Poem: "Spiraling Out of Control"
Jan. 2nd, 2022 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the November 2, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from chanter1944 and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rix_scaedu. It also fills the square "protecting a loved one" in my 11-1-21 card for the NCIS Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred, ng_moonmoth, janetmiles, and edorfaus. It belongs to the Trichromatic Attachments thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "The Things You Do" and "Never Accept an Apology," so read those first or this won't make much sense.
"Spiraling Out of Control"
[Saturday, September 14, 2013]
After the altercation with Cavalier,
Tarnish went into a spiral of doom.
There was no other way to put it.
He cheated at games of chance,
stole things he didn't really need,
and picked fights at random.
Princessa tailed Tarnish
mainly for Cavalier's sake
at first, but as the supervillain
spiraled deeper, she began
to worry about him too.
He might be a pain in
the neck, but she didn't
want to see him get hurt.
When Tarnish disrupted
the Withering Heights
dark fantasy LARP near
the Heights in Colorado,
one of the Blue Orcs
broke his nose for him.
Princessa peeled the orcs
off of Tarnish, shooed away
the irate Swamp Halflings, and
confirmed that his nose was
indeed broken not just bloody.
Cleaning the cuts made it
bleed more, so Princessa
packed both nostrils with
gauze, covered the outside,
and topped it with an icepack.
"Do you want to tell me what
started this?" Princessa said
as she washed her hands.
"Sundew's a friend of bine,"
Tarnish muttered. "They
were bothering her, and
not just for the gabe."
"That doesn't sound
good," Princessa said.
"And what if Frond had
been there?" said Tarnish.
"Frond?" said Princessa.
"Their kid, he's only
three," said Tarnish.
"Bulrush wasn't there,
so I put a stop to it."
"You certainly did that,"
Princessa said, resolving
to find out what was going on
with the Blue Orcs and Sundew.
"I bight be a supervillain, but I'b
not a creeper," said Tarnish.
Princessa was beginning to see
what Cavalier saw in Tarnish.
"Okay, so you had a bad day.
Don't beat yourself up over it,
but don't let one bad decision
send you spiraling out of control,"
said Princessa. "Just pick up
your cape and get back into it.
Make decisions that improve
your health and your happiness.
You are who you choose to be."
Tarnish just shrugged. "Doesn't
batter what I choose, it only batters
what other people put up with."
Princessa wasn't sure what
to do with that, so she fell
back on what she did know.
The Swamp Halflings -- and
that was probably Sundew in
the green dress and fierce scowl --
had brought over a pony cart, so
Princessa loaded Tarnish into it
and took him to the little clinic
located at the Visitors Center.
After leaving Tarnish to get
his nose properly set, Princessa
talked to Sundew about the Blue Orcs.
"It's that new one, Torgen," said Sundew,
who was uninjured but fuming. "He just
won't leave me alone, even though I'm
married. The stupid orc has acid burns
on his stupid hands from grabbing me.
So now the blighter's gone and ruined
our safety record for the month! I'll see
him exiled for this offense, so help me."
All Princessa had to do was follow Sundew
to the nearest red-robed Game Master
and confirm what caused the problem.
Torgen was promptly handed off
to paramedics and also ejected from
Withering Heights, with a promise
that the group would pay for
Tarnish's medical care and
extract recompense from
the unfortunate Torgen later.
Estes Park staff were tolerant of
the ruckus and its resolution. Nobody
wanted to upset Withering Heights,
who pioneered the gamification of
invasive species removal by using
them as material components.
Princessa would call that a win.
* * *
Notes:
This poem's notes are long, so the character, setting, and content notes appear separately.
chanter1944 and rix_scaedu. It also fills the square "protecting a loved one" in my 11-1-21 card for the NCIS Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred, ng_moonmoth, janetmiles, and edorfaus. It belongs to the Trichromatic Attachments thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "The Things You Do" and "Never Accept an Apology," so read those first or this won't make much sense. "Spiraling Out of Control"
[Saturday, September 14, 2013]
After the altercation with Cavalier,
Tarnish went into a spiral of doom.
There was no other way to put it.
He cheated at games of chance,
stole things he didn't really need,
and picked fights at random.
Princessa tailed Tarnish
mainly for Cavalier's sake
at first, but as the supervillain
spiraled deeper, she began
to worry about him too.
He might be a pain in
the neck, but she didn't
want to see him get hurt.
When Tarnish disrupted
the Withering Heights
dark fantasy LARP near
the Heights in Colorado,
one of the Blue Orcs
broke his nose for him.
Princessa peeled the orcs
off of Tarnish, shooed away
the irate Swamp Halflings, and
confirmed that his nose was
indeed broken not just bloody.
Cleaning the cuts made it
bleed more, so Princessa
packed both nostrils with
gauze, covered the outside,
and topped it with an icepack.
"Do you want to tell me what
started this?" Princessa said
as she washed her hands.
"Sundew's a friend of bine,"
Tarnish muttered. "They
were bothering her, and
not just for the gabe."
"That doesn't sound
good," Princessa said.
"And what if Frond had
been there?" said Tarnish.
"Frond?" said Princessa.
"Their kid, he's only
three," said Tarnish.
"Bulrush wasn't there,
so I put a stop to it."
"You certainly did that,"
Princessa said, resolving
to find out what was going on
with the Blue Orcs and Sundew.
"I bight be a supervillain, but I'b
not a creeper," said Tarnish.
Princessa was beginning to see
what Cavalier saw in Tarnish.
"Okay, so you had a bad day.
Don't beat yourself up over it,
but don't let one bad decision
send you spiraling out of control,"
said Princessa. "Just pick up
your cape and get back into it.
Make decisions that improve
your health and your happiness.
You are who you choose to be."
Tarnish just shrugged. "Doesn't
batter what I choose, it only batters
what other people put up with."
Princessa wasn't sure what
to do with that, so she fell
back on what she did know.
The Swamp Halflings -- and
that was probably Sundew in
the green dress and fierce scowl --
had brought over a pony cart, so
Princessa loaded Tarnish into it
and took him to the little clinic
located at the Visitors Center.
After leaving Tarnish to get
his nose properly set, Princessa
talked to Sundew about the Blue Orcs.
"It's that new one, Torgen," said Sundew,
who was uninjured but fuming. "He just
won't leave me alone, even though I'm
married. The stupid orc has acid burns
on his stupid hands from grabbing me.
So now the blighter's gone and ruined
our safety record for the month! I'll see
him exiled for this offense, so help me."
All Princessa had to do was follow Sundew
to the nearest red-robed Game Master
and confirm what caused the problem.
Torgen was promptly handed off
to paramedics and also ejected from
Withering Heights, with a promise
that the group would pay for
Tarnish's medical care and
extract recompense from
the unfortunate Torgen later.
Estes Park staff were tolerant of
the ruckus and its resolution. Nobody
wanted to upset Withering Heights,
who pioneered the gamification of
invasive species removal by using
them as material components.
Princessa would call that a win.
* * *
Notes:
This poem's notes are long, so the character, setting, and content notes appear separately.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-03 12:04 am (UTC)https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-04-me-garcia4-story.html%3f_amp=true
(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-04 07:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-04 02:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-02-03 06:35 pm (UTC)invasive species removal by using them as material components."
Oh that's clever! And you could travel for the game, and root out different species in different biomes!
Thoughts
Date: 2024-02-04 10:57 am (UTC)