âDancing with Sean... What are you trying to do to me, hm?â
Crys stopped in her tracks at the familiar whisper behind her back, her body tensing entirely and gradually relaxing as she held back her first instinctive reaction and calmly turned to face Jake. âWhat, if I may ask, would I be doing to you... Jacob?â She asked, her tone cold with a fake tone of curiosity. âOr rather, what could I possibly do to you that you donât absolutely deserve?â
Jake flinched at her words, a sigh escaping him, his voice faltering. âFair point... I just...â
âDonât. Whatever this is, weâre not getting into it here.â Crys cut him off with a severe look in her eyes. âThis is not the time or the place.â
âYou do realize this hurts me, donât you? He asked in a whisper.
âYes. Yes, Jake... I do. This... Isnât about you and me though. Itâs just a matter of, trying to keep the peace... So find a way to deal. I know I have.â
âTrying to keep the peace... You know, I donât think that phrase was ever uttered during peaceful times. The lengths we're all willing to go to fool ourselves...â Jake chuckled bitterly, raising his hands in a defensive manner. âI know... Not here. Not now. I wonât make a scene or anything donât worry.â He played, heaving a deep sigh. âI just... Wanted to see you... I always want to see you.â
Crys closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head and falling into silence for a few seconds, once her eyes opened again, her tone changed to one of warning. âGo back to your friends, Jakey.â
Jake frowned slightly at Crysâ words, eyes darting around the room looking for Darren and Irvin. He spotted Irv first, awkwardly approaching a group of girls, not too far from him he saw Darren, a woman walking away from him leaving two men who were obviously hired mercenaries behind with the boy. He didnât have to look to know that Crys had walked away the moment he put his focus on Darren, so he didnât bother looking back and simply started to calmly make his way to him and his... âcompanionsâ. Things didnât look friendly between them and if someone was planning on messing with the boy, theyâd be messing with him too. Moving around so that he reached the two mercenaries from behind Jake addressed the man in a calm yet firm tone of voice, right hand resting upon the hilt of his sword. âGentlemen... Do you have some sort of... Issue... With my friend here?â
---------------------------------------------
Irvin wasnât all too sure about going to talk to the girl Darren pointed out to him, but before he could say a word of protest the older boy had sent him on his way. Irvin wasnât going to admit it, but he wasnât too good in talking to girls around his age. There werenât many of them around in the prisons and before that he was far too concerned with survival to think about socializing. Now that he was thinking about it, he has no idea how to go about actually doing it. The girl Darren had showed was in fact watching his approach with discreet glances and shy, yet welcoming, smiles. The boy was trying hard to keep his focus on what he wanted to do, heâd gone over it again and again in his head: âSmile, say hi, donât be weird.â, it seemed simple enough, but for some reason actually following through with the plan was a whole other story. Suddenly Irvin felt as if he had forgotten basic human behavior and he simply stood before the girl in silence, looking a bit as if he was about to throw up. The girl smile at him sweetly, amusement clear in her expression as her friends started to giggle around her. After a few seconds of patiently waiting for the boy to speak the girl let out a chuckle and greeted. âHi.â
Irvin winced slightly, realizing his brain had momentarily shut down on him, forcing a small cough he tried unsuccessfully to swallow down the knot caught in his throat, his voice sounding a bit weak. âHey... I... Uh... Hi... Iâm Irvin.â
âIrvin, nice to meet you, Iâm Joslin.â She said, sounding pleased that he was finally speaking, even if barely.
Irvin smiled back nervously, discreetly wiping his sweaty palms at the hem of his shirt. In his awkwardness the boy began to look around, eyes searching his surroundings for his friends, Darren wasnât far, but Irv didnât like the looks of his company and for what he could tell, neither did Jake. The girl was still talking, it seemed, but the boyâs attention was momentarily caught up in whatever was happening with his friends and he began to slowly wander off mumbling an apology.
