#after miiverse died; it has been long
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Ain’t a Coward
Dan brings David and Charlie to help him practice lightning-summoning. But it goes horribly wrong.
Word count: 1,308
"Dan is trying to summon lightning with the clap of his asscheeks," Charlie briefly explained to David. David nodded understandingly.
The three were on the flattened top of Mt. Miiverse. A grassy area specified for picnics, (future) marriages, and other miscellaneous things. This time, it was for Dan's weekly lightning practice. The clouds in the sky were dark on the brink of rain.
Dan looked at Charlie with genuine disgust. "Charles spits lies! I'm simply trying a new technique to make the contact less surprising and lagged. A technique that involves me doing a big clap like I'm singing the big daddy shark part of baby shark."
"Then why do you need me?" David asked.
"Well duh! Because the clap, combined with the thunder, has a chance of blowing out my ears even WITH these special sound-proof headphones," Dan said, pointing to the soundproof headphones around his neck. Will made and gifted it for Dan's birthday last year. Dan turned around and looked into the foggy horizon. "I need you to quiet the sound, later."
"You've only ever successfully summoned lightning 12 times in 3 years of training!" David said, crossing his arms and staring at the back of Dan. "And if this is your first time trying this technique, there is a low chance of it working."
Dan groaned. "Actually, 8 out of 12 of those times were during a thunderstorm, which made it easy. That's cheating. I ain't a coward, Meadows."
David rolled his eyes. "The reason I'm grumpy is because I had to hike up this entire mountain by myself!"
"What?" Dan asked. "I thought Charlie flew you up here?"
"My powers are weak. I'm still affected by George's venom saliva after I kissed him a month ago. I had to climb that entire mountain by myself, too," Charlie spat, his wings mimicking rolling eyes. "You can't tell, Daniel, but I am annoyed as fuck so can you please get on with your training so I can go down and not look at your dumb-dumb face," Charlie said. Charlie and David made their way to the other side of the grassy top for safety.
Dan took a deep breath and walked near the side of the cliff. About 3 meters away from the countless mile fall. He stood facing the horizon. The wind blew in his face. "Charlie, chill the wind," Dan commanded, without looking at Charlie.
He slid his left foot back and leaned his body forward. He positioned his arms like the jaws of a hungry alligator. Clear mind, clear mind. Usually he'd have Jack to help him with that, but he isn't a coward. I can't ask for help forever. If I never learn to summon lightning by myself, when will I ever learn to manipulate it?
"David, quiet sound," Dan commanded. Clear mind, clear mind. Every emotion and doubt evicted from his body. And he was hollow. His skin grew warmer to welcome the great sparks with open arms. Literally.
Opening the mouth of the shark just a little more, Dan threw his hands together.
But his hands never touched. They sprung backwards, almost breaking his shoulders. KA-BOOM. CRASH.
Smoke surrounded him. Tingles of excitement coursed through Dan's palms. He looked down and gasped at the sight. Icy blue cobwebs sparkled between his fingers. The lightning made a faint hizzing noise. Dan's eyes were glued to the changing maze of light. A smile grew on his face.
"Did it work?!" David called. David lifted the noise to its usual volume. He ran to Dan.
Dan's mind was brought back onto the ground. He turned around with a big grin on his face. "Yeah! Look at th-"
A bolt flung from Dan's fingertips. Faster than light, it shot David's stomach. Nobody had time to react before David was propelled a few meters backward.
Dan and Charlie's breaths were taken away. Dan dashed to David, but the crunching sound of grass under his feet was a second off. Oh no, oh no oh no oh no.
"David!" Dan tried to scream. But the sound came out 3 seconds too late. Lagged sound.
Charlie fumbled his way to his friend. He pressed two fingers to David's wrist. Yet, he found no pulse. "Is David... dead?" Charlie yelled to Dan, who was standing beside him.
Dan froze. The lightning still tingled between his fingers. "Oh no... Oh no oh no oh no. I fucked up, Charlie. I fucked up." He forced himself to not cry. He wasn't a coward. He couldn't show it.
Charlie began CPR, something Jack taught him months ago for situations like this. Dan felt stupid. He didn't even know how to do CPR, let alone not kill his friend.
Somewhere on the island, the crashing waves around Matt grew quiet. Too quiet.
Somewhere on the island, the KER-CHUNK of Will's toaster shattered his warm glass of beans. His breakfast was ruined, and so were his ears.
Somewhere on the island, Rhianna's cats mimicked the croak of frogs.
"He isn't breathing. He can't respond. Heart not beating," Charlie said, his voice a few seconds off. Charlie’s wing wacked Dan's leg. "Do something! Get something!"
"We live on an island! Where in the world are w...we going to get a defibrillator or something?" Dan said. He could hear his fast heart clear in his ears. The realization sunk in him. He stared at his hands and their lightning cobwebs. He knew what he had to do.
Dan took a deep breath. Clear mind, clear mind. He knelt beside David's body. David's skin was pink and his face was stuck in a pained expression. Dan rubbed his hands together. Sparks flew from his hands. David was going to die either way. He had to try.
"Charlie, cut his shirt," Dan said. Charlie tore David's shirt into shreds. Dan took another deep breath before he slapped his meaty hands on David's right collar bone and under his left nipple.
Dan spewed the shock through David's body. He had absolutely 0 idea of what he was doing. The tingling was gone. He had used his lightning. He stood back and Charlie went back into doing CPR.
The sound of everyone's breathing was amplified, with every other sound quieted. Dan could hear the breathing of Jack nearby. Jack was panting, running. Climbing, possibly. Dan fought back tears. A wave of coolness flew through his body, but he couldn't chill his body temperature for long. Does David have a will? Where the hell are we going to bury him?
