Who: Miriam, Chuuya, and Damien What: gravity and a vampire Where: woods When: Feb. 9th Warnings: medium - bones breaking and mentions of neck snapping. Also Damien Status: g-doc
Miriam didn’t really know what to expect tonight with Chuuya and Damien. Okay, backspace, she figured Damien would watch, while smoking. But, what would this feel like? Just to be on the safe side, the vampire wore jeans and a hoodie, not her leather jacket. She loved her jacket too much to leave its survival up to chance. Better to go for the clothes she wouldn’t miss if this went badly.
As per usual, the scientist brought her laptop, pens, notepad, and a recorder in case she wanted to make some notes to herself for later dictation. Plus wine.
The vampire arrived at the agreed upon location, five minutes early, and brought her bottle of wine to her mouth.
Ever since Chuuya had come in contact with vampires and werewolves, he had wondered how much weight they could withstand before their bones break. He knew how much a human could take as he'd done it before during torture sessions or just plain killing them. But a vampire? Who knows. But now he had the opportunity to find out.
Knowing that he'd most likely need to use more gravity than normal, he figured doing the experiment outdoors might be best. If indoors, he'd probably crush the floor and he was sure none of them wanted a damaged floor, especially in the apartment complex. So they all agreed the woods was best.
He entered the woods before coming upon a clearing where he saw Miriam. Guess Damien hadn't arrived yet. "I think you're more into this than I am," he spoke, noting all her equipment she brought with her.
Honestly, what did one wear to essentially a kind of torture session? Normally, Damien would say something that you didn’t mind getting bloodied. However, in this instance, Chuuya was breaking bones, not skin. Damien assumed he wouldn’t have to worry about sully whatever high end fashionable clothing he wore. But, just to be on the safe side, Damien left his bomber jacket at home.
Instead, Damien wore a simple black shirt that hugged his sinewy frame and matching black jeans with boots. He’d jammed a pack of expensive cigarettes and lighter in his back pocket; he had little doubt he’d go through the whole pack before the night was finished. The thought didn’t appeal to him, but maybe he could bum a smoke off of Chuuya if he became desperate.
With his vampire speed, it didn’t take him long to arrive at the clearing in the woods, cigarette already pursed between his lips. Miriam and Chuuya were already present. Not surprising, Miriam had a bunch of equipment with her; she was a scientist after all.
Blue eyes shifted from Miriam’s equipment to Chuuya’s face. “Oh yeah, she’s way more into it than you are.”
Miriam rolled her eyes at her friends. “Yes. I’m more into this than Chuuya. I’m between experiments and this might be the most fascinating thing I learn.” A pause. “Also, if we could not mention this to Shadow, please. I do not want him to worry about me. Somehow, I think this might worry him.”
She did not think blood would go flying, but what did she know when it came to this kind of thing? Ensuring the tightness of her burn, Miriam set down her items, before she opened and turned on her laptop. After typing a few things, Miriam looked at Chuuya.
“Ready when you are.”
Even if Chuuya considered this more of an experiment than a torture session, he knew sometimes they were the same thing. He had first hand experience after all. He also doubted there'd be much blood since it was just breaking bones. Sure, maybe the bone might break through the skin but the blood would only get on Miriam. He and Damien were probably safe. So Chuuya was the only one who wore his usual expensive black suit. And if he did somehow get blood on his clothes, he'd just replace it. It helped that he'd gotten a lot of money thanks to the heist.
He turned to Damien as the vampire arrived. "I bet if she could bring the casino lab with her, she would." At Miriam's request, he just simply shrugged. "I've never spoken to him nor do I plan to anytime soon, so that won't be a problem." Though he didn't blame Shadow for worrying about her. If it were Irina, he'd be pretty pissed even if she consented like Miriam did.
"Alright. Usually human bones can withstand between 741 to around 900 pounds, so we'll start with that and go from there. It depends on which bone, so I'll let you pick which one you want me to break. Also, I need a safe word just in case." Unlike N, he would stop if it became too much.
“Wouldn’t that be amusing if she did?” Damien countered and folded his arms upon his chest. His blue eyes shifted back to Miriam. Damien had no idea who Shadow was either; he had zero reason to tell whoever the fuck it was about Miriam’s little experiment. “And no, I won’t be telling tales out of school either. I have no idea who Shadow is.”
Damien exhaled a cloud of smoke into the air as he waited for Miriam’s response. Which bone would he pick for Chuuya to break? Probably a smaller one. Of course, he didn’t have to worry about it. This was all Miriam’s adventure. Damien was just along for the ride.
