[Dio is perhaps very slightly more likely than his partner to be prepared for weird sci-fi bullshit, but this actually works directly to his disadvantage. He readily accepts the possibility that he is literally floating in the void of space, and he wastes that vital first moment grasping at his throat. This wasn't how he had thought it would go, somehow, when they rejected him for being too late to complete the mission or having the wrong genes or God forbid daring to form a temporary attachment of any kind, tactical or not; the sensation of choking, that's par for the course, but the airlock as much as any other chamber should have been narrow, representing the limited horizons in a life of folly and sin. (If Dio gets to look back at this later and realize it's the other way around, that it was strange to gasp despite the lack of a need for oxygen, he still might not realize that the lungs can sometimes malfunction for entirely psychosomatic reasons.)
The second vital moment is when he sees that Helena has activated her lightning powers, a brave decision she must have made in the first moment, unlike him still too desperate to breathe, let alone think; so the least he can do is throw the guy, but he feels the power not working.
Third time's the charm. Dio sends the net skittering forward across that floorlike surface, to tangle around the man's feet while they're still electrified.]
VLR spoilers // asphyxiation cw for no good reason
[Dio is perhaps very slightly more likely than his partner to be prepared for weird sci-fi bullshit, but this actually works directly to his disadvantage. He readily accepts the possibility that he is literally floating in the void of space, and he wastes that vital first moment grasping at his throat. This wasn't how he had thought it would go, somehow, when they rejected him for being too late to complete the mission or having the wrong genes or God forbid daring to form a temporary attachment of any kind, tactical or not; the sensation of choking, that's par for the course, but the airlock as much as any other chamber should have been narrow, representing the limited horizons in a life of folly and sin. (If Dio gets to look back at this later and realize it's the other way around, that it was strange to gasp despite the lack of a need for oxygen, he still might not realize that the lungs can sometimes malfunction for entirely psychosomatic reasons.)
The second vital moment is when he sees that Helena has activated her lightning powers, a brave decision she must have made in the first moment, unlike him still too desperate to breathe, let alone think; so the least he can do is throw the guy, but he feels the power not working.
Third time's the charm. Dio sends the net skittering forward across that floorlike surface, to tangle around the man's feet while they're still electrified.]