On Patrol

[Seven]

Hearing her voice, he turns, following its sound until he reaches were she lay helpless. He looks down at her, one eyebrow raised, and almost amused look on his face. "Where is Reece?" he asks formally, though it seems like he is actually saying, 'Really you two are pathetic. Two on one and you couldn't take down one, measly girl?' Instead he says drably, "I suppose I should thank the both of you for distracting the girl long enough to finish the job myself."

[Forsaken]

Asila was determined to stare at anything but the displeased Guardian, and did so for good reason. His scorn, however subtle, was still easy to pick up when she was looking for it, and her wounded pride had her eyes sharpening into narrow slits. Remembering her expression a moment too late, she closed her eyes in a pained expression that was easy enough to fake with her crushed arm as an influence. Then she answered.

"Reece is on the other side of this machine." She lifted her good arm, pointing towards his location. "I don't know what happened to him. I couldn't see." Unthinkingly, she pulled her legs up against her abdomen. A defensive posture that expected a blow. But she didn't say anything else. She couldn't respond to his mocking thanks when any response she could choose would only earn his anger. She couldn't denounce it, because Forsaken never implied that their master was wrong if they knew what was good for them. And she wouldn't agree, because she was too proud to speak words that would only reflect badly on herself in an attempt to appease him.

She just lay her head back on her arm, stared flatly at the machine in front of her, and let her mind go blank. She wouldn't think of what was going to happen next when she knew that she would find out too soon. Which was enough known without inventing all the different horrible whats soon would bring.

[Seven]

Thrasymachus looks down at her for a moment longer, studying her, when he realizes he never forged a mental connection with her. Granted, he wasn't given much time between being given the cat and being sent off on another mission. He sighs tiredly, and if Asila were vain, she might think that this were connected to her, though it really wasn't. He had other thoughts on his mind now, and he really did want to get back to his room. Not to mention he'd have to figure out sleeping arrangements for the new Forsaken once they arrived. Couldn't Somriad have even the slightest consideration, and chosen to gift her to him the next day, when he was fully awake and revatilzed, willing to put up with all these nuisances?

He walks away from the Forsaken, over to the levers. It takes him only a moment to decipher them, and he pulls the correct one to move the machine from off of Asila's arm. Then he wordlessly goes over to the unconscious Reece, pulling him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "It seems we are finished for the night, Asila. Now tell me, how is your arm feeling?"

[Forsaken]

As far as Thrasymachus' sigh went, Asila was just puzzled. She couldn't fathom what had caused it. A sigh was such passive sound, something people did when they were trying to suppress something else. It just didn't make sense to her under the circumstances. What would he try to suppress? Why would he leave anything undone or unsaid when she was the only one to see and what she thought didn't matter?

She had forgotten about Somriad's tendency to drop in and out of her mind whenever doing so pleased him. She hardly even noticed anymore, and she was too concerned about what was going to happen to her to think of what he was up to. So it never occurred to her that Thrasymachus would have to be careful not to say anything around her that he didn't want to get back to Somriad. In fact, as things stood now, she had even managed to forget that Thrasymachus wasn't much freer than she herself was. All of that had just flown beyond the notice of her fear-influenced thoughts.

When her arm had been freed, she sat up gingerly, partly because she was favoring her arm but mostly because she continued to operate under the paranoid fear that she was going to be punished for her failings at any moment.

Yet it seemed that her new master was determined to confuse her, because he only asked after her arm when he returned. Nothing more. She was so surprised that she had to pause to keep herself from stammering when she replied "It...will be all right." It actually hurt like hell, and she was actively going out of her way not to look at it, but she wasn't about to tell him that. This had to be a test.

So she just stood, the hand of her good arm holding her broken, bleeding, swollen arm at her side, and stepped to her usual spot at his left, ready to leave. The arm was healing already, the blood from the gash torn by a broken bone slowing to a sluggish trickle, and the bone slowly slipping back to it's natural place inside her arm. She had been truthful when she said it would be all right.

