#milkbones

Franco’s face contorted into a snaggletooth smile of his own, as he caught sight of his newly polished and gleaming boom stick laid delicately in the compartment next to him.

His voice quivered, “Ooh! Lupara!” He picked up the weapon as if handling the most fragile thing in the world, lifting it to his lips and placing a gentle kiss to the side of the stock. “Ooooh, Suga’, I MISSED ya!” He wrapped gloved fingers around the grip, gingerly securing it snuggly in his fist. He happened a glance back to the inset in the wall to see a flash of pink. His new pacifier, exactly like the old one, sat there as well. He threaded a finger through the ring, twirling it around a couple times before fixing it to the loose end of his bowtie.

“Lupara, huh?” It was a moment before Franco registered Rox’s voice, and he turned to her as she continued, “My girl’s got a name too…”

She turned to him, pushing a newly acquired pair of black, horn rimmed glasses onto her nose, “Lupara, meet Jolene…” She held out what looked to be a uniquely shaped, electric guitar with an axe blade protruding from the body.

He tilted his head horizontally to look at the image of a mushroom cloud airbrushed on the front and read the accompanying text. “Why’s “Jolene” say “Atomic Dog” on ‘er?”

“My roller derby name back in college!” She lifted the strap over her head to hang the weaponized instrument across her shoulder, “GOD, if I could get ahold of a pair of skates, it would be OVER for these reagents!” She played a quick riff, the sound muted as it wasn't plugged into an amp.

“Hm!” Franco nodded with an arched brow, “Fancy…but it seems like extra weight ta me…”

She ducked her head out of the way of the blade when she tossed Jolene to rest against her back, “Not when you’re RIPPED!” She demonstrated by flexing a significantly bulgy bicep.

Franco’s smile was crooked as he produced a lewd chuckle, “Gotta say, I DO like a strong woman… Believe it or not, even a man sometimes likes feelin’…protected.”

Whether it was really there or just a manifestation of his wishful thinking, he could have sworn he saw a spark in her eye. “Oh, do you? I’d think you’d be feelin’ pretty secure wielding such a...BIG gun…”

"Mmnnn!” His smile was wicked as he bit his lip, “Careful, Poochie…ya might give me the wrong IDEA…”

Her flirtatiously demure smile may or may NOT have been sincere, but Franco being his typical self, convinced himself it was. It was the closest to reciprocation he had gotten since he was outside Sinyala. Maybe even since…HER…

She raked claws through her thick hair, pushing it over the opposite shoulder to expose the nape of her neck with a heavy lidded leer. “And what idea might I be giving you, Babes?”

“Ooooh, pup…” he shuddered, “You got NO business tryin’ ta act COY!” Had his parts been working normally, he would have been at attention, but even so, he felt the pleasant pressure near the area all the same. It was more than he had felt in a VERY long time.

She shrugged, about to retort, when the televisions flickered to life, and Easterman sat there shrouded in darkness as usual.

“A dog’s nose is said to be over one hundred thousand times more sensitive than that of a human being’s. A canine's heightened senses and protective instincts make it the PERFECT companion for the more vulnerable members of a household. Our "pups"...are HER "pups".

"But thieves would seek to rend our little family asunder. You will work together to prevent the riffraff from taking what is YOURS. You will have twenty minutes to prepare."

As the television screens went blank, the buzzer on the door in front of them sounded and the siren blared before it slid open.

Franco bowed, "After you, suga’,” he gestured for her to step ahead of him.

“Thank ya, SIR!” Rox curtsied before proceeding ahead of him.

They entered onto a small, elevated walkway about three feet from the ground that cut through a large storage yard littered with crates and large machinery.

“Woah…” If Rox didn’t look up, she could believe she was actually outside on a cloudy night. A strange sense of giddiness washed over her; she hadn’t been anywhere close to outdoors in nearly five years, and it was something she missed DESPERATELY.

“Aaah!” Franco hopped down from the ledge to the concrete below, “Like I never even left!”

