#blunt force

[ejzah]

Blunt Force, Part 8

Kensi woke up with a terrible headache and feeling completely unrested. It took her a moment to remember why she felt so awful, then it came back to her with awful, stunning clarity.

She’d kissed Deeks. Or he’d kissed her. Either way, she hadn’t stopped it.

Honestly, Kensi couldn’t say exactly why she’d decided to cross that boundary. Maybe it was a desperate attempt to connect to Deeks when he couldn’t remember anything about their relationship. At least that sounded better than taking advantage of her recently concussed partner’s memory loss.

The last time they’d kissed had been fleeting and underscored by the immediate danger of their undercover operation. This time, she’d had enough to remember and appreciate the feel of Deeks’ lips on hers, the softness of his hair between her fingers, and the overwhelming desire that filled her. Then, after admitting how much she’d wanted to kiss him, she’d run off like a lunatic.

Groaning, Kensi rolled onto her stomach and pushed her face into her pillow. She’d just made their already complicated relationship that much messier. Their next interaction was going to be incredibly awkward.

She sat up suddenly as she realized the sun shone brightly through her open curtains. Ignoring the pain that spiked through her forehead, and grabbed her watch.

“Dammit!” she hissed. It was after seven, which meant she’d left Deeks to fend for himself for over twelve hours.

Fumbling for her phone, she checked for any new messages. Realistically, she hadn’t expected Deeks to contact her, but she was still disappointed when her only notification included a meme from Nell. Normally, Deeks would have sent her half a dozen messages, pretending nothing awkward had happened.

After a few moments of hesitating with her thumbs hovering over the keypad, she typed out a simple message.

Hey, how are you doing?

Kensi waited a full five minutes for a response. When none came, she put her phone to the side, and slid out of bed. He was probably just sleeping and didn’t need her hovering over him.

She managed to forget about Deeks for approximately two minutes straight while getting ready. As she brushed her hair, her thoughts started to spiral again.

What if something had happened to him? He could be sick from another bout of vertigo. Or god, what if the doctors were wrong and he actually had a brain bleed?

That last thought stopped her mid-brush through her hair. She couldn’t risk it. Throwing her still-damp her back in a clip, she pulled on the first pair of shoes she found, grabbed her keys, and texted Nell on her way out the door to say she’d be running a couple hours late.

***

Kensi knocked in Deeks’ front door for the third time, waiting impatiently for some sound of life. Again, images of Deeks passed out in the middle of the floor assaulted her and she started to reach for her keys again, intending to use the emergency key Deeks gave her during their first year as partners.

Just as she started reach for the lock, she heard a bolt being thrown and the door opened a few inches. Deeks’ face appeared in the opening; he squinted at her, wincing against the morning light.

“Kensi?” he said after a slightly too long pause.

“Hey.” Now that he was in front of her, clearly alive, if not completely well, she felt a little foolish.

“What are you doing here?”

“I—um, I just wanted to check in on you. I didn’t hear from you all night,” she explained, automatically doing her own assessment.

He looked awful. His skin had that slightly grayish tinge she associated with sickness with darker stripes under his eyes.

“I am so sorry,” she apologized, and Deeks gave her a confused look.

“Why?”

“For abandoning you. I said I’d stay with you and then I just left, and now look at you.”

“I’d be offended if I didn’t feel so terrible,” he said, and Kensi’s guilt surged. He opened the door a little wider, turning away as he waved her through with a grimace. “Come in. It’s too bright out here.”

All the blinds and curtains were drawn inside, leaving the living room as dark as it could get during the daytime. The coffee table had a few cups that hadn’t been there yesterday and a collection of random objects that made Kensi think Deeks had been trying to distract himself.

Making himself comfortable on the couch, Deeks rested his cheek on his fist, suppressing a yawn.

“Do you want some coffee or tea? I can make some. Or breakfast. I mean, I don’t really cook, but I can pour cereal or go out and get you something,” Kensi offered.

“Coffee sounds nice,” he sighed. “But you don’t have to wait on me.”

“I don’t mind.” She hurried off before Deeks could question her motives or she could say or do anything else to embarrass herself.

It took about ten minutes for the coffee to brew, and like a complete coward, she didn’t leave the kitchen the entire time. She poured them each a cup, carrying it back out to the living room.

Deeks had switched from one side of the couch to the other, an arm thrown over her face. She thought he might be sleeping until he peeked out from under his elbow, sitting up enough to accept the coffee.

“Thanks.” He inhaled deeply and took a cautious sip.

Kensi stayed standing, acutely aware of the uncomfortable silence, but not sure how to break it.

“So, are we going to talk about why you left last night?” Deeks asked, cutting right to the chase.

