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Given the way the post apocalypse had been shaping up, there were very few things that could really surprise anyone anymore. Things had already taken so many twists and turns it felt like it was some kind of tangent from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slapstick” or something. There were few oddities that weren’t possible out in the wastes and most ‘normal’ sense of humanity had long been snuffed out.
Survival could be paramount depending on the area you ended up in, however, for some, things ended up a tad more cosmic horror-y. Instead of an Kurt Vonnegut aside it would distort the human figure into an H.P. Lovecraft one. Too many arms, eyes, legs, ears, or even mouths could wait for someone on the other side of a particularly foul encounter with the landscape.
Despite the grotesque nature of ones distortions, one could theoretically still operate as a figure in some capacity. With the world coming as society understood it coming to an end, as well, then there was an even bigger argument that even if a person’s flesh had lost it’s normal sense that they could hold a position of power.
By all accounts anyways, it’s not like the presidential election would matter anyways. Votes can’t easily be counted in a world that has literally had it’s very foundation shaken and destroyed. So by all means, one can simply find their way into the White House and go from there. With enough fear on their side certainly anything is possible, especially if they have as many arms as Gerard Way did when they made their way inside.
No one really knows how or why he ended up there, nor can anyone explain exactly what took place to lead them to the bodily transformations that they appeared to display. The distortions in their figure tended to change person to mantis to person for sure, but it at least could be agreed that he had a lot fucking lot more arms than normal.
In tandem with that transformation, the ideas that that many arms conjured were awe inspiring in and of itself. The lengths the human body would have to go to fit as many arms that had been rumored to have planted themselves on Gerard’s body meant that so much more would have to bend and break to make way for it. His spine must have broken over and over again under the weight of all those limbs, and the period where they would have been understanding the horrors that were taking place to them must have been agonizing.
No one knew if any of their band mates or even family had made it out alive. There was rumors that the reason he’d ended up in the White House at all was because they’d lost it all. Maybe in a state of delirium following their lose understandable reality had been what done it. If they’d been near the White House or ended up there after wandering for some time was also muffled. Some said that there were whispers of seeing a multi-armed being long before reports of what became of the White House came through. Still, there was no real proof of that one way or another. Just a chain of whispers and side eyes a words went around and around again about what became of the former singer.
Though, on particularly late nights, people in can hear a tune echoing out onto the White House lawn. Some are even able to recognize the music as being from the singer’s previous albums. With all this in mind, though, no one has gone into the house itself to try and see if all the rumors are true.
That is, until Will decided to be a bit too stupid for his own money in that regard. It didn’t exactly take a lot to get over there. With enough time cracks had formed at what protections were there when the apocalypse at first started. The whole idea being to lock the building down, and keep the lower class out, certainly had a weight to it as he slinked his way closer to the nearly abandoned building.
It was a wonder that no one had made their way inside before Gerard had. Or, more likely, someone had made their way there but they hadn’t been there long enough to leave an impression on anyone's minds. If they had made an impression at all, then those that knew of them hadn’t lasted long enough to pass the information onto the rest of the populace.
Either way, it was a weird situation to mull over. It’d certainly come off that way to Will and Chris as they’d discussed it with one another a few days before. There was a sort of ritual that came with them hanging out with one another. Like this strange force would come over them every once and while and they’d feel as though they were being perceived by something else. At first it had been extremely disconcerting, but they’d long since gotten used to it by then. It was just something that happened to them every now and then. Considering all the other odd things that happened after the apocalypse the general sense of being watched wasn’t the worst thing out there.
Still, on this particular occasion the rumors surrounding the “not abandoned White House” came up and Chris had challenged him to go and find out if they were true or not. It was a stupid thing for him to say, though arguably it was stupider of Will to agree to doing it at all. Things just sort of moved too quickly for him to process it all. He couldn’t help that it was so easy for him to get onto the White House lawn now that there was nothing to protect there. If anything he expected to have some kind of resistance so that he could go back to Chris, tail between his legs but at least being able to tell him that it was too hard, but with no issues at all he basically had to keep going forward.
Fucking around and finding out was basically the entire point of the being in a post apocalypse setting. It was, at least, when he was able to play it in video games. There was always going to be a bigger risk since he was actually living through it, but sticking to the thin and narrow path was only going to allow you so many resources.