Another feathery wack flew at the back of Dan's leg. He turned around. Charlie's mouth was moving, but no voice came from it. Charlie pointed to David. Dan tilted his head.
"He's breathing," Charlie's voice said.
"Oh. Oh OH. THANK FUCKING GOD," Dan said with perfect clarity. The sound around them came back. The chirps of birds. The crashing waves. The crunching grass under their feet. The whisper of restless wind.
Dan sighed. He collapsed to the grassy ground. "I really fucked up, Charlie." Dan wanted to curl into a ball and yell into the sky, but he ain’t a coward.
"But you also saved him," Charlie said. "Well, you did almost kill him. I guess you paid for your mistakes."
A weak groan came from nearby. A hand gripped onto the side of the flat area. Jack slopily hoisted himself on the grass, panting. "GUYS, DAVID JUST DIED. DAVID'S FUCKING GONE. HE HAS NO MIND AND SHIT."
"We been knew," Charlie said. He turned to Dan. "Thanks, Daniel."
"You're welcome," Dan replied. Despite the fact that he didn't know if Charlie was being sarcastic or not. The man stared at David in his dead, brown eyes. He muttered under his breath, "God, he's going to kill me when he wakes up. And I deserve it, to be honest."
#Soothouse#Soothouse Elemental au#mod leaf#writing#soothouse fic#fanfic#soothouse fanfic#soothouse au#Elemental!Dan#Elemental!David#Elemental!Charlie#sootfic#lightning#lightningbending
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Why Splatoon means so much to me
Hey guys, with tomorrow being my brothers birthday, I decided I would share a very important story with you. This is the story of why the Splatoon franchise means so much to me, and why I hold it very near to my heart.
I’ll never forget the day in May of 2015 when Splatoon was released, my older brother had pre ordered it for me and I played it immediately when I got home from school. I was fascinated with it from the moment I saw the first loading screen, and even more so when I started playing turf war. It’s crazy to think that was so long ago, when Callie and Marie were the only idols we knew, when ink strikes and killer wails were in our special gauges, when Judd was the only judge. When Spyke was the go to for anything gear related and you couldn’t skip Sheldon’s dialogue, when Annie ran the hat shop and Crusty Sean wasn’t working a food truck. When the max level was 50 and you had one rank for everything, when becoming agent 3 and defeating DJ Octavio felt like the biggest accomplishment you could achieve, and at the end of the day there were splatfests. Cats versus dogs, roller coasters versus water slides, and finally Callie versus Marie. It all feels like a distant memory now, like I’m Agent 8 and my days in Splatoon are just a mem cake.
All my life, the one thing that bonded me and my big brother were video games. We’re 16 years apart, but he never failed to help me through all the Mario games and let me watch him beat all the Zelda games in an absurdly short amount of time. We would play Super Smash Bros all the time, first on the N64 and the nthe Wii when Brawl came out. When Splatoon released we were ecstatic. He had recently moved out and I had missed playing video games with him. Instead of being just a walk to his room away, he was a car ride away. But now with a new online multiplayer, we could play together all the time, and we did. We FaceTimed while we joined each other in turf war, battling fiercely against each other or working incredibly well together. Splatfests were amazing, and the Sunday after each one I’d run up to him at church and ask him who won if I didn’t have time to check that morning. He would come over to do his laundry and take turns playing Splatoon with me, it was back then in those times when everything was a lot simpler.
I’ll never forget the day in March of 2016 when I found out my big brother had died at 29 years old. Passed out from a migraine and suffocated in his bedroom, an accidental death. From that point forward there was no Splatoon battles, no FaceTime, no Splatfest all nighters, just silence. Silence as I sat in my basement and stared at my Wii U, the one he bought for us as a family for Christmas so we could play video games when he moved out and took his console with him. Silence as I stared at his miiverse posts, realizing that all his internet friends would never know what happened to him. Silence as I stopped playing Splatoon for a whole year, because without him it wasn’t the same. And it never would be again.
The Nintendo Switch had released as well as Splatoon 2, but it took me until this year to buy both things. Why? Because the Octo Expansion had just been announced, and I had a friend with a Nintendo Switch who I soon convinced to try Splatoon and play it with me. I bought my switch in the middle of May of 2018 and the first game I owned was Splatoon 2. It took two years of grieving to finally get my head back in the game, but now that I am back, I’ve never felt better.
I reached rank S in splat zones a while back, and it was a moment that filled me with both happiness and nostalgia. I was never able to get past rank A in Splatoon 1, while my brother was able to max out his rank. Getting to rank S was something that I never thought was possible, but I did it for him. Because I know he would be congratulating me for getting so far, complimenting me and saying, “You’re gettin’ pretty good sis!”
Even though I can’t hear those words, I can feel them. My brother was and is the other half of my soul, my best friend, my partner in crime, if there’s one thing he wanted it was to make other people happy with whatever he did. It would have broken his heart to hear that I stopped playing a game we both loved because it brought me too much pain to do so. But now... I’m happy. I can pick up my switch and be excited to play Splatoon 2 or Mario Kart 8, it took a long time to get here, but I made it.
This franchise, in the few years it’s been alive, has completely changed my life in so many ways. It bonded me and my only brother even after we couldn’t see each other as often, it built me back up after I felt I had been broken for too long, and it brought me to where I am today. For that, I can only say thank you to the community and Nintendo for every game they have ever made, including Splatoon, and allowing a pair of siblings to create a bond so strong not even death could break it.
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