The Adventures And Mishaps of a Half-Plant Apothecary - Febuwhump 2024

Day 25 - Waterboarding

CW: waterboarding, body horror, a weird kind of threatening

AN: this is the weirdest stretch I've done so my thing fits the theme by far

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If Calixto could choose to go anywhere in the world it liked, it definitely wouldn't go here.

Its eyes dart around the room it's been trapped in. It's dark, and cold, and fully underwater, and if it pays enough attention, every once in a while it feels as though its skin is falling apart, as if it can't breathe and its muscles are gone—

It tries not to pay too much attention to that.

Luckily, a conduit somewhere in the prison is keeping it from fully drowning, and every few minutes a water resistance potion is dropped in to keep its entire body from being disintegrated. Unluckily, it knows that whoever is manning this prison can and will turn it off, if only for a short period of time, if it doesn't cooperate.

Whatever cooperating means.

It leans back against the bottom of the cell, other hand bracing against the top of the cell to stop them from drifting away. It closes its eyes. If it can't do anything while it's awake, it might as well sleep.

Its plans are quickly overruled when it hears a noise from the speaker above it. It jumps (as well as it can whilst being underwater, that is), and it takes a few moments for it to fully realise what has just been said.

"Prisoner 1840, please prepare for questioning."

Calixto blinks rapidly. It tries not to think to hard about the number assigned to it – are there really 1839 other people in here? – and, after not even a minute of preparation, the wall opens up slightly to show a glass panel. A person wearing what looks to be a strange bird mask stands on the other side, staring at it. Its mouth is fully covered by a long, fake beak.

It doesn't blink.

Already considerably unsettled, Calixto stands up, to be eye level with its assumed interrogator. Its head presses uncomfortably against the ceiling of the cell. Something about its current situation makes it feel more difficult to breathe than usual.

"Hello sir," the interrogator says in a way that they know makes Calixto uncomfortable, "I hear that you're an ender." They pause, as if expecting it to say something. It doesn't know what to say.

"Well," they continue, "Cat got your tongue?" They pause, tilting their head in a way that they probably think is funny but Calixto just finds mildly intimidating, "Or, should I say, endermite got your tongue?" They pause, waiting for a reaction, but get nothing. "Oh, really, I thought you'd be into that sort of thing. Your cute little friends seem to make you laugh just like that. What's so different about me, huh?"

Calixto freezes. The interrogator laughs. "Aw, worried? Don't worry, I won't mess with them – if you cooperate, of course."

The interrogator's voice turns dark at the end of their sentence. Calixto shivers.

"Now," the interrogator starts, "I met you at the market. Where do you live?"

Calixto immediately shakes its head. It may be in danger, but if it gives the location of its friends away, it would be betraying its friends as well.

It can't have that.

The interrogator tilts its head again. Its head goes over ninety degrees downwards. Not straight forwards, sideways. Calixto is definitely intimidated.

"Really?" they say, turning around for a split second. They flick a lever.

Calixto can't breathe.

It chokes, more water flowing into its lungs as soon as it opens its mouth. It looks down at its body with burning eyes; its skin is peeling off, revealing flesh disintegrating underneath. It clutches its arms to its chest, hoping to protect as much of its body as possible.

Then it stops.

Calixto coughs up whatever is left in its lungs. Some other unidentified potion is splashed onto it, and its flesh knits back together messily, like the potion was made wrong. Its skin is still not quite there yet, and the parts of its body that were the most affected sting whenever it touches them.

The interrogator moves up right to the glass, staring directly into Calixto's eyes. "I think I've made my point clear."

They leave.

Calixto breathes.