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The Love of Toys

Part 9

For Taiko

By Draconicon

Of all the things that he expected to happen after capturing Black, getting punched in the face was not one of them. Even with all of the snake's strength drawn into him, he still went flying backwards from the unexpected blow. His long tail followed after, and then -

THUMP!

CRASH!

SMACK!

Fine Silver hit the wall, caving it in by an inch or so, and then his tail followed. It slammed into him like a second weight, beating his chest in. The only thing that saved him from having his breath knocked out of him was the fact that he was a metallic figure and didn't have any air in there in the first place.

The leopard tried to follow up with a second punch, but Chrome had already stopped that. The caretaker was taking care of him. Fine Silver didn't quite sneer at that thought, but he came close as he pulled himself out of the dust and debris of drywall falling down on his head. He brushed it off his reflective body, dusting himself.

"If you would restrain him from indulging his...combative nature further, Chrome, I will finish my job."

"Let me go! He can't do this!" the leopard shouted, kicking and squirming.

Yet, for all that he squirmed, there was no getting free of the zebra's arms. Not when he wanted to hold you. Not when he wanted to make things better.

Fine Silver still remembered the ease with which the zebra had managed to pull him back. Being restrained by someone like that shouldn't have been possible, not with the purpose that the Maker had created him for, but it had still happened, and it galled him. He would not let that happen again.

As he turned toward the door, though, Chrome moved. He didn't let go of Gold, but he did move to block his passage. Fine Silver narrowed his eyes. Or, rather, Black's eyes. He had been forced to take on the snake's form to control him, to contain him, and that felt...good. Empowering.

"Get out of my way, Chrome."

"No."

"I said, get out of my way. I will report to the Maker so he will know that his creation is a success."

"You don't know what you're doing. I'm not letting you past."

"Then I will make you."

He was in Black's body, after all. For all that Black was a Curse, he had power, and a great deal of it. Fine Silver used that power, saw where to strike, and did just that.

The serpent's tail was far stronger than he expected, and he managed to send both Chrome and Gold flying backwards by over a dozen feet. They hit the wall just beside the door, nearly going through it, nearly cracking the wall apart. As soon as they hit, Chrome lost his grip, and Gold was back in the air.

He was surprised that the leopard had such fight in him. Black was a Curse. They all knew that he was a curse, so why did he bother to fight so hard for someone that didn't deserve it? It baffled him.

He watched as the leopard leaped into the air, grabbing the ceiling and then leaping from it. Fine Silver swatted Gold aside, the long tail of the serpent quite the weapon. He was starting to understand why Black was so proud; having that would make anyone easy pickings. He chuckled, sweeping it back and forth, taking some time to enjoy putting Gold in his place after the leopard had started the fight. It was time for him to learn what it meant to challenge the latest and greatest of the Maker's creations.

I have an assignment, and you will not keep me from it. You have overstepped your own bounds. You do not interfere with another figurine's mission.

Smack, smack, smack. The fine silver tail met Gold's stomach, his head, his legs. He kept battering the leopard away, keeping him from getting close enough to hit him again. It was almost too easy.

Almost.

He was about to bring it down again when he realized that his tail had been pinned. Fine Silver looked over his shoulder, staring as Chrome loomed over him. The zebra clenched his fingers around the bottom two feet of his tail.

"I said...I am not letting you past."

"Let go."

"No. You. Come here."

And with that, Chrome pulled.

The caretaker zebra was meant to keep things close, and that purpose must have helped him in that moment, because Fine Silver was yanked right off his feet. Time seemed to move in slow motion as he was pulled through the air, and he realized that he wasn't going to escape the embrace this time.

Oury hadn't quite reached perfection with his design, and Black was not one that could escape this one.

"Ooof!"

They slammed together, Chrome stumbling back a step, but his arms were as strong as ever. Black's power to turn to smoke would have been an option, but Fine Silver knew that would only allow the serpent a chance to escape. He had barely managed to pin Black down as it was, and that wasn't something that he was going to risk, not when the disobedient Curse apparently had allies in the building willing to make his escape possible.

Hissing through Black's mouth, he brought his tail around, brought it down hard on Chrome's side. The beating did nothing, and nor did his punch to Chrome's chest. If anything, that made his fingers bruise, instead.

"Let...me...go! I have to take him back!"

"He is fine, here."

"You don't get an opinion! This is the Maker's orders!"

"I didn't hear them. You could be lying."

"You - Black's changed you..."

The Curse must have changed them. They believed that another figurine could lie, now, that he would be lying to them about what the Maker had said. Something had been passed between the Curse and the others. He had to get free.

