Jane's Pets Chapter 94: Responsibility
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You're ready to cast again. Your wounds from the last punishment are healed enough. It's time.
You've decided to try making her intangible. The examples for uses of that spell were always stuff like being able to go through walls, but you think it could also work as a way to prevent harm. If she can't touch you, or any weapons…
Well, she'd still be able to hurt you. But without anything tangible, her words are just words. If she can't touch you, if she can't touch anyone, the worst she can do is say things about how Diya, Barron, and Ray's deaths were your fault. You can deal with that. You can deal with any emotional issues that might come up for Puppy and Kitty, too.
It's not ideal. Her still being around taunting the three of you will make healing hard. But it'll be better, and that's all you need. Besides, this way you don't need to figure out how to kill someone immortal, or come up with something Jane's never thought of before. She wouldn't have tried this, because it wouldn't benefit her at all. You still want to kill her eventually, but this'll work just fine for now.
…assuming it works. It might not. You still have to contend with Jane having been alive for tens of thousands of years. Surely some mage at some point has tried this already…
You're choosing to believe that they did, and it worked, it just wore off. So you'll do it, and you'll redo it over and over again until you find a way to kill her. A perfect, flawless plan. Except…
I'm surprised that worked at all. Most spells don't work on me. I guess that was more a spell on the air around me than me?
That's what she said the last time you cast a spell on her. But… she was probably lying. Yeah, she wouldn't want you to try something like this, so she'd never let on that any spell could be effective against her. And if it doesn't work… you'll still have learned something. But you really, really hope it works.
Usually it's only a spell that lasts a few seconds, so you have to make a few adjustments. Thinking out how to change the runes and materials and motions and words is rough on your head, but you figure it out eventually. Probably. You really wish Barron was here…
You push the thought away. That's not important right now. What's important is making sure Jane never hurts someone again. You just have to wait for the right moment.
–
You and Kitty play card games in the living room while Puppy dusts. Kitty's already been to the basement today, so you only have to worry about comforting and distracting them. You'd love to appreciate this moment of relative peace, but you know that Jane will be drugging Kitty again soon. You think that while she's focused on that you'll be able to cast without her teleporting away.
Sure enough, Jane appears as you finish up one of the games.
"Time for your medicine, Kitty~" She sing-songs. "Open your mouth."
Kitty obeys. While Jane drops the pill in their mouth, you pull your supplies out of your pocket and recite the spell words as fast as you can while doing the motions.
Nothing happens.
She doesn't even look at you. Just finishes forcing Kitty to swallow the pill and sighs. "Puppy? I'm putting you in charge of this. If he casts again, I'm going to cut off his hands, feet, and tongue. You're responsible for making sure this doesn't happen again. Understand?"
Puppy nods and sets down her dusting rag.
Jane… doesn't seem to be affected. You throw a pillow at her, and it bounces off.
It didn't work. She's still tangible, she can still hurt people. Fuck! You let yourself get too excited about that one. You really, really thought it would work, even if only temporarily. And what's worse is that you made so many adjustments to the intangibilty spell from Barron's books that you're not sure if it didn't work because of your changes or because Jane's actually resistant to magic. Fuck! You're so stupid, stupid bunny-
Puppy grabs your wrist and pulls you towards the basement.
~~
It seems to take Bunny a minute to fully process what's going on. He doesn't start begging until Puppy's brought him well into the basement and starts sorting through the few tools Master keeps in the basement instead of her void.
"W-wait, I won't do it again- she didn't say you have to hurt me, right? Just to make sure it won't happen again, and it won't! So you don't have to hurt me, and I don't have to get hurt, and we're both okay. Right?"
Puppy shakes her head. She knows he's lying, and she knows what Master wants even if she didn't directly say it. She has to hurt Bunny.
Master hates mages. She's not just putting Puppy in charge of his punishment for fun (though that is a part of it), she's putting Puppy in charge because Master doesn't know if she has the self-control to avoid killing Bunny if she punishes him.
…Or maybe Puppy's projecting her own anxieties onto Master. It's hard to tell, sometimes.
