Ashan 5th, 712
The scalpel was sharp as it bit into the crystals forming her body. She had no clue why crystal yielded so easily, but the sharp edge eagerly sliced into her hand as if it had been made of flesh all along. The young girl screamed and cried and begged as the scalpel was dragged through the crystals, allowing it to do whatever damage it pleased. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, tears forming in her eyes. She shook her head back and forth, blazing amber orbs searing into the cool and emotionless eyes of her teacher. His sky blues seemed to not care about whatever pain he was causing her. Of course, his focus had always been on the results
“And that, Aqihlih, my dear, is why precision is key no matter what you’re doing. We don’t want you cutting into your hand while you’re cutting into a cadaver,” The Doctor said. He moved away, allowing Aqihlih to sit there with the scalpel in her hand. Until that point he’d been wiggling it around and holding it deeply in place. “Now then. I want you to pull it out and tell me what you do if a human came to you with a similar injury.” His tone was a similar temperature to his eyes, dispassionate and almost bored as if he could care less for the outcome of this little command.
Aqihlih’s fingers were shaking, or more so it was the fingers of Fox Glove who were shaking. Her secondary form was far more intimidating than her first, because of that it made her feel safer and she took it more often around The Doctor. Slowly, her digits graced that of the scalpel, just brushing against it ever so slightly. The lightest touch brought with it small shocks of pain which ran up and down her arm and wreathed throughout her fingers. “I can’t, I can’t do it!” She cried. She held out her hand to The Doctor, the young girl begging for some kind of help. Any kind of help.
The Doctor would help her alright.
“Oh child. How can you ever be expected to learn when you can’t even do such a simple task? I understand though,” the man said. On his face rested what appeared to be a look of sympathy, his tone was the kind of disappointed and amused cluck of a mother. That look and tone quickly twisted as he reached out, ripping the small cutting utensil from the young girl’s hand. Sprays of light gushed from the shredded crystal as Aqihlih’s screams took on an entirely new sound. They were upset, desperate cries for help. The girl had heard screams like it before, these screams usually came from the “patients” that the doctor kept for practice. They were guttural and animalist, begging for release in one form or another. No matter what species the voices belonged to, crystal beings included, the noise was always the same. It was a desperate sound associated with a cornered animal that didn’t want to suffer or die.
The girl’s mind had begun to haze over when a new sensation cut through. The second pain was sharper than the first as the doctor yanked her other hand towards him. “Now then, let us try again,” he had said without the slightest trace of empathy. He wasn’t human, he certainly wasn’t a Yludih either. Aqihlih wasn’t sure what he was anymore. She didn’t want to become whatever he was, she didn’t want to take his form, but she knew there were certain things every being had to do to survive. There were few beings who wouldn’t do the same in her position. Her screams once more wreathed through the small room, echoing against the steel walls and the walls of her own head.
The noise pounded against her ear drums, reminding her just how pathetic she was. A little pain and she had already crumbled like so many of the men and women The Doctor had poked around the insides of. In this small room so many had met gruesome ends. The most horrifying stories were the ones told not by Aqihlih as she watched, but by the patients who somehow managed to live. It was rare that someone got past the first experiment, but the trip was all downhill and the treatments only got worse. The longer the survival record, the more you just wanted to die. In this tiny room with walls of steel the scent of urine and iron blood tinged the air. She could taste the metal in her own mouth, the flavor of fear.
Aqihlih was panting when the doctor backed away, having stabbed the scalpel even deeper into her once unwounded hand. “Now. Pull it out and tell me how you would treat it.” The girl whimpered as her master fixed her with the same bored and disappointed look that he gave everyone who disappointed him, especially the patients he thought were about to die. There was no way to win his praises, no way to win his symapathy. That only meant one thing. This room was well. A true living hell with no happiness and no redemption to speak of. All who entered it were destined to either suffer or become the prison masters. Aqihlih didn’t want to suffer anymore.
Bracing herself, taking a deep breath, she wrapped a hand around the scalpel. The girl allowed her teeth to sink into her bottom lip as she suppressed a scream. The metallic flavor only becoming more intense as it mingled with the ‘blood’. She wondered if this was simply a trick of her own mind to make her seem more human. It wasn’t impossible as when she did bleed her body either created red or silver blood to make her appear more normal. She was an ostracized freak after all.
Taking breaths, deep and slow, her hand was starting to shake. There was a tightness in her lungs as the shivering pain started to crescendo in a scream that managed to rip its way out of her throat. The air felt hot, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think, in that fiery and panicked haze she felt like she was going to die. Metal was brutally ripped from crystal as another spray of light erupted from her hand. Both hands stung, throbbed as they began to stain with red, her body trying to readjust its illusion. It didn’t work entirely well and her hands were quickly colored in an unsettling mix of red and rainbow. Her entire body was shivering, her hands the most of all, as she hunched over trying to take control of her own senses. The disgusting metallic taste culminated in a sensation of sickness which boiled in the center of her gut. It was a blessing and then some that her body didn’t have any stomach acids, she likely would have ended up losing them somewhere along the way. It was bad enough her own body was tricking her, creating false sensations to make her seem more human. The sensations were none too pleasant.