“I don’t know, I was kind of hoping we’d ignore it. Go on with our lives like it never happened,” she joked.

“Ouch.” The word didn’t have its usual snap behind it, but once again it was such a Deeks thing, her Deeks, to say, she found herself moving closer. “Obviously you can do whatever you want, but it doesn’t seem particularly healthy.”

Well, that was the understatement of the year. Sitting on the other side of the couch, Kensi heaved a sigh. It was so hard to dent Deeks anything when he was hurt and confused.

“We have a ‘thing’,” she explained, gesturing expansively with her hands to encompass their unique relationship.

“A ‘thing’,” Deeks repeated dubiously.

“You know, we flirt and probably have way too much physical comments, but never actually talk about how we might feel and mostly pretend nothing’s going on.”

“That sounds…confusing.”

“Yeah, well, we’re kind of a mess,” she admitted, and Deeks laughed softly, his grin lazy, and a little slow.

“So when we kissed last night—?” He gave her a questioning look and she ran her hands over her thighs before facing him fully.

“It was the first time.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” She offered him a grim smile, clutching her mug of coffee like it would solve all her problems.

“Where does that leave us?” Deeks wondered.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with any of that just yet.” She gestured again to indicate the kiss. “I do know I’m not going anywhere, I mean unless you ask me to get out.” Deeks smiled again and it gave her the courage to continue. “You’re my partner and friend and I will be here with you and for you as long as I can.”

“I think I can handle that.” Holding out his free hand, Deeks waited for her to bridge the gap between them and take it. When she did, he squeezed with just enough pressure for it to feel like a promise.

[whumpookies]

Whumpingo: Blunt force trauma

Kan çiçekleri knocked out from behind.

Hey look @99point9percentwhump I got 1 line 🤣

[wombywoo]

/my head is bloody, but unbowed/

[venaacavaa]

This is so real

[strawberrinoz]

i made a new save file to fully experience 1.6. here’s a farmer redesign (click for better quality if you’re on the mobile app… 🙁)

she goes by ruru. she has rbf. she’s an aspiring crazy cat lady and she has no concern for her well being

ok that’s it ty

[gremmlingamer]

[bee-ina-boat]

I have a vision

[funkervogt]

Im not good at project zomboid at all but heres my girl her name is Tiffany Grace and she loves her life so much

[ejzah]

Blunt Force, Part 4

***

“You ready to try that breakfast yet?” Kensi asked, nodding to the tray with the typical suspects for a liquid diet. He shrugged indifferently, but she seemed eager for something to do.

“I suppose.”

Kensi almost tripped over herself to get it for him, and he wondered if she was normally like this, or if the situation made her nervous. He had know way of knowing for sure having only met her yesterday. Well, that he remembered.

Setting the tray on the rolling table and carefully positioning it over his bed, Kensi took the plastic lid covering a small plate, revealing a bowl of lime jello and what he assumed was chicken broth.

“My favorite flavor. I guess it’s my lucky day,” he joked. To his surprise, Kensi smiled, almost looking relieved. “What?”

“Oh nothing, it’s just…the first time you were in the hospital once we were partners, you made a big deal about the jello,” she explained, waving her hand through the air.

“So, what you’re saying is I’m predictable.”

“No. It’s nice to know some things are still the same.”

With that comment to occupy his thoughts, he grabbed a spoon and started in on the small cup of jello. It didn’t taste bad, but he wasn’t particularly hungry. His thoughts drifted again.

He wondered if anyone had told his clients they would need new council. The district attorney would just love that. He’d been searching for an excuse to force Deeks out for months, and partial amnesia would be perfectly valid, unlike his frequent citations for Deeks’ appearance.

A second too late, he recalled that wouldn’t be necessary since he wasn’t a public defender and didn’t have clients anymore. Apparently he’d swapped out a briefcase and suit for a gun and a badge sometime along the way.

And wasn’t that something to wrap his head around? Even though he’d considered leaving criminal law, it surprised him he actually made that jump and so far to the other side. A dark voice in his head murmured that he’d always been the violent type, but he brushed that away with a shake of his head.

“Is your headache getting worse?” Kensi asked unexpectedly, and he inhaled deeply, glancing up from his uneaten jello.

“What, no I’m fine. Why?”

“Oh, you just do this thing with your eyebrows and your lips part a little bit.” She gestured to her own eyebrows.

“Wow, you really do know me well,” he murmured, and she flushed, which made him wonder just what their relationship was.

“One of the hazards of working together everyday, I guess,” she said, clearly embarrassed. “We’re pretty good at noticing each other’s quirks and judging moods.

