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bookshelf-full-of-bruises · 3 months

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A Flame Extinguished

FebuWhump Day 1: Helpless

Robbie faces one of his greatest failures. Trigger Warnings for minor whump, up to and including death of said minor by burning at the stake. This one’s heavy, so proceed with caution

As flames spire towards the smoke stained heavens and screams pierce the air, Robert Gardner can only assume that he has finally found for himself that ashen plane which mortals call Hell. No matter how he struggles, a wall of arms holds him steady to watch his worst nightmares spring to life before his eyes. His own voice is drowned out in the cries for vengeance. For justice.

Atop a pyre, the young Paragon of Prophecy pleads for mercy from an unyielding mob as fire climbs its ladder of straw and wood. He is seventeen. Still just a boy, with baby fat softening his terrified features. Piercing blue eyes scan over so many angry faces, hoping to find his sister or mother amongst the scores.

Finding himself disappointed, Daniel turns that terror towards his mentor. He begs. He pleads for help from a man who is helpless to do anything but observe. He sobs and cries and screams as the bleeding sunset meets its end, and the shadows of night descend upon his execution.

In the end, Robbie find himself doing the very thing he was meant to do in the first place. He watches. He watches as the flames of hatred consume the child he had taken under his wing so many moons ago. As his failure comes to bear in such a brutal way that he finds himself choking on it, he still claws and strains against fate with every breath. Smoke and desolation cloud his lungs as screams climb higher, and the ashes begin to smell of flesh.

It is not until silence descends that he is released.

The very second he is able to, he is sprinting into the tower of flames, scorching his palms as he pulls the now motionless body from its boiling tomb. He drags the boy he had come to think of as his son from the ashes, and cradles him close. His tears clump the ashes of his ragged clothes, now reduced to dust.

“Cowards!” He screams, voice raw with pain and horror as he picks his head up to level the gathered people with a distraught glare. “He was but a boy! And all he did was to warn you!”

Just as before, his cries are met with the indifference of those too willfully ignorant to see the truth in anything other than that which resembles their own. Father Bailin, disdain written clearly across his face, steps forward to speak.

For a moment, beyond the roar of the fire still consuming the wood of the pire, there is utter silence.

“Leave this place, Robert. We know you cannot be killed. But let this be a warning to you. If you return, you will burn as well. And as with this,” his voice dips with contempt as he nods towards the burnt corpse of Daniel Caughlin, “sorcerous filth, we will not cut you down until you have stopped screaming.”

It takes everything in Robbie’s being not to rip the priest apart with his bare hands now that he is not being held back by half the village. But they both know he won’t. They both know he has something more important to do.

Without another word, he stands, cradling his boy close, and walks into the night. It is a long trek to the lake where the willow keeps watch, but he will make it. And as the morning sun rises over a freshly mounded grave, he will take a moment to look into her placid waters and wonder how to carry himself into tomorrow

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isamajor · 11 months

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June of Doom : day 11 to 15

@juneofdoom‘s prompts 11 to 15 ! :D

11 - Self-defense

The bandit's dagger lightly nicked Lucien's cheek, who, with a squeak, casted a ward to try to protect himself from the guy who wanted to kill him and rob him. With little hope, he tried to parley with his assailant.

“Radical suggestion here, but I was wondering... Have you considered not trying to murder me ?”

In response, the bandit tried to stab him again, until his magical ward broke, leaving Lucien helpless and staggering. Without thinking, in self-defense, the Imperial cast a flame spell. Lucien looked horrified when he saw that turned his foe into a living torch. (100)

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12 – Fainting

The fight had been pushing the Dragonborn to the edge of their endurance. Despite the pain they felt through their body, they continued, determined to destroy totally this dragon by absorbing its soul. But their vision blurred and their legs gave way beneath them, surrendering to exhaustion. The world tilted, and the Dragonborn collapsed against the dragon's skeleton. They saw their companions rushed to thir side, voices a distant echo, before a black curtain fell before their eyes.

The Dragonborn awoke to Inigo's concerned face peering down at them.

"I told you, absorbing dragon souls is bad for your health !", growled the Khajiit. (105)

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13 – Rescue

The dragon's breath had burned everything: horses, carts, merchants and their merchandise. Only the mercenary hired to escort the caravan had survived, owing his life to his reflexes as a former soldier. However, his legs had been burned and he could no longer move. Attracted by the smell of cooked meat, a black sabrecat approached dangerously close to him. He couldn't run away. Suddenly, an arrow pierced the eye of the beast which collapsed net. The mercenary looked at who had just recued him: a disparate group made up of a red-haired Bosmer, a scrawny Imperial and a warrior in iron armor. (105)

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14 - Impalement

The clash of swords and the rumble of the spells echoed through the air as the battle raged on. Suddenly, a sharp, agonizing pain erupted in the prince's shoulder. Turning slowly his head, he found a steel blade protruding from his flesh. Blood began to flow from slowly his shoulder, staining Caryallind's jacket in crimson. He clutched at the impaled weapon, torn between the instinct to remove it and the knowledge that doing so might unleash a torrent of blood. With trembling hands, he called for help, hoping that his voice will be heard in the din of the fighting. (102)

