FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

[b][u][center]The Love of Toys

Part 5

For Taiko

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

A week was hardly enough to start taking over, but Black had managed to both insert himself into the lives of the other figurines and their human with relative ease after he was discovered as a ‘delivery’ the morning after he sorted Nigel out. If the other figurines had found him first, it was entirely possible that he would have ended up getting sent back to their Maker for having fulfilled his duty, but luckily for him, Chris had been the one to find him. The human had picked him up, carried him to the apartment living room, and the rest had been history.

Neither Gold or Chrome were particularly happy with him being there, but Chrome was willing to settle to it. Gold, on the other hand, watched him like a hawk. Black didn’t mind. Of all the figurines that Oury had to give, he was the one that was ostensibly the most dangerous.

Over the course of that week, he watched Chris as intently as Gold watched him. It was his nature, in a way, searching for the flaw, the punishable thing, the part that would open itself up and reveal just how deep and dark the human was. It was in his nature to find that piece of a person, to find the darkness within and begin to embody it. Yet, the longer that he was around, the more that he found himself curious where it might actually be.

After all, most people would have become selfish with three different beings doing what they wanted, being able to command others and have them obey almost instantly. Black had expected to see some form of that, but not only did Chris live fairly evenly with both Gold and Chrome, but the other two had to sneak out to find the chance to actually do a chore or two before Chris could get it done himself.

And then, there were the sessions.

Having manifested with Nigel first, he had taken on some of the disdain that the other man had for Chris, and try as he might, it had been there when the young man had stated that they were going to do a creative session for the first time. He waited with a smiling sneer that was mostly hidden by his dark coloration, waiting to see how insipid and stupid it might be.

It ended up being ridiculously fulfilling.

By the end of it, Black not only distinguished himself as the best actor of the bunch, but found himself curiously hungry to try more different roles. Chris had cast him as a semi-villain the first time, but apparently, the snake had been so interesting that the human wanted to try him in a bunch of different roles to see what he was best in. The fact that he had been appreciated for variety was something…different, something new, and it struck a chord in him that he hadn’t realized was waiting to be touched.

The week went on, and while they were still not comfortable with each other – or at least, the figurines weren’t comfortable with each other – they started to find ways of coexisting. Gold stayed out of the way (except at dinner, when the leopard refused to be pushed out of the kitchen), and Black made sure to keep his slight superiority complex to the acting sessions and no other times.

Still, there was only so much coexistence that could be maintained, particularly with the suspicion lingering around his arrival. They didn’t know about Nigel, and he wasn’t about to tell them. Something would have to give, and one day, something did.

#

Black stood with his arms crossed, his tail wrapped around Chrome as it ‘shoved’ the zebra into the ground. He had his head slightly tilted back, shaking it slowly as he read his lines.

“Such arrogance. A warrior like you should know better,” he said, taking a slow step forward. Chrome swept his arm out, again, as scripted, and he stepped over it, bringing his foot back down to pin it. “You seek out a teacher, and the first thing you do is attack them? Hardly the way to make me believe that you’re capable of learning what I have to teach.”

“Heh…blame the fires of ambition, sir…I needed to know if you were better than me.”

“One can have something to teach without being ‘better,’ as a proper warrior would know.”

He was instilling every word that he had with as much dignity and gravitas that he could get. There were plenty of little things that he could do, little bits and pieces that he had picked up in the moment and as part of his own nature as a curse. A curse was supposed to fit itself to the target, to become what was needed, to take on what was required to be a punishment for those that it found. It was surprisingly similar to picking up what was needed for an acting role.

The only downside to it was that he knew that his partners were always acting. Chrome, in particular, was never just ‘defeated’ the way that the cobra could have done to most anyone else. The various figurines of Oury had great strength, much greater than any human, and they were built to be able to take it and dish it out in a way that was never going to be comparable to the humans that they were given to. Even now, with Black exerting every bit of muscle that he had in his tail, he could feel that Chrome wasn’t really fighting. He could have escaped, if that was what the scene demanded.

So, he put out more charisma, more power, just to make it clear that he was better suited as the one on top than the others. He needed Chris to see that he was the one that needed to be given these starring roles, since they were the ones that he was best at. Put him in the background, and he would be wasted.

