Careful what you wish for. {Staine x Pixel}

[Staine]

Ryan's fingers worked deftly, sliding the thin metal tool through the small gap at the edge of the window and carefully lifting it to raise the latch. It seemed like the best way to enter the rather old looking mansion. Sure, he could have quite easily picked the lock on the front door, or the back door but it was further from his intended target and the less time he spent inside the home the better. He'd already disabled the alarm from the outside so that wasn't anything to worry about at the very least. It always struck him as unusual when somebody with this much wealth skimped on security and employed such an easy to hack alarm but Ryan wasn't complaining. No, he was bad at that kind of thing anyway, relying on tools he bought on the black market to bypass them but it was refreshing to find one that only took a couple of minutes. Slipping through the window, he took a quick look on his phone, pulling up the plans for the building. Just a couple of rooms over and his prize awaited.

He'd been pleasantly surprised to be approached for this job, he wasn't usually hired and rather stole for his own profit, and this cut out having to find a seller for the wares he procured. The job was an easy one, the owner of this mansion had acquired a trinket, an ornate ring with a stone set in it. It was valuable enough, worth a few grand but the man who'd approached him had been willing to pay more than twice the price, a cool $20,000 to get it. 'Sentimental value,' he'd claimed, and Ryan hadn't bothered to argue the fact. Naturally he'd done his own research, it had sold at auction for $8000 and he didn't think he'd do any better so it was a no brainer, finish the job, turn over the ring, enjoy his cash. Why they couldn't just buy it from this guy he had no idea, but presumably they'd made an offer and he had refused, why else would they hire a professional thief? Silently he padded towards the room, picked the rather simple lock and slipped inside. The ring itself was part of the display of eastern jewellery and easily spotted amidst the other such trinkets, a gaudy and quite frankly ugly looking piece. Honestly, it had to have some very real sentimental value because if he'd lost this thing he didn't think he'd care to have it back, it didn't look like it was worth 20k to him. It took him a few minutes to carefully unscrew the glass case and snag the ring, and he took a few more pieces of jewellery to sell alongside it as there was no rule saying he couldn't supplement his income a little. Ten minutes later and he was driving down the highway back towards his own small town.

His apartment was pretty small, Ryan had saved most of the money he 'earned' and had plans to upgrade once he'd made enough, which wasn't going to be any time soon. About 10k in the bank and not much in the way of luxuries, being more frugal than most thieves still wasn't getting him anywhere, he had hoped of making it big but that was still going to take some time. He'd not been very successful so far, this had to be one of the most lucrative job's he'd taken and in just two short days he was due to meet with his patron, hand over the ring and get his cash reward. Throwing his tools down in the corner of his bedroom, he tossed the ring onto his bed and went to shower, thinking about how much the 20 grand was going to improve his life. not just that but pulling off a job like this would improve his reputation dramatically, he could expect more jobs to come in, could finally start making some real cash. Stepping out of the shower he pulled on a fresh pair of boxer shorts, dried himself off and collapsed onto his bed, picking up the ring, looking at it.

It still didn't seem very appealing to him, so he was almost positive that his patron hadn't been lying, it had to have sentimental value to it...except the strange thing was how easy it had been...Ryan wasn't exactly a high end thief, he wasn't very well known so why had they chosen him for this job instead of getting somebody with a good reputation? He wasn't stupid, he knew that while he was skilled enough to get the job done he wasn't somebody who you'd go to for an important job, and he wasn't worth the price they were paying, there had to be something else to it. The only thing he could think of was that there was more to this, maybe he'd stolen from somebody who was likely to track him down but that didn't seem to be it, he'd done his research and the old man was just an antique collector, rich but harmless. That left one option, there was something valuable about the ring and somebody with access to more resources was more likely to know what it was. Maybe there were others looking for it, maybe it was part of a rare set and they chose him because he'd be unlikely to recognise that. Whatever it was it didn't much matter to him, he'd turn it in and get paid and forget about it. Stretching and yawning, he was about to put the ring in his bedside table when he thought about how much it was worth to him and figured it would be better to keep it on his person. It was a tight fit but he managed to slide the ring onto his middle finger, lifting his hand to admire it. "Yeah, don't think it suits me really." Laughing to himself, he slid beneath the covers and closed his eyes. Two days of babysitting it and he was in the money. One more yawn, and he was fast asleep before he knew it.

 

[pixel.]

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.
- T.S. Eliot.​

It had been the same way with her. Her world had ended, but in a way that had been like falling asleep, lulled there by something both comforting and confusing, like being drugged with too much poppy. Her memories were vague, feverish, pitched occasionally with a stab of guilt that was not an emotion her kind had been capable of feeling until humanity had plundered the world. They had evolved and thread, these humans, leeching both life and magic from the earth until it was only that: a plot of rock, floating in space, and most of them too stupid to realize that the world spinning on its axis was much, much more than that.

So they adopted gods. Then God. They adopted spirituality, sometimes in gradual doses, sometimes as abruptly as they took other things. Sometimes they ripped the meaning of one thing away and replaced it with something new, turned it into something else, instilled belief in the throngs of other humans as they multiplied, then destroyed, then multiplied, and changed as their short spans of life moved on. Wearied. Died. Returned to the earth and nourished it just as much as they destroyed it.

The veils closed, over time. Those like her slipped back between the cracks that separated the two worlds or simply created their own, new worlds. Some, like and unlike her, were left behind in the trampled down world where humanity still spread itself over the surface, then died out, then changed, then repeated the process in a series of cycles again. Some chose to forget the things that left him, while some - more dangerous than they were curious - sought to either capture, destroy, or enslave.

In much the same fashion as they did their own kind.

Sometimes, they nurtured. Mostly, they saw something that they did not understand, feared it, and sought to repel it, own it, destroy it, claim it. All of these things happened to her. Time had branded her. Her language was lost, so she learned the language of these humans. She learned their ways and their customs, and with it she learned both the good and the bad. Mostly - she learned the bad. Where humanity feared her truest self, she learned to instill fear into them as they seemed to crave. Where they grew angry because she was different, unlike them, more powerful than them, had more than them - she changed to encompass their sins and provide it back to them. She gave them back lust, wrath, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, and pride - because these were all the things that they accused her of being.

The Church announced her to be a demon. She had been called other things, too, around the world. Djinn, or spirit, where she was most native. Mostly, she was called Evil. For that, humanity’s ignorance devoured them, and they evolved again until one of them came along, smart enough to not disavow the trickle of power that still bled into their world. That one harnessed it and created a cage where bars could not hold her.

He earned her trust. Loved her. Cared for her. Nurtured her. Promised her the things she had been craving all this time, trying to earn it from others. Then he tricked her and put her to sleep, locked her in the only cage that could contain her, and reminded her that she was an unnatural thing. A thing - something that was reviled - a taint on their natural world.

She should not exist, but she could not be destroyed, and so she was locked away in a place where she dreamed of nothing and sometimes him and sometimes the others who had worn their hatred on their faces, naked and blunt, while he had deceived even her.

He had made her feel like finally, after all these years, she could finally belong in the world that her own kind had left her to. She knew that, after a time, she was forgotten. She knew that many years had passed before she woke up again, for the world had changed again, and her hatred had bloomed during the time spent alone - all alone - in a space where there was nothing.

The new man had called her Master. He told her that she now belonged to him and his lineage, for all time. He told her that she would not be able to harm him and he was correct, for she had tried to kill him before he had even breathed a single sentence from his lips. Then he told her that he could control her, but in that he was only partially correct.

It was not until the first man died that she learned how to deceive as much as man knew how to deceive. She learned to fulfill wishes, to give them what they wanted, to manipulate their desires until it was they that were slaves to her.

The last time she woke, she convinced the youngest son in a long line of sons to put her back to sleep, with the promise that he would lose her prison forever. That he would forget about her, and the ring that held her. Then he would end himself.

Ah, but did she wish that had been true.

She knew that time had passed again when she woke this next time. The smells were different, the colors; she felt as if the air were stale, trapped in a box, the scent of foreign things and a male catching her off guard before she finally settled into her more corporeal state of being. An illusion only, a way to mimic the beings that now possessed her. It gave them a false sense of safety, and now was a habit she incorporated when she woke every time.

Only this new male was not from the long line of sons, and occasionally a daughter, nor of their bloodline. In fact, he wore her prison on his finger as if it belonged there, like some sort of tawdry trinket, and he a child playing at dress up. She almost laughed, but stopped herself, and instead had settled beside the sleeping form of the male with a mask of indifference riding on the face that she had adopted long, long ago.

Female. Young, but with the maturity of a fully developed human, and the body to match one as well. The figure she chose was simply the ideal for an optimal female mate: large in the chest and hips and backside, while everything else was prime and fit. She was the epitome of a healthy young woman in the apex of adulthood, and yet wore agelessness like an aesthetic. She had also never deterred from the lands she had remained the most, and remained now desert-kissed, with darker skin than the male breathing deeply from sleep. It was a complexion that made the cool kiss of her gaze stand out - aqua, like the waters off the shores after the long ocean of sand that, too, had once held water.

She smelled of nothing; she had not learned this new male’s preferences yet. Just as she wore nothing, unabashed on top of his sheets; she knew not how clothing had evolved, nor how many years had passed, nor even if with this new male she would be expected to wear clothing at all, especially since in her natural state, she was not an entity made of flesh and bone and sinew and guts.

Not like humans. She was simply playing pretend.

However, she did consider killing him. Except she knew she could not. She thought about driving him into a rage, so that he destroyed everything around him. She thought about making sure that he slept forever, until he died from lack of sustenance that humans needed in order to survive for what they had left of their short lives. She thought about driving him into such a state of lust that his mind broke, but then there would not be enough of him left to put her back to sleep.

She needed him at least for that.

So instead of doing any of the things she mused about, she instead waited for him to wake.​

 

[Staine]

It might have been better for him had she decided to wake him instead...it would have stopped him from tossing and turning in his sleep. Recently Ryan had been feeling restless when he woke, a large part of it was he'd been having nightmares, terrible dreams in which he was lost in the fog, hunted by unknown creatures and assassins, fighting for his life against foes he wasn't equipped to match. They'd started only a couple of weeks ago, nothing had really changed in his life to make them happen and yet here he was again, fleeing for his life. In reality, he rolled over in his bed, his arm moving with him and without conscious thought, his hand landed on something soft.

That was all it took for him to start waking, as though the contact sent a spark through him, kickstarting him from his slumber. His mind dragged itself out of the nightmare and he became acutely aware that he was touching something that wasn't meant to be there, he felt he was still asleep, the dream had shifted, squeezing as he tried to judge what it was with his sleep-deprived mind. Warm, like flesh, like he was touching himself or somebody else, except he lived alone, he was very careful about his security so there would be no way somebody would just wander into his home. He frowned, his eyes still closed but his brain starting to connect the dots, realising that he was no longer in his dream or nightmare or whatever it was, that he was in his home, that somebody was in his bed. His eyes snapped open as his waking mind made him do what any rational person would do.

He panicked.

Scrambling, Ryan's legs still mostly asleep he pushed away from her, his heart-rate spiking, pounding as pure panic induced adrenaline coursed through his veins. Ryan was good at what he did, a thief, he was nimble, dexterous and agile as he flopped around in panic and fell off the bed with a loud thud, half dragging the sheets down with him. Reaching for the first thing he could find within reach, one of his boots, he rose, glaring down at the figure on his bed, shoe raised threateningly. "Who...who the fuck are you, what are you doing in my home? Why are you in my bed, I..." That's when he saw her...truly saw her.

It was a woman. It didn't make her appearing in his bed any less threatening, but it helped. Maybe he would be stronger than a woman, he wasn't the most physically capable when it came to strength but genetics were genetics...alarmingly though, she was naked. Beautiful, she appeared flawless, a little darker than he was but he didn't care, she was certainly attractive. Did that make her more or less of a threat? "You...you're naked." The comment was spoken as a matter of fact but his tone had a hint of questioning in it, like he wasn't completely sure of what he was saying while trying to keep his eyes on her face...of course he couldn't stop them wandering, she was beautiful, young, curvy...which seemed to make it even more alarming for him. "Why? Why are you...just who the fuck are you? Is this some prank? Did Sammy put you up to this?" Ryan didn't have so many friends and of all of them only one would be crazy enough to do something like this and think it would be funny.

Shoe still armed and ready to launch, he waited to see how she would answer, to see if she was still a threat to him even armed as he was with his sturdy footwear and wearing his boxer shorts, which was at least more than she had.

 

[pixel.]

She’d had a lot of time between her summons and his waking hours. Time enough that she had thought multiple times over ways to drive this mortal man crazy, but then she had also had time to look around. It had only taken her minutes before her patience had bled into curiosity, and she had risen from where she had propped herself next to him in the bed, and instead started to look, to learn. She found his closet first, and had sifted through his clothes, then rummaged further and towards the back, taking note of the things he kept there. The fashion of his garments. Then, she had roamed back into his bedchambers, silent as if she were floating on the air, and sifted through drawers and cubbies.

She found a device that lit up with digital numbers when she picked it up on the bed stand by his head. This she frowned at the most, dragging her fingers across the screen that blinked and prompted at her, sensing that she held it, and yet did little more than flash a different screen with a number pad. Frustrated by the encryption, she had settled it back down and continued her roving into the next room.

Another device, this one with a much larger screen, she paused next to with the same amount of curiosity as she had the smaller device. She puzzled over it with a scowl as she folded herself on the couch that faced it, but only saw a bleary reflection of her own face looking back at her in the dark of the room. Discouraged by this as well, her next area of interest was his kitchen. The ice box was something that she was familiar with, and yet when she opened this one, she stepped back at first as light flooded the floor beneath her bare feet and a shock of cold caressed her flesh. Again, she scowled, before dipping down and poking her head inside, roving the contents, before pulling out an aluminum can, painted bright red.

Coke.

It was chilled between her fingers. Taking it fully out, she allowed the door to fall close, her finger going for the metal tab, pulling at it until realization struck. She pulled again, flinching when the metal caved in with a loud pop that caused her head to swivel in the direction of the male’s bed chambers. Sensing that he remained asleep, she sniffed the contents. Frowned. Wandered to the sink and tipped, watching as a stream of brown carbonation fell from the opening she had created. Sighing, she lifted the can and set it aside on the counter.

