The Dragon's Keep

[Saphire_L_Fox]

( Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, the shadow in the background of the morgue. )

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

This innocence, it's brilliant. I hope that will stay. This moment is perfect, please don't go away. I need you now and I'll hold on to it.
Don't you let it pass you by.

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

Rose turned almost stoic as the man spoke to her, saying things that she hadn't heard, at least, not in a long time. Power was indeed a stupid thing to rely on, but most men used it instead of using their brain, which led to the conclusion that it would be a battle of the minds, rather than sheer force. But she was glad to hear that he at least had some common sense behind his bullheadedness. But she couldn't help the small bit of sizzling anger that rose up as he said that Gus was 'sturdier'. How did he know? Just because she looked petite didn't mean she couldn't take a hit or deal one out in return. Hands went to her hips before she turned narrowed blue eyes on Rex. "Is that so? How do you know that I can't take a hit? Just because of what I look like? What's that saying? 'Never judge a book by it's cover'." She said before a light 'hmph' was released and she crossed her arms under her bust.

But his outlook on sex made her question everything she'd ever learned about men. When presented with the opportunity of sex, they usually took it, no matter the consequence or cost. She lost herself in thought momentarily, her eyes trailing over the pool table as he moved the white cue ball to it's position on the table. She'd never been one to play games, even gambling or board games were dismissed. Rose only ever had one thing on her mind and that was the bills. What it would cost her to be able to eat again. What it would cost to keep the roof over her sister's head, even for one more night. His voice said the words, but she refused to believe that there was nothing she could do to ensure her sister's safety, even if it was for two days.

It was true that they were only going to be there for a little while, but there was more danger in this place than there ever was in their small cage. Here where Lily could get hurt or hit, even with Gus there to protect her too. Rose moved her hand away from the table as Rex grabbed a stick and struck the white ball with a loud crack as it smacked into the others, sending them scattering out of formation and a striped one falling into a pocket in the corner of the table. "I've never played." Rose admitted as she stared down at the table, refusing to look up at the man. Admitting her short comings was never a favored thing to do, least of all with the hot blush that was creeping up her on her cheeks.

***

Lily looked up at Gus as he spoke to her and then trailed her violet blue eyes to her feet only to see bloody foot prints across the floor. "I can't get infections. But the blood needs to get clean up. Before she could move to grab a rag or paper towel, she was stopped by Gus as he moved closer to her before gently picking her up, an arm under her knees and another around her back. "I'm fine, Gus. Really. I didn't even notice till you said something about it. She protested softly as she sat as still as possible in the unbalanced android's arms. Without another protest, Lily did what she was asked, wrapping thin arms around the man's neck. She didn't know what to do, what to say, but she was sure that two words would do. "Thank you." She whispered softly to him as she looked down at the floor. It was rather embarrassing for her to have to be carried rather than to walk, like she was seven again being carried up to her room and away from her sister in the orphanage. With a soft sigh, she left the subject go and only gave a soft nod to herself. "So... What is the schedule that I will be following until we are taken back to the market?" Lily asked Gus, her voice soft so that she wasn't too loud since they were so close together. She didn't want to blow his ear drums if it were possible.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

Take my hand let's go somewhere we can rest our souls. We'll sit where it's warm, you say 'look, we're here alone'.
I was running in circles, I hurt myself just to find my purpose. Everything was so worthless, I didn't deserve this, but to me you were perfect.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

( Where are you? And I'm so sorry. I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight. I need somebody and always. This sick strange darkness comes creeping on so haunting every time. )

 

[tricklesky]

▐ █ ████████████████████R█E█X█████████████████████ █▐

"Perhaps you could take a hit. I'm just saying Gus could take it easier. Perhaps more expensive, but easier all the same. He's ******** made of metal, after all. Hitting a person compared to hitting him would be like hitting a moose versus a ******** brick wall. Hurts the hands. And some books are just like their covers." He added the last sentence as an afterthought, and he fully expected the young woman to take offence. He wouldn't care if she didn't, but from what he had seen so far she, like him, was easily riled up. When she said she had never played pool, he was surprised. She would fit right into the club scene with her attitude, and pool was one of the things that was in many a club. At least, that's what he assumed. He'd only been to a few clubs and he didn't leave the house all that often. He gave a small harrumph. He had gotten in the mood to play and then found his opponent ignorant. He found the idea vexing, but he supposed he could trouble himself to teach her the game. "s**t. Well, I guess I'll have to teach you again. Grab one of the sticks of the wall." He said, putting the rubber capped end of his stick on the floor and holding it similar to a staff. He had never taught anyone to do anything before, supposing teaching Gus by yelling he was doing things wrong didn't count. It would be an interesting experience. At the retrieval of the stick, he gestured at the table. "The goal is to get all your balls in the holes. In this game, you would the solid balls while I got stripes. The s**t part of the game is you can only move balls by hitting the white ball and causing it to ricochet. Save the black ball for last." Well, that got the basics out of the way, but would she get it? Intelligence for this sort of thing did not always run high.

