tumblr is the poser website. everyone claims to be goth and punk but they don't listen to the music, everyone claims to love milfs & dilfs but they hate children and make fun of everyone over the age of 20, everyone calls themself a freak but they hate porn and they hate bdsm and they hate roleplay and they hate toxic relationships - or conversely they cant handle the idea of their taboo kinks being taboo, everyone claims to be neurodivergent and then they expect everyone else to be perfect and normal 100% of the time and be able to do everything in life without any kind of issue, everyone claims to be body positive but cant picture someone being fatter than 200 lbs at 6ft tall, everyone claims to be so compassionate but this site's favorite activity lolcowing.
Day 1: Race against the clock: Simon Riley X Male Reader (vaguely)
warnings: Thallium poisioning being vaguely described, frost bite being described, hypothermia being described
Words: 2356
tags: author regrets looking at images of thallium poisoning, Arthor should have used his chemical database instead, thank you CDC for being a good source of information, Pythagoras theorem was actually helpful for once, author hates mathematics, Author could not be bothered to find the right military code word for polluted air, author did try and find but the PDF file was over 900 pages long and its late, Names have meaning
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Date: REDACTED. Location: 141 Headquarters. Time: 0945. Personal Present: Classified
“Aerosolised thallium powder is dangerous. Though it is dose dependent. Acute poisoning occurs in 3 stages. Depending on the amount ingested it may take anywhere from 8 hours to 48 hours before symptoms show.” Kate Laswell stood in front of Ghost, Soap, Gaz, Price, (C/S) and the decoy squad.
“What makes it a priority of us?” Soap asked.
Kate showed another photograph of a known terrorist. “We have been hunting him for years now, he finally resurfaced. I had assumed he would play around with anthrax, but it seems he is not ready for that sort of commitment yet.” She said.
“Lucky us. Anthrax is a pain.” (Y/N) said and grimaced.
“Thallium is no laughing matter.” Kate said. “Its acutely toxic, a dose as low as 8 mg per kilogram of bodyweight can be lethal. But its cumulative.” She said.
(Y/N) nodded slowly. “Is there a way to undo the damage?”
“You will be issued Prussian blue tablets, both for before, during and after.” She said. “Your gas masks will stop the worse but not everything.”
4 days later
Location: Classified
The air was shimmering light blue, his eyes widened behind his mask as he pulled his gas mask out, aware of the particles gathering inside it. “Do not enter!” (Y/N) screamed into his radio. “Dust in air!” He yelled before taking the gas mask on, aware it wouldn’t stop everything. He hurried out as guns fired at him, one knocked his shoulder, and he screamed out in pain just before getting out of the building, he hurried away from the blue powder in the air. He blinked as he fell down into the snowy field.
Someone removed his mask and chuckled darkly as they sprinkled more in the air. He heard a voice speak and heard it clear.
“Poison is such a wonderful thing, some of them you can taste, like cyanides bitter almonds and then some are tasteless, odourless and entirely painful to die from. You are not as lucky, my friend.”
30 minutes later.
(Y/N) leaned against Ghost who carried him. He blinked his eyes awake and looked towards Price, everyone was saying something, yet it was all muddled and entirely unwanted. He grunted and looked back at that familiar mask, the mask which (Y/N) swore as not actually bone but he couldn’t be certain. Not at all. Especially not now. White breath came out from his mask, it diffused into the air of the abandoned factory.
He blinked as Ghosts mask warped weirdly, some parts of it drooped down while others spiked, it was almost comical. “Sir, your mask is melting.” He said with a surprisingly loud voice. Everyone looked over at him. “Like melting melting.” He clarified. The whole room smelled funky, everything around them was swimming with fish. It made a giggle creep up into his throat.
Ghost held onto his vest more, keeping him, upright. “Just hang in there.” Ghost said.
“Smells like fish in ‘ere.” (Y/N) muttered to him.
Ghost, despite the situation, huffed out an amused sound. “Fish?”
(Y/N) nodded. “Fish.” He said and looked around. Fish was everywhere. Swimming in and around. He glared at some of them. “Fishies. Fucking hell this stuff is worse than anything else I have taken.”
“Have you taken much?” Ghost asked. Keeping his voice slightly amused though only to hide worry in his voice.
“Nahh, just once or twice as a teen.” He said and giggled again. “Ghost. The fish have really sharp teeth.” He said without realising he was being hoisted up and hauled out. He blinked again as he felt the cold evening air on his body. He whined and leaned against his LT. “Ghost, its so hot out here.”
“Its bloody cold.” Ghost said and motioned for the snow. There was a hint of worry now much more present his voice. “Capn’t?” He said roughly.
Price walked over with a raised eyebrow. The snow crunched underneath his boots.
“He says its too hot.” Ghost said.
(Y/N) whined again, everything was swimming. He felt hot and like his skin was going to fall off. He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, he looked down at it and frowned as he tried to make his eyes focus.
