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. ）
A trusting guy and a bonafide pacifist. [ there's an amused quirk to tseng's mouth—he's teasing, a little. ] And a lover rather than a fighter, I'm guessing.
[ he nods his agreement with cy's words, then pauses to watch—to brace himself, as it were, for some weird shit.
if he's honest, tseng is not expecting a knife to be pulled out of some—strange, terrible pocket of space. tseng has seen magic enough to know that it's possible, but he's not expecting to see it here, and for that reason it does put him on his guard. immediately, though, it's clear that cy is handling it in a way intentionally meant to keep tseng's hackles down, keeping it visible, keeping it in his far hand. "don't surprise a dude who's worked in torture" is a good golden rule, and tseng appreciates the consideration.
he takes a long drag on his cigarette, watches cy lift the knife, and tracks its progress as it plunges straight through the meat of his hand. he doesn't flinch, but his brows do draw together briefly as cy reaches out and tells him to pull. a quick turn of his head away to exhale smoke, and then tseng reaches out to pull the knife free in one quick, efficient movement. the wound begins to close almost immediately, muscle and tendon and flesh knitting itself back together, flayed edges of skin disappearing without so much as a scar. ]
I see. [ tseng flips the knife and offers it back to cy, handle-first. ] You have a flair for showmanship.
[ for a moment tseng's gaze remains where it is, fixed on cy's hand, his mind running miles per minute. would that he had his notebook here, so he could keep these thoughts elsewhere than his own brain. then he glances back up to meet cy's gaze, considering. ]
I'm familiar with the concept of healing magic, although admittedly on Gaia it would require the use of materia to achieve. I take it you're showing me this so I understand why any injury I do to you will heal immediately? [ finally, tseng licks his fingertips, pinches out the end of his cigarette, and tucks the butt back into the pack. no littering. ] Is it inherent to you? Your magic.
（ the comment about showmanship makes him sketch an elegant bow, and as he rises he's grinning faintly — ）
Got it in one.
（ he takes the knife, wipes the blood off absent-mindedly on his shirt sleeve — dark enough to conceal it in any such case — and then the knife vanishes again. he doesn't like holding the fucking thing more than necessary. ）
You can't do anything to me that won't heal immediately. Even if you'd left the knife there, my body would've pushed it out as it healed around it, so you can trust me when I say I'm hardier than most.
（ and yet, not a masochist. some people have made the mistake of assuming he must be, just by nature of the healing — but those people don't really understand how preferences are born. ）
Yep. Can't be taken, disrupted, sealed, or whatever else people can think of. All me, baby.
[ for another long moment tseng is silent, absorbing. his own body beneath his clothes is a patchwork of scars, a story of trauma and conflict that traces very nearly his entire life. the crush injuries from the pillar that trapped him; the bullet scars from the guns in junon; any number of wounds from a blade that come part and parcel in a turk's job. he thinks, also, of standing in front of shinra's kangaroo court and being sentenced to the firing squad; how much less important would his decisions have seemed if he knew he would stand up and walk away regardless? it's hard for him to imagine, and he can't decide if it would be a blessing or a curse. ]
Does it hurt regardless? [ is the only question tseng ultimately asks. nothing about cy's voice or face had given away any pain, but tseng knows from experience that there's a difference between not feeling pain and having experienced so much pain that the sensation no longer matters.
of course there will be other questions, later, once tseng has had a chance to put thought to paper and think through the implications of it all; whether or not cy answers them is up to him and how much of an open book he truly feels like being. ]
All right. I'll take it under advisement. [ he turns slightly in an offer to keep walking if cy wants. tseng's expression is still thoughtful, but he's certainly not bothered by the revelation, only considering. ] Would you rather we do this in my suite or at the Naked Yolk? My suite is plenty suitable, but I also have the rank to make a reservation at almost any time, so it's up to you.
（ no point in not being honest. if he's going to trust sasuke with this guy, he ought to offer him that much. there's nothing of his own history that he wouldn't spill between them like an act of evisceration if it served sasuke some purpose.
but it's not said with any especial flippancy or nonchalance — that would only make it seem fuckin' twee. it's just matter-of-fact. ）
Your suite's fine. You're what, a Jack? While I'm sure you can handle the scrutiny or you wouldn't've suggested it, let me fall on my sword for you on that one — the less attention we garner from the House the better.
