Repercussions
Tulok / Meta / Kes
Tulok / Meta / Kes
Tulok is going to do this. Tulok is going to do this and nobody can stop him.
His parents have already tried to talk him out of it once, offhandedly. Training hard on Pop Star was well and good, and they're proud of him for how strong he is! But they know how South Nova is, and given the climate, and everything else...
It goes in one ear and out the other. They like to coddle him and he isn't here to be coddled. He's sure he can do it, and his parents are just big worryworts!
So it's with excitement that he watches as the obstacle course is set up. The snow is packed on the ground, the sky cloudy, but there isn't but a few flurries here and there today which means it's going to be a good one, at least according to his mother.
And the place is /packed/ for the big day. Teeming with activity from Ice Leos of all kinds. There are a few of the elders bent in discussion with one another, and - Oh, look! Ice Leos about his age! Tulok can't help staring with a kind of fascination at the unique scene of it, like looking into a mirror kind of. He sees them so rarely that seeing them up close now, he can't help just watching them.
"How are you feeling?" His mother murmurs to him from his right, and Tulok turns to her to grin a sharkish grin as his wings hike right up to appear bigger, stronger.
"Great!"
"You'll need the energy." And his grandfather from his left, just up ahead and gesturing to where the others his age are beginning to gather for warm-ups. "It will start soon. You should go, now. See what your teammates are up to. That's part of this course, after all."
He glances back at his parents, both smiling, both supportive, both nervous.
Tulok grins, waves, and practically dashes off to prove himself in the trial. They don't have anything to worry about.
From a distance, everyone had seemed about his size. They looked just like him, even if they were a bit paler like his mom. And it was exciting, to be able to mingle with the others!
Up close, now, Tulok sees that he was. Kind of wrong.
They're large. And worse yet, when he tries to greet them, nobody talks to him. When he comes closer to start his warmups, there's a shift in the atmosphere so thick that even he can sense it, and there's a way that the silence of the cold descends on the group that makes him feel markedly uncomfortable. Nobody looks at him. Nobody speaks to him. Everyone just gets out of the way, like he isn't there.
Tulok feels keenly aware of the differences that set him apart all of a sudden, figuratively and now literally, subconsciously tucks his wings in a bit tighter, though he keeps his chin up like he'd always seen Kirby do. He might be darker, he might have wings, even his eyes might look different, but... But that doesn't matter! Who needs teammates? Not him! He's here to win and that's what he's going to do.
So Tulok stretches with renewed vigor, fueled by determination, maybe by spite. These dumb Ice Leos won't know what hit him.
Some distance away, Meta looks over towards Kes who stands with a frown on her face and a brow furrowed in growing concern. "You're seeing it too, right?"
"Mmh."
"Is there something we can...?"
"I don't think so. Not... Not right now." Because despite the predicament, Tulok doesn't seem bothered one bit, and, well. They hadn't even started yet. "Sometimes it takes awhile for Leos to warm up to each other. Maybe when the course starts, they'll warm up to him! Nova knows nothing gets an Ice Leo going like a nice competition!"
Meta can practically feel the forced enthusiasm in her voice. It really doesn't fit her.
There's so much about this that doesn't feel right, and she knows it too. An Ice Leo is one thing, but Tulok is something else. Both, and not quite either, with all of the inconveniences that come with it. He hadn't been too happy in the first place when Wulfric had first told Tulok about the competition as a little tot, and he hasn't gotten much better about it. Neither had Kes, although he could appreciate her effort at optimism.
"Maybe..."
From somewhere in the field, a sound breaks through the quiet of mingled conversations and softly blowing wind like a great thundercrack rumbling from the sky, and everyone's heads perk high with a mixture of nerves and excitement. By now, the course - a scattering of obstacles of ice, all with their own purpose - has been cleared out, and several elders stand off to the side, one bearing a bone horn that's been around longer than he has.
Hearts thunder, for different reasons, and Tulok gets in place as his parents watch. Everyone around him is already following suite, keeping a bit of a berth around him, but he couldn't care less, eyes on the prize and wings hiked high. He can do this. He can do this.
