how to stop an exploding man.

[regenerated]

The papers read November 7th, 2006. The much anticipated New York congressional elections were underway as people all around the city were filing in lines, some staring with a bit of curiosity or trepidation at the new booths provided by one Daniel Linderman, a big name throughout the whole of New York, but one who came with his share of shadiness as well. Not every household trusted him, the most wary sticking in their apartments, offices, and classrooms, absentee ballots clutched in their hands, but the turnout was decent on the whole, the only event which seemed to set that day apart from most others in that gray city, skyscrapers stretching all the way up into the clouds above.

But, unknown to the general populace, there were a group of individuals scattered around the whole of the city, some whose faces were plastered on posters at every turn, others making it onto national television, and still more trying their best to avoid any detection altogether. And those individuals were special, the pinnacle of human evolution, some believed. Destined to do something great.

A hospice nurse.

A taxi driver.

A watchmaker.

A girl next door.

An office worker.

A policeman.

A socialite.

A soon-to-be Congressman for the 14th District.

A manager at a paper factory.

A cheerleader.

Heroes and villains.

This was their story.

Comments

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

Coraline stared at Claire this was worse than the fog, this was worse than everything in that nightmare and the thought that the Other Mother could use her and would use her. The tick-tock man wanted Claire and everyone like her.

"I don't want to leave you," Coraline said. She wouldn't admit to being scared, she was brave but she didn't want to be alone. She was somewhere new and that was exciting but terrifying too. She wanted her dad, she wanted Adam. "And I'm not a hero, heroes save people Claire. All I've ever done is take people to the next place after they're dead and I don't want to do that again. And I don't want to be alone."

[regenerated]

She tried to think of how to word it in a way that would get through to Coraline. Because no matter what, she knew that she would have to abandon Coraline at some point in the next twenty-four hours, because this wasn't something that a kid (which Coraline definitely was, the gap between the two of them even greater than the sheer difference in their ages, Claire thought) should have been exposed to. The only thing that held Claire back at all was the fact that she didn't want to disappear without an explanation. If at all possible, she wanted Coraline to know, to hide somewhere safe, rather than try to do anything stupid. Not everyone had the luxury Claire did, of being invincible and healing from every scar.

"Coraline, you have to listen to me," Claire said firmly. "I can't... I can't do this if I think that I need to be watching out for someone else the entire time. I'm only brave when I know that I have nothing to lose, so you can't just follow me the whole time, okay? Because I've watched... I've seen so many people die because of this, I'm not even sure if my biological father and uncle are going to survive this. I'm not brave, but when it's just me out there, I've got nothing to lose. And I need that, to try and keep my family out of trouble. You, too."