R79: Sky, R19: Poison
Title: Sky (Full of Ideas)
Chars: Cyrus, Giovanni, Two Unnamed Grunts
POV: Giovanni
Notes: It continues....
The possibilities spread out over him, stretching infinitely around like clouds. Slowly, he dismissed some as impractical, risky, or stupid. There still remained many possibilities to get out of the Galactic base. Mentally, he bought a thought to one of the choices and nodded to himself.
He stared at the cabinet for a while and measured it up in his head. It was a standard one, with each cubic inch weighing about six grams. Allowing a large margin of error for whatever might be inside, Giovanni estimated the total weight to be about two hundred and eighty pounds, give or take. How much force and at what angle? He quickly summed up the vectors inside his head, hoping that Cyrus had not somehow changed the gravitational constant to something other than 9.8. He chuckled inside his head and proceeded to rip off the cord binding the cabinet to the wall.
He pressed two hands against the side of the cabinet, gauging its weight. Even without the white safety cord, it was too heavy for the average person to topple, even with a healthy knowledge of physics. Giovanni considered this for a moment, and then shrugged. Let average people be average. He peered over to glance at the digital clock on wall. Apparently it worried him, for he quickly turned around again and began hurriedly pushing the cabinet. The muscles of his arms and chest swelled and bulged against the synthetic shirt. He glanced quickly at the clock again as a sheen of sweat broke out on the back of his neck. And slowly, the large cabinet creaked painfully, then toppled over.
The crash was loud enough to echo around the rooms and through the door to the hallway outside. Immediately, a high peeping started popping out from detectors in the walls. Giovanni smiled, satisfied, then went over to the opposite corner of the room and sat down.
He watched the door slide open with a ping. Two grunts with identical haircuts rushed in and looked around. He cleared his throat and stood up as if to welcome them to the room.
They were both awkward. They were young and weren’t quite sure of their place on the world, their body language said. The way the boy of the duo curled and uncurled his hands, he probably was uneasy to be investigating a high-security housing cell without a superior. They both entered reluctantly. He could see it from the flickering of their eyes and the way they leaned towards each other that overall, they just wanted to be told what to do. They wanted protection. Security. They were practically just children. And he knew exactly how to play them.
“It seems the heavy cabinet over there has just fallen over,” he said kindly as the two young workers jumped at his voice. He held out his hands in a gesture of peace and strode over to them. Giovanni carefully looked down on them. They wore different clothes and had different hair, but all over, all grunts were members the same specie. He slowly wrapped them around with his gaze until he had control. “It was probably a freak accident. It is a rather heavy piece of furniture, no?”
The grunts looked at each other. Giovanni strode towards them. It was exhilarating, the power over people. Carefully, he exerted force through his stature, his face.
“Come now.” He extended a steady hand and smiled as he approached.
Like children, the two looked at each other and then at him. They didn’t speak but seemed to be conferring. Giovanni thought they were rather cute, like little lambs. Their eyes widened, and they looked back from each other to him. He held out his hand encouragingly. The girl tugged on her partner’s hand, and shyly they took a few steps forward.
“You are good people, you know,” he said, his voice soft and warm. “You just need someone to watch over you, don’t you?”
He could just see them prick their ears like little foals. The two came up until they were less than a foot away. The girl reached up and touched his hand gently, and her partner followed suite. Giovanni lifted his hand and petted the girl on top of her head. Her hair felt slippery under his hand, and he impulsively wondered why everyone had the exact same haircut and hair color. He had always thought that uniforms were enough. She trotted closer and pushed her head against his hand, looking up trustingly.
Some people had described the sensation of him overpowering them as hypnotic. He took various approaches as different situations demanded, but always, he showed others what they wanted to see- a ruthless leader, a fellow businessman, and now, a gentle protector-figure. One thing they all claimed was certainty, the certainty that what they were seeking had finally arrived.
The boy hung back a moment, looking conflicted, but followed his partner up to Giovanni, as if curious. Giovanni stroked the boy’s sleek hair with his other hand. They were rather sweet, if he thought about it.
Slowly, he scratched the undersides of their chins. The duo hopped closer, looking blissfully secure.
And under the guise of stroking their cheeks, he quickly pinched a few pressure points and caught them as they fell down, eyes closed.
Giovanni knew he didn’t have much time. He lifted their coats and scrounged around in their pockets until his fingers grasped around a thin piece of plastic- a keycard! His heart quickened with exuberance. Finally no more being powerless. Finally no more being helpless. Giovanni slipped the keycard into his pocket.
There was no time for celebrating. He dragged the boy over to the wall, positioned the girl in his arms as if she had fainted there.
A minute trudged by in cold sweat as he waited for someone to come ramming the door down. Finally, the two began stirring.
