[ 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]

As a white tiger, Tannusen was pretty unremarkable in the color department, save for those eyes. The color of his irises hadn't changed, but being surrounded by black sclera instead of white always seemed to draw more attention to them.

"Who's Katze?" It was a natural enough question, and Tannusen wasn't in a hurry for that demonstration. Let the poor guy adjust, first.

No one around them seemed to notice how strange and colorful everything had gotten; in fact, none of them could see it. Even Trahearne lurking in the background -- everything would look normal, to him.

It was so strange, being the only Fae from his world here, being the only one who saw everything like this at all times.

[shy_mage]

When Tannusen spoke it seemed to draw him out of his almost trance-like state a bit. He smiled softly, relaxing a little bit. Tannusen might not have been human, but he came from a world with plenty of other species. No need to be alarmed by that.

"H-He's my boyfriend." A pause. He glanced up a bit in thought. "O-Or maybe my girlfriend.

He tilted his head a bit. "I-I guess... he's a bit of both."

That worked. He didn't seem to care one way or the other either way.

"H-He's really pretty. You... You would like him."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen took that completely in stride. He was a Fae, they really didn't care much about the supposed gender binary that so many humans were obsessed with.

On top of that, he was a pooka, so he extra didn't care.

"Is that so? Well, maybe I'll meet him someday." Hey, it was a smaller world than most! "Red eyes, you said? Sounds neat."

[shy_mage]

He nodded. "W-With black diamonds in them. B-But... He hides them behind his hair." His smile faded a bit and his toned softened a bit seriously. "H-He... He doesn't think they're pretty."

His eyes focused back on Tannusen. "I told him that, that they are. H-He let's me see them sometimes, but he m-might not let you see them."

[black_black_heart]

"That's fine," the tiger smiled, "it's nice when people have things they only share with those they care about, don't you think? It's like... a secret."

See? He got it. Tannusen didn't understand everything when it came to human and human-style emotions, but boundaries were a specialty of his.

[shy_mage]

He never really thought of it that way. As far as he knew, only he got to see Katze's eyes. Did that make him special?

He pondered over it for a moment before moving on, leaning forward in the chair slightly to get closer to him. Though he spoke plenty loud enough for Tannusen to hear, it was as if he was trying to keep the conversation between them only. "D-Does being enchanted m-mean you see more colors?"

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen considered the question, and nodded. "It certainly can, do you think you are?"

After all, it followed the rules of dreams and nightmares, hopes and creativity itself. How many Fae through history had played at being a muse for a human artist by simply Enchanting them? Too many to count, undoubtedly.

[shy_mage]

This was going to be very distracting. He nodded quietly, before pointing at something that was clearly different from how he saw it before, "D-Do you see that?"

He didn't even consider what Tannusen was or wasn't seeing, assuming he saw the change just like he did. It was fascinating. He could probably spend hours just checking it out. He'd definitely have to come back to see the bar again. For investigation purposes. He was so close to getting out of the chair and just wandering around, completely forgetting the reason he even went there.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen obligingly glanced in the direction Bracken pointed, and then laughed, "Yes. This is how I always see... everything. It should last several hours for you, wherever you go."

The Faerie didn't mind that Bracken was distracted; the demonstration wasn't likely to be helpful, anyway. Meanwhile, he'd yet to encounter anyone on this world who reacted to the chimerical world with such enthusiasm! This was more like what he was used to, when he Enchanted a mortal.

[shy_mage]

Perhaps Tannusen had unintentionally become this mage's muse.

"R-Really? All the time?" It was a little hard to put himself in Tannusen's shoes, but if he saw it all the time then he could at least answer questions. "Wh-What are those? A-Are they people?"

He pointed towards the small creatures.

[black_black_heart]

It wasn't like the tiger would have a problem with that. More glamour was always welcome! He kinda needed it to keep functioning, thus the bar and its racy upstairs club.

"All the time," he confirmed, and followed Bracken's pointing hand again. Tannusen smiled, "Ah, those are chimera. No one who isn't Enchanted, or Fae like me, can see them. They're made of dreams and wishes and things like that, not unlike myself, but they're far more... fragile than I am."

The more he spoke, the more obvious it was that his upper and lower canine teeth were... longer than they ought to be. And they were so unnaturally sharp it hurt to look at them.

[shy_mage]

He watched them for a moment, before slowly getting up from the chair and going in for a closer look, not really considering how anyone might be looking at him. He didn't bother anyone, just quietly moving around and scrutinizing everything he saw. His movements were slow, his gaze occasionally shifting from one object to another, and soon enough his body would follow.

Besides Tannusen's eyes, his appearance didn't really seem to bother Bracken. He wasn't the first fantasy creature he'd seen, so being different wasn't so unusual for him. Capes could easily be seen as more normal than a suit to him. But as he circled around he did come back to look at him again. More, look at his eyes. Normally he wouldn't be so rude, but vibrant colors got him.

"Y-You're eyes are pretty," he murmured, taking another moment before pulling his gaze away and looking towards the stairs. "Wh-What's up there?"

