To Make a Concubine

A/N I don't own Spider-Man or any characters involved. Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 3 AU, co-written with NdP.

WARNING: DARK FIC, and creative liberties have been taken. Now, to begin...

It was a lot later than Ginny had planned to be out. That meeting on the South docks was never supposed to take that long. And now the buses were out of service and she had to walk home. She looked at the map at the dim bus stop and sighed unhappily. She would have to go around the entire shipyard to even reach somewhere she might be able to find a taxi. Or... She glanced across the street at the fence. She could cut through. The place was abandoned anyway. There would be no security. Pulling her long coat more tightly round herself, she jogged over to the gate. The chain had just enough give that she could slip in, and she hurried across the vast, dark yard, passing silent warehouses and defunct machinery. The place had a very eerie feel.

A dark figure surround by sinuous, undulating shadows perched on the edge of a roof like a gargoyle in the moonlight. The central figure was perfectly motionless, even while the unnatural appendages writhed around him. Otto wanted to break something, or someone. One would have thought that taking the lives of the three doctors who had let this happen to him would have caused his anger to abate somewhat, but it had only made it worse. Not only was he a freak now, but he was a freak and a murderer, or he would be perceived that way. The real murderer was asleep and content in a plush, warm bed somewhere. No, it wasn't really the doctors Otto wanted to crush. All they'd done was left the arms on him until it was too late, which was still enough to merit their deaths, but the man who had caused the explosion was still out there. Otto wanted to find him and rip him apart one appendage at a time. Grinning sadistically, Otto rose up on his new tentacles and glided down the side of the building. First he would recuperate, and then he would go after Justin Hammer.

Ginny wasn't the sort to be afraid of the dark, but the yard was proving to be wider than she had expected. It just went on and on, filled with dark shadows and strange, unidentified shapes in the thin moonlight. She jumped at a clatter of gravel, and spun around, staring into the shadows at the foot of the building she had just passed. "Hello?" she called out nervously.

The reaction time was amazing, even to Otto. Before he could consciously determine the direction the voice had come from--and barely before he finished identifying it as a threat that need to be dealt with--his artificial appendages were in motion. One slithered around the intruder and seized the soft flesh of the figure's neck. The other three gathered around him, facing outwards, with their claws out and ready to strike. However, the rest of the night remained still. Due to the dark glasses, Otto couldn't see quite as well at ground level. Judging that the moon had gone behind a rather large cloud and didn't seem to plan on coming out for a while, he slid the glasses off and brought his captive in closer for a better look.

Shocked, it took her a long moment to begin struggling. He got a good look at her clear features, pale blue eyes under sleek black hair. She grabbed the tentacle around her neck, her fingers scrabbling over its smooth surface as she tried to pry it off her neck. "Let go!" she mouthed, trying to draw a breath. She couldn't see him in the dark, had no idea of the identity of her attacker. She fought violently, losing her footing so she could kick at the dark shape.

Otto noticed an interesting trade off right then. It seemed his new hypersensitivity to light made it easier to see in the dark, though just how much light he could tolerate was still unclear to him. This woman certainly didn't look threatening, but he'd learned not to take things at face value. After all, what could she possibly be doing out here at this hour? Unless Hammer had caught on to the fact that he was alive and had sent one of his little mutants out to finish the job. Or perhaps those idiots at the hospital had managed to track him. He loosened his grip on her throat ever so slightly but was still ready to snap her neck if she made the wrong move. "Who sent you?" He hissed.

She gasped in a panicked breath, still trying to pull free. "What....? No one!" She strained backwards, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the threat. "Just let me go!" Her voice rose until she was nearly screaming.

Now he couldn’t have any of that. He wrapped another tentacle around her head so in covered her mouth and pinned her arms and her legs with the remaining two. “First of all, you will refrain from raising your voice in such a manner ever again.” Otto’s voice was dangerously low and the metallic snakes constricted around their prisoner. “Secondly, you will tell me exactly who you are and why you are here.” He leaned in menacingly and growled, “Do we understand?” She couldn’t possibly expect him to believe that she just happened to be there. He knew how Hammer operated.