He leaned around his stick, looking at her silently with brown eyes. He ran his fingers through his still messy hair. Gus would get on him for that later. He watched the girl because he was trying to think of something to say. No, he didn't have the urge to talk and he didn't need to, but he was curious of her all the same. He was still seriously thinking of returning her, but he didn't talk with people besides Gus and his publishers and it was interesting to him to see a new face. Plus, although it was not for sexual reasons that this came up, she was a girl. For some reason, girls thought differently than men did. Perhaps because they weren't ruled by testosterone. And now that he wasn't just angry it was harder for him to think of anything to say because it was no longer a rebuttal but an answer. "So what shitty thing happened to make you a ******** slave?" Rex lacked any sense of finesse. It was sort of funny. In cursing he did a double entendre. Right off the bat he brought up what could of been a painful subject. The worst part was that he didn't even realize that he might have brought up a touchy subject. Not that it would have mattered if he did. Now that it was said it couldn't be unsaid.

Gus held her without moving for a moment, his systems adjusting. "It's good you can't get infections. We should still clean up your feet." He said. He was slightly worried when she said she didn't feel it. How was that possible? Did she have an issue in her nervous system? That could cause deficiencies in touch. His systems adjusted faster once her arms were around her neck. It moved her weight to be closer to the core and made it easier on him. He began to walk once his systems were good, taking her to the living room. Her two words echoed in his head. He nodded. "It is of no consequence." He set her on the couch, immediately removing his somewhat ragged vest to put underneath her feet as he propped them on the table. His sweater was just as ragged as his vest, yarn sticking out in various places as the pattern was clearly unraveling. He crouched next to her feet and looked at them, his eyes whirring as they zoomed to look more closely at the glass. As he did so, he took of one of his gloves. It was clear why he wore them after he took them off. There were many wires visible between the joints of his 'fingers'. If water or any other liquid got into his hands they were likely to short out. The pads of his fingers were also metallic, so he wouldn't have a grip on anything without the gloves. He took them off for a reason here, though. His hands were very similar to a very complex swiss army knife. He used his gloved hand to fiddle with the ungloved hand and within moments he had what resembled a pair of tweezers extending from two of his fingers. They were just long enough so no blood would get on his hands. "I apologize if I hurt you any." The android said as he used the tweezers to begin picking glass out of her feet. He set the pieces he pulled out on the table in a pile. He would sweep them up later. He was very careful, although not as gentle as he had been when he was picking her up. He was not made to do these very small tasks gently. He was made to be screwing things in or holding things in place. Carefully taking glass out of flesh was not on his list of functions. However, he'd been having to do a lot of things he wasn't made for here, and this was just another to add to the list.

▐ █ ████████████████████G█U█S█████████████████████ █▐

Saphire_L_Fox

 

[Saphire_L_Fox]

( Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, the shadow in the background of the morgue. )

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

This innocence, it's brilliant. I hope that will stay. This moment is perfect, please don't go away. I need you now and I'll hold on to it.
Don't you let it pass you by.

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

The statement that he'd made about hitting Gus apposed to hitting her was actually more logical that she first though, but she doubted that Gus would have hit back. Maybe that was another logical point? With her, it was a very good point. Hitting something like a wall was much easier than hitting a person because while you still got that anger out, you didn't need to get in a full blown fist fight. But for her, hitting walls had lost it's potency. She usually resorted to hitting people. No. She resorted to hitting men. But the last sentence did catch her attention and while that was true, it was mostly false. "True, but most don't. You take an older book that has a plain cover and it could be one of the best books you read while you take a book with an exquisitely detailed cover and it can be a total bust. Like... The first copy of The Odyssey that I ever laid my hands on was in rugged condition, but it was one of the best books that I've ever read, other than Grim's Fairy Tales. Rose replied to him, her mind trailing over the words of the books she'd all but memorized.

Again? He'd have to teach her again? It made her send a look to him before she dropped the subject and listened for once. It wasn't like there was anything better to do, right? Rose made for the wall, grabbing a pool stick from the wall before she returned to the table, listening to the basics of the game. It was all about angles and tactics to get your balls into the right pockets. She'd never been good with angles, so this would be a challenge and one she probably wouldn't stop until she got it right.

