Come With Me And You'll See

"Probably," Ursa shrugged, unconcerned. "But they can't do much to me since they aren't my direct employer. I'm doing this job for them, but I work through an agency, and that protects me. I didn't sign no fuckin' contract with these guys. Worst they can do is refuse to pay me, and I can deal with that if it means keepin' you safe."

When the bird shifter mentioned being unable to lie, Ursa remembered that he was a fae species. That's where his ability to transform came from, unlike Ursa, who was a bear shifter, more akin to a were-creature than a fae.

The no lying thing was inconvenient, but honestly, probably didn't matter. Not now that people were apparently gathering outside. That was not a good sign at all.

"You know what, forget the lying. I'll do what I have to, to get you out of here." Ursa moved towards the door and looked out the peep-hole, swearing under his breath. "Shit. Things just got a lot less safe for you. I think they're try'na auction you off. The contract was a lie to get you here. You've already been trafficked the moment you stepped in the building. I gotta get you out so they can't keep or sell you."

Turning back around, Ursa looked at Luxe with a sense of urgency. "Listen, it's my job to keep you safe and I intend to do it, but you gotta do everything I say, okay?" He moved forward, taking his own leather jacket off hastily. "I need you to shift into your raven form and keep completely quiet and still until I tell you that it's safe. Do you understand? I'm gonna sneak you out in my jacket."

The fae wasn't expecting the next words that came out of the bear shifter's mouth. "They- They're trying to what?" The concern in his voice turned into something much more terrified. "Oh no.... Oh-Oh no..." He could feel his heart beating like it wanted to jump out of his chest as tears welled in his eyes. Of all the things. This felt like a nightmare he wished he could wake up from.

"You- you're sure?" Luxe reached out with his free hand to take a hold of Ursa's arm. He hoped it might help ground him, but right now, nothing would. The bear sounded so sure of himself.

The more the idea settled in, the more panicked he felt. His breathing becoming rather erratic. "I- Hmm... O-okay..." He nodded. What else could he do? He couldn't leave himself and his only choice was to trust this man he'd only met for the night.

He didn't sound like he was lying. Either he stayed here and risked a most certainly terrible outcome or he went with him with a fifty-fifty shot. He liked his chances with just one person versus a whole building of people.

"Okay... Okay...." He repeated, as if it would help him self soothe at all. He swallowed hard, closing his eyes rather tightly. His cane clattered to the floor. In the blink of an eye, the tall singer was no longer standing there as he was. Now he was a large white raven, standing in a pile of his human clothes on the floor, attempting to shake the rest of the fabric off his head. It only made him panic more, given the situation, his wings erratically flapping.

"Yeah! But only if you've got nothin' else to do!" She said, finding an emptiness in her gut. Dancing and talking had only temporarily distracted her from a more important matter: What was next on the menu?

"Ya know what, luv? Sounds great ta me. I'll meet you right outside. Promise. Just gonna use the loo real quick, yeah?" Jez smiled genuinely, lightly rubbing her shoulder with his hand. "Be just a minute, honest."

He quickly made his way to the bathroom, hiding himself in a stall to shift. When they came out, he was now a she. A much shorter, more petite she. Her clothes were now fairly loose on her, but with rolling up her pants at the waist and tying her shirt so it fit snuggly in the front, it would look much more like a style choice.

She made her way outside, hoping Faye would still be there. There was a relief when she saw her, giving her a rather enthusiastic wave. In her female form, she could pass for her male form's much tinier twin sister. Her make up and lipstick and hair were the same exact as her male form's had been.

"I only hope it has not marred a seal. That would be.... unfortunate." It would mean much more work to patch himself up if that was the case. If it hadn't, and they could stitch the wound up without much of a problem, not that it would exactly heal.

Myles tended to prefer low key celebrations, even if it was just himself and a drink or two. A little pat on the back from himself for just being accepted as a tattoo apprentice.

It wasn't just any run of the mill tattoo apprenticeship. The guy he'd be learning from specialized in scarring and supernatural creatures like himself. That's exactly what he'd wanted to do with his tattooing career. He was still a little in disbelief that the man had agreed at all.

Was he nervous about the whole endeavor? Sure- but he was mostly excited.

Eden wasn't expecting this sort of drama to just be handed to her, but she was a listening ear and witness to the poor man's misery. While she could legally drink the woman opted for a Sherly Temple instead, heavy on the grenadine, extra cherries. She stirred the tiny plastic straw around in her glass as she craned her neck out to see where Quinn was pointing. Yikes.