One more time, he chances a quick glance over to his parents, and they give him a wave that he can't help grinning to. Okay.
The horn sounds. And everyone is off.
Tulok runs, as fast as he's run in his little life, and to his credit he does keep up with his peers at first. The first course isn't far, stretching high up into the air, a great rock of ice that Leos start to climb the moment they reach it. Of the five courses in the trial, this is the easiest, at least from what he had overheard, and the Leos climb up the wall with all the ease and excitement of adrenaline fueled children, ice claws on their hands scraping against the surface.
That's the first challenge. To climb with the ice that you make. Tulok, although he's a hybrid, isn't deterred. He focuses as much as he can, concentrates and scrambles as the others on either side of him practically fly with shouts and cheering. By the time he's actually managed to make something and start the trek, the area is quiet. Last place.
He doesn't pay attention to it. He just /climbs/ one hand at a time, all of his strength into his abilities, his grip. Climbs for who knows how long until he reaches the top, and lets his wings glide him down to the other side because he didn't hear anything about climbing down, did he?
In truth, it's a good thing. His lungs are starting to burn from the effort. He's starting to feel a little dizzy - just a little! - and some part of him feels just a bit colder than it was before. That's okay. He's felt like this loads of times. He can keep going. His family's watching, after all...!
Tulok keeps going, running to keep up with the others, and before long he reaches the next stage where a few Leos still linger. Targets lined in a row stand several feet away entrenched in the snow, all of them decorated with shards of ice formed and thrown by previous contestants, and Tulok doesn't think once about lining up to do the very same. He had never been able to before, but like Kirby sometimes said, there's a first time for everything.
He tries. He tries hard, as hard as he can to form the ice needed to throw to the targets, and each time he grows a bit colder, a bit more winded, freezing air cloying his throat in a way the weather never would. He can feel it, deep in his body, and he's finding it harder to breathe the longer he tries. Why won't it just--
A snicker, off to the side. An adjoining giggle somewhere down, and Tulok feels like he's freezing and burning both when someone murmurs that he's pathetic to have come from Wulfric of all people.
Tulok grits his teeth through the fatigue and /concentrates/, because they're wrong, and he is going to prove it to them, even if he has to lose his breath just to make this stupid thing. He'll show them, he'll show them--
Ice forms. Not a speck, not an oddly shaped lump that vanishes as soon as it forms. A /dagger/, sharp and shining in the cold, and he launches that thing with a yell that could have done his ancestors proud. The surge of adrenaline when he sees it stick right on target makes him want to cackle like a demon beast.
Tulok, fuelled by adrenaline, spite, rage, determination, runs. Or tries to. As desperate as he is to get to the next obstacle and catch up with the rest, the rush he feels doesn't stop how his legs start to shake and how he starts to wheeze as the air struggles its way through his burning lungs. He's lagging. He's slowing down, cold and hot all over, and suddenly it feels almost like he's suffocating. He can't manage more than a jog.
Meta looks over at his wife where she stands biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "I don't think he's..."
"I know. I know." And she breaths deep, slow. "I'll go get him. It was a bad idea to begin with."
"You will do no such thing."
It's Wulfric, long forgotten off to the side, who grabs their attention. As tall and imposing as ever, he levels them both with looks that, while not unkind in their own way, speak of something steady and firm, and Meta knows immediately that Wulfric will hear no argument.
Kes doesn't care though, as much Wulfric's daughter as ever. "Excuse me? Do you not see him out there? Do you have any idea what you're saying? He could actually /die/ from this!"
"It's his decision to make, Kesuk." One glare meets another, ice against ice, and Meta feels like ice himself with the way he feels frozen to the sidelines. "Tulok has to make that decision for himself. Hybrid or not, he is his own person, and his own growing warrior. You can't shelter him forever."
"But--!"
"Did I ever pull my punches with you just because you were my daughter? Did I tell /you/ no because something was too dangerous when you came of age?" Where Kes is the fiery blaze of an ice storm, Wulfric is more of the permafrost sitting under their feet. Cold and unmoving. "I didn't. You learned on your own. Now you will let Tulok learn on /his/ own. If you don't, he will never forgive you."
