towerofanimus | LOCK YOUR DOORS, SHUT YOUR WINDOWS

Entry tags:

LOCK YOUR DOORS, SHUT YOUR WINDOWS

Characters: Her Imperious Condescension and YOU!
Setting: The hallways or wherever you want. Just specify!
Format: I'm starting in action, but I'll match.
Summary: The Condesce has arrived -- and she is DISPLEASED.
Warnings: The Condesce is a warning in herself. Expect violence.

[The sleep paralysis had served little purpose but to infuriate The Condesce even further than she already had been. She had felt the stray threads connecting her to her lusus snap, which would have meant that the Vast Glub would begun to take Alternia by storm in no less than five minutes. Tyrian purple irises dilated in rage when she had realized she couldn't move.

But it was likely that all of the Tower could hear her scream in fury when she was finally able to move her jaw. It wouldn't be hard to pinpoint the source once she was out in the hallway. Her Imperious Condescesion was an imposing figure, decorated in various jewelery of vast expense, christened with a crown and holding a trident. She had wasted no time in shedding the gaudy suit she had been given.

She would find who had brought her here, and she would make them pay.]

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The first sound of that scream froze him in place, blood pusher pounding so hard in his thoracic cavity that his knees threatened to give way. He knew that scream, knew it well, though he'd never heard it anywhere near that level. Her. it was Her. She was here.

Just that one sound was enough to nearly obliterate the Ψiioniic, leaving only the Helmsman behind again.

When she appeared he was pressed against the wall, eyes wide and whimpering, tiny crackles of blue and red electricity passing between his horns. The latter wasn't so much an attempt at aggression or defense as it was pure, unthinking panic. He was away from his post, he was disobeying, she was already angry and there wasn't a fucking thing he could do about it.

Finally. Finally someone familiar that she could use instead of kill. The downside was that he wasn't hooked up to the ship so they could depart, but the plusside was that she doubted his conditioning would allow him to stray very far from her side at any rate.

"I suppose it's only fitting that you would be here as well," the Condesce replied sweetly, smiling her fake smile. Her eyes, of course, didn't miss the electricity darting to and fro in the atmosphere, and it caused her brow to furrow slightly. "Though I expected a better greeting than this, especially from you."

The sight of that too-familiar, poisonously sweet smile sent him to his knees in terror, and a moment later his forehead met the floor. "I didn't leave the ship," he blurted out. "I didn't, I thwear, I just woke up here..."

His only hope at this point was to convince her that he at least hadn't disobeyed deliberately.

"Yes yes, such is the circumstance that seems to have befallen us both," she replied rather dryly, obviously still rather unamused with the whole state of affairs despite her smile. "I don't suppose you've managed to gather anything useful during your stay here?"

She nudges him with her foot expectantly. She's not going to bend down to his level, but she doesn't want him to mumble into the floor when he answers either.

The nudge made him look up. It was so strange to see her from this angle, when normally he was suspended high enough that he was well above her head unless she went up on the platform.

"Not much, Condesce," he confessed. "I've only been here one night. I do know there'th a lot of timeline shenaniganth going on - I've met adolescents here from a thouthand sweeps in my future. Many alienth, mostly 'humans' which I don't recognize, and so far no sign of whoever hath brought us here aside from the notes."

He clamped down hard on the information that the Signless was here, even though his conditioning was prompting him that it was definitely information she'd want to know. She recognized him so she would believe Signless was dead, and he had no intention of telling her otherwise.

The Condesce's eyes narrowed slightly at the news that their benefactors had not yet made their appearance. Of course they hadn't -- who would after attempting to drag someone like her into the Tower?

"I suppose that will do," she mumbled in his direction, looking away from him to look down the hall. It was unspoken permission, perhaps an expectation, that he should rise to his feet. "If you've only been here one evening, that is."

The corners of her mouth continued to twitch with agitation -- what did that mean for Alternia, then?

Ψiioniic hesitated a moment, not certain he was reading her silent cues correctly - he wasn't used to needing to interpret commands about where she wanted him to be or how she wanted him to move. His usual range of motion in her presence consisted of the ability to nod his head - he couldn't even turn it from side to side.

Finally he stood slowly, watching her sharply for any sign that she wasn't pleased with his action. Inside part of him was dying, and he was torn between wishing Signless would show up to save him like he had from Mao, and hoping Signless would stay far, far away.

"You are not to leave my side," she stated plainly, catching his eyes after she finished the statement. After all, this was a lot for her to process when one took into account that Alternia was being wiped from the map not moments before. If her lusus really had perished...

Well, she didn't really want to think about it.

"I will not have our generous benefactor touching was does not belong to him," she seethed, knuckles cracking as she clenched her fists. She hadn't missed the collar attached to her Helmsman's neck.

Fuck, he'd been afraid she would order something like that. If he wasn't allowed to leave her side, sooner or later Signless was going to come looking for him and things were going to get very ugly.

Then a brainwave struck. "Condesce, we're thupposed to sleep in our assigned rooms," he pointed out, careful to hold her eyes and not betray his true intentions by so much as a blink. "Apparently bad thingth will happen if we don't for too long." And he could just imagine how happy Her Imperial Condescension was at being forced to sleep in a space with three lowly commoners - likely aliens, at that.

"And much worse things will happen if I lose my Helmsman to a school of faceless and cowardly grubnappers," she replied, staring right back with an annoyed expression. She had not been very happy with that sort of response. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yeth, Condesce, but I won't be much use to you if I'm driven insane or to death by lack of thleep," he pointed out evenly, trying not to shake at the idea that he was contradicting her again.

It occurred to him to wonder when she was from. How far in his future? How broken was she used to him being?

"I don't recall asking for your opinion on the matter," she snapped, reaching for his throat and squeezing. Her temper was already short and she was in no mood to be reminded that she had no control over the situation at hand.

He choked and flailed, but was careful not to actually strike her or seem to be resisting in any way. He'd already pissed her off more than enough, and he really didn't want her to decide that since there was no ship for him to fly, she didn't actually need him.

The worst part was that he knew he could easily fight her off. All it would take was one good blast, knock her straight into the wall hard enough to crush her body. There were no biowires embedded in his brain to punish him for thinking about rebelling that way. And he still couldn't do it, his own conditioning preventing him from attacking her.

She held him like that for a few moments before tentatively releasing him and pressing two fingers to her temple, eyes drifting shut. "I am still in charge. Don't you dare forget that," she warned him, letting her eyes open again. She seemed calmer this time, though not quite enough to spare him wrath if he chose to speak out again.

"In a matter of days, I will have this tower under control. Until then, I don't need any unnecessary distractions."

That was exactly what he was afraid of. The inhabitants of this tower had no idea of the storm that was about to hit them, and with the power of the Ψiioniic behind her, it was possible she could take over.

That reminded him of another thing he should probably tell her. There were places in this tower that his power didn't work at all... would it be to his advantage or disadvantage to tell her that? Better to keep silent for the moment, he decided. Words once said could never be unsaid, and if she asked him later why he hadn't told her, he could truthfully say it was because she's pretty much scared him out of speaking again right now.

"Yeth, Condesce," was all he said, bowing his head and waiting for her command.

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LOCK YOUR DOORS, SHUT YOUR WINDOWS

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