#sorry i'm still not over what they did with lady ella. what. was a male protagonist easily passing for a girl with no issue too much for yo

[lloydfrontera]

Does the novel make such a big deal out of Lloyd and Javier's looks in the mermaid arc as the webcomic currently is? Sometimes I can't tell if it's taking itself seriously

i gotta admit. that in this one arc yes their looks are very much a part of the plot. mostly javier's. like. this man has so much pretty privilege it actually moves the plot along. it's infuriating. i love him.

the difference between the webnovel and webcomic is that the latter wants you to believe that lloyd is the ugliest guy in the world and javier just happens to be very handsome. while the webnovel really fucking wants you to understand that javier is extremely pretty. like. unbelievable so. he's the most beautiful guy in the whole wide world. and lloyd just has the unfortunate luck of standing beside him while having a plain face.

there's a difference there and i hate that the webcomic went that route but i guess i can see why they wouldn't want their protagonist to constantly be thinking about how fucking gorgeous his best friend is at any moment possible including while he's about to be squashed to death. like. i guess i can understand how that could alienate some of their target audience lol

so yeah, in the novel, particularly in this arc, we hear a lot about how pretty javier is. and not really that much about lloyd's looks. because there's really not that much to say. he's Just a Guy™.

[mikosdreams]

Seven Of Us

Chapter Three: One Call

MAFIA: DARK, HORROR, GORE, ETC

Bad things

Mature

Rin races down the back roads towards a small town to seek refuge from the government, the same ones that busted his front door down to his home. The same ones that chased after him down the main streets of Seoul, the ones he finally just escaped from.

His heart knocks roughly against his ribcage as his mind goes as quick as his motorcycle, due to this simple mistake of not paying attention. Due to not watching his surroundings, he never saw the police motorcycle in front of him before it was too late.

The long-haired male groans in pain as he forced his numb tingling and pain holding body to move into an upright position to remove his helmet, he looks around him but only seeing his bike that was not going anywhere. Rin gives a shaky pained groan as he pulls himself out of the damp ditch, struggling but got himself up on his feet and started his way down the dirt road.

The bright green and broken helmet lands near his burning motorcycle as he walks past it, his dragging feet leaving clear trails behind him but he could care less as he pushes himself to find shelter. Pain played on his body like it was a jungle gym on the playground and it brought its friends along, his body struggles to pull itself but on his demand it does.

Sun starts to set, giving off an orange to the violet sky above him and to a building he sees off in the distinct. He looks over his shoulder, glad to see he can only see the black smoke from his bike far behind him that could have been hours behind him but his glee was cut short. Howls of some kind of canine come from around him, far off but he did not wish to be here too long.

Forcing himself to move as he possibly can turn the building, it wasn't much. It looked like it been abandoned for decades or more, it looked like a motel or something along those lines. The sign's letters were gone besides two, the rust outline the letters that use to be there.

'Dragonfly Motel' it read as he finally got closer to the sign, he stumbles towards the chain-link fence. Rin looks through the gate but besides weather and mother nature, it looked safe enough to stay. The only problem, how was he going to get into a motel with a ten feet high chain link fence and padlock gates?

Rin stumbles around the fence hoping for an opening and he did, a hole dug underneath the fence that made him afraid to go into the closed enclosure. What is there is a rabid animal? He couldn't run, he is tired enough by getting here. He looks around a few times before getting down as safely as he could and crawling to the other side, he clenches his jaw to not cry out in pain as the uncut wires cut and tear the back of his shirt. The man pulls himself up before trying to calm himself to listen to his surroundings.

Besides a few insects, he didn't hear much of anything to scare himself to death about. Rin pushes himself off the fence and makes his way towards the front of the motel. He looks around for windows that aren't broken, the clouds look heavy with rain above him with what little like that was given by the moon. He pushes open the door to what looks like is the check-in room or lobby, the long-haired male looks around himself before giving a heavy sigh of relief.

Making his way over towards the couch and letting himself down, allowing himself to relax before hearing the door he closed open. RIn's eyes open in fear as he looks at an elderly lady holding a lantern, his throat tightens up preventing him to talk. "What are you doing here?" Her voice sounded silvery as she spoke to the young man on her plaid couch, "Looking for shelter, madam." He replies softly as he struggles to pull his already broken and weak body into a standing position.