“Boy! I said, get your doctors or whatever!” Giovanni shouted, artfully arranging his features into a perfect expression of anger. “Can’t you see she just fainted?”
As expected, the boy grunt snapped to attention, then saw his partner’s stirring form. “Wha-“
“Don’t ask me what happened. She fainted all of a sudden, and then you were ignoring me for the last few seconds! Are you mad?”
The grunt clapped his hands over his mouth and nodded furiously. He disappeared out the door. Giovanni heard the pinging of buttons outside.
There was an unwelcome visitor with the medical squad.
“Mister Giovanni.”
“Mister Cyrus.” Giovanni nodded curtly in greeting. “The girl over there has just fainted when she came in to examine a cabinet that collapsed.”
“I heard, I heard.” Cyrus nodded and turned to the squad. “Take her to the informatory.”
They all exited, leaving the two bosses face-to-face.
“How pretty,” Cyrus commented, reaching up to touch Giovanni’s face. “You are pretty. But beauty is like an emotion. It is only a fleeting illusion that passes with death. What can stand against time?”
Giovanni remained silent as Cyrus continued stroking his face, running his long fingers in a circle on Giovanni’s cheek. He felt just a little bit violated.
“I hope that you are not under the impression I bought you here out of love.”
“Thank God.”
At that statement, Cyrus’s eyelid twitched. “That is a human and scientifically-unsound paradoxical statement… Are you thanking God? If you believed in a God, then you would not be using that phrase so casually or ironically, yet if you didn’t believe in a God, then you would not be thanking God in the first place. Of course the idea of a masculine or even a spiritual deity if any sort is catering to human whim and weakness, the basest emotions and…”
The card burned in Giovanni’s pocket as Cyrus continued speaking.
“…And so whether or not you believe in a God is irrelevant.”
Giovanni got the distinct impression that Cyrus didn’t actually care whether he was listening or not. It seemed that he just talked whenever he felt like it to get the idea into words. “Interesting.”
“But what was I saying? Ah. I did not bring you here because I felt any sort of ‘love’ or foolish human illusions. I have no ‘love’ for you. Do you understand me?”
“I hold no attraction to you either.”
“I never said I wasn’t strongly attracted to you.”
Giovanni slowly said nothing.
“It was power. You, Mister Giovanni, are power itself. And now I own you. I am taking your power and making it my own.” Cyrus slowly touched Giovanni’s hairline. “Everything will become mine.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Everything. Do you understand what I mean? You are not a spiritual man, are you?”
“I am Catholic.”
“What you write on a census card is not necessarily what you write for yourself. I have studied religions before. If you are a Catholic, you are frankly the worst Catholic I have ever seen.”
“But I am still a Catholic, no?” Giovanni was vaguely amused- no one had ever ventured to ask about his religion before. He was tempted to ask Cyrus what religion he was, but decided that he would probably regret doing so.
“Mr. Giovanni. Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“No.”
Cyrus smiled indulgently. “Wouldn’t you say that faith is a major component of that religion?”
Giovanni maintained a stony face. “My personal beliefs are irrelevant. Where I come from, everyone is Catholic. The people I identify with are all Catholic like me.”
“Which is not very Catholic.” Cyrus slowly smiled again. “And your wife. What does she believe in?”
Giovanni’s temper flared. “She is not my wife.”
“What does she believe in?”
“Whatever is in front of her.”
To his surprise, Cyrus smiled in glee. “Do you see? Your wife is a model believer. No pretending holiness or trying to see things as they are not. She believes like I do. Do you want to know what I believe in?”
Sweet Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I do not want to know! “Actually, I-“
“I believe in power. Existence is the greatest of all power. The ability to recreate and control existence- that must be the sign of a true god. Things that do not exist must not be allowed to have any power whatsoever- that is an unnatural corruption of the natural order of the universe.”
Giovanni barely listened as the clock ticked by for ten minutes.
“-And that is a true god,” Cyrus concluded.
“That is interesting to know,” he replied blandly.
“It will become true. I will become true. What does your son believe?”
Giovanni’s temper flared. “How dare you bring my son into this-“
“Nevermind. I see I have struck a point with you.” Cyrus laughed coldly and turned around. “I will return for you this evening.”
Giovanni shuddered to think of it- he still had trouble sitting down since Cyrus’s last visit. “I appreciate it.”
Cyrus nodded. “One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“The keycard you took from the girl. I suppose you were planning an escape of some sort? Here, give it back please.”
Madone de mia, Iarrusu, la vostra butana madre era a gavone- “Here.” Giovanni reluctantly handed the plastic card over. “You had me there.”
Cyrus nodded coolly and took the card. “Not very clever, Mr. Giovanni. Not what I would expected.”
“I see.”
