Getting her settled in - Marvin's Haven

"Of course, Marvin. Of course, we will."

She opted not to finish her line of thought. After all, she would rather not be the cause of her parents' deaths.

He smiled at her

"Sadly love, I cannot let you go. You took the red pill, even if you didn't know it. You've seen too much."

A thought entered her mind as he spoke

relax... you are loved, valued and important. Just be happy.

Crack, crack, split, panic, crack, fracture.

Naomi froze.

Marvin sighed. She cracked a lot. Oh well, poor thing.

He stood up, and took Naomi in his arms, and carried her to his bed, and as was becoming a regular habit, laid her in it, gently tucking her in, before joining her himself.

"Are you... amused?"

Snap, crackle, pop.

She laid there, otherwise motionless.

"No love, I am not. " he said gently, as he cradled the ghoul in his arms.

"I am concerned that you are not handling this process very well. Perhaps the insanity of my blood is still working on you."

To be fair, there was probably no answer that would have consoled her at this point.

"And what would happen if I did not live up to your expectations?"

She already thought she was failing miserably.

"You are, so don't worry about it. We'll take some concepts a lot slower" he said while slitting his wrist with a fingernail and offering it to her

She took his wrist, drank a very small amount and then stopped.

"I do not mean to disappoint you."

He healed himself, got out of bed, and positioned her in such a way as to start massaging her back

"You didn't disappoint me love, trust me. Once again I was overly blunt and forceful with you, when a finer hand would have been called for."

She gained an unpleasant look of surprise.


"Not your fault. Don't blame yourself because of my shortcomings."

"Naomi sweet" he smiled "Do you blame the project if you use the wrong tools to do the job? I'm simply using the wrong tools. Now relax, I've shocked and pushed you much too far of late. Just enjoy this massage"

Naomi sighed deeply, wondering if she should argue with him.

"Have.. Have you ever had anyone like me before? I mean, a... a servant?"

"Like you, no I haven't. I had a servant and he was a fool. I ate him. That's why I've gone so long without another, and chose you carefully. You are not a fool, and you are worth any little bit of trouble that might come along."

"And if you wish to disagree and argue, please go right ahead, it will help the transition process."

As Marvin spoke, he kneaded the tension in her shoulders, and slowly worked down her back.

He... ate him?!

"Then... um... perhaps it's not that you aren't using the right tools... I mean. Uh... Maybe..."

Oh hell... Another sigh.

"It's not your fault that I'm an emotional female."

He smiled... "I should clarify, by eating I mean I drained him of his blood and dumped his corpse in the English Channel during a storm. I didn't actually consume his flesh. "

He chuckled, and continued to knead her back "You are right, I'm not using the right tools, and I'm not dealing with an emotional female properly. Tell me how I should deal with you please, as you are said emotional female in question. I'm sure we will both benefit from this. Remember, this relationship, as much as I must exert a fair bit of control, has a lot of room for two way give and take, and will in fact work best that way."

She blinked.

"Why do you ask me questions I do not know how to answer?"

She tensed-- it came off a bit more stand-offish than she would have liked.

He replied gently, softly.

"The same reason anyone asks questions that cannot be answered. To start walking down the path towards those answers. If I asked you about a specific chip you weren't familiar with, you'd start a line of inquiry until you had the specifications and other useful information for that chip. If I ask you a question about how you would like to be treated and handled during this transition, then you will start that line of inquiry as well until we reach the appropriate answer. Now right now I will tell you I will stop being blunt and direct. What else would please you, because when you are pleased I too am pleased."

Naomi attempted to pull away from Marvin, so as to look him in the face as she spoke.

"But... I am really not a porcelain doll. If you are not blunt and direct, then... I might fail."

He let her turn and look at him.

"Yes, but I broke you some tonight. I could tell. You were not fully comfortable with with we discussed, and I forced it on you. How about this love... we give you a safe word for when I start pushing too hard? Because that will please me to not have you reduced to a sobbing mass of tears, or even a catatonic state again. And in turn it will keep you healthier and happier."

"If you wish it," said disappointedly.

"Eggplant..."

"You are disappointed, why?" he said kindly

"But eggplant it is. You must speak it though if you wish me to stop pushing you so hard."

"Because I am weak and you are strong. You said I was an extension of you-- that said, I make you weak. I do not wish to be your weakest link."

She frowned.

"Maybe you were wrong in taking me."

"I do not consider you weak love. I consider you... learning. Trust me, I was quite the wreck after I was embraced. My first night I went out and murdered four people simply because I was trying to come to grips with what I had become. Since that night, I have only killed one other person, and that was the servant who was a fool."

Naomi flinched... 5 individuals dead at the hands of one person... vampire...

"1 is too much... Let alone 5? I am not built for this."