🦅 🦅 🦅

[grice]

Who: falco grice, others, and you!
What: a catch all for the month including a player plot, general prompts and event prompts in the comments, all open!
When: december; date will be in the header if any!
Where: waves hands at too many places

Content Warnings: possession, violence, gore, self harm, child death, war imagery, child soldiers, racial oppression, genocide, forced experimentation, torture, mutilation, gun violence (against children)


see below for open prompts of all kinds! if you have any questions or would like to plot something specific, hmu at liberos!

Comments

[grice]

[ as if falco would keep running! luz helped him, and even if she hadn’t, it wasn’t going to be now that falco would sprint ahead of her. he catches up and helps her to her feet, quickly, and as the dolls gain— ]

Go first, I’ll cover you!

[ he didn’t know with what, yet— but finds a crowbar attached to one of the side pipes of the tunnel, and breaks shortly for it to keep their backs protected. ]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz turns back and sees he's having some trouble, though he's at least keeping them back. So she races back, bloody nose and all, and puts her arm around his shoulder and then drops a fire glyph at the feet of the dolls and activated it.

That would keep them busy]!

Ok. Come on. I gotcha. Let's go talk to that stag!

[grice]

[ luz was a real trooper. swinging the bar into such fragile faces meant shattering glass when he lined up a strike of a doll to close to them. he’d still lag behind this way, but it was fine—

even more surprising was when luz came back. ]

Right—!

[ the closer they got to the mourning stag, the closer they were to realizing they were waking up, where they were before this mess, will antler ornaments and from what felt like just a vivid dream.

falco may be quick to find luz, though, wherever she may be at the time. ]

[imaglyphwitch]

[By the time they find the stag, they're back to where they started, only Luz is doubled up on the ground, unceremoniously crumpled up and untidy. How did she always wind up in these positions?

But on seeing Falco, she straightened up, looking at him with genuine concern].

Are you ok? Was it traumatizing? I can't believe that stuff happened to you!

[grice]

[ oh, luz . . . it’s not even half of the story. recognizing the concern and even before that, falco was already kneeling down to tend to her. despite his heart racing a moment ago, he felt like weight was dropped right off his shoulders. ]

It didn’t go the way it actually happened— because you were there.

[ she didn’t see the surgery. she didn’t see the outcome. in a sense, falco was glad, and her stepping up to it to change something and help him, even if the past’s damage was already done— it meant something.

he keeps a hand on her shoulder. ]

Thanks for doing those things.

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz had a feeling there was more to this story: heck, he was being taken and the only reason she was able to do anything was because she was a Paleblood. Seeing what had happened to Rapunzel here, she was just glad that Varian hadn't seen that, he would have gone ballistic].

How did it go? What...what did they do to you?

Of course I would! Those people were monsters. I just wish I'd have been there back then.

[grice]

They did what they wanted. Our friends found us and got us out after.

[ he didn’t want to give much detail, but it was there, in the memory, or at least hints were. ]

I had to keep it on for a while, but someone else helped me get it off.

[ oddly enough, he has no scars to tell that story, and the lack of it almost makes it look unreal. like it didn’t happen, because physically, it didn’t look that way. ]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz was too busy trying to get him out to have noted exactly what was going on, only that she didn't want him experimented on. She was at least glad that she was able to get him out. No one deserved any of the things that were happening in that memory].

And I guess no punishment came to those guys, did it? Typical.

[Luz has a few scars of her own, courtesy of last month].

[grice]

We never found out who it was.

[ maybe if there had been more time, they could’ve. but then again, falco was sure he didn’t want more time in santa rosita. there’s something that pings him though, with unease. ]

Punishment?

[imaglyphwitch]

Ugh. That's unsettling.

Well yes, put them in jail or something to make sure they don't hurt anyone like that again! Otherwise they can just do whatever they want to other people too!

[grice]

[ oh, falco murmurs, both quickly and apologetically nodding. ]

Yeah. Sorry— I’ve just . . . Heard worse.

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz looked away a moment. She could make a guess what she thought he was going to say].

No. Not that.

Not again.

[grice]

[ without even saying it, falco’s sure they’re speaking the same language. his frown grows and so does the sympathetic crease in his brows. eventually, he decides it best to put a hand on her shoulder. ]

I don’t like those things, either.

[imaglyphwitch]

It's important to stop bad people. I'm not, you know, naive, and think that everyone is nice and just need understanding. Some people are just awful and won't stop until they spread their misery. But there are some steps you shouldn't cross. They can lead to some bad places.

[Lus had realized that back in Deerington, and intended to never forget it again].

[grice]

[ he can get where she’s coming from, a little more in line with his choice of thinking. the worst had been that falco had crossed that line, twice— but on both occasions, his memory was blanketed. perhaps he couldn’t remember for the best, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know it happened. ]

Have you seen it?

