Returning to the Scene

[Blood Ravenous]

"Act... Uh... I mean no. Never heard of that... uh... guy," 'Lars' said, and Ryxa stared at him as he fumbled with his words.

Ryxa was practically the hand of god in this city, and she didn't get that way by being dull. The spell had done its job and revealed his real self before he could control it; it was the only piece she needed before knowing for sure who he was.

This was just too good. She had found him after only a night actually being on the case. In the days since his jail escape, Chrishton had been in the back of her mind should she meet him. The judges had told her to fit it into her schedule to hunt him down. She hadn't thought much of it; the lesser battlemages and city guardsmen could bring him to her, and she would do her job as usual. But then, a few hours before, the judges had gotten irritated and forced her to find him.

The judges had warned her personally about this man, of what the guards had reported he had done. He practiced magic and was tough. If there was a confrontation between them, it was getting more and more obvious that Ryxa could possibly lose: he could get away. It was also obvious that the situation could get out of control. Day was approaching rapidly and the downtown area was already preparing. Working citizens and customers would soon be crowding the streets.

Ryxa thought this through quickly following the spelled man's subtle admission. She only barely registered his question, "What'd he do?" and it was a moment before she reacted at all. She frowned and glared at the same time, irritated again, but too surprised at the turn of events to get angry. Her immediate decision was to play along, keep the ploy up, keep him nearby and let her think of what to do.

Resuming a cold stare, she said, "Oh, he was a naughty boy. He's a magic-user, so of course you wouldn't know him, now would you?" Her voice dripped with scorn and she gave him a threatening, slightly wide-eyed look. "I was also wondering, what were you doing when I found you?" Might as well get information from him while she could.

[Chrishton Radu]

((my apologies for the delay ice, you've been more than reliable ))

Oh, he was a naughty boy. Those were words Christhon normally heard on much better terms. Coming from the battlemage, attractive as she was, only made him feel really weird. His mind was working like cold molases, and it really didn't help that she was playing with him.

He expected her to snap.... But she didnt. Earlier he expected her to be civil, but she snapped. He started getting the distinct impression that the lady was a total basketcase, which put a serious dampener on his plans to manipulate her emotionally later. He liked to play the innocent when he had to (sometimes he even was innocent) maybe pull some puppy dog eyes, tell her he understood her, that she wasn't evil and he could help her find a better way of life... Even pretend he was in love with her if he had to.

That probably wasn't going to work with her. It might, if he could figure her out, but the way things were going that was highly unlikely.

He didn't really know what he was doing in the alley. He was looking for clues about where to find the vampire or the catgirl, neither of which were very likely to turn up.

Telling her the partial truth, he answered with a fair amount of honesty: "I dunno."

[Blood Ravenous]

The words, "I dunno," made Ryxa's fingers flex. Chrishton was a total dead-end, every single time so far. Well, except for the reaction to his own name. Perhaps she was asking the wrong questions, but she didn't care. She guessed five minutes had passed since she had cast Hypnotic Eyes, and that was as long as she could stand. Unfortunately, if the target didn't shake it off, the spell would last for a full ten minutes before dissipating. She wished she had more control of it; she would have used pain-touch to jab him in the side and bring him to his knees at that kind of reply.

Ryxa stopped in her tracks and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, making him stop abruptly with her. "How could you not know what you're doing?!" she exclaimed, fixing him with another glare. Her speech turned into a hissing undertone. "That sort of answer is for vagrants and prevaricators! You had better hope that you aren't the latter, because I can turn your world into a nightmare of scarring flesh and suffering. You don't want to mess with me." She yanked on Christon's jacket to bring him closer, ignoring the grime coating him for now. "Now, perhaps you'd like to recall and correct your reply, wouldn't you?"

[Chrishton Radu]

She grabbed his shirt to stop him and once again he let her, his bulky frame easily manipulated by the smaller woman like a mother manhandling a big, dopey child. He was letting himself go with it, appearing to be the most harmless, homless, clueless oaf this side of the Great Scar. She locked eyes with him and he stared back with sincere dark green eyes.

"A pervowhat?"

He really didn't know what the word meant. Literacy was never his strong suit. She yanked him closer and he looked startled.

"Well I uhh..." The spell was starting to wear off but his mind was cloudy as ever, something he was only half-fighting against. "Lookin' fer someone. A girly, hit me in the head with a rock."

[Blood Ravenous]

"Much better," Ryxa said through gritted teeth. She shoved him away. Carefully she wiped her gloved hand on her cloak and held his green eyes. They seemed honest enough at the moment. "A prevaricator is someone who evades the truth. In other words, lies." Ryxa frowned, speaking scornfully. "I'll have to remember to use small words."

She was feeling the spell breaking down. It was time to start the real fun, how she truly got her answers.

The battlemage moved in front of Chrishton and put her hands on her hips. "I tire of this interrogation. Get on your knees," Ryxa ordered, frigidly staring up at him. Hopefully, if he followed her order, when he broke the spell she would have enough time to subjugate him before he could run. She wished she had a leash or handcuffs or anything she could bind him with, but she hadn't even considered bringing any with her. Usually her magic and intimidation worked just as well as constraints, but, just maybe, this one was above that. However, most victims were cowardly, fearing torture and death, and didn't need much incentive to follow orders. Ryxa was skillful enough to break anyone, even this bear of a man, or at least that's what she thought. But first was the waiting game. How long it would take for him to shake off the spell?

[Chrishton Radu]

Once again he got the response he least expected. In the back of his mind he kept waiting for the woman to snap and start swearing again, but instead she responded with general calm. To him, it was like she had no logic to her at all, a jumbled mess of fanatical opinions and penned up rage. He was in no state to be trying to figure anyone out. His mind was off in lala land while a little voice he could barely hear reminded him continually that he was under the influence of a spell and that the woman standing before him was actually dangerous.

"Small words. Gotcha." He said, not the least bit insulted.

She put her hands on her hips and his eyes followed them there. His old weaknesses started to show through and his mind began to carry off in a completely different direction, this time a fantasy he quite enjoyed indulging in. She really wasn't bad looking. Best looking example of a woman he'd seen since entering Marn, and her armor left a lot to his imagination, which was able to fill in the blanks with improbable detail.

"M'knees?" He grinned wryly.

It was pretty obvious what he was thinking. Her spell had almost completely lost its hold on him by this point, and under any other circumstance he wouldn't have complied... Except that a good part of him wanted to. Before he knew it he had dropped onto the road with his hands on his thighs and a stupid grin on his face.

"Kinda weird in public though ain't it?"

[Blood Ravenous]

Chrishton was eyeballing Ryxa in a way she recognized and definitely did not appreciate. She was satisfied when he had followed her command right before the spell was fully gone, but it did not help to convert her rage.

"Kinda weird in public though ain't it?"

"I'd say it's the perfect place for me to humiliate someone," she replied egotistically. Then suddenly her face changed from a look of disdain, to a wild, hate-filled one. She yelled, "And keep your eyes to yourself before I rip them out and feed them to you!" To add to this threat she backhanded him across the face. It was a powerful enough blow to smart badly and to make the left side of his face redden.

Over the years that the torturer had operated in her high standing, she had found that threats worked almost as well as pain to get her victims to obey. She also discovered their emotional pain and fear were as delightful to her as physical anguish. It almost made her smirk to hurt him as he kneeled before her but she resisted the temptation. At this point she had to be imposing.

Visibly Ryxa's shoulders relaxed, her anger expended in the smack delivered to his face. The frosty manner returned, and she sounded ominous but serious when she said, "Don't test my tolerance for your dog-like manner, 'Lars'."

[Chrishton Radu]

The sharp sting of the backhand snapped him out of her spell immediately, regardless of his willingness to stay partially within its effects. The jolt of rough physical contact awoke him like a splash of cold water and he immediately returned the favor by staring back at her with sharp, defiant eyes that held within them the promise of retaliation. It wasn't hasty or angry, but a more subtle and calculated promise. Chrishton didn't get mad, he got even.

"Alright lady, enough'a this garbage. Ya gonna arrest me or what? This is gettin' kinda tirin', ain't it?"

Being called Lars was an odd twist to him. He wondered to himself what the man would think.

[Blood Ravenous]

"Alright lady, enough'a this garbage. Ya gonna arrest me or what? This is gettin' kinda tirin', ain't it?"

In response to this defiance Ryxa sneered. "For you, perhaps, but I couldn't find a better way of spending my time. Finding a man like you is very rare," she stated.

The spell was gone and she could hurt him now. Maybe he would scream. With these thoughts a rush of ecstatic mania sparked a brightening to her taut face. As simply as she breathed a mental switch clicked on in her head, eased by years of practice. The mage imagined her hands were scorching hot, like metal in a forge. No, her hands were hot irons; she could feel them burning and warping. The pain was palpable, ready to be unleashed.

"Maybe this will change your mind?" Ryxa taunted. Chrishton was tall enough even kneeling that she didn't have to bend down much at all. Swiftly she jabbed her four fingers under his chin, lifting his head a tad. It was so real for her that his skin sizzled and burnt, but in reality nothing outwardly happened. However, the magic in her hand spread to his chin where she touched, igniting his nerves.

[Chrishton Radu]

Chrishton recoiled as if he'd been slapped in the chin with a hot poker fresh out of the kiln. He fell backwards onto the road but stopped himself at the last moment with his elbows in the dirt. He was sure she had just burned his face, and reached up to hold the afflicted area in the palm of his hand only to find that no damage had been done.

His mind reeled. There was a refractory period while his brain reset itself and registered what was going on, and in the few milliseconds while this was happening the pain completely passed. He could still feel it the way he could still see a bright flash after closing his eyes, but it was gone. His skin was cool again, and the usual feeling of a blister forming wasn't there.

He looked down at his hand to see if there was any blood, if his rough stubble was merely masking the touch of burned skin from his fingers. There was none.

He looked up at her again, a little shaken from the experience but otherwise quite defiant.

"Ow." He said as more of an acknowledgement, like it wasn't obvious he'd been hurt.

At least now he knew what kind of powers she had.

[Blood Ravenous]

((Gah, I know this is late, but stuff happens (>_o) ))

Ryxa had withdrawn to stand haughtily over him while he fell back and assessed his nonexistent injury. There may not have been screaming but his reaction was amusing. She smirked icily at his bewilderment, staring at him like a stalking cat would gaze hungrily at a rabbit.

Ryxa laughed, her still-burning hands on her hips. Her kind of laughter was humorless; it was a sound either revealing disdain or esteem. In this case it was esteem. The prey was someone who had gone through his share of pain, and despite her line of work she didn't encounter very many. The judges handled anyone important, the petty commoners shunned to her occasionally. This time the judges didn't know and she wanted him for herself. The challenge was too tempting to adhere to orders and she didn't care what would happen if they found out, anyway. Especially since he was so defiant.

"How was that, fun little Chrishton?" the battlemage taunted coldly. The admission was a slight one, yet very obvious, and she didn't even emphasize it.

[Chrishton Radu]

What a nutcase. She looked and acted like a dominatrix and laughed like she was forcing it. Almost like a piece of bad acting. She had a wild temper and the attitude of a crazed young girl with something to prove. She probably also had more powers up her sleeve other than the mind tricks she was using so far. Being a battlemage made her inherently dangerous and capable of just about anything. It was turning him on.

He heard his own name and their little game was suddenly up.

"Oh yeah, loads a fun. Like stickin' m'chin on a stove."

He didn't look scared, or upset, or intimidated, or even confused anymore. He looked like a man who expected to be in trouble and who had every intention of toughing his way out of it, regardless of what was to come. He had some ideas of what that was and none of it had anything to do with fun.

"Guess the game's up eh? So fuckin arrest me already. I need a nap."

He started to get up, pushing himself to his feet. The motion was slow and deliberate, a tired bear pulling itself up from a nap, just daring her to put her hand close to him again.

[Blood Ravenous]

Ryxa idly watched him talk and start to rise with her blue-black, calculating eyes. Her power didn't seem to intimidate or even scare him, yet he presumably entered into her charge with nonchalance. That was odd and she figured that he was about to make a run for it. Her first impulse was to push him back down.

The fists resting on her hips rose and she stepped forward. She reached to shove him with her scorching palms at the same time growling, "Get back down!"

[Chrishton Radu]

This time Chrishton was not quite as willing to comply. If this woman wanted to keep meaninglessly inflicting pain upon him, she was going to have to arrest him properly and get him tied down first. He wanted to be arrested, figuring that he could use it to his advantage to get some information and position himself on the inside, as it were... But as tough and used to pain as he was, he wasn't keen on it for its own sake. His impulses took over and at that point he decided he'd give her a real reason to arrest him.

When her hands came close to his shoulders he reached up and made a grab for her wrists, not needing all that much force to overpower her and keep her palms from touching him at all.

[Blood Ravenous]

I really should have expected this was Ryxa's first thought as Chrishton grabbed her. He was quite a lot stronger than her, which was to be expected from his size. The magic had fizzled away because of surprise and slight panic from being held. It was hard to think of further magic at the moment, too.

Just because he had been so passive thus far didn't mean she had won, and she wished her impulsivity hadn't gotten her into this situation.

The battlemage jerked back in his grip and glared furiously at him. Still confident of the situation she said authoritatively, "Let me go right now." It came out a lot calmer than she felt and her cold manner hadn't wavered.