#cw:torture

[alicewritingstories]

Febuwhump Day 25: Waterboarding

CW: kidnapping, torture, restraints, drugs

AO3

---

Link wasn't entirely sure how long it had been since he was kidnapped. It didn't help that he'd spent part of the time unconscious; he could still feel the lingering traces of the drug that had been jabbed into his arm by someone in the crowd at the marketplace.

One thing that was certain was that he was now standing against a post, bound too tightly to even shift position. Even his breathing was restricted. A cloth was tied between his teeth tightly enough that his cheeks ached and another was over his eyes.

Dully, he wondered who was holding him and what they wanted. It wasn't as if he was short of enemies, but most of them would have cut his throat already and been done with it. The fact that apparently he had been wanted alive was worrying. It meant that either they wanted to take their time killing him or they wanted something other than his life.

Neither was a comforting thought.

Then he heard something: the rattle of keys in a padlock, followed by the scrapes of a chain being unwrapped and a door rubbing a floor as it opened. He raised his head, trying to give a show of strength and defiance.

Nobody spoke, but he heard footsteps, something heavy being put down, some rustling and scraping, and then footsteps walking away again, followed by the door closing and being locked again.

He frowned, confused, straining his ears to try to hear any talk from outside or any hint of where he was. Everything was silent except that he caught a faint sound that he could believe was half-stifled breathing. He couldn't even be sure enough to seriously wonder if another prisoner had been brought in.

He squirmed as best he could in his bonds, trying to find an angle to rub the blindfold away from his eyes, but it was no good. He just had to continue to wait to find out what was happening: something he had never enjoyed or been good at.

After a while, he heard a faint noise. This time he was sure: it was a soft, gag-strangled voice moaning as the other prisoner recovered consciousness. He tried to make some sound through his own gag in response, but had no way of knowing if the other prisoner had heard him; he just faintly made out some small rustles and shuffles that he guessed was the sound of an unsuccessful struggle against ropes.

Before he could come up with any kind of plan to communicate with the other prisoner or find out more about who they were and their state, he heard the door unlocked again. Again, he raised his head and squared his shoulders as best he could. Footsteps approached and this time someone grabbed the blindfold and pulled it violently away from his eyes.

They were holding a torch near his face and he had to turn away, closing his eyes against the sudden bright light.

"Captain Link," said a voice.

He looked up slowly, blinking away the watering at the corners of his eyes. It was still hard to see, but he did his best to focus and to keep his head up.

A hand grabbed his chin and held his head still as someone untied the knotted cloth tied around his mouth and pulled it free. He took a quick, grateful breath, licking his dry lips to try to moisten them.

"I'm sure you're wondering what's going on. You'll be relieved to know you're not the one we want."

He tilted his head with a scowl, not making the effort to speak aloud. His eyes had grown sufficiently accustomed to the light that he could see the man speaking to him, not that it helped; he was wearing a mask and only his eyes were visible. Link noted that they were green, a few freckles were visible on the bridge of the man's nose, and he had a Castletown accent. Useful information if he got out of here alive.

"We're interested in the princess. Answer our questions and you'll be untied and released once we've finished our work and kept safe and comfortable in the meantime. Refuse and you won't."

Link met his eye squarely, his jaw set.

"I thought you might not be interested in cooperating. Whatever else anyone says about you, you're a brave man and you've always been happy to risk your skin for her. Well, how about the skin of your little cousin here?" The man stepped aside and pointed. Now Link saw the other prisoner: a young boy in a brightly-coloured quartered tunic, gagged and tied spread-eagled on a table. Another masked man had just removed his blindfold and he was blinking in Link's direction.

Link had never seen him before in his life. He didn't even have any cousins.

"Strangers' lives mean nothing to you, we all know that, but he and the rest of the family have been asking around town for you. I guess you don't do a good job of writing home."

Both accusations stung. Neither was worth engaging with right now.

The boy's eyes had focussed on Link's face. His expression showed none of the fear Link had expected. There was some resemblance, he supposed, though in the circumstances it was hard to tell. But the question of whether whoever had left him at an orphanage when he was a baby had had family that might have tracked him down could wait. First, he had to get himself and the boy out of here.

Link's gaze went back to the man speaking to him. He wished he had Proxi, but wishes were wasted. He was going to have to speak for himself and he licked his lips again, unsure what to do. The boy knew too much now; they wouldn't let him leave alive even if Link managed to persuade them he didn't know him and therefore by their own logic he didn't care what they might do to him.

