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May 3, 2022 11:18:30 GMT -5
Post by doctortailor on May 3, 2022 11:18:30 GMT -5
Power Level: ?
The room was almost entirely bare of features, a dark steel box with no windows. There was a heavy steel door, a recessed fluorescent light in the ceiling and a metal chain bolted into the hard floor. The other end of the chain was affixed to a power suppression collar around the neck of an unconscious Anastasia, lying on the cold, hard ground.
On the other side of the door were Dr. Tailor and her body guard/assistant, Acker. The building they were in seemed like it was nothing more than two rooms, located on the edge of the Diablos Desert. In actuality It had once been a research station for the Red Ribbon army. Buried under the sand was a deep underground compound. Dr. Tailor's laboratory.
Out here it was remote enough for them to test out their more destructive weapons with out causing collateral damage and more importantly practice more clandestine activities in private. It had been abandoned decades ago as the Red Ribbon army made efforts to, at the very least, appear to be legitimate on the surface. It had a paved area where shipments were transferred, the once-level pavers now shifted and uneven.
There was a second, smaller building that had been the security station, with large reflective windows. The specially treated glass both helped keep the interior cool and prevented those outside from seeing in.
Inside the security building were three people, all of which were androids. Their names were Zulu, Yankee, and X-ray. Dr. Tailor was intent on keeping the location secure and had chosen the most loyal soldiers she could. Ones she had made herself. Zulu came out to meet Acker.
"Ms. Acker," the android said respectfully. Of those working under Dr. Tailor, Acker was the unquestionable leader. She was the Doctor's right hand in his operations and even assisted in building the three androids, "Thank you for maintaining the cooling systems on the security building."
"Of course, Zulu," Acker said, "Dr. Tailor puts a great deal of value in you, How are your people?"
"Yankee is solid. They don't have the fastest processing speed in more ways than one, but they know how to take a hit and hit back twice as hard. X-ray has some real potential. I've worked with them before. But I was surprised to see Dr. Tailor selected them for this, though. X-ray is a spy unit with specialties in stealth and reconnaissance."
"Dr. Tailor feels that X-ray would best complete your team's skill sets," Acker said, "She felt it best to be prepared for all eventualities and thought it would be better to have a versatile team. Thus why X-ray is a part of this assignment."
Zulu nodded. "Dr. Tailor is brilliant. that is why she is the boss."
"Quite so," Acker said with a little smile, "That's an attitude that will take you far, Zulu. Remember that we want to maintain the illusion of this location's abandonment."
"We'll stay in the building and out of sight."
"Check on our guest every hour," Acker said, "Once she's awake, give her some food and water. Dr. Tailor wants her healthy and strong enough to survive what we have planned."
Word Count: 531
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POWER LEVEL
45,859
Tech Points
8
Forms
Adrenaline Rush [x4]
Zeni
3,474
Archived
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May 3, 2022 11:40:20 GMT -5
Post by Anastasia on May 3, 2022 11:40:20 GMT -5
Power Level: 45,859
The ache in Anastasia's body as she regained consciousness paled in comparison to the pain digging into her brain like a rail road spike. It was an unpleasantly nostalgic feeling, taking her back to her first days of martial arts training in boot camp when she had been knocked out multiple times in quick succession. She had been lucky to avoid brain damage from then.
Muscles protesting, she pushed herself to a sitting position and fumbled at her neck, finding the thick steel choker. She had worn a suppression collar but a few times, and it was an unpleasant experience each time. It was obvious that this was meant to prevent her from escaping her bounds with her physical strength or blasting her way out with ki.
She could still feel her ki inside her, but the connection that Anastasia normally experienced seemed strangely obstructed. She could tell that trying to summon her ki wouldn't work, and the attempt might have a painful backlash. On the bright side, she could already feel herself getting a little clearer headed.
Anastasia took stock of her situation. Her weapons were gone, as was her pack, and other accessories. The most important thing, however, was they had let her keep her weighted clothes on. An interesting choice, but Anastasia wasn't about to complain. She sat cross-legged as she looked around.
