Hypnoxia

[Ellery]

Introduction Cast List

• An infamous, mute engineer is taking New York City by storm as he has proven to be able to fix almost anything and everything mechanical and electrical and build it at the same time. Dubbed as the new Tony Stark, the genius finds himself falling deeper into his depression as he struggles to create relationships with others due to his inability to talk and his billion dollar family company which others saw as intimidating. One night, as he walks into a dark, eerie neighborhood to help a child that he had frequently seen hobbling around with a cheap prosthetic, he gets attacked. Woken up by the commotion of kids screaming and playing outside the shelter he was in, he sees his attacker, a man in his mid-twenties, studying the child's new robotic arm which the billionaire had installed before being knocked out. While the attacker, a mechanic himself, finds it quite strange that a stranger like the genius would help out someone in the ghetto, he finds himself more and more interested in the mute man until he finds himself in deep trouble. And maybe, this is what the billionaire needed.
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Cast List

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  Name: Landon Scranton
  
  Age: 20
  
  Personality: Extremely reclusive and shy, Landon has withdrawn from many of his classmates since he was diagnosed to have "selective" muteness, type of anxiety disorder in which his brain shuts down when it comes to speak to anyone in public. He rarely talks to the people in his house, but rumor has it that he was once a bright and happy child. It is a mystery as to why he had changed so drastically when he started to attend middle school (or whatever grade above 2nd).
  
  History: Mysterious as can be, since Landon stays to himself, it is easy for him to hide his identity online where he goes under the name, Elliot. This identity ideally helps less fortunate people to be able to do more things for themselves more easily, but mentions that there is a bigger "picture" behind the whole project. It is assumed that it is simply a project to help him cure his selective muteness by himself rather than going to therapy for it.
  
  In real life, however, he is simply a tech geek who creates tiny yet helpful gadgets and sells them to students who are interested in testing or taking apart the piece to build something else out of it. Despite having enough money to build an empire, Landon believes that he should fund his project with his own hard earned money. His gadgets really come in handy during final exam time where a holographic projection of the clock on people's wrists avoid them having to strain their eyes and necks to look for the simplistic clock in their respective classrooms, along with cheaters desperate for a better grade programming the device to project other useful things for them, but this practice Landon tried to avoid partaking in.
  
  Outside of school, Landon likes to fix people's prosthetic limbs with the advanced tools he has at the hospital near his mansion, along with learning how to fix more complex parts of the body.
  
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  Name: Jake Morrison[/bg][bg=#636262]
  
  Age: 24
  
  Personality; An ambitious fellow Jake is. Ever since the start, Jake never intended to give up. It didn't seem to fit his personality. As the only good samaritan in the ghetto, he strives to be a 'hero' for his siblings and other helpless children. His ambition is something that correlates to a lot of other personality traits - strong willed. Not much can break his spirits. The harder you put him down, the harder he's gonna break from your push. His ambition is usually fired up by his younger siblings. His siblings are the one's that he cares for the most. There isn't anything Jake wouldn't do for them. His gentle and funny demeanor always brings a smile to them, but it's something rare. Outside, he puts on an intimidating disposition and scare off predators.
  
  History; From the get go, Jake was alone. His mother was a drug addict who died from a stroke and his father a failed inventor. They lived off of their grandparents money, which wasn't enough to last them all the years. At the age of sixteen, Jake began to work as a mechanic. At first, the man who owned the garage was hesitant on letting such a young boy to work for him. The cars at the time was much more advanced than one would believe them to be. However, Jake managed to pick up the basics and snatched the job. In the beginning he was scared and uncertain about placement and the structure of the car as they grew more and more complex.
  
  Each day he extracted lessons from his mentor, becoming better. At the age twenty, he became proficient in fixing cars and begun to build small knick-knacks. The minuscule projects he had built later grew into prosthetics. The prosthetics aren't mobile, nor were they attached to the human nerves; they were considered useless to the normal person, but to a child missing a limb or two, it was protection from the bullies. He built some for his little sibling who was missing an arm due to an attack. The prosthetic arm was used for aesthetics - to ward off their tormentors.
  