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âYouâre the Wolfpack Alpha...â
Never, to Seanâs experience, had that sentence been followed by a pleasant exchange of any sort and he was momentarily taken by surprise at the fact that this woman, whom he had nearly ran over, not only knew who he was, but was acting so pleasant. She mentioned Crysâ name, and yet there was no hostility in her tone... He would have been more comfortable if she slapped him in the face. It would just spare him the trouble of trying to figure out what her deal was exactly. His little flinch prevented him from paying full attention to the womanâs introduction, but as soon as he composed himself he realized why her name seemed so familiar... Heâd read it twice before. He didnât think the name was common enough for this to be a coincidence. âEssence? Are you the same Essence whose name is carved on a table in the Newhaven Inn? You know, I should make you pay me for vandalizing my establishment, Essence... But then it would probably ungentlemanly of me to demand compensation from a lady for such a small act, even if said act inflicted damage to my property.â Seanâs tone made it unclear whether or not he was joking about the table, his eyes playful although his voice was undeniably serious. Opening an amused smile the Alpha shook his head slightly. âMaybe Iâm not interested in the type of woman who would find it acceptable to cling to a manâs arm for an entire evening pretending not to be incredibly bored. Or maybe I just canât find a lady who wonât refer to me as âthe Wolfpackâs Alphaâ.â He stated, his smile growing more amused as he added. âItâs Sean by the way, miss Talon, in case that little detail is not a part of the many things being gossiped about my person. Itâs been nice meeting you so far, letâs see how long that lasts, shall we?â
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Luckas didnât need to look too long to find the king, the man looked perfectly normal and respectable from a distance... They all did... but Luckas could see something else, something familiar in the manâs eyes; something that made him momentarily forget the nature of his task. He didnât need to get to close, just wait for a moment where the he could see the manâs eyes, moving to a more quiet corner, where he was unlikely to be bothered he looked into the eyes of King Rick, and waited for the world around him to melt away.
"Do you smell that?" Lamya asked Simon, who had already noticed what was going on.
"Of course I do. Don't take me for a fool."
"I only take you for what-" Lamya said before Simon cut her completely out of the conversation along with the rest of the assassins.
All but Rick and Simon were now connected through mind. There was an extra visitor, however. He was so well hidden that only Simon and, surprisingly, Lamya were able to detect. Not even Rick, who seemed to be the person who was under attack could tell. There was a person within the chaos that was after the King's mind. Simon wouldn't let this happen.
Simon was still thrown off a little. The mental barriers that he had created to protect the people within his mind were top notch. No one should have been able to break through them from the time that he made it into the party. Regardless, before he even tried to evict this invader from Rick's mind, he was going to have to put up some mental barriers for his own safety. His mind was going to be like the mountains in the south of Valcrest. He created a huge wall protecting his mind from the attacker and then he went it.
"Leave now, or forever wish you had."
Luckas was surprised, that to say the least. He didn't expect to find anything interesting in the King, he only wanted a peek into the man's memories for the hell of it; he wasn't expecting to find someone else already there, he certainly wasn't expecting to find a link with several other people, and it made him wonder if there was in fact something interesting enough in this guy's mind that he needed someone to protect it. Luckas wandered from where he was standing until he could feel himself leaning against something solid; a wall or pillar, he wasn't quite certain. The other telepath's presence was sensed at first as a slight pressure against his attempts, it had now gotten a bit more forceful to the point where he could feel it physically as if someone was holding his head and slowly squeezing. It was a challenge though, and it was one interesting enough to take on. The fact that using his ability this way made it impossible to see his surroundings was slightly troubling if it were discovered he was the one trying to prey on the King's mind, but it was a risk worth taking; if anything turned out too badly he trusted Sammy to have his back. Having heard the guy's warning Luckas didn't answer in any way for a few moments, breathing slowly to keep his focus as he tried to assess the situation; the guy was good and it was somewhat intriguing how he managed to maintain such secure links with more than one person at a time, when Luckas had been repeatedly taught it was dangerous and nearly impossible to pull of successfully. This was going to be fun.
"Do you know what they say, mate, that when you run into a wild predator you try and make yourself as insignificant as possible and hope it goes away? You should have done that. I was going to be in and out pretty quick, but now you made this into a good challenge, so why not? Make me regret my intrusion."
Luckas dared the guy to push him out, waiting to see what his move would be, slowly looking for a crack in the armor, a vulnerable spot he could exploit. It could take him time, but if it was there he would find it and once he did, this would be over quite quickly.