She continued like this until she had opened every nook and cranny that she was able to find in his small dwelling, unimpressed by how this thief lived. Because she had deduced that he was not of the line who had kept her prison. That news both thrilled and left her with a feeling of unease, which meant by the time she had settled back onto his bed, propped with a pillow under her head, she had more questions than she had found answers.

She was pleased when he woke up. Even more - she was thrilled by his instantaneous reaction to her presence. Much like a man, his wandering hand had found one of her breasts, and laughter bubbled up in her throat as his palm squeezed. It only released when he realized what he did, erupting into the air in a voice that surprised even her.

It had been too long since she had made a sound. Had a voice to begin with. The laughter stopped as suddenly as it started, replaced by an expression of speculation and a little sadness, right before the turquoise brightness of her gaze found his own expression and a grin split full lips. She rolled where she propped on her back, moving as sinuously as a serpent onto her stomach to occupy the still warm space he had just evacuated. At ease with her own intrusion, she propped her chin instead on top of her folded arms as she twisted up on the bed, curling her knees up beneath her.

But then he spoke. English. She did not recognize the dialect, but at least knew the language. Still, she was frowning again instead of grinning, though not at his words. Her lips parted as if she had her own questions to ask, but she changed her mind, expression sliding back into something more devious, even flirtatious, as interest sparked in her stare.

“Have you never seen a naked female before?” She asked instead, her voice flowing as if caught on a melody, even with her accent thick on her tongue. “You are young, but fully matured. A man, I suppose. Has your father never at least taken you to experience flesh? I chose a form that men find pleasing, desirable,” she offered. Except while the tone of her voice was teasing, with a heady edge, there was a nuance in the way she said it that matched her cocked eyebrow.

It was not a compliment.

Despite that she rolled again, exposing the generous swell of one breast and the dip of the other still pressed into his mattress. High, but full, tipped with a berry dark nipple. The slide of long, dark hair shifted with the movement, exposing the pointed tip of her ear. When she trailed her fingertip down across the dip of her waist and over the swell of her hip, gold chased her own touch until it stopped at her knee. Coy, she kept her legs together, doused in shadow, while that finger wandered across her navel.

She watched him the entire time.

“You called me here. You tell me who I am.”​

 

[Staine]

Ryan was thankfully unaware of her intrusion into his things, not having to bear witness to the Djinn exploring his possessions. Sleeping soundly as he often did, he was hard to wake and the sound of a can of coke opening wasn't nearly enough to wake him, nor was the sound of the refrigerator opening and closing or a dozen other small noises she made along the way. There was something to be said for being able to sleep through such things and while he didn't pride himself on it, he was more than happy to sleep through things that would wake most people. Unfortunately, this came with a downside; when Ryan did wake it took a little longer than normal for his brain to catch up owing to how deeply he slept. Confusion ruled in those moments, and shock made him seem all the more awkward. Standing up, looming over the strange girl in his bed as she laid there, rolled over onto her stomach with her arms folded beneath her chin like she was posing for him that confusion was running rampant, and it didn't seem lost on her that he was flustered. Her words, thickly accented, were biting and targeted directly at his pride, making him bristle almost immediately, anger working not to temper the confusion but to add to it. "Never seen a...okay, Sammy definitely put you up to this, just who the fuck are you? Is this meant to be funny?"

If this really was a joke, Ryan would eventually see the funny side, he was already anticipating the punchline, but...what if it wasn't? The thought was only now starting to occur to him since while Sammy had been known to play a practical joke or two during their friendship, he wasn't the inventive kind. Cling-film on the toilet seat, unscrewing the salt shaker cap, hiding foul smelling objects in his home...pretty much anything you might see on YouTube and replicate easily, those were the kinds of things Ryan had come to expect, and none of them terribly invasive. Waking up with a naked girl in his bed, a gorgeous one at that...it just wasn't Sammy's style. He opened his mouth to speak again when she continued and his brow furrowed at her words. She called him young, but to look at her he was a good few years older than she was, Ryan had already passed 30, she looked much younger than that and she had the audacity to call him young and speak down to him like this? He was all but ready to lose it as she carried on, so much so that the last part of her sentence simply didn't register. "You suppose? Listen sweetheart, I don't know who the fuck you think you are or how you got in here but if you don't change your tune you're gonna be out on the streets real quickly and you're going dressed as you are." There was no niceness in his tone, just aggressiveness. Whomever she was she was pushing his buttons a little too well and it showed.

The raising of her eyebrow wasn't missed but Ryan was too frustrated to think about it, he was already moving towards his closet as she rolled to reveal more of her body to him again. Clearly not shy, the girl was...fuck, he didn't know what she was doing. She was insulting him one moment and then trying to seduce him with her actions the next, at least that was how it appeared and like any hot-blooded man would be his eyes were drawn to the movements of her hand as she trailed it down her own body, his eyes following the strange golden trail, completely missing the shape of her ear...for now. Her hand moved back up, and in a display of willpower he didn't know he was capable of he pulled his gaze away, looking up towards her face as she spoke. That's when he saw the shape of her ears, not quite normal, elfin-like. Another second of staring, gawping really, and he forced himself to turn away, walking to his closet and pulling out a purple shirt, taking it off the hanger and throwing it at her. Landing on her hip, it didn't cover much, yet. "Stop fucking around and put that on, cover yourself up, you're making it hard to..." He didn't finish the sentence, stopping shy of admitting it was hard to focus as she taunted him like that and his body was already reacting, he was already semi-erect, and trying his best not to think about it. He needed her to put something on so he could think this through.

He ran what she'd said so far back over in his mind, word for word, and it just didn't make sense! He kept coming back to this had to be a prank of some kind as no sane woman would break into somebodies home, lay naked beside them in bed and then question their sexual experience when they are clearly alarmed, a perfect stranger no less. The level of intrusion was incredible. Then something she had said caught his notice. "Form?" She said she chose her form...what the hell did that mean? "You're not making any sense, what the fuck do you mean you chose your form? Why are you talking to me like I'm younger than you, and why don't you seem to care that this is fucking weird?" As he spoke he was reaching for his own jeans, pulling them on to hide himself from her, to make himself feel more comfortable with this situation. As hot as she was, as much as his body was trying to tell him he wanted her this was a little too weird and he'd have to be fucking stupid to act on it.

"How on earth am I meant to tell you who you are, don't you know? Are you brain damaged, did you hit your head somewhere?" The sleep-fog was starting to clear up but it wasn't making the situation any more readable. "I was just sleeping and I woke up to you in my bed, naked, staring at me, trying to tease me, I just wish you would put some fucking clothes on and answer my questions, who are you, what are you doing here and why the hell should I not be calling the cops right now? Did somebody put you up to this"

 

[pixel.]

His increasing frustration only moved her to greater heights of amusement. No, this was not a man who knew of the long lineage of men who kept her trapped inside her prison of nothing, her existence only to serve who wielded the power of the artifact. That line knew what they did when they summoned her, bound her to take possession of the gaudy piece of metal he still wore on his finger. In fact, he seemed most intent that this was all some grand venture of someone named Sammy.

And so she grinned, looking for all the world as if she were impressed by his powers of deduction. She slid across his sheets again, drawing herself up onto her knees once she had reached the bed’s edge, head inclined to peer up at the male as multiple realizations swam across his features as surely as if his mind were projecting his thoughts there.

It was an unfortunate thing that out of her abilities, she had not the ability to read minds. Shackled as she was, her abilities were further muted. And as the Veil secured itself even tighter around this world, she felt even more of her abilities drain each time she was summoned. Perhaps they knew it was well - this line of magi that had kept her for these years - and her time amongst humanity had become limited because of it.

Still, she took note. Subtle changes, while he was distracted by how bizarre his new situation was. She lost the pointed slant of her ear, so when she reached up and tucked a strand of dark hair behind it, the shell was as curved and rounded as his. The gold that she had traced seemingly from her fingertip faded - to, in fact, the point that the girl perched in his bed had dimmed to just that. A young woman, someplace in her twenties, though still nude for it. Still wholly unbothered by her own nakedness, even as he struggled to clothe himself.

She still grinned, dropping her gaze to where he urged a pair of trousers up over his hips and obscuring her view of just how distracted he was by her presence. And yet she forced the grin down and lifted her eyes back up to his face, clearing her throat with a more abashed look on her face before responding. “He paid me to surprise you like this,” she hazarded, going forward with the story he had already made up for himself. “Sammy did. I did not mean to startle you. I think that he felt … you needed a woman’s companionship, and invited me here.”

Guesses and half guesses. She was still not sure of his culture, and while she found the rough edge of his frustration to amuse her greatly, she intended to play off his ignorance. At least while she could. It was why when his shirt fell across his bed next to her when he threw it, she scooped the garment up and spread it out in front of her, taking in its make before sliding it up and over her head, until her breasts disappeared from sight and the fabric pooled in her lap, enveloping her.

It made her look small, being wrapped in his shirt like she was. The act itself had mussed her hair, making it look as though their sharing a bed last night had been more intentional than it had been. The oceanic pools of her stare, muted now to a simple blue-green that still stood out in her swarthy features, widened themselves into a more worried, panic stricken state as her hands dropped to punch the hem of his shirt in her lap.

“Please,” she beseeched. Her accent was still heavy, and this, too, she used to her advantage. “The language,” she offered by way of explanation. It was not a lie. His dialect was strange to her ears, not like the English she had last become accustomed to. “Your friend thought that you would like this form?” Her hands unfurled, gesturing down to herself, the way his shirt clung to the swells of her breasts, down to the flare of her hips and thighs again.

It wasn’t until his last grating remarks that a genuine trickle of unease traced itself down her spine. The command in his voice was like a whip cracking against her very being, though the compulsion was still weak. Like a child tugging on her hand to get her to follow. She tried to school her features as it still bowed her will, like a bow’s string becoming tense until the pressure was released from it.

“I have been called Lila,” she answered, her voice stiff. She felt a little of the pressure ease, her shoulders slumping. “I am here because I was summoned here,” was what eased from her lips next, followed by a roll of her neck. She fought the pull of his other demands, eyes shifting down to instead watch her fingers curl around the edges of his bed again. “What other clothes would you like me to wear?” She finally asked, looking up at him coyly.​

 

[Staine]

Seeing her grinning up at him hadn't really helped Ryan's state of mind. He was at least getting over the shock of waking to find the admittedly beautiful, naked woman in his bed, watching him sleep. That was difficult in itself, but seeing that look on her face, like he was amusing her. He was so annoyed by it's presence that he failed to notice the changes, the way the soft glow where her fingers had trailed over her own flesh had subsided, the subtle changes in her ears that over time made them appear exactly as they should, had she been human. Ryan, taking this rather more seriously than the intruder was, had to watch as she quite pointedly looked down towards his crotch, a faint blush on his cheeks as he weighed what the odds were that she hadn't noticed his excitement. At least when she looked back up at him the grin had been gone. She spoke again, this time was different though...it sounded like more questions, except she was saying exactly what he'd suspected had happened. Ryan wasn't a genius by any stretch of the imagination, but he'd been around liars often, and he knew when somebody was trying to latch on to a story, to pass it off as a half-truth, a convenient explanation. Now he was sure of only one thing, Sammy had nothing to do with this.

Perhaps because he'd been looking at her, his jaw slightly dropped, or maybe because he wasn't used to being accosted in his bed by a naked stranger, his mouth was feeling dry. Seeing her start to pull the shirt on, thankfully, he turned towards the fridge. "I need a fucking drink." Nothing alcoholic, that wouldn't be a good idea, but he had other beverages. Bending down and opening the fridge he frowned as he noticed something missing. He could have sworn it was in here, rising to his full height and turning around only to spot the can on the counter. "Wait, did you...?" He walked over, lifting it, completely empty. "Are you serious? You broke in here, watched me sleep like some god damn creeper and you drank my fucking coke?" He couldn't actually tell why that last part infuriated him more than the rest, maybe he was just losing touch with reality. Pinching the bridge of his nose as she explained his friend thought he'd like that form again, the same fucking words. "See! You did it again, form. What the hell are you talking about, why can't you just answer my questions like a normal person?" He was about to launch into a series of colourful expletives when she actually started answering his questions, in a fashion. Tossing the empty can aside he shook his head at her as he approached the bed, confusion and frustration in his eyes.

"Lila...why do I get the feeling that's the first true thing you've told me all night?" Grabbing his chair from his computer desk, he dragged it over to the bed and sat down on it, facing her, not quite willing to climb into bed with her again. It was almost ironic...looking at her now, wearing only his shirt but making it just a bit more comfortable to view the stranger, there was no doubt that he did indeed find that form pleasing. Very pleasing. His heart had stopped the unnerving pounding in his chest from the shock of her sudden appearance, still distressed he was starting to actually think. That, and the way her tone seemed a little different, somehow forced...it made his own features a little softer though still bewildered as he questioned her. "What do you mean summoned? Listen...I don't know what you've heard but I'm not really used to having strange girls show up in my bed in the middle of the night, it's just a little fucking weird, don't you think?" A different tack, less annoyance in his voice, only a little actually, and more...reasoning. "Wait..."

That's when he noticed her ears were different.

He almost chalked it up to a trick of his mind, but everything about this girl had been weird and that had definitely stood out, he'd looked at the strange shape more than a little when trying to avoid looking between her thighs. "Your ears. Lila, what happened to your ears?" He lifted his hand, one finger used to count on the other. "First, you appeared out of nowhere, you made no noise and my deadbolt is still locked." He'd glanced earlier, he knew that was true. As a thief, he took security seriously. "You had pointy ears like some kind of elf earlier from D&D, now they are normal. And you had the weird gold dust glow fuckery, what was that?" He counted his points off as he went. "Three, you're buck fucking naked, at least you were, and you didn't seem to care. I'm not shy but you have to admit that's fucking brazen." Listening to everything in a list like this was helping focus his thoughts. "You keep talking about how I'd find your form pleasing, which of course I fucking do...and you say you were summoned?"

Ryan shook his head, he was getting tired of this. "What you're wearing is fine, just answer my questions for me. Tell me who you are and why the hell you're here, in detail. Let's stop with the silly fucking games. Is it this?" He held up his hand, showing off the ring clearly. It was the only thing he had that was new, she had to be here for that. "Were you hired by Al Rashid or whatever his fucking name is? He'll get his damn ring in two days like we agreed, I want to make sure I'm not being followed." Ryan exhaled slowly. "That's it, isn't it? That's what you're here for? Just tell me the truth, Lila, and then you can be on your merry way." He sighed but managed a soft smile, trying to be nice even though his mouth was still dry. "And I really wish you'd brought another coke for me, that was my last one."