Puppy picks out a hammer. Bunny is going to try to cast again unless he's physically unable to, she's sure of that. She'll just… have to make sure he can't.
She's not sure exactly how Bunny's magic stuff works, but every time she's seen it done it's involved the use of hands, so… that's a good start. She feels bad about the idea of protecting Bunny from having his hands cut off by making his hands as unusable as if they'd been cut off, but at least he'll still be able to walk and talk. And he'll be alive, which is the most important thing.
"Puppy? She didn't- she didn't say you have to hurt me-"
She didn't, but it's either pain now or worse pain later. Either she hurts him now or Master hurts (and maybe even kills) him when he inevitably tries to cast a spell again. She doesn't have a choice. She doesn't. It's the same as if Master told her to hurt him.
She pulls him to the wall, and he doesn't resist.
"Are you- Did I upset you somehow? Are you mad at me?" It sounds like he's holding back tears.
Puppy shakes her head fervently. She wishes Bunny would give up on his whole mission to kill Master, but she's not mad. And she would never hurt him out of anger.
(But didn't she hurt Kitty out of anger, at least a little bit? …No, it was to protect them. She would never hurt them unless it made them safer in the long run. Not that it matters anyway. She knows she's not a good person.)
Puppy grabs Bunny's arm and pushes his hand against the wall. He sobs, but doesn't fight, and presses his palm to the wall when he realizes that's what she wants.
"It's okay. I know- I know you don't have a choice. It's okay."
Bunny is so kind. Much more than she deserves. Puppy holds tightly to his wrist and brings the hammer down on the back of his hand.
He screams and thrashes in her grip, forcing her to stumble back. He wrenches his arm out of her grasp. Right, he does his little exercise thing every day, and he's not malnourished like she is. Of course he's stronger than her. Pain tolerance can only take Puppy so far. She can push her body to its limits, but… that limit isn't strong enough to overpower Bunny anymore.
Bunny scrambles away from her and curls up in the corner, protectively hunching around his hands. Will one hand be enough? Jared managed to cast just by throwing some powder, which only took one hand…
She has to do both. Then Bunny will be safe, and won't get himself killed or chopped to pieces. She just has to break his other hand, and then they'll be done.
She slowly approaches, hammer still gripped tightly in her hand. Bunny curls up tighter.
"I won't- I won't do it again, please-"
Puppy yanks his arm harshly. To her surprise, he seems to be trying not to struggle.
"You'll have to- you'll have to restrain me, I can't- I can't hold still with this much pain I'm sorry-"
He doesn't need to hold still. He just needs to let Puppy hold his hand, which he does. She strikes it with the hammer quickly, not giving him a chance to pull away until after it's done.
He screams and yanks away again, but that's fine. It's over now. Puppy puts the hammer away (there's no blood on it, so she won't have to clean it later), gets some bandages, and comes back to Bunny's side.
She really shouldn't bandage his hands. She doesn't want to have to do this again any time soon… but she can't bear to do nothing. She gives him space for a few minutes, then starts to try and adjust his hands so she can bandage them with the bones in the right positions.
"W-w-wait! Don't, please, please-"
She stops.
"I know- I know you have to if I want them to heal faster, but it hurts and I don't want you to tie me down-" Bunny cries and cries.
Puppy sets down the bandages and reaches out to him. He flinches away at first, but then falls into her arms.
"Fuck, it hurts, and my head hurts, and I don't know when I'll be able to cast again and I just want to protect you guys! I just want us to be safe and I hate Jane so much and- and-" He sobs while she combs fingers through his hair for a while. Puppy will have to rush through her chores when this is over, to make up for lost time.
She wishes he didn't feel so responsible for keeping them safe. It just means he'll be crushed over and over every time he fails. He shouldn't have to go through that.
Finally, his crying slows. "Can- can Kitty do it? And you can hold me still. I'd rather that than anything else."
Puppy nods and helps him to his feet without touching his hands. It clearly still hurts him, but he leans on Puppy regardless.
