[A/N: This is a story entirely guided by you guys, by the readers. Be sure to vote at the end of each entry! ALSO, if you'd like to be added the tag list, please let me know and I'll be sure to add you next time!]
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➤ Stay. Check his condition first. There's time; you don't want to make it worse.
The fire isn’t spreading quickly in the cockpit, and Jimmy decides that’s safe enough for him. The last thing he wants to do is hurt the astronaut further by moving him with an unstable injury.
But the ship is still creaking and burning around them. He’ll have to do this quickly then.
It takes a few long seconds for him to figure out how to unlatch the helmet from the spacesuit, but once it's out of the way and stowed in his inventory, once he can see the stranger fully, something catches in his chest. He's bleeding. Oh, void, he's bleeding, red standing out in stark contrast against the blond of his hair and the pallor of his temple. Jimmy yanks at his neckerchief and tugs it off, pressing the wad of fabric against the side of the stranger's head, trying to figure out a plan, trying to think.
Potions. He needs potions. He needs potions, and he knows he doesn't have any back home.
Summoning his communicator from his inventory, Jimmy struggles to type out a private message one-handed, not wanting to take pressure off the pilot's wound.
<SolidarityGaming> shelby do yoiu have heasling pots
Jimmy can't help but wince at his own spelling mistakes, but there's not much he can do about it. He's in too much of a hurry to care. It will take a minute or two for Shelby to even see his message, so for now Jimmy banishes his comm again, his focus on the astronaut. He's breathing - thank god he's breathing - and when Jimmy presses two fingers to his throat the guy's pulse seems steady, though he's not exactly a doctor. He wouldn't know if it's slow or sluggish without something to compare it to, and his own heart rate is far too rapid to be a good comparison.
…he’ll have to figure that out later. For now he needs to finish what he was doing. He digs into his inventory and pulls out a spare block of wool, shredding a piece into soft padding and swapping his bandana for the new fluff. Tying it around the stranger's head is a little trickier to do with how sweaty his hands are in the heat of the ship, but he manages well enough, and once he's sure the makeshift bandage is secure he moves on. He feels along the man’s limbs quickly, trying to check for any breaks through the thick material of the suit. He bends his knees, his elbows, his eyes lingering on the stranger’s face all the while. No signs of discomfort, no wincing, no grimaces of pain. There aren’t any splotches of red bleeding through the white of the spacesuit, which Jimmy takes as a very good sign.
(He tries to ignore that traitorous voice in the back of his mind telling him the material would be too thick for that anyway, that he’s obviously missed something. There’s no time to second guess himself.)
It’s as satisfactory as it’s going to get, Jimmy supposes, as a grinding and creaking sound meets his ears from the corridor beyond the cockpit door. An anxious thrumming takes hold in his chest and his jaw goes tense. It’s time to go.
His communicator beeps, but he ignores it. He can respond to Shelby once he and the stranger are safely outside the ship.
Jimmy does his best to hoist the pilot into his arms without jostling him too much, slowly getting to his feet with as much care as he can muster. He’s halfway to the door when the hair on the back of his neck stands on end. There’s a rumbling, a churning of air, a swell of pressure - then a massive explosion goes off at the far end of the ship.
The engine room, he realizes, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, and he has just as long to ponder how he even knows that before a massive wave of flames comes barrelling down the hall. Jimmy dives behind the half-jammed door just in time with the pilot still held in his arms. A blast of burning heat spills into the room and Jimmy lets out an avian cry, his wings coming up to cocoon them both despite the painful scorching he can feel on his outermost feathers. It’s burning agony, for as long as it lasts. The blast shatters what’s left of the front window and sends an inferno shooting out over the cool mesa, then the fuel peters out and all that’s left is a boiling feeling in the air of the room.
Jimmy’s right wing is screaming. He knows he’s lost a few feathers, and he’s sure the skin underneath is blistered if not just burned. It’s going to be a painful flight back to Tumble Town, he’s certain. He blinks the tears out of his eyes. He can’t linger much longer.
He’s not sure how he manages to get off the ship after that, too focussed on keeping the astronaut in his arms and too distracted by the pain in his wing and the smoke in his lungs. It’s only when his knees meet the sand well past the heat of the burning ship that he lets himself breathe.
In the low sound of the crackling fire and the much cooler mesa air, everything is quiet for a moment or two. Jimmy pulls the astronaut close against his chest and lets his wings go lax, the ache in his right wing worsening by the second. He needs to get them both back to town, and he needs those potions from–
–he has a message from Shelby.
The thought crosses his mind and he scrambles to summon his communicator one-handed, his eyes dancing across the brief message quickly.
<ShubbleYT> I do :) are you looking to trade?
<SolidarityGaming> no time
<SolidarityGaming> eemrgency
<SolidarityGaming> how fast canb you get to tumnbl town
His hands are shaking and his typing is rushed and clumsy with the astronaut in his arms, but he ignores the typos. It’s not important right now.
<ShubbleYT> oh wow um maybe ten minutes?
<ShubbleYT> is everything okay?
<SolidarityGaming> someome crash landef outside of town
<SolidarityGaming> cant talk now sorry
<SolidarityGaming> meet me at my housde?
<ShubbleYT> oh gosh okay I'll be there soon
Okay. Okay.
