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catra-writes · 2 years

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The Adventurers: Chapter one, Rehearsal.

(draft)

"I've got the BEST idea-" Opal began as she sat at the counter stool in Avery's dad's diner, The Grove. "You know how I LOVE singing right?"

"Yeah, you were in every audition for every play that went on at school and insisted on singing the most out-of-pocket-randomest of songs that any of us ever heard." Avery commented while pouring a cup of coffee behind the counter. "Why, are you joining a choir now?" the satyr teased her tiefling friend.

"Ha, no, already did that when i was in elementary. But anyway, You play guitar right?" Opal asked, an expectant grin on their face.

"um..yeah, as an extra credit thing my last year of highschool." The satyr huffed and passed the fresh cup of coffee over the counter to the elf sitting close by. "But i dont think i played it since...gods, two years ago? how long ago was that little party you threw for my brother's graduation?"

"Two years, six months and thirteen days ago." Another satyr commented from a booth a few feet away, nose buried in a book while his mop of a curly brown do hung in front of his face from under the beanie that sat just behind the horns on his head.

"Right, thanks Alexies...wait why-" Avery started only to get stopped.

"have i been keeping count? it was the last time i heard you play, it was a celebration for something im proud of, and you havent played since. i meant it when i said it was the best party ever." Alexies replied, hardly even peeking up from his book.

"aaawe, you have the best supportive little brother! oh! what about you, Toad! you still play bass right?" Opal grinned at the elf sitting beside her.

Toadstool took a shy sip of their coffee, refusing to look anyone in the eye. "mhm.." they confirmed.

"PERFECT! we could totally put together a band!!" Opal practically shouted. Luckily for her the only other customers in at this time was the lone trucker in the corner having coffee before a long night of driving and two kids who looked like they were more interested in whatever was on their phones.

"A band? Hun I dunno. i mean i havent played guitar in a while, we've never-any of us-played together let alone with anyone but ourselves and-" this time toadstool interrupted avery.

"and we dont have a drummer." they pointed out.

"i can get you guys a drummer!" Alexies said as he dropped his book onto the table. "i know this guy deavon, he's really good."

"Then its settled! we'll get this deavon to join, practice and start up our band!!" opal cheered.

"yeah! i think we'd do great!" alexies smiled enthusiastically, almost matching opal's level of hyperactive energetic.

"we? al do you play anything i dont know about?" avery rose an eyebrow, teasing her little brother for his choice of words. of course she'd include her little brother regardless.

"yeah! i could be like your stage hand or something." he said a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck a bit embarrassingly.

"well you are a tech wiz, you fixed the wiring in my lights back at my shop better than my uncle could, and he's an electrician." toadstool shrugged.

"Exactly toadstool! thank you!" alexies eyes lit up at the shred of support he'd been given.

"okay! so we're all in right? band??" opal bit back an excited smile but hardly managed to contain it as she looked between her friends.

Avery sighed and set a cloth down on the counter to start wiping it down for closing. "Even if i argue against it, there is no stopping you when you've set your mind to something is there? alright im in."

"im in too if avery is. i know you really like this kind of stuff so its probably something you've been wanting to do for a while and-AH!" toadstool got cut off when avery pulled them into a tight squeeze, making them spill a bit of coffee.

"mm!! thank you thank you!! this'll be so much fun i promise!!" opal squealed

"Ope! coffee!" toad whined.

"whoops sorry!" they let go of the elf and stood up from the stool. "We should start right away! this weekend meet at my place for our first rehearsal, 'kay?" they were already headed towards the door and out of there when the others even tried to start asking more questions.

"well.. looks like this is happening either way" toad sighed, setting down the now half empty cup of coffee.

"oh here hun let me get you one of my shirts to borrow from upstairs, you can put the coffee stained one in the laundry and i'll bring ot over tomorrow when its clean, okay?" Avery told the elf while gesturing to the door that lead to the flat avery's dad owned.

they'd lived in the flat since the diner first opened, but no ones sure why their dad named it "The Grove" of all things.

"No its fine Aves, really. i can wash it out when i get home." Toadstool responded.

"right, like you'll have time let alone remember to do that. Alexies, close up for me would you?" Avery told her little brother before leading her friend through the door and up the stairs.

