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Post by CJ on May 3, 2013 8:54:10 GMT -5
"Dark turn indeed. I hate to go against you guys now, especially considering how kind all of you have been. Especially you, Ms. Fen."
As Henri turned around with a enormous beaming grin, his metal hands began to emit sparks. With a loud crackling sound, they came alive with bolts of electricity. Henri did not seem to mind this turn of events, though any normal person might assume something was going wrong with his prosthetic hands.
"You know," he sneered. "I've seen a couple of people die by electrocution before but never by another person's own hands. Do you guys want to help me experiment? It'd make me really happy."
For a brief moment, he turned back to Solaine with his same confident expression. He seemed to jump right out of a comic book, a hero so powerful he knew he could overcome all odds. He really loved her in the most intimate way a fan could ever platonic-ally love an idol, but probably still as creepy.
"Of course I'm getting you out of here, Solaine. You forget about whatever code they're calling you here. We'll get you back up to shape in no time!"
Henri grinned back at Lienfen and Wesset, again not really all too concerned about the other guards. To him, they might as well have been toy soldiers, but his assumptions might not have been correct.
"Now, what's it going to be? Let me have the girl and I won't go to town on this prison. Because I'm definitely the only person here. Most certainly. Yep. Only person. But I could still beat you."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on May 4, 2013 15:47:20 GMT -5
"Electrocution? That's cute, have you seen where we are?"
Seeing Henri's hands starting to spark, Wesset gestured upwards to nothing in particular, rain still drizzling down on them from above. Lienfen was standing beside the prisoner now, while the other guards halted for a moment.
"People get hit by lightning here all the time, you'd think eventually they'd come up with something to help with that. At least though, we can assume electricity won't work on you as well then?"
Patting against the clothing he was wearing to demonstrate some point, Wesset gestured towards Henri again. Lienfen and the guards had drawn what looked to be stun batons, though upon the warden's deduction of Henri's nature, they simply turned off the crackling electric current. Instead of shocking him, they'd just beat the tar out of him the old fashioned way.
"Since you such a big fan of 5J7A, we'll try and find you a spot here close to her. And know knows, maybe in time the world will forget Henri Alain ever existed as well."
"W-Wait..."
Hearing the prisoner speak up for a moment, both Wesset and Lienfen looked towards her, the former having to lean to the side a bit to see around Henri and the guards. He would have liked to have seen her face to maybe see what she was thinking, but he understood what happened when you threw someone down a hole for who knows how long. Lienfen did a good job keeping the prisoners alive, but she couldn't always busy herself with washing them and cutting their hair.
"Something the matter? Don't want the likes of him down here with you?"
"Do you... do you r-remember what happened to the last warden?"
Normally, there was not much she could have said that would have made him actually respond or listen to her her. When she brought up the previous warden though, Wesset stammered for a moment, as that topic hit close to home for him apparently. His nervous smile changed to a determined look when he responded, as he was uncertain of why she would bring this subject up. Cautious, even.
"Yeah, what about it? Fool made mistakes, died because he couldn't get a riot or something down here under control. What of it?"
"He died... because he didn't b-bother to read that book you're holding. I'll bet it clearly s-says in there somewhere about never bringing down any more than ten people... it all has to d-do with the strength of these chains, would take more than ten to b-break them, something like that. The last warden didn't read the book though so he didn't know that... and I d-don't think you read the book either."
While she seemingly had been close to death, abandoned and starving as she was, the prisoner had gained some amount of clarity in the short time they had come down here. This worried the warden, such that at least for the time being he was no longer concerned about Henri or whatever he might say or do. Especially so when the prisoner audibly and visibly strained in making some effort to stand up. This wasn't the end of the world of course, as the chains weren't supposed to keep her down; they were only to keep her body confined to the rock wall, and her arms unable to move. Simply that they were so heavy, eventually overtime their presence across her arms, over her shoulders and around her body weighed her down that she just always rested on the floor.