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15 - Scream

Weighted by her armor, Lydia began to sink. Panic gripped her as she realized her lungs were betraying her, starved of the oxygen she desperately needed. Bubbles escaped her nose in silent trails, the water swallowing her and taken her deeper and deeper. With every passing moment, the pressure in her chest intensified, urging her to release the scream building within her. And so, Lydia finally opened her mouth, unleashing a silent scream of desperation. It reverberated within her, echoing in the depths, a silent plea for her Thane, or anyone, to rescue her from the watery abyss. (98)

#skyrim #skyrim custom followers #juneofdoom #lucien flavius #inigo #nebarra #Caryalind thallery #lydia skyrim #self defence #fainting #rescue #impalement #scream #burning alive #shoulder injury #drowning

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vaxolang · 8 months

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Burning alive

acrylic painting on canvas

size 50x35 cm

#vaxo lang #burning alive #burning #nightmares #nightmare #acrylic painting #contemporary artist #contemporary art #creepy #creepy art #macabre expression

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m34gs · 8 months

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In your opinion, what are the five most memorable/iconic traps in the Saw franchise?

Oh boy, friend, what a floodgate you've opened....mwahahahaha. Thank you for this ask, I'm rather excited to answer it! It'll be tough to choose just five, but I can do it! :D

I'm going to set myself criteria, because there are a lot of traps and many of them are very interesting; both in the motive behind the trap as well as the mechanics of it. So, I will be judging based on if I have seen fanart of the trap/how often I see fan art of the trap, if I see other people on social media discuss the trap in detail, if I've heard other people discuss the trap irl, and if the trap makes reappearances in sequel movies (either on new individuals, or as a flashback). I will not be doing large traps; that is traps where the person involved has to complete multiple traps in order to progress through a building and get out, but I will include the individual traps within those traps...if that makes sense (this will probably make more sense when I get to explaining the traps I've chosen). I think that's a fair starting point. We do have 9 movies of traps to work through.

Remember, this is my opinion, and is by no means The Golden Standard. If people don't like my opinion, that is fine, but make they can make their own post about it please.

I'm putting the rest under a cut, because this is Saw. There is a copious amount of gore and torture, and even just discussing it could make people not used to it queasy. (though I'll be doing my best not to be too over the top with the horror talk lol) For trigger warnings, read the post tags first. Also; people should just assume spoilers for any Saw 1-9 are possible in this post.

5. Needle Pit: The Needle Pit starts us off at number 5. Not one that usually gets a whole lot of discussion surrounding it, but I have seen a fair share of memes about how people cringe when they watch this one, and I have actually come across fanart themed for it, usually focused mostly on Amanda, the trap's victim, but still involving the trap itself; so it counts. Because I don't expect people who don't watch to know what all the traps are, I will explain them all briefly.

Here we go: Eight people are trapped in a house where they are exposed to a neurotoxin in the air. The Needle Pit trap is a part of the house, a trap within a trap (hopefully now my earlier distinction makes more sense). A pit full of syringes...with the needles all attached. Among them is hidden a key that needs to be dug out within a time limit. If the key is not found prior to the timer going off, the door it opens will be sealed forever, making one of the antidote doses for the toxin unreachable. The Needle Pit was not meant to be Amanda's trap; it was meant for a drug dealer, as atonement for preying upon the struggles of people addicted to drugs. However, Xavier isn't about to climb down into the pit himself, so he shoves Amanda in instead. Every fiber of my being cringes when she lands in the pit of needles. I've heard a lot of people say they find that one of the hardest to watch.

4. Glass Coffin: The Glass Coffin coming in at number 4! This trap never fails to get me, honestly. I'm always yelling at the screen, telling Strahm to just get in the damn box. He never does. Though it's not as often as some of the others on this list, I've seen this trap referenced in fanfiction, in memes (specifically about Hoffman and Strahm as a ship) and I honestly find it one hard to forget.

Peter Strahm is at the scene of a trap, hoping to catch Mark Hoffman, a Jigsaw apprentice undercover as a detective. Peter enters a room, and in the center of the room is a coffin made of glass with broken glass scattered inside of it. There's a recording to listen to; it tells him to climb inside, but he gets distracted by a noise in the hall. Instead of listening further to the tape, Strahm hides and waits for Hoffman. He shoves Hoffman inside and the coffin locks. It's only after the door to the room shuts behind him that he realizes his error and listens to the rest of the tape. The glass coffin lowers into the floor, keeping Hoffman safe. The walls of the room close in on Strahm. In my opinion, this is also one of the worst traps. In a lot of other ones, the death is instantaneous if you fail. In this one, you can do nothing but watch the walls draw ever closer at a steady pace, waiting to be crushed. It's also one of the most frustrating because if Strahm had just listened to the tape and followed directions, or fought Hoffman in the hallway, or even immediately ran out of the room after shutting the coffin instead of staying to taunt Hoffman, he would have survived. (Strahm and Hoffman are also a ship pairing for the fandom, which is fun!)

