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Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:54 pm Post subject: Scene 6.3 - April at the Tower

The tower of white stone is dark and musty on the inside.
The hot air and stone dust outside engulfs itself through the tower's base, creating a draft with another part of the tower.
April quickly notices the winding, circular stairwell going up and down at the back of the base level.

In her way, a mess of wooden tables and chairs, racks of weapons and about a dozen, grey-skinned soldiers in various states of alertness, though at least half of them are quickly getting up from their resting positions in response to the intrusion.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

"Atten-SHUN!" April barks, spreading her legs and holding a rigidly arrogant parade rest. Her eyes pass scathingly over the soldiers, flicking distinctly to weapons too far from hands, uniforms sloppily adjusted, and then lingering venemously on some sort of game of dice and chips at the table six of them were sitting at.

'Oh, this had better work,' she thinks unhappily to herself, but she does her best not to let it show on her face, projecting instead the restrained, angry glee of a superior officer who loves pointing out the shortcomings of lax troops, and who has just been given a ripe opportunity.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 6:04 pm Post subject:

Some of the men are startled into clicking their boots together and keeping their arms rigidly propped against their body. Two of them are simply startled and freeze for a moment, standing up as quickly as they can. None of them have their sword belts on, it seems, but there are several lying around the room, laying on tables and chairs.

They all look at April intently, confused by the sudden intrusion and call to attention. Yet they all remain completely quiet, exchanging looks with each other discreetly.

The room is lit by several portable lamps that, for all intent and purpose, appear to be gas powered.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

"This is disGRACEful!" April snaps, getting into her impromptu role with verve. "Look at you! Sloppy, indolent, vice-ridden maggots! What would you have done if I'd been an enemy, eh? No, don't bother answering. You'd have died, that's what you'd have done." She shakes her head with aggravation. "Disgraceful. Alright, one of you bring me to see how you're treating our guest," the last word with vague but dripping irony. "If that's half as disheveled as this? Well, you'd better hope things get better as I go further inside."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:33 am Post subject:

The soldiers continue to look at each other and back to April. They try to discretely arrange their outfit.

When the first one speaks, April realizes their speech is slightly altered from one sounded by a human mouth. Considering their prominent jaw structure, she suspects their bite to be very dangerous.

"The prisoner's fine. We'll show you, Major, is it?"
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

April steps up to the man, squares her shoulders, then hauls off and slugs him hard on the side of the head.

"'Major'?" she says with obvious contempt to his (hopefully) crumpled form. "What kind of nonsense is that?" She looks to the next most likely target for her wrath. "I can see you all are in the habit of playing games here! Can you give me one good reason not to beat you all to death and bring in some of my own men? At least I could count on them!"

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 4:49 pm Post subject:

The man falls to the ground, moaning and groaning, in very obvious pain, completely unable to even sit up. The others' grey complexion pales a little and their eyes grow wider.

The man she is now addressing quickly says, almost apologetically, "We caught another one recently! And no one's escaped! There's no need for any others to replace us, I promise!" The others agree and the confused looks continue to haunt their faces, though there are strong hints that fear is setting in as well.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

April rolls her eyes with obvious disapproval. "A new captive, and this laxity is your response?" she sneers. "Show me the new one. You likely haven't the faintest idea how dangerous they are." She looms, flexing her hand and obviously ready to deliver more brutality at the slightest excuse.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:30 pm Post subject:

The men fumble forward, finishing tucking their shirt, kicking chairs aside to make room for April. They quickly forget about their fallen friend as they lead April up the stairs.

They pass many rooms, most are filled with burlap sacks of grain, small wooden crates and dusty weapon racks, bearing swords, short spears and such. Most of the upper rooms have wooden floors and are empty of other 'soldiers', though occasionally, a couple of soldiers can be found sleeping on individual futons on levels with stone floors.

They make it to what April can guess is half the tower's height when she falls upon one of their dormitories, where 8 more soldiers are asleep. The place is a mess, empty or forgotten trays of food and bottles litter the ground.

The last soldier who addressed her winces and apologizes profusely and quietly.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

April glares. She listens to the apologies in stony silence, then says simply "You were at least upright. At the time I didn't think that counted for much, but apparently it puts you in the upper tier, locally."

She casts her eyes over the soldiers, and says "You will stand here, and you will watch." She steps into the barracks, cracking her knuckles. She turns people out of bunks onto the floor, savagely kicking and beating them. Where necessary, she traps the livelier of the awoken under broken bunks. With a brutal, military efficiency she batters the eight new soldiers until they're in no shape to do anything useful.

At the end of the short display, she points out two of the eleven soldiers who have headed up the stairs with her, and gestures to the room. "See to these," she says. "I want to make sure that they recover enough to benefit from this lesson. The rest of you, we're moving on."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:19 am Post subject:

The men's fear grows visibly as each of their sleeping comrade is beaten summarily. Many of the men struggle as their reflexes pit them against April in a very unfair fight. Ribs breaks, arms crack under pressure, and the brutal strength of the surprised grey-skinned men is no equal to April's own demonstration of strength.

In the end, the two designated to watch over the beaten soldiers begin picking up the furniture and garbage, rather than their own.

Up and up and up, to something that must be near the top. They pass other utility rooms, mostly empty or with the occasional grey-skinned soldiers, usually in pairs. So far, April counts twenty seven, but there are enough bunks for fifty, and more than enough weapon and supplies for over a hundred.

...

April gets the impression that the tower vibrates when large rock formations rotate and shift too close to the base. The soldiers enter a wide room with a low ceiling. There are two soldiers here, playing some sort of chess-looking game at a table. The room is lit by three gas lamps, one at the table and two larger ones hanging on opposite side of the semi-circular room. A single metal door adorns the wall that separates the two halves of this level. The two soldiers stand up and with a nod from the man closest to April, they provide a key and unlock the door. It takes two men to slide it open. Once that is managed, April's new right hand man picks up the lamp from the table and walks in slowly.

Even from the outside of the prison half of this level, April can clearly recognize Brand and someone else who looks an awful lot like him. Both are chained to the wall and apparently unconscious.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

April's eyes narrow as she spots the two red-heads. "Excellent," she says with satisfaction. "At least the laxity of the lower levels doesn't continue this high up."

She turns from the prisoners and gestures for the door to be closed. "Good enough," she says grudgingly. "But barely. Now let's go down below and see what can be done to assure that defenses there are shored up. Starting with establishing a dedicated room for guards to entertain themselves, so that they don't decide that the front door of the tower is meant for that purpose."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject:

"Yes," the soldier agrees as they all lower their heads, as a sign of respect or shame, or perhaps both. "We will be much better with following new procedures now."
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