GoldenCat/TheHeavenlyHouseMadam
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The Madam
Seventh Moon: Quietly, the bedroom door swung open and a tall framed shadow slipped out into the cold glow of the common room. Warm; his skin was still flushed from love-making, Seventh Moon turned back and stared into the darkened room. Within, the sound of Selina's calm, measured breath sounded like a torrent of air in the stillness. He paused and cast a worried frown into the room. He felt a little bad about leaving. It had been good. It had been very good. Which was why he was so perturbed now. He should have been laying in bed with her, wrapped up together bellow the sheets, touching and nuzzling in the warmth of the afterglow.
But something in that room was disquieting. Maybe it was just their conversation earlier, still playing through his mind, or the certainty now of what she was. Either way, the darkness felt oppressive and hostile in a way it usually didn't. He needed some light. He needed company that was more alive.
Closing the bedroom door quietly, Seventh Moon made his way upstairs to the Heaven House and did his best to slip through the busy room unnoticed. Sparrow noticed him skulking like a wall-flower and gave him a saucy grin, but didn't sound the alarm, only winked and returned her attention to the red-faced young man in her lap. Moon was grateful for that. He loved the girls here like family, but he needed to speak to someone a little less familiar right now.
Heading up the stairs to the second floor, he passed the closed doors where laughter and the sounds of love-making filtered through the halls and stopped in front of the door to the room they had left earlier that evening; where their 'prisoners' were staying, and rapped a fist against the door.
Kanti: Kanti is lying in the light of her own anima, pressed up to the sleeping Fiona, arms wrapped around her protectively, Fiona's arms around her in the same way.
She looks up at the knock, body tensing.
"Hello?" she calls out softly in ice tongue, trying not to wake the girl next to her, wondering who is could be.
They said that no-one would bother us...
Perhaps they..No, they said they wouldn't..
"Who is it?"
Seventh Moon: "S'me," he answers loudly through the door, then after a moment to realize they might not know who 'me' was. "Ah, Seventh Moon. Ya good ta come out a second?"
Kanti: ..Come out a second?
She promised Fiona she wouldn't leave her ...
But ... disobeying Moon would be disobeying the Dark Ange-
"Of course, my lord." her voice a little louder.
I'm sorry Fiona. I'll be back as soon as I can.
Kanti extracts herself quietly from Fiona's arms, kissing her forehead then pulls on her robes, before banking her anima flames and walking to the door, opening it.
Seventh Moon: The Lunar blinks a moment as the door swings open, his eyes sketching over her reflexively. She looked as warm as he did and was scarcely more dressed. What exactly was going on in there... ?
His thoughts grew wings and scattered in all directions for a moment before he hunted them down and dragged them back into place. Giving the girl an uncertain smile, he took a step back from the door and thrust his hands into his pants pockets.
"Hey... uh, hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Kanti: Kanti unconciously shifts to present her body better as the lunar's eyes sketch over her, everything positioned just so.
Her thoughts are confused too, wondering what he wants, what he sees, why he is so uncertain...
"No, of course not. What can I do for you, my lord?"
Seventh Moon: She actually moves so he can get a better look at her; displaying her body like a prize, making him feel like he was sizing up something to buy. Sheeyit, one night in the Heaven House and the girl was already a pro. It took Sarah a couple years before she learned that trick.
Moon doesn't leer, but he doesn't look away either. "Was gonna see if you were up and felt like wandering the district a bit," he shrugs slightly, tipping his head to the stairway. "Y'know, go hit a few places and shoot the shit a while. Get some air."
Kanti: ...I promised Fiona...but he has asked me.
And he's looking at me. Maybe I can...
Guilt passes over her face briefly before she smiles instead and curtseys, another movement that shows her body off it's fullest, her curves and skin, and the scars that cover it.
"Of course, my lord. It would be my pleasure." her voice still soft, though warmer now..
Seventh Moon: There was something there. He saw it for a heartbeat in her eyes. Sadness? Aw, shit. Maybe she thought he was going try to tumble her. That would explain why she kept making a peep show for him in the hall. He almost laughed.
Darlin', you're fun ta look at and all that, but I dun think you got quite what it takes to catch up for what I just had
"A'ite. Lets see if we can borrow you something else ta wear though," he grinned, snatching her hand up and pulling her further down the hallway towards the gilded door near the end. "I ain't objecting ta the rope-house outfit or nothin', but people will think pretty poorly of it if they see ya walkin' around like that."
