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NinGeko (Burnout Recovery- slow return to Queue work!)
@ningeko.bsky.social
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Reposted by NinGeko (Burnout Recovery- slow return to Queue work!)
landeg.world
Silver & Iron: Part Two
Pages 17/51
Heliotrope relives the memory of being thrown against the wall where she was found, cracking the back of her skull and explaining her head injuries. Her hand flinches towards her head with a gasp, and she turns to the two men with mounting concern. “Don’t… don’t lie. What happened to me?” Lake looks down and away for a moment but collects himself, fidgeting with his hands. “You’re right. It wasn’t an accident. It was an attack. And you were hurt. Really, really badly. So bad that… we thought there was no way to save your life. So we did the only other thing we could.” Heliotrope’s brow furrows. “What do you-” Sorrel steps forward. “C’mon now. Smart lass like you can figure it out, surely. No doubt you’ve noticed how cold y’are, even under all them covers, an’ what big teeth we have, or how queer it is to have eyes like ours. Like yours. You’re not crazy.” Heliotrope listens nervously as Sorrel taps his finger against his own chest, over his heart, in a steady rhythm. “That weird, sick feeling is your mind telling you something’s missing what should never be missing. The rhythm you forgot like a clock on the mantle has stopped, now, and it’s awful still inside.” Heliotrope’s eyes widen as Sorrel finishes, “You know what a vampire is, don’t you, child?” Heliotrope splits into a megawatt grin, radiating orange and pink. “Are you serious!?” She springs up from under the covers - leaving Lake and Sorrel too stunned to react - then rushes past them to clamber over Lake’s armchair so that she can check the inlaid mirror above the mantlepiece. “No way! No way!” As she suspected, she has no reflection at all, waving her hand in front of the mirror, which reflects only the room behind her. “Nooo wayyy!!!” Heliotope turns back to the others with a satisfied grin. “I knew we were real! I’ve always been very attuned to the supernatural. Like ghosts!” She pushes past the men again to bounce over the bed as she continues to ramble, “I can sense when a ghost has been active nearby.” She whispers to Lake in an aside, “Ghosts are real, right?” Lake starts to answer “Well-” but she simply goes back to bouncing on all fours over the mattress. “Wait, are witches real?” Lake: “Yes! They-” Heliotrope: “Dragons??” Sorrel: “Only in Wales.” Heliotrope: “What about fairies?” Sorrel turns away with an expression of contempt to mutter “Too fucken right they’re real,” but Heliotrope hears this, locking her sights on him. “You’ve met with the fairies!?” She gushes, dangling off the bedframe to veer into his personal space. “No,” he says, miffed, “And you’d best mind you never-” Heliotrope leaves. “Oh okay.” Sorrel turns inward with an expression that suggests he is reminding himself not to hurt a child. Heliotrope returns to bouncing on the bed as Lake watches nervously. Heliotrope: “Am I always gonna have this much energy!? I bet I could do the splits all the way to the ground! Okay. What are the rules?” Lake: “Rules?” Heliotrope: “Like are we sunlight-is-okay Twilight rules vampires or sunlight-hurts-us Vampire Diaries vampires?” Lake: “Uh- sunlight- is bad-” Heliotrope: “Got it. But we can get a witch to make us magic sunscreen or something, right?” Lake: “No… sorry… we just stay indoors…” Sorrel watches all of this happening like an upset cat. Heliotrope, still bouncing: “Bummer. Oh well. Can we eat garlic? Wait, can we eat?” Lake: “Um… you can, but you probably shouldn’t…” Heliotrope: “Man. So just blood?” Lake: “Just blood, yeah.” Heliotrope: “That sucks. Haha! Literally! Splits!” (She does in fact hit the splits mid-air.) “Do we slurp it up through the teeth like a mosquito?” Lake cracks a smile for the first time since Heliotrope woke up. “What? Haha… No, you just kinda… go for it…” Heliotrope: “Eww! Oh yeah!” She turns around mid-jump with a huge smile. “Am I allowed to tell my parents, or is it kind of like a secret identity thing?” Lake’s smile freezes before he recoils, his expression dropping, but Sorrel appears by his side with an arm around his shoulder. Lake grimaces in anticipation before the final darkened, empty panel shows a speech bubble reading, “Heliotrope…”
February 17, 2026 at 9:55 PM
ningeko.bsky.social
Love this one
February 18, 2026 at 12:18 AM
ningeko.bsky.social
Adorable
February 17, 2026 at 9:34 PM
ningeko.bsky.social
Happy belated you spuds 🧡
February 17, 2026 at 9:30 PM