{ LAIR } The Dungeons (p. 20!)

[Saliru]

"I mean... why do you think they are letting us eat - letting us live?" Rin frowned a bit more grimly as she set the slice back down with the others, "You aren't eating? Why not?"

She scooted close to the bars facing Sasha and pressed right against the bars, "Do you really want to make the rest of us watch you die like that?"
 

[chiickadee]

Ami continued to munch of various foods in the basket, taking her sweet time with it as she rested her head against the bar. From here she could see Sasha across the way from her, next to Wash. They were holding hands, which ultimately just made Ami frown. At the same time, they were talking about something, but Ami couldn't hear it. She thought Sasha was crying though. Rin seemed to be on the other side as well, but the single candle in the center didn't provide enough light to confirm it.

To her right was Otto, and beyond that, the last cage was empty. Otto was eating the food just the same as her, albeit talking with Sasha about it. Slowly, she maneuvered the basket with her hand outside the bars, moving it until she could rest between the corner of her cell and Otto's.

She looked at the poor boy. He was so young to be mixed up in all of this. She thought back to her own teenage years. Had a hunter come then, she would've never left. Back then she was happy. Now though ...

"Hey, Otto," she said quietly, "It's not much, but I have some pens ..." She pulled said ballpoint pens- the two she always carried around for journaling- out of her pocket and said, "You're always drumming in the middle of the night for reasons I can't ******** understand..." Her voice dragged on, forgetting the purpose. "Might make you feel better now?"

Her eyes flicked over to Sasha, who announced she was going to starve herself. "It's not bad Sasha. If you don't want to, I won't make you, but ..." She bit her lip. She didn't want to imagine this as though they were really going to break free, but Ami figured Sasha needed something to cling to. So she lied through her teeth. "Jerry would want you to eat."

drifter jet enduro

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

"You heard what she said. 'All humans are cattle, and you are no exception.' - so there it is. I know that .. I know they'll try to come for us. I know Jerry will do his best. And probably.. probably others, too, but. You guys saw how strong she is. She turned us all into minipets after crippling us - we've been turned to stone - who knows what else she's capable of."

Sasha stared at Wash, exhausted. There were lingering vestiges of terror bright in her eyes, but she was all cried out.

"She called us guests. We're not guests. We're prisoners. I am choosing not to eat. It isn't about .. about making anyone do anything they don't want to do. I just need control over this.. just this one thing is mine."

She closed her eyes.

"Right now it's the only thing I have."  

[Bittiface]

chimarii

Otto peered to the side at Ami, who had sidled closer toward his cell from hers. Pens? He raised a brow high, eyeing the girl suspiciously. When she mentioned his drumming, he felt a tinge of pride at having kept her up. That was back when he still had a room beside hers. Back when he still had his drums. Dakota promised to help him buy a new set.. before all this happened. Maybe if he got out of this, that would be his prize?
He smirked to himself despite it all, though it faded just as quickly.

Otto looked down at the offered pens, "Not sure I'm feelin like irritating everyone with it.." He said, surprised at himself too. If it were real drums with real drum sticks, then yeah, he'd bother the Hell out of them all and not care. Because he knew he was good at them. But here? He didn't want to hear the clanging of stone and metal.

His attention turned to the discussion from Sasha and Rin, slowly working away at his apple all the while. A dark conversation. Otto returned to keeping quiet, not entirely comfortable arguing at all.  

[Saliru]

Rin nodded and frowned, "I wont be eating either then, if it comes to it. I refuse to be stuck watching you wither away for your control. I wouldn't be able to give you any peace anyway."
She forced a meek little smile, "I'd harass you incessantly for all my guilt of being sated."

She pushed herself up into sitting against the bars, "We may be cattle to them; but we've got ******** horns and know how to use um. Even if they... blunt... those horns."

She sighed a bit casting a glance across the room, "Please don't ******** start rapping on the bars. I'll hang myself with my scarf - I swear to god," she was relieved to hear he wasn't. A considerate neighbor? Well that is certainly new.
 

[chiickadee]

Ami nodded. "Like I said, if that's your choice I won't butt in." She knew all too well how much it sucked to have people telling you what to do. Even if it was for the best, when you didn't want to do things, you didn't want to do things.