As they stopped in front of the golden good, garishly adorned with golden knobs and hinges and gem encrusted plates, Moon pounded a fist on the cherry-colored wood, raising a ruckus in the hall. "Hey! Old lady! Open up, will ya?"
Kanti: ...What does he want?!
Kanti is momentarily suprised as she is dragged along the hallway, though she doesn't stumble, both too graceful and too used to this sort of thing to do that.
Shame.
And Mistress liked it so well...
But she wasn't pleasing Her now, was she?
"As it pleases you, my lord." her voice still soft and warm. She stands there, body still presenting itself with an easy grace.
Seventh Moon: Stopping his hammering on the door momentarily, Moon looked back at the Terrestrial with his brows furrowed. "Yeah, y'know, ya can drop that 'lord' shit. Ain't no hoity-toity Highlaner, y'know. Just call me Moon..." Trailing off, he turned back to the door and beat his fist into it again. "Hey! Get off yer fat ass and answer the door, ya old shrew!"
Kanti: Kanti flinches slightly as he turns with his brows furrowed, a brief moment of fear in her eyes. "I..I'm sorry, Moon. I didn't mean to offend you." She looks at him warily.
Vivian: Vivian opens the door, the very caricature of an old prostitute. So much makeup you wonder what her flesh is like beneath it; So much perfume, her scent fills the hall when she opens the door; So much jewelry each step is like a chiming bell. Her face not enough of a caricature already, it twists comically at the sight of Moon, a displeased sigh coming from her, "What is it, ya young punk?" She asks, looking behind him... impossible not to see Kanti there, her unusual clothing and... shining red heritage.
"Ooh, brought new flesh? S'pose I Dragoness will always go high even if she is all scarred like this. They could have gotten her better clothes, though.." She shakes her head, "That is a little *too* much, even. But ask one of the girls for that. There, I know of it already, anything else?" She says, in her most petulant dismissive tone, all the while knowing there is something else and he won't go away.
But she just had to say that.
Seventh Moon: "Eh?" his head whipped back again, looking down at the Terrestrial girl with another frown before her cause the unease in her face. His expression softened and he shook his head. "Aw, naw kid, ya didn't piss me off or nothin'. Just that kinda thing ain't really keen around here, y'know? If ya go bow and scrapping ta everyone taller'n you, you're just gonna get stepped on"
The door flew open before he could say and more and Moon broke off into a fit of overexaggerated coughs as Vivian's perfume-cloud filled the hall. Glancing down at Kanti, his face twisted and his tongue lulled out like a drowning man while the madam spoke, rolling his eyes and clutching his throat.
Righting his express as she finished, Moon spat, waving back at Dragon-Blooded girl.
"This ain't new meat for yer butchers block, ya slave-driving bitty!" he snapped, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the worst of the too-sweet scent away as he stepped up to the large woman. "Now who the hell has something decent for her ta wear? Thought you might, but then I saw ya again and realized she wouldn't look to good dressed up like a fuckin' fruit salad."
Kanti: ...Stepped on?
...What does he mean?
That's just who I am...
Kanti looks up at him faintly uncomprehending before the door is pushed open, and the scent rolls out. She doesn't cough, though he breathing takes a definate pause before she turns to see the woman...Vivian. Who was talking about selling her body. For money. She shivered slightly, before Moon's loud voice reassured her that she wouldn't have to endure that. Not for the painted woman anyway.
Vivian: "Better than your tastes, you unlearned punk. Why do I even let you keep that basement of yours?" She shakes her head. She would ask it every time, as if to try and remember something. "Oh, she isn't? Thought you were making yerself useful for a change, punk. I see I was wrong. Aside from stealing from dogs richer than you," She says, pointing at his mystical collar... a mystical collar shaped almost like a dog's.
"Did you get to find to find my Sweet Sarah? Or did you just go on a binge of alcohol while everyone said you were looking for her? Sweet girl, her... could never understand what she saw on you."
Rapidfire ends. How she managed to speak so much at once, a mystery. And then she looks at Kanti, up and down, as if Moon's words only now registered on her mind, "Yeah, yeah, a fruit salad with more class than you and yours will ever have. A waste of class for Sarah, really... now, now. Despite those dreadful scars, you have a beautiful figure, my girl. We can find something for you easily enough... you got a name?"
Kanti: Sarah!
Guilt washes over Kanti, guilt that she fights to keep from her eyes, remembering just who Moon was and what she had done, and seen done to Sarah.
Moon who smiled so pleasantly.
Moon who Sarah had loved or still did.
Moon who had ripped Kiri to shreads.
..fights, and manages too.
