A strange intrigue... [Closed]

[Tigeress]

Livide was two things, both of which she understood perfectly: petite and perfect. Being an appreciatior of beauty as she was, it was no wonder why she was scouting through the busy streets of the afternoon capital city. With a sway to her lips and a confident smile on her maw, she made the dusty roads seem like a runway. A flirt, a tease, she loved a little harmless fun. Who didn't, really? She caught a familiar set of colours on the bench just ahead, Yarrow Gardens like herself. But did she feel so lazy today? It was never guesswork what Those ladies liked, and the thought made her chuckle to herself. So some said they were all predictable in their hatred for men, always choosing a mate of their own sex because it was all they could Stand.

Livide wasn't really like that. Well, she was. Women were beautiful, spectacular little flowers, and men were... well... generally Not. But! They weren't all that terrible, she'd had a good conversation once or twice, and so long as they knew their place, which was of course, below her finely sculpted perfection, then no harm no foul. She approached the Gardens female with a smile, a knowing smile that came on when she had this little feeling her evening wouldn't end up lonely, but her eyes held a look of appreciation. Oh yes, a fine view indeed! She came up close enough to put a hand upon the fox, her fur feeling so soft and plush and inviting between the door mouse's fingers. "Good afternoon, madam, why so alone on such a fine day? It simply doesn't-" Her words were cut off when the figure she'd approached turned around.

Oh gods. It was a he. A boy. She was hitting on a... well, needless to say, her facial expression at this point would be pricess to anyone passing by. As it was, the male she'd approached simply blinked once with only the slight expression of hurt crossing his... very feminine features. Except... didn't foxes have ears? "What happened to your ears?" It seemed all the poise and flirtacious grace had been brutally sucked out of her in one fell swoop of surprise. Well, she hadn't been expecting THIS.



Oh the joys of being born male in the Yarrow Gardens. He knew them all too well. Her question about his ears made him glance up at what he couldn't see, even if they had of been present. "Yarrow Gardens." He said simply, noting the look of 'fair enough' that crossed her expression as she tilted her head side to side in deliberation. Sighing with a disheartened look, he glanced down, his eyes coming up under the lids and looking shockingly like 'puppydog eyes' though he hadn't meant for it. He'd simply learned how to be as... alluring as possible to everyone he came into contact with. It saved him his life, once. He was too... pretty to waste. There was still joy for him though, he didn't complain about life outside of the Gardens. Though he had no intentions of going back. He wasn't suicidal.

"Are you going to hurt me?" He asked somewhat sheepishly, not wanting to make a huge spectacle in front of everyone passing by. The female responded with a very unusually shocked 'no', which eased his rigid posture and made him quirk an eye in curiosity. "Why not?" He was genuinely confused, wasn't he an embarassment to her homelands? Didn't she want to erase the blemish upon their people or somesuch? He'd heard it before, and understood just how truly bad it was to not have ovaries in the Gardens.

"Why would I?" She asked, somewhat incredulously. She knew how he'd be treated in the Gardens, but.... this was the city. Was the impact so permanent that even now he thought he'd be hunted down by yellow and pink, pretty little headhunters of feminist rage? Probably. She didn't blame him. "Uhh... let us forget that little opening line. I'm Livide, and you are?" She let it sink in for a moment before stepping out into the crowd.

"You won't? Sabien. Can I come with you?" The questions and responses all came out in a fluid, rapid succession of words. He was intrigued and, well, lonely. Someone could tolerate him! Really and truly, she didn't seem to want to tear anything else off of him.

"Suuure... Sabien, nice to meet you. Where do you live? I have to do some errands first." She responded with somewhat of neutrality to her voice. However, in turning to respond to him, she bumped into a crowd of people. Smiling enigmatically, she winked and went to continue on, Sabien smiling sheepishly behind her. "Nowhere. I don't really have a home, yet..."

[Vyn]

The crowd of people she bumped into happened to contain two specific Cards that had been carrying on a rather intent discussion in the safety of the bustling crowds. A brilliant Morganberry canine was anxiously explaining to a very flustered butterfly just why he had never told her something. That something, which Livide and Sabien had probably missed, was very much the Morganberry's professional occupation of 'whore'.

