When one was told something enough by the world around them it often started to become true. This was true in many aspects, political ideologies, religion, social orders. When something was repeated enough time by everyone the natural human inclination was to believe it. Those that rejected it were strange and crazy. It was like saying the sky wasn’t blue or that water wasn’t actually wet. 

This was also true with personal identity in a lot of ways. This was how the social order of Elsira forced itself upon its humans. A constant grinding in of what their identity was. That the term human was synonymous with lesser being. That they were shrunken down so physically they were made lesser. Repeated endlessly enough times and ground in with constant abuse and torment and it became the reality. Rickard had understood it on a conceptual level. He had figured that would help him fight it, that understanding of what they were trying to do to him. 

“Your name is Rickard.” He forced himself to say it whenever he woke up. Whenever he went to bed. A reminder of his name. Of his identity. Because the world told him that wasn’t his identity. He was Rose. Nalista’s little Rose. He was called by that. Not Prince anymore, not Rickard. 

Every day he was called by it and had to respond to it as though it was his name. Everytime he did, it tore at him more and more. It shredded his walls of personal identity. He had taken on the title of the Black Rose as a way to shield himself against the jeers of those that used it as a mockery. Taking their mockery and turning it into his strength. Nalista took that and turned it on its head. To her, it was as easy as breathing. It was natural to do what she was doing. It was the world order of Elsira. 

“Your name is Rickard.” It was what he clung to. Even when he found the sharp edges of his mind dulling. It was the only chance he had to escape this. To keep it. To remember. 

Animal. Disgusting. Thing. Worthless. Useless. Small. Insignificant. Stupid. Tiny. Abuse ground in with the words above by various elves. Like the ones he was tending to right now. Not Nalista or Dalia as they were in the middle of some planning for how they were going to march to the capital and officially win the war. So he found himself on a table between some of her junior officers, left there until they finished their business. A redhead, and a pair of brunettes, one rather filled and full in form and the other shorter like Dalia. Still a giant that towered over him of course. 

“No, no! Ugh, I said *lick*! Not just like run your tongue over it, you stupid animal. Put some feeling into it!” The redhead boomed down at him, gesturing over the bare toes he found himself forced to tend to. 

“Maybe switch to common, bet he’s too stupid to understand elven.” Suggested the shorter brunette. 

“I understand- ack!” He tried to respond only for the short haired redhead to knock him over with her big toe and pin him down beneath it. The single digit overwhelmed him and had him unable to do anything. 

“Problem with slaves from these savage places, they don’t understand a word you are telling them. Have to grunt out commands in their animal tongues. Also careful, her grace will string you up if you break her toy.” The other brunette woman remarked. 

“Yeah yeah, he’s got protective spells on him, he’ll be fine.” The redhead waved away the concerns as she ground her toe into him. It didn’t kill him, but it sure as hell hurt. 

These three weren’t high commanders or anything or anyone that he was likely to ever meet on the battlefield when he had been upon it. They were some lower ranking officers in the Elsiran army. That didn’t matter since even the lower ranks might as well have been unto gods compared to him. Eventually the toe pinning him down lifted up and she wrinkled her nose looking at him. 

“I was in Ostreach, you fucker.” She growled. She lifted up her right arm and indeed there was a false hand of silver upon it. “I screamed and asked for mercy, I never tormented my humans or nothing. Then you cut off my hand.” 

The words weren’t something he comprehended for a moment until his eyes widened as he remembered. It seemed like eons ago, back when he had been able to affect the world in meaningful ways. He looked at the silver hand she was holding up and then at the absolutely disdainful, hate filled green eyes of the redhead. He’d ordered the dominant hands of the soldiers that weren’t mages removed. 

“I-I…” He tried to find words. 

“I used to be a fucking artist with a sword. I could have been a swordmaster after this war, gone to train and serve in the imperial heartlands. Now that's all gone. But ya know what, I’m not bitter at all. Because when I look at you like that, seeing you flinch from my shadow and wince from my words. It's better than anything I’ve seen.” She said, her smirk very unkind. 

“Getting all that venting out?” Asked her shorter fellow as she propped her feet up on the table. “Hey, Rose boy, over here. Your better wants some service.” 

Rickard was moving before he had a chance to think about it. Dalia’s training and Nalista’s shaping of him had taken its toll. He didn’t even have a chance to try and stop himself as his body moved on impulse toward the towering brown skinned feet of the shorter elf. The redhead snickered behind him, the noise haunting as she no doubt enjoyed watching him having fallen so low as this. So low as to be a plaything for these three. 