Kes is ready to argue, because Ice Leos are nothing if not stubborn to the last breath. Meta, mouth frozen shut, looks over at his son where he has finally reached the third obstacle, and feels his heart leap in his chest when he sees what exactly it is.
The few Leos still present at this trial are dodging all manner of ice chunks being shot from other Leos as they make their way through the ring. Some of them sport bruises, a few have scuffs and scratches, and he knows immediately that Tulok isn't going to make it.
"Kes."
His tone, the way he says her name, is enough to distract her, and while he doesn't look over to see her expression he can nonetheless feel her beside him, caught in the same horrified trance as he is as, slowly, Tulok makes his way into the trial.
Tulok isn't bad on his feet. Practice with his parents, most of all Kirby, has given him a bit of practice in managing to avoid danger. But that's only when he's /healthy/. When he isn't suffocating on his feet and at risk of an asthma attack at any moment.
It feels. Cruel. Cruel to watch, because Tulok doesn't stand a chance. He barely dodges the first block of ice, the second, but the third and the fourth and the next hit him right on target, and Meta would think he wasn't even trying if he didn't know his son as well as he did. Tulok yelps, and yells, and lets out a noise that makes tears sting in Meta's eyes as he's battered back and forth by ice that just never seems to stop /coming/. It all feels like it's happening in slow motion, and he can't stop watching.
What father would let his child suffer like this? Why isn't he doing anything to stop it?
When Tulok eventually falls and doesn't get up, somehow it feels like Meta's fault.
----------------------------------------
He's warm.
That's what Tulok thinks when he first stirs. That he's warm, and for some reason it should be a bad thing, but it isn't. He just feels warm. Warm and soft, like nothing in the world can ever get him.
He doesn't want to leave that. He's happy to stay there forever if he can. Still, he stirs, and with that comes the pressing urge for...something. Something important. He had been doing something very important, hadn't he?
Tulok's eyes crack open, and he inhales a deep, easy breath before letting it out slowly. The room he's in is vaguely familiar, dimly lit, muted in color, and he scans the place and sees that he is bundled up to his chin in furs. Surrounded on both sides by wings which keep him coddled against the cold.
This doesn't feel right. He had been... Outside, he had been outside, in the snow. He had been at--
"Hey, you're awake!"
A voice makes him jump, and to his right Meta lets out a sheepish laugh, setting down the book he had been reading on the end table. There's a blanket tossed over Meta's legs Tulok notices, and a pillow behind his head. He looks really tired.
"How are you feeling?" Meta glances him over with a smile that could burn its so bright, and Tulok doesn't understand why. "You were out for such a long time, we were starting to get worried! Do you feel alright? Wounds hurting any? Trouble breathing? Ah--" Meta winces to himself and chuckles, shaking his head. "Sorry, sorry. Too many questions. We were just...really scared when we saw you fall in the snow. Worried something terrible had happened. I'm glad you came out okay, though, even if you are a bit banged up."
Tulok looks down at the bandages gracing his arms and legs, feeling the way they hug his form almost numbly.
Pathetic.
Pathetic how weak he is, in the end. Of course he wouldn't have been able to clear the course, huh? No wonder. He's no Ice Leo. He's no warrior. He's just some...some dumb hybrid who can't do anything. He can't do /anything/. Not without help. Not without people taking pity on him because he can't go anywhere without dying of heatstroke or frostbite.
What he feels curdles in his stomach like bile, burns at his eyes in a way sadness never had, and he grips the furs hard enough that he wishes they would tear with the force. He's too weak to even do that.
"Tulok?" Meta pauses when he sees the other starting to shake silently. "Are you alright?"
"Am I alright..." His voice comes out hoarse, cracking like ice, filled with a venom that Meta's never heard nor felt from a boy so spunky and sweet. Tulok's eyes are shadowed by his hair, his teeth grit and bared down at his hands where he glares downwards. "Am I /alright/? You ask me that, knowing what I am? Knowing how you /made/ me!!!"
