#🇸‌🇦‌🇻‌🇦‌🇬‌🇪‌ 🇷‌🇪‌🇨‌🇱‌🇺‌🇸‌🇪‌{Main Verse}

[smilingshxdows]

Continued from [x]

"It is."

If he was bad at socializing, then she was even worse. She didn't have many she talked to in her daily life, so small talk or anything of the sort was tough for her. Such was the life of a wandering loner.

"Are you... here to admire it as well?" Margaret found herself asking.

It was better to at least make sure she knew what to expect from this stranger, given she didn't know what he was all about.

@butterflysuture

[smilingshxdows]

The air was cold, and the table she was strapped to was even colder. Young Margaret trembled, both from the low temperature and in fear for what was to come. They'd stuck her with these damn tubes again, taking more blood or whatever else they needed. The lights above were bright, forcing her to squint, but they didn't hide the man behind the operation.

A man with silver hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and wearing large spectacles. Orochimaru's closest assistant, who made himself scarce and busied himself with research and medical operations such as this. She feared him, knowing anything she did would immediately be reported back to his superior, meaning she'd be potentially left without food and forced to eat one of the other experiments in here again.. And she resented him for it. Whether or not she wanted to do something about it, she couldn't move. She was paralyzed down to her digits, finding that she could hardly get even a twitch out of them. Her current "doctor", Kabuto, approached the table with his medical garbs and face mask, and she felt her heartbeat skip up a few beats in fearful anticipation. But she couldn't see his eyes behind the glare of the fluorescent lights above. Not that she needed to read his next intent.

"This will be quick. I assure you." He began, raising a syringe filled with an unusual fluid, giving it a few flicks to make sure it wasn't clogged. "This will dull any pain. Unfortunately, we have not acquired new tanks of local anesthesia, and Lord Orochimaru is seeing to other matters at this time, so we will have to make do with this for now. How are you feeling today, Margaret?"

Unsurprisingly, she doesn't answer. Only returning her resentful glare towards the man. She could hear a gentle amused huff from beneath his face mask. "That's ok. I understand. No one likes the operating table, but it is a necessity in this facility."

She can feel him administer a bit of rubbing alcohol in a particular area of her forearm before feeling a sharp 'prick'... and soon nothing. Just a cool, numming sensation spreading from her arm, up into her chest, across to her other arm, and eventually down her legs. Margaret was now not only paralyzed, but numb all over. She couldn't feel the tips of her fingers or toes anymore. And yet, she could still look at her surroundings. She couldn't see everything, but she could see the jars of unknown body parts floating in strange preserving fluid, stacked on top of one another. She could even hear the array of tools that Kabuto was sifting through on the desk next to her. Or...perhaps tidying and organizing the tools for a moment, before soon stepping towards her.

"Let's try and get this over with, shall we?" The man then pulled a machine into view, one housing a different, clear liquid. She knew this machine. Margaret's breath hitched, her heartbeat loud in her ears. It was a machine they used on her before when they needed her transformations for testing... even when she refused. Since she wasn't a wearer of the Curse Mark, her will was her own. But they had devised a way to make her body comply, and it was sitting just a few feet away from her.

She wanted to plead with him, to ask that he take the machine away. But her jaw wouldn't move. Her tongue wouldn't comply. All she could do was sit there and balk in horror.

"Ah. I remember that you hate this machine." Kabuto says, likely commenting on the stream of moisture rolling down her cheek. "I apologize, Margaret, but it is necessary. You are currently under paralysis, and... given your defiant behavior, this would be the outcome whether we wanted to or not. The enzymes we desire are not readily present as you are now, thus the need for this device. We've been over this before, haven't we?" He then adjusted his glasses... and his hand was placed just over the power switch. And it only just clicked for her that these tubes were connected to this machine, and not the usual one for blood drawing. Her eyes locked onto the right-hand man, begging, pleading for mercy.

But her begging did nothing. The flip is switched, and the machine roars to life with that dreadful droning. The additional setting switches are flipped, and with one button press, the tubes quickly fill with the clear liquid. Margaret's eyes screwed shut, practically feeling the dull sensation of her veins bulging as the activating fluid entered her body. Then that awful burning. Internal, spreading like wildfire across her body as the curse marks began creeping across her body. It wasn't working. The damn numbing solution wasn't WORKING she could still feel it! She wanted to scream dammit, but her voice was failing her, barely anything more than a whimper or grunt. She tried to fight the change, but it only burned worse. Her claws lengthened, skin darkening as her changes took hold, attempting to buck against her restraints and paralysis...

__

And then she woke with a gasp. Her eyes, readjusting to her surroundings, were greeted by the grim, dark environment of a holding cell. She was alone. No other test experiments to share a cell with, no machines, the droning fading to dull white noise... she was alone here, save for the figure sitting just outside of her cell, reading a large paper.

