#mysteriousbruises

[eric-sadahire]

Being in your fifties is basically like being Batman. You have a few close friends, you wake up with mysterious bruises, and all your money goes to some stupid niche hobby.

[hellytheelephant]

I wrote a thing... it doesn’t really have a title yet, I just saved it as “Mysterious Bruises”

Unbeknownst to humanity, there lives a race of tiny exploitative elves, hidden beneath the bedroom floorboards. Every night they creep out and scuttle up bedposts – which is quite a feat because they grow to be no bigger than pushpins – and sprawl across sleeping humans.

In the winter their movements become sluggish and tired, as cold-blooded creatures often find. Each step sapping the life from them. So in order to beat the effects of miserable weather they travel in hoards to recharge their body temperature batteries. They curl in every crevice, snuggle between the waves of stretchmarks, and recline in wrinkled alcoves. They brave the fleshy mountains and deep caverns of belly rolls.

When they find just the right spot, they situate themselves down, plonked pressing into soft skin. They extend their limbs like starfish to cover as much of their surface area against the heat source as they can. Colour fills them. They go from transparent to a pulsating opaque. Blues, and blacks, and purples, and yellows, and greens. The warmer they get, the faster they flash. Slow fades become desperate flickers.

It happens every so often, when an elf stays splayed out too long, that they grow too hot for their miniscule forms to handle. Too much, too fast can bring them to breaking point, and they burst. Their colour stains their pillowed sanctuary and their souls leave this world. Left only are painless marks where life used to be. The other elves mourn for a moment or two, but elves are not known for being sentimental. The explosions are warnings at best. Don’t get too comfortable here.

If they had the capability to, they might try to find out why. They might try and use their knowledge to maximise efficiency, potentially limit the amount of time spent bounding over the breathing bouncy-castle. But they don’t. This works, so why change it?

Perhaps one day one little elf might wander too far. Climb high above the others and seek shelter beneath a thatched eyelash roof. Perhaps the human might awaken and catch the elf before it can scatter with the rest of them. If the elf is lucky it might find a friend in the human. Together they could discover wonderful impossibilities. They might find that elves can absorb aches and pains if they stop being so selfish for a second and try a spot of altruism. They might find that a human can transfer more body heat by cupping an elf in the palm of their hand. They might sit together and consider if their parasitic relationship is morally permissible at all, or if a co-dependency this great is unhealthy. Or the human might just yawn and go back to sleep, waking up the next morning to wonder how they have yet another mysterious bruise on their leg.

[freetobezii]

How. What. It's like. Swollen? What the hell did I do? #mysteriousbruises #whattheheckity https://www.instagram.com/ziiteara/p/BrjvgEdAeuO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pkicakodphs0

[jayecrues]

WTF did I do? I don’t remember this. #mysteriousbruises #hipcheck https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw421mPFEAq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hzazv7ef7az

[brandiisgoingtohell]

Lady on the train: "Nm, nm, nm, Lord have mercy." Guess she didn't like my outfit. #nudefishnets #govballnyc #mysteriousbruises 📷: @katie.henry http://ift.tt/2stHYJN

[fitwithblair]

Day 8 My body is feeling so much happier and stronger already. My balance has greatly improved too during certain moves. Which is good cause I'm a flippin klutz! If you couldn't notice by the 3 bruises on my arm...speaking of which when the heck did I get those?!? I swear I bruise so darn easily!!! Anyone know why that is?!? #fitwithblair #mysteriousbruises #fitgirlproblems

[bawarementally]

My leg bruises... #bruises #unexplainedbruises #mysteriousbruises #legbruises #bruising #easilybruised https://www.instagram.com/p/Br7lTOYHf1V/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=o6fxk8t9884r

[goddlesssiren]

I have 14 bruises on my legs and 3 on my back. I have no idea how I got them... 

[theaveragepolishgirl-blog]

i hate mysterious bruises more than regular ones bc then you have to do detective work on how that happened