Oh, I forgot to give you this

Doctor Fern

Credit to lof@[email protected]

Alright!

And Fern looks great, though I hate him, lol

Haha, yep, he's dead now though, so there's that

You do not mess with The Doctor's favorite.

There's been plenty of other times where The Doctor killed someone for either suggesting (or doing) something to Khorne that he didn't approve of. (ie, suggesting a correction that The Doctor deems too severe, or someone suggesting that Khorne is beyond correction/repair and just needs to be removed from their armory ~which is just a way of saying killed~)

Briar Short Story: Restart

Briar, age 14

Cam (friend), age 14 (died at age 14)

Little & Bit (friends), age 13

Marco ("friend"), age 15

Lilac ("friend"), age 15

Viar ("friend"), age 18

Knox (father), age 41

*TW for hints of trans and homophobia, dehumanization (obviously), implied suicidal thoughts, and probably some other stuff.*

Briar found themselves wandering through the streets mindlessly, only half aware of their surroundings and fully oblivious to the fact that the sun had long since retired from the sky. They did this often now, lost without Cam around to distract them from the abuse at home.

In the back of their mind, Briar knew that staying out after dark was a terrible idea, especially in their neighborhood, but, another part of them simply didn't care. Perhaps even going as far as to hope for something terrible to happen. Then at least the numbness they felt so much recently would be temporarily broken. Or, perhaps, permanently, if whatever that ‘terrible’ thing was merciful enough to bring death. Whatever their thought process, though, they had landed out on the street again, walking around in the dark, unprotected from the cold, fall air except for a light jacket. Numb and alone.

Until they weren’t.

A hand fell heavily on Briar’s shoulder, causing them to flinch in surprise.

"Hey!" Briar swallowed hard as the voice spoke directly in their ear. "What're you doing out alone so late? Didn't your daddy teach ya about how dangerous people around here can be?"

They tensed their shoulders, keeping their eyes straight ahead, placing a false smirk on their face. "Dangerous, huh? The most dangerous thing I've seen 'round here is pigeons eatin' a shit ton of stuff they definitely shouldn't have access to."

A laugh echoed on Briar's other side, feminine and light. "You don't get out much then. Ya know, he's cute, Marco, maybe we should keep him."

The guy holding Briar's shoulder hummed, inching closer to fully wrap his arm around Briar. "Perhaps we should. I think Viar would like him."

Briar let out a slightly strained chuckle, shrugging off the guy, Maco's, arm off of them as casually as possible, turning quickly on their heels to face the two people who had approached.

A boy and girl, roughly the same age as themself. Both had darker skin and black hair. They looked very similar, actually, both with the same rectangular face structure and crooked smiles. Actually, the main differences between them were their eyes, Marco's being a dark brown, and the girls a light hazel, and their hair. Marco's was shaved close to his head while the girls was long, thick, and brushed to hang over her shoulder in a single braid. Both were covered in various tattoos and scars.

Likely twins, Briar guessed. Definitely siblings.

They grinned widely, putting on a show of nonchalant confidence.

"I'm glad ya think so highly of me already!" They stated, smirking playfully. "But I do have one complaint, I'm nonbinary. They/them pronouns, please! And my name's Briar, nice to meet you both!"

The two exchanged a glance and then, at the same time, burst out laughing.

"Well, well, it's funny too!" Marco exclaimed, a hint of venom slipping into his voice.

"Indeed." The girl replied, placing her hand on her hips and tilting her head as she examined Briar with narrowed eyes. "I'm Lilac, this is my twin, Marco."

Briar furrowed their brow slightly, noting the shift in both Marco and Lilac's body language. Both looked more tense, angrier. And then there was the fact that Marco had called Briar "it."

"Look," Lilac sighed, smiling tentatively. "No one should be out alone at night. Come with us, we've got food, cigarettes, and friends. You come with us and we'll have your back. Anyone your age alone at this time has a shitty time at home, yeah? You join us, work for us, and we'll take care of you in return. Give you purpose."

