^Things like this, they are supposed to stay the purview of intellectual discussion.^
^You agreed.^
^I’m following orders.^
^Let me go in your place.^
Parker-2 lifted the scalpel, and cut into the still body. There was no movement, as expected. Any movement now would mean having to start again, and doing this once was enough for him, and surely more than enough for her.
^No,^ he argued, ^Someone has to be there in case someone needs a band-aid, and you’re best at that, nursemaid that you are.^
^One of us has to be nice.^
He finished cutting the square, and pulled away the large section of skin, gave it a brief glance, then tossed it onto the tray beside him.
^Do me a favour and scratch my shoulder would you, I’m itching, and I want one uniform without blood on it.^
^Not that it would matter.^
He felt the echo of -1 scratching a shoulder that was several floors away, and relief washed over him.
^You feel tense,^ his twin said, his worry bleeding over into his own system. ^Shiatsu later?^
^Yeah, sure,^ he replied as the scalpel dug into flesh again.
There was the shadow taste of coffee in his mouth, one…pleasantly spiked with liquor. ^A massage isn’t what you want.^
^I’m not going to say that I’ll need a beer and a right good fuck, because sex isn’t what I want to be thinking about right now.^
He stared at the girl on the table, naked, prone, completely vulnerable, completely paralyzed…and completely conscious. She stared at him, unable to close her eyes, forced to look at either him, the chunks of her skin in his hands, or to stare at the mirrored roof, and see everything. Thoughts of sex with the man he loved weren’t comforting, neither was the thought of getting drunk off his arse and being able to forget about following this order for just a little while.
^Fine,^ his twin said, ^but speaking of which…any voyeurs?^
^Little miss masochist wasn’t invited. The thickheaded lunk and the playboy though, are up on the ob deck.^ He flicked his eyes upward, and let -1 see what he was seeing.
Smoke clouded the observation deck, though the glass wall stopped it from infecting his sterile work area.
^Taylor’s smoking?^ -1 asked.
^Well, Grigori’s around, it’s like the old days again.^
^No it isn’t,^ -1 argued. ^If it was, Taylor would be relaxed because it isn’t a stick that would be up his arse.^
^Your subtleties continue to amaze me. You should talk like that in front of the recruits sometimes.^
^No, they think I’m the nice one, let them continue thinking that.^
^I don’t understand their objection to losing a kidney every once in a while.^
Torso stripped of flesh, he moved onto the right arm.
^Do you really think,^ he asked, ^that he enjoys this?^
^Yes,^ -1 said after a long moment. ^Or at least that he feels justified. He was torn apart, so he’s repaying the favour. He doesn’t look at her and see Agent Mimosa, S – he sees Agent Whitman, C. Haven’t you heard him slip up? I almost think the hate is worse though, because of that pretty bauble though.^
He felt his eyes move against his will, and they focused on the part of the mirrored heart that poke through the thin covering of flesh.
^Are you tempted?^ -1 asked.
^Why?^ he asked, letting sarcasm slip into his tone, and he let his feeling of incredulity leak across the link. ^You want a pony?^
^We aren’t allowed near mirror because of what we can do with it. We aren’t allowed to wish for things because we aren’t trusted, we’re told it isn’t our right. Agents with mirror fuck with the balance. So the question is Agent Parker, what would you wish for?^
^A triplet, so we can have a threesome.^ He ran a long, deep cut up the length of the girl’s arm. ^Shit, I don’t know, what can you do with that much?^
He felt his memories being access, and files pushed around.
^Mirror magic ain’t exactly an exact scientist.^
^You…^ He laid the scalpel down for a moment, required away a blood glove, then smacked himself across the face. ^English. You know it. Speak it. “Ain’t” isn’t a word.^
^Yes, but for three-fifths of a second, you forgot that you were skinning a girl alive.^
Taylor’s angry face appeared in his HUD. [Stop playing around!]
[Ah. Aha. Did you just tell me how to do my job.]
[You aren’t doing-!]
He force-terminated the connection, winked at the paralyzed girl, and shifted up to the observation deck. He pulled off his glove, splattering as much as possible over himself, the pale carpet, and the shot glasses as possible. He held back a grin as he felt a few drops hit his face, knowing how even a little blood enhanced his appearance.
