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 Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 2:17 pm
Prehnite took a deep breath, then another, and maybe a few more. Trying to keep down the rising swell of panic. The way instinct screamed to fight, even though logically, he knew he wasn't getting loose of these chains. The same way he knew he wasn't getting further from this wall than he was tethered. Maybe he had enough length to kneel up, but he didn't entertain hopes of standing. He didn't trust his legs right now anyways...
He knew he wasn't talking his way out of this one either.
No, he'd just have to ignore the ache of his wrists shackled behind his back too tight. The way he was kept on the floor like an animal..How absolutely exhausted he was. The throbbing pain, telling, in how he shouldn't have struggled before. Shouldn't have fought.
It's alright..you'll be fine. Just ignore...all of it...
He wasn't sure if being powered up was a blessing or a curse. He might as well have been a civilian. It would have made it better, in some ways. The feeling of hopelessness, of his senses being dulled, blind to everything around him. Completely unable to reach for his weapon....
All he could pick up were sounds. The occasional scream, muffled speaking. No one he recognized, not that he could have. He didn't even want to think about how many of them they'd taken.
Though the the 'how' of it all clawed at the back of his mind. He was an easy target, but surely they hadn't only taken Lieutenants? Where would the aim be in that?
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 6:13 pm
Another one.
There's another one.
Keep going, keep moving, keep going.
His chest rose and fell in rapid breaths that still somehow felt unsteady, constrained. Shadows were dark beneath his eyes, and there was a distinct hollowness to his cheeks that indicated a severe lack of both sleep and nutrition (proper care for oneself was not at the forefront of a mind steeped in nightmares and hazy voices, too much not enough never enough).
The tremble in his fingers made his body appear weak, and his thoughts were a terrible, twisted mess of voices and confusion, none of them making any sense except for the consistent throb of mocking laughter in his ears.
The cell door rattled as he slid it open, Celsus stepping in. His expression was stiff, flat, almost lacking entirely in emotion as he stared down at the man in front of him with darkened eyes.
"Name," Celsus rasped.
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 8:10 pm
Startled out of his own thoughts by the suddenness of his door opening. He'd missed the encroaching footsteps. Panic filled teal eyes snapping up to the tall knight.
He hadn't been expecting a knight. Had prayed he'd simply be left alone to his uselessness. Not to die hopefully..but..alone...
"Prehnite, Lieutenant of the Negaverse" Quick to answer in his own dry voice. Everything about this one, felt off. Not pissed, not sad, just, empty. The way the knight looked at him, the way he spoke. If anything that emptiness was far more terrifying than a vengeful Senshi would have been.
It was wrong, and it did wonders for making Prehinte wish he could melt into the concrete behind him. The knight looked worse for wear, and it didn't make any sense. Prehnite was the prisoner here. Not the Knight.
"You look about like I feel."
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:42 pm
A flicker of mild surprise passed across Celsus' tired, drawn face.
"You're the first one to actually answer me when I've asked that question," he said hoarsely. The whip was held in his hands; he coiled it around his shaking fingers absently, hands smoothing across the golden coins that were tied in intervals around each of the tails. "How...reassuring."
He did not sound reassuring. His expression flickered, shifted. Something in Celsus' eyes darkened, flashing behind the glasses, but he made no comment about what Prehnite had said about his appearance. There was little he could do about that, and it was not the point of this interrogation.
Turn away turn away.
Just keep walking.
Leave.
"What division are you in the Negaverse?" Celsus asked.
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:09 am
For a moment, Prehnite wondered if he were being traitorous..Traitorous to his own, who were probably risking life and skin..but for what..over what? A name? It wasn't as though the man was prying for personal information. He hadn't even begun to ask about others. Not that Prehnite had information to give in either regard...not willingly.
He'd always been happy to inform his enemies, of whom exactly they were dealing with. It was good practice..open dialogue...So that one could put a name to a face the next time it came after him with something sharp and deadly..Or simply intervened in his nights plans.
The Knight still seemed overly focused, still sounded terrible as he spoke.
