Max Eclipscia's Plaisir Debut , by Eclipscia

An over-eager tryhard...a sweet little worker...a guy who takes everything to heart.. Such things are relatively accurate to describe the one whose story is being told, just as one could call this individual: a meek little newt...a weak excuse for a insignificant tool...an insatiable glutton for punishment.. Plaisir seems to find all kinds…
...Like the Charmander who needed a break from his life - not quite death, but a vacation away from all of it; after all, his home felt like it stifled his soul, and he felt dead on the inside after each day at work; hell, it was a miracle that he could still keep a smile on his face through it all.

Florida summers can be some of the hottest in the United States, and yet, despite the 107-degree heat indexes, people have still found reasons to gorge themselves on piping hot - and sometimes spicy - burgers in crowded restaurants. If a Floridian burger connoisseur was lucky, he or she would have found him- or herself flocking to the Burger Ball - an attachment to a local shopping mall, and the home of Florida's most variously flavorful patties of beef, steak, pork, and chicken...and a humble, yet energetic, waiter by the name of Max Eclipscia. Within the establishment, Max received naught but constant praise and substantial tips from customers whenever he brought out meals, which inspired a fair bit of jealousy among his co-workers. Surely, the Charmander's fellow waiters were civil, but they still subtly shunned him for his prowess during meal breaks, and as much as Max loved what he did, he still found himself longing for something more.
With that desire for greater heights, Max seemed to develop more awareness of the talk among his tables in hopes that opportunities could surface among all the gossip, but an ample majority of it was just idle smalltalk. However, every now and then, he would catch wind of a..."Plaisir," while he continued tending to his tables, and each time he heard it, his curiosity grew. Surely, the Charmander had to cast such idle thoughts aside while he was focusing on pleasing his customers, but whenever the Charmander got home, his dreams would be filled with images of Plaisir - images that set the stage for the most lovely bedtime fantasies, and ones that the Charmander didn't want to leave - before his alarm shunted him into reality each morning.

The morning of July 7 was a scorcher - as per usual, and even at 7 AM - but there seemed to be something intangibly different about today. As the norm would have it, Max was early to arrive at the Burger Ball. However, the Charmander was actually the second person there; in fact, Max's boss, a Nidoqueen, was watching for the Char from inside the glass doors that marked the restaurant's entrance, and once the little Char entered the place, he was led back to her office..
At first, Max assumed that he was being reprimanded - that he had managed to make a severe oversight in his three-and-a-half years of meal services in the diner - but the conversation started with immediate praise, and that put Max at slight ease. Fading apprehension was kicked to the curb by pleasant surprise when the Nidoqueen told her faithful Charmander employee that he was getting a transfer that came with higher pay, and when she whispered to him that he was being considered for a position at Café Plaisir, a tinge of blush emerged on the flame lizard's face, and he was left speechless. The Nidoqueen snickered before she told Max, "Now, I know it's a lot to take in, so you can go ahead and have the day off, sweetie. Don't have too much fun in Oklahoma~" and handed him an envelope that was adorned with the label, "For Your New Job." Max wound up hugging his manager because he was so overjoyed about the new job, and after half of a minute, the Nido had to pull him off and send him on his way..

After Max left work, he immediately grabbed his transportation - a small children's mountain bike - and pedaled his way home. Every now and then, the Charmander would stop to make sure the envelope hadn't slipped out of his pockets, but thankfully, he didn't live too far from his work, so the ride lasted for only a half-hour. Once the Charmander arrived at his apartment, and after he locked up his bike, he rushed in and immediately started packing up a duffel bag with some "hang-out outfits", a week's worth of work uniforms, seven green aprons that his manager was nice enough to give him, his handheld console with his games/accessories, and his laptop full of "anatomical reference pictures" and artwork - before he lugged a duffel bag out and called for a taxi. The journey to the airport was relatively uneventful, and once he was there, he went ahead and opened up the envelope that his manager gave him. It seemed that the Nidoqueen had thought of everything, because she had a ticket all set for him to use at any time, and she even included a little spending money in addition to the humongous bonus he got for his excellent work; and if that wasn't enough, apparently, she had already covered the fare, with a huge tip to boot!

On the plane ride, Max was occupying himself with his gaming handheld, but he was starting to feel the drowsiness creep up on him as he found himself making simple, unforced mistakes in his gameplay. Maybe he could take a short siesta while he waited out the plane ride..

When the plane landed, Max groggily stumbled from his window seat into the aisle. His carry-on duffel bag was still an ordeal to lug out into the parking lot of the Will Rogers Airport, and calling a bus was another story. After a half-hour of waiting, he was finally able to catch a ride to a nearby exit on the interstate, but once he left the vehicle, the Charmander was on his own. That in mind, he tried to look at his phone's map program in order to navigate his way to the address that he was given, but the route that he was given was leading him through the woods, and after about ten minutes of hiking through the dense maze of trees, he was losing signal strength; and if that wasn't enough, another five minutes would lead to his phone's battery dying on him - what horrid luck!

With no map, the inability to access his phone's compass, and a relative ineptitude at surviving outside of civilization, Max ventured into the woods in search of the address where his new job awaited, but it didn't take long for the poor lizard to get lost. Sweat was beading up from his brow, trickling near his eyes, and dripping onto the grass and leaves on the ground. A few more seconds would pass before some of that sweat finally found its way into the Charmander's eyes, and Max was effectively wandering blind..

The flame lizard groaned while the sweat continuously irritated his eyes, and even though it was prolonging the annoying pain, he instinctively rubbed in an effort to clear the sweat away. In that time, the Charmander frequently attempted, in vain, to open his eyes, but alas, he wouldn't be able to see the vine that lay just above the forest floor in his blind path before he tripped. Instinct compelled him to extend his arms outward to prevent landing on his face, but when he did so, he didn't feel his hands touch down; instead, he felt something wrapped around his ankles, his body turned like he had actually succeeded at a headstand, and himself rising toward the trees.

