Behind Glass Verse&Sesu

[Sesu]

She heard that the world used to be a different place. One with countries, politics, war, and intricate class systems. The world wasn’t so complicated after the bomb. A family by the name of Oursin were now called the destroyers. They had been powerful before, high among the rulers of lands and companies. It was thought to be eccentric that they persisted in building up their towers out of a strange material called Black Glass. They shined in the day and glittered at night, hovering over the metropolis that’s name is no longer recalled. Eccentric. Hardly. The bombs dropped, the kind that men made to threaten with but wouldn’t dream of using. Those men that hesitated at horror weren’t Orsins.

In the blink of an eye the world had crumbled. Buildings dropped, cities turned to waste, survivors left in the rubble. Everything had fallen that day except for those glass towers. Three that stuck up from the ruin, still gleaming as though nothing had changed. There were only two classes now. The Orsins, and everyone else left to scavenge and hunt in a base world.

Livia Orsin had never seen a world that looked different than it did now and she was far older than the people outside the tower. The Orsins that had seen the world end had given much thought and paid much effort to the future of their children. The best and brightest had created cocktails of chemicals that would keep them beautiful and young for lifetimes, tucked away in their tower with all of the amenities and pleasures they wanted. She lifted her hood over her stark red hair, watching the skyline rise as she plummeted downward in the elevator. The people outside called her The Collector. She had heard it whispered, sometimes screamed for mercy because they knew no other name to call her.

Normally when she was sent down it was to choose slaves for his relatives above. Some went willingly, desperate for a better life- or at least one with food. Others were children she bought from their mother’s arms with cans of food. And those that would not be moved or bought, were dragged. There was a sad city gathered around the base of the towers, living off their trash. She emerged from the elevator and moved up through a tunnel that brought her under the light of day. She grimaced to feel it on her pale skin. She pulled her hood higher, if she tanned she’d never hear the end of it.

Four large men walked around her. She hated walking on their dirt, feeling it in the air and dusting her clothes. She hated the weight of her clothing as well. Her boots were to the knee, high and heavy. Her pants tight and strapped with concealed blades, like her torso. She wore gloves as well as a jacket, though it wasn’t cold enough to be needed. They stared at her the way they always did, desperate parents pushing their children forward in hopes that they would be chosen. Those that thought themselves pretty, frantically cleaned up and tried to present themselves.

A few had potential but that wasn’t what she had come for. They must have noticed that the last few times she’d descended it had been with different intentions than before.

She passed the eager bodies and continued on. They knew better than to beg. She had to walk far to reach the dump of a shack. One of her men pulled back the flap of fabric that had replaced a door. It was a tattered red meant to attract customers. Inside wreaked of filth and sex. She would almost cringed with disgust but pressed on. Half dressed bodies coated in dust and grime, scrambled back out of her way.

She found the girl in a corner, her blond hair stringy and her frail little body rising and falling on a large man’s cock. She pressed her dirty fingers to her lips as she cried in pain, mewling as he used her. He stopped when he saw the red haired creature standing over them. The girl trembled, turning as well to look over her naked and bruised shoulder. Her eyes were pale and large as fear filled them. Holding the fabric of her dress around herself, she stood, her little legs shaking and her face full of shame.

She stared at the prostitute until the girl began to cry softly with terror. Livia’s right iris shined, blue first and then turned silver with the veins of technology glowing. The implanted iris had been designed for the sole purpose of detecting their own bloodline, as faint as it may be at times, and confirming a find that her scouts had already named. The girl was indeed an Orsin bastard.

“Lady?” One of her men asked, the single word a question of whether they should escort the girl back to the tower. A flick of her gloved hand had him waiting.

Her eyes, now both blue again, flickered past her to the man on the floor, his cock still out and glistening impatiently. “Why do you do it?” She asked the girl, her voice like music in this awful place.

The blond sniffled, eyes large and pleading. “I have no other choice.” She sobbed meekly. “I was starving.” The shame was thick in her voice.

