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[headlessfoal]

[ The psychology is simple. Small dark places, isolated and smothering. Cold, uncomfortable, impossible to sleep in, ambient noises coming every direction, indefinable in their threat and malice. No sense of time, no sense of agency. Vivi knows how simple it is. She's seen it, more than once. She's seen it done slick and longingly, whips and leather and purling laughter. She's seen it done with rust and stagnant water, lights flickering, screams echoing.

And she's seen it done in broad daylight, the psychology built out of nothing more than a looming frame, dominating the view of one cowering girl. Eye contact can be such an amazing tool. People are so fragile... They are just so, so fragile... ]

[ Out and about in the Garden this evening is a pink-haired little monster. She looks friendly, but... she's out for something. She's out for something and it's a good bet that you can feel her staring; stalking. ]

Comments

[headlessfoal]

Ooooooh. I see.

[As if she really needed that spelled out for her.]

Just a second.

[She lowers, in silence. She lurks at Larry's back, in silence. And then she loops her forearm around Larry's neck and hefts. She's stronger than she looks that Vivi, her arm tightening as she presses her cheek to Larry's temple, very obviously watching her feet kick.]

See me now?

[gun_cata]

Just a...

[ Oh. OH. The moment she's lifted, just a moment too late to do anything about it, Larry kicks a few times before fighting to slip her hand under the arm around her neck.

She can breathe, for the moment, but it's difficult. ]

B-barely... ack...

[headlessfoal]

[Vivi giggles.]

You'd be happier unconscious.

[See, Larry, she's totally looking out for your best interest in this scenario.]

[gun_cata]

[ Still struggling! Though it's harder to get your fingers under a choke hold when the person can fly, and there are spots in her vision. ]

Why...

[headlessfoal]

Because I'm going to practice my advanced interrogation techniques on you.

[A school project, Larry. Vivi is lifting them further from the ground.]

[gun_cata]

[ Definitely fading... fading... she's been interrogated before and it's not like there's anything interesting she'd know... ]

[headlessfoal]

[Here's a surprise, Larry! Vivi and her sister have the Abbey all to themselves, and there's a lovely cellar underground there. You're going to enjoy this.]

[gun_cata]

[ She'll be really, really surprised when she wakes up, and she's in what essentially is some kind of dungeon. ]

[headlessfoal]

[Vivi is sitting on a crate in the darkness, only a small amount of light seeping in from the tunnel up to the Abbey's interior. It doesn't bother her. She's very good at night hunting. Her sister had a teammate named Avian, an ornithopath. Vivi has raced the girl's hawks to snatch mice from the grass in the night. Quick, precise, deadly. When she remembers not to crash into the ground. When she doesn't get distracted picking out names for her new pet mice.

(She remembers being told to Crush them. and she can do that too.)

From her perch, Pegasus is grinning.]

Hey, you're awake.

[gun_cata]

[ Well... Larry's been kidnapped before. If nothing else, she could hold herself together from that experience alone - though her mind was hazy, as she looked up at the woman who'd grabbed her. Not at all like some of her enemies, happy in a way that didn't really gel with cruelty.

That just made her seem crazier than the rest. ]

Well, you didn't kill me... so I'd have to wake up sooner or later.

[headlessfoal]

Have you ever killed someone?

[She asks it blithely, in the open and naive way of an inconsiderate child.]

[gun_cata]

...never. Come close a few times though.

[ Unless you count times where she's blamed herself for someone getting killed. Larry would rather not, at the moment. ]

[headlessfoal]

[She hops down from her crate, coming over to stare down at Larry from close-up.]

Close totally doesn't count. You don't get shit for second place.

[gun_cata]

Just means I'm tied for first in not killing people.

[ An admirable goal in her mind. ]

[headlessfoal]

That's definitely dumb.

[She decides this, taking out a knife from the utility belt she cam here with.]

You get points deducted if you don't get your pink mist by senior year.

[gun_cata]

Good thing I don't go to your psychotic school.

[ Ah, that knife is a bad sign. Yeep. ]

[headlessfoal]

[ She balances the edge of the knife lightly along the ridge of Larry's nose. She's not supposed to talk about the school to outsiders, but Vivi's never been good at controlling her mouth. Some people have died because of it. ]

You're not special enough.

[gun_cata]

[ Larry's not moving a muscle if she can help it. She's goading a crazy chick with a knife - that's a little dangerous. ]

Not... crazy enough.