hiraeth-au

[hiraeth-au]

happy birthday, @jay-is-not-alwright!

i hope you have a great day :)

[hiraeth-au]

I’ve been listening to some songs recently with the AU in mind and found this really nice one! It’s not going on the playlist, as the playlist is more Skully-centric and basically his POV through songs but I totally see the song “Lullaby” by Low being a “Tim trying to calm a panicked Skully” song.

“Cross over and turn

Feel the spot don't let it burn

We all want, we all yearn

Be soft, don't be stern.”

Makes me think of Tim slow trying to calm Skully from a confused, terrified panic and reminding himself to stay calm and non-threatening because Skully doesn’t need pressuring or frustration, he needs someone to help him.

“Lullaby

Was not supposed to make you cry

I sang the words I meant

I sang.”

Skully just totally breaking down after finally figuring out he was finally going to be safe and that Tim would keep him safe; finally a light at the end of a terrifying dark tunnel.

Tim genuinely wants to help Skully and wants him to know that. Tim cares for Skully greatly and would do everything in his power to make sure Skully stays safe. Once that fact sinks in, it hits Skully like a truck because he’s not known ‘safety’ for years.

[hiraeth-au]

Beginning

Here is a rundown of how Tim and Skully first met (along with a story excerpt :3)

Trigger warning:

Graphic descriptions of injuries and blood

Emotional shutdown (from both Skully and Tim)

Uh, Tim low-key decides to kidnap Skully. I think that’s all.

One day, Tim finally catches sight of the mysterious masked person who had been stalking around Rosswood for the past few months and decides to chase him down and ends up tackling him, wanting to figure out who exactly started tormenting him again after the events of MH, only, Tim accidentally knocks the person out. And Tim, desperate for an explanation, decides to kidnap the masked person and goes home.

The masked person wakes up at some point later in Tim’s house. Tim wants to press him for answers, but notices he seems to be pretty confused, not to mention injured, like he got into a scuffle with something dangerous and barely escaped.

Tim brings the masked person to the bathroom to get his scraps and cuts better looked at - Tim then dubs him “Skully” because of the odd mask.

Tim notices Skully’s left hand seems to be horrendously scarred, clutching the beat up camcorder that’s seen better days. Tim hopes his hand isn’t infected due to injuries, but when he takes a closer look, Tim sees the camcorder is physically attached to Skully’s hand. That’s why it’s so scarred up and caked in dried blood.

Tim freaks out for a good minute trying to comprehend what the hell and how and why the camera is attached to Skully’s hand and carefully, slowly works at separating the camera from Skully’s hand as Skully whimpers in pain from behind the mask.

One successful camera removal later and Skully’s hand is now heavily bandaged. Despite Tim’s protests, Skully simply uses his other hand to hold the camera, as though Skully can’t stand to be without it.

Tim leaves for like, ten minutes to grab some more supplies and when he gets back he finds Skully trying feverishly to tear the mask off.

Tim tries to stop him, as the mask seems to be attached to his face (he prays not like the camcorder that was somehow fused to his hand) but Skully is desperate, whining frantically as if in a panic.

Eventually Skully just wildly kicks at Tim as he continues to (painfully) yank at the mask with shaking hands.

The mask comes off, but Skully is whimpering and in pain. There's lines of crimson dripping from the mask and Skully crows as the skin around his eye sockets bead with blood, the peeled off skin raw and irritated.

Skully's mouth is wired shut.

. . .

Walking back into his small bathroom, Tim let out a sigh of relief that the masked person- it was a skull-like mask … Skully, maybe?- was still sitting right where Tim had left him, free hand fumbling with the mask covering his face. After a moment, however, Tim realized Skully was tugging far too hard on the plastic mask for comfort. But as Tim moved to stop him, Skully’s harsh pulling ripped the mask from his face with a sharp muffled gasp. 

Blood was now dripping freely down his face, patches of skin raw and bloody. It was Jay. The man who had been thought dead for the last two years.

Jay’s eyes were gone. That was what Tim noticed first, his brain tearing itself out of its spiral of panic to fixate solely on Jay’s too pale and bloody face. His eye sockets, where his eyes should have been, were horrifically scarred and caved in, the surrounding skin puffed up and wrinkled with obvious signs of past infection, leaving the area around it pink and patchy like the skin of a burn victim.