[imaglyphwitch]

The line? Yeah.

[Luz crossed her arms a little here and looked uncomfortable].

And I hope I don't ever have to make that choice again.

[grice]

I’m sorry you had to.

[ he’s sorry that anyone really has to. it stings terribly fresh, with the exorcism still leaving emotional scars on a handful and physical on dipper. ]

Sometimes my home didn’t have many choices, but if I could— I always tried to make new ones.

[ until he couldn’t. ]

[imaglyphwitch]

It wasn't a fun time, trust me. Some people can do stuff like that and justify it because of how awful those people were. I've only recently been able to allow myself to remember that.

[Because instead of that Luz is plagued with the idea she might prefer doing this to seeking new solutions, that something in her liked ending her enemies this way. It wasn't true, but Luz was still consumed with regret that it had to happen at all.

And from the sound of it, Falco seemed to have run into that same situation too].

I think most people would want to. I can probably guess you've had your own past coming to haunt you, the way you talk.

[grice]

[ you and i both, falco thinks. a fun time would be a festival or ice cream. anything related to death was horror. he presses his lips tightly together, because it was a hard topic to begin with. gabi had been one of those people, but it wasn’t just on her— he’d defend her. it was a mix of tendency, personality and where you’re brought up, how you’re raised. both falco and gabi grew up in the same environment, but their tendencies were vastly different. their personalities were.

he’s just glad there was time for change, and this wasn’t about gabi. he keeps her remorse tucked safely in his heart. ]

I don’t remember the times I’ve killed someone. [ he says it outright. ] And it wasn’t because they had to be punished . . . Never. They just— happened. Most were accidents.

[ including the most recently charred dipper. ]

There was only one time that I chose to fight, or else my friends would die, but I . . . Don’t remember that, either. [ it was his first shift and he had lost control, as all first timers do. but still, his expression falls. ] That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I think about it all the time.

[ there’s one perpetrator behind that, and one alone. ]

War doesn’t give you too many options.

[imaglyphwitch]

[There was still a lot Luz had to understand, and coming to Deerington had blown her open to comprehending exactly how easy it was for a kid to be surrounded by violence and death. She was lucky enough that it wasn't a constant here, but that didn't mean it was welcome when it happened either.]

Accidents? You kill by accident? So that would mean...something happens to you that you can't control.

[She was slowly starting to put the pieces together, mostly because she couldn't see how someone like Falco could do it otherwise. Clearly he was not someone who was fine ending other people].

If that was how the chips fell, I'm sorry. It's bad enough to have to kill when you don't want to, but it's even worse if what happens to you is beyond even your control.

War? Is that happening in your world?

[grice]

Yeah . . . Between the country I was born in and an island. Right before that, a neighboring country.

[ most would say my country, but falco is hardly patriotic. ]

I had to fight in them.

[imaglyphwitch]

Oh. Wow. I'm really sorry.

[He was her age, wasn't he? That was too young to be in a war, and he had to go and kill people? That was awful. Luz was still not happy about her own involvement with having to kill anyone, but in Deerington, it was too hard to avoid something like that without dying yourself].

It's pretty messed up that kids like us have to get involved in ending lives to begin with. Unfortunately, you're not the only kid I've met that had to do that too.

cw for suicide ideation mention

[grice]

[ younger, luz . . . younger 😭 ]

It’s messed up for anyone. [ the age didn’t matter, but the younger you are certainly made the trauma worse to work through. he’s reminded of reiner, chief deputy reiner— who was so high ranking, wished to disappear from the world because of the lives he couldn’t keep baring to have taken. he gives a nod, but wishes that fate and lost childhood upon no one. ] Even the adults . . . Break. It’s like we weren’t meant for this.

[ humans, as a whole. but some are still twisted and still do it. ]

Re: cw for suicide ideation mention

[imaglyphwitch]

[Oh boy].

You're right. Really wished this kind of stuff didn't happen to anyone. Seeing people break...maybe I haven't gone that far yet. I know I've felt that way though. I've gotten close.

How do YOU deal with it?

[grice]

[ how did he cope? part of it was unhealthy pacification or wanting to help every hurt soul that crossed his path, but looking at it in retrospect? it was the least harmful to others. there was also, one more thing. the strongest thing.

the one thing falco would throw away his life in a heartbeat for, as he’s already done. ]

There’s . . . This girl. I want to be happy with her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. [ which wouldn’t be a long one, given his circumstance, but it was still everything he could’ve wanted. falco drops his head a tad lower, most of his neck up to his ears darkening into a deep red. ] I focus on that. She needs me— and I need her. I can’t break.