Work Text:
THIS IS AN AUDIO TRANSCRIPT OF THE HOSPITALIZATION OF JOHNNY SMITH (COMMENTED ON BY CURATOR: Farst Everost.)
"I can't tell you anything man! I'm the most background type add-on character ever made, I don't know what to tell you. I'm stuck in a hospital after a really bad car crash, I can't feel my legs, I can barely move my arms let alone hands and fingers. Everything I do is now through the help of machines or medicine, that's right."
[This first part is actually from a call that "Johnny Smith" made to his lifelong friend "Bartholomew "Lip" Brown", we don't have anything saved from the start of the call unfortunately but we do know most of the events and the way that the following months in the hospital brought us to these unfortunate circumstances. The morticians report of Johnny's corpse wrote down the following. "The c1 vertebrae (the one that is closest to the head) was crushed. Completely. It's a miracle he could even move his fingers or arms at all and I don't mean that in the normal way. This is a medical impossibility." So to say that Johnny Smith's situation was odd is to be underselling it by a tonne.]
"I eat, shit, piss and sleep only because my body is forced to do these things really."
[Johnny Smith was not well known for his decorum, or anything else really. I dug into him and he had nothing but B's in school, not a single date or relationship other than family and Bartholomew "lip" Brown and one Harry Ferguson. It's odd really, this guy did nothing. He was nobody, worked at a car shop, disliked his boss and had a fondness for coffee. I mean hell, he does have a background but it seems so fake. There's not a single recorded instance of him on social media and after fifteen interviews with people in the same school as him over 70% of answers were "Who's that?"
I kind of feel bad for him but my god, he seems so inconsequential the other 30% of people we interviewed said that he seemed pretty basic and not interesting in a single way. He didn't have hobbies, he didn't get bullied, he didn't get a date to prom. There's nothing to really say about him. So I'll wax poetic about his parents for a moment instead.
With a name like Johnny Smith you would think that he was a Caucasian man, right? Wrong. His parents are first generation immigrants who escaped from North Korea. There was no speculation over Johnny himself however as he never brought it up to his school mates and he had attended the same school for the entirety of his studies. The kid's having grown up together paid no attention to the fact that a very clearly asian man was named the second most stereotypical white guy name (right after John Smith) Missus Rachel Smith and mister Jonathan Smith escaped North Korea at the turn of the millennia, on October ninth of 1999 the pair somehow got out. The facts of the matter still haven't been fully released and the two refuse any interviews.
Maybe Jonathan and Rachel were both glad that their son got to live such a boring life. It's certainly not what I would want in life but Johnny's last recorded words were "It's okay, don't worry." and he seemed very kind from the footage I've seen, so who am I to judge?]
"How did it happen?"
[This is one of the few times that Lip decides to talk in the recording of the first call, we have no clue as to why he seems so quiet during the recording. Psychologists who have reviewed the tape say that he might be quiet so that Johnny can finally speak his mind. Since both men seem the quiet type and they need one another to complain to, some have suggested a homoerotic relationship between the two but there is not enough proof to make a definitive statement yet.]
"It would be redundant to say that I remember it like yesterday because it was only a week ago but I guess I said I remember it like yesterday already. Sorry for being a confusing narrator. What was I saying again? Oh yeah."
"An airbag saved my life, like in the radiohead song. I was driving at night because I was working late, my dickhead of a boss asked me to be a teamplayer and being the person I am I stayed late. I was on my way home and waiting at a red light and I turned to look at the stars that were super visible at the time. I heard a car honk behind me and started to drive since the light turned green and then I saw a truck coming my way. The first thing I thought about was "How embarrassing would it be to die while listening to Maroon 5?" The airbag launched and it felt just like how I used to jump into bed as a kid, right after school days."
[The radiohead song Johnny is referencing "Airbag" comes from the album "OK Computer" and is the first song of the twelve song album, while the Maroon 5 song he was listening to was "Payphone". It would indeed be embarrassing to die while listening to such a song.]
Then I woke up at the hospital. I cried for a little bit and got embarrassed about crying.
