| i sometimes post drawings | Multifandom | đČđœ | She / Her | 19 y/o
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gurgle. spit. rinse. do not repeat. do not repeat.
18.3 k words [o mein gott!] / warnings - suicidal ideation/suicide, this bitch is mentally ill, unrequited love but it isn't but it is but it isn't, intentionally strange text formatting
summary - trapped on the tulpar. surrounded by your life's work, chemicals and blood stains. and then there's sweet daisuke, who wants you so, so bad.
[2 months after the crash]
ETHANOL POISONING RISK â§
IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU ARE WITH SWALLOWS MORE THAN FOUR TEASPOONS OF ETHANOL CONTENT IT MAY LEAD TO:
ABDOMINAL PAIN CONFUSION, SLURRED SPEECH INTERNAL BLEEDING SLOW BREATHING DECREASED ALERTNESS VERTIGO VOMITING, NAUSEA DIARRHEAÂ
IF DIARRHEA OR VOMIT CONTAINS BLOOD, OR IF SYMPTOMS DO NOT NATURALLY DESCEND, SEEK MEDICAL ASSISTANCE SUCH AS 9-1-1 OR LOCAL POISON CONTROL. 800-222-1222.
BEFORE CALLING, HAVE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION OF THE SWALLOWER ON HAND:
WEIGHT HEIGHT AGE TIME SWALLOWED AMOUNT SWALLOWED
IF NOT ALL OR NONE OF THE INFORMATION IS ON HAND, DO NOT DELAY CALLING. DO NOT WAIT. CALL HELP. CALL HELP.
CALL HELP.
âGot 14% ethanol,â Swansea croaks, rotating the opaque cyan bottle in one hand with raised brows. A piqued lip. Wrinkles stretching until the skin is smooth as he observes the sloshing liquid.
âIs that bad?â you wonder aloud, holding the bottle up over your face -closer toward the dusty orange overheads and swish the plastic until its contents cyclone, âThatâs alcohol, right? Cleaning and shit?â
Anya grimaces, scanning the ingredients along the back of the bottle, âAll the sugar in this eliminates the disinfecting properties.â
Daisuke sucks his bottom lip between his teeth, one hand covering the other around the bottle. Fingers tighten around the pearly cap, twisting it just enough not to break the plastic seal, âBut then it doesnât taste bad, right?â
âWe canât drink this,â Anya shakes her head, reaching out as if to snatch the mouthwash from the internâs grasp. The same way one would rip chocolate out from a dogâs mouth.
âWhy not?â Swanseaâs tone is light enough to come as sincerity rather than derision. He flicks the cap open with all the ease of popping a button and roughly punches his bottle against the one in your hand, âTen and a half years sober: down the drain!â
You were in a minor collision as a child. Your motherâs car rear-ended on the highway while you swung your feet from the backseat. The abrupt jerking flung you hard into the back of the driverâs seat before your seatbelt whipped you back. A rapid burning needled along your neck, leaving you a whiny blob while Mom grumbled out of the car and rounded toward her assailant. Through tinted windows and bleary lashes, you catch turned faces -even drivers slanting your way and back quicker than the crash even happened. Leering curiously, children pushing over each other to peek closer than their siblings and wivesâ lips moving as fast as their brains can narrate the scene to husbands.Â
Currently, youâre no better: head swinging toward Swanseaâs tensed gulping like malleable rubber.
Wrinkles vining by his eyes and throat bobbing unevenly, Swansea pulls back with misty, saccharine drool pooling in the corners of his mouth, wiping it up with the back of his hand before loudly sucking wind between clenched teeth. Even louder, he smacks his lips, clicks his teeth, and stares at the floor. From above a low buzz blankets the soft humming of machinery below, lights clawing to be heard in the still survey of Swansea swallowing way more than four teaspoons of pure mouthwash.
Daisuke pops the seal on his bottle, and Anya blinks wildly as if upon the fifth hundredth one sheâll awake to normality, Jimmy cringes with the slowest headshake of disapproval. You shift closer, scooting your shoes sideways rather than taking independent steps, and place a cautious hand between Swanseaâs shoulder blades,
âHow was itâŠ?â
Expecting the old man to spontaneously buckle forward with a geyser of crystal blue vomit streaked with innards, you slink back as his pruny mouth falls open.Â
Broad shoulders straightening and eyes alight the closest thing you could call joy since the voyage began, Swansea tosses back another shot of Dragonbreath before looking at you, âNot fucking bad.â
*
[!] new message: kills 99.99999999999999999%
[sent by: CPT. curly, grant | subsection: the bathroom is moldy again]
*
[5 weeks before the crash]
Modus operandi declares you perform the most daunting and grotesque step first, then you can peel off the second skin you wrapped around yourself -- throw it into one of the yellow buckets meant to be incinerated -- and wash your hands thoroughly. After that due diligence, you earn the much less demoralizing honor of scrubbing the sinks.
Although. Ola kala dictates youâre being too harsh on the various thrones your crew occupies:
Pretending to find this deal disgusting after five years would be juvenile and beneath you, and nobody would care even if you did. If anything, they could get upset thinking youâd slack off and get the crew credits package reduced. Maybe Daisuke would be a little empathetic, at least. Heâs new enough, face round enough, hands soft enough to still pity the janitor just doing their job. Maybe heâd offer to help (and then you could sigh and swoon gratitude before assuring that no, Daisuke, youâre not BBP trained).Â
Streaks of greying brown crust around the curve of the metal bowl, plumped just beneath the seat. Scrubbing down by the siphon jet, your sponge meant to be steel wool barely grapples reddish muck from the drain -- you assume because anything with harsher ridges would scar the companyâs precious shitbuckets. Boxed off with the same greenish, blueish turquoise color that makes up your coveralls. Thin plastic boxes for the sake of privacy. Technically everybody in the ship could pile into this bathroom at once -- three in the stalls and two at the urinals.
It reminds you of malls back on earth, or grocery stores, not an employment bathroom.Â
Smaller gunk already stuck around the bowlâs interior needs to be scraped up beneath a solid silver putty knife. Each blackened chip cracks off easily enough that you can almost act like this isnât the epitome of your job title.
At this point, you donât bother wiping your eyes -- content to let them blur with tears until youâre finished. After all, it isnât like trying to smear the waterworks away with your forearm will make stinging chemicals fumes drift anywhere else. Itâd only make your skin damp.
Beneath the concoction of bleach and syrupy blue whiteners, is a new stale wafting.
Oddly: itâs almost sweet, the smell of the bathroom. Or maybe your brain tells you the stench is more pleasant than it really is because youâve spent so long surrounded by it. Most of the perceived sweetness is from that earthy musk, the things Pony Express feeds you: Canned soups and processed meats and germinated water pouches, all chock full of corpo-grade nutrients and healthy minerals. Not just a couple of years ago, they even used to permit snack sacks like nuts and freeze-dried berries. You never knew why they stopped doing that. You suppose no answer is satisfying because it wouldnât matter, the smell doesnât change much, anyway.
After the feces settles up to your brain, and youâre certain the stink is caked into todayâs uniform, you get the hint of piss.Â
Depending on who most recently took a leak, the smell is different. Sometimes itâs almost sugary, but like if a melon had sat in the sun for two days. Sometimes itâs electric and burns second-hand, making your entire face wrinkle up at the shock. Sometimes itâs got the quietest hint of cat litter. You donât care to know whoâs who. You just acknowledge that theyâre all different.
Human bodies are an absolute nightmare. Most times the actual people those bodies host are not much better.Â
Years ago you learned that breathing through your mouth did not help at all, then you would just taste the mixture. And the idea of all those particles on your tongue was more than enough to make you hurl. Usually, the job isnât all bad because at the very bottom when you scoop what should not be touched, you can catch the most relieving smell of cologne. With how many men occupy the ship, the least they could do is be some nasal comfort while you scrub their bowels.
Suds soak acorn-colored, slowly growing darker brown the longer they sit as you attempt to rid all evidence that anybody on this ship ever shit in their entire life.
Backing out from this stall to glance down the row, you see more blackish splotches painting beneath the seats. Staining where each toilet is bolted into the floor. Stubborn to be forgotten.
Yeah. You donât think these things couldâve survived just one more day.
[1 month before the crash]
âAinât shit else to drink around here,â Swansea clacks his Pony Express mug -stained around the lip and Polle picture cracking from years of use- against your own empty cup, âCheers, kid. Find something else.â
âYou just admitted thereâs nothing else!â you sigh, glaring after the man as he strides unsympathetically toward the door.Â
In fair humor, Anya shakes her head, clicking her tongue, âHow could you, Swansea?â
âYeah,â Daisuke jeers after his mentor, âBoo, Swansea!â
âBoo!â you copy, deciding against a morning drink altogether. Replacing your cup haphazardly in a random cabinet.
âWhatâre we boozing?â a gravely Southern drawl bawls from the doors, Curly just barely scraping himself to the side as his mechanic slips out.
Swansea thumbs over his shoulder and grunts, âYour idiots donât understand limited supply.â
âAh,â Curly catches the wave of brown liquid in his mechanicâs mug, âCoffeeâs a hot commodity, what can you do?â
âThey can not lose their Goddamn heads,â the man gruffs into the steaming cup, sipping as he returns to work.Â
Once the mechanic is out of earshot, Curly frowns your way and confesses, âI was hoping to get a last cup before the pot was dry.â
âOh well,â Anya sing-songs, combing both hands through her messy shag, âAt least we wonât have a fight over it anymore.â
Daisuke nods cheerfully, despite being alert and bright-eyed without any caffeine, you assume it comes with his youth (because the few-year difference between you two is soooooo massive), âExactly!â
âWe can just go back to cute family breakfasts,â you chide.
Curly snorts. Nodding shortly.
Then he mumbles, âJimâ wonât be too happy about the coffee being gone.â
âIs he up yet?â before Anyaâs question earns reply, she spins toward you, âI think I could use some help sorting meds.â
âOh,â you shrug, âSure.â
Daisuke perks up, looking rapidly from you to Anya and back to you, âCan I come?â
âSwansea wonât miss you?â you tease.
He pauses in earnest, though. Eyes sliding off toward the motion-activated Polle statue, a consistent âuhhhhhhhhâ slinking out from his throat before he shakes his head, âNahh. I donât think so.â
Curlyâs head darts your collective way, tilting specifically at Daisuke, âYou donât?â
Daisuke does think so, but whatâs got more importance to it: A workplace romp or some mechanic experience during his internship? Pretty obviously the answer is you.
âHeâll know where to find me,â Daisuke shrugs easily enough, sweat bulleting down his temple beneath Curlyâs knowing gaze.
âIf you say soâŠâ the blonde grins.
[7 days before the crash]
Anya stopped you on your way out after mopping the floors. Given that Anya isnât a pig and most on-ship accidents are related to Daisuke banging around in utility, you hardly ever go into her office without scheduling. But sheâd pinged you specifically that the floors were a little more heather gray than eggshell white lately. By time you finished pushing watered-down bleach around the tiles, you realized the floor was always heather gray. This was a trap.
Sheâs shuffling papers, looking at you through thick, low-hanging lashes, and shrugging, âItâs that time again.â
âBoo.â
âCanât boo your way out of it now,â she sits and gestures across the table, clearly a silver base painted over with sad beige. You follow with a rumbling groan and fold your arms.
âOkay, shoot,â you throw your head back over the edge of the chair, staring upside down at the digital cloudy sky hanging above the patient beds. You think itâd be a more serene touch if the clouds could stroll by, but Pony Express -regardless of how big the Tulpar is- apparently cannot comprehend such advancement and maintains their stance on stationary clouds.
âYouâre not taking this seriouslyâŠâ a treacherous accusation because,
âIf I didnât take this seriously, Iâd tell you I wanna bang Polle.â
âHowâd you know about that? These are confidential and- !â
âHe brags about saying it, he thinks itâs hilarious.â
âOhâŠâ
âAnyway,â you check your wrist which does not have a watch on it, and say, âI gotta get to the kitchen in five, so? Can we get this rolling?â
âThat was just rude,â she lays the papers in her hand flat and rests her head in her palm.
