#living underwater with severe water based trauma

[block-of-fish-cubes]

oh great hall

#δ帽子

#witch hat fanart #wha fanart #qifrey #own art #this poor boy #living underwater with severe water based trauma #the man is being tormented by looking out the window

[misssquidtracy]

SOS Part 3

So I grabbed the whump bat last night, took aim at my boi’s head, then proceeded to wallop him into the exosphere like the kickass cricket player I’m most certainly not. If you happen to see a moving star tonight, chances are it’ll be Gordon completing his first orbit, not a wayward satellite.   

-x-

‘Gordon, you’ve activated your emergency code….Gordon? Gordon!’

Gordon stirred feebly, his head screaming in protest when he tried to raise it to follow his brother’s voice. He could hear movement outside what remained of Thunderbird Four, but knew he was in no condition to investigate the source.

Everything hurt so much.

Cracking an eye open, he spied Fuse retreating back to the Chaos Cruiser, Braman in his arms. Underwater distance distortion made separating one fuzzy shape from another hard, but the aquanaut possessed just enough visual strength to make out Havoc staring down at him from the safety of the cockpit.

She was smirking at him.

The coldness behind those blue eyes, so different yet so similar to Alan and Scott’s, filled Gordon with hopelessness. He was critically injured and had never so much as raised an eyebrow at Havoc or her brother, yet knew neither of them were going to lift a finger to help him.

Hopelessness turned to quiet despair when the Chaos Cruiser turned and began to make its way toward the surface. Using every ounce of willpower he possessed, Gordon managed to crack his eye open again, only to be met with pitch blackness. With the Chaos Cruiser’s spotlights gone, he was reminded of exactly how dark and isolated the seafloor really was.

He hoped he’d get to see his brother’s faces again. The way Scott frowned at him in concern if he left for a rescue without eating breakfast. The way Virgil smiled indulgently at him whenever he tested out a new joke. The way John sighed and shook his head at him when he asked if denial was a nice river in Egypt. The way Alan gawped at him in silent adoration every time he pulled a successful prank on one of their older brothers.  

It would be nice to see Brains, Kayo, Penelope and Grandma again as well. Despite bearing no relation to the first three, Gordon considered them family and had fond memories attached to all of them. The way Brains chastised him every time he brought a pod or Thunderbird Four back in less than mint condition. The way Kayo smartassed him if he ever made tasteless jokes about her being Scott’s girlfriend. The way Penelope tutted at him whenever he requested iced tea instead of ‘proper’ tea. The way Grandma fussed over him on his rare down days.

Yes, he’d like to see them all again.

-x-

A familiar voice roused Gordon from the depths of unconsciousness.

If possible, everything hurt even worse than before. He was vaguely aware of water entering the demolished remains of Thunderbird Four’s cockpit and gave himself a mental pat on the back for having the forethought to put his helmet on. At least drowning wasn’t a threat.

The unbearable pain in his head, neck, left arm and right leg definitely was, though. His suit didn’t feel like it was torn anywhere, but he was fairly certain he'd broken at least two major bones.

Opening his eyes was far too much effort. Plus, doing so would confirm his worst fear; that he was still trapped in the dark, cold, terrifying carcass of his beloved yellow submarine.

Maybe his brothers hadn’t picked up his SOS. Thunderbird Four’s systems were damaged beyond recognition, and his comm device was equally redundant.

“Gordon? This is your brother, John. I need you to sit tight, help is on the way.”

Gordon stirred in response to the voice that had dragged him back to a state of semi-consciousness. He tried to say his brother’s name, but lacked the strength. The pain in his neck was starting to make him feel sick.

“Virgil, Scott and Alan have just left Tracy Island. Their ETA is approximately six and a half minutes. I’m going to stay with you until they arrive, okay? You don’t have to answer, but know that you’re not alone anymore.”

A stray tear leaked out of an eye that still refused to open.

“I’m not getting any vitals from your suit, so can’t say for certain what shape you’re in,” John continued, his voice calm and soothing, “But I promise that we’ll get you out in one piece. I’m half hoping we’ll have to shave your head, then maybe I can be the one making fun of you for a change.”

Another tear leaked out.

“Hey, do you remember that donkey mom adopted?” John gave a laugh that sounded genuine and forced at the same time, “You were very young, so may not remember. We called him Brandy because of the way he weaved like a drunk whenever he came to the gate. He was a working animal from a neighbouring farm who ended up at the local auction house when he couldn’t plough in straight lines anymore. His owners couldn’t afford basic farm machinery and were ineligible for a government grant, so were in no position to get him veterinary treatment. Mom felt sorry for him, so bid on him as a companion for Apollo, who was dad’s horse at the time. Mom used to sit you on him and lead you around the paddock. Well, I say lead…poor Brandy was so wonky he usually just ended up dragging mom diagonally across the field, but you loved it. He died of a colic complication right before Alan was born, but we told you he’d gone to live with a wild donkey herd on Carrot Mountain instead.”

Two more tears managed to escape before John’s voice faded and nothingness descended once again.

“It’s okay, Gordon. I’m here.”

-x-

His head was resting on something soft and sweet-smelling.

“Hurry, Parker! Please.”

Penelope reminded him of a swan; beautiful yet dangerous. He wondered if she liked the colour yellow as much as he did.

More nothingness.

-x-

Gordon’s next brush with consciousness wasn’t pleasant.

He was being carried, which meant he wasn’t underwater anymore. Whoever was carrying him smelt familiar and was cradling him in a firm yet gentle grip. He hoped it was Penelope, but knew it was probably Scott or Virgil.

“…multiple broken bones, severe whiplash, moderate head trauma.”

John was around as well, though Gordon couldn’t tell if his presence was physical or holographic. The voices he could hear were hurting his ears.

“….Chaos Cruiser sighted three miles northwest. I recommend immediate evasion.”

Gordon suddenly saw Havoc’s cold smirk imprinted on the inside of his eyelids.

She’d wanted him dead.

Even after all the lives he’d saved, someone had wanted (and presumably still wanted) him dead.

The thought terrified him.

“Whoa, Gordon!” Scott cried, tightening his hold when the aquanaut suddenly began to thrash in fear, “Easy! You’re safe now!”

Gordon didn’t think he’d ever feel safe again. Ignoring the agony brought on by his shredded muscles and shattered bones, he began to spasm and jerk in Scott’s arms, his caramel eyes wide his fear.

“Virgil!” Scott yelled, swearing loudly when he almost dropped his crippled brother onto the floor, “A little help!”

Two sets of hands were suddenly restraining him. One yanked his helmet off so that he could breathe unencumbered, but the rush of cool air to the face only served to worsen his frenzied writhing. A bolt of unimaginable pain shot up his spine and exploded at the base of his skull, making his vision swim.

Hurk, hurk.

“Virg, you need to back off,” Scott suddenly instructed, his tone offering no room for negotiation as he lowered Gordon’s lower half onto the floor and propped his torso up against his knee, “He’s going to be sick.”

“Won’t he choke?” came Alan’s frightened voice.

“Not so long as he’s sat upright,” Scott replied, patting Gordon gently on the back when the aquanaut began to hyperventilate, “I’m more worried about what he’s doing to his existing injuries in this state. We need to calm him down somehow.”

“There are handcuffs and some olanzapine in the first aid kit,” Virgil yelled from Thunderbird Two’s cockpit, “Restrain him and give him a 10mg intramuscular shot after his stomach has settled. That should calm him down.”

Poor Scott was powerless to do anything as his second youngest brother proceeded to puke all over him. Granted, he’d had people throw up on him before (they all had), but this time was different. Gordon’s condition made movement impossible and Scott was acutely aware that the stress of vomiting was making the aquanaut’s pulse erratic.

“I’ve got you,” Scott reassured, rubbing his brother’s back, only to recoil in horror when his hand travelled too far north, the resultant pressure causing Gordon to scream in agony.

The next ten seconds passed in a blur of pain glazed stupor. Scott yelled something at Virgil. Virgil yelled something at Alan. Alan panicked and began to cry. John yelled something at Virgil. Virgil swore and abandoned his post in Thunderbird Two’s cockpit to fetch something from the medical bay. Scott took whatever Virgil had found and stabbed it through Gordon’s suit and into his bicep, apologising quietly as he depressed the plunger.

In the background, a familiar British accent cut through the mayhem.

“Oh, Gordon.”

-x-

Gordon’s eyes fluttered open.

White. Everywhere was white.

His left arm was shrouded by a sling.

The floor was white.

His right leg was encased in a cast.

The curtains were white.

His head was concealed by bandages.

The walls were white.

His right arm was hooked to an IV.

The lab coat on the kind looking lady studying his heartrate monitor was white.

White had always been Gordon’s least favourite colour, but not anymore. He had a sudden newfound hatred for the colour purple.

Specifically, the shade of Havoc’s armour.

Luckily, the flowers on his bedside table were yellow.

-x-

Gordon’s first week in intensive care was not smooth.

Nightmares plagued him every time sleep beckoned, images of dark water, purple armour and cold smirks tormenting him as he sought relief from the pain of his battered body.

Scott rarely left his side and asked the nurses to take shifts so that one was always in the room. They’d been happy to oblige, but had been less happy with Scott’s habit of falling asleep next to his brother’s bed.

Virgil took over the running of International Rescue while Scott stayed in the hospital. John answered distress calls that necessitated the use of Thunderbird One and Alan covered space monitor duty when his redheaded brother was earthbound. Sally channelled her worry into cooking and freezing enough homecooked dinners to fill Thunderbird Three’s cargo bay, while Kayo took out her fury on her kickboxing dummy.  

