Isabel took the offered smile as an invitation that she didn't have to expand upon the meaning behind her words, which was appreciated. She wasn't always a talkative person, but when she got going she always seemed to end up saying more than she had meant to or letting something slip that she shouldn't have and it usually landed her in a little bit of trouble depending on who she was speaking to or about. But she wasn't talking to Zephyr, just about him and chances were they'd go in one of Allison's ear and out the other anyway while the two of them were so absorbed in their current project. She was just whining and letting off a little steam, not initiating any sort of trouble.

She watched idly as Allison released the cut heart and wandered back over to the incredibly noisy sightless man. The little mass of bones wriggled from one of her hands to the other and she distractedly controlled it, not wanting it to rest for too long lest it start to give her trouble with her manipulations. She'd never tried to deal with dead bone before and she didn't want to let it settle for any length of time to test that theory just yet.

"Looks like pig's blood to me," she replied when prompted, taking a few steps closer to the pair so she could see the man's face better. His expression really was priceless. "He certainly squealed like a pig anyway." She smirked as the man seemed to be fighting against his gag reflex, lest it force him to open his mouth and risk letting any of the substance drip onto his tongue.

With a small, disgusted huff she turned away from the man and back toward the three caged ones, all of which wore expressions of mixed horror, disgust, and nausea. She strolled over to the cage very casually and allowed a section of it to melt away when she touched it. The little bone creature skittered out of her hand and onto the criss-crossing bone barrier, still attached to her hand by a thread. It was amusing to watch them struggle to decide whether to keep away from her or the spidery thing headed in their direction.

In the end one of the more foolish men made a run at her, perhaps thinking he could knock her out of the way and make a break for it. She smirked and gave the leash a tug, prompting the skittering creature to launch itself at the man and attach to his head, each spine breaking skin as it skittered and settled across his face. He crumpled to the floor screaming along immediately, after which she dragged him from the cage by the leash, allowing the hole to close up once they'd both made it through the barrier.

"That sounds about right." Allison had really been aiming for taunting him with his friend's blood, but he could probably figure that out on his own. Pig worked. She traced another random, idle line of blood across his face, then used his shirt to wipe her hands off again.

The friend wasn't technically dead yet, but wasn't far off, and apparently wasn't much fun anymore either. Allison watched while Isabel let the next select itself, and rolled her eyes. Really, he thought he could get past Isabel? It couldn't possibly have been more obvious that she wanted him to try. He deserved whatever he got... though that was, again, gruesome. Maybe Allison should figure out a way to show Isabel neater ways of torturing humans.... Oh well. Maybe later. For now, Isabel could have fun however she wanted with these; it wasn't like they were enjoying the experience.

Though, one at least appeared not to be scared enough. And to think he could escape; how cute. Granted, the bones that made up his cage looked a bit fragile, but even if he could break them, he certainly couldn't break enough in a short enough time to escape before they noticed. That he was trying was irritating, though, so Allison left the blinded man and wandered over.

Watching him spot her and immediately back away was so satisfying. The other caged man imitating him was almost as good.

Allison stopped right next to the cage, and peered through. The men had backed away as far as they could, and were alternating stares at her and at Isabel. She grinned. "So what should we do to you two, then? You won't have to wait too long, I promise."

Allison seemed to be taking an interest in the caged men as well. Isabel had to wonder if the blinded one was the ringleader or something since he was being toyed with and left for so long. Or maybe Allison was simply eager to do as much damage as quickly as possible and thought it included spreading the torment among them men equally, rather than one at a time. Isabel tended to be a little more focused than that. Or perhaps absorbed was a better term. She also wasn't so good at prolonged torment, unlike Allison seemed to be. Isabel was a killer, not a torturer. She killed quickly and moved on. Toying with her food beyond taunting them during the struggle wasn't much her style. This wasn't even a fight. It was closer to slaughtering livestock, which she didn't have as much of a taste for.

"I can open that for you," she offered as she noticed Allison approaching the cage. It was a simple matter of pulling the mesh back if she wanted, she'd just have to send a tendril of bone toward it to make the connection. Until Allison confirmed or denied her interest in entering the enclosure, Isabel let her attention drift to the wriggling man with the mass of spines speared to his face. With a sigh she placed a hand on top of the bone, the spines there flattening out under her palm, after which she slowly leaned her weight against it, allowing the pressure to build against the man's face and watching him start to thrash as it did.

She was beginning to get a little bored with the endeavor. Sure, it was more fun than she'd had in a while, but there was no real struggle to it and the initial excitement was wearing off. These men were nothing but cowards who got off on overpowering weaker targets and stroking their own egos during down time. They acted tough when it was five against one and the victim could be easily overpowered, but put them up against someone like her and they crumbled into nothing. It wasn't even a challenge.

"No, that's okay." Allison supposed her staring into the cage was misleading, but she continued anyway. The men were nicely frozen against the wall while she did.

It was only entertaining for so long, though. And after a few minutes of watching their terror started to dull, and their glances started going to the bone and the wall as often as to Allison and Isabel. That was mildly irritating, but oh well; the brain was only capable of sustained terror for so long, especially when they weren't actually doing anything to the two yet. That could be fixed later.

Allison wandered back over, eyed the man Isabel was dealing with, and decided she was perfectly happy listening and not watching. So she turned back to the blinded man, and idly poked his side with her toe. He screamed, flinched, and did his best to scramble away from her. Allison burst into surprised laughter.


