An Evertech Tale Chapter 32
#32 of An Evertech Tale
Another nice chapter for the stocking stuffer 2022 event by Terinas Tiger! Splicer wants to understand the others but really can't...
_ Another day, another dollar..._ Splicer had been sent off to the facility, alone this time. He opened the front door and walked into the lobby, a thought crossed his mind. He tried opening the door to no avail. He sighed heavily and cursed Laguna in his mind. How long had it been since he last entered this place? Must have been at least two months. He didn't even realize there was a fur standing at the reception desk.
"Hello?" Splicer was perplexed, he had never seen this chipmunk before.
"Ah, welcome back puppy!" The chipmunk said as if they were greeting a long-lost friend.
"I'm sorry, what exactly is going on here? Also please, don't call me that..."
"What else should I call you, the only name on your record is puppy..." Splicer saw a glint in the chipmunk's eyes.
"Whatever... please do tell me what's up though."
"Well since you've left the facility full time, it's been relegated to become an office building, albeit the extra floors are a definite plus, and the garden is still stunning!"
"Yeah, I bet. Why am I here then?"
"Joseph ordered some more testing on your body, Laguna granted the request."
Splicer felt himself sweat a bit, but figured it couldn't be too bad if Laguna approved it. He had arrived earlier than expected so he was given free reign to walk around. He passed by the once empty cubicles, now filled with furs diligently working as he walked out into the back gardens. He walked over to the nearest bed of blue welters, despite being in decent health, he made a few mental notes to whoever was now in charge of tending to the flower properly.
... Splicer was in his old room, the testing wasn't crazy, but it still pushed his limits somewhat, they took what seemed to be an excessive amount of his blood before making him run for a few hours on a treadmill, trapped in a room with little oxygen. He didn't even mind, it felt like a light stroll in the park, he began to wonder if he ever wanted to be de nanited once he paid off his debts, the more attuned and the more control he was given over them, the better they felt to the wolf. He began to understand why Jack was so quick to pick up on them, given that his barely had any restrictions placed on them, only having the bare minimum oversight by Vay. From what Jack told him, Vay was the most hands off handler he'd ever had. The only time he even got word from the otter was for the location of his next class and rarely, the name of a mark when Vay was too busy himself. He wasn't exactly a fan of bringing furs to the processing facility, and their pleading cries were haunting to him, but his job was his job, and he was always holding it over his head how he was in a much better position within the company than Splicer.
That always rubbed Splicer the wrong way. He knew Jack only said it in a teasing way to try and cover up their mutual pain, but he still sacrificed his name for the beagle. Splicer shook his head, now was the time to rest and recover, not dwell on Jack. He figured he was at the facility another week for testing so he'd probably be put to work the whole time while the researchers had the chance. It was almost scary how they poked and prodded at his body sometimes. He was terrified that one morning he'd wake up on a dissection table based on some of their looks. But as he drifted off the sleep, he couldn't help but be happy that someone of them had dropped the puppy and test subject monikers, opting for Splicer instead. He figured they deserved his hundred percent.
...
Splicer pulled up at the gates, finally back home from the weeklong testing. He was so exhausted that he forgot to kick himself for calling Crale manor home. He walked up the driveway, passing by Dakota swimming in one of the fountains, wearing pool floaties around his arms and splashing about waving to the wolf.
"For fu- DAKOTA! I told you we have a pool for a reason..." Joven yelled at the kobold from across the front garden.
This kind of thing had become such a regular occurrence Splicer was no longer confused by it, he just smiled as he waved back.
"Damn, it feels good to be back Joven I hope you don't mind, but I won't be helping in the garden for a few days. They really ran me ragged over there..." Splicer called out to the badger who gave him a middle finger in response.
"Lazy ass!" Joven called back with a smile.
"Missed you too~"
...
Splicer was so tired, he couldn't help but nearly pass out in the hall,as he made his way to his room, instead of the usual scalding water he usually did, he made it ice cold to the touch and slide his exhausted body into the water, letting his eyes slide shut as he took a long nap.