It felt a little surreal every time Kensi made some reference to their partnership, work, or a detail of his life he couldn’t remember sharing with her. Hell, she knew things about him he couldn’t even remember experiencing at all. It left him with a strange sense of loss, an emptiness he couldn’t quite verbalize.

He supposed at the very least it seemed he was happier as a LAPD liaison than he had as a public defender. The thought that left a very low bar for comparison since he’d been pretty miserable for most of his tenure with the county law department.

His musing was interrupted once again, but this time by a nurse with a wheelchair.

“Mr. Deeks, I’m here to take your for your test and physical therapy evaluation,” she informed him. “Would you like any help washing up or any other tasks?”

“No, I think I can handle it,” Deeks said, easily transferring himself into the wheelchair without any assistance. It gave him a moment of pause, because he’d never used one before, but he shook it off, accepting that there were certain things he just wouldn’t understand for now.

He brushed his teeth and watched his face, attempting to use the plastic comb on the back of the sink to tame his hair before eventually giving it up. It looked like “styled by pillow” would be it until he could shower.

When he rolled back into the room, Kensi and the nurse were waiting for him.

“I’m going to get breakfast while you’re gone,” Kensi said, quickly adding, “but I’ll be back here when I’m done.”

He considered telling her again that she didn’t need to stay with him day on and day out. He didn’t think that would work any better than less time, so he just settled on a nod of appreciation.

“Ok. Sneak me back a donut, ok?” He winked as the nurse rolled him out of the room.

***

When Deeks returned from his CT scan and physical evaluation (he’d been deemed physically sound, but would need to use a wheelchair until he left since he was still a fall risk), he found a tiny brunette woman in his room in place of Kensi. She sat with a laptop propped on her folded legs, furiously typing away.

The moment she registered him, she set the laptop to the side as his nurse rolled him into the room. He assumed the mystery woman was either a friend or someone from the same agency as Kensi.

“This will be fine,” he said, indicating the end of the bed. After laying down for so long, it was a relief to be upright and slightly more mobile. Even if the position did bring back a touch of nausea.

“Do you need anything else, Mr. Deeks?”

“No, I think I’m good. Thanks, Amanda.”

“Of course.” She offered him a smile and pat on the shoulder. “I’ll come check on you in a little bit.”

“Hi, I’m Nell Jones. I work with Kensi,” she explained. Once she’d left the room, the new woman stood up, smoothing her hands down the skirt of her dress.

“Marty Deeks, nice to meet you,” he replied, deciding to roll with it.

“Nice to me—” she started to say back before she caught herself with a sheepish laugh. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. So, are you my new keeper?”

“Only temporarily. Our boss, Hetty, ordered Kensi to home for a few hours, so here I am.”

That was good.

“I see you drew the short straw.”

“No, I offered,” she corrected him seriously. “We’ve all been worried about you, so I jumped at an excuse to come.” She shrugged, though she didn’t look any less earnest. “I needed to see you were ok for myself.”

“I am. If you count partial amnesia as ok,” he said glibly.

“Yeah, that’s something I’ve only seen in movies and tv before,” Nell Jones admitted. “It must be weird.”

That genuinely made him laugh. “Yeah, it kind of is. In my mind, a new “Pirates of the Caribbean just came out, which was not as good as the first and I have a deposition in the morning.”

“I guess the good news is that you no longer have a deposition,” she pointed out, drawing another half-laugh from Deeks.

“That’s very true.” He grabbed the kid-size cup of grape juice still left on his breakfast tray, leaning back in the wheelchair, and gestured to the chair Nell Jones had previously occupied. “Make yourself comfortable.” He cleared his throat before taking a sip of the very sweet juice. “So, Kensi told me all about 2012 me. What’s your perspective, Ms. Jones?”

She made a face and held up a hand. “Oh, that sounds so wrong for some reason. It’s just Nell. And do you mean who you are or our relationship?” she asked.

“Either. Everything is a revelation.”

Taking a seat, Nell smooth her dress down, regarding him with a tilted head.

“Well aside from colleagues, you’re my friend, pseudo older brother.” She smiled conspiratorially. “You’re the kind of guy you can tease and joke with, but you’re also always there to lend a shoulder or defend depending on the situation. You’d walk me to my car late at night and block a bullet for me. Or help move a couch up three flights of stairs.”

“You make me sound like some kind of superhero,” Deeks commented. Her open and enthusiastic admiration made him uncomfortable.

“You are in a way. The whole team is really. But you’re you have a really special way of connecting with people that makes you different,” she explained.

“I guess I’ve always been a people person. It’s how I conned my way out of a lot of detentions. Or as the majority of supervisors have lamented, a trouble-maker.”

“You still are sometimes, but only in the best way. Honestly, if we didn’t joke around and act a little silly sometimes, we’d be miserable.”

