Fic: Controlled Violence, Ch. 5/30

[khemlab.livejournal.com]

Characters: (for this chapter) Hunter Parrish, Taylor Hawkins
Rating: R
Warnings: Slavery, Adult situations, Mentions of drug use
Word Count: 410
Previous Parts: Ch. 1: Liev's Provenance, Ch. 2: Liev v. Madsen, Ch. 3: Lord Bale's Gym, Ch. 4: The Charity Ward

Summary: In an age when slavery is mandated by law, a type of gladiator-style fighting has arisen. Liev is an aging fighter who brings extra income to Lord Bale's household by training other fighters. Hunter is a broken-down body slave who's landed himself in the Charity Ward. In this chapter, we get a glimpse into Hunter's life with his previous owner, Lord Hawkins.

Author's Notes: Character photos for Lord Bale's household can be found here. Thanks to miladygrey for the concept of the Charity Ward (where undesirable slaves can be purchased directly), to poisontaster for opening up this sandbox, to devilc for introducing me to it, and to fleurlb for some choice casting suggestions.

Holiday Inn (Tampa Beach), Four Months Ago
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. His body slave should be taking care of him, not the other way around. Taylor considered himself a pretty nice guy, and wasn't exactly all that enthused about the idea of owning other people, but in his income bracket (Lord Hawkins? What the hell was that about?) it was either own a body slave or pay hefty fines. So maybe he made a hasty choice, he thought as he lugged Hunter up the stairs to his hotel room. Again.

The kid was pretty, and he looked like he'd be fun at a party. Like maybe he could be a surfing buddy. Other than that, Taylor didn't really expect too much. Maybe help out the roadies with the drums once in a while, or make him a nice dinner or something. Maybe not sleep with his groupies, who seemed to think that if they couldn't get Taylor, then his body slave was the next best thing. Maybe not mainline anything he could get his hands on. Wasn't his body technically Taylor's property? Lord knows he'd paid enough for it. It was like vandalism or something.

Maybe the problem was that the kid hadn't been a slave for very long, evidently only a few years. But still, you'd think he'd have some kind of sense of self-preservation. Anyone other than Taylor would have dropped him off on Commerce's doorstep a month ago. Dave kept telling him to "lose the loser," which made it sound like some kind of bad breakup. Looking down at Hunter peacefully slumbering now on his bed, it was hard to believe he was such a handful. And the kid honestly was nice when he was coherent, but that wasn't so often. Maybe Taylor's only mistake was picking up his first body slave before setting out on tour. Whatever the issue was, and wherever the fault lay, Taylor felt a fist clench around his stomach when he thought about what would happen to this pretty, stupid kid if he shipped him off back to Commerce.

A week later, Hunter nearly crashed his plane. And then there was no question anymore about keeping him around; Taylor couldn't let his own weakness and sympathy for the kid get someone he loved killed. When the Commerce agent had taken Hunter away, he asked Taylor the reason for the slave's return. All Taylor could manage to say around the lump in his throat was, "He was problematic."

Ch. 6: An Unwelcome Interruption

Comments

[ruefull.livejournal.com]

I'm loving this series, and this was a great chapter in it, love the backstory, which is definitely not what I expected. I was wondering, though, is there a picture of Hunter? I don't know a lot of celebs by name, or even if they're celebs or original characters sometimes, and if there is a pic, I'd love to see it.

[khemlab.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I do have a picture of Hunter - I was going to place him in the character photos section in a few days, but since you asked:



He plays the eldest son on the TV show "Weeds." Also, here (http://l.yimg.com/l/tv/us/img/site/12/91/0000041291_20070710161411.jpg) is a less nekkid version, in which you can actually see his pretty face. ;)

[fleurlb.livejournal.com]

Wow. He is pretty. And young-looking. I feel like a dirty old lady. Thanks. Thanks a lot. :)

[khemlab.livejournal.com]

Heehee! He is young, what can I do? ;) In reality, Hunter's 22. For purposes of this story, he's a bit shy of 18.

[fleurlb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was hoping, after reading your last provenance, that he was more TV-17 than Real Life-17. Because if he was actually 17, I would have to wash my eyes with soap or go to Confession to admit impure thoughts about a minor or something.

[khemlab.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a good purpose for having older actors play younger roles on television! If TK was actually a high-school kid, I would be going to hell ten times over by now.

[devilc.livejournal.com]

I love how you so completely *show* how unsavory this is all the way around by giving us this glimpse of the world through Taylor's eyes and showing that he's not a heartless bastard but his hands are tied.

[khemlab.livejournal.com]

This chapter was hard for me; it felt like a slow descent into Taylor's heartbreak. By the time Hunter got to him, he'd been too damaged for Taylor to work with - not that no one could have worked with him, but Taylor was far too permissive and it ended up biting him in the ass.