Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters and their new friends
Location: ???
Date: Morning 354, Morning and Day 355
Summary: A quiet morning and a confusing morning, or maybe they're both, or maybe they're neither.
Warnings: gore, psychological horror, warn for specifics in the subject lines

Part Four OOC Post
Part Five OOC Post

Comments

[sharktrash]

[ Squalo should probably find it strange Enoch is putting himself in potential harm's way to protect someone else, but he doesn't. These guys were both on the same team, right? It made sense. Still, he only gives Enoch a glance, focusing on Rhys. It might look like he's just glaring, but he's really examining the other man. What was the extent of his injuries?.. ]

Yeah, see, that is possible. Likely, even. It's also possible you're shitting me. [ He sort of gestures at him, with his chin because his arms are pretty much tied at the moment. ] You look pretty fucked up. Maybe you've traded your allegiance to make it stop. It happens for less.

[warriorscribe]

Why do you think any of this was voluntary? I haven't heard a single account from one of you that paints our actions as anything but crazed. Does that sound like a decision anyone made in their right minds?

[Talking. Talking is good, if it helps keep Squalo from attacking Rhys.]

[sleight_of_fate]

[Rhys knows better than to jump in and dogpile. Squalo is unbalanced, uncertain, and while Rhys is more than happy to draw fire, to challenge the other man and get him away from Enoch, he is also cunning enough to know that when it comes to talking him down, it's better to let him process, let them take turns trying to get through to him.

So he backs off just a little, swiping at his weary face. When Squalo looks him over, he'll see a man of about 5'10" and in lean but solid shape, in spite of the weight he's lost recently. His left hand is completely bandaged, covering multiple broken fingers and hand bones, and he holds that arm to him as though he's suffered a recent and severe shoulder injury. Rhys's right eye is also completely covered in bandages, with severe scratches and bruises showing underneath the tape as though his eye had been clawed.]

[sharktrash]

[ A SHORTY, THEN. Squalo decides he could take him in a fight, but it seems the talking had just been bait. To what ends, he can't say - whatever mind games are being played here, he's certainly not onto any of them. ]

[ He gives Enoch a long look, and there's just a hint of a smile in the corner of his lips, a little unsettling considering the circumstances. ]

Why do you think I think it was voluntary?

[ Yeah. His fucked up -edness is way deeper than that. ]

[warriorscribe]

[....His head thunks against the barrier in frustration. Or doesn't thunk at all on empty air, to Squalo.]

Are you honestly saying you think that sort of thing is normal?

cw: Noisy Black

[sleight_of_fate]

{SHORTY? EXCUSE YOU. He's 5'11" in boots! Which he doesn't have right now. But he'll still fuck you up given the chance. He's mean for a runt.]

Trust us. There's no deals here. If there was, we'd have taken them the first time around, when they skinned us alive.

[He gestures to his brow, where a criss-cross of white thornlike scars are visible in a line around his hairline. Rhys's world, in its own way, is similar enough to Squalo's that he can follow the man's train of thought...no matter how fucked up it is.]

We're lab rats here. We don't have anything they want. So you wanna come over here and try and beat it out of me? Go for it, but you aren't gonna get anything we aren't already telling you.

[His tail lashes in quiet agitation.]

[sharktrash]

[ There's no thunk for Squalo, but the sentiment's still pretty clear from the way Enoch's head seems to hang. ]

[ He raises his eyebrows, skew smirk tugging at the left corner of his lips. ]

No. I'm saying you've been compromised, and I don't care about the sob stories and whys, but about eliminating the threat.

[ SO UH YEAH. is that really any better ]

[ --hOLY SHIT IS THAT A TAIL HE'S SEEING don't mind his eyes just sort of following the swashing ]

[warriorscribe]

[Enoch has to remind himself, very firmly, that Squalo is still relatively new. He has not seen. He doesn't really understand.]

We're all "compromised". As long as outside forces have access to drugs and machines that can alter our thoughts, as long as we're here in Norfinbury. If you truly care about eliminating the threat you should care about why, because if you think we're the core of the threat, or if killing us would solve it, you're mistaken. It's Miller, and anyone else who would abuse the power and means intended to keep us healthy.

[sharktrash]

Well, shit. Guess we're all gonna die then.

[ He levels him with a stare, contemplating, the amusement rather misplaced yet still there. ]

Hey, you could be onto something there. They can't keep bringing us back indefinitely. If I die and stay dead, I'm counting that as a win.

[sleight_of_fate]

[Yes, that is a tail.

And Rhys, for his part, is just tired and wants some fucking quiet. He didn't expect the "sob story" to get him any feels, but at least now Squalo knows what's going on.

Information, not sympathy. Rhys has dealt with guys like Squalo far too many times before. He knows exactly what he can accomplish here and what he can't.]

You should sit down, shut up, and save your energy for a real threat, then.

If we get a chance to move, we're gonna have to be ready for it.

[warriorscribe]

Agreed. We aren't dying so long as nobody makes wide-reaching and frankly idiotic decisions about others' lives.

[A hint for the increasingly obviously willful obliviousness.]

So save your strength for Miller, and escaping from this town alive. It isn't beyond us yet.

[sharktrash]

[ where does he get one of those also wHAT THE HECK ARE YOU MAN ]

Sounds like a plan.

[ Maybe blowing the whole town is the answer. Just how does one go about that? He would probably need at least one functioning arm for it, that would be fucking nice. But if he had that, he would no doubt be less inclined to mass suicide. ]

Great. You sit on your ass saving your mojo and wait for your big bad. I'm gonna stay in shape and try to do something fucking useful.

[ Aaand he's leaving. Time to get his favorite brainiac friend interested in that electronic door. ]

[sleight_of_fate]

[Shhh. Rhys is Norfinbury's sexiest devil, okay? And it's just a tail. Geez. So excitable, Squalo.]

Have fun storming the castle.

[Rhys can't resist that last stab. He's tired and in pain and bitchy as hell. His tail continues to lash back and forth like an angry cat's, but the rest of him backs down, away from the cell wall he can't get through.

Fight averted, that's good enough for now.]

You get these cell doors open, we'll be right there, dude. Trust me.