[ action | closed ] too many war wounds and not enough wars

[black_black_heart]

xxxxxtoo few rounds in the ring and not enough settled scores
xxxxxtoo many sharks, not enough blood in the waves
xxxxxyou know I give my love a f-f-four letter na-na-name

Who: Trahearne and Tannusen
Where: Genessia City - Velvet Lust
When: Daytime, ie while VL is closed to the public.
What: Tannusen is "displeased with shit", Trahearne is suddenly missing a couch-surfer. He goes looking.
Warnings: Will update if/as needed... and it will probably be needed.

Tannusen had been slowly sinking over the last few weeks, dropping further and further into a mood. Finally, one day, he just didn't show back up at Trahearne's apartment. He didn't the next day, either, or the day after that, and even the packs of paper-wrapped meat with his name on them had vanished from the Sylvari's freezer. His one mark on the place besides a lot more cat hair than Trahearne's two housecats could produce... and a couch that had long since given up on standing on its legs.

No, instead he was at his bar and club, the packs of meat with his name on them in the kitchen fridge. Since he was pulling duty as the cook for the place at night, there was no real worry that it would be accidentally served to the patrons. None who had applied for the cook position thus far had met his standards for a good, rare steak.

When you want the job done right, do it yourself.

But it was day, now, and thus no patrons were allowed inside. It was a policy held over from the original Velvet Lust back on his world; he'd catered to an active vampire population in Toronto, Canada. Some rules just weren't worth changing. It was basically a tradition, now. When the sun went down, Velvet Lust opened for business. At the first hint of pre-dawn, the last call went out.

Presently, it was day. All the chairs were upside-down on the tables, the dark wooden floor, and furniture, and the bar all gleamed in the dim lighting. Whatever anyone assumed from the seedy name, the place had a lot of care put into it. Even in such a short time, Tannusen had poured resources both mundane and magical into the place, and no small amount of extra labor every morning to keep it spotless and respectable.

At least, down stairs. Upstairs was clean, too, but respectable was another matter entirely. All the better for producing Glamour in even such a boring place.

He'd been tempted to claw the place up when he'd "moved in" a few days ago. Pure, territorial instinct... and one he tamped down on, hard. There were a few claw marks here and there, of course, but in subtle places; not all over the damn place ruining all his shit. Some of his regulars had even made a game of trying to find them all, not fully understanding that they were territory markers from a genuine monstrosity of a tiger.

Tannusen observed and contemplated all of this from the floor. He was laying on his side in his natural form, his thick tail occasionally thrashing a staccato beat against the smooth boards. A mood, indeed. For the first time since his arrival, he found himself missing Toronto. Yes, every Fae from his Earth assumed that all pooka were stupid, silly creatures like that goddamned squirrel he'd briefly tried to mentor. But... most of them learned better when faced with one of the rare predators like Tannusen. "Exotic" pooka, they were considered. Rare, unpredictable, dangerous. All the silly little prey pooka had come back to Earth before the predators because they'd eaten them.

He'd made the Duchess very... nervous. And so everyone should be.

Oh yes, he was in a mood.

Comments

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen, in a mood, was being a whiny brat and he knew it. He didn't enjoy it. No one knew him because he refused to be known. Nothing new there, so why be put out about it?

He tapped his fingers on the bar again in agitation. Tha-thump-thump-thump.

"Why do you want me around?" There, maybe that would be an easier approach.

[treesus]

"You've been kind, in your way." Some of the exasperation that the alcohol and situation had brought out in Trahearne was fading with the change in conversation. "I enjoy having the company, it's easy to grow lonely and reclusive without the presence of another. I've grown fond of your company in particular. I'm also concerned."

[black_black_heart]

Time for another quote. "People think being alone makes you lonely, but I don't think that's true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world."

Tannusen poured another shot into one of the glasses, but then lifted it himself and downed it.

"Come upstairs," he grabbed a bottle just to have something to toy with, and headed for the stairs up to the Club itself. Deserted, of course, because it was daytime. There were no windows up here, curtained or otherwise, but he flicked the usual lights on so it wouldn't be pitch black, and went to sprawl on his back in the middle of the meticulously-cleaned dance floor. And... yep, there was a disco ball up there.

