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Chapter 22: The Mind of A Pirate

 
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Kalanna Rai
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:25 am    Post subject: Chapter 22: The Mind of A Pirate Reply with quote

Okay, all I've got to say is this...Enjoy!
Warning: Adult Content. Reader Discretion Advised.
-------------------------

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Mind of A Pirate

Angelo's head dropped tiredly, breaking eye contact with the Armada man. He was strong and so self sure, and Angelo was already in rough shape after the bath house fight. His shields were taking a heavy beating, each blow feeling almost physical in it's intensity. Not since his early lessons with his father had Angelo taken such hits. And yet William showed no sign of giving up the fight, his frustration evident only in his words. "I've got to hand it to you old man, you're one tough bastard."

Angelo snorted. "You've got to be to stick around as long as I have lad. The things I've seen would turn your hair whiter than mine."

"I'll make a note to avoid those memories once I'm behind this wall of yours."

Angelo laughed at the cocksure upstart. "Not even in your dreams boy. Even exhausted, I'm by far your better."

There was a long silence marked only by William's pressure easing on Angelo's mind slightly. "Well then, old salt, I'll just have to take a page from you pirates and fight dirty."

Before Angelo could react, William slammed hard against his mental shields. At the same time, a pinprick jabbed into the flesh at the base of his neck. The drug administered went to work almost instantly, disorienting Angelo and making him feel disconnected. He was alarmed, he knew this drug. Angel Blade had used it's concentrated form ruthlessly while training his sons in their mental arts. Normally this weak version would have done nothing. But Angelo was at the end of his rope as far as energy went and the drug took ruthless advantage of that.

Without the full power of his iron will shoring it up, Angelo's mental shields buckled under William's assault. A small crack was all the Armada officer needed to slip into the mind of the most notorious pirate in seven hundred years. William was, however, unprepared for the strength of Angelo's memories. Each was a moment in time, crystallized like a fly in amber, flawless and perfect. Intense beyond imagining. And he was naturally drawn into the memories that were at the surface...

"There will come a time, my sons, when your very minds will come under assault."

William could feel Angelo's remembered boredom, his remembered surety that he could handle anything the 'old man' threw at him. It was a disorienting sensation, being the pirate, as William was no where near in the prime condition this Angelo was in. For a moment, he sat back and enjoyed the feel of being someone who was, in a very physical way, powerful. And while he had no control over the memory, indeed was merely a passenger reliving what Angelo had already gone through as Angelo, it didn't stop him from picking up the details.

The lush tropical setting, the massive Library full of records, and the extremely nervous young Arcex sitting nearby. A shadow of another Arcex fell over the pair of them, obviously the 'father', Angelo was wishing would hurry up.

"Angelo! You are not paying attention! Do you want your mind peeled open? Do you want that pain?"

"Not even you can crack my shields Father. What have I to fear from anyone else? Even Mother cannot..."

William stiffened along with Angelo at the prick of the needle, roughly administered to his arm. Hot breath scalded suddenly clammy skin as fire raced through his mind. "There are drugs, my son, that will rip your mind open like a cannon blast through an unshielded hull. This is one of them."

The fire blasted through his mind, a kind of pain most people would be lucky enough never to know. But William was now subjected to it, as Angelo had been. And sadly, the depth of Angelo's power only magnified what was happening.

William had to get out, struggling against the pull of the memory until, suddenly, he was free of it. For a moment he hung as memories, like holograms, whirled around him. Angelo was regaining some control, obviously, as some were pushed toward him while others seemed to be rapidly retreating. Fixing his eyes on the memory being pulled away the fastest, William reached out and snagged it. There was a moment of disorientation before, once again, he was the pirate.

This place, however, was very different from the Library and it's familiar surroundings. Angelo had felt safe there, had felt 'home'. But now, all around him surged a steely mist that stank of decay, rot, and a cold feeling climbed through the pirate's soul. Angelo was angry, furious, beyond enraged. William got the sense he'd been left here, that it was some kind of test. Suddenly, he wasn't alone in the memory. Angelo's very real mental presence was with him...too weak to pull him out, but rapidly gaining strength.

"Don't make me relive this."

It was a command, almost strong enough to make William comply. But William was an Armada officer. If this was Angelo Steel's darkest secret, it could obviously be used to control the man. "You can't stop me Steel. I will find out."

"Do. Not. Do. This." Angelo's words were clipped, enforced with more strength than should have been possible with the drug in his system. Yet, considering the fact he'd been exposed to a far more concentrated dosage, it was entirely plausible that his system could burn through the low amount he'd been given.

William gripped the memory even tighter, concentrating on the swirling patterns of mist, the looming feeling of something 'wrong' approaching. "I will see what happens here Angelo Steel. No matter what you want."

