#i hope whatever the injury is it heals soon and well enough for them to fully participate on the gp

[violinfantasy]

lala come back to me 💔

[lace-coffin]

Hi! Can I ask how the slashers would feel if they ever accidentally hurt their s/o? Gender and everything is up to you!

How slashers would react to Accidently hurting their S/O

Thank you so much for my first ever request ah! I hope you enjoy 💖

Requests are open!

Warning for blood/injury - mild sexual content/reference to sexual activity and power dynamics -unhealthy relationships (I think?)

Reader is gender neutral!

Bubba sawyer

Most likely happened via Bubba playing too hard and Accidently pushing you over or being a bit too heavy handed with you. If it’s a case of them mistaking you for a victim and catching you with their chainsaw before being able to stop then they’ll be even more in inconsolable : (

Stops and stares for a minute to process what’s happened before devolving into full blown panic.

She’ll drop whatever she’s doing to carry you back to the house, even if that means letting the victim escape and having Drayton yell at her.

Will hurriedly explain in rushed sign to either Choptop or Nubbins to go take care of the victim as he’s busy caring for you.

Checks you over frantically. Please explain you’re going to be ok and help them calm down.

Once he knows you’re not in any danger he’ll feel absolutely awful about it and whine apologies to you even if you tell him that it’s ok and it wasn’t their fault.

Please comfort them once you feel better and reassure them.

Will insist you come up with a verbal and nonverbal sign to give if they’re accidently messing around to hard.

Will make you agree to stay in the house out of the way when victims are around so you don’t Accidently get hurt again.

Thomas Hewitt

After another night of Hoyt berating him for things out of his control, Tommy storms off to the basement to cool off. You follow after him, intending to comfort and wanting to help. You place a hand on his shoulder without thinking, forgetting he doesn’t enjoy physical touch without warning, thinking it might help. Whipping around he grabs your wrist a little too hard, causing you to wince.

He snatches his hand back as soon as he realises what he’s done.

Tommy will bring you to Luda may to have her check you over and assess the damage.

Once he knows you’re safe he’ll confine himself to the basement for a few days, only coming out to eat but even then it’s tense.

He’s truly sorry and feels like all those people who called him a monster and an animal were right, he hurt the one he cares about most, after all.

After a few days apart, a lot of hushed words of affirmation and kisses/nose bumps he’ll feel comfortable being with you again.

You know to let him cool off by himself and come to you when he’s ready after a heated argument now.

Michale Myers

You jump out at Michael thinking it would be funny to catch the shape off guard for once and not the other way around. Unfortunately this backfires and he swings his knife at you, thinking it may be an intruder since you’ve never pulled something like this before, You manage to jolt out of the way but the knife still catches you in the shoulder. Thankfully, it’s only superficial and will heal, but it still looks like it needs medical attention.

Initially Michael looks at you unamused, granted it’s hard to tell what he’s feeling underneath the mask. He gives you a kind of “well If you weren’t being dumb this wouldn’t have happened” attitude. However this is a front for the actual panic he refuses to show on the surface.

Having a few cuts and scratches isn’t super uncommon when your with Michael considering his tastes involving knives in bed ; )

Usually hurting others comes naturally and without remorse to Michael, so it shakes him to his core that he’s actively worrying about your wellbeing instead of feeling the usual indifference.

It disturbs him that he actually cares about someone enough to feel remorse for his actions.

After unceremoniously pulling your shirt off and looking the wound over he forces you go to A&E, practically marching your ass out the door.

Since he’s basically an escaped criminal he can’t exactly casually walk in the hospital with you, however he will stalk you the entire time, lurking close by to make sure you arrive and leave safely.

Although he usually has his guard up he vows to try be a little less bristly with you from now on if it means he doesn’t have to see you hurt and feel that awful tug of regret/worry in his chest.

Jason voorhees

You went out looking for Jason one night after he hadn’t returned to the cabin by his usual time. You were worried he’d been overpowered by a group of trespassers or caught in a trap and didn’t have any way to communicate that to you. The woods were beautiful but so dense and vast, getting lost or injured in the thick of them may as well be a death sentence.

Whilst searching for your missing partner you get your leg snagged in a bear trap he had set out previously for the trespassers. You howl in pain as you hear the sickening snap of your ankle between the traps jaws.

Jason was trudging his way back to the cabin when he heard it. Knowing that wasn’t a rougue teen as he’d cleared them out already, alarm bells went off in his head. He stormed to scene as fast as he could.

He could have sworn his undead heart stopped for the second time as he saw you sitting there in agony, murky blood seeping into the forest floor.

He rushes to your side and looks frantically between the trap and your teary face, he knows he’s going to have to disengage the traps and for you it’s going to be..less than pleasent.

He signs for you to grip onto his arm for support. Since he’s already dead and regenerates fairly quickly he feels it’s the least he can do to let you grip his arm for dear life as he wrenches the trap from your shattered ankle. If you cause any damage to his arm (which is very unlikely) it will heal up in no time anyway.

Once he’s carried you back to the cabin he’ll be frantically following Pamela’s directions in his head for what to do and how to clean/ wrap it.

If the damage is extensive he’ll relent and let you go to the hospital, only if a trusted friend takes you though, he’ll be sitting by the window of your shared cabin every minute until you return back to him.

You’re no longer aloud to be out in the woods after dark alone if he’s set traps. You both carry whistles now so if he’s not home and you need to know he’s safe you can whistle to each other and feel more at ease.

Billy Lenz

Interacting with Billy when he’s having an episode is never a good idea. You thought it would be fine to just be in the room though, providing you stay out of his way. As you enter, Billy is in the midst of trashing his attic once again, the disgusting feelings bubbling in his chest too much to bear. You enter just as he’s angrily thrown an old glass christmas ornament at the floor that the sorority had kept in storage. It shatters and flecks of sparkling glass scatter along the floor. One piece catching you in the hand in a nasty glass splinter. You swear under your breath and rush off to take care of it.

Billy doesn’t even realise what’s happened until you return to him, him now having exhausted himself and you knowing it’s safe to try do some damage control. You bring him a sandwich and juice knowing he’ll need it after all the energy and tears he just used up.

Your hands touch as he’s accepting the plate from you with a muted “thank you” and he notices the bandage.

Billy essentially bristles up like an angry cat at the idea of someone hurting his piggy and demands to know who did it and what happened.

Once you tell him it was actually from the ornament he feels horrible. He doesn’t even remember it happening with the state he was in.

He snuggles into the crook of your neck and mumbles apologies into your skin.

Billy will place sloppy kisses over it as an apology until you forgive him. (Not exactly hygenic since it’s an open wound but i mean…you’re dating the attic rat)

Brahms Heelshire

When living with Brahms there isn’t usually much to injure yourself on considering the estate is fairly out of the way from the rest of the village. You most likely caught yourself on a pair of sheers. Brahms is being stubborn about you being out of the house and slings the sheers in your general direction from the door frame when you ask for them. You don’t even notice you sliced your hand when catching them until you see a patch of blood soaking through your gardening gloves about ten minutes later.

You come in to grab a tea towel to wrap your bleeding finger in, not really fazed as it’s only a small cut. Brahms was lurking from the window as you tended to the hedges, not wanting to be away from you but not yet brave enough to tempt leaving the house he’s been in all these years.

As soon as he sees it he’s panicking, it’s only a little cut and you’re not concerned in the slightest but to Brahms you may as well have just came in with an arm missing. He’s instantly flittering around you asking if you’re ok and if you need a hospital.

You stifle your laugh at his over the top concern, you find it rather sweet, it’s not his fault he’s a little bit sheltered.

After cleaning the cut and bandaging it, it’s totally fine. If anything Brahms needs more reassuring and coddling than you do to get him to settle.

He apologises a thousand times for his attitude because he knows If he hadn’t been stroppy about you leaving the house and passed the sheers nicely then you wouldn’t have been hurt in the first place. He promises to try be more composed when he starts getting antsy.

He may need some ✨punishment✨ in order to encourage his behaviour change and to feel forgiven.

He begrudgingly lets you back outside to garden after about a week.

Asa Emory

If you’re the pet of Asa then it’s likely that most of your injuries are purposefully given from him and are no mistake. You’re poked and prodded often considering your residency in the collection. Wounds from experiments and correctional punishments when you disobey or refuse to submit are not uncommon at all. So it doesn’t bother him since he inflicted them. This also assures he cleans them with clinical precision. If you were anyone else he would leave the wounds to fester, if you died from a complication then that was just inconvenient. Not you though, you’ve caught his attention and heart. He loves you in his own domineering way.

If the wound was created by him on accident then he would give himself a hard time, chastising himself for his carelessness.

For example, if he had more trouble with law enforcement than he thought and that led to you to spending way more time in the trunk than you usually do, causing you to develop a sore from sitting in one cramped position for too long.

Asa would realise you’re injured once you’re let out of the trunk, hissing in pain as you stretch. He makes you show him where you’re hurting so he can inspect over it.

Despite Asa’s stony face his stomach is actively sinking. He knows you’re hurt because of him and it wasn’t purposeful or measured like it would be during a punishment. He sees this as failure in his pet care and it takes a blow to his god complex. Gods don’t make mistakes, but here he is, hurting his dolly by being so out of it.

He’ll make sure to clean it for you and even stop putting you in the trunk for a while. This does however still mean you’ll be attached to him via leash or chain connected to the ring sitting on his belt. Just because you’re hurt and his favourite toy, doesn’t mean he will except anything less than your complete and total submission.

He’ll be more tender and soft handed with you than usual for a while after. Punishments will be withheld until you heal. Then it’s back to normal routine as expected.

Predator/yautja

You were wearing a new perfume you’d picked up at the market during the day, You were only supposed to be getting meats and maybe a new fur for the bed but once the alien at the stand had convinced you to sample it you fell in love with it.

Your mate picks up on an unknown scent entering the house, hackles raising and stalking towards it. As soon as they catch the heat signature they throw a wrist blade in warning.

Their eyes widen in horror, rushing to the door as they catch scent of your tangly blood dripping onto the hardwood floor of your shared home.

The new perfume masked your familiar scent from them, making them believe the house was in danger and being intruded on. If their face could loose colour it would, cringing as they see the wrist blade sticking through your palm, groceries discarded at the door.

They start talking at you in rapid clicks before they realise you can’t actually understand. After making sure to keep the object in your hand so you don’t bleed out and that you’re not going to pass out on them, they insist on carrying you their medic instead of going to an ooman one.

They argue that their medicine is far more advanced and will heal your wound much more efficiently then your “ primitive ooman medicine”

Thanks to yautja medicine being far more advanced, It will heal like nothing ever happened in around two weeks. The wound stitched shut and given some kind of injection.

Your mate purrs and clicks for you deep from their chest the entire time you’re having the blade removed to try calm you.

They beg for forgiveness despite it literally being an accident and will need some reassurance that they haven’t failed you as a mate. Once you’re all healed up they’ll bring back an impressive skull from a hunt as an apology even if you’ve already forgiven them.

Whilst it’s healing you’re probably going be kept in the nest of furs and pulled tightly against them whilst they purr and sooth you.

My requests are open if you’d like to send any prompts or ideas for me to write!

[accioprocrastination]

One Day At A Time (Part 6/?)

Jake "Hangman" Seresin x reader

Summary: Hangman's fiancée is hospitalised and Jake waits for her to wake up

T/W: Anxiety, panic disorder, PTSD, POW, hints to torture, SA, abortion, pregnancy references, death

A/N: Sorry this got so much darker than I was expecting... Also as per I haven't proof read so ignore the grammar

Part 5 in case you missed it

Jake POV -

Jake wakes up stomach rumbling with a dead arm from clutching your hand as he sleeps. He momentarily breaks your hand hold to move his arm a bit, hoping to regain some feeling.

A consultant walks in smiling slightly at Jake as they make eye contact through the glass of the door.

"Morning." the doctor says walking in.

"Any news today?" Jake responds hopeful that you'll be coherent enough to talk to him soon.

The man proceeds to walk Jake through all of your bigger injuries - you arm and several ribs are broken; your ankle is sprained; they've operated on your shoulder to make sure it heals correctly. No haemorrhage from hitting your head but you might have a mild concussion.

"There's one other thing as well." The doctor says meeting Jake's gaze.

"I don't like that look doc, what is it?" Jake's nerves skyrocket from the doctor's obvious hesitation.

All of the colour in Jake's face drains as the doctor starts explaining to him what an ectopic pregnancy is. He shudders in repulsion as the doctor says the same thing in a slightly different way in an effort to fully express that it's not viable.

He cuts the doctor off when they start talking about treatment options. "I-I-I just need a minute." Jake says tears filling his eyes. "It's not about the abortion. I just need a minute to process that someone's done that too my Y/N." Jake tries to explain that this isn't a pro-life meltdown.

He doesn't see the doctor nod but he hears the man leave.

The second the door shuts Jake lets out a loud sob at the glimpse of what the last few years have looked like for you. He hunches over stomach clenching from worry - he knows that the minute you find that out that particular diagnosis, you're going to freak out.

Jake continues to cry he thinks back to the only other time you've been pregnant. The time that it was his kid and there were complications. Whatever bastard did this to you is going to unknowingly force you to relive that day.

Jake fruitlessly wipes his eyes on the sleeve of his hoodie then turns back to you face still wet from the tears silently falling down his cheeks. "This changes nothing with you and me sweets. I will be here every step of the way if you want me to." Jake says kissing your hand.

Having gone through a million emotions in the span of a few minutes Jake needs to step out of the room to try and let go of his rage.

*

Reader POV -

Every muscle In your body is tense in the knowledge that someone was nearby when you were trying to wake up earlier.

Wires and tubing press uncomfortably against your back. Why would they lie you over them that seems stupid?

You lie there controlling your breathing, eyes shut tightly just listening for signs of someone else.

I really don't want to open my eyes in case I'm not alone.

It's eerily quiet. All you can hear is the faint buzzing of tinnitus in your ears and a machine steadily beeping.

Okay, no one else is here, you tell yourself before gently opening your eyes. You scan the otherwise empty hospital room frowning in confusion. You're not sure whether someone was next to you or whether you dreamt that someone was in the vacant chair by your side?

There's fresh flowers and a card on the windowsill, so someone has been here.

A male nurse walks in as you try to disconnect from the machines behind you.

"Please don't do that! You're in the hospital." He says to you.

God my head is pounding.

