Closed Cathouse Etiquette

[Brisa]

15th of Summer, 522

Brisa stuck close to Kane's heel in her dog form as the two dove deep into Daggerhand territory. A summer rain was pouring down in torrential sheets, scattering much of the street traffic as residents retreated to their leaking ramshackle huts to wait it out. Still the two outsiders had amassed a small following of three to five children, all with reaching, dirty hands and overbright eyes. Brisa would wheel around to make them scatter, but they came back with the tenacity of rats.

Kane had pulled his cloak further down over his face, his eyes peering disgustedly from underneath at the strung out addicts crammed into alleys and doorways. He had a collections notice tucked in the pocket of his doublet, the edges of the cheap parchment slowly curling in the rain.

The building they were looking for wasn't marked, but they knew it by the half dozen women huddled together under its dubiously sturdy balcony. Provocatively dressed in clothing altered to show off legs, breasts and shoulders, the whores stood talking and smoking, taking a break from business as the street emptied of leering customers.

Kane stopped under the awning of a nearby shop and threw back his hood, shaking out his greasy brown hair. Brisa turned, collecting a great deep breath in her barrel chest to give one last vicious bark at their sticky-fingered pursuers. Once she was satisfied that they had at least temporarily melted back into the dark corners of their neighborhood, she joined Kane under the awning and shook out her wet fur. Kane made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat, brushing off the front of his doublet as the dog changed into a woman in a flash of golden light.

"You smell like shyke."

Brisa shrugged disinterestedly. She gave her head one last shake, rattling her collar and flicking even more rainwater from her shorn scalp.

Reaching into his bag Kane pushed her tunic at her, and while she pulled it over her head he held out another item of clothing; a tattered and worn mans' shirt, much too small for either of them. She brought the item to her face and inhaled deeply, feeling the tang of acidic human sweat, coal ash and overworked leather deep in the back of her throat.

"This arsehole better be here", Kane grumbled, shaking out the collections notice before peeling it open.

"Why do we think he is?", Brisa asked, throwing the shirt aside.

"His girlfriend is a whore here. I bet he's hiding out in one of the rooms, feasting on wine and pussy while we're out here cold and wet and thoroughly un-petched."

One of the workers in the doorway noticed their presence. The woman pulled open her bodice to reveal the top of her impressively full breasts. She gave them a little wiggle, motioning the pair over with a welcoming smile. Bris snapped her fingers in front of Kane's mesmerized eyes.

"Focus. What's his name?"

Kane grumbled as he brought his attention back to the notice in his hand. "Orli Lester, twenty-five, human male. He owes five-hundred miza's he was going to use to start a business in the Sunset quarter. Looks like he's missed a payment or two. Come on, it's miserable out here."

"Wait", Brisa caught him by the sleeve as he turned away towards Bregas. "What's the plan?"

"Get him and get out, that's the plan."

"That place is full of armed goons!"

"Get him and get out carefully", he amended, his eyes narrowing. "Do I have to do all the thinking for you? Let's go."

[Bronwen]

Bronwen shifted on the barstool and stretched out her long legs, mouth stretching open in a wide yawn. It was nearing midday, and the guard had been perched at her station halfway between the bar and the foyer for almost two solid bells with nothing but Alice, Alice's jiggly bits, and Alice offering up her 'wares' to anyone passing close enough to the front door.

"You bringing your woman in for some fun? You gonna be watching or playin too sugar?" Bron heard the blond whore call out and had to roll her eyes.

"Alice, if you don't get in here and shut that door, Brega's gonna skin you alive," Bron said, shaking her head, "She's already got onto about that.

She heard Alice's snort clear across the room, "What Brega doesn't know and all that." the whore quipped, but she did turn and come back through the door, except she wasn't alone.

Trailing the blonde through the door was a tall, dark-haired man and a shorter, dark-skinned woman, and something about the pair told the guard they weren't looking for entertainment, at least not the type Brega offered.

Bronwen stood from the stool, pulled the quarterstaff from the wall where it had been leaning, and slowly strolled the distance between her and where Alice and the strangers stood, gaze flitting between the man, the paper in his hand, and his companion, before landing on Alice. With a tilt to her head, Bron silently asked Alice to go on about her business elsewhere, then turned her attention back to the pair of strangers.

The guard's eyes lingered on the paper the man held before lifting to meet his brown gaze. The man was tall. Nearly as tall as Bronwen. There wasn't anything overtly violent looking about the man, aside from his crooked nose that had no doubt been on the receiving end of at least one fist.

His shorter companion drew Bron's attention, her gaze zeroing in on the oddly spiked collar around the female's neck. It made the guard think the woman was a slave, perhaps. A slave or the woman had the strangest jewelry collection Bron had ever seen. The female's eyes warranted a longer look than was probably polite from Bron. Were they orange? Gold?

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Bron cleared her throat, suddenly wary, "Can I help you two with something?" she said, and just to set the record straight, added, "slaves arent serviced here."

Bron honestly didn't know if slaves were or weren't serviced at Brega's but decided they wouldn't be today.

[Brisa]

"I'm not a slave", Brisa corrected without rancour.

