round 01, challenge two: entry #1
Title: The Repo Men
Fandom and Pairing: DBSK - Gen
Rating: PG - 13
Word Count: 1974
Summary: Collecting artificial body parts for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Warnings: Inspired by Repo Man, an amazingly intriguing book by Eric Garcia. Not much to warn about except for some gore.
Prompt #: #1
On the first day of training, they were taught how to properly hold a scalpel.
The instructor tells them to hold it like they'd hold a table knife, to grip it with the handle resting in their palms. "This way", he explains while walking around the room to make sure they've all done it correctly, "the scalpel can be held close to the surface of the tissues while cutting."
It's not the most proper way to hold the surgical instrument, but it is the most efficient. They're each given a piece of meat, some tougher than others, and are told to try and cut through it. The instructor compares the cutting of the meat with the slicing of connective tissues, telling them to tighten their grips and apply pressure with their index fingers if necessary. It's not the most politically correct metaphor there is but it is the most useful.
They're never taught how to stop a bleeding wound or how to sew up a cut they've made themselves and Changmin supposes it's because cleaning up after the fact isn't exactly in the bio-repo job description.
It's about the in-and-out process, about how quickly a Repo Man can get the job done regardless of the mess left behind. If a rib or two has to be cracked in the process of getting to the lung, then so be it. The Union doesn't care about the how, they're running a business they only care about their bottom line.
- - -
It's 2097, five years after the invention of the artiforgs, better known as artificial organs, and unlike when they were first made, nearly everyone has one these days. It's still a hot commodity but the urge to get the latest, hottest thing has subsided and companies are now giving out coupons and holding semi-annual sales.
Many of them even offering lower interest rates and promotions like free upgrades and monthly check-ups.
Whereas the want for the artiforgs has decreased though, the need for repo men have only increased. Even with the discounts and special offers, a liver will easily cost a cool hundred thousand, nearly enough for a house or apartment. To the credit of the Union, artiforg purchases are easy and all that's required are proper government issued i.d. and a ten percent down payment for the organ. With the sign of a name, the organ is then implanted into the body and after a cycle of antibiotics to ensure a smooth adjustment period of the half-metal organ, everything is done and long-lasting life is achieved. Unfortunately, many don't read the small font on the very bottom of the contract and therefore they're not aware of the fact that a skipped monthly payment incurs a heavy fine and after two skipped payments, the body part is taken back. Whether it's still attached to the human body or not, it's taken back. That's where the repo men come in.
- - -
Changmin's seventeen when he's first recruited. A group of men in uniform had entered his math class and in less than forty minutes, he and five other classmates had already signed up to be repo men in training. It's far from his ideal job but being a repo man is a lucrative career and while it is gritty, it pays in cash and would be as close to his childhood dream of becoming a doctor as he could get.
For Yunho, it was the money that caught his attention. After hearing that repo men could earn up to five thousand per artiforg retrieved, he was the first one to sign up, signature so shaky that the recruiters had forced him to rewrite it twice and in print. His family is going through a rough time, especially since his father has been laid off of work and with his youngest sister about to start college, any amount of money is welcomed.
Yoochun and Jaejoong signed up together, and for them, it was the tattoos that sealed the deal. By law, repo men are required to get a tattoo on the back of their necks (or anywhere they'd like, Yoochun gets one across his chest while Jaejoong gets it inked onto his tricep), a heavy and thick target mark that's permanently etched onto their skin as a sign that they work for the companies manufacturing the artiforgs.
The one that lasted for the least amount of time out of all of them was Junsu. In fact, the younger man holds the record for the shortest lived repo-career. For approximately six days, Junsu had trained side-by-side with them and he had cut and chopped off body parts just fine, having little difficulty with the dummies. When it came time to practicing on a real corpse though, he'd thrown up right as Changmin made the first incision and the next day, he was gone, transfered immediately to the sales department.
- - -
"It's not the most glamorous job but it's one of the most rewarding."
That's what the recruiters had told them. Changmin remembers thinking how heroic it all sounded and the men had painted an easy enough picture for them. It was a masterpiece, a cleverly scripted story about an inventor who'd listened to what the people demanded of him, an inventor that had sacrificed his whole life and his family and friends to create artificial organs for the human population. It was what the people wanted and so he gave them what they wanted. As Changmin's cutting through the chest of some unknown man, he has to wonder if this is really what the people had envisioned happening when they asked for artificial organs to be made.
