#project mantis

Tag by: @flashfictionfridayofficial

WIP: Death of a Monarch Butterfly

POV: Crystal

Context: this is towards the very end of the book, the last scene before the epilogue

Crystal looked at Rebekah, waiting for a reaction. She had dumped a lot of information, so maybe it was shock -- but the way Rebekah looked at Alice made it seem like she wasn't surprised. She was sad, sure. But it was the kind of sad people got when they knew something bad was going to happen, and they had just hoped it wouldn't.

"Bekah?" Crystal dropped her hands and stepped back. "Did you know this would happen?"

"Crystal..." Rebekah took a breath and started again. "I need you to be brave for me."

"No!" Crystal stepped further away from both of them. Alice, to her credit, didn't try to placate Crystal. She just stood warily by the entrance. "No, Rebekah. Last time you told me to be brave I --" Crystal gripped her head, trying to get her thoughts together. "Last time you disappeared, didn't you? You left me. Both of my parents were gone and you left me!"

Crystal grabbed a metal pot and threw it against a wall. She was angry and her thoughts kept slipping away from her and maybe if she slammed enough things around the pounding in her head would be cancelled out. "And I couldn't remember!" Crystal sat abruptly on a chair and Alice started in the corner.

"Crystal, don't push it--"

"Why couldn't I remember you? Why does everyone seem to know what's going on and I don't?" Crystal was screaming now, trying to hear herself over the blood pounding in her ears. She ran out of words but the pounding didn't stop so she just screamed nothing instead.

Then the smell of sage and coriander surrounded her. Rebekah was close again, whispering in her ear like -- when was it? Flashes of a knife, cameras clicking, undone curly hair pulling her to safety, and those same whispers. The same words. The pounding got quieter, Crystal's breaths slower. She stopped screaming. Alice leaned against the wall again.

"Think of softer things, my love. Think of--"

"Stop!" Crystal pushed hard against Rebekah's chest and watched as she stumbled back, looking wounded. Crystal pushed her hair back off her face. "Is anything you say not an attempt to control me?" She was whispering now. Rebekah sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. Tears fell down her cheeks, cutting through dust and landing forgotten on the floor.

"She was trying to help. When you try to push through the programming by yourself, without the right commands and without having the slightest idea of what you're doing, your mind fights back." Alice stepped forward. "The constant ringing? Your blood pounding so hard you feel like your brain might just explode? It's lethal, Crystal."

Crystal stared determinately at the floor, feeling like a chastised child. "She had no right--"

"I had no right!" Now it was Alice slamming her fist against the wooden table. "I was the one who tried to hurt you. I hated you. All Bluebird ever did was make my programming weaker. She gave you escape routes. She gave you a way to find her. Without her we would both be dead and I didn't come all this way just to have you change your mind about how you feel."

Alice stood and gave Crystal her space. "I can deprogram you. But it's not an overnight process. You need to trust us -- both of us -- if we need to stop so you don't die in the process then we stop."

Rebekah took one step forward. "We're all pawns in different government projects. Alice has the codename Monarch, because her project--"

"--is the worst."

Rebekah paused, then shrugged her shoulders. "I'm a Bluebird. I'm supposed to be trusted with controlling specified targets and get them to do or remember certain things, even if they may not be true."

Crystal looked at both of them. "We're all pawns?"

Alice drummed her fingers against her arm and answered for Rebekah. "If you had taken the deal at the hospital, you would have been a Mantis."

"So Kirtus..."

"Was supposed to die after you had a baby. And that baby--"

"Melody."

Alice nodded and looked away. "Melody was to be taken to the nursery. She would--" Alice cleared her throat as her voice cracked. "She would be raised by scientists to determine what program she would be most beneficial in."

Crystal looked at Alice, who was now talking towards a wall, her face an emotionless mask. "And if I had twins?" Crystal whispered.

Alice ground her teeth and shook her head. Rebekah stepped closer and placed a tentative hand on Crystal's shoulder. "You would have had to choose which twin to keep at home and which to never see again."

Then they were all quiet. Two women Crystal loved in different ways, neither of which she was supposed to know about. All of them beaten by some secret government agency that took and killed people like puppets.