3. Brazen Bull: I brought this one in because if there is ONE trap that most people seem to agree is fucking unfair, it's this one. Not unfair as in "inescapable" (you know I could do a whole nother list just dedicated strictly to those), but unfair as in someone totally innocent is punished for a man's lies. I've seen/heard a lot of people rant and rave about how this trap is bullshit because of that. And honestly, it really is. I hate it so much. Which makes it really unforgettable.

The trap: So, the Brazen Bull takes place in the seventh Saw movie. Bobby Dagen is a man who lied about being a previous Jigsaw survivor for the fame and money. Ironically, he gets Jigsaw's attention and has to go through a series of traps to save not only himself but also the people who lied with him (his publicist, his lawyer, and his best friend). He's been unsuccessful. When he gets to the last part, it's based off the trap he claimed he escaped before...with a twist. He has to pull himself up using chains that he has to hook into his flesh and reach an extension cord. Plug in the cord, and save his wife. His innocent wife who never knew he lied because she only met him after he became an alleged "survivor". His sweet wife who fell in love with him and was just trying to support a man she thought was traumatized from being a victim of Jigsaw's games. If he fails (he does), she will be roasted alive inside the Brazen Bull, which is based on an alleged historical method of torture and death. Most fans I personally know hate this trap.

2. Bathroom Trap: The Bathroom Trap comes in at number 2! Honestly, how could it not? It's the entirety of the first movie. It's the entire reason for Chainshipping. It's got so much fanart, so many references in text posts here on Tumblr, and it's impossible to forget because you'd literally have to forget the entire movie while remembering the rest of the franchise. You don't need to say "Lawrence and Adam in the bathroom" or "The first Saw Movie with the Bathroom", you literally just say "The Bathroom" and the fandom knows what you are talking about. We know. There's so much discussion around it, so much dissecting, so many edits, it's truly one of the most iconic in the franchise.

Lawrence and Adam wake up in a dingy bathroom with no windows and only one door out. They are each chained to the bathroom, on opposite ends. Between them lies a body in a puddle of what appears to be blood. The only way out? Saw off their legs with one of the rusty saws provided and crawl to freedom. What makes this so memorable isn't the trap itself; it's the way it was done. Lawrence knows nothing about Adam, Adam knows he was hired by someone to take photos and essentially stalk Lawrence. As the story unfolds, we learn more and more about them, and we see them start to develop some sort of camaraderie because they are trapped together. The ending, of course, ripped a hole in the heart of Chainshippers. Lawrence is able to escape. Adam is not. (he is alive and well in my HEART)

Honourable mentions: Razor Wire Maze (Saw, 2004) - crawl through a maze of razor wire (barbed wire), Pendulum Trap (Saw V) - crush the hands to stop a pendulum blade from dropping steadily lower and cutting the body in half, Public Execution (Saw VII) - three people, involved in cheating on each other, are in a large box in public; two tied to saws and one suspended above...they must decide which two survive, The Bedroom (Saw IV) - a rapist must gouge out his own eyes using a machine and hold the mechanism in place long enough to prevent his limbs being torn off, Shotgun Collar (Saw III) - a surgeon must keep Jigsaw alive long enough to watch another trap be completed; if his heart stops before the gun collar around her neck is removed, it will blow her head off (this trap also has a ship: the surgeon, Lynn, and Jigsaw's apprentice, Amanda), Shotgun Carousel (Saw VI) - six people are strapped to a carousel and it will stop each one of them in front of a gun at one point; the only way to stop the gun from going off is for their boss (who is forced to watch) to press a button which will drill into his own hand...and he can only save two.

Reverse Bear Trap: No one is probably shocked by this. This is it. This is the iconic trap. It's THE trap. It gets used and referenced multiple times in the series, there is so much fanart of characters in the trap, or even just the trap itself, and it's so easily recognizable.

The trap itself is simple. It's a bear trap that is reversed; instead of swinging shut, it explodes open. A metal piece is placed in the victim's mouth, ensuring that if they do not find the key and get it off in time, their head will be ripped open.

This trap appears in Saw (2004) as the trap Amanda Young is in prior to her becoming an apprentice to Jigsaw. She manages to get her key, unlock the trap, pull it off her head, and escape. It appears in Jigsaw's workshop in Saw III. It gets used on Hoffman in Saw VI; and he escapes even though he is not meant to, as it was meant to be a betrayal by Jigsaw's wife Jill. In Saw VII, Jill falls victim to the trap as revenge from Hoffman, and she dies. But, before all of that, The Reverse Bear Trap is in a short film, the short that predates the entire rest of the series. Referred to often as Saw 0.5 (2003), the original short film features the Reverse Bear Trap as it's only trap. It is actually almost the exact scenario Amanda faced, but with a man named David being the victim instead. It's a 9 minute film that was used to pitch the idea for Saw (2004). It can be found on YouTube, which is where I watched it.

So, yeah, the Reverse Bear Trap is very ingrained in the franchise. Anyone in the fandom would recognize it. There's even people who haven't seen any of the movies who have heard of it.

Hope that was entertaining and not too graphic for you! Thanks for the ask, I had a lot of fun answering!!!

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