She looked over at Otto and shrugged. They were here if he decided he wanted them.

When Rin tried to encourage them and rally their spirits, Ami just rolled her eyes and quietly muttered to herself, "Give it a rest."

Instead she went to pulling out her journal and writing in it. Mostly about the specs of the cage, things Junpei was telling her now. It was boring and plain, no feeling in it at all, but it would distract her from Rin's harping and Sasha's refusal.

< I think you should listen to her ... she's got a point. You need to keep your spirits up! >

Jumpy, we both know I'm not getting out of here.

< Junpei, > he corrected, as always, < Fins up, Ami! >

I'm not a fish, she sighed, scribbling something else in her book. And I said it before. I won't ignorantly cling to something that won't happen.  

[Ravvlet]

Wash simply watched the proceedings with a growing sense of concern. He shook his head sadly.

"Alright then. Well, at least you two should pack the food up somewhere. When they come for us, they're not gonna bring a buffet, y'know." He watched Sasha as she lie there, concern wrinkling his brow. It was clear she'd made up her mind, and as he broke bread, he said a little prayer in his head for his fellow hunters. Facing these trials was already difficult, he couldn't imagine what it would be like to do so on an empty stomach. He could only hope that she wasn't hungry now, and would reconsider later.

"You know," he remarked conversationally, taking a chunk out of his little loaf, "if that Medea woman is so powerful, why'd she wait and let all those kids get beat up in her stead? Why did she wait till we was all down to take us here? No, cornerin' a beat man in a cage is no feat."

"And," he added to no one in particular, "I don't know about you, but what I saw when I was asleep wasn't anythin' I hadn't seen before." He shook his head. "If this is a dream, well. We'll deal with it. But for now we gotta work with what we know, and what we know is we're in a hole and there's food, and there might not be any later."

More softly, he added, "Miss Sasha, if this is what it takes for you to get through this, you do what you gotta, alright? I won't pretend to understand it, but I'll respect it." He bit his lip, and left it at that.

Dear lord, please let them come soon.  

[Zoobey]

The door swung open with a rusty creak as two figures entered the room: the head priestess and an elderly, gnarled figure, gaunt rib-cage exposed even as layers and layers of dried bones hung from his shoulders.

He walked closer, the bones clacking with each step, taking a deep breath, smelling the air. "This is very good Medea, very good." His voice was laced thick with accent. "Now, show me more. Bleed them dry." An open smile, filled with yellowed, chipped teeth. A few insects scurried from his hair, occasionally falling onto the ground into the cage with the prisoners. He pulled out a single insect from his scalp. "But they must feel true pain. Mind games are not enough."

Medea simply nodded, bowed even in respect. "Of course, elder. I will do as you wish. She held out her hand, the squirming jet-black insect dropping from the elder's grasp onto her palm, where it curled up on all hundred legs, still.

The first cage opened. Otto's.

It was possibly surprising how strong the Head Priestess was as she grasped the trainee's arms tightly, forcing his back towards her at an almost uncomfortably close proximity. She rolled the given Famine insect onto her fingertips and held it out for the trainee to see. It shrieked and squirmed.

"Just a small moment of pain, I promise, please do not struggle, it makes this easier." Medea crooned, reeking thick of incense, sweet and heavy. It made anything she touched unable to resist, a mild paralytic as the victim's mind continued to race in slow realization. And then, Otto would feel something cold against the back of his neck, wriggling and scraping the surface.

A flash of pain, slow, horrific, as it buried into his skin, one slow step at a time, blood dribbling and spewing from the puncture wound. The parasite worked methodically, end lashing back and forth as it continued to eat, as it devoured skin and flesh and nerve hungrily, relentlessly. As Medea stepped back, Otto lost all physical control, twitching and drooling on the ground.

And the screaming. It never stopped. It didn't stop until The Head Priestess put a hand over his glassy agony-filled eyes and whispered a few soft words. His body fell limp.

"A deep sleep, not yet deserving of death." Medea took a second to wipe the small blood splatters off her arms with the tips of her cloak. A moment later, she took a second insect from the Famine elder. "Are there any noble soldiers willing to go next? The less you struggle, the less it truly hurts."

