The first layer of Hell

[Era]

"It is said that the deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers.  In other words, the worst kinds of people."  Victoria whispered to Reliquim.

Elwood only cracked a cold, sinister cackle.

Jasper snuck a few words in behind Elwood's snickering. "End his suffering. Finish him like you finished me."  

"Shut up, all of you!" burgundy eyes cold enough to freeze fire stared at the lifeless body. It had washed up here rather recently. A good half an hour ago he'd seen a light flicker in the sky - likely a temporary rift from another world tearing a gash in the Garden's space and time. And it was the light that ate at his curiosity, so naturally the Firefox came to investigate.

Logically, that light seemed to have spit out a young male.  Age? He couldn't say exactly. Around his own give or take a few years. Like buzzards on a carcass, shadow Heartless had already sniffed the newcomer out. They would probably tear him to pieces before he was even awake to realize it.

The humanoid Firefox tilted his head, watching the body and thinking.  However twisted.  Rel didn't have much use for anyone at the present time.  Unless...

"Plaything," Victoria muttered, reading the Emberfox's thoughts. The cogwheels of Reliquim's diabolical mind turned, and the curious male slid his tongue over one sharp canine, conjuring up the cruelest of plans.

Like a Hyena warding off buzzards he shooed and scattered the wave of Heartless from on top of the body.  In the few minutes they had been there, the beasts had already clawed and scratched at the lifeless boy.  While he would wake up in a fair bit of pain, the sustained injuries didn't seem life-threatening.  

The shadows' black antennae twitched, having been dispersed. They had recognized Reliquim, and either out of respect or something else they did not attack Seian further.

Standing over the other male, bronze-clawed fingers grasped the limp boy's shirt and Reliquim examined the face of his new toy.

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

Seian would wake up in a very small wooden lean-to. There was an old, faded cloth upon the floor. It was possibly a poor excuse for a rug. Tattered cloth of various other colors hung in a few places to patch holes. A few chunks of broken wood were strewn about here and there and the glass on the round windows had faded with time, only painting blurs of the outside world.

Once night fell, candles would flicker within the shack, carefully tended to ensure against an unwanted shack-fire.

But of course, everything might seem a little blurry upon waking as Seian's glasses had been placed on a box not far from Reliquim's poor excuse for a bed.  There were a few stacked blankets for a mattress, and another over the top of his guest.  He had one unremarkable pillow.

The toy would wake up with tended wounds. And Reliquim would be in the other room, fully visible. Watching.

Rise and shine, little plaything.

Rise and shine.

[Deleted]

Seian's sleep was filled with nightmares of darkness. Blackness surrounded him, and dark creatures tore at his being. His very existence was obliterated, and what remained was as dark as everything remaining. Yet perhaps it wasn't so different than what had been there to start.

Seian finally awoke, slowly fading into consciousness. He didn't want to open his eyes. He wanted to sleep. Slowly, however, he realized the faint aches of the wounds covering his body. Then, he opened his eyes, blinking, and slowly realized that he did not realize where he was.  He sat up, looking around, and realized that he was in what seemed to be a shack of some sort. He was hurt, but it seemed his wounds had been bandaged.

Finally, he noticed the other person in the room. Silver hair, bronze claws and chains... He looked very strange, to Seian.

"H-hello?" Seian called out, still unsure what was going on.

[Era]

Blood burgundy eyes stared scrutinously at the humanoid who had just begun to stir. The Emberfox's gaze was thick with a chilling aura, but his posture sat contrary to that. He was upright, legs crossed and sipping a cup of Rosepetal Tea. He had deduced that the loud vocalization went hand-in-hand with the newcomer's inability to see very well. Well, it was as good a guess as any, seeing as he had come with a pair of glasses.

It was always good to greet your guest, was it not? "Hello plaything," he studied his injured subject. My, my. What sort of trap had Seian fallen into?

