Break Point
A Word: And the only [somewhat] consensual relationship I can think of between Ruvik and Seb would happen if Seb was a masochist. Doesn't stop me from liking the pairing more than is healthy, but, yeah. I'm poking at stuff right now. Wondering.
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There is no guessing to do anymore.
No need to sit back and watch them go through the tediousness of their lives just for a single glimpse of that one thing. A sign of something to turn a wild stab in the dark into an educated guess. That thing that every single person tried to hide in the recesses of their mind. That secret desire, the unspoken shame, or a hidden guilt.
Little hidden things that they won't talk about out loud. Things that can be used to lure them in, to unsettle the, to break them.
That thing is different for each person, and finding it had always been a rather boring process even when he was able to encourage it to slip out. It's worth it to seek out those triggers, those buttons to push. Watching the expression on their faces when he does makes it all worth it. He can never get enough of watching the fear and slow realization of what he's doing to them as he breaks them down.
Not having to guess or watch so closely now is one of the few benefits to his situation.
Each new subject that gets thrown in, each new person they decide to get rid of, they all come in and they're open books to him. Ruvik can sift through their minds with his perpetually burnt and aching fingers. Combing though their memories, their very self immediately.
It makes it so much easier to tailor things for each of his new playthings. Starting them on the path to their destruction before they can learn enough to be wary of his careful plans and traps.
It's work but the end results are satisfying.
Four more new minds are sent in as sacrificial lambs and Ruvik touches them each in turn. He's close, so very close, to completing his goal so it's no surprise to brush along the unnaturally smooth mind of a person who has been almost completely erased. One of their specially prepared people that always prove to be annoying. There's not enough of them there for Ruvik to control, and all he has to rely on against them is physical violence. Something that isn't too hard in this world, but is always unsatisfying on a personal level for him.
There's a hint of warmth in the empty mind when he pulls away. Attachments forming with the men the woman is with. There might be something there he can use later. It's obvious they've let this agent exist for a little too long. They get less effective the longer they're allowed to remember and feel. It's the nature of most human beings.
The men are a different type all together. Common and mostly unsurprising. One has no true secrets to use, nothing interesting he can play with, but his mind is weak and Ruvik knows he will be the first to succumb. With hardly any effort on his own part to push him along that path.
There's a spark of something in one of the other two that is interesting. A spark of understanding that is all instinct and buried under leather. Ruvik examines the spark that's hidden by iron walls of denial. Joseph Oda has a gift and Ruvik already has plans to use that gift, and his fear of it, against him. His interest in the man is muted though. Ruvik would like the chance to open the man's physical body up to examine him and see what makes him the way he is, but he won't get that chance. All of these people will have to be destroyed before he's free.
The last one is far more interesting in the context of this world. There's a banked rage in him that is familiar and licked through with fire. The loss of a family that has hardened him despite almost destroying him. It will make him last longer in this world. Durability makes the chase fun, but it's not this that draws Ruvik's attention.
It's the smothered thread of desire that unfurls under his attentive touch. A yearning that's been all but destroyed for something that the man, Sebastian, has nearly killed out of shame. A desire for something that he's never had before and thinks he should not want.
Pain.
Ruvik smiles as he uncovers a memory of a confused teenage boy afraid of the images that come easily to his mind to make him squirm with want. Images and thoughts buried so deep they were nearly destroyed. Nearly.
He feels a sharp regret as the four settle more firmly in -three of them completely unaware that they are not in their own world anymore- that he won't have the time to properly draw those memories out. Slowly and fully until Sebastian realizes what it is he's always wanted. That what he wants can all be found here, now. That there us no one who can give that pain to him the way Ruvik can. The struggle of long denial against his deepest desire would be sweet to see. Almost as good as the point, the one that's inevitable, where he would break and give into his wants.
Would even beg for it.
Perhaps he can see about sparing the Detective. As long as the man doesn't interfere too much with Ruvik's plans. Breaking him in might be a good way to test out the limitations of his new vessel when he escapes this world after all.
Ruvik retreats from their minds and starts to craft and settle things into place for these new additions. Altering what is already in motion the slightest bit, and allowing for a little... Extra time to spend watching them all, and maybe one in particular.
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