  He enjoyed seeing the expression on his siblings face when they received their prosthetics. It encouraged him to make more prosthetics for other children in the ghetto. On the side, he would continue building minuscule thing to lessen the burden on his shoulders. Small robots to keep the house in order - to keep his siblings busy (built robots made for the amusement of children) and to clean. He would sell the working robots for a fortune. Sadly, his inventions were not popular and did not sell much. His income only managed to keep food on the table and the bills to be paid.
  
  Other; He has five siblings - three boys and two girls. Lionel (16 Y/o), Julia (12 Y/o), Braxton (8 Y/o), Zack (8 Y/o), and Melina (5 Y/o).
  
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[Ellery]

A puff of warm air came out of a hooded boy whose eyes darted back and forth from one stranger to another. His eyes, mixed with tints of hazel in a pool of chocolate, was covered by his unkempt bangs that he didn't bother gelling back today. However, it didn't help that he could barely see where he was going when he had a hard time keeping his breathing steady. His social anxiety made his head spin from all the people that were crowding around the alleyways he was taking, but he had made a promise, and he meant to keep it.

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The scream of a child echoed through the air as people's heads twisted and turned to see the source of it. A hazel-eyed boy, currently buying some rundown tech to tinker with, met with the eyes of the six year old, tears pouring down his eyes. Without a though, the boy's feet started to run towards the child and saw that he was surrounded by a group of ragged-looking canines, foaming at the mouth. Halting to a stop, he looked around desperately for professional help and spotted a pair of security cyborgs idling at the street corner. However, every second mattered as the child was being cornered by the dogs. The dark-haired boy stood there for a moment before deciding to do the most outrageous action he had ever done.

Ripping off his metal cuff that would alarm officials when it was off and throwing it at one of the dogs, he ran faster than the time he was chasing after his own dog about to jump into the neighbor's third-dimensional machine. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. What the hell am I doing?!" He thought, clenching his teeth as he heard the dogs follow him closely with earth-shattering barks and growls. Looking straight at the cyborg in front of him who was just alerted about the cuff, he vigorously pointed to the dogs behind him as he ran increasingly faster towards the cyborgs. They nodded, understanding the boy's situation and preparing for the worst when the dogs would come close. Another one that had just arrived at the scene seemed to be hastily pressing buttons on its arm hearing as there was a nearby ambulance coming this way.

An emergency ladder hanging from the window of someone's apartment hung halfway down to the ground of their second floor apartment next to the ladders. One leap and he would be safe from the dogs, but if he missed the first rung, then he'd be in it for the worst. Heaving his way up to the cyborgs, he took his chance and leaped upwards to the sky, barely reaching the rung and dangled from it like a doll with one arm. The cyborgs, catching the dogs as if they were comforting them rather than hurting them, hauled them away from him and into a large, white vehicle that read "Sector IV: Animal Control Services".

"Area secured," The police officer's eyes met mine. "You alright, kid? I hope he didn't bite ya." One of the cyborgs drawled out in a heavy accent. Dropping down, the boy nodded quickly and ran towards the little child who was cornered and now crying his eyes out. He scanned the boy's body as if it was his own child to see that one of his arms was not only not there, but in full robotic form. However, it was banged up from keeping the dogs away from his body, wires hanging out and causing his hand to twitch involuntarily at times.

He pointed towards the arm and tilted his head to show that he was confused. For the first time, the little boy smiled. "I was born without an arm, so my brother sold a lot of his things to buy me this so I could be like a normal kid." The older male nodded, listening to a little bit of his story and trying to explain himself that he fixed these kind of things by pulling out his handy pocket sized set of tools, but also gestured towards how empty it looked as a way to say that he could come back later to tinker with his arm.

"Promise you'll come back to fix my arm?"

The dark-haired stranger looked at the little boy with doe eyes and a smile bigger than Jupiter itself. He nodded, murmuring out an inaudible 'okay' as he glanced at the rabid dogs that were being hauled away by a group of cyborgs responsible for animal control. He knelt down to the little kid's level, an awkward, crooked smile flashing on his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out as usual. The same tight feeling that clamped around his throat whenever he wanted to express his thoughts overtook him and he blinked to keep his anxiety in check. Struggling to get his words out, he stuck out his pinky finger as a somewhat firm confirmation of their promise, along with shaking his head and pointing at the dogs as a way to tell to him to steer clear of trouble.

