Soup Kitchens and Runaway Ghosts (Part 2)
Part 1 could be read here! Part 3 could be read here!
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***
It was night outside, with the owls hooting and bats flying under the light of the moon.
Jason had a hand on Dani’s shoulder as they sat in the (illegal) Doctor’s kitchen. Although she was putting on a brave face, she was trembling and pulling at the ends of her sweater. Her eyes never left the open door to the room Danny was getting medical help from. They couldn’t see his body, but they could see the Doctor walking to and fro’ the bed Danny was placed on.
“Hey,” Jason whispered, soothingly, hoping it’s the same comforting way Dick does.
Slowly, her gaze turns to him. Her chin was trembling, and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. Shit. What would Dick do? Jason didn’t think this far in the comforting thing.
So, he tugged the little girl closer, hugging her with his arm. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered to her. “He’s in good hands.”
She sniffed, and huffed through the sob that tore through her lips. “I... I don’t know how I could keep Danny safe...”
Jason glanced to her, but she was looking back to the open door. ‘What do you mean?’ he wanted to ask. ‘It’s not your job to take care of him,’ he wanted to say.
Instead, he whispered, “You did your best.” Because she did. She did her best to get food from his soup kitchen for both her and Danny, not at all stopping to eat in the cafeteria, only thinking to have her containers filled. She stole from drug stores. She tried bandaging Danny even if she didn’t know how to do it properly. She took care of him with everything she could.
(A passing memory of his mom, Catherine, flashes in his mind.)
That only made her chin tremble more, which prompted Jason to hug her closer.
Finally, the Doctor stepped out.
***
- The Doctor tells Dani that Danny’s okay now, and that he’ll be telling the Red Hood everything that needs to be done to keep up with the treatment. Then, he tells Dani that she could go and see him. She didn’t need to be told twice and ran into the room.
- The Doctor closes the door, then grunted at the Red Hood. “Look, man. I know I said I would help you for anything medical-related, but I think I need to draw the line at freaky supernatural shit. His blood literally had green where the plasma was supposed to be.”
- Jason removed the safety of his gun.
- The Doctor was unfazed. “I’m not going to tell anyone, but men in white managing to track these kids down because they’re, what, ghosts???? Which is weird because that kid’s heart was beating????? And he’s alive??? In fact, the green stuff does a better job than regular human plasma, it’s unreal, man. Since it replaced the plasma the kid was supposed to HAVE, I’m calling it green plasma, for simplicity, yeah.”
- Jason’s not worried about that. “Tell me about the kid,” he said. “How is he, moving forward?”
- The Doctor’s face pinched. “It’s... not bad... anymore...”
- “Anymore?”
- “Look, when you brought the kid in, it’s exactly as you told me: Vivisection wounds, 3rd degree burns from laser guns, infection...”
- The Red Hood was getting impatient with the way he was loosely fidgeting with his gun.
- “Bottom line is, once everything was cleaned and properly stitched, he started... healing? On his own?? I took blood samples, and the green plasma has something to do with it. You know how plasma literally moves the blood cells? It seems to enhance their functions as well. The enhanced white blood cells were fighting against the infection that was also enhanced by the plasma. Once the infection was removed, it was smooth sailing for his body. Now, all the kid needs is rest, food and water.”
- Jason hummed. “I’m burning this house down.” There was a chance that the kids would be leaving some kind of bio-signature in this place, and the Doctor was one of the most competent people he knew after Leslie. He was also really easy to intimidate, but despite the fear, he does his job well. Works well under pressure, like what he wrote in his resume. “Change your clothes and pack your bags, Doc. I’m going to lend you one of my safehouses.”
- The Doctor was quick to nod his head. “I assume that you’re destroying the blood samples as well?”
- Jason pointed his gun towards him. “Did you take a sample?”
- The Doctor was fast to shake his head. “Like I said, I want nothing to do with the supernatural, man. I’m already knees deep in crime, and I really don’t want to be making contracts with beings more demonic than you are.”
- Jason huffed, putting his gun away. “The demon is my brother.” The Doctor squeaked. “After changing, leave your clothes here. It’s burning with the rest of the house.”
- “You got it, man,” said the Doctor, leaving the room with a brisk pace.
