Work Text:
Finding inspiration is hard
It’s hard, and no one understands
His fingers tapped impatiently on the desk beside his writing equipment, his mouth pursed in frustration as the flow of ideas had suddenly just… stopped. And a sharp jab of pain began, this time in his midsection, sharp enough to force him to bend over in pure agony and splatter what progress he had had with expelled blood, but not strong enough to prompt a blackout.
It hurts so much
It’d been like this for weeks! A short spurt of ideas, the wild dash to scribble it down, then pain, so much painpainpainpainpainpainpain
It felt like eons before the jabbing finally subsided, but a quick glance at the time offered the slightly surprising timeskip of ten minutes.
He should never have accepted that medal
It was all because of that evil lime green medal and its weakness-prolonging abilities, he’d decided, that neither Maria nor Manalo wanted him to exert himself too much rebuilding the town lest he collapse one day and never rise again.
Every villainous (object) is lime, why didn’t I remember that?
So he’d been tasked to record the events, seal it in the archives so that no one would ever forget.
If only he knew how to start.
I don’t even write all that much! How am I supposed to…
“Joaquin? Joaquin! Are you okay?”
“Hey, what’s the matter?”
Ah, that was Maria, with Manalo following not far behind. He hid a small grimace, then turned to beam at them bittersweetly and offer a small wave.
“Ah… Nothing’s the matter, Maria, Manny. Just… a bruise.”
Manalo raised an eyebrow. “Just a bruise? You look a lot less okay than just a small bruise, mi amor”
“I, uh…” need a distraction, what can you say? “I don’t know how to start. Guess I’ve been losing sleep over that, too, ha h a h a...” His forced laughter trailed away awkwardly, but with a suppressed burst of relief, his point seemed to have distracted his partners enough.
His partners glanced to each other, one pensively, the other worried, before Maria said sharply,
“Joaquin, you know you can tell us anything, right? We’ll always be here for you, you don’t need to worry about telling us anything that concerns you!” Another small pause, then her face softened and she added. “Although… if you really don’t want to talk at the moment then that’s fine, too. For now.”
Manalo followed her concerned gaze to Joaquins’, then tried to diffuse the stiff tension in the air by asking, “Hey, buddy, uh… so how are you trying to start? Here, let me see”
Joaquin winced slightly as he saw Manalo stare at the specks of blood blending into the ink on the papers, but restrained himself from spurting anything that would just compromise the situation even more. Maria peered over the bullfighter’s shoulder, then suppressed a soft laugh that sent Joaquin’s head bolting up in alarm.
“What is it?”
“Oh, nothing! It’s just that this seems so… stiff, to be honest! It’s so factually informative, it’s amazing. I can see why it’d be difficult to write, it’s not really you, you know?”
“Hmm… Oh! Why don’t you just try to start from the beginning? Try doing it from our point of view, since that’s how this whole thing apparently started, yeah?”
Oh...!
“That’s… a pretty good idea, actually. Thanks, Manny, Maria”
“No problem, buddy! After all, that’s what friends are for, right?”
“...Right”
“Right. Now, don’t stay up too late, now, okay? You look like a bull decided to build a bird nest on you!”
“Uh, yes! Right, will do!”
“Good,” Maria laughed softly, before his partners gave him a soft peck on both cheeks and left him to his writing, chatting softly with each other as he turned back to his papers with renewed purpose.
Finding inspiration is hard
It’s hard, and no one understands
...well, maybe not no one.