Somebody stop my brain plz kthx
Okay, so I tried to get the last part of Selfish Mercy out this weekend, but (a) I was very busy and (b) I can't decide how I want that story to end yet!! XD So instead I felt I would go ahead and post this little...oddity, which is something I mostly wrote last month. I really don't know what to do with it, but it's going to be somewhat limited in audience so I guess I dedicate it to Haru's harem. Ladies and gents, I give you:
"Escape from Shota Island":
A Crossover Adventure in Fetish IndulgenceStarring:
Rated PG-13 for now, I think
Chapter 1
If I remembered how I got here, I would begin the story there, and not here, in this filthy basement lined with cages. My knees are scraped, my wrists and ankles bound together with ropes. It's cold, and I'm naked, save for a shred of cloth no bigger than a handkerchief lying across my lap.
"Where am I?"
"Don't be scared, kid. You won't be here long. You'll be going to a real nice place. I can tell."
I look about the dim room as the gruff man leaves. Everyone here is between nine and fourteen, I'd say, but most are eleven or twelve. There are more boys than girls. Everyone is rail thin and nearly naked. Some of them look very sick, coughing in the corners of their cages. The boy in the cage next to me is coughing too. He's very small and frail, with large blue eyes. His dark hair is still shiny and fairly clean; he can't have been here long. He notices me staring at him.
"So you're the latest arrival," he says, voice crackling with thirst.
"My name is Haru," I whisper and nod. "What is this place?"
He coughs. "I think it's some kind of holding area, before we go off to our real destinations."
"What do you mean, holding area?" I shiver. What it reminds me of, I realize, is a dog pound.
"We're to be sold," he says flatly, and my jaw drops. "Every few days, a customer comes by to examine us and choose his favorite." He gestures with his head towards the children along one of the room, whose cages look especially unkempt. "Those kids over towards the back have been here for weeks. Nobody has wanted them yet. And at this rate..."
I can't believe what I'm seeing. "They're so dirty..."
"But you won't end up like that, Haru. I heard what the man said to you, and I think he's right. You'll be chosen soon."
"What does 'chosen' mean, I wonder?"
He shakes his head. "Nothing good. But it's not this. It could be better, or...it could be worse. I've only been here a few days myself. But this isn't the first cage I've been in. I've been traded around some. I've seen things..."
And then he stops, as if the only appropriate way to complete his statement is with silence, and stares at the floor. Someone in another cage begins to cry loudly.
"Were you taken from an orphanage too?" I ask.
He shakes his head again. "From my home. The day my parents..."
He bites his lip, and I already know what he is going to say. I can tell, because I've been through the same thing.
"My parents died too," I say, "though it's been five years now." Watching the other boy try not to cry, I remember how it felt when those wounds were fresh and raw. I can't quite tell if this boy is older than I am, or younger. He still hasn't told me his name.
What a miserable place this is.
The boy's bare shoulders have stopped shaking, so I try a change of subject. "Do they feed us here?" I ask. I would just about kill for a pudding right now.
"Technically," he replies, wiping his eyes with his hand. "After all, it would be bad for business to have too many of their goods dropping dead." He looks up at me, and his tears have vanished. "But don't get your hopes up. Last night it was old stale bread with water. You had to dip it in the water to even bite into it."
I try to fathom how this happened to me. The last thing I recall was returning to my bedroom back at the orphanage, and noticing the light was out, though I had left it on. They used some kind of gas to knock me out, but...how did they get in? And more importantly, was someone at the orphanage in on it? The thought that someone I knew and trusted might have given me over to these people makes me sick, and it hits me suddenly that I'm in more danger than I've ever been. If I were anything like my father, I'd be formulating an escape plan. No, I'd probably already have one worked out. But all I can do is curl into a ball in my cage and weep. If the orphanage wasn't in on my kidnapping, maybe they'll notice I've gone missing and come looking for me. But how will they ever find me here?
I can't tell if it's day or night. My tears paint streaks on my chest, and I realize how dirty I already am.
