She smiled when she heard her apprentice’s retort, hiding the seemingly random expression behind her glass.
“Really? Could have fooled me.” And just like that he’d convinced Matsu’s hunter to seek something else entirely, the Balosar leading Sage off as if his hand wasn’t wound in the grip of a quiet, patient predator. The Sith lady made to get up, finishing her drink before lifting herself from the booth and calling for her ship. Matsu certainly intended for Sage to have his fun of course – what other reason would she have for offering the option to rewire Fantes’ mind? But the art needed to be taught first so that Sage might make his new plaything to his designs, mold him as he wished, so she would follow them and provide a lesson before leaving Sage to the pleasure of his choosing.
Halfway out of the club, she felt a tug at her hand, turning her head to see who was brave enough to touch her. Watching her with all the predatory grace afforded to a man with no idea with whom he was speaking, a good-looking human man smirked at the success of his attention-grabber. Matsu had to admit that in another life where she was less preoccupied and less worldly, she might have found this man’s expression – like he would rather eat her than go somewhere with her –somewhat alluring.
“Leaving alone? Seems a shame,” he said, tracing her outline with a gaze he didn’t bother to hide. There were very few things that made Matsu instantly angry, but being leered at was one of them – it called to mind the men that’d been staring at [member="Kesare Salazar"] the night Matsu had been reunited with her. But she smiled, something that quirked just the corners of her mouth as if he’d flattered her in to shyness. She felt a flare of satisfaction from him, a lesser predator’s momentary triumph at the thought of ensnaring particularly prized prey. She raised a hand, crooking a finger to beckon him along as she continued towards the exit. His pale imitation of danger, of the thing that drew so many others in, was amusing. The act made it easier to take control of him, closing around him before he’d realized what’d happened.
When they reached the landing pad outside, her ship coming to hover precisely where she was waiting, she pressed lightly on the man’s mind and watched as he kept on walking, walking…walking right over the edge of the pad in to the traffic below.
___________________________________________________
Somewhere between the bar and the apartment he was renting, Fantes had lost any inhibition he had left.
It was a short ride, one he expected to have trouble with considering the swirling feeling in his head but instead was even simpler than usual. His status and usual paygrade afforded him a rental on the city’s surface, far enough down that looking through the windows would offer a view of more buildings, but not so far that one couldn’t look up and see the stars shining through the Rubic’s cube construction of Coruscant. All in all, a place he wasn’t at all worried about bringing this Sage back to, at least from a showing-off standpoint. Whether Fantes was prepared to do all the things he’d been denying himself was entirely another.
Resistance seemed tiring once they’d gotten inside, a mountain far too high to climb just to save face. Sage exuded something as close to Zeltron pheromones as it got, at least as far as Fantes was concerned, and despite the strange light-headedness he chalked up to too much to drink he still poured them both another. It was when he handed the glass to the other man that he felt another tug, something like string around the top of his spine that joined all his limbs in the approach. That either was holding something seemed not to matter as he leaned in, his lips inches from Sage’s, lids hooded after a sweep over the near-stranger’s features.
“I don’t usually…” (
Superfluous. Who cares? Just want…) He kissed Sage with the hesitancy of someone who’d trained himself not to give in, as if worried he might get bitten, but after a moment that left with his inhibition, replaced with the same control he exercised in everything else. Drink still in one hand, he brought the other up to twist fingers in Sage’s hair, tightening as he tilted the man’s head back and went teeth and tongue down his neck, imagining unwrapping forbidden fruits…
___________________________________________________
It seemed almost a shame to break it up. She’d followed Sage’s signature before he’d gotten too far, getting in to the apartments behind the pair short work. The cacophony of emotions flying around the room was heady and she would have been content to stand there and listen, but she’d promised a lesson…and she’d rather leave the two to themselves.
Clearing her throat, she pushed off the doorjam and held up a hand when the Balosar spun around to confront the intruder. His expression seemed to go blank as Matsu moved to sit on one of the couches strewn about what served as a living room.
“So…would you have him feed information back to you about the Underworld? Or would you erase him entirely, create something new in a handsome package? If you’re to erase only part of someone’s mind, you must be very careful about what you intend to remove, lest you ruin them.” Fantes was still staring off as if no one was around.
[member="Sage Bane"]