Infighting Week Three

[animusmods]

Characters: any character participating in the Infighting event
Setting: pods, week three of the event
Format: any
Summary: All week three Infighting event threads should go in here, to keep things organized.
Warnings: horror, trauma, experiment results, impossible geometry, cabin fever

[Week Three Information]
[Week Two]
[Week One]
Dax's Pod
Riki's Pod
Jason's Pod
End of Week Three

Comments

POD THREE: JASON

[animusmods]

Hei [AU]

[fusedstars]

[Water only huh? Well, at least this was an experiment Hei had been used to. Back then, the facility had done this, and oddly enough, he had managed to meet Minako through that method, as well as a few others. No beds or being able to walk was new, but the human could be sustained on water for quite some time. A week of that would be a walk in the park for Hei. As such, if you see him in the cell calm, you know he is doing alright.

However, it won't be for long if the cells become too rowdy, and Hei definitely wasn't speaking to anyone else unless spoken too. Those chips made it near impossible, as his own body was in danger.

But it wasn't just him anymore. It was everyone now.]

[myblueskies]

[Romeo, being one of those who had only had his body changed; his mind was left alone, had taken it upon himself to make sure everyone else was okay, and keeping their spirits up as best they could. Even if it was really hard.

But, during really hard times, that was when it was most important to keep your spirits up. Being determined when things were nice was easy, but you also had to keep on living when things were hard too!] Mister Hei? Are you okay?

[fusedstars]

Fine.

[Hei did not move when his name was called, still keeping his sitting position intact. It was needed to keep his thoughts in other places, away from rebellion. He trusted his own mind to react when the right time came.]

[miseris_socios]

[Ken just sits in his cell, staring out at the others. He's still upset over their attempt not working, and now Nemesis is back to healing anyone who's hurt. He leans against the side of his cell, going back to trying to ignore the pain.]

[firstofthefallen]

You did well in your attempt.

[Lucifer in general isn't someone who attempts to be either comforting or often giving praise, but hey. He has to admit. He likes the fact that you at least tried to take advantage of attacking Jason since he hadn't programmed something inside your head that prevented you from hurting him and shit now the angels are singing even louder since he's thinking of hurting Jason again.]

[miseris_socios]

Thanks.

[It's short, and he's still obviously sulking a bit, but at least... at least it's something. And he still had his mind with him, and he could still try to think of something else. Giving up now would be stupid.]

... Are you doing okay?

[myblueskies]

"And as well as being a bad person," Romeo was dizzy from lack of food but he had been starved before and not let it get to him. He could keep his spirits up through hunger. But it was harder to see all his friends suffering, he was worried that mister Jason was going to be mad with Ken for what he had done. Ken had been so brave! "You're a coward because only cowards hurt people who can't fight back."

Romeo was laid in his cage; the lack of bed didn't bother him he hadn't been able to use his bed since his first operation anyways, and he was talking to Jason, even though Jason was no where to be seen Romeo figured he could hear anyways. "Everyone here is braver than you are, and stronger too." He remembered what his father had told him, years ago now before he had even gone to Milano.

"A truly strong person will neither strike nor begrudge another. A truly strong person is someone who always has the strength to be kind to others." He glared outwards. "You're horrid and bad, you are weak and you will be punished and we will stop you."

He continued, speaking to keep thinking and to keep angry and to remember why they all had to live.

[miseris_socios]

Ken just stared over at Romeo, a little bleary. "Lay off the sentai speech for a while and get some rest. You're going to fall over if you keep going for longer."

[myblueskies]

Romeo frowned, "What's a sentai speech?" His voice was hoarse from all the talking.

[pitiedthefool]

"Hey..." Kid, he admires your bravery in spite of the dizziness and starvation, and he sympathizes immensely. If he had a trumpet or guitar, he'd probably be playing whatever he could to help them. Music always was a powerful motivator, no matter the world... At least that's what he thought.

Yu slumps against the bars of his cell, looking over his shoulder to Romeo's. There was a time for sentai speeches, and there was a time to conserve resources.

"Save your strength. You're going to need it." He managed a faint smirk, then continued. "Not that I don't agree with every word you said... but it does little if it falls on deaf ears."

Luke

[sacred_flamer]

[Luke's curled up in his cell as always, wrapping himself in a tight ball, as if that will block out the sounds of how hungry people are. He can feel his own stomach growling, even if he stopped feeling actual hunger yesterday night. Still the thoughts of, "I'm hungry," are drowning out even the ones whining about how much of a bastard Jason is, and it's starting to hurt his head. He tries to control himself, but every now and then his body starts glowing, and the people around him get knocked out.]

