trans_9 | Buy a Little Mercy [Open; Potentially Graphic Material]

Less than an hour after the ship leaves Agrestic's orbit, an announcement is broadcast throughout Stacy.

|| Attention, crew. Your crewmates, Howard Bassem and Charles Merriman, have been apprehended attempting to desert. They will now be given Punishment. According to established guidelines, you are all requested to report to the Observation to witness the Punishment. Attendance is not mandatory, but highly suggested. This will serve as a reminder of the consequences of treason and desertion. ||

On the observation deck, Archon Yavek, Archite Rekkti, two other Daligig and a handful of Kessek soldiers stand outside a spherical force field. Inside the bubble, Orc and Howard are suspended by tentacles looping around their wrists. Orc's ceased thrashing around and struggling against his restraints; rust-colored fissures have developed around his shoulders and forearms from the strain, but now he simply hangs there, looking defeated. Howard's nose is bleeding, and every time a drop falls to the bottom of the forcefield there's a small sizzle. He's weeping and begging the Daligig with every plea possible, but they act as if they aren't listening. Instead, they wait for an audience.

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Orc nodded wondering for a moment if it's really OK to just let Howard go. But his arms are still heavy and the most use he could be at this moment is as a stone shield.

"Are we still in trouble?" He sounded more like a child now.

Howard gets up and wobbles. He leans on Orc's shoulder to balance. Not for the first time, he wishes he was one of those people who could feel afraid and not totally fall apart when he did so.

But it's an excuse enough to cling to Orc a bit longer. He wants to just cling on forever but that's not feasible, but people would think that's weird, but Orc would think that's weird, but he knows he doesn't feel that way about Orc so he doesn't know why he even wants to just hold on.

"I don't know. I don't think so. I think nine violations was it."

Orc gave a nod thinking nothing of the excessive clinging. He was barely aware of it really. "Guess we better not get in trouble again then." He mumbled trying to stand up straighter, to fill his lungs with air. But everything felt so heavy.

"We have six more violations we can get each. Stacy lied for us. She said the number was ten when it's fifteen." Howard's speech sounds stilted, as if the words are all cut and pasted from other sentences. There's no cadence or rhythm to how he's talking. "I'll keep you out of trouble."

He thought that's what he was doing anyway, but it ended up with Orc strung up too, about to get tortured. It's his responsibility to keep Orc out of trouble and he can never do it right.

"God, I'm sorry..."

"Shut up." Orc responded to Howard's apology. He wasn't sure if he was going to blame Howard for all this or not. It didn't feel right though. He didn't feel like they had done anything wrong.

"Why'd she lie?" He thought out loud.

"She's..." Howard tries to sort through his own impressions, chaotic and contradictory as they are, and find a way to explain it to Orc. "She's on our side."

Which is a strange feeling, because they're used to not feeling like anyone's on their side.

And Orc voiced exactly that as Howard led him away from the crowds who were also on their side. "Glad somebody is." but silently he was thinking because god sure ain't.

Howard gets them down to hydroponics. It's the best place he can think of right now. If they go to the Warehouse or the Inn, someone might try to find them and make sure they're alright, and well-intentioned as that might be, it's not what they need right now.

He leaves Orc by the beer tree with a fresh beer in hand, leaves, and then returns with his medical kit. He's holding a gauze pad to his bloody lip.

"Let me take a look at those strains."

Orc shrugged not caring one way or the other. He had had at least three beers in the space of time that Howard had been gone and was working on his fourth, deep in thought. Then again this is Orc so deep in thought for him is still pretty shallow for others.

It's not as if Howard knows how to heal rock. The most he can do is rub a little alcohol on them and hope they go away on their own. "Do they hurt?"

But Orc's on his way to oblivion now and if Howard's being honest, it's not a terrible idea. Not that he's going to get drunk, but...he rests his head on Orc's stomach for a moment.

"I'm OK." He lied. At least physically he was OK. So nothing out of the ordinary by him.

Howard resting his head there seemed weird to him, but he was past caring about so much already. Howard's weird need for physical contact. It wasn't bothering him in particular so he allowed it. Each heavy breath making his rough rock covered stomach rise and fall.

"Okay." Howard closes his eyes. "Then just get some rest."

He wants to shut the whole world out. There's too much going on his head, enough that it's just a big blur of fear and anger, and it's sucked the energy from his bones like a vampire. He needs to shut it down, and that doesn't leave space for worrying if Orc cares that he uses him as a pillow.

He's out like a light.

Buy a Little Mercy [Open; Potentially Graphic Material]

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