[PRP] Come Unstuck [Trauma/Snow Glass Apples]

[Ruriska]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/maxx/trauma_uncert.png[/imgleft] Trauma was trying not to panic.

Not an easy task considering his less than stable temperament but he had entered the cave hoping that his presence there would be a useful one and had managed to keep his emotions under control for a good while, despite the presence of so many new kin.

But the situation had changed.

‘I suggest working in teams for safety,’ the Zikwa had suggested just before Trauma had skittered away on his own, picked a tunnel and disappeared into the darkness very much alone. It had gone perfectly fine until he’d found a huge cavern only accessible through a narrow passage.

Trauma was a kin whose image of himself was much smaller than reality.

He’d squeezed partially into the passage and then discovered he was suddenly very, very stuck. With a whine, Trauma alternated between pushing forward and back, going nowhere either way. Teeth clenched painfully and his chest growing tighter by the second, he was really beginning to wish he had brought a friend.

@Jun

[Jun]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/maxx/sn ... uncert.png[/imgleft]

Snow Glass Apples had a voice like breaking ice. There were those who found the brittle tinkle charming, and there were those who found it...understandably...disconcerting. For better or worse, this was the voice that piped up behind Trauma right now:

"Are you alright?"

Snow Glass Apples had also entered the cave knowing that help was needed, though she hadn't expected that this would be the help that was needed.

But she'd always had a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

It turned out that Trauma was very much in the latter group, for when that voice suddenly piped up behind him his knees weakened and he immediately prepared to shed his mortal form.

Except the demon with a voice like splintered shards had asked him a question and when he wasn’t immediately consumed or dragged away for a painful death, he found himself obliged to answer.

“Not really,” he gasped.

@Jun

[Jun]

"I'll try to tug you out, shall I."

It was phrased like a question, but not punctuated like one, because, honestly, he didn't really have a choice in the matter.

She trotted about, peering at his protruding rump, and decided there was nothing to do but to go for it.

So she chomped down on his very fluffy tail.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

Like a frightened dog that had suddenly been manhandled, Trauma turned to bite.

Or he would have, if he could have moved.

Instead he struggled against the confines of the rock walls, growled, whined and then decided he couldn't breathe, his chest was closing in, he was dying, suffocating, the earth was closing in...

With a sigh, Trauma slumped into a faint.

@Jun

[Jun]

One moment, the buck was huffing and puffing and wriggling around to get free as best as he could, and the next, he was out like a flame.

She let go of his tail and paused for a moment to check if he was still alive.

Yes. Still breathing.

She raised a hoof and kicked it lightly at his rump.

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

Trauma came to much faster than he would have liked.

Just in time for the gentle kick to the rump that made him whine as he’d been struck much harder, tail tucking in as he waited for the next hit.

It never came, so he reassessed the situation. He was still stuck, a stranger was behind him, he felt queasy and his shoulders were aching where they had been holding all of his weight.

His first step was to gather his hooves beneath him and the next was to offer a very tentative, “hello?”.

@Jun

[Jun]

"Oh, good," she said, in her icy tinkle, "you're awake."

She did not apologise for kicking his rump.

"Shall I try tugging again?" she said, "or would you rather try something else?"

This time it was a question, because she couldn't say all the tugging actually did anything for his predicament.

(And it wasn't as if it had been very easy to clamp down on that giant fluffy tuft.)

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

Trauma’s whole behind drooped, trying to tuck away a tail that was far too short and fluffy to be tucked.

“I-I’m fine,” he whined, hoping she would go away.

He was not at all fine but he wasn’t sure his heart could handle any more.


@Jun

[Jun]

"Mmm," Snow Glass Apples said.

She scooted as close to the crack he was stuck in as possible, unceremoniously shoving into the buck's side, until she could peer past his also rather fluffy head, and surveyed the continuance of the passage ahead.

"Mmm," she said.

She also had a knack for knowing when she wasn't wanted, so she went away.

@Ruriska (She'll be back...probably. >A>)

[Ruriska]

She went away.

Trauma let out a great sigh of relief and relaxed as much as one can relax while stuck between a rock and a hard place with the predisposition towards panic attacks.

He wiggled a bit, he struggled some, he pushed, he heaved and eventually he -

Called out in a tiny, worried voice, “...hello?”

Because he would very much like her to come back, even if she was bite-y and sounded like winter.

@Jun (and then he died in the cave. rip)

[Jun]

He had to wait quite a long time before she came back (ed note: but not as long as you did I'm so sorry QAQ), but eventually she did, with a turtleshell full of water, that she slid under his body, through the passage, till it came to a stop under his nose.

"Unfortunately I couldn't find a way through to the other side," she tinkled, "so I doubt anyone's coming to push you back through the hole, I'm afraid.

"If that's so, I can only think of two options. You can starve it out till you're thin enough to back out. I'll bring you water and stay here with you. And bring you food if you really think you're going to die.

"Or I can find a strong vine and get a lot of kin in here to try to pull you out. Shall we try that?"

@Ruriska

[Ruriska]

He had never been more grateful in his life for the presence of another kin, even if her return and the suspicious object she shoved between his legs initially made him give a short and strangled scream.

But when he realized she had come with salvation, it made him want to grovel at her hooves. The ice demon had shown him kindness!

Both options didn’t sound ideal but he wasn’t in a position to be choosey. As he dipped his head to lap up a drink of water, his tail gave a hesitant little wag.

“I think,” he said, in a soft pitiful sort of voice touched by burgeoning hope, “we should try the second option first.”

@Jun (and then I made you wait 5eva Q_Q)

[Jun]

"Sounds good to me."

There might have been the hint of a smile in her brittle voice.

* * * * *

It took another quite long time, but, eventually, the echoes of voices began to bounce off the cavern walls, until it was evident an assortment of kin had gathered in the cave.

"We'll just need to get this vine around you," her brittle tinkle had returned with them, perhaps a tad muffled by the thick rope she carried in her mouth.

@Ruriska (it ok he's almost out! >A> and then the vine breaks)

[Ruriska]

By the time she returned with help, Trauma’s small reserve of hope had already run dry and he was mentally saying his farewells to his loved ones, a depressingly small list. He thought maybe Misery would be sad about his disappearance but he wasn’t sure anyone else would notice.

But when the voices arrived, led by his new iceborn saviour, his fluffy tail gave an involuntary waggle.

“You came back,” he nearly sobbed. “Yes, yes, use the vine!”

He was very anxious to be freed and couldn’t be much help to the process but he tried to remain as still as possible for whatever came next.


( @Jun lmao. he would probably just die on the spot. doesn't even need to waste away. his heart just gives up like a terrified rabbit. )