Senecio adn Tide II

[Mirach]

"We are alone yet," Senecio adjusted the scene. "The crowd is waiting in the next room. Nathandir is the traitor... my King. But I have no proof and I can’t just accuse him. What shall we do?"

[VisAnastasis]

" If he realizes I suspect him, he will cover his tracks and raise a rebellion... If we don't catch him now, his betrayal may put our whole country at risk, " Tide put on a role, speaking calmly, but with certain thoughtfulness in his eyes. He put aside the rope for a moment, and Tide's usual humanlike form faded as he took on the form they made for the Beast King, one of the sharp edges and more monster appearance. Creature added with dignity and firmness in his voice. " How far are you willing to go to punish a person that betrayed me, Sein Miru? How much do you choose to put on the line to prove to me that your words are true? "

[Mirach]

"Whatever you ask from me, my King," Senecio said without missing a beat. "I'm yours."

[VisAnastasis]

" And you'll remain mine whether you do this or not. After all, serving me is not the same as serving my country, " Beast King replied firmly, as he explained. " But if you want to... I will allow you to help me with this. What I ask can't be done with half resolve, though, because if you change your mind during it, you'll put my integrity in danger, and a king is nothing if his subjects doubt him. You may do this, or you may not, but once you choose, your resolve has to be one of steel, " he asked then, gesturing to him. " You are certain Nathandir is a traitor? I can not accuse him without proof. But if I torture you for information before others and accuse him under the guise of the anger of the moment, I can intimidate him before other advisors and force him to confess. Is your conviction of his guilt strong enough to withstand this trial? Or even if you are convinced, is your heart too frail to go through with it? What will you choose?"

[Mirach]

"I am certaon of his guilt," Senecio said. "And it's a good idea how to expose him and make my words have weight against him. I want to do it, my king. Can you just tell ke what you will do to me and how I should act?"

[VisAnastasis]

" I don't want to damage you beyond repair. What is the point of losing a loyal subject over a faulty one? But the point of this plan is to catch my advisors of the guard so that I can intimidate them and catch the guilty one when he's overwhelmed with fear, " Demon grinned and added with a more solemn, collected expression. " So we need to be as convincing as possible without hurting you too much, but we need to make it look real enough to strike fear deep into their bones. So, for a start, I think it will be a good choice to tie you and whip you before them... Whether I am forced to do more depends on the quality of your acting. As a man in fear, you should act in whatever manner experiencing great terror at hands of Beast King would suffice to intimidate them and cloud their judgement, " his eyes narrowed, like a beast measuring his pray indeed. " And you must not accuse Nathandir before you see he is terrified enough by my treatment of you that he can not help but confess. After all, without forced confession, all our show is for nothing. Can I count on you to make a sound decision even if it's hard to keep going? "

[Mirach]

"I can do that for you," Senecio said with determination. "I will act defiant at first, and then pretend to have the defiance broken. I'll beg you to stop, but when I do that it will only mean that you can go on harder. But if I say that I'll never tell you what I know, you might ease it to help me last longer. Is that alright?"

[VisAnastasis]

" Since you are so certain, I will gamble on your courage this time, Sein Miru. I did not name you after dragons for no reason, after all, and why should I spit on that courage needlessly? I shall keep your requests in mind so we can pull this off, " the creature grinned and gestured to the man to come closer. " Let us hurry, though, time is of the essence, they will be here any moment now. If I do not tie you up before they come, they will be suspicious from the start. "

[Mirach]

The slave nodded and approached the king, presenting his hands to be bound.

[VisAnastasis]

Beast King indeed worked in haste, as if running against time now that the decision was made, but his hold and look was firm as he had to make it look like real restraints. It hurt as the bonds were pressed tight against his wrists, and then, across his whole body, as he was being tied roughly and without leaving a place for freeing himself, as would happen to any high-risk prisoner.

[Mirach]

Senecio loved the moment of the loss of freedom in this setting, and broke the character for a moment to just enjoy it. Then he got back into it. "I'm ready, my King," he said. "I won't disappoint you."

