1963-07-06 - My Pet
Summary: Amora meets Sean and quickly ensares him for her own nefarious purposes.
Related: http://marvel1963mush.wikidot.com/log:1963-07-06-my-pet
Theme Song: 'Foreigner's God' Hozier
amora garrison 



Wednesday morning found Sean where the long stretches of inconsequential time between classes often found him. Perched on a park bench within the confines of Central Park, a stone's throw from his lavish apartment door lest the cleaning lady who was currently within thought to steal something. You could never really trust her sort.

In one hand were the crisp pages of a newly printed book, 'Anti-Intellectualism in American Life', the text within browsed under cursory attentions while the other hand held porcelain mug full of tea. The refined young gentleman had even brought a thermos fresh from the kettle to the little oasis, a slice of peaceful heaven that was currently interrupted by brewing argument between two young women on the path that bordered his sanctuary.

It was difficult to discern what the original argument had been about, or why precisely the two women were mere inches away from one another's features with flushed cheeks and hate on the tips of their tongues. While the situation had not escalated to violence yet, it was certainly on the cusp, and despite the tenuous nature of the scene nobody interfered. It was difficult to say why, they had to have seen it, yet every passerby gave the two individuals a wide birth as their voices escalated and Roberta accused Natalie of stealing 'her' man, who was apparently married and thus of no consequence but Roberta had slept with Natalie's boyfriend that one time, which actually mattered.

The sound of the slap pulled Sean's attention up from the pages of his book, and his expression was all gleeful teeth as the victim staggered back holding her cheek. He ran his tongue over a thumb and turned a page, but didn't bother dropping his focus back to it.

The personal indulgence in strangers' suffering was taken with a side of earl grey, a bit of lemon, and a spoonful of wildflower honey. What a beautiful morning.

*

Amora, like a queen visiting a foreign nation had spent the morning with the usual tail of men following her about. It had started when she left the Penthouse apartment on 5th avenue to seek out the tailor's shops of various sorts. After all, this Macy's was only one out of, what she learned to be, hundreds of stores. Not even two hours had passed before she found herself being properly worshiped as was her usual by waves of interested men. Yet not a one proved to be half so interesting as Loki's young mortal.

Perhaps that was why she had started her ambling exploration of the city further. Or perhaps it had been that she'd grown bored with the diamonds, the silks, satins and other goods on offer. She had no use for the piles of green paper that had been offered and so, after having the pertinent clothes and accessories shipped to the apartment she had left it all behind.

A sigh that would have made any listener crane his neck about in wonder at what fair angel made such a noise dragged from her lips as she ducked behind a shop and teleported away once more, this time with less care to her destination than she had had previously.

With a green poof of smoke and light she re-appeared in the park in a circle of old oaks, ones that she had seen long ago as saplings.

"How splendid you've grown." She murmured, patting one as she stepped lightly between them and onto the walking path. She had hardly made more than a few feet before the sound of conflict reached her ears. With a curious tilt of her head she approached, and stopped near enough that she could both see and hear.

A few traded insults and slaps were exchanged and it became clear that her interest started to wane. "How droll.."

*

Sean reclines back against the iron backing of the bench, a king in his own small court, one ankle draping over his thigh as another long sip of tea is taken. By now, Roberta had aimed a toe into the ribs of the woman on the ground, Natalie sobbing as she rose up a hand pleadingly. They were both housewives, not particularly interesting in combat, but something in that contentment Sean wore unabashedly betrayed the triumph.

Violence was difficult. Suggestion was simple, but instincts were so choked by society in this day and age, this artistry had taken true effort, refinement, and experience. Fortunately, the park always offered some semblance of human laboratory, a testing ground of timing, distance, persons impacted.

Speaking of.

His blue eyes settled on the only other spectator, a curious lift of his eyebrow as his gaze lingered on its own accord. A rueful rub of his jawline to ensure his mouth wasn't hanging agape while appreciating what beauty was on display, something ethereal about her presence that stirred his guts and twisted his throat. His hand twitched, and the tea was set down calmly as he took a steadying breath, the conflict between the two women having paused with his distracted focus. Incessant crying now, apologies, 'Oh God, Natalie, oh God, I don't know why I did that. I'm so sorry. I just, I'm so sorry.'