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen spent that time rolling his shirt sleeve back down and doing the buttons back up. His gloved hands were folded together on the table when Bracken made his way back around to him. "Well, thank you," the tiger smiled again, and glanced up at the ceiling. "Ah-- that's the dance club part of Velvet Lust. Loud music, flashing lights, perverts in every direction..." So basically, Tannusen's people.

[shy_mage]

His gaze fixed on the stairs. He wasn't really a loud music and dancing kind of guy, but... The pervert part, that was fairly normal, wasn't it?

"I-Is it okay if I see it? I... I can't dance," he asked. Maybe he didn't care for that sort of party scene so much - at least not with people he didn't know - but he did want to see more colors and pretty things.

Heck, even pretty people. He loved pretty people.

[black_black_heart]

"Of course," Tannusen gestured vaguely at the stairs, "you're a grown man, go where you like. And I rarely dance up there myself, I mostly just watch. Watching's fine."

Quite a few of the regulars liked having an audience, even!

[shy_mage]

As long as he was allowed! With a small smile, he trotted up the stairs eagerly to see what awaited him. Perversions would hardly put him off - he's seen lots of that in his time. Quite frankly, in this case, he'd mostly be ignoring it to look at the other, shiny stuff.

Thus he ended up exploring the bar pretty thoroughly, walking right up to things to scrutinize them. He didn't keep track of time, and would easily let quite a bit pass before checking in with Tannusen again. There was just so much to look at and he needed to see it all.

[black_black_heart]

It wasn't, despite what everyone seemed to assume, a sex club. No orgies on the dance floor, although plenty of people wore leather and vinyl and lace up there -- sometimes all at the same time. And glo-sticks. Who knew glo-sticks could be clothing? Great shit, wasn't it?

Tannusen didn't have a problem with those other settings, having worked in a few himself, but they were such a pain to run. It was far easier to just let people have a good time with their clothes on, and rake in the Glamour without having to babysit. Because if Velvet Lust was half as seedy as everyone's expectations, he would be babysitting.

He was a responsible pervert, thank you. One of the few categories where he had a firm ethical code that he stuck to religiously.

By the time Bracken had seen all there was to see up there -- and there was a lot! -- Tannusen had long since stepped back around behind the bar to help Bob with a rush of people coming from another place on a crawl. Some of them were pretty obnoxious, obviously the gay bar had gone on their tour list out of sheer novelty -- like a roadside attraction. But as long as they didn't talk shit about the nature of the establishment and its patrons, Tannusen wouldn't start throwing people out onto the street.

Probably.

If he handed one man his drink with his milky-white claws sticking out of the tips of his dark gloves, well, the guy was none the wiser. Bracken was the only Enchanted person in the building, after all.

"Ah," Tannusen greeted Bracken when the guy eventually resurfaced downstairs. "Did you like it up there? I'm told one can taste the colors."

A smug look from one of the new patrons earned an unimpressed glance from Tannusen. He meant it literally, you douche-bag. Green and pink and purple all left different sensations behind, when one was Enchanted.

[shy_mage]

He came back with a broad smile on his face, practically bouncing on his feet. Sure, maybe some of those types of people had asked him some questions while he was milling around, but he didn't realize they were trying to get at anything beyond innocent questions and gave up after a bit.

Thoughts of spells had been completely forgotten by this time. He glanced around since Tannusen wasn't where he left him - there was no reason for him to be considering the amount of time, but he was still a bit surprised. But once he spotted him behind the bar his trotted over with a little extra spunk.

Nodding enthusiastically, he answered, "I-It's really pretty. I think... I think I'm going to try and d-draw a picture of it." He really couldn't wait to get home and get his hands on some pencils. "Do... Do you want a picture?"

[black_black_heart]

"Of course," Tannusen's eyebrows went up at the suggestion. He'd never thought someone would do... art of the place. He really had accidentally mused the human, hadn't he?

Well, no harm in that.

"That sounds delightful, I'd love one."

[shy_mage]

He was beaming. He hadn't done too much artwork - besides pics of Katze. It was nice to have something new to draw, and someone to want a picture.

He'd likely end up with more than one pic.

"I-I'll do my best!" He was absolutely thrilled. "Th-Thanks for showing me the place."

And, he'd completely forgotten why he was there.

[black_black_heart]

"You should go see more things before that wears off in a few hours," Tannusen suggested, with a smile.

Though nothing was likely to be as... lively on the chimerical side of things as Velvet Lust was.

[shy_mage]

"Ou-Outside is shiny, too?" He gave Tannusen an incredulous look.

It was going to be strange looking at things he was familiar with and them not looking right.

"I=I'm going to go outside with T-Trahearne and see." His smile gradually returned before he set off towards the entrance to head home.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen had Enchanted Bracken to see the world as he did for a few hours. Everywhere he went would be different than before, influenced by the dreams and nightmares of the population. Including animals, and spirits, and everything else! The people would pretty much look the same... although some had interesting additions to them on the chimerical side.

"Have fun!" he called after Bracken, genuinely pleased at how this meeting had gone. He hadn't mused a human in a long time, how weird was that? Everyone else here reacted so blasé by comparison! What a treat.