[treesus]

"I'm familiar with that quote, it doesn't change my opinion." Now wasn't the time for a story about just how familiar Trahearne was with loneliness. He was a reclusive sort, normally. Had he been on Tyria, war over, no more impossible tasks before him, he would prefer to live alone. Here, with so much on his mind, being alone gave him too much time to think.

Maybe lonely wasn't the word for that problem, it was close enough.

He followed Tannusen up the stairs, hesitating only once. He knew enough about the place to know upstairs was not the place he'd want to venture, at least when the club was open. The lack of windows was telling.

He stepped onto the edge of the dance floor and looked over at Tannusen.

"Why up here?"

[black_black_heart]

"Why not?" Tannusen countered, staring up at the shiny ball on the ceiling. "Surely you're not afraid for your virtue, after sleeping soundly with me in the next room for so long."

[treesus]

"I wasn't aware that you sleeping on my couch was the same as having you in my bed." Trahearne looked up at the ball as well. It's funny what things carried over between worlds.

"I just ask to be kept informed, Tannusen. Anyone can vanish from this world at any time, it's an unsettling thought."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen laughed at that, and sat up long enough to take a swig from the bottle. It was absolute agonizing fire, like swallowing razor blades. Whatever though, right?

He settled back down and huffed out a sigh, closing his eyes. The tiger was an absolute lightweight when it came to alcohol. "I'll come back, then, if that's what you want."

It didn't address any of what was going on, but who was counting anyway?

[treesus]

"Just for my sake?" Maybe one day Trahearne would be able to read what Tannusen really meant when he spoke or when he was speaking honestly at all. Even past the compulsion to lie, there were things Tannusen wouldn't admit. Trahearne wasn't in the place to push much on that, nor was he that interested in knowing, if the tiger didn't want him to know.

"As long as it's not imposing on you too greatly, I'd appreciate it."

[black_black_heart]

"Would it disappoint you if I said yes?" Asked the compulsive liar. It wasn't like Trahearne would know the truth even if he spoke it.

[treesus]

"Somewhat, if I thought you were truthful." And he could really never know. All he wanted out of this was to know if Tannusen was okay and where they stood. That would be difficult to ever find out.

He wasn't going to try either, not while his thinking wasn't quite as clear as it had been when he walked in.

[black_black_heart]

"Being a pooka is so fun," Tannusen remarked dryly, and shut his eyes.

[treesus]

Trahearne drew closer finally, the dance floor cool and smooth under his bare feet. Again, he kept as respectful distance. Not out of wariness now, it was just polite, maybe.

"There are challenges for what we are, all of us." So much Trahearne did not want to think about, nor share on this world. "I thought you did have fun, being what you are. Most of the time."

[black_black_heart]

"Only sometimes," Tannusen rolled onto his side, facing toward Trahearne, though he kept his eyes shut for now. "You know, back on Earth, when people thought I was a clown... it was brief. Most of them learned better. I don't think anyone here learns anything. They're all squirrels."

[treesus]

Trahearne folded his arms behind his back, looking down at Tannusen with those bright, almost cat-like eyes. It was funny to him that Tannu was the one to look "normal", human, if he hadn't enchanted someone, while Trahearne stuck out like a sore thumb. He wondered how many suspected how much more there was to the fae at a glance.

"If you mean the native residents of this world, I'm not sure if they can learn much for long." He still hadn't managed to wrap his mind around the fake people thing. "If you mean the others... I'm not sure. I take it 'squirrel' is quite the insult."

[black_black_heart]

"I was asked by the local Duchess once to mentor a runaway kid, a squirrel pooka," Tannusen frowned at the memory. "Her name was... Katie? I think. Took her into my house, tried to teach her... she scampered off before I could tell her much, but she flew in the face of what little I had gotten to tell her. Ran off and outed herself to some very dangerous people. Led them right back to my doorstep. She was everything everyone assumes among the Fae about pooka; undignified, idiotic, clownish. I've not been a fan of squirrels since."

He slit his eyes open.

