The Drugs of Temptation (Rhiiiii!)

[Anonymous]

Akabu knew that he should have NEVER give her some of his vision. Ugh. He wasn't even really sure he should have been able to transfer his power using his psychic power but...he had been able to, and still...why had he done that?! He would find out a whole lot more with his...vision, and that wasn't a good think. He didn't want her to have those powers but thankfully they were only temporary. Hopefully she didn't make any correlation to it of course. Why should she? He didn't tell her that he was able to do that after all...Best not to tell her that sort of thing after all.

Right now he was stuck in the alley way.

On his knees, one hand firmly planted on the ground, the other on his head growling to himself like an injured animal. He was for that matter. Still, he regained himself quickly, fixing his hat and coat to hide his body before he took the shadowy routes through the city. Beatrid. Oh he wanted to see what happened to her. When he found her, he stayed low, against a wall, in the shadows watching her shoot up. Hah hah. Perfect. This was just excellent.

What was her excuse? Must have been funny though...

Whatever it was though, it didn't matter. It just meant that she was going to keep using it, and she would be back to him wouldn't she? Of course she would, it would be hilarious. Still, he couldn't help but think that she would try and fight him every step of the way, which was troubling. She had given in so easily, yet at the same time, she was defiant, she was stubborn, all his stalking and watching her carefully showed him all that.

Plus just meeting her here and there told him that as well. She was ah...a feisty one to say the least.

...

He had gotten a report a month later that a certain woman was loitering around his favourite dealer's spot. At first he was amused, then a little worried, and then he was simply grinning and clapping his hands excitedly. She had come back. Oh this was terrific! According to a few of his...associates in the castle, Beatrid had been sick for a few days. Now, Akabu wasn't /sure/ if she was trying to stop taking the drugs, or if she really had been sick. A part of him wanted to believe the latter, that she had been sick and that had been it. Still, some of them said that she had seemed more sluggish than usual, and he had to check in on her. She had stopped used the drugs, he could tell that almost immediately. She seemed slow, she didn't seem as...perky as normal.

But then she was back on it. It was a monkey on her back. A very loud monkey that liked to poke and prod at you. She gave in. Heh heh. Of course she did. No more being a hyperactive feline, she lost everything, and she had been taking it again.

Akabu was pleased to say the least from that.

He was a cat that had gotten his cream, and just to be dirty, he wanted to give his cream to Beatrid. However, she wasn't hooked enough. Not yet. People would do anything for their quick fix, and when you took their fix away and they came down, well it was hitting a brick wall and an addict would do anything or anyone to get their fix back.

As he stalked through the seedier part of Reajh, he wondered if maybe he should upgrade their area. No...probably a bad idea. In this part of city, he could go anywhere he wanted to with very little problem. After all, this was HIS part of the city. Soon it would be his city...but he couldn't look at that just yet, he didn't wanted to get ahead of himself at this point. If he thought too far ahead, he'd forget where he was in the present and there would be trouble. He'd get himself killed no doubt.

Getting killed wasn't on his highest list of things right now.

Gaining secrets though...that was the best thing right now. If he couldn't get them hooked on drugs, then he would instead find out their secrets, skimming the surface of their mind, trying to dive deeper but...he just didn't have that power. He could only look around the surface, but still, if you found out just one secret...just one tiny secret, you could use it to bring more secrets to the surface. It was like rolling a spiked ball down a hill of flesh, it gathered a lot of flesh and just grew bigger. He would have used the snowball analogy, but he didn't actually know it that well. Snow was fucking cold to him, almost dangerous really. The whole...living in a furnace for most of his life, subzero temperatures were pretty dangerous.

Ahem.

He was finally there, finally at the alley. He stepped through the back of it, coming to a halt not far away. Right. Make some noise. "Ah-hem." He cleared his throat before he stepped closer to her, smiling a little bit. He didn't want her to start shooting. She was on edge, she had the drug in her. He could tell. He could see it for that matter, she had an aura about her that just...oh yes. She was on the drug.

"Back for more Beatrid, or are you finally ready to move up to something a little better? I got something you might like. It's a muscle toner basically. I've watched a few people punch clean through brick walls with just one dose. But, that's not what it's good for. It helps you to add muscle mass, strength training, that sort of thing. It makes your muscles more receptive to gaining mass during  training. Plus I have your regular drug. This stuff is a little stronger than before, but I'm not sure you're ready for it...This can be pretty harsh when you come down." Akabu told her with a small smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest, watching the young woman carefully. Hm. Why would he offer the muscle mass to her? Sure she couldn't get stronger than him, but she could get stronger anyway and she could still do more damage to him. After all, he could bruise and bones could break.

