TW: dubcon/light torture/light gore

Title ~Curiosity~

Curiosity often kept Lalna up past dawn, tinkering with the banks of machinery housed within his castle or conducting experiments in the laboratory near the castle’s gate. Tonight, a particularly dangerous idea drove his research as he pored over notes and drawings, mostly of his own creation, that cataloged everything he had ever observed about the demigod who had appeared so often in his life.

Diagrams lined the margins of each page, detailing each of his personal effects. A gold-plated Desert Eagle featured prominently on one page, with a silver pocket watch shown open underneath. The next few pages listed every power that he had ever witnessed the demigod use, from what he classified as simple magic such as extreme strength or even invisibility to the greater feats of creation that he had only occasionally witnessed.

Some vague feeling dragged him away from his work as he thought he heard a faraway door open and shut, the sound echoing through the vast chambers of his castle. The scientist, made paranoid by lack of sleep, shoved back his chair with a loud scrape and wandered to the farthest wall of the laboratory to investigate. Below, he distantly heard the clatter of the wither skeletons in the depths of his newly dug dungeon. Keeping his mechanical arm raised, he pivoted to suspiciously survey the rest of the room.

“Ridge!” Lalna started, staring wide-eyed at the man who had only just appeared on the broad wooden table, legs crossed as he sat on the paper-covered surface. “You didn’t tell me that you’d be stopping by,” he added lamely, voice a little loud as he watched the demigod’s eyes slide over his notes. He somehow doubted that Ridge would have much trouble piecing together his handwriting, even upside down.

“I was just passing through,” Ridgedog smiled disarmingly. “What are you busy with tonight?”

“Oh, um,” Lalna faltered as soon as the demigod’s attention began to wander again. He wished fervently that there was some way, any way that he could snatch his papers away without arousing any suspicion. “I’ve been seeing if there’s any other weaponry that’d be worth adding to my spaceship.”

“That sounds…good,” Ridge nodded, though he hardly seemed to hear him. “I like this drawing,” the demigod pointed to the notebook nearest to Lalna’s chair, his voice momentarily brighter as he scooped it up in his hands. The inked page showed Ridgedog surveying the land below, arms slightly outstretched as he descended.  “Can I have it?” he asked, fingers already poised to tear out the page.

“Of course,” the scientist forced a smile, cringing slightly as Ridge ripped at the paper.

“Mind if I take a look at your arm?” Ridge reached out to him, hands open. Reluctantly Lalna extended the robotic limb, allowing him to examine it. “This is good work,” Ridgedog said eventually, fingers sliding along the slick cables that wove between the steel supports that served as his bones.

“Thanks,” Lalna barely remembered to reply, still debating how much longer he should humor the demigod. Ridgedog raised the arm up to peer at the joints in Lalna’s hand, turning his wrist so that he could squint under the plates that capped his knuckles. Finally, he turned the limb over to survey the brightly colored wires that fanned out from the underside of  Lalna’s wrist up to his upper arm where the whole apparatus was secured to the rest of his body. 

Pinching a yellow wire between his thumb and forefinger, Ridge yanked it free, disconnecting it from the hub just above Lalna’s elbow. “What did you-” Lalna began angrily, despite the fact that he knew well enough what the demigod had done. The cables in his arm abruptly went slack as the whole device went limp, fingers splaying out awkwardly. “Shit,” Lalna hissed as he tried and failed to curl his fingers into a fist.

Ridge grinned at him mischievously, all pretense of peaceful intentions rapidly fading. He held the unresponsive hand close as Lalna ran through a few scenarios in his head, wanting to throw Ridge off guard though he knew it would be difficult to even loosen his grip on his arm. Though the main power supply had been disconnected, Lalna was certain that the backup would be just enough for one simple attack. Ridgedog opened his mouth to gloat, and at that moment Lalna released a blue orb of crackling energy into his chest.

The blast almost knocked the demigod off his feet, but he clung tightly to Lalna’s wrist as he reeled backwards, nearly dragging them both to the floor. He staggered for a moment longer before finally finding his balance even as Lalna wrenched at his grip. Slowly, Ridge’s eyes drifted down as he sized up the damage, and Lalna couldn’t help but follow his gaze. A crater had been blasted deep in the left side of Ridgedog’s chest; a pit of scorched flesh and barely-visible bone was ringed by the blackened hole in his coat. Abruptly, he shifted forwards, grasping the front of Lalna’s lab coat, and shoving him down on the wide table behind him. Ridge seized a scalpel from a nearby tray and wedged it through the mechanisms of Lalna’s robotic wrist and into the wooden table underneath, pinning Lalna’s arm well above his head.

