the "take care" meme

[matingseason]

The "Take Care" Meme
a shipping meme

Life is hard. You can go through rough patches and over bumps, and sometimes it feels as though you're definitely worse for the wear, both physically and mentally. It's nice to have someone - someone more than a friend - there for you in those times...even if you don't think you want them or deserve them. But they're here, and they'll take care of you.

How to Play:
* This is a shipping meme for more tender, soft moments, but a little more serious than your usual "fluff." It's for people who've been broken down by their experience and those who wish to heal them.
* Comment with your character/your preferences. You may also want to specify whether your character will be the one "cared for" or the one doing the "caring" + pertinent information, but for most effectiveness, it's best to be open to both.
* Comment around.


Prompts
1. Know You've Been Hurt By Someone Else: There are scars left on their heart from a past relationship or fling, and you have to let them know you're not the same way.
2. Can Tell By the Way You Carry Yourself: The person you have feelings for is one of those "cold stone wall" types who pushes people away. Can you get past that?
3. I've Asked About You: You've only heard bad things about this person, but you don't believe it.
4. What's a Life with No Fun: Lighten up a bit! You'd do anything to bring a smile to their face.
5. Please Don't Be So Ashamed: You have a big, BIG secret you don't want the other person to find out about, because surely they wouldn't want to even be near you if they did.
6. I've Had Mine, You've Had Yours: You've both had problems, and it could help to compare wounds so they can begin to heal.
7. Those Lies Heal: Protecting your loved one is more important that the truth, isn't it? It's a lie, but there are good intentions here.
8. You Can't Sleep: Because of past trauma, you're having a sleepless night. Luckily, this time you have somebody to help you and give you some comfort.
9. You Cry Still: The obligatory "seeing your significant other/love cry over something and wanting to make them stop at any cost" option.
10. All Get a Little Taste: Your loved one is sick or injured - literally this time - and you're looking out for them and trying to get them better.
11. You Just Don't Know: Either through magic, torture, or blunt trauma to the head, your special person can't remember you! It's up to you to get them to remember what was between you two by showing all the ways you cared for each other.
12. I Give Her Space: Part of being a careful lover is knowing when you need to leave them alone.
13. Tryna Run from That: Uh-oh, you don't want to fall in love, because you've been there, done that! Maybe there's still time to escape from this...or maybe it's too late.
14. I Will Care for You: After a particularly rough day, you're need a little TLC. Your loved one is going to do everything for you - a bath, food, the works.
15. All the Baggage Just Ain't as Heavy: You know it will take a while for this person to mend psychologically and spiritually, and you're willing to wait.
16. Change the Pace: And the smut option. Show you care through sex.
17. We'll Just Go Slow: You're going to take things one step at a time. No need to rush and define things. Just enjoy each other's company and the healing it brings.
18. We All Have Our Nights: Your lover, because of their past experience, is having a complete breakdown. You have to bring them back from the edge.
19. You Don't Say You Love Me: You both know how you feel, but one of you is having problems saying the four letter word. That's okay, though. Your lover understands.
20. To Save You: After months or years, you've both worked on the problems and old scars and you might just be ready to start something resembling a normal love.
21. CHOOSE SOMETHING ELSE

Comments

[alostranger]

You understand.

it's like that, and when you're alone. You're at one with creation. No humans understand that anymore.

[badcampingtrip]

[He'd told her that was why he became a Ranger, out of love for the trees]

...I know..

[alostranger]

[wild, insane -] Come with me.

[badcampingtrip]

Where?

[alostranger]

[It's the change. His hair is longer and those two bumps on his head are becoming far more pronounced. His face is still human, that's the worst part of it but it's the change. He'll say it again and again. He just needs to eat.

Instead he just tugs her gently and points out in the forest.]

There. we'll rule.. You'll be even more of a...a queen then you are.

[badcampingtrip]

[She frowns as he tugs her along, eyebrows raising as he suggests the forest.]

What?

[She worms her way out of his grasp, by force if she has to, but she has to have that space between them. Her fantasy shatters around her and she can't believe what he said.]

[alostranger]

[His throat is tensing. his voice rougher.]

It's free, I could tell you, you think that you love the forest now, I could take you and the things... The things I could show you...

[The you dissolves into a low rumble in his chest. He takes a step back, breathing hard and heavy as his body changes in size and shape subtle, small and subtle...]

You could be like me.

[badcampingtrip]

[Her fear is like a scent stick snapped in the air. She takes an involuntary step backwards, hands spread out in front of her.]

Paul, I-

[Her voice tightens stressfully.]

I don't want to be like you. Let me call the government, please. Let them try. You could be like me.

[Human. Yes, she was almost pleading with him.]

[alostranger]

[Paul is shoved aside.] That fool. That worthless fool you want him to return? Don't you know he enjoys it?

Don't you know how he kept this in check? Don't you want to know? I am punishment you little fool. I honor you by offering just as I honored this vessel by choosing him as my new host.

There is no cure for me. They will use him, change him. Copy him. Try and make my powers readily available for the masses. You condemn him.

Join with me, and I will give you him back.