Her eyes were wide and staring as she struggled against the confining metal, and her breath whistled through her nose. She nodded, a tiny, shuddering motion. She had no idea why he thought someone had sent her. She had no idea who he was.

Otto removed only the tentacle that was over her mouth. "Well, then..."

"N- no one sent me...." she stuttered. "I was trying to take a sh- shortcut home..."

"Home, huh?" An interesting idea was beginning to form in Otto's mind. His eyes flicked over her as he thought. The moon peeked through a slit in the clouds for a moment, illuminating her soft face. "Where do you live?" He finally asked.

She caught sight of his face, of the scarring around his eyes, and would have recoiled if she could. She didn't answer him, giving instead a small gasp of fear. "Who are you?"

Her disgust burned him deeply. It also made him that much angrier at Justin Hammer. Otto couldn't reach the true target of his anger, yet, though, so he shoved her roughly against the wall. "I'll only ask one more time. Where do you live?"

She cringed away from him, shrinking against the wall. "S- Southbank... Please.... There's money in my purse, you can have it, just let me go!"

"I thought we had an agreement about raising your voice." He grabbed her jaw with his human hand and forced her to make eye contact. "Do you live alone?"

She swallowed and tried to gather her wits. "N- no," she lied. "My... my husband...." Her eyes flicked about, everywhere in the darkness but his face.

Otto tilted his head and ran his hands down her arms. He grabbed her wrists and brought her hands up by her shoulders. "Curious. I don't see a ring." He pinned her wrists to the wall and sneered, "Would you like to try again? Or are you ready to behave?"

She shook her head. "I... Just let me go...." She had the sense to keep her voice soft. "Please!"

"I'm not going to let you go. You can cooperate or..." One of his tentacles blossomed into a clawed head and hovered over his shoulder. He let the threat sink in before continuing. "So which will it be?"

Her eyes fixed on it, colorlessly pale. "I.... Yes.... I live alone...." He could barely hear her. "What do you want?"

Otto grinned triumphantly and rose up on his tentacles, drawing her up by the waist. Just before he reached the level above the buildings, he slipped on the glasses to protect his eyes from the city lights. "I want you to give me directions to your home."

She squealed as she was pulled up off the ground, clutching the actuators. "Put me down!"

Otto felt his frustration growing. He didn't have time for this. His eyes flicked down to the ground and then traveled slowly back to her face. "You're chances of surviving such a fall are slim to none. Is that really a risk you're willing to take?" He let the tentacle start to go slack, a sadistic smirk showing on his face.

She grabbed them frantically. "No!"

"Then quit wasting my time and direct me to your home."

She was still in too great a state of panic to plot any great deception. "Southend..." she repeated. "Carmichael Apartments...."

Otto barely gave her time to finish before he was rushing across the buildings and leaping over gaps. The air atop the higher buildings was much colder and the wind was much stronger. His eyes drifted over to take in his hostage. The wind whipped her hair around her face, and he realized she'd never told him her name. It wasn't important then, though. He came up on a particularly large gap. The building on the other side was lower than the building he was on. Without pausing to think, he leaped into space and let himself fall, using his actuators to absorb the impact.

She shrieked at the moment of freefall, covering her eyes, and dropped her purse. It fell six stories and its contents burst across the street below. She was practically gibbering, making tiny nonsense sounds, and she was frozen rigid, afraid of making him let her go. More afraid of that than whatever might be coming.

Otto smirked at her, thriving on the sadistic rush her fear gave him. It was amazing how quickly he'd gotten used to this mode of travel. He slowed down as he neared their destination and scoped out the area to make sure it wasn't a trap, though he'd thrown all faith in her ability to out think him out the window at this point. "Which room is yours?"

She swallowed again, trying to summon enough moisture into her mouth to speak. "That one..." she said, pointing for half a second before she reaffirmed her grip on the actuator. "With the plants in the window..."

Otto gave her hand a sideways look as it reassumed its grip on him. He'd been discovering a number of strange things about his invention since it fused to him. At first he'd designed it to feel only pressure, a necessity for picking things up, but lately he'd found they could feel almost exactly like his organic limbs. It was a new part of his brain that he could block or receive signals from at will, and it made him wonder just how much the accident had altered him mentally. Up until this point he'd be primarily occupied with the purely physical aspect of his new form. "You do realize, my dear," he began as he crossed to her building and headed for her window, "that I can feel that." He drew her in close and whispered this last part.