People always seemed to think that the mind was a safe place. The only safe place. It was a place that the user only had control of. They thought that if there was something wrong with their mind, it was only their fault. Anyone with that dogma was completely wrong. Simon looked at the mind as something he could make impressions on. He could seep his way deep into the psyche and just put thoughts there. In the place where people feel safe, he could bring them into a whole new world. He could bring them somewhere where they feel completely vulnerable. Vulnerable... that was his first step.
"Call me arrogant, but now that Lena's dead, I'm probably one of the strongest enlightened Mind out there. If you think of yourself as such a predator, prove to me that there is something to be afraid of?"
With his last warning, he started attacking the intruder's mind. The first thing he looked for was a name. The next were a few of the simple images, the ones that he didn't protect. These were images that didn't matter too much for him. When it came to the chain of command of memories, these were at the bottom rung. Mostly full of dead bodies or him toying around with people's minds. Nothing too special.
"You're name's Luckas, now, is it? Interesting life you've lead Luckas." He said, attempting to distract Luke while he tried to creep deeper into his mind.
Weak, this was weak... Sure this guy could do better than this if he was bold enough to compare himself to Lena. The woman had tortured him in ways no one else had ever managed, even in death she still tortured him in the back of his mind... That kind of respect was hard to obtain. "Oh, I don't want to scare you off, friend... Where's the fun in that, hm? So you know my name and you've seen some of my playthings... There's nothing there I'm particularly secretive about. You haven't done better than the healer's dead carcass, oh Great mind!" Luckas mocked the man openly, always keeping his defenses just one step ahead of his advances while he was still only grazing the surface. Either way, Luckas had very little to protect anyway; and most of what could actually hurt him was so deeply buried he could barely reach it himself. "Talk is cheap Simon... I'm sure you can do better now... I feel sorry for you and your king if you can't." He provoked, the pressure building in his temples, but this time he pushed back, making sure the man didn't go any further even though there was nothing particularly meaningful at his reach just yet; simply to show that he could. "You don't want to be going there friend... That's bad for your health." He warned playfully, challenging Simon to push him further. If there was something he'd learned from the healer was that his mind was the one place he could control completely if he concentrated... Maybe not to the point of trapping someone inside, but surely enough to drive them to confusion if they wandered deep enough. He hadn't actually tried that before aside from training and he knew it would take its toll on him, but it was well worth the effort if it worked.
The man had some audacity to think that he could push Simon completely out of his mind that easily. In fact, it was rather pathetic to think that. He knew, however that if you push someone, you better be prepared to get pushed back ten times harder. He hoped Luckas didn't discover this little piece of life experience. With a little amount of thought, he pinpointed exactly where he wanted to attack this person's mind from. He focused his thought into the sharpness of a needle and then quickly trusted himself into Luckas' mind for his second round of attack. With, again, little thought, he focused his thought as big as he could, so it would expand as far out as possible through the mind of Luckas.
"Get out of our head!"
With just that thought, he brought Luckas back into reality. He was back on the wall he was standing on. The people around him were interacting and the music was playing. Everything would seem to be normal.
