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 Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:16 pm
This was in no way Birhan's first visit to Wolframite. She was one of the Captains of his cell; he was her main responsibility during this operation. And, of course, she had a very personal grudge against him. It was that grudge that had kept her from immediately taking her rage out on him. Both she and Wolframite knew it was coming - payback, revenge, justice, whatever you wanted to call it.
They said revenge was a dish best served cold. For a hotheaded person like Birhan, the cold was necessary to ensure nothing would go out of hand. It wouldn't have done to have laid into Wolframite immediately, let her impulsiveness rule her, and then realise that she'd gone too far. Ares wouldn't be pleased if they lost such a precious information source.
...And besides, it was immensely satisfying to taunt Wolframite with her presence. She was there every day, even if she left at times to sleep or eat or visit the other prisoners. Every time she visited, she eyed Wolframite like a cat with a mouse, letting her eyes fill with the thoughts of what she wanted to do to the captive Captain. She smiled at the wounds left by others - had laughed when she'd returned once to find him singed and burned at the hands of her co-Captain Gunn. Every time she entered and exited the cell, she would give Wolframite a wide, vindictive smirk. She left him guessing when she would finally deal with him personally, and just what horrors she had in mind for her revenge.
Wolframite didn't know it yet, but today was they day he would finally find out. Birhan walked into the cell, the door swinging shut and locking behind her. The curve to her lips was mixed hate and anticipation.
"How are we today, little Wolfy?" she asked, walking over to check her restraints. "Healing up nicely after Requiem's visit the other day?"
His bruises were fading somewhat, still garish yellows and greens. The swelling on his face was almost gone. It was a marval how quickly Senshi and Negaverse alike could heal. Of course, given enough regular beatings, even the enhanced metabolism of a Captain was growing sluggish. Still, Wolframite looked well enough for Birhan's purposes.
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Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:33 pm
Seeing someone every day did not make them a comfort. Birhan wasn’t a happy fixture in his cell, and he didn’t feel anyting for her aside from a mix of worry, fear, and hatred. While he knew she would do nothing for him if he should be harmed, he had to wonder what duty she served other than making sure he didn’t think up an escape. During each beating, burning, scaring, she would come or would have been present in some way, and do nothing. It was almost as bad as inflicting the pain, and each time, she would come, pleased with the work that had been done that day. She would comment here and there about him, offering a little pet name as Wolfy – a name his fellow Negas used, his friends used, his close friends used – and was ruined here.
They spoke little, but he lost the fight even more when she came. Another day of seeing her. Another day in the cell. Another fresh lesson in pain that was never the same but never anything but a miserable hell that tore at his body. For his mind, her being there never gave him privacy. He could not cry a he was never alone, and he couldn’t hum to bring himself up, give himself a bit of pep talk, or even call out to the others.
With each day, the creak of the cell door got worse, and made him flinch more. The door opened to let those he’d rather not see in, and he always wondered who would be next.
He never wanted that door to open. Just for a day, he wanted it closed. Tired. Hungry. Bleeding, Filthy. Weak. Small. Each day was a new torment and a day to watch past hurt get worse. His fingers had long since discolored. He lost feeling in them. Were they dead or were the nerves gone? His face had at last stopped swelling and gone down, letting him at least open his one good eye and look around.
The same eye that opened weakly when the door opened and Birhan entered. Slender body, almost translucent skirt that often made him embarrassed to be near her, and fiery red hair. What strange forms monsters took. Nothing like the youma. At least with youma, you knew they were merciless.
As she moved, he watched her as she checked his bindings. He wasn’t going anywhere. On the first days, he tried breaking the chains but he wasn’t strong enough. Not without a weapon. Not when he’d been drugged. Weaker now, he was too sore to barely move or stand. As she talked, he watched her. She spoke as if she was his doctor, and he would have smiled if his lips weren't so cracked. Instead, he licked them to utter a few small words. "Good to know, nurse." It was his own desperation for a good laugh. A bad pun in a bad situation.
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Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:20 pm
The attempt at humour won only a tight smile from Birhan. Satisfied that Wolframite wasn't going anywhere, and that he was healthy enough that she wouldn't kill him, she stepped back. She placed herself square in front of Wolframite so he wouldn't have any problems seeing her.
"Good for me, little Wolf," she corrected. "Not so much for you."
This was different. Birhan was breaking their routine. Normally it was check the restraints, check the prisoner was healing, then letting in the tormentor of the day or settling in for a silent period of watching him squirm. Never had she referred to herself being involved before.
Adrenaline spread through Birhan's body like a wildfire in her blood. Finally, finally, finally. After waiting so long, it was finally time for some payback of her own.