Gold provided the opportunity. The leopard grabbed at him from behind, trying to pull him free, doubtlessly, from Black's body. However, that grip gave his tail something to do. He swept it up and over, grabbing hold of Gold, and pulled him closer. They were suddenly jammed together, impossible to separate from each other, and he glared at Chrome.

Let me go, or I'll throw us out the window...

He could do it. His legs still touched the ground. All he had to do was jump at the nearby wall, and his coils would take all three of them outside. They'd be forced to turn to figurines to avoid being noticed, but he could just run. That would be fine with him. He could put all the mismatched, impure people and apartments behind and go back to the workshop. He would have finished his duties, and he wouldn't be tortured by all the things that were wrong out here any longer.

There was hesitation, and then a slight slackening of arm tightness. That was all he needed.

Fine Silver ducked down, spinning his tail. Gold went flying backwards, and Chrome stumbled forward, falling over his shoulders. He shoved the zebra further back, making sure that he wasn't going to get up anytime soon. Turning to the window, he got one hand on the frame -

"Get back here!"

And then Gold was on his back, one arm around his throat and the other pulling at his arms. The sudden pressure of the feline on his back was a shock, considering he'd thrown him all the way across the room.

"Ugh...how..."

"Cats always land on their feet..."

Those claws. They weren't just pulling and scratching, but trying to drag him off of the snake beneath him. He gritted his teeth, holding himself firm, solid, not even a hint of liquid for the cat to reach through. Yet, Gold refused to let go, right up to the point where he threw himself backwards to try and body-slam the feline into the ground.

The leopard dodged at the last second, of course. Cats.

As Fine Silver laid there, staring upwards in confusion, both Gold and Chrome loomed over him. The latter picked him up by the shoulders, holding him firmly, while Gold cracked his knuckles.

"Let's see how long it takes to peel you like a banana..."

"Good...luck..."

The struggle continued for half an hour before two things happened. The first was that his captors realized that trying to pull him off of Black wasn't going to happen. He had been bonded to the snake too tightly, and this was his purpose. It wasn't like trying to take control of Chrome. This was something different.

The second thing was that the door opened and Ms. Forester stepped inside.

The other two turned to look at her, and he took the opportunity that their shock provided to slide free of Chrome's grip again. The snake body that Black had was truly perfect for that sort of thing, and it was certainly better suited to these slippery, sneaky things than his own former feline body would have been. A lion was a proper fine form, but this snake one had its uses.

As he shook his head and gathered his thoughts, the human woman looked around the room silently. She glanced at the damage to the walls and floor, at the cracks that had taken shape all over the place, and then slowly stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

"I assume...there is a good explanation...for all the noise and damage," was all she said.

"It's his fault," Gold said, pointing at Fine Silver, who was in the process of looking down at his claws. "He came here looking for trouble, and he decided to -"

"Who is he?" she asked. "I...is that Silver?"

"Fine Silver, I would thank you to say," he muttered.

"Oh. Yes...that's you, alright."

"I have my target, and now I can leave."

"Target?"

"Black," Chrome said. "The black snake figurine that you might remember seeing once or twice..."

Ms. Forester cocked her head to the side, then slowly rubbed one hand over her face, taking a deep breath and huffing it out. Not that Fine Silver was paying much attention at that point. He had other things that required his attention. Namely, he wanted to get back to the lake and talk to the Maker again, to hand over his quarry and let the Maker know that the rest of the figurines had become a problem.

He took a step forward, only for Chrome to grab his shoulder again.

"I didn't say that you could go."

"There is no way for you to stop me."

"You aren't taking him."

"I said, there is no way for you to stop me. This is on the orders of the Maker. Are you truly going to defy him?"

"Okay, okay. Everyone, shut up."

Ms. Forester's words cut through the impending argument, and with surprising authority. Much as he had disdained her before, he would give Ms. Forester credit for having the authority to run this place better than the average person could have. She had the strength of voice for it. The human rubbed her forehead.

"Alright. Where's Chris?"

"Mr. Magpie?" Fine Silver asked.

"Yes. Him."

"I ensured that he would be out of the apartment for a time."

"...How?"

"There are enticements if one has the resources. I merely ensured that he had them."

"...Again. How?"

"I equalized the resources of the building's residences. I purified the imbalances, and Mr. Magpie was a net beneficiary."

"...You...Oh...Oh ho ho..."

She looked like her head might very well pop off her shoulders at that point, and he was rather surprised. He had assumed that the redistribution of resources was something that she would have been rather keen on. Instead, she seemed almost furious.

"Hold him. Hold him until I get Chris here. He's got a lot of explaining to do."

Chrome and Gold seemed all too happy to follow that order, and Fine Silver was soon restrained. He opened his mouth, only for Gold to lean in with a growl and snarling teeth.

"You shut up. You shut up right now, or I'm going to...I don't know."

"The Curse has changed you. You would not have questioned the Maker like this before."

"Maybe it's time. Maybe it's time that someone did."

Mr. Magpie returned to the apartment post-haste after the phone call from Ms. Forester. He rushed into the room with a bag under his arms, panting for breath, only to freeze on the spot as soon as he opened the door. The human stared right at him.

"...What did you do to Black?" he whispered.

"Why does it matter, Mr. Magpie? It is done, and now I can take him off your hands before he hurts you or your companions any more than he already has. I can tell that their assignment is compromised; you might as well come along, if only to receive proper ones after the Maker sees what Black has done to them."

He had expected gratitude. What he received was shock. It was as if all the humans didn't understand that this was being done for their sake. The Maker knew how things worked, how the world was supposed to run, and he made the figurines so that the world could be made better. Black had a very specific - though outdated - role that he had to play, and now that he had begun running off the rails, he had to be replaced.

Though I am not quite ready for that, it appears. For all my upgrades, I require more to make sure that I can do what he does.

He would not be a Curse, however. He would be an avenging figure, something that made the world right again. That was what he would earn from completing his mission. A proper fulfilling power.

He was smiling right up until Ms. Forester spoke again.

"Chris...where did you get the money for those paints?"

"Huh? I got it in the mail?"

"...How much?"

"...Oh dear."

"Oh, fuck..."

"I can still return it. We'll do that this afternoon, get it all back. The manager knows me and...and my situation. He'll understand."

"All of this is well and good, but I have a delivery to make and an assignment to finish," Fine Silver said. "If you will excuse me, finally."

"No. You're not going anywhere," Ms. Forester said. "Not until you make up for all this."

"I have no obligation to you any longer."

"Oh, ho, I think you'll find you do."

"Um..."

Every eye, including Fine Silver's, turned to Mr. Magpie. Chris hesitated under that level of attention, but slowly pushed himself to speak.

"Perhaps we should all go with Fine Silver. I think that, at this point, we need someone else's help to get this all taken care of."

"I see that someone in this room has sense. Perhaps I am starting to rub off on you, after all," Fine Silver said.

And perhaps there was something else. Mr. Magpie certainly seemed like more of a proper person now that he was seeing him again. It was, perhaps, something that was coming from Black, but there was something that was almost possessive to the feeling. An admiration? Perhaps, but there was something else, something different to the feeling that he was getting when he looked at the male human.

Not an attraction, certainly. Not something like the others had been talking about, how they described feeling towards their...charge. The idea of having that sort of relation with a normal being was rather off-putting to Fine Silver. He wasn't one to feel that sort of need, nor entertain that kind of idea, but...

Well, it seemed Mr. Magpie was something of an exception.

His tail twitched idly, and he wondered how it might feel to start wrapping it about -

"I'm just saying. Maybe it's time to take it to the person in charge. I mean...Oury seemed like a nice guy when I was talking to him."

"The Maker is the finest individual that you would ever have the privilege of seeing, Mr. Magpie," Fine Silver said. "If you would say anything less than that, then you are certainly talking the Maker down."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean any offense."

Polite and well-spoken? Perhaps he had been a little quick to dismiss Mr. Magpie as a potential human of interest.

The feelings were...strange. He had never felt something like this before, but there was definitely a warmth for the male human coming from Black. He pushed it down, trying to keep it from becoming more distracting than it already was, knowing that it would interfere with him if he didn't do something about it.

"At any rate, let us depart. It seems that Mr. Magpie has no interest in us staying in the apartment any longer."

"...Yes, let's do that," Chrome said.

And with that, the whole resistance to him leaving crumbled. He would have preferred to leave on his own right then, but Mr. Magpie said that they should all go. It wasn't his preference, but for some reason, he felt inclined to go with what Mr. Magpie said.

Besides, it meant that he could show off to the Maker a little more. He could show that he had saved several humans from the threat that Black posed.

As they gathered their stuff together, he watched as Chrome approached Mr. Magpie off to the side. The zebra gestured at the stallion figurine on the mantle, nodding at it. They muttered something together, and then Mr. Magpie grabbed it.

Apparently they were taking arts and crafts projects with them. No matter. This would be done shortly.

They arrived by car, driven by Ms. Forester. Apparently, she had gotten it back since the time that she had gained him. He sat in the back, while Gold and Chrome were down to figurine size, held in Chris's lap as they went along. He would have preferred sitting in the front, but Mr. Magpie had suggested that it would be better to have him in the back, out of sight. The part of him that was influenced by Black seemed to agree, and he felt half-compelled to go along with it.

More to the point, he preferred to keep an eye on Gold and Chrome. Best to be in the same area with them rather than away from them, he felt, particularly if they tried another ambush.

Not that they could remove me at this point. It is all going according to plan.

They pulled up beside the lake, a storm thundering just outside the car. No lightning in range yet, but plenty of water coming down, so much so that he imagined that Iron would have started rusting as soon as he came out. Not that he knew Iron, or any of the other figurines that well, but it was a thought.

They exited the car. Mr. Magpie suggested that he shrink down, that he take on the form of a figurine again, but he refused. He would not allow the possibility that Black would escape after that, and besides, they were near enough.

More to the point, if he was a figurine, he could not use his tail...and he wanted to use his tail.

"Will you - will you stop?" Mr. Magpie asked, pushing the tail tip away from where it had coiled around his thigh.

"I see no reason to."

"That's my leg."

"And my tail. And?"

"I'm not...interested..."

Mr. Magpie stepped ahead, and Fine Silver found himself watching him walk. There were yet more feelings bubbling up from Black inside of him, and he found it more and more difficult to separate them from his own feelings. The more that he walked along beside Chris, the more -

He blinked. He had just thought of the human as 'Chris' rather than 'Mr. Magpie'. Something was definitely shifting in him, and he didn't know that he liked it.

Still...it felt nice to touch with his tail that way. He started reaching out again, this time slowly sliding his tail up and along the human's thigh. He managed to make it almost to the crotch level before it was slapped away again.

"Stop it!"

"I thought you weren't a pervert, Silver," Ms. Forester said.

"Fine Silver. And I'm not."

"Then why do you keep trying to grope him?"

"I don't know. It just...pushes at me."

"Why would you -"

"Is it Black?" Chris asked.

"...I suppose it must be," Fine Silver said, shaking his head as they left the car behind, making their way along the riverbank. "I don't know what he feels, but there is a strong urge to touch, and it's hard to ignore."

Hard enough that his tail was already trying to loop around Chris's waist again, and the human swatted it hard enough for it to sting. He managed to keep it to himself for a bit after that one, at least.

They finally arrived at the lake-shore, and as soon as they stood by the water, the polluted lake suddenly went still. The ripples of the rain stopped in a half-circle about ten feet out from the shore, and as it did, something stirred deep down. Fine Silver knew what it was, even if the humans did not. The Maker had sensed his presence. He could come home, now.

The water parted as the great and powerful form of the Maker took shape. The Maker loomed over them, a smile parting his face as he looked down on Fine Silver. He opened his mouth -

Shimmer-Shimmer.

But before either Fine Silver or the Maker could speak, the other two figurines burst back to their normal forms and started talking over one another.

"Maker, you can't do this!" Gold said.

"A mistake's been made," Chrome continued.

"This isn't right. I know it's Black and all, but -"

"Mistakes aren't the thing you usually do, but -"

"We need to do this right. This isn't fair!"

"Fine Silver is wrong. He's horrible!"

And just like that, the smile on the Maker's face stopped in its tracks. It stopped looking proud, and looked more concerned, almost nervous. It was a face that Fine Silver had never seen before, and it shook him from head to toe.

"Nonsense," Fine Silver said. "He made me for a purpose, and I have accomplished that purpose."

"Yeah?" Gold said. "And how'd you do that? Oh, right. By lying, cheating, stealing?"

"I did what I was made to do. I have captured the Curse, and returned him."

"...Lying?" the Maker asked.

"I did what you made me for, oh Maker," Fine Silver said, bowing at the waist and lowering his head nearly to his ankles before standing up again. "I am the greatest of your creations, and I have proved it by capturing the one that was the strongest. I have accomplished everything that you could ask of me."

"He, um..."

Chris was interrupted before he could finish, Ms. Forester stepping forward and poking Fine Silver in the back of the head.

"This one has uprooted any sense of order in my home. He's been a thief, a liar, and has caused so much damage that I'll be weeks fixing it all up."

"...I...cannot believe this," the Maker said.

"Whatever has been done was nothing more than what was necessary," Fine Silver said, shaking his head.

"I...Maybe we should talk about this..."

The Maker cleared his throat, shaking his head a few times. Finally, the Maker looked his dignified self, and some of the doubts that had started rising faded away as the great aquatic spirit gestured at the water.

"If you will come inside, I'll make sure that it's comfortable for all of us to have a chat about this."

"...Inside, Maker?" Gold asked.

"This has never happened before," Chrome muttered.

Indeed not, and it was not what Fine Silver had been expecting, either. He had expected to expel Black into the watery depths, return home, and go to a well-deserved rest. Perhaps he would have felt something of an absence without Chris around after having Black in him for so long, but he doubted that it would last long or bother him much.

Yet, he would go along with it. He was, after all, the finest servant that the Maker had ever produced.

Oury was concerned. Very concerned. After all, this was supposed to be a simple find and return mission, and not only had it dragged out for over a week, but it had gone off the rails in the worst way.

You weren't supposed to reveal yourself to this degree...you weren't supposed to cause damage...or sow strife...

Admittedly, the great whale had been in a hurry when he'd made Fine Silver, but he knew his skills. He had been sure that the metals had matured properly, that he had given the figurine everything that he needed to do the job, but...But this figure, this silver that had brought him his Curse, was not the bright and shining individual that the others were. Even now, looking at Fine Silver next to Gold and Chrome, he could see a difference between them. Fine Silver didn't have that glow, that bright, shining center to him that the others had. He had put it down to it being a different material, or hoped that it was just the presence of Black, but the more he heard, the more concerned he grew.

Something didn't go right.

But...maybe he was wrong. He had, after all, created a wonderful variety of different figurines over the years. They were all enchanting, all different, all made for different purposes. Maybe he was judging too harshly. After all, it was very unlikely that he'd make a mistake of that caliber, he was sure.

And on the positive side, guests.

That was something that he'd never had before. Not once in all the years that he had spent in this lake had he ever had someone visit him in his space. He had always come to theirs, always lingered on the shore for the questions and the return. This time, they were coming down and -

I'll need chairs, and a table, and - oh, yes, a bubble. A bubble that will keep them from being hurt down there. And able to breathe. Breathing is important. Very important.

Oury knew that he was getting over-excited, but that didn't matter to him in that moment. What mattered was that it was a distraction from his own worries about himself and what he might have done. Was he lying to himself a little bit? Maybe, but he had been so worried about Black, and rather than fixing the situation, it was sounding like things had gotten a hundred times worse.

I didn't do that on purpose. And I'm probably overreacting.

But the fact that both Gold and Chrome had bad things to say about Fine Silver, someone that should have been welcomed in their ranks, was telling. He needed to take this seriously, as much as he'd prefer this to be a happy visit.

Once more, the whale imagined how it would feel to have people - actual people - in his workshop, and this time, the feeling stuck. He felt both nervous and proud, excited and anxious about having them down there, and he threw himself into the rapid creation just below the water, his hands moving about and waving a path of iron bars down to the center of the lake, creating a portal pathway that would take them down gently, keeping them protected. Already without thinking, he was adding little accents of copper and white gold, just enough to make it pretty without losing that aesthetic of powerful protection.

And in the main part of the workshop - yes, the bubble needed to be clear, make it wonderfully beautifully clear that they were underwater, something that would make it unique compared to the other places. Furniture - not much in the way of options there, but he had a few refurbished pieces that he could make work. All he had to do was make sure that they were all up to snuff, and then -

"Will you stop?"

He stopped in mid-puzzling, looking down at the two humans and the figurines again. This time, he saw it. Something intimate, something more than just being present. Chris was shoving Fine Silver's tail away from his leg again, and this time, the tip had been right about to curl around the human's crotch.

Oury's excitement once more turned to concern. The personality that he remembered giving Fine Silver had nothing to do with intimacy with other people, and even Black had never been particularly interested in actual intimacy, only punishment. This...this was something new, and it made no sense.

After all, he had never intended things to change like this.

You make something, and that's what it is. It doesn't keep changing. It just...is...

And if that had stopped being the case, then everything that he understood about what he did had just been flipped on its head. The meeting down below had just become that much more urgent.

"Come with me...there's a path just ahead of you," Oury said, his voice already distracted as he dropped below the water.

The End

Summary: Fine Silver has his target, but the other figurines aren't happy about it. One spat later, they have to reach an agreement about what to do next.

Tags: M/M, groping, tail, coiling, snake, zebra, leopard, whale, spirit, magic, fantasy, series, modern fantasy, no sex,