The Demon's Keeper [LaPieta x LocalFriendlyPsychopath]

[LaPieta]

The world was falling away. Items and entities and thoughts and all the screeching wreckage and bloodshed and cyanide fumes were losing all their meaning, all they represented shedding before the woman to base, meaningless shapes. All falling away. . .

Pilot-light eyes sifted sightlessly through the forms as if she could find herself within them. She was a person, yes. Yes. They had come here for a reason.

Aadiya and her escort were en-route to one of the few remaining strongholds of the divine-infernal war; she was a sacrifice. Plucked from scavenging the caustic wastes, taught to flatter and simper and spy on one who had killed the world for the city that had left her to languish, she was a sacrifice. But not a guileless one.

Before the delivery, after the tutelage, they had preened her. Dolled her up in vestments a shade of white so clean she once could not have fathomed its existence. Cleansed and anointed her with perfumes and oils of foreign flowers, bedecked her in bands of gold just a shade less luminous than her hair. Given her a gun, hidden on her person.

They had even gone so far as to secure the use of a motor vehicle for the journey. An honor guard, each armed with guns that were growing rarer by the day.

It had been foolish. They had thought the area cleansed enough of the war-beasts, but it seemed there may be some truth to the folk tales: gas machinery drew their ire. Aadiya had never been in a position to test it.

The war-beasts came down like a wolf on the fold, ragged and gleaming in azure and gold. Even in this diminished state, they were majestic—weathered stone and woven metal made animate in perpetuity, inlaid with golden lines configured to some sacred geometry that had long-since been lost. Blue light streamed neatly along the lines, tracing limbs and symbols like a human in war paint.

There was no fighting to be had, not with their numbers and gear. The car now lay ablaze, acrid plumes billowing from its cinders and swallowing the red flowers they had been driving through. Its inhabitants lay dead or dying, carcasses malformed by the sheer force brought to bear. The woman herself had been thrown from the car and assailed with debris; she did not know the extent of her injuries, just that she was shattered.

She was wax and waxen now, pain and white fabric melting with her into the sea of poppies, scarlet as loathing. Her tatters would feed them, and that was a comfort.

Consciousness trickled red into the loam, the roots, blissfully away from the woman’s body—an unfortunate mass of meat that had known little tenderness in life. All. . .

. . .away.

 

[LocalFriendlyPsychopath]

The bastard son of Mammon, Jocque, he was called. Not that he was particularly greedy. Or that he was even from that level of hell. Frankly the name had always urked him during the multiple wars. After all, heaven and hell had fought more than once. Its just that the last time was... well... the last time. He still remembered it like it was yesterday and would often slip into a strange trance, reliving the events again and again and again.

He'd been in one of those trances, remembering the end of the war. This fight had been a long time coming. A battle between those who had been expelled from Heaven all those years before, and those bastards up there who thought they were so much better. There were far too many of those uppity goody twoshoes up there. Sending him and his brothers and sisters to suffer in hell. To make a new home. To have to do the dirty work they refused to do.To deal with the souls of the damned, those deemed too tainted for the gates of heaven. It made him sick.

He could still remember that day. The smell on the field of battle. He had been fighting in a small town against an angel. He had locked blades with the damned thing, fighting it to a stand still. As the two stood there, locked in combat... there was a noise. A noise unlike anyother. The earth shook and the ground buckled, fissures opened, swallowing things whole. The angel laughed in triumph as Jocque laughed back. He hadn't even noticed the ground shaking as the heaven's ripped open. A chasm in the sky opening as the clouds disappeared, massive swirls opening as horrid things came out from the portals. The two stopped fighting, stepping back as they realized what had happened.

Heaven and Hell had done it. They had destroyed each other. Completely. While those in Hell hadn't considered Heaven there home anymore, losing a home wasn't something they had expected to go through again... and the angels, having never lost or "Fallen," like the demons... it was odd. As the two felt there homes of so many years be destroyed, they both realized what it meant. Both felt the presence of there leader gone. Both felt the disturbance.

After that the world of the humans erupted into chaos. The dead walked the earth, the bastard creatures of darkenss that lurked in the depths of hell stalked the earth, killing any and all that came out and about. The constructs that had helped heaven wage its war, perfect statues made of gold and ivory... turned on there angel masters. None were without sin in the eyes of these things anymore.

