#peep the Wendell and Wild reference

[phillycheesesteakcore]

Blood // Water

CONTAINS SEASON 1 SPOILERS!

word count: 2.4k

synopsis: in the days following the Doodler's release, there are those who would use the chaos for their own gain, but Henry Oak and his friends and family aren't going to let that happen

content warnings: none that I'm aware of, if there's anything I missed please let me know!

author's note: I was supposed to finish and post this a while ago, life got in the way, sorry guys. Based vaguely on this.

The days following the Doodler’s release were absolute chaos. As reality seemed to collapse upon itself again and again, people turned to who they thought they could for help, guidance, anything. Religious leaders, government personnel and the like were hounded by the masses, masses who were every bit as terrified and confused as they were.

There were of course those who knew exactly what was going on. A small group of families; the Wilsons, the Oak-Garcias, the Stamplers, and the Foster-Closes, newly returned from an adventure of their own. They’d immediately sprung into action, searching for answers in the arcane and mundane, puzzling a way to put the world back together the way it’d been before.

And there were, of course, those who looked at the world as it was; the turmoil, the discord, the agony, and saw it as cold, hard, gleaming opportunity. After all, who’d notice an extra lining in a wallet, what with the end of the world?

Henry sat slumped in a chair at the kitchen table, arms hanging limply by his side, staring mindlessly ahead at the muted television on the counter. He couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t felt this dull, pounding ache in is head. He knew he hadn’t slept in… more than just hours. Days? A week? Did it matter? He was hell for it either way. He knew he should rest; knew he just wasn’t useful to anyone like this. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t lay his head to sleep peacefully while the world burned outside his window. Not when it was his fault, not when he could’ve done something to stop–

He shook his head, wincing slightly at the pang of pain the movement caused. He couldn’t think like that. It wasn’t helpful. And it’s not true, Mercedes’ voice rang in his head. Henry smiled. She was right, he knew. Rubbing his eyes, he looked blearily at the time displayed in the corner of the news crawl on the tv. 5:55 am. Still staring ahead, he wondered if he should even bother trying to get to bed. The boys would probably be up soon anyways. Henry sighed. He knew he should talk to them. Really talk, not just the shallow tip-toeing they’d done around the issue. Ask why they’d–

Something on the tv caught Henry’s attention. “Klax Korp To Move Ahead with Construction Project” crawled along the bottom of the screen. That couldn’t be right. Henry closed his eyes, trying to concentrate through his headache. Before the… end of the world, Klax Korp had started construction on a new manufacturing site just north of town. But it’d been discovered that there weren’t accommodations in the site plans for proper waste disposal, and that in all likelihood the waste would just being dumped into the river, poisoning the ecosystem of the entire river valley. Henry and Mercedes had organized a very successful protest, halting construction, and eventually an official statement was released from Klax Korp, saying that construction would not resume until a proper solution was found. That’d been barely ten days ago, just before the release of the Doodler, there’s no way they could’ve possibly come up with a feasible solution in such a short time. Proper planning and enacting would take several months at the very least.

Unless of course, they had no intention of making any such changes. Doing so would cost a lot of money, and Klax Korp had proven again and again they were willing to cut any corners to avoid that. The chaos of the Doodler’s release was the perfect time to quietly go ahead with their plans. Henry dragged himself out of his chair, swooning slightly as he did so. He really needed to get some sleep. He knew what he had to do now, and to do it properly he’d need rest. But at least now he had something he could do.

Darryl was just getting out of the Honda Odyssey when Ron’s car drove up and parked at the end of the Oak-Garcia’s driveway. He waited for Ron to join him and they walked together up the short stone pathway to the front door.

���D’you know what this is all about?” Darryl asked, “It didn’t sound like Doodler stuff over the phone.”

Ron just shook his head and shrugged.

“I guess we’ll find out inside.” Darryl said, ringing the doorbell.

