[And so at the bottom of the stairs to the next floor, the glowing portal tall enough for Stolas to step through, even as he only pokes his head through to look around briefly.]
"Right here!" Tendi had been in one of the more private reading nooks, but Stolas arrives just as she's walking into the main entrance area, a book on interior design under her arm. "Oh, wow, so this is one of your portals?"
"Indeed! I can use it to travel between any locations in the known universe," he says, stepping out fully to gesture to it with a sweeping turn. "But I do need to know where I'm intending to open the other end, hence my asking your location."
"That makes total sense! Wow. I wonder if they have anything in common with portals from my world?" ...no, wait, distracted. Not why she's meeting him. "Um, anyway, I just step through? Or do you need to make a new one to your cabin?"
"Ah- yes, please, right this way." He drops into a light bow to gesture for her to come through first. "I was already in my room, so it's nothing, really."
And on the other side, Stolas's room is massive: partially in the sense that it's one massive king-sized bedroom, but also because it is, of course, scaled to fit the Goetian princess - which means that Tendi looks extremely small relative to the furniture.
And when Stolas steps in behind her the bright blue-purple glow stops lighting up the room, leaving it lit largely by the candelabras sitting on various surfaces; a large double doorway leads outside, through the glass panes of which the outside view of the Barge is visible.
Tendi steps through without hesitation. She trusts him.
"Oh, wow! Now this is stylish!" It reminds her a little of home, though high-status Orion aesthetics skew a little more excessively ostentatious, like they always have someone to impress. This is luxurious while still being functional, which she appreciates.
She heads to the couch and pulls herself up onto the seat without too much trouble. At least the furniture still looks like furniture. Some alien worlds you're never sure what's supposed to be a seat. "So, um, should I just... get into it?"
Sorry, Stolas. But if it weren't important, she wouldn't have brought it up.
"So you, um... let Blitzø borrow your grimoire, huh? In exchange for sex?" She's careful to keep her tone neutral. She doesn't want him to think she's going to judge or lecture. She's been there, and knows how twisted and messy it can be navigating power discrepancies in intimate relationships.
...not the reaction she was expecting. Maybe she needs to change the approach. "It's more... everything surrounding that. Imps are pretty low status in Hell, right?"
"Well - yes, of course." He won't deny it, and his tone is dismissive. "But Blitz has always been special to me. And that's not even to mention the fact that he initiated this arrangement by stealing my grimoire in the first place."
Tendi takes a deep breath, looking at her hands. "On Orion, it's... men. All men. Those born into important Houses or married to powerful women get more respect, but it's- they still don't get treated well. And I didn't treat them well, either, when I lived there." Which is a pretty sanitized way of describing it, but it's a start.
"I know it's possible to have a good relationship in that situation. My parents are great. It just... that power discrepancy is still there. I wanted to check in with how you're doing about... all that."
"Well, I can assure you that you don't need to worry about our arrangement regardless," he says calmly. "Since I arrived here without my grimoire, I made it a point to assure Blitz that without it there's nothing there binding him to being required to fuck me. That should he choose to fuck me it would be entirely his own decision."
Which doesn't technically answer the question but also he doesn't want to.
"That's good! That's- that's a start. Nobody should have to feel that sex is some kind of transaction, especially with someone they care about." But it was, for them. For a while, it sounds like. And she's a little worried that neither of them have actually unpacked that or talked about it.
"Miss Tendi." He lifts a hand with an idle wave: the blue-purple glow of his magic surrounds it, and a book flies gracefully off the shelf - his grimoire - to fly over to them and open itself in a flurry of pages, so when it settles on its spread, liquid motes of magic rise from it to form seven complicated sigils. "In my world, and that of most humans who do celebrate Hell, there are seven rings, and thus seven rulers, known as the Deadly Sins."
They all swirl together into the one that looks like a fireball, that reforms in an elegant burst of fire to create a a simplified Goetian, that walks across the page with a salacious swing of its hips and blows a heart-shaped flame at Tendi as Stolas talks. "One of these rings is Lust, as embodied by the King of such, Asmodeus."
And he closes the book again, catching it lightly in both hands. "The majority of his employees are sex workers, and nearly all succubi and incubi are either born or originate in his ring. Sex does not have the taboos in Hell that humans ascribe it on Earth. It's merely a mutually pleasant exchange of services."
Now it's Tendi's turn to give Stolas a confused look, though she does appreciate the show. Stolas's magic is fun. "Well, I'm not human, Orion has very few taboos around sex - honestly it could do with a few more - and Blitzø is an assassin, not a sex worker."
She sighs. "Look, I didn't realize how... fucked up it was, the way I was taught to treat men, until I left Orion and started seeing how other races approached their relationships. Especially intimate relationships. And it took me a long time to accept that I had... probably hurt people by participating in the system Orion society created. Even if it was all very 'normal' and 'acceptable' for my people." She's still not sure she could look a lover in the eye and explain the things she'd done.
"I'm not saying your relationship is wrong, or you need to stop, or anything like that. I just... want you to think about how your society impacts you. Both of you. Some day you're going to have to deal with how Blitzø's been treated by people who look like you, even if you treat him well. And maybe... maybe how you've treated people who look like Blitzø." The last is a guess, but it's a guess based on personal experience. She'd never treat her father the way she treated other men, but at the time, she'd found ways to justify it to herself. Because it was how things were supposed to be.