“But do you know what? It does not matter. As long as I have your son in my sights, you will not do anything. Your hands are tied, Mr. Giovanni.”
And Cyrus was right. Slowly, the clouds of ideas to escape and choices floating above Giovanni dissipated, evaporating like empty fancies.
“I will see you tonight.”
“I see.”
Cyrus turned around and walked away.
Giovanni watched him go. As soon as he was out of sight, Giovanni hide a smile and slipped his hand into his pocket, where the boy’s keycard lay waiting.
.
Title: P-O-I-S-O-N
Characters: Giovanni, Saturn
POV : Giovanni
Notes: Another part!
A six-letter word describing something initially willingly taken in but in reality detrimental to one’s health.
Illness? You didn’t “take in” illness. Plus it had seven letters. Giovanni sighed and continued staring at the crossword. All the other eighty-one questions had been completed. Only number nineteen remained. A six-letter word describing something initially willingly taken in but in reality detrimental to one’s health that had “o” as the second letter.
A sudden beeping from the door distracted him from his six-letter predicament. Giovanni stood up and watched as the door slid open, carefully watching the mechanisms. So far, from the placement of the various instruments on it, he had figured that it had locked from the outside but could be opened from the inside, provided that the outside was unlocked. Unfortunately a retina scan was required either way, locked or unlocked. He had the keycard but not the necessary eyeball. The door could also be propped open and hidden, he recalled from his first meeting with Cyrus.
Nothing mattered, of course. The snipers were known for their accuracy. A poor little boy- He would not stand a chance.
Damn that man. That sick maniac. He would not give that psycho the satisfaction of acknowledgement. Giovanni sat back down and continued thinking of six-letter words. Hmm. Liquor? Whisky? Certainly “laxatives” had too many letters. Perhaps it wasn’t referring to drink-
The door opened, and it wasn’t his captor that entered. Giovanni recognized the boy that walked in from their earlier meetings- the Commander, the blue-haired one named Saturn. He watched the child from the corner of his eye- the boy seemed rather flushed and walked erratically, as if barely containing some furious excitement.
“Mr. Team Rocket,” Saturn addressed him.
Giovanni pretended to give the crossword one last thought before turning at his leisure to face the boy. “Hmm?”
“I- I suppose that you- are finding- your quarters to your liking?”
“Other than being imprisoned, they are adequate. If you have come here to inquire about my living standards, I would prefer the video camera removed from the shower, thank you,” he said frostily. Small talk. Small talk.
“That can’t be done.” The boy wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead and continued staring at Giovanni.
It was an unnerving stare, sort of a ravenous and predatory look. Giovanni found himself wanting to circle back around the table and away from the boy.
“If you are here on Cyrus’s orders, I thank him for the crossword puzzle. It was kind of him to supply me with- entertainment. Very thoughtful.” Giovanni carefully kept any gratitude he might have felt out of his voice.
“I-I’m not.” Saturn took a lunging step forward, cross the final yards between them.
“I see. You are not here to ask me to help you with you homework, are you?”
“Take off your pants.”
“Excuse me?”
Saturn stumbled closer. “Do it!”
Giovanni loomed over the boy and stared down with a vaguely amused look. “Your leader will not like it.”
“As long as I do not own you he doesn’t mind! Take them off!” Saturn moaned.
“Own me? Do you really think anyone or anything can own me? Besides, go find a pretty girl. You were probably given a chance with my Management Executive during her stay here.” Giovanni turned around and sat back down. “Why do you want me to take off my pants anyways?”
“Because you make me horny!”
There were very few things in the world that could surprise a man who had seen everything. Giovanni spun around. “Excuse me?”
“You make me horny. Every time I see you I get so hard I can’t undo my pants.”
Giovanni stared at Saturn, his eyelids hitched up in sheer shock. “Ah- well, you are certainly forthright with your words, child…”
“I can’t help it! Take off your pants already!”
Anyone unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on personal taste) enough to be looking down on the scene would have seen Giovanni slowly stare at Saturn. That someone would have probably sworn that mental gears and factories suddenly jumped into order. That somewhere behind his clouded face something was taking shape. His teeth gritted with the indomitable determination of a man who had to do something akin to reaching up to the elbow up a cow’s backside in order to fight free.
“Very well.” Giovanni slowly unbuckled the Galactic belt.
“Sit down!” Saturn himself dragged another chair in front of Giovanni and straddled it, gripping the back and whimpering. “Get on with it!”
He slipped his underwear to his hips and sat down, giving Saturn a full view of everything. “There. Are you content, boy?”
“Nnrg!” Saturn arched his back in the chair. “More- Arg! Touch yourself!”
Giovanni exhaled and closed his eyes. He weighed how much he wanted to be imprisoned by a madman with a strange fetish against how much he wanted to just run away screaming and figured that out of all the things he could afford to show, his disgust wasn’t the only thing.