She bent forward and removed the eyepatch. Someone must have been playing around with it again. It wasn't a surprise to enter the cell and find it had been removed, put back on, switched to the other eye... Violet eyes stared at the black orb revealed under the patch. She resisted the urge to reach out and poke it.
"You know, the first time I saw this eye, I thought it was a youma implant," she began conversationally. A quiet huff of a laugh and a sly smile followed. "You can't blame me for that, considering my circumstances at the time. You remember that, don't you, little Wolfy? Your hand," her voice grew harder, "my chest, my starseed."
Birhan straightened and gave a soft chuckle. "But it's not, is it? Just an unusual prosthetic. All that worry for nothing, thinking we had a second Tanzanite, when really all we were facing was a knife thrower with no depth perception."
Stepping to her left, Birhan placed the eyepatch on a tray that lay on a bench. It ran the side of the room, and the tray was placed just too far to the right of Wolframite for him to see. Perhaps she'd move it later so he had a close view of all the tools Ares had provided for these sessions, "just in case".
Back in front of Wolframite, Birhan stared him down. She lifted her hands and one by one cracked all the knuckles.
"You do remember, don't you, Wolfy?" she prodded. "I still owe you for that."
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:18 pm
It wasn’t hard to forget whose starseed you went after. It was a memorable experience at times when it involved senshi. Ask him which human starseed he went after and he would have a hard time, having gone through many before the changeover to energy orbs, but senshi, they had another power. Birhan had been one of the few Wolframite had went after, and had managed to wrap his fingers around. With Birhan, he had nearly died, but he had been close. They were both on the edge of death and losing it all. He’d like to think he made it out better, but seeing as he was chained, the dice didn’t roll in his favor in the end.
“I remember.” He said, watching her. She had broken routine, and it seemed that she finally felt, for whatever reason, it was the perfect time to attack. Now he wished they were back to the old routine of her not bothering him, but it seemed she had been saving up her time, possibly thinking of what to do and taking some examples from all the other senshi who came in to rough him up in her presence, to dish out her own hurt.
Considering he had to heal for a while to those claw marks to the chest, he knew he’d be in a lot of pain. Birhan hadn’t ******** around on the battle field and she didn’t look as if she’d get tender on him here either.
What bothered him the most was her attention to his fake eye. Most senshi were either bothered or interested in it. Some didn’t even know how he got it, but most were wary that he was somehow akin to Tanzanite. The association alone to the General made others wary of his eye, but in the end, when they saw it was nothing but a replacement without any supernatural qualities, they relaxed and laughed at their own fear. It wasn’t Wolframite who had given the fear in the first place, but Tanzanite, and once gone, they were back to looking at just Wolframite. That was deserving of a laugh. No threat here. Just some small Captain without an eye.
Birhan’s words stung, and he narrowed his eyes at her. It had only been months since the accident, but the emotional loss was still something he was recovering with. He’d stop bumping into things, but pointing it out made him defensive. It was hard to be cocky when the person who made sure you were secured was cracking her knuckles in preparation for what she seemed to have waited for.
“It was a fair fight. You got too close.” He pointed out, just for the record. She hurt him after all, and he had tried to not only defend himself, but kill. That was the name of the game in the end. Kill or die trying. Thinking about it, he looked back up to her. “What? Was that your first time?” Maybe it was, and he felt a tug at the corner of his lips.
"You feel safe now knowing I'm chained. Depth perception or not, I still aimed for the right place." He remembered it, and through all the pain he suffered, it was a small victory from his past. "....hurt, didn't it?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:20 pm
What was it with boys and wanting to be the first at everything? If this wasn't a torture session, Birhan would have rolled her eyes or made a joke about her first time. But this wasn't her casual civilian life and her runaway tongue would only get her in trouble if she didn't keep it under firm control.
To distract herself, she focused in his second question. Had it hurt? Had it ******** hurt!? That was her soul he'd been grabbing and squeezing. Of course it damn well hurt!
Her eyes narrowed, lips forming a scowl as the phantom pain of the attack struck her. She'd been unable to breathe, unable to move, incapable of anything but feeling every nerve ending in her body scream in pain. Stepping up to Wolframite, she coldly said, "Oh, it hurt."
One booted foot crashed down on his kneecap, followed instantly by a strong punch to his nose. She wouldn't be surprised if it broke.
"Did that?" she asked.
It didn't matter if he said otherwise. She was just getting started. And she hadn't even picked up any of the toys on that metal tray yet.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 10:28 am
((Oops. Sorry about letting this tag linger.))
