#ailess prompt 2

[sonderwrite]

Prompt: 2 - unfortunate fall, car accident, “Don’t move. You’ll be okay.” Fandom: Original Characters: Tao Zhiyuan (陶緻遠), Helan Shuo (賀蘭朔) Summary: An unexpected event mid-transit gives Tao Zhiyuan a chance to escape. Warnings: same as prompt Prompt: 2 - unfortunate fall, car accident, “Don’t move. You’ll be okay.” Fandom: Original Characters: Tao Zhiyuan (陶緻遠), Helan Shuo (賀蘭朔) Summary: An unexpected event mid-transit gives Tao Zhiyuan a chance to escape. Warnings: same as prompt ⋆⁺ ☾🩸₊⋆. masterlist link

—

The plan was to move him to another warehouse tomorrow.

Honestly, the idea was cliché—did villains always hide their hostages in empty buildings or shipping containers? But it was good news for Tao Zhiyuan, because it meant leaving in a car.

Count it a blessing or a curse, but he’d been well-behaved yet weak enough to warrant an actual spot in the backseat instead of, say, being stuffed in a trunk. He could almost even delude himself into thinking the Bastard (his nickname for the guy in charge) cared, if he wanted to aim for the Stockholm syndrome route.

Yeah, no.

He was taking his chances to escape this time.

The question of how was a little fuzzier, but Tao Zhiyuan was all about setting big goals first and getting there later. Reach for the moon, land on the stars, yadda yadda yilch.

They've kept him blindfolded and tied up most of the time except for assigned rest periods, so he can't help wincing when someone hauls him up by the forearms and march him straight to the car, half-stumbling. The backseat welcomes him as he's pushed onto it, sideways, and made to stay like that with his face planted against the seat.

...not a good start as far as escape plans went.

The roads they start off on are gravely and full of turns; he feels every bump beneath the tires as they speed along, and wonders blearily whether he'll get carsick or a new bruise on his face by the time this trip is done. His ribs ache from the end of the seat belt buckle digging into his sides, but he doesn't get to move much before he slammed back into place.

Ow, ow, shit! Ow...

Ok, maybe adjusting his weight in sections is the way to go. Tao Zhiyuan gingerly hankers down and debates on how to get attention for his plight instead.

—

Attention ends up finding him first. They hit a traffic jam on the highway—something about a car crash, from what he hears—and then alarms ring out: a new Gate is opening above them and the crowds have been told to evacuate, fast.

Tao Zhiyuan perks up at the news, but before he can react he's already being dragged out of the car and marched onto the roads, still blindfolded and hands cuffed behind his back. Unfortunately, most bystanders are too busy panicking for their own lives to notice.

There isn't much room to move between the cars parked on the road and the railing lining the side of it. Tao Zhiyuan vaguely feels the wind on his face and hears the sound of voices coming from above and below—and deduces that their car is either on an overpass or a bridge. Bridge would be better, if it was across a body of water—he could at least fall into it and have some chance of attracting attention that way.

Though maybe doing that in the middle of a dungeon manifestation isn't the best idea. Still, he does his best to stall: if he dragged things on, they'd still be here when the Hunters arrived, and there was a good chance that someone would notice he was, well, a kidnapping victim.

"Get down!"

Someone drags him to the ground again, even as a screech sounds from above. Tao Zhiyuan finds the noise nostalgic—wasn't the mall invaded by dragons the first time he ran into a dungeon gate? Something whooshes above him as heat flies past in its wake.

I think they really are dragons.

Depending on their size, it could be anywhere from a C to A-class gate. If they were to seize it for resources, then—

"Get moving!"

More hands hauling at his arms, pushing him along, up, down, up, down, moving along the highway even as Tao Zhiyuan dragged his heels and refused to cooperate.

"Do you want to want us to die?!" the guard shook him.

The guards that the Bastard had assigned to him were either regular bodyguards or C-class at most—no need to get fancy when the captive was just a normal human.

"I could go faster if I could see," Tao Zhiyuan shot back.

