WHEN: 1943 Sept eve, sometime after Eli's capture and prior to Naoki losing Luke's boons
WHERE: Lex's Lab at Castle Dashrix
WHO: Eli Coyn, Lex Dashrix, and Naoki Sato
--
[19:32] Naoki Sato padded across the stones of the laboratory floor, completely comfortable with the cold beneath his feet. He was unbothered by the chill - it was natural to him, even at the temperatures Eli's presence brought the lab to. There had been something of a commotion as he'd pulled the pixie through shadow, wrestling with him until he could get him contained properly to a cell. Then it was a matter of sending word to Lex. The Jikininki did not want to wander far. He remained in the cell block, instead letting a homonculus fly out to alight on whatever desk or nearby windowsil would grab the Professor's attention. Rather than a butterfly the construct resembled a moth when it arrived, only to morph into a perfect facsimile of the pixie's wings before fluttering out to guide Lex back to the lab.
[19:39] Quin Li (riven.rowe): The cell that Eli is in is probably not very approachable, unless one has a resistance to artic temperatures and toxins of the pixie variety. There is a fine film of the dust easing out from beneath the door and the cell within is coated with the glittery stuff. The cell itself is freezing cold and the pixie within it has curled himself up on the pad that serves as a bed. His head has found his knees and he is staring at the cell door with a fear that has essentially frozen him in place. His mouth is firmly shut – the shadows hat writhe and slide under his skin are strong – but he fears them and thus has little control over the gift. Rocking, he waits – but his eyes are lifting toward the ceiling and he is thinking very hard. The furrow of his brow suggests that the train of thought is not pleasant.
[19:45] Lex Dashrix: The Homonculus found the professor in his conservatory on his fingertip a delicate iridescent butterfly bred to collect Aether along with nectar from the plants in the humid chamber. Reaching out with his free hand as the messenger arrived he cave a careful squeeze to the exemplar of his carefully cultivated private breed killing it instantly without damaging its delicate exoskeleton. He acknowledged the Homonculus as he carefully set about pinning the wings for display in the shadowbox on his lap one final decorative pin through the body before he sealed the glass of the case and tucked it under his arm to finally follow the construct where it might lead on his time. After all patience was a lesson for Naoki to relearn after his recent, lapses. Lex strode into the lab and the machinery thrummed to life as the myriad small insectoid and crab like automatons that maintained the lab set to work preparing their stations for the Professor. He strode to Naokis side with a faint smile, "What have we here?" he inquired curiously as he peered through the bars at the new prisoner while the vents in the walls quickly siphoned the bulk of the dust produced maintaining careful negative pressure in the cell itself. Somewhere below where the castle vented such toxins the populace of hte ground level was about ot have a very interesting night indeed.
[19:50] Naoki Sato had taken to pacing. There was a certain restlessness that settled in the yokai's frame whenever he had to sit still and it only grew when he found himself confined to the castle. His footsteps were quick, red patterns drawing themselves over his skin to give him some distraction from the wait. He did not speak to Eli... there was no point, he thought. Though he did keep a careful eye on the beat of his heart, the flow of his blood - pulse and pressure were telling for someone so in tune with the flows. Once Lex arrived Naoki took a step aside to give Lex's towering frame more room in front of the door. When he spoke there was no agitation in his voice. "Elijah Coyn," he said, simple and blunt. "One of your lost pair." His homonculus returned to him, alighting on his shoulder and dissolving into red liquid that ringed around his throat and slithered beneath the collar of his shirt.
[20:00] Quin Li (riven.rowe): The pitter patter of Eli’s heart spells out a story of anxiety, fear, and a slew of other emotions, perhaps even a spike adrenaline. The pixie is on high alert and absolutely terrified of what might happen next. The murmur of Lex’s voice draws his head up from his knees and he slips from the cot – stepping away and flaring his wings in a glittery fall of aether sparked dust. He stares through the bars back at the professor with obvious trepidation and a clear amount of defiance. He is far larger than the diminutive form he had held when caged before. His hands curl at his sides and he lifts his chin, angling his head so that the fall of dark blueish hair shifts away from his face to reveal a pair of lavender eyes. He is very different from the boy Lex had hired to archive a student’s work but those eyes are distinctive. The hair is unusual. He doesn’t say anything to either of them. His hands open then clench.