“The lab is too large to bring here, but yes, obviously I would try.” Miriam did not apologize for her brain or for her love of knowledge. Live as long as she had, and new experiences became far fewer. But in this place? Well, bring on the experiment. “Thank you.” The vampire meant about Shadow.
At the question, Miriam considered, and sat. If the pain got to be too much, better to not worry about falling on her ass. “Let’s start with the left ulna and radius. My safe word will be,” she paused in consideration, “gopher. It’s easy to say and not a word I use in conversation.”
And with that, the vampire waited.
"Just a little." But obviously, as Miriam said, the lab was far too large to take anywhere. He would've suggested going to the lab itself but he figured it might be better to do the experiment outdoors. At least in the woods, there'd be less chance of property damage.
"Alright." He was kind of hoping she'd pick the femur since it was the strongest bone, but he was fine with her left forearm. He focused for a second, activating his ability on Miriam's arm. There, she would feel an invisible pressure there, as if her arm was in a vice-like grip. As he mentioned, he started at around 700 pounds, which would've broken a normal human's bones, before he slowly increased the gravity.
Gopher. If Bran were here he would have chuckled. As it was, Damien found it amusing. Though, having given more than a few women the chance at a safe word, gopher wasn’t the weirdest one he’d ever heard. Besides, you wanted to pick something crazy that you wouldn’t normally say to ensure the person in the dominating role knew they needed to hit the pause button.
Damien settled with his back against one of the nearby trees, blue eyes focused on the scene playing out in front of him as he took another drag from his cigarette. He didn’t expect to see any reaction from Miriam right away. Being a vampire, it would take a lot to break a bone and no doubt she had a high tolerance for pain too.
Starting with her forearm made the most sense to Miriam for now, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t want to see how it affected her femur afterwards. The 700 pounds felt like a bit of pressure, not unlike flying in an airplane at times.
She made mental notes in her head. Thankfully the brunette wouldn’t forget what points she wanted to make. Miriam, for her part, did not necessarily want to know what words women had used with Damien in the past. Sure, she liked Damien and knew objectively he looked good, but still, they had a clear line of friendship.
“I still feel pressure, but not pain yet. How much are we up to at this point?”
Chuuya kept track of how much pressure and weight he was using in his head. Despite there not being any way to know, he still just knew how much he was using at any given time. It became natural to him after using his Ability for so long.
"About twice as much now," he replied. He wasn't too surprised that she could handle that much so far. "I'm going to increase it to three times as much." Which he did and she'd probably start to feel more pressure and weight against her arm.
Damien leaned silently against the tree, continuing to puff on his cigarette. She was at twice the weight it would take to break a human bone at this point. He was curious to see what three times that weight would do. She was a vampire and resilient. It might take more than three times the weight to make her arm actually snap.
Damien was curious to see if it would or, if not, how long Miriam could go before her arm did snap like a twig.
Miriam nodded and made a quick note in her brain. Double would be about 1400-1500. Some pressure made sense. Chuuya’s abilities seemed handy from a standpoint of keeping track of things.
At three times as much, Miriam felt her bone snap. Well, she definitely didn’t like how soon it happened. Of course it instantly healed, but she still said, “gopher.” The snapped bone hurt, but of course the pain lasted maybe two seconds before the bone mended itself.
“I should have tested my femur,” the vampire commented. Hindsight and all of that shit.
Chuuya was now a bit above three times the amount it would take to break a human's bone. The second he heard Miriam's bone snap and her saying the safe word, he stopped immediately. Thankfully she would heal instantly and he didn't see any reason to check her over for more than a quick moment.
"Honestly, the femur would've been my first choice but I figured I should let you choose," he said. "But you last up to almost 2200 pounds. Not bad."
With his sensitive hearing, Damien heard her bone snap, followed by the safe word. No doubt, the break would heal instantly as it would with Damien. Impressive. 2200 pounds was nothing to snuff at for sure. Damien enjoyed the show too. Dropping his cigarette on the ground, Damien put it out with the toe of his boot and made his way over to the pair.
“I suppose that gives you a reason to let him snap another bone then,” Damien said as he came to a halt between the two of them. “More experiments. You should be thrilled.”
Miriam knew the two would hear her bone snap, given the whole enhanced hearing thing. Her arm already felt back to normal. She stretched and stood.
