Velvet, Ambrosia, and Silk

[sistermagnetic]

Who: Big Sis Magne & anyone 20+
What:
The official opening of the first proper entrepreneurship in Pumpkin Hollow!
When:
Late July and onward
Where:
the newly built, remodeled, and furnished VAS
Warning(s):
General warning for sexually explicit talk pertaining to the job functions of the business. Underage characters will not be able to enter via an enchantment on all entrances that stops them in their tracks. There are no exceptions. (My younger characters aren't allowed in, so neither are yours.)


Pre-opening Staff Party
Perhaps Magne talked it over with you while construction was underway, perhaps you heard about it through the grapevine, perhaps you were pinged thirdhand while looking for a position after newly arriving in town. Either way, if you were invited to come and see the newly-built, elegant multi-story brothel, a couple of nights before she had scheduled the official opening of the business proper, the Madame of this particular business will be throwing a small party to get her workers, friends, and little family together. It's a celebration of good fortune and tenacity. It's also a tour to let those that would be staying on the premises claim their rooms and start to talk over decorating with her.

The main parlor is pristine, with a bar and a few stools stationed around it, with bottles of liquor arranged behind it on sturdy shelves. Purchases from The Limoncello, and supplemental bottles from Erin Peters' collection. There are a few chairs, a few cushions arranged around a low tea table, poofy armchairs and footrests to go with them, loveseats and a couch. Around the walls are a couple of portraits already, one of the Madame herself, with an enchanted magnolia blossom attached to it softly glowing due to her presence in the building. This, she will explain, is the indicator for who is on staff at any given time, bending to the will of the person in the portrait. If they don't want it known that they're in the building, it won't show. First and foremost, it is to tell patrons who is available on staff. Hers is to let them all know when she is there. It will almost certainly be permanently lit. She will always be there for them.

There is a kitchen off the main parlor, specifically that that had come with the front of house that was originally just a normal two-storey home that Magne had built her business onto. It's not only functional, but now supporting the production of light foods for the gathering, with more supplies due to come in in the next couple of days. She had asked Max Maximum to be there a bit earlier than the rest to help her prepare for it all, knowing that he would want to be part of the hospitality for the event.

Everybody under her employ, regardless of position, would be walked through the rules and the security measures. Nobody would be in danger, so long as this was her business. Not if she could help it.

If Magne spots you on your own when you're in attendance, she will come and say hello. You may be the recipient of a big, squeezy hug and a "Hello darling!". Maybe even a kiss on the cheek. Sorry not sorry about lipstick smudges.

The Grand Opening
The wards are set. The rules are in place. A list of names is available with their own flowers beside them in place of the eventual portraits that will line the walls of the front of house. The curtains are drawn and the lights are soft and a radio plays softly from the shelves behind the bar. Everything is warm and inviting, and Magne? Magne is beaming. Her business is officially open.

"It's really happening," she says to herself, not for the first time since the construction was completed. She stands at the end of the bar, her hands clasped around one another mostly hidden by the wide sleeves of the kimono that she had had designed by committee to fit her, deep red with pink and gold embroidery of flowers and vines, the sash tied at her back. Her hair is pinned up in neat, elegant rolls and her makeup done subtly, and she looks every part the Madame that she decided she would be.

The rules are pretty standard, all things considered: consent can be recalled at any time. Refunds will only be given if all parties are in agreement that such a thing is called for. Abuse of her employees will be stopped by force if need be, and that will be done by Magne herself. This is not something that you want to happen to you. There will be nobody on the premises under twenty years of age, barring extremely specific gatherings to be announced at a later date. There is no "three strikes" in this building; testing your luck is not something that you will walk away from looking particularly pretty.

Welcome to the Velvet, Ambrosia, and Silk. Whatever your pleasure may be, it will be seen to.

(Well, unless you want something from a vampire, in which case you'll be put into contact with Lord Erik Osborne. They have an agreement.)

The Off Hours
When not at work, Magne can often be found upstairs, in her own personal living space constructed with a soundproof layer between her loft-like home and her business. Her furniture from when she had first acquired the house has been moved up and the remodel has been completed to put in a small tamaya. There are small pencil portraits of the people that she loves framed there, and the little, square-ish figure of one stationed just under his portrait looking somewhat out of place there among the fine wooden shelves. She can be found in front of this every now and then, knelt in proper seiza, offering her fallen friends quiet prayers and updates on the way that things have gone.