The stranger all gorgeosity and yumyumyum, certainly. But why was she staring directly at the very thing Sean had so carefully suggested to passerby's was unimportant. That question held him in staring at her, his usually carefully maintained social graces fading as a tongue ran over teeth and his mind raced over how to even begin to approach that.

*

Amora's attention drifted only so much to note that there were other mortals in the park, even more curiously that none approached the two combatants. Her attention returned to them as the women fell into sobs and apologies and her focus narrowed upon them. She was one that knew the bounds and ropes and emotions of love and all its connected troubles felt something.. off when it came to the two women. A whispered word or two and a flick of her hand followed, giving her greater insight to what went on in the pitiful creature's minds.

And yet another puzzle presented itself to her at what she found. She couldn't understand the idea of pheromones controling someone, and so she perceived it as a magical strength, saw the bindings holding them and followed with her brilliantly green eyes… to Sean's own gaze lingering upon her.

A smile blossomed over her features, cruel and sharp as she turned on her heels and approached with a swing of her hips—attempting to hold the man's gaze with her own and further draw his attentions to her.

"Hello," Her voice low and warm and nearly liquidous in sound as she came to a stop less than a foot away from him. "And who.. might you be?"

*

Everything came apart as she approached, every footstep drawing another man to the aid of the two women left in their wake, every click of her heels punctuated by another sob as the apologies were a strung together prayer for forgiveness, that sway of her hips defined by the words 'I just don't know what came over me' whispered again and again. The world swayed as Sean swallowed the heart in his throat and looked quietly up at the goddess presented to him, receiving her sudden proximity in appreciative silence.

The air hung thick around them, the suggestion of sweat on skin, animal need, a driving hunger for heat and teeth and wanton debauchery pressed into ever molecule between them. However, there was nothing there. The particles that usually bent to his will flowed through his grasp like grains of sand, a maddening suggestion of near control that confounded him until he finally admitted defeat.

With his flushed cheeks and lightly panting lips turned up to her, he smiled and spread his hands wide in a 'You got me' expression even as he managed softly, "Aren't you lovely?"

*

"Indeed…" A soft breath of amusement escaped her, her eyes still meeting and holding his as she watched the mortal's power rise and fall around them. Her eyes able to follow the sweep of every particle with the aid of her own spell. How very interesting. She leaned forward, bending at the waist and giving him a delicious view of her scouped neckline, at least until she reached out with a hand to try to grip his chin. Her grip was cold and unrelenting as she angled his jaw upwards to better steal a kiss from him.

"With this kiss I do ensure your personage hence. Speak plainly and explain what power dost thou spend here upon these wretched mortals past. And perhaps thou shalt rise taller in mine eyes for it." Her voice was laced with the power of command behind each syllable, each chosen with care and spoken in the formality of her people.

Unless he fought the initial kiss itself, he should be under her power.

*

The youth was accustomed to the squawking of hens, the idle amusement of infatuation, the inspiration of desperate need and unrequited addiction. This creature, be she fallen from heaven or clawed up from the depths of hell, provided nothing familiar and everything fantastical. A deep swallow marked his discomfort as his chin was raised, his knees drawing him up and against her in compliant puppetry even as the bright gaze flashed in marked confusion before dimming under heavy lashes as their lips met.

And then he was gone.

It was a contract signed in his own hubris, a desperation marking the shared embrace, musculature tensing even as a hand rose to pull golden coils of silk into his palm. When she broke back and spoke, his gaze settled upon her with pupils dilated to pin pricks, the information she requested now pulled forward on the chain just fixed around his neck. A pause, then he spoke in a shuddering breath released all at once.

"I make suggestions. I take what they already feel, what they already want, and twist it to my benefit or amusement. The very thing that makes them animals, I ensure keeps them animals in my presence."