That she was trying to stand up now though, meant she was probably not in as poor a condition as she at least appeared and sounded to be. Wesset did not like this one bit, and it clearly worried Lienfen.
"The l-last warden, he brought down eleven people, and n-now with Fen and this new guy... you've brought d-down twelve."
Struggling on her feet, her legs looked like they might buckle at any moment under the weight. Still, she tried to move but the chains were pulled too tight. Eventually after struggling enough, she cried out in one final effort, after which there was a resounding snap which echoed throughout the cavern. In her effort she had actually broken the link in the colossal chain at the point where it was attached to the wall. There followed a cascade of clanging metal as the chain, thick and sturdy enough to anchor battleships, fell to the floor. One link after the other, still part of the chain though no longer held up by anything. It fell far across the ground, piling up in places, and the progressively louder clatter of the chain hitting the floor was nearly deafening for the short time that it continued.
After all that however, the prisoner had only broken one of the chains. She still couldn't move freely, but the tension of the chains across her body was slightly less now. She could breath easily and let out a long sigh from the effort, falling to the ground on her knees once more.
"The last warden... didn't care en-nough to not make the same mistake you just d-did, but he was stronger than you are, a better fighter too. What does that say ab-bout you, now?"
The guards didn't even need an order from Wesset to act. Skipping over Henri entirely, they rushed over and went to town on the prisoner with their batons. As well, since she was not immune to electricity, they had the stun feature on. Lienfen drew back from the savage beating, but she dived to the floor with her hands over her head (dropping her own baton in the process) when there sounded more cracking in the walls above.
Wesset meanwhile was shouting something, but it was lost in all the commotion. Tossing the umbrella aside, he unsheathed his sword, though he didn't move yet. He would wait to see what happened with the guards and the prisoner before acting, and during that time he furiously began to pour through the ledger with his free hand, to try and read up on the prisoner for the first time. Hopefully there was something contained therein which would say how to properly deal with her.
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Post by CJ on May 5, 2013 21:22:44 GMT -5
"Oh," Henri said with a deep frown, "well, then."
His magic disappeared as quickly as his smile. His threats were unfounded. He wouldn't see a a person electrocuted by his hands today. Glancing back and forth between the guards, he looked down at the shadow at his feet.
Then Solaine started to speak. He listened to her carefully, not for what she had to say but for her very voice. This was the voice that had committed those atrocious crimes.
His hands began to spark again when she brought up the strength to break one of her chains. His grin started to grow so large, it seemed to threaten to devour his face.
People were really going to die! Right here! But first, he had to do his part.
"Mizuko!" he shouted, tapping his foot on the ground. The shadow at his feet rose up and twirled about him.
"Hikaru," a monotone voice responded from the girlish shape of the shadow over his shoulder.
"Get those guards off of my hero!"
"Fine."
The shadow snaked on the ground and dove into the shadows amongst the guards. The shadows stretched and formed the shapes of the guards. They tugged and fought against the guards, trying to give Solaine a fighting chance.
Henri, meanwhile, smirked at Wesset and crossed his arms.
"So, is she right or is she right?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on May 8, 2013 1:27:22 GMT -5
The guards were forced to cease their brutal attack on the prisoner, when their own shadows came alive and began attacking them in turn. Still entirely confined and chained up however, she wasn't able to fight back even when given this chance, though she sought at least to remedy one aspect of the problems she faced. Struggling to her feet again, she struggled against the bonds, though with a little more freedom of movement. Already previously, she had torn one chain lose and weakened the wall connections of the others, but this was enough for her now. Taking a deep breath and mustering her effort, she tried as hard as she could to bring her arms together. She cried out from the effort again, the huge metal links tugging against her terribly, but one by one they gave way. The grinding and the creaking of bending metal, the cracking of stone from above, and the clanging as that same metal was torn lose and fell to the floor in long swathes across the floor of the cavern.
