Taking a Seat [Invite]

[Piper Wren]

"Zarek? What is his surname?"
Piper wanted to avoid the subject of Zarek as much as she could but there was little she could do aside from answer Naelona’s questions, give her only the basic information and nothing more. She still didn’t look Naelona in the eye but that was probably a good thing, the boogie might see it was Piper being defiant if she did so. She kept her answer simple, straight and to the point.

“Zarek Camulu.”

"Shaehern? Shaehern Azhrarn? "That was unexpected, but you could have attracted worse. "Of Mr. Nationis, however…As far as I am aware, he is not a keeper of slaves, save as an acquirer for limited purposes. Considering you are still alive, and in one piece…What does he want with you?"

Then came to the subject of other boogies who were interested in claiming Piper or had tried to do so in the past, Naelona did not seem too worried about Shaehern’s fleeting interest in acquiring her, he had seemed more interested in acquiring Zarek for a different purpose after the other boogie had made it clear that she was spoken for. Since then he had left her alone and found other, more receptive victims to harass and mind fuck. But the subject of Iugo made Piper instinctively tighten her grip on her right hand, Elric might notice this and he would understand why. He had seen her not long after her last severe beating from Iugo and when he had snapped her fingers one by one, it had taken weeks for them to heal…for that hand to be useable again. That wasn’t the worst of her experiences with him by far…

Just the other hadn’t left any lasting physical impressions apart from faint marks around her wrists and ankles, they were barely visible even against Piper’s ivory skin but still there. From when he had taken her into the Widow’s Trap…if Tristan hadn’t been there she didn’t know-No, she did know what would have happened. Piper took a breath to compose herself before answering Naelona’s query about why Iugo was interested in her.

“In truth, Madam. I don’t know, he’s been…interested by me ever since I’ve been here. I can’t give anything else than that.”

[Naelona Ezel]

Camulu wasn't a name Naelona had heard of. Maybe it indeed was some young upstart. If that was the case well then all the better - they tended to be considerably easier to deal with than older, more experienced boogies. "Considering you haven't seen him since the ball, I'll check amidst the rubble in case of his demise, however should you see him first - make sure you send him directly to me. I wish to meet with him as soon as possible." Enough time had been wasted in this affair as it was.

"In truth, Madam. I don't know, he's been...interested by me ever since I've been here. I can't give anything else than that." Naelona's grim look didn't change, and for a moment her nails clicked in a short rhythm against the floor as a distant glare bore into the table. Way to pick them, Tristan.. It made sense, he was the perfect proverbial 'save the kicked puppy in the rain' sort of individual. Of all the slaves in Wonderland, did one of them have to be one of this sort of situation? With a silent sigh, the Ezel edited her own thoughts. What she understood of Iugo and what this girl was telling her wasn't quite matching up. Save if there was information yet to be told.

"Interested..?" She glanced the girl over a second time. What had he done about that? "Take your things, Piper. Elric. This is no long an appropriate place for this conversation." Abruptly rising from her seat Naelona handed her bookelt and the stack of papers to Elric to hold on his lap. "Mind the chair, child. He can hold your things." Crossing the room to the trolley Naelona steered it towards the door, trailed by the small clattering of the wheels against the warped floor. Her face was set grimly, yet she still strode her proud figure from the room, down a short hall and leaving the newly acquired supplies in a small room where the slaves would find it.

Dusting off her hand, she wiped them with a gray handkerchief as though ridding herself of some unseen filth that coated the place. The girl was at least strong enough to push a wheeled chair wasn't she? It would be a bit of a distance back to the North Wing, but there were certain matters Naelona felt much more comfortable discussing in her own quarters than some doomed building she rarely frequented. It was largely unfamiliar with this building, and it sat poorly upon her mind to discuss important information here. So far from her quarters, and her records.

"Well don't drag your feet." Naelona remarked, looking back towards the pair through the doorway. The clock was ticking, and so was her tested patience.

