#it's like 'i've infected them'

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know this is just a silly bad quality random screencap of a screencap that I found on facebook lol, BUT it's a succinct enough image to easily describe the concept in a quick/accessible way hopefully :

-

(and of course, feel free to elaborate in tags, etc.! (especially elaborating about other senses as well.. can you "hear" in your mind just as well as you can "see"? taste? etc.) It's an interesting topic to me, as someone who's like a 4.5 at MOST lol. I'm curious what option will be the most common :0c )

#tumblr polls #hrmm... a little poll perhaps.. about a subject I find interesting.. since this image came across my facebook today #still really not feeling that well. no longer shaking violently and such but I still feel weird and weak much more than usual #They did say my markers for like infection or inflammation were elevated but that they werent sure of the cause so hopefully #it's nothing too serious. they did also say a lot of different things can cause that thing to be higher than normal but didn't go into spec #fics of what. maybe some of them are relatively benign or something. I still havent felt much back to normal since #I got really sick that one time though. I feel fine on and off but then little bouts of feeling weird and sick happen. hrmmm #ANYWAY.. looking for small ways to be productive. such as little doodles on evil ipad or editing game videos #or posting polls or cat pictures or some other like not very labor intensive things #I WISH I COULD FOCUS on writing HHRGGhh... I need to finish my game.. it would be so freeing.. a project that's been looming #over my head for like 5 years even though througouht that 5yrs I've probably spent a total of 3 months working on it lo.. ANYWAY #I still partially really cannot beleive that people CAN see stuff in their heads. There's always part of me that's thinking like. well mayb #e everyone DOES see the same exact thing but we just describe/conceptualize it so differently that we think we're talking about #different things when we're really not. But I have been assured by people I've talked to about it that they can GENUINELY really see #stuff in their heads like as vivid as an actual picture in real life or something. And the other senses are neat too. Like for exmaple I #can hear in my head much better than I can see imagery. I still CANNOT hear vividly like as if I were listening to actual music out loud.. #but I think it's developed more than my sight. AND interesting how this varies the creative process. a friend I was talking to on the phone #said they write by literally just watching stuff play before them like a movie. where my process is COMPLETELY different. AND that affects #the content/what details we focus on as well as our individual styles of writing have differences that can be traced back to that.. hrmm

[canisalbus]

AU where there is some sort of zombie-like (maybe something like a rabid vampirism?)

Where one of the boys is bit/infected and desperately wants the other to join them, while also wanting to resist?

.

#oh that sounds so sad #I feel like in tragic scenarios like this Machete is always destined to be the weaker link #simply because the thought of Vasco unraveling and losing his mind legimately upsets me #like if Machete has rough time that's typical and he's used to it #but if they lose Vasco then they're both doomed #you know #I've always been really sensitive to zombie stories that deal with the concept of your loved one getting infected #and not quite knowing when they've gone too far and if there's still some of their former self left or not #they never end well but the idea of a person delusionally clinging to the hope of them both making it just #a trope that cuts deep instantly #anonymous #answered #now that I'm thinking about it this probably affects me so much because I have a massive fear of dementia #it runs in my family and I've seen what it can do to a person's psyche and personality and it scares me to death

[cosmics-beings]

Drift making stickers, banners, shirts, just to make sure EVERYONE knows he’s the one responsible for the bitlets growing inside Ratchet (and his conjunx also growing grumpiness).

Drift, wearing a shirt: I’ve sparked my conjunx

Rodimus, wearing a shirt: my amica sparked his conjunx

Ratchet, unwillingly wearing a shirt: my conjunx sparked me

I want (and still plan to) draw this and even write this so bad. i wanted to draw it this week but my job got in the way T-T but I'm also saving this so i can draw them because them all in their T-Shirts would be so funny.

I can just imagine drift and rodimus being so damn chummy and laughing, and then ratchet is moping on the side. not only because he was forced to wear a shirt that basically screamed he got fucked side-ways, on the counter, on the floor, on the wall, etc., my drift, but he is so grumpy too. he is so damn grumpy like he has an attitude, the sparklings are probably gonna come out with one.