[20:25] Lex Dashrix: Lex took in the creature before him with a vague frown of confusion at the explanation only the mention of one of a lost pair finally finding purchase in his interest, "Ahh the twins." he remarked with a nod and glanced to Naoki, "Only the one?" he clarified and swung his gaze back to the subject in question, "It's grown, do they all do that?" he asked primarily rhetorically it would bear further investigation. "Is it the primary investigation or the control I wonder." he tried to place the coloration against hes recollection of the experiment and nodded slowly, "I believe the former. Could be useful to determine after effects of the protocols." He shivered int eh creeping cold and with a wave of his hand summoned a small crab like construction with a glowing hot core venting heat to counter the chill at least near himself. "Of limited use without the control however..." he glanced at the box still under his arm then the iridescent wings of the now full size pixie, "I think it may still manage to reverse some fo the harm incurred by it's appetites." He turned walking back into the laboratory proper, "Prepare the subject for carding."
[20:30] Naoki Sato watched the shower of dust flutter through the air, shimmering as the vents sucked it away. He certainly wasn't concerned about where it was going or what effect it would have down below... that was a thing to be explored later when he was following up on mushrooms and fog and not lost in the predatory rush of having caught prey. "He was alone," Naoki replied, turning back to watch Eli through the bars. "May yet find the other." He paused to listen as the Professor spoke, not taking his eyes off of their current subject even as he nodded his understanding. Once Lex had given the order he stepped to the bars, red blood swirling from beneath the cuff of his sleeve. It moved more slowly in the cold and he frowned at it, clenching a fist. "This might require violence. Do you need all of him intact?" he asked, shadows instead already pooling around his ankles.
[20:42] Quin Li (riven.rowe): Whatever carding is, Eli wants none of it. He frowns as Lex turns away then shifts his focus to Sato. Everything about his body language states that he is not going to be a willing participant in this preparation. His hand lifts and he signs out, ‘What is carding?’ Somewhere between the lane of cherry trees and here he has lost his notebook but he clearly doesn’t want to let the shadows out again. At least, not until he hears that violence is intended. He starts talking – and the shadows pass through his lips like ink spilling over his skin. “Not that I think you care, but I am not consenting to whatever this is.” He steps to the back of the cel, putting more space between him and the bars. “I do have people who care about me. They will not be happy that I have gone missing.” Eli is not a very frightening pixie. He is aware. The threat of unknown allies holds his hope that they might see reason.
[20:52] Lex Dashrix: Glancing back over his shoulder Lex sighs lightly, "Don't damage the wings, this presents a unique opportunity to investigate the structures at scale." he turned back to his lab and with a few gestures and words sent the skittering masses of his assistants scurrying to gather his requisite material and tools. He placed a large reinforced wooden board in position at the end of the procedure table and began lining it from a roll of acid free preservation paper thin yet supple and strong to line the surface as another millipede like automaton arrived with a canister of long thin pins with tiny aetherite heads on them. "Restrain it do not render it unconscious, I will prepare a counteragent for the inebriating musk it produces."
[20:57] Naoki Sato tilted his head as Eli signed at him. "Part of a process," he answered, both indicating that he understood the signs and wasn't really going to give much more information. Loosening his tie, Naoki slipped it from his neck and tossed it aside, unbuttoning the top two fastens of his shirt to give himself more room. He rolled up his sleeves, the veins in his forearms already bulging from amplified circulation to keep himself warm and mobile. "He isn't lying," he called to Lex. "About friends. Some may look for him if he isn't returned." Not that that stopped Naoki from crouching to put his hand on the flagstones in front of the cage door. The shadows still responded to him then, coiling up and around Eli's lower limbs in an attempt to secure him from taking immediate flight.