He did, he always did, but what he cared about didn't matter much to anyone.

"Let's start with something easy, shall we?" said the man pleasantly. "The royal kitchens. Are there any special precautions around the princess' meals and those of her closest retainers such as General Impa?"

Link glared at him.

"Ah, I see." The man turned and nodded to his companions. Before Link could react, one of them pinched the boy's nose closed while another dipped a bucket of water out of a barrel beside the table and tipped it over the boy's head. The boy let out a cry, strangled to a squeal by the now-soaked gag, and bucked against the hand on his face and the ropes holding him to the table.

Link swallowed hard, imagining trying to breathe through a mouth filled with wet cloth. The man holding the boy's nose held it a moment longer, then released it, letting the boy gasp in a breath.

There wasn't much choice for Link; he couldn't betray Zelda, not to save himself, not to save a stranger, not to save someone who might be long-lost family.

"Nothing?" asked the kidnapper.

When Link still stayed silent, the man nodded at his companions again. Another bucket of water was thrown over the boy's face. This time the man standing over him didn't plug his nose and his gasps were punctuated by sneezes, muffled coughs, and the occasional involuntary whimper.

Link gritted his teeth and stayed silent.

The man asked more questions, visibly more and more frustrated. Link kept quiet, though the boy's muffled cries as he struggled to breathe properly tore at his heart. He had to do this. It wasn't even as if it was the first time he'd let an innocent suffer for the greater good.

Then, out of nowhere, the door was smashed open. Link's head snapped round and he gasped as a tattooed man in shining plate armor ran in. The kidnappers were just as shocked as he was, which gave the newcomer - newcomers, he realized; three other men ran in after the first - a chance to make it almost to where he stood before the kidnappers could even react.

"Legend, Hyrule!" the armored man shouted. "With me!"

The man who had been waterboarding the boy drew a knife, but a slight teenager in a red tunic closed the distance before he could even get out the threat to kill his prisoner. The man who had been questioning Link didn't even make a threat; he drew his knife and brought it to Link's throat.

Link took a quick final breath and mentally said farewell to Zelda and his other friends.

Then a sword flashed past his face. The kidnapper reeled back with a cry, clutching at his hand. A young man in a white cloak stepped in front of Link, sword still raised protectively.

"Are you all right?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

Link let out the breath he'd taken and nodded. He couldn't see past the man in the cloak, but he heard the clash of swords, shouts, and then coughing and someone saying, "OK, Four. Just keep breathing."

The man in the cloak relaxed and sheathed his sword, then stepped over beside Link to start cutting his bonds.

"You're Link?" he asked quietly with a small, comforting smile.

Link nodded. "The traitors?" he managed.

"Dead."

"Are you hurt?" asked the armored man, looking over from where the two teenagers were supporting the boy - Four. Now there was more time to look at them all, Link noticed that one of his eyes was closed, the lid marred with a long scar. He instinctively ranked him as a captain, though he wasn't wearing any uniform Link recognised.

He could once again see some resemblance between them and him. They had come for Four, so this must be the group his kidnappers had talked about.

He could see why they had thought this was his family.

Then he was distracted as the blood finally started to return to his cramped, numb limbs. As soon as he was no longer supported by the ropes, Link collapsed forward. The captain lunged forward to catch him and held him up as the one with the cloak kept working on the ropes.

"Are you hurt?" he asked again.

Link shook his head. "The boy - Four - is he all right?" he asked quietly.

The captain looked Link up and down and, to his surprise, he smiled. "Legend? Hyrule?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"I'm fine," said Four in a surprisingly low-pitched, steady voice, accompanied by relieved-sounding chuckles from the two teens. Then he coughed again.

Link had expected anger at what he had allowed to happen to Four. He'd expected to find that he'd burned the bridge with his maybe-family before it had even been built.

"You must be Captain Link," the captain said as he gently lowered Link to sit against the post, a hand still on his shoulder to steady him.

Link nodded.

"My name is also Link, but you can call me Time. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. These are Sky" - He pointed to the man in the cloak - "Legend" - the teen in the red tunic - "Hyrule" - the other teen, this one dressed in humble green and brown - "you've, well… you've seen Four" - Four waved with one rope-burned hand, covering more coughs with the other - "and Wind is keeping watch."

Link looked up at them all, still confused. "Who are you?" He asked. It was a start on the questions he really wanted to ask.

Time sighed. "That's a long story," he said. "And it's best told somewhere other than here."