Rox jumped down behind him, and that was exactly when the smell hit her, “God DAMN! You can say THAT again!” She held her nose, “Smells like you murdered someone here just two days ago…”

Franco inhaled deeply, “It does, doesn’t it!? Just when fuckin’ Easterman REALLY starts ta PISS me off, he turns it back around! Like a bitch ya just can’t shake…”

“”Bitch” is a good word for him…” She followed her new companion through the storage area toward another walkway lined with boxcars. As she observed her surroundings, she noticed two skeletons suspended from a tower to their right. Festive…

“So how’s this all work, exactly?” She trotted to catch up. For someone with such a staggered gait, Franco was quite fast. “I wasn’t told much.”

He grunted as he lifted himself onto the platform in front of them, “Simple! Ya spot a reagent, ya kill ‘em! HOPEFULLY before they do somethin’ that really BURNS YOUR ASS…”

She cocked her head, hopping on behind him and following him between two boxcars, “Like what?”

His brows wrinkled up in a sneer, “ Like touchin’ all ya SHIT! STEALIN’ the things ya worked yer ASS off for! Just bein’ a fuckin’ CUNT in general!”

Rox’s eyes darted diagonally as if to recall something, “Not sure I have any shit to steal… Not aside from Jolene, at least. And well...they can sure TRY…”

Franco gave a sarcastic breath of laughter, “Just wait till they open your trial. They always find SOME way ta piss you the fuck off…”

He seemed to know exactly where he was headed, so Rox just followed his lead. They rounded the corner of a brick wall and came to an enclosed walkway above which was a sign that read “Laboratory Chem-Co”.

“Damn! It’s like a whole little world in here!”

“Better than the one out THERE; I can tell ya THAT much…”

Rox pivoted around lighting fast with an intake of breath as a faint scuffle and fevered muttering caught her ear.

Franco had already opened the door in front of them and gave a start when he turned to see that she had fallen behind. “'Ay! Get over here! We only got about fifteen minutes ta showtime!”

She didn’t look back at him as she scanned the area, “Someone’s here! I heard ‘em!”

Franco peered into the darkness of the shipping yard. “I didn’t hear nothin’.”

Rox tapped at her ear, ”Smelling isn’t the only thing I do better than a normal human.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Ya mean he meant that shit LITERALLY?”

“Sure did! Murkoff DOES like to experiment…” she squinted over the shipping yard, “Too bad they didn’t do anything for my bad vision…”

“Huh…” Franco watched Rox with a new interest, “Well, it was pro’ly one a’ those poor grunt bastards… They tend ta steer clear a’ Primes like us." He snickered wickedly, “Least, they do ME… Gotta make sure they know who’s boss!”

“Oh…” she backed toward him, eyes still on the shipping yard before she turned to follow him through the door.

In the center of the room was a large machine that looked like something from an assembly line. Franco stopped at an opening that was either where something was put in or spat out from. As she approached, he was using some type of card to scrape a powdery white substance into a pile.

She sniffed the air. She was relatively familiar with an array of hard drugs, and whether she actually did them herself or not, she tended to know the smell. She remembered Easterman's words as she recognized the very faint smell.

“Is that fucking HEROIN?”

“Heh!“ He was now rolling a piece of paper into a small tube, “Didn’t notice the posters, huh?“

She looked toward where he pointed to a small poster on the wall and squinted before moving closer. The graphic was clearly a stylized image of Franco, Lupara and all. At the top right corner where the words “Milk and Honey“, but “Honey“ was marked out, the word "Heroin“ plastered next to it.

“Whoa! You even got a POSTER?! SWEET!“

“A couple…“ He was now scooping a tiny portion of the powder onto a metal spoon with a grin, “Milky White! Best smack you could possibly get ANYWHERE!”

“Well, congratulations!"

Before she knew it, he had produced a lighter from who knows where and began warming the underside of the spoon.

“Oh! You're doin' this NOW, huh?”

He chuckled, “Never trust a peddler who don’t sample his own product.”

She watched him bring the makeshift straw to his lips and inhale the rising smoke. She shrugged, “Can’t argue with that…”

Franco held his breath for a moment, already half lidded eyes drooping even more before exhaling with a shudder. He reveled in the instant high before glancing to Rox, “What about it, doll?” He held out the straw, “Care ta chase the dragon?”

Her forehead wrinkled, and she gave a sideways glance toward the smoking spoon, “Naaah…I think I’m good…”

“Ya sure, Poochie? It’s a real RRRUSSSHH!”