"I got out?" you murmur in response, so drained that even talking is more of an effort than it has been recently.

"Yes you got out. You're okay." He confirms.

You nod slightly in recognition of what he just said, but mentally you completely disagree that you're okay right now.

"How's the pain on a scale from one to ten?" He questions.

Groaning in pain you shift slightly, you don't verbalise the feeling that you can only imagine is similar to being hit by a bus. Instead you ask "Can I self discharge?"

"It would be strongly against our medical advice if you were to self discharge right now. I would recommend that you stay here under observation and on the IV for a few more days." He grimaces at the prospect of you leaving this room.

"I'm not staying here." You exclaim, wincing slightly as you rip out a needle from your arm.

"Let me just go get a consultant to talk everything through with you and if you still want to leave after that, then you can." The nurse says hesitantly before jogging out of the room. I think he must be new to the role.

The door to your room opens and you suddenly understand the nurse's hesitancy as two police officers walk in.

You try to dart into an upright position to be more alert but whimper at your body's reluctance to move. The agony radiating from your left arm is unbearable. I can't imagine what sitting up would've felt like if that hadn't put my arm in this sling.

"Oh great you're awake!" The young police lady says standing pencil straight by the side of your bed ready to start questioning you.

"You're in the hospital, do you know what happened?" The guy questions you.

"What happened to Ghost?" You begin your own interrogation for answers.

"High on painkillers?" The female officer turns to the man who shakes his head.

"Was that your back seaters callsign?" He queries.

"Yeah. Is h-h-" You nod but you're cut off by the officer.

"It was instant. He wouldn't have felt anything." He answers without making you ask.

You cover your eyes with the palms of your hands fighting to regain a semblance of composure at how abysmal that news makes you feel.

The anxious ringing in your head eventually subsides and you remove your hands from your face. You're somehow still surprised to see that the officers stayed for however long it took for you to be able to fake okay.

"I need to go home." you admit quietly more to yourself than to them. You don't articulate that you just want to blanket cocoon on your sofa while Jake silently assures you that everything is going to be fine.

Your hands quiver slightly at the reality that he might not have waited for you; your home might not even be your home anymore.

Thoughts torrent your mind before you finally muster the courage to ask the room what date it is.

"April the 8th" The police lady answers.

"W-w-what year is it?" You speak up. The police man standing silently in the doorway looks horrified at the prospect that you might not know that but he interjects and answers you anyway.

"Shit." You respond in momentary disbelief that it's been that long.

I mean it felt like forever but I had convinced myself it had been a couple of months and i'll go home to everything the same.

"Jake thinks I've been dead for four years?" tears flood your eyes and your voice breaks, for the first time in years it's not from disuse.

How the fuck am I meant to go home after that amount of time?

If he hasn't moved onto someone else, surely he would've at least mourned you. If he's said goodbye to you like that how is it fair to suddenly reappear?

None of this is fucking fair.

Ghost should be here too.

*

Jake POV

Jake's heart drops to the floor as he carefully opens your room door to reveal an empty bed. From the haphazard sheets and wires flung across the room, he knows that no one has taken you into surgery without consulting him.

You're still in fight or flight mode.

He discards his unopened sandwich on the table and runs to the nurse's station.

"Room 26 - where is she?" Jake asks the guy behind the desk.

"She asked to self discharge; she's gone." he shrugs.

"She's gone?" Jake clarifies.

"Yep. If you can convince her to come back to hospital I think that would be in her best interest." He responds.

Five minutes - I was gone for five fucking minutes. Jake flings himself down the stairs, running at full speed to the exit.

He forces himself to stop when he's out of the hospital. He glances over everyone in the immediate vicinity.

You have to be here somewhere. And yet you're not here.

Where on earth would you go?

After all this time would you go home?

Home is fucking miles away - how would you get there with no phone and no money?

Jake's heart pounds in his chest as he walks to his car. He walks at a snail's pace so that he can check everyone that crosses his path isn't you.

I'll find you. I promise I'll find you.

Part 7

Masterlist

Tags:

@inthestars-underthesun

@rainy-darling

@emma8895eb

@tgmreader

@ems-alexandra

@djs8891

@els-marvelvsp

@lets-turn-and-burn

[youre-a-total--poser]

Hi there

Can I please request a WandaNat and reader daughter please?

Natasha is our mum and is worried about us at school when we show up with a black eye.

Natasha's girlfriend Wanda is a teacher at a private school and gets us in. But finds out we have dyslexia and both women work hard to help us get up to the right reading level.

Or something. I'm not really sure, but anything you come up with will be amazing I'm sure 😉

Love your work ..... Happy thanksgiving !

Warnings: mentions of bullying and some other stuff.

Age: 15

Word Count: 1,133

Requests: Open

Summary: Read the request and it will explain everything

Requested by: @m0use123

Date: 23/02/2024

paring: Natasha and Wanda

A/N: Thank you for your request I hope that you like it even though it's not great but it just be like that sometimes.

Also Happy very very late Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and whatever other holidays have passed since you sent in your request.

---⧗---

There used to be a time, believe it or not when you loved going to school but ever since you started high school everything changed.

You somehow managed to find yourself being the main target for the bullies in your year. Maybe it was because they found out that you were an Avenger's daughter who had no special abilities or that there was something wrong with your brain that constantly made you mess up on words when you had to read aloud in class.

They convinced you that you were worthless and that you would never achieve anything in life.

---⧗---

It was the last class of the day which happened to be gym and of course, your gym teacher thought it was a brilliant idea to have a game of dodgeball.

It was a disaster from the moment the game started. The bullies seemed to only be throwing the balls at you and either the teacher didn't notice or just didn't care but he didn't interfere once that was until one of them threw the ball right at your eye and you spent the rest of the class sitting on the bench holding an ice pack to your eye.

Finally, the torture ended and you made it home without any other injuries apart from the very swollen soon-to-be black eye.

You stood outside the door with the key in your hand hoping that your mom wouldn't be there. You knew that she was going to see it eventually it's not like that you just avoid her completely for the next week or so while it healed.

Just in case she was in there you put up your hood and then unlocked the door.

You walked into the apartment and of course, your mom was sitting on the couch but she was on her laptop hopefully she's distracted enough for you to quickly get past her without her saying anything.

"How was school baby?" Natasha asked.

"Fine." You responded continuing to walk to your room.

You had done it you managed to get past her without her saying anything.

"Stop right there Y/N," Natasha said standing up and walking over to you.

Well, you got away with it for a while 10 seconds.

You still had your back towards her. She pulled down your hood then gently placed her hands on your shoulders and turned you around to face her.

Natasha let out a sharp gasp when she saw the bruised eye. She put her finger under your chin and lifted your head to get a better look

"What happened? Who did this?" she asked with a mix of anger and worry in her voice.

"It's fine mama." You said pushing her hand away. "It was just a dodgeball accident."

"Was it the same kids who have been bullying you?" Natasha asked.

You responded by nodding your head.

"Unbelievable," Natasha mumbled. "Give me their names I'm going to call the school again in the morning."

While you were giving Natasha the names of the kids. The front door opened and Natasha's girlfriend Wanda walked in. "What's going on?" She asked.

"See for yourself," Natasha said moving out of the way.

Wanda walked over to you “Oh my god… are you okay?” She asked.

You nodded your head as Wanda put her arm around you and rubbed your arm gently.

“It really was just an accident. I should have been paying more attention or something.” You said trying to downplay what happened.

"No Y/N, this isn't your fault they were purposely aiming at you," Natasha said putting a bag of something very close to your face.

You moved your head away unaware of what she was doing.

"It's just a bag of frozen peas for your eye Y/N," Natasha said

"Oh, okay." You said as Natasha gently pressed the bag onto your eye.

You didn't even notice her going into the kitchen to get them so she must have used her mom's powers to magically summon them.

"Since you're already in a bad mood, I think that it's now a good time to show you something."

"Show me what?" Natasha asked.

You put the bag of frozen peas on the unit, picked up your bag took out your most recent English test paper and handed it to your mom with the score facing down.

She looked at the paper and let out a loud sigh. "Really Y/N 12 out of 45 that's not good enough.

"Honestly I'm surprised that I even got that much right."

You looked at your mom and she looked back at you with that unamused look that she does.

"Wow, tough crowd." You mumbled.

"This is the third test in test in the past week that you have failed Y/N what am I going to do with you."

"It's not my fault that the bullying is causing me so much stress that I can't concentrate and I couldn't remember anything that I was reading." You said picking up the bag of frozen peas and holding it against your eye.

"I know honey but it's the only school that's close enough. The next public school is 2 hours away and I don't have time to drive you there and back every day." Natasha said.

"What about the private school that I work at?" Wanda chimed in. "I can ask the principal if there is a space available."

"I was thinking more of homeschooling but I guess that works too." You said removing the bag of peas away from your eye.

"Well, it better be since I'm not homeschooling you," Natasha said as she took the bag from you and walked into the kitchen.

"Don't worry Y/N there is zero tolerance for bullying so that's one less thing to worry about," Wanda told you.

"I hope so." You mumbled.

---⧗---

It took three months of waiting and suffering at the public school then a space became available for you. The school even had a policy that children of the facility got in for free but even though you weren't related to Wanda the principal made an exception just for you.

Your grades started to improve after a week of being at the new school but not as good as what everyone would have liked them to be.

You were still finding reading and spelling difficult so you were given an appointment to speak to the student support teacher and after lots of different types of tests, it suddenly became clear as to why you were struggling so much. You were diagnosed with dyslexia.

The student support teacher provided you with different types of materials to help you improve and you were given more time, a reader and a scribe during tests to give you that extra support to help you succeed.

Taglist

@knox145 // @dogtamer415 // @romanoffliviv

Go HERE to be added to the taglist

[chloecherrysip]

all the pain will change into a memory of when we were amazing (mario & luigi-centric post-movie fic, part 1!)

(My weekend got a little busier than I was expecting, but I was still DETERMINED to get this up today and hey, I succeeded!!! I will eventually post an AO3 version as well, so if you'd like to wait for that, you can (and I will of course link it here), but sharing on tumblr is just a little easier for me to start out with. :)

Remember that this is just the first part and there will be at least two or three more coming soon!! Like I've already said in other posts, this fic has become SO LONG that it needs to be split up a little just for ease of reading. The title comes from the song Casey by Darren Hayes, which for the record, is a song about siblings and really fits movie!verse Mario & Luigi's relationship, in my eyes. Also, just so you know, this part (and only this part) has some Mario/Peach moments as well! I hope you enjoy!)

+

It took roughly eleven hours to put Brooklyn back together. 

Not to how it was before, just to be clear. Not even close. Just enough that you could no longer tell right away that it had been subjected to a catastrophic tear between dimensions or alternate realities or whatever the two worlds were in relation to one another — who even knew? Instead, it looked more like it had suffered a few earthquakes in quick succession, or a hurricane closely followed by a tornado for good measure. Y’know, normal disasters.

It would no doubt require weeks of work to fix the cracked roads, replace all the crushed cars, reassemble the shopfronts enough to reopen and finally, finally get rid of all the black chunks of molten rock and huge mushroom stalks that were still being found in the strangest crevices and alleyways. But there was a lot to be extremely grateful for too. It was an outright miracle that Bowser’s airship had happened to crash down into the empty construction site mere minutes before the workers were scheduled to get started, somehow missing all occupied buildings. Everyone on the block was unhurt and accounted for, and they all still had a mostly-intact place to sleep that night. That, Mario reasoned, was more than good enough for now.

He’d jumped headfirst into helping with the emergency cleanup efforts as best he could, of course. It was the very least he could do after unintentionally causing the whole mess to begin with, and Luigi had jumped right in alongside him, ready to go. The star had worn off  — even if Mario was still seeing glimmering afterimages of rainbows in the corners of his eyes every time he blinked — but it seemed like there were some lingering aftereffects. They felt better than ever, every injury down to the slightest bruise or cut completely healed, an overflow of joyful energy humming pleasantly all through his core. Mario guessed it was some kinda mixture of leftover magic and his own adrenaline and relief, which probably could have kept him going strong for a long time all on its own. They’d actually made it home. They’d seen their parents and family again. His brother was back within arm's reach, smiling and solidly warm and safe. How could he not feel like he was on top of the world?

So they’d spent the rest of the day working with neighbors to clear debris and shattered glass, move cars safely out of the way that were too crushed to move on their own any longer, nail up boards to cover gaps where windows once were. There were various damaged water fixtures and pipes that desperately needed some TLC before they came entirely undone and caused more damage (thankfully, Mario knew two talented plumbers who were more than up to the task). And of course, there was the not-so-small matter of rounding up all of Bowser’s minions and stuffing them back through the pipe before they snuck further into the city and started causing mass chaos. Most of that went smoothly, thankfully (other than one notable incident of some Koopas messing around at a bowling alley and accidentally getting stuck in the ball return). The magician in the blue robe, the one with the wand, had vanished entirely, though. Luigi had been the first one to notice, nervously mentioning that he’d seemed important, like a second-in-command to Bowser. Mario didn’t like that one bit, but Peach reassured him that they would stay vigilant.

Speaking of Peach, she’d taken charge of the chaotic situation right away, her leadership skills shining bright in a way that left Mario quietly in awe. She’d personally overseen Bowser’s transfer and imprisonment back in the Mushroom Kingdom while also coordinating efforts on both sides of the warp pipe, DK and Toad providing support as they all passed back and forth between worlds several times throughout the day, transporting as much of Bowser’s broken-up airship back to where it came from as possible. Toad Town was still a mess from the invasion as well, and many of the Toads who’d evacuated needed to be helped back from the forests. Mario had only spent a little time there, but thinking about such a lively, cheerful place in abandoned disarray troubled him. He considered going back for a little while to help out there too, just to make sure everyone got home safe.

But the familiar warp pipe loomed before them, and Luigi’s smile strained. Mario, hand lightly pressed to his brother’s back, registered the sudden, new tenseness, the way his breathing became shallower, despite his best efforts to not let it show. And there was Mario’s answer. He wouldn’t put Luigi through that again, not so soon, and if Luigi wasn’t going, Mario wasn’t going — end of story. The thought of being an entire world away from him after everything they’d just struggled through, even briefly, was too much to handle. All day, that uneasiness had hung around him, the one wrinkle in his light-as-air happiness and boundless energy. He hadn’t even liked Luigi being out of his sight for too long as they worked on the cleanup, which he fully knew was silly and unreasonable. That was why he'd never breathed a word of the feeling outload, even when the discomfort settled in heavily like a bad stomachache.

