[only want your pressure if it's to stop the bleedin'] [INCOMPLETE]

[bossisawitch.livejournal.com]

WHO: Nico and Teddy and possibly Billy
WHERE: In a handy-dandy abandoned warehouse
WHEN: Some nebulous time this weekend, which probably makes it both future and past dated. Will update when that's firmed up.
WARNINGS: Gothbeating, violence, possibly some language
SUMMARY: Great-Grandmother let Nico in on the secret of unlocking her personal power---EXTREME MASOCHISM!!!1one!---and Nico has enlisted Teddy's help to beat more power out of her. Literally.
FORMAT: Paragraph



The more pain you learn to take, the more power you will control.

Her great-grandmother, the Witchbreaker, had told Nico this as she'd sent a volley of ghostly blue imps to crawl and writhe and sink invisibly wicked teeth into every inch of her exposed skin. It'd been funny, the way she'd made it seem like she was doing her this great big favor by stabbing, electrocuting, and shredding her---no, maybe not funny. Funny wasn't the right word for this situation, because it wasn't something that Nico could laugh about no matter how far removed from the situation she was.

It'd never be funny because the torture that she'd inflicted had, ultimately, been for her benefit. Nico's stomach rolled and twisted painfully at the thought, a dry nausea that she'd been fighting since she'd woken up. Her chest burned weirdly, nerves tight and jangling until she felt like she'd throw up everything she hadn't eaten in the past two days. She'd tried to learn as much about the Minoru heritage as she could, coming up with next to no answers as to why she'd been born into a line of wizards and witches who put whole new spins on suffering for art.

Nico's lips twisted hard into a frown. And that was what today was all about, wasn't it? Suffering for the dark arts, pushing herself further than the Witchbreaker had just so she could feel like she could handle whatever this city threw at her friends. She hated to ask Teddy to do something like this, but...who else could she ask? Who else could she trust?

She picked nervously at her peeling nail polish, waiting for Teddy to arrive.

Comments

[skrullactually.livejournal.com]

"Shut up, Nico," Teddy barked forcefully, the harshness of his voice betrayed by the expression on his face; it pitched and wavered between a forced kind of anger and something more like fear in his eyes. But still, Teddy did not blink, simply breathed hard and heavy through his flaring nostrils, his jaw set and his muscles clenched and his grip on Nico still tight as he shook her once as she continued to hang there in the air in front of him. He had the very strong urge to toss her away, to say fuck this and fuck you for asking me to do it, but he didn't, just allowed that sentiment to fester a bit -- something like bitter resentment shaking hands with regret, until finally Teddy released her from a large height, silently watching as she crumpled to the ground.

He wanted, in that moment, to hate Nico for bringing him here in the first place, for relying on him and trusting him, for so many things. None of these things, of course, were actually Nico's fault; so much of their lives just were -- regardless of blame. But still, Teddy needed a way to make swallowing his own guilt a bit easier, and since there were alone, far away from anyone and anything else -- it fell to Nico, and fell hard. So Teddy tried and, oh god, did he come close, but in the end it wasn't possible. It wasn't him.

He simply felt hard inside, but only because he knew he had to be and in a way that felt barely held together by the knowledge of what he had to do. It was like the way his body grew scales and armor and plates of bone over every one of his knuckles, and Teddy knew his emotions needed to be covered in the exact same way -- protected, unshatterable -- at least for as long as was necessary to get the job done. Whether or not it was possible, whether he'd hold out long enough, Teddy didn't know, so rather than waiting for that moment to happen, he lunged forward again and grabbing hold of both of her shoulders, threw her towards the nearest wall.

The impact made a dull cracking noise as the plaster split and cratered slightly, Nico dropping heavily to the floor as Teddy growled out an angry: "You have no idea."