Reliquim finished his tea and set the empty porcelain cup out of the way; the cup was the most fancy thing he owned and stood quite contrary to the appeal of the rest of the worn and tattered shack. It was likely stolen, and spoke volumes of his love for tea. The little cup sat idly near the foot of Rel's chair, its golden trim reflecting Seian and any waking movement he made. Bronze claws tapped idly against each other as Reliquim debated how best to make his guest uncomfortable. His expression grew twofold as frightening, a shrewd grin pulling at the corners of his lips. "Welcome to the first layer of Hell."

[Deleted]

"...Huh?" Seian blinked, feeling a lump form in the pit of his stomach even as he hoped he'd misheard. "What did you say? Did you call me a plaything?"

This entire situation was surreal. He remembered he'd been surrounded by darkness... There'd been all those creatures. Now he'd ended up here, with this strange man. He really hoped that this wasn't as bad as it seemed. He would have hoped it was a dream, but he'd never had a dream this vivid before. They were generally vague blurs that he retained just some general fuzzy ideas from. They also usually acted like video games. So far, this didn't fit.

The expression on his host's face unnerved him, as did his words. Seian was rather nervous. "Is this... Is this some sort of joke? Could you... Could you please not?"

[Era]

There was satisfaction in the cracked aura of slipping sanity that Reliquim exuded. Gut-wrenching, unnerving satisfaction. The Firefox got up and strode over to his new toy, all the while studying him. Ever studying. Always studying. "You're rather cute in distress," Ignoring any personal bubble, Reliquim knelt disconcertingly close to the stranger.

A bronze-clawed hand reached up, sharp tipped fingers caressing Seian's face. "It will be so fun to break you..."

[Deleted]

...No. It didn't seem like this guy was joking. Seian's nervousness intensified, especially as the man came extremely close. Even more when the claws came so close to his face. He instinctively leaned away, not wanting to be so close to the man or his claws.

He wanted to fight back, but he was still sitting down... Not to mention that he was pretty sure this guy's claws were sharp enough to do some real damage to him. As it was, he just silently stared in fear, not knowing just what he could do.

[Era]

It was obvious that his guest was frightened. Frightened was good. 'Frightened' was so delicious! Despite how much he was enjoying having a scared individual frozen beneath his touch, the Firefox retained his composure and a smile broke his lips. From beneath the crack in his lips, pointed teeth clearly stuck out. This individual not only had canines, but a complete jaw full of spikes; upper and lower. "Oh don't worry," he mused. "Do you know what you do with toys before they break?"

[Deleted]

Seian looked at the man in horrified confusion, as he finally took in the eyes and teeth. Was this guy even human? He could have understood psychosis by itself, but... Well, there had been all those creatures that attacked him. Nothing should surprise him now.

"...You want to play with me." The answer to the question was obvious. That didn't make it less ominous, of course. Seian didn't plan to quietly go along with it though. He just needed to find a good opportunity to fight back...

[Era]

"Don't worry," he waved the young male off, disappearing into the other room for only a moment. He had returned with a container, setting it at the side of the makeshift blanket-mattress.

The two candles flickering in the other room splashed patchy light throughout the rest of the lean-to. They did little to make the atmosphere more cheerful, but at least they added some form of light.

This shack was difficult to even be dismissable as a comfortable roach motel. What it was was tiny. Disorganized, but still vaguely homey: if you were a dog perhaps.

The Firefox's wine-colored eyes watched his subject contentedly. He was feeding off of the terror reflected in those hazely-green eyes that stared back at him. There was something profusely amusing at how easily he squirmed. And Reliquim hadn't done anything but touch his cheek.

He broke the fragile space-barrier once again, leaning right over Seian. Those frightful claws reached up to push a few curly locks of brown out of Seian's eyes. "I will make sure to break you very…" the hand moved to caress the other male's jaw again. "…slowly."

And for the first time since Seian's waking, Reliquim appeared to be sane. Reflective. Almost appreciative to have had the little critter fall into his trap. There was a faint glimmer of actual interest in Seian there, too.

[Deleted]

Seian tried to stand in the brief moment that Reliquim was away from him, but he had to sit down again when the man came back. He didn't have a chance to fight back before the claws were at his face again.