"Tomorrow I want to start... undoing everything. Deprogramming?" Crystal looked at Alice, who nodded at the wall she was still staring at. "And then I want to take down the people who did this to us."

monarch taglist: (ask to be added or removed)

@cilly-musouka @writerofthecosmos

@keen2meecha

Death of a Monarch

[image: a single human eye with an orange Iris looking out from behind a cloud of monarch butterflies]

Twins were born to Kimimi Lancaster. She took only one of them home. Since then, Kimimi has risen from an indigent single mother to one of the wealthiest fashion conglomerates in the nation. Her daughter Crystal is set to inherit the company, if she doesn't repeat her mother's mistakes first. But what happens when the twin who was left behind is out for revenge for trapping her in a malicious government program?

Elements of interest:

- A combination of real and created CIA documents related to MKULTRA (AKA project monarch, real) and Project Mantis (fictionalized)

- lesbians and betrayal

- twins

- an Ace government agent

- Good vs. Evil

- trying to protect your family (and sometimes failing)

- betrayal and forgiveness

- mind control and conspiracies

Elements of somewhat less interest:

- token straight white boy (for diversity)

- naive to pissed character arc

- tea

- blatant self inserts

- an unfortunate and deadly marriage

FAQS

What is MKULTRA and why are there antis for it?

Please see the tag "the ship that never sailed "

How do you know so much about mind control?

A combination of research and other stuff.

Why are you a smart ass with hate anons?

Because they are hate anons. Maybe it's an automatic defense response. Maybe if they knew more about me they wouldn't be saying such things. Maybe it's Maybelline.

Tags:

Death of a Monarch Butterfly (everything)

The ship that never sailed (Anon hate)

OC intro (OCs)

Taglist (ask to be added or removed)

@cilly-musouka @writerofthecosmos

@keen2meecha

The chain holding the stained, heavy sandbag off the ground clinked against itself as Alice attacked it. Her daily physical training always started out fine, a chore that had to be done. Some days she saw faces instead of a sandbag, and even her handler knew to approach her carefully when it was time to stop. Skin broke on her knuckles and Alice responded by alternating her elbows and knees on her target.

"... Alice" 

She heard her name but didn't stop-- couldn't. She went harder and twisted toward a new attacker when she felt a brush against her shoulder. Her assailant sidestepped Alice's kick, and took her loss of momentum as an opportunity to grab Alice in a restraining hold from behind her.

"Alice! Stop it now. Come back. They kill Deltas they can't control." 

Alice dropped all of her weight to the floor, slipping out of the hold and holding a sparring position to show she was listening. A glance wasn't enough to tell if the handlers were buying it, if they thought this was a pair of Deltas sparring for a chance at privileges.

The girl across from her nodded subtly. She seemed convinced everything was okay. 

They leapt at each other, mostly blocks and acrobatics. Neither of them would ever dare to leave a mark where it was easily found. Destroying property that wasn't yours would also lead to death. 

"Attention!" The master's voice crackled over the loudspeaker and every girl turned towards the viewing area, backs straight. "MK03-LM01 report for duty."

Alice walked to the exit without looking back. She flagged down a medic and grabbed a roll of gauze for her knuckles on the way to the control room.

"Sir," she nodded to her handler, "I am at your disposal."

"Our contact has discovered the source of our target's misbehavior. The report is on the desk. You get to choose a cutout to eliminate the problem."

Alice glanced over the report, and pulled up security feeds to see the effects for herself. "Are any cutouts conditioned to remote programming?"

Her handler nodded. "A taste of her own medicine, eh? Yes, an army vet with a drug problem is ready to go. He's currently living on his own in the streets, so no one will miss him."

"I'll program the commands then. Let's have him in the area when the press conference starts."

monarch taglist: (ask to be added or removed)

@cilly-musouka @writerofthecosmos

@keen2meecha

Alice's escape

Prompt: Weeds and ruins

WIP: Death of a monarch butterfly

Prompt by: @flashfictionfridayofficial

Most nights, Alice trembled in her cot. Nights were always full of remembering. She was a Delta now -- and while that held its own cacophony of horrors, her sleepless nights were spent remembering the Beta program.

