Private A Visit to the Madhouse

[Val Drutin]

Penned in… trapped… a gilded cage.

Val lowered his arms, letting them dangle at his sides. Devoid of emotions as he was in this state, he was not blinded by rage even at the doctor’s mockery of his hopeless situation.

“I’m not Alyosha,” he said, choosing to focus on Benson’s choice of words. “I’m still Val.” As Val as Val ever was, merely lacking in feeling and empathy. The drain on his personality was complete. This was Val at his most lucid, his most serious and saturnine.

He glanced at the smoldering pile of droids, then at his hands, and finally his dark eyes focused on Benson’s face, fixing him with a scrutinizing glare he had never bothered with before. He took in the sterility of Benson’s face, with its mole-like features and clinical expression, and concluded that this mole king’s kingdom could be toppled from the inside. He just needed to bide his time.

“You choked at my command and saw lightning coming from my fingertips, yet you still don’t believe the Force is anything more than a delusion. I’m sorry to break it to you Dr. Benson, but it sounds like you’re as mad as your patients.”

Jakob Benson

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

Benson straightened his head, albeit slowly as the lad corrected him. With such little time to interview the young man, it wasn't difficult for him to get any facts wrong.

However....

...There was much at play here.

Benson steepled his fingers as Val described his point of view. He had heard it all before, encountered such a thing before. Yet it mattered little. "Hypnotists. Magicians. Illusionists. All carry the same perception of abilities. There is a reason why such a belief in the Force is called a hocus pocus religion. Because that is exactly what it is."

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val shook his head.

“What a shame. I’m sure those droids were expensive.”

He turned to look back at the door which he had bowed inward but failed to breach.

“The door, too, will probably cost a lot to fix. Or rather, replace.”

Facing the doctor, he clasped his hands behind his back and bounced on the balls of his feet—a cheerless motion, more to stretch his muscles than convey anything.

“Is your throat all right, doc?”

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

Benson studied the lad some more, noting the change in his voiced as well as his demeanor. It was all very interesting. This wasn't going to be a quick study by any means.

"The droids, the door, it's no matter. We'll simply get you another room." One that was far more suited to hold a Force User. "But first we'll need a hand vacating this one." He unfurled his fingers and brought his commlink out of his pocket. Activating the proper channel, he spoke into it. "Deactivate emergency protocol, passcode forty, ninety-three, zero, one. My current location is compromised. The door needs to be breached. See that it's done. Benson out."

~Understood, sir.~

He pocketed the commlink and once again took on a more patient and casual pose. Only now did he feel the need to answer the lad's last question. "It's nothing that won't be right by morning. It'll be a few minutes before we can move to a different room. So explain what you think transpired here."

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val listened to the conversation that took place over the commlink, the gears in his head turning. He had already guessed that he would be moved to another room not just because he had damaged this one, but because Dr. Benson, for all his posturing about how the Force was nonsense, was a hypocrite. He likely had Force-proof cells and Force-proof restraints waiting for so-called "magicians" like Val.

Mad or not, Val could not live without the Force. It was one of the few things he had left, the last vestige of agency and power he possessed. He had to escape this place, even if it killed him.

As the doctor turned his attention back to Val, the madman's first thought was to knock him unconscious, then concentrate his full willpower on opening the door before the escort arrived. But the cameras would see him attack the doctor, and the emergency protocol would go right back up again.

Sometimes Val could use the Force to inflict his madness on others. Benson was tightly wound, true, but men like him tended to be one step away from insanity despite themselves. In order for the plan to work, Val would have to surrender himself to his Force bond with Alyosha, allowing his mercurial emotions, one of the myriad keys to his lunacy, to take him over again. A dangerous gamble to be sure, but one with a payoff too vital to ignore.

"What do I think happened just now?" he began. As he spoke, he concentrated with the Force, trying to pierce Benson's mind as he had done before, embedding the thorn of madness deep within the doctor's psyche. "A black waltz. A Devaronian jig. A rancor dancing ballet. A court jester who turned out to be a hired assassin, destined to kill the king. But what's this? The king was really the jester all along..."

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

Benson didn't enjoy this situation anymore than his patient did. Not only did it disrupt his schedule, but it also lacked the control that he preferred. This was his domain and his newest patient wasn't being very co-operative.

However he was sure that that would change.

Yet as the minutes ticked by and the lad spoke nonsense, Benson felt a headache coming on quite strongly. It was sharp like a needle. Perhaps some damage had occured with the air intake of the room? Or perhaps it was due to the lack of air he had while being choked. Regardless, Benson couldn't wait to be back into his own quarters.

He massaged the bridge of his nose after removing his glasses. "Rancors, you say? You have quite the....imagination."

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Dr. Benson had removed his glasses and was pinching the bridge of his nose, as if suffering a headache. Was it working? Val wasn't sure. He kept concentrating, aware of the ticking time limit until the escort arrived.

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," he went on, speaking in riddles. He was bombarding the doctor with wild imagery, informed by his words. "In the land of the mad, there is no king. Only the jester, the clown, the subversive."

