Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Jacob may have been bluffing, but it was only a partial lie. He stood his ground, glowering at Matthew as the interrogator tried to threaten him by calling the king. While he was well aware that at the current moment, Atlas might respond to the situation impulsively, he also knew that the king didn’t want to completely ruin his relationship with his son. He and Caspian had fought at the hospital, but there was still hope for reconciliation. If the monarch allowed the woman who’d saved the prince to die in an isolation room, however, it would be much harder for him to regain Caspian’s trust and respect. Right now, Atlas needed time to calm down, so he could handle the prisoner rationally without doing anything he may later regret.

“His Majesty is resting right now. My orders came from the prince,” he told the interrogator calmly, refusing to let the other man get under his skin with his verbal prodding. His source was the next best thing anyway. Even if Matthew held Atlas’s word higher than Caspian’s, he couldn’t refute a command that had been passed down from the second highest ranking royal in Aspiria. To try would have been treasonous. As long as the king was sleeping, there was no one else around to give any orders that contradicted the prince’s wishes, so he had every right to take Iris to the hospital for treatment. There was nothing the soldiers could do to stop him, no matter how much they wanted to let her die in the penitentiary.

Fortunately, with some encouragement from his subordinate, Matthew finally backed down without forcing the situation to escalate. Jacob brushed off his last warning and crouched down to gather the girl’s limp body in his arms. For now, he trusted Prince Caspian’s assessment of her and wasn’t worried about being responsible for anything she might do after she recovered. Whether or not his judgment was wise remained to be seen, but unlike King Atlas, he didn’t believe the heir to the crown was a fool who trusted everyone without reason. There was something about Iris that was worthy of being given the benefit of the doubt—at least, this time.

Lifting her off the ground as if she hardly weighed anything at all, the guard carried her out of the isolation room and up to the prison’s flat roof, where he found that the ambulance was already stationed and waiting. As soon as the paramedics saw him approach, they jogged out of the vehicle, bringing a stretcher on which he could lay her down. As he had with Caspian, he accompanied them back into the hovercar, deciding after the soldiers’ despicable conduct that he couldn’t leave her alone with people who may have a vendetta against her for kidnapping their prince.

“What happened to her?” one of the paramedics asked him as they examined her for physical injuries. “Most of the calls we get from this place are because of fights, but I don’t see any injuries.”

“I was told she had a seizure,” Jacob answered with a shrug. “She hasn’t fully woken up since then.”

“I see,” the paramedic frowned and went back to work.

Holding onto the side railing, Jacob sighed and stared out the window to watch the ground disappear as the ambulance rose into the air. Between Caspian and Iris, he had a feeling he was going to be spending the rest of his evening at the hospital. I’m gonna need a stiff drink after all the bullshit that’s gone down today…

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I honestly have no idea where it will go xD They'll either reconcile eventually or it'll all get worse for the remainder of Atlas's life. There's not really in in-between.

And yeah, Jacob obeys Atlas because he's the king, but he has more respect for Caspian

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Holding out a hand to keep the guard at bay, Jacob fixed his gaze on Iris as he waited for his call to the hospital to go through. Not knowing what state she had been in before he’d arrived, he assumed the soldier was either right that she was getting better or just trying to cover his own ass by lying. Either way, the condition she was in now was unacceptable. Just because the standard was to place all rebels on death row upon their arrest didn’t mean orders couldn’t be tweaked and changed. The workers at the penitentiary should have obeyed his new instructions without question, and he was still vexed that they had defied him.

“Your boss should have sent someone with more experience,” he said curtly when the guard floundered to give an explanation for his actions. Though harsh, the statement wasn’t meant to be an insult. It was true. Matthew knew damn well that the isolation wing required guards more skill to manage it. Sending a novice was just another slap in the face, showing how little regard the interrogator had for his authority. He scowled at the girl’s unmoving body, thoroughly pissed that the penitentiary workers were so incompetent that he had to come down and do everything himself.

