Devil in Plain Sight

Keen

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Sprinkles listened quietly, then went silent for a bit, taking in the information.

"Makes sense to me. Pretty much impossible to retrain me, mhm." He laughed, sounding somewhat proud of that fact. "What about, uh, the specifics of how we were made? I'm mostly human, I got that. So am I ninety-percent human, ten-percent cat or something like that? Not sure how to explain it better than that, but I know some parts of us aren't really cat or human either."
 
Romi

Romi

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"You're not really a cat at all," Tier said with a wave of his hand. "You're a human whose DNA has been altered. The first thing anyone altered it with is cat DNA, and that's why you have the ears. But being real? A lot of you have more DNA from other creatures than from cats. They took whatever was useful, and tampered with what wasn't."

Simple enough. "There's no neat and even split, especially since you're a custom job."
 
Keen

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Sprinkles screamed internally. He should've realized that, but he was hoping his physiology would be a lot easier than he thought. This meant that studying the human body was the right path, but there was probably stuff he wouldn't be able to figure out simply from studying humans and cats.

Without meaning to, he accidentally let out a soft, annoyed groan, then muttered under his breath about how he could work with that.

"Alright... I think I have two questions left. What're our average lifespans, and how did the defective NEK0s die? Were they eaten alive or killed quickly or... For the record, I'm not judging. I understand." Maybe that last part was a bit sarcastic. He didn't completely understand, but he had rationalized it.
 
Romi

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Just two questions? They'd made it sound like they had a million, but if they could be gotten rid of that easily, easy enough.

Which made Tieragoran change his mind. He could feel the gears in his brain whirring away as he worked out what he wanted to do.

"I couldn't tell you," Tieragoran said. "We never confirmed what the lifespan was. You're guaranteed for only a couple years. But force-growing has unfortunate side effects to whatever happens to be force-grown. Someone estimated ten years? But it depends on how much tweaking to your genetics happened. Cats have a lifespan of maybe fifteen years, and you've eaten through all of that already."

It was a mix of truth and lies, woven together so tightly that it'd be possible to unwind it. The fact was that he didn't actually know what the lifespan of a NEK0 was. He doubted even the head scientists did, because how could you? It was all theory and guesswork.

But the second question brought a smile to his lips.

"Not judging. Of course. But you still want to know, don't you? So you can judge."
 
Keen

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"Well..." Sprinkles wiggled his tail and ears, "looks like I've had a lot of genetic tweaking, so I'm going to estimate my life to be on the shorter side. Makes the popularity of plain black cats make more sense if people want their products to last longer." It sounded harsh, but Sprinkles had a plan to fix himself. He worried about the other NEK0s, but he wasn't sure how to help them, other than making every NEK0 go to Jericho for a longer life. That, and acting pitiful and sad would just give Tieragoran what he wanted.

Sprinkles frowned at Tieragon's second response. He was right, but Sprinkles really wanted to say he wasn't. "I just want to know how much they suffered. I never saw what the others saw, or heard the stories others heard... Listen, I thought about this, and I decided to see the brighter side of it. You didn't know about Manta Carlos, so you had to get food however you could. Even if you only went after 'bad' people, I bet the police would get suspicious and hunt you down. And from, uh, seeing how some of the other NEK0s lived or could've lived after being thrown away..." Sprinkles rubbed the back of his neck, looking extremely uncomfortable, a peaceful death may not be so bad in comparison?"
 
Romi

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It was hard for Tier to tell if Sprinkles genuinely meant it, or if they were simply telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. He paused, squinting at them for a long moment as he considered, and then finally decided it didn't matter. No matter which way Sprinkles felt, the effect was the same.

"I snapped their necks," Tier said with a wave of his hand. "Fear ruins the meat. So I killed them quickly, the way they killed cows at a slaughterhouse. The only exceptions still didn't know it was coming, but I don't torture. There's no point to it. I play with sheep, not my mutton."
 
Keen

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Sprinkles shuffled nervously while Tier watched him. Was that too far? Sprinkles almost settled on "probably" until he spoke with a disturbing bluntness.

Despite how unnervingly calm Tier spoke, Sprinkles ended up sighing, relieved that it wasn't as awfully gory as he imagined. "Alright... good. I don't get how fear ruins the meat, but... I don't think I want to."

Sprinkles shuffled again, surprised by how quickly and nicely this went. He got most of what he needed, and it soothed a lot of his worries. "I don't have much else to talk about. I just wanted to know about how our bodies work. That, and, well, to show I wasn't scared of or angry at you, but that's beside the point."

He gave a long stretch of his arms, then clapped his hands. "So! You said you'd charge me as much as the information is worth? I'm sure I can provide some servitude at night. Not... in the sexual sense, for the record. I just got used to spending time sleeping or studying then, is all."
 
Romi

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Tier made a face when Sprinkles offered up servitude.

"You're too willing to serve," Tier said, "makes me think you get off on it. You're so desperate to serve, but you don't really want to serve. You stack up a bunch of conditions. It's gross."

Tier shook his head, his annoyance at the situation obvious.

"How about this. You can pay me for the information by keeping your mouth shut. Natsuki'll probably be hysterical if they see me again, but you should be able to keep silent, got it?" He raised an eyebrow, staring pointedly at Sprinkles.
 
Keen

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Sprinkles fell silent and tilted his head. What was Tier talking about? They were made to serve, and sure, there were conditions, but wasn't the plan to make a trade in the first place? Sprinkles didn't even want to be a housekeeper for money, he just did it because he had to.

"Uh... alright? I planned to keep that all to myself anyways." Sprinkles stood up, the confusion slowly leaving his face, but still lingering there. "You know, I'm a bit disappointed, but not surprised. I was trying to be nice to you, and you can't help but spit at it. Looks like our meeting's over though. I have what I need."

A tinge of fear shot through Sprinkles, but as long as he kept the thought that none of this could possibly be real, and even if it was, he was safe, then he could stand up to anyone talking down to him.
 
Romi

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To Tier, Sprinkles was greedy. They wanted to serve, but they wanted to serve at their convenience. They wanted all the perks they had as a pampered pet, but none of the downsides. Even without knowing their owner, Tier could picture them in his mind's eye, the kind of person who would design something like Sprinkles, who would spoil them and ruin them until they were rotten inside, incapable of self reflection.

The confusion was so obvious, and Tier didn't have any interest in spending his time trying to explain it all to them.

So he simply let them leave, making no move to stop them as they headed out of the library.
 
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