âSorryâŠâ
Anya gives no discernable reaction to your apology, pouty lips popping open blandly around a rehearsed questionnaire she can read with her eyes closed, âHave you been able to complete your mandated task as custodial engineer efficiently and to your fullest capacity?â
Perhaps feeling a little guilty about how you spoke earlier, you clear your throat and offer something just a tad meatier than your typical âyepâ, âAs well as the past five years Iâve been here. Maybe even better this time around.â
Sheâs unimpressed, âAre you capable of shifting multiple variables on a tight schedule?â
You recline, âNaturally.â
âAre you overwhelmed by sudden and unprompted changes in task when necessary?â
âNope.â
âHave you experienced lapses in time or are conflicted by the day/night screening schedule?â
âNah-uh.â
âDoes prolonged silence and isolation upon the freighter concern you and/or inspire unpleasant thoughts?â
âNothing.â
âAre you experiencing, whether of your volition or not, troubling thoughts of hurting yourself or others?â
âNo.â you sweat. Itâs a little hot in medical today, shouldnât Swansea fix that?
âHmmmmmm,â you already know the criticism about to fly from her at that testy hum, and those narrowed eyes -suspicion masked by playfulness, âYou gave all the same answersâŠâ
âWell, theyâre the same because nothing about me changes!â she merely sighs in response, and you cut her next thought short, âHonestly, Anya, donât worry about this all too much. Jimmyâs right, this job isnât hard. Anybody could do it, and everywhere needs it.â
The only difficult part is finding a place to hire you.
[1.5 hours after the crash]
Sprays of blood are already browning onto the metal floor. Stretches of pure red skin smoking from between the floor grates, mushy fat parts caught in the lining. Gloved hands pull at the elastic tissue, gummy white slop plopping back onto the floor. Hurriedly, those gloved hands toss the skin into a round yellow waste bucket -the kind meant to be incinerated after one use- because youâre convinced that if you move fast enough you can pretend the hands arenât yours.Â
Instead, a disembodied entity is what plucks shredded chunks of the captain out of the floor, where theyâre starting to dry between the lining.Â
Smaller gunk already stuck to the ground needs to be scraped up beneath a latex-covered nail. They crack off easy enough, you can almost act like it never happened. Really, you could treasure the memory compared to what you know lies ahead.
Just inside the recoverable parts of the cockpit are the hands and feet Swansea axed off mere minutes ago.
If you stress your ears then beyond the shrieking from Captain Curly, you can hear Anya and Daisuke wailing also. Blubbering meaningless comforts Anya trips over herself to bandage him up. A cloth skin to replace what youâre stripping off the ship.
At this point, you donât bother wiping your eyes -- content to let them blur with tears until youâre finished. After all, it isnât like smearing the blood on your forearm will aid the situation, and it certainly wonât make the smell of burning flesh dissipate.
Not when the scent has successfully buried into the back of your nose, and is nailing toward your brain.
Sizzling fat and iron make for a nauseating sweetness, the faintest earthy musk just beneath. Then after the whiff settles, the most putrid sourness of exposed, warm meat chases.Â
Breathing through your mouth helps none, then you just taste the mixture. Making your stomach lurch, bile rushing up before you swallow it down in rough chunks that drag down the canal of your throat.
At the very bottom, when you scoop what should not be touched, you can catch the most relieving smell of Curlyâs cologne.Â
Suds soak pink, slowly growing darker the longer they sit as you attempt to rid all evidence of how violently you each had to rip Curly out of the cockpit. He was unceremoniously dragged along the floor, and no amount of distance from here to the medbay would make the trail lighten. Meaning, as you work your way back, any more muscle stripped from the exposed grouts will be firmly stuck down onto the floor.
Looking down the hall, you see blood rusting on the floor. Lots of it. Stubborn to be forgotten.
Youâll be surprised if Curly makes it just one more day.
[!] new message [!]
Peace and quiet.
Static at either side, your hands have the politest little splay. Webbing tickles as wind whistles through and a moist tar nose pokes around, short auburn fur stabbing into your knuckles. Hot air fans your skin every offbeat. Yellow wings wink from below, dotting dew-slicked sage tendrils. Spiders wave from behind pale silky petals.Â
You pray to avoid the temptation of casting eyes any nearer above ground. At least this way, staring out into the horizon -- trying to peek over downy hills. Humble curves curling beneath a seafoam green sky, just tinging azure in the corners of your eyes. You hear a breeze blowing through trees -not unlike the sucking of big teeth- but nowhere in sight do you find thick trunks or brushes. You see flapping wings swiftly gliding fatty birds until they sizzle deep into the sunâs scorching image, but you hear no caws.Â
A mushy, sticky roundness skims your middle finger, making you flinch back wildly. Though you donât dare drop your stare⊠it wouldnât matter either way, you can see more than enough no matter how intensely you attempt to dodge it.
Thick gashes in a cluster-quad cover the top of the thin deerâs skull. Two beneath the eyes and along the snout with two more stretching across the top bend in bend, toward where antlers sprout. Each ragged sniff causes the pear shapes to suddenly inflate, folds stretching until you can make out the pinkish flesh beneath faint dark fur. Youâd been desperate to avoid knicking the bulbs and discovering their feel, so to find that they felt like silly putty stretched around an elbow was plenty disturbing.
The most youâll allow yourself to glimpse are those awful antlers. Frail and formed in straight zig-zags, sickly almost yellow. Despite splitting straight from the deerâs head, you can see where skin parts around the thin branches, looks⊠homemade. Like yanked chicken wire, or an unbound hanger.Â
And the closer you look, the more patches you see in its pelt. Pinky lumps glaring into flighty eyes.
Swallowing hard, you just try to keep your gaze locked outward -- into the wide expanse beyond smooth rolling earth. No clouds. No sun. Just seafoam pale light.
Another deep inhale has a warm, soft, almost gelatin-like corm thing filling the gaps between your knuckles. You think the glands are whiter than they used to be, and you think theyâre staring, but you canât be sure; youâre intent on not looking.
You just wanted peace and quiet.
*
[!] new message: the 00.00000000000000001% remaining
[sent by: zare, jimmy | subsection: stop leaving your fucking buckets everywhere i just tripped]
*
[1 week before the crash]
Fish. Green scales and an open slash down the rotund little gut. Flopping into one, mushy pile. Content in nature, to be eaten is to complete their cycle. Bred to be consumed and caught between molars, molars belonging to men with poor dental hygiene. Men like Jimmy, who scream in faces no matter how obviously and tightly they wrinkle in disgust.
âItâs unbelievable how many times Iâve had to talk to you about leaving out buckets, this shit is impossible to avoid when you stand it in the middle of the fucking walkway!â he spits in your face, snarling, and without pause to let you explain yourself he ramps up again, âYou donât listen when I ask nicely, so now I have to start yelling. And another thing- !â
âHeyyyy,â Daisuke waltzes in, a dramatic bounce to each stomp and hair bouncing around his shoulders, âI had the soft sponge you were looking for! Stole it for some spilled tonic, sorry!â
He lets out a quiet âeughhâ, halting full force just after the door to examine your predicament. Jimmy is practically bent over you, stabbing a finger in your face with his mouth split, throat swollen with venom glands.Â
âWhatâs going on?â he drops the sponge-bound hand at his side and frowns at the co-pilot.
A violation, technically. Crewmates are not to berate one another on deck, but the reporting route is so demeaningly difficult that now you just let Jimmy go off. Itâs easier that way.
âSounds pretty brutalâŠâ
Jimmyâs seething, fist clenching, and you dodge past him to slip the sponge from Daisuke, âDonât worry about it,â you shoot a raised brow over your shoulder at the brunette, âWeâre over it anyway?â
Your answer comes in a scoff and head shake -- resounding agreement.Â
[0 days before the crash]
Slamming sideways into a bolted shelf forces a hard guffaw from your lungs. You hardly get time to cradle your bruised core or question what sent you flying when suddenly the trusty old Tulpar rattles violently. Tripping you over hard, solid ground, you barely manage to catch yourself on the rungs of one shelf before your nose cracks on the supply door.
âHey!â you shriek, another rocky bump shaking you off the shelf and sliding your shoulder into the opposite wall, âJimmy! Help!âÂ
Polle smiles at the yelp, calling an unhelpful, âDonât drink undrinkables! If you or someone on ship does: call help at 800-222-1222!â
The doors part swiftly, clicking loudly as two hands force them aside faster. Hands that youâre sure are not Jimmyâs unless he spontaneously got more tan and started wearing thick silver rings. This is strange because youâre sure Jimmy was the one lingering outside the closet just seconds ago, sure maybe looking a bit spacey and distracted but not that spacey.
Your name isnât called by Jimmyâs voice, either.
Itâs Daisukeâs.Â
Doors clash against his elbows, fervently trying to squash him but he puffs out wider, stuck into the clacking jaws like a louse and he reaches out to you with the most concerned folds in his face. He screams for you again, âGrab my hand!â
You do, nails biting his wrists with enough teeth to draw blood. He makes no complaints, adrenaline masking any possible sting as he hoists you out of the custodial office. The momentum slings you both straight onto the floor, heads knocking against each other. He rolls each arm tight around you while scooching toward one wall with the strength of his thighs.
âI donât know whatâs going on,â he pants, âCaptain just ran by and said to get low!â
âWhereâd Jimmy- ?!âÂ
Youâre cut off by a blistering slam -- metal shredding against hard rock. Tulpar screams that way as she dies. Yet something screams louder: animalistic and ragged, pure terror dragging through the walls of the ship like barbed wire. Echoing in bubbles, filling each inch of the vessel until itâs overcome by the shirrrrrrrrrrrrr and whirl of thick, luscious emergency foam spewing out of Tulparâs gaping wounds. Sparks spitting as fast as still-damp froth can put them out.
Fizzling out with surprising serenity.Â
Overheads once blood red blink blinding white twice before cutting. Drenching you both in pitch black.
Daisuke squeezes your arm in one hand and palms the flat of your spine with another, wrenching increasing bundles of fabric into his hand. He gasps and trembles, closing your body off between his legs. When all you hear is his thundering breath, you ask,Â
âDid we just crash?â
Silence consumes you.Â
No humming gears or hissing pipes. Just your tempered exhales and Daisukeâs gasping.Â
âI think so,â he sniffles, unwinding the arm wrapped around yours to scrub away the wetness dribbling down his face before it crusts.Â
You lunge off each other, still clasping hands, breaths mingling between your buzzing faces.Â
Lights flash hot white once. Then twice. Then red. Then they flicker back to normal.
âThat must be the backup generator,â Daisuke assures before you have the chance. He nods unsteadily to himself, âSwansea mustâve flipped itâŠâ he laughs tenderly and without humor, âHeâs probably pissed. I totally ran out without saying anything.â
âYeahâŠâ your head is a little too thick with foam to realize the implications of what he said, âProbably.â
[9 hours before judgement]
teeny bopper thinking with his dick. some useless kid. a cute kissing buddy.
Daisuke can play lots of roles, just never the right one.Â
âItâs time to be brave, Daisuke,â Jimmy asserts, searching for any weak points he can exploit, âYou want to impress that mop-pusher of yours, right? And Swanseaâll be proud, too.â
Daisuke rallies himself, radically stiffening. Both terrified and electrified at the proposition, âYou really think?â
And Jimmyâs stark certainty just emboldens him, âYouâll get a recommendation and a date. Everyoneâs counting on you. Captainâs orders.â
Daisuke knows youâve been on edge, maybe if he can rescue Anya youâll realize heâs worth something more serious than late-night makeouts.
*
[!] new message: polle says: âcall help!â
[sent by: musume, anya | subsection: evals are meant to be like a pop quiz i cant tell you when theyre coming upïżœïżœïżœ even jimmy knows thatâŠ]
*
[5 months after the crash]
Most of Pony Expressâ provisional chemicals are Grade A: Windex watered down with literal H2O -- a stock of bottles pumped into the bottom of the ship before taking off. Meaning the only genuine water not provided by Dragonbreath bubbles in plastic cylinders beneath your feet. Youâve assumed the water to be from a sink in some warehouse, compound that with the fact itâs mixed with a bleaching agent and it has to have less germs than the water packets provided onboard.
Reaching blindly into the shelf at eye level, you grasp the first bottle that fits into your palm. Pulling and turning it. Full. Blue. Not electric blue, though, more like cartoon water. Not too much more saturated than the Dragonbreath water packets.
Sandpaper tongue scraping the ridges of your mouth, you try your best to remember how refreshing water is. You donât think you can.
The synthesizer has run dry. And the vendor is dead.
Your lips are chapped, skinning each other as you push them together.
Rolling the bottle from one hand to the other, you take care to monitor its weight. Heavy. How much liquid lulls around. Over half, you think you could handle over half.
Youâve had mouthwash already.
If your kidneys can survive that, they can take this, right?