Luckas frowned slightly as he looked at his surroundings, for a split second he almost believed the man had succeeded to push him out, but then he realized that something felt off... Or rather, what was off was what he didn't feel. There was no pain, no blurriness in his sight, he didn't feel faint... Everything was absolutely normal, as it should be, and that was wrong. So Luckas smiled, an overly sweet smile, as he began to pace around the ballroom... His eyes wandering around and noticing a few more known faces amongst the crowd, but some people he knew to be there were missing from the scene, probably because Simon wouldn't know to place them. Still, it was impressive that he could so easily create and illusion inside Luke's mind when he was usually immune to such things. He took his time to appreciate the small details of the scene, before slowly starting to tweak it here and there... Some notes of the music failing as if the people playing occasionally forgot what they were doing, people's faces blurring beyond recognition as Luke passed them, color beginning to fade as if the room was turning into a black and white portrait... Until all the faces were blank, and the bright and beautiful colors had faded, and everything was blank noise in the background... The only thing standing out in the room being the site of a man with brown hair and brown eyes. A face Luckas didn't know until then, but now he could link to a name. "The was nicely played, mate... I almost bought it... Maybe if I wasn't so inclined to doubt reality as it is..." As he spoke everything else disappeared in the room, but the man and himself. He had let Simon in just enough to play with what the man was seeing. "I said this wasn't a place you'd like to be friend... One last chance to yield? Hm... No, I don't think so. I should teach you something instead..." At those words fire lit up the once darkened room, just a small circle around Simon so that he could see something, but not the whole room, Luke standing in the dark, just beyond the reach of the light. In the darkness there was movement, followed by growls and snarls as if hungry animals were lurking just a step beyond the fire; eyes would appear here and there, sparkling in the dark, the growls occasionally becoming louder and more vicious as if whatever creatures lurking there were growing impatient and unleashing violent attacks on one another. "For an illusion to have the proper effect, you should consider all the little details that make it believable... Not just plant an image and wait for the victim's mind to fill in the blanks with what should be there, as most telepaths tend to do... Control the environment... The sounds and smells... The feels... Like this fire; you can smell it... You can feel its warmth... And if I hadn't been here speaking I bet you would eventually believe that putting it out would lead to a terrible fate, hm? Who knows, maybe you will, but I'd like to think you are better than that... Shall we try it?" Luckas asked, a slight giggle echoing through the empty room as the fire suddenly faded and everything fell dark.
Simon didn't need a lot of time, he just needed deeper. That was all he was after from the illusion that he made. He didn't want to take the time or energy to create complete realism. In that split second that Luke believed he was back into reality as he perceived it, Simon had managed to get deeper into Luke's mind than even Luke knew about. Being this deep, it allowed him to almost guarantee that he will believe almost anything that he wanted Luke to believe. All he needed to do was create a couple of thoughts and plant a few more seeds.
During this entire time, Luke had been playing his own set of mind games. The room had grown dark and now there was a fire. He was about to walk out of the ring of fire surrounding him when Luke started talking to him. He went along his rant about how weak my illusions were, despite the fact that his illusion of a fire was far less complex than an entire room filled with people and things, with music playing and everything else going. Making a fire was far less complex, especially when there was the possibility of a distraction by the noises being made from beyond the darkness.
When the light went out, that was when he was attacked. The noises that came from the darkness came and surrounded him. Nothing was all too painful, he just had an uncomfortable feeling as if someone had shoved him in a cramped broom closet with no possibility for escape. What this Luckas had planned out was working to some degree, but not as he had planned it to. Simon closed his eyes and gave into the monsters, giving Luckas what he wanted. Quickly, he was ripped apart, limb from limb, until the monsters grew tired and left. They then turned their attention to Luckas on the other end of the darkness. Behind him was a wall of fire, so he couldn't move away from the monsters coming towards him. With the light behind him, Luckas would be able to see every detail of each monsters he had created. Each one disappeared one after another until only one was left. This one wasn't one that Luke had created.
It had a long white and slimy body, with enormous blue veins. There were tons of scars around what was supposed to be a face, but nothing was there. There was only one large mouth. It held itself up with two long and lanky legs, which only had enough strength to hold up it's middle. It's lack of head and tail dragged across the floor. It's center was the most interesting part. This is what made the creature look so peculiar. It had muscles that all lead to the legs which would contract and flex after every movement. This made it appear as if the creature was in fact inside out.
When it got close enough, it towered over Luke; it's body spewing out clear sticky liquids strait from the skin. It didn't do anything. It just stood right over him like it was knew he was there despite not having any eyes. Slowly, Luke's skin peeled from his body as if he were an orange getting picked away at from a guy who bites their fingernails often. When it had all fallen off, the monster opened in wide mouth and regurgitated Simon's skin onto Luke's body. It folded nicely over top and seemed to seal in as if it were air tight.
"Reality is only how your mind interprets the world around it. Right now, this is your reality."