Like they take a family picture, especially for the sparkling shower, and it's ridiculous. I mean, Rodimus and Drift have a good time. Ratchet is a mixture of tired and stressed because he has a million surgeries to conduct--tho Drift won't let him do that. He wants his conjunx to rest.

also trivia but my dratchet sparklings actually don't look like ratchet. none of them look like him, they all favor drift at different stages in his life. however, they do actually have healing abilities. like they are outliers and all their outlier ability is to heal, though one's is to take life away with her touch. she becomes a doctor however and is as good as ratchet. Also adkjfaj Ratchet is still a doctor at that time.

Drift and Ratchet in my aus never actually stop having children so i cannot cap it. Like yeah we know in LL Ratchet dies but I've explained how he's still alive in my aus even after that and guess what...they go right back to having children. Ratchet always carries because in my aus personally, Drift has trauma with carrying because of things that happened in his past. He actually got his forge tank/valve removed. Originally, Rathcet wouldn't have cared to sire or anything, like he expected that's how it would be with he and Drift but Drift is very serious about being a sire.

#dratchet #rodimus prime #drift transformers #ratchet transformers #i think i've mentioned a gazillion times that like...starscream in my aus survives and uses part of his spark to revive Ratchet because #Ratchet is his personal doctor at the time - Starscream is also infected with the Talisman's abilities so he can do that #also i call drift my opposite starscream #if i went into it - drift's frame was viewed as being a good frame for carrier #and it's expected that his frame type carries #which was always an alternative for how he survived in the streets #and he hated that his body was percieved that way #whereas starscream is the opposite - seekers were created to sire #and thats what he was almost forced to do #and he hated it #the two of them are actually friends in all my aus and talk to each other about this a lot #in *ssssome* of my aus when drift gets his forge tank removed he actually gives it to starscream so that starscream can have that part #complicated i know

[we-were-so-beautiful]

4. shower

wow look it's another chapter!!! like... not that long after the last one, even! honestly I had the first 3 sections of this basically entirely written not long after finishing the last one, but eventually I decided I should probably do literally anything else for a while (hyperfocus is a real dick lol), and so I'm just now getting back to it. I thought this was gonna be on the shorter side, but it's about the same as the last one, around 1.3k! there's a pretty important reveal in this one...

Content warnings for this chapter: box boy universe, pet whump, dehumanization, conditioning, infected wounds, (severe) illness. As always, please let me know if there's anything else I need to tag.

[masterlist] [chapter three]

Vanessa’s never been particularly sensitive to scents—it’s a saving grace, in a mind where too much light or sound or texture can make her feel like she’s dying. But by the time the guy lying shaking on the seats behind her practically falls out of the taxi in front of her stoop, even she’s having a hard time with the smell coming off of him. Given how the driver peels away with all his windows down the second she pulls the last scrap of soiled newspaper from his backseat, it probably isn’t just her.

She turns back to the guy, for the first time finally alone with him. She’s too short to be used to talking down to people, but he’s hunched himself into that weird curled-up position again, so when she speaks it's aimed vaguely toward the top of his head. “Okay. First things first, we’re getting your ass in the shower,” she tells him. “And then we can deal with the effects of my questionable life decisions.” She pauses for a moment, considers. “Well. This one, anyway.”

There’s no way she’s getting him in through the front like this. Too many stairs, and too much dirt. The garden door will have to cut it. She motions for him to follow her down the alley, and he unfurls himself just enough to shuffle after her.

As soon as the shadows close in around them, she looks back over her shoulder. When she’s satisfied that no one can see them, she unclasps the collar from around his neck and tosses it, leash and all, into the garbage.

—

Vanessa can’t say she’s ever been grateful for the fact that her parents are insane enough to have a swimming pool in the basement of their New York fucking brownstone. Quite frankly, she still isn’t; they got the fucker installed when she was a kid and she screamed for so many days they finally packed her off to a hotel with her nanny of the week just to shut her up. Which they probably should have done in the first place, given that she was nine and there was a jackhammer in her fucking basement.

