genessia | Forward dated to After The Water Event because something something something

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Forward dated to After The Water Event because something something something

Who: Cassian (Now as one person) and Amberdrake
Where: Attleton, at Drake's office
Why: We've all learned an important life lesson about punching tigers.

So... returning to one body was actually a lot less painful than one would imagine. Rather it sort of happened while both halves were asleep.

The painful part, on top of clashing memories, was the insane amount of physical damage. All of it. Just all the physical damage ever. Is his jaw broken? Shit there's holes in him too holy fuck how did those get there- Oh his ribs were broken again.

... Welp.

There was always Drake, but as Cassian recalled... Drake didn't much care for Everglade. And he really didn't need this to be more trouble than it already was.

Which was why, a good... hour or more later, Amberdrake would get a visitor.

In Attleton.

In a very thick obscuring cloak, not that it'd matter due to the fact that one of them was an empath and the other one was walking around with like more than three broken bones at a time.

Not even a voiced answer to alert or greet him, just a text-

I've cocked some things up

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"I was just gonna bury a knife in his upper thigh but gettin' eaten sounds just as fine to me."

Fuck Bryant, no one likes that asshole.

He tilted his head a little into his hand as Tannusen reached to casually play with a lock of his hair. Thick, stiff and coarse indeed, just like grabbing the mane of a horse. He was just happy Tannusen enjoyed it rather than suggesting, like others had, that he just lop the whole mess off.

"Aye. Back then... and for a long time, soundin' Irish was a sure sign of bein' uneducated. Brits stamped out our language too, tis a dead one now, only spoken in song and in books than in actual real life conversations. Father taught me how to bury it so I wouldn't be harassed for it."

Tannusen wasn't human; he often enjoyed things that 'normal' people turned their noses up at. Pooka were all like that, more than any other kind of Fae. After all, they were different than even their own species, and snubbed for it accordingly. Why should Tannusen let the average dictate his tastes?

"Well, I like your long hair, and I like your accent. It was weird, seeing and hearing their absence suddenly like that," he kept playing with Cassian's hair, running his fingers through it and twining a lock around his knuckles. "Is that the language you curse in?"

It was just nice, that was all. Not having to deal with someone making yet another comment about his hair, of all things. Ted still needed a solid fist in the face for even calling it effeminate.

"Aye, Gaelic. I was raised speakin' it. English is actually me second language, Latin's me third, speak that fluently too, how's that for a dead language.

Twas still popular when I was twenty six after all."

"Yeah, but there's still little crumbs and scraps of Latin kicking around, depending on the company you keep," Tannusen showed no sign of growing bored of playing with Cassian's hair, effeminate or otherwise. His own wasn't nearly as thick!

"Isaac knew some Latin, but I'd never heard Gaelic before. I suppose you must miss being understood in it."

"Oh there's plenty that still speak it. Some angels what who haven't left heaven in a time still default to Latin when they speak." Look, Tannusen, he knows your hair is in better condition than his. He'd be surprised to learn you're so interested in his hair.

"It was nice, to be able to speak in it. Things turned rather nasty if ye were caught chattin' in it in public though."

Tannusen spent a good thirty seconds or so trying to imagine Takeda speaking in Latin...

And he failed. Really badly. It just didn't line up!

"Well, if you're ever feeling masochistic enough to want to teach Gaelic, I'm sure there's people on this world who would be interested," the tiger finally replied, once he got that weird mental image out of his head. "Trahearne, for one. He's a huge nerd."

"I can barely tolerate teachin' these idjits how to not kill themselves when this place does somethin' stupid. Ain't none of them going to be interested in learnin' a language no one really speaks anymore. Especially not from me.

I'll teach the tree and that's it."

Tannusen laughed at that, but didn't argue with any of it. Instead, he lifted a lock of Cassian's hair to his lips, and gave it a kiss.

He was very fond of this cranky old man of a human!

"So... you got along with your parents?" A weird topic, but he couldn't help it. Cassian had mentioned both of his parents during this chat, and Tannusen could barely wrap his brain around it whenever someone actually had a relationship with a parent. One that wasn't toxic fucking waste, anyway.

The fact that Tannusen can't get enough of his coarse ragged mane will never cease to amaze Cassian, let him just say that. He just shook his head as Tannusen gave one of those rough locks a kiss.

Ted would shit himself.

"Aye, from what I can remember of me mother. She passed when I was seven or so and father took me to the monastery. Had to pretend I wasn't related to him, monks aren't really supposed to go about impregnatin' young witches."

Ted would shit himself over a lot more of this situation than Tannusen putting lips to hair. Just as well neither of them were on speaking terms with the guy...

"I imagine not," Tannusen sighed, well aware that priests probably weren't supposed to make out with anyone, either, especially another man in a gay bar. "Did you get along with him, though?" Or had the guy totally avoided his son out of paranoia?

"I did. He'd come to my room in the morning to greet me, and when I was a child would help me get to sleep at night. Taught me how to read and write, taught me English and Latin. I owe a lot to me father."

There was a long, long pause.

"... Ain't a day goes by I don't miss 'em. Both of 'em. Thought maybe I'd be back with them long before now."

That was so weird... and also... so incredibly sad. Two thousand years of missing anyone was a very, very long time.

Tannusen twisted the hand Cassian still had hold of, so that he could gently squeeze his hand back.

It meant something, to him. That Tannusen would squeeze his hand back. No one would have done the same, from what he's learned of people.

Tannusen was under no obligation to give him any sympathy in the matter.

"I've always hoped maybe, selfishly perhaps, that I'd find one of 'em still wanderin'. That I'd get to ask 'em questions... tell 'em I'm sorry for the times I was difficult when I was a child. Tell 'em both I miss 'em.

