#this starts w just. Tii using some dude's form stood there naked and partly covered in its own blood. juicy.

[catboii]

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[Day ####]

“Oh yeah… 47.” The exposed, still relatively mysterious man smiles, and with the back of his better arm brushes his bloodied hair from his face. “That was it. Gareth is what he called himself.”

Agent 23’s eyes narrow and she steps into his space slightly. “What do you mean ‘himself’? Aren’t you Agent 47? Gareth?” 

His expression falters. “Let me explain. But- quickly, they’re going to get impatient soon.” He quickly glances at the door, and his expression sours. “All four of them are out there still”. 

Agent 23 tries to stay passive. He hasn’t threatened her, or explained much so far. She’s willing to hear him out at least. “Four? There’s only three of them. The Overseer, and Vicky- I mean, Agent 21, and-”

“No,” he interrupts, his tone unreadable but hard edged. The big guy’s here.”

“One of the higher ups?”

“Something like that. This place is corrupted from the inside you know”, he tilts his head at her, fixing her with an unreadable look. “You’d never know if you were talking to a real human or not. But forget that for now. I’ll explain, but then I have to leave. I don’t…” he pauses and stares down at the floor between them.

“You’re leaving? How?” She’s taken a few more steps, her guard fallen completely, something about the energy in the room reminding her of the sweet creature she’d been spending time with thus far. Playing chess together and drawing pictures, petting its feathers as it sat on her lap.

He doesn’t answer, just continues his own thought. “I don’t wanna leave you here with them.”

She fixes him with a look, confused. “With who? My colleagues? I’ve been fine so far.” It’s supposed to be a joke, but it doesn’t come out as care-free as she’d hoped, something roiling in the pit of her stomach again. The feeling that something isn’t… right. 

After a brief few moments, the man raises his head, and stares straight into her eyes. “This guy. Gareth, Agent whatever the fuck. He was the last guy assigned to watch me. I didn’t like him. I can smell evil people. He was sick and bad.” 

Agent 23 goes to say something, but all that comes out is an “oh,” and she feels silly. 

The stranger, or not-so-stranger as it would seem, continues, “he wanted something from me. He knew there was something going on. I convinced him that I would let him in on all of it, let him in on the secret of his ‘god’.” At that last word, he furrows his brows in anger, his eyes almost appearing as slits as he keeps explaining, his voice slowly raising with each point. “He wanted to know how to kill his enemies with ease and get away with it. He had caused people’s deaths, his fellow Agents and people who trusted him, but he was too much of a pathetic sack of shit to take direct action. Wouldn’t get his own hands dirty.” He seems to snap back to himself and his face softens. “Sorry. I just…” His eyes trail back down to the floor, and he just stands there silently. 

Despite herself, 23 puts out a hand, resting it on his upper arm. The injured one. “It’s alright. Just tell me what’s going on?” She says it softly, trying to replicate the first few times she met the little creature who grew on her so much in such a short time. 

At first he jolts, then stiffens, looking at her hand as if it was a strange bug that he wasn’t sure would bite him. “I… He was a bad guy. And I needed to get out. So I convinced him to switch off the cameras. And he did. Because he was greedy.”

She thinks he has more to say, so she nudges him and smiles softly. “So what did you do then?” 

“I killed him.” He says it so flatly, as if it meant nothing. “Had to keep it clean so I could use his clothes. Then I ate his body, so I could take his form, and put his clothes on and I just walked out.” He said it way too fast and 23 holds her hands up in a ‘whoa there’ gesture. 

“You did what to take his what?” She closes her eyes, shaking her head. “Slow down and explain it like I’m a child, okay?” 

“I don’t know much about humans but I don’t think you’d talk to a child about Carnomancy?” He tilts his head again, a genuine look of confusion on his face. 

Agent 23 blinks, then puts her hands palms together and points at the… man? Not-man? “Let’s start with that. What’s… Carnomancy?” 

The other’s eyes widen and they realise how out of their depth this poor human is. Still, they’re patient. “Carnomancy. Flesh manipulation. Shapeshifting…“ They gesture with their hands, miming in circular motions. “You know. It’s all part of Sarkicism”.

“Sarcastism?” She tries to repeat, and the entity almost thinks she’s fucking with it. “You’re going to have to dumb it down further.”

Their eyes dart about the floor as if somewhere down there would be a hint on how to explain this better. “Sarkicism,” they sound out slower, pronouncing it clearly. “It’s like… Body horror Scientology?” 

There’s a moment of silence, and Agent 23’s mouth is agape. “I’m sorry. It’s what?” 

“You know Scientology right?” Apparently they’re being totally serious. 

Again, the Agent stands in disbelief, and she shakes her head quickly. “Not really. I know that Scientologists exist and they’re rich. And something about paying to cleanse their spirits?” 

“Oh. Well yeah they believe in science and spirit stuff. That’s not important. That’ll take longer to explain.” They wave their hand, the arm that isn’t injured. And 23 notices that somehow they’re still bleeding from their wound. She tentatively tries to take the damaged  limb in her hands, watching the entity’s face for a reaction as she does so. They let her, but they watch her closely as they continue to explain, speaking much faster, almost too fast for her to keep up with. “In the most basic version I can come up with on the spot, they believe in flesh magic, human sacrifice and ritualistic cannibalism, so they can become gods.” 

