The Arena Training Area (Kiri & Ted)

[Ted_MxM]

Brel woke from his restful slumber feeling refreshed but a bit dazed. Kass's negative memory erasure was pretty thorough, but it muddled with Brel's understanding of where he was and why. Though, he wasn't suspicious of the only person here he had any positive disposition to, because he'd been magically forced to trust him. Still wearing the gifted shirt and shorts, the Zeltron padded out of the newer, or unfavored, slave sleeping area barefoot and hungry.

He did a bit better this morning finding the remnants of the last meal from when the majority of the other inhabitants got up, and the hunger in his belly was satisfied for the first time in days. As Brel ate, he worked to piece together his fugue. He'd been in the Cages. Then, Kass gave him clothes. Then, he went to sleep. There had to have been more to his yesterday than that. Maybe his new master drugged him when he was released after his punishment to keep him calm for his reentry into the general populace?

That suspicion got Brel's mental wheels slowly spinning again about escape. This new arrangement was entirely unacceptable, but to get out, he had to be less of a hot-head and not storm off without a plan if he wanted any chance of being free. While Brel was fit and rugged, fighting wasn't really his forte, and he considered it might be useful. There was that really big guy to worry about, but that giant couldn't be everywhere at once, and a prolonged scuffle with other guards or loyal slaves could end up ruining any plan relying on speed.

To that end, Brel headed off in search of where he thought he'd remembered there was some gladiator pit or something. There were such things on Aquilae, but he'd only watched when his old master brought him as part of an entourage. It was good for a gamble when there was no risk of one ending up part of the show.

Brel's sense of direction was good enough, and he found arena and training center, and he headed into the latter. It was recognizable as a gym with some assorted practice weapons and large flat mats. They weren't useful with no one to train with, so Brel's purple eyes scanned the facility until he spotted something he could do by himself. He approached a punching bag, and never having struck one, he felt awkward standing in front of it. "Fark it," he muttered and threw a moderate punch. It sounded more like a slap than a punch to him, but the action holos probably used fake sound effects for fistfights. His knuckles only stung a little at that strength, so Brel threw another punch that was a bit harder. He alternated fists, without particular skill, just getting used to the motion, the feeling of impact, and alternating sting and numbness of his knuckles as his nervous system was instructed to lessen the pain. As Brel worked up into actual exertion, his implants worked to mitigate his pulse elevation and regulate the chemicals his body produced in response to the activity, keeping him physically more 'at rest' than someone normally would be, delaying his fatigue.

@Kiri

 

[Kiri]

Why did it seem like every time he attempted to somewhat like this place, something happened to fuck it all the way up. Greer hadn't thought it through when he agreed to this whole situation. Instead the thought of helping those he did love clouded his judgement, which in turn sent him to fucking hell in a handbasket of his own making.

"This shits so stupid" he thundered making his way down one of the many hallways in the ridiculously huge Estate he'd been imprisoned at. He'd gotten lost more times then he could count and was at his last nerve with being told what to do and where to go. It wasn't his fault he didn't know one way from the other in this freak show. Maybe he'd talk Vailean into actually taking him around the place, so he'd stop walking in on crazy ass situations that scarred his poor eyes. Well when he found he could look the half-giant in the eyes again that was. He'd been so wanton that night and every time he recalled it he felt a sting of shame, lust, and embarrassment.

Running a hand down his face, Greer sighed, he came looking for a gym of some sort, even stopped another slave to ask. Luckily there was a place called the arena here which would work for what he wanted, but he still hadn't found it yet. "Stupid slave and their stupid directions" he complained continuing on his hunt.

-About 15 minutes later-

"Finally!" he cried relief nearly overwhelming. "The training center is where he said to go" Greer murmured to himself, following the sign into a room that had well...nothing he'd really think of using, or has used in the past. "Just my fucking luck."

He was half way in the room when he realized he wasn't the only person utilizing the room. Glancing up he watched as a male was throwing punches at a punching bag. As he watched for a few seconds it became clear the male did not have a good grasp on what he was doing. Yeah, his punches were landing, but the way he was standing, even the way he held his arms, it was all wrong.

