Episode 2, Part 8

“An’ Merryman had a record,” ROM said. “No convictions, but charged for messin’ with teen-age boys. There were a few restraining orders on his ass.”

 “Fucking hell,” Bang groaned.

“And,” Scepter said, picking up the narrative, “at this stage, Vagabond had to have discovered his powers, although he may not have known what they were. I was picking up people’s thoughts and emotions, and influencing people with my own thoughts and emotions, long before I realized I was the only one around who could do that. I didn’t even know I was doing it. He probably had Merryman under his control and didn’t even know it.”

“That’s more than a little speculative,” said a very dubious Paine. “There isn’t a standard boiler-plate for telepaths.”

“Which is what I thought,” Scepter admitted. “But it makes sense. Just hear the theory. Let’s just assume that how my powers emerged happened to him. Vagabond gets…purchased,” he shuddered, “but on some level wants his buyer to love him. Or, rather, anybody to love him. He must have known he was an ass with a man attached. At that point, Vagabond may have equated being bought, or rented, with being loved. It goes without saying that he was already damaged at this point. And who knows? Maybe he was just one of those people, like Jeffrey Dahmer, who were born broken.”

“Ouch,” Mirrorball muttered.

“So,” Scepter went on, “Vagabond is radiating ‘Love me, love me’ to Merryman and presto! It’s like a mutual post-hypnotic suggestion. Merryman falls head over heels for Vagabond, who, in turn, falls head over heels for Merryman as the only person who ever loved him, neither of them knowing that it was all Vagabond’s doing in the first place.”

“My head is going to explode,” ROM interjected.

“Yours and mine,” Bang said.

Orbis continued the line of thought. “As his powers surfaced, he slowly brought Merryman under his influence, and eventually, control. And it must have been like magic! He thought something, and Merryman did it! OK, so there was a 20-year age difference—at this stage of the game, Matt must have been so starved for true affection that he took whatever he could get. ” He paused. “I can’t even begin to imagine how broken he was at this point.”

“Not as much as later on,” Scepter responded. “Vagabond got what he wanted all along. Now, he must have known he was a sex slave. Merryman didn’t buy Vagabond his freedom, just his sexual exclusivity. But when Merryman seemingly became his Mr. Perfect, Vagabond then goes into a deep denial of his past. He may have blotted it out completely, even as to how they met. He basically threw a pretty wrapping over a cesspool.”

“But then it gets interesting,” Orbis said, wagging a finger to the ceiling. “He wanted some satisfaction of justice. Consciously or unconsciously, he psychically prodded Merryman into coming clean. Maybe not about the two of them, but about the ring.”

 “Merryman must have made public going public to other members of the ring.” Scepter inhaled. “And they just couldn’t have that.”

“So they iced him?” Tug-of-War finished the thought. “A touch of overkill, don’t you think?”

“You’d be amazed at what lengths people go to keep a secret,” Scepter said. “I say that to a room full of gay people.”

“Not even remotely similar!” Paine admonished. He crossed his arms hard.

“Whatever. They also iced the guy who provided this photo of boy-Vagabond. With the same gun that killed Merryman. This morning,” Orbis said, not a little smugly.

That brought everyone to the same page fast.

“Ooh, shit,” ROM muttered.

“That about sums it up, yes,” Scepter responded.

“A conspiracy,” Pain thought aloud.