Still, he stared down. The thing stared back up. He had always thought of it as ungainly and lumpy and rather ugly, although very useful for certain things. And he certainly did not touch it more than necessary to relieve himself or clean it daily. And he certainly did not want to touch it now.
“Perhaps you could flay me alive instead?”
“Urk- just- just touch yourself!” Saturn panted aloud, bucking and grinding against his chair.
Giovanni carefully looked away ran a clumsy finger down its length. The skin felt rough and cool under his fingertip. He heard the younger boy whimper and grind against the chair. “Is that enough?”
“No! Keep on touching it! Until- Until you’re as hard as me- urk!”
He ran a finger along it again, tracing back and forth, slowly stroking it along its length. “Child, you do know I’m an old man now.”
“I don’t care-“
Giovanni sighed and pressed his fingers down harder. “I don’t quite…”
“I’ll do it!” Saturn shot forward and knelt, seizing the shaft in his hands.
Giovanni snapped his eyes shut and leaned backwards, trying to imagine that he was anywhere, anywhere else, as Saturn clenched his teeth and went even faster. He felt the constant barrage of stimulation, and reluctantly, Giovanni felt himself rise up just barely a third of the way before stopping.
“I knew-“ Saturn howled and grabbed more flesh. When this did not cause anything more, the boy slowly moaned again. “Why aren’t you-“
“I am an old man,” he snorted.
Saturn writhed and began grabbing at his pants. He wrestled with the tie until it came off and dropped the pants to the ground.
Giovanni flinched in sympathy. The boy was as stiff as an icicle. Saturn squealed and dropped on all fours, rubbing the tip on the carpet.
“That is unsanitary!” Giovanni found himself scolding. “Really, I do not know who taught you proper hygiene.” He began to zip up his pants, but Saturn pushed his hands aside and greedily pressed his little lips against the shaft, flicking his tongue around.
That was too much.
With a snarl of disgust, Giovanni stood up and shoved the boy’s head away. “You- you-“ he exclaimed, shuddering with fury.
The boy let out a whimper. “When my boss did it, I swallowed everything, every bit of it-“
“Vatenni!” Giovanni snarled.
Saturn didn’t understand Sicilian, but the tone was clear enough. The boy pulled up his pants and trotted out of the room.
“This place is filled with nutcases!” Giovanni yelled after him as the door closed. “What is wrong with all you people? Is there something in the water here?”
Suddenly, he thought of something. He made his way back to the unfinished crossword and filled in number nineteen. The word matched perfectly.
“Finally that creepy little bugger’s gone.”
Giovanni jumped, knocking his knees against the table. He knew that voice. He knew that voice. But it couldn’t be-
“Pearl?”
“Shh! You, shush.” Her voice seemed to be vibrating from the toilet in the bathroom. As if to answer his question, she added, “Aren’t you lucky? Your room has a branch of the sewer system all to itself.” Her tone turned serious. “You know the drill, Boss. Metà del gatto.”
“Executive, head away from here. I am not leaving.”
The toilet was silent. Then, it let out a squawk. “Come on! Get serious!”
“The man in charge. He has my son- our son- as a hostage-“
“Idiot!” The toilet shuddered, and Giovanni looked around to see if anyone was running in to check on the disturbance. “Idiot! Stupid fucking idiot! Ass-head!”
“Hush!”
“I thought you knew! Team Weirdo doesn’t have your son- they just have some random kiddy agent named Mondo under their scopes!”
Giovanni froze. His stomach slowly frosted over. “…What?”
“I told you! For God’s sakes! How the hell would they know who your son is anyways? I thought you would know right away! I’m telling you Boss, you’ve been blinded. It’s so bloody obvious but you weren’t even dare doubt it. Geez! That Cyrus fellow, he even said to someone that it was that Mondo kid, not your son!”
The logic clicked. Giovanni groaned and slammed his head against the toilet seat. “I have… I have been the biggest, most idiotic fool in the history of history-“
“Uh-oh, I have to go. But you know what to do.”
“I do.”
The toilet stopped vibrating.
Giovanni stood up slowly.
He could kill himself for falling for the trap. He was a fool. The moment they even hinted a threat to his lost son, he ran headlong into the trap- how was it possible?
Enough weakness. Half a cat- two days. Giovanni nodded to himself and started another crossword, fool-proofing his plan.
----------------------------
Okay! I got a question about the whole thing when she's talking through the toilet. To clarify:
No, she is not in the toilet. She is in a storage tank and is talking through the pipes- trying talking like that. The pipes carry sound real swell.
Here is a diagram:
Thankfully, the other room is unoccupied.