“Disinfect the wound, make sure it isn’t diseased. Then you stich and bandage it, giving the patient a supply of bandages and ointment to help with the healing process. Then once its healed, shorter for some and longer for others, you remove the stitches,” she said. Her body was finally starting to come under her own control again as her shivering came to a halt. Her hands still wavered and her movements had a jittery quickness to them, but she could block out the stinging to a certain degree. It was easier to block out than the screaming pain of having something plunged into your own crystals.
The Doctor approached, his face showing no emotion. Quietly he slipped forward, taking the scalpel from her hands and pointing it at her. The girl went completely still, her eyes easily betraying her fear. He pressed the dull of the short blade against her cheek, a smirk slowly starting to cross his features. “I would have accepted giving them a sleeping poison and dragging them down here, but that works too. The details were a bit vague, but it looks like you’ve got the general idea down. It’s good enough for now, and if you have the basic idea you can learn while we work. That’s what the patients are for after all. Though if I could offer a small tidbit of advice? You might want to work on your poker face,” he said as he turned the scalpel and lightly ran the sharp edge against her cheeks. A thin illusory trail of blood appeared, welling up and slowly leaking.
The girl felt a cold shiver run all the way up and down her spine as she watched the man walk away. “Yes sir,” she said in a quiet voice, her emotions having become dull to the point of almost being mute. The shiver didn’t enter her voice, but it certainly lingered in her eyes as the look of fear turned into one of hatred and dread. She despised this man.
At the end of the day there was one lesson to learn that topped everything when it came to importance. It wasn’t anything about medicine or surgery, no, it was something far simpler than that. Anyone who entered the rooms of The Doctor was not just a patient. They were an experiment, and they were at just as much liberty to be toyed with as any other person. He used the mortal mind to his greatest advantage, abusing others and making them bow to his stronger will through shows of force and fear. He acted like he was blessed by Syora, deceived like it was what he was born to do. And in truth, that was exactly what it was, because he much like she was a Yludih.
Most important of all, Aqihlih was just at liberty to experimentation. She was something to be toyed with, her psychology was to be tested and pushed and pulled at, and why? Because she was new of course, she was a being he didn’t know much about, a young female of his own kind. The longer one remained a patient of the doctor, the longer and harsher his experiments became.
Aqihlih was quickly approaching the longest survival record.
The scalpel was sharp as it bit into the crystals forming her body. She had no clue why crystal yielded so easily, but the sharp edge eagerly sliced into her hand as if it had been made of flesh all along. The young girl screamed and cried and begged as the scalpel was dragged through the crystals, allowing it to do whatever damage it pleased. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, tears forming in her eyes. She shook her head back and forth, blazing amber orbs searing into the cool and emotionless eyes of her teacher. His sky blues seemed to not care about whatever pain he was causing her. Of course, his focus had always been on the results
“And that, Aqihlih, my dear, is why precision is key no matter what you’re doing. We don’t want you cutting into your hand while you’re cutting into a cadaver,” The Doctor said. He moved away, allowing Aqihlih to sit there with the scalpel in her hand. Until that point he’d been wiggling it around and holding it deeply in place. “Now then. I want you to pull it out and tell me what you do if a human came to you with a similar injury.” His tone was a similar temperature to his eyes, dispassionate and almost bored as if he could care less for the outcome of this little command.
Aqihlih’s fingers were shaking, or more so it was the fingers of Fox Glove who were shaking. Her secondary form was far more intimidating than her first, because of that it made her feel safer and she took it more often around The Doctor. Slowly, her digits graced that of the scalpel, just brushing against it ever so slightly. The lightest touch brought with it small shocks of pain which ran up and down her arm and wreathed throughout her fingers. “I can’t, I can’t do it!” She cried. She held out her hand to The Doctor, the young girl begging for some kind of help. Any kind of help.
The Doctor would help her alright.
“Oh child. How can you ever be expected to learn when you can’t even do such a simple task? I understand though,” the man said. On his face rested what appeared to be a look of sympathy, his tone was the kind of disappointed and amused cluck of a mother. That look and tone quickly twisted as he reached out, ripping the small cutting utensil from the young girl’s hand. Sprays of light gushed from the shredded crystal as Aqihlih’s screams took on an entirely new sound. They were upset, desperate cries for help. The girl had heard screams like it before, these screams usually came from the “patients” that the doctor kept for practice. They were guttural and animalist, begging for release in one form or another. No matter what species the voices belonged to, crystal beings included, the noise was always the same. It was a desperate sound associated with a cornered animal that didn’t want to suffer or die.