What she is grateful for now, though, is that the part of this floor that isn’t taken up by the pool—or the hot tub, or the weirdly redundant multi-person bathtub—is a shower stall the size of her literal bedroom. Complete with benches, and removable showerheads, and, she’s hoping, everything else she could possibly need right now.

“In here,” she motions, and he drags himself onto the tiles. “I’d offer you the weirdly redundant multi-person bathtub, but you’ve barely been able to keep your head up all day and the last thing I need is to fucking drown a guy in my basement. Also no offense but you’re literally so dirty right now I’d have to drain the fucker the second you got in. After this you can have a bath whenever you want, if you’re into that sorta thing, but for right now you’re getting a damn rinse.”

—

Once he’s more or less situated on the built-in shower bench, propped up in the corner in hopes it’ll keep him from falling ass over, Vanessa gets to work, still fully clothed down to her chucks on the marble tile. She unhooks a showerhead and aims it at the drain while it warms up. “Is this okay?” she asks, pointing it at his feet, and he flinches sluggishly but doesn’t respond either way.

“I don’t know what that means, guy.” She tests the water again with her hand. “It can’t be that bad, can it?” she muses out loud. “It’s the same temperature I’d use for me, and fuck knows I’m… y’know, picky. So if you want it different you gotta tell me, okay.”

He doesn’t tell her shit. But he doesn’t flinch too much harder when she moves the stream of water up toward his knees, either, and she figures that’s the best she’s gonna get.

She leans over him and focuses the showerhead on his hair. It’s matted stiff as tree bark, the water barely able to permeate through the layers of filth. “Shit, I dunno man, your hair’s got so much crap in it. Not to mention it wouldn’t surprise me if that shelter gave you goddamn lice.” She shudders. “Might be better off just cutting it short.”

There’s a noise she barely registers as a gasp before his ice-pale eyes fly open and he clutches her arm, quicker than she’s seen him move by fucking light years. She jerks automatically out of his grip, dropping the showerhead in her alarm, but he fixes her with a lidless, panicky stare and the eye contact is so startling she’s frozen to the spot. “Please…” he wheezes, “don’t.”

“You fuckin’ what, dude?”

“Don’t… cut… my hair.”

She blinks, astonished. “That’s the first thing you’ve said all fucking day, isn’t it?” He doesn’t offer another. “Christ. Typical fuckin’ me not to notice.” She huffs quietly. “Well shit, dude, I guess if you give enough of a fuck to speak up about it it can stay. But so help me if I find a single fucking nit in there.”

He whimpers quietly, squeezing his eyes shut, but he doesn’t say another word.

—

Vanessa gingerly retrieves the showerhead from where it’s spattering up at the ceiling, along with an oversized lace bath pouf and a mostly-full bottle of body wash she’s pretty sure is fucking designer. If you could see me now, Mom, she thinks, squirting the gel at his left shoulder, the one closest to her. You… well, you probably still wouldn’t give a shit. 

She touches the pouf to his sullied skin as gently as she can, and she knows she’s not well-coordinated at the best of times but she really doesn’t feel like she deserves the choked-off sound he makes or the way he shrinks away from her when she makes contact. “Oh cmon, guy, look I know but you gotta let me get this shit off you, there’s no way it’s not fucking your shit up worse than it already is,” she cajoles, and whatever she’s said it makes something in his posture go slack and he rolls back toward her, opening himself to her touch. “Thanks, uh, I think,” she hedges, and begins to lather him up with slow, concentrative strokes. She flicks the shower back on, sluicing suds and dirt from his skin in equal measure.

"Ohhh, fucking yiiiiikes," Vanessa says softly.

With the first layer of filth washed away, Vanessa can see the far grimmer reality that’s been hidden underneath. Rows of jagged, infected gashes streak their way across his shoulder to his chest. The skin around them burns an angry red, the wounds themselves all but smothered in sickly whitish-yellow. What narrow swathes of skin remain intact are mottled purple, and now that she’s touching him, she can tell he’s just… way too much hotter than any person should ever be.