As Rex leaned in with the stick to line it up with the white cue ball, she couldn't help but notice him looking at her, but she shrugged it off. It wasn't anything new to her than men looked at her, especially ones that only lived with another man as far as she knew. But his question threw her off. Even his double entendre made her cast those blue eyes toward him, but she wasn't sure if she should answer him or not. Seeing no point in not answering, Rose took in a deep breath. "My sister killed someone who was trying to back her into a dark alley to get his jollies off. Instead, Lily panicked and threw his ability back at him and he died because of his decision. Before we could get out of town, the police showed up and instead of putting us in jail, they sold us to the slave market. As for the ******** part, I do it so no one makes moves toward Lily. You're only innocent once and she doesn't need to see what the real world is like yet." Rose explained, her voice softer than it was as she focused solely on the pool table.

Gus' words were true, but there was still so much to get done. There was still blood in the kitchen that needed to be cleaned and there were probably meaningless other tasks to do. But she knew that there was little worrying about those when her feet were still bleeding so she allowed Gus to carry her to the couch and set her down on the cushions, his vest being folded up and put under her feet as her hands moved to smooth the brown dress over her legs. Violet blue eyes watched Gus carefully as he removed his glove, but the wiring in his fingers intrigued her more than it scared. But the words that fell from her lips weren't on the subject. "Don't worry about the pain. It can't be any worse than going hungry for months at a time." Her eyes turned to his disheveled sweater though, noticing the broken threads and pieces of yarn sticking out from it. "If you like, I can knit you another sweater. The one you're wearing looks like it's about ready to unravel." Lily said softly to him, hoping her didn't take offense to her scrutinizing his wardrobe. But then, that brought her back to the thoughts of the wardrobe in the bedroom with the wardrobe and she wondered if her knitting one would be necessary at all. The thoughts clouded her mid, even as he removed the glass from her feet. She didn't move, barely flinched, from the pain of him poking at the open wounds in her feet. Truth was, when she was scared or worried, pain was set on a back burner and usually wasn't noticed in the least, but she didn't expect Gus to know that only an hour or so after they'd arrived in the home. Instead, Lily sat still, all but lost in the whirlwind of thoughts that occupied her mind.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

Take my hand let's go somewhere we can rest our souls. We'll sit where it's warm, you say 'look, we're here alone'.
I was running in circles, I hurt myself just to find my purpose. Everything was so worthless, I didn't deserve this, but to me you were perfect.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

( Where are you? And I'm so sorry. I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight. I need somebody and always. This sick strange darkness comes creeping on so haunting every time. )

 

[tricklesky]

▐ █ ████████████████████R█E█X█████████████████████ █▐

Rex was surprised. She had read the Odyssey? That was definitely unexpected. His surprise was reflected on his face. And she liked the Grimm Fairy Tales? Another surprise. Rex himself was not a huge fan of the Brothers Grimm, but he had to respect their work anyway. All this coming from the equivalent of a prostitute. The human race was certainly one for surprises. Then again he should know that by now. He still found himself caught off guard. He didn't like that. "Hmph. So you've read the Odyssey and a book of morbid children's stories. Big ******** deal. Gotta know more than that to be able to impress me. Although you did surprise me... a little. And I've learned to forget the cover and just read the ******** book, something I would have done whether the book was like it's cover or not." He leaned over the table, aiming the stick and hitting the cue. It went where he wanted it to go for the most part. It was a few degrees off. Just enough to mess up the shot. Rex gave a hurrumph before backing away from the table, standing by to lean on the pool stick. "Your turn. I'll give you an extra shot to figure out which side you work better with. Call it a handicap or something."

As he stood by, he listened to her response, slightly seething to himself and his bad play. Then again, he was only okay at the game of pool anyway. It's not like he was a champion or anything. Not to mention he'd never actually played the game with anyone before. Mostly he just dinked around with the table when he had nothing better to do. "What a ******** moron." Rex replied. Part of the response intrigued him, however. The throwing the ability back part. "What do you mean by 'threw his ability back?" And then the weird curiosity question. "And what the hell do you do when the guy doesn't want angry hate sex or simply has a thing for silver hair?" He cocked his eyebrow, one again all semblance of consideration going down the crapper. And it just didn't stop. Rex and his honesty were so troublesome sometimes. "And when are you going to let her see the real world anyway. It's been seven hundred years or somethin' right? How old does she have to be. And don't you think she should've figured out that the human race is screwy by now? It's not like she's an idiot and call me crazy but I'm pretty sure she's not exactly blind to what you do for her. " He didn't understand the way this girl thought. She was weird and to him her logic didn't follow. He just didn't understand her in the least. Then again, he just didn't understand people in general. He spent way too much time in the sole company of the logical Gus. He really needed to get out more. He liked his holed up life, sadly, and it was going to take a hell of a lot more to be able to get him to change his mind then a single pool game. He was pigheaded like that.

