towerofanimus | (no subject)

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Characters: Signless - and OPEN! (and hopefully Condesce and Psiioniic~)
Setting: On the dorm levels.
Format: I'll follow your lead
Summary: Signless is working his way through the dormitory, searching for his best friend. He might encounter your character!
Warnings: Probable violence.

Signless had waited for two days.

Two days he had waited, searched, and worried. He hadn't slept in that time.

He had roamed the hallways, searched the other levels as best he could, and nearly gotten himself killed in the forest.

Now he was done. Someone had stolen Psiioniic, and whoever they were, they had to be hiding. And he was going to find them.

He moved methodically down the hallways of the dormitories, banging on each door until it was opened, or taking a sickle to the knob to break in. No matter what he had to do, he was going to find Psiioniic.

And when he found the douchebag who had hurt his friend, he was going to make them pay.

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The Condesce opened her mouth again to spit a retort, raising her hand in preparation to strangle him out of fury. Across the room, however, she hadn't missed Psiioniic's shout and looked over just in time to see electricity spring to life in her charge's eyes. Before it could even get close to her, she had taken a step back, the shock apparent on her face once more.

Impossible. How had he broken through--what had this tower done to her and her Empire?

"I don't believe I gave you an order," she replied in a low growl, quickly recovering from her shock. Signless was momentarily forgotten for the moment. Perhaps he was aiming for the mutant, though she doubted it on sheer principal. It had taken quite a bit of self control to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Signless actually wasn't expecting that. He was reaching into his specibus for his own weapon to defend himself, when the Condesce was thrown back a short distance by blue and red sparks.

His eyes widened, and then his lips split in a big grin. "Don't have as much control as you thought, do you, Condesce?"

He stepped forward, sickles out in a defensive stance. "I just want my friend back. We can do this in a civilized fashion, Your Highness, or we can do this the hard way. I doubt any of our friends would take kindly to hearing that someone they care about is being held hostage. And I've met quite a few people today who are pretty concerned about Psi. Surrender him gracefully, please."

It took every bit of his formidable willpower to keep the wall of power up when his conditioning was sending nasty stabbing shocks of agony shooting through his brain. Ψiioniic was trembling like a leaf in a hurricane, but he stared up at the other two in mingled defiance and desperation.

"I won't... let you... hurt him again," he said slowly, each word a massive effort to get out. "I won't let you kill him in front of me again! SS, oh god, pleathe put your weapons away, I have to protect her, do you understand? I can't... if you attack her, I can't..."

He knew he shouldn't be saying that, that he was weakening what bargaining power they had with the Condesce, but he was terrified that Signless might actually take a swing at her. If he did, Ψiioniic wasn't sure he could stop himself from killing his best friend, and that would destroy him.

The Empress glanced between the two males sternly, focusing on Signless again almost daring him to attack her. Repeatedly, her webbed claws flexed over her trident as she tried and failed to quell the immense rage building up in her chest. How dare he speak to her in that way? How dare he -- either of them -- stand and defy her?

There were few explanations for the phenomenon of Signless being alive and Psiioniic's lack of utter and complete devotion. The only one that seemed to even make a lick of sense still made barely sense at all. But if time shenanigans were in play, she would need to play a different tune to ensure what conditioning was already in place stuck nicely, especially if the mutant was here where she could not command armies to hunt him down like the sniveling woofbeast he was.

Though even if he was a sniveling woofbeast, there was Alternia to consider. If the Glub really had begun, the trolls in this tower were all that was left on her planet -- in truth, it made her a bit ill to think about, but it was still a very real possibility. That left her, the little purple wriggler and her supposed heir as the only highbloods left (to her knowledge). She would have to refrain from culling anyone just yet, as angry as they made her.

...maybe she could make an exception with the mutant, though.

"You," the Condesce began, glaring daggers at Signless to indicate that she was speaking to him. "Are not in charge here. I decide what is civilized, what is not, and you will not be threatening your Empress."

