maskormenacelogs | Lucifer vs. Vor master post

Lucifer vs. Vor master post

WHO: Lucifer + the whole damn cast + a bunch of unfortunate victims of circumstance.
WHERE: Various.
WHEN: Starting 5/27 and onward.
WHAT: Lucifer has Mark kidnap Gregor. Shit hits the fan.
WARNINGS: There is definitely going to be torture and violence. Will update with specifics.

Table of Contents (roughly chronological)
Initial kidnapping -- Gregor, Mark, Lucifer
So honey, I haven't told you... -- Aral, Cordelia
Secondary kidnapping -- Lucy, Mark, Kel
Hawke vs. Vorhouse -- Hawke, Miles, Aral, Tex, Jim, Spock, Kel
Miles at the hospital -- Miles, Kitty, Tex, Ed, Jim, Bucky, Ken, Kareen, Mark, Newt, Kel
Location: rubble -- Winry, Miles, Ed, Tex
Ruined date and getting voluntold -- Duv, Kasumi, Aral
Torture log -- Lucifer, Dean, Gregor
Assignment -- Lucifer, Mark
Telepathy -- Aral, Tex, Gregor
Wagon circling -- Miles, Winry, Roy, Ed, Yuri
Requests -- Aral, Jim
Rescue -- Lucifer, Miles, Kitty, Hermann, Mark
Hellhounds -- Lucifer, Roy, Ed, Hawke, Mark, Aral
Main fight -- Lucifer, Aral, Hawke
Swamp mingle -- Tex, Hawke, Ed, Winry, Roy, Jim
Post-rescue at hospital -- Gregor, Miles, Kitty, Duv, Cordelia
Following the trail of burger wrappers and tears -- Duv, Nicolas
Hospital threads part three -- Miles, Cordelia
End of the line -- Duv, Mark
Family reunion & oath swearing -- Mark, Gregor, Aral, Tej, Duv, Miles, Tex, Winry, Ed, Simon
Recovery OTA -- Aral, Miles, Duv, Cordelia, Ed, Winry

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Oh, yes. I'm just going to need to sleep once I've teleported Mr. Kane..

[What on earth is going on there? Nevermind that, focus.]

As a side effect, teleportation saps my energy, so I only tend to use it in emergencies. No cause for concern, really. Rather an inconvenience most of the time, seeing as Newton can't effectively-- there we are..

[Invisible!! Just great, that was a new problem they hadn't encountered in their previously theo-themed enemies before. Figure something to do about it later; he obviously couldn't just blow it up with it on top of Ed like that but at least he definitely new where it was. Already running to him, Roy claps, taps the concrete ground, and pulls a rod of pure rebar steel sharpened into a stake, barking a quick warning to Ed as he attempts to thrust it into the invisible mass currently sitting on his subordinate.]

[ Miles' breath catches in his throat. ]

Yes, well. I am desperately grateful. And we would be more than happy to have Dr. Geiszler come and visit us. Please, if you are ever in trouble yourself, I am at your disposal.

[ Gregor hadn't actually noticed Miles's attempt at warning him he was getting teleported out. Miles has been compulsively trying to obtain contact with him ever since Gregor had firmly shut his links, iron walls between them, but he simply can't afford to let everything he's been enduring leak over and influence him. He can't subject him to that; his link with Miles in particular is practiced and attuned to transferring pain, if usually in the other direction, and he doesn't want to chance it.

More selfishly, he just can't hold himself together to endure this while also receiving sympathy and horror telepathically. He'd crumble into pieces in a heartbeat, and there's something very different about being vulnerable physically and being completely stripped mentally.

So he's not prepared at all when Hermann teleports him to the emergency department, dumping him off behind the circulation desk, in fact, which Gregor doesn't notice at first. He's been tied and disallowed sleep for more than twenty-four hours now-- he has no idea how long exactly, or what time it is-- and the sudden rush of blood back to his arms is barely noticeable as he slumps to the floor with a soft, hoarse cry of pain from his left foot. There's a mess of blood and exposed tendon; a hefty steel nail has been driven through the metatarsals, and it's far from weight-bearing. He ends up crouched down on his knees, supporting himself with weak arms, tingling as sensation returns to them, blood dripping from above his eye onto the floor.

Dimly, he registers a nurse shrieking at the suddenness of his arrival. Everything stops around him in shock for a long second, and then bursts into motion again. The first thing he gets asked is a brisk, imPort? to which he answers a shaky yes. For now, he doesn't protest the medical attention, being shepherded off to a room and interrogated along the way.

