I just have a few simple questions [Closed]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Deanna and our favorite neighborhood impostor. Other characters involved in his capture may show up later.
Content: There's a pesky shapeshifter chained up in the brig. It's time to get some answers.
Setting: The brig of the Amestris.
Time: Shortly after Bradley went AWOL
Warnings: Torture, references to death and violence

Comments

/moving thread over to prevent clogging

[illhaveyourmind]

Forcing her own opinions to take a step back, she watched the images unfold, clinging to her sense of professional detachment as heavily as she clung to each memory in turn, finally dragging herself completely into the relative safety of the eye of his mind. It was almost shockingly calm compared to the whirlwind of thoughts that raged outside of it, and she buried her hooks in deep to stay there as long as she could. At the sight of the stone coming to life and forming the life around it, her mind began racing and making connections. She knew she had read something of this before, but struggled to remember what or when. For now, she shoved that to the back as well, and focused only on what she was seeing. There would be time enough for analysis later, and she certainly didn't want to miss anything he was showing her because she'd been too busy contemplating it. That wouldn't do at all.

My, you've been busy, haven't you? So much of the current status of the world seems to have stemmed directly from you. But who's the one ordering it, hmm? I doubt it's all you on your own. Focusing her own abilities, she flexed the hook buried in the memory of the seven people clad in black, forcing it back to forefront. And these... they help, too, don't they? But they're peons like yourself... not the puppetmaster. Whose orders are you taking? Taunting was always a good way to get information, especially when so deeply rooted inside memories. After all, there was little enough he could actually do to her now she was so deep inside his inner mind. Though it wouldn't do to get careless. The Agonizer remained high, though physically, she reached out to his face and caressed it almost gently. She could afford to, at the moment. So much hatred... but the jealousy is the root of that, isn't it? I wonder what it is that you desire so.

And why you detest yourself. For you must, to be so very jealous of everyone else.

You are a hero

[tidesnpc]

...Father...

There was a reappearance of the shadowy man from before. He sat imperiously in his throne, clad in white robes, his face still ensconced in shadow. He was larger in life and his image grew and expanded as he loomed massively over the figures in black; this was perception, not reality.

The screams in physical reality finally faded, and his voice weak, he rasped out, "You...you don't need him."

Never been called that while playing Deanna before. XDD

[illhaveyourmind]

Sliding her fingers down a bit, she gradually trailed them down to the Agonizer, and lowered the intensity of it just a little. The change in setting was almost imperceptible, but she knew that to his almost overstimulated nerves it would feel like a world of difference. She wondered what he'd be willing to tell her to keep it from going back up again.

She bothered to ask her next questions aloud, though her hold on his mind remained as deeply rooted as it had been before. She laughed at his attempt at reassuring himself. "Don't you? But you're far too weak on your own to not need anyone, aren't you? Why else would you be so jealous?" She decided a change in tactic was in order- as well as maybe it was time for some more audible communication, for the sake of her recording unit if nothing else. She lost some of her smugness, and when it came again, her voice was much more conversational, almost pleasant.

"This... 'Father' or of yours... he can't be biological, now can he, since you were 'born' from a stone. I suppose Bradley was created the same way? That would make sense as no one seems to remember him as a child." In his mind, she was waiting for the questions to stir more thoughts or feelings or images. Anything, at this point, was helpful. All information was worth having.

mirror!verse of a mirror!verse?

[tidesnpc]

He felt disgust at her touch and at his sense of relief when it lowered. It was, however, tempered by a sense of skepticism: she wasn't going to stop. She was going to continue to toy with him, like a child ripping off the legs of a grasshopper. His hatred towards Troi ran deep, but oddly enough, some of it was also directed at himself: at himself for being so weak as to get caught in this position. When she taunted him, he didn't say or think anything in response. He just continued to seethe silently.

When she mentioned Bradley, though, he felt a sense of amusement. Bradley was different, somehow, but he didn't think on how. It was a minor victory, if any at all, and it was enough for him to resist the pain if ever so slightly.

"Not...quite!," he panted out. "But...but you're a smart lady, aren't you? You tell me what you...hngh...think."

Something like that. XDD

[illhaveyourmind]

His hatred of her really didn't concern her much at all. She was used to being hated, used to being feared. If anything, it only made her sense of amusement grow. At his words, she laughed again, a cold, deadly sound that contained very little actual mirth. Or at least none that would benefit him at all. "Appeals to my intellectual vanity aren't going to do much for you, you know. This isn't about my thoughts. Not at all. Adding my own impression of what I find in that wonderfully complicated mind of yours only comes after I've... exhausted you as a resource." She ran her fingers down his cheek and neck again, knowing he detested it. It was the reason she did it.

