holds up butterfly is this king midas

[survivaltricks]

WHO: some wayward thistles and visitors!
WHERE: thistle barn
WHEN: early morning, day 6

[if you're an early riser, you may see a trio of thistles— two of them covered in blood and one of them with an arm of solid gold— stumbling back to their barn!]

[it's fine!!]

Comments

[several hours later]

[literal_trainwreck]

[eventually, Loki comes to and crawls out of bed]

[survivaltricks]

[had tried not to hover while Loki was resting, but he's still nearby, because he probably failed a little bit]

-- you're awake.

[literal_trainwreck]

Yeah.

[a beat. what does one even say at a moment like this]

...I'm a bit thirsty...

[survivaltricks]

[what does one say indeed]

Oh-- stay there. I'll get you some water.

[shuffling off to their weird pocket dimension restroom to get a glass of water]

[literal_trainwreck]

[ok I'll just]

[sit on the edge of the cot and look at my stump ig]

[survivaltricks]

[STOP THAT'S SO DEPRESSING]

[a few minutes later, Lupin returns with the water. he hesitates as he enters the room, expression falling, before steeling himself seconds later]

[holds out the water to Loki's good arm]

[literal_trainwreck]

Thanks.

[takes a deep drink]

...You did a clean job.

[survivaltricks]

[. . . settles himself on the edge of the cot as well]

[his reply is PERFECTLY EVEN because he is purposefully not thinking about how awful it was to take off someone's ENTIRE ARM]

I used Ongyo-Ki. His blades were the sharpest.

[literal_trainwreck]

[nods]

It seems to have healed over quite well.

Re: [several hours later]

[cultofthesham]

[ there’s a tug on his blanket ]

[literal_trainwreck]

[starts slightly before realizing that it is only Jove]

...Hello.

[cultofthesham]

[ climbing up on the bed like Thing ]

Yo~ Check out my sweet new ride.

[literal_trainwreck]

[..........]

Am I having a fever dream right now?

[cultofthesham]

Hah! Like we'd let you get an infection.

[literal_trainwreck]

[peers between the golden arm and the remaining stump]

...I suppose not. It turned out quite clean.

[cultofthesham]

Guess we do have a convenient set of powers for that much, at least.

[literal_trainwreck]

Lucky us.

...But I appreciate you acting as anesthetic.

[shortforever]

[He will be the last Thistle to talk to Loki because he wants them to do their thing first, but eventually:]

...hey.

[literal_trainwreck]

[catching and returning those awkward vibes]

Hi.

[shortforever]

You, uh...I'm sure you're not doing great, but are you at least feelin' better than before?

[literal_trainwreck]

Yes, I'm fine now. I'm told you took care of the healing, so thank you.

[shortforever]

[He shrugs at that.]

's my fault you got hurt anyway. It didn't feel right to leave you like that.

[literal_trainwreck]

Don't be stupid. We wouldn't have made it out of there if not for you.

[shortforever]

And we wouldn't have been in the mess either if I hadn't asked you to go with me.

[literal_trainwreck]

If I hadn't gone with you, I'd have gone with Lupin. I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to follow up on a good lead. I don't intend to stay behind next time, either.