She gritted her teeth in a half nervous, half apologetic smile, “I’m more of a THC/hallucinogenics kinda girl, to be honest. MAYBE a party drug here or there. But HEROIN? That’s kinda…INTENSE…”

He gave a sly, gap toothed smirk, “Might wish ya had when the trial starts…once yer gettin’ BRICKS thrown at’cha head.”

“Yeeaaah, I’ll have to make do with a couple Tylenols later… Besides these dumbass doctors have me on, like, TWICE the amphetamines I should realistically be taking for the attention deficit disorder, and I DOUBT it would be a great combination…”

He shrugged, “Suit yaself, toots…” and he heated the spoon again to finish off the remaining substance. Once he was finished, he tossed the tools aside, “This is usually what those cunts’ll be after.”

After a moment, Rox’s face crinkled, “Are you still getting money from this stuff? In HERE?”

He looked for a moment like a kid having been informed of a stupid oversight he had made but then looked defensive, “No, but…i-it’s the PRINCIPLE a’ the thing! They come in here raidin’ MY hard earned product! And I’M the one left lookin’ like a BITCH!”

She nodded with pursed lips, “Guess that would be annoying… I probably couldn’t be bothered to give a SHIT, personally. I mean, what do WE have to prove to these people, ya know?"

Franco scoffed with a laugh, “Like I said, they’ll FIND yer buttons, and they’ll jab ‘em as hard as they fuckin’ CAN!”

Rox's confident expression wavered only slightly as Franco turned to lead them through a door, past a metal trolley of some kind and out to a hallway. He was quick to round the corner, and she was once again distracted by her surroundings. A massive cargo ship sat right there in the center of the room, gently swaying as if actually suspended in water. When she craned her neck to peer over the railing, she could see that she was almost right. It WAS liquid, but it wasn’t WATER…

As they neared the other end, she looked up, and, to no one in particular read, read aloud the name painted on the side of the ship.

“Angelina…”

If she hadn’t heard Franco skid to an immediate halt, she would have collided right into him, and she nearly did anyway before stopping and stumbling backwards to reclaim a little space between them.

“Don’t say that fuckin’ name…”

She cocked her head down to where he was hunched, peering at her from over a shoulder.

“It’s on the side of the-“

He jerked around to face her, a glare on his face that made her realize how truly terrifying he must have really been to these reagents.

“Oh…my bad…”

Though she was often one to ask unwanted questions, Rox read his ADAMANT insistence to receive none loud and clear. His hackles lowered slightly at her apologetic tone, and she thought she could see a hint of something other than anger ghost his features. Embarrassment, possibly…maybe hurt?

She couldn’t study him for long as he turned back to continue through a wooden, open-ended shed, and she followed silently. Her face was hot with awkwardness. She loved pissing people off on occasion, but not when she hadn’t intended to. At the same time, she itched with curiosity as to what place this Angelina had in his past.

They finally came up a ramp to a room that opened into a train depot, more boxcars to either side of them and crates and oil barrels stored in the center.

This is where Franco finally slowed to address the area, “This’ll be the best place to camp out… They'll fuck around here for most of the trial, seein’ as they gotta find the codes ta get to most’a the goods…”

He grabbed an object sitting on a box that resembled a turkey baster with a metal nozzle coming from one end. "You take this floor; I’ll take upstairs,” he handed her the baster tapping the bulbous, rubber end with a leather clad finger, “If ya inhale any gas, use this. Watch for the boobie traps on the doors.”

“Gas?!” But he was already hurrying to hop into the back of a car. “Wait, where ya goin’?!”

“Got a couple more things ta check on…” he explained hurriedly, walking backwards into the car, “See a reagent; kill it! Door traps! Gas! È facile!”

If she had had another question, he would have been gone before she could have gotten it out of her mouth.

“WELP!” she hunched her shoulders, “…suppose I couldn’t have expected a baby to be a very good teacher…”

With a glance around, she rocked awkwardly heal to toe on her feet with pursed lips, before opening them with a pop. “Guess I’ll see what’s over here…” she picked a random direction and walked.