The elderly woman shakes her head with a wave of her hand, "Sit, child, you look like the wolves have gotten you." She spoke in a ringing tone as she makes her way towards the door to his right. "I'm sorry?" He questions as he tries his best to carefully sit back down but it was still rough making him gasp in pain, "You look like shit." She plainly states as she pulls out her first aid kit.

"What's your name, kid." She demands as she sits down on the low dark wooden coffee table in front of him as she opens up her aid kit, "Rin Sonnor, ma'am." He replies as he closes his eyes. "Don't call me, ma'am," She states as she pulls out a rag and rubbing alcohol, "You can call me Grandma Ella!" She chirpily replies as the burning liquid hit his open wounds.

Rin gasps as his hands grip the couch, knuckles turning white trying not to scream as he tries to withstand his pain the much as he could as the kind lady treats his wounds. Grandma Ella helps him take off his clothes as he drifts in and out of consciousness, he saw a few other people but younger.

Rain heavily slams against the window as his eyes against the candles around him, his body hurts but not as bad the first time to come to. It pulled himself up with stiffness in his body as he checks his surroundings, he was in a bedroom. He was in a small bed with one night stand, a dresser, a bathroom with no door but with a currently open curtain. Candles were set on the dresser, window sill, and nightstand inside bowls.

Rin pulls himself to the edge of the bed before he finally sees food on the dresser, he licks his lips before jumping slightly when the door opens and a young man walks in. "Nice to see that you are finally awake, My name is Kang-ho. My grandma said you should be fine in a few more days." He quickly explains as he walks over to the plate of food. Kang-ho hands Rin the plate of the still warm finger food before heading over to the dresser once more.

Kang-ho pulls out some decent clothes before setting on the counter in the bathroom, "If you need any help, just knock on the wall with the nightstand on it and I will be back." He informs before leaving out of the small room and passes the window. Rin waits a few more minutes to listen to his surroundings before finally relaxing.

The cooked carrots and sliced beetroots with strange meat off to the side looked and smelt great, he hurriedly ate. He felt like he hasn't eaten in days but he wouldn't be surprised if he been unconscious for that long, the motor accident did do some damage on him.

The ginger-haired man set the quickly finished plate that could be a cleaned off as possible on the nightstand before carefully getting on his feet, he carefully walked to the bathroom with a small limp but nothing he couldn't handle. He closed the off white curtain before taking care of himself, once he was done he changed his clothes and looked out the window.

The rain was slowed down to a drizzle as he exits out of the room with a garbage bag he found by the door that was made into a rain poncho. He walked across the lot to the lobby where there were pay phones on the wall, when he got closer he saw there was a quarter laying in the bottom of the box. Rin silently hopes that any of them to work as he checks the phone for a white noise before putting in the last quarter, hoping the others that lived in didn't mind.

'Thank you for calling MADIA KLINE SERVICES but currently, no one is available to take your call if you like to leave a message press one,' Rin sighs softly as he holds down seven and eight for three minutes before the robotic voice changed to a comfortable he was more commonly with, 'You have access MADIA SYSTEM, name please.' Rin smiles as his shoulders relax before feeling like he is being watched.

Window in front of him gave him some reflective view of the gates, his heart stopped because he couldn't tell if the dark figure was on the outside or inside. "Outsider." He whispers into the phone, the line immediately dies. Rin puts the phone on its hook as he slowly turns around to look at the gates, his heart starts to beat faster when the stranger is nowhere to be seen.

The young man quickly looks around before trying to move his body as quickly as he could to look for the others, he opened every door but seen or heard no one. His gut twisted and pulled telling him that he needed to go or else something bad will happen, Rin turns around and quickly heads back to the lobby. He looks around the small room, pulling out drawers and opening cabinets before looking back over to the drawers to see one flipped over in his panic. A key was heavy taped on the bottom of it, far back on the drawer.

Rin uses his nails to pull the tap up and to peel the key off, he rushes out of the lobby and towards the gates. He looks saw no one on the other side of the chain-linked fence as he messes with one of the padlocks, "Thank you, drawer." He whispers as the key unlocks it. The long-haired man pulls off the chain and pushes the gate open, he starts to walk out to see a car head his way. He wouldn't be fast enough to hide but once it got closer, he saw it was Grandma Ella and Kang-ho with a little one in the back.

