I'm A Hell of A Night @rubymauk - Tumblr Blog

“I believe you,” Poppy told Tal. It was disappointing though. She almost wished he had been holding out on her, he looked like he needed to decompress desperately. He wouldn’t though, not when things were like this.

Poppy took her gloves off and wrapped them up, tucking them into the side pocket of her bag. “Thanks Ruby,” Poppy said, shaking two out and handing them to Viola. She took them without any fuss so that was good. She’d honestly expected it to be a lot harder to get any cooperation out of Viola, but the lack of fight probably pointed to how hurt she was. Poppy didn’t know if she should feel relieved or concerned. Both?

“Yes, I want you to rest as much as you can for at least 48 hours. You can get up for the bathroom obviously but it’s important for your healing that you let people take care of you.” Poppy hoped this wouldn’t be where the wheels fell off, but she had to give the right advice. “Then it’s taking things slow. Try things but don’t push yourself. There’s no rush.” She smiled at Viola, tilting her head in the Mauk’s direction. “Plus it means these two get to run around after you. Your own personal assistants at your beck and call.”

@taliesinmauk

“Yup.” Taliesin replied to his sister, perhaps a little too quickly. “Stone cold.” If he was honest, he hadn’t trusted himself to light up after he discovered Caleb was missing. He’d always been so careful to make sure there was no possibility of Caleb seeing him high, that giving in felt eerily like giving up. He’d tried once in a fit of defiance and had one of the worst trips of his life. (He could’ve sworn the trees were moving, though he was now realizing in retrospect that there might have been something to that.) So when Amir had asked him what he had, he’d given it without a thought. He’d done a lot of things without a thought that week. He was still trying to live with that shame.

He coughed like someone who’d never smoked before, somehow caught by Viola’s confrontation even though he’d intended to plan for it. He really didn’t know how to ‘get creative’ in a way that she wouldn’t see through. And she had none of the same nostalgia for roughhousing with him that Ruby had. Fuck. He had to lay his cards on the table. “You’re a little easy to find here, Vi. I don’t like that. And I don’t think Ruby does either.” He almost started the following with 'Lou wants’ before realizing he’d be laughed out of the room. He swallowed and corrected himself. “Lou’s parents have a bathtub in their room and an attached bathroom. It’s on the first floor right next to the kitchen, so way easier to navigate then our hallway of doom here. You and Ruby wouldn’t have to see us. Food would just magically appear. And in a kitchen Ruby likes better, right Rubes?”

Was he laying it on a little thick? Maybe. But he also really didn’t want to carry a wriggling concussion risk out of his poor excuse for a home.

@rubymauk

#with: tail #with: viola #p: help i'm alive #tl: day ten #with: poppy

"You can do whatever you want, Vi. Always." Ruby would never take a single fucking choice away from her. It might scare the shit out of her if Viola wanted to do something reckless, but she had enough people bossing her around. Ruby wouldn't do that.

She studied her brother. "But... why?" He hated being sober more than any person she'd ever met. And there was no way he was empty before hand. She didn't believe it. "Strong of you to just face all this with no help. Fucking stupid, but strong."

Ruby didn't really care for being liked. The ones who got her were the ones she appreciated, but she wasn't like yelling to be known. And yet, Poppy's thanks felt genuine. She liked it more than she was comfortable with. "No prob, doc."

Whatever Viola wanted was the play they were making. She wouldn't negotiate with Tail on that front. But, he did make a good point or several. "Also, think about how much Lou will fucking hate it that we're in her parents lush bedroom making it a disaster zone. It's worth it for the constant disappointment on her face alone."

Phase: Day Ten

“Consciousness is a state of mind.” Viola said with a dark chuckle. Then she shrugged. Then she winced. It fucking hurt to shrug? “No idea. I know it was a long walk back. And I zoned the fuck out. But that’s the stress, right?”

She wasn’t really used to people asking her consent about well… anything. Somehow maybe she was considered too grumpy to give it. Poppy’s question staggered her into holding out her forearms like she praying to some kind of weird saint. The saint of gauze and bandaids.

“I don’t know what we have.” Viola said, turning her head in a searching motion before wincing one more time. She really was doing a terrible job of reassuring Ruby. Some part of her old self was still there, so what Poppy presented the opportunity, she took it, grinning through still slightly swollen eyes. “You hear that, Tail? You’ll have to smoke your shit somewhere else. Because I have a headache.”

@poppy-morris

Poppy was concerned that she didn’t know, but it wasn’t unusual for a trauma like this either. It just made her recommendations a little harder, but she was also aware that whatever she said, Viola would likely not do more than the bare minimum to heal herself. It was the part of her limited experience working with people that bothered her the most. You had to meet them where they were. “Yeah. It definitely can be.” Poppy said, opting to reassure.

Poppy had never been given consent quite like that before, but she would take it. “Thank you.” She sanitised, put gloves on and started working as quickly as she could. Thankfully she had practiced this a lot and there weren’t too many so she was able to keep her promise. Anti-septic, bandage for protection, move on. Thank god none of them needed stitches. That would have been its own battle.

She tried to listen to Tal and Ruby talking behind her, but couldn’t quite catch it. Something about carrying. Good luck to them, whatever they were discussing.

Poppy laughed at Viola’s gibe at Tal. “Yeah, no hotboxing around the patient,” she confirmed. She wondered what Tal’s stash was even looking like at the moment. Was he running as tragically low as the rest of them?