When it came to the pain of the Negaverse, he wondered if the senshi ever realized that they pain they felt when having their starseed handled, held tightly, squeezed to the point of breaking, was something all Negaverse officers knew. It had been their initiation action, the one that would welcome them to a world of pain that was the price for the power and level of responsibility they would receive. Sometimes, when they were still taking starseeds in the past, he would wince when he noticed a civilian he had his hand in, wincing and shouting in agony. During those times, he would cringe, remembering that pain and sympathizing, almost like how seeing a guy kicked between the legs made you want to cross yours. You could almost feel it yourself, and boy, it hurt like hell.
That wasn't to say a kick to the knee and a punch square in the middle of his face was just a passing breeze. Head jerked to the side, he blinked back stars. The nose was broken, and he knew by giving it a test breathe that it would swell, bleed, and just really hurt like hell.
Waiting a moment to let the dazing affects of such a blow pass, he looked back at her. "When you get filled with the energy of the Negaverse, it hurts a whole hell more. I hope someone shows you that." He hoped that if she wasn't killed, she was brought to their side.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:27 pm
A cold shudder run down Birhan's back as the small Captain stated ever so calmly that the pain and horror she'd gone through was something that all the Negaverse officers had suffered to become what they were. She couldn't believe that they were okay with that - and would go on to do it to others. But, she reasoned, that was just more evidence of Nega brainwashing at work. Anyone still in their right mind would turn around and take revenge on the person who did that to them - these guys not only served them, but kept coming back for more.
And here sat Wolframite, wishing more of that pain on her?
"Was that a threat, or a recruitment offer?" she sneered. "Pitiful, either way."
Being corrupted was the worst thing that she could think of. To turn her back on everything she believed in, on all the people who'd believed in her... To fight her senshi comrades and all the while think that the horrors she was committing were 'right'... To hide her revulsion, Birhan moved to the tray. One gloved hand ran slowly over the instruments there. Ares was ungodly prepared for this, all manner of tools that Birhan hadn't seen outside of movies. She didn't have time to wonder where Ares had gotten such things, her task was too important. Her fingers lingered on one object and she nodded to herself and picked it up.
When she entered Wolframite's vision again, she bent close and held her chosen tool out to him. Something between a scalpel and a knife pointed at his face.
"I'm already pissed enough about your first attempt on my starseed, and you open your mouth and wish it on me again?" she said. "You're not a very smart boy. Let's see if we can't work on that."
The flat side of the blade stroked his cheek, a parody of a loving caress. Birhan slowly turned the blade, letting the sharp edge press against his skin, not yet hard enough to cut and bleed, just another slow taunt of 'when will she, what will she' like her earlier visits of non-torture to Wolframite.
"You seemed very close to Bismuthite, when we captured you lot. The others are very interested in his human name," she said conversationally, still stroking the soft skin of his face with the blade. "Why don't you tell me who he is?"
She already knew that he wouldn't. The mocking smile on her face made that obvious, so even Wolframite could tell she wasn't expecting an answer - just an excuse to continue her torture.
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:09 pm
It always made him nervous when someone left his line of sight, and his mind always danced with ideas of someone scalping his head or slicing his throat from behind. Even a direct stab to the skull or blow to the back of the head was possible, and like any creature, being behind out or out of his sight bothered him greatly. Fear of the unknown was what really drove you crazy, not that this was already working on his young, traumatized mind already.
While he had tried to be cocky, at least enough to spite some words back, he regretted not maintaining some sort of cool. It was that direct jab to his eye that had ticked him off, and now he was simmering down quickly, growing cold with worry. When she returned, at last, it was not with relief but with at least more preparation as to what would come. The knife she raised said that, in the manner of torture, it would be slicing and stabbing today and not just blunt force trauma (though she could alternate with a few kicks and punches if she felt like spicing things up).
If he wasn’t already dehydrated, he would have been sweating, but only leaned away from the blade as it approached his face, a place that he was always the most wary about. Ever since the attack to his eye, he was always nervous around anything getting to close to his face. Not tearing his eyes from the blade, he heard her request a name. It wasn’t the first time. It seemed the senshi here were persistent on getting to Bismuthite, making him wonder once again what had him on their list of top wanted enemies. They had targeted him during the capture, and were curious as to why he helped. He kept playing it off as just helping a fellow officer because he knew that if he stated he had any importance to the other officer instead of Wolframite just feeling Bismuthite was important, they would use it.