[21:05] Quin Li (riven.rowe): It is harder to fly in confined spaces when you are this big. It is so much easier when smaller – but that takes a lot of energy to shift and Eli has to conserve that. He bleeds aether now and only his sparing use of corruption magic keeps him healthy. Watching Sato prepare for the fight that he is gonna do his best to give, he shakes his head then kicks at the shadows slipping toward him. “I am not an it” he calls toward Lex. “I have a name.” every word spills more shadows and his skin comes alive with them – tendrils pressing up against his skin in an attempt to break free. Sato saw what happened before. He knows now what will likely happen again. Eli doesn’t know how to fight anymore than you make a fist and throw it at someone. So that’s what he does. Hands lift before him and then he launches himself at the blood mage. Its awkward. No grace or form. But he is determined to defend himself. “Don’t touch my wings!”
[21:20] Lex Dashrix completes the assembly of the preservation box and the subtle enchantments around the rim to prevent the Aether rich pixie dust from escaping and wreaking havok inside the lab. Lifting the completed box as he turns he frowns slightly at the pixies mad dash at Naoki and shakes his head as he carried the box toward it's temporary home in the antechamber ot the cells. "Name is irrelevant." Lex opines with a shrug as he observes the levelness of the box and nods in satisfaction. "Friends are also irrelevant, assuming he does not hrut himself badly in his resistance he will be released." Lex looks down at his hand wrapped now in a neat bandage and frowns slightly, "Perhaps even improved from his present condition." The professor shrugs, "From a certain point of view."
[21:27] Naoki Sato took a glance to see that Lex was mostly prepared before opening the cage door to receive the charging fae. He was prepared, ready - and Eli's inexperience ensured the attack was projected and easy to read. He waited until the pixie was nearly upon him before ducking and twisting to the side, placing weight on one leg as the other levied a sharp knee into Eli's gut. Naoki didn't care if he got hit. He likely took a frantic, bruising punch or two to his face in that movement but he didn't mind pain. That leg of his was laced in shadow and when his knee came close the dark swirls launched themselves to wrap around Eli's abdomen, attempting to drag him down and onto the floor where he could be restrained. "Listen to him," came the yokai's calm but forceful voice. "Even Blake might be upset if you hurt yourself."
[21:35] Quin Li (riven.rowe): The announcement that he will be released if he doesn’t get himself hurt trips Eli up. He actually stumbles in his mad rush toward Sato and sort falls into the knee that is lifting toward his abdomen. All the air rushes out of him and he makes an eep sound, cut off as he runs out of air. He is easily brought to the ground and restrained though he surely flails on his way there. Does he land a hit on Sato? He sure hopes he does. But then he is pinned to the ground by the shadows that Sato so artfully wields while his own have started to ease out and explore the area – sliding up the walls and some even slithering after Lex to investigate the box he has set up. Eli frowns after them. They are responding to him – his need to escape has them crawling the walls, his curiosity about what the box is for sending other shadows toward it. Scattered – in effective. But the darkness spreads the chill that the pixie exudes with them. “”-The name is relevant. Eli. Elijah. What are you intending to do and why?” He wants to know. Even terrified, he is distracted by the curiosity.
[21:53] Lex Dashrix: "You both need a Higher grade of associate to speak so familiarly about that one." he scowled in distaste at them mention of the absent Professor Mann's fuck toy. Lex watched as the shadows spread as they sought answers to the pixies unasked questions. He observed the mutes flailing both communicative and not and after a moment puzzled out the full lexical intent of the gesture based language based on those he was aware of. "What you choose to call yourself is not relevant." lex sighed assuming it a chosen moniker and not a true name as few fae were willing ot give up so valuable a fetter with such ease. "Nor do I have any driving impetus to explain myself to every criminal with the poor judgment to rob or vandalize my estate." Lex gestured to the box, "If you cooperate you will leave with the aftermath of our former work together resolved and the debt of your and your compatriots thievery repaid." He glanced to Naoki and shrugged, "Or we can deliver what remains of you after you are fully subdued to your friends to mourn and my associate will continue his hunt for the other one."
[21:58] Naoki Sato crouched beside Eli watching the shadows scatter to wander the lab, his eyes narrowing as the stretched toward Lex. For a moment the Jikininki sat still to see if the Professor would divert them - though he knew full well the man's body was warded even against his own more direct assaults. He rubbed at his face, sore from the blows taken in Eli's rush out of the cell. The title of 'associate' put a little twitch in his fingers his grip found the hair of Eli's scalp with corresponding tightness. He said nothing, focusing on keeping his blood circulating and on the shadows keeping Eli restrained. The coils of darkness around his body pulled tighter, squeezing at muscles, testing the strength of limbs.