It'll get better once a little more time goes by, Mario kept insisting to himself with a sure, stubborn forcefulness. What's there to be worried about? We made it, both of us. We're together. Everything's gonna be okay. It really is.

“Don’t worry! We’ve got it all under control,” Peach reassured him. “I promise. The Kongs are helping, and so are the penguins from the Ice Kingdom. We’re going to work with them to rebuild their castle as well. On the bright side, I think our alliances will be much, much stronger after this mess.” 

“Are ya sure?” Mario couldn’t help but press, interlacing his fingers tightly. “I dunno, I just feel like I need to do something. If it wasn’t for you, all of you, I wouldn’t have gotten to Luigi in time.”

“Oh, and like you didn’t do even more to help us?” She gave the brim of his cap a flick that was somehow both playful and graceful. “Mario, you and your brother stopped Bowser in his tracks. Both of our worlds are safe from him now because of you two. If anything, we owe you! Toad was already talking about organizing a parade, or giving you both a chest of gold coins!”

“What? No, no, who needs all that?” Mario insisted, his face flushing a little. “Besides, those coins won’t even fit in my wallet! There probably isn’t an exchange rate or anything here for ‘em. Just my luck.”

“I thought as much.” She placed a fingertip to her pursed lips, tapping lightly as she pondered. “What about a house?” 

“A whole house!?” Mario nearly choked on the air. “For free?”

Peach gave him an odd look and a shrug, as though it was perfectly reasonable in her world to offer someone she’d just met a few days ago real estate with absolutely no strings attached. “Why not? You and Luigi are always going to be known as heroes in the Mushroom Kingdom, you do realize. It's the least we could do. But…” She thought in silence for a moment longer and then smiled, the curve of it a little heavier, more subdued. “A house doesn’t do much if no one will be living in it, huh?”

Mario considered that. Across the sewer room, the black of the warp pipe’s insides spread out behind Peach, vast and unending. “That’s…yeah, that’s true,” he said, his shoulders sinking a bit. “For now, don’t worry about doing anything for us, all right?” He swallowed around a strange, new lump in his throat. “Before anything else happens, I just really need to make sure my family’s all right.”

Peach nodded. “And I need to make sure mine is too,” she said, voice warm with understanding.

She shot a meaningful glance over Mario’s head, and he followed her gaze to where Toad and Luigi were sitting off to the side. Toad was excitedly talking, making big, bombastic gestures with his pan as though he was reenacting something. Luigi, for his part, looked a little bewildered but interested, following along as best as he could manage with lots of nodding. The strain in Mario’s chest eased.

“But you’ll both visit before too long, right?” Peach brought his attention back to her, her tone pointed. “There’s still plenty of beautiful places to see in our world. We barely scratched the surface! But we can start with a nice cup of tea in the castle, of course.”

Mario couldn’t help but smile widely. “Definitely,” he said. “And besides, I already made a promise to DK before he headed back. Me and my “stupid overalls” have to give him a rematch at some point. C’mon, how can I pass up a chance to kick his furry butt all over again?”

“And I want to come back and visit this world again too!” She added excitedly. “I want to know more about the bowling we saw, and video games, and — what did you call that one thing? A calzone? — and well, everything!”

Mario laughed outright. “Sure, come back anytime! Luigi and me know allll the best spots in Brooklyn like the backs of our hands. With us, you’ll never have a bad time, guaranteed.”

Some bright, delighted mischief flashed in Peach’s eyes. “And besides,” she said, “your mom said she would show me some of your baby pictures next time. I have to see that because I can’t imagine you without a mustache, honestly. It just doesn’t seem possible.” 

Mario’s laughter got less boisterous and much more strained in a big hurry. “Right, right,” he said, voice cracking. “Gotta remember to, heh, burn some of those before then.”

“Don’t you dare!” 

With more than a little reluctance, she waved over at Toad, signaling that it was time for them to say goodbye. 

“I’ve got to get out of this wedding dress already,” she joked, holding up the skirt so Mario could clearly see all the tears and scorch-marks and dark staining, all intermingled with white and glittering pink. On the top, she was wearing a new, light pink “I LOVE NY” shirt from a cheap souvenir store; Luigi had actually been the one to get it for her, having noticed that she was spending a lot of time standing out in the sun with her shoulders uncovered. At some point along the way, she'd also tied up her blonde hair in a messy ponytail to keep it out of the way. “What a disaster, huh?”

Mario honestly thought that she looked beautiful. But there was no way he could say that, and he also didn’t want to agree because that sounded rude. Thankfully, he had only had a few more seconds of mounting internal panic left to go on that subject before Toad and Luigi came over.

“Your brother’s just as cool as you are, Mario!” Toad brightly announced out of the blue, which in turn made Luigi jolt and blush behind him. “But I should have guessed! You guys are the SUPER Mario Brothers, after all!” 

“Hey, I coulda told you that a lot sooner!” Mario grabbed Luigi around the middle with one arm and squeezed tight, enough to make his brother wriggle with a hoarse, surprised laugh. “He’s always got my back!”

“Hey, hey, I’m flattered, but there’s no way I’m as cool as Mario,” Luigi insisted, grabbing and squeezing Mario right back, playfully poking at his stomach. “Are ya kidding? This is the best guy in the world, c’mon! No contest!”

"You c'mon! Who came up with using a manhole cover as a shield out of the blue, huh?” 

Luigi blinked a few times and then ducked his head down with a big, bashful grin. “Okay, maybe that was me.”

“Exactly.” He smushed his brother’s cap, ruffling his hair underneath. “What were you guys talking about, anyway?”

“Ohohoho, wouldn’t you like to know,” Toad insisted right away with a thick air of secrecy. He mimed locking his mouth with a key and then tossing it away, winking in Luigi's direction. “No need to be jealous, Mario. I can have two best friends.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Mario replied dryly.

“It was no big deal, r-really!” Luigi backed Toad up, a little too loudly. His eyes looked somewhat glassy, as though he was teetering on the verge of tears, but when Mario met his gaze full-on, worried all of a sudden, his brother smiled back, big and sincere and seemingly very happy. “We’re all good! Better than good! We’re great!”

Peach stepped forward, then. “You really made a difference when it counted most, Luigi,” she said warmly, taking one of his hands in her own and patting it. “Thank you again for that. I know you didn’t see the best our world has to offer, but I hope you’ll give us another chance soon enough.” 

Luigi, having stiffened a little at her touch out of sheer surprise, relaxed again. “Of course, Peach — I mean, Princess Peach. Your highness? Ma’am!” He gave her a salute with the other hand, for some reason. “I, uh, definitely appreciate it.” 

She let go of him and reached for Mario’s hand in turn. Out of the blue, he thought about kissing the back of it — she was a princess, right? Wasn’t that what people did in all the fairytale books? — but that was a silly idea, stupid enough to make the back of his neck burn from embarrassment. Instead, he simply held onto her tight for a long moment, reflecting her sweet smile back at her, his heart pleasantly fluttering.

Further down, Toad grabbed one of Mario’s legs and one of Luigi’s legs in both arms and hugged them fiercely at the same time, sniffling a little. They gave his head a few soft pats in return (and winced when he loudly blew his nose into their overalls). 

“See you around, Mustache,” Peach said softly. She took a small step backwards towards the pipe but didn’t let go of him, their arms stretching out further. “And don’t forget what we talked about,” she added after a beat, delicate, maybe even the tiniest bit hopeful. “What I offered…it’s always on the table, if you ever do decide you want it.” 

“I won’t forget,” he said in return, softer too. “Stay safe.” 

She squeezed his hand one last time, and then she and Toad were gone. The warp pipe’s signature sound bounced off the impossibly high walls of the room they were in until it was just a tiny echo. Mario took a deep breath. He turned to find Luigi beaming at him, eyebrows raised high and wiggling a little at the ends.

"Shut up," he sighed.

“What!? I didn’t even say anything!” Luigi insisted, even as he continued to grin.

“Yes, you did. I can read your mind.” Even Mario’s sternest do NOT go there, I’m serious look could never do much when Luigi was ready to do some ruthless teasing, but he tried it anyway as they started to trudge towards the stairwell at a much slower pace then when they’d first come down it. When had he started to feel so tired? A big yawn fought its way up his throat before he could continue. “I just met her! We’re friends. That’s all there is to it, thank you and goodnight.”

“Look, you can't prove a thing, but if I was saying something, well, I'd start with the way she was looking at you.” Luigi whistled. Mario pulled down the brim of his cap, if only to hide the sudden warmth creeping into his face a little better.  “She certainly seems like a princess with good taste, y’know?”

“All right, all right. Ya done?”

“As a matter of fact, I’m not! She’s already got a dress too, which is really convenient. After all, weddings are expensive—”

“Stop, Lu. You better not breathe a word of this back home! Cause you’re gonna get Ma and Dad all riled up too and then I’ll never hear the end of it."

“Are ya serious!? Oh, my poor, sweet, naïve Mario. They already smelled the blood in the water at least five hours back. They were talking about little blonde grandkids when you were in the bathroom and everything.” 

At least the long trek ahead of them out of the sewers would give Mario time for his face to cool down to a normal temperature again. “Great, great, just what I need,” he grumbled. “Now I gotta find a princess for you to get the heat off me.”

“W-What!?” Luigi sputtered. “I mean, I wish. But a kingdom only has one princess, right? And you’re the lucky guy.” 

“There wasn’t just one kingdom,” Mario mused. He was climbing the stairs by then, metal clanging with each step. “I betcha all the money I have that if I went looking around long enough over there, I could find a real cute royal out there who has a thing for the color green.”

He reached behind him to give Luigi’s shoulder a playful shove, only for his hand to meet nothing but air. Turning fully, he saw that his brother was moving a lot slower than he’d expected. He was still at the bottom of the stairs, clinging to the railing and blinking furiously, his gaze focused on nothing in particular. 

“Luigi?” Mario asked hesitantly. “You good?”

Luigi perked up at that and gave a thumbs-up. “A-okay!” He chirped, starting to climb. “I just — whew. I’m a little, uh, dizzy. It feels like that crazy star hung around for a while, eh? Like, we weren’t super-powered anymore, but nothing hurt, and I still had tons of energy to do whatever I wanted. But now…”

“Yeah, I’m definitely feeling that too.” Mario realized it more clearly, his breathing already labored after only climbing one flight of stairs. The injuries weren’t back, thankfully, but he was aching all over, a new heaviness creeping into his bones more and more. Luigi was hurrying to catch up with him, moving unsteadily. 

“Just go slow,” Mario called. “We’re not in a hurry. Be careful.”

It didn’t seem like Luigi heard him, still trying to talk as he climbed, huffing and puffing. “I mean, wow! We were running all over the place! We were fixing things! We were saving Brooklyn! But…huh. Something’s kinda weird.” His voice had dropped down into a mumble, so quiet and fast that Mario almost couldn’t understand him. “I’m having that pins-and-needles feeling, like my legs are asleep, but I’m still walking just fine. Right? Do I look normal walking? Be honest. I…I can’t tell.” He looked sleepy, and then he suddenly looked frightened, unfocused, as though he wasn’t even sure where he was at all. “Wait. Am I upside down? Mario…”

It happened so fast. With one last shuddery breath, Luigi’s eyes rolled back into his head. He started to fall backwards, about to topple down a nearly full flight of stairs. 

Mario’s heart seized. “Luigi!”

He covered several steps in one desperate jump. Somehow, he managed to get one arm around his brother and pull him back with every last scrap of strength he had left, crushing their bodies together. The other arm, he wrenched over and around the railing blindly, worn metal scratching and squeaking against him painfully as he struggled to hold onto it. For a long, agonizing moment, the fight against gravity seemed like it was going to be too much to overcome, and Mario, teeth gritted, mentally prepared himself to turn them around in the air so he would take the brunt of the long fall. But miraculously, his shoes found enough purchase on the steps, and his aching grip lasted just long enough for Mario to pull their combined weight back in the other direction. The two collapsed in a heap against the ascending stairs instead. 

Mario’s gasping breaths seemed like the only sound in the world, the echoes bouncing wildly all around.

“Luigi,” he finally managed to wheeze — quiet at first, then again, much louder. As gently and carefully as he could manage, he scooted up into a sitting position and turned his brother over onto his back, cradling him. He was still out cold. Mario patted his face. “Hey, Luigi. Come on, Lu, wake up for me, all right? I’m here. I’ve gotcha.” He patted a little harder, steadfastly ignoring the way his hands were trembling at that point. Every second passing with no change stretched on, an eternity and then some. “You’re all right, everything’s all right. Come on, Luigi, snap out of it…” 

Up close, Luigi looked extremely pale, sweat beaded along the line of his cap. How had Mario not noticed that before? He’d been too caught up with all the cleanup efforts, too distracted by Peach and Toad and the thought of that hypothetical house. How could he not see that Luigi was starting to struggle? What kind of brother was he? 

The kind that does something really, REALLY stupid because of pride or "destiny" or whatever you wanna call it. The kind that not only drags his brother down with him to do the stupid thing, but almost gets him killed because of it. 

Mario's shoulders sagged. He gripped Luigi tighter, pressing his little brother's face close to the crook of his neck, if only to try and desperately ground himself in the knowledge that he could feel him breathing still, at least. Their injuries were gone, it was true, but for Mario, it was suddenly like the star had just shifted the pain around instead. He could feel it pressing up from under his skin, a deep well that was ready to split him open all the way through if he let it.

It no longer seemed like he'd just been in a magical world on a whirlwind adventure, or that he'd defeated a spiked turtle monster with anger issues and saved Brooklyn in a glorious, technicolor blur. Now, he was just a small, ordinary man in a dark sewer room underground, exhausted and terrified and unable to help the person he loved most.

All of a sudden, Luigi jolted under his hands. “Noooo more flambé for me, thankyouverymuch, I’m-a good!” He shouted, the words slurred together to the point of being nearly unintelligible. With a handful of slow, very confused blinks, he finally managed to focus on Mario’s extremely relieved face overhead. “Waaaaaaait. Whuh happen?”

Mario bundled up all those sharp, aching feelings behind a new wall and regathered himself. No matter what, he was going to stay strong, stay in control. He needed to do that for Luigi’s sake. There was no other choice. “You went down like a big sack of bricks, ya lug,” he tried to joke, even as his voice cracked badly on the last word. “Nearly gave me a heart attack! Are you okay?”