 

[pixel.]

She almost slid from the bed and followed him into the kitchen when he made his announcement that he needed a drink, but instead only wound up shifting closer to the edge of the bed so that her legs could dangle over the edge. It caused the shirt to ride up that much more, so that the hem pooled around her hips and across her lap, while the rest clung to the swell of her breasts. Despite the fact that they had been no more intimate than one of his pillows on the bed, she looked as if they had been up to no good. A bedroom look. Her hair was ruffled, the only thing she wore was the shirt he had tossed to her, and she still had the softly amused look of someone who was far more entertained by a bad decision than she ought to be.

Especially considering his own angry state.

So she watched him with narrowing eyes through the opening of his bedroom door as he made a beeline towards the kitchenette she had been through during the darker hours of the night, perplexed as he noticed the bright red can she had left empty on the edge of the sink. Silent, her lips twitched, while the paler pools of her gaze absorbed what he did - with the things that she had been left curious about. She absorbed, learned another piece of this new world that she had woken to.

An almost demure expression crept across her face as he stalked back over to her, pulled up a chair rather than sit near her. Her eyes dropped along with her chin, the dark rope of hair falling over her shoulder to curl around her hip and tease at the bare skin of her thigh. For a moment, she pretended to pick at her nails, to watch her feet, debating on how she wanted to play this next move.

“I did not drink anything,” she admitted, finally, peeking up at him with an expression that bordered on being chastised. Her voice was even tinged with a hint of regret. “Was what was in that can edible, then? It didn’t have a smell I was familiar with, so I watched it flow. Why is it brown?”

Her hands dropped down, palms digging into his mattress as she propped herself back, legs kicking as she considered him. The fact that he was growing ever more agitated with her presence. When the world was still young with his kind, her presence in a man’s bed would have been met with fervor, not this borderline disgust. Though, the kind of men that she had grown accustomed to were the kind that expected a beautiful woman in their bed, sometimes a different one every night. Sometimes more than one. Sometimes, even, more than one man and woman.

Now it was her turn to feel her own panic rise. He was not the line that had kept her before. Had they all died? In a way, the relief that followed the flash of panic that flickered in her eyes was like a balm, followed by wonderment at just how much time had passed since she had last been released. Followed by the fact that her brows furrowed as he continued to throw his questions at her.

How much should she tell him.

Judging by his moral compass in regards to her presence and his … beverage dilemma, perhaps she should admit to what she was. Perhaps he would even give her the ring he still wore on his finger, then she could truly be gone from this world. A surge of hope dragged her breath from her lungs and a smile played at the edge of her lips, softer than the deviousness she had worn before.

“I don’t like the name Lila,” she finally admitted. “It wasn’t the name that I was born with, just the name that was given to me. My true name isn’t something that you would be able to pronounce.” Finally, she slid from the bed, bare feet hitting his floor. Briefly, she considered dropping herself down onto his lap, with the way the memory of his embarrassment regarding his … interest had made him blush, but instead her attention dropped instead to the ring on his finger. Leaning in, she brushed her fingertips over the tarnished piece of jewelry.

A spark of power zinged through her, causing her to drop her hand. No doubt, he felt it too. “I can leave, if you prefer,” she offered, gaze darting back up to his face. She leaned away, wandering around the small space of his room, before rounding to his computer. She squinted at the monitor, touched the plastic case of the machine that accompanied it. Ran her fingers across the keyboard with an intrigued look on her face. “Or we can make a deal,” she tried again, intrigue and curiosity filling her voice as she glanced at the dark screen against the wall. “But I’ll need to trust you with something.”

Back around to face him. She took a lean against his computer desk, teeth worrying her lower lip. All for show. Wearing a human form was always an … experience. There were some things that she had adapted over time to make herself seem more relatable in that regard. Except the note of command that pricked at her awareness made her flinch. The curiosity faded, replaced by disgruntled heat as she stared at him, then the ring.

“Don’t say their name. And don’t give them the ring. What do you want in exchange for the ring? Would you like me to leave? Then give me the ring and I shall leave. Is there something more that you would like? Wealth? Is that what they promised you, in exchange for it? How much? I will give you more.”

Looking away, she lifted her hand up, tucking her hair behind her ear with intention. An ear that tapered to a point. Frowning, she watched him sidelong, her iris glimmering once with an unnatural light, before fading again to a darker cyan. “I’m here because you summoned me here, with something that doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to me.” She gestured to the ring, frowning at him outright now. “Is the coke valuable? Would you like more of them, in exchange then?” ​

 

[Staine]

"So you didn't drink it...then where the fuck...?" Ryan cast a glance at the sink, the can was still by it, empty. He shook his head, he honestly didn't know if that made him feel better or worse. What the fuck was it with this girl? She was picking at her nails, she looked almost bored with the situation, if somebody walked in on them now they'd surely assume that he was the one breaking in here, he was the agitated one. He looked at her incredulously. "Yes it was fucking edible, it was coke! I don't...you're telling me you've never had coke? Never seen it before?" Just one more mystery to add to the pile that was already building up around her. "I don't fucking know why it's brown, I didn't make it." He looked away, more frustrated now that he actually had no idea why it was that colour than he had been that she'd drank it, or poured it away or whatever the hell she'd done. Something about this girl just dug at him, he felt like she was toying with him and he hated not knowing what was going on. She continued to speak, and it seemed deliberate by now the way she didn't really answer anything while saying an awful lot.

"Why wouldn't I be able to pronounce your name? Try me." He had a feeling that she wasn't lying, but he couldn't comprehend a word he couldn't actually say, that didn't make any sense to him at all. She was moving closer now, and he was half expecting, maybe even hoping that she would indeed plant herself in his lap, his breath caught as she reached down and towards his hand...and brushed her finger over his ring. A strange sensation, like a wave of electricity only it didn't shock him, it felt...good, almost as it shot up his hand and he lifted his gaze up to her eyes. "No...no don't leave, you don't have to...what was that?" He'd brought his other hand to the ring, was running his own finger over it but it didn't replicate the sensation, no feeling of power, of desire that he'd just felt. She was looking at his computer now, and he looked to her as she offered him a deal. "Oh? And what kind of deal would that be, then?" He raised an eyebrow, glancing down to where his shirt ended, thinking he already knew what she had to offer, it wasn't like she'd smuggled anything in, she had been naked! "You're pretty and all, but I don't think your ass is worth my life..." If there was one thing Ryan knew, it was that if he didn't show up with the ring in two days time, he was dead. His patron had that kind of an air about them, he knew damn well it wouldn't be worth messing with them no matter how good she looked.

The sudden outburst at the mention of their name caught him by surprise, and he stared at Lila or whatever her name was for a few moments. "Woah, woah, calm down..." Rising from his seat, he found he felt far more comfortable than he had been earlier when she'd first appeared...the more she spoke, the more he felt she wasn't a threat to him but she wasn't here on some weird prank either. She was after the ring, and by the sound of it she was definitely terrified of his employer. "Are you...scared of them?" Approaching her, he moved between the rest of the room, her, and the desk, all but trapping her there unless she somehow went through him. She was offering him so much for the ring now, and as she turned away he could see her ear had that point to it again. Slowly, he was starting to put things together, and he reached for her, the ring on his finger, grabbing her chin, turning her to face him again and pushing her against the desk. She'd spent so much time making him uncomfortable, now she seemed to look almost vulnerable, surely the shoe was on the other foot.

"That's enough, I've had enough of the nonsense. Look at me." His eyes met hers, and the frustration he was feeling shone through them clearly. "Calm the fuck down. Breathe, then talk to me. You don't work for Al Rashid, but you do want this stupid fucking ring...why?" Finally feeling in control of the situation, Ryan had a dozen questions and he wasn't about to let her go without answering all of them. "Who are you, really? Where are you from? If you don't want me to give the ring to them, tell me why, what's in it for me?" he could see the changing colours in her eyes, they were ethereally beautiful, he couldn't bring himself to look away but it just added more questions. "Are you..." It felt crazy to ask. "Okay...you said I summoned you, you're offering me so much just for the ring...are you connected to it in some way?" Her last question was what did it, what broke him. He released her, his serious expression cracking into a wide grin as he started to laugh, shocking himself that even among this insane situation he couldn't control it. "Yeah, that's exactly what I want, a hundred cokes for this expensive fucking ring." Grinning, he shook his head at her. "No, they're not valuable, they just taste good. Now, I have a deal for you okay? Tell me the truth, tell me who you are and why you want the ring, or else I'm calling my employer and telling them they can come and get it early. You wouldn't like that, would you?" Ryan had a feeling this would definitely loosen her tongue. "If I think you're lying, I give them the ring. If I think you're trying to trick me, I give them the ring. Tell my why they scare you...I'm not a bad guy, if you're in danger, you can tell me...and if you tell me, maybe I'll be willing to make a deal with you." In all honesty he had started enjoying her presence here, he was definitely enjoying pressing against her, pinning her against the desk, now he just had to figure out who the fuck she was.

 

[pixel.]

This one liked to talk. Though, in her experience, most humans liked the sound of their own voices, no matter the language. No matter that their language consisted of a smattering of noises that their tongue and vocal chords mashed together. Different from how her kind communicated long before so many populated the world. Lila feared, deep down in a grasping part of her, that she had forgotten the voice of her own people. That she had forgotten how to be much more than an echo or mimicry of something long gone. That time had changed her, made her more human than anything else. The more she adapted the appearance of man, the longer she remained here, pieces of what she had been started to fall away, forgotten.

So while he circled back around into the room she inhabited, more questions dripping from his tongue, she cast a guilty glance to what was now a relic of her time spent with this male. The lone coke can still sat on the counter, statuesque. She waited until she was situated in her lean against his desk before she started to answer him, but once she did, her voice at least sounded candid. “I did not like the way that it … bubbled, so I poured it into your basin to see if it might eat through the metal,” she admitted, turning the prism of her gaze back on the male. Blues churned with golds, swirling with ultraviolet and a hint of green with the motion, depending on the way the light refracted off her gaze. “What does it taste like?”

Genuine curiosity tinged her voice, despite the way her hands edged down to grip the edges of the desk, fingertips digging in as she lifted herself to prop her bottom further up onto the edge, legs reaching down so that her toes barely touched the floor. The shirt rode up, ignored by her for the time being, as she moved on to his next question with a more wary expression on her face. A debate played across her face, scrunching it up before smoothing it back out as she considered the best words to feed him. “I barely remember my own name,” she admitted, slowly. Not wanting to reveal too much of her nature just yet. “And it’s not English,” she continued, knowing that was the language that he spoke, with no doubt in her mind that it was also his native tongue. “...So unless you know how to sing, hum, and whistle all at the same time, in harmony, you would not be able to pronounce my real name. Other, ah, men have tried. Eventually, I became known as Lila.” The name stuck to the roof of her mouth before she spat it out like it was something bitter. “So, you can as well.”

Though it was his assumption and insinuation that jerked her chin up until her hair slid up her torso again, a spark of pure amusement turning her eyes chartreuse as laughter erupted, closed off with an indolent snort. Grinning a wicked grin, she leaned forward to meet his stare. “Tell me, is a female’s ass the only thing of worth that males in your country believe we possess? I see that, no matter where I go, sex can still be used as a means of trade.”

She might have teased him further if he didn’t rise, moving closer to where she perched now, forcing her eyes up instead of slanted down to where he had previously been sitting. In her current form, he dwarfed her. She had found with her experiences with any human, regardless of if they were male or female, that a more diminutive form tended to put others at ease and gave the false perception that she was more vulnerable than she was. On her bare feet, Lila was only a few inches over five feet and despite the generous curves that gave her a softly feminine appeal, she was still petite. So when he approached her like he did, crowding in close, her first impression was that he was trying to use his size to intimidate her. Males over females - they tended to try to use physicality as a deterrent over females.

She didn’t react until his fingers gripped her chin, the heat from his touch sinking into her skin, flushing it darker than it already was against his paler pigment. But it was not wholly his touch that made the breath shudder from her lips, but the zap of power that would zing through both of them when the ring touched against her skin for the second time. Left there, it felt like the throb of a pulse, strong and sure, tuning her own pulse to follow the same rhythm as it. Sensation followed, the heady twine of power that felt both pleasurable and like a kick of adrenaline as she felt it call out to her own innate abilities, teasing the long dormant abilities to life.

She could do nothing with them. Not without the ring to guide it. That was still a secret, at least. What the ring could do, especially if he claimed it for his, if he decided not to give it to her freely. She couldn't take it from him; even if she held the lump of metal in her hand, it would do nothing so long as whoever had possession of it still claimed it. And humans were not known for their generosity and compassion when it came to handling great power. Greed has always been a blight when it comes to mankind and their many weaknesses.

“Because that ring will grant me my freedom from those who seek to use me,” she breathed out. She felt a twist deep in her chest, a tightening inside of her as the words slipped from her lips. Something like shame coiled following her admittance, forcing her eyes to drop down, as if her lap were more interesting than the penetrating look in his eye. The power still hummed through her, through them both, holding her in its possessor’s thrall. Reluctantly, she pulled her attention back up to his face, searching, the words still running like syrup out of parted lips. “Instead of me trying to explain who I am and where I come from, why don’t I just show you? Ask me for something, but mean it. You have to want it,” she beseeched instead, though his request was enough for her to want to say the things that would cause him to look at her as if she were made of poison or gold. One or the other.

Which is why relief flooded through her body when he released his grip. She gasped, hands prying themselves from the edges of his desk as she released the hard grip on it. The touch of his fingers lingered still against her skin, but at least she could focus again. Take back some of the control. Her eyes wandered, taking in the expanse of his chest that dominated her line of sight. It seemed that the male that had been so eager to jump up and leave the bed she had inhabited earlier had gained his confidence, with the way he pressed in close. Lashes dropping, she lifted her hands, smoothing his shirt across his abdomen, watching as the lines of his abdomen and chest pressed against the fabric. “I’m connected to the ring, yes,” she responded slowly, walking a finger underneath the hem to touch the strip of skin just above the band of his pants. Innocuous, really. “And you’re asking the wrong questions. You’re asking me who I am, but not what. I’ve already answered you as far as … who I am, but I fear that we’ll need a longer span of time than your impatience allows for me to unpack that question fully. No, you want to know what I am. I also feel like you’re dodging the answer yourself, but you suspect it nonetheless. Humans either believe or they deny.”