“I don’t know his name. I only protected him as any Captain would. He’s just a lieutenant.” He said, as if it was obligation of rank.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:24 pm
"Ohhhh?" Birhan drew out her disbelieving sound, as Wolframite again denied knowing Bismuthite. "And as a Captain, you don't know the identities of those below you?"
The BMC certainly did. Birhan suspected that Ares knew who everyone was during their daily lives - she was too cautious to not insist of knowing these things. Birhan herself knew the other members of the ISS, and a few of the mercenaries. If she ever wound up with her own trainee to mentor, she'd know their identity for sure, too. In regards to Wolfy and Bismuthite, it seemed like it would all depend on just how close the two were. Did the BMC's 'most wanted' work under Wolfy? Were they perhaps friends who'd told each other anyway? Or was there nothing but a business relationship between the two.
Wolframite kept insisting it was the latter. Birhan wasn't sure she believed him.
Birhan wasn't sure she cared.
"It doesn't much matter to me, anyway," she confessed to Wolframite. She spoke it softly in her ear like it was a secret. "Bismuthite is other peoples' concern. Me? I'm more interested in hurting you."
She drew the knife up his left cheek, dragging gently against flesh that parted like butter. Birhan was directly in front of Wolframite, never breaking eye contact as she played - a cat with her mouse, never doubting she was in control, and could finish this at any time. The knife left skin, coming to hover in front of Wolframite's working eye.
"When I said I was interested to learn you only had a prosthetic eye, I didn't just mean because it made you less of a threat." Though it did, and that showed in the smile in Birhan's voice, even though her lips remained pressed flat. She inched the blade closer to Wolframite's eyeball. "It's interesting because it makes me wonder... a man with a fake eye... what would he do if that were the only one he had left?"
Now she smiled, a snarl of feral joy and vindictive pleasure. Her voice hardened. "Let's find out."
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:06 pm
He tried to brush it off. Tried to pretend what she was suggesting wasn’t even a possibility. Pulling her in the wrong direction was what he was supposed to do, but honestly, it was hard to think with someone pointing a knife to your face. Even harder to think on barely any sleep, food, or water. He was flat out exhausted, and even tired of being afraid. Tired of trying to lie, and tired of being on guard at all hours. His mind was mush, but he scraped and clawed up any strong thoughts he could to keep the senshi from knowing too much about Bismuthite. If he let himself get tricked with words, he would wind up killing someone. That constant thought that he could ruin someone else’s life, or even the entire Negaverse, hovered over him like a thick, poisonous cloud.
“There are too many of us, and I’m not his Captain.” He said, thinking that he might be giving too much out in stating they had teams, but if it lead her away from thinking he had any knowledge of Bismuthite, he would give away that much.
He stiffened in his seat when the blade was brought to his face and, despite persistence on getting the name, she more or less gave up trying and was back to focusing on him. At least someone hated him for being him and not for who he might know. Not a good thing, but it was something. The blade against his cheek caused his teeth to clench and he held his breath, freezing in fear that moving would send thatv very blade through his mouth. It left, but not without causing a long wound to weep blood down his cheek and drip off his chin. He opened his eyes once more, looking at her.
Then she brought the blade towards his eye and made her intent clear. A finger, a stab wound, a cut. Those he would bear. Being blind was a fear he had since loosing his first eye, and one that broke him down completely. He jerked back, away from the blade, paling of what little color he still retained, and gasping quickly as his eyes went wide, staring at the blade. “NO! STOP IT! PLEASE! I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING! THEY ONLY TELL ME SO MUCH! I DON’T KNOW!” He was panicking, looking about for anything but always returning to that blade and then finding himself unable to look away from it. No. No. NO! SOMEBODY SAVE HIM! PLEASE! PLEASE!!
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:51 pm
The smirk that grew on Birhan's face was not pretty. So, it seemed that she had finally found the crack in Wolframite's armor. It was a gaping hole in his defenses and she continued to prise it open.
"I. Don't. Care," she said slowly, dragging the knife further up his cheek. The tip of the blade now rested just under his eye. As he moved, the tips of several lower eyelashes brushed against it and floated down to the floor. Not that Wolframite could see that, of course. But he seemed well aware of what Birhan had in mind.
"You don't know Bismuthite, you don't know anything, you were left in the dark, following orders, blah blah blah." Birhan was leaning so close that her nose was almost touching Wolframite's. She should have known better, after the bite from Uranophane, but if Wolframite was smart, he wouldn't want to startle her while a knife was so close to his one remaining eye.
"If you don't know anything, then what good are you?" Birhan smiled at Wolframite. "None. And no one cares what happens to people who aren't worth anything. Do they?"
