#dr matthias keppler

[niennandil-me-writes]

Goretober 27: Torture

cn: finger gore, tooth gore, vomit, ableism

[Keppler and Kotohina belong to @ghoulcaro, Alváro (who is mentioned) belongs to Eva (TextualPoacher on twitter). This is another "what if" for our Death House run.]

There were several loud cracks, followed by Ivory’s screams.

“Now, what you just heard, Miss Umbra,” Keppler said with restrained voice, as he put the hammer away again, “was at least 4 of your phalanges and some metacarpal bones shattering within both your hands. I’m sorry, I’m usually not one to use such crude methods, but this part was preparational in nature anyways. This should keep you from using most spells that might pose a danger to me, so I won’t have to gag you. It also has the nice side effect that even if you should somehow find a way to free yourself, you won’t be able to wield a weapon against me.”

Ivory’s answer was less verbose: “Fuck you!” Her voice was strained already. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Keppler ignored her. “Now, I am going to ask you again, Miss Umbra: How did he die?”

“I already told you!” she spat into his face. “The other one, the paladin, he killed him! He sacrificed him to get us out of the cursed house. I tried to stop him, but he was stronger than me, I really tried! I get that you’re angry, but it wasn’t my fault.”

Keppler’s lips were a thin line. “The problem is that I already talked to Herr Dejadar, and what he told me was that you were the one who stabbed Kotohina in the back to save your own skin.”

“Then he’s lying,” Ivory yelled. “Have you seen that man? It probably wasn’t even the first time he betrayed someone just like that!”

“I have my reasons to believe Herr Dejadar in this matter.” The tone of his voice made Ivory’s blood freeze in her veins. “I have my ways to extract the truth. I could go the easy way, but that would take a day to get ready, and I am running out of patience on that matter. So if you don’t want to yield the truth to me right now, Miss Umbra, I will have to cut it out of you.”

The way he enunciated the word “cut” made Ivory flinch in her ties. Still, she had no doubt worse things were waiting for her if she told him what he wanted to hear.

“In case you didn’t know, I am a doctor.” He was talking while he walked around in the room for a moment, then came back, standing in front of the chair she was tied to, pulling on some new gloves. “So I know exactly how to hurt you in the worst ways without killing you.” He produced a scalpel. She gulped. “But let’s start small, shall we.”

He laid the blade to her arm, but to her surprise only cut the fabric of her bloody shirt, didn’t even nick the skin, no doubt to show her exactly how precise his movements were. He ripped the shirt away and then immediately stabbed the scalpel into her flesh. Ivory screamed out.

“Now, I could be cutting a bit to the left here.” Keppler’s voice was steady and unbothered, as if he were just explaining something to a student. “And that would separate your tendons in such a way that you couldn’t ever use that arm again. But you’re right-handed anyway, correct?” He smirked at her, and then moved the blade to the right. The pain was excruciating.

“Stop!” Ivory screamed.

“Why, have you reconsidered your answer?”

“I already told you the truth!”

“Not good enough, Miss Umbra.” He took out a second scalpel and pierced it into her other arm. “Not good enough at all.”

“Alváro lied to you!” she screamed. “I tried to stop him, I really did. I’m sorry Kotohina is – “

Suddenly there was a hand in her hair, pulling her head up to face Keppler. For the first time, his face showed actual anger. “Keep his name out of your mouth!” His voice hit her with the same intensity as his fist a second later. Blood was flowing from her nose. He shook out his hand. “Stupid,” he muttered. “Will only dampen the pain.”

Ivory saw him reach for something on his belt, and then he was already swinging the whip. She tried to dodge, which was impossible in her position, of course. The leather strap wrapped around her neck, painful, but not as much as she had braced herself for. Keppler walked around her, until he was behind her, and then he started pulling on the whip.

“Now I am aware by now that you do not technically need to breathe,” he said, calm again. “But that doesn’t mean this won’t hurt.”

The leather bit into Ivory’s neck. She could feel her scar break open again. It felt almost as bad as being bitten by Lupa.

“I could easily crush your windpipe like this. Or even break your neck.”

Ivory’s broken hands cramped up, banged against the wooden armrests, shooting more pain through her body. Tears were streaming down her face.

And then the pressure was gone all of a sudden. Ivory gasped for air, more out of relief than out of a want for it. Breathing was normal. Breathing was calming.

Keppler didn’t leave her much time, though. He grabbed her chin and shoved a thumb into her mouth. Ivory tried biting down, but the way he grasped her jaw, she couldn’t build up enough force to penetrate the leather gloves.

