by Narrator » Mon Jul 03, 2017 7:48 pm
When Miriam comes to again the first thing she notices is the throbbing head-ache, followed shortly by the strain on her shoulders and the bite of metal cuffs on her wrists, pulling her arms behind the back of the chair she's sitting on. The room is poorly lit, bare metal shelves line the walls filled with janitorial supplies and such. A voice behind her speaking up makes her jump in her seat, pulling painfully on her shoulders and wrists.
"I bet you think you're clever, but plenty of muties have tried to cheat the system and most of them are much more subtle about it."
Miriam tries to crane her neck and when that fails she just tries to focus, feel out the man's mind and just throw all the mental switches she can find, seizure, crippling anxiety, something to just disable him immedia-- She can barely finish the train of thought when the speakers left and right of her suddenly scream in a high-pitched feedback loop that hurts in her ears and drives a spike of pain through her mind. Gritting her teeth any attempt to focus on the man's mind evaporates before it can take shape.
"But all the ones who think they're smart got powers that don't work so well when you can't focus." the mans voice says when the feedback cuts out after a couple of seconds. Miriam can barely hear him over the sound still echoing in her ears. "And the owners value being able to offer an unsullied experience to their legitimate patrons. So sometimes muties have to be reminded of their place." Miriam opens her mouth to respond but before she can the man places his boot on her shoulder and with a practiced kick sends her falling sideways to the ground along with the chair. She cries out when her shoulder hits the hard floor, followed quickly by her head and for a moment sparks dance in her vision.
"Guessing telepathy, cause it can't be luck manipulation if you walked into this place, eh?" the man goes on and Miriam barely has blinked the stars from her eyes when a shadow falls over her and a moment later a boot hits her stomach and drives the air out of her. "And unfortunately for you, we've learned that you people can be pretty vengeful, so we oughta make sure the lesson sticks, eh luv?" She feels herself being lifted up again as the man grabs the back of the chair and rights it again along with her...
After who knows how long of fading in and out of consciousness between beatings there's finally enough of a pause that she bothers trying to open her eyes. One of them refuses to cooperate, too swollen to really function. She's on the ground again and just as she manages to peel one of her eyelids open she catches a brief glimpse of the man towering over her. She barely manages to register the boot being pulled back before it comes flying at her face again, snapping her head back and riving her neck against the back of the chair and with an almost imperceptible crack everything is swallowed up by the darkness.