In keeping to self-preservation, Lienfen kept low to the ground, hands over her head as she crawled to the wall in an effort to avoid the falling debris. The likes of which, already two of the guards had been crushed utterly by. It was not impossible in fact, that one of these massive chains or even a large chunk of the stone wall ripped free, could fall towards Henri.
"So, is she right or is she right?"
Wesset for the most part didn't seem too worried about all that was happening, feverishly reading through the book as he was, but when Henri addressed him his demeanor turned to that of anger. He would have up and just run at the man with his sword, and hacked down any challenges to his control over his place. Before he got the chance however, one of the massive lengths of chain fell right beside him, nearly crushing the man like the others. He flinched when it did so, and seeing how close it had come, he locked up for a few moments. Finally looking to Henri once more, he dropped the book, turned and ran. Away from there, towards the lift perhaps, what mattered was that he fled.
During this time, the prisoner had collapsed to the floor again from her effort expended. There was one important difference this time however; she was able to bring her hands together, for the first time since she could remember. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking or feeling at the time, but clearly she took some moments to cherish this feeling before she struggled to her feet once more.
Only this time, the mass of chains that had been binding her fell off her person as she rose, collecting in a mass on the floor about her. She was unsteady in her footing, having spend so long confined like that, so she needed to lean against the wall for support. She was up though, and she was free. Seeing this, one of the guards struggled past his shadow and went right for the prisoner again, intending to knock her back down on her knees. Dashing over, he managed to land a solid hit on her shoulder which dropped her to one knee. She grabbed against the wall to pull herself up, and when he went for another swing, she brought her arm up to meet it. The baton hit her right in the arm and she stumbled a bit, but otherwise remained steady.
Her turn. She didn't have much room, but she lifted up her arm and brought it down against the fellow. It wasn't like she had some perfect fighters stance, or had put an amazing effort into it; she was still near death's door from her time in confinement. The effect however, was dire, largely at odds with what was expected of her in this state. The fellow hit the ground in a shapeless heap faster than the eye could follow, almost like he had just been smashed into the ground by a falling anvil. In effect, it looked almost like his skeleton had just been obliterated from his body, and only his clothes were keeping what was left of his body together. There wasn't a scream or cry of pain, he was simply killed outright.
The other guards knew better than to repeat the mistake of their comrade, and those who were not overcome by the shadows simply turned tail and followed after the warden. The prisoner meanwhile, still largely out of sync with the entire situation, merely made her way over to Lienfen. The poor secretary had merely been watching in horror between her fingers after the prisoner had broken free, and now she was shaking in fear at her approach.
"P-Please... d-don't..."
The prisoner though, merely crawled down beside the secretary and hugged her. Resting her head on her lap, the prisoner had withdrawn from the situation, and poor Lienfen simply had no idea what was going on or what to do. She even looked to Henri for his opinion eventually, despite his hand in all this.
"Th-The Warden, i-if he... if he uses the l-lift to get back up, we won't be able to get out of th-this place."
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Post by CJ on May 12, 2013 0:11:26 GMT -5
Henri smiled was so gargantuan; he could have devoured his own face.
The death of the guard by Solaine's hand was so unique, it drove him to a fit of glee. He wheezed and laughed as his hands sparked electricity in quick intervals.
The girls of the shadows next to him watched on in silence at the consequences of her work. What seemed to be two clenched hands raised up to her face before she set them down and stayed calm.
Meanwhile, Henri sighed when Solaine could not kill any more people. He looked down at Lienfen, left by Wesset, and thought of how he left Light to Asuza not too long ago.
No, Light was a fighter. She agreed to put her life in danger. This Lienfen was not prepared for situations like this. Wesset was worse, Henri reminded himself. Anything to drive away what guilt and sensibility the coordinator had left.
He smirked at Lienfen and stretched his hand out to her.
"We should probably go after him then! Come on! It's not your job to die like this!"
Henri went to grab Lienfen by the shoulder and take off after Wesset. His metal hands at this point were completely safe, though the initial grab might have seemed too forceful.
