Theriocentricity

“Ahh Rupert, welcome! Welcome! Come in. Set that down.”

Rupert did as he was commanded and set down the saucer adorned with a single glass of Port. He should have known–Lord Hood only ordered Port when he wanted to play the game. The study was stuffy, a poor imitation of a bygone era. Mahogany bookshelves lined the walls, almost certainly never opened, intermixed with mounted heads of wild lions and zebras, almost certainly killed by someone else.

Besides the roaring fire, Lord Hood emphatically underlined a word written in all capital letters on an ancient chalkboard. “Tell me its definition, Rupert,” he said, picking up the Port and standing behind his servant.

“Please sir, I have–”

“No, you must play along.”

Of course Rupert did; he’d never had a choice in the matter.

“Theriocentricity…” Rupert said the word aloud. It was not one he knew. “Hmm, the suffix of centricity is clearly defined. Therefore, I conclude that the prefix is either the rio or therio. Seeing as I cannot find a full definition of Theriocentricity within my lexicon, I am forced to surmise the definition is either a focus on wild animals or a focus on the city of Rio. I believe the latter may be slang if correct, which leads me to say the former definition is the correct definition.”

Lord Hood sighed and flipped the switch at the base of his android servant’s neck. Rupert went limp, waist bent and arms hanging before him as his eyes flickered once, twice, then closed.

“Subject six demonstrated reasoning skills beyond acceptable measures and the experiment has been terminated,” Lord Hood said into his recording device. “Oh Rupert, I had such high hopes for you. Still, I need docile servants. Can’t have wild, thinking beasts living within my walls, can I?”

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A/N:

For Raymond’s great little challenge! I really neeed to stop writing bastards and get back to Thaddeus kicking the shit out of bastards. Challenge below:

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