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IDWTBTHQ Chapter 127 - My Own Little World
🕑 Added 2022-09-21 21:22:24 +0000 UTCOnce upon a time, in his previous life, Marcus had considered himself capable of being fairly intimidating. After all, among the odd jobs he had done to make ends meet, he had also worked as a bouncer in a club in the middle of a rather ill reputed area, where the ability to force unruly and often quite drunk people to stand down without too much commotion was part of the job description.
Of course, that was before he was reincarnated in his current body, losing about forty centimeters of height in the process. Right now, as he studied himself in the mirror, he was forced to admit that all the posturing he had learned in his past life now made him look about as threatening as a kitten.
“Maybe like this?” He wondered, crossing his arms and assuming and raising his head haughtily.
The image the mirror showed him almost made him laugh.
“Nah... not like that.” He replied to himself with a sad smirk. “Maybe I should try to make a ferocious smile? I mean, I've got teeth that would make a shark envious right now, so I might as well use them.”
He tried to make an intimidating smile, but while the sharp fangs in his mouth were indeed unsettling, the contrast with the rest of his body was nothing short of comical.
“Not like this either.” He shook his head. “Uhmmm... what else could I do? Maybe I could use some elevation? I mean, standing taller than the one you talk to is a common tactic to show dominance.”
He grabbed a chair, put it in front of the mirror and climbed over it to check what he would look like from below. The image shown wasn't particularly different, except that the angle allowed a clear view of his underwear.
“Goddammit!” Marcus cursed, jumping down from the chair. “I miss being able to wear pants. With this damn leather jacket, I can't even raise my legs or my tail too high without showing my undies for the whole world to see!” He shook his head in pure disgust. “I wonder how girls can deal with wearing short skirts. The one I saw on TV made it look easy! They could jump, run and do all sorts of things without ever showing anything!”
He tried another few poses, each more ridiculous than the previous one, until he finally gave up.
“Screw it.” He said in a disgruntled tone. “I'll just bring a Destroyer in case I need to look scary. Even a wee little garden gnome would be terrifying with a Destroyer behind it.”
He grabbed his coat, carefully draping it around his shoulders before walking out. The air was cold but luckily the wind had abated for now —though dark clouds on the horizon suggested that there were more blizzards incoming— and there was very little snow to impede his passage. In fact, almost no snow at all covered the mold-wax fields around Stonebarrow, since it had quickly melted away as soon as the snowstorms had ceased.
As he kept walking, Marcus idly wondered the reason for this phenomenon and, much to his surprise, the answer immediately popped in his mind.
“In order to thrive in the greatest spectrum of environmental conditions, mold-wax will generate heat in cold weathers and refract it in hot ones.” The Vex Queen thought. “Which means that right now, it's probably emitting enough heat to melt the snow that had piled up on it” He nodded. “That makes sense. So, now the question is how the hell do I know all this?”
This wasn't the first time that instinctual knowledge about Vex biology had surfaced from his subconscious. The information about the Broodmothers, the drones' ability to enter stasis and the mold-wax itself had also instinctively come to him. So, how much more knowledge was hidden deep within his psyche?
He thought about this for a moment, but since no epiphany came to him this time he decided to drop this inquiry for the moment. Right now he had to focus on the matter at hand: trying to save Tiny.
The ogress's prison was a few hundred meters away from the village, near the old quarry that now served as the Vex main hive. It was an artificial grotto dug on the side of the hill, which had yet to be connected to the wider network of caves that spreaded underneath the Vex territories. The cave was already coated in mold wax —like pretty much everything in Marcus's lands at this point— and therefore thermally insulated, so the only thing the Workers had to do in order to make it a proper prison was to install a wooden fence to block the entrance. Such a barrier wouldn't really stop a creature such as the ogress, and indeed it had been put there mostly to keep the cold out rather than to keep her in, since what really prevented her from leaving were the drones always keeping watch outside of the cave. Four Heavies, a couple dozen Warriors and several Workers were permanently stationed around the prison's entrance, and by the time Marcus got there a Destroyer had also joined them.