------------

Gus paused a moment, his mind allowing one function at a time for such a sensitive process. "What does hunger feel like?" He asked, going off topic with her. Gus, as an android, had never known any feelings that was internal and was somewhat curious because of it. However it wasn't exactly something he would ask Rex, and looking it up online just didn't come to fruition. But perhaps Lily could answer him. His eyes turned to his sweater at her comment, just noticing it. Not for the first time. He noticed it a little more than every other day, but he didn't deem it important enough to remember so he also forgot it more than every other night. "So it is. I've been wearing this sweater for... two years now. It makes sense it is worn. I only remove it to wash it. I will not trouble you to make me a new one, but I am not able to object if you choose to do so." He returned to his task. He almost had all the glass out of her feet, so he began also scanning to make sure he hadn't missed any pieces besides the ones he had not gotten to yet. After a few minutes, he was done. The tweezers were put where they were supposed to go after being wiped on his vest, and his glove was returned to his hand. He would have to clean the tweezers more thoroughly later. "Wait here a moment, please." He said, standing and retreating to the medicine cabinet. When he returned, he had a small bottle, a thin pad looking thing, and gauze. He put a few large drops of the solution in the bottle onto the pad before placing it on the sole of her foot, wrapping it around with the gauze to hold it on. He repeated this on the other foot. Then the thought occurred to him she might want to know what he was putting on her feet. "The solution is called numbweed. It should dull the pain a little." He said as he lightly lifted her feet off his vest. Now both his vest and one of his gloved had blood on it and needed to immediately be put in cold water so it wouldn't stain."Stay down for a few minutes. When I get back I will inform you of your duties and perhaps you can help me figure out something for your sister as well." He left and drew a cold tub of bathwater in Rex's bathroom and promptly dropped both of his gloves and the vest into it. He then went to the garage to put on his backup gloves, which were much like his others but were black instead of brown. He then returned to sit on the couch next to Lily's now bandaged feet.

▐ █ ████████████████████G█U█S█████████████████████ █▐

Saphire_L_Fox

 

[Saphire_L_Fox]

( Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, the shadow in the background of the morgue. )

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

This innocence, it's brilliant. I hope that will stay. This moment is perfect, please don't go away. I need you now and I'll hold on to it.
Don't you let it pass you by.

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

Rose gave the man a simple shrug at his words. She too had come to the point where covers didn't matter, but she wouldn't have agreed with him about it. "I'm not trying to impress you. If I was, I would tell you that I'd gotten a full scholarship to Harvard, Yale and Princeton by the age of sixteen. But impressing someone who doesn't matter is like pouring a bucket of water in the ocean. Completely pointless." The blond watched him carefully, examining everything that he did. Telling her that she could have a 'handicap shot' made her send a glare his way, but she silently took it as a small gift rather than an insult.

Rose moved the stick onto the table, aiming it at the cue ball before lining it up with the solid yellow ball with a '1' printed on it in a bold black number. Lining up the angles almost perfectly, Rose took the shot. The math that was done in her head was close to correct as the balls collided and it sent the yellow ball into a corner pocket. A smug smile crawled over her face as she turned her electric blue eyes once more to him. As he responded though, she paused and turned her eyes to the floor. His questions were all relevant and they had all come up at least once. Even the comment about how long Rose was going to protect Lily against the real world.

