Chapter Text
When Gray Fullbuster moved to Los Angeles, he wasn’t sure what he’d do to make a living. He started out working part time jobs that made little money and was just barely able to keep himself clothed, fed, and sheltered. He didn’t have any family as both his parents had died when he was young. He’d spent the last ten years in various foster homes. This meant he was completely on his own now, but he didn’t mind much. He’d been on his own for years, to be honest. His last few foster homes had been hard to make connections in, so he ended up just not trying. Connections to others were something he could do without. He went about his various jobs, meeting new people but not really making friends. He knew all these jobs were as temporary as his foster parents had been. There really was no point.
Then he came across an ad for a company called Fairy Tail Enterprises which was hiring cam models. He had no idea what a cam model did, but it sounded better than washing dishes or making hamburgers. A little research revealed exactly what they did, and he almost thought better of it. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea of being practically to fully nude on camera and talking to people watching him. The money promised was good, though, and the one thing he did have was a good laptop with a webcam. It wasn’t like it was that much different than his own exhibitionist streak that used to get him in trouble. So that’s how he ended up calling the phone number.
He found out quickly that Fairy Tail Enterprises was run by a man named Makarov Dreyer. Gray had an online interview for a position, and to his surprise, he got hired. He hadn’t thought it would be that easy. In fact, all he’d done was answer a few basic questions and take off his shirt. He was told that he could do whatever he wanted on camera, as long as it was something that entertained and interested the audience.
Makarov ran the company as though it were a bunch of family, calling the people that worked for him his kids. Gray didn’t think it would matter; he didn’t plan on making friends with the other people that worked there. Still, Makarov insisted that everyone become a part of a larger cam community group. He would be able to chat and message anyone on the site. He still figured that he wouldn’t really make connections with anyone.
He decided to do ice play. He’d always had a resistance to the cold, and the application of ice on his skin didn’t really bother him. It was something unique, and he thought that it might get him viewers. Viewers meant money.
The way the company was set up was pretty simple. Each cam model had a room on the site where the public could enter and chat with them. Then they could see an example video of the model. This video was generally tame and clothed. Then, if the person wanted to see more, they had to pay to get into the next level chat room. Here, they could chat and watch as the model did their show. If the customer wanted a private chat and show, there was another fee for that. The aim was to get watchers to that level, where they performed the most erotic part of their show.
The amount of money he could make depended completely on how many paying customers he got each day. That meant if he wanted to get the most, he had to take as many people to the private show as possible. Soon, he was set up on the websites and ready to go. He would be placed on the opening page for the first two weeks, to try and generate an initial interest. After that, he would have to work to get featured on the front page again. He’d chosen the name Winter_Born.
One of the things that Makarov insisted on was joining a larger online community for cam models. It wasn’t only for those that worked for Fairy Tail Enterprises. Gray thought it might be a good idea to get to know other people in the industry, especially if he wanted to succeed. He had to make at least what he was making at his part time jobs, so he had to work at it.
The day before his first show, he logged onto the community chat for the first time just after sunset.
Winter_Born has joined the chat.
Celestialkey: Hey. You’re new here!
Red_Knight: Welcome. What company are you with?
Winter_Born: Um, hi there. I’m starting with Fairy Tail Enterprises. Tomorrow is my first show.
Celestialkey: Oh that’s awesome. We’re with them too. It’s a good company to work for. Makarov is a great guy.
Winter_Born: Are there many of these cam companies?
Red_Knight: Quite a few. You’ll meet all sorts of cam folks.
DarkF has joined the chat.
LightningMan has joined the chat.
Celestialkey: Hey, guys. How are you two tonight? We got a newbie!
DarkF: We’re okay. Had one of the stranger requests on my show tonight.
DarkF: Hi there newbie.
Winter_Born: Strange requests?
Celestialkey: Yeah, there are times when the viewers ask for things that are WAY out there.
Red_Knight: Even the most willing cam model has things they won’t do, even for the views or the money.
DragonSpark has joined the chat.
Celestialkey: Sparky, hey. You gonna talk tonight or just lurking?
DragonSpark: I dunno.
Iron_Fox has joined the chat.
Iron_Fox: What’s up?