"Woah, woah, Tulok-"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" And his head flies upward, bangs swishing, and Meta freezes. "It's your fault I'm like this! It's all your fault that I can't do /anything/! I'm just a stupid, weak hybrid that can't even breathe because /you/ decided to marry /mom/! You guys /wanted/ to have a stupid weakling! Do you have any idea what it's like!? I can't do anything without possibly dying! I can't do anything and I hate it!"
Meta doesn't speak. He's frozen to the spot, unable to move.
"I hate you, and I hate that you made me, you...you--!"
Tulok breaks off with a muffled shriek somewhere in his throat and reaches up to put his head in his hands, curling inwards and trembling violently. Full of adrenaline and fury and nowhere else to put it. Meta thinks he might be crying, but he can't be sure.
For a long time, it's quiet. Filled only with the sound of Tulok's breathing and the occasional sniffle.
Meta knows he can't do anything, logically, to fix it. Tulok had always been different from everyone else. Always struggled with what he was, physically and emotionally. He's different, and now he really knows it. But it doesn't stop Meta from regretting that he has to find out.
He never should have taken him here.
Quietly, he stands, setting his blanket on the chair behind him. Although his eyes sting, he doesn't let the tears fall. Instead, he takes a steady breath.
"I just want you to know, however you feel right now. We are /so/ proud of you. Your mother and I, and your grandfather. We couldn't be more proud of what you've done, Tulok. No matter what, we'll always be proud of you. And I'm sorry that you have to go through this. I am so sorry. We love you, Tulok. We always will."
Tulok doesn't say anything and doesn't move. Meta doesn't expect it. Now, only time will heal him.
So he carries himself out of the room on soft steps, closes the door quietly and calmly behind him.
And only then does he let his tears flow.
His parents have already tried to talk him out of it once, offhandedly. Training hard on Pop Star was well and good, and they're proud of him for how strong he is! But they know how South Nova is, and given the climate, and everything else...
It goes in one ear and out the other. They like to coddle him and he isn't here to be coddled. He's sure he can do it, and his parents are just big worryworts!
So it's with excitement that he watches as the obstacle course is set up. The snow is packed on the ground, the sky cloudy, but there isn't but a few flurries here and there today which means it's going to be a good one, at least according to his mother.
And the place is /packed/ for the big day. Teeming with activity from Ice Leos of all kinds. There are a few of the elders bent in discussion with one another, and - Oh, look! Ice Leos about his age! Tulok can't help staring with a kind of fascination at the unique scene of it, like looking into a mirror kind of. He sees them so rarely that seeing them up close now, he can't help just watching them.
"How are you feeling?" His mother murmurs to him from his right, and Tulok turns to her to grin a sharkish grin as his wings hike right up to appear bigger, stronger.
"Great!"
"You'll need the energy." And his grandfather from his left, just up ahead and gesturing to where the others his age are beginning to gather for warm-ups. "It will start soon. You should go, now. See what your teammates are up to. That's part of this course, after all."
He glances back at his parents, both smiling, both supportive, both nervous.
Tulok grins, waves, and practically dashes off to prove himself in the trial. They don't have anything to worry about.
From a distance, everyone had seemed about his size. They looked just like him, even if they were a bit paler like his mom. And it was exciting, to be able to mingle with the others!
Up close, now, Tulok sees that he was. Kind of wrong.
They're large. And worse yet, when he tries to greet them, nobody talks to him. When he comes closer to start his warmups, there's a shift in the atmosphere so thick that even he can sense it, and there's a way that the silence of the cold descends on the group that makes him feel markedly uncomfortable. Nobody looks at him. Nobody speaks to him. Everyone just gets out of the way, like he isn't there.
Tulok feels keenly aware of the differences that set him apart all of a sudden, figuratively and now literally, subconsciously tucks his wings in a bit tighter, though he keeps his chin up like he'd always seen Kirby do. He might be darker, he might have wings, even his eyes might look different, but... But that doesn't matter! Who needs teammates? Not him! He's here to win and that's what he's going to do.
