boxofmisfits | (no subject)

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The Rat King didn't normally deal with the world above. He usually lived in the sewers, with his rats. The rats were his friends, and he understood them on a level that no other could. He saw through their eyes, and they were his spy network for the sewers and the city.

But even he had to admit that the world above had its advantages.

He didn't know how the man called Osiris had found out about him. Nor did he understand why the man had gotten in contact with the Rat King, of all people. One of his rats had returned with a note tied to his leg. The note referred to him by his old name, Dr. Victor Falco, and it spoke of wanting to meet up. The Rat King had sent a note back saying they would meet on his terms, away from any prying eyes. A go-between had been used, with the messenger putting his boss' offer on the table: a promise to give the Rat King his own private facility where he could conduct his experiments without interference, that would have plenty of room for his rats. All the Rat King had to do was get someone out of Osiris' hair. The Rat King had taken the offer.

The abandoned laboratory had been given to him first thing. Now he just had to keep up his end of the bargain for the other half of his "payment". The Rat King watched through the eyes of the rats he had scattered about the area, to keep watch for his target.

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The use of his full name felt ominous. Like this guy had a whole folder on him somewhere detailing everything about him from his drivers licence number to what he liked on his pizza. But even worse, he got the impression that this guy wouldn't see feeding a person to his hideous rat hoard as harm, but some sort of twisted honor.

"You sure got a funny way of showing it!" He twisted in the chair again. This time he got a foot wedged against the arm as he pulled on the cuffs. As if he could ever summon the strength to break metal. The fact that the chair felt as sold as if it had grown out of the floor didn't help matters. There were few reasons people needed something that secure.

The Rat King turned away from the chalkboard to focus on a workstation he'd set up. The workstation had a chemistry set on it, which he began tinkering with.

"As I said, I'm about to conduct an experiment. If it goes well, your mind should still be intact. Otherwise, well... let's just say my last test subject didn't last long after I conducted the test." The Rat King had worked to perfect the formula, which was in part thanks to the new setup Osiris had given him.

An experiment. He'd seen the sort of experiments that Osiris ran. They were never pretty. Sure, Venom had come out of them, his special drug that did wonders to break down things like inhalations and the whole reality-vs-fantasy thing. But getting there had been ugly. And he refused to be part of anything like that.

"That sounds like harm to me!" He was on his feet as he said it, one foot planted against the chair, trying to yank his arm free of the handcuffs. His wrist was getting rubbed raw, but he didn't care.

"Struggle all you like, you're not going anywhere," The Rat King said, not turning around to look at his captive. He was thinking of perhaps removing that collar just long enough to make him get rid of those ears and tail, and then snapping it back on. Because he looked rather silly as-is.

The Rat King finally turned around, syringe in hand and approached Dane. "I would sit still were I you. It'll only hurt for a moment."

Silly. The man looked like a walking, half rotten skeleton and he hung around with thousands of rats. Yet he declared Dane's current state to be "silly." If he knew that...well, he wouldn't have laughed. He was too afraid for his life and limbs to laugh. But he would have had a few choice words.

When the Rat King spoke, Dane finally noticed him coming closer. Or more specifically, he noticed the needle in his hand. With a sharp cry, Dane tried to move around the chair. But he was jerked to a halt by the handcuffs when he got around the back of it. Three tiny links of metal were all that held him from freedom. It wasn't fair.

"Keep that away from me, you freak!" He yelled, still trying to yank his arm free, but his eyes focused on the syringe.

The Rat King just smiled at him, showing off his mouthful of crooked teeth. Three rats suddenly climbed up Dane's clothes. One sat at Dane's shoulder, snout aimed at his neck, another clung to the front of his shirt, and one clung to his knee. "If you move, my rats will bite you. Unless you'd rather I hit you over the head and knock you out, which I'd rather not do. I don't want that brain of yours damaged for this."

His free hand reached down to hold Dane's arm still, the turning it so the underside of the arm was facing upward. The needle hovered just above the arm.

Edited 2017-11-23 05:38 (UTC)

He reacted immediately to the feeling of rats climbing on him, trying to shove them off. Visions of being eaten then and there occupied his every thought, until that voice cut through them and he froze still as a statue. Normally he wouldn't be worried about something as simple as a rat bite. But that one on his neck could land on something vital...

The combination of the thread at the hand on his arm made him whimper pitifully. But ever the coward, he didn't move. It wasn't because he was told to, but rather out of fear of what could happen if he did. Whether a rat bite or brain damage both seemed like a bad plan. "Please don't..." he whined, his arm trembling.

The Rat King was fully prepared to command his rats to bite Dane, if only to show that he was serious. But fortunately, Dane got the picture. The rats waited patiently for further orders, but the Rat King just told them to stay put for now.

The needle sank into Dane's arm and the liquid within filled his system. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" The Rat King withdrew the syringe, and the rats scampered down Dane's clothes and stood aside, awaiting further instructions.

