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

Part 7

For Taiko

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

Life felt like it was becoming an all-consuming roleplay, and not entirely in a good way. Chrome laid in bed with Gold, Chris, and Black, and while the other two metal creations were ‘sleeping’ properly, the zebra was unable to turn his mind off. Instead, he stared at the ceiling, thinking about how he was going to handle the next day.

[i]Black…why are you here?[/i]

That was a question that was yet to be answered, and it was only his own nature as a nurturer and caretaker that kept him from being consumed by the question. Even a curse like Black deserved some sort of care, though this was something that was entirely different from the situations that he had been made for. He crossed his fingers together, looking up at the ceiling still, trying to imagine what Oury had been thinking when he released Black this time.

There was nobody in this particular apartment that needed ‘correcting’, as Black tended to refer to what he did as doing. Chris was a good, if shy man, and neither he nor Gold had broken any rules. There was nothing wrong with the way that the things were going in this apartment, nothing that might have offended their Maker.

[i]So why is he here?[/i]

The answer didn’t present himself. The zebra sighed, closing his eyes.

He tried to focus on the feeling of Chris’s head resting on his arm like a pillow, or the soft sound of Gold ‘snoring’. The feline had picked up that particular trait after being in Chris’s arms for a few nights and finding out that was what the human did. It was a somewhat endearing trait, and Chrome had to admit that it was something that made it easier to feel calm and relaxed at night, knowing that the human was properly resting rather than just pretending to sleep.

The presence of Gold and Chris were a comfort, but every so often, he would feel the edge of Black’s tail, and he would remember that the snake was there in bed with them, too. The sensation was…strange, to put it mildly. It was one thing to have someone else there, and another thing to be reminded that it was the punisher, the cursed one, the one that did not know how to do anything but hurt.

He knew that he could handle Black’s strength in a one-on-one fight – he had been made to overcome adversity, to protect and shield others – but if Black started punishing Chris before he could interpose himself –

[i]That might not happen,[/i] Chrome told himself. [i]You don’t know what Black is here for, and Chris is too kind to make the sort of mistake that would force Black to hurt him…[/i]

The compassionate zebra shook his head slowly, the motion sliding his smooth mane against the bed a few times with frictionless ease. He wished that he could go to sleep, but his nature, his desire and requirement to look after others, just wouldn’t leave him be. He couldn’t go to sleep while he was worried about something.

Then, there was a slight shift.

If he had been asleep, he would have missed it, but awake as he was, he could feel the ever-so-slight movements of someone getting out of bed. Not Chris, and not Gold, but Black.

[i]What are you doing?[/i]

It wasn’t a panicked thought, but rather something curious. There was nothing out there in the living room, not yet, and he knew that none of them needed food, water, or the toilet. They were not biological in that way, didn’t need to worry about that.

So what was Black doing?

He waited for the snake to slither from the bed and leave the room before following. He didn’t quite ‘poof’ into his statuette state, but did let his arm fade and reform so that it was not just pulled out from under Chris’s head. The zebra rolled off the mattress, quietly following after the snake.

For all that he was the largest of the figurines, he could move with complete silence when there was need for it. Compassion was always there, whether you knew it or not, and sometimes, it was required that one’s compassion snuck under the guard of those that were on watch for it. That stealth served him well, because Black didn’t even notice him leaving the room.

The snake was in the middle of the kitchen, coiled around a chair at the main table. Chrome cocked his head to the side as he watched Black leaning over something with surprising intensity, almost like whatever the project was happened to consume him. The zebra leaned a little further out of the bedroom, trying to see just what it was, but in the low light of the late night, it was all but impossible to see just what it was.

Whatever it happened to be, Black was all but consumed with it. The snake’s shoulders were hunched up, and his head was tilted to the side, then the other side, almost like he was constantly double-checking what he was doing, whether it was right or not. Black hissed regularly in frustration, only to reach for something off to the side –

[i]Paint brushes?[/i] Chrome thought. [i]That’s new…[/i]

As far as he’d known, Black had never had much of an artistic side. The snake had always termed the work that he did on the bad people as his art, as the sort of thing that he perfected and showed off to others. He had never bothered to paint, write, or pursue any other sort of creative venture. He had been bound to pain, just as the rest of them had been bound to their own purposes.