So Tulok stretches with renewed vigor, fueled by determination, maybe by spite. These dumb Ice Leos won't know what hit him.
Some distance away, Meta looks over towards Kes who stands with a frown on her face and a brow furrowed in growing concern. "You're seeing it too, right?"
"Mmh."
"Is there something we can...?"
"I don't think so. Not... Not right now." Because despite the predicament, Tulok doesn't seem bothered one bit, and, well. They hadn't even started yet. "Sometimes it takes awhile for Leos to warm up to each other. Maybe when the course starts, they'll warm up to him! Nova knows nothing gets an Ice Leo going like a nice competition!"
Meta can practically feel the forced enthusiasm in her voice. It really doesn't fit her.
There's so much about this that doesn't feel right, and she knows it too. An Ice Leo is one thing, but Tulok is something else. Both, and not quite either, with all of the inconveniences that come with it. He hadn't been too happy in the first place when Wulfric had first told Tulok about the competition as a little tot, and he hasn't gotten much better about it. Neither had Kes, although he could appreciate her effort at optimism.
"Maybe..."
From somewhere in the field, a sound breaks through the quiet of mingled conversations and softly blowing wind like a great thundercrack rumbling from the sky, and everyone's heads perk high with a mixture of nerves and excitement. By now, the course - a scattering of obstacles of ice, all with their own purpose - has been cleared out, and several elders stand off to the side, one bearing a bone horn that's been around longer than he has.
Hearts thunder, for different reasons, and Tulok gets in place as his parents watch. Everyone around him is already following suite, keeping a bit of a berth around him, but he couldn't care less, eyes on the prize and wings hiked high. He can do this. He can do this.
One more time, he chances a quick glance over to his parents, and they give him a wave that he can't help grinning to. Okay.
The horn sounds. And everyone is off.
Tulok runs, as fast as he's run in his little life, and to his credit he does keep up with his peers at first. The first course isn't far, stretching high up into the air, a great rock of ice that Leos start to climb the moment they reach it. Of the five courses in the trial, this is the easiest, at least from what he had overheard, and the Leos climb up the wall with all the ease and excitement of adrenaline fueled children, ice claws on their hands scraping against the surface.
That's the first challenge. To climb with the ice that you make. Tulok, although he's a hybrid, isn't deterred. He focuses as much as he can, concentrates and scrambles as the others on either side of him practically fly with shouts and cheering. By the time he's actually managed to make something and start the trek, the area is quiet. Last place.
He doesn't pay attention to it. He just /climbs/ one hand at a time, all of his strength into his abilities, his grip. Climbs for who knows how long until he reaches the top, and lets his wings glide him down to the other side because he didn't hear anything about climbing down, did he?
In truth, it's a good thing. His lungs are starting to burn from the effort. He's starting to feel a little dizzy - just a little! - and some part of him feels just a bit colder than it was before. That's okay. He's felt like this loads of times. He can keep going. His family's watching, after all...!
Tulok keeps going, running to keep up with the others, and before long he reaches the next stage where a few Leos still linger. Targets lined in a row stand several feet away entrenched in the snow, all of them decorated with shards of ice formed and thrown by previous contestants, and Tulok doesn't think once about lining up to do the very same. He had never been able to before, but like Kirby sometimes said, there's a first time for everything.
He tries. He tries hard, as hard as he can to form the ice needed to throw to the targets, and each time he grows a bit colder, a bit more winded, freezing air cloying his throat in a way the weather never would. He can feel it, deep in his body, and he's finding it harder to breathe the longer he tries. Why won't it just--
A snicker, off to the side. An adjoining giggle somewhere down, and Tulok feels like he's freezing and burning both when someone murmurs that he's pathetic to have come from Wulfric of all people.
Tulok grits his teeth through the fatigue and /concentrates/, because they're wrong, and he is going to prove it to them, even if he has to lose his breath just to make this stupid thing. He'll show them, he'll show them--
Ice forms. Not a speck, not an oddly shaped lump that vanishes as soon as it forms. A /dagger/, sharp and shining in the cold, and he launches that thing with a yell that could have done his ancestors proud. The surge of adrenaline when he sees it stick right on target makes him want to cackle like a demon beast.