"If you twist your torso a little more and put your body behind the hit and not just with your hands, you'll get way more solid hits, plus if you're not careful you could easily snap a wrist not paying a attention."

Stepping around the mats along the floor he came to stand behind the punching bag, grabbing it to keep it from swinging around. "Sorry if I'm intruding on your workout man."

 

[Ted_MxM]

The pink alien's rhythm was interrupted by someone declaring 'Finally!' behind him. He paused and looked over his shoulder, seeing an equally unusual looking man enter. Brel had no idea what the 'Finally' was in regards to, so he kept to his own business and threw a few more punches at the sturdy bag. He wasn't sure if this was actually going to help him some day, but it couldn't hurt to at least condition his fists.

After the second exclamation, Brel wondered if the other man was trying to be noticed or something, but he continued on with his pounding on the unresponsive bag. With his luck, it would be some patron of the Estate that wanted something, so he didn't draw attention to himself beyond doing what he was already doing.

Brel paused and looked again once the other addressed him specifically. He probably wouldn't actually hurt himself like this with his enhancements, but the advice didn't seem bad. "Alright," he answered simply and shifted his stance so he could attempt to do what was suggested. He threw a punch, and it did seem somehow righter. "Huh, I see. I've only been in bar fights with no critique other than who ends up on the floor."

The racer knew well enough what the wild looking man was doing and he stopped for a moment to let him get into position. "No, it's fine. I'm just.. blowing off steam. Or something. I dunno." Brel was still a bit hazy about the last 24 hours and what exactly happened between the Cages and waking up. Greer seemed like he wasn't some arrogant non-slave or mewling happy slave. He resumed throwing throwing punches, right, left, right, left. "You a fighter or something?"

 

[Kiri]

"Well you're right about that, most people don't tend to critique from the floor." Chuckling he held the bag while the other male went about throwing a few more punches, surprisingly, getting better the more he hit.

"Letting off steam huh? Was it because of one of those good for nothing, happy-go-lucky slaves attempting to tell you what to do?" he gritted out through clenched teeth. Greer was trying to make peace with his predicament but every time he ran into someone, his annoyance would rise and he'd find himself storming off before he did something to cause trouble. He'd heard of the cages, and he didn't really feel the urge to try out any punishments that everyone seemed to throw around threateningly.

"Back home I was a fighter, but probably not how you're imagining it" he supplied, "I wasn't professional or anything, more like survival. Only reason I know anything about this," slapping the bag with the palm of his hand, "is because I implemented it in my workouts, nothing more."

"What about you? I've never seen someone with pink skin before." Which was only a blinding reminder he was somewhere far from home. " There are a lot of creatures here I've never seen before actually, it really freaked me out at first."

 

[Ted_MxM]

"Well, mostly the bosses are telling me what to do. More like what not to do," he huffed in between punches. It sounded like this newcomer was not yet conditioned, or broken, like most of the others were. "The others are.. well, part of the system here," Brel left it at that, for now. For all he knew, this other guy was some sort of morale spy.

"Like, survival jungle or survival streets? Do either come with gyms?" He would have assumed something like a gladiator at first. "I take it you're new?" If Greer had arrived in the last week, Brel wouldn't have been around to see him. "Oh, Brel, by the way. Chenado," he didn't wait for recognition, as this one didn't look like the type to watch shuttle racing.

Brel continued to punch, not seeming to fatigue noticeably, though a little sweat was breaking out along his forehead. "You don't go on vacation much? Watch dirty holos?" he chuckled, but not too condescendingly. "Not a ton of us leave Zeltros and not end up in hospitality or holos. But we're around. Yeah. There's a menagerie here. I'm used to weird stuff being around, but not acting like this."

 

[Kiri]

"I prefer not thinking about what they have planned for us slaves here" he spat, gripping the bag tighter. He knew it wouldn't have been a walk in the park, he was fully aware he'd been made a slave, but from what he'd seen here, well sex-slave seemed more appropriate.

