imeeji_frontstage | Go Fish: Trauma Edition

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Go Fish: Trauma Edition

Who: Naughty little fishes
Where: Game Tower
When: Day 527

[So there you are, minding your own business on a completely normal day.]

[Then you blink —

[— and find yourself, and many other idols, in an unfamiliar room.]

[The room is large and round and made of glass, like a globe. ...No, like a fish bowl.]

[On the other side of the glass walls, you can see indistinct shapes moving around, but the glass distorts the light so much that anything farther than arm’s length is just vague smears of colors and shadow blending with your own reflection. But something is there. Possibly a lot of somethings. ]

[Two formless shapes approach the glass, and as they do, their images resolve into the shapes of a pair of twins, one grinning while the other pointedly looks away from his brother. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the one who actually looks cheerful about being here is the first to speak up:]

Guess what~? You’ve been chosen to play in our very first game. Isn’t that exciting?

[He throws his arms out theatrically.]

Especially after soooo many boring games. The audience is looking for excitement and thrills here! Why not take the chance to really cement yourself as the fan favorite while you have the chance? Heck, it might even fix your little... “problem.”

[There’s a beat of silence, and he moves to elbow his brother who shoots him a “hey what the hell?” look before reluctantly facing the gathered idols.]

...Make sure you protect yourselves. Otherwise...

[He just lets the thought trail off before looking away again. His brother leans on him, resting an elbow on his shoulder as though waiting for him to continue before finally giving up and shaking his head with a sigh.]

You heard him! Give this game all you’ve got - got it?

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[ He's kind of tunnel-visioning, so he sees the blood before he really registers her and catches her hands to fix them up. Only then, with a bit of a blink, does he really seem to process who she is and what she's saying. ]

—Me? Heh.

[ And then there's just. this long pause, where normally some sort of witticism would go. ]

Tired.

[ She's not going to stop crying for a while, mostly because what she really wants is to drag Lupine to Doctor so he can get healed up then revived, but she's not that selfish. Barely. But if knowing LiliBad had an audience for their torture wasn't clue enough as to why she's in such a state, when Lupine sees Doctor he'll get it. ]

Fuck those two. They'd better hope they never run into me when they're not behind glass.

[ There was definitely some sort of mercy in going first. Not having to see anyone else get hurt. ]

Torn between offering to help and asking you not to if it's just on my behalf.

[ But there's less than half a beat before he fills in: ]

It's not just on my behalf. Take me there?

[ sIV healing sucks, but it's all they've got, and he has a Job right now ]

[ If he'll let her help him to his feet she does that, look she needs to feel something less than useless okay, and starts crying harder as they approach Doctor, but with weeds growing out of him in too many places to count. Yep, she had to watch that. The whole time thinking it was a small miracle that Venti wasn't in there too. ]

[ She hovers nearby, drawing her sword. Not quite looking at Doctor's corpse directly. ] If... you need me to help cut some of them off... [ like she said, she needs to feel less than useless. ]

[ He will definitely let her do that, then suck in air at the sight of Doc before he goes down on his knees to check him over.

Kind of very aware that this might be the kind of thing sIV powers can't actually help. If it's a status ailment instead of just post-game injuries. He starts out with numbing, realizes that's probably a ridiculous thing to do to a dead body, then shifts gears to...

sIV healing is the creepiest fucking thing, he can just kind of pull Doc apart to get the plant bits out.

It's — slow, careful work, and it takes him a few seconds before he murmurs, ]

Lift his shirt up so I can — see more of what I'm working with.

[ She does so, sobbing the whole time (but like, trying to at least be unobtrusive about it, she's not trying to make this harder). ]

I had to cut pieces of Bomb out of a tree. He had Heroes Never Die on, so... [ yeah that pile of pieces was alive still. She is so fucking traumatized. ]

[ She can cry as loud as she wants, he has — a clarity of focus right now that he is going to hold onto very rigidly until everyone's as okay as they're getting. ~~Then he'll probably collapse.~~

A noise of acknowledgment at her comment while he... digs more plants out. ]

Huh. I thought that was a passive ability.

