Solo Seeking Relief

[Sisas]

Text
"Snake-tongue"
"Common tongue"
Internal thoughts

READ ME FIRSTThis thread is a solo to deal with the effects of neglecting the Vexation Gnosis for two, almost three days. There will be much talk of torture and violence in this thread; readers be warned.

Sisas kidnaps a young girl in this thread and does use his gnosis to torture her, along with his weapons. He does not rape her, as he has no interest in humiliation, only pain. But he does get a little creative with the blades and garrote, eventually killing her in order to reset the clock on the gnosis.

5 Spring, 516AV

Dusk had only just fallen, and Sisas was starting to get desperate. In the nearly ten years since he'd been marked by Krysus, he'd only ever reached the third stage of pain neglect - his skin splitting open, after enduring first headaches, then chest pains, then shooting pains in his limbs - twice, and both times he'd been so out of his mind with pain that he'd killed without taking his usual precautions. Luckily, he'd not been caught or even suspected, as far as he knew, but killing his victim had granted him a few blissful, pain-free hours before the countdown had started again. This gift of his was a double-edged sword, and Sisas did not want to find out just how much damage the sword could do to him if he were to neglect causing pain in others for more than three days.

It had been two full days since the last time he'd been able to hurt another being; a young boy, begging in the street, who had been all too happy to follow Sisas when the Dhani had said that he had work for the boy. He did have work, just not work that would pay in anything other than pain. He'd taken the boy to a secluded area, a little abandoned shack that he'd found and covered the interior with rags and other cloths from the various other abandoned buildings dotting Sunberth, to help muffle the sounds of Sisas indulging in creating more pain than just what was required to reset his clock. The Dhani preferred to do something smaller every day, to keep the pain from becoming more than just a headache, but sometimes opportunities just didn't present themselves, no matter how hard he sought them. And such was the case now; Sisas had numerous small scabs along his arms and legs, and could feel a few more on his back as well. He dared not shift; above all else, Sisas valued the anonymity that his general appearance gave him. If there were attacks, and people attributed them to a Dhani, then someone might put two and two together, combining the attacks with Sisas's unusual accent to determine that perhaps he was the one responsible.

They would be right, of course, but it's not like Sisas wanted people to know even the relatively general fact of there being a Dhani around; he certainly didn't want them to know that the Dhani was him.

With the wounds on his skin still small - roughly the length of his fingernail - Sisas knew that he still had some time before the pain would become unbearable. And if he didn't manage to relieve his pain now, then he had the uncomfortable feeling that the pain might very well kill him.

He liked living, thank you very much.

And so, with Rikit giving his master a worried look, Sisas slipped out of the tent, garrote tucked into his pocket and daggers in their sheaths on his belt, bracer strapped to his wrist and gloves covering his hands, setting out further into what was known as the Tent City of Sunberth in search of a drifter that wouldn't be terribly missed.

[Sisas]

Text
"Snake-tongue"
"Common tongue"
Internal thoughts

Sisas creeps through the night, picking his way through the tents as he tries to figure out how to pick his target for the night. He could feel more little cuts breaking across his skin as he walks, and it takes all of his concentration to ignore the way that his clothing sticks to the blood oozing out of the wounds and pulls uncomfortably. He needs someone to torment, someone, maybe, to kill...

Killing, while enjoyable on the whole, however, tended to leave behind a body to deal with. Sisas, being a small man and not terribly strong, understandably didn't like dealing with bodies. His previous victims - with the exception of his very first - had simply been dumped in the river with stones in their pockets to help weight the bodies down enough to help distance them even further from Sisas himself. Not the most ingenious move, but considering that no one had come for Sisas with knives or bows, he considered it a success.

The Dhani was absorbed in his thoughts, and hadn't realized that he'd reached the edge of the ramshackle fabric city until he came face-to-face with open air. Sisas blinked, and then looked around. He still needed a victim, and he was running out of time. Luckily, however... He could see various shapes curled on the ground nearby; surely one of them was a drifter, someone with few ties to the world, someone who would not be missed. Walking on the balls of his feet in order to keep his footsteps light, Sisas moved towards and then around the cluster of bodies, studying each one that he could see.

There was an old man, someone that perhaps would be an easy target - but then older humans tended to be unpredictable. If there is no one else, Sisas decides. He dismisses the woman he finds; she has at least two weapons within easy reach, and he has no desire for a fight. The Dhani wants someone that he can take without much of a struggle. The Dhani dismissed the next couple of people that he came across for the same reasons, and when he reached the end, he found someone he thought might be the perfect victim.

A young girl - no more than eighteen years old, if that - with skin that showed the signs of slavery. She had had a rough life, he was sure of it; more likely than not, she was a runaway slave, perhaps from Kenash. Nodding to himself, satisfied, Sisas reached for a rag he'd filched from a pile outside of a tent on his way through the Tent City, and folded it until it formed a good covering. He fitted it over his hand, crouching down next to the girl and wincing as the movement pulled at the scaps covering some of the older cuts. The Dhani paused, listening intently; when he was certain that none of the others nearby were awake, he struck, covering the girl's mouth and nose with the rag and pressing down to muffle any noises she would make.

