[24.00]
Erol paces, but he’s not just responding to the coiled, twisting energy inside him that demands open space and speed and violence. He’s thinking.
Often when Batou went out, Erol searched his cage from top to bottom. He’d been through it so many times there was hardly anything new, but this was the Hellboat after all. Never knew what might happen, what was possible. He might always notice or think of something new. And it beat doing the same thing he did for the hours and hours Batou was here; any break in routine was welcome.
A little while ago he’d found something that caused a break in his routine all right. And it was an asset he HAD to keep hidden, because if he used it the wrong way or made the slightest mistake, he’d lose it again and likely never have another such chance.
Though he did wonder whose eyeball it had been impaled on the tip of that kitchen knife.
Of course he dared not ask. He burned to know what was going on out there, cursed Batou for taking his comm., but damned if he could ask directly about the incident without arousing Batou’s suspicions, and there simply was not a hiding place in this cramped cell that he could keep from the cyborg if he decided to search. So he kept what knowledge he’d gleaned, all of it, solidly to himself. And the knife stayed inside the boxsprings of the mattress.
The biggest question was, how to use it. Erol was pretty certain he knew the best use, but... he didn’t much like it. There was always the chance Batou would catch him before he could bleed out, and then not only his weapon but his methodology would be discovered. He’d NEVER be left alone long enough to kill himself then. At best he could starve himself, and if Batou was clever - which he was - he could get around that too. Force-feeding was not something Erol looked forward to enduring.
Could hardly be worse than this boredom, mind you.
With a grimace, Erol stops and hangs on the bars for a minute, holding his stitched side. Healing was Mardamned slow without GE or even the priest. But the pain kept him occupied a bit, took the edge off the energy that drove him so mercilessly. He only paced in short bursts now, until he was too fatigued to stay upright and had to sleep for a few more hours, and he hadn’t thrown himself against the bars since Carnival. He would do so soon enough, though. It would probably open his stitches... he didn’t care.
Using the knife on himself was likely his best bet. It could hardly harm Batou, and was useless as a lever against the twisted rebar the cyborg used as a lock. But he didn’t much like the option. It reeked of self-pity and defeat, and Erol couldn’t be 100% certain he would come back. After all, the crew said that USUALLY people came back. Not always. Sometimes... sometimes not.
And to kill himself and then NOT come back? Mar, what people would think then. He didn’t really want to commit suicide, there were things he wanted to do, people to play with... so if he had any other option...
But few other options presented themselves and captivity was growing increasingly more intolerable. He’d be damned if Batou could go on thinking he was some sort of pet.
When he got out of here, he’d show that cyborg what happens when people try to domesticate dangerous wild animals.
Sooner or later, they get mauled.
Erol pushed away from the bars, closes his eyes in a wince he’d never show before another creature. He was exhausted and malnourished and in pain, but at least it quieted the searing whisper that made him itch beneath his skin and long for violence with an ache worse than any hunger pang. Quieted... just not sated.
Limping back to bed, he grit his teeth as his barely-knitting muscles complained against the movement of laying back down on the mattress. Before that bear got him in Carnival, he’d often merely curled up on the floor, disdaining the luxury of sheets and mattress. Now the idea sounded just too uncomfortable and he took what solace he could from them.
It must have been enough, because he slept heavily.
{ooc: Glaukir rangers - or whoever Batou would let in his room, idk - are welcome to respond in commentlog or formal log style! I'm just messing around.}