"So...you wish to burn down my home, do you? A lot of nerve...from an insignificant little newt." The voice was deep and ominous, and Max found it immensely difficult to discern where it was originating - especially with his own sweat blinding him - nevertheless, the Charmander tried to reason with the voice.

"W-what? No- I don't want to fight - I-I just got lost.." Max stammered while he felt his blood slowly rushing to his head. The Char was still struggling to see, but at least his sweat wasn't dripping toward his eyes anymore..

"Fight? You wouldn't even be worth the time...or the single iota of effort I would need simply to eat you," The voice retorted with a scoff that seemed to be made intentionally loud - to drive home just how puny Max was. By this time, Max could keep his eyes open, but when he did open them, he was treated to the view of a snake's maw - opened wide, and primed to consume him then and there - before it closed to reveal the head of the Serperior it belonged to. "Oh my...it looks like Sleeping Beauty has finally awakened from her slumber. Such a shame - I was going to be a gracious host and end your pitiful life.."

Max audibly gulped when he heard that he would have been eaten, and when he got a better look at how long the Serperior's body reached, the gravity of his insignificance finally became apparant. "Y-you're...not going to eat me?"

"Eat you? You're less than a crumb to me, but I suppose I should, at the very least, be a gracious host.." With those words, the Serperior's maw reopened, and Max was lowered ever closer to its waiting depths.

"W-wait...please - I-I don't want to die...not yet.." The Charmander started to cry a little while he was dangled over the pit that was the Serperior's throat.

The vast Serperior then closed his maw again before he resumed speaking to the puny Charmander that he had in his vines. "Not yet? Nature does not wait for the weak and pathetic to keep pace.."

Max whimpered when it seemed like his words were lost on the Serperior, and he desperately pleaded, "I...I'll do anything you want - I swear.. I...I may be weak, b-b-but I'm also loyal, um...e-eager to please, a-and willing to take punishment.. I just want to live and find my way, sir - i-if you can promise me that, I-I'll do whatever you want.."

The Serperior merely scoffed whenever Max tried to offer his service to him, and he commented, with glaringly obvious intonations of sarcasm, "Oh my - so you're actually smart enough to beg? Such a good little morsel! I should go fetch you a gold star! ..." before he deepened his tone into ominous territory and continued, "...But why reward a crumb for general inadequacy...when I can simply reap the spoils of its submission for myself?"

Max had given up all hope when the Serperior lowered his body closer to the reopened maw, but he seemed unnaturally calm when he concurred, "Of course - nature rewards only the strong, and fortune favors only the bold - it's inevitable that I be at the mercy of one so clearly superior, so what point is there in delaying fate?"

At that point, the Serperior deviously smirked and hissed in a pattern that could be interpreted only as sinister laughter, and he commented, "...What a meek little tool..~ Remind me...Crumb...you said you would do -anything- that I want - and that you were -eager to please?-"

The Charmander's face began to show signs of a grin - one complemented by the hope that he had once lost - while he nodded in a manner that implied the eagerness that he claimed to possess, and he promptly answered, "Y-yes, and I am - severely so.."

The Serperior's smirk grew into a sinister grin as a result of Max's answer, and he immediately shifted his expansive body among the trees. Whenever the Serperior shifted his body, the Charmander came to realize just how expansive his captor was, for he saw movement throughout the trees in the distance that he could properly see. The regal snake also took time to examine the caped Charmander before he summoned another large vine to bind his torso, turn him right side up, and lift him into the forest's treetops. When the two were face-to-face again, the Serperior inquisitively tongued at his newest Crumb while he mused and proposed, "Hmm...I have a test for you, Crumb. Let us - for a moment - assume that I do believe that you are as eager as you claim. Surely, you wouldn't trust me to refrain from swallowing you if my first demand was for you to climb into my maw?"

Max remained surprisingly calm despite being taken deeper into privacy with the Serperior, and he was even maintaining a smile as he answered, "Alright then - I actually would, though. I couldn't stage a sufficient fight to save my life, and I don't know my way through this forest; besides, I told you that I would do anything you desired me to do, and I don't stray from my word unless you do."

The Serperior mulled over Max's recent answer while he mused over the Char's behavior, and after a minute of thought - and a tightening squeeze of his vines - he finally said, "...You must not deserve to live if you're so eager to climb into my waiting maw, Morsel."

Max winced when the Serperior tightened the coils of the vines, but even with his breath becoming more labored as a result of the pressure on his body, he remained unnaturally calm as he explained, "My life never was, nor will it ever be, truly my own. If I am deemed unworthy of it, then it is not my place to argue."

It was then that the Serperior sported a smug smirk and chuckled while he tilted his head in overly pronounced skepticism. Surely, there was a high degree of sarcasm that was implied by the regal serpent's body language, but the Serperior was genuinely curious about, and deeply satisfied with, Max after he heard that response. The grass snake continued to taste his little 'Morsel' while his vine snaked further up his body, consolidated the coiled grasp he had on his prey, and petted the submissive Char on his head as a small reward for his favorable response. "Mmmh~ It brings me great satisfaction to see a prey that knows his place...however. You are most intriguing, my delectable Morsel. Most prey resist more vehemently in my clutches, but you...you become more calm and submissive as I toy with you.." Soon, the Serperior began a more thorough examination of Max before his smirk grew to a devious grin, and he brought the Char closer to his face before tasting him yet again - this time, for much longer - and telling him, "You will need your footing in order to bow to me in proper fashion. Let us go somewhere more...open.." before he deposited the Charmander into his maw.