For that moment, he felt a bit of sympathy for Black. The fact that the snake was reaching out, trying something, meant that he must have felt some sort of lack. None of them did much beyond their base purpose without something to drive them there, and he wondered just what had driven the snake this far.

He was about to step out and show himself when a little click filled the air. Black immediately whipped his head up, narrowing his eyes at the front door. The knob was turning, meaning that someone with a key was coming in.

Rather than turning back to his statue form, Black disappeared, turning into smoke and whooshing into the vents. The sound of something slithering away faded quickly, the snake having made his escape in an instant.

[i]Why would you –[/i]

Chrome had a split second to see a figurine on the table – the one that Chris had bought on the same day that he had been given the zebra and Gold – when the door opened. A silvery lion stepped through, his eyes so bright that they almost glowed in the dark, and he moved with a flowing, elegant fashion that made him look almost like he was water given form. He stepped forward, pulling the door almost shut but not quite making it click.

He recognized the figure as one of the Maker’s creations, but not one of the ones that he had seen before. A new one, then. Chrome smiled, stepping forward –

“Hmmph. Chrome. Quite the older model at this point, aren’t you?” the lion said.

“…That’s a fine hello,” Chrome said, a little forced chuckle escaping his lips. “But hello to you, too.”

“Yes, yes, out of the way. I’m looking for –”

“You could lower your voice, you know,” Chrome said, holding a hand to his lips. “It’s late, and people are sleeping.”

“Sleeping? Does that matter? We are here for a purpose, not for the consideration of others.”

“[i]I’m[/i] here to take care of people. I’m not really sure what you were made for, but come now, it’s not all –”

“Get out of my way, Chrome. I have business.”

The zebra arched an eyebrow. He didn’t expect much from other people, as a general rule. He expected a little bit of surprise, a little bit of selfishness, but that was fine. That was a good, healthy thing to want something for yourself. There were always people that needed to learn to moderate selfishness with selflessness, but that was something that could be taught or learned.

This, however, was something that bothered him. This superciliousness, this way of looking down at others? That wasn’t good. That wasn’t right. That was downright wrong, as a matter of fact.

Chrome crossed his arms slowly. His smile remained, but it felt a little more plastered to his face than it had been, something that was a little less natural. He tried to bring it back.

“Look, I’m sure we’re getting off on the wrong foot here. Let’s sit down, and you can introduce yourself. Let’s just use our quieter voices, though. It’s late, like I said, and –”

“Oh, you do not shut up. No wonder you’re so inefficient. The Maker must have been working out all the errors and inefficiencies from you older models when he made me, then. Just get out of my way, and I’ll –”

“Please…be quiet.”

“I will not! I’m here to – mmmph!”

Chrome had less lost his patience and more decided that words were not going to work with this one. Whoever this new figurine was, he was someone that hadn’t learned how to work in the world just yet, and needed to be taught. So, a hand to the muzzle would have to do.

However, as soon as he pressed his fingers to the lion’s lips and forced them closed, he found himself gripping something that gave under his fingers, something that started melting away. It wasn’t like smoke, the way that Black had disappeared and gone away, but rather like trying to hold onto a slippery, melting metal. It dripped through his fingers, and soon, his hand was in the lion’s mouth rather than resting over it.

The silvery figure spat his fingers out, then the short feline tried to shove him. The emphasis there being ‘tried’. The sudden stiff-armed push didn’t make the zebra go anywhere. If anything, it shoved the lion back instead.

“Do we have to do this?” Chrome asked.

“If you aren’t going to get out of the way, yes. I have [i]business[/i], on orders of the Maker, and I will do it!”

And just like that, the lion grabbed a mug that was resting on the table – one that was filled with paint-water – and threw it at him.

It was reflex when he shifted his position. The cup rolled along his smooth arms, running along the chrome that made him, and then spun around back towards the door. He saw it hit the wall as the door opened, and he saw someone flinch on the other side.