“It’s open!” Glenn’s muffled voice came from inside. Pushing open the door, Ron and Darryl found the Oak-Garcia household in its usual state of charming chaos. Weaving between the toys strewn on the floor, creative art pieces yet to find their rightful place, and various rocks taking up more space than they really should, the dads found Glenn posted up in the kitchen over a tray of Mercedes’ oatmeal raisin coconut cookies. He pushed the tray in their direction as they approached.

“They’re better than you’d think,” he said, mouth full, sending crumbs flying. Ron took one.

“Where’s Henry?” Darryl asked, taking one himself.

“Right here!” Henry called, coming down the stairs. “Sorry about the mess, it’s been a weird couple of days.”

“It’s fine, we get it.” Darryl said.

“You look less terrible.” Ron said.

“Thank you, Ron,” Henry said appreciatively, knowing he meant no harm, “I actually got a couple of hours of sleep today if you can believe it.”

“Hey good on you man,” Glenn said, clapping him on the shoulder, “So what’s up?”

Henry sighed, preparing himself. He told them about what he’d seen on the news, and what he figured Klax Korp were trying to do under the radar. “I know this sort of thing isn’t really in you guys’ wheelhouse, and that it may sound like a whole load of phooey to you. And I know we have way bigger fish to fry right now, with the Doodler and everything. But if stuff like this gets ignored, even if we do manage to fix things, we might end up in a world much worse for wear than it really should’ve been.”

“Yeah, man. Screw the corporations.” Glenn said. “So what’s the plan. We blowing this place sky high or?”

“What? No!” Henry gasped. “This isn’t Faerun, we can’t just go around blowing things up. And honestly, we shouldn’t have been doing it there either.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Darryl asked.

“I wanted you guys to come to a protest with me.” Henry said. “There was a group of people Mercedes and I organized with the last time, but a lot of them were put out of commission what with the end of the world and all. The group is much smaller than it used to be, and there’s strength in numbers. The more of us there are, the bigger the disruption, the more of an impact we have the potential to make. If you knew anyone you could invite to come as well that’s be a big help.”

The dads all looked at each other, and then back at Henry, nodding.

“Yeah, we’d love to help.”

“Absolutely,”

“Cool,”

The next few days were a blur. Signs were made, scheduling was done, friends were enlisted. Most of the families of the other kids from the soccer team agreed to come, many of Carol, Morgan, and Samantha’s coworkers did too. Glenn reached out to his fans on social media, and word spread fast.

The first few days were incredible. A couple dozen people each day, making quite a racket at the gates of the construction site. A local news van even showed up to report on it. But it wasn’t enough, and soon the numbers started dwindling.

The dads were gathered at the Wilson residence after another protest with paltry attendance, snacking on Darryl’s homemade brownies.

“Alright team, let’s debrief,” Darryl said, handing out glasses of raspberry lemonade.

“Look guys I’m sorry,” Henry said, “I know things started out great, but at this point I feel like I’m wasting all of your time.”

“Nah man it’s cool.” Glenn said. “It’s a good thing you’re trying to do. We just need to get the word out better.”

“But how?” Ron asked. “We’ve asked pretty much everyone we know, and you’ve asked a bunch of people you don’t know.”

“Hey,” Darryl said, “we’ll figure this out. We just need something new.”

“Yeah,” Glenn said, “maybe we don’t need more people, maybe we just need to be more disruptive. We need to come up with something big, and fast. Isn’t there supposed to be a representative from Klax Korp coming in a few days? Whenever they’ll be there is the best time to make a decisive move.”

A silence fell over the group as they tried to puzzle it out.

“Man, it’s too bad we can’t get your dad to help us Henry,” Ron said after a moment.

“What– why?” Henry asked, bewildered.

“I mean, he convinced all those people in Oakvale to like not litter and stuff.” Ron replied. Henry thought about it for moment. He definitely didn’t want to enact the same kind of society Barry had. But in terms of being disruptive like Glenn said… there was a page out of his father’s book he could take. A grin spread on Henry’s face.

“I just had the best idea.”