He reached the heel of the right foot and paused, hesitating for a moment before his lips parted and he drew his tongue along her bare heel in a lick. It had gotten easier, if there was such a thing to apply here. Easier for him to just debase himself like this and lick at the feet of the elven race. That wasn’t a good thing really. Still he licked and licked and worshiped and provided the service his betters desired. Tears sprung to his eyes for some reason. 

“Oh wow, I think he’s crying.” The larger brunette remarked as she leaned down to look at him at the feet of her fellow. “So pathetic. If you get any tears on her foot you better lick that off.” She boomed. 

That only caused more sobs to be torn from in him as he was unable to hold back just the sheer and complete despair from flooding out of him. His family line was destroyed. Soon enough his home would be just another province for the elves to turn all humans to this. Everyone he had ever known, playthings for people like the trio tormenting him. Or Nalista or Dalia or anyone else really. 

The short haired girl shrugged. “Let him cry, who cares. Long as he does his job he can cry all he wants.”

It was all coming crashing down as he licked and licked, the laughter and the jeering of the three elves above him just further compounding what was being ground into his skull. The place of humanity. His place. He was whatever the elves wanted him to be. Slave, pet, toy, whatever they desired him to be, that was what he had become and that was just a fact of life now. His mind struggled to reject it and try to recover but he just couldn’t. He couldn’t stop the flow of tears as he licked. 

“Hey… I’ve got an idea.” The bigger brunette said looking at him closely. “He already looks kinda girly. I bet her grace would love it if we… spruced him up a bit.” She looked at the redhead. “You got any of your pet’s dresses?” 

“What do you- ohhhhhhhh baby.” She was confused but then her expression switched to realization and then a wicked grin. 

He found the larger brunette’s fingers glow and he was ripped from the ground by a magical force, levitating in the air between them. The shorter brunette pouted for a second as the redhead left for a moment and returned moments later with something in her palm. These were also lifted via magic and brought over toward him. A rather lovely and frilly black dress, a ridiculous looking floppy hat with laces along it and a pair of heels with bows on them. Along with an assortment of very not masculine underwear. 

That was when he started squirming and flailing in the air. “No! I’m not a woman! Stop! You can’t do this!” He protested. 

“Ha! Not a woman he says. You sure as hell look like a girl to me, little Rose.” The redhead remarked with a glint of vindictive glee in her eyes. 

The taller brunette flexed her fingers idly and stopped his struggling and clamped his mouth shut with her magic. “Hold still. Honestly you should be happy to get some clothes when you haven’t had any for a while.” She remarked. 

The clothes drifted toward him and he could only watch as his body was forced to move against his will, accepting as the elven woman dressed him with magic. He let out a little whimper as the feminine underwear slid in place, the dress being pulled over him. It was made of the finest fabrics no doubt. For a pampered and cared for pet that the redhead no doubt spoiled quite a bit. It was also not something Rickard wanted. 

The elf finished dressing Rickard and slowly lowered him down to the table, the man still unable to move on his own as she used her magic to make him move around in jerky manners, displaying his new clothes for the other two. Both of whom started cackling in glee at the sight of him dressed as a woman. He was released and when he was he fell to the ground, tears springing to his eyes again as he was just constantly torn down. 

“A much better look for someone named Rose don’t you think, girls?” The taller brunette said. 

“Absolutely. Man, now I want the little fucker to wear more of my little dear’s clothes.” The redhead remarked. 

He flushed a deep crimson as tears sprang to his eyes and he sniffled. A far cry from the young prince that had commanded an army that struck the first chord of concern in Elsira. Now just a plaything. Humiliated. “Your name is Rickard.” He whispered under his breath in a shaky manner. 

Then, of course, the door swung open to the room and in walked Nalista. Her presence filled the room almost immediately and had the trio stand at attention and salute the Grand General. The blonde swept inside and over to the table and when she looked down at him her lips curled up into a smirk. 

“What a lovely look you’ve given my little Rose. Truly a flower that will draw the eye of all that gaze upon him.” She complimented as she offered out her hand to Rickard. 

“Come along. We are getting ready to ride today for the capital, little Rose. It will be a lovely show. The Empress rather had a specific request you see. A display for all humans to remember and see.” She chuckled, her words for some reason haunting him to his core. More than anything that had been done to him today.