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So, I mentioned in the author's note of "Quality of Life" that I've entertained weirder fic ideas—weirder than zombie-themed porn. I don't doubt that anyone believes this is possible, but still, I felt like illustrating just why it's a good thing that I don't end up writing every idea I come up with...
Below is a passage from an old fic idea I no longer intend to finish. It's in present tense, because that's how I write the notes and outlines of my fics before I write them out. This one is actually much closer to being story-format than most of my outlines, which are more script-like...
It wasn't abandoned per se as it was the base from which "Quality of Life" was eventually formed. I feel writing it now would just be kind of redundant. More explanation of the plot of this fossil fic at the end.
The immediate symptoms that Javier experiences once the parasites begin their work are headache, fever and disorientation. The latter two taper off, but the headache worsens, joined by muscle aches. His eyesight fails. According to the doctors this is "normal" for the manifestation of the disease, and that his eyes are fine and he can still physically see, but his brain is too confused by the changes going on to interpret the information. His vocal chords seize next so that he can't make more than wheezing/grunting noises, which is terrifying and frustrating on its own. He's been afraid ever since this started that there would be mental changes, and if he can't talk how will anybody be able to tell? Eventually, his hearing goes out too. He avoids panic for a while after that, feeling himself being prodded and poked, only able to let the doctors work, since they can't tell him what is happening to his body. After that the pain becomes acute. Finally one of the pokes must have contained a sedative, or else something else causes him to lose consciousness.
Javier wakes.
He is in pain, though less than when he was last conscious, the pain in his limbs and head having reduced themselves to a low ache. His nose is assailed by several smells: medicinal smells, body odor, sickroom smells of the ICU, a dusty scent, a faint, metallic one that might be blood, and many others, most that he cannot identify. Apart from the aches, his body feels numb and heavy. He tries to move, but quickly realizes that his wrists are strapped to the bed.
He tries to still his panic, and wait.
He is still unable to see, but his hearing has returned. In fact, it appears to be working overtime. He's surrounded in his blindness by all sorts of noises, all running into each other so that he can't make sense of them. He tries to filter them. Buzzing, clicking, whirring, humming, all close by: he's got to still be in the hospital, so that has to be the machinery he's hooked up to. His heart is loud in his ears, matching the painfully shrill beeps to his left. A soft muffled splash sounds to his right, almost hidden by everything else. He hears the sounds of activity elsewhere in the hospital. Footsteps in the hallway, hinges swinging, voices in conversations all blending into each other.
Soon, he hears the sound of footsteps stop, and the mechanical sound of a door knob being turned, the squeak of hinges, and the sounds out in the hallway intensify long enough to be certain that someone has entered the room. He flinches slightly as the door swings shut with a click-slam.
He tries to speak. What he hears is an oddly pitched sound between a shriek or hiss. He stills, stunned, his heart hammers in his chest.
Jesus…was that me?"
Detective Esposito," The voice belongs to a woman. It's loud-sounding, though he'd guess it's just him, and seems startled. He's been hearing his own heartbeat this entire time, and he realizes he can hear hers too. Listening, she sounds even more scared than he is. Was. Because her fear brings to mind just how bad the changes might be... "Are you awake? Nod if you can hear and understand me."
The "understand" part is also not reassuring. It takes a while, since he feels so numbed, but he manages a slow nod.
"Good. That's... Very good. I'll fetch the doctor, and be back in just a moment."
The footsteps recede. Maybe five minutes later, another set of footsteps arrive, heavier than the first. A man speaks, introducing himself as Dr. Albert Warren.
Dr. Warren repeats the same question as the nurse, asking if he can hear and understand to raise a thumb. Javier manages after a slow pause and some trial and error, as he has some difficulty getting his fingers to work.
"Very good." Dr. Warren says, just like the nurse. He and sounds very relieved. If he doesn't get some more information than that soon, Javier doesn't know how long it's going to be before he loses it.
"I'm going to ask a few questions to help ascertain your condition. Since you were having difficulty speaking before you lost consciousness, they will be yes or no questions. I want you to respond to the best of your ability by raising your right thumb for yes, and your left thumb for no. Can you do both of those things right now? Right, then left."
Javier does his best to comply.
"Good." He hears a click and a scratching sound. A pen? "Do you remember why you are here?"
Javier draws in a shaky breath before raising his right thumb. He hears the pen again.