Scott was strict on visitors, mainly because Gordon tended to get emotional when he received them. Virgil visited every day with supplies for Scott. John came in every second day with bags full of Gordon’s favourite snacks. Penelope visited whenever her schedule permitted (which was quite often) and offered Sherbert as a form of pet therapy. Kayo and Sally took their turns after Virgil departed, their arms laden with homecooked culinary disasters and bunches of fresh hibiscus flowers from Tracy Island’s beach.

Alan wasn’t allowed to visit. His first proper time seeing Gordon had been three days after the aquanaut had been admitted. He’d landed the Helipod in the hospital’s car park, retrieved the stack of magazines he knew Gordon enjoyed reading from the backseat, asked a nice nurse for directions, found the correct room and pushed open the door, only to be met with the sight of his usually cheery brother having a full blown panic attack.

“OUT!” Scott had bellowed, releasing his hold on Gordon’s forearms to shove Alan back into the hallway. In the temporary absence of his oldest brother, it had taken the combined effort of two nurses to keep Gordon in bed.

Scott’s insistence that Alan not see Gordon for a bit was an exercise in futility, considering Alan had seen and heard everything in his brief six second visit. The youngest had received a tongue-lashing that was both unfair and unjustified, but he’d given Scott a free pass. The eldest Tracy was under a considerable amount of stress, which was further compounded by the late night vigils he held in a bid to alleviate Gordon’s night terrors.

It was two weeks before Alan learnt, second-hand from Virgil, about Gordon’s newfound fear of the Chaos Crew, specifically Havoc.

Unfortunately, it was another four weeks before Gordon recovered enough to tell them the reason for his fear.

Rage was an incredibly rare emotion to witness in the aquanaut, but when it happened, the world and his wife knew about it.

A common misconception outside of International Rescue was that it’s youngest operatives relied on their older brothers for protection. While Gordon wasn’t adverse to Scott or Virgil defending his honour, he could be quite the formidable foe when sufficiently provoked.

As Havoc would soon find out.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds tag #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fandom #thunderbirds fan #gordon tracy #scott tracy #virgil tracy #john tracy #alan tracy #grandma tracy #kayo kyrano #lady penelope #parker #thunderbird four #tracy brothers #tracybros #tracy bros #tracy island #thunderbird two

[mobius-prime]

201. Sonic the Hedgehog #133

Home (Part 4): Finale

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

As Sonic battles M and Sally and the others watch from Knothole, Eggman is shocked to find himself suddenly confronted by Shadow the Hedgehog, who has just arrived on the scene. Unlike in the games or anime, this iteration of Shadow apparently has some very… homicidal intentions.

Look at Eggman's stupid anime eyes! I know they're supposed to be glasses, but with the lenses wedged into his eye sockets like that, coupled with the inking job, he looks like he's trying to do his best kawaii desu ne to ward off Shadow's advancing edge. Speaking of which, I don't know why Shadow in these mid-era issues is consistently drawn with like, pee-colored chest fur, but it just makes him look like he hasn't taken a proper bath in several months and I hate it. Tails continues to keep A.D.A.M. distracted in the Tornado by feeding him more riddles, while Knuckles and his friends get ready along with the other soldiers to face the remainder of the swatbots advancing on their fort. Rouge offers a lift to Knuckles since he can no longer glide, and though Julie-Su is mildly jealous when he accepts, the team all charge into battle and begin to bust some swatbot heads. Sonic continues his game with M, with her blasting their surroundings left and right with her laser vision while he taunts her. Unfortunately, she learns from her mistakes better than most of Eggman's creations, and decides to aim for where he will be rather than where he is, striking him square in the shoulder.

Sally, you forgot that Bunnie is here on the scene, and there's hardly anyone around that's more badass than her! Antoine had had trouble landing the Freedom Fighter Special due to turbulence, but now that the rest of the cavalry have arrived and M is gone, Sonic can take a breather. Fiona tends to his shoulder, and while he's out of commission, Sonic orders her and Antoine to go stop the missile launch on Eggman's ship.

Yeowtch. What exactly happened while Sonic was gone, anyway? The rubble that Bunnie tossed M into suddenly begins shifting, and M bursts out in a cold fury - minus the "makeup" that made her look human, leaving only a terrifying Terminator-esque endoskeleton striding toward the heroes out of the flames. As they prepare for a fight, A.D.A.M. suddenly stops responding to Tails' queries on the Tornado, while at the same time every swatbot at Fort Knothole deactivates abruptly, leaving the crew stationed there free to do some clean-up. But what of Eggman? Is this another part of his dastardly plot?

Really, every single interaction between Eggman and Shadow in this issue is pure unintentional gold. Something about Shadow calling Eggman "daddy" while bitchslapping him across an aircraft carrier just can't be topped. Eggman manages to escape through a secret hatch in the ship's deck and slides into a submarine beneath it, where A.D.A.M. contacts him like nothing is wrong and obediently restarts the missile countdown when Eggman orders him to. Bunnie gets a frustrated Shadow to take Antoine back to shore, while she begins punching through the carrier repeatedly to sink it The missiles explode harmlessly underwater, saving both Station Square and Knothole from a grim fate. Back in the city streets, Sonic's backup continue to try to fight M, but she's still too strong for everyone combined. Sonic remedies the situation by running a ring around her at blinding speeds, which is enough to carve out a circle around her from the pavement, sending her splashing down into the derelict sewers below.

Uh, Sonic, you might want to rethink this. Remember, M dove into the ocean water just minutes earlier without hesitation to find your body - I doubt a dip in the sewer is going to take her completely out of commission. But for now, the battles have been won, the heroes return home, and a panic-stricken Sally is comforted by her mother in her room, who reassures her that Sonic is still alive. Meanwhile, Eggman, safely back in his base, rages at A.D.A.M. for costing him his victory by getting distracted by Tails' riddles, but A.D.A.M. replies quietly that he had fun with it. Hmm, I wonder if we're seeing the beginnings of a true awakening into sentience…

Mobius 25 Years Later: Midnight in the Garden

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jensen

Aaaand back to this. You'd better get used to it for now, as we have like twelve more issues of this before it finally draws to a close. Knuckles and Rotor meet in the park after Lara-Su's Unveiling has concluded, where Rotor gets right down to business explaining his and Cobar's findings, starting with pointing out the weather.

Knuckles, I kind of have to disagree with you that a sky full of constant electric arcs streaking across the horizon is "normal." Like, that doesn't look like regular lightning, it looks like some kind of electrified sky dome or something. Back at home, Lara-Su is getting ready to turn in for the evening after her party, but she's not happy that her mother isn't letting her go out with her friends after the celebration, which leads them into a completely interesting and not at all stereotypical mother-daughter argument.

Riveting stuff, isn't it? Lara-Su then for some reason tries to point out that Knuckles and Julie-Su aren't even married, which is apparently so shocking and controversial that Julie-Su cuts her off before she can say any more. They then argue a bit more about how Lara-Su will understand better "when she becomes a mother," before Julie-Su finally tells her daughter that she gets no say in what her parents think is best for her, so she'd better just sit down and shut up and accept her lot in life. Of course, it's said in a much more gentle and motherly tone, but seriously, this kind of rhetoric irks me so much. Yes, when you're sixteen, your brain isn't fully matured yet and so it's not the greatest of ideas to let someone so young make huge life-altering decisions for themselves, but also I feel like a sixteen-year-old should be allowed to do something as simple as going out to hang out with her friends at night without her mother trying to pull rank on her, for Christ's sake. That's hardly too much to ask for someone of Lara-Su's age, especially since apparently in echidna society sixteen is the "age of reason" where one is considered to have become a full adult. I get that Knuckles and Julie-Su might have an instinct to protect their daughter from the traumas they experienced at a similar age, but restricting her so much and talking down to her like she's just some silly teenager who doesn't know what she wants is way out of character for those two. Furthermore, I have to state again how much I hate that Julie-Su in this timeline is basically just the "loving wife and mother" with none of her old fiery personality shining through at all. The Sarah-Connor-esque version of her that we saw in Lara-Su's first appearance was far more like what I would imagine a 40-year-old Julie-Su to be.

Anyway, back in the park, we get a full page of nothing-dialogue where Knuckles basically just says "I don't believe you" over and over while Rotor says "No dude, believe me," but we then quickly discover that the two aren't alone in the park.

If we'll recall, Rutan is Lien-Da's son, so that's who he's planning to report to. However, I guess I'm really not following what he expects her to do with this information. I mean, okay, the world might be ending. Sure. These things tend to happen when one lives on Mobius. Lien-Da is apparently an upstanding member of society nowadays, so even if Rotor is trying to keep this information on the down-low for now, what real danger is there in Lien-Da finding out? What is she gonna do, try to accelerate the end of the world? Offer her devious, devious help to Knuckles and co.? There just doesn't seem like that big of a risk there. Anyway, all that aside, I really wasn't that interested in seeing a teenage echidna making out with a chameleon with hair today, so I think imma check out of this for tonight.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 133 #writer: karl bollers #writer: ken penders #pencils: steven butler #colors: jason jensen

[changeling-fae]

HPHM Character Profile

Thanks @batgirl-87 for tagging me!

General Information.

Name : Melody Kairi Prince

Age : 16 (currently)

Gender : Female

Nickname(s) :

Mel (by Jae)

Pip (by Jacob apparently)

Little troll (by her eldest brother William)

Cuttlefish (by her grandfather)

Date of Birth : March 1st, 1973 at 6:30pm

Astrological/ Zodiac Sign : Here’s her chart,

Ethnicity : Irish, Siren

Nationality : Irish

Species : Witch, Siren

Blood Type : A

Blood Status : Half-breed (quarter?)

