𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒

[saltburntmods]

MISFIRES

a rambunctious duo in salt has stuck their nose where they shouldn't and now you can all reap the rewards! this is a MISFIRES meme. post a header for your character, and receive accidental texts from your local saltburntian guests. nudes, nasties, confessions of a certain persuasion? things you'd otherwise never write or send? they're all on the table. (meme threads aren't game canon, but they're not not game canon either, right)

Comments

[mygoodsir]

Well, within a month's time the affliction spread to hundreds of people. They would dance until they collapsed; some died from exhaustion or heart failure.

It being 1518, naturally some people thought the cause to be possession, or divine punishment. Physicians suspected overheated blood. Nowadays we think it was mass psychogenic illness, or perhaps ergot poisoning.

[deadnerve]

[Kieran is so predictably engaged by simple storytelling. He puts his weight into Harry's shoulderblades.]

What's ergot? And what's psychogenic mean?

[mygoodsir]

Ergot is a fungus. It grows on grains, so some theorise that it made its way into bread.

Psychogenic means that the mind is the cause. So stress that manifests in the body as illness - or in this case, unwanted movement.

That never did figure out for sure what was causing it.

[deadnerve]

Lame.

[The fact that it was never solved - Kieran dislikes unanswered questions, especially ones left to time. He likes definitive answers - it keeps his mind from going over the question again and again.]

Y'think that was a good or a shit way to go? For the ones that kicked it mid-rave.

[mygoodsir]

I think quite shit, actually. The muscle spasms would have been incredibly painful. Although I suppose if you had a massive coronary early on it might not be so bad.

[deadnerve]

Mmm, I guess it wouldn't be that bad for me - I wouldn't feel it 'til I keeled over.

[Benefit of lacking the Pain Feels. He leans hard on Harry's other shoulderblade.]

Better than getting the plague or whatever, puking your guts out.

[mygoodsir]

Mm, you mean bubonic? Yes, nasty way to go, that. In some cases you'd see symptoms and be dead before the day was out.

[He pauses, and then for no reason he can discern, adds:]

Scurvy is bad in the opposite way. Very slow.

Wait, what do you mean you wouldn't feel it?

[deadnerve]

What happens with scurvy?

[All he knows is - oranges help? He stops giving Harry a massage, and instead just plays with his hair while still being perched against his back. Kneading like a cat, almost.]

Oh, mmh. I don't feel pain. Congenital insensitivity. I can tell hot from cold and all that, but I can't tell when hot's too hot. It's not really a big deal.

[Except when it is.]

[mygoodsir]

Mm. Malaise, lethargy. Joint pain - by the end it feels like broken glass in every joint. Your teeth fall out. Bruising. Old wounds open up. Edema. Nerve damage. It is very preventable, thankfully. [Still, he feels deeply disturbed.

He looks back over one shoulder, interest piqued.]

You never mentioned. It's quite rare.

[deadnerve]

I've been told.

[He leans a bit to the side Harry's looking up from, to meet gaze. He shrugs.]

I used to have a nanny follow me everywhere when I was a kid. It was annoying.

[mygoodsir]

I'm sure it was. But young children will often suffer oral injuries - they don't feel the pain when they bite themselves. Broken bones are common, too.

[He smiles.]

You're a rather special boy.

[deadnerve]

Oh, yeah. I fell off the monkey bars a lot.

[And sometimes it was quite gory. He slowly slips off Harry, to once again lay next to him.]

My dad thinks I'm trouble. My sister thinks I'm fragile. And my brother thinks I'm an idiot.

[mygoodsir]

Well. That's brothers for you. Especially if they're older.

[He wraps an arm around Kieran.]

You seem a fine lad to me.

[deadnerve]

Mmm, you're just sayin' that 'cause I give good head.

[His tone is joking, for the most part. He's curling in toward the arm and Harry both.]

Put me to sleep with more scurvy facts. I like hearing about all the weird medical shit you know of.

[mygoodsir]

No. I'm not.

[He strokes Kieran's back.]

It's nasty stuff, dear. How about instead I tell you about quaint medical procedures of old? Trepanning, maybe.

[deadnerve]

[He makes the noise a teenager who is intrigued by gore would make, but:]

Okay. What's that?

[mygoodsir]

A lovely little procedure where they would drill a hole in your skull.

[deadnerve]

Wait, isn't that lobotomies?

[A true crimer before true crime took its hold post 2007, he's listening.]

[mygoodsir]

Ah, yes, although you're thinking of the prefrontal leucotomy. It was the transorbital lobotomy that became popular.

No, trepanning is very old. They thought to either release evil spirits, or relieve cranial pressure.

[And he sounds... happy. He's always happy to have someone to chatter to about things he finds interesting.]

[deadnerve]

Were they all really different? Isn't a hole just a hole?

[And for once, he doesn't mean that hornily.]

[mygoodsir]

Not quite. The goal of trepanation was to release pressure. Lobotomies aim to sever part of the brain.

[deadnerve]

Didn't one of them fuck up one of the Kennedys?

[Hm. He's quiet, processing it all.]

Do they hurt? They've gotta, right? For most people.

[mygoodsir]

Yes! Rosemary, I believe.

Yes, they would be quite painful. Not something to be messing about with.

Do such things frighten you? Not because of the pain, obviously.

[deadnerve]

I don't know. I sometimes... I get these like, feelings? Impulses I guess. Put my hand in the fire, how bad could this - or a hole in the head - really be? I got told once it's just because I don't have fear to keep me in check. Y'know, fear of being hurt...

[But it's something else, too. Like he knows it really won't hurt him? They went over that already. He's just a reckless teen who thinks he's indestructible. He frowns.]

But I know better. I wouldn't want anyone scooping my brains out. Not 'cause it'd hurt but because... I guess I value my life like anyone else.

cw: suicide

[mygoodsir]

Intrusive thoughts. Yes.

[Harry, with the forearm scars he can't quite remember how he got, his Kieran close.]

Good. Your life is quite valuable indeed. You only get one.