- Jason then went in where Danny and Dani were, and it seems like the kid was finally sleeping peacefully on the bed he was in. He was changed into a loose pajama that the Doctor probably had, and was tucked under a clean, beige blanket. Just as the Doctor said, he was looking a hundred times better.
- Dani was smiling. Once she saw him, she jumped out of her seat and ran up to him, hugging his middle while laughing. “He’s okay!” she said. “Thank you thank you thank you so much!!”
- Jason chuckled, patting her head. “No problem, kid.” Even if the Doctor did most of the job.
- “Uh, yes problem?” The Doctor came into the room, clothes changed and face white. “There’s... there’s people... white suits... outside... secret police?? Government agents?? Oh god...”
- Unconsciously, Jason tugged Dani closer.
- Then, Jason took out a domino mask from his leather jacket and an extra rebreather, throwing it to the Doctor. “Put that on, Doc. We can’t have them knowing your face when we make our escape.”
- The Doctor scrambled to put it on.
- Jason turned to Dani. “Get Danny and turn invisible like you did before.”
- “Uh, I can turn all of us invisible and get us to the car if you guys hold on to me,” she said.
- Jason blinked beneath his Red Hood helmet. “You... could do that?”
- Dani blushed in embarrassment while nodding. “I was panicking when they first showed up, okay?! I could fly us to the car as fast as I can, but they’ll still be able to track us...”
- Jason nodded. He turned to Danny, who was now being carried by the Doctor. “I got ‘im,” he whispered, eyes wide in fear and knees trembling. Jason really doesn’t want him carrying Danny since Dani did just fine earlier, but he also didn’t know how much concentration she needs to bring all of them out.
- Jason went into the kitchen and opened the gas tank connected to the stove. Then, he and the Doctor walked close to Dani.
- She grabbed onto the back of their shirts, and turned them invisible. Thankfully, he could make out the outline of Dani floating them in the room.
- Also, the Doctor was screaming like a banshee. A panicking banshee.
- “WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP?!?!?” Dani yelled.
- “I’M TRYING!!!”
- “Would my gun work through the invisibility?”
- “We’re not intangible yet, so... I think so?”
- That shut the Doctor up.
- The smell of gas was getting strong.
- “Let’s get outta here,” said Dani. And tuned them intangible, and---- holy shit. Jason couldn’t feel his insides... or his outsides... or anything from his body. He felt... nothing. Not even floaty or light. It was as if he didn’t exist. They fazed through so many walls until they made it out of the house.
- But just as they made it out, the men in white’s gadget started beeping like crazy again.
- “They’re close!”
- “Find them!”
- Thank God the Doctor was quiet.
- Jason watched as they were floated into the car. Jason lost his intangibility and invisibility first, being dropped into the driver’s seat. The Doctor was dropped in the backseat with Danny, and Dani sat in the passenger’s.
- “Put your seatbelt on.”
- Dani looked incredulously at him.
- The Doctor did as Jason told, wrapping one around Danny as well as he laid in the back with them.
- “They’re over there!!” one of the men in white yelled.
- Some blasters were shooting at them now, and the Doctor rightfully screamed again.
- Jason started the car, then took out his gun and shot at one of the blasters.
- The blaster was about to go off, and its shot was redirected to the window of the house.
BOOM!
- While the men in white ducked for cover, away from the explosion, Jason drove away, increasing his speed.
- But no matter how fast he was going, trying to get away, the men in white were chasing after them again in their vans, installed blasters getting out and ready to shoot them again. God, they’re annoying.
- “I... I could blast them too!”
- There’s too many of them. 5 vans, plowing through the trees with their comically giant blasters. One was moving forward.
- He turned to Dani. “Try to make the one in front turn around just as they’re about to launch a blast. It’ll hit the other vans.”
- Dani nodded and fazed through the top of the car, hands glowing green. Just as she left, Jason could see form the rearview mirror how Dani transforms. Although the dark of the night made it unclear in a few places, he could clearly see her hair turning white and clothes changing. He couldn’t see her face as she was faced towards their pursuers.
- Her hands then let out a long green blast towards the van. Just as Jason said, the van flipped, it’s blasters hitting the other two vans behind it. Dani then sent another blast to the other vans, but it was unsuccessful, learning immediately from the first van that was attacked.