Livia nodded as though she understood something. She moved forward suddenly and buried a blade made of glass into the girl’s stomach. The little thing cried out shrill and wet as the dagger cut up though her guts and organs. Livia kept her standing for a moment, their faces close. “This is a kindness, cousin.” The Orsin whispered. “You wouldn’t have survived as one of us anyway.” She let go of the dagger and before the girl’s body had fully slumped to the floor, Livia had already turned her back and marched out of the room. The others in the shack moved quickly, one greedily stealing the abandoned blade from the still dying girl’s chest, rubbing the blood away to marvel at the glass, while the man scooted forward hurriedly to bury his cock in her while her cunt was still warm and finish what he would no longer have to pay for.

Livia sighed outside at all of the desperate little eyes staring at her. “Show me the other one.” She ordered, her men directing her onward into the city.

 

[Verse]

He had dealt with this night as he had the others before it, looking for something in the many times turned over shards of the old world. He'd call them rocks or bits, but the callouses that had formed on the palms of his hands were promise enough that he'd be wrong. Sharp, ill-willed shards. He pushed the first knuckle of his thumb against the valley where his forehead met his nose, deriving some comfort and strength from that pressure as he stood up from his last search. A bag was secured to his back by his other hand. The sun reminded him that it was relentless, and that he should be the same if he wanted to survive. Eir wiped his nose, allowing that reflex even when there was no snot to rid off, only dirt from the fifteen last attempts. How could there be anything else? A body that had been stretch out in each direction by manual labor wrought its limbs toward the first sit-down of its ending twenty hour work day. He'd been able to find trinkets again, little pretty, dumb things. Sometimes they were as useless as the grime on them, but on occasion the were fine enough that he could trade them with someone who could in turn sell it to the towers.

He threw a fast eye at the reaching pillars. Heaven, locked up and guarded. Today they made him smile as he moved for the drinking hole of this district. Inside a particularly worn music box he'd found a symbol key, the currency that Orsin approved of, as it had their crest and came from their furnaces. The sympathy for the obviously departed family dissipated with thoughts of what the key could buy him. He smiled, despite the circumstances he had always been able to keep himself just above starvation, so the features hollowed toward the facial bone without becoming too gaunt. Wearing this and his usual mop of brown he stepped in through the man sized hole that used to be a window to see a handful tables. Two of them were occupied, so he and his cargo slumped down at a chair close to the entrance.

"You're looking chipper, dear." said the appearing waitress, rust hair tied back and shine on her lips. He nodded in return and watched her eye his baggage. "Good find, today?" she asked while rolling up her sleeves. He'd never been able to afford her, the few times he'd been in here, but something in her green eyes had always reminded him of mother - the eyes they told him he had - so he'd always try. His lips with sharp corners twitched in would-be mysterious play.

"Got a key. Pretty big too." he replied. Her reaction didn't disappoint, those large greens growing larger still as she leaned in. Hands on her apron.

"You could have a night on the house for that, you know." she whispered as she seemed to scan his body, smart enough to know he wouldn't hide key among his other goods. Maybe he would have paid her all of it just for that, for the respect not to try and take it from him, or for the feeling of being important, if just in this shallow way. Suddenly he didn't smell her bad breath anymore, or see the sores on the side of her neck. "You've been in here before, haven't you?"

He nodded. He was about to live a small part of his dream to be something else, something higher, like the Orsin, about to tell her to go into the kitchen and make him a big meal and shave her pussy and fluff her bed. But he knew it wouldn't last long, that frivolous pleasure of an almost bursting stomach and warm place to rest his head, assuming she owned a mattress. He'd have to squeeze the value out of the key. He sighed.

"Yeah. I'll give you some of the rations I'll buy if you pour me a shot and give me a throatjob." In this state half of a glass had been enough to provide a buzz. She was happy enough to take his order.

She'd left him by his table with his drink to take care of another costumer, probably with a similar order, before she'd given him the last part of his. He retracted his hand from his pocket to see the red line across the index finger. Had he really held on to the key so hard? Eir dipped the nick in the vodka and watched the clear become pink. After this he'd barter for the rations and then sleep. The thought of slumber almost cracked another wide grin. Maybe he should try trading with the Orsin himself. Father had done well enough, they told him.

A shadow at the far end of one eye became long when more patrons entered the establishment. Eir didn't know why, but he whipped his head in that direction, glass in his hand rippling with the motion, but never spilling. Something came that didn't fill the air with itself. Something clean.

