Flight 12

Addendum to Chapter 24: What We Know So Far

[Author's Note: If you have a good handle on who's who and what's what, you can skip reading this and wait for the next chapter, which will continue the story. I will submit it the day after this document is posted. Also, apologies for the CAPS – as Plain Text (required by Nifty) doesn't support italics or boldface, it's the only way I can highlight a particular word.]

GENERAL

• STIMULEVER has created a test universe, BETAWORLD, as part of THE PROJECT', a plan to replace the existing universe with something better'. The island exists only in Betaworld, as does ZTA, the airline that flew Flight 12. `The Project' is to launch at midnight on New Year's Eve, at which time Betaworld will cease to function.

• On the plane, Flight 12 passengers were divided into two groups: (1) THE TWELVE' (seated on the right) and (2) the LEFT-SIDERS'. The Twelve exist only in Betaworld; memory of them has been purged from the real world (`Alphaworld'). Versions of the left-siders exist in both universes.

• THE TWELVE all congregated at the Phallic Tower, but by now four of them have been captured by DODECAGONS, each of a different color, on their respective birthdays (which are all in the current month of December). By deciphering a pattern on the tower floor, the men now know the color of dodecagon they must avoid on their birthday.

• The LEFT-SIDERS were captured by Hamish early on. Like the Twelve who are delivered underground by the dodecagons, the left-siders are kept naked and are used (and abused) sexually by Hamish's lieutenants'. With each arrival of a Twelve', a left-sider is castrated and, the next day, executed; however, his Alpha version lives on unharmed and oblivious to the existence of Betaworld.

• The island features at least one `PENIS GARDEN', another means of transporting individuals underground. Victims are impaled on a dildo, thrust high in the air, then zipped through the earth to Hamish's domain. Only nude men can be victimized by a penis garden; clothing seems to provide immunity.

CHARACTERS CURRENTLY AT THE PHALLIC TOWER (age to the nearest year)

• SETH HERRICK, 29, our hero, suspects that those who have disappeared have been taken to a different universe, possibly the original one. He is obsessed with fulfilling two goals: (1) finding and rescuing his boyfriend Abe, and (2) preserving the safety of those who remain on the surface – especially Augie, whose birthday is imminent.

• HARRY MANCINI, 28, has evolved into Seth's right-hand man and sounding board; he is the one who has deciphered most of the clues the island has provided. Harry, overweight, has low self-esteem, caused by his sexual inexperience and humiliating incidents in his past. He has lately befriended Jordan, newly arrived on the island.

• AUGIE STAPLETON, 20, is just realizing that he is gay, and can't reconcile this with religious indoctrination that taught him that all homosexuals go to hell. He is reeling from the discovery that his `girlfriend' Jordan is actually a male who dated him in convincing drag. With his birthday approaching, Augie knows he must avoid the green dodecagon, which had earlier caused him to strip and beg Ray to fuck him (events he did not remember afterward); Augie was later raped by Lucas prior to Lucas's capture.

• JORDAN MURDOCK, twenty-ish, Augie's girlfriend', has reverted to presenting himself as a male. He had originally been planning a sex-change operation so that (s)he could marry the naïve and religiously conservative Augie. Uniquely able to briefly break the firewall between Alphaworld and Betaworld, Jordan sought to sue ZTA and their parent company Stimulever, teaming up with Miles King. He was recently taken to the island by Sean (to save him from being neutralized' by Stimulever), and is trying to regain Augie's trust and love.

• GARY ONSLOW, 27, who suffers from dissociative personality disorder, is gay and shy, and is usually dominated by his other personalities, the taciturn, asexual CODY (who thinks he is a cattle rancher missing his herd) and the randy, aggressively gay RAY. Since Jordan's arrival, Gary has appeared more often, and has befriended –

• JASPER ADENA, 34, who was being treated for sex addiction and is struggling to remain celibate on the island despite being surrounded by hot gay men.

• ED NIEMANN, 49, a British knight transplanted to Boston, is bitter about losing his estranged gay son Leo to the dodecagon; Ed is openly homophobic despite at least one gay encounter as a college student.

• VIC TORRANCE, 26, a Black physical trainer, was recently reunited with his partner MILES KING, who arrived on the island with Jordan. They coupled enthusiastically, but Vic noticed that Miles seemed emotionally distant. Vic is trying to recover from the shock of watching Miles get captured by a `penis garden' and disappearing underground.

• TIM FALLON, 30, hasn't had much to do yet in this story, but is among the eight members of `The Twelve' who remain at the Tower.

Some of the Twelve's clothing has disappeared, including all their socks and underwear and a few shirts and shoes. Seth is perpetually nude, and has been instructed to remain so by mysterious notes he's received.

CHARACTERS CURRENTLY UNDERGROUND

• HAMISH DISALVO, forties, the ruler of this joint, is slowly collecting the pieces necessary for the launch of The Project. He has a cruel streak, and utilizes a dozen `lieutenants' to abuse and intimidate the left-siders prior to their eventual castration and execution. Hamish rules over his domain with his partner –

• PERCY, thirties, whom I neglected to supply with a last name. Percy was the flight attendant on Flight 12, and has developed three favorites among the left-siders, chief among them being –

• ABE DERISIAN, 25, Seth's boyfriend, who was captured after wandering a couple of days on the island's surface. Percy treats Abe as his `pet pussycat' and limits access to him by others.