She shot him a startled, unnerved glance, but she could hardly let go. She was white and tense as she looked away, fixing her eyes desperately on her window. As soon as they got inside.... She didn't know what she'd do, but she'd do something. And he'd leave and this would simply become a story about the strangest ride home she ever took.

Otto chuckled and turned back to the window, but still kept her close. The lights were off but from what he could see the place looked empty. He tried the window with his human hands; found it locked, and instead wrenched it open with an actuator, splintering the wood around the lock. The doctor stepped into the room, drew the woman through after him, and lowered his glasses so he could see into the deeper shadows. There was a kitchen, a living room, and a door he assumed led to a bedroom. It was smaller than the accommodations he'd grown accustomed to, but it was better than an old warehouse and a man in his situation couldn't be picky. "Hm... I suppose this will have to do."

She fought again to get down, now that no long drop threatened. "Do for what?" she asked nervously, pulling away from him with all of her strength.

Now was the time to see how frightened she really was of him and how much control that fear gave him. Then again, even if she did try something, it certainly wouldn't be anything he and his new abilities couldn't handle. "I'm staying here," he stated, glaring forcefully at her over his glasses. "Tonight, maybe tomorrow and the next night." He set her down, keeping the metal arm around her waist, and tangled his fingers in her hair to pull her head back. "I have no problem with killing you now that I'm here. It wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever done. However, I'm allowing you to live, for now, mostly to amuse myself. Don't give me a reason to alter my decision."

She nodded quickly, staring at him. "Please, don't hurt me," she murmured. Her skin crawled at his touch and proximity and she shivered. "Please...." She was cold, her hair still wind-tangled, and she blinked rapidly. "Please, I haven't done anything...." She babbled, trying not to think about how her continued life could possibly be amusing.

Otto felt his heart beginning to beat faster as he watched her dark lashes flutter against her soft cheeks. His actuator tightened on her waist and one of the lower ones slid across the floor and began winding up her leg. "No, you haven't. You've been... mostly obedient up to this point, aside from a few minor set backs. Let's see how long it will stay that way." His hand left her hair and ran down the side of her face to trace a finger across her throat. "You must be uncomfortable in that coat, my dear. Why don't you go take it off, hm? And I've been running for a while, now. I could use something to drink."

There was a sick, sinking feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach and she cringed. "M'fine..." she said vaguely, turning her face away from him. One hand pushed at the actuator on her leg, trying to get it off of her.

Otto put his finger under her chin and turned her face back. "Oh, no, I insist." The tentacles released her but still hovered around threateningly.

She trembled, trying to work up the courage to run. But they were right there... She'd never get a step towards the door. With a little sigh of protest, she lowered her eyes and unbuttoned her warm, wool long coat, shrugging it off and letting it fall to the floor. Under it, she was dressed formally. It had been an important meeting tonight. She wore a long black skirt that clung to her legs to the ankle, with a trail of tiny silver buttons down the back, and a smooth grey sweater over a crisp white blouse. Without the coat, she lost one more layer of protection, and she wrapped her arms around herself defensively.

Inwardly, Otto was positively thrilled with this show of submission. Outwardly, though, he retained his cold, calm composure. "Perhaps you will survive through this night, after all," he smirked, allowing his eyes to flick over her body, but resisted the urge to grab her with the tentacles again. There would be time later to explore just how much they could and couldn't feel. "Now, about that drink..."

She glanced towards the kitchen door. "I have milk.... cold tea?" All she could think of to do was give him what he wanted until she had a chance to escape or call the police or something. Now that he was in the half-light of her apartment, she could see him better. It didn't help. The metal arms were like nothing she'd ever seen before, terrifying in and of themselves.

"Cold tea will suffice," he said after a moment or two of thought. Otto moved towards the couch. "Don't even think about calling the cops," he added, almost as an after thought. "They won't help you." His tentacles made strange, metallic hissing sounds to emphasize his point.