The second guard speaks up, “Boss said not to—”

“There won’t be any of us left to report to Boss if he gets us all killed.”

A hand jerks the blindfold down and around his chin; Tao Zhiyuan blinks painfully at the sudden light, then focus on the scene before him. He is on an overpass, flanked by two unfamiliar guys in dark suits, surrounded by parked cars, fleeing people, and smoke rising into the distinctively lightning-tinged air of an imminent dungeon break.

“Pick up the pace,” the first guard snarls. “If you go any slower I'll knock you out and drag your body after us.”

This time Tao Zhiyuan cooperates, if only because the top of a bridge is a bad place to cut loose and run. He considers and dismisses the idea of hijacking a car—no hands to drive, no road to escape on—before directing his attention to where they’re going next. Soldiers and military vehicles have shown up by the highway exits, no doubt here as support to guide people to the nearest shelter while the Hunters did the actual fighting. A certain name pops up in his head before he laughs at himself. Why would that guy care when he was the one who rejected their business proposal in the first place?

Tao Zhiyuan, you idiot. You can only rely on yourself.

As expected, his keepers ferry him away from the soldiers, one of whom notices and tries to call them back.

"Hey! Shelter's this way!" One of them calls out, waving the gun in his arms.

The guard beside Tao Zhiyuan shakes his head and pulls out a badge. "Special case, he needs to remain in custody."

Scammer, Tao Zhiyuan side-eyes him and speaks up. "That's not—"

A hand cuffs him on the face before the second guard's all but stuffing the blindfold in his mouth to gag him. "Shut up and don't talk."

You're kidding me. Tao Zhiyuan struggles back, but only briefly before he's forced to hold still. Stupid C-class strength, if we were evenly matched...

But all that fuss is enough to give the soldier pause. "Don't wander around. Stay here and we can call for airlift assist to take you where you're needed."

"That won't be necessary," Guard 1 smiles back. "We have arrangements for pickup just up ahead."

Where? Tao Zhiyuan can't help mocking. You're gonna call one of Bastard's minions to pick us up out of the sky? He strains to turn his head towards the soldiers, alternating blinking his eyes to signal for help.

Come on, tell me you know SOS in Morse. Wait, does Morse code exist in this world?

For a second the soldier's eyes seem to zero in on his face; in the next he's shaking his head and talking again. "Sir, I'm afraid that won't be permissible. Entering airspace within 10 miles of a dungeon is prohibited without proper clearance."

"We have it," Guard 1 retorts.

"My unit hasn't been informed of that."

"Maybe your communications were cut off."

The tensions between the two grow until the soldier suddenly raises his gun. "Cooperating with the military is standard procedure during dungeon breaks, sir. Come here and we'll get you out safely without breaking any protocols."

Tao Zhiyuan hears Guard 1 curse under his breath even as the soldier keeps talking. "Take out your IDs and any Hunter certification licenses you have on hand."

They'd likely faked records for him to bypass the checkpoints, but just as Tao Zhiyuan was thinking of how to bypass that, a sudden roar filled the sky. He and everyone else looked up to see one of the stray monsters from the dungeon sweeping their way on a pair of leathery wings.

—

Everything that happens afterwards is a blur. Tao Zhiyuan remembers trying to duck a second too late and getting swept up by the powerful blast of wind in the creature's wake. It'd knocked him and everyone else off-balance, causing him to crash into Guard 2 who...went toppling into, then over, the edge of the freeway.

And dragged Tao Zhiyuan after him in a desperate attempt to hold onto something.

His vision swims in a whirlwind of sky, concrete, and cars, culminating in a muffled crunch as the guard lands on the roof of a car beneath them and Tao Zhiyuan falls onto him. For a few, desperate seconds he can't even breathe, and wonders if the burning sensation in his chest is something stabbing through his lungs or just a lack of oxygen. Then he starts breathing in deep gulps of air and gasps around the cloth in his mouth that he's still alive.