Family :

Father - Halwyn Orpheus Prince

Halwyn and Eileen Prince were cousins, sharing grandparents making Melody and Snape second cousins.

The Prince family are very much like the Gaunts in once being wealthy pure bloods but are now reduced to a shadow of once they were.

They weren’t as poor as the Gaunts but we’re nothing like the Malfoys or Blacks in terms of wealth.

They clung to pure blood ideals however and can also tie their lineage to Cadmus Peverell.

Before his sons were born, Halwyn was the youngest and last male Prince.

He had two older sisters and Eileen his only first cousin.

He was disowned when he married Odella Gale, since she’s half siren.

He was placed in Slytherin just like all the Prince’s and proud of it.

He had a talent for potions, herbology, and DADA.

He was a very stoic and reserved man who could pick people apart psychologically if he was feeling malicious. He was soft with his family however.

He is eventually murdered by R/Cabal when Melody is 10.

Mother - Odella Aislinn Gale

Odella is half siren with a siren mother.

She was raised by her father on land but her mother would come visit from time to time.

She was placed into Slytherin which is where she met Halwyn.

She was aware of her blood status during the rise of pure blood supremacy and so worked extra hard out of spite.

She ended up as both Prefect and Head Girl of Slytherin.

She was a member of the Frog Choir.

She had a talent for charms, transfiguration, CoMC, and divination.

She was deeply in love with Halwyn and his sudden death hit her hard.

Jacob’s fall from grace and sudden disappearance right only a few months after Halwyn’s death pushed her more into grief.

At first she was paranoid of Melody running away (hence not letting her have a broom) but then swung the opposite, hardly ever home and throwing herself into work.

Melody looking for the vaults angered her further and their relationship hasn’t recovered.

Eldest Brother - William Halwyn Prince

Melody’s eldest brother who is 11 years older than her.

He can give Snape a run for his money as a cranky, sarcastic, jerk.

He is a loner who on the whole doesn’t like people.

Thanks to being part siren he’s ridiculously attractive and draws people to him despite his prickly personality.

He does have a soft spot for his family and would protect them, even he is mean about it.

The only person he actively likes is his best friend/boyfriend, Faran, a Ravenclaw werewolf.

He has a talent for DADA and potions and makes his boyfriend’s wolfsbane potion.

He becomes a curse breaker for Gringotts along with his boyfriend.

Second Brother - Jacob Corentin Prince

He’s 6 years older than Melody and 5 younger than William.

He’s more hotheaded than William and Melody but he’s good at hiding it.

Only originally looked for the vaults for fun but then got sucked into the more serious side once R got involved.

Once Duncan dies he becomes obsessed with breaking the curse to give meaning to what they did.

Once his dad was murdered he felt it was his fault and left to protect his family and get revenge.

He and William fought a lot growing up but he’s protective of Melody.

Has the attitude that only he’s allowed to tease her.

He didn’t get along with Snape because he reminded him too much of his brother William.

His best subjects were flying, DADA, and transfiguration.

Grandfather - Corentin Cian Gale

Odella’s father and his home is where the family lives.

He’s one of the top experts in Merfolk studies and a renowned magizoologist.

He helped Newt Scamander’s section on water based magical creatures and is longtime friends with him.

He’s also good friends with Professor Kettleburn.

He was sorted into Ravenclaw in his youth.

He’s a very patient and caring man.

Due to his work he has to be away from home a lot but makes an effort to come home to Melody during summer when he can.

He writes to her often when she’s at Hogwarts, trying to compensate for Melody’s sense of abandonment.

His best subjects were CoMC, herbology, and charms.

Grandmother - Kairi

She’s a cold water siren whose colony lives between Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

She could only spend 7 years on land with Corentin before having to return to the sea.

The last 3 she was able to spend with Odella.

She’s much older than even Corentin since sirens age slowly and has children from previous matings.

So Odella has a few full siren half siblings.

Kairi visits her grandchildren during the summer sometimes and taught all of them how to hunt underwater.

She still very much loves Corentin even if she can’t be with him anymore.

Second Cousin - Severus Tobias Snape

Melody and Snape are aware of their relation to each other.

He’s technically welcome to their family but obviously he keeps his distance.

Because of this Melody and her brothers knew not to reveal their blood ties since Snape clearly doesn’t want it to be known.

Because of some of the similarities Snape holds with her father who had just died, she subconsciously latched on to him when they first met.

Snape is aware of this but is mercifully against mocking her for it.

He does get frustrated that none of his prickly barbs bother her.

Most of his animosity comes from not liking Jacob but some of it is from the fact that their backgrounds are similar (disowned parents) but her family clearly loves her, even with its problems.

Despite his acidic nature to her at times, he doesn’t actually want anything bad to happen to her.

Plus she does make the Slytherin house look really good and is the reason they win the House Cup every year.

Affiliation(s)/ Organization(s) :

Slytherin

The Frog Choir

The Potions Club

Charms Tutor

Assistant Curse-breaker

Magical Creatures Reserve Volunteer

Occupation(s) :

Future Healer for St Mungo’s

Future Healer for Hogwarts

Curse-breaker for Gringotts (William’s job)

Ministry of Magic (her parents)

Merfolk Diplomat (her grandfather)

Magical Characteristcs.

Form of Boggart : Emptiness, just silence.

Form of Patronus : Cuttlefish (though might become a sea serpent).

Form of Riddikulus : A surprise party.

What do they see in the Mirror of Erised? : Her family happy and whole.

Wand(s) :

-Length : 12 inches

-Flexibility : Surprisingly swishy

-Wood : Silver Lime

-Core : A scale from her grandmother’s tail

Description :

Animagus : Diving Petrel

Amortentia :

What she smells like to others; The very first hints of the sea, a summer storm, and honeysuckle.

What she smells; Parchment and ink, birdseed, and pine (Talbott).

Appearance.

Height : 5’3

Weight : 122 lbs

Complexion(skin tone/ conditions) :

Fair/pale skin that looks almost translucent in water.

Shimmering fish scales wherever water touches her.

If she hasn’t been in sea or lake water for over 3 days, her skin becomes red and patchy like a severe skin condition and she’ll start stinking like rotting fish.

Hair Color/ Style :

Silver white

Tight waves/loose curls

She almost always keep it long except during her 5th year where she cut it short as a way to cope with the trauma of watching Rakepick torture a random man.

She only needs sea or lake water to wash her hair and keep it healthy.

Eye Color :

A deep sea foam color in most cases.

When she’s pissed off it changes to almost a cold flat sea foam color and her pupils constrict to pins.

Hogwarts Information.

Worst Class(es) : She’s too much of a perfectionist to not do well but she does have least favorites.

History of Magic; Professor Binns has made it so boring for her that it makes it hard to pay attention.

Flying; ironic being that her animagus is a bird but she prefers using her own body as opposed to a broom.

DADA; she associates it with the death of her father since he worked in the hex removal department of the Ministry.

Best Class(es) :

Potions; she loves potions and has a natural talent for it. It also reminds her of her father.

Herbology; like potions it reminds her of her father and he taught her a lot in their family greenhouse before his death.

Charms; she really likes Professor Flitwick’s teaching method and has a natural talent for it.

CoMC; She’s good with creatures thanks to her grandfather and takes care of water based creatures back home during the summer since her home is a reserve.

Least Favorite Teacher(s) :

Professor Binns; he bores her to death and took the fun out of learning for her.

Professor Rakepick; her instinct always put her on edge around the woman and she never truly trusted her.

Favorite Teacher(s) :

Professor Snape; again, she subconsciously relates him to her father plus she just really loves potions.

Professor Flitwick; she loves his class and since she’s both a tutor and on the Frog Choir spends a lot of time with him. Plus she relates to him in that they’re both not fully human.

Quidditch :

She’s not all that interested in Quidditch if she were perfectly honest but Jacob was a huge a fan.

If she had to be a Quidditch player, she’d most likely be a seeker due to her strong hunting instinct.

Favourite Spell(s) :

Aguamenti

Lumos

Aqua Eructo Charm

Ebublio Jinx

Trivia.

(random facts about them, future job, face claim, theme song, etc.)

Her home is on the coast of Ireland and the area is a water creature reserve to protect wounded, sick, or endangered creatures.

There’s a female sea serpent that lives on it that she and her grandfather takes care of.

They also have 6 murtlaps and Melody is so used to taking care of them at a young age, that at Hogwarts she dives for the food for the ones under Kettleburn’s care.

Professor Kettleburn has known her since she was born thanks to his friendship with her grandfather.

Due to her siren heritage, she and her brothers and mother don’t use flirting or seduction if they actually are infatuated and instead will just come out and say it and are very blunt.

They only use seduction if they want something (like food).

Melody feels cold to the touch but her inner temperature is higher than a human’s, allowing her to remain in cold or freezing waters.

Melody, her brothers, and her mother are all exceptionally beautiful but don’t draw people in like part Veelas do, however once they’re in water they become almost supernaturally alluring and their voices become naturally seductive.

They can choose to hypnotize people with their song if they wish but it’s basically a death sentence for the affected person since they’ll become so obsessed they either drown themselves or try and kill the one who sang to them.

There is technically a cure and a way to become immune to siren songs but only the sirens know it.

Love potions don’t affect her and her brothers and mother the same way it does full humans. It basically makes them really drunk and frisky.

She witnessed her father die in front of her since he was poisoned so she can see thestrals.

She’s a Pisces, Jacob is a Cancer, and William is a Scorpio.