Tulok, fuelled by adrenaline, spite, rage, determination, runs. Or tries to. As desperate as he is to get to the next obstacle and catch up with the rest, the rush he feels doesn't stop how his legs start to shake and how he starts to wheeze as the air struggles its way through his burning lungs. He's lagging. He's slowing down, cold and hot all over, and suddenly it feels almost like he's suffocating. He can't manage more than a jog.
Meta looks over at his wife where she stands biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "I don't think he's..."
"I know. I know." And she breaths deep, slow. "I'll go get him. It was a bad idea to begin with."
"You will do no such thing."
It's Wulfric, long forgotten off to the side, who grabs their attention. As tall and imposing as ever, he levels them both with looks that, while not unkind in their own way, speak of something steady and firm, and Meta knows immediately that Wulfric will hear no argument.
Kes doesn't care though, as much Wulfric's daughter as ever. "Excuse me? Do you not see him out there? Do you have any idea what you're saying? He could actually /die/ from this!"
"It's his decision to make, Kesuk." One glare meets another, ice against ice, and Meta feels like ice himself with the way he feels frozen to the sidelines. "Tulok has to make that decision for himself. Hybrid or not, he is his own person, and his own growing warrior. You can't shelter him forever."
"But--!"
"Did I ever pull my punches with you just because you were my daughter? Did I tell /you/ no because something was too dangerous when you came of age?" Where Kes is the fiery blaze of an ice storm, Wulfric is more of the permafrost sitting under their feet. Cold and unmoving. "I didn't. You learned on your own. Now you will let Tulok learn on /his/ own. If you don't, he will never forgive you."
Kes is ready to argue, because Ice Leos are nothing if not stubborn to the last breath. Meta, mouth frozen shut, looks over at his son where he has finally reached the third obstacle, and feels his heart leap in his chest when he sees what exactly it is.
The few Leos still present at this trial are dodging all manner of ice chunks being shot from other Leos as they make their way through the ring. Some of them sport bruises, a few have scuffs and scratches, and he knows immediately that Tulok isn't going to make it.
"Kes."
His tone, the way he says her name, is enough to distract her, and while he doesn't look over to see her expression he can nonetheless feel her beside him, caught in the same horrified trance as he is as, slowly, Tulok makes his way into the trial.
Tulok isn't bad on his feet. Practice with his parents, most of all Kirby, has given him a bit of practice in managing to avoid danger. But that's only when he's /healthy/. When he isn't suffocating on his feet and at risk of an asthma attack at any moment.
It feels. Cruel. Cruel to watch, because Tulok doesn't stand a chance. He barely dodges the first block of ice, the second, but the third and the fourth and the next hit him right on target, and Meta would think he wasn't even trying if he didn't know his son as well as he did. Tulok yelps, and yells, and lets out a noise that makes tears sting in Meta's eyes as he's battered back and forth by ice that just never seems to stop /coming/. It all feels like it's happening in slow motion, and he can't stop watching.
What father would let his child suffer like this? Why isn't he doing anything to stop it?
When Tulok eventually falls and doesn't get up, somehow it feels like Meta's fault.
----------------------------------------
He's warm.
That's what Tulok thinks when he first stirs. That he's warm, and for some reason it should be a bad thing, but it isn't. He just feels warm. Warm and soft, like nothing in the world can ever get him.
He doesn't want to leave that. He's happy to stay there forever if he can. Still, he stirs, and with that comes the pressing urge for...something. Something important. He had been doing something very important, hadn't he?
Tulok's eyes crack open, and he inhales a deep, easy breath before letting it out slowly. The room he's in is vaguely familiar, dimly lit, muted in color, and he scans the place and sees that he is bundled up to his chin in furs. Surrounded on both sides by wings which keep him coddled against the cold.
This doesn't feel right. He had been... Outside, he had been outside, in the snow. He had been at--
"Hey, you're awake!"
