Bleak meter: Bleak
Timeline: Anywhere after Season 9/Hunted, and I guess "Wild and Sweet" if that's at all relevant
JustRandom: Eh, I know how I see my characters, but maybe other people see them differently. Now I'm really bewildered though. What would you have guessed I was, then? And why is my internet persona a lie? XD
Yeah, me too.
Lordy! The rare one? Fancy.
Well, you've won Muzzle's eternal loyalty for several consecutive lifetimes now. You will never get him out from under your table.
Ah, you likely would. But if you did, you might not like yourself by the end of it.
I wasn't joking, but I'll take it. XD
Shhh, no, please don't die. :P
Not much happens, really. Slab roughs him up a bit, Judy guards him until he's conscious so he doesn't get mugged, once he's mostly recovered he gets thrown back in with Slab. Rinse and repeat.
Y'all are out there watching Stranger Things? Well, now I feel a little better, I guess this here is hardly the first gore you've come across. *checks wiki* Heh. Yeah, that could be Jackie.
Thanks for the review!
It was easier to remember with the dragons. They were gigantic, and heavy, and their maws were full of jagged cruel teeth. Being around them always required a certain degree of wary tension, lest you be stepped on inadvertently or horribly killed when one sneezed. Their claws and fangs were a constant reminder that these were animals built to kill, too savage to ever fully tame. Keeping up your guard was simple instinct, nothing more. Only a fool would fully trust a dragon.
It was harder sometimes with other Hunters. They could be disarming. Time and time again Faith almost let herself be lulled into a false sense of security. After all, her people could be gentle at times. She had seen many acts of kindness, many bonds that looked like trust. She had seen what might be called love.
Her bravors made it especially difficult. For better or for worse, she was around them the most. They worked towards the same goals as her, most of the time; their quirks became familiar. She watched the little petty quarrels that dragged on for months and fizzled out to nothing; she knew what got on each of their nerves and what they pretended they weren't frightened of; she knew the origin of all those random phrases that were only funny if you knew the context (what did they say those were called in Ninjago? In-jokes?). She knew that Arkade didn't like sandapples, and that Muzzle's hair was long and fluffy under his hood, and that Jet Jack could reliably be induced to scream and jump away if you walked your fingers up her shoulderblade and said "don't move."
The familiarity was deceptive. At times she almost mistook it for something more. She would pass one of her bravors out in the village and it would feel different from passing just anyone. When they split into teams for heavy work there would be a strange gratification to getting paired with someone she knew better, rather than someone random. It brought an unfamiliar surge of warmth to see Chew Toy's smile, or Muzzle and Jet Jack high-fiving, or No-Legs and Arkade dropping their squabbles long enough to argue over Knucklebones instead. The first time she saw Muzzle's eyes search a crowd and brighten when they landed on her, she was not okay for a week. At times she wondered if this was what belonging felt like.
In a rare mercy, however, the realm never let her become too complacent. Every now and then she got a healthy jolt back to reality. She saw friendships devolve into hatred. She saw eyes that had been hazy with love only months ago, swollen shut by fists that had been carressing hands. She saw the casual everyday sadism, the indifference, the betrayal and manipulation and lies. She saw the hypocrisy and clannishness. When she gave leave for a man to be punished she saw him reduced in minutes to raw tattered flesh, by the ones he had called his friends. When a woman fell out of favor she starved to death on the doorsteps of those who would have shared their last mouthful with those they decided they liked. The strong took what they wanted, the clever passed themselves off as strong, and those who were neither strong nor clever fed those who were.
Even her bravors. She saw more than one steal food from under Redskull's nose. She knew Daddy No-Legs had gone out of his way to get Jet Jack into trouble when she broke a window. When Chew Toy had food poisoning and was curled over vomiting he was lucky to get only jeers, and not a steel-toed boot to the ribs. Even Muzzle: the youngest and smallest of Faith's inner circle, perpetually starved for affection, in Faith's mind firmly the baby of the family—if the First Realm had known the first thing about families. He got into an argument with one of the millers about something stupid and the next day Faith saw him with blood splashed across the front of his cowl.
Faith was a quick study. She lived every moment knowing how fast the knife could turn. She had learned to brace, to shake herself back into reality every time she felt her heart melting. At the end of the day, these were wild animals built to kill; without the decency of claws to remind you.
Prompt was "Wild."