#project driscoll

[autistic-stare]

Project Driscoll Masterlist

(roughly in chronological order)

Pebble drabbles:

Storm

Tears

Water

“I love you.”

Midnight

Truth and Thorn drabbles:

Prequel drabbles:

Breathe

Please

Atlantis drabbles:

Love

Choice

Quiet

“I’m Fine”

[autistic-stare]

Whumpmas in July, Day 6: Water

@whumpmasinjuly

This is mostly a caretaking drabble, and water is only a minor part of it, but I loved writing it anyway! Enjoy some badly hurt Pebble and a calm and patient Cam!

Content Warnings: burns, mention of past torture (some of which was during a time when the character was a minor), messed-up thoughts about self-image and being a burden, needles, swearing. Let me know if there’s anything I need to add!

Pebble is barely conscious when Rain brings him into the hospital. They’re a funny sight, Rain carrying Pebble, four years older than her, if you ignore the angry burns covering his entire body. Cam drops everything when she sees them.

“Are these . . .”

“Testing burns. I . . . they were going to Test him to death.” Rain swallows hard.

Cam takes a deep breath. “Right. Just put him here.” She gestures to an empty bed, its clean sheets already neatly made. Rain nods and lays Pebble’s limp body down. His eyelids flutter and a small, pained moan escapes his mouth. Rain looks worried.

“I think they paralyzed him or something.”

“Probably. When did you find him?”

“About thirty minutes ago.”

Cam nods and starts rummaging in a cupboard, gathering several clean cloths and rubbing alcohol. “Okay. That should wear off soon, then.”

Rain nods and perches, tense and concerned, on a countertop. Pebble shifts a little on the bed, leaving streaks of blood on the white sheets from where the burns have split open. He hisses in pain, clenching his fists, and his eyes fly open.

He immediately tries to sit up, his eyes wide, clearly seeing not the Outpost hospital and Cam but the Complex, and who knows what other horrors. Cam rushes to his side, pushing him gently back against the pillows.

“Hey! It’s okay, it’s okay. Just try to rest, okay? You’re safe. Rain got you out.”

Pebble’s eyes focus and he nods slowly, wincing at the way it pulls at his new burns, his breathing gasping and quick. He lays back down, forcing himself to breathe. It’s okay. It hurts. It’s okay.

Cam nods with him. “Okay. I’m going to get you on some painkillers. Is that okay?”

Pebble nods. He’s twitching already, his Testing-damaged nerves making an appearance. Cam busies herself with giving him an IV. Pebble’s face relaxes the minute the painkillers begin to enter his system.

“Th- thank you.” He swallows. His voice is hoarse from screaming. Cam notices.

“Do you want some water?”

Pebble nods and Cam fills him a glass, but his violently twitching hands just splash it everywhere. He hisses when the water touches the burns, grimacing slightly. Aren’t the painkillers supposed to help with that? It . . . it’s really bad, isn’t it. This is really, really bad.

Cam takes the glass from him and fills it again. “It’s okay. I can do it.” No, is she really going to hold the glass for me? That's pathetic, I’m pathetic, I should be able to do that much, for Republic’s sake this is embarrassing, if Rain were the one getting Tested she’d be completely fine and still protecting people, I’m just a burden, look at Cam dropping everything to take care of me, and I can’t even lift a glass of water— Cam holds the water to his lips and he reluctantly parts them, only to immediately take huge gulps of the stuff, the cool water soothing the dry burning in his throat. The glass is quickly empty, and Pebble relaxes back against the pillows.  

Cam sets the glass on the counter and picks up a damp cloth. “Okay Pebble, I need to start cleaning those burns. This . . . I’m not going to sugarcoat it, this is going to fucking hurt. It’s just water first, but I'll have to disinfect them with rubbing alcohol. That’ll be the worst part. Okay?”

Pebble takes a deep breath and nods. Okay. It’s not like I really have a choice anyway. Not to mention it can hardly hurt more than the . . . than the Testing. He has to bite back a pained cry at the memory of Sunny, turning the machine on, at the memory of his own screams echoing in his ears, his body on fire. Rain makes eye contact with him. Thank you. Thank you for saving me. He doesn’t even have to say it out loud for her to get the message.

Cam moves to Pebble’s side. “Okay. I’m going to start now.” She takes his arm gently and begins to clean the blood from the cracked, blistered skin. Pebble hisses through his teeth and pulls away instinctively, but Cam holds fast, moving quickly and then setting his arm back against the sheets, moving to the other side and finishing just as fast. Pebble just grits his teeth and tries not to move.

She does his legs next, but that part isn’t so bad. The worst of the burns are on his chest, face and neck.

“Do you think you can sit up?”

“I . . . I’ll try.”

Pebble shifts his weight to his elbows and pushes himself to a sitting position, gasping at the pain and the effort it took to complete such a simple action. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone as he clenches his jaw and allows Cam to clean off his burns. He attempts to ease himself back onto the pillows, but his arms give out and he ends up collapsing with a shuddering breath.

“Okay. I’m going to wash your face now.”

Pebble grimaces a little. Goddammit she’s washing my face like I'm what, five? I should be able to do that myself! I’m enough of a pathetic mess as it is, I don’t need someone fixing me up in a hospital. I’m going to be scarred beyond recognition anyway. Although . . . maybe that’s a good thing. He closes his eyes and Cam wipes off the last of the blood.

“Right. That’s it for the first pass. This next part is going to hurt like hell, Pebble. Just try to get through it, okay?”