"It's all right, Psi," Signless said calmly, though he didn't look at his friend. He kept his eyes on the Empress, gaze intense and unflinching. "I'm not going to attack anyone, only defend myself. There's no need for violence, nor for anyone to control and dominate anyone else. We're all just trolls here."

He was speaking to Psiioniic, but also to Condesce. This was his philosophy, and he was not going to just abandon it because it was inconvenient. Not even for his friend. Though if she attacked him, he might be forced to spill Tyrian blood. And one way or another he would not allow Condesce to keep Psiioniic as her slave.

"You are my Empress," he said then, addressing her. "And when you give up Psiioniic, and promise to leave him alone, and give up this bullshit about your blood making you better than me, I'll gladly bow to you and give you my loyalty once more. Until then, you can kindly go fuck yourself."

Fuck, of course the Signless was still sticking to his beliefs. It was one of the things Ψiioniic respected most about him, and also one of the things that frustrated him most. Especially in situations like this.

But he couldn't interfere. Signless had never gotten the chance to speak directly to the Condescension like this, never gotten a chance to try to convert her. Maybe he could do it. If anybody could, it would be him.

Ψiioniic owed him the chance to try, so he stayed quiet and just tried not to flinch beneath the look the Condesce gave him.

"Or," the Condesce began vehemently, showing no signs of swaying. "You can turn yourself right around and get the hell out of my sight before I kill you again myself! Do not try my patience."

The Empress continued to turn the trident in her hands, which was the only activity keeping her from skewering the troll in front of her. "You are a blithering fool for believing anything but what is simple fact. My life and the life of highbloods will far exceed your own. A simple breath from Gl'bgolyb, who shares my blood, could murder the entire planet. And yet you still continue this pointless crusade."

She sneered down at Signless, not bothering to look back at her Helmsman. She was very much at odds with herself with opposing interests -- kill the mutant and satisfy her rage as well as rid the world of a blasphemer or preserve him to keep her minion from utterly losing his shit as well as preserving an Alternian should the motherplanet really be lost to the Glub.

If she chose the latter, she risked having to give up her Helmsman. If she chose the former, she risked rendering Psiioniic useless.

"Interesting that you think that long life and a connection to a powerful lusus makes you inherently better than I am," Signless said levelly, as if they were having a philosophical discussion rather than squaring off over the life of his best friend.

As she sneered down at him, he gazed up at her, unafraid and not lowering his eyes. "Psychic abilities are usually something that blood colours on the red to yellow range have, with some exceptions. And if you hadn't broken his will with brainwashing, Psi could turn you into strawberry jam without blinking twice. Your powers aren't even yours, but just the effect of having an overly-protective lusus. So doesn't that seem like a balancing effect? You get long life, and we get psionic abilities."

He spread his hands, palm up. "I'd be happy to tell you about my visions of the past, if you're interested. Think of it as learning about the blasphemer so you can fight me more effectively."

((Go ahead and skip Ψ for now guys, he's got nothing useful to contribute beyond standing there shaking, lol. I'll jump in if he's got anything to say.))

"I am very well aware how my species' biology works," Condesce replied coldly. "This is not a matter of 'if', it's a matter of 'is' and 'will' and I will kill you myself if you are not out of my sight!"

The Tyrian was visibly running out of patience, fins fanning slightly in a gesture of aggression as the trident was poised for attack. The only thing that stayed her hand was his change in posture, which caused her teeth to grit and her voice to lower dangerously.

"I have no interest in your drivel, whelp."

He shrugged, lowering his hands again. He was still unarmed, but not afraid. It wasn't a position of submission, designed to inspire pity and possibly stay the Condesce's hands. It wasn't an aggressive posture, either, showing his strength and how foolish it would be to attack him.

It was in between. Something that trolls had forgotten, but which Signless had remembered, and begun to teach others, at least by example.

"Okay," he said. "Then I'll just take Psi and go, since it seems there's nothing more we have to say to one another."