"Roughly an hour and a half after your sight and hearing went out, you experienced a seizure. We believe it was most likely caused by the changes taking place in the brain. You were placed in a drug-induced coma to help mitigate the stresses on your body, and help minimize the potential for collateral brain damage. You've been in that coma for two weeks. Do you understand?"
"Understand" is a stretch, but he gets the gist of it, so he raises his right thumb.
"We were able to kill the parasites producing the abnormal hormones that caused the expression of your changed DNA, but several of your biological systems had become adapted and dependent on them. We were forced to use synthetic hormones to replace them and keep those systems running. Unfortunately, this allowed the changes to continue to manifest, though at a much slower pace your body was more able to handle. We've been steadily lowering the dosage. You're still being weaned off of them, but since your physiology has started to stabilize, we've decided to revive you from the coma in order to take stock."
Thankfully, the doctor doesn't ask if he understood any of that. It's unspoken that it's his mental state that they are eager to check.
"Since your sense of hearing has obviously returned, we'd like to check your eyesight next. Your eyes have been kept bandaged, to keep them closed during the coma and to protect them should your eyesight still not have returned once you were awake. We're going to turn off the lights and remove the bandages. We'll bring them back on slowly so that you have time to acclimate."
He hears a click, and some of the humming he had been hearing dies down. After a brief moment, he realizes it must have been the fluorescent lights. He hears the doctor approach. Suddenly, he feels heat approaching his face. He flinches, and hears the soft intake of breath. A few moments tick past before he feels the heat moving in front of him again, and become aware of the slow movements of the doctor's hands as the bandages are removed.
Probably easy enough to see how "Quality of Life" grew out of that. From what I have written here, it maybe even sounds kind of good. Less obvious is the utter batshit insanity of the plot, which probably could have been summarized as follows: Once upon a time, there was an angry geneticist-turned-terrorist who created a gene-altering virus, and pioneered its use in combination with hormone-secreting brain parasites. The virus would splice the victim's DNA with randomized characteristics from a selection of animals native to the Amazon River basin in Brazil, where the mad scientist developed his creation. The actual changes in the DNA would not express themselves, however, until the parasites reached a certain point in their life-cycle, and began producing hormones that would result in the rapid physical transformation of the victim. The incubation of the parasites could take anywhere from two to five years. The mad scientist, who had an as-yet-unexplained hard-on for law enforcement, seeded his transformational agent at several police precincts, mostly on the East Coast.
Fast-forward us to a few years later, when the first waves of transformed officers are bringing the plot to public attention. It is now common knowledge that police officers are potentially ticking time bombs of Dr. Moreau craziness. Trouble begins for our favorite detectives when a routine prison drug test turns up elevated hormone levels in former IA detective Holliwell. When tests confirm the presence of maturing parasites in his brain, he commits suicide. This catches the attention of Tom Demming, who has himself tested as well. His tests confirm exposure to the virus, though his screening for parasites is negative. Still, all signs suggest the point of exposure was the 54th.
Demming informs Javier, and Javier notifies his former partner, Ike Thornton. Both of them get tested together. Fortunately for Ike and his family, the exposure must have taken place after he faked his death, because his test comes up negative. Javier, unfortunately is not so lucky...
Cue the awkward social stigma of knowing, and having others know, that at any moment his life as he currently knows it could be over. That he's basically at the mercy of a disease that will leave him savagely disfigured at best, and a dangerous monstrosity at worst. Naturally, Kevin stands by him, and it's only through the support of his partner and select others that he manages not to turn his back on his job.
A few months later, the inevitable happens and he has to suffer through the transformation itself, followed by months of physical therapy as he basically learns how to use his body again. Including speech, most specifically, as one of the most drastically altered portions of anatomy are his vocal chords. Because Javier was lucky enough that most of the genetic changes were expressed from a single genetic source, specifically Desmodus rotundus, or the common vampire bat.
From there, the plot would have been almost identical to that of "Quality of Life", with strife springing up between Kevin and Jenny when Jenny refused to allow Javier to be involved in her big day. Not that Javier would have enjoyed the idea of being there, but still... And of course, Kevin would still love him, despite the fact of his body being twisted into a hideous mockery of humanity. True love conquers all...
TL;DR: I once tried to write a fic where I turned Javier into Man-Bat. That is all.