But he does, hesitantly, with disbelief, reach out mentally: ]

... Miles? [ That must have been him, right? Who else? With him apparently in safety, all of Gregor's resistance is draining out of him. There's a faded, shocky quality to his mental presence; crippling exhaustion and searing pain overridden with blankness just to get him through the next hour. It will set in eventually. Hopefully, he thinks dimly, not until he gets pain meds. ]

[ Once Gregor has settled in, had his foot splinted, been propped up on hospital pillows, received enough pain medication to function and firmly and repeatedly denied more-- he needs to think-- and managed to shuffle Miles out of his room by the simple expedient of asking him to get him food and water, he reaches out to another one of his links.

Duv Galeni.

His presence is fuzzy with the medication but clear enough to be going on with, and there is a steel-lined lack of tolerance for anything but efficiency and obedience that is very unlike Gregor's normal mental voice. ]

Captain Galeni. I request and require you to come to my room in the Heropa hospital. I have an assignment for you.

[ That mental gesture is much like piercing a dam. Miles comes pouring over in a great rush, beside himself with guilt and worry (and sympathy and horror) all in a flood. It takes him a few moments to even realize how terribly faded Gregor feels in comparison. With immense effort, he forces himself to curb his side of the link, to keep himself receiving instead of projecting. As much as he may desperately want to do so right now.

Starting with that searing pain. He's never actually done this in reverse, he realizes. Always it's been someone else taking the pain from him, the pain flowing outwards instead of inwards. His second mental touch is much more careful and delicate as he reaches for the pain that Gregor is feeling right now. Any part he can take on right now ... ]

I'm here, Gregor. You're safe.

[ And he's going to get back there as soon as he can, dammit. ]

[ Kitty is with Miles, of course. She's on the outside of their link, of course - she always is, something that intermittently gives her a bit of envy - but she can tell when the link is engaged. There's a look he gets, a slight spaciness. Usually accompanied by a smile, though - not today. For obvious reasons.

She asks Miles: ]

Where is he? I'll take you there.

Damn--!

[ She feels something go by her from the rush of air, turning to follow just as Ed gets hit.

Her first instinct would be to blast whatever it is, but she can't see it. Instead, she throws out an arm in his direction, snapping off a spell to put a barrier around Ed and force the beast -- is it even a beast? -- back, at the very least shake its grip on him so it doesn't pull anything else off when Roy stabs at it. ]

[ He's still about 75% focused on Gregor, sorry, Kitty. But he does unglaze his gaze just enough to refocus on her. ]

I think they're taking him somewhere now to be examined. We'll have to find out which room. He's ... he's in poor shape.

[There's a moment before he gets a hold of it. He shouldn't have had that lapse, he should have expected the state he felt over the connection, as deeply as if it was his... but for a moment, there's just blazing, red hot heat. Like standing next to an open volcano, molten rock sluicing over the side. But it's only a moment. Aral slams down the shields on his own emotions, rather than the connection with Gregor.

What follows is completely businesslike, grim acceptance and total rock wall between those emotions and what has to be done.]

Understood. Do you know where you are? Any details of your location.

[ He was expecting this. The Emperor will find no resistance when a prim, ] Yes, sire. [ is sent back over the link.

How much of his earlier conversation has already been relayed to the man? He hates going into this without knowing the full details. When he had agreed to keep Peter's--Mark's--identity a secret, he didn't expect all of this to blow up out of it.

But he's here with the consequences now and he intends to face them. It wouldn't surprise him one bit of this 'assignment' was for him to pack his bags and get out of the house with a standing order to leave the Imperial Service if all this is remembered upon returning home. All for nothing.

He doesn't waste time in showing up in the Emperor's hospital room and merely stands at attention. ]

[ He instinctively shies away from the sensation of Miles trying to take his pain, since he's been so deliberately bracing himself against the urge for most of the day now. It would be so simple to just slip that pain away along his link, he knows how to do it...

But that would be a terrible idea, and Gregor knows it, and he's not mentally with it enough to realize circumstances have changed enough that it's okay now. He's not even fully able to register Miles's increased presence. He's distracted with the medical attention flurrying around him as much as by his own exhaustion and pain, isn't able to form a coherent, complete response. ]

No-- I can't let you...

[ God. This is why it has to be Aral. Gregor flinches at that blast of molten heat, before with relief the door slams shut.

He takes a shuddering, creaky breath before answering. ]

No. I'm no help. I was teleported and there's no windows. [ A beat, before, hesitantly: ] Did Cordelia tell you...

[ Miles' mental voice grows more insistent. ]

Please, Gregor. You're in the hospital right now, not with Lucifer. Let me help you.

[ Gregor has composed himself well enough to be doing business. He's propped upright, and the strain around his eyes and his mouth is mitigated by the coolness of his expression. His left foot is wrapped and propped up on pillows, uncovered by the blanket, and he has an IV going into his arm. For all that, he might as well be in one of his receiving rooms at Vorhartung Castle for his demeanor.