[22:11] Quin Li (riven.rowe): Lighter, delicate – the pixie’s body is shaped for flight. He has only a human sort of strength though the bruising caused by the vise grip of those shadows will start to heal when the pressure is released. Easily damaged, but quick to heal from it. The pixie is listening to Lex as he lays out his terms and while he strains against the shadows circling about him, he is no match for them. His questing shadows are curious and questing. They could surely be dispersed but until they are they will slink all over the antechamber and then out into the lab itself. Exploring. He makes a soft whining sound as he is crushed in the grip of the shadows and his head tips back, mouth opening with an O of pain. It is really hard for him not to fight this – but he resists the effort to thrash and gasps out a return statement to the professor. “The time you have taken from my brother and I is worth far more than any debt incurred from our mistake. You may have literally robbed me of the very education I came here to achieve. If you want my compliance, you will need to offer me something further in exchange.”
[22:23] Lex Dashrix stared down at the shuddering pixie as Naoki literally squeezed him for compliance and shook his head. "You fail to comprehend the value of that which you so shallowly consumed." the professor answered with a shake of his head, "And now you appear to be under the impression this is a negotiation." He gestured for Naoki to begin to move the pixie to the box as he had little patience for this at this time. "It is not." Lex explained succinctly, "I do not require your compliance and my price will not change." Lex looked ot hte shadows exploring his laboratory and his eyes went tar black for a moment as he forced them to withdraw to the bounds of the cells once more. "Your choice is to relent and avoid the harm of my student here damaging you or to fight and risk what harms may come." he paused and looked down at the pixie, "If you are quiet and pay close attention you might even learn something."
[22:27] Naoki Sato did not ease his grip. He knew how much pressure to exert to still allow the pixie a patent air supply though the thrashing, the struggling certainly made it tempting to squeeze. The Jikininki's eyes remained trained on Eli's face, drinking in the contortions of muscle that formed his pained expressions. "Fae are long-lived," he contended. "Barely any time." There was the slightest hint of tone that betrayed his lack of fondness for Fae. Lex offered far more a response and another directive besides and Naoki nodded, using the grip on Eli's hair and another at the back of his pants to haul him over toward the table, the shadows mostly keeping him tied and only minimally assisting with the effort of movement. He aimed to bring him to the foot of the box before lifting and pushing him back against it, using his weight and the shadows to pin him bodily to the wood by his hips and neck. It left his back and shoulders unharassed by pressure, likely an effort to keep from crumpling the wings.
[22:42] Quin Li (riven.rowe): “Isn’t it?’ Eli asks as he struggles to breathe more deeply than Sato is allowing him to. Anxious, he flutters his wings, spilling dust across the floor and thumping the fragile membranes with enough force against the stone to stun himself momentarily from the pain. That seems to take the fight out of him, he manages just a sharp sound when he lifted by his hair and pants, eyes watering as he is drug over to the box. Fear spikes again and he bucks against the pressure of the hand exerted to hold him in place. He swallows then looks between the two of them, “What am I supposed to be learning from this?” Naturally, his wings flare out against the wood - free to move, they stretch out in all their iridescent glory. The only part of him that can still move unhindered.
[23:01] Lex Dashrix nodded at Naokis assertion of the low value of time to those blessed with so much of it. "And your containment has mitigated the worst of the effects of your consumption of the Mesosemia Aetherai." Lex explained concisely as the enchantment on the box redirected the effects of the dust falling from the pixie back upon the subject itself. Guided by invisible hands straps wrapped around the legs hips and forehead of the trapped pixie ratcheting tight to hold him in place while lex indicated for Naoki to place the cuffs on the Faes wrists. "This procedure shall alleviate the last of it's effects rendering you no longer a danger though it is more invasive than my former technique." He nodded Naoki and passed ony long thin pin to the Yokai. "Start near the joints of the wing but avoid hte vascular bundles we wish to preserve the structure."