"Oh...funny enough it's a bit of both" he supplied. His people still fought for survival, power, and such but they also had to adapt to the times and firmly implement themselves into society. "There is a gym involved, well at least were I'm concerned" he chuckled. Watching the pinked skinned male closely he couldn't help but notice the lack of tiredness that usually followed a round with a punching bag, he also knew the male hadn't been landing light punches either, it was odd. "Your stamina is frightening" he joked with a tilt of his head.

As the other somewhat explained what he was, the word holos gave him pause, what the hell was a holos? "I've been on vacations before, but other than shifter's and humans, my planet really never had that many...other visitors" Greer offered, "So yeah, not sure what a dirty holos is, sorry about that man."

"Mind if I give it a go?" he asked peaking around, timing his movements so not to be used as the punching bag instead.

 

[Ted_MxM]

"Oh, I've seen a couple things. Heard about more things," Brel huffed. "Had a few minor things happen," his expression darkened at the memory of the invasive 'inspection' with likely unnecessary 'medical' devices poking at and being inserted into places he'd never had anything inserted. "I think escalation is the name of the game, here." The tone of his words was much more foreboding than comforting.

"Yeah," he replied to the observation on his stamina. Brel considered disclosing too much information to a practical stranger, so he tempered it with some vaguery. "I'm not a soldier or anything, though. There's a limit to it." The other man had been similarly generalized with his own background information. "So, you weren't born a slave, then?"

"Holos," he tried to think about what other more primitive cultures called them. "Movies? Vids? I guess it doesn't matter," thinking his region of the galaxies entertainment obviously didn't reach to wherever Greer was from. "Oh, sure," he dropped his hands and stepped in closer to the punching bag, holding it like it had hips. "Warn me if you're gonna put us on the floor, eh?"

 

[Kiri]

"Definelty not born a slave, more like the head of my family" he explained, happily moving backward as the other moved up and gripped the bag. Grinning he lifted a hand and pointed upward, " hands up a little more yeah."

Chuckling at Brel's last words Greer just nodded, his blue eyes bright, but he had the look of mischief written all over him. "No worries I will control the power behind my hits" he offered, though it wasn't like he'd never not knocked someone on their ass form holding his bag for him. Getting into a pretty standard stance, Greer brought up his hands and angled his head down, tucking his chin slightly. Rearing back his fist connected with the bag with a solid thud. Left left right, left left right and so on. Greer controlled his breathing as he went through his sets, eyes turning hard as he focused, his punches becoming stringer as he got into it.

After the first minute was done, he let up, placing a hand on the bag to help it from swinging around. "Thanks" he said before peaking around the bag to make sure the other male was okay.

 

[Ted_MxM]

"Hmp," was Brel's only reply to Greer having had a position of responsibility in his family. It seemed like it would be rubbing in his change of circumstances to inquire more about it. Though, it would be good for his own sanity to have some kind of acquaintance here who wasn't trying to get into his pants. Well, a male one that wasn't. Brel had been focused on other things than whoring his way through the female slaves in his few short weeks on the Estate. "I was born into it, but slavery was different where I came from. More like having a job and landlord forever. I worked up into a pretty good situation before.. this." The former racer put no effort into tempering his bitter tone as he adjusted his grip on the bag. He silently cursed his former master's gambling addiction.

While boxing, or whatever this was, wasn't exactly his forte, but it seemed normal. At least for the moment. Brel ended up planting his rear foot farther back to brace the bag. His strength wasn't especially enhanced, and Greer was definitely making an effort, though kept his word about not knocking Brel over. When he checked, the Zeltron was a bit sweatier than when he'd been throwing the punches, and the collar of his tshirt was wet. "No prob," which seemed true. "I'm looking for stuff to do, anyways. I'm both going stir crazy here and trying to keep out of sight of anyone with plans for me."