Briar hesitated, false smile falling. Realistically, they knew going with any stranger was probably a bad idea, but… Well, what they offered sounded appealing. It would mean getting away from home and, maybe, finding someplace they could belong. Like what Cam had wanted. What they had wanted together.

Taking a deep breath, Briar nodded slightly. "Okay, that sounds… Good, I guess."

Marco and Lilac both beamed, obviously pleased. "Wonderful! Viar will be happy to hear that! We always love new members!" Marco's voice was enthusiastic, but there was a hint of malice underlying his tone. "Oh, one more thing. You go by creature now. New recruits don't have identities. You earn your status. If you want to work your way up to having a human name, you can do that over time. Me and Lilac have earned our place. We are recruiters. Understood?"

He snickered and Lilac smiled thinly.

Briar hesitated once more. Sure, it didn't feel great, but, well, surely a different title was a small price to pay for friendship and a place to go when home got rough. Plus, they could always work their way up, so it couldn't be that bad.

Besides, this is what Cam would have wanted.

Briar smiled and nodded slightly.

"I understand. Thank you."

"Good. Follow us, creature, Viar will want to meet you."

Ah, yes, we love that-

-

Also, enjoy my Briar's story! It's a little messy, but oh well, haha

The Briar story was amazing-

Now I want to do more Aries angst-

I may end up doing the first time for Aries too. Well, I mean, the first time outside of an argument. Though, I could totally do that too. Ughhh, too many options.

I think I'll finish the one where Aries sees Chile fighting first and then do one of those.

Oh, and a little extra information on how the gang ranking system works!

So, as Lilac and Marco mentioned, new recruits aren't given any form of humanization, usually referred to as "creatures" or "things." However, the worst thing to be called is "monster," which is what you would be called if you made a mistake of some sort.

Then there are the step up from new members, which are the workers and guards, usually referred to as their job titles. So, they have some sort of humanization at least.

Then there are the recruiters, like Lilac and Marco, who are given human names that every one of lower rank addresses them as.

Finally, there's Viar, who is the leader. He's usually just referred to as his name by recruiters, but workers/guards and new recruits call him either "Brother Viar," or "Father Viar." Also, occasionally, just "Sir" or "Leader."

Also, all parts of the gang are basically allowed to go home whenever, as long as their tasks are completed for the day and they're given the okay by a recruiter. There are technically places to stay at the gang base, but, well, they aren't that... pleasant, so, unless they genuinely don't have a home or, like, they fear for their life at home, most people find other places to stay-

And, once you're in the gang, you don't leave. Unless you crave death or worse, of course

Anywayyyy, that's fun :)

Ooo, that's interesting- Should I go over the arena system and whatnot?

Here's the hierarchy stuff for the arena! There's a lot, haha...

--

So… The arena is actually extremely complicated, despite how simple it may seem and all so far.

There’s hierarchies everywhere. The arena itself has an overarching hierarchy. But each hierarchy also has their own hierarchy within it. And in certain cases, the hierarchy changes depending on what’s going on or who/what is involved. We’ll go over the overarching one first and then each one within it.

-

Usually, the overarching hierarchy is—

The Higher Ups

The Medics

The Trainers

The Guards

The Audience

The Workers

The Fighters

-

The Higher Ups include those like The Boss. The ones that sit up top and run everything. They’re the main wielders, the ones in control. Usually though, they’re working from behind the scenes. They socialize with the audience, they make sure everything runs smoothly.

-

The Medics include those like The Doctor. But honestly, The Doctor is often seen as a Higher Up or as a trainer as well. As that is what he is within The Medics, he acts as their Higher Up and technically is a Higher Up, meaning whenever something involves him, he’s treated as a Higher Up.

Other than that though, every other Doctor or Nurse or Medic in general tends to fall under him in about the same hierarchy you’d expect of a medical wing.

-

The Trainers are… Well, I mean. They’re the wielders. The handlers. They deal with punishments, usually. They decide on punishments, usually. Though the ones above them can always decide otherwise. Most often, they’re past fighters. They also tend to be recruiters. These are people like Tyrgrim and Gunnr. Depending on where they had stood when they were fighters, decides how they’re treated as Trainers. As such, the hierarchy for them also depends on that a bit too, as depending on it, they could be here, or they could be below the guards in certain situations. Or below each other. Like how, technically, Tyrgrim has a higher rank than Gunnr.