Link forced an approximation of his usual bright, confident smile and at last the words came easily. "Well, then, when I can walk again you should come with me. Four should see a medic and I'm sure her highness would like to meet you."

Time nodded briskly, his own smile relaxing, and squeezed Link's shoulder. "In the meantime, you concentrate on recovering. You're safe with us."

And as the blood flowed painfully back into Link's swollen hands and feet, he believed him.

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

(long as heck ask, so so so sorry about this)

Right, Ima be honest. I'm so very close to compling all the questions of the SK AU that you have answered, into like a google doc or something of the sort. I have severe brainrot for this AU (if it's not obvious already). Could you tell me if that's alright? I wouldn't mind letting the doc be available for all to view. I am curious to see if any of the questions you have answered verrrry early on, has to be revoked because it doesn't fit anymore.

Additionally, I have a whole sheet of paper with scribbled questions for the SK AU on...about 10 more give or take. Do you want to answer them all at one go or 2-3 questions per ask. And also, would it be better if I kept all the questions, where the answer has potential torture, to an ask. So that the tags are more...accessible in a way?

Like I seperate out the wholesome stuff away from the torture/abuse. So you won't have an ask that has both the tags 'cw: torture' and 'Sun loves cats'. Allowing those that have blacklisted 'cw:torture' to enjoy (thisdoesntseemliketherightword) your wholesome answers

If this barely makes sense to you, I blame it on the fact that its 5am and I have not slept in 12 hours-ish. And no, I'm not sleeping any time soon

1 more question, what is ':3c'. I have no idea what it means-

Have a good day!

Sure I don't mind >w<

and ask away, however many you think at once is good. And ye, could be best to keep the wholesome one together and separate from the more darker topics that may require TWs

and :3c is me being a lil mischievous with things

:3c

[evita-shelby]

Am I watching very carefully that scene where Jack tortures Billy Grade so Eva can make a refrence to it via a weird joke?

Yes i am.

Anyways its takes about two seconds for Jack to wrap the piano wire around Billy's balls

Gif under the cut

Cw:torture

Thanks @peakyblinded for giffing it

[foulwitchknight]

CW:Torture, SA

[whumpadventureprompts]

Truth Serum

Whumper has dosed Whumpee with truth serum and it hasn't worn off yet when they're rescued. 

When Caretaker instinctively asks, "What happened?" They don't expect Whumpee to mechanically recite every detail of the torture they endured.

[mylifeisactuallyamess]

Too Far Gone

Art by the talented @clumsycopy

Sith!Kylo x Female Reader

Warnings: Heavy chapter! 2 character deaths, feelings of hopelessness, interrogation from Hux and Kylo. Mention/description of torture, drugging. Mention of children/pregnancy. Memories and flashbacks galore! Usual Trooper violence. NSFW 18+

Word count: 8k

You fought when they pulled you out of the compartment, you heard the surprised grunts of the troopers as you came out fighting but they overpowered you quickly pinning you to the floor as they removed Poe first. You didn’t give up, fighting them all the way until they managed to slam you into the interrogation chair. The restraints clicked into place as you looked over at Poe slumped in his chair, he was just over to the right hand side of you and you could tell by the angle he would be able to see everything they did to you and you would see everything they would do to him. The door snapped open and you glared at the General you had tried to kill on Lothal. His orange hair was slicked back, not a strand out of place, he clasped his hands behind his back his coat flared at the side as he strode towards you, his immaculate boots ringing out on the grated floor.

Read Chapter 6 here on AO3.

[alicewritingstories]

Febuwhump Day 20: Truth serum

CW: torture, drugs

AO3

---

Time grunted as another slap snapped his head round, making the chair to which he was tied rock. He coughed, spitting blood from a split lip, and looked up again at his captors as best he could, given that his one good eye was swollen almost entirely closed.

"Just give us the Rod of Seasons and this ends, kid," said one of the men standing over him.

"Long time since I've been called 'kid'," he said thickly, forcing a grin. The remark earned him another slap. He let his head hang for a moment until the room stopped swirling, then said, "Look, I don't even know what you're talking about."

It wasn't true. The Rod of Seasons was one of the items they'd seen when they visited Legend's house. But it would take a lot more than this for Time to share that information.

A hand tangled in his hair and pulled his head up, then, to his surprise, the edge of a cup was pushed to his lips. He'd had nothing to drink since they'd kidnapped him and he swallowed a mouthful of the liquid in the cup almost before he realized what was happening and, more importantly, noticed the odd aftertaste the water left on his tongue. Drugs or poison.