She stepped away from the arms, almost stumbling in her eagerness to leave their immediate vicinity. She forced herself to walk, not run, into the kitchen, and glanced back at him before shutting the door and throwing the lock with its quiet 'click!' and lunging for the phone on the end of the counter.

Otto cursed under his breath when she closed the door, knowing full well she was up to something. He'd overestimated the extent of his control. Like before, though, his tentacles were in motion even before he could finish these thoughts. They crashed through the door as though it were little more than cardboard. Three grabbed her and threw her against the sink. The last one ripped the phone out of the wall and crushed it until little bits of plastic rained down on the floor. "What did I tell you?!" Otto stormed into the kitchen and grabbed her wrists, whipping her around and pinning her backwards over the counter. "Behave, and I won't have to hurt you! Or would you rather I just take what I want now and be done with you?"

She shrieked and covered her head with her arms, her back arched painfully over the edge of the counter. "Let me go!" she yelped, trying to cower away from him. "Please, just go!"

"Don't insult my intelligence," he spat. "I did let you go, and what was the first thing you did? Now you expect me to do it again." He smirked coldly. "Perhaps it is best to simply cut you out of the gene pool before you pollute it with your idiocy." Two of his tentacles unsheathed their claws and raked them down her sides, leaving long tears in her clothing but not quite cutting her skin.

She squirmed, trying to get away. The skin revealed by the tears was pale and porcelain-smooth, faint welts rising quickly. "No, please! I'm sorry, I won't do it again!" She felt frantically over the counter, searching for anything to help herself, and one hand knocked against the knife block. She fumbled to grab one.

A third metallic limb slammed down on the wrist of her questing hand, cracking a couple of bones. "Very well, my dear, if that's how you want to play it." The tentacle seized the injured wrist and dragged her out into the living room after him.

She sobbed in sudden pain, trying to take the pressure off the break with her other hand, stumbling after him. "No, please! Just get out, please!" she pleaded, trying to keep her feet. "Get out of my apartment!"

"You're in no position to make demands, and I believe we've discussed raising your voice, as well." His upper right tentacle grabbed her soft, delicate throat and the lower two ripped off her sweater. Otto tore the sleeves off it and used one to bind her ankles and the other to bind her hands behind her back. With complete disregard for her wrist, he shoved her onto the couch and tore off enough of what remained of the tattered sweater to make a gag. "If you aren't as incompetent as you have demonstrated yourself to be thus far, you will wait quietly here until I return. Don't forget I will always have an eye on you." Otto went back into the kitchen.

She screamed into the gag, squeezing her eyes shut. Her wrist was trapped under her and it burned brutally. She tried to kick her legs free and only succeeded in falling off the couch. She lay there, breathing heavily through her nose, her eyes wet with starting tears, and stared under the coffee table at the kitchen door.

Otto heard the thump in the living room and glanced back at the couch. Apparently she'd fallen off it. He only chuckled and went back to locating the glasses. Once he found that, he dug around in the refrigerator with a metal claw until he found the pitcher of iced tea. As it poured the clear, copper liquid into the glass, he contemplated his other three tentacles. They drifted lazily about him, tracing sinister patterns through the air. He opened the link in his mind as far as it would go, or at least as far as he could, and ran his hand down one. The oddity of the sensation made him shiver and glow at the same time. He probably would have fallen into a trance standing there if it wasn't for his awareness of the woman in the other room. Otto walked out of the kitchen, shrinking the link with his actuators once more, angled the soft arm chair more towards the sofa, and sat down. The metal snakes slithered over the coffee table and twined around her body again. This time he moved more slowly, though, exploring the curves that still hid under her clothing. Smiling to himself, he placed her on the couch, more mindful of her wrist this time, and sipped the iced tea. "If I let you speak now, do you absolutely promise that you won't raise your voice?"

She shivered in his grip, chilled by more than the cold metal. Her wide eyes on him, she nodded slowly. This was all beginning to take on a surreality, a distance from reality.