[...well, at least that's less people complaining about how hungry they are.]

[pitiedthefool]

[Unlike most of the others, he isn't focusing on his hunger. How can he when the emptiness he feels is the most prevalent? It's almost like a void in midst of the madness and groaning, so he lies there... tapping his fingers against the floor repeatedly. If it weren't for those surgeries, it would probably sound nothing like music, but...

'-I'm doing my way, you do it your way. Don't just follow the left, find the right way. Stereotypes, too many hypes. I'm the epitome of new types. Having the fear brings power to my soul 'cuz I over come them. That's how I...'

It stops as he's unable to focus and rolls over, instead folding a small crease in a left over wrapper. At least until he recognizes the ring on his finger again.

'Nanako...']

Feferi (OU)

[ofdewandglass]

[Physically, there wasn't a problem with not having food for a week, especially given last week's 'food'. Seadwelling trolls who spent most of their time underwater could easily go without eating for a while. Mentally? That was a big problem.

The problem with her lusus was that it needed to be fed regularly. If its voice ever went above a whisper, bad things happened. The louder it got, the worse those things got.

That would have been enough to deal with, had there not been monsters occasionally getting far too close for comfort. Feferi's voice was rapidly becoming hoarse from all the times she had to stifle screams.]

Re: Feferi (OU)

[myblueskies]

[Romeo had continued his lectures throughout the week, but they were quieter and less frequent. He was so hungry, he had almost forgotten what it felt like to starve. The year he had been in the tower had been the most he had eaten ever in his life and he had gotten used to being able to eat regularly, gotten over the fear that someone was going to take it away from him.

The monsters were scary and enough for his spirits to try and flee completely and yet he had never stopped trying. Because determination was the only thing he had left. He lifted a insect leg to tap weekly on the glass to get Feferi's attention.] Feferi?

[myblueskies]

The week had gone on and Romeo's lectures had continued, told mostly in whispers as he got weaker and weaker. The dizziness was nothing unusual too, it was just there, he lay on the floor barely having the strength to lift his head, the antlers too heavy. But he kept his spirits up, occasionally punching the air with one of his insect legs. He spoke to people whenever he could and tried to help his friends.

The monsters prowling outside were scary, clawing on the glass but Romeo tried to be brave and glare at them. One morning, Romeo had lost track of days, a monster got through the glass.

Romeo scrambled to his feet though he barely had the strength. He tried to fight with his front insect legs, and his antlers. Jabbing his head in the monsters direction. It fault with claws and teeth though, Romeo gritted his teeth, whimpering in pain.

Luckily two red collared men burst in and killed the monster before it was too late, Romeo's wounds disappeared as if they had never been there. He scrambled to the far corner of his cell, as far from the door as possible, eyes wide with fear. But he was surrounded with people, he couldn't let himself be scared.

"Just... keep your spirits up," he whispered to himself.

[morituramfides]

[The entire week he'd been quiet. He'd sat in front of his cell door, simply staring; watching the others in the pod, processing every bit of information that he heard from their conversations, storing it away in his mind for later. He studied the monsters, and even with Moros' nagging concern-- not angry, just a notification-- he didn't bat an eye at them. He didn't move much. And despite his exhaustion from the previous week, he rarely slept.

It's a long while before he speaks without being approached. When he does, it's to no one in particular, and his voice is tense and firm. Almost robotic.]

How much more, do you think?

[myblueskies]

I don't know mister Jin, it's been a long time already...

[Romeo had slowly edged back to the front of his cage after being attacked. He was so hungry that he could barely think but he had to keep his spirits up and he had to help the others, it was the most important thing.]

[sovietbear]

[Ivan could remember the last time he had not been given food for a long period of time. It wasn't pleasant but it was still doable. Of course, this was not the Seige of Leningrad--he was not stuck in a city, trying to keep his people going through a difficult war. This was the foolish tower trying to bring them down. Again.]

[The week dragged on, but he did his best to just keep smiling, leaning against the wall, ignoring the hunger pains. It didn't bother him as much as it might some of the other's, especially because they were at least given water. Water that tasted clean, rather than the water from before. The liquid that he didn't even want to think about.

[As the week went on though, he slowly slid more and more into his hallucinations of sunflowers, because it was harder to find the will to fight it when very little was going on, harder to find the will to fight it when he was growing slowly weaker--just because he could survive for quite a while without food, didn't mean he particularly enjoyed it. He didn't mind the lack of bed, instead just lay back against his cell wall, humming a little tune his people had come up with back in the 1930's.]