The little kid giggled as he took hold of the young man's pinky with his own before running off into the shanty town. "Okay, I won't play with them again. See you soon!"

A grunt made the lanky twenty year old snap him back to reality. "Watch where you're going, kid." Shoving past him was a man twice his size, both in length and width. Confused, he looked at his surroundings and realized that he was in the shantytowns of New York. The East side, to be specific.

He gulped. The boy remembered how he saw the crime reports around here was like online. Hell, he didn't even have to go on the Internet to see it - the evidence was all around him. Regrets started to fill his head and his feet eventually started to slowly wind through the huge, bulky men that were either gambling around cans of fire or standing outside their homes lingering outside with e-cigarettes. He coughed as he passed by the angry-looking men, quickening his pace until he saw the kid he was looking for, kicking around a rock with his arm in a poorly made sling.

"He--" He froze up again, not being able to speak. Sighing inwardly, he tapped the kid's shoulder and smiled. The kid, ecstatic about his return, hugged him dearly. However, he let go shortly after, putting his hand up at something behind the hazel-eyed adult with wide eyes as if to stop it.

"Let go of my brother."

 

[Cain]

"Let go of my brother!"

It was a natural instinct that compelled Jake to have swung his bag at the strangers head. With one good, clean hit, the man was down and unconscious. He inhaled the foul air, his chest heaved in and out. There was no soul to capture the scene, lucky him. Dark orbs scanned for near danger then landed on his guilty brother. Zack's eyes widened shocked.

"Shit Zack," Jake began. "Melina is much more obedient than you, and she's five!" The lecture brought his younger brother a loud groan. His evident annoyance only released more paragraphs. "I'm sorry Jake, but, he isn't a stranger," Zack said the young boy walked toward the unconscious body. "Don't go near that!" Jack pulled his brother away from the body. "Let's just go before the authorities show up." He pulled on his brother's arm, attempting to pull the younger boy further from the scene. However, his brothers persistence forced them to stay put.

Jake released his grasp on his brother and furrowed his thick brows at him. "What are you doing? We're leaving the guy." He tried again, but Zack would stay. "I'm not leaving him here." The petulant retort forced crossed arms, a glare, and feet pounding against the concrete. A loud groan resonated from Jake's vocal chords. "Okay, help me bring him to the house." There was an obvious reluctance in Jake's voice when he spoke. He grabbed the stranger and pulled him up, swung their arm on his shoulders, and started to head toward home.

The man's body was draped on his body, pulled down his right side. Jakes' shoulders ached and each movement seemed to worsen his shoulders condition. Maneuvering heavy machinery and hoisting up heavy items brought him to grow weak. His little brother did not much to help but his attempt to help made Jake smile.

The scenery changed quickly. The darkened alleyways and the degenerates of New York had shifted to apartment buildings. He shoved his free hand into his jean pocket. When his fingers brushed against lint and miscellaneous trash he groaned. His finger hooked on the key ring. He pulled it out and wavered the key card over the door. A loud clunk indicated that the door opened. Jake nodded his head sharply at his younger brother. The doors were pushed open and he continued to drag the stranger into the apartment. Into the apartment building, a pungent scent of nicotine and alcohol coalesced. Jake grew accustomed to the scent, as for his younger brother, the boys gag reflexes had him coughing.

Into the elevator and up to the fifth floor they went. The murmured sounds of screaming and carouses were the norm. Their apartment complex was filled with boisterous sounds - most were positive but on occasion there would be a brawl; between a man and a man or a man and a woman, it didn't seem to matter.

The elevator came to a turbulent halt. A few shakes and a creak. It was an inevitable problem that one cannot seem to escape. Zack quickly held tightly onto Jake as did Jake. A soft whimper came from Zack. "It's okay, don't worry about it," He assured. The boy nodded his head as the elevator doors opened slowly. The rusty doors did not open completely, however, it had widened enough to relieve all three bodies. Into the hallways, immediately there was the definite sound of children. He could point out the opened door, where the light would slip from the room. Zack quickly fled from Jake's side and into the room. Jake chuckled softly as he continued to lug the body.

Lionel ran toward Jake to help carry the body. With furrowed brows and a confused countenance, it was evident that the boy had an inquiry.