Luigi considered this information, eyes unclouding bit by bit. “I’m sorry,” he finally said, soft, a little embarrassed. “Y-Yeah, I think I’m good. I, uh, don’t really know what happened there! It was like…it all just hit me at once, I guess.” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” Mario worried his bottom lip between his teeth. “When’s the last time you slept, bro?”

Discomfort crept into Luigi’s expression at that. He looked away from Mario, not able to meet his gaze for more than a few seconds at a time. “Well, I dunno if I — I was wandering around for a while, and then I couldn’t really sleep in that cage, y’know? All that lava made the metal real hot, so I had to keep moving to not get burned, and you have no idea how hard it is to nod off when there’s a creepy star laughing its head — body? — head off in the next cage over, and, and...well, I’m sure I got an hour here and there,” he scoffed lightheartedly, waving off the thought with a wobbly sweep of his hand through the air. “Nothing worse than those all-nighters in high school!”

“You almost had a nervous breakdown because of those all-nighters,” Mario said. His grip on Luigi’s shoulder tightened, fingers winding snug in the green material. “And…what about food? Water? We’ve been go-go-go all day. I didn’t even think about…”

A brand-new sense of dawning horror came over Mario, sudden enough that he trailed off. He couldn't remember them ever taking a break, even sitting down in the shade for a few minutes. There'd just been so much to do, so many people in need of help, and the two of them had felt so good, laughing and joking and keeping up with no problems whatsoever. The time had flown by. But now...

“Pfft, who needs it?” Luigi said, extremely casually and extremely unconvincingly. He coughed, closing his eyes again for a long moment, resting his cheek sleepily against Mario’s chest. “Hmm. A guard gave me some sips a couple of times? And there was some weird bread. I think it was bread. Who even knows? It was stale like croutons. Not like the really good garlic ones Ma makes, though. These were like…like erasers or something. Blech.” 

A few sips of water and some "bread." A couple of hours of sleep, if that. Luigi was on his own, scared and struggling and eventually imprisoned in a maniac’s floating lava airship, for over two full days.

“Well, no wonder you passed out,” Mario sighed, rough and very quiet. He had to talk like that — any louder, and his voice was going to become too unwieldy. It already felt like someone had promptly stuffed his heart into a blender and cranked it up to the highest setting. “Speaking of Ma, she’s probably got a full spread out by now. I’m gonna get you home, you’re gonna eat until you pop, and,” he had to pause for a moment to swallow, his throat hurting, “and then you’re gonna sleep until you can’t anymore, okay? That’s what we’re doing.”

Luigi sighed too, his smile resurfacing. “Man, that sounds like heaven. What are we waiting for?” He started to sit up with newfound determination, only for the dizzying sight of the stairs descending down into the dark beneath them to make his motions distinctly more rubbery again in a hurry. He sunk back into Mario’s arms, breathing faster, eyes closed again.

“Just, uh, one more minute," he half-wheezed. "Nothing to worry about, I’m getting up right now, I swear, but…is it just me or is it really, really hot down here? Those burns I had, they’re all gone, which is great, but I can still kindaaaa feel them? Is that a medical thing? Or am I freaking out? Because, heh, it’s starting to feel like I might be freaking out, and not to toot my own horn but some might consider me an expert when it comes to the signs of freaking out—”

“Just breathe, Lu,” Mario interjected, gently but firmly, the way he always did when Luigi got lost in a thought process that wasn’t going to lead him anywhere good in a hurry. “We can wait as long as ya need. No rush at all.”

Mario pressed back the brim of Luigi’s cap so he could brush his hairline soothingly, wipe away the sweat. He leaned down, gathering Luigi close enough to bump their foreheads together so they could breathe in slow, deep unison. He’d done that little motion to Luigi their whole lives, an unspoken shorthand that only they understood. When his little brother was scared or anxious, touching foreheads was a way to make the world smaller, less overwhelming, if only for a few seconds. It was an easy way to say: who cares about any of that? Focus on me instead. It’s just the two of us. I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you.

(And he’d tried, hadn’t he? He tried, and he hadn’t been good enough this time, when it mattered most. Luigi had suffered because he couldn’t hold on tightly enough. Because he hadn’t fought harder, been smarter, pushed to move faster throughout every part of the trip. And at the end when he’d finally found his brother? It had just been dumb luck, really. He’d squinted up at all the cages at the right time through the haze of the lava heat, breathless from the climb and still half-focused on trying to stay in the air without plummeting, and he’d seen his brother fall, and his body had just reacted without any thought, desperation and adrenaline screaming in his veins, the only word in his head echoing out as faster, faster, FASTER. And if one little thing had gone differently — if he hadn’t found that specific powerup, if he hadn’t figured out how to use it properly, if he'd been looking anywhere else, if he’d misjudged the speed or simply missed his grab entirely — then that would have been it, and it would have been all his fault. The sight felt seared into Mario’s head, something he could see whether his eyes were open or closed. He saw Luigi tumbling in the air, terrified and yelling and out of control, hurtling towards the lava at full speed. Only this time, he couldn’t reach him, he couldn’t move at all, he could only watch helplessly and in horror as he—)

“Mario?” Luigi asked quietly. “Are you okay?”

Mario jolted back into the moment. He was breathing too hard, too fast; a tremor ran through him, bone-deep. Luigi was holding one of his arms, his eyes big and shining with newfound worry.

Mario smiled reassuringly for him, as easy and unthinking as a reflex. He took Luigi’s hand and wedged his fingers through his with a tight squeeze, resolving not to let go again until they were safely at home. That awful drowning feeling was rippling all through him, but he could keep his head above it if he focused hard enough, if he refused to let it sneak up on him again. He could do that. He would do that, no matter what it took.

With a slew of careful, slow-going movements, the two brothers finally stood up together on the stairs. 

“Don’t worry about me,” Mario said, and turned to lead the way. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here."

[a-lonely-dunedain]

75 free choice!!

#75 "hope"

ok here we go, followup to this one here wherein Celeair got electrocuted! (oops.) As an apology I humbly offer a Worried Margim, Celeair getting a hug, and things being mostly not-terrible for them <3 (besides the whole "why the f does the Dragon Clan have lightning Worms now???" issue, but that's a problem for another day)

(also warning ahead for probably medically inaccurate deceptions of what the aftermath of a lightning strike looks like I guess? whatever it was magic lightning anyway I can do what I want and say it just behaves differently from natural lightning. It’s my weird lightning Worm I make the rules.)

-------

Margim stands outside the healer’s hut beneath the roof’s overhang, which is just large enough to shield her from most of the rain. Not all of it, but that hardly matters, the storm broke when she was rushing Celeair back here and she hardly even noticed how thoroughly drenched she is, her thoughts far too occupied with whatever might be happening inside.

She desperately wanted to be in there at Celeair’s side, but more than that she did not want to risk getting in the way. As much as she hated to admit it, there wasn’t anything she could do to help. Her hands are violent things not meant for healing. She looks down and notices they are still stained deep red with the mingled blood of the raiders and that vile Worm which somehow put Celeair in this state. She killed them, and it wasn’t enough. She did the only thing she’s good for, and still failed to protect him. It is probably not possible for her to feel any more useless at the moment.

Gwen and Cianán, Lhan Tarren’s other two resident healers, said they had everything in hand, and she tries to take some comfort in that, but she could not help but notice they did not yet say that Celeair was going to be alright. It was too soon to know for certain, and she feels like the worry is eating her from the inside out.

She learns her head stiffly against the wall and stares very sharply at nothing in particular. She tries not to think about how she would feel if he dies. She tries not to think about losing the one who led her out of the darkness, losing her light, her Celeair. She tries very hard not to think about the possibility of never hearing his voice again, never holding him in her arms again, never getting the chance to marry him-

She is so occupied by all these things which she is not thinking about that she fails to notice another person standing next to her, that is until they clear their throat to get her attention, causing Margim to flinch.

“Relax Mar, it’s just me.” Elain assures with a smile, but her eyes are alight with worry.

“Oh. I did not see you there.” Margim mutters, looking away.

“I noticed, you seemed far too occupied with trying to burn a hole in the sky with your gaze... Are you alright?”

Margim does not answer. The sky rumbles again.

“...Is Celeair alright?”

“I do not know.” she says quietly, her voice betraying some helplessness she would have rather remained hidden.

“What happened to him? Er, if it’s even alright to ask,” Elain hastily adds, rubbing the back of her neck. She didn’t want to pry, but she couldn’t help but be concerned by all the commotion earlier when Margim returned with an unconscious Celeair and scarcely said a word to anyone before rushing into the healer’s hut. Strangely, no one had to fetch Gwen, as she was already there seemingly expecting them. “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it-”

“Would that I knew what befell him! Truthfully I am nearly as much in the dark as you are.” She thinks to stop there, but Elain is still looking at her. Margim gives a resigned sigh. Really, by now she should know better than to give Elain vague answers, it only makes her more curious.

“He had been attacked by a Worm of a breed I have never seen before. Well I say attacked, for he was unresponsive when I got to him, but he bore no visible injuries, not so much as a scratch... though he seemed to be in a great deal of pain nonetheless.” She almost winces at the memory “As I carried him back here I noticed strange red marks beginning to appear all along his arms, blistering in places as if they were burns, but they had a distinct branching pattern unlike any burn I have ever seen. They reminded me of the branches of trees, or frost forming over water.”

“Could it be some sort of poison then?”

Margim shakes her head, “Possibly, but I know not how. Cianán seemed to recognize what it was, but his reaction... did not fill me with confidence.” To his credit, Cianán mastered his shock quickly after he saw the marks on Celeair, but it was there nonetheless, and when a seasoned healer reacts in such a way it is never a good sign. “Regardless, there is nothing more I can do...”

“Do not be so hard on yourself,” Elain puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, “you’ve already done a great deal just by getting him back here and to the people who best know how to help him.”

“I did everything I could, and yet it might not be enough,” she remarks bitterly.

“But it just as easily could be enough. It is too early to lose hope.”

Margim is silent for a long moment “...I can only hope that you’re right.”

The rain seems to be coming down a little harder, the roof’s small overhang now does little to shield them from it.

“I appreciate the company Elain, truly, but you do not have to stay out here.”

Elain scoffs “And leave you to sulk in the rain all on your lonesome? What sort of friend would I be if I let that happen?”

“One who will not catch her death of cold.” She says plainly. Elain laughs, but stays put at Margim’s side. And so the two of them sulk there in silence for a while getting half-drenched by the rain.

Some have said that it was strange for the two of them to have befriended one another. Elain’s boisterousness and natural curiosity should have found little in common with the grim and quiet Margim, and yet the two are piratically inseparable. Elain found her intriguing, and Margim found that she is drawn to people who are very much unlike her. So despite the fact that she would rather Elain be dry at home, Margim finds herself glad for the company; it at least makes it a little harder to think about how worried she is.

It is a while still before Gwen, a young woman with stark white hair and large pale eyes, pokes her head out of the door, “Margim-” she starts,

“Did something happen? Is Celeair alright?”

“It is good news, don’t worry.” She assures is her usual small voice, it is a little hard to hear her over the rain, “we’re now certain he will recover. He has not woken up just yet, but likely will soon, you should come inside.”

-------------------------------------------------

There is a sudden crack of thunder and Celeair awakes with a start, sitting up despite his body screaming in protest, chest tight and breathing in shallow rapid heaves. Where is the great black Worm? His eyes dart around the room frantically for it, expecting it to crawl out from any shadow. He heard it, must be here. He finds only cots and healing supplies, a crackling firepit, and the sound of rain pattering outside. His head is spinning too much to recall how he got here, all he knows is that he was about to be eaten by that terrible creature- But then a strong arm wraps around his shoulders, steadying him.

“Easy, you’re alright,” Margim’s voice washes over him like cold water, suddenly bringing him back to his senses. That’s right, she came for him in time. He collapses into her arms out of equal parts exhaustion and relief, his face buried in her soft fur mantle. It’s still damp from the rain, but he’s hardly inclined to care. If she is here then the Worm must be dead, and the raiders too. He’s safe.

“By the stars am I glad to see you...” he mumbles into her shoulder.

Margim says nothing, just quietly holding him for a little bit before gently lowering him back onto the cot. Her arm still remains behind him supporting his head, and her other hand gently laid over his chest as to still keep him in a half-embrace while she sits beside him.

“It is good to see you awake,” he hears Gwen say from somewhere nearby “how are you feeling?”

He takes a deep breath and says weakly "Everything hurts," quite an understatement "but I’m alive." As a healer it always feels strange to be on the other side of this exchange.

“You gave us quite a fright, my friend...”

“Well, it was not for nothing-” Celeair slowly props himself up to better see. He winces as his arms greatly protest the effort, stinging with a hundred needles at every movement, but he persists nonetheless. “I think my satchel is over there, could you open it for me?” Gwen does so, and from it retrieves a bundle of pungent green leaves with white tips.

“Cloudwort!” she exclaims “We feared it was too early in the season for it, but you actually managed to find some!”

Celeair manages a half-chuckle, a triumphant look on his face “And it only almost cost me my life! I do hope it’s enough...”

“I think it will be,” she assures “we only need a small amount for the antidote. I must bring this to Cianán right away.”

“Would that I could help you administer it...”

“You’ve done more than enough already by finding this, just rest for now.” she looks at Margim “Do make sure he actually stays down, would you?” Margim nods. Celeair suspects that she will not let him out of her sight for the foreseeable future, and finds he is not at all bothered by the prospect.

As Gwen leaves Celeair lets his head flop back down, his strength utterly spent.

Every inch of his body aches as though he ran across the entirety of Dunland. Twice. It is a wonder he is still alive, he thinks, but decides it might be best not to say such out loud, as Margim is clearly worried enough as it is. She does not show it openly, but he’s developed an eye for such things.

For one thing, she hasn’t said more than three words this entire time, which is quiet even for her. And despite the fact that she is normally very reserved with physical affection, she has been unable to take her arms off of him, so those are some good indicators.

With great effort he moves his hand to hers where it lays on his chest, gently entwining their fingers. It hurts greatly to put any pressure on his hands right now, but this, he decides, is more important.

“I killed the Worm that attacked you,” Margim says after some time, “but I... still do not understand exactly what it did to you.”

