Fluent Freshman - Part 23
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There were a few reasons that Andrew and Neil could not get past reception to go see FF or get updates on his current condition.
The first reason was that visiting hours were long over by the time they had arrived a little after midnight.
The second reason was that hospitals, in general, don’t just give out information on their patients to any random person that walks in and asks for an update on their condition. They are ESPECIALLY hesitant to give out updates on patients when the people who are asking can’t give you anything other than a first name, general description, and the reason that the patient is in the hospital.
Somehow “Completely average looking guy with the last name Smith who was stabbed in the stomach” is not enough for the receptionist to go off of.
“There are multiple people here that fit that description. I would need at least a first and last name before I could even begin to start seeing if you were someone who we even could give updates to. No, I will not continue to play your fun little game of guess the first name.” She says when Andrew opens his mouth to start listing off names alphabetically again.
So now Andrew and Neil found themselves under the watchful eye of a security guard as they sat in the back corner of the front reception area.
“I can’t believe we still don’t know what Smith’s first name is.” Neil says his face is buried in his hands as he and Andrew sit in the uncomfortable chairs trying to figure out where to go from here.
“I think she knows exactly who we want to see.” Andrew scowls towards the receptionist who, long used to the ire of the public, pays him no mind. Andrew just refused to believe that there were that many brown haired, brown eyed, average height and weight guys who had suffered a stab wound to the stomach that would have been admitted in the last two hours.
“I just hope they actually are looking after him and that no one went and forgot about him in an hallway somewhere.” Neil says hands sliding up into his hair to grip.
“That wouldn’t happen.” Andrew dismisses despite knowing that Wymack had ABSOLUTELY forgotten FF at a stadium once during the period where FF had been low presence to keep his family from bothering him.
The U-turn he had pulled had definitely been illegal when FF called and asked where the bus was when they had been on the road for five minutes. Wymack had felt terrible about it but FF had just seemed relieved that the bus had come back for him.
Wymack.
Andrew pulls out his phone and dials a familiar number. Wymack, reliable as always, picks up on the fourth ring with the sound of cursing as he got the phone up to his ear. “What.” He asks and Andrew can hear the sounds of driving and Kevin’s infamously train-like snoring in the background.
“What’s Smith first name. You know it.” Andrew demands.
“Classified.” Wymack clips back immediately.
“I need to know it so that we can get updates.” Andrew hisses.
“He isn’t interested in people knowing it and you wouldn’t be able to get updates anyways.” Wymack dismisses.
“We want to be able to head back to see him.” Neil tries.
“Visiting hours are long over Josten. You know that I’m not settling that bet that you little fuckers have floating around about this.” Wymack responds back.
Andrew grits his teeth and then forces himself to relax his jaw, “It’s not about the bet.” Andrew shuts his eyes in irritation.
That stupid bet.
The betting culture within the Palmetto State Foxes Exy team that Reynold’s had cultivated held strong even after her graduation with the remaining Foxes. The Bet had started when one of the other freshmen had mentioned that it was funny that FF went around like Cher or Madonna. The realization that none of them knew FF’s first name was one that had them placing bets on a multitude of things. Things like: “Do you wanna bet it’s a super normal boring name?”, “Do you wanna bet that it’s a weird foreign name?”, and “Is FF intentionally not giving it out to people or since he goes by his last name normally he has no idea that anything is amiss?” Had lower pools since you were betting on a spectrum. The bet with the highest pool is: “What is FF’s first name”.
Wymack had categorically refused to answer it and all other attempts to discover FF’s first name had been met with frustration. There was a solemn agreement that no one could just go and outright ask him since that would ruin all of the fun. Andrew had agreed to not ask when the team had collectively filled his freezer with ice cream cake and he was a man of his word.
The general belief (after the revelation of his major and the number of languages FF spoke) was that FF’s name was just not easy to pronounce for English speakers.
Andrew hadn’t participated but he know that the Foxes do have a running list of names they know it’s not. (Greg, Will, Smith (again), Matt, Kevin, Neil, Andrew, Aaron, Nathaniel, Jack, Beyonce (Sheena’s drunken guess), Nicholas, John, Fred, Garfield, Frank, Alfred, Augustus, Adam, etc. (Andrew had been trying to guess with the receptionist for a while))
“You’re coming here aren’t you? We can get updates when you get them.” Neil says.
