Room and Board. And a Choker

Awkward. If Ara had to describe the situation in one word, that would most likely be her pick. She was sitting at a table, Eve in front of her. The pub they were in was pretty much empty, only the bartender being there besides the two of them. It was summer, most people had gone off somewhere on holiday.

"So, didn't you at least notice the yolk of those eggs were blue when you cooked them?" Eve asked.

The previous day Ara had gone grocery shopping and met Eve on her way back home. There, somehow, they had switched their bags without realizing it. Thing is, while Ara had simply bought some eggs because apparently she had lost the ones she had at home, Eve was actually carrying something she was going to sell. She had a sort of menagerie, and while Ara knew she usually sold things from there, the thought of having taken the wrong bag never even crossed her mind. She didn't even know exactly what it was that she sold. Until Eve called her the next day.

"Well... eggs always take a weird color when I cook them, so... I thought that was normal..." she replied nervously. She knew the things coming from that menagerie were crazy expensive. Those eggs did taste a bit too good after all.

Eve scratched her head.

"Alright, I'm not really blaming you, but those were supposed to make me cash in a lot of money. You know my researches are expensive"

"How much were you going to sell those for?"

"Half a million each, which makes for four millions and a half in total. I already had a buyer, and telling him about this won't be pretty"

What followed was a minute or so of silence, which is to say how much time Ara needed to understand that Eve wasn't joking. Though, on second -actually, even on first- thought what kind of egg can possibly cost that much?

"You're kidding me?!" she shouted as she suddenly got up, slamming her hands against the table. That would have normally drawn the attention of what little customers were there, but luckily there were none, and the barman was an acquaintance of Eve and as such knew better than to mind her business rather than his own.

That said, Eve took a large book out from a bag and dropped it in front of her. By the look of it it had at least two thousand pages.

"... what is this?" Ara asked.

"What I had to go through to get those eggs. Each step and procedure, from finding out they actually exist, to getting the specimen, to raising it, to making sure it would lay eggs, to taking said eggs from it, plus a lot of other things. Complete with times and costs. You can read it and check everything if you don't trust me"

"Well..."

She took a couple of deep breaths and sat down again.

"I... I don't think I can find that much money..."

"I really wasn't expecting to get that sum back from you" Eve replied, somewhat nonchalantly.

"Then... what?"

"I have an idea. You know I have a... let's call it a menagerie, right?"

"I've... heard about it"

"But I don't run it myself. I tasked Oberon with the management of the structure, but lately I've noticed that some of the... residents are quite, let's say, stressed. In a rather specific way. I think you can help with that, as it's not something he, nor Ophelia or Ferdinand, would be suited for"

"So, basically... you're offering me a... job?"

"Well, you won't really get much pay since you'd be doing it to repay me, but let's say yes. It comes with room and board, and you can take a day off every week or so. Maybe"

"... I don't really have a choice, do I?"

A brief silence, then Eve got up.

"I'll send someone to pick you up tomorrow evening. Your house isn't that far from the menagerie, it shouldn't take long to get from one place to the other. Pack your stuff by then" she said with a neutral expression.

"... alright..."

As unrational as it was, Ara swore to never eat eggs again in her life.


The next day, either late in the afternoon or early in the evening, really it depended on who you asked to. Ara spent most of the day deciding what to take with her, though in the end she really didn't pack that much, just enough to fill a couple of suitcases, one of which was really long. She was somewhat nervous. Well, at least now she had a job? Sort of. She had quite the bad luck keeping one. Mainly because she had trouble waking up in the morning, as she got up late more often than not. A bit later than she had expected, someone knocked at the door. She opened it and found Ophelia standing there, and behind her was a cart, with no horses in sight. The door was open, and inside, illuminated -probably- by a lamp was Eve.

"Oh... uh, hi. It's been a long time since we last met"

"Not untrue" she replied.

A brief silence, then Ara noticed the maid -because Ophelia's clothing did resemble a maid outfit- had her gaze on Ara's luggages.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll carry these myself"

"If you say so"

Ara exited and, with some hesitation, locked the door. She had the feeling she wouldn't have come back there for quite some time. Then she walked to the cart and got in, sitting in front of Eve, who was holding a bag in her hands. Ophelia sat at the driver's seat, though since there were no horses nor anything else Ara failed to grasp the reason why she didn't sit with her and Eve.

"I have a bit more free time than expected, so I decided to come here myself. You seem worried"

"I... a bit, I guess"

Ara had known Eve for quite a long time, but she still couldn't understand what she was thinking. Whatever it was that she was supposed to be, she was pretty sure it was something she'd have never expected. Which... wasn't really a relaxing thought.

"So, exactly, what is it that I have to do?"

"You'll probably find that out tomorrow"

Ara gave Eve a rather confused look, and all further attempts at finding out what the job really was proved useless. Half an hour to an hour later, the carriage stopped, in front of a rather large, two storey building. By the look of it, all nearby structures were empty. Quite... unsettling.

"Mind coming down?" Eve asked. Apparently Ara had dazed off loking around and didn't notice she had gotten off.

"Ah, sure"

The menagerie looked a lot more like an ordinary shop than she had expected, at least from the outside. Well, there weren't any external showcases, but aside from that there wasn't anything off about it. The complete lack of people around, on the other hand, bothered her. Eve walked in -after Ophelia had opened the door for her-, followed by Ara who was still carrying her luggages, then the maid entered the building as well, closing the door. The inside actually looked more like an house than a menagerie. A rather empty house with little to no furniture, but still an house. Well, not that Ara had ever visited a menagerie anyway. Aside from those going to the first floor, there were stairs heading down. The animals -because they kept animals there, right?- most likely were down, unless there was some sort of very large garden she had somehow missed, which she thought unlikely. Overall it was a bit... surprising? Well, the whole place was completely different from what Ara had imagined. Eve walked to the kitchen, sat at the small table -there were four chairs- and started drinking. Apparently someone -well, Oberon most likely- had prepared tea beforehand. Unsure of what to do, Ara stood there, playing with her fingers behind her back for a minute or so.

"Your room isn't going to come down" Ophelia then said.

Ara turned around and saw her standing on the stairs to the first floor. It took her a moment or two to understand what she meant, then she grabbed her luggages and followed her upstairs. As they walked, Ara noticed that there weren't any knick-knacks nor decorations of sort. It was probably how one would imagine the house of someone who had just moved and had yet to unpack his stuff, though there were no boxes to be seen. Guess Oberon was a minimalist? No, wait, that's not what minimalism was, right? Well, Ara really wasn't sure.

"You are its" Ophelia said as she pointed to a door "And in case, the bathroom is there" she added as she pointed to the closest door.

There was something about the way she spoke which was... weird. Something not really subtle. Ignoring that, Ara walked in. The room was... normal-sized, if that meant anything. There was a wardrobe, a large mirror, two drawer, a couple of closed windows, a small table with a chair and, of course, the bed. Which... actually looked really fancy, at least when compared to everything else. Maybe because it was a canopy one. It sort of made her feel uncomfortable, but just a bit. The furniture wasn't excessive, but compared to the rest of the house that room looked cramped. She wondered for a moment whetever she should have unpacked her stuff or went down to see if Eve had anything to tell her, and decided for the former. Meanwhile, Ophelia had walked back downstair. As she headed down, Oberon came walking up from the underground floor, carrying two small bags. He left them on the floor near the entrance door and turned to Ophelia. The two of them stared at each other for a minute or so before speaking.

"It's been a while"

"A while indeed"

"There is a bottle of wine on a shelf in the kitchen"

The maid nodded. Driking was a sort of hobby for her. A rather weird one, for a machine. She'd take the bottle home -or rather, to the lab since that's where she usually stayed- and drank it there.

"Anything new?" Eve asked as she walked out of the kitchen.

"No, mistress" he replied.

She then handed him the bag she had brought with her.

"Make her wear these. One of the keys is inside there, I'll keep the other"

Oberon looked inside, took one of the two objects and brought it up.

"What is the purpose of this, if I may ask?"

As in, he knew what that was used for and how, he just wasn't sure why Ara had to put that on.

"That..." Eve replied as she looked up to one of the surveillance cameras, hidden well enough to be nearly impossible to spot without knowing where to look "That's just for fun, really"

She then gave him a few... peculiar instructions, then headed downstairs.

"Since I'm here already I'll give some of them a quick look" she said as she gestured him to follow her.

As for Ophelia, she went to the kitchen, found the bottle and wondered whetever she should have drank it immediatly or later. She opted for the latter, grabbed the bottle and brought it to the cart, then walked back in. A while later, Eve and Oberon walked back upstairs.

"Alright, we're done here"

Ophelia grabbed the two bags Oberon had left near the entrance and followed Eve outside. Not much later, Ara came walking down the stairs. It had been... probably a few years since the last time she had seen him. And more importantly, she had actually never saw his face as, back then, he always had an helmet on. Had it not been for the chain going from his neck to his right wrist, she maybe wouldn't even have realized the dark-red eyed man with spiky black hair reaching to his shoulder was actually Oberon. Though his clothing didn't change at all either.
"Oh, it's - I mean, hi. Ehr, good evening"

"Good evening"

"I -no- you - I mean- your helmet?"

"Some of the creatures hosted here get nervous when they can't look you in the eyes"

Creatures. Whan an odd choice of word.

"Right, exactly what do you -should I say we?- have here? I mean, down there? I guess" she asked as she looked at the stairs heading down.

"It would be simpler to show you rather than telling you"

"All... right, ok. Then, what must I do? Eve was somewhat... really vague about it"

"Mistress didn't tell you?"

"Not really, no"He thought for a moment.

"It would be better to show you what she meant tomorrow. The one I thought to make you start with should be asleep at this hour"

Oberon was... quite perplexed by Eve's plan. True, the lack of a certain specific activity did stress the animals -let's call them like that for now- but he wasn't sure that using Ara for that was a good idea. It also was... rather impolite for Eve to trick a friend that much. She planned to get Ara greatly indebted with her to make sure she wouldn't run away in case she didn't like the job. She waited for the right moment, then set everything up. Things went smoothly and now she had Ara in her hand. Well, she actually hadn't expected her to cook all those eggs, but only one was really worth the sum Eve had mentioned so she didn't really care that much about it. No, he really thought all of that to be a bit too much impolite. Then again, he was merely a servant, with no real rights to say anything about his mistress's decisions. That, and most tasks there were automated so he actually had more free time than one could think. Maybe Ara's presence would have eased his boredom a bit.

"... what about Eun?" he asked then, a thought that suddenly crossed his mind. He had expected to hear her, given the situation Ara was in.

"Oh, she, well, left, around an year ago" she replied, looking to her own feet "She said I didn't need her anymore and that she didn't want to interfere with my life too much anymore. ... though her long permanence inside of me did leave some after-effects..."

"Which effects?"

"W-well, I'd rather not talk about it... she said they should disappear with time anyway... probably" she said, blushing a bit "W-well, alright then. Good night" she said.

"Good night"

She walked back to her room, took off her wedges and socks and dropped them next to the bed, then took off her large, white and orange coat, her short, tight dress, white on the front and black on the sides, her short, orange skirt and left them on a chair. She removed her pantyhose and white, tight gloves and put them on top of the other clothes. She then took off the hairpins and ran two fingers along her cowlick, as if to check if it was still there. And then she went to sleep, wearing only her black underwear. Eun's absence was... a good thing, though it did sound bad to think that. Good because there was no way she'd have let Ara do what Eve had brought her there for without opposing it.


The night had gone by peacefully. And by the time Ara woke up, it was almost midday already. She got up from the bed, yawned and stretched her arms, then walked out. Still too sleepy to really think rationally, she walked out of her room and looked for the bathroom, which she found actually quite quickly as it was behind the closest door. Ophelia did tell her where it was, but she was still too asleep to actually remember about it. There she went to the sink, grabbed the first brush her hands could find and started brushing her teeth. Then she splashed some water on her face, which helped a lot with her actually waking up. That's when she noticed a rather large mirror resting against the wall. And that's when she realized she had been walking around in her underwear in an house which wasn't hers. And... wait, was that Oberon's tootbrush? She went back to her room, got dressed and walked downstair, to the kitchen. She was somewhat surprised to find Oberon cooking lunch.

"Good morning"

"Good morning. ... ehm, the tootbrush in the bathroom..."

"That's a new one"

"It... oh, ok"

Right, Oberon didn't need to eat. Well, Eve didn't really need to either, but she did so anyway. Maybe she liked how food tasted. Which probably meant the food there had been bought recently just for her. Lunch went by normally, if maybe a bit awkwardly for Ara as it felt a bit odd to eat next to him as he simply sat doing nothing. Maybe because he noticed it, or maybe simply because he was bored, Oberon at one point took a book from a drawer -why was there a book in a kitchen drawer, I don't know- and started reading. Ara couldn't see the title from where she was sitting though. After she had finished eating, they cleaned up then Oberon asked her to wait there and walked out to another room. A couple of minutes later he came back with something in his hand, a black brecelet made of... metal. Which metal, I really have no idea. It had a simple but somewhat elegant design.

"Human smell upsets some of our guests, this emits an scent which should cover it. It's rather faint, it shouldn't bother you"

"Oh, alright. Thanks" she replied as she took it "Isn't it too large though?"

Oberon thought for a moment about it, then spoke "That's a choker, not an armlet"

"Ah"

After a brief hesitation Ara put it around her neck. She fumbled a bit with it trying to close it, then something clicked. She wasn't sure how it worked but it seemed convenient as it made it impossible for it to accidentally fall off. It fit perfectly around her neck, neither too large nor too small, and it wasn't big enough to really be bothersome. It was a bit cold though.

"Say, how do I open it?" she asked as she ran her hands over it searching for a button or something like that.

"Mistress has the key"

Ara froze.

"... key? You mean I need a key to take it off?"

"Yes"

"Why didn't you tell me that before I put it on?!"

"I've been told to make you wear it. I figured it'd been simpler by not telling you that detail"

Ara took a couple of deep breaths. Calm down. It was locked, sure, but it was just a choker. Right?

"Why is it locked anyway?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess it's to make sure you don't run away before having payed off the debt. There is a display on it showing how much of it is left, though I guess you need a mirror to see it"

That, and because the collar had a couple more of functions Ara possibly wouldn't have been too happy about.

"Really?" she asked as she found said display with her fingers. That -and the keyhole next to it- weren't there when she put it on.

"With that said, I think it's time for you to get to work"

"Oh, f..."

She was about to say "finally", but then she remembered she had yet to know what the "work" was. She followed Oberon downstairs, until they reached a door with no knob. Instead there were two buttons on the wall next to it. He pushed one of them, and the door opened. A bit worried, Ara stepped inside the elevator with him.


This was supposed to be a stupid and short introduction, but it ended up twice as long as I had originally intended.

Some "action" next chapter.