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pigeonwhumps · 4 months

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Sarita

Bug and Company masterlist

Taglist: @littlespacecastle @flowersarefreetherapy @whumplr-reader @whumpinggrounds @painful-pooch @i-eat-worlds @a-funeral-romance @rainydaywhump

Introducing Sarita, a very mistrustful new rescue who's just woken up at Alix's safehouse.

Sarita appears very briefly in The vet.

1.8k

CWs: BBU, pet whump, dehumanisation, derogatory language about sex workers and sex, past rape, religious mentions (in a bad way), victim-blaming, discrimination against Romantics, self-loathing, stabbing (brief, with a fork), past betrayal, caretaker new whumper, multiple whumpees

When Sarita wakes, she's nowhere she recognises.

So she's not back at WRU. That's good, the handler didn't catch up to her. She's not on the streets, which is odd, that's where she last remembers being. Not back at the safehouse that betrayed her either. So it's somewhere new.

Who the hell's decided they own her or 'rescued' her or whatever this time?

It's an old-fashioned kind of a room, decorated with sickly green and purple like some weird 70s nostalgia trip. The curtains, mostly shut, are heavy and dark red with patterns.

It's really weird and she doesn't like it.

"Yeah, I know. Not the nicest room to wake up in. But at least you did wake up."

Sarita looks sharply to the side to see a dark-skinned woman watching her intently. She has Bantu knots (at least that's what Sarita thinks they're called) and a braid on either side of her face, beaded at the ends. There's also beads of some sort in the knots themselves.

"Adalia, or Bug. They/them. Do you want some soup?"

Sarita sits up abruptly. Adalia doesn't seem surprised to have an injured woman in their house, and she has a bad feeling about this.

"Where am I?"

"Alix's safehouse. You collapsed on the street in front of me, and I brought you here once I found your barcode. You should really cover that up, by the way."

Sarita snorts under her breath. "Safehouse". Yeah, right. Maybe to someone who's not a dumb slut like her, who didn't give up their life to lie on their back all day. Never mind that she was a receptionist later, never mind that she cared for children and took care of the house and is taught and educated and was trained as a multi-purpose pet. All that ever matters is that she was trained for sex and had sex and so apparently she wants to open her legs for every damn bastard who so much as glances her way.

She doesn't listen to the rules (Adalia just assuming she'll stay for longer than it takes for her to get out of bed, apparently). She knows what they'll be. Don't get too close to people, don't try and have sex, don't lead people on, you can use the common areas but only when the other pets are gone and clean up after yourself (she rolls her eyes at that. It's not like she's going to contaminate anyone), make sure to pray for your soul because apparently being raped every night for years means she's going to hell, and oh yeah, don't even think of getting comfortable because we'll sell you out to WRU at the first opportunity.

She never chose that. She never chose this. She still hurts from the handler. And she wouldn't have even come here if she'd had any sort of a choice. Stupid body, betraying her like that.

She's not surprised. Everyone else has.

"And that's everything. What's your name?"

Instead of answering, Sarita shoots out of bed and dashes for the open door.

"Wait! Calm down!"

Sarita ignores them, running downstairs. It's taking too long, someone will catch her, but she couldn't have jumped out of the window. Not on the first floor at least, not when she doesn't know if there's a flat roof or what the ground's like. Not unless she was absolutely desperate.

She spins around in the hallway. The front door will be locked, safehouses don't like pets leaving without permission, especially her, but the back. The back. There must be a back door.

Where?

Where's the back of the house?

Front door's that way, back door must be the other way. This can't be too different a layout to the other safehouse, it can't be far away. She runs in that direction, ignoring Adalia calling after her.

She enters the kitchen and skids to a halt. It's a nicer room, she recognises vaguely, clearly redecorated recently, but that's not what she's really focusing on.

There's a woman blocking the door.

She shifts to the side and takes a step towards Sarita.

Sarita panics. She picks up the nearest thing she can find – a fork, four prongs, silver steel, gleaming in the sunlight – and stabs it into the back of the woman's hand.

The woman screams, stumbling, and Sarita bolts past her into the small garden. There's got to be– no– fuck, fuck, fuck. There's no exits from the garden.

There's no exits from the garden.

The majority of it is scrubby grass, although there is a shed at the end. It's green, metal, small, old. There only seems to be one exit. That's good and bad. It means she'll be able to see what's coming. There might even be tools in there she can use to defend herself. But she won't be able to escape easily.

She runs into the shed. It's mostly empty, but she dives into the corner, crouching, eyeing the door closely. It hurts it hurts she hurts so much from earlier, it burns, she wants to curl up around herself but it's too dangerous, she needs to be able to see what's coming.

She crouches there for a while, listening to the sparrows and moving leaves outside. It's nice and quiet, and she's not currently being hurt.

