#lyric | Shock

[savebatsfromscratch]

No.4 Shocked out of his mind.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50575372

Words: 1,133

Cws: Electrocution, being unable to think, a sort of implied non-con right at the end.

Notes: I’ve actually written a bit of this scene before. (Scratch Writing Camp for the wing!!!) But I’m waiting on finishing it to post it here. That being said, this isn’t really a “scene rewrite,” as I haven't read this book in a while.

Prompt: No. 4: “I see the danger, It’s written there in your eyes.” Cattle Prod | Shock | “You in there?”

The room was dusty and empty, but it still gave Red the chills as he pulled himself shakily to his feet. “Where-?” he asked the still air, “Where am I…?” 

On his head, Pikachu chirped a soft warning, but Red ignored him as he looked around the room, taking in pale walls with suspicious wire coating. He didn’t know what would happen if he touched one, but for whatever reason, the hair on the back of his neck stood up at the thought. He looked up for the trapdoor he had fallen through, wondering if it was close enough for him to climb to and out, but as he watched, it slammed shut with a very final BANG!

Red jumped, and then stood shivering in the now dark room. That didn’t seem to be an option. “Okay…” he murmured, unaware of his defensive stance as he studied the tiles, wires, and singular closed door, squinting to see through the darkness.

His heart was beating fast, but he did his best to stay calm as he listened for anything that might clue him into where he had fallen in the building. He and Blue had run through a decent amount of the building together, but they had not passed through this room. Red felt panic rising in his chest. Since he didn’t know where he was, he wondered if it might be a better idea to stay in the strange room than to leave through the mystery door with the wires on it.

In fact, the only parts of the room that weren't covered in wires were the floor he stood on and the ceiling above his head. He felt a shiver pass down his spine. Something had to be seriously wrong here, especially since Blue wasn’t following him down into the room. Red glanced nervously back up at the now closed trapdoor. Had Blue closed him in? Was he in trouble too?

Red found himself leaning back, unsure of what to do in the situation he found himself in. Unfortunately, his clouding brain prevented him from remembering his own warnings about the walls, and a jolt of electricity zapped through him as he got a little too close to one of them. The room lit up with a yellow glow, and Red shrieked in pain, and Pika gripped tighter to his head as Red yanked himself away from the wall.

As soon as he was no longer touching the wall, the room became dark once more, though Red had seen enough through his pain to tell that every wall in the place was electrified, so bright they had glowed when he made contact with them. He put a hand to the unfortunate shoulder he had touched the wall with, finding himself still shaking as a strange numbness blurred through his arm and back. 

Yes, this was powerful electricity alright, and if he was right, he had felt the exact same shock before. It was unlike the static electricity that built up around feet brushed on carpet. Yes, much more painful. And yet these electrified walls were also unlike Pika’s electricity, which, while definitely still painful, was more of a “one and done” kind of deal. 

This was numbing. This was something that could stick with you for a while. But who did it belong to? Unfortunately, before his musings could get very far, Red’s vision lit up with yellow light as a Pokemon launched itself at his face, seemingly out of nowhere. 

Like any reasonable person would, Red screamed and ducked to the ground as several Electrodes and Voltorbs bounced off the ground around him. Thankfully, none of them made direct contact, but the electricity that tore the air between him still hurt as they brushed past Red and Pika.

Yeah, he remembered now, the Gym Leader Pokemon smuggler back in Vermilion city, the one who tried to drown him. Red turned just in time to see the door on the other side of the room slam open to reveal the massive villain that he would be fighting. Think of an over six foot, muscular, blond guy dressed in military camo, and then make him even more ripped.

Red’s breath caught in his throat as he struggled to control his breathing. The aftershocks of the Electrodes still zapped through him, and, in his numbness, Red found it nearly impossible to reach for his Pokeballs. If this guy was here…

He didn’t even have to finish the thought as the Gym Leader laughed and slammed the door behind himself. He stepped into the center of the room, and Red’s eyes caught on a belt of Electrodes and Voltorbs wrapped around the man’s chest and into a huge weapon that he had slung over his shoulder, where it nestled next to some poor Magneton.

“Lt. Surge,” he introduced himself, “Team Rocket commander, pleased to make your acquaintance,” he smiled horribly, but though the hair on the back of Red’s neck stood up, he did his best to hold his ground. A gym leader who was a member of Team Rocket, why wasn’t he surprised.

