MÁGOA ✶ clemensia dovecote

⁰⁰⁰ / starts with a heartbreak

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : - ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ - : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

PROLOGUE.
❝ starts with a heartbreak ❞

alternatively,
being dr. gaul's nephew and
its consequences.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : - ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ - : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

It spread.

Asclepius scratched at the iridescent scales that covered his left shoulder and ran down his back. With tears welling in his snake-like eyes, frustration crinkling his face, and blood coating his fingertips, he couldn't recognize the person in front of him. The spreading stopped a week after his freak accident at the laboratory, and the paleness of his irises have darkened over time. Even his pupils have begun to round out and return to its normal shape. Another problem: it was like there was a voice in his head, giving him his every command. His heart would plead for his body to not obey, but it did.

It was an unfortunate incident that he had to keep under wraps. Dr. Volumnia Gaul, or Auntie Vee, told him that if word got out, she'd lose funding for the laboratory, and they'd have nowhere to go. That the public wasn't ready for such a spectacle, not yet. How was she going to explain that her own nephew, son of a revered government official, grew a deformity thanks to her own neglect?

In her lab, she introduced her nephew to her newest creation a year after they hatched from their large eggs. Seeing the way the snakes coiled around his aunt's arm, he asked if he could touch them.

She let him.

As soon as Asclepius' hand made its way into the tank, the vibrant serpents lunged at his arm and dug their fangs into his skin. The last thing he remembered was his aunt peering over him, a look of indifference as her assistants congregated around his still body. His aunt was a midwife before switching professions, and helped deliver him from his mother. Asclepius thought he was going to die that day.

Good thing he didn't, or the first and last thing he would've seen was his crazy Auntie Vee.

At this point of her scientific research, Volumnia hadn't come up with a cure for his condition yet. The snakes' poison wasn't enough to end his life, which brought on both relief and disappointment to the mad scientist. They were supposed to kill, but it only transformed her nephew physically. Instead of finding a cure, Dr. Gaul decided to collect samples of Asclepius' blood and scales.

Asclepius heard Dr. Gaul speaking with her assistant while he was strapped to a table of the lab's surgery room, anesthesia coursing through his veins. "Let's find a way to increase the effects before we continue with the breeding."

That was her priority. That was always her priority. Work, then him.

Ever since the incident, Asclepius hated entering the lab that he once called his second home, and opted to build his own lab within the walls of their mansion out of one of the guest rooms. There, he dedicated his time to find his own cure. If his Auntie Vee thought it was the least of her concerns, then he'd take matters into his own hands.

How hard could it be, really?

The doorbell rang, which startled Asclepius as he scrubbed the blood off his hands. He cleared the bathroom in a haste and escaped to his bedroom to find a simple black shirt that would cover his scales for the time being.