Panic Control [Scarlet, Rhona, Irulan, various]

[Rhona Flores]

 Rhona had absolutely no memory of anything before the exact moment where she was being choked to death by water. The room was bright blue - no, that was terrycloth over her face - and she was having water forced in her mouth and up her nose. She started coughing and sputtering, and when she tried to move around she realized she was tied down.

The towel was yanked from her face, exposing her to the harsh light of a single swinging bulb with a pull-chain, a thing which was coiled around the finger of a man dressed in black who didn't look a day over twenty-five. The light was blinding her so much that she couldn't make out specific details, just shapes and shadows. The man's face was a contrast of white against his black clothing, black eyes, black hair - so much that she closed her eyes tightly to ensure she hadn't actually gone colourblind.

Of course, when she received a fierce cuff to the mouth and snapped her eyes open again, she knew she wasn't. A girl with heavy makeup and shockingly reddish-pink hair stood over her, lips twisted into an angry scowl.

"Welcome back," she said, and she didn't sound happy about it. She whipped her head around to the man. "I thought it took a while for shapeshifters to die?" she said, her voice between a whine and a demand.

The man-shadow shrugged. "You either drown or you don't drown. There's not really an in between with waterboarding," he replied. He seemed incredibly uninterested in having the conversation, and so he left them to it, walking the short distance to the black background where he plunged into the dark nothing beyond where the tiny scope of light reached.

The girl jerked her head back down to Rhona, a 'whatever' at her lips with her nostrils flared in disgust. It was clear she didn't like the man, his answers, or how this was going.

"What do you want with me?" Rhona asked. Jesus, how did she get here? Her entire body ached, and she could see cuts and bruises forming all along her arms. She still had her clothing on - jeans, shoes, and her undershirt (a tank-top, Rhona didn't wear those solo), but she didn't remember picking any of it out. She didn't even know what day of the week it was, right then, and was probably lucky she knew her own name.

Dying four or five times will do that.

[Jeremiah Talbot]

Jeremiah had wandered off to the other side of the warehouse. Even in the darkness, he could still avoid the spots where the floor had collapsed, and he did so with great ease as he went to one of the beams in particular. There another Serpiente was tied up - and really, tied up didn't do it justice. She was blinded, completely - Jeremiah was a dark man with dark magic and he'd ripped her senses from her like a vacuum. She had none of her five senses, and that sixth sense, which was a joke if he'd ever heard it considering he'd caught the stupid bitch, was as dull as a marble now, too.

When he knelt down, he gave Irulan her sight back just long enough to see the face of the devil staring at her. Yeah, Aristos thought he was a bad-ass because he controlled fear, but he didn't abuse it like Jeremiah did, at least not in the real world. Right now all Irulan saw was the faintest outline of a face with an inhumanly broad grin. A 'demon face' Scarlet called it (she thought it was hilarious because he did it to random people on the street), but paired up with the bright green-yellow eyeshine, it was positively terrifying.

The Serpiente screamed, and no sound came out, because Jeremiah had stolen her voice.

He jerked his head up at Scarlet and her abuse of the other snake and rolled his eyes.

"Hey! Will you hurry up? I want to cut her loose! I'm thinking about leaving her blind - or maybe mute. Hm, can I take away a sense of direction? I think that counts," he mused. He blinded her again, then kicked her in the stomach for good measure. She couldn't feel it now, but she would in a few minutes, and it would hurt.

[Scarlet]

"What do you want with me?" Scarlet mimicked, voice higher and sounding panicked, and then she broke into delighted laughter.  She was bored with the waterboarding, but this?  This was the part she was enjoying.  Drowning a victim was only interesting while they squirmed and knew what was going on, but this snake girl was a little beyond that.  Frankly, it disgusted Scarlet that she was such a wide-eyed damsel in distress, but even pushing her to the point of death (repeatedly) wasn't showing any hidden depths.  Time for a strategy that didn't involve drowning the snake and did involve mass amounts of chaos.

That was where the fun was at.

"Honey, if it was as easy as me telling you what I wanted and you giving it to me, we wouldn't be here, would we?  Or, maybe we would, because nobody in their right mind would give me what I want, but that's splitting hairs, isn't it?  Oh, and speaking of, you have quite a few split ends yourself.  I can help you with that, if you want," the vampire 'offered' with a grin, reaching for a knife from the nearby table.  Leaving that out was probably a bad idea.