He was determined to sweep the doctor along the unwieldy current of lunacy and disorder. It would not leave Benson a gibbering lunatic, dragging his knuckles across the ground and howling at the stars - at least not permanently - but it would make him docile and non-threatening.

But like always, Val was having difficulty controlling his power. The madness field was beginning to expand like a maelstrom, dragging everyone around him down to be drowned. The escort, marching down the hall to his room, would feel it too. A violent spasm of the mind that seemed to cleave the brain in two, one side unable to fire a coherent thought at the other.

"I am no rebel. My madness is my love for other people. Kill is kiss. I will do what it wants me to. I will weep, but I will. I will kill if it wants me to. I will die if it wants me to. But we cannot be separated... you cannot separate us."

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

Again came that knife piercing pain in his head. His brow furrowed as he tried to fight it off. First lights started flashing in his vision. And then images. No doubt it was partly brought on by the words the lad was saying. "I...need to sit down." Benson moved towards one of the walls just a few feet away and sat himself down. Sitting on the floor wasn't normal for him, but if he was going to pass out, it would be safer.

The escort were mere Police Droids, so the maddening effect didn't touch them at all. And it was within moments that they began cutting through the durasteel door.

Benson couldn't wait to get out of there.

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val watched in satisfaction as the doctor backed away in an attempt to escape, then sank down onto the floor. It was working - sort of, anyway. It seemed to just be giving him a crippling headache. But as long as he remained incapacitated, it would work to his advantage.

The sound and smell of melting durasteel filled the cell. Val turned his attention to the droids on the other side of the door. He waited for them to finish cutting through, then thrust his hands forward. The Force blasted through the shredded metal, the cut pieces opening like the petals of a flower, and the rest of the blow hit the battalion of droids standing outside, knocking them across the hallway.

Without so much as a glance back at Dr. Benson, Val ran out of the room and down the winding hallway, determined to reach the shuttle and get back to his own ship.

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

Benson's mind ached. Everything was happening as though it was a dream. He saw the droids make headway on the door and get it open. But then the lad seemed to force his way through and leap like the dancer that he was. Benson imagined him dancing and twirling his way down the hallway...

No.

He was escaping!

Benson fished for his commlink out of his pocket. It proved to be more difficult than he liked. He turned it to a channel and spoke in a slurred speech pattern; "Draw the gatesssss....Essscaping laaaad." Within seconds the Emergency Protocol restarted and the laser gates began turning on.

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val saw the lasers gates activating ahead of him. He skidded to a halt between two of the gates, finding himself pinned between the glowing red walls.

"Great..." he muttered, looking around for an alternative escape route. His eye was drawn to a vent overhead, but it was several laser gates away from his position.

He heard the clank of droid feet marching down the hall toward him. "Don't move!" a mechanical voice intoned. Roughly a half dozen police droids were standing at the ready, waiting... for what?

The gates are on a timer! Val guessed. If so, it wouldn't take long before--

Sure enough, the gates began switching off, unable to sustain themselves permanently. When the gate closest to him whirred off, Val leaped past. The droids fired at him, but he blasted them away with a wave of his hand. There was a slight delay, however - he'd been using the Force quite a lot lately, and it was slow to respond.

Still, it was enough that he could deal with the droids and reach the vent. Forcing it open, he jumped up, shimmying inside. It was a tight fit, but luckily that meant he wouldn't have to worry about the droids following him inside.

As he crawled through the vents, he wondered whether Dr. Benson was still feeling the effects of his inflicted insanity. It usually passed quickly, but he wasn't so sure if there were lingering after-effects. The doctor might just be a bit shaken up from the experience, or he could wind up with some weird complex...

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

The stabbing pain in his head eased, yet still Benson gave himself a moment before carefully getting to his feet. He took note of what had happened. The headache mesed with his mind somewhat. Perhaps he was falling ill.

"Secure the patient. Don't let him escape." he spoke into the commlink.

~Dr. Benson, it seems that he is no longer in view of the cameras.~

"Well where did he go?"

~Unknown. We will inform you when he is found.~

"Do not let him escape. Secure the hanger. Benson out."

He narrowed his eyes. That was about as mad as Benson allowed himself to get. With the Emergebcy Protocol in place, even he had trouble moving through the hallway. So instead he walked out of the room through the broken door and just waited for the timing to be right so that he could proceed.

Meanwhile a unit of Police Droids were assembling in the hanger, surrounding Val's ship as they waited for him.

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val reached a strange section of the vents. The narrow passage seemed to stretch forward for miles, a straight path into darkness. There was air passing through, as well as cords through which electricity was tunneled. He tried to avoid the wires as he started to make his way through the tether connecting the asteroids.

It was going to take some time. After all, he'd made this same journey in a shuttle, and it still took at least fifteen minutes. At the rate he was going, he'd be in here for an hour or more. He tried to reach for the Force, hoping to increase his speed, but his connection was curiously faint.

<Hey! Alyosha!> he called into the void, trying to find his brother. If he could reach him, he could tap into his half-brother's unused Force reserves.

