[M] Dark Memories
#1
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WARNING: This thread contains material exceeding the general board rating of PG-13. It may contain very strong language, drug usage, graphic violence, or graphic sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.
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Current Objective:Flashback ---
Form:Optime----
Mood: Flux----


3 Years Prior

” Life and death, beginning and end, are but two pages in the one book. Both have their meaning, but its what lies in between that defines the story” –X’ies Lambda


There are secrets that lie below the surface. Memories that some just don’t want to remember. Other times it’s a case that we cannot un-forget them, so they’re tucked away in that little corner of the mind that’s left reserved for nightmares and other things that go bump in the night. There are always two false sides to everything, at least this was the opinion of X’ies. People often saw things in light and dark. Good and evil, placing both in their required categories to set out the order of society. To X’ies though, he saw these things as they were illusions to restrain and constrain. In reality people were incoherent beings with little choice in their own actions, defining things as good and evil were simple as saying “ do this and don’t do this”.


He saw things in a much simpler way, he walked in a shade of grey. Morals meant little to him, they were malleable dependent entirely upon how the situation presented itself. So to society X;ies might have seemed as a force of chaos, something unrestrained, uncontrolled. Dark. Evil. And to those who saw this scene, they might all agree with it. X’ies was holding the blade, performing the…darker actions that the Lambda required. His people gained information, used information. Which could be obtained in two ways, negotiation and talking, or in this method. By forcing information from someone.


This was another one of his practice lessons, the Lambda lived in their mind, lived in their imagination. So it was tuned to perfectly pick up on how best to draw the information from a target, sucking it out like poison from a wound. Establishing a connection between him and hi target, portraying himself as a figure of authority that only want to help. Good ol’ fashioned Stockholm syndrome. Unfortunately this one wasn’t responding to the more traditional method of torture. And he lacked the training on his own to do worse, or well, at least worse that wouldn’t actually kill him. So he needed someone with a bit more expertise on just what could be done to the body without causing that much trauma


Sat in front of him was a dog, the creature had been hunting on their territory and it was suspected that there was a larger group of them out there moving in. With winter fast approaching this was not something that could, or would be tolerated. So he sent out a messenger to his friend, someone who knew all too well of what he needed. She would be instructed to come to the back of the Lambda collective housing, where in a cove she would find out just what was going on.





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#2
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ooc:

  • Setting: 3 years ago...
  • Location: Nomad camp
  • Form: Optime


  • News was a treat and tended to spread like gossip among cackling females. But those straining ears starved for a bit of excitement, would always be the last to hear... but the first would always be the pack protectors.

    A trespasser dared set a paw across the Nomad borders, arrogant in their belief that they could make away with their theft, however menial the treasure they stole. It was the mentality of a loner that could not see beyond their passionate moments. And this like, her family had come to pity. Though they were made aware of the intrusion and called on alert, none made an advance for the pitiable fool. It was the role of another family to inquire and judge, while the Exultare remained as an image of strength should the inquisitions turn unfavorable.

    But it would not come to that... or so the young female hoped as she lingered among her family. The day's training had been forfeit with news of this trespass, allotting her the rare opportunity to acquaint herself to her new body by her own means. Her use of it was poor at best, so used to prowling expertly upon all fours. The shift in balance took a great deal of getting used to. Even when walking, her developing form still slumped unflatteringly as she attempted to keep herself upright. More a beast than an elegant female the Mareck females would have her be in order to display the crafts they had made to adorn the Exultare women to display their femininity. What little she could manage was a badger's pelt across her shoulders and a mess of loose feathers in her short mane; rough looking at best. An image that never failed to invoke a chiding sneer on her brother's lips.

    And from her height, she could see it now, his quivering lip as he looked to the thick limbs of an overhanging tree to spy his sibling reclining at leisure. He would protest and claim that as the pack warriors, they should all remain at ready while the threat of other trespassers remained. There was no time to lay idle when danger lurked. But from her height, she could see the border, the very line the foolish dared cross. She could see any before they came and assured her brother both in blood and family that she could make him aware. If only he could be calm... he could see this and be glad for it.

    But they were not the same... perhaps in appearance but never in mind.

    She sighed disappointedly to this fact, dwelling briefly on the times when they had indeed thought as one as pups til their destiny was laid before them, changing the course of all. She had been thankful for the distraction from the depressing thoughts in the form of a messenger calling for her from below. Swiftly she descended, landing awkwardly on her unpracticed limbs then hobbled to greet her caller. It was X'ies who needed her? She shared a look of surprise with the messenger as she was led away toward the Lambda encampment. Sending a messenger was much more formal than necessary when she would have gladly come if he himself had asked. She had intended to inquire... but as they draw further from the warrior's camp her guide turned to stone, his steps painfully rigid as the interrogating corridors came into view. Then she too came to stand still, her body suddenly stricken with the chill of the coming winter and a discomfort she could not place.