Celestialkey: Dark was about to tell us about the weirdo he had tonight.
Iron_Fox: I had one of those too… weird mother fuckers.
Winter_Born: Just curious…are you guys or girls in here?
Celestialkey: Both. I’m a girl. Red is too. Dark, Lightning, and Fox are all guys though. U?
Winter_Born: I’m a guy. I thought most of the people that did this were girls before I got hired.
Embermane has joined the chat.
Celestialkey: Ember! You came tonight!
Embermane: Yeah, how’s everyone tonight?
Celestialkey: Fine, we were talking about the weirdos with the new guy.
Embermane: Hi there new guy.
I get the weird ones all the time.
Iron_Fox: I had one tonight that wanted me to stick a knife somewhere it don’t go. O.o
Red_Knight: You get those piercing fetish ones. Those are really weird.
Iron_Fox: I’ve had them ask me to sound with things that ain’t getting used. I don’t fucking use anything that’s dirty. Ugh. But still they ask.
Embermane: The boob fetishists are bad too.
I think the oddest thing I’ve had was being asked to put things in my cleavage.
Weird stuff, like toilet paper rolls.
Then once this guy asked if I could crush a can with my breasts.
I had to tell him while that would be cool, I could not.
Red_Knight: I had this one, just the other day. Asked me to do all sorts of degrading things I would never do and write slut on my forehead. Then he gets mad when I say no and tries to tell me he’s my “master” and I should do whatever he says.
Celestialkey: What was your weird one, Dark?
DarkF: Oh nothing real weird. Wanted me to do weird stuff with my hair. :P
Celestialkey: I’ve had them ask for really weird object insertion items…stuff I’m like nope!
Winter_Born: Are there a lot of these weirdos or just happen now and then?
Iron_Fox: Just depends on the day, man. Some days no weirdos, others all the weirdos are on.
Red_Knight: Well, been lovely, but I have an early day tomorrow. Night all!
Celestialkey: Good night!
Iron_Fox: See ya laterz.
Red_Knight has left the chat.
Celestialkey: So Winter, any questions about stuff?
Winter_Born: I don’t know yet. I haven’t had my first show!
Iron_Fox: What’s your deal?
Winter_Born: my deal?
Iron_Fox: Yeah what do you do on camera?
Winter_Born: Oh! Ice play rn.
KeepGoing has joined the chat.
KeepGoing: *flops on the floor in exhaustion* What doing tonight?
Celestialkey: Just talking about weird requests and questions with our newbie, Winter.
KeepGoing: Well, hi Winter. I’m Estrella. I do wrestling and I get strange ones now and then too.
Iron_Fox: What’s your weirdest one
KeepGoing: Had this backwoods type ask if I could wrestle a bear or an alligator. Wasn’t a creeper, just didn’t understand what kind of wrestling I do.
Winter_Born: What kind of wrestling is that?
KeepGoing: I do clothed female, nude male wrestling.
Other than that, I’ve had a marriage proposal or two…
Celestialkey: I’ve had those too! They’re often from outside the USA too. I think they just want to get a green card.
Embermane: Gods yes.
They don’t like no either.
The lonely guys are kinda sad when they ask though.
LightningMan: I got a marriage proposal once from a chick.
Celestialkey: You are here, was beginning to think you two fell asleep!
LightningMan: Nah, we’re both here still.
But I felt bad for the lady when she asked.
I had to explain I was with Dark already.
She seemed awful lonely.
Still not as weird as the cough guy.
Winter_Born: Cough guy?
LightningMan: Weird as hell.
Guy had a fetish for coughing.
Got his attention one time when I had a bad case of bronchitis.
DarkF: On that note, we should be getting to sleep. Bye
Celestialkey: Bye guys, have a good night!
LightningMan has left the chat.
DarkF has left the chat.
Miss_Tequila has joined the chat.
Celestialkey: Hey, Missy! Been a while since you’ve been on.
Miss_Tequila: yeah had some rl stuff come up. Been away for a week or smth like that.
Celestialkey: Oh I hope everything is alright. You missed Lightning and Dark just barely.
Iron_Fox: you didn’t get drunk and sleep through your shows again did ya?
Miss_Tequila: That happened once.
I can handle my liquor.