Jimmy casts a look over the astronaut in his arms and nods decisively. Okay. He needs to get this guy inside, preferably on a bed, so he and Shelby can do a better job of making sure he survives this ordeal.
He starts to stand again, but the burning pain in his wing makes him falter.
…is it safe for him to fly? It really would be the fastest option, injured wing or not, and Jimmy’s still worried over the head injury the man had gotten in the crash. His wing is in agony but it wouldn’t be the first time. The faster they get back the better, risks or no.
…or maybe walking back would be the safer choice. There’s a path carved into the cliffside leading all the way down into the bowl in which Tumble Town was built, though the trip would be a longer one. Jimmy is already eyeing his makeshift bandage around the pilot’s head warily, faint red spots already seeping through the fabric.
Which risk is he willing to take?
Fly. He’s a skilled flier, he can handle a rough landing no problem...can't he?
Walk. With his wing injured, it might be worth the extra wasted time...right?
Voting ended onJul 31, 2024
(What to pick, what to pick...the faster route or the more stable route? Take a risk for Jimmy or a risk for the mysterious stranger? Hmmm...🤔)
[A/N: This is a story entirely guided by you guys, by the readers. Be sure to vote at the end of each entry! ALSO, if you'd like to be added the tag list, please let me know and I'll be sure to add you next time!]
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➤ Right? Left? Unclear! It’s a tie!
Jimmy can’t make up his mind and stands there in the actively burning ship like an indecisive fool. He stays there for SO long that the fire overcomes the part of the ship he's in and a piece of heavy metal interior panelling dislodges and falls on his head, squashing him instantly. He respawns in the Sheriff's office in a panic and has to make the trip all the way back to the spaceship, by which time he's beginning to wonder if he should have just asked Pixl for help instead. Hopefully the pilot survives without him! :D
[...just kidding. But honestly, you’re lucky I love you. I’ll give you the better option despite the tie, as a treat. I might not be so kind next time!😉]
➤ Right
Jimmy turns right and clambers over rubble, ducking under hanging hoses and wires and being ever-mindful of his wings. He’s not sure where the cockpit is exactly, but he’s fairly sure he’s going in the right direction. Before long he’s rewarded for his quick deduction work when he comes across a damaged door. It’s just as white as the rest of the ship with a red stripe running across it, and it’s jammed halfway open by debris and fallen supplies from a nearby storage locker. It takes a few minutes to try and clear the mess, and a bit of brute strength with the pickaxe from his inventory for Jimmy to pry the door open far enough for him to get inside.
The cockpit. He guessed correctly after all.
The cockpit is in just as much ruin as the rest of the ship. Sparks fall from torn wires in the ceiling, and the control panel is missing a large chunk off its right side. The front window is shattered and broken glass litters the ground like ice crystals. There’s a lone sturdy chair mounted in the center of the small space…and though Jimmy had expected to find the pilot there, that’s not the case. There are unfastened buckled straps hanging free from the seat, and Jimmy almost wonders if the pilot had gotten out of their own accord…
Jimmy's eyes fly wide and his breath hitches as something catches his eye in the corner of the room. There’s a person. There, half-buried beneath rubble and too close to fire for Jimmy’s liking, is a person. Someone in a white soot-tarnished spacesuit is trapped and seemingly unconscious in the corner of the cockpit, and the moment Jimmy spots them his pulse skyrockets. Oh gods.
He darts forward in an instant, keeping low to avoid the growing smoke, and he begins prying heavy panels of metal and tangles of other debris off the stranger on the ground as carefully as he can. He has to cut away a few cables with his pocketknife to finally pull them free, and the moment they are Jimmy loops his arms around their torso, all but dragging them out of the rest of the mess to the only clear spot he can find in the tiny room. He moves quickly, almost frantically, rolling the stranger onto their back to check for vitals.
Their helmet is broken. His helmet is broken, Jimmy realizes, eyeing the pale face behind the broken glass with ever-mounting concern. The man he's looking at has narrow, pointed features and he looks human enough, though Jimmy has had enough experience with human-ish people on the Empires server to take that observation with a grain of salt.
(And the man had crash-landed out of the sky in a spaceship of all things, so for all Jimmy knows, he could be an alien. He shoves the thought aside to ponder later.)
More importantly, it looks like some of the glass from the helmet caught the pilot's face on impact, tiny cuts just barely bleeding...though there could be more he can't see. It’s difficult to know how extensive the damage from the crash is while the man is sealed in his spacesuit, but moving him without checking first could do more damage. Jimmy squares his jaw and takes a breath. He can't waste time. He has to make a choice, and fast.
He could pull the astronaut from the wreckage first, injuries be damned. The fire is still roaring around them, and though the cockpit seems stable for now, Jimmy isn’t sure how long that could last. But at the same time, the fire isn’t spreading fast, and he can’t possibly know how injured the pilot really is without taking the time to check. Trying to haul him out of the ship without stabilizing injuries first might make them worse…and might even cause the astronaut to respawn. (If he even can respawn. It’s a painful thought.)
Jimmy’s fingers fidget at the helmet’s seal, pondering whether he should be taking it off yet or not.
Does he stay or does he go?
Stay or go?
Stay. Check his condition first. There's time; you don't want to make it worse.
Go. Get out of there fast. He's survived this long, so he can handle the trip.