Now, how the heck did she (6'6", 250+lbs) got into that tank in the first?
.
Chars: Cyrus, Giovanni, Two Unnamed Grunts
POV: Giovanni
Notes: It continues....
The possibilities spread out over him, stretching infinitely around like clouds. Slowly, he dismissed some as impractical, risky, or stupid. There still remained many possibilities to get out of the Galactic base. Mentally, he bought a thought to one of the choices and nodded to himself.
He stared at the cabinet for a while and measured it up in his head. It was a standard one, with each cubic inch weighing about six grams. Allowing a large margin of error for whatever might be inside, Giovanni estimated the total weight to be about two hundred and eighty pounds, give or take. How much force and at what angle? He quickly summed up the vectors inside his head, hoping that Cyrus had not somehow changed the gravitational constant to something other than 9.8. He chuckled inside his head and proceeded to rip off the cord binding the cabinet to the wall.
He pressed two hands against the side of the cabinet, gauging its weight. Even without the white safety cord, it was too heavy for the average person to topple, even with a healthy knowledge of physics. Giovanni considered this for a moment, and then shrugged. Let average people be average. He peered over to glance at the digital clock on wall. Apparently it worried him, for he quickly turned around again and began hurriedly pushing the cabinet. The muscles of his arms and chest swelled and bulged against the synthetic shirt. He glanced quickly at the clock again as a sheen of sweat broke out on the back of his neck. And slowly, the large cabinet creaked painfully, then toppled over.
The crash was loud enough to echo around the rooms and through the door to the hallway outside. Immediately, a high peeping started popping out from detectors in the walls. Giovanni smiled, satisfied, then went over to the opposite corner of the room and sat down.
He watched the door slide open with a ping. Two grunts with identical haircuts rushed in and looked around. He cleared his throat and stood up as if to welcome them to the room.
They were both awkward. They were young and weren’t quite sure of their place on the world, their body language said. The way the boy of the duo curled and uncurled his hands, he probably was uneasy to be investigating a high-security housing cell without a superior. They both entered reluctantly. He could see it from the flickering of their eyes and the way they leaned towards each other that overall, they just wanted to be told what to do. They wanted protection. Security. They were practically just children. And he knew exactly how to play them.
“It seems the heavy cabinet over there has just fallen over,” he said kindly as the two young workers jumped at his voice. He held out his hands in a gesture of peace and strode over to them. Giovanni carefully looked down on them. They wore different clothes and had different hair, but all over, all grunts were members the same specie. He slowly wrapped them around with his gaze until he had control. “It was probably a freak accident. It is a rather heavy piece of furniture, no?”
The grunts looked at each other. Giovanni strode towards them. It was exhilarating, the power over people. Carefully, he exerted force through his stature, his face.
“Come now.” He extended a steady hand and smiled as he approached.
Like children, the two looked at each other and then at him. They didn’t speak but seemed to be conferring. Giovanni thought they were rather cute, like little lambs. Their eyes widened, and they looked back from each other to him. He held out his hand encouragingly. The girl tugged on her partner’s hand, and shyly they took a few steps forward.
“You are good people, you know,” he said, his voice soft and warm. “You just need someone to watch over you, don’t you?”
He could just see them prick their ears like little foals. The two came up until they were less than a foot away. The girl reached up and touched his hand gently, and her partner followed suite. Giovanni lifted his hand and petted the girl on top of her head. Her hair felt slippery under his hand, and he impulsively wondered why everyone had the exact same haircut and hair color. He had always thought that uniforms were enough. She trotted closer and pushed her head against his hand, looking up trustingly.
Some people had described the sensation of him overpowering them as hypnotic. He took various approaches as different situations demanded, but always, he showed others what they wanted to see- a ruthless leader, a fellow businessman, and now, a gentle protector-figure. One thing they all claimed was certainty, the certainty that what they were seeking had finally arrived.
The boy hung back a moment, looking conflicted, but followed his partner up to Giovanni, as if curious. Giovanni stroked the boy’s sleek hair with his other hand. They were rather sweet, if he thought about it.
Slowly, he scratched the undersides of their chins. The duo hopped closer, looking blissfully secure.
And under the guise of stroking their cheeks, he quickly pinched a few pressure points and caught them as they fell down, eyes closed.
Giovanni knew he didn’t have much time. He lifted their coats and scrounged around in their pockets until his fingers grasped around a thin piece of plastic- a keycard! His heart quickened with exuberance. Finally no more being powerless. Finally no more being helpless. Giovanni slipped the keycard into his pocket.
There was no time for celebrating. He dragged the boy over to the wall, positioned the girl in his arms as if she had fainted there.
A minute trudged by in cold sweat as he waited for someone to come ramming the door down. Finally, the two began stirring.