Taking a deep breath, she thought carefully about the answers. "We're mimics. We mimic the ability of other creatures and people, whether it be a type of manipulation of shifting, if they can, we can. Lily has the ability to take someone's ability, whether they are using it or not and make it their weakness. So like... If you had the immunity and the ability to control fire, she could take that ability from you and shove it in your face, burning you to a toasty little crisp." She wasn't going to go into her ability, not yet, at least. Another deep breath was taken in to fill her lungs as she addressed the other questions, though the first was simple and not very clean. "I kill them, of course. As for how long I'm going to keep Lily away from the real world..." There was a long pause as Rose once more took into account the answer before she bit her bottom lip and turned her eyes to the table to examine the next move she'd make. "As long as she needs me. She's not blind to what I do, but I know that if half the things that could have happened, would have happened, I wouldn't have her anymore. She's the last strand of my own innocence and she's my only weakness." Rose admitted this with a straight face, unable to lie to herself about what Lily meant to her.

~~~~~~~~~

The man's question caught Lily completely off guard and it took her a moment to gather her mind back up before she could even think about an answer. "It's like... a knotting pain in your abdomen. Like... If someone blew a hole through the circuits in your stomach. It hurts, like a twisting knife, at least, if you go way too long without eating. If you've only gone a little while, it's just a small twinge of feeling that lets you know that you are hungry. I'm not sure how to explain it, really..." She confessed lightly before she let out a small sigh and a shrug. His response even made her gasp. Two years? In one shirt? She thought before she thought about how long it would take her to make a sweater for him. At least then he could have another one to switch with, maybe two if she found the right necessities quickly. "I don't mind at all. I live to serve. It's no problem for me." The smile that was on her face could have been the perfect picture of innocence.

Once Gus was done on her feet, she watched him with great interest as he put the tweezers back into his hand and put his glove back on. She nodded to his command and waited, looking around her at the room. It was nice, but modest, unlike most of the other places she'd been to that wore their riches in their home and on their bodies. Lily liked the simplistic approach to this home and everything in it, though her mind couldn't resist wondering what Rose and Rex were, but she'd been told more than once not to follow her in a master's company. Lily lightly bit the inside of her lip, lost in her thoughts when Gus returned, a few things in his hands. She watched as Gus applied the solution to her feet and then wrapped the gauze around her feet. Not like it wouldn't heal before the night was through, but she appreciated the gesture none the less. "Thank you, Gus." She said to him softly before lifting her feet as he took the vest that had been under her feet and left with it.

There was no real pain to her feet, nothing but the light sting of open wounds. It was nothing that she wasn't used to and it wasn't like the numbweed would hurt her more than it helped, right? No sense in making a scene just because she couldn't feel the wounds to begin with. Silently, Lily waited for Gus to return, her eyes still admiring the room around her.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

Take my hand let's go somewhere we can rest our souls. We'll sit where it's warm, you say 'look, we're here alone'.
I was running in circles, I hurt myself just to find my purpose. Everything was so worthless, I didn't deserve this, but to me you were perfect.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

( Where are you? And I'm so sorry. I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight. I need somebody and always. This sick strange darkness comes creeping on so haunting every time. )

 

[tricklesky]

▐ █ ████████████████████R█E█X█████████████████████ █▐

"That would have done the opposite of impressing me, as I would have called you a bald faced lying b***h. It's impossible for any human to do that and even if it was a whore like you wouldn't be able to do it on top of your slut activities." He expected her to take it personally. "And there's another thing we agree on, Rosie." He leaned heavily on his stick as she made the shot and succeeded in getting the ball in the corner pocket. She looked at him then, smugness all over her face. It was just one ******** ball. That made them even. However, although she was proud of her shot it was smothered almost immediately after, as his comments seemed to hit home. She avoided answering immediately, but instead answered his question on his sister's ability. He listened, his eyes boring into her head as she looked away. She didn't mention her own, but it couldn't be far from her sister's as she had said they were both mimics. He didn't show on his face, but his sister's ability rattled him slightly. If she stripped his abilities... they weren't really abilities... they were the very fiber of his being and without them it would be the equivalent of taking the battery away from the energizer bunny. But, when cornered Rex tended to bite more. "Lucky that I'm not immune to fire, then. As for controlling fire, she won't be having any fun with that either. My 'abilities' are not so pretty as flame and if she tried to mimic my ability she'd rip her pretty dress." He grinned, one of his canines clearly longer than it had been before.

He looked almost down at her, inwardly grinning. He was pondering something very cruel, even for him. "No wonder you wanted to make a deal. Pity I haven't agreed to anything yet." Implications dripped from his every word and a small, almost cruel grin fell upon his face. "For this game your 'remaining innocence' will remain intact, but you might want to keep me entertained this next two days or I might get bored and do something you will regret. Gus would regret it to if he were not the lump of metal he was. He might try to get in the way, but he won't be able to stop me as he has a tendency of obeying me when I want. He might even rip out her delicate little arms himself if I made it clear he had to do it." Yes, he was threatening her. Or rather, provoking her. He wanted to see what she did. And he was bored. Bad things happened when he got too bored. And he had nothing to edit to alleviate the boredom.