Luckas was remarkably calm and still considering what he was faced with... This monster Simon had created was in no way as frightening as the thing he ran into in the woods not too long ago, however, and that thought alone made Luke simply stand looking up at the beast towering over him with mild curiosity, seemingly unfazed but what seemed to going on with his own body, simply staring at the monster as if questioning what it was supposed to be doing. Through the whole thing he was so motionless and still one could certainly question whether he even understood what was going on around it, maybe he was in some sort of shock, it surely did seem that way. "This... Is... MY... Reality..." He mumbled softly, the words were the only thing that seemed to cause a reaction as he slowly looked down at his hands. "Hmph..." He scoffed, spreading his arms wide open and slowly pacing back into the warmth of the flames until they swallowed him whole, the smell of burning skin and flesh filling the air, his sight blinded by bright red-orange flames as he felt the agonizing pain of burning alive; it was intense pain, but it felt somewhat comforting to Luckas, even familiar for some odd reason, it made him feel at peace. "Reality... Is only one figment of our imagination... But not just any illusion can be real. For it to be real, it has to be something my mind is capable of accepting. Let's be honest now... You will not make me accept any form of 'reality', no matter how many you try, and in the end, we are nothing but a couple of fools trying to make eachother laugh at old jokes. You can keep digging deeper, and deeper, and deeper into my mind if you like... I welcome you to... Go for it... But the last person who tried didn't live to tell any secrets, and I didn't have to put in an effort, but... Hey you're welcome, now you get to call yourself the strongest enlightened mind or whatever; although it would sound a lot more impressive if you had been the one to beat the healer instead of just sitting on your ass and waiting for her to drop... As is, I believe that at most you could drag me with you when you finally exhaust yourself from all the fun we're having, but what do I care? Sooner, later... What does it matter?" As he spoke the fire expanded to such extent that all it could be seen was flame and nothing more, as if the world itself was burning to the ground and there would be absolutely nothing left when the fire died.
The fire burned for what seemed like full hours, when it vanished both men were standing in the middle of the ballroom, completely unharmed and back to the ridiculously normal scenario Simon had first created, exactly as he had created it in the first place. "Now tell me, are you in my mind or am I in yours? Maybe we're now playing in your King's head; if so, how much of this do you think he can bear before becoming... Irreversibly damaged? Oh well... Maybe we're dead and this is hell: Fated to play stupid tricks for each other through all eternity..." Luckas laughed at the idea. "Can you honestly still tell one from the other without a doubt at this point friend? Because I tell you... Sooner or later lines begin to blur." Admittedly, Luckas was in no way done playing yet, but he wasn't going to be stupid about it either and he had, in his little fiery trick, pushed the fight back to the King, not dwelling too deep into the man's mind but just enough to maybe get something out of this little game.
Simon knew it. Luckas' plan was to take the battle into the Rick's mind. There really wasn't an option for Simon, he had to oblige, but he was happy to oblige. He would much rather exhaust Rick's mind rather than his own. He also knew Rick's mind better than Luckas did and it meant that he had a home advantage of sorts. He didn't care much for Rick anyways. So what if he went crazy in the process? He wasn't going to survive for much longer anyways, not if everything went as planned and they most likely were. With an entire city against him, things wouldn't look to good.
"You want to take the battle to the King? Fine. He will go insane and we will bring Blackpond to a new low together. Hey, maybe the people will finally decide to do something about it too. Maybe Blackpond will be brought back to its former glory. Maybe you'll be doing Blackpond a service. I'm willing to take the risk if it means I can have some more fun with you."
In this moment, he started walking around the crowd, as if he was supposed to blend in. It was nearly impossible to blend into someone's mind as they could easily change their point of view to wherever they wanted in order to find what they are looking for, regardless, he wanted a moment where he couldn't be seen. From there, he changed his appearance and just acted like the rest of the people. He then changed half of the people in the ballroom into replicas of Simon. The other half into replicas of Luckas. Along with that, there were about ten people who were both Simon and Luckas at the same time. Simon chose to be himself, the easier option.
"So Luckas." Simon's voice echoed through the room as if he were some omnipotent being. "From digging through your mind, I see something very interesting." Slowly, the appearance of every single body in the room started changing. "You knew someone very important to Valcrest. It looks like this person actually tried to help you... what a failure that was." The faces flashed to become recognizable. "Too bad Lena isn't around anymore to help you out with your problem. I take it, from what you said earlier that you were at least partially responsible for her death. That's no surprised; you are one sick fuck."
The Lena's walked around the room, just as if they were regular people, talking to one another in different, mindless conversation. Only the ten, that were once the Simon and Luckas combination stopped what they were doing to look directly at Luckas.