Likewise, the girl in the shadows assisted Solaine in whatever way she could, whether it be simply guiding her own shadow to propel her feet forward, or even carry Solaine herself to their destination.
"Wait, you idiots!" Henri shouted. "At least take this girl with you! You left Miss Fen!"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on May 14, 2013 10:53:56 GMT -5
Lienfen nodded at Henri when he spoke, and didn't resist being helped up, though she was still quite overwhelmed by everything that had happened and was still happening. It was the prisoner though, who practically growled at Henri when he approached, and looked like she would have attacked him when he grabbed for Lienfen. Perhaps it was a good thing that the secretary did not resist then, for the prisoner followed closely after her, without need of assistance from the shadows. The secretary herself, hurried towards where the lift was.
---
"Haha! See you all next year... or whenever we can be bothered to come back to this pit! Sorry Fen, but you'll just have to get used to your new friends!"
By the time the actually reached the dock for the chain-driven elevator, Wesset and the few remaining guards had already begun their ascent. The warden himself hung over the edge of the lift itself, looking down with a cautiously triumphant grin, calling out to the others below before the elevator ascended into the darkness of the cavern above.
"Well that's that... there's no other way up, unless anyone here can fly. I mean, he'll be back, pretty soon I reckon. He's lying, but when he does return, it won't be to let any of us out."
Lienfen had picked up the book along the way, standing at the bottom of the dock for the elevator and staring straight up as Wesset and the others vanished from sight. He could make whatever threats he wanted to but the people he worked for, who's job it was to make sure the prison remained operational, wouldn't let him just abandon the place. The problem was when he came back, he wouldn't just be accompanied by some inept guards.
"We should probably- oh?"
"Stay here."
While trying to figure out the best course of action, Lienfen was startled a bit when the prisoner grabbed her by the arms and more or less moved her away from the dock of the elevator. She did as she was told, and didn't move from the spot, still afraid of the self-unchained girl.
The prisoner on the other hand, made her way over to the wall of the cavern, feeling along it with her hands. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, then moved back a few paces. In one sudden effort she more or less flung herself at the wall, cracking the ground under her feet as she took off. Leaping up she hit the side and started to slide and scrape down, but pressing against it, she managed to actually dig her hands and feet into the rock. Once she had managed that, it was a small effort to continue from there. Like an animal she made her ascent, leaping up and grabbing into the wall till she had gone the way of the lift.
Not long after and some shouting could be heard, followed by yelling as a guard or two plummeted from the darkness above and crashed to the floor near the elevator dock. Eventually large chunks of the lift followed, until finally the entire platform came crashing down in one big dusty heap. Landing on top of that soon after was Wesset, and the prisoner following him.
Assumedly, though not certainly, Henri would have moved out of the way before the falling elevator crushed him as well.
---
"Ok ok, you... *cough* you got me. I won't stop you any more. Looks like you got your prisoner Mr. Alain, though... *cough* I can't say anyone will be happy."
Sitting up amidst the wreckage, Wesset looked around in a daze at the mess surrounding him. He was coughing up some blood from all that had happened, but he didn't seem all that worse for the wear. Lienfen meanwhile, thankful that the prisoner had moved her out of the way of the collapsed lift, threateningly poked at Wesset with him umbrella. Partly to see if his bones were all broken, but mostly as an act of defiance.
"You think... *cough* you think they're going to let you just walk on out of here with her in tow? You know what she did, that's not something you can just hide."
Despite her proximity, the prisoner was not hanging onto Lienfen for support any longer. At least in this instance, she was standing aside, staring at the warden with a look in her eyes that Henri might be able to recognize. She wanted to do something, to him, though she seemed to be waiting on the others and what they were doing and talking about. Her hands and her feet were all bloody from the climb up the rocky wall, but she didn't care as she clenched her fists.
Wesset all the while, carried on with the others, unaware.
