Chapter Text
“Why is it not melting, that not normal…”
Swoyer couldn’t stop whispering under their breath as they stared with worry in the mirror of their hotel’s room – Not Terry’s – the ice encrusted in the cut of their cheek, their hands touching it every once in a while to inspect it.
They already had a hunch that the injury Cruel King (DontthinkaboutitDontthinkaboutitDontthinkaboutitDontthinkaboutit) gave them when they were fighting earlier was not great. After all, ice growing out of an injury is not something anyone would like to experience, one way or another, it was going to scar, they just thought that the frozen bites inside the wound would be gone by the end of the day.
Now it’s been hours since they first got it, they were back to Bizville lukewarm temperature for a while....but for some reason, the ice still didn’t disappear like it should have, no, it became even worse as the ice seemed to have grown and expanded to fill the cut in its entirety, to the horror of Swoyer.
It didn’t melt or hurt that much, thanks the Sword, It just felt horribly cold to the touch, like touching some sort of ice-cube, they could nearly hear the distinct tingling sound of verglas being knocked on with each small tap.
“What is happening! Urg-- why didn’t I see that earlier! I could have asked Shedletsky about it!”
They groaned loudly, hands immediately going over their face in despair of their terrible decision making, they should have checked under their bandage immediately after their meeting with the Admin, they had a feeling something was wrong, but they wanted to see where the airport was for tomorrow first, then unfortunately, soon after finding it, they got distracted by the Arcade, it’s been so long they didn’t played retro games like those that they ended up passing the all afternoon there, they even took their luck with the claw machine and won multiple plush – they didn’t have used to them, they stopped sleeping with plushy like those a long time ago, they just really, REALLY, wanted them – now it was way too late in the night for them to go back to Roblox HQ and they needed to take their plane early in the morning to avoid arriving to Turitopulis after dark.
“Whelp...It’s fine, it’s perfectly fine, it’s just some ice that doesn't seem to melt! It’s not like I should have some frost bite by now, haha…..”
… Yeah, even if it’s not normal, they are in a not so ordinary situation in the first place, in one week, they became a Time Traveler, accepted to collect the SWORD OF THE HEIGHT for Shedlsky so they can rescue Builderman, beat up two kids and their boss, fist fight a giant queen ant, became an official adventurer, save the life of a guy with a dynamite, storm in a castle and fight the equivalent of an army of knight plus a terrifying statue, kill defeat a King, and experience a lifetime of near death experience, all of that when barely even knowing how to swing a sword or throw a ball accurately, It’s not everyday a simple student in art turns into a hero then starts to live all of this like some sort of RPG protagonist.
Whatever is happening to their injury is not the weirdest thing that happened to them in the past few days, it was probably nothing too bad if it didn’t feel like they were dying.
Truly, nothing catastrophic ever came back to bite them in the butt when they decided to ignore for a time the obvious terrible problem they had. They could talk about it with Shedlsky when they were back in town with the Venomshank, this was their priority first and foremost, They need to collect the Sword as fast as they could, so they could save Builderman from this unknown enemy.
(They couldn’t take a break for too long, they needed to go back home as soon as possible, they missed their Grandpa and Grandma, a part of them wondered if they could possibly meet the couple here, that wouldn’t be the same, but... that was a terrible idea, especially when they already risking to meet their younger-self with each outing if they are not careful, They know enough about time-travel rules in fiction to not want to find out if they were really in a perfect loop like they suspect or not, causing their disappearance with a paradox or destroying the world because of the butterfly effect would be terrible...Just thinking about it was going to give them a headache)
Swoyer shake their head rapidly, letting their body relax slowly with a slow breath, hand going by reflex into their bag searching for another band-aid to hide the injury under it like they did previously, strangers don’t need to know about the icy cut chilling – Pun absolutely intended – on their face.
When they are done with that, they simply continue to stare at themself through the mirror, the phantom of a smile forming on their lips as they try to not giggle at the absurdity of what they are seeing, now that they truly think about it, they do look cool with the bandage over their cheek, their favorite bandanna around their neck – who has a soft blue that have the same shade as their traveling bag, a very funny coincidence – the red hoodie and their black and red cap, cool but in a ridiculously funny way.
“I kinda look like a troublemaker kid in those TV high-school movies or animes”
They couldn’t keep their laugh from escaping them as they took the most over dramatic pose they could think of, trying to mimic with their voice what they remember this archetype of character sounds like “I’m Swoyer and I’m gonna to beat ya’ with the power of my trusty ba-- wait….” they froze “...Do I have a bat??”
They rapidly started looking in their traveling bag for what felt like hours, before finding what they were searching for, a bat that they had never used, there was still the price-tag attached to it! They don’t really remember when they got that but who cared, they needed to complete the look.
“I’m Swoyer and now that I ‘ve got my trusty bat, I’m gonna beat ya’ ass!!”
It was funny.
(It was a good distraction from the festering feeling in their heart)