As soon as he realized what was happening, he tried to pull away, but the hand holding his hair kept his head still and more of the tainted water was poured into his mouth so he had to either swallow or drown. He swallowed.

Once they'd forced the whole cup down his throat, they finally released him and let his head fall forward again. He waited with bated breath to find out what exactly it was that they had just given him.

At first he didn't feel anything wrong, but gradually he became aware that his vision was blurring at the edges. Then that breathing seemed to be taking more conscious effort. He knew he should be worried about that, but somehow it didn't seem to matter. It felt distant. As if he was just watching it happen. The same thing slowly happened to the pain in his head and face. It was there, but it didn't seem to matter.

He vaguely knew he was in danger, but the fact slid away from his thoughts, too difficult to concentrate on. Too distant.

Vaguely, he wondered if this was what it was like to be really, really drunk. He'd never tried that. Perhaps it would be fun. This certainly felt kind of nice.

"Now," said a voice. It echoed slightly in Link's head. "Let's try this again."

Try what again?

Oh, yes, he did know this voice. It had been asking him questions. And was its owner the one who had been hitting him to make his head hurt? That… that sounded right.

"Where is the Rod of Seasons?"

Rod of Seasons.

Rod of Seasons.

A memory swam to the surface: a finger pointed to a short staff. A voice: "That? It's the Rod of Seasons. It does pretty much what you'd expect."

"Yes, we know what it does," said the voice, and Link realized he'd spoken the remembered words aloud. "Where is it?"

Again, the words slipped out before Link was even fully aware of them. "On the wall."

"What wall?"

From somewhere in the fog, Link remembered that he didn't want to answer their questions. He couldn't remember why, but… it felt important. Maybe… someone had asked him to keep a secret. Or this person wanted to hurt someone. Or something.

"Hey!" Fingers snapped in front of his face. "The Rod of Seasons. Where is it kept?"

Didn't he know?

Well, if he didn't know, there was probably a reason for that. Link slurred out, "It's a secret."

An impatient sigh. "OK, I get that, but you can tell me. Just tell me."

"No. It's a secret." He didn't understand why, but that… it felt important.

Another angry, impatient noise and Link's head snapped to the side with a sudden flare of pain. He yelped in surprise and looked up at the man who had just hit him.

"That hurt!" he said, not caring about the whine in his voice or the tears that spilled from his eyes.

"I know. Now tell me where the Rod of Seasons is or I'll hurt you again."

Link's breath caught in a sob. Why was this stranger hurting him? Why did any of this matter? Someone he cared about had asked him… had asked him to keep a secret… why was that wrong?

There was a throbbing, rushing noise in Link's ears as he started to cry. The floaty, distant feeling no longer felt nice. He was scared. There was so much noise. Voices shouting, crashes of metal and wood. What had he done wrong?

"It's a secret…" he whispered. "It's a secret…"

The world around him swirled and suddenly he was lying down. There were different voices now. Familiar voices.

Concussion - you hear me - time - what did…

"It's a secret," he murmured.

Something was glowing. Something crawled in the skin of his face, but he couldn't concentrate enough to wonder what it was or try to brush it away.

"OK, Time," a gentler voice said. "Can you open your eye for me?"

He hadn't realized he'd closed it. He looked up and faces swam into focus. He knew them.

"You…" he said vaguely. "You're safe. I love you all."

A couple of them exchanged concerned looks. Another laughed uncomfortably. "Oh, yeah," he said. "That's a concussion, for sure."

That was the voice that had told him about the Rod of Seasons. The one he'd promised he'd keep secrets for. Link reached for him.

"Kept your secret," he said, smiling.

The boy looked confused, but took the outstretched hand. "I, uh… thanks," he said.

"Let's get you out of here," said one of the others. Link looked up at him, his eyes caught by the bright blue of his scarf.

"'S pretty," he said. "Blue. Pretty."

"I know," chuckled the man - his brother, he realized. "Just relax. Twilight, can you carry him?"

"Y're my brother," he said, letting his eye close again. The floaty feeling was back. It felt good again, and he once more didn't care that he was starting to cry. This time it was from good feelings. "Love you all."

"We love you too, Time. Get some rest."

[petterwass]

Thinking a bit about Carmen's whole "half the aegir we kidnapped and tortured to death were real cultists" and you know, I think we should also consider that he might straight up be lying.

-He has just committed an act of incredible cruelty towards a dying man, in front of the Rhodes Island representative.