 

[Kiri]

"Tell me about it, I'm not the type to run away...but when I notice that guy with the ponytail or our beloved master anywhere I pretty much run for the opposite direction" he admitted with a frown, the thought disturbing. "Plus the REALLY big guy tends to like to carry people around like a sack of potatoes" grimacing but blushing he looked away not exactly able to look at the other guy, " so unless you're into that I suggest not letting him catch you doing anything to break the rules."

Sighing, he rubbed a hand against his face. "If only there was a way out of this hell hole huh?" he half joked and removed his hand to look back toward Brel. "I'm pretty much to my limit listening to these people give me orders and telling me where I can and can't go."

Slapping the punching bag one more time, he moved away almost pacing as he thought. What if there was a way out? All his little hiccups when getting lost around the estate hadn't been an actual waste.

 

[Ted_MxM]

"Yeah, he does that," Brel said, remembering being on the receiving end of that treamtent. He'd struggled quite a bit more than anyone he'd seen Val carrying recently, though. Actual reluctance looked different. "Too late, though," he snorted at Greer's warning. Brel figured it wasn't a secret, just Greer was new. "I just got out of lock-up. I tried your theory about a way to escape. I almost had it.."

He watched the other man pace around, reminding him of a caged animal. "There are ways off this place, but you can't go half-cocked. I got tripped up on the last step. Spent a week in the dungeon for it. So, make sure you have it all planned out perfectly, or you'll get thrown over the shoulder of that big guy," Brel warned, having no inkling about how much Greer was already into that. The alien was slightly curious if Greer was interested, but he was still a little burnt out from his week-long punishment, so he wasn't going to jump at any hint of a new compatriot. He folded his muscular arms over his chest, "So, yeah. Keep your head down, hide in corners, whatever you need to do until you're really read."

 

[Kiri]

Greer threw the male a glance over his shoulder, his brows drawn in a frown. "Yeah I assumed as much, I've only just got here actually so I had no idea someone had tried to escape recently."

"Well I guess it say's something since it doesn't happen often, well from what I can tell. Even the lower level slaves here seem content." he rambled, his hand lifting and rubbing at light stubble on his chin. "Not that it matters, still doesn't change the fact I don't want to be here."

Moving back toward the punching bag he propped a hip against it and looked Brel over, "How did you get caught? Who caught you?" he asked, curious as to how the other male went about escaping. He'd noticed a few easy accessible areas on the Estate but sometimes things seemed easier than they truly were.

 

[Ted_MxM]

"Yeah, I noticed. Most seem happy, or at least pacified, or just trying to make friends and pretend to be happy. They want to settle here. Or they at least gave up and resigned themselves to being here," he snorted lightly at the idea. "Life's a grindstone, but there are levels of restriction I just can't accept," in his old life, Brel knew he had it good, but the others had fairly normal lives from what he'd understood. "I doubt I was the first, and I doubt I'll be the last. The masters probably don't publicize escapes attempts, but everyone gossips." He hadn't yet witnessed a public punishment to negate his first assumption.

Brel still didn't completely trust this stranger, so he kept his answers vague or what might be common knowledge. "The big guy and some other security. They just sort of appeared out of nowhere. It was either surrender or blow up the shuttle I got into. I couldn't launch. That was where I botched it up," and his jaw muscles tensed, remembering his own failure.

 

[Kiri]

The fact the male got to a shuttle at all was pretty astounding. "Well learn from it and don't get caught the next time I suppose" he stated, waving a hand dismissively like it would be that easy. It wasn't like he was brushing off the males attempt, but he also knew sometimes people felt the sting of failure and used it as the catalyst for giving up. Not to mention, Greer was all for someone trying to get out of a situation they weren't happy in. And Brel seemed like he was far from happy being here.

"Did you want to work out a bit more?" he asked and pointed a thumb at the punching bag he was leaning against. "Or we could spar a bit if you want?" He wasn't sure if the other was a fighter but Greer was feeling restless not getting the strenuous exercise he was used to in everyday.

