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 Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:17 am
Prompt 15 Shock Mark (15) : Thunderstorms are common this time of year, but what’s not common is the number of people reported being struck by lightning. Strangely, people are surviving with only minor, if any, injuries at all. Being struck can feel like a static shock, or can feel like a sudden flash of heat, and targets are left with a strange lightning mark across their body. Though the marks will fade, for their duration–up to a full week after being struck, you might notice that you are more prone to static shocking yourself or others, and you may notice electronics charging or overcharging and malfunctioning. The marks can take longer to fade at player discretion, or players may choose for them to leave pale scars, but otherwise there are no lasting effects.
From his place in the kitchen, Nataniel could peer through the little window over the sink and see out toward the backyard. The view wasn’t perfect, since the screened in mud room blocked pretty much an entire side of his vision. But it was enough that he could still see Basyl tipped over the raised brick flowerbeds, diligently continuing the project he’d started a few weeks prior. They weren’t typically “outside” people, but it still pleased Nataniel an inordinate amount to just lean back against the counter and tip his head sidelong to watch his fiancé at work while Nat tended to his own chores inside the house.
Maybe not quite “chores,” if he was being honest. All he was doing was making a veritable vat of black tea with the biggest pot they had. But better not to leave the stove unattended, he supposed. Their house wasn’t trustworthy enough to let any amount of flame go unwatched.
But so long as he was close, Nataniel figured he could afford a distraction or two, and most of his attention was all for the man outside.
It was a bit of a gray day. The sky was heavily overcast, and wind rustled aggressively through the trees at the edge of the property, and jangled the starry fuchsia charms they'd hung up as tiny, tinkling wind chimes (which Nataniel would never admit he thought was the best use for them- they had the tiniest, prettiest, glassiest clinking noise, even if it was completely drowned in a strong breeze). Nothing inherently wrong with that. In terms of temperature tolerance, he understood why this would be a better day to manage the garden than the sunshiny, sweltering hot days that were oh-so-frequent. And the looming dark clouds really put a time limit on how long someone could be out there and be comfortable with it, so it didn’t feel like a never ending task.
When a distant crackle of light radiated through the sky, followed by a low rumble, Nataniel’s gaze flit from the dark clouds overhead to where Basyl was mucking around in the soil. His lavender-haired love did not seem to take any note of the lightning, far off as it was…
And that was par for what Nataniel expected. Basyl could become very engrossed in his activities such that other things went unnoticed.
He leaned across the sink to crack open the window (something that must not have been done for quite some time, considering the amount of resistance and sharp, scratching noise), and called through the screen, “Mera pyaar, it is time to come inside now.”
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:43 am
“Mlem- Pffth-” Basyl snapped his head to the side, swatting a hand up to shove wisps of wavy lavender bangs out of his face as the wind whipped his hair chaotically around him. He’d tied it back. He’d expected wind. But it had broken free to harass him, anyway, and he simply did not have the free, clean hands required to do anything about it.
He’d planted these little garden beds all of a week ago. They were just small, fragile, barely-rooted sprouts, and they were already being bombarded by these harsh summer storms. Heavy rain and blustering wind. What had he done? Practically sentenced the poor things to death! And after all the work he’d put in to liven up their backyard, getting them situated and pretty… It couldn’t be that they’d only last a week before the storms got to them! It just didn’t seem fair!
Basyl didn’t know what to do about it, and wished he’d researched more, even though he thought he’d been prepared…
But some kind of something had to be done now to protect the little sprouts somehow. Maybe a windshield or a sort of… garden tarp roof? Basyl just knew he’d be so, so upset if he’d taken them from their home at the garden store, uprooted them from their little pots, shucked them into his garden bed, and then promptly let them die. No, no, no. So he was doing his best out here, despite the wind.
He’d packed a little extra soil around the stems, as if that would offer some barricade from the wind, and he was in the process of trying to construct a tarp-tent that attached to one side of the house paneling, wrapped around the front of the brick, and then attached at the other side. It didn’t need to be very tall, since the plants were so small, but it did need to be sturdy, so that a great puddle wouldn’t drop right into the middle of the garden bed once the tarp was too heavy with water. Not that it was raining, yet, but he expected soon, probably…
The wind just made it so difficult! And he was getting frustrated from everything being blown around so easily.
“Mera pyaar, it is time to come inside now.”