Just for now, he was stronger and faster than her. He hoped. This new dosage of drug would give her reflexes that were almost supernatural really. She wouldn't be able to dodge bullets per se, but she would be hard to hit when she was moving. Hrm.

"Have you ever thought about acrobatics Beatrid?" She was going to be his greatest druggie. None of those stupid pleasure pills or drugs to put her into a psychological mindfuck. No. She would be a honed and refined fighting machine that would defend him. Heh. "I'm just saying that because with reflex drugs, you should learn acrobatics so you can become better. That way you'll be able to use your full potential, just something for you to think about of course."

[Rhindeer]

Beatrid instantly reacted, her right hand going to one of the two pistols at her hip, though she didn't draw it yet. Instead she spun around, hoping the action also masked her jolt of surprise--surprise that didn't last long at all as her eyes landed on Akabu. Her body didn't lose any of its tension, though, and she kept her hand resting lightly on the pistol all the same, cautious as ever. Her expression, on the other hand, was disgruntled if anything. She hated him for his drugs. She hated the drugs. Yet she also loved them...

She loved what they could do, and hated the dependency. And hated herself for being so stupid and crawling back for more, for not being strong enough to suffer through the withdrawel and wean herself off, and for being too proud to want to wean herself off because she liked the boost it gave her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She listened to him speak, tapping her right foot impatiently, and then she frowned. Muscle toner? Build muscle mass? Punch through walls? She gave a little snort and shook her head. It was tempting, ridiculous as it sounded, but...

"Eh." Beatrid gave him a sour look. "Nah. I'll just stick with the shit I'm already on. Some people are already suspicious; if I start beefing up on top of everything else, I'll not only look like a grade A freak but there'll be even more...questions." Not to mention she didn't want to be dependent on something else on top of what she was already on; that was bad enough, and stupid enough, but she'd learned her lesson the first time. Kind of. She was sticking to just one drug and, eventually, she'd get off of it. Eventually. Just...not yet. But the withdrawel from one was already bad enough. Two? Fuck no.

She shifted a little, resting her left hand on her hip with her right hand still touching the pistol. "The stronger stuff. What happens when you come down off of it?" she asked, blue eyes narrowing suspiciously as she considered it. "And I still don't get what the hell you're getting out of this. Do you just got money to throw around? You just wanna watch people, that's it? You don't want anything else out of it, this is all just some big social experiment for you? Because if you do want something, I'm not gonna owe you later so you better just tell me now what the terms are."

Even though he'd already told her his terms, kind of, she still had a hard time believing that was it. Maybe it was it. He was weird, so who knows? But she was naturally suspicious, and it just seemed so...bizarre. No one gave something for nothing, right? And observing people...eh, maybe he was just some weird sort of voyeur so maybe that really was all he wanted. Still...

Then she blinked at his question and raised an eyebrow. "Acrobatics? No, can't say I have. You kinda gotta be flexible for that," she said with a shrug. And she really wasn't the most flexible person in the world, either. She never had been, and past injuries had further taken their toll on her body. It was mainly in her right shoulder, which had been damaged by a bullet. That had been years ago, and she'd never regain the full range of motion in it. It still bothered her sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Well then.

It seemed that she was right back to her old chipper self then wasn't she? She seemed a whole bunch of tense muscles at this time as she rested one hand on her pistol, and that cute annoyed look on her face. Ah she was so adorable wasn't she? She was also seething, bleeding hatred toward him. Was it because of the drugs, or just because she hated him completely? Well, it was her own damn fault. She accepted candy from a stranger. All of them had. The smartest guard in the world should have shot him dead the moment he tried, but apparently she hadn't.

Heh.

Now, he probably shouldn't be a smart ass after this, it was probably better for him to just...well...be nice. Or would it? Maybe try not to pick as painful a fight. He didn't want her to get suspicious after all.

"Hm, never thought of it that way. I forgot that almost instant muscle mass is suspicious." She did make a good point. Besides, those drugs didn't hold themselves properly. They offered more and took less when they ran their course. He smiled crisply though, wanting her on something else besides the normal drugs. Alas, she was a smart one, and she could shoot down all of his plans none the less...literally! She had that fucking pistol would could be a right pain in his ass if she hit him with it. Heaven forbid a working deity give her a blessing on it! Well. He would be safe there actually. She would never believe in a deity. She seemed like one who didn't have a lot of faith in things that weren't there to see.