"Why didn't you ever tell me, Toli!?"

"I... I didn't think you'd approve! By the suits I know your father didn't!" Vana's father had been his oldest brother and probably the one least like him. A doctor, a scientist. The highest ranking of their poor little lot. "He didn't want me to tell you!"

To be entirely honest, Vana didn't fully want to know either. It was horribly awkward now that she knew just what it was her Uncle did when he went out all night and it was dirty and shameless and... Exactly something she could see him doing. The lovely little butterfly stomped a foot and was about to continue her upset rant when a bipedal mouse promptly bumped into them and flashed the butterfly a wink.

Vana lost her train of thought in an instant and blinked lightly at the brilliant colors of the woman that had stumbled into her. Oh...

Anatolius caught his niece's distraction in a heart beat and leapt upon it like a owl swooped upon an unsuspecting mouse. He was going to very quickly change the topic and distract Vana's attention from his work all in one breath. "Why, 'ello! How are you two, ahh..." Oh well, that was surprising. A Yarrow Girl, a very prim-looking yarrow girl, was keeping company with a Yarrow male. No, not just a Yarrow Male, but an Ace and a Yarrow Male. Well that didn't just scream "BAD LUCK" in big unpleasant letters. "...doing, this afternoon?"

Vana's face was the perfect image of embarrassment, flushed with surprise that An had so blatantly approached the two strangers and, worse yet, that they were staring at an odd pair of Gardendwellers to which one was marked quite clearly with the bold, black A of an Ace. It almost made her comfortable, knowing that she was actually the highest ranking person there.

[Tigeress]

Livide wasn't an idiot, she knew that Sabien would get a lot of unwanted attention when it came to his rank in particular, but also where he was from. But, she felt sorry for the stupid thing, out here in the city, showing his shame like a proud peacock, or... just a Really oblivious one. She was opting for the latter, he didn't seem like the kind to have much self pride left in him, and she could tell from his attitude that she wasn't far off the mark. To save them both the embarassment, she was going to quickly just head on, but when the butterfly directed her attention at them... ah, they know each other... well, since he's already spoken to us, I suppose it'd be Rude to ignore such an... inviting... invitation... .

She walked back a few steps and smiled at both of them, trying very hard not to openly eye the shape of the blue and black beauty before her. Sometimes, loving women was a curse, she never understood how men managed it. She could barely keep herself in check sometimes. "Very well, I must admit... and yourself?" It was rude to speak to someone and look at someone else, but she couldn't help it, she tolerated men only when there wasn't something of more interest to her. And there was most certainly something of more interest to her at the moment than the canine male.

Sabien was caught in a moment of embarassment, catching the canine looking at the mark on his chest. He shifted that shoulder uncomfortably and smiled, not knowing if he deserved to respond. "O-okay..." He stammered shyly, accidentally doing the 'puppy eyes' thing again. He just tended to always speak with his head lowered very submissively, and when he looked up at someone, it had a pathetically charming effect. Not that he'd know it, nobody ever spared him the time of day. Some days it made him miserable, but today he'd found someone who didn't care what rank he was, so it was a shockingly good day. He doubted he'd be so lucky with these strangers, so he tried to go by the law of 'speak when spoken to, and don't elaborate', they probably didn't care about his response anyway.

Curiously he watched his companion almost drool over the pretty butterfly, and couldn't hide a blush. What would it be like to be able to be so forward, so obvious? He wasn't allowed to be with anyone who wasn't an ace, mostly because nobody else WANTED to be with him, but also because he couldn't reproduce with anything else. He wasn't made good enough for that. He smiled uncertainly at the canine, not knowing if he was going to be able to say anything else, or if he'd be asked another question at all. Those wings were nice, he was very pretty with them. Saben was suddenly very self conscious about his own... missing pieces.

[Vyn]

How... do you respond to that? The woman was staring and, for once, she was not staring at Anatolius but at...her! She'd never experienced that before, to so obviously have caught someone's attention. Her cheeks flushed rose pink and her head dropped suddenly so that she was staring at her feet while her wings fluttered absently. Oh how did you respond to that?!