Basyl squinted to the side to look toward the window where Nataniel had called to him from. He was sort of in the process of doing something right at this second, with his body mashed against the side of the mudroom to hold the tarp down and a handful of twist-ties at the ready to hook it into place, but he expected Nat’s suggestion came out of some sort of concern. “Just one second-!” He shouted back.
But it was always that last second where something went awry, wasn’t it?
He was threading a tie through a loophole on the tarp when something… really pretty inexplicable happened- Rather, he didn’t know what happened. It was startling. Bright, hot, a bit like he’d stepped in the shower while it was too warm, but not so much so that it seared his skin off- Just. Hot. For a moment. Enough to make him inhale a sharp breath and squeak out a little startle as he jumped and the tarp whipped out of his hands. It didn’t knock him over. He didn’t scream. But he was alarmed, with heart pitter-pattering in confusion and uncertainty and very mild hurt-panic.
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 10:26 am
Nataniel watched. What else could he possibly do but stare as a bolt of lightning crackled from the sky and entirely engulfed Basyl. He didn’t know what he thought in that exact moment, or how he was expected to react, but there was a handful of seconds where he could not move or think or breathe. Everything was still and quiet (weird), and he was entirely shocked stiff-
The lights in the kitchen fizzled, snapped, and blinked off. Nataniel was barreling out of the room before his eyes had fully perceived the darkness.
“Basyl!” He tore from the kitchen, through the short entryway, and out the back door to the mudroom, nearly smashed his palm through the mesh screen door in his flurry to get out of the house and to the other man’s side- But even though he could not possibly have moved so quickly that he’d be able to catch Basyl as he fell, bizarrely, his love was still on his feet? After being struck by lightning? He had no point of reference for what was supposed to happen, but he’d been given to understood that this was typically life-threatening?
He didn’t even look injured, and for a fleeting moment, Nataniel wondered if he’d hallucinated or suffered some holiday deception. Then he reached for Basyl’s arm, and the static that leaped off of the other man’s skin was enough to be visible. With a sharp inhale, Nataniel snapped his hand away, blinking dark eyes at Basyl’s arm, his own hand, then the other’s face.
“Are… are you hurt?” It didn’t look it, but then, what had even happened? A glance back toward the window told him the lights in the house were still off… It couldn’t have been nothing.
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Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2023 7:34 pm
His fiance was beside him probably all of a few seconds after- after whatever had happened. After that heat had washed over him. Probably not for nothing, but Nataniel did look very concerned, and that was unusual unless something really warranted it. Basyl didn’t know if this warranted it. He didn’t feel hurt… “I-I d-dunno. There w-was just- It j-just happened. Hot for a- one s-second.” He could barely even piece together what he wanted to say in the weird rush of hot and adrenaline and confusion. It really drew out the stuttery and hasty tone of his voice.
But there wasn’t pain. He could move. He was still standing, thinking, speaking. And when Basyl rubbed his palms slowly up his own arms, he could feel the contact and the warmth of his own skin. It wasn’t like his nerves were fried- it wasn’t really like anything had happened, besides just that fleeting moment of uncomfortable heat.
He swallowed, pressed his tongue against his teeth as he forced himself to find and focus on Nataniel’s face. “I… I think I’m okay. Mm- wh-what was it? What happened?”
Because Nataniel must have seen something if he rushed out here so quickly. And it must’ve been alarming judging from his concern. Basyl expected Nat to be calm and steady and sure. It was jarring when he was worried, almost worse than wondering if he’d wounded himself by sitting out for a storm too long.
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Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2023 7:39 pm
If he came too close, he could feel static off of Basyl tingling his skin, warning him to keep a few inches of distance, minimum. Since he was being denied touch by the sparks still clinging to the other’s figure, Nataniel could only assess with his eyes. Still jittery and stammering, but standing and speaking clearly enough. And Basyl seemed decently coherent and coordinated. …It was mostly really difficult for Nataniel to keep his hands off. He wanted to pull him close and hold him and run his hands over him, just to make sure for himself nothing was damaged.
But Nataniel kept them to himself, instead hovering near as he could without being secondhand shocked. “It looked as if lightning struck you,” he murmured softly. Even if Basyl didn’t act like that was what happened, Nataniel didn’t know what else to attribute it to. Maybe it had just been close enough and bright enough that they were both disoriented by it… “The power in the house went off.”
So maybe it had struck the house, and Basyl had just been near enough to feel it, but not so close that it assaulted, crippled, or killed him.