The girl’s mind had begun to haze over when a new sensation cut through. The second pain was sharper than the first as the doctor yanked her other hand towards him. “Now then, let us try again,” he had said without the slightest trace of empathy. He wasn’t human, he certainly wasn’t a Yludih either. Aqihlih wasn’t sure what he was anymore. She didn’t want to become whatever he was, she didn’t want to take his form, but she knew there were certain things every being had to do to survive. There were few beings who wouldn’t do the same in her position. Her screams once more wreathed through the small room, echoing against the steel walls and the walls of her own head.
The noise pounded against her ear drums, reminding her just how pathetic she was. A little pain and she had already crumbled like so many of the men and women The Doctor had poked around the insides of. In this small room so many had met gruesome ends. The most horrifying stories were the ones told not by Aqihlih as she watched, but by the patients who somehow managed to live. It was rare that someone got past the first experiment, but the trip was all downhill and the treatments only got worse. The longer the survival record, the more you just wanted to die. In this tiny room with walls of steel the scent of urine and iron blood tinged the air. She could taste the metal in her own mouth, the flavor of fear.
Aqihlih was panting when the doctor backed away, having stabbed the scalpel even deeper into her once unwounded hand. “Now. Pull it out and tell me how you would treat it.” The girl whimpered as her master fixed her with the same bored and disappointed look that he gave everyone who disappointed him, especially the patients he thought were about to die. There was no way to win his praises, no way to win his symapathy. That only meant one thing. This room was well. A true living hell with no happiness and no redemption to speak of. All who entered it were destined to either suffer or become the prison masters. Aqihlih didn’t want to suffer anymore.
Bracing herself, taking a deep breath, she wrapped a hand around the scalpel. The girl allowed her teeth to sink into her bottom lip as she suppressed a scream. The metallic flavor only becoming more intense as it mingled with the ‘blood’. She wondered if this was simply a trick of her own mind to make her seem more human. It wasn’t impossible as when she did bleed her body either created red or silver blood to make her appear more normal. She was an ostracized freak after all.
Taking breaths, deep and slow, her hand was starting to shake. There was a tightness in her lungs as the shivering pain started to crescendo in a scream that managed to rip its way out of her throat. The air felt hot, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think, in that fiery and panicked haze she felt like she was going to die. Metal was brutally ripped from crystal as another spray of light erupted from her hand. Both hands stung, throbbed as they began to stain with red, her body trying to readjust its illusion. It didn’t work entirely well and her hands were quickly colored in an unsettling mix of red and rainbow. Her entire body was shivering, her hands the most of all, as she hunched over trying to take control of her own senses. The disgusting metallic taste culminated in a sensation of sickness which boiled in the center of her gut. It was a blessing and then some that her body didn’t have any stomach acids, she likely would have ended up losing them somewhere along the way. It was bad enough her own body was tricking her, creating false sensations to make her seem more human. The sensations were none too pleasant.
“Disinfect the wound, make sure it isn’t diseased. Then you stich and bandage it, giving the patient a supply of bandages and ointment to help with the healing process. Then once its healed, shorter for some and longer for others, you remove the stitches,” she said. Her body was finally starting to come under her own control again as her shivering came to a halt. Her hands still wavered and her movements had a jittery quickness to them, but she could block out the stinging to a certain degree. It was easier to block out than the screaming pain of having something plunged into your own crystals.
The Doctor approached, his face showing no emotion. Quietly he slipped forward, taking the scalpel from her hands and pointing it at her. The girl went completely still, her eyes easily betraying her fear. He pressed the dull of the short blade against her cheek, a smirk slowly starting to cross his features. “I would have accepted giving them a sleeping poison and dragging them down here, but that works too. The details were a bit vague, but it looks like you’ve got the general idea down. It’s good enough for now, and if you have the basic idea you can learn while we work. That’s what the patients are for after all. Though if I could offer a small tidbit of advice? You might want to work on your poker face,” he said as he turned the scalpel and lightly ran the sharp edge against her cheeks. A thin illusory trail of blood appeared, welling up and slowly leaking.
The girl felt a cold shiver run all the way up and down her spine as she watched the man walk away. “Yes sir,” she said in a quiet voice, her emotions having become dull to the point of almost being mute. The shiver didn’t enter her voice, but it certainly lingered in her eyes as the look of fear turned into one of hatred and dread. She despised this man.
At the end of the day there was one lesson to learn that topped everything when it came to importance. It wasn’t anything about medicine or surgery, no, it was something far simpler than that. Anyone who entered the rooms of The Doctor was not just a patient. They were an experiment, and they were at just as much liberty to be toyed with as any other person. He used the mortal mind to his greatest advantage, abusing others and making them bow to his stronger will through shows of force and fear. He acted like he was blessed by Syora, deceived like it was what he was born to do. And in truth, that was exactly what it was, because he much like she was a Yludih.
Most important of all, Aqihlih was just at liberty to experimentation. She was something to be toyed with, her psychology was to be tested and pushed and pulled at, and why? Because she was new of course, she was a being he didn’t know much about, a young female of his own kind. The longer one remained a patient of the doctor, the longer and harsher his experiments became.
Aqihlih was quickly approaching the longest survival record.