 

[Sesu]

It was almost funny, the way her guards had to duck to get in through that doorway. They had been picked for their size long ago when they were boys and what nature couldn't give them in stature, chemicals had. She stood in the gap of breaths, under the press of eyes. It was like being stared at by rabbits. Almost eerie, always annoying. One of her eyes shined, silver and tech. Her steps brought her across the room to stand near his table, staring at him for a moment, her pale face peering out of that deep hood. The silver faded and allowed blue to gleam out at him again.

She spared a glance for the sack beside him. Aw, yes, they had told her he was a scavenger. Perhaps that explained why he was so exceptionally dirty. "Your name?" She said it more than asked it, but it was a question all the same. She knew, of course she knew. Her scouts had searched down his bloodline and reported all they knew, but Livia needed to hear him speak.

 

[Verse]

For some reason he wondered to himself who it might be that came into the tavern with so much ruckus. It should have been negated before it became a notion. Orsin owned the ruckus too, and all that came with it. A chalice slid off the side of a bowl to make a silver sound in the bag when she looked at it, as if her sight had substance. Her locks commanded so much beauty in their hanging bundles outside of her sheltering hood that he could have given that cut finger to have just a small collection of them. Blue was set in there, to float at a decided perch from within the universe that the hood contained. The guards didn't suck up anywhere near as much attention as she did. An expensive white cat in the dirt.

Then he saw it, gathered it with his efforts why she was here. He had seen her at a distance, trudging around, and other Orsin's like her, too. He swallowed without the blooded alcohol, simply to urge his throat into something other than silence. She wasn't the policing unit. She was of their blood. It could only mean he was partially connected to the family as well. The implications mixed with his dread for her presence.

All he could do was put the dirty drink down. He had been taught to stand and bow, so all he could manage was his continued seated position, ache from labor gone like so many of his words. He looked at her with no other intent in his eyes than to take her in now that she was here. He regretted the shades on her face. It could have made such a mighty memory to live off if she had been fully visible. What happened to those of the blood that weren't worthy? Was it true, what they said? His jaw flexed, anger at his fear, anger at his incompetence to meet this trial like a man. Hopefully she wouldn't see in his features a spite toward her and her company. It was simple, he decided. He could answer.

"I am Heir Orrin Miraya. They Call me Eir or Orrin." Son of Marla Miraya and Idor Miraya, who believed in his path so much they had named him after it. He didn't say that. He'd doubted the stories they'd told him on days of bravado. The wind snuck by the lady and played with the loose things in the room. His hair fell from its shelf on his ear to collide into his eye, making him blink once while the blue eyes didn't. "How can I serve you, mam?" He was horribly disappointed by the air that passed his lips. Not humble enough, not spiteful enough. It was a lousy brush with death and a horrid attempt at glory.

 

[Sesu]

Something pulled at the corner of her lips. She would have ducked her head to hide it playfully if she didn't take her roll among them so seriously. Gods didn't hide their smirks. These people should feel blessed to see it. She had heard his name before but the humor of it hadn't truly struck her until he spoke it.

How could he serve her? She looked him over once more and was certain there was nothing he could do for her in his current state. "Follow me." She said decisively, turning away and starting for the door. She stopped near the frame of an entrance to look back. "Leave your bag of dirt. You won't need it." Either he'd be going up to the tower, where such trinkets would only add more embarrassment to his physical state or she was going to decide him unworthy along the walk and kill him before they reached the glass walls. Either way, he didn't need his treasures.

She didn't wait outside, walking back toward the towers and trusting him to catch up once he got his legs to work again. He didn't disappoint. "Eight years ago we had a problem with out livestock." She said casually, gesturing for him to walk beside her. "We have livestock in some of the lower floors." She explained, gesturing toward the towers ahead of them, at the heart of the shabby little city. "Anyway, they weren't breeding anymore so we were forced to consider other dietary alternatives. Some suggested vegetarianism-" She paused to add, "We have farms on some of the floors as well." before continuing. "But the idea of not eating meat just didn't sit right with some of the family. We considered cannibalism. We even brought in a few subjects from out here to test the effects on... you know, feeding one to the other. Turns out it's not good for your brain. Nothing scientific, but they just weren't right. Luckily the scientists fixed the problem with the livestock so it wasn't a necessary venture."