[ blegh, scrutiny. being noticeable is by far the worst part of his rank, and so tseng has learned to mitigate it in other ways, namely by being as uninteresting as possible everywhere he can. he goes to the casino and gambles a perfectly reasonable amount, winning no more often than is average for a reasonably good player; he goes to restaurants and to the marketplace and buys only the basics; he avoids saying anything incriminating anywhere that can draw attention.
the naked yolk, of course, is already aware of him and his proclivities, considering the birthday gift they arranged for him a few weeks ago, but while he knows the staff are reasonably discreet, they are also employees of the house and untrustworthy by default. besides, he understands the desire to avoid having eyes on them even by association. ]
I'll send you the location. [ he's sure cy could find it on his own, but it's the symbolism of the thing. not that cy could know it, but an invitation into a turk's personal living quarters is nothing to sneeze at. ] The staff on the [ this sentence is so stupid ] penthouse floors are already aware of Sasuke, though. I had to tell them to let him through.
Ah, I don't need to worry about the staff. My other trick is teleportation with the power of （ wait for it, because he makes the world's most fucking dramatic Jazz HandsTM. ） math.
（ look,,, ）
So I can just show up on your doorstep. Scout's honour I won't abuse the hospitality.
[ well. between this and calling tseng a baby at thirty-one years old, tseng is starting to feel like he has more questions than he does answers. on the other hand, teleportation in a man who just stabbed himself through the hand to demonstrate his healing factor probably shouldn't surprise him.
tseng does pinch the bridge of his nose, then laughs briefly, then shakes his head. ] All right, I'll take you at your word. Just let me know before you appear in my living room.
[ because this thread started right before aerith left, tseng still has cause not to want someone dropping in on him at random—but give him three days and he won't care. ]
Whenever suits you. It's not like we have structured schedules here.
[ which, for a guy who has almost a full year of pto banked because he never takes a fucking day off, has been quite the adjustment indeed. what do you mean he's not on the clock? ]
If you'd like to do it sooner than later, sometime in the next couple of weeks might be ideal.
（ an easy shrug, a roll of his shoulders that seems lax and boneless. he doesn't hold tension in any part of himself, really. ）
Let's do it in a week. We can do our negotiations after you've had some time to think things through. I'll talk to Sasuke about my side, maybe you two can discuss something you'd like to try together, and then you and I can do a dry run and see how it lands.
A week sounds good. I'm sure Sasuke will tell you once we've had a chance to discuss, but I'll send you a message as well.
[ keep everybody in the loop and such. after a second, not wanting to overstep but trying out something new in terms of, like, making connections with people, tseng adds, ]
You're also welcome to visit just to visit, or if you're in the mood for dinner. I'm not bad in the kitchen.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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?
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[ 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. ）
no subject
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. ]
no subject
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. ）
no subject
[ he nods his agreement with cy's words, then pauses to watch—to brace himself, as it were, for some weird shit.
if he's honest, tseng is not expecting a knife to be pulled out of some—strange, terrible pocket of space. tseng has seen magic enough to know that it's possible, but he's not expecting to see it here, and for that reason it does put him on his guard. immediately, though, it's clear that cy is handling it in a way intentionally meant to keep tseng's hackles down, keeping it visible, keeping it in his far hand. "don't surprise a dude who's worked in torture" is a good golden rule, and tseng appreciates the consideration.
he takes a long drag on his cigarette, watches cy lift the knife, and tracks its progress as it plunges straight through the meat of his hand. he doesn't flinch, but his brows do draw together briefly as cy reaches out and tells him to pull. a quick turn of his head away to exhale smoke, and then tseng reaches out to pull the knife free in one quick, efficient movement. the wound begins to close almost immediately, muscle and tendon and flesh knitting itself back together, flayed edges of skin disappearing without so much as a scar. ]
I see. [ tseng flips the knife and offers it back to cy, handle-first. ] You have a flair for showmanship.
[ for a moment tseng's gaze remains where it is, fixed on cy's hand, his mind running miles per minute. would that he had his notebook here, so he could keep these thoughts elsewhere than his own brain. then he glances back up to meet cy's gaze, considering. ]
I'm familiar with the concept of healing magic, although admittedly on Gaia it would require the use of materia to achieve. I take it you're showing me this so I understand why any injury I do to you will heal immediately? [ finally, tseng licks his fingertips, pinches out the end of his cigarette, and tucks the butt back into the pack. no littering. ] Is it inherent to you? Your magic.
no subject
Got it in one.