Of course he didn't quite believe her. She'd promised to remain obedient before. Now the kitchen was a mess because of it. "I'll break you in half if you do. You think your wrist hurts? I could do that to every bone in your body." It was apparently possible for her to go paler, because at this threat, she did. "As long as we understand each other." Otto drank from the glass again as his tentacles removed the gag. "I just hope you're a better conversationalist than you let on." One tentacle remained draped across her while the others returned to trace lazy loops and waves in the air around their owner. "Tell me a little about yourself. Who are you? What makes you tick?"

She tried to sit up, unsuccessfully. "I...." She was careful to keep her voice down. "I don't know what you want with me."

"You don't?" The metal appendage traced lazily over her body. He could feel the texture of her clothes and the minute quivering caused by his touch vibrated subtly down the actuator and into his brain. "Well, you might start with your name." He drank the tea and swirled the liquid around in the glass, causing the ice to tinkle musically.

His calmness, his assurance plucked at her nerves in the same way as his actuators' touch did. She tried to edge farther back on the couch, away from him. "Gi- Virginia," she supplied reluctantly.

Otto smirked. "Virginia..." The roaming tentacle began to make its way to her crotch. "Does that have any... special meaning?" He chuckled.

She jerked, trying harder to get away from it. "N- no, my parents just liked... please, stop that?"

The tentacle stopped, draped across her hip bones. Otto wasn't quite finished playing with her yet. "What did you start to say?"

"My parents just liked the name," she finished, blinking. She could tell this was a game to him.

"I meant before that. What was it? A nickname? A pet name?"

"Ginny," she said quietly.

"All right then, Ginny," Otto smirked. The tentacle started moving again. This time it snaked upwards then sideways, finding its way under her shirt via the tears made earlier. He finished the beverage and put the glass on the coffee table. The liquid metal skin on the actuator could feel the softness of her skin and he let himself open the connection in his mind a little more. While his tentacle continued to explore her body, he continued to explore her mind, testing how far she would let him go on both fronts. "Did your parents call you that? A friend? A lover?"

She writhed, trying to get away from them. Her breath came faster, with the hitch of incipient crying to it. "My friends..." she said, risking her wrist to press back against the couch, as far away from him as she could get at the moment.

Otto wrapped the tentacle around behind her back to keep her from pulling away and traced her bra line with it. It was amazing how he could feel such minute differences in texture with them. "How many lovers have you had, Ginny?"

She stiffened, and stared resolutely past him, her face set except for the quiver in her jaw. She knew what he planned now. There was no doubt. She opened her mouth to answer, but she couldn't form the words.

"How many?" His voice dropped to a commanding growl and the tentacle tightened around her.

Her mouth was painfully dry and tight. She glanced at him and then looked away, faint pink rising unbidden in her cheeks. "None."

"So Virginia is a virgin. How deliciously ironic." The tentacle under her shirt shifted and molded into a sharp blade. In his laboratory experiments, he'd used it to dissect the dead experimental animals to find out why they had died. Now that he was on this rapid downward spiral, it was the reason why people died. And people were only a short cry from animals, weren't they? Most of them, at any rate. He dragged the blade through the fabric of her blouse, parting it to reveal the porcelain beauty underneath. "I may not have wanted you if you weren't..."

She squealed, curling in to conceal herself, bringing her knees to her chest. "No, don't! I'm not, I lied, I'm not a virgin...."

Otto chuckled darkly, rose on his actuators, and flowed across the room. He leaned down until his breath ghosted across her face. "Unfortunately, I don't believe you." One tentacle wrapped around her ankles and pulled her knees away from her chest so he could trace his human fingers over her stomach. His hands moved under her back and lifted her into a half sitting position while his other tentacles grew knives and began slicing away the rest of her shirt.

She protested, flinching, but she was soon shirtless, left in her small white brassiere and her skirt. Goosebumps covered the exposed skin, unblemished except for a tiny near-invisible tattoo in the hollow of her shoulder, a single musical note in white ink. She was shaking hard now, her breath carrying small sobs. "Please, please don't touch me," she begged, a hot tear landing on his hand.