She turned her head to the side to look at him, once again carefully assessing him. There had been spite in his eyes before, she'd seen it. It looked good. "I've been wondering since then, with the food resource issues out here, why don't any of them turn to cannibalism? They rape each other, steal from each other, they even kill each other. Why waste the meat? Do they find themselves as disgusting as we do?"

 

[Verse]

The orders were easy enough to follow. He started to find some kind of wit and stood up, by reflex reaching for his belongings before she made sure he knew he should leave them. He threw a quick glance back at the waitress who seemed to be as frozen as he wanted to be. No goodbye offered before he came into the day the way he had left it. To his dread and elation she was walking with her large tail toward the home of The Family. The baking sun drew without pardon on his body that had been set on some recreation after its labor. Orrin's mind was livid between hope and fear for his life. He walked a few paces behind her on purpose, out of respect but also fatigue.

At first it sounded much like smalltalk, which was an abomination of an occurrence in his life already, but then he understood it to be something else. It only underlined what he already knew about the Orsin. Cattle, but inedible. Was this a test? He had nothing in his stomach that he could wretch. What could he say in response to that, and did she want him to?

"Last time I had human meat," he started, a little horrified at the response building in his head already. ", I was sucking cock for a meal. So I guess our cannibalism is just a means for other foods."

He didn't know what to expect. He just quietly trailed along behind her, fixing his hair back from his vision and looking around them to make sure the large entourage didn't change in formation to punish him for either speaking the wrong sentiment, or being of the wrong blood.

Akalli paced in his room, high boots with low heels clapping on the trademark stone, polished in here instead of jagged as it was outward for people to fear. He hadn't really understood the feud his family had with the world. Sharp eyebrows and gray stone underneath always seemed elsewhere, focused only for a zenith of a second to preform whatever was asked of him before he departed into his own infatuation riddled scape again. He wore a black t-shirt that wound around his long muscles as if the fabric could hold desire, devotion. A prince dressed like a person, but for his fetish for footwear, his own. His hair had the color of his eyes, those strands brushed back today to form spikes at the back of his head.

He was a joke most of the time and he loved it.

Binoculars gave him the truth of Livia's return. He smirked and watched the coming guest closer. A rag, he seemed like, but didn't they all? Akalli walked out his door, gnawing on pills of immortality as he slid down the halls on momentum his sprint had provided. Gold on the black walls, polished like the black floors. He had kept his wing simple, and let the art that hung speak for itself.

"Livia cometh!" he yelled and he could have sworn the eternal glass shivered with his tone. From a few rooms came complaining moans. He chuckled and slapped those doors as he passed them. From within he could hear muttering. 'He's out of love again. This won't last for long.'. He frowned and made sure to leave a heel mark in a particular wooden panel.

He had a meeting with his dearest friend. Breakfast, they'd said, but he would call it lunch at this hour.

 

[Sesu]

She looked back at him over her shoulder, raising a curious eyebrow to see if he would take the opportunity to recant his statement or laugh it off as a joke. He didn't, so she smiled in her shade and continued to walk. The tower was getting taller. It was practically upon them now. "We'll be stopping on one of the floors below the residence so that you can be cleaned." Livia said as they left the shambles of a city to walk the last stretch of rubble that mounted the base of the Tower, a hole carved out with darkness inside. There would be elevator doors within, behind the guards. Had he ever ridden an elevator before? It was a laughable question. Where would he ride an elevator if not in the tower?

-

Sybin skipped, literally, down the halls. She loved the sound her flat shoes made on the clean floors, leaving small marks that the maids would have to clean up after her. Her blue hair bounced much like her breasts, her white dress fluffing with every childish bound she made down the hallway. When she skidded to a stop it was with a somewhat winded laugh, fingers grabbing at the carved frame of the open doorway to help her in her halt of motions. Her eyes were large, too large for her face, and gleamed a powdered yellow. Her colors changed every season or so, she could never make up her mind on a favorite.