"You got it boss!" Al called after them and went take over cleaning up the spilled coffee. "The hell did they mean by rehearsal..? how would opal have found a gig this soon?"

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clickerflight · 8 months

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Whump week: "Tell me how to fix this"

@week-of-whump

Masterlist

Part 1

I don't think I've written the actual prompts into any of the bits I have ready and written. Like, word for word. I enjoy dancing around the words. IDK why and I'm not sorry. The two characters in this bit are in the same world as the 1st prompt. I wanted to introduce the two pairs before they knew each other.

Content: Surgery in a non-hospital setting, lots of blood, missing limb, removing a body modification, restrained, I honestly don't know how to tag this one

.................................................

Matsu had known this was a bad idea even before he started the surgery by Ralph’s side, but this was so much worse than he could have been prepared for.

The woman laying on the table, a blanket tied across her hips and around the table at her request, bit hard into another blanket, grunting. She had her head turned away from where they were working, sweat dripping out of her hair. Her hair was shifting between colors in her pain, as was her eye color as she squinted at the far wall.

Matsu looked back to what they were working on. Matsu might have been trapped in a world where the most advanced technology to be found were a few aqueducts, but he originally came from a modern world, cars, phones, toilets. Stars, how he missed toilets. But even being from a place like that, this was different. Complicated.

The woman’s name was Kira. She had found her way into the village, a blanket tied to hide what Matsu had assumed was her left arm. She asked around for the surgeons, the only ones for miles and had been pointed to Ralph and Matsu’s home. The old man had let her in, Matsu had been pulled in to learn something from whatever this woman needed help with, and then she dropped the blanket that had been tied around her torso.

Matsu had registered the metal socket on her shoulder where a prosthetic arm supposedly attached, the metal woven into the skin, it seemed, and he had also clocked the redness around the metal and the tightness around Kira’s eyes.

“Usually, I’d get readjustments every few months with doctors to keep this from happening,” she’d explained. “But they don’t even have a steam engine around here. It’s going to kill me. I need it removed.”

She couldn’t be put to sleep for the surgery because she would need to help them get it out since she knew a bit about how it worked, and any other pain numbing mixtures and potions they had would make her woozy, so they gave her what they could, rubbed in ointments to numb the area a little, and started cutting.

“Steady, Matsu,” Ralph said gruffly. The old man was laser focused on the task in front of him and Matsu nodded. The metal was almost threaded into Kira’s flesh, woven in deep enough that the numbing poultices couldn’t touch it. There was blood everywhere.

“Alright,” Ralph said carefully. “I can see some of the inner mechanisms. I’ll reapply the numbing potion. Please explain to Matsu how to proceed.”

Kira spit out the fabric, teeth bared like a wild thing. “Matsu, what do you see.”

Matsu pulled the flesh gently down to look, holding his breath despite having a mask on to keep from breathing into the wound. “There’s a bar with screws going into the bone. I see a tube with some wires in it.”

“Do you see a little lever at my armpit?” she hissed.

“Yeah.”

“Press that.”

Matsu did and there was a soft click. The exposed half of the socket folded up on a hinge so he could get to the screws and wires inside.

“You’ll have to cut the release out of me,” Kira said, now looking at the socket, her expression now fierce, but Matsu could see a hint of fear in her eyes.

“We’ll numb it so it won’t hurt as much-”

“No, I’m not worried about that.”

“What are you worried about?”

“Those wires,” she said, eyeing the tube. “I’m trying to remember what order they need to be pulled out in so we don’t damage my spinal cord.”

Matsu stared at her. “What, are we playing ‘defuse the bomb’ with your ability to walk!?”

“Unfortunately.”

She groaned as Ralph started dabbing the numbing potion into the wounds.

“Let’s start with removing the catch here. Then, we can sort out the wires.”

Matsu nodded and soon they cut the catch out. Kira panted on the table, foamed up spittle forming at the corners of her mouth as her eyes glazed over from the pain.

“Hey, hey,” Matsu said, and with great effort she turned her attention to him again. “Tell me how to deal with the wires.”

She huffed, a faint smile on her face. “You’re cute when you talk like that.”

Matsu wrinkled his nose. “Really? Is now really the time for that?”

“Habit.”

“Habit? You flirt when you’re nervous?”

“Oh, shut up. What colors are the wires again?”

