#magicwhumpweek2024day5

[kabie-whump]

Magic Whump Week Day 5 - Drugs

tw: drug addiction + withdrawls, hallucinations, some (hallucinated) bug horror, child abuse mentions, past suicide attempt mention

This goes right after yesterday's post. Ventis has discovered that the drug he was taking is actually nightspill, which is both highly addictive and and known magic-killer. Now it's time for him to stop taking it, and it's not going well.

He didn't take his medicine this morning, since it had been stolen, and he's been experiencing some pains and minor hallucinations all day. It starts to get really bad in the middle of the night and the pain wakes him up.

There's also a character in this scene who hasn't been mentioned on my blog yet! Ophelia is a healing student at a local university, and she works in the inn at night to support herself. She's become a friend of the party.

~

Ventis stifled a groan, rolling to his side and curling into himself, clutching at his aching stomach. There was no way he would be able to sleep like this. All he could do was lay there, panting and praying that Onthyes stayed asleep next to him.

"Ventis?"

Shit.

He wanted to tell Onthyes that he was okay - that he could go back to sleep and he didn't have to worry, but all that escaped his mouth was a pathetic whimper.

"Ventis, hey. What's going on?"

"Hurts." Ventis's hands made tight fists in the sheets as he felt tears springing to his eyes.

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry. Try to keep breathing."

Ventis couldn't breathe. Every attempt at an inhale got caught in his throat and forced into rough gasps and coughs. His whole body was on fire. The tears finally fell.

"Onthyes..."

Onthyes's hands hovered over Ventis's body for a moment before he finally began to stroke his hair and wipe tears from his temples as they fell. "Shh. I'm here," he said softly.

Ventis groaned, twisting under the blankets. It was too hot under them. Too cold without them. The pain grew more urgent by the second. "It hurts!"

"I'm going to go get Ophelia."

No no no no. Every time Ventis managed to open his eyes against the waves of blinding pain all he could see were shadows reaching for him from the corners of the room and the ceiling above him swimming and dancing as glossy black beetles swarmed its surface. In all the chaos, the only thing he could be sure of was Onthyes sitting solid at his side, unaffected by the shadows and the bugs. He was the only thing keeping them from getting to Ventis, and if he left he would be at their mercy and he wasn't sure that he could survive that.

"No! Please don't go."

Onthyes's hand was warm on Ventis's cheek. "She could help you."

"Don't leave me. Please."

"Okay, okay. I'm not going anywhere."

That was all the assurance Ventis needed, so he allowed his body to lull him into a state of semi-consciousness where he knew at least the pain would be more bearable. Onthyes raised his voice, but the words got lost somewhere on the journey from Ventis's ears to his brain.

His skin crawled.

It must be the beetles again.

"-tis. Ventis! Stop it. You're hurting yourself."

Is that Shayah? Why isn't she helping me?

Rough hands grabbed Ventis's wrists and pinned them firmly to the bed, stopping any attempts to swat the bugs away. They continued to swarm, coating his skin, and he cried out.

"Shit, breezy. Quit zapping me. I'm trying to help."

"Ventis. Look at me."

He managed to force his eyes open. Immediately the shadows swarmed him and the room twisted, inverting itself in a way that made him feel sick.

Where's Onthyes? He's supposed to be shielding me.

"Onthyes!" Ventis choked out.

Hands landed on his face and he flinched hard, desperately pushing against whatever was holding him down.

"I'm here. I'm right here."

But I can't see him. Where is he? Where's Onthyes?

The crawling sensation turned to unbearable itching, then burning as the beetles found places to sink their pincers, and no amount of crying or begging convinced the hands to let go of him so he could get them off.

"Maybe we should just give him Nightspill."

"No! We can't-"

"He can't take this! Look at him, Onthyes. If this doesn't kill him it'll drive him mad!"

"You're weak."

Ventis knew that voice.

"Father?"

His father was there at the edge of the bed, and just for a second Ventis let himself hope that someone had finally come to save him from this hell. But Father's hands were the ones pinning him down and disdain morphed his face into something not quite human. The bugs crawled up the man's arms and he didn't seem to mind.

"No, Ventis. Your father isn't here. It's just me and Shy. You're safe."

"Listen, Onthyes. His magic's only getting stronger and he can't control it. I don't want to drug him against either but-"

"Ophelia can help him. We're waiting this out until she gets here."