“He’s in emergency surgery right now and will remain there for the next few hours most likely. There’s not going to be any updates hopefully.” Wymack says with a sigh loud enough that they can hear it over Kevin’s snoring.
“Surgery? He needs surgery?” Neil asks sounding surprised s if FF hadn’t been stabbed to the hilt into his stomach with one of Andrew’s knives. He’s about to give Neil some shit for the question before remembering that if there was any person who would think that a stab wound to the stomach wouldn’t necessitate surgery it would be Neil “I’m Fine” Josten.
“Yes Josten, he needs surgery. They have to stitch up his stomach and the surgeons are also going to be dealing with some of the ulcers that were ruptured by the knife.” Wymack explains likely coming to the same conclusion that Andrew had on Neil’s stupid question. “They were a bit worried about him bleeding out but he stabilized before the surgery.” Wymack sighs.
“I’m going the hospital since I’m Smith’s medical proxy. If anything goes wrong with the surgery I want to be there so I can make an informed decision on his care.” Wymack says and… Andrew figured there’d be surgery but to hear it and the possibility that something could go wrong, that the last thing FF had said to him had been something non-sensical about “Gracie Hart wouldn’t have gotten stabbed. I’m Cheryl at best.”as he’d started succumbing to all the blood loss. “If you could stick around long enough for me to drop Kevin off with you I would appreciate it.” Wymack says.
“What if he needs a blood transfusion?” Andrew says.
“Smith is AB-, it’s the second easiest blood type to transfuse into. Go home Andrew.” Wymack repeats.
Andrew works his jaw irritated that there didn’t seem to be a path to getting his way.
“We’ll stay here until you get here.” Andrew agrees, “But you’ll get an update before we leave.” He adds.
Wymack sighs, “Fair enough.” He says before hanging up.
It’s 45 minutes of waiting and tossing a few more name possibilities at the receptionist who seems more amused than anything at their continued attempts to guess their friend’s first name (Neil goes through the entire list of names that he’s gone by and none of them get the thumbs up).
Wymack comes through the doors with a half awake Kevin Day following his steps. “I have another favor to ask you.” Wymack says instead of any form of greeting.
“I’m not going to leave Kevin in the car overnight again. It was just that one time.” Andrew says with a roll of his eyes and honestly he’d been punished enough listening to Kevin bitch, moan, and sneeze for the following week while talking about all the supplements he was taking.
“Not that,” Wymack pauses, “I have two favors to ask you. First don’t do that. Second, would you be able to pick up Smith’s grandma from the airport tomorrow?” He asks.
Andrew blinks.
“She’s coming here?” He asks.
“I updated her on my way here. She booked a flight and will be arriving around noon tomorrow.” Wymack says and Andrew doesn’t know why he’s confused by this. FF’s grandma got him two still warm pies to cheer him up on Thanksgiving.
He’d stabbed that woman’s grandson.
“I’ll pick her up.” He agrees.
Shorter one today
NEXT
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ANOTHER THING
in the show, we are constantly shown joels humanity. we haven't really seen the joel that everyone is so wary of, we are more in ellies POV in this regard than joels.
in the game, you're always reminded of it, because it's a violent third person shooter and you are joel. you're thrown into ambush scenarios where everyone else dies and you make it out and there are some brutal death animations and you are confronted with joels violence and ruthlessness again and again.
it's difficult to do that in a show. and there's also a level of expectedness about "what is possible for me to do here that i can walk away from" in a game that is on a very different wavelength than a TV show.
ellie has always been joels humanity, in both versions of the story. but in the show, instead of being reminded over and over about the violence of joel, were reminded of the humanity of joel. we see him connect with ellie and mourn tess and bill and frank and feel heartbreak at henry and sam (though I think henry and sam breaks his heart for ellie more than himself)
and hes fought it the whole way! it's no good, it's gonna get him killed! until he reaches a point where he gives ellie the chance to set him free or take him along and seal that fate.
and of course she takes him, she trusts him and no one else and he has fulfilled his promise of protection that she saw when he killed the FEDRA officer.
but now. now joel is in and all in with whatever this means and whatever this brings. and now that he's all in, he will do whatever necessary to protect ellie and get her through this and back to tommys home (their home).
i hope they show us just how far joel will go go to keep her safe and show that the stories we and ellie have been hearing about joel are far less accurate than we've been lead to believe.
i want to see him show us why people have been afraid of his violence, in the face of ellie being threatened.
