（ cy spreads one hand out in a welcoming gesture to indicate that he sure the hell is down for a walk, and they fall into an easy step. ）
Well, I'll consider myself privileged not to have earned that dubious honour.
（ it's said teasingly, with a flourishing press of one palm against his own chest. very 1940s rita hayworth of him, actually. ）
Y'mind if I smoke?
（ he's found himself — leaning less into the habit, given the fact that his most commonly kept company tends to turn their noses up at it, but there's still enjoyment to be found in the sharp draw of acrid smoke into the lungs. ）
[ tseng is also a smoker, although less of one since his arrival here. it's not entirely because there's no one to mind the smell—although he suspects that aerith wouldn't love it—and more because he has, perhaps paradoxically, fewer things to drive him to it than he did back home.
he offers his lighter for cy, a gesture of camaraderie. ]
You came in the early cohort too, no? [ small talk, tseng edition. he knows this because of reading back through everything that had happened prior to his arrival. ] I recognized your name from the network.
（ the gesture earns him a few points, even if cy's got a lighter of his own — he pulls the cigarette he had tucked over one ear down and lights it obligingly. takes one deep drag and, after a moment, offers the cigarette out to share. ）
Yep. I was an early adoptee of Sluttopia's 'If Wishes Were Horses Beggars Would Ride (cock)' multi-level-marketing remix.
（ who lets him use words, it is a fuckin' mystery. ）
So that means you're one of those perilously observant, mildly terrifying types, huh?
（ surly nod indeed. but the taste in the air around this man is like blood and smoke and iron, and cy — knows what that means, and that it was likely the thing that deepened the draw for sasuke. ）
[ that... is certainly a series of words! tseng understands most of them, although he's not sure he's ever heard them put together in that particular order. (what the fuck is a horse? he's going to have to ask the library that one later.) honestly, even leaving the d/s stuff aside, cy seems like a fascinating person just to get to know. ]
Guilty. [ no point in denying it, really. he can already tell that sasuke is observant enough to notice these things about him, and tseng has no reason to believe cy won't be the same. ] It was a necessity of my position at home, and not a habit I've found easy to break.
[ we're flexing the "share 1 thing about yourself voluntarily" muscle today, folks. not too hard, though, because he's sure that cy had a topic in mind when he made his call. curious, tseng turns his gaze over toward him, assessing out of habit. ]
（ cy doesn't acknowledge the scrutiny, simply takes another drag off the cigarette and then suck his teeth in a pop of sound before he exhales politely to the side. he can smalltalk like a motherfucker (the harder part is getting him to shut up, actually) but there's a natural sort of reservation to tseng that cautions him against that manner of irreverence. ）
Look, I know this is one of those situations where people can get weird and fall into the alpha male posturing or shit like that, but that ain't me. （ he's not going to rely on it being obvious — there's too much room for mistaken interpretation there. ） Sasuke and I aren't exclusive, though there's a few acts we've agreed are off-limits, I'll let him speak to that when the time comes. The only thing you need to know about me as it pertains to the relationship I have with him is that I'm pretty particular about pain play — and if that's something you two decide to explore together, I'd like to run a scene with you first. It's not a condition of my consent — I trust his judgment, and if things move in that direction I know he can handle himself — but it would ease my mind.
（ no talk of the dynamic such a scene might engender just yet — whether cy would ask tseng to submit to him or would submit himself. perhaps that's on purpose, to see the reaction the request carries. ）
[ he's not wrong about that. for someone less confident, less self-sure, this does seem like the type of scenario that could cause someone to fall back on possessiveness and posturing—a need to mark their territory, so to speak. it's a relief that such tactics aren't cy's style. they're not tseng's, either, and he finds them exhausting. ]
He said as much to me—that it's something that interests him, but that he thought you'd like to be involved to some degree. [ watching cy smoke is making him want to do the same, so after a second tseng pulls a pack of his own cigarettes from his pocket and shakes one free. ] I'll tell you the same I told him, which is that you're welcome whenever you want to be involved. If it would put you at ease to run a scene with me first, that's fine. If you would like to observe or supervise me with him, also fine.