The Vex Queen marched right in front of the entrance, where he paused for a moment in order to study the situation and mentally prepare himself. No sounds could be heard coming from the grotto, a bit of a surprise since Marcus's psychic presence had always elicited a lot of terrified screaming from Tiny before, but it seemed that the ogress was too exhausted to even voice her fears right now.
However, that didn't mean that she wasn't scared. In fact, Marcus could feel a cold, deep fear radiating from the cave.
“Alright.” He told himself, taking a deep breath. “Here we are. Now all that's left is to get in, scare Tiny into submitting herself and then make her want to live again!” He frowned. “God does that sound like a stupid plan. But well, it's not as if I have a better idea, so let's try it.”
And without further ado, he mentally ordered the Workers to open the door for him, allowing him to enter Tiny's prison.
As soon as he stepped in, his mind was assaulted by a wave of deep, desperate terror that filled the whole place like a miasma. Then it was the turn of his nose, as a pervasive stench of excrements and unwashed bodies filled his nostrils. And then, the final assault came to his eyes, as an incredibly pitiful spectacle was displayed in front him.
The ogress was huddled in a corner of the grotto, completely naked. She was painfully thin, with her dirty skin dangling directly from her bones like an oversized suit, and her hair was also grimy and tangled. The most unsettling detail, however, were her eyes: they were bulging from her emaciated face like those of a fish, and they were wide open with terror but somehow also completely dead and empty. They were the eyes of someone who had completely given up on any kind of hope.
Marcus felt a sharp stab of guilt in his gut. Back when he had decided to spare Tiny's life he would have never imagined that she would have ended up like this, and now he really started to regret it.
Still, since it wasn’t possible to change the past, the only thing he could do to soothe his hurting conscience was to make amends and put an end to Tiny’s suffering —one way or the other.
He steeled himself and stepped forward, trying to appear calm and confident.
“Tiny-Sneaky!” He said in what he hoped was an authoritative voice, but probably wasn’t. “I've come to make you an offer. Accept to serve under me, and in exchange I'll give you my protection, plus food, a place to stay and whatever you may need. Within reason of course, because, well, I'm not going to feed you people or things like that. Animals are fine though.”
Unsurprisingly, these insecure words didn't seem to reach the ogress, who just kept staring at him with terror.
“Okay, probably I was a bit too soft there.” Marcus thought. “Let's try again. This time I'll be a bit more assertive.”
He took another step forward and stood up at the very top of his —admittedly diminutive— height, trying to look as intimidating as possible.
“Tiny!” He cried. “You've got two choices! Serve me and live, or keep stewing in your own misery and die! I'd prefer the former, but should you pick the latter, so be it! I'm way too powerful to really care either way! Like, really powerful! More powerful than even the Blue Terror!”
Despite trying his best to sound confident while delivering this banter, there was little to no reaction from the ogress. She just trembled a little as the Vex Queen raised his voice, but she showed no actual sign of actually understanding a word he said.
“Screw it.” Marcus thought, starting to feel a bit annoyed. “I'll just do it with my mind then. She can't ignore my words if I put them directly into her head.”
He closed his eyes, focusing exclusively on his telepathic senses. Then, slowly and carefully, he expanded his aura, directing it towards the ogress. He also hardened his will, preparing to force himself through the resistance that she would inevitably put up.
However, as it turned out, he had greatly underestimated Tiny's reaction.
As soon as Marcus's mind touched her own, the ogress let out a blood curdling scream, while an explosion of pure, unadulterated panic and revulsion radiated from her. The Vex Queen flinched and immediately retracted her aura as if he had gotten burned, taking a few steps back in surprise. Meanwhile, Tiny just kept screaming, clutching her head between her hands and trembling violently, almost as if she was having a seizure. She went on like for a few minutes until she finally ran out of energy and collapsed on the floor, completely motionless, all while Marcus stared at her in silence.