The very next day, the same man who told me I'd be out of here soon brings a strange man down to see us. If it is a man; it isn't clear at first from his face or his dress that he isn't a lady. He has long black hair and narrow, painted eyes that flicker between green and gold. But our keeper calls him "sir," and from their speech I infer he is a regular customer, and a distinguished one. Some of the boys in the more neglected cages look up expectantly as he comes in. But he's seen them all before. He heads directly for my corner of the room, like he knows that's where the newest, freshest offerings are on display. I can't take my eyes off him. As he draws near, his absinthe-coloured eyes pull my gaze upward. I stare stupidly, neither hoping nor fearing, just staring like an animal.
He reaches his white hand between the bars to tilt my chin up.
"Oooh...this one here is lovely," he says, admiring my face. His voice is soothing, but somehow, it makes my skin crawl. "Almost an Oriental quality to him, would you say?"
"That is Haru, our newest acquisition," says our keeper. "If you'd arrived later, you mighta missed him!"
"Indeed," says the long-haired man. His eyes linger a little longer on my body, and I suddenly feel cold.
He then moves on to the next cage, where my blue-eyed friend lies limply on his side. As the stranger looks him over from all angles, he remains expressionless, and I can't tell if he wants to be chosen or not. To be honest, I'm not sure which to hope for either. Who knows what awaits on the other side, in the clutches of the snake-eyed customer...but even one more day of this place...
"That pretty thing there is Ciel," says our keeper. "We just got him on Monday."
Ciel. It's an unusual name, I think, and vaguely familiar. The customer reaches into Ciel's cage and strokes his delicate wrist inquiringly.
"Such a painful choice, one, or the other..." the customer coos.
"Why choose at all?" the keeper laughs. "Spare yourself the pain. Take both of them."
"Ah, yes...but at your price..."
"But sir, aren't they such very fine specimens? Surely a gentleman of your means could --"
The snakelike man grins. "Very well. I'll take both of them...with a small reduction. Say...800."
"900," the keeper insists. "Look at this guy here." He pinches my cheek with his fat hand and I consider biting him.
The snake-eyed man cackles lowly. "Very well. 900 it will be."
Right there in the room, before the other children, they open my cage. If I could manage to undo my bonds, I'd run right between the men and up the shadowed stairs. As it is, they have to lift me out. The snaky man props me on top of the cage and looks me over. He touches my arm, and I shiver at the cool of his skin. They hold me securely as the ropes around my wrists are replaced with iron cuffs, linked by a short chain to my buyer's hand. The keeper slips a plain white shirt over my head to cover my body. It feels clean. Then they do the same thing to Ciel. I can tell he doesn't like the looks of the snaky man, and he resists a little, and makes disgusted faces at them. But I don't want to stay any longer in this dungeon. The looks on the faces of the unwanted boys...their colours all turned to gray...at least this is something different. The man's fancy clothes mean he has money, at least. And money means food. Food...
The last thing they do before leading us away is free our legs. It hurts a bit to stand and walk after being cramped in there, but it also feels good. It's a tremendous relief. My spirit lifts, ever so slightly.
"A pleasure doing business with you, Lord Orochimaru," says the keeper.
"As usual," our new master replies. "I seem to have truly struck gold this evening." He takes a moment more to ogle us like pastries on a shelf before giving our chain a short tug.
"Come, Haru, Ciel," he says in that slippery voice. "I have nice clothes and shoes waiting for you when we arrive."
Lord Orochimaru leads us up and out of the dark dungeon. I can't bring myself to look back at the caged children who are left behind. Ciel's face burns with barely restrained fury, and I wonder if he knows something I don't know about this man. We pile quickly into a carriage parked inconspicuously at the side of the building. It's a dirty, poorly lit part of London I've never seen before. In the back of the carriage, Lord Orochimaru sits in between Ciel and me. Driving out of the city in the middle of the night, a whole unfamiliar world unfolds before us. Poor half-starved Ciel falls asleep on the long drive, and Lord Orochimaru watches him in silence. But I, who haven't slept soundly since my mother died, can only watch the city shrink behind us out the foggy window. The gaps between buildings grow, and the road grows rougher. Eventually, I turn to look out Ciel's side of the carriage, and there is the sea, long and dark.
Then I realize we are getting on a ship.
"But this is not the harbour!" I exclaim, so loudly that Ciel awakens with a start.
"Young Haru," said Lord Orochimaru, "alas, my ship is not permitted to dock in the harbour. Fortunately for our purposes, it has no need to."
"Where are you taking us? What do you want with us?"
"Why, I'm giving you a new home of course. Much nicer than your old home."