Simon's voice again boomed through the room "Too bad she will never be able to help you with whatever it was that she was helping you with."
Luckas watched with mild amusement in his expression as the figures around the ballroom changed their appearance as if the party was suddenly constituted of far less irritating Ambers. He snorted a laugh at Simon's little speech about Lena his dark eyes scanning the 'Lena clones' as if considering all the fun and violent ways he could tear them apart. "Yes, that's such a pity. I'll never be a functioning member of society. Aaaw..." He snickered, pacing around the room and noting with amusement that woman's copies were still watching him at all times. "Just like in real life!" He giggled softly. "Oh, what fun. You know... Funny of you to call me sick, considering where we are... Considering where you've been all your life mate, and who you hang around with... The King, the psychotic redhead I had some stabby fun with the other day... That dude that likes to play with dead things... Do you ever wonder just how fond of corpses that dude really is? I mean, how do you suppose he plays when no one's watching, or at least he assumes no one's watching, because you never know... You can't ever know, can you?" He whispered the last words, a grin spreading across his features. "You're all a cheery little group, huh? In other circumstances I almost think I'd like the lot of you, but... Nah... You are, as a group, too hypocritical and stupid for my liking, and the redhead's talk of chaos alone almost bored me for a life time. I was almost relieved when she stabbed me, really. I guess some women are better with their mouths shut, are they not?" He smiled, staring at the Lena clones as if asking them the question. "Stupid, stupid, stupid little words and promises... and lies..." He sighed. "They're all just full of it, ain't that right? So tell me friend, what's the point of the King anyway? Or you? You're all just little puppets are you not? Dancing to some random tune... just like the rest... Just like everyone else... And acting as if your existence makes a difference... As if the pathetic little town matters... Fuck Blackpond... Fuck the king... Fuck you and your Gods..." He muttered, putting a firm grip on the throat of one of the clones, squeezing, nails sinking into flesh as the figure's face changed from Lena's to his own, to Simon's, to several other guests of the party, until the figure turned to Sam, and then back to Lena as it dropped lifeless to the ground. Luckas laughed loudly spreading his arms wide, to face the remaining clones. "Who's next now?" He asked, more and more laughter escaping him growing louder and louder to a point where he was almost certain he wasn't only laughing in his head anymore. Slowly he composed himself, still chuckling here and there as he spoke. "You are all dead, you just don't know it yet... And it's freaking hilarious."
"You talk of my friends being boring or freaks, but then look at yourself. I've been standing here, pretty much begging you to play along, but all you can bother to do is stand here and act like you are so much more interesting than anyone else in this world. I bet you are as interesting as the typical person, with the same old problems and same feelings as every other human being. You love, you hate, you try to relive past experiences. You can be convinced to do or not do things by people you deemed important in your life. Then there's the fact that you probably feel alone. Are you really alone? No man's alone. The very fact of life is that human's are social creatures and crave some sort of social attention. That is the reason solitary confinement in dungeons can be enough to drive men insane."
"The only thing that makes you different is that you've killed a whole lot of people whom you don't find particularly interesting. What does that gain you? Does that gain you anything more than I gain from doing what I do or anyone else does for that matter? No, you are a pretty boring guy as well, with a pretty boring imagination. I mean... wow... you can imagine a fire and some monsters which can only be seen and heard and nothing more. Then you go around and kill people just for the sake of killing people. How imaginative and creative of you. You know there are more people in Blackpond prison for what you do than there are people at this party? Than on top of that, there is probably three times more who still haven't been caught. That is in Blackpond alone."
"What you have done bores me. Why you do it bores me even more. You are just an angsty young man who hates something about themselves or about others and loves to take it out on the world. I believe most intellectuals would call it an existential crisis and believe me everyone goes through it. You are boring."
He stopped talking, letting the ideas sink in. Honestly however, Simon knew that these ideas would not sink in at all. Luke didn't want to listen. He just wanted to continue on with what he was continuing on in.
In the mean time, while Simon was killing time shooting the shit with Luke, he was tapping into the memories that he knew Luke couldn't help but share. The things that have happened to him recently that he couldn't help but think about. There were two things. One thing that popped out more than anything was a conversation with Lena. She looked very terrible, probably very close to her death. He couldn't hear anything going on in the conversation, but it went on until Luckas freaked out and next thing he saw was Lena... dead.