In the cage, one of the men was panicking too much to think. The other had been, but wasn't now; he'd realized exactly what part of the wall they were trapped against, and begun searching as discretely as he could for a section of board that would open.

He had to wait for the smaller girl to leave before he could actually open it, but as soon as she did he found almost what he'd hoped for. Not a gun, but a knife; most of a foot long, strong, and heavy. He left the sheath in the hidden hole, though he didn't bother to close it before pulling his arm back and swinging as hard as he could at the bone bars of the cage.

If he could kill Isabel--and the slut that was apparently her friend--he'd be famous....

Isabel didn't hear the first few tentative thuds of metal against bone as her attention was more focused on the man she had dragged out of the enclosure. Several of the spikes that were neither embedded in the man's ruined face nor flattened into a space for her hand to rest had begun expanding to pierce several places along his neck and around his collar bone. She was observing the way his body jerked each time and listening to the odd gurgling sound that issued from behind the mass of spines. He'd probably bleed out soon.

Her toying ceased once her mind registered the new sound filling the room and her head turned back toward the caged men. She didn't know when one of them had managed to get his hands on a machete, but it certainly made things a little more interesting. She hadn't been banking on the captives having anything at their disposal that could have been of any use to them in escaping, and as such she hadn't reinforced their enclosure against any sort of armed assault. As such the knife was doing pretty well at hacking away sizable chunks of bone, though it'd still take some time before the man could squeeze his way out into the main area of the room.

She couldn't help but grin as she abandoned her current project and sauntered over to the cage. "You really think that dinky little thing is going to do you any good? You do know I can fix that damage insanely easily, right?" she asked, peering curiously at the blade and the amount of damage he'd already done. He didn't seem to appreciate that. A combination of her insults and her closer proximity seemed to redouble his efforts and he began hacking wildly at the white cage, probably trying to slash her face in the process. She'd let him continue a while longer before she ruined his silly attempts.

Allison... was getting kind of bored.

Granted, terrifying the men was fun. And they deserved it. But she was kind of running out of things to do. Listening to Isabel play with them was fun, but it was a bit... well, it wasn't the blood that was the problem; it was everything else that was a bit too much for her to look at for long. And prodding the blinded man and watching him flinch was amusing, only he stopped flinching after a bit and just lay there shaking. A bit amusing, but not so much that the entertainment lasted long. Eventually she gave up and circled around to place her shoe on his head, with just enough pressure to give him a headache.

...Hm. Apparently one of them thought he could escape. Really? Isabel was here. Allison was a bit limited as a fighter, sure, but Isabel wasn't. Isabel seemed to have noticed, though, so Allison raised an eyebrow, directed an amused look at the men in the cage, and stayed where she was.


The man did know. He'd hoped he could get through in a few swipes, but that had been proven wrong; he'd hoped he could get through before either of the girls noticed, but that clearly wasn't working either. Well, he had a new plan; he hacked a hold that was easily large enough for his arm, and then kept hacking, like he was still trying to get out. And once she was in reach, and believed he was stupid enough to try that, swung through the hole, at her. He didn't much care where he hit; a knife this big, she'd bleed out pretty quickly no matter what.

The other man wasn't as calm (or as angry) as the one with the knife. Seeing someone on his side with a knife, making a difference, though, helped him calm down. There wasn't another convenient weapon in the wall--or the floor, for that matter; that hidey hole was on the other side of the room--but he had a pocket knife. Once he remembered that he dug it out. It wasn't anywhere near as effective as the larger one, but by that point the bone manipulator had noticed what the first man was doing, so he set to work sawing quietly at the bone bars of the opposite end of the cage.

Apparently the man with the large knife had accomplished more than Isabel had anticipated. As soon as his arm shot through a previously partially obscured gap in the bars, she jerked backward to try and avoid the blade, though she was only mostly successful. She'd managed to get her face out of the way, thus avoiding any really problematic injuries, though he did manage to put a gash into her collarbone and part of her chest. She took another step back away from the thrashing arm and assessed the damage, her grin slipping off of her face. The was a rather lengthy cut, but thanks to her hidden armor it wasn't very deep.

Quirking a brow, she turned her attention back to the caged man, the gash being sealed by a number of staple-like spikes of bone as she refocused her attention. There was already a large red stain blossoming across the front of her shirt, though the makeshift stitching would stem the flow of blood. He'd gotten a good shot in, but it would be the last injury she sustained at the hands of these fools.

Shaking her head she approached the cage again, keeping a careful eye on the blade and the hand holding it and ignoring the gradually intensifying pain that was starting to settle into her skin. All she had to do was wait for him to swing it one way or the other before she moved. It was easy enough to wrap her fingers around his wrist and haul the rest of his body against the cage as she pulled the arm taut. She just had to find the right place to squeeze and he dropped the knife quickly enough.

"You wanna play with blades? I can show you how it's done," she cooed, her grin sliding back into place a she formed her own blade, easily larger than his own though the size was mostly for show. She kept a vice-like grip around his wrist as her other arm raised and he tried to jerk away from her. One good swipe and she'd driven the blade deep enough to hit bone, just below his elbow. She let the blade dissolve as the man hollered before she dug her fingers into the wound and splintered the bone into a hundred different pieces, effectively leaving him with a useless appendage that was being held by a few sections of muscle and skin.

She released the man's wrist and let the limp arm fall against the bars of the enclosure, smiling serenely as she watched the man yelling and beginning to panic again. He'd bleed out quickly enough.