Itâs just more alcohol with water. You donât even think itâs ethanol, which basically means itâs safer than mouthwash.
IF POSSIBLE: WAKE AND MOVE PERSONS TO A COMFORTABLE PLACE TO SLEEP OFF EFFECTS. MAKE SURE PERSON WILL NOT: FALL, CHOKE ON TONGUE OR VOMIT, OR OTHERWISE SUSTAIN INJURY.
TO ENSURE PERSON DOES NOT CHOKE ON VOMIT, TURN ONTO THEIR SIDE.
DO NOT MAKE PERSON THROW UP UNLESS TOLD TO DO SO BY A HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL OR POISON CONTROL.
CHECK PERSON FREQUENTLY TO MAKE SURE CONDITION DOES NOT WORSEN.
WHEN IN DOUBT CALL FOR HELP.
CALL FOR HELP.
CALL FOR HELP. 98.9% 91.1% 80.02221222% KILLS99.9%OFGERMS
[4.5 months after the crash]
âI dunno if I can ever have a mojito againâŠâ
Anya is the only one to look up from her cards, pouty lips sinking further and brows bending. Swansea makes a disconcerted grunt from the base of his throat. Daisuke doesnât move whatsoever, blinking sluggishly down at his dealt hand -- mouth open and eyes listless. He doesnât seem particularly inspired by anything before him, and you doubt the raw alcohol coursing his veins is helping any.
Jimmy has locked himself in medical to feed what remains of Captain Curly his painkillers. He requires absolute solitude and recently, nobody wants to disturb Jimmy while he prowls the ship for another fruitless task.
Swallowing pooled spit from the bowl of his jaw, Daisukeâs gaze rolls around the table with all the grace of a loose marble before he flings a hand forward. Knocking his bottle of mouthwash onto the side, it gushes out rolling across the table and wetting the spare pile of cards before he gasps loudly and picks it up. He watches you stretch over the table to move the cards.
Swansea snaps, slurring some scathing statement Daisuke doesnât hear over the sight of you. Shirt sliding up your waist, exposing skin he shamelessly ogles.Â
Daisuke plays the hard rim of his uncapped bottle against his lip, tipping back until the hard minty taste is scarring down his tongue. With it comes the immediate urge to gag and spit, but he powers through like a man: the way Swansea says.
He has to close his eyes and dig all five nails into his palm just to get the stuff down. Maybe itâs because heâs not like you- heâs never had a mojito before.
âAre they bad?â he asks.
âHuh?â you copy, swiping damp cards against your coverall pant leg.
Anya quietly observes the interaction, laying her hand upright on the table for all to see. Though you and Daisuke are too preoccupied bumbling toward one another. And Swansea hasnât been properly taking his turns since the second round.
âMojitos.â
You donât have the strength or mind to explain yourself so you just nod and keep rubbing the suit off onto your pants -moist red and black shreds sprinkled across your thigh, âYeah. Like shit.â
[2 months after the crash]
A long time ago, back when you first joined the crew, there was a Polle poster advertising kitchen safety. They discontinued it a year later for âviolent imageryâ and decided to loop kitchen safety beneath the Donât be Daft issues. That poster was your favorite, though, and given the state of things you almost regret not stealing one before they vacated every copy from every freighter. It hadnât been the cutest, but it was definitely eye-catching. Every time you passed, you couldnât avoid paying attention.
A goldfish with delicate, silky fins swims toward the bottom of its slender tank. Full to the jet-black lid with water, tiny oxygen bubbles floating along the right-hand side, just near the handle. COOK WITH CARE! glubbed the fish SAFETY ISNâT TO SPARE!
An uncharacteristically careless Polle sipped coffee with a gloved hand while the other was hairs away from starting the blender. Silver blades jumping to dice a clueless friend as it inspected the glittery metal.
Donât be Daft is much less effective, in your opinion. After all, the much less foreboding message has done nothing to prohibit you from giving into Swanseaâs pressure.Â
âDonât you miss it?â he teased. For a man fresh out of sobriety, he sounded so devoted to everything he once battled. But you know what?Â
He was right. You did miss it. At least the heavy-lidded, sleepy little high of it anyway.Â
Absolutely not the taste.
Sour and bitter works best not consumed at all, but you especially think the manmade minty freshness makes everything worse. Enhances that burning taste until it scorches out your nose and works up the back of your eyes. Heating your face from the inside.Â
Laying your cheek against the cold wood of your table, both arms coiled around your waist. Hoping any kind of familiar pressure will keep down what cannot be swallowed.
You think you only make it worse, like pushing on a tender bruise.Â
Woozy eyes swing to the half-empty bottle of sugary alcohol. Just the thought of another swig has you stumbling onto both feet, ankles rolling aside until youâre crashing into the wall. Clawing toward the sink to plop your head in. Slobber veining toward the drain as you moan once.
Then twice.
Then red stains shoot into the sink. You donât get to gasp before another shot comes back up, foul flurrying from your mouth. So hard your head feels ready to pop open.
Rust companies you. Knowing it's your own makes you shrink back. Concern immediate, then shriveling: if thatâs blood, you should seek the nurse. You should cry out for Anya.Â
Another acidic spout cuts through your stomach, up your throat, and takes out a tooth before clattering into the metal sink.
You watch it slide like thick slime into the drain. Pulling out the tooth and pocketing it for the trash. Rinsing blood from the rim with fresh mouthwash, then gargling and spitting the taste from your mouth. You nearly puke again just from the smell.
The gap in the back of your mouth shrieks out. You just push your lips together tighter, taking the bottle with you as you slink away from the scene and toward the custodial office. Conveniently and coincidentally across the ship from the medical room.Â
[1 day after the crash]
âHave you been able to complete your mandated task as custodial engineer efficiently and to your fullest capacity?â
You inhale the clinically stale air of the medical room, imagining it could dig out the remaining chunks of rotted, cooking meat from your nasal cavity. No matter how roughly you beat your coveralls or snort the chemical fumes in your office, the stench of grilled fat and blood persists. Clawing one nail beneath the other, you wonder if suddenly popping keratin straight from the bed would make Anya forget this evaluation.
âDo you have to do this?â
Anya shoots you an unimpressed glare, âHave you been able to- !â
âYes, I have.â
âAre you capable of shifting multiple variables on a tight schedule?â
Pressing up harder from beneath your thumbnail until it stings, youâre sure the time is coming: sheâll forget all about this and just bandage you up. Cooing dull reassurances rather than poking for the softest part of your belly to slice open. Guts donât need to be shared, you donât think, thereâs nothing to talk about.
âI didnât suddenly stop being capable, no.â
âAre you overwhelmed- !â
âAnya,â you sigh, giving up on the nail torture to massage tensing temples, âNothing changed. Iâm fine.â
She stares at you too hard. No amusement in her straight face before she confesses, âI donât believe you.â
âWhat does it matter what you donât believe?â you groan, slacking into the seat across from her.
A thin teal curtain is drawn around the edge of Captain Curlyâs bed. Aside from the offbeat squelch of his throat opening for air, silence radiates from that side of the room while he lies practically comatose. Anya told you she assumed the instant his adrenaline wavered, he was out from the blood loss. And heâs been out since.Â
âIn the event of a work-related incident: are you fearful of continuing work with Pony Express?â
âNone of us work for them after this,â you spit, if it wasnât already faxed out then surely this crash would be enough to terminate your lot.
She repeats herself until you throw out a frustrated, âno! fucking- no!â
And she keeps flapping her lips, droning with procedure thatâs on the bottom of your priority list, âDo you consider harming others when you otherwise would not have?â
âNo, Anya! Iâm fine!â i just smell a corpse in the back of my mind at all times. it wonât leave. i canât get rid of it. i smell it now, and it reeks. it just makes me want to
âHave you considered harming yourself?â she trails off, blinking up at you. Papers flopped onto her desk, which was shuffled toward the right in the crash. Uprooted and askew.
Uprooted and askew, you slowly shake your head and answer, voice almost drowned out by the new sound of Curly breathing, âNo.â
She muffles your name, bit-crushed beneath the captainâs impression. Strange how someone so big becomes something so small: you keck at the horrible passing thought. Curly the esteemed captain, a slab of cooked meat.
You salivate.
People salivate before vomiting, right?
You can say itâs that. Youâre so sick youâll vomit.
âIâm serious,â you think thatâs what Anya says, âI know it seems pointless, but I need you to be open with me. This isnât about Pony Express anymore. Iâm just worried about you.â
You could tell her she should be, or you could spare her the piece of mind. Give her peace of mind.
âIâm fine, Anya,â you stand and grin, a firm perch of the lips, âReally.â
Anya rises before you have time to process the protesting screech from her chair, she darts around the edge of her shifted desk and latches onto you. Wrapping arms around your neck and squeezing air out, âPlease⊠please...â
âYouâre so thoughtful, Anya,â you return the embrace, shoulders drooping. Her nails scrape the nape of your neck. Itâs bizarrely reassuring to have no choice in her arms, âYouâre kind. I wishâŠâ you sigh, barely clinging to the remnants of adulthood in you saying itâs too immature to bury your face into her jugular, âI wish my mom was more like you growing up.â
Anyaâs claws sink into the top-notch of your spine, cutting sideways in harsh lines before she takes your shoulders in her hands. As if she really was your mother, as if you really did something wrong, as if you deserved all the ensuing agony: she shoves you back with a ghastly face. Onyx eyes swimming in a pearly sea, shock etched into her -down to her trembling hands. She jerks them into her sides to hide the shaking.
âGet out!â
âWhat?â
âGet out,â she steps back, âIâm not- Iâm not your mother.â
âI- yeah, uhm⊠Iâm sorry, I didnât mean to⊠Iâm not sayingâŠâ
âGet out.â
âAnya, Iâm sorry!â
âGet!â she flings papers your way, they fly away in every direction except toward you. When they float and drift onto the floor by your feet, you see the evaluation questions. Pencil notes beneath each one, âOut! Get out!â
Youâve never seen her so desperately upset. Not even at the news of layoffs. Not after her several rejections to medical school.
âAnya?â whatâs wrong?
She skirts behind the curtain surrounding Curlyâs bed.
You donât get to ask. You assume the evaluation has been concluded.
[3 weeks before the crash]
A curved spine and furrowed brows are often the sign of an artist in deep concentration. With the way his knuckles are whitening hard pressed against Anyaâs metal desk, you donât doubt Daisuke envisions himself as an artist either. His little tongue creeping out the side of his lips. Pen swipes scratching through the room.
Anya smiles down at the man, âI canât file my reports when you steal all the pens, you know?â
Daisuke grunts in acknowledgment, mouth opening like heâs about to respond only to let out a resounding, utter silence.Â
You laugh at the profound focus he exhibits, âIâve never seen you so serious.â
âHold on, hold on,â heâs muttering, then shooting up with the lemony post-it cupped to his chest, âDone!â
âLetâs see it,â Anya waves.
Daisuke flips the tiny square around to show off his work: a wide forehead parted by two obnoxious bug eyes and a thick nose.Â
âIs that Jimmy?â you tilt your head, Anyaâs neck limping in the opposite direction.
âYimpyyyy!â Daisuke cheers, pointing at the name scrawled beneath, âYimpy!â
âYimpy?â you steer closer, just to stick the note against your finger and push it nearer to Anyaâs face, âYimpy!â
âYimpyâŠâ she nods slowly, then shrugs and slicks her finger against the rapidly aging adhesive stripe. Laying it flat against her corkboard to tack in place, stepping back proudly with a soft giggle, âYimpy.â
Daisuke beams over making the sullen and serene Anya laugh. Turning to you for a private celebration, only to see you laughing as well. It feels even better that way.
*
[!] new message: signed legal agreement
[sent by: juarez, daisuke | subsection: huhhh you had to sign up for that????]
*
[first day of expedition]
âEveryone, meet Daisuke.â
âIâm Daisuke!â
âHi, Daisuke!â the room drones, in a slow little tune reminiscent of an Alcoholics Anonymous chant.
âHeâs an intern, so technically all of us can teach him something but I figure heâll learn the most under Swansea,â Captain Curly nods toward the mechanic. Swansea swears between gritted teeth while you snicker.
