[ action | open ] ain't into metal, just leather and lace and the taste of oxidation

[black_black_heart]

Who: Tannusen and whoever!
What: Planned threads: Telsen gets a job, Bracken meets a tiger. Other shenanigans also welcome!
When: After the cure's out for the Quiet Minds event. Tannu was... occupied, during that.
Where: Genessia City - Velvet Lust (Please read that link if you're gonna tag in!)
Warnings: Will add if any are needed.

Tannusen arrived at his bar before the sun began to go down, taking chairs down off of tables downstairs, prepping the first batch of steaks, and stocking the bar with freshly-cleaned glassware from the kitchen. For the first time in a while, he stayed behind the bar when the sun went down and the 'open' sign flickered to life, instead of retreating upstairs or completely ducking out of sight.

He was under no obligation to stay there, of course, but the regular bartender certainly didn't mind the help as the usual crowd started to trickle in. The boss had been scarce, lately; perhaps things were returning to normal, now. Besides, Tannusen never took anything from the tip jar. It was win-win!

Comments

[telsen]

Night was the best time of day, so Telsen thought. He'd arrived in this strange, terrifying place late in the day and he wasted little time in getting to trying to scrub his brain of everything to do with his arrival. The free housing was easy enough to find, he stayed there just long enough to set down what few things he had and head back out. Bracken had given him a name and he had a map.

Telsen arrived at Velvet Lust in considerably less clothing than he'd shown up in. If he was going to make poor choices tonight, he might as well go all the way. The security guard grinned toothily at him as he hurried past, trying not to make eye contact. She couldn't be human or any other sentient race he was used to.

Inside was a lot nicer than he'd expected, a pleasant surprise. A decent crowd already too. Hrm. His flowerbud ears drooped, he was still awfully nervous. Anxiety chewed away at his gut steadily.

There were stairs but he headed for the bar instead, he'd explore once he'd eased his nerves.

[black_black_heart]

Well, someone looked like he was here to make wise, careful, though-out decisions. Really... the stranger was clearly going to tackle that whole new-world situation with a level head and sound planning.

Yep.

Right.

Tannusen watched the guy approach from his chosen place behind the bar, his suit jacket hanging from a hook in the wall behind him. He was unbuttoning and pushing up his dress-shirt's sleeves even as Telsen made it to the bar. "Got something in mind?"

Hey, it was better than the other question that popped into his head at first glance...

[telsen]

A sylvari of great sense and even temperament, Telsen always made good life choices. Like often refusing to wear pants. Thinking was difficult and scary sometimes, he didn't want to think about much.

Telsen mumbled his drink order as he tried to give Tannusen a quick look over. He usually wasn't enough of a prick to be hitting on staff but it was tempting. Maybe after a few drinks.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen poured the drink and passed it over. He'd caught that look-over, but didn't comment on it. The tiger was a professional, after all.

At a lot of things.

"Were those butterflies I saw on you when you came in?" he asked, instead. Tannu was familiar enough with how sylvari glowed, living with one as he did, but he hadn't realized they could shape it into patterns. And he hadn't gotten a good enough look to know carvings when he saw them, either.

Still, people didn't tend to show off what they didn't want to talk about. Case in point, he already had stage makeup hiding the loops of smooth scarring around his wrists.

[telsen]

Telsen looked over his glass at Tannusen with sudden distrust in his eyes. It was nothing, nothing. He took a swallow and set his glass down. The "shirt" he wore left his shoulders and arms completely exposed so all he had to do was turn his arm to show the delicate carvings leading along his forearm. They weren't deep, there wasn't much of him to cut into, yet deep enough to show a soft blue glow.

"Yeah. Might as well show them off." He had no love for the one that had carved them into his bark but they were eye-catching. Skinning himself would be a chore.

They were the only scars Telsen had on display. A long, thin scar ran from just under his sternum to where a belly button should of been. It didn't glow like the butterflies.

"Have you seen something like these before?" he asked after another swallow. There was nothing arrogent in his tone, he was honestly curious, though the look in his eyes was still wary.

[black_black_heart]

"Mm, sort of," Tannusen tilted his head a little to one side, regarding the sylvari over his glasses. In the far Dreaming, his own stripes lingered in the air like spilled ink, trailing behind his every move by inches...

Not the same, but ornate markings that had a visual catch to them weren't exactly a foreign concept to the Faerie.

Nor was he unfamiliar with having markings carved in by a knife, though he had no way of knowing that Telsen's hadn't been his idea, either. They were certainly ornate enough to be the glowing equivalent to tattoos.

"The sylvari I'm familiar with has a glow, but it's not shaped like that."

[telsen]

Telsen ducked his head quickly to not spit his drink at Tannusen. Coughing and spluttering, he didn't look up until he'd calmed himself. Somewhat. Wariness had turned to outright fear when he looked back up at Tannusen. He'd hoped that the mention of Trahearne would just go away, he'd stop thinking about it and it'd no longer exist. He felt like an idiot now, though it wasn't a given he was talking about him.

"How, uh, how many sylvari are here? Do you know?" He coughed again, that burned something fierce.

[black_black_heart]

"Two, apparently," Tannusen leaned his hip against the bar, and raised an eyebrow when the stranger looked up. Fear, huh? Over... Trahearne?

That nerd?