She looked up at him again. Both sets of fingers toyed at the edge of his pants where they snugged around his waist. A low, easy smile curled her lips. “I liked it better when you were nearly naked and asleep,” she admitted, tugging outward, eyes sliding down like she wanted to take a peek down his pants. “I should point out that for a male who is claiming not to be a bad guy, you are still using coercion to get something from me.”

She paused, watching his face. Her thighs had slid apart, better to accommodate him against her, and she leaned right on into him. “...Ironically, that is the same reason that I don’t want anyone to have the ring, except for me, since it is mine. Being forced to do things that you don’t wish to do for the greed of others is not the way I wish to spend my existence. So, the truth: both myself and the ring are going to be used by your employer until both are completely, utterly used up and I can go rest again until I can be useful again.”​

 

[Staine]

"Eat through the metal..." There was yet more incredulity in his tone, yet the reality of it was that Ryan wasn't as shocked as that would lead one to believe. It amused him to realise that after so short a time in her presence, he was starting to become inoculated to the shock of what this strange girl might say or do next. In short order, she had arrived naked, destroyed his drink, changed her ears from a pointed form to a more human one and then back again, displayed a strange, golden dusting to her skin where she had made contact with her own fingers and said so many strange and curious things that the he found he was expecting her to do something strange. The realisation gave him some small comfort because it meant that he could hold on to the footing he'd manage to gain in interrogating her instead of feeling like he was constantly losing ground every time she did or said something that sent him reeling. "Did it not occur to you that it was in a metal can?" Funny, how that was the thought that came to him. "It tastes...I don't know, sweet. It bubbles in the back of your throat, sometimes it's even a little painful if you drink too much at once, but a good pain, you know?" What was stranger, was that now he wasn't in shock, he was enjoying talking to her in some small way. It was still frustrating, but now that he was almost certain she wasn't a threat to him her haughty nature made him laugh.

He watched as she lifted herself up onto his desk, his eyes flicking downwards as the shirt rode up a little and he had to force himself to look ahead. Thankfully the myriad of different hues in her own eyes made it easy to hold his gaze. "No, no...I believe you. If you say I can't pronounce it I'm not gonna waste my time trying, but if you hate Lila, why not choose something else? Is there a name you'd prefer that I could pronounce?" Momentarily taken aback as she snorted at him, for the first time he didn't back away as she tried to tease him. Oh, he knew that was her goal, the way her lips turned up into an almost devious grin all but gave it away. Instead of pulling back, his hands came forward to grasp her waist, both because he simply wanted to and to stop her from moving any closer, for now, and only his shirt keeping his touch from her bare flesh. Grinning back, he took a moment to think back before he tried, very inaccurately, to mimic her earlier words down to the very tone she'd used. "Have you never seen a naked female before?" He raised an eyebrow pointedly. "I chose a form that men find pleasing, desirable." A small pause and then he was almost smirking, definitely feeling more confident. He had no way of truly knowing if he was actually intimidating her or not, though he had the sneaking suspicion it would take far more than this, but he had the comfort of knowing she wasn't intimidating him anymore. "I wasn't the one who was being rather sexually...aggressive, earlier, so I'm sure you'll forgive me if I don't feel bad for looking at your ass. It's a cute ass, even if I don't think it's worth my life."

It was actually kind of fun, this game they were playing, but when he wanted actual answers, when he'd touched her chin, everything seemed to shift, like the world lurching and capsizing. That contact, the moment his fingers had touched her had sent ripples of...something through his entire body. He couldn't place the feeling, at first it was like electricity, like when he'd touched his tongue to the ends of a battery out of curiosity only magnified and flowing through him, most intense where they had made contact. He didn't even know if it was pleasurable or painful, though after a few moments that became clear to him. He liked it, and had to focus to hear her words over the soft ringing in his head that was telling him that she was far more than meets the eye. "Freedom...like currency? You'll use it to pay for your freedom?" Even as he said it he knew he was wrong, and at her offer to show him, he had no words, for now. Instead, he let her continue, releasing his grip on her chin as the sensations rippling through his body had started to become...exciting.

Once he released her, she seemed to be much more comfortable...it seemed he hadn't been the only one to feel whatever that was, and he allowed her a few moments before she continued speaking. He could feel her eyes raking over his body as she looked down, and he made no moves to stop her as her fingers played with the hem of his shirt and the waistband of his pants. It occurred to him that while her appearance had been shocking at first, in no small part to her promiscuity, he'd grown far too comfortable with it far too quickly, but he found he didn't mind that at all. Her words were what really troubled him. He had the strangest feeling that he knew what she was again, her words were almost daring him to say it first though, and he didn't want to in case it was true.

"Was it because I had no power when I was nearly naked and asleep?" The sentence came with a small chuckle. "I liked it better when you were naked too, but you did make it hard to concentrate, so I think this is fairer, don't you?" Her thighs parted, which didn't escape his notice, and as she leaned forward his hands found her waist once more, this time pulling her closer against him. He'd heard...enough. Enough to make a few guesses, and he would probably only need one. "I'm okay with coercion for some answers when you're the one trespassing, and do I have to remind you of how evasive you're being? I kind of think you're trying to tell me something that's impossible...that you're a genie..." It was the best word he knew for it, though he'd read others in passing, probably in some of his fiction books. "And that you're telling me you can grant wishes...is that what you want to show me?" What she'd said last bothered him. He still didn't quite believe it, it was definitely impossible since genies didn't exist but if...if she was, then of course she was terrified of Al Rashid, that was a fate he wouldn't wish on anybody, to be a servant for some asshole that just used you to get what he wanted before discarding you, or worse, imprisoning you so that his descendants could do the same.

"Okay, okay...that sounds horrible, it really does...but if I give you the ring do you have any idea what happens to me?" Ryan knew exactly what happened. His life ended, he was killed, probably tortured first and his employer would only go and find the ring anyway. "Because it doesn't end well for me, I can promise you that much. I'm not stupid enough to cross a guy like that and think I get away with it." He sighed softly. Even as he said it, he knew one thing; Ryan wasn't selfish enough to simply kick her out or to just turn the ring over. He also didn't quite believe that she was truly a genie yet, she'd done enough strange things for him to be sure this wasn't normal, but a genie?

"Alright, first lets get this out of the way..." He gave her a silly grin. "Get me a coke. Two cokes. You're going to drink one with me." There was a chance she couldn't, even if she was a genie, that she wouldn't be able to because he didn't want it enough...it wasn't a desperate need but he still wanted his damn soft drink, and more than that he wanted her to try it too. Some strange sense of pride that he could force her to taste it, show her something she hadn't seen before. If she was a genie, she was an ancient being, showing her something new was an appealing idea. "And then tell me why I should give you the ring. Why would it be worth risking my life, could you guarantee my safety? I'm not a bad guy, I told you that...but I'm not some noble hero here to set you free either, I'm just a guy, and I don't know you well enough to throw my life away for you no matter how much you want this fucking ring. Give me a reason to help you."

 

[pixel.]

“Humans … are still so very entertaining with how uncomfortable they are with nudity. You wear clothing because the human body evolved to have very little hair to keep warm and has no natural ability to keep itself warm, so clothes were invented to protect from the elements. Things … changed during the last time I was here. Clothing had become less of something to wear because it is necessary for survival and more about appearances. Judging by the little box that you live in and how pale your skin is, I imagine that this is still the case.” She spoke softly, musing to herself even if the words were directed at him. Half of her was distracted by his proximity, the fact that his hands rested on the cinch of her waist, warm through the fabric of the shirt she wore. He emanated heat. And his skin was warm to the touch, soft under her fingertips, even though she could feel the muscles under the skin.

Grinning impishly, she peeked up at him underneath the fringe of her lashes as he tugged her closer still. Almost casually, she slid her bare legs against his thighs and used her fingertips to tug the band of his pants far enough out that she could steal a peek down their front, to see if she could catch sight of the earlier hint of arousal he had demonstrated in her presence. Which brought her to her actual point … “And yet for creatures who are not so different from baser animals, sex is something that is something that is trained out of you from a young age, especially when it comes to the females of your kind. Like it is something more sacred than it really is. Lust is a natural thing; it is ingrained into humankind as a fail safe to make sure that you do not kill yourselves off for lack of interest, but as time goes on …” She dropped her hold on his pants and looked at him almost innocently as she leaned back, palms catching the edges of his desk to prop herself up instead. “It has become more of a social endeavor, has it not? Recreational instead of procreational. Tell me, are your women’s hymens still considered sacred and untouchable until marriage?”

She had gotten off track with her line of communication. Or perhaps she was trying to throw him off further, still hesitant to reveal her true nature. At least not bluntly. She did not trust humans, no matter how noble they presented themselves to be. She had already garnered that this man was a thief of some sort, or perhaps he was only a delivery boy to the powers that sought to harness what she was.

She could work with the latter. It made him susceptible to persuasion. Oftentimes, the lower they were in life, the easier they were to manipulate. They sought more than what their life had brought them thus far. For him, she felt as though more honesty than lies might help her own endeavors.

“What is a good name for a female?” She snaked the conversation back to her name. Something other than Lila, the name that had been chosen for her so long ago, by a man who was long dead - and good riddance. Mortality might breed greed, since a mortal’s life was so short lived, but she was glad that none of those who sought more than what they already had could not prolong their lives.

Some had tried. She smiled, thinking about that. Some had succeeded, using her, but not to the end that they had imagined. Desires and actuality were things that she did so enjoy toying with. Her eyes swirled, the iris filled with too many blues to have names for, as they rose up the expanse of his chest to meet his eyes. She had even shifted her bottom even closer to the edge, so that the hem of the oversized shirt slid between her legs to shield his sight from her nudity, and yet she pressed in close enough that her hips bumped against his. “I think fairer would be that both of us be free of clothing,” she suggested, brow lifting in a challenge. “You were the only one who was unable to concentrate, and even seemed offended.”

Her smile turned into a grin. “I am djinn,” she admitted. Plainly. The word genie was an offensive term, making her nose crinkle up. “Jinni, or demon. There are many names for what I am. I can also grant you things, but like those who came before you, wishes is not the word that I would use to describe what I can do. I grant desires, make them come true. I just ask for a bargain to be struck first. My freedom and one other thing-” She cocked her head at him. “... and I will grant you yours.” She did not point out that the ring controlled her, hoping instead that she could strike a deal with this male before he figured out that there was no bargain that needed to be made. “I will grant you what you desire for one week, whatever you wish, and then you will give me my ring. I would also wish to learn how the world is now. You will teach me about your world, I will give you whatever it is you want, and at the end of the week, we will both be free. You agree to my bargain, I shall make sure you have your … Coke.” ​

 

[Staine]

Ryan tilted his head as she began to talk to herself about humans and their clothing, and it did make him look down as she pulled at the waistband of his trousers. Despite being quite sure that she wasn't just some crackpot escaped from the mental hospital he couldn't quite get a read on this woman and it was driving him crazy. She wanted the ring he was wearing, she'd made at least that much clear and he was beginning to believe that she wasn't human, which in itself was crazy. More than that, a djinn, she had said. Or a demon. Whatever she was she had been implying that she was powerful, at least powerful enough to grant him anything he wanted, any wish, desire...even more than one which begged the question why couldn't she just take the ring from him? If she was anything like the Aladdin movies, really the only thing he had to compare her with given his limited knowledge on the subject, then it was because she was bound to serve him. His mind raced with the possibilities and implications of that while he followed her gaze towards his manhood. Not fully erect anymore it was still taking a long time to go down, owing to the provocative way she had approached him and how she talked to him now, and having her eyes on him didn't make it any easier to control himself.

He couldn't help that, he was only human after all and she was the personification of feminine perfection, it was as though she'd plucked her human appearance out of his fantasies as he'd slept...for all he knew she'd done exactly that although he felt it more likely that it was just a coincidence. Whatever the case, he wanted her and she damn well knew it judging by that grin that had played at her lips, and it had taken a lot of effort not to reach for her and stop her, or try to cover himself as she brazenly inspected him. At least she wouldn't find him lacking...long, thick, when erect at least, he had confidence he'd more than meet up to any expectations she might have but was that not the problem? He couldn't get enough of a read on her to know what those expectations were! He tried his very best to keep his tone level and not show how unnerved he was by how casually she was touching him, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief as she released his pants. "Did you enjoy the view?" He forced his own cocky grin, hoping he could pull it off. "For some, yeah, sex before marriage is a big no-no, but that's not very common. Much more likely we fuck ourselves silly before we settle down and get married now, we even have apps for finding yourself a...a friend." He managed a small laugh, still trying to appear confident while being fully aware he'd blown that in the first couple of minutes of this encounter. "Is that what you want? Because you seem to be a little fixated on getting me naked again..."

At least she had moved on from that topic quickly. "I have no idea. Personally I think Lila is pretty but you can pick any name you like." He looked over towards his CD collection and saw one of the covers. "Lilly is a good one. Umm, Lucy, Amy, Melody, Ashley...what do you like the sound of?" She'd spoken so much already, he was still trying to process what she had told him and thinking on her offer of a week's worth of his own desires being realised in exchange for the ring, and distracting himself with this helped. "Any of those strike your fancy?" It wasn't lost on him that she'd pressed against him again either, and though she was more covered up than she had been she was still making provocative statements. "You're relentless, aren't you? Keep the clothes on for now...maybe if I agree to your little deal I'll indulge you and we can both be naked again, sound fair? Speaking of..." Something was on his mind. In the movies, and in the books he had read as a child the genie, or djinn since that was what she preferred, didn't make a deal. They were given commands and they followed them, just like that. Sure, in Aladdin they had only three wishes but Lila had offered him more than that, so did he have to agree to her deal at all?

"I wasn't offended." He was responding to her accusation while he brought his hand up, looking down and rubbing his thumb over the gaudy ring. "With you being naked, I mean. I wasn't offended, I was distracted. You know damn well that I was enjoying the sight, don't you?" His tone held the accusation in it as he raised his hand further, lifting her chin so that she would look at his eyes, so he could enjoy the myriad of colours he'd seen in hers. The way Ryan saw it, if he was wrong then it wouldn't really matter if he tried to command her, the deal would surely still be on the table. She wanted this ring, wanted her freedom, didn't she?