It was only natural that Rhona would start squirming and get upset when Scarlet was leaning over her with that knife, especially when the vampire took hold of her hair and yanked her head the way she wanted it.  Why?  Because she wanted it that way, and who was going to stop her?  It was hardly her fault that Lucien Cobriana liked useless, helpless women, and obviously, beating and drowning the woman hadn't been all that interesting.  She was betting this would be more fun.

She was sawing at a handful of hair when Jeremiah called out to her to hurry up so that he could let the other snake loose, and other than snorting, she ignored him initially, more interested in the work ahead of her.  Rhona wasn't sitting still for it, and that was making it more difficult.  "You know, this wouldn't be so hard if Cobriana would have picked a woman with a little...I don't know, oomph.  You know what I'm talking about, right, Rhona?  Or maybe you don't, because you don't have it, I guess that's possible.  Most of your family didn't, either, but we'll get to that."

She laughed again, a bright, excited sound, and leaned in very close to Rhona's face with a handful of cut hair.  "Oooh, we'll get to that, and it's going to be so fun.  Just wait until you see what I have cooked up for you, Little Miss Snakey," she purred, practically breaking into a cackle at the end.  Her good mood soured just slightly when Jeremiah called something else back at her, and she rolled her eyes once more.  "Oh, and he helped.  A little.  It was my idea, though."

Something else from Jeremiah, but Scarlet was IGNORING HIM.  "SHUT IT!" she snapped back, and then returned to Rhona with a grin.  "You look lovely."

[Rhona Flores]

When Scarlet was mocking her, Rhona could tolerate it - but when bitch picked up the scissors, she started screaming and shaking, trying to get loose. It didn't help that Scarlet ripped some of her hair out when she grabbed her head, but it didn't matter - her long, beautiful thick curls were suddenly gone. Her head felt light suddenly, lighter than it ever had before, and she stared in horror as a chunk fell to the floor. Scarlet continued hacking and laughing, and Rhona endured it without any dignity, screaming and crying and pleading.

When Scarlet made the comment about her family, though, that was a little much. "Shut the FUCK UP you crazy bitch!" she wailed, but it didn't really matter. "Lucien's gonna find me and he's gonna kick your ASS!" A sharp cuff across the face was about all it took to shut her back up, and she pressed her lips together, trembling and blotchy and red as Scarlet taunted her.

Her hair - it was all over the floor. What had Scarlet done to her? WHERE WAS LUCIEN?

[Scarlet]

LUCIEN?!! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!

The snake girl thought that Lucien was going to kick Scarlet's ass?  That was HYSTERICAL!!  

Scarlet made it clear just how hysterical she thought it was when she threw her head back and laughed like a maniac, to the point that even as she nailed Rhona across the face for calling her a crazy bitch and cursing at her, she still couldn't help her giggling fit.  How could she NOT laugh?

"Lucien?!  You think that Lucien is going to come kick my ass?  He's going to find you?" she demanded gleefully, leaning in to grin and then throwing herself backwards as she laughed some more.  She turned suddenly, bright hair twisting through the air around her like Rhona's no longer could, and she shouted back to Jeremiah.  "HEY!  SHE THINKS LUCIEN'S GONNA RIDE IN AND SAVE HER!"

Whether he thought it was funny or not, just telling him fueled Scarlet further, and she hopped up to sit on the edge of the table Rhona was tied to, lounging like they were girlfriends at a sleepover, relaxing on a bed.  "Let me tell you a little something, because you're pretty, and, well, a little stupid.  Lucien is currently property of Niall and Verity, they're the bosses up at Midnight, in case you don't know.  If he's lucky, they skinned and killed him, but if I know them, they're not going to make it that quick.  If it was me, I'd throw him in a hole and FORGET about him for a few years, just to soften him up a little.  I mean, with someone like him?  It wouldn't be fun unless you broke his mind into tiny little pieces and got to watch him try to put it back together."