Betas didn't get cots. They got cages. You always knew who was new by the sound of someone calling for a parent they would never see again. The worst part of the Beta program lay in those cages. [Redacted by the author, as this next part includes acts of abuse/torture]

But the best part, or at least the part that was the most bearable, were the sensory chambers. Alice always had to be careful not to look excited when it was time for sensory deprivation. Most of the betas who hadn't learned to dissociate yet hated the loneliness and darkness that had come with them. The others, who had mastered escaping their own mind, hated the time lost. They didn't always come back fully when the time in the chamber was over, and so lost as much as a day and several meals. No one was allowed to speak or touch, so there wouldn't ever be anyone to help anchor you or help you eat.

Alice had found a way to avoid both problems. She no longer panicked, and refused to give the program the last bit of her that was still hers. So she created the Forest.

She had learned from her Sessions with her handler that her mind was a map. She had a castle, a beach, and a swing set. Three commands to control her every action. Her refusal to give in to panic or escape let her alter her map.

At first, it didn't work. She didn't have access to smell in the chamber, and hypnotizing yourself was hard enough without a trigger. She kept trying, mouthing out her commands without trying to speak them. She wouldn't hear them anyway. In that respect, the chamber helped. There were no distractions. Then she saw it.

The forest, the only black area in her teal tinted world. It had broken off part of the castle, leaving large stone ruins scattered across the entrance. She climbed over them. Now she had a choice. She could see a benign looking patch of poppies, soft and light in this dark land. She turned away from it and picked through a patch of tall, barbed weeds. Poppies were never safe.

In a clearing, there were boxes and birds. She had a gun.

"Beta!" One cawed. "Time out!" Alice fought back a shiver, the gun in her hand trembling. She flinched, expecting a current of electricity to hit her right then and there. Nothing happened. "Bad girl!" The crow called out. She shot it.

It fell in a hole. She could bury it, but it had to be more than that. She had to keep this demon from resurrecting. Demon... That gave her an idea.

"Iron." Her command came out strong and angry, despite her worry it wouldn't work. An iron coffin covered the bird. "Deeper." The hole plunged another six feet, taking the box with it. "Salt." A layer of white fell over the iron coffin, which rumbled in response. Alice stepped back, her heart skipping. "Bury!" She cried out, anger replaced by fear. "Bury it in stone! Now, bury it now!" The grave finished itself, a picture of a cage engraving itself on the smooth finished surface.

Alice turned and ran. Chamber time would end soon, and she didn't have time to bury any of the other demons that cried out to her on the way out.

Character Description

Kirtus is an unsuspecting bystander in all this. He will do anything for money (except get a job), is pro-drug (doesn't matter what flavor), and thinks he knows enough about conspiracies to understand what's going on.

General Information

Name: Kirtus Pheffer

Demographic: Token white boy

Social status: Extrovert + con man = whatever you need

Distinguishing features: Aries tattoo

General attitude: contrary

Snippet:

Kirtus left the Lancaster mansion without once looking back. He knew enough about these rich types to know he would be followed, and he wanted to be gone before anyone had noticed he wasn't on the guest list after all. 

His mind raced over the events of the night, connecting dots. There was something hidden among the Lancasters, something they didn't want to be known. Was it a genetic problem? Was young Crystal Lancaster dying? It would explain her reaction in the garden, her sudden interest in SIHE, and her mother's warning that she would never marry. No, there was something more. If her daughter were dying, it would have been announced. Tragedies made good money these days, and Kimimi wouldn't have looked so outraged at Crystal's announcement. Something hadn't gone to plan tonight, maybe several somethings.

Kirtus arrived at the abandoned house he was squatting in, and dug into his weed stash. He needed to unwind, and opening his mind would help him connect more dots. He licked his lips, tasting the resin from his pipe. He had to see Crystal again. Aside from the secrets he might be able to seduce out of her, he craved her more than any drug he had ever used. Addicted at the first taste of her.

He let out a laugh and choked on a cloud of smoke. Finally, a drug he could be addicted to that was completely legal.

Monarch taglist: (ask to be added or removed)

@cilly-musouka

I had been playing with the idea of dropping Monarch for a while and exploring an idea for a dystopian...