~*~*~*~

Franco quickly trotted up the stairs, stomach in his throat and a wash of hot embarrassment tinting his face and ears. He willed the unwanted feeling away, but it only made it all the worse. About halfway between the shipping yard and the train depot, he had remembered what would be waiting for him upstairs, and despite his insistence to himself that he didn’t CARE what she might think of him, he found himself reluctant to let her see…THAT…

He quickly made his way to the milking room. He probably could’ve done it with his eyes closed at this point. In some ways, everything seemed like it was only yesterday. At the same time, his memories had a dream-like fog over them. He hated the feeling. The intangible nature of it all. Like he wasn’t in control.

But when he entered the bottling room, he retreated right back into his fantasies. He could hear a faint moaning, delirious and more likely than not, from someone hardly conscious. There was a ribcage on the table to his left, dusty decomposition pooled around it. He wondered if staff had cleaned up at all in the thirty years he’d been asleep.

As he neared the doorway to the milking room, he could see one figure already strapped down and hooked up that seem to be dead, both legs looking to have been brutally broken off. The lack of any decay told him that this was a new body. Dr. Easterman DID enjoy setting the scene…

As he rounded the door jamb, he caught sight of the source of the moaning. Another woman had already been restrained as well, but she was still breathing, yet to be hooked up to a pump. He felt a thrill shoot through him, equal parts pleasure and cruelty, and it was mirrored in his sinister, snaggle-toothed grin.

~*~*~*~

Ten minutes later, Rox had already sniffed around most of the rooms on her designated floor. There were definitely other people here, but the only ones she had come across were the dead ones, both fresh and long since skeletized.

She gave a start as she heard the same alarm that had announced their entrance to the trial space.

“Trial commencing in five minutes!”

Rox gave a start at the male voice, and she couldn’t help feeling a little panicked. Suddenly, there was a flood of questions she wished she had asked Franco before he had left.

Wait! He hadn’t LEFT left. He was upstairs… He had said she would take the upstairs and she the downstairs, but he hadn’t said NOT to go upstairs…

She sniffed the air, then paused to listen. Nothing different… They’d have to go to that heroin room first, wouldn’t they? She could get upstairs to ask a few of the more important questions, then head back down before the reagents were even CLOSE to this part of the Docks…

She tapped her finger on a metallic canine, glancing up. Yes! There were windows most of the way around and a balcony on either side. She could keep an eye on the area. Plus, she’d smell a new person WAY before they could get here. She couldn’t imagine they were staying extremely clean from the little she had heard about on their end. Yeah! No harm in making a quick visit!

~*~*~*~

After a quick round of the upstairs area, Franco straightened his bowtie and readied Lupara. The alarm and accompanying five minute warning sounded JUST as he raised the shotgun and clanged the barrels against the cage bars the living woman was behind.

“Wakey, fuckin’ WAAAKEEEYYYYY!”

The woman jolted awake with startled cry, “What the-“ She jerked instinctively, but was stopped by the metallic CLUNK of her restraints. She looked around blearily, seeming to be having a tough time awakening from her sedative.

Franco stepped into her line of sight and WELL into her personal space. "Hello, DOLL..."

She blinked for a moment before raising her shorn head to Franco's none too pleasant face.

"THE F- Who the FUCK are YOU?!!" She finally looked around with new awareness, "Where the FUCK AM I!!!"

Franco leered down at her, "Don't worry, suga'! You give me what I want, you stay NICE and safe..."

Grey eyes flitted around the dirty room and landed on the dead woman diagonal from her, "The FUCK is this Hellraiser bullshit?!!" She jerked violently against her restraints again. "FUCKING let me GOOOO!!!"

Franco didn't react to the piercing scream right in his face. If his hearing hadn't been shit from the day he was born, Lupara would have made it that way. "'Fraid that ain't gonna happen!" He turned to pick up one of the pumps that laid on the grimy floor, wiping off the filth with a gloved thumb, "See, Dr. Easterman gave you ta ME. And seein' as where he left ya, 's'pretty fuckin' obvious what I'm supposed ta do with ya, so..."

He pressed a button on the wall, which triggered a rumbling, engine-like sound from within the walls, and the device in his hand began an airy, pulsing sound.

"Get real comfortable, doll," he placed the cup over hear bare breast, and she yelped, half in disgust and half at the sensation, as it latched on. He retrieved another raising it to the remaining breast, "Cause you're gonna be here for a gooood, loooong tiiiiiiime..."