And now she looks at me.
Kanti straightens herself as the old madam looks her over, head held high, showing off her own collar, this one of red jade, though splattered carefully with soulsteel, and legs held as they should be. She didn't like her beautiful scars but...
"Thank you, lady. I am Kanti."
Seventh Moon: "Least I don't look like a fuckin' chandelier," he mutters between the blur of her words, running a finger along the silver collar around his neck. Yeah, so what if it looked like a dog collar? He liked it, at least. Sides, it had "other" uses he had found out about tonight.
Despite the withering tirade of insults, Moon grinned.
But mention of Sarah clouds his face over just as quickly and his gaze drops. "Naw..." he says, his tone subdued, apologetic even. "I'm... still lookin'. I'll get her though, don't worry..."
Bringing up the fae-blooded girl also made him remember he cast a furtive glance at Kanti. She had come from the same place Sarah was now. Sooner or later, he was going to have to ask.
Vivian was about to let him mope though, her mocking tone bringing him back around. "And ya keep us around cause ya can't afford ta hire real guards. That would mean only ten meals a day and Smiling Lover'll bugger us all blue before you go and starve yourself like that."
Vivian: Not good even for that, eh?
But that Vivian held on her throat. She wanted to annoy Moon, not hurt him.
And the little bugger cares for her
"And now you go doubting my charity? See, Kanti? No class at all, no class at all, these punks." She looks Kanti over. Something on the collar feels... wrong. Something on the way the bird is caged... depressing. Vivian wasn't half as learned as she claimed to be, but when she learned to undertand people by their looks - each piece of jewelry, each layer of clothing said something about those who came to her place, or her own girls - most saw it naturally, and she exploited it when trying to give every one of her girls a 'signature' and a personality...
But she knew enough to do it actively. To understand what she was seeing... and on her collar, on her clothes... something more than a depressed youth's dark-themed jewelry, than a kinky girl's priest fetish. More.
And yet, a body that would beat most of her girls, even with the scars. Amazing. "Pleased to meet you, Kanti, I am Vivian." Her tone, so different than with Moon... or with most people. "Yes, yes, this won't do. Invites too much, girl, too much. That sort of kinkyness, a man needs to be your regular already to know of, not be flaunted around. I am sure we can find something better suited for you, come in, come in.."
Kanti: Kanti holds herself still as the woman inspects her, trying to work out what she thinks from all the looking ... how well she reads her.
What do you see in me?
Can you see enough?
Do you want to see enough?
Kanti thinks such questions, though she keeps them from her eyes.
Approval?
She smiles a little. "It is my pleasure, Vivian." She glances up to Moon as she asks her to enter.
Vivian: "Pleasure? No, pleasure is something you seem to be in need to, girl. Cheer up a little." The interior of Vivian's room is just like her - too colorful for good taste - too performed for good taste - and too full of cheap statuettes and jewelry for any possible good taste. Her bed is a tad too big than she would ever need, and she gestures to it and some tables, "Make yourself at home, Kanti."
Then, she goes pick one of the many dresses on the sub-chamber that is only... clothes. So many of them. So many different styles and colors, so many of them gaudy, but... "Oh, and don't break anything, punk. If you break it, you pay for it, remember"
She looks over her shoulder, at Kanti, again... "Any preference, my dear?"
For some reason, it was just hard to devise a good style for her. Maybe it was the scars?
Seventh Moon: Half way to a shinning crystal display on one of the dressers, Moon's hand jerks back and he straightens up with a derisive snort. "I ain't touchin' nothing in this dump. Just make it quick and don't put her in nothin' you'd wear yourself"
"We need clothes, not a fuckin' tent, after all" he adds quietly, strolling around the room.
Kanti: Kanti looks around the room, at the ... decoration, and the clutter. But, she was kind, and moon trusted her, and so she shouldn't question. She settles onto the bed, sitting on the edge of it, neatly.
Break it...pay for it? Was that a joke?
She tilts her head as she looks into the mass of clothing, wincing inwardly at moon's words.
"No, no preference, Vivian. Anything you can find for me, I'd be most grateful for. ..I don't mind if it's justa cloak." Her voice lifting slightly as she finishes with ...hope?
Maybe I'll get to keep them on after all
Vivian: She rumages through her stash, looking back to Kanti... feeling the hope on her voice. "A cloak? Just ot hide it? You would want to keep yourself dressed like that, lady?" Something felt wrong about the dress, but Vivian had to admit... it was fine. Too fine. Few nobles who had visited ever so fine, the kind of thing of the rare faerie or the Smiling Lover when she wished to show up. Oh, those rare occasions... the glimpse of her patron. And she was a princess of the earth; They always had weird ideas on their head.