There is a door buzzer that can get her attention if you want her downstairs, but some people are welcome to simply come up to see her when they want to. Just step around a curtained corner and pull on a braided silk cord to signal your arrival.

Comments

[lordoftheozarks]

"Good." Erik answers with relief when Magne says Edgar won't be barred from entry. He still can't help but think it might be a lost cause on Edgar's part but he is glad to know his trust in her judgement is well-founded. It's about to be tested.

"The history is between me and Max. Lead the way, please. I'll tell you everything that is mine to tell. Whatever conclusion you come to, I will accept them."

[sistermagnetic]

Magne knows a hard situation when she sees one, and this is certainly complicated enough that she knows she can't just barge into it with the grace of a bull in a china shop. This requires a gentle hand with all parties involved, if she wants to avoid anyone's uneasy truces being broken.

With a small bow of her head, Magne starts toward the curtained doorway that leads upstairs toward her little home, only briefly stopping to let her bartender know to keep an eye on the place while she's gone. With the assurance that everything would be under their watchful eye, she continues upstairs.

It's a cozy affair that Erik will find himself in, warm lighting, broken-in furniture, drapery here and there and the wooden floor polished with only a nice little area rug breaking it up a bit, a low table and a few cushions arranged on the floor. A small shrine is set back into one wall, with drawings framed on the shelves, and a little plush and a figure placed nearly under a couple of the portraits. Magne passes this to go into her little kitchenette to prepare some tea to sip while they talked.

"Perhaps you can start with how this involves dear Max, since you said that was the crux of all this."

[lordoftheozarks]

The room is warm and cozy and yet some part of him feels like his entering it now despoils it. He's steeling himself for the worst. If she says go, he will without a word of protest.

"It involves him because, in the world we came from, I owned Max as a slave. In our vampire culture, he was referred to as a Human Pet. I'm sure you agree the difference is negligible." No point in mincing words. Better to get that brutal truth out in the open.

"The situation is complicated, and before all else I want you to know that I did what I did to save his life. But it is not hard to understand why that boy holds such anger against me, given what I've done."

[sistermagnetic]

Magne's expression noticeably darkens as Erik explains Max's position, but she bites her tongue. She said that she would listen to him, and she would keep that promise.

"What you've done," she repeats quietly, after she's settled herself down with a steaming pot of tea to pour into one of the small earthenware cups that she'd taken down from a cupboard. Her tone is even, and the set of her jaw is threatening in the way that coming face to face with a mother bear would be frightening. "Lord Osborne, if you tell me that you abused this man that trusted you with his life, you are going to have to make your arguments very quickly for why I should allow you on the premises or within a hundred meters of him."

[lordoftheozarks]

He expected this, but the way she's looking at him now... it still can't help but hurt. He owes her the truth, but he wants it to be with context. She may still decide, like Edgar, that it's not enough. He'll have to accept that if she does.

"I'll start by saying that it was Max's choice to allow me near him again. I am not invading his space against his wishes. I am also not, in any way, seeking to reclaim him. Now that we are away from the dangers of home, he is free and he will always be." Erik will rip the heart out of anyone who tries to change that himself, although he won't be the first in line. That honor goes to Valdis.

"My sister was also a vampire. She was, I am ashamed to say, an evil woman. One night, she attempted to take and eat Max. Through sheer dumb luck, Max was able to defend himself and kill her. In human law, this would be a non-issue, because it was in his own defense. In vampire law, it was another matter. A human had killed an Elder vampire of great influence. Retribution was expected. My sister's allies wanted his blood. But, because I was in the unique position of being her true next of kin, the claim of blood fell to me, first. To save his life, I enslaved him. I forced him to change his name, fake his death, and come live with me. He was to be under my watch for the rest of his natural life. If he ever left, or was caught alone, he might be killed by my sister's allies who still hunt him. I am not happy that I had to keep him a prisoner of circumstance, but there really was no other way to keep him safe."

[sistermagnetic]

Her lips purse. It's all very logical, as far as the rules he's given her have been presented her. So she has to ask, dangerously evenly, "And what aren't you telling me?"