If Condesce noticed, she had nothing to show for it. It was likely her arrogance far overrode her common sense, especially in the face of Signless.

"No. You will simply go," she corrected him, turning the trident so it was held horizontally. She thrust it forward in an attempt to push him back away from the door and her prize. She was about done being nice.

...or what she considered nice.

Ψiioniic had been holding back, just trying to keep them apart and hoping like hell that this would somehow miraculously end well. When the Condesce thrust aggressively at Signless, he knew his hope was in vain.

"No," he repeated, anguished, and flared the wall of power between them again. "Damn it, you can do what you want to me, I can't thtop you. But I told you, I won't let you hurt him in front of me!"

He glared at her, eyes watering yellow with the pain pounding through his skull, but managing somehow to stay defiant. The moment the crisis was past he was going to collapse - and part of him fervently hoped he was in Signless' care at that moment, and not the Condesce's, because she was not going to be pleased with him. Not at all.

But he had to do it."

Signless didn't make a visible move to defend himself. Though he heart nearly stopped at the last instant, Psiioniic had saved him once, and he was determined to trust him to keep doing the right thing, no matter how stupid that trust might seem.

So he ended up looking pretty cool, just standing there as she was pushed back by the wall of red and blue, unable to reach him.

Fuck yeah. Friendship power.

"Don't say that, Psi," he snarled, his eyes cutting to his friend right now. "She can't do anything to you unless you let her. Now come on. Please. Come with me."

He held out a hand to his friend. Just take it, damnit.

The Condescension snapped in that instant, shrieking in fury and whirling on Psiioniic to bare all three rows of shark-like teeth. There was now also a nice dent in the wall where she had thrown her fist shortly after behind pushed back. Forget the mutant for now -- she could control this one to a degree, at least.

And so finally, she turned her back on Signless and made her way over to the other lowblood with the intent to lift him in the air by his collar, fingers shaking with fury.

"How dare you!" she screamed, pupils dilating.

Ψiioniic didn't dodge or try to fight - he just stood there and trembled as she approached, and let her haul him up until he couldn't breathe. Part of him wanted to listen to Signless, to fight back and go to his friend, but his conditioning was just too strong.

To protect someone else, someone he cared about and pitied, he could break the training. But to protect himself? Never. It probably said something about his low self-image, but it was kind of hard to reflect on the philosophical implications when he was choking for air.

He bit down on his tongues until they bled to stop the reflexive apology that tried to bubble up out of his throat. Saying he was sorry wouldn't change or fix anything, would probably only make her madder, because it would be a lie.

The moment when Condesce went to scream at his friend was the moment Signless snapped. He'd been holding it together pretty well, focusing on trying to win Condesce over, and coax Psiioniic into remembering who he was and come back to him of his own free will. He'd been keeping his temper in check.

But that fucking cowardly bitch was spitting and snarling into the face of a pathetic little grubling too messed up to do anything more than cower, instead of standing up to him and fighting back like she should.

She shouldn't have discounted him. He didn't say a word, just stepped into the room and raised both sickles, then tried to bury them in her back.

Psiioniic would promptly be dropped with a shriek of pain from the Condescension. She staggered slightly to brace herself against the wall with one arm while the other holding the trident didn't hesitate to swing around in an attempt to skewer him in punishment for being so close to her. Pupils dilated in slight panic, intangible swears coming out in mere hisses from her throat. She could feel blood pooling at the wounds and snaking down her back rather rapidly, but it seemed that she couldn't quite decide whether she should try and pull away from him to try and keep her back from continuing to be exposed or whether she should hold still to keep more blood from spilling...not to mention the fact that he was very near her spinal cord.

So she held still, gritting her teeth, still cursing herself for such a novice mistake -- but she was finally silent, save for hideous growls of anger and pain that rumbled out of her throat. She couldn't even speak passed them to give Psiioniic an order for attack. After all, she was not a healer...her powers could not fix any extra damage that would come from extra wriggling about. The trident stab had been the most she could manage -- now it only served as a leaning post to supplement somewhat labored breathing.