- Dani came back into the Hoodmobile (Jason still hates the name, but there really isn’t other name to call it), sitting in the passenger seat and buckling up once more. “What do we do now?”
- They were heading towards Brown Bridge, just past that is China Town, into GCPD territory. If he could just get into the abandoned sections, he’ll be able to get into Red Robin’s patrol route. The techy Robin would be able to fry their devices just as well as Oracle.
- Only a few Gothamites brave travelling at night, but the streets are mostly empty, thankfully. No civilian will be involved in this crazy chase.
- “We’re heading into one of my brothers’ territories,” he said.
- The Doctor squeaked. “The Demon one???”
- “No,” said Jason.
- “You have a Demon for a brother?” Dani asked, eyes looking excited.
- “He might as well be one,” said Jason, increasing his speed once more.
- He passed by a GCPD patrol car, but the driver didn’t chase after him after seeing two vans with massive weapons of mass destruction driving past him. Like the good, corrupt officer he was, he deleted the footage of what he had just seen from his police cameras attached to his person and car.
- Finally, Jason was driving through the abandoned warehouse district of Chinatown. Then, Jason activated his comms. “Red Hood to Red Robin, where the fuck are you?”
- “Red Robin to Red Hood, fuck you, too.”
- “Listen kid, there are some shitheads in white chasing after me. Have you heard from O?”
- “We tried hacking into their systems once they fixed it. No progress. Need me to fry their systems again?”
- “As much as possible. Where’s your nearest safehouse? One that could cover the biological-traces of someone.”
- “Including the post-mortem traces of someone?”
- “Fuck, Replacement, you got something like that? Should I be worried? How many bodies are you hiding??”
- “Hardy-har-har, Hood,” said Red Robin. “They upgraded their coding to avoid being hacked and frying their servers again. Can you hold out for 5 minutes?”
- “3 minutes, Double-R. They brought more of their buddies-- SHIT!!” Jason swerved the car to avoid hitting a pole, entering a warehouse and breaking through the old, wooden walls. “Make it 1 minute! They’re fucking multiplying!”
- “Oh shit! Hood! Look out!” the Doctor screamed, pointing to the biggest blaster Jason’s ever seen.
- Fucking hell. Jason turned to Dani, who was looking at the blaster with wide eyes and a panicked look on her face. “I... I can..” She was panicking, trying to think up of things to do to make the situation better, but Jason is NOT going to let her to anything. She did enough. It’s Jason’s job to take care of her and her brother/cousin right now. (And the Doctor, but that man is the least of his priorities. Sorry, Doc.)
- “I’m almost done, Hood!”
- A stray blast hit the already, severely dented hood of Jason’s car, knocking it off to show its engine. Shitshitshit... He unbuckled his seatbelt, to which Dani and the Doctor followed. ”Red! You done yet?!” he yelled into the comms.
- Red Robin didn’t answer.
- Instead, Jason watched as the vans exploded.
- Jason leaned towards Dani, covering her view before she could see the guts and limbs fly.
- “Shit... I didn’t mean to do that...” Red Robin said on the comms, voice trembling. “I didn’t...”
- Turning to Dani, her face was frozen. “They... they’re...”
- “Hey, hey, hey... it’s okay... it’s alright,” whispered Jason, taking her into his arms. He thought he managed to hide her from the deaths.
- She shook her head. “I... I could feel their souls leaving... I could feel... they’re scared... others are angry... They’re...”
- Well, shit.
- “Let’s get somewhere safe, yeah?” said Jason.
- Dani only nodded, most likely numb and dissociating. Great. Trauma. Okay. Fantastic. Fuck.
- “Red Robin, you still there?” asked Jason.
- “I... yeah. I’m here.”
- Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Okay, Jason. You need to be the voice of reason for a whole bunch of traumatized kids right now. Okay.
- “Double R? Where’s the safehouse and how far is it?” Jason asked.
- “It’s in Upper West Side, right along Schnapp Avenue. There’s an abandoned bookstore there. It’s right above there. The walls are covered with everything you need to cover you.”
- “Okay, we’ll meet up with you there.”
- “I... I’m going, too?”
- Jason wanted to sigh, run a hand down his face, or even punch one of the dead guys that were chasing after them. But he answered, “Yeah, kid. You have any chocolate in there?”
- “Agent A stocks up my safehouses himself.”