[Seven]

Though his appearance remained distant and formal, there was a very clear flicker of sarcastic 'yeah right' in his gaze. He shuts his eyes as if trying to remove from view these thoughts, and remain refined. Putting Reece down next to the others, he turns back to Asila and steps forward. "I am afraid that 'will be' is of the future tense, and I do not appreciate having my questions tactfully, or otherwise, avoided. " He looks down at her arm, and he can tell by the way that it hangs that is must be broken, though he is also aware that it shouldn't take too long to heal. "Though there is no need to answer now. I can see for myself your arm is clearly injured," making you useless still... "so you will be unable to carry the weight of a person."

He frowns just the smallest bit. He really did have terrible luck, it would seem. Without saying anything more to her, he turned around and knelt beside the three unconscious bodies. He grimaced slightly, not really wanting to touch the Forsaken, but he was hoping he could snap the thing out of its unconsciousness. He shook Reece's shoulder lightly, commanding him with his voice, "Reece, it is time to wake up." Reece groaned unhappily, trying to turn away. "Reece," he said deceptive calmness. The Forsaken suddenly woke up, but it seems his conscious mind has not, since his eyes snap open and he sprang up hissing trying to attack Thrasymachus. Luckily, Thrasymachus' instincts were faster, and without hesitance he gave Reece a quick blow to the head, causing Reece to promptly fall back over into unconsciousness. Thrasymachus remains motionless and staring coldly for a moment as if waiting for the next bout, but once he realizes Reece is not only not going to attack, but also out cold again, he drops his arm frowning and quietly curses, murmuring to himself in a hissing tone something about "useless."

He stands again, this time gathering Rena in his arms, and then walks back to Asila. "I am afraid that you're going to have to carry someone despite your injury. The girl should be the lightest," he says promptly handing her off to Asila before turning away to go collect the other two as well. "Let us not delay. Though the rebels are bound, I still prefer they not wake up on our voyage back." And with that, he starts off again.

[Forsaken]

Blank-faced, Asila took the girl from her new master, pulling her around her shoulders in a fireman's carry. For a moment, before he had automatically assumed that she was useless and before she had remembered that she didn't have to be entirely open with him, since he couldn't read her thoughts, she had been about to shift into something larger. A cat as large as the wolf whose form she had adopted a lifetime ago. On four legs, the limited use of one wouldn't have been crippling, and as a large beast she could have carried all three. But she had only ever done this a meager handful of times around Somriad, so Thrasymachus wouldn't know. Then again, even Somriad himself didn't know that she could do this on command.

The thing was, when she was stressed, whether very angry, or frightened, or conflicted, she couldn't. Only the small form of the domesticated cat came to her easily, perhaps because she only ever wanted to slink away before something terrible happened to her under these circumstances. But when she wasn't afraid, like now, when she suspected that her new master wasn't going to hurt her for failing after all, she could have.

But she wouldn't, because she was suddenly enjoying the novelty of having a master who didn't know what she was thinking and wanted to enjoy it while she could. So when he walked off, she allowed herself a slight smirk and followed.

[Seven]

Thrasymachus would lead the way back in silence. He walks sternly, proud, a true soldier at heart. ((I imagine their return trip would be a swift, silent one, no?)) Eventually, the would arrive back at Caveryn, mission completed once the rebels wen to their rightful place in the Styxx, and Reece returned to his rightful owner, Somriad.

((Perhaps continue this back at Caveryn?))

[Forsaken]

((Yeah, we'll head back to the Cavyrn. But do you want to drop by Styxx first, or just let Somriad take care of that thread and let T get some rest?))

[Seven]

((hhmmmm, let Somriad take care of that. We'll write it off saying that the Guardians don't fully trust T, so they wouldn't let him handle the prisoners in Styxx or something like that.))

[Forsaken]

((*thinks* Should I just write a post in Styxx that says the rebels will wake up in their own respective cells? Somriad can't interrogate them while they're unconscious, so he would have to lock them in separate cells and wait for them to wake up.

And then you get to start the next thread with T.))

[The Imfamous AKA]

((DO IT! I WANNA GET TO THE INTERROGATION!))

[Seven]

((I was thinking of a similar thing. Sounds good. I'll start T's thread in a second.))

[Forsaken]

((All right. And I guess I should start the Styxx thread so that Rojo and Aka will have something to do.))