Immediately Lalna twisted over onto his side to struggle with the scalpel. He quickly found that a substantial section of the handle had been imbedded in the table, making it impossible for him to budge. Eventually the scientist gave up, turning onto his back to watch Ridge prod at his rapidly healing chest, seeming more impatient than in pain. Ridgedog soon gave up pressing at his own flesh to touch the rough hole that had been seared in his clothes.

“Completely ruined,” the demigod growled, still rubbing at the fragile burnt edges around the hole, before briskly stripping off his coat. Undoing a few buttons at the front of his blue-grey waistcoat, he shed that garment as well, setting it neatly at the edge of the table. Plucking the gem-topped pin from his cravat, Ridge pulled the silk free from his throat before finally turning away to remove his shirt.

As soon as Ridgedog’s attention was diverted, Lalna began to rummage through his pockets with his free hand, desperate to find anything that might help him. Instead, he found them completely empty of all the normal odds and ends he toted with him every day. The scientist grunted out a curse and swore again as when he saw the smirk on Ridge’s lips. 

“That isn’t fair!” he protested, knowing well enough that the demigod was to blame.

“Not fair?” Ridgedog shook his head, feigning confusion, as he gently placed his tattered shirt beside his waistcoat. “Lalna,” he said, “You started here, in your own home with every weapon that you own right here, while I came unarmed. And you don’t think I’m playing fair?”

“You would never play fair,” Lalna snapped, drawing a chuckle from Ridge. The demigod scratched distractedly at his newly healed skin, before tugging off his undershirt

Lalna squirmed, trying to find a more comfortable position on the table. As he was now, only his back rested against table while his legs were bent over the edge, with only the balls of his feet touching the floor. He looked down over Ridgedog’s bare torso as he approached, swallowing slightly.

“Now, let’s make sure you don’t have anything else up your sleeve,” Ridge smiled at him, plucking a pair of surgical scissors from the nearby tray to cut through Lalna’s clothing. He pulled away the fabric just above the place steel frame of his mechanical arm joined with his flesh, before shearing through the material all the way up to Lalna’s shoulder. Ridge thumbed open the top button of the scientist’s lab coat next, pulling the corner of the coat away from his shoulder to bare his throat. Taking no particular care with garment, he quickly undid the long row of buttons that ran down to Lalna’s hip. The demigod took hold of the front of Lalna’s blue shirt, pulling the fabric away from his chest. Before Lalna could flinch, his shirt was cut open with the rough sound of tearing fabric. 

Ridgedog stripped the scientist to his waist, tossing the shirt and lab coat over the edge of the table. He scanned the tabletop, before picking up a pair of wire cutters. The tool in his hand, the demigod leaned over Lalna to fiddle with the circuitry in his arm, pressing against his legs as he did. In a few quick movements, he found and disconnected the secondary battery, before focusing on sensors imbedded in the metal cuff that enclosed a wide section of Lalna’s upper arm.

“There we are,” Ridge grinned. A split second later, Lalna yelped as a short but strong shock jolted through him. He immediately seized hold of Ridgedog’s arm, trying to drag his hand away from his immobilized limb. “Let go of me, Lalna,” the demigod said, his voice dangerously soft. 

A sudden wave of nausea took hold of the scientist and he sank down onto the table, his grip on Ridge loosening. The demigod brushed his hand away easily, his eyes seeming much colder than before. Lalna screwed his eyes shut, willing his stomach to stop churning. He felt incredibly weak, and did not doubt that it was Ridge who was responsible. But there was nothing else Lalna could do now, no more tricks that he could try.

Ridgedog nudged Lalna’s thighs apart with his knee to stand between them. He shifted position, turning just enough until his hip ground against the scientist’s crotch with his every movement. “What was your plan to capture me?” Ridge asked, now dragging a pair of wire strippers across the tabletop. “I’ll tell you whether it would work,” he offered when Lalna remained silent.

“Poison,” the scientist admitted, curiosity spurring him on. “Enough to force you to divert all of your energy to simply restoring yourself.”

“That might have worked,” Ridgedog allowed. “For a few minutes, anyways,” he added, and Lalna frowned. “What were you going to do then, after you had me?” the demigod pressed, and this time Lalna was certain the truth was something he shouldn’t disclose. “Come on, Lalna,” Ridge prompted him impatiently, “Were you going to try to cut me open? What were you going to do?”

“Well,” Lalna hesitated as Ridgedog rubbed against him, and earned himself another shock with his silence, this one stronger than the last. He cried out as the current surged up his arm and into his shoulder, jarring his muscles. “Alright!” he shouted as soon as he had breath enough for words, desperate to avoid another jolt. “Yes, I was going to try to cut you open,” he replied hurriedly, “and then I was going to try to figure out what sort of power it is that you have.”