^I wish I could bottle how you’re feeling right now, and drink it on bad days.^
^You just sit back gorgeous, and let me go to work.^
‘Parker-!’ Taylor began.
‘It sounded very much like you were telling me how to do my job, Agent Taylor,’ he said queitly.
‘Damn right I was.’
‘You don’t get to tell me jack shit.’
‘Watch your mouth.’
‘No, fuck you, you can give directives to Medical, hence why I’m even here in the first place, but you, sure as seven hells, do not outrank me. I do not answer to you, I do not call you sir, and you do not get to say anything on how I do my job. You are speaking to one of the two top Agency doctors in the world, in the whole world, take that in for a second. I’ll skin her, sure, I’m doing it, but any moment I choose to stop, I can, and you can’t say a word, because I can choose to something better with my time, with my hands, and you’ll have to go ask someone else to do your dirty work. Let me put it this way, if I want to go wank, I can, and anyone will back me up, because I declare it a better use of my time than helping an ungrateful son of a bitch like you.’ He stabbed the combat agent in the shoulder with a bloody finger. ‘I can put people back together when you can’t even tell there’s a person there, I have saved more lives than you have taken, and I…Demand. Your. Fucking. Respect.’
He pushed the combat agent out of the way, and stretched out on the black leather couch, taking a liberal drink from an open liquor bottle.
‘Parker-’ Taylor began.
‘You just choked my last little bit of patience,’ he replied. ‘You get down on your knees and beg me to get back to work, until then, I’ll be taking a break.’
‘You-’
‘Push me any further, any little bit further, and I will petition the Enforcers to take Mags away from you. I’ve got more than enough medical evidence to show that you shouldn’t be within two continents of her. People take your bullshit, Taylor, because they’re afraid of you, or because they pity you, neither of those two categories apply to me. I’m skinning someone for you and you decide not to give me any leeway, you really only have like three braincells in your skull don’t you? What, did you require away your brain when you required away your dick?’
‘This is getting a little out of hand,’ Grigori said, finally deciding to speak. ‘We can work this out, everyone is just a little tense.’
‘On your knees,’ he demanded. ‘Beg, and be glad I don’t get you to do anything else while you’re down there.’
‘Enough,’ Grigori said, stepping between them. ‘Fine, take off your pants, I’ll make you question your autophilic orientation, or if that’s a little much, I’ll be the special guest star in your bed tonight, and pleasure you both, your choice.’
He took another drink of the liquor. ‘Why the hell do you even bother with him?’
‘Because he’s my friend.’
‘You have very poor taste in friends.’
‘Are you going to drop your trousers?’
‘Keep him off him back, or I will demonstrate a) that I can operate naked; b) how limber I am; and c) how I can multitask with a willing partner.’
‘I…wouldn’t mind watching,’ Grigori said with a wink.
He shifted back down to the girl, and got back to the task of removing the skin from her arm.
^Somtimes,^ -1 one said, ^I really love you.^
^And the rest of the time you’re pretending?^ he teased. ^Well don’t I feel special.^
The skin hit the tray with a wet thunk, and then he removed the skin from each tiny finger individually.
^Tell me you have beer chilling.^
^In the blood fridge, just like you like.^
He searched his twin’s mind. ^You forgot to check on Nicole’s arm,^ he said, ^Break was week ago today.^
A memory was nudged in his direction. ^She’s coming in later, she’s on an assignment at the moment.^
He moved onto the other arm, and let that a bloody mess as well. Gloves drenched in blood, he required himself a new pair, and went about stripped the flesh from the lower half of her body.
Still she didn’t move, still she didn’t scream. The drug cocktail had been effective, and he prayed that it would last long enough for him to finish. Along with the obvious benefit of her not splitting his eardrums wide open, it would mean that they finally had a handle on her physiology. That she was finally more “agent” than “experiment” and again relegated Merlin to the only one whom they didn’t fully understand.
Toes were stripped bare, and then with a thought he flipped her, so that he could remove the skin from her back. This, he was able to take in large sections, and he made quick work of it.
