"T-Troy?" Lancer questioned as he tried to keep up with the small human. Despite their size difference, he found it rather difficult to keep pace. He was a good 6 inches taller than Troy, but seemed to almost need to jog to keep up. "Wait up." Troy's pace didn't slow even as Lancer caught up to him. However, he didn't expect to see the absolute fury on Troy's face as he did. "Something wrong?"
A deep angry sigh followed. Though, Troy answered, "No."
Lancer felt his body shake. Even if he didn't know Troy that well, this was a definitive lie. "A-are you sure?" he pressured just a little bit.
"Yeah. I'm sure. Everything's fan-fucking-tastic," Troy exclaimed. His quickened pace continued as he trudged through the city back to his place.
There was a tension that had grown between the two, and Lancer had no idea how to navigate it. He chose silence in lieu of adding to whatever was making Troy so tense. However, that didn't seem to make things better. Troy pushed his way into his small two bedroom house and nearly slammed the door on Lancer.
"Hey!" Lancer exclaimed. "What was that for?"
"Oh sorry. I thought you'd just disappear like you always do," Troy didn't even look at him as he said it.
"Wh-what?" Lancer didn't understand. "I thought it was just because you didn't have enough magic."
"Oh right. That's also my fault. Sorry. I forgot. Cause I can't do anything right."
Lancer was even more confused. "That's not what--"
"Just like the office! Just like the game store! Just like every other fucking thing going on right now!" Troy started yelling and pacing around his house. Rosco came in to check on them, then retreated once Troy started throwing things.
"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Lancer tried to calm the situation down. "What are you talking about? Who's saying it's you're fault?"
"Isn't it!?" Troy screamed. He kicked at his couch. "All cause I want to be able to have little puppy dog ears and a stupid puppy dog tail. I go around fucking up every little thing I come in contact with. I'm the reason that Mark destroyed the office and now I'm the one that destroyed that game shop. All while almost killing people because I'm too fucking stupid to not repeat myself or copying off other people's ideas!"
"Hold on! I don't underst--"
"SHUT UP! You're part of all this shit too! Greg made you just so he can make fun of me. He's been laughing it up over the last two days hoping to get us together. Then--FUCK!" Troy screamed while holding his head. He clearly didn't mean have sex, though Lancer couldn't help but snort a single laugh at the misplacement of the exclamation. "See?" Troy accused. "You don't even like me. Do you?"
"Wh-what?" Lancer felt the human's finger poke into his chest. "I'm sorry. I just thought--"
"Just admit you don't like me," Troy stated. His narrowed eyes were completely serious.
Again, Lancer didn't understand. He didn't like this, that's for sure. But this also didn't seem like Troy. At least not the Troy he'd known. "I-I like you." He pushed out.
"Oh yeah? What do you like about me then?"
Words caught in Lancer's throat. The accusation behind the question made his brain stop. It just didn't want to answer for some reason. Lancer would have said his compassion towards the people who were attacking him, or the bravery he showed in the face of danger, or the playful intimacy that they had shared on their first night. None of those came out. He couldn't form the words.
"See?" Troy said triumphantly. "You're probably in on Mark's joke."
"What joke!?" Lancer shouted back.
Troy didn't know what the joke was, but he was confident there had to be one. "Fine. If you won't tell me the truth, then I'll make you."
"W-woah... Troy. Wait a second," Lancer took a step back as Troy picked up the book. "Wh-wh--"
"Control. Tell me the truth. Do you like me?"
"Yes," Lancer answered robotically. Deep in his mind he felt it force out the answer. The sudden control sent a shock through his brain and a bit of a throbbing pain quickly followed. "Hey! Don't do that! It hurts!"
"Then tell me the truth!" Troy repeated. Lancer didn't answer quick enough. "Control! Tell me the truth. Do you like me?"
"I like you," Lancer repeated back. "Troy! Stop! That hurts!" Lancer grabbed at his head as the pain doubled inside him. A full-blown migraine was making it hard for him to even see straight, let alone think.
"THEN TELL ME THE TRUTH! CON--"
Lancer's claws grabbed at Troy's neck as he was about to speak. He picked up the little human like he was absolutely nothing and slammed him against the wall. "I said stop," he bared his teeth as the most threatening growl rolled out of his throat. In the pain, his anger had taken over. He wasn't thinking about anything other than self-defense. However, it only took a moment for reason to take back over. All the anger and fury on his face quickly changed as he saw the fear overtake Troy's.
He finally gave the answer Troy wanted to hear.
With that, he disappeared. Troy dropped to the floor. The book fell out of his hand as he tried to grapple with the closest he'd ever been to death. "L-Lancer?" he called out stupidly as he looked around the empty room. Blindly he reached for the book. "Lancer?" he called out again. "I'm sorry. Okay. I shouldn't have done that."
It was far too late for that. Even as he grabbed the book, he knew it. "M-Monster," he said weakly.
Standing in front of him in armor was a leonine paladin. "Greetings! I am Leo. I hail from the land of Garden Trails. How may I be of service."
"You're--You're not Lancer..." Troy felt the tears start to drip down his face. He'd been holding them back for so long, but seeing some other anthropomorphic lion was too much. There was so much stress around this stupid book that he didn't realize how upset he was.
"I am not. Nor have I heard--"
"Monster," Troy said again. Leo was about to be offended until he saw a anthropomorphic lion in a business suit appear beside him. The anthro lion looked a bit confused but interested.
Leo outstretched his hand. "I'm Leo. Who are you?"
"Leon," the business lion responded. "I was calculating some of the numbers of a new employee, but he was doing poorly and he offered--"
"Monster!"
Another anthropomorphic lion appeared in denim jeans and a plaid button up shirt. "Well howdy. I'm Leonard. What's goin' on here?" The other two were about to say something but Troy interrupted them.
"Monster! Monster! MONSTER!"
In poofed another Leo, Aleo, and an anthropomorphic Scar appeared. But no Lancer. All the anthropomorphic lions were confused as Troy kept chanting monster. However, the only one he wanted wouldn't appear. He made it to 23 summons before passing out and all of them disappeared, leaving him alone again.