-

The Guards are a bit more finicky. They tend to switch around with the audience and workers a bit. They keep the right ones in and the right ones out. They escort fighters whenever the fight is over or to their punishments if they have one.

-

The Audience. They’re honestly not that hierarchical compared to the rest. But, well, certain audience members have higher status. It mostly depends on how long they’ve been part of the audience, if they’ve ever fought before, how many bets they place (and win), and how involved they are in general. The longer you’ve watched, the higher. The more fights you’ve been in, the lower. The more you bet, the higher. The more bets you win, the higher. The more involved you are, the higher. To the point where some audience members can actually have the Guards escort them around the premise and interact with others and whatnot.

-

The Workers. People like the Announcer or the ones taking the bets or the ones bartending. Basically, the ones who have actual jobs at the arena. They have a pretty typical ‘seniority’ type of hierarchy here. The only time they ever move from under the Guards and Audience is if they’re telling the Guards to remove someone from the premises.

-

Ah, the most complicated of them all now— The actual Fighters. So, they never move from under the rest of the hierarchy, but their own hierarchy (that the entire arena abides by, not just the Fighters themselves) is incredibly complicated and complex.

For starters, not every Fighter is as dehumanized as Aries is. That depends on a multitude of factors.

The apparent potential of a Fighter and how strong is the tie to the arena and how many mistakes are made and how long/how many fights they’ve been/had there, just to name a couple.

Like Chile, for example, isn’t as dehumanized as Aries. Chile never kills his opponents unless he has to, so there’s less apparent potential thus less reason to make sure he’s loyal. Chile has his own life outside of the arena, he has a family(his little sister) completely disconnected from the arena, thus it’d be harder to dehumanize him and have that stick to begin with. Chile keeps to himself, he doesn’t stand up for others, he does his fights and leaves, thus less room for mistakes to be made leading to less mistakes made thus not as many opportunities to punish/dehumanize him and try to make it seem justified. Chile has been there a longer time, but has been in much less fights, so overall there’s been less of a chance to dehumanize him.

Now Aries- He almost always kills his opponents as he was taught to, so there’s a lot of apparent potential so more reason to make sure he’s loyal. He was literally bought by Trainers, Tyrgrim and Gunnr, to fight in the arena, so dehumanizing him is much easier to do and has a higher chance of it sticking since it would be done outside of the arena and within it. And then, due to both of those facts, and the fact that Aries tends to stand up for people, make it much easier to find mistakes and reasons to punish/dehumanize him and try to make it seem justified. And then, well, he’s there often. Incredibly often. Because of Tyrgrim and Gunnr, mostly. So there’s more chances to dehumanize him.

Out of the two, Chile technically holds a higher rank within the hierarchy. Since those that are ranked above Fighters will switch between his arena name and any pronouns for him other than feminine ones (they may suck, but not that much)

Meanwhile with Aries, he solely gets his arena name and it/its/it’s, and sometimes you/your/you’re if he’s lucky and they slip up. Usually though, if they slip up, both he gets punished and the one that slipped up gets punished.

I look forward to all the Aries angst XD

Also, all of that is incredible and angsty, I love it!

-

Yeah, basically everyone except a select few of the gang are very dehumanized, and basically all of the gang is made up of people who pretty much have no real life outside of the gang, or, if they do, it's a pretty shitty one. Also, homophobia and transphobia are pretty present within the gang system, especially from the recruiters and Vial. Though they never outright say it, it's implied a lot in the way they treat different people.

Of course, there are exceptions. A few of the recruiters are queer themselves, they just hide it very well, but, for the most part, yeah, the whole thing is shitty.

Also, the way that people move up in rank is very biased. Some people move up almost immediately while others, like Briar, never even get the chance. Not to mention the difference in danger level of the tasks certain people are told to do.

Oh, and fun fact! Literally the only reason Briar ever got out of the gang (which was very recent, actually), was because they faked their death! In other words, if anyone in the gang ever spots them, they're fucked :D