"How would you stop me?" His voice was harsh, full of hate and tinged with insanity. "How could anyone stop me from doing anything I want now?" The tentacles hissed again and moved down to work on her skirt while Otto followed the tear track up her cheek with the tip of his tongue. It tasted arousingly salty and wet. "It's just your poor luck that you've gotten yourself mixed up in this," he murmured and gently nipped her bottom lip.

She jerked her head back, bouncing it off the back of the sofa. "Don't!" Twisting away from him, she tried to deny that this was happening. Just a nightmare, right? When was she going to wake up?

Otto made a tsking sound. "I just finished telling you I will do whatever I want, regardless of what you say." His tentacles discarded her skirt and one snaked between her shapely thighs. He closed his eyes and let out a breath as it wandered up their smoothness, finding her panties by the texture of the fabric.

She closed her legs tightly, beginning to cry in short, panicked gasps. "No! You can't do this! You can't!" Hysteria and adrenaline numbed the pain in her wrist enough to let her pull against the make-shift bonds. "Don't touch me!"

Otto opened his eyes slowly as the end of one of his tentacles slimmed and elongated. “She’s forgetting…” It slithered up her chest and poked into her mouth like a questing robotic tongue. “How can she be reminded?” Otto climbed on top of her, straddling her waist and propping himself up with his hands. He could feel her taste buds with the tentacle as it slithered over her tongue.

She choked, and managed to push it out with her own tongue, turning her face away from him. "Gkkh... No, get off!"

"No," Otto whispered and shoved it into her mouth again, deeper this time. His other tentacles began searching the rest of her body more fervently than before. It was getting hotter in the room, or at least so he felt. "I'm in control. I am."

She choked again, her throat convulsing against the intrusion. Her thin white underwear and bra were no defense at all, and he was everywhere. He was all she could see, and she could smell him. Sweat and lust and metal and something bitter. He filled her awareness.
A final, desperate tug on the strips of sweater and she got her hands free, and she shoved at him, trying to pull the arm out of her mouth.

She was weaker than him, and he could subdue her wrists with his organic hands just as easily as his mechanical ones. "Perhaps she needs more persuasion..." Another tentacle shifted and changed while the other two liberated her ankles of the makeshift bonds. However, before she could use it to her advantage, they secured her ankles and pulled her legs apart. He shifted forward until he was sitting on her stomach and let the free actuator slide its very tip into her underwear. The feeling of her hot dampness made him tilt his head back and a low purr rumbled in his chest. "So she can see who's in charge..." The tip of the probing tentacle began stroking its way into her intimate territory while he forced her to continue deep-throating the other. "Yes..."

LadyRHolmes: Her eyes were impossibly wide and she moaned, trying to scream around the arm. Don't, she was crying out, don't! She couldn't breathe, between his weight on her and the arm and her panic.

He opened the connection as far as he could, practically swimming in ecstasy. The tentacle penetrating her was indifferent to her discomfort and her virginity. All Otto cared about was the heat and the tightness, flowing into him from two sources now. He forced as much into her as he could, her screams falling on deaf ears. Well, not entirely deaf. There was part of him that wanted to hurt her and make her scream. It was the part that was still angry at Osborn and Hammer and everyone else who'd stepped on him, used him. Ha, but he was the one with the power, here. She couldn't and wouldn't step on him. He wouldn't let her.
It was a tight fit, but he wriggled and twisted the tentacle inside of her, anyway, feeling her slick walls. He worked it in and out, too, just a little. The action was more from the habit of sexual practice than anything else, though.

She arched under him, bucking and struggling as he filled her too full, stretching that which had never been stretched before. Her hymen tore, and blood stained the tentacle as he worked it in and out. She retched, fighting not to throw up. She knew he'd let her choke. Her hips jerked uncontrollably with the pain of penetration, unwittingly simulating the motions of consent.

"There..." He gasped, fucking her harder with the tentacle. "Beautiful..." His hands trailed down her arms and squeezed her breasts through the thin white fabric. Looking at them, and considering his proximity to them, filled him with fantasies he'd barely dared to entertain before. There was a new door opening in his mind. So many personal doors, it seemed, had been unlocked lately, and there was something new approaching. Something... It was like a mental orgasm, stemming from the area of his brain reserved for interfacing with the arms. The everyday sensation of regular intercourse was nothing compared to what his mind was yelling at him now. His groans and gasps escalated and then fell away, leaving him feeling as though he were floating in a dark sea. He wasn't done with her, not by a long shot, but his brain pleaded for a moment's rest, so he decided to let it have it. The tentacles slithered out of her orifices and lifted him back to the chair.