“I messed up your plans last time Surge,” Red hissed, doing his best to hide both his terror and his numbness, but probably failing at both. Pika hissed helpfully, but Surge only laughed.

“Well,” he smirked, “This time I won’t let you!”

Quick as a whip, the man fired another Voltorb at Red, and this time he wasn’t able to dodge. In fact, the blast was so quick that Red barely had time to scream as the Pokemon tripped him backwards into the wall, sending painful shocks of electricity all through his body. It was so painful that Red only registered that Surge was even speaking again a few sentences into his sadistic monologue. As it was, he had to physically fight the numbness in his brain as two Magnimites continued to hold him tight against the wall, keeping him shivering and confused involuntarily as the electricity threatened to control him fully. 

Quite honestly, he could hardly even get his mind on topic enough to even see the swimming walls around him, let alone to listen as Surge taunted him about this and that. Red couldn’t think, and his eyes streamed with painful tears as he tried to breathe without biting his tongue off at yet another surprise blast of electricity.

He had to think, but somehow he couldn’t.

Every time any plan tried to materialize in his mind, it was swept away by another wave of agony, and if it wasn’t, giving himself any chance to think only gave way to panic as Surge waltzed ever closer.

Hands were in his hair, on his throat, at his chest.

But he had neither the mind nor the strength to fight it.

[valtsv]

i have a large vocabulary so i can misinterpret song lyrics more inaccurately

[pummelingbat]

ah, the fitful sleep & the fire engines that i dream of when i dream

[voltaical-art]

they gotta stop looking at each other like that, or else they might be in love for real

[baldursgate3tempobsessed]

You wanna know what I'm surprised I haven't seen more of? Bard Tavs serenading Astarion, or singing him to sleep with a lullaby composed just for him. I'm sure Astarion would eat up all that affection.

This is so cute omg. And also managed to be an actual drabble instead of a novel! As always cw for spoilers!

~

Astarion woke with a start, his heart pounding in his chest as he frantically looked around. But he wasn't in Cazador's torture room. No, instead he was at the Elfsong, safe and sound in a private room. It had been another nightmare, a typical occurrence as of late.

Atarion had assumed that those would stop after the monster was dead, but they seemed to be more frequent than ever. It felt unfair. He had won. Cazador was dead, by his own hand. There was nothing left to fear. Well... that wasn't including the tadpole still trapped in his lover's skull, not to mention his own. And the Elder Brain. And the cult of Bhaal. But in all honesty, all of that felt so small now with his slave master disintegrated. If he could do what had felt impossible, what had been impossible, for centuries, why couldn't he accomplish the rest?

Astarion groaned as he sat up, realizing for the first time that he was alone in bed. But luckily enough you hadn't gone far. He turned to find you sitting on the window sill, illuminated by the moonlight as you scribbled away in your journal.

You glanced over at the sound of his shuffling, your brow furrowed, "Star? Why are you still awake?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Astarion sighed, the coldness of your side of the bed coming into full perspective. He would like that fixed sooner than later, "Now come back to me, it's cold."

You smiled, slipping down from your perch to join him in bed. Astarion wasn't quite sure when such simple actions would stop making him melt like an infatuated teenager. He was starting to think that it would never come to an end.

You laughed softly as he immediately wrapped his arms around you, cradling you against his chest, "You know how I love to sleep in fits and starts. But you don't exactly have the same excuse, do you? You look so tired lately."

Astarion frowned, loathing the fact that his lack of sleep had become so obvious. But then again, if anyone was going to be familiar with his night terrors, it would be you. He sighed, "Just nightmares. Nothing you haven't heard before."

You frowned, "That doesn't make them pleasant."

"No," Astarion laughed softly, "It doesn't. But now it's your turn. What were you up to in the middle of the night?"

"Just some writing. I've been working on a few things."

"Like what?" Astarion asked, sincerely curious. You were quite the talent as a bard, a fact that he was aware of before he fell in love with you.

"A new ballad mostly, with a lullaby on the side."

That sounded well within your wheel house, though this was the first time he'd heard of you writing a lullaby, "What inspired that?"

"You," You said simply, "But I know how you get when I'm all mushy, so I kept it to myself for now."

