Interrogation - Part Two Individual Assignment (Benjamin Watson)

Practical application. That's what they'd been told last lesson. Ben and Conner had thrown out ideas of what that could mean, but nothing they'd said had prepared him for this...

He'd entered the classroom, not sure what to expect. It was a private lesson, so he wasn't surprised to see no one else. After reading the set up of the lesson, and watching the video, things were a bit clearer. Still, he was caught off guard when two strangers barged into the room, grabbing him roughly and casting a spell over him as they grabbed his own wand. Everything went dark, even as his eyes stayed open, and they pushed him through a door and into a new world.

The first half an hour or so was not much, as his willowy frame was less weighty, and less likely to get tired easily purely by stasis. Even mentally, Ben felt he was holding up rather well. Keeping his mind relatively blank, focusing on the information Clement had told them last class, he tried to stay calm.

It wasn't long after that, when he started feeling the burn in his arms, and at the base of his spine, that his mind started to wander. Images of Tess's visit crept into his thoughts, along with the scattering of various emotions that came with it. He tried to fight the wandering at first, knowing this was part of the exercise. But after a while, he didn't see the point.

That's when he started slipping, literally. It wasn't terrible at first, as the unknown persons pressed something hard into his back, forcing him to sit up straighter. Later on, though, they were a bit rougher.

This is going to be a long night.

(OOC: anything is permissible for interrogation, mentally and physically. While Ben isn't seen as strong, he'll endure quite a bit. He will eventually break under physical stress, though. Mentally, it will take a bit more, but there are weak points to him. Have fun!)

The group of people watched the young man in the room, keeping a check on his health with a team of Healers and keeping notes on progress throughout. There would, at no point, be a point where the man was put in to any such health issues, because the team would call an end to it, and after making it clear that the exercise was over, they would remove him. However, that was not now.

They waited for what was many hours, knowing that physical exhaustion would come as it did to everyone. The moment that happened, two men entered the room, straightening the young man in to the stress position. It continued in much the same way for a period of time, making sure the man knew he could not slack in the move. It was still dark, the men around the candidate knew what they were doing.

"Time to get you working, boy." Drawled one of the men, forcing the detainee to his feet. Enough light filtered in to the room to be able to see. On the furthest side of the room were containers, filled with sand. "Move them from that corner, to this corner." Came the voice of the man in the room, shoving the younger man towards the boxes. They were going to physically exhaust him with trivial tasks. Tasks that would have the young man questioning why, but ultimately exhausting him. They had noted the less muscled structure of the boy, so it was a given that physical torment was going to work better in breaking him down.

And with the hour already growing late, there was absolutely no way the younger man was going to be ready for such work.

Sweat dripped slowly down the center of Ben's back, beneath his black dress shirt. He would have preferred to at least get a bit comfortable, but with being kept in this position, he wasn't able to roll his sleeves up or unbutton a few buttons. Not only was the room cold in general, but the strain of maintaining this position was warming his muscles, making him feel feverish. With his arms barely staying in place over the hours, his head hung low as he waited for what felt like forever.

Finally, Ben heard noise from behind him. There had been a couple guys in the room for a while now, making sure he stayed in position. But now there were more. They must have lifted the spell on his sight or something, because he could see a dim light throughout the room. It wasn't very big, but then, it didn't need to be.

When one of the men started talking, pushing him to his feet, he almost didn't catch what was said, he was so relieved to be able to move. The words registered and Ben shot an angry glare at the man speaking, his jaw clenching back a curse. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of a response. The man shoved him forward, towards the pile of nondescript boxes in one corner.

Moving towards them, he could already feel the ache in his limbs, mostly his shoulders and knees. His brow furrowed as he looked at the boxes. This is the test, he thought. There were no easy hand holds, and when he tried one out, the weight was enough that it made lifting them quite a task. He managed to get the first one up and into his arms without too much fuss.

The others were not nearly as easy.

With each box, his limbs got more tired, his body visibly shaking under the exertion. He'd managed four before his knees gave out on him, sending him bodily to the floor with a groan. His hands took most of the impact as pain radiated up through his arms like a shot of fire. Ben sucked in air through gritted teeth, his eyes focusing on the floor before him.

This is just the beginning, he thought. Not sure what they had in store, he used the side of one of the boxes to lever himself up. Even then, he had to lean on the small stack of them for support. His hair hung in loose curls, falling in his eyes. With his body giving out so easily, he at least had his mind.

With the young man moving without a word, the other men watched him, smirking as he struggled with even the first box. But there was a steady flow from the boy. The shaking grew with each box, and when there was a fall, two of them moved to right him, pushing him away from the leaning position he'd taken on the boxes.

"No rest for you." They chided, watching him move back towards the boxes. Only when he was back at the boxes did they up the ante on the situation, two men moving to grab the Auror-in-Training and pinning him up against the wall.

"Name. Mission." One demanded through his teeth.