeply troubled by his experiences with… things that shouldn’t be there. Not just the BOWs or the Infected, no. I know that look in his eyes. I know he saw something that wasn’t supposed to exist. And I know that the knowledge of it is eating him alive.

I just hope he stays in reality and keeps his head screwed on.

[ask-octoberotto]

Ok, shoot, this seems suspiciously like a final boss level…or the multiverse equivalent. Stay safe and bring lots of grenades! And, uh, be careful about Chameleon. Something tells me they had a hand in all of this…

We will do our best to stay safe, thank you.

Also.. there might be a potential that you might be hearing from Sonya, given that.. it’s likely that she might be using the ‘save rooms’ much like I have been.

The main plan now is to locate the Osborns and try to find some way to reach out to the outside world (erm, within our dimension)… hopefully we will also figure what happened with those vaccines. I believe they’ve been stolen and.. I have a suspicion that it’s tied in with OsCorp.

The tower is, like we said previously, a lot larger than public records would have one believe. Whatever the ‘final boss’ is, they’re probably hidden away somewhere deep within this labyrinthine place.

[ask-octoberotto]

This is going to sound stupid, but…maybe you’re in a sort of game yourself? Like, the ‘limits’ and barriers that people can’t go through to get outside sound a lot like out of bounds barriers, and maybe that strange person could be a ‘Player’ of sorts…take it with a grain of salt, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the game thing went a little further than just being in the same universe as the RE games.

Maybe..

Listen anon, I have… attempted to consider it, believe me. But.. my sanity is already on thin ice. I can’t really afford to lose it just because I had a existential crisis about how my world works. Sonya had a point in saying not to think about it too hard, especially considering the circumstances I’m in. People are depending on me and I can’t let them down by mentally falling apart.

That said.. I am greatly concerned about this “Mihai” person. Whoever Mihai is, they are clearly making themselves known to me somehow on my own blog. It’s a disconcerting to put it lightly, seeing posts you didn’t reblog yourself with tags referring to someone you don’t know.

[ask-octoberotto]

🍁

Say it works. Say you manage to get the post-infection vaccine working without a hitch and you even manage to cure Pax. What will you do if one day you don't have to worry about N. Hectica again?

… Hm. Something tells me that I technically won’t be able to to go back to having a completely normal life should everything work out and well, I live to tell the tale. Hopefully, I will be able to continue to my work as a doctor.. and considering how traumatic this all has been so far, I am very much looking into therapy once all is said and done.

However, Sonya did tell me that there’s, and I quote: “a good chance that the BSAA would take interest in you and your capabilities as a virologist and immunologist”. I am not sure if that’s necessarily a good thing since I’m not sure how much I trust them specifically, but I will be willing to work them. Only to make the vaccine available for the general public and nothing more. One biohazard event is enough for me.

[ask-octoberotto]

[User Sonya has returned to User October]

[Party has regrouped]

[ask-octoberotto]

Yikes. So the OsCorp tower is a lot bigger than we all anticipated…? We’re considering splitting up into two groups to cover more ground here, one lead by the Doc and another by Ms. Kravinova.

We’re gonna drop some info on that soon enough.

- 🫀

Ok.

So some bad news: the vaccines that I had in cold storage are… gone. Months of hard work are gone. And not just that, but much of the equipment I used to create them have been destroyed inexplicably.

Our group have decided that we’re going to get into the OsCorp Building together soon. There has to be some way to save Pax and maybe OsCorp has a way we can get into contact with the world outside Baltimore…

I will do my best try to keep you all posted.