    "X'ies...?" why would he call for her here...?



    000 words.



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    #3
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    Current Objective:Flashback ---
    Form:Optime----
    Mood: Flux----


    3 Years Prior

    ” Life and death, beginning and end, are but two pages in the one book. Both have their meaning, but its what lies in between that defines the story” –X’ies Lambda


    He stared down at his tools, many things that he could do but all that would ultimately in in the death, or scarring beyond what he required. Such things were dirty tasks, and whilst he took pleasure in all forms of his job and training. He did not relish doing it without collecting the fruit of his labors. It had been awhile now since he had sent out the messenger and all the while he was cleaning up the remains of what work he had done previously on the dog. There was some blood, not much. He didn’t particularly like spilling blood, some said it was like an addiction, one you started seeing it you just couldn’t stop. Something of a primal remnant. This, he wasn’t going to allow himself to indulge. There were other methods, less bloody methods to attain information through force. One didn’t necessarily need to cut.


    However his methods had been exhausted, so he required a heavier, blunter tool to do the work he required for him. If they weren’t going to talk to him, they would talk to her. And, while he suspected that the female would find this dishonorable….well he believed that he could talk her into doing what he wanted. She had the training, and she could keep a secret. The wind brought the whisper of the curious ones voice. His head veered around to the entrance of the corridors. He would turn to face his victim once again, passively examining what had been done and what might need to be done now. Few bones, fingers first, then the shins. X’ies would leave and approach X’y for the first time she would be seeing him in his Optime form. One that he rarely ever did enter, unfortunately the lack of opposable thumbs in his preferred form meant that he required this shift.


    ” Ah, curious one. It is good you have come, I have a task for you”

    Word Count:360



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    ooc:

    It was uncomfortable, being this far away from her own camp even if it was just a few yards away. It felt like she were trespassing only another packs grounds even though she was certain at least one of her Shepard’s mates resided within these ‘borders’. Perhaps her own mother…if memory served. And they were all of the same Family, as she recalled with little confidence though she tried regardless there was no reason for her to feel out of place. Besides, her friend were spare her this discomfort soon enough.

    What she was greeted with was not the four-legged form she had grown used to, but one upon two legs mirroring her own. She was surprised to say the least, and partially disheartened that he had about an inch on her in height. Perhaps during another time, she would have pouted and teased her friend about this til he made up some reason why it was better genetics turned out this way. But the tone of the setting around not allow for playful banter now. Not when the mood was made this grave.

    Never the less she forced a smile, approaching her friend as she always did; with a favoring wag of her tail and an endearing touch on the cheek. “You could have called for me yourself,” she scolded him softly, hoping to diffuse the ominous air that hung about them. “But what task would a Lambda ask of an Exultare that would require formality?“

    000 words.

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    #5
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    Current Objective: Trading. ---
    Form:Lupus----
    Mood: Curious!----


    OOC:

    His friend appeared nervous and was obviously surprised by the current form that he was taking. Yes, he didn’t like this form wasn’t comfortable at all. Much preferred the lupus form, felt more natural. Faster more able. Just unfortunately not suited for the kind of work that they were doing at the moment. She questioned his formality on the subject and true if he had called her himself then she would have come…..but then again. X’ies wasn’t what you would call a particularly social creature, she was one of the few that was in his so called inner circle that he could count upon. ” The simple answer X’y is that I do not wish you to link my call to what we are about to do this night”. It was nasty, ugly business and whilst indeed he took a sort of pleasure out of extracting the information X’y might not feel the same way. Her linking him to this every time he called for her, well it would be a dangerous factor to their relationship.


    ” It’s in here”


    He would lead her into the room where the deed was being done. ” This one was found scavenging our winter supplies, there’s a larger group of them out there somewhere conducting hit and runs…..this is the part of my family that you don’t often see…..unfortunately he’s resilient to most conventional methods…and we need him alive….I could push it further on my own…but I am still training in this…so I may kill him….I brought you here to extract an answer”. He gestured to the optime dog before them. ” Break his fingers and toes, if he doesn’t tell us where they are hiding….you have permission to move…up the body”.