She stood in the dining room, the table set and laid out with all of their favorite treats but to her sudden surprise, there was no one else present. She blinked once or twice, fingers meeting near her stomach to touch twins. She had heard him. She was certain of it. Just as her features began to crumble with dismay he walked in from the other side of the room. She lit up as though no sadness had ever begun. Her fingers knit together as she raised her newly joined hands up to press knuckles under her chin. "You saw her? Was the girl with her? Was she pretty?" Last time Livia had gone to fetch new family, she had come back without. It had been an awful disappointment. Sybin had been clever this time, she had eavesdropped when the scouts came up with their report. She wasn't allowed to talk to people that weren't family, not even the help, they said she got too attached to things. But she was allowed to eavesdrop.. at least no one had said she wasn't. Livia was going out to find a young girl and a man. Sybin clapped her hands in a burst of joy. "She was pretty wasn't she!"

 

[Verse]

He was grateful enough that his answer hadn't gotten him into any trouble. In fact, her mood seemed to lighten slightly. The guards stayed where they where as their mistress gave no sign to advance at him. He had never really thought about what tests they might put him through to prepare or hone him for life in the black towers. The thought sent his mind reeling into another one. Yes, that must be it, then. They were in constant need of servants, and that was probably why he had been picked. In the surprise, and to be honest, fear, back at the drinking hole he hadn't considered such an easy explanation. It made him smile so he wouldn't laugh. When one of the houses shaped like a man looked at him disapprovingly he made sure to keep his amusement to himself. While slave was a stepdown from ruler of the new world, it gave him a sense of symmetry, and from what he'd heard life inside the glass would always be preferable. The usual scouts for slaves were very well groomed and fed.

As the new thought was easier to accept, he also started thinking about what it meant. They had always been inclined toward the beautiful. His chest swelled a little with foreign notion. When was the last time he'd seen himself without smudges? Embarrassing as it was to admit, whatever gift this one had could very well make her a better judge of his physicality than himself. All he knew was his general features and height.

Akalli lit up when he saw Sybin, coming over to her quickly to share some of her energy. And it was usually a lot. He perched himself half on the table as he collected a cut from the cold part of the spread. He smirked as he dangled the meat over his lips before he started tearing at it lazily with his teeth, trying to take as much time as he possibly could eating it while she waited for her answers.

The slice could only last for so long. He licked his lips and bent down slightly, still supported by the huge table as he looked her in those perfect, artificial eyes.

"Pretty like a boy, Sybin." he promised before grabbing her arm, sliding fully onto the table, popping her down on his lap. "In the sense that she is one." he explained as he pulled some parsley from a bowl of stew, tickling her lips with it imploringly as he discretely rocked her like a toy. He wasn't sure she'd completely understand the less than subtle hints, and he wasn't one to mock her for her -- lack of processes, so he decided to simply tell her, still trying to feed her the food decoration.

"It's not a girl. It's a boy. He looked dirty."

And they were sure to let him know. The water was well heated and strong. The first thought he had when they left him alone with the soap was the impulse to steal it. He decided against it and made sure to use it well instead, scratching its surface to clean his nails when he was done with his body. Mother had told him stories about it, and he had been particularly interested in hygiene when she was alive.

He became still as the water drained off him. This was the life they'd had. Finally, he would be able to taste it. He jerked slightly when a pair of women entered the tiled room. When he saw the scissors and clothes in their holds he felt calmer. Half way through the haircut and shaving, he thought to ask about this new life.

"So, what kind of job are they cleaning me up for?"

The answer made him cold. The girls giggled. He looked at them from where he sat on the chair they'd brought in. Soft faces instead of bone. His head tilted as he let the hairdresser continue his work. The tailor didn't seem to have much on her agenda anymore, now that he was fully clothed. By his orders she was on her knees, her mouth and face too busy to laugh.

Eventually the two produced Orrin in a new shape, though still badly sun burnt, he was clean, dark tresses in control finally, waving back instead of every which way. He bowed to the woman with the red hair as soon as they were made to meet again, his hands a little steadier this time. The thought of royalty hadn't settled quite yet, but he was beginning to understand the magnitude. And he liked the taste of it. The cut on the tailors face from her friends scissors had been a proof of that.

"Livia Orsin, they told me. It is nice to meet you without wearing rags." He straightened fast. "Will there be more?" Tests, trials? Rewards?