Pebble’s eyes flick up to meet hers and then flick back to the ceiling. He gives a slight nod. Cam pours some rubbing alcohol on a clean cloth, takes Pebble’s left arm, and presses the cloth to his burns.

He can’t repress the strangled cry that leaves his mouth. Fuck, that burns that burns that burns—not worse than the Testing—but I'm already on painkillers—no it’s just as bad—it can’t be this is supposed to be a good kind of pain the kind that makes it hurt less later—DOESN’T CHANGE ANYTHING— Pebble’s breathing turns ragged, his jaw clenched, every muscle in his body tense and trembling, but Cam moves as quickly as possible. The water was so much easier than this.  

“Okay. Good job. I’m going to go as fast as I can, okay?”  

Pebble’s only response is to squeeze his eyes shut and take another deep breath. Okay. Cam keeps going.

Cam does move quickly. Pebble only screams again when she does his chest, and then the worst of the burns on his neck and jawline. But it’s over in minutes, and when it is, the burns feel better. The painkillers are strong enough to keep this at bay. And now that the pain is gone, Pebble is so, so tired.

Rain can tell. Of course she can, she’s fucking superhuman. Did she carry me out of there? I . . . she must’ve. I really am pathetic aren’t I. “It’s okay to sleep, Pebble.”

“But—when you found me, I was unconscious . . . I think?” Pebble keeps his voice quiet. If he speaks too loud now, it only hurts.

“You were. But unconsciousness isn’t the same as sleep. You’ve literally been through hell, of course your body is exhausted.”

“But you’ve been through the same thing hundreds of times—"

“Not like that. 723 wasn’t trying to kill me. Sunny was trying to kill you. And she would’ve succeeded if I had gotten there about three hours later.”

Pebble swallows hard. He doesn’t really know how to feel about that.

Rain sighs. “Never mind. You need to sleep.”

“Are . . . are you sure?”

Cam steps in. “Absolutely. Give your body time to repair itself.”

Pebble takes a deep breath. His voice is small. “. . . okay.” It’s not hard to fall asleep once he stops fighting it. Only a matter of closing his eyes and letting himself slip away.

He sleeps soundly for three days.

[autistic-stare]

Whumpmas in July: Storm

@whumpmasinjuly

This drabble is literally just the fluffiest fluff, after all, Pebble has never seen a real storm before. (Pebble is a pathetic bean but we love him anyways)

Content warnings: past child abuse (Pebble was kept in an underground Complex his entire life, knowing what the outside world was like but never actually seeing it, Rain was kept in the same situation for nine years)

It’s dark in the apartment, except for the occasional flash of light from the window, a storm raging outside. A flash of light, and then the rumble of thunder. Rain streaking down the window.

Pebble sits on the couch by the window, flinching at every noise, watching in awe as the sky is light up with electricity—lightning. It's called lightning. I know this—and then goes dark. He wraps the old quilt Thorn gave him tighter around his shivering body. He’s not used to being cold, or hot for that matter. Back at the Complex, it was always exactly the right temperature. Always the feeling of nothing. He likes the cold better.

Thunder. That’s thunder, I'm hearing thunder. It’s louder than he expected it would be. All he knew was that there was a noise, that it came after the lightning, light is faster than sound and all that. But he’d never seen it before. Never experienced it before. He’d never experienced much of anything before.

“Pebble?”

He turns, his eyes wide and wary, forcing himself to relax when he sees Rain’s small figure standing in the doorway.

“Yeah?”

“Is everything okay?”

Pebble turns back to the window as another crack of lightning streaks across the sky. “Yeah. I just—” his voice drops to a whisper in the dark room, suddenly aware of how empty it is in here. “—I’ve never seen a storm in person before.”

Rain sits next to him. “It’s been a while since I've seen one. Nine years, you know?”

“My entire life was spent knowing about the world, but . . . but never truly experiencing it.”

“Experiencing it is nice.”

Pebble nods, opening the quilt wrapped around his body to let Rain underneath, even though he knows she doesn’t need it. She accepts the invitation anyway, curling up by his side and tucking her legs up on the couch. Pebble takes a deep breath.

“I can see why you chose your name.”

“Rain? I chose my name for a different kind of rain. When its almost foggy, and you can hear the rain on the roof, and the whole world smells like earth and water and life. But . . . This is nice too. The feeling of being kept sheltered from the storm.”

“Safety.” Pebble flinches slightly at the boom of thunder.

Rain leans against her brother, comforting him more than herself. “Yeah. Safety.” 

“Safety feels good.”

“It does, doesn’t it?”

Lightning. Thunder.

[autistic-stare]

You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

What type of relationship does your character have/had with their parents? Did they have siblings? If so, what was their relationship with their siblings? If not, do they wish they had?

Ooooh boy here we go

Pebble's mom died in a Prototyping accident. He lost his sister too, so he was left with just his dad. His dad technically was just doing everything he could to keep his son alive, but in the process he Severely Traumatized the kid. Pebble resents him, naturally. He tends to fantasize about what it would be like if he still had his mom and sister.

Rain killed her mom by accident. It was set up so she would, she didn't want to, but it still happened. She still feels guilty about it. 723, Pebble's dad, is technically her father, and her relationship with him is pretty odd. He did a lot of horrible things to her, but she's still attached to him. She does forgive very easily, after all.

Peri was taken away from his family at 14. His parents and sister were kind to him and kept him safe, let him draw sometimes even though he could get in trouble for it. He misses them still. 723 was pretty awful to him as well, he pretty much terrorized all of these kids.