    Word Count: 290


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    #6
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    ooc:

    Still, she did not understand the implications implied when he called for her. In her mind, it would have been simpler for him to retrieve her himself. What would happen this particular night that would have made her reluctant to heed his future calls? It was not a question thought in ignorance, but in a desire for a truthful response better left for experience to answer. She would have to wait and see... but the idea of doing so did not sit pleasantly with her.

    None the less, she followed her friend into the corridor that led to horror. The scent was there before she could see it. The bitter stench of blood hanging thickly in the air emanating from the bound trespassing like a horrid aura. Without word to it, she looked to her friend in explanation unable to voice her discomfort in seeing this mess. What sort of inquisition called for this?

    ...and he expected her to assist?

    "X'ies..." it was not fear, but uncertainty wrought across her face as she looked between the captive and her Lambda companion. "X'ies I dont think...I don't think I can do this. He hadn't harmed anyone, had he? And...it isn't as though his group poses a threat to us...right?"


    000 words.

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    #7
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    Current Objective: Torturing. ---
    Form:Lupus----
    Mood: neutral----


    OOC:

    Ah well he hadn’t quite expected her to jump into this with gusto. She needed reasoning. “ Truthof the matter is he and his family have been hurting ours….those winter stocks we have, they aren’t enough to feed two packs X’yrin. As things stand we’ve barely got enough now to keep us going…with them leeching off what we already have and hunting the game that hasn’t gone into hibernation….”. In the end the answer was clear in front of them. This land wasn’t big enough for two packs, and the Nomads were the clearly superior bunch. Because of that the dogs had latched on like fleas, parasites. They had to be gotten rid of.


    ” We are going to starve if this other pack isn’t found and dealt with Xyrin….I need you to do this….the pack…needs us to do this…..we get our hands dirty…so they can eat this winter”.

    Ultimately this wasn’t a game of choice, it was do or die. And whilst he considered that X’y was sometimes a gentle soul hee knew that like him her training and instinct as a guardian of the pack would kick in the moment she heard they were in danger. This time though it was less fear of that enemy keeping her back and more fear of herself. The enemy before her wasn’t capable of fighting back. The pain that she caused was not going to be the wounds of self defense. They were going to be offensive, they were going to be torturous. Even if this was against her nature, against her training.


    …..the family came first

    Word Count: 270


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    ooc:


    Her eyes did not leave the pitiful creature as the Lambda tried to reason with her stubborn mind. The dog was defenseless, without a means to protect himself from whatever torture that would inevitably befall him. Never had she been called to use her strength against a party that was not set to attack her or her family. And the idea of otherwise stirred her stomach distastefully.

    But this circumstance was bigger than her own dislike of harming the defenseless. It was unfortunate to be presented this way, but she could not deny the threat this dog and his pack possessed. They were jeopardizing the life of the Nomads. They were starving her beloved family. Winter was not perhaps the leanest time, but was always the most precious to the pack. It was the time the young were born on the mountain and taken care of by the family as a whole. Leaving the band of dogs free to scavenge their reserves meant there would not be enough to feed the mothers that would in turn not be able to feed their young sufficiently. It meant hunting farther away, placing the family’s defenses at risk. It meant trying their resources… leaving their fates to the ancestors and out of their paws completely. This scenario only further churned the bile in her stomach and bring a paw to her stoic maw as the bitterness threatened to rise.

    The prisoner was no fool. Though blood rushed in his ears he could still hear the twisted words of the mad wolf. His heart quickened and panic lit his eyes as he watched the conviction change in the female’s eyes. There had been hope when it looked she would not replace the male as his jailer, but knowing full well the bonds of family, the very thing that bound him and his own pack to steal… he could see the tethers of mercy were far out of reach…

    The Exultare were not torture masters. They were not mindless killers. They were a lot controlled by instinct, and trusted it above all else. They were conditioned to dismiss pain in the midst of a fight. They were hit, cut, and fought til all manner of assault was dull to their mind until the very end when the excruciating damage was felt in a single instance. They were trained to know pain, to embrace it, then dismiss it. They knew what would bring any other to their knees. She never believed she would be forced to inflict such pain to another… at least in this manner.