It felt surreal, really. This was all so absurd. Those creatures attacking his world, and then this man, who probably wasn't human, doing all of this. It was all so insane. But it didn't seem like simply a dream. Definitely not a normal one. Maybe it was an intense hallucination and it was actually just elaborate self-torture. ...But then he wasn't sure if it was possible to have it that vivid.

Regardless, Seian silently stared at the man across from him, unsure as ever what to do.

[Era]

The claws withdrew again, this time to allow the Emberfox to cross his arms as he thought.

An odd stare followed Seian; gears deep inside Rel's mind were turning, that much was evident. But it wasn't as cold and strictly evil as one might expect an evil, insane individual might look. It was more distanced. There had been more battle for his mind. A vicious losing battle for his heart, and through the twisted curiosity, his wine-colored eyes reflected heavy sorrow. Try as he might, his past was just bad enough that he couldn't mask the sadness in his eyes all the way. He would never be able to, either.

Claws tapped idly against his arm as Reliquim considered just how to play with his new toy. It was funny really, that he took so much care in making sure he did this correctly. He wasn't about to haphazardly jump in with brute force: typically that sort of thing wasn't his style. Brute force was far too upfront and hasty, and only worked well when backed into a corner.

One tipped talon tapped his upper lip. Sharp eyes shifted from the bed, to Seian's face, to the room's blurry window where they lingered for a moment, then returned to his new experiment. "Well, then there's that..." he shifted from being in thought to suddenly having made a decision, and the atmosphere of the room seemed to shift with his mood. "Since you're in my care now, you should know a couple things about me: I'm from Yorani. Call me Reliquim. But enough about me," certainly was kooky, this one.

The Emberfox's expression lightened up and he plopped down right next to his wounded pet. Feet lazily kicked out to either side and clawed hands resting his weight in front of him, the Firefox glanced at Seian with some sort of interest, the exact source of which was difficult to pinpoint. "I'm rather interested in you."

And what, pray tell, did Seian have to tell?

[Deleted]

Seian was not observant enough to see the sorrow in the other man's eyes. He was simply absorbed in his anxiety for what was to come. Truly, he understood nothing of what was going on. He had no idea what had happened, why he was here, whether he was even in his own world or not. All he knew was that he was stuck here with an apparent madman, and there was no obvious way out.

When the man spoke, Seian was somewhat surprised by the shift in his demeanor, but not put any more at ease. At least he knew his captor's name. Reliquim... It certainly wasn't one he'd heard before. It reminded him of the word "requiem", though. A song to send off the dead... Well, hopefully he wouldn't be needing that. Then again, perhaps he would, even if this man wasn't the one to kill him...

"Well..." Seian figured he would go ahead and respond. He didn't expect much more harm could possibly come to him from revealing anything about himself... "I'm Seian. And... I'm from the United States. That's the country. ...Er, is Yorani the name of a country? I've never heard of it." There was probably a good reason for that, of course...

[Era]

"Seian," the Firefox eerily echoed. He stored the name for use later. The silver-haired male snickered as his acquaintance explained. Pulling information out of him was almost too easy. Was there an ulterior motive? It wasn't impossible. But Reliquim had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

"Pfft. Is it a Country?" He made a diligent effort to keep from laughing. A smirk twisted the left side of his mouth. "You're kind of cute when you're nervous," he made sure not to get too much closer, lest Seian should shoot another wall up, when Reliquim was trying so slyly to whittle them down.

Perhaps atoning for his sins implied that he had needed to spread the virus to others: to make more Firefoxes in homage to those lost in Yorani? If he needed more numbers for a new Vulpine army, well, Seian could be that. His mind turned the possibilites before responding.

"It's a world," he commented. Or ratherr, it was a world.

One could almost hear the gears in Reliquim's head turning as he watched Seian… to deliver the virus, or not to? Seian would make quite an aesthetically pleasing addition to their scarce numbers.

His tone changed again. "Say, Seian, have you ever wished you could be stronger?" well, the previous information was easy enough to pull from him. Perhaps, if he used his silver tongue to coerce the other male, this would be smooth sailing.

He would see.