Never: Left
cw: hand whump, gore, brief emeto mention, this one gets kinda graphic so be warned :)
"Pick a hand."
James eyed his captor, sullen and silent. For two days, he'd been a prisoner in the brig of his own ship. No food, no water, no idea if the men still loyal to him were even alive. Kept chained to the wall, bound in a bent position by rough rope.
His body ached, his head was pounding, his mouth felt swollen, and here was Peter, first mate turned mutineer, giving him stupid orders.
"Pick a hand," Peter said again, sounding annoyed.
"Why?" James spat out, his voice rasping. "Why should I do anything you ask of me?"
Peter clicked his tongue. "Well now, you don't sound like someone who wants a drink of water."
James scowled. So this was how it was going to be. He'd have to play Peter's games, cave into his demands, just for the pleasure of keeping himself alive. Fine. His life was worth more to him than his pride.
"Left," he said, and Peter's face broke into a smile.
"There we go!" he said, producing a small flask from his hip and unscrewing the lid. He pressed it to James' lips, and he drank, unable to grasp it himself with his hands tied behind his back. It was taken away too soon.
"Now, you said your left hand?" Peter asked, moving behind him. James tensed as his former first mate cut the hand in question loose in such a way that the other was still tied firmly in place. Traitor or not, Peter was skilled with rope tricks. He gripped his wrist tightly, and James winced as his arm was straightened for the first time in days.
Even with one hand freed, the rest of his body was practically immobilized. Trying to fight back at this point would yield only failure. His best hope was to entertain Peter's wishes until the traitor let his guard down.
"Left hand, left hand. Good choice," Peter said, tracing a finger along James' palm. "Now, will you let me cut it off?"
James clenched his jaw. Even though he'd suspected this was the way things were headed, hearing the words spoken out loud sent a shock through him. "What?"
"I want to cut off your hand," Peter said. "But only if you tell me to. Will you?"
What kind of game was he playing now? "No. Why would I?"
"Okay!" Peter said brightly, releasing his arm. James watched him stride out of the room, flexing his fingers. Was that it? Was Peter just trying to mess with his head?
He took a shaky breath as the other man returned a few moments later, carrying what looked like a small anvil.
Of course not. Peter's games were never so simple.
The anvil was placed a few feet to James' left, and he felt a shudder run through him when he saw the metal cuff welded to the top. He was too weak to pull away when Peter grabbed his hand, and could do nothing as he was dragged from the wall, body stretched as far as his restraints allowed, left wrist locked into the anvil.
"I'm going to ask again," Peter said. "Can I cut off your hand?"
James' heart was pounding in his ears, worsening his headache. Should he just say yes? Get whatever Peter had in store over with? Or would he really be spared if he denied the request? He squeezed his eyes shut, thinking of climbing the rigging, steering the ship, engaging in battle. All things better served with two hands intact.
"No," he said at last.
"Okay then," Peter said cheerfully, drawing a small knife. Its edge was polished, razor-sharp. James felt his blood run cold as Peter brought it down to trace the outline of his hand.
"That means I get to convince you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter started with the ring finger. One long deep cut along the inside of it, a few more around the circumference, and he was able to set to work on removing the skin.
No amount of screaming, begging, or threatening would stop him, James found that out within a few minutes. He'd tried to clench his hand into a fist, but Peter struck him against the knuckles with the hilt of the knife and threatened to take an eye if he made this difficult, so he'd given up on that and took to screaming instead.
"Cut it off, cut it off!" he'd screamed as the finger was reduced to bone and muscle, and then not even that as Peter began to slice away at the tendons.
Peter had responded in a calm, friendly voice as he dug the point into the first joint, began to pry it away,
"It's too late for that. You can only tell me to cut it off when I ask you if you're ready for it to be cut off."
So James could only wail helplessly, straining against the bindings that held him in place until his skin burned and bled wherever the rope touched it. He'd be sick if his stomach had anything to give up.
Peter hummed as he carried on, removing more and more of the finger until it was down to the knuckle. He paused then, looking at the bloody space thoughtfully, and for a moment, James dared to hope he was done.
