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

Part 3

For Taiko

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

Nigel Roster, Esq. That was what was supposed to be painted all over his life as soon as he graduated from law school, what was supposed to follow him through his day to day work, and what was supposed to be part and parcel with his personal identity. It was supposed to give him a glance at the good life, guaranteed to make him rich, and should have given him partner after partner, some for the night, some for the year, and he would have been drowning in pleasure and happiness. Everyone was supposed to look up at him, and wonder, ‘who is that man?’ and he would say ‘Nigel Roster, Esquire.’

None of it had, and it pissed him off.

The six-foot-tall attorney sat on his couch, half-slumped into it as he stared at the television without actually watching it. His eyes narrowed at the newscasters, hearing them complaining about the world outside and never mentioning anything that mattered to him. Nigel Roster, Esq., shook his head as he watched the screen flip again, going to some other horrible catastrophe or other at some far-off part of the world, letting his attention drift again.

He wobbled as he turned his head towards the vent that lay closer to head-height for him, glaring at the metal grate that was so close to one side of the couch. With the way that it was open and pointed right at him, he could hear the conversation between the landlord and Chris, Mr. Magpie, and he gritted his teeth.

“It was a valid complaint, you bitch,” he muttered under his breath.

He knew that there had been someone down at the other apartment last night. There’d been chatter all night long, followed by grunts, groans, and worse. They had kept him up all night long, and he knew for a fact that they hadn’t left. There’d not been enough sound to mark their departure, and he’d heard other voices before Jane showed up.

There should have been an easy collar from that, an easy chance to catch Chris in the act and get him thrown out. Yet, she talked as if there was nothing there, nobody but Chris. Impossible. Completely impossible.

He gritted his teeth still further as he listened to her telling him to shut the vents, knowing that it was a message to him as well as to Chris. He could have closed the vents on his side, but he hadn’t. All that night wasted, and he could have slept through it if he just closed the duct vents.

[i]Well, what if I want them open? He’s the one breaking the rules, not me.[/i]

Nigel Roster, Esq., shook his head as he turned back to the television, trying to calm himself down and make himself less petulant. It didn’t work. It never did. It was just who he was, and there was no backing down from that.

He gripped the edge of the couch that much tighter, trying to think of what else he might be able to do. Chris was nothing more than a writer, and a piss-poor one at that, in his opinion. The books were sickly, they were barely more than porn disguised as erotica, and the fantasy elements were drivel. How it had managed to sell anything, he didn’t know. There was success there, but too much to be justified by ‘talent.’

He imagined that Chris supplemented his income in rather cheating ways. The other man had probably gone down to different street corners to whore himself some nights. How else would such a hack be able to deal with the various costs of living in an apartment, even one so low-rent as this?

Another moment of anger, another moment of utter derision for the world around him. This was such a step down for Nigel Roster, Esq., and it was embarrassing that he had to tolerate living in such a place as this. He deserved a mansion, or at least a fine two-story house, something that would give him the status that he deserved rather than a mere roof over his head and a view of the canals.

[i]This is below me…this is so far below me…[/i]

He shook his head. The housing crisis had best end soon, so that he could improve his lot in life, or he would start writing letters. The mayor, the government, there had to be someone out there that could fix this. Once it was done, then people would see him as he was, not as this thing that he was forced to live as in the meantime.

He heard Jane leave, and then, barely two seconds later, a thud.

Then, voices.

[i]That bitch![/i]

For a moment, he was sure that Jane had just given Chris a free pass, but the more that he listened, the more that he realized that they were talking about something else, something…different. They almost sounded like…

Like something magical had happened. That they had hidden, not through cleverness, but through cheating. No wonder they liked Chris. They were all cheating the system.

He leaned over to the grate, narrowing his eyes as he listened in. He heard things that were impossible, that were simply unimaginable in anything but the realm of fantasy. Was that…was that how Chris had managed to sell things? Was he doing the devil’s business, trading with something that had consumed souls?

If that was the case, then maybe – wait, no, the handbook had nothing against Satanists. More the pity.

