#i don't know just the ridiculousness of it?? the snark?? the fact that janessa plays along??

[frantic-fuck]

Like Flicking a Switch

@whumptember day 11: "One last favor, then I'll leave you alone", knife, sacrificing themself

Masterpost

Content: mentions of gore and lab whump, implied murder, royal whumper, nonhuman/vampire/satyr whumpee, feral caretaker (not really caretaker rn but w/e), heavy dehumanization (calling caretaker "it"), forced self-harm

Thought it'd be fun to show exactly when Ziri's and Janessa's dynamic changed, since he wasn't always so meek around her~

~

"M-m'lady, does— does 'Ziri' mean anything?"

Janessa sharply looks up from her work, staring down the poor schmuck who drew the short straw and had to confront her. She speaks in a dangerously tense voice.

"Why do you ask?"

"We— well, it's just the, uh— that new fusion, right? The sea elf and the dragon— drake, I mean—"

She flares her nostrils, and the schmuck's heart skips a few beats.

"S-sorry, m'lady. Whatever it is, it keeps— it keeps yelling "Ziri" over and over. They say it's been doing that since day one."

"They?" She stands up. "Who, exactly, knows about this?"

"I don't— I don't know for sure, m'lady. It's just been circling around."

She slams her hands on the table. "This has been going on for nearly a week now, and instead of coming straight to me, all you pathetic shits have done is gossip amongst yourselves?!"

They shakily step back as she steps towards them.

"I— I didn't know, m'lady. Not until yester—"

"Then why didn't you tell me yesterday?!"

"I'm s— I'm sorry, m'lady. I'm so sorry. I didn't— no one knew it was so important. I'm sure if— well, I would have told you straight away if I'd known."

Janessa pinches the bridge of her nose. She's going to have to wipe so many memories before this gets out of hand. And she'll have to do it again and again if she doesn't put a stop to this. But if she just silences that thing, or bans access to it, it'll raise questions, and apparently rumors will spread before she's made aware, and... ugh.

She may as well just kill it. It's served its purpose.

"Stay here. Breathe a word and you'll be demoted."

"Y-yes, m'lady." Unable to handle the tension, the poor schmuck makes the poor decision to flash Janessa an uneasy, joking smile. "But— but with all due respect, m'lady, I'm an unpaid intern. What position could I possibly be demoted to?"

She turns to glare at them, and they're suddenly stricken with a deep, DEEP regret.

"Horizontal and six feet under."

With a huff, Janessa finally slams the door behind her. She'll have someone clean up that mess later.

As she storms towards the fusion's cell, she figures she may as well get a little fun out of this.

"Ziri~ Guess what~"

No response. She rolls her eyes and makes the telepathy louder.

"ZIRI!"

After a few seconds, she barely manages to make out a quiet moan in her head.

"Guess what~"

No response again. She shakes the gem.

"...mhhhhh..."

"We're not done with your sibling yet~!" She smugly emphasizes the singularity of the word.

No response.

"Aren't you excited to see what horrible things will happen to it next, Ziri?"

No response. She sighs. Today just isn't her day, is it?

"Spoiler alert: I'm going to kill it."

No response. She shakes the gem more violently.

"Are you listening to me?"

"..........mhm."

"I'm going to slowly torture it to death and make you watch."

"mhm."

"It's going to be even worse than the initial fusion."

"mm."

This is getting more annoying than that idiot intern.

"If you say a full sentence I'll consider making it quicker."

No response.

"A word. Can you manage one single word with your broken fucking brain?"

Nothing.

If Ziri's going to be like this, is it even worth bothering to make a scene of the fusion's death? Janessa has better things to do if this won't be any fun.

Just before the door of its cell, she pauses. She has the fusion of his siblings, something that should get to him more than anything, in the palm of her hand. It'd be such a wasted opportunity to throw it away...

Suddenly, an idea strikes her. A genius idea.

With renewed vigor, she thrusts the door open. She's immediately bombarded with broken cries of "Ziri!" as she was informed.

As soon as the fusion sees her, however, it interrupts itself with a roar, angrily straining towards her with no regard for the manacles digging into its flesh.

"Tsk, tsk," she chides. "To think, you were once a great leader. Well, half of you, anyway. Powerful... Strategic... Respected..." She smirks. "Almost not a complete failure..."

It snarls at her as she takes a step towards it.

"And now you've been reduced to this. Helpless. Brainless. Ridiculous. Nothing but blabbering monster only capable of pitifully crying for its brother, lashing out with all the strategy of a rabid dog. Truly pathetic."