*

Unadulterated glee lit up her eyes as she listened to the story of his powers and she could not help but clap her hands together with a maniacal sort of laughter springing from her lipsticked lips.

"Oh wondrous joys that brought you forth to me, you shall most assuredly come with me. Mine pet, my dove, a little mortal of mine own! How the princeling's own will weep under your kindly ministrations." She couldn't help but to slip into her old speech patterns, human guise or no.

"Now, tell your goddess most divine the limits of this power. Do you know? And rise, walk with me. Arm and arm we shall be!" She held out a hand in offering, her teeth bared in a shark fine smile. A myriad of ideas bubbling from her mind and creating ever more twists and turns for her own amusement.

*

The hand fell weakly from her hair as his mind paused briefly, a suggestion of the apartment he was leaving behind, the open door catching his eye even as book and tea were abandoned to follow her command. Something twisted in his gut, a hesitation as good sense attempted to warn him that free will was a faint memory now. Obedience had been primed in him from youth though, with a belt held in his father's hand or a ruler in the fingers of a teacher. Thus he fell into step beside her, a stupid smile upon his expression as wonderment mingled with affection.

"The same weaknesses mankind is born with, exploited. I cannot keep a man hiding underneath his bed unless I'm standing in the same room, but given enough time, he can look over his shoulder with every passing shadow, he can wonder if perhaps there is something moving in the darkness, he can seek me out and beg me for comfort. Fear, anger, hunger, lust; these are my fellows though their ministration can be a fickle thing. It takes time, encouragement, suggestion. I'm still learning."

Perched on her arm like a fine prize in some perverse mockery of the normal gender roles that walked couples through the park, every last word left his lips with a ragged edge, as if it had been pulled loose from hidden parts of him that he dared never speak out loud.

*

Amora clasped her own hand over his upon her arm, a chuckle escaping her as she led them down the path. "Oh worry not my pet, I'll make sure that your abilities are well in hand. We together shall seek to refine your edges and make you better yet. A lord among fools I shall make you. You've earned my attention at least thus far. Do well in these days ahead and my love you'll be sure to earn."

She sighed, happily as she looked off to the distance then, playing idly with ideas and plots within plots. Oh yes. He would do quite nicely indeed. Even if he was weak of body..

"Now, tell me, do your powers work on others of your kind? The sort with some inner strength of their own? Or must they only hinge upon the common man's weaknesses?" She hitched a brow upwards, returning her attention to the present and her pet upon her arm.

*

"Your love?"

Confusion was wrought in his voice, even as he looked up at her with pitiful hope that he could inspire such an emotion in the woman.

"But I don't even know your name."

For some reason, this fact was able to surface within his mind in the spaces of their conversation, while she pondered all the uses she could put him to. It was managed before the next question truncated independent thought and he practically stumbled over his words in eagerness to answer.

"Most. I've met one or two I cannot affect. Everyone has a weakness though. It's simply a matter of discovering which angle to exploit."

*

Amora grinned, stopping to place a hand against his cheek and tap it lightly in a caress. "Oh yes, perhaps some day." She teased lightly, and then tugged him along again.

"You may call me Miss Eve, or Helen. That will do enough for a name for you." She considered his answer to her question in regards to other mutants. She tilted her head to the side, her long locks of gold sliding over her shoulders with a teasing brush of the wind.

"Lovely, I have a girl I shall set you upon after we have.. refined your powers more. I shall give her to you as a treat. How does that sound?"

*

A quiet pause falls in the wake of her words as he prowls beside her, something keen in his consideration for the terms proposed. It wasn't that he could argue, but underneath the faint hum of intoxication her presence induced, his mind was already stalking through possibilities, a hunger in his gaze as he inclined his head obediently and managed softly,

"Of course, anything you deign to give me is a gift, Miss Eve."

With the heat of her touch still burning against his cheek, his fingers pressed softly into her upper arm and he added a bit bolder than before, "Though I would prefer you. A woman who falls to my powers is boorish at best and repulsive at worst."

