[ Action | Closed ] the less we know, the better we feel

[black_black_heart]

Who: Cassian Lynch and Tannusen
Where: Everglade - Cassian's Subarchway
What: Tannusen visits of his own accord, FOR ONCE.
When: Daytime, because Cass is a weirdo who sleeps at night.
Warnings: Nahh.

Tannusen shut Jethro down before heading into the subarchway and pushed the bike through beside him, rolling it on up to the familiar house. He hadn't been here since he'd been... split into two, and had murdered himself inside the building. So, for a moment, he just kind of... eyed the place dubiously.

He couldn't even be sure the priest was here. Didn't he have a shop he ran?

Ah well, no harm in knocking, then, was there? He dropped Jethro's kickstand on the first bit of ground that seemed likely to hold the seven hundred pound bike up, and went to knock on Cassian's door. Not very loudly, sure, but it was a knock!

Comments

[feckinboomstick]

Well at least people are still knocking. Yes, now he knows Tannusen could probably sneak in.

Maybe.

Maybe not anymore, he's found many open areas and patched those the hell up but whatever. What is important is that knocking is happening here, also yes he runs a shop but Cassian's shop is now officially inside this subarch.

He's brilliant.

"I'M COMIN', I'M COMIN'." He wasn't... expecting company, and honestly was caught unawares and surprised by it entirely. No he wasn't going to show up at the door in something relaxed and casual. Still totally the starched to hell black priest outfit and high collar.

But there is glimmers of stone dust on his hands, and he's still clinging to a chisel.

Enchanting work, apparently.

"... Tannusen? ... Ye didn't even call."

He's honestly not sure what he's more surprised about, Tannusen visiting him unannounced or Tannusen visiting at all without first being begged to come.

[black_black_heart]

"...Was... I supposed to?" Tannusen blinks, and glances at the stone dust and chisel. He doesn't ask what that's about, just yet. He's actually vaguely concerned, here.

[feckinboomstick]

"... No I just... didn't expect to see ye." Not like he's indecent.

A pause, and he tucks the chisel into a pocket.

"Come in, we'll let all the warm air out, quit standin' around like yer sellin' somethin'."

[black_black_heart]

"Actually, do you... want to meet Jethro?"

Ha, why was this awkward. The Fae stuck a thumb over his shoulder, back toward the parked bike.

Which had, of course, re-positioned itself to glitter magnificently in the sun.

[feckinboomstick]

"Jethro?" He doesn't see anyone else here, he sees a bike tho.

"... Ye named yer bike Jethro?"

A longer pause.

"That's a surefire way to another Christine movie, Tannusen."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen shifts into the way of seeing Jethro for a second, then shifts his weight back to where it belongs.

The bike's moved. Not much, just a little. Just enough to be weird.

"I mean, my sister named him originally, but that's beside the point. There's a little more to things than that."

[feckinboomstick]

... Yeah that shit just moved. Cassian is now trying to keep eyes on the bike at all times, pointedly looking past Tannusen with a glare.

Don't play this game, bike.

"... So what is it."

[black_black_heart]

"Aren't we letting all the warm air out?" Tannusen asks, some faint amusement finally chipping its way through the awkwardness of the situation. He steps out of the way and gestures over at Jethro. "A proper, nocker-forged chimera. Made by the same village that did my teeth, in fact. I'd have to Enchant you for you to see his actual form."

See, he's not doing that without permission. Not now that he knows it knocks Cassian on his ass, visually.

[feckinboomstick]

"Ye want me to look at yer feckin' bike or not?" At least he got a good look at it now. Cassian isn't much of a motor head, but he can appreciate a nice bike. It is a nice bike. Good job on the nice bike!

"Is it? ... Rather fancy, actually. Looks like a decent ride too." YEAH UH.

"Let me find somethin' to hold onto."

[black_black_heart]

"The scales and antler points came after the nocker operation, actually. Side effect of being the mortal form of such a strong chimera."

Tannusen waits until Cassian seems braced for the Enchantment, including closing his eyes like the last time the tiger infused him with Glamour. This time, though...

Well, okay, how's he supposed to resist in light of their last conversation? Tannusen leans down and brushes a chaste kiss across the human's lips. Just one, using that touch to Enchant him.

Is he gonna get punched? Let's find out!

[feckinboomstick]

"Scales and antler? Mate I see scales but I don't see antlers." And that is just because he can see, with his normal human eyeballs, that the paint looks like scales. So there.

All braced and ready to go, looking, as usual, a bit cranky about it. This seems like it's taking a while though, and he starts to ask-

"Ye done it or what? I don't feel any diff-" SMOOCH.

Look. Look! He does have color! RED. EVERYWHERE.

His eyes snap back open, and the stumble is a mixture of the world he sees, and the flurry of emotions that shoot through him for a moment.

"DAMNIT TANNUSEN, YE COULD HAVE JUST ASKED ME!"

[black_black_heart]

"I did say I'd surprise you," Tannusen chuckles, staying close enough that Cassian can't see most of the weird, Enchanted world in all its chaotic mess... just yet. Maybe if he adjusts in stages?

[feckinboomstick]

He does see a lot of stripes when he looks up at him, squinting and blinking blearily. And ANNOYED.

"YES WELL THIS WASN'T-" the surprise he intended to be surprised with, thus making it a surprise.

Yeah he just himself up with a grumble, before pushing on Tannusen.

"Lemme see the damn bike."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen just peers at Cassian, wondering how bad it is. He doesn't give ground immediately, though he will if the human keeps pushing. "There's no rush, Jethro will still be where I want him to be."

Because that's how forged chimera work. Generally. That's how his does, anyway. With no willpower of his own, Jethro relies on Tannusen for direction.