Humans flocked to various cities. Parts of heaven fell upon earth, growing strange new things from Elysium upon the earth. Parts of hell burst through the crust of the earth and merged with the human realm. All things were destroyed, remade, and destroyed again for so many many years.

"SIR! The convoy with your... gift from our neighbors!" shouted the man who had just barged his way into the room that Jocque had been sitting in. He turned his monsterous form to him, looking at him disapprovingly, "I... I'm so sorry sir! I don't mean to interupt. I just... its... look outside!" he shouted. From his fifth story apartment he glanced out the massive window and saw over the walls in the fields of poppies that surrounded New Havensburg was smoldering wrecks. They had sent her in a car? He cursed as he nodded, "Round up some men. Good men able to set outside the walls. Don't compromise the guard though," he said to the man who nodded and ran off.

He moved across the apartment to a corner that had all his old equipment. Polished and maintained for the years since the war. Pieces scavenged from other beings armor. He put on an angelic pauldron, boots from another demon and more and more armour till he had his massive red form covered in shining or light absorbing metal. The black bits were so black that light didn't even show off it, while the silver bits were so shiny that they could blind you if he stood in the sun at just the wrong angle. The four armed, red furred beast swung a massive axe, before shouldering the massive thing, and then sheathing it on his back. He did the same thing with a gun, holstering it on his hip, and putting a massive sword in one of the massive boots he wore, like a human might hide a dagger. He prepared for a fight once more, and set out.

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

The doors swung open violently, the constructs distracted from there destruction of the cars and people who had been in them as they turned there attention to the massive armor clad beast that came out. The humans spread out and moved in, trying to help those they could as the three main constructs that had attacked the main column came straight at the beast man. The first was already damaged, wounded in a previous fight it seemed. The obvious weak point being the crack that glowed that odd blue color, which was easily exploited by the rampaging armored demons foot. The crack spread and gears and other things fell from it, as the facade cracked and broke. Faces of cherubs leaked oil from there eyes as cracks tore entire paneling off the sides of the wounded beast, and it collapsed in a heap.

Drawing his weapon the demon swung his massive axe hard and fast, bringing it down directly upon the second creature. A strange but nobel looking lion creature with a humans face. Its mout hopened spitting out a holy flame that singed and hurt the massive warrior, but with a few swings of the axe, the creature also gave in, collapsing in a heap of perfectly constructed and ordered metal bits, falling to pieces as the humanoid statue charged forth now.

Unable to free his axe, Jocque fought this las thing. Two hands gripped the beasts hands, his other two hands drawing the blade he had brought from his boot and stabbing at the construct. Its hide was impossibly tough... not bothered by his blows till the bang of the gun going off put a chink in the creatures armour. It shuddered as cracks appeared where its stomach would be... cracks big enough for him to stab into with the sword, till the beast gave way just the others. Its wailing odd cry drawing ire from other creatures nearby. Sounds like whales cries were coming up from around the sides as he shouted, "Bring everyone, bodies and all back into the city. ANything you can carry, bring!" he said as he stalked into the poppies before seeing her. He cursed and moved to her side, lifting her up as he looked at her. Perfect. This had to be the one from his dreams... meaning she was the one he'd been waiting for. A grimace crossed his face as he looked her over, making sure she wasn't dead yet. She wans't... but he had to hurry. He gently craddled her in two arms, his other two shielding her as he began to run back to the city as the larger guns and defenses of the city started to spring to life, destroying these construct creatures as they emrged from the forests on the other side of the poppy fields.

 

[LaPieta]

Shapes reduced to colors, colors to sensations. There was pain and cold, the scent of iron and smoke and flowers, shouting, shattering, then quiet. Warmth, now. Dark and mercifully without pain.

Aadiya's head nestled against the demon's chest as she was carried, soothed in sleep by the ceaseless heartbeat. Even in unconsciousness, she knew him as the savior in her dreams, the one she had been made for.

Her blood soaked his skin, trickling from a gash in her head to mark him for the journey back. Still, the trip offered ample time to examine her throughout.

The girl's appearance seemed an exercise in pleasing contrasts: sculpted jaw and chin, soft cheeks; trim figure, flared hips; narrow mouth, full rose-bud lips.