A voice makes him jump, and to his right Meta lets out a sheepish laugh, setting down the book he had been reading on the end table. There's a blanket tossed over Meta's legs Tulok notices, and a pillow behind his head. He looks really tired.
"How are you feeling?" Meta glances him over with a smile that could burn its so bright, and Tulok doesn't understand why. "You were out for such a long time, we were starting to get worried! Do you feel alright? Wounds hurting any? Trouble breathing? Ah--" Meta winces to himself and chuckles, shaking his head. "Sorry, sorry. Too many questions. We were just...really scared when we saw you fall in the snow. Worried something terrible had happened. I'm glad you came out okay, though, even if you are a bit banged up."
Tulok looks down at the bandages gracing his arms and legs, feeling the way they hug his form almost numbly.
Pathetic.
Pathetic how weak he is, in the end. Of course he wouldn't have been able to clear the course, huh? No wonder. He's no Ice Leo. He's no warrior. He's just some...some dumb hybrid who can't do anything. He can't do /anything/. Not without help. Not without people taking pity on him because he can't go anywhere without dying of heatstroke or frostbite.
What he feels curdles in his stomach like bile, burns at his eyes in a way sadness never had, and he grips the furs hard enough that he wishes they would tear with the force. He's too weak to even do that.
"Tulok?" Meta pauses when he sees the other starting to shake silently. "Are you alright?"
"Am I alright..." His voice comes out hoarse, cracking like ice, filled with a venom that Meta's never heard nor felt from a boy so spunky and sweet. Tulok's eyes are shadowed by his hair, his teeth grit and bared down at his hands where he glares downwards. "Am I /alright/? You ask me that, knowing what I am? Knowing how you /made/ me!!!"
"Woah, woah, Tulok-"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" And his head flies upward, bangs swishing, and Meta freezes. "It's your fault I'm like this! It's all your fault that I can't do /anything/! I'm just a stupid, weak hybrid that can't even breathe because /you/ decided to marry /mom/! You guys /wanted/ to have a stupid weakling! Do you have any idea what it's like!? I can't do anything without possibly dying! I can't do anything and I hate it!"
Meta doesn't speak. He's frozen to the spot, unable to move.
"I hate you, and I hate that you made me, you...you--!"
Tulok breaks off with a muffled shriek somewhere in his throat and reaches up to put his head in his hands, curling inwards and trembling violently. Full of adrenaline and fury and nowhere else to put it. Meta thinks he might be crying, but he can't be sure.
For a long time, it's quiet. Filled only with the sound of Tulok's breathing and the occasional sniffle.
Meta knows he can't do anything, logically, to fix it. Tulok had always been different from everyone else. Always struggled with what he was, physically and emotionally. He's different, and now he really knows it. But it doesn't stop Meta from regretting that he has to find out.
He never should have taken him here.
Quietly, he stands, setting his blanket on the chair behind him. Although his eyes sting, he doesn't let the tears fall. Instead, he takes a steady breath.
"I just want you to know, however you feel right now. We are /so/ proud of you. Your mother and I, and your grandfather. We couldn't be more proud of what you've done, Tulok. No matter what, we'll always be proud of you. And I'm sorry that you have to go through this. I am so sorry. We love you, Tulok. We always will."
Tulok doesn't say anything and doesn't move. Meta doesn't expect it. Now, only time will heal him.
So he carries himself out of the room on soft steps, closes the door quietly and calmly behind him.
And only then does he let his tears flow.
-End-
Artist Comment:
May 11, 2021
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My poor boy is starting to feel the repercussions of being a hybrid. For someone who is born in a family of Star Warriors and fighters, he's having a terribly hard time accepting this about himself. D:,
For some quick context- Each year South Nova holds a type of obstacle course for young Ice Leos to showcase and hone their skills. Their elders/mentors observe them as well, and once they finish the course, they provide them with helpful advice in certain areas they think their lacking in.