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NOO IM CRYINg i found these bittersweet prompts AND?? 9 AND 10 GOODBYE that's basically canon revalink and im so sad now
user crow cryiling wants me to die y'all
9.
“We won’t grow old together, will we?”
“No, but we made memories that’ll outlive even us.”
for the longest fucking time, i've been wanting to write a fic where revalink is some level of established before the calamity, and they talk right before link is about to leave to go fight ganon at the castle. there are so many different ways i could write it go down but for this prompt... while everyone else is hopeful that they'll be able to beat calamity ganon, revali and link are much more perceptive of their fates. the calamity ganon is a beast unlike any other monsters they've faced together, it's a pure incarnation of an ancient evil that not even the heroes of the past have ever conquered. the other champions haven't gained full control of their beasts yet. zelda's powers have still not awakened. hell, link still has yet to tap into the full potential of the master sword. they were never going to have enough time, this battle was never meant to be won by them; it was never meant to be.
after daruk is finished delegating tasks to the other champions at mount lanayru, link turns to face revali and they both already know. this is it, this the end for them now.
link barely takes one step towards revali before the rito strides forward and wraps the little hylian tightly in his wings. link can barely take one breath before his vision is full of navy blue, his skin smothered in a warmth he's never going to be able to feel again, and the emotions he vowed to never show swell in his chest and rise from his ribcage up his throat, until link is choking back tears into revali's neck.
"it's alright, little jewel," revali murmurs into his hair, still holding him tightly. "we did what we could."
"i know," link whispers, blinded by his own tears and navy blue feathers. "i know. i'm still scared."
"the hylian champion and the wielder of the sword who seals the darkness? scared?" revali tries to tease, but even his voice betrays him. he's just as terrified as link is, with the barest tremble in his feathers.
link breathes in deeply, shutting his eyes and trying to will his tears away. "i wish we had more time," he mumbles into revali's neck. then, he looks up at his lover, with the same wide blue-eyed gaze for the last time. "we won't grow old together, will we?"
"no," revali replies softly, cupping link's face, "but we made memories that'll outlive even us." he presses their foreheads together shutting his eyes, and link holds revali's face in both hands to press a soft kiss to the middle of his beak.
"i love you," link whispers, voice cracking. "i love you so fucking much. i wanted everything with you after this."
"i as well," revali says, brushing link's cheek with a gentle thumb. "in another life, i hope the goddesses will be kinder to us. i'll meet you there in our next life and we can do everything we always wanted, alright? for now... fight that old beast like hell for me, darling."
"as if i'd go down without a fight," link mutters, jaw tightening. "even if it kills me, i'll make sure it'll hurt him a hundred times harder."
footsteps approach and revali looks up to meet eyes with zelda, who wears a remorseful expression. he takes a breath and gives her a nod, before slowly, painfully, beginning to let go of link.
"it's time for you to take-off, songbird," revali murmurs. "give him everything you've got. and when you're ready to return, your heart will know where to find me."
link sniffles and pulls away, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. "he won't know what hit him," he says shakily. "til the next time, 'vali. i'll see you there."
"don't be late," revali replies softly, gaze ever so endeared upon link. "i'll be waiting for you, my love."
(they're right; the champions fall within their beasts, and as revali finally collapses to the ground from windblight's attacks, he faces hyrule castle swarmed in horrid, pulsing malice.
"return to me safely, songbird," he whispers and shuts his eyes, taking his final breath. revali can only hope that link will.)
10. “You’re only a memory to me now, but you’re my most cherished memory.”
for this one, i'm imagining link returning to vah medoh after he clears his final divine beast, the night before he plans to fight calamity ganon. i've always leaned towards the idea that link doesn't recall all of his memories and the memories you receive in-game are only flickers of a past link doesn't ever really get to remember so...
he doesn't remember what he had with revali pre-calamity per se, but he's the only ghost of the past that gets more than just flickers of memories. there was more to it than this, link knows it in his soul. it's been bothering him since impa first mentioned the divine beasts, since he saw the floating mechanical bird in the distance, since he stepped into rito village and laid his eyes on the landing... ever since he finally met revali atop vah medoh. link needs to know if there was more than just the facade that revali is playing.