She was in a room of dark metal. It was warm rather than cold, not too unpleasant to sit on. The dark metal without the sight of windows meant that she had no idea where she might be. She could be under ground or in space for all that she knew. With her ki suppressed by the collar, Anastasia most certainly did not have any sense of the ki around her.
The chain linking her to the floor wasn't long enough for her to stand, only sit or kneel. Even leaning too far forward caused it to tug at her neck in a choking grip. The rest of the room had little to offer, just a heavy metal door and low lights set in the ceiling. Anastasia had no idea who had come after her, remembering nothing but a dark shape erupting out of an alley. However it had been had kept their energy carefully suppressed until the last moment before ambushing her. They had to have used a sudden transformation to be able to summon their strength so instantaneously and to blindside her so thoroughly.
Her circumstances weren't great, but not completely hopeless, either. If whoever had taken her wanted her dead, then she already would be. She didn't expect her near future to be pleasant, however. If they were strong enough to abscond with her like this, then they were more than likely powerful enough to do some real damage to her as well.
With no other options, Anastasia sat and waited. A while later, Anastasia sensed the approach of above average power level, meaning that her ki senses remained intact at least. The person entered the room and Anastasia looked up at them unflinchingly.
The stony-faced man tossed a bottle of liquid at Anastasia, who caught it out of the air, "Drink that. The doctor wants you healthy for what she has planned."
"The doctor? I'm assuming this isn't a health call," Ana asked quietly, but the man didn't respond, he just stood there staring Anastasia down. She didn't know what she expected from him. It wasn't like she thought he'd laugh. It just seemed that when she was scared, she developed a mouth on her. Maybe it was Zerori's bad influence...
She looked at the bottle and saw that it wasn't water, it was some sort of clear liquid that was slightly tinted yellow. Her brow only creased slightly before she opened it and looked up at the man. She toasted him with the bottle, "To my health."
The man waited until the bottle was empty and then took it from Anastasia with the blinding speed of a striking snake. She wasn't sure what he expected her to do with an empty bottle, but he obviously wasn't going to leave her with anything she might fashion a weapon out of. Even recyclable plastic.
After the man left Anastasia was left with nothing to do but wait.
And wait.
And wait.
It was a considerable amount of time before the door opened again to admit two people. One was dressed in a white lab coat, the only sign that they might be the aforementioned "doctor". Otherwise the woman looked like nothing of the sort. With her wild hair colors, piercings and vaguely punk-goth attire, she looked like she had never grown out of her high school rebel phase. There was a haughtiness to her expression, almost smug, as she looked down upon Anastasia, literally. The woman didn't seem to have any discernable power level, she may be able to suppress it... but to eliminate it completely? Other than that Ana couldn't see any signs of whether or not she WAS human.
Next to the doctor was a startlingly plain woman, who's simple, yet comfortable clothes made her stand out all the more compared to the first woman. Anastasia couldn't sense this woman's power level, which almost certainly meant that she had it suppressed. The average person may be weak, but they had little-to-no ki control and that still made them detectable to Ki sense. This woman's ki was all but invisible to Anastasia's senses. Ana would not have been at all surprised to find that this woman had a hand in her kidnapping.
"Well," the lab-coated woman said, "Hello Anastasia."
"..." Anastasia did not respond to the woman. Anastasia was still sitting cross-legged on the floor. The chain attached to the collar around her neck would not allow her to take to her feet and face the other women eye to eye.
"There's no need to be rude, Ana," the doctor tutted quietly, "We don't want to start off on the wrong foot here."
"You kidnapped me and chained me in some sort of metal dungeon."
"Touche," the doctor replied, "I'm Dr. Tailor."
There was another pause before Anastasia said, "Doesn't ring a bell."
"I figured as much," Dr. Tailor responded, "You were only a low level cadet in the Ghanme army branch. So I don't expect you to have heard about me."
Anastasia stiffened slightly hearing the name of her old regiment.
"Ah, that got your attention, didn't it?" Dr. Tailor's smug smile kicked up a few notches.
Anastasia kept her expression carefully neutral, not wanting to give away anything that she didn't have to. Then again she didn't have much to give away in the first place. But it was better to try and keep what little control she could, and her emotions were one of the last bastions of defense that she had.