"I'll think about your deal, since you want your freedom so badly but first, get me my fucking coke." He grinned, confident that he was on the right track, that she had to follow his commands. "On top of that, choose your own name. Make it something you like, something pretty that you enjoy the sound of. I don't want to refer to you by something you hate, I don't want you to hate me at all." As he spoke he grew more confident in his words, as though that would make him right and that she wouldn't take offence and murder him in cold blood for being so daring. "Tell me what this other thing is, your freedom and something else, right? What's the something else?" More information would be good, but none of this was a good enough test. He needed to give her a command she wouldn't want to follow just to indulge him, something more demeaning, less likely to be done on a whim. "And take the clothes off. You wanted to be naked, right? Take them off. Finger yourself for me, right here, and when you answer me, call me Sir." His eyes lit up as he smiled mischievously. "That's an order. You can't disobey, can you? Do everything I told you if you have to follow my commands, and if you don't do any of them I'll give you the ring right now."

 

[pixel.]

She enjoyed toying with him. Even if it was in a petty way, using the attraction of sex appeal as a catalyst. Though it had been many years, not counting those she had spent in her own personal limbo of nothing, trapped by the ancient tether of

That. Fucking. Ring.

Her more wrathful side wished she could rip his finger off, throw his rotting mortal flesh into the bowels of an active volcano and destroy that which still held her to this world. But … there were rules. Rules she was beginning to suspect that this male was going to start exploring, despite her offer to be his for an entire week. No, her thief was not an idiot. She only wished that he was.

She could not hurt him, even if she wanted to. She could not take the ring from him even if he took it off his finger. She must obey his compulsions, even though it warred with a baser impulse to resist for the sake of resistance. Unlike the stories, too old to hold much truth anymore, the limitations of her use were not fettered by numbers or limitations - except for the limitations of her.

She had changed.

Her time on this plane of existence, on this world. That was what was changing her. She felt it, every time she was summoned, that her essence was lesser. What had once been an immenseness of power, so much that it had made up her entire being, was dwindling and reshaping itself the longer she remained trapped. Already, she toyed with the idea that even if she were freed this time, she would not be able to join her brethren, return to a world where they more belonged. Even in the last thousand years, she had gained emotion. Human inflections. Human mindsets.

She had blamed it on her urge to fit in, once the era of gods and magic and fear as well as reverence of such things turned, replaced by singularities and man made faith in things that did not even exist. Not anymore.

“What is an app?” He was no longer squirming and unsettled by her overt attentions. Or at least he was pretending not to be. Once more, the temptation to cause a more dramatic reaction flared up willfully. Something she forced back down, though it danced still at the forefront of her mind to inject him full of so much lust that he was a mindless, craven beast with it. Driven by nothing but instinct. Little more than an animal needing to rut. Driven a certain way, people tended to be easier to control, forgetting that they were the ones who had formerly had the control. She shook herself, the motion translating into a shudder that rippled down and sat her up straighter on the edge of the desk he loomed over, pushing in close. A deviant’s smile still curled full, carmine lips. “A friend? Is that what you are?” She countered his question with a question, eyes flashing verdant green a moment before her irises swirled into a series of purples and pinks, finally back to blue. The rounder, heart shaped set of her features narrowed as well, becoming sharper along with the edges of her ears that curved and tapered.

Her hands roved, plucking against his hips now that she had released the draw of his pants. Then, grin broadening, she slid both palms around and gripped at the cheeks of his ass, squeezing. “We could change my name by the day, depending on mood. That could be fun. But you humans and your tradition of keeping only one name, then family names. It would put you more at ease for me to have just one - and a boring one, so it seems. Lucammelash, a combination of all of them.”

Except that did not sound appealing to her ears.

Humming under her breath, she gave his backside another squeeze and kicked her legs out on either side of them before bringing them back, feet hooking around the backs of his legs as she leaned in, face close to his chest, inhaling deep, hiding the grin at his admission that he found her attractive. “The clothes smell nice. Why?”

Ah, but then the male decided it was time to ruin her antics with the touch of his hand on her chin. Her eyes snapped up, the mirth bleeding from her eyes, her face as the strum of energy pulsed through them both once more at his touch. She even dropped her hands from his form, like the connection was an insult.

Her eyes flashed black. So briefly that it might have been a trick, while gold bled from her pupil to swirl into the myriad of others colors, overtaking them. With a grimace that curled her upper lip into less of a smile and more of a snarl, her eyes bled a solid gold that threatened to blind with how bright it was before bleeding out into an umber. Gold trickled away from her eyes to scrawl across her skin in a frenzy, disappearing as it fled into the collar of the shirt she wore.

She made a noise in the back of her throat and turned her head, lashes lowering over the mess of her eyes until the torrent of color faded into the darkest blue of a cold sea. She calmed the sneer on her face into pursed lips, her brow set low into a look of reluctant disgruntlement. She didn’t have to say anything.

The knock at his door should have been signifier enough.

She did jerk her attention back up to his face as the sound echoed through his apartment, a bitter smirk overtaking her face as she watched him with the same intensity as the thrum underneath her skin. An electric current that treated her like the magnet to his will. Something that could have been pleasant - for both of them - if she had a less caustic mind for it. “Your Coke is here,” she ground out. Ah, but there was a note of satisfaction there. Like she had a secret he hadn’t yet realized yet. Her next words formed smoothly, lacking the bite of reluctance, but still had a bitter taste. “The name I choose is Rue, for its meaning and its sound. And since you want something, we can tie that into my something else. You teach me of this world, you will get what you want. For me to not hate you.”

Something in her tone rang clear and true. She punctuated those last words with a sweeter smile than she had been wearing, except that there was still a secret there. Like there was a catch to all this and he hadn’t caught on yet. Mischief in a subtle way, like in the arch of her brows and curve of her mouth that created a deeper bow of her upper lip. Suddenly, her voice lost its bitter bite, smoothing out into silk. “You will show me anything that I ask and you will get your I don’t want you to hate me. Honey instead of vinegar ... Sir.” Of course, the words were followed by the fact that she was edging away from him, deeper, sliding backwards over the surface of his desk until she could slip her legs underneath herself and push herself to her feet until it was she standing over him. Sparks rode the waves in her eyes as she met his directly, her fingers sliding to the hem of her shirt, edging it up slowly at first, then whisking it off to dump right over her head.

Where she laughed. Soft and a little giddy, the noise bubbled up from her as she stepped forward, then to the side, slipping right off the desk as she …

Well, she fingered herself.

Or perhaps she was simply poking herself. First, she prodded the dip of her waist with her pointers on either side of her. Then slid all four fingers in a trail over her belly. One finger sunk into her belly button, which only made her chortle like she was doing something clever. Fingers all over, except on the places that he no doubt insinuated, all the while grinning the innocent smile of an actual sinner. And all the while - not even remotely bashful about her again nudity, even when she dipped her head so that the thick dark hair, ruffled some from pulling the shirt over her head, to watch as her fingers pushed up underneath the swells of her breasts to perk them up more than they already were while she headed to the door. She opened it with one hand, because the other dropped down to rest her fingers against one cheek of her ass, finger raised in a rude gesture for when the door swung open, revealing several bags full of items, many which appeared to be food. And two bright red boxes, the word Coke scrawled across their sides. Stooping down, she squinted at a slip of paper stapled to one of the bags. “This order belongs to someone named Marsha, Sir” she tossed over her shoulder.​

 

[Staine]

Maybe it was strange, but Ryan took comfort in the fact that he could almost see her thinking. see her wheels turning. She seemed to be somewhat contemplating his own change in demeanour, or maybe he just had her on the back foot for a change. He rolled his eyes at her question regardless since he didn't really need to know why she wasn't being quite as aggressive anymore and he simply enjoyed the brief respite. "An app is like a program, on your computer or on your phone. Like a calculator, or a music app, or...god damn it this isn't easy to explain." He chuckled and gave her an exasperated sigh, slightly exaggerated and at the very least he was smiling with it as he tried to decipher the smile playing at her own lips. Once again he was reminded that even when he thought he had an advantage over this girl it wasn't enough to tell what was truly going through her mind. "A friend? What if I am? You know..." He flinched suddenly as her hands slid from his waist around to his rear, gripping him and pulling him closer though he was starting to grow accustomed to the way she took liberties, seemed to do as she pleased even if that meant grabbing him like this. Just half an hour ago it would have bothered him, made him more jumpy, this time he simply grinned back and met her gaze with one of his own, trying not to think about how it likely wasn't healthy that he was just letting it happen. "Ahem, anyway...like I was saying, you know, if you actually decided to stop trying to mess with me I could be a friend to you, yes. You seem to treat me like some combination of enemy and curiosity..."

There was only a small note of resentment in his voice when he'd said that, and he'd found a place for his own hands to rest, against the small of her back, his arms around her waist. "No...just one name, I'm not going to remember a new one for you every fucking day." To say nothing of the fact that implied she was going to be around for a while he didn't fancy the notion of trying to remember her latest name each day, and he frowned at the name she came up with. "Lucammelash? That's a fucking terrible name..." He didn't know what to expect as he told her that, and he hoped that she wouldn't have her heart set on that name...if she did he was about to regret telling her to choose her own. Distracted by her legs hooking around him he leaned into her and looked down at her as she leaned in close. Why couldn't he figure her out??? He'd always been good at reading people, it was one of the few things he'd genuinely considered a strength of his and it had kept him from making too many mistakes and owing the wrong people, which in his trade was valuable...but she flitted from one subject to the next so very easily that it was easy to get lost in it, to be stuck on what she'd said just a moment ago and blindsided by what she said now. "Because they're clean...and obviously I use detergent." He'd been tempted to hold her head to his shoulder right then, feeling a moment of closeness could have been stolen, something he'd have very much enjoyed, but instead his hand had found her chin as he'd made his demands.

Her eyes, again, that flash of colour that captivated him even as it was clear that it wasn't a look of happiness she was casting at him...he felt he was falling into them when the knock at the door startled him enough to make him jump and his head snapped around at the sound. "My coke? Oh..." He was about to remark on how fast it was when she continued, and it seemed she had chosen her name. He smiled...a baleful name but he liked it, it sounded kind of pleasant even if the meaning was not, and he raised an eyebrow at her request, the bargain she seemed to be asking of him. He grinned as she called him Sir, confident that he'd been right, she was all but confirming that he didn't have to make a deal with her at all, that she couldn't not obey his commands, or requests or whatever the hell they were. "Oh I like when you call me Sir..." he started, smirking as she pulled away from him and started to stand, and he was about to comment on the deal she'd offered when her fingers caught his attention.

Ah, yes...the other thing he'd told her to do. He watched with rapt attention as she hopped down from the desk, his eyes following her every movement as she prodded herself...he genuinely didn't know where to look! She was completely naked again, and while this time he wasn't averting his eyes and had all the time in the world to drink in her flawless form, the sheer beauty of this stunning woman he was drawn to her actions as she teased him, her fingers prodding and poking at her flesh as he stared. His mouth was slightly open, lips parted...it felt dry as his gaze alighted over every point of contact he fingers made while the devious little creature giggled at her own wit, watching with unhidden desire as she moved to the door and when she made the rude gesture he couldn't stop himself from laughing. Her hypnotic spell...though in all honesty he didn't think any magic had been used...was broken by the sound of his own laughter. "You're such a fucking tease, Rue. So I have to be better with my wording if I want to get anything out of this, huh? I'll remember that." He walked up to her, taking one of the boxes for himself and carrying it back to his bed, sitting on the edge as he took a can out of it. "Marsha? No idea who the fuck that is...wait, does that mean this is stolen from somebody? I thought your magic would just make a drink appear, like out of nowhere. You know, like in the movies?" He shrugged...whomever Marsha was she didn't mean anything to him, he'd never heard the name before in his life.

The can in his hand was ice cold, and much more deserving of his attention as he fingered the ring-pull and opened it. "Anyway, you did everything I told you to, even if you took some liberties..." He glared playfully at her and shook his head slightly. "Won't begrudge you that though, even if I was looking forward to the show. Still, it means I win, I keep the ring." He took a sip of his coke, savouring it. In all honestly coke wasn't his favourite thing to drink but he'd been saving that can, and after seeing it gone like that this was more than a little satisfying. "Oh, yes! Your deal...so you want me to show you anything that you ask?" He raised a suggestive brow though he was pretty sure that wasn't what she was implying. "And for that, you won't hate me, Rue?" He said her name with a smile. "Deal. I'm sure this won't come back to bite me in the ass at all..." he mumbled under his breath, though the smile never left his lips. "Like I was saying earlier, I could be your friend, you know. I mean...your friend who has a magical ring that can make you do anything he asks, sure...but still, wouldn't it be better for both of us if we weren't at odds? I might just be the best friend you ever had and let's face it, I'm the best shot you have at getting your freedom, right?"

 

[pixel.]

Lila - no, Rue, since that was what she decided to call herself now - hummed from where she crouched on the floor, door flung open wide for just anyone in his hall to see the naked female sifting through the plastic bags that the delivery service had left behind, abrupt curiosity animating her features for the time being. And for the time being, she swept anything else between them off to the side as she plucked up one of the bags and leaned back, the heels of her feet digging into the curve of her backside. She had a pair of dimples, too, right above the plush cheeks that curved down into an upside down heart shape. A trick of the light, and cold licked up her spine, spiraling as she turned slightly, glancing over her shoulder at the male who gawked from back inside.

She lifted up a thing of baby formula, dark brow cocked, lips pursed. “Mmm,” she pushed the noise out with a sigh, then plucked up a couple of the bags before rising, backing back into his living space. “As you can see, a balance has been made for what you wish. Those, my friend, are the true rules of what this is. You ask, I give, a balance is found,” she explained, dumping the bags off to the side before using her feet to nudge the rest of their newfound treasure inside. "Do you think this one will miss her items?" Her hand gripped the door frame and she leaned out, peeking left and right down the hall, then pulling herself back inside with a click as the door shut behind her, turning back into the room.

“Now, what are these things that you speak of … Sir?” Oh, yes, she rolled her eyes and leaned now against the door, staring at him now from the space that divided them, arms folded up under her breasts. Her mood had shifted just like that, like the room separating them had been pulled taut and the air condensed. Or perhaps now that play time was over and the reality of what she was and the relationship she had with that ring was out in the open, the wary skepticism had moved from him to her. “Programs, apps, computers … I’m not familiar. I would like to be.”

Suddenly, she was not trying to flaunt her nudity, and even seemed that much more reserved now that he had concluded for himself that, deal or no, he could command her. It bled out into the tone of her voice. Like she might be the one that was bitten in the ass by any deals made.