Celestialkey: We have a newbie tonight, hasn’t even done his first show!
Miss_Tequila: welcome to the jungle. Have you ever done this before?
Winter_Born: No, this will be my first time doing this
But I’ve never had a problem taking off my clothes
Used to get me in trouble when I was younger
Iron_Fox: Well this is more than just strippin man. Gotta be entertaining to get the views. Guys gotta work a little harder to get watchers than the girls. We got less of a fanbase to work with.
Embermane: It was good to meet you Winter.
I’ve got a show to do!
Bye!
Embermane has left the chat.
KeepGoing: You’ll do fine I bet. Do you have a plan for your show yet?
Winter_Born: Well, I was thinking of going slow at first and doing things with ice and stuff.
KeepGoing: nods That sounds like smth new
Celestialkey: DragonSpark you still here or did you drop off?
DragonSpark: I’m here.
Celestialkey: One of these days I’ll get you to talk to us. That’s my mission.
DragonSpark: …
Celestialkey: I should really go to sleep tonight at some point.
KeepGoing: You should get some sleep love. Don’t you have a double feature tomorrow
Celestialkey: Yeah. So goodnight all you guys. Hopefully see you again soon, Winter.
Celestialkey has left the chat.
Winter_Born: It was good to meet every one. Do you guy ever like meet in rl?
Iron_Fox: Yeah, we do lunch dates sometimes with each other. You live here in LA?
Winter_Born: Yeah, actually just moved here not long ago.
I should get some sleep thought. It’s getting late.
Iron_Fox: Stay safe. Don’t whatever you do agree to meet anyone rl no matter how much they pay.
That’s how we end up dead.
KeepGoing: Yeah, and go with your gut if something feels off. Better safe than sorry.
Winter_Born: I’ll keep that in mind. Night everyone.
Winter_Born has left the chat.
Gray exited the chat app and felt a little better having talked to others in the job. It made him realize that there were people behind those usernames though. Curious he went to the main page and found that each username was linked to a profile. From there, it was just a simple click to get to their company page and see the sample videos. He clicked on Celestialkey. He found her to be a bouncy looking blonde girl. That fit with her personality, he thought. Lucy was her name. Only one name was given whether first name or stage name, it didn’t say. Red_Knight was a woman with bright red hair and a severe gaze. Her name was Erza. He figured he should check out some of the guys. DarkF was named Freed and had really long green colored hair. Well, that explained the hair thing. LightningMan was a blonde with a scar over his right eye that looked like a bolt of lightning. His name was Laxus. Gajeel was Iron_Fox, and he had facial piercings. No wonder he got some weird ones. So far everyone was working for Fairy Tail Enterprises.
He clicked over to KeepGoing and found she worked for a different company, Leviathan Incorporated. Her name was listed as Estrella. He found that Embermane, a redhead named Ashana, also worked for Leviathan. She had really big breasts.
He’d missed the last one to come in, Miss_Tequila, he realized. He clicked over to her and saw she was a dark-haired woman with bigger breasts named Cana. She was also Fairy Tail Enterprises. He almost clicked out of the page before he remembered he missed another one. He scrolled back and saw this DragonSpark who had only talked a couple of times in the entire chat. He clicked on him and found he worked for a company called Tartaros. When he clicked on that site it was decidedly darker than the other ones.
He found that his name was Natsu, and he was a guy that looked about his age with cotton candy pink hair. He had a show about to start. Gray thought, what the heck, he’d go in the public room and see what all he did.
The room was rather full, he found and there was a lot of chatting going on as he sat down in front of the camera. Gray couldn’t tell much about the background where he was sitting, as though he’d dressed the area to use as a backdrop. He supposed that he might have to think of doing something like that. He watched as the commenters got vulgar right away. He barely responded to those that said something. Every time he did respond, it seemed to always be the same phrases repeated. “Thank you for coming”, “Pay to see more”, and “I’ll do more for the next tier”. He took off his shirt and Gray looked at him for a long time before it clicked what was wrong. Scars. He had scars all over his chest and arms. Some were pinkish and very new, others were whiter and old.