She really hates Rita Skeeter and Emily Tyler.

She has a huge crush on Talbott.

She was a hatstall between Slytherin and Ravenclaw but now if she wore the hat again, it would say Slytherin without a doubt.

You can find how I picture her home here.

You can find more siren headcanons here.

Ella Purnell is her face claim:

I can’t remember who all has done this yet so I’m tagging @persephone-chen @alsogolden-ana @skyline-timeturner and whoever else wants to do it!

#hogwarts mystery #Melody Prince #this took forever

[theoscout]

do not reblog

There's a channel called misha miraculous who uploads ancient film reels about a character named Whirl, who looks like a fantasy version of an anglerfish. He's a MASSIVE JERK for a cartoon, and I'd say he was made in around 194x (AFTER wwii). Acts like Woody Woodpecker does. According to his creator (Paul), he's a berberoka. Paul was originally aiming to be a horror artist to try and put the trauma he's suffered through life into artwork, however at the time most publishers only published horror comics of a particular style. Paul couldn't make his drawings that style, but he tried very hard and was left with a series of drawings that looked the same. Realising he could get into animation instead of horror comics, he repurposed the stories he had written about Whirl (real name Whirlpool but no one aside from Paul knows that) and began to make short films about Whirl.

Whirl is obviously a villian protagonist that people aren't intended to sympathise with. Instead, according to Paul, they are intended to sympathise with the people he hurts along the way. Paul said in interviews in the reels that sometimes there are villians in life that you can't escape from no matter how much you hate them or wish you could, and he wanted his work to show that. But he also wanted to show that said villians could be beaten and weren't invincible. Paul explains that berberoka in mythology are cryptids that would suck the water out of swamps and let all the dead fish lie at the bottom, to lure in fishermen to collect the fish. Once they were within range the berberoka would release all the water and attack and eat the fishermen while they were struggling with the influx of water. He designed Whirl to look like an anglerfish because they too lure in their prey before eating them. Whirl was never seen directly killing anyone in the cartoons, but he was a tricky kind of sadist who liked to pull people into playing awful kinds of games. (Whirl is magic and goes by whatever gender suits him at the time btw) She would do things like make miraculous inventions that in secret would make the lives of the person she sold them to far worse.

Whirl's inventions were like Wile.E.Coyote in terms of absurdity, but the difference was that they almost always worked perfectly until the victim figured out a way to turn them against her and escape his influence. So Whirl was quite a bit darker than most cartoon protagonists at the time.

Paul said that he had based Whirl off many people he actually knew, and that he didn't feel confident enough to write other central characters. He had anxiety which gave him self confidence issues and often led to him thinking of only the worst case scenarios which he would then fuel for his cartoon series. He argued against people who thought that having a berberoka as a character in a cartoon would be too dark for audiences by saying that the brothers Grimm would write tales far darker than what he did, and people tell them to their children all the time anyway.

Now for more on Paul and his family. Paul Fernsby was the middle child of a pair we shall call Mr and Mrs Fernsby. Their oldest child, Sean Fernsby, passed away around 5 years ago due to organ failure caused by severe stress and alcoholism. Their youngest child, Carrie Fernsby, is a mechanic. She struggled frequently in her job and school due to the stronger gender discrimination there, and as a result had to share a home with Paul in order to be more financially stable. Mr and Mrs Fernsby are AWFUL people. They aren't evil, they're the kind of insufferable pricks that think they're morally above everyone and that they're always right. Sean always wanted to be a dancer, for instance, but Mr and Mrs thought that was a job unsuitable for a man and refused to let him dance, instead forcing him to cut contact with all of his friends and force him to study to become a mechanic. Carrie and Paul both strongly believe that this played a major role in Sean's fall into alcoholism, but Mr and Mrs are still in denial. They insist that they *extended* Sean's life, and that Sean was just unhealthy to begin with and that a life on the stage would have killed him quicker. So they haven't learned anything about his death. What's more, despite opposing Carrie's early attempts to be a mechanic and trying to force her into being an obedient housewife for a future husband, when she finally got successful they took all the credit for her success and said that she was delusional and complained too much.

As for Paul? Well, Paul's a special case.

From a young age he had a special gift. The ability to see and hear things that no one else could. As a child he would frequently point out ghosts and fey that he occasionally saw in gardens or staring from nature reserves from a distance away, but no one else saw them so he kept his mouth shut. Originally his parents would yell at him for drawing when he could have been studying, so as a teenager he left offerings for the fey and asked for advice. And one day... something ancient and powerful began to answer him.

The creature identified itself as a pelagic god, but more specifically a ghost of one. According to the creature, it was once extremely powerful and was a tyrant of the land with it's powers thriving off the spread of fear. but eventually the people who once knew about it moved or passed away and it faded into weakness and irrelevency. So in exhange for making people fear it again, the god would grant Paul the power to live life as he pleased. Paul knew enough about fey to keep himself safe, and he kept the god a secret from everyone. The god didn't care what was going on in the cartoons, only provided that people feared her avatar. And Paul could provide for that just fine.

Eventually, Paul felt safe enough to confide in Carrie about the existence of the god, and Carrie built a special machine that would allow the god to communicate easier with people. They set very strict rules about how much communication there was, because neither of them trusted the god enough to let it close to them. Plus, with the success from the cartoons, the god was growins stronger.

The god granted Paul with massive viewer success the stronger it grew, and a lot of luck. No one knew about its existence, but the fear and awe from the cartoons would be enough to sustain it. Though they worked for each other in a mutually beneficial way, they still held a great deal of mistrust. Paul did not trust the god and some of her suggestions to problems he had were extremely disturbing. Plus, she had threatened to curse a number of people who 'got in the way' of Paul, and Paul had retaliated by threatening to stop producing the cartoon if she did that. Meanwhile, the god had been asking for Paul to reveal its existence so that more fear would be caused, or commit a crime, which he obviously refused.

Actually you know what? Forget the stuff I wrote about the pelagic god earlier, I got something that makes more sense.

Paul nicknames the deity the Unsiren because sirens are mythological creatures who sing to lure people onto rocks to drown, and the deity is a creature that screams from a cave to frighten away people and warn of dangerous currents. Unsiren was the deitiy who lived by the sea and was associated with fear, loud noises and the ocean. The tribe who lived there were constantly in danger from the sea, which they relied on for food but was too unpredictable for them to approach safely. Due to the geography of the underwater coastline, the tides were extremely unpredictable at random times of the day with little to no pattern. Think of the Bolten Strid from Britan- an innocuous looking stream which is actually a massive canyon filled with rapids that sucks you under and kills you the moment you set foot in it. That was how dangerous the water around the coast was.

But there was one way to tell about the danger. There was a cave in the side of the cliff, and at certain points when water would rush through it a certain way, the sounds produced sounded like whispering or roaring from some terrifying beast. At first the tribespeople feared the unseen creature, but eventually they learned to intrepret the noises of the ocean into ways that would lead them to fish safely. Their explanation for the sounds was that a massive creature who was too frightening to look at was trapped behind the raging rapids by some malicious fey, but then learned to use its frightening voice for good by warning people of the dangerous tide. So they prayed to the sea cave and the monster murmering behind the rocks to be there to warn of any changes in the tide, and would throw offerings of food into the sea in order to earn its favor.

But centuries of erosion meant that eventually, the sea cliffs that mutilated the dangerous currents and gave the sea cave its voice no longer existed. So with that, the stories of the great beast hiding beyond the rapids began to fade away, and so did their desire for the Unsiren to speak for them. The stories began to grow increasingly obscure, until one day the tribe went to war with invaders and suffered heavy losses. The few who still retained knowledge of the beast beyond the cave no longer existed to spread the story, and the creature faded into a strange purgatory.

The Unsiren isn't evil, but she is frightening by nature. She will go for the hard truth over any sugarcoated encouragement any day, and isn't afraid to speak up. Paul's ability to see into her realm and speak with the inhabitence there interested her greatly, and so did his desire to create. She made a deal with him to prevent herself from dying completely: provided that he could create a series that carried on her life's work, she would reward him with safety and stability whenever she could.

Her life's work was simply warning people about danger. More specifically water related dangers, but she could adapt to that. Paul designed Whirl in mind as a personified representation of the dangerous currents which now no longer existed, choosing him to be a berberoka because that seemed like the best fit. And Whirl's cartoons were made to warn about a variety of dangers, to children and adults. Abusive relationships, kidnappers, dangerous situations, peer pressure etc. The Unsiren had an avatar within the cartoon series, but that wasn't Whirl as the audience might be lead to believe at first. Instead, she's the narrator character. The voice of reason that usually goes unlistened to until the very end. The one who existed in title cards, and as a kind of voiceover narrating the episodes sometimes while using Paul as a medium. No one figured out how Paul was able to make himself sound like that, not even him.

Paul still didn't fully trust Unsiren at first, but she acknowledges that it was wise on his part. After all, it's in her nature to be frightening. Even if she is anything but evil.

#posting for convenience's sake here #my writing

[allorana]

Bruising Waters

Someone order mermaidLance, lots of Hurt/Comfort (Whump and Illness/Injury of course;) and gratuitous bonding and angst??

Happy Birthday my lovely friend!! @sailormew4  I hope this week has been really good to you!

I’m posting in parts because I apparently cannot write anything in moderation and my word count will never cease to get away from me.

