[IC] Final Fantasy VIII: Tempus Veneficarum [7/10 Slots]

[MarshiestMallow]

There really wasn't much that Heloise knew to do, when torturing someone. But she figured she could make it up as she went along. She gave a nod to Jericho, laying a hand on one of her daggers. She went the hall, and to the storage area. She leaned against the wall, dagger in hand.

"You know, there's a lot of ways to hurt someone without killing them. I could make you wish you were dead. Trabia is the only home I ever knew." She twirled her dagger in her hand, the sharp blade well balanced in her hand.

She didn't say anymore. She stepped closer, and crouched in front of Mako. "I can bring you to the brink of death, bring you back, and do it again" She wouldn't slice off any apendages. There were a lot more ways she could hurt him. While it appeared Jericho had had a go of it, she could make it worse.

But when she went to, she couldn't. What would be the point? Rising, she turned her back, dagger still in hand. When she turned back, it flew through the air, and embedded itself in the wall, after slicing through Mako's ear.

"I wonder how close I can get to your eye, before you cave?" She knew that was a death shot, but he didn't need to know she wasn't going to kill him. "Or your heart...or perhaps something I seriously doubt you have" She raised an eyebrow, retreaving the dagger, she threw it so it slice along his forehead, following it up with her other dagger, slicing across his chest.

All shallow cuts, for now. Mostly, she was trying to break him psychologically.

When her time was up, she collected her daggers, and left the room.

[rivaan]

Ray waited for a while after Jericho left and then for Heloise’s turn to end. He(She) could hear the sounds of Mako’s pain now and then, making it clear that Heloise was doing something to him. Judging, but otherwise Ray didn’t focus much on what was happening inside the interrogation room of theirs.

Finally the girl left Mako’s room and it was Ray’s turn to have a go at him. When He(She ) entered, she got a relative idea of what Heloise was doing.

“Ahhh Mako… Good to see you!” Ray stated, pulling a chair over before laying all the instruments he got from Xerox on the table nearby, for preparation on what was about to happen.” You know… I’m not going to talk about how Trabia was my only home, you wont really hear that speech as I’m sure the others did it already. Still well just imagine I told it too and that way we can safe time!” Ray stated, before pulling the scalpels.” You know… I think this male body is affecting my judgment.” Ray stated, before stabbing Mako’s knee just above the kneecap.” In my normal female form I’m rather calm and collected, but like this… I feel the urge to outright beat the hell out of you.” Ray admitted, before actually punching Mako on the face.” That felt actually relaxing… now that his itch is dealt with … back to showing you the wonders of torture!”

Following that, Ray took scalpels to open Mako’s knee and then fool around with the kneecap in any painful way possible he could think of, also using the surgical glue to stop any bleeding, the itching sensation of that on top of the pain must be something to behold!.

“You know… if you talk… I can make it all go away…” Ray finally said, pressing a finger at the opened knee.” I will stop the pain if you’d like and talk~ or I can also take a look at the other leg?”

[Little_ninja]

With the others having a chance at Mako, Xerox sat, having some food, when Jericho called for him... her, at least for a little longer.
"Think Duncan's OK?"
"Well, he can handle himself. I just hope he doesn't get himself captured ... again ..." Xerox replied, recalling that Duncan had been caught during the SeeD exam, and, although everyone else was also captured, he was imprisoned again not long ago. "If he keeps getting caught, it would be like his a princess in one of those stories or games." Xerox joked afterward to try lighten the mood.

Eventually Ray came back. It seemed like other than screams of pain, not much was extracted from Mako. Xerox stood up, "Guess I'll have a go at him. I have needed a guinea pig for a few things."

Xerox walked into the room, Mako could be seen to have gone through a lot of painful torture. Xerox walked up to him, checking to see if Mako was still conscious, which he was. "Good, good. It's time for the testing to commence." S/he said, pulling out what looked like a pair of surgeon's gloves. "Now then, let's see if this works." Putting the gloves on, Xerox moved his hands inwards towards Mako's skull, before phasing through. His hand was within Mako's brain.

Mako was in shock, but couldn't feel any pain. It was written all over his face.
"First test successful. Testing for partial dephase for touch capabilities." Xerox said, tapping a module with his other hand. With just his fingers, stimulating the brain. Suddenly Mako burst out laughing. "Interesting. So, this part of the brain when stimulated can cause laughter." Xerox had adjusted his glasses to see the into Mako's brain.

Fiddling a bit more, Mako had moaned. "Pressure on the hypothalamus can cause production of oxytocin." Xerox noted. Proceeding to break one of his fingers which had been "fixed", Xerox continued applying pressure, hearing Mako moan again. "Enjoying the pain now are you?" Xerox let go and moved his hand to Mako's heart, squeezing his life for a moment, before releasing it. Mako could be seen freezing up.