Consciousness did not return for some time, the desire to open her eyes longer still. First she must assess the damage.

Every part of her held pain, but that was to be expected. There was a head wound, a searing split along her brow that now lay stitched. Something had crushed her now-splinted wrist, sprained her now-wrapped ankle.

The weight of the gun registered, nestled still against the small of her back; there was no chance it had gone noticed—not with how her bandages lay. That it had been left with her was a not-unwelcome surprise. Nor was the sheer plush decadence of whatever she was laying upon.

Up-turned blue eyes fluttered open, flashing closed as the light seared them. It took a few more tries to be able to look without it hurting.

Sensation, to color, to shapes. Meaning began to filter into the world again.

Blankets swaddled her form, thick and blue as the sky, awash in sunlight. There was no shortage of space either upon the bed or in the room, both swathed in pale furnishings and cloth. White curtains drifted gently from a bay window, by which sat an idle demon.

She knew him. A new awareness made itself known in her chest, then, a hidden ache so long-suffering that she had incorporated its presence as status quo years ago: the itching that marked a wound beginning to heal. An absence now filling with just the right shape.

A hand reached out to him, unfurling like a blooming flower.

Many questions flit through her head, many ways to begin. They both knew why she was here, where she was, a rough sense of what was expected of her—he had left her gun, after all. Time would reveal the rest soon enough.

"Did. . .did anyone else make it?" Unlikely, but one must check these things; she had not known her guards well, but every wasted life was a loss, and they had seemed nice enough for ones complicit in her sale. Everyone had to sell themselves, of course, different things in different ways to different systems. Even this demon had, just as much as she and the guards.

"My name is Aadiya. I'm sorry this. . .that this all turned out how it did." A brittle smile stretched her lips.

 

[LocalFriendlyPsychopath]

The male had carried her quickly and quietly up to his penthouse, summoning a few doctors to follow as they made there way after him. He lead the trail of people all the way to his place where he laid her on a sofa and stepped back so that the others could work on her. He watched quietly, not saying a word as he simply stared, not wanting to interupt just in case he was interupting something important. He watched as they cleaned her up, bandanged her and even revealed a small gun on her person. He had them put it back, it wasn't going to do him any harm. The doctors finished there work and left him to get her comfortable.

He lifted her once more and carried her to the bed putting her down in it and wrapping her quietly as he hummed a litlte lullaby to himself and to her. He moved to the edge of the bed, still sitting on it as he began to do a little bit of book keeping and other work, signing things, reading this and that. His four arms moved quickly and quietly, only getting up to get himself food or a drink before reutrning, so that the first thing she'd see whens he woke would be....

And there it was. He heard her make a small noise and he turned from where he sat to look at her. His body was like a perfectly sculpted statue. He turned his pale soft furred body towards her, looking at her, his eyes scanning her as she spoke to him and said her name, "Two others made it out, one is in a coma like you were... the other is recovering. You're going to be okay though," he said as he turned more.

Soon the hulking and beautiful form of the demon was crawling over the bed. His four arms supported him as he moved up the bed till he was next to her, and he slowly laid down, leaning on one arm as he supported himself gently. Her eyes would be drawn to the immaculate washboard abs befit for a incubus. His soft grey and white fur was almost like downy feathers, which she might have figured would make sense... he was a fallen angel. He reached out with two massive hands, gently running one hand under her chin, stroking her cheek with a thumb as he stared into her eyes, "Sorry for lying... I know I don't... quite look like what you say me as in your dreams..." he said softly.

The massive demon sat up right, stretching for her, his arms flexing a bit as he cracked his neck, his beautiful ivory horns catching the setting sun from the window as he cracked his neck more. He shivered as he shook for a moment before two massive wings sprouted from hsi back, showing her just what she was getting into. As he sat there, silhouetted against the setting sun, the light playing off the pale fur as he then leaned over her again, arms on either side of her as he stared into her eyes now, watching her, "You know who I am already... Aadiya... now I have to know, why would you risk your life making such a flashy entrance?" he asked her softly as he slowly leaned his head down to her own, hovering just an inch away from her face.

 

[LaPieta]

Seven dead then. They now existed only in that far-off country known as the past, and to give the full depth of mourning needed for all those there would render you catatonic. Cognition must be saved for the living. The woman nodded, the golden waves of her hair bobbing with the motion. So it went.