Capital’s first response. What is your emergency? A voice finally came through the phone.

“I have a prisoner here at the penitentiary who needs immediate medical attention,” he explained concisely. “Send an ambulance right away. My clearance code is JXC7002.”

Let’s see… Mr. Curry? I’ll send a team to retrieve the prisoner now. Bring him out to the landing pad.

“Thank you,” he hung up the phone and slid it into his back pocket, not bothering to correct technician’s assumption that the prisoner was male. The paramedics would find out soon enough anyway. Keeping one hand on Iris’s side, he frowned as she tried to sit up and speak. It seemed like she’d taken poorly to the interrogation under Aproveset and was still shaken up from the torture. Currently unsure if the foul treatment was warranted, he hoped the medical team would be able to provide her quick relief when they arrived. If she was really innocent like Caspian believed her to be, then he didn’t want to be held responsible for abusing her during questionings.

At the sound of Matthew’s voice, he looked up and narrowed his eyes. “Fine, my ass,” he growled, rising to his full height from the ground and crossing his arms. “I don’t know where you get off trying to take over responsibility for this prisoner, but you’re out of line, Matt. Even if I hadn’t given you the order to send her to the hospital, you report to Warden Walker. Somehow, I have a feeling even the warden doesn’t know about this little power trip of yours though.” He cocked his chin at the mention of the other man’s name. Well aware of the chain of command in the prison, he knew Walker would have the authority to override Matthew’s inane decision to throw Iris in isolation.

“It doesn’t matter now,” he went on, standing over her defensively. “I already called the hospital, and an ambulance is on the way. You might as well back off and let me take her up to the landing pad to be transported before I get your superior involved. It would be in your best interest not to mar your record with this tomfuckery while I’m still willing to pretend like it never happened.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Their conflicts are fun to write though, haha

I'm also excited to see what happens with Iris and Jacob, since he's taking responsibility for her now

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

With a fresh list of responsibilities that needed his attention, Jacob boarded the hovercraft with Atlas and returned to the palace. His king’s wellbeing came first and foremost, so he walked with the monarch into the building, listening quietly as the other man grumbled about Caspian’s newfound rebellious streak. Having been a watchful observer of the Maydestone family for years, he’d been surprised to find out that the prince had spoken out against his father, but he couldn’t say that he’d never expected it to happen. The prince and the king were two very different men with very different agendas and priorities. It had only been a matter of time before the heir to the crown snapped at his controlling parent. Privately, he couldn’t agree with Atlas’s anger about the situation, since he felt like Caspian needed the space to make his own decisions and build confidence in order to become a great leader. Outwardly, he murmured his condolences and assured the king that the boy would come around.

Once Atlas had been returned to his bedroom to sleep, Jacob left the palace again to pay the penitentiary an overdue visit. He was still seething that Matthew had directly disobeyed his orders, but he couldn’t tell the king about his insubordination. After the heated exchange that had just happened between the two royals, he suspected that it would be a bad idea to mention Iris’s name until the monarch had a chance to cool down. He wouldn’t have put it past Atlas to have her executed just to get revenge against his son for being disrespectful. Not wanting to rope her into their fighting, he would just have to handle the situation by himself.

So, he took a car alone and arrived alone, not bothering to greet any of the guards he walked past on his way into the penitentiary. Still in a sour mood, he intended to do what he’d come to do and leave without interacting with anyone else. With one hand resting on his holster to warn off anyone who might think he was in talkative spirits, he strode purposefully down the long, gray corridors until he reached the wing where the isolation rooms were kept. It was a part of the prison that he’d never liked. Even more so than the regular cells, the isolation rooms were dark and disorienting. They were completely closed in with cement on the floors, walls, and ceilings and nothing but one dim little light bulb to illuminate the space. Even the doors were foreboding. Instead of open bars, they were made of solid steel with just one thick, tempered glass window in the top that the guards could use to keep an eye on the prisoners inside. The entire area gave off asylum vibes, which was why the security guard had always despised it.

