"So Who Are You?" - Blaecleah - yr 27 - An intro of Addergoole

[aldersprig]

"So who are you?"

Blaecleah had been answering that question all day. Some people said it like an invitation, some people said it like a challenge. Some people said it like he was in their space - like this guy, too tall and too lean and with too white of teeth.

"I'm Blaecleah. Who are you?" It was a novel situation; before now, everyone had known him and he'd known everyone.

Instead of answering, too-tall just grinned. "Hah. I like you." He grabbed Blaecleah's arm - he tried to grab Blaecleah's arm, seemed unsurprised when Blaecleah dodged, and somehow managed to get a hand on him anyway. "Very nice. Creche kid?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Blaechleah blinked up at the guy. The grip was too tight to break with a simple twist; did he need to start a fight?

"You guys are always tougher than the ones of us from outside. Sort of. Tougher and softer at the same time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He shifted his body as far as too-tall's grip would allow, and got his feet into fighting stance.

The guy just grinned even wider. "Look at you. Ready to knock my teeth in. And yet you've never lived a day without electricity in your life, have you?"

The creche was in the Village; the Village was within Addergoole's wards. "No? Why should I?"

"Because you won't be in the creche forever."

"Obviously. I'm here now."

"You are. And how will you survive here?"

Blaecleah looked around. "That's a joke, right?" Soft carpeting, paneled walls - down here, you'd never know there'd even been an apocalypse.

"Is it?"

"Oh, you're a barrel of laughs."

"Look." Too-tall did something, and then he was holding both of Blaecleah's arms. "You're quick, and you're a smart-mouth, and that's a good start. But that's not gonna be anything but the bare basics, here."

Blaecleah snorted. "I can take anything you can. I can take absolutely anything you dish out."

"Oh, really?"

Something in Blaecleah set off alarm bells, but he'd come this far; he wasn't going to back down now. "Really."

"Anything."

"Anything. Duh."

"Say you'll belong to me."

What? Blaecleah glanced away. He'd grown up in the Village; he knew what that meant. He'd seen enough people wander through collared. He scoffed to cover his pause. "That's the best you got? Sure, I'll be yours for a year."

"Then for the next year, you Belong to me, Blaecleah. Come on."

Head spinning, Blaecleah went where he was tugged.

Next: Bug

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Comments

[inventrix]

Someone's just a leeeeetle overconfident.

[aldersprig]

Just a _tad_!

As I was writing him, he was reminding me of (Fanstuff I've seen of) Damian Wayne.

[inventrix]

Ahaha! I hadn't made that connection but it's great. Damian minus the murdery bits.

[aldersprig]

Yes :-D

[kuro_neko00]

Wow, just wow. If you knew what that meant then why the hell did you say it?! He's not even a pretty girl... Unless, I suppose you might swing that way. Even still, that's something you're supposed to try to avoid genius. Especially if you don't swing that way, since he almost certainly does, otherwise he'd be hunting a girl. *sigh*

It almost makes me want to say he deserves what he's going to get in the next year, but considering the setting, no I'm not going to say that.

[wyste]

But... if statistically everyone but maybe one first-year per year ends up Kept, why are you supposed to try to avoid it? That's just a lot of wasted effort. Try to get someone you think is hot, sure, but if you know the score going in... and are into that sort of thing....

*confused*

Being the sort of person who's okay being briefly Kept, like Speed, is the best situation you can hope for in Addergoole, so...?

[kuro_neko00]

At the very least do what Kyle did, avoid it as long as you can, while also evaluating your possibilities. So if it starts looking like you're not going to luck out, make the best choice you can, and if possible try to negotiate some terms. That worked out pretty well for Kyle. Not perfectly, but decently.

Edit: The way this guy manhandled the newbie, it seems like he's the type to get physically abusive. At the very least that's not a good sign.

[wyste]

So your answer is a kinda longform 'the top seems creepy'? Well, I have to agree, so I shall leave it there. He /does/ seem creepy. Hopefully hot and creepy.

[inventrix]

What if you wanted to be Kept?

[kuro_neko00]

He didn't strike me as the type. I will freely admit that there are people out there that would be perfectly ok with being Kept, even prefer it. We've even seen a few at Addergoole. But they're not the majority by a large margin. His reasoning for agreeing to this seems to be purely bravado, which has got to be one of the stupidest reasons to agree to be someone's slave for a year.

Admittedly one of my favorite characters, Shahin, also agreed to be kept for about the same reason. But at least she only agreed to it for a week, with some conditions and a reciprocal agreement in place. She also didn't really know what she was getting into, where as this guy does.

[thnidu]

I want to pronounce his name = "Blakely" /ˈbleɪkli/.

[aldersprig]

Me too!

[natf]

In my head it is pronounced blay-clear.

[aldersprig]

Oh! Interesting.

[natdaylog]

Thinking about this further, blae = blay because of the number of Irish and Scottish words that have that syllable and are pronounced like that hereabouts and cleah = clear because of it containing the name Leah which we pronounce lee-ahh. That latter is probably also why it sounds like a female name to me.

[aldersprig]

Ah-ha. It was the ending "r" that threw me.

[natf]

Huh. I have never heard anyone pronounce an R at the end of "clear". We pronounce it clee-ah as one syllable.

[aldersprig]

Ah. Was that a typo above then, or did I misread?

[natf]

No typo. "clear" is pronounced without the r, hereabouts.

[aldersprig]

OH!

[inventrix]

I keep reading his name as something like "blarhghehgrhg". >.>;

[kuro_neko00]

Dito.

[clare_dragonfly]

Oooooops.

So is that pronounced "Blakely"? I have to admit, due to the spelling I thought it was a girl's name, and was confused at the first "him" referring to Blaecleah.

[aldersprig]

I thiiink it's Blake-ly. I don't remember when I named him.