âAnd what about the esteemed custodian, canât the kids stick together?â he weasels, âBad enough to get another baby on board.â
âPlease,â Curly sighs, the hand he laid on Daisukeâs shoulder tightening just so before he drops it altogether. Clasping both fists in a plea, âIâve been assured this is nothing that will sabotage the voyage. We should just brace for rationing a bit tighter with the last-minute addition.â
âAinât excited for more babysitting.â
You, very maturely, blow a raspberry at the older man, âDonât break a hip bitching about it.â
Daisuke giggles at the retort, nearly earning his own beratement if not for Anya quickly cutting in:
âGo easy on them, it isnât like thatâs anybodyâs dream job.â
âBesides,â Jimmy sneers, âtheyâre the most reliable part of the crew, we might catch a cold from the shitters if this one wasnât there to clean âem.â
Curly bends to clap his co-pilot on the shoulder, perhaps a bit harder than he has to, and shines that million-dollar smile your way, âYouâve been my lucky charm on every voyage. Highest credit payout when the rest of the crew is living clean!â
You roll the praise off with ease, locking eyes with Daisuke, âMost of what I do is shovel the shit Jimâ spews. Youâll learn more with Swansea, for sure.â
Daisukeâs never met you before. He doesnât know you at all.Â
But heâs sure that the boiling coil in his stomach is disappointment when heâs hauled off toward the utility room with Swansea rather than wherever youâre going.
[1 month after the crash]
âI let you in there and youâll tear the ship a new asshole,â Swansea swears, squinting over you as you lean against the opposite side of the door.
Daisuke looks your way as you shrug, âAlright, already, I donât even care anymore. Not like fighting with you is worth it, stubborn geezer.â
Swansea scoffs, crossed arms tightening over his chest (Daisukeâs head flips back toward his mentor), âYeah, right! Iâm sure as soon as I walk away youâll try ripping into that foam and get us all killed!â
âWhy would I give a shit, Swansea?â Daisuke chuckles at your bite, bleached chestnut hair flapping around his shoulders.
âBecause youâre young!â Swansea points right between your eyes, and Daisukeâs stare swings back around toward the older man, âYouâve got no ears,â you raise a brow at the accusation, âEverything Iâm saying goes in one end and floats out the other, until you end up scraping the ship open and suddenly everything ole Swansea said makes sense!â
Daisukeâs head whirls back at you, chomping down a smile at whatever youâll say next.
âWhat? You think I donât listen?â
âI know you donât.â
âJust âcuz I donât have the patience to wait around until youâre ready for me to mop up utilityâŠâ you roll your eyes, âYou know that rule is stupid.â
âI donât know anything,â he mocks.
Daisukeâs neck will crick off how often he wrecks it back and forth, with all the thrill of a high-speed tennis match.Â
âSo, whatâs the plan?â that question only earns you a wrinkled glare.
Swansea knows you know the plan. And he knows youâre only dragging this out for the knucklehead beside himâs entertainment. Itâs far more irritating than anything else.Â
Then, just to dig into his side, something somehow more irritating pounds closer and closer.
Jimmy appears over your shoulder -- Swansea makes a displeased grunt from the base of his throat, silently prodding the brunette for -what everyoneâs sure is- his 500th rant of the day. Which is the worst, and funniest, thing about Jimmy, even if heâs entirely silent you can always read how pissed he is just by other people existing.
âYeah, capitano?â Swansea scoffs when the man doesnât just start prattling.
Daisuke straightens out, hands flaking at his sides. Brown eyes shooting to you, an almost comical bead of sweat dripping down his nose. You roll your eyes again and coo,
âCaptain Jimmy, do you have orders for us?â
That, of course, is what sets him off.
Jimmy throws his hands in the air, aggravated, âIâve been running around this ship, being helpful, while you three stand the fuck around?!â he jabs a shaking finger in your face, and you notice up close that itâs crooked after the first knuckle -like he broke it and never bothered having it set properly (something you wouldnât put past him), âGo mop up Curlyâs shit or something! This place is filthy, youâve got things to be doing- I know it!â
âI already emptied his stupid bedpan and the catheter, whateverâs happened since is Anyaâs business.â
Daisuke watches you with eyes positively sparkling as you sass a man on a higher wrung of the ladder without batting an eye. When Jimmyâs not looking, you catch him mouthing excitedly âyouâre so coolâ.
âUseless!â a hot glob of spit melts onto your cheek, he pays no heed to your grimace, âI pull my fuckinâ weight while you just stand here, a useless goddamn body!â
Yeah. Whatever.
You wait until Jimmy has stormed off again before playing off the infectious saliva stinging your face, smearing it off with the back of your hand, âSay it donât spray it, dude.â
Daisuke snickers. Thatâs the best part of the interaction since your pseudo-captain forced his way through. Maybe since the crash, even. Not many things make your heart sputter or remember what it was like to beat, but for some reason Daisuke is different.
As for work... There isn't much to be done on anyone's part. Not yet at least. Daisuke can't do anything without Swansea's (extremely temperamental) supervision, and Swansea can't do anything until the foam is cleared, and you can't clear the foam until Swansea lets you, which so far he has been intensely clear about how little interest he has in that option. Three useless bodies.Â
Make four out of the incapacitated Curly. Then five anytime Anya isn't actively supervising or aiding the captain. As for Jimmy.... you aren't exactly sure what it is Jimmy does to keep busy except for maybe crawling around the Tulpar to nitpick everyone else. He raves about the responsibility he takes, but as far as youâre concerned each of his assignments have been childishly basic.Â
Perhaps his real work ethic translates into being as unapproachable as possible.
After talking to Jimmy, you always have the strongest urge to drink more. Swallow more. Bathe more. Purge the entire interaction from your system -kill 99.9% of him off until only the most vague and pleasant parts remain. The parts where he's fucking walking away and shutting up.
[4.1 months after the crash]
Aside from your hard steps down the rattling Tulpar, you can hear quiet lights droning: protesting their own existence. A blood orange hue staining the Polle Horse posters stuck down the walls, your skin glows too, but most of all: it turns the candy pink petals of a sweet hibiscus darker, kind of like a mildew eating out from the fabricâs folds.Â
You gently prod the ribs hidden beneath that fabric with your shoeâs toe, âDaisuke? You awake?â
âEughhhh,â he rolls onto his back unsteadily, arms wiggly and he completely falls onto one elbow in a way youâre sure wasnât intentional. Those suspicions are confirmed when his entire round face yanks toward the center, a wimpy whine escaping his plump lips as he cups the elbow with his spare hand and massages the afflicted bone, âI donât feel goooooodâŠâ
âI can tell,â you squat down, hesitating only a moment before soothing your hand from his shoulder and toward the injured joint. His body seems to go lax beneath your warm touch, he smiles up at you,
âYouâre so nice to meâŠâ
âUh, I guess? I never really thought of it like that.â
He tilts his head back against the floor, stray bubbles of foam soaking into his dyed strands, thin black brows furrowing, âWhaddya meanâŠ?â
âI just. I dunno,â you guess it doesnât matter how you phrase it, or what it even is that you phrase, Daisuke wonât remember come tomorrow, âI just talk to you how I think everybody should talk to you, youâre really someone that I like. As a person.â
âReallyâŠ?â his mouth splits in a wide smile, even rows of teeth glinting up at you. You take a weirder, closer glance and see that some teeth actually arenât even, the bottom front pair grow over each other and one canine is a little far to the left. He giggles quietly, âI like you, too.â
âThanks, Daisuke,â looking down each end of the rounding corridor, you slip onto your ass and sit with Daisuke curling around you. His knees come up until theyâre brushing your knees and he tries nuzzling his face into your thigh, âYouâre real touchy when youâre drunk, huh?â
âIâm not drunk!â he breaks down immediately after the charge, âI didnât have that much!â his hand clanks around the floor until it scoops up a nearly empty bottle of mouthwash, he drops it before managing to properly show off what heâs drank, âSwansea had a ton moreâŠâ
âThis shitâll kill you, Daisuke.â
âYou drink itâŠâ he pouts, wrangling his hands into the back of your overalls and pulling as if trying to coax you to lie over his belly.
âIn, like, shots. Quick swallows. Kids do it all the time.â
âThatâs still drinking!â
âIâm not a good person, Daisuke,â you laugh it off, but it feels weird to say. You donât think you meant it, but it felt. Solid. Coming out of your throat so concisely it still startles you how it sits in the open air, âI deserve to drink it.â
He blinks up at you lazily, lashes batting and you feel him yank your overalls tighter, âThatâs not true!â
âIâm just someone that got stuck here years ago, you donât knowâŠâ you shake your head, âI didnât mean it.â
And saying that felt chunky, like upchucking cottage cheese and curdled milk. So sour you can feel it singe the back of your nose.
âGood because youâre my favorite,â he uses your pantlegs as leverage to crawl around and lay over your lap, turned onto his back. His hands settle over his chest, fingers busying themselves wringing his sweatbands around his wrist, âYouâre funny and really pretty. And youâre nice to me.â
âYou said that one already,â you pat his cheek when his eyes drift closed a little too long.
âItâs trueâŠâ he bemoans, reaching up to copy the gesture. Popping his lithe fingers once, then twice, against your cheek -not even hard enough to leave an imprint, âI like you a lot.â
âIt might be time for bed, DaisukeâŠâ
âMy mom would like you,â tiny grunts escape as you prop him upon his feet, one of his arms thrown around your shoulder and he lends most of his weight to your side. Sloppy feet borderline hindering your joint trek back toward the common lounge.
âWould she? She wouldnât disprove of my influence?â
âNahhh, sheâd love you,â his drunken grin falters just a moment as you lay him onto his mat, âShe got me this internship, you know?â
âDid she?â
âMhmmmm,â he snags you by the sleeve, urging you into his bed, âSaid I was too aimless but I just donât know what to do with myself,â he blinks up at you, âNever took to anything. Never wanted to try anything⊠just partied and drank. Now Iâm drinking away this internship, and I might not ever get to thank her. Or show her that I learned anything.â
Just as you see water swelling along his lashes, you fall onto his mat, combing fingers through his hair. The bleaching has made it feel a little rubbery, it stretches a bit before untangling around your knuckles, you scratch over his scalp and pray it drains the tears before they fall.
âIâm sure youâll find a chance, people like you always make it through.â
âLike me?â
âI mean. Pony Express has got to be tracking us somehow, right? They have to know we crashedâŠâ
âYeah,â he sighs, bloodshot eyes drifting over your features, âYouâre so smart, too, my mom would be totally obsessed with youâŠâ content to let yourself drift off in the coupling silence until Daisuke is audibly swallowing and murmuring again, âYou know, when I need some dreaming material before bed⊠I like to imagine taking you on a nice beach date. Like. A real beach, not the sunset window screen. And we could have a lot of fun, I think. I like you.â
You nod slowly, scrunching his hair in your hand.
Even with your eyes closed, you know heâs turned to look at you -feeling his nose nudge across your cheek and his damp eyelashes scuttering along your temple, he says louder, âI really like you.â
âThat couldâve been nice,â you admit.
âIâll make it happen,â he promises, finally closing his own eyes, and committing to falling asleep together again.
Then his brain zaps again, apparently too fired with curiosity to realize he could just ask in the many coming days youâll spend stranded on this big ass rock,
âHowâd you end up here anyway?â
He yawns. Loudly.
You yawn back.
Not bothering to open your eyes before blandly spitting, âIf I didnât find some kind of purpose, I couldâve killed myself.â
Then nothing. Not shock or disappointment or even a feigned gasp. Itâs almost⊠offending, humiliating even. You swing up violently, lips twitching to scream when youâre stunned still:
Daisukeâs wholly asleep. And now you can hear his soft snoring, quiet sighs escaping his -you bet pained and burning- throat.
[5 months after the crash]
âPfft, I thought you said this would work!â
âI thought it would!âÂ
Daisuke giggles and lifts some of your dead ends, âYou know I donât think any amount of bleach could get these coloredâŠâ heâs mumbling, mindlessly, thinking nothing of it, âTheyâre so friedâŠâ
Immediately your entire face twists unpleasantly, âHey! Donât say thatâŠâ you shove Daisukeâs hands away, clutching the dead ends by your neck, âGet scissors and just chop âem off, thenâŠâ
âRight now?â he tilts his head, blinking at you stupidly.
âRight now!â you shout, drunkenly.
Just as drunkenly, Daisuke stutters over while shaking his head, âNo way! Theyâre just dead ends⊠I didnât mean it mean,â then heâs tweaking his own bleached, frayed strands of hair between his fingers, âI got âem, too! Look!âÂ
Peeking through your disgusted scowl, you reach out and yank, âYou do.â
Daisuke snickers in your face, nodding, âExactly! Sorry I said it weird.â
You nod sluggishly and Daisuke simply lets you hold his hair. You judge the splitting hairs, you think itâs strangely pretty -- maybe just because itâs Daisuke.