"I doubt that," Ciel mutters under his breath.
"It's a palace, children. Everything you want will be provided to you: food, clothing, pleasure, even friends. There are several other young boys your age who will be delighted to meet you. And of course there is the matter of your training."
"Training?" we ask in unison.
"Training in the social graces, martial arts, music, intellectual pursuits. Training the body and mind alike."
"So..." I say cautiously, wondering how many times he's given this pitch, "it's an academy of sorts."
"Yes, very much so," the snakelike man replies. His smile glitters knifelike under the moon. "It's a philanthropic pursuit of mine. Rescuing beleaguered youngsters and giving them paradise."
"And what do you get in return?" Ciel asks bitterly. His eyes blaze like blue fire, the hottest part of a flame.
Orochimaru laughs. "My, you're a cynical one, young Ciel. In return, I get to enjoy your company. There is no 'catch.' It's simple charity, nothing more."
"Then exactly why is it you aren't permitted to dock near London?" I ask.
The man's pale face is a mixture of amusement and feigned regret. "I ran into political trouble in town. Suspicion of revolutionary activities and the like. Utter rubbish, to tell you the truth."
The truth. I don't know how we can expect that from a man with the eyes of a serpent, who would trade our rope bonds for iron. I've never heard of an academy taking such precautions, and I know Ciel is equally suspicious of him. Yet we file aboard the boat behind Lord Orochimaru. Our chains clink. Fog hides the moon, and in the dark the ship resembles a great black beast. If at any point I see a hope of escape, I will take it. But there is no choice now for us. There is nowhere to run, and anything would be preferable to going back to that cellar full of cages again.
Lord Orochimaru holds our hands as the ship breaks away from the shoreline. Looking backward from the deck, I watch England shrivel into a black cloud floating on the sea. I wonder if I'll see it again.
When we hit the open ocean, our new guardian unlocks our chains and gives us freedom of the ship. But there's nowhere to go, and we both stay where we were, gazing back in the direction where home is supposed to be. I put my hand on Ciel's, for comfort, but he pulls away from me. I'm beginning to think he resents me, as if it's my fault he ended up here on this boat. In fact, though, he's just seasick, which I only realize as he vomits over the side of the boat. Below us, the water is blacker than the sky, and I don't feel well myself.
~*~...To be continued...~*~
"Escape from Shota Island":
A Crossover Adventure in Fetish IndulgenceStarring:
- Haru Yagami
- Ciel Phantomhive
- Orochimaru
Rated PG-13 for now, I think
Chapter 1
If I remembered how I got here, I would begin the story there, and not here, in this filthy basement lined with cages. My knees are scraped, my wrists and ankles bound together with ropes. It's cold, and I'm naked, save for a shred of cloth no bigger than a handkerchief lying across my lap.
"Where am I?"
"Don't be scared, kid. You won't be here long. You'll be going to a real nice place. I can tell."
I look about the dim room as the gruff man leaves. Everyone here is between nine and fourteen, I'd say, but most are eleven or twelve. There are more boys than girls. Everyone is rail thin and nearly naked. Some of them look very sick, coughing in the corners of their cages. The boy in the cage next to me is coughing too. He's very small and frail, with large blue eyes. His dark hair is still shiny and fairly clean; he can't have been here long. He notices me staring at him.
"So you're the latest arrival," he says, voice crackling with thirst.
"My name is Haru," I whisper and nod. "What is this place?"
He coughs. "I think it's some kind of holding area, before we go off to our real destinations."
"What do you mean, holding area?" I shiver. What it reminds me of, I realize, is a dog pound.
"We're to be sold," he says flatly, and my jaw drops. "Every few days, a customer comes by to examine us and choose his favorite." He gestures with his head towards the children along one of the room, whose cages look especially unkempt. "Those kids over towards the back have been here for weeks. Nobody has wanted them yet. And at this rate..."
I can't believe what I'm seeing. "They're so dirty..."
"But you won't end up like that, Haru. I heard what the man said to you, and I think he's right. You'll be chosen soon."
"What does 'chosen' mean, I wonder?"
He shakes his head. "Nothing good. But it's not this. It could be better, or...it could be worse. I've only been here a few days myself. But this isn't the first cage I've been in. I've been traded around some. I've seen things..."