I've been feeling this sharp pain in my ribs that I've been trying to ignore but it's getting pretty bad. I think I see something sticking out from under my skin but eh, what do I know? The doctor said it's all gonna be alright. There is something that's been worrying me though.. Oh I gotta go! One of the nurses told me that she's going to have to examine me again.
[This could be the first sign of Johnny Smith's transformation, unbeknownst to him of course. I doubt that anyone's first thought upon having rib pain would be "Oh, I'm going to grow two more arms and sprout wings from my back as I am overtaken by a satanic force but maybe I'm explaining too much at the start of the transcript.]
"One of the nurses just asked me the strangest questions, "Do you know your name?" "Have you been in a car crash before?" (as if people are just jumping from joy to be crushed by a toyota.)"
[This following portion is a text exchange between Johnny Smith and Jonathan Smith.]
"Well are you feeling okay? Sorry if that's a bad question, your mother forced me to ask."
"I'm feeling fine dad, can't feel my legs which is a bit worrying but one of the nurses said that might be fixed with surgery."
"Oh dear, we can try and help you pay some of the costs but we can't promise the stars and the moon. I'm so sorry this happened to you."
"I'm sorry for worrying you two."
[The last message was left unsent, we recovered it from Johnny's phone and after digitally backing all of the information we found out that Johnny Smith was as boring in the use of his personal phone. He was frequent visitor of chat forums about cars, car maintenance, the TV-show Top Gear, political news and most intriguingly gay porn. (maybe the claims of him and Bartholomew "Lip" Brown being in a homoerotic relationship had more to stand on then initially thought.) Johnny Smith was a leftist, he voted for Bernie Sanders at every opportunity and was a devout member of the democratic party.
Johnny was also a spotify user, his spotify wrapped had mostly the following bands: Queen, Radiohead, The Smiths, Eminem, Powerwolf and AC/DC.]
[The following portion was recovered from the hospitals security desk. It is a recording of "Lip" and Johnny talking, without audio unfortunately but we have managed to find a interpreter to roughly translate the sentences they were able to see.]
"Look, I don't think I've ever felt this way before man. I-I- It's like there's something right under my arm that's trying to break out."
"(BARTHOLOMEW'S MOUTH IS FACING THE OTHER WAY, UNABLE TO TRANSLATE)"
"...Yeah like that time you pulled the splinter out of my arm but this one is way bigger. Like genuinely massive man!" [Johnny is seen lifting his hospital gown and showing Bartholomew his ribs that are heavily bruised.]
(Bartholomew is seen turning his head away, grimacing as he tries not to look at Johnny's injury. Bartholomew says "Jesus fuck, man." Bartholomew gets up and starts to walk away.)
"Hey man don't leave me, don't leave me!" Johnny is seen trying to move out of his bed and wincing from pain, staring at Bartholomew as he leaves the camera's sight.
[Lots of things could be said about the boredom one might feel simply reading about Johnny Smith's life but I feel as if it has never been stated how boring it can be to stay at a hospital for even hours, let alone the dozens of days that Johnny Smith was in the hospital for. Over the course of three months Johnny had seen fifty eight movies, watched two long running series from start to end, started writing poems and filled a notebook full of them. After Bartholomew left Johnny it seems as if he didn't have much to do other than consume and create media. Below this reads one of his poems, my personal favorite.
"There's a stench of car oil in the air and its something that defies the room, however off of you and your body my eyes could not stray from. Oh how to say it beautifully? I know not when or how but I think I've fallen in love with..."
As you can see it doesn't rhyme properly but it does show off more evidence for those who claim that there was a homoerotic relationship between Lip and Johnny.
Another curiosity that happened on this stay was that Johnny Smith regained his ability to walk. A genuine impossibility.
Johnny hadn't had visitors for the next month after Lip left and I don't want to imagine how dreadfully boring that was, I guess he had time to catch up on "The office" and "Modern family" but throughout the footage it seems very depressing. He ate the following five meals in rotation for ninety days: Mashed potatoes and meatballs, Spaghetti bolognese, Pea soup and pancakes, Chicken and rice and lastly the most dreadful of all: cabbage casserole. How dreadful. Thankfully John and Jane Smith did come to visit Johnny on the second month of his hospital stay.]
