x and p, ending

8/8. end.

The conclusion possibly leads to the haunted house comic that I drew a long time ago. You can read it here. I never gave a reason as to why Newman was there in the first place.

Newman AU (Ch. 7)

The technician jumps back in surprise. Newman brings up the episode last night with the graffiti, but the technician doesn’t remember what happened. He says he has been at home sleeping because of the long hours he’d worked. They argue. As they argue, Demona steps in. She had overheard them and was checking to see what was going on. Newman anxiously backs away a bit due to last night, but he explains to Demona that the technician was responsible for the graffiti. Some talking occurs, and at some point E and H comes out of the shop to locate Demona. Finally they settle on a sort of sleepover to see if the technician was responsible for the graffiti (except Demona for obvious reasons). 

That night, E and Newman meet at the technician’s house (actually,  one of his houses, as he would later emphasize). H had work and could not come, but E was there to film the evidence if the technician left to Demona’s (Demona would like to “punish” the technician if caught and he would rather that not happen). More conversation. The technician falls asleep and E and Newman began to doze off. Suddenly the light flickers, startling Newman and E. They look over at the still sleeping technician and a strange shadow starts rising up from the man’s body (“His soul??”). The shadow forms into a ghostly version of the technician, the same that Newman saw the night before. Immediately the ghost lunges for them. It’s difficult to escape from the ghost. Somewhere along the lines, Newman and E figures out that the ghost would disappear if the technician wakes up. Newman distracts the ghost as E attempts to wake the man up (comically so). She finally gets him to wake up from his deep slumber by kicking him. The ghost vanishes. The technician screams obscenities from the pain, E sighs in relief, and Newman is all bruised up but alive.

Newman has been in the hospital for the past few days, but he heard from E that the technician has been pardoned from Demona’s wrath. The camcorder that E had at the technician’s house is specifically able to record paranormal occurences, so she had seen the tape from last night’s events at the man’s home (had a good laugh). The person that Demona was talking about in Ch. 4 had returned and is currently helping the technician with the possession problem. So far there had been no graffiti incident.

Newman AU (Ch. 5 and Ch 6)

I found more of my old writings.

It’s nighttime at the red light district and Newman returns to the sex shop. It looks empty but the door is clearly unlocked (supposedly for him). He goes in but is unable to locate the light switch, and no matter how much he calls out into the darkness Demona is not answering. He fumbles around the shop, grabbing some sort of weird bat in case the unlocked door was a sign of a burglary. For some reason the shop seems larger. Finally when he locates the switch, he hears footsteps (and dripping) from behind him. He immediately turns on the lights and sees a demonic looking lady with tentacle hair in front of him. Newman swings the bat on impulse, but the demonic lady dodges it and pulls it away from him. At this point, Newman runs. No telling how strong this thing is. 

The shop’s basement held rooms upon rooms of a variety of alternative sex businesses.  Running out of time- the tentacle lady was getting closer- he runs into a room that appears small and safe. The lady breezes past the door, still looking for him. Newman sighs in relief, then notices that he is not alone. One of Demona’s assistants, E, is in the room busy studying. She is surprised but asks Newman what he was doing here; he replies that he is trying to escape a tentacle monster. She answers that the lady was Demona who turns into a succubus at night. E helps Newman escape the shop through a secret back corridor adjacent to her room.

As he thanks her and heads back around the front of the shop, he spots the technician from earlier doing something suspicious to the building. The technician looks directly at him, eyes as if possessed. Newman jumps back in shock as the technician suddenly vanishes. On the wall are the words,”I’M DEAD!”

Chapter 6:

Newman goes back to the sex shop the next morning because he remembers the technician saying that he works the cameras there. He thinks this has something to do with Demona, like she did something to the technician while she was a succubus. The shop is busy, but he manages to locate E and avoid Demona. He takes E away from the commotion and asks about Demona’s past (or Demona in general). She answers that she’s been working with her for the past couple of months to pay for college/uni, Demona doing things, the atmosphere of the shop (not really sinister) etc. but in the end of the interview Demona’s never killed anyone. Then E suddenly remembers a strange person who used to come around the shop a long time ago. For some reason this person was deeply fascinated with death and gore fetish to the point that Demona had to ask her to leave. The woman didn’t care about how sexual something was unless it involved gruesome deaths. She was never seen again. Most likely found another shop or died. Newman asks if she thinks Demona could have killed her. E goes silent, then gets upset at his assumption. A bit angered over the interview, she gets up to leave. Newman stops her for a minute to ask about the technician instead. E knows nothing about the technician, but tells him he can interview him when he comes over later in the day. She goes back to her job.

