November Catch-All (Mostly Closed)

[monoceroscaeli]

Who: Childe and any plotted threads/CR
What: November Event, and possibly more later
When: November!
Where: All around Trench

Content Warnings: Torture, kidnapping, blood/organ harvesting, pretty much all the cw"s from the event

[This post is for all the threads I've got planned for this month- if you'd like to plot something out you can reach me at bucketsofbeans or just PM me!]

Comments

[siriusly]

The muted conversation in the nearby room is abruptly halted, replaced with some clatter, shouts, and a couple heavy, furniture-based thuds. Things seem to go quiet for a while, though perhaps a bit of rustling could be heard if one were to strain their ears to hear past the labored breathing of captives or the distant echoes of the industrial equipment scattered throughout. It's a long enough while that one could wonder if they made it up - some feeble hope of rescue conjured up to keep a mind and heart from succumbing to despair - and long enough to maybe even forget in order to focus on other things. Like, say, trying to wriggle out of one's bonds or look around for an improvisational tool.

Either way, the truth reveals itself eventually, and it comes in the shape of a short, brown-haired man Childe's come to know quite well of late. Manabu Yuuki slips into view around the corner into the corridor Childe and the others are held in, his focus more on the way he'd left at first. So much for the nice jacket Ryunosuke helped him pick out: It's been torn and sullied by blood and scorchmarks, as has his arms and face. He looks like he just got out of one helluva bar brawl and stumbled his way into a layer of hell.

When he's confirmed he's not being followed, his attention swerves to what lay ahead, his expression contorting with anguish to see this morbid display of what he sees as senseless torture, and that dread only intensifies when he sees that one form strung up there is one he knows pretty well. His lips draw back in a grimace, as close to calling out for Childe as he dares in the moment, checking his surroundings one more time before he hastens over.

He brings a finger to his lips in the universal shush sign as he approaches, and then presses his back against the wall at the sound of some clatter in the distance. After a few heartbeats he exhales, then moves to size up what's got Childe bound, hoping it's something either flammable or easily cut...

[monoceroscaeli]

His clouded mind barely registers that the voices stop, as he struggles in vain to try to free himself from the rope that his wrists are tied with. Chlide is mostly operating out of pure instincts to stay alive, struggling to remember his own name. But as the moments pass, he remembers everything that happened before he wound up here, before he'd blacked out. He'd really messed up, letting himself get caught. They might of even got Lumine despite his best efforts to keep that from happening...

But the movement out of the corner of his eye draws his attention from the memories that are rapidly coming back to him. His eyes go wide. It's Manabu, and what a relieving sight that was. It's now that he realizes he can't hear those voices anymore, and it was probably because his rescuer took them out or they'd left.

Childe nods back, keeping his mouth shut and hoping that there was enough time for Manabu to release him before someone came. The bonds are easily cut, and Childe nods his head towards that cart with all the tools on it. There is conveniently a pair of scissors on it, and that should be good enough. If not, several different scalpels and knives lie on it as well, as well as a hand saw.

[siriusly]

None of the instruments nearby are terribly appealing, but many of them look effective. After listening for a beat longer, Manabu picks up one of the larger, less well-used knives and turns back to Childe and...

...Ah...yeah... He's going to need something to stand on to reach that. Hang on a little longer, Childe! Manabu's got to find a stool - better that than hopping around trying to shave a rope down like an idiot, you know?

It's not a terribly long wait, at least, and Manabu only needs a few clean sweeps across the braided rope to get it to fray and snap apart with gravity's help. He hops off the stool and sets the saw down to trade it for a smaller blade to cut the bonds on Childe's wrists, taking a few seconds between sawing to listen for anything more ominous than the periodic, industrial noise in the distance.

As the rope gives way, Manabu gives Childe a check-over for signs of any really dire injuries they need to address right away.

[monoceroscaeli]

There's nothing more relieving than when his feet touch the ground again, and Childe rubs his wrists after the rope is cut off. Manabu's scan won't yield results. All of the injuries he'd sustained happened in the battle before he was drug here, all well hidden beneath the red jumpsuit the zealots had put him in. When he takes a step, Manabu will notice a bit of a limp- and Childe tries to not grimace too much at the pain.

He claps a hand on Manabu's shoulder, nodding a thanks to him for freeing him. He takes a few knives off of the cart himself, slipping them into the pockets of his clothing before silently waving for Manabu to come with. They both need to survey this situation before they could make any plan of attack. It's a precarious position for the Harbinger- powerful enemies roam the halls while he's without all of his powers.

After taking a moment to listen, he speaks to Manabu in a low whisper.

"How large is this facility?"

[siriusly]

"Too big," Manabu replies before backing away to go and help the couple Sleepers that were hung up near Childe. Whether he gets the helping hand or not, he wants to see to them getting to their feet, or at least settled on the ground when he discovers them still quite knocked out.

Upon settling the last of them down, he bites his lip with worry. He can't just leave them here - they're likely to just get strung up again. Or worse. Gesturing for Childe to get near, he whispers:

"Help me move them? We can get them barricaded somewhere safer than here."

Namely, that office he'd just cleaned out; he'll have no qualms about swapping out the workers for the victims in this regard.

[monoceroscaeli]

He quickly crosses the room to Manabu, observing how many more people there really were in here. This seemed like a much larger operation than he first imagined it to be. It was like a factory of sorts, and given that the place was large meant that there were more rooms to be found and more Sleepers being sacrificed.

This isn't at all what the zealot they'd interrogated had led them to believe.

"Yeah," he breathes, grabbing one of them and tossing them over his shoulder. The weight didn't bode well for the moment on his knee, but he'll grit through it. He'll walk it off. He has to.

"I've got information on this place, let me tell you in there," he says while moving towards the office. Opening the door, he steps over he unconscious workers that Manabu had taken out, sitting the Sleeper up against the wall.

[siriusly]

It's as good an idea as any in the moment. The two of them proceed to move the other Sleepers into the office, and once that's been done, Manabu hesitates and goes back to the cart full of torture tools, lifting a few of them to not only keep them absent for others who may work here, but to give the Sleepers some improvised armaments for the future - these he lays out on one of the desks to be easily found and used.

With everyone inside and Childe seeing to barricading the door, Manabu sets to cutting the bonds of the Sleepers, checking them for injuries as he goes.

"What do you remember?" he asks while doing so. "About getting here."

[monoceroscaeli]

"I was captured," he says, frowning at his own mistake. It was his own fault he'd ended up here. He wouldn't make that same mistake again. "They were able to summon portals and use chains to capture their victims."

He grabs a chair and shoves it under the handle of the door, not wanting to move anything large at the moment. It would make too much noise, and he needs a moment to recover before he moves on to search the facility for Lumine.

"Master Diluc and I managed to extract some information out of these zealots. Seems they think that sacrificing Sleepers is the salvation of everyone."