Astarion hadn't expected that, but that massive smile that broke out on his face at the news wasn't a surprise. He kissed the top of your head, still smiling to himself, "I don't recall ever saying I disliked you being a sickening romantic. Can I hear it?"

You looked up at him, surprised for some reason. Which was frankly silly. Who wouldn't want to hear a song written about them from the person they loved most? For once in his life Astarion was being the normal one here.

"You want me to sing to you?" You asked, sitting up in bed to smile down at him.

Astarion grinned back, "I wouldn't object to it."

"Well in that case..."

And then you started to sing. Astarion adored the sound of your voice, and apparently he loved it even more when you were singing about him.

Little star, so bright and fierce,

Beautiful with eyes that pierce,

But that's not all there is,

He's strong and swift with perfect lips to kiss, a humor that is only his,

Charming and witty, a wish come true,

If only the rest of the world knew.

Astarion wasn't quite sure when he fell asleep that night, but it was to the sound of your sweet, melodious voice and with a smile plastered to his face.

And for the first time in days, he didn't have a single nightmare.

[starflungwaddledee]

Gimme that GOOD shit girlie 💅✨ (Starstruck x Galacta knight)

✧˖°. give up what you love, before it does you in .°˖✧

[baalzebufo]

i got the sight, and ive seen the light, and im gonna see the coming day- when the sun in the sky is a spotlight just for ✨ ME ! ✨

[ladybugsimblr]

Ummm... definitely should've included gifts with this announcement.

[nextstopparis]

‘cause all of me loves all of you.

—for anon<3

[starry-scarl3tt]

i’m tired as hell, but not in the sleepy way. more like in the caffeine addicted middle aged sleep deprived man way.

anyways, chase is so wires - by the neighbourhood. the lyric similarities to what happened w/ dibala aren’t accidental i’m telling you all.

[svtskneecaps]

also in terms of the bolas playlist it's fascinating to me that the songs added by each person have a slight tendency to represent a consistent aspect of bolas

like

the songs added by slime are their chaos

the songs added by philza are their rebellion

the songs added by cellbit are their rage

the songs added by baghera are their anguish

it's so fucking FASCINATING TO ME but i don't know enough music theory to elaborate lmfao this is Vibes Only

(mouse's songs i can't boil down to an easy noun which is why they aren't mentioned lmao anyway they go hard asf)

(also i went on the longest fucking unhinged elaboration in the tags lmfao i almost didn't have enough tags left to tag "long tags" at the end

(i could have even gone on longer in terms of where their characters were at entering purgatory [philza: cage for a cage; cellbit: fed worker murders; baghera: her past as a federation experiment; slime: turning into a code because of the code pretending to be his daughter] but i ran out of space and also time it's 4AM AAAAA)

[florida3exclamationpoints]

HAPPY ONE YEAR OF BLUE DRESS ON A BOAT

[jewishboricua]

apparently somewhere on my college campus, there's a gallery that is currently blasting hallelujah by leonard cohen, and i think that's a huge win actually

[synthshenanigans]

dream(outro from calamity) is so freakin pretty like that instrumental especially is just like augh

[akkivee]

I NEED HELP PICKING MY JAW OFF THE FLOOR

[hounds-and-stars]

The Guardsman's Inspirational Songbook is up on AO3!

The link is right here, and below is a sample from "The Battle of Armageddon":

Now, when Great ol' Gazzy was feelin' awful petty, He came back around to mighty Armaggeddy; He took a little bacon and he took a little beans, And started up another war 'tween our Yellows and his greens!

We fired our guns and the Orks kept a-comin'; There's just as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they kept a-runnin'; Where they all were comin' from? Emprah only knows!

We looked over a parapet and we see'd the bastards come, And there must have been a million of 'em breakin' to a run! They screamed so high and they made their rustbuckets ring; We stood behind our Baneblades and didn't say a thing.

We fired our guns and the Orks kept a-comin'; There's just as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they kept a-runnin'; Where they all were comin' from? Emprah only knows!

Old Yarrick said, "It would be mighty fine If they never get close enough to look us in the eye." We marked the whole map, covered each and every cell, And when we opened up the big guns, we really gave 'em-

Well, we...

Fired our guns and the Orks kept a-comin'; There's just as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they kept a-runnin'; Where they all were comin' from? Emprah only knows...!