"Damn you man. You will burn in hell for this."

William tuned Angelo out, concentrating wholly on the memory, attuning himself to it. He could feel the remember rage of the pirate suddenly go from fire to ice. From hot passion, to the cool calculation of a murderer. A sound began to echo through the mist, a song so achingly beautiful it ensnared William even though it was simply the memory of another man. A figure slowly resolved. At first William thought it was a silver statue of the most beautiful Arcex maid he'd ever seen. She seemed part of the mist, dissolving into it almost, a single point of light glimmering from her forehead above her composed features.

From Angelo he felt nothing, as if the arcex who's body he inhabited were simply a shadow, even in memory. Empty, hollow. Even as William ached for the woman in front of him in this stolen memory, he felt the revulsion of the man it truly belong to. This woman, this absolutely gorgeous creature, was someone Angelo Steel loathed with every ounce of his soul.

The song stopped as the woman smiled at them, her silver tongue licking her silver lips daintily. "My Angelo. Come back to me after all these years? Did you hear my song? I've been singing just for you."

"You sing to ensnare all who will listen. To draw them into your lair so that you might crush their souls and feed off of the energies of their lives."

She laughed, a hauntingly enchanting sound, as she reached out to trail gentle fingers along their jaw. William felt the touch as plainly as Angelo had, yet his response was lustful while the remembered response of the pirate was ice cold. At the further words of the woman, William gained an inkling as to why Angelo was so repulsed.

"You listen to your father too much, my son."

SON!! This creature was the mother of Angelo Steel?! Yet his amazed thoughts fell silent as the memory continued, holding him tightly in it's grip.

The woman snuggled closer and William felt as Angelo remembered surreptitiously trying to move, only to find out that bonds they could not see held him captive. So the pirate lord had been bound, captive while his Mother's touch became as one more suited to a lover. The silver woman gently traced a slim finger across her son's chest, making William shiver. How could the pirate be so cold yet William himself be getting so involved. Was he too deep into the memory? If that were the case then his reactions should extend no further than the pirate's had...why was he being so effected.

"Does your father even realize what he has in you? Obviously not or he wouldn't have dumped you here with me...to appease me." More anger raced through the pirate's memories at this, making William appreciate the true depth of Angelo's fury for this woman. Even so, he felt they'd only scratched the tip of the iceberg.

"It's my final lesson. How to deal with your ultimate foe."

Again, that laugh that just tore William up. Low and throaty. "But I'm not your ultimate foe Angelo. I love you so much it hurts me to see you so deluded. I can sense a great purpose in you my son, great power...my power." She rose in the air until her lips were ticking their ear, her words deadly soft. "You are like me, too strong for these mortal fools. Yet your father has corrupted your true purpose with his strange notions of 'honor'. I should never have let him have you. I should have kept you close, raise you as you were meant to be. Strong."

"I will not be part of your schemes."

"Oh? So you won't be part of mine but you'll let your 'father' rule you? You'll blindly follow his commands, do what he says, carry out his plans?"

"No. That's what Radiant is for. I am here to confront the one thing I am sure could cause my destruction, and to make clear that you have already failed in that respect."

The woman stepped back, eyeing them appreciatively. "Oh my son, you've turned out far better than ever I could have hoped. Yet you are blind, swayed by your Father's words against me. I don't want to destroy you, I've never even thought of trying." She stepped close, voice dropping to a husky level. "I would much rather have you with me always, put you back from whence you came."

Even through the haze of pleasure now clouding his mind and running through him, William was repulsed by those words. Did the woman really mean what she was saying? Did she really want to...he couldn't think as a moment later the woman roughly took a handful of Angelo's hair and brought him low. The kiss she imparted was far more thorough than any William had ever experienced, tearing and involuntary noise from the Armada officer. He could feel the real Angelo, and not the remembered one, screaming in fury.

The remembered Angelo grew cold, unresponsive, as if the woman were kissing a glacier in the form of a man. He was as hollow inside as a dead man, nothing...empty. The woman sensed this, pulling back to bring her lips next to his ear again. "I won't give up on you my son. You will come to love me in time. Until then, I can't have you fulfilling your father's wishes now can I?"

A hand pressed against the pirate's belly, seeking skin until it found it, before sliding low to cup him intimately. The grip suddenly became a vice, drawing a pained gasp from both William and the remembered Angelo. "You will always rise to the challenge my son, you shall always be ready to till the soil. But the seeds you plant shall bring forth no life, it shall be as if you planted no seeds at all."

