Small and Wandering Steps

Hotaru

I wanna be a word you say at night
I wanna be a feeling you know you can't fight

It seems recently she has been called upon by staff for the strange and out of place. Hotaru doesn't mind that in the least. She doesn't necessarily have anything to do with her days, and she's only technically employed by the House, so it gives her something to do. She simply hadn't anticipated that another staff member would be the person in question today.

He isn't expecting her and she knows that. She intentionally catches him right before his break ends, poking her head into the communal kitchen area and beckoning him with a smile. "I've got you covered out there, come sit with me?" Hotaru leads him to one of the booths in the corner, sitting gracefully and leaning over the table between them with a smile. "I've heard you've been playing with your magic recently. All good things of course, but there aren't many Abandoned in these parts these days so I couldn't help but get curious. Have you had any training?" Formal or otherwise, she certainly doesn't recall seeing him at the Academy. Had he ever lived outside of Kings End even?

// you can't keep a secret if it never was a secret to start —

Truthfully, Thorn hadn’t expected to be summoned so quickly when he’d made his inquiry. But he’s pleased as punch, nonetheless. Sipping from a nice nonalcoholic cocktail that’s all sorts of fun colors, he perks up when she pokes into the kitchen area and directly speaks to him. “Hey! Yeah, sure.” He pushes aside the little snack he’d been poking at, drawing up his billowy clothes tighter around him as he slips into the booth across from her, his seafoam gaze focusing on her face.

A crooked smile forms on his face, head tilting a little bit. “I’ve always played with my magic, I’ve just been looking to… Figure out how to do it better, I guess?” He shifts a little in the seat, drawing up his legs beneath him to sit crisscross on the booth to lean toward her in turn. “No training other than life. I came from Halo and started at the Halenani in Torchline where I learned most of how to best utilize my magic, before I ended up here.” He offers the little tidbits easily – not like they’re secrets or anything.

thorn

— at least pretend you didn't wanna get caught,
we're concentrating on falling apart //

Hotaru

I wanna be a word you say at night
I wanna be a feeling you know you can't fight

Hotaru scarcely feels old - she has earned her age and is quite proud to remain relatively unscarred and gorgeous thank you - but Thorn's eager attitude certainly pulls at maternal strings in her that make her bemoan her years for just a moment as they seat themselves.

"Well you've been handed the perfect tutor then," she preens, humor softening her prideful straightening. "Since becoming a demigod my abilities with elemental magic have been taken, but I have used all of them. What magic do you have?" It's likely elemental, thus her topic, but far be it from her to assume someone couldn't get sexually creative with telekinesis or illusions. "And though I don't run it anymore, there is an Academy in Halo that could help you strengthen your abilities if you wanted to do more with them." Not that she will assume his goals or even his comfort with the notion of visiting Halo. Most people leave for a reason so she certainly won't judge him if he denies the idea out of hand for that alone.

// you can't keep a secret if it never was a secret to start —

Thorn is relatively young – but let it be said that he certainly has his experience under his belt. And so much of it, in fact, that he’s almost tired from listing out everything he’s done and places he’s been to for work. But he settles in, preening in the face of Hotaru’s pride and tutorship. “Congratulations, by the way.” Thorn says softly, flashing a more playful smile (one that certainly was second nature to catching clients as well). “Let’s see… I’ve got telekinesis, wind, and healin’.” All of which came in handy in the bedroom.

As for the Academy in Halo, Thorn nods a bit eagerly, reaching up to brush back the wild dark hair from falling into his eyes. “I’ve been meanin’ to send a letter to Evie about it. I’d like for my magic to get stronger.” And he doesn’t mind traveling, so long as the purveyors of the House of Midnight didn’t mind his absence for a bit of time.

Which, luckily for him, he’s talking to the owner’s right hand woman as it were.

thorn

— at least pretend you didn't wanna get caught,
we're concentrating on falling apart //

Hotaru

I wanna be a word you say at night
I wanna be a feeling you know you can't fight

Hotaru strikes a graceful pose, fingers beneath her chin and eyes skirting up to the ceiling in a cheeky 'what can I say?' to his congratulations, laughing lightly. "Thank you. Have you visited them yourself?" Frey is a common herald for the courtesans and workers in the House, and is still quite favored by King's End's citizens as a whole, but it's a passing interest at best when they have tutoring at hand.

"Healing is the least useful, but depending on your skill with it, you can often get another orgasm out of someone - especially men - if you focus on easing their exhaustion," she shares with a mischievous little grin. They usually didn't have much volume to spend, but dry orgasms are just as pleasant (if slightly overwhelming) as any regular one. She's confident he's experienced enough to already be adept at healing things like lash or spank marks and nail scratches and doesn't bother to mention it. Hotaru is here to inspire, not bore.