Aadiya stiffened briefly as he entered the bed, soon easing as the rightness of his proximity washed over her like a tonic. Red flushed to her cheeks, an almost-narcotic bliss trickling from her chest to every fiber of her.

A drunken smile beamed back at him as she nuzzled into his hand, large and strong enough to crush her skull.

“S’okay. You’re the same in the ways that count.” Her good hand reached to him, brushing with the side across the down on his chest. For a time, she merely looked at him, smiling as she idly traced half-remembered runes and symbols with a single finger across the expanse of his chest.

The dreams were rare moments of softness in her scavenger days—crystal moments among earthen hours, days of slinking through the wastes. Always he was the rescuer, always a relief and a pleasure; there was succor in having even mere moments where one did not have to be their own rescuer, where for once you could trust that your safety and interests would be taken care of by another. Even if it was only fiction.

She continued to reach for him as he stood, only reluctantly letting her arm fall. His wingspan she traced with her eyes as he revealed them, sliding appreciatively over the sculpt of him. The remnants of the war—both magical and technological, though the difference was indistinguishable now—had affected the body of many in far, far worse ways.

Her face hardened abruptly at the accusation, mouth pursed as her gaze turned icy. How much agency did he think she had in this debacle? How much did he know about the world outside his grasp?

“You act as if it was both my choice and a foregone conclusion; it was neither. I hold no rank or power within the city.” She forced herself to soften, sighing; there was no overcoming his first impression of her, what many of the dreams had her as—victim, waif and naif alike. Fighting to be taken seriously would only cause needless friction.

Breath hissed through her teeth as she tried and failed to sit herself up, pain pulsing from her ribs. It was possible, she knew; it would just be painful. Later.

“A fair few trade convoys have been making it through with salvaged vehicles. The militia had begun to repair a few of their own and wanted this trip done quickly. Other city-states know about me by now; there’s reasonable suspicion that they’d try to either capture or kill me as leverage for your services, or to try and rob New Havensburg of a larger sphere of influence.”

Though new to the field of politics, she had drunk greedily from the education the city offered her preceding this. Her mind hungered as if after summers of fasting for material beyond the all-encompassing logistics of survival. To have that burden of thought freed from her had her ravenous to fill it with more and meaning. Her stomach growled with a more conventional hunger. Another try.

Using her uninjured hand and other elbow, Aadiya managed to leverage herself to sit up, quickly shuffling back on the bed so that the headboard would take on the burden of support. There was a pitcher of water and a full cup thereof within reach, as well as a bowl of broth.

“So you have me. From what I’m told this helps loosen your bindings to the land, lets you roam more freely, though what I was told could be inaccurate. Do you intend to do anything in particular with me?” The militia had assured her of stable food and lodging, and her treatment thusfar supported that, but iniquities innumerable were always a possibility.

While he responded, she swiped the bowl and drunk deeply of it, finishing it in one pull and only vaguely registering the taste. Food in your stomach could not be taken, and that had always been an all-too pressing concern throughout her life.

 

[LocalFriendlyPsychopath]

The male sighed as she spoke to him of not having power in the city, "No... I know you have none," He said softly, "I'm... sorry. I just... don't understand why they'd send you in such a manner? Double the guards with no cars would have meant you were just as safe, with no risk of being attacked by the raging constructs..." he said softly as he shook his head and looked down, "Well, what happened happened..." he said to her softly as he looked at her, "

He moved to her side quickly and helped her when she hissed in pain, "Be careful my dear," he said to her as he watched her with a grimace, "Don't hurt yourself... don't go too far," he said to her softly as he watched her, 'You humans are so...fragile...' he muttered mostly to himself under his breath. He adjusted her and sat her up as he watched her get at the food ravenously. He paused and smiled a little as he walked off, letting her eat as she sat herself up.

He came back with a whole loaf of bread, ripping off the top and putting it on the bedside before he slipped into the bed again next to her. He used his fingers to tear out some of the soft spongy bits of fluff inside the bread, before he produced the bits to her lips, smiling at her as he let her eat from his fingers. He chuckled as he got closer to her, till he eventually simply lifted her whole sale and put her in his lap, getting her comfortable as he continued to feed her, not responding to her questions aout what he was going to do to her. He fed her with one hand, another gently brushing her arms and side, running his hands over her body as he had one of his hands guide her hand to his torso, behind her, so she could feel his body back. He let out a little hummed tune. A song he'd sing to her while she was dreaming. A song that was so familiar yet so beautifully haunting as if it were the first time she'd ever heard it in her life.