“What nice teeth you have, Miss Umbra,” Keppler observed. “They would be interesting to study, I’m sure.”

“What the hell are you…?” Before she could finish her question, he had shoved a cold metal object into her mouth. Something clasped around her right fang.

“Wait, no!”

“Are you ready to talk?” The pliers didn’t withdraw.

“If I tell you what you want to hear, will you let me go?”

“As you have no doubt noticed by now, you are in no position to make demands.”

“It’s not a demand, it’s a question!”

“That as well,” he said. “I’m the one asking the questions.”

She couldn’t keep the panic down anymore. “Please, don’t do this! Please, I’ll do anything.“ More tears were streaming down her face. She noticed that he was hesitating, and for a moment thought her pathetic state had convinced him.

Then the pliers clamped down harder and pulled away, tearing the tooth from her flesh. A scream turned into gurgling and sobbing. Keppler walked in front of her holding her bloody tooth between thumb and index finger. He considered it for a moment, then set it aside on a table. He stepped forward and grabbed Ivory’s jaw again.

“No, please!” Her words were slurred from pain and already swollen gums. “I’ll talk. Please.”

Keppler took a step back but didn’t set aside the pliers. “I’m listening.”

Ivory didn’t try to stop her sobbing. If she could just give him what he wanted, maybe Keppler would let her live. She stared at the ground. “We didn’t have a choice. Someone had to be sacrificed so the rest could get out of that place alive. Ko- He sacrificed himself. Asked me to do it because I know how to kill quickly and painlessly.”

When Keppler didn’t respond, she allowed herself a glance up at him. His face was an emotionless mask.

Then, finally, he said: “Why didn’t he send me a message?”

“He gave me a message for you,” Ivory said quickly. “I’m so sorry, I just felt so guilty, I completely repressed it until now. He said – “

Keppler darted forward, his fist hitting Ivory in the stomach with so much force that the chair toppled over backwards and she hit the ground hard. Necrotic energy surged through her body from the point where he had punched her. Ivory threw up bile and blood.

“That is not what happened.” Keppler’s voice was ice. “Try again.”

“Why are you asking me if you already know what happened?” Ivory could barely speak from the pain. Keppler walked over to her and put his foot on her chest.

“Because I want to hear it from you. And if I can’t cut the truth out of you I’m sure I can find something else to cut.” He was holding another scalpel between his fingers.

“please, stop. i can’t take any more. please.” Ivory was squirming in her ties, whimpering, sobbing, shaking with blood and snot and spit running down her face.

Keppler hesitated, tilted his head. “Oh, there you are. Now are you ready to talk?”

And she talked. Spilled out all her lies in front of him, those he had asked about and those he hadn’t, just to make him stop prying. Lies she had told others. Lies she had told herself. Lies she so far hadn’t realized were untrue. When all was revealed, she just slumped back, waiting for death or whatever else Keppler wanted to give her.

“Just one more question,” he said.

She moaned in agony. “I already told you everything that - “

“Why him?”

“What?”

“I’m not going to pretend I believe that you possess the chivalry to even for a second consider sacrificing yourself,” Keppler said. “But there were two men with you. Why Kotohina?”

“You already know – “

“Say it.” His voice was dangerously quiet again.

She sucked in the air. “Because he was weak, and sick, and I didn’t stand a chance against Alváro.” Because he was going to die soon anyway.

Keppler’s foot hit her side with full force. She wanted to curl up, but the ties wouldn’t let her. Another kick to her face followed. His voice, in contrast, was more restrained, yet not as calm as before, when he said: “Because you are scum.” He took a deep breath, then hunched down beside her, twirling his scalpel in front of her face.

"It is actually astounding that you made it so far in life, Miss Umbra – or Miss Nicolescu, I should  rather say. Given how easy it was for me to dismantle you and every lie you ever told, I came to the conclusion that you are incredibly lucky." He looked down on her. "Any person with more brain than heart could see through you."

“Your boyfriend sure didn’t.”

Suddenly the blade was in her shoulder, and she whimpered in pain.

“Yes, that’s better,” he smirked. “No longer hiding your true self behind snark and shaded glasses, are you? I wish I could show you how pathetic and weak you look, a sobbing stupid mess because that is exactly what you are.” He was no longer hiding his anger. With a flick of his wrist, he summoned a spectral knife, pointed directly at her throat.