His shoulder is killing him. The cuffs are digging into his wrists, the metal slicing through skin to draw blood. The sun is too bright, and the metal of the car searing hot in the one spot where it touches his ankle. The guard—

—is too quiet, still and warm and groaning softly beneath him, his involuntary cushion that Tao Zhiyuan's inevitably crushed into the crumpled roof of the car cradling their broken forms.

"Mmph," Tao Zhiyuan begins, and tries to roll over. "Mmph mmph!"

He's trying to address the man beneath him, but only gets a cough and another low, long groan. Above them Guard 1's leaning over the overpass and shouting something that Tao Zhiyuan doesn't want to parse right now. He can't get off, the angle of the car roof rolling him back every time he tries to move—and besides, it sends all his nerve endings exploding to even try.

It's not a good idea to just lie here in the middle of everything, however. Either he'd get recaptured, attacked by another random monster, or—

"Tao Zhiyuan!"

—found by someone else.

A shadow crosses his vision before a familiar man with dark hair and red eyes is leaning over him. In one quick movement, he's pulled the gag out of his mouth and Tao Zhiyuan inhales a shuddering breath as he coughs.

He's still wearing a suit, Tao Zhiyuan's brain registers the fact as he gapes back. "Helan...Helan Shuo?" He tries to sit up, but the other man presses him down again.

"Don't move. We need to let someone check you for injuries...you'll be okay."

"There's another man," Tao Zhiyuan tries to explain, "Below me, he..." Cushioned my fall.

"He's dead," Helan Shuo says abruptly.

"He...huh?" Tao Zhiyuan blinks, not quite believing him. Just minutes ago, he'd heard the other breathing and moaning in pain. "No, he fell down with me. We both...we both survived, I..." There's no way a C-class is that weak, right?

Helan Shuo's awkward silence leaves Tao Zhiyuan's words shriveling up in place. And then the blank shock sets in: that if he's on top of a body, he'll likely have to stay here until whatever help Helan Shuo's talking about arrives.

"Helan Shuo, I want to get up."

"You really shouldn't."

"I'm lying on a corpse." He can't even feel which part it is—the man's chest? His legs? Had his weight ended up crushing the guard to death? "I can't—I don't want to—my hands, get them free."

He rattles his cuffed wrists as best as he can, swallowing down the panic rising up. Without a word, Helan Shuo snaps the metal connecting them loose, allowing Tao Zhiyuan's arms freedom of movement even though the handcuffs are still dangling off his wrist. The skin there is a mix of bloody, bruised, and raw from a combination of friction and long-term confinement; he ignores the pain to reach for the Hunter with a trembling hand, fingers curling into the expensive fabric of his suit jacket.

Again he tries to get up, and again Helan Shuo pushes him down. "You might have spinal injuries from the fall. It's better to stay still—"

"I can feel my spine and the guy beneath it just fine!" Tao Zhiyuan snaps. His other arm won't cooperate like his right, so he tugs harder with his one good hand. Let me move.

"You're only human..." Helan Shuo's brows had creased into a line. "You're fragile, you—"

"You were late!" Tao Zhiyuan finally explodes. "If you were going to come find me, then do it properly or don't bother trying in the first place!"

Helan Shuo falls silent.

Tao Zhiyuan isn't even sure why he's angry. He didn't expect Helan Shuo to track him down—hell, maybe he was just passing by today. He isn't even upset that the man didn't find him earlier—but it's the guy beneath them that bothers him more, the guard who's supposed to be better than him but ended up dead anyways, from something as comical as a fall.

"Is he really dead?" Tao Zhiyuan tries again. Hunters are intelligent, he knows. They can lie if they want to. He's not sure whether Helan Shuo's ever lied to him, but it wouldn't be beyond his ability.

Instead of answering, Helan Shuo rests a hand over his neck. "You should rest."

"You..."

The next second Tao Zhiyuan feels a jolt enter his skin before he summarily blacks out.

[hugogetspowerbottomed]

VARIGO CANON COMPLIANT ROUNDUP

A collection of all the Canonverse Varigo that I've enjoyed over the past three years. It is likely that there are a few missing due to them being deleted or my memory being poor. Nonetheless, pls enjoy.