- - -
Four years after Changmin's recruited, he meets Yunho for the first time. He's heard of the older man, practically everyone has, especially since Yunho's somewhat of a repo God. Yunho's the only one of them to ever have a perfect record, meaning that every pink slip he's ever been given, every artiforg he's been told to retrieve, he has. Jung Yunho is the stuff of legends and so when Changmin runs into him on a routine job, the older man elbow deep in intestines and guts, he nearly asks for a picture. The only thing that stops him is the fact that the older man's apron is dripping with the red stuff and that Yunho's not exactly looking happy, a travel-sized saw in hand as he tries to cut past the metal plate his client has somehow implanted into his body.
"You'd think that someone who goes to such means to keep his artiforg would be smarter about making his payments, huh?" Changmin remarks, quietly admiring the way Yunho gives up on the saw in favor of using a hammer to rip the metal sheet off.
A grunt or two later and Yunho is finally holding the artiforg in his hand, the client nearly dead in a pool of his own blood, "You'd think."
Clearly Yunho's not the talkative kind and Changmin stands aside as the older man cleans up a bit, taking care to wrap the organ in it's case before packing up his tools. There's really no question that most people who've had their artiforgs removed end up dying and it's partially because the company bars them from calling for medical help. Oddly enough, Yunho stays long enough to ensure that the man dies a painless death, inhaling enough of the ether to dull any aches he might have, before leaving. How classy of the older man.
"Do you want to get a drink?"
The question surprises Changmin and catches him off-guard. He nods after a beat and follows the older man down to the car, making a stop at the company HQ before going to a local bar that's known to be a repo hangout. It doesn't shock the younger man to see Jaejoong and Yoochun already seated on the stools, a seat empty next to them that's obviously reserved for Yunho. Upper level repo men often hang together and out of all of them, Changmin's the lowest at a rather pathetic level 2, even Yoochun, who is one of the laziest repo men around, is a level 4. It's not that Changmin isn't good at what he does, he's actually really good at the surgical aspects of it, he simply doesn't care and half the time, he doesn't even show up to get a pink slip. He's lost interest in the job but it's either this or transfer to sales with Junsu and sales is even worse than cutting organs out of people.
Yoochun moves down a seat when he sees Changmin on the side and orders him a beer. The four of them clink bottles and in a cliched manner, a friendship is born.
- - -
Seven years down the road, artiforgs are still being mass-produced and Junsu's got two kids , and a pretty wife in marketing. Yoochun's next in line with a fiance and Jaejoong's probably going to be the next one after him. Out of the five, only Changmin and Yunho remain, the younger man dating around but never serious enough to get married and Yunho falling in love repeatedly only to have his heart broken each time when they all demand for him to quit his job.
"In my defense," Yunho gripes one night to them, "wasn't it the job that paid for their fancy purses and five inch heels? Why are they complaining now?"
"Because you go home stinking of another man's lunch and because you spend more time chasing down artificial hearts than taking care of your own?" Jaejoong always replies.
Changmin laughs it off but when it comes time for him to don his best man suit for Yoochun's wedding, he realizes a shift in his own priorities as well. He meets a girl a month after that, someone that Jaejoong introduces him to. She's beautiful and sweet, and most importantly, she's not in the business.
He quits his job the same day he announces his engagement to the others at their weekly meetings in the bar, Yunho the only one out of the four that doesn't congratulate him. Changmin doesn't think much of it until the wedding guest list is complied and he sees the question mark next to the older man's name on the list.
- - -
"You used to be different," Yunho tells him when Changmin finally tracks him down on a job. He's struck by how familiar this situation seems, Yunho once again elbow deep in man's chest, a scalpel in hand. Except this time, Yunho's fingers are shaking and his hairline is receding.
"Different how? Yunho, you've got to stop this. I know you love this job but you have to stop." Changmin was the one that'd sat through hours of Yunho's phone calls, listening patiently as the older man would tell him of how great the job was and how it fed his family and is now feeding his sister's. That was then though and things have changed.
"You used to be different," Yunho repeats again, cradling the heart in his hand, squeezing gently to feel the cold metal in his hand.
Changmin sighs and after another ten minutes of silence, he leaves, an invite for the wedding left on top of Yunho's tool box. Yunho never does show and that's the last Changmin and the others see of him.
Three years later, Changmin's reading the obituaries when he comes across a familiar name and photo. There's a picture of Yunho's smiling face and the older man's corpse. Killed on the job, it says. Yunho had been extracting a liver out of a young woman when the girl's fiance came charging through the door with a pistol. The body was so mangled that there hadn't even been a funeral.
