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lilac-gold · 8 months

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Hiding an injury

AI-less Whumptober: Day 4 Hiding an injury | Betrayal | Lying @ailesswhumptober

Fandom: OMORI Rating: Teen Word Count: 1730 Summary: Mari’s supposed to be perfect, not go running for help. Hero’s got enough of her worries on his plate without her bad knee too. AO3 LINK

Mari loved being active, playing softball especially. The adrenaline kick it gave her made her feel like she could do anything, Mari always feeling especially good after a game. Besides, it gave her something to focus on that wasn’t her schoolwork, and she enjoyed the competition. She was a perfectionist with a high drive to succeed, and that meant that she put a whole lot of effort into playing.

So, when Mari injured her knee, she was devastated she wasn’t allowed to keep playing. It was sprained, so she had to wear a brace. Apparently, she’d ‘torn her anterior cruciate ligament’ during a match. Mari wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but she knew it was bad.

It had hurt a lot when she first sprained it. She’d felt and heard a sickening pop, crashing to the floor as her legs failed to support her. Her knee buckled painfully beneath her when she tried to stand again, white-hot agony lacing through her entire leg. She’d been rushed to a hospital, given a diagnosis and some stretches to do, and strictly ordered not to play any sports for at least a month.

So she didn’t. And Mari felt useless.

She missed the rush of running, missed being able to carry Sunny around on her back without everyone fussing over her. She rushed the exercises she was given, doing them three times more than advised to in the hope that it would hasten her recovery further. Mari had to be perfect, and that wasn’t possible with a bad knee! It limited her far too much.

It was embarrassing, sitting out of gym lessons with the feeble excuse of a knee brace. Even as Hero lamented about how he wished he could sit at the side with her, Mari remained completely dissatisfied with her predicament. As soon as she got home, it was always ‘ooh, Mari, how’s your knee?’ or ‘Mari, make sure you’re taking it easy on that bad knee!’ or ‘be careful, Mari, remember you’ve got a sprained knee’. She was sick of being treated like she was made of glass. Mari was strong. Mari was capable. Mari was perfect.

And that meant that when it began to hurt a little more than usual, Mari said nothing.

It throbbed when she went upstairs, ached when she stayed sat in one position for too long, twanged unpleasantly whenever she stood up. But it was nothing she couldn’t handle! Mari was perfect after all, and would be fourteen in a month. She didn’t need coddling like a baby.

She went out with Hero one day to Gino’s, assuring him that she was completely fine. It was sweet that Hero was so worried about her, but it really wasn’t necessary. Her injury was minor. The constant fretting honestly bothered her more than the wound itself, and Mari was able to mask her grimace of pain quite well as she sat at one of the tables. She’d left her brace at home, put-out by the reminder it posed of her injury and figuring that it must have healed enough by that point that she could just leave the device at home. The grinding feeling that arose when she took her seat wasn’t exactly reassuring, but Mari ignored it steadfastly, clenching her fist under the table.

“I’ll go order food. You’d like a margherita pizza, right? No pepperoni?” Hero checked, fumbling through his pockets for his wallet.

“You got it,” Mari laughed. She didn’t much like pepperoni, it was too spicy for her tastes– and, in her opinion, vegetables had no place on a pizza. So, she stuck to cheese, and enjoyed it, no matter how plain her younger friends (especially Kel, who put the strangest toppings imaginable on his own) sometimes claimed her pizzas were. “Don’t worry, Hero, I’ll pay for mine.”

Hero shook his head. “I insist.”

“Thank you,” Mari smiled at him, enjoying the way his face quickly grew pinker. Unable to resist, she added on teasingly, “you’re a true gentleman, Hero.”

“Ah– um, yes, of course– I…” Hero fumbled, the pink shifting to a more red colour. Mari stifled a laugh. Hero looked rather like a tomato. “It’s no problem.”

And he hurried off to the till, practically leaving a trail of steam behind him. Mari shivered slightly. Despite the internal heating at Gino’s, it was still a very chilly February day, and every time the door opened, a frosty draught blew in. Hero soon returned with the pizzas, Mari eagerly taking a bite of her own then recoiling, wincing as the pizza burnt her tongue.

“Too hot?” Hero guessed, then grimaced sympathetically at her nod before placing his sandwich on the table. “It’s all good, we can wait for a little while first.”

“You can start, Hero, I really don’t mind,” she assured him, touched.

“The point of this is that we eat together, Mari, and it’s not exactly like my sandwich’s going to go cold, hah. Besides, I like talking with you,” he grinned sincerely at her, and that time, it was Mari who flushed, tugging at her coat sleeves.

“I like talking with you too,” She responded brightly, then quickly changed the subject. “What did Gino think of you ordering a Hero sandwich again?”