âYouâre lookinâ at me funny,â he mutters, looking from your eyes to your lips. You do the same, âYou look at me like you wanna kiss me.â
You shrug. Coy. Pouty. Perhaps not acceptance, but most definitely not denial.
âCan I?â he wonders.
You lean in first. He tastes like mouthwash, and you keep kissing him anyway.
[4.2 months after the crash]
Page two, subsection General Safety, paragraph seven states that in the event of shattered glass. The custodial engineer is the sole person capable of collecting and disposing of loose shards. There are thick gloves in the office and a hazard bin for exactly this moment.
After Jimmy stormed off with the emergency axe, Swansea stumbled down the hall toward utility. Grumbling about the apparent nerve of your new captain after burying the blade into the window screen. Red bathes the foamed lounge. Daisuke sits criss-cross from you: both your faces turned up toward the cracked screen. Starry-eyed at the glitches like two toddlers sat in front of morning cartoons.Â
Then a crimson glint catches from your peripherals.
You twirl in place, shuddering into the wall before drunkenly reaching out and grasping for glass.Â
Thereâs no time for gloves or bins- not when glass is littered everywhere! This is too urgent.
Bare prints pricked long ways, you know youâre cut before the bleeding even starts. It never outright hurts when you cut yourself by accident, thereâs that momentary shock like ice pressed right against your skin. Then you bleed out onto the floor, and then it stings. Skin peeling back exposing the tiniest bare fragments of yourself to open air. It fucking stings.
You whine and pull back and Daisuke hurries over. He hisses at the sight and plucks your hands away from the scene. Blood drips from your fingertips and over the carpet, no doubt to fester a new commune of mold.Â
âUh, shit,â he blinks himself as sober as possible, then has to close one eye just to see straight while clobbering for a bottle of the trusty stuff, âDisinfectant! Right? Gotta clean thisâŠâ
Daisuke holds your hand palm-up, clenching it like he believes whatâs next will hurt at all. In his other hand is a backwash-frothy bottle of DragonbreathX mouthwash -- it tips hesitantly. Guzzling faded teal into the cup of your hand. You hold your breath, expecting that searing wave of alcohol draining a wound. Daisuke holds the bottle upright and stares through you.
It just feels like you have a slowly leaking handful of mouthwash. Sugar sticking around your cupped skin.Â
âShould I get Anya?â he asks, watching your blood turn the liquid brown before tipping over the edge of your hand. Drooling from the cracks between your fingers.
âNo,â no, no you donât think sheâd help at all. You shove your fist knuckle-down into your thigh and smile wryly at Daisuke, âI think the mouthwash will be fine⊠Itâll take care of everything.â
Itâs just some glass, after all.
[!] new message [!]
When you try raising your head, it hurts. But not really. Just an incredibly dull vibration that you know is meant to be a painful deterrent, so you choose not to fight it. No matter how badly you know you should look up.
Mom sits on one end of the couch and Dad on the other. They lean into their respective arms and do not cross the middle of the couch, where you sit. Every few minutes a bell rings from inside the television, but other than that all it plays is monochrome snow. Randomized pixels all buzzing across the screen. A white glow emanates from the screen. It looks cold, you think if you pressed your palms flat against the glass a chill would race up your arms.Â
Mom yawns, Dad shoots a brief slant her way before mumbling, âTired?â
His thick voice and drawling tone mutilate the vowels, though, so all you can make out is a gentle, âTerrred?â
Mom shrugs and speaks over your head without looking away from the television. Dad nods listlessly and they both rise and shuffle off down the hall, leaving you and TV buzzing. A bell rings.Â
It tingles sweetly, all gentle songbird and high. Sort of like the bell at school warning you from being late to class, or permitting you to charge into the canteen for soggy pizza and frozen milk.Â
When Dad comes back, heâs without Mom, and heâs got wavy blonde hair and a little scruff. And he doesnât speak at all. His eyes are hidden beneath stray golden strands, but his lips are stretched pleasantly. Pressing the TV into pitch black before scooping you into two big arms, cradling your neck against his chest.
You hear his heartbeat; pulpy, it pounds in loud, viscous waves. As if it needs to prove that it's still alive. And the heat is overbearing, as though heâs melting from the inside out.
He lays you down and leaves.Â
A bell rings.
*
[!] new message: i am my worst moment i am defined by my past and i am fucking awful
[sent by: sender outside of network. please contact captain if messages from unknown senders continue to route to this machine. do not respond. do not respond. do not respond.]
*
[6 hours until judgement]
Sixty excruciating minutes drag by before five fingers are snapping over the edge of the mattress. A distinctly metallic click follows. Hinges squeak apart, clacking against the frame of the bed with finality. A wobbly elbow pokes into sight before that clutching hand pushes up, dragging his whole body sideways as you yank the sheets with effort. Standing upon squiggling knees, downcast eyes linger beneath the bed -- he canât see that far down. But heâs sure he already knows what youâre looking at.
Get it over with he wants to hiss Just shoot me. Donât keep me in suspense.
Your forearm writhes with a âclickâ, eyes heavy with discoloration. Somewhere between sinking into your skull and popping out like a cyst -- they finally rise upon him.
Somewhere between upset and stoic, your face remains unchanged as you lay the hidden hand just by his bandaged arm. Silver glints angrily into his eyeball -- heâd flinch away if he could.
Just do it already he screams in his mind, but all that escapes are wheezy whistles Just fucking shoot me!
You already said you would, didnât you?
Itâd help everyone. Meat would make the crew happier than when they still had those canned soups. Thatâs what you said. So just get him over with.
[10 days after the crash]
He always said the past is something that defines who you are, but not something you need to be enslaved by. You can be a terrible person, and become something shinier. Less obscure or offensive to observe over time, you just need to put in the work. You wonder how long you can be disgusted by your thoughts before theyâre no longer your own.
this doesnt even look like curly anymore
Instinctually, and despite not having verbalized it, you clasp a hand over your mouth at that.
You unwind the bent arm to wrap knuckles in warm bed sheets. And he watches you. You think he knows what you were seething. Youâre sorry. You donât say that. Rather, you ask,
âDo you sleep anymore, Captain?â
He ticks his head just slightly, just enough as he can manage before the muscles shred and burn.Â
âI betâŠâ you murmur, uncapping the jade bottle of little white relievers, âit just hurts all the time nowâŠâ
He tips his head back, then shudders forward.
Shaking two capsules into hand, you look down at the panting crimson stain that is Captain Grant Curly and shake another two out. Then you tip six more out. Balling the pills in your hand.Â
His pupils shake around your hand with the pills, dilated to hell -his entire eye nearing black.
You notice now that Curly has no eyelids. But the muscle still attached and bound around his socket puckers as if thereâs anything there to move. It all pulses with the best intentions, just to accomplish nothing. Same for his nonexistent lips, singed off just to show off bare nerves beneath crisp gums and gapped teeth. Blood dried into the bonesâ indents. His teeth chatter as he moans, as if to speak but thereâs only a stubbed tongue back there. Nothing he can use to shape the words to beg for
âShould we justâŠâ his gaze snaps up to your face then, teeth clicking against each other, âUhmâŠâ open red muscle flexes around his neck but before you can see which way he moves his head, you clench shut.Â
can we kill you already?
Pure darkness swallowing your sight, you fiddle around the plastic green bottle and replace eight of the pills, âHere, Captain, open up.â
Barely peeking through your shrouded lashes, you slot the pills between gaping, warm gums where teeth should be. His tongue feels like fucking sandpaper, you cringe and clench your eyes harder.
âIâm sorry,â you shake your head, hand shaking at his jaw before soothing the caps down his gullet, âIâm sorry. Iâm sorry. Iâm sorry.â
Logically, it makes so much sense: heâs in pain simply lying here -no skin, charred flesh, exposed nerves, chopped limbs- and you donât imagine he will ever recover what heâs lost.
Emotionally, you clam up completely; rejecting the thoughts until you can claim they were never even yours.
You never got the question out, anyway. And you never saw his response.
So, practically, none of that happened. You just gave the captain his pills because youâre a good subordinate and a good crewmate, and more importantly a good friend.
Eyes still closed, you mutter, âFeel better soon, CaptainâŠâ
He moans in protest as you turn. Groaning louder when you call Anya back into the room, claiming to be finished.
âThank you,â she sighs, stepping into her office with hands clasped over her heart. One soft palm laid over the other, âIâm sorry to put it on you like that, but I justâŠâ she frowns, âThe sound⊠Iâm- well. I canât- â
âAnya, itâs fine. I donât mind,â you wave her concerns away, a thin, forced smile stretching over your face. And you pretend the huffing behind you is just the new sound of Curly breathing.
Escaping into the hall, you wait as long as it takes for the medical room to click shut behind you before darting for a waste bin. Clamping the sides between two shaking, clammy hands and heaving into it.
Your whole body jerks over the neon bucket. Something like a big ball races up your intestines and just beneath your uvula before falling back into the well of your stomach. Gagging again, you feel it just about to slip over your soaked tongue before: nothing. The thick coil shudders back down again with nothing in your stomach to offer up. Besides spit that burns on the way down.
Your stomach rumbles for something to puke up.
Begging for relief.
[13 hours before the crash]
âWoah.â
Gold tresses gleam beneath the digital moonlight, two pale faces shining your way. Deep lines cut beneath your captainâs eyes.Â
âDidnât expect to see you out here so late, CaptainâŠâ
He shrugs, throwing an arm over the back of the lounge couch to better watch you, âIâve had to think over some things recently,â youâre about to prod and he must be able to sense it because then he asks, âWhat are you doing up?â
âI wanted a sweet tonic, honestly.â
He raises a thick brow at the response, you merely shrug and meander toward the kitchen. Not sparing the code booklet a glance before punching numbers into the synthesizer.
âIâm basically already fired anyway, right?â you rationalize, sensing his judgments from across the floor, âPlus, thereâs supposed to be fewer germs in the sweetener anyway, so itâs healthier than a regular tonic.â
When he doesnât miraculously approve that response and spin back around, you scoff, continuing the one-sided argument,
âWhat? Will me sneaking another sweetener pack get you in trouble with your old bosses?â
Curly sighs and slumps back into place, âNo. I guess notâŠâŠâŠ Look. Kid. I didnât know any more than you all do. I didnât. I didnât know.â
âItâs not really my business, Captain. You heard Jimmy, Iâll be off to another shithole soon enough.â
Nothing back, not even an admissible chuckle.
Sliding squishy, silicone packets on either side of the humming fabricator is a simple enough task that you can look away without screwing anything. So you watch Curly as he watches the window screen -- silent. Stiff. Unsure, you poke again, âWhatâre you looking at?â
âThereâs a dead pixel in the screen,â he scans left to right as he says it though.
Two glasses in each hand, you sit beside Curly on the white pleather. It squeaks at the sudden weight when you throw yourself back, slipping one tonic toward Curly while curling the other into your chest. Nestling it comfortably in the middle with the straw right beneath your lips, âWhere?â
He ignores the offered drink, âIâm still looking for it.â
âHuh⊠okay,â you squint up at the screen, sipping the sweet mixture.
That look is back in his eyes. That vacancy. Pulling in and nulling all the light above, something reminiscent of a black hole. He stares down at Jimmy that way a lot.Â
âI just donât see it, but I know itâs there,â he says: solemn, gloomy, âI know itâs up there.â
Curly has a wide face and wider shoulders. Blonde scruff has grown out around his jaw since his last shave on earth, and the hair on his head is almost waxy with how perfectly it falls and frames his head. Rosy cheeks, button nose. And those dull blue eyes. Captain Grant Curly, your beloved and trusted pilot.
âUhm, you know, CaptainâŠâ
He blinks, eyes flicking your way before returning toward the screen.
âIâve been thinking a lot more lately,â you sit up straighter, shoulders feeling lighter as you finally confess, âI usually do nothing but think, but now itâs stuff thatâs actually⊠important. And itâs all terrible. After this crew disbands, Iâve got nothing and nobody to go back for. Iâm not sure what else to strive for if Iâm not being told what to do, I donât know what else I should stay alive for. I feel like Iâm watching someone else use my body to make all the worst decisions possible but I donât know how to find the will to stop myself,â you feel nauseous in a good way, the way you feel when you lurch the last part of a hangover. Just before the stomach lining starts repairing itself. Getting everything youâve let stain your back out into the open actually feelsâŠÂ
âIâve just been thinking that maybe Jimmy was probably right about me⊠about everythingâŠâ
Good.