（ he takes the knife, wipes the blood off absent-mindedly on his shirt sleeve — dark enough to conceal it in any such case — and then the knife vanishes again. he doesn't like holding the fucking thing more than necessary. ）
You can't do anything to me that won't heal immediately. Even if you'd left the knife there, my body would've pushed it out as it healed around it, so you can trust me when I say I'm hardier than most.
（ and yet, not a masochist. some people have made the mistake of assuming he must be, just by nature of the healing — but those people don't really understand how preferences are born. ）
Yep. Can't be taken, disrupted, sealed, or whatever else people can think of. All me, baby.
no subject
Does it hurt regardless? [ is the only question tseng ultimately asks. nothing about cy's voice or face had given away any pain, but tseng knows from experience that there's a difference between not feeling pain and having experienced so much pain that the sensation no longer matters.
of course there will be other questions, later, once tseng has had a chance to put thought to paper and think through the implications of it all; whether or not cy answers them is up to him and how much of an open book he truly feels like being. ]
All right. I'll take it under advisement. [ he turns slightly in an offer to keep walking if cy wants. tseng's expression is still thoughtful, but he's certainly not bothered by the revelation, only considering. ] Would you rather we do this in my suite or at the Naked Yolk? My suite is plenty suitable, but I also have the rank to make a reservation at almost any time, so it's up to you.
no subject
（ no point in not being honest. if he's going to trust sasuke with this guy, he ought to offer him that much. there's nothing of his own history that he wouldn't spill between them like an act of evisceration if it served sasuke some purpose.
but it's not said with any especial flippancy or nonchalance — that would only make it seem fuckin' twee. it's just matter-of-fact. ）
Your suite's fine. You're what, a Jack? While I'm sure you can handle the scrutiny or you wouldn't've suggested it, let me fall on my sword for you on that one — the less attention we garner from the House the better.
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[ blegh, scrutiny. being noticeable is by far the worst part of his rank, and so tseng has learned to mitigate it in other ways, namely by being as uninteresting as possible everywhere he can. he goes to the casino and gambles a perfectly reasonable amount, winning no more often than is average for a reasonably good player; he goes to restaurants and to the marketplace and buys only the basics; he avoids saying anything incriminating anywhere that can draw attention.
the naked yolk, of course, is already aware of him and his proclivities, considering the birthday gift they arranged for him a few weeks ago, but while he knows the staff are reasonably discreet, they are also employees of the house and untrustworthy by default. besides, he understands the desire to avoid having eyes on them even by association. ]
I'll send you the location. [ he's sure cy could find it on his own, but it's the symbolism of the thing. not that cy could know it, but an invitation into a turk's personal living quarters is nothing to sneeze at. ] The staff on the [ this sentence is so stupid ] penthouse floors are already aware of Sasuke, though. I had to tell them to let him through.
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（ look,,, ）
So I can just show up on your doorstep. Scout's honour I won't abuse the hospitality.
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[ well. between this and calling tseng a baby at thirty-one years old, tseng is starting to feel like he has more questions than he does answers. on the other hand, teleportation in a man who just stabbed himself through the hand to demonstrate his healing factor probably shouldn't surprise him.
tseng does pinch the bridge of his nose, then laughs briefly, then shakes his head. ] All right, I'll take you at your word. Just let me know before you appear in my living room.
[ because this thread started right before aerith left, tseng still has cause not to want someone dropping in on him at random—but give him three days and he won't care. ]
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（ and since tseng probably doesn't know it, cy just whistles a jaunty little tune aloud. ）
You got a timeframe for out hot date, buddyguy?
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[ which, for a guy who has almost a full year of pto banked because he never takes a fucking day off, has been quite the adjustment indeed. what do you mean he's not on the clock? ]
If you'd like to do it sooner than later, sometime in the next couple of weeks might be ideal.
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（ an easy shrug, a roll of his shoulders that seems lax and boneless. he doesn't hold tension in any part of himself, really. ）
Let's do it in a week. We can do our negotiations after you've had some time to think things through. I'll talk to Sasuke about my side, maybe you two can discuss something you'd like to try together, and then you and I can do a dry run and see how it lands.
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[ keep everybody in the loop and such. after a second, not wanting to overstep but trying out something new in terms of, like, making connections with people, tseng adds, ]
You're also welcome to visit just to visit, or if you're in the mood for dinner. I'm not bad in the kitchen.
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