“I think he’s given up on trying to convince me now,” Hero rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “He just… Looks a little constipated whenever I ask. His face scrunches up, it’s like I’ve told him his great aunt just passed away.”

Mari giggled. “I don’t know why he still keeps it on the menu.”

Hero shrugged helplessly. “I’m not sure if he knows how to print a new one.”

A smile still wide across her face, as was always the case when she was with Hero, Mari cautiously took another bite of her pizza. Now, it was just the right temperature, warm against her tongue without hurting in the slightest. The bit she’d burnt before smarted a little, but it was ignored easily enough. She opened her mouth to continue their conversation–

And had to suppress a gasp when the door swung open again, chilly draught going straight to her knee. Quietly as she could, she inhaled through her teeth, feeling a sharp spike of pain under her skin.

“Mari?” Hero said uncertainly, and Mari jumped. He must have noticed her tightened expression, because his eyebrows had knitted in concern. Darn it. “Are you okay? Is your knee hurting again?”

“It’s fine!” She blurted out quickly– a little too quickly, perhaps, if the doubt in Hero’s worried eyes was anything to go by. “I’m okay.”

Hero didn’t look convinced, but there wasn’t really much he could do to argue with her. He handled so much, all the time. Whenever there was a possibility he could help with something, Hero offered his assistance, and never once complained when given tasks that shouldn’t be his responsibility. Mari admired how selfless he was, but Hero (a little like herself) had a tendency to take on too much at once. He didn’t need her knee on top of his preexisting worries. That was Mari’s problem, not his.

He was always there to listen, always there to help. But Mari had piled enough of her worries onto him anyway, it wasn’t fair to force him to carry this too. Mari was strong. Mari could handle this herself.

They finished their food, and began walking around Faraway. With each bend of her knee, that grinding feeling began again, Mari feeling nausea well within her at the feeling of her bones rubbing together. When they finally reached the park, she readily sat down on a bench, unconsciously stretching her knee out and sighing in relief.

She turned to look at Hero with a relaxed smile, expecting to be met with his signature charming grin, only for her stomach to sink at Hero’s stricken face.

“...Where’s your brace, Mari?” He asked warily, carefully scanning her knee.

Shoot. Maybe she should have brought the brace after all.

“It’s um… At home,” Mari winced at Hero’s alarmed expression. “What?! Why? Is it broken? You should have told me! We didn’t have to go out today,” Hero said, clearly upset. Mari felt shame curl in her stomach.

“No, no, I’m fine!” Mari assured him. To prove her point, she tried standing up. “See?”

It was fine for a moment, Mari able to support her weight and hiding her grimace at that creaking feeling once again.

Then, her knee collapsed in on itself again, and she crumpled to the floor. Hero dived forward, catching her before she could hit the concrete and graze her skin, panic painted clear as day across his face. Mari’s knee throbbed, feeling swollen and sore.

“...Okay, I might need some help,” she admitted softly, turning away a little.

Hero’s jaw set, face hardening in determination. And, much to Mari’s surprise, he lifted her straight off of the ground. She gasped, eyebrows raising as a blush spread across her face.

“H-Hero–” She exclaimed, instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck. “I thought you weren’t strong enough to do this sort of thing!”

He grinned bashfully. “You carry a guy’s fridge enough times and it gets easy to pick up a Mari.”

He began walking, making a beeline for their houses. Mari was a little disappointed, having been thoroughly enjoying their outing (sans the pain). Still, this was necessary, and she had to admit that she did need a little help, lest her knee fail to support her again. That was the only reason she let Hero carry her home. The only one. Definitely.

He was very careful with her leg, trying his best not to jostle her as he walked, each step careful and purposeful. Soon, they arrived at her house, and Hero laid her down on her couch. Mari tried to hide both her disappointment and the hiss of pain at the change of positions.

“I’ll go find your brace and your mom,” Hero told her, knowing her dad worked on Sundays and she wouldn’t want him involved in this anyway. For all he cared about her, he could be a little… Overprotective at times. “I’ll be back in a minute!”

And as she laid back on the couch, waiting for Hero’s return, Mari considered that maybe, just maybe, asking for help wasn’t quite as mortifying as she’d first thought.

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toldentops · 3 months

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talk about kinoga. NOW.