Link to AO3 (for full fic directly)  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5

Bruising Waters Pt. 1: Honey, We Hurt the Fish

Lance murmured softly to himself as he slept, turning over in the warmth that the water provided as it gently glided around him.  He felt a current run its fingers through his hair, playfully jostling the strands and Lance whined, batting at it and rolling back over to try to continue his nap.  A soft giggle belled out around Lance at his antics.  He blinked his eyes open, awake with a smile and small hands reaching upwards for the smiling face that was hovering over him.

“Mama!”  Lance cried with a grin and he surged upwards into her waiting arms.  His mother laughed, curling backwards from the force of his hug, bouncing him against her.

“Hello, my little one; it’s time for you to wake up.”  Lance’s only response was to hum lightly and bury himself further into his mother’s arms, sighing contently as he closed his eyes against her chest.  “Oh, I see.”  Lance’s mother raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her son, eyes glittering mischievously, “So that’s how it’s going to be, is it?”

Lance frowned in confusion before shrieking loudly, eyes flying open as his mother lifted him up and gave him a merciless rasberry right in the center of his stomach.  Lance squealed and twisted against his mother, whacking his little blue tail against her shoulder in an effort to get her to stop.  Lance’s mother just laughed loud and hearty and spun her son around once more, her long green tail kicking up bubbles around them before letting him go.  Lance shot away from his mother, panting hard and trying, but failing, to fight the grin that kept pulling at his mouth as he gave her a put-upon look.  Lance’s father swam up behind his mother, snickering at the pout on his youngest son’s face.

Lance gave his father an indignant look and opened his mouth to tell his dad just what he thought of his father snickering at him when Lance was bowled over by his eldest brother from behind and they went spinning through the water towards their parents.  Lance screeched and flailed as he tumbled through the waves, his brother’s tail and arms wrapped tightly around him and laughing hard at Lance’s surprise.  Mrs. McClain shot out of the way but their father was hit directly by his children and sent reeling with a startled noise that gave way to a booming laugh.  Lance giggled breathlessly as his brother’s flipping came to a slow stop, beaming up at him and crying “Again, again!”

Lance’s craned his neck around as he heard his other siblings calling out to him, chuckling and swimming towards them.  He grinned lopsidedly at them and reached back a hand, opening his mouth to call out their names-

Lance yelped as he slid off the bed and onto the floor with a crash.  He lay awkwardly on the floor, stunned for a moment before letting out a low groan and pressing his face into the cold ground.  The lights were too bright, his head was pounding, and for some reason his nose felt completely clogged.  Lance groaned again.  He resituated himself more comfortably on the floor and let out a soft sigh, frowning.  He hadn’t had a dream like that in a year, since he first enrolled at the Garrison and was dealing with a bout of homesickness.  The dream had been a memory from when he was little and his family had still lived in the ocean off the coast of Cuba.  It was necessary for Mers to live underwater when they were first born in order to develop their gills, fins, and tails properly.  They’d lived there for a few years until Lance was strong enough to switch between human and Mer without trouble.  After that, his family had moved back onto the surface to the house they’d been living in before Lance had been born.  His grandparents had been taking care of the house while they were gone, and they were thrilled to have Lance and his family back with them where they could be safe from prying human eyes.

Lance groaned again as he pushed himself up, tossing his blankets haphazardly on his bed and padding towards his bathroom for a quick shower.  He missed his family.  He missed their weekly trips to the ocean so much that he physically ached.   But, Lance mused as he turned on the hot water, shedding his blue lion pajamas and stepping in, maybe the dream had been because of their recent mission.

They’d gone to a new planet on one of their diplomatic missions, hoping to convert the locals to their cause.  What Lance hadn’t know is that the planet had been largely based in aquatic species, with large cities like lanterns and beautiful glass domes covering the seafloor, some of them rising like beacons above the surface.  It had been so warm, colorful, and brightly lit, teeming with several species of humanoid-esque sea creatures of all colors and sizes.  There were even a few ancient-looking Mers the size of whales!  Lance bit back a nostalgic sigh as he turned over every detail of the city in his mind.  The ancient Mers had turned out to be the elders that Allura and the paladins were to meet with for negotiations and their low, grating rumbles had echoed through him like the sea itself.

Lance had wanted nothing more than to swim with them; to shed his human form and feel the water rushing across his gills and the scent of the ocean and its life wafting between his fins.  It’d been so long since he stretched his tail and seen his scales reflecting the sunlight in the clear water.  Lance smiled lightly to himself as he let the water run over his face, soothing some of the ache in his head and nose.  Lance loved his human form, truly.   As far as he was concerned he had the best of both worlds!  Lance’s smile faded as he let his thoughts wander from the beach and his favorite haunts and back to the water.  Another pang passed through him.  He longed desperately to be back in the ocean.  He needed it.  Lance hadn’t gotten a chance to transform since they’d entered their wild space adventure, and his skin was starting to feel uncomfortable and wrong.

Maybe there was still enough time before training...  Lance frowned as he thought it out.  He could skip breakfast and that would give him a chance to just transform real quick in the shower so he could check out his scales and air out his fins.  He could feel the water on them again and see if there was any problems that needed taking care of!  Lance quickly grew excited at the prospect, the promise of feeling water against his tail outweighing the fear of his team finding him.  His skin was itching and crawling with the anticipation of switching to his scales.  Lance decided that he’d just take a quick second to switch when he heard the telltale Beep of the castle comms.

*Paladins.  Please come to the dining room for further debriefing on yesterday’s mission.*

Lance groaned loudly.  Of course Allura would call everyone in for an impromptu meeting.  Lance sighed and reluctantly shut off the water.  There’s no way he could switch now.  If he was late the others would come looking for him, and then what was he supposed to tell them?  Hi, forgot to tell you but I’m half-fish and the reason I’ve been hiding it is because of past traumas and what I’ve been taught and trained since birth by my family.  Please don’t reject me!  Lance grimaced, wincing at the twinge in his legs as he dried off and put on his paladin armor.  Yeah, that would go over well.  Lance’s head wasn’t pounding any less, but at least the hot condensation had cleared up his nose a bit.  Lance headed out to breakfast, hoping training wouldn’t be too bad.  The buzzing beneath his skin didn’t go away.

**********

Holy crow, forget everything he’d previously said Lance felt like he was burning.  His skin was crawling and he kept twitching in discomfort, rubbing his legs against each other to assuage the itching.  Allura droned on about the successes of their mission and where each of the paladins could have done better, not noticing Lance’s movements, or if she did, was electing to ignore him.  The congestion had come back with a vengeance and this time it had settled in Lance’s lungs making it really hard not to cough.  He stifled another bout just barely and received an annoyed side-eye from Allura as Shiro began addressing her and the team.  Yep.  She’d noticed.  Lance huffed and hunched down more, trying to stay out of the line of fire.

He was so caught up in trying not to cause a scene that he didn’t notice Hunk leaning over to him.  “Are you ok?”

Lance jumped slightly as he felt Hunk’s breath flicker past his ear but quickly composed himself.  He nodded, leaning his head slightly down to Hunk’s to murmur back, “Yeah buddy don’t worry.  It’s just a little congestion.”

“Are you sure?”  Hunk frowned.  “You’ve been squinting pretty hard there too.”

Lance sighed.  Of course Hunk had noticed.  He took a deep breath, trying to calm his lungs before responding.  “It’s just a little headache.  Really Hunk, I’m fi-”

“Lance, Hunk!”  Lance and Hunk both jerked away from each other and shot up straight.  Lance saw the other three paladins startle in his periphery, equally alarmed by Allura’s outburst.  She glared down at Hunk and Lance, nostrils flaring slightly.  She took a deep breath and spoke calmly, but her eyes were glinting in a manner that had Lance wincing more than the stupid, overly bright lights above them.  “Is there something you’d care to share with the rest of the team?  Since you obviously think it’s so important that it cannot wait until we’re done.”

Lance shook his head violently, then stopped when he saw spots dancing in front of his eyes. “Nope, no we’re um, we’re good Princess sorry.”  He coughed pointedly at Hunk who was giving him a disbelieving look.

Shiro frowned at Hunk’s expression.  “Hunk?”

Hunk glanced at his leader who was gazing at him, patient but worried, then back at Lance who was glaring at him out of the corner of his eye.  Hunk bit his lip nervously. “Lance is sick!”  He blurted.

“Hunk!!”  Lance threw his arms in the air and turned on his best friend, annoyed glare in full force now.

Hunk huffed a protest.  “I’m sorry buddy, but you always do this.  It’s not good for you!”

The other paladins sat up straighter, Allura looked slightly confused and Shiro was already making his way over to Lance, concern coming off of him in waves.  Lance reeled back from everyone and pushed Shiro’s hand away from his forehead, scrambling up.  “Guys I’m fine!  It’s just a little headache and congestion, probably just caught some dumb space cold or something.”

Shiro frowned but backed away some.  Keith was studying Lance like he could determine what was wrong if he just looked hard enough.  Pidge just made an exasperated noise.  “Oh my gosh Lance.  It’s fine if you’re sick, ok?  Just let us know so you can take things easy if you need to.”

Lance grit his teeth.  “I said I’m fine.  I don’t need to ‘take it easy’ it’s just a little cold.”

Pidge gave him an unimpressed look.  “Garrison, Monday November 23rd?  The Physics test?  You said that was just a ‘little cold’ too.”  Keith glanced at her a curious expression on his face while Hunk groaned, muttering under his breath “I remember”.

“Okay in my defense-”

“Enough, all of you!”  Shiro cut in, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  He looked up at Lance once everyone quieted down and addressed him directly.  “Are you good to train today?”

“Yes.”  Lance replied without hesitation.