They both have the same thought, at the same time: "This is all my fault."
A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list! Three more chapters before the start of season 4 :)
Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff
@fuckcapitalismasshole
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Jane's Pets Chapter 87: Curse
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This is wonderful. Sucks for the intruder, but you don’t have to think about that. For you, this is wonderful. Jane is downstairs torturing someone and it’s not even Kitty or Puppy! You get to prepare spells and know Jane isn’t around while also knowing Puppy and Kitty are relatively safe. Well, you hope Puppy is safe. She’s probably fine.
You get out the materials you’ve gathered and prepare the spells you can remember. Kitty watches.
“What are you doing?”
“Preparing spells.” …did you ever even end up telling Kitty about learning magic? If you did, neither of you seem to remember it. “Barron taught me. Apparently that’s just, like, a thing that any human can do. I can teach you, if you want.”
“I’m not sure how well I can learn complex stuff like that right now...”
You smile at the way they phrased that. That they’re not sure instead of insistent that they’ll never be able to think again. That they said ‘right now.’ They have some hope for the future! You did that. “Fair enough. Let me know if you ever feel up for it. And want to.”
Kitty nods. “Um… why are you preparing spells?”
“I’m going to make it so the food we’ve got in the fridge can heal us. And try some spells against Jane.”
Kitty pales. “Don’t. Please, don’t make me watch her hurt you-”
“She’ll hurt me either way. At least this way I’m learning something.”
They’re tearing up already. “Please…”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you. Just forget it. Go take a nap or something.” There are screams of pain coming from downstairs, but they aren’t Puppy’s, and that’s all that matters.
Kitty doesn’t go take a nap, but they don’t say anything either. They just watch as you carve runes you barely remember.
When you finish, you go to the fridge and start casting healing spells on the food.
Kitty gasps. “Your eyes… they turned yellow.”
You smile. “Yeah, Barron’s magic made a popping noise. Mine is quiet but turns my eyes yellow. Isn’t that cool?”
Kitty seems less anxious as they watch. “Will the food really heal us now?”
None of you are particularly injured right now, thankfully. There are some fingernails still growing back and some bones still healing, but no open wounds.
Holy shit. Did you really just think that you’re doing well because you only have broken bones and missing fingernails? Holy shit. You freeze for a moment before continuing with casting. “Yeah. It… kind of feels like a waste, since there are times I could barely move through the injuries and I would’ve rather had healing then… but I don’t know when I’ll next get the chance to do this. And I probably wouldn’t be able to cast if I was in that much pain anyway. And it’s not like there’s a limited amount of magic, it’s just- if I get caught, this’ll be the only chance to use these healing spells, and if I’m only going to get to use them once I’d want the pain to be unbearable… sorry, that’s not important. Yes, the food will heal us. It’ll speed up our healing, at least.”
Kitty nods. “You’re less likely to get caught if you don’t attack her.”
“I know. But I’m not going to let this be the rest of our lives. I’m going to find a way to stop her. You haven’t lost that hope you had, have you? You said you thought it was possible, if we just figured out how. You said everyone has weaknesses. We just have to figure out how to get rid of her powers.”
“...you think these spells can get rid of her powers?”
“I think they have a higher chance of doing it than just waiting in case a solution falls in our lap.”
Kitty nods slowly. “What spells were you wanting to try?”
You close the fridge, having finished casting all the healing spells you prepared. “I don’t remember a whole lot of them. There are some spells that are supposed to reduce pain, but they have such horrible side effects… I wonder what would happen if we used them on her? Especially when she’s so different from everything else Barron told me about. Maybe a healing spell would hurt her, since she can already heal herself? It’s all worth a shot, at least. I also remember a curse I saw that I thought might work on her, it's supposed to lock away magic for a period of time. I only have so many memorized, and most wouldn't be super useful in attacking Jane, but I could try to figure out more spells. I know vaguely what symbols mean what, if I can figure out which ones to combine…”
“Is there any way I can help?”
“Hmm… think you can distract her while I cast? She needs to be caught by surprise, otherwise she’ll just teleport away.”