"Well, the phasing gloves do work on organic matter, that's good. Now, what next ..." Xerox said, going through the a number of other inventions.

---

When Xerox had finished his turn, he had gone to the bathroom, changing his clothes as the transformation of gender had worn off. He didn't quite get any useful information from Mako, and didn't continue, in case he broke Mako's mental health, which was probably deteriorating.

---

After some rest, the airship reached Balamb Garden chaos could be seen. Fighting could be seen everywhere with explosions occurring. "What the crap is going on!?" Xerox was confused. Students were fighting each other and Garden faculty were all over the place.

As the airship landed, Garden faculty with a number of students came towards the airship. One of the Garden faculty, with a megaphone asks, "Who do you side with? The head master? Or the true master of Garden, Garden Master ZORG?"

Xerox looked at the others confused. "True master? What the hell are they on about?" Xerox then spoke to Jericho. "What should we do? I don't think any of this matters when a missile could be heading straight for us at any moment."

[Zarkun]

Jericho was already up against the window, his pistol in hand. "Looks like the Garden Master has gotten a little bit too big for his own good. Corvo will know more about what's going on though, so I saw we get to him. Which," Jericho sighs, "means going through these guys."

[Lennon79]

2130, Three hours after Trabia launch,
Galbadian Army Missile Base

'Sir. Final targetting coordinates are being uploaded to the mainframe. We will be ready to launch in... T minus 7 minutes.' The hulking purple figure of the Commandant nodded slowly. 'Very good, soldier. Inform coms to update the capital.' As the command room staff busied themselves with their tasks, he slowly walked around, marvelling in the joy of being the first man in living memory to launch a nuclear warhead... A lesser man might have shied away from such a burden, but his loyalty to Her Majesty was unwavering. The former PSA had flourished under Her insightful leadership and could lead Galbadia into a glorious new age... once Garden was dealt with.
He checked the clock; three minutes remaining.

--------------------------------------------------

Not my finest plan, but as needs must... Shifting his weight in the cramped confines of his little cubbyhole, Duncan was not happy with how things had gone. Infiltrating the base, fucking with the coordinates and sabotaging the nukes had been easy enough, but there was simply no way he could prevent the missile from launching and so he had opted to take a more... roundabout approach. Outside he could hear the final countdown ticking down, like the last few moments of his life stretching time in a desperate attempt to avoid the inevitable. Which, incidently, was a distinct possibility if this went tits up. Still, couldn't be helped. After all, if you can't prevent something from happening, then the next best thing is to interfere in situ...

The countdown finally ended and far below, Duncan felt the great engine start to burn. The Gs came slowly at first, as the missile inched up the first few feet, before accelerating to near sonic speeds within the first minute. Only by drawing deeply on Artio's power was he able to stay conscious as he rode the missile up and over the desert. Why do I do this to myself..? After three minutes, he opened the service hatch just a crack, in time to see a mushroom cloud erupt over the desert as the base obliterated itself with a conveniently timed mislaunch. One down, one to go... Now in all honesty, Duncan was the wrong man to be deactivating a nuke in flight whilst riding on the missile, but short of magicking up Xerox to do the job for him, he didn't have many other options. Grumbling as he pried off the casing of the navigation computer, Duncan got to work.

--------------------------------------------------

Four students stood ready as the group alighted the airship, all looking equally confused by Gardens current state of affairs. The first stepped forward, brandishing her halberd with near-SeeD skill, if not motivation. 'By order of the Garden Master, all SeeDs are to be arrested for the murder of General, uh... Larrick? No, Lerwick! General Lerwick of the Galbadian Army.' It was pretty clear that she had only found this out herself recently. Her classmates also raised their arms as a small swarm of bitebugs congregated above them, clearly under some kind of control. 'Please come quietly.' In the background the Faculty member was muttering into a radio and edging away slowly.

[Zarkun]

Jericho, who had been first off the airship, held his scythe in one hand and appraised the group in front of them. It was clear that these students had recently been told of something that none of the SeeD who had been on the airship knew about "Look, I'm going to be honest. We just broke out of a top secret Galbadian prison, and endured months of torture before that. So if you could," the scythe became a blur in his hands as the halberd wielding student suddenly found herself unarmed and the blade inches from removing her head, "find someone else to pick a god damned fight with." He didn't move, but spoke over his shoulder to Xerox as the girl and the students behind her start to back up in a panic, the senior SeeD's quick disarming of the most experienced among them clearly intimidating. The faculty member also backed up, but his was less panicky.

"I think the Garden Master made up some kind of lie. Any idea who General Lerwick might be?"