Prehnite couldn't keep from glancing at, and god how had he missed it before, the whip held coiled in the mans hands. He seemed to be petting the menacing looking thing. Maybe it was his own attempt to regain some composure? Or maybe he was itching for...
No, Prehnite wasn't going to think about it.
Ignore it..just breath and keep ignoring everything else....
It would be better to answer the questions. Right up until he couldn't any longer.
"General Operations" Prehnite tried on a watery smile; he didn't need to go into details, wasn't even sure if the name meant anything to the Knight. He wondered, if he could just keep up talking at the man..
Anything to lessen that slightly deranged and sickly look.
"I'm surprised you people don't share more information with each other. Names at least..."
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 5:48 pm
He couldn't think, couldn't focus. His mind kept slipping in and out of thoughts that had no bearing being there at all, whispers and mocking taunts twisting everything into something warped and confusing. Celsus lifted a hand and pressed fingers to his temple, massaging against the headache that throbbed painfully in his skull.
"General Operations," Celsus repeated, and kept pacing, his voice wavering slightly. The whip was still held in his other hand, dragging across the floor with a slithering, hissing sort of sound as it slid over the cold concrete under their feet. "What exactly is that? The catch-all division?"
He winced slightly, then gave a shake of his head as though to clear it.
"Who says we don't?" Celsus muttered. "Perhaps I just want information for myself."
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:04 pm
Prehnite felt like he was walking on the thinnest of ice, over the largest of lakes. The last thing he wanted to do was break it. He had a sinking feeling he wouldn't come up from those waters unscathed..or alive....
"I-alright..that is, a bit trickier to explain." Tricky like sex on ******** was absolutely no way to nicely or cleanly parse any of their divisions. Even the ones he knew hardly anything about.
Everything was subterfuge, corruption and murder. They could have made tee -shirts out of it; 'b***h we drink people!' In bold print, with cute colors. Hell..before they had..and occasionally still did..eat peoples literal souls; after ripping them from their bodies.
"Calling it the 'Catch All' though. That sounds about right." The Knight wasn't stupid though, possibly deranged, but..if he was any kind of Knight, he knew. He had to have known what the Negaverse did, what they were. "It definitely involves a lot of grunt work. It gives us at the bottom of the totem pole..a place..to be the bottom of the totem pole at."
The Knight, looked pained, truly. Had Prehnite been anyone else, he might have cared more. Really though, all he cared about was the way the hiss of that whip made him shudder.
"Your people say you don't, not me personally." It wasn't technically true, but it wasn't a lie either. "I'm not exactly high enough on the radar to be worth mentioning I'm sure...but the fact that I've run into any number of pages...and the information hasn't ended up passed on..." Shrugging as best he could in his position. He wasn't sure how Knights actually relayed information to each other. Did they even keep files?
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Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 9:02 am
"Try," rasped Celsus, in a none too polite tone, but it tailed off at the end, his head spinning dangerously. The thoughts were coming too rapidly now, and he was having difficulty distinguishing between all of them; between Prehnite's voice and the rest of them, twisting and curling in his mind.
He gave a sharp snap of the whip through the air, a resounding crack echoing. It was not, however, aimed at the lieutenant, but for Celsus instead; a way to try and snap himself out of his own thoughts, an attempt at trying to clear some of the haze he felt he was walking through.
It worked, sort of. His head jerked a little, eyes flashing, and Celsus glanced sideways at the man on the ground, his throat feeling dry.
"So you're at the bottom, then," he said hoarsely, "Good to know."
He gave a little laugh, ragged and hollow sounding. "It's called misinformation," said Celsus. "Deliberate misdirecting. And you have no idea how we work, really, seeing as how you're not one of us. How long have you been in the Negaverse?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 1:00 pm
The resounding crack and echo of the whip had Prehnite physically flinching, inching himself back until he could touch the wall firmly. He' wasn't going anywhere, but the further from the Knight he was..even if it was only by centimeters..the better..
'Well ********, the guy is absolutely bonkers..'