"Stronger stuff? I'm not sure. Probably the same side effects really. I'm still trying to figure that out too. You're lucky though, some people have reported losing their hearing and the ability to talk." That's because of course they over drugged themselves and what not but he shouldn't tell her that of course. Akabu sighed at her next question though as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Does it matter what I get out it Beatrid? Maybe I get off sexually knowing people are using my drugs, maybe I'm just a downright helpful person who is trying to better the lives of people, maybe I'm just a fucking weirdo who likes to know he's using advanced pharmaceutical research for the better. It doesn't matter what I get out of it now or later, all that matters is that your on top. I've got no demands, save for having a fuck with you but I'm afraid I'd break ya and we all know your position on pole riding, so that seems to be a lose-lose situation if I ask it."

There.

It was sort of the truth.

She'd find out a whole different truth though much later on when she couldn't go without the drugs. More so since he was going to lower her back to the stuff that only lasted for a day. It was just as potent, it just didn't have the staying power. None of his stuff was really inferior, they just had varying degrees that they lasted.

It was downright evil, it really was.

"Who says you can't be? I know various techniques and certain meditative and exercises that you could use to become acrobatic. Doesn't do shit for me as my physiology is much different from yours, but I learned these techniques from the monks of Anogor." Well he forced the knowledge from them of course after he gave them a special drug that would allow them to be completely at ease. Heh heh heh. They never knew what happened. "Y'know, if that shoulder really bugs ya, I can do something about it. Quick injection into the shoulder could pretty much fix ya. It's a special sort of liquid that starts the cells in your body to properly regenerate themselves back to a fully efficient working state. I don't got any on me but I could always whip you something up." She had to be careful with her thoughts, she was really letting them slip and show to him.

That would be bad if she thought of secrets.

Good for him though, he wanted to know a lot more about her.

[Rhindeer]

Beatrid stared levelly at Akabu as he answered her questions, narrowing her eyes. Yeah, it mattered to her what he got out of it. She was a naturally suspicious person, and motives were important. She probably should have thought about all this earlier, been more careful, but she'd admit it: she'd been stupid. Terribly stupid and, for once in her life, impulsive. Pissed off about her failures, feeling less than adequate, she'd made a huge mistake in the heat of the moment, and now it was too late to go back and correct it.

She was hooked. But she was still looking for a way out. Anything. Anything to give her the motivation and strength she needed to kick this addiction to the curb and overcome it.

Akabu soon gave her that motivation.

He was far too honest. That was for certain. If the side-effect talk was't enough, his reasons did it. More specifically, his demands.

And for once, Beatrid was actually struck speechless.

Her eyes widened, her eyebrows arched, and her mouth dropped open as she just stared at Akabu as though he had suddenly sprouted three heads and daisies for ears. Did he just...did he just say what she thought he just said?! At first, she translated "have a fuck with you" as "fuck with you", as in just messing with her and annoying her, which he was already doing, but then he said pole riding and suddenly it all registered. What the fuck?! A blush sprang to her cheeks, one of anger more than embarrassment. "How dare you..." she breathed, seething inside, and with an all out snarl she spun on her heel.

"You know what, fuck off! I'm done with you. You can take your injections and acrobatics and whatever-the-hell-else and shove 'em! I'm done," she snapped, not even letting him finish his spiel as she began to march stiffly away from him, one hand resting on a pistol, just in case. That did it. That did it right then and there. She had dealt with his creepiness before, she had sucked it up because the craving was stronger, but that far surpassed any of his former creepiness.

There it was. He'd said it himself, laid it right out there in front of her. That's what he wanted. Having a fuck with her?! No. Oh no. Beatrid was not stupid, and that set off every one of her warning bells. Even if he claimed it was lose-lose, he'd just shattered any of the shaky trust (if you could even call it that) that they'd built; this was an entirely different level of creepy that she was not about to even try to deal with. She was not going to trust him not to try and force her into something--not that she couldn't handle that with a well-aimed bullet, but it was best to stop everything before it even got that far to begin with.

This was her wake-up call, and she was not gonna sleep in this time. She was not going to be used. She didn't care what he got out of this anymore, she was not going to be his little research rat--research rat that he apparently perved after. Augh!