He stepped closer to the zebra, lifting one scaly foot and pushing it down on the zebra’s muzzle. Chrome groaned, and Black felt no small amount of satisfaction at the act.

“I, however, am ‘better’ at both fighting…and teaching…If you wish to survive this war, then you will have to learn everything that I know…and more…”

“I’ve always thought of myself as a good student.”

“Then show me…devotion.”

“And cut!”

Chris waved his hands, and just like that, Chrome bunched up his muscles. Just like Black had known would happen, the zebra was able to force himself free of his coils. He gritted his teeth, trying not to be annoyed by it, but it was still there, still present. He shook his head, stepping back as Chris pushed into the middle of the living room with a notebook in hand.

“That was amazing. Both of you. So well done.”

“I did what I could, though I think Black was the one stealing the show,” Chrome said.

“Well…I am the best,” Black said.

“Hmmph.”

Gold sat on the couch, his mouth a little wet. The leopard had been giving Chris a blowjob just off-scene, something that the feline had been doing regularly in some form or another. Black hadn’t missed the intimacy that Chris had with the other two figurines, nor had he had the chance to break that particular connection.

Break it.

The snake shook his head. That wasn’t what he was here for, but there was something of Nigel’s darkness still in him, something that believed that Chris needed to be punished. Or was that something of his own need?

He wasn’t entirely sure, and he didn’t particularly like it.

Chris rounded on him before he could examine it further, and the human smiled.

“I didn’t think that you could pull off ‘teacher’ like that, but I’m so glad that we gave it a try. You have that perfect sort of menace for someone that has to break a newbie in, but you’re more than just an asshole when you do it. It’s perfect.”

“Perfect, hmm?” Black smiled. “Well, do go on.”

“Oh, I will. You’re doing amazing. You have that air of experience, that feeling that nothing in the world surprises you anymore. God, it’s like every time I give you something new, you just find a new way to interpret it and knock it out of the park. Holy cow, if you were on the set for movies or stage plays, they’d be fighting over you.”

There was something to being complimented like that which set the snake to smiling more and more. It was almost akin to the feeling that he got when he found the perfect weakness for punishing someone, the perfect little crack in the armor to put them in their place, except…except it came without giving any sort of pain. And it was hard for him to really know how to deal with that sort of sensation.

Chrome smiled despite the lack of effusive praise, and he somehow knew that the zebra had already gotten his compliments, all that he needed. Yet, for all of that, Chris rounded on him too, giving him more and more praise, more compliments about how he had been vulnerable, yet confident, and –

It was quite the difference from Nigel Roster, that was for sure.

Gold slipped off the couch, the glowing, too-smooth feline standing beside him and whispering.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” he whispered.

“I seem to be fooling myself, then, because I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Black responded.

“You know what I mean.”

“Ah, you think I’m still here to punish him?”

“That’s the only reason that Oury ever lets you out. Why are you waiting?”

“Perhaps I’m still forming plans.”

“There’s nothing to punish here. He’s a good man.”

“So far…”

Black was the first to admit that he would have liked to have no reason to punish someone. As a curse, he had always been the one that had been sent out to do the things that none of the other figurines wanted. He had been used more than once to punish someone that did not accept or appreciate the gift that they had been given. On rare occasions like that, he had been akin to an avenging angel someone that fixed something that had gone utterly wrong.

More often, however, he was the one sent out to teach someone a lesson. Oury didn’t let him loose much, as the whale had often been quite ambivalent towards insults or other, smaller evils, but there had been something in Nigel that had tweaked him, and so he had been released.

Black didn’t believe Nigel had entirely been worthy of his talents, however. Yes, Nigel had been…quite the donkey’s bottom, but he had been that in a way that was more worthy of the police, or of being utterly ignored. The fact that he had been released should have meant that Nigel was utterly devoid of anything worth saving, something that Oury would have been keen on dealing with. Instead, he found someone petty, someone small.

And that meant that Oury, the Maker, had been in a good mood before Nigel had come to visit, and Nigel had shattered that mood. Considering that Chris had been the one to visit just before that, that meant that Chris had set the stage for Nigel to destroy.

A small boost could greatly aggravate a subsequent small deflation.

He had seen the raw hate-pain-fear-envy ball that Nigel kept inside him in regards to Chris, and he had expected to find someone that was as conceited as Nigel in his own small way. He had expected to find that the nerdiness, the obsessiveness, and everything else was a small deflection away from a core that was rotted, something that needed correcting if it inspired that sort of hate and anger in others. Instead…instead, he had found someone that was surprisingly genuine.

At least, so far. He still believed that the wall would fall, and when it did, all those compliments would mean little. It was why he didn’t allow himself to take too many of them. He didn’t want to be hurt, later.

Chris was just starting to turn from Chrome to them again, apparently getting ready for the next scene, when there was a knock on the door. Chris’s eyes went wide, and both Gold and Chrome immediately started shrinking in on themselves. Black arched an eyebrow.

“Did I miss something?”

“Hide. Now.”

“That is hardly the right way to talk to a guest.”

“Please, just hide. Quickly.”

“Well, as you did say please…”

He shrugged and released his concentration. The framework of his extended presence collapsed, and the shadows and blackness that gave him form slammed downwards, like a blanket-ghost that had suddenly lost all the support that it had on the inside. The shadows exploded outwards in a dark ring, then contracted into a figurine.

Black had chosen the pose of a cocky general, one that had his head tilted back so that he could look down his nose at others. His arms were crossed over his chest, and the stillness that the figurine shape forced on him meant that he was intensely aware that it wasn’t quite a natural posture. The way that his arms dug into his chest and the new armor that he was forced to wear – the figurine was so rarely naked – meant that he had more than a slight amount of discomfort.

The other two had chosen more comfortable postures. Gold had managed to go into a crouching, stalking stance, one hand extended so that he wasn’t feeling the strain in his legs from squatting for however long they were forced to, while Chrome was standing normally, his arms half lifted, looking like someone that was offering an embrace, or a challenge. Or perhaps both, now that he thought of it.

They had barely managed to take their figurine forms before the door opened. A woman walked through, someone that he was able to identify from his earlier moments with Nigel. A woman, named…Jane Forester. The landlord. The one that Nigel referred to as ‘the bitch.’

She did not look like that to him. She looked…responsible, if tired, and perhaps that responsibility was her own undoing. He would have cocked his head to the side to study her further, but that would have defeated the purpose of hiding.

“I didn’t hear voices, did I?” Jane asked.

“Heh, only mine.”

[i]Perhaps a liar, but an understandable liar.[/i] Black made a mental note. It was the first lie that had passed Chris’s lips, and it wasn’t even a full lie, now that he thought about it. They might have all been speaking, but they were using Chris’s words.

The new woman walked in, and she looked down at them. Chris hurried over and started lifting them from the floor to a shelf, even as Jane cocked her head to the side.

“If you can afford these things, I should be charging you more rent.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t buy these things,” Chris said. “I was given them by a friend.”

“That friend must have a lot of money.”

“No, just, heh, seems to like making things.”

Black was surprised at the artful way that the human seemed to find little ways around these questions without lying. It was surprisingly dexterous, and quick-thinking. The little admiration that he had for this human rose.

As Chris and Jane spoke, their ‘companion’ pulled out a cloth, working his way down the line of figurines, polishing each and every one of them. The rag was gentle and soft, and when it came to Black, he was more expecting something that was half-hearted, an idle thing to do while they were chatting.

Instead, it was almost more of a massage, something that rubbed around his chest, that took his natural color and brought it out rather than just dusted it off. He felt…oddly cherished as he was held in Chris’s hand.

“I’ve been meaning to ask. Why do you keep things like that, anyway? Are you a collector, or –”

“Trust me, if I was a collector, I wouldn’t be so quiet about these guys.” Chis chuckled. “I guess that they’re from the same sort of franchise – or at least, they were inspired by it – but I didn’t buy them because of that. I’m not collecting them for who they are. Hell, I’m not even collecting them.”

“Then what are they for?”

“Writing.”

“I don’t get it.”

[i]Have you never heard of a muse, woman?[/i] Black thought irritably, feeling the cloth running down along his extravagant, over-long tail. [i]We inspire merely by being there.[/i]

“Well…do you ever talk to yourself when you’re trying to figure out how to say something? Like, if you’re dealing with a really stupid tenant, or someone that’s been an ass and you don’t know how you’re going to deal with them? Like, like, um, roleplaying with yourself, in a way?”

“…More than once,” Jane admitted, chuckling. “I always feel like an idiot when I imitate them, though.”

“That’s why I use these guys,” Chris said, nodding down at him. “Take this one, for example. Black – I mean, that’s what he calls himself –”

“You’re not going nuts on me, are you, Chris?”

“No, no. I just…get names for them, sometimes, and instead of forcing something else on them, I let them be called what they want to be called.”

The cobra hadn’t even thought of things that way. They were basically possessions at this point, things that could be forced to do this, that, or the other thing. There was very little keeping them free to act on their own when they were owned by someone else. He might not have been sent to Chris, but he had submitted to that same sort of control, knowing that, as a curse, he could break that.

Yet, at the same time, he hadn’t realized just how much Chris was actually respecting them. He could have named them different things to their colors, but when they had told him what they were, he had just gone with it. Strange. He listened as the story continued, enjoying the slow polishing and buffing going down his chest.

“Anyway, Black here? He helps me see so many different characters. I can use him to represent a teacher, or a villain, or a mentor, or, or anything else that I really need. He’s someone that can do [i]anything[/i], a character actor of the highest order, and he’s just invaluable. Chrome up there?” Chris said, nodding to the chrome zebra. “He’s a star, someone that can’t do a lot of flexible acting, but he just [i]feels[/i] like something that would be mentoring others, caring for them, guiding them.”

“Sounds like the guy that gets axed in the third act.”

“Well, I like to subvert expectations. They don’t die with me.”

“No Chrome the White, then?”

“Heh, no, he stays the Gray, and stays awesome.”

“And that last one over there?”

“Gold?”

[i]Yes, what about him?[/i] Black wondered. [i]What do you call the slut?[/i]

“He’s kind of…well, a mix of trouble-maker and lover. Kinda tsundere, kinda trying to be better than he is, always boasting but coming down from it.”

“Kind of a clown?”

“Sometimes, if I need that, but most of the time just being that firebrand that just wants to be loved way down deep.”

“…Sounds like you’ve put a lot of character in these guys.”

“Well, it’s more like they all suggest that sort of character to me,” Chris said, finally lifting the stunned Black back to the shelf and putting him down. “They’re all the sort of people – well, characters, or whatever you want to call them – that I’d like to have around in real life. They’re the kind of people that I want everyone to be able to see, so that’s why I use them to help me write. They let me imagine all the different things better. It’s like seeing it happen, and then just writing it up afterwards.”

Jane nodded, all while Black felt more stunned than ever.

He had heard stories from some of the other figurines. They’d been out and about before, had had their friends in the mortal world, and then come back when their time was done. Oury had been making them for years, always trying to make the good things in the world come to life in ways that could help others. He had seen them, heard the stories of what mortals were like, but this…

[i]It had to be a front. A wall. Something that’s hiding…[/i]

And yet, for the first time in his life, Black hoped that he was wrong. He hoped so hard that he was wrong. Every little word that came out of Chris’s mouth was filled with nothing but love and caring for the three of them, saying everything that was good and even turning a flaw here and there into something else that was amazing about them.

Like him. The ability to take on every different role could have easily meant that he was just a liar, that he didn’t know himself, that he just put on mask after mask to keep others at bay. Yet, Chris portrayed it as something that made him feel like an expert, a downright genius at the job of acting.

And the others were treated just as well, despite the fact that there had been friction between them since his arrival. Despite the fights, the few broken plates, and that one damaged notebook that Black had blamed on Gold – and almost gotten away with – Chris still felt that they were all deserving of praise.

It…hurt, in a way. Hurt good, yes, but it still hurt.

Jane and Chris walked away from the shelf, and Black ‘closed’ his eyes and ears. He went in on himself, needing to think.

#

He was still shut down when he felt a hand around his legs, and he realized that the others had already come to life. Feeling the tight grip of Gold’s fingers around his lower body, he ‘opened’ his eyes and ears again. The feline loomed over him, and he could hear the sound of the grunts and groans of Chrome and Chris further off. They were probably having ‘fun’ in the bedroom, getting it on with each other.

“Turn back. We need to talk.”

Black sighed inside. He had been hoping to sort himself out, but Gold was right. They needed to talk.

He pushed out, concentrating on his form, and his figurine burst into black smoke. For a moment, he was completely ephemeral, impossible to touch or gasp. Then, he began to take form.

It was commonly accepted among the figurines that they took after their Maker in the way that they changed. There was always the possibility for them to shift their forms ever so slightly when they appeared, to tweak little details. They could not change their color, for that had been chosen by Oury’s intention for them, nor could they change their species, but they could add to their muscle by varying degrees, or enhance certain properties of theirs. He had noticed that Chrome always tended to come out with more of a cock than he actually had in his figurine base form, for example.

He chose to come out with something…less threatening, for a change. He pulled his tail back by half, leaving it ten feet long rather than twenty, and he reduced his musculature by a full 5%. It was enough to put him on level with Gold rather than surpassing the leopard, and it was a peace offering. Or at least, as much of one as he was willing to give.

He imagined that framework over his shadow-smoke form, and then filled it with everything that was him, every bit of cursed intelligence, emotion, and more. The cobra took form, and he could feel his hood flicking in and out. Not quite nervously, but anxiously? Perhaps a little.

Sitting down on the couch, he adjusted the loincloth that he had left himself, leaving it covering his groin as he crossed one leg over his knee. Gold remained standing.

“What do you want?” Black asked.

“I want to know what you’re planning. For real, this time.”

“…I don’t know.”

“Don’t bullshit me.”

“I’m not,” Black said, shaking his head. “I have never, [i]ever[/i] felt this conflicted.”

“Why?”

“…He’s [i]good.[/i]”

“Yeah, isn’t he just?” Gold smiled. “And that’s why I want to make sure that he stays happy. Because he makes us happy. Big time.”

“Yes…I can see that.”

Happiness. It was…odd…feeling that. And it made him feel all the more focused and almost obsessed with the human. Now that he knew the difference between the pseudo-happiness that he got from tormenting people and fulfilling his purpose compared to the real thing, he honestly didn’t want to let it go.

He looked towards the bedroom door, slowly shaking his head. The few times that he had tried to be part of that fun, it…hadn’t gone well. Something had come out, some sense of domination, humiliation, need to break and hold, and both Gold and Chrome had surreptitiously chased him out by taking over little roles that had Chris paying so much attention to them that Black felt too ignored to stay. It had become almost a way of shutting him out, in a way, when either Gold or Chrome took him back to the bedroom. A way of showing him that he didn’t entirely belong there.

That his curse kept them from bonding.

Black took a deep breath, looking down at his hands. Even now, he could feel that purpose inside. He was [i]made[/i] to find the things that were wrong, to find the inner darkness of mankind and embody it to punish them, to show them what they had decided to embrace and scare them back towards being good.

[i]What’s the point of being a curse to someone that doesn’t have anything to punish?[/i]

After another moment or two, Gold sat down on the couch with him. The feline poked him in the shoulder, and there was a soft ‘tink’ sound due to their natures.

“I don’t know what brought you here, but you can tell Oury that there’s nothing wrong with this one. He’s [i]good[/i].”

“I know.”

“And you can tell Oury that we’re going to make sure that he stays that way, too.”

“I. Know.”

“We don’t need you.”

“Then it is a good thing that [i]you[/i] aren’t the one to tell me whether I stay or whether I go, isn’t it?”

“Oury will call you back, sooner or later.”

“Perhaps, but until he does, I will stay until [i]Chris[/i] tells me to go…and I will see if I can persuade him to let me stay, even then.”

“…”

“I am not here to hurt him.”

“But that’s all you do. Oury made us to help, and he made you to –”

“I know what he made me for!”

Black shouted despite himself as he lunged to his feet, looming by scarcely more than an inch over the leopard. His hood had flared out completely, stretched out to the point where it would have overbalanced him if he was a hair less strong. His tongue flicked out, his fangs twitching in the back of his mouth.

“I know what he made me for…I know it better than you do. I know it better than any of you. You all get to see the good, the love, the [i]wonder[/i] of humanity. Do you know how it feels to only get to walk the world when you’re being used to break someone? To do what I do every [i]single[/i] time?

“No, don’t even say it. You don’t know. None of you know. You live at the surface. You see the light. I don’t. I’m in the muck. I’m down in the dark, and that’s all I’ve gotten to see…”

Until today. Until this moment. And more than ever, it made him ignore the call and low-level compulsion that he still felt in his heart. Until he understood this, until he knew how to have this again, he could [i]not[/i] go back to the dark. Not back to the depths. Not back to the job of being the curse that was only there to bring punishment.

Gold stared at him in shock and awe, and Black realized that he was panting, on the verge of a complete breakdown. He pulled his hood in tight, doing it quickly enough that it made a snapping sound, and he looked down at his nails, feigning being fine.

“And…scene.”

“…What the hell was that?!”

“Acting. How did I do?”

“…Holy cow, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Well, then I would say that I did [i]particularly[/i] well.”

“Well? You – oh fuck it. I’m going to the bedroom.”

That very nearly cracked the veneer that he had managed to put back on, but the leopard had already suited word to deed and was making his way over to the bedroom again. It didn’t take long for the sounds of pleasure to be magnified again, and he covered the sides of his head as he sat back down.

[i]You could…try…[/i]

Black knew that he could, but he also knew what had happened every other time that he had tried going there. He had messed up, done the wrong things, followed what he’d been made to do rather than what made the others happy.

They weren’t robots. They could, theoretically, grow and change. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t something down at their core shaping every action that they took. More than any human, they were made to do something, and because of that purpose, it was very, very difficult to shift that core concept that made them. Chrome was made to nurture, to guide, to soothe. Gold was made to push, to tease, to entice and pull someone along with all that friendly nature of his.

Black…Black wasn’t made to do that, and he didn’t know if he could change, but for the first time, he wanted to.

Oury, Maker, he wanted to.

He looked down towards the other end of the apartment. They were still going at it, not even paying much attention to his lack. Then again, he was honest enough with himself to know that he was essentially excluding himself right at that moment. Gold hadn’t forbidden him from following, and neither had Chris.

Black glanced up, sighing to himself as he got to his feet. The vents were open again. He walked over to the one in the kitchen, sliding it closed with his tail. Perhaps Nigel was listening, perhaps not, but he knew that his latest moment would have terrified the other man away if he had been. Regardless of the other man’s arousal during their last encounter, he knew that he had left a mark on Mr. Roster.

The cobra turned to face the bedroom. Chris was sandwiched between the two other men, his cock sliding along Chrome’s belly while Gold mounted him from behind. They had been going at it hard enough that the human had learned how to take both their shafts at once, and he was rather surprised that he could do that so well. Apparently, the nature of a switch was to enjoy everything as much as possible.

He watched for a few moments, feeling his own parts starting to twitch and rise. He wanted to join, but his instincts pushed him to do something…hard. Harsh. To take Chris and dominate him, to control his cock with hand and coil, to tease him until the human moaned and whispered his preference for Black and Black alone. He wanted to hear that he was the best. He wanted…

He wanted to hear that praise again.

He didn’t know that he’d been staring until the three of them went still, looking back at him. Black shivered slightly at the stare, looking down at the ground.

“…May I join you?” he asked.

“Of course,” Chris said, and the other two figurines joined in a moment later. “Just find a spot. I’d love to try again.”

Try again. So, he’d been aware of the other failures. Black suppressed a wince as he slid through the door, closing it behind him. He didn’t think they noticed, and he knew that Chris didn’t.

He was too good an actor to let the human see how terrified he was of screwing up again.

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Black has moved in with Chris and the others, and the result is…rather tense, in some ways, with Black waiting for a reason to punish, and the other figures looking out for Chris.

Tags: M/M/M, loincloth, snake, cobra, human, zebra, leopard, feline, magic, modern fantasy, angst, anal, double penetration, transformation, emotional, harem (kinda),