Price took his glove off and felt (Y/N) forehead. “Christ, he is burning up. We need to get to the extraction point soon.”
“Sir?” Orion said.
“Yes?”
Orion looked up and showed his gloved hand which had a fistful or hair in it. “I don’t think that supposed to happen.”
Price cursed and grabbed his com unit. “Kate, his hair is already falling out.”
Orion vaguely heard frantic words around him before his whole world turned black and his head fell back.
Ghost shook (Y/N)’s body. “Sir, he isn’t responsive!”
“Kate says the only extraction point is 4 miles away, Ghost give your pack to Soap, you will be running with (C/S) over your shoulders.” Price ordered frantically.
The exchange was quick and smooth, Ghost hoisted him over his shoulders. “4 miles? That’s over an hour away, with the amount of thallium he has ingested…” Soap said.
“No, we must remain hopeful. It should take up to 8 hours before a lethal amount is absorbed.” Price said as they began running.
Ghost grunted as he ran with a grown man slung over his shoulders, though if anyone of them could handle the brunt of the well-trained man, it would be Ghost. His eyes focused on the ground ahead as he followed Prices feet.
It only took 10 minutes to make the river crossing, the bridge was heavily guarded but with them having an unconscious man with them they couldn’t risk the river currents. Ghost and Price shared a look. A look they knew far too well. Weighing the pros and cons of a terrible situation. A silent debate. Their minds linking for just a few moments as time slowed down. Prince nodded and turned to the team, he motioned them to detour, walk up the river, to a shallower place to cross.
Rather risk death by hypothermia then certain death by gunfire. Their race against time just became two races. One for (Y/N) and one for themselves.
Price grabbed his radio again. “We are crossing the river, Kate, further down, we will be an hour if not more delayed, the bridge is even more guarded.”
“Just don’t be stupid. Get back safely, I am having medics prepare treatment for hypothermia.” Laswell’s voice said.
An hour passed before they passed the river, they were drenched in water and cold to the bone. (Y/N) looked worse, his skin was red, both from exposure and the thallium already showed its grab of his system. Orion was still unconscious though breathing.
They had run approximately 4 miles away, had the bridge not been guarded they would have already been in the extraction point, though now they had between 5 or 6 miles of forest to run through, while wet and worried. It was a recipe for disaster.
Ghost looked at the others as he shifted the man on his shoulders. Price spoke up. “We have trained for worse; we are not going to let some bloody cold water and hypothermia get to us.” He spoke. Though no one was certain he cheered them up.
They ran for 20 minutes, their gear was heavy and their clothes even more so, yet no one dared to expose their skin and risk death earlier. Soaps lips were already turning a slight tint of blue. Price showed a pocket heater into his hands, and everyone continued on with laboured breaths.
Soldiers are built for endurance.
Soldiers are trained for this.
They are soldiers.
This mantra repeated inside repeated inside Ghosts head as he kept running and running and running.
The forest blurred together as trees. They were fine, everything was fine. Surely so. Ghost blinked his eyes open and looked at the others. He glanced towards Gaz who had wrapped his hands in his dry scarf. Ghost nodded to himself. Sensible. Keeping his hands free from frostbite. If they all made it out of here alive and whole he figured he might have to buy a round of drinks… might.
Ghost slapped himself and kept running. His eyes glued ahead of him as he ignored the way the edges of his vision were blurring together worse and worse by the second. Ghost glanced to Price. “You hangin’ in there?” he asked
Price huffed out and nodded. “Yeah, I’m hanging in, don’t worry.” He said though the tip of his fingers were frost nipped already. “We have handled worse, Simon.” He said.
Ghost huffed. “Ain’t so sure Simon survive this.” He commented.
Price huffed out a chuckle. “I am sure he will.” He said without hesitating.
Another 20 minutes or so passed before they took a stop for a breather. Price looked around at them all. Hopefully the decoy team had found a much safer route out. “Soap, what year is it?” He asked.
Soap looked at him sluggish but told him what year it was with very little trouble. His lips were getting bluer by the minute.
Price nodded and looked to Gaz, who seemed the most alive of them all. “And who is the Prime minister?”
Gaz, who wasn’t nearly as effected at this point caught onto what was going on and said the name of the prime minister.
Price smiled, a smile that reached his eyes at that. He then turned to Ghost. “Can you tell me how to spell the word Cracker?”
Ghost looked to him, his grip on (Y/N) was tight. “C-R-A-C-K-E-R.” He said. “Can you tell me the name of your sons’ dog?” Ghost couldn’t feel his nose at this point.
Price huffed out. “Bastard nickname… his real name…. Gods….” He shook his head and slapped himself. “Charles.”
Ghost nodded. “We need to hurry up then,” he said, taking point as he was better off then Price at this point. Price and the others nodded.