The pool stick was twirled in his hands as he stood, his feet planted in preparation of getting attacked.

-----

Gus's eyes whirred as he tried to process the information into his system. It was strange that his eyes whirred when he was thinking, as his model normally did not. It was something that started occurring a few years ago, but there didn't seem to be any harm in it located in his system so he left it be. She gasped at his response. He took a moment, his memory banks pulling up the audio for a gasp. "Did I say something to surprise you?" He asked, clearly confused by her response. And then she said she lived to serve and he was again confused. "I thought that people lived to eat and enjoy the thing called life and to pursue happiness. Is my data incorrect. And I believe the appropriate response to your generous offer is thank you. Is there anything you would need for such a task?"

At her thank you, he replied almost instantaneously. "It is of no consequence, Miss Lily." When he returned, he was not there long. He just quickly inspected his work to make sure he hadn't done anything wrong. Seeing nothing he missed, he stood again. "It's time to begin cleaning, Lily. I would like your assistance with cleaning the library. May I carry you up to it so that you won't be using your injured feet any longer than absolutely necessary?" He walked to stand next to her in the easiest place to pick her up princess style again. "The work we shall be doing involves dusting books and making sure Master Rex didn't put them in the wrong place as he does sometimes. He likes his books in order. Also, I think we should stop by your room to pick you up some slippers. Did you not see the shoes in the bottom of the cabinet?" He asked. His data implied the shoes were either hard to see or only appeared when the person wanted them.

▐ █ ████████████████████G█U█S█████████████████████ █▐

Saphire_L_Fox

[[OOC: Hey, guess what! I posted. Sorry, I take a long time. School makes it hard to post. I'm also sorry if it sucked.]]  

[Saphire_L_Fox]

( Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, the shadow in the background of the morgue. )

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

This innocence, it's brilliant. I hope that will stay. This moment is perfect, please don't go away. I need you now and I'll hold on to it.
Don't you let it pass you by.

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

Rose gave him a look that said she really hadn't been kidding about being wanted by top colleges. She wasn't human and she retained much more information than most thought, but a smirk perked the corners of her lips before she looked away and mused a "Whatever you say." After she took her shot and gave a smug smile with this game, she listened to him. A shrug lifted her shoulders as he gave her a fanged smile. It wasn't like she was afraid of him. She'd gotten bitten more than once by a sharp toothed being, even if it wasn't vampire. "It's not like there isn't more in that wonderful wardrobe you have, right?"

But his next words...? They made a cruel chill run down her spine, long and sharp and harsh enough that she wouldn't be surprised if she'd been bleeding from it. Rose felt the inner trembling in the pit of her stomach that was known as pure rage and instinctual need to shield her sister at whatever the costs. Blue eyes lit fire as she turned narrowed eyes on him that could have made him burst into flame if she'd had the ability. She felt the pool stick in her hand creak and snap at she sheer force of her hand squeezing it with a white knuckled grip. An animalistic growl rose in her throat as she all but snarled at the man, a rabid beast at the end of her chain, ready to rip him a new one. "You really want to try that? Her voice wasn't very human and her tongue had to struggle to make the words clear as the fell from her lips.

Even as the stick twirled in his hands, her mind perceived these actions much faster due to the rising adrenaline in her system, making the movements seem to go by slower. Anger boiled over as she clamped it down and closed her eyes, fighting to keep emotions that rolled over her and demanded action contained. Biting the inside of her lips hard enough to release blood in a steady flow over her tongue, she counted to ten, rather quickly as she tried to calm herself. She didn't trust this man, didn't trust anyone, to keep their word when it came to her sister, but the only way to 'avoid' the situation was to do as he wanted. "And... What is it that you want from me exactly? How shall I... Keep you entertained? Sex? Fights? Arguable debates about politics or the meaning of life?" The words were spoken slowly, through gritting teeth and a tight voice as she tried to keep the growling out of it. The stick clamped in her hand finally gave way and snapped in half sending shards of splintered wood into her hand, but the pain was a welcomed distraction.

Her insides shook with the repressed anger that washed over her as she fought desperately to keep herself from full on attacking the man with all her might, knowing that wouldn't get her anywhere in a battle of blind rage. While she could very well mimic his physical strength, rage did nothing on the battlefield except make her perceptiveness blurry and then she'd make mistakes and probably end up flat on her back. While she didn't mind the thought, being flat on your back and blind with rage didn't sound like such a good idea at the time. No. This battle would need a strategy and she really didn't feel like getting into a fist fight at the moment, even if he had threatened her sister. Rose was smarter than that. He was provoking her, trying to get her to pounce on him. It's why he'd taken the defensive pose, so that if and when she did attack, he'd be ready and well grounded. Being street smart, she noticed this and she wouldn't give it to him that easy.

She didn't wait for his answer. Rose turned and released the broken stick as if fell into two pieces on the floor before she all but ran up the stairs, retreating from this horrid fight before it got physical. Not that she would have minded it, she just didn't feel like fighting at the moment, her interest in the fight long gone.