The Agent thinks she does a good job of not showing how much she doesn’t believe this is a real thing. “Wow. Alright. So if I’m picking up where this is going,” she tilts her head as she checks over his cut, glancing between their face and the deep gouge. It’s ragged and looks like it was done with something that wasn’t very sharp, possibly digging over and over again until the skin finally broke, and then further so that there was enough of an opening to get that much blood to pour. It won’t heal very well, unless they really are some kind of flesh magician like they’re talking about, then maybe they can heal themself with this carnomancy they’re trying to pedal as a real thing. “You ate him, so that you could…” She suddenly has a moment of absolute clarity. The announcement that said Agent 47 had been compromised had said if anyone saw him, to not approach, but to report it to an Overseer immediately and they would initiate a lockdown. She tries to think about what else the announcement had said. Something regarding the Anomaly responsible would not hurt you if you hadn't threatened it. And when she’d been assigned to Crowvid, her Overseer had asked all the Agents if anyone had had any negative interactions with it… She peers up to the entity, seeing that it was looking at her intently. “You’re not Agent 47, are you?” It’s not a question really, more of a statement.

They shake their head after a moment, and then they give a weak smile. “People call me Tii.” 

“Tea? Like the letter or the drink?” She tries to lighten the mood, because she isn’t sure what else to do. At that moment, the main door starts to whir, and Tii’s head whips around toward the glass, their body dropping into a defensive position and she can almost swear she heard them growl. She tries to calm them down by putting her hands out toward them, but they just keep staring wildly around. “Who’s there?” she calls out toward the sounds of the second door opening. 

There’s no response until the final door starts to open, and a large man in a black lab coat steps through, whistling as he glances around, admiring the state of the room. “You really are a piece of art. Only art can perpetuate art, no?” 

Agent 23 looks between the strange man and the creature wearing a human suit that she still thinks of as her charge, the tension so thick that it’s almost tangible. She puts an arm in front of Tii and ushers them behind her. “Who are you?”

The sickly sweet smile on his face is almost enough to make her feel sick. It’s worse than any condescending expression she’s been given by anyone of her higher ups thus far. “I’m known by many names, but you… You can call me Dr.Kray.” He holds his hand out, like a mediaeval king expecting her to kiss his royal signet ring. She looks up at him and sneers at the offered hand. 

Pulling back her authority in her assigned chamber, she challenges him, “and how can I help you, Dr.Kray?” 

The hearty chuckle that he lets out is enough to get Tii to flinch, and they back off two steps, but she grabs their arm and gives them a reassuring squeeze. “You, help me? No no.” He takes the remaining steps toward them both, and the still unclothed, uncertain, entity almost physically cowers. “I’m here for that.” He gestures at Tii with the back of a knuckle, “I could hear you in here you know. I always can. Telling our little pet here all about the grand secrets of the universe…” 

Agent 23 steps between them both, a brash move that she normally wouldn’t take against someone who she assumes to either be higher ranked than her, or just much, much richer than her. “This is my charge, my assignment. If you have some business with him-”

She’s sharply interrupted. “It. I have business with… It.” He says it almost as if it’s a slur. 

23 turns back to her companion in this, searching for some kind of rebuttal, but they just nod as if that’s correct. “It?” she clarifies. 

It glances at the tall man, then back to her, “yeah. No he.” 

There’s a ‘hmph’ from the man, as if this was a silly question to ask, and he takes control of the situation again. “So if we’re quite done with the pleasantries. I would prefer to not see scrawny human testicles any further. You can devour this human and join me in my office. You’ll like it, it has carpet.”

It takes a moment for 23 to register the order given, and she gets that stabbing anxiety in her stomach again, as she turns to her charge, who’s just staring at the floor as if it can’t meet her eyes. She weighs up her options of who to try arguing for her life with, and decides to go for the most ambitious, but definitely stupidest option. “What benefit would h- it, get, from eating me? What, this flesh magic lets you turn into someone if you eat them? There’s nowhere special you can get by using my face. You’ve got Agent 47…”

The man raises an eyebrow at her absolute gall, daring to address him. “Sweetheart, they all know that 47 is dead.” His tone is mocking, like he’s telling a child that Santa isn’t real, and that’s why she got no presents this year, despite being on her best behaviour. 

“But… Surely they’ll guess that something’s happened to me too. Tii made it far too obvious that something was going on by covering the cameras and-” 

She hadn’t noticed him stepping closer, and he leans right into her personal space. She can smell the cigarettes and alcohol on his breath, and his aftershave lingers in the air. “You’re right. ‘Tii’ did fuck that up, didn’t it.” His tone has an edge to it, accusing, accentuating the name as if it was something taboo. She realises she said the wrong thing, and maybe let something else slip that she shouldn’t have, and she turns to Tii, who’s not looking at the floor anymore, but isn’t looking at either of them directly either. It looks tired. 

“I didn’t fuck it up,” it starts, although its voice is shaky. “I did it on purpose. I hoped you wouldn’t send her in.”

There’s a moment of recognition in Dr.Kray’s eyes, and he narrows them, almost respectfully, but then he sighs dramatically. “Tell me what you want…” It’s said like a parent to a child, caving to getting them the ice cream they’ve been pestering them for for hours.  

The entity has relaxed, and at some point that 23 hadn’t really noticed, it had slipped its bloodied hand into her own. She looks down at their entwined fingers, feeling her heart beat in her chest as she wonders if this will be her last sensation. “I want her. And I want to be out. And I want her to be out. And for you to leave her alone.” 

The man leans back thoughtfully, crossing his arms over his chest and sighing loudly, as if this was a big pain in the ass. “You want to save this one puny human?” He leans back in again, all easy gestures and over dramatic movements. “What’s so special about it?” 

At first the statement is lost on her, and as Tii rushes forward, putting itself between her and the Dr, protesting something that she can’t quite focus on, she catches it. 

‘What’s so special about it’. 

... ‘It’.