The whip hadn't been aimed at him, that didn't mean it wouldn't be. Prehnite realized the man wasn't simply holding it to look intimidating, it was his weapon of choice; something he was willing to use..
Prehnite didn't like the tone though, and was starting to get a little sick of the dangerous crazy guy, whose name he didn't even know, with the whip! Being in the same space as him, having him cowed and cornered. He wasn't going anywhere, any more than a conversation was unnecessary. Hell, he was even willing to talk basics..Maybe, not with this one though.
"Three years! Apparently neither of us have any idea of how the others world works. Why else would you have us here?" Prehnite grit out, leveling an actual glare at the man.
"Hell, I would actually rather enjoy a decent conversation, on the inner workings of everything, because you people..run around this city, like the most misinformed unorganized halfwits I have ever met; and don't even ask me how I feel about the Senshi." Prehnite panted, licking his dry lips, unable to look away from the Knight. "They have literal child soldiers. I'd rather be at the bottom of where I am, then the top of wherever you people are."
Acceptance...he was just going to have to accept his fate. The fact that the man was complaining of misinformation, for all he knew, Prehnite had been misinforming him all this time. How was he even going to remember all the information, what would he use it for! Prehnite, was a nothing, the best at the bottom that there ever could have been..So what did the Knight really want?
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 10:47 pm
He rarely used the whip for anything other than simply misdirecting people. If he was being serious about it, the sound of it alone through the air would cause disorientation, but Celsus wasn't using his magic, wasn't even thinking of it now.
The angry tone of the lieutenant was ignored, or maybe not even notice. Celsus gave a rapid shake of his head, curling the streaming tails of the weapon back around his finger and tugging them tightly from side to side.
"You have children in your ranks, I've seen them," he said absently. "And it's not as though the Negaverse is any more organized than we are. You claim you wish to protect the Earth and all you do is make it worse than it already is. There is sickness and treachery through your ranks, but you turn a blind eye to all of that, don't you?"
Celsus cracked the whip again, another loud, deafening sound.
"What other factions are there within the Negaverse?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 12:32 am
Prehnite flinched again, curling in a little on himself. God that noise was horrible in such a confined space. He knew he was being a coward, an absolutely pathetic coward who would have been better off shot. The idea of that horrible thing striking flesh though. He did not want it, even if every word out of the damnable knights mouth pissed him off..even if he left this place a corpse..It would not be as a corpse with whip marks. That was his line.
"s**t, would you stop with that! I'm right here talking to you aren't I?" Prehnite panted, shaking his head and trying to think of factions.
"I don't know. I'm sorry, but I really don't hear things above my status and I personally like to keep to myself." Prehnite sighed, dropping his head back against the concrete, wondering if the Knight was even hearing himself....
"I think my definition of 'child' differs from yours. Unless all those chibi running about are thirty year old midgets in magical glamour." Prehnite couldn't imagine his organization using children. Teenagers maybe, but little children?
The Knight wasn't wrong, not completely. Though not all of them were so amoral and blood crazed. Even if it had been like that once, unorganized, hardly any qualifying officers of rank to guide or teach. The organization wasn't like it used to be, the rules of the game had changed as more players had been added.
"It is though!" Prehnite chuckled weakly, he couldn't help it, he knew his people were more organized. A children's game of connect four was more organized than their enemies were.
"You're right, some of us are paranoid, backstabbing, murderous, pit-vipers with powers. Tell me, honestly, is that not the most human thing you've ever heard of? The brightness of their moon obviously hasn't blinded you to the fact that the Earth is a horrible place; inhabited by seven billion horrible souls. Few of which deserve the very air they breath. Myself included..." Prehnite smirked, if humans were the cancer, they were the cure. The Earth didn't technically need that many people to survive as a planet.