“Well, should we give the femur a try or leave it for another night?” Miriam rolled her eyes at Damien and smiled. “Quite thrilled, in fact. It’s good to know that with barely knowing me you’ve picked up on my enjoyment of science.” She considered the weight. “I’m happy with 2200 pounds. Obviously I wish I’d lasted with more weight, but at least I know the pain doesn’t last any time at all.”
"Scientists are so weird," Chuuya shook his head. Or they could be complete monsters. But Miriam wasn't anything like N. If she was, Chuuya wouldn't have even bothered with her, let alone befriended her.
"But I'm glad it didn't hurt much." He had a feeling it wouldn't, thanks to her instant healing but it was still good to know for sure. "And I can break your femur real quick if you want. It probably wouldn't take much more gravity than it did with your arm." But if she wanted to leave it for another night, then he was fine with that.
“Especially this one,” Damien replied, glancing over at Chuuya with a rare smirk on his lips. Damien didn’t mind sticking around if Miriam wanted Chuuya to snap her femur like a twig. It would prolong the entertainment for the other vampire.
The vampire turned his blue eyes on Miriam. “I think most people would pick up on the fact that you love science after a brief conversation with you. It’s kind of obvious.” Damien found it fascinating even if he wasn’t a huge fan of scientists and their methods.
“I can stick around if he breaks your femur. It’ll probably be the second most interesting thing to happen to me tonight.” The first being that Chuuya broke Miriams’s arm of course.
“Well, if we’re trying this on my femur, I really do need to sit.” Miriam pulled her laptop towards her and made a few notes, before looking at the two she considered friends. “It probably won’t last longer than my arm, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t try.”
She laughed at Damien’s smirk. “You just want free entertainment,” the vampire teased with her British accent. “Yes, I suppose I don’t hide my passion very well.” Miriam saw absolutely no reason to pretend she didn’t enjoy science.
“It’s nice to know gravity breaking my bones brings you entertainment, Damien.”
"Can't blame the guy for wanting free entertainment. And breaking bones with gravity is fun. More so when it's an enemy, though," Chuuya shrugged. Yes, he was enjoying this little experiment but since it was a friend, not as much as he usually would have.
Once Miriam finished writing her notes and was ready for another round, Chuuya focused the gravity on her thigh this time. He started at around 2200 pounds - the same amount that broke her arm - then increased it little by little. Since he began at an already high amount of gravity, it probably wouldn't take long before her femur broke.
“Given I’m limited on funds, I’ll take my fun where I can get it,” Damien replied. It wasn’t necessarily true. Damien had compelled his way into a family unit in town and was currently using them as a way to survive here. However, given that they were hardly as wealthy as he’d once been, Damien couldn’t go crazy with the amount of money he took from them. Damien shifted his blue eyes back to Chuuya. “Obviously. Prolonging the torture is the best part.” Even if Damien didn’t often get his hands dirty, he’d engaged in his share of brutal violence from time to time.
Once Miriam was finished with her notes, Damien returned his attention to the vampire seated on the ground. His ears eagerly awaited the sound of breaking bone.
The pressure increased and Miriam just sat, noting in her head how the pressure felt, what unique aspects of this power affected her. “Remind me to not get on your bad side,” she commented to Chuuya.
Miriam certainly missed her home back in Oxford and having money, but unlike other vampires, she couldn’t compel. And so she learned to live within her means. Living within her means did mean a wardrobe not up to her usual standards.
“Uh huh. You’re not compelling left, right, and centre? Or being a kept vampire by Alyssa?” Miriam mostly meant that last part as a joke. But the artist did seem to spend a lot on clothes.
More pressure and this time, she let out a sigh of impatience. “Well, there goes my femur. Gopher.” How sad. She’d hoped it would last longer. “How much this time?”
"This shithole is pretty boring most of the time. Thank god for the transportation services and portals. Well, it depends on where the portal leads to," Chuuya added with a shrug. The recent one with the ponies wasn't one that interested him. Why would it? It was more for little brats. But portals like the one that lead to the Upside Down? That was more his idea of fun.
"It is and if it was someone else, I might keep the torture going." But since it was Miriam, someone he liked, he decided to do it as quickly as possible. "And he probably is," he said to Miriam. Whether he meant the compelling part or the part about Alyssa was anyone's guess.
He heard the audible snap of bone and the safe word, stopping the gravity immediately. "Almost 2800 pounds."
Miriam crossed a line with her comment about Alyssa and Damien’s blue eyes flashed in anger. “I am kept by no one,” he replied coldly. “For a scientist, an educated individual, you just said something rather stupid.” He turned away from her and focused his gaze on Chuuya. His ears were still capable of picking up on the sound of her bone breaking. It was somewhat satisfying.
Of course, then Chuuya opened his mouth and said something equally insulting. “Says the guy who is clearly whipped,” Damien countered smoothly. “And too bad you stopped. I was going to suggest breaking her neck next.” The scientific results meant little to Damien and even the entertainment sparked by torture was starting to lose its amusement.
The brunette’s leg instantly healed and she stood up and stretched. Chuuya’s words echoed in her ears and she wondered which he meant, but didn’t bother asking. Chuuya might not even know which he meant.
Damien’s anger didn’t escape her notice or ears, nor the comment about her snapped neck. “See, and that is Damien speak for fuck off, you’ve insulted me. I’m learning.” She sounded exactly like herself, not bothered by it. When one got to be the age she did, words had little effect on the vampire.
Considering, with a tilted head, Miriam spoke again. “No, I don’t suppose you would be kept by anyone. I do apologize. The comment was more crass than I intended.” To be fair, Miriam didn’t think Damien’s assessment of Chuuya was wrong, but it spoke of a type of toxic masculinity that always irked the female vampire. As though a male shouldn’t be allowed to love deeply. Wisely she kept the comment to herself this time. Although she missed her mate deeply at this moment. Also her step-son.
If anyone wanted to snap her neck, they’d have to catch her and even for a vampire? Miriam could outrun them all back home. No reason to think the same couldn’t be proven here.
Chuuya remained sitting where he had been next to Miriam. "That was insulting?" he asked. He didn't think it was or at least, something that could've been easily ignored. Certainly not something to get upset over, especially when it was apparently not true.
"Right. Whatever that means," he shrugged. He had heard the phrase 'being whipped' a long time ago, but he never cared much for those things and had forgotten what it meant exactly. But from his experiences before and from the way Damien said it, it sounded like a bad thing. "And if you want to snap Miriam's neck, you can do it yourself." If Damien did decide to do it, well, Chuuya was sure Miriam could outrun him.
Crass. Perhaps if Miriam and Chuuya had known Damien longer and they were better friends, Damien wouldn’t have taken it as badly. But Damien barely knew them outside of a few drinks they had shared at a bar one night. Up until Miriam said that, Damien actually had found himself enjoying their company. The comment had just rubbed him the wrong way. But she apologized. That was…something. “Apology accepted,” Damien said, but his voice was still like ice.
And in Damien’s mind, Miriam’s comment about him being kept was just as toxic in its own way. “How would you take it if someone said you were being kept by Irina?” Damien asked, looking over at Chuuya who was still seated beside Miriam. “I doubt you would take it as lightly as you are making it seem right now.”
But perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps Chuuya shrugged off everything as if it were nothing. Again, Damien didn’t know them well enough to make that call either and he’d had enough of trying for tonight.
“It’s not worth my time,” Damien replied, glancing between the two of them. “Thanks for the show.” The vampire turned and, using his vampire, sped off into the woods.
Okay, he made a good point, but also Miriam would never mean it seriously. However, Damien didn’t know her very well, which was the reason for her apology. “No, I don’t believe it would be appreciated.” The brunette sent up a silent prayer for Alyssa. Matthew would more than likely have an opinion about that, but whatever.
When Damien left, Miriam turned towards Chuuya. “He does seem easily rattled.” She started to pack up her belongings. “Well, I certainly enjoyed myself. And, thanks for not snapping my neck.” A snapped neck would kill Miriam after all.
Chuuya had been through one traumatic event after another and was able to shrug it off every time. A little dumb comment like that wouldn't have bothered him in the slightest. "I would've just ignored it, especially when it's not true," he replied. It was why Damien's comment about him being whipped didn't bother him. Well, other than that he just didn't know what it meant. Also, he didn't know how Damien came to that conclusion when he'd never met Irina or seen her and Chuuya together and how they interacted as a couple.
He figured Damien wouldn't snap Miriam's neck. He didn't seem like the type to kill unless there was a good reason. It was how Chuuya himself was. He didn't shy away from murder but he wasn't as homicidal as his fellow mafioso back home. He nodded as Damien left before helping Miriam pack her things. "I would've gone with overly sensitive but yeah." Were most vampires like that? He hoped he never turned out like that. "Hey, we only said broken bones, nothing about broken necks," he smirked. "Anyways, I'm going to get going. See you another time."