"you Heartless Bastard. Did You Do It Because You Hate Horse Plinko, Or Purely To Spite Me?"

au where karl just accidentally kills ethan in the first encounter

First Night

The night the Bioshock 2 cast come onto the surface is absolute chaos. 

It’s a few days before Christmas. Jack’s daughters are on break and Rosie is on her way back from college and is supposed to get back later that night/early morning. Janice will be there on the 22nd. Rosie’s too broke to afford a pay-phone so she has no idea what she’s walking into. She nor Janice don’t even know Tenenbaum went to Rapture unlike their younger sisters, who only know vague details because none of the adults want them to get upset. 

Jack and Liz are nervous as hell as the days go by without hearing any news from Tenenbaum. They all wanted to go back down with her, including Ryan, who wanted to gain back some control of whatever was left, but Tenenbaum didn’t want them to be brought back into hell for her sins. If she dies, so be it. She deserves it. Even though the girls are adults/teenagers they need their family. 

It’s Sally’s birthday that night. They had a dinner of her choice and were getting ready to do cake when they hear bangs coming from their porch. A second later, it sounds as if their door is about to be kicked through and they can hear screams of children and Tenenbaum begging somebody to open up. Jack, of course, runs over. He doesn’t know what to expect. Maybe a Big Sister followed them back or something. He grabs his wrench from the closet and expects the worse. 

Nobody expected survivors to be with her. Most of the people he and Liz encountered were far too gone and Ryan was 100% positive that anyone sane was long since dead, including Sinclair. Boy, is Ryan surprised to find Sinclair bleeding out and dying on his porch… which he just had power washed. 

There’s a sea of children behind a frazzled Tenenbaum, an elderly woman beside her with one of the smaller Little Sisters in her arms, a teenage girl in a Big Sister suit holding up another Big Daddy with the help of a Rumbler who’s got a little blonde girl on his shoulder. A scrawny younger man is ready to pass out as he tries to put pressure on the gaping hole in Sinclair’s stomach while a fourth Big Daddy tries picking him up.

Liz comes over to see what’s up as they all just stare at each other, whispers “oh,” and then all hell breaks loose. So, cake’s going to have to wait. Everyone’s got a job to do whether they like it or not. The teens are forced to take the Little Sisters upstairs to get a shower and distract them from what’s going on downstairs as they bring Delta and Sinclair in. Tenenbaum would have called to give a head’s up but time was not on her side. 

It’s a five man operation getting Sinclair out of the Omega suit and then Tenenbaum has to check the damage while also focusing on Delta. She’s got enough ADAM on her to keep the latter from dying and is able to start the dosage to reverse the damage to his internal organs through Eleanor while she works on Sinclair. Ryan is complaining the whole time because she’s getting blood everywhere. On the floor, on the carpet, on the couch. It looks like someone fucking died in his house, Tenenbaum responds someone will if he doesn’t shut up and let her work. 

Porter tries to help as much as he can. He gets Tenenbaum supplies, brings over towels for the teens who need them, holds Delta and Sinclair down, tries to clean up. Meanwhile, Mark can barely fit in the house and breaks several valuables. He nearly kills Ryan when he turns around. 

Grace goes back and forth from upstairs to check up on the little ones, helping Tenenbaum deal with the wounded, and comforting Eleanor who is nearing a nervous breakdown. Once Delta’s stable, she’s able to make her go up, get cleaned off, and introduce herself to Jack’s girls. The shower is ice cold by then and their clothes are way too small for her but she’s so happy to be out of that suit. 

Stanley is useless. He’s one of the only other guys not in a Big Daddy suit who can help, and stopping Sinclair’s bleeding is an effort for everybody, but he’s about to pass out. He gives up and then he raids Jack’s fridge and drinks milk straight from the carton while Ryan looses his shit. 

By the time everyone’s done with Sinclair, they look like they committed a murder, even Grace. There’s blood all over their clothes, their arms, and their tub is stained red. They don’t know what Sinclair’s blood type is and he absolutely needs a transfusion. Good thing Ryan’s an universal donor. He’s Big Mad for the rest of the night. 

After being forced against his will to be altruistic, Ryan tries to watch Price is Right in the other room away from everybody else but then Mark comes over with Cindy, plops down, and the whole couch just goes up like a see-saw. He’s even more pissed. Honestly, the history he has with Stanley, Grace, and Sinclair is kind of ignored right now because of chaotic it is. They can bitch about each other later. 

None of the younger girls are even allowed downstairs besides Cindy, who’s with Mark, and Jack and Liz try to keep the older girls away from the gore as well, but when Sinclair codes they have to get Masha down because she’s one of the few who knows CPR given that she’s a lifeguard. Jack has to give a couple shocks. Ryan doesn’t want him to die, not because he cares, but, like, he gave his blood and it would be mean nothing if he, like, just died…

The sofa in the family room can be converted into a bed so it’s the eye of the storm. Liz wraps it in plastic wrapping so it isn’t ruined and uses old blankets and pillows for bedding. A little bit of ADAM helps with the pain but Tenenbaum has to use most of it on Delta, Porter, and Mark, who she takes home with some of the other Sisters. Then, they got to pull out the inflatable beds, sleeping bags, and it’s so rough. Grace gets Janice’s room while Stanley now has the couch forever tainted by Mark’s ass.

The teens put on a Disney movie for the younger girls while they brush Eleanor’s hair and chat with her. She’s still nervous as hell about Delta but they get her to calm down. She’s thankfully not there when Sinclair codes and Grace nor Stanley never tell her. 

They all do have cake, though, before they go to bed. Jack, Liz, Ryan, Masha Grace, and Stanley are covered in Sinclair’s blood but they and a dozen screeching children all sing Sally Happy Birthday. It’s so awkward. Tenenbaum gives her a quick awkward arm-hug before she leaves.

Rosie comes home at about 1 in the morning with presents for everybody to a fucking murder scene and then the fridge incident with Stanley occurs. The walk to the kitchen, though, for her is terrifying. 

the whole squad

Listen, I’m going wild with Lutece device shenanigans in 2 causing the Train Car Party to relive their and mainly Delta’s past as a bonding experience: Sinclair witnessing his grandfather’s death, Stanley seeing himself getting verbally abused by his father for being too ‘weak and pathetic’ for football, a teenage Grace discovering an alcoholic family member froze to death outside her Hooverville shack, Mark’s divorce.

They’re going from tear to tear as it just gets worse and worse like:

obsessed with this moment. he's so concerned about marge...

Billy Lenz in the attic having fun