[ Always on, in other words. ] [ And if he sounds too okay, maybe it'll make her feel better to note that there's a distinct if faint tremor in his hands. ]

I just meant that he still has his normal abilities. Neither Doctor or Zhongli did.

...Which was probably kinder, but right now... [ Her voice breaks and she gives up trying to make a point. Seeing Doctor tortured was impossible, crouching over his corpse is impossible. ]

Oh.

[ Taking a small break. Breathing. He wipes his hands on his clothes, then goes back to it.

He knew it would be like this. But it's so different working on a body when he knows it isn't just part of a game. Messing up in Izzy's dream world might've had consequences, too, but he hates how intensely obvious it is that he could just straight up put Doc back together wrong. ]

[ She interprets his pause perhaps a bit differently. ]

I'm sorry you have to do this. After what just happened to you, especially.

But -- thank you. Thank you for taking care of him. [ She reaches out to stroke Doctor's hair, what parts of it aren't overrun by vines and moss. ]

[ That gets her a startled glance before he refocuses. ]

Don't be. Sorry or grateful. If it'd just been me in there, I would've taken the dive on purpose. We need someone who can heal. Sorry it's slow-going.

I'm doing my best with this, okay? [ She doesn't sound snappish, just sad. Incredibly sad. ] Being sorry and grateful is at least some bit of something that doesn't hurt as much.

[ His frown deepens, but he doesn't look up. ]

Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. [ Softer. ] I just... The way their healing works is pretty much the worst, but it's still kind of nice to be able to do something.

Yeah. I can imagine. [ Feeling useless suuuuuucks. ]

I know you'd do it no matter what, but I'm still grateful. How could I not be? [ This is the most important person in her life lying here, and Lupine's fighting off whatever reactions to being tortured he might have had to fix him. ]

[ Just a sIV Tuesday. ]

I'd feel the same way, I'm sure.

[ Making a lot of progress on Doc here, as slow and careful as it is. ]

Watching you and Cari in there didn't do me any favors either. Or Robin. Or --

[ She stops abruptly, mainly because most of her wants to start screaming again. ]

[ The smallest, grayest smile for her. ]

Yeah. Going first was definitely — the best option.

[ She bites her cheek enough to draw blood to keep from saying that she wishes she threw this one. Causality tried, but she couldn't. She'd been too scared of the consequences mean she hurts everyone again. Besides, she made a promise. ]

There were no good options. They designed it that way. [ The raw hate in her voice could curdle milk. ]

[ ...Yeah, the air between them is kind of thick with her misery. He refocuses on Doc's injuries, thinking. ]

Going first meant I didn't have to watch any of the other teams get hurt.

[ Still had to deal with LiliS getting hurt, but. That part was inevitable. ]

Best of a bad lot.

Edited 2023-02-01 03:14 (UTC)

[ A very shaky breath ]

I don't mean to make this worse, I'm sorry. It's just -- what you went through matters just as much and I don't want to lose sight of that. [ "best" or not, it was still fucking awful. And she's super done making her own misery the only thing that matters in her relationships (or, at least, she's trying her best to be done, it's hard right this minute). ]

[ Shaking his head, though he doesn't look up from what he's doing. ]

You're not making anything worse, and I'm pretty sure I'm the one being dismissive about what my team went through. S'probably some kind of crummy coping mechanism.

It's probably better than whatever it is I'm doing.

[ Which is, as usual, getting her sad feelings all over everyone in the vicinity. ]

Just out of curiosity, is it better? Being able to help after these things, even if it's... [ well, sIV powers ]

—For just one game? Yeah. It's better.

As an occupation? I think both options probably suck about the same amount.

I've tried a few times not to get healed up after games. You know, to try and spare them. It never goes over well.

[ What is this topic of conversation? Oh yeah better than discussing what Lupine's currently doing, that's what. ]

Why can't the games be all Drunk Cards and spy wordgames?

Yeah, they don't like that. Heh. I can get why.

[ Another pause to wipe sweaty palms on his clothes, then back to work. ]

Being sIV and not getting to heal someone is probably the worst option of all of them.

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