As she slowly approaches the fusion, it slowly backs away from her. If she didn't know better, she'd think it was afraid. But she can clearly see its arms at the ready, gradually less restricted as it nears the base of its chains.

"That said... the headache you've caused me could almost be considered clever. Deliberate, at least. Did Chaos leave more braincells intact than I thought? Or are you really just that sad, crying out for him as if he'll appear out of thin air?"

With a low growl, it raises an arm, claws crackling with electricity. Janessa takes one more step forward, noting that she's just about within range of an attack.

"Well, ask and you shall receive."

At the last second, she steps away and summons Ziri in her place, snickering as he takes the blow with a startled yelp. That ought to get his attention.

With a weak groan, he half-heartedly tries to push himself off the ground, his electrified muscles eagerly working against his efforts. He doesn't get the chance to make much progress before the fusion launches itself at him, squeezing him tightly with every limb it can control enough to wrap around him.

His exhausted expression doesn't betray his mental state nearly so much as the garden on his horns, every plant almost entirely dead. She watches them come to life ever so slightly as he stares at the fusion, then looks to her with confusion. When he finally speaks, his voice is painfully hoarse from disuse.

"What—" He hisses through his teeth as the fusion shifts, pressing its bloody skin against the charred laceration on his face where scales once were. "What are you doing?"

"There you go! See? It wasn't so hard to use your words."

He rolls his eyes.

"I suppose I've just had a change of heart. People can change, you know."

He lets out a tired sigh, the sparse life in his garden already withering away, and hollowly whispers, "Just... get on with it. I have an appointment with the floor to get back to."

"I'm sure the floor will understand. A surprise roommate sounds like an excusable absence, don't you think?"

"A sur..." He blinks. "What?"

"Well, it's not worth the trouble keeping it out here, and I don't really care enough to kill it, so you're stuck with it now. Let it be a reminder that your actions have consequences. Aside from that, I couldn't care less what you do with it."

"You're... you're letting me..."

His fruitless search for words is soon cut off by a sob, his flowers gradually coming back to life as he lets it all out, to Janessa's relief. That much of her plan is working, at least.

Once she binds the fusion to the gem, she dismisses it, leaving only herself and Ziri in the cell. She makes a show of dusting her hands off, not bothering to hide her excitement.

With an unsteady breath, he narrows his watery eyes with her.

"What's the catch?"

"Whatever could you mean?" She smiles innocently. "Can't I just do good things for you out of the kindness of my heart?"

A bitter snort escapes him. "Oh, there's definitely a catch, then."

He tries to stand again, but she waggles her finger.

"Ah-ah-ah. Stay down."

He sneers at her and continues standing up. Effortlessly, she jerks his denim lead downwards, and the strength of the movement is magnified enough to send him crashing into the floor.

"Stay down. Unless, of course... you want me to take your sibling back."

Uncomfortably rubbing his throat, he shoots her a wary glare.

"...You wouldn't. I'd get sad again. That's why you let me have them, right? So I'd feel better and have more entertaining reactions to your BS?"

"I never said I'd take it back permanently. I'd just... borrow it for a little bit. Have some fun. And then I'd return it. But if you don't like what some stupid, tired slime did to it for science..."

Ziri scoffs at the word.

"...Then you're going to hate what I'll do to it in my right mind for fun. You don't want to see what that entails, do you?"

He lets out a long, angry hiss, and finally mutters, "...No."

"What was that? I think you forgot a certain title I'm to be addressed with."

It's the moment of truth. Ziri glares at her with a seething rage. Janessa returns his gaze with a grin.

"...No..." He grits his teeth. "...m'lady."

Her grin widens.

"Never thought I'd see the day."

He sneers at her again, but to her delight, it isn't enough to mask his growing unease.

"Now, then. Elbows and knees, face on the floor." She snickers at his indignant expression. "See why I told you to stay down? I'm just so thoughtful that I wanted to make this easier for you."

"Easier," Ziri grumbles.

"Oh, did you forget the response to a command too?"

He forces himself to growl, "...Yes... m'lady."

Oh, the sight of him prostrating himself for her is glorious.

She plants her boot on his head with a satisfied laugh, and she makes sure to leave it there for a while, waiting until the tension is thick enough to cut with her dagger before finally addressing him.

"Let me make myself perfectly clear. I will allow you to keep your sibling, heal it, and help it however you please, and it will remain safe and unharmed so long as you remain obedient."

She shifts more of her weight onto his head, eliciting a whispered moan of pain.