“And I took no liberties,” she defended herself, pushing away from the door to prowl forward, through his living space and back into his bedroom. Only she hesitated, watching him as she leaned over to scoop up the discarded shirt and pulling it closer to her torso, like she was wondering if she tried and put it back on if he would stop her. “You simply did not define what you asked for. So, I defined them myself.” Ah. There we go. A flash of a smile, a streak of devious that lit her features and eyes. Only to drop with her gaze to the ring he wore on his finger.

“And our agreement was that I would not hate you, not to be your friend. The concept of friends have not changed in the years I have been away from the world, have they? A man who calls himself friend does not use commands to force another to do what they say. They ask, and because they are friends, what is asked for will be granted freely,” she informed him. Succinctly. She made eye contact with him again and lifted the shirt, dragging it back over her head. It caught on her breasts before falling down to cover her torso, hips, the tops of her thighs. “And if my friend asks me nicely, then I would be honored to … consider his request.”

She laughed then and turned, presenting him with her back, eyes locking on the computer on his desk. “Now, show me this. Sir,” She made sure that her demand matched her current surly mood. Or maybe, petty thing that she was, just wanted to give him a taste of what she had experienced, though her own voice lacked any conviction.​

 

[Staine]

Sipping his coke rather happily, Ryan looked down at the package Rue had pulled out of one of the shopping bags. At first he'd felt no guilt at all, he simply hadn't cared that somebody was missing their shopping order but seeing the baby formula was different, wasn't it? He pulled the package towards himself, frowning as he looked back up at her. Still naked, still quite possibly the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on Rue was at least not deliberately pushing that fact on him, using it as a weapon, in fact something seemed to have changed about how she carried herself. "Balance. So everything I wish for, you take from another? Everything?" It was clear that learning that was impacting him as his tone had shifted from amused and excited to apprehensive and he didn't answer as she asked if he thought she'd miss her items. Instead, he moved towards the bag and opened it to see the other things Marsha had bought. There were very few luxury items in the bag, most of it was food, not even good food but cheap, store brand items. No alcohol, no candy, another packet of formula, some milk, eggs, bread...guilt ate at him. For a professional thief Ryan still had standards, he was no Robin Hood, he didn't give to charity or anything like that but he wouldn't steal from somebody who had nothing, he robbed stores that had good insurance and weren't in any danger of going out of business and wealthy assholes who didn't need everything they had.

"What things? Oh..." Rue had called him Sir again, which had been amusing earlier, hell it had even turned him on a little, her accent had made it sound all the more exotic and he liked how it made him feel...now he was barely registering it and her attitude seemed to have shifted too. She wasn't teasing him, she was simply asking him a question, all business as she elaborated on what she meant. "Computers, they're...well, you know, computers." He laughed softly, trying to lighten the suddenly serious mood while also trying to think of exactly how to explain what a computer was to somebody who didn't even know what a refrigerator was. "A computer is a device we use for...well, for most things. Storing information, controlling anything electronic, for searching the world-wide-web for information or to watch funny cat videos and...other things." He figured it would be wise not to let her know exactly what 'other things' one might search for, especially as his own search history contained not just a few BDSM related searches on pornhub and a few other sites. Rue had moved further into the room again, denying that she'd deliberately misinterpreted his command while also confirming it at the same time, an impressive feat which made him chuckle as he stood up with the receipt from the shopping bags in his hand, the entire order held there. She seemed to have picked up the shirt he'd given her too...was she feeling shy? Or at least more reserved? That alone was alarming considering how she'd acted so far. At least she'd almost smirked...it wasn't quite the look he'd grown used to in the last hour or so but the ghost of it had still played on her lips for a moment.

As she pulled the shirt back on, he listened to what she said, and he even had the good graces to blush slightly. What she was saying wasn't wrong...he'd been so pleased with himself that he'd figured out the trick to this ring, that he didn't have to offer her any deal at all it seemed, that he'd treated her exactly like a servant. He tried a smile, though it was an uneasy one. "Fine...okay, okay, I get your point. Maybe we can start over then? I'll try not to be an asshole, and you can try to keep an open mind and maybe we can be friends?" Honestly he didn't know why he cared, most people in his line of work would kill to have what he had access to right now but Ryan...he kind of liked this Djinn or whatever she was, and he found he really didn't want her to hate him. "Given freely? So can you confirm something for me? If I ask, a request, not a command...and you decide to honour it...do you still take it from another? How does that work?" He raised his hands as he approached her, the receipt caught between the fingers of one. "That's not a command, I'm just asking you to tell me."

She'd sat down at his computer already, and he chuckled softly. She seemed...pouty. Was that the right word? Whatever it was, he had a feeling her heart wasn't in it. Stepping closer, he leaned down to turn on the computer and started to type his password in at the login screen, though it was taking far longer than it normally would because of his position. "Damn it, I knew I should have gotten another chair." He could have asked for one, maybe she'd have given him one but he still wasn't sure she wouldn't take it from another. Instead, he reached down, hand under her arm as he lifted her. "Stand up a moment. Relax, I don't bite, you're just in my seat, it's awkward to do it like this." Lifting her to her feet, he sat down in the now vacated seat, then he took hold of her waist with his free hand and guided her down to straddle his thigh so that she was almost sitting in his lap. "There, comfortable? You can make yourself a chair if you like, but no stealing it from anybody."

Grinning, not at all unhappy to have the hot Djinn in his lap but trying not to make it too awkward either, he slipped his arms around either side of her so he could type the password. "See? This is a password, so that nobody can access my files without my permission." The computer booted up properly, and he clicked onto the web browser, then into the search bar, inputting the local supermarket. "And here you can search for anything you like, information, pictures, there is very little you can't find out on the internet. You can even do your shopping, like this." He began adding things to the cart for delivery, notably was the coke and the baby formula and other groceries, holding the receipt in his other hand as he bought identical things. "And I can have these delivered to my home, or another, if I like." He put in the address that was on the receipt, and the name Marsha, before he paid for it with one of his credit cards. Clicking on the search bar again, he took Rue's wrists and guided her hands to the keyboard. "Here, type. Is there anything you'd like to know?"

 

[pixel.]

It seemed as though they both had things they would need to educate each other on. For a simpleton, though, her new human was acting shockingly casual regarding the big reveals that had just come to light. Then again - time had passed since the last time she had been freed from the dead space realm that acted as her prison when the ring was not in effect. Perhaps humans now knew the presence of others in their world. Or at least, they did not act so scared. Hateful. Demons and witches and vampires, burning and stabbing and sending them to their so-called Hell. She had been well coveted by only one powerful family for hundreds of human years. It was hard to say, especially since she was still uncertain as to just how much time had passed. And why this common man had come across her ring in the first place. She had questions, namely whether his employer was the family that had kept her for so long, or someone who had discovered their secret and wanted the power of the ring - her - for themselves.

Regardless, she had already resolved that this man was better than both options. She would need to convince him to not hand her over.

“I do not take from anyone,” she replied to his question. Tartly. As if he should have known that already. “Surely, the world works the same way as it always has, in some fashion or another. You desire a good or service, you must pay the price. Nothing is truly free, yes? You ask for something, you use me to get it, but a price must be paid. What you ask for must come from somewhere. You asked for your Coke, Marsha provided you with your Coke. And … more items. I recognize many of the items, at least. Food things-”

Oh. There was a feeling that she had not experienced in some time. Her stomach rumbled, twisting inside her. A reminder that so long as she was out here, in his mortal world, so then was she. Mostly. Time spent and power siphoned for the greed of others - well, she feared her condition would become a more permanent one. And that both elated and made her heart sink. She missed her own kind, long gone, thousands of years gone. Likely they did not even think of her, perhaps even remember her, even though their original selves had been infinite. It made her wonder, too, if there were any others who had been trapped just as she was.

And if this … computer would answer some of her questions.

She cleared her throat. “Sir,” she added as an afterthought, sliding a mercurial glance in his direction as he finished sifting through the spoils of his first wish. “I do not know how any of these inventions work. Have humans harnessed their own long lost magical abilities again, then, and have created pockets of reality in which to store these … cat videos? Or does it work as a portal would, where it opens to lead to a cat?” Truly, she looked baffled by his explanation as to what these things did. Eyes moving away from him as he approached, she instead turned her attention to the black screen in front of her, fingers reaching to brush over it with a frown furrowing her brow now.

Only to jump in the chair as static electricity thrummed through her fingers and the screen flashed, turning on. Subconsciously, she reared back, skepticism overriding anything else on her face. It only deepened as his fingers fell on the keyboard as he loomed over her, English words appearing before her eyes, gone in a blink. She still caught them. Smirked that she had a secret of his, at that.

“Perhaps if you are not an asshole, we can be more than friends,” she murmured demurely. Maybe a bit too much sir. Her head tilted back, the deep aquamarine of her gaze fluttering beneath dark lashes. She pouted again, this time in a sweet way instead of petty. “You enjoyed seeing me naked, did you not, Sir?” Ah. So the shirt coming back on was punishment for his eyes, then. Her eyes still searched, despite the playfulness that had returned, wondering. “You do truly think that I have control of such things. No - asking me for things is your equivalent to … cheating for gain. You want something, but you do not have the means to get it, but I do. It still costs - perhaps even more than what you would pay to take the time to achieve what you are after yourself - but at least you do not have to wait. Yes? The price must be paid, one way or another. There is always a demand in balance. If it is not taken from this reality, where do you think it will be taken from?” She smirked at him then, the colors in her irises swirling briefly.

She did make a noise as she was lifted up and promptly settled back down - on him. A warmer surface than what her bare butt had been resting on, even if it was lumpier and moved more than she cared for. She still took advantage, sliding back once he had settled in the seat, legs draped over the thigh he had perched her on so that she was cushioned more securely in his lap. And likely hindered his ability to type even more than she had been while her arms reached up and her fingers stroked through his air, her mischievous smile close to his face. “I have made myself a chair,” she promised in a coo, pressing in close so that the swell of her breasts pressed against his chest. For a long moment, she did not turn her attention away from his face, even going so far as to trace her fingertips down both his cheeks.

“You would make a pretty pet,” she informed him, voice practically a purr. “You are prettier and younger than the original holders of the ring. But you like it the other way around, yes? You would like a pet to coddle … you.” She grinned, broad and more than a little naughty, then leaned forward and pressed her lips against the jut of his cheek. “I wonder why Sir and not Master,” she hummed thoughtfully before twisting in the other direction when he started to type again, riding the cheeks of her backside against his groin with the movement.

Only she hesitated, processing what she was seeing on the screen. So different from what she had last known. She barely registered when his hand guided her wrists so that her hands rested on top of the keyboard. This time, when she adjusted herself, it was genuinely to make herself more comfortable on his lap rather than tease him. “What … How do I find out how much time has passed? Who is the current King of this country?” Instead of moving her fingers over the keys like he had instructed, she voiced the question. Like the computer would respond to her voice. Except she did turn her gaze away from the screen and down to the letters imprinted on their keys, hesitating briefly before she used her pointer finger to stab at the K. Then I, N, G. Her eyes shifted back to the screen, waiting for it to do something.​

 

[Staine]

The answer to Ryan's question was honestly what he'd expected, and yet he didn't like hearing it all the same. Once she'd brought him his drink, amidst the rest of some poor woman's shopping there had been only two options. The first was that Rue was malicious enough that she would enjoy taking from another, that she'd deliberately plucked this from it's chosen destination in order to either punish or test him for demanding it of her and the second was that she couldn't create the things he asked for out of thin air. The second had seemed more likely; while she did seem to be inclined towards poking at Ryan she hadn't been cruel with it, she had a more teasing demeanour than nasty and he didn't feel she would take just because she could. "Okay, okay, I get it. I make a wish, or a request, and it has to come from somewhere else. Any other limitations and clauses I should be aware of, Rue?" Regardless of where it had come from he wasn't going to turn the drink down, sipping at it as he approached her at his computer desk. "If I ask nicely, would you let me choose where it's taken from, please?" He smiled, a hint of amusement gleaming in his eyes as leaned over her to log in to the computer. "You know, as a friend?" He chuckled as she called him Sir again almost as an afterthought, becoming outright laughter as she asked about the cat videos. "Not magic, technology. Computers are storage devices, for information. Videos are...memories, captured in motion. It's kind of hard to describe..." True enough he couldn't seem to find the right words for it, how did one explain technology to somebody who had never seen it before? He could show her what it could do, he could demonstrate but that didn't quite explain how it worked, something he didn't quite know.

"It's like...a recording. You've seen books or scrolls right? You've seen writing...this is just a different way to store things, we have technology that can capture an image and sounds and play it back as though you were there, watching." As he lifted her from the seat, he shrugged a little. "Though honestly, it could be magic...never thought magic was real but since nothing else can explain what you are..." It wasn't just Rue that was surprised by how well he was taking learning about her, the limits of reality as he understood them falling away with her appearance and he didn't know if he was simply in shock or not. Maybe it was something to do with all the media he had enjoyed, maybe he'd watched so many superhero and supernatural movies that he'd become desensitised to the notion of magical beings existing, or perhaps he was still in denial. Sure, it could be a coincidence, the shopping arriving right as he'd asked her for a coke. The more plausible explanation it somehow seemed the least likely in his mind. His hands on her waist as he slipped into his seat he'd nodded, blushing a little. "Yes...of course I enjoyed seeing you naked, who wouldn't?" He'd felt a thrill at the hint she'd just given him, more than friends... "You're beautiful, it's not like you don't know that, Rue."

When he'd pulled her down onto his knee, it was obvious it hadn't been just so she would have somewhere to sit, it had been painfully obvious that he was attracted to her, more than that he liked the way she acted around him. The teasing was a game to him, anticipation and desire toys to play with, the starter to what promised to be a satisfying meal if and when he got the chance to enjoy it and even the way she responded in anger to his questions and demands. She'd been the one intruding on him here, but she still acted haughty as though he was the one out of place and he couldn't put his finger on why he enjoyed it so much, he only knew that he did. Pulling her down let him continue those games with her, he was just as interested in seeing what she'd do with her new position as he was in teaching her how computers worked and he wasn't disappointed as she leaned back into him and one arm slid around her waist for a moment as he looked at her. Once again he was struck by her beauty, and he didn't move to stop her as she raised her hands to his cheeks and pressed herself against him, the only sound he made for a few moments being a soft growl, a sound of arousal. "Comfortable?" A grin played at his lips, enjoying her mischief and ignoring the warning signs his brain was trying to tell him, that he should be focusing on their bargain and not how good she felt with her rear pressed against him, how his arousal was coming back with a vengeance.