GAH I JUST THINK THEY ARE SO............. well first of all. they are so cute and handsome. look at them right now

Second of all I have one million feelings about them and it's barely an exaggeration. For those who aren't familiar, Kinoga is one of my beloved splatoon ocs and I think about them all the time. Originally made when I tossed a "what-if" idea about Trito, my first splatoon oc, who was once part of the octarian military, if he runs into one of the old squad members on the surface, and Kinoga was born with the help of @igneouskit. Brainworms ensue. its terminal. check out their toyhouse

(extremely brief rundown for those unfamiliar with splatoon lore the relevant bits are as follows: some octolings are part of a military that were forced underground after a war with the Inklings over land due to rising seas. At some point during the plot, the song Calamari Inkantation is sung by the two idols, which is apparently imbued in the DNA of all creatures and compels octolings to see the surface. In the splatoon 2 DLC, octo expansion, some octolings are recruited by a shady company called Kamabo Co, which entices participants to enroll in tests through a deep sea metro, and offers the "promised land" as a reward. Completing the tests entails collecting parts of a blender, and the "reward" is getting blended into sludge. This sludge can get injected into other octos which causes them to lose their will and consciousness ("sanitization").

timeline-wise much of their story takes place between splat 2, through octo expansion, and is currently in the splat 3 era. When they were still in the military, they ended up hearing the Calamari Inkantation like Agent 8 did. Kinoga and their squad were incredibly close to each other. Unwilling to just up and leave the underground but wanting to give their squadmates a better life, Kinoga hears about Kamabo's "promised land" and wants to seek it out, so they leave the squad to embark on the metros and promises to return. They do not <3 Some of the tests make them encounter sanitized octolings and they begin to question what's really happening in the metros. Their tipping point is when they run into Agara, one of their squadmates that decided to enter the metros to look for Kinoga and ends up being sanitized. Kinoga, facing the crushing realization that their squadmates had followed them, unaware of the danger, narrowly escapes being killed by Agara and eventually makes it to the surface.

This results in them experiencing a good amount of crushing guilt about leaving, they never knew it would lead to the possibility of dooming their whole squad that followed after them because they were loved and trusted. Kinoga had no way of letting the rest of them know that they should turn back and it's so. AAUGH. They have no choice but to continue on, finding life on the surface and eventually making it to splatsville with the belief that the rest of the squad may be gone. Agara and Trito end up running through the metro, Agara gets sanitized and Trito survives, albeit without getting a nasty scar from an accident that nearly got him sanitized.

Trito makes me insane also. he's my funny silly rabbit. I care about him so so much. trito goes through the metros, to maybe catch up with kinoga or meet them at the promised land, trusting that it was worth leaving if Kinoga decided it was worth it for all of them too.

Trito, upon learning about The Horrors in the metro later, realizes what could have happened to Kinoga and Agara and is unwilling to return to the rest of the squad with this knowledge, struck by the possibility that they're both gone. <-also has to realize that these horrible things have been happening to all the octlings that left to go do the metro tests. He too, eventually escapes to the surface and makes it to Inkopolis.

Years later, Trito, on a day trip to Splatsville, encounters Kinoga on the streets, and they lock eyes. and. fuck. They thought they were dead and had dealt with the grief and accepting that they were gone, effectively pushing those thoughts aside, and now they're physically in front of each other and they have to deal with it again. they make me SICK. Kinoga knowing that trito went to the metros and followed them and made it out also. Trito knowing that Kinoga experienced the horrors as well and survived. Neither of them able to return to tell the rest of the squad but they're both here, alive on the surface and aarrghhhhhhh. now they have to cope with this. they hastily exchange contact information, having to leave each other again, and end up meeting later to really catch up.

I'm so normal about kinoga and their relationship to trito post-domes. They don't even realize that they miss each other so much because they accepted that they were already gone. Seeing how much the other had changed. Being each other's only tie to their previous lives and it dawns on them that they never can move on from this. Kinoga struggles to tell Trito that they couldn't bring themselves to go back, not knowing if they could escape a second time, not knowing if any of their teammates were still left, already dealing with occasional spurts of being wracked by grief. Trito feeling the same, wanting to forget the terrible things and find happiness on the surface, but disheartened when learning that Kinoga also couldn't bring themselves to go back to look (though now that the both of them are together.....they do eventually muster the courage to go back to the domes to look for their old squadmates). It like. sucks so bad. They didn't intend to abandon their squad, but they were given circumstances where they just could not, and none of the other squad members could have known and suffer for it. aarghhhhh.