“I don’t think you’d have much luck with that,” Ridge smiled condescendingly. He shifted away as he leaned in again to peer at the inner workings of Lalna’s arm, his hip no longer pressing against Lalna’s cock. Greedily, the scientist lifted himself to find that same friction.

“Am I boring you?” Ridgedog asked, pausing in his tinkering with the arm

"I’m fine," Lalna replied quickly, trying to compose himself. He settled back on the table, shame beginning to tint his cheeks pink.

Ridge raised an eyebrow at the denial. “Are you sure?” he asked. The demigod took a few steps back to survey Lalna’s entire body. “You seem distracted,” he observed, before he paused to gesture at the outline of Lalna’s half-hard cock. “And you look a little worked up there,” he added with a smirk.

Flushing brighter, the scientist tucked his chin against his chest and kept quiet. Ridgedog reached for Lalna’s fly, thumbing open the button and drawing down the zipper. Lalna lifted his hips when the demigod hooked his fingers inside the waistband of his trousers and began to draw them down his thighs. The scientist stepped out of his boots clumsily, just in time to slip out of his trousers. Leaving Lalna’s trousers in a pile on the floor beside his boots, Ridge turned round to survey the room. “Do you think I can find something here to keep you busy?” he asked, not expecting an answer.

The scientist squirmed nervously on the tabletop as Ridge approached the row of cabinets along the wall. Ridge dropped to one knee to pull open the broad wooden doors and began to rummage inside. The first contained an array of samples housed in glass cases, while the second held a rainbow of vials filled with every liquid known, and the third was full of notebooks and slim boxes filled with papers. The demigod immediately chose a box that rattled at his touch and made him smile when he peeked inside. He pulled the box free from the cabinet with a jerk and immediately slammed the cabinet doors shut, barely preventing the rest of the contents from cascading onto the floor.

Now standing, Ridgedog placed the box on top of the bank of cabinets to shuffle through his find. He glanced at Lalna before he opened it, hoping to see some anxiety in his expression. The scientist turned away, avoiding his eyes. Grinning, Ridge lifted the lid of the box, raising his eyebrows as its contents were fully revealed. 

“What’s this?” Ridge furrowed his brow, immediately plucking a leather collar from the bottom by its buckle. He lifted the collar, eyes fixed on the silver pendant that hung from it. A smooth sapphire was mounted at its center, the shape and color undeniably similar to the one that topped his own cravat pin. “You definitely were planning ahead, weren’t you?” he snorted.

“Did you want me to wear this?” Ridgedog continued as he rubbed his thumb across the surface of the gem. The scientist didn’t dare answer, but Ridge was already buckling the collar around his neck. “How does it look?” he asked, turning to show Lalna the leather now wrapped round his throat. The sapphire swung gently as Ridge spun, before resting lightly against his skin. “Is it just like you imagined?” he teased.

Still grinning to himself, Ridge turned back to the contents of the box. He immediately focused on a few particular toys that stood in a row at the side of the container. “Which is your favorite?” the demigod asked, catching Lalna off-guard. The scientist was silent for a moment, before Ridge spoke again. “Should I choose for you?” he prompted.

“The green one,” Lalna answered eventually, and watched as Ridge quickly retrieved a toy that was definitely not green.

“I like yellow better,” Ridge said as he approached him. He set the yellow toy, a butt plug with a textured shaft, on the table’s edge. Lalna delayed a moment longer, biting his lip when he finally dared to look up at the demigod. The gem set in silver lay on Ridge’s bare throat, swaying when he dipped down to lift Lalna to sit on the table

“I can manage,” Lalna grumbled, reaching for the waist of his boxers. Eyebrows raised, Ridgedog stepped away, watching as the scientist  quickly discarded his boxers, leaving  little more than his socks behind. Biting into the fingertips of his black work glove, Lalna quickly tugged it off and chucked it over the side of the table as well. He settled down on the table as he finally touched himself, groaning softly.

Ridgedog set a bottle of lube beside him with a pointed thud. The scientist glanced up at him again, before grabbing the bottle with a sigh and flipping off the cap with his thumb. Squeezing some of the substance into his palm, he quickly coated a few fingers before allowing the bottle to clatter back onto the tabletop, before reaching down to slide his index finger inside himself. Gasping, he leaned on his mechanical arm and added a second finger  to work himself open quickly. Ridgedog stood back slightly, eyes intent on Lalna as the scientist stretched himself.