[VisAnastasis]

" They are coming in...Remember, right now you are a willful spoiled slave, not an obedient lamb. Make sure you act as defiant and resist as much as proper, otherwise, it will all be for nought, " Beast King instructed him quietly before he turned toward the door and his expression stiffened. Tide surely had somewhat more trouble imagining acting with invisible people that had no voices to react to, so he compensated lack of real audience with acts invoking a feeling of urgency, haste, and uncertainty, as he grasped the ropes and pulled the actor firmly by them, making him stagger a little. Unlike his words that were simpler to not break the character, the strength of his claws and their pressure against the ropes felt ominous and way too real.
" You are a little late, " he said darkly. " I had a long battle this morning and I don't have much patience left for today, so let us get over this quickly. "

[Mirach]

Senecio got into the role within the role eagerly, and as soon as the king spoke, he started to struggle with a mix of fear and defiance, with all his strength that was nowhere near sifficient to escape from the firm grasp - on the contrary, it even enhanced the feeling of helplessness when all his effort wasn't enough to move even an inch.

[VisAnastasis]

Indeed, it was hard to imagine being able to escape the hold, as it seemed Tide did not put any effort at all and still kept him on place by the hold of tips of his fingers. It was as if being faced with an immovable object, and Senecio would have had the same success trying to move a mountain.
It was strange, dealing with Tide's strength while he was in a form so different from his usual one, as this one had hard edges and felt more like armour and hurt to struggle against. It almost felt like being with a whole different person at this moment just with the silent fight alone. But it was the feelings he perceived that were harder to struggle against, since, with knowledge of pretence to be someone else, Tide allowed himself the freedom to feel slowly rising dark curiosity as he turned his head to watch the man. It was the curiosity of someone allowing himself to explore more risky thought he never allowed himself before, but because it was backed with such inevitable strength, it was more unsettling than the empty pretence of anger would be.

" Struggle is a natural reflex of the living... But why does it force people to act so against their survival instincts? " Creature before him whispered, turning to lean towards him. While one hand was enough to restrain him, with the other, he pulled him by the shoulder to force him to meet his eyes, as he added wonderingly. " If you just live quietly and do as told, you may live a fine and safe life with no struggles. Why choose to live a life of an ant trying to defy the crushing weight of human feet? What is it that makes it so worth the risk? "

[Mirach]

The slave continued struggling, looking at the king defiantly. "What else can you do when you're an ant and want to matter?" he said hoarsely.

[VisAnastasis]

" If wanting to matter will only result in massive feet crashing down on you, " Beast king whispered with a calm chill in his voice, while slowly, without rush, he took a whip with one of his six arms while still maintaining eye contact. " What is the use of drawing attention to yourself at all? " he asked with the words sounding genuinely thoughtful, as he waved with the whip from the side toward Senecio and struck his back for the first time. The pain was burning more strongly than last time, even over clothes, because, having not hurt him last time, Tide was more confident putting more proper strength while doing this. Instead, as the whip struck again, he asked anew. " If you will live longer and better by hiding in the grass, what's the value of being in the open, little ant? "

[Mirach]

Sein Miru cried out with the sudden pain, but then bit his lip and composed himself, meeting the Beast King's gaze. "It may be worth it if it brings your downfall," he said defiantly. "It's being prepared already, but you'll never learn more from me. As long as I am in the open, someone else can act in secret..." he said, subtly letting the imagined traitorous councillor know that he could expose him if he breaks.

[VisAnastasis]

Since Sein Miru spoke the words about never finding out about the plot, despite they barely started the pretense, Beast King gave him little space and did not hit him again right away, as those were the code words for giving him a little breather.
" I did hear worker ants sacrifice themselves for the colony... what an interesting concept," he replied, and instead of a whip this time, he ran his fingers against the bare skin of Sein's neck. More than anger would be, a cold indifference he had shown was more chilling." Well,  may it be. To a human, an ant is but a plaything, anyway, and you only need mouth to speak, anyway. If you won't listen nicely, you can always talk after I pull off your arms and legs, can't you?" He voiced a pent up threat that was seemingly to the slave, but would surely make any imaginary advisors tremble, which was definitely his hidden intention. In demonstration, though, as if he was really going to tear of his limbs, Beast King put four hands on them each of them, two on shoulders, two on thighs, and pulled them apart as he resisted. It was a measured display of strength that only Tide could do, but yet, Senecio felt light scratching sensation of nails searing into his tunic and pants, and a distinct tearing sound of his clouds, sharp and clear, as nails began to pierce and cut out parts of them with sudden movement.