Kane was watching the blonde whore, and the blonde whore's posterior, walk away. Brisa was watching the guard in front of them. The woman was the tallest person in the room, leaning against a very sturdy looking staff. She had distinctive eyes; they were a stormy, turbulent kind of blue. Brisa could feel herself bristling at the prolonged eye contact.

"We're just here to have little look around. Excuse us", Kane clicked his tongue, looking the guard up and down before stepping around her. "Come, Brisa."

Brisa hesitated for half a tick before following Kane further inside. As she passed the woman she could smell a lingering chemical sweetness about her that came from working at the brothel, and the distinct smell of cats, but underneath that was something spicy and dry that was uniquely her. She kept the woman in the corner of her eye as they stepped into the foyer. Kane and the guard had the same accent. She wondered if Kane noticed.

From the inside the brothel was a monstrosity of red velvet and a desperate air of class. A few of the workers were strewn about, all of different genders, ages and sizes. A floral perfume was so soaked into the soft surfaces it came back around to smelling dirty.

Almost as soon as they stepped into the room Brisa could sense a change in atmosphere, and she was certain the guard at the front was the epicentre. The woman had telegraphed her suspicion from the way she has shifted her weight, to the reflexive movement of her throat. The prostitutes were reacting to her wariness whether they were aware of it or not. Nobody approached the potential customers, it was Kane who had to catch the blonde whore from earlier as she leaned against the arm of an overstuffed chair.

"Hey darling, a minute of your time?", he smiled, trying and failing to reach a seductive purr with his voice.

Leaving Kane to question the woman, Brisa wandered away to investigate further. They were here because Orli's girl worked here. Was she one of the people in the room? Trying to think logically, Brisa excluded the men in the room, and the women who were young teens or middling age. That left... four women, including the guard.

All the windows were closed to keep out the rain. Brisa pulled a deep breath in through her nostrils, but couldn't pick up any note from the debtors' garment through the stuffy, saturated air. In this form she would have to be practically on top of a scent before she could pick it up. At least she was fairly certain she would be able to tell if someone had had sex with the man they were looking for.

As the Kelvic circled around the back of a couch a young brunette woman looked up from the drink in her lap. "That's a spooky glare you've got, hunny", the worker laughed. She leaned forward slightly, exposing the soft skin of her neck and the long line of her back. "See anything you like? Special price if you just want to-"

The woman cringed away with a stifled noise as Brisa placed both hands on the back of the couch, leaned over her, and sniffed directly in her ear.

The woman covered her reaction with a very deliberate shiver. "Hey now, that costs extra." She glanced over to the guard for help.

[Bronwen]

Not a slave, then.

Bronwen chewed on that bit of information, wondering why anyone who wasn't a slave willingly wore a collar, and narrowed her eyes threateningly at the man's dismissive words as the pair slinked past her and into the foyer. Their entry somehow reminded the guard of two snakes slithering their way into a hen house to "have a little look around," which set her on edge.

The man broke away from his companion, making a beeline for Alice, leaving his female companion alone to meander the open area of the sitting room, her dark eyes taking in her surroundings and everyone in it with what Bron thought was more than just simple curiosity.

Bron's gaze tracked the woman as she stepped around the couch, taking an interest in the dark-haired Rose laughing back on the cushions. The whore regarded the other female with a sultry grin before no doubt offering her wares with some venereal invitation. Bron felt her shoulders relax slightly. Maybe the two newcomers were just looking to scratch that particular itch that Brega's girls were so very good at, and they just had a creepy way of picking out whom their time would be spent with.

The guard's watchful eyes flicked toward the male, his back slightly curved as he leaned down close to the shorter Alice, obviously speaking in low tones against her ear. Alice's back was to Bron, so she couldn't see the blonde's face but going by the lax way the whore's slender frame swayed toward the man speaking to her, Bron didn't think there was an immediate reason for concern.

Rose's sharp intake of breath drew Bron's gaze back to the couch in time to see the culmination of the collared female's deep inhale. Was she...smelling Rose? Whatever the female was doing, Rose wasn't responding appreciatively. Bron scowled her displeasure at the woman's back before meeting Rose's appalled gaze, indicating the whore should make an exit with a snap of her head. Rose stood and hurried around the couch, giving the dark-skinned female a wide berth, hiking her skirts to her knees before stomping up the stairs.

Something wasn't right here.

Bron just didn't know what.

The guard's first and foremost priority was the safety of the workers, and Bron's gut was telling her that safety was being compromised. Or was about to be. Bron spun the quarterstaff around in a two-handed grip and used its end to give the roof three hard, solid raps.

The sound was unmistakable as it reverberated around the house, and its response was immediate. Alice spun away from the man, joining the remaining whore to climb the stairs. The sound of doors slamming in the wake of their ascent was followed by the heavy tread of booted feet across the floorboards as Hadrian, Bron's fellow guard, made his way to the staircase. The tall man stopped on the last step, taking in the two strangers before giving Bron a questioning look.

Bronwen stepped forward, glancing toward the man, before settling a stern glare on the closer female.

"You can leave," Bron said, voice level, "or you can tell me exactly why you are here, then leave, or," Bron's eyes flitted from female to male then back, "I can make you leave."




Sorry!I apologize for the wait. Life decided to throw several bombs my way.