But then Peter jammed the point of the knife into the wound, and James' vision went white with pain. For a blissful few seconds, he knew nothing, felt nothing. But when the world came back to him, Peter was holding his thumb.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He didn't know how long it took as the process was repeated, the slow filleting of each finger, the piece-by-piece removal of bone. James' consciousness felt like it had melted into the pain, each new excruciating stroke indistinguishable from the next as he faded in and out of consciousness, barely able to do more than whimper as his body shook and his hand was taken from him one cut at a time.
Eventually, he opened his eyes to see everything gone, the remains of his hand sitting amid discarded flesh and gore. Peter was carving the skin off his palm, still humming a carefree tune. James let out a sound that was something between a sob and an animalistic whine, and Peter's gaze flicked down.
"Ah, you're awake!" he lifted the knife, twirling it between two fingers. "Now I hope you remember the rules, because it's your turn again."
James couldn't speak, couldn't even nod. It had to be over. He couldn't take any more of this slow slicing. It had to be over.
"I think you know what I'm going to ask you," Peter continued.
James only stared up at him. His vision was swimming. He had to stay conscious long enough. He had to be able to say the word, just one word.
"Can I cut off your hand?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
next part
184 notes
·
View notes
Woo hello 🎬!! I kept all of your ask here -- I put it like this for my own easy scrolling, but no way am I cutting any of this, it's so perfect AH
Oughhhhgh Haruka getting more confident from hanging out with everyone and getting such positive feedback… I’d imagine the back to back innocent verdict and night of compliments would do wonders for his psyche ;-; And same for Muu and Amane! Minus the inno verdict, but the sudden influx of explicit compliments and acknowledgement of “hey, that was fucked up what they did to you, okay?” I wonder if there’s any awkwardness since After Pain directly follows Bring it On, but I like to imagine Fuuta and Muu have a deeper talk about things in private (and maybe Muu hesitantly mentions her involvement with Rei in preparation for INMF…)
Damn, who’s going to give the sex talk to the kids after Yuno’s vide-- Shidou. Sidou does. Without hesitation. They have to stop him because no one wants to hear it and everyone there already understands the basics.I love the idea of she, Mahiru, Muu, and designer Mikoto chatting about everyone’s fashion sense (I can imagine them poking fun at Fuuta’s tracksuit and Shidou’s patterned shirts.) And planning shopping trips that include everyone!!! Amane and Kotoko are given no choice in the matter, and a lot of the guys are genuinely interested in coming along.
Awww, I love the thought of Haruka getting into a “boy” interest with Fuuta and Mikoto -- he never knew what it was like to have brothers but he’s really enjoying it <3 (Also I’m cracking up over Fuuta trying desperately to convince them “it’s not cringe!!!”)
ASDFSDF Mappi just straight up sobbing and Mikoto handing her tissues 😂 But yes, she also gets choked up during Magic and Amane can’t figure out why. This begins the adults’ efforts to get her out of whatever situation she’s currently in (which Jackalope was already half-working on, but is definitely spurred on by several angry almost-murderers demanding he get it done now.)
I do like that idea of Red more comfortable with showing skin than Blue. (I know people are very emotional about the stalker theory, but I personally never took it in a harmful way. I always enjoyed how it was a symbol of stripping away everything else until you’re left with your true, whole self.) So I like to think that Blue feels too exposed, but Red/Green are the ones who pitched it in a symbolic sense!
I’m losing my mind at Kotoko/Kazui/Red talking about sparring. Everyone else is like “hell yeah, let’s see it!” and Shidou just sitting there like “you all are going to be the death of me. You are NOT fighting.” Because I really want to think about it happening, I’ll say they manage to sneak away at least once and nearly break a prop in the process, to which even Jackalope shuts them down.
I think they all manage to get pretty serious again by the time T2 rolls around, but the hiatus is filled with a lot of sweet moments and healing conversations between everyone. Also, making so many plans for the future helps keep them sane when some of the project immersion gets a bit too real. Whenever they start realizing they might be condemned for their actions and worried that they’re too broken/they’re life is ruined, they come back to those plans and relax a bit.
Absolutely no pressure, but I would love to hear your T2 thoughts! 👀👀👀 I’m so incredibly grateful you’ve taken the time to share your ideas -- from the very beginning this au has been a big collaboration, so it’s super fun bouncing ideas around :D
16 notes
·
View notes
allan's enemies... help.....................................
these aren't muses that are available to rp with but are more-so background npcs that may pop up who allan knows and can lend antagonistic plot elements, which is optional of course! either way they will still be people allan knows from his past >w>
disclaimer im dumb pls excuse my incredibly bad knowledge of lore i swear i did... some research.............................................. watch me be a whorish lorebender im so sorry pls dont be offended LKSAJFOIWQJWKLQfj
obsly this is all VERY optional if ur not comfy with this at all. honestly i dont know if anyone would be interested in this im wheezing im sorry yoship pls dont ban me from ur game i just like to run wild with ideas AHHHHHH
just as an introduction, these are the people that helped allan with his illegal experimentation during his time in sharlayan. after being discovered, they were all very sussy of one another bc they don't know who betrayed the rest of them <///33 however, they all have some version of the twisted, special ability allan has im just gonna spoil it its a manmade echo which makes them just a teeny bit dangerous.
d'kav............. bitchass thaumaturge. LKJFALKSJf he's seriously bad news. he's p psychopathic and is VERY happy to torture people/burn people alive/freeze parts of their limbs and break them. u get the gist lkJALSKJF.
in a nutshell, his brother was the nuhn of his tribe, d'kav killed him but used underhanded means to overthrow him. eventually he was defeated in battle and someone else took over as nunh, but he survived and managed to escape.
d'kav has his own gay lil band of mercenaries that he chooses to keep close based on their skill so he's a tad dangerous to get on the bad side of lkJLKSAJf
his manmade echo randomly allows him to see into the future, but gives him an awful migraine that lasts for like days to a week KLJASLKfj.
eluric....... he's ok ig.................. he's an arcanist with an unhealthy thirst for knowledge lkajsfklj. he just kinda wanted to know where the experiment lead tbh LKJASLKfj. he didn't think it'd end up with banishment. unfortunately he's got a very... very very spiteful streak. and he's rich so he's likely to send assassins after the others in their group out of vengeance lkajsklfj
his manmade echo allows him to see aether. unfortunately it can't be turned on and off at will and debilitates his vision temporarily after the duration of the aether sight <//33 also it amplified his ruination abilities.......... think decomposition....... i cry.... i will think more on this later my brain is gone
scarlet... she's so cute... she's a samurai who is very happy to kill anyone that crosses her. she joined bc she wanted to amplify her power. she's a lone wolf that basically hated being part of their research group and was only too happy to be banished LKJASLKFAJSF honestly she's off running around and being a hermit... bless her...
her manmade echo allows her to see into the past of someone she has a close, emotional bond to. which is just ironic considering she's a lone wolf and dislikes company so... side effects are unknown since she's never benefitted from it. however, she inherited insane strength from her echo, which is absolutely terrifying with her abilities as a swordswoman. yike.
ovette... the only Good bean... sorta... chaotic bean LKJASLKFJ a conjurer who sought only to save her brother at any cost from a disease that would take his life. she thought she could harness the power of a manmade echo and manipulate it to save her brother. unfortunately it... did not work... he died during the experiment.... she’s also probably the only person that allan called a friend.
huge huge spoiler about allan but allan had the same disease as her brother. the manmade echo saved his life (bro i really need to think about the logistics about this IM SORRY IM A LIL LOREBENDY IN THE WAY THAT IM DUMB AND NEED TO RESREARCH MORE BEFORE SAYING SHIT LKAJFLAKSJF) and like... knowing that allan survived and not her brother... she got very bitter and angry and blames her brother dying on allan since he was the one who did it on her brother... im wheeze lkJALKSJF
a-anyway her manmade echo actually impaired her conjury, so she can no longer heal like she used to. however she also gained insane strength sue me im unoriginal and can regenerate at an insane speed too. bc of this she went and became a reaper... nyehe... sexy of her. she might also be trying to reanimate her brother but dw about it.
29 notes
·
View notes