Mother stands for comfort

[imaglyphwitch]

Who: Luz and you (and specifically with Luca)
What: Luz tries to resist the hex, and not mutate herself until she finally falls to beast hood
When: Middle of February (sorry Luz, no birthday for you)
Where: All around Trench

She'd read the sermon and was sure that was when the trouble began. Luz had thought, after getting others who'd been sympathetic and lent an ear to her troubles, that she might be able to ride out the crazy of this month, that she'd get to her birthday in relative peace. Unfortunately, things didn't get better: instead, Luz found herself plagues by the past: her father leaving, the scorn of being that "weird" kid in her class, and the things that came with her Deerington and new Trench memories.

After Varian, Luz had been meticulous about trying to keep such thoughts from consuming her, trying to talk to others when she could, listening to advice and meditating more than she probably had any month. But the thoughts kept coming, and no matter what Luz did, she found she was feeling more depressed by the day, even though she interacted with people and did her best to keep her smile up.

And then one day, she found it was starting to feel worse than usual, enough that she even resorted to turning to her bird form if only to escape those memories. Now they were starting to compound, and images of the cave men and the Blood Cultists and their attacks on her began to plague her nightmares. It got so bad that she woke up feeling the cuts in her skin as clearly as she had back then, and she would be breathing hard and be so anxious she stayed in bed.

She had no idea how to stop this, and moments where she started to consider self-harm surfaced, shocking her so badly she took a cold bath, shivering and in tears, wondering what would happen next.

Comments

[cuddlery]

She can't help it. She can only imagine what this creature could have done to Luz while taking that hat! With anger, she keeps the beast pinned down, her pincer and tail ready to strike if need be, while furious tears run down her cheeks.

"Where is she! What did you do to Luz! Sh- she didn't do anything to deserve this!!"

[imaglyphwitch]

For a moment the creature is a whirlwind of struggling and snarling, yearning to be free to attack, not willing to let this creature come at her with its tail and sting, not while she still had her claws and still yearned for blood. As she struggled, it looked into the eyes of its captor and saw, even with the anger and brute strength, it cried. The growl at the creature's throat started to lessen, and its piercing stare began to soften.

Something about it-no, HER, crying- pulled at the emotion of the creature, and Scorpia's pain somehow became the worse thing. It gurgled, moving its shoulders a bit, then stared back into the eyes of the tall, imposing lady.

"S--ss-S-Co--rpia. Scorrrpia. No...no...no llores."

[cuddlery]

Once she hears that voice speaking, she immediately falters. Her expression sinks into despair as she looks down into that creature's eyes and tries to match it to the owner of that voice.

"Luz...?" she softly gasps as she lowers her pincer.

[imaglyphwitch]

"Ye-a-ah," the creature pants, and all the malice it had in its eyes, all its squirming, just stops. In that moment all the creature can see are the memories of young Scorpia, playing with her in the sand, giving her a ride on her staff, pieces that had happened from a different Luz but still somehow impacted them both. The creature lifts a trembling hand to Scorpia, her blacked out eyes melting to a familiar hazel brown.

"Don't go," she croaked, and without warning, hugged the woman tightly, making snuffling sounds that sounded very close to sobs.

[cuddlery]

Scorpia trembles as she looks her in the eyes, which assume a much more familiar hue. Her tears are now pained, and as the creature starts to hug her, Scorpia almost immediately hugs her right back, tightly.

"Of course I won't! I won't go anywhere, I won't leave you!! What happened to you?!"

[imaglyphwitch]

The hug helps: in fact, it actually starting to decrease the creature a bit in Luz. There were few things that could bring her back from her creature status, but seeing Scorpia cry not too long after seeing her as a young child made its impact. Luz had not even thought she would remember anything from her Snakening, but it turned out actually being able to carry Scorpia on her shoulders had been a big deal for her.

"Resisting feelings. Tr...ied to medi-i-tate away. No work."

[cuddlery]

It was a surreal experience, being the younger one for a change. It was something that only increased her respect and admiration for Luz - and it made her more worried in this moment. She holds her close and tries to make sense of what she's saying while trying to figure out how to help her.

"There, there's gotta be a way to fix this! And make you your awesome self again! Your feelinsg... try to embrace your feelings! Just be yourself. Be Luz!!"

[imaglyphwitch]

What was she talking about? This would have been much easier if they had made a bond: Luz would have been more receptive to Scorpia, would have known what she was saying and what her intentions were. Instead, creature Luz only understood pieces of what she was saying, and was instead just staring at her claws, then at Scorpia.

"No un-unders-comprende. Am me. Monster. Not...loose."

There were clearly pieces of Luz still trying though, as evidenced by her speaking Spanish.

[cuddlery]

She looked at her with a mounting desperation. She can't understand everything Luz is saying herself, but enough to get the message. Luz doesn't recognize who she is anymore... Still, Scorpia tries.

"No, no, this has nothing to do with looseness. You're Luz. That's who you really are! This isn't you... You have to remember! I'll help you."

[imaglyphwitch]

The creature, and she was slowly starting to see through the fog, was staring back at Scorpia, the one she was regarding as prey only a little while ago. She was more than that, clearly, but what was she to Scorpia.

"Who. What. Is Luz."