Kitty nods. “I can distract her. Just signal me when you’re ready. Uh… wink at me or something.”
“I will. When do you think she’ll be back up here?”
Kitty shrugs. “It’s hard to guess, even when my brain works. Is there anything you need to do before she comes up?”
“I’ve prepared all the spells I want to try on her that I can remember. I can try to make new ones while we wait.”
Kitty nods. “I think I’ll take a nap. Put everything away real fast and wake me up if you hear the screaming stop.”
“Right.” You’d been trying to tune the screaming out, but you’ll need to know when it stops if you don’t want to get caught.
Kitty lies down on the couch and immediately passes out. That’s good. It’s always better when they can sleep through the drug effects, and Jane might forget to give them more if she’s busy torturing someone else! You sit in a beanbag chair and start preparing spells that may not even exist. You’ll have to work on complete guesswork for the words and motions for these ones, too. But hey, maybe you’ll discover a new spell which has the sole purpose of killing whatever kind of creature Jane is. That would be great. And wasn’t Barron’s job discovering/creating new spells? You should’ve asked it more about what it did day to day…
Your chest aches at the thought of Barron. It’s dead because of you. It would still be alive if you’d just been good.
You wipe your eyes and refocus on your work.
You're having a bit of trouble focusing, but you summon all your willpower to, even as you feel a headache starting. Jane's wounds heal. You know that, you saw that. But there are ways of killing someone without wounds. You remember, vaguely, a story of hercules slaying a lion with an unbreakable hide by suffocating him. And there are other things you can think of too- would she heal if her entire body was destroyed at once? Would limbs reattach if they got cut off? Would they regrow? And what's likely to be something she's never encountered before?
Instead of feeling like there's no possible way out like you often did before, you see dozens of pathways in front of you. Most are probably dead ends, but that doesn't matter as much as the fact that you're not stuck anymore. There are ways forward. You won't let Barron, Diya, and Ray's deaths mean nothing.
–
Puppy stumbles away from Jared to throw up bile, then comes back and whips them again.
“I was curious!” They shriek. “I’d been here before and there wasn’t a house, so I wanted to figure out how it got built so fast! That’s all! I swear!”
She’s already emptied their pockets. In them, there was more powder, some leaves with symbols drawn on them, and a booklet full of notes on the house. On the screams that came from it. On when Puppy leaves to go shopping and when she returns. “I’m sure you can think of a better lie than that.” Her voice is shaky, but she tries to sound like Master when she does interrogations. “What are these notes for?”
“I can help you! Let me help you!”
Puppy sets down the whip and gets a hammer. “This is your last chance to give me something convincing before I break every bone in your hand.” She feels nauseous again, but just grits her teeth. Later.
“I just wanted to help! I detected some weird magic here- and then I heard all the screaming and- and- please, I just want to help!”
“Can others detect this magic? Are we going to get more visitors?” Master might have to move them again.
“I don’t know!”
Puppy sighs. She was really looking forward to being done with this. “I think you’re lying to me, Jared.” She can hear how Master would say a line like that, how it would send shivers down her spine, but when she says it sounds teary and afraid and disappointed (but not in the way Master sounds when she’s disappointed, when there’s a threat behind it- just kind of sad).
“No! I swear, I swear, I just wanted to help-”
“I believe that part. But I think that if it was so easy to detect Master’s magic, I’d have had to deal with a lot more of people like you. We don’t get a lot of people poking around.”
“It wasn’t easy, I just…” They trail off. Unable to think of a reason why they’re here and other mages aren’t if it was just a matter of detecting magic.
Puppy takes Jared’s hand. “Here’s what I think. Bunny’s mage friend told you about us, and now that you haven’t heard from it for a while, you decided to come find the house it told you about.”
“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about-”
Puppy brings the hammer down onto their hand. They shriek and pull away, but the damage is done. Puppy gags, her body trying to somehow vomit up the guilt and disgust as if it's a physical thing. This shouldn’t be this hard. She’s hurt Bunny and Kitty, her closest friends, with less issues than this.