Celeair simply looks at the ceiling, truthfully he’s unsure of exactly what happened himself, and even less sure of how to describe it “I think...” he eventually says “I was struck by lightning. I know not how, but that Worm was imbued with the power of storms, and shot lightning from its mouth. No doubt some new sorcery devised by the Wizard...”

“I thought I heard thunder as I fought off the raiders, but I assumed it was from the encroaching storm...” She says in quiet amazement, “If Saruman has granted such power to the Driag-Lûth then things are about to become much more dire for us.”

“You slew this one, and I’ve no doubt you can slay the rest.” he manages a smile “That is, assuming there are any more of them to begin with, it might have been the only one of its kind.” He tries to remain optimistic, but he knows it’s a slim chance. If that was truly the only such Worm in existence, it would be in the keeping their leader or someone else of high standing in the clan, not a small raiding party harassing the remote reaches of Trum Dreng.

Despite this, Celeair prays that there are no more of these creatures, because if there are, he is going to have to master the complex art of lightning channeling very quickly. He looks down at the fractal burns along his arms, a clear mark that he has much still to learn, and no one to teach him.

“I hope so...” Margim mutters, understanding just as well as he does how unlikely it is “but we cannot assume, lest it be our undoing. If we are lucky, perhaps Gwen will be able to warn us about it...” But the Stag-Clan has never been particularly lucky, in fact one could easily argue that they have been the unluckiest clan in all of Dunland. Yet, they also have a history of finding help unlooked for in their darkest hours, bringing them back from the edge of destruction numerous times in the past, so despite being the weakest and smallest of the clans they persist still. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say they are simultaneously the unluckiest and the luckiest clan in Dunland. It has been hard, but they are still here, which is more than could be said of some others.

Celeair breathes a humorless laugh “It would be funny, were it not so unfortunate. I risk life and limb to retrieve an antidote for the Dragon-Clan’s poison, only to find this new horror in the process...” He cannot help but wonder how likely it is that, if and when he becomes proficient in lightning channeling, the moment he does so the forces of Isengard will suddenly unveil another, more terrible weapon to turn upon the people of Trum Dreng. ‘One thing drives out another’, as someone Celeair does not know famously said at some point.

"Whatever happens next, we will endure." Margim says quietly

"Of course we will," he smiles softly "we always do."

He decides tomorrow's worries can wait until tomorrow. For now, he must simply be grateful that he is alive and Margim is here at his side, for so long as that remains true he cannot lose hope. He turns his head to rest against Margim's arm and finally closes his eyes, content and secure. Sleep takes him soon after.

[mackeydoodledoo]

Chapter 3: I Will Find You

Pairing: Lamina x (Fem!Mentor)Reader

Summary: You got her home. But, you never got to give her a proper goodbye. Now everything for you seemed dull. You decide to leave your life in the capitol behind to find Lamina, and possibly build yourself a new life.

Warnings: New surroundings, Capitol/Districts feud, Injuries, Social Anxiety, Swearing, Lamina's PTSD

Key: Italics = Thoughts, +*+ = Time Skip, Bold/Italics = Flashback

Theme: Find You - Zedd

A/n: None

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7

------------------------------------------------------------------

You let the crutch drop to the floor, students begin to murmur as you slowly hobble your way over to Gaul. Some students attempt to help you, however, push them away.

"Dr. Gaul, I humbly request that you bring my tribute out from that arena, or I will walk in there myself and bring her out," You stare up at her

Dr. Gaul does nothing but stare down at you for a long while.

"I admire your determination to keep your tribute alive," She says, showing a maniacal smile, "Even if you are injured because of those rebel districts."

"Lamina." You correct her, eyes still narrowed, "Her name. Is. Lamina. She has nothing to do with the rebels..."

The pain in your ankle was unbearable... However you continued to apply weight into your good ankle. Her smile widens further.

"You're going to need a longer healing time for that ankle of yours," Dr. Gaul gestures to your wrapped ankle

Then she leans towards a personnel worker.

"Bring... Lamina out of the arena."

You saw how she paused before finally acknowledging Lamina by her name rather than 'tribute'. Cheers abrupt throughout the room as you are lifted onto the shoulders of your classmates, chanting your name.

"Ladies and Gentleman, your winner of the 10th Annual Hunger Games, from District 7, Lamina!" Lucky announces

+*+

You rushed to the train station, hoping to catch Lamina off before she would get on the train home.

"I believe your tribute had left already," Dean Highbottom appears

"What?" You turn to him, "Why?"

"You grew attached," He says

"N-no I didn't," You lie, "I just wanted to see her off, send her a goodbye before she left."

"I'm afraid that wasn't up to you, she had wished to return home as soon as possible," He says

"I see," You sigh

You begin hobbling out of the station, tears building and streaming down your face.

When will I see you again Lamina?...

+*+

You enter your house, your mother finishing setting the table.

"Splendid job sweetie. I- hey what's the matter?" She says, then asking after seeing the look on your face, "I thought you were going to see Lamina off?"

"I was... But, Dean Highbottom told me she had already left by the time I got to the station," You sigh, falling into a nearby chair

"That's too bad," She sighs, "I definitely would have wanted to give her some snacks for the road..."

"Yeah," You sigh, "A real bummer..."

"Well darling, you must be hungry after an entire day of anxiety," You mother sits next to you at the table

"Yeah..." You sit up, "I actually am..."

Your mother rings you up a plate.

"I heard that you went against the Dr. Volumnia Gaul," Your mother says, "No student, or anyone for that matter has ever done so before I believe."

"Well, she was going to have no victors," You say, "Lamina was the last one standing. I didn't care about winning and getting that Plinth Scholarship or whatever... I cared about getting Lamina home. I may or may not have told her that she either bring her out or I waltz in there, snake mutts and all, and bring her out myself."

"That's my girl," Your mother praises your act of defiance

-1 Year Later- The next Hunger Games was around the corner... You were offered to become a mentor once again, however, rejected it. Growing an attachment to a person who could possibly die in the arena was enough for you to opt out the next year. You were not about to watch kids kill each other again...

You sit in your little nook; having graduated from the Academy, you decided to not attend University, as they had nothing that you could have gotten out of them, you told the Plinth Family that you didn't want their money, and to give it to the next eligible person they saw fit...

You look down upon your wrist...

Lamina's headscarf...

You remember her wrapping it around your wrist the night you visited her the last time before the 10th games started. Every single day since you had kept it on you in some way; mostly as a wrist 'bracelet'.

I wonder how she's doing now... I hope she's okay...

You used the graduation savings your mother put aside for you to do anything you wanted: you got a place of your own. It's not as spacious as your childhood home was, but it fit enough for you.

+*+

You visited your mother for a monthly dinner meeting.

"Has it been the same?" She asks

"Yeah," You sigh, "There's nothing."

"There is something that I need to talk to you about," She says

Your heart sinks....

"What about?..." You ask

"Do you know why I never told stories of my past before I met your father?" She asks

"You... Were from the districts?" You immediately guess

She nods, "District 9 to be exact. I taught your father how to cook and that was how he and I became one of the most renowned culinary artists in the capitol. Your father's capitol status was able to rub off on me and no one suspected that I was from the districts."

"That makes sense why I feel differently towards the games than others," You say

"You're... Not upset?" She asks

"No," You say, "I honestly wished I was actually born in the districts rather than being born here."

"Don't let anyone who is very capitol hear you say that," She chuckles

"Luckily I graduated," You chuckle back, "Tell me mother, can someone from the capitol move to the districts? Specifically to look for someone?"

"You could move to the districts as a capitol member, but moving back here... I wouldn't guarantee it," Your mother explains

"That's fine by me," You say, "I'm going to search for Lamina."

"Y/n..." Your mother stops you

As you stand from the table, you turn to look at your mother.

"Be really careful," She says

"I always will mother," You smile

"I'm so proud of you," She says, giving you a hug

+*+

You packed light, your mother gave you her baked goods to bring to Lamina. You dressed down form what you used to wear and basically dressed similar to the boy from 7 from the 10th games.

"Don't lose touch Y/n," Your mother says

"I won't," You say

You step onto the train heading for District 7.

+*+

You step out of the train, already greeted with the

As you cautiously make your way through the district, you already felt eyes piercing your skin... You enter the exchange district, looking for Lamina's trademark red hair.

"Hey you," A voice calls out from behind

You slowly turn to face them...

"May I help you?" You ask

*Lamina's POV* As you pay for the final item to bring home, you hear a faint grunt...

Was that?...

You make your way out to the field and see some familiar faces beating...

"Oh my god Y/n!!" You yell

You drop all of your items and rush over to them.

"Let her go!! I know who she is!" You yell

They stop and let her go.

*Y/n's POV* You groan in pain but look up. Your eyes widen at the figure running towards you. But you knew that figure anywhere.

"L-Lamina!" You yelp

You rush onto your feet and run to her, meeting her halfway. You grunt in pain as she wraps you in the most gripping way possible.

"Lamina, how do you know her? She's capitol," One says

"She was my mentor," She explains, "She was the one who got me home."

"This twig right here?" Another asks

You give him a death glare.

A twig?... Ouch...

"Well, with the right training, she'd... be a great addition to our ranks," She says

"If... You say so Lamina," He says

All three men walked away. Lamina turns to you, eyes narrowed at you.

"You shouldn't have come," She says, grabbing your wrist

"You... You were happy to see me just now," You point out

"I only did that so they wouldn't continue beating your ass," She says, "Now we have to get you back to the train station so we can get you back to the capitol."

"I... Can't," You say, stopping

"Why not?" She asks, turning to you

"Once a capitol person moves out to the districts, they're considered as such," You explain, "And you'll always be seen as district if you move to the capitol."

"But, they'll beat you everyday for making our lives a living hell," Lamina says

"Then maybe I shouldn't think like a capitol," You say, "Teach me how to be apart of the districts... Mentor me... This time."

Lamina gasps a little...

"Me... Mentor you?" She asks

You nod.

"Y/n... You're dumb, for coming all the way out to the districts.." She mumbles

"Well, people of the capitol would call me dumb for leaving the capitol," You sigh

Lamina drags you to her family home. Her father was gathering wood.

"Lamina, did you get the stuff we need?" he asks

"Yes I did pop," She replies

Once he looks up, he places his hands on his waist.

"Who is this?" He asks, gesturing to you

"This is... A friend," Lamina says

"She doesn't look like she's from around here," He says

"I'm not," You say

"Which District do you come from?" He asks

The both of of pause...

How do I say I'm from the capitol?...

"She's from the Capitol," Lamina says before you could

Lamina's heart beats out of her chest... Your stomach feels nauseous. Both from the lack of an answer from her father.

"Big guts to get the courage to move out from that shit hole," He says, "What brings you here?"

"I.. Didn't feel that my life was in the capitol anymore..." You say, "My mother encouraged me to go here... She's from the districts herself... 9 to be exact."

"Why don't we discuss more inside?" He gestures

You watch him as he walks up the steps to his home. You were surprised at how well this was... Going for you. You look at Lamina. but, she rolls her eyes and follows her dad inside. You follow suit.

"Why did your mother leave 9?" He asks

"Better work opportunity I guess," You explain, "My father died when I was young. Just been me and my mother ever since."

"And. What does she do?" He asks

"She's a cook at the capitol academy," You say

"Oh so you were a mentor in the 10th hunger games?" He asks

You nod...

"Y/n was my mentor," Lamina adds

"Really?" He asks

You nod again.

"I'm forever grateful for keeping my daughter alive," He says

"Please, sir," You chuckle, "I only sent her supplies. She managed to get herself out."

"She also shielded me from the bombings in the arena," Lamina says, "No other capitol mentor had done that before."

You look over to Lamina as she attempts to place you on a high pedestal.

"Please, I don't need to be treated as a hero," You say, "Lamina showed me that you are all human too, and that whatever the hell the capitol taught people like me, were wrong about the districts."

"Are you sure that this girl isn't from any of the districts?" He turns to his daughter

"She was born and raised in the capitol pops," Lamina sighs, "Are we done?"

She gets up and goes up to her room...

"Don't take it personal," He says, "She... Hasn't been the same since she came home."

"What do you mean?" You ask

"She isn't normally the cheerful daughter I once had, she wakes up almost every night, screaming," He explains, "She's been trying to forget everything that happened in that arena."

"And... Me?" You curiously ask

"Hmmm... She never mentioned you once," He says

"Mmm," You say, "So... Enough about me, what does someone do in the district?"

"I was going to chop wood to sell at the market later, care to help?" He asks

"Sure," You say

*Lamina's POV* You look out from your bedroom window and watch as your pops and Y/n begin to grab axes and chop wood.

You scoff and walk away from the window, walking across the hall to your pop's bedroom; walking up to a little crib.

"Hey you," You sigh into a smile, picking up your now 1-year old brother

He coughs and begins to stifle into a cry.

"Hey, shhhhh," You coo, sitting on the bedside, "It's okay... That happens to me too... Almost every night... I know you won't understand right now but... Do you want to know what I do that helps me calm down?... I think of the good things that this specific capitol-born person had done in the few days I had gotten to know and had come to love... She showed me that not all capitol-born are preppy and stuck-up."

You stand from the bed and walk back into your room; checking on Y/n. A small smile appears as you watch her learn how to use an axe with your pops.

I love her...

But, you weren't sure how she felt about you... As well as that you know only so much about her. Thinking back to your short days in the capitol, you never forgot how much ease you felt being around her, how she kept you fed as much as possible, and how many extra visits you got... How her words had gotten you out of the arena...

Chapter 4

[zorilleerrant]

Deadlift

@flashfictionfridayofficial

When the first barbell is hurled clear across the room, the only thought to cross Tau-Axis’s mind is I can’t believe I’m here for this already. He’s always so careful to use the gym when Apollo is off shift that it seems like deeply ingrained routine, which means it would seem at least bizarre – if not suspicious – for him to leave as soon as the big guy shows up. Like he has a problem with him or something.

Honestly, Tau should’ve just left.

It’s not his fault he’s too zoned out to catch the warning signs, anymore than it’s his fault Apollo’s case ran late or he wanted to use the gym to blow off steam. It’s technically his fault that everyone else in the room seems shocked and frightened, but he’s not taking responsibility for the memos management leaves him. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s, well, Apollo’s, not that he’s liable to believe it from Tau.