@Little_ninja

[Little_ninja]

Having followed Jericho just behind of him, Xerox tried to catch the radio signal frequency, but it seemed the signal was encrypted. It would take some time depending on the encryption to listen in on the signal. Watching Jericho do his thing, Xerox sighed at the silly question "You don't remember what Duncan's full name is? Or his father? Jeez."

Xerox counted the bitebugs before clicking his fingers and trapping them all in cages, causing them to fall to the ground with large thuds. The cages were just the right size for the bitebugs to fit, and stronger than any could ever break against. But Xerox didn't exactly have a large amount of cages in his ESS. "Anyway, they are students, they probably are just listening to whoever is in charge, so do avoid killing them. In any case, we should probably split up. One group looks for Corvo and the Head master, while the other tracks down Garden Master ZORG, whoever ZORG is. What do you say Jericho? Also, we should probably monitor the Garden Master if we find him. We might need to fight him together, we don't know anything about them. They could have a shitload of implants, or someone hyped up on drugs or something. Lots of unpredictable factors, which should take caution in approaching ZORG." Xerox suggested to Jericho while waving for the others to come to where Jericho and Xerox were standing.

Turning to the others, "Any of you guys have any idea who this Garden Master ZORG is?" Xerox asked, even looking to Rue, who shook his head.

[rivaan]

Rachel had finally shifted back to her normal female form a lil while after she left torturing Mako. She actually didn't do a really good job of it at the time due her male's body differences from her female form. Also with her body back to normal she actually felt finally a lot calmer again... calmer and ready to precisely do what was needed for a mission.

That said their arrival at Balamb didn't turn out too great. There was a chaos going on there. She would have called it a tiny civil war because that's exactly what it seemed like and there was a tiny problem... which side does she take in this? The direct logic dictated the Garden Master... but... all her missions so far given always passed by the Headmaster's office instead. This Garden Master was not... trustworthy in Rachel's eyes as she concluded just now." Seems like we were sold from the inside." She finally stated." We need more information on this, but I'm getting the feeling this Garden Master will be a problem in need of dealing... fast. I will help tracking down the Head Master and Corvo. My expertise in healing and mass crowd control will come in handy."

[Zarkun]

As the students confronting them finally decided to flee, Jericho sighed and turned back to Xerox. "I meant besides Duncan and his father. Christ. Anyways, that sounds like the best idea. Xerox, you should lead the group looking for Corvo. You're best equipped for passing our report along anyways. I'll help locate this Garden Master. Actually, you know, now that I think about it...was there ever a Garden Master rank? I don't remember learning about it." Of course, the self-styled reaper would also never admit to not remembering much beyond the combat classes from his time in Trabia.

[MarshiestMallow]

Heloise followed the others out, and she detered to her normal behaviour, falling silent, she stayed close to the others, making herself appear smaller then she was, she had already put her hair up into pig tails, and was wearing clothes that didn't show off her body, hopefully making herself appear younger then she was, and thus less threatening. Heloise liked to be underestimated-it was alweays so much more enjoyable to see people suddenly realise that she was a danger.

She listened to was being said, and smiled sligtly, Ah, well, we don't really do quite now, do we?By herself, heloise was a master of silent maneuvering. In a group, there was often extenuaiting circumstances.

She shifted, and said softly "Just tell me where I need to be, I'll do whatever" She hadn't been to the gardens in what was probably months, if not close to a year, but it was still...hers. She'd do what she needed to, and that was that.

[Silver Fox]

Ashton mostly just silently followed the others, listening to their conversation while watching the situation to make sure everything was alright for now. A habit to scope around the area. At the plan to split up, Ashton turned her attention to her new teammates. Flicking her real gaze around to look at whoever spoke. The tall blonde honestly wasn't positive what she wished to do, so she'd just go wherever they found the most use of her. So she gave a slight nod and a thumbs up when the female... Heloise was it? Said to just send her where they wanted her. Agreeing with the statement.

[Little_ninja]

"Alright. Rachel, your with me. Everyone else, follow Jericho's lead." Xerox decided. Looking around, he tried to analyze the whole situation. Given that there were students fighting each other, means that there are those who sided with the Headmaster and Corvo. Given the situation, it seems that they haven't been found, so they aren't likely to be locked up somewhere, and everyone is looking for them.

There were two options, either somewhere obscure and hard to find, or somewhere easy and in plain sight. "Let's head to the headmaster's office at the top of Garden. It should at least get us a good view of the situation, and they could be hiding there." Xerox started making his way to the main building of Garden. A few students came rushing in at him, Rue jumped infront and scratched their faces, as Xerox sweeped their legs before continuing forward. The fighting was everywhere, but it wasn't hard to blend in, given that no-one realized who was which side. They all simply are fighting. It was the faculty members that seemed to be a problem.