It’s a good way for the young generation to bond with each other, as well as learn and grow from this experience. Tulok first heard about this from his grandfather Wulfric as a toddler, so he’s been training hard on Pop Star for this moment. Once he hit 13, he is eligible to try it. Sadly, things didn't turn out the way he planned. South Nova is a brutal, unforgiving land that can't even compare to even the harshest winter on Pop Star. Tulok was at a disadvantage from the very start. A hybrid- much smaller and runtier than his comrades, he couldn't finish the trials and blacked out while performing the third task.
And just a quick FYI- So Tulok has the same issue with the cold like Atticus has with the heat. When Atticus uses his fire, he ends up sustaining burns. If Tulok keeps using his ice, he could get frostbite. While his Frozen Leo side is dominant compared to his Puffball side, he still needs to maintain a certain temperature because at the end of the day, he is still a Puffball. So while doing these tasks he's struggling each and every time when using his ice, and each time he does, it gets worse and worse until he starts feeling the effects of his actions.
After he wakes up, and Meta asks how he's feeling, the Leo eventually snaps back at his father. He’s mad, he’s disappointed, but most of all he’s finally realizes how weak he is. Compared to the other Leos, he smaller, runtier, and frailer. He fell behind right from the start, and no matter how hard he tried, he failed at every course that was given to him. He feels like all the training he did up to this point was for nothing. He isn’t strong as his mother, or father, or brother or even his Grandfather Wulfric. He feels like he embarrassed himself and everyone in his family, and he hates it. He hates being weak, he hates not being able to do anything without repercussion, and he breaks down in tears after all that's happened.
There will be several continuations to this since this didn't end on a happy note. D: Tulok will need time to recover, physically and mentally. Will someone be able to help him recover from this?
The one-shot for this illustration was commissioned by my good friend, Dogblog. (dA- Shadowrealmprincess)
May 11, 2021
-----------------
My poor boy is starting to feel the repercussions of being a hybrid. For someone who is born in a family of Star Warriors and fighters, he's having a terribly hard time accepting this about himself. D:,
For some quick context- Each year South Nova holds a type of obstacle course for young Ice Leos to showcase and hone their skills. Their elders/mentors observe them as well, and once they finish the course, they provide them with helpful advice in certain areas they think their lacking in.
It’s a good way for the young generation to bond with each other, as well as learn and grow from this experience. Tulok first heard about this from his grandfather Wulfric as a toddler, so he’s been training hard on Pop Star for this moment. Once he hit 13, he is eligible to try it. Sadly, things didn't turn out the way he planned. South Nova is a brutal, unforgiving land that can't even compare to even the harshest winter on Pop Star. Tulok was at a disadvantage from the very start. A hybrid- much smaller and runtier than his comrades, he couldn't finish the trials and blacked out while performing the third task.
And just a quick FYI- So Tulok has the same issue with the cold like Atticus has with the heat. When Atticus uses his fire, he ends up sustaining burns. If Tulok keeps using his ice, he could get frostbite. While his Frozen Leo side is dominant compared to his Puffball side, he still needs to maintain a certain temperature because at the end of the day, he is still a Puffball. So while doing these tasks he's struggling each and every time when using his ice, and each time he does, it gets worse and worse until he starts feeling the effects of his actions.
After he wakes up, and Meta asks how he's feeling, the Leo eventually snaps back at his father. He’s mad, he’s disappointed, but most of all he’s finally realizes how weak he is. Compared to the other Leos, he smaller, runtier, and frailer. He fell behind right from the start, and no matter how hard he tried, he failed at every course that was given to him. He feels like all the training he did up to this point was for nothing. He isn’t strong as his mother, or father, or brother or even his Grandfather Wulfric. He feels like he embarrassed himself and everyone in his family, and he hates it. He hates being weak, he hates not being able to do anything without repercussion, and he breaks down in tears after all that's happened.
There will be several continuations to this since this didn't end on a happy note. D: Tulok will need time to recover, physically and mentally. Will someone be able to help him recover from this?
The one-shot for this illustration was commissioned by my good friend, Dogblog. (dA- Shadowrealmprincess)
Species © Nintendo/ HAL Laboratory
Interpreted characters created from said species © Rhylem
Interpreted characters created from said species © Rhylem