[The intensity's increasing: Atem's voice is louder, angrier. The strikes don't increase in ferocity, though -- they're still tightly controlled, measured.
Ten lashes, now. No recovery time. The crop whips through the air, whistling like an arrow.]
Round four! Who was the butcher who put on a gory display, worse than the new monsters had seen yet, calling the humans cattle and increasing her own standing with the Fog? Cooperate!
[Endure. Ryou can do it. He can. He can defeat the shame and pain in his own heart, and he can hold his head up high, as someone who wouldn't betray his friends, if he lasts the next two rounds...
It has to be close enough to torture to trick Ryou's brain into accepting it as a substitute for La Forteresse. He's got to be pushed, until it's enough for Ryou.]
no subject
[The intensity's increasing: Atem's voice is louder, angrier. The strikes don't increase in ferocity, though -- they're still tightly controlled, measured.
Ten lashes, now. No recovery time. The crop whips through the air, whistling like an arrow.]
Round four! Who was the butcher who put on a gory display, worse than the new monsters had seen yet, calling the humans cattle and increasing her own standing with the Fog? Cooperate!
[Endure. Ryou can do it. He can. He can defeat the shame and pain in his own heart, and he can hold his head up high, as someone who wouldn't betray his friends, if he lasts the next two rounds...
It has to be close enough to torture to trick Ryou's brain into accepting it as a substitute for La Forteresse. He's got to be pushed, until it's enough for Ryou.]