#at least it’s here!

[worldsfromhoney]

Let Me

Masterlist

cw: major character injury, PTSD, xenophobia

Prompt 30: New normal

They’re in the courtyard was the only thing Caretaker bothered to hear before they were off. The other masters didn’t even try to stop them. They glimpsed pity in their eyes before they left their presence for a better one.

It was the middle of the day. The sun was striking hard on the bare stones that didn’t have the opportunity of solace in shade. It was why no one was lounging around the courtyard, as most students did on clear days like this. They’d been warned off for fear of heatstrokes and, as healers and healers-in-training, they knew of its severity in these parts.

That was how Caretaker found Whumpee, with the merciless sun beating on their crumpled form. Upon the stones was the mark of teleportation, so deeply scorched Caretaker didn’t think it’d be scrubbed off at all.

The blood wouldn’t be. It was seeping into the cracks of the courtyard where moss grows and hungers for any kind of sustenance. An offshoot from the puddle was going for Whumpee’s favourite osmanthus flowers, wanting to stain it the same as it did with the moss.

Caretaker took off their shan and laid it before the osmanthus bushes, blocking the path of blood.

It seemed foolish to consider Whumpee’s favourite flowers at this moment, but if their xīngān was to perish in their arms, Caretaker would prefer a remembrance of them. If they could, they would work a millennium to cultivate a preserving agent for those bushes alone.

Caretaker’s steps on the courtyard were light, with nary a speck of blood seeping into the sole of their shoes. Their steps were the lightest in the sect, but Whumpee still flinched and stirred at the sound of them. They knew them by heart, after all. They were still crumpled on the ground, but Caretaker could see the talismans they were ready to draw out and throw from their sleeve.

Caretaker stopped. They kneeled on the bloodied stones, their white ku stained red in an instant. Whumpee was still curled into themself, a glazed but fierce look in their eyes.

“Oh, xīngān,” Caretaker said. They took in every bruise and wound on Whumpee, their heart breaking at each they catch. “What has happened to you?”

Something in Whumpee stirred at Caretaker’s voice. Their eyes fluttered and from the outright aggression of a wounded animal came the pained, scared gaze of a human. Their beloved, who finally realised where they were and who was kneeling in their blood.

“Lao gong,” Whumpee said in a croak. They managed a shaky step before falling into the ready arms of Caretaker. The latter was all but ready to carry them to the infirmary for treatment, but Whumpee’s insistent gaze stopped them.

“What?” Caretaker asked, panic in their voice. “What is it? Can this disciple walk? It does not matter. This master will carry you—”

Whumpee shook their head vehemently and clutched at the collar of Caretaker’s yi. Their eyes are on the latter but their gaze distant and trapped some place afar.

“I can’t — This disciple tried, lao gong, I tried to — Lao gong told me to; I wanted to help!” Whumpee cried out and coughed, blood staining their face more than it already had. “This disciple wanted to help so much, but they wouldn’t take it. Not from me, they said — not from my kind and I couldn’t—”

Caretaker cradled their face, their foreheads touching. Then, with a swift motion, pressed their fingers against Whumpee’s carotid arteries. Their distant gaze soon fluttered close and Caretaker gathered their unconscious form into their arms.

They could listen later. They needed to make sure they could do so at all first.

As a junior member of the Jing Shan sect, it didn’t take long for Whumpee to recover from their wounds. The bleeding was mostly internal, bruises littering their torso.

Said bruises looked like they were from the sharp toes of shoes prevalent in the land Whumpee was sent to. Caretaker needed little more to put two and two together after seeing those.

Whumpee was one of the several nomadic healers Jing Shan sect had sent to help manage the pandemic. It would’ve been a noble endeavour if it wasn’t their sect that had inadvertently caused it in the first place, with the constant travelling from sickplace to sickplace. It had been that fact which named the plague, The Immortal Affliction, as a sort of mockery against the sect.

Whumpee and the others were peace offerings.

Peace was obviously not welcomed by some. Not in this ‘new normal’, which some lands were already lauding after enjoying the efforts of the sect. Maybe not in this future, where grudges are remembered more than reparations.