“Perfect. I’ll get you some more so you don’t run out, but take two every six hours. Don’t take any more than that. It’ll fuck with your liver.” Could she say fuck as a doctor? Poppy wasn’t sure she cared. She looked over her shoulder at the siblings. “Can you get two for her now and some water?”

@taliesinmauk

Get creative, Tail. It was just that easy, right? When Ruby had been drunk on the floor with a knife in hand, it hadn’t been creativity that made him take it from her. It was instinct. The more Taliesin slowed down, the less likely he was to be able to “find” that creativity again, but there was nothing for it. Poppy wasn’t done with her work. He needed to think, even if the thinking just felt like it made it all worse.

“Noted.” He agreed good naturedly, but he met Poppy’s searching look with a pained one. “Been out more than a week. You know I wouldn’t hold out on you.”

He let Ruby extricate herself from him and head for bathroom. Ruby’s room was unfortunately the farthest from it. Which made him realize…

Lou’s parents had an ensuite. On the first floor. With a really nice tub.

“Poppy… You want Viola on her feet as little as possible, right?” He caught her eye carefully. Please play along. Please.

@rubymauk

#with: viola #with: tail #p: help i'm alive #with: poppy #tl: day ten

Ruby's heart clenched as Viola mentioned going in and out on her walk. She should have fucking been there. It's probably the kind of shit Jordan would have done. Didn't all those books involve stalking or was that just Twillight? She had no idea. But Viola... Viola deserved so much better from everyone.

"You've been doing all of this sober? Really?" Ruby wasn't sure she'd seen her brother sober for a week straight before. It was mildly unsettling. And she didn't want to know what he was using to cope instead because she could take a fucking guess at the answer and it made her want to puke.

She stared at him. When he didn't move she went to the medicine cabinet, her heart rate speeding up as her anxiety spiked. She needed to be by Viola. Bad things happened less when they were together. She grabbed the bottle and started opening it on her way back. Ruby handed the open bottle to Poppy so she could double check the dosage. "Here ya go." She dug around her room until she found her water bottle and placed it in Viola's hands, her fingers lingering against Vi's for the briefest second.

Phase: Day Ten

The light hurt Viola’s eyes, but she forced herself to focus. It felt like an eternity, and she swore for a moment that she could feel her pupils getting smaller at Poppy’s demand. She let her eyes flutter close as soon as she had permission. The darkness was blissful. Seductive.

She nodded to confirm Ruby’s account of things. “I’ve been real nauseous, but I assumed that’s the situation.” She swallowed the last word, unsure how to put it. “My ears rang at the time. Like a fucking cartoon. But not for a while.”

It was something one of Go’s many boyfriends had said to her once. One of the nicer ones. He was a boxer. Irony. But he’d let Viola, no more than ten run her small fingers alone his purple cheek. Got my bell rung, he’d said, almost soothingly. The way you talked to a kid when they first figured out what pain was. (She’d known. Fuck, she’d known.) It was no surprise when Go scared him off, but every now and then, she missed him. It was a shame she couldn’t remember his name anymore.

“If I say I can walk but I don’t want to can we be done?” She was being far too nice about this.

@poppy-morris

“It’s normal to feel nauseous after a head injury,” Poppy agreed. “It’s good you haven’t been sick. Do you know if you lost consciousness?” Poppy began rifling through her bag for the supplies she needed for Viola’s wounds.

“Soon, I promise. Do I have your consent to dress your wounds?” she asked, not too firmly and not too gently. “I’ll be quick and then the risk of infection will be much lower.” It was clear Viola wouldn’t tolerate much more, so she wanted to at least do the essentials. “No infection means seeing me less.” That had to be a positive.

“Do you have Tylenol here you can take?” she asked, directing the question at Tal and Ruby too. “If not, I can get you some. I want you to just stick to that for at least the next two days. Other pain medications and substances can be dangerous for head injuries.”

@taliesinmauk

Taliesin was getting more and more upset, but he knew he couldn’t show it. He focused on holding Ruby, rubbing her back gently like he used to do when they were kids and she’d been angry enough to scream at their parents. He couldn’t think of a time when he felt more useless. And his dad wasn’t even here making him feel like shit.

But Poppy was absolutely killing it. He didn’t want to mess up anything for her. So he kept his voice low again as he whispered to his sister. “I know she doesn’t want to move but we need to get you both out of here. Just in case someone comes looking. I don’t want to push, but it’s not safe. Do you think she can move under her own power or could we carry her?” @rubymauk

#tl: day ten #with: tail #with: viola #with: poppy #p: help i'm alive

Ruby's shoulders relaxed as Poppy said the symptoms were natural. She'd been scared out of her fucking mind this whole time. And there wasn't even a webmd to google to make sure that things were okay. She'd have to make Poppy tamales. The bitch deserved a meal that took twelve hours to make. She'd basically saved Viola's life.

She wanted things to be over just as badly as Viola did, but they had to get this right. The risks were too damn high. They needed... she needed Viola to be on the road to recovery. Not worried that there's a brain bleed or some shit.

"Yeah, we have some." Ruby didn't want to leave Viola for a second. She jerked her head towards the bathroom. "In the medicine cabinet. I don't know what the right dose is for, like, legit injuries."

Tail's presence at her back was a balm. She was going to ask where they were supposed to go until she realized the obvious answer. Lou. Of fucking course. At least she'd be back in the kitchen that felt like home. "She doesn't wanna walk, so no. We have to carry her, but we can't make her feel like she has to be carried. You gotta get creative, Tail."

