#but it was more depressing this week | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kaseyskat · 6 months

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okay so i decided i didn't really want to work on this anymore when i have too many other ideas and im terrified for next episode as it is so. uh. you know it was really really easy to figure out how normal could've died in ep46? it was really easy. anyways

scary never should’ve egged on this fight.

when it was just taylor and normal, it was a little funny. just hours before, they had all been at each other’s throats, and despite the tension, scary knew they would never hurt each other– not seriously, anyways. with how quickly link jumped to help taylor, it was only natural that scary would slide to normal’s side, reach through the bars to squeeze his hands in support, but it still didn’t feel real. if normal and taylor did actually fight each other, surely their dads would find a way to stop the fight before it turned into a death match, or one of them would think of something, or…

…by the time it does feel real, it is too late, and all scary can do is watch taylor tumble out of the cage alone, leaving a small, cornered normal alone against two fully grown men who could very easily kill any one of them, let alone their healer.

normal, to his own credit, doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest. perhaps that was something scary should’ve been afraid of– how willing normal was to stay behind in that cage, to hype up the crowd of people who weren’t disgusted at all by the usage of child soldiers in their puppet game.

scary knows normal well now. when she looks at him, she only sees herself– reckless, desperate. not afraid to die.

and unlike any situation they had been in before, the threat to his life was, perhaps, a bit too great to have such a wild disregard for it.

link looks conflicted. scary only glimpses at him shortly, but he’s worrying at his bottom lip, arms folded across his chest as he paces around the cage, following normal’s movement. taylor is the opposite– he backs away slowly, like he’s only now realized how much danger he was actually in and how narrowly he escaped his fate.

their families stand further away, surrounded by the fbi. hermie and dood are watching the fight standing together– hermie’s arms are also crossed, his gaze too clouded for scary to read, while dood paces around, fidgeting with their hands. scary should probably say something to the both of them, but she doesn’t linger, immediately twisting back to the fight.

maybe normal was onto something in trying to get jodie. normal’s dad and uncle were clearly trying to get out of the precarious situation they were in, but what if that wasn’t enough?

“taylor,” scary says half under her breath, just loud enough to catch his attention. “take hermie and dood and go find jodie. link and i will stay here.”

“but…” taylor hesitates. however, he must see just how serious scary is being in her eyes, because he nods and then salutes. “okay. we’re on it, boss.”

usually, scary doesn’t like being referred to as the leader. however now, it only sinks right to her stomach– when she did become the one making decisions about their lives?

if link notices that scary’s taking charge, he doesn’t say anything, but scary is fairly positive he’s not paying her any mind.

scary finally, finally drags her attention back to the fight just in time to watch normal get sucker punched into the ground by the marine guy, right dead center of the cage. he doesn’t get back up.

scary’s heart drops into her chest.

“link, can you reach him?” she frets, stepping close enough to the bars that she can feel the heat coming off of them. “i don’t– i don’t have any healing spells, i’m not–”

“i have lay on hands, but i have to touch him to make it work.” link grimaces, and he twists his shoulder, leaning in the precarious gap between the lava bars even though there is absolutely no way he’d ever fit. “i can’t– he’s too far away. why didn’t he stick to the sides like we said?”

scary has an inkling of a feeling for why normal would be more concerned with his own schemes than with anything that her and link have asked of him. she doesn’t voice it.

none of her spells can do anything. for a moment, scary wonders if she can far step into the cage, if only to carry normal to the cage’s edge so that link’s spellcasting might actually work. she’s never actually used far step before, and as she squints her eyes in concentration, dread sinks into her stomach.

she’s not fast enough. by the time she’s settled on using far step versus any of her other spells, abraham lincoln punches himself instead of his target, and the marines guy uses the opportunity to slip away from the ex-president and stand ominously over normal’s crumpled form, hands balled into fists.

don’t you dare, scary thinks, and her spell switches. instead of far stepping into the cage, she summons fire to her palms, directs it at the space between normal and the marines guy. she… isn’t sure why this is her first thought, the panic settling over her as normal lurches away from the wall in a way that cannot be natural, the marines guy merely jumping through it instead of being cut off.

fuck. fuck fuck shit fuck–

they’re still too far away, and now scary can’t see them, the flames roaring and keeping the former president locked out of the fight instead of isolating normal, and scary can’t end the spell early so all she can do is run around the side of the cage, desperately trying to keep eyes on what is going on.