"Whose this?"

"Some guy Zack wanted to help. Fucking Christ." He sighed sharply.

"Shit, well," Lionel scanned the man for a bit. "He's not from here. His clothes are way too expensive for here." Jake looked at the man himself and surprised. The clothes were too lavish to be seen from this part of New York. "Why would..." His thought vanished when the sound of a squeal-filled his ears. A stout brunette, doe brown eyes, and a purple shirt ran up toward him. The young girls eyes were filled with curiosity and questions. Before they could be asked, the rest of his siblings burst out of his apartment room. Each child had a gleam of curiosity.

"I will tell you guys everything!" Zack shouted.

They group all entered the apartment. It was a small apartment building with four sections - a small kitchen that only offered a stove, sink, and a fridge, there was a living room, a narrow bathroom, and bedroom. It was all entirely small, too small to fit a family as big as the Harrison's.

"All right, you guys just stay in the living room. I'm gonna take this guy into the bedroom." He said. "I'll come with you," Zack said. "No, you stay here with your brothers and sister." Zack frowned and returned to his siblings. He turned the doorknob and pulled the door open. He walked inside and placed the man on a chair. The body was unconscious, it was unable to keep still. The body continued to fall from the chair. "Tch," Jake leaned the body against the backing of the chair. The body slipped and lolled forward, each time it did, Jake pushed it back.

"There." The body stayed still, but his siblings ran into the room. The room was filled with noise, mostly questions that Jake could not answer.

 

[Ellery]

Landon awoke to the sound of hushed voices and little squeals as he tried to focus on his whereabouts. His head throbbed with agonizing pain as he remembered vaguely someone hitting him with a large bag that felt like it was full of bricks. Groaning, he heard the room grow silent and the boy he saved from before rushed over to his side. He was saying something, probably along the lines of "Are you okay?", but the hazel eyed billionaire couldn't seem to grasp anything as the throbbing in his head overtook his consciousness and he dipped into a pool of darkness again.

Rays of stark white light melted into shades of orange and yellow brought warmth to the hospital room Landon found himself in. He tried to remember why he was there, but all he could remember were sounds. Sounds of screaming, wailing, and utter despair. He shifted against the headboard of his rather enormous bed that seemed to dwarf his delicate, small frame and noticed that no one was in the room with him. He was alone, like he always was.

A note at his bedside table was brought to his attention when the light struck his eyes, averting his line of vision to his left. He plucked it up, recognizing the handwriting immediately.

"Son,
It pains me to leave you in this situation, but I have to settle something at the company before I can take a few days off to take care of you. Your mother called a few times to make sure you were alright, and told me to let you know that she would visit you on the 16th. By then, you should hopefully be awake and I should be able to join her side then, too. This is all my fault, I know. I should've been there for you.
I'm sorry for being such a terrible father.
Love,
Dad"

Landon looked up at the white board that was straight ahead of him, reading all the details of his condition with cheerful script. On the top, it read "December 26th, 20XX". He blinked, realizing that he had woken up long after his mom had visited him. Just as he started to read the state of his condition, a lanky, rugged man with a five o'clock shadow and a disheveled look entered the room.

"Oh my god, you're finally awake!" He rushed over to Landon's side, an Italian woman looking just as disheveled as the man following behind him with tears streaking her cheeks. "Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?"

The boy opened his mouth to say something, his thick, black hair falling in front of his eyes, but nothing came out.

When the dark haired man finally woke up again, it was well past midnight as his internal clock flashed in front of his eyes before he blinked it away. All the kids he briefly saw before were cuddling on a lumpy mattress. The oldest of them (or at least it seemed like) was awake with a mug from which he was sipping from, looking out the singular tall window that looked out on the outskirts of New York. He didn't notice that the man on the chair was awake right away.

The throbbing in Landon's head seemed to have dulled from before, so he took a risk to wobble onto his feet and try to head out before his family noticed he was missing (however, the stakes were highly unlikely as they were too preoccupied with their work). Luck wasn't on his side, though, as he stumbled over his feet and toppled over a body on the ground that he didn't notice before. It stirred, but didn't notice his presence and rolled over to the opposite side. However, the eldest of them all did, and a shadow fell over him as Landon was standing up, inching away from the taller guy. He held his hands up to indicate that he had meant no harm before and pointed at the bedroom door, which was slightly ajar, to say that he was leaving.