"After a slip up like this though, they won't let you keep your job."
"Oh I think they will. They need me... you all need me! You can't just kill me or leave me here. You need someone to keep them off your back, and they need someone to run this place!"
Perhaps there was some truth to his words. A prison break from this place would not go unnoticed, even if the knowledge wasn't made public. And what more, Wesset might have been a shoddy warden, but who else could run this place? Even so, he was entirely at the groups mercy for the time being.
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Post by CJ on May 19, 2013 23:32:16 GMT -5
Henri was not looking too happy.
Solaine's growl really seemed to do something to him. Perhaps the prisoner wasn't as great as he once thought her to be. No, she was simply having a bad day he tried to assure himself. She would come through in the end.
Looking at Lienfen with a brief nod, he tried to think of something they could do to get the elevator back. Before he could imagine anything, Solaine was already going to town on the whole system. A massive grin came over his face as the platform threatened to crush him. Just as he was about to be crushed, the shadow girl wrapped her arms around him and barely escaped the disaster.
---
"I'm certainly happy," Henri gleefully said. He placed his hands against his hips and smirked at Wesset.
He looked back at Solaine, who seemed to get stronger and healthier with every passing minute. Injured as she was, he was sure she could take him out in an instant. He wondered for a brief moment how Lienfen would feel if she did so.
"There's a thing you don't understand. I'm not making any more decisions here. My only want was to get Solaine free. Now, your fate is up to her. From this point on, I'm only here to watch the show."
Ignoring Lienfen and the girl in the shadows, Henri turned to Solaine.
"So, what's it going to be?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on May 20, 2013 0:06:04 GMT -5
"Well it's obvious what it's going to be then... *cough* I just let you go, and no hard feelings between any of us. We can just... *cough* we can just put this whole nasty business behind us!"
Wesset wasn't aware that Henri was not longer addressing him, and just responded as he had all along. They were all reasonable people, there was no need for hostility. They had bested the warden and his security, he could submit to that. Maybe he would do a better job of doing his job after this, but all that there was to do now, was to cover his own ass here. Somebody else, Lienfen probably, would take the fall for him and he'd remain the warden.
"What do you say, 5J7A?"
By the end he seemed to have some inkling that Henri was concentrating on the prisoner, so he struggled to his feet amidst the wreckage and held out his hand for her to shake.
The prisoner meanwhile, had been so focused on the warden that she didn't realize at first that Henri was speaking to her. When she did though, her eyes narrowed, and she walked towards the warden and his outstretched hand. Reaching out shakily, her hand met with his. He took this as a sign of goodwill, and heartily shook with a smile, but he betrayed himself in letting her grab ahold of him. That's all that had happened, she now had his hand in hers. Pulling him towards her, she grabbed at his throat with her other hand.
"N-No... she's going to-!"
Lienfen cried out in horror as Wesset struggled to break the prisoner's grip on him. As much as he writhed, struggled or swung at her though, his strength waned by the second as hers only increased. Letting go of his hand, she brought her other hand to his neck as well, so that she had in in a strangle grasp. She liked this, to be able to hold him in this way and watch the life slip from his eyes. He was taller than her, but she was the only thing holding him up now.
Sure, she could have just gone along with what he wanted. Just gone quietly with Henri and his shadow friend to the land beyond this dark pit. After all that time spent in this place however, she more or less forgot about who she was; she didn't even remember her own name. Instead, all her memories had come to be replaced by what she had experienced here. The darkness, the cold, being confined and unable to move since the moment she arrived. She remembered the pain. Of starvation, of isolation, of watching her mind slowly slip away and being unable to do anything about it. Perhaps more than any of it though, she remembered the cruelty. Wesset and his guards, they might have been able to put those of Impel Down to shame. The previous warden she had... dealt with, was no friend of hers, but this warden was only a step further in the wrong direction. He didn't do his job well, more a torturer than a warden. It was not often that he actually bothered to visit the prison here, and the prisoners within, but when he did he made it count.