He fed her till she wouldn't eat anymore and then gently removed all the things from there presence. He gently stacked her glass and bowl on a tray, along with what was left of the bread, before tapping her sides gently, "I'm going to get up, brace yourself," He said to her softly before he slipped out from beneath her, gently lifting her and putting her back down. He tucked her into the bed again, patting her and planting a soft kiss to her forehead as he chuckled, "Be right back Aadiya my love," he said to her as he smiled, walking off.

He leaned in and breathed against her face, his face inches from her own, "Humans... normal humans are driven mad by us... we are not from your home... from earth. Demons and Angels if one is exposed to them for too long... will drive you absolutely insane. Your mind will break and you'll go mad. Binders like you don't have such a problem. And on top of that, you usually have unique connections to them... call it..." he paused a moment before he purred, "A... intimate...connection," he said softly, "You know me. I've been to your dreams, guided you and helped you, and now you're here in my arms... I spoke with you while you traveled, you should know what it was I intended to do with you once I got claws into you..." he said as he gently and slowly wrapped all four of his arms around her. He tugged her closer and up into him, kissing her deeply as he held her, "You are my only connection to the world around me. The only unbreakable one," he said softly, "I know we haven't known each other for long here in the real world but you already know I love you," he said to her quietly, his teeth gently nipping at her cheek or more, before nipping on her ear and tugging gently, "Can I show you?" he asked her softly, breathlessly as his hands wrapped around her tighter, "I want to... unwrap my present... and to enjoy it."

 

[LaPieta]

Leavened bread, white bread. One could put aside the condescension of being fed like a child or a lapdog unasked for such a luxury. He could just see it as pampering, she supposed; a few of the waste’s nomad-kings had scantily clad concubines feed them during feasts.

Indeed, this felt more like the latter; his hands seemed everywhere, roaming across her to draw the aches away while his chest rumbled out the song that had comforted her many a night. Its potency seemed magical now, in person—perhaps it was. Buzzing began to fill her head with a pleasant warmth, washing down through her like a pull of strong drink. Aadiya began to sway in his grip, her hand clasping the side of his neck lest she become unmoored. All her pains seemed so much further away now, the room warmer, his grasp infinitely soft. The bread was like eating a cloud. Her eyes hooded; and the warmth lingered with her until long after he had extricated himself.

She nodded through his explanation, and then he continued. Any traces of that warmth vanished as he declared his intent to bed her.

A disappointed sigh was channeled through her nose. “I had an idea, yes. I just thought that given our previous relationship it would develop differently.” Every fiber in her went rigid with the revelation as he surrounded her, even as the heat of the kiss worked to try and ease.

He had been a companion, a guide, an aide, and she had fooled herself into believing it was because he cared about her as a person, unconditionally. Not because he wanted the material benefits of this connection, not because he who had presented himself as friend and mentor wanted to satisfy himself with her body, to fuck her. She had thought the sly innuendo and lingering touches they had shared in dreams to be a more organically developing romance, something that was an extension of that past companionship. And it had been so beautiful believing it, such a lovely lie, but she should have known better—that friendship was pretense, a means to an end, this end. Aadiya had deceived herself.

“I. . .I’m not certain that you do love me. I think you love a facet and believe it the whole. Or maybe just love that facet in the way one loves a lapdog, or a valuable tool. An object, rather than a person.” She smiled sadly up at him; he could not know that the her of dreams was not all of her.

Unbreakable—he seemed so sure of that for one who had opined her fragility mere moments ago. So willing to put it to the test now, with his “request”. Duress took so many forms.

“I did agree to this, and the use of my body was never completely unexpected.” Security was a motivator like no other and she must continue to sing for her supper, no matter the betrayal writhing bitter in her gut. There was a job to be done.

“I can keep that facet the only part of me you see, if you like.” her expression shifted, turning that hard gaze into a mawkish parody of wide-eyed naivete before it smoothed into a placid, more genuine article. We all must sell ourselves. “An ever-grateful student, helpless without you, utterly dependent and demure and always so eager to open my legs and receive you.”

