Tumgik
#past abuse
nerdpoe · 8 months
Text
In the Shadow of Speculation Part 1
Part 2, Ao3
Daniel Nightingale, ex Fenton, moves to Gotham for a fresh start. It's next to his friends, it's so very different from Amity Park, and Lady Gotham has promised her Knights will protect him. The world as he knew it has changed, and no longer has a place as a combat hero. Not when he's more likely to flinch than to dodge, not when the sight of a knife is enough to force him back to a time and a place he never wanted to see again. In an attempt to adapt, Danny turns to being a specialized hero-medic; his sole focus is helping and evacuating, not fighting. Except that no one told him Death Energy had the same reading to Geiger counters as gamma radiation. It isn't, but apparently Geiger counters can't tell the difference.
Danny Nightingale plopped down on his new couch, taking a moment to breathe in that new apartment smell. It was a pleasant, three bedroom apartment in a relatively nice area of Gotham. 
Well, nice for ghosts. Specifically, the sheer amount of emotions around the place, both past and present, made it an ideal spot for a healing ghost to situate himself.
Danny felt that the more important point was that he finally had a place to himself. 
He was tired of everyone coddling him, acting like he was going to break if he was even touched wrong. But luckily, Gotham was so far away from any kind of city his family would want to visit that he was free to dodge their nannying.
When he had woken up from the…Accident, it was to a political shitstorm; the Infinite Realms had been gearing up for war, and surprisingly Dan had been the only thing stopping them. The negotiations between dimensions had been a nightmare, especially with the sheer amount of effort it took to keep the Justice League’s nose out of his business, but it had been worth it.
Ghosts were considered sapient entities, were acknowledged to be from essentially a different country/dimension, and the ghosts that lived on Earth and had been negatively affected by the laws that were in place were entitled to compensation for the violation to their persons.
Added bonus, Danny could stay.
The first place he had chosen had been Gotham; it was close to Sam and Tucker, and had just the right dosage of occult to meet Frostbite’s strict ecto-therapy regimen.
That, and Lady Gotham had extended an invitation.
The move had been insane, for multiple reasons.
Vlad had insisted on coming along, something about verifying that Danny wasn’t about to live in a hovel. 
Vlad actually caring-in his own way-was still so weird to Danny.
But at least it had been entertaining; every single time Vlad had stepped out of the car to get something from the gas stations, he kept getting mugged.
Another headache was the fact that, on moving day alone, there were three separate rogue attacks, and traffic had backed up so badly Danny was almost convinced to blow his cover and just fucking fly to his new place.
Which would be the last thing Dan needed-someone with his powers cropping up in a city on the other side of the country. Dan had enough on his plate with his whole…thing he’d decided on doing; the world as a whole declaring that his natural born nemesis was opposite sides of the country would throw a wrench in his rehabilitation.
The man had enough problems.
Like Danny had enough problems, but strangely only when Vlad was around. 
The car Vlad had been driving had hit every single pothole and broken both axles, and overall Danny had the sense that Vlad should probably have never set foot in the city.
Honestly, the absolute second Vlad had left the move had gone much smoother.
Like, Danny had still had to pay the movers extra for the rogue attacks, vicinity to crimes (thanks Vlad for getting mugged so often that the muggers just started taking clothing items), and traffic; but after his Godfather had left it had been done in about two hours flat.
Did he still have to unbox his belongings? Yes. Was he going to do that at that particular moment?
Danny flopped sideways and brought his cell phone up to his face.
No. No, he was not.
He was going to take a breather, fall asleep on his new couch, read the news and watch some random memes, and enjoy his Restitution Money.
Danny had only been scrolling on his phone for two minutes when he fell asleep.
~~~~~~
Danny woke up to the sounds of muffled screams.
“Well that’s never good,” He muttered as he tried to roll over. He landed on the floor instead.
Right.
He hadn’t put the bed together yet.
Groaning, Danny pushed himself up for the purpose of hunting down where he’d put his poptarts. Only once he’d opened a box and started digging through it did he realize that the muffled screams were not coming from his definitely dead phone.
They were coming from outside.
Danny tripped over his feet as he bolted for the window, pressing his face against the glass as he stared down at the streets in disbelief.
The streets were filled with a green, noxious gas. People collapsed onto the ground only to scream and claw at their own faces. Some were attacking others, and anyone who left to assist had gas masks on.
Not that the masks did much good, considering the citizens who had been dosed would freak out and rip it off of them.
Batman and Red Hood were on scene, but they were so focused on cornering and catching the freak in the scarecrow costume that the only one able to assist the civilians was Robin. Unfortunately, as well trained as Robin was, there were too many.
Robin was doing the best he could, Danny could see that, but he was clearly over-burdened and needed assistance. 
Danny…was appalled. This was the most ineffective rogue fight he’d ever witnessed.
When he’d been in charge of Amity, his citizens had only rarely been caught in the crossfire, and he never had a casualty. But here was one of the Big Leaguers and his cohorts, and they couldn’t arrange for the civilians to be treated or get to safety.
Danny, with no means to protect himself and unsure of how the gas would effect him, a halfa, could only watch from the window of his sixth story apartment.
Twenty minutes.
It had taken Batman and Red Hood twenty minutes to take down Scarecrow.
Danny had watched the whole thing.
Twenty minutes, thirty-two injured, nine dead, twelve critically injured.
And Danny, tied by the red tape of bureaucracy and his own trauma, hadn’t been able to do anything.
~~~~~~
A day later, full of unpacking and getting his apartment set up while he ignored the sounds of the emergency workers outside his window, Danny couldn’t stop seeing the attack.
There was so much room for improvement, but Batman apparently didn’t have anyone specifically trained in only defense and evacuation.
Danny had been so, so lucky for Sam and Tucker and Jazz. They had tag-teamed it; one of them would help him fight, the other two would evacuate civilians.
Batman was good at what he did, Danny could not deny that.
But there was room for improvement that was just…there. It was right there. 
Danny couldn’t offer his services as Phantom. He couldn’t. He just…every time he thought about donning his old hero moniker, he’d start remembering.
If he started remembering, he became useless until he was able to remember that he was still alive.
And being a combatant, in and of itself, was highly…dissatisfying. 
No sleep, constant injuries, threat of exposure hanging over his head; Danny’d had enough in high school. He had a whole life separate from that, in a city so big and problematic that just donating used clothes was enough to save someone’s life.
He was doing better. He could finally sleep without nightmares, people reaching out to touch him didn’t make him flinch, and he was away from a town of people who had made his childhood a living hell even before he’d had the Accident.
He refused to ask Dan to step in; the man was needed where he was, and Danny couldn’t drag away a teacher from his students.
Ellie was in college, and Danny wasn’t about to interrupt her education to drag her into the vigilante lifestyle she never even showed real interest in.
On top of his many, many other reasons for just not wanting to get into fights anymore.
Instead he took his frustrations out on kneading the dough on his counter.
His phone buzzed.
      Ellie       Omggggggggggg I don’t know what’s so hard???       Just bully Dan into doing it!
Danny snorted and allowed his hands to go intangible, the dough stuck to his fingers sliding back onto the counter, before he touched his phone to reply.
      Danny       Omggggggggg I literally can’t do that       P sure ur the only one who can bully him       He’s a pushover but only 4 u
He set his phone down and continued stress-baking. Ellie would take a bit to respond, since she wasn’t even supposed to have her phone on her at work.
But apparently Ellie had decided that she did not care.
      Ellie       Lies and slander       He’s scared of me I just know it       Also imma kill my customers
      Danny       Don’t commit murder        Diplomatic immunity only goes so far       I don’t need an inter-dimensional incident
      Danny       Ellie?       Ellie no       Don’t actually kill a human
      Ellie       This dude won’t get off my call       He’s so annoying danny I gotta       I       I’m gonna do a ring
      Danny       Ellie NO
      Ellie       Ellie yes brb
Ellie stopped responding after that, and Danny groaned.
She was absolutely going to cause an inter-dimensional incident.
~~~~~~
Ellie was going to cause an inter-dimensional incident.
But it wasn’t her fault!
The stupid caller-Kent or whatever-was being a total ass!
“Sir,” she tried, one last time, “I cannot assist you with this matter. Either you let me transfer you to someone who can, or I’m going to crawl through this phone and kick your ass.”
“Tt. Even if you were a meta capable of such a feat, I highly doubt you could best me in combat.”
“I warned you.”
Ellie let her form fall away, distantly hearing the screams of her coworkers, and traveled through the phone connection.
Her arm burst from the cell phones ear piece and clocked someone across the face. Then she let the rest of herself crawl through, as eldritch as she could make it without actually driving anyone insane.
There was a scream of terror on her right, but she only had eyes for the tanned asshole in front of her with the bloody nose.
Then she let loose on him.
Surprisingly, he managed to block most of her attacks once he came to his senses.
Most of them.
She just started cheating after that and phasing through his hands to connect to his body.
There was a brief moment where the terrified one to her right tried to intervene, but both she and the Kevin kicked him in the face with a joint “Stay out of this!”.
He stayed out of it.
After fifteen minutes of rough-housing, which was what it had definitely turned into, Ellie wiped the blood away from her nose and held out her hand to the man she was sitting on.
“That was a nice fight; the names Ellie.”
The man paused, hesitated…and shook her hand.
“It was admirable. I am Damian.”
“Um…” Ellie and Damian both turned to look at the other man in the room, a blue eyed black haired carbon copy of her brother almost. But like, younger.
“I’m Jon. You kick pretty hard!”
“Thanks! Well I am definitely fired. What was the real reason for calling, anyways?”
Damian sat up and forced Ellie to fall off of him, his face slowly turning red.
“I didn’t realize that my dad’s card would get charged when I made an app store purchase,” Jon admitted quietly, “Damian was trying to annoy customer service into canceling the transaction so dad wouldn’t find out.”
Ellie wheezed from her spot on the ground, laughing harder when Damian turned and left the room in a huff.
“So…is that something you could go back and-?”
“You’re so fucked my dude.”
~~~~~~
Danny checked his care package while he waited for the Arkham guards to finish verifying his visitation rights.
Muffins? Check. Pretzels? Check. Cookies? Check. Donuts? Check. Fudge? No.
Danny still hadn’t been able to make himself use his father’s recipe.
He wasn’t sure when he would be able to.
It looked like when the guards had checked everything for escape tools they hadn’t eaten anything.
Danny felt strangely offended by that.
“Alright, you’re clear. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” Danny sighed, walking away from the last semblance of normalcy and into what could only be described as hell for the mentally stable.
Arkham was a place that radiated the pull to help, the pull to heal, but was overrun by lifetimes of grudges nothing short of burning the place down would ever be able to fix.
It was, unfortunately, the only place capable of holding his parents.
Who he could hear as they were led to the visitation rooms.
“Danny!” Maddie Fenton cried, attempting to throw herself at him. The chain that was held by her accompanying guards, however, yanked her back.
“Dann-o!” Jack cried as he was hauled through the other door, power-dampening cuffs active. He had far too many guards to attempt to launch forward; after he’d broken four walls, Arkham had stopped taking chances.
“Hey mom, hey dad,” Danny said weakly, placing the care package on the table, “Everything is even, so you should both get the same amount.”
“Aw, our baby boy is so considerate!” Maddie cooed, reaching forward and pinching Danny’s cheek before the guards could tug her back out of range.
“So, I just wanted to know how you guys were settling in-“
“Have you seen any ghosts in Gotham, Dann-o?”
Danny took a deep breath through his nose.
“It doesn’t matter if I did or did not, dad; they’re a protected species with rights now.”
“Oh, pish-posh,” Maddie laughed, already digging into the package and pulling out a pretzel, “So what if the government fell for their acting? You know, when we caught Phantom-“
“-When you caught Phantom, you nearly started an inter-dimensional war,” Danny cut in, hiding his shaking fists under the table.
Maddie leveled him with her most disappointed look, while Jack laughed merrily.
“Come on, Dann-o, you fell for it’s rambling too? Ah, well. We found out so much when it turned into that weird jewel-“
“-When you mortally wounded the King of an entire Dimension, almost forever scarring relations between this one and that one-“
“-Young man, we really are happy to see you, but if you’re just going to quote ghost propaganda at us-“
“-It isn’t propaganda, you guys just don’t listen-“
“-Dann-o, if you’re possessed by ectoplasmic scum, just blink twice-“
Danny stood up, chair clattering to the ground, and turned for the exit.
“…I’ll come again in two weeks. Please actually talk to your doctors and at least try to get better.”
He couldn’t do it. He thought he could, but he just. He couldn’t.
Every time they spoke about ghosts, he was back in the lab, strapped to a metal table, begging them to stop, refusing to turn human regardless of how hard his body fought to.
He wouldn’t allow it.
Not because he thought it would get worse, but because if he had turned human during their…experiments, he would have died.
Humans could not survive what had been done to him.
He ignored their yelling and made his way out of Arkham, dodging the pitying looks from the workers and guards.
He didn’t remember getting on the subway. He didn’t recall anything about his walk through Park Row.
He only came back to himself far after the sun had set, curled up in the bathtub, eyes dry and tired from watching the door.
~~~~~~
Jazz gently tapped Dan’s boots as she walked towards the kitchen, reminding him that shoes were not allowed on the coffee table.
The large man grumbled but acquiesced.
“So how are the kids?” Jazz asked over her shoulder, flipping the oven light on to check on the roast hidden inside.
“There’s a new upstart in Iowa, calls himself Jupiter. Can’t be older than nine, one of the biggest crybabies I’ve ever had to train.”
Jazz snorted.
“Are we basing this off of their first look at you, or just how they behave in general?”
Dan didn’t answer.
Jazz read between the lines and stifled a laugh.
Little Jupiter had definitely cried upon seeing Dan.
“Did you go see Lian, then?”
“Fuck yeah I saw Lian! She’s so big, no wonder I couldn’t find her in the Realms!”
Jazz listened to Dan wax poetic about Roy’s daughter, letting him get it off his chest. After Lian had died, Dan had been as inconsolable as was possible for the emotionally stunted man. He’d spent countless hours in the Infinite Realms, searching for her, only to return heartbroken that he couldn’t find her.
He was convinced she was so doused with ecto-contamination due to her exposure to him that she would absolutely become a ghost.
But when she’d passed, there hadn’t been a trace of one. No matter how hard he’d searched, he’d never found her.
Because apparently, she’d been alive.
“-Anyways, how’s the twerp doing?”
Jazz tuned back in.
“Sorry?”
“Little me. How’s he doin?”
“Danny’s as tall as you are, Dan.”
Dan appeared at her side and phased his hand through the oven to swipe some roast.
“Doesn’t matter, I’m older. He okay?”
Jazz shrugged.
“He’s…awake. Well enough to be on his own.”
“Fucked up he stays in the same town as Maddie and Jack.”
Jazz shrugged again, a little more helplessly.
“How he chooses to heal is up to him, Dan.”
“He shouldn’t be near them,” Dan growled, causing some of the silverware to vibrate.
Jazz tensed and mentally prepared herself for the exact same argument that had brought Dan to her doorstep.
“Dan-“
“A four year coma, Jazz.”
“-It’s his choice, Dan.”
“They made him retreat into his core.”
“I know.”
“He shouldn’t be anywhere near them!”
“I know!” Jazz shouted, whirling on him, shoulders heaving as she felt her eyes glare a bright luminescent green.
They stared at each other, until ultimately Jazz won again, and Dan looked away.
“I know,” Jazz said, quieter, pulling out her phone to check it one more time, “I know, but the world has changed so much since he went down, and if this is how he wants to explore it then I won’t stop him.”
An uncomfortable silence settled over them, until the oven let out an obnoxious tune. No one moved.
“…Roast is done,” Dan said helpfully.
Jazz ignored him, eyes on the screen of her phone.
“Hey.”
She reread what Danny had sent her.
“Hey, Jazz-”
“I need to talk to Danny,” she muttered, picking up the oven mitts and tossing them at Dan as she walked towards her bedroom.
After she shut the door quietly behind her, she called her little brother.
The phone didn’t even complete the first ring before he picked up.
“Danny, are you alright?” She knew that he knew going to see their parents had been a terrible idea, and pointing that out would do no one any good.
So instead she focused on him.
“I don’t think so,” Danny said, his voice much smaller than it had any right to be.
Jazz tamped down on her instinctive need to ask a million questions and sat down on her bed instead.
“That’s fine, Danny; it’s perfectly okay to not be okay. Do you need to me to talk?”
“Yes.”
So Jazz did.
@simplestoryteller @gildedphoenix
Prompts that inspired this entire piece one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Ages are as follows; Dan (31), Jazz (23), Danny (21), Tucker (21), Sam(21), Ellie (19) Bruce (48), Dick (33), Barbara (32), Jason (26), Cass (26), Tim (24), Steph (24), Duke (21), Damian (17) Clark (47), Lois (45), Conner (26), Jon (20) Alfred (Deceased/immortal)
I'm trying a different method of writing, so this will be a bit different. Mostly because for this particular story I'm world-building alongside it.
492 notes · View notes
sqquidzz · 5 months
Text
"As Long as I'm Here, No One Can Hurt You."
Tumblr media
Sanemi x Child!Reader (PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP)
Summary: Sanemi had found you while he was on a mission chasing a demon, covered in the blood of your own family and crying in your house all alone. He decided to "adopt" you and give you a new home.
Tags: Fluff, slight gore in backstory, Sanemi is a good parent, trauma, PTSD, slight mentions of past abuse, soft Sanemi, protective Sanemi, Y/N reminds Sanemi of Genya, loss of parents, adopting, some sadness, swearing, insults (but Sanemi doesn't really mean it) etc.
A/N: Hello readers! I'm so sorry to those following me that I haven't posted as often as I probably should, I just got writers block and lost all my motivation and I forgot to post something for you guys. I hope this will make up for it. I have not written fluff yet, so I'm hoping you guys will have some improvements for me if there are any. And also, thank you to those who are following me, I really appreciate it! About the story now, PLEASE do NOT read this as a sexual relationship, this is only a PLATONIC relationship. But anyways, enjoy!
Tumblr media
"Get back here, you brat!"
Sanemi was currently chasing you around the house. After a long year of going on missions, Sanemi finally had a break day. Of course, meaning that he could spend that day taking care of you. And coming back to the scene before us, Sanemi swerves around tables and chairs, trying to get you to get back into your room. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, you were also wearing no clothes.
"Nanana Boo Boo!" you giggle as he dives to catch you, but you jump out of the way, blowing a raspberry at his face, snickering as you run away once again and hide, leaving Sanemi wheezing on the floor from chasing you around.
"You better get back into your room you piece of shit, or else I'll kill you!" Sanemi barks as he rises from the floor, getting up and dusting his pants before searching for you.
"Oi, you better not be fooling around my room you little fuck!" Sanemi yells as he searches your room and comes out empty handed.
However, as he approaches his room, he hears quiet sobs through the closed door. Now Sanemi is getting a little concerned.
"Y/N...?" he calls out gently as he opens the door, the door creaking slightly. He ends up finding you on the opposite side of his bed, curled up into a ball, face in your knees as you cry silently, sobs racking your small frame.
"Hey buddy... what's wrong?" Sanemi asks quietly as he reaches out to you with his hand. But immediately after his hand makes contact with your back, you flinch away, head shooting out of your knees as you look wildly around you as if your afraid the world is hunting you.
"Whoa, I'm not gonna hurt you, see?" Sanemi whispers and holds his hands out.
You slightly calm down at the gesture, but your expression is still wary, still feeling like Sanemi was tricking you.
"You wanna tell me why your crying?" Sanemi asks gently as he attempts to hold your hand again. This time, you don't flinch back, sniffling quietly as you stop crying.
"I- I got scared," you whisper out, "I knew you wouldn't hurt me.... but I couldn't help thinking about what they did to me."
Now Sanemi was confused. Who were you talking about? Who did what to you?
"What do you mean, pumpkin?" Sanemi asks. He always used pet names with you, sometimes they would be insulting, but most of the times, he would call you buddy, pumpkin, things like that that made you feel like he really cared.
"M-my parents used to do things to me," you sniffle, "They always said that it was for the best and I believed them for a while. But what they did hurt so much." You burry your face into your knees again, shoulders shaking from newly sprung tears.
Now Sanemi understood.
He had found you as a baby after your parents had been slaughtered in your house. He decided to take you in himself since he didn't want you to end up being an orphan forever or getting adopted by a bad family (bless his kind heart 😭)
However, he had never thought to ask about your past. He just assumed that you had grown up with a normal family that loved and cared for you. Oh how he was wrong.
"Y-your parents...?" Sanemi whispers as you continue to sob out of fear and grief that your parents had in fact abused you and had neglected your well-being entirely.
By now Sanemi was shaking with fury, but not at you. He was shocked. How could someone hurt someone so kind and joyful? How could they rob you of your happiness?
Sanemi took a deep breath. Now is not the time to get violent.
Instead of asking any further about your past, Sanemi simply wraps his arms around you in firm but loving embrace and you bury your head into his shoulder, letting out all of the tears that you held in for so long.
"It's okay Y/N. You safe with me. As long as I'm here, no one can hurt you," he coos, rubbing your back to sooth you and calm you.
After a few minutes, you calm down, finally running out of tears to shed and you fall asleep in Sanemi's warm embrace.
He smiles down at you, and as he gazes at you, a memory pops into his head
---
"Nemi! Nemi!"
"W-what is it?" Sanemi asks, rubbing his eyes, clearing his vision to reveal Genya.
"Can I sleep with you tonight?" Genya asks nervously, "I had a nightmare and I'm really scared."
Sanemi blinks for a moment, then smiles softly and throws his blanket to the side.
"C'mere," Sanemi sighs, and Genya immediately jumps into his embrace, burying his face into his chest. "Don't worry Genya, as long as I'm hear, no one can hurt you.' (sound familiar?)
---
A tear runs down Sanemi's cheek.
He hadn't realized until now how much you reminded him of Genya when he was younger. Cheerful, determined, kind. And especially the fact that you love to sleep. (pointer to those manga readers out there)
Sanemi picks you up in his arms, tucking you into bed and watches as you snuggle the blankets closer, savoring their warmth.
He slowly climbs into bed next to you as to not wake you up, and holding you close, he too, falls fast asleep.
125 notes · View notes
halsinswhire · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
It's going to be okay (sample)
Halsin x gender neutral reader
Warnings: Angst to fluff, past ass*ult, past abusive relationship, kinda unintentional self harm, Halsin is a big softy (yes this is a warning)
Summary: You tell Halsin part of your past when he finds you upset
Should I keep this going or start on a new idea?
Tears fill your eyes as you run into the forest away from everyone's prying eyes. You keep running until you find a spot far enough away from everyone where they won't hear your crying. As you stop and take in your surroundings you realize there is a beautiful pond not too far away. Walking towards the pond, tears now running down your face, you decide this is a good space to be alone. Sitting by the edge of the pond you finally let your sobs escape your throat into the open air. Not realizing exactly what you're doing, or registering the pain, you start to hit your thighs as hard as you can. "Why can't I get over this? When does it stop hurting so much?" You scream. The sound of a branch snaps you out of your trance-like state, and you turn around to see Halsin close behind you. He walks towards you slowly and sits down beside you. "I felt the need to check on you when you ran off, would you like to talk about what it is that's upsetting you?" He says. You think for a moment, 'should I tell him?', but decide against it. Shaking your head you say "no it's- it's silly I'll be fine. Just give me a moment." Halsin does not believe you for a moment, but decides not to push the matter yet, instead staying seated beside you in case you change your mind. "Nature's gifts sure are beautiful, sometimes I sit out here just to observe." Halsin says. You know he is just trying to distract you, but for now you allow it to work. "You've been to this spot before? It's beautiful." You say. Leaning your head against his shoulder you let out a long sigh. "My problems are not yours, they are mine to deal with." You say. " My love, let me be here for you. You can rely on me."
81 notes · View notes
fanfictilltheend · 8 months
Text
A Trick of the Winter Light (Joel Miller/You)
Tumblr media
AO3 Link
Masterlist
A/n: To fill the anon tumblr prompt: "I have a Joel x daddy issues!reader request!! Reader sees how good Joel is with Ellie, and it makes her happy and sad at the same time. She's happy Ellie gets to have an amazing father, but she can't stop thinking about what was wrong with herself that her father couldn't love her the way Joel loves Ellie. This causes a bit of trouble in their little family until Joel and ellie confront reader about why she's being distant. I'd like a happy ending where joel comforts reader too!!!"
Warnings: fluff, hurt/comfort, past abusive father mention, daddy issues, referenced past domestic violence, sarah mention, please take care of yourself!!
Summary: Reader comes from an abusive home and seeing Joel and Ellie's good relationship is heartwarming but also confusing at times. When Joel and Ellie get in a snowball fight reader assumes the worst between the two of them and Joel and Ellie comfort you the best way they know how.
Your dad was an asshole. There was no other way of saying it. You can’t even count the number of times that fucker came after you with a belt. This wasn’t the worst of it though, you think. The worst was that that motherfucker basically ignored you your entire childhood except to criticize or beat you. No playing dolls, no showing up to soccer games, no high-fives if you managed to scrape up an A on your report card. Instead, radio silence except for the slamming of fists or the shouting of harsh words. 
To say this didn’t fuck you up would be a lie. But it didn’t just fuck up how you felt about yourself, that could have filled up a novel, no, it also fucked up how you perceived other people’s relationships. And that’s where Joel and Ellie came in.
When Joel and Ellie moved into Jackson it turned your life upside down in the best possible way. You were an assistant teacher in the Jackson high school and met Ellie first. She charmed her way into her heart and that dark and mysterious Joel Miller was soon to follow with prompting from Ellie. Joel had initially been cold to you as he was to everyone (maybe that’s what drew you to him – another emotionally unavailable older man who actively didn’t give a shit about you), but he warmed up to you quickly when he saw how awesome you could be with Ellie. The rest was history and you moved in with Joel and Ellie soon after.
Most days were amazing! You were so impressed with the way Joel fathered Ellie, always being so kind and considerate to her and the way he looked at her like the sun shone out of her ass always melted your heart. But it was a lot to get used to, seeing a real, mostly-functional father-daughter relationship that you just never had. And then sometimes you were transported into the past against your will.
Take today, for example. It was winter and snow covered Jackson like a Christmas card. School had been canceled for you and Ellie and a construction project Joel had been helping with became a snow hazard so he had off too. You and Joel had been reading contentedly on the couch until Ellie raced inside and threw a live snowball right into Joel’s chest. You died laughing until Joel got up and declared war on Ellie who raced back outside, giggling hysterically. You and Joel grabbed coats and gloves and ran out into the front yard and began lobbing snowballs at Ellie who was screaming with glee from behind a snowbank. Everything was fine until Ellie managed to hit Joel square in the face. Joel stopped what he was doing, wiped the melting snow off his face gruffly, got up from the embankment you two had hidden behind, and marched over to Ellie. Ellie’s eyes widened in fear and she ducked down behind her snowbank. In seconds, Joel was upon her and tackled her to the ground behind the large pile of snow and you simply lost it. You didn’t think Joel would ever be capable of hurting Ellie, but you had seen that ferocious look in his eye – that same look you’d seen in your father’s. 
“Joel!” you yelled urgently, running over. “Get the fuck off of her! How the fuck could you–”
But you cut yourself off the second you realized the two were just laughing, rolling around, and play-fighting in the freezing snow. 
Oh, I am an idiot . You thought to yourself, wiping away the tears that had somehow collected in your eyes.
“Chill out, Y/N–” Ellie giggled, turning over to face you. “Oh my god. Shit. Are you crying!? We were just messing around…” she trailed off, looking over at Joel with worry.
Joel was looking up at you now with concern too. He knew about your past, but you didn’t blame him for not connecting the convoluted dots. 
“Shit, darlin’,” he said gently. “Don’t cry. What’s the matter now?”
“I-I-thought–” you began, but suddenly you were crying. You were always a crier. Every time your dad hurt you verbally or physically, you always cried. Like clockwork. “Thought you were m-mad at Ellie. I-I’m so sorry,” you sobbed pathetically, wiping the tears from your eyes.
Ellie looked up at you again with worry. Then she put two and two together. (Always was a smart kid).
“You…you thought he was really gonna hurt me?” She asked, looking up at Joel from her spot on the ground. 
“Kinda,” you nodded, staring down at the snow-drenched earth.
“Joel’d never ever hurt me like that, Y/N,” Ellie said, getting up and taking your hand. “Don’t you know that?”
“Yeah, is the thing,” you replied, looking over into Joel’s eyes. “I know he never, ever would. You’re so lucky to have that, Ellie. I just knew some people who weren’t like that is all. And I sometimes forget how good people can be.”
Joel stood up too and put a large hand on your shoulder.
“Over my dead body, I’d ever hurt either one of you,” he said meaningfully, looking into your eyes and you knew he was telling the truth. 
And because of that, you burst into tears.
“Ellie, kiddo, why don’t you go over to Dina’s for a little?” Joel suggested gently.
Ellie gave you a kind of awkward side hug and nodded and made her way over to Dina’s house, looking back a little uneasily.
Joel mouthed something to her, but you couldn’t tell what because tears had flooded your vision.
“Hey, I dunno who you’re talking about, Y/N,” Ellie shouted from half-way down the block, cupping her mittens around her mouth. “About those asshole people. But I’ll kick their asses for you!”
“Thanks, Els!” you giggled through the tears. She was always looking out for you like that even though she was only fourteen. “You’re a good kid.”
And with that, Ellie disappeared into town with a last nod.
“Uh, why don’t we head on inside and have something hot to drink,” Joel suggested. 
You nodded your head and Joel took your hand so gently, which was so different than how you’d seen him handle a weapon on patrol that your heart broke a little more, unsure how you got lucky enough to find someone who handled you so tenderly. 
***
You both sat at the kitchen counter with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate as the sun got lower in the winter sky.
“Gonna tell me what that was all about?” Joel asked, putting his hand on yours.
“It’s so fucking stupid,” you replied, taking your hand away.
Joel frowned. 
“Not to me it ain’t,” he responded seriously, his brown eyes meeting yours. “Nothing you say is stupid. Hell, half the time I’ve gotta look up words you just slip into normal conversation.”
You grinned at that. This was Joel after all. You knew you could tell him pretty much anything and he wouldn’t judge you, had probably done fifty times worse. 
“You just…had this angry look in your eye when Ellie threw that snowball at you. It reminded me of how my dad used to look at me before he’d…get physical. In my mind, I know you would never, ever hurt Ellie. But it’s like my body hasn’t caught up to my thoughts and it’s still a little girl, living at home with a terrifying asshole.”
“I get that,” Joel said after a moment. 
“You do?”
“Sure. Sometimes…sometimes my body still feels like it’s holding Sarah the day I lost her even though it’s been twenty years.”
Joel rarely mentioned Sarah so you were honored he felt comfortable enough to bring her up. You put your hand back on his and rubbed his calloused skin tenderly.
“Never’d hurt you or Ellie though. Over my dead body, alright?” Joel continued meaningfully, reaching out a large hand to rub your back. “But your dad? That asshole? Like Ellie said, I’d kick his ass six ways to Sunday.”
You snort into Joel’s flannel-covered shoulder, trying to imagine it. Joel would rip that asshole limb from limb with his bare hands, you were sure of it. You’d heard stories of what he was capable of, had seen glimpses of it on patrols. Ellie would be more than happy to assist. Come to think of it, maybe you’d get a kick or punch in edgewise of your own.
“Can I tell you something?” you asked slowly, your foot tangling with his own. 
“‘Course, doll,” He replied with a kind smile.
“This may not mean a lot coming from me, seeing as I don’t know much better, but I really do think you’re an amazing father.”
“To me, angel, that means the world,” Joel told you with a genuine grin.
He leaned over and kissed you on the top of your forehead and then between your lips. You kissed him back lovingly.
“Your dad didn’t know what the fuck he was missing with someone like you,” Joel murmured low against your ear.
You grinned.
“Love you, Joel,” you told him, pulling him in for a hug.
“Love you too, babygirl. Never gonna let anyone lay a finger on you ever again.”
A/n: Any feedback would be much appreciated! Lmk prompts or suggestions or if you would like to be tagged! Thanks for reading!! ❤️
Masterlist
121 notes · View notes
Text
Texts from the Ex
Pairings: Weems x Reader
Word count: 1.1K
Summary: Reader is a fairly new teacher, and you have a panic attack at school luckily not in class.
TW: implied past abuse, stalking, panic attack
A/n Hi guys sorry I disappeared for a hot minute there I just finished the last of my exams and have been very very busy. I’ll be back to posting as per normal (hopefully) now. Thank you all for your support with my exams and to the people who wished me luck with them your all very sweet. Again, sorry about the random ghosting haha.
Also, this fic is Larissa x reader. I know I said this was a platonic fic of oneshots but it was requested (I won't be doing any more romantic pairing for weems or Thornhill in the foreseeable future), this is just a one off so… live with it. (Dw as per usual its SFW)
Your phone screen flashed again as you did your best to hide it under the table and out of sight. The panic swelled in your chest as you pushed the tray of food away.
It had started that morning in your first class. You had been teaching about the renaissance when your phone buzzed in your pocket. As per usual you ignored it, you had a class to teach. The buzzing happened again ten minutes later while the kids were doing some still life sketches. This time you pulled it out, feeling the blood freeze tight in your veins.
How did she get this number. Your ex-girlfriend had managed to track you down, most likely due to your response to the ad for this position a few months back. You had responded with your number like an idiot and now she was onto you again.
She was awful, she ignored you and she had always possessed a special talent to make you feel unwanted and small.
You quickly shoved the phone back into your pocket and drew some deep breathes trying to quell the rising feeling of panic. You had managed to stave it off until the class left. It was only then you had let yourself collapse onto the floor and sob. She was trying to get back into your life to ruin it again.
The messages hadn’t stopped all day. Each one had made you feel closer and closer to the impending panic attack and now you were sat here with Ms Thornhill trying to hold a conversation. However, she was doing about 90% of the talking while you sat there nodding. You were close with the botanist. After all she was close with your girlfriend who happened to be the principle. None other than Larissa Weems herself.
Realising you had zoned out you tried to tune back into what was being said around you. Your phone buzzed under the table again and you began to feel sick. What if Marilyn saw? What if Larissa found out? What if your Ex found you?
Your chest began to feel tight. Constricting slowly and making it harder to take a deep breath. Your head was pounding and your stomach roiling. Your hands were shaking and clasped tight under the desk. Your body was overwhelmed with fear, and it was getting harder to hear Marilyn. It sounded distorted, as if it was under a layer of thick liquid like juice or honey. Things were moving weirdly as well, almost slowly but also too fast.
You thanked God that you had agreed to have lunch with Marilyn in the conservatory away from students. They didn’t need to see the new art teacher having a breakdown over some silly text messages.
“Y/n?” Marilyn asked as she laid a hand on your shoulder. “Honey, are you ok?” She said softly. You recoiled from the touch, and she quickly withdrew her hands into a surrender. “Ok. Ok. Its ok. Im not going to touch you sweetheart. What do you need?” She said and you shook your head, taking shaky breathes which weren’t helping ease the nausea. You curled yourself into a tight ball.
“L-leave me al-lone pl-lease.” You begged. You couldn’t see past the haze of tears and your head hurt so bad.
Marilyn stood back for a second, seeing she was getting nowhere. Suddenly she had an idea and whipped out her own phone.
“Honey? Do you want me to call larissa?” She asked softly. You hesitated and then gave a small nod. “Good. Good. Ok? Take some deep breathes. You're doing great Y/n.” She encouraged and began to dial your girlfriend.
The whole time she was on the phone she studied you closely to make sure you were still breathing and not at risk of passing out. After a few seconds she nodded and said something you didn’t hear before hanging up.
“She’ll be here in a second. Come on Y/n. You can do it. You're doing such a good job sweetheart. That’s it.” She gushed and you let out a shaky sob as you saw a pair of heels enter your vision.
Looking up at her with a tear-stained face Larissa’s heart broke for you. She quickly sat on the floor beside you, uncaring about her expensive suit and pulled you into her arms. She pulled you into her chest and tucked your head under her chin, her arms wrapped around your back. One of your legs either-side of her as you straddled her waist. She rocked the two of you side to side as she brushed her hands through your hair.
She exaggerated her breathing as you listened to her heartbeat and slowed your own. After a bit of just sitting there you took a deep breath of her perfume and released a shaky sigh.
“Hello darling.” She said cooly and with a tender tone.
“Hi.” You said almost shyly. She chuckled.
“Oh, my sweet girl.” She pressed a kiss to the crown of your head and rested her cheek thereafter. “Your safe baby. Your safe. Ok. Im here.” She said still rocking the two of you. After another brief silence she shifted slightly, and you let out a whine.
“Hush. I’m not going anywhere sweets.” She said and you let one last tear fall onto her blazer before playing with her broach and starting to speak.
“She texted again.”
“Who texted?”
“My ex.” You said and you felt her stiffen. You had told Larissa of your time with your Ex and she more than disapproved of her.
“How many times sweetheart.” She said softly.
“Seven.” Larissa sucked in a breath.
“Im buying you a new phone.” She said and you gave a half snort half laugh which made her heart warm.
There was another short pause before you let out a content sigh. “I love you Issa.” You said and closed your eyes and nuzzled into her neck, you were emotionally and physically drained and in desperate need of a nap. Right here would do, you decided as you began to drift off.
“I love you too my darling girl.” She said and kissed your cheek, smiling at the small snores you were making into her neck. She wondered what the students were going to think when she carried you through the hall on her hip like a toddler, fast asleep. Maybe a little bit of a distraction from the students would be good for you she decided.
70 notes · View notes
quinthebard · 19 days
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
"Oh… he liked that one.
Thank you @thedomesticanthropologist for your help with tags for this one (I'm still figuring things out)! Please read their blog, it’s fantastic!
I had a few moments where I kind of had to walk away from the computer and think about this. I like comedy and light-heartedness, and this was slightly outside what I'm used to. But I wanted a set-up for future comics and for that I needed to illustrate part of Astarion's past. I like to think he had brief moments to himself in that sewer hovel, maybe for my own peace of mind.
On a lighter note Quin likes sleep, and is catching up on some while dream visitor is busy/scandalised.
Song suggestion Nothing Lasts Forever Echo & The Bunnymen heard this while making the comic, took it as a sign.
Dialogue under the cut!"
Comic #8 repost/edit "Dream"
Page One: Brief warmth but something is wrong. Astarion huddles next to a marionette. They are coming for YOU my little puppet.
~Astarion? He holds the faceless head in his hands. Please understand, this is not where I am meant to be.
~Astarion! Hands take the doll away, but he holds on tightly for a moment. Wait, what do you look like? He collapses naked and alone. I can never remember. Not that it matters now.
Page Two: Astarion sits, shirt torn and scars carved into his back. A voice over him states "Go, I need to rest."
Pain. This I cannot forget. But the small moments that were my own. These could not be wasted.
And Astarion leaves, wreckage of his shirt going with him. Voices follow him as he makes his way down a ladder. "Where is he going?"
"Where do RATS ever go? He'll come back when called."
Page Three: More peaceful, a small fire is started and the scrap of a blanket covers his shoulders. Repairs. He is carefully mending the ripped shirt. Soak. A large bucket of cold water to get rid of the blood stains. Book. It's been a while this time, my friend. It's well worn and starting to crumble in parts, the damp is not good for it. Tch. It...it won't last much longer.
Page Four: Train. Astarion holds two daggers in a combat position, he's put his shirt back on. Suddenly a voice breaks his concentration.
Where are you?
Summoned? He starts to panic. Then, all consuming:
WHERE ARE YOU?!
He wakes with a gasp, knocked out of whatever restful state he had been in before. What? Where?
Page Five: Oh. Quin is asleep on the grass next to him. What the hells am I doing? He pauses, rubbing his head. Even the tadpole had had trouble resisting that call. Still. No sense in wasting warmth. The sun will be up soon. Astarion gently reaches around Quin's ribs, but pulls back a bit when the other man mumbles something sleepily. He panics a bit. Shit, ticklish. Please don't wake up. Finally he rests himself against the other mans back. Just...let me have this.
~fin
30 notes · View notes
i-eat-worlds · 3 months
Text
Stab O’clock
Phoenix gets stabbed, whump ensues.
Thanks to @snaillamp and @whumpy-daydreams for helping with the medical stuff in this! Aaron and Phoenix belong to @pigeonwhumps
cw: medical whump, dubcon medical care, past medical abuse, graphic depiction of medical procedures (tube thoracostomy), needles, blood, implied current abuse, fear of punishment, wound fingering, immortal whumpee, wishing for death, past death, comfort believe it or not
“Firebird!”
Phoenix rolled away from the voice calling their name, trying to drag themselves deeper into the alleyway. If they were discovered like this, it wouldn’t end well. You couldn’t fight if you could barely breathe.
“Firebird!”
A black, blue, and orange uniformed hero rounded the corner, and Phoenix shrunk back further. Absurdly, they wished they could bleed out and die quicker, so they could heal. Being found like this was sure to end badly. Injured heroes were useless heroes, and useless heroes got punished. The hero called out for them again, moving towards the alley way.
They held their breath, hoping the hero would walk by and ignore them.
They didn’t.
Instead, the hero turned into the alley, dropping to their knees in front of them. He mumbled something into his coms before he looked at them. “Hey Firebird, I’m Exhale, I’m a medic.” He gestured to the patch on his left arm. “I’m here to help you, yeah?”
Medics? Who had sent medics out for them? That was a gross waste of resources. Phoenix shook their head. “ ‘m immortal.”
Talking was hard. Every word stole precious, precious air that was getting harder to take in by the second.
Exhale nodded. “Good to know, thanks for telling me.” He quickly located the wound on their chest and started quickly cutting the fabric away.
“No, ‘m immortal.” Phoenix whispered, pushing his hands away. “You don’ need to do that.”
“Not how that works. Let me help.” Exhale pressed a clear, sticky bandage over their chest. It was clear he wasn’t planning on arguing.
His hands wrapped around them, checking their backside for another wound. “ ‘m sorry,” they wheezed.
“It’s alright.” His hands pulled away. “I need you to lay down. I’ll help, yeah?” Phoenix let him gently set them down on the ground. This moved them out of the shadows, casting streetlight over their upper body.
Their chest still felt heavy and tight, even though the weird bandages he’d put on helped a little bit. It did nothing for the pain, every movement of their rib cage extending the burning ache. In the distance, they could hear sirens. Stupidly, Phoenix wondered if the sirens were for them.
That was silly, though. Why would they need an ambulance? It wasn’t like they were going to die.
“I’m gonna need to decompress your chest,” he said. He was holding something in his gloved hand, but Phoenix couldn’t really see what it was. “It’ll probably hurt, but it’ll also make it easier to breathe.”
They whimpered as Exhale pressed his fingers next to their sternum, only a few inches away from the wound, then slid them across their chest. In the corner of their vision, they saw light glint of of a very long needle.
They didn’t have time to really process what it was until after it was driven through their chest.
Shocked, they gasped, breathing hitching and head popping off the ground. Exhale didn’t seem so surprised, pressing his hand onto their shoulder to keep them from moving too much. “You’re alright, you’re going great.”
It certainly didn’t feel like that.
“The ambulance is on its way, they’re a few minutes out.” For some reason, he was still gently squeezing their shoulder. It wasn’t that they minded, it was just odd.
It was easy to tell that the ambulance was coming, sirens screaming through the night. Phoenix closed their eyes to try and get away from bright flashing lights as it parked. It was so easy to keep them like that.
“Phoenix, can you open your eyes for me?” He shook their shoulder a bit, but when they didn’t respond, he switched to grinding his knuckles into their sternum.
Their eyes popped open, and they raised the arm on their uninjured side to try and push his hand away. “I need you to try and stay awake, for me, yeah?”
The ambulance ride passed in a blur. So much was going on. While Exhale was starting an IV, another paramedic was attaching them to a monitor. An oxygen mask was looped over their face and then they were covered by a blanket. They felt a strange coolth running up their arm, and they realized that they’d been given painkillers.
It was too much, really. All the care and attention would've been better spent on someone who wouldn’t live anyway. The thought of having to pay for this made them nauseous. Hopefully Kai will believe that they tried to say no, because Abbie wouldn’t care.
Phoenix heard the arrival alarm go off as they were rolled into HAL’s medbay. Aaron, along with a cache of other nurses met them by the door. They clumped around the stretcher, and Exhale started rattling off a long list of words and numbers that they didn’t understand at Aaron.
“ ‘m sorry,” they mumbled to them, but he was too busy talking to hear them. “I promise ‘m sorry, sir.”
Nobody responded. Of course they didn’t. They were being annoying, and they needed to shut up.
“Three, two, one, lift!” Somebody called, and they were hoisted off the stretcher and set back down on the table. The movement caused pain to flare in their chest, and they groaned loudly. The assault of hands returned as they were attached to the medbay’s monitor, nurses swarming around them.
“You with me, Phoenix?” Aaron was standing at their head. His face looked weird upside down.
They nodded, feeling the tears starting to build. “Yes, sir.”
“Good, good.” Aaron’s eyes flickered up, watching as their blood pressure cycled. “We’re gonna take an x-ray, okay. Just lie still for us.”
Someone pulled an x-ray machine over the bed, and Aaron backed away. There was an awkward moment of quiet as the machine hummed and wirred, and then everyone briey stared at the radiograph that Phoenix could neither see nor interpret. Aaron rattled o a list of stuff he needed done, and the room descended back into organized chaos.
“I’m gonna need to place a chest tube. You’ve got blood in your chest, so we're going to put a tube in and drain it out so you can breathe better,” he explained as he rubbed cleaning gel on his hands.
Phoenix swallowed nervously, giving up on holding back tears. They could feel the pain of the scalpel slicing through their chest, of cold metal pushing their ribs apart, of hands digging around inside them as they died and resurrected and died again.
“You’re lucky someone is willing to help you at all. You know you don’t deserve it.”
A nurse pulled the blanket all the way to their belly button, revealing the myriad scars that covered their body. Burns, several GSWs, an old wound from a spear, and the long, thick, almost keloid scar from the thoracotomy.
“If you stopped fucking moving I wouldn’t need to paralyze you. It’s not like you need to breathe.”
Their attention was drawn by Aaron’s voice. “Phoenix, I need you to keep breathing for me. In and out, in and out.” He looped a mask around his face, then plunged his arms into the sleeves of a waiting gown. While he spoke, the nurse wiped the skin around their chest and up their arm with a stinky orange solution.
“Please, ‘m sorry, sir,” they gasped. The monitors screeched as their heart rate spiked. “I promise, sir, ‘m sorry for getting hurt.”
Aaron’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not mad at you for getting hurt, Phoenix. I’ll never be.” Cold flared in their arms, but they were too scared to recognize it as pain medication. Latex snapped as he donned a pair of sterile gloves.
The squelching of viscera echoed in their brain.
“If you don’t stop screaming I’m going to cut it. I can literally see your aorta. Don’t test me.”
He started to unfold a drape on their chest, looking up at a nurse on the other side of the table. “Can you get Joseph in here? They need more support than I can provide while I’m doing this.”
Phoenix whimpered, tears rolling down freely down their cheeks. They’d known that Aaron’s kindness wouldn’t last forever, that it was too good to be true, but it still hurt. And Joseph as well? Was he going to hold them down while Aaron cut them open? Or would they just slit their throat and be done with it?
“I told you I wasn’t fucking around. You could’ve prevented this if you would’ve just kept still.”
“I‘m sorry, please, I promise, I’m sorry, sir.” They tried again, desperately. “I didn’t mean to get hurt. I know I don’t deserve it, sir. I know. I promise, sir, I know.”
They gasped for air, hand clawing at the tide of the table.
“Can someone gag them please? I don’t want to hear them breathing like that. It’s annoying.”
Joseph appeared in the entryway to the room, quickly crossing on the side away from Aaron. He was wearing his full INSUPA uniform, med patches and all, same second in command stripes as the person in the alley had. Was Joseph Exhale?
It didn’t really matter now. He was going to hurt them anyway.
“Can someone hold them down? They move too much when they resurrect.”
“Hey Phoenix, can you look at me?” He was smiling at them, but he still looked terrifying.
They tore their eyes from the needle in Aaron’s hand to look at him. “That’s good. Eyes on me, eyes on me.”
“Don’t look at me like that. You know it's your own fault.”
Joseph kept talking to them, voice low and calm. “Is it okay if I hold your hand?” They nodded, knowing their answer didn’t really matter anyway.
“We’re gonna take care of you. I know it’s scary.” His hands were calloused and hard, and he gently started to massage the top of their hand with his thumb.
Why hadn’t he killed them yet? What was he waiting for?
“Stop crying. It’s distracting me.”
Aaron touched their chest. Fear exploded in their gut, along with boiling waves of nausea. Even though they knew they’d come back, they didn’t want to die.
“Aaron’s starting the local now.” Joseph said, squeezing their hand a little.
“I don’t care that it hurts. Just keep still.”
The needle punctured their skin, and they did their best to not wiggle away. There was an acidic burn in their chest as the medication took hold.
“I know it burns, but it’s nearly over,” Aaron said, grabbing another syringe. “That’s the first round of local anesthetic in, you’re doing great.”
Joseph smiled at them again, and Phoenix wondered what the point of the medication was. Weren’t anesthetics supposed to make things hurt less? That couldn’t be right.
They were supposed to be dying.
“Pain meds? That would be wasted on you. I don’t think it’d even work.”
Aaron swamped out the syringe for a scalpel, and their eyes went wide with fear. This was how he was going to kill them then.
“Eyes on me, remember?” Joseph’s voice was commanding, and their eyes snapped back to his face.
“I’m sorry sir,” they said, voice filled with fear.
“I didn’t know you were too stupid to follow even simple instructions. Stop. Squirming.”
They prepared themselves for the pain of being sliced open, waiting for the agony to spread along their ribs.
“Tell me if it starts to hurt,” Aaron said. There was a strange pressure on the side of their chest, and the metallic smell of blood filled the air.
It was strange, but it didn’t hurt. It was supposed to hurt.
“It’ll go faster if you don’t cause problems.”
There was an uncomfortable tugging and pulling sensation, and then Aaron’s finger slid inside their chest. They suppressed the urge to cringe away.
“They need more local.” Joseph said, his tone switching from soft to business when he talked to Aaron.
“ ‘m okay,” they insisted. They didn’t need any more superfluous medication wasted on them. It already wasn’t as bad as they’d thought it’d be.
“I wouldn’t have had to do this if you’d just behaved.”
Joseph kept holding their hand as Aaron reached for another syringe. “You’re doing great, keep it up,” he assured them.
The burning sensation returned, and then they were being spread open again. A rush of blood splattered onto the floor, splashing on Aaron’s gown.
“What, are you afraid of a little blood?
He stuck his finger into their chest again, rotating it around inside them. “Any pain, Phoenix?”
“No, sir.” They were crying more now than before.
He snatched the tube off the tray. “Give them another point-two of Eropental.”
“If you complain that it hurts one more time, I’m going to just leave the rest of the shrapnel inside.”
Joseph let go of their hand to administer the medication, and for some reason, Phoenix didn’t like it.
Meanwhile, Aaron was deep in concentration. He carefully threaded the hard, plastic tube into their chest, then quickly connected them up to the strange looking drainage machine and opened up the clamp. “Tube’s in.”
It was quickly filled with blood. “Now all we gotta suture it in place. You’re nearly done, Phoenix.
“It’s kinda useless to stitch them, since they'll heal up anyway.”
This, at least, they were familiar with. Aaron had stitched them up way more times than was justied for any one person.
Joseph was back to holding their hand now. If they’d made it this far, the punishment would probably come later. “You did great, Phoenix.”
They didn’t believe him, but they weren’t going to argue.
“Just catch up after you heal. We don’t have the time to carry you back. You have to pull your own weight.”
Aaron dosed the wound liberally with another round of anesthetic before he covered it with several layers of gauze and tape.
The blood was practically flowing out of them, out of the tube and into the pump. “We’re gonna get you scanned next,” he said as he tore off his blood flecked gown and gloves. “Hopefully your healing is doing a good job of patching it up.”
Joseph squeezed their shoulder. “We gotcha.”
For a brief moment, Phoenix let themselves entertain the thought that they weren’t going to be killed at all. If Aaron was expecting them to heal, then maybe they’d be okay. But the anxiety settled in there chest again.
Now they had to do was survive what Abbie would dole out to them.
Aaron and Joseph had let them off easy.
Abbie wouldn’t.
Taglist: @/pigeonwhumps @rainydaywhump
31 notes · View notes
supercap2319 · 1 year
Text
Baby It’s Cold Outside Chapter 2
A/N: Warning: Mention of child abuse. Abuse. Running away. This is depressing as fudge, I promise next chapter will be happier.
Tumblr media
Tyler nervously watched the time on his phone change from 11:59 pm to 12:00 am. It’s midnight and his father still isn’t home yet. The young man had been pacing around the room in a nervous anticipation ever since his conversation with Y/N at the Weathervane earlier today. After his shift at work, he waited antsy for his father to come home in hopes that he could ask him for permission to spend Christmas with Y/N.
Hopefully, he said yes.
The sound of keys jingling and the front door opening up jolted Tyler out of his thoughts as he watched his dad come into the living room, still dressed in his sheriff’s uniform. His tired eyes cast a glance over at Tyler as he turned fully towards his son. “Looking for something?”
Tyler shook his head no.
“Shouldn’t you be in bed already?” Sheriff Galpin asked. He sat down in a chair and began to remove his boots. Tyler watched him pull his feet free of them before putting them on the side of the chair. “I-I couldn’t sleep. Plus, there’s something that I need to ask you.”
That got the Sheriff's attention as he looked at his son with inquisitive eyes. Eyebrows raised. “Oh, and what might that be?”
“Can I go to Y/N Munster’s house for Christmas? He invited me to go.”
“Munster invited you?” The sheriff asks.
Tyler nodded his head.
The sheriff is silent for a second, looking at Tyler. Looking him up and down and Tyler has to fight the urge to look away from him, or look down. Finally, Tyler’s dad gave him his answer, and it makes his heart sink faster than the Titanic. “No. No, I don’t want you to go with that boy. He’s a menace, and I don’t trust him or his family.”
“But dad it’s only for a few days and I’ll be back in no–”
“–What part of ‘no,’ don’t you understand, boy?” The sheriff glares up at his son as the youngest Galpin falls silent. His father’s tone was any indication that this conversation was over. No more arguing or bargaining. Tyler wasn’t going anywhere, and that was final.
Tyler nods his head in defeat as he tries not to cry in front of his dad. Cry would only make the situation worse for himself if he did. So, he sucks it up until he’s safely inside the confines of his room to cry in peace. “Yes, sir. Sorry, dad. You're right.”
Sheriff Galpin nods his head. “Good. Now, go to bed because you still have semester tests tomorrow before winter break.”
Tyler nods once again as he leaves the living room, and up the stairs towards his room as he goes inside, shuts and locks the door before the tears fall down his face. He should have seen this coming. His father was the walking personification of a macho, straight male guy. Of course, he wouldn’t want his son going to an outcast's house for Christmas. Tyler was so stupid to believe that he would say yes. He should have expected the disappointment.
He sat down on his bed and looked up at the ceiling as he cried. His dad never used to be like this. So cold. Mean. Abusive. It started after his mom passed away when he was 6. And now sheriff Galpin was always on his son’s case about everything. And the worst part of it all was that Tyler hadn't told him about Y/N. That they were dating. He wouldn’t be disappointed in him, no, he would be fucking disgusted and beat him black and blue until the homosexual came out of him. Which is why Tyler hasn’t told Y/N that he hasn’t told his dad about them. He didn’t want to put Y/N through all that, but none of that mattered because he wasn’t going to be able to spend Christmas with his boyfriend.
Tyler looked at his phone and debated in his head on whether to text Y/N the bad news. Tell him that his dad has forbidden him from going anywhere with him. He could picture his boyfriend’s face, sad and full of tears, and it was enough to make Tyler cry once again, but he couldn’t. Not now. Not ever again. Maybe it was the Hyde side of him taking over, but in the recesses of his mind, a plan started to form. A plan that would change everything for him. His life. His relationship with his father. All of him. Was he prepared to accept the consequences?
Tyler got up from his bed as he began packing his things. Throwing clothes, shoes, personal items inside a giant duffel bag. He realized that his Hyde side might be pushing him, but ultimately this was his decision. He was conscious even to know what this would mean, and that there was no turning back once he chose to go down this road. And to be honest? Tyler couldn’t care less. He was running away from the town of Jericho. From his abusive dad. All of it.
….
The next day, Tyler kept spacing out, staring at nothing. He wasn’t paying attention during his classes, and he almost failed his semester tests, catching the worried eyes of his teachers. The thought of his father easily finding out about his little plan to run away. Catching him and punishing him. It made him shiver more than the cold weather was supposed to. He shakes his head, as if that act would instantly clear his head. That’s when he focuses on his task at hand, finishing his tests so he can leave school, pick up Y/N, and go. Once he’s finished each and everyone one of said tests, he leaves the classroom thinking he’s done his best. Probably not an A+ material, but good enough to pass for the semester.
Tyler holds tightly on his backpack straps as he passes by Lucas Walker. The son of the former mayor and sheriff as he nods to Tyler in understanding. This morning before school, Tyler offered Lucas a deal. If he would say that Tyler’s staying at his house for a few days, the Galpin boy would pay him fifty dollars to keep quiet. By then Tyler will have come up with a better plan by Christmas, he hoped. Lucas’s friends eyed him suspiciously as they still resented him for hanging and being friendly to the outcasts at Nevermore. Thankfully, not knowing of his Hyde side and all the terrible things he did, because they would hate him even more than they already did.
The young halfbreed pushed through the doors of the school as the frigid air of December blew through his clothes as he walked towards his truck.
“So, you and Tyler are both coming home for Christmas?”
Y/N could practically hear the smile in his mother’s voice as she said that. He chuckles. “Yeah, Ma. Tyler and I are coming home for Christmas. Tyler’s picking me up at 1:00 pm after he gets done with his semester test and we’ll head that way.”
“Well, your father and I can’t wait to meet him. Neither can grandpa Marilyn and Eddie.”
“Did you say that the whole family was coming from the old country?” Y/N asked as he pushed the last of his clothes into his duffel bag.
“Yes, dear. All your uncles are coming home for the holidays.”
“Well, I can wait to see you guys and everyone else, but I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, honey. See you soon.”
“Bye, Ma.” Y/N hangs up the phone as he makes sure he is everything ready before Tyler gets here. Nevermore was almost empty. Almost everyone had left this morning. His cousin Wednesday and Thing had left when his Uncle Gomez and Aunt Morticia came to pick up their daughter. Enid’s parents had come to get her. Bianca’s mom came to get her. Then Ajax had left with his older brother. Then a black, sleek car pulled up to the front of the school, as Xavier got in and winked at Y/N as he left for home as well. That left Y/N and a couple of other students who were still waiting for their rides and staff members.
About 15 minutes later, Y/N gets a text from Tyler that he’s on his way.
The young Munster smiled as he got his duffel bag, his backpack, and bundled up for the cold as he walked out of his dorm room, down the stairs and out to the front, waiting for his boyfriend to come pick him up. When he saw the red of Tyler’s pickup truck, Y/N smiled widely.
It pulled up right in front of him as the windows of the passenger side rolled down and Tyler’s boyish face could be seen. “Hey, baby.”
Y/N’s heart skips a beat at the nickname as a blush chases its way onto his face as Tyler comes from the driver side and pulls Y/N close into a kiss as red colored both their cheeks. From the kiss and the cold. Tyler pulled away, his blue eyes shining and a teasing smile on his handsome face. Y/N noticed the way light snow fell on Tyler’s golden brown locks and he had to resist the urge to run his fingers through them.
“You all set?”
Tyler’s voice brought Y/N back to reality. “Yeah, all set. Just this duffel bag and backpack and I’m good.” He showed the other boy his contents as he grabbed them from his hands and put them gently in the bed of his truck as he came back and laced his fingers with Y/N’s, pulling him towards the open passenger door. Tyler then puts a hand on the small of Y/N’s back, and the curly-haired barista pushed him into the passenger seat and closed the door as he came around to the driver side and got inside as he smiled. “Alright, next stop, New Jersey?”
“Yeah. I have the directions on my phone.” Y/N messes with his device for a few minutes before the navigation system comes on. It’s about a seven hour drive if they don’t stop too much.
“Great. And I’ve got a phone charger here for our phones and I’ve got chips and soda here, but if you get hungry we can stop somewhere later if you want?” Tyler asked him.
“Sounds perfect. I can’t wait for my whole family to meet you. I’m so excited.” Y/N is practically jumping in his seat with excitement as Tyler chuckles at his boyfriend’s amusement.
“And your dad was okay with you spending Christmas with my family?”
Tyler knew this question would pop up sooner or later, but he was still shocked when he heard Y/N ask it. He had prepared a whole speech for Y/N last night about how his dad didn’t give him permission at all to come with him, and oh, there was that small little detail of him running away from home. No biggie. Instead of telling him the truth; Tyler slipped into his other half. The half of him that lied to Y/N the first time when he had been accused of being the Hyde by Wednesday. The part of himself that almost ruined things between them. And now here he was, jeopardizing that very same relationship again, thanks to his lies. He just hopes that Y/N will understand and won’t hate him for lying to him again.
Tyler then put the truck in drive as he and Y/N drove away from Nevermore as it got smaller and smaller in the background as they drove through Jericho as Tyler’s heart spiked as they passed the Now leaving Jericho sign. Any minute now, his dad’s police car would show up behind them in the rear-view mirror. Tyler would be in so much trouble. His dad would probably beat him so badly that he wouldn’t dream about running away ever again and he would forbid the barista from associating with Y/N ever again. But it didn’t matter because Y/N would hate him when he found out about Tyler’s lies and deceptions. The same old tricks. Looks like Hydes couldn’t be trusted no matter how many chances you gave them.
Tyler’s heart didn’t stop hammering until they drove past Burlington and towards New Jersey.
.
202 notes · View notes
sulasnsleep · 8 months
Text
“i do not recall the taste of love. i remember being fed poison and told it was sugar.”
— sulasnsleep
83 notes · View notes
whump-dump · 2 years
Text
Sidekick is kidnapped by Villain. Villain is about to try and get information from Sidekick but much to Villain’s horror, Sidekick is already bruised and scarred all over. Villain is furious. They roughly grab Sidekick’s face in one hand, but Sidekick doesn’t even flinch. Doesn’t even utter a word. “Who did this to you?” Villain growls. And there it is. The moment of weakness as Sidekick breaks eye contact and looks down. Villain doesn’t need a verbal reply, they know exactly who they need to kill.
1K notes · View notes
nerdpoe · 8 months
Text
In the Shadow of Speculation Part 2
Part 1, Ao3
Heavy chapter, please heed the following; Blood tw vivisection tw descriptions of a flashback descriptions of a night terror descriptions of recovery abled verbiage tw self hatred tw (mild) forced parenthood equivalent (but in a ghost culture way)
Danny took a deep breath and used the Ring of Rage.
A glowing portal formed in the air before him, perfectly stable. Cold, bitter wind blew through it, along with the smell of antiseptic.
Wrinkling his nose, Danny stepped through the portal and closed it behind him.
“Oh, greetings Mr. High King! Are you ready for your check-up?” a nurse Yeti said, looking up from her clipboard enthusiastically.
Danny attempted a smile.
“I’m prepared for it, yeah.”
“Wonderful! Your friends are already in the room for moral support!”
Danny paused.
“Who-?”
“The Lady of the Green and the Lord of Innovation, of course!”
Oh thank the Ancients.
Danny nodded his thanks at the nurse and started for his assigned rooms.
Every inch of the hallways, unfamiliar before the Accident, were ingrained in his memories now.
He’d finally walked from his door to that window without help four months after waking up, and he’d been so fucking proud about it too. He’d hid behind that potted plant during his first flashback. He’d climbed out of that window and crawled on the roof just so he could feel the snow on his skin two months into Physical Therapy.
That was the yeti that had taken the brunt of his anger and hurt on his worst days, nodding at him as Danny passed. That was the room he’d pleaded with Dan to take him away from the hospital, that he couldn’t do it anymore, that he just wanted to go home-that was also the room Dan had set his foot down and said that he’d play the bad guy for Danny one last time.
And oh, how Danny had despised him for it.
But it had worked. Danny, with someone who was there for the sole purpose of taking the verbal assaults meant for his Physical Therapists and himself, who was only there to snipe back and deliberately egg Danny on, helped Danny find the energy to push forward.
And Danny still felt awful about that.
Danny passed the table he had eaten his first solid meal at, one month after waking up, and took a left.
There it was.
The door to the rooms that had been his sanctuary and his prison, right up until they hadn’t been needed anymore. The first place he’d seen when he’d woken up, and then been amazed that he’d woken up at all.
With a deep breath, Danny pushed it open.
“Hey man!”
“Danny!”
Danny’s smile was weak, and he was holding back tears in the face of so many memories he hated and adored in equal measure.
“Hey guys, thanks for coming.”
~~~~~~
Dan knew he was asleep. Dan knew he was awake. Dan knew he was somewhere in that awful inbetween.
He was in his parents basement. No, wait. They weren’t his parents. They’d never deserved the title.
He was in the Fenton’s basement.
The world kept glitching out, the colors kept melding together, and the only thing that stood out was the overwhelming feeling of disbelief and terror.
Little him was strapped to a table. Little him was strapped to a table. Little him was-
Stop.
Assess.
What was going on?
Little him was strapped to a table; he was locked in place. He was in his Core form. It was…damaged. It was damaged.
Why?
Who would…?
There was a sliver missing. They’d torn a piece of him off. They’d tried to peel him open. They’d-Little him would be crippled.
If he survived.
But he had survived, hadn’t he?
Little him’s core was strapped to a table, damaged, and there was no resonance coming from it. There were vials upon vials of ecto-blood on the tables.
That was a kidney.
That was a stomach.
There was blood on the floor.
There…there was blood on his shoes.
Dan floated off of it, listening to the dripping sounds it made as it rolled off his soles.
The door opened.
Two monsters walked through, all giant bug eyes and sharp metal knives.
Dan had two options.
He could kill the things that had done this.
Or.
He darted forward to break the straps and shoved Little him’s core next to his own, where it would be safe, where it could recover as it leeched his excess energy off of him.
The world glitched again.
Dan was standing in Jazz’s living room, hand digging into his own chest. Searching.
With a shaking breath, he pulled it out.
He’d only carried Danny’s core next to his own for two years, but he still found himself searching for it in moments of weakness.
He hadn’t been the best Spirit to host Danny’s core, but he’d fought tooth and nail to do it. Vengeance Spirits could not normally house Protective Spirits.
It was why he’d done the whole hero thing after; it would help Little him heal if he did. And when he scared the people he was saving away?
He’d opted to train the little fledgling heroes. He’d make sure they grew up safe, protected from actual villains and, if needed, their own personal ones.
Anything to make sure he didn’t have to see another kid so close to completely shattering into Nothing, he never wanted to see that shit again-
Dan forced himself to move away from the couch and towards the kitchen.
It was pointless to dwell on the past. He did everything he could; if the Twerp wanted to be next to those monsters, that was on him.
So what if he’d fucked up their relationship? At least the kid was alive.
Dan’s hands still shook as he made himself a cup of coffee.
Maybe he’d just check in. Just for a bit.
~~~~~~
Dan may have failed steps one through ten.
It had probably started when he’d played surrogate for the Runt, if he was completely honest. There was no way Dan hadn’t absorbed a little bit of his Protective nature.
Point was; Dan genuinely could not remember going to Arkham.
He just sort of…came back to himself while floating ominously above it.
He could see the alarm lights flashing below him. The humans running for their battle-stations.
The inmates being herded deeper into the complex.
Dan felt his eyes grow hotter, felt his claws dig into the flesh of his palms.
They were right there. Right fucking there. All he had to do was phase through the compound and just reach into their chests.
It would be so. Fucking. Easy.
In fact, he even caught a glimpse of Maddie through one of the windows.
Dan snarled, lifting a hand, the ectoplasm pooling in it hotter than anything he’d made before-
-and he was in the kitchen. Mom was trying to make hot dogs, but they kept fighting back. She was laughing at a dumb meme he’d shown her. His homework was covered in mustard from the fight with their food.
“I guess you can tell Mr. Lancer that you ‘mustard’ up every resource you had!” Dad called out as he walked by, and Dan felt so loved-
-Dan dropped the hand.
Maddie was hauled past the window and to safety.
Fuck.
Fuck this place.
Fuck this city.
Fuck everything about this situation.
~~~~~~
Batman grappled his way to the tallest watchtower in Arkham, keeping an eye on Phantom the entire time.
The guard that was already in the tower-a new hire, if he recalled-nervously stepped up to fall in line beside him.
Batman waved him off.
He knew Phantom. He knew that the man wasn’t actually a villain.
A Training Villain wasn’t something Batman had seen younger heroes needing, but when the Ghost in front of him had started play-fighting with the younger heroes to teach them through safe combat, the Bat had been mentally kicking himself.
It was a perfect job to train younger heroes, and Batman couldn’t help but feel like he’d failed the previous iterations by not realizing that.
Robin was still angry that he’d fallen for it, of course he was, but Batman could not deny that Phantom’s strange method of training had been instrumental in helping his youngest work through his rage.
Just like he could not deny that he and Phantom had something in common with Arkham.
It wasn’t hard to assume that the walls held a person responsible for the death of someone in the man’s life.
Phantom had only shown up to Arkham a total of three times.
The first time, he’d just hovered outside of it, holding his hand to his chest. He’d done nothing, and left in an hour.
The second time, two years later, he’d broken two walls and shattered a watchtower, screaming for someone to come out and face him. Robin had been on scene before Batman had time to distract him, convinced it was the same Phantom he was used to dealing with.
Surprisingly, the sight of Robin had been enough to still the beast Phantom had become. He’d toned down, forced Robin into a surprise hug, and then disappeared. Robin had been livid, but Batman had learned something about the Training Villain he didn’t think he wanted to know.
The man knew loss, and Batman was pretty sure he knew it on the same scale Bruce did.
From there, it wasn’t hard to figure out the most likely objects of his wrath.
Phantom was a Ghost. Ghosts had a very, very bad history with the American Government. The Anti-ecto acts had just been revealed to the public by Lois Lane, and the country was tearing itself apart.
The people who had been the most avid supporters had been, currently were, the Dr.s Fenton.
Who were housed in Arkham.
Batman had said nothing. He had gone back to the cave and quietly updated Phantom’s file, and left it at that.
The third time was the present.
Phantom had almost lost his temper. Almost.
But he’d reigned it in.
“Phantom,” Batman started, staring at the figure above him, “I know you can hear me. What’s happened?”
The Ghost stayed where he was for one hundred and twenty seconds, before slowly gliding down to the Bat.
Phantom did not say anything.
He did not have to.
His eyes were anywhere, everywhere, but where he actually was. When he actually was.
Batman quietly hissed through his teeth.
Alright then.
“I’m here if you want to talk, otherwise we can be silent. Just know that at this moment, you are not alone.”
Phantom chose silence for a good seventeen minutes.
Then Phantom opened his mouth.
“I should hate them,” the voice was halting, tired, “I should, I really should. They loved me so much, but they…they tore him apar-“ Phantom’s voice failed him.
Batman said nothing, and gave the Ghost time to collect himself.
While he waited, he compartmentalized what he’d learned. The Fentons had torn apart someone very, very important to Phantom.
And Bruce had an awful feeling that he meant that literally.
“I can’t be here,” Phantom said instead of finishing his previous thought.
Batman nodded.
“You didn’t hurt anyone this time, so go; I see no reason to stop you.”
Phantom didn’t grace Batman with a goodbye, but the Bat swore he felt an invisible hand squeeze his shoulder after the Ghost vanished from sight.
~~~~~~
Danny laid on the examination bed, one hand being held by Sam while Tucker lounged on the bed at Danny’s feet. They were talking about their new companies, how the world was changing, and distracted Danny while Frostbite examined his vivisection scarring.
Danny looked everywhere but Frostbite as the yeti pushed and prodded. He didn’t want to look at his chest if he didn’t have to, but he also didn’t want the embarrassment that was accidentally meeting his doctor’s eyes in the middle of a physical.
“Fantastic news, Young Savior,” Frostbite said, interrupting their idle chatter, “Your core, while still healing, is recovering at a phenomenal rate. Truly, Lady Gotham is good on her word! At this pace, your core should be fully healed in a mere century!”
Danny hated that. He hated that it needed to heal, and he hated that he was going to outlive his friends.
Sam and Tucker leaned a little closer, offering comfort for something that they knew the Ancient before them wouldn’t understand.
“Better news, the physical damage appears to be almost completely healed. The regrown kidney and stomach are showing no signs of failing, and the scarring should be the only nuisance. I recommend the afore-mentioned stretches and lotion to help the scar tissue conform with your movements.”
Danny nodded, sitting up as Frostbite stepped back and removed his hand from inside Danny’s torso.
“I also see no issue with your residual limb, although it does appear you’ve been forgetting to remove the prosthetic often enough to cause some light bruising. Can’t say I don’t understand, but perhaps write a reminder and pin it on your bedroom wall.”
Danny avoided Sam’s flat look.
Tucker just flashed his phone screen at Danny, the words ‘I can make you something really cool with rockets it you let me’ sprawled across the screen.
Danny absorbed Sam’s flat look and mirrored it towards Tucker.
Tucker threw up his hands.
“Ancients forbid I do anything, I guess,” the techie sighed dramatically.
Once Danny pulled himself together and got ready to leave, Tucker threaded an arm around his own.
“So, wanna go ding-dong-ditch Walker?”
Danny paused, then grinned; and for the first time in two weeks, it wasn’t a lie.
~~~~~~
Danny waved back at Sam and Tucker as they went through their own portals. They would definitely have to get together and hit the town on Earth.
Danny walked through his own portal and ran face-first into a mass of muscle.
Dan steadied him as he bounced back.
Danny was immediately hit with conflicting, very confusing emotions.
He was looking at Dan, his enemy. He was looking at his father? No, it was Dan. Wasn’t that the same-?
Danny shook his head. He’d never gotten a straight answer about why his Ghost self’s view on Dan had changed so dramatically; everyone always shied away from the question.
“Can I ask what you’re doing in my apartment?” He asked instead, stepping back and closing the portal.
“Just making sure you’re settling in, Tiny.”
“We’re the same height?”
“Nah, we’re not.”
Danny shoved the absurdity of their interaction in the back of his head and made for his couch.
“Well, whatever you’re doing here, here’s to hoping it involved making dinner,” he groaned, sinking into the cushion and pulling up his left leg to start the tediously cumbersome process of pulling it off, “because per the doctor, I’m supposed to keep the prosthetic off for the rest of today.”
“I was gonna order out. Move, we’re watching Sailor Moon.”
Danny whined pitifully when Dan physically picked him up and moved him to the side.
He fought his instincts, and his instincts won.
He leaned back and allowed Dan to take the prosthetic off, clawed fingers delicate for all that the man snarled under his breath.
He also allowed the man to commandeer the TV; not something he would even allow Jazz to do.
“Why do I let you do these things?” Danny muttered, eyeballing the quasi-villain on his couch as said villain massaged the stump just below his knee.
Dan snorted.
“I’ll tell you when you’re older.”
“Ugh, no one tells me anything.”
“We’re pacing you,” Dan corrected, blunt for all that the words were careful, “when you’re back on your feet, you’ll get the non-vital details we skimmed.”
Danny didn’t bother arguing; he’d already tried for the better part of the previous year. For some reason, the yetis took Dan’s side, too.
Instead, they fell into a companionable silence, appreciating Sailor Moon. Which was fine by Danny, since he never knew how to behave around Dan. It was only interrupted by the delivery of the Greek food Dan had ordered out.
Danny was on his second Gyro when Dan finally broke the silence.
“So I heard there was a rogue attack outside your apartment,” he said idly, and Danny could feel his eyes on him.
“Yeah.”
“So you got to see the Bats in action?”
“…Yeah.”
Dan leaned in, eyes going critical.
“What needs improvement? Don’t lie; that ‘yeah’ was one that means you weren’t impressed.”
Danny shrugged.
“I dunno, just…they didn’t have someone who’s only job it was was to evacuate the people, or help the injured. It was just offense, no defense.”
Dan snorted and leaned away.
“Kept telling that to Robin, but no; ‘Father this’ and ‘Father that’.” Dan shook his head, chewing thoughtfully on his rack of lamb. “So. What are you gonna do about it?”
Danny blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve seen what they need, and I’m not stupid enough to think you’ll stay out of the game forever. What are you gonna do about it?”
Danny looked down at his Gyro, frowning.
What was he gonna do about it?
He couldn’t fight, not like he used to, not really. But if the Bats were tanking, then…he probably wouldn’t really have to.
“I’ve been in medical facilities for almost a year,” Danny said slowly, ignoring how Dan stiffened next to him, “I think I’ve picked up a few things. Frostbite would probably be thrilled if I asked him to teach me, honestly.”
Dan relaxed, humming thoughtfully around the bone he was chewing on.
“I think…I’ll be a medic.”
@simplestoryteller @gildedphoenix I do not suffer PTSD, and I've never had a life-altering injury. That said, I know people who have, for both of those. I apologize if my descriptions are off. Here's some notes to piece together what this chapter outlines, for those that want the sparknotes as to what Dan is alluding to. From my notes; "Ghosts can carry another ghosts core if that core is injured, to protect and promote healing. Typically, the father or mother figure does it. In this particular instance, Dan did it. We will see in a bit, but for Dan their relationship went from enemies-warden-person I gotta apologize to-person I’ve got to save-the core housed next to mine-son. For Danny, it randomly went from enemies to ‘why do I think dan is my dad more than I think my dad is my dad’." This is where the "forced parenthood" tw comes into play, because Dan felt like he had to do it, and due to instinct Danny subconsciously got dragged along for the ride. Also, if it wasn't clear from the age list on the first chapter and the timeline presented, I'm playing around with Lian and Roy's timeline; Dan's first year he babysat her, and then she died. She came back only four weeks prior to Danny re-entering the human world.
191 notes · View notes
rgbyshipper101 · 3 months
Text
Hello! It’s EctoImplosion time! I wrote a fic based off the-oaken-muse art piece! It was a blast conversing with them and exploring ideas! Shoutout to the EI server for a great time and thanks to the mods for helping it to run smoothly.
Go check out The Box Cat!
Fandom: Danny Phantom
Pairings: Box Ghost/Lunch Lady
Warnings: Creator chose not to use archive warnings
Tags: past abuse; neglect; post traumatic stress disorder (trigger tags are here; more tags in fic)
Rating: Teen and up Audiences
26 notes · View notes
em-writes-stuff · 1 year
Text
hidden scars
warnings: (implied) past abuse, child whumpee
characters: villain, sidekick
1020 words
a/n: this was in my drafts as needing a part two, but i probably won’t end up doing that. have it as is!
---
Sidekick falls to the ground, air pushed out of their lungs as their back hits the soft ground. Villain advances, glaring menacingly at their small frame.
Sidekick tries to sit up, trying to gain some control over their body, but the pain in their ribcage stops them. Instead, they curl in on themself, sheltering their stomach with their shins. 
Villain crouches down to face them and whispers, “I’ve got you now, Sidekick. No more running. No more hiding.” 
They hold Sidekick’s wrist gently and pull them up, trying their hardest not to aggravate any of their new wounds. 
Sidekick looks at them uncertainly, “Why are you being so…gentle?” 
Villain laughs, “I can hardly in good conscience take you to be tortured for information if you’re injured before we even arrive.” they sling an arm around Sidekick’s waist and start walking. “Besides, you’re only a child. Most of your torture will be psychological.” 
Sidekick laughs dryly, “Oh, goodie.” 
Villain smiles and picks up the pace, not failing to notice how Sidekick favors their left leg and winces when they adjust the arm holding them up. They choose to ignore it for now. 
As soon as they got to the car, Sidekick had crawled to the back seat and hadn’t moved since. Villain sat in the seat in front of them, in an attempt to gain their trust. Villain would have thought they were sleeping, but they could see Sidekick’s eyes wide open. 
“Tell me, Sidekick, why do you work for Hero? What does he do for you?” Villain asks. 
Sidekick turns to face the window. Villain thinks for a moment that Sidekick won’t tell them, but then they speak. 
“Hero… saved my life a long time ago. And I didn’t have anywhere else to go. He took me in and I owe it to him to do what he wants.” They close their eyes and lean their forehead against the cold glass. “Besides, there’s not much else I can do.” 
For the rest of the long car ride, they sit in silence. 
At Villain’s hideout, Henchman opens the car door for Villain and Sidekick, but Sidekick stays in their seat. Villain rolls their eyes and crawls back into the car. They gently touch Sidekick’s arm and they flinch back, hitting their head on the car window. They wince, but say nothing. Villain tilts their head to the side for a moment, but then they reach their arm out for Sidekick to grab. 
“We’re here.” They say simply. 
Sidekick is shown to their new room, which is more impressive than they were expecting. The ceiling was high and a light hung from it. There was a large window on the wall facing a lake. A queen sized bed was covered in blankets and pillows. 
Villain clears their throat and Sidekick quickly turns to look at them. 
“I trust you’ll be comfortable. I’ll come back with a change of clothes and some first-aid supplies in a few minutes. Is there anything else I can get you while I get those?” 
Sidekick shakes their head, blinking in confusion. 
Villain smiles gently and walks out of the room. “I’ll be right back then. I have to lock this door behind me, but that’s just since you’re technically the enemy and a prisoner.” 
Sidekick wanders around the room, checking any spots that could be used to hide things, seeing if there’s any chance the window can be opened (there isn’t), and organizing the things on the bed. The door opens and Villain walks in with an armful of clothes and a first-aid kit. 
“Here, change. Those clothes look really dirty. I’ll wash them for you.” They throw the bundle of clothes at Sidekick and turn around to let them change. 
“Why are you being so kind? Hero told me that you’re cruel.” Sidekick asks. 
Villain closes their eyes and tilts their head up. “Just because I do things that go against Hero’s moral code, doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. Hero, of all people, should know that.” 
They can hear Sidekick’s sharp breaths as they aggravate wounds and have to fight every instinct in themself to turn around and help. They know that if they’re to gain Sidekick’s trust, they have to move slowly. 
“Villain?” Sidekick asks with a small tremor in their voice. “Can I have something with long sleeves?” 
“Are you sure? It gets pretty warm here at night.” They turn and see Sidekick. There’s a pile of their clothes on the floor next to them and Villain could swear they saw scars on their arms, but they crossed their arms in front of them too quickly to be sure. 
“I’m sure.” 
Villain nods. “Ok, well, let me dress your wounds first, then I’ll find something.” “I can do it.” 
“Nonsense, I have much more experience than you do in this. Besides, you look like you’re going to pass out. Just sit down and let me.” 
Sidekick shakes their head. “I can do it.” They look down, “Please.” 
“Alright, but I’ll watch just to make sure you do it alright. Don’t want any of these getting infected.” 
They set the first-aid kit on the table and watch as Sidekick cleans their cuts. 
“You’re pretty good at that, kid. Where’d you learn?” they chuckle. “Let me guess, Hero makes you patch him up?” 
Sidekick grits their teeth, “Not quite.” They hiss as they dab some rubbing alcohol on one of the bigger cuts. Villain tilts their head and Sidekick looks up at them. “I have to dress my own wounds a lot of the time.” 
Villain nods, not quite knowing what to say. “I’ll go get you a jacket or something.”
Sidekick sighs as the door closes. They finish bandaging the last major cut and lean their head against the back of the chair. They cross their arms in front of them, trying their best to cover the majority of the scars on their arms, but failing pretty miserably. 
Villain comes back into the room and hands Sidekick a large hoodie, trying their best not to stare at the surplus of scars along their skin. 
129 notes · View notes
urlocalwhumper · 4 months
Text
caretaker hummed quietly to herself as she strolled down the halls of the pet shelter. she was surrounded by options, but to be entirely honest, none were just quite catching her eye.
she already had a pet at home, just the sweetest little puppygirl, but she knew her beloved pup got lonely when she was at work all day. so, she'd decided that she'd get her a companion, another nice animalperson for her to play and snuggle with.
but first, she'd have to actually pick one. which was where her dilemma laid.
at least, that was, until she turned the corner.
curled up in a kennel at the near end of the next hall, was a big doggirl. if she were to stand on two legs, she'd probably be significantly taller than caretaker.
but instead of putting that size to use in any way, she was curled up in the corner of her kennel, looking like she was trying to make herself as small as possible. and caretaker could pretty easily guess why.
the most striking thing about her, beyond her size, was the way her body was absolutely littered with scars. from the thick, ropey scars of whip lashes across her back, to the horrible rough burn scar taking up almost half of her face, revealing a shallow, empty indent where her left eye should have been.
this poor pup had clearly been through hell, and caretaker's heart ached for her.
caretaker knelt beside the kennel, hooking her fingers into the chain-link fencing.
"hi, girl." she said softly. the doggirl looked up, her single eye staring warily at her.
"oh, are you interested in whumpee?"
caretaker almost jumped out of her skin, whipping around to see a slightly apologetic looking shelter employee standing behind her.
"i'm sorry! i didn't mean to scare you." they said. "i just got a little excited. it's not often anyone shows any interest in whumpee."
"is that her name?" caretaker asked, turning back towards the doggirl, who seemed to have perked up a little at the sight of the employee.
"yup!" they replied. "she's the sweetest, i promise. but because she's so big, and has all these scars..." the employee sighed. "not many people want to take her home."
"what... what happened? if that's alright to ask."
the employee's face hardened. "her old owner was a right piece of shit. liked hurting her for fun." they shook their head. "the burn is from when they shoved her face into their fireplace. it was so bad the vet ended up needing to remove her eye because of the extent of the damage."
caretaker was horrified, her grip on the fence unconsciously tightening. "just... because?"
the employee nodded. "just because." they crossed their arms. "that's how we ended up with her, actually. the vet reported heavy suspicions of pet abuse, and we took her in once she was healthy enough to not need constant medical attention."
the doggirl had started to inch closer to the fence as the employee spoke, shoulders hunched and head bowed, but peering up at caretaker with a hopeful look in her eye.
"oh- here, let me..." the employee unhooked a ring of keys from their belt, fumbling with it for a moment before finding the right key and unlocking the gate to whumpee's kennel.
they swung the gate open, and whumpee froze, shrinking back as her ears flattened against her head.
"oh, it's okay baby." caretaker said in as soothing of a tone as she could muster. "i'm not going to hurt you."
she slowly moved closer to whumpee, until she was close enough to touch her. at this close proximity, she could see that whumpee was trembling, poor thing, and she braced herself to be hit as soon as caretaker raised her hand.
but instead, caretaker rested her hand on top of whumpee's head, gently massaging her scalp with her fingertips.
"see, it's okay." caretaker said, going in to scratch behind whumpee's ear with her other hand.
whumpee leaned into her touch, single eye staring at her in awe. caretaker caught the motion of her tail starting to wag out of the corner of her eye and smiled.
whumpee tentatively stepped forward, and when caretaker continued lavishing her with affection, she kept getting closer and closer until she was curled up in caretaker's lap, the constant tension and anxiety she carried starting to melt away as the feeling of finally being safe washed over her.
"aw, you're just a big puppy, aren't you?" caretaker cooed, one hand continuing to scratch behind her ears while the other moved down to rub her belly. "such a good girl, you just needed some lovin', right?"
whumpee made a low noise, almost a bark, but not quite. caretaker seemed delighted.
"so," the employee piped up, "think you'll be taking her home?"
caretaker smiled up at them. "how could i not?"
21 notes · View notes
Text
Microfic: Blood
(Cw: mentions past abuse. 400 words written for the @drarrymicrofic prompt blood)
It would have been easier if there had been blood.
Or cuts, or scratches, or bruises; any sort of mark on his body that could bear the responsibility for the pain he’d been in. Was still in, if he was being honest.
But there was no physical evidence, just the ache in his chest, the uncomfortable stirring in his stomach, his mind racing.
“Hey.”
He looked up to see Harry leaning against the door frame, dark curls spilling over his shoulders. “Hi,” he whispered back, voice raw and cracked.
“Can I come in?” always gentle, always giving Draco space, always loving him, always more than Draco deserved.
He nodded and Harry climbed onto the bed next to him, shoulders brushing where they leaned against the headboard, thighs pressed together.
Harry’s presence soothed something in Draco and he found his shoulders lowering, jaw relaxing, fingers unclenching. “Are you alright?”
Draco blew out a sigh, “it’s stupid.”
“It’s not,” Harry replied, before he even knew what it was. “Your feelings are allowed,” he repeated. “Whatever’s going on in there, it’s okay.”
His head fell back against the headboard, “it was the song,” he whispered. “He used to tell me it reminded him of me.” Draco swallowed, “it makes me sick.”
Harry reached for his hand and laced their fingers, “you were a child,” he said softly. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”
“I know,” he said because he did believe that was true, he’d worked hard to get to this point. “But I just want to stop being triggered. I’m so tired of little things knocking me off balance.”
He pressed a kiss to his temple, “I know, love.”
“It feels like I must be more trouble than I’m worth,” he added softly, even as he leaned his head on Harry’s shoulder.
Another kiss on top of his head, “never. We’re all on a journey of healing. It’s a privilege to be here with you.”
And the thing was, Harry meant it. They’d been through enough together that Draco didn’t doubt it, because he felt the same; sitting with Harry in his grief, his anger, or whatever he was working through was a privilege.
“I made you some tea,” Harry murmured. “That mint one you’re fond of,” he added. “Want to go cuddle by the fire and read?”
He nodded, turning his head and pressing a kiss to Harry’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Always.”
204 notes · View notes
pghumfort · 8 months
Link
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Ted Lasso (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt Characters: Roy Kent, Jamie Tartt Additional Tags: Past Domestic Violence, Past Abuse, Jamie Tartt Needs a Hug, POV Multiple, Mentioned James Tartt Sr., Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Idiots in Love, roy goes to therapy, Happy Ending Summary:
When they finally get together, Jamie keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Roy to lose his temper with him. Jamie's father and some angry exes have laid the groundwork for disaster, but Roy is nothing like the other angry men Jamie has known before.
29 notes · View notes