But if itâs good, then why does Curly shoot off the couch like you lit fire at his feet, and why does he scream like you did too?
âGoddammit, kid!â he scoffs, raking untamed tresses, âIâm not the shipâs personal diary!â he heaves, eyes wide, âWeâve got psych evals for this shit!â
He looks down at you, youâre still on the couch and youâre completely still. Your mouth agape and hands folded nervously over your drink. He thinks he could hear a bit of Jimmyâs blunt gruff in the back of his mind: he sharply turns away and marches toward the doors.
You feel nauseous. In a terrible way. Like your dad just called from the hospital. Suddenly your nose feels fuller than it used to, and suddenly your eyes are fucking burning, and suddenly your arms shake so violently you need to put your drink on the table. Next to Curlyâs untouched one. You hiccup, short of breath.
Thudding steps pause just after the hiss and release of the lounge doors parting, a man sighs, âDonât spend all night out here, kid.â
You donât hear that over the sound of your own breathing, heavy and wavering. Pretty pathetic.
Befitting to be hidden away scrubbing some abandoned shithole. Desperate enough to hire a goddamn mess.
Jimmy was probably right.
*
[!] new message: neighhhh^7
[sent by: hotard, swansea | subsection: last iâll say this, i need to be there when you clean utility.]
*
[3 days after the crash]
You get it, really you do. After a crash, some gears are bound to not work the way they used to, thatâs just common sense. In the same way Curly is forever changed, Tulpar too is marred by her collision. And the same way Jimmy has already taken the helm and is pushing for rationing and repairing, doors squeal in agony as they open. The offside closet attached to Utility did when it opened for you to enter, and you were already prepared for it to do the same as it opened for you to leave.
Except it didnât.
âWhat the fuckâŠ?â you groan.
Slapping both hands against the metal door, straining your arms to manually glide the steel apart. Huff and puff as you might, nothing would budge.
It reeks of stale emergency foam, leaking through the cracked walls. One stumble too far back and you may be torn apart by space.Â
That could be preferable to starving alone in a closet, though.
You just wanted something to do. Something to get the smell of a breathing corpse out of your nose.
Banging into the door with both hands wide open, you scream hard for any pair of ears to hear. âHelp! Help! Help!âs devolving into wordless, snotty trills and ceaseless violent slams on cold metal. Your voice echoes in the cramped space. Bouncing through one ear and out the other faster than wails leave your mouth.Â
You slowly become less upset about being trapped and more upset that nobodyâs found you yet. It didnât feel real until the third time you screamed: Nobodyâs looking.Â
Dropping your arms, you just ball your pants into each fist and hang your head to whimper. Tears streaming down your face. Dripping onto the floor, rolling between grates. Hacking into the open air. Flem webbing down your chin.
Itâs like being seven all over again. Strangers pushing rusty carts past you as you shiver in a tank top and jorts in the meat section. Shiny plastic swelled over beef and pale chicken watching high over your head. A big man with a round belly and a white plastic card clipped into his yellow shirt came upon you. He asked your name. He asked if you knew where you were.
âDo you know where you are, kid?â
âDid you get lost?â
âHey, hey, hey.â
A big man with a round belly has no choice but to pop you in the cheek with the back of his hand. Immediately he apologizes.
âSorry.â
Not a grimace crosses his features as he wipes a conglomerate of tears and snot and drool from your cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. His brows are creased so far down that they nearly hide his eyes. You reach up, snagging his wrists in your hands, burying a cough into your shoulder,
âThe fuck happened in here?â he means it entirely, obviously expecting an answer as he jitters you by the neck, âYou seeÂ
Whatever else heâs saying sounds too complicated. Underwater. None of your business. It makes you feel little again: watching another man with a plastic card over his chest, and a tie latched around his neck have a stern conversation with your mother. Who looks like she couldnât care less while heâs red in the face.
âAre you fucking listening to me?â he scathes, âDo you wanna die or something?â
[12 days after the crash]
âHuh?â
âDo you wanna die or something?â Swansea swerves the axe in front of your face. Ticking it like clockwork.
âIâm just trying to clean out the foam,â you cannot fight back the yawn as it drags out, protruding the middle of your sentence like a fat beetle.
He merely tightens his stance and glares at you. Axe now against his chest, hugged between both arms.
âIâm trained for this, I know what Iâm doing,â for a man of his age heâs more determined than he knows what to do with. Both of you have been at this argument for at least a couple hours. Not long now before the nighttime window screen illuminates, âBesides, if weâre really stranded here then isnât it better to just die now than wait for something worse off?â
Rather than answer with sincerity, Swansea sarcastically bites, âIs that your way of saying weâre all gonna kill ourselves?â
âStarving, Swansea. Starving.âÂ
Sighing, Swansea pulls a hand on the door and preemptively shushes you. Not that it stops you from nearly splitting ears as you cry âfucking dick!â
Clasping a hand over your mouth, Swansea swings you both into utility after a fleeting glance down the hall to ensure you were alone. Shutting the door so youâre locked into the vast floorspace of a fucking empty utility room. Foam clogs, maybe, a quarter of the room: stuck near the edge of the wall where most of the damage was concentrated.
Before you can bite his hand, or chew out more swears, heâs speaking again:
âI wasnât lying, nothing in here works anymore,â he holds up a finger, letting it fall to the left, âExcept that cryo pod. Iâm hiding it from Jimâ, I just know something about him ainât right. I donât want him or Curly to be the ones in it,â he must catch the confused twitch by your eye because he redirects his pointing toward the lounge where Jimmy and Anya and, most importantly, Daisuke are sleeping, âThe thing might be big enough for you and Daisuke to jigsaw into place, and Iâll make sure it starts from the outside. Just gotta wait for Jimmy to stop fucking wandering,â then he sighs, mostly to himself but also for you.
He says, pretty evidently disappointed,Â
âIf thereâs not enough room for both of you. Iâll be making sure the kidâs the one that gets in, you know?â
You think you do. You assume you do.
Something about a
[8 hours until judgement]
âPlease, please, please please please,â youâre slurring all the consonants together, flurrying out each word as if they could save him, âPlease! Please, Daisuke?!â
Daisuke responds the only way he can: writhing.Â
His eyes are full circles of bloodshot white. Piercing through you ambivalently.
Malice and resentment, but also so so so much regret. Past all his grunting and squealing, no words have room to grow. Instead they stay buried with the rest of his feelings, deep in his chest right about where his lungs are filling with blood.
âDonât leave me,â you gush, squeezing him on your lap. Devastated over a death you can physically feel coming. Heâs getting so warm with all those weeping wounds, and he flexes with each passing breath -- every one taking more effort than the last, âPlease, I need you. DaisukeâŠâÂ
He knew you were selfish. A little flighty, too. And as much as he wants to grant your pleas, this task is just a bit impossible.
Youâre asking someone to live when thereâs no remaining quality of life.
[1 month after the crash]
Page five, subsection Poison Control, paragraph one -Polle pledges that if any chemicals are out of stock without proper logging, personal credits will be docked from the crew pay package. To ensure something like that doesnât happen, custodians are required to perform stock counts. Often.Â
To distract yourself from the mounds of foam cobbling the Tulpar together, maintaining its air seal, you continue to perform this duty. Even if youâre sure itâs one of many less pressing matters.
âReady and reporting for duty!â is what greets you. Daisuke pushing two fingers to his forehead with the other arm wound behind his back, a toothy smile parting his face, âHi!â
âWhatâre you doing?â you skip past the intern, keying the walk-in open.
âKeep you company.â
âThatâs against policy, you know? Iâm supposed to be alone for this,â on the off chance he believes that you believe that, you force a tiny laugh out.
He takes the bait and shrugs, slotting against the gaping doorway. Picking and twisting his neon sweatbands absentmindedly. His eyes snaking after you, âAre you gonna snitch on me?â
Bending to lift a toppled bottle of blue, bubbly chemical -a motion you feel Daisuke thoroughly examine- you make a flippant hum, âI donât see why I would.â
You spare all of two seconds trying to push the chemicals onto the top shelf -unsuccessfully- before your dear, sweet intern is charging into action. Bravely saddling up beside you and rolling up his sleeves somehow higher.
âOh, you need help with that?â now Daisuke curls up behind you, already grasping the jug in your palms without any response.
Daisukeâs arms are not the biggest or broadest, but heâs certainly more capable than the aging Swansea or thin Anya. Youâd just about rather die than approach Jimmy.
Besides, maybe the sight of his muscles flexing overhead is interesting. Bubblegum hibiscus flows around your waist and warmth flushes up your back. Hard chest rounding against your back, thick thighs nearly shuffling between yours.
Daisuke is breathing so heavily, but you donât think itâs from any heavy lifting. Plump lips parted before he sucks his bottom lip between sharp teeth, eyes darting from your face -sickly in the pale freighter lights- to your own pulsing chest. Spindly fingers fumble out for your own, looping around the first two before he bravely snatches your entire hand. Scrubbing his thumb along your knuckle.
âCan weâŠâ he has something in mind, and at the last minute you watch that pivot click behind his eyes, âCan we share a bed tonight?â
Smaller than the closet, youâre forced to slather Daisuke with your weight. Legs tangling and arm over his stomach. Heâs got a hand up your shirt drawing shapes into your back; itâs about the calmest thing about him right now. Blunt nails crush the impression of lopsided, top-heavy hearts into your skin while his head is pin-straight forward. Gaze locked on the pumpkin-painted ceiling, the sunset projection across the room more interesting than saying anything he actually wants to.
âI feel like,â he has to close his eyes, visualizing himself on the edge of a cliff. Jumping off. If you donât catch him, heâll die anyway, âWe do this a lot.â
âCuddle?â
âGet close,â the pace of his breathing quickens, your head on his heart bobbing in rushed time, âAnd then we kinda pretend it didnât happen.â
âDo we?â
âI think so,â heâs questioning himself even with a hand up the back of your shirt. Eyes squeezing harder until technicolor shapes are popping into little greyish stars, âI thought so, anywayâŠâ
Mercifully, you lay a hand over his jaw, squishing round cheeks between thumb and forefinger. Scooching up on the lumpy medical mat to sweetly lay a kiss on his cheek. Instantly his face flares, the hand not shoved up your back latching onto your wrist -- squeezing but not prying, cooking your lips. The next moment his head falls and twists, lips puckered and sugary against yours.Â
Hand slithering along your arm until heâs cupping your cheek, arm curling tighter around your waist. Nigh pulling you on top of him completely. Plying the fat of your thigh, working toward your ass with cute whines. Grinding tenting jeans into your leg with little distorted jumps.
You pull back, kiss his cheek, and murmur, âGoodnight, DaisukeâŠâ
He sighs quietly but grins against your face and nods, âGoodnightâŠâ
Hugging you tight, Daisuke rolls you two enough so heâs able to hang off you like a backpack with arms wound around your waist. Legs entwining with yours. He kisses along your shoulder before burying his face in your neck. You think something wet drips on your skin, but you donât ask about it -- too scared of the response.
Daisuke is sweet and kind and you know he likes you. You like him too.
You squeeze the hand he has rested over your stomach.
You just donât know how to like him without ruining everything you liked.
(at some point in the night, youâre woken by anya -- asking with just the tiniest bend in her lips- asking if you knew daisuke was in your bed. you would nod sleepily and she would wish you goodnight. daisuke, then, drowsily smiled and mumbled âwhatâs up anya??â. she ruffled his stiff, bleached hair and wished him goodnight too.)
*
[!] new message: stop fucking ignoring me and answer these
[sent by: sender outside  network. Please contactact captain if messages from unknown senders continue to route ot this machine do not espind. Do not respond. do not respond..]
*
[5 months after the crash]
The inside of Anya smells worse than the outside.Â
A thought you never imagined you would actively have, but something that makes sense logistically.Â
âDoes logic help with team cohesiveness?â Polle asks over your shoulder.
In theory, it should.
âSo how did your crew end up like this?â he sounds a little girlish, high-pitched and all. You think pointing that out could get you a visit to the HR office.
But also, the question is valid. How did you get back here, and at this point, is there a point to being back here? The rag is sopping wet and all the white threads have turned burgundy. Everything is so⊠ripe. Pungent. Pushing muck around the scratched tile. Everything not clinging to Anya seeks to stain you.Â
Why are you here?
Polle answers: âBiohazards! You are the first line of defense between your crew and disease!â
A janitor is important, after all.