The other memory was a recent conversation that he had with a woman who had red hair like Lamya. The woman had a lot of interesting things to say. It was something that he would keep with him to talk with Lamya about later. He knew that Lamya would find something interesting to do with it. So he kept the fact that he found it a secret.
What he wasn't going to keep a secret was the one with Lena. He recreated the memory, but what he did was make sure that Luckas could see it from the outside. He wanted to make sure that Luckas could see every single emotion that both him and Lena had. He wanted to make sure that he could see Lena's dead body so far away, but be sure that he wouldn't be able to go over to touch it. Then, when the whole thing was over, he'd let it happen again. He'd let the entire conversation go. The conversation could not be heard, just like when Simon had first seen it. To make it a little more believable, however, he would let only a murmur be heard by the two of them.
With each repetition, the memory became more clear as well. Things would be a little sharper and each time, Luckas would seem to remember a little more about how he had killed the old hag until he saw the whole murder take place as Simon imagined that it happened.
Luckas snickered softly. He had heard Simon's whole speech at least fifty times before, and hey, maybe it was true and he was just like all the others, but really what would ever change for him if he chose to believe that? Nothing. It was just a waste of energy. "You know, out of all the nonsense you just spat out at me... 'Friends' is the most nonsensical word of all. You have no friends, no one gives a shit if you die, you are expendable, replaceable, the only reason you lived past age 12 is because you proved useful, isn't that a fact? If you stop being useful tomorrow I'm pretty sure your... heh... 'Friends' will stab you in the back, probably just because why not." His tone was calm and casual, and almost bored even. He was starting to care less and less for playing with Simon now... But of course he wasn't going to just leave, even if he just sat there until the King completely lost what little sanity he had, he wasn't going to be the one to cave, it just wasn't in him to do such a thing. "I think this is one of the most amusing things about human behavior though, isn't it? We all think we matter so damn much. Like you right now saying I bore you as if somehow that mattered to me. As if the fact that I failed to make you interested would keep me up at night forever. It's like I said... Everything you and I are doing here is pointless. It doesn't matter. Because you are as meaningless to me as I am to you. I don't disagree with that, I do the things I do for myself... I do what I do because I enjoy it, and I kill who I kill because that's what satisfies me the most. That's what I gain; gratification. Why else would I bother killing for?Money? Power? That's just useless, I don't need it. I'm just an ordinary guy after all."
When the Lena memory began forming itself, Luckas blinked, seeming a bit confused at first, but then understanding what he was watching himself do. His only reaction was a slightly annoyed snort, deciding to turn his attention to Rick for a little while, choosing to ignore Simon and his silly little attempts to affect him, because he knew that the longer they played in there, the weaker the man's mind would get. He got some flashes of what the King liked to do in his spare time, which actually started to make him seem a bit more interesting to him than Simon... Maybe not someone he would bother playing with either, but just someone he'd enjoy seeing gone. He was probably not the only one, but then he wasn't concerned with Blackpond and its people and whatever consequences there may be. That wouldn't matter for long anyway. And then something odd happened; Luckas saw another flash of the ballroom, but this time all the faces had changed to someone else who wasn't him, or Simon, or Lena... It was the blind girl he often saw on Jake's mind; Crys. When the flash faded, the Lena memory was still repeating itself. Luckas shook his head, amusement spreading across his face. "Entertaining..." He mumbled under his breath. "Are you done?" He asked simply. "You know, I read that when Time's daughter went to hell, her punishment was to relive the same moment in time indefinitely, supposedly so that she would learn the importance of all the time she took from others... Are you trying to create some form of hell for me now? Hm? You're doing a poor job of it, if that's the case." He stated simply, with a mild shrug. "You talk plenty, but you still haven't made me leave, or wish I had, like you said you would. So either I don't bore you as much as you claim, or you simply can't do it."
Simon was through with the silly little games. It was very obvious to him that Luckas wanted to take this to the next level. He wanted to see some of the serious stuff. Luckas only really knew the blackness of the world. Luckas would look at the rose with his frigged black eyes and see the distorted blur of a bleeding heart.