Kitty is likely around somewhere in covert animal form, both because leaving Gregor alone right now is a hideous idea and because he doesn't want to be left alone, not fully. His heart races without any form of reassurance at all. ]

Captain. It has come to Our attention that you kept pertinent details from Us. [ Pertinent details being Mark. ] Do you have any explanation to offer?

[ He hears that Imperial 'We' and it sets the tone for the meeting. He straightens further, if it's even possible, and keeps his gaze forward. They may be in a hospital room, but it's hard to shake the distinct feeling of interrogation. ]

Yes. Would you like the full story from the beginning, sire, or the condensed version?

[ It's clear in his tone he'd much rather give the former, but if time is of the essence to remove him from their sight, he can do brief. ]

[ Hesitation-- confusion. ]

You don't have to. They're giving me drugs. I think. They're making me wait... [ Bemused humor, blackened and soured. ] I've never had to wait for medical attention in my life.

[ If this were left to his preference, Gregor wouldn't be seeing anyone but his very closest for some time. But this isn't about his preference, this is about taking appropriate steps as Emperor, and as such, he has no time for self-pity or personal sentiment. Accordingly, the Imperial plural.

That being said, sitting around talking is not what he wants to do right now. He wants this done. His eyes lid slightly. ] We will come back to the full story later. For now, in brief, please.

[ There's a spike of indignation from Miles at that. How dare they make the emperor wait, dammit. His mental reach grows more insistent again - then hesitates, stopping there. He won't argue a third time. ]

Just until they give you the medicine you need. Please, let me do this for you.

[ He nods. As the Emperor wishes. ]

Peter Kane was part of a Komarran terrorist plot to use a clone of Miles Vorkosigan to replace him. He was to assassinate Miles' father and eventually you in order to position himself to take the throne. Or so he told Mark, I imagine the plan was more to throw Barrayar into complete chaos. [ It would be just like his father. ]

I encountered him on Earth and by the end of the venture, he chose not to be involved and killed the man responsible for the plot. When I met Mark here, he had no recollection of anything and was from an earlier point in time. I incorrectly deemed him not a threat and he claimed to want to pursue a new start here.

[ The indignation on his behalf is... familiar. Reassuring. Gregor has held on so tightly, when everything else fell away, to the idea that he wouldn't put Miles through his pain. He couldn't; it was what Lucifer wanted, he'd use it to manipulate him; furthermore he'd use it as excuse to hurt him worse, if his pain was being siphoned off. And beneath all of that is Gregor's old, old fear of hurting those close to him. It rides too close to that.

But it has also been a very long 36 hours for him and he is overwhelmed and slowly coming out of shock, and finding himself at the complete edge of his rope. His resistance is wearing and crumbling away. ]

If you're sure, [ he says hazily, tiredness overtaking him as he dully submits his arm to have an IV hooked up. Medical technology seems barbaric, practically medieval to him, but-- ] Do we have any healers on call? Where are you?

[ Kitty, meanwhile, is leaving Gregor and Miles to their conversation. She bothers him only once, when the gorilla murmurs to him - ]

I'm going to leave you here a moment. Okay?

[ And then she deposits him gently in a chair and turns human - turns, more specifically, into a serious-looking, suit-wearing middle-aged man. That's a face that tends to get more results than when she asks questions as a teenaged girl. Because agism and the patriarchy. He ends up like that for about six minutes - Gregor isn't in the system yet, so she has to figure out ways to track him down. Then she's back, moving him into a wheelchair: no more time for fun now; time to not attract attention, to work with the system to get to Gregor faster. ]

[ There had been one hand placed loosely over his chest, where a tiny suspicious lump is-- or is it just a fold of the blankets?-- that now curls in front of his mouth in opaque consideration.

'Mark'. Ah, Cordelia's father, right. Presumably Mark Pierre. One question answered. ]

For what it's worth, I don't think you were wrong, [ he says slowly. ] I note you've avoided naming 'the man responsible'.

[ The hellhound howls its distress, black blood spattering onto the floor as if from nowhere. It pulls back, yanking sidewards so as to pull Roy with it. Then it twists around, snaps its invisible jaws around the bar. With that, it throws itself the rest of the way around, attempting to throw Roy with it--hopefully send him flying into Hawke.

With a rattling growl it shakes the bar out of its shoulder. The blood stops almost at once, and the creature jumps back, reassessing its next approach, giving the group time to collect over their wounded companion. ]

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Lucifer vs. Vor master post

5/28 Post-rescue stuff

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ED!

post-ED! for Duv

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