"Alright, Alright, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here," Dr. Tailor said as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
"I assume you are going to tell me in some sort of villain monologue?" Ana asked with an arched eyebrow.
Tailor paused, caught off guard by Anastasia's glib comment. From her and Acker's research on her, Anastasia was typically stoic, rather than flippant. She recovered quickly from her surprise, "No, Anastasia-"
"So you aren't going to tell me why I'm here?" Ana quipped again.
"What?" Tailor mentally stumbled again from being actually cut off mid-sentence this time, she scowled as she tried to take back control of the conversation, "No, I mean yes I am going to tell you why you're here!"
"Very gracious of you. You can monologue now."
"I'M NOT GOING TO MONOLOGUE!"
"Doctor, don't let her goad you," Acker said.
Word Count: 1,290
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May 3, 2022 13:10:48 GMT -5
Post by doctortailor on May 3, 2022 13:10:48 GMT -5
Power Level:?
Tailor turned to Acker with a furious glare, but then pulled herself back, and regained control. She straightened out her coat and turned back to Anastasia, the smug smile stretching her lips again despite her earlier tantrum, "Let's see how long you're smart mouth with run when we get started..."
"That's about the most I've got," Ana said with a casual shrug that did a fairly decent job of hiding how truly terrified that she was. She was chained up in room that seemed to come out of "torturer's weekly", had no idea where she was, with no one looking for her. If she wasn't terrified, she'd be one hell of an idiot. But some part of her needed to cling to some vestige of control, and antagonizing Dr. Tailor was about all she had.
Dr. Tailor nodded in approval before turning to Acker again, "Give me the item."
Acker nodded her head obediently and then went to a wheeled table that Anastasia hadn't noticed at first. On it was a glass case about a foot tall and a foot wide, Ana couldn't clearly see what was inside the glass at first. Acker pulled on a pair of thick gloves and handed another pair to the doctor. Then Acker clicked a few locks built into the glass and the case popped open with a soft pneumatic hiss. Acker removed the mysterious object carefully and then held it up for Dr. Tailor, and Anastasia's, perusal.
It was a small item that fit in Acker's gloved hand. The item in the center of Acker's hand looked like a sphere, but upon close examination revealed it was compromised of tiny cubes all adhered together. The object was a slick and clean silvery color, almost like liquid mercury. The pseudo-sphere was held in place by a dull metal frame: a cube with tines to hold the orb in place.
Ana had no idea what it was, but something about the sight of it caused her stomach to sink, and cold fear to prick up along her spine. Just the site of that thing felt... wrong. She couldn't explain it. But just seemed wrong for it to exist.
"This is a little project of mine," Dr. Tailor said with a little flourish towards the metallic cube, "Something that I think will revolutionize the Red Ribbon Army's forces... I call it a Mask-Seed. Which you'll understand why soon enough."
Acker gave the Mask-Seed to Dr. Tailor and then began the elaborate preparations to use the device. She started by typing on a hidden computer interface that revealed it's self on the wall. A pair of robotic arms appeared from other hidden compartments and grabbed for Anastsia. She jerk out of the way, dodging the robot arms out of instinct more than anything. She knew she couldn't get away, however, and that it was a futile effort. So she didn't bother to try and struggle or dodge the limbs again, choosing instead to save her strength for when she would need to use it in a crucial moment... if she had a crucial moment.
The the chain attached to the collar around Anastasia's neck unlatched and fell away, allowing the robotic limbs to haul Anastasia up to the ceiling where she dangled uncomfortably. Once situated, Tailor brushed Acker aside and began typing on the interface. The rooms lights dimmed slightly, and light began to emanate from the floor beneath Ana. A complex design appeared, it was almost ritualistic in appearance. But there were obviously signs of code within the design, making it look like a bizarre mix of magic and science.
Tailor pressed one button with a flourish and a crackle of energy came up from the floor, sparking threateningly at Anastsia's feet. Anastasia took a deep calming breath, attempting to swallow her boiling fear. Dr. Tailor then approached the elaborate design and placed the Mask-Seed in the center, directly below Anastsia.