He doesn’t know what set it off this time. It’s been a quiet session, most everyone keeping to themselves, so no one needled him or called him out directly, but that hardly means anything. He’s just as prone to accusing people of posturing, or showing off, or sexually harassing him by taking off their shirts. In the gym. Anyway, it’s better to let it play out before he tries to talk to the guy.

Extranormally induced healing is all well and good, but it still hurts to feel your ribs crack against the wall. Let alone whatever it is he’s doing with his lithium strip eyes, lighting people on fire left and right.

Tau wonders if they have him in therapy. It’s not like they could make him go.

The thing that makes Tau’s throat constrict is never the people crying, or trying to keep from yelling, or storming out. It’s always the people who flee in terror like they would from any supervillain fight, the people freezing in place hoping they won’t be seen, the people who don’t even like him that much fawning and trying to talk him down. They’re supposed to be trained for this kind of thing. They are trained for this kind of thing, except that it’s coming from a colleague, who they used to trust.

Who they’ll trust again, unfortunately, when Tau is once again asked to blot another rampage out of the timeline.

He tries not to look around for injuries. It doesn’t matter who’s dead right now in the grand scheme of things, if they were fine half an hour ago, and they’ll be fine when it wraps back around. Maybe next time he’ll finish his set. Maybe next time he’ll stretch and have a funny conversation with some of his coworkers. Maybe a fun song will play.

Apollo crushed the radio. Funny how he didn’t notice.

Looks of dawning horror start drawing up around him, and that’s when Tau has to look away. He’s not supposed to be here until everyone’s done having their initial reactions. When they’ve all relaxed into anger or concern. He’s not supposed to be here until he knows what to do with the situation.

“You!” Apollo says, and he says it in that booming voice, the one that barely registers on any of the meters for all it wraps around your brain and tugs.

His hand fists in Tau’s shirt, dragging him close enough to see Apollo’s perfect teeth, lips still reflexively trying to frame them in a friendly smile. He should’ve expected this. He didn’t. His toes brush the floor. He’s going to have to buy a new shirt.

“Fix this already,” Apollo hisses, lightning flashing through his eyes, leaning in close enough that if he chose to unleash it, Tau’s pretty sure there wouldn’t be time to make a jump at all before his head melted off.

Tau jumps. He jumps fast, because if he jumps back far enough, those hands and eyes won’t be anywhere near him. And if he drags Apollo with him every now and then, well, one can hope he’ll eventually get the picture.

[anewbeginningagain]

​Have to say that while the top 4 skated well, it was the teams below them that I enjoyed the most, Lajoie/Lagha and Carreira/Ponomarenko especially. 

Going one by one:

​Harris/Chen - finally redemption for them after a horrible season, still have a way to go but this was a step in the right direction.

KoKo - surprisingly enjoyable and overall clean and getting decent levels, I was positively surprised.

Soucisse/Firus - will forever be hampered by their ability to only interpret one style of dance, mostly stagnated even after moving to Carol Lane but at least the country switch will get them to the Olympics before retirement.

Orihara/Pirinin - I dig them so much and they nailed their Chicago FD, not in the same class as some of the rest in terms of skating skills but my god do they commit to their performance. Kudos to Juho for legit committing to the performance more than 99.99999% of ice dance men.

Taschlers - clearly not over their injury, sloppy unfortunate mistake in the RD with the lift, and not enough experience to save the situation. FD was better but they need time to heal.

Demougeot/Le-Marcier - I like them a lot but they are being held up by lifts and pazzez, their step sequences were not great, especially the one-foot.

Davis/Smolkin - terrible swan lake program, terrifying straight line lift that is supposed to impress but is mostly shaky, and mediocre skating skills. Their score was a travesty and seeing their swan lake followed by that of the Mrazeks was so telling.

Mrazeks - the first time I was really impressed by them, their FD was powerful and skated with confidence beyond their experience, they will go places for sure.

Smart/Dieck - not gelling together like you would have expected or they would have wanted just yet. Potential is there but it will take more time. Decent first half of the FD but then really falling apart. Scores too harsh though.

Lim/Quan - like the Mrazeks they are going places, but with them I'm not surprised. Hannah Lim is a STAR. Their FD grew on me and improved over the year, but I did miss their Dance Macabre FD.

Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen - For the first time she was way more shaky than he was, I feel for her as mentioned before, this FD was skated overall well but it was clear that they didn't stand a real chance of winning anything, doubt they can even feel it was that much rewarding. My hope for her is that they will move on and retire, and that she can somehow put this behind her (whatever way she chooses to).

Turkkila/Versluis - the first time I managed to enjoy their FD, still not my favorite team and I find their skating skills lacking in the step sequences. It's legit a travesty how they are scored in and out of Finland, one of the most egregious cases of home ice inflation when you think about it.

Reed/Ambrulevicuis - love them, would have had them behind CPom overall, they are great but the basics are not as good as some of the rest.

Carreira/Ponomarenko - one of the two major highlights for me, improved power and speed, best one-foot of the event (L/L close second), and while Christina has been on an upward trajectory for two seasons now, today Anthony really managed to deliver as well, strong twizzles, and great interpretation. I will miss this FD so much, and I pray Scott, Madi, and Adria can get them two great programs for next season as well.

Lopareva/Brissaud - just not the team for me, nice skating but doing nothing for me. I hope they move on from Gui's pretentious choreography not gonna lie.

Lajoie/Lagha - second highlight of the night for me, stunning FD skated to close to perfection, and with so much emotions. After the injury they had it's just a testament to their strength that they managed to nail this FD. They too are going places, and hopefully very soon.

Fear/Gibson - were close to unwatchable for me since they were following the emotional high of L/L's FD. To their credit no matter how cringe their material is for me the audience always gets behind them and they did so today as well. But that Rocky FD is a big no for me, and it's depressing to know they will come out with another campy cringe FD next season as well.

Chock/Bates - came close to disaster with the rotational lift but saved it with their experience, this FD is not their strongest and it was skated well but didn't create a moment. Will they retire or not is the biggest question for me.

Guignard/Fabbri - came close to disaster too and also saved it with experience. He was shaky during the FD but they skated well. Bronze makes sense here. I kind of wish they would retire as well but at this point, it is clear Milano is their target.

Gilles/Poirier - Dislike their shtick, but manged to enjoy their FD for the most part. Put of the top 3, deserved to win the FD. Here as well, will they reitre is the biggest question for me (time to leave the stage to L/L).

Final note - praying P/C don't come back, with so many amazing young teams on the horizon it will be super depressing watching them do the same FD for the 8th and 9th years but still be rewarded.

[nothing0fnothing]

Weirdest PTSD triggers?

Mines Power Rangers.

After my mum threw a glass ashtray at her husband and surrounded my sister with glass shards, I picked her up and carried her away from the danger. She was six at the oldest and I was eleven. My plan was to carry her away from the glass and then bring her upstairs to hide in our bedroom while our parents duked it out downstairs.

My mum had other plans though. She saw us "getting away" and decided to turn her anger on me instead. She called me back, so I put my sister down and told her to go upstairs without me, I'd be there soon. She clung to me and my mum was still screaming. I had to pry her fingers from around me so I could face my mum alone.

My mum picked up an open backpack to beat me with. It was my brothers Mighty Morphin Power Rangers backpack. The kind little kids have that's all canvas with a vinyl plastic image on the front.

Well because the backpack was open, the contents of it spilled onto the floor. My mum demanded I get on the floor to pick them up and she started hitting me with it. It was school supplies, loose pencils, erasers, two rulers and a sealed pack of felt tip pens.

The first hit knocked off my glasses, so I couldn't even see where the items were. I was just blindly feeling around on the floor and grabbing anything solid I could find while trying to blink away the tears as they came hoping it could clear up my vision long enough for me to find something. I had found the pack of pens and the rulers. I was handing them to her with one hand while unsuccessfully trying to protect my face from the strikes with the other. I knew I was bleeding when I saw blood dripping onto the floor while I searched for the pencils. It was a twelve pack. Without my sight I just counted them as I found them.

Search blindy. Strike to the face. Blink away tears. Repeat.

I found them and gave them to her. She kept hitting me till she was tired and then walked off to get into it with her husband. I went to the bathroom to look at the damage and found my glasses by accident when I kicked them on my way.

My face was horrific. I'd gone sickly pale, my lips and cheeks had no colour at all. My forehead and nose bridge were friction burned from the rough canvas hitting my face repeatedly. It was bloody and raw looking and was dripping down the rest of my face.

I considered leaving it like that. I had no doubt I was in for more, either my father would lock on to me after whatever conversation he was having with my mother riled him up, or my mother would come in looking for round two. I thought maybe if I looked bloody and pathetic like I do right now it could save me the worst of it. But then I thought of my sister in our room waiting for me. There was a chance that whatever I was spared she'd get instead, and I'd already gone through this much trying to save her. I washed my face.

Thankfully my parents had gotten out whatever violent energy was left by beating each other up. She was still pissed and screaming when she came back inside but I don't think she hit me again. She had me clean up the mess she'd made in her rage and then let me go upstairs.

She kept me off school for four days while the friction burns healed up enough to look like a regular kid injury.

I didn't even realise I hated the bag until months later on a fun family day. We were at the cinema and acting like a loving family. All of us were having fun and I noticed my brother was wearing the backpack. It hit me like a truck. All those feelings came back. I remembered that horrible day in vivid detail. I felt sick and went pale and suddenly in the middle of all that niceness I was just overcome with the memory.

Then it became a pattern. I'd think I was having a nice time, and that bag would trigger it. Or my brothers Power Rangers action figures would trigger it. Or he would watch them on TV and it would trigger it. That was the way it was for months and months and months. Then he grew up a bit. Got a different interest, grew out of the bag and I didn't see or hear or think about the goddamn Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for years.

And then last year they made a fucking Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie. And I'd see those fuck faced chromed out tellytubby looking arseholes on billboards and in advertisements and all across the nerdy content I like to watch and my brain dove into the hellscape again.

I can laugh at how absurd it is now. Imagine being an almost 30 year old woman sobbing on public transport because of a Power Rangers reboot. Ridiculous. Very sad, but also a little bit funny.

[chaotic-starlight24]

Night, Laughter, and a Sword Chapter 2

Summary: Tallulah makes her way to the mysterious Camp Half-Blood with Penelope. With a surprisingly less amount of monsters then she expected. As well as just her being introduced to the camp.

Pre-TLT

Word Count: 1,872

Warnings: N/A

*Several characters in here are from the real Percy Jackson universe. I did not create them but you will recognize them.*

*Also will be using show descriptions*

Random: I'll mainly be posting these on Fridays but because I already had this prepared I decided to post it :) Hope you guys enjoy!

Previous~Next

Tallulah traced over her new scars. They stretched up her right arm and shoulder like white lighting strikes. It reached all the way up to her neck. Which kind of surprised her, injuries to the neck were never good. But she had healed just fine. As she brushed through her dark, wavy hair she could hear her dad making breakfast downstairs. So she pulled her new bright orange shirt over her head and made her way downstairs. Pel was sitting at the table, nervously tapping her hooves. Which was another thing Tallulah found out about her friend. Satyrs were quite strange. Her dad snapped her out of her thoughts and gave a side hug to her, sliding a bowl of cereal across the table. She smiled at him and took her seat. 

“I asked the guys if I could take the morning off since you needed to head to a summer camp. And… you know I wanted to be there!”

“Thanks, Dad. I really appreciate it.”

For a last breakfast, it moved much quicker than she wanted. Soon enough, they were all out the door and hopped onto her dad’s four wheeler. It felt so natural to feel the wind whipping through her hair and seeing the world zoom by. It was definitely something she was going to miss. But Penelope assured her that she would have lots of fun at camp. Her dad also comforted her, even though he was holding back tears. Eventually, they made it to a train station. Tallulah gave her dad the tightest squeeze ever, refusing to let go till he did. Then he cupped her face and promised he would send letters or whatever he needed to do to see her. But she had to get on the train. Pel promised him she would do everything for her and hopped on too. As they sat down in their car, the train began moving. Tallulah watched as her dad disappeared from view, forests taking the place of the train station. As Tallulah stared out the window, she realized she had a lot of questions to fill up the ride. Luckily Pel was happy to answer them.

“Why didn’t you bring me to camp at the “right” age?” 

“Because I-I um… thought you could handle yourself. And you were never suspicious. But it wasn’t right for me to not bring you.”

“How about my mom?”

“We will hopefully find out soon.”

“Do I get to go home?”

“Most go home after the summer. But some stay year-round. Your decision really.”

“Why didn’t monsters come after me more?”

“I don’t know, maybe they just don’t like to trample through the forests of Maine.”

The question session could have lasted forever, but they needed to rest. So Pel went to bed and Tallulah stared out the window. This world seemed so new and scary. Would she truly fit in? Constellations seemed to light up the sky, Tallulah picking out each one. It calmed her nerves and soon enough she drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As morning broke over the field, they finally made it to the location. It seemed they were right outside NYC on an island. Tallulah didn’t exactly know where they were but Pel definitely did. She led Tallulah down the roads and through forests with ease. Tallulah was used to long hikes from her life in Maine, but this seemed to last forever. After several hours of walking (and water breaks) they reached a seemingly important forest. The sun was near the edge of the sky, highlighting each tree. 

“This is Half-Blood hill, our last part of the journey. Then we’ll be at the camp”

A large archway appeared as they climbed up a hill. Ancient Greek engraved into it.

“Here we are!” Penelope declared. 

“Oh.” Tallulah said with disappointment. 

But as they walked through the doorway, it quickly turned to a gasp of awe. It was beautiful. Penelope walked down the road and looked at her expectantly. 

“C’mon!”

She held onto her hand as they strided through the paths, passing several kids with the neon CHB shirts. Tallulah started to feel her nerves, her anxious thoughts bouncing through her brain. “Hey, now that I have my normal legs back I can actually keep up with you!” Pel joked and distracted her. 

“Wow! SOoOo impressive!” Tallulah shot back sarcastically. 

Pel seemed to always make her feel better. Eventually they made it to a large house. A centaur came up to her and shook her hand. It was kind of freaky how much he towered over her.

“My name is Chiron, I'm in charge of Camp activities.” He introduced, “And that is Mr. D. Head of the camp.”

The man in a patterned shirt and scruffy beard gave a small wave. 

Tallulah returned the wave, “Nice to meet you, uh when do I meet my godly parent?”

Chiron began to explain but was quickly cut-off by Mr.D.