... Tell 'em I'm sorry I've cocked everythin' up.

That I won't see 'em when this whole sham is over."

Edited 2017-01-25 07:14 (UTC)

The tiger wasn't as good at comforting people as other pooka naturally were; it just wasn't wired the same way for him. But he still had the urge to try, especially for someone he cared about, even if the results were never... ideal.

So Tannusen shifted his positioning so that he could curl his free arm around Cassian's waist, offering what little he could. "...I'm sorry."

".... Ain't any reason in obsessin' about what I can't fix though." He fell silent after that, resting against Tannusen and staring at the opposing wall.

"... It means... a lot to me, that ye'd hold me hand back."

"Of course I would, I'm just awkward, and dumb," Tannusen muttered, "it's not supposed to be a slight against you."

He actually dared to give the human's waist a squeeze, too. A hug; those were even rarer from the tiger than holding hands. "And everyone obsesses over things they can't fix, it's normal. I'll... I'll be sad if you manage to break that curse and die. But I'll understand. For what that's worth."

"Great deal less awkward man than I, at least." Hey, at least Tannusen could pretend to be charming, right? Cassian couldn't even manage that.

He'd understand the importance of the hug as well, closing his eyes gently. "Chances are I'll outlive ye long before that even happens. You'll move on to another body. Maybe we'll find each other again after that, aye?"

"I suppose waiting for me to hit chrysalis again isn't very long for you," Tannusen mused, "so sure, maybe."

Slim goddamned chance, but maybe. "I'm flattered, my presence being welcome usually has a very short shelf life."

No, really. He had no doubt that Isaac would have fucked off by now, too, if he hadn't gotten killed.

"Honestly, you're far more tolerable than most people I know. Take a look around us in the city, not really brimmin' with intelligence and eternal wit now are they?"

He'd rather be with Tannusen, at least the fairy was smart. To an extent, he did try to get his ass kicked on the regular after all.

There was being smart, and there was being a madman. Tannusen just happened to be both of those things, although most people only noticed the latter.

"Such high praise," he teased gently, and dared to try to sneak a kiss onto his cheek. He was trying to comfort Cassian, after all, not just banter for the sake of it. "I've no objection to keeping you company for as many lifetimes as you can stand me."

Or until bengal tigers went extinct. Whichever came first.

"So you really believe in the whole afterlife thing, huh? I'm not trying to be an ass, I'm just... curious."

The fact that he was even trying was enough for Cassian, who dared to give a small ghost of a smile at the kiss. It wasn't a false one either.

Just a hard expression for him to pull off.

"Here it may as well be. I'll have to hunt ye down each time ye move. If ye don't remember me the first time, maybe ye will on the thirty first."

He had, after all, all the time in the world.

"I've the ability to speak with the dead shortly after they've passed, if not many years after the fact, if they're still hauntin' the area. I've met angels and demons alike, I know there's a life after this one, it may as well be empirical fact."

"Velvet Lust used to be a hot-spot for Toronto's ghosts," Tannusen set his jaw on Cassian's shoulder, pleased at that little smile, however brief. "Isaac -- sluagh in general -- could see and talk to them. And we had a fallen angel stay at the house once when Karma's old Duke was after her and everyone she knew. He slept on the floor, though. Loser."

Not that Tannusen hadn't offered to share his bed, but only because he knew the angel-possessed Yakuza boss would rather bite out his own tongue, first.

Which was just as well. It'd been a big bed, but still.

"I've never took any of that to mean there's an afterlife, though. No one knew where ghosts went when they stopped existing, just like no one knows where my kind go when we stop reincarnating. I've always figured the answer is 'nowhere', in the latter case. Especially since it's just pooka who even have that problem."

"Aye then? Strange, perhaps it's just due to the paranormal energy attached to the place. The club is rather full to the gills with it, after all." Hard for him to miss it. But he hadn't run into any ghosts yet. Maybe there were just no ghosts in Genessia city. He sure as hell knew they were in Everglade though.

Hell, maybe that's just where they all went.

"Fallen angels are a strange sort. Dependin' on where they've landed and how great the corruption is, ye could get a nervous, snippy terrestrial phobic prat or a self centered egotist that will ride anythin' at least once. Ain't never met much of the first though."

BUT STILL, TANNUSEN.

"Accordin' to angels it's either heaven or hell unless somethin' else snatches up the soul between those two points. Gotta move fast to outdo Azrael though, he's got eyes and arms everywhere."

"I meant the original," Tannusen gestured around at the bar in general with their linked hands. "Back on Earth. This is just a... replica. I think they liked the place because one of the owners could actually talk to them, although Isaac spoke only in quotes for most of his life. At least they didn't give him crap for it like most people did."

He let their hands drop back wherever, though he still didn't try to free his. Nor did he try to let go of Cassian's, for that matter, though it went against every learned instinct he had to hold on in return.

"Takeda was definitely in the first category, which meant I never stopped harassing him, of course."

Because of course.

He wasn't sure what to say about heaven or hell. If that was true, then he knew where he was going once people wiped out the last bengal tiger. Fun. Not something he could really argue with, though.

"Aye, but it's charged nevertheless." Glamour city! Not that Cassian could see it but feeling it was something else. A constant little buzz in the air. "Sounds like an interestin' fellow, only speakin' in quotes. Where'd he learn the quotes from?"

Nope, still not letting go. Not even gripping that tightly, loose and comfortable, so that Tannusen, if he wanted, could tug away at any point.

"Never thought I'd feel sorry for a fallen angel."

You're a dick, Tannusen. He's smiling because it's hilarious but you're still a dick.

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