"You kill for something better than anyone else does? For no reason at all? If it was for no reason, you wouldn't kill only the low lives of society who cheat and are dishonest. You would kill the honest priest, the innocent child and even the homeless man who is after nothing else but a bit of change to make it to the next day. You'd kill the noble nobleman, who would like nothing more than to just live his life and no one else's. No, from the memories I've seen from you, you only go after the low lives... and Lena, but those were for selfish reasons I'm sure."
Simon then did it. He pulled the trigger on the crossbow. He quickly siphoned through all the memories that Rick had. It didn't take long for him to figure out what he wanted to keep and what he wanted to get rid of. The only memories he chose to keep were those of Rick's sexual desires and also those of anything related to the Shadow's Conflict. In reality, if he wanted to create the perfect weapon in any of the Shadow's Conflict, the members were so comfortable with him looking through their brain that he would be able to remove all memories from them except those related to the Conflict. Their only desire would be to serve the conflict and they would be almost superhuman. What was the fun in that? Someone with a personality to pick through was always far more interesting.
"I don't know about you, but my friends will find usefulness in me until I'm dead. There is no way that they will ever kill me, so I have nothing to fear. Even if I was to betray them, the redhead whom you'd met the other day would find use enough in me. She would defiantly never kill me directly. I have nothing to worry about."
With that, he let all of Rick's sexual memories and fantasies all come to fruition within the scope of the ballroom. Now that this was all Rick could think of, a vision of the real ballroom as seen by Rick could be seen. All the real people in the ballroom could all also be seen. Soon, the scene of the ballroom changed to accompass Rick's real desires. A version of him instantly started to violate every single person in the room. Man, woman or animal in every imaginable way possible. "This is what you wanted to see?"
Luckas sighed softly, a tone of impatience breaking through his tone. "You are what, five, six years older than me, Simon? Don't tell me you are so... um... naive, as to believe there are such things as unselfish reasons to do anything. Regardless, I never said I kill for no reason. I said I kill for me. For my own reasons. That these particular people give me the most satisfaction... If you were as good in what you do as you say... You would be able to say exactly why after all the time we've spent together, but your reading of my..." Luckas paused, releasing his next word amongst a chuckle. "...Emotions... Is just as superficial as your view on human nature seems to be. Nonetheless... I've killed my share of innocents, you have to diversify to find the most suited prey, I've killed good men, women, children, and a bunny rabbit or two, but the low lives... The scum... They are more satisfying to break, because they are usually as arrogant as they are weak. It's a pretty fun combination for me... I like to watch them struggle even when there's no hope. It is as much a personal preference as it is a service to society in a way, even if society doesn't seem to agree with me most times." Luckas paced calmly through the ballroom as the scene began to shift again, a bothered expression crossing his features at what it portrayed, he snorted an shook his head in aggravation. This was actually exactly what Luckas wanted to see, although he didn't feel he needed to see much of it. Still, it served the same purpose. "Hmph, yes, that is in fact all I needed to see. I much appreciate it." He muttered, continuing his constant pacing through the scene, a mild look of annoyance in his eyes. "Now are you done?" He added.
Simon looked around the room, truly disgusted by what he was seeing. It was just... deplorable, but knowing Rick, he understood. It wasn't like he didn't know what would happen behind closed doors in the castle. If anyone knew, better than anyone, it would be him. Simon just ignored what he was looking at and focused on Luke. Luke's gaze made him appear unaffected. "You are really sick, you know that?" Simon said. "But I understand. It all has to do with your past; your brother; the 'special' therapy that Lena would give you. Oh, but you are nothing like your brother though. Am I right? You only go after the ones like him." Pointing to the Rick that was sitting at his throne, cherishing all these moments he was having in his mind. "Too bad you couldn't maintain any humanity while you were at it. Instead, you look at the memories that have affected your life and suppress them until they became nothing to you. That is why you can't remember anything Luke and that is why Lena could never help you. You didn't have any humanity left for her to dig into. You only kept the things that made you less human. If you wanted to become an individual, then you did it pretty well. I bet your brother wasn't even as twisted as you were. Hard to think isn't it? Well, enjoy killing Rick now." With that, Simon cut his connection to Rick's and Luke's minds and fell back into reality.