[ it's a measured agreement. no objection to the idea of a scene with cy first, not predicated upon which of them ends up in the submissive position. that's a bridge they'll cross when they get to it, tseng thinks.
cupping one hand around his cigarette, he pauses and ducks his head so he can light it. there's no real wind in these gardens, so the gesture is pure habit at this point. he speaks as he exhales, smoke curling from his lips and disappearing into the air. ]
It may be some time before we reach that point, which I think is for the best. I'd like to get to know him better before we start exploring pain.
（ he makes an agreeable noise, sort of a melodic hmm. so far, tseng's hitting the right notes. ）
That'll help.
（ it didn't really take them long to fall into it — but then, the first thing cy did upon meeting sasuke was stab himself in the heart, so maybe they did a bit of a speedrun that likely can't be replicated without another asshole immortal.
he taps ash off the end of his cigarette with a practiced gesture, and then: ）
[ of course he has questions, he's the head of general affairs. but this isn't an interrogation, this is an effort to get to know someone who is likely going to feature fairly prominently for him going forward, so tseng turns his mind off the turk track and instead asks, ]
Do you mind personal questions? [ more expansively personal than just questions about his sexual preferences, that is. ] ...I won't take it personally if you decline.
[ there are questions tseng would have a hard time answering, and he expects that the same is true for cy. ]
（ he is not an open book, point of fact, but the odds of tseng stumbling upon the few things he won't discuss are low. and even should that occur — it isn't like cy has a problem saying no, or sometimes less delicately, fuck off. ）
Do you prefer being called Cy or Cyram? [ sasuke had called him the latter, but cy himself had used the former. ] Do you find it challenging, to be in a romantic relationship in a place like this?
[ a pause, and then: ] To clarify, I'm not referring to jealousy. If that were a problem I imagine non-exclusivity would be difficult.
[ but for various other reasons this seems like a tough place to cultivate romance... not that tseng knows much about that. ]
（ this time his amusement is indicated with more of a low hah. ）
The bullshit cop-out answer is that I don't actually care. I know nicknames are sometimes used as an indicator of closeness, so if that ain't your bag you can call me whatever the hell you like. Mr. Salveo if ya nasty.
（ though he's hardly ever using the surname these days. next stop: full madonna. ）
And no, I don't. But I've got some unique life experiences that kinda... （ a wibbly-wobbly wave of one hand. ） smooth it out some.
I don't think it counts as a bullshit cop-out if you actually don't care. [ tseng hums, amused. ] But it doesn't bother me, either way. I'll just save "Mr. Salveo" for when you're in trouble.
[ or when he's?? flirting??? check back in a couple months on that one. ]
I understand that. [ unique life experiences do seem to be the name of the game for many around here. it's probably for the best, though, that cy's make it easier and not more difficult for him, especially given what sasuke has intimated (and what tseng has deduced) about his own upbringing. ] And I'm glad to hear it.
[ for whatever that's worth. ]
I'd like to know if you have any expectations of me. Or questions, for that matter, unless you prefer this to go one way for now?
（ he's an official disturber of the peace, oop. but he flashes tseng a broad grin as he pinches the end of his cigarette to smother the cherry, and then tucks it back over his ear. ）
My only expectation is that you treat Sasuke well, but I'm not gonna shovel talk you about it — I'm a bonafide pacifist, non-violent protest only. And you should probably understand I know at least twenty instruments and I can play them all badly, so like... （ the grin carries through the words — this is obviously not a sincere threat of any sort. ） But yeah, I mostly just wanted to make introductions.
（ see just who he's trusting the kid to. sasuke is still new at this — but he's gained ground faster than cy had originally anticipated, so at some point he'll stop worrying about him and let him do his thing. it's good to explore with others, see what you're into and what you like beyond the context of a single partner. ）
What have I gotten myself into. [ said with another one of those quick smiles.
honestly, if tseng had a gil for every "non-violent protest only" type he's met who turned out to be lethal when motivated correctly... but he's not especially hoping to find out whether that's true of cy too, so he's happy to take the other man at his word. ]
So I'd better behave if I want to keep my eardrums intact, understood. Playing twenty instruments badly is still better than I can do.
[ a free tseng fact, not that cy asked. he gestures vaguely in a way that's meant to indicate please, feel free to turn the topic back to "pain shit," as cy puts it. ]
I think that depends more on your definition of 'badly'.