A high whine escaped Lalna’s lips as he began to gradually ease the plug inside. He paused for a moment, taking time to squeeze at his cock with his slick fingers. Then the scientist sank against the cold steel of his arm as he grasped the base of the toy again. He shut his eyes as he pressed the thickest part of the plug inside himself and opened them when he felt Ridge’s hand brush his side. 

The demigod leaned over him, bracing himself with his hands on either side of Lalna’s torso. “You’re doing well,” he told the scientist, rewarding him with a soft kiss on his forehead. For once, Ridge seemed genuinely pleased and Lalna found that he loved hearing that note of approval in his voice. Lalna pressed most of the rest of the length of the plug inside, whimpering as the textured surface slid against particularly sensitive flesh and pausing again to rest on his arm that  pinned him to this spot.

“Good,” Ridgedog breathed, gently sliding the last inch of the plug inside Lalna himself. The scientist moaned, shifting his hips uncertainly as he adjusted to the feeling of the toy inside him. Pressing a gentle kiss to Lalna’s loosely parted lips, Ridge slipped his tongue inside Lalna’s mouth. As Lalna returned the kiss tentatively, Ridge took control. The demigod withdrew after a long moment, leaving Lalna to slump back on the table. As Ridge watched, the scientist put his hand on his cock, stroking himself as his eyes fell shut.

Another shock surged through Lalna and his eyes snapped open. Ridge stood still above him, smiling for a moment before belatedly saying simply, “Oops.” Reluctantly, Lalna removed his hand from his cock, though his fingers remained only a hair’s breadth away from his swollen length. Instead he took to slowly rocking his hips against the table, the plug rubbing against just the right spot inside him when he shifted position.

It took a Lalna much longer than it should have to realize that Ridgedog had stopped his work on the arm to watch him. He paused in place, no longer writhing slowly on the surface of the table and met Ridge’s gaze. The demigod ran his hands down the insides of Lalna’s thighs, before resting at the wide base of the toy that filled him. Gently, he pressed at the butt plug with his palm, pushing it just barely deeper. Lalna groaned and thrust himself down into Ridgedog’s hand. 

“Do you want something more than that?” Ridge asked, easing a small section of the toy free from Lalna’s body, before sliding it inside him again.

“Shit,” Lalna whined, before replying quickly, “Yes.”

“I don’t know, you seem pretty happy like this,” Ridge teased, repeating the motion.

“Ridge!” Lalna gasped. “Ridge, come on,” he began, frustration growing in his voice. The scientist  suddenly reached out, hooking his finger through the metal loop that hung from the collar Ridge wore and dragging him down until their faces nearly touched. “Come on,” he repeated forcefully, before adding a nervous “please,” as he watched Ridge’s face change. While no fury surfaced on the demigod’s features, he raised his eyebrows at Lalna’s boldness.

Swiftly, Ridgedog yanked Lalna’s hand away from his neck, before going for his own belt. He shucked down his trousers and boxers, then took hold of the toy again. Drawing the plug from Lalna’s ass, he set it aside, already grabbing the bottle of lube for himself. He dabbed a bit of lube on his cock and worked it along his length in a few hasty strokes, before finally lining up the head of his cock with Lalna’s body.

Lalna whimpered as Ridge filled him in one motion, squeezing out the sound between his gritted his teeth. “Fuck,” he muttered to himself, breaking into a breathless chuckle as Ridge looked down at him. Ridgedog moved inside him, hips shifting back only to press into him again as he buried his cock inside his body. Fingernails digging into Lalna’s soft sides, Ridge finally allowed his control to slip and groaned softly.

Letting his head fall back, the scientist allowed Ridge complete control and cried out unabashedly when the demigod brushed against the right spot inside him. Ridgedog moved his hands up to grasp Lalna’s thighs, pushing the scientist’s knees towards his chest as his pace quickened. Reaching down, Lalna wedged his arm between his thigh and his stomach to tug desperately at his own cock.

Swearing, Lalna came, coating his fingers and belly. Ridge gasped as the scientist’s body tightened around him and released his grip on Lalna’s thighs in favor of bracing himself against the table as he came. “Oh my god,” Lalna murmured as Ridge thrust inside him, his hips stuttering to a stop. Slowly, the demigod pulled out and turned around to lean on the table’s edge, seeming almost out of breath.

With a quick twist of his wrist, the demigod wrenched the scalpel from the table, freeing Lalna. The scientist righted himself carefully and quickly turned to survey the damage that had been done to his partially dismantled arm.

“What did you do?” Lalna demanded, rotating the arm manually as he inspected it.

“I’ll leave you to find out,” Ridgedog returned, smirk quickly returning. “Make sure you keep up the work on that plan to catch me. I’d love to get a chance to wear this again,”  he told Lalna as he unbuckled the collar and laid it out on the table.