She tried to roll off the sofa again so she could throw up, her stomach still rebelling against it all. The area between her legs burned as if he'd torn her in half, deeply bruised and bleeding. Her mind... Her mind was off-track, shuddering and skipping. This couldn't be happening. Nightmare. Just a horrible nightmare. She curled in on herself, shuddering in reaction. She could still feel him on her, in her. "God... god...."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Otto smirked. There was blood on his tentacle again. He remembered clearly the doctors screaming and fleeing as the same actuator he regarded now had crushed through the chest of the insolent man with the clipboard. His finger traced a streak through it. "I noticed, on your back..." He began as he inspected the tip of his finger. It was crimson and shiny; shiny like the glasses his first victim had worn.

She buried her face against the cushions, crying brokenly. His words didn't register. He wasn't a human to her at all anymore, to be able to speak and converse. Just a monster, an incubus here to claim her soul. And it hurt so much.

His eyes refocused on her. He knew she was crying, but her pain meant nothing to him. If he had ever been able to feel, the few shreds of compassion that were left had disintegrated in the explosion. They would have begun dissolving long before that, though. In his line of work, where lives were squashed out time and time again, one couldn't afford to pity the sweet, innocent rabbit under the microscope. "I'm speaking to you, Ginny," he growled.

She still didn't respond, trying to control her crying. Trying to just breathe. "God... god..." she babbled to herself, curling as tight as she could. She was still bleeding sluggishly between her legs, and her throat was raw. She coughed convulsively into the couch, trying to muffle it. Her eyes opened briefly, but when she saw him, she squeezed them tightly shut again.

A tentacle whistled through the air and struck the arm of the couch closest to her head. There was a loud splintering noise as the impact crushed that piece of the furniture. "Goddammit, you will listen to me and you will look at me and you will respond to me!" If there was anything he hated more than having his intelligence insulted, it was being ignored.

She scrambled away from the violence, hitting her hip on the coffee table and falling. It hurt to move her legs. She shrieked wordlessly, trying to crawl under the table.

"Why," he hissed in a dangerously low voice and grabbed her ankle with the metal claws. "Why do you do this to yourself?" He dragged her across the carpet. "I wasn't going to hurt you. All I wanted to do was talk, but I suppose I should have expected it from your kind. You run through your miserable lives like rats in a maze, constantly chasing the latest insipid trend, purchasing cosmetics to make you look younger, and pills to enhance the length or quality of your sex life, while we stand over you with a big clipboard and scribble the results. And even now, despite your protests, you behave as though you would prefer the handling and stroking and penetrating. How. Very. Pathetic."

She tried to grab the carpet, tearing her nails. "Let me go!" She didn't know what he was talking about. If she were calm, able to pause and concentrate, she'd have been able to. She wasn't unintelligent, she was merely panicked. As her next action proved. Her hand met a shard of the destroyed sofa, and she grabbed it, twisting with sudden inspiration to try to stab it into his leg.

A tentacle flashed down to deflect it but not before it tore through his pants, making a long gash down his calf. He clutched his leg and stared at the blood dribbling between his fingers. His eyes drifted slowly back to her, their expression unreadable. "You bitch," he finally whispered and slapped her across the face.

She recoiled, hiding her head under her arms again. "I'm sorry!" she cried, expecting immediate retribution.

"You only think you're sorry," Otto smirked and curled an actuator around her shoulders. "Later you will understand what sorry really is, but first our chat." The actuator tightened around her shoulders. "I've been blessed, or cursed as the case may be, with immense curiosity. I like to know everything about my subjects, or at least as much as I can glean from them. The mark on your back. What is it?"

She peered out under an arm, her face tear-tracked and tight. "My... my tattoo?"

"Yes, that." Otto leaned back in the chair and looked down his nose at her. "Tell me about it."

