"You don't know a thing about real emotions, do you? Freak..." The man on the table spat out the insult as if he understood anything about his captor. Abacus simply smiled from the far wall.
"Ah like how... You take this jab at meh, almost like y'all know anything about what's really going on." The aurin drew closer to the human strapped down to the cold table, "As if y'all could comprehend anything about the situation yer in. It's almost cute."
There was creaking as the man struggled, but nothing really gave as the restraints were secured with runic science. Panic and fear permeated the room and filled every corner with a stench that was lost on all but the most basic of senses. Abacus's fur at the base of his tail stood on end as his ears twitched to an unseen metronome. Click, click, click...
"Yer done. Ain't nothing more the hoods can really extract from y'all. Codes, partners, yer little sweetheart back in Illium? Ya gave 'em everything... So why is it that y'all are in my custody, hmm?" The cotton candy devil continued to circle the table, a hunger in his eyes. "Penance? Revenge? A final redemption? No. Y'all don't get release. Ya don't get to leave... Not after that mess..."
More shaking and creaking, the table groaned with the effort that was exerted. Panic and fear, it came off the traitor in waves as he spat words of hatred and desperation. Abacus wanted nothing more than to break the man's neck and be done with everything, but at the same time he wanted the chance to flex his power one more time. "Ah hate and love everything about this..." A delicate pink hand moved along the side of the human's face, fingertips sliding along dried blood and sweat mingling at his temple. "Lets explore happiness first, shall we?"
Memories were absent, there were no great picture anthologies about the world and how it had been happy. The human could feel his heart flutter and a smile spread over his face despite the stench of a musty room on an asteroid. The restlessness of needing to bounce your knee, but the inability to move against the restraints did nothing to deter the light burning of tears along the rim of half closed eyes. Genuine happiness about the restraints and the inevitability of death filled his mind to a point where he welcomed the idea like a sunny day after a week of nothing but rain. This room was a perfect solution to the terrible stress of choice in the world, and he couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to be here. Serenity was restraint.
Abacus pulled his hand away and wiped it along his shirt as if he'd touched a slug while dragging fingers across a wet rotting log. The man slowly returned from his high and the panic slipped through once more, this time it rushed back to fill a void. The rushing waters to fill a gaping hole brought on by an earthquake of emotion. More rattling of the restraints and Abacus grinned, "I hate that emotion too... It's less of ah solid state to live by, and more a palate cleanser. It's yer threshold, so you understand the other emotions. The ginger between bites..."
Strings of words, none of which Abacus gave any thought to, came rushing from the prisoner's mouth. His body jerked and he thrashed on the table, screaming to be let free. Words that threatened and tried to sting the barrier of the aurin's defenses. Abacus only smiled and moved towards him again, "You like anger? You think y'all understand it? Here... Let me show you real rage..."
There was a soft touch to his stomach of a hand centering at his navel, and the human just screamed. Fire, it wasn't like they described, the burning was not incomprehensible but centered in his gut. It simmered, burned through the fuel, and then started to burn the container. He felt sick, but despite knowing the solution all he wanted to do was break something anything to release the tension. There was an epicenter where pain and pressure collided, and the turmoil warped time itself. Nothing resolved as the tremors continued to shock his system and each jolt caused him to jerk an arm or leg trying to feel anything beyond this growing kinetic energy. Screaming didn't fix anything, but it was something to do. Something cathartic that gave his mind a break even if the pressure never ceased in his bones.
Removing his hand, the aurin shook his wrist almost shaking off the residue of rage that the man had felt in that moment. "No? Not ah fan of rage...?" There was a pause, a subdued response to the jeering as the rage burned off and through the human. Abacus could almost see the pile of ash it left behind. The table made another creaking sound as senses returned and Abacus smirked. "These are the tame emotions, really... How about we move to something more foreign to you, hmm? How 'bout I show y'all sorrow?"
A soft tail wrapped around the man's neck and he felt himself choking. The drowning feeling was not like his training described, and he gasped for the breath that was just barely there. This was not suffocating slowly, there was no soft feeling of passing out as he struggled for every breath. He didn't have to fight to stay cognizant of his surroundings as each intake was a battle that he fought like a war. It was a fight that he knew was in vain. The ever present want, need to let it go and not take another breath, haunted him. He inhaled with pain shooting through his lungs and cried in the exhale when the air left him once more alone. Each breath holding a window of hope that flashed and crumbled with each exhale. The thought of simply quitting the struggle tugged at his consciousness. Unfortunately, despite everything that weighed down on him through each breath, he continued to take another and then another and then another. Tears streamed down the side of his face and sobs stuck to the back of his throat, and all he could do was breathe. That’s just what you do... You breathe.
Abacus's tail slithered off the man, and the aurin looked a bit worse than he had been a few moments earlier. "Yeah... That's the struggle. It never gets better, but y'all take that breath anyway. Maybe... Right?" The aurin laughed, manic as his ears were still flicking in that odd manner. Lavender colored eyes, wide with excitement, watched the human struggle in place. "I think... It's time I had a bit ah fun. Don't y'all think? Here... Lets try this one..."
A single digit pressed against the man's forehead and the room gained a new layer of darkness. The edges rippled with the inky black that could at any moment swallow the entire room whole. Wide eyes, it was the only way to keep the darkness at bay. Don't blink, never blink, because each time you do the darkness creeps just a little closer. No one ever questioned why the darkness was bad, it just always was and always will be. The cold chill on the spine and the prickling feeling along the skin were warnings, they had to be. You just know when things are off and that saves your life. Panic and fear keep you safe, so it's okay to listen to their demands. It's okay to be cautious. Don't blink. Never blink.
A jolt ran through his hand, or at least it looked as if the aurin had been shocked away from the human who was shaking with wide eyes on the table. "There, now y'all get it... A small taste. A small tremor miles away from tha epicenter of a natural fucking disaster." Abacus started to draw the outline of a rune over the man as he walked around the table. His tail was bottlebrushed and his ears were flat back. "Now y'all can live with this knowledge till yer body gives out from the stress. Relive the emotions that y'all caused... Over and over and over..."
A metal door opened and the cotton candy aurin stepped out from the room where he had been working. The Hood's guards that stood watch readied and leveled their weapons on Abacus. The pink aurin stifled a manic giggle as he slowly raised his arm with a slow wave of curling fingers. Ears back and tail flicking erratically, he hiccuped another giggle as the high from his job trickled through his brain. "Better get the meds quick, boys... Ain't got much time."
His voice trailed in a sing song manner as a hand gripped his wrist. A sharp pinch as the medication was injected, and the male sighed heavily. It was fast acting, and he took in another breath this one seeming better than the one before it. Squaring his jaw, he looked off towards the docking bay and his ears swiveled forward. A smile graced his lips as his tail curled behind him.
Happiness, the threshold, the litmus test, the gauge at which all other emotions are realized.