The Rat King reached his senses out to Dane. Nothing yet. Perhaps it took a minute to work, assuming it worked at all. Then there was the question as to whether the serum wore off or not. "Tell me, how do you feel? Are your cognitive functions still intact?"

Squeezing his eyes shut, Dane didn't want to watch the needle going into his arm. He didn't always have a problem with needles, just when they were wielded by psychotic mad men. He kept them shut, still clinging to the back of the chair, even as the needle was withdrawn. He didn't burst into flame or succumb to agonizing pain. In fact, nothing at all seemed to happen.

"WHAT?!" He screeched at the question. "WHAT DID YOU PUT IN ME?!" His eyes flew open as panic took hold once more. He frantically searched his mind, having no idea what he was searching for. The only thing that seemed off was being cut off from his powers. But he didn't know just how well that stuff was working on him. At least not yet.

Well, other than being panicked he seemed to have all his higher brain functions. Good. The Rat King had been afraid the serum would damage his mind somehow.

Then he felt it. It was that same sensation he felt when he sensed rats, but it was not a rat he sensed now. It was a man. The Rat King grinned to himself. The serum worked. He had finally perfected it. He could sense Dane. It was faint right now, but the Rat King was sure that it just needed another minute to work its way through Dane's system.

"Just a little something in case you ever got away from me. Now there is nowhere you may hide from me."

"You chipped me?!" His voice was returning a bit more to a normal range, an edge of anger cancelling out some of the panic. "What the hell do you think I am?! A dog?!" Then again the the tail, ears and collar that hit a little close to home. He gave a thrash of his arm, more to make noise than to try to struggle free.

That was kind of a double edged thing for him. He hated being treated like an animal, but there were aspects of being a pet that he'd always found rather attractive. With specific people. But that was very much not what he was considering at the moment.

"Well I've got news for you!" He was trying so hard to sound brave. "Dogs EAT rats!"

"That's such a crude way of putting it," The Rat King said, turning away from Dane to dispose of the dirty needle. A good scientist kept things clean, even if he'd been living in the sewers for the good part of a year.

Once again he had some rats watching Dane. "Yet part of you likes being a pet." He said it automatically, only to realize what he'd said a split second later. Telepathic links with rats was second nature to him by now. But none of his rats had those thoughts. Intelligent as rats were, there was still a limit to it. He was sure Aristotle had never thought such things either. No, he hadn't sensed that from a rat.

The Rat King looked at Dane and put a hand to his forehead, as he did when trying to focus his powers. He was still sensing Dane, yes, but he was also getting some... thoughts. Interesting.

Dane's face seemed to just...collapse. As if all emotion had been suddenly erased from it. That went beyond fear. There were some things that were so private they only existed on the harddrive of his laptop. Between him and his ISP. And even with the equipment here, the Rat King didn't exactly strike him as a hacker. Was someone feeding him information?

"Even if I did!" He yelled, lacking the confidence to cover up his sudden silence. "I sure as hell wouldn't want to be one for you!" No, the chained up against his will was a completely different fantasy. And plenty of fantasies where the two intersected what what training and all of that. But he was too full of dread for that to even be in the cards. Instead, it was all terror and fear. His head was full of things he'd seen Osiris do. Things Osiris had done to him. Torture, abuse, murder. Featured prominently was Osiris having two employees holding Dane down while his shoulder was branded with the club's logo. For a man who liked his twisted fantasies, Osiris definitely never featured.

The Rat King was sensing a wave of fear and absolute terror. He was most certainly sure none of this was from his rats, for they weren't afraid of him. They saw him as their king.

Then a series of images came to him, jumbled up, but one stood out in particular. He saw a hot brand and blinding pain as it was pressed to skin. The Rat King hadn't thought his serum would work this well.

Approaching Dane, he went around to the back of him and held him still with one hand, while the other pulled his shirt collar to the side to look for a branding scar.

Pulling the shirt collar as far as it would allow showed the top edge of the angry burn scar. It extended six inches lower, over his right shoulder blade, a vague snake curved into the shame of an S. But Dane twisted out under the man's grasp. There was strong shame associated with that scar. Deep fear that haunted his very nightmares.

"Keep your hands off me!" he cried, trying to get away from the man, but he just ended up falling to his knees as his arm got twisted with the handcuff, not able to go very far with the Rat King so close at his back.

The sight of that scar vindicated the Rat King's theory about whose thoughts he'd been reading. Well, he hadn't meant to do that. Perhaps it was a miscalculation with the formula, or it was because the Rat King was already selectively telepathic. Either way, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He felt the shame, and the other negative emotions that came with the scar. Fascinating.

The Rat King reached over and finally undid the handcuff attached to Dane's wrist, so he could move freely. There was no way he could escape anyway. "You and I have both had our trials by fire, it seems. Mine was simply more... extensive."

