Gus was there for awhile. It's hard to say what happened after Ayano left, but Gus must not have needed anything else from her, because he never came and asked for her. Actually, it's not hard to say what happened after Ayano left, because Gus had a system that he followed thoroughly for testing each slave. It wasn't good, either. Not for the slave in question, anyways. Different slaves were valuable for different reasons, which meant they had to be evaluated from every aspect.
Needless to say, no slave liked being evaluated.
Since the following events were quite harrowing for Sawyer, he doesn't like to think about them all that much.
When Gus did come, almost a couple hours had passed. He gently tapped his knuckles against the door to Saul's house before inviting himself in, since Saul wasn't home yet anyway. "Alright. The evaluation is complete," Gus announced calmly, humming lightly to himself as he walked the case and the papers over to Saul's counter and deposited them there. "He's… an odd case, that one. Let ol' Saul know I scribbled down everything he needs to know." Gus tapped his fingers against the pad of paper.
Ayano was nearly panicking as a third hour approached, knowing an evaluation shouldn’t take any longer. She wasn’t called out either. The only good thing about this was that she was pretty well done all her chores.
Her heart skipped a beat when Gus came back, glad he was ready to leave but also surprised at the sudden noise.
Ayano went to take back and the case and papers so that she could put them away.
“I will let him know, thank you.”
She probably should leave Augustus’s notes out for Saul though, since he’d need to read them. So she brought those to a table.
She could finally clean up Sawyer though, and then she’d need to wash the cloth and put away the medical kit. Hopefully Saul would be out a bit longer. So, once again she quickly went out to the slave pens.
"Thanks, love." Gus promptly left after that, as his work here was done for the day.
Sawyer was huddled in the back of the pen like a traumatized wild animal. Either he had disobeyed at some point throughout, or the evaluation required Gus to hurt him, because the fabric of his shirt was torn across the back of his shoulders, bloody marks of a whip left there. Fortunately, there weren't many. Not enough for him to bleed out or to be in any critical condition. God only knows what else happened. He glared at up at Ayano at the sound of footsteps, but his gaze softened a little when he saw that it was only her. Not Saul or Gus, at least.
There wasn’t much Ayano could feel for Sawyer, since most of this was just a routine. Only now she’d have more work to do.
She pulled the water, cloth, and medical kit back out and unlocked the pen gate.
“He’s gone now. Though I don’t know how much longer there’ll be until Master is back.”
Ayano knelt in front of Sawyer and squeezed out the extra water from the cloth. There was no sense in wasting any of it.
Could’ve whipped him a few less times and made my work a lot easier, Augustus…
Gus definitely had something off about him and it definitely had something to do with that whip.
She held up one of Sawyer’s arms and started to clean up his wounds. His shirt was torn now too, and he probably wasn’t getting another one real soon. She could try and patch it maybe … it would get cold out here at night. Or she could lend him something. She’d for sure get caught doing that though.
The numbness was mutual. But being numb wasn't much better than being pained.
Sawyer's expression didn't change much as she cleaned his wounds, but he did flinch subtly, and he had to make a conscious effort not to recoil from her touch.
He was silent for the first few minutes, but he finally mustered up the courage to ask a question. "This master. He is an angry man?" He sounded relatively calm, his voice as hollow as ever.
She blinked, “I would say yes. As long as you do what he says, it’s okay. He’s pretty easy to irritate, but he should be in a good mood for now. He’s been incredibly positive today …” she trailed off.
Sawyer was probably- definitely here for different reasons than Ayano. He wouldn’t stay here for long, just serve his purpose and move on to the next master.
“Uh, can I take your shirt off so I can properly clean your wounds?”
Though she didn’t care about this, she could very well sense that Sawyer needed some distance. She didn’t really have a choice to do anything else about this though. However, getting Sawyer’s permission was something Ayano needed to … reassure herself.
"Yes." Sawyer peeled his shirt off without objection. Frankly, he'd been forced to strip down so many times in his life that he'd lost any sense of shame about being naked altogether, so taking off his shirt was no big deal at all. His entire torso was absolutely covered in scars, though. Whips marks, knife wounds, bullet holes, burns. The back of his right shoulder had a brand mark burned into it– the signet of whatever pack had initially captured him.
"I'll be careful not to irritate this master," he responded dully, though he didn't know how much it mattered at this point. He almost wished someone would just put a bullet in his skull and get it over with already.
Ayano expected as much from Sawyer. Though, he was much more scarred than Ayano thought he’d be. But not by a lot.