She stopped, letting it sink in and seemingly lost in the great fantasy that it was, and then snapped her attention back to Rhona with a sharp turn of her head once more.  "So, moral of the story is that Lucien got his ass kicked and there's a very good chance he's dead by now.  You saw him get his ass kicked, but I guess you blocked it out.  I guess it's hard to be a damsel in distress once your prince charming gets eaten by the dragon."

Scarlet tried to look sympathetic for a moment, but her brain had already shot off in another pleasant direction, which meant she didn't even try to stop the smile from returning.  Thinking of dragons made her think of Niall, and she was going to be PISSED if she missed his dragon trick.  She hoped he ate someone.  That'd be fantastic!

[Rhona Flores]

Jeremiah did let out a loud HAH sound, but he was quite entertained by ripping Irulan's senses out at random and giving them back at horrible times. The sense of touch was an integral part of a Serpiente, and just snatching it away from her - well, it kind of turned him on in a power-tripping psychopath sort of way. He had begun to drag a fine blade down her arms, allowing her senses to dull in and out depending on how hard he was pressing down.

"There's a good girl... scream for me," he hissed. She did - but in a second the frightened, pained sound was cut short. Her mouth was still open wide, and no sound was coming out. God, he was awesome.

Rhona, meanwhile, was seriously re-evaluating her life. Why had she not just listened when Irulan warned her about the things she might face when it came to being with Lucien? She'd passed it off as jealousy when Irulan had told her that being the mate of the Diente was nothing compared to being the mate of a guild leader. God, why hadn't she listened?

"Please, please just - just let me go. I'll tell you anything, just don't hurt my family," she croaked.

Well, she was no fun at all.

[Scarlet]

Scarlet didn't think that Jeremiah was quite as awesome as he thought he was, but that was more because she really just didn't give a flying fuck about the subtleties he was working in.  Did she care if Irulan was trapped in her own mind with all of her senses cut off?  No!  That was BORING.  It was boring in the same way that dropping Lucien in a hole and forgetting about him was, but at least Scarlet wouldn't have to watch that.  She'd just wander in a few years later and see what she had left where she'd left him, which was something she could handle.  Actually, she'd have been interested in what taking a few of Lucien's senses away and THEN dropping him in the hole would yield, but that wasn't her call.  She might have to try to get Jeremiah to help her with that on someone else, though.  She bet she could get the same results or better in much less time.

That appealed to her impatience in such a glorious way.

"So, how is it that Jeremiah got the interesting one, and I get the whiner?" she asked out loud, scowling down at the little snake girl as she begged to be let go.  Jeremiah was getting a psycho-boner in there, and Scarlet had to resort to hair-cuts and the like to make this one freak out.  This was getting stupid, and the vampire made that clear by cracking Rhona in the mouth again for begging like a little sissy.  "Your sister's in there giving him a hard-on, you know, so you could be just a little more accommodating for me.  I'm not asking for much, just a little entertainment, and all you want to do is whine!  Should I call the waaaaambulance for you?" she asked, leaning in once more and flicking her finger over some of the blood at Rhona's mouth, which she then licked off of her finger.  Her unamused, borderline annoyed expression flickered to a smile once again as she straightened, snatched up the terrycloth towel to pull it taut over Rhona's face.  A fresh bucket was waiting.

And the soundtrack?

"Wwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Wwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  Here it comes!" she howled in that familiar 'ambulance siren' rhythm, laughing once more.  She wasn't going to drown Rhona this time, but she wanted her panicking.  She wanted her scared, but unable to whine.  It was getting old.

[Jeremiah Talbot]

"And what if I am? It's not my fault you picked her," he snapped, looking up from whatever he was doing to Irulan. He stood to his full height and brushed the sleeves of his black blazer off, smirking a dark smirk that only Scarlet could see. He left Irulan there for the moment, bleeding and mute, and walked the precarious walk back to where Scarlet was.

As she doused Rhona with more water to silence her annoying simpering, Jeremiah let out an unnecessary sigh. "You know, for the mate of the Diente, you'd think she'd be more tough." He glanced back at Irulan, who was ever-working at those ropes, despite her pain and torment. "I think he made the wrong choice. WHAT DO YOU THINK?" he yelled, leaning down and screaming into Rhona's ear as Scarlet joyfully poured water on her. He ignored the splashing as it inevitably hit him as well, and then looked up at Scarlet.