She lowers the temperature of the water and keeps washing him, afraid to look but needing to see. Each stroke only reveals more of the same. His chest and left shoulder seem to have gotten most of the worst of it, but there are stripes across his arm, his back, his stomach, deep gouges in his legs. She hasn’t tried to touch his face yet, but now that she knows what to look for she thinks she can even see a scratch or several across his cheek, trailing up into his hairline. Jesus fuck.

It all makes a sinister sort of sense now, she thinks: the shallow breathing, the shivers, the near-total lack of response. And here she thought he just had regular rescuee trauma.

“Fuck,” she breathes out quietly, as the realization creeps over her like ice.

There’s something really, really wrong with this guy.

-

taglist: @maracujatangerine @pigeonwhumps @tragedyinblue @marchtothefuckingsea @octopus-reactivated @briars7

#whump #pet whump #rescue whump #recovery whump #bbu #box boy universe #vanessa + juniper #disaster caretaker #imperfectly consistent #tw dehumanization #tw conditioning #tw illness #tw injury #tw infection #do I like... need to tag for language? #I know using swears is pretty standard for bbu/pet whump stories #but I also use them kind of a uh. non standard amount. #I kinda feel like vanessa's house needs a tw of its own lmao #I honestly have fun making up all the increasingly ridiculous rich person shit #anyway I've got a decent bit of the next chapter written already (wrote it at some point back when I was working on 2 or 3 tbh) #and that's more or less it for stuff I have fully written out in advance #(from the main storyline at least) #but a lot of the stuff that follows that is stuff I've had in my head for ages #so hopefully it won't be too hard to write out! knock on wood #sometimes the things you think about that much come easily when you finally write them #and sometimes they're nigh on impossible bc you get obsessive with doing them justice #or at least just like. remembering all the ideas you've ever had for them when you finally sit down to write #hello it's me writing a novel in the tags again #anyway I've been falling asleep since somewhere in the middle of proofreading so I should probably wrap this up lol #if you read all this for some reason hi!

[running-in-the-dark]

I've got an appointment with my psychiatrist tomorrow, and I'm getting my conch piercing swapped out for a shorter one. that's gonna be stressful 🙃

#annnd I will absolutely take my lorazepam for the second one... yeah it's unnecessary yeah it's dumb but. I'm SO scared #and I haven't even thought about taking any in ages. so it's alright and I don't mind #I will do things to make things I want to do but am scared of easier for myself so that I can do them at all #and that's fine #I'm so hoping she'll say the piercing is healing well... it doesn't hurt at all and I've been careful with it and I've cleaned it #(almost) every day like she said #but there's a bump and it still gets pretty gross and. well I'm just hoping it's fine 😬 #I kinda keep going from 'I still want as many ear piercings as possible' to 'I don't want to get a piercing ever again in my life' and back #though at this point.... I'm thinking I definitely should not get any more in my left ear since it keeps being difficult (the slight hearing #loss and the tube and then I got a middle ear infection... maybe it'll eventually be fine again but right now it's not looking like it 🤔 #but whatever maybe I'll get more in the right one. I could. if I wanted to. we will see 🤷) #also it suuucks that I now have to drive 30 minutes to get to my psychiatrist's office but I like him a lot so I will not look for a #different one #personal

[wigglymantis]

me every time i have to go to the Termitary

#if only they didn't respawn if i leave and reenter... #i'd give them all the morphine and meradorm i can steal from the infected houses #i just really like the Worms' character design #they're adorable #(big round head + big round eyes + nose and mouth not visible = simple but PERFECT) #and seeing cute characters suffering makes me sad #i've had this sketch sitting in my wips for weeks and i decided to color it and post it with the lines all wobbly like this #pathologic #pathologic classic #pathologic worms #artemy burakh #termitary

[vettelcore]

people with outdoor cats be like: yes my cat came back home half dead, caught hiv, is full of parasites and sometimes has gone missing for weeks but i don't care bc at least the cat is free and not locked inside like selfish people do!!!

#i cannot fucking stress this enough PLEASE do not let your cats roam outside freely if you care about them #if they're used to going outside leash them!!!! #the amount of cats we get at the clinic who come almost dead/with horrible wounds bc they're allowed to be outside is insane #not to mention how many run over cats i see where i live #they could get attacked by other animals too #like its just not worth it #we had to put down a cat today after the owners found her almost dead with an INSANE infection bc she had ruptured her intestines #her hip was shattered too #looked like probably some asshole kicked her #and the owners were like oh we had just buried one of our other cats the other day after she got attacked by another animal #and im just standing there like ?????? and that's normal to you?????? #oh but at least the cats can climb trees though 🤪 #remember the dude i talked about a while ago who brought his cat in honestly the worst condition I've ever seen? #covered in poop vomit piss and fuck knows what else? #that had a colony of cats all infected with FelV bc he refuses to vax them? #yeah this woman was a family member btw #thank FUCK he didn't come today because that would've been a shitshow #all things considered at least this woman seems to be... not absolutely fucking insane? i guess? #but anyway she kept saying how it was sudden! and how the cat was perfectly fine last night! #oh my gOD that cat had maggots eating her from the inside that doesn't happen overnight #cats are tough and will hide a lot of pain but can't you just tell the truth??? #you either didn't care enough to bring this poor baby earlier or you just noticed now what had happened to her

[silenthillbunni]

🏥🦷

#damn my teeth on my left side reallyyyyy fkn hurt #last night it started hurting so bad i couldnt fall asleep #i took some regular over the counter pain pills nd they brought down the pain a bit #so it at least didnt hurt as bad as it did first #but now after sleeping a few hours it still hurts :// #idk what to do... bc i've googled but it is like impossible for me to know what this is. could be anything rlly #nd w physical health stuff im not as terrified bc i can just go to the ER. when i was there it only cost $15 lol #but dental care is so fkn expensive i dont even have that in my account #anyway. i could get an 'urgent appointment' which i get financial aid for... probably. thats the thing. it's not 100% certain #idk what i should do bc like i could wait it out nd see if it'll pass nd then wait on my appt the 6th may #or maybe i should call my dentists nd ask them what they think nd if they can give me an urgent appt.. #i hate calling tho. i know that sounds ridiculous esp when im dealing w pain but my avpd makes it so so hard for me. i'd almost rather not #if i was smart nd normal thats what i would do. just call them nd see what they decide for me. maybe i'll wait nd see nd call tmrw.... #nd idk abt the pain. like it rlly hurts but it isnt extreme i think.. but when i press one tooth it hurts a lot nd makes me worried it's #dying 💀 nd like u can actually die from teeth pain nd complications... nd infections nd stuff. it's scary af 😭 #idk if my tooth is dying nd i need to contact a dentist rn or if its smth that can wait for a bit #i mean if i had a job nd a salary i'd book an appt for tmrw nd get it checked but i have to discuss w myself bc i cant afford lol #ugh this is the reason im terrified of dental problems. the pain is awful nd theres nothing u can do if you're poor #my head keeps spinning idk what i should do abt this 😭 i csnt make up my mind. just want it to go away on its own but i know it wont #nd it hurts so that i can barely sleep or eat or concentrate. so i rlly dont know..... #oh if only things were easy

[lemonyinks]

I'm just. so grateful for LOSH

#I was having a hard time when I first started reading it #i was sick most of the year with infection after infection #and i didn't have barely any motivation to draw or write or make playlists #all things I love to do more than just about anything #and then i read losh and suddenly i felt like creating again more than i had in months #even when i was sick AGAIN it got me through it #and i've met so many wonderful people and gained so many wonderful mutuals #who also helped me through it more than they know #simply by talking to me about comic books when i didn't feel well #its just. i love the comics and i love the people i've met through them #sorry i'm emotional tonight #delete later

[canisalbus]

That Les Mis line is SO good for them! Every time I hear that line my heart hurts. Also cause I was in a really intense production of that at an intense point in my life.

But seriously. Can’t you just imagine Vasco watching Machete sleep and just having a moment of “I get it. I was never that confused about religious belief, but in some way now I really get it.”

.