He chuckled at her comment. "I tried that once, it didn't suit me...I like my independence. " He brushed aside the thoughts that she only wanted that very same thing and grinned playfully. "Are you offering? You want to be my pet, Rue?" Shaking his head he shifted beneath her, knowing she would feel just how much he enjoyed her in his lap before long and that the problem would only grow if they continued on this topic. "Master feels more...formal. Maybe if I thought I owned you I'd have you call me Master but I don't think I own you, not really. I like Sir anyway, let's stick with that...not sure I ever liked Master." The sudden temptation to kiss her as her lips played along his jaw was successfully resisted as he brought up a video of a cat attempting and failing to jump onto a countertop and he gasped as she shifted, her rear expertly placed to tease him whether by accident or design. At least now her attention was on the screen as she typed the word 'King' and google directed her to a gambling website.

"There is no king in America, Rue...what year was it that you remember last? It's 2022 now, it must have been at least a hundred years." Even as he said it he knew he was lowballing it. He leaned forwards, his arms on either side of her as he typed and the screen filled with the wikipedia entry for the president. "Here, just type anything you want to know in here and it will search the internet..." He paused and let his hands fall from the keyboard, his arm finding it's way around her waist again for lack of anywhere else to put it or perhaps just because he liked how it felt and rested on her thigh. "The internet is information...kept in the cloud. I have no idea how, smarter people than me designed it. Doesn't matter, what matters is anything you want to know you should be able to learn." Then, the question he really wanted to know, but he was careful to phrase it as such and not a demand for the truth. "The people you don't want me to hand you over to, my employer...what is it that scares you? You don't have to answer, just...if I don't hand you over, I'm in danger myself, so don't you think I should know?"

 

[pixel.]

This male … he still did not seem to understand the nature of what he played with. The simple mindedness of humankind still amazed her. Or, really, it was their own selfishness that gave her pause. He asked her with his words if he could lessen the burden of guilt from his own consciousness while still exploiting what she could do. He wished to take advantage, but wished to choose whom he took advantage of. Another bout of surliness passed through her, curling her lips with bitter amusement, though her face was still facing the computer screen as she debated his requests. He wished for her to do things, but all she really wanted was her ring. She wished to be free of the burden of command and yet, while he asked her to lighten the blow of what he asked for, it was still for his own wants. So, when he asked what other limitations that he should be aware of, she could not help the laughter that bubbled up from her throat, forcing its way past her lips.

It was not quite an ugly sound. But the humor was lost to the indignity of it.

“There are no limitations,” she assured him, but her words were curdled. Strained. Coiled too tight. She tensed in his lap where before she had been teasing him. Her eyes tried to focus on what the screen was presenting to her, but neither his words to explain what she was seeing nor what she could decipher …

Well, truly she was over her head. And what fueled her budding frustrations of her circumstance. She felt the weight of it sink down into her gut, souring her. She tried to push past it, focus on what she could achieve now instead of wheedling down into her poor circumstance. It was apparent that the male found her attractive. In a way, she found him to be endearing, though naive. And that was a far cry better than malicious. No doubt he did not understand what he asked in the first place, not truly, and only wished to do right.

“Humans call what they do not understand magic,” she started to explain, air leaving her flared nostrils as she breathed out. Settled back down on his lap again, a spark of interest cutting through her darker thoughts as the soft swells of her backside slid against his growing arousal. The more disgruntled curb of her lips twisted again and a smirk of amusement grew on her face as she fixed her position on his lap so that the hardness that spoke of his interest rested between her cheeks and her legs swung down alongside his. She used his torso to support her back as her hand moved from the keyboard to the device he had used to display the page on the screen. Clicked into the first link on the search she had pulled up. “...Or other things. It changes through the years, I suppose, as humans change their understanding of how things work. The truth of the matter is that my kind were already starting to leave your world when I…”

She cleared her throat, her shoulders bunching again as tension shuddered down her spine. This time, sadness crept into her internal emotional chaos. “I was hoping to use your device to see if I could find more of my kind, but I realize …” She frowned at the words on the screen, no longer interested in learning of kings in this age where the concept was different. So instead her hands fled both keyboard and mouse and she leaned back, tucking her hands in close to her body on her lap. “But I do not know how to find them, if they are still out there. And not … in my condition,” she finished finally, her voice small. No longer playful. Her eyes darted down to the ring on his finger, then away.

“I wish for my independence,” she admitted, her eyes lifting now, body twisting and head craning so that she could see his face. Is that not what she had been saying all along? She might tease, flirt even, but she wished to play these games without the knowledge that she did not really have a choice in the matter. It took the amusement out of it. And that showed in the expression on her face as she studied him instead of the new site he had pulled up on his screen, her eyes caught the bright flashes of color and moving pictures that blared at her to win big, but her curiosity for the time being ended there “What are the circumstances you wish to be called Sir? If you wish to have more control over what I can do, you must learn to be concise in the way that you ask for things. You asked for me to address you as Sir, but did not stipulate in your demand how often, nor the context. So - if your request is for this to be continuous, would it be after every sentence I speak? Asking for vague things leads to differing results. Asking for too much can be catastrophic…” She hesitated with that one, jaw tensing. Again, she darted a furtive glance down to the ring on his finger. “The larger the ask, the longer you must wait until you ask for something else. You are drawing from me and that requires time for me to rest or …”

Well, there had not been an or yet. Only the increasing tempo in which she felt herself diminishing in both power and presence. She wondered what would happen, among the many other things she wondered, if he were to take too much from her. If she would cease to exist before she had the chance to be freed, even if that meant she would become a mortal. She sighed, settling back again, the back of her head resting on his shoulder as her gaze flicked back to the computer. Staring at the new page, with what looked like information.

“It saddens me how much time has passed…” She murmured, mostly to herself. Then, speaking up, she added, “Your employer wishes to use me in much the same capacity as you yourself wish to use me, though I suspect their intentions are far more nefarious than yours would be, since you question the nature of your demands and how they are achieved. Regardless of if your employer is the family that I have belonged to for many years … any who know no doubt intend to use power for the same things that they always have: greed, power. And those who think in those terms - tend to not be pleasant. Unlike you, I also suspect that they will be far less friendly and much more forceful with their whims.”

 

[Staine]

It seemed that Rue found his question amusing, judging by the laughter that rang in his ears. "No limitations? Then what is to stop me from wishing that I could do magic myself?" Just when he thought he understood the rules that were at play here the rug was pulled from beneath Ryan again, Rue would say something that made it clear that was more to learn and that was starting to make things difficult. Part of how he had successfully avoided prison time despite pulling off several robberies and other crimes was that Ryan liked to understand. Everything in life had rules, whether they be the laws of physics, laws of possession, the actual, criminal laws he was so fond of...this should be no different. Could Rue break the laws of physics? She'd had to pull the coke from somewhere, she'd stolen shopping, essentially. Did that mean she couldn't, or was it just that it was simpler than creating from scratch? If everything had a cost like she'd implied, that if he wished for something it had to come from somewhere then how did that work if he wished for power? He thought he knew the answer to that one at least. Either way, it was also becoming clear from her tone and her demeanour that Rue was becoming frustrated, though even then she managed to drag his thoughts from the possibilities of riches and power that had opened to him and back down to a baser level as she seemed to notice how aroused he was becoming. He saw the smirk on her lips as she adjusted the careful position he'd placed her in again, trapping his hard length in the cleft between her soft cheeks.

He made a soft, frustrated sound of his own, though it was accompanied by a grin. This kind of frustration he could deal with, this he liked so he made no attempt to adjust her position again, instead deciding to simply enjoy it as she clicked through the links on the computer screen. "Yeah, I'm getting that. To be honest it's a lot to take in, yesterday I didn't even believe in magic. I'll get there." As she continued, Ryan could almost feel the sadness. Certainly he could see her frown as she explained what she had wanted to use the computer for and as she glanced down at the ring again, telling him what she'd wish for. "In your condition?" He wondered what that meant as she twisted and leaned against him and reflexively he shifted too, adjusting to her new position by bringing one hand up to hold her waist and using the other to idly stroke up and down her side. It felt somehow intimate, far more than the teasing she'd been doing earlier, and she seemed to be a lot more serious now, like the shell she'd erected around herself was cracking. No flirting, no playful smirks and suggestive comments, just honest questions and his own tone was softer when he responded to her. "I wish I could help you find them but I wouldn't know where to begin. It must be lonely, I can't imagine what it feels like..." He shook his head at her question and managed a soft chuckle. "Forget that one, you don't have to call me Sir. I like it in bed, it...arouses me, but I don't really care for it all the time. Maybe when you're flirting with me, teasing. I kind of like that, but..." He smiled and let her continue, it seemed she was doing her best to explain how things worked and he did his best to absorb the information. "Don't worry...I understand. I won't ask too much of you, if I do, please warn me. I don't want to hurt you, that...doesn't seem fair."

The more he listened, the worse her circumstances seemed to be, a life of forced servitude, solitude, kept from her people, from being who or what she was. He nodded as she spoke of his employer. "Yeah, I've heard rumours...they are not the kind of person you mess with, the kind of person that you steal from." He lifted his hand with the ring on it, his eyes fixed on the gaudy jewellery. "If I don't hand this over, they'll never stop coming after me, will they? Not if they know what you are, what you can do, but...handing you over feels like a bad idea...and I'd hate myself for it." He sighed softly. "Okay, no more games, I'll make you a promise. Once I'm sure I'm safe and I can live a life without worrying about it...I'll wish for anything you want me to. Your independence, if that's what you want, you can have it, alright? Just stop looking at me with the sad eyes, I like you better when you were angry at me and telling me how much better than me you were." Forcing a smile, he started to rise from the chair, lifting her up with him.

"For now, new wish. I wish you would get yourself some clothes. Appropriate clothes to go outside in with me, use the computer if you want to see what women wear in this century." He tried to think of anything else he needed to add in case it was too vague. "We're going out. I'm sure you could use some fresh air and you definitely deserve a bit of fun after however long it's been and it's been a while since I've been on a date. We can go get some food, watch a movie or something and deal with our problems later, alright? Do you even eat food? Can you get drunk?" He managed to unentangle himself from her and started going through his own wardrobe, picking out a clean shirt and some smart trousers, something he'd wear to hit the bars with and draped them over his arm. "I'm gonna grab a quick shower, you can wait here for me when you're dressed if you don't mind." He smiled at her playfully. "And for the record, I can be quite forceful with my own whims, when I want to be..." He turned to leave her, closing the bathroom door behind him and clicking the lock closed and within a few minutes he was stepping beneath the hot spray, his mind on everything he'd learned.

 

[pixel.]

Her melancholy was a thing that she was trying to chase away with the knowledge of what she knew: she was free now - or as free as she could be, while tethered to the ring, and the male who currently wore the ring. That very same male also seemed less likely inclined to use her as the tool she was accustomed to being wielded as, and that alone brought her some relief, regardless of the fact that her shoulders tensed when he asked the question regarding wielding magic himself. Mouth dry and the kaleidoscope of her stare focusing on the pixels that generated pictures and words on his screen, she navigated the mouse, clicking again into the search box at the very top. Her fingers tapped the keys, one at a time, using only her pointer as she typed the English word: djinn. Selected the informative site Wikipedia, pretending to read what these modern scribes knew of her kind.

On a baser level, it was obvious that the female in his lap had taken her physical appearance on the Arabic and Islamic roots that the word was derived from, so perhaps the information in the article was at least somewhat true as to the origins of where she had come from. Or at least - one such place. She who had named herself Rue seemed disinterested the more she clicked through the history and religious perspectives, the etymology and legends. None of it was what she really wanted. And she knew enough of mankind to know that any information she found in his box of wisdom would either be falsified or non-existent to finding more of her own kind.

But … she could use the search box to learn more about humanity in the year 2022. Later.

For the time being, she released her touch on both mouse and keyboard and leaned fully back against the muscular chest that supported her, a rueful grin touching on the corners of her generous mouth as she rolled the oceanic pull of her gaze up to his face again. The black rope of her hair, smelling of something exotic and floral, spice and honey, brushed against his cheek as she craned for a better view of him. While her hips also adjusted, feeling his pulse in the hardness she still had trapped against her backside. He desired her, at least. Though he did nothing to alleviate himself. She found that odd, from what she understood of human men. They liked to take what they desired.

He had already, in a sense. She wondered why he did not take his lust on her as well.

“There is nothing stopping you from wishing magic for yourself except to consider the price of such a request. You could be the one, trapped in nowhere, bored of your own existence and going slowly mad from isolation until another greedy male remembered and let you out, only to drain your very essence until you are

nothing

but

a

husk.”

Her smile was as grim as the punctuation of the words. Still, she continued, eyes flashing, waves rolling in their depths. “And then when they cannot force anything else from the husk, they will put you away. Back into a nothing place, where you have only your own imagination to dwell on, until you are released again in hopes that the well has been replenished and more greed can be gleaned. So, you may take what is mine. I’ll even gladly give it to you. Perhaps I will die a true death, or perhaps I will simply trade places with you, and be a human while you are a mere spirit to be used. Is that what you would like?”

The bitter crack of her voice was like dry tinder snapping in a fire. Her smile matched it, withering, until she looked away with a sigh and a strange twinge in her chest as she turned, raising her arms to slide around his neck and the soft down of her cheek nestling against his shoulder. She nuzzled him, taking in his scent, her voice softening into a purr. “What else arouses you in bed, Sir Ryan?” She flirted with him now, swapping to the better conversation, and trying to dismiss the other. “Because I can think of quite a few different things that you can ask me to do between sheets, with no clothes at all.” Temptress. The husky coil of her voice followed the subtle swirls her fingers were making against the nape of his neck. She hid her grin against his shoulder, curling up on his lap, breasts pressed into the solid planes of his chest.

No doubt she was trying to distract him from his buyers, though it was hard to say if her sultry promises were genuine or just that. A way to tease him and distract from what she feared the most. Especially since she had already determined that this male would likely not run her dry and summon her back into the space between worlds. Regardless, she twisted herself on his lap again, until her legs slid over the arm of his chair, kicking, and her shoulder pressed into his to prop herself up. “You will keep me instead,” she decided, plump lower lip turned out in a sort of pout as she eyed him. “You can give them another ring and say that it is just as precious as the one you promised to steal. It has been over a hundred years. Those who knew the truth of the ring are dead and humans are gullible, stupid, and think that they are intelligent. Surely your employer will be happy with another ring that is a treasure, and will only blame their ancestors on any magical properties that they do not find.”