"What is the problem? You can walk, talk and work well right? So how come you're being forced to stay here?" John Smith asks his son, Johnny is seemingly on very thin ice with his father perhaps the sixty days of not seeing each other had something to do with it. Jane Smith seems to be a bit behind, trying her best to be part of the conversation but she's left out by the two men.
"I don't know dad, I've been asking that too but they keep telling me they need to take more exams and stuff. I feel fine and have asked to leave dozens of times but they just won't let me." Johnny seems to have grown more hostile over his stay, this is understandable with the mounting bills from the stay. Something his parents seem to be worried about more than the actual well being of their son.
John Smith is seen getting up from the seat that was pulled next to his sons bed and going off camera, records from the hospital show that he assaulted one of the nurses repeatedly shouting "My son is fine! Let him free!". Here is where Jane and Johnny Smith have one of the more touching moments in the records we have.
"You know, since the day I met you I've been proud. I can't say the same about your father but I knew the moment I held you that we had to give you a better life a-and it just breaks my heart to see you here." Jane Smith starts tearing up, we hear her voice trembling as she continues.
"I love you Johnny, I do but we cannot keep up with the bills. I'm so sorry but we can't give anymore money for this. I hope you get out and back to work soon so that you won't be drowning in debt." Johnny stares down and quietly answers.
"I love you too mom."
[The following month of Johnny Smiths hold is nothing short of non-stop testing, almost every day different doctors and researchers came to see Johnny's condition and wonder how he is able to move his body without difficulty even with a crushed c1 vertebrae. Now I have mentioned a "transformation" earlier in the file, correct? This is where I address it directly, Johnny Smith did not have his life saved by an airbag as he so thought. He died and his body was possessed by a powerful supernatural force, it's still being debated on whether Johnny knew about this or not.
So far in past recordings we have found three cases in Europe: The Mater Dei Emergency department, Vatican City and the Hagia sophia grand Mosque. For example in the Mater Dei emergency department the supernatural force was found to have been laying hidden in a human body while in the Hagia Sophia grand Mosque it was recorded as a case of full on possession. The fine details don't matter to the overall story but just thought of telling you this tidbit. Maybe I'll tell you about Vatican City or Hagia sophia sometime.]
June 17th, 2011, 22.56
The following occurs within the next eight minutes: Johnny Smith's body bursts out two arms from his sides, wings from his back and his skin turns into a chitin stronger than diamond. Afterwards he walks out, killing anything in his way.
June 17th, 2011, 23.30
Bartholomew "Lip" Brown's house is broken into.
June 18th, 2011, 4.22
Johnny Smith's body burns in the sunlight and removes all trace of him, official Johnny Smith no longer exists. There is no records of a passport under the name, description and numbers of Johnny Smith's. There is no records of him having gone to school or even existed. When his parents were questioned about their son they replied with "We've never had a child."
[Chilling right? Now you might see why I've told you basically his entire life story. Even the hospital he went to that was destroyed doesn't remember this, the official statement was a gas leak explosion. Now we might never know what happened between Bartholomew "Lip" Brown and Johnny smith on that fateful night on June 17th because the only other witness; Bartholomew killed himself on June 20th. In his suicide note he had the following:
"I'm really sorry it felt like everything was fine for a long long time. I mean I haven't thought about suicide before but suddenly I have this feeling of emptiness, food doesn't taste the same and music doesn't sound good anymore. I don't know what I've lost but I know it was important to me. Maybe I can find it up in heaven. Momma I'm sorry for the heartbreak but I feel like this is something I have to do."
So we can't even interview the man. I like to think that Johnny loved Bartholomew and Bartholomew loved Johnny, that even in the face of supernatural possession and whatever else might have clouded his mind that Johnny's first thought was how Bartholomew might be able to help him. Maybe they talked for a good long while about their life, I hope so at least.
END OF AUDIO TRANSCRIPT]