- “Good. I really do have everything I need there, then. I’m also bringing along some guests, ‘cause I’m not the only one these bastards are after.”
- Red Robin was quiet.
- “Kids, one who looks younger than the Demon Brat, and the other looks younger than you... and some Doctor that got involved in all this.”
- “Shit...” Red Robin whispered. “Did they...”
- “See? No.” Jason’s not going to tell him that Dani felt the deaths, tho. “I’ll be there in 15 minutes, Red.”
- It was quiet.
- “Red?”
- “Y-yeah... okay. I’ll... I’ll be there, Hood.” Click. Red Robin was no longer on the comms.
- Well... Shit.
*****
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Whump Reference Post for First, Second, and Third Degree Burns
Hi whump writers of Tumblr! Sorry it's been a hot minute; turns out grad school is hard. Anyways, I'm back with another reference post!
There is one image in this post, but there are no graphic images. It's a screenshot of text.
However, I do get a little bit graphic with my descriptions, as I'm trying to provide material that will help with writing, so read with care.
There are six categorizations of burns. They range from first degree (sunburn level) to sixth degree (exposed and/or charred bone).
In the interest of brevity (and also my limited knowledge), I'm going to only address the first, second, and third degree categories of burns. I have various information about each type of burn in each of their sections, and then I go more in depth on the pain associated with each type at the end of the post.
First Degree
Definition:
First degree burns are superficial, and affect only the outer layer of skin (epidermis).
Possible causes:
Mild sunburn, hot water.
Appearance:
First degree burns will be red, dry, and have no blisters.
Pain:
First degree burns are minimally painful in the moment, and negligibly painful afterwards. The skin becomes itchy as it heals, which may come any time from hours to a day or so after the initial burn.
Ideal treatment:
Run the burn under cold water, or apply cold compresses. (You’ll see some people writing about putting cold mud or dirt on these. That not decrease the pain. The tiny particles of dirt will rub all against the sensitive burned skin like sandpaper.)
Apply normal antibiotic ointment and bandage if desired, but honestly it’s not really necessary as long as the skin isn’t broken.
This can be treated at home.
Healing time:
Generally takes less than a week to heal.
Second Degree
Definition:
Second degree burns involve the epidermis and part of the dermis (the thicker layer of skin under the epidermis).
Possible causes:
Brief contact with boiling water, 1-2 seconds contact with hot metal (hot like a pan on a mid-heat stove, not hot like white-hot), some mid-level sunburn, etc. They're the most common type of burn.
Appearance:
Second degree burns will have shiny skin and the skin will be visibly discolored.
There may also be blisters that form within the first 24 hours. The blisters will be a very thin layer of skin that will fill up with fluid like a bubble. If you gently push on a part of this bubble, you can see the fluid move to the other side. Depending on the area of the body in which this burn occurs, the skin of this blister can be very delicate, and a lot of care needs to be taken in order to keep it unbroken (recommended for healing to protect against infection). If the blister breaks or comes off, the skin beneath will be red, wet, and slimy to the touch.
Pain:
These burns are very painful.
Immediately after the initial burn, it will be a strong and consistent pain. Ice can be applied or the burn can be submerged in cold water. If this is not done for long enough however, removal of the ice / cold water will bring back the pain in one or two minutes.
If the blister breaks, there is a significant increase in pain. Ideally, you shouldn't touch the exposed gooey skin because of the risk of contaminating it with the bacteria on your fingers. However, if you want to cause a lot of low-cost mid-to-high-level pain for a brief moment, your whumper can jam their finger right on that exposed wound. Salt and other granular substances are also extremely effective here; the nerves are primed for more pain. After a while however, this will have lesser and lesser of an effect, as the place becomes almost numb.
The blisterless open wound is a highway for bacteria. If you want to reduce infection risk, you need to clean it out thoroughly after the salt situation (which is also painful!) and then bandage it.
Keeping the burn bandaged will reduce the pain. Some doctors recommend temporarily covering a new burn with cling wrap until the burned person can get to a medical professional or treat the wound themselves. Oddly, regular cling-wrap does actually reduce the pain significantly.
Ideal treatment:
If the object that caused the burn wasn't clean, the burned area should be gently cleaned with soap and water.
One should then run the burned area under cold water for at least five and up to thirty minutes.