He picked up a knife and showed the camera, then ran the blade against his skin on his arm. It wasn’t enough to cut himself, but it was subtly erotic. There were a slew of vulgarities thrown at him on the chat to which he responded with “Pay to see more” again. Gray was curious enough that he created an account and logged into it so he could pay for the next tier and see exactly what this guy was doing. By the time he got back to the page, Natsu had already gone to the private chat level. There were other chatting people there making comments about him and it just seemed rather rude on the whole the way they treated him. Gray hoped it wasn’t like that in his room the next day.
He clicked and was allowed into the private chat. Here, there were less people, but they were no less vulgar and demanding of him. He frowned as he watched Natsu’s eyes move past the camera off to the side. He swallowed hard enough to be heard through the microphone. He then picked up the knife he had and started to cut a line down his forearm. It was along another scar that was already there. Gray wondered, though, because he really didn’t look like he was into what he was doing. Then he kept looking up and to the left of the camera off to the side.
The knife flashed in the dim lighting of the room he was in and he switched hands to begin cutting a line down his other forearm. The people in the chat were demanding he take off the rest of his clothes already and “do the legs”. Again, he looked up and over to the left and back to the camera. He nodded and did as they asked, slipping a pair of loose sweatpants off and sitting there with nothing on and Gray could see his thighs were marked with scars too. He started cutting a line into one of his legs and then the popup appeared asking if Gray wanted to pay for more time. He wanted to continue watching, but he also couldn’t spend a ton of money watching someone else’s cam show.
Instead, he went back to the chat area and found the private messaging feature. He had noticed Celestialkey, or Lucy, had seemed concerned about him. And now Gray was too. He brought up the message box.
Hey, I know we just met tonight, but I was concerned about the one that goes by DragonSpark. I saw his show and it’s pretty grisly. Do you know anything about the guy?
He had no idea if she would even answer him. But sure enough, about five minutes went by and he got a return private message.
I don’t know much about him. He never really talks in the chatroom. I’ve seen his show before. He’s one of the few models that does knife and blood play on screen. He gets a lot of views for it.
Gray frowned and wasn’t sure what he thought. Knife and bloodplay? It sure didn’t look like he was that into what he was doing. And who or what was he looking at off screen? He wasn’t sure at all now. He didn’t know that cam models did stuff like that. He was willing to play with ice for the audience, but that wasn’t dangerous at all. He couldn’t imagine taking the steps to actually cut himself for the camera. It reminded him about what had been said in the chat. That there were things a cam model just wouldn’t do, no matter the money or the views it got. But what about when someone was doing something already that far out there? He had a hard time believing that this Natsu was doing this because he enjoyed it. He looked sad and pained at best. Now, though, Gray wasn’t sure what to do.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Natsu sat in the bathroom bandaging the new cuts from tonight. He hadn’t cut deep enough, they said. He should have bled more, they said. He wasn’t good enough again, they said. He angrily fisted tears out of his eyes. What they said all the time was so heavy on his shoulders that he thought he might just break.
There was a knock on the door. He looked up, a little panicked. Had he been in here too long? He swallowed and called out.
“Almost done.”
He quickly finished putting the bandages on his thighs and slipped back into his sweats before he came out of the bathroom to find that Torafuzar was standing there. The tall, hulking man always reminded Natsu of a shark or a lizard for some reason. He cleared his throat and looked up at him. He didn’t know what to say, because there wasn’t much to say. He ducked his head and tried not to flinch when the bigger man grabbed him by the arm. He watched as one of the other girls was taken to the film room. He didn’t know her name. In fact, he didn’t know anyone else’s name that worked for Tartaros. Worked, what a joke.
When they got to his door, Torafuzar opened it and shoved him inside the room. He stumbled a bit and went to sit on the cot that was the only real thing in the room. He sighed and waited for them to bring him his pills for the night. It was the only way he could sleep. Soon enough, the door opened again and a bedraggled looking woman came in with a cup of water and a pill in her hand. She gave both to him, and he took it gratefully. Anything to help him sleep was welcome in this place.
He laid back on the cot and pulled the threadbare blanket over him. He waited patiently for the drug to hit his system. As soon as his brain started to float, he started to fall asleep. As usual his dreams were of before he started this life and how he got here.