"And now we can officially begin," she said.
Almost as if it were some sort of command word, a light started emitting from the mask-seed. It was faint, but held a strange ominous aura. Or perhaps Anastsia was projecting that aura from her dread. It was hard to say.
The metal frame fell away from the sphere as it rose into the air, it's light growing stronger and washing over Ana. The tiny fragments that made up the sphere separated, drifting up and around to slowly float through the air. They rose off the sphere like smoke from a fire until the seed was fully disassembled and the fragments floated around her like a cloud. Suddenly their movement stopped, as if they were frozen in time. The mask-seed's light surged abruptly and the fragments darted in, burying themselves in Anastasia's flesh.
The pain of the tiny objects digging in to her flesh Anastasia could endure well enough. Over the course of her life time she had undergone enough suffering, both mental and physical, that she could take the peppering of wounds in stride, even as she dangled, helpless, from the ceiling. Below her, the intricate design shone with a silver light.
"The mask seed implantation process is not a swift one," Dr. Tailor said, "First, the seed will carve itself throughout your body, suborning your flesh in preparation for claiming your body as its own. The pain you feel now is simply a slow, easy start. It will grow over time, escalating until your mind can no longer endure and it breaks. But that will still only be the beginning. You will be broken again and again until there is nothing, until only my will remains. The Mask seed is a door that will allow me to reach through and rewrite your mind."
Anastasia twitched and writhed from her hanging position. Teeth clenched, jaw tight. She refused to scream or let loose a sound to acknowledge the pain.
"Actually, that's not completely true," Dr. Tailor said, "You'll still be in there. In fact most times you'll be in control... but you'll have been rewritten. Altered. You will belong to me, Anastasia. The problem is, that the mind is very much a hardwired object. Rewriting it isn't as easy as rewriting a program on a computer. So how do you think we get around that?"
Anastasia pried her jaws apart, an arduous task, the pain making her stutter, " Y-you... Y-ou..."
"Yes?" Dr. Tailor asked with obvious glee.
"You... are... monologuing."
Tailor snarled but Acker touched her arm and it stilled her long enough to get herself back under control. She soothed down her coat and crossed her arms.
"We'll see how long your smart mouth lasts, Anastsia..." Dr. Tailor said her smug grin returning, relishing every word, "You see what the mask seed does is just keep ramping up the pain, until your mind can't take it. Trauma, you see, can physically change the mind. Alter it's chemical secretions. Don't think you will find relief in dark insensibility, though. After your body, is ravaged, it will repair it. And the process begins again. There is no hiding from this. Between the physical trauma, and the program rewriting your very mind, you're going to suffer in ways you can not imagine. Fortunately you won't have to, because you will feel it all. You can't prevent it, avoid it, or escape it. You will suffer and suffer until you can't take anymore, and you will succumb to the programing. Just so the pain will stop. You will be nothing more than a vessel, an empty husk. A puppet, dancing on a string.
"Dr. Tailor moved close to Anastasia, carefully stepping around the programing lines in the design on the floor with out disturbing them. She gripped Anastasia by the hair and spoke softly into her ear.
"I'm going to watch it all," Tailor whispered, "I'm going to taste your pain, revel in your suffering. The last thing you see, in the final moment before your mind is rewritten, will be my face. The last free thought you have will be the realization that you have been completely, utterly, and irrevocably broken.
"Something deep inside Dr. Tailor had been released. The Pandora's box of her heart had been opened and there was no returning the demons back inside. Too many years Tailor had bent her head low and bowed to others. Too many times had she been powerless in the face of stronger forces, be they politically or martially. There was a deeply ingrained sense of entitled indignation. Of rights taken from her. She had operated all these years in frustrated impotency. But no longer. She could finally exercise this rage on Anastasia.
Awakened along side the righteous indignation, was a sick sadistic streak.
Anastasia's suffering under her latest creation was immensely satisfying. Tailor had no pity for those beneath her. She had no mercy for her test subjects. Using them all as dispassionately as the tools she saw them as. She hadn't enjoyed the pain she caused, merely saw it as a by product of the work... But this time. This was different. This was exhilarating in a way that Tailor had never felt before. She was intoxicated with the power she had over Anastasia. The ability to inflict pain on some one who was so supremely powerful.