Enough teasing. Birhan was getting anxious for the main course. It had been a long time coming, in dealing out entrees of small doses of fear and anticipation, letting his terror of her build. Now it was rising to a crescendo - a lovely symphony detailing the triumph and revenge of Birhan Isat.
"So then, useless Captain..."
The knife lifted away from flesh. It was only a momentary relief. In a quick move, Birhan drew the knife back, preparing to plunge it forward, to pop the green eye like a grape.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:09 pm
It was a harsh statement of many that Wolframite had received. He was nothing. He knew nothing. He had nothing to offer. He wasn’t recognized. He wasn’t accomplished. He was lesser. Nothing. Unimportant. Not on the map. Worthless. Not worth their time. Again and again for days on end, and here he was presented with the fact that while he convinced others he knew nothing, in the end, he really didn’t know anything. No wonder no one was scared.
Eyes wide open more than ever before, he looked at the knife daring to plunge right into his socket, into his skull, maybe into his brain, without any show of mercy or hesitation. There was no reason to keep him alive. He was a Captain, but he might as well be nothing to them. At least being feared made them wonder and want to keep you around.
Mind jerking for what little he did know, his brain flicked and without a filter, threw anything out to save his one chance at remaining at least partially useful. With one eye, he was less of a threat. With none, he wasn’t anything. We would be less than the nothing he already was.
“We-We have a database!” He shouted, throwing it out in a frantic sputtering as he tried to keep him from freezing up in shock in time to say something that might keep her from making that permanent plunge.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:20 pm
The knife halted a finger's width away from Wolframite's eye. A loud hissing filled the cell, Birhan's baited breath escaping through clenched teeth. There was something dark in her eyes as she glared at Wolframite. Worse than hate, stronger than disappointment. Wolframite had just bought himself some extra time - time that Birhan hadn't wanted to give him.
She drew the knife back. Deft fingers twirled it once, then slammed it down between Wolframite's legs. Half the blade was buried into the seat. She had no fear that Wolframite could work it loose, and she liked it there as a reminder of what awaited him if he was less than forthcoming.
Birhan's voice grated like nails on a chalkboard. "Talk."
As much as Birhan wanted to hurt Wolframite, this was the kind of information that Ares wanted to know. Wolframite was a lucky young man.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:41 pm
He didn’t know if it would work. He prayed it would, but he still awaited the blow. That pain he felt when he lost his first eye. The disbelief as he had stumbled down that street the night Castor destroyed one side of his vision, the liquid that was blood but also not blood, and how he felt pain but wasn’t quiet sure it was gone. Before, he hadn’t been sure because his other eye worked. If she took the other, he would know. The world would then forever be plunged in darkness, and unless the Queen gave him some youma implants, he would be useless. Then again, why would the Queen bother with someone who was downright worthless to her by giving him youma implants. Tanzanite deserved being saved. He, however, did not.
But the stab never came. Jerking, he looked at the knife now imbedded in his seat, and looked down at it in disbelief. It was not a guarantee by far, but it was time. Time to talk, and time to convince he had a morsel to offer to save his otherwise pathetic existence.
Licking his lips, he continued to look at the knife. He knew about the database from Zinkenite. A fellow Catapin. Someone who had been with him on Team Enterprise and even then was recognized as being above the rest. He had been Linarite’s go-to guy. Zinkenite had shined like Tanzanite shined, and was of that special class that deserved their rank and power. And here, Wolframite, something lower, was selling out Zinkenite’s hard work.
I’m scum.
But even scum wanted to live.
“We…we’ve been collecting data. ….Data on the senshi.” It was hard to breath as the guilt choked him. Why was he trying to save his life when it was so unimportant to everyone? “…..names and powers and filing them away.” It wasn’t much of an explanation, but it was something. His heart was hammering in his chest.
You’re scum, Wolframite.
He swallowed hard once more.
…but I guess even dogs will tear throats to live.
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Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:06 am
So, something along the lines of the senshi's own phone database. Birhan had a mental alarm go off in her head - something crossed between a blaring siren and a 'bingo' noise. Ares would definitely want to know this. Of course, Ares would want to know a whole lot more about it, too.
Birhan narrowed her eyes. Her lips firmed. It seemed her prisoner was halfway towards keeping himself intact. Goddamit.
"I'm sure you can tell me more than that," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Make it worth my while to keep you in one piece, Captain. How do you access it? Who maintains it? How much is in there so far? ... Please try and put some effort into this attempt to save your eyesight."
She made no promises about 'alive' at this stage. After all, keeping him alive was her only responsibility. And it wasn't death that had Wolframite so scared, oh no, it was that he might have live while permanently blind.
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