Lastly was her face, and he forced himself to look elsewhere as he stripped her cheeks, her lips, even her nose. And with one more cut, one more thunk of skin into the tray, he was done.
Stepping back, he turned from her, and looked up to the ob deck. [I left the skin there,] he said to the voyeurs, [just in case you want to make a coat, or a rug, or whatever.] His job done, he shifted from the room without even one more look back at the girl.
Hands were touching him as soon as he appeared in the infirmary, pulling at his clothes, making contact with his skin, dragging him inevitably toward the bed in the small room behind their office. He closed his eyes, trusting his twin not to let him fall, and let himself finally find comfort.
Damn I wish Gregor hadn’t interrupted. I wanted to see how Taylor would respond to the “take away mags” threat.
ummm…. o.o you… learn something new about people every day? it’s alittle hard to believe that anyone could write a chapter where the focus of the story is skinning someone and it takes a back seat to the rant he lays down on taylor. xD much pricelessness has been had from this story, i give it 5 black stars for morbid awesomeness.
it’s alittle hard to believe that anyone could write a chapter where the focus of the story is skinning someone and it takes a back seat to the rant he lays down on taylor.
Yeah, but honestly, would you have preferred 2000 words on medically-accurate naming of body parts and skin removal (which I probably could have written, I AM a scientist after all :P), or would you prefer that just to be the background, and for Taylor to get verbally bitch slapped about a dozen times? 😛
i give it 5 black stars for morbid awesomeness.
I think this is good? Is it good?
Of course by now Stef is use to pain and seeing things that would make a person scream. But still that had to been freaky watching yourself get skinned.
And Parker really laided into Taylor, but he did deserve it for being a jerk and bossy.
But still that had to been freaky watching yourself get skinned.
…oh yeah, it very much bothers her. -_- It’s a little beyond even, yanno, cars getting dropped on her head. Or thrown in a fire. Or eaten by a shark.
And Parker really laided into Taylor, but he did deserve it for being a jerk and bossy.
Yeah, but you know he’s gonna turn around and take it out on Mags, so… -_-
If she’s paralyzed completely, at least with humans, she won’t be able to see anything, even the ceiling. Your eyes have to move in order to see. If you focus one one spot exactly, for example, your surroundings will start to black out on you. So she’s at least spared the horror of seeing herself. She just has to feel it. -__- Or if Agent eyes work differently, then all she can see is the ceiling, or the pillow. Still -__-
a lot of things that cause “complete” paralysis still allow some muscle movement. Even cuarie, the paralyzing poison, your eyes still get some circadian rhythm going. m if your talking about the grey fade that happens when you don’t blink, thats actually your eyes misting over from drying out, i believe.
…Taylor would want to make sure that she sees it. Yanno, just to up the horror of it all.
I lub the Parkers! Just because 2 released a shitstorm of verbal asswhooping on Taylor, and 1 came up with a profitable enterprise of bottling the feelings of 2.
Also… exactly what the hell are they? Twins, lovers, agents, and both male? Now there’s a cocktail you don’t see everyday.
>:D
I lub the Parkers! Just because 2 released a shitstorm of verbal asswhooping on Taylor, and 1 came up with a profitable enterprise of bottling the feelings of 2.
1 is nothing if not sensible, and keen business sense comes into that. ^_^
Also… exactly what the hell are they? Twins, lovers, agents, and both male? Now there’s a cocktail you don’t see everyday.
Ok, settle in, and I’ll explain them. ^_^
Back in the olden days, yanno, a few hundred years ago, around the time where “we were cutting each other’s heads off for friendships with humans” as Jonesy has said. An agent (not that they were “agents” at the time, but you know what I mean) and a girl fell in love. This was not something that happened all the time, and was discouraged…by the aforementioned decapitation. >_>
They kept it secret, and away from each other as much as possible, but they were found out, as is the way of things.
They were granted a small kindness though, in that they let them both be recycled. (The girl they decided to punish as well, lest she corrupt another, and draw them toward mortal pleasures…yeah, they used to be kind of stuck-up).
So they were dumped into the recycling chamber together, and disintegrated. -_-
…but then the twins started happening. First time it happened, they assumed it was a mistake, recycled them with apologies, and used a different template.