And then he stops, as if the only appropriate way to complete his statement is with silence, and stares at the floor. Someone in another cage begins to cry loudly.
"Were you taken from an orphanage too?" I ask.
He shakes his head again. "From my home. The day my parents..."
He bites his lip, and I already know what he is going to say. I can tell, because I've been through the same thing.
"My parents died too," I say, "though it's been five years now." Watching the other boy try not to cry, I remember how it felt when those wounds were fresh and raw. I can't quite tell if this boy is older than I am, or younger. He still hasn't told me his name.
What a miserable place this is.
The boy's bare shoulders have stopped shaking, so I try a change of subject. "Do they feed us here?" I ask. I would just about kill for a pudding right now.
"Technically," he replies, wiping his eyes with his hand. "After all, it would be bad for business to have too many of their goods dropping dead." He looks up at me, and his tears have vanished. "But don't get your hopes up. Last night it was old stale bread with water. You had to dip it in the water to even bite into it."
I try to fathom how this happened to me. The last thing I recall was returning to my bedroom back at the orphanage, and noticing the light was out, though I had left it on. They used some kind of gas to knock me out, but...how did they get in? And more importantly, was someone at the orphanage in on it? The thought that someone I knew and trusted might have given me over to these people makes me sick, and it hits me suddenly that I'm in more danger than I've ever been. If I were anything like my father, I'd be formulating an escape plan. No, I'd probably already have one worked out. But all I can do is curl into a ball in my cage and weep. If the orphanage wasn't in on my kidnapping, maybe they'll notice I've gone missing and come looking for me. But how will they ever find me here?
I can't tell if it's day or night. My tears paint streaks on my chest, and I realize how dirty I already am.
The very next day, the same man who told me I'd be out of here soon brings a strange man down to see us. If it is a man; it isn't clear at first from his face or his dress that he isn't a lady. He has long black hair and narrow, painted eyes that flicker between green and gold. But our keeper calls him "sir," and from their speech I infer he is a regular customer, and a distinguished one. Some of the boys in the more neglected cages look up expectantly as he comes in. But he's seen them all before. He heads directly for my corner of the room, like he knows that's where the newest, freshest offerings are on display. I can't take my eyes off him. As he draws near, his absinthe-coloured eyes pull my gaze upward. I stare stupidly, neither hoping nor fearing, just staring like an animal.
He reaches his white hand between the bars to tilt my chin up.
"Oooh...this one here is lovely," he says, admiring my face. His voice is soothing, but somehow, it makes my skin crawl. "Almost an Oriental quality to him, would you say?"
"That is Haru, our newest acquisition," says our keeper. "If you'd arrived later, you mighta missed him!"
"Indeed," says the long-haired man. His eyes linger a little longer on my body, and I suddenly feel cold.
He then moves on to the next cage, where my blue-eyed friend lies limply on his side. As the stranger looks him over from all angles, he remains expressionless, and I can't tell if he wants to be chosen or not. To be honest, I'm not sure which to hope for either. Who knows what awaits on the other side, in the clutches of the snake-eyed customer...but even one more day of this place...
"That pretty thing there is Ciel," says our keeper. "We just got him on Monday."
Ciel. It's an unusual name, I think, and vaguely familiar. The customer reaches into Ciel's cage and strokes his delicate wrist inquiringly.
"Such a painful choice, one, or the other..." the customer coos.
"Why choose at all?" the keeper laughs. "Spare yourself the pain. Take both of them."
"Ah, yes...but at your price..."
"But sir, aren't they such very fine specimens? Surely a gentleman of your means could --"
The snakelike man grins. "Very well. I'll take both of them...with a small reduction. Say...800."
"900," the keeper insists. "Look at this guy here." He pinches my cheek with his fat hand and I consider biting him.
The snake-eyed man cackles lowly. "Very well. 900 it will be."
Right there in the room, before the other children, they open my cage. If I could manage to undo my bonds, I'd run right between the men and up the shadowed stairs. As it is, they have to lift me out. The snaky man props me on top of the cage and looks me over. He touches my arm, and I shiver at the cool of his skin. They hold me securely as the ropes around my wrists are replaced with iron cuffs, linked by a short chain to my buyer's hand. The keeper slips a plain white shirt over my head to cover my body. It feels clean. Then they do the same thing to Ciel. I can tell he doesn't like the looks of the snaky man, and he resists a little, and makes disgusted faces at them. But I don't want to stay any longer in this dungeon. The looks on the faces of the unwanted boys...their colours all turned to gray...at least this is something different. The man's fancy clothes mean he has money, at least. And money means food. Food...
The last thing they do before leading us away is free our legs. It hurts a bit to stand and walk after being cramped in there, but it also feels good. It's a tremendous relief. My spirit lifts, ever so slightly.
"A pleasure doing business with you, Lord Orochimaru," says the keeper.
"As usual," our new master replies. "I seem to have truly struck gold this evening." He takes a moment more to ogle us like pastries on a shelf before giving our chain a short tug.
"Come, Haru, Ciel," he says in that slippery voice. "I have nice clothes and shoes waiting for you when we arrive."
Lord Orochimaru leads us up and out of the dark dungeon. I can't bring myself to look back at the caged children who are left behind. Ciel's face burns with barely restrained fury, and I wonder if he knows something I don't know about this man. We pile quickly into a carriage parked inconspicuously at the side of the building. It's a dirty, poorly lit part of London I've never seen before. In the back of the carriage, Lord Orochimaru sits in between Ciel and me. Driving out of the city in the middle of the night, a whole unfamiliar world unfolds before us. Poor half-starved Ciel falls asleep on the long drive, and Lord Orochimaru watches him in silence. But I, who haven't slept soundly since my mother died, can only watch the city shrink behind us out the foggy window. The gaps between buildings grow, and the road grows rougher. Eventually, I turn to look out Ciel's side of the carriage, and there is the sea, long and dark.
Then I realize we are getting on a ship.
"But this is not the harbour!" I exclaim, so loudly that Ciel awakens with a start.
"Young Haru," said Lord Orochimaru, "alas, my ship is not permitted to dock in the harbour. Fortunately for our purposes, it has no need to."
"Where are you taking us? What do you want with us?"
"Why, I'm giving you a new home of course. Much nicer than your old home."
"I doubt that," Ciel mutters under his breath.
"It's a palace, children. Everything you want will be provided to you: food, clothing, pleasure, even friends. There are several other young boys your age who will be delighted to meet you. And of course there is the matter of your training."
"Training?" we ask in unison.
"Training in the social graces, martial arts, music, intellectual pursuits. Training the body and mind alike."
"So..." I say cautiously, wondering how many times he's given this pitch, "it's an academy of sorts."
"Yes, very much so," the snakelike man replies. His smile glitters knifelike under the moon. "It's a philanthropic pursuit of mine. Rescuing beleaguered youngsters and giving them paradise."
"And what do you get in return?" Ciel asks bitterly. His eyes blaze like blue fire, the hottest part of a flame.
Orochimaru laughs. "My, you're a cynical one, young Ciel. In return, I get to enjoy your company. There is no 'catch.' It's simple charity, nothing more."
"Then exactly why is it you aren't permitted to dock near London?" I ask.
The man's pale face is a mixture of amusement and feigned regret. "I ran into political trouble in town. Suspicion of revolutionary activities and the like. Utter rubbish, to tell you the truth."
The truth. I don't know how we can expect that from a man with the eyes of a serpent, who would trade our rope bonds for iron. I've never heard of an academy taking such precautions, and I know Ciel is equally suspicious of him. Yet we file aboard the boat behind Lord Orochimaru. Our chains clink. Fog hides the moon, and in the dark the ship resembles a great black beast. If at any point I see a hope of escape, I will take it. But there is no choice now for us. There is nowhere to run, and anything would be preferable to going back to that cellar full of cages again.
Lord Orochimaru holds our hands as the ship breaks away from the shoreline. Looking backward from the deck, I watch England shrivel into a black cloud floating on the sea. I wonder if I'll see it again.
When we hit the open ocean, our new guardian unlocks our chains and gives us freedom of the ship. But there's nowhere to go, and we both stay where we were, gazing back in the direction where home is supposed to be. I put my hand on Ciel's, for comfort, but he pulls away from me. I'm beginning to think he resents me, as if it's my fault he ended up here on this boat. In fact, though, he's just seasick, which I only realize as he vomits over the side of the boat. Below us, the water is blacker than the sky, and I don't feel well myself.
~*~...To be continued...~*~