Her teeth were clenched as she choked the life out of him, and this was all she could remember. He had never afforded her kindness or mercy, so that was all she knew. If it was his hope that perhaps he might at least die peacefully in this manner, to slip into death with ease and without continued trauma, he wasn't even afforded that. In one quick and simple effort, she actually brought her hands together so that they were now touching. Of course, she had still had his neck in her grasp, but that provided little if any resistance. Like pressing one's hand through wet paper.
"You... he wasn't... what will we do now?"
Lienfen didn't know what to do. She didn't much like the warden herself, but he was still her boss, and no one deserved to die like this in her eyes. She couldn't just intervene and stop what happened though, for even if the prisoner didn't turn on her, surely Henri and the shadow stranger would. She merely brought her hands to her face, shaking.
Letting go of what was left of the warden however, the prisoner returned to Lienfen's side, putting her hand on the secretary's shoulder.
"You were always... good to me, treated me kindly. You will be the new warden in his place... if anyone says otherwise, I will make them change their mind."
Lienfen of course shuddered at the prisoner's touch, not only because of the blood her hand let run down the secretary's clothes. She had only ever been kind to the prisoner because she felt sorry for her. Perhaps overtime she felt something for her as well, but it was never out of personal gain or any such ambition. To think that the only difference between her and Wesset was simply how she interacted with the prisoner, was frightening.
"B-But what will... what will you do now? Where will you go?"
To this, the prisoner only turned her head to look at Henri, still keeping her hand on Lienfen's shoulder.
"I don't know... I'm not making any more decisions here..."
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Post by CJ on May 21, 2013 17:01:50 GMT -5
Henri pressed his fingers into his teeth. He bit onto his fingernails, trying not to shout with glee over Wesset's death. This was exactly what he had wanted. By letting Solaine decide the warden's fate for herself, he was able to see her absolute passion in killing him. It was his dream come true. His life was practically complete He practically missed Solaine's decree that Lienfen should follow in Wesset's footsteps.
"Hikaru?" the girl in the shadows asked, snapping him out of his delusion.
Her head tilted as her body fluctuated in the shadow blob.
"What should I do now, Hikaru?"
Henri smirked and pulled a map of the first half of the Grand Line from his pocket. Showing it to them, he began to discuss his plans. He pointed to the girl in the shadows.
"Stay. See Cane Island here? You'll meet me here at a determined date later. Until then, keep back and control the waves in our favor and help Ms. Fen out if she needs it. Then go back to Witches' Coven for the time being. I'm sure they're missing you."
"They're not anymore," she muttered in melancholy.
"Well, I will be," Henri laughed sympathetically. "Keep that in mind."
Turning to the released prisoner, the coordinator grinned ecstatically.
"Solaine, since you will no longer make decisions for yourself, will you serve me for the time being? I have great use of your skills. I need someone dead, someone I can't possibly kill myself."
He held out his hand and bowed to Solaine, as though she was his princess.
"Will you come with me?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jun 15, 2013 2:23:52 GMT -5
OOC: Sorry for taking so long, I was hung up on trying to figure out how to pace the character's development over time.
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The prisoner looked at Henri's hand, and then got down low to the ground so that she could see his face when he was bowing. Utterly confused by the gesture, she looked to Lienfen for clarity. The new acting warden of Galthia's prison merely laughed to herself a little, albeit nervously.
"Don't stay here with me, you've got a life to live, out there." She pointed up to the hole which opened to the stormy sky far, far above them. The rain still fell and trickled about them, doing it's part in washing away the accumulated blood at their feet. "Go with him, he can probably help you. I know what you did out there, why you were put in here... you won't ever be able to have a normal life again, but it's better than this place."
The prisoner blinked a few times as she took awhile to consider what the new warden told her. A new life? An old life? She had trouble recalling anything beyond this pit, but Henri was apparently the way out. Finally, she crawled forward and took Henri's hand with both of hers like that of a young child with their parent. The blood spattered all across her didn't seem to register with the prisoner, so hopefully Henri wouldn't mind getting some blood on his hand off of hers.