Fandom and Pairing: DBSK - Gen
Rating: PG - 13
Word Count: 1974
Summary: Collecting artificial body parts for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Warnings: Inspired by Repo Man, an amazingly intriguing book by Eric Garcia. Not much to warn about except for some gore.
Prompt #: #1
On the first day of training, they were taught how to properly hold a scalpel.
The instructor tells them to hold it like they'd hold a table knife, to grip it with the handle resting in their palms. "This way", he explains while walking around the room to make sure they've all done it correctly, "the scalpel can be held close to the surface of the tissues while cutting."
It's not the most proper way to hold the surgical instrument, but it is the most efficient. They're each given a piece of meat, some tougher than others, and are told to try and cut through it. The instructor compares the cutting of the meat with the slicing of connective tissues, telling them to tighten their grips and apply pressure with their index fingers if necessary. It's not the most politically correct metaphor there is but it is the most useful.
They're never taught how to stop a bleeding wound or how to sew up a cut they've made themselves and Changmin supposes it's because cleaning up after the fact isn't exactly in the bio-repo job description.
It's about the in-and-out process, about how quickly a Repo Man can get the job done regardless of the mess left behind. If a rib or two has to be cracked in the process of getting to the lung, then so be it. The Union doesn't care about the how, they're running a business they only care about their bottom line.
- - -
It's 2097, five years after the invention of the artiforgs, better known as artificial organs, and unlike when they were first made, nearly everyone has one these days. It's still a hot commodity but the urge to get the latest, hottest thing has subsided and companies are now giving out coupons and holding semi-annual sales.
Many of them even offering lower interest rates and promotions like free upgrades and monthly check-ups.
Whereas the want for the artiforgs has decreased though, the need for repo men have only increased. Even with the discounts and special offers, a liver will easily cost a cool hundred thousand, nearly enough for a house or apartment. To the credit of the Union, artiforg purchases are easy and all that's required are proper government issued i.d. and a ten percent down payment for the organ. With the sign of a name, the organ is then implanted into the body and after a cycle of antibiotics to ensure a smooth adjustment period of the half-metal organ, everything is done and long-lasting life is achieved. Unfortunately, many don't read the small font on the very bottom of the contract and therefore they're not aware of the fact that a skipped monthly payment incurs a heavy fine and after two skipped payments, the body part is taken back. Whether it's still attached to the human body or not, it's taken back. That's where the repo men come in.
- - -
Changmin's seventeen when he's first recruited. A group of men in uniform had entered his math class and in less than forty minutes, he and five other classmates had already signed up to be repo men in training. It's far from his ideal job but being a repo man is a lucrative career and while it is gritty, it pays in cash and would be as close to his childhood dream of becoming a doctor as he could get.
For Yunho, it was the money that caught his attention. After hearing that repo men could earn up to five thousand per artiforg retrieved, he was the first one to sign up, signature so shaky that the recruiters had forced him to rewrite it twice and in print. His family is going through a rough time, especially since his father has been laid off of work and with his youngest sister about to start college, any amount of money is welcomed.
Yoochun and Jaejoong signed up together, and for them, it was the tattoos that sealed the deal. By law, repo men are required to get a tattoo on the back of their necks (or anywhere they'd like, Yoochun gets one across his chest while Jaejoong gets it inked onto his tricep), a heavy and thick target mark that's permanently etched onto their skin as a sign that they work for the companies manufacturing the artiforgs.
The one that lasted for the least amount of time out of all of them was Junsu. In fact, the younger man holds the record for the shortest lived repo-career. For approximately six days, Junsu had trained side-by-side with them and he had cut and chopped off body parts just fine, having little difficulty with the dummies. When it came time to practicing on a real corpse though, he'd thrown up right as Changmin made the first incision and the next day, he was gone, transfered immediately to the sales department.
- - -
"It's not the most glamorous job but it's one of the most rewarding."
That's what the recruiters had told them. Changmin remembers thinking how heroic it all sounded and the men had painted an easy enough picture for them. It was a masterpiece, a cleverly scripted story about an inventor who'd listened to what the people demanded of him, an inventor that had sacrificed his whole life and his family and friends to create artificial organs for the human population. It was what the people wanted and so he gave them what they wanted. As Changmin's cutting through the chest of some unknown man, he has to wonder if this is really what the people had envisioned happening when they asked for artificial organs to be made.