（ hell, anybody can bang on a drum. but he accepts the gesture as permissive, and continues — ）
What sorta things you into? Judgment free zone, for the record — I'm a sadist, and not much surprises me, so if your answer is 'I like to tie people up and hit them with rubber chickens' then, like, ai'ght.
[ speaking of a potential cacophony... ] Nothing that... creative. Well—I do enjoy tying partners up, yes. I'm very good with ropes, both as restraints and for aesthetics.
[ come to him for all your shibari needs. but that doesn't really answer the question as to what he likes, pain-wise, so tseng takes another long moment to think and then responds. this is a habit of his: think through his entire response before he even starts speaking. ]
It's a good question. Broadly, I'm interested in nearly anything that gets my partner off, and as a result my tastes are fairly diverse, but it also depends. For someone with less experience, I would gravitate more towards impact tools. Bare hands, paddles, floggers... Things that afford me better control over the pain they cause, so I can adjust as needed.
With a more experienced partner, impact play aside... I enjoy interesting stimuli. Wax, for example, or ice. On my arrival the house gifted me a pair of electro-shock nipple clamps, [ which is a sentence that still makes tseng roll his eyes, ] which have yielded interesting results.
[ he pauses, considers, and then adds, ] I'm also... very good with knives, but that's not something I would consider if it wasn't with a partner I knew extremely well.
（ there are various bits of body language pieced together as tseng talks. a nod, at the increasing crescendo of impact play items. wax and ice, one shoulder levers up in something like a shrug. but electro-shock nipple clamps gets a broad grimace. he supposes — in a place where people are revived as a consequence of death — for all you snuff lovers out there, maybe — an arc of electric current across the heart probably isn't really all that big a deal in the long run. tseng strikes him as smart enough not to know to do that, but he also shouldn't assume that humanoids in his world have the same danger, or the same anatomy.
but knives — ah. ）
Restraints, knives... You throw another couple talents on the table, and you've got yourself a skillset most people don't come by honestly.
（ that, and the stirred interest in the back of his mind tells a story. but the words are said with a touch of wryness rather than judgment. after a moment, he gives tseng a little two-fingered wave. ）
[ honestly, the grimace is fair as fuck. in truth the current is extremely weak—tseng's not out here trying to jump someone's heart like a car battery—but it was definitely a choice on the part of the house. while he has used them once with one very specific partner, they're not in heavy rotation and never will be.
it doesn't really surprise him to be clocked. tseng has given enough away that someone canny could pick it up, and the way cy says "speaking from experience" tells tseng that he is indeed that someone canny. ]
I also have excellent trigger discipline. [ a tone of matching wryness. he had promised sasuke honesty, and while he hasn't technically made that same promise to cy, he figures it sort of goes part and parcel. ] I lead a... paramilitary unit, I suppose would be the easiest explanation.
[ very liam neeson of him: particular set of skills gained over a long career, etc. the existence of the turks is hardly classified, so despite how odd it feels to have to explain it at all, at the very least he doesn't feel like he's giving away state secrets. ]
Perhaps it's paradoxical, but I think knowing as well as I do how to overpower another is what makes me appreciate so deeply the experience of being given control. Dominating not because I took control by force, but because someone trusted me enough to offer me their submission.
（ paramilitary can mean many things. but the way you get good enough and confident enough with a knife is practice — the sort that usually isn't voluntary. ）
That's a healthy attitude to have about it. （ and not entirely disparate from his own views on the subject. ） How long would you say you've been into the scene?
[ deadpan, which means he's joking. the follow-up question makes him tilt his head back slightly, exhaling smoke up into the air as he thinks about it. ]
I was introduced to the concept early on. Fourteen or fifteen, maybe. We had a contact inside a club that catered to patrons with specific tastes. [ he's sure he doesn't need to spell that one out. ] But it wasn't until later that I got involved myself, so... I would say eight or nine years, actively.
[ it then occurs to him that he should probably specify: ]
[ ???? note to tseng to ask how old cy is one of these days!
in response cy gets a look, mixed confusion and amusement, but at least for the time being he's content to leave that comment aside in favor of answering the more pertinent question. ]
That depends on which of us is going to be submissive. I'm not opposed to submbitting to someone I know and can trust, but if your concern is how I might handle Sasuke then it might be more prudent for you to be in that position.