Phase: Day Ten

It was a cheap move on Poppy’s part, but Viola still appreciated it. She always liked dividing people, and it was rare for anyone to agree with her aside from Ruby. And Jordan… long ago. Her head found a new way to hurt.

She snuck a peek out from beneath the blankets, then lowered the comforter to just below her chin. She knew it was bad. She hadn’t looked at it yet, but she could feel how bad it was. The way it stung and tightened, raw and lumpy. She could feel the abrasions, the epicenter of each bruise probably blooming on her face. And the way that her nose probably needed to be set. How did one actually set a broken nose? Maybe she could just get used to it. Owen Wilson did have a distinctly lesbian energy at times. “I don’t want to sit up for long.” She swallowed, more apologetic than she’d likely ever been. “If I can help it. But it’s the, um, back and front. Ruby cleaned it, but it… it hurts.” God, saying those words, admitting it, hurt just as much.

She couldn’t believe herself, but she tried to be helpful. “I went to like, sleep, and stuff. But I’m not dead, so. No concussion I guess. That ought to shorten the exam a little.” She really wanted to sleep again. She wanted to curl up beside Ruby, against Ruby, and forget where she was until all there was was Ruby’s so well hidden gentleness.

@poppy-morris

“Good.” Poppy nodded, satisfied with their agreement. She turned her attention back on the blanket mound that was Viola, and waited for her to lower it. Her expression didn’t change when she saw her injuries, she would not give this girl any more reasons to worry or feel self conscious. It wasn’t good though, it was honestly kind of heartbreaking. She was hurting in more ways than one, that much was obvious. “I’ll be as quick as I can so you can lie down again,” she told her. She opened her bag of supplies and pulled out a small flashlight.

“I just want to see how your pupils react to light first, then you can close your eyes, okay?” She knew it would make her head hurt worse, but it was important. Poppy waited for her agreement before shining the light in her left eye first, then her right. Both of them constricted how they should, which gave her a small amount of relief. Ruby said they’d been blown earlier, but they seemed okay now. “Alright, you can close them now.”

Poppy moved around Viola, gentle and slow in all of her movements. She looked at the wounds, impressed by what she saw. “Ruby did a good job. I’ll get some antiseptic on these too and bandage you up to avoid any infection, but I don’t think they need any more cleaning,” she told her.

“Sleeping is good,” she confirmed. “I know there’s pain, but have you noticed anything else? Nausea, seeing stars, your ears ringing. Things like that?” Poppy wanted to barrel on, ask all of her questions at once, but if she was concussed she wasn’t going to be able to keep up with that. She forced herself to be patient.

Taliesin really considered backing out of the room. He didn’t want to be here, and he was pretty sure Viola didn’t want him here either. But Ruby was squeezing his hand behind her back so hard that he wasn’t sure he could feel it anymore. He gave two quick squeezes back, partly in encouragement and partly to make sure the nerves stayed awake.

He hadn’t ever seen Poppy like this. Answering questions in class, of course, but he’d (luckily) never had to be up close and personal with her EMT side. She was… softer than he expected. He’d never say it out loud, of course, but he did enjoy the irony. Once she was an attending physician, she’d win awards for bedside manner the same week she made every single resident cry.

Taliesin whispered near his sister’s ear, as quietly as he possibly could. “See? She’s got this.”

@rubymauk

#with: tail #with: viola #p: help i'm alive #with: poppy #tl: day ten

"You don't have to sit up for long," Ruby cut in. She couldn't help herself. She was so used to her and Vi always sticking up for each other. It didn't matter if Poppy was sympathetic to them. She still had to do it. "And if you need support... I got you."

She tried to go quiet, seeking Tail's hand. This whole thing had been so fucked up and she didn't want to show how scared she was, but it was getting harder. Viola was always so big, like she'd swallow the fucking sun. And right now she was a blonde dot in a sea of blankets.

Poppy was the right person to call. Taliesin had been right. She was kind, but also no nonsense. The kind of person Viola could almost respect. Ruby tried not to smile as Poppy complimented her. Viola's face had looked like something in a slasher when she got home, but it looked a lot better now. She almost looked like herself.

"Yeah," she whispered to Tail. She wasn't going to tell him that he made the right call. "Hope it doesn't take long." She should've been taking notes or some shit, that would have been the smart way to handle things.

"Vi was a little wobbly on her feet earlier. I don't know if that counts? No puke, though." That had to be a good sign, right? Right?

Phase: Day Ten

“Well agree to disagree, huh?” Viola said, voice almost comically muffled by the comforter. Someone did not have to do it. People generally didn’t do it, in fact, because most people understood that Viola ‘liked her space.’ But she’d made several mistakes this week, not the least of which being letting several people think she allowed her space to be encroached upon.

Perhaps later, when cooler, less likely concussed heads prevailed, she would acknowledge that trying to light Finn Beaumont’s hair on fire wasn’t the best plan for a peaceful solution but she hadn’t really meant it, had she? At this point, after she’d felt the swelling around her eye and nose and let very reluctantly let Ruby wash the blood out of her hair with trembling fingers, she thought she might have meant it. But only in retrospect.

She groaned as Tail used his teacher voice. “I know it’s Poppy, dumbass. We have English together.” The one AP class Jules and Bea had finally managed to cajole Viola into taking had backfired on her. Who was surprised? “With you.” She added pointedly. Yes, Ruby was her person, but Viola was technically in Tal and Poppy’s year while still being closer in age to Ruby. This was what happened when someone decided to use kindergarten as all day child care as soon as possible. “Or is your head just so far up Lou’s ass all the time that you didn’t notice?”