It was starting to clear her mind, and at least she kept her claws back now.

[cuddlery]

It broke her heart to hear her saying things like this. She may have recognized Scorpia, but she didn't even know who she was anymore. When Scorpia knew Luz as someone who was completely and totally herself.

"You are! You. You're such a nice, kind, sweet, funny and friendly girl who always does such great things for her friends! An-and magic! That's right, you know all kinds of magic. You're amazing!"

[imaglyphwitch]

The creature stared at Scorpia, and her words...they started to make sense to her. The creature looked down at herself, staring quietly at her claws, saying nothing. She looked up at Scorpia, and when she spoke, she sounded less in her corrupted state, and more like a frightened but happy girl.

"I'm...amazing?"

[cuddlery]

"Of course you are."

Scorpia smiles sadly as she tries to reassure her. "You've got to be like the most amazing friend a gal could ask for. You're always there, and you make life so much sunnier. I... I really don't want to lose you."

[imaglyphwitch]

The creature charged at her and maybe for a moment, Scorpia might have thought it was an attack, but if she looked down, she'd see the detransformation happening, and noticed that the "charge" was really just a hug. By now, Scorpia could see Luz's hair was coming forth instead of fur, and her fangs were diminished into teeth now.

"You won't," Luz said softly, and only hugged her tighter. "Thank you for saying that. And Scorpia, you're the best. Don't ley anyone ever tell you anything different."

As she spoke, she started to get her body back to normal again, and she clung to Scorpia for an entirely different reason now.

"Hey, S-scorpia? You don't happen to have a cape, or blanket? Apparently, you don't keep your clothes when this corruption starts reverting..."

[cuddlery]

And just like that, it came to an end. Scorpia's tears now flow from relief, as she wraps her arms around Luz's neck.

"Thank... Thank goodness. There you are, Luz!"

And then she recognizes her new problem. "Oh. Right, here you go!"

Luckily she still had some stuff on her from the last time she helped the Wakers out! So she quickly pulls out a blanket and a robe from her satchel to drape over Luz. "There, good as new!"

[imaglyphwitch]

"There I am, yeah."

Her voice was hoarse, and she definitely was aching all over, but it was her. Luz lost no time securing the robe around her, and then wrapping the blanket around to give her the appearance of a large worm.

"Thanks. And thank you, for sticking by me. I could tell you were going to fight me before because you thought I was a monster that attacked me."

[cuddlery]

Scorpia's sad grin grows seeing Luz being herself, looking like a goofy worm all wrapped up like that. The smile does fade a bit as she speaks, though.

"I... I'm so sorry, Luz. I didn't realize it was you at first. I thought that... that something had gotten to you, that I was too late. I'm so glad that wasn't the case! But I feel terrible. If you didn't speak up, I... mighta really hurt you."

[imaglyphwitch]

Look, Luz needed a little recovery time, and she was both very cold and very much not wanting a repeat of Lock joint, thank you.

"Scorpia, don't beat yourself up about it. I'm actually a little flattered: you would have beaten up some monster if it had killed me. I can't help but be a little flattered!"

And she brought out her arms here for another hug, though it IS hard to tell because her arms are still in the blanket.

[cuddlery]

She can take all the recovery time she needs! And even if it's hard to tell with the blanket, Scorpia has a sixth sense for those in need of hugs. That, and maybe she wanted to hug her anyway. So she holds her tightly.

"Thank you, Luz. I, I'm glad you can see a good side of it! See? That's another great thing about you! I still feel bad about that, but you're great at helping me feel... less bad?" She shrugs her shoulders.

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz is actually starting to feel way more normal now that Scorpia is hugging her: she honestly needed that more than ever right now, and coming for a friend known for her hugs, it's very theraputic.

"I wouldn't want you to feel bad at all! Besides, it's honestly a natural conclusion to draw, since you never saw me corrupted. If I thought some monster had gotten to you, I would have reacted the same way!"

Though, it would be hard for Luz to imagine a monster getting the best of Scorpia.

[cuddlery]

Scorpia will hold on for as long as she needs it! Of course it does wonders for her as well to feel her friend here safely in her arms after that whole ordeal.

"Well, yeah, that's fair. I can see how it could have gone either way! But I think I learned a lesson about jumping to conclusions. And I'm glad everything turned out okay. We should get you back home so you can rest."

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz is trembling a little now, because as relieved as she is to be hugged and held onto, that whole ordeal was scary and thought about what she could have possibly done to her friend was pretty frightening.

"Me too. I should...probably figure out what I want to do with myself. That was pretty scary. I think getting home and recovering should be the first thing."

[cuddlery]

Oh no... poor girl. Scorpia scoops her up to try to carry her back. That way they can still keep a hold on each other at least!

"Right. After what you've just been through, rest sounds like the most important thing! Just, just take it easy. I'll have you back home asap!"

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz tries to be as light as she can, which short of turning into a bird, she pretty much can't do since she's weak as water.

"OK," Luz managed to say, putting her arms around Scorpia's neck. "Hey. Something about this feels strangely familiar."

[cuddlery]

She smiles lightly as she carries her onwards and raises her eyebrow.

"Really? Well, I guess this isn't the first time I've carried you or brought you back to your home. I just wish that either of those things weren't things that needed to happen!"