“Boy! I said, get your doctors or whatever!” Giovanni shouted, artfully arranging his features into a perfect expression of anger. “Can’t you see she just fainted?”
As expected, the boy grunt snapped to attention, then saw his partner’s stirring form. “Wha-“
“Don’t ask me what happened. She fainted all of a sudden, and then you were ignoring me for the last few seconds! Are you mad?”
The grunt clapped his hands over his mouth and nodded furiously. He disappeared out the door. Giovanni heard the pinging of buttons outside.
There was an unwelcome visitor with the medical squad.
“Mister Giovanni.”
“Mister Cyrus.” Giovanni nodded curtly in greeting. “The girl over there has just fainted when she came in to examine a cabinet that collapsed.”
“I heard, I heard.” Cyrus nodded and turned to the squad. “Take her to the informatory.”
They all exited, leaving the two bosses face-to-face.
“How pretty,” Cyrus commented, reaching up to touch Giovanni’s face. “You are pretty. But beauty is like an emotion. It is only a fleeting illusion that passes with death. What can stand against time?”
Giovanni remained silent as Cyrus continued stroking his face, running his long fingers in a circle on Giovanni’s cheek. He felt just a little bit violated.
“I hope that you are not under the impression I bought you here out of love.”
“Thank God.”
At that statement, Cyrus’s eyelid twitched. “That is a human and scientifically-unsound paradoxical statement… Are you thanking God? If you believed in a God, then you would not be using that phrase so casually or ironically, yet if you didn’t believe in a God, then you would not be thanking God in the first place. Of course the idea of a masculine or even a spiritual deity if any sort is catering to human whim and weakness, the basest emotions and…”
The card burned in Giovanni’s pocket as Cyrus continued speaking.
“…And so whether or not you believe in a God is irrelevant.”
Giovanni got the distinct impression that Cyrus didn’t actually care whether he was listening or not. It seemed that he just talked whenever he felt like it to get the idea into words. “Interesting.”
“But what was I saying? Ah. I did not bring you here because I felt any sort of ‘love’ or foolish human illusions. I have no ‘love’ for you. Do you understand me?”
“I hold no attraction to you either.”
“I never said I wasn’t strongly attracted to you.”
Giovanni slowly said nothing.
“It was power. You, Mister Giovanni, are power itself. And now I own you. I am taking your power and making it my own.” Cyrus slowly touched Giovanni’s hairline. “Everything will become mine.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Everything. Do you understand what I mean? You are not a spiritual man, are you?”
“I am Catholic.”
“What you write on a census card is not necessarily what you write for yourself. I have studied religions before. If you are a Catholic, you are frankly the worst Catholic I have ever seen.”
“But I am still a Catholic, no?” Giovanni was vaguely amused- no one had ever ventured to ask about his religion before. He was tempted to ask Cyrus what religion he was, but decided that he would probably regret doing so.
“Mr. Giovanni. Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“No.”
Cyrus smiled indulgently. “Wouldn’t you say that faith is a major component of that religion?”
Giovanni maintained a stony face. “My personal beliefs are irrelevant. Where I come from, everyone is Catholic. The people I identify with are all Catholic like me.”
“Which is not very Catholic.” Cyrus slowly smiled again. “And your wife. What does she believe in?”
Giovanni’s temper flared. “She is not my wife.”
“What does she believe in?”
“Whatever is in front of her.”
To his surprise, Cyrus smiled in glee. “Do you see? Your wife is a model believer. No pretending holiness or trying to see things as they are not. She believes like I do. Do you want to know what I believe in?”
Sweet Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I do not want to know! “Actually, I-“
“I believe in power. Existence is the greatest of all power. The ability to recreate and control existence- that must be the sign of a true god. Things that do not exist must not be allowed to have any power whatsoever- that is an unnatural corruption of the natural order of the universe.”
Giovanni barely listened as the clock ticked by for ten minutes.
“-And that is a true god,” Cyrus concluded.
“That is interesting to know,” he replied blandly.
“It will become true. I will become true. What does your son believe?”
Giovanni’s temper flared. “How dare you bring my son into this-“
“Nevermind. I see I have struck a point with you.” Cyrus laughed coldly and turned around. “I will return for you this evening.”
Giovanni shuddered to think of it- he still had trouble sitting down since Cyrus’s last visit. “I appreciate it.”
Cyrus nodded. “One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“The keycard you took from the girl. I suppose you were planning an escape of some sort? Here, give it back please.”
Madone de mia, Iarrusu, la vostra butana madre era a gavone- “Here.” Giovanni reluctantly handed the plastic card over. “You had me there.”
Cyrus nodded coolly and took the card. “Not very clever, Mr. Giovanni. Not what I would expected.”
“I see.”