He came to in his now room temperature bath, his muzzle was halfway down in the water and each breath from his nose caused ripples to form on the surface.
"Falling asleep in the bath isn't very safe puppy." Laguna was already in his room, waiting for Splicer to wake up.
"I'm sure I'd be fine. What can I do you for?" Splicer asked, happy to be safe from doing a handstand for four hours, apparently the people studying him wanted to know what would happen when all his blood pooled into his head.
"I think I'm the one who does you puppy, or have you forgotten?"
"well played..."
Splicer sunk his face down until only his eyes were above the water, waiting to hear what the badger actually wanted from him, there was always something.
"Once you have a moment, you should head up to the library, someone's finally decided he was ready to introduce himself. I'll ask you to forgive him in advance, he's, a strange one. I'm sure you'll get along, eventually..."
Splicer had no idea what Laguna was on about, did someone live in the library or something? He didn't even know the house had a library, despite having lived in the house for a few months by now, he still hadn't explored all the rooms, instead opting to familiarize himself with the gardens and kitchen, and he still barely scratched their surface, it seemed no matter how long he spent exploring, there was always a new flower or ingredient he had never laid eyes on before. He thought about asking someone where the library was, but instead went back to napping, he was still exceptionally tired.
A few hours later he was finally ready to get moving, he stood up out of the tub and shook off, before reaching for a fresh towel from his closet. He looked at himself in the mirror, debating on whether or not he should put on a sweater to have some modesty when he met whoever he was supposed to be meeting. He shrugged deciding it really didn't matter either way and just picked the first hoodie that caught his eye and he begin wandering around the house, looking for whichever room would seem most like a library. It took another hour of wandering around before he stood in front of what had to be a library. He knew so because there was a plaque on the double doors that read manor library, but underneath that, in smaller font it read, library director: Zave.
Guess I'm supposed to be meeting this guy then? Splicer wondered if he should knock or not. He decided against it, pushing the doors open and stepping in. He couldn't help but marvel at the size of the room, it would probably be as open as the manor's entryway, which itself was probably bigger than the entirety of his parent's home, but this room was lined with bookcases, and a second floor which had a spiral staircase leading up to it off at the end of the room. A few chairs sitting in the middle of the room surrounded a circular end table, which had a kettle and two cups sitting on top of it. He stepped to one of the chair's and put a paw to the kettle.
Still warm... Splicer's thought was cut short by a voice calling from above.
"Don't you know how to knock?" A racoon was peering over the second-floor railing.
"Funny, I say that to Laguna all the time..." Splicer was feeling a little sheepish, he figured knocking on a library door would be looked down on, but he also was unfamiliar with the rules of private libraries.
"You mean sir Laguna?"
"No, I don't. I take it you're Zave then?"
"How observant you are, I take it you're puppy?"
"Yes, but please call me Splicer."
"Yeah, Laguna said that would be one of the first things out of your muzzle."
"It's true, I much prefer Splicer."
"Well, puppy, I'll call you as my master calls you, so I would suggest getting used to it." By this point the raccoon had descended the stairs and sat down in the chair across from the wolf, motioning him to follow suit. Splicer put his paws in his pockets and slumped down into the chair, he really hated when people were so condescending towards his name.
"Well I suppose you must be another of Laguna's pets then, in charge of the library I take it?"
"Yes I run the library, I have to wonder why you've never offered me help like you have the others?"
"Uh, I didn't even know this place had a library, I just figured Nate got his books from somewhere else... Hell, I didn't even know you lived here, I've never even seen you before."
"I doubt you'd be of much help from the looks of you anyways, do you even know of the dewey decimal system?"
Splicer tilted his head.
"...Is dewey another one of Laguna's pets?"
The question forced a laugh out of the racoon, who quickly stifled it before responding.
"No, no he's not... would you like some tea?"
"I usually drink coffee, but sure why not?"
Zave sighed, he really didn't know where his master picked up some of these furs. He poured the water into the cups, which already had the tea waiting to steep inside. Splicer picked the cup up and took a quizzical whiff.
"You need to let it steep..."
"Yeah I know, I just wanted to find out what kind it was."
"It's my own blend."
"Oh, that's, pretty cool actually."
"So," Zave couldn't hold in the burning curiosity in his chest, he was furious that Laguna had chosen to use the wolf instead of him. "How was being used?"
"Pardon?" Splicer was mid sip on his tea when the question was asked of him, he sputtered for a second at the raccoon's forward pressure. He thought this was some kind of elegant fur, but he saw them squirming in their seat at the mere though of being fucked by the badger.
"It's been months since I've had the pleasure of serving sir Laguna, he always loves watching me beg and plead with him to fuck me. So, because he decided to choose you for some unholy reason instead of me... How was it?"
Every fur in this house has a screw loose I swear... Splicer closed his eyes and sipped at his tea. When he opened his eyes Zave was leaning forward, demanding to hear the wolf's words.
"God, I don't know, it felt amazing I guess, but I mean, it was a whole year since I last came, I think? So it's not like it's much of a surprise..."
Zave was hanging off every word, he couldn't believe the wolf had lasted a whole year without turning into some kind of insatiable beast of lust. Hell, he hated how nonchalant the wolf acted about their cage in general. Zave spent just about every hour of every day trying to figure out some way to get it off of himself, but no matter what he tried it felt like it was practically fused to his sheath unless Laguna was there, then it would slip off like it was three sizes too big. Meanwhile the wolf seemed to go about his business rather casually, as if the feeling of the cage around their sheath wasn't driving them insane like it did for the raccoon, he had to know the wolf's secret. He reached over and grabbed the wolf's collar and pulled.
"How do you do it?"
Splicer pushed back, trying to break free of the raccoon's hold, he wasn't sure if it was the nanites or the lust causing them to be so freakishly strong in the moment, he kept struggling until he realized the raccoon was actually wearing a t-shirt with a familiar logo on it.
"Wait a second... there's a furs of war five?"
"I- wait, you didn't know?" The randomness of the confusion was enough to give Splicer enough levrage to push the raccoon back down into their seat. "Yeah it has been out for like, seven months now?"
"I didn't have much time for gaming when I was being tortured, the last one I played was two..."
"Oh, that just won't do! You have to see all the new weapons!"
...
Zave led Splicer away into a side room attached to the library which he had set up with a few of his systems and a few relatively large TVs, he was currently explaining all the new things that had been added since the second instalment of the game. Splicer nodded, absorbing all the information he could, ready to try his paws at the new game. He was given a controller, the two began to play a quick one versus one, before the raccoon had finally decided the wolf was ready to run some double battle royals. They sat back-to-back in their chairs looking at different TVs and using different consoles, playing and making call outs to each other. Despite being a little out of practice, Splicer found himself quickly getting back into the swing of it, and Zave was happy to have someone who was around his level and eager to play. Dakota was his usual partner, Zave didn't particularly mind, but the wolf was on another level than the kobold. They quickly found themselves crushing lobbies under paw.
...
It had been a few straight hours of gaming before Splicer felt a little exhausted. He put his control down and turned the system off.
"I'll catch you later Zave, I gotta go help Aurich prepare supper."
"Bullshit, you just like the skunk, don't you?" Zave whined out, not wanting to quit playing yet.
"No! I just like to help him cook every so often..." Splicer felt his face blush as he faced away from the raccoon.
"Fine, do whatever you want puppy. Just come back to play soon, there's other games too! We have weekly DnD that I DM too, maybe you could get into our next campaign? It would be like nothing you've ever experienced before!"
"Yeah, sure maybe I could... It was, interesting to meet you Zave."
Splicer was gone, Zave sighed and reached down for the seventieth time of the day trying to pull his cage off, maybe if he begged Laguna a little more he'd finally be let out again...