*

A brow lifted at his boldness, at the mental strength he possessed to speak so and her estimate of him increased a fraction. Still amusement toyed at the edge of her lips as she patted him gently on the arm. "Ah, and so we are two alike. You are barely saved from the same boorish resentment by merit of your fractional powers. A feat to gain my interest so."

She continued onward, not pausing to rebuke him further though the thought occurred to her.

"You may not physically harm her, she should be intact. However, beyond that, I want her well within your power if possible. Other than that, it shall be a test of your skill." She paused once more, tugging him to a halt beside her. Once more she turned to face him and pressed her free hand against his forehead.

"Here is the mortal woman that you shall seek. Her name is Cecilia. I shall give you a tracking spell later to locate her."

*

The picture turned over in his minds' eye, the awareness she could offer becoming his own with a quirk of lips in anticipatory glee. Vulnerable in the truth he had shared, inner turmoil vacillated between enthusiasm at sharing this game he normally played and horror that she knew what he was. Perhaps the warring factions of such troublesome emotions were what allowed his brow to raise and his inquiry to interject, "Spell?"

Eventually a rebuke would be necessary with this one. His only place had been on the backs of lesser men since birth, and he knew of no other reality despite the sudden introduction to one.

*

Amora let her finger drop, her hand falling back to her side as she tugged him forward once more by the arm. "Indeed. A spell. Your world is magically deadened, so it is hardly your fault to be ignorant pet. But take notice of myself, am I not as a goddess walks and breathes? Is my power not as grand? I belong not to your world. There are a great many beyond your tiny piece of green." She gestured to the sky above and smirked.

"So you see, sweet, that you are but a speck. You are my speck, and as a result are far better than the others on this plane." She smiled again, and sliced her gaze over him. "You may ask your questions you have about such things, at least until I find the place to hold my spell to refine your form.."

*

A thoughtful quiet stretched between them as he regarded her, seeking the grandness, the source of that intoxicating affect her very gaze encouraged. Finally, he shook his head and something pressed against her power, a probing consideration of just how far he could stretch as he admitted calmly.

"I don't believe in gods. However, I need not know what you are to serve you."

From a jacket pocket, he produced a carton of cigarettes. The top was flipped back with an easy motion, holding up initial offering to the woman he now served. If she took one, another would be placed between his lips before her own was lit first. Pulling down a long drag, he leaned back his head to regard the skies she gestured to and sent smoke tendrils chasing her words to the heavens.

"How do you want her, Miss Eve? Afraid? Addicted? Starved for touch? I can pluck a great many strings, but your vision is necessary to create a song."

*

Amora laughed at his comment, at his lack of questions about the wider realms beyond what he knew. With a shrug she accepted the cigarette, and sighed out a puff of smoke from her lips soon after.

"I was once what your mortals called Freya. If you know of those people's legends." She hooked an eyebrow upwards, daring him to refute her status.

"As for the girl.. let us start with a nudge of … fear.. she could use a portion or two of it." She muttered, pulling him along and off the path and into a line of trees at the edge of the park that caught her eye.

*

"From Freya to Helen, how droll."

The voice was almost sad as he looked at her, a tinge of something akin to emotion outside of obsessive attraction in his consideration of her before amusement flickered up in place of feigned kindness.

"I much prefer, Eve. I suspect you will lead me into sin, and would be disappointed in anything less."

The fantastical no longer shocked and awed the young man. He had seen the reaches of human power extended through wealth and status in his childhood only to have adolescence open the realms of possibilities he could hardly imagine with the onset of his powers. Thus now, he simply pulled another drag off of his cigarette and let out a lowly groan of poorly concealed want as he slipped out of her touch.

"I will wrap her up in ribbons of gibbering horror for you, m'love. So infrequently am I compelled to trifle with the inconsequential, so this request will be completed with exceptional care."

*

Amora glanced over her shoulder at him as he slipped out of her light hold, her head tilting to the side as she peered at him for a long moment. Her hand flexed once, and she whispered a word of command, wrapping the two of them in a silence spell that no others beyond the immediate area would pick up on. Not even if Loki was listening could he hear a word said.