 

[Sesu]

He cleaned up well. It was always surprising to see what they looked like after all of that filth was chipped away. She shrugged one shoulder and walked toward another elevator. It wasn't the same lift as before. The one that reached the ground could only go so high. They had never wanted a direct line between their residence and the dirt. Livia had bathed and changed while he was being prepared. New pants, still incredibly tight but somehow softer, thinner. Simple flat shoes that showed the pale tops of her feet and a scoop necked top that was almost long enough to be scandalous dress. Arms and fingers were now free of gloves, fingernails painted silver and catching the light when she reached up to push some of her hair back behind her ear.

She held the elevator door and waited for him to follow. "More baths?" Livia smirked. "Definitely." Once they were both inside she touched a panel of glass that lit up with words and shapes. She poked the glass near the top and it blinked back at her just as the lift started to rise. "We've only brought a few of your kind into the family so far." Livia admitted and then her lips twisted with a smile. "Some of them have gone mad. None of them seem entirely right anymore. But don't worry, we didn't throw them out when they cracked."

-

Sybin squirmed on his lap, little legs dangling and skirt rumpled up around her thighs. She tried to wiggle away from the garnish but it's persistence had her lips parted. She chewed awkwardly, shoulders slumped a little in a pout at the strange taste. She swallowed and with both hands reached for the wine glass on the table.

"N-no... It's supposed to be a girl. I'm certain. I heard!" She persisted as she drank from the cup. "The man said she was young. We are going to be friends."

 

[Verse]

She seemed less intimidating now. Perhaps cleanliness disarmed her, or maybe he himself felt more at ease by her side when he didn't smell like too much life had happened all over his skin. She was astounding outside of her protective clothes. Honest, as he remarked. He rested green eyes on her face because he thought it might be appropriate now. She looked exclusive, expensive. The cleavage made the part of him that should still be moist with the tailor's saliva awaken slightly. He laughed at her comment and looked around in the elevator. It was better than anything he had seen. Leave it to the one family to have more elaborate finery in boxes than he'd had in -- ever. He stood closer, because distance was an insult. The hair didn't fall even if it had the length to. The hairdresser had seen to that with the products that smelled lightly of alcohol. A curious but elemental science. The plate she had fiddled with to get them in the right direction sent back a slightly distorted image of the man they had easily turned him into.

His heart bubbled thrice when she off-handedly promised him that this would be his future now. No test. Just blood. It made him lighter, and it also painted a slight mundane film over the walls he'd so recently admired. With hands behind his back and a small smile threatening to crack he moved closer to the large mirror that occupied one of the sides of the little room. The tan was uneven and his eyes of course had those wretched dark patches under them. He rubbed his chin and stroked the cheekbones. Then he looked at her over his shoulder.

"I want beauty." His back straightened and made sure to hold her blue so that she could understand how dearly he desired it. "I want whatever magic Orsin has to make me stunning." The door said a tone and it got his attention.

It was like a night sky, a corridor of midnight. He could have sworn there were stars in the deep black underneath the one math that rolled from the elevator through the walk, leaving much room to let people admire the foundation of this level. The walls were sparsely decorated with other glass, images in different interpretations and views of wretchedly pretty men and women. He tried not to shake, tried to push it aside and take it for granted, but his fingers shook in his fine pockets.

Akalli watched in amusement as she tried to eat the green thing he had fed her. It was deliciously rude to her spoiled taste buds he suspected, but that was the point, wasn't it? He popped a grape into his mouth and crushed it in the far back as he waited for her to wash the flavor away. Silver eyes didn't blink.

"Well, we can go see him or her soon." he said as he started pushing his thigh up in rhythmic intervals, effectively bouncing her light frame. Perhaps it'd upset her drinking. "Then we'll see who's wrong or right. I hear Livia is going to take him," he smirked at Sybin "or her to Kelva first." He sighed as he looked beyond Sybin's blue tresses, at no object in particular. While the intense chemicals had fled his system long ago, there was still a reminiscence of obsession when he went over his crushes in memory, and Kelva had been a substantial one. He finally stole the glass from his cousin, pouring the rest into himself and swallowing loudly. "But promise you won't be disappointed if it is indeed male." He stopped bouncing her and smiled widely, brushing his eyebrow to hers affectionately. "We men can be quite fun as well." He let the vessel shatter against the floor after it pivoted from his fingertips. Akalli Orisin was known for his lightness of heart whenever it wasn't filled to the brim with directed love.