Still, he listened carefully, his ears pricked up as he heard the different names. Gold, Chrome? What sort of names were those for people? Then more, as Chris talked, as the nerd started puzzling through different things. There were little bits and pieces for him to sort through, but no matter what sort of distracting things that Chris said, he was still Nigel Roster, Esq., and he was more than capable of untangling the puzzle.

It sounded impossible, but he had already seen evidence that Chris was dealing with things that were impossible. The two visitors had gone completely unnoticed by Jane, and that meant that they were probably magical, and Chris was right. That meant that they came from something magical.

Something in the lake.

He sat up from the couch, keeping one ear on the conversation as he walked towards his window. There wasn’t much of a view of the canals from this point, though they were in sight, but he could make out the lake further on. It wasn’t that far off, and while it was known to be polluted and treated with all kinds of deadly chemicals to make it better, it was still rather beautiful from here. Beautiful enough that a spirit might live in it, if such things were real.

And if they were, then he might have a chance to make things better for himself.

[i]If I could find the spirit, prove that it was real…and maybe find something like the Gold and Chrome that he has…[/i]

Then not only would he have something valuable, but he would have something that he could use to prove the existence of something previously believed impossible. He’d get all sorts of bids from the government, from the magical world, from archeologists that would want to drain the lake…

Oh, he would be rolling in dough, and he’d have connections. Many connections.

And he’d finally show up Chris. The other man had been an annoying thorn in his side for months, for far too long for someone to be on his radar. He should have eclipsed him a long time ago, but there was something about that man that made him angry, and yet, attentive. Maybe it was the fact that he had this innocence to him. Maybe it was the urge to break him, to take some of that happiness away.

Maybe it was the fact that he had gotten some and Nigel had gotten nothing.

In any case, he knew that he had a chance of getting something bigger, better, and even more opulent for himself. If Chris had Gold and Chrome, then Nigel deserved diamond.

He nodded, having made his decision. It didn’t take long for him to change from his bathrobe to a suit and tie, and as soon as he had, he was out the door and down the steps. He had a quick stop to make before going back to the lake.

#

“And you’re sure that this…is part of the same franchise that Mr. Magpie bought his from?” Nigel asked.

“That’s correct, sir, though if you wanted something better-looking –”

“I don’t.”

And that was true. He didn’t plan on paying for any more than he really needed. The figurine in his hand was a black-scaled serpent of sorts, one that walked on two legs and had a tail twice as long as it was tall. There was a hint of armor to it, something that looked thick and almost evil, but that was not something that interested him. As long as it was part of the same franchise, then he felt that the equation should work out properly.

“How much?”

“Ten dollars, sir.”

“Ten – for this piece of trash?”

“That’s what it costs, sir. Take it or leave it.”

The fact that he was being addressed by a proper title gave the clerk a little bit of leeway in his mind, but not that much. He still gritted his teeth in annoyance, looking down at the toy. It was little more than an action figure that someone might have gotten from a fast food restaurant, and it was more than the meal itself would have cost.

Nevertheless, he told himself that it would be worth it, long-term, once he got the trade done with this spirit. Once that was done, he’d be rolling in dough.

He nodded, taking out a ten dollar bill, and then paused.

“How much is that?” he asked, pointing behind the counter.

“Hmm? Oh. That. Five dollars.”

“…Fine.”

#

“Ugh…not here, either…”

Nigel shook his head, shimmying down to the edge of the lake, leaning forward with the pincher-arm that he had picked up at the store. It wasn’t much, but at least it kept him from having to pull the figure out of the water with his bare hands. The rivers weren’t so bad, the canals swept regularly, but the lake was too big for the city to keep detoxing on the regular. They would be down again in the next month, but he didn’t want to wait that long.

He’d tried four different locations on the edge of the lake, aping tossing the figure in as if he had lost it. Each time, he had waited for five minutes, and each time, he had gotten nothing for his trouble. While he wasn’t yet willing to believe that Chris was lying or playing a prank on him, he was more than frustrated enough to curse under his breath.