His lips were sewn together, with what looked like rusted metal wire; patches of his face steadily bleeding from the open wounds. It was as though the mask had been adhered to his face.

Under the bright fluorescent shine of the bathroom light, Tim couldn’t help but notice Jay’s skin also had a sickly, unnatural gray tint, like something that had washed up from the bottom of a sea salt lake.

. . .

Tim has to very slowly and carefully use a small pair of pliers to clip away at the metal wire keeping Skully's mouth shut. The wire seems old and rusted, and Tim feels like crying at the mere thought of Jay having to go so long with damn wire keeping his mouth closed. Tim then thoroughly works at cleaning off Skully’s mask for him while Skully tries to adjust to the changes.

Tim calls Brian in a numb panic that then turns into a full blown panic after the shock wears off.

Brian gets to Tim’s, is also super shocked at everything, but goes Nurse Mode and decides to push questions away for later.

Skully is professionally patched up and then Tim and Brian decide the next course of action is getting Skully clean. Thankfully, Skully doesn’t have lice and is miraculously free of wound infections, but he won’t respond to them and seems to have gone into a dissociative state, but not before mimicking bird noises at them as easily as though he were speaking English. (Skully’s language is later dubbed “Birdsong”)

They both manage to wrangle Skully into some clean clothes. (And Tim contemplates burning the filthy clothes Skully had been wearing. Those were beyond help. It stings to see the black jacket — the same one Jay had been wearing that day in Benedict Hall two years ago— all torn up and covered in filth)

Tim decides to try his hand at brushing through Skully’s matted, but now clean, hair. Carefully snipping at the tangled bits too difficult to comb through with some scissors.

[hiraeth-au]

Skully Doodles

Here are some old artwork pieces of Skully drawn by @blood-covered-rabbit ! These were drawn a little while into us brewing ideas for the AU.

Warning for semi-graphic injuries (drawn - non realistic)

An unmasked Skully! Pre-patch up. A more cartoonish take on his appearance rather than realistic. It’s him ✨

Some adorable unmasked Skully doodles of him just chilling. @blood-covered-rabbit had the fun idea of Skully’s hair always being a mess with leaves and twigs because of him always being out and about exploring!

[hiraeth-au]

just some doodles of skully from @jay-is-not-alwright and @blood-covered-rabbit 's hiraeth au!! im definitely gonna be drawing more fanart for it. cuz its an amazing au. and also i might write fanfic for it (if they'll allow it ofc)

[hiraeth-au]

Welcome to the Hiraeth AU!

Hiraeth is a Marble Hornets AU made by my friend @if-i-were and @jay-is-not-alwright (me!) It is a Skully-centric AU that was created before the release of the second Marble Hornets comic. That being said, this version of Skully will greatly diverge from his canon counterpart, as well as the AU’s plot itself.

Hiraeth is set two years after the end of Marble Hornets and starts with Tim running into Skully, quite literally, at Rosswood. Tim and Skully are the main focus of this AU, with occasional appearances of the others.

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Art of the AU will be tagged as #Hiraeth artwork

Writing/drabbles of the AU will be tagged as #Hiraeth drabbles

Music that fits the AU will be tagged as #Hiraeth playlist

As this blog grows, appropriate tags will be added here to better organize things.

Fanart and fanfics are totally okay to submit!

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I’ve complied an official playlist for the AU as well! The songs follow the story’s journey, take that as you will

I’ve made two versions, one is on Spotify and the other is on YouTube. The YouTube version contains songs (and versions of songs already on the playlist) that I couldn’t find on Spotify.

Spotify version:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1famZriHAFMTdRsO5gfms1?si=jtzN3bS3QXaRYyc4B36WeA

YouTube version:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3rf-BvUcUDKAFWUwWtbBYlqrN26DL5wE

The playlist is technically already “complete” but songs can still be recommended! If you think a song could work for the playlist, feel free to share!

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General warning, this AU will deal with topics such as:

Past torture

C-PTSD

Themes of trauma

Past emotional and physical abuse

Body horror/aftermath of body mutilation

Past Non-consensual, unsafe/unsanitary surgeries.

If any of these topics upset you, this blog and AU may not be for you, please keep yourself safe and click away now.

(Important note: Jay/Skully was never sexually assaulted in any way at any point during captivity, he was never sexually exploited at any time while in captivity).