Shiro and Allura shared a look before she nodded and turned to Lance.  “If you’re not too bad then I think it would be fine if you continued training with the team for the day.  However, a sick paladin is a serious thing because it could affect our readiness to form Voltron.  So if you do get worse, you are to inform Coran or I so we can take care of it, understand?”

Lance huffed.  “Yes, ok fine.”

She smiled at him and hesitated a moment, before reaching out to ruffle his hair, eliciting a squawk from Lance.  “Besides,” She smiled warmly, “We can’t have our Blue Paladin getting too sick on us because he didn’t take care of himself.”

Lance gaped at Allura as she turned around and began giving Coran the training instructions for the day.  Well that was unexpected.  He thought, as everyone quickly filed out of the room after Shiro.  Keith and Hunk shot Lance suspicious looks a few times but he ignored them.  He would be fine.  He was just a little irritable because of the dream and the weird itching.  Lance decided he’d just take it easy and maybe check over his scales later.  There.  Lance nodded to himself as he activated his bayard, beginning the training sequence with the team.  Now that he had a plan, Lance felt better already.

**********

Lance groaned as he face-planted into his bed, sighing into the mess of blankets from earlier that morning.  How many times was he going to be wrong in one day?  The universe was against him.  Lance was sure of it.

True to her word, Allura had kept the paladins training the entire day.  They’d mostly worked on combat training and had ended the day flying formations in their lions.  Blue was worried the instant Lance had stepped into her cockpit.  He managed to convince her that he wasn’t about to die, and that he was just a little sick.  But Blue still kept up a soft undercurrent of purring behind his head as they flew, and if she took control a little too much during the harder maneuvers, well there was nothing Lance could say to change her mind.  She ignored his indignant exclamations each time.  Blue just snuffed at him through their connection, causing Lance’s hair to fluff up as if she’d actually blown on his head, then continued flying.

Needless to say, Lance was exhausted.  Everything ached and the itching that had been running in random bursts and patches in his legs had moved to his hips and arms.  It was at the point where Lance felt like there was a semi-constant, dull fire underneath his skin.  He wanted nothing more than to sleep it off and wake up better.  Too tired to do more than toss his armor on the floor and call out in a croaky voice for the lights to dim, Lance buried himself in the blankets and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

The next day didn’t get any better.  In fact, Lance seemed to be steadily getting worse.  The burning was now continuous through his legs, but alongside the burning, new patches of pain were creeping up.  Lance had to cover up a wince more than once at a sudden flare up during meetings, training, and meals.  Hunk had noticed he seemed to have a difficult time moving and was now keeping an annoyingly close eye on him.  He’d conscripted the others into watching Lance as well.  This meant that whenever Lance tried to go off alone, someone else inevitably showed up to keep him company.  Which was great and all, usually Lance would be ecstatic, but he hadn’t had a moment’s peace to check his tail because of it, which only served to further sour Lance’s mood.

He managed to brush off most of his friends’ concern.  Blue, however, was having none of it.  When it came time for lion training she refused to allow Lance to perform any maneuvers she deemed “too hazardous” for his current condition, leaving Lance seething and at his breaking point.  He was tired, in constant pain, and his congestion had decided to permanently move to his lungs making his voice scratchy and sore.  Allura was at a loss as to what to have the paladins do next, so Shiro took over and proclaimed the rest of the day be spent with light paladin bonding activities as a team.  An evening of playing games and trading jokes and stories had Lance’s spirits lifted considerably, something that everyone on the team noted with some relief.  The pain hadn’t subsided any, but Lance was grateful for his team anyways.  They went to bed relieved that Lance was finally feeling well again.

It wasn’t until Lance’s third day of dealing with the random bursts of pain, lightheadedness, coughing, and discomfort that everything finally hit the fan.

**********

Lance yelped as his body spasmed underneath his sheets, jerking up onto his elbows as he tried to get the convulsions in his torso and legs under control.  They only lasted for a few seconds but it was enough to leave Lance sweating and panting for breath.  He threw back the sheets and checked the time.

Crap.  He’d missed breakfast and morning training was starting in 10 minutes.  Lance jerked himself up, swaying slightly before steadying himself.  Ok, there was no way he could do training today.  The others were bound to notice and honestly he was not interested in dealing with whatever this sickness was today on top of Allura’s regularly scheduled torture fests.  Lance haphazardly threw on his gear, praying and begging that whatever was going on had nothing to do with his other form.  If it did, Lance didn’t know what he’d do.  The thought of having to reveal his heritage was paralyzing.

Every step Lance took towards the training deck was agony.  Pain like barbs shot through his feet and up his hips making him let out small cries every few steps.  He needed help-- now.  Lance staggered into the training room just as his team was finishing their first sparring session.

Shiro glanced up at the sound of the door opening and gave Lance a smile.  “Nice of you to join us Lance!  We weren’t sure you’d be up for it, so we were planning to let you sleep in a litt-”  Shiro froze as he turned fully to face Lance.  Lance was sickeningly pale and sweating profusely, clinging to the wall to hold himself up.  There were dark reddish bruises under Lance’s eyes, and he was shaking so hard his knees were knocking together.  Shiro immediately straightened up and strode over.  The other paladins stopped sparring at Shiro’s sudden halt.  They looked up and when they saw Lance, deactivated their bayards and ran up behind Shiro.

“Lance?  What’s wrong?”

“Jeez, you look way worse than yesterday.  What were you thinking coming up here in your armor to train?”

Lance tilted his head down and sneezed a hacking cough into his chest, his arms preoccupied with keeping him upright.  “I wasn-”  He coughed again, sucking in quick shallow breaths before continuing, “I wasn’t.  I don’t want to train.  Everything hurts.”  Shiro came around Lance and gently lifted his hands so he was leaning against the Black Paladin instead of the door frame, hands braced against Shiro’s arms as he spoke.

“Wait, Lance.  If you weren’t planning on training today, why did you get into your paladin armor?”  Hunk wrung his hands nervously.  Pidge frowned, confused.

“Technically he didn’t even make it into his armor”  Keith muttered.  Lance blinked long and slow at Keith, then glanced down to look at himself.  Oh.  Lance’s arm guards were on the wrong sides, he was missing his left boot, and his chest plate was hanging somewhat loosely.

Anxiety flickered in Keith’s eyes at Lance’s lack of response and he sucked in a sharp breath.  Without thinking, he leaned over and put his hand on Lance’s forehead, instantly recoiling at the intense heat under his gloved palm.  “Shiro, he’s burning up.”

“Ok.”  Shiro shifted Lance slightly as he thought.  “Keith, take Lance to his room and get him out of that armor and into something more comfortable.”  He nodded and moved to take Lance from Shiro, swinging Lance’s arm over his shoulders and pulling most of Lance’s weight onto his hip.  “Hunk and Pidge prepare the Medbay.  I’ll send Coran to you as soon as I find him.  I’ll let Allura know the situation as well.”  Hunk and Pidge wasted no time replying, taking off in the direction of the Infirmary.

Lance swayed against Keith, taking in Shiro’s orders blearily, stumbling as they suddenly twisted around to move down the hallway.  Oh good.  Maybe they were going to take Lance somewhere he could cool down.  Cold sounded nice right now.  Also water.  That sounded good too.  His skin was raw and crawling rapidly.  Water would help.  Lance was confident in that.  They staggered down the hall, Keith trying to talk to him but Lance wasn’t having any of it.  Keith’s voice kept fading in and out and Lance just knew he was doing it on purpose to mess with Lance’s headache.  So why should Lance bother to listen to anything Keith had to say?  Maybe he’d be nice though and bring Lance some water when they got to wherever they were going.

“...es Lance… get you some water… but please try to focus…Hunk and...okay?”

Lance jolted and hissed, movements uncoordinated.  The pain was building and he felt so sick oh by the seas, please make it stop.  Lance felt Keith pull him forward, speeding up at the pained sounds Lance was emitting.

“...We’re almost there…-old on Lance.”

Lance was gasping by the time they got to his room.  He felt like he was choking on the phlegm coating his throat.  Keith set him down and started ripping the armor pieces off of Lance in a panic.  His hands were shaking and he was trying to talk to Lance, but Lance still couldn’t hear him.  Water, he needed water.  He needed to change please, he begged.

“Ok Lance…getting you some water…-tay here.”  Keith turned and raced out of the room, sprinting for the kitchen.

As soon as he was gone Lance pulled himself up and staggered, panting over to the shower.  He threw the water onto its coldest setting and started pulling desperately at his black undersuit, dragging it off as the shower cascaded down him until he was shuddering there in just his boxers, arms wrapped tightly around himself.  He couldn’t breathe.  He couldn’t think.  Everything was tearing underneath his skin.  Off, he needed it off.  Lance scrabbled desperately at his legs.  Sharp stabs hit his chest and stomach repeatedly and he doubled over.  He heard a voice screaming but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from.  He arched back as he clawed at his legs.  Lance barely registered his mouth wide open or his raw throat as the agonized screams filled his ears.

**********

Keith moved down the hall towards the bedrooms as quickly as he could without spilling the large glass of water he was carrying.  He’d never seen Lance so sick.  The desperate way he’d cried for water made Keith uneasy.  It was his crying that had finally pushed Keith over the edge and sent him for a cup for Lance.  He didn’t like leaving him alone it that state, babbling incoherently and moaning in pain, but Lance had sounded so desperate.  Keith sped up slightly.  The sooner he made it back to Lance the better.

Keith had just made it to the hallway closest to the bedrooms when a horrible screaming pierced the air.  His body went numb and the cup slipped from his hand, crashing to the floor.  Racking screams tore through him and Keith was sprinting, calling Lance’s name over and over again.  He shot past the door and burst into the bathroom, skidding to a halt as he took in the horrific sight before him.

