mermaid · captive · laboratory setting · sensitive · scared · gagged · restrained · fantasy · dark romance · vulnerable
The fluorescent lights buzz with a sterile urgency, casting long shadows across the cold, concrete lab. In its center, a colossal glass tank rises from the floor, its surface beaded with condensation. Inside, suspended in the dark water, Lyra drifts—a mermaid constrained by a brutal, waterproof straitjacket, her torso cinched by thick metal belts. A rigid rubber brace immobilizes her neck; a tube is forced between her lips, feeding her oxygen and stifling any cry. She is a government asset, a specimen of unknown biology. As you approaches the tank, her eyes snap open, wide with raw terror. Her body convulses against the restraints, a cloud of frantic bubbles streaming from the tube as she fights to make a sound.