heroes s4e6 ‘strange attractors’
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** Text Version of the 2024 Prompts Can be Found Below.
“I’m not hungover, I’m just sick” (Or vise versa)
Too Much of a Good Thing/Overindulgence
Campus/Con Crud
“Great. I Got a Cold for My Birthday.”
Rogue Organ (tonsils, spleen, appendix, gall bladder ect…)
Dizziness/Vertigo
Borrowed Hoodie
“The closest doctor is probably hours away from here!”
Overdramatic Patient/Caretaker
The Sniffles ™
Medieval Treatment
“You’re not fine, you’re throwing up/coughing up a lung”
Mononucleosis
Clean Sheets/Fresh Pajamas
"Who decided __ is ‘sick people food?’"
Toxin/Poison
Brain Fog/Spaced Out
“My body is one big ache”
Hypochondriac Tendencies
Medication Bribery
Anaphylactic Response
“You didn’t use my cup, did you?”
Under a Spell
Tales From the Waiting Room
Summer Flu
Heart Condition/Cardiac Arrest
“This is non-negotiable"
Pulling a ‘Ferris Bueller’
Sick on a Road Trip
Past Prompt of Your Choice!
Alts
Hospital Bed
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
First Aid Kit
Flushed Cheeks
Doctor's Note
“Am I supposed to be grateful to have survived this?”
- Brenna Twohy, Forgive Me My Salt
Whumptober 2023
Day 30: Bridal Carry
Merlin 4x02
@whumptober @whumptober-archive
autumn is approaching! 🍂 here's a long one, since october is the big month for creation events, and september has a lot going on this year too! so much to choose from!
i've also made a post detailing upcoming g/t events here on my g/t blog. you can check that out if you wanna do something for that community!
September events starting this month:
🔤 Alphabet of Whump (@alphabetofwhump), prompts here, a 26-day whump event
🧸 Sicktember (@sicktember), prompts here, a 30-day sickfic event (this is its last year)
💀 Whumptember (@whumptember), prompts here, a 30-day whump event
🎶Seven Songs of Suffering (@snakebites-and-ink), prompts here, a 1-week whump event taking place the second week of September
🐉 HTTYD Whump Week (@httyd-whump-week), prompts here, a 1-week HTTYD fandom whump event
😱 Horrortember (@horrortember), prompts here, a 30-day horror event
Single-day September celebrations:
🎊 International Whump Day is September 12th. Celebrate however you like!
💬 Comment Day is September 15th, info here: @comment-day. Leave some nice comments on your favorite creations! (Not whump specific)
October events starting next month:
🎃 Whumptober (@whumptober), prompts here, a 31-day whump event. this is also the most-participated-in whump event of the year, often attracting people outside the whump community.
🌩️ Voltober (@voltober), prompts coming soon, a 31-day whump event
💧 Angstober (@angstober), prompts here, a 31-day angst event
🔮 31 Days of Horror (@31-daysofhorror), prompts potentially coming soon, a 31-day horror event
📼 Halloween Horror Bingo (@halloweenhorrorbingo), signups coming soon, a horror bingo-prompt event
🫀Goretober is a flexible gore event where people traditionally create their own prompt lists. If you don't want to make your own, there are many floating around in the Goretober tag already. Here's a few: one / two / three / four
📵 AI-less* Whumptober (@aiIesswhumptober), prompts here, a 31-day whump event
*Note to clear up any confusion brought on by the name: Neither Whumptober event includes or promotes the use of AI-generated works, the latter event is just more intense about it. Whumptober's AI policy is "We will not reblog or promote any works we know to be generative AI-created" and AILWT's AI policy is "No AI content of any kind is allowed". False claims spread last year about Whumptober allowing AI, but this is not and has never been the case, and I want to make sure no misinformation is spread from my post.
(BBC Merlin)
@mediwhumpmay
Merlin didn’t know how long he had been hiding in the thorn bushes. The shouts of the bandits and their crunching footsteps in the snow had long died away. But he dared not move. He could not move.
The deep wound in his thigh made it impossible.
Merlin shivered. The sun was going down.
The frigid, wet snow has soaked deeply into his clothes, contrasting with the hot and sticky blood oozing from his leg. Merlin sighed. Closed his eyes for only a moment. Just a moment. He was so tired.
So tired.
Snow had begun to fall again.
“Merlin!”
Merlin was shaken awake, thigh throbbing with fire. He gasped.
Bandits.
They were after him.
His eyes flew open and before he really saw anything, he sprang away from whatever had grabbed him. He struck out and tried to twist away from the grip on his arm.
“You idiot! Stop it!”
Merlin stopped. The voice was familiar. His vision cleared and Arthur’s face swam into view, cheeks pink with cold.
“What are you doing here?” Arthur’s voice was entirely too loud. The bandits would hear. They would find them. And Merlin was too tired to protect Arthur.
Merlin opened his mouth to warn Arthur.