"That's some bad luck mista Quinn, I'm sorry ya gotta see that." When he implied he shouldn't impose on her she shook her head. "No, it's alright, I don't mind."

She should have let it go but there was something about that smile, sincere yet sad that tugged on her heart strings a little. "I'ma be right back!" Slipping off her bar stool drink in hand the brunette would make her way through the bar goers towards the couple that Quinn pointed out to her. Tapping the dude on the shoulder to get his attention she'd wait until he looked at her before very loudly and with conviction stating, "How could you? On our anniversary?!" The shocked look on the man's face only grew as the female with him started asking him who Eden was, before he could speak she doused her new friend's ex with her drink and walked off very quickly back towards her seat.

He turned his head when he heard her quite unexpected exclamation. What the fuck was the lass doin'? His brows raised as the scene unfolded, ending with his ex covered in the red liquid. It honestly brought a sort of crooked smile to his face. "Oh.... I like this one. She's fun." He muttered to himself. As quickly as the hurt had come, it was just as quickly slipping away. Eden didn't know it yet, but she'd just gained herself a lanky lost puppy of a man.

Still, settling in and chuckling at her own missteps in turn, she watched him thoughtfully. "I guess it's better that way. But it's still something that's on your body, after, right? And I mean, tattooing the back of a client's arm is easier than tattooing the back of your own arm, for example. That's a particular technical difficulty! Tattooing through the mirror? Or the back of your own thigh? It's awkward."

As he tried to redirect, though, she took the bait easily enough, humming to herself and tilting her head back. "Ah, yeah. Mostly I stream horror games, big fan. I've gotten to play Fatal Frame: Crimson Butterfly twice on stream now, the original and the remake. Picking between the two is a little challenging and kinda nitpicky."

Looking up at the ceiling, she gave a long hum. "But guilty pleasure? Every November I set aside time to play a game that my stream suggests from whatever genre. Last November they had me play this game called Blue Prince," Maya laughed quietly. "You play as this kid whose great uncle just died and left his fortune to you, but his house is fucking weird? Every day the rooms in the house change and you have to place them based in a selection of rooms available to you to try and accomplish a task he left for you in his will, or else you might just have the entire inheritance stripped away from you. You gotta solve a bunch of puzzles of a variety of types. Like some are math puzzles, some are based in word play... the deeper you get into this game the more you're like, geezus, even once you finish the goal that you're meant to accomplish, there's so much more to uncover."

"I don't play as much, but I did pick an older game recently- or at least I guess anyone would think it's old based on industry standards. It's called Unraveled, if you've ever heard of it. Shorter game but it's pretty damn emotional." He laughed a little at himself, looking down as he shook his head. "Made me cry like a baby, honestly."

"I'd love to play the second game, but it's a two player. Bought it anyway just to have it."

Her smile remained playful at his deflection, and she slowly rose to her feet, setting things aside. "Well, I think we can manage within ear shot without any trouble. Dinner will be ready soon, but in the meantime, come. I'll show you to your room. I expect you'll have at least some things you'll want to put away." Her toe tapped his shoes. "Though, please do take these off before we go upstairs?"

Deva didn't wait for him to respond, heading up the couple of steps out of the sunken living room before pacing barefoot across the floor towards the main entrance, and the stairs that led upwards. The second floor was just as much curved walls as the floor below, as though Deva might be allergic to a square room. Light shone in from the skylights above, though as the sun was setting small lights were turning on in the hallway that created more of a soft, ambient glow than anything.

He picked up the few things he'd left out of the way, slinging his guitar over his shoulder and holding his back pack by the top strap as he moved along. He kicked off his boots where it looked like the lot of shoes should go and headed on up the stairs after her.

He gave a polite sort of nod as he passed her, heading on into the room. Fuck, this was even bigger than the trailer he grew up in. This would be one hell of an adjustment. "This is real nice." He commented as he set his things down at the foot of the bed, taking a moment to give the space a look around.

For now, he wouldn't mention it. He could at least give Em this much, after what he had just done on his behalf.

It didn't do anything to stop him from his work once he'd shaken it off, and it was easy enough to resume his work, swaying to the familiar, unobtrusive music that came through the speakers, quiet enough not to disrupt the occupants, but just loud enough for him to enjoy nevertheless. A few more customers wandered in and were served in good fashion, and he stopped to socialize with some of the regulars, though something felt like it pulled his attention to the windows. As though he could see something out of the corner of his eye. As though something had been there.