[ in the same way that cy had looked for a response to the suggestion earlier, now it's tseng who keeps half an eye on cy to see whether he might object. ]
（ it's a pragmatic approach, and cy only nods once, taking another long drag off his cigarette that hollows his cheeks out. ）
I'm guessing you're familiar enough with how these preferences run to understand what I mean when I say I'm not a submissive person.
（ he isn't going to offer any justification or explanation for it, he just continues after a moment — ）
I usually only do it if I'm teaching. Weirdly, it's actually easier for me to sub if I don't trust the person — and no, that's not a self-destructive masochistic thing. But trust changes a dynamic, and when it's there I prefer to dom.
（ it's not really agreement or disagreement either way on tseng's statement, it's just — a furtherance of the conversation. ）
[ there's no justification needed. preference is preference, and some are stronger than others; if cy's preference is strongly against being submissive, then far be it from tseng to try to convince him otherwise.
the question of trust, though, is an open one. without any evidence to the contrary, tseng assumes that cyram doesn't mistrust him; if he did, they likely wouldn't be having this conversation at all. but he also can't imagine that cy does trust him, yet, given that they've only just met, and given that their only points of connection are sasuke and their mutual interest in dominating him. ]
Then would you prefer to do this before you trust me? Or are you suggesting I should submit to you?
[ it's an honest question, free of judgment or emotion. tseng can be brutally pragmatic sometimes, and this is one of those times—it's better, in his opinion, to be forthright now than to play coy and have it come back to bite him later. ]
Who's to say I don't trust you? I'm a trusting guy.
（ it's said lightly, playful and warm. ）
But no, you're right. Since it's Sasuke I'm concerned with, it's more logical for me to sub. There's something you should know about me first, though. Brace ya'self for some weird shit.
（ knives are hard to come by here, but with stiles gone, the one from their ill-fated foray in the elevator with one of those fucking paintings has been reclaimed into his custody. there's a flicker of a dark, corruptive magic and then the blade appears in one hand. another man may have turned it into a power move, but cy's careful to keep it visible, fingers relaxed and open in a way that makes his grip lax on the handle, and it's in the hand furthest from tseng.
don't surprise a dude who's worked in torture: kinda a golden rule. the knife gets a little 'pay attention' wobble, and then cy brings his other hand over to it, and although he could make the point with something a little less dramatic than what he's about to do, he wants to be very clear about his meaning when he explains.
which is why he just stabs the knife through his own fucking hand. it's one of those things that'd be impossible to fake even with sleight of hand or pure magician trickery, and he then holds the impaled hand out for tseng to inspect. seeing is believing. ）
You fancy pullin' it out?
（ there's no strain in his voice. no sense of being subsumed by pain or discomfort. it's not that he doesn't feel pain, it's that it's just fucking irrelevant to him, so. there you have it. if or when tseng does as he's asked, the wound will begin to heal immediately, though the blood will linger like a kiss. ）
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Well, I'll consider myself privileged not to have earned that dubious honour.
（ it's said teasingly, with a flourishing press of one palm against his own chest. very 1940s rita hayworth of him, actually. ）
Y'mind if I smoke?
（ he's found himself — leaning less into the habit, given the fact that his most commonly kept company tends to turn their noses up at it, but there's still enjoyment to be found in the sharp draw of acrid smoke into the lungs. ）
no subject
[ tseng is also a smoker, although less of one since his arrival here. it's not entirely because there's no one to mind the smell—although he suspects that aerith wouldn't love it—and more because he has, perhaps paradoxically, fewer things to drive him to it than he did back home.
he offers his lighter for cy, a gesture of camaraderie. ]
You came in the early cohort too, no? [ small talk, tseng edition. he knows this because of reading back through everything that had happened prior to his arrival. ] I recognized your name from the network.
no subject
Yep. I was an early adoptee of Sluttopia's 'If Wishes Were Horses Beggars Would Ride (cock)' multi-level-marketing remix.
（ who lets him use words, it is a fuckin' mystery. ）
So that means you're one of those perilously observant, mildly terrifying types, huh?