[Elric Vlarintos]

Iugo was a name that Elric had anticipated, but the others were not much recognizable to him, except that he might have heard them in passing. He was much more concerned with Piper's body language and her bearing. Every slave did what they thought was right when confronted with a Boogie. Elric preferred to show that he had a backbone, but was still subservient. He maintained eye contact out of a sense of respect and answered questions fully. Usually he would attempt to form complete sentences for the answers and offer relevant information that pertained to the interest of the original question.

Piper handled it much differently than Elric did. He doubted that she'd be able to behave the way he did. Talking about Iugo set her on edge, and he really couldn't blame her. It made his blood boil to think about what he had done to Piper. The heat was replaced by a chill at the realization that Iugo had been doing this for longer than either of them had been alive, and he would still be doing it after they were dead.

The definition of hopelessness right there.

Elric wished he could just roll out of the room. It wasn't long before he got his wish, though in an unexpected way. Naelona passed him the papers and he'd be expected to hold onto 'Piper's' things as well. They were now his own things, he supposed, but that didn't matter much. Piper would have to push him, and all those things. Even on wheels he imagined that was hardly a light load. And Piper was... well...

She wasn't exactly very large or strong looking. This was going to be awkward for several reasons. For the brief moment when Nae was out of the room he mouthed an 'I'm sorry' at her, though sorry didn't really feel good enough. At the very least, this did not look like it was nearly so bad as Piper or he had been anticipating.

[Piper Wren]

"Interested..? Take your things, Piper. Elric. This is no long an appropriate place for this conversation. Mind the chair, child. He can hold your things…Well don't drag your feet."

The young woman lifted her gaze from the floor and watched Naelona cross the room, her expression grim but her motions and mannerisms were efficient as ever…and not tolerant of them taking their time. Piper didn’t like where this was going…She didn’t want to answer anymore question about anything, she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved that she wasn’t going to be on her own with Naelona…even if she did feel hurt by Elric ratting her out when she thought she could trust him as a friend. But things between them hadn’t been right for a while now and she was beginning to doubt if they would get back to normal. At the Boogie’s order, Piper got up from her chair and crossed behind Elric, she was supposed to push him?

Piper wasn’t exactly known for her brute strength and Elric wasn’t known to be hollow boned either. None the less she would have to grit her teeth and get on with it. Hell, she had been gritting her teeth and putting up with everything even before she landed in Wonderland. When Elric mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ at her she bit lightly down on her bottom lip and looked away, getting behind the chair and putting her weight into pushing it along the floor.

Heavy? Elric? Of course not…

She managed to get both of them out into the corridor where Naelona was waiting at least.

[Naelona Ezel]

Perhaps making the girl push the chair wasn't such a good idea after all. She was making it, but she was being too slow for Naelona's taste and it was obvious it wasn't some small feat for her either. Were she in a more spiteful mood and were Piper deserving of it, she might have left the girl to struggle all the way back to the Palace.

"Move aside." Waving the girl away Naelona took her place instead, a solid foot to the stretcher of the chair near the wheels got it moving again. "Be useful and catch the doors." It didn't take the boogie many steps to get the chair rolling at a brisk pace. There was a limit to how quick it could go without issue, and that wouldn't be breached, but one could certainly go quicker than they would have been traveling moments ago.

Naelona would remain mostly silent, taking her time at more tricky parts of their path, but where ground could be made, it was taken. Before long they arrive in the Palace, to the North Wing. Entering in a room Naelona solidly shut the door of her quarters behind them. Piper probably wouldn't know the place, but Elric would. Leaving the boy to sit beside an impressive bookcase Naelona was already busy with her own matters.

"Now then.." ..but where were they? "What I need from you.." Naelona spent several moments opening a few ledgers only to close them again after thumbing past a few pages. "Tell me your age upon arrival within Wonderland, how long have you existed here, how long Mr. Blackthorne owned you.." and probably most importantly, "..and the method by which you came into his possession."

Some of the questions might sounds familiar to Elric, though some he was never asked. There were things to be inquired of the girl that were never inquired of him, those would have been Kazn's doing. Piper was a random unknown. She had been marked down as existing, so it wasn't like she was some wandering unknown being as some seemed to be, but little else was recorded of her.