Darryl called up his sister. If there was anyone who knew how to get what they’d need for Henry’s idea, it was her. She was happy to oblige and took Darryl to a workshop she knew where they made the product. They’d need something much bigger than the typical size and had to be custom made, but with a few favors called in from her, it’d be ready in a little over a week.

Ron was tasked with communicating the plan to the others that were still out protesting with them. The dads didn’t want to take them too much by surprise and have them all run away. It definitely took some convincing but somehow Ron got them to understand.

Glenn decided the most important element for their plan was the music. He and Henry spent days on end trying to find just the right song for what they had in mind. The night before the day of, Glenn texted Henry that he’d found the perfect one and to leave everything up to him.

The next morning, a bigger crowd was gathered at the gates of the Klax Korp construction site than had been for a long time. Security kept them from getting too close, but they were still all abuzz with anticipation. Even more news vans were there to cover the day. A sleek black car pulled up, and out stepped the Klax Korp rep. He made his way to the stage set up to speak, but the crowd just got louder drowning out anything he had to say.

And then they did quiet down a bit, listening to something faintly heard on the wind. A rhythmic thumping, like heavy feet on the ground. And with it a voice, Glenn’s voice.

Beg me for mercy, admit you were toxic

You poisoned me just for another dollar in your pocket

The thumping and singing got louder and closer, some people could even swear they felt the ground shake beneath their feet.

Now I am the violence, I am the sickness

Won’t accept your silence, beg me for forgiveness

And with that, a huge mass came barreling out of the forest. Even though they’d been warned ahead of time, the very sight of it made the crowd scream. A gargantuan Kodiak bear came running at full speed towards the gates of the Klax Korp construction site. Seated in a custom-made saddle designed for this huge beast was one Mercedes Oak-Garcia, face covered in what could only be described as war paint and screaming at the top of her lungs. On either side of the saddle hung a speaker blasting the sound of Glenn’s voice.

We’ll never get free, lamb to the slaughter

What you gon’ do when there’s blood in the water?

Vines sprung up from the ground, parting the crowd in two as the beast came bearing down the middle. It went barreling up to the podium, knocking it and the Klax Korp representative over. The security scattered in all directions, leaving the rep pinned under the mighty paws of the bear.

The price of your greed, your son and your daughter

What you gon’ do when there’s blood in the water?

“Tell your people,” Mercedes said down to him, “to fix their plans for this place. We will not have our home and our waters poisoned, is that understood?”

The rep nodded desperately, tears running down his face. The bear let up its paws and he fled back to his car, taking off in a cloud of dust away from the site.

I am the people

I am the storm

Mercedes turned the bear around and faced the crowd, looking from the protesters to the cameramen and reporters.

“There are those who would use this time of chaos for their own benefit, to the detriment of others,”

I am the riot

I am the swarm

“Rest assured you will be found out. Rest assured we will not let you quietly do so,”

When the last tree’s fallen

The animal can’t hide

Money won’t solve it

“The cruelty of using the cover of mayhem to ruin the lives of others is unforgiveable,”

What’s your alibi?

What’s your alibi?

What’s your alibi?

“We will not forgive. We will be there. And we will give you no peace.”

What you gon’ do when there’s blood in the–

Blood in the water?

The bear reared up on its hind legs and roared, teeth bared, claws extended.

“Plot and plan knowing that we will never give you purchase to hurt this earth we share, not then and certainly not now.” And with that, the bear went running back into the woods, taking the wild woman and the music with him.

By the very next day, Klax Korp issued a new statement assuring the public that more serious endeavors would be made to ensure that no waste products from the manufacturing site would end up being dumped there. Mercedes clicked off the tv and gave Henry a kiss on the cheek.

“We did it, mi osito,” she said.

“I’m sure there’ll be others,” he replied.

“And I’m sure we’ll be able to handle it when there are.”

tagged: @lex-the-lesbiann @likelyscam @redistooviolent @i-am-the-egg @hrdwrkinqtpatoot @lunarrosette @dip-the-stick @chemicaleater @taylortheanimerangerteen @some-dragon-bastard