As he waited for the technician, he found something to eat. Newman goes over the information in his head. There is a call on his phone from the known caller in Ch. 1 and they converse a bit. The technician pulls up to the shop in his van.

Newman hangs up in time to interview the technician as he was grabbing supplies in his van.

Newman AU (Ch. 4)

It’s been a few weeks since the GETs incident. Newman is starting another article that the other journalists have been raving about. It’s about a sex shop in the red light district, but that’s not what makes it unusual. What is unusual is the graffiti found outside the shop’s wall spelling out (eerily) “I’M DEAD!” and if the shopkeeper cleans it up, the words will appear again the next day. The journalists are wondering if the shopkeeper, Demona, might be secretly hiding something. Newman decides to investigate.

As he stands in front of the shop- noting the graffiti (in the process of being cleaned) and the popularity of the store- a man begins to speak next to him about the store’s reputation, startling him. The man mentions something about buying dragon dildos and that he was the technician responsible for the surveillance cameras being put in front of the shop since the graffiti incident. He also mentions how weird it was for the cameras to not pick anything up. Both of them have an awkward conversation before Newman backs away into the sex shop to interview/harass Demona. She looks considerably normal in the daytime. Her assistants are E and H (human names needed) who are busy with customers. Demona steps out to talk to Newman. He talks to her about the graffiti and she says something like “Oh, I know this woman who just loves stuff like this, but unfortunately she’s out of the city at the moment.” Demona later tells Newman that if he wants to witness it for himself, he should come back during the nighttime. He’s kinda suspicious about the way that she says it, but shrugs it off and agrees to the offer.

Newman AU (Ch. 3)

This chapter begins with C (human name) remembering A and her stash of GETs at home and C asking about what they are. A tells C that they’re really bad. C asks why A had them if they were bad, but A distracts C’s questions by giving her cute things to play with. The day before C is told that she will be staying at someone’s house for a while, she snuck into A’s room and grabs a few GETs to show to the person she’s visiting. C has the GETs with her when she was kidnapped, and she still has the GETs with her as she pulls them out of her pocket to show A and Newman. A is surprised and a bit upset that C stole from her but is relieved because it was enough to get them out of this situation. A swallows them and transforms. Que some battle scenes of A fighting B magical girl style.

A did not defeat B, but B grew bored ( was actually tired from using too much GET power) and leaves on a helicopter. He says that he’d come back for more GETs and that he’ll be seeing Newman soon.

It is now morning. A and C are back in their neighborhood though they are packing up for a newer part of A’s town. She is sure she won’t be seeing B again until there is word on a new shipment of GETs. She is questioning if the henchmen who tied them up in Ch. 1 were associated with B, but until she finds an answer the neighborhood would be on high alert for them. A gives Newman directions out of her neighborhood, they depart, and the chapter/arc ends.

Newman never finds out A’s gender. Ever.

Edit: This is an old drawing. I assumed when /a/ wanted to be a little girl, it was something along the lines of “I want to be a convincing female”. Now I understand it’s just a fetish for wearing girl’s clothing and the fake boobs thing I drew is unnecessary. It’s fine for the board tan to be flat chested.

Newman AU (Ch. 2)

Cont. chapter 2.

Newman and A both go to the next location to meet with B. She informs Newman that B is not dangerous, but he should still be considered with heavy caution, especially since he kidnapped A’s sister. They approach the building and hear the building lights turn on. B appears on a broken carousel (it’s a sort of amusement warehouse?) wearing a Vendetta mask. Newman is reminded of the group two nights ago wearing the same masks. B talks to A and vice versa, and questions A on whether he is a cop or not. A wants to know where her sister is. B sighs and brings out her sister, tied up and ready for the GET exchange. (A is worried because they had to improvise with fake GETs.) A and Newman do a quick exchange and attempt to leave as soon as B gets the bag, but B somehow blocks their exit as soon as they turn their backs. B, still talking to them, opens the bag and is disappointed in the fake GETs. Suddenly laughing, his figure starts distorting into an odd shape. At this point, A grabs Newman (C is being carried on Newman’s back) and tells him that they need to make a run for it. While running away, she informs Newman that B is a heavy user of GETs. Que some scenes of them dodging and outrunning the deformed B until they lose track of him inside a small room. They are trapped inside the building with a monstrous man searching for them.

Newman AU (cont. part 3)

Cont. chapter 1, part 3.