Mature: +++ Explicit: *** Not Rated: 0

Teen/Gen: Not Marked

hello to my old heart by izabellwit

“Why do you trust me so much?”

Or: the beginning of the end for the betrayer. In which Hugo asks a long-overdue question, and gets the answer he never wanted to hear.

Say You Won't Let Go (I Won't) by DragonTalyn

Hugo needs some reassurance that Varian isn't going to leave

The Simple Act of Scraps Unraveling by @hybrix-hidings

There is a moment, on the trail to the library, where Varian realizes that he will love this man.

-

Or: Hugo and Varian enjoy a show, barefaced.

(Prompt #2 - Fireworks)

Snippets in Time by @sonicgetsrawed

Snippets of Varian’s adventures through the seven kingdoms to save his mother.

Darling you look perfect tonight by @the-reverse-mermaid

Hugo, Varian and Yong are invited to a winter holiday event in Nuru's kingdom, but one of them is having significantly less fun than the others… Hugo is already feeling insecure when a snobby noble decides to turn her nose up at him and make everything worse. Good thing his friends are there for him.

Small Chocolate Confections by @glitter-lisp +++

Sending Varian in to distract their target isn’t ideal, but someone has to keep him occupied while Hugo searches his room, and the duke made his interest pretty clear at dinner last night.

Hugo’s fine with that. Hugo’s very good at what he does, and so focused on the task at hand, and completely unbothered by the thought of Varian hanging out with a handsome guy who's probably feeding him fancy little desserts and talking about how rich he is while Hugo crawls around upstairs looking for loose floorboards and secret drawers.

Save Your Convictions (They Never Will Do) by @littlemisslol-fic

Varian and Hugo return to Corona after the events of the Varian and the Seven Kingdoms AU, with mixed reception. Turns out Rapunzel won't hold a grudge against people who slight her, but if they hurt her friends? And then show up still dating said friend?

Let's just say Hugo's got a storm coming.

The Dating Game by @littlemisslol-fic

In which Rapunzel, bless her heart, didn't know Varian and Hugo are dating, and thus takes it upon herself to find her darling baby brother a man of proper pedigree if it kills her. However, bloodlines aren't everything, and her choices are... less than stellar.

Darling, so It Goes (Some Things Are Meant to Be) by @littlemisslol-fic

My submissions for Effin' Varigo week! Big thanks to battybatzgirl for setting it up!

Hugo and Varian have been dating for three years, and are finally ready to take their relationship to somewhere a lot more serious. However, the world has other plans. With Hugo's proposal in shambles, and Varian focused on saving their friends, they think things can't really get any worse.

They would be wrong.

Prompts are Family ‧ Firework ‧ Fever ‧ Flirt ‧ Fight/Forgive ‧ Future ‧ and Free Day!

as long as it leaves a mark by @aziraphalesbookkeeper

For a guy who never takes off his gloves, Varian sure does lose them a lot. It’s not really the gloves Hugo notices though—it’s the scars underneath them.

Or: 5 times Hugo tries to take off Varian's gloves + 1 time he doesn't have to.

Whumptober Day 27: Scars AILESS Whumptober Day 9: Scar Reveal

We Carry Through by @aziraphalesbookkeeper

Adjusting to living in the castle with Varian is hard. Going from having nothing to having everything makes Hugo feel...twitchy. Luckily, there's one person who knows exactly what he's going through. Unfortunately, it's Fitzherbert.

Prompt: Family

The Touch of Sunlight by TheArtistsMuse ***

Varian was used to being kidnapped- as sad as that sounds- but he can always trust his friends to save him. Only this time was different, and now something is deeply bothering Hugo. Will Varian be able to get his secretive boyfriend to open up? Will they be able to figure out why he was taken?

... Will Varian be able to hide his very inconveniently timed sexual awakening?

meteor shower by @oshunalchemy 0

varian has a nightmare.

