Break Point
A Word: I don't know.
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Poor little Joseph is so very, very careful making his way through the twisted halls of the hospital. Ruvik paces him as he methodically moves from room to room. Unseen but present in a way that's putting the man on edge. His senses tuned so finely to the things that can't be seen that Ruvik only has to be present to set them off.
He scurries like a rat. Eyes bright and alert as he sniffs out anything worth finding. Ruvik indulges him with tidbits. Scraps of information pulled from the broken minds of the people who came before. Some relevant, most not.
Joseph picks them all up. His keen eyes and senses zeroing in on them without fail even as his mind starts to shudder under Ruvik's constant presence. His mind is strong, but not strong enough.
Ruvik pulls some of the twisted remnants of people into the hospital halls for the man to deal with and leaves him. He tracks down the driver outside who is already buckling under the strain of the STEM system. He's pacing and muttering. Hand swiping under his nose occasionally to stop the few drops of blood that leak out. His sense of self is already under assault, and his background gives him no reference to stand firm under it. There's no sport to be had with him.
The woman, Kidman if her scarce thoughts are to be believed, is exactly where he expects her. She's made contact with Jimenez -a truly unexpected bonus, and Ruvik would dearly love to know who the pest angered to be thrown to Ruvik's slim mercies without him even knowing it- and the boy.
Leslie shakes and mutters repetitive consonants to himself. Closing his eyes tight as Ruvik walks by him. "Hush," Ruvik says and runs a hand over the unkempt hair before turning to the arguing agents, "they don't see me, they can't protect you like I can."
"...protect me... ...protect me... ...protect me!" The boy quails under the assault of the words aimed right at his naive sense of trust, but his mind holds annoyingly firm. No matter, these new players will only help him break Leslie and make him into the perfect vessel.
"-we must leave, now," Kidman says and it's interesting how she isn't telling Jimenez where he is or why. The doctor is expendable now, and Ruvik wonders if he has the time to make him aware of that fact. That the people he sold Ruvik out to no longer need him. It would be so sweet to feel that realization bloom in his shaking mind.
"My patients-" the man protests even though his mind is more focused on the work and data he has in his office than any of the trash he uses to further Ruvik's own research.
"Ruvik can reach you," Kidman says firmly and that stops the man dead. He knows enough to fear what he's made Ruvik into, even though he doesn't fully realize what that is. Not yet. "We must leave!"
"It can't be him. It can't. Leslie," Jimenez reaches for the boy who flinches from his touch. Already knowing that the doctor is no friend to trust. "Come now, let's follow the... officer."
Ruvik pulls away some of the pressure on Jimenez's mind. Gives it some rest as he forcefully guides the boy away. It won't do to have him break too soon.
Kidman takes the rear. Watching the back, sides, and front with eyes even sharper than Joseph's. Her minds is still rather blank and he gets nothing from her other than a great need to get Leslie out. To pull him away from the collective enough to safely disconnect him.
They're aware enough of his plans to try and interfere. Frustrating, but expected. He doesn't think much of this organization. They're old and vast, and seem too close to the people father used to deal with for Ruvik's tastes. He'll keep a close eye on Kidman and crush her as soon as he can glean a little more from her mind.
A stirring catches him then, and Ruvik goes to it.
Sebastian is awake and assessing the slaughter room Ruvik left him in. Watching the butcher with grim dark eyes. It's a surprise that the man chooses the shadows and flight over force. In Ruvik's experience a man of his size and job usually goes for brute force first, and maybe thinks about the logical consequences of that only afterwards.
There's caution in his mind as he eases his way out of the room far more easily than Ruvik anticipated. He'd wanted the man to have to work a bit more for it than that.
No matter.
The trip wire solidifies into place seconds before Sebastian walks right into it, "Shit!"
Ruvik smiles at the way terror seems to clear the man's confused mind. The very real danger of death propelling him into flight. He focuses so intently on his own survival that the pain from the chainsaw slashing down his leg is a surprise.
He screams and Ruvik smiles as he pulls his creature back from finishing the man off like he was made to. The pain is bright and exquisite in Sebastian's mind. The surprise of it had caught him off guard and thrown off his sharp focus, his iron clad denial just enough.
Ruvik circles him to see how it looks on the man, and the hints of pain on him as he climbs to his feet are nice.
"Where's the exit?" Sebastian questions himself or the world at large as he stubbornly limps through the tunnels. Not as slowed down by the bleeding wound he hasn't bothered trying to bandage in any way. His voice is rough and Ruvik wonders how much pain he will have to put the man through before he notices the reaction for what it is.
The end of the creatures he woke for Joseph draws him away, and he sets the path for Sebastian to follow before the man gets far. Something a bit more challenging. Just enough to warm him up for what's ahead.
His main plan needs him to focus more on Joseph for a bit. The man is a danger to his plan of cornering Leslie, and keeping him where he needs him. The boy is perceptive in a way similar to Joseph, and letting them meet will undermine all he has set up.
"Keep going, Sebastian," Ruvik says though no one hears him as the world bends around him. Bringing hm where he wants to go with long practiced ease.
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