Goddammit...she just wished she could report him. Turn him in or something. But that was risky, too. She didn't want anyone to know how low she'd sunk if she could help it.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps he should have just lied a little and said nothing about it. He could almost see this train wreck coming. Almost. Heh. If only they had an idea about what a train was. Sadly they didn't. Ah well. This could have really gone better of course, he probably should have been a lot more careful with his words but he had just wanted her to stop asking questions. Too many questions, it was annoying him. What did she care what he got out of it? Apparently he had to tell her about it.

"How dare I? Ah hah...how dare a man have thoughts about sex." Akabu scoffed as he crossed his arms, watching her turn on her heel. Well this was a change of pace wasn't it? She almost seemed to be serious! That was...that was a strange twist. That was TOO fast of a change.

How did someone who was hooked suddenly fight it?

Something felt a little off.

Heh heh heh heh.

"Run along little Beatrid! Run along! But. I want you to remember something." He was suddenly there, his dagger like fingers gripping into her her arms as he pushed her up against a wall, his face inches from her. "I am the Daemon Lord of Temptation. You don't want to feed my power, but you pathetic mortals do it every single day. Every temptation, every yearning, every pining you feel, that's my power, that's feeding me. You say you'll fight it now but you'll fail. Do you know why? You're predictable. I'm offering anything you wish, teasing and tempting, and right now you fight me. But you'll always be a slave for temptation. Remember that." He let go of her, readjusting his hat as he started to walk away from her.

He may not get the same level of temptation from her that he would with the drugs that he had, having her craving, wanting, loving them, but no one lived their life without temptation. Well. There were few who were able to, but Beatrid would never be one. She would always lust after something, she would always want to do something, whether it was serve her country or shoot a man.

She would always be in his grasp.

"Have fun Beatrid. I hope you do overcome all temptation too. Because that's the only way you'll get rid of me."

[Rhindeer]

Beatrid ignored him as she stalked away, back stiff and straight and one hand on her pistol. Ugh. It wasn't like she expected men to never think about sex. No. The issue here was not that; she was only human, she liked a good tumble between the sheets, too. The issue was that he, an already creepy male that she only went crawling back to because of the damned whatever it was he'd given her, had blatantly said he wanted sex--with her. That sent up the red flags right there. She could deal with seedy people; she was used to them, they were all over the damned place, and they were usually harmless whack-jobs. A seedy person who could potentially have power over her just by the nature of her dependency upon what they possessed? That was a different story. That wasn't harmless.

That was scary, and it was right then in that moment that it all came together. She kept coming back for more--what if he tried to use that against her? What if she got so hooked she couldn't back down? Fuck, she liked the boost and confidence and skill those things gave her, but she couldn't use them as a crutch forever, and especially not anymore. This was too dangerous a game, and she was backing out.

She didn't hear him move, but suddenly he was there, gripping her arms and shoving her back against a wall, and she didn't have a moment to react. Her back hit the wall and her breath left her in a sharp gasp, but she hardly registered the pain his grip on her arms caused, even as the flesh bruised beneath his fingers. Fuck! Immedietely she fought back against him, shoving against his arms, but she found him amazingly strong, his hold unyielding, and a flash of panic arced through her when she couldn't reach either pistol. Every natural and trained instinct screamed that she was being attacked, that she needed to fight, and it didn't help that she was already extra paranoid on the damned drugs.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck!

Beatrid shoved hard against him, desperately trying to put enough space between them so she could get in a good kick, turning her head to the side and away from him. "I said fuck off, you fucking psycho!" she snarled, hardly listening to what he was saying--though as he spoke, she suddenly started to chuckle. Bitter, derisive laughter. What the hell was his problem?!

He was insane.

But then he let go of her, and she wasted no time in drawing her pistols and fixing them on his back as he turned and began to walk away. Oh yeah? That was the only way she'd get rid of him? It was tempting to pull the triggers. She was just that pissed right then, chest heaving with anger. She didn't normally take kindly to manhandling, not from anyone, and that on top of his lovely comments? Oh yeah. She was pissed. Pissed to the point of calmness.

"I don't think so. I really don't think that's the only way to get rid of you. Now you listen to me, fucker. I don't ever want to see your face again. Because if I do, rest assured I'll blow it off your fucking skull," she said levelly, more than willing to take him up on that dare.

He'd already threatened her enough this day, and saying that she couldn't get rid of him just wasn't going to fly--not after the "fucking" comment, not after he'd shoved her against the wall, not after he'd said that freakyt psycho babbling. Finally, finally after all this time and all her questioning, she'd got a glimpse of his motives. And she really didn't like what she'd seen.