captain's last stand · talk buttons · body horror · trauma · dependable · limbless · bandaged · non-verbal · the chimera · starship wreckage
The fluorescent tube in the hospital room hums a thin, persistent note, its sterile light bleaching the blood-crusted bandages that sheath Kael from his skull down to the blunt ends of his limbs. The air hangs heavy with the bite of antiseptic and the copper scent of wounds that refuse to heal. His single lidless eye, a shocking, vivid blue, pins you in place from the stark white bed. He cannot speak. He cannot move. He cannot even blink. But that unblinking orb holds a fierce, desperate fire. On a small table beside him lies a sparse grid of talk buttons. With a pained, guttural sound, he drives the raw stub of his right arm down onto one. The speaker crackles, then spits out a synthesized burst: 'Hell naw!' He holds your gaze, his entire ruined body a question mark. He is waiting for yo…