“I just want to help you! Let me help you!” Jared is sobbing.
“Who else did Bunny’s friend tell about us?”
“No one, I told you I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
She reaches for their hand again. “W-wait! I- I’m the only one it told!”
Puppy stops. Really, that’s just the smart thing to say, even if she’s wrong and Jared really hasn’t met Bunny’s mage friend. “There we go. What did it tell you?”
Jared sobs. “I don’t- it told me what it was researching about the monster, what her powers are- well, what her known powers are. And it gave-” Jared takes deep, gasping breaths “it gave directions to this place, in case- in case something happened. Did- is-?”
“It’s dead. You will be soon, too, if you’re lucky.”
Jared sobs some more. Puppy tries to think of more questions to ask. Master won’t be happy if Puppy ends the interrogation before she gets back.
“What are your pronouns, by the way?” This is all so fucked up. Puppy tries not to laugh. Jared isn’t Master, they won’t find her laughing in inappropriate situations cute.
Jared doesn’t answer, just cries, so she Puppy abandons that line of questioning. She feels no need to torture that out of them.
“What was your plan here? Did the mage tell you Master had weaknesses? It was wrong if it did.”
“I just- I was still forming the plan, I didn’t realize the invisibility spell had worn off-”
That… that is interesting. Master wouldn’t have let them get away with the repeated spying if she knew, right? Puppy isn’t sure… but maybe, maybe if someone were use a spell like that and always stay invisible, Master wouldn’t be able to find them… Now that she thinks about it, a distant memory comes up. She was in a lot of pain and so tired and probably drugged, but she thinks Master might have told her once that she can sense shadows even outside her void, and someone who’s invisible wouldn’t cast a shadow…
She shakes herself out of it. That’s a dangerous train of thought to go down. And it's not like Master has ever had any trouble finding people in dark rooms without shadows.
“Do you regret snooping?”
Jared nods. Puppy struggles to think of more questions.
“Did you tell anyone what Barron told you?” Jared’s going to answer no regardless of the true answer, of course. They shake their head.
“Did you tell anyone where you were going? Does anyone know you’re here?”
Predictably, they shake their head.
“If someone comes looking for you, I’m going to assume you lied to me, and, as punishment, skin them alive. Understand?”
Jared nods shakily.
“Good.” She wracks her brain for another question. “For you to be here, after learning about her powers… Are you stupid?”
Puppy hears Master giggling behind her. That’s… good. Yeah, she doesn’t have to think of any more questions. She probably won’t get to talk again for months. But that's fine. That's fine.
"What did he say, Puppy?”
“Bunny’s mage friend told them about this place. According to them, it didn’t tell anyone else.”
Master nods. "That matches up with what I found fairly well. Lucky you, Jared! If it hadn't, this would be a lot worse."
She takes a cattle prod from her void. Puppy instinctively drops to her knees, but Master is entirely focused on Jared.
"You can go back upstairs, Puppy. I'll put the muzzle back on later. You do not have permission to speak."
Puppy's… surprised. Normally, Master would want her to help with torturing someone. But she knows better than to question her Master. She goes upstairs, ignoring Jared's pleas for help.
–
You'd shaken Kitty awake and were mentally preparing to face Jane when the screaming started up again. Huh…
Puppy comes through the door to the basement. Her muzzle isn't on, and there are pressure sores across her face where it used to lie. "...Puppy?"
Kitty also seems surprised. "Is Jane coming?"
Puppy shrugs. Fair enough.
"Uh…" You hesitate for a second, wondering if helping her with her wounds will interfere with your plan, but it shouldn't, right? "I'll go get the first aid kit."
You quickly grab the first aid kit and come back. "Can you sit down?"
Puppy sits down on the couch, next to Kitty. You start cleaning the wounds on her face.
"Is it just these? Or do you have other injuries?"
She just looks at you.
"Oh, right." Just one question at a time while she can't talk. "Do you have other injuries?"
She shakes her head. You finish cleaning her face and start bandaging it. You feel like you should apply some ointment or something, but you don't have any, and you're no doctor. Maybe that would just make it worse, anyway.
"The intruder's still screaming." You whisper to her. "She can't be multiple places at once. You could eat something."
Her eyes widen in horror and she shakes her head rapidly. You didn't really expect any different, but you figured there was no harm in trying.
You're worried about how casting a spell on Jane is going to go with Puppy here. She definitely won't help you with distracting Jane like Kitty will, but hopefully she won't catch on quickly enough to stop you either.
"Okay. Do you wanna play a game or something?"
She nods. Kitty already seems to be having trouble staying awake, so you look for a simple game that won't require too much brain power.
"How does Sorry sound?" Not too skill-based, but with enough decision making that it's interesting.
Puppy nods and Kitty hums affirmatively, or at least you think so. You set the game up, and the three of you play three rounds before the screaming downstairs stops.
You had been lying on Puppy's shoulder, but you immediately push away and sit up at the disconcerting silence. Kitty also grows more alert, watching you for the signal that it's time for a distraction. Puppy stares straight ahead, no visible emotion on her face.
The screaming might start up again, like it did before. This isn't a guarantee that she's watching. Just as someone screaming isn't a guarantee that she's with them in the basement…
You shake that thought off. Someone might cry from pain in the aftermath of torture, but usually not scream. At least not the wordless, agonized screams that the intruder's been producing up until now.
"What're you playing?" Jane appears sitting next to you, covered in blood and looking very happy with herself. You recoil. Just her presence makes your heart beat faster, makes you dizzy with fear.
"Sorry. We're playing Sorry."
"How fun." Jane says. She grabs Puppy's hair and inspects her, noting the new bandages. She has a muzzle in her hands where there wasn't one before, and starts strapping it to Puppy's face.
She's distracted- now's the time. You won't even need Kitty to do a distraction. You pull a rock out of your pocket, the one you set aside for this specifically, and quickly say the incantation and do the motions required for the spell.
If this goes right, it should steal the air from Jane's lungs, and continue suffocating her until you lose concentration.
She stops putting the muzzle on Puppy's face and turns to look at you, raising an eyebrow. She's not breathing, and not trying to either.
You're worried she's going to start hurting Puppy to break your concentration, but instead she just finishes muzzling Puppy and goes back to staring at you. No one moves.
It's… been a long time without her breathing. She doesn't seem remotely phased. She seems… amused, if anything.
"I don't think she needs to breathe, Bunny." Kitty says softly. You can't see their expression, or Puppy's- you don't want to look away from Jane in case it breaks the spell.
"Well, she clearly needs to breathe in order to talk. At least this can shut her up for a while."
Jane laughs without air. She doesn't need to talk to get this message across. Stupid Bunny.
She could easily break your concentration. Come over and stab you, or worse, hurt Puppy or Kitty. But she doesn't. She just stares at you, smiling.
She's waiting for you to break off the spell yourself. This is a lesson. She's letting you do this for the same reason she let you be free with Barron, Diya, and Ray for a year.
You want to be petty and hold out until you fall unconscious, but… that won't really help anyone. And your head is really starting to hurt. So you drop the spell.
Jane laughs audibly, now. "You must've been waiting all day for that! Again, do you really think I'd still be alive if it was that easy to kill me?"
You thought it was possible. Anyone trying to suffocate her normally would've had to contend with her teleporting, but with magic… it was worth a shot.
"I'm surprised that worked at all, to be honest. Most spells don't work on me. Though I guess that was more a spell on the air around me than me? Anyway. Give me your collar."
You expected this, if you failed. You take the collar off your neck and hand it to her.
"Go downstairs."
You head down to the basement. Jane is already there when you reach the bottom.
"You can't curse me, Bunny. Me being alive at all is a curse, one that no magic has been able to remove. Do you have any idea what that's like, to live and live and live no matter how painful it is? I think I've given you some idea… but we can do better, can't we?"
A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list!
Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff
@fuckcapitalismasshole
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