“I was guessing you’d say that. It’d be nice if you were a bit more human, but that’s asking for a lot isn’t it? It’s nice that you’re at least talking to me. So … thank you.”
Ayano shut her mouth abruptly, and clenched her jaw. It was all good if Sawyer felt comfortable, if that’s what this could be called, but Ayano would never come to terms with this. She regretted asking him to take off his shirt, which would only bring up pretty horrible memories. She’d have to suck it up for now though, since these were her orders.
Above that, she was glad there was any kind of conversation. Especially since it got lonely when you keep on talking to yourself.
"More human?" Sawyer echoed. He glanced at her his brow furrowing just a little, like maybe he was confused. "What do you mean?" He paused, his expression softening. "You mean more responsive? More emotional?" He looked down at the ground and swallowed. "Yes. That would be nice. But I'm not allowed such luxuries."
Ayano gave a bit of a dismissive nod, not really absorbing anything that he said. Now she was just focused on getting this done, and covering Sawyer up again.
She needed to stay attentive so that she didn’t worsen any of the wounds, but her focus went past that and straight to zoning out.
She was cleaning up to the neck now, facing only more scars and brandings.
She’d probably need to stay out here tonight, which was a win for her and also not. Saul was in a good mood today though, so it might not be as bad.
Sawyer was quiet as she cleaned his wounds, only occasionally twitching or flinching when she happened upon an extra sore one. The scars no longer hurt, so he didn't care much for them. The brandings? Well, he couldn't see most of them. Truth be told, he didn't know what most of them even looked like. And he didn't care.
He observed her actions curiously, almost like a child watching someone work, but he didn't dare break the silence. He merely watched. Observed. Thought.
In the meantime, Saul returned, though he went straight inside rather than bothering with going to the slave pens. He was interested in reading Gus's report, as he was sure by now it had to be done.
She unknowingly held her breath.
For sure she didn’t want to make any eye contact, and it annoyed her when Sawyer flinched but she had nothing to say.
Saul should be back by now, Ayano guessed. He wouldn’t be gone any longer than this, so she needed to get out of there a bit faster.
She was left to cleaning and patching up his face now, and she chewed her inner cheek. She needed to think about something else now … maybe her chores. That was probably her best option. She’d need to decide on what she’d make Saul today too.
After rubbing some cream onto his forehead, Ayano blinked realizing she was slowing down.
She leaned back and slapped herself before quickly gathering everything together, and getting the pen shut.
“I’ll probably have to stay out here tonight and keep checking on you.” She bowed her head instinctively as she left.
"Alright." Sawyer crossed his legs beneath him Indian-style– which seemed to be his favorite position for some reason, because that's often how he chose to sat. When he wasn't huddled up in the corner like an abused dog, that is.
Saul was inside, puffing a cigar (which were expensive these days) and reading over the notes. He was frowning, but he always frowned when he thought, so this wasn't abnormal. "Oh, Ayano," he said as she entered. "There you are. What the heck have you been doing?"
Ayano tried to not trip over her words, “Augustus was evaluating the new slave, so I was delayed in cleaning him up. Everything is done now.”
Ayano now saw Saul, who appeared to be in really good mood, smoking. That was both a good thing and a bad thing.
She hoped that it hadn’t been too long since he’d returned, so that he would still be in a good mood. As it turns out, she did a lot hoping over anything else.
She held onto the medical kit handle a bit tighter than before, and bowed her head. She already felt a lot of tension from that question, though it might not be told bad. Which was just her hoping even more.
Saul puffed on his cigar. "Alright. Well, then finish any chores you have leftover," he grumbled, lazily motioning to the room around him. He didn't bother noting whether she actually had any chores left or not, because he was in a good mood. And distracted by the notes. "Did he say anything weird to you?" he inquired randomly, glancing up at her.
Ayano tried not to make a weird face as Saul looked up.
“No. He doesn’t say much at all.”
With her chores practically done, Ayano still needed to busy herself with things until she had to make Saul’s last meal. She could probably wash any clothes now, since she normally did that late at night, and the always dirty and stained smock she wore at night. Though, it might still be damp by the time she had to give up her day clothes.
She bowed her head to dismiss herself, hoping, yet again, that was the last of the conversation. Washing the clothes should perfectly fill in the gap between now and cooking.
((Alright, so, let's bounce around some ideas for where we can go from here. What do you think would be the most interesting way for things to go down? ^-^))
(I think we could put some action in perhaps. Maybe there’s something going on between the Merchants and some other pack and everything gets stirred up. There’s also the gaps I have in Ayano’s backstory regarding her family relations that could be used…)
(Ah, ah. I like both. Here are some suggestions. a) Something involving Ayano's backstory happens that affects the plot. b) The pack thing happens and the Merchants are attacked. The Merchants likely win, but not without loss of life; perhaps Saul is killed during the ordeal?)