Still. She slid a hand out of the blanket to drag the peas to her throbbing head. “I don’t want a fucking lollipop, booze soaked or otherwise.” She wanted to say she wanted them to leave again but she realized quite suddenly that the thought scared her. It was very dark under here and she was still seeing stars from time to time. “If I come out, and I do mean if... you are not allowed to tell anyone what you saw.” It came out more vulnerable than she’d intended but she might have a TBI. She was trying to give herself some grace.

@poppy-morris

“Yeah dumbass,” Poppy echoed, but she gave Tal a reassuring smile. She’d apologise for using him as a punching bag later. He already knew but she wanted to remind him too that she didn’t get intimidated easily. This was well within her wheelhouse. And to be fair, Poppy rarely noticed who else was in her classes unless they were 1. her friends or 2. hot.

“You got yourself a deal,” Poppy said. She wasn’t going to point out that doctor patient confidentiality applied well before she said any of that. Whatever got her to agree. “Right?” she said, turning to Ruby and Tal. She wanted their verbal confirmation too. “If it’s a no, then you can wait outside.”

Poppy did not love the timer situation. It put more pressure on her to do something quickly she hadn’t done often before. If it took longer she’d just get Ruby to pause it for a few minutes or something. She needed to do this thoroughly.

@taliesinmauk

“I’ll find something better.” Taliesin said diplomatically. That vodka was gone. That had been true less than 24 hours after he’d realized Caleb wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He’d been resentful at the time that Ruby had been spending time with Viola and not him. Like she was supposed to sit in the dark and mope with him. But now he was glad she hadn’t seen it, and he wasn’t going to acknowledge the evidence now.

He nodded gentle encouragement to Ruby’s ice move. It was a Ruby interpretation of his approach, but he knew Viola didn’t really respond to anyone other than Ruby’s approach. Except Poppy now. Perhaps he should have been able to predict that.

“…That’s fair.” he said, because it was. “Dumbass status accepted. Temporarily.” He did have a tendency to treat Viola like a child because she so frequently acted like one but this definitely wasn’t the time.

All he could do was nod to Poppy’s question. He was honestly grateful for another excuse to keep his instinct to ride over to the Alessi house in check. He was likely to need a reminder once he saw what Viola actually looked like but there was no harm in starting early.

@rubymauk

#p: help i'm alive #tl: day ten #with: tail #with: viola #with: poppy

Ruby tried not to flinch as Viola shot down her idea. It wasn't the yelling that bothered her. It was the bribe. She wasn't trying to bribe her, she...didn't matter now. Viola was upset. Ruby slinked backwards, closer to Tail.

"They won't say anything. Tail has lots of practice." She wasn't just talking about herself. She knew that some of his students confided in him and he took that shit to the grave. Poppy she knew less, but Poppy was cool. "Poppy's a fucking doctor, they won't let her near medical equipment or whatever if she tells people."

This must be what Tail felt like sometimes with her. Desperate to make something happen, but knowing that you couldn't force it. The whole thing was a special sort of hell and she wanted out. Pity she couldn't move her fucking feet when her heart was bleeding on the bed.

"I'll fuck em up if they do." It was an empty threat. Everyone here knew that. She didn't care. She had to say it.

Phase: Day Ten

“Ruby?” Ruby wasn’t there. For the first time in almost a day, Ruby wasn’t there. It hurt her, frightened her. What if Ruby was hurt? What if she’d abandoned her? Viola’s voice was small, hoarse, yet it was too loud for her ears. Her head was still pounding, breath still panicked when Ruby returned with visitors. Anger swallowed fear as she snuck a quick look at who was invading her space before covering herself up again.

“Tail.” She spat. “Random bitch.” She knew who Poppy was. She’d seen her around. She even kinda admired her resting bitch face. This was an admittedly juvenile attempt at a power move, but this was all Viola had. She felt like her brain was swimming in molasses, struggling for words, meaning, anything really. A thousand insults waited on the tip of her tongue, just out of reach. It infuriated her, but she was too tired to move, too tired to storm out. So she kept her splotchy, swelling face hidden beneath the sheets out of spite.

Her dark chuckle at Ruby saying she needed her head examined made her headache worse. It pounded and pulsed, setting off a lightning storm that became a wildfire right behind her eyes. “I get that a lot. I’ll try not to take it personal. But I didn’t invite you here. I can be real unpleasant and have few reasons not to be so please leave. Ruby helped.” Now wasn’t that noble of her? Acknowledging Ruby’s contribution even when she’d betrayed her. “I’m stable.” She laughed again, hard enough to make her dizzy. “Stable for me. I just need the dark.”

@poppy-morris

Random bitch. That was encouraging, actually. Poppy briefly assessed which tactic she would try to take with her. She had a feeling that kind and gentle wouldn’t be all that helpful. Viola had sharp edges, much like Poppy did herself. What would make her want to cooperate in a situation like this?

“I’m actually a very specific bitch, but I appreciate the recognition,” she said, walking into the room but stopping far enough away to give Viola space.

“Tal asked me to come and make sure there’s nothing preventing you and Ruby from continuing in your anarchic ways. Someone’s gotta do it,” she said, shrugging. She’d place the blame for her being here on Tal as long as she needed to. If she could do anything to prevent Ruby from having to wear that she would. Tal and Poppy could handle it. Ruby shouldn’t have to, she needed to remain a friend and ally in Viola’s eyes for both their sakes.