It was strange, the prisoner was a terrible person in the past. Certainly one of the worst that had ever come to this place, that Lienfen had seen. As the prisoner's caretaker though, she had spent much time simply keeping her alive, and overtime more and more she came to a disconcerting realization; the horrible person she had read about, was not the girl she washed and fed every few days. She knew she should have hated her, reviled her, but she saw no evil or cruelty in the young girl. In this way, it felt almost like she was letting go of... she didn't want to say her daughter, but it would be a lie to say she hadn't come to care for the prisoner and her wellbeing. As such, she hesitated a bit in seeing her go with Henri, and stammered over her words a little.
"Oh uh, but... maybe you could try to avoid killing anyone, if at all possible? This would be a chance at a fresh start, a clean slate... don't waste it. Wouldn't want you ending up back in here..."
She wanted to believe that the prisoner could start a new life outside of this dreadful place, and Henri was the only way for that to happen. Unfortunately from what little she knew of him, she had a feeling he was probably the worst person to be taking charge of the prisoner, but there was nothing she could do about it beyond trying to give the prisoner some parting advice and hoping she would heed it.
The prisoner meanwhile, considered the words more deeply than Lienfen could have imagined. Everyone was talking about her. Hurting people, killing people. Slowly she was learning more and more about the person she was, and bit by bit, she wasn't sure she liked who that person was turning out to be...
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Post by CJ on Jun 17, 2013 22:09:30 GMT -5
Henri actually blushed, seeing Solaine's face so close to his. He was really likely her biggest fan. He barely kept in his glee as he hid his face in his hands. He only let them down when Lienfen instructed Solaine.
"I've helped her enough," he said with a shrug. "but I'd be willing to continue helping her."
Looking briefly over his shoulder, he saw the girl in the shadows disappear into the darkness by a forming puddle.
"It's up to her whether she wants to do what I want her to. Getting her out of here was reward enough."
Henri smiled in the darkness. The rain slipped down his face as he glanced at Lienfen. He carefully squeezed Solaine's hand, biting his lip to keep from getting excited about the feeling of blood slipping between his fingers.
All in all, it was a day that changed everyone's fate. For Henri, it was one of the happiest in his life.
---
The two set out on the Grand Line on Henri's Rent-a-Ship, guided by the currents provided by the girl in the shadows. It was the next morning and the sky was blue and all the waves were... also blue.
Solaine would find that she wouldn't have to do much to feel comfortable. A separate room had been prepared for her, where a new wardrobe of casual and formal clothes were waiting for her. A dozen various weapons were displayed on another rack. The bed was unbelievably soft with a pastel colored blanket. It was clear Henri had been ready for her arrival for a long time.
Henri had his own separate room, though it was noticeably smaller than Solaine's, with less flair and pizazz.
Early that morning, Henri prepared a large breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes. The pancakes in particular were somewhat overcooked. Solaine wouldn't know but Henri was still getting used to his new hands. He told her he would bring breakfast to her room if she asked.
At this point, he didn't tell her much about what he wanted her to do. "I need a man killed," would be all he said if asked. He seemed guilty, almost ashamed about it.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jun 26, 2013 13:26:52 GMT -5
The now freed prisoner dug into the breakfast without civility or grace, forgoing the use of utensils. It wasn't so much that she noticed Henri's apparent difficulty with cooking or that she was trying to be polite, but rather that she hadn't eaten anything but watery gruel for the last... as long as she could remember. So what if the pancakes were overcooked or the eggs weren't perfect? They were the best thing she could remember, and quickly supplanted the rare piece of bread that Lienfen managed to sneak to her, as her favorite food.
"What is this called? It's amazing..."