That was the truth she was trying to convince them both with, anyhow.

“I would like to try chocolate,” she announced as well, seeming to perk up with the decisions being made, as he lifted her up with him. Only to settle her back down without the warmth and press of his body to keep her company. She eyed him, sitting upright and proper in the chair now without him, and hummed thoughtfully. “And I will endeavor to drink until I am lush,” she grinned, already turning back to the computer. Clothing, he requested.

Only much like the means she had brought the Coke into existence, the idea of feminine clothing was much the same. Not with a snap of magic, but in the form of what he might consider more theft. Taking from somewhere else for her own benefit. In this case, she actually slid off the chair once the bathroom shut behind the man and left the small apartment of his residence, returning only after she had run away from the tears of a grieving male three floors below, who was only two happy to give her half naked self the clothes of his ill wife.

As it was, by the time she had returned to Ryan’s own apartment, she traded his shirt for a woman’s blouse with a floral print and smelling faintly the same. Much like his shirt, this one swamped her smaller frame as well, the circular neck sagging and the outline of her breasts against the cotton the only thing to identify that she had a figure underneath. The pants she had been gifted were tan, linen, and required a thin strip of a belt to keep them from falling down. A pair of loafers completed it, lined with something called orthopedic soles, slipped easily on her feet. She hadn’t bothered with the beige bra and cotton underwear, nor the panty hose that had come with the outfit.

Though, in short, she now looked like a grandma.​

 

[Staine]

Every few minutes it seemed like his guest would fall deep into quiet contemplation, get lost in thought despite his company. Ryan didn't take it personally, he was sure the Djinn had a lot to think about considering her alleged age and everything she no doubt feared, in particular his benefactor. He found it made him kind of sad though, a second-hand sadness as even somebody who could be as oblivious as Ryan could was able to detect the notes of melancholy and the weight of aons on her shoulders. Loneliness, he couldn't imagine what it had to be like to be the only one of your kind or at least the only one you knew of, to not know how to find them nor to even have your own freedom. He watched her carefully, let her use the computer to search her own kind though even he could tell nothing she found was going to be very accurate, there had to be a better way to get such information. The internet was truly a magnificent invention and one that made modern life so much easier, a wealth of information available to those that had the desire to search for it and yet with so much free access came something else; misinformation. Misinformation was rampant on the internet, if you looked in the wrong places it might even tell you that the Earth was flat along with pages and pages of seemingly accurate data to back it up and plenty of believers there to assure you it was the truth. Traps for those that lacked critical thinking skills and if anything humanity had learned that there were far more of those people than anybody had expected there to be.

When he'd asked her about magic he hadn't expected her to take it as a suggestion, he wasn't genuinely thinking of wishing for that he'd just wanted to know if it was possible, more gathering information through his questions. He felt her adjust again, his breath catching at the movement against his length and as she leaned into him he wrapped his arm around her waist. He liked how she felt in his lap, which wasn't exactly shocking, she was gorgeous, she was barely clothed and she was sexually aggressive most of the time. Now, her tone was far from friendly or flirty as he met her gaze, listening to each and every word as the colours in her eyes all but entranced him. When she finished, he gave her an easy smile and shook his head, feeling he'd rather stay positive than get lost in the misery of her words. "Now Rue, why would I ever want that? You don't want to die, do you? Really? I'm sure I can't understand what your life has been like but who's to say it can't get better? What if this is where it turns?" He raised a hand to cup her cheek and she shifted again, this time twisting herself in his lap to face him. With this position she could press closer against his chest, her tone far more suggestive as she commented on something else he could ask of her.

"What else arouses me?" Maybe it was foolish, but he was far too attracted to her to resist playing her game. His hands slid down her waist and found a home there, pulling her closer to him, pressing her down against his shaft. There was something delicious about knowing if it wasn't for the thin fabric of his trousers he could slip inside her so easily, and he had to fight to stop himself wondering what it would feel like, if her magic would make it any different like the sparks when he'd first touched her. "What else arouses me? Hmmm...cuffs. Power, control, restraints." He lifted his hands and found her wrists, pulling them behind her back, holding them there together while he smiled down at her. "Like this...I like having girls helpless, knowing I can do whatever I want to them...but more importantly, I like knowing that they want to be helpless." Given her history, he felt it important to clarify that last point. "I like collars and leashes...I'd enjoy leading you around like a pet, having you crawl for me...and this." He released her wrists so he could lower his hands, slipping beneath the shirt to grab her bear rear, a soft globe against each palm and squeezing gently. "I like ass, and thighs...my favourite part of a woman to look at when I'm horny. I like kissing it, biting it, licking and smacking it." He let his hands linger. "What do you like, Rue? What arouses you?" He chuckled, but he made no moves to take his hands away for the moment. "You have to have your own fantasies and things you enjoy, right?" He tilted his head to look at her at her words. "I will keep you? Is that what want, Rue, to be kept by me? I can't tell if that was a request or a demand." He could see way she almost pouted and one of his hands slid up to hold her waist again, the other moving up to gently rub her back. "We will figure out a way. I told you, I've made up my mind, we find a good way to ensure I can stay safe and I won't hand you over, I'll even give you that freedom you want."

When he'd extracted herself from beneath her he'd grinned at her request and comments, leaving to go shower and when he returned to the room wearing his fresh, clean shirt and trousers he froze for a few seconds as he saw her. The way she'd dressed herself...it was far from what he'd expected and it took him a few moments to register before he began laughing, a huge grin on his lips. "Rue, where on Earth did you get those clothes? You look like you're ninety years old and we are going out for a night at the bingo..." He moved to the computer and typed in a few words, bringing up a much more fashionable and appealing set of outfits complete with models displaying them. Summer dresses, short skirts, tight jeans and leggings, even goth attire as he brought up a few pages. "Just take a look at these. If you'd rather go out dressed as you are that's fine, we can go right now but you will get some stares, girls today dress a little more modern. Doesn't have to be revealing but you're dressed like a senior citizen..." Surprisingly she still didn't look terrible, but he felt that was because he was fully aware of what she looked like beneath that blouse. While he let her look at the pages, he pulled on his socks and shoes, checking himself in the mirror.

 

[pixel.]

For the first time since she found herself in this man’s apartment, she felt like she was really looking at him. It came from the question he posed. Questions: multiple. Like, once again, he didn’t understand just what she was and what she was capable of. Well. That part wasn’t a first; she knew that from the moment he woke, demanding that she dress herself, and presuming that she was a thief in the night intruding on his territory. Memory serving, she smiled, slow and cat-like, but still tinged with melancholy, her voice soft as she stared into his pale face with eyes like the sea. “You are either naive, Sir Ryan, or foolish. Perhaps only ignorant. And yet that makes you trustworthy, I think.”

And yet she was still hesitant to spell it out for him. How could she, when she knew the deceptions of mankind, which in turn had rubbed off on her like so many other habits of theirs? She looked like them, acted like them, had developed feelings like them. It was one such feeling that snagged inside her chest like a painful hook and forced her to swallow around the tightness in her throat as her gaze narrowed intensely on his face, lips parted like she wanted to say … something more.

But closed her mouth instead, mouth slanting in a more devious way, chasing the change of subject eagerly. Because the reality of the matter was - she didn’t want to die, but those who possessed the ring tended to not care so long as they received that which they wished for. Demanded of her. Used her up until she was almost a husk, put her away again, take her out and drain her a little more. Slowly, she was already dying. Slowly, she would eventually wither away into nothingness unless she could free herself from the spell that bound her to the artifact that was so hoarded.

His talk of sex and arousal relaxed her and the almost predatory amusement that filtered into her features as he listed off that which he found arousing lingering. The smile on her face widened when he shifted her until she felt the evidence of it underneath her. She thought of teasing him, exasperating the problem. Perhaps even indulging in it. Except …

She also wanted to flex what freedoms she had gleaned from this male more. To be out in the world. To explore the things that had changed. More than the innate carnality woven into her being, she felt the thrum of a different kind of excitement hum through her veins, even while instinct had her arching her back as his hands clasped her wrists, her fingers curling as she relaxed into his grasp. Her brows rose, too, as her hips swiveled and heat twisted through her core like the subtle tease of his erection through his pants. She ground down on him with a devious chuckle bubbling from between her lips, then leaned forward until her breath rasped against his mouth, watching his eyes as her breasts brushed against his chest. Lashes lowered, she peered up at him. Then her tongue snapped forth, dragging against his lower lip while he palmed the naked globe of soft flesh, a growl reverberating in her throat.

She liked that he was being forward, now. A far cry better than his demands that she leave his bed.

Right before she leaned away, her features salacious with a promise that simmered underneath the surface. “We shall play, then, after we venture outside.” She grinned, shaking her head. “What better enjoyment than to exploit the lusts of others? I can make it so that you experience pleasures that your mortal women cannot give you. I have made men and women both go insane with lust, or perform the most hedonistic acts that they never would have before. For how grateful I am that you would not give away my ring, I will grant you your pleasures.”

She was still preening from her bragging session and sexual prowess when she returned, dressed in her modern women’s garb all the way up to the point that he sounded less than impressed with what she wore. The grin that tugged across her face shifted, turning down, until she was scowling up at him and tugging at the floral print of her blouse. “This is what Martha wore out and about before she was turned over to something called hospice care, Ryan,” she chided him with her information. “And I do not know what bingo is, but I feel that yes, this outfit would be appropriate for the endeavor.”

She was still grumbling when she stepped up to his magic screen, her frown deepening at the different outfits he showed her on the screen, “Is this what you would prefer me to wear? It is the same thing, styled differently. I am older than even Martha is by millennia. I don’t see what is wrong with her attire. And her husband seemed grateful that they were going to someone new, since he is in the very beginning stages of grieving. Shall I have him pay the price and return these in exchange for something more … appealing?” Her eyes flickered up to him, now with a challenge, and that predatory smile back on her face.​

 

[Staine]

"That makes me trustworthy?" Ryan couldn't help but laugh softly, his eyes captivated by the ever-changing colours that seemed to always swirl in her own. "You have a way of making me feel like I'm wrong even when you give me a compliment. Naïve, foolish or ignorant...I honestly don't know how to take it, Rue." He lifted his hand to cup her cheek. "What if it's just something simpler than that? Despite you popping into existence in my bed just to torment me I kind of like you. You're cute, if a bit of a brat, you're funny, you're beautiful and intelligent...but you seem sad too. Unhappy, I see flickers of what you could be beneath it, when you flirt and when you see something that interests you but mostly it's just sadness that you're barely managing to cover up." He stroked his thumb against her cheek, like he could somehow paint over the cracks in her armour with it. "Is it really that strange that I don't want to see somebody I think is interesting to suffer, or to die?" As far as he was concerned that was it. There could be dozens of reasons to why he was already so fond of Rue, he was sure her nakedness and suggestiveness was a part of it but Ryan knew enough of himself to know that a huge part of it was that he always felt a pull when somebody close to him was unhappy and he felt the need to scoop them up, to protect them. That she was an ancient being with seemingly infinite power didn't matter, nor that he barely knew her; physically close and opening up to him in bits and pieces was all it took, he had a capacity for empathy that just wouldn't allow him to turn a blind eye once he liked somebody.

Thankfully her question seemed to cover up those cracks once more, and he saw the side of her that let him forget about it for a moment too as she pushed him for his preferences and he could see her own smile widening, that look she gave him doing nothing to quell the growing arousal she had decided to roll her hips against. He felt her relax into his firm grip on her wrists, not pulling like he'd expected and that made him think that maybe she'd even like to give up control in that particular context. How would that even feel, to have such control over a being as powerful as Rue, and given willingly since he already knew he wouldn't force that from her. Knowing he could was one thing, but as she moved closer as though she would kiss him and he heard the soft growl not unlike the one he made when he was aroused as he squeezed her shapely rear he knew that he didn't want to force it. There had to be something for getting somebody like her to submit because they wanted to, right? He waited for the kiss that never came, slightly disappointed as she pulled back with the promise of more in future and he couldn't stop himself commenting on that either. "Oh we will, will we? You'll grant me pleasures?" He grinned back at her. "No, Rue. I appreciate the offer but when we fuck...not if, but when...you will do it because you want to not because you're doing me a favour. You'll ask me if you can pleasure me, if I'd like to take you and you'll do it on your knees like a good girl." He brushed his thumb over her lips. "That sounds more fun, doesn't it? I won't make you do it, you have to request it from me or it never happens at all, I don't want to force you, there's no fun in that even if I'm curious about these pleasures that no mortal could give me..."

As he showered he had to admit that wasn't so easy to do, to just deny the obvious sexual attraction he had to her, the pull, the promises of something truly otherworldly that only she could give him and it had taken a while for his erection to subside, it felt like his whole body was screaming at him for being such an idiot. It didn't help that he had no doubt her claims were true, something about her told him that she could do everything she said and more. Thankfully, returning to see her dressed like she was ninety years old helped soothe that part of him further. "Rue...hospice care is where you send somebody to die. When it's the end of their life, to do it comfortable, to have them taken care of in the end. You might be older than Martha was but you don't look older, you look like a stunningly attractive, reasonably young woman, if you go out dressed like that..." He laughed as he helped pull up more suitable clothes on the computer, though the smile left him as she asked if she should make the husband pay.

He shook his head. He'd asked about this before, paying the price, and he still wasn't sure entirely what it meant but he had a thought that he hoped would work. "No, you just said he's grieving Rue, let him grieve. You probably helped him more than you know, by listening to him, by making him feel something good came of it." He took out his credit card. He had a lot of savings still, not enough to get what he really wanted yet but a small dent in them couldn't hurt. "Make me pay the price. Take it from my bank account, here." He handed her the card. "And whatever the price is to get them here quickly, I'll pay that too, nobody else pays it." That smile on her face, it concerned him a little. He didn't think Rue was evil, far from it, but she seemed to enjoy trying to push him towards being selfish, maybe it was just something she expected of him. "If you can't do that then don't bother. You can put on some clothes of mine and we will go straight to the store and buy you something to wear, okay? You'll look a little out of place for a moment but you'll be in my truck for most of the journey anyway."