 

[Ted_MxM]

Brel's pheromones should have throughly saturated a normal physiology and inclined one towards him. He also opened himself up to focused sensing of the other's emotional state. Greer seemed open enough, but Brel wanted more before actually trusting him. “Taking a ship would require access to higher level systems. I don't even know where those are located. I haven't seen much of this place other than the living area and the Cages.” He was more matter-of-factly about it all, rather than explicitly sounding like he intended to try again.

“Uh, sure. I'm more of a bar fighter, though. Go easy on me,” he dropped his arms and looked to a mat empty of equipment. “So, what brought you here?” he asked, assuming Greer would have an emotional tell while either lying or telling the truth.

 

[Kiri]

Greer knew nothing about ships and the such, so he chose to drop the topic. Moving away from the punching bag, Greer made his way toward the empty mats delving into some quick warm-ups and stretching. No need for him to pull anything if he didn't have to.

Lifting his head at Brel's question he had one arm lifted and pulled over his back stretching his triceps. Sighing Greer didn't even attempt to hide the annoyance that clouded his gaze. "My good-for-nothing father actually" he grunted, bringing his arm down and lifting his other to push behind his head. "He pissed our families money down the shitter and to make sure my mother and siblings were okay I was sold to this Wells guy."

It wasn't a horribly traumatic story, which he was sure a lot of the slaves here might have had, but it was a punishment he was paying for his father's negligence, and that was traumatic enough for Greer. "If I could kill that man with my own hands I'd relish every second of it" he growled. It was quite obvious there was no love loss between them.

 

[Ted_MxM]

Brel watched his companion for a moment, then realized he was doing some of that 'officially exercising' stuff. He followed suit, mimicking Greer's stretches as he listened to the family drama. "Well, that's a story. Not to try and make it better, but I hope it means the rest of your family is ok," though, with such a irresponsible asshole of a father, that that was true.

As he continued to stretch, Brel strongly noted the vitriole in the Greer's words. "Do you.. plan to do that, someday?" The empath paid close attention to Greer's emotional fluctuations throughout their conversation, trying to determine how forthcoming he was, and now if he believed his own answer to Brel's question, which required leaving this place.

 

[Kiri]

"Yeah...I hope so too" Greer murmured eyes downcast as he finished his exercises. Rolling his shoulders he waited for the other male to finish what he was doing.

Shrugging at the male's next question, Greer wasn't sure how to answer. "If you're asking COULD I do it? Then yes...Do I plan on it? Well if I ever leave this place, there's a good chance that I will. Our world isn't big enough for the both of us" he explained, though the last was spoken with a bit of infliction. "It's not that he gambles and that's the reason I can't stand his sight. More like he selfishly put our family in jeopardy because of his ridiculous vices that I can't stomach. He's not worth the air he breathes if he can't think of anyone but himself."

 

[Ted_MxM]

Brel assumed a stance similar to what Greer had instructed at the bag, looking like he was more sparring than talking, instead of really talking and pretending to spar. He projected a mood of calm and comfort around them, hoping to encourage the shifter to open up even more and be frank about his intentions. "Do you think you'll ever be able to leave a place like this? Do you think our new master," he said the word with just enough dislike to show that he wasn't neutral about Wells, "will let you go? Or if you do leave, it won't be some trade to someone else? That doesn't sound like a recipe for revenge." He paused to let the words sink in, "I didn't know my father. I've got family scattered around. I didn't really value it until I didn't have the freedom to see them, or even know how they were." Family wasn't his priority in escaping, but they were vaguely on the list.

 

[Kiri]

Greer felt himself relax even more as Brel continued to ask him questions. "Well I don't think he'll let any go...willingly." he answered. Before Brel could predict what he was about, Greer moved fast his leg shooting out and knocking the other male's out from under him. Greer dropped on top of the male, his arm moving to press against his throat, his legs pinning the pink male's lower body under him. "Well what do you think? I'll reverse the questions back at you. You think he'll let you go willing?"

Staring down at Brel he almost told him he was lucky he didn't know his father, but held back. Not all fathers were as pathetic as his own.

"Get out of this position, do whatever you have to" he instructed, wondering exactly how much the other male did know of combat.