• Ϯѻɼϯʉɼɛɗ • →ʂlคvɛ ɼp← f u l l

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy found the hallway, but it looked no different to her than the other, so she continued down, looking into each door.

It was getting kind of creepy, so she was going to turn back soon. Mostly to make sure she didn't get TOO lost.

Probably a lost cause. She was most likely already lost.

She opened another door....  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

And finally, she found Reticence.

The room was covered in splashes and streaks of colour - largely shades of red, brown and black. There was no furniture of any kind in there, aside from a couple of black boxes that hummed warningly as she opened the door.

The floor was littered with torn-up scraps of what looked like paper, and Reticence stood in the middle of this mess, his back to the door. He didn't speak when she came in; he didn't even seem to notice that she was there.

He just kept methodically tearing up the sheets, his attention focused silently on the task at hand.

When at last he 'noticed' her there, he turned and once again his eyes were fully open, pinning her with the full power of them. "Leave," he grated, his voice raspy - like he'd been screaming, or like he hadn't spoken in a very long time.

One or the other.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy was taken by his eyes, so it took her a moment to take in his words and voice.

It took even longer to get her own voice to work, "Naivete thought you shouldn't be alone right now." She assumed that's what the girl had been thinking.

Silently, she closed he door behind her, letting her stay in the room, "I'm sorry, but I think she's right."

For once she was not upset around him. At least not yet. It was a good start.

Now, to find the line and walk it.

She stepped a little closer to him, "ARE you alright? Really?" She didn't look proud, or spiteful....just worried, and a little sad.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence looked at her for a moment longer, and his eyes seemed to be looking right through her. Then they drifted half-closed again, and Maxy would feel the release from the full power of that stare. "Naïvete," he murmured, his voice still grating, but now full of a sort of resignation. "It would be her."

He finished slowly tearing up the last of the sheets he had been holding, and let them drift to the floor. Then he took a step away from her and laughed dryly at her question.

"Do I look all right?" he rasped.

Then he turned away from her and went to sit on one of the two humming boxes, placing his head silently in his hands. His eyes closed completely, and he was quiet.

A little too quiet.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy Chewed her bottom lip almost nervously.

What was that humming sound? She loomed at the boxes bEfore her eyes decided to stick to him.

Moving slowly, she went up behind him and dug her fingers gently into his shoulders in a neck and shoulder massage.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence jerked at her touch, but strangely, this time it didn't seem like a rejection. It was just the violent reaction of someone who was uncomfortable about being touched.

Probably due to fear.

"What are you doing?" he whispered. His voice didn't quiver, but it sounded painfully on edge. He was nervous.

Had this boy ever known how it felt to be touched by someone who didn't want to hurt him?

Didn't seem like it.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy blinked, thrown off by the fact that he didn't know what she was doing, "It's called a massage."

Gently, she rubbed circles into his tensed and probably over stressed muscles.

She wasn't used to him not freaking out on her, so she really liked this. "you have a really tight knot in your back." she worked at it with her knuckles and her fingers.

Only once she'd successfully relaxed the muscle, did she run her hand down his arms from shoulder to elbow, rubbing circles on the skin and heating it in the process.

After a moment she asked, "How do you feel, now?"  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence had stopped flinching by the time she worked out the worst of the knots, but he was still quivering like a nervous horse. "Oh."

He was still staring at the far wall as though it held all the secrets of humanity, but he didn't seem angry.

"Fine," he replied.

It was almost insultingly obvious that he was lying.

But he was still trying to protect himself as best he could, and he didn't mean to insult her intelligence in the process. He was still trying to figure it out himself.

The last thing he needed was to be sharing it.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy's frown deepened and she murmured, "I wish I knew how to help you."

She wasn't lying about it either. She didn't like seeing the strong (more than slightly irritating) boy like this.

Sighing lightly she wrapped her arms around his shoulders from the back, and rested her head on his shoulder. Similar to the way she would hang on Curiosity, but calmer.

She wanted him to feel the safe.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence's response was dry and just a little sad. "You can't," he replied. "No one can."

He didn't elaborate. When she wrapped her arms around him, he went tense again, not speaking or moving for a long time.

When he spoke again, it was just a tired, whispery phrase.

"I'm a monster."

He was quiet again, and seemed to have sunk into some sort of reverie.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy didn't move, but just whispered back, "How could you possibly be a monster?"

Sure, he was a little difficult, but that didn't make him a monster. For once, her mood was totally in control. She didn't know why, but she knew she liked it.

She didn't understand how he could be the bad guy in this kind of situation.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence just shook his head wearily, not replying. But if Maxy had been paying attention over her days here, she might already be beginning to put things together about this boy. About Reticence.

Reticence, the only one who never spoke of a life before and had never mentioned a human name. Reticence, with that strange draw in his eyes and his near-inhuman beauty. Reticence, whose attachment to the master was stronger than either of the other two and who had never talked about his experiences in the slave market.

Who called himself a monster after coming back from a psychological experiment.

And whose misery seemed to be filling the room around them.

The clues were all there, and even if Reticence didn't say it straight out, Maxy shouldn't have too much trouble putting it all together.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy was starting to see the puzzle pieces fit, but she didn't want to assume.

"Can you tell me, Reticence? Tell me so I'm not wrong." she buried her face in his shoulder.

She couldn't possibly be right... Could she? He couldn't possible be...?  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

((OOC: *gonna make Maxy guess*))

Reticence shook his head again, his eyes closed. He didn't want to talk about it. He couldn't talk about it. Oh, he knew Curiosity and Naïvete had tossed the idea around a few times, though he'd never been there when they'd done it. He'd known they suspected something was different about him.

He'd always brushed it off, rejected it.

But here it was now, and the truth was out. He couldn't disguise his thoughts - or reject the knowledge - anymore.

That didn't mean he could talk about it. Not yet. He needed time to assimilate it himself.

If Maxy gave him a yes-or-no question, though, he would probably answer that much. If she was going to have to live with him, she might as well know - Curiosity and Naïvete would undoubtedly already know.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

((haha I'm probably way wrong))

Maxy's embrace stiffened when the words passed her lips, "Are you like them? The... " she had to think to remember what they called themselves, "Like the keshvals?"

He gave her the same chills. He was pretty like them... And he looked a lot like their master. Was he even a real slave? He was more like his son.

WAS HE HIS SON?!