（ surly nod indeed. but the taste in the air around this man is like blood and smoke and iron, and cy — knows what that means, and that it was likely the thing that deepened the draw for sasuke. ）
no subject
Guilty. [ no point in denying it, really. he can already tell that sasuke is observant enough to notice these things about him, and tseng has no reason to believe cy won't be the same. ] It was a necessity of my position at home, and not a habit I've found easy to break.
[ we're flexing the "share 1 thing about yourself voluntarily" muscle today, folks. not too hard, though, because he's sure that cy had a topic in mind when he made his call. curious, tseng turns his gaze over toward him, assessing out of habit. ]
no subject
（ cy doesn't acknowledge the scrutiny, simply takes another drag off the cigarette and then suck his teeth in a pop of sound before he exhales politely to the side. he can smalltalk like a motherfucker (the harder part is getting him to shut up, actually) but there's a natural sort of reservation to tseng that cautions him against that manner of irreverence. ）
Look, I know this is one of those situations where people can get weird and fall into the alpha male posturing or shit like that, but that ain't me. （ he's not going to rely on it being obvious — there's too much room for mistaken interpretation there. ） Sasuke and I aren't exclusive, though there's a few acts we've agreed are off-limits, I'll let him speak to that when the time comes. The only thing you need to know about me as it pertains to the relationship I have with him is that I'm pretty particular about pain play — and if that's something you two decide to explore together, I'd like to run a scene with you first. It's not a condition of my consent — I trust his judgment, and if things move in that direction I know he can handle himself — but it would ease my mind.
（ no talk of the dynamic such a scene might engender just yet — whether cy would ask tseng to submit to him or would submit himself. perhaps that's on purpose, to see the reaction the request carries. ）
no subject
He said as much to me—that it's something that interests him, but that he thought you'd like to be involved to some degree. [ watching cy smoke is making him want to do the same, so after a second tseng pulls a pack of his own cigarettes from his pocket and shakes one free. ] I'll tell you the same I told him, which is that you're welcome whenever you want to be involved. If it would put you at ease to run a scene with me first, that's fine. If you would like to observe or supervise me with him, also fine.
[ it's a measured agreement. no objection to the idea of a scene with cy first, not predicated upon which of them ends up in the submissive position. that's a bridge they'll cross when they get to it, tseng thinks.
cupping one hand around his cigarette, he pauses and ducks his head so he can light it. there's no real wind in these gardens, so the gesture is pure habit at this point. he speaks as he exhales, smoke curling from his lips and disappearing into the air. ]
It may be some time before we reach that point, which I think is for the best. I'd like to get to know him better before we start exploring pain.
no subject
That'll help.
（ it didn't really take them long to fall into it — but then, the first thing cy did upon meeting sasuke was stab himself in the heart, so maybe they did a bit of a speedrun that likely can't be replicated without another asshole immortal.
he taps ash off the end of his cigarette with a practiced gesture, and then: ）
Any questions for me?
（ world's your oyster, tseng. ）
no subject
[ of course he has questions, he's the head of general affairs. but this isn't an interrogation, this is an effort to get to know someone who is likely going to feature fairly prominently for him going forward, so tseng turns his mind off the turk track and instead asks, ]
Do you mind personal questions? [ more expansively personal than just questions about his sexual preferences, that is. ] ...I won't take it personally if you decline.
[ there are questions tseng would have a hard time answering, and he expects that the same is true for cy. ]
no subject
（ he is not an open book, point of fact, but the odds of tseng stumbling upon the few things he won't discuss are low. and even should that occur — it isn't like cy has a problem saying no, or sometimes less delicately, fuck off. ）
no subject
Do you prefer being called Cy or Cyram? [ sasuke had called him the latter, but cy himself had used the former. ] Do you find it challenging, to be in a romantic relationship in a place like this?
[ a pause, and then: ] To clarify, I'm not referring to jealousy. If that were a problem I imagine non-exclusivity would be difficult.
[ but for various other reasons this seems like a tough place to cultivate romance... not that tseng knows much about that. ]
no subject
The bullshit cop-out answer is that I don't actually care. I know nicknames are sometimes used as an indicator of closeness, so if that ain't your bag you can call me whatever the hell you like. Mr. Salveo if ya nasty.