He's trying to debate whether he should be insulted or not by what Tendi is insinuating.
"I have never forced myself upon Blitz," he corrects her, a little stiff but not offended. "Nor have any of our arrangements been non-consensual, and quite frankly I have never required Blitz uphold his end of the bargain. He has always done so willingly, and if our arrangement ever fell on a day that didn't work for either of us we would negotiate and reschedule."
He straightens up a little, tugging his vest straight. "And I have always been very clear that I don't care what society thinks of us. People are extremely aware I am fucking an imp, thanks to our date at Ozzie's, and I still refuse to care. I want Blitz!"
"I never said you had!" Oh, this is a mess. She's not sure he's even listening at this point, and she's never been great at talking about this kind of stuff. "But you don't think it affects your relationship that he expects higher status demons to treat him like garbage? Especially if he's ever seen you treat another imp like they're beneath you. Or that he has to be afraid of losing you and access to your grimoire? Don't you think both of you deserve a relationship without some transaction hanging over your heads?"
...which is very similar to what she told Blitzø, honestly.
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arsegoetia) wrote2024-04-29 04:01 pm
Re: After Pairing Announcements
Re: After Pairing Announcements
Miss Tendi?
=>Spam
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Spam
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And on the other side, Stolas's room is massive: partially in the sense that it's one massive king-sized bedroom, but also because it is, of course, scaled to fit the Goetian princess - which means that Tendi looks extremely small relative to the furniture.
And when Stolas steps in behind her the bright blue-purple glow stops lighting up the room, leaving it lit largely by the candelabras sitting on various surfaces; a large double doorway leads outside, through the glass panes of which the outside view of the Barge is visible.
Re: Spam
"Oh, wow! Now this is stylish!" It reminds her a little of home, though high-status Orion aesthetics skew a little more excessively ostentatious, like they always have someone to impress. This is luxurious while still being functional, which she appreciates.
She heads to the couch and pulls herself up onto the seat without too much trouble. At least the furniture still looks like furniture. Some alien worlds you're never sure what's supposed to be a seat. "So, um, should I just... get into it?"
Re: Spam
"I suppose you should? Perhaps it would be best to get it over with, as it were."
...he's going to start hating his Satan-damned couch if people keep breaking horrible news to him.
Re: Spam
"So you, um... let Blitzø borrow your grimoire, huh? In exchange for sex?" She's careful to keep her tone neutral. She doesn't want him to think she's going to judge or lecture. She's been there, and knows how twisted and messy it can be navigating power discrepancies in intimate relationships.
Re: Spam
"...is that all?"
Re: Spam
Re: Spam
Re: Spam
"I know it's possible to have a good relationship in that situation. My parents are great. It just... that power discrepancy is still there. I wanted to check in with how you're doing about... all that."
Re: Spam
Which doesn't technically answer the question but also he doesn't want to.
Re: Spam
Re: Spam
"Miss Tendi." He lifts a hand with an idle wave: the blue-purple glow of his magic surrounds it, and a book flies gracefully off the shelf - his grimoire - to fly over to them and open itself in a flurry of pages, so when it settles on its spread, liquid motes of magic rise from it to form seven complicated sigils. "In my world, and that of most humans who do celebrate Hell, there are seven rings, and thus seven rulers, known as the Deadly Sins."
They all swirl together into the one that looks like a fireball, that reforms in an elegant burst of fire to create a a simplified Goetian, that walks across the page with a salacious swing of its hips and blows a heart-shaped flame at Tendi as Stolas talks. "One of these rings is Lust, as embodied by the King of such, Asmodeus."
And he closes the book again, catching it lightly in both hands. "The majority of his employees are sex workers, and nearly all succubi and incubi are either born or originate in his ring. Sex does not have the taboos in Hell that humans ascribe it on Earth. It's merely a mutually pleasant exchange of services."
Re: Spam
She sighs. "Look, I didn't realize how... fucked up it was, the way I was taught to treat men, until I left Orion and started seeing how other races approached their relationships. Especially intimate relationships. And it took me a long time to accept that I had... probably hurt people by participating in the system Orion society created. Even if it was all very 'normal' and 'acceptable' for my people." She's still not sure she could look a lover in the eye and explain the things she'd done.
"I'm not saying your relationship is wrong, or you need to stop, or anything like that. I just... want you to think about how your society impacts you. Both of you. Some day you're going to have to deal with how Blitzø's been treated by people who look like you, even if you treat him well. And maybe... maybe how you've treated people who look like Blitzø." The last is a guess, but it's a guess based on personal experience. She'd never treat her father the way she treated other men, but at the time, she'd found ways to justify it to herself. Because it was how things were supposed to be.
no subject
"I have never forced myself upon Blitz," he corrects her, a little stiff but not offended. "Nor have any of our arrangements been non-consensual, and quite frankly I have never required Blitz uphold his end of the bargain. He has always done so willingly, and if our arrangement ever fell on a day that didn't work for either of us we would negotiate and reschedule."
He straightens up a little, tugging his vest straight. "And I have always been very clear that I don't care what society thinks of us. People are extremely aware I am fucking an imp, thanks to our date at Ozzie's, and I still refuse to care. I want Blitz!"
no subject
...which is very similar to what she told Blitzø, honestly.