"Hey! Yo! Franco! I just wanted to ask real quick, when they get here do I-"

Rox froze at the bizarre display in front of her, and so did the participants of said display.

"ROXANNA!!" Franco was beside himself in surprise and not the kind he liked.

"Franco..." she tilted her head, scratching the back of it, "What uuuh...what's goin' on HERE?"

Franco inserted himself between his naked and now quite busily struggling captive and Rox, "Didn't I fuckin' TELL you ta stay downstairs?!"

"NO! See! I distinctly remember! You said I take downstairs and you take upstairs. You didn't say NOT to come up here! I made sure of this in my head moments ago!"

He opened his mouth to disagree, but realizing she was right, he growled, "Oh, so yer gonna be a smartass about it, huh?!"

"No, I'm just reminding you of what was said... I don't like to be accused of not following directions when I did." She glanced around to the struggling and now snarling woman trying to shake the pumping devices from her chest.

"SOOOO...you're into some kinky SHIIIIT..." She caught a dangerous flash in his eyes, and she decided to clarify. "Which is FINE... I've got my own proclivities that I'm sure Easterman will make sure come to light at some point. REALLY should keep it a little more consensual, but I realize that's a lot to ask in a place like this..." She spotted the dead woman next to her. "But, DAMN! You were only up here for, like, seven minutes! What did THAT one do to deserve all that in such a short time?!"

"That one was like that when I got here! I didn't–" Franco snarled, "THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!!"

"You do know you're not gonna get anything out of her right?"

Franco was silent for a moment, then shook his head, "Wha'da'fuck are ya talkin' about?"

"I mean…you can't just put a pump on a woman's tiddies and expect her to…produce…"

"Well, they're usually pretty stubborn, but–"

Rox's eyes bulged, "Wait… are you…y–you're shittin me, aren't you? Please-" She lowered her voice to a whisper, "Please tell me you're shitting me!"

Franco looked uncertain for the first time since she had met him, "What- Wh-whatta you..."

She gapped as recognition and a decent amount of amusement graced her features, "Oh. My. GOD. You actually don't know SHIT about female anatomy, do you?"

She could see the blush across Franco's face and the underlying frustration, so she turned to his captive, "Are you currently lactating, mam?"

"FUCK! OFF!!!" the woman spat.

Rox raised her hands in surrender, "You're right! Personal question, terrible time!"

"Hey! I GOT the hormone shit ta shoot 'em up with in case they need a little PUSH!"

"Aaaah, ok, points for that!" She pressed her hands together against her nose, before intertwining her fingers and placing them under her chin. "But you DO know those can take MONTHS to work... Do you even have FOOD for her?"

"Well, no, but-"

"AND she's gotta be stressed out of MIND!" She paused to hear the woman's angry cries as she thrashed against her binds, "She'll be producing ALL KINDS of chemicals detrimental to milk production."

Franco looked near exploding, "And how do YOU know so much about it, EH?! You some kinda expert on JUGS?!"

Rox was taken aback by the humor in that sentence, and she stifled a chuckle, "WELL...I don't know if you RECALL, but I come from...KIND OF a prestigious background in animal science. Humans are basically primates at the end of the day, which are mammals. Mammal...mammary... It's RIGHT there in the name..." She adjusted Jolene on her back, "Besides, I sorta have a pair of my own, which I HAVE, believe it or not, lactated from, so there's that..."

"Yeah, well ya ain't gotta be such a know-it-" Franco gave her a double take, "Wait...what'd you say about..." His expression turned sly as Rox's eyes shot wide, realizing what she had let slip and to who. "So you're tellin' me...you've...ACTUALLY..." He made no effort to hide his gaze toward the proudly presented cleavage of her own breasts.

Her mouth hung open, and she turned her head with raised brows, "Weeell..." She couldn't redirect now, and she muttered with a sigh, "Ok, yeah, DEFINITELY should not have told you that..."

His already labored breathing increased as he took an intentional step forward, “Aaand...there wouldn't be a chance you could pull that off AGAIN...WOULD there?”

She was suddenly sheepish and now no longer felt four inches taller than the little man, “Eheh! There are some...PRETTY heavy implications to that question, there, pal...”