#I love how I've somehow managed to infect you with the miserable dog feelings #badly enough that you're imagining them in ✨situations✨even without my involvement #just so you know I'm cherishing these headcanons I'm gingerly placing them in an egg incubator like unhatched baby birds #answered #anonymous #Vasco #Machete

[crimescrimson]

The Evil Within & Favourite Bosses: Laura | The Keeper | Haunted Joseph | The Shade | The Amalgam

#Crimson's Gifs: The Evil Within #The Evil Within #TEW #TEW1 #The Evil Within 1 #The Evil Within: The Assignment #The Evil Within: The Consequence #TEW: The Consequence #TEW: The Assignment #Joseph Oda #Juli Kidman #Sebastian Castellanos #Laura Victoriano #The Keeper #The Shade #The Amalgam #The Evil Within Bosses #TEW Bosses #Psycho Break #Theme: Best DLC Of All Time #Theme: Blood and Gore #Theme: Insanity #Theme: Infection Spreading #Theme: Game Bosses #Sorry I didn't post a set yesterday I have 19 (real number) drafts i'm working on and gathering the footage for them is proving #very time consuming!!! Regardless I hope you like this one! Im replying this game for the first time on Survival Difficulty because #I realised I've never been compelled to not reply the game from scratch on a Difficulty that wasnt casual since I was a kid and beat it #Thats where the idea for this set came from! I just beat chapter 10 on this mode and it was brutal 💔 #Chapter 10 is actually my most hated chapter in the game because its truly scary and also a boss fight drain #Laura and then the Amalgam is soo mean LMFAOOOO

[tenspontaneite]

Bruh people aren't fucking lying about COVID fatigue goddamn

#covid #life of sponty #ive been sick since i got back home on 12th #infected probably 1 to 3 days before that #so im coming up on 2 weeks of covid #and right now the worst symptom remaining is the fatigue and exhaustion #i got up and showered and sat at my desk for 30mins and now I'm so exhausted i have to go back to bed #it's effort to stroke the cat #the other day i did a small physical exertion and afterwards was so intensely tired it tooo about 6 hours of recovery #just to be able to lift small objects without dropping them #shits fucked bruh #also I'm getting the classic taste fuckery and bitter and alkaline flavours are literally making me choke #it's wild #desperately hoping it doesn't last because i really dont want to lose onions forever #i love onions #i was scared for a second that I'd lost mango too but it turns out it's just the mango skin flavour. the flesh is fine #cough was only monstrous for like a day #rest of the time it's not been any worse than ive had from normal nasty coughs. pretty manageable #the fatigue is wack though #I've never been this weak before #it's kind of fascinating from an authorial perspective #this is going to be useful experience for the writing banks

[stinkrascal]

theres so many tieflings in my canon bg stinkverse....... 1 human, 1 drow, 1 gnome, 1 half elf, 1 dragonborn, 1 githynaki, and 4 TIEFLINGS...... u can tell which race is my favorite right

#of course i love tieflings. im bisexual and i have virtually no relationship with my parents. what else did u expect #is that the tiefling lovers stereotype idk it is to me. in my heart this is right #i've never posted the dragonborn tav or my final tiefling tav bc they're still wips..........but these are the 10 canon bg ocs of mine #i have other tavs too but those aren't Canon Tavs ok! it's very complicated the setup i got in my head but it makes sense to me i promise #i love making a little world with little people in it and forcing them to hang out w each other......im putting them in a box and shaking i #i'll prob never post any in depth writing about these guys i just like 2 post screenshots and hoard my cringe fanfics to myself #but im having fun thats all that matters. also OWWWWWW MY EAR HURTS #me and this ear infection i've nursed for 2 years vs the world right now

[enigmaticpink]

It's been a tough week, I already mentioned one of my rats passed earlier this week but these past three days my other two girls followed suit. I still haven't been able to fully wrap my head around it, they weren't showing any signs of illnesses, no big changes in their diets or routine that I can think of that would cause this. I'm still trying to figure out what caused their deaths and now I have to clean out their cage completely and taking down all their toys and ledges and hammocks is doing a number on me mentally

#i know rats are prone to upper respiratory infections but I know the symptoms of that I've had to get them treated for that before #and they weren't showing any signs of that #so i don't know #in all my time of rodent husbandry nothing like this has happened before #tw animal death #tw pet death

