Tag: they never buy pairs

They Never Buy Pairs

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s the tenth update for the Sad Oscar AU! When it began, I definitely didn’t have much direction planned out for what would happen to the poor guy. Now, I have a plan, and even (eventually) an ending to the story/AU! Let’s take one more step on the adventure. Poor lil guy.

( x )

“Good news, Ollie. You’ve been bought.”

The voice was loud and harsh, forcing Oscar out of sleep earlier than he was used to. He barely parsed the words by the time he thought to open his eyes. A hand loomed in his vision and sent a bolt of fear through him.

No matter how many months he’d spent in captivity, that never became an easier sight. Never.

He shot upright as the fingers reached him. Not to escape–he knew better. Standing meant the hand wouldn’t force him into an uncomfortable ball when it gathered him up. Instead, the fingers slipped around him and closed in unbreakable coils. Only his head and shoulders remained free of the uncomfortable pressure all around him. He held in his squeak of discomfort.

Voicing fear never got him anything good. At best, it went ignored. At worst, he could get reprimanded. The customers didn’t want them too afraid.

That’s what the salesman always repeated to Oscar and his friend and fellow captive, Jacob. Over and over in their training, their conditioning. Until, of course, weeks ago when Jacob was sold and Oscar was left all alone again.

Don’t get attached. They never buy pairs. It was coming true right before his eyes.

Now, he was more afraid than ever. The human, thankfully, didn’t take notice or didn’t care about the tears in Oscar’s eyes as he carried him out of the room with the cages for what would be the last time. It was all Oscar could do to hold it in to avoid punishment, but he was afraid.

New humans meant new terrors. Each time he changed hands, he found himself in a worse place than the last. Whoever had bought him couldn’t be any different. The pattern would go on.

“You’ll like these ones,” the salesman said in defiance of Oscar’s thoughts. “They tell me they already have an enclosure just for you. Just remember who you’re representing with them, are we clear?”

Oscar grimaced as the hand lifted enough for the man to peer down at him, but not enough to put him at eye level. He was not an equal, and there would be no illusions of that.

“Y-yes, sir,” Oscar squeaked out thickly. “Tha-thank you.”

The man wrinkled his nose in distaste for the tremors in Oscar’s voice, but huffed and didn’t say anything about it. He’d tried from the first day to get rid of it. Some days were better than others.

Today, Oscar didn’t think he’d be able to avoid his fear even if he wanted to suppress it.

The human carried him back to a room that Oscar hadn’t seen since he first arrived. The room where the salesman first inspected him and determined he would be a great asset. There was already something waiting on the table in the middle of the room, and Oscar recognized it right away.

It looked almost exactly like the box that Noriko had dropped him in when she sold him away. This one had the same air holes in the side and a heavy lid that he wouldn’t be able to move on his own even if he was tall enough to reach it. The only difference was that this one hadn’t been decorated, and as they reached the table, he saw no cushioning at the bottom.

“Sit tight, Ollie,” the human told him with a smirk, before sweeping his hand forward and letting Oscar slip through his fingers. Oscar clung to the last one for only a second, his legs swinging over the box. Then, sure he wouldn’t crash into something and before the man could notice, he let himself fall.

The lid was over him seconds later, and Oscar curled up into a ball. He knew what was coming. The box lurched up and swayed.

He really was leaving. His heart pounded and he shrank into a corner as much as he could.

A door opened. A new room. Oscar heard at least one other human moving around, despite the pounding in his ears. Something tapped the floor; footsteps?

The salesman had a much warmer voice when he greeted them. “Here we are, sir. Little Ollie all parceled up and ready to go home.”

The other human hummed thoughtfully. “I’m sure he’s as mild as you say, but be a lad and put something on that lid to keep him in? Charlotte would be livid if the little devil escaped before I even get him home.”

“Absolutely, sir,” the salesman’s voice was so sickly sweet that Oscar cringed. He’d never heard so much false warmth in it before.

Something rustled against the side of the box and then snapped into place. Oscar glanced up and spotted the stretched tan of a rubber band through one of his air holes. He had even less chance of escape now, and he never once planned to try. He was too afraid of what might happen if he did.

“An absolute pleasure doing business, sir,” the salesman said, and the box lurched forward. Oscar felt a sickly bolt of electricity through him with the knowledge that he’d changed hands again. The new human thought he owned him.

“No, thank you,” the new human said before he turned away. Oscar imagined an enormous door, but it didn’t lead to freedom. “Cheers.”

Conditioning (2/2)

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

( Read from the beginning )

“Jacob.” The warning tone in the human’s voice startled them both. They flinched back and looked up to find the human staring darkly down at them.

Only a second later, he slammed a fist on the table barely two inches from where they stood, and Oscar cried out. They both fell back to a seat.

“Oliver here hasn’t been through any conditioning before, so I can understand his lapse, but you, Jacob? You know the rules,” the human said, as disappointed as a person could be. He took a seat at the table and clasped his hands in front of him. “Care to tell us which rule you just broke?”

Oscar’s eyes were wide and he trembled as the human leaned close. His face was set in a no-nonsense expression, and Oscar shied back from it. Jacob, on the other hand, set his expression in a wary mask.

“I … uh. Don’t speak unless spoken to?” Jacob offered. “But I thought that wouldn’t apply-”

The clasped hands moved too quickly for either of them. They each found an index finger shoving them onto their backs and pinning them down. Oscar squeaked in pain and Jacob grunted, and the human stared down at them dispassionately. “We have a reputation in this business, you know. High quality product. Y’think I got us here by selling you off with half-arsed training? Do better.”

The fingers lifted off of them and Oscar took a breath. He squeezed his eyes shut and rolled over onto his side while his back pulsed with pain. Beside him, he heard Jacob sigh and get to his feet wearily.

“Oliver. Get up.” The human’s words left no room for ambiguity. That was an order, and he expected it to be followed.

Oscar shuddered again and pushed himself back to a seat before scrubbing at the tears in his eyes. He grimaced as he rose the rest of the way to his feet, standing extra small next to Jacob, whose eyes were on his shoes.

“Very good,” the human praised. Oscar shuffled his feet and couldn’t bring himself to look up at the man. “Let’s get started.”

A hand reached out and snatched Oscar up. While the human began listing various rules and guidelines for how they were meant to act, the huge hands casually moved Oscar back and forth from one to the other, sometimes pinching around his waist and sometimes holding him in a fist. Once he even dangled upside down by his leg before being plopped down in a palm.

Handling. The human was simply trying to force him to get used to handling and being talked over.

“You shiver too much,” the human determined, partway through his explanation. “Customers don’t like that.”

He deposited Oscar on the table and grabbed Jacob instead before either of them could predict the movement. Oscar watched as Jacob was subjected to all the same handling, turned this way and that. It was like he was little more than an object to be fidgeted while the human held a conversation more with himself than with his tiny captives.

The worst part was seeing how Jacob hardly struggled at all. He winced at times, and Oscar knew his burns stung him more than once. And yet, the kid tried his best not to fight what was happening to him.

They were both helpless.

It was hard to guess the time, but it had to have been hours by the time the salesman carried Oscar and Jacob back towards the room with the cages. Oscar, despite the constant throbbing pain in his back, scrambled to the front of his own cage once the human deposited him on the floor.

He was just in time to see Jacob dropped into a different kind of cage, this one with no bars on the front and barely an opening at the top for air. It looked more like a safe than a cage, and its door was heavy when it closed up.

When the human had them both locked up, he smirked back at Oscar. “Don’t get attached, Ollie. They never buy pairs.”

And then he left them all alone in the room of cages once more.