Next time the template was accessed, twins again. They ran some tests, showed them off as freaks a little, then recycled with apologies.
Next time it happened, they were so short-staffed that they didn’t care, and told them to start stuffing guts back into recruits and that they’d work out the problem later.
…then they found out good they were. 😛 And ever since, it’s been a real prestige thing for an Agency to be lucky enough to get twins.
The explanation that has been reached is that the original agent melded with his human lover, so now when his template is generates two people, instead of one.
So the twin’s obvious answer to being the remnants of two lovers, melded and split again, is always to start boinking each other as soon as possible. 😛
that’s, pretty hot actually.. >_>
Fantastic explanation. I think it is great how the “Perfect” agents and the entire framework that built them has made so many mistakes and how really interesting things have come about because of them.
*giggles at the idea of a ‘Buzz Klingon’* Also, did Grigori just offer to have sex with the Parkers?
…Bweeee!
They really are twinned. So…effing…hot.
*huggles The Other Ryan* Service-people are awesome. Thank you for doing what you do.
*huggles Stormy* Your fans are awesome! Such a range of differences between them all. It’s pretty cool that you have such a varied fanbase. Thank you for writing, luv!
Also, >_< So THAT'S what you meant by "Stef-skin rug" Gehh. Horrible.
Also, did Grigori just offer to have sex with the Parkers?
…Bweeee!
He’s Grigori, of course he did. ^_^
They really are twinned. So…effing…hot.
Writing a sex scene with them would be…interesting. Hot, complicated, but very interesting.
It’s pretty cool that you have such a varied fanbase.
I concur, you guys are awesome. *raises can of Coke*
Thank you for writing, luv!
You’re welcome. ^_^
This is hard for me to do but I’m doing this for Stormy.
I’m a prior active duty Marine with the United Starts Marine Corps. I’ve been deployed to Iraq three times. The first time was when we initially went into Iraq and took out the Iraqi government. The next two times was the two consecutive summers. I have experienced some pretty crazy things. I’ve also had a few close calls. After getting out I find that I don’t have a hard time with violence like some prior service members do but with others in pain. I’m not sure what it is but there is a level of empathy that I have with someone else who is in a huge amount of unnecessary pain. I tell you all this not because I want to brag but to explain where I am coming from.
I had a really hard time finishing this section. It was very difficult to read your description of how Parker skinned her alive. It hurts even typing that. I don’t think that I could read this section again. But I had to finish for Stef. I could not let myself disrespect her and what she is going through by giving up when she can’t.
Stormy you have written a character with such depth and in such a fashion that I have connected to her in a very deep way. Well, I connect to Ryan too but in another way. I want to be a father. That draw and tug at my heart to have children is strong. Oh and my name is Ryan too. So I guess that there is the connection of empathizing with her and then there is the paternal worry/fear/agony of watching her go through this hell. You have done a truly brilliant job with this story and this world. I made this account just so I could post this. I just had to commend you on this wonderful work of art.
I highly suggest that you find yourself an agent who can help you get this into a good manuscript form and get you signed. I would be first in line to get a signed hardcover. Thank you for all of your hard work.
Ryan
I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to respond to this comment, and somehow have it be worthy of how you’ve made me feel in the past half-hour since seeing it, reading it thrice, then processing it.
I’m always in shock when people tell me how much they like my stuff, or how they sat up till 3am to do an archive binge, or those people who have raged (seriously RAEGed at me) when reading the end of MF (these being the people who didn’t click through to the second book :P) because I never expected to garner such reactions from people.
Reading this comment though, has basically stopped me dead – in the good way, of course. 🙂
I think the one response I make to this (since my brain is finally coming down from the “feeling really awesome” high) is this: for my 2c, I think you will make a great father, Ryan.
And if/when there’s a book signing, I’ll bring the cookies. 🙂
…for I think you will find that -I- shall be jumping the line and getting the first signed book. 😛
Prone = face down, supine = face up. Can see much if prone and paralyzed.
‘Keep him off him back, or I will demonstrate a) that I can operate naked; b) how limber I am; and c) how I can multitask with a willing partner.’
keep him off him?