[running-in-the-dark]

kinda disappointed with how this weekend went. I mean, it wasn't bad! but it was our first weekend in the new apartment, and I/we wanted to get a lot done. I already did a lot during the week (a lot for me, not a lot for most people I guess), but there's lots of things that I can't do/can't do on my own, either because I'm too short or not strong enough or I need someone else to hold something or whatever. which realistically just won't get done during the week because my husband works full time, so. it sort of sucks that only one very small, unimportant thing got done. 😔

#like. there's no rush. not really. #I mean we do get our kitchen in two weeks so we'll have to have space to install it then lol #but other than that it's fine #except everyone constantly makes me feel like it isn't. #they're so judgmental and shitty about it #yeah it's chaotic and messy as hell. there's boxes everywhere. we've only found some of our kitchen stuff so we're mostly eating microwave #meals with plastic utensils. all of that stuff #so fucking what? it doesn't affect any of them! I wish they'd just stop commenting on it but they don't. #well. at least it's just over the phone now. I haven't seen my or my husband's family since we moved in and I'm not planning to anytime soon #precisely because they will not stop doing this no matter how I react to it #like in what world would that ever do anything good? it doesn't motivate me to get shit done any faster. because guess what? I'm already #going as fast as I can. #like. I've had (maybe still have) a middle ear infection and been on antibiotics all week and I still got so much done! that's good enough #and this part is fun to me! I like that nothing is finished and everything is possible and new and different #it does also stress me out but so far it mostly feels like an adventure #anyway. I'm just venting but seriously why is everyone I know irl so mean all the time?! #personal

[softquietsteadylove]

Ohh you have to continue the zombie au!! Them finally meeting sersi and co will be amazing :D

"Welcome, Gilgamesh."

He frowned at those around him. He hadn't given them his name. Usually it was Thena who was deeply distrustful of anyone they came across, but he was happy to take up that mantle in her absence.

That was the worst part about this place, that he had yet to see Thena.

He had woken up in a fit over it, but they had told him - promised him - that he would see her if he kept himself calm. They returned his clothes to him, washed and everything.

"We take in all those who need help," the short doctor, Ajak he had learned, said beside him. The cafeteria was surprisingly bustling with people. "That was how you came to us."

They had told him that Thena had arrived with him on her back, which he couldn't help but doubt. Not that she would do it, but Thena was half his weight at most, and they didn't exactly have food or water to spare, last he remembered.

The last solid memory he did have was of feeling feverish, dragging his feet as they continued towards the next city. He must have been really lagging, because Thena did something they never did, which was commandeer a car.

He could remember being in the backseat, and he could remember Thena's voice whispering sweet things, his head in her lap, her tipping water up to his lips.

All the more reason for him to be wary of these people until he could see Thena for himself. He looked around the place, "I don't see her."

They sighed. He had been a broken record since getting on his feet, but he felt he had good reason to be. The other doctor patted his shoulder, although he flinched away from her. "Thena is just getting back."

"Back?" he frowned and turned. Sersi, the younger, taller doctor, and a third guy in a white coat named Phastos all stepped back from him. They were the only ones he'd met so far. "Where was she?"

"She joined some of our scouts on a run," Phastos attempted to be a voice of reason. "Some of the supplies we needed were for you, so she volunteered to go with them."

He wasn't exactly placated by the news. "So you sent her out there with people she doesn't even know? Are they really gonna watch her back out there? What if they can't protect her?!"

"Gil, please," Sersi joined in the effort to soothe him. "It's a simple run to the closest facility outside the hospital. We've been here a long time--since the beginning, really. We've already sectioned off half the city as safe territory."

Gil huffed. With Phastos behind him and the docs in front, he felt a bit like a caged animal. He looked around the bustling cafeteria again, "fine. When will they be back?"

"It should be any time now," Sersi promised before turning and trotting off.

"Sersi's husband is part of the field team," Ajak supplied in her absence, leading them closer to the rest of the populace. The people already there eyed them and kept their distance, but they didn't exactly pull out pitch forks and torches at the sight of him. "We have some very good people here with us."