Up above on top of the bookcase a fuzzy little head suddenly showed up over the edge, Mar's beady little eyes staring intently on the foolish slave boy beneath the familiar. Between those rolling wheels and that blond's horrid cat, Mar was running out of places to call his. Licking it's lips the monkey bared it's teeth briefly at the immobile boy, shifting quietly from it's side and onto it's tiny paws. He wasn't going to get away this time.

[Elric Vlarintos]

Being pushed along by Piper was every bit as awkward as he expected it to be. It was even worse, since he'd be pushed along in perfect silence. She didn't even bother giving him a response to his previous apology. That was a bad sign if Elric could recognize one. He bit his lip as she struggled to push him along. Considering everything he had done recently he was terribly shocked that she had come to see him at all. It wasn't his fault that he had been injured and he had not made Piper come and see him. Even still, he was the one who had managed to break what was left of their friendship.

That left him roughly in the same place he had been before meeting Piper. The only differences being that he had a different owner now and he sort of talked to people on the occasion. Kristopher and Aione, who apparently did not get along at all. This was going to be hard.

Naelona took charge of the chair. She was quite a bit stronger than Elric would have expected, but it was generally accepted that Boogies were stronger than humans of equal size. Naelona and Piper were about the same size, too. Elric pondered how much stronger than Piper his Mistress must be, especially given how much more easily she pushed the chair. Then again, she wasn't taking measures to be kind. Just efficient.

He found himself parked by a bookcase and left with everything on his lap. Likely he'd be quietly observing more questions. In Elric's mind he thought that these were the types of things that you'd prefer not to talk about while other ears were prying about. Yet Nae did not bother removing him from the area. She either did not care if Elric heard, or simply did not find the benefit of removing him to be worth the effort. She probably had words for him, still. It suddenly felt like he was going to be on bad terms with everyone, regardless of what he did.

Indeed, he recognized the questions, but did his best to tune out what Piper would say in response to them. Most of it was minor bookkeeping details anyways. It was probably only slightly more important than the things Naelona had him practicing to copy down.

Elric remained terribly unaware of the squirrel monkey eyeing him from the top of the bookcase. His own thoughts were beginning to slow down as he tried to relax himself a little bit more.

[Piper Wren]

Piper was pushed out from behind Elric’s chair by Naelona, in a way that was a little bit of a relief. Elric was no lightweight to be pushing around even though Naelona seemed to manage it easily, although boogies were generally stronger than the average human of a similar size and weight. She did as Naelona asked and held doors open for them to get out of the hospital, avoiding eye contact all the while. Piper followed Naelona into the North wing of the palace, somewhere she had thankfully never been before. Being in the depths of Naelona’s chambers was doing nothing for Piper’s nerves but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Now then…What I need from you…Tell me your age upon arrival within Wonderland, how long have you existed here, how long Mr. Blackthorne owned you…and the method by which you came into his possession."

That was something Piper did not want to talk about, the night she ended up in Tristan’s possession still made her feel sick when she remembered the events. What was with all the questions anyway? Tristan didn’t bother making her repeat anything she didn’t want to repeat…but Tristan was a commodity amongst boogies, Piper had to keep reminding herself of that. Steeling herself she took a deep breath to calmly give her answers, there was no need to go into detail about what happened at the widow’s trap. She forced herself to look at Naelona if only for a moment before her steel grey gaze flicked off to the side.

“I was 18 when I arrived here and I’ve been here for just over a year now and Tristan…Tristan saved me from Iugo at the Widow’s Trap, otherwise I would been killed…”

Please say that was all the detail she needed, nothing else…please. Piper felt nausea creeping through her at even having to talk about, even though Tristan had technically stolen her from Iugo she knew that she couldn’t go back to being under that pyscho’s possession. Piper would rather take her own life and rob him of the pleasure.

And as for the monkey…Elric wasn’t the only one not to notice it.

[Naelona Ezel]

"A year.. that isn't saying much." Briefly she noted down a few dates - if Elric could see the paper he might have recognized a few of the symbols, or parts of them rather. The news of Iugo and Tristan however, wasn't something she was expecting.

Wait.. Iugo had her first? Naelona stared hard at the girl. What a mess. "Had he claimed you before this?" That would explain a lot, and also why the mad Doctor hadn't just slaughtered the girl. He was trying to reclaim lost property, if that was the case. That was besides everything, however. First there was still the matter of this Zarek Camulu to deal with. Not to mention Mr. Nationis had been missing since the attack some weeks ago. Presumably dead.

Beyond all this however, arose a different issue entirely. If that were the case, then Piper was not Tristan's slave at all, technically. It meant Naelona was not bound by her promise to assist this girl by any means, she could freely punt her out with no repercussions upon her pride whatsoever! Though if there was doubt about one slave, what of the other? Of Aione? Not to mention the new issues that would also dredge up with his leftover finances.

How frustrating that things would get more difficult and complicated before they could be resolved. But she was getting ahead of herself. Letters had to be scribed first before words, after all.

Oblivious to the affairs going on below, and the distress of it's Mistress, Mar's tail curled ever so slowly. That lump of meat below him had a stack of it's Mistress' papers, and some other useless things. Naelona would get mad if Mar scrambled her papers again like last time. But that boy was there.. and he completely had it coming.

With a loud screech Mar sprung down from above, glomping onto Elric's head in it's own miniature bear hug. The critter would have no remorse if some of its clawing paws found his eyes.. With fistfulls of white hair the vengeful little familiar suddenly chomped down on his ear. Hard.

[Elric Vlarintos]

Elric was trying very hard not to work himself up over anything, but it wasn't working much. Elric had given Naelona specific dates corresponding to his arrival. Then again, it was somewhat difficult to forget Christmas Eve. What a wonderful gift that had been for him. It was getting to be that time of year again too. Maybe Naelona would weigh him down with punishments and he wouldn't have time to think about it. That almost made the stern talking to he was anticipating seem worth it.

What happened next would break his entire train of thought. How was one supposed to react to a squirrel monkey jumping on your head? "Ah!" Elric jumped a little in his chair. The damn thing had at least made a loud shriek announcing its descent before landing on Elric's head, but that had hardly been enough of a warning to react before it got hold of him. It was grabbing clumps of his hair, not a good thing to do with Elric. He found himself clenching his fists. He really hoped Naelona wouldn't take too much offense to him slugging her familiar.

Then Mar bit his left ear. Probably picked it because of the earring, foul beast. He groaned as he raised both hands upward and made a grab for the little thing's mouth. It was harder to open a set of jaws than to keep them shut, but Elric was much bigger and much stronger than that little monkey. He was not pleased with Mar at all for biting down on his ear and pulling at his hair. Paws scratching at his face and digging into his skin weren't helping the white-haired boy's temperament at all, either. For a brief moment the idea of grasping at both parts of the beast's jaw and ripping it asunder seemed grimly satisfying.

One hand on each of the beast's jaws and he tried to pry its mouth open. He wouldn't rip it apart quite like he had in his imagination, if not out of respect for Naelona, then because Mar was still a living animal and Elric couldn't quite bring himself to do it. Soft heart would get him in trouble someday, if it didn't get him in trouble now. "Filthy scrap of fur," he managed to mutter before catching a surprise mouthful of miniature hand.

[Piper Wren]

"A year…that isn't saying much…Had he claimed you before this?"

Piper felt genuinely sick, if she admitted that Iugo had claimed her before Tristan took ownership of her she could be sent back to that psycho. She couldn’t go back to him! She wouldn’t do it! Where was Zarek when she needed him? Iugo repeatedly came after her because she had managed to get away from him, he just wanted to finish the job. The last time she had come into Iugo’s presence he had snapped her fingers and beaten her until she was black and blue. Piper knew she would rather die than go through all of that whenever Iugo needed some entertainment or to be Agony’s play thing. Something seemed to change about the way she held herself. Her hands which until now hand been held loose at her side were clenched into fists so tight that it looked as if her knuckles might burst through the skin. Piper looked up and for the first time looked Naelona directly in the eye, when she spoke there was a conviction in her voice that hadn’t been there until now.

“Send me back to him, Madam. And I will take my own life, I don’t need Iugo to do it for me.”

That would piss him off, rob him of the pleasure of wiping her out. And it would get her out of here, drastic perhaps but if she went back to him it was far preferable to be dead. Piper hadn’t raised her voice but the brutal honesty in her words was there in her eyes. She could hear Elric having a spat with something and glanced momentarily back…a monkey of all things? But she didn’t say anything about it, not like the goddamn monkey would listen to her anyway. No one fucking seemed to.

[Naelona Ezel]

Naelona settled a cold gaze upon the girl. "So he has. Next time say 'yes' or 'no'. Save the stories for another time." Whether she killed herself or not wasn't Naelona's affair. All slaves died sooner or later - all that varied from one to another was when. "Considering neither boogie has been seen since the event I will be taking temporary custody of you until this can be further resolved." Now finding the fate of Iugo and this unknown 'Camulu' fellow was of increased importance.

Technically, the girl would have to go to one of them should one of them have survived, and the other had not. If both of them were found to have perished in the attack, or neither was found for a considerable period of time, she would be sent to be auctioned off to some other hapless sap. With Tristan's claim to her ongoing fate nullified, Naelona - for all points and purposes - was quite free of her. Or would be rather. This temporary possession was for entirely different reasons.

With the loud screech and imminent attack from Mar, Naelona hardly batted an eye, nor seemed to even acknowledge the disturbance. Not at first, at least. Flipping over some pages the boogie was scanning for something. "You reside in Room One of the South Wing, correct?" Jotting down a note upon the paper, it was the continued complaints of her familiar that finally got her to glance up at the two. Seeing Mar struggle with Elric and the boy diligently prying the creature's sharp teeth from his now (undoubtedly) bleeding ear, the slave only received a glare from his mistress.

Mar on the other hand was not liking this new turn of events in the slightest. The squirrel monkey would show him what was a filthy scrap of fur! With a screech Mar clawed and scratched at Elric's face and hands, still squirming in an attempt to snap at his filthy fingers and get away. The tables had most definitely turned on the small creature now, and it wasn't liking it one bit.

"Our first order of business will be to contact this Mr. Camulu. If he is found to be alive, any further matters regarding you and Mr. Nationis will be his affair. If you have any further knowledge of Mr. Nationis and his claim of ownership upon you, share it. Mr. Blackthorne had a known history of stealing slaves from other Boogies, however Mr. Nationis never informed me of this matter when it presumably occurred, nor pursued a proper course of action. It is possible by doing so he has forfeited all right to you. Do you understand this, Miss Wren?"

[Elric Vlarintos]

Elric was missing crucial details about Piper's interrogation. There really was no better term for it, especially after the recent turn of events, but Elric couldn't really make out more than a few words in between the screams from Mar and the frantic grabs of tiny little paws. Pulling Mar off of his ear had been a good move, Elric felt blood flowing freely out of his ear now. The little thing had sharper teeth than he expected. He was almost certain that little monkeys ate plants and insects and that sharp teeth would seem odd for such a diet.

Thank goodness for hands calloused from years of metalworking. He was putting a lot of pressure on the little guy's teeth as he pulled the squirrel monkey off of his ear. The rushed and desperate attacks were annoyances more than anything. Elric had never observed monkeys that close, but he recalled that they did have a few claws. The few claws Mar did have would mostly be for grooming and left little red lines where they scraped against Elric's face.

Eventually Elric managed to pull the small beast from his head, but the creature took some tiny handfuls of hair with it. He changed his grasping point from around the mouth to the scruff of the neck and held the little furball out from him. He'd rather not toss the creature to the floor, since he'd just scurry away and jump at him again. It would be a vicious cycle. Instead, Elric stroked the monkey's head while he tried to calm it down with hushing noises. He really had no idea what he was doing, so he just treated it much like a cat.

A very angry cat with a shape that was vaguely humanoid.

He cast a nervous glance over at Naelona and Piper. His Mistress had not bothered to intervene at all. She was definitely upset with him. Just wonderful. Furthermore, it sounded like whatever Piper had said sealed her fate; Elric had missed the specifics in the storm of spite, spittle and fur.