Interrogation part 2

In which our mistress gets taught the true meaning of the word excess. 

Story: Interrogation part 2
Author: Torture-Device

That little holiday with Lord Vect was much needed. Where were we? Oh, yes. 

As the good Lord Vect already remarked upon, Torture-Device likes rape. Violent rape.

It is disturbing seeing a mere mon-keigh display such intense interest for something that even in dark eldar society is reserved to a privileged few. It gets even more disturbing when you realize that Cailean and Torturer aren't the only self-insert characters present in this "epic saga". Apart from hangers on to Cailean and Torturer and what can only be described as one-off characters, all the others characters present belong to other members of DevianTART.

Yes, you read that right. Moerchen, Inquisitor Tina, Warlock Devonar and a few others belong to other artists. Their user names are listed in the Artist's Comments of all of the separate parts. We have not remarked on it because of the sheer amount of insanity Lord Vect and I have had to deal with.

But about Inquisitor Tina, because she plays such a huge part in this:

She belongs to an artist named MaKo85, who also happens to be named Tina, if the frontpage of her DevianTART is to be believed. Her style is cartoony, with a fair amount of fan-service, pretty decent anatomy but completely lacking in depth and perspective, for the record. She is unremarkable as far as artists on that website go and the only reason she is remotely popular is no doubt derived from the fact that she is a girl artist who draws boobs and asses willingly to please the predominantly male fandom. At the same time, I cannot bring myself to be too dismissive of her, because she has the good taste to be fascinated with our fair species, Lords and Ladies of the Dark City. You don't often see that in mere humans.

She has also been kind enough to provide a reference sheet for the Lady Inquisitor, which was easily found by sifting through her galleries.

So far, so standard

Apart from the picture being a bit of an info-dump, we get to know that Inquisitor Tina is actually named Amalthea Firenze, that she is a pariah and not a mere untouchable and that she bears a striking resemblance, physically, to her creator.

It is not farfetched guess to think that MaKo85 intended to use the Lady Inquisitor as a self-insert character, perhaps intended for role-playing games, perhaps just for fun.

Bear this in mind as we proceed with recapping this part, because I am pretty certain that Torture-Device did not ask for permission to do the following. 

The second part of Interrogation begins with Torturer being jumped from above by an attack that is revealed to be the dark eldar mentioned way back in Prelude to the Rapture part 1. I won't be mad at you if you don't remember her, because back then she had no name, as WalkingMaelstrom just threw her in and Torture-Device only later decided she needed a name and backstory. 

Aseryth L'Hyel descended upon her target swiftly, as a leaf caught by wind and ripped of a tree branch. In her fall from the Bibliarum dome, she had time to twist and turn her lithe body and find the perfect position for the strike. The wyches scrap-made whip uncoiled itself, the numerous tails curving as she lashed out with it. In another hand she'd readied a ferrocrite splinter, sharp enough to pierce even the hardened, dense Astartes flesh if the appropriate force and angle were applied. Of course, such primitive tools left much more to desire, they couldn't match up with her hydraknive or the Punisher, but, she knew how to use even the barbaric weapons to her advantage. It was, after all, a merit by which her skill was measured. 

 I have a few issues with this, young lady.

You are attacking an Astartes, a confirmed psyker, from above and you let gravity alone do the job instead of springing against him with as much force as possible?

And why a whip? I can understand if you are familiar with the agoniser, but right here it makes little tactical sense.

The right place for that ferrocrite shard is the nape of Torturer's neck. Nothing else. Even Astartes are remarkably easy to kill when you strike them there. 

And punishers? Really? Honey, they went out of fashion a long time ago. They were replaced by klaives. That is quite apart from the fact they were never used in the Arenas, but were reserved for the incubi. Besides, if you are so skilled, the "ferrocrite" shard should be more than enough. 

Does she succeed?

Nope.

It turns out she is supposed to be locked up, but was turned loose by Razorwire (what a surprise!) and that this was something along the lines of the 30th attempt on Torturer's life that she has made. What a useless piece of meat she is.