“But do you know what? It does not matter. As long as I have your son in my sights, you will not do anything. Your hands are tied, Mr. Giovanni.”
And Cyrus was right. Slowly, the clouds of ideas to escape and choices floating above Giovanni dissipated, evaporating like empty fancies.
“I will see you tonight.”
“I see.”
Cyrus turned around and walked away.
Giovanni watched him go. As soon as he was out of sight, Giovanni hide a smile and slipped his hand into his pocket, where the boy’s keycard lay waiting.
.
Title: P-O-I-S-O-N
Characters: Giovanni, Saturn
POV : Giovanni
Notes: Another part!
A six-letter word describing something initially willingly taken in but in reality detrimental to one’s health.
Illness? You didn’t “take in” illness. Plus it had seven letters. Giovanni sighed and continued staring at the crossword. All the other eighty-one questions had been completed. Only number nineteen remained. A six-letter word describing something initially willingly taken in but in reality detrimental to one’s health that had “o” as the second letter.
A sudden beeping from the door distracted him from his six-letter predicament. Giovanni stood up and watched as the door slid open, carefully watching the mechanisms. So far, from the placement of the various instruments on it, he had figured that it had locked from the outside but could be opened from the inside, provided that the outside was unlocked. Unfortunately a retina scan was required either way, locked or unlocked. He had the keycard but not the necessary eyeball. The door could also be propped open and hidden, he recalled from his first meeting with Cyrus.
Nothing mattered, of course. The snipers were known for their accuracy. A poor little boy- He would not stand a chance.
Damn that man. That sick maniac. He would not give that psycho the satisfaction of acknowledgement. Giovanni sat back down and continued thinking of six-letter words. Hmm. Liquor? Whisky? Certainly “laxatives” had too many letters. Perhaps it wasn’t referring to drink-
The door opened, and it wasn’t his captor that entered. Giovanni recognized the boy that walked in from their earlier meetings- the Commander, the blue-haired one named Saturn. He watched the child from the corner of his eye- the boy seemed rather flushed and walked erratically, as if barely containing some furious excitement.
“Mr. Team Rocket,” Saturn addressed him.
Giovanni pretended to give the crossword one last thought before turning at his leisure to face the boy. “Hmm?”
“I- I suppose that you- are finding- your quarters to your liking?”
“Other than being imprisoned, they are adequate. If you have come here to inquire about my living standards, I would prefer the video camera removed from the shower, thank you,” he said frostily. Small talk. Small talk.
“That can’t be done.” The boy wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead and continued staring at Giovanni.
It was an unnerving stare, sort of a ravenous and predatory look. Giovanni found himself wanting to circle back around the table and away from the boy.
“If you are here on Cyrus’s orders, I thank him for the crossword puzzle. It was kind of him to supply me with- entertainment. Very thoughtful.” Giovanni carefully kept any gratitude he might have felt out of his voice.
“I-I’m not.” Saturn took a lunging step forward, cross the final yards between them.
“I see. You are not here to ask me to help you with you homework, are you?”
“Take off your pants.”
“Excuse me?”
Saturn stumbled closer. “Do it!”
Giovanni loomed over the boy and stared down with a vaguely amused look. “Your leader will not like it.”
“As long as I do not own you he doesn’t mind! Take them off!” Saturn moaned.
“Own me? Do you really think anyone or anything can own me? Besides, go find a pretty girl. You were probably given a chance with my Management Executive during her stay here.” Giovanni turned around and sat back down. “Why do you want me to take off my pants anyways?”
“Because you make me horny!”
There were very few things in the world that could surprise a man who had seen everything. Giovanni spun around. “Excuse me?”
“You make me horny. Every time I see you I get so hard I can’t undo my pants.”
Giovanni stared at Saturn, his eyelids hitched up in sheer shock. “Ah- well, you are certainly forthright with your words, child…”
“I can’t help it! Take off your pants already!”
Anyone unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on personal taste) enough to be looking down on the scene would have seen Giovanni slowly stare at Saturn. That someone would have probably sworn that mental gears and factories suddenly jumped into order. That somewhere behind his clouded face something was taking shape. His teeth gritted with the indomitable determination of a man who had to do something akin to reaching up to the elbow up a cow’s backside in order to fight free.
“Very well.” Giovanni slowly unbuckled the Galactic belt.
“Sit down!” Saturn himself dragged another chair in front of Giovanni and straddled it, gripping the back and whimpering. “Get on with it!”
He slipped his underwear to his hips and sat down, giving Saturn a full view of everything. “There. Are you content, boy?”
“Nnrg!” Saturn arched his back in the chair. “More- Arg! Touch yourself!”
Giovanni exhaled and closed his eyes. He weighed how much he wanted to be imprisoned by a madman with a strange fetish against how much he wanted to just run away screaming and figured that out of all the things he could afford to show, his disgust wasn’t the only thing.
Still, he stared down. The thing stared back up. He had always thought of it as ungainly and lumpy and rather ugly, although very useful for certain things. And he certainly did not touch it more than necessary to relieve himself or clean it daily. And he certainly did not want to touch it now.
“Perhaps you could flay me alive instead?”
“Urk- just- just touch yourself!” Saturn panted aloud, bucking and grinding against his chair.
Giovanni carefully looked away ran a clumsy finger down its length. The skin felt rough and cool under his fingertip. He heard the younger boy whimper and grind against the chair. “Is that enough?”
“No! Keep on touching it! Until- Until you’re as hard as me- urk!”
He ran a finger along it again, tracing back and forth, slowly stroking it along its length. “Child, you do know I’m an old man now.”
“I don’t care-“
Giovanni sighed and pressed his fingers down harder. “I don’t quite…”
“I’ll do it!” Saturn shot forward and knelt, seizing the shaft in his hands.
Giovanni snapped his eyes shut and leaned backwards, trying to imagine that he was anywhere, anywhere else, as Saturn clenched his teeth and went even faster. He felt the constant barrage of stimulation, and reluctantly, Giovanni felt himself rise up just barely a third of the way before stopping.
“I knew-“ Saturn howled and grabbed more flesh. When this did not cause anything more, the boy slowly moaned again. “Why aren’t you-“
“I am an old man,” he snorted.
Saturn writhed and began grabbing at his pants. He wrestled with the tie until it came off and dropped the pants to the ground.
Giovanni flinched in sympathy. The boy was as stiff as an icicle. Saturn squealed and dropped on all fours, rubbing the tip on the carpet.
“That is unsanitary!” Giovanni found himself scolding. “Really, I do not know who taught you proper hygiene.” He began to zip up his pants, but Saturn pushed his hands aside and greedily pressed his little lips against the shaft, flicking his tongue around.
That was too much.
With a snarl of disgust, Giovanni stood up and shoved the boy’s head away. “You- you-“ he exclaimed, shuddering with fury.
The boy let out a whimper. “When my boss did it, I swallowed everything, every bit of it-“
“Vatenni!” Giovanni snarled.
Saturn didn’t understand Sicilian, but the tone was clear enough. The boy pulled up his pants and trotted out of the room.
“This place is filled with nutcases!” Giovanni yelled after him as the door closed. “What is wrong with all you people? Is there something in the water here?”
Suddenly, he thought of something. He made his way back to the unfinished crossword and filled in number nineteen. The word matched perfectly.
“Finally that creepy little bugger’s gone.”
Giovanni jumped, knocking his knees against the table. He knew that voice. He knew that voice. But it couldn’t be-
“Pearl?”
“Shh! You, shush.” Her voice seemed to be vibrating from the toilet in the bathroom. As if to answer his question, she added, “Aren’t you lucky? Your room has a branch of the sewer system all to itself.” Her tone turned serious. “You know the drill, Boss. Metà del gatto.”
“Executive, head away from here. I am not leaving.”
The toilet was silent. Then, it let out a squawk. “Come on! Get serious!”
“The man in charge. He has my son- our son- as a hostage-“
“Idiot!” The toilet shuddered, and Giovanni looked around to see if anyone was running in to check on the disturbance. “Idiot! Stupid fucking idiot! Ass-head!”
“Hush!”
“I thought you knew! Team Weirdo doesn’t have your son- they just have some random kiddy agent named Mondo under their scopes!”
Giovanni froze. His stomach slowly frosted over. “…What?”
“I told you! For God’s sakes! How the hell would they know who your son is anyways? I thought you would know right away! I’m telling you Boss, you’ve been blinded. It’s so bloody obvious but you weren’t even dare doubt it. Geez! That Cyrus fellow, he even said to someone that it was that Mondo kid, not your son!”
The logic clicked. Giovanni groaned and slammed his head against the toilet seat. “I have… I have been the biggest, most idiotic fool in the history of history-“
“Uh-oh, I have to go. But you know what to do.”
“I do.”
The toilet stopped vibrating.
Giovanni stood up slowly.
He could kill himself for falling for the trap. He was a fool. The moment they even hinted a threat to his lost son, he ran headlong into the trap- how was it possible?
Enough weakness. Half a cat- two days. Giovanni nodded to himself and started another crossword, fool-proofing his plan.
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Okay! I got a question about the whole thing when she's talking through the toilet. To clarify:
No, she is not in the toilet. She is in a storage tank and is talking through the pipes- trying talking like that. The pipes carry sound real swell.
Here is a diagram:
Thankfully, the other room is unoccupied.
Now, how the heck did she (6'6", 250+lbs) got into that tank in the first?
.