The moment the cuff came loose, Dane scrambled away. He didn't even fully stand up, practically diving away from the man. He twisted around at the words, calling backwards onto his backside. But that didn't stop his attempt to put as much distance as possible between him and the Rat King. He kicked and shoved, until he slid himself right to the wall.

"You're crazy!" he yelled. But his mind was already ticking away on the possibilities. The injection. The suddenly talking like he'd been spying for months. No. It couldn't. Anyone with telepathic powers was strictly monitored, weren't they? They had to register. Let the whole neighborhood know. Suddenly he closed his eyes, tight, fists pressed to his forehead. There were supposed to be methods. Ways to focus to shut people out. But this power wasn't exactly coming at him from the outside.

The Rat King put his hands to his temples again, focusing on Dane as he approached the other man. This was getting interesting. He hadn't seen the inside of a human mind since his early experiments, back when he still went by the name Victor Falco. But Dane wasn't a normal human, that much he could sense.

Long-fingered hands went to the bandages at his face and removed them, showing that underneath lay a pair of sunken, red eyes. Those eyes focused on Dane.

His next words weren't said aloud, but sent directly into Dane's mind. He was mostly testing the waters, to see how extensive this new link was.

Open your mind to me...

No no no no! Hearing those words in his head, he drew up his knees, as if a physical shield could protect him. He uncurled his fists, so he could cover his face with his hands. Harder and harder he tried the techniques he'd been taught when he was a teenager. Envisioning walls and other barriers, mental blocks to keep intruders out. He'd never been able to do it then, and that was in very controlled situations.

It dragged up whole new feelings of dread. The idea of letting someone get close to him, get to know him had been bad enough. This went beyond that. And it was the one situation he wanted the other person to get as far away from him as possible.

Dane had heard him, the Rat King was sure of it. Even if Dane hadn't had a physical reaction to it, the Rat King had felt that he'd been heard. This opened up all manner of possibilities.

Kneeling before Dane, the Rat King took his wrist in hand for the umpteenth time that night, to keep him in place. Time for another test. Using his free hand, the Rat King reached around and unclicked the collar, letting it slip free from his neck for now. He was prepared to put it right back on at a moment's notice.

He sent out a little psychic push, ordering him to turn fully human again. It wasn't full control over his mind, and more just influencing him to do something.

Edited 2017-11-23 07:51 (UTC)

Trying to keep his face hidden, Dane tried to yank his arm free, his skin still crawling at the man's touch. But the moment the collar slid free, his head jerked up. He instantly reached for his power, intent on turning fully into a coyote and finally doing something about getting out of there. But in doing so, it was like his hand slipped. A sudden idea popping into his head telling him to go human instead. And before he could stop himself, his ears returned to normal and his tail vanished.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" He shouted, frantically trying to make his transformation go the other way. All the while he was trying to flood his thoughts with as much nonsense as possible. Song lyrics, obnoxious sounds, numbers. Anything impersonal that could protect him.

The Rat King easily tuned out the white noise Dane was obviously sending him. The collar was immediately back around Dane's neck and clicked into place. He leaned in closer to Dane, practically breathing on him now. "Soon, you won't need that, because you'll come around. I'm sure of it."

He sat on the balls of his feet, looking at Dane intently with sightless eyes, seeing him through Aristotle. "It would be easier if you let me in. I want to know more about this transformation power you possess."

Immediately Dane started clawing at the collar. That brief touch of his power, snatched away so fast, had left him more frantic than before. He felt around the claps, trying to undo it. But Osiris, in all of his devious ways, had designed it so it wouldn't come undone for the the person wearing it.

He tried to glare at the man, but those freaky eyes made him feel more freaked out than the touch of his skin. "Never!" He howled. Since noise wasn't working, he shifted tactics. He tried to think of everything he could think of that a rat would hate. Traps. Cats. Hawks. Vicious dogs. All doing what they did best to small, furry rodents.

The Rat King frowned when he felt Dane start to resist him. "Come now, you and I aren't so different."

He probed Dane's mind, shifting through the images he was thinking about to dissuade the Rat King from going further in. Aha! There was a little spark of something.

"Your powers were a gift," He stated. "A gift of birth. But for a time, you knew nothing but humanity, before these powers manifested. I was human once, you know. Now I have surpassed my humanity." Thin fingers reached up to lightly stroke his fingernails against Dane's cheek. Not scratching, but a sort of pseudo-caress. The touch was gentle, but with an edge of a threat to it.

And still that mere touch made Dane react as if he HAD been scratched. He flailed like mad, trying to get away from that touch.

"We're nothing alike!" He yelled, trying to kick the man while also trying to scramble away. "I'm STILL human! I just turn into things!" He was passed keeping that a secret. "I don't have a creepy obsession with VERMIN!"