“And then you can have the dark back. And anything else you want within reason.” Poppy wasn’t against bribes if it made things easier. As long as she didn’t want anything that would make her health worse, she’d make it happen.

@taliesinmauk

Well this was going better than Taliesin had anticipated. Though he had anticipated needing to grab the fire extinguisher. He was surprised he’d even got a ‘Tail’ out of it. Her greeting to Poppy was less than ideal but to him it was at least a small sign that she was alright with 'family’ being around, and that was comforting in some small way.

“This is Poppy Morris, Vi. She was an EMT before all this shit happened, so she actually knows her stuff. This doesn’t have to take long at all. Then I can make you guys some food and then disappear or just disappear in general.” It was a tactic. He was going to get them out of the house if he had to drag them but it wasn’t a good idea to bring it up just yet.

He’d kept his hand on Ruby’s back as they entered, invisible to the patient but hopefully still a benefit for his sister. He whispered softly as he eyed the blanketed lump that was Viola. “Do you think we could get her to show her face for a start? Is she self conscious about it? Does she need ice or a warm wash cloth or something? Like I’m sure you did that already but maybe she needs a refresher.” The closest he and Ruby had ever gotten to their current dynamic tended to come when Ruby herself was sick. She’d accept ice and warm compresses and teas and soup and any number of comforts she’d usually rebuff. (Tal, on the other hand, tended to self isolate or attempt to muscle through it, much to Lou’s chagrin. Or wrath really. Yeah. Wrath.)

@rubymauk

#with: viola #with: tail #p: help i'm alive #tl: day ten #with: poppy

Ruby stifled her urge to flinch. She heard the bitterness in Viola's voice. This had been a horrible idea. She knew she should've waited a day or two for Viola to deal with her anger first. But she was so small and covered in blood and Ruby had panicked.

She felt Tail's hand on her back and tried to visibly relax so he couldn't feel how upset she was. She blinked a few times, making whatever dust was fucking her face calm down.

Poppy was fucking good at this. If she'd been in Viola's position, she would have actually listened to that. Maybe Tail did know what he was doing. "Tail has at least one liter of vodka he stole from me. Maybe he'll give you that."

Ice. Ruby wanted to laugh. Living with Lou had really made him forget how things worked in this house. "Yeah," she whispered back. "I can help." Ruby approached Viola with caution. She reached for the soggy bag of peas resting on the bed. "I'm gonna swap this."

She headed back to the kitchen and tossed the peas in. She grabbed another bag of frozen vegetables and a new kitchen towel. She had no fucking clue where the other one had gone to. As she walked back to her room, she wrapped the vegetable in the towel. "Here," she handed it back to Viola before ducking out of the way. "Twenty minutes." She pulled out her phone and started a timer.

Phase: Day Ten

Poppy was glad that Ruby hadn’t been there. Witnessing it would have been more trauma on top of everything she was already dealing with. Hell, she could have been hurt too. It just meant Poppy would have to ask Viola if she had been unconscious. And she knew she wouldn’t necessarily be able to give her accurate information.

She felt relief at that at least, no medications she had to try and work around. “Hey Ruby?” Poppy said. “You have nothing to apologise for. You made the right call. It could have been dangerous to give her anything when we don’t know what she might be dealing with yet. You are doing right by your friend. And I never say shit like this. Tell her,” she said to Tal.

“Okay. I think we should go see her now,” Poppy said. “Before we do, though. If Viola needs anybody to leave the room, we listen. I’ll stay and try to do as much as she’s okay with. I know this is hard but we need to make sure she consents. If it takes all night, it takes all night. If you don’t want to come in or need to leave for any reason, it’s okay. I think you’d be very helpful in there Ruby but I don’t want to make you do anything. No judgement here whatsoever.”

@taliesinmauk

Taliesin squeezed Ruby right back, placing his hand on her head to stroke her hair. They hadn’t been this close since… well, ever. But he would have given anything to never know what this was like at all.

He had always laughed at the stories about his father’s uselessness when his children were born. He’d even witnessed it firsthand with Caleb. But he was starting to develop an understanding. How immense it all felt and how strange. He’d always known Poppy was good but not this good. She had better bedside manner than any doctor he’d taken Caleb too, that was for sure. So he mouthed thank you to Poppy over Ruby’s head as he rocked her a little. He owed Poppy every snack, truly.

He understood where Poppy was coming from but he also was pretty sure she hadn’t seen Viola in action. Still he’d back her play. She was the boss. “If you want me in there, Rubes, I’m in. With or without you. You want me to be the bad guy? I’m there. I’m good at that.” He bowed his head a little, correcting. “While respecting her consent. But if she needs someone to kick out first so she feels like she’s in control, I’m just saying I’m a good candidate.”

@rubymauk

#p: help i'm alive #tl: day ten #with: tail #with: poppy #with: viola

"Thanks," Ruby whispered to Poppy. She hugged Tail a little bit tighter. There was a small pricking of relief worming its way through her, but it was still too tiny to appreciate. Poppy was going to take care of whatever Vi needed. Things would be okay. If she just said it enough, it'd have to be true at some point.