"you're here again?" comes revali's voice when the warp finishes solidifying link's body. the little hylian looks up and the rito's ghostly green figure stands a couple feet in front of him upon the cold rock of the rito pillar, his arms crossed and his brows eternally furrowed into an expression of irritation. "don't you have better things to do rather than loitering around medoh? perhaps, oh i don't know, defeating calamity ganon once and for all?"
"i will," link replies, his voice soft and nearly carried away by the night wind. "tomorrow, i'm going to hyrule castle and i'm going to beat him."
revali stares incredulously at link for a few moments, searching his face as though he told a joke of some kind, before he relaxes. "well," revali says, looking away. "it's about time."
link stares at him, watching the way the ghostly green flames flicker around revali's body. "will you still be here when i defeat him?" he whispers, almost hoping that revali wouldn't hear him.
and he almost thinks he doesn't until revali turns to look back at him. he's silent for a couple moments just staring at link until he speaks. "i don't know," revali says finally. "our spirits have been chained to the divine beasts for a century, because we haven't fulfilled our role in assisting you defeat ganon. if you truly plan on fighting him tomorrow... our roles will have been finally fulfilled. i don't know if our spirits will remain here any longer."
"oh," link says and a freezing unease fills his gut. "oh. okay."
revali searches his face again. "why would you want us to stay?"
"well, i mean," link starts. "it's— i wouldn't actually care for anyone else to stay but you." he averts his eyes and swallows. "everyone else... i only remember a few things about them, nothing solid. i sometimes feel like those memories don't even belong to me. but with you..."
link looks up and meets revali's gaze. "every day since i've woken up, i always felt like there was something missing. and even after i relearned how to fight and speak and traveled to try to remember all those things, it still felt like something was missing. until i tried to remember you and— and it felt right, like you were all the missing puzzle pieces this entire time. there had to have been more, right?"
"there wasn't," revali replies stiffly. "we were champions, you were the hero, and there was nothing more."
"oh come on," link says, breathless and almost irritated. "there had to have been more than you just being an asshole to me all the time. please don't lie. you wouldn't have done that to me back then, would you?" and that's what gets the rito.
"don't do this," revali whispers, his arms dropping to his sides. his voice breaks and something in link tells him to reach out to hold the rito in his arms, to hug him tight and never let go again. "we can't do this. you can't try to remember me now, what we had, it's not worth it to put yourself through this pain. i'll only be a memory you can never recreate."
“you’re only a memory to me now," link says, resolve returning to his voice, "but you’re my most cherished memory. you're the only one i can remember like this, revali, you're the only memories i have. so please tell me; did you love me back then?”
the rito is silent for a while, but he eventually responds. "i did," revali whispers, staring mournfully, regretfully. "i'm sorry."
"don't be," link replies, taking a step towards him. "i think i loved you too. i wish i could remember."
"it would be better if you didn't," revali says and looks away. it stops link in his tracks, his heart pounding and his confidence crumbling.
"if you don't stay after i beat ganon," the little hylian whispers, staring at the ground and clenching his fists, "then i want you to know... i would have liked to make more memories with you. i would have liked to see where we would have ended up together. if we had more time together..."
he looks up at revali, who has since returned his gaze back onto link with an unreadable look in his eyes. "i'm sorry for coming back to torment you like this," link says instead. "you should be allowed to rest after waiting for me to free you after all these years. after i defeat ganon, i hope your spirit will rest well. goodbye, revali. i'll avenge you well." then, he turns and runs, jumping off the edge of the rock pillar unfolding the paraglider to glide back down to the village.
and revali lets him go, watching after link as he leaves again, every step translating into a piercing pain in his own ghostly chest. "i would have liked that too, snowdrop," revali whispers, placing a hand over his heart. for the first time in a hundred years, he feels it, that overwhelming feeling that threatens to spill from his eyes and shake his soul so deeply he shatters into a thousand pieces, lost and never to be whole again. "i would have, too..."
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