Anyone could tell that her time spent in the prison in complete confinement and total isolation had taken its toll on her, though the ex-prisoner was having trouble adjusting to life outside that dark place. Despite the nice room afforded to her, she had slept on the floor that night, because it reminded her of the only lifestyle she had known. Despite the nice clothes afforded to her, she had put on and not taken off her old blood-stained school uniform once they left the prison, because it reminded her of a lifestyle she had once known. All in all, she was just having trouble believing she was actually out now, and still had some worries that this was all a dream.
After all, being confined as she was, there was little else to dream of other than freedom.
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Post by CJ on Jun 28, 2013 17:33:24 GMT -5
Sitting at the opposite end of the table, Henri had a bowl of colorful cereal bits. He scooped some in his mouth and nearly choked when Solaine asked her question. Wiping his thick bright yellow and green pajama sleeve on his mouth, he calmly answered.
"Well, this is a table. Oh, you mean the food. These are eggs, prepared scrambled. I would have made you sunny-side up but I haven't been able to get my hands working properly. Those fluffy things are pancakes... but I burnt those."
It was clear Solaine still remembered how to kill. That was great. But if she were to kill Asuza and still be this empty, he wasn't sure how he would feel. This was not the Solaine he dreamed of meeting. Although he was almost glad she didn't remember food, else he would be even more embarrassed of her pitiful breakfast.
"Solaine, do you really not remember anything besides the prison?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jul 1, 2013 16:10:46 GMT -5
"Burned... well I couldn't tell, it's all so amazing. I hope they have stuff as good as this, where we're going..."
What little terminology Henri used when describing the food, the prisoner understood none of it. She knew what eggs were, but otherwise, she was just content to eat the miracle that this angel from above had set on the table before her.
"Solaine, do you really not remember anything besides the prison?"
She had trouble understanding why he kept calling her that, and took a moment to register. She began to speak up, but lowered her head for a bit.
"I remember... these clothes, but not how they got this way."
It was clear now that she was looking at her uniform, splattered with the dried blood. She even grabbed at her shirt to hold it forward for him to see.
"I remember a man... my father. He put me in the prison. A place like that though, I must have done something very bad, to deserve that."
It was only glimpses, flashes of memories lost in a dim fog that was her mind, clouded by her time in dark isolation. She wasn't even sure what he looked like, the man in her memories, she had no clear image of his face. She only knew he was her father because he... felt that way in her memory.
"I remember what I did to those men, the warden. At the time, it... it seemed so easy. I think now that I know how these clothes got to be this way, and why my father put me in that place. I'm..."
It seemed Henri's questions dredged up more and more of her past, albeit not much more than what she had already remembered thus far. The real difference though, was that she was beginning to piece together the small bits that she had, to try and create an image or a story of who she was. The more she did though, the more she didn't like the picture, and she was becoming worried about the kind of person she used to be.
"...I'm not sure that I want to remember anything else besides the prison."
She looked now at Henri with an expression of fear more than anything else, having lost her appetite as a result. Certainly, while she trusted Henri and was grateful to him for freeing her, she also was worried about where they were going and exactly what it was that he wanted her to do. The last thing she wanted, was to end up in that dark place again, and she had increasing suspicion that he wanted her to return to her past self... whoever that person was.
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Post by CJ on Jul 3, 2013 15:05:26 GMT -5
He couldn't bring himself to do it.
Solaine was a different person now. A worst person, in his opinion, but a person all the same. He had to respect her. This was who she was now.
"Then let's make new memories for you!"
Slamming his cereal down, a wide, fake smile came across his face. He leaned back in his chair and brought his metal hands together in his planning.
"I was originally going to ask you to kill a man my subordinates failed to take out. You should start new and be the person you want to be."
Getting up, he paced about the kitchen as ideas poured into his mind. He stopped and placed his hands on his chair, leaning forward at his guest.
"I'm sorry about everything. I'll do everything in my power to get you set up in a new life. We'll get you a new name and occupation. I can stay out of your life and you can live peacefully. What do you think?"
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