She curled up again, covering herself with her arms. "S'just a quarter note."

"But I know you got it for some reason. Enlighten me. The longer you regale me with stimulating conversation, the longer you get to heal before I'm moved to penetrate you again."

She cringed at that idea. "It was to celebrate my entrance to the conservatory," she said softly. "My brother got it for me."

"Why a quarter note?"

"It was a joke...." she stuttered. "I was supposed to get a new one for every quarter I completed."

"It sounds like you're quite close to your brother." Otto picked up the glass again and drank off the melted ice. "Just how old are you, anyway?"

L"Twenty seven." Her voice was small and quiet, her eyes fixed on the floor.

"A twenty-seven-year-old, unmarried, virgin..." His eyes fell on his bloody tentacle and he frowned. "Well, scratch that last one," he snickered cruelly. "Any particular reason why you were waiting?" He'd decided to leave the question open ended to see if she would answer in relation to her marital status or her sex life. Of course, Otto knew, for many people the two were one and the same.

Her shoulders shook, and she visibly crumbled further. "I.... I was waiting until I got married..." she whispered.

"And, barring this event, of course, how did you imagine losing your precious flower? You must have thought about it."

"Not like this...." was all she could say. She wished she could just melt into the carpet.

The tentacle around her neck and shoulders began to tighten. "I expected as much, my dear. I'm sure no one plans to be swept off by a tentacled monster and forced to live one of those degrading hentai animes. Say we hadn't happened across each other. Say you didn't turn and call out, we went our separate ways, and you met and married your perfect mate. Would there be flowers, candles, satin sheets, and all those other silly romantic notions people like you dream up?"

She shook her head, miserable. "Just a thunderstorm... and Bolero," she admitted, the tips of her ears showing pink through her hair.

“Ah, so you're the type who finds thunderstorms romantic." His ex-wife had been the flower and chocolate loving type. The shape of her figure had indicated as much around the time their marriage broke up. That stupid woman, whining at him every night that he spent too much time with his work… She'd hated being alone. That's why they had left each other. She'd said marrying him was like marrying a computer.
Otto traced his human fingers through Virginia's hair and let them trail down her tear dampened cheek. He continued this petting in silence for a while before finally asking, "And what is it that scares you?"

"You...." she said in a barely audible voice, blinking furiously to keep from being tear-blinded. She didn't dare pull away; he'd hit her again.

Otto laughed, something tinged with a note of insanity. He hoped by the time he had his revenge, others would be responding to similar questions with his name. If Hammer did get to live, Otto wanted the old man to see Dr. Octavius in his nightmares. "My dear Ginny, we've only known each other so very briefly. And I'm the thing you fear most?" The actuator around her neck and shoulders trailed down and began stroking one of her breasts, as his hand continued to caress her face and hair. "I've already informed you that flattery will get you nowhere."

Her hands twitched. She wanted to push him away, throw off this tentacle and run, but she had no chance. And no answer. She merely nodded faintly and continued to stare at the floor.

"So that's it, then?" Otto rose to his feet, the tentacle around her neck guiding her to follow suit. "Very well." He pressed his lips to hers, holding her head with his organic hands, while a tentacle snaked out to open the door he'd noticed earlier. His tongue flicked between her lips, seeking entry to her mouth. She gritted her teeth against him, crying harder. Otto wouldn't be deterred that easily. He was used to getting what he wanted. Claws blossomed behind her again and dragged down her back, leaving three crimson trails.

She gasped in shock, arching away from them. Her body pressed involuntarily against his.

He took advantage of the gasp to plunge his tongue into her mouth. One hand stayed on the back of her head, and his other organic arm wrapped around her waist. "There's a good girl," he whispered against her lips before forcing entry with his tongue again.

She gagged and tried to force him out, straining back against his hand. "Ngg..."

He purposely kissed her slowly and lazily, taking his time to taste her breath and her protests. Finally, he broke the kiss and turned to see where the door led. It was the bedroom, sure enough. A slow smirk spread across his face as his gaze returned to her face. Her eyes were sparkling, wet with tears. He kissed her forehead and turned toward the bedroom, pushing her along with the arm around her waist.