"You're hurting your friends," Father mused. "After everything they've done for you, all you can do is make things difficult for them."

"I'm sorry!" Ventis sobbed. "I-I didn't mean to!"

"It's okay. We know. You're okay."

"I get why you'd wanted to jump off the roof all those years ago." Theodore appeared on Ventis's other side, his face partially obscured by shadow. "Look at yourself. Even when you manage to make a few friends you drive them away with all your melodrama. What do you have to offer them, huh? Your magic's out of control, you're cut off from the family fortune, and now you're going to die and leave them to deal with your mess. Pathetic."

Ventis shook his head, tears streaming down his face. It wasn't even true! He hadn't jumped and Theodore damn well knew that, the fucking liar.

"What's-"

"Help him, Ophelia!"

"I just can't believe you actually thought I'd ever accept you back home again," Father said with a dark laugh. The beetles crawled up his neck, slipping out from under his shirt collar. "You're an embarrassment to me, to the family."

"No, please! Help me, Father!"

"You were always beyond help," Syllyn said softly as she faded into Ventis's vision, lightly brushing her hand against his face. "You're just too much. We thought keeping you sedated would make you more bearable to be around, but it seems you were the problem no matter how hard we tried to make you behave. You had to be sent away for the good of the kingdom."

"I'm sorry," Ventis repeated, squeezing his eyes closed. His voice was cracked and raw. "Please. I'm sorry."

Then, warmth flooded his body. The burning sensation dissipated. The pain faded to a dull ache. When he opened his eyes the room was still and the bugs were gone and Father, Theodore, and Syllyn, were all nowhere in sight.

Ophelia lifted her hands from Ventis's chest, a residual glow fading from her palms. He questioned silently when she got there. Deep purple sat heavy under her eyes and sweat beaded her forehead. Shayah loosened her grip on Ventis's wrists, then, when he made no effort to move, let go entirely.

It wasn't real. None of that was real.

Ventis's next inhale hitched on a sob and he curled into himself, squishing his face into his pillow as he cried openly. Onthyes's hand ran up and down his back gently.

"It's okay, sparky," Shayah's voice soothed from next to him. "Whatever you were seeing... It wasn't real."

I fucking know that.

"Try to breathe, Ventis. Slowly."

That was Onthyes's voice. He hadn't left after all. Ventis tried to do as he'd said, too exhausted to question him, and little by little his sobs tapered off until he was only trembling silently on the bed, his face still hidden in the damp pillowcase.

"Can I see your arms?" Ophelia asked.

It took only a quick glance for Ventis to realize that his arms were striped with swelling red lines. Ophelia placed her hands over them and started muttering a healing prayer, and Ventis shivered as he remembered the sensation of thousands of beetles crawling over his skin. He must have scratched himself trying to get them off.

When Ophelia pulled her hands away the scratches were faded, nearly healed. "I numbed the pain for a while," she said gently, "but you're not cured. Withdrawals can't be healed with magic alone. It will take time, and it will get worse than that before it gets better. Try to rest while you can."

"Thank you," Ventis whispered, but he felt more dread than anything else. He couldn't imagine it getting worse than it already had. How would he survive this?

~

Ventis tags:

@scp-1296 @sapphicccici @acer-whumpstuff @morning-star-whump @yeetmyskeet

@sleepyiswhumping @bitchaknso @unicornbeck @wounds-seen-and-unseen @3-2-whump

@looptheloup @lindsay00000008 @rainydaywhump @scoundrelwithboba

[geode-crystal]

Thinking about drugs/medicine/potions/etc. that were meant for humans being used on non-humans.

The unintended side effects… from the more benign to the potentially deadly

Ingredients that are completely safe for humans to use but poisonous to non-humans

Whumpee is burning up! Quick, get the medicine that can cool them down! Except Whumpee has fire powers, so burning up is normal, and now they’re actually suffering.

Or a twist on this post: a delirious and terrified magical whumpee is sedated for their own good… but whumpee’s magic is too powerful and lashes out when they don’t keep it under control. Which just means the job of the caretaker(s) harder.

Or something that’s meant to quell a magical whumpee and calm their magic just makes their power more volatile.  

Just… things created to heal ending up causing harm instead.

(Yes I know it isn't what the prompt was actually about but I'm still tagging it for Magic Whump Week Day 5 anyway lol)