[Mirach]

It was an unusual sensation to be grabbed in the way, and despire knowing the king promised to not hurt him, Sein Miru let a hint of fear show on his face, but he pressed his lips firmly.

[VisAnastasis]

" Yes, at last, finally! Now, that's a reasonable reaction," Beast King grinned with thriumph, but there was a tinge of deeper more melancholy emotion on the corner of his lips that only Senecio could glimpse with his new senses - a feeling of morbid curiousity and pang of pain only barely covered by the taunting, a peculiar kind of sadness that was set ablaze by the sudden overwhelming need to find out more." In a face of inconceivable threat, fear is the only proper response... How long can you really resist it before giving in to true terror?" He asked fiercely as he kept going, slowly ripping off Sein Miru's clothes to shreads bit by bit and leaving him with light scratches as he did so, revealing his pale bruised body underneath.

[Mirach]

The show of ripping off his clothes was really impressive. The slave tensed with every tear of the fabric as if he expected his flesh being torn with it, but he kept his lips pressed firmly. As all his clothes were torn away, he shivered - maybe in fear, or shame or just cold. Or maybe in anticipation...

[VisAnastasis]

With that little small but telling hint, Tide must have wondered if there was actually way less fear involved than he imagined. Was it Tide's bemusement with the absurdity of the situation, or Beast King's display of indifference to his humiliation, but suddenly the creature laughed deeply, from the belly - and ever slowly, it leaned against the unclothed man, the sharper hardened edges of it bruising Senecio's chest, while the arms still held him tightly from backing away.

" Perhaps you are not humiliated enough, to still be able to show such a brave face? What a puny, pitiful amount of fear for a prey to show to the predator... It's way too little fear to call it appropriate, " it replied with a little hoarse voice. " Give me more this instant... " he demanded quietly, and as if it was but a demonstration of his monster position, the beastly creature lowered its head and bit man's neck lightly. It was seemingly a mere show of power that was mostly pressure and only drew a bit of blood - but with his new senses, Senecio could feel the distant scent of Tide's growing hunger, a hunger that was greatly restrained and kept in check, but that however over him ominously with the bite.

[Mirach]

The slave moaned and trembled a little, his breath short and fast with the closeness. There were layers of chatacters in that: the interrogated slave being intimidated, but still trying to resist. Sein Miru trusting his king and acting for the sake of the audience. Senecio fascinated by the ominous hungry presence, drawn to it with a mix of fear and admiration. "Mercy..." he whispered, not loud enough for the imagined audience to hear, just for the King's ears as the agreed upon signal.

[VisAnastasis]

The creature responded to the word with a slight tremble, the teeth searing just a little deeper before he retreated them slowly, restraining the gesture with a great amount of effort. Tide's restraint was indeed on a whole another level, as Senecio could feel that each his move was carefully chosen, despite the hungry feeling in the air growing with time. There were many layers of keeping up appearances in the retreating gesture - seemingly casual toying of Beast King, King's concealed great efforts to not hurt Sein Miru seriously, and Tide's inner struggle between knowing things are growing dangerous but still wanting to push the situation further.

" Predators don't know the meaning of mercy... " the actor heard a hoarse voice beside his ear the moment one of the demon's hands slid down and touched him intimately for the first time, scratching the inner side of his thigh before grabbing his manhood unexpectedly roughly. " Prey exists to be eaten or toyed with. So how about you start working on feeling a more proper amount of terror for your situation, poor little prey? " the words echoed in the actor's ears as the sensation of pain burned through his brain as the coarse hand stroked him. But even more than that, the hunger in the air overwhelmed him more and more. Despite they choose to mostly use whip before, as if driven by an invisible irresistible force, while handling him, the demon instead bit Senecio again, and again after that. Those were small, little bites of pressure, bruising and sending shivers through the actor's body. Never biting the same place again, the demon bit around the actor's shoulders and arms before going lower, along his chest, and then began bitting his thighs, approaching closer and closer to his intimate parts. Senecio was half-familiar with the manner - from the time Tide would like to gently kiss and rub all around him to leave his scent upon him. But this felt like a deeper more primal pleasure Tide finally gave himself the freedom to indulge in, as if trying to imprint his scent upon him more than just the skin deep.

[Mirach]

It seemed that Sain Miru decided it's time to show a bit more pain, and he cried out with each bite, pretending it to be much deeper than it actually was. In the same time though, he got aroused with the raw intimacy of it.