[ 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

[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?"

[black_black_heart]

"Well enough to know he's not that scary," Tannusen poured Telsen's refill. "Does your whole species act like this with him, or are you just special?"

Because if it was the former, that could explain some things.

[telsen]

"Mmph." No he'd have some of his drink before he replied again. Alcohol would make this whole night a lot easier.

"I have my reasons. He's- I don't know what you know, he's important." Telsen waved a hand vaguely, without knowing how much Tannusen did or didn't know, it wasn't easy to explain.

"And- uh, there's more to it," he finished, lamely. The guy was dead, very dead. Super dead. There was so much fucked up about this situation. Was he dead? Telsen frantically searched his memories for right before he must of blacked out. He was just in his shitty little apartment.

Oh no maybe he was dead. He stared into his glass, horrified.

[black_black_heart]

Oh good, it was clearly existential crisis o'clock. Tannusen sighed.

"What?"

Super smooth, Tannu. A real helpful guy, he was.

[telsen]

Telsen jerked his head up and blinked. Oh yeah, he was still talking to someone. He could worry about being dead later, he had everything else to worry about right now and he still felt pretty alive. Nightmare was still there so either he was definitely alive or the afterlife was deeply unfair.

"Wha-? Oh. What about what?" He still looked pretty afraid.

[black_black_heart]

"You were about to explain what's so terrifying about the biggest nerd I've ever met," Tannusen prompted, even though that totally hadn't been on the table. Shush. "And not to brag, but I've met some pre-tty big nerds in my time."

[telsen]

Telsen leaned back in his seat and glanced at the door. It'd only take him a second and he could be gone. Yet if he talked, maybe he'd get information as well. He really didn't want to leave yet.

"Ideological differences," he said flatly. That was technically the truth. A fraction of it. He still wasn't over the fact that Trahearne was dead.

"We wouldn't get along."

[black_black_heart]

"Really," Tannusen's eyebrow went back up again, "you hate cats, or something?"

Nope, he had no clue about the Dream versus Nightmare -- hilariously enough, considering what he was made of.

[telsen]

"Why do you want to know?" He wasn't hostile, not yet. Like a nervous dog, his ears were low and he watched Tannusen out of the side of his vision. It was surprisingly easy to tell this strange bartender things. Still, Telsen was wary.

[black_black_heart]

"Well, I live with the guy," Tannusen shrugged, "it would be nice to know if he has a reputation for skinning people alive, or something. But mostly, I'm just incredibly nosy."

And prone to lying, but details.

[telsen]

Telsen didn't trust a stranger not to lie, that would be foolish. He didn't think that Tannusen was lying right not, at least not about some things. It would be Telsen's luck to run into the guy that lives with the should-be-dead Firstborn. Of course.

He sipped at his drink. He wasn't even buzzed for this ordeal.

"No, no. That's not a concern. Just- He's very, uh, very good. I'm not. He could kill me." He started to pick at a fresh scab on the back of his hand, near one of the butterflies. "Don't, please, don't tell him you met me. Please."

[black_black_heart]

"Why would I tell him anything? We don't generally discuss my patrons," Tannusen watched the new guy carefully, including the picking. Hmm. Trahearne was very 'good', and this stranger was... 'not'.

So... he was Unseelie, then.

Tannusen would have laughed if he'd known how close he was.

"We don't tend to discuss morality, either. Probably because I'm an asshole who eats people," and with that, he flashed a pretty little smile.

What? He'd never tried to hide it. Which just made situations like that Barbara woman trying to blackmail him all the funnier.

[telsen]

Telsen stared at him, a mix of fear and skepticism in his eyes. Considering what he was, he shouldn't be quick to dismiss the idea that he was talking to a cannibal. It wasn't very common that they revealed what they were unless he was mired in a court. This was just a bar.

"...Right." He took a generous swallow of his drink to give himself more time to think. "If you're not going to tell him anything, that's all I care about."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen didn't particularly care who believed him and who thought it was another pooka lie; that was half the fun in being so open about what he was. No one was going to catch him in the act, so unless they went to Trahearne's apartment and started running tests on the paper-wrapped packs of meat with the tiger's name written on them... well, good luck.

"Of course," the tiger chuckled.

[telsen]

"You're the third person to mention him to me," Telsen grumbled down at his drink. Sylvari were pretty hard to miss. Telsen was relatively young but he remembered odd looks and all the questions when he was younger.

"Stupid," he said in an even lower voice. "Stupid, stupid. I hate this."

His head snapped back up, a guarded, almost haughty look trying to mask the fear still in his eyes. "What's with the name of this place?"

[black_black_heart]

"I assume you don't mean the bar," Tannusen leaned on his hands on the counter, "people seem to call the whole world Genessia. I don't know if that's it's proper name, or just the name of the central city."

[telsen]

"I, uh, meant the bar. It was suggested to me." And he'd pretty much come running as soon as he had the chance.

"The name of the place, I don't know, it seems awful close to 'genesis'. The bar is more interesting." There was alcohol here and the bartender was nice enough to look at. Even better if he could keep him off the topic of Trahearne.

[black_black_heart]

"Well, no one ever said our captors are creative," Tannusen chuckled. Not that he really minded being here, at present. If he could just get his bike back, things would be pretty swell, actually. "The bar is Velvet Lust. Most people notice that before they walk in."

[telsen]

"Mm, yeah. I was told that name and came here. Sounded like a good place. Why's it called that, s'what I meant." He waved a hand idly. What, did the owner just really like velvet? It was a pretty fancy place and very clean at that.

It was nothing to complain about but the name made him curious, still.

[black_black_heart]

"Well, the original back in Toronto was already named that before it fell into neglect and shut down. I kept the name when I bought the place and fixed it back up, and again when I recreated it here."

One velvet-loving owner, right here!

"I find it useful, it scares off most of the people I wouldn't want in my bar to begin with."

And plenty more besides, but that was the price to pay.