Then she hears uneven footsteps outside and scrambles to her feet, legs shaking, grabbing a pair of secateurs and holding them out in front of her.

A young woman limps inside. She has a colourful cane in the opposite hand to what seems to be her bad leg, and is wearing a choker and a knee-length black dress with a long sweater over it, the sleeves rolled up to uncover her hands.

"Hi. I'm Maria. Will you drop the garden shears?"

"Fuck you," Sarita replies vehemently. She's not going to leave herself undefended for this woman and all the rest to betray her.

Maria shrugs. "Okay." And she doesn't move.

Sarita doesn't really want to talk to her but she apparently can't help it. "Why are you still here? I stabbed your stupid safehouse owner. You going to hand me back to the reacquisitions team personally?"

"We're a safehouse. Emphasis on the word 'safe'."

Sarita snorts. "Yeah, right. And you're also safe for dumb sluts like me who chose to be a pampered whore because I couldn't be bothered to do any real work. Pull the other one."

Maria's face is strangely blank. "Do not. Don't say things like that. Please." There's a hardness in her voice that wasn't there before.

"Why? That's what everyone says about me. Why shouldn't I say it?"

"Because you shouldn't talk about yourself like that. And–"

She hesitates. Sarita is listening more closely now. No-one's ever told her that before. They're usually too busy insulting her.

"And I don't want to be insulted like that either."

Sarita blinks. Wait, what?

"Alix – the woman you stabbed – she specialises in Romantics. Those with Romantic training. The non-WRU equivalent. So don't talk about us like that."

That stops Sarita dead in her tracks. She finds herself unconsciously lowering the secateurs before catching herself.

"You're all slu- Romantics?"

"Yes. Well, some of us are joint. O's both Object and Romantic. Max isn't Romantic. But he came with me from the same owner and we weren't being separated."

"How long have you been here?"

"Three years, give or take. O's been here longer and Bug came with Alix."

That seems a bit long if Alix was going to betray them all. But still.

"Are you sure it's not just because it's easier to hand you over if you're all in one place?"

"Yes." Her voice is tight. "I know you don't trust Alix, but can you give us a chance? Or at least stop being so insulting."

Oh, fuck all of this. It's not just Alix, it's everything. She can't trust anyone. How does she know Maria is telling the truth? Sure she doesn't act like an owned pet but that doesn't mean she's not lying. Sarita stabbed Alix, who Maria seems to like (and from Sarita's experience, safehouse owners are not to be liked or trusted). Everyone she's ever met has betrayed her. Safehouses are just another type of trap. Why the fuck would she trust anyone? Trusting people just leads to betrayal. And letting herself get close just makes it hurt more.

"Of course I don't trust you. Why the fuck should I give you a chance?"

"You won't be trapped. There's a loose fence panel behind this shed in case of a raid. Just talk to Alix, that's all I'm asking. Then you can leave if you still want to. Please? At least leave with supplies."

Sarita narrows her eyes, trying to work out if Maria is telling the truth. She supposes she doesn't have to go very far into the house. And the kitchen has plenty of knives she can take. Because she doesn't fucking trust them even if Maria seems determined to persuade her otherwise.

"Fine."

Maria smiles tightly. "Good. Will you drop the garden shears now and come with me?"

Sarita drops them (she can't exactly bring them inside, after all) and edges around the walls of the shed, coming to stand near Maria, just out of arms reach. Maria nods to her and Sarita follows cautiously back to the house.

Alix is sitting on the flaking white step, Adalia wrapping her hand. Maybe the wound isn't too bad then, if they've dealt with it with a first aid kit.

Not that she'd feel guilty if it was. Fucking safehouses.

Alix looks up and smiles as they approach. Adalia tucks in the end of the bandage and looks up too, glaring at Sarita. Alix nudges them.

"Fine. I'll leave you two alone. If you hurt her deliberately again I'll kill you."

That last is directed at Sarita, and she nods. Not that she's planning to, but if she does hurt Alix it'll be because she has to run, so Adalia won't get her anyway. But seeing someone be so protective makes her insides ache.

Maria and Adalia disappear inside.

Alix moves her hand out, winces, and nods at the seat beside her instead. Sarita stays where she is, just out of reach, every muscle tensed, ready to run when she needs to. Alix shrugs.

"Sorry, Bug can be a bit overprotective at times. I'm Alix, she/her. Leader of this safehouse. What's your name?"

"Sarita. She/her." She thinks she uses those pronouns anyway. She doesn't really care. But other people do.

"Nice to meet you, Sarita. I think it's time we talked."

#whump #bbu #pet whump #whump writing #bug and company #maria oc #sarita oc #alix oc #box babe #lady whump #christians against pets are not a good organisation #to say the least #theres a spectrum re their safehouses but obviously Saritas is towards the worst end #its a terrible to least bad spectrum though #for romantics anyway #multiple whumpees #caretaker new master #whumpee and caretaker

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