Nobody else wants to play in shit and blood and oil so itâs best they seal off the slimiest grub they can find to roll around in it. Who better than you? If you get sick itâs fine.
âThatâs what youâre paid for!â Polle chirps. Giving a mock salute. Obnoxiously clicking his black hooves.
Which is why Anya appointed you the one to wipe the captainâs shit out of a bent bedpan. Which is why Anya gave you one last task: mop up the vomit she choked out. Whatever you canât mop, everything on her clothes and skin and tangled into those petite little framing hairs, should be burned. For sanitation.Â
âItâs about all youâre good for,â a deeper voice adds. Disgust grating each vowel.
Polle laughs behind the stiff veneer of his poster, nailed down years before you came here and no doubt hanging up long after you eventually croak.Â
Looking up at the red man on the bed, you find him already staring down at you with that single bulging eye. The fucking nerve: leaving you all here, free to venture out. Free of your nastiest thoughts, free of the grotesque thanklessness of sucking puss out of an open wound. Free of the concern of where youâll end up next.
Free to just die.
âWhat did you just say?â you snarl, an unfamiliar fire encouraging you onto your feet. On a bridge, staring into crystal waters at a fish floating belly-up.
All his crispy lungs can get out is a quiet moan. Pained at the center. Gooey in all the wrong ways.
âWhy did you watch Anya die?â his gaze darts down to your hands, now balled in blistering fists, âWhy were you the last one she talked to?â he refuses to look back into your face, âAnd why does Daisuke want your fucking approval so much? And why is Jimmy obsessed with keeping you alive?â unsteadily your volume has risen, yet startling even yourself when youâre shouting. The cockpit safety gun -that spontaneously disappeared not long before the crash, that youâre pretty sure you spotted just now beneath his bed- would be comfortable in your hand right about now, âMaybe our crew wouldâve been better off if we just fucking ate you!â
Curlyâs chest convulses wildly. Now heâs looking you in the face.
Polle says: âPlay nice! *unrest amongst the crew requires befitting punishment from the Captain, and will dock personal credits from the crew pay package.â
He looks afraid. Squirming away from your cinched hands and huffing inconsistently. Like heâd cry if he could.
Sympathetically, you crumble to your knees, bent over his bed and hugging the sheets while dry-heaving self-loathing, âIâm sorry- Iâm sorry, Iâm sorry, I didnât mean it!â you hack, snot and salt mingling in the back of your throat, clogging it as you rush to spew, âIâm sorry, Iâm sorry- I didnât mean it, Captain, I didnât - sorry! I didnât mean it! I didnât mean it! I didnât mean iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitâs one year older for you, Captain! [6 days before the crash]
Howâs it feel?â you tilt your head, bumping both brows lightheartedly.
âSurprise!â Jimmy jeers from beside you, arms folded.
âSurprise!â Daisuke copies, âLook at your face!â
âGotcha!â Anya giggles, dainty hand curling over her mouth.
âCheers!â Swansea, despite his eagerness to appear unenthused, is the loudest after Daisuke.
âUh. Wow,â Curly blinks, shaking his head. You hope just clearing the adrenaline from his system⊠you wouldnât think this party could be that much of a startle.
Unless something else had completely overridden his mind, he shouldâve known this was coming.
Swansea was last year, after all, and your crew always moves the parties in a routine circle.
âLast year mustâve been wild, huh?â Daisuke nudges you with an elbow.
âHuh?â you wonder if he could read minds. You beam the number four into his third eye, waiting to see if heâll snag the bait.
He doesnât, confirming two possibilities: he either does not read minds or is committed to keeping his powers a secret. In both scenarios, you have no choice but to move on, so you do.
âLast year, I canât believe I missed it! You guys got Swansea,â he points across the room, some would call it rude but you think itâs just another harmless Daisuke-ism, âWish I couldâve seen him get loose!â
The old mechanic grumbles a vague threat to keep you silent.
âIt was fun, he ate three whole slices of the company cake and puked. Real party animal shit,â while Anya recounts how Swansea stumbled over himself as everyone screamed âsurpriseâ, you whisper to Daisuke, âI actually made the cake last year. Captain was too busy filing reports from corporate.â
âNo way!â he hisses back, âYou know the sweetener code?â
âUh-huh, take notes,â you mimic a notepad and pen in your hands, â2-3-4-1. It was the first thing I scammed my way into memorizing on this stupid ship,â perhaps a bit unwise youâre just telling some new intern this, but oh well, âCaptain pretends he doesnât know.â
An overly dramatic hum breaks out over your shoulder, making you jump in place as a deep voice quizzes, âWhatâs that?â
Recovery is simple enough, you just twine your hands bat your lashes, and beam, âOhhhh, nothing, Captain!â
He seems a bit out of things as he laughs. That usual spark in his eyes long faded and lips not quite quirking the way they used to. Even just a single day ago, his face seemed brighter.
Even as he brings the cake to your crew, sat around the cheap table. Anya and Swansea are on one side, across from you and Daisuke. Jimmy at one head by Anya. And Curly at the other by you.Â
âSpeech! Speech! Speech!â Daisuke chants, encouraging you to join.
Swansea grins, lackluster and slight but full of mirth he would never show, leaning his chin against folded hands, âYeah, captain.â
âCanât be a party without a speech!â Anya giggles, head turned fully toward the blonde, âWe wonât let you get out of it!â
Before Curlyâs mouth opens, even a little, the man on the other side of the table prompts:
âWhatâs wrong?â Jimmy scours his friend with those wooden eyes.
Curly canât maintain any mask in front of the slightest prodding, let alone from Jimmy. . . .
thatâs all it said on the report from management we will receive the paycheck for this delivery I donât know any more than that
Silence gnaws at the table before Swansea braves to break it: pony express finally kicking the bucket huh what a joke and weâre the punchline
You blink. The back of your neck is freezing cold. Your throat is too tight to swallow any saliva, so you let it all pool in your mouth.
i donât have any savings they canât just do this right
Anyaâs voice wasnât always so shrill, was it?
Are your ears melting off? Theyâre burning hot enough, you think. The temperature clash makes you push a shaking hand into your gut. Tissue bubbling beneath your palm.
A hand joins the one you arenât pushing against your stomach, coaxing your nails out from puncturing your chairâs armrest. Daisuke squeezes your hand, turned away from Swansea in favor of studying your troubled face. Each minuscule slacken surveyed by him, he can pinpoint the exact moment your crewmatesâ voices stop sounding like bland static impersonations and start sounding like themselves again.
Unfortunately, that exact moment is when Jimmy asks:
âWhen did they tell you?â
You actually look at Curly for his response, and Daisuke decides that maybe he should look over too. At least seem a little invested in anything that isnât your obvious unrest.
âEarlier this week,â each body not belonging to Daisuke flinches at the brutal honesty, which he supposes is fair, âI was instructed to wait until weâre closer to the haul destination. But I canât keep something like this from you allâŠâ
âSo, I guess you got what you wanted. Without the guilt.â
Not exactly the shot you assumed Jimmy would be taking, but you canât say you disagree with it.
Captain Curly constantly had this greyed look in his eye. Watching a movie he could recite the ending to. Maybe even one he dreaded having to sit for again.
For a long time now, youâve suspected he wanted to move on. Who better to confirm it than the longtime friend, co-pilot Jimmy?
âI can get back to myâŠâ the brunette snorts inauthentically, âHowâd you put it? âStruggle of a lifeâ?â he swings a rabid arm across the table, âAnya never got into medical school because sheâs, well, letâs be real. And how many employment years Swansea got left in him?â he sneers towards your more youthful half of the table, âDaisuke will be fine, mommy and daddy have him covered. So thereâs that at least! And that one wonât be out of work for long, huh? Anybody could do that job, and everywhere needs it. Only worry there is finding the right dump desperate enough to hire a burnout!â Jimmy slumps back into his chair, leveling Curly with an almost painful glare, âBut you. Headed for bigger and better, right?â
Curly clenches both fists, sighing through his nose and head shaking, âIâm just,â he blinks too hard, each drop visibly manual, âIâm just working on my life being a place I donât have to fucking escape! Thatâs what I was trying to tell you: nothing more!â
Jimmy bangs a fist on the table before swiping it across to display you all, you and Anya recoil at the unexpected motion as he declares, âWeâre the ones youâre trying to escape! Leave the dirt behind now that your boots are clean!â
âThatâs not what I meant!â hearing Curly raise his voice is sickening. You turn your hand on the rest to now be the one squeezing Daisuke.
âThat is what you meant,â Jimmy asserts, âYou just couldnât frame it to yourself in a way that kept you as the hero. Abandon the crew and make your escape.â
âWhat else could I do?!â seeing him so desperate, clawing for a way out of Jimmyâs needling like a declawed cat in plastic, has you doubling over yourself with a buzzing stomach.
Jimmy throws himself back into his chair at the head of the table, âLetâs have some fucking cake, hm? Props to the twilight crew of the Tulpar. Props to the captain and his new prospects.â
Even in a different light, you donât know if you wouldâve ever enjoyed here- hearing Captain Curlyâs advancement from the Tulpar.
So when he looks to you for any cheap defense, you donât find anything to say. You even congratulate yourself for not whimpering for him to talk the higher-ups out of this.Â
Jimmy does not find your bravery as inspiring, and instead scoffs, âEven your codependent maid canât talk you out of this.â
Ashamed, you sink into the seat. Only Daisukeâs grip keeps you from slithering onto the floor. Slimy and wet and pathetic. And whimpering for some kind of miracle that means this wonât really be the last time you work with your crew. You lay your hand in the hand Daisuke doesnât pulse, his gaze solely on you: now hunting for the moment you pick yourself up. Or at least for an opening where he can manufacture it for you.
Curlyâs knife clinks as he picks it up, sawing through plasticine sugar.
You donât raise your head.
[8 hours until judgement]
âPlease, please, please please please,â youâre slurring all the consonants together, flurrying out each word as if they could save him, âPlease! Please, Daisuke?!â
Daisuke responds the only way he can: writhing.Â
His eyes are full circles of bloodshot white. Piercing through you ambivalently.
Malice and resentment, but also so so so much regret. Past all his grunting and squealing, no words have room to grow. Instead they stay buried with the rest of his feelings, deep in his chest right about where his lungs are filling with blood.
âDonât leave me,â you gush, squeezing him on your lap. Devastated over a death you can physically feel coming. Heâs getting so warm with all those weeping wounds, and he flexes with each passing breath -- every one taking more effort than the last, âPlease, I need you. DaisukeâŠâÂ
He knew you were selfish. A little flighty, too. And as much as he wants to grant your pleas, this task is just a bit impossible.
Itâs bizarrely greedy for everything he could have to give, gobbling him down and demanding more. In a strange way he could only accept in death, he likes it. Wanting to reach up and fondle your cheek -- tackle some hair in his fist and yank you onto his level -- Daisuke flails his hand up with a whimper and gargle. Blood spitting onto your shirt.
Jimmy nearly trips over you with a full, unopened bottle of mouthwash in his hand. Cracking it open ferociously before dumping it over Daisukeâs gaping gashes, dowsing you in the process. Fresh mint horribly scars the inside of your nose.
Finally.
Captain Curlyâs corpse stench is wiped straight out.
Relief.
Relief. Heâll live!
âYouâll be fine,â you weep, though, hard and ruinously, âYouâll be okay, Daisuke. Itâll fix everything,â but you canât say what it is because you already know that if you do, youâll be wrong, âItâll fix everything!â
Mouthwash canât fix this.
Your hand is still wrapped, bloody and sticky and aching, infected from sugar poured over deep glass cuts. Mouthwash canât heal anything properly.
But you scream for it anyway, âPlease donât leave me, DaisukeâŠ!â
Rattling footsteps shake you from behind, followed by a meaty hand on your shoulder, âOut of the way, kid, Iâll take care of him.â
âNo!â you bawl, frantically clawing into Daisukeâs flowy pink shirt as he flounders on your lap, âPlease, no, no nono!â
âGet to the pod,â he curses down at you. Lifting the axe despite how you and Jimmy scream at him to stop, stop just listen fucking listen stop it stop!
Daisukeâs body lurches against your thigh. Pelvis jumping once. Chest sputtering twice. All ten fingers twitching.
Followed by punctuating silence.
Jimmy yells, as Jimmy always does. You donât catch any of it.
The sight of Daisukeâs body was too captivating.Â
Swanseaâs voice joins the mix, but heâs far away. Adults arguing overhead. Things you donât care about nor do you want to hear. It takes you back to your childhood.