Tolius was taking care of it though, casting about with his usual laid back and oh so casual charm. He didn't compare to a diamond's skill in any way, but he had a sort of natural charm that made him quite approachable despite his 'low' Club status.

"We're doing rather well ourselves." He dipped his head jovially, his eyes glinting cheerfully. "I'm Anatolius and this shy little thing..." The canine leaned back and gave his niece a gentle nudge forward.

Vana's eyes widened and her blush deepened, but she raised her blue eyes to meet with the mouse. "O-Oh... I'm Parvana... I hope, we're not interrupting anything?" She remembered her manners abruptly and dipped her head politely, glancing from the dormouse to the canine. While Anatolius gently laughed.

"And what may we call you two beauties, mm?"

Flirting just came naturally to him. It was part of his occupation and, he had to admit, a bit of a hobby as well. Specially when he was met with lovely creatures such as these two Yarrows. Even the Ace was rather cute, in a pitiful sort of way.

[Tigeress]

The canine was charming, she'd give him that. And hmmm, not even a diamond! A fellow flirt, how entertaining. So long as he wasn't flirting with anything She was interested in. That simply wouldn't do, and she'd hate to have to show him up... The female's blushing only seemed to egg her on, a pleasant grin spreading across her face as she studied the lovely lady's reactions. So shy, hopefully she wasn't one of those silly things that didn't realize how freaking beautiful she was? Now, Livide would have to tend to that if that was the case.... However, the introduction from the butterfly made her face light up. A name, she had a name for this pretty little flower.

"A pleasure to meet you Anatolius, Parvana..." She accentuated the name purposefully, playing with in her mouth like some exotic candy. It was nice, suiting. It wasn't like Livide to become so instantly infatuated... well... usually not like her, but it still made her stop and think 'huh' when she realized how... obvious she was being. Hmmm. Too long without any pleasant female contact seemed to have terrible effects on her ability to restrain herself. Fluttering her wings and putting on an expression of 'who, me?' at the canine's compliment, she smiled brilliantly as she spoke. "Livide, Liv if it pleases you more." Oh she couldn't help but smile knowing at Parvana as the words came out, if she were a feline she might have purred.

Sabien was content to just sit back and watch everyone else talk, as he normally did, not ever being invited into conversation, and punished the few times he tried to join in without invitation. Livide seemed to Really like the butterfly girl, and his blush matched that of the butterfly, though a small smile graced his feminine features. It looked so fun, to flirt like that, but he'd never been flirted with before, and there was no way he could ever flirt with someone, unless they were an ace. And luckily, for the sake of every set of parents out there, aces were surprisingly rare.

His eyes widened as he realized what the handsome canine had said. Beauties. Plural. That included him. Was he being flirted with?! His heart rose and fluttered in his throat, making him stammer out syllables that were obviously not even related to a name at all. Finally he calmed himself at the thought that rose into his mind- it was probably just politeness that made the canine include him. They seemed like an unusually polite pair to be so accepting of him. Luck truly couldn't be on his side enough that someone would honestly want to flirt with him, though it was a nice thought, and it created a nice feeling he couldn't ever remember feeling before. Especially not since his mother had clipped his ears off, that had been the start of a very downward spiral. Luckily the hair had grown over the very small stubs, which had always made him wonder if they'd ever grow back. But life didn't like him that much.

Even if the nice male wasn't hitting on him, it was still polite to respond, as Livide hadn't taken it upon herself to speak for him. It was a choice that left him with mixed feelings. "I'm Sabien." He said quietly, though his voice had a whimsical quality to it that once would expect from looking at the silver eyed fox. If only he'd been born a woman... If only.

[Vyn]

Vana was so confused by this woman's direct mannerisms that she didn't know what to do. She was stuck somewhere between tripping over her own feet or biting off her own tongue. The dormouse was winking and batting her eyes and doing all sorts of other suggestive things that absolutely stole the breath from Vana's chest.

"It's a pleasure, Livide." She murmured politely, dipping her head again... "Sabien."