Margaret hadn't noticed it before, but an attempt to raise her hands to wipe at the cooling sensation on her cheeks revealed to her that at some point in her sleep, she'd partially transformed her own hands, which had hooked themselves into the concrete wall behind her with notable drag marks leading to her claw-tips. Even now, this place didn't exactly feel... real. And she was unsure as to where she was right now. She felt nauseous and uneasy, now attempting to regain control over her breathing by taking in deep breaths.

She was going to need a minute.

[smilingshxdows]

"What are you doing sitting here all by yourself?"

Curious Sentences, Vol. 5

Margaret was sitting by a creek. It was foggy this morning, something she'd come to realize as very common in the Land of Water. She didn't mind it, though. The foggy mornings were beautiful and eye-catching. The way the morning sun rays bounced off of the individual droplets of water vapor never ceased to take her breath away.

Looking down into the water, it was crystal clear. There weren't many fish passing through it, but there were pretty stones on the sandy bed of this shallow creek, and it was abundant with moss. She was just about to reach her hand into the creek when a voice spoke up.

Her instant response is to spin around and face the voice. It's a person. They're not very threatening looking, but Margaret isn't quick to trust based on appearances alone.

"...Because I am. I like it that way." Comes her guarded response.

[smilingshxdows]

"This sounds like village gossip."

disappearing earth.

"Mm. It's true though." She responds, toying with one of her wooden carvings.

"There’s a cave of snakes... close to where I once lived. It's said that anyone who enters is met with a challenge. And if they fail, they either turn to stone, or are eaten by a great snake.

... I have no memory of having gone in myself. But it was a story often told by my mother and the other villagers to keep us from wandering in on accident."

[smilingshxdows]

@kikaichuno continued from [x]

One bold step forward almost gets her to flinch, but she stands her ground for now. The sounds of rattling plastic at least support his claim... along with the small group of flying beetles roaming in front of him. He's not lying as far as she can tell.

She stares for a moment longer, stern and unmoving... before finally dropping her defensive stance altogether, putting away her knife. Didn't mean she was unarmed, but it was a small extension of trust.

"...I see." She finally responds. "I'm... not used to being approached. At least, not without ill intent in mind." The shinobi paused, eyes switching to the beetles flying about once more.

"...Do they follow you everywhere?"

[smilingshxdows]

Tag Dump

[smilingshxdows]

"......

I see."

She's just gonna keep the horrific thoughts to herself as to what that entails in the instance of someone even being jealous of such a fate-

His mind immediately drifts to the concept of puppets made out of humans that the criminal Sasori was making.

"I suppose anything is possible..."

[smilingshxdows]

"It should be and yet there's people considering someone else their 'boy toy'."

Oh cool, someone else can be just as confused!

"If a 'boy toy' is an object, does that mean someone's being turned into a 'boy toy'??"

"A person?" What...? What is prompting this question? "I don't know if for some, a person could be considered a toy... Because to my knowledge, a living being isn't a toy, considering a toy should be an object."

[smilingshxdows]

"...Oh."

Well, that's considerably less bad than she was imagining! But it only explains one part.

"Is it... possible for someone else to be a 'boy toy'? That doesn't make sense to me."

He sees her confusion and decides to tell her with full confidence. "A boy toy is a toy designed to have boys as their main user. A mecha action figure would be a good example."

[smilingshxdows]

"I see."

It made sense. Why not have multiple spots to enjoy nature in? It was no different than Margaret having multiple encampments across the lands just to keep herself sparse... and also so that she could experience the different landscapes.

"...I like this area. It's one of my favorites.

I don't live here, though. I just travel."

He did, indeed, honor her request by sitting down exactly where he had just been standing. He didn't see the use in making the clearly on edge and wary woman even more nervous than she already was. He wasn't here to cause any harm after all.

"One of them, yes. I have a variety of spots around here that I use to go to relax. I find it far easier to do so when I'm not surrounded by a lot of people."

He was fine with a few people, but the more people he was around, the harder it was to truly relax. He did hope that fact reassured her, as he suspected that she may be the same way.

[smilingshxdows]

Margaret stared at him for a moment longer, briefly looking off to the side before returning her gaze.

"...Sure. Over there is fine."

The lone shinobi tucked her legs up to her chest and crossed her forelegs over one another drape over knees with her arms and head. She wasn't certain about him being too close for now. She wanted to be able to know where he was from a distance where she could see him. Just in case he DID pull anything.

"....Is this your spot normally?"

Man, she was shit at this.

Thankfully, he didn't hold anyone's awkwardness in conversation against them. That was rude, and quite frankly he didn't exactly care.

"Ah, yes I was. I didn't expect anyone else to be here."

There was a moment of hesitation before he spoke again.

"Do you mind if I join you? I can simply stay where I'm at if you'd prefer me to keep my distance."

He didn't want to make her uncomfortable after all.