Wither and Decay by @eggmuffinwaffles

The Moonstone and the Sundrop were gone, the trials were completed, the Eternal Library was opened. Everything in Corona had returned to as close to normal as it could possibly get- but Corona seems to have a habit of attracting trouble. When old enemies arise, bent on her downfall, it will take more than just quick wit and luck to ensure that they fail.

My Head's Above The Rain and Roses by @eggmuffinwaffles

Whumptober Day 5: Every Whumpee Needs

Varian, Hugo, Nuru and Yong decide to go camping for the first time in a while after the trials. What could go wrong?

The answer is everything. Everything can go wrong.

Aka Part 1/3 of Hugo learning to like the TTS gang

Maybe if You Fixed the Whole World by Yourself by @eggmuffinwaffles

Whumptober Day 7: The Way You Shake and Shiver

Hugo had a really unfortunate habit of ruining his own life. It wasn’t intentional- if you asked him, he’d swear up and down that he played absolutely no part in causing his entire life to go up in flames, and yet time after time he would keep doing it. Funny how consequences work.

Maybe he was being a little bit dramatic.

OR:

Hugo finds himself being blackmailed by a noble at a ball, and gets help from an unexpected source

Part 2/3 of Hugo learning to like the TTS gang

Keeping Me Up At Night by @eggmuffinwaffles

Whumptober Day 29: What Doesn't Kill Me

Even a year after moving to Corona, sometimes Hugo's guilt finds itself creeping into his dreams. In the middle of an episode, he realizes he has more in common with Rapunzel than he thought.

Part 3/3 of Hugo learning to like the TTS gang

Turning Saints Into A Sea by @eggmuffinwaffles

Whumptober Day 25/Day 30: Silence is Golden/Note to Self Don't Get Kidnapped

Varian has to confront his jealousy head on when Hugo's ex finds herself back in Corona. Unfortunately her return might not be as innocent as she wants them to believe.

I Won't Let You Pull Me Down by @eggmuffinwaffles

Whumptober 2022 Day 16: No Way Out

Hugo and Varian get into a fight. Instead of handling it like an emotionally healthy adult, Hugo manages to go and get himself possessed.

Possession 2 electric boogaloo baby

Lessons in Luxury by @varibean

All his life, Hugo wanted nothing more than to live a live of riches and luxury. He had always failed to imagine what a change like that would entail. Real life was becoming too much like a fantasy and it was always the same questioned that brought him hurdling back to reality.

"Have you eaten today?"

Amalgam by @varibean 0

After relying on Ulla’s notebook to help them through their journey, the gang find that the next kingdom has little to no notes on where the next trial takes place. Their only clue is a location that might have a lead on where to go next. However, after a royal mess up on Hugo’s part, they’re left up the creek without a paddle. Not only are tensions high, but emotions as well. One thing was certain though: Hugo and Varian did not mix well.

[annaraebananawriter]

Prince Nightmare needed to get out of this party before he either: a.) killed the next person that came up to him, flashed a pretty smile, and started yet another talk about fucking politics; b.) killed his brother for insisting on him making his yearly public appearance, no matter how many times he insisted right back that it was unnecessary and, if it would get him to drop it, he’d be more than willing to take over Dream’s workload for the next month, just let him skip the party for one year, please; or, and this one was the most preferable, c.) said “fuck this”, downed his glass of wine, bolted to the balcony and jumped off, flipping everyone off as they watched him kill himself. (AU - Royalty; Characters - Dream, Nightmare, Cross, Blue; Prompt - Poisoned)

I wrote this in about 2 hours.

It is now 5:30 a.m. and I am very tired.

I forgo the editing to briefly run it through Grammarly and then bid you all goodnight.

Happy reading.

This Whumptober I will be using the prompts from AILESS Whumptober (@ailesswhumptober). It's run by some good friends of mine, so please go give them a follow!

[leamhanchan]

Day 2 of @ailesswhumptober

Prompt: Overworked / Insomnia / Exhaustion

Fandom: Hollow Knight