Dr. Tailor was addicted.
Anastasia didn't respond, gritting her teeth against the pain, like icy cold worms burrowing through her body. Tailor ran her hand down the side of Anastasia's face.
"And when I'm done, I'll let you go," she said, "Of course, it won't really be you. Not always. My program will be inside. Ready to take you over. To make you mine again. As you will forever be now."
Word Count: 1,621
Total Word Count: 2,152
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POWER LEVEL
45,859
Tech Points
8
Forms
Adrenaline Rush [x4]
Zeni
3,474
Archived
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May 3, 2022 13:12:31 GMT -5
Post by Anastasia on May 3, 2022 13:12:31 GMT -5
Power Level: 45,859
Anastasia felt the progress of the Mask Seed as it invaded her body as biting cold, like her veins were turning to ice. As the cold burrowed its way through her body, however, the trails it left behind started to warm again. Anastasia pushed her ki, her life force, working to reclaim her body from the Mask Seed. As the mask seed took hold throughout her body she realized that it felt like a dark mirror of her ki: cold and dead instead of warm and filled with vibrant strength.
Her attempts to wield her ki to reclaim her body didn't help with the pain. Just the opposite, in fact, as the mask seed and her power fought a war inside her body. A part of Anastasia couldn't help but feel that her efforts were inevitably doomed as the mask seed altered her flesh faster than her ki could restore it. But that was only a small part of her, the majority of her spirit was still filled with a stubborn determination that made her Defensive techniques legendary in the fighting pits.
Word Count: 183
Total Word Count: 1,473
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May 3, 2022 13:16:22 GMT -5
Post by doctortailor on May 3, 2022 13:16:22 GMT -5
Power Level:?
Tailor never seemed to tire of taunting Anastasia, but as the pain escalated, Anastasia was no longer hearing the words. all that she had was the pain, a world of white noise with no sense of place or time. When the pain abruptly receded and her senses started to return, she had no idea how long it had been.
"What happened?" Dr. Tailor demanded turning to Acker who was already typing at the interface.
Anastasia visibly relaxed and the silver glow of the programming circle had significantly dimmed.
Acker shook her head, her normally cool and professional expression cracked with confusion and anxiety, "I don't know, doctor. I don't understand-"
"Move," Tailor snarled, pushing Acker out of the way before she could even comply. The force of Tailor's shove was hard enough to send Acker stumbling against the wall. Dr. Tailor's fingers were a blur as they danced along the interface. Code scrawling past so rapidly it seemed impossible for some one to be able to read it all, much less comprehend it.
"Damnit..." Tailor growled.
"Doctor?"
"My programming is perfect... " Dr. Tailor said, whether she was even addressing Acker, or simply speaking out loud it was hard to tell. Perhaps no one else existed to the doctor in this moment, "The mask seed, when fully integrated, would feed upon Anastasia's own power. But until it is able to complete the conversion process I must supply it with power. The purpose of the programming circle is to gather and concentrate the power of the laboratory into the conversion process. The conversion process is taking up an incredible amount of power, more than anticipated, I'll need to reroute power from other systems.
Acker turned to look limp form of Anastasia, feeling the barest modicum of trepidation. For her to resist so much...
Dr. Tailor finished typing in the last line of code that rerouted power from throughout the lab into the conversion process. Anastasia's reprieve had only lasted a few minutes before the programming circle grew brighter and the pain resumed. She had been able to use the time to reclaim territory with her ki, but it wasn't enough. Anastasia was mostly operating on instinct and so was only vaguely aware that the screams she heard were her own before returning to that white space of pain.
There were other brief spells of reprieve as the power exhausted itself against Anastasia and the mask seed briefly went dormant. The doctor would then rearrange their power grid again and the mask seed would continue it's assault. To Anastasia, it felt like each break was shorter than the last, but in truth, they were growing longer. It was her increasingly diminished capacities that were no longer able to gauge it accurately. Her ki reserves were becoming less and less effective, weakening with each wave.