A had called for a search party that involves the whole neighborhood participating. Newman makes an appearance, startling A who thought Newman had already returned to his city. Newman asks A what she is looking for but she tells him to stay out of it and it’s something that happened during the break-in yesterday. Newman immediately pulls out the bag of GETs that he found (“Is this what you’re looking for?”). He tells her about his theory on her and the GETs. When he gets to the henchmen from yesterday night, A is confused. She does not know what he is talking about. They suddenly get surrounded by the henchmen in hiding and knocked out.

Newman and A wakes up tied together in an abandoned factory while the leading henchman explains his story/ need for the GETs. They leave the two on a conveyor belt to their doom, but Newman and A manages to escape. Luckily, the henchmen had driven away with the GETs so they escaped the factory with no trouble.

It’s the next morning and they are safe in the vicinity of A’s neighborhood. A is finally able to explain herself. She is one of the tip providers of GETs and the reason she left in the middle of the night was to meet with the writer of the letter who was interested in the GETs. She did not bring it with her that night because she did not trust the writer, but something happened so now it was really important for her to get the GETs back. Apparently A has a sister who was suppose to be in another place (safe and away until the break-ins stopped), but the writer is holding her captive in exchange for the GETs. A does not know whether the henchmen are working for the writer or not, but now A has nothing to exchange for her sister’s safety. A shows Newman the letter, which is simply signed ‘b’.

Newman AU (cont. part 2)

Cont. chapter 1, part 2.

The next morning he visits A’s neighborhood. The directions are a bit confusing seeing that it couldn’t be found on the internet, and she gave him landmarks instead of street signs to follow. After wandering far from the city into a strange location in the forest, he arrives at A’s neighborhood. A is the first to welcome him.

She shows Newman around the area to get to know the people. Then she takes him to the area where the break-ins first occurred. Newman interviews a few people. After a few hours, A checks on him (he was busy looking over the written interviews) and decides to take him to a place to eat. They talk more over the materials as they eat their sushi. Someone goes up to A and tells her there has been another break-in, this time at her house. They rush immediately to A’s home and discover that the place is a mess. There is a letter but A refuses to show him the contents. Newman finds this slightly suspicious but A tells him to forget about it and that he should get some rest.

Newman decides to sleep at a nearby inn because he won’t be able to find his way back into the city at this hour. He reviews his interviews and laments in how boring they were and that they needed to get spiced up when he gets back to his office. He can’t help thinking that A is hiding something. Bored and suspicious (this will definitely add spice to the article!) he goes and checks on A’s house, only to discover that she is about to leave (in the middle of the night?…well, next to Newman). He accidentally knocks his elbow on the side of the A’s trashcan, which startles her and almost gives away his position. Thinking it was a cat, A continues off in her car. Newman sighs in relief as he stands up from his hidden position. In his line of view, he spies some broken items in the trashcan (possibly belonging to A since she was throwing away broken items) and sees a crumpled paper bag with something in it. Inside is a plastic bag with pills labeled “GET”. Newman’s eyes widen in shock (he knows what they are). Behind him a dark figure is slowly walking towards him carrying a bat. A plastic lid crunches under the stranger’s boot, and Newman turns around in time to see a Vendetta mask staring right at him. He dodges the bat and Newman and the stranger gets into a fight, Newman knocking him out at the end. However, the stranger did not come alone (there are about six others behind him) so he makes a run for it with the bag of GETs. In the end, he escapes and lays exhausted in his bed, glaring at the bag in disbelief.

(cont.)

Newman AU

Newman’s separate story that eventually crosses over with Conrad.

Prologue: Newman escaping and dodging punches/attacks from some gang members running after him inside a building. They corner him at a window. He looks back as one of them ask “Any last words?”. Newman replies rather seriously “Ron Paul 2012” (or something /new/-like) and jumps out of the window into a river (?) underneath. He does not come up and the gang assumes that he is dead.

Ch. 1- Cut to a city bustling with life and Newman talking on the phone with a known caller who’s asking him about his vacation to Mexico. They are arguing. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. Newman hangs up and announces that the person enter. Her (actually a male but Newman is clueless) name is A- (/a/’s human name) and she requests to talk to the news reporter, Newman. At first she is shocked to see his appearance because he still holds injuries from escaping that night in Mexico. They converse a bit. She wants him to write about a series of break-ins in her neighborhood and hope that someone would help apprehend the person/persons responsible. Newman does not want to help. They argue because Newman’s pride tells him that he should write about something else “important” while A comments on his “news” stories. They talk more until Newman finally agrees to investigate. (cont.)