• BARRY RUSSELL, 41, Flight 12's pilot, was taken underground directly from the plane. A bdsm top in his prior life, Barry is forced to be Hamish's `boy', but is sometimes rewarded by being allowed to fuck other captives. Hamish treats him as the family dog, often requiring him to wear a puppy-tail dildo and walk on all fours.

• IAN O'LEAHY, thirtyish, one of Hamish's lieutenants, has a past history with both Seth and Abe, having been a boyfriend to each at some point. Underground, however, he has developed an attachment to his roommate, the left-sider –

• STAN KOWALCZYK, 22, a married man who discovers his gay side after being topped by Ian. Recruited by Leo to join his escape attempt, he was talked out of it by Ian. Slated for castration on December 11th (Augie's anticipated arrival date) he was reprieved after Ian earned a favor from Hamish by exposing Leo's escape plot.

• PAUL ETON, 24, one of the Twelve, was forced (while above ground) to wear a jockstrap which he could not remove. Now underground, his jockstrap has been replaced by one made of human skin. Paul has fallen in love with –

• DAISUKE OMI, 33, another of the Twelve. Dai had joined Leo's escape attempt, which Paul hoped to dissuade him from. After the attempt failed, Paul was forced to nominate either Dai or Leo for execution, and spared Dai due to his love for him (and Leo's general obnoxiousness).

• LUCAS HEIDEKKER, 35, whose pre-flight hobbies included cannibalism with his friend Stefan, is a captive member of the Twelve, but has been reunited with Stefan, now one of Hamish's lieutenants. Lucas preys on his roommates, especially Paul, which has earned him the respect of Hamish and Stimulever.

• PIERS THOMPSON and THEO SEBOLD, age unknown, two Bahamian friends traveling together, are left-siders who joined Leo's escape attempt. As punishment, Hamish told them they would be put into `permanent bondage'. Percy, fond of this pair, decided to spare them from being Stan's replacement on the castration schedule, a slot which instead fell to –

• AL CASEY, 20, Stan's friend and seatmate on the plane, a clerk at Costco.

• MILES KING, early twenties, Vic's boyfriend, was not on the plane, but, after connecting with Jordan in Aruba, was taken with him to the island by Sean. After sex with Vic, he wandered into a penis garden and was taken underground, surprising Hamish and Stimulever. Hamish and Percy were en route to interrogating him when they encountered the failed escape attempt.

• Besides Ian, several other LIEUTENANTS have connections with members of The Twelve, revealed in flashbacks. They include ANTHONY (Paul), STEFAN (Lucas), and the four MAYER BROTHERS (Dai).

CURRENTLY IN SWITZERLAND

• SEAN O'HARA, early thirties, the only Stimulever board member with a last name, instigated a relationship with Seth five years ago at the behest of chairman JESÚS, and fell in love with him. Hoping to make Seth his permanent slave, Sean secretly seeks to sabotage The Project; he took Jordan and Miles to the island partly in hopes that their presence would disrupt `the physics'.

• Other board members include (alphabetically) ARI, ARTURO, DEMETRIUS, DION, FALCON, FRED, GERMÁN, PAOLO, SIMON, and THIBAUT. Counting Sean and Jesús, there are twelve of them. (Are you surprised?) They also use a consultant, DOLPH, an expert in running computer simulations, to determine the parameters necessary to actualize The Project. Board member Ari advocates taking extreme measures to address just about any problem that arises.

IN MEMORIAM

• LEO NIEMANN, 19, who rebelled against being subordinated underground and led an escape attempt. After Stimulever learned that Jordan and Miles' presence on the island altered `the physics' and that one of The Twelve had to be sacrificed, Leo drew the proverbial short straw. A jockstrap was then fashioned out of Leo's skin and Paul was forced to wear it.

• PHIL, Barry's co-pilot, was executed by Barry after having been castrated. Barry was given the choice of humanely killing Phil or watching Phil die by more extreme means, and chose to shoot him while he was asleep.

• A few anonymous left-siders have seemingly been done away with.

FLASHBACKS

The most important flashbacks concern the history of Seth and Abe (and Sean (and Ian)).

• Seth and Abe met a year ago, and after an initial attraction, had a disastrous second date when Seth, urged to be aggressive by Ian, forced Abe into handcuffs before fucking him. Ian, who had dated both Abe and Seth, helped engineer a reconciliation. Ian's bad advice was partly based on input from a psychiatrist friend-of-a-friend named Jude.

• Abe realizes Seth had been emotionally damaged by an affair years ago with a man named Sean' but cannot get him to reveal the nature of it. He does not realize that this Sean' is the same `Sean' that he has been occasionally sleeping with behind Seth's back.

• The cause of the emotional distress: Five years ago, Sean, working on behalf of Stimulever, arranged for the kidnapping of Seth's triplet sons. It occurred on a day when Seth was skipping work to have sex with Sean. The event forced Seth to reveal his homosexuality to his wife Megan, who was so devastated over the loss of both her husband and her children that she committed suicide. Seth broke up with Sean and spent years trying to find a satisfying relationship with various boyfriends, eventually resolving itself in Abe.

There are other relevant flashbacks, relating to secondary characters, but rather than regurgitate them here, I'll remind you of them if and when they are important for an upcoming chapter.