XANTI

“The liquid diet cannibal is awake.”

The cheetahcore walked into the torchlight. A bat wing fluttered. The satchel at xyr side smelled strongly of moonshine. Four bone knives lazily orbited xyr body, floating, suspended, through telekinesis.

In front of the bars, Xanti placed a decapitated cheetah head. Seamus had begun to rot.

Xanti looked within the cell. “My name is Xanti. You tortured my brother. Prepare to suffer.”

Xanti had no need for xyr veneer of a pleasant doctor. Xyr stare was dead-eyed psychopathic—identical to Seamus’s—and Xanti already know how xyr unmasked psychopathy appeared. The doctor who’d taught xem medicine had said it’s like there’s nothing inside you, and Xanti thought that was an idiotic statement. Nothing inside xem? Really? Xe had no self-image, yes, but that was a limiter, like the rest of the bullshit Xanti had severed.

Xanti felt the full range of emotion, but xe didn’t feel guilty or ashamed of those emotions. Xanti had more inside of xem than those fools with built-in emotional dampeners.

From xyr perspective, xe had cut away everything which made xem weak. Whatever xe lacked that looked “empty” to others? Xe didn’t want those defective emotions back. Seamus, xyr brother, was a different story; Seamus, stuck halfway in his own metamorphosis, had never achieved enlightenment. Had always choked on his morality. Seamus had clung to good and evil, even as that noose strangled him.

Xanti tilted xyr head. Two bone knives circled xyr head, then tapped the bars of the cell. “What to cut first, hm? I suppose an eye for an eye would be exsanguination, but that’d be… unoriginal.” A smirk. “You exsanguinated my brother to deter copycat cannibals, hm? I suppose I should honor that wish and tap into my creativity.”

While xe spoke and the bone knives orbited xyr head, rope telekinetically snaked out of the satchel. Using telekinesis, Xanti attempted to loop the rope around Project’s front legs and, abruptly, smash those limbs together in a bind. Then, xe’d bite the rope and drag the wolf such that his legs would reach through the cell’s bars, and his long muzzle would be caught between the metal bars.

After all, Xanti was a lazy sadist. No need to make things pretty. The bars weren't a barrier; the bars were, like the rope, a tool. While xe took xyr time looking between the wolf's red and blue eyes, xyr smirk widened. Which one did xe want to allow to watch xem work? “A fool like you will never learn, eh? You are defective. Just. Like. My. Brother.“

Xanti clicked his tongue against xyr teeth. “I'm thinking a touch of copycat cannibalism, a splash of copycat vampirism. And, of course, my unique creativity. If I'm that obvious about it, even a fool like you will learn, hm? You can’t stop evil with evil.“

XANTI

Cruelty met cruelty, and the cheetah cackled. Xyr golden eyes widened until xe sighed. Project would be an entertaining one. By Requiem and Vayu, Xanti had tired of sadistic experiments from sheer boredom. There were only a limited number of responses to trauma. But humor? Project was entertaining. Xe checked the knots, made sure the rope was secure. Tools were tools. Xe’d ensured Project was caught between the bars to the left of the cell’s door.

Clearly, Xanti planned to enter the cell. Xe had already decided upon taking at least one of Project’s ribs as a trophy.

Xanti glanced between red and blue. Yes, xe thought xe’d take the red. The blue was pretty, wasn’t it? Xe’d have that one watch the horrorshow.

“Rude? Yes. But it seems you understand the point of all this. That’s refreshing. I don’t have the patience for idiots who can’t stop begging, as if I’m torturing because I enjoy the mewling.” Xanti’s eyes rolled. “I’m not interested in your pleas for mercy. I’ll make it obvious: you beg for mercy, I will take both eyes. We have a deal? It’s a win for both of us. You keep an eye. And I don’t have to tolerate mewling, ugh.” Xanti glanced at a hovering bone knife, then back to appraising Project’s blue and red eyes. 

“Giving you the illusion of control over your torture is generous, isn’t it? Or does that twist you up inside more? I can read philosophy books all day, but I’ll never understand how the defective think. And I used to be one of you! Strange, eh?”

While Xanti spoke, two slender bone knives slowly closed in on Project. Xyr head tilted, left then right, to get a good look and find the right angle… then, xe attempted to plunge the knives in the corners of the red eye. The knives were like levers, really. Itching around to cut that optic cable connecting the eye to the brain. Eyes were so delicate, after all. What was the point of severing one if it got all mushy?

“You’ve lived that long, eh? And yet you still cling to morality, to good and evil.” Xanti huffed. Then smirked. “At least your pain response will be interesting. I’m so bored of the thrashing, the screams, the shame.”