~~~~~~~~~

Lily gave a soft nod to his question and gave him a slightly confused look. "Two years in one shirt is far too long to go. I'll work on making you one when I get some materials and free time." She answered diligently. His next question made her giggle before she shook her head before she spoke to answer his concerns. "It's a figure of speech meaning that there's nothing else for me to do but serve my masters in any way I can. I love making people's lives easier, even if it is only cleaning their homes or preparing meals. But yes. I would need knitting needles or crochet needles and some yarn. I could even make you a few other shirts if you like. Fabric would be needed for them. And free time to work on them." Lily concluded with a bright smile.

As Gus returned to her and inspected her feet, she smiled up at him from her position on the couch, remaining in the same position that he'd left her in. "Of course! I don't mind helping. And... I suppose you can carry me, though I don't mind walking either." Lily said to him, almost shyly as if she wasn't used to such things as politeness or kindness toward her and in truth, she wasn't. She was just a slave, after all. "Actually. I don't really like shoes. I'd rather go barefoot, to be perfectly honest." She answered softly to him with an embarrassed smile.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

Take my hand let's go somewhere we can rest our souls. We'll sit where it's warm, you say 'look, we're here alone'.
I was running in circles, I hurt myself just to find my purpose. Everything was so worthless, I didn't deserve this, but to me you were perfect.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

( Where are you? And I'm so sorry. I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight. I need somebody and always. This sick strange darkness comes creeping on so haunting every time. )

tricklesky

OOC: No worries. I don't mind.

 

[tricklesky]

▐ █ ████████████████████R█E█X█████████████████████ █▐

The little 'whatever you say had Rex suspicious. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance. A feeling nagged at him, which he promptly ignored. This girl was interesting, but she ticked him off in her own way and he just felt the need to mess with her. And not in the it's fun for both parties way. His fangs did not receded. He was too excited or something akin to it. To keep his form under control he had to stay calm. It wouldn't get any worse unless he allowed it or he lost his temper, but at the moment he was unable to fix it. "I do, but if she is as innocent as you say I'm fairly certain she would falter at the top portion of her dress being reduced to shreds in front of someone besides you." He said this with fair certainty as from the little he had seen of Rose's sibling she seemed a bit shy. Not like her energetic sister and volatile sister. Who wasn't taking the bait. She was trying to control her anger. Her blue eyes attempted to bore into him, her icy blue daggers rebounding off of his stone brown eyes. There was a snapping noise as her grip got tighter around the pool stick. However, she didn't snap. "Perhaps I do." He replied. This was not how he normally acted, but ever since she had arrived he showed nothing but poor manners. Perhaps it had something to do with the twin's arrival. Or perhaps he just hadn't had this much fun in ages. After all, with just a comment he had turned what had been a perfectly civil 'young' lady into someone who was snarling while attempting with what appeared to be every fiber of her being to stop herself from assaulting him.

When she spoke, he raised his eyebrows, an almost cocky smirk playing across his face. The stick in her hands shattered, making the pool stick no longer usable for anything other than hitting someone over the head. She then stormed off before he could give her a proper response. He looked at the stick shattered on the floor."Well that's a pity. I suppose that means this game is over. And I have to buy a new pool stick. I suppose that leaves it as a tie. She's definitely going to be the one to clean that up." He was very tempted to give her another push. To make her go over the edge. It would be a fit of blind rage that Rex would have fun watching. Or participating in. Depended on his mood. He grinned. Should be entertaining indeed. However, that would have to wait for another day, as she was gone. He wondered where she went, standing in the now almost painfully quiet basement. A few moments more he stood there, his sadistic streak cooling off. He put the pool stick he was holding back on the rack. He looked at the splinters scattered about the floor. A small, nagging amount of guilt went through his head. Annoyed with himself, he pushed most of the splinters into a pile with his foot, then quit the room. He had to go to the library.

-----

She seemed confused. Why did Lily seem confused? Gus' question was soon answered. Gus had a response to her concern, however. "Perhaps for any biological creature, but for me it's no big deal. I do not produce sweat after all." He didn't seem to understand she was referring to the wear and tear instead of the smell. Although Gus didn't have any way to tell a smell. He could analyze what was in the air, but something like smell was beyond him. And thank heavens she explained to him what she was referring to. Gus catalogued the definition in his dictionary in case he needed it for later use. "That is something that we have in common. I have no reason for existence beyond serving my master either. Although I do not love it." He nodded. "Crochet? What does that word mean? Does it have something to do with the knitting mentioned earlier?" Gus had no such word in his dictionary. "I'm sure you will have plenty of free time between meals and the minimal cleaning you will have to do." Gus once again put his arms behind her back and under her knees. There was a sudden noise that sounded like a door loudly opening. "It sounds like Rex lost whatever they were doing." Gus said, misanalyzing the noise.

