#counted the normal rows AND the blo rows!

[killjoysfromyesterday]

second prompt for my @badthingshappenbingo card!

prompt: hidden scar

warnings: talk and usage of ne*dles, blo*d, cardiac arrest

word count: 804

——————

the firefight hadn’t gone well. jet had gotten a couple shots to the shoulder that needed patching up, and they were pretty sure kobra broke his wrist. ghoul had scraped by with just a raygun burn on his upper back, and now poison was standing in front of him with a bottle of antiseptic from tommy’s.

"ghoul. it needs to be cleaned. you remember how bad kobra was when one of his shots got infected, we can't lose part of the team for a month again." poison says, dousing a rag in the alcohol. the smell stung ghoul’s nose and he scrunched up his face in disgust.

"i'll clean it myself." he waved poison off, trying to push down the anxiety creeping up in his stomach.

"it's on your back. you'd never get to it yourself."

"i just..."

"ghoul. c'mon." and before ghoul can stop them, poison’s behind him, carefully working blood-soaked his shirt off of his back.

and then they see them: the rows and rows of tiny pinpoint marks along his back. they almost look like extremely well aligned freckles if you squint, but their origins ring loud and clear to poison.

ghoul’s memories are like torrential downpour; they slam down on him without warning, and he can’t make them stop.

his feet are swinging off the side of the operating table, the back of the hospital gown open as scientists come and go, tapping the bubbles out of syringes and talking in words ghoul can’t understand.

“alright, forty-six. two more shots and then we’ll survey your side effects.” the doctor says, and without warning there’s more needles in his back, but ghoul’s long-numbed to the sharp pinpricks. an assistant is writing on his back with a marker, numbering each shot and copying her work down on a clipboard.

his muscles are already beginning to ache, and the room feels colder than normal. he tries his best to focus on anything to keep his mind off the way his whole body is cramping; his eyes find the BLI logo on the door in front of him, and he focuses on tracing the eyes and mouth of the smiley face with his finger.

then he’s coughing, dry-heaving and retching and clawing at his chest, because shit, his lungs are closing up and his heart is jackrabbit-thumping in his ribcage. the monitor that’s hooked up to the stickers and wires on his chest starts going crazy, the beeping becoming erratic and wild on the screen.

“code red, get me the paddles, stat!” a voice shouts and ghoul can’t tell which scientist it’s coming from because they’re all identical with their stupid BLI masks and his vision is going in and out of focus. he’s rolled onto his back and the world tilts before there’s an oxygen mask being shoved over his face and all he can hear is yelling as the world goes black, pulling him under as the bright operating table lights fade.

"oh, ghoulie..." poison sighs as ghoul jumps up, pulling his shirt back down over his back as quick as he possibly can. the movement against the fresh burns makes him grit his teeth in pain, but poison makes no move to stop him.

"i'm sorry-" ghoul begins, lip quivering.

"sorry for what? what are you sorry for?"

"i dunno..." ghoul mumbles, voice shaky. there's a lump in his throat that's hard to talk around, so he just puts his head down and tries to not let poison see how bad his lip is quivering, how badly he wants to run. but then poison’s voice goes all soft and they hold their arms out.

"ghoul. c'mere."

and that's all ghoul needs, because he's rocketing into poison's arms, and poison holds on tight, and they end up on the floor in a heap of limbs and neither of them bother to rearrange into a more comfortable position because they don't want to stop holding on.

"i love you. so much. i don't care what they did there." poison whispers, running a hand through ghoul’s sweaty hair. he needs a bath and maybe a decontamination after being around all those dracs, but all he wants to do right now is sink into poison’s arms and never let go.

"you're here now. look how far you've come." poison says, pulling away to hold ghoul’s face in their hands. ghoul’s eyes tear up, and poison swipes his thumb across ghoul’s cheek, wiping away the tears that had begun to fall from his eyes.

“they’re never gonna hurt you again.” poison presses a kiss to ghoul’s forehead. ghoul tunnels his face into poison’s shoulder further and shuts his eyes tight.

they stay like that for a while, holding on so tight their knuckles are going white. they both need it.

——————

[tj-crochets]

Dreidel pattern below the read more! There are some slightly unusual construction techniques in here, but nothing complicated. If you can do single crochet, you can make a dreidel! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you make a dreidel with my pattern I’d love to see it! 

Notes: -6.5mm hook

-Hometown USA yarn (Size 6 super bulky yarn, not fluffy)

The middle part of the dreidel is made first (the cube-ish part), then the bottom, then the top. The middle part and the bottom part are crocheted in one piece, then the yarn is cut and reattached to the top. Middle: 1. Ch 9, sk 1, sc 8 in back bumps of chain (8) 2-8. Ch 1, turn, sc 8 (8) 9. Ch 1, turn, in BLO sc 8 (8) (forms the first corner) 10-16. Ch 1, turn, sc 8 (8) 17. Ch 1, turn, in BLO sc 8 (8) (forms the second corner) 18-24. Ch 1, turn, sc 8 (8) 25. Ch 1, turn, in BLO sc 8 (8) (forms the third corner) 26-32. Ch 1, turn, sc 8 (8) 33. Ch 1, turn, sl st through BLO of next stitch and the matching stitch from row 1 eight times to close the body and form fourth corner, do not fasten off Your dreidel in progress should now be a cube missing two sides. Continuing from end of row 33 of previous section: Bottom: 1. Ch 1, sc 1 in ends of every row except the corners, so there will be 7 stitches per side, for a total of 28 stitches. Do not count the chain stitch (28) 2. [sc 5, dec] repeat [] around (24) 3. Sc around (24) 4. [sc 2, dec] repeat [] around (18) 5. Sc around (18) 6. [sc, dec] repeat [] around (12) 7. Dec around (6) FO, use yarn end to close the hole and tuck the yarn end inside the dreidel. Before you start crocheting the top, embroider the sides Top: Join yarn to the middle of one side on the unworked open side of the original cube. The first row will all be single crocheted in back post, so attach the yarn using a back post stitch for the best corners. Back post sc is NOT the same as back loop, so please look up the stitch if you aren’t sure. It does make a difference! Only the first row is back post, the rest are normal sc.  1. Back post single crochet around; like with the bottom, skip corner stitches, so make 7 back post stitches to a side for a total of 28 stitches (28) 2. [sc 2, dec] repeat [] around (21) 3. [sc, dec] repeat [] around (14) 4. Dec around (7) this is the end of the top and the start of the, uh, stick part? 5. Sk 1, dec, sc 4 (5) 6. Sc around (5) 7. Sc around (5) sl st to next st, FO. Use yarn end to close hole, weave in ends

The dreidel is done and it can actually spin!!! I’ll get the pattern up soon