- - -
Four years after Changmin's recruited, he meets Yunho for the first time. He's heard of the older man, practically everyone has, especially since Yunho's somewhat of a repo God. Yunho's the only one of them to ever have a perfect record, meaning that every pink slip he's ever been given, every artiforg he's been told to retrieve, he has. Jung Yunho is the stuff of legends and so when Changmin runs into him on a routine job, the older man elbow deep in intestines and guts, he nearly asks for a picture. The only thing that stops him is the fact that the older man's apron is dripping with the red stuff and that Yunho's not exactly looking happy, a travel-sized saw in hand as he tries to cut past the metal plate his client has somehow implanted into his body.
"You'd think that someone who goes to such means to keep his artiforg would be smarter about making his payments, huh?" Changmin remarks, quietly admiring the way Yunho gives up on the saw in favor of using a hammer to rip the metal sheet off.
A grunt or two later and Yunho is finally holding the artiforg in his hand, the client nearly dead in a pool of his own blood, "You'd think."
Clearly Yunho's not the talkative kind and Changmin stands aside as the older man cleans up a bit, taking care to wrap the organ in it's case before packing up his tools. There's really no question that most people who've had their artiforgs removed end up dying and it's partially because the company bars them from calling for medical help. Oddly enough, Yunho stays long enough to ensure that the man dies a painless death, inhaling enough of the ether to dull any aches he might have, before leaving. How classy of the older man.
"Do you want to get a drink?"
The question surprises Changmin and catches him off-guard. He nods after a beat and follows the older man down to the car, making a stop at the company HQ before going to a local bar that's known to be a repo hangout. It doesn't shock the younger man to see Jaejoong and Yoochun already seated on the stools, a seat empty next to them that's obviously reserved for Yunho. Upper level repo men often hang together and out of all of them, Changmin's the lowest at a rather pathetic level 2, even Yoochun, who is one of the laziest repo men around, is a level 4. It's not that Changmin isn't good at what he does, he's actually really good at the surgical aspects of it, he simply doesn't care and half the time, he doesn't even show up to get a pink slip. He's lost interest in the job but it's either this or transfer to sales with Junsu and sales is even worse than cutting organs out of people.
Yoochun moves down a seat when he sees Changmin on the side and orders him a beer. The four of them clink bottles and in a cliched manner, a friendship is born.
- - -
Seven years down the road, artiforgs are still being mass-produced and Junsu's got two kids , and a pretty wife in marketing. Yoochun's next in line with a fiance and Jaejoong's probably going to be the next one after him. Out of the five, only Changmin and Yunho remain, the younger man dating around but never serious enough to get married and Yunho falling in love repeatedly only to have his heart broken each time when they all demand for him to quit his job.
"In my defense," Yunho gripes one night to them, "wasn't it the job that paid for their fancy purses and five inch heels? Why are they complaining now?"
"Because you go home stinking of another man's lunch and because you spend more time chasing down artificial hearts than taking care of your own?" Jaejoong always replies.
Changmin laughs it off but when it comes time for him to don his best man suit for Yoochun's wedding, he realizes a shift in his own priorities as well. He meets a girl a month after that, someone that Jaejoong introduces him to. She's beautiful and sweet, and most importantly, she's not in the business.
He quits his job the same day he announces his engagement to the others at their weekly meetings in the bar, Yunho the only one out of the four that doesn't congratulate him. Changmin doesn't think much of it until the wedding guest list is complied and he sees the question mark next to the older man's name on the list.
- - -
"You used to be different," Yunho tells him when Changmin finally tracks him down on a job. He's struck by how familiar this situation seems, Yunho once again elbow deep in man's chest, a scalpel in hand. Except this time, Yunho's fingers are shaking and his hairline is receding.
"Different how? Yunho, you've got to stop this. I know you love this job but you have to stop." Changmin was the one that'd sat through hours of Yunho's phone calls, listening patiently as the older man would tell him of how great the job was and how it fed his family and is now feeding his sister's. That was then though and things have changed.
"You used to be different," Yunho repeats again, cradling the heart in his hand, squeezing gently to feel the cold metal in his hand.
Changmin sighs and after another ten minutes of silence, he leaves, an invite for the wedding left on top of Yunho's tool box. Yunho never does show and that's the last Changmin and the others see of him.
Three years later, Changmin's reading the obituaries when he comes across a familiar name and photo. There's a picture of Yunho's smiling face and the older man's corpse. Killed on the job, it says. Yunho had been extracting a liver out of a young woman when the girl's fiance came charging through the door with a pistol. The body was so mangled that there hadn't even been a funeral.