#falling cw

And then he loses his footing, and suddenly he’s plummeting through the branches, scrambling for a handhold, help help help help help help-

it’s darkness the whole way down, uncertainty into what eris meant, what eris did, why eris even gave him a choice at all. abject terror bloomed sickly through his body, the further the descent went on, the lingering threat of the eventual landing growing to a deafening roar like the wind past his ears.

there’s no anticipating it. each second could be his last. every second, the next he’s gone. he dies a thousand deaths imagining the impact coming, over and over, until it does.

with a hard, trembling breath, he finds that no, he didn’t die. but the pain...it’s enough to break a lesser man -- and in ezekiel’s eyes, there could be few lesser men than he.

whatever’s broken, zeke reached an arm back, feeling for the potion renly gave him. less to soothe, more to get him moving again, so he can take the flame and get to the others. the ground’s sticky with...whatever’s coming out of him, if it isn’t just blood. teeth bared, it’s more than just red tracks running down his cheeks, since his forehead bounced off the stone.

to urge himself on, zeke reached to curl a hand around that dark, twisting flame, so he could find the strength to stand, to leave.

He’s the son of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, two members of the Order of the Phoenix (and renown werewolf!), and Harry Potter’s godson. The press have always had some interest in him because of his familial connections.

Word got out about Teddy’s bite some time after his hospitalization (but prior to his return to Hogwarts). It was published in the paper ( Harry was livid ; Teddy had never seen him that angry before ), && Teddy saw the article.

It was rather humiliating - not to mention DUBIOUS, as werewolf rights had advanced in the last several years && this was quite a step back in many people’s eyes. The worst part was that Teddy does have some visible scars - claw marks extending from the middle of one of his cheeks, down his chin and neck. The rest of the scars are hidden ( very few people ever see Teddy without a shirt following the incident ).

She might have been separated -- accidentally, mind you, she'd never have intentionally abandoned Rinnosuke or their new teammate -- from her team, but it's them who will have to worry and make do without her, not the other way around. Not that she'll stop looking for them, but in the meantime, she can take care of herself. And all these monsters that keep cropping up everywhere she turns. She's fine with it, though.

It's business as usual, after all, and she's ready to rush right into the heart of whatever it is causing this mess. If only she knew what was causing it all. The people in charge of this particular disaster were saying this or that over a loudspeaker or something, but she didn't catch most of it. Might not have been listening to most of it, in fact. It matters little now that she's flying up about five hundred feet or so (give or take) in the air above the wreckage and chaos below. Her broom is a safe vantage point from which to observe what's going on and where to go next and -- should she luck out and spot him from on high -- maybe reunite with the others if the opportunity arises.

For the moment at least, she zips off toward the horizon (careful to avoid the natural boundaries of the island, given the odd rumors she's heard), hunched low over the handle of her broom, eyes scanning the distance. The sights below aren't much different here and there; flashes of light and the clanging of weaponry and various other bangs and booms of pitched combat. So far nobody seems to be in trouble, from what she can tell. Humans and other human-like beings aren't stupid, when it comes down to the wire. They're good at saving their own lives and helping others in the process too, sometimes.

She'd like to be the hero too for somebody else, but she did promise Rinnosuke she wouldn't leave him alone for very long if things got dangerous (or something like that), so she suppresses that urge and keeps on puttering through the sky, going slower than probably necessary if only to keep a steady eye on the ground below for that familiar blue.

Nowhere to be found, it seems. She's not worried though, not yet. Until that split-second realization that she's no longer flying and instead falling, hurtling through the sky. In theory she'd be wondering about what happened and why, but all that passes through her mind is intense, heart-pounding, mind-racing panic that encompasses and envelops all other coherent thoughts. She should try to do something, anything, to stop this fatal descent, but all Marisa can think is how horrifically awful it would be to hit the ground below and go splat like a rice pancake because she somehow forgot how to fly.

Then suddenly, like remembering an old spell card she's made, she's not falling, pulling out of her free fall with about fifty feet -- probably less, but she would like not to think about what could have been her imminent death -- to spare and the world comes back into focus. She's clutching her chest and breathing like she's just run a mile, but she's alive.

A sigh as he went to stand, arm reaching out to balance himself and falling into nothing. His body weight continued backwards with that arm, he must have been on the edge of something when he woke up. Clover had been here, and access to her memories confirmed what he was feeling, but it seemed too late. Trying to reach for the edge he fell from, or another edge, or the side of it proved fruitless.

The panic set in, and he hadn’t even thought to close the channel to Clover. He would reach the bottom eventually, and maybe she could send help. And he would be fine, another short hospital stay--

He kept falling, falling. The panic gripped his chest now, eyes open and unseeing. It wouldn’t matter much anyway, even if he could see. Not that he knew that, but--

(Clover I’m-)

One person hangs over an abyss. Another person holds on to them, for now.

~

There are two players, above and below.

Above stands higher than below and grasps their wrist.

Below looks into above's eyes.

~

ABOVE:

Try not to blink.

Hold below's wrist.

Tell below things you will do together soon.

When below says NO, move your grip to their hand.

Tell below things they need to know.

When below says NO, move your grip to their fingers.

When you hold below's hand:

When you hold below's fingers:

Breathe once. Close your eyes.

~

BELOW:

Talk as you will but don't let above trick you.

Look into above's eyes.

Each time above blinks, say NO.

When above's eyes close, pull your hand out of their grasp.