@fatedevour said:
⚠ ( utilize this for as many prompts or drabbles for segments as you'd like to do 🥰 )
[ PINCH ] sender holding receiver's chin between their thumb and forefinger ( Prime )
SEND ⚠ TO FIND MY MUSE AT THE END OF A TRAIL OF BLOOD.
The first thing he registered upon waking was a crushing kind of darkness and a wordless disorientation that dashed all rational thought from his mind. How long had it been? An hour? Two days? Five hundred years.
Aether roused with an UNCONTROLLABLE terror bubbling hot in his veins, stricken by an uncompromising panic that had him jolting clumsily upright through the drugged haze of the sedatives that had yet to fully wear off, tumbling violently off the table and crashing noisily through a tray of instruments set beside it before landing on the floor and bolting.
It was this RECKLESS dose of adrenaline that seized him, spurring him into action heedless of consequence. He didn’t know where he was, he had to get out, to the ship, to open sky, to Lumine -
But his body had yet to fully relinquish its agency to his mind. Each step was woefully insecure, his centre of gravity pitching dizzyingly with every inevitable stumble and trip. Aether RAN, mindless fear goading him into a precarious rhythm even as he lost his footing over the smooth stone, staggering before he fell. He didn’t know how long he lay there panting in the dark, bathed partially in the blinding light from the corridor beyond, heaving for air that seemed intent on evading him, so weak from the lingering anaesthesia and exertion that trying to push himself upright became an impossibility.
A shadow darkened the doorway.
“I’m - hngh - I can’t - Hah, I just - ” Aether gasped, mouth dry and head light. He was unsure of what he was saying or who he was directing any of it to, still shaking and trying to ground himself as his fingers scrabbled at the seams between the tiles, slick with fresh blood. There was - he now realised - blood everywhere. It trickled lazily from the mouth of the catheter he’d pulled free from the line, oozing from between his torn sutures, sticky across his skin, soaking the ends of his hair. It felt like his chest was closing in tight, his body going rigid with fear.
All the while, Dottore watched, motionless, silent and unreadable. He might as well have been a fixture set into the floor, cold and unyielding in his neutral INTENSITY. He gazed upon him, regarding him like an animal with its leg caught in a trap. He made for a pitiful and PATHETIC sight. Indeed, had there not been an overt risk of further self harm he might have refrained from intervening at all. But still it begged the question - of all the things to drive him to this unmatched and irreconcilable point of desperation, this was it? What an absolute disappointment.
In any case, there didn’t seem to be any indication that he was coming close to anything even vaguely resembling regaining his composure. Back to sleep then. Dottore closed the distance between them, reached over and caught him in an iron grip that steadied his jaw. His eyes were wild with a baseless and dangerous kind of fear.
“Stop it. Be still.” Prime muttered with overt displeasure, a COMMAND more than a request or any form of consolation. He held his head to the floor and knelt over him, his larger frame all the more effective in caging him in even as he continued to gasp and squirm. He pulled a vial from his coat pocket, upending and mixing its contents in a smooth and practiced motion - a specialised and POTENT sedative mixture featuring a compound derived from valberries - before drawing up an appropriate dose into a fresh syringe.
“N-No - P-Please, please, Hah -”
He pinned him firmly and easily, immobilising him as he freed the needle and administered the drug into the muscle of his shoulder. Aether jerked weakly beneath him with a broken moan.
“Hush.”
The effects were gradual, but progressive and RELIABLE - even more so with the alterations they’d made to account for his unique biology and its increased metabolic rate. Aether’s erratic struggling slowly diminished, his entire body going limp save for the mild tremors that were somewhat characteristic for this blend. Pupils shrunk down to half their usual size, accompanied by an involuntary increase in salivation and the appearance of overall CALM.
Aether shuddered once, nothing more than an unconscious firing of uncoordinated electrical activity as Dottore gathered him into his arms. Blood - the flow yet to diminish by any substantial quantity - dirtied his coat and dripped onto his shoes, turning the ground slippery and streaking it messily with gold. What a hassle.
“ Theta, ” He called, gingerly stepping over the debris littering the laboratory floor. “ Meet me back in the procedure room… and DO find someone to clean up this mess. ”