[23:06] Naoki Sato could not avoid taking a small inhale of pixie dust, as close as he was. His pupils dilated, the pulse rocketing to faster paces in his veins. That urge to indulge in what called to him as sweet addictive flesh rose and those shadows responded, curling around Eli's throat, tugging at clothing. They cut into skin like razorwire, leaving tantalizing red lines that Naoki's tongue lolled out to taste. Lex's instructions droned in his brain and he moved, relented a little to allow the mechanical wonders of the box to do their work, shifting his focus almost reluctantly to securing Eli's pale wrists in thick leather cuffs, likely reinforced with steel. When handed the pin the yokai licked his lips, pale eyes boring into Eli's face. "Do you understand your own anatomy? What you are? Why your wings shimmer? Or are they as unknown to you as the movements of those shadows that come out when you panic?"
[23:21] Quin Li (riven.rowe): Eli’s dust is truly intoxicating. Just a little will heighten the senses, and more will increase sensitivity. His every movement produces a little more of that party drug though it is certainly hard for him to manage more than flare his wings when he is strapped in place. The curl of the shadows around his frame easily find flesh and the loose pants he was wearing are now shredded. The pixie cries out as he is sliced, body arching as the pain sinks in. Blood does in fact leak out of him, red lines that dance with the shadows that spill free of the wounds as well. They escape to flow out of the box and wrap about Sato, curling around his waist, his thigh – but still largely uncontrolled. The pixie boy groans as Sato tastes him and then he flushes with embarrassment at the sound he made. He bites his lip and turns his head to stare at the pin in his hand then beyond to Lex. He does not understand what the man is talking about, but he does gleam that eating the butterfly did something to him that Lex was trying to offset. “You were trying to save my life?” he doesn’t understand this. His perceptions of the situation disagree. But the man is offering more of an explanation for what happened than he has yet been given. It had felt more like the professor was trying to kill him every time he drained him of aether. His attention shifts back to Sato when he speaks to him, pale lavender eyes dilating. “I.. do not. I was going to learn.” He wanted to learn all the things. “I want to learn.”
[23:31] Naoki Sato picked up on those cries and the way the pixie's body reacted to the pain. Curls of shadow mirrored the squeeze of a tendril Eli was wrapping around Naoki's thigh, the Jikininki's own constructs going further to grip at cheeks, squeeze them, spread them as if to impress upon the fae that there was more he wanted to do. Naoki's hungers often went hand-in-hand, after all. But he had work to do. A firm hand pressed flat against the membranous surface of one of Eli's wings, trying to keep it steady as his body pressed more closely to the other male's front. "How do you learn about a body? From a book?" he murmured and moved the point of that pin until it was near a suitable spot near a particularly stable joint. Vasculature he could identify very well and he avoided puncturing such structures as he leaned in, applying pressure to smoothly insert the pin through the delictate membrane, his lips finding another cut to suckle on as he did.
[23:45] Quin Li (riven.rowe): There is no way that the pixie is prepared for the confusing mix of sensations he is experiencing now. While Sato has his one wing in a firm grasp, the other flutters clearly showing the affect that the confinement is having upon him. His breath catches in his throat as he registers exactly what is going to happen and his lips tremble. The slide of those shadow tendrils make him fully aware of the position he is in and has a rather obvious effect upon his anatomy. Eli closes his eyes as he reacts and he pales then flushes with color. ”Yes.. a book.: he agrees. “School. I wanted to go to school..” he is desperately trying not to focus on what is happening but can’t help but look – to watch as Sato impales his wing. The pain pulls another sound from him and his body goes taunt. He stays like this, straining against Sato as the man tastes his blood. Blood far more potent than the dust he sheds. Staring at his wing, riding the sharp slide of pain as it ripples through his body, he whispers, “You.. shouldn’t. Do that.”
[23:53] Naoki Sato pulled back with blood on his tongue, on his lips. The muscle that lapped out to taste it was less human by the second, lengthy and devilish as he kept his hand on that part of his wing, keeping it stable lest he writhe and rip the tender membrane. Whatever response Naoki himself had was hidden well behind the cage but the heat from between his legs and the thump of his pulse was obvious enough in that proximity. "Books. Written at a point in time. Bodies grow. Change," he replied and moved his other hand to splay cross Eli's chest, fingertips touching around the gash that seemed to peer into an endless cosmos behind his sternum. "Learn from what moves and lives," he said instead, one finger digging into a cut to coat its tip in red. "Do you know what you taste like?" he murmured before moving to push that finger between Eli's lips.