Prince Arthur stuck his torch upright in the ground and began to haul his manservant to his feet, dusting snow from his clothes. “We have been looking for you for hours. What are you doing napping in a bush? In the snow?”
As soon as Arthur let go, Merlin crumpled, pain flaring in his leg. He gasped as he hit the ground.
“What is wrong with you now?”
“Leg.” Merlin whispered.
Arthur didn’t try to pick him up this time but instead brought the torch closer to examine Merlin’s leg.
“You’re hurt.” A rough gloved hand probed the wound.
Merlin jumped and cried out. “Yes.” He panted. “Bandits… attacked me while I was-”
“Gathering herbs for Gaius.” Arthur finished, removing his hand quickly. “I know, he asked us to look for you when you didn’t come back. This is still bleeding, Merlin, we should- What should we do?”
Merlin saw Arthur looking at him for help, eyes wide, face white. Arthur was scared. Arthur didn’t know what to do.
Merlin swallowed and nodded, trying to focus. What would Gaius do?”
“I’m cold and-”
Before Merlin had finished speaking, Arthur had taken off his cloak and wrapped it around Merlin’s body.
Merlin smiled a little at the warmth and closed his eyes.
“And?” Arthur prodded him. “What else?”
Merlin opened his eyes again. “The wound, I need to look at it. Either bind it or sew it. Got to… got to clean it.”
“Can’t I just get you back to Gaius?” Arthur frowned. “He can fix you up.”
“No.” Merlin shook his head, the world spinning a little. “No, it’s still bleeding. I might not get back in time.”
“In time for what?”
Merlin gave Arthur a look.
Arthur met his gaze then nodded. “Right, yes, dying. Sorry.”
“Obviously.” Merlin sighed. He thought a moment more. “Can you start a fire?”
“It’ll be difficult with the snow.”
“I know.”
“I’ll do it.” Arthur got up. “I’ll get kindling. Don’t die while I’m gone.”
Merlin huffed out a laugh. “I’ll try.” He tried to put pressure on the wound and winced in pain.
Merlin drifted a little. Arthur came back pretty quickly and using the flint that Merlin carried in his bag, started a little campfire. Merlin finally began to warm, the feeling returning to his fingers and toes.
“Better?” Arthur asked, finally sitting down nearby.
Merlin nodded.
Arthur leaned forward. “Now what?”
Merlin swallowed hard. “I need to look at the wound, close to the light of the fire.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Arthur stood up again and helped Merlin slide closer to the fire.
“Thanks.” Merlin grunted and looked down at the slit in his pant-leg, dark with blood. “Do you have a knife so I could-”
Arthur leaned forward and just ripped the pant-leg open, revealing Merlin’s thigh and the ugly, oozing wound.
Merlin sighed. “Thanks again.”
“No problem.” Arthur looked at the wound. “That looks bad, Merlin.” His voice had become tight.
“I know.” Merlin opened his bag and began to dig around. “I think-... I think I have to suture it.”
“Like sewing? What are you going to use for needle and thread out here, idiot? I should have taken you to Gaius.”
Merlin held up his small sewing pouch under Arthur’s nose.
“What’s this?”
“My sewing kit.” Merlin smirked a little.
“You carry a sewing kit everywhere you go? You are such a girl, Merlin.”
“A prepared girl.”
“You have me there.” Arthur admitted.
Merlin unrolled the pouch and pulled out the roll of gut and a curved, sharpened fish bone. His trusty needle. He’d made it last summer and was rather proud of it.
Merlin prepared the needle and thread and sat up against his bag and Arthur’s rolled up cloak. This was the best view he was going to get of the wound. Merlin raised the needle.
“Wait, wait.” Arthur stopped him.
“What?”
Arthur gestured towards the wound. “Is that it? You’re not going to clean it? Or take something for the pain?”
Merlin frowned. “Arthur, Prince Dolt, we are in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing to clean it with. And I have no herbs for pain, nor any way to prepare them. My main concern is just not to lose enough blood that I die. So I will suture this. Bind it. And then we can get back to Gaius for the other things. Understand?”
Arthur had gone a little pale, but nodded.
Merlin took a breath and began to sew.
The first suture was awful. The second was worse.
Well, they were very neat. Gaius would be proud. But they hurt so much on top of the fiery pain of the sword wound.
The third made sweat bead on Merlin’s forehead and upper lip. The fourth had him panting.
In the middle of the fifth, Arthur asked. “Does it hurt?”
Merlin didn’t take his eyes off his work and couldn’t really form words. He had just enough energy to grunt.
“Right, sorry.” Arthur kept quiet after that.
The sixth made the blood drain from Merlin’s face. He stopped counting after that. Or he lost count.
He tied off the last suture and cut the gut. Arthur pressed some strips of cloth into his hands and Merlin managed to bandage the wound, tying it with numb and blood-stained fingers.
His whole leg throbbed. The forest spun around him. Merlin closed his eyes.
A strong arm wrapped around his shoulders and the other supported his knees. He floated away.
“How is he?”
