write write write
Title: n/a
Rating: Body horror, squick factor
Series: Okami AU
Characters: Amaterasu, Ushiwaka
Notes: This has been in my head for a while, probably since I spent a morning researching atomic bombs and the injuries they cause a while back. I'm trying to write this to work it out of my system.
One by one, as time had gone on and her children had grown away from her, Ammy had watched as humanity went about its business and her other children faded away and returned to her. Her Envoys were not as good as they once had been, their skills with the brush no longer held the power that once had garnered her so much faith. She walked the lonely paths that had once been lush and green, gone were the animals that had frequented these places, the shrines seemed long forgotten and overgrown with moss. It was worse when traveling in her preferred form got her chased, and she was forced to wear the human shape, her clothes decades out of place.
When had her children grown so much to make her uncomfortable in their midst? She loved them, but these places they built, they seemed to have forgotten her. Her shrines were magnificent and yet empty, hollow, lacking the life and laughter that she'd once known so well in the little villages. What had happened?
Ushiwaka had spoken of war, foretold a great calamity would be coming from over the ocean to the east. What had her children gotten into? Why was this happening? Her mind was filled with thoughts that spun around and around in her head as she made her way north from the southernmost end of the island. Traveling up the coast, she stopped in a small city to listen for news, her ears perked as she grabbed a bite to eat. Nothing new, nothing unusual.
And then the strange sound of those airplanes came. It was distant, but Ammy didn't pay it much mind. Until the sharp whistling sound came. She looked to the sky in time to see the flash, letting out a howl of pain as it blinded her but the sound was cut off as she was suddenly hit with heat so intense her kimono burned away.
She couldn't hear Ushiwaka's voice calling out to her or hear the sound of her own howls of agony, couldn't feel the way her skin sloughed off and her hair and fur crumbled to dust, all she could hear was the roar of it. Feel the heat seared onto her skin.
It was nothing like anything she'd seen before. Anything she'd ever felt before. Patches of her skin had been blackened as the red patterns on her robes had been burned onto her flesh, the exposed skin trying to melt away. There was little Waka could do but bathe her carefully, waiting for her body to heal on its own. He didn't speak to her during that time, Ammy couldn't hear him. Her vision and her hearing were the last to return to her, and even then her skin still felt raw.
It broke often, bleeding and peeling, making simple tasks pure agony. She didn't see what had happened to that small town, and Waka didn't tell her. It was enough to see the grim look on his face and the darkness in his eyes to know that whatever had happened had been bad. Very bad. Ammy didn't think she could stomach knowing. It was hard enough to eat what Waka fed her without thinking of how all those children had died.
Rating: Body horror, squick factor
Series: Okami AU
Characters: Amaterasu, Ushiwaka
Notes: This has been in my head for a while, probably since I spent a morning researching atomic bombs and the injuries they cause a while back. I'm trying to write this to work it out of my system.
One by one, as time had gone on and her children had grown away from her, Ammy had watched as humanity went about its business and her other children faded away and returned to her. Her Envoys were not as good as they once had been, their skills with the brush no longer held the power that once had garnered her so much faith. She walked the lonely paths that had once been lush and green, gone were the animals that had frequented these places, the shrines seemed long forgotten and overgrown with moss. It was worse when traveling in her preferred form got her chased, and she was forced to wear the human shape, her clothes decades out of place.
When had her children grown so much to make her uncomfortable in their midst? She loved them, but these places they built, they seemed to have forgotten her. Her shrines were magnificent and yet empty, hollow, lacking the life and laughter that she'd once known so well in the little villages. What had happened?
Ushiwaka had spoken of war, foretold a great calamity would be coming from over the ocean to the east. What had her children gotten into? Why was this happening? Her mind was filled with thoughts that spun around and around in her head as she made her way north from the southernmost end of the island. Traveling up the coast, she stopped in a small city to listen for news, her ears perked as she grabbed a bite to eat. Nothing new, nothing unusual.
And then the strange sound of those airplanes came. It was distant, but Ammy didn't pay it much mind. Until the sharp whistling sound came. She looked to the sky in time to see the flash, letting out a howl of pain as it blinded her but the sound was cut off as she was suddenly hit with heat so intense her kimono burned away.
She couldn't hear Ushiwaka's voice calling out to her or hear the sound of her own howls of agony, couldn't feel the way her skin sloughed off and her hair and fur crumbled to dust, all she could hear was the roar of it. Feel the heat seared onto her skin.
It was nothing like anything she'd seen before. Anything she'd ever felt before. Patches of her skin had been blackened as the red patterns on her robes had been burned onto her flesh, the exposed skin trying to melt away. There was little Waka could do but bathe her carefully, waiting for her body to heal on its own. He didn't speak to her during that time, Ammy couldn't hear him. Her vision and her hearing were the last to return to her, and even then her skin still felt raw.
It broke often, bleeding and peeling, making simple tasks pure agony. She didn't see what had happened to that small town, and Waka didn't tell her. It was enough to see the grim look on his face and the darkness in his eyes to know that whatever had happened had been bad. Very bad. Ammy didn't think she could stomach knowing. It was hard enough to eat what Waka fed her without thinking of how all those children had died.