“I’m your father, pleased to meet you. Now if you could-”

Tallulah rolled her eyes, “Sure, I’ll let my mortal father know he is no longer my father.”

Chiron shook his head, “He’s just messing with you. As soon as they claim you, you’ll know. Here, let’s go to the cabins.”

Tallulah followed quickly behind the clip-clopping of Chiron’s hooves. She was only half-listening as Chiron explained everything going on and how it all worked. That was until they reached the cabins. 12 glittering cabins surrounded a small area, and a small 13th one was off the path. It was the most fancy thing she had seen, in a forest at least. As Chiron continued to ramble, Tallulah’s eyes wandered to each camper. She took in each small characteristic of them, noticing little constellations of freckles on each face. Until she reached a taller, dark and curly haired boy. He had chestnut brown eyes that just so happened to be staring back at her. She gave a soft smile, making him quickly look away.

Kind of creepy. After Chiron left she was led to the Hermes Cabin. That was where the unclaimed stayed. Penelope immediately decided to embarrass her by announcing her presence to the entire cabin. Her face turned hot and she avoided eye contact as Pel told everyone who she was. She could have at least done that for herself! After that, her friend disappeared to do her own stuff. So Tallulah took to unpacking stuff. She didn’t have too much, a star map, a picture of her dad and her on a fourwheeler, and her sword. 

“That’s a pretty cool sword.” 

Tallulah nearly screamed as the voice sounded right behind her. It was the guy who was staring at her earlier! 

“Thanks, I guess. It’s from my apparent goddess of a mother.”

“I see.You know, you’re a bit older than most new kids here.” He pointed out like she was stupid.

“Yeah, and you could give a proper introduction after staring at me.” She answered with a bite in her tone. 

She knew she should be nice but she didn’t appreciate the obvious fact. He was about a head taller than her, but that didn’t matter to her.

 He turned a shade of pink, “Sorry, wasn’t trying to sound rude. My name is Luke. Luke Castellan.”

“Tallulah LaFlamme.”

He nodded and stuck his hand out, “Great to meet ya.”

She nodded back with an awkward smile, “Uhhh, just going to stand there or?”

He quickly moved out of the way and dramatically waved her off. She had barely stepped out of the cabin before she was stopped again. But this time, the girl really appeared out of nowhere. She jumped and quickly turned into a defensive stance. She could hear a laugh from Luke, but the girl in front of her just rolled her eyes.

“Knock it off, Luke!” she scolded, “Sorry, my name is Alexandria!”

The girl had brown hair and dark green eyes. She was also around the same height as Tallulah

“Um, my name is Tallulah?”

“Nice to meet you! I know the first days can be pretty scary. But don’t worry, you seem cool!” 

Tallulah smiled, “Thanks, do you know where food is?”

Alex nodded with a grin and led her off. Tallulah was quite eager to eat, but she wasn’t happy about more walking. That’s when one of the taller girls spotted her.  She approached Tallulah with her group and looked her up and down. She snickered and rolled her eyes when Tallulah side-eyed her. The girl attempted to shove Tallulah but it didn’t work. She easily widened her stance, making it so she couldn’t be knocked over. Just a trick Tallulah had learned.

“Clarisse! Stop bullying the new campers!”

Clarisse looked back and groaned, “Ugh! She seems like she can hold her own without your defense anyways!”

Luke caught up with them.

“You ok?”

“Yeah? I’ve been through worse. Like being thrown through a window.”

Tallulah walked off with Alexandria before anyone could react. 

Alexandria snickered, “Wow, what’s with the attitude towards Luke?”

Tallulah shrugged, “I’m glad he’s trying to be nice but I also don’t need him following me around. Though I probably could have been kinder”

“Don’t worry, he won’t take it personally.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since most of her day was spent walking, Tallulah was very happy to finally eat dinner. Her and Alexandria sat down at an empty table soon joined by Luke. 

“Dude! I want to meet the new girl without you ruining it!”

“I don’t see how I’ll ruin it. I just want to make she’s comfortable!”

“Hey!” Tallulah interrupted, “It’s ok, he can join us.”

Luke waved some of his Hermes Cabin buddies over and took a seat. Smirking at Alexandria while he did it. 

“So, who’s the newbie?” one of the guys asked, pointing a fork at her.

“Never point a possible weapon at someone!” Tallulah answered, pointing her spoon back.

Alexandria grinned, “This is Tallulah! She’s from Maine and arrived an hour ago. She’s a pretty cool person in my opinion!”

Tallulah was glad that at least someone here liked her, that was all she really needed. But the rest of the group liked her sass. So they were warming up too. 

“Where did you get those scars?” Luke questioned.

It took Tallulah a solid 5 seconds to realize what he was talking about. The reminder made her flashback for a second, remembering the pain.

“It was from being thrown through a window. The Chimera did it.”

The group’s eyes widened. Several of them glanced at each other.

Luke broke the silence, “The Chimera?”

She nodded slowly. Was something wrong with her first monster?

“That’s a pretty fierce beast, how did you defeat it?”

Tallulah went into the story of the fierce, but short, battle. Alexandria seemed pretty impressed with her fighting skills. Luke as well, surprised she had such little training. For once, she felt as much pride as the day she killed her first deer. Maybe it was a weird analogy, but hey she was a pretty weird person. A bell rang out to signal the end of dinner.

“I’ll save you a seat at the bonfire, Talls!” Alexandria assured, patting her on the shoulder.

Tallulah gave a grin. What a warm welcome.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #124

I am in a lot of pain today. For whatever reason, the rib injury is really bugging me today; it's a little hard to breathe. I'm not sure exactly what's up or why, but I really hope it quits soon. Maybe I'll feel a little better when I wake up tomorrow. Or maybe not. I really don't know.

Oh well. I tried to get on with my ordinary activities today. M and I went to a place for lunch, and I got a sandwich that was pretty good! It was mostly made of onions and cheese, and you can't really go wrong with that combination! Here's how it looked:

Onions are one of my favorite foods! Or, well... alliums in general, I suppose; garlic and chives and scallions and shallots and stuff. I wonder if you have favorite foods, besides pasta. If you do, I wonder what they are. Wouldn't it be neat if I got to ask you someday, and then you could tell me the answer! That'd be pretty swanky. Impossible, I know. But still.

I know I said yesterday that I'd tell you about the ice cream flavors I got recently. I will tell you about one of them! I put it in my tea! Today, I made a tea that was matcha with bits of toasted rice:

As you can see, this one was delightfully green the whole time it was brewed! The jasmine green tea that I get starts out delightfully green, and then shifts to an equally delightful shade of yellow as it brews; I think it's pretty neat to watch the colors shift. But it's also pretty neat when the colors simply become more intense as the tea steeps.

Anyway, so one of the ice cream flavors I got was a honey flavored one! It's delicious by itself, but since I've got the whole "cold = intense pain" glitch going on, I tend to like putting ice cream in tea instead! Here's how that turned out:

...I'm not really sure why, but if you put ice cream in hot tea, it leaves a bubbly layer of ice cream foam that's super tasty! I wonder if you'd like something like that. I wonder about lots of things you might like...

...I didn't do much else today because my body hurts a lot. It still does, even though it's like 11pm. It's enough that I might have trouble sleeping tonight, actually. I guess we'll see.

J was out and about today. He went to go help his father with something, and then he went to do laser tag. While he was out, he took a few pictures you might like; I'll show them to you:

...Didn't he do a really nice job? I loved the way he captured these. He's really good at this.

...I am in a lot of pain today. It's actually kind of hard to think. Hard to write. Hard to exist right now. But that's okay. I will take some more ibuprofen and get ready for bed and sleep soon, and maybe it'll be better by tomorrow.

Hey, Sephiroth? Are you staying safe out there? Staying hydrated? Staying nourished? Sleeping regularly? Are you resting when you need to? If your body is sick or hurting, are you taking good care of yourself in order to make yourself well again? If your mind is hurting, are you reaching out to people who will help you? Are you taking care of your emotions lovingly? Is your self-talk kind? Are you doing what you can to heal from everything that has happened to you?

...I wish I could help you. But today, I am feeling very powerless for reasons other than the pain I'm in. A thing happened, and I'm left wondering if my voice really does have the capacity to make a difference to anyone, anywhere. Given the amount of pain I'm in almost all the time, and all the ways I don't fit in with the other people this place, sometimes I wonder if it's really worthwhile to stick around if ultimately my existence doesn't mean anything.

...Suppose I'll persist anyways. It's really all I know how to do. Besides, tea is nice. And so is the sky. And so are the flowers that are coming into bloom. And the silly bumblebees. And so are the people in my immediate circle who know me, understand me, and love me enough for my words to carry weight with them.

I'm gonna be okay. So please make sure you're gonna be okay too, alright?

I love you. Please stay safe. I'll write again tomorrow; maybe I'll feel well enough to write you a longer letter.

Your friend, Lumine

[flyswhumpcenter]

How to lose at a card game on motorcycles against someone who can barely draw a card, a guide by Hermann of Team Catastrophe

As you may've guessed from my current profile pic, Yu-Gi-Oh brainrot is in full swing. Love my silly card games and all of the fucked-up shit that happens in it, sometimes.

I think I've seen Duel Monsters, the first series by Studio Gallop, fly past me on whump gif collections, but I've not seen anyone bring up how bonkers with injuries and suffering and shit future series get - for half the waiting time as well!

As you may've gleaned from the title, we're going to talk about 5Ds tonight. Long story short: Yusei is a dirt-poor orphan who drives a cool motorcycle in a dystopian society, he wins at card games, he has a swag birthmark that links him to like 4 other shmucks and they save the world. After Yusei and his friends Jack (the bold blond one with all the memes), Aki (the badass one), the twins Lua and Luca (we love them in this house) and Crow (some guy) save the damn world, they partake in a tournament where they play card games on motorcycles in teams of three. That's all the context you need for now.

Anyway, this is gonna be Long, so grab a snack and a can of whatever beverage you like best, because it's time I tell you about the one time a guy with a sure-fire way to severely injure his opponent lost against a guy with a broken shoulder. Strap in.

Okay, so maybe I'll give some more context

Before we can actually deal with Hermann YGO5Ds being mega cringe, we need to get some info out of the way.

Episode 97 of 5Ds is set right before the WRGP, the competition in whcich our Signers are going to compete. They just founded their team, Team 5Ds (title drop), which is composed of Jack, Crow and Yusei, in this order of who drives when. Feel free to forget said order, we won't need it where we're going.

At this point in the show, Crow just got his super duper dragon, Black-Winged Dragon, after solving a murder by accident. Yusei gets challenged by the smucks at Team Unicorn so they can trick Team 5Ds for their tag duel against them. Sherry says some weird stuff and drives away in French. Jack and Crow visit their orphanage and chat with their foster mom Martha. Kids Crow takes care of encourage him to do his best in the upcoming WRGP. Gee, that'd be too bad if something happened to him!

Anyway, something happens to him when going on a morning drive on Dah Motorcycle after some spooky mysterious malfunction locks the Blackbird's wheels.

woops, jinxed it.

Kind of like a bird who'd smashed head first into a window, or a stick of butter let loose in a supermarket, Crow slides on the ground. He doesn't lose consciousness, but when he tries getting up, he quickly realizes putting his right hand on the ground hurts like a bitch and - woop would you look at that.

Yeah that don't look too good.

That's only the start of our issues, however, because soon enough, ay hope Crow could've had of this being just a big-ass bruise gets smashed into the ground.

In a surprising amount of realism from a series about people playing card games on motorcycles and occasionally fighting off gods on motorcycles while still playing card games, the doctor stares at our guy and say "yeah uh that's gonna take a month to fully heal". Problem, WRGP preliminaries are in, like, three days, so Crow goes into panic mode and goes through three stages of grief at once. Y'know, denial, anger, bargaining, anger again, sadness.

TL;DR this "I don't need a cast" claim isn't going very well.

Team 5Ds is left scrambling because, without a third driver, they're at a disadvantage of 8K Life Points in total against 12K for a full team. Aki, who recently got her Turbo Duellist:tm: licence, decides she's gonna be their second wheeler. Crow, who initially sulks, sucks it in and decides to train Aki instead.

And this is how we got here... unless?

Sabotage? In my card games on motorcycles tournament? It's more likely than you think!

We skip ahead to episode 104 now. Team 5Ds has won against Team Unicorn thanks to the power of Yusei's plot armour and protag swag, and now, they're bound to go against Team Catastrophe, who are no-name criminals from Satellite, the former slums Yusei, Jack and Crow all grew up in. Oh also Team Unicorn's Andre and Jean fucking crashed against Catastrophe, that's kind of a big deal I guess.

After watching the local main antags do antag stuff, we cut to Yusei and Bruno (Team 5Ds' mechanic, forgot to mention him until now, woops) at home doing stuff on the bikes. Crow comes back from the hospital for a routine checkup. When asked abot his shoulder, he proves to be as trustworthy with the sentence "I'm fine" as Yusei "haha shrapnel in my abdomen is no big deal" Fudo:

Our guys are soon discussing what happened with Breo, at which point Carly (sweet, shafted Carly) provides them with vital info about what happened in the form of duel footage: during Team Unicorn's duel with Team Catastrophe, there was a monster named Hook, the Hidden Knight on the field both time a crash happened. The gang quickly connects the dots with what happened with the Blackbird. Conclusion: somehow, those Catastrophe guys can lock their opponents' rear wheels and it looks to be related to Hook.

And then it happens again, this time to Aki.

So, things are kind of bad. Aki's mega down for the count, there're criminals on the loose, and Crow's this close to just beating them up (with only one arm, yes). With a single, piercing gaze, Yusei convinces him to just face them like a true man: in a card game. Crow takes that as a hint that, actually, it's his job to do. Jack is like "what the hell are you doing bird brain" while Yusei is just. marveling at the sight of medical equipment without child safety locks.

Crow vows revenge, and eyecatch.

Can you be complicit in painful driving? Asking for a friend.

It's the day of Team 5Ds VS Team Catastrophe! Everyone's excited and Officer Ushio, the only good cop ever, wants to take that whole sabotage thing to the authority - but Breo tells him no, actually, he should let th ebunch of 18-to-20-yos take care of it, to avenge Andre and Jean or something. (To be exact, Jack is 20, Yusei is 19, and Crow is 18. wait crow was a minor in the dark signers arc?)