His brow furrowed to find nothing.

Likewise he couldn't entirely explain why the wave of the man who'd come in earlier prompted him to bring a couple more beignets to the table as he wandered over. That alone had him questioning a few things, though he simply set the baked goods down and smiled.

"I know already that you're used to the unusual." He made a brief motion, flicking his pointer fingers out from his head, referring to Alec, and quickly putting them back down.

"That baker of yours..." He was struggling with this. He wasn't used to being nice or helpful. "Someone is looking for him. He's not safe." Despite what he was trying to do out of kindness, his methods he was about to use were not exactly so nice, or most people wouldn't consider it nice. He didn't usually force anyone to look at anything.

PROMPTS FROM THE MANDALORIAN - "THE RESCUE"

@amused-bouche said: i've heard your voice thousands of times. @ David from Lulu

" — Come on and gimme it!"

With that last line, the bass reverberated through the stage until David could feel it beneath the soles of his feet. He had grown disenchanted by a myriad of things over the decades but never with this, even at the end of a mere soundcheck. It was a tantalizing taste of what was to come as the dark outside drew deeper, the energy that would pulsate amid the crowd. Transcendent, perhaps one might say!

With an assenting nod of his head in the direction of the sound guy ( their work was done for now ), he slotted his mic back into its stand before jumping down from the platform; this was a new venue for the band and he was keen to familiarize himself with the whole of it before it was teeming with people. However, as he glanced back towards the stage, a comment from behind him snatched David's not so easily won attention.

"Music is about the only form of entertainment that doesn't lose anything without sight. You can feel it... especially in a place like this." He lightly tapped the stage with his foot. He'd been much enjoying the vibrations from the bass, being so close only meant he could feel it more.

"I'm sure no one would think this is my sort of style, but I like what I like across many genres." He offered. "I know you're more than aware of how nice your voice is. It's gotten you this far, hm?" The fae complimented.

The fact that David seemed to know who he was would hopefully make this next bit a lot less awkward. As elegantly as he could manage, he politely held out his hand in an undemanding manner. "Would you mind? I'd hate to trip and mess up your equipment with myself or my cane."

"... they really abandoned you with nothing but a drink. Really?" His voice held a touch of distaste.

He didn't need to much care about the songbird's music to be inundated with information about him. Which made it especially obnoxious to consider that his keepers were so negligent with him. Did they think this event was too high brow for someone to get their drink spiked? That everyone here was on the up and up, accounted for?

They really left no one to keep an eye on him?

"That kind of negligence is gonna fuck you over, y'know that, right?" The distaste was replaced with something slightly more detached. It wasn't his problem. The singer wasn't his business or his responsibility.

"I plan to have a nice chat with them after all this." Was all had to say on the matter. As upset as he was, he made sure not to sound any more disgruntled than he already had. He had his appearances to keep up.

It wouldn't have mattered if Estienne had whispered at the lowest possible whisper, Lu still would have heard him. Not only were his senses heightened to make up for his blindness, but his hearing was incredible alone just because of what he was.

"A snake, hm?" The fae gave a soft, amused smile. Even with the mask, a light tint of a blush made it's way to his cheeks. "I could have easily mistaken you for a dragon with that voice of yours." Of course he meant it as a compliment.

"Try waking up with blood dripping out of your nose and ears most mornings and tell me how your brain functions." He pouted. "Look... I can get some things to stick... It just takes time and a lot of work. Repetition." He leaned against the counter once again.

"S'lot of problem solving on the fly too. I'm just not gonna be blamed for breaking a machine." He patted the phone he tucked away. "Videos are better than written instructions. I'm not afraid to admit I'll have to watch this an almost embarrassing amount of times. Just because I'm on my phone, doesn't mean I'm goofing off either. It's what I'm doing most of the time. Studying."

"Everyone is Hun for a reason until I can get their names stuck up in here." He swirled a finger around his own head.

"I don't exactly enjoy it, you know. I try a lot harder than anyone thinks. I sure fuckin' hope it works.... I-" He sighed. "I just hope it's not too permanently damaged that I can't heal. You don't know what I'd give to be able to just remember one single birthday or even just one event. I hate that all my memory has to be on my phone."