He noted the difference between her and Kensi’s descriptions. Kensi had mentioned a rocky start while Nell presented a mostly positive version.

“You’re also really good at giving nicknames,” Nell added.

“Really? The prosecutors aren’t so appreciative.”

“They don’t know what they’re missing.”

“What’s one of nicknames for you?”

For the first time, she hesitated, then softly answered, “Sometimes you call me Nellosaurus. Or Velma and I call you Shaggy.”

“Like—?”

She nodded. “Scooby-Doo.”

“Gee, thanks,” he drawled, and she made a noise of protest.

“It is said with love. I happen to think Shaggy is an amazing character,” she insisted, trying to keep a straight face.

They broke into unexpected laughter, Nell nearly doubling over in an attempt to regain composure. Eventually, she sat up again, wiping under her eyes.

“Can I hug you?” she asked unexpectedly.

“What—yeah, I guess,” Deeks said, a little throw off by the wide swings in mood. Coming towards him, she bent down, wrapping both arms around him. Her hands just met in the middle of his back, and she squeezed him gently, pressing her face into his shoulder, with a shaky inhale.

“I was really worried about you,” she whispered.

***

A/N: I get to call Nell tiny, because I am also very short. I keep expecting to have this story finished up, but then there ends up being more to write

[faunandfloraas]

They have a way with words.

[turtleblogatlast]

Headcanon that Leo really loved to give his family massages growing up. We know that he’s good at them from the episode “You Got Served” and we know he likes spas and relaxation and getting massages himself from when he tried to get these in “Bad Hair Day” and from when Donnie made a tennis ball massage machine in “Smart Lair.”

So I think it’d be cute to think that maybe one day Leo overheard Splinter complaining about a bad back and immediately Leo thinks back to a comic or movie or something he saw where a massage helped so he offers to give one and it actually ends up helping Splinter.

Then April swings by the Lair at a later time and mentions her back hurting because of her backpack from school and Leo’s all like “I gotcha!”

From there, he occasionally manages to convince Donnie to sit for one because Donnie’s shrimp posture does not help him any (Leo pokes fun at how sandpaper-y Donnie’s shell is despite knowing it’s always like that and Donnie smacks him for it.) Donnie usually prefers hand massages instead however as all his typing and inventing adds up over time, and shoulder massages too once he starts wearing his battle shells more. Leo also figures out how to give massages to Raph and Mikey’s shells as well, though it’s a struggle at first to not scratch his hands on Raph’s spikes.

I think since Leo has such bad luck with spas and the like, he tries giving himself massages (though it’s not as helpful.) Like, with how his abilities work his legs are probably always aching from his portal jumping and one foot landings, so maybe he branches past back massages out of a need to help his own aches too. (Though he really wants a shell massage himself, the same way he’d give them…the one time with Donnie’s tennis ball massage machine was but a short moment of what Leo’s been missing out on and what he’ll continue missing out on…)

I don’t know, I just think it’d be cute to think Leo could have honed his massaging skill this way in order to help out his family (and also partially because he wants a massage himself.)

[hehe-etc]

sketching the blorbos <3

[givemedamage]

YOU LOSE!!!!!!!!!!

[crowhoonter]

A brute is rampaging in the Brockton Bay downtown area by my apartment, causing a general ruckus

Me, a thinker 3: Well well well, look at this. Another Brute class thinking that because they are big and strong means they're better than everyone else. Would you be surprised to learn that I'm a thinker? Do you even know what that means buster? My mind is running a thousand calculations a minute to beat you, to turn every move against yourself. Your silly little musclebound tantrum cannot begin to compare to my genius intellect, truly brains are better than braw-

He hits my body once with a single finger, turning me into a fine red mist

[rxttenfish]

hm hm hmmm. redesign liam sketches for the day.

vampirism, in the context of the redesign universe, is a magic-derived virus that ends up "regurgitating" the "memory" contained in the traces of the magic that makes it up to alter its hosts' features. its very poorly understood why the virus does this, or if there are any benefits at all, as usually the results end in simply killing the host. vampirism specifically is a bloodborne illness, felicitated through blood-blood or blood-saliva contact, and has been known to have a major non-symptomatic foothold in populations of blood-eating insects, as well as many animals that are also known rabies vector species.

every vampire was born a human, and still fundamentally is one in every way. they don't get any special abilities from the illness — liam has to wear a medical corset because his ribs moved upwards and began to fuse together, so his diaphragm is weak and he requires the additional structure, as well as having braces for his hands and knees/hips. they aren't a separate species, and if you ask one, they will call themselves human.

however, due to stigma, there is the preconceived notion in other humans that vampires have ceased to be one.