There was a long time to wait for Dr. Du'Galle to get there, apparently, so after Even and Aeleus arrived and he gave Sora to Aeleus (and put a medium-level Sleep on Sora so he didn't have to deal with any mood swings for a while), he picked up the tablet and started looking through it.

With every word he read, from the messages to the contract, his uncertainty about the doctor began to coalesce into anger. It would have been one thing to charge Sora munny for this-he understood that doctors from other worlds needed to get money for their services. But forcing him to do potentially-dangerous missions and forbidding him to talk to his family, making it obvious that he was far more worried about himself than Sora?

Sora was distracted from his mostly-ineffective 'pep talk' by the sound of the timer on his phone going off. It made him look up, mind ambling back toward the kitchen. Oh...right. He'd put some sweetbread in the oven, since he'd heard Aeleus saying something about chicken salad this morning. Sweetbread went well with it...and it was the least he could do since the Apprentices kept putting up with him.

The timer meant he had ten minutes to get to the kitchens before the oven timer went off. Sora got up, figuring he'd better go on, since the bread would be just about done anyway.

Even cuddled up against Ienzo, safe and warm, hadn't lulled Sora. He was laying and listening to his sleeping boyfriend breathe, the slow rhythm soothing, though they did nothing to help Sora nod off.

His mind was racing, going five hundred miles an hour on a track meant for thirty, and Sora could almost imagine his thoughts careening into one another, debris flying in hyper-speed bumpercar madness. 

That was the longest thought he'd managed to string together in two hours. Things were going through a bout with insanity inside his head, hated thoughts combining with better memories and strange laughter that seemed to be just out of his hearing range, yet still heard.

Sora shifted just slightly, afraid of disturbing Ienzo, and curled up a little more, a thin arm going around his boyfriend. He pressed his cheek against Ienzo's chest, listening for the steady heartbeat that never faltered, finding it and using it to drown out some of the madness wrecking his mind and giving him a headache.

He couldn't sleep. He was tired, and part of him wanted to cry because he wanted to sleep and couldn't, but at least this way he could listen to Ienzo breathe, listen to him live, listen to him sleep, and gain some comfort from it. 

A small tablet is also tucked inside and when activated, reads out the instructions.

Take one pill a month. Take on empty stomach with water, however if symptoms of nausea present itself, take with a small meal. Swallow whole, do not chew. Common side effects include mood swings, nausea, insomnia, weight gain, and dry mouth. If more serious side effects present, please contact through this tablet. If current dosage is not effective or is causing undesired effects, please contact. Wait one month to gauge effectiveness before contacting.

********************

Sora took the box, carefully waiting until he was alone before opening it, taking out the contents a bit warily. Pills and one of those little computer tablets again. A quick fingerswipe activated it, and Sora listened to the instructions, running his hands over the packets, with their tiny white blobs encased inside.

His stomach twisted into knots; this was the first time he'd decided something like this on his own...but really, Sora didn't know what else to do. That list of 'common side effects' didn't really sound much different from his life as it was, save for the weight gain. He supposed people would be happy if he started gaining some weight, so that wouldn't be too bad. Mood swings, nausea, insomnia...none of that sounded any different from how he'd been since...what...he was ten? ...when had he stopped sleeping?  He couldn't even remember by now. He knew he was good at hiding most mood swings, so that wouldn't be a problem, and nausea was normal. Dry mouth would be annoying if it happened, but...eh. Just meant he'd drink more water, not a big deal.

None of it was a big deal if these tiny pills would make the dark whispers stop. None of it.

He hadn't eaten anything today, so  Sora went ahead and called up a globule of water, letting it swirl above his hand as he opened one of the pill packets, letting the chalk fill his mouth before he drank some of the magically-called water. The rest -- along with the tablet -- he packed back in the box, putting it in 'his' drawer in the dresser, hiding it under his underwear. 

One really should just let natural selection take its course.

The office was bright and well-lit, like the hallway leading to it. The wide windows covering two walls let out upon an impressive view, and the desk, while large, covered only a small portion of the room's space. The rest of the floor plan was taken up with recliners, a dining table set for a large potential gathering, and other small but necessary amenities.

As the woman stepped in from the hallway, she glanced around for a moment before focusing on the man waiting for her. Tall, slender, and every bit the suave scientist, Du'Galle had all the makings of a fictional villain. Suffice to say, she was glad he kept within the bounds set by society.