Drifter Jet Enduro

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pinchmonster

Ravvlet

Byrr

chimarii

 

[chiickadee]

Ami flinched back instinctively from the horsemen as they entered, but it was weak. Had there been an attack, she wouldn't have dodged by a longshot.

Ami was , wary, perhaps even terrified, as the two ... women? (or was one a man? Ami honestly couldn't tell with the anatomy of horsemen. They were too monstrous) walked over to Otto's cage. Something about the entire situation reflected their hopelessness. None of them could do a thing to help Otto, in the same way none of the hunters back on Deus couldn't do a thing to help the captured trainees. So it began.

She'd never been very good with blood and guts. She could stomach medical shows, but actual cadavers and body parts sort of made her squirm. Watching it live though ... it was surreal. Her mind couldn't connect with her body that this was really happening. For whatever reason, Ami couldn't take her eyes off him. Perhaps it was simply from fear that the bug might somehow crawl its way over to her cage and do the same. It was selfish really. Conceited even, how Ami thought of her own well-being above the boy's.

Ami stayed quiet, unmoved in her cell. She was mere feet from Otto's ... "sleeping" body. She didn't know how to react. Her legs were telling her run, but her mind was responding "Where to? There's nowhere to run."

When Medea asked for volunteers, Ami continued to be silent. She wasn't a hero, she wouldn't take that bullet. Ami ... of all things she treasured, certainly her life was the top priority. She wouldn't die for other people, not even Wilson or Marcus, Madeline, Sasha. Somewhere in the haze of her mind, she knew that they were all going to die eventually, but Ami wouldn't do it willingly. She'd been through too much to simply throw it all away now. So she stayed quiet. She wouldn't do it.  

[Bittiface]

Otto had been okay for a while. He was eating, it wasn't pitch black anymore, and while the company was divided, it was company none the less. So when two figures came in, his small moment of comfortable solace was gone. The little hairs on his arms stood on end. He slowly put down the now finished apple into the basket and backed away a bit.

That exchange between them. It didn't sound good. That old man scared the s**t out of him, the way he looked and sounded. And especially what he said.

His heart nearly gave out as Medea approached his cage. He was frozen in place, not even able to take a step back or squirm. Her veil of power radiated around her and rendered him powerless. He offered a small amount of resistance as she pulled him toward her, his back to her, not able to see the others, her or the creepy old skeleton of a man.
His eyes grew wider as she showed off the bug in her hand, his heart beating faster and erratic in his chest. The sounds it made hurt his ears. Medea's words offered no solace at all. Something bad was going to happen to him. Bad and painful.

He couldn't struggle even if he wanted to, as the bug was taken out of his sight. Suddenly, he felt something cold on the back of his neck, his breath hitched suddenly. He felt scratching. Something digging. Something burrowing. He realized slowly, as time started to faze in and out, that it must be that bug.

His mind panicked. Sounds of discomfort and fear echo'd off the walls, and soon grew into terrified screams. He couldn't even try to be brave. Raw terror took hold as all control was taken and lost. He could feel it. he could feel it dig deeper and eat away at him. His vision started warping into visions of a terrible red and black kaleidoscope. Pain paralyzed him. Soon his mind was reduced to fragments of what he once was.
His body fell unceremoniously to the ground, twitching and writhing.

His own screams were alien to him now. His self awareness degraded and crumbled. Eventually, after what seemed like eternity, a blurry hand swept over his eyes. He went limp. Silent. Not a breath nor tear dared move now.  

[bipolar bee]

Sasha had known, deep down inside, that when Medea came back into the room it would not be to check on the well-being of her 'guests'. It would not be to make certain they were full and content.

And so, when the horsewoman reentered the room, Sasha forced herself into a seated position. She watched, helpless, as Otto was decommissioned, left writhing in a heap on the floor. Sasha clapped her hands over her mouth, biting back the horrified scream that ached to be set free. Tears rolled silently down her cheeks as she stared at Otto's body, motionless on the ground.

There was nothing noble about Sasha's reasons for wanting to go next. It wasn't because she hoped to save those who would undoubtedly come after here. It wasn't because that if she stalled long enough - maybe, just maybe - it would give the others a chance to make good on rescue attempts. It wasn't because she was thinking with a pure heart and all of the best intentions.