-Said representative is Elysium, who despite his undoubted competence, is not Kal'tsit, who would likely see through any lies

-He needs Rhodes Island's cooperation as they're the go-between to the Abyssal Hunters.

-So he could just be bullshitting Elysium to make himself and by extent, The Inquisition seem more justified in their behavior.

And if he's NOT lying, consider the following options

-The Inquisition' definition of guilt is extremely broad. Thigo, if he had lived would likely had been judged a cultist as might anyone else that simply knew about the Church of the Deep and didn't call the cops.

-The 50% are the number of aegir who broke under torture (we know the Iberian Inquisition uses torture freely and often, we even see Carmen torture a cultist), forced mutilations etc and admitted to a false guilt. In which case the real number is much much lower, and might even be close to or be zero. This also folds into the fact that I find it unlikely that Thigo would miss that his wife was the Bishop of the Church of the Deep, without noticing it. At the very least he'd know that she was a cultist.

So just a few musing about why we perhaps should not take Carmen's statement here at face value. He might be telling the truth, but he might also be lying and telling what he believes is the truth, but very much isn't.

[thestuckylibrary]

Except it Abide in the Vine by spitandvinegar (restricted)

[asklordcaptaincastronova]

✍ + Work, for Anastasia

She sat down in the chair, put her feet on the stool, and began eating her sandwich. An eye opened in response, looking desperately at the meal.

Without making any indication she'd noticed, she took a bite. Yes, the vegetables were crunchy. That'd add to the effect. That was the point after all. The 1/3 meter sandwich was absurd, but that was the point. There was a soft piteous moan. The subject hadn't eaten in week.

Still munching, she pulled out her notebook and began to doodle. She'd set aside an hour for this, as she refilled her glass from the pitcher.

"pl.. ease" she also ignored it. They'd established very clearly at the beginning of their little sessions what information she wanted. Anything else was just finding more levers, or useless. She chewed and swallowed. She didn't even like this sandwich, the sacrifices one made for duty.

[tiend]

my faves are problematic

Jesse, Fives, and Echo’s ARC training - Cody and Rex, too - probably included teaching them how to get information from people who didn’t want to give it. Roughing up a suspect. Encouraging someone to talk. Enhanced interrogation. Torture.

ARC troopers are supposed to go solo for long periods of time, often behind enemy lines. They’re trained to be creative and independent, perfect for jobs with an open-ended brief. Clone commandos are for fast infil/exfil with a clearly defined mission and measures of success. If you need to train the locals in CIS counter-insurgency, send in an ARC. If you need to have someone assassinated, send in a squad of commandos.

After Echo’s death, an angry, grieving Fives could’ve been sent into a high pressure volatile situation for weeks or months. Same thing could have happened to Jesse after Tup’s and Fives’ deaths and Kix’s disappearance. 

There were torturers in the Cuy’val Dar who could have passed on their techniques; the Nulls, the Alpha ARCs, and the commandos were all taught how to resist pain. The clone commandos at least weren’t taught interrogation techniques, but they have internalised its use enough to be okay with leaving the torture to other people:

“We’re not trained to interrogate prisoners,” said Niner.

He put it out of his mind with a conscious effort, and not only because Ordo had insisted on undamaged prisoners. He knew how to kill, and he knew how to resist pain, but he wasn’t sure how to inflict it deliberately.

But he was pretty sure that Vau did. He’d leave the job to him.

Vau is Walon Vau, who tortures someone to death for information in RepComm. He’s one of the Cuy’val Dar, responsible for training some of the commandos. He explicitly tortured them as part of his training program to the extent that one of them wants to kill him for the things Vau inflicted on him, mentally and physically.

Niner was trained by Kal Skirata, no Vau. Skirata trained the Nulls in interrogation, so he could have used those skills to teach his commandos how to resist pain. Or there could be another torturer in the Cuy’val Dar, which seems likely given the hit rate so far.

Nulls have been trained to think of interrogation as “having a chat” with people, when those people are heavily wounded, are being denied medical treatment, and have a gun to their heads:

...Ordo said. “You can cooperate or not, but I might as well execute you now if you’re not going to be useful. We can’t handle any more prisoners.” It was always hard to tell if Ordo was playing the interrogation game...

The original Alpha ARCs were considered to be uncontrollable, and were ‘pretty much raw Jango’ after the Kaminoans overtweaked the Fett genome and produce the Nulls. They were trained personally by Jango Fett.