[23:59] Lex Dashrix: "No. I needed to determine the after effects of exposure to the Aetherai's Aether gathering physiology.. Your survival was in service to that end." Lex replied frankly. He retrieved another long pin holding it out for Naoki as he worked, "Continue along the same upper line of the wing gently slide it to full extension." As each pin was placed Lex leaned in to examine the placement nodding satisfied with his proteges precision. That pin was followed by another and another until the upper wing was secured to the board fully extended. "He is correct for all the value in text one must verify experimentally and examine direct samples to truely grasp the mechanics that drive our universe."
[00:12] Quin Li (riven.rowe): Eli has never tasted his own blood. Not like this. Perhaps a busted lip, or some injury like that. There is something in the way Sato presents it, the slide of his finger into his mouth and the way he watches him as his lips part to accept the copper touched spice of his vitae. He stares at him, rapt, and barely registers the apparent disdain for what he loves most: his books. His attention barely shifts to Lex, but then sharpens upon him as another pin is handed over. He then watches as his wing is paid out neatly, each piercing dragging a sharp breath from the pixie. He cannot move so he relents and rides the pain, eyes watering and body trembling. “Professor Windgrace said the same.” He murmurs, a little delirious now. “I read all her books, some of them twice. She said I need to put the reading to practice now. That’s the only way I will grow.”
[00:20] Naoki Sato stepped back to retrieve the next pin, then the next. His movements were driven, sharpened and honed by the drug that was Eli's blood and dust. His own slithered from his skin, wrapping around his limbs and stabbing at the wood - only by chance not wrecking the delicate work he'd already done. Gritting his teeth to focus Naoki redirected, fanning thin strands of red out behind his back until a mirror image of Eli's wings sprawled out behind him, red and vascular and pulsing. It was a good thing Naoki's natural resiliences were so strong. He might have torn the poor pixie apart by now were they not, if the look in his eye and the slow wearing away of his human exterior were anything to go by. "Bodies. Like yours. Like mine. Like the Windgrace woman," he said with a twitch of his mirrored wings, "regrow. Regenerate. Ask her how many of her parts she's ripped off."
[00:29] Lex Dashrix paused at the fellow professors name ever so briefly. "She is correct, Professor Windgrace is a skilled practitioner and educator you would do well to head her advice, many pay a small fortune to gain such education." He frowned slightly at Naoki and gave a small shake of his head. "Do not ask any such thing, quite uncouth Naoki." he scolded them both for the subject matter. He nodded at the work Naoki had done, "Satsifactory your practice has improved your skills." he praised mildly, "Your mastery of your urges less so." he let out a heavy sigh and pointed to a chair in the corner, "Watch contain yourself, or I'll be forced ot contain you." he demanded and turned back to Eli as he cracked his neck and set to work carefully continuing where Naoki had left off surprisingly deft fingers smoothing gossamer wings and unerringly pinning them for display. As he worked he explained the structures nearby, their function, and the technique behind each pins careful placement. Ostensibly the lesson was for Naoki but the pixie claimed to wish to learn so it might as well be given the opportunity.
[00:42] Quin Li (riven.rowe): “Just because bits can be ripped off d-doesn’t mean we should go around mauling people.” The pixie is opinionated it seems. The thought of asking Dinah how many bits she has ripped off makes the pixie pale, then flush with color. “I would never-“ and then both he and Naoki are admonished for even thinking about asking her. The Pixie even manages to look suitably chagrined considering he is being pinned to a board. It is actually quite amazing that Eli has held it together through much of this pinning process. He may even have learned a bit as well about his own anatomy. He might be hard pressed to recant the information at a later date without proper encouragement, however. It is the drone of Lex’s voice that he listens to with a rather sharp focus – it is this that keeps him steady and focused through each excruciating application of the needles. It is not surprising then that at the end, as Lex has drawn out his points and a conclusion to the lesson that the pixie looses his focus and succumbs to the darkness within him as the last needle is slipped within. He slumps, unconscious, and is held in place by his restraints alone.