Gil watched as Doctor Sersi trotted over to the door, her wavy black ponytail bouncing behind her. She must have seen they were coming, because she ran at the door and launched herself into someone's arms before they were even in the room.

A man walked in with her attached to him, tall and broad shouldered. Gil couldn't hear them, but he had an inkling that he was one of the men who had dragged him inside when Thena no longer could. The other one walked in past the married couple, not even glancing at them.

Finally, far behind the other two, a ghost of a figure hurried into the room and immediately split off and away from everyone. Despite the promise of food, she steered clear of the line for it, pushing a blonde ponytail off her shoulder and pulling off her backpack.

Her clothes had also been washed, and the jacket she was wearing seemed to be new, maybe as a form of protection. But that was definitely his Thena prowling away from the thick of the crowd.

"Thena!"

Heads turned and people jumped out of the way of the huge stranger sprinting across the room. Some of them yelped, as if he were a train barrelling forward on its tracks. But he could only see Thena.

"Gil!" she barely got out before he swallowed her up, his arms snaking around her and his massive form folding over her. Her knees bent in response but he held her close, swinging her around in his arms.

"Thena! You're okay!" he sobbed, openly at that. For all his reluctance to cooperate with their hosts thus far he let himself weep with joy as he finally felt Thena's light frame in his embrace again. She still smelled like fresh air, and she was warm, and she was kind of bony, but soft in the places it mattered. "I-I thought-!"

"Sh, Gil, I'm here," she cooed, running her fingers through his hair as he blubbered over her like a baby. She let him lean his weight on her, his face buried between her neck and her shoulder, their legs stumbling, "it's okay, just breathe."

"I told you--they're too committed to each other, they won't-"

"Ikaris, hush."

"Are we just gonna watch them make out, or...?"

"Give them some space," Ajak urged the rest of her team. Gil pulled his head up to see her waving them back, her back turned to them. She didn't have the distrust in him and Thena that he had with her. "can you blame them?"

"Gil," Thena called to him, pulling his attention back to her. She put her hand to his cheek, her eyes scrubbing over him, "are you okay?"

He nodded, leaning into her touch, "I'm okay. Wh-What about you? I woke up and a-and you-"

"Sorry," Sersi leaned over to offer her apologies, "I voted to move you into the same room, but I got outnumbered."

"We weren't sure what to make of you," the other man who came in alongside Sersi's husband shrugged. "And then you freaked out when she wasn't there, so-"

"So," Gil made a face, "you decided that keeping us apart longer would fix that?"

Ajak laughed, although the guy clearly didn't appreciate it. He huffed, putting his hands on his hips, "hey, big guy, I'm the funny one here, got it?"

"Okay," Ajak spoke to those crowded around them en masse again, "let's let the lovebirds have a bite to eat and settle themselves. We can discuss what happens from here on afterward."

What did she mean by that? But Gil looked down as Thena slipped her hand into his. He was going to have to ignore that 'lovebirds' comment for now too, huh?

"Come on," Thena pulled him by the hand, keeping their fingers intertwined, "you must be starving."

"Well, yeah, but-" he looked around, still feeling on edge in the completely new environment. It was being around people - living people - that had him so on edge.

"I'll tell you everything that's happened," Thena promised him, "after you eat."

He just sighed, looking at her like she was the sun and he'd been underground for years. He would do anything if it meant he didn't have to let go of her hand yet, "fine."

#Thenamesh Zombie AU #so a new chapter begins eh? #thank you for asking for more of this au #I really am delighted to see it come back #and yes we're finally meeting the rest of the crew! #I've debated bringing them in before this #but it was never the right time before #anyway Gil wakes up and he's like where's Thena #he puts his clothes back on #where's Thena #they say come eat something and he says where is my wife?!! #Thena tells him all about how she got him here and the infection and how worried she was #she doesn't tell him about collapsing and having to be restrained #he says okay he'll hear them out #but they're on thin ice for not letting him see that she was okay as soon as he woke up #he's extra wary of Kingo and Ikaris #what do you mean his precious Thena went on a supply run with these two strangers?! #Ikaris says they can't trust them because they're too devoted to each other #Sersi: you used to be romantic #Kingo: I doubt that he was ever romantic