Somehow, impossibly, Ψiioniic managed not to kill Signless when he attacked the Condesce. Everything in him was screaming at him that his master was under attack and he had to defend her - except for the tiny remaining sane bit of his mind, which said that the attack was his best friend and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he killed the Signless.

That tiny part appeared to be the part that was in control of his powers, at least for the moment. So when the Condesce dropped him he collapsed, hands pressed to his head and eyes squeezed shut, in the hopes that if he didn't actually see what was happening, he wouldn't be compelled to do something about it.

If the Condesce had managed even the slightest hint of an actual order to attack he might have broken, but with only growls and hisses coming from her, he was able to hold on.

Not without making a few panicked sounds of his own, moans of pain and fear quivering in his windtube.

The trident was badly aimed, since she was essentially stabbing blind, but Signless was close enough that it delivered a glancing blow to his thigh, ripping into the meat of it and causing bright red blood to sheet down his leg. A minor wound in the scheme of things, but painful.

"No," he hissed, and ripped the sickles sideways and out. At this point, he intended to kill her, paralyze her, destroy her so she couldn't hurt Psiioniic anymore.

He'd pick up the pieces later, if watching his mistress be killed was difficult for Psiioniic to take.

The Condescension flinched rather violently once the sickles were ripped out, weakly spinning herself to land so that her wound was facing the wall so that he couldn't get at her again. Involuntary tears of pain pooled at the corners of her eyes, most of her strength focusing on keeping her trident poised in front of her frame defensively.

Blood was swiftly pooling beneath her, dying a good majority of her skin and robes in her deep tyrian hue. She wasn't even looking at Psiioniic now, a small trickle of blood beginning to leak out of the corner of her mouth the longer she glared at Signless. Despite the horribly grim situation, she couldn't help but smirk very smugly.

For all he preached about peace, he was hardly any better than her.

It was too much. His best friend was descending into the sort of killing rage Ψiioniic never, ever wanted to see again. He didn't want Signless to have to betray his ideals to rescue a pathetic slave who couldn't even fight to protect himself.

Worse, his mistress was dying, and the drive to try to protect her was overwhelming. But if he killed Signless now, he'd never be able to live with himself, and if the Condesce survived, he'd be trapped in her power forever.

Ψiioniic screamed and clutched at his head as power flashed out from him in all directions, an explosion of red and blue that crashed through the room. It tore him apart from the inside out and he knew he was dying, but at least that would be better than watching what was going on.

Maybe, without him to fight over, Signless would be able to retreat and go back to his ideals, and not have to face down the Condesce.

In his delirium it didn't occur to him that the backwash of power might well kill the Signless and the Condesce, as well.

Signless saw that smirk and scowled. He had killed before, even after beginning to preach. Sometimes, it was necessary, simply because of the world in which they lived. In this case, killing the Condesce had been an impulsive decision, but he felt little remorse. Not yet, anyway.

He didn't intend to press on, though. He turned to Psiioniic, intending to grab his friend and abscond, only to watch a wave of killing energy explode out from the yellow-blood and engulf the rest of the room.

After that, he didn't see anything more.

As the Condescension saw it, she was not making it out of this alive no matter which way the cards were facing. And so when she began to hear the ominous crackle coming from the troll next to her, she couldn't help but chuckle in a horribly guttural fashion, lungs already full of fluid from when she had been stabbed.

The death was quicker than bleeding out, at least. If she wasn't going to live, neither would either of them. Certainly not the most preferable of outcomes, but better than the alternative.

With the little Tyrian wriggler dead, power would fall to Dualscar, then. Again, not the most preferable, but certainly better than the weak little wriggler she had come face to face with.

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(no subject)

HOW DARE YOU--no I'm totally kidding <3

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Aaand I think this is death for all three

DEATH COMBO [x3]