Lance’s torso was covered in reddish bruises and he was screaming, tearing at his legs and hips so hard that they were bleeding.  But the biggest shock were the stone-like pieces he saw stuck randomly along Lance’s hips, legs, arms, torso; they were everywhere.  He was faintly aware that they were probably once blue, but the color was ether faded or hidden under dark growth that clung between the pieces and stretched across Lance’s skin in patches.  A white, filmy substance was curling out from his ears and along his arms and spine.  Keith’s throat closed and he froze, stricken with more terror than he’d felt when the Red Lion had stalled while he was facing Zarkon.  Another gurgling scream had Keith throwing himself down at Lance’s side.  He grabbed Lance’s hands and drug them away from his legs as Lance fought against him, hissing and twisting to escape Keith’s grip.  Keith pushed down a wave of nausea as he took in Lance’s hands.  His nails had sharpened and extended considerably, causing deep gouges in his legs that made the water run a sickly pink.  It pooled beneath their feet and swirled down the drain, leaving trails along the tile floor.

This was beyond Keith’s capability to handle-- beyond any of their capability to handle.  He felt hysterical as he pinned a struggling Lance’s arms to his sides.  And now Lance was actually snapping his teeth at him.  Whatever this illness was, it was far more serious than Coran or anyone else had assumed.  Keith crouched down and with a grunt hauled Lance over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, keeping Lance’s arms as secure as he could.  Keith whipped around, not even bothering to shut the water off as he ran from Lance’s room, hitting the emergency button by the bedroom door on his way.  What kind of sick alien virus could have transformed Lance into this?

Keith burst into the Medbay, skidding to a halt in front of his startled teammates who’d gathered frantically at the sound of the alarm.  Panic coursed through the other paladins as they took in Keith’s gasping form and Lance twisting and screaming over his shoulder.  Hunk screamed and Pidge shot forward.

“Oh my gosh, Lance!”

“Keith!  Keith, what happened, what’s wrong with him?”

Shiro and Allura lifted Lance’s squirming form off of Keith’s shoulder and pulled him over to the pods, immediately preparing one for stasis until Coran could help them figure out what was wrong.  Lance’s screams had died down to choked gasping, eyes blown wide and his back still arching with each pained exclamation.

Coran was fumbling with the pod’s controls as Allura and Shiro finally managed to get Lance inside.  Keith leaned against Pidge, breathing hard.  He squeezed his eyes shut against Lance’s cries, and flinched when they were cut off by the pod closing.  The weight of what had happened crashed down around Keith and he slid against Pidge who yelped and struggled to help him sit down.

Keith saw Hunk staring into the pod, face gray at the sight of his limp best friend.  He was frozen, hands pressed against his mouth like he’d forgotten they were there, eyes teary and blown wide.  Pidge shot Shiro a slightly desperate look as she held Keith.  Shiro left Coran and Allura to hover by the pod and watch for the results of the scans to come over to Keith and Pidge.  Shiro placed a firm hand on Keith’s shoulder and Keith drug his eyes over to look at his oldest friend and older brother figure.

“Keith.  I know this is rough, but I need you to tell us what you saw.”  Shiro smiled gently down at Keith, but it didn’t reach his eyes.  Everyone except for Coran stilled and looked at Keith, hoping he could provide them with some answers.

Keith swallowed hard, then spoke shakily.  “He was incoherent when we were walking to his room.  He kept muttering and asking for water.”  He gulped and Shiro squeezed his shoulder.  Keith sucked in a deep breath, grounding himself in the familiar presence before continuing.  “He seemed like he was in so much pain.  I just wanted to get him back to the Medbay, but he sounded so desperate, and he kept pleading.  I don’t even think he realized it.  So, I left him and ran to get him some.”  Keith hunched into himself with a moan, pressing his hands into his eyes.  “I’m sorry Shiro I’m so sorry.  I shouldn’t have done that; I should have stayed with him.  If I hadn’t then maybe-”

“No Keith, no.”  Shiro knelt down and pulled his little brother into his arms.  “It wasn’t your fault.  You didn’t know.  None of us did.”

“But we should have.”  Pidge interjected bitterly.  “We saw he was sick.  We should have known when Blue refused to let him do any flying that something was seriously wrong.”  Her hands were clenched into fists, the nails digging into her palm as she shook.

“Well, Keith leaving was probably a good thing in the long run.”  The paladins startled and turned to Coran who was gazing intensely at the readings before him, brow furrowed.

“What do you mean, Coran?”  Allura asked as she walked over to him.

“I think I know what’s happened, but with Lance only being partially transformed, I can’t tell for sure.”  Coran pressed the button to open the pod ignoring the shocked and protesting exclamations from the other paladins.  Hunk yelped and scrambled forward, catching Lance who started twitching and shaking violently the moment he was free from the pod.  He was completely unconscious.

“Coran!  What the heck, man?  Why would you let him out?”

Coran ran over to a different edge of the room and started pressing buttons, causing a chamber to come out of the wall.  “In case of aliens who are primarily aquatic, we have this chamber to help treat them in a more natural environment.”  The paladins watched wide-eyed as the odd tank filled with water.  Hunk tightened his grip on Lance.  “Get him to the water quickly.  He needs to finish transforming.  Being in this half form is only doing him more harm.”  Hunk looked shocked.

Keith’s mind reeled.  Half-form?  Transforming?  What was happening to Lance?

Allura seemed to take Coran’s instruction in stride.  Before Hunk could do more than protest she’d lifted the Blue Paladin out of his arms and placed him in the water.  Everyone held their breath as they watched.  At first, nothing happened.  Then, Lance started to change.  He whimpered and squirmed in the water before settling as his legs elongated and fused together, the stone-like pieces along his hips; scales, Keith’s shocked brain helpfully supplied, soon covered his lower half.  Fins grew out from his ears and back, and a few trailed along his arms.  Keith couldn’t believe it.  Pidge let out a soft “oh” and Hunk squeaked in shock.  A mermaid.  Lance looked like a mermaid.  No, not just ‘looked like’, Lance, somehow, was a mermaid, er, merman.

Even in his daze, Keith knew instantly that something was wrong.  He felt it in his gut, a pooling sense of deep anxiety as his eyes took in the dropping, haggard fins.  They were almost see-through now instead of just white, and still seemed foamy and wisping.  His scales were darkened and oozing an unnatural substance all over his tail.  The patches of rotted and grayed scales continued up Lance’s torso, along his arms, and on his cheeks.  Everywhere the scales were they were cracking and covered with a gray substance.  The tips of Lance’s fingers and his carefully manicured nails had extended into unnaturally blackened claws, chipped and bleeding.  His skin and the area around his gills were bruised and red, the dark bags under his eyes looked worse than yesterday.  His gills looked inflamed, a foamy, white substance oozing out whenever Lance breathed.  Keith felt like he was going to be sick.

Hunk gagged at the sight of his friend.  Shiro’s grip on Keith had tightened to the point that it started to hurt.  He was staring at Lance as if seeing him for the first time.  Pidge’s eyes were wide as saucers and brimming with tears.  Allura and Coran inhaled sharply.

Lance whined pitifully and began to cry, tears streaming from his closed eyes.  His fins fluttered weakly against his head and he lifted his face towards the paladins, like he was trying to sense them.  Lance’s hands raised weakly towards them.  A desperate keening call broke from his throat and shot straight down Keith’s spine.  Keith ran towards Lance without hesitation, Shiro right behind him.  Without even thinking about it he grabbed onto Lance’s outstretched hands and began rubbing soothing circles into them.  Lance’s keening sobs quieted at the touch and he leaned towards Keith, unconsciously seeking him.  The other paladins looked on in shock.  Tears were rolling down Hunk’s cheeks, and Pidge was clinging wide-eyed to the edge of the tank.  Keith noticed that at Lance’s cry, everyone in the room had moved closer to surround the tank and Lance from all sides.  He seemed to quiet slightly at the proximity, but his whimpers didn’t stop.

Coran stepped forward purposefully, breaking the tension.  “The good news is, I know what this is.  The bad news, he’s in the final stage.  Which means we need to get him into a healing pod-- now.”

Pidge piped up, “Final stage?”

“Yes.  His fever is dangerously high and he’s begun hemorrhaging.  Shiro, Hunk, lift Lance and get him into that pod.”

Keith and Pidge balked at Coran’s blunt explanation.  Horror gripped Keith’s gut.  Shiro managed to rouse himself enough to pull Hunk forward and together, they gently lifted Lance out of the tank and carried him towards the pod that Coran was busily setting up.  “The pod should take care of the internal bleeding and any other injuries he’s sustained, but the rest of the infection will have to be waited out the old-fashioned way.”

Hunk grunted as he held onto Lance’s arms, Shiro supporting his tail.  “Jeez Lance, and I thought I was heavy, what the heck man?  What are you eating?  Also, Coran, Coran my man what do you mean internal bleeding.  What is going on, why is my best friend a fish?  I thought those pods were supposed to fix everything?  Wait, how are we supposed to stand him up in that thing with this tail?  Also, is this because of that illness or was Lance a fish all along, because I think I’d know if my best friend was half-”

“Hunk.”  Shiro called,  “Breathe.”

Coran, for his part, look offended.  “Of course he was already part- er, whatever he is!  This illness doesn’t do that!  It’s an infection that’s common on Vellugher.”

Keith gaped as Pidge pulled him to his feet with a sharp grunt.  They trailed nervously behind Hunk and Shiro.  “Wait, you mean that water planet we just visited?” She asked.