You wish you knew Daisuke back then, maybe you couldâve been sweeter with him.
And maybe someone better acquainted with the shipâs layout, like yourself, wouldâve been a better choice for Jimmy. Youâre not foolish enough for him to approach, but you almost pray you were. Younger and stupider.
Swansea said it himself. You have less quality of life. Youâre the perfect candidate to die.
âKid, I said get the fuck to the pod!â
Swansea butts you in the gut with the axe so hard you cough up stomach acid.
Rolling onto your back in agony before kneeling up, crawling out toward the hall as Swansea restrains Jimmy.
[7 hours until judgement]
The smell of death clings like a snarling dog to rope. Gnashing teeth growling around frayed, rotting strings. Blood and flesh slide off his bone as he lives. Painkillers couldâve dulled the sensation of twinging muscles but they donât make him ignorant to the fact it's happening. Worse is the lingering stench of vomit. Which makes him feel worse than knowing heâs dying as he lives: Anya was his responsibility and now sheâs had to take care of herself the only way she knew how.Â
He canât even be upset she took the rest of the capsules. She deserved them if it meant some peace.
Now he prays Daisuke is dead. For as short of a time as he spent with the boy, he knows him well enough to say he does not deserve suffering. And as Daisuke had to pull himself out of that collapsed vent, skin caught and shaved off by metal scraps, he was only suffering.Â
He knows Jimmy very well.
He thought he did: but then, he shouldâve expected this, right? If Jimmy was so capable of inflicting pain, then he shouldâve seen those signs. He knew that Jimmy was unstable and mean-spirited and violent, but he never thought Jimmy could torture people.
Anya opened his eyes and he couldnât. Function.Â
With that knowledge came such overbearing responsibility that Curly froze completely.
And now, because of Jimmy, he has no choice except to remain frozen.
Even as you crumble into the room.
Even as Jimmy and Swanseaâs voices slough down the halls, ringing through after you.
Curly wants to soothe your terrible hacking, wants to get you back home. Youâre a misguided thing with some frustrating parents. You should get to find another gig.
So why are you going for the [PONY EXPRESS PERSONAL PROTECTION WEAPON] case?
[ISSUED TO CAPTAINS IN CASE OF UNREST AMONGST THE CREW]
He watches through one eye as you kneel by the bed. A glint of confusion passes over your face, and in the next instance is gone: your thumb scrolls over the clicking digits.
Every muscle in his neck convulses as he swallows. Slow and pained before it goes down.
The case does not open. He exhales.
You calmly seat yourself on the floor. Both hands grasp the metal box. Both thumbs meticulously click through each possible combination to open the lock. [6 hours until judgement]
Sixty excruciating minutes drag by before five fingers are snapping over the edge of the mattress. A distinctly metallic click follows. Hinges squeak apart, clacking against the frame of the bed with finality. A wobbly elbow pokes into sight before that clutching hand pushes up, dragging his whole body sideways as you yank the sheets with effort. Standing upon squiggling knees, downcast eyes linger beneath the bed -- he canât see that far down. But heâs sure he already knows what youâre looking at.
Get it over with he wants to hiss Just shoot me. Donât keep me in suspense.
Curly watches, heart thundering so hard into his ribs his entire chest shakes. Just shoot me already.
One pulsing eye, twitching muscle lining the organ.Â
Your forearm writhes with a âclickâ, eyes heavy with discoloration. Somewhere between sinking into your skull and popping out like a cyst -- they finally rise upon him.
Somewhere between a pill-induced rest and knocking out beneath senseless, whole-body waves of pain. He prayed heâd just go cold after the third day, and now heâs not sure how long itâs been since Jimmy lashed out.Â
Somewhere between upset and stoic, your face remains unchanged as you lay the hidden hand just by his bandaged arm. Silver glints angrily into his eyeball -- heâd flinch away if he could.
Just do it already he screams in his mind, but all that escapes are wheezy whistles Just fucking shoot me!
You already said you would, didnât you?
Itâd help everyone. Meat would make the crew happier than when they still had those canned soups. Thatâs what you said. So just get him over with.
Slowly, your lips part -- eyes on his, and you draw the gun from the bed, laying it flat in your palm before turning the barrel. Finger snug around the trigger, teasingly curling tighter until it jerks in your hand, bucking into the meat of your palm.Â
You pull tighter, until the gun is firing.Â
Jerking your hand back; he can see that silver catches silver and clatters to the ground, but he canât hear it. Canât hear much of anything following the gunshot crunching through the back of your skull.
Iron pervades the room as soon as your body hits the floor. Brain matter clumped around the sliding med door, peeling off slowly and squelching onto indifferent tile. Bone shards sparkle from the puddling floor.Â
You cleaned that floor just today.Â
Whoâs going to clean you up?
Heâs self-aware enough to know why his first thought is something so callous and mundane, but he isnât present enough to realize that heavy breathing -like a sprinter fresh off some marathon- is his. It startles him. Eye darting around the room to find the wind-sucking culprit, that sick bastard stealing all the oxygen must be the one! The one who shot you- he needs to find them- someone else in the room-Â
Someone else, surely?
Someone not previously seen on the ship, right?
Someone heâs never met before, you know?
Because he met you five years ago, and heâs seen you walk up and down the Tulpar corridors countless times since heâs known you, and you wouldnât do this. Youâd never shoot yourself, he knows that.
Just like how he knew Jimmy would never hurt anybody.
As if sensing those condemning thoughts, his dearest friend runs into the room just then. Wide-eyed and ripping the gun from your hand without a teary blink, screaming,Â
âSwanseaâs gonna fucking kill us!â
Curly canât see straight -blurry green splotches zig-zag around medical. He must not be seeing straight; no way he could be because Jimmy would also never kick aside the corpse of some unfortunate kid.Â
Swansea shouts the name of his co-captain.
Curly feels the laugh bubbling between his ribs before he even registers it's coming out. Raw throat croaking and exhales biting exposed nerves.
Itâs just too funny- everything, really- itâs hilarious.
So funny he could just about throw himself into open space.
[!] new message [!]
Amber sands sink beneath your feet. And long ways above you, itching cloudless vermillion skies, are hot pink hibiscus flowers with gold stigma scraping even higher. Each flower casts wide shade from the sun -- it blares at you, dull vibrating from all directions that makes you so very deeply nauseous. It sounds distressed.
Dark ocean, frothy and black, still sparkles over the coast. White sprinkling far into the horizon.Â
Shiny onyx beads pop out of the vibrant sands; scorpions driving in lines down toward the coast.
All you hear is the gentle crashing waves.
Then a wavering voice, no distinct syllables, just a nonsense song. You turn, and thereâs a picnic basket on a pink gingham blanket. You know the voice comes from inside. No matter how roughly you shove your feet through the sand, youâre slowed to a near standstill. But the basket waits, assuredly so.
Flopping onto the soft cotton, your eyes flutter shut with hands folded over your stomach. Lullaby waves coo you to blissful rest, and the voice inside the basket praises your hard work.
This couldâve been nice.
Peace and quiet.
* *
[five years ago]
âAnd this is the internal system for messages,â his lips press a bit too firmly, that universal misalignment saying youâre not gonna like this, âIâve only ever seen it used for custodians. Specific requests and all.â
âSo, like, if somebody fucks the medbay but thatâs not on my schedule, they just get to message me here? Like an email?â
Curly jumps at your swear before nodding slowly, âUh, yeah⊠Something like that.â
âI thought going into space, we were beyond emailâŠâ you step deeper into the dark closet, rusty shelves lined to the gums with white bottles, labels bubbling from age. Reaching out to tweak the receiverâs edge, tracing a single finger around the tiny screen, you raise a condemning brow.
âWell, weâre still just people,â the blonde watches in real-time as your amazed smile flattens and those stars in your eyes fade over with rippling fluorescents, âMost advanced part of the Tulpar is the idea it exists,â he shrugs, âAnd maybe the fabricator.â
âFabricator?â that makes you grin again, âNo shit- we got a fabricator?â
Your language could use some work, but that wide fucking smile reminds Curly of when he was starting out -- sure, his uniform still had more specs back then, and sure he was in a much better position. But still, he was just a kid (only nine years older than you now but sure, a 27-year-old kid) impressed by the idea of floating through the stars without realizing it wouldnât be too different from earth life. Besides the fabricator, at least.
âWe do,â he confirms, stepping back from the 6x7 foot closet with âCUSTODIAL OFFICEâ printed across the front in chipping white paint, already pivoting down the hall suspecting you want to witness the machine posthaste, âYou want to see it?â
âYeah!â you cheer, slamming the door shut behind you before speeding toward the lounge, calling back, âItâs gotta be in the kitchen, right?!â
* *
[!] no new messages [!]
@toxycodone / @maniacpixiedreamboy + @penguite + @morbiddog + @whoresinatrenchcoat + @voidcat / @fortheharbingers
trying another horror fic a la bug sluts @ da clurb
#x reader#shh you didnt see me reblogging thiss shhh#... holy I-#im not tearing up#YOU'RE tearing up.
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they liked this on twitter im thinking you would too
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Central Room pt.2
<<Previous        Next>> (coming soon)
ComicArchive / About / Linktree
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That one TLoZ edit
I really wanted to draw this guy for a very long, long time now, and I got inspired by an edit on tt sooo yeah! â(Ń)â
Close up!
It was meant to be adult Link-- But I ended up drawing young Link, instead... I'm sorry, chat. My bad (TâœT)
#link#link loz#loz link#loz fanart#tloz oot#loz oot#link oot#navi loz#oot fanart#my artwork#fanart#my drawing#my digital art#digital drawing#my fanart#cutie patootie#rude doodles#link looks a bit weird#ngl#maybe bc its my first time drawing him?? ig???#idk#legend of zelda#legend of zelda fanart#ocarina of time#legend of zelda ocarina#link ocarina#young link
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Guess who's been watching DanDaDan? Loved how colorful and fun the opening was so it gets the turtle treatment.
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From my rotting body flowers shall grow
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Made a mouthwashing animation yayyy
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I love watching the moon... Do you love it too?
Close up...
#fuck jimmy#everybody hates jimmy in this household#mouthwashing#anya mouthwashing#my digital art#mouthwashing game#my fanart#mouthwashing fanart#fanart#my drawing#digital drawing#my artwork#paint tool sai#rude doodles#artist on tumblr#fuuuuuck#i forgor to put shadow-like silhouette behind anyaa
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Some redraws and costumes, because that last update has me going insane-
đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±đ§±
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"Hello Neighbor!! Good to see you again."
It's been a while since I've thought about Welcome Home!! But after digging out my Wally plush I couldn't help but dive back into the website... And so I drew him vaguely modeled after my favorite muppet-puppet (Shoutout Ernie fans) and called it good!!!!!
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Hello tumblr đââïž
I once saw a video tutorial on first aid and I almost threw up đ
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We should be able to throw popcorn into the sky and laugh together! đ
It's my bday today! Yahoo! ~\(â§âœâŠ)/~
Close up!âŽ
#It was rushed BUT it was finished! Yayayayay!#I feel weird now having 19 holy shiet#anyway#thank you all for sticking with me :D#fanart#my drawing#my digital art#digital drawing#my artwork#my fanart#rude doodles#edd eddsworld#eddsworld fanart#eddsworld#self insert art#self insert x canon#Is this considered selfshipping of sorts?#eh#who knows and who cares#shrug
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I HOPE TO GOD NO ONE DREW THIS BEFORE I DID
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AHHHHHHHHHHH YOU LITTLE BLUEBERRYYYY
Also made these really goofy doodles <â (â ïżŁâ â ïżŁâ )â >
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What a nice costume you got there! Here, here, take a candy from the bowl- Oh look at that! That gumball is shaped like a Website Update! Oh boy! https://www.welcomehomerestorationproject.net/
Happy Halloween! (Artwork by @downydig !!!)
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For the folks that are using Twitter/ X rn
I highly suggest that you move
Apparently Twitters new policy made it clear that once you post ANYTHING on their site, they have FULL RIGHTS TO IT. Which means that they will (most likely) feed it to a machine.
Twitter is a hell site, especially nowadays, but still, this is awful for every single creator/ artist there.
Ah right and letâs not forget about the new upcoming block feature eitherâŠ..
Ummmmm excuse me? What the actual FUCK????
So ur telling me that blocked accounts can STILL view people?? Even after they blocked them??? THAT DOESNT SOLVE SHIT.
That makes stalking someone literally easier wtfâŠ.
(Please Reblog for other artists to know about, thank you)
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