Team Catastrophe gets boo'd, Team 5Ds gets a solid round of praise, I try to ignore how Carly and Mikage have been reduced to Jack Atlas fangirls and - oh.

Crow walks up to them to clearly announce he's here to get revenge for Aki, and Andre, and Jean, and himself too. Hermann (of Team Catastrophe glory, it's the guy on the right) taunts him on his physical condition, Crow smirks, and tells them he knows what they're playing. The guy not on the picture is like "shit they're sussing us out", Hermann scoffs it off.

The first round sees Hermann and Crow facing off. This absolute banger of a sentence is said:

Meanwhile, in Team 5Ds' pit, Luca's worried about Crow, since his shoulder hasn't healed fully yet. Jack tells them Crow's a stubborn bastard and wouldn't take no for an answer, Lua has no fear in his heart whatsoever and Yusei doesn't add anything before the duel starts.

As always in Riding/Turbo Duels, the first turn is determined by who can close the first corner first. It's already not going well for Crow.

Nonetheless, shonen shit gets said.

Hermann quickly understands what's going on with his opponent and goes for the kill right off the bat.

Fairly logically, Crow loses most of his balance and, most importantly, the first turn.

For the needs of this just not being Yugipedia's duel description from this episode, I'll make actual duelling details short. What's important here is that Hermann summons "Hook, the Hidden Knight", and defeating it is a pain in the ass for Crow due to his Monster Effect.

What's more important to us, and will explain the title of this post, is that it's not just shoving your arm right into Crow's shoulder that'll make him grit his teeth in pain - even drawing a card is enough.

So is drawing a card, actually. I'm no gif maker, so I can't show it animated, but his hand jerks when just putting "Blackwing - Sirocco of the Dawn" on his field.

Yeah, that's gonna be a long one for our bird guy.

Anyway, whenever "Hook, the Hidden Knight" uses its effect, Shadow Hook, this happens:

This duel is also a lot of Crow evading one (1) hook that's somehow made out of solid shadow, so ths is going to be the sole time I show this. Episode 104 ends on this, so onto the next episode we go.

Formula 1 forces you to do pit stops even if you're Max Verstappen, but this doesn't apply to Riding Duels I guess

Episode 105 greets us back to Crow understanding the ugly-ass monster in front of him is what's attacking all those people. Right on cue for his shoulder to mess with him again!

Now painfully aware he needs to make this duel short, he sets his entire hand on the field and ends his turn. This is what clues Jack and Yusei on the fact their foster brother is really not doing so hot.

Hermann takes his turn. Of course, Hooky Hook attacks again, so that means Crow has to go on dodging duties, which triggers more pain in his shoulder (the animation is recycled, so no point in showing it here). The MC doesn't suspect the Shoulder Inquisition, so he wonders if the Blackbird isn't going insane. Hermann sets a card and ends his turn.

Crow is once again left to wonder how n the hell what's happening to him is even possible, but he's cut off in his thoughts by - you guessed it.

Jack, who like last week was dragging his bleeding ass to the pit stop after crashing against Andre of Unicorn (a whole grandiose moment of 5Ds that was too), declares this:

Jack asks Lua to ask Crow to make a pit stop; and that's the boy does. He screams "yo, dude, stop for now, I'll take care of it". Crow replies that, no, he'll destroy that monster first. And so he drives by the pit lane and that's it.

Yusei's opinion on the matter is that everyone needs to trust in their friend, while Jack declares in the most tsundere way possible he won't be hold responsible for what happens to his pal. Don't be fooled, tho, drawing a card is still a literal pain for Crow.

Crow takes his turn. Duelling happens, with him coming prepare for Hook's effect, but not Hermann's other Monster's effect. Still, he manages to deal 2000 LP of damage after taking 1600 himsel, from Hook's Effect activating twice. This time, however, when Shadow Hook activates, he has to straight up jump in the air to evade the hook, so he has to land - and yeah that hurts, big fucking oop.

To make a long story short of the last turn in this duel, Crow summons his new ace Black-Winged Dragon, kills off Hook, reduces Hermann's LP from 2000 to 0, but Hermann wants to keep the damn thing on the field. Crow's forced to active "Gravity Collapses", a Trap card that sends a Synchro Monster on his field to the graveyard in exchange for the negation of that second summoning. Activating the trap hurts tho woops, but he must be fast, cuz that thing is coming for him.

"Gravity Collapses" does its thing, Hermann's finished, no more Hook shenanigans to come. Revenge taken, Monster beaten, time for adrenaline to run off.

And so, with still 800LP remaining, Crow takes his pit stop, finally. Yusei and Jack both rush to him, and the faces their brother makes when taking off his helmet and passing the baton to Jack are quite a sight to behold.

So, I ran out of pictures for this post (woops), so just know Jack beats the ass of Catastrophe's second wheeler so bad they have to forfeit. Then the plot kicks in again. Crow gets to sit a bit of it out because his shoulder is, actually, still a source of pain.

And so this is how you too can lose to someone with a broken shoulder despite having a weapon. Good grief.

[rafor]

Chapter 34 - Back to work - The Glitch

I couldn’t help feeling trapped in my new form. I had a hard time accepting that I was a shapeshifter, as I was told and as I witnessed myself. But instead of transforming into a fully grown creature, I was young and aging rapidly. I feared that I would grow old too soon, but then I learned that it would stop when I reached adulthood. As I made my way to Kari, a couple of guards escorted me. They said that the people of this city might be frightened by my appearance since I resembled a shadow dragon, a rare and menacing sight in these parts. I found Kari at his usual spot. The guards left me alone and returned to their posts. I greeted him with a smile. “Guess who’s back?” He squinted at me, then ventured a guess. “Raphael? Is that you?” I confirmed. “In the flesh, it’s really me.” He remarked. “You’ve grown up, I see.” I stated the obvious. “Indeed, I still don’t know how or why, but I look like a teenager now, haha.” He shrugged. “Whatever, how does it feel to be a dragon?” I admitted. “Weird, really. I can see why you keep bumping into things. Anyway, thank you for helping me. If it weren’t for you, who knows where I’d be now?” He nodded. “You’re welcome. It was the least I could do in return.” I inquired. “Oh right, how is your tail now?” I scanned it for any signs of injury, but he said, “Perfectly fine. Thank you for that.” He pointed to a familiar mark, a V pointing upwards where I had touched him, and I said, “Oh. I hope you don’t mind that. I don’t know what it means.” He looked at me and then said, “If someone sees you and me, they’ll know immediately that we met at some point, and you’re covered in weird markings.” Indeed, I was covered in markings, and more kept appearing as time went on. Multiple Vs, and some others that I couldn’t decipher. They did nothing but make me easily recognizable. I apologized. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave a mark. Maybe you can remove it?” He said. “I don’t think that I will. I don’t really care either.” I said. “Ok, fine. Do you still need help with the supply of crystals? The queen said that you’ve already had enough, but if you think otherwise, well, now I’m here. But if I accidentally make any other dark crystal, maybe next time we’ll keep it safer.” He said. “Right, I don’t think I’ll ever keep a dark crystal again in my collection. I learned for myself that they’re dangerous enough. Talking about the supply, we’ve got a lot of elementless crystals coming in the next few days, so we could turn the remaining ones and get ready for the new ones. More is better than less, isn’t it?” I agreed. “Guess it is. Let’s get to work then,” he joked. “Great, oh, and be careful. Don’t hurt yourself like I did with your new form. We may need to use health crystals on you too.” I said “Oh, we should definitely check that, but I think I can heal myself already, so maybe not.”. We resumed working as before. My elements worked properly, and the new form didn’t change them. While working, I asked Kari. “Do you happen to know anything about shapeshifters or how I could get back to my previous form?” He looked uncertain and said, “I’m afraid not. I’m sorry.” I pressed on: “You don’t even know someone who could know? I don’t like this body, honestly,” he said. “Oh, come on, what’s wrong with it? You’ll get used to it like everyone else.” He said that as he hit a piece of furniture, so I said, “Because of that. See?” He defended himself “That’s my fault. It doesn’t count.” I chuckled, then continued my task.

[theherosreturn]

Bradley: Well, I can’t do much for the bullets without specialized tools, but I can deal with the blade. *Switches to Sage* One moment. (To Izuku’s surprise, Bradley used what seemed like an entirely different power (Aether, of course), to start healing the blade wound, enough that safe removal of the blade could happen without excessive bleeding) There, now I’ll bring you into the base nearby for the other wounds.

(Naturally, the young hero in training wasn’t expecting this strange individual to lift him up with little issue and bring him into the cave…which had a more sophisticated base inside than the GOC troops believed. Soon enough, all the other injuries were dealt with via Medigun (which even removed the bullets…somehow. Don’t ask, Medic won’t answer)

Bradley: So, then, how about you introduce yourself then? You’re likely gonna be here for a while as we figure out where your home ended up in this merged universe, if it has been pulled in yet, of course…

Jackrow: Actually Bradley, Izuku and I have met before! You see, after you were banished by Cosmic Sam and after the separated regrouped with each other, we've began using radios in hopes of contacting with other survivors and we've gotten a surprising amount of responses and Izuku and his group was actually one of them!

Izuku: It's true, we just hadn't have the chance to properly meet with each other...Too bad our first face-to-face meeting got me stabbed and shot by those guys...

Gilgamesh: Yeah, those guys remind me of those "Gem Insurgency" people...Whatever happened to them anyways? You didn't mention them in the explanation.

Luz: Oh! Well...(Eda: They straight up got annihilated by Cosmic Sam and his "weakest" attack.)...Yeah, basically that...

[rhysdasiorarchive]

“Yes,” Rhys replied sarcastically, interjecting before Roland had a chance to finish. “Of course, this is all wholly unnecessary. I only suggested it to torment you further as you clearly haven’t been through enough in the space of one afternoon.” Shooting a stern glance in Roland’s direction as his voice trailed off, Rhys let his words hang in the air between them and hoped that Roland would at least attempt to factor a little logic into his comprehension of the situation. If he was going to whinge and whine, he could take himself and his problems elsewhere. “Don’t throw a tantrum now. We both know you don’t have the energy for it. You’ll only make yourself feel worse. You can complain as much as you like once we’re all finished here.”

It seemed as if he still had some complaint left in him after all. Stifling the urge to roll his eyes for what would have likely been the millionth time in Roland’s presence by now, Rhys watched on in muted exhaustion as the councilman rattled off a dozen unimportant observations. The only plus side to any of the ranting was that it seemed to outweigh the side effects of his suffering for a moment and fleetingly provided a glimpse at Roland’s usual self. At the very least, things weren’t as dire as they could be if Roland still had enough energy in him to launch into such a passionate speech. “I don’t necessarily consider it home, so it doesn’t bother me. As I said, it’s got a roof and walls. That’s enough. It doesn’t have to be more. It does the bare minimum for me and that’s all I need it to do. That’s all there is to it. For once, you’re the one overthinking things here.” Evidently, this wasn’t going to be something that Roland would let go. The thought of him attempting to change anything in here was a nightmarish one, but if agreeing to it meant getting this topic of conversation finished with, it was a necessary evil. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. We’ll discuss it another time, okay?” 

He watched Roland settle into place before stepping closer to gently encourage him to lay down properly. It wasn’t a necessary requirement but Rhys had been taught to always make the individual in need as comfortable as possible before imbuing them with magic of any kind, especially when it came to matters of healing. “I know it’s the least relaxing thing in the world to be told to do so, but I’d like you to relax as much as you possibly can. I’d tell you to keep your breathing slow, but… well, we both know that’s pointless.” Laughing softly to himself, Rhys leant down to press a kiss to Roland’s forehead before straightening up to gently rest both hands over the now-healed injury and allowed his restoration magic to properly flow through, a comforting warmth soon radiating through to seep into Roland. Regardless of how much it’d likely take out of Rhys, knowing that it would restore Roland to his prime and rid him of the chill that haunted him was worth the consequential dip in power for an hour or so. “That feel okay?” He murmured softly, tentatively tearing his attention from his work for a second. “If it’s too much at any point, let me know.”

As the last surge of magic settled into Roland’s system, Rhys took a small step back and steepled his fingers as he scanned his gaze over the councilman carefully to get a better read on his aura. So far, so good. “I doubt you’ll need it now, but I’ll throw a little purification magic in as we discussed, just for good measure. Might as well cover all the necessary bases while you’re here.” It was done with a simple flick of his wrist – there wasn’t need for any theatrics, not when such a miniscule amount was required. The restoration magic alone would provide more than enough aid. “Let it settle for a few minutes. Don’t move, just let it do what it needs to. If you decide to start launching into another gesture-filled monologue, you’re only gonna prolong it.” Moving to perch beside him, Rhys reached out to take one of Roland’s hands in his, giving it a gentle reassuring squeeze. “That being said, you’ve been a wonderful patient. I’m surprised by how charming your bedside manner is when you’re not talking.”

"I'm going to complain, you know I will. I hate doing things slowly unless it's really worth it and this hardly feels worth it. But I'll...try, I suppose." Roland made a face since the whole thing sounded unpleasant and like it would take far too long but Rhys seemed to think it was very necessary. He probably knew more about it than Roland did so Roland would just have to trust him. It was true that Roland very much disliked being told what to do in just about every circumstance and it often made him want to do the exact opposite. Apparently, it couldn't be helped, though. That was annoying but he would have to get used to it, at least according to Rhys. He was still going to complain about it, though, that was practically guaranteed.

Rhys didn't look very happy and Roland supposed he had a right. Roland wouldn't have been very happy if someone had come into his suite and begun criticizing his aesthetic decisions or decor. It was the general lack of both that Roland found particularly disturbing here, though. There was no personality! No personal touches really at all and it was just so...sad and horrible because of it. Rhys' explanation did nothing to soothe Roland's horror at the state of things. "But isn't this, for all intents and purposes, your home? Where you relax, get away, all those things? No wonder you spend so little time here when it's so...empty. There are no comforts!" That was clearly particularly horrifying to Roland. Rhys tried to divert them back to what they'd come to do and Roland sighed. "This is a very pressing matter, too. We'll have to do something about it at some point." Or maybe Roland would just do something about it. Looking around once more with a slight shudder, he made his way into the equally depressing and empty bedroom and sat down on the bed. "Come, then. Lay on hands or what have you. The horror of these barren accommodations can only distract me for so long." They were very distracting but he supposed he might get over it eventually.