Tannusen knew a little more about the guy than he usually let on to paying attention to; he knew there was more to the necromancer than polite awkwardness, books, and cats. But even knowing what he knew, the tiger just couldn't see Trahearne as scary.

"Relax, will you? I'm not hiding the other one behind the bar."

[telsen]

Telsen downed the rest of his drink instead of taking Tannusen's advice to relax. There was no relaxing here, he'd remain tense until it was physically impossible to do so. The look of fear on his face had only slightly eased when he set his glass down.

"Another of the same. Please." He didn't look at Tannusen's face when he spoke.

"How well- how well do you know the other one?"

[shy_mage]

Bracken was both excited and nervous to go to the bar and meet Trahearne's friend. He didn't understand why Trahearne was so nervous about it. It was a little strange. But a friend of a friend was a friend.

He paused briefly to take the place in before heading forward. He wasn't wearing anything special - just old tawny robes and a wooden staff, which didn't blend in with Genessia and didn't particularly look in place in such a fancy bar, but he was comfortable in it.

"H-Hello?" he called out hopefully, bouncing nervously on his feet.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen knew vaguely what to look for, at least, and he stepped out from behind the bar when the robed human walked in. He shot Trahearne a curious look as the sylvari lurked in the background, and then turned his attention back to the mage.

"You must be Bracken," Tannusen's voice held that ever-present purring quality to it, save for when he yelled or whispered -- neither of which was he doing now. "I'm Tannusen."

[shy_mage]

"H-Hi!"

He walked forward briskly to meet with him, but didn't seem to know what to do at that point. Shake hands? He stood a bit awkwardly in place, holding onto the staff tightly with both hands.

"I'I'm Bracken. T-Trahearne... Trahearne says you know magic." His eyes were practically glistening. He was excited to try and learn something new that he could use..

[black_black_heart]

"Here, please, let's sit down," Tannusen gestured at an empty table, and set his hand on the back of one of the chairs at it. He'd let Bracken pick a spot before he went to sit down, himself. "I do, yes; I'm a Faerie, so one could argue that I'm made of the stuff."

[shy_mage]

Sitting down. Good idea. He shuffled over quickly and took a seat, looking up at him.

"R-Really? I... I thought faeries were more like b-butterfly people." Tannu didn't look like that to him. Not that he thought the man was lying - he rarely ever thought someone was lying.

"C-Can you teach me how to heal people?" he at first asked and clearly meant to stop there, but realized after a second he needed to clarify something and quickly added, "W-With water magic!"

[black_black_heart]

Butterfly people.

Goddamned tinker bell pixies would be the death of him, he just knew it.

Tannusen sat down as well, and folded his gloved hands on the table in front of him. It wasn't Bracken's fault; just about everyone on this world seemed to think the same thing about his kind. That Halloween event he'd arrived just before hadn't done that impression any favors, either.

"...Water magic?" That was safer to address, to be sure. "I'm not an Inanimae."

[shy_mage]

"...An... 'inanimae'?" he repeated as best he could, furrowing his brows. He did look immediately letdown. Trahearne, of course, had told him Tannusen might know how to do healing things. Bracken had just sort of taken that as a confirmed positive - he would know how to do it.

He wasn't trying to be rude, he just didn't know how to hide these kind of things very well and didn't think them through. So the disappointment was apparent when he asked softly, "Y-You don't know how to use magic to... to heal?"

[black_black_heart]

"I know one healing spell, and it has nothing to do with water," Tannusen raised an eyebrow. Seriously, what did water have to do with healing? "I doubt I can teach you any of my cantrips, however. Humans produce glamour, but you don't manipulate it."

[brinewitch]

"Heya, Snowball!"

Where did Kani come from? Chances were the siren had slithered in silently from an adjacent room, probably sliding under the door before properly reforming. Nevertheless, here he was, beaming at Tannusen brightly.

"Y'got seltzer water, dontcha?"

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen sighed. "That is a disgusting nickname."

Seriously, ew.

[brinewitch]

The answer is a sharp, musical laugh, the siren unable to contain the absolute mirth caused by Tannusen's disgust.

"I could call ya Whiskers instead."

[black_black_heart]

"That would be a great deal less gross," Tannusen was into some pretty filthy shit, but snowballing was something he tried to avoid, thank you. Ughh. "The world would be infinitely neater and cleaner if everyone just swallowed properly."

Hey, he's an unapologetic ho, but he still has standards. Most of the time. Okay, some of the time.

[brinewitch]

And now the laughter has gotten worse because he gets the joke.

"Awwirte awwrite, I'll think of somethin' better fer ya." He won't use your name though. Not even once.

"You've been awful invisible fer a while aintcha?" He was already trying to snag the seltzer water from behind the counter.

"Everythin' alright witcha?"

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen just handed the bottle over, because that was easiest for literally everyone involved. Including the tiger.

"I drank some poisoned water, it split me into two people, and I beat myself to death with my bare hands," he summed the whole thing up with a smile. "I got better."

[brinewitch]

He accepted it and was quick to snag a cup too, pouring himself a tall glass before settling back to enjoy a drink properly.

"Ya mean that Nova crap goin' on?" Right, he'd heard about that.

"Ya look good all things considered. I mean like ya kinda look like ya punch like a freight train."

[black_black_heart]

"Well... thanks, I think," Tannusen snorted, because what a surreal conversation. At least he was used to those. "I don't know if the powers that be grew me a whole new body, or what. The old one was in pretty rough shape."