[badcampingtrip]

[Oh fuck.

Fuck

Her outspread hands lower to hug herself again, hands fisting around the side of her shirt and she could feel a tremble settle into her bones. Another involuntary step back. Like a rabbit caught in a predators sight and properly so.

She whispers.]

You want me to be a monster with you..

[alostranger]

I want you to return to nature with me. [The creature's voice is much different from Paul's.] The human loves you. He hates me. If I were to win you to him and to me he would cease to give me trouble.

[When he smiles his teeth are pointed.]

Think of the power.

[Inside Paul rears his head. There's no visible struggle but he's screaming inside.]

[badcampingtrip]

[She swallows thickly.]

I- I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to..

[Eat people. She didn't want to eat people. Her heart hurt from the weight of it and it felt like she was being torn in two.

She loved Paul. She loved life.]

[alostranger]

[The wendigo steps closer - closer -]

...You want to be free. So does he....

[And Paul shoves through the creature's power. His eyes shift completely from yellow to blue.His old blue. He mouths a word at her. No before bolting past her and locking the front door to their house.

There's an animal howl, almost like a scream and more thuds. And he's gone.]

[badcampingtrip]

[Reggie's eyes well up with tears as it steps closer and snap wide when Paul's blue comes back.

But then he's gone and she drops onto her ass, hard. She can't do anything but sit there and shake.

After a minute, the only sound echoing through the empty house is Regina's soft heartbreaking sobs.

It was hours later before Reggie calmed down enough to function like a normal person again. Another hour was spent staring into nothingness as she thought about what had happened. She spent another hour standing on her back porch looking at the woods behind her home and the shed that her heart had been locked in earlier in the day.

Finally, she goes to the refrigerator and pulled out two raw slab of meat and stared at them. 'Honey I'm home!' 'Welcome home dear, we're having steak tonight and our favorite kind. You know Bob from the Grocer?' sigh.

She stands in front of the basement door, knuckles rapping, as she asks.]

Paul?

[alostranger]

[No talk of safety. The Wendigo and he have been arguing for the time that it took for her to think. When it smells the meat the Wendigo snuffs at the door and after a moment it opens into darkness.

How to explain. I want you to see me doesn't sound right at all. So for the moment the creature says nothing but it's bigger in the darkness then it was.

It stays in the darkness.]

...Just toss it over. I'll...I'll be up after that.

[badcampingtrip]

[She was almost afraid it was going to be angry with her, for one thing or another and she takes a few steps down and sits on the top stair. She didn't know how to start her questions, but she wasn't leaving.

The two stacks of meat are held out to him on the Styrofoam plates they were wrapped in.]

What do you want me to do..

[alostranger]

[One yellow eye peels out of the darkness. the second is his natural blue. The eyes study her.]

You're not afraid anymore.

...Why?

[badcampingtrip]

[She was still scared, but Regina held herself above it like if she didn't notice or address it, she could just will it away.]

I'm not making any decisions.

But I haven't left yet.

[alostranger]

[The thing smiled. Unseen. It was a terrible smile. When the creature began to walk from the darkness she might be able to see how painful the change is to him. Trapped into this by another's actions.

Paul walks on four legs, standing like a gorilla, most of his body furred. His hands are clawed, clicking on the stone and there are horns - deer horns - that are beginning to grow from his head.

This is a forest god.

But one of his eyes is stark blue and the other is animal yellow.]

...Two steaks?

[badcampingtrip]

[She mentioned before, stories that were passed though the Derrickson line. A line that had lived in these woods since the place was settled and her grandparents were the only ones left that really believed the stories about the things that lived out there in the cover of darkness and foliage.]

..I didn't know how hungry you were.

[She saw the pain in his form and tried to keep her face structured, to not show how much it hurt her to see him half twisted.]

[alostranger]

[One is picked up in clawed hands, inhaling. The other examined.]

Join me?

[There's something mocking in his tone though.]

[badcampingtrip]

[She folds her hands in her lap and shakes her head. Not yet. Not now. Not without answers.]

I want to save him.. To save you..

[Her attempts at keeping Paul and the Wedigo separate were worthless, doubly so since he standing in front of her.]

But the town doesn't have to suffer.

[alostranger]

[The steak is gone. Inhaled. There's a cracking sound, the creature's horns are larger.

The wendigo snorts.]

....Worried about others and he's worried about you. Begging you to leave now, to turn around and not look back. You took him out, tried to make him into a man again.

[The creature's lips pull back] I want, to go home to my valley. My hills. My forest. I kill to keep away, to punish intruders. He's the one that brought me here.

[badcampingtrip]

[Then her question would be simple.]

And what would I have to do?

[alostranger]

[The wendigo laughs and it's head lowers and it's Paul, pure Paul somehow staring out from that face]

Regina no, no I won't damn you no no I won't bring you down too I won't. I won't please...

[the heaving chest, the claws dig into stone. That's why it's here. Punishment. Punishment of it's host. The wendigo speaks again] For power? For immortality? For him?

In time you will forget. A hundred years? Two hundred years? But it would just be you and he. Could you live with that?