"It would be best to carry you so that the tissue does not get irritated. My data says that overworking injured muscles results in permanent damage." He carefully rose with her in his arms. He proceeded slowly up the stairs. Very slowly so that he wouldn't lose his balance. "Aren't you worried of getting a nail in your foot? From what I understand the rust can cause infection." He walked her to the library, setting her down in a chair next to one of the large bookshelves. His eyes whirred in attempt to find a solution to her helping him work without her having to get up. He didn't have to come up with one, however, because Rex burst into the room, walking straight to one of the shelves. He didn't even seem to notice that the pair was there. He ran his fingers across the spines, found the book he was looking for, and pulled it out. The book was titled "Say Nothing to the Dog." Gus paused, unsure what to do. However, he quickly came to a conclusion. "Rex-" The man jumped. "Holy s**t, Gus! When did you get in here?" He paid no mind to Lily. "We've been in here for one minute and thirty-seven seconds." Trust Gus to miss the point. "Rex, Lily and I need to go to a store to see about purchasing some yarn. Is that alright?" Rex made a face. "Yarn? Oh, making Gus a sweater? He does need a new one. When I told he to toss the one he was wearing he asked me if I wanted him to come undone. I left him alone after." He turned back to Gus. "Whatever. Only because you'd embarrass me if I ever decided to take you anywhere." He waved the two off and returned to the book. "Rex, you should take Rose to shop for more first aid supplies." Rex froze. "What? Why?" He clearly did not like the idea.

▐ █ ████████████████████G█U█S█████████████████████ █▐

Saphire_L_Fox

 

[Saphire_L_Fox]

( Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, the shadow in the background of the morgue. )

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

This innocence, it's brilliant. I hope that will stay. This moment is perfect, please don't go away. I need you now and I'll hold on to it.
Don't you let it pass you by.

☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆ ☆═━┈┈━═☆

Rose had left the basement, her mind in a fuzz of anger and tension as she made her way back to the kitchen, her stomach guiding her actions as she craved the food that she'd been denied previously. She almost felt nauseated by even the thought of food, but it was something her body almost demanded with a force just as strong as the nausea that sat itself in the empty pit of her stomach. Her feet tapped the floor lightly as she entered the kitchen, her eyes trailing over the wrapped plates. She moved to them with the grace of an angry child before she unwrapped them and found a fork before digging into her sister's good cooking.

~~~~~~~~~

Lily gave a small giggle to his comment. She found his way of not really seeing what most humans saw as comedic rather than a nuisance. The smile stayed on her face as he explained that he too existed to serve, but he didn't feel the same way about it as she did. His next question was answered with a nod, another giggle bubbling up in her throat as he continued to speak, another nod rocking her head. As he reached down to pick her up, she wrapped her arms around his neck again, helping him keep balance was her first priority, mainly so she didn't fall.

She laughed again at him as he commented on human tissue. "I'm not human, Gus. I'm a mimic. My feet will be healed by tomorrow and all will be well. Don't worry so much about me." She didn't really notice that he was climbing the stairs, even though she stayed completely still in his arms to not throw off his balance. The android's question made her shake her head. Her breed made her immune system higher than most others almost to the point that she was completely immune to most illnesses. "Not really. It can cause an infection in humans, but I'm a mimic. I have a very short medical record with the worst thing being two of my fingers cut off."

As he set her down in the chair, she couldn't figure out how to help without standing, but before she could open her mouth to ask Gus, the door busted open with fury behind it as Rex stepped into the room. She watched in steady silence as the brunette looked over the spines and finally pulled out a book before Gus spoke. The other man's reaction would have caused a giggle, but she knew better than the outburst before she watched the scene. Lily nodded at Rex's question, but she didn't say anything. She felt bad about not speaking up, but she didn't think it would be appropriate. As Gus spoke up again, Rex answered like it had left a bad taste on his tongue, but she answered before Gus got a chance, pulling herself to her feet in a quick movement. "Because! Rose doesn't like to be left alone! Last time she did when she was angry, she fell down the stairs and broke her leg. The time before that, she smashed a mirror and got a shard of glass embedded into her abdomen. She's not only a harm to your home, but a harm to herself. Please. Take her with you..." She pleaded softly with him, her voice was raised before it hushed to almost a whisper.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

Take my hand let's go somewhere we can rest our souls. We'll sit where it's warm, you say 'look, we're here alone'.
I was running in circles, I hurt myself just to find my purpose. Everything was so worthless, I didn't deserve this, but to me you were perfect.

==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ==== ☠ ====

( Where are you? And I'm so sorry. I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight. I need somebody and always. This sick strange darkness comes creeping on so haunting every time. )

tricklesky

OOC: