Main Cavern

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

"The healers can't help me", Tillias replies with a short smile. Welcoming the pause he leans against the stone, cold against his warm skin. Vaniolle would get the impression that she could almost count the ribs on the skinny young man. Almost. "Been that way since the day I was born." He reaches up and brushes a strand out of his face.

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

"Huh." She looked him up and down, in an assessing kind of manner rather than a check-you-out. Finally, she said pragmatically, "Well, that's unfortunate for you. Is there anything that does help? You look like you might keel over any minute." She sounded concerned, at least.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

Tillias doesn't mind - he seems to get that a lot. "Well, the slavers kept me going for a good while. A place to lie down would be great. Last one was occupied", he adds, motioning up the path. "The lady didn't like my lying in her lap. . . Some food as well. I don't eat much."

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

Something about that seemed to strike Vaniolle as funny, as she laughed, and patted the young man between the shoulderblades. "You must have picked just about the wrongest lap to fall in in the entire Burrows. Well, a sit-down and a snack can be done, in any case." She paused again and peered at him. "You don't happen to have a home cavern I can take you home to, do you? Or are you just that new?" It would make sense, she supposed. Talk of 'slavers' and all.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

Tillias takes a quick step forward to catch the pat. "As fresh as morning dew. Just as light as well. Ouch." The young man rubs the spot that Vaniolle hit him at - or tries to, given it's location. "But yeah, I'm glad for any help I can get. My name is Tillias, by the way. Tillias Ritter." He goes to reach out his hand but realises a bit too late that this woman could crush his finger. As it is his hand hangs halfway in the air, undecided.

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

She laughed again, appreciating his sense of humor, and instead of taking the hand he didn't seem sure if he wanted to offer, she patted him much more gently on the shoulder. "You know, Tillias Ritter, I think I might have just the cave for you. To start at, at least. They took me in when I was new, too, the lady who runs it is an absolute darling -- and they will be much gentler on you there than people in other caverns might." She grinned wickedly. "My name is Vaniolle. No last name here. So, you must have been free-born, then, right?" she asked conversationally as she beckoned the frail man to follow her as she led him down the spiral, in the same direction he had been heading before.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

"Free-born. Hm. Depends on your definition of free. Couldn't go out and play. Mother always cared for me", Tillias explains as he follows Vallione. "Taught me to think for myself and to keep some independence, as if. . ." He doesn't finish the sentence, and his eyes wander into the distance for a moment.

(Operation Dramatic Backstory is a Go!)

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

"As if?" she prompted, wondering if that had been the end of his sentence. But she went on, really, before he could get a chance to respond! "Anyways, if this is your first experience with being slave, then you've lucked out.... or, hmm. Maybe, maybe not." She looked him over again as they walked down the passageway, passing openings left and right. "That really depends. Listen, do you like sex?" she asked, just straight-up, like asking if someone perhaps liked steak, or sports. Perhaps Vaniolle was not the best person to introduce a new-caught slave to the Burrows!

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

Tillias stumbles over his feet and has to catch himself on the wall. "Do I- I wouldn't know, really." Oh, that bodes well. "When I was old enough - Mother paid our maid a little extra to. . ." His blush contrasts nicely with his pale skin. "To take care of me now and then. . . with her hand. She was nice enough but - I never went all the way", he finally manages to blurt out.

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

Vaniolle seemed to take that in stride, unsurprised. She nodded. "Well, I can promise you that won't last long here, unless you're actively looking to stay a virgin." She looked at him, her eyebrows questioningly, looking the entire time as if she was trying not to grin for the sake of politeness. She had slowed her pace, too, to allow him to regain his footing and perhaps composure before they continued. "And you won't have to pay anyone. In fact, you kind of get paid, the more sex you have." She paused, and patted him on the shoulder again, careful to be gentle. "Though don't worry too much about that right now. I'm taking you somewhere that no one's going to try and seduce you straight off; you look like you might appreciate some adjustment time before jumping into the fray..." It wasn't quite a question, but she watched him for evidence to the contrary.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

"That's. . . good to hear. However, I have to admit I'm curious. Then again, I'm curious about almost anything", Tillias replies with a smile as he brushes the same strand out of his face again. "Can't say I've fought off the girls with a stick, really." He inhales and runs his knuckles along his ribs to demonstrate.

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

"Hmmmm," she commented, and nodded, but didn't commented. His self-esteem seemed well enough, for someone so... sickly looking, but she didn't want to beat on it if he wasn't into that. "Well, there is every taste you could ever think of, here," she let him know, thinking of her own odd tastes with which she'd come to terms, "so you're bound to find someone enthusiastic. Hell, if you're that eager... I've been known to give a free ride now and then." She grinned at him suggestively, pretty blase about the whole subject.

"Then again --" she paused, looking thoughtful, "if you're that new... Has anyone actually given you the talk about this place yet? About what the Burrows are all about?"

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

Tillias laughs out at Vaniolle's suggestion - in a good-humored way. "Goddess, I don't think I could take enthusiastic right now. Especially not from somebody as athletic as you. But. . . thanks."

The thin man shakes his head at her question. "No, nobody filled me in. I figured this to be a massive slave pen. Why, is there more to it?"

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

"Oh yes, yes indeed... much more," she told him, grinning knowingly. "The Masters who would usually be breathing down your neck, telling you what to do, punishing you if you step out of line... they stay out of things here. The only legitimate Master you'll ever meet here is Mistress Falia, unless you attract outside attention, which doesn't happen often.

"This place is, well, basically it's a hybrid breeding center. We get rewarded for reproducing," she tells him. "Women who get pregnant, we're whisked away for a few days, get some magic mojo cast on us that speeds up the process, and sent back to the Burrows healthy and hale and with some kind of material reward for having produced offspring. Men, I take it, get a similar treatment but without having to bear children... once you've sired a few, Mistress Falia will take you to a private audience and offer you a reward as well. So the modus operandi here is mostly sex, sex, sex, except for a few fringe groups who object to the whole idea of this place -- I can't really blame them, but I feel worse for the offspring who get sold off than I do for those of us who are kept in here." She sighs. "Mostly the living is good here, if you play by the rules, and find a group to back you up rather than being on your own the entire time."

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

Tillias is quiet for a few moments as he takes that bit of information in. "Well, that is an. . . interesting concept. Goddess be blessed that - whatever it is I've got doesn't spread. With all the sex going on here that could've been a huge problem. Question is if it's hereditary", he murmurs, mostly to himself. "And if it could be canceled out by taking a stronger mate, or by crossbreeding with a different species."

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

She slowed to regard him with mild amazement. "You are just incredibly pragmatic about your condition, aren't you?" She sounded as if she approved. "You should see if there are any knowledgeable daemons around. Goddess, I don't know what good they could do, but they seem to know things about what inherits and what doesn't. Actually, you know, I bet Falia has one or two in her employ to see to women who get pregnant. You could turn it into an experiment," she teases, "go seduce yourself a demon and a dragon and a daemon... oh hell, if you just talked about it with some of the brainier dragons that'd get them on board. Find yourself an Earth female," she suggested.

"Oh." She slowed suddenly, and beckoned for him to follow as she turned into one of the openings along the cavernside. "Here we are," she announced, "my very first home in the Burrows. Though I don't live here anymore, out of respect for Ahknet... she's a darling, and kind to newcomers, but she doesn't like the whole idea of this place, doesn't really approve of playing by the rules, and," she shrugged, "I tend to play by the rules." She looked around the cavern -- a sparse, shabby kind of place, a far cry from some of the decked-out caverns they'd passed. "Annnnd it doesn't look like she's here right now. Too bad."

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

"I've had all my life to come to terms with it. Helps coming to terms with other things as well", Tillias replies, answering her suggestion with a little laugh. He peers into the cavern and sighs. "Well, then what? Do we wait?" For the third time in a few minutes he brushes the strand out of his face absent-mindedly.

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

"Well, now we can have that sit down and snack you said you wanted," she told him, gesturing to the interior of the cavern -- there were benches around, and even a few beds in the back, though they didn't look abused in the way that other such beds in the Burrows might. "Or at least the sit-down. That's why I was hoping the patron was home -- I, uh, didn't bring any food with me this time," she grinned and shrugged. "Anyways, take a breather, if you still want it, though you look better than you did earlier. And keep this place in mind, it's a good place to come back to if you just need a break from things for a while. I don't think Akhnet would turn you away." She smiled.

((Gotcha. :3 If you want to start up again independant of me when you get back, feel free to assume Vaniolle wandered off while Tillias was resting.))

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Main Cavern

Tillias nods. "I'll be sure to remember that. Thank you for bringing me here", he says with a little smile. "And I'm sure I don't look better. You must've gotten used to me", he adds as he walks over to an old couch and sits down.

((No, it's okay. I can wait.))

 

[Kattunge]

Re: Main Cavern

"Well, maybe that's the case, maybe it's not," she said cheerfully, following him to the couch but staying standing. She seemed the sort to rarely be sitting down. "Anyways, you just looked like you needed a hand. Pass on the favour, when you're used to the place and see an overwhelmed newbie yourself, and we'll be even," she winked at him.