#doomposting

tw for heavy-ish angst below

but imagine for a moment that he is. he is cursed. and he knows it. not immediately, not after the first olympics, not after the first and second worlds, not after juniors and still not after the second olympics. not after the first playoffs (lost in round two), nor the second (lost in round 1) or third (lost in the cup finals). but maybe after the fourth playoff elimination (a terrible OT loss on G7 of the conference finals, after yet another shockey comeback) and the next year’s third olympics loss —this time to sweden on the gold medal game—, when sid is all gone and retired and has been for years, when mcdavid got injured a year earlier and hasn’t played since, still, even though he doesn’t have a cup. when mack is getting old and the sharks are right past the cusp of themselves and the best may actually be behind them and mack hasn’t. won. yet. maybe then mack feels it. bone deep. that he is cursed. that what zeev buium said offhandedly that weird night before the draft in 2024 —that stupid fucking thing that was supposed to be a joke just a joke it wasn’t supposed to be real, just another absentminded comment— maybe did curse him, put something rotten in him. that mack is rotten. thats its him. and mack being mack knows because when you know you do know and so mack knows. in that way that’s irreversible. but its mack. the world knows mack. so he thinks fuck this FUCK. THIS. i’m gonna win. i’m going to be the first. mack like achilles, strong and undefeated in so many ways but none that matter. mack who curses the fates because the fates cursed him first and he will not sit and take it. mack going to troy and fighting for it tooth and nail. deciding to not believe. to make it his way. to get a cup. to get the sharks a cup, Will a cup. but he fights too hard. pushes his body too far. gets to the limit and keeps going, uncaring and unrelenting, the same dog on a bone, the same bone. and then it happens. bad hit, too fast, nothing to do but take it and pray to a higher being that doesn’t answer. hospitals and surgery and then another surgery and it doesn’t work and too many i’m sorry’s and a big black shape hovering over him that mack ignores because maybe if he tries this one doctor in switzerland that dada recommended and the blackness hovers and gets bigger and nothing works and then another hospital and then it’s been two years and the sharks are in the playoff race again and he tries to come back and it doesn’t work and he can’t skate and the blackness is so big. and then that year the sharks win a cup. and its glorious and white and pure and so not black. and mack is black. mack is a big curse of blackness that takes and takes and takes from him. and he knows. and will knows. and his family knows. and mcdavid hasn’t played in years but he knows. and he lost contact with sidney after a while but sid texts then and he knows. and the world knows.

the blackness knows. mack knows.