"Is everything all set? I really, really want to see some fireworks," he growled with a sadistic grin. If only Irene were here to see this. One day, she'd realize she chose wrong, and then Jeremiah would be there to rip her voice out of her throat and make her scream 'til she burned holes in her lungs. Then she could choke on her own blood over and over again - kind of like, well, this. That was entirely not in a good way, either.

[Scarlet]

"What if you are?  Naughty, naughty boy, Jerry.  Raawr," she teased, the smirk twisting over her lips as she called him naughty and then did a rather good cougar-esque imitation proving that if she wasn't so unstable, she'd probably be very good at seduction. 

And a stalker.  Guaran-fucking-teed.

"Oh, we already knew Lucien was a fucking moron about women.  He got caught for this one, and he opened up this can of worms in the first place for the last one.  You'd think after the first failed attempt, he would have picked someone a little more...I don't know, intelligent?  Capable?  Dangerous?  Pfft, whatever, pick an admirable adjective, and there you go," she returned, pulling down harder on the towel as the bucket emptied, trying to get more of the water into the snake's mouth and nose. 

Was everything all set?  HA!  Who did he think he was talking to?  She finally released her hold on the towel, but left it where it was, just for Rhona.  No sense in boring the snake lady with their conversation.  "Of course it's all set, fireworks included," she informed him, grinning just at the idea.  She had put out SO MANY EXPLOSIVES.  "I definitely think we need to let both of them out.  Little Miss here will be a handicap for the capable girl, and the other girl means they might actually make it interesting.  Rhona would just fail miserably, and that's not fun at all."

Yes, there WAS a method to the madness, whether Rhona realized it, or not.  Scarlet, for all of her obvious insanity, was a brilliant mind for planning, especially if the plans would bring about more chaos.  She liked chaos, especially when it worked in her favor and she had control over it.  It made for a FANTASTIC party, and this time, Jeremiah was invited along for the ride. 

[Jeremiah Talbot]

Jeremiah scowled when she called him Jerry. He'd never even hinted that he'd ever had anything even closely resembling a nickname - no, he'd been Jeremiah, and he'd always be Jeremiah. It was memorable. He suspected Scarlet wasn't even her real name, but it didn't stop him from calling her "O'Hara" from time to time.

"I am," he said smoothly, wiping rivulets of water from his face. His darkly smudged eyes focused on what Scarlet was doing, and he made a scoffing sound when she brought up the whole fact that Lucien couldn't date a bitch who had a brain to save his life. "You know, you've got a point. Every trouble he's ever had has been because of his horrible choice in women. Rhona, do you even know how this all started?" he asked brightly, as though she could answer. He bet she didn't know.

"Your idiot boyfriend-fiance-husband-whatever started this all months ago when he sent people in looking for his fiancee, who was pregnant - oh, did you not know that? Well, you do now. Don't act so surprised, dear, it's your job to pop out babies if you're the Naga-to-be - oh, but you're the type to do that anyways, aren't you? Get married, have kids. It's every girl's dream," he sneered.

Clearly, he did not approve of this line of thought, though it was a mystery as to why. No doubt it had something to do with the Puritan society in which he was raised. "Your sister's considerably more capable than you are, and yet you're still alive and she's - she's lucky I've got other engagements, let's put it that way."

Casually, as if to inquire about the weather, he asked Scarlet, "Whatever did become of the Naga-to-Be and her unborn child?"

He was ready to go when she was. "We can let them both go. Handcuff them together." He'd seen inside Irulan's mind. That will to survive might supersede her love for her sister. He hoped silently that she'd cut Rhona's hand off.

[Scarlet]

Scarlet did NOT care about Jeremiah's preferences regarding nicknames, and she actually accepted almost any nickname she was given without much complaint.  That he called her O'Hara almost seemed affectionate, in their own special way.  The two of them and their individual crazy streaks seemed to mesh in a way that worked.  Not that she'd be proposing marriage or any such thing, but she thought he was alright.

She let him explain to Rhona about Lucien and his first almost-Naga, and frankly?  It was pathetic.  A man of his supposed skill and power should have known better than to choose useless women as lovers and long-term relationships.  This kidnapping shouldn't have been so easy.