[lordoftheozarks]

She wasn't bluffing about him needing to get to the point quick, was she?

"All right. When I tell you this, I want to be clear that I am not trying to excuse myself." Which is never a strong opener, he knows. Fine. Out with it.

"I did not understand at the time that what I did to Max was abusive. It was never my intention to do anything but take care of him as well as I knew how. But, with hindsight and a lot of self reflection, I understand now that I did abuse him. I am deeply ashamed of myself, and I have very much acknowledged and apologized to Max for that."

He lifts his eyes to meet hers and there is utter sincerity reflected in them, "I give you my word that I will never repeat those actions. Not to Max, nor to another person. It will not happen again."

[sistermagnetic]

While there is still anger there at the very idea that one of her best friends in the village had been used by the man before her and was so wronged that people had opted to turn their rage on his behalf toward Erik in full, she is still listening. She is, after all, in a unique position here. She understands doing terrible things without the understanding that they were terrible, and then doing worse things because it was what seemed necessary at the time. She understands overindulging in it, and even finding pleasure in it. She understands. There's a reason she was a fairly high-ranked villain in her time.

So she's angry, but she understands, and she's willing to give Erik the chance that he needs. Especially when he explains that Max himself had spoken with Erik, and come to an understanding. That they seemed to at least be on neutral terms.

"I just wish that one of you had told me that there was this sort of history between you, considering that you're both around and there are people here that know him," she sighs as she rubs her fingers up the bridge of her nose in irritation. "I'm sure that you understand that if any harm comes to him because of you that there will be a line of people looking to take your head. I won't stop them if it happens. But as long as you stay civil, I won't consider you a danger."

[lordoftheozarks]

"That is all that I could ask for," Erik says in a deep tone of gratitude. "I did not tell you before because, well, it seemed like a further violation to Max to share something of such a nature about him even if I am just as directly involved. It has been an ongoing struggle for me to know where that line is. My lovers are aware. That much, I made sure of." The rest? He's never been less sure of anything in his many, many years. Is it his place to reveal the trauma he put Max through? Would it seem like he was attempting to excuse himself for the wrongdoing by explaining before Max has? It's only just now becoming obvious to him that these are questions he really should have asked Max before now. That he must ask the first chance he gets.

"Magne, if I ever transgress against Max I would be deserving of anything that came after. I would expect no one, not even my lovers, to stop it. I know that for most, words are cheap, but in vampire culture our word is binding. I swear to you that so long as I have not been touched by the evils that sometimes infect this island, I am no more a danger to your patrons, or mine, than any other individual. In the event the island's magic changes me, makes me do things I have sworn not to, It would be more than justified for you to do anything in your power to stop me. It's my dearest desire that you do. As proof of that, I'll tell you now that the secret to killing a vampire of my kind is to destroy our eyes. Pluck out my eyes and I will become mortal. I entrust that knowledge to you to do with as you see fit."

[sistermagnetic]

Magne is quiet for a bit as she listens, then finally she bows her head once, and lets herself relax minutely. It isn't a talk that she wanted to have by any means, but at the very least it seems as if the necessity of it was justified, and the conclusion is...if not satisfactory, at least a good place to start in smoothing it all back down enough that they could still all operate together one way or another. She'd just have to keep a little bit closer of an eye out.

"It makes sense, even if it isn't particularly pleasant. All things considered, I do think this could have been much worse. Still, I really do hope that this is the end of it. I want to talk to him more on it and see what he wants now that it's come to a head. I can write Edgar off as a loss when it comes to his business here and let him change his mind in his own time, if he decides to at all. As far as you and they are concerned, I do at least appreciate the relative levelheadedness. I confess that I might not have, in any of your positions." She sighs and sits back again with her hands folded together in her lap, taking a long breath with her eyes closed before she finally straightens herself up again and stands to return to her duties for the evening. "Do let me know if anything else comes up."

[lordoftheozarks]

"I will. Thank you. You have been more understanding than I deserve and I will not forget that. I'm sorry to have put you in this position and I will make certain it does not happen again." That's the best he can do. There is no taking back what has been done, but he will make the effort to prove he's still worth trusting. His words matter, but so do his actions.

"Whatever Max decides, I will abide without question. His is the most important word on the matter next to yours."