Whumpee had quickly gone back to helping around the sect, happily hounding after Caretaker and the other masters for tasks to do. They had undertaken cleaning their own mess. They turned over every stone in the courtyard, which had even the barest hint of a scorch mark. Whumpee also replanted new moss, what with the old ones bearing the risk of festering an opening in the wards after they’d fed on human blood.

They even helped with treating the local folk who’d done the pilgrimage up their mountain for the infamous Jing Shan sect healing.

Caretaker was not blind. They noticed every little flinch Whumpee would give when one master would ask for his help with the pilgrims that day. They had sent paper humans to see them near the latrines, vomiting and dry retching.

Caretaker hadn’t stayed quiet.

“Xīngān, please,” They said during one night they’d screamed in terror and vomited on the side of the bed. “Please, let me help.”

All Whumpee would do was crawl back into bed a shivering mess. But they’d let Caretaker hold their hand, breathing through wave after wave of cleansing qi the latter would trickle in. They’d let Caretaker later hold them in an embrace, neither of them sleeping that night.

It worked until it didn’t.

One pilgrim had reached out for a hug.

Whumpee screamed.

Caretaker was there faster than the first time and kept them both in a secluded circle. They weren’t experiencing a qigong deviation. This wasn’t a problem of the spirit but of the soul, and Whumpee’s was screaming.

Caretaker saw in the corner of their eye the panicked face of the pilgrim who was being ushered to a safe place by the other healers. They moved to shield the sight from Whumpee.

“Xīngān, xīngān,” Caretaker murmured, keeping hold of Whumpee’s arms lest they hurt themself. “Xīngān, this one is here. This one will always be here. Let me help, please. Let me.”

And then Whumpee was crying. Their body had gone slack in Caretaker’s hold and they buried their face in the crook of their neck.

Whumpee hadn’t agreed. Not really. Caretaker knew they would wave off this incident and continue as they’d been going. They knew they’d still wake from nightmares and come crawling back into bed, shivering.

But Caretaker would always be there to monitor any triggers. They would be there to hold their beloved’s hand and keep asking.

That had to be enough until Whumpee would finally say okay.

Taglist

@wildthingsandmagic @starbuds-and-rosedust

[kochei0]

I turn to Ares.

Thanks to Tyler Miles Lockett who allowed me to draw inspiration from his ARES piece for page 2! Look at his etsy page it's SICK

⚔️ If you want to read some queer retelling of arturian legends have a look at my webtoon

[lesbianralzarek]

"life doesnt get better, you just get stronger" does NOT include ages 11-17. life does in fact just get better from there. those years are dogshit. like, you do get stronger but its mostly just a factor of not being 11-17 anymore. positive thinking helps but it doesnt fix whatevers going on at 15, you have to brute force through that one raw

[transannabeth]

if you opened discord’s april fools day loot boxes how long did it take you to get all the items? it took my friend 18 boxes but me 65 and i want to see how bad my luck is

[crowkip]

yeehaw, baby!

[hiding-under-the-willow]

Quite possibly the funniest shit I have ever seen in my life

[hinamie]

make it vicious, take a stab

[xxplastic-cubexx]

obligatory beach divorce doodling

bonus rough cover redraw of x-men #41 (1995) But Beach Divorce below cut

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael is very subtle about his daddy issues in FNAF..

[mroddmod]

WENDAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

[noproveninterests]

Inktobertale Day 13: Bells

he can no longer menace local birds. or Errors.

ink belongs to @/comyet

dream belongs to @/jokublog

error belongs to @/loverofpiggies

blue belongs to Popcornpr1nce/AU Community

[everchased]

can someone please get these hoes under control i'm BUSY

[joshuamj]

Okay, but what if EoW!Zelda had to impersonate Link

[iamanartichoke]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -

I am fine with "the audience" -

downloading my fics

printing my fics

copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics

sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3

making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss

doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc

I am not fine with "the audience"

doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity

feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever

Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.

Enjoy the fandom things.

[cutetanuki-chan]

she's mesmerized