Then the fight started. They slammed into each other, or it was more appropriate to say that the silvery lion slammed into him. He caught the other male, holding him by the arms, but the limbs were already melting, flowing over his arms and running up towards his shoulders. It almost felt like he was shoving his hands into water, like he was swimming through the other figurine.

“You will do what you are told. You are an older model, and I am the peak of efficiency. You will do as you are told,” the lion said.

“I don’t think you understand me very well,” Chrome muttered, shaking his head.

The lion darted forward, and the fluid body pressed against the zebra all the more firmly. He grunted at the sensation of the lion creeping across his limbs, over his chest, along his stomach as they pressed together. There was an odd feeling of the lion trying to encompass him, to surround him and cover him completely, but he could already tell that wasn’t going to work the way that the lion wanted.

After all, there was only so much lion, and there was a great deal more zebra.

So, Chrome held his ground, more allowing the other figurine to spread across his body, giving the lion the chance to throw himself against him again and again. The sheer fury that came from the feline was new, though ineffectual. He felt rather sorry for the other man, wondering if he knew just how pathetic this was deep down inside.

He would have been fine with letting it continue until the lion just gave up, but they had a guest that he needed to deal with. Chrome saw the door open, revealing a human woman. Miss Jane Forester, he believed her name was. She was the landlord, and she had never seen him, Gold, or Black before. This was the first meeting, and what a first meeting it was.

As she stared at him and the lion, he knew that he had to end this. Shaking his head, he grabbed at the gooey, liquidy silver that had crept up his limbs and started rolling it back down his body. The sheer smoothness of his chrome limbs meant that it was easy for the silver to come free. The lion stranger yelped at the sudden manhandling, but Chrome didn’t stop. He just kept forcing the liquid silver down his arms like he was smoothing out his sleeves, until it was all balled up at the end of his hands.

Peeling the silver feline off of him in one smooth motion, he shook him out at the neck, sending him back to his old shape, and leaving him hanging like a pouting feline.

[i]This is going to take a little while to explain,[/i] he thought, hearing Chris and Gold waking up in the other room. [i]Not like Black to run off like that, though…very strange…[/i]

He glanced at the table, curious what the snake had been doing to the figurine. To his surprise, the paint on the figurine had been restored from the mild damage that it had taken when it had fallen in the lake, but more than that, little modifications had been added. Not much, merely a painted weapon here and a sigil there, but they were small additions that made it feel…different. Different and familiar at the same time.

How strange.

#

It took some time to explain what they were, but Chrome could tell that Jane just wanted to know what happened. Unlike some individuals – of which he could name several, including the lion in the room – Jane just wanted to know what was going on so that she could figure out how to handle it. There was no malice, no ‘how could you’ in her attitude. She was just trying to figure out how to sort out the impossible-ness of the situation and fit that to how she was going to have to operate moving forward.

She rubbed her head as they mentioned Oury and the lake, sighing.

“There’s a spirit in the lake?” she asked.

“We call him the Maker,” Chrome said. “He made us.”

“Horribly,” the lion said.

“That is a matter of opinion, and you are certainly allowed yours,” Chrome said, shrugging. “I believe that he made us the way that we were needed at the time, and still are. There has been every chance to upgrade us or adjust us, after all.”

“Hmmph.”

Jane looked at the lion, then looked back at the zebra. She pointed slowly at him.

“Is he, um…one of you?”

“Only by technicality. I am the most recent iteration, and the best,” the lion said. “I am [i]Fine[/i] Silver, not mere Chrome.”

“Yeah, tell me when you reach the Gold,” Gold said, the leopard rolling his eyes.

“I am [i]hardly[/i] as gauche or overblown as you. I am Fine Silver, and that means [i]taste.[/i]”

Chris reached out and took Gold’s hand before the leopard could get all huffy and upset, though Chrome would have completely understood that sort of reaction. For all that he believed that the Maker had a good reason for making anything – even Black – he struggled to understand how the Maker could have thought that Fine Silver was a good idea. Black had pushed his compassion to the limits, but he still found some for the snake. This one…this one pushed past the limits, and he didn’t know if he could find any good thoughts for Fine Silver. Patience and hope for the younger figurine to find experience in the world were all that he could muster.

Shaking his head, he positioned himself slightly between Chris and Fine Silver. The lion rolled his eyes, adjusting his suit.

“Immature, the lot of you. One made as a barbarian warrior, the other as a knight. Childish fantasies, made to look as ‘cool’ and ‘fun’ as possible. [i]I[/i], on the other hand, was made for a single purpose, and I reflect my proper state in things. The newest, the best, the top of the hierarchy.”

“Do you talk like that all the time?” Jane asked. “You sound like someone I really regret knowing.”

“I hardly sound like anyone that would leave regrets. You must be mistaken.”

[i]I doubt it,[/i] Chrome thought.

As Jane rubbed her head and Fine Silver looked like he would rather be anywhere but there, Chris finally stepped into the conversation. His companion was red-faced with embarrassment, but he spoke well.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you that they were here in the first place.”

“…I would say that I understand, but…” Jane looked between them. “It would be one thing if they looked like people. They look impossible, Chris. I think that the impossible way that they got here would have been pretty believable.”

“…Fair.”

“…” Jane sighed. “I’m not sure how to handle this. You have seriously broken the rules by bringing them into the building; you’re supposed to only have one person per unit in the apartment.”

“I know.”

“And with Nigel pestering me about you and the noise complaints, he –” Jane paused for a moment, leaned to the side to look at the kitchen vents. They were closed. “He wasn’t entirely wrong. You were breaking the rules, and he had the right to report that.”

“…You’re not going to…send them away, are you?”

It just about broke his heart to hear Chris be that scared, but compassion led to understanding, and he knew why his companion believed it possible. They were supposed to operate by rules, and Jane had the right to ask for them to leave if she believed that it was breaking the rules. He wondered, idly, just how he would respond if he [i]was[/i] asked to leave, but Chrome didn’t believe that he’d need to.

And he was right.

“No, I’m not,” Jane said, shaking her head. “However, they are going to have to earn their keep.”

“Earn my – I beg your pardon?!” Fine Silver all but shouted. “If you think that I’m going to let you tell me what to do, then you –”

“Shut up.”

Jane’s two words snapped Fine Silver’s mouth shut right then and there, and nobody seemed more surprised at that than Fine Silver himself. His eyes went wide, his mouth melting together for a moment as he tried and failed to pull it open. He kept sputtering against the gag that his body had made for him, trying to get the words out.

Gold and Chrome shared a knowing look. It was the same sort of thing that the Maker had settled on the rest of them. They were supposed to work with the human that they were given to. Whatever purpose Fine Silver had, he had to work within the same rules that the rest of them had. That meant that he had been given to Jane, and that meant that he had to follow certain orders that she gave.

[i]Obviously, he missed orientation. Or the Maker didn’t have the time to give him one before he was given away…[/i]

The latter was much more worrying to him. The fact that the Maker would send one of the figurines out into the world without knowing what they were for, without knowing what they needed to do, what they were going to be exposed to, was very unusual. Whatever was going on back at the lake must have been rather desperate.

Throughout the conversation, nobody had mentioned Black. He hadn’t brought the other figurine up, and neither had Gold. The two of them had felt like they owed Black that much for his good behavior lately, strange as it had been, and Chris seemed to have some sort of instinct on the matter that kept him from bringing the snake up. Fine Silver kept pricking his ears up whenever they paused and thought about how to answer something, and that answered enough for him.

Fine Silver was here for Black. How the lion intended to capture Black was another question, but he was here for the snake. With the way that things were going, he had every reason to make that hunt a little bit harder.

Fine Silver finally stopped fighting the gag, and it disappeared. Jane continued.

“I don’t know why you were messing with my apartment every day when I left, but you are not going to do that anymore.”

“It was cluttered…”

“It was the way I wanted it. And you will keep it that way from now on.”

“…”

“And you will stop adjusting things when I’m not there. If you want to clean up, do it when I can see you.”

“…I shall.”

“Good. And you two.” She turned her eyes to Chrome and Gold. “You’ll help with the handy-man repairs that need doing around the place. Either of you good with your hands?”

“Relatively,” Chrome admitted, flexing his hands.

“Fine as can be. Finer, actually,” Gold said with a pointed look at the lion.

“Then I’ll make sure that you have room to work. There’s a number of things that you can take off my plate and save me money on in the process.”

“…I’m sorry,” Chris repeated.

“Apology accepted, but you’re not going to lie to me again, are you?”

“Of course not!”

“Then we’re moving on.” Jane nodded. “That’s the way that we’ll have to do this. Quietly. Very quietly. How long are you all going to be here for?” she asked, looking between the different figures.

“Until we finish our assignments,” they said in unison.

The humans blinked in surprise at the way that they all managed to speak together without any of them speaking over the others. It wasn’t that difficult; they were all part of the same collection, regardless of Fine Silver thinking of himself as being so much higher and better than the rest of them. Such pride, and it would go before such a fall, Chrome was sure.

“And…what are your assignments?” Jane asked. “Nothing dangerous?”

“To grow,” Gold said.

“To care,” Chrome replied.

“To hunt,” Fine Silver answered.

All eyes turned to the lion, and he shrugged.

“You asked. I merely answered.”

“Yeah, but what are you hunting?” Jane asked.

“…Someone that shouldn’t be free at this point.”

[i]Black,[/i] Chrome thought. [i]Why? Couldn’t the Maker…[/i]

Unless the Maker had been trying to pull Black back, and the snake was somehow ignoring the call. Was that the way that this was going? But if that was the case, how had Black gotten free in the first place? Or had the snake been lying to them all along?

Jane shook her head. “I need more than that.”

“Actually, you don’t,” Gold said, crossing one leg over the other. “I know who he’s hunting, and I can tell you this. It’s not going to hurt anyone in the building if he finds them. The person he’s hunting, on the other hand…”

“You have information, then?” Fine Silver smirked. “Then share it.”

“I don’t see why I should,” the leopard said, looking down at his fingers. “You’re the big, bad, super-hunter, aren’t you? I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“…You will share the information.”

“Are you the Maker? Are you in charge of me? No? Then piss off. You might be Silver –”

“FINE Silver, thank you.”

“But I’m Gold. And we both know the order the medals go in.”

The lion glared at the ‘calmer’ leopard, and Chrome braced himself for a potential pounce. Thankfully, none occurred. The smaller feline got to his feet, and then turned to Jane.

“With your ‘permission’, I will return to the apartment room.”

“Uh…granted. Just leave the key.”

“…”

“The key, Fine Silver?” she asked again, holding out her hand.

The lion passed it back, muttering under his breath as he walked out of the apartment building. Once more, he opened the door and shut it, but didn’t quite close it. Chrome cocked his head to the side in disbelief.

“I thought I imagined that last time, but he really doesn’t understand how doors work, does he?”

“Apparently not,” Jane said, shaking her head. “But that should keep some of the headaches from getting worse. Now if I could just deal with Nigel…”

“What’s he doing now?” Chris asked.

“Just muttering on about legal actions, and snakes.”

“…Snakes?” Chris asked, even as both Chrome and Gold hid a sudden tension.

“Yes. Something about hearing them rustling around, and wanting to get a pest removal specialist in here. I don’t see how he could believe that snakes could be a problem up here. It’s not like it’s warm enough for them.” She shook her head, getting to her feet. “If you could bring Gold and Chrome here to the apartment tomorrow, I’ll give them a list of what needs to be taken care of.”

“I…yes, ma’am.”

“And Chris?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t hide something like this from me again. This was enough of a heart attack. I don’t need another one.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jane left, but Chrome was more concerned about what this Nigel was saying. Someone else talking about snakes, was it? They were lucky that Fine Silver had left the room first. If he found out that someone else was talking about Black, then it would confirm to the new figurine that Black was probably still in the building, still doing something dangerous. That would have the lion prowling the halls and making it all the harder for them to stay out of sight. It wasn’t just a danger to Black there, but to all of them. Secrecy was important.

Gold shared a quick glance with him, and they knew that they’d need to talk to Nigel, eventually. Sooner or later, they needed to nail down just what Black was here for. It was increasingly clear that the snake wasn’t just here to keep an eye on Chris, or them. This was something different, something that might not have ever happened before.