"It's taking longer and longer," Acker observed, "The last period was over an hour..."
"I KNOW THAT ACKER!" Dr. Tailor turned with an enraged hiss at Acker, "Do something useful instead of stating the fucking OBVIOUS!"
Acker bowed her head seeming unperturbed at the out burst now that she had been given time to adjust to this change in Dr. Tailor's temperament. She gave the doctor a bow that Tailor didn't see because she was already typing again, "I will gather more resources from outside the lab and reroute them here. It will take me some time, but you should see an increase in efficiency, Doctor."
It seemed that Acker's calm response pierced through some of Tailor's madness and she took a deep breath, and pushed her hair from her face. Composed she turned back to Acker with a smile that was only slightly crooked, "Good. Yes, thank you Acker. How long will this take you?"
"Probably most of the night," Acker said, "This outpost is so out of the way that there are no easy grids to tap into. It will take me some time to be able to connect an outside source to our location."
Dr. Tailor frowned, but she managed to keep a grip on her sanity, and her smile returned, "Not ideal, but while the power failures are lasting longer, so is the period between them. Anastasia is losing the fight, as she inevitably will. It is only a matter of time. I'll do one last power routing while you gather additional resources."
"May I suggest that you take this time to rest, Doctor?" Acker said politely, "I had Zulu set up some beds in the next room. We'll know to come back when the screaming resumes."
"I don't want to miss seeing her broken," Dr. Tailor said.
"You won't," Acker said, "She is proving more resistant than you originally projected, Doctor. But she will succumb. After the body comes the mind. What is one woman against your brilliance?"
"You're right Acker... thank you," Dr. Tailor sighed, "I think I will rest after this last push."
"Glad to hear it, doctor."
Word Count: 826
Total Word Count: 2,978
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POWER LEVEL
45,859
Tech Points
8
Forms
Adrenaline Rush [x4]
Zeni
3,474
Archived
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May 3, 2022 13:22:06 GMT -5
Post by Anastasia on May 3, 2022 13:22:06 GMT -5
Power Level: 45,859
It was morning when Anastasia's suffering began again. Acker had achieved her mission and rerouted auxiliary power to the Mask seed. This time they were able to keep the mask seed operating at peak efficiency indefinitely. It was around the 6th hour mark that Anastasia's scream petered out weakly, and her body went limp. Dr. Tailor checked the systems, but the seed was still activated and doing the conversion process.
"She's just hanging there," Acker said, her voice slightly tinged with concern. Not for Anastasia, but for the Doctor's mood, "She's no longer screaming or writhing. She's practically relaxed."
"The mask seed has claimed her body now," Dr. Tailor said in a breathless whisper, "We're approaching the end. Even her brain is no longer her own. Whatever remains of her consciousness will have taken final refuge in the last vestiges of her Ego. Soon, she will yield and I will see her break. As I knew she would. As was inevitable..."
The pain was gone, but Anastasia's senses did not return. There was no sight, no sound, no touch. She was in a place of pure will, the border between her very self and the entity that sought to claim it. She felt adrift at sea, not one of water but of an immense will. A will too large for Anastasia to even conceive its totality. Greater than the sky, vaster than the sun. Older than the stars and more unfathomable than the deepest voids of space.
Before that will, Anastasia was naked and exposed. It was more than being weak and vulnerable. In the face of that unconscionable power, she realized that not only was it beyond what she was, but it was beyond anything she ever could be. Anything she could even conceive of. She was the smallest speck of thought in front of a force that transcended biological matter.
Oddly, it was not a wholly unfamiliar sensation. From a young age Anastasia had been cast adrift in a strange world full of power and danger. Anastasia had been surrounded by forces larger than herself.
Anastasia had been consumed by the ravages of war.
Time and time again she had been brought to the brink, constantly under pressure. She had fought off death and stood defiant in the face of generals. Her life in the war was a fire, burning away everything she had been, and refining her down to an solid mass of stubborn will.
