Ah, the different time zones :) Got tagged by the wonderful @westernlarch - thank you!
Tagging @dandenbo, @clericofshadows, @cr-noble-writes & @mrsd-writes, if you want to share something ^^
This is from my WIP The Pendulum (working title) & very much in edit state. I usually start out with the dialogue and fill in actions later.
~o0o~
When Kaidan came to, he was lying on the floor of the Cube, propped up on what felt like a rolled-up towel and with a cool, wet cloth across his eyes. He moaned, poaching at the cloth to get it off his face, but a small hand stopped his attempt.
“Lie still, Alenko. Here, drink that.” Jack.
A straw was put to his lips, and he drank obediently. Electrolytes and glucose. “What happened?”
“You fainted. You started fucking bleeding from your nose and eyes and fainted.”
“Shit.”
“You’re not saying. Scared the shit out of me when you just dropped, you know.”
Kaidan snorted but regretted it a split second later when his head started to pound. “Ah, I guess I’m lucky you’re with me.”
“Damn’ straight, you are.”
He managed to finally take the rug from his eyes and squinted at Jack. “How long was I out?”
“Only a couple of minutes, but you sound like this isn’t the first time this is happening.”
“It’s not.” He sighed, carefully manoeuvring himself into a sitting position. “Ever since I started using my biotics, I got nosebleeds. Eyes sometimes, but I think the last time that happened was a couple of years ago.”
Jack sat cross-legged next to him, handing him another electrolyte package. “You do realise that this isn’t normal, right?”
He shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it. It comes with being an L2.”
“Yeah, maybe you really should think about getting some wetware in your brain that actually works.”
“No chance in hell, Jack. I can deal with the migraines and occasional nosebleeds. I don’t want to risk brain damage.”
okay I'm interested in Kaidan gets retrofitted... I'm a huge nerd for implant and amp stuff, and that's what that title sounds like to me :D
Thanks for the ask! <3
Yeah, you would be right. The retrofit. It all comes down to Conatix not using durable materials and the wires in Kaidan's brain corroding, especially where they are connecting to the implant itself. So it's either getting a retrofit, or death.
It's a very, very rough draft, typos & bad grammar included since I only typed it up when it popped into my brain, but this is part of the scene:
“Damn it, Miranda, you don’t need to coddle me. Give me the fucking details. What am I facing? Brain damage? Death?”
“Both,” she said without hesitation. “Damage first, death later. And it won’t be pretty.”
“Great.” He took a careful breath through his nose, wincing at the sharp burn. “What exactly is happening and how do I stop it?”
“You can’t stop it anymore, if there ever was the chance. You can slow it down by not using your biotics ever again,” she elaborated, and he was surprised to hear a certain softness in her voice. “The L2 config wasn’t created to last forever. I don’t think Conatix reckoned with Biotics living past the age of 25 because so many were dying. They didn’t have a reason to use expensive, but durable materials, and that’s exactly what’s biting you in the arse right now, Kaidan.”
He snorted. “So what are you saying? The implant’s corroding?”
“Not the implant itself, but the wires that link to your nodules.” She pulled a holo monitor over to the bed that showed a human brain with a biotic implant. A lot of regions around the wires were coloured blue to purple, and Kaidan didn’t have to take a wild guess to realise he was looking at his own brain. “Those blue and purple areas you see are portions of your brain that have already started to degenerate. The bigger problem we’re facing is here,” she said, pointing at an area at the base of his skull where his amp jacks were protruding from his skin. “We’re facing corrosion directly where the wires connect to your implant.”
“And that’s bad why?”
“Because it’s directly located at your brain stem. It regulates breathing, sleeping patterns, and blood pressure, to only name a few.”
Kaidan closed his eyes. “Hence the bleeding from my nose and eyes, right?”
Miranda nodded. “You’re lucky you only got those. You could’ve popped a vessel in your brain as well.”
[Create a short piece (art of fic) that encompasses those 3 words.]
Thank you, @mallaidhsomo, for the prompt!
Shepard’s cabin was soothing, Kaidan realised, when he laid down on the bed, the only light illuminating the cabin coming from the fish tank. There were no noises here that irritated his pounding head even more, no glaring lights that stabbed into his eyes. Hell, Shepard’s cabin even smelled soothing.
“Do you need anything else?” Shepard asked softly, his hand resting on Kaidan’s shoulder.
Kaidan blushed. The hand reminded him of how Shepard had to half carry him to his cabin because Kaidan simply was dead on his feet.
“No,” Kaidan replied, his voice scratching in his throat. “Thanks, Cam.”
“Sure thing.” Kaidan closed his eyes, waiting for the sound of Shepard’s door opening and closing. Instead, he felt a dip in the mattress as Shepard sat down beside him. “Promise me something, though.”
“What?”
He felt something cool touching his face, and he opened his eyes, realising that it was Shepard’s necklace that was caressing his skin. “Stop being an eejit and let me help you before the pain gets worse enough for you to fall down a flight of stairs, alright?”
Kaidan snorted, but moaned the next second when a lance of molten iron ran through his prefrontal cortex. “Don’t make me laugh, Cam, dammit!”
“Sorry.” Was it Kaidan’s imagination or did Shepard press a soft kiss to his temple? “Sleep. I’ll be on the couch if you need me.”
Kaidan wanted to protest, wanted to tell Shepard to just lie down next to him, but his meds started to work and took him away into pain-free oblivion.