She wanted to laugh, but it came out more like a cough. Her throat was dry from crying. "Yeah, I don't wanna do this alone." For the most part, she and Viola were solid. But this was the kind of shit that could turn that solid into nothing. There was a real chance she'd end up losing her but keeping her alive. It wasn't a question for Ruby. She would do anything for Viola. She just wasn't excited about the fact that Vi might hate her for it. "C'mon," she pawed at her eyes.

The walk to her room was short. There wasn't enough space in their house to give them too much time to think. Ruby usually liked that. She took a deep breath and opened the door. "Vi, you got visitors. They want to help and they've already promised not to tell anyone anything." Her eyes met the ground, "Poppy has to examine your head."

@violaparker

Phase: Day Ten

This morning? God. Poppy didn’t like that, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that now. “Okay. Were you there when it happened?” Poppy asked.

Poppy nodded, listening intently to everything Ruby said. She didn’t need to write it down, she was good at remembering details like this. “Don’t be sorry,” Poppy said. “You’ve done great.” Honestly, she was impressed that Ruby had done all she had. She wished she had called for help earlier but she understood this was a complex situation.

“Head wounds pretty much always bleed a lot,” Poppy told her. “They have a habit of looking a lot worse than they are.” She couldn’t say for certain if that were the case for Viola without seeing her, but that was a fact. Poppy was worried about her symptoms, but she wouldn’t let it show yet. “Do you know if she takes any blood thinners like aspirin? Or if she’s taken any other medications recently? If you don’t know or rather I’d ask her myself that’s fine too.”

Once again, Tal focused on staying as quiet and still as he could so Poppy could get the information she needed, but as Ruby delivered that same information and Poppy asked if Ruby had been there he swore he felt his soul leave his body. He knew that she hadn’t been near Finn and Tony but it still scared him. He needed to get them out of the house as soon as possible.

Ruby’s apology had barely left her lips before he was enveloping her in hug, unconsciously rocking slightly for a moment like he was dealing with Caleb. “No no no. You did good, okay? You did really well.”

He couldn’t even bring himself to look to Poppy for confirmation so it was no small relief when she gave it unprompted. He nodded along as his friend gave them what was arguably good news. “Be honest about the meds okay, Rubes? You’re not gonna get in trouble. If you want me to go in my room so you can tell Poppy by yourselves that’s okay. She’s great at keeping secrets when you ask her to.” Sober or high, he finished in his head, which was saying something.

@rubymauk

#p: help i'm alive #with: tail #with: poppy #tl: day twelve

"I wasn't there," she told Poppy, "I was asleep. She didn't even tell me she was going anywhere." Ruby felt so much guilt that she wasn't there. Not that she could have done a ton, but she felt like something better could have happened if they'd been there together.

"Thanks," Ruby whispered, hugging him back. It was too tight. She knew that. She also didn't care. She was so fucking scared. She felt like she'd never stop being fucking scared. And she didn't know how to deal with that. She didn't live her life scared. Ever. But now she did. Constantly.

Ruby normally didn't like praise. It made her skin itchy. But she needed it now. Something to make her feel like she actually was helping. "No regular medications." She rolled her eyes at Tal's insistence that she wouldn't be in trouble. Of course she wouldn't. No here cared what any of them did. He wasn't the biggest fan of her getting piss drunk, but he'd never busted her too hard for "Weed and vodka, usually. But not today." Even they weren't that reckless. "I didn't know what to give her so I didn't give her anything." Shit. That sounded fucked. "Sorry," she muttered again.

Phase: Day Ten

“It’s okay,” Poppy assured her. “Sleeping is okay. Especially if she was able to hold a conversation. I just have a few questions. I want to try to avoid upsetting her as much as possible.” It would be hard enough for both of them right now.

“Do you know how long ago it happened?” Poppy asked. She hoped that Ruby hadn’t had to watch that happen to her friend, but at the same time it probably would have been helpful if she had. The more information she had the better.

“You know her best Ruby. Can you tell me what you’ve noticed?”

“Hey Rubes.” There he went again, holding in the hugs. It was a little bit of a prickly room. He resisted the urge to reintroduce them. Momo, this is Ruby. She’s less homicidal than she appears. Ruby, this is Poppy. Don’t call her Momo. Yeah. Not helpful.

Taliesin focused on listening and nodding. He was pretty accomplished at both and was getting better at acknowledging what he didn’t know. He’d always been at least marginally good at it since a big part of teaching was saying he didn’t know something and they could find out together. But researching pre-industrial textile fabrication was one thing. Cognitive medicine was another.

He swallowed his own answer to Poppy’s question. He would just be paraphrasing his sister anyway, settling for nodding supportively.

@rubymauk

#p: help i'm alive #tl: day ten #with: tail #with: poppy

"Tail," Ruby smiled sadly. It was nice to see him. She hated thinking that because he was her dumb brother. But it made her feel safer, like maybe things could be fixed.

Poppy gave Ruby a modicum of relief. Sleep was okay. Knowing there was no chance of Viola not waking up was such a fucking relief. "That's good." Talking about what happened was more complicated. "It happened this morning." She was going to hold back on the names for now. It made life easier for everyone.

"There was a lot of blood at first." She'd been scared that underneath she would see bone. "There was some slurring of words but Vi, she doesn't talk a lot to begin with so it's hard to say. Pupils were huge." Her voice choked on the word. The sight of her had knocked the wind out of Ruby. Viola was powerful and strong and badass and she'd looked so small. It made her heart hurt. "Looked like the coordination wasn't great, but we haven't been sleeping a lot." They'd been high on the freedom of running around, doing whatever shit they felt like. "I don't know if that'll make all this shit worse. I'm sorry."