He’d been sixteen when he ran into the man named Mard Geer Tartaros. He was a nice-looking man with a suit and tie. He often came down to the places where the orphans and runaways hung out. Natsu had seen him before, but never paid him much attention. He would show up and someone from the group would disappear, not coming back. Then he approached him and asked if he wanted to make some money. Natsu had been scrounging and stealing where he could after his last foster parents kicked him out of the house. He’d asked him if he wanted to work for him and his cam company. He told Natsu he had the look he was looking for, and he could make a lot.
Natsu took the offer because he was tired of being on the streets without family or purpose. He thought that this Tartaros sounded like he could offer him something worthwhile and all he had to do was do a show in front of a webcam. He could do that easy.
At first, it wasn’t bad. The shows were strip teases and the viewers were generally good people who paid to watch him. He didn’t have the vulgar ones until later. The longer he worked, the more demanding the viewers got in insisting he remove more of his clothing. He was getting uncomfortable with the idea of going all the way nude in front of the camera when Mard Geer offered him a pill to help calm his nerves. Not really thinking about it, he’d taken it, and that was the beginning of his downslide. Soon he couldn’t go on camera without taking the pills. Then he couldn’t sleep without them. Then, he brought up the knife. Mard Geer had told him that to keep getting his pills and keep a place to stay, he was going to use the knife to cut himself on camera.
He said no the first time, but then he cut off the pills he was taking and he couldn’t stand it. He held out for a couple days, but he needed the pills or else he was going to go out of his mind. So, he agreed. He honestly didn’t have much choice by then. Then, it became the norm for him. The cutting was what the viewers wanted to see. They wanted to see the blood drip from the fresh wounds, and they wanted to see him in pain because of it. These people were cruel and disturbingly crass. They liked it only when Natsu was completely vulnerable to them.
He remembered a long time ago, before the foster homes, before everything, when he was with one person who loved and took care of him, a man named Igneel. He’d died when he was young and left him to the whims of a system that cared very little for those in it. He tried to explain to them that the homes they sent him to were not good, but they wouldn’t listen to him.
So, here he was. He had to do what they said or else he would have nowhere to go, and he couldn’t get his pills anymore. He knew he was trapped, but there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it. No one would help him, and no one would care. He was lost and alone in a world too big for him.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Mard Geer Tartaros sat at the head of the conference table and looked around. Tempester and Jackal sat to his right and left, several of his “enforcers” on either side and Kyôka sat at the other end. She smiled down at him as everyone settled into place.
“What has the revenue been looking like lately?” Mard Geer asked, glancing to his right to Tempester.
The blond-haired man nodded. “It looks like we’ve been getting a good stream from our current bunch of workers. May need to replace a few, soon. They’re getting too scarred up to be able to work in front of the camera much longer. One of the boys, and two of the girls for sure. Maybe a couple others.”
“And the drug pipeline? Are we still secure with our dealers?” Mard Geer glanced down to the end of the table at Kyôka.
“So far, we’re having no trouble getting what we need. There was a small discussion about price, but we quickly set that right with a visit from Keyes.” Kyôka ran a hand through her greenish hair. “We have a new shipment coming in tomorrow.”
Mard Geer nodded at her. “Good, good. Any other problems with the workers?”
Torafuzar shook his head. “The last one to get out of line was easy to put back in line after an ipecac treatment. We haven’t had a lot of problems lately.”
Jackal spoke up from beside Mard Geer. “We had a police officer snooping around down in the runaway spots we’ve been using to recruit. We were able to throw him off the trail of a couple of the girls we got recently.”
“Very well. Anything else come up of importance?” he looked around the table to see if anyone had anything else to bring up. When no one said anything, he continued. “Determine which workers are becoming useless in front of the camera. Locate replacements first, before we get rid of them. Then contact the buyer and let them know we have a few for them. Keep the dealer happy, but don’t let him take us for more than what we’re buying is worth. I like dealing with this guy, so far, he hasn’t tried to jack up prices on us.” He paused and looked down at the enforcers. “Make sure this police officer stays off the trail. We don’t need someone snooping around just as we are acquiring new workers.”
He stood up and flipped his hair over his shoulder. “Everything seems to be running smooth. Let’s keep it that way. Thank you.”