Matsu grumbled as he wiped off the tubing. “Uhh, green, black, and yellow.”

He glanced at Ralph who shrugged. “I’m color blind, this one’s on you.”

Matsu wiped his face with his forearm and sighed. “Kay. How do I get this tubing off?”

“It should unscrew.”

Matsu gently coaxed the tubing around until it came off. He pulled the tubing back, watching it fold along prepared lines as he pushed it back. He then looked down at the wires.

“Do you know…”

Kira bit her lip. Her chest was rising and falling very quickly and reached out, grabbing Matsu’s hand. He held hers for a moment, watching her close her eyes, tears running down her face.

“‘M Scared,” she whispered.

“I know,” Matsu said gently, “I’ll get you through this. Just give me somewhere to start.”

She nodded. “I-In techno magic black is command, green is soul, and yellow i-is body…..” She took a few breaths and opened her eyes. They settled on something in between red and orange and Matsu realized she was matching his eye color. “I’m a techno mage. I studied this, I know this. Or, I can at least guess my way through this.”

He nodded encouragingly. “It…. needs to be disconnected from the soul first, Tug on the green one, gently. And please, please don’t pull any of the others out yet. There has to be a cool down between each one, I think.”

Matsu nodded and released her hand. He turned and touched the purifier amulet to clean his hand and turned back again, reaching in. He pinched The black and yellow to hold them in place and tugged the green out. He froze, listening as Ralph said, “Can you still feel this?”

Kira nodded.

“Which toe am I touching?”

“Pinky toe. This one,” she said, wiggling her foot.

“How long do we have to wait between each one?” Matsu asked.

She licked her lips. “You’re good to do the black one, I think. We’ll have to wait longer in between the AH AH oooh hssssssssssss.”

“What?” Matsu asked, looking up from the black wire he pulled out.

“Felt weird,” she whimpered. “I think you touched it to something. I’m fine. Just…. Ahhhhhhhh.”

“Sorry.”

“‘S Okay.”

He put his hand on her chest, feeling her heartbeat as Ralph said, “Which toe am I touching, dear?”

“M-middle toe. Foot farthest from you.”

“Good.”

They waited in silence, Kira’s hand on Matsu’s wrist.

“You wanna go on a date after this?” she asked, eyes slitted.

Matsu rolled his eyes. “Oh sure. I’ll be up to help bandage you every evening. So romantic.”

She chuckled, closing her eyes. “Oh, it’s fun when they play along.”

“You dated many medics before?”

“Oh no. No. Was rescued by a … a…. What do they call them in this language? Guard? Had a bad client and he rescued me. We dated for a bit before he moved.”

“Guess it’s a habit for you, then. How much longer till the next wire?”

“A few more minutes.”

Kira continued to breathe, slowing her mind down and waiting in silence.

“Alright, pretty boy,” she said eventually, making Matsu chuckle. “Last one. Ralph, you might have to hold me down. Pull it out hard and fast.”

Ralph came over, holding her over the shoulders and watched as Matsu took hold of the last wire. He didn’t count, he didn’t warn her. He yanked it and stepped away.

She screamed, writhing on the table, though it seemed her legs were still working as Matsu almost took one to the side.

She calmed down, twitching slightly. “Ooooh, not fun,” she whispered. She looked at the socket and sighed. “Should be easy now. Unscrew from the bone and cut it out… in my bag there is a panel. When you cut the socket out there will be a place where the wires were plugged in. Put that panel on there and close me up….. Can you knock me out now?”

“Can do,” Ralph said, walking over to grab a potion. “Relax now, dear. We’ve got you.”

……………………………………………

Matsu knocked on the door and heard Kira call him in. He opened it to find her laying in bed. He sighed internally with relief. He had been worried that she was the type to refuse to stay in bed and, at this point, he wasn’t sure if he could say no to her.

She almost purred when she saw him, her eyes turning vibrant colors. She was on a hefty dose of painkillers, but the reaction still made him flush.

“You here for our date? What, this has to be the third one now,” she said, reaching her hand out to him. He took it and was surprised when he was jerked forward. She kissed his knuckles and he stared at her, his mind resembling nothing so much as tv static.

“I think I might have to try out dating a medic.”

...............................................

Part 3

Thoughts from the writer/artist