That was what Will was telling himself once he made it inside the building proper at least. He didn’t actually need to be looking for Gerard Way in all their infamous glory per say. That could be a side quest in the grander purpose of exploration. Yeah, yeah, that was a better reason for going inside a possibly infested building, exploration. Maybe it’d have made more sense in the world before but urban exploration still hadn’t been his kind of thing even then. Watching a television crew exploring possible ghost locations could be fun, but there were limits when it came to his own involvement.
Those limits were long since left behind, yes, but he could still feel them buzzing in the back of his head. His body was tense beyond belief and he still compelled himself to move forward. Even as he could hear strange cracking noises up ahead his feet only slowed slightly. He carefully tip toed through the slew of debris on the ground. Plenty of carpet was torn up, wood chips was everywhere, paintings were on the floor and vases were shattered too. It was a disaster zone that he was stupidly crawling his way through, but no part of the world wasn’t at that point.
As he moved through the haze of deconstruction and rot that had been left to fester, he heard what sounded like pattering. On one hand it reminded him of foot steps but it was moving far too fast for it to be someone running. The ground was so covered in shit that it didn’t make sense for the sound to be so smooth. There were no real breaks between the foot falls. They just kept going and they were moving startlingly fast.
Will felt his spine twitch upwards as it clicked that the noise was too close for comfort. He spun around just in time to make out a face looking at him from the ceiling. He stumbled back a few paces, tripping himself at first before he genuinely tripped over a piece of debris, before finding himself flat on his ass. His head tilted itself toward the figure that was advancing on him and he felt all sense of reason fly out the window as his heart rate spiked beyond belief.
He barely got out a, “Shit!” before the thing was directly in his face.
His breathe shuddered as the thing cocked they’re head to one side. Hair spilled over any semblance of it’s face he might have otherwise been able to make out. It led him to focus less on the face in front of him and instead of the body that was looming down.
There were so many arms. It was hard for him to comprehend how any human body could even be capable of functioning with that many appendages attached to it, but then he realized that it was hard to say if this person could even be considered as a ‘functioning’ anymore.
Though, he knew that he already was aware who it was that was spilling down from the ceiling in front of him. If the aforementioned stories about the place were enough to set the record straight the tight, and torn, green and white cheerleading outfit that still clung to his body was the final nail in that coffin.
Their head stayed cocked to the side as Will got his breathing back under control. He’d stopped advancing toward him at least, but they hadn’t moved at all since getting so close. The stillness of their body felt impossible, but it could be argued that that merely came with their existence at that point.
Will’s fingers twitched as an arguably stupider idea occurred to him. Their hair was just so damn long. It seemed impossible that he’d actually be able to see him at all through it all, if he could even see anything at all.
It didn’t take long for his hand to be up against their forehead. He pushed the as much hair as he could behind where he thought an ear might be before doing it to the other side as well. He could feel oil and grease immediately start to seep into skin and he started to regret it, but then he saw the two wide brown eyes staring at him.
His hand darted back toward him from the surprise, but he was pleased to see a smile appear on the other person’s face.
“All the arms in the world,” their voice was hard to make out at first but he was able to catch onto what he was saying, “and I keep forgetting to do that.”
Will let out a nervous laugh as he began to nod his head, “Yeah, I got the impression from the stories around here you don’t get out a lot.”
“Believe it or not, it’s kinda hard to move around with all these things.” Their head motioned backwards to the horrific mass of arms, “Legs can’t really do anything with them, you know? At least I know what all is in this building. But the land outside is a tad too uneven to trust.”
That really got a laugh out of Will, “It’s fucking horrible out there dude. I know we’re in an apocalypse but I still find myself being surprised by how screwed it is out there.”
He watched Gerard’s grin widen, “Yeah? Do you mind telling me about it? I’m still curious if any of the comics I read growing up got any of the details right.”
“It’s such a grab bag disaster out there. You never know what your'e gonna find out there.”
Their smile widened even further, the skin stretching an in an odd way that made it almost look like it was going to split open. The twisting of their skin somehow made their eyes look even bigger than before. That eager shining brown pools were almost bug like all of a sudden, and Will was reminded just what exactly was in front of him.
Still, that morbid sense of curiosity that always loomed over his shoulder, egging him on as he and Chris discussed more and more of the batshit things they'd seen, clawed at him to stay in place. Any real danger didn't seem to exist now that he and the former lead singer were talking about their experiences in the distorted hell scape. He'd long since learned that just because someone had a monstrous visage didn't mean that they were going to grind you into dust any chance they got. At any rate, he at least knew exactly what he was going to bring up with Chris the next time he saw him.