    The glimmering light of life dulled from her eyes as she pushed the noise of senseless thought aside and centered on a single idea; making the dog speak. There was no reluctance, only purpose as she moved to stand in front of the struggling beast. Swiftly, she crouched in front of him placing both her hands gently on a thigh. There was no sense in waiting for the question again. As often as she was sure it drilled into the dog, it damn well knew what they would ask of it. So instead, she let the tips of her claws trail lightly along his inner thigh as if to gentle coax him to speak. Her ears twitch patiently, but heard only his rampant breaths and not the words they needed to hear. And seamlessly, a single claw penetrated the fur into flesh, slipping deeper til the lone digit was hilted. Her ears were deaf to all else but the words she needed to hear. Yelps of pain were but noise again pushed aside. Then the claw was withdrawn stained crimson from its deed and began to trail along the interior of the thigh once more… but in sharp, penetrating jabs through the flesh, perforating a path toward his necessarily bits. But her path diverged from the inner thigh and began a rhythmic pace on the exterior, slipping through the fur and deep within the flesh, grating muscle to touch bone, then withdrew only to begin again…


    676 words.

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    #9
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    Current Objective: Torturing. ---
    Form:Lupus----
    Mood: neutral----

    So it would appear that his childhood friend did have a violent streak. He wasn’t prepared to properly injure the dog like this, it could have compromised the things ability to speak. There was torture and then there was torture. He didn’t want this thing so direly injured that it would die. At least not before telling them the location of its pack. Whilst X’yrins methods were effective they also took away the point of the dog thinking it could get out of this one alive. X’ies looked down at what was going on and then placed a hand on his friends shoulder. ” We want him to be hopeful”. The dog could likely hear them, but chances are the pain and adrenaline would be blocking most of what they said from making sense. But he was clear enough, they wanted it hopeful that it could get out of this one alive.


    Only if it had a reason to think that giving the information was a good idea, that was the only way torture worked. Well, then again the perspective of what one can perceive as a good idea…..there was always the second view. Was X’yrin going for that? “ Cause it so much agony that it begs for death?”. Indeed, he hadn’t thought about that one, putting it in such a state that death was preferable and in that final selfish struggle to end its agony do whatever was required to get that sweet, sweet release.


    ” You are doing well”
    OOC:

    Word Count: 256


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    #10
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    ooc:

    Would she ever need to exercise these methods again? Would this become a skill added to her repertoire as a warrior? Such questions were far from mind when it was thoroughly engrossed in the pain inflicted by her ministrations. Occasionally, her eyes would peer up at the struggling beast. Her ears were still deaf to his screams, but her eyes lingered intently on his maw awaiting the form of useful words to bring an end to this grim interrogation. But his mouth remained ajar with tongue lulling wildly across his cuspids. No articulate formations, nothing worth allowing her ears to hear.

    It was the touch on her shoulder that kept another digit from penetrating the flesh. A word of advice… if one could call it that. Or was it more a critique of her methods? Keep him hopeful? Did the dog truly believe he would make it out alive if he did not speak of his pack’s location? Hopeful would have been if something useful came out of his mouth. He was placing her family at risk and selfishly desired to keep his lips sealed. He did not deserve hope. His silence was killing her family…

    He did not deserve to hope.

    Her blood drenched hand left this gushing thigh and latched onto the throat of their uncooperative guest. There was no ease into the pressure, only a crushing vice-like grip that rapidly increased the longer he remained silent. His gasps for air should have been laden with precious words. What use was it for him to try and breathe when he would die if he remained this selfish. Is that what he wanted to become? A martyr to his pack? An example of his loyalty to them while he let another pack die? No… he would not be held to such high regard. He would not be a savior to his pack. If he would not speak, then he would be treated as a murderer. And murderers deserved not hope… but death.

    000 words.

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    #11
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    Current Objective: Torturing. ---
    Form:Lupus----
    Mood: neutral----

    Well it seemed like their dog friend wasn’t going to be giving up the secrets of his pack. X’yrin seemed to have lost herself in the hatred knowing that this one was holding back information that could save lives. And X’ies knew the feeling. Although it seemed that there was nothing that could be done, she was going to kill the dog and it would be a stain on her conscious. He knew she would regret that one eventually, he quickly weighed everything up, then picked up one of his tools from the side table, moved over to the currently asphyxiating dog and jammed the sharp poking tool directly through its eye. A few more twitches. Then X’ies twisted it releasing his grip. The dog was dead.


    ” Stubborn mutt…wasn’t going to be telling us anything by the looks of it”.


    He looked to her with something in his eyes that said. ” If I hadn’t done it, you would have. And its better me than you”. He touched her shoulder in a reassuring fashion ” Thank you for your assistance…we’ll just have to send out the hunting parties and hope we find them”. With that the Lambda called in another of the packs members, giving instruction to skin and mutilate the corpse, to place it in the path of upwind so the dogs would smell it. Hopefully it would help to draw them out.
    Word Count:254

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