Ivory closed her eyes, sobs shaking her body. She wasn’t ready to die. She didn’t want to end like this. There was a flickering in front of her closed eyelids.

And then the ties loosened.

Ivory opened her eyes. The Sacred Weapon had disappeared, and Keppler took a step back, turning his back to her.

“You… you’re letting me go?” She barely allowed herself to hope.

“I’m not getting my hands dirty on low-life scum of your kind anymore,” he explained while taking off his gloves. He studied his bloodstained shirt and sighed. “Nothing but trouble with you.”

Ivory was just considering whether thanking him would make it more or less likely that he would change his mind, when he continued: “I still want you dead for what you did, so I’m sending someone after you. Someone who’s more on your level, and whose work is a lot… messier than mine.” He turned his head just enough that she could see his bitter smile. “You better run.”

[niennandil-me-writes]

long rest among the wicked

CN: gore, (consensual) violence, self-harm, (mentioned) disregard of safewords

Another kiss request (prompt: kiss accompanying an injury), from @constantlytiredghost. Vincent is their OC, Keppler belongs to @ghoulcaro, Marlowe belongs to @arocalyptic who was also our amazing DM for this oneshot. This is basically a "what if?" for our long rest scene.

"You're my kind of guy cause I like your style and you sound as horrible as me, And I don't mind if you're unkind you're reminding me of me."

Kaiser Chiefs - My Kind of Guy

Teo hadn’t paid much attention to the smaller doctor so far. Or the other one. Or anyone of his unlikely companions, for that matter. There were simply more important matters at hand. Now he wished he could direct his attention literally anywhere else but Vincent.

Vincent didn’t even seem like he had noticed what he was doing, had simply rolled up his sleeves and started dragging his nails through his skin, like it was just a normal activity one did while bored during watchkeeping. Not that Teo was in the position to judge here. It just made things a lot more difficult for him. For a moment, he wanted to grip his weapon, then remembered that he didn’t have his weapon. He laid his hands on his knees, looking away, looking anywhere but the doctor’s blood-covered arms.

From the corner of his eye, Teo could see Vincent shift. “Sorry”, the doctor said, stopping the movement of his hands.

Teo cleared his throat, still looking away. “Is there a reason you’re doing this?”

“It… helps.”

Teo looked over at Vincent, brow furrowed.

“I don’t know what happened to you all in the diving bell, but for me, it just suddenly made everything disappear”, Vincent explained further. “It’s kinda nice being able to feel again.”

Teo couldn’t help but laugh dryly at that. “I can relate to that.” He paused. He knew he shouldn’t do it, knew that it was a bad idea. He knew where it would lead. If he wanted to have any chance in the nightmarish labyrinth that was the realm of Aberrant, he needed the group. He couldn’t risk any of them dying or distrusting him, not until he had Dex back. But he still couldn’t keep himself from asking: “Do you need help with that?”

Vincent’s eyes wandered to the longsword lying on the floor next to Teo, brow raised. “I’d, er, prefer to keep all my limbs. But thanks for offering.”

There was a moment of silence in the room.

“Unless you were thinking of using something else instead of the sword?”, Vincent said.

“I don’t have anything else.” Teo paused, thinking. “I can try holding back.” He knew that wouldn’t work. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself once he started. But he needed this. Especially after what had happened in the diving bell, he needed to distract himself, stop thinking about what he would have done, what he could have done (what he had wanted to do). The fight had been nice, but he needed an opponent who could feel pain on some level, someone who bled. He looked at Vincent, for the first time noticed the two beauty marks under his eyes, the upturned nose. A cute face, and if he could see it distorted in pain, that was sure to drive the other face he had seen in the water away. So he held back his remark about not being very good with self-restraint. Vincent didn’t need to know that, did he?

Vincent was mulling this over, looking down at his bloodstained, scar-covered arms. “Well, I have scalpels”, Vincent said. “Should be easier to hold back with that.”

“I don’t have any experience with those”, Teo said. “But there’s a first time for everything.”

Vincent considered this for a while, looking at Teo, like he was trying to figure out how smart it was to trust him (and maybe also how much he cared about the smartness of his choice). Then he sighed. “Sure. Let’s do this. Not like my own scratches are helping much.”

Teo couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “Do you want to do it here, or should we get some more privacy?”

“Well, technically we are still holding watch”, Vincent said. “And I think I would prefer not being completely alone with you, at this point in time. Nothing personal.”

“You have magic, right? Shouldn’t be a problem to stop me if I go too far”, Teo said, still grinning. If the doctor started struggling, that would only make it more fun.