[animusnpcs]

Jason returns to the pod early on Sunday morning--almost too early to be called morning. He hasn't been seen since the last voting session, but the thick black stitches and blood offer a hint of what's happened to him. He doesn't look at all happy--a monster that happens to be wandering through the pod lunges for him and with a flick of his wrist he summons the nearest retrieval drone to merciless, violent action; the unit punches the creature to pulp while Jason wipes off his operating table.

"You got a week off," he says, addressing the cells with fury restrained by the thinnest, most quickly fraying rope. "But I'll make up for neglecting your discipline right now."

Five retrieval units for each cell pour into the room, and one by one everyone is restrained, paralyzed, and brought out of their cells. They're piled on top of each other like slabs of meat. Only Sayaka is placed on the operating table. Jason grins at her and it's all teeth and the waiting jaws of a crocodile.

"You won't misbehave today."

He pulls out thick, mucous-like tendrils and presses them to Sayaka's flesh. They trail down like a bridal veil from her head as they burn into her skin and attach themselves.

And then, one by one, he attaches everyone else to her, as if they're all planets orbiting Sayaka's sun. It takes him seven hours before he's attached everyone to the point they can't move without everyone working together. Of course, if they don't move, Jason has no problem getting them out to the meeting area--he'll have the retrieval units kick and shove them every step of the way if necessary.

[myblueskies]

Romeo was startled awake from a mostly restless sleep by Jason returning. He was so weak from hunger that he could barely lift his head from the ground. He whimpered at the anger and the monster being beaten up.

It really didn't take five retrieval units to paralyse Romeo, he lay unable to move, barely able to breathe due to the piling of bodies on top of him, his whimpering didn't stop as Jason worked though he didn't cry. He refused to cry.

But he was so scared, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think of Alfredo and Milano and Sonogno, the blue skies and the laughter of his friends.

[ofdewandglass]

[And then Feferi finally screamed. She screamed for Sayaka, she screamed for Ken and Romeo and William and Gamzee, she screamed for all of those who she didn't know.

...and she screamed for the Empress. It seemed so strange, giving that scream, but she did, and louder for her than for anyone else, save herself.

She was hoping the screaming would kill them. Kill them, kill Jason...but no. It was all for naught. She couldn't do anything.]

[beknightedheroine]

In that week off, Sayaka had done a whole ton of nothing.

She'd curled in a corner of her emptied cell and been uncharacteristically quiet - no Jason to spitefully rail against. No lasting success when she railed. What could she say to anyone now? 'Gee, I sure tried.'

It turns out she'd just been smoldering coals under a deceptively soft covering of ash, when Jason drags his ragged self back. So you're angry, is it? So you've gotten just as riled as she was? Good. She leers like a rekindled fire, even as an army of retrieval units pour in.

Every stitch he's got is a stitch putting her resolve back into one piece. Every drop of blood? That's a drop to match one of the drops he's drawn from them. He's still way in debt. But he's starting to pay it off already, right?

She knows she's going to regret this, in the short term. But Sayaka beams to match Jason's crocodile grin, right before he starts working. "Maybe I don't need to. I already got one up on you, huh?"

[fractus_animus]

[ He fights it, if only because at this point he's so far from his right, normal state of mind to be aware of the things he's doing.

The lobotomy had made him mostly cooperative despite his attempt to kill the others like Feferi, but when the others are piled on top of him and all this happens, he struggles, struggles violently, viewing the drones as something bad. It's all he knows at the moment and he's unable to control himself much better than a small child, really--

But what is left... what is left in his head of his Persona, although he cannot speak for it...if Jason can hear it at all?

We do hope that it hurt.

Neither him nor his Persona are... aware enough beyond that to say much. Minato eventually stops struggling after the first hour, what is left of his emotions settles down despite people being on top of him (it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt they shouldn't be near him he's draining them of their soul), and he manages a sickly smile when it all happens, attaching him to Sayaka. ]

Asshole.

[ It's... all he can say. You may have taken everything from him but he will be damned if he won't insult you, you fucking monster. Maybe it's just sheer stubborn will but it's... all that's left.

And then when Feferi comes and screams he holds his ears and he's bleeding now but he won't die-- ]

Sayaka [Post Surgery]

[beknightedheroine]

She wants to be not here. Definitely not at the center of everyone, definitely not when she can still feel her soul gem in the midst of her brain pulsing with hurt, an endless repetition that runs past her and along the crown of tendrils.

She'd tried to push thoughts of things hurting away, in favor of stuff that was more important. Numbers had helped before, mostly - even when she got stuck in a repeating rut, eventually she would manage to reset herself into the correct pattern. But it's so much harder to do that when she knows everyone else is feeling it, too-- the metronome she'd made for herself in the back of her head is broken knowing that.

..dammit.