"Should you disobey me, however, I will have no qualms about making it pay however I feel appropriate." Her voice lowers bitterly, and she has just enough self control to keep from outright stomping on him. "Such payment will be exponentially increased if you pull a stunt like that coup ever again. Understood?"

Ziri takes a deep, shaky breath. "Understood... m'lady."

"Excellent."

She lifts her foot. She can almost see him consider getting up, just the slightest little twitch of movement, but he stays put.

Excellent, indeed.

"As much as I'd love to keep playing with this new development, thanks to your idiot sibling, I have some memories to erase. Perhaps we'll continue afterwards. I may need to destress after such a ruckus, and come to think of it, I just so happen to have some blood I need help cleaning up. Sound good?"

"What the ju— je— what in the fresh flowery fields do you think the answer to that is?!"

"I think it's two itty bitty words."

After pounding the floor a while, he finally manages to vocalize something other than barely-stifled screams of frustration. "Yes. M'lady."

She drags him to his hooves with the lead and gleefully pinches his cheek. "Look at you, you're already getting the hang of it!"

"Fantastic. M'lady."

Peeved, he starts to shove himself away, but she jerks him back towards her.

"Oh, no, no, you don't get to do that anymore. Put your arms down."

Something even more fun than anger begins to stir as he obeys her, his hand clenched into a trembling fist. He hastily mutters, "yes, m'lady," before she reminds him.

"There you go~" She pinches his cheek again, more forcefully this time, and grins when he grits his teeth and lets her. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

They lock eyes for a moment, just long enough for her to watch his defiance melt into pure, delicious fear.

"Don't you—" His voice cracks most amusingly. "Don't you have to go... erase those memories now? M'lady?"

"I do..." Her hand travels to his hair, her fingers idly tangling in the curls as he stands perfectly, powerlessly still. "Oh, but rumors have already been spreading for days now. What's a few more minutes spent cooling off first, hm?"

"P... please. Please give me some time to... to process this. M'lady. It's— it's a huge change to take in. Please."

"Hmmm..." She curls her fingers into a fist and pulls him closer to her, giggling as he does nothing but whimper, before she finally lets go. "I'll take it easy on you this time. One last thing, and I'll leave you be."

"I-I appreciate it, m'lad— EEEEE!" Ziri shrieks and reels backwards as she whips out her iron dagger.

"Cut yourself."

He looks like he'd be pale as a ghost if he had blood to lose. Trembling, he chokes out, "With— with that? M'lady?"

"Yes."

"I-I've, uh— I've changed my mind, m'lady."

"Too late~" She holds it further out to him, laughing as he flinches back. "Take it."

"...Y— yes, m'lady." Slowly, he reaches his shaky hand towards the dagger and gingerly grabs it by the handle, nearly dropping it when Janessa lets go.

"Choose a spot. Anywhere will do."

"Y-yes... m'lady..." He frantically looks over his body, and eventually positions the blade above his left forearm.

"And give yourself a little slice. A prick, even. I just want to see you break the skin."

"Yes..."

He grits his teeth.

"...Yes..."

He squeezes his eyes shut.

"......Yes......"

He tenses up, willing himself to move.

"...I can't. I can't do it. Please. I—"

"Pity. I wasn't expecting to have to borrow your sibling so soon. What do you think would be the most fun punishment to inflict for your first failure?"

"Please..."

"I could turn it inside out, perhaps."

"Please..."

She smirks as tears streak down his face.

"I could unfuse it too. I could do more than unfuse it, in fact. I could take it apart bit by bit and leave its consciousness in every single—"

A piercing scream rings out.

"...Holy shit."

With a breathless laugh, she watches him panic over the dagger impaling his arm.

He desperately claws at it until it eventually falls out, too frantic to think clearly. Terrified even by how it bounces slightly towards him, he clumsily scrambles away, clutching his arm tightly.

All she can do for a moment is stare, unable to believe her eyes.

"You really will do anything for me, won't you?"

He wordlessly stares up at her, his wide eyes filled with the terror of a cornered animal.

"Say, 'yes, m'lady.'"

"Y-yes, m'lady," he whispers.

Oh, the power she wields.

"Please— please. I did it. Please send me back. Please."

"M'lady."

"M-m'lady. Please, m'lady. Please."

She eyes him a while longer, almost intoxicated by the sight.

Her favorite little toy is finally acting the part, and it's every bit worth the wait.

"Heal yourself. We're coming back to this as soon as I've taken care of those memories, and I don't want any of that iron getting in my way." Her smile grows just thinking about it. "I am not done with you yet."

He lets out the most pathetic little whine she's ever heard, and she can't help but laugh giddily as she dismisses him.