Franco gave an innocent shrug, and for a second, with a less sinister expression, the proportions of his large head and eyes made him look just a bit like an infant.

"Oooh, you wouldn't deny a man who ain't ever had a mother the chance ta EXPERIENCE one, would ya, Poochie?"

She couldn't stop the breath of nervous laughter this time, "I...REALLY don't think you'd want ME as a mother, Franco."

He rolled a smarmy eyebrow, "Oh, but I think I MIGHT... BEEN thinkin' about it, actually, but now I'm thinkin' about it MORE."

It wasn't often anymore that someone could get her to blush, but Franco certainly had. And now, when Rox was honest with herself, it wasn't entirely in a bad way... She hadn't thought mommy play would have ever been her thing; in fact, she had been outright SQUICKED by it in the past. And something as intense as what Franco clearly had in mind SHOULD have DISGUSTED her. But in the five seconds she had to process all these emotions, she realized that that disgust was turning into something more appealing:

Curiosity.

Franco chuckled, "What's'a matter?" He raised Lupara, not pointing it AT her, but pressing her cheek with the barrel to face him properly, "Momma dog AFRAID of a little BABY?"

She arched a brow at the challenge. Oh...but this could be a VERY fun little game...

"I'M not afraid of ANYTHING..." She reached up to stroke a pointed nail along the carved swirls on Lupara's stock, teeth peeking from beneath her scarred lip as she leaned in until her nose was barely two inches from his and her long, black hair created a shroud around them.

"...little BOY..."

The shudder that shot through Franco's body manifested as a guttural, quaking growl that transitioned to a laugh, "Oh, is that a FACT?" Lupara was quickly replaced with his own, leathery touch, "Maybe ya really WOULD make a nice, layal guard dog. Dottin' on lil' ol' ME! Makin' ME your little PUP!" His hand slid from her cheek to the side of her neck, thumb running over the ring hanging from the thick, leather choker there. "And then if..." He trailed off for a moment, and he seemed to be staring at her but also at nothing. "If the MONSTERS came...could you...WOULD you chase them away? Make 'em leave?"

Rox's expression was suddenly one of confusion and concern, and her voice was gentle, "What "monsters", babes?"

Franco seemed to catch himself, and as if startled out of a daydream he hadn't been in control of, he stumbled backward before turning on his heel to stand faced away from her, shoulders tense.

Rox's forehead wrinkled, and she took a slow step toward him, "Franco?"

She had almost touched the back of his shoulder when the screeching of metal against metal echoed through the walls.

"Shit!"

"Fuck!"

Both expletives were uttered at the same time by Rox and Franco respectively as Franco turned to look toward the doorway to the hall before running out of it, followed by Rox.

"Just rollin' in!" Franco's switch had clearly flipped to kill mode quite easily. He turned toward Rox, the previous moment overridden for now. "You READY for this Poochie?"

Her smile was a sneer like his this time, "I suppose I am...". She reached back to strum the strings at the neck of her guitar with a metallic "ssshhinnnng!". She sniffed the air, "There are three...two male, one female."

Franco's gap toothed grin was manic, "Let's trade! I'll meet those whores downstairs, and you be a little surprise for 'em if they make it up here!"

"Sounds like a plan!"

"Two door traps up here! One there, and one on that side!" He gestured to each as he backed toward where the stairwell was. "Try ta leave 'em for some unsuspecting bitch ta trip, if ya can!"

She saluted with two fingers as he disappeared around the corner and headed down the stairs.

Rox shook her head, smile still plastered on her face despite herself. One thing was certain...she was NOT gonna be bored here...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the reinvigorated struggles of the woman hooked up in the other room. She hurried in, pushing the button on the wall so that the pumps fell from her as she sobbed.

"Don't fuckin' kill me!" Mascara streaked down her face, and Rox did feel some amount of pity for her. She flinched as Rox quickly unstrapped her before stepping back.

"Go on, then!" she gestured to the door opposite the balcony, "Fuck off somewhere!"

Her eyes only darted between her and the door once before she took off. Rox had no idea if she stood a chance of survival out here, but she didn't like the idea of her sitting there to be mercilessly pumped until she rotted. If Franco gave her shit about it later, she'd just say she was jealous. If she was honest, that wasn't so far from the truth.

Italian translation: