secondhandsome | ic inbox

Yes, one of them contacted me.

Why ever not? It isn't as though I spend all the time with you that I do simply because I have nothing better to hold my attention. You're...a very appealing man to me, Timothy. Something in you calls to something in me, very strongly.

[Lust chuckles softly.]

There is one thing I've learned. Don't try. Just be.

Though...considering... there are some things I feel you should know about me. It would be..dishonest, to keep them from you, at this point.

Janey, right? She mentioned she talked to you, anyway.

[Boy, that was a confusing situation.]

I, ah. Heh, well, I could answer the question of why not, but I get the feeling you'd definitely disagree with me on that, so never mind that I guess.

[Oh geez, she really, really likes him, oh gosh.]

Um, alright... Sounds kinda ominous, but okay.

Yes, that was the one. I was...rather surprised.

You're a good man, with a good heart and a true soul that speaks to my own. Why wouldn't I find that appealing?

[And here they are. Because Lust has learned. Don't hide things for fear they'll hurt someone. And it's only fair, that he know the truth of her past.]

I'll be honest, you won't find it pleasant. You already know that I was named, raised, and used by a cruel master for her end goals. What I haven't yet shared is precisely what she used me for.

Sorry if that was weird or anything, I uh... didn't know she did that until the other day.

...Ha, well, I guess when you put it like that...

[A way more flattering description than he'd ever use for himself, that's for sure.]

I figure it wouldn't be pleasant, yeah. You're sure you're okay sharing it? I mean, it's fine if you do, just trying to be sure you don't feel like you have to or anything.

I believe she was only trying to help. She seems very fond of you.

I am. It tends to bother other people a great deal more than it bothers me, and it's...relevant.

[Lust hasn't been in this position before. She's told other people, of course, but not someone she had this manner of relationship with. Scar had already known. All she'd done was fill in a few fine details.]

I was named 'Lust' for a reason. My master, her goal was to have created a very powerful and legendary alchemic transmutation. The Philosopher's Stone. The knowledge of its making...it was fiercely guarded and not easily stumbled upon. My master hadn't the power to make it herself, so she found certain types of men. Egotistical men, immoral, closer to the end of their careers than the start, who were smart enough and had the power enough to create the stone. Some even who sought it.

She sent me to them. To guide them to the knowledge, give them the tools they would need, manipulate them into the stone's creation.

[She pauses then, shaking her head briefly. She could go on, say so much more, but...little more really needs to be said.]

Put plainly, Timothy, she made a whore of me.

Yeah, she's... a good friend.

[And right now he's pretty grateful that she talked to both of them. This relationship could've gotten, uh... awkward.

On a completely different note, though, wow, that's... He's not sure what he expected. Something bad, sure, considering what Lust has told him about her life. But this is... This is heavy.]

That's... She... [She said it doesn't bother her as much as it bothers others and, okay, if she says so he believes that.] Shit, that's... fucked up. Which feels like one hell of an understatement.

I'm... I mean, you said it doesn't bother you as much, but still, I'm sorry.

I think if it bothered me, I'd live a much more miserable life. Objectively, I'm well aware of the wrongness of it. But it's all I knew. It was never anything personal, or intimate. It was...a job. Something I was trained to do well, that was necessary. Or so I believed.

[Lust sighs. She's grateful his reaction is muted. She can tell it upsets him, it always upsets people, but she hates feeling as though she needs to feel badly about it. And he should know this.]

[This isn't Scar, a damaged virgin as afraid of his attraction to her as anything else. And she's no longer the nervous, physically shy thing she'd been when she first became human.]

It isn't as though anyone ever hurt me, or forced me to do anything I didn't agree to. But I wouldn't describe any of my encounters as pleasant or desired. And...I haven't. Since I came to this world and was returned to humanity. Scar and I, we lived as man and wife, but...

It was complicated. We slept in separate beds for nearly half a year after we began cohabiting.

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