A lithe leg coiled around his torso, serpentine and sinuous; no trace of that prior stiffness remained as she drew her free arm over his shoulders, the other’s hand pressing divots into the flesh. Soft heat pressed against his chest, and her free hand moved to hold his chin, fixing his gaze to hers, burning, yearning.

“But know that if you choose that, it will never be the whole.” Her voice was iron. It would not kill her if he chose that, she knew, but it would tear a nigh-irreparable rift between them. Still, she would do her job.

“Inspect your purchase then, if you must.” As if she had a choice here. Despite her broken body, she held her head high, chin proud.

 

[LocalFriendlyPsychopath]

The male slowed as she spoke and shifted, he felt her leg wrap around him as her hands came up and he watched down at her, eyes raised in curiosity, especially as she began to touch him so very sensually, putting her hands on his chin and moving his head as he watched her through narrowed eyes. He didn't speak as she gave him her little ultimatum. A look of pure anger and annoyance flashed across his eyes, the two orbs turning a bloody red before he let out a long sigh of his own through his nose. He then smirked and let out a little laugh, kissing her on the forehead as he untangled her from him and pushed her back down onto the bed, not a little roughly, and sat himself back up, running a hand through his hair as he sighed.

"You think I know little of you? I know so much more than you even know. Being in your dreams means being in your head. I like you because you're defiant. Because of things like... this..." he said as he gestured towards her. The demon turned his legs out over the edge of the bed as he stood up, "I know your every thought, dream and more. Do you know when I fell in love with you? I was going through various dreamscapes, watching peoples dreams, wondering who might see me who might be powerful. Three other people that day had seen me, two threw themselves at me and dedicated there lives to me happily. Begged me to take them on and give them strength and power...." he said making two fists with his left sided arms, gripping tightly and thrusting them in the air.

He then turned to her, "Then there was a small, terrified little girl. A shocked and horrified girl barely fighting off her nightmares. Sitting there, crying, looking so pathetic... I felt as though I should just skip your little nightmare landscape and leave," the male explained as his arms relaxed again and he walked further from the bed, "But. You saw me. You spoke. You remember what you said? Get out of here before they hurt you too. Or something like that."

Jocque sighed as he got a bottle of wine out from a cupboard and poured himself a glass, "You saw a giant monster man. And you didn't think, 'oh no more monsters. You thought to warn me. To tell me to go away. At that moment I was fascinated, and fascination has turned to adoration and even yes... I think I can call it love," he explained further, walking back to the bed as he sat back down with his wine glass. He sat and sipped from it, "I think I can call it love. And it was because of your heart. Your worries. Your plans. You never saw me as a way out of your situation. You never saw me as a tool to help you kill those you disliked. You may have asked for little things here or there, some things I could give some I couldn't but I've always been fascinated, and more than that, just in awe of you, as a human. I firmly believe you would meet the strictest standards Heaven used to set for mortals and that we would never have met had this apocalypses not happened, and you are worth losing a home to know," he said to her, "That is why I got handsy, and I apologize," he said as he looked at her again.

He smirked and lifted the glass, speaking in old latin and italian, giving her a small toast before he drank more from the glass, "But you don't know me out side of what you've seen. I've been as honest as I can be but I understand you don't believe that. I get your worry and fears. You think you're here to be my little meat puppet. And yes I did call you a gift, that is true. I am but a man. A fallen angel. One of gods soldiers turned against him," he said bitterly as he shifted onto the bed again. He put a leg behind her and gently slid it past her back side, flesh rubbing against her dress as he moved to position himself behind her, holding her in his lap as two arms wrapped around her to hug her gently, a hand resting on her stomach. The other two hands moved up to her shoulder and she would feel the press of his thumbs against her back, pressing deep and working out kinks and knots she didn't even know she had as he began to massage her back carefully. His touch was much less erotic now, and his intinteons were clear. He wanted to touch her and be close to her but he wasn't going further. He leaned into her again and nipped at an ear teasingly, "Just know that I never intended to make you a prize or concubine. You were always meant to be a companion, I simply thought you would be more happy to see me. But I understand," he explained, sounding almost saddened, "Who trusts a demon? Especially one who's whole purpose is wrath, hate and killing and murder. Why would you ever think that a creature that has perpetuated as many crimes as I have upon this earth, be capable of anything selfless?"