“A fine game this must be,” he grumbled. “Find that one magic spot where it works. Find one little spot where this mystery man will come up and give me what I want. And, of course, lucky [i]Chris[/i] finds it on his first try, without even trying to do it.”

He shook his head, feeling utterly venomous and unapologetic for it. All that he wanted was to get this done, to gain his new wealth and go back home. He wasn’t even sure that he had the mindset for blackmailing anymore. He was just tired and wanted to go home.

Rounding the edge of the lake, he came to a stand of trees. He walked through them, made his way to the edge of the trees, and then mimed losing his grip on the figure.

“Oops!” he called out in his best acting voice.

He watched it hit the water, sink…and then, less than thirty seconds later, the water bubbled.

[i]Jackpot.[/i]

Nigel managed to hide his smirk – as a lawyer, he had learned to hide some things when it was important – but even he couldn’t keep himself from staring as the strange figure started to rise from the water’s surface. A blue-white thing, something that was as muscular as one could imagine and yet completely inhuman, with a flatter head and thick shoulders, flesh spotted like the creatures of the sea, and with eyes that were dark and surprisingly deep, looking like shadows of the deep staring out into the world.

The figure cocked his head to the side, smiling slightly.

“Two in as many days. It seems that many people are losing their goods in my lake, these days.”

“So, you’re the guy that Chris met, huh?”

“You know him?”

“Enough to dislike him.”

Nigel saw the slight shift in the spirit’s posture, the tilt of the head to the other side. There was a slight frown, too, and he shifted tacks. Apparently, Chris had charmed this one as much as he had ‘Gold’ and ‘Chrome.’ Someone else that had fallen for him.

Someone else that wouldn’t believe that he was an ass.

“I dropped something, yeah.”

“Ah, then let me ask you a question. And do –”

“Yeah, yeah, ask the question.”

“…”

The spirit paused for a moment, looking at him with a bit of concern. Nigel waved his hand.

“Hurry up. I don’t have all day.”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“Only for losers that aren’t doing it right the first time.”

“…I see.”

“Come on, come on.”

“Then answer me this. Did you lose this?”

The whale spirit lifted up a snake figurine made of jade, a deep green-blue in color, posed with a virtuous sword in hand and standing as a challenge to the world.

“Or did you perhaps lose this?”

This time, he lifted a bronze statuette, one showing the same snake, but carved in a different pose, one that was a little more passive, less challenging, but no less wise. It was coiled about itself, with a scroll in one hand and a hammer in the other, looking almost like a judge.

“Or did you lose this?”

The final figure, the one that he had bought, rose up. It looked trashier than before, half-burnt by the chemicals in the water. He shook his head.

“I didn’t lose any of that crap. I lost a [i]diamond[/i] figurine, see? Did you see one of them?”

After all, what kind of use did he have for something made of bronze or the cheap plastic? The jade wasn’t bad, but he knew that he needed something that was a little more valuable than that. Jade was cheap these days, and he wanted something that had some real value behind it. Something that was worthy of Nigel Roster, Esq.

“…There is no diamond in the bottom of my lake.”

“Then you should compensate me for my loss. Gold, then. Give me –”

The spirit’s eye twitched. It was barely more than a tiny little flex of a muscle, but it was enough to make Nigel stop talking right then and there. Somewhere, somewhere deep down that had been suppressed ever since a professor with tenure had gone off at him at law school, realized that he’d overstepped a line. He had just done something that he would not be able to walk back or intimidate the spirit into forgetting.

This ‘Oury’, as the other things had called him, loomed higher than ever. The whale grew to twenty feet in height from the waist up, his hands slamming down on the ground and dripping with dangerous waters all over the place. He looked him right in the eye.

“You can take [i]this[/i] one,” the whale said.

And just like that, a blackened snake fell out of the waters, hitting the ground with a thump. It was heavy enough to be something, perhaps onyx or jet, but it was still ugly, something that didn’t have the same power and beauty that gold, chrome, or diamond would have.

“It will do what you want when you get home. That’s all that you need to know.”

“But –”

The whale disappeared with a whoosh of rushing water, pulled back into the lake and gone without a trace. He stared after it, hardly believing what had just happened, and in the back of his head, Nigel wondered if he’d made a mistake. As it stood, he finally feared something rather than hated it.

Shaking, he used the claw hand to reach down for the figurine. It was heavier than it looked, but he still managed to ‘lose’ it in the water again.

“Oops!”

He shouted, hoping that it would be heard, but there was nothing. Nobody came out of the water, nothing came to offer him something else. He fished it out of the lake again, tossing it slightly further to the side.

“O-oops!”

Clumsier this time, more fearful, and he hated that almost as much as he hated himself for making such a stupid mistake. He could have gotten so much, but no. He had to go and mess it up.

No sign of the whale.

No sign of better prizes.

Just a single little figurine, a statuette of a snake that was on two legs, with a hint of armor that might or might not have been part of the scale pattern, and posed with his arms crossed and leaning back against an invisible wall. The posture could not have been cockier and more ominous if it tried with the slight show of a forked tongue and half-closed eyes. It was the cockiest, smuggest snake that he had ever seen.

And if he hadn’t cut so many of his options, and hadn’t done the stupid thing of leaving his phone in his pocket rather than filming Oury, he might have thrown it right back in the water. The fact that he had come that close to being fucked right there meant that he probably had something dangerous in his hand. Yet…

Yet, he knew that he needed to have something to make sure that this was worth it, and it seemed that the figurine was the only thing that he was going to get. He’d have to make it worth it, somehow.

Fishing it out of the water again, he shook it dry, then tucked it under his arm. He might as well see if it was worth anything, and for that, he needed a better place to take pictures for the appraisers. He had a few lined up, and they’d want to know what he got.

Though he did wonder. How would it do what he asked when he got home?

#

He found out as soon as he shut the door. The figurine started burning as soon as it clicked shut, so hot that he had to throw it away from him. It hit the couch, but rather than set it on fire, it grew.

The black shape spread like a shadow of an inkblot, spreading upwards and outwards. The only part that was easy to distinguish was the tail, getting longer and longer, spreading over the arm of the couch and then along the back, ten feet long, twelve, fourteen, before finally stopping at twenty. It looked almost too light to be real, too dexterous to be as thick and muscular as it looked.

Nigel couldn’t take his eyes off of the strange, growing shape, his mouth hanging open as he realized that the whole thing with magic and strange creatures was actually real. His mouth dropped almost down to his chest as the creature continued to take form, thick shoulders and broad arms slowly pushing out from the central, shadowy mass.

“Oh god…oh god…”

“Shhhhhh.”

The shadowy shape actually shushed him. His eyes went wider as the tail slowly lifted from the back of the couch, moving over to the vent. It flicked the grate-switch sideways, clicking it shut.

“No need for others to listen in, heh…”

“What…what are you?”

“Heh…nothing more than what lies in your wrinkled little heart.”

The voice was soft, hissing, but there was a depth to it, almost like the hiss was a filter over a growl. The face of the shadow came into view, a hint of a hood spreading out behind a reptilian face. The eyes were empty pits of darkness on top of a body that was as dark as gray could go, or perhaps the body was black, and the eyes were merely a true black. In either case, he faced a muscular serpent with arms and legs, and a tail so long that it could hold just about anything within its grip.

“I am Black.”

“W-well, Black, you’re going to do what I say. That’s what –”

“Hmm-hmm. I don’t recall telling you to speak.”

“Shut up! I’m the one in charge, and you’re going to –”

“No. I [i]definitely[/i] didn’t tell you to speak…”

The snake pushed itself up from the couch, and as it did, that massive tail rose up, turning and twisting into horrifying shapes over the serpent’s head, getting thicker and wider in different knots and curls. Nigel gasped, backing up until he touched the door. He twisted around, grabbing for the knob –

And then the tail struck.

He gasped as it wrapped around his middle and yanked him back, pulling him off his feet and into the air. He struggled to try and find a way to catch his footing, but no. The snake held him too high up, and the tail was coiling around him all the more. It pulled his arms flat against his middle, and the tail tip forced its way past his lips, gagging him.

Black looked up at him as he was flipped upside-down, his tie flopping down over his face. A scaly finger gently nudged it to the side, pulling him closer by the collar of his shirt and the grip of that tail.

“Ah, that black in your heart. Trying to run away from it, but it never lets go, does it? No. It wants to hold on, to keep its grip,” the snake said, slowly pulling its tail tighter around his middle, squeezing the air from his lungs. “No way to escape from its grip, no way to escape from it…and no way to escape from me…”

He shivered, his eyes going wider and wider as he realized just how fucked he was. He stared straight ahead, his mind going blank as he realized that the snake had effectively gagged and trapped him, keeping him from making a sound. Scaly hands ran down his shirt, over his pants.

“You’ve become a little slave to your own darkness…and you’re built like a meager little servant, too…so little strength…so little heart…”

He blushed as he felt the snake’s hand over his crotch, patting him until he was forced to start reacting. All the blood running to his head should have stopped it, but there was something to the terror that was doing something to him, something…something that forced the bully aside and forced something else forward.

“So little to offer…”

And just like that, he was flipped over, still off the ground, but no longer upside-down. Black chuckled, running a finger along his chest.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson, Nigel Roster, [i]Esquire.[/i] Do you know what that lesson is?”

Nigel couldn’t answer, but even if he could, he knew that it’d be the wrong one. The black-scaled snake had a smile across his face that promised punishment regardless of what he said. So, he shook his head slowly.

“Mmm, no, you don’t. It’s a lesson…about humility…about how much you don’t [i]really[/i] matter…you self-important loudmouth…”

It was the way that Black talked that made him so scary. Never threatening, never screaming, not even growling. It was a promise, every statement coming through as a statement of what was going to happen next and how it would come about. There was never a moment where it came through as something that might be doubtful, or something that might not happen. No, the snake made it clear with every word that he said that he planned to carry it out. There was a pure dominance to his words that made even Nigel Roster, Esq., sit up and obey.

And he shivered as he felt that hand run down over his crotch again, unzipping him and slowly pulling his cock free. The scaly hand didn’t stroke him, but rather let him hang down, let him show what he had.

He felt very small in that moment.

“And there…there is the core of it…”

Black leaned in, hissing softly, long, flexible tongue dragging along his cheek as the snake slowly circled him, that long tail allowing him to move as he willed.

“Imagining great things without effort…pushing others in ways that you would never push yourself…consumed by the darkness…” The snake chuckled, flickering tip by his ear. “You are lucky that I do not punish my food…I will play with you, instead…”

“Mmmph…mmmph…”

Nigel didn’t know what to think. Nobody, not even the angriest of his professors, not even Oury, had ever terrified him as much as this snake did. It felt like everyone else had been held back, like they had limited himself, but Black? There was none of that. He felt like someone that would literally do anything, and he would do it because he felt like it, not because he felt like it had been sparked or required.

There was no telling how he would be treated, no telling what safety or security there might be. There was nothing that he could do to stop Black from punishing him to the fullest extent of his abilities…

And somehow, that made his dick throb.

“Look at that…finally understanding something, are we?” Black whispered, reaching down and stroking a finger along Nigel’s shaft. “Still so little to offer…but then again…a slave should never think to [i]fuck[/i] others, should they?”

“Mmmph…mmmph…”

“No…a slave is there to be used…not to do the using…And you do not have it in you to use another…” Stroking hands found his face. “Once, you had potential…You could have used it…grown with it. Bronze and Jade showed your potential…they wanted to help you…but you dismissed them…you thought you were [i]better[/i] than them…”

“Mmmph?”

“Heh…they hoped for you. But I am not here for hope. Black doesn’t come with hope. It comes…for the other kind of lessons…”

Those hands moved down his face, along his shoulders. Maybe they went over the shadowy scales towards his hips, or maybe they just lifted up and moved down on their own. In either case, his pants were pulled down to his ankles, and he felt something pressing against him from behind. His eyes went wide, his head shaking even as his dick throbbed all the harder.

“I know what you are…”

“Mmmph…mmph!” [i]Please![/i] he begged. [i]Please, not in there![/i]

“A little shell of a man…who had the potential to be great…but instead…he turned it around…”

As his body was being turned, lifted so that he was bent almost in two, his head forced down as if he was being moved to touch his toes, his ass lifted to the right position. Something in him was bending further and further, dropping down into a mindset that he hadn’t felt since well-before his time in law school.

“He turned all his knowledge into expectations…expectations that he didn’t have to work for. So [i]smart,[/i] so [i]talented.[/i] And surely, the world would give him what he wanted…but did he keep using them? No. He wanted others to offer. He wanted them to give. He wanted to [i]take[/i] without giving something in return.

“Well…there is only one thing that Black can do with people like that. I see to it that the takers…get taken.”

And as a long, hot shaft pushed into him, Nigel did the one thing that could save him from his situation, the one thing that he never, ever would have done if he was in a better mindset, or more himself.

He moaned.

#

It was an hour of punishment later that Black finally stopped, and when he did, Nigel fainted almost instantly. He extended his tail, unrolling it not that far from the couch. Mr. Roster fell, but didn’t wake up. The snake shook his head.

“A punishment is not meant to be enjoyed…but he will remember. He will remember and fear.”

He could feel the tugging that came at his core, the reminder that his job was done and that he was called back to the lake, but that was the power of a punishment, of a curse. When it was released, the curse decided when it was done, and Black…Black felt that there was more yet to be said to Mr. Roster.

And more to the point, it had been too long since he had been free to move through the world. To have legs again, to have a body that could do what he wished rather than merely punish? Well, that was certainly something.

And more, he knew that there were others nearby, so close, now, closer than he had expected. Mr. Roster had felt quite angry with one Mr. Magpie, he had seen. Mr. Magpie lived in the building, and just a few floors down, as a matter of fact. If he could not punish Mr. Roster through this humiliation, then perhaps a punishment of jealousy might be in order. Not immediately, of course, but soon enough.

He turned to the grate, lifting it off its hole with ease, and then slithered himself inside. His wide shoulders barely fit, but a serpent could go where they wished with ease. He wiggled in, using the end of his tail to pull the grate back into place, and disappeared down into the shadows of the building.

#

Oury floated through all of the lake, his presence and mind divided between the different pieces of work that he made beneath the water as well as the people that passed by. Here and there, they interested him, but the whale’s mind was mostly focused on his work…and on the insults that had been heaped on him.

He had never, ever felt that level of greed from someone else. True, there had been those that had tried to game the system, but they had gone away with the compromise, a teacher rather than a friend. This one? This…lawyer…had pushed further still, to the point of being insulting and causing pain, and Oury…

He had overreacted when he had released Black, and it was why he had reached out, calling the serpent back so soon. The curse-color should not have been released on someone merely out of his own pride. It was wrong, and Oury wished to retract that and pretend that it had never happened.

Unfortunately, Black did not respond to the call.

Oury didn’t like the implications, but there was little he could do from his lake. The waters did not reach so far as they once did, and he could not reach from house to house like he might have done in his early days. He was limited, and he could only hope that Black did not cause more trouble than was needed.

That said, this one had known Chris. Oury blushed slightly, remembering the compliments and care from the other young man, and he wondered if they would run into each other.

He hoped not. Black was dangerous, and for all that he saw deep, he saw the darkness…and Black was made to punish darkness, and enjoy it.

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

Summary: Having failed to get Chris evicted through snitching on him, Nigel decides to see if he can manipulate the system that gave Chris two new companions. It doesn’t go well.

Tags: M/M, snake, human, coils, tail, bondage, domination, anal, humiliation, magic, series, modern fantasy, whale, bully, flamboyance,