 

[Cain]

The stranger seemed to have slept unconsciously longer than Jake hoped for. Time has worn his siblings out - they all slept on his bed, leaving no room for himself. He stayed awake. He couldn't find himself resting his eyes when a stranger stood in the house. Jake slumped his way to his small kitchen. He poured hot water into a pot and began to prepare coffee; he expected the night to extend to the possible morning. He yawned loudly, letting a tear form. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. The night took a toll on him - only the sound of the static TV kept him awake.

Each step he took was heavier than the other. He leaned and grabbed the remote control. He surfed through channels from the kitchen, prudent when the kettle began to screech. He quickly shut the heat off and poured the hot water into the coffee grinds. The aromatic coffee filled the kitchen and his nostrils. He took a sip and walked into his bedroom. The sight of siblings ushered a smile on his lips - quiet and peaceful, just the way he preferred them. Dark orbs looked out into the ghetto's. The neon signs and muffled screams did not seem to be as terrible as people said it was. He grew accustomed to his living conditions. His siblings adapted faster than he did; they were cautious and carried self-defense weapons. Jake did not worry with agonizing fear they would be kidnapped.

There was a sense of pride he had for his siblings. However, the thought disappeared at a sudden sound.

He turned sharply, a bit of coffee spilled from his cup and burned his hand. He hissed, his attention on his burned hand. He thought about his next action, "Don't do anything rash." He warned himself. Jake settled the cup of coffee on a table and approached gradually. A glare that narrowed his eyes onto the stranger. The skill of intimidation used upon the predators within the ghetto. When he reached close to the man, the stranger stumbled and tumbled; a pitiful sight it was.

When the stranger pointed at the bedroom door, he raised a brow. No words were spoken between them. Jake glanced at his siblings, he returned his deadly glare at the stranger. In one swift motion, he grabbed the strangers wrist and dragged him outside the bedroom.

There was the sound of struggle, soft grunts. Inside the living room, he carelessly threw the stranger down. Jake squatted to achieve the face to face level. "What the hell were you doing to my little brother, huh?" A threatening tone elude from his lips. "He's a fucking eight-year-old for christ sake." In hushed decibels. He shook his head gently. "Who the hell are you anyway? Is this what you do? Go to the ghetto and fuck with young kids?"

"If you do, I'll do more than make you unconscious." A threat that wasn't to be tested.

 

[Ellery]

A frown formed on Landon's strong features. This time, he got up confidently and stared straight into the stranger's eyes, ignoring the dull, pounding headache. He pulled the sleeve up of his right arm and revealed that it was a robotic prosthetic. While his hand didn't give it away because of the human-like skin glove that covered his hands just past his wrist, the rest of the arm was filled with various colored wires and gears that made it obvious he didn't have an actual arm. He pointed at the wires and then strode over to the bedroom to point at the eight-year-old child's arm. Frayed wires poked out, causing his arm to involuntarily twitch slightly every so often. Landon then took out his compressed tool box and waved his arm between him and the little boy to the older man.

At this point, he hoped that the guy would understand and leave him alone, but for extra measure, he took out his phone and the pen that was stored inside of it. His strokes on the screen were quick, but flowed together into swirls and curves. Shoving the phone in the aggressive dad-like figure of this child, Landon studied his facial expression to see if he made the whole situation clear by writing what happened from the rabid dogs to now.

While he waited for the man to scan through his explanation, Landon glanced at his tired, auburn eyes and the throbbing red mark on his hand. He also had multiple other scars and seemed to have an angry expression etched into his face, but there seemed to be a softness behind them which was perhaps reserved for his siblings. Briefly, the mute boy wondered what could've happened to their parents exactly that they were left alone like this in such a dangerous part of town. Once the protective figure was done reading his summary, the billionaire took the phone again and wrote his name, along with another message that was much shorter than before:

"My name is Landon Scranton, the son of Strivak Corporation's CEO, which is one of the leading manufacturers that produce the most advanced nanotechnology with some of the most genius inventors out there. If you don't want me to fix his arm, fine, but at least let me pay for the parts. It's the least I can do for this kid and your family as a whole."