 

[LaPieta]

Relief flooded through her at his laugh, helping her power through the pain of sitting herself up again. It soon left her as he continued, and she now realized that it was she who had started laying the wall between them. More startling was the surety with which she did not want it. Aadiya began to try and tear at it:

“I’m sorry I had assumed ill of you. I didn’t know how much of me you saw; I don’t remember all my dreams.”

But she did remember that night he spoke of, vividly. It had been some time shortly after her and her parents’ recent exile from New Havensburg. She watched his throat as he sipped the wine, red spilling across her cheeks as it spilled into the glass and he spoke. God she had been such a heel.

This abashment continued as he pulled her into his lap again. Her throbbing ribs wondered why he had put her down to begin with if he intended to pick her up again so soon, but these complaints melted away under the touch of his hands.

“I’m glad; I think I’d be wasted as a concubine. I’ve more to offer than just that; I’ve fast hands and keen eyes, and I think I’m a quick learner. And there’s a whole world out there we can understand better, make better.”

A groan staggered in pieces from her chest under the heat of his hands, the gentle caresses that drew away the lingering aches. Guilt weltered more deeply with each word he spoke. She hurried to try and justify herself.

“It wasn’t-my mistrust wasn’t because of you, or your heritage. I know full well by now that you’re a good person, grown beyond whatever happened in the war. It’s just that outside of the city-states, it’s bad Jocque. I’ve been out there for 20 of my 24 years, and New Havensburg only let me back in because they somehow found out about the binding.”

The woman startled as he nipped her ear, shivering as frissons followed the sharp lance of pleasure-pain. Her form writhed briefly against his, though the gun stored at the small of her back made itself known, then, harsh and cold between them. She was still wearing the dress they had brought her in, once-beautiful, now marred with her blood.

“They took the scars away, you know. The ones I got just before first night I saw you, and most of them, really. While they were educating me and getting me all dolled up for you, they slapped some strange sort of old world membrane on the most egregious of the scars.” Indeed, the caustic wastes were not conducive to either aging gracefully or unscathed. With her uninjured hand, Aadiya covered one of his, bringing it to her ankle, then sliding higher, higher, bringing up the hem of her dress until his palm lay hot against the side of her thigh.

“Right here was where a rathound got me. Those were the monsters I was talking about, that night. Whole pack of them had attacked me and my family that day, got our supplies, took a chunk out of me and my father before my folks managed to ward them off.”

 

[LocalFriendlyPsychopath]

The man ran a hand over where she had been scarred. He knew about the monsters. The rats that had hurt her. He frowned as he looked at her, "They were told not to bother you or hurt you. They must have assumed you wanted to be rid of them as well... it is what it is... at least you're not dead, right?" he said. The multiple arms gently massaged her back, pushing knuckles into her as he tried to relax her a little.

There was a pause as he sat still. He wasn't sure what to say to her, or how to comfort her. He didn't want to ask about her family. He was fairly ceartin they were all gone now. He simply sat there, holding her gently in his lap, hands very carefully touching her and rubbing stress and other things out of her. He didn't speak for the longest time as he stared off into the window's of his apartment, staring out over the city. He let out a long slow breath before he closed his eyes.

He didn't speak as he waved a single hand before the two of them, a small flickering portal coming up. There was light, a lot of light. And soon, in the swirl she could see her memories, displayed before her. There were good ones, bad ones. He followed around with her, her adventures through the wastes and the horrible things she'd been through. When she was dealing with harsh brutal things he hugged her to him a little tighter, keeping her safe, one of his four hands finding her own and squeezing her hand in his massive mit. He stared at the video, watching her life with her before eventually it got to what had happened earlier. He let out a soft sigh when she was attacked by the angel's machines.

"You are safe now. I promise Aadiya. I will protect you. You will not want. You will not hurt. You will not suffer. And with your help we can expand my cities power... maybe we can get more militias... send them to some of those villages... have them help us as we help them... protect more people .But for tonight, get comfortable. Relax. I want you to be safe... to enjoy yourself... you deserve it after everything you've been through," he said.