"Telekinesis is best for toys, until it's strong enough to help lift limbs. Once you can, it's great as an invisible spreader bar or to keep someone's wrists to the bed while having your own free." It also didn't require much force, as most clients got off on the implication and never truly tested the full limits of their bonds be they hands, cuffs, or magic. "But wind is the versatile one. Can you conjure it directly yet?" If not, she has a work around, but if he's interested in the Academy then surely it will come to him someday.

// you can't keep a secret if it never was a secret to start —

“Not so far, being abandoned and all that.” He admits with a small wince, before shrugging a shoulder. “But you’re walkin’ inspiration to try at the very least?” He flashes that very same grin – because he certainly was a Frey follower, but he’d never had the need to go, not knowing where to start to ask for something – if he even was allowed such endeavors in the first place.

As for the healing option – he listens, having not quite realized he could utilize it that way. It was more for himself, something he doesn’t shy away from mentioning to her. “The healin’s more for me, but I didn’t consider exhaustion to be something you could heal.” He seems contemplative for a moment, before settling in, certainly committing it to memory.

He nods once more as more information is laid out and he chuckles a deep sultry sound as he leans back a little. “I feel like I should’ve brought a notepad an’ a quill.” He says softly, not upset with all the information in the slightest, but more so worrying about forgetting. “Well, it’s more’ve a manipulating air situation.” So saying, he focuses and concentrates, as a wisp of wind from the bar around them picks up a few pieces of Hotaru’s hair in a light breeze, to which he flashes a bright grin back her way.

thorn

— at least pretend you didn't wanna get caught,
we're concentrating on falling apart //

Hotaru

I wanna be a word you say at night
I wanna be a feeling you know you can't fight

Hotaru is quite proud to be a rather public figure for Abandoned, and to have been stubborn and faithful enough to have been blessed with Attunement as well. It was certainly a slower and longer road than an Accepted would walk, but it was never impossible. "It's definitely doable if you're persistent. If you'd ever like me to accompany you to improve your odds just let me know doll." Frey doesn't crave followers like Safrin, but Hotaru would happily deliver more to their doorstep just because.

"Absolutely, exhaustion is an affliction the same as a sore muscle. It takes practice because it's harder to target intentionally given the less physical nature of the 'hurt' - and to focus your magic to heal only that portion instead of letting the magic intuitively seek out any and all injuries - but if you're using it on yourself then meditation is a great way to learn to find it." It would familiarize himself with the flow of energy in his own body to find where those more formless injuries might live. And if he ever strengthened that magic, it would give him a foot in the door to tending to mental afflictions once it came beneath his purview.

Grinning, Hotaru leans back from the table and produces a small flip notebook from her dress pocket, sliding it over to Thorn with a blank page open. "Just rip out whichever pages you fill." She uses it for various House management tasks and to do lists even though her memory is rather impeccable. It makes her feel rather important given all of her responsibilities are entirely at-will.

Stretching her neck and humming a purr of pleasure at the gentle, cooling tickle of the air he commands, Hotaru's eyes are half-lidded when she extends a hand to tap a finger on the top of the notepad. "It requires some pre-planning, but if there's a hearth or ice in the room, you can use their presence for gentler temperature play if you can't heat or cool the air on your own power." Hotaru for example is not a fan of wax play or other hot elements directly on her skin, but much like exhaling warm air over an erection or the spit left behind from a hickey, air currents were far gentler while still being effective.

// you can't keep a secret if it never was a secret to start —

“I’d really like that.” Thorn says with a bright grin, wondering what he’s done to be so lucky as to work for one Frey demigod, and to be offered the ability to meet the god themself with the other. It’s almost an intoxicating moment that he has to blink away from to get back into the moment, lips twisting into a comfortable smirk of both eagerness and amusement (really just the day to day look that settles on his face these days; confident and flirtatious).

He listens diligently to the information regarding exhaustion, and he nods his head. “Sure, yeah, that makes sense.” Meditating is something he needs to work on, too. But that thought takes a backseat as Hotaru grins at him and he’s momentarily stunned by how beautiful she is, especially as she hands him a little notebook he can fill. “Thank you.” He says gratefully, immediately starting to fill the pages with the current information running through his brain.

Even the ones after he’s played with the wind a little in Hotaru’s hair, and he sits back a little contently before scribbling in a little hearth / ice / air changes to remember that little note. “Back in Torchline, the sailors were really into ice.” He’s vaguely familiar with it, but if he knew then what he knew now, he might’ve been constantly booked. Which could have been a good or bad thing, Thorn doesn’t know.

He's from Halo, so the cold was just.. Commonality to him. The day to day, nothing that seemed relevant at the time.

thorn

— at least pretend you didn't wanna get caught,
we're concentrating on falling apart //