(I’m kind of leaning more towards A, however, I’d need to figure how her backstory impacts the plot and all the jazz. Plus her backstory could still be used possibly later on. So, maybe we should go with B and figure what to do from that.)
(Your choice! I'm fine with either. If you need to do more work on A, I don't mind for us to do B and bring A in later. If you want to do A, I don't mind to wait a bit and give you time to work out your idea, and then we can do B later instead. ^-^)
(Let’s go with B so we can keep this going.)
((Okiedokie! Should I do a timeskip? Make the ordeal start in the middle of the night? Should I kill Saul off?))
(I think we could have the ordeal in the middle of the night, so it should definitely just throw our characters off their rocker. And I’m definitely leaning towards killing off Saul.)
(( :3 evil noise Alright, if we're ready, I'll go ahead and start.))
Fortunately for Ayano, the conversation ended there, and Saul didn't bother her with anything else. Once she'd finished his dinner, he devoured it and seemed pretty pleased with himself. So pleased, in fact, that he downed a bunch of expensive alcohol and practically knocked himself out. He barely made it to his own bed before he collapsed into an alcohol-induced sleep, but he seemed as peaceful as a man like him could be.
Though, the night would not be a peaceful one.
(Aye, if you want me to start the inciting incident of the attack, your response can be relatively short, but I left this vague so that you can add more if you'd like. ^-^)
(I feel bad about it, but I would prefer for you to start the incident btw. I’m not very cut out for that, and I’ll spend way too long there. Eheheh …)
Ayano had finished washing and hanging all of the clothing, but her smock was still a bit too damp for her to put on. So, she’d need to wait to change out of her day clothes.
Though luckily Saul had drank himself to sleep, so Ayano would probably be okay. She probably should sleep soon though, so she won’t waste anytime and gets up soon enough to eat. But she couldn’t accidentally fall asleep with her day clothes on … then the only other option was to wear those weird undergarment things and hide behind her smock until it dried.
With her last hoping of the day, Ayano wished against everything else, that Sawyer would be asleep when she stepped outside.
(No problemo! ^-^)
Sawyer wasn't asleep, but he was not necessarily "alert* and paying close attention, either. He was huddled up in the back of the pen, hugging his knees close to himself, listening to the sounds around him.
Meanwhile, a member of the local pack, the Outsiders, had attempted to steal an expensive gun from one of the Merchants during a deal. The Merchant, not one to be ripped off, saw what was happening and didn't take kindly to it. He and several other Merchant members jumped the man and promptly shot him with the very gun he had attempted to steal– their own sense of irony.
Unfortunately, the little squabble had become a pretty big deal, and the other members of Outsider were infuriated. The Merchants justified their actions by explaining that thievery was punishable by death, and that everyone knew this. The Outsiders didn't like this answer. As far as they were concerned, the Merchants had killed one of their members, and that meant war.
This was precisely why, in the middle of the night, a large group of Outsiders came with weapons to attack the infiltrate the Merchants' markets and homes, with intentions on pillaging as much as possible.
And of course, destroying as many Merchants as they could.
Like silent assassins, they crept into the Merchants' base with ease, late after the sun had set. Many Merchants were night owls, up working in their workshops, and the Outsiders were wise to avoid those homes– for now, at least. They wanted to make their destruction silent.
They knew they'd probably lose this war, but by golly, they were gonna kill as many Merchants as they could before the night was up.
Sawyer had been listening intently to the night sounds, because he rather enjoyed them– especially the sound of the little frogs croaking. But he heard something else that made him sit upright and squint into the darkness, focusing his ears to listen closer.
Footsteps?
Quiet, quick, nimble footsteps.
Ayano held onto her smock tighter and tighter, water dripping down her wrists.
If there was any kinds of noises, she wouldn’t have noticed. She was so focused on her destination, her footsteps, and how loud her heart beat- nothing would get through to her.
There would be an empty slave pen out here, and by far, the cleanest. As clean as could be out here, really. She could rest up a bit there, and then she could change into her smock that would hopefully be dry by then, and finally eat. It was a perfect routine, and nothing could possibly go wrong. Unless Saul woke up a bit early and grumpy and hungover … then maybe not so much. She’d just have to deal with it though.
(So so so sorry! Been super inactive! Trying to get caught up on RPs. TYSM for being patient!!)
(I’ve also been very inactive. Take as long as you need!)