"Get in!" She hollers when she rolls down her window, Rin moves as fast as possible to get into the car. The car started to move even before he got his door closed, "The little girl beside you is Jisu, watch your language." The elderly woman states as she kept her eyes on the road. "What is going on?" Rin asks as he pulls his seatbelt on, "Since you arrived, people were watching us. We didn't know when you will be able to move so Kang-ho grabbed Jisu and we headed through the tunnels." Grandma Ella explains. "We have a tunnel leading from Dragonfly Motel to Lucky Cat Repairs, I use to work there before the town got evacuated." Kang-ho finished for his grandmother.

"What? A town?" Rin asks confused as he finally looks out his window to see a many but far apart buildings, "What happened?" He asks as he could see fences of all kinds surrounding the buildings. "A virus outbreak caused by the Savior Laboratories on the cliff up there," Kang-ho states as he points out the other side towards the cliffs where several off-white buildings rest untouched, "We never knew what they called it but we called it 'Alice Hallucinations' because once they are infected, it is already too late for them." Kang-ho looks out the window with a sorrowful look, "They see things that are there, hear things, and do things they shouldn't but they have no control. They don't get an option, it affects the brain and takes their life into its own hands." Kang-ho looks in the rearview mirror towards Rin, "You get the disease by blood." Kang-ho explains.

The air in the car felt heavy and sad, it made Rin want to cry as he looks over at Jisu to see she was asleep. "The disease took our mother after it took our father, she got it by trying to shot the gunshot wound in his chest. Unprotect skin, the blood had access." Kango explains as he looks back out the front window, "I thought I could save my mother but there is no cure for it. To treatment to ease the ones infected." Kangho's breathing became shaky as he closes his eyes to prevent tears from falling.

Rain fell heavier from the skies above, forcing the greyish blonde woman to slow the vehicle down for safety but they made it to the blacktop roads. "The scientists left without even helping and soon the police than our doctors too." Kang-ho lends back into his seat after he finally calmed himself down, "When people started to die, we started to pile the bodies outside the labotoraries and soon the dying went there on their own." Grandma Ella finishes as she glances back to check on Jisu. "We build and set up the fences, the ones that weren't affected and made tunnels to all the buildings." She explains as she soon lends back in her seat, "Then we died from natural causes but never left the fences. People forgot our town, Origin Reach, even exist and we were fine about this."

The car fell silent as they made their way into town, Rin's mind raced as he thinks about the information he was given. The horrors they faced and consequences they had to deal with that they didn't even make, they fought a battle that no one knew about and might never know. A mistake never wrote in history to be forgotten because the government swept it inbetween the cracks and placed a rug over it, knowing no one would know unless someone survived or went snooping.

It happened so quickly, the truck driver never saw them or the stop sign in such heavy rain until they collided. The driver had minor injuries as he dialed 911 while he exits his truck, the back half of the small car was beyond saving but that is not what scared the man. It was that he could see blood and someone in the back and the closer he got, the more of his heart broke to the point he was in tears.

"911, what is your emergency?" The dispatcher asks, "My Name is Kkoom, Ji-Hun. I need an ambulance on Suni street and Bomi street, there has been a collision. My truck hit a small car." He quickly explains as he tries to own his sobs back. "Please, hurry. There are four people in there." His breathing becomes shaky as his body starts to kneel on the ground, "There is a little girl and another boy in the car, ple-" His sob cuts him off as the dispatcher tries to calm him down. The phone lands in the puddle beside him as he can't see any of them breathing.

Four police cars, two ambulances, and one firefighter truck. They arrived as fast as they could, two policemen helped up Ji-Hun as they rest started on the car, with the people inside. It took what felt like hours to carefully get them out of the vehicle and into the back of the ambulances. There was no hope for the little girl or the elderly woman, the two men were in critical condition as the ambulances rush the hospitals.

This put RIn's life on a thread, a tearing and pulling thread for life. His life rests in the hands of the people around him, his hopes of surviving are with them. His hopes that his team got his message and will get to him, his wish that he does not leave this life so soon. This is his one call to anything bigger than him, don't let him go so soon, don't take him now. Please.