"The difference between 'us' and the Senshi? Is that we're natural to the habitat..they're foreign bodies. It makes sense that we'd want them eradicated. Hell, it makes sense that we would want complete control over our own planet, doesn't it?" He understood that individuals within his organization had ideas about how they served; their purpose. He'd heard everything from 'saviors, to divine gods of death' all sprinkled with some flavor of blind devotion, himself included. He realized it all came down to personal interpretation..and Metallias will..As long as the latter was obeyed, the former didn't matter.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:56 pm
He paid no attention to the desperate attempt at making him stop cracking the whip. In fact, Celsus didn't even seem to have heard it at all, instead, just continuing to pace, his booted feet hitting the cold stone floor with soft thumps.
He couldn't even deny the accusation of children. Celsus had never believed that the chibi senshi should be a part of the senshi at all, a part of the war whatsoever. He remembered seeing a few of them before, on the Surrounding and elsewhere, remembered thinking they're too young, too inexperienced, too innocent to be involved in this war.
And there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing at all.
He could not even protest being told they were disorganized, either, not really. The White Moon was hardly better than the Negaverse in some regards, with the senshi running amok and the knights having no guidance as to what to do. Celsus could feel his blood running cold, his fingers shaking.
He lowered himself down to Prehnite's level, Celsus staring at him with eyes that did not quite seem focused.
"This isn't your planet," he said softly. "Not anymore. The sooner you accept that, the better it will be."
He closed his eyes briefly, his head spinning.
"For all of us."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 12:18 pm
"For none of us then..." Shaking his head and smiling faintly. The idea that Metallia would ever willingly let the earth go without a fight. That he would. No, either the earth belonged to them truly, or it belonged to no-one save the roaches and rats that would survive the aftermath of her wrath.
Prehnite could only stare back into the knights unfocused gaze with something like pity, and wonder what had driven him to this point. The man looked as though he had someone at his own back; holding the whip and demanding things of him..
The Knights had no Metallia however, no General Kings or Queens that Prehnite knew of. He could never understand what the driving force was behind most of their actions. Protecting the Earth for their own sake? Because they enjoyed the thrill of having something to fight for? Prehnite knew without Metallia, he would have been a right b*****d maybe, but he wouldn't have chosen this path. Her power granted so many opportunities, along with healthy fear of retribution in the case of failure..
It made it that much easier to carry out all of his darker fantasies, a twisted ideal of justice, that felt utterly wonderful on most nights. Except when it didn't; however brief those moments lasted.
"Forgive me if I refuse to agree with you, but I think I've been accepting enough. Especially of your presence. Feel free to ******** off, I've no more answers for you."kuropeco Ohmaigosh I'm so sorry I missed this! I swear Gaia looses quotes so often.
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:42 pm
He tried to remember what he was doing here; what he was fighting for, and yet nothing was coming to mind. Nothing - he had nothing at all left for him here. Everything that had once been good for him, good to him was now gone and lost into the depths of time.
Maybe in another life he would have been a better knight.
Maybe in another life he would have been a better person.
Celsus drew a hand down his face, his fingers pressing a little harder than necessary against his temple. The headache was growing, and yet he couldn't possibly negate what the agent was telling him, in spite of his attempts at getting information from him.
What better are you than them?
You're not, not really.
Celsus turned his head to look at the man on the floor, his eyes dark and haunted, his face gaunt.
"For the record," he said quietly. "I have no intention of killing you."
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:31 pm
It would be an utter lie of self to say that he did not fear death. It was a relief to hear the Knight admit he didn't intend to kill. It had Prehnite sighing.
Dying however, even at this mans hands, was not his biggest fear. A death by small increments, the slow knife of starvation or torture. A self ingrained fear of failure...
"There are worse things than a quick death. You understand that, right?"
Let me go!
He wanted to say, to beg, even thinking of it stung his pride.
'Let us all go, don't bring 'them' down upon your people!'
No, no, let them pay the price for this. They poked the bear, they could deal with it's bite..If anyone ever came for them..Even if all they found were corpses, there would be retribution; that was the only way this could end.
This particular b*****d hadn't actually hurt him though, not truly. Prehnite couldn't even say if he'd been one of the ones to actually capture him. It shouldn't have mattered, he was obviously a willing participant, someone who agreed with the idea.
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