"But more to the point: if Bradley isn't the same as you, then what is he? Something else having to do with that stone of yours?" Her hand traveled lower still, almost looking like they would move back to the Agonizer, though it became obvious that that wasn't her destination. Instead her fingers lightly traced over his chest, where she knew the stone in question resided. She knew what it was, now. The part of her mind not currently engaged in reading his own had finally remembered where she'd heard of it before.

[tidesnpc]

His skin crawled, at both her touch and her words, but before he could resist he had the sudden mental image of human infants, kept in a stark room. In the back of his mind was another image: a drop of thick crimson liquid that, when it fell, didn't splash but rather solidified into a flexible, round lump that shone like a gem.

[illhaveyourmind]

If there had been any shred of doubt in her mind that she was dealing with some sort of Philosopher's stone, it was laid to rest by that final image. But she found her attention more drawn to that of the first one. Not, of course, from any sort of concern for the fate of those infants. Experimentation on children was nothing new, and Deanna wasn't the type of person who would much care.

She probed at the image a bit, wanting to see more. Her hand hovered over his chest, and her fingers dug into the space between one or two the chains, just because she could. And physical contact was always helpful. Show me.

[tidesnpc]

There was another flash, toddlers, children, youths in the labs, but he shoved those shots aisde.

Or what?!, he spat back, spurred on by his fury. I've seen how you are - you're just going to sit here ripping away, no matter what I tell you.

[illhaveyourmind]

Deanna laughed in his mind again, haunting and cold and deadly. Of course I will, dear. I won't stop until you show me everything I want to know. You may as well make it easier on yourself and show me now. The sooner you do, the most useful you'll be after we're done.

Her hand fluttered back to the Agonizer, and turned it back up to the highest setting. I might even consider letting you live.

[tidesnpc]

Might?!

His chest shook as his screams melted into hysterical laughter, and it wasn't long before his entire frame shook.

Might! You know, you really have to work on your negotiating skills!

There was a darkness lurking in the back of his mind, a deep and primal fear that hid at the edges of his mind. It wasn't fear of her, specifically; no, it was fear of something worse than even what she had to offer.

[illhaveyourmind]

That fear was intoxicating, though Deanna's brow furrowed in a small crease. She got the distinct impression that that lovely fear wasn't directed at her. Which was an odd thing indeed.

She lowered the settings on the Agonizer again, just because the contrast would be that much greater when she turned it back up later. Negotiation isn't my job, dear. Neither is pandering to my Targets. You have information I want, and I will get it, one way or another. I was merely trying to make it easier for you. But I suppose that's what I get for trying to be nice....

[tidesnpc]

Try your best, he spat back, But I'm telling you, there's nothing you - or anyone - can do that's worse than what he can do to me.

[illhaveyourmind]

Deanna sorted through the images she'd set her hooks into, rifling through them as painfully as she knew how until she found the one of the throned blonde man in the shadows. Him, I take it? Say whatever else you wanted about her, but Deanna was not a fool.

The one who made you. It really wasn't a question.

[tidesnpc]

He winced and hissed in pain, but didn't even attempt to resist this time.

Yeah, that's the one.

And with that, he lashed out. With the images of the throned man came a different sensation, if it could be called that at all. It was a vast, empty thing, achingly hollow and as boundless as the sky itself. It was not dark; darkness implied substance of some kind. No, this sensation lacked even that. As it reached outward, images and memories were swallowed up. No more man on his throne. No more glittering red gems. No more anything. It continued to gobble up the rest of the mindscape, as it flowed languorously towards Troi's own mind.

[illhaveyourmind]

Deanna's eyes widened in shock and an emotion she was very much not used to feeling: fear. Pushing him roughly away away from her, she went through the motions of ripping out her hooks and breaking the mental link as quickly as she could, not caring how painful it would be for him. So much the better, really.

She'd heard of emptiness being used as an attack before, but had never experienced it. Slamming her mental walls into place, she augmented them as much as she could, and hoped to hell they would be enough to keep that looming void away from her. She'd been foolish- focused on how intriguing his mind was rather than how potentially dangerous it could be. She'd lingered far too long with this. If she had to kill him now, at least she had learned enough.

[tidesnpc]

The mental fortifications were unnecessary. Separation was all that was needed to free herself, and as soon as the link was closed the void dissipated into nothingness.

"So..." He gave her a wild, feral grin, and asked, "Still having fun?"