"Nothing substantial yet. A slow trickle for now. A purposeful one. Can you make her earn for something she already desires?" She hitched a brow upwards as she made to pace a circle on the ground. Every so often she whispered a word or two, picked up a stick or pebble and set it down again in a different spot.

*

Sean smiles as he watches her, the very suggestion of her proximity enough to twist his gut low and make his breath hitch. The sensation encouraged a certain measure of self-loathing in the distant recesses of his brain, easily salved over by the fresh request. He pondered it for a moment, truth carefully arranged in the answer to appeal to her as much as possible.

"Perhaps. Fear is contrary to desire, as the two instincts balance one another out in the human mind. The effects of either will be less pronounced in the presence of the opposing instinct. And desire-"

A length exhale wreathed in smoke rolled off his tongue with the word, feeling the effects of it in the present conversation ad naseum, "-works best if I'm in the same room. Outside of their presence, I am a mere suggestion, only a touch more powerful than their own will."

*

Amora made a sound of contemplation, her walk a smooth glide with a swing of her hips that was simply a natural measure with each step of her high heeled shoes. She was focusing more on the spell than him, quietly muttering from time to time. When she returned to him, she paused and reached for his hair.

"Pull out two strands for me, would you, my darling?" She exhaled a puff of smoke in his face as she spoke, but instead of the ashy grey of the cigarette (which she had since disposed of it would seem) the smoke was an electric green. Reinforcing her magic in the realm of the physical as well.

"You will not remain in the same room as her unless in public. I won't have you found out just yet… the game is afoot my pet, and it wouldn't do to spoil your appearance just yet.."

*

"As you wish." Sean chimed obediently, the strands plucked from the golden curls still smelling of the oil smoothed through this morning to tame the threads. When they were deposited into her waiting hand, he leaned quietly into her touch despite himself, a steadying breath taken before he finally managed quietly.

"It's Sean, by the way. Though I suppose I don't mind what you call me by."

*

Amora closed her hands around the few fine strands in her palm, a glittering smile flashing over her teeth again as he offered up his name to her. "Very good to hear pet, now come. I shall need you to stand in the center.." She gestured with her toe where he shoulder stand.

"Right here. Do not move until I tell you to. The spell will not give you immortality, nor will it stop the most terrible of blows… however.. it will ensure that you are less fragile than you currently are. You mortals are so very easily broken, and I will not lose you to chance so soon."

With that she turned, and touched the ground with a finger at different points in the circle she had paced out. From each point a different, tiny pillar a rose: one of clay, of sand, of granite, quartz and lastly one of tangled roots. Once done she paced the circle again, muttering to herself as she held the strands of his hair in hand.

There was no great whirring, no great sound, buzzing or lightning above. Merely a vaguely green tinted mist swirled into being around them, filling in only the circle and collecting around Sean.

*

The cigarette was stubbed out underneath a toe as he stepped into the designs she had woven in the soil, careful not to smudge any with his passage as he delicately arranged his frame over the point decreed. As the magic swelled around him and seeped into the stones they stood within, a shudder passed down his frame and he wavered for a moment before the sway she had over his stilled transitory fear.

The minerals and earth clawing into being while the hairs on his arms bent underneath the fall of countless unseen drops of rain, sinking into his skin, worming down into his pores. When the smoke cleared, he was smiling and waiting to be set upon the task at hand, the leash now taunt in her hands.

*

Amora waved the mists away as the spell settled onto his skin, irritation at not having access to her full powers knotted in her chest. If she had access to her stores. To her books. To her .. anything! This would be child's play. Yet here on Midgard? Here with her powers nearly halved and fading by the day, this was the most she could do on her own. How irritating.

She approached Sean again, as the spell cleared and the sunlight trickled down to them again. The clearing was once again as it had been before, and no sign of their trespass lingered.

She picked up a stone, rubbed the edge against her sleeve and kissed it once. "This will lead you to her. Follow the stone. Give her a string of paranoid dreams. Then return to me in two day's time. The stone will lead you to me as well." She winked.

"But only in two day's time."

*

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