The pain that seared through them now was as fresh as it had ever been, making William twist and turn and try and free himself of the memory. It was the pain of emasculation, of being gelded with a dull object that left no visible mark yet generated pain beyond reckoning. William screamed as he furiously tried to extract himself, only now did he feel Angelo, the real Angelo, pinning him there. "Oh no Armada spawn. You wanted my pain, you can endure it as I did."

William screamed again and again, as the remembered Angelo moaned, the silver woman laughing in a menacing, throaty manner. Just as the memory broke off, he found himself hurled into another. "No. No more."

"Oh just one more William. I think you'll find this one quite enjoyable." Judging from the malice Angelo's words contained, the evil tone of the mental whisper, William was sure that this experience would indeed be yet another moment of torture.

Yet, as he snapped into place within the memory, he gasped. It was a decidedly candid moment, Angelo immersed in the entertaining of the gasping woman under him. Her words were soft, throaty whispers which set William on edge even as the sensation hit him. He was more than a little jealous, he could tell why Angelo was successful with the ladies. He was reliving it after all.

Just when it seemed like everything was at it's best, he felt a sharp sting against his lower back, around his kidneys. The pain bloomed almost instantly, racing along every nerve, pounding in time to the remembered heartbeat. The very pulsing of blood through his veins hurt so badly. He felt Angelo bite back a remembered scream, which would have hurt badly enough to destroy him. The woman, however, pushed him back awkwardly onto the bed, laughing nastily.

"How do you like my pretty poison Angelo Steel? How do you like the feel of it? You cause so much pain I felt it only fair to pay you back. It's a pity dialphian is lethal, I'd so have loved to keep you suffering for a long, long time." She was standing and dressing now, even as Angelo raged futilely at his own stupidity. "It'll all be over soon Angelo. The pain will snap your mind and, once that's gone, you won't be able to stop from hurting yourself further until your body simply shuts down."

With a wicked smile she stopped at the door. "Goodbye sir pirate. But for the record, it was a highly enjoyable experience for me. A nice thought to carry with you to the afterlife."

The pain was so intense, William couldn't stand it any more. The remembered poison seemed to be eating his very brain. He could tell his own throat was hoarse from screaming and could only wonder why none of the other members of Starhawk's crew hadn't come for him. Then he realized the captain must have told them to keep well back, warned them off. Or maybe they thought it was Angelo screaming.

"Fat chance mate. You've seen what it takes to make me scream. You just can't inflict that kind of damage." Angelo's voice was weary, furious, and held a hint of something more. "Now, I think it's time for you to go back to your own mind. Now."

A sudden heave and William found himself in his own head with the disconcerting presence of Angelo right there with him. Was this what it had felt like for the pirate? Like his head was about to explode with the pressure of two minds occupying it. Like he wanted to puke with someone rifling through his memories, spinning them like a blender in his brain.

"Ah-ha! This will do nicely. Tell me William...do you know how to loop a memory? Make it so that it plays over and over again without end? Without a way for the mind to get out? Well let me show you."

William found himself pulled into and old memory of his from his one and only visit to Earth. He instantly recognized it as the faint first strains of the song began.

"It's a world of laughter,
A world of tears.
It's a world of hope,
And a world of fears.
There's so much that we share,
That it's time we're aware,
It's a small world after all..."


"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" William howled, even as Angelo retreated from his mind. There was a sickening feeling, the feeling of someone slamming the lid and locking it tight, trapping him within his own memory. It wouldn't be long before the damned song drove him insane. "ANGELOOOOO!!!!"
------------------------------

Elias was worried when, after a day, William still hadn't reported. The Wyvern would arrive tomorrow and with it would come the end of their attempts on Angelo's mind. "Damn and double damn, I've given him all the time I can." He'd received reports of screaming from several men stationed below yesterday, although they didn't say who was screaming. He should have put a stop to it then. Slowly, an exasperated sigh escaping him, Elias stood and walked down to the brig.

He was unprepared for what he found. Angelo Steel was resting easily against the wall, closed eyes opening as Elias approached. William, however, was sitting in the corner stripped nearly naked. His eyes were unnaturally bright, his hair mussed. He'd soiled himself badly and was sitting in the mess, rocking back and forth. Drool spilled from his lips as he muttered something. Elias warily approached, ears finally picking up the words that spilled from the broken hulk that had been his first officer.

"It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all..."

Elias backed away, horrified, turning to the pirate. "What did you do?"

Angelo looked up at the man thoughtfully. "Next time you ask the piper to play a tune, be specific about the one you want Captain."
------------------------------------

Angelo sat in silence after the man left. He was aching all over, the memories William had brought to the surface stirring unpleasantly. Damn the man for opening old wounds, he'd deserved what he'd gotten. Hell, he'd been lucky Angelo hadn't picked 'The Song That Doesn't End'.