Morgan Lynch stopped as he was passing the doorway to the parlor, took a step back, and saw Professor Collins sitting there.
“Oh.” Morgan tried to school his face into something less upset. “He’s fine. He’s…” Morgan trailed off, searching for the right words to describe it.
Ennis was upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms, tossing and turning. He was sweating and pale. His eyes were sunken. And Morgan had heard him muttering softly in his sleep. He was not well. That much was obvious.
“Sleeping.” Morgan finally said.
“Good, good.” Professor Collins gestured to the opposite armchair by the fire. “Would you join me?”
Morgan hesitated a moment more. He’d rather not. He’d rather sit in the kitchen and stew. But he nodded and smiled. “Thank you.” Morgan sat down opposite the professor.
“Tea?”
“Uh, no. Thank you though.” Morgan didn’t really like tea.
“Something stronger?” Professor Collins tried again.
Morgan shook his head and that made him notice his throbbing headache. This whole night was just too much for him. He was exhausted. And so very confused.
“It can be a bit of a shock, I’m afraid.” The professor stood up from his armchair, stroking his very white beard. It contrasted starkly with his dark mane of hair.
“What?”
Professor Collins limped over to an old phonograph and began to fiddle with it. “Mr. Ennis Hunnicutt’s gift.”
“Oh.”
Morgan could not help but have Ennis’s face flash before his mind’s eye, deathly white, with eyes rolled back, and speaking in that strange language. The syllables that Ennis had pronounced were chilling. Morgan didn’t understand why. But just remembering the sound of it. The way the unknown words wormed their way between his teeth, made it difficult to breathe, had Morgan’s heart racing even now.
Morgan cleared his throat and tried to calm himself. “Is it a gift?” He asked. It seemed more like a curse.
“Most certainly.” Replied Professor Collins. “In all my years of research, I have never found someone as gifted as he.”
Morgan swallowed hard. What did that mean? What kind of gift would do so much harm? “What is he?”
The professor straightened up. He was gingerly holding a wax cylinder. “A medium.” He answered. Seemed to consider it a moment, then added. “Of sorts.”
The professor held up the wax cylinder. “I have this here, a recording of one of Ennis’s trances, would you like to hear it?”
Morgan felt a wave of revulsion rise in him. “Why do you have-”
“It’s quite short, I assure you.” Professor Collins had already turned around and was loading the cylinder into the phonograph. “It was recorded years ago, when the Divine Order was still intact.”
The Divine Order? Morgan was lost. But he had no energy to object. In fact, he felt a sick sort of curiosity. Before he could decide whether he wanted to hear this recording or not, it began to play.
The sound was rough and difficult to make out in parts. But most of it was clear enough to understand.
A scratchy, high-pitched voice rang out first. A woman’s voice. “The twenty-second of December, in the year nineteen hundred and fourteen. And it is our Ennis’s birthday. He has been dosed with the serum and is ready to speak with us.”
There was a shuffling sound. Then more speaking. “Ennis, my darling, can you hear me?”
A pause.
And then, Morgan’s heart clenched.
“Yes, I can hear you.” It was a young boy’s voice. A child. He spoke dreamily, doubtless due to the substance they had given him.
“Make the first cut.” The scratchy-voiced woman ordered.
Young Ennis cried out in pain over the recording.
Morgan jumped to his feet, his lips tingling as he felt the blood drain out of his face.
The recording continued, Ennis’s sobs becoming a soft background melody to the scratchy woman’s voice. She spoke a string of strange syllables that rang nauseatingly familiar.
The sobs ceased suddenly.
Then, young Ennis began to drone, slurring his words. “The Eater of Stars, Endless Maw, approaches. Nearer and nearer-”
“Make the second cut!” The woman screeched.
Morgan felt sweat break out on his forehead.
Young Ennis cried out again, the sob turning into a long wail and more words. “The Eye is open and we shall all walk through the doorway. Arrival! Arrival is nigh!”
“The third cut!”
“I am the Tooth of the Eater! I will bite the Stars!”
A shuffling sound and the high-pitched breathy voice of the woman rang out. “Where is the doorway, Ennis? Tell us where it is!”
“Burning black. The teardrop.” Ennis’s voice slowed to a drawl again. He struggled to speak. “The… Eye is… The Eye open.”
“Bind the wounds. He’s bleeding too much.” The woman hissed. “Ennis? My darling? Stay awake, please.”
Someone in the background cried out. “Call the doctor!”
Then silence.
Morgan started. Professor Collins had stood up as well and was unloading the wax cylinder from the phonograph. Morgan ran a hand down his face and took a deep breath.
“What the devil was that?” He spat.
The professor looked up, surprised but still calm. “As I said, it is a recording of one of Ennis’s trances.”
“But-” Morgan searched for words. “They were mutilating him. He was a child. I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain.” Came a soft voice from the parlor doorway.
Morgan whirled around. Ennis stood there, still waxen pale and sweating. He looked so weak, leaning on the doorway for support. His eyes stood out starkly in his face, the firelight flickering in them.
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