It was because Sasha did not want to watch as the rest of her friends fell to the ground before her, drooling and still, just as Otto had. It was purely selfish, her reasons for wanting to be the next in line. There was no way that she could watch Wash fall, and Rin, and Ami. Sasha knew that she wouldn't be able to handle it. It would undoubtedly break her, splintering the thin veneer of calm she'd pushed to the surface. That icy-thin facade was already cracking and spreading as horror-widened eyes locked on Otto's now-still form.

Her breath was coming fast, panic settling in her chest like cold lead.

"Me. Please, please. I'm begging you. I volunteer to be next."

Her voice held the breathy tinge of hysterics. She forced herself to her knees, struggling forward until she could clutch the damp metal bars of of her enclosure.

"Please."  

[Ravvlet]

Wash was interrupted from his musings as the head priestess returned, this time with a cohort. He listened to her words, quizzical frown slowly being replaced by a look of abject horror. He had expected things would only get worse. They were captors, for all that she had said about them being guests. But- God. Sweet lord, not the bugs.

Julie.

He was blind a second, his mind's eye taken to another place not so long ago. The hiss of the insects. The white shine of bone. A limp body, dangling like some sick puppet. Open, glassy eyes. So much blood, in startling contrast to a bright, cheery print of rainbows. He remembered then, that moment where he and the other hunters had united under a banner of horror.

A banner of fear. Laced in the ear piercing screams, he could hear his own prayer thrown back at him.

God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust.

Is this what God had intended for him, really? He prayed it wasn't so.

As Otto's cries were finally silenced, he took in a deep, shuddering breath. Wash couldn't shake the afterimage of Julie, standing there, her body a ruin. Of Sasha. Of Rin, of Ami. No, he couldn't let this happen to them. He let his hands fall into his lap, closing his eyes, drawing in his strength. He forced himself to look, to see Otto lying there in his cell. Would the bugs hollow them out? Would it snap their spines, dig through their throats? And even if she did intend to get to them all, eventually, could he sit here and watch? Would it be crueler to go first, or last?

He didn't know anymore. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised. Somehow, the man didn't have it in him to praise anything. But as Sasha made her plea, his eyes widened in horror. God, Sasha. Why did this little slip of a girl have to be here- why did any of them? They'd all done their jobs. They'd been good little hunters- assets to the cause. It was he that had questioned, doubted. He who had nearly betrayed them.

"Is this what you really want?" He asked her. His eyes were wide with unshed tears, and he did the only think he could think to do - he reached through the bars, and held out his hand.  

[bipolar bee]

Trembling, filled with a fear that no human should ever have to experience, Sasha turned pale, wet eyes towards Wash. That gentle hand, reaching out for her - those dark brown eyes swimming with tears too stubborn to fall. Forcing cold, stiff fingers to release the metal bar she desperately clutched, Sasha reached out for Wash's hand.

"I.. I can't..."

She hoped he understood. She couldn't form the words, couldn't explain her reasoning.

"Please."  

[Ravvlet]

Wash didn't say anything, keeping his eyes wide, willing the tears not to fall. He simply nodded, squeezing her hand. Waiting.

He hoped he could be brave for her.  

[Saliru]

Rin shuddered out of her calm as soon as the horsemen entered again. She moved towards the front of her cage and grabbed the bars to glare defiantly at their captors. She snarled, trying to look intimidating, feral, diseased possibly. They weren't here for her, not yet anyway.

She watched with a morbid curiosity and as soon as it clicked in what they were doing. She crawled speedily to the back of her cage and pressed her body tight into a corner. His screams rung out and she pressed even more firmly against the corner and began trembling rather violently. She pressed the palms of her hands against her ears and frowned deeply, "Nonononono."

He was silent now... her hands lowered to allow sound back in. They wanted volunteers? Not a chance in - Sasha? Her head swiveled around to stare over at them. She didn't understand. Why?

She had less control then Wash had and soon tears were trickling down her face. WHY?

This had to be a dream. A nightmare. Sasha was right all along, again. She sneered at the food. They just wanted them to live longer... just to be unliving. Otto's fate seemed far worse than death. She didn't want to see the same happen to Sasha and then the others - what was the point? She re-tied her scarf and tightened it around her throat. Bit by bit until she could barely breathe. She didn't want to die but she was ready to make what may come next that much more bearable.