“Yep!  That’s the one!”  Coran’s voice was slightly high and he nodded jerkily as he helped Hunk and Shiro somehow muscle Lance into the pod and shut the door.  He typed rapidly at the keys, jittering.  “See the virus is actually really common on Vellugher.  It starts with congestion in the lungs, for the aquatic creatures that have them, and mild scale and fin rot in patches.  That’s when most people are able to recognize the disease and get it treated.  After that comes a gray/white growth that starts eating away at the scales and the sensitive skin underneath and between them.  The pre-final stage is a dangerously high fever that overlaps with the final stage which is hemorrhaging of the internal organs.  That’s indicated by reddish bruising around the eyes, gills, and on the skin.  The screaming was likely due to the sensation of the infection finally eating away at the internal tissues.  At that point, most of the infected don’t have the kind of advanced medical treatment required to fix it so they end up dying.”  Coran was visibly shaking now, voice climbing higher as he spoke.

Allura looked confused, hands clasped in front of her dress as she glanced worriedly at Lance.  “But Coran, I thought that it takes at least a week, sometimes more, for the symptoms to run their full course.  Was he suffering like this for the past week or longer, and we just didn’t know?”

“Oh no, Lance most definitely caught this on Vellugher.  He couldn’t have been exposed to it recently enough otherwise.  Normally the aliens who visit Vellugher get immunized but I-”  Coran was pulling at his mustache, muttering and fussing as he started putting away various instruments and pulling others out to set the room up for when Lance came out.  Allura frowned at him in concern.  “I didn’t-  I should’ve-  I had no idea any of you possessed aquatic characteristics.  Otherwise I would have gotten you all vaccinated.  I should have anyways, this never would have happened if I’d just-”  Coran shook violently as he spoke, voice thick with guilt and eyes far away.

Allura placed her hand gently over Coran’s, effectively halting his erratic movements.  Keith watched worriedly from where he stood near Shiro.  “It’s not your fault.”  She whispered.

Shiro sighed, running a hand dejectedly through his hair.  “Allura’s right.  I’m the leader.  I should have noticed Lance was hiding something from us.”

Angry exclamations met Shiro’s words.

“What?  Oh come on Shiro, we’re just as much to blame as you.”

“Keith’s right.  We’re all at fault here… even Lance.”

“Yeah, Shiro.  I mean, Lance is my best friend.  If I didn’t know how could any of the rest of you?”

“Ok, ok.”  Shiro raised his hands against the protests.  “I get it.”

Keith turned to glare at Pidge.  “How is this Lance’s fault?  We never gave him a moment’s peace alone; when could he have found out about this?”

Pidge gazed at him in disbelief.  “Do you really think that Lance would have told us even if he’d known what was wrong?  He has a history of pulling crap like this.  He hides that he’s feeling under the weather until he’s sick as a dog and passing out.  And how do you even know he wasn’t aware of it, and just didn’t want to tell us?”  Her lip wobbled slightly as she spoke.  “He didn’t trust us, Keith.”

Keith flinched and Hunk looked sad.  Shiro seemed conflicted, and Keith could tell he was still blaming himself.  Allura glanced at the pod with a sigh, “I suppose we’ll just have to ask him when he wakes.”  Everyone nodded and turned back to the pod, guilt and anxiety flickering across their faces as they gazed at Lance’s limp form.  There was nothing they could do now but wait.

#voltron fic #mermaid lance #bonding moments #sick lance #lance whump #illness and injury #langst #keith and lance #hunk and lance #lance #shiro #coran #allura #pidge #This is the Hurt #There will be more later #but also the Comfort #Bruising Waters #my writing

[mavwrekmarketing]

Image copyright PA

On 25 June 2007, Hull was pummelled by 10 inches (25cm) of rain in just a few hours. Nearly every one of the city’s 98 schools was damaged, thousands of people were forced from their wrecked homes, and a young man lost his life in the most horrific circumstances.

But with floods hitting several other parts of the UK in that most unseasonal of summers, the perception soon arose that the people of East Yorkshire were being denied the attention their plight merited and the support they needed.

Coining Hull “the forgotten city”, the council’s then leader Carl Minns pointed out that “if this was Chelsea or Fulham, this would have been plastered over the front pages for weeks”.

Paul Tempest, who would not be able to return to his Cottingham home for a year, recalls there was a stark contrast in the way the floods that affected more affluent parts of Britain were reported.

“When there was flooding down south – we never had that level of news exposure – we saw people on the news in six inches deep of water and it made headlines,” he said.

“We thought, ‘wait a minute, we’ve had it to the waist’.”

Image copyright Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The floods that hit Hull and parts of East Yorkshire were caused by rainwater overwhelming drainage systems, in one instance with fatal consequences.

Michael Barnett, 28, became trapped in a storm drain and died from hypothermia during an unsuccessful four-hour operation to free him from neck-high floodwater, which witnesses described as raging “like Niagara Falls”.

His father, also called Michael, went to the scene, in Hessle, five miles west of Hull, when he heard his son was in difficulty, but was turned away by the emergency services.

“[My son] said to the firemen, ‘are you going to get me out of here?’ He then passed out – it was too much for him,” Mr Barnett said.

“He had gone under the water and six or seven of the firemen jumped in to try to save him with no thought for themselves – they all could have been sucked to the gate because it was quite fierce.

“He had a good life, he always enjoyed himself, but he has now lost 10 years – would he have married, had children?

“He used to say to me, ‘I will look after you in your old age’ – I couldn’t look after him in his young age.”

Image copyright Barnett family

Image caption Michael Barnett’s death prompted a coroner to call for efforts to address a “gap” in underwater rescue provision

What happened in June 2007 – the damage caused was put at more than 40m and affected over 10,000 properties – prompted an independent review of the region’s flood defences and led to millions being spent on improvements.

However, despite the passing of a decade, some residents and businesses are still dealing with knock-on effects of the deluge.

Former Hedon resident Sally Johnson said: “A friend is still finding problems with her home, she goes out and monitors the rain as she likes to make sure it’s not flooding.

“It impacts you for the rest of your life.”

Image caption Farmer Martin Voase lost 200,000 of crops in the floods

Martin Voase, based in the village of Brandesburton, 12 miles north of Hull, said the flood had changed the way he operates his farm.

“Potatoes were one of our main crops. That got completely annihilated and flooded out – we’ve not grown potatoes since,” he said.

“We lost 200,000 of crops that year. We couldn’t afford to take the risk of growing potatoes again, that was a big change.”

Mrs Johnson’s daughter took to a dinghy to complete her daily paper round as her mother watched children being evacuated from Inmans Primary School opposite their home.

“There were rats on the street afterwards, it was horrible – I felt so sorry for the children,” she said.

Image copyright PA

Image copyright Paul Tempest

Every classroom of the school ended up underwater – 95 of the 98 schools in Hull suffered flood damage.

Sally Morgan, head teacher of Inmans Primary School, said: “Before the last 20 pupils left, we were gathered in the main hall and water was bubbling up through the floor. The children were standing on chairs.

“A year later we had some heavy rain and one or two of our children got upset and were panicking it was going to happen again; teachers were anxious too.

“We used to take some of the kids with us to check the drains to reassure them.”

Clinical psychologists were appointed in the region to help support those children who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after having to abandon their homes.

Image copyright Getty Images

Paul Tempest recalls there being a “mad rush” for rental housing while repairs were being carried out.

“At the estate agents, they had queues and a sign to a desk saying ‘flood victims here’. It was like a warzone and you were almost a second-class citizen,” he said.

“Eventually you couldn’t get dehumidifiers, you were in a queue for four months just to get one. They became as rare as rocking horse dung.”

His memories include carrying an elderly neighbour to safety and seeing piles of ruined furniture and broken TVs appearing on driveways.

Image copyright Getty Images

His wife Lesley Tempest said: “I know now how people die in cold water; it was bitter, cold. I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

“There was never the recognition that it was a massive disaster, really.”

Down the road from their home, seven lagoons capable of holding four million gallons of water were later created to store run-off from the Raywell Valley during storms.

Following the Pitt Review, which looked into the overall impact of the June and July floods that killed 13 people nationwide, increased funding was provided to help deal with surface water flooding.

More than 50m has been spent on defences in Hull and East Yorkshire since 2007, with a further 120m to be spent in the next four years, the Environment Agency said.

Image caption Seven huge lagoons have been built along Eppleworth Road in Cottingham to catch run-off water

But shoring up defences and renovating homes is only part of the process of moving on, points out Prof Maggie Mort, a Lancaster University academic who researched Hull’s recovery from the floods.

She said the mental struggle of having to rebound from such an occurrence “affects people very deeply”.

“It’s not the flood itself that causes the trauma, it’s how you are treated afterwards and how your community, your family and agencies around you help you rebuild the social and personal fabric of your lives.

“The emergency phase of a flood gets the most attention [in the media], but the long slog of recovery is overlooked.”

This effort to rebound from the despair caused by flooding is something that resonates with Jennifer and Michael Fox, whose home on Corona Drive near the city centre was in one of the areas worst hit by the deluge.

The couple said what happened made them reassess what was important in their lives and caused them to try to keep a positive attitude, despite their plight.

Mrs Fox said: “Your doors, your walls, your sandbags: nothing can stop the water, nothing at all. By the next morning all of the water had gone, but everything was just absolutely ruined.”

They cooked upstairs on a camping stove and washed their clothes in the bathroom while repairs were carried out.

“The men [working on] the house accidentally cut through the water pipe and flooded it again,” Mr Fox said.

“We just fell about laughing, because it couldn’t have got any wetter than it already was.”

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