“I’d also prefer saving my spells for when I actually need them. I trust you won’t do anything too stupid while the others are nearby and could wake up from me yelling for them.”

“Fine. But if they wake up to see this, you tell them that all of this is consensual.”

“Sure”, Vincent said, taking off his leather armour and unbuttoning his shirt. “As long as you keep it consensual. Are you familiar with safewords?”

Teo nodded. “We – I just used “stop” so far, nothing complicated.” Not that he had ever been good at sticking to them.

“Should be enough.” He opened the medical kit sitting next to him, taking out a little leather case and from that a scalpel, which he held out to Teo. He took it, flipped it around in his hand to get a feel for it. It wasn’t much different from a small knife. He had used knifes to kill before, but only rarely.

“Any hard limits?”, Teo asked while testing the blade with his thumb. It was a bit sharper than he had anticipated, cutting the skin and drawing blood immediately. He smiled.

“No dismemberment. And keep it to my arms, maybe the legs if you have to.”

“What about chest and stomach?”, he asked, turning the bloodied weapon towards Vincent again.

“That could end quite – aaah!”

Teo had already swiped at Vincent’s chest while he had spoken, a thin cut trailing over his skin.

“Sorry”, Teo said, not meaning it. He couldn’t help but smile as he saw Vincent’s blood mixing with his own on the blade.

“I guess that was alright”, Vincent said. “Not deep enough to be lethal.”

“See, I can hold back”, Teo grinned. Where would be the fun in just going for the lethal injuries right away?

“And I felt that, at least”, Vincent continued. “Just – keep it away from my face and hands, keep everything attached and me alive, and we should be fine.”

“You do have a pretty face”, Teo said, gripping into Vincent’s dark locks with his free hand. “I understand why you’d want to keep that.” He yanked the doctor’s head backwards, slamming him to the ground, then got on top of him to fix him in place.

Vincent sucked in the air as Teo plunged the scalpel into his right arm, then dragged it through the flesh. There was something exciting about using a weapon this small, the way he could control the trail of the wounds, how he could just go all in without having to worry about immediately hacking off a body part. It still didn’t compare to Dex. Teo missed him even more in that moment. He really didn’t want to kill Vincent now, not like this, he thought while running his fingers through the cut, not without Dex. But there might not be much of a choice here.

Teo licked his lips, then inflicted another cut on Vincent’s skin, feeling the flesh beneath part for the silver blade. He let go of Vincent’s hair to be able to grip into the wounds and cut new ones at the same time.

“Are you getting off on this?”, Vincent asked.

Teo looked at his face, even prettier now that it was filled with pain, and maybe something else. “Not exactly. Are you?”

“Don’t dodge the question.”

Teo laughed. “What you said before, about not feeling much… I have a similar problem.” He cut into Vincent’s chest again, between the ribs, getting dangerously close to the lungs, but making himself stop just short of them. “This… hurting people… it makes me feel things.”

“Like what?”

Judging by the way his voice was hitching, Vincent’s numbness was being driven away at about the same rate as Teo’s was, which he welcomed. He pulled the scalpel out, then stabbed it into Vincent’s shoulder, relishing the silent scream. “Alive, mostly.”

Vincent gritted his teeth, nodded. “I get that.” A lopsided smirk spread on his lips. “And you know what? You hurting me really does bring some sensations back. You’re pretty cold, you know?” His arm, mutilated as it was, shot up, grabbing for Teo’s left wrist. Teo looked down at him in confusion.

Vincent’s smirk widened. “No pulse”, he observed.

Teo yanked his hand free and gripped Vincent’s hair again, pulling his head back, and held the scalpel to his throat. “I could kill you right now.”

“You could”, Vincent mused. “Would be a pretty boring and fast death, though, and I think that’s not what you want. Plus, I do have a death ward on me, and I have some ways to deal with people like you.”

“You’re right”, Teo said. “It would be a boring death.”

Still holding on to Vincent’s hair, he moved a hand down to his arms again, stroking through the wounds. He could feel a lot more now, could feel both the cuts and Vincent’s older scars. The doctor’s skin was cold, though not as cold as his own. He could feel the sticky wet blood under his fingers. The pulsing of Vincent’s heartbeat, and, for just a moment, he imagined his own heart beating along with it, though of course he knew that couldn’t be true.

He looked down at Vincent’s face, so young-looking behind the sneering sarcasm and the tiredness. Of course, he fixated on the nose, so like someone else’s. The beauty marks, one too many, and in the wrong place, but still…

Teo leaned farther down, and, as he plunged the blade into Vincent’s arm again, he kissed him on the lips.