the marines guy barely looks affected by the wall. in comparison, normal looks small, miserable, his hoodie so singed it’s not even blue anymore, and before she knows it, there are tears pooling into scary’s eyes. this wasn’t how it was supposed to go at all. how did they get here?

behind them, normal’s uncle has a gun sliding out of his belt, and normal’s dad looks sickly pale, gaze switching between agent shmegan and the fight. scary can’t blame him, but she does push through a seed of resentment– why isn’t he helping? can’t he do anything?

she doesn’t have the time to focus on the adults. instead, her hand finds link’s own as they press close to the smouldering bars of the cage, link once again trying desperately to reach out and grab for normal’s broken form.

the marines guy kneels. for a moment, he glances up and his gaze meets the two of them, and all scary sees is an unwavering confidence, like he knows he can end this fight in a heartbeat.

please, scary mouths. she tries to say the words out loud, but all that comes out is a choked breath as an unholy combination of nausea and fear collects in her lungs. he’s just a kid. don’t do this.

if the guy understands her silent pleas, he ignores them, glancing away from the teens to place hands on either side of normal’s neck. scary understands what he’s doing immediately.

and she can’t look away. she couldn’t look away when terry was shot, and she finds herself trembling, her toes curling, and still she cannot look away as the guy takes normal’s head into his palms and twists.

there’s a horrible cracking sound, and everything goes quiet.

someone might be talking. link’s hand feels tight and heavy in her own, and scary wishes she could hear anything over the dull ringing in her ears, the way the heat from the lava bars and her own stupid fucking fire spell prickles at her skin makes her want to melt into the ground and never return, her heart is in her stomach and her veins are icy and none of this feels real.

the cage disappears. as soon as the lava is gone, scary surges forwards only partially out of her own will– link pulls her along, his grip on her hand tight, and they both go running, running, running, until link drops besides normal and scary follows.

normal looks… bad. his clothes are grey from ash and soot, there is blood coating his nose and trailing from his mouth, half of him is covered in grotesque burns in a way that would almost be ironic if those burns weren’t scary’s own fault from her own spell, and the other half is so bruised parts of his skin look dented. worse than that though, worse than all of the damage, is the angle his head sits at– crooked, wrong, like a ragdoll that was accidentally left in the washing machine too many times.

with a trembling hand, scary presses fingers into the crux of normal’s neck as link’s free hand glows white.

nothing. she feels nothing. he’s not moving. he’s not breathing. and even link’s magic pulses around him and then fades with barely a change. normal doesn’t magically start breathing. he just… lays there.

dead. he’s dead. the cage is gone because the marine guy won, because normal is dead.

scary wants to throw up.

link’s hands stop glowing and he draws backwards, his expression constricting. behind them, the guy who murdered normal is getting crowned king of hell, and scary knows they need to do something about that, need to help, but…

…but she’s frozen here. she gently nudges normal’s head into her lap, trying not to make the broken bones in his neck any worse, and she combs fingers through his hair, swallowing back a sob that rises in her throat.

this is her fault. she helped do this. she encouraged it. she wasn’t fast enough, wasn’t smart enough to think a way out of it, couldn’t even get him to trust her enough to confide in her and now he’ll never confide in her again because just like terry, he is dead.

around her, a war is starting. scary hardly notices the way demons show up, or the way the military fires on them. she barely notices her surroundings at all. all she can focus on is the feeling of greasy, oily hair in her hands, her breaths coming in short, uneven as she stifles another sob.

eventually, she’s shaken out of her stupor by the form of someone dropping down next to her. when did link leave? she hadn’t noticed link standing until now.

the person who joins her isn’t link. it’s normal’s dad– scary can tell him apart by the glasses primarily, but also in the way he desperately reaches for normal, hands shaking. scary doesn’t have the heart to tell him that it’s useless, though she does resist the urge to scream at him.

normal’s dad’s hands glow a sickly pale green. the magic sputters out before it even touches normal. “my baby,” he whispers, voice cracking. “come on, we gotta– we have to leave, lark is getting hold of their portal gun, if we hurry maybe my magic can–”

scary doesn’t know how he still has hope, even after seeing the broken, beaten form of his son. still, she nods, letting him scoop normal into his arms before dragging herself to her feet.

#kasey writes stuff #dndads #scary marlowe #normal oak #lincoln li wilson #you can tell i was mildly depressed last week cause thats when i wrote the bulk of this help #anyways i might be toying with that episode more just. not with normal #tw: death

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