Which would’ve been fine and an acceptable explanation, except- “...When I try to touch you…” Except there was still enough static jumping off of him that Nataniel couldn’t get close enough to touch. And Basyl didn’t even seem to notice. It wouldn’t have done that just from a proximal strike, would it have?
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Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2023 7:45 pm
“H-heh?” No. Nononono, no way. He would’ve felt something more substantial than just hot if he’d been hit by lightning. He’d probably be dead! It wasn’t like he’d had any sort of barricade or protection- the little wind tarp wouldn’t have done anything for him, and he’d just never even heard of anyone who just wandered away from being hit by lightning.
But if nothing else, he felt the initial shock starting to wear off, and once his mind started going, he somehow started to be more concerned.
Basyl felt fine, but that could be a hallucination. Maybe he actually was dead, or something close to it- comatose seemed more likely than fine, and it felt completely within his psyche’s ability to manipulate him into thinking he was well and conjuring up the actions of his concerned boyfriend and how would he know- how would he know if he’d just completely lost it or not? Basyl fidgeted. His fingers started plucking at his clothes incessantly, picking at the end of his shirt and tugging at his sleeve.
And then his wide magenta gaze riveted back to Nataniel. “When you try to…? W-what happens-“ It was completely thoughtless as he compulsively reached for the other man, suddenly desperate for some kind of physical reassurance. It was bizarre of Nat to withhold contact…
That had to be some kind of hint that he was in a hallucination or a coma- Nat wouldn’t touch him?
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Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2023 7:56 pm
Nataniel inhaled a slow, careful breath as he watched Basyl warily. He could see a certain panic starting to overtake the other, and he had to steel himself for how to deal with this. …Not his forte, but he thought he understood where his fiancé’s concern stemmed from. “Okay,” he whispered. “It is okay. It is just static, nothing more sinister.” As much as he wanted to lean away when Basyl reached for him, he instead kept himself still when the other’s fingers clutched at his arm, and a visible jolt of static leaped from Basyl’s fingertips between them. Stronger than the typical spark, but far from damaging. Nataniel flinched, but was otherwise fine.
“See?” He offered. “It will probably go away soon. You must have just been standing too close to where…”
His head canted as he looked down at Basyl’s arms where they held onto him. His fiancé clung, but Nat could still see streaking, pale lines zigzagging across the tanned skin of Basyl’s forearms. …It looked like lightning. An actual, physical mark on him, though he wasn’t acting like he felt anything out of the ordinary.
Nataniel snatched for Basyl’s arm, earning another little pop of static between them, and drew the limb more into the dimmed daylight so that they could both see it. “You do not feel that?” He asked hesitantly, nodding at the jagged lines on Basyl’s skin. “It is not painful?” It looked like it should be… Though he wouldn’t wish for such a thing upon his love… “Come on,” Nataniel murmured, giving Basyl a light tug toward the house.
The wind was still blowing, the sky still darkening, the storm still brewing. One of them had already been injured(?) from being outside. They needed to get inside, into shelter.
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Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2023 8:03 pm
He didn’t feel better! He just felt- somehow more anxious, more worried. Like, okay, yes, it was certainly good that he was able to touch Nat, because he’d definitely conjured the thought that that was the sort of ‘block’ his mind would impose on him if he was in a coma. That would be the weird movie-type signal that let him- he didn’t know. Die, or escape, or something. But that wasn’t the case, and he was… fine-ish. Just more anxious because something had to be amiss, and he didn’t know what!
“Hhhhhhhh-” His groan was high-pitched and unhappy. Basyl kept one hand on Nataniel’s chest, while he inspected the other, looked at the staticky, crackling marks that stretched across the back of his wrist and up to his elbow. “They don’t hurt…” he admitted. And they weren’t numb, either.
But something had marked him up, and there were sparks still leaping off his skin.
He wasn’t. Thrilled. About this.
Whether he was or not didn’t change the fact that they shouldn’t stand out in the encroaching storm. One frightening jolt was enough, and it seemed like risky business to stay outside and invite another. Basyl looked from the darkened windows back to Nataniel. If their power was out, it would probably start getting uncomfortable inside very soon… But maybe all the weirdness would fade by the day’s end. Maybe the power would come back. Maybe the static would go away. Maybe the marks would fade. If they didn’t and he started to feel strange, maybe they would hed to the hospital…
He didn’t want to invite that possibility, though.
“Y-yeah, okay,” Basyl agreed, letting Nataniel lead him inside and away from the wind and lightning.
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