For now, the tiger's attention is on this strange problem that keeps cropping up.

"Your eyes look unfocused. Is it possible your glasses aren't working with the Enchantment? Or is this not at all what it's like without them?"

[feckinboomstick]

It could be worse! He doesn't look like he's about to be sick, and despite some drunken looking wavering he seems pretty solid. "I ain't a baby."

That's what this is about. MANHOOD.

"Not even close. I'm near sighted, this is double vision." He scrubs at his eyes again, mumbling.

"It ye the way I always see ye. Then atop it, it's ye the way I suppose ye should be. I see the trees, the ground, the stoop. And I see things laid atop it. Like overlays on a picture."

[black_black_heart]

"Of course you're not, I'm just..." highly concerned, "...curious. I've never seen a human react like this to the chimerical side of things." See, Cass? It's just SCIENCE. Don't you like SCIENCE?

"Even I don't see it quite like that. I just see the Fae side, always. If I really concentrate I can see brief flashes of what things are like for everyone else, but mostly that's gone."

[feckinboomstick]

HE DOES BUT HE'D LIKE SCIENCE MORE IF HIS HEAD DIDN'T HURT.

"I can't explain it, don't ask me!" He could offer up theories BUT REALLY-

"Let me see the damn feckin' bike and we can talk about it when I'm done!"

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen finally gets out of the way, if with a little hesitation. If he makes Cassian dizzy, what effect is Jethro going to have? It's a valid concern!

Because the difference between a long and low motorcycle and massive, mind-numbing kirin is a hell of a lot bigger.

Jethro's still where he was last, tall and shiny and ridiculous, ripped straight out of a legend and made solid. The asian unicorn -- a strange mix of dragon, horse, and stag... maybe some fish? -- is just silently watching the pair of them with his large, dark eyes. There's no clockwork, no chrome. Although... some of his scales are edged in it, and his antlers gleam like chrome.

But for all intents and purposes on the chimerical side of things, Jethro is a living, breathing creature.

[feckinboomstick]

It is again, an overlay. But a really obvious one. One that actually doesn't confuse his brain. Because dimly, he sees the bike. Just chilling there, and then idly standing on top of that image was clearly something wildly different. It took him a moment to really focus on the being, and for a moment it seemed the air had been sucked out of him.

Cassian had seen unicorns before, of course. Dragons too, though only a few times.

Never a kirin. A new sight was a new sight, and he spent a long time gazing at it, silent and... deeply appreciative.

It was beautiful.

"... He's lovely..."

[black_black_heart]

Jethro's ears perk up at the comment. Can he understand speech? Maaaaybe. The kirin steps close enough to lower his head and sniff at Cassian, openly curious. There's no bridle on that deer-dragon head, no reins. There's too much intelligence in those big black eyes for such a crude tool.

No stirrups, either. The saddle that sticks to his back is a four-horn style. Very intricate, and very old. It's a wonder Tannusen didn't have to sell his soul to have this chimera made.

Tannusen, for his part, just stays out of the way, his gloved hands stuffed in the pockets of a coat that's only there in one iteration. It wouldn't be an incorrect assumption to guess that he's holding his breath, just a little. It's very important to him, this meeting.

[feckinboomstick]

He wasn't surprised to see the lack of tools for steering here. It seemed that Jethro knew damn well how to do his job. Of course, Cassian isn't so dense as to just reach up and start rubbing his gross human hands all over the beast. But he does merely raise one a bit to offer it. A smell or something.

He recognized the saddle type. Honestly he hadn't seen anything like it in a very, very long time, and really hadn't expected to see it again. It was a familiar, almost welcome sight despite the men he remembered using it the most.

A pause, and then a short, breathless laugh.

"What's a handsome creature like this doin' carryin' an alley cat like you about?"

Cass.

[black_black_heart]

"You wound me," Tannusen teases, but he even sounds awfully pleased at how things are going. "His tack came from a commoner Duchess I helped with disposing of her homicidal predecessor... I've mentioned her -- the redcap. We were in the same Motley."

Jethro, while Tannu talks, investigates Cassian's hand for a moment and then shoves his nose into it. Apparently pets are allowed, at the moment!

"Jethro himself, well, the bike was originally my sister's. She gave it to me after she'd had it for a few years, to make the whole nomad bum on the run thing I was doing a bit easier. I had it for a few years as just a bike before I made a deal with that nocker village. By then, it was so stuffed full of glamour that using it for a chimera's mortal form wasn't too difficult for them. Nor was it too hard for me to drag it into the Dreaming for them to work on."

[feckinboomstick]

"As I recall."

He's not gonna be very talkative, sorry, Tannu. A bit busy petting a beautiful Asian unicorn here, he'll get back to you in a minute. Or never. You know. Whenever.

God but this thing is pretty.

"At least it didn't cost ye too much work then did it?" He can't help marvel at how the beast feels under his hand. He'd only seen pictures of kirin before, he'd never personally traveled east himself.

[black_black_heart]

Jethro feels like a living thing, too, warm under smooth scales. He lifts his head and whuffs Cassian's hair, just like a friendly horse might.

"A year and a day of personally guarding the whole village, including killing that manticore. Securing them a new steel supply, and coercing the local nobles into leaving the village alone as an independent territory. Also, every penny I could scrape up, a great deal of dross, and a minor Oath sworn to the Mayor. You don't see a chimera like Jethro very often, not even among the sidhe's high courts."

Neither the tiger nor the kirin seem to mind Cassian being so distracted. Tannusen, in fact, has quite the fond expression sneaking onto his face as time goes by. Two of his favorite people are getting along, why wouldn't he be happy about that?

"Jethro may very well be the only forged kirin in existence, though I'm sure there's some natural ones in the Dreaming. Do you have kirin on your world?"