That is followed by this:

Aseryth pursed her lips, now bluish as blood rushed to her face. Torturer wiped a trail of blood from the corner of her mouth. The xeno witch always brought him much joy, her alien mind both indecipherable yet sometimes so simplistically straightforward in her urges. She was a feast for the eyes - the dispersing shadow, oily slick, but angular, each jutting bone like a concealed weapon beneath the pale, wraith-like skin. 

I don't know if Torture-Device misspelled wych into witch, or if he is actively implying that Aseryth has psychic powers. Of course, every dark eldar has some level of psychic ability, but never enough to manifest in any way. That is something that gets you swiftly killed in the Dark City.

And what does Aseryth actually look like?

I am drawing a blank on what that gun is supposed to be or how it is supposed to work.

How is that any level of pretty? Her ribs are jutting out like knives? Is this one of those perversions of perception that are so typical of the servants of She Who Thirsts? So many questions, so few answers.

As mentioned, Torturer subdues her and then proceeds to do this: 

Torturer rudely pulled her closer, swiped the ruffled strands of her hair back, revealing an intricate scar mark spread all over the base of her skull. Morphing his mask, he lolled out his tongue and licked the marking, allowing it to liven up and pulse in response. Aseryth's body tensed, and as if an invisible, immaterial guillotine suddenly separated her mind from the flesh – now, everything below the neck was in control of another being. 

That is basically what happens. Mercifully, we are spared this, but instead get an info-dump size large on Aseryth's background because showing instead of telling people bold-facedly about a character is for chumps in the world of Rivals Til Death. 

It wasn't the first time the wych tried to assassinate her slaver. For a Kabalite warrior- 

Wait wait wait. 

Aseryth is a wych, correct? She would then have been a member of a Wych Cult, not a Kabal. 

Considering Torture-Device did not get the information about punishers being an incubi-weapon right, why am I even surprised? 

Despite the lengthy info-dump about Aseryth's origins, I am glad it is there, because we are, as mentioned, spared what would otherwise have been an exceedingly lengthy rape-scene. 

"It's the Inquisitor." She said when hours later the Raptor, satisfied and tired, let her crawl away from him. Curling up at his feet, she idly clicked her fingers, trying to return warmth and dexterity to them after all her body had assumed positions not quite fit for live beings. "I want her." 

This leads to some chatting between Torturer and Aseryth, as if him raping her for hours is no big deal and it's just a thing he does. Like begrudging a canine for licking its own balls. 

The scene then shifts. 

Red water was pouring from Torturer's hands. He idly observed as it washed down the dried crimson from his skin. He then methodically repeated the same process with an assortment of blades and catheters, after which arranging them neatly on a tray. Without looking back to his prisoner, he spoke softly.  

"Now that we're through with this, Lady, it's time for the questions, as I initially promised."

He turned to the Inquisitor, her twitching, bloodied body and sighed. He forgot about the pain amp. Unclipping the injector from his belt, he swapped a vial, and, holding the thrashing woman on the stretcher by her face, managed to get a clean shot at her jugular. 

I don't know about you people, but part of me is glad we were spared that torture scene too. It does seem like Torturer is about as forgetful as ever though. 

It is also implied in this, and the previous scene with Aseryth, that Torturer is not wearing his armor while on board the flying pink dildo-ship. Why, I have no fucking clue. Maybe he likes the draft around his nether regions? 

Lastly; injections don't work that way. Injecting something into someone's jugular artery should either kill them or be very hard. I'm voting for the former. 

What then follows is the reason this chapter is roundabout 20 pages long in my printout version. Seven fucking pages of Torturer and Inquisitor Tina exchanging banter and trying to outwit each other. In the hands of any other writer, it would have been tense and sweaty. 

Here, it is only dreary and drawn-out to a ridiculous length. 

 She looked up at him. This was where the real trial started. The moment for which she readied herself and braced, when her will and devotion would be put to the test. Torturer must have wanted something very specific to allow her regain consciousness, to be transformed back from the screaming and thrashing woman into her real self, allow the body to be inhabited by her mind again. Some part of her told her that the Raptor was afraid of that mind, but now, as he slowly paced back and forth it was too hard to tell. 

This is just an example, early on, to show how it goes. Torture-Device keeps stating and re-stating the obvious over and over, padding the scene out as if the letters were down and the story a pillow. 