[i]And the figurine…[/i]

He glanced back at the Stallion of the Sands figure on the table. Nobody else had noticed the changes to it, not even Chris, or at least the human hadn’t commented on it. Gold would have said something if he noticed, and that meant that the leopard hadn’t seen it yet.

“Let’s get back to bed,” Chris said, getting to his feet. “I think…I think we’re all going to need some rest for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, probably. Never done the handy-man thing, but I’ve been curious. Think we’ll get extra hands?”

“You two just get back to bed. I’ll be there in a minute,” Chrome said, getting to his feet.

He waited for them to clear the room, then walked over to the table. The paint had dried by this point, leaving the figurine completely safe to touch. He carefully lifted it to the mantle where he and the others rested when they were not in the bedroom or ‘in action’ as part of Chris’s story-planning work. It fit perfectly into its own dust-free slot, and he looked it up and down a few times.

[i]What are you doing, Black? What are you doing?[/i]

#

Right at that moment, Black was somewhere between angry hissing and hyperventilating in the vents. The snake had curled up tightly, gripping at the sides of his face with clawed hands as he felt the Maker reaching out for him again, calling for him to come home.

“Not yet…not yet…not…yet!”

The growls and hisses sounded like a demon being compelled by the cross, but the black snake continued to hold firm. He refused to let go, refused to be told to come back home just yet. He was not going to follow that order. He wasn’t. He. Was. Not!

Slowly, the pulsing call faded, and he was able to untangle himself from his own body. He hissed and shivered, feeling the pulse radiating out through the water in the air and, worse, from a secondary source here in the building. It was like the Maker’s voice was reverberating through the new silver lion that had come around, acting as an amplifier to the already-painful commands.

[i]I’m not done. I’m so close. I’m so close.[/i]

With the command to return fading again, he slowly caught his breath. He managed to keep from hissing, but only barely.

For the first time in his life, he was fighting his creator, and more than that, he was fighting his own purpose. He was meant to curse, break, and return. That was the way that he had been made, that was the way that he had been forced to act, and now…

[i]This is not me. I need to be not me. I need to be better than me.[/i]

His determination had tripled at the presence of the new lion. For the first time, he had the chance to see what the curse that he embodied looked like from the outside. For the first time, he realized what he looked like when he came to someone that Oury had chosen to be broken. He had seen what it meant to have just one purpose, to catch and snare and –

[i]I am better. I. Am. Better.[/i]

He hadn’t hurt Chris. He wasn’t going to hurt Chris. Being around that human gave him insight into what all the other figurines received from their humans, and what he had been denied by being nothing but a curse to be leveled on offenders. Living through the difference had been telling enough. Seeing someone that was a shallower version of him, a curse applied even more narrowly, was nearly heart-breaking.

For a moment, he had hate for his Maker. He had been made like this, intentionally, and the moment Oury had done that, the great spirit had denied him any easy chance at having happiness. He wasn’t just a curse, but was cursed, denied the happiness of living in the world, of the connection that the other figurines had.

[i]And now, he’s made another.[/i]

There was no question as to why, either. Black had slipped his leash, and now this lion, this Fine Silver, was looking for him, waiting to take him back. He had managed to give him the slip once, but would he be able to keep doing that? He honestly didn’t know. The Maker knew his weaknesses, scant as they were, and the hunter would be made to counter his every strength and exploit those weaknesses.

He would have to stay out of sight, outlast the lion, and hope that the Maker called him back rather than allowed the hunt to continue indefinitely. That was his only real chance at this point.

[i]What will I tell the others?[/i]

That was something that he’d have to figure out. He’d need some kind of story to make sure that they didn’t send him back to the Maker right then and there. He was hardly well-liked, after all, and if they found out that he’d been lying, that he wasn’t there for punishment, that he was escaping his prison rather than dutifully going back…

The idea of being submerged again, of losing this, of never having it again, was too much to take. Black curled up tighter still, hiding his face in his hood, and tried to pretend that there weren’t tears in his eyes.

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

Summary: Fine Silver shows up, and Chrome deals with it. Afterward, Jane has to be told just what the hell is going on.

Tags: No sex, cuddles, painting, snake, zebra, lion, leopard, human, magic, modern fantasy, world development, character development,