The acceptance of the two strangers were for two very different reasons. Vana had been raised like every other Card, at least by her father. He had told her to despise Aces, but behind his every cutting word toward Aces her mother had something good to say. Her mother had never lorded rank above anyone, even when she had raised that little Joker boy...

Parvana returned herself to the present just in time to see An sliding forward toward the Ace. Oh lord, was he FLIRTING?! Vana froze stiff.


Tolius was, indeed, flirting. He'd drawn up, nose to nose with Sabien and peering down into those big 'puppy dog' eyes. Ace or not, Anatolius couldn't help it. He really was a sucker for pathetic boys.

"Sabien," like Livide he rolled the name on his tongue. "What a gorgeous name for a gorgeous boy...it's very much a pleasure to meet you."

[Tigeress]

Noticing the other's discomfort, Livide mentally took a little 'time out' to let herself refocus and to stop getting so giddy like a virgin schoolgirl. Geeze, she'd never met such a cute girl before. The slutty kind was usually the kind that she attracted for some reason, though she didn't know why. She was too romantic to be much of a 'bad girl' magnet, or so she thought. She did have her Grossly romantic moments after all, she was very much the man in the relationship, though she liked being pampered like a woman as well.

"What brings the both of you out into the city on this hot, crowded day?" She asked lightly, smiling all the while. The female just had that quality about her, that huggable quality that made you just want to grin at her adorable shyness, and Livide was almost sad to know that by toning it down, all the blushing and awkward shyness would probably fade significantly. Oh well. If it made her feel better, Livide was willing to sacrifice indulging in her lust/crush-at-first-sight. Though, amusingly enough, it seemed she could easily distract things into a seperate one on one setting... as the canine seemed to already be doing exactly that with Sabien. How... very curious indeed. Did Sabien swing that way?

Sabien did, indeed, swing that way. Probably only because he was TERRIFIED of women, and would never let one touch him if he could help it. Livide's subtle flirtacious poking was still a spot of ice in his spine. He just... always felt his mother's cruel cruel hands on him when they touched him. He almost whimpered at the memory, but didn't want to appear even more pitiful than he normally did. When the canine spoke his name, he blushed a red so bright it looked painful. Oh gods... would he like it? Why was he repeating it? Did he not like it? But the way he said it sounded so... so...

A shiver ran up and down his spine, and his tail wagged twice before he stilled it in shock at what was happening. He liked the feminine fox! He really, really honestly liked him! Didn't he? Or was he playing some very very cruel joke? That would make sense, too. "T-thank you, Anatolius..." You're so, so handsome... But those words would remain unsaid, he was too shy to play the games the other two seemed to excited to play. More than that, he was too uncertain, too afraid of hurt and rejection for stepping out of line in his eagerness to be wanted, to be accepted, to have someone actually like him, appreciate him, maybe even love him? Did other cards love cards like him? Or would he never find someone for him because society said he didn't deserve anyone? "You're really nice..." He said sheepishly, his voice barely above a whisper. His speech wasn't as practiced and his words weren't as intellectual as most others, probably because he hadn't really been around people until very recently, and had heard and spoken a significantly small amount. But he tried to express himself whenever possible with the best words he knew how to use. Hopefully he didn't sound too stupid...

[Vyn]

Anatolius's tail wagged smoothly from side to side, a fluid blur of red behind him. The boy was quite cute and that painful blush made it all the more appealing. When it came to flirting, An was usually shameless. Now was a perfect example. In fact, very little curbed his enthusiasm aside from higher ranking Cards. Those he only pursued when the sun was down and he was itching for money in his pocket, so to speak. No, he preferred a boy more 'on his level' and, honestly, Anatolius's level wasn't all that high. He wasn't a scholar and he wasn't rich, he was just your common, run of the mill club with nothing but a good-looking coat to bring a shine to him.

"You're not used to compliments, are ya?" Anatolius's words were as close to a purr as was possible for a canine. "'Tis a pity, honestly... Mayhaps I should warm ya to 'em?"