She could feel the demand for capitulation radiating from the vast will. The pressure it exerted, pushing in on her. But she knew pressure. She had endured it from the very start. It was as if everything she had encountered in this world was preparing her for this moment. Next to the unfathomable mind created entirely through binary programing, Anastasia was nothing. But she could give in to it. She would fight until she died. She gathered her own will and threw it into the program's own, a grain of sand in a hurricane.
In the wake of Anastasia's defiance, the pressure of that vast will suddenly vanished. Like a becalmed sea, the absolute stillness carried an ominous sense of danger, isolation and helplessness. Most of all, it carried a silent threat, an anticipation of what would come when the weather inevitably turned.
All that was left of Anastasia's true self was hidden away in the last fortress of her soul. Her body stolen, she had no brain to drive her thoughts. She was quickly reduced to little more than that of a the last scrap of will. The innermost core of her being. Beyond the impregnable walls of her soul, the power of the Mask program had undergone a change. If it could not cow Anastasia into capitulation, it would go back to inflicting pain until she yielded.
The Mask program became a hurricane of knives, scoring marks across Anastasia's soul. It was a pain unlike anything the body could suffer, cutting not at flesh but at the very essence of her being. Anastasia endured, but she was alone and scared. In her unthinking state she had a vague sense of things that were missing. She no longer remembered her name, or the people of her life that she had cared for. Yet she could feel some absence. An emptiness.
She was so alone.
It became worse, the knives were drills boring their way into her soul. Yet still, they failed. So long as she had the will to resist, they could not breach her soul. All they could bring pain that carried with it a promise. It could stop, and all she had to do was give in.
The pain scoured away the echoes that were the remnants of what Anastasia had been when her body and mind had been her own. All that remained was a meagre scrap of self, ragged and torn.
The days of torment since the mask seed had been implanted were a microcosm of every threat that Anastasia had faced since the Red Ribbon Army had destroyed her village and made her a child soldier. Those memories were now long gone, but their effects were still felt. The events that had shaped her, forged the very core of her being into something that would never stop struggling. Even against the indomitable will of an alien mind, with power beyond imagining. Even when there was nothing left of her but the will to struggle.
The Mask Seed's will was unrelenting, sending pain into the reaches of Anastasia's soul it could otherwise not reach, into the fortress of Anastasia's soul. All that remained was a flickering ember, the last scrap of her true self. The alien mind strove to extinguish that final spark.
After stripping everything else away, only one part of Ana remained. But that part of her was growing weaker and smaller. The memories of her life experiences were becoming lost to her. Who even was she at this point? Was she ever anything but pain? She could not out-endure this pain any more than a dandelion could with stand a tornado.
Submit.
Succumb.
Anastasia refused.
She wouldn't submit.
But who... who was Anastasia?
She didn't know.
Word Count: 1,032
Total Word Count: 2,505
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May 3, 2022 13:26:22 GMT -5
Post by doctortailor on May 3, 2022 13:26:22 GMT -5
Power Level: ?
Dr. Tailor was leaning forward, eyes staring hungrily at the limp form of Anastasia as she dangled above the glowing code beneath her, under lit by it's light. There was a brighter flash of light that blinded Tailor for a moment, leaving her to blink her watering eyes frantically. She needed to clear them. She didn't want to miss a moment.
There!
Red sparks traveled throughout Anastasia's body, coalescing up her neck and over her face. The sparks formed into the small cube like pieces of the mask seed, and formed into what they were always meant to be. A red mask formed over Anastasia's face, covering it complete. The room was silent, the air heavy.
Then Anastasia took a deep gasp, her head thrown back, as if she were a drowning woman who had breached for air. Her back arched taught like a bow string, her power coalescing into a turbulent red hurricane. Acker was sent stumbling while Tailor took a knee to avoid the same fate. Anastasia's beaten from was thrumming with fresh power and Tailor started laughing in absolute maniacal triumph as the wind from Anastasia's power whipped around Dr. Tailor's hair and lab coat.
There was a final crack of energy, rolling like thunder, before Anastasia's form fell limp once more... Then the masked figure lifted her head and a voice that sounded slightly metallic issued from behind the black face of the mask, "Hello Doctor."
Word Count: 240
Total Word Count: 3,218
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