Walking through the wing, he noticed right away which room Iris had been transferred to. It was the only one in the hall that had an open door. He stepped up to the opening and peered inside, immediately irked by the sight of a soldier kneeling on the ground, trying to rouse the unconscious girl. Apparently he’d been right in his guess that she needed medical attention. The idiots at the prison were going to kill her if they kept doing things their way, so he was glad that he’d made the proactive decision to see to her condition, himself.

“What the hell is this?” he snapped, entering the room and dropping to his knees on the girl’s other side. “If she needs to be three-quarters prone, she needs to go to the hospital.” Muttering irritably to himself, he shooed the guard away and pulled out his phone to call an ambulance, hoping the soldiers hadn’t been so incompetent that he would lose her before she could get proper help.

--

At the hospital, Cas only had a few minutes to himself before a nurse entered the room. Glancing down at her, he saw that she looked nervous, and her eyes flicked over the room as if she was searching for something. “Is everything okay, Your Highness?” she asked tentatively. “I thought I heard shouting.”

“Everything’s fine,” he lied in a clipped tone, not wanting to talk or think about what had just happened anymore.

The nurse shrank slightly but approached his bed anyway, looking over his vital signs monitor and frowning concernedly. She could tell that his blood pressure had been elevated, giving away his recent distress. “You shouldn’t raise your voice, Your Highness,” she advised him meekly. “Your broken ribs are still mending, so any kind of pressure on your lungs could delay the healing process.”

“If you don’t want me to yell, then don’t let my dad back into this room again,” he grumbled.

At that, the nurse fell quiet, seeming unsure what to say, and he sighed. As much as he would have liked to keep his father out of his room, he knew no one in the building had the authority to tell the king what to do. “Forget it,” he shook his head dismissively.

She nodded awkwardly. “Well… is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No,” he replied. “You can go. I just want to sleep some more.”

“As you wish,” she bowed formally and slipped out of the room, dimming the lights on her way out to let him nap.

Once she was gone, Cas let out his breath in a long exhale and closed his eyes, trying to simmer down enough to get some sleep. Hopefully if he rested enough, he could hasten his recovery and get out of the hospital. He would have to stay put for twelve hours because of the injections, but he didn’t want to wait around any longer than that. He had to find Iris and make sure his father didn’t execute her or exile her back to the other districts.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas definitely said some things he's going to regret later ^^;

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Is this really necessary?” Cas asked when he and his father had been left alone. “Look at me, dad. Do I seem like I’m not thinking straight to you? I might have been a little banged up, but I’m not fucking brain damaged.” He didn’t want to have a visit with a psychiatrist, especially when the king was calling for one because he thought he was mentally unstable. It was ridiculous. He didn’t deserve to be accused of having something wrong with his head just because he disagreed with his father’s decision to have Iris interrogated. They’d had arguments before, but this was the first time the monarch had ever gone so far as to say that he needed psychological intervention. It hurt him that Atlas’s first flinch after they’d been separated for a week was to distrust him to this degree.

“Watch your language, Caspian,” his father reprimanded strictly. “You’re speaking like a commoner.”

“Seriously? That’s what you’re concerned about?” Cas wanted to throw up his hands in exasperation. “I almost died at least three times while I was outside the capital, but excuse me for swearing. I wouldn’t want to ruin the family name with my foul mouth.”

Atlas stared at him in shock before a scowl contorted his face. “What’s gotten into you? This is no way for you to speak to your father and your king.”

Cas snorted belligerently. “You’re really pulling the ‘king’ card on me? And here I thought you were actually starting to care.” In the back of his mind, he knew he was letting his emotions get the best of him, but the words were already flowing, and he didn’t have the self-restraint to stop them. All at once, every grudge and every pain he had toward his father welled up inside of him, and their only escape was through his lips. Trembling slightly in anger, he crushed the empty paper cup in his hand and held the king’s gaze as he gave voice to the internal wounds he’d buried for so long,

“I should have known better than to expect a warm welcome from you. You’ve never taken me seriously, and you’ve never valued my input on anything. All I am to you is a tool to be molded into the image you want, so you’ll have a perfect heir to take over all your little projects after you die. That’s why you had me in the first place, right? You didn’t want a son, you wanted a descendant to keep the line for the crown intact.”