（ though he's hardly ever using the surname these days. next stop: full madonna. ）
And no, I don't. But I've got some unique life experiences that kinda... （ a wibbly-wobbly wave of one hand. ） smooth it out some.
（ he is Not Normal, txt it. ）
no subject
[ or when he's?? flirting??? check back in a couple months on that one. ]
I understand that. [ unique life experiences do seem to be the name of the game for many around here. it's probably for the best, though, that cy's make it easier and not more difficult for him, especially given what sasuke has intimated (and what tseng has deduced) about his own upbringing. ] And I'm glad to hear it.
[ for whatever that's worth. ]
I'd like to know if you have any expectations of me. Or questions, for that matter, unless you prefer this to go one way for now?
no subject
（ he's an official disturber of the peace, oop. but he flashes tseng a broad grin as he pinches the end of his cigarette to smother the cherry, and then tucks it back over his ear. ）
My only expectation is that you treat Sasuke well, but I'm not gonna shovel talk you about it — I'm a bonafide pacifist, non-violent protest only. And you should probably understand I know at least twenty instruments and I can play them all badly, so like... （ the grin carries through the words — this is obviously not a sincere threat of any sort. ） But yeah, I mostly just wanted to make introductions.
（ see just who he's trusting the kid to. sasuke is still new at this — but he's gained ground faster than cy had originally anticipated, so at some point he'll stop worrying about him and let him do his thing. it's good to explore with others, see what you're into and what you like beyond the context of a single partner. ）
Mind if we steer back to the pain shit?
no subject
honestly, if tseng had a gil for every "non-violent protest only" type he's met who turned out to be lethal when motivated correctly... but he's not especially hoping to find out whether that's true of cy too, so he's happy to take the other man at his word. ]
So I'd better behave if I want to keep my eardrums intact, understood. Playing twenty instruments badly is still better than I can do.
[ a free tseng fact, not that cy asked. he gestures vaguely in a way that's meant to indicate please, feel free to turn the topic back to "pain shit," as cy puts it. ]
no subject
（ hell, anybody can bang on a drum. but he accepts the gesture as permissive, and continues — ）
What sorta things you into? Judgment free zone, for the record — I'm a sadist, and not much surprises me, so if your answer is 'I like to tie people up and hit them with rubber chickens' then, like, ai'ght.
no subject
[ come to him for all your shibari needs. but that doesn't really answer the question as to what he likes, pain-wise, so tseng takes another long moment to think and then responds. this is a habit of his: think through his entire response before he even starts speaking. ]
It's a good question. Broadly, I'm interested in nearly anything that gets my partner off, and as a result my tastes are fairly diverse, but it also depends. For someone with less experience, I would gravitate more towards impact tools. Bare hands, paddles, floggers... Things that afford me better control over the pain they cause, so I can adjust as needed.
With a more experienced partner, impact play aside... I enjoy interesting stimuli. Wax, for example, or ice. On my arrival the house gifted me a pair of electro-shock nipple clamps, [ which is a sentence that still makes tseng roll his eyes, ] which have yielded interesting results.
[ he pauses, considers, and then adds, ] I'm also... very good with knives, but that's not something I would consider if it wasn't with a partner I knew extremely well.
no subject
but knives — ah. ）
Restraints, knives... You throw another couple talents on the table, and you've got yourself a skillset most people don't come by honestly.
（ that, and the stirred interest in the back of his mind tells a story. but the words are said with a touch of wryness rather than judgment. after a moment, he gives tseng a little two-fingered wave. ）
Speaking from experience.
no subject
it doesn't really surprise him to be clocked. tseng has given enough away that someone canny could pick it up, and the way cy says "speaking from experience" tells tseng that he is indeed that someone canny. ]
I also have excellent trigger discipline. [ a tone of matching wryness. he had promised sasuke honesty, and while he hasn't technically made that same promise to cy, he figures it sort of goes part and parcel. ] I lead a... paramilitary unit, I suppose would be the easiest explanation.