And noises she made; she struggled, trying to scream through the rag, but Sisas perched on her chest, a knee to either side of her body, pinning her down with his body as he leaned forward, applying more pressure to the rag. Gradually her struggles slowed and then stopped, and Sisas eased back, leaning further forward to see if the girl was still breathing. She was, but only just. It was enough for the Dhani, however, who got to his feet before gathering her body in its sleeping roll up, slinging it over his shoulder as he checked to make sure that no one else had woken during the brief struggle. When he was satisfied that no one had seen him, or even knew what happened, he started to make his way towards the edge of the city, for the same abandoned shack that he'd tortured the beggar boy in earlier in the week.

Tonight promised to be even more fun.

[Sisas]

Text
"Snake-tongue"
"Common tongue"
Internal thoughts

It had taken some doing to cart the unconscious female human almost all the way across the city without being detected. Luckily it was late enough that few people roamed the streets, even footpads, and so Sisas was able to make his way to his destination with few detours.

The girl had only just started to stir when he deposited her on the shack floor; the Dhani used the same piece of cloth he'd used to render her unconscious to gag her, stuffing it into her mouth before taking a longer piece of fabric and twirling it to form a rudimentary rope to tie around her head, securing it snugly. He tested the fit with a finger; he didn't want her making more noise than necessary, but he also didn't want to smother her. He wanted to have some fun before she died, after all; that was why he'd kidnapped her.

While he waited for her to fully regain consciousness, Sisas began looking over the instruments he'd brought with him; nothing fancy, just his daggers, bracer, and garrote. There were two small vials in his bracer; one contained a few leaves of acson, and the other contained a bit of the milk from the emilvirute plant. Sisas had plans for the first - simply touching the acson plant could bring about a mildly painful rash, and with his gift, Sisas could amplify that pain. His gloves would protect him from the small sprig of acson in his vial, and the Dhani considered where to put the plant, studying the woman laying prone on the floor carefully.

He had no interest in mutilating her breasts, or between her legs; Sisas had only ever used the genital area once in torture, and while it had been immensely satisfying at the time, there were plenty of other painful areas on the body that he could exploit. After a few chimes' thought, Sisas withdrew the sprig from its vial, replacing the vial in his bracer as he pinched the plant between thumb and forefinger, crouching over the gradually-stirring female to draw the plant across her collarbone and neck. It took a few ticks for the rash to appear, but it followed the same path as the plant; redness stretched across the girl's collarbone, angry-looking and painful, the way a fresh, harsh sunburn was. The girl groaned, the sound muffled by the gag, and then whimpered slightly.

Sisas, impatient now, reached out and slapped her.

The Dhani had cut apart her sleep roll to make more ropes to bind her with; her wrists were tied behind her back as she lay on her side, and her ankles were bound together as well, preventing her escape. Her eyes widened to an almost comical extent when she realized that she was trapped, and Sisas couldn't help but smirk. "You are at my mercccy," the viper informed her, enjoying the way her gaze snapped to him as soon as he spoke, and then her expression morphed into terror. She started thrashing on the floor, trying to move away, and Sisas rolled his eyes before stepping on the twist of rope between her ankles. "I did not take you to violate you in that manner," he snapped; the girl stilled, bewilderment crossing her expression, and Sisas grinned, showing all his teeth.

"I took you to kill."

[Sisas]

Text
"Snake-tongue"
"Common tongue"
Internal thoughts

That elicited a choked sob from the girl, and Sisas grinned, plucking the gloves from his hands. "I wonder," he mused aloud as the red veining on his hand was revealed, clearly marking him with Krysus's gift, "if you realize what the red on my handsss meansss?" The girl's wide eyes tracked his movements, and he could see her throat work as she swallowed when she saw the colors on his hands. "I will take that asss a yesss," Sisas informs her, crouching down and reaching out to lay a hand against the skin below the acson rash. The girl bucked beneath him, and Sisas was careful not to actually touch the rash; if he did, some of the remaining oil might get on his fingers, and, well - the Dhani was never terribly fond of his own pain, regardless of how much he enjoyed bringing it to others. When the girl paused, chest heaving as she fought to take in a full breath through the gag, Sisas pushed, the skin on his hand growing hot as he found the irritant of the rash on the girl's skin and amplified it until it felt as though she was being touched by cinders.

She tried to scream, the sound coming out high-pitched and pathetic through the gag as the pain registered, and Sisas sighed in relief as he felt the cuts on his skin seal, healing with the pain that he brought to another. He was back to the second stage - shooting pains in the limbs - although he did not plan to be there for long. He was going to enjoy this, take his time now that he was not distracted by the sting of the cuts, and then he was going to kill the girl beneath him. Perhaps I will strangle her, he thinks, listening to her attempted screams fade into pained whimpers as he removes his hand, allowing the amplification to end for the moment, returning the rash to a mere irritant rather than searing pain.