“My brother found comfort in the repetition, the predictability of killing. In this way, Seamus was like Kiekegaard. Needed to kill to balance the scales of good and evil… whatever that means.”

The red eye popped out with a squelch. Xanti tilted xyr head, and the two bone knives returned to hovering out of reach. The red eye—dangling optic cable and all—circled Xanti’s head in a slow orbit.

“Let me clarify another thing: I’m aware that, to you, I am evil, but I’d hate for you to think I’m a fool. I harbor no illusions about stopping evil with evil. Already told you that is how the defective think. But you killed my brother. This hatred eating me alive? I will bury my hatred under your heart.”

Xanti smirked. The orbiting eye passed in front of xyr maw, and xe snapped xyr teeth around the red eye. It gushed between molars. Xe licked the squelch off xyr lips. And smirked wider. “Any questions, comments, critiques, witty retorts… before I begin your true suffering?”

XANTI

“Huh. He did?” Xanti hesitated, squinting at the wolf as xe scrutinized the body language. Torture didn’t create truth out of liars. Pain simply made tongues looser, and most tongues would wiggle out any words that’d make the pain stop, slow, simmer down to an acceptable threshold. Difficult to tell if Project was lying. But he could believe that of Seamus.

The cheetah rolled a shoulder, tilted xyr head and all seven vertebrae popped. “Thanks for telling me his last words.”

Then, the butt of a bone knife slammed against Project’s mouth. The strike was precise: xe hit the gumline right above the top left incisor. Easy to aim, given the knight captain’s chattiness.

“Your advice is interesting. I’ll remember it for later.” The bone knife slammed against the opposite side; top right incisor. Xanti’s golden eyes narrowed contemplatively. A paw held Project’s muzzle against a bar, while a bone knife held up the lip. With a second bone knife, xe alternated tapping at the incisors (exactly like chiseling marble) until the two fangs dropped to the rock floor.

“Maybe I’m your husband’s reincarnation. That’d be funny, wouldn’t it? I’ve always thought it stupid for a sadistic psychopath to pair with a masochistic martyr, but, hey, maybe I learned that wisdom from a past life.”

Xanti telekinetically lifted the two fangs. They orbited around xyr head in slow circles, then disappeared into xyr satchel.

Xe looked at Project. Grinned. Then placed that paw back against his muzzle, pressed the wolf’s face against the bars. “Squishyface!” Xanti chuckled. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re cuter when you’re bleeding?”

Then xe released xyr grip. “Your morality is the coin… well, what do you do with the blood money?” Xanti blinked in perplexion. “I’m happiest when I’ve done nothing all day but meditate. How do you live when you’re fighting and killing for something as meaningless as coin?”

But Xanti shrugged. Two knives hit Project’s jaw. This time, the bottom fangs.

“I’m not signing my death warrant. I’m burying my hatred under your heart.” A charming grin. “What you do with that hatred is up to you. You want our groups to go to war? Fine, come after me when you’re free. But I’ve already talked with Meteor. He’s quite happy to toss you to the Horde alive as a sign of diplomacy.”

The grin widened. Xanti’s teeth were not vampiric, but the cheetah had xyr own fangs. “Do you understand? I’m giving you a choice: live with the hatred or let your hatred burn. Personally, I think you’ll choose the second option and, potentially, drag those you love to their deaths because you can’t let go of your hatred.”

Xanti’s paw pressed Project’s face against the bar, and, this time, a bone knife. On the bottom left fang, a cut from gumline to jawbone, then a quick stab to that exposed nerve connecting the root to the jaw.

Xanti didn’t release xyr paw, but xe did telekinetically raise the severed fang and place it neatly inside xyr satchel. A charming grin at Project. [b]“Most people are so… unaware of their feelings. I could be an excellent therapist, you know. I’ve tried. I’ve been told I’m quite good at it. But it is exhausting dealing with people’s stupidity.”[/b]

[b]“But torture is cathartic.” [/b]Xanti’s knife smashed into the bottom right fang. It shattered into four pieces, with the root remaining in the jaw.

Xanti angled the knife down. And sliced into the gumline trapping the root.

[b]“You killed my brother for something as stupid as coin, as stupid as intimidating evil foolishness into obedience.”[/b] Xanti’s lips pulled back in a snarl.

The root popped out of the jawline. Xanti levitated the four broken pieces between their faces.

[b]“So I will wind you up with hatred like a music box and watch you burn yourself alive.”[/b]

A smirk as the pieces joined the three intact fangs in xyr satchel. [b]“And you know the funnest thing? I want you to succeed in stepping outside of this anger I’m giving you. I want anyone to prove I'm wrong, that I am not the only one capable of stepping outside the cycle of hatred. But you don’t have the awareness to do so, huh? You lack metacognition. You lack awareness. You’re defective.”[/b]