[ very liam neeson of him: particular set of skills gained over a long career, etc. the existence of the turks is hardly classified, so despite how odd it feels to have to explain it at all, at the very least he doesn't feel like he's giving away state secrets. ]
Perhaps it's paradoxical, but I think knowing as well as I do how to overpower another is what makes me appreciate so deeply the experience of being given control. Dominating not because I took control by force, but because someone trusted me enough to offer me their submission.
no subject
（ paramilitary can mean many things. but the way you get good enough and confident enough with a knife is practice — the sort that usually isn't voluntary. ）
That's a healthy attitude to have about it. （ and not entirely disparate from his own views on the subject. ） How long would you say you've been into the scene?
no subject
[ deadpan, which means he's joking. the follow-up question makes him tilt his head back slightly, exhaling smoke up into the air as he thinks about it. ]
I was introduced to the concept early on. Fourteen or fifteen, maybe. We had a contact inside a club that catered to patrons with specific tastes. [ he's sure he doesn't need to spell that one out. ] But it wasn't until later that I got involved myself, so... I would say eight or nine years, actively.
[ it then occurs to him that he should probably specify: ]
I'm thirty now. —Ah, no. Thirty-one.
no subject
（ yes, thirty-one is baby to him. he doesn't make the rules about it. and then, perhaps more seriously — ）
So if we were gonna run a scene, you and me, how would you see it going?
no subject
in response cy gets a look, mixed confusion and amusement, but at least for the time being he's content to leave that comment aside in favor of answering the more pertinent question. ]
That depends on which of us is going to be submissive. I'm not opposed to submbitting to someone I know and can trust, but if your concern is how I might handle Sasuke then it might be more prudent for you to be in that position.
[ in the same way that cy had looked for a response to the suggestion earlier, now it's tseng who keeps half an eye on cy to see whether he might object. ]
no subject
I'm guessing you're familiar enough with how these preferences run to understand what I mean when I say I'm not a submissive person.
（ he isn't going to offer any justification or explanation for it, he just continues after a moment — ）
I usually only do it if I'm teaching. Weirdly, it's actually easier for me to sub if I don't trust the person — and no, that's not a self-destructive masochistic thing. But trust changes a dynamic, and when it's there I prefer to dom.
（ it's not really agreement or disagreement either way on tseng's statement, it's just — a furtherance of the conversation. ）
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the question of trust, though, is an open one. without any evidence to the contrary, tseng assumes that cyram doesn't mistrust him; if he did, they likely wouldn't be having this conversation at all. but he also can't imagine that cy does trust him, yet, given that they've only just met, and given that their only points of connection are sasuke and their mutual interest in dominating him. ]
Then would you prefer to do this before you trust me? Or are you suggesting I should submit to you?
[ it's an honest question, free of judgment or emotion. tseng can be brutally pragmatic sometimes, and this is one of those times—it's better, in his opinion, to be forthright now than to play coy and have it come back to bite him later. ]
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Who's to say I don't trust you? I'm a trusting guy.
（ it's said lightly, playful and warm. ）
But no, you're right. Since it's Sasuke I'm concerned with, it's more logical for me to sub. There's something you should know about me first, though. Brace ya'self for some weird shit.
（ knives are hard to come by here, but with stiles gone, the one from their ill-fated foray in the elevator with one of those fucking paintings has been reclaimed into his custody. there's a flicker of a dark, corruptive magic and then the blade appears in one hand. another man may have turned it into a power move, but cy's careful to keep it visible, fingers relaxed and open in a way that makes his grip lax on the handle, and it's in the hand furthest from tseng.
don't surprise a dude who's worked in torture: kinda a golden rule. the knife gets a little 'pay attention' wobble, and then cy brings his other hand over to it, and although he could make the point with something a little less dramatic than what he's about to do, he wants to be very clear about his meaning when he explains.
which is why he just stabs the knife through his own fucking hand. it's one of those things that'd be impossible to fake even with sleight of hand or pure magician trickery, and he then holds the impaled hand out for tseng to inspect. seeing is believing. ）
You fancy pullin' it out?
（ there's no strain in his voice. no sense of being subsumed by pain or discomfort. it's not that he doesn't feel pain, it's that it's just fucking irrelevant to him, so. there you have it. if or when tseng does as he's asked, the wound will begin to heal immediately, though the blood will linger like a kiss. ）
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