He could feel the strange tingling in his skin that told him he was a few inches closer to becoming like his mother, his right arm felt steel to mid bicep now. He banged his aching head gently against the wall, feeling sense of worry so long absent from his heart that it was completely strange rising within him. His mother had a nasty habit of knowing when he was thinking about her and THAT particular memory was one of the strongest links she'd ever forged with him.

He knew the Wyvern would be here soon, else the captain would have waited longer to check on William's progress. But if his mother were to leave her lair, come looking for him. Ambrois wasn't prepared to deal with a threat like that, sword or no. Hell, Ambrois wasn't prepared to deal with half the dangers facing him. Angelo didn't know what to do. He couldn't escape now, not with Elias wary of his every move. But had he trained the lad well enough to deal with situations as they arose?
------------------------------

Back on the Muse, Ambrois was just waking up again, groggy from his medication but fully healed...if a little weak. He had no idea of the ordeal his father had just endured, or of the worries his father was experiencing. He slowly shifted his weight, doing his best not to wake Jade who was sleeping beside him.

Lightly kissing her cheek, he walked down the hallway, flexing his wing to make sure it was whole and fit. Passing one of the crew quarters, he heard a shout from inside. Opening the door, his eyes adjusted to the light almost instantly to reveal a scene he could have gone without seeing.

Cobalt scrabbled for blanket even as a very surprised Saul fell onto the floor, shaking his disheveled head. "Dammit Ambrois! Ever heard of knocking?!"

Ambrois chuckled, leaning in the doorway even as he averted his eyes. "Pay-back's a bitch Saul. Oh and speaking of bitches...what the hell are you doing with her?"

The youth blushed, coughing a bit. "Well...um...you see...it's like this..."
-------------------------------

Well...what's his excuse? How did this happen? And does Ambrois believe him?
------------------------------

Heh, well you wanted William crazy. For those of you who've never heard the 'It's a Small World Song' believe me, you are blessedly lucky. Hope you all enjoyed.
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Last edited by Kalanna Rai on Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:57 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Lilith
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Saul's gonna blame it all on Cobalt.. and Ambrois might've believed him, had it not been for the fact that SOMEBODY had to let her lose.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is the song that doesn't end,
yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
and they'll continue singing it forever just because
This is the song that doesn't end...

Muahaha. Nicely done. I say that since Saul appears to be pretty weak-minded anyway, that after some pressing, he says that Cobalt convinced him, got in his head, ect.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Saul says. "An' whit? Whit dae ye expect a wis gaggin' fir i'" *

Basically I think he should just be upfront and honest, he was caught with his "hand in the cookie jar" so to speak. I don't think Saul is the type of person that would lie to his mates. Maybe to everyone else in the universe but not to someone like Ambrois.



*Saul states. "What is your speculation? Do you expect any better from me? I was feeling amorous and easily susceptable to seduction."


(Also " i' " means it incase u can't see it.)
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well, i guess that honesty could work, but...is saul really that naive that he would fall for her twice? I think if best to make up a lie like, she controlled his mind long enough to get him up to the task at hand, and then she released him so that he could control the moment. Who wouldn't keep it up if it were already...um....up?
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just caught up with this, and the last chapter was very enjoyable indeed, although I felt a little overwhelmed with the uberness of Angelo.

This chapter I found a little confusing, with the mind melding drugs and all, and have never really been able to get on with the idea of the mother's spirit... I was kind of left not really understanding what had been achieved by the end of the sequence.
In particular the 'remembered Angelo' and the 'real Angelo' - I was lost completely on the visualisation of the scene.

But I can appreciate how difficult it is describing mental acrobatics, my own recent attempts also drawing confused feedback.

Having suffered the same problem myself I don't really know what advice I can give to make it clearer, except to simplify and explain each element of the sequence as much as possible, I guess.

As far as Saul's response is concerned -

"You'll never believe what's been happening whilst you've been asleep..."

- and then launch into a totally unnecessarily complex fabrication explaining the absolute necessity of his intimate actions with Cobalt - hoping that in his grogginess Ambrois will give up on trying to follow it all and just forget about it.
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Kalanna Rai
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alrighty then, the poll awaits you.


And CF. Angelo's uberness will soon be tempered down, have no fear...honest...

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know a song that'll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves. I know a song that'll get on your nerves and this is how it go-o-oes. I know a song...

Now in French!

J'ai connais une chanson qui te nervè a, te nervè a, te nervè a. J'ai connais une chanson qui te nervè a et voilà ma chanson.*

*I have no idea about the spellings. I know it vocally, and I'm pretty sure that's what it is on paper.
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