Alyosha was evidently somewhere on or near Hoth, hence why he had triggered an episode. The closer their proximity, the more likely they were to have one. But their Force bond had benefits as well as drawbacks - at least, for Val, who was trained in how to use the Force. Alyosha was not, hence why he felt only a twitch upon the thread between them. But it was enough. Val concentrated, and was able to draw the Force into him yet again. He shot forward like a bullet, running faster than the human body was ever intended to go without sustaining any injuries. The effect didn't last very long, but it got him to the end of the tether.

There he found himself overlooking the hangar bay. He could see his ship through the grate, surrounded by police droids. Well, he could deal with them, along with whatever else Dr. Benson could throw at him. He kicked open the grate and dropped down to the floor, then darted into cover behind some crates. The droids didn't know what hit them - a blast of lightning seemed to arc from over the top of a pile of crates, destroying them. Val came out of cover before the last one hit the durasteel, heading for his ship... only to slow down as he boarded the ramp.

How was he going to get the ship out of the hangar bay? He'd have to shut down the magnetic shields. The control center was somewhere up along the wall overlooking the bay. If he could get in there, he could probably find a way to deal with the droids remotely... but then how would he get back to his ship with the shields down and no atmosphere for him to breathe?...

Ugh! Why does everything have to be so complicated?

He had a feeling Dr. Benson would come and try to talk him down, especially now that he was out of the vents. He'd have to exert his control over the doctor's mind yet again, this time to make him give the order. The station was run by droids programmed to obey their master.

Val took hold of his lightsaber, just in case, and went to the cockpit, readying the Stardust's engine. Settling into the pilot's seat, he closed his eyes and stretched out, locating the doctor easily. <Hello, Dr. Benson. I believe it's time for me to be released. You've done it - you've cured me...>

 

[Jakob Benson]

Benson was not a happy camper. Yet his appearance wouldn't betray that at all. Instead he looked to be more casual than anything else.

He brought up his commlink as he took notice that there was no sign of Val Drutin in the hallway. "Shut off the gates. Keep the hanger secure. I'll be there soon."

~Yes Dr. Benson.~ Almost immediately, the laser gates were turned off.

During the time that Val was making his way to the hanger, so too was Benson. But the lad would beat him to it. And as the Doctor rode the shuttle through the hall, he felt words entering his mind. Was it all his imagination? Was he losing it? Perhaps he just needed some time off to destress.

"No one's cured unless I say so." His words were spoken to himself, but aloud. He wasn't exactly anticipating a rrsponse.

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val frowned. His mind trick wasn’t working. Well, he was down to using the reserves...

He still made one more attempt. <But you have cured me. You said so yourself, back in the room. Don’t you remember? You’re going to order the droids to lower the magnetic shields.>

While he did this, Val tightened his grip on his lightsaber. If this didn’t work, he’d have to cut his way to the controls. Hopefully he could find a space suit to get to the ship in.

 

[Jakob Benson]

Val Drutin

Benson paused as he was about to disembark from the shuttle. The words echoed in his mind began to feel...true. Did he tell the lad that he was cured? He recalled the events in his mind. The calm lad entering his room, only for him to go violent. And after an escape attempt the rage disappeared. Benson was sure that he had talked him down, vanquishing his split personality personna until there was nothing but a dancing boy left.

He turned his mental illness into nental wellness. He succeeded.

Benson brought up his commlink. "Lower the shields. Our patient has completed his program successfully. His reward is to return to the Galaxy as a better man. Benson out."

The Police droids didn't question him. They weren't programmed to. They merely did as was ordered.

 

[Val Drutin]

Jakob Benson

Val's face stretched into an ecstatic grin as the magnetic shields lowered. He laughed incredulously, but happily.

"Thank you, Dr. Benson!" he said cheerfully through the comm. "I'll be sure to tell people all about you!" Warn them, more like.

With engines primed and ready, Val piloted the Stardust out of the hangar bay, cleared the asteroid field, and blasted into hyperspace, headed for Coruscant. He was going to refrain from traveling for a while, give his ship a rest. It was about time for the new theater season anyway, and he needed to get back into the swing of things as a performer.

Still, he was uneasy about the whole affair back at the insane asylum. His mind trick would only last for as long as Dr. Benson refrained from looking at his notes and didn't remember what had really happened. Hopefully he wouldn't try to track Val down and finish the job. Either way, Val would have to stay on his toes.

It saddened him to think that other people might find their way into his clutches, whether they were misled into believing the doctor could help them, as Val had been, or they were brought in forcefully. But there wasn't much Val could do to help them. Maybe someone else would come for the doctor and make him face justice for his crimes. Or maybe no one would bother, and the doctor would die peacefully of old age. Hmph.

Shrugging, the madman settled into his quarters, letting the ship's autopilot take over. He was worn out after all the running around and "magician's tricks" he'd spent the day doing. At least in hyperspace, he was safe from control freaks and sociopaths.

(OOC: Thank you very much, it's been swell RPing with you. GG.)