Phase: Day Ten

Poppy frowned deeply. A common expression for her. Sometimes she’d frown so much during a day that when she looked at herself in the mirror at night the lines between her eyebrows would stay when she relaxed her face.

She relaxed her face now. Poppy didn’t normally try to temper her emotions around her friends. But she was here as more than just a friend, she was the aspiring doctor. She hoped that Viola didn’t need the next step up from aspiring.

“We’ll handle it. Don’t worry too much yet,” she said, reaching out and touching his arm in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. Poppy knew it was pointless to tell Tal not to worry at all. It was all over him. And that was his job.

“Okay.” She readily agreed. “I’d like to see what Ruby knows first,” she said. “If Viola will get upset about her sharing information with me in front of her.”

“Worry? Me?” Tal deadpanned before giving her a slightly pained smile as she gave his arm a very un-Poppy-like squeeze. Or maybe it was more of a press than a squeeze. Or just like… a sit. Point was, it kind of meant the world.

Poppy was one of the few people other than Lou who was well practiced at picking up on his nervous energy. Probably because she was the second most common party to it. The weed certainly wasn’t for his physical health.

He was having to stop himself from effusively thanking her already. As out of control as the situation felt, it being Poppy who was trying to fix it really did help with the worrying. She was always conservative with her attention, praise, and care, so earning it always ended up feeling like an almost special event. He would have torn down Raleigh’s door if he had to to help his sister. Or Betty’s or even Anu’s, he admitted to himself in shame. If she hadn’t been a likely cause, that was. (There went the shame spiral again. He managed to pull himself out of it by focusing on Poppy’s words.)

“Okay. That makes sense.” He texted Ruby a ‘whale hello there’ gif in an admittedly pathetic attempt to lighten the mood and heard the Critical Role theme from down the very short hall as she received it. (He’d always told people when describing his parents’ home that there was exactly one turn in it.) Now all they had to do was wait.

@rubymauk

#with: tail #p: help i'm alive #tl: day ten #with: ruby

Ruby nearly jumped as her phone went off. "Ah, fuck." She flipped it to vibrate mode to try and not wake up Viola. A quick check proved that Viola was still asleep. She wasn't sure that was the right call here, but she was doing what she could. Viola had tired herself out arguing with her over what was and wasn't allowed.

She carefully removed herself from Viola and stood at the door for a second making sure her breath was still even. When she was sure that Viola was as fine as she could be, she left the room.

Tal was here. Some form of relief went through her tempered by the surprise of Poppy. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Poppy had some experience in this and was discrete. Ruby also liked Poppy because she had a wicked sense of humor. But Viola had clear rules about how she wanted things done.

"Hey," she said, shoving her hands into her pajama pockets. "Viola's asleep. I did keep her up for a long time after it happened, but we've been...talking a lot and she couldn't keep her eyes open." She didn't know how to do this. "Do you, like, have any...what do you need from me, I guess?"

Phase: Day Ten

A concussion. Blood. Viola probably didn’t know where she was. Acting differently. Had to be a concussion. Had to be. Or worse. Taliesin’s heart had leapt into his throat. “Okay. I’m gonna get you help, okay? I’m coming over now.”

“Finn?” He didn’t know why that part was throwing him more than everything else. Maybe the unfortunate proximity. “And Tony. Okay. We’re gonna make sure you and Viola are okay and then I’m gonna make some calls.” He wasn’t sure how angry he’d be, or who they would even be to. The council? Just Anu? Did she really have so little control of her family or had this been the plan all along? Some kind of punishment? But how could he be thinking of himself at a time like this?

Ruby was never scared. Or at least she never said it out loud. She’d drink or smoke or throw a tantrum. But she’d never say it out loud. His voice lowered to a deep but gentle register, torn up that he couldn’t reach through the phone to reassure her.

“Ruby. Hey. What’d I tell you? I’m never going to let anyone hurt you. Ever.”

He hadn’t been able to live up to it, even when they were in preschool. Really, no one could. Hurting was part of growing up, and growing up with Ford and Marion Mauk had more than its fair share of hurt. But it was a promise he always endeavored to keep. If he was there and something was happening, he always took the blast first. But he hadn’t been there this time. For either of them. Whether he meant Ruby and Caleb or Ruby and Viola he wasn’t sure.

He swallowed his sorrow and focused on making his voice as soothing as he could. “I’ll be over in just a few minutes. I can take you someplace safe once we’re sure it’s okay to move her. Do you want me to stay on the phone? I need to get Mo- Poppy. She’d know how to treat a concussion.”

@rubymauk

#p: help i'm alive #with: tail #tl: day ten

Ruby felt panic flare inside of her. "You can't-the type of help she needs...it's gotta be discrete. Someone that won't tell anyone." Vi would kill her if she went against her wishes. She'd been through too much already. "She said no hospitals. I'm doing the best I can."

But Tail was latching onto the wrong things. She got it. Boy, did she fucking get it. She'd take a baseball bats to their heads if that was allowed. But it wasn't. "No,no,no,no,no you can't do that, Tail. She will never trust me again. We can talk about it when she's feeling better but you can't go after them right now. It took like two hours for her to let me call you."

They were supposed to be fine. There was supposed to be petty crimes and none of the bullshit. This kinda stuff wasn't supposed to be happening. And Tail's voice only made her want to cry. He was being so gentle in a way that set her nerves on edge, brought up bad memories. "I know," she whispered, wiping snot off her face, "I know but we just can't do anything stupid."