It was quite obvious that Tolius had gotten distracted by the feminine boy before him and Vana sighed a little before turning her attention back onto Livide and the question the woman had asked. Tolius wasn't going to answer and, now that she'd been dosed with a good deal of shock at her Uncle's tactics, she was quite a bit calmer in when faced with the greatly subdued Livide.

"We were actually just taking a walk and catching up." Well, they'd actually been stationary and arguing when Livide had bumped into them... "I only just arrived in the City, actually." Her parents were gone, Tolius was all she had left and, if Parvana could do anything about it, she was procrastinating her return to her home like the plague. "And you, miss? What were you and your friend up to before... before, well...before my uncle accosted your companion?"

Sabien didn't seem to mind, honestly, but with Tolius's profession fresh in her mind Parvana just couldn't help but worry for the little Ace. Would he realize that Tolius was probably just looking for a fling?

[Tigeress]

Sabien's attention was drawn by the flashing tail, he had such nice fur, so soft and plush looking. He wondered what it would feel like, but he'd always wondered what it would feel like to be allowed to touch anyone. To have anyone want to touch him, even. The canine seemed almost like a predator, his nose brushing Sabien's every now and again as he moved, so close had he come forward. If the fox had ears, they would have been pressed to his skull in embarassment. This was so... strange. "N-no..." He might have said more, but didn't want to push his luck, besides, it really took no explanation to see Why the little fox wasn't used to compliments...

Maybe he should warm him to them? What did that mean? Was he just flirting with him to make him feel better after all? Or was he still flirting and trying to show genuine interest in the easily surprised fox? His tail twitched behind him before coming to slide around his legs protectively, a force of habit really. "Maybe?" He asked tentatively, mentally sighing at himself for sounding as needy as he felt. He might as well have asked the canine to just say nice things to him, for all his pathetic comment was worth. Oh well, the handsome canine didn't seem to mind how pathetic the fox could get at times, not yet anyway.

All of Livide's attention had shifted to the female in an instant, almost happy that the canine was too caught up in her random companion to hear her question. Now she could get back to swooning at the butterfly. "Well then, lucky me running into you so quickly after your arrival." She said, grinning widely. Her eyes were a half-lidded husky stare, but that's just how she generally looked when she viewed beautiful women. Mesmerized, and seductive in her gaze. Well at least that took a little out of the equation, the canine was a relative, and therefore she wasn't treading on anyone else's property so to speak.

"I was just out shopping, and ah... I don't know much about Sabien. We just met, actually." I mistook him for a lovely Yarrow Gardens female... She left that part out, however. No need to embarass herself in front of the lovely lady she was speaking to. Like Sabien, Livide had no idea that the canine was any sort of whore, other than just the regular, run-of-the-mill, I enjoy sex with attractive people kind. Worry was far from her mind, and she'd have to thank him later for giving her some one on one time with the butterfly. Now if only she could get her someplace a little nicer, more quiet.

[Vyn]

Anatolius hadn't seen someone so very needy for attention in some time now... It really was quite refreshing. He liked being 'needed' rather than 'lusted after', but both suited him just fine in the end. Leaning forward he placed an affectionate lick to the side of the fox's muzzle.

"Please don't look so afraid of me, darlin', I won't bite unless ya ask me to." He laughed softly and winked. "Really though, I don't mean you any harm. I'm just the friendly sort and you could most definitely use some of that, am I right?"

What Ace didn't, honestly? Tolius was just happy he could be giving the boy a bit of much needed affection.


Parvana still wasn't quite sure how to deal with advances or flirting of any manner. Even Anatolius's lack of shame made her blush. Livide's interest made her blush doubly so, even if she had toned things down. The poor little butterfly just didn't know how to cope with it.

"Oh, shopping? We're not interrupting, uhm, are we?" Her wings fluttered nervously but she also appeared...ever so slightly hopeful. She liked the company of this lovely Yarrow, if only she knew how to go about getting to know her. Gently she shifted a foot, about to speak when Tolius suddenly returned to the conversation.

"Hey, Vana! Why don't we take our new friends out for lunch, hm? I know a nice little place that isn't too far from here." He would leave out that it was part of Roxanne's district, they didn't really need to know that much.