<span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family:Open Sans">Altair came to groggily. He realized he wasn't in the water any longer, and also that he was warm. Sore, tired, and thirsty, but at least the chill had left him. He was covered with blankets. He tried to shift and found himself restrained, splayed out and unable to move his limbs much less turn onto his side to scrunch himself up. What new form of torture was this? Panic seized him immediately, his bonds pulled tight like a bowstring, tension overtaking all the lines of his long body beneath the blankets. His respiration increased, signaling he'd left the peaceful land of sleep and woken in a state of stress.<br/>
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He turned his head to try and get a look at his surroundings. There were two men he wasn't familiar with.<br/>
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“Don't,” Altair said, frozen like a trapped animal. His voice still sounded weak. He jerked again at the ropes, hoping they would give even just another few inches. Cygnus hadn't even had to tie him beside whipping him. No one had. Altair wasn't the one who usually needed to be restrained and he could only assume they'd done so to punish him again or to fuck him giving his positioning and ease of access.<br/>
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“You should have left me to the ocean if you brought me up for this.” Though Altair wasn't entirely sure what they'd planned for him. Nothing good had come from his time at sea and he didn't think it would be any different this time. The prospect of unknown horrors frightened him more than a reunion with Cygnus' crew. He was speaking the same language he'd spoke with Cygnus, assuming they were still close enough to Weiss for it to be common tongue. He'd had enough and though he remembered vaguely being rescued, finding himself tied up didn't inspire trust and gratitude. Maybe he was being punished for his misstep with his faith.<br/>
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“Ka pouri ahau, Ka pouri ahau.” It was delivered sounding resigned to the idea that he'd incured Lain's ire. He didn't cry, instead he laughed, shaking his head, a paniced and hysterical sound. He couldn't believe his luck, wondering if he'd regret ever wishing to remain alive.<br/>
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<div class="bbCodeBlock-content">I'm sorry, I'm sorry.</div>
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“Whatever you have planned, there really is no need to have me tied for it. I'm hardly in a state to be resistant. It is redundant,” Altair pointed out, part of why he'd laughed. Even if Altair had been in better shape restraints had never been necessary. He was better disciplined than that under normal circumstances but then he remembered gouging out a man's eye. Would he do it again? What had possessed him to do it in the first place? He'd endured before, and yet he lashed out in an act of violence towards that one particular man. Should that have been reserved for Cygnus instead? Was he too much of a coward to act against Cygnus? It brought too many questions for him to reflect upon and he wasn't sure if he could trust himself not to do it again. He'd simply had enough but it didn't change that being tied up filled him with nausea. Ropes were for bad slaves who didn't know how to hold position. Training aids, but this wasn't that. This was fear invoking and could only mean bad things were to come and he'd be pushed further past the point of what he'd willingly tolerate.<br/>
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All of this was making him sloppy, unable to think things through as he might have done before. All his discipline and poise was melting away. Confusing emotions coursed through him; anger, fear, gratitude for being alive. He looked around again, trying to determine anything distinguishable that he could use. Information was always useful, though he could only see so much. They were well dressed; better than Cygnus, though he wasn't familiar enough with Weiss clothing fashions to determine rank. Or even if they were from Weiss at all. He could be speaking to them in a language they didn't understand. What leverage did he have to reason with these strangers even if they could understand him? He'd come to realize people didn't need his cooperation to get what they wanted. It all depended on the man's individual taste. What else was he willing to give up? The thought of offering his body willingly if they untied him made him want to retch. He could still feel the hands of others upon him, ghosts of their cocks as they'd spent hours brutalizing him. Sex was no longer something he wanted to barter with.<br/>
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“Who was it that pulled me out of the water?” Altair asked instead, trying to remember. “It was you,” he said, talking in the direction of the younger one. “Why did you do it?” He was now reduced to trying to figure out motivations, assuming the worst of the individual.</span></span>