She hadn't thought about going anywhere. Where could they even go? Adrian was living at the inn. There weren't spaces for them. She breathed. This was out of her hands. Taliesin could take care of whatever she couldn't. "No, I'm fine," she swallowed, "I'm fine. Poppy is a good choice. She's family. We can probably talk Vi's concussed ass into agreeing to be looked at by her." She hoped, at least. "Just get here soon, okay?"

Phase: Day Ten

It was only supposed to be a picnic. It was only supposed to be an interview. It was only supposed to be a supply trip.

It was only supposed to be a dinner.

But something has shifted.

The stars have moved.

So press play, and go.

Taliesin had always received a surprising amount of phone calls for his age. There were the moms, of course, who often preferred voicemails or aggressively emoij-ed texts. Then there was Caleb’s kindergarten, who seemed to still be stuck in the early 1990s judging by both their color palates and their communication strategies. But Ruby never called him. And he never called Ruby. Some part of it may have come out of a very early need for a written record (siblings being what they were and all), but it was also a comfort thing in a way. Scrolling through their memes and arguing and affectionate insults always helped him remember even when he couldn’t be there for her, she knew he was just a gif away.

Suffice it to say, when Ruby’s name appeared on the screen as his phone buzzed, he picked it up quickly, too alarmed at the strangeness of it to rise from Lou’s bed and head into the hallway for privacy. “What’s wrong?”

“Okay. Okay. Slow down. Just breathe, Rubes. I’m here.” She sounded so small. Like they were little and someone’d just pushed her down on the playground. Before she got old enough to decide that she should be the one doing the pushing. “Are you safe? Where are you? I’ll come to you.” Someone fucked her up.

He probably should have asked his sister to clarify, but she didn’t need to explain. He had enough queer people in his life to have his mind sprint to the worst. Viola and Ruby were abrasive, to put it delicately. But he also knew they were good at clocking the dangers around them when they needed to. Viola, especially, was like a feral animal that way. Always checking the exits. If she’d gotten cornered… well, the list of apex predators was short. Most of them had been at Anu’s little Last Supper.

He reached back for Lou gently, like extending a foot over the abyss. He’d promised he’d tell her if something was wrong. He’d promised he’d tell her if he was about to do something stupid.

And depending on his sister said, he was ready to do something very, very stupid.

“Ruby. Who?”

@rubymauk

#p: help i'm alive #with: tail #tl: day ten

"I don-," Her voice choked up. She did as he said, breathing in and out. It made her feel about five years old, having Tail help her through Ford and Marian's nonsense.

She didn't even know where to begin explaining stuff. "Yeah, yeah, we're...I'm fine. I don't know about, Vi. I think she has a concussion, maybe something more. There's blood." She was moving too fast again. How did she do this?

"I'm at home. I was when Vi came back and she looked like shit. She just...." She sighed. "She's not herself and I couldn't get much out of her. She's...different right now." Fuck. She couldn't do this. She couldn't be here alone, wanting to check on her all the time and knowing that looked needy as fuck. It would only freak Viola out more to have her hovering like a goddamn helicopter. But she wanted to be respectful of where she was at.

At least Tal asked a question that she could actually answer. "She ran into Finn and Tony. I don't know how or why, we needed to talk to them anyways about Charlie but this wasn't about that. I don't fully get what the fuck went down, but they slammed her head into a table and it's....it's bad." The stupid tears were coming and she hated that she couldn't just suck it up. "I'm scared."

Phase: Day Ten

It was only supposed to be a picnic. It was only supposed to be an interview. It was only supposed to be a supply trip.

It was only supposed to be a dinner.

But something has shifted.

The stars have moved.

So press play, and go.

#p: help I'm alive #with: tail #phase: day ten

Ruby didn't get scared. She got pissed. There was no inbetween stage where she felt fear racing through her. Every nerve set off in her skull until all she could hear was a roaring blaze that engulfed her whole being. That's how it worked.

But then Viola had come home covered in blood and bruises.

Nothing could have prepared her for that dash of ice water through her veins. She'd approached Viola slowly, let her arms enfold her carefully. She didn't ask questions, just waited in the silence. When Viola was ready to talk, she listened. And when the fight died out in Viola for the night, Ruby did something she never did.

She called Tal.

Ruby worried her lip ring the entire time she heard the trill of the ring. "Pick up, pick up, pick up," she whispered, like it did any fucking good. She sent texts. She didn't call. He should know this was important. It wasn't that she couldn't go to the she-devil's house, but she didn't want to leave Viola.

When he finally picked up, she could have cried. If she did that. Which she didnt. "Tail," her voice came out wobbly, "I need your help. It's Vi...she....someone fucked her up."

@taliesinmauk

So the brightest minds in New Ham are bickering about guinea pigs, the government can’t decide how long they should take to read things, and some people want to know where Noah is. Others want to know why the fuck they should care.

But hatchets can be buried, peaces made. Secrets forgotten, people disappeared. Nothing helps like a party.

It’d be a shame if something was to happen to it.

So press play and go.

#with: viola #tl: day eleven #p: gimme more

The party begins, but the fun doesn’t last long. Tell me. Where were you when the lights went out in New Ham? (continued from here, continues here)

Keep reading

But hatchets can be buried, peaces made. Secrets forgotten, people disappeared. Nothing helps like a party.

It’d be a shame if something was to happen to it.

So press play and go.