They end up at Trito's place, Kinoga and Trito end up being very affectionate towards each other after reuniting, definitely Trito being clingier...Compelled to hold onto each other and not let go, not after feeling so much regret about leaving in the first place. It's like. they left once before and terrible things happened out of their control, so they're allowed to hold each other as close as they can so it doesn't happen again (THE DEMONS) (GRIPS). it's irrational for Trito especially to think that he'll never see Kinoga again when they have to leave, since they live in separate cities and have to go in the morning. and kinoga knows it's irrational and they do their best to comfort him anyways because. who could blame him for wanting to keep them there after being gone for so long and so unexpectedly. The slow, crushing experience of not fully registering that someone could be gone and it creeps up to them until it hits. auuuuugh. they have to be so tender with each other, not really knowing where to take things afterwards but relishing in the moment of having each other there. riding the high of each other's comfort. fuck. this post is just getting worse as it goes. Trito breaking down in Kinoga's arms because he's had to hold in his grief and having nowhere to put it and then finally being able to release it. just being able to feel Something again. kinoga feeling so heartbroken to see trito like this, remembering that he was always so outspoken and smiling and having him curled up against them unable to say anything. holding him as tightly as they can. Feeling the need to take good care of him. They aren't his squad leader anymore but they still feel compelled to look out for him because then they can feel like they're doing at least something right. whatever. you guys get the gist. I'm way too much of a sucker for like...............pained intimacy. I'm down terrible. I think both of them deserve a little kissy and more. again. very touchy and affectionate with each other, I guess theyre still like "friends" (A WARRIOR'S BOND. OR WHATEVER) and are not "together" like a couple but here are words from igneouskit who put it better then I could ever. they love each other so much and they make me blow up. worlds most situationship

and also one bit I forgot to mention is that Trito has a huge scar on his chest that he hates talking about, it just brings back the fear and pain felt when he got it, and by association reminds him that he's alone from his squad who may never see again, so he's very protective of it. Upon getting back to kinoga, they do find out about the scar accidentally, and Trito lets them. like auuuugh they were so familiar with each other and now get to see what's changed since the last time. exploring eachother's bodies. whatever

Kinoga also ends up feeling really guilty at some point for Trito being immediately so affectionate towards them, they harbor thoughts that they don’t deserve it after having him go through that pain, and trito having to tell them that he made his own decision, nobody was forcing him to go, and besides, did it to see kinoga and now that they’re right in front of him he can give him all the love he’s been holding for them. Auuughhhh. Like don’t worry about feeling guilty for it. It wasn’t their fault. What matters to him now is that they’re both alive and with each other. I feel like blowing up

Even after Kinoga goes back to splatsville the next day trito is still aches about them......like a few days of reunion could never be enough to compensate for the years that they spent apart. every time they meet up after that trito jumps in kinoga's arms and kiss them like it was the first time they'd reunited

anyways. they eventually go back down to the domes to find the others. By that time, Agent 8 had dismantled Kamabo, the Sludge shit was no longer in operation, and octolings have started going to the surface. Kanu, another squad member, left the domes to find Kinoga, Agara, and Trito(jilon was another squad member who left for reasons I haven't decided yet). Denchu, the last remaining member, stayed behind, holding on to the hope that the missing members would someday return (denchu is a whole other can of worms. theyre everything to me and I feel so terrible for them <3). Trito and kinoga meet denchu, they update them on everybody else, leaving agara unaccounted for. Kinoga, who was the only one to see Agara firsthand, knowing that she might be completely unsalvageable, hesitates to bring it up, but Trito insists on going to look for her. aughhh. kinoga wants to spare trito the pain of seeing her dead or unconscious. They do eventually find her </3

She is alive, but not doing well at all, Kinoga desperate to maybe find some way to undo sanitization and restore her to full health, knowing full well that it may not be possible. They take Agara back with them to the surface and Kinoga spends a lot of time agonizing again over having caused this, feeling that agara's state is somehow their fault (ITS NOTT they're beating themselves up so bad for this because they feel responsible for the squad. aughhh).

I think thats all I have for kinoga. for now. obviously there are more thoughts I can get into but currently my brain has just latched so hard on trito and kinoga's fun situation and I love them so much. didn't think I'd get attached to them this bad but here we are </3. I hope everyone who has read this far also enjoys them as much as I do

#THIS TOOK FOREVER TO TYPE. KEPT GGETTING SELF CONSCIOUS ABT HOW MUCH IVE ALREADY TYPED FOR THEM IN OTHER POSTS #my ocs #my art #trito #kinoga #splatoon #splatoon ocs #THEYRE SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#I have been so crazy about them. so crazy. this post doesnt even encapsulate all my thoughts about them #basic arc(?) in chronological order and some thoughts also #cant even describe the like. aching. burning. thinking about kinoga #like I need to kiss them of course but (AGONIES) trito misses them so so much.#loves them so so much and has to deal with it when it floods him all at once during the first encounter #sorry if none of this is like. comprehensible #I've been so ill about them and trito for weeks #these thoguhts are usually for rotating them in discord servers but you all get to get blasted by them all at once #STRUGGLED so bad to write this out because every time I had a new thought I had to go lie down and think about it #anyways. anyways. care about them so much. what ever #its still mostly about trito since he's like my 'main' character but kinoga still gets roped into these feelins #also joked that if trito ever gets a partner itll be like #'this is my partner'#'and this is my friend kinoga who id die for and trust with my life and kiss on the mouth'#more realistically trito just loves all his friends as closely as he would a partner. he has so much love in his heart #blows up I just reread this I think I used ‘crushing’ as an adjective like 4 times. whatever

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