Like keeping something like that. That was beautiful... but disturbing.
Seventh Moon: "Yeah, and get out an extra something too," he adds in after Kanti, looking up from examining a small statuette by the foot of the bed. "We got another one dressed in even less than the kid here. She's back in the room, thankfully, but she ain't about ta go outside in her underwear again. Not after we almost had the damn garrison called on us."
"Heh, between the two of 'um, people thought I was a pimp," he chuckled, giving Vivian a grin. "What do ya think about that one, old lady? Maybe I can take over the Heaven House after you finally croak. Could drag the pool table up top finally, get something decent to drink in here... actually make it worth comin' to for something other than the girls."
Vivian: Another dress. Another chance, but another one that just did not fit on her mind's eye of Kanti. But Moon's words mak her chuckle. "They must have been higher than the clouds if they thought so. You? You would drive a bussiness to the mud in a week. And probably forget the ladies have to service actual clients too. And of course, bringing that upstairs would cause a stir, a fight... by the Lover, I would almost think you'd enjoy burning this down on a brawl. If this is the sort of thing you'd make it worth coming here for. Never understood most of what Sarah showed you, did you? Class, youg young punk,class."
Kanti: Lady? Kanti looks vaguely uncomfortable as she sits on the bed, letting that thought turn in her mind. "I wouldn't want to trouble you in finding something that fits me, Vivian." she says, a slight tremor in her voice indicating her uncertianty...Moon wanted her out of the robes ... but she had promised...
Vivian: She thinks. Long and hard. She would need to have a talk with the girl. This and the other one... something just wouldn't do. The cloak would do for now, though. Before understanding them, and what to properly give them. She takes the cloat, bringing it to Kanti, a nice overcoat, one for the city and not a track in the wilderness like Selina's, a coat for ladies wanting to strut in parties with their minimalist dresses, but needing to *get* to said party in the northern chill.... "Here, dear. Cover yourself with it, for now." She turns to Moon, "Where is the other one? I mightr want to talk to her before I can give her something... I don't do charity, but I can give style."
Seventh Moon: He had hoped for actual clothing, but Moon didn't protest the coat. It was better than nothing and, despite her personal tastes, Vivian did know what to dress the girls at the Heaven House up in to make them look presentable when some high muckety-muck came strolling in for a night of slumming and shagging. Until Selina woke up and they could drag these two down to the weavers street to snatch some real threads for them, at least this meant Kanti would be covered up a bit in public.
"She's in the room down the hall. Six I think. Just listen for which ever one doesn't sound like the bed is rockin'."
Kanti: Kanti rises from the bed as she approaches, her bearing grateful. She curtseys slightly as the woman gives her the cloak "Thank you, Vivian." she slips the cloak over her shoulders, pulling it shut, luxuriating a little in the feel of the fabric on her skin.
..talk to Fiona?
"She's sleeping. Please don't wake her." something in her voice conveying that this truely is a request, one that she is not sure she has any right to make, but that she has too.
Seventh Moon: "Sleeping?" Moon sounds almost shocked. So, then, they weren't... ? Well, or they were done already. "Uh, yeah, if she's sleepin' leave her alone. Fuck knows she doesn't need to see your face first thing after she wakes up."
Heading for the door, he pulls it open and holds his hand out to the Terrestrial, smiling at her warm and approvingly. She looked a lot better with the coat on. Even with those scars all across her face, it made her look less like an object... more like a normal girl. With a little bit of make-up, he could almost see her working here, hanging out with him and Sarah and the Pack
Wasn't a bad image at all. "C'mon kid, lets get outta here before the perfume soaks in too much. Can't wash this cheap crap out easy..."
Vivian: "Yeah, yeah, go out before you break something. But you, Kanti, feel free to come back whenever you wish... I will see about talking to your friend when she wakes up" She nods. "Be seeing you."
Kanti: Of course we were sleeping...
"Thank you, Moon." she says softly as he instructs her to leave Fiona alone, though her voice is filled with true gratitude.
She walks gracefully across the room, toward him. "And thank you, Vivian." as she turns back to the Madam, smiling at her.
He ... really doesn't like my scars. I can see it in his face, how he looks at me now ... now he can't see them...
Well, they were there for Her, not for him.
So that didn't matter at all.
She takes his outstretched hand, letting him lead her from the room, walking at his side, matching his pace perfectly.
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