"I do mean the others, yes. I don't care what the 'fake' ones say or do or think -- if they even do think. Starting to think the 'real' ones are just as bad, though." Which was pretty bad when he already didn't think of most of them as people.

[treesus]

Trahearne tilted his head as he listened, Tannusen's words processed slower than usual. To think he should've eaten before coming to see if the tiger was alright... He added that to his mental checklist of how-to-deal-with-Tannusen.

"In my experience, it takes most a while to adjust to something they're so unfamiliar with." He could see why Tannusen was less than happy with squirrels after that experience, still. What the secondborn had to endure for the curiosity of a few...

"I'm not sure how any got the impression that you are a 'clown', however. A trickster, maybe."

[black_black_heart]

"Well thanks to her I almost had to leave my house behind and go into hiding," the whole thing left a sour taste in his mouth. He'd been so mad he hadn't even been able to see straight enough to hit the little fool. Though he'd tried, oh yes. And she'd had no clue what a hit from him could mean when he meant it. Even in human form, he could have knocked her stupid head off.

[treesus]

Trahearne lowered himself to sit on the dancefloor, skirt of leaves splayed around around him in a jagged circle. He tucked his feet under himself, hands on his knees. This was the closest he got to see Tannusen reveal much of anything about himself... and it was about a squirrel. Trahearne would have to take what he could get. He couldn't fault the tiger for keeping things hidden, Trahearne kept a lot to himself as well.

"Mmm... An unfortunate situation." Their conversation had already veered off course, he wasn't sure if it was worth trying to steer it back.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen sighed. "You're very polite, but I know it doesn't seem that big a deal from the outside. But that house was my territory. I went out of my way for years to never claim territory, and then when I did, that happened."

[treesus]

"I understand it was deeply important to you, I'm just not familiar with the situation, and, thus, am unsure what to say. I had no intentions of appearing dismissive." Trahearne cared! He really did. He was just more used to solving problems than listening like a friend.

"Unfortunately there is great risk with any attachments. By the sound of it, it turned out well enough, or, at least, not as bad as it could have been."

[black_black_heart]

"Oh no, we eventually had to torch the place and escape town, but that was more because of the other Fae there than anything else," Tannusen grumbled, "I liked that house. I was homeless for so long before that, and I suppose I have been since."

Living on someone's couch doesn't count.

"I don't even have Jethro here. And Isaac..." he trailed off, and it wouldn't take an Empathic connection to pick up that huge vein of sadness he'd just brushed himself against.

[treesus]

Trahearne paused, not sure how to reply to that. He often felt lost here, and sometimes lonely, but for very different reasons. He rubbed his thumbs over the smooth bark of his leggings, thinking.

"Is there a way I can help?" he asked, voice softer now.

[black_black_heart]

"I don't know," Tannusen let out a huge sigh, like he was still in his other form instead of that of a pointy-eared human. "This place was structurally similar enough to Velvet Lust that I just... recreated it. Can't do that with people; doubt it can even be done with the Odd Little Victorian."

[treesus]

"I- don't know. Structures appear and change at a whim here, without regard for reality." This coming from a Tyrian. Magic was the only thing that allowed sylvari to function at all.

"There is no recreating a person, no. Not unless what powers rule this world wish to bring that person here. And just as easily can take them away. This is a peaceful place, yet frightening in its aimless power." He shook his head. "All we can do is to keep living the best we can."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen grumbled at that and rolled over onto his stomach dramatically.

"This is stupid," he said into the floor. "I'm already older than most Fae last for. Now I get to waste away the last little bit in purgatory."

[treesus]

Trahearne fought back a smile, at least Tannusen still had the energy to be so dramatic. Maybe he was helping, maybe he wasn't. He hoped he was.

"It is unpleasant, I'm sorry. This is not the worst place to be stuck." Though maybe it was, for a fae. Very little really happened here.

[black_black_heart]

"Mmf, I'm just being a self-pitying asshole at this point," Tannusen grumbled, still down into the floor.

[treesus]

"There's plenty of value in talking about what upsets you, especially in circumstances such as these. It's a difficult adjust for many, most, I'd risk saying." Trahearne was busy trying not to feel anything negative if he could help it and totally wasn't a hypocrite.