“Alright, that didn't go as planned.” He thought. “I've never felt such raw and intense negative emotions before. Guess she really doesn't like having her mind probed. Not that I can blame her, given that's how she ended up like this to begin with.” He carefully considered what had happened, trying to decide what to do next. “I think I could force myself in, but I'm afraid I'd end up completely breaking whatever's left of her sanity if I do. So let's try something else. Since words and thoughts have failed, now I think it's time for actions!”
He snapped his fingers and sent out a mental command, and a couple of Workers immediately entered the cave. Tiny was still catatonic from her earlier outburst and didn't resist as the two drones grabbed her and dragged her outside, while Marcus followed them.
Once out of the cave, the Vex Queen made the drones present form a circle around the prisoner, while he himself stood in front of the Destroyer, taking advantage of the drone's looming presence to look even more threatening.
“As you can see, all these Vex are under my control!” He announced. “We defeated your kind in battle, so you must know how strong we are. Some of these Destroyers even defeated the Blue Terror himself.” He pointed at the drone behind him. “Should you decide to serve under me, they will protect you.” He paused, took a deep breath and added: “However, if you keep being silent and let yourself waste away, I will order them to kill you.”
His tone as he pronounced the last words was a bit regretful, but luckily this somehow made it more threatening since he sounded sincere.
And he actually was.
Having exhausted all options to save Tiny, Marcus was now about to give up should he fail this time as well. He just couldn't bear to watch the ogress slowly die of starvation, and besides swiftly ending her suffering started to seem like the most merciful option at this point. And had he not been there in person, he would have probably ended up going through with it, since Tiny didn't visibly react to his words this time either. She just remained motionless in the Workers’ arms, showing no sign of understanding anything.
However, being close to her with his real body, the Vex Queen was actually able to sense a flickering in the ogress's emotions as he finished speaking. It was incredibly faint and it only flashed for a single moment before sinking back into a sea of despair, but Marcus still managed to recognize it.
It was a tiny spark of hope.
The Vex Queen immediately put the ogress's execution on hold, approaching her in order to examine her more carefully. Right now he couldn't sense anything but bleak despair coming from her, but now he wondered if there was something else hiding behind that curtain of negative emotions.
Marcus decided to investigate this possibility with his telepathy, no matter what the consequences could be. After all, since he would have to kill the ogress anyway if this attempt failed, then even if he messed up and ended up completely destroying her mind the consequences of his mistake would be short lived —literally.
He started approaching the ogress, who seemed to realize what was going to happen and started struggling to free herself from the Workers' grip in an attempt to distance herself from Marcus, but a Heavy immediately stepped forward and pinned her to the ground, completely immobilizing her. Even then she still desperately writhed on the ground, in a futile attempt to escape.
Ignoring her discomfort, Marcus approached her, raised his hand and placed it gently on her head, closing his eyes and steeling his will for what was to come.
Then, he entered Tiny's mind.
Like it had happened before, a tidal wave of revulsion and panic assailed him, but this time he was ready for it and forced himself through. He didn't try to communicate or do anything else in particular, he just dove deeper and deeper, to see what was hiding at the bottom of that dark sea of despair.
Then, after what felt like ages but were only a few seconds, he finally reached the core of Tiny's consciousness and stepped into it.
As soon as he did, he found himself in a forest.
He internally blinked in surprise, looking around to confirm what his senses were telling him. He was indeed surrounded by dark and very tall trees, but at the same time he could see his body standing outside of the mold-wax prison through the eyes of his drones. It was a weird sensation, like being in two places at the same time, that would have been rather disconcerting for anyone not used to it. Luckily this was nothing new for Marcus, who basically had his consciousness shared by all of his Vex drones, so he just calmly focused on trying to understand what was going on.
“What is this place?” He wondered, trying to touch one of the trees, but somehow his hand couldn't quite reach it. He also noticed that the details of this place were a little hazy, and some things were a bit off here and there. The whole place felt like a dream.
“Weird.” He mumbled. “I don't remember anything like this from my last visit into Tiny's mind. Is this some sort of dream or illusion or something like that?”
But before he could find an answer he heard the sound of someone crying in the distance, beyond the trees.
Carefully, he moved towards the source of that noise. He had no idea about what may have caused it, but since it was the only clue available he could as well follow it.
After walking for a few seconds he emerged into a rather large dirt clearing, occupied by what looked like a very primitive village. Several very crude wooden huts occupied it, built mostly by precariously piling logs and leaves on each other, while bones, half rotten pieces of flesh and other assorted trash was scattered around on the ground. Finally, at the exact center of the clearing, there was a small humanoid figure curled up in fetal position and currently busy bawling in a high pitched voice.
“Alright, that's not suspicious at all.” Marcus thought sarcastically. “I mean, this straight up looks like a scene from a horror movie! At the very least that thing in there is going to be a demonic baby or something”
However, the crying figure was clearly the focus of this place and since he couldn't see anything else worth inspecting he decided to take a closer look anyway. Besides, he told himself, none of this was real, it was just some sort of dream-like illusion, so he shouldn't be in any danger. Probably.
Still, he moved with extreme caution as he approached the creature lying on the ground, half expecting some sort of jumpscare to happen at any moment.
But nothing happened and he safely arrived right behind the creature. From that angle he could see that the humanoid had roughly the proportions of a human child —though it was much bigger— and was completely naked, with its back covered in small scales of a grayish green hue.
Since the humanoid didn't react to his presence, Marcus slowly circled around it to see it from the front, but that didn't help him much since the creature was covering its face with its hands while weeping loudly.
The Vex Queen, unsure of what to do, just stared at the crying humanoid for a few more seconds, until he finally gathered the courage to try to draw its attention.
“Uhm... hello little one.” He said as delicately as possible. “What's wrong? Why are you crying?”
The humanoid raised its head, and for the first time Marcus took a good look at its face. While it wasn’t exactly demonic as he had feared it was, for a lack of a better term, bloody ugly. It looked vaguely like a mix between a hog, a snake and a human child, with oversized fangs popping out of its very large mouth and a flat, almost non-existent nose. All in all, it looked rather similar to an orc. However, despite its clearly non-human nature, it wasn't really threatening or creepy on account of its expression being that of a genuinely frightened child, complete with a runny nose and tears flowing down its cheeks.
“You!” The creature cried and pointed at the Vex Queen. “Lizard-Bug Thing is what is wrong. Tiny wants to be left alone, but Lizard-Bug Thing is here. Tiny doesn’t want Lizard-Bug Thing here! Go away.”
“Oh, I'm sorry, I was just trying to...” Marcus started apologizing, but then he stopped as he suddenly realized something. “Wait, did you just say Tiny? Are you perhaps Tiny Sneaky?”
“Yes.” The humanoid replied, snuffling a little. “Tiny is Tiny Sneaky. Now go away. Leave Tiny alone.”
Marcus remained silent for a few seconds, studying the creature in front of him. The fact that Tiny looked and behaved like an orc child in her own mind had certainly taken him by surprise, but since at least she seemed to understand his words now, he decided to try and talk with her.
“I will take my leave soon, but first I want to speak with you.” He said.
“No.” Tiny shook her head. “Tiny doesn't want to talk to you. Go away.”
“I'm sorry, but I can't do that.” The Vex Queen replied. “I've been through too much trouble to just give up before at least talking to you. By the way, why don't you want to talk to me? Are you scared of me or something?”
“Yes.” The orc replied as she started having bouts of hiccups. “Tiny is weak now. Tiny can't defend from anything. That is why Tiny stays here, where nothing can arrive and Tiny is safe. But Lizard-Bug Thing arrived anyway and it won't leave Tiny alone!”
She then covered her face with her hands and resumed crying, leaving Marcus unsure about what to do next and also quite confused about the situation as a whole. So, before doing anything else, he tried to understand what was going on first.
“Let's see.” He thought, trying to remember the few notions on psychology he had learned in his previous life.“I'm still inside of Tiny's mind, this much I can tell. So this place must be some sort of mental construction made by Tiny herself. And speaking of the devil...” He shot a look at the bawling orc child. “That must be a manifestation of Tiny's conscious ego. Which means that she sees herself as a child now, for some reason.”
He paused, trying to add up these clues to find a plausible explanation for this situation. Surprisingly, it didn't take him long to do this, but the conclusion he came to wasn't very encouraging.
“So, if I'm right, this place is something Tiny made to escape from reality. It's literally her own little world. And even worse, the fact that she identifies as a child seems to indicate that she mentally regressed to her childhood in response to the trauma she suffered.” He sighed. “Great. Just great. So now I'm basically dealing with a frightened child hiding from the world under a metaphorical blanket. I can't see how my original plan of scaring her into submission could work. If anything, that's only bound to make things worse!”
He stopped in his tracks, as a sudden epiphany suddenly came to him.
“Wait, if she's already scared of everything, doesn't that mean that the intimidation part is not needed anymore? At this point I could just skip directly to offer her to serve me in exchange for protection.”
He considered this idea for a few moments and then decided that it was worth a try. He turned again towards Tiny, who was still crying, and cleared his throat to draw her attention.
“Uhm... Tiny?” He said. “Can you listen to me for a moment? I have a proposition for you.”
“No. Go away!” The orc replied without stopping her weeping. “Tiny doesn't want to talk to you!”
The Vex Queen hesitated for a moment, but then remembered what Trakk had told him. Kindness was considered a sign of weakness among the orcs, and in order to be listened to he needed to be firm and authoritative instead.
“Well, I'm going to tell you anyway, whether you like it or not!” He said in a stern voice. “You can't stop me or escape, so you have no choice but to listen.”
Tiny suddenly became silent after hearing these words, and gave Marcus a terrified look, forcing him to use all of his will to repress the sense of guilt that had gripped his heart. Despite telling himself that this wasn't Tiny's real appearance and that the ogress was far from innocent, he couldn't help but feel like he was bullying a child. So he tried to speak as quickly as possible before his empathy got the better of him.
“So, let's cut to the chase.” He said sternly. “I want you to serve under me. In exchange, I will protect you and provide you with as much food as you want. You'll be able to live comfortably at my side, and no one will hurt you. So what do you say? Are you interested?”
The orc child kept looking at him with eyes wide with fear, but a puzzled expression slowly started appearing on her face as she considered Marcus's words.
“Why do Lizard-Bug Thing want Tiny to serve Lizard-Bug Thing?” She asked after a while. “Tiny is weak and useless now. Lizard-Bug Thing must know that, because Lizard-Bug Thing is the one that made Tiny weak.” She shot him an accusatory glance. “Tiny was strong ogre once, but Lizard-Bug Thing took away Tiny's strength and now Tiny is weaker than newborn whelp!”
Normally this question would have made Marcus’s sense of guilt act up like crazy, but luckily he had anticipated it and had prepared suitable answers beforehand, so he was able to reply without getting too emotional.
“I did take away your ability to hurt others on purpose, yes.” He admitted. “It was either that or killing you since you were attacking me at the time, and I wanted you alive. However, being able to fight is not the only measure of one's strength. There are many other talents that can be just as useful, if not more.” He smiled confidently. “Besides, I already have more than enough servants to do that for me, and some of them are even strong enough to defeat your ex leader, Blueskin. And I’m not exaggerating here. They actually did defeat him.”
Tiny didn't reply and just stared at him with a bewildered expression on her face. Since it seemed like she needed some further convincing, Marcus decided to keep talking.
“Should you decide to serve under me, those same servants of mine would also be protecting you.” He said. “And in that case it wouldn't matter that you can't defend yourself, because you'd have others to do that for you. And we have food to spare as well, so you wouldn't go hungry either.”
With this, he had just covered pretty much all the top priorities of a typical orc: safety and food. But for some reason, Tiny still seemed dubious.
“That is good, but Lizard-Bug Thing didn't answer Tiny's question. Why Lizard-Bug Thing wants Tiny to serve? Why did Lizard-Bug Thing did not kill Tiny?” She asked. “If Lizard-Bug Thing's servants are so strong, then Lizard-Bug Thing doesn't need Tiny.”
Marcus silently sighed. He had hoped to avoid answering this specific question, especially since if he was to answer honestly he'd have to use terms such as empathy, pity and sympathy, all of which held little to no meaning for orcs according to the info that Trakk had given him. But alas, now that Tiny had pressed the matter he couldn't just avoid this topic, so he hoped that an approximation of the truth would do instead.
“Well, I mostly spared you because I wanted to.” He explained. “Having you live and serve under me would make me feel better than just killing you.”
“So... Lizard-Bug Thing wants Tiny to make Lizard-Bug Thing feel good?” Tiny asked in a suspicious tone.
Having seen the memories of her past interaction with Blueskin, the Vex Queen immediately understood what she meant with this question.
“Not like that!” Marcus immediately cried. “I'm not like Blue! I mean, I don't even have the... ehm, equipment to do that kind of thing.” He stopped talking, feeling incredibly flustered. He then took a deep breath and forced his mind back on track. “I mean, I would just feel better if you were to live, that's all.” He saw Tiny giving him a confused look, and so he tried to elaborate further in a way she could understand. “Listen... it's hard to explain, but I can feel other people's emotions. Yours included. So if you are happy, I can feel your happiness and be happy myself as a result.”
Tiny narrowed her eyes, clearly focusing on trying to understand what had just been said to her.
“So Lizard-Bug Thing eats Tiny's happiness?” She finally asked.
“Well... yes and no.” The Vex Queen replied. “I don't take it away from you, so it would be more correct to say that I partake in it. It's kind of like body heat rather than food. If I stay near you, I can feel it coming from you.”
The ogress thought about it for a few moments and then she nodded.
“Tiny understands now. So Lizard-Bug Thing eats happiness, but doesn't take it away from Tiny.” She paused and then asked: “But what happens when Tiny is sad? Lizard-Bug Thing eats sadness too?”
“Well, let's say that sadness doesn't taste all that good.” Marcus said with a smirk. “I very much prefer happiness, thank you.”
“So Lizard-Bug Thing wants to make Tiny happy?” Tiny's eyes were sparkling with hope now. “Can Lizard-Bug Thing give back Tiny's strength then? That will make Tiny very happy!”
“Sorry but I can't do that.” The Vex Queen immediately replied, shaking his head.
“Why not?” Tiny asked, as disappointment quickly replaced hope on her face.
“Because I don't know how to do that. Or if that's possible at all.” Marcus said, glossing over the fact that he probably wouldn't be allowed to keep her alive if she was still capable of hurting others.
“Oh.” The ogress mumbled, looking as if she was on the verge of tears again.
“Anyway, even if I could, I would do that only if you served under me.” Marcus said quickly, not wanting to allow Tiny to sink into despair once again. “Which brings us to the point: do you want to serve under me then? Or would you prefer to rot away in this little world of yours until you die?”
This question lingered in the air. As she seemed to think about it, Tiny looked troubled and her face showed several contrasting emotions, from hope to anger, fear and frustration. Meanwhile Marcus just waited patiently in silence, giving the ogress time to come to a decision.
The Vex Queen could easily tell what was going on inside of Tiny's mind —mostly because he was already in there. The humanoid was terribly conflicted about the offer. On one hand it was indeed tempting, since it meant security and food, but on the other she was terrified of the Vex Queen, and also a tad resentful towards him because of what he had done to her. This internal struggle also affected the mindscape all around them: as Tiny grew more troubled, the forest and the clearing became more and more indistinct, with the details blurring and melting like a watercolor painting under the rain. After a few minutes, the whole area was reduced to a confused kaleidoscope of colors and emotions, all mixing together and struggling with each other, and the only things left untouched were the orc child that was the manifestation of Tiny's consciousness and Marcus himself.
In the end, the ogress started crying again, as all that emotional trouble was too much for her to handle.
“Tiny doesn't know what to do!” She wept. “Tiny wants to live, but Lizard-Bug Thing is scary! Tiny doesn't want Lizard-Bug Thing in Tiny's head anymore! Having Lizard-Bug Thing take away Tiny's strength from Tiny's head was worse than all the things Blue did to Tiny!”
“Well, to be fair, Blueskin also entered your head.” Marcus said defensively. “You just didn't notice when he did. Remember when you wanted to escape from me but you couldn't? That was Blue. He was in your head, forcing you to do his bidding without any regard for your life.”
For the first time fear disappeared completely from Tiny's eyes, replaced by pure surprise.
“What?” She asked. “Is... is that true? Blue is in Tiny's head too?”
“Well, he was.” The Vex Queen replied. “When I first entered your mind, I found him hidden in there and took him out.” He paused for a second and then added: “I think that was the reason why you felt so bad at the time. You literally had me and Blue fighting each other inside of your mind. But I ripped him off when I took away your aggressiveness, so he's not there anymore.”
Tiny studied him for a few seconds, processing this information.
“Blue was in Tiny's head, and Bug-Lizard Thing took Blue out like Blue was a Fleshworm?” She asked.
Marcus didn't know what a fleshworm was, but the image of a parasitic worm that infested other creatures' flesh formed in his head, probably coming from the ogress's memories. Apparently —according to the information he had drawn from Tiny’s mind— it was incredibly painful to remove one from its host, and it often left terrible scars as a result.
“Yeah, kind of like that.” The Vex Queen confirmed. “Though the damage was more mental than physical, in this case.”
“Why did Lizard-Bug Thing remove Blue from Tiny's head?”
“For the same reason I spared your life.” Marcus replied. “I wanted you alive and well, and that wouldn't be easy to do with Blueskin in your head forcing you to try to kill me.”
For some reason, these seemed to be the right words. Tiny's expression brightened considerably, and hope was rekindled in her eyes. However, she still did look a tad worried and the maelstrom of memories and emotion around them was still pretty dark and chaotic.
“What happened to Blue?” She asked. “Is Blue dead?”
“Yes.” Marcus confirmed. “He was killed shortly after I captured you.”
Tiny remained silent, considering these words, but the mindscape around her stabilized a little, as the worry on Tiny’s face lessened. When she spoke again, she didn’t look as if she was on the verge of tears again, though she was still a tiny bit tense.
“If Tiny serves Lizard-Bug Thing, is Lizard-Bug Thing going to enter Tiny's head and control Tiny like Blue did?”
“No. Of course not.” Marcus shook his head. “Entering people's heads is not something I like to do, so I'll try not to do that unless it's absolutely necessary. Trust me on that.”
The ogress thought about it for another moment. Her emotions stabilized even more in the meantime, and then she nodded.
“Tiny accepts. Tiny will serve Lizard-Bug Thing if Lizard-Bug Thing will protect and feed Tiny.”
These words caused a sense of relief to wash all over Marcus.
“Finally.” He thought.
However, he thought that it was better to keep his composure in front of the ogress, and so he tried to remain as stoic-looking as possible.
“Good.” He said calmly . “Then I, Marcus Vitali, accept you under my service. In exchange for your obedience and loyalty, I'll make sure that no harm comes to you, and I'll feed you and give you a comfortable place to live in. Is this acceptable for you?”
“Yes.” The ogress confirmed. “That is good for Tiny.”
“Excellent!” The Vex Queen extended his open hand towards her. “Deal then?”
Tiny looked at the chitin-covered hand with suspicion and confusion.
“What is Lizard-Bug Thing doing with Lizard-Bug Thing's hand?” She asked.
“Oh... that's just how humans seal a deal. Both parties shake hands.” Marcus explained. “And by the way, call me Marcus. I don't really mind being called Lizard-Bug Thing, but I think it's more convenient to call me by my actual name.”
“Marcus.” The orc child said, as if tasting the word, and then she cautiously extended her hand to shake the Vex Queen's.
However, as soon as they made contact with each other, a sudden flux of emotions and thoughts exploded between them, and they both immediately retracted their hands. Marcus, who was used to that kind of sensation, was only a bit surprised, but Tiny was outright shocked and had started trembling violently.
“Oops! Sorry!” The Vex Queen immediately apologized. “I forgot that we're in your head! I guess that having the avatars of our respective consciousness touching each other may not be a good idea...” He paused and looked at the orc child. “Do you mind if we do the handshake outside? With our actual bodies?”
“Y-yes.” The ogress agreed, still visibly shaken. “Tiny would like for Lizard-Bug Thi... for Marcus to get out of Tiny's head.”
“Then I'll do that immediately.” The Vex Queen said, and as promised he focused his aura and slowly retracted it from Tiny’s mind.
After he had returned into his own body, Marcus opened his eyes and looked at the ogress. She was still as haggard and skeletal as before, and when the Workers let her go she immediately fell on the ground, but now the aura of despair that had surrounded her had dissipated and when she looked at him her eyes were no longer empty, but focused and alive.
“Well, welcome back to reality, Tiny Sneaky.” Marcus said with a smirk. He then extended his hand and asked: “So, wanna try again?”
The ogress made a faint smile and tried to lift her own hand to grab Marcus’s, but she barely managed to raise her arm halfway, shaking from the effort. Noticing this, the Vex Queen crouched and grabbed Tiny's hand himself. As he shook it, he felt the limb devoid of any strength.
“Alright. The deal is sealed.” Marcus said. “Now, here is my first order as your new master: I want you to eat something.” He smiled encouragingly. “As I said, I want you alive, and you won't survive another day without something in your belly.”
“That... is good.” Tiny said weakly. “Tiny is... a bit hungry.”
“Good. Then I'll have my drones bring you something to eat.” He gave a mental command and a Worker immediately stepped forwards, bringing a plate full of raw meat that had been prepared in advance. “Today's menu is assorted venison, served raw. I've been told that this is a good meal for an orc.”
“It's... good.” Tiny confirmed, as her mouth started watering and her eyes were desperately fixated on the content of the plate.
The plate was put in front of her, but sadly the ogress didn’t even have the strength to bring the food to her mouth. Marcus was about to offer to have one of his drones hand feed her, but before he could speak Tiny found an alternative solution of her own: she simply let herself fall face down on the plate and started eating the meat like a pig from a trough, swallowing huge pieces of meat whole as she did.
The Vex Queen grimaced, as he found such spectacle rather gross, but decided not to point that out for now since the ogress was literally starving. Still, it would be for the best not to invite her to any formal dinner before she learned some basic manners.
In fact, it would probably be advisable to not let her see other people at all for the moment. After all, despite being harmless she was still an ogre and he doubted that her kind would be well received in the human lands, especially now, right after the orc invasion led by the Blue Terror. Moreover, there was the small problem posed by the fact that Tiny had, for all intent and purposes, mentally regressed to a child. Now this could very well be a blessing in disguise considering what kind of person the adult Tiny had been, but nevertheless it would also make it harder to interact with her on a daily basis.
Marcus let out a long, exasperated sigh as he realized just how much of a bother it would be to take care of the ogress, something that he failed to consider in the rush to save her life.
“Fuck me.” He thought. “Just when I was finally looking forward to some peace and quiet, it turns out that I intentionally dived head first into a new whole ocean of problems!”
Sadly, it was too late to backtrack. He had accepted Tiny's oath to serve him, and therefore he was responsible for her now.
“Well... let's try not to be too negative now.” He told himself. “For all I know Tiny could be very easy to take care of. Sure she looks terrible right now, but maybe all she needs is a little time to recover. Some rich meals to get some meat back on her bones, a few good nights of sleep and a thorough bath and she should be as good as new!”
He then tried desperately to stick to this hope, all while trying to ignore the disgusting sounds Tiny was making while gorging herself on meat.
Comments
JulesBeHere
No problem, glad to help :)
Valentino Conti Angeli
thanks for the correction! I'll fix that right away!
JulesBeHere
Good chapter! I really enjoyed this one. I noticed a spelling error: "and painfully thing as well." should be "and painfully thin as well."
Valentino Conti Angeli
thanks!
ZCochraine!%
This is a good chapter.