By the next 10-minutes Soap had to be carried by Gaz and Price together.
Another 10 and they had slowed down significantly, Soaps lips were blue, and his nose was darkening in colour, Gaz had wrapped his scarf around Soaps lips loosely to give some warmth and starve off the hypothermia. If Soap survived this Ghost was going to get him a mug that said, ‘a Brit outlasted a Scot in cold weather’. He sure as hell hoped Soap would survive it. He didn’t want to bury anymore friends.
Finally, after some 20 minutes, Ghost, Gaz and a mostly conscious Price dragged themselves into a semi small plane where a decontamination team removed their clothes, everyone warped around as the plane took off, they were all separated, washed and they were being heated up slowly, or Ghost was, he didn’t know how bad they others were. He grumbled from where he was sitting, his mask was off, and his nose felt funny. He didn’t care much. Though secretly, deep down, he hoped he wouldn’t lose his nose.
When Simon woke up in the hospital bed, he hadn’t even been aware he had fallen asleep. He looked over at a heavily bandaged Soap, though at least his fingers seemed to all be attached… maybe not. Simon’s head was swimming. He didn’t know what where or when.
A doctor walked in. “You are the second to wake.” She said as she walked over. She grabbed his chart and noted that he had woken up. She took his oral temperature and wrote it down before looking to him. “You are lucky, you only had superficial frost burns. Your nose looks all black but that’s just from it being reheated and blood rushing back in. Expect it to peel like a sunburn. I will give you the cream for it.” She said.
He nodded numbly and then looked over to Soap. “What’s the damage on the others?”
She thought for a moment and her eyes glanced to Soap. “He is getting treatment. We may need to amputate a toe and a pinkie finger, maybe more, depends on how he response. Gaz never fell asleep, his scarf kept the brunt of the damage off on his hands, he is still ordered to take it slow….” She said. “As for Price…. Still hasn’t woken, he was worse then you but better then soap, I hope he waked today or tomorrow.”
He nodded and then frowned. “(C/S)?”
She shook her head. “Unknown, we aren’t keeping him on base, he was taken away immediately, his exposure was through the roof. Which reminds me.” She walked over and took a pill box out. “Prussian blue tablets.” She poured him some water and walked over.
Simon grunted but took it. “Thanks, Doc.”
She chuckled. “Not a problem… Now. Do you have any pain anywhere?”
He shook his head. “My nerves are shot, so I wouldn’t know.”
She nodded slowly and then looked towards the chart again, noting it down. “Alright.” She said and nodded slowly again. Her mind was considering more things then Simon could comprehend. “I’ll let you know what we know more about (C/S).” She said.
Weeks went by, Ghost knew nothing about (C/S).
His worries were soothed over by rehabilitation training and doing paperwork to pass the time.
He walked into rehabilitation and saw a familiar face. “About time you showed.” He said gruffly.
(Y/N) looked over and chuckled. His face contorted before he coughed a lung up. He drank some water. “Finally, no longer in a coma. Though my job is over.” He said. “Thallium fucking sucks ass.”
Ghost chuckled a bit. “Sounds like it.” He walked over and regarded him. “You safe though?”
“Lost 3 toes, bit of a finger and almost lost my nose.” (Y/N) said. “But otherwise, I am good, military rehabilitation because of Price.” He said.
“He is a good man.” Ghost huffed out.
“Aye, he is…” (Y/N) said. “… You up for drinks as soon as my body stops retching up?”
i get why abortion jokes are all the rage but sometimes your blorbo would not get an abortion and that's fine. not all pregnancy is bad. some people want to have kids and it's not the end of the world. you are not morally superior for being childless. some of you are not liberatory, some of you sound like redditors.
Why are you leaving the fandom, didn't something happen?
it just doesnt seem like what i am interested in talking about is what everyone else is interested in talking about. i'm not interested in incorrect quote style memes, i'm not interested in characterization based on popular fanon, i'm tired of reasonable critique of the handling of writing being written off as misogyny for not shipping an m/f pair, i'm tired of cisswaps, i'm tired of the "anything except classic is trash" attitude. there's just a lot about fandom in general that has gotten me to a point where yeah, i like it and i want to make friends and i want to talk about it, but at what cost? i can't afford groceries and there are people on twitter making bad faith tweets vaguing people for not being into m/f ships.
i'm not a fan of applying the defrosting ice queen trope to aglaya. i cannot think of anything more boring for her character than to turn her into a boy-crazy yandere or a mushy doe-eyed tradwife. she is an inquisitor. she is intelligent and meta-aware and vindictive and petty and hates kids and doesn't care about others. she cares about games and winning them. "genuinely in love with artemy" is like the most boring interpretation of what's going on there, sorry.
i will never stop being judgmental of the patho fans who threw a hissy fit at the idea of artemy being fat. and everyone who follows them. love & light ♡