If the skin is broken, an antibiotic ointment and bandage should be applied. If the skin is unbroken, bandage anyways, but antibiotic ointment isn’t as necessary.
The burn should be kept covered for at least the first few days. If skin was broken, the area should be covered until new skin grows over.
This can be treated at home.
Healing time:
Depending on the size, depth, and complications, this can take anywhere from a week (for small burns) to several months to heal.
Third Degree
Definition:
Third degree burns go all the way through both the epidermis and the dermis and may go into the hypodermis (the subcutaneous layer of skin that has the fat).
Possible causes:
Prolonged contact with stovetop-level-hot metal, prolonged exposure to flames from a fire, prolonged contact with or submersion in boiling water, acidic or basic chemicals, dry ice.
Appearance:
The burned part itself may be white or black. This is because the skin level that contains the blood vessels (the dermis) has been burned through.
The outer edges of the burned area may only be second degree, depending on how the burn was administered, and blisters may form here.
After a day or two, the very outer edge of the burned area will form a surrounding line of red. This is granulated tissue, and is a sign of the body trying to heal itself.
The area within an inch or two of the burn may become slightly red, swollen, and hot to the touch. As long as this is slight, this is normal, and not infection. The area of the body is just traumatized and working overtime.
Scarring will definitely occur. If the burned area is large, skin grafts may minimize the scarring.
Pain:
These types of burns aren’t really painful. There is of course the initial piercing pain shock when the hot object comes into contact with the skin, but after the skin layers that contain the nerves have been burned through, the pain is negligible (if there at all). This burn looks terrifying, and like it should be absolutely agonizing, but it’s not even close to that. There may be some slight pain around the outsides of the burn, where the skin is minimally affected, but most of the area will be nearly numb.
Ideal Treatment:
The area should be cleaned thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly. The outside layer of dead skin should be scraped off when cleaning with soap and water. Leaving the dead skin there may impede healing, and as long as the wound is covered with something, risk of infection isn’t too significant.
Antibiotic ointment and a bandage and gauze should be applied to absorb everything that leaks out (if the skin is broken, pus will leak out).
If the burn encompasses more than a small area (or a narrow area) skin grafts are recommended.
This can technically be treated at home, as long as there’s no infection.
Healing time:
Smaller burns generally take at least three weeks to heal. Larger burns can take years.
More In Depth On The Pain
First degree burns tend to feel "just the wrong side of warm" when they first occur, and shortly afterwards tend to feel kind of prickly. A longer time afterwards, it will be overly sensitive and warm to the touch, and will be uncomfortable to put clothing over. As the burn heals, the sensitivity will turn into mild itchiness.
Second degree burns are a sharp pain. If it's a quick cause (boiling water that quickly falls off, hot metal quickly removed), it's likely that the brain won't initially register the heat, just the sharp sting. Within a minute or so, that sting will increase significantly. As said before: running the area under cold water, or covering it with ice will reduce the pain, but it'll come back quite quickly once you remove the cold source. If you can suffer through the initial 5-10 minutes of the increased stinging, it'll fade enough that you can think rationally again. Longer term: the blister itself is not necessarily painful, but if the skin covering it breaks, the stinging pain from before will resurface (at a lower level, but longer-lasting).
Third degree burns start out with the same sharp pain as second degree, but that pain fades as the nerves in the skin are burnt out and killed. Depending on the vector of heat, this can be extremely quick (very hot metal will cause the sharp second degree pain to fade within the minute) or much slower (slowly heating water in which someone's body part lies will have a much longer period of the sharp second degree pain, and will be much more agonizing than the metal). Once the nerves are burned through, there comes a kind of numbness. The nerves at the very edge of the burn are still alive and somewhat functioning, and there will likely be a bit of sharpness there, but the majority of the affected area will be free from any sensation. The worst part of this type of burn isn't the pain, but the intrinsic horror that it's such a significant deformity that there is no pain.
The numbness will continue after the initial burn and into the healing stage, to the point where the affected person might not even remember they're injured until they feel the liquid from the burn trickle down over their skin. As the healing progresses, the itchiness will be absolutely maddening. The area must be covered by something because the affected person will likely unconsciously scratch at it to try to get some relief. Any scratching will set back the healing process a significant amount.
Taglist: @blood-and-regrets
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