As his voice raised, the pain in his chest worsened, but he didn’t let it stop him from going on, “Well, guess what. I don’t want it. I hate living like this! Having to walk on eggshells every time I’m around you, constantly worried that I’m not living up to your ridiculously high standards. Getting abducted by the rebellion was the most horrible thing I’ve ever been through, but at least when I was in the other districts, I had the chance to be the kind of man that I want to be, and I was treated like I have value as an individual rather than just a figurehead for your future political ventures. That, to me, was priceless, and I almost regret coming back here if it means I’m just going to have to go back to being your carbon-copy puppet.

“You can be mad at me for having my own independent thoughts, but accusing me of being fucking brain damaged because I disagreed with you? That’s not the way a father should treat his son.” Tears stung the corners of his eyes as his frustration boiled over, and he bit his lip to fight back against the urge to let them go. He’d never spoken out against his father so harshly before, but he was fed up with rolling over every time Atlas told him he was wrong. If being on the run from the rebellion had taught him anything, it was that he was more capable than he’d realized, and he wasn’t going to let the king steamroll over him anymore.

For a moment, Atlas was silent, seeming frozen in shock that his son had lashed out at him. A series of emotions danced across him features, first surprise, then sadness, then finally pure rage. He grasped his cane firmly and rose from his chair. “I don’t know what those anarchists did to you, but I’m glad that you’re seeing a psychiatrist now, because it needs to be undone,” he said coldly.

Cas ground his teeth. He wanted to scream that no one had done anything to him—that this was who he’d always been and that he wished his father would lift him up rather than continue to tear him down. However, he could tell that nothing he said would get through to the king. He was also too angry to keep trying, so instead, he snarled three scathing words: “Go to hell.”

Atlas casted him one final glare and marched out of the room, leaving the prince alone once more.

As soon as he was gone, Cas deflated. The fury that had coursed through him seconds before was replaced with dejection, and he threw the crumpled cup at the closed door. He knew that acting out hadn’t solved anything, but he couldn’t help himself. Slumping on the bed with his gaze fixed dully on the ceiling, he wished he could see Iris again. Right now, it felt like she was the only person in Aspiria who genuinely cared about him.

Meanwhile, in the corridor, Jacob raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. He’d wanted to avoid sending Iris to isolation, but the incompetent soldiers at the prison were making that damn near impossible. “I said hospital,” he barked into the receiver. “It doesn’t matter if she’s on death row, that order comes from above me. Fucking hell.” The last part was added after he stopped his transmission. He was doing his best to keep the girl alive, since Prince Caspian had made it clear that he didn’t want her to die, but if the guards weren’t willing to follow his orders, there was nothing he could do short of making a trip to the penitentiary in person.

I might have to do just that, he groaned and then tensed at the sound of raised voices on the other side of the wall he was standing against. Glancing over his shoulder, he could hear Caspian yelling at Atlas, but he didn’t want to get involved in any more conflicts that day, so he stayed out of it. He made a mental note to relay the information about the northern area of Tongsen to the military and spoke over his com device again: “If she’s barely breathing, call a damn ambulance!” He ran his hand over his face. “You know what? Fuck it. I’m coming down there myself.”

Almost as if on cue, the door to Caspian’s room opened, and Atlas stepped into the hall. “Bring me back to the palace,” the king growled. “I’m done with this visit.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Jacob nodded, leading the way back to the elevator. After he dropped Atlas off at the palace, he planned to go to the prison to find out what had happened to their prisoner since he’d left.

Ban the Person above you

Banned for banning someone without a reason

Word association Game!

lie

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Sorry that one took a while! I was busy again this morning, but I think that's my last appointment for at least a few days or a week or so.