A sound of surprise came from Vincent, muffled by Teo’s lips. The doctor stared at him, perplexed but not necessarily objecting. Teo half-closed his eyes, kissing the man under him who he could so easily pretend was Dexter. The man started kissing back. Teo kept moving his fingers through the torn flesh, as the kiss turned more hungry, more violent. Teo imagined the half-elf under him looking up at him out of doe eyes that held fear and pain, all for him.  For just a moment, even though he had lost him, Teo could be with Dexter.

The bliss didn’t last long. Maybe it was the blood smeared all over him, painting the skin a dark red, maybe it was the teeth digging into the scar on Teo’s lips, bringing back the pain from before, but Dexter kept slipping from Teo’s mind, turning into another man, another person he had loved. No matter how much he tried to push the thought away, he kept going back to kissing Marlowe as well as Dexter.

He couldn’t do this. He broke the kiss.

“Do you kiss all your victims?”, Vincent asked, the smirk curling on his lips.

Teo needed a moment to regain the focus to answer. “Not all of them”, he said vaguely. “You do look very cute covered in bloo-“

Something hit Teo’s head full force from the side, pushing him off Vincent. His ears rang and vision went blurry for a second, as he was sent sprawling on the floor, the scalpel slipping from his grasp. He tried to get up immediately, but there was a pressure on his chest, keeping him down. Teo blinked until his vision returned to him. Standing over him, one foot in a black suit shoe (which was probably what had hit Teo’s head before) placed on his chest, was the other doctor, Keppler.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, you stupid oaf?” He wasn’t exactly yelling, but there was a certain lack of composure to him. “I know you were fantasizing about this, but I never believed you would follow up on it!”

Teo just stared up at him, grinning. He could feel blood streaming from his nose. “He asked for this.”

Keppler moved his foot from Teo’s chest to his throat. He didn’t place his full weight on there yet, but the threat was there. Teo wondered how long it would take the doctor to realize he didn’t need to breathe.

“I don’t care”, Keppler said, leaning down a little. “If you ever lay your dirty hands on him again, our deal is over. I will make sure you will never get Dexter back. I'll make sure you live the rest of your sorry life without ever seeing him again.” He put more pressure on his foot, making it impossible for Teo to answer. He glared down at him. Teo recognized something in those eyes. Something he knew from himself.

“What exactly do you think you are doing here?”

The weight on Teo’s throat lifted for a second as Keppler turned his head in surprise. Teo tried to sit up, seeing Vincent’s blood-stained hand holding the scalpel up to Keppler’s neck. When he felt Teo move, Keppler immediately put his foot down on him again, but his attention was on Vincent now.

“I am simply teaching Herr Dagger some manners.” Keppler’s voice was almost a hiss in Teo’s direction.

“No need for that”, Vincent asserted calmly. “As he already pointed out, I consented to this.”

“I understand that. But I still think, Dr van Stein, that no matter how desperate you are, you really shouldn’t settle for someone like that, someone whose work is that messy and ugly and simply insufficient for you”, Keppler explained, confirming Teo’s suspicions from earlier.

“I think I can make those decisions for myself, Dr Keppler.”

For a moment it was silent in the room, safe for the occasional blood drop falling from Vincent’s arms.

“Do you want to take your foot of his throat?”, Vincent asked, looking down on Teo. “I don’t know how much air he has left.”

“Will you behave?”, Keppler asked, increasing the pressure for a moment.

Teo didn’t respond and didn’t stop grinning.

Keppler sighed heavily, then lifted his foot. He held out a hand to help Teo up. He ignored him and pushed himself off the floor with one hand, rubbing his broken nose (relishing the pain).

Keppler kept his attention on Teo for a few more seconds, then half-turned to Vincent. “Can I help you with your wounds, Dr van Stein?”

“I can take care of that myself, thank you”, Vincent said, putting the scalpel away. “I’d rather not have your hands on me right now.”

Keppler pressed his lips together, then nodded. “Of course.” Then he turned to Teo again. “Do you need help with your nose, Herr Dagger?”

Teo shook his head once, and Keppler seemed content with that, directing his attention back to Vincent. He kept rubbing his nose as the grin on his face spread wider. As soon as he got Dex back he would continue his work on Vincent. He would tear him limb from limb. He would rip him to little bloody pieces. And he would make sure that Keppler got to watch.