What we learn is that Torturer is looking for a Beta-level psyker named Rael Haask, that this guy is kept in a high-security Inquisitorial prison-base and that Inquisitor Tina has codes to this place. And that Torturer commands some ten Astartes. 

This takes, as mentioned, seven pages to explain. I'm not talking about mood-building. I am all for that, dearies. But this crosses the boundaries of mood-building and goes into excessive padding. It doesn't help the case that at this point Torture-Device's already spotty English deteriorates further, with run-on sentences starting to become the norm.

And for those of you who still thought that Inquisitor Tina is strong and independent for standing up to Torturer... think again.

"Afraid that he'll come back and ruin it all for you?" Tina feverishly rasped, as she bucked and jerked suddenly. "Once he already did, then why not the second time? After all, you don't learn, warpslave." 

Tina is referring to Moerchen, which makes Torturer initially flip his shit and then point and laugh at her for thinking that the chaplain will come and rescue her like a knight in shining armour. I can agree.

This might not at first glance seem as so very needy of her but trust me, it will get worse as we proceed with these stories. Every single woman in this series, as Lord Vect so delightfully pointed out, exist solely to gawk at the beef-cake men.

Every. Single. One.

You think I am joking?

You wait, dearies. You just wait.

Torturer does calm down a bit, but not before we're given this:

Torturer felt the blood in his veins turn to ice. But he was experienced in dealing with disappointment, and in a few seconds, long seconds in which he considered just destroying the Inquisitor on the spot, calmed down. He's not going to show that her knowledge matters everything, so he shrugged comically.

So, Torturer is experienced in dealing with disappointment? Meaning he is a loser, then? And how does one shrug comically? See what I mean with rapidly deteriorating English?

Torturer's "interrogation" of Inquisitor Tina continues, and he soon realises (after another few pages) that he is getting nowhere. He has called for Malexis.

And what does Space Insano bring? The Lady Inquisitor thinks it's a servitor at first, but...

The thing was human. Paritally. It had been a limbless female torso, crudely affixed on a pair of primitive bare cybernetic steppers similar to Torturer's with the metal frames driven directly into the inflammated and puffed up flesh of her thighs right at the joint. At some places, at her abdomen and around her amputated arms, the machinery that kept her back rigid and her genitals obscenely thrust out, broke through the flesh and stuck out, forming a cylindrical cache running along her spine. It was used to hold a brightly colored container which was connected to numerous catheters – some feeding unknown liquids right into her nipples, others injected to the ports at the back of the creature's shaved head.

Tina saw the healing stitches where the woman's arms once were, the crust of puss around the long stitched slit running along her stomach. The thing's mouth was held open by a grisly contraption, and she noticed, witha twinge of pain in her own jaws, the glistening bare gums, now devoid of teeth. 

It didn't take her much time to figure what the thing had been used for. But as she kept gazing in stupefied terror at the hapless thing, she suddenly crossed eyes with it – and let out a chocked gasp. 

The creature was no servitor. It hadn't been mercifully lobotomized. No, those gray eyes screamed silently, all too aware of what is going on, of itself. Tina had never seen the warp, but after she looked into the eyes of the mutilated girl, she was certain that whatever hell might be there – all fit into the head, the mind of this suffering, shaking and drooling slave- toy. 

Torturer obviously noticed that mute sharing of experience between the two, and his pupils turned nearly hair thin in delight. 

It is a creation worthy of Urien Rakarth. I just can't shake the feeling that Torture-Device wrote this section one-handed. Considering the vast amounts of rape and violence, targeted against women, going on in his gallery; considering that the man is a self-acclaimed fan of ero-guro, it is not beyond reasonable that he fapped to this.

I would have been fine, but creeped out, with this alone, but our intrepid Russian decides to drag it out for another 3 pages, having Torturer and Malexis taunt and threaten Lady Inquisitor Tina with this fate all the while.

Remember also that Inquisitor Tina is not Torture-Device's creation, but MaKo85's.

Considering she must have consented to our two authors' endeavour in using her character, how did she react to seeing this happening to her self-insert?

Seriously tho, story or not, I'm not gonna get giddy over having my character tortured. 

A sentiment one can agree with. Torture-Device replied with a large block of text about how it is not all going to be sunshine and cupcakes in the world of Warhammer 40'000, and although he has a point, the trouble is that it happened to someone else's character, and I am pretty damn certain he did not ask for permission to do this.

Here's a fun little question you can entertain yourselves with:

If the Lady Inquisitor Tina (I will continue to call her that, as that is what they name her in the story) had instead been Lord Inquisitor Tim, would he
a) have been holding out for some brave Space Marine or Sister of Battle to come save him? And
b) would he have been threatened with being turned into a sex-doll by the slaves of She Who Thirsts?

Knowing our two misogynistic authors, my answer to both questions would be a resounding no, because
a) he's a MAN! And
b) that'd be gay.

It makes me wonder what another artist, TyrantWache, thought of what WalkingMaelstrom did to Chaplain Moerchen. TyrantWache is also a female artist, I should mention.

Remember though, that Torturer wants information from the Lady Inquisitor and if he turns her into a sex-slave doll, he's not going to get it. So, the terrified Inquisitor, after 3 pages of deliberation, finally caves in and decides to give Torturer the codes to the prison facility.

In return, he releases her, unharmed.

Why?

Then, mid-sentence, the paradoxical cruelty of Torturer's offer dawned upon her. She imagined herself, contacting the nearest Ordo detachment – bloodied, covered in scars, with traces of heretical drugs contaminatingher bloodstream. She imagined telling Sobek and other Lords how a Chaos Raptor, of all creatures, let her free from the deck of his ship... What would they think? It was inexplicable, unimaginable. Inquisitors don't go free from the clutches of heretical murderers – unless they themselves become their agents. The Inquisitor has no chance of seeing the daylight when captured by the archenemy, so how would she explain it? How would she make them believe her, convince that she escaped, and not sent in as a spy, corrupted and turncoat? She could see the trial already, herself burning at the stake under the accusing glares of her ex- colleagues: their eyes cold, condemning, reeking of disappointment and betrayal. 

That's what Torturer wants, she thought, he wants me to be a Cassandra of the old Terran legend. He wants me to warn the Inquisition of his plans, but know how they'll refute them whilst I get checked, tried in the High Court, blamed, sentenced and maybe even executed. 

One thing that has not changed throughout this entire part, and that is fast becoming a hallmark of Torture-Device's writing is his ability to keep stating the fucking obvious.

Later, Torturer watched as the dark speck of the disposable shuttle that was launched from the Engine of Obscenity, glowed red against the bright blue atmosphere of the planet they hovered over on orbit. The titanic disc blotted out most of the view from the command room, and soon it swallowed the shuttle, not a trace left as it descended lower. He chose a low civilized world on the rim of the Obscurus, one with planetary defense too primitive and scattered to pose a threat. He licked his artificial jaws. 

"Shamefully our rendezvous was way too quick for my liking, Inquisitor. Your pain had been the most enjoyable... But this outcome will bring you more pain, more torment that I with my instruments can deliver to that defiant personality of yours. Too bad you don't know how high of a price I would've paid to watch you go through what's coming up. I guess that would make up for it all." 

And that is how this amazingly fucked up part ends. It does leave me with even more questions, such as:

• How often is a "low civilized" world visited by Imperial officials, if it doesn't even have a decent Orbital Defence Force? 
• Considering the lack of ODF, what are the odds that the planet has communications facilities for her to regain contact with Imperial authorities? 
• How long was Lady Inquisitor Tina captive, by the way? There is no indicator of time, any where. 

_________________________________

Everything in this chapter is excessive. The length. The telling of obvious fucking details. The mind-rape.

Every-fucking-thing.

The part could easily have been half as long and just as effective. As it stands, it is just drawn out money-shots with horrible English.

I took a look at the Artist's Comments for this part as well. I found this:

Text is raw, will fix after more parts are uploaded. This story is written in a more dynamic, action-prose style. 

Lies. Lies and slander. The text is still raw, it has not been fixed in the nearly one and a half years it has been up, and it is not dynamic and "action-prose" in its style.

It is clunky, excessive and slow!

I leave you to the tender mercies of Lord Vect, as I once again take to the Arenas. That holiday brought in a nice new slew of Space Marines. I intend to put them through the paces.

Stay sharp, dearies!

//L//