Jeremiah went on to rant a bit about women popping out babies and all kinds of -- blah blah blah Scarlet didn't give a shit -- until he asked her what became of the Naga-to-be and the child, which was something that she wasn't going to be forgetting anytime soon.  It was what had put Stefan on her radar as anything more than 'that crazy Nazi', and she had the entire procedure etched into her already twisted mind for future use and awe.  It had been that bad.

"Stefan carved the offspring out with a pair of heavy kitchen shears and a large serving spoon.  The snake spawn survived and disappeared into the system somewhere, but the mother died a few hours later.  After Stefan finished carving the rest of her out.  It was messy, but very impressive," she explained, her expression surprisingly open and serious.  At least, until he mentioned hand-cuffing the two women together, an idea that she instantly took to.  She had to swipe the towel off of Rhona's face to untie her from the table, but she preferred the idea of releasing Rhona temporarily than Irulan, who was just a little more dangerous and determined to live.  Rhona just had to be manhandled in order to be carried to her sister for the purpose of handcuffing.  "Great idea, grab the cuffs?"

[Rhona Flores]

Rhona alternated between choking and - well, choking. As Scarlet described the way Tsunai had been dealt with, she'd stopped soaking her with water, so Rhona had no choice but to listen. She felt bile rise into the back of her throat - up until now the situation had been terrifying, but she hadn't thought they'd really kill her. Now? Now she was almost certain she was not getting out of this place alive. The problem was that as a Serpiente, killing her wasn't as fun as torturing her. She'd survive for a long time on torture, and these two clearly had experience with that.

Then the conversation topic swapped gears and they said they were letting her go. IT'S A TARP. When Scarlet whipped the bag off of her face, Jeremiah had already turned and was walking away to the table which had various objects upon it, set neatly for the purpose of Scarlet to have options for painful methods of amusement. He picked up the handcuffs and held them around a crooked finger. They looked normal, but they had a flicker of red, like something mixed into the mold, and it caught on the light every so often.

"Firestone," he said. "Only red, and not a lot, but it's enough that they can't just break the handcuffs off." He had something else in mind, too, and he'd wait until they were released before he did it. He wanted them to have choices ahead of them, just like Scarlet had. He was already snatching Irulan up and off of the ropes when Scarlet dragged Rhona to her.

Rhona could see a scary sense of resolve on Irulan's face, something primal and dark. She was looking at Jeremiah, but she didn't have any vision - and yet, she was looking right at him. She didn't even seem to be aware anyone else was near her, but that was attributed to her being cased in a sense-proof bubble at the moment. She'd get a shock when those cuffs were slapped on, that was for sure.

[Scarlet]

Scarlet did love the way Rhona's mind had suddenly come to the realization that she wasn't going to survive, to hear that panic and understanding in her sweet, naive little brain, just in time for them to mention letting her go.  It was like a really good yo-yo trick, and when Rhona figured out the rest of the plan?  It'd be even better, which was why Scarlet hoped she was there to see it.  They had other places to be, but they'd set up some cameras in key locations to ensure that they didn't miss ALL of the good shit.  Scarlet could appreciate a well-worked plan.

She didn't exactly appreciate not being able to use her table of goodies on Rhona, but it was all for a much higher purpose, and that purpose was more chaos and damage than they would otherwise accomplish. Scarlet just had to make a few sacrifices, which she would with minimal complaints.

She'd had the choice, and she'd made the better of the two.  Jeremiah, being the good guy that he was, was all about choices.  He liked to make sure that she had choices when they played together, and he was making sure that Rhona and Irulan had choices, though they weren't quite as great as Scarlet's.  They'd be awesome to watch, though.  She hoped that Irulan cut Rhona's hand off, too.

Yeah, it was a little creepy how Irulan was staring at Jeremiah even without having her senses available to her, and Scarlet cocked one perfect eyebrow up at the man, obviously intrigued.  "You're right, Lucien picked the wrong Flores girl.  Be careful, Little Miss Snakey," she warned Rhona, invading her space once again like they were best friends as she snapped the handcuff around the girl's wrist.  "She's your sister, but if you slow her down?  Oooh, that'll be exciting!"

She wanted to just go ahead and tell Rhona what was going to happen, but she could wait until Irulan joined the class.  She didn't want to BORE Rhona with hearing the speech twice, after all.