miscreant | Mental Link;

[She's reaching out a hand to touch him, paused, and Murphy can't refuse it, the offer of contact. He doesn't make any move to accept it, either. It isn't like this pain is a physical one. Her hand isn't going to do anything to help.]

I wouldn't be suffering without it.

[Anger and frustration growing thorns around and through the pain. More than just the brood connection, the sharp ache of two parts of it sheering away. People leaving, dying, it didn't bring him to his knees, drop him to the floor like this. Clutching to others, holding onto Seviilia even when he wants to pull back, wants to avoid the knowledge of that hunger in her, the fact it's getting something off the state he's in. He should be able to pull himself together. Walk away. This isn't him.]

[Stubborn -- not that she can blame him. Even without context, she understands the living's resistance to any sort of control, let alone control they must share. The difference is that at her present power level, she can't force him to abandon himself, and that puts a strain on her.

The connection, at the present, is the inconvenience he wants it to be.]

Let me make something clear. I am not here to argue or negotiate this with you.

[Rather than close the distance, knowing that he can't refuse her and that she can't stop wanting to comfort him, she closes her hand to a fist and leaves it hovering there while forcing a light smile. Her tone turns saccharine, false as high fructose corn syrup.]

Nothing in this foul existence gives me more pleasure than a beating heart quivering in agony. You're an astute boy -- you have probably already noticed that. However, as discussed, we are stuck with one another. No matter how much pleasure it might give me, I will not be made to pay the price for your pride.

[She feels something in her shoulders -- a pain, his pain, and her rising temper mixing.]

You can be as stubborn as you like otherwise. But if your refusal to cooperate with me interferes with my functionality, I will be certain to make it as unpleasant as possible for you.

[The pain doesn't dissipate, the anger doesn't drop, but something in Murphy crystallises at her tone, her raised fist, her threats. Like a layer of ice encroaching over the surface of his mind, his expression, his eyes as he continues to look at her, unwavering. Cold, sharp and bitter. It isn't that she doesn't scare him. He isn't interested in her hurting him, and he really isn't interested in the part of her that fucking feeds on it. It's just that he's so used to fear that he knows how to take it as advice. Not rule.]

Please, go ahead. [Utterly derisive, now, like she's met an expectation of absolute disappointment that honestly, few ever avoid. He should already know that brood doesn't make that different. Even if it did, it wouldn't be the walking corpse that managed it.] Show me how you think cooperation is going to make this better.

[It's the symbiote doing this, and it's unfettered. Any control, any walls he'd learnt to sustain, they've been blown away in the face of what it needed. There was no more cooperation for him to give.]

I am not here to coddle you, human, no matter what your other half yearns for.

[His challenge is a dangerous one, though its the opposite of the one she wants. He has already made his disdain clear, and disdain is familiar -- easy to embrace, the familiar sensation of loathing and contempt. She is prepared to drag him kicking and screaming with her to the other side, if necessary.

Her fist hovers where she's rested it, a testament to her discipline. Her temper, her mind is a ravenous wolf on a rusted lead, snapping, begging to break free and react to the pain -- their shared paid, her frustration. She feels his fear, and she latches onto it instinctively.

Good.]

Mark me -- I have given you my word. If your fitful attempts at autonomy and other quest for personal fulfillment hinder me in any way, I will make certain to cut you free. I do not suffer dead weight.

[For all "dead weight" might have been a joke, she isn't smiling.]

Do you doubt this?

Edited 2017-02-20 01:55 (UTC)

[Murphy smiles, sharp, brief and humourless, like she's just told a particularly dark joke.]

You mean like the last time you got close to cutting someone?

[Because he'd felt that. The rise of that twisted appetite in her, satisfaction and pleasure as she glutted herself, pushing higher and higher and then-- cut. Out cold.

He hadn't focussed on it, hadn't gone to find her. Hadn't wanted to acknowledge anything about the whole fucked up thing of it. But if she wants to threaten him, he'll use what he has.]

I know survival's a hard topic for you to wrap your dead mind around, but it's why you're here. [He raises one hand, still shaking and sluggish, and drills a fingertip to the skin behind his ear.] This thing's survival.

[He'd asked Cathaway, when he'd first arrived, if that's all they were for. Just hosts for the symbiotes. She'd denied it, but it still has to be part of it. Survival of a species.]

You really think your other half is ever going to let you kill one of its own?

[She doesn't expect him to pull out that bit of information, but then, she can't say she doesn't appreciate the fact that he hadn't chosen to simply roll over. After all, he isn't wrong -- she can't kill him, at least not without maiming herself.

The symbiote won't let her -- not now. Possibly not ever.]

Of course, there is that.

[Her fingers unfurl from the fist, each joint cracking as it does. Seviilia leans back and stands to stare down at her broodmate with the same unmoving smile.]

But then...what is it the paladins say? [She snaps her fingers once in an attempt to recall it.] "Death is but a release". There are fates far worse, I think.

[Like her own -- she doesn't say as much, its probably a bit of an insult, though no less true. Still, there's no denying the uncomfortable pull in her chest cavity. It reflects back from Murphy, in pain, and the distance hurts her just the same.

But she needs to find more of it, to maintain her pride.]

You should hope one of them does not find you in its stead.

[Murphy could almost roll his eyes. Of course, the old fate worse than death talk, like he hadn't heard that one before. Usually just before being tortured. Were he still feeling belligerent enough for it, he'd point out that he's already in one. Stuck somewhere multiple universes away from the person he cares about with an alien insect taking over his mind. Death might be preferable, except death had always been the absolute last resort for Murphy. The one time he'd willingly looked to it for release, he hadn't been able to go through with it.

Pain always brings out the worse in him. Obstinance. Anger. Cruelty. But he isn't a creature of pride, not anymore. He's a survivor. He adapts. And as much as he hates the idea of asking her to stay, the resurgence of pain as she moves away is enough for him to not be able to just let her go.]

So that's it? Someone doesn't bow down to your so-scary threats, you just walk away? [His head tips, lolling against the wall slightly.] That's a kind of limited idea of cooperation, don't you think.

Typically, when one chooses not to take my threats seriously, I make good on them.

[She couldn't kill him, but she can feel his pain worsen when she widens the distance between them and finds herself content with that. It's not the most pure form of torture, but it's enough for now.]

Perhaps in the future, you will be less quick to reject my thinking. That is, if you truly care about cooperation at all.

[For a moment longer, she watches him stew (much to the distress of her own symbiotic link) before she turns to leave. It might be the equivalent of dragging herself away on her stomach, but it was better than being taken for granted.]

[She's doing it to hurt him. Murphy doesn't need the symbiote connection to tell him that. It's just obvious. And there might be something he could say that would change her mind, but the pain's wearing on him too much to muster the effort for it. She clearly wanted him quiet and obedient, and her threats - seriously as he had taken them - weren't enough for her to earn that. Truly, no one's ever had been, made good on or not.]

You know, I'm not the only one around who's going to reject it when you go straight to the "or I'll hurt you."

[He says to her back, shifting on the floor into a position that might hopefully be more comfortable while he's still able. He's clearly going to be stuck here a while.]

Just... [He lifts one arm, lets it drop, talking more to the opposite wall now anyway.] something to think about.

DEVOUR beg for mercy and i will deny you	ASSIMILATE the scourge will wash over this world
LEAD we do what the living cannot	WANDER your kind has no place in this realm

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