The Dhani pushed himself upright, taking a few steps away from the girl still laying prone on the dirt floor of the shack to reach his weapons. He selected one of his daggers, idly twirling the blade in his hand as he turned back to his victim of the night; she watched him with fearful eyes, tear tracks staining her face. He smirked as he approached her once more, letting the dagger fall his hand so that the blade was pointed towards the ground - towards her. "I am going to ussse thisss on you quite a bit tonight," he informs her. "Your blood will ssstain the dirt beneath you, and your ssscreamsss will sssoak the ragsss in your mouth." Lightning-fast, the Dhani struck, the tip of the blade slicing through the skin of the girl's shoulder, dragging down towards her elbow, splitting the skin in its wake and leaving a trail of red that grew wider as blood welled up in the laceration. "Beautiful," Sisas murmured as his victim yelped, the sound turning into a scream when he grabbed her around the biceps, her blood mingling with the red of the gnosis mark on his hand as he pushed Krysus's power into her once more, increasing her pain again until the girl was on the verge of passing out; he waited until the last possible moment before releasing her. Her body, which had arched nearly completely off of the ground, collapsed in on itself without grace, and Sisas's smirk widened. Only two applications of the gnosis, and already she crumpled, folding in on herself like a brittle piece of paper. His smirk faltered as pain shot through his hip, traveling down his thigh and calf to burst at his ankle, making him lurch forward, catching himself on the hand not holding the dagger.

The girl flinched away from him, and Sisas gritted his teeth against the pain as, seemingly triggered by the first wave, spasms and shocks traveled through each of his other limbs in turn, leaving him weak-kneed and gasping for breath. Cursing under his breath, Sisas pushed himself back up onto his knees; he had the rest of the night, and he was damned if he was going to waste it by killing her now just to get rid of the pain. He had not reached the addiction to painlessness that many of Krysus's followers were rumored to have found, mostly because he rarely let himself reach past the second stage of withdrawal.

Shoving himself to his feet, the Dhani circled his chosen victim; he was going to do this properly, damn it - and that meant he would take his time. He would carve patterns into her skin that would never be seen, because when he was done with her, he was going to do the same to her that he had done with his other two recent victims, and toss her weighted body into the river just outside of town, where even if the rocks failed, the current would carry her away from Sunberth.

Readjusting his grip on the dagger, determination hardening his expression, the Dhani struck again.

[Sisas]

Text
"Snake-tongue"
"Common tongue"
Internal thoughts

Sisas had spent a few bells - enough to bring them within a bell or two of sunrise - delicately carving patterns into his victim's skin; he never ventured more than a hands-width close to her groin, and didn't touch her breasts, but the rest of her was fair game for his knife, and he took full advantage of it, occasionally pausing either to push more of Krysus's power into her, expanding the pain until the girl was once more on the verge of passing out, or to wait out the shooting pains that still wracked his body every so often; as he continued to torture her, the pains grew slightly less, but that was most likely more due to the fact that Sisas was growing a bit more used to them.

The Dhani knew that the only way to push his own pain back was to kill the girl he had taken, but he was reluctant to do so quickly; if this marked of Krysus was addicted to anything right now, it was to causing pain in another. So he forced himself to take his time, marking almost every inch of the girl's skin, and when he was finally, finally done with her, the girl did not have the energy to do anything more than breathe heavily, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

At least, she did not have the energy to do anything more until Sisas reached for his garrote. Then she tried to struggle once again, but Sisas had had to retie the restraints about her wrists and ankles a bell or two ago, and they held fast now as Sisas kneeled behind the girl's head, gripping the handles firmly in his hands as he wrapped the wire about the girl's throat, drawing it tight and then pulling even harder. He could hear her making choked-off gasps, gurgling slightly, and the scent of blood was heavy on the air from her previous wounds, but Sisas swore that he could smell the fresh blood from the abrasion of the wire against her skin. The Dhani still did not let up, however; he may not be as strong as a Rattler or a Constrictor, or even any Ivyess - Vipers, while capable of producing the most potent of venoms, were the weakest, physically - but he was strong enough to overpower one skinny, underfed and already-weakened girl.

Her struggles only caused the wire to bite deeper, and any time there was even the slightest hint of slack, Sisas tightened it once more, until finally the girl gave one last choked-off gasp, one last twitch, and went still. The Dhani held his position for another chime or two, listening intently, but there was no longer anything to listen to beside his own heartbeat. He loosened his grip on his victim, allowing her to slide to the floor, and was struck by what felt almost like a literal weight had been lifted off of him as his curse reset; suddenly, there was no pain to be found anywhere in his body, and the Dhani fell backwards onto his rump, gasping. He was used to constant, low-grade headaches that occasionally spiked into something worse if he could not cause enough pain in another sentient being, but this - this painlessness - was something that he had only experienced a few times since being marked. Few and far between, but gods, if he could feel like this all the time...

Sisas shook his head abruptly. No time for that now, he scolded himself. You have a body to get rid of.

Pushing himself to his feet, the Dhani cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders before getting to work; he had roughly a bell and a half to get this corpse to the river, weighted with stones, and then sunk without getting caught, so he needed to get moving.

[Aladari Coolwater]

Grade on Hold Please subtract your Spring living expenses, and then PM me so I can get you your well-deserved exp. Thank you.