 Alpha-17 tells Ventress he’s been trained to resist torture when she captures him and Obi-Wan Kenobi; Jango Fett could have done it himself, or gotten Vau or Skirata to do it. In that environment, it’s hard to believe that they didn’t teach ARCs any ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques. It was normalised enough that the commandos don’t question handing over their prisoners to be tortured, even if they didn’t know how to do it themselves. It’s entirely probable that Jango Fett thought it would be a useful skill for his Alpha ARCs to know - the way they’re deployed means they might run into anything out there.

After Geonosis, some of the remaining ARCs and some of the Nulls start to train more clones as ARCs; this is probably when Cody and Rex went through. They’re line officers, though; they would never operate independently in the same way an ARC is supposed to be able to, although they could. The training regime might also have gotten more brutal as the Republic tilted harder towards the Empire in the later stages of the war, and people like Tarkin came to power. 

Clone troopers of any kind don’t get mental health treatment. They get reconditioned. But if you did that to an ARC, they’d lose the initiative and creativity that makes them so effective, and waste all their training. Maybe an ARC that’s too close to the edge gets redeployed back to their original unit for a while, so they’re surrounded and supported by the troopers they know and love. Like Fives, after the Citadel, on Umbara. Or Jesse, after Kix and Fives and Tup, on Anaxes. So they don’t snap completely, and they’re still being useful to the war effort.

So: Fives and Echo and Jesse and Rex and Cody were probably taught how to torture people, and it’s probable that some of them did.  It wouldn’t have left them unscathed, and they might have needed to take breaks so they didn’t vomit inside their helmets, but if they thought it was necessary to save their brothers lives? I think they would.

[whumpadventureprompts]

Undercover

Caretaker is undercover as one of Whumper's allies. Whumper takes them to see Whumpee and Caretaker goes along, just managing to hide their feelings at the state Whumpee is in.

Whumpee looks up and their eyes light up. "Caretaker!" they cry. "Caretaker, help me!"

If Caretaker's cover is blown, they can't be any help to Whumpee. Before they can change their mind, they punch Whumpee out.

[stuckylibrary]

Hi I wanted to recommend Things Floating Like the First Hundred Flakes of Snow by BeaArthurPendragon, krycekasks (/21001790) and also ask if there are other fics with this sort of premise where Steve and Bucky find and save each other before they do in canon? I already know of NEC and Cascades. Thanks!

Thank you for writing in!

Things Floating Like the First Hundred Flakes of Snow by BeaArthurPendragon, krycekasks (complete | 51,361 | E) *graphic violence, rape/noncon, past /others

In the summer of 1968, the Winter Soldier manages to break free of his HYDRA programming enough to get a message to SHIELD Deputy Director Peggy Carter that Captain America is still alive.

Or: How Bucky and Steve save one another, one more time.

Art by krycekasks.

Fic complete.

[pelle-lavellan-a]

@nighttimefriend from X

Pelle bit his tongue before averting his gaze from the woman he was trapped inside the cell with. Sure he could have been a little nicer, but he was injured, afraid, and he didn’t know where he was or what was going to happen.

Well...part of that was a lie. He knew where he was--but he didn’t want to be there. This was the last place he wanted to be at the moment.

He sighed. “I would do it you know--” He said his voice sounded a bit hoarse like he’d perhaps lost it recently. “You’re lucky, I’m all screamed out for a while.”

He wondered where she was from--she certainly wasn’t a Marcher, but her accent wasn’t something he could place.

“You might as well use me as a shield to be honest. I doubt I’d survive following you if you made a run for it.”

At the moment, he’d nearly died only about a week ago. Almost stabbed to death and tortured with blood magic. Needless to say this had not been a good week for him. He was found by humans, refugees from Kirkwall who took pity on him and decided to rescue him and tend to his wounds. Unfortunately, them being refugees meant that people were looking for them--and find them they did. This also meant that when the refugees succeeded in begging for their lives, Pelle was taken with them. If they did not kill him for being too damaged given his current condition, then they might sell him to slavers. If he got lucky he might go back home--but trapped in a cell with an irritable woman, several wounds that would re-open (again) if he made any quick movements, and literally no strength in his body, his chances were looking quite slim.

If he was lucky he’d get away, but after the week he was having he didn’t think he had any luck left, the humans had been his saving grace a few days ago--now he feared they might actually be the death of him as well, or the death he was already facing was just delayed a few days and it was coming back laughing in his face.

He leaned his head against the stone walls and sighed closing his eyes and pretending that there was not a woman trying to pick the lock and planning to use him as a meat shield if things went south.

[sannoh-rengokai]

Another trailer for Final Mission