There was one point in the room that was solidly clear and did not shift when Vin looked away; the dark cherry four-poster bed that all of Vin’s goth friends would have gleefully murdered each other for. Actually maybe not<\/em>, Vin thought wryly. It was large enough that all of said friends could fit comfortably if they polyculed up. As it was, there was only a single familiar occupant sitting cross-legged in the middle, carefully but quickly flipping through a book easily the size of a library atlas spread open before her. Vin caught a glimpse of glowing sigils whenever she turned a page.<\/p>\n She was still wearing the Sharpco Solipsism shirt.<\/p>\n “Um,” Vin said hesitantly.<\/p>\n Tzella recoiled, eyes immediately darkening to solid black and tiny bolts of yellow lightning crackling in her hair.<\/p>\n “Whoa!” Vin threw out a hand. “It’s just me.”<\/p>\n Tzella blinked twice, before her eyes went wide with recognition, the black draining from her sclera back into her eyeliner. She spat a few syllables that singed the inside of Vin’s ears before heavily dropping her face into one hand.<\/p>\n Vin was pretty sure whatever she’d just said was the demonic equivalent of “Fuck my entire life.”<\/p>\n “Ow,” he winced. “I know you’re not doing it on purpose, but hearing that felt like you shoved lit matches into my ears.” He awkwardly perched himself on the corner of the sprawling continent of a bed, shoving a pinky into his ear canal in an attempt to soothe the burning itch. “What are you reading?”<\/p>\n Tzella lifted the top edge of the tome enough to show Vin the cover. Some kind of arcane script flashed at him and he closed his eyes quickly, but not fast enough to prevent a lingering afterimage of some sort of squiggly rune dancing in impossible colors across the backs of his closed eyelids. It felt similar to an accidental glance directly into the sun. “Hurts visually too,” he groaned.<\/p>\n “It is an old volume of binding magic.” Vin felt a thump as the book dropped solidly back onto the bed, and he very hesitantly cracked his eyes open a little bit. It was okay as long as he didn’t stare too hard at the book’s open pages.<\/p>\n Tzella was frowning with… concern? “I forgot my language hurts you,” she said. “Forgive me?”<\/p>\n “It’s okay. I’m okay.” Vin sighed. The itch was too far inside to reach, so he switched tactics, pressing a spot behind his cheekbone next to his tragus. The pressure dulled the pain a little. “Binding magic?”<\/p>\n Tzella’s mouth twisted, her frown going from concerned to frustrated. “I am specifically looking for a way to break it.”<\/p>\n “Why?”<\/p>\n Tzella blinked at him, slowly, like an incredulous cat. “You are not supposed to be here,” she finally said. “I assume you do not want to be.”<\/p>\n “This isn’t bad,” he said, wondering what that had to do with anything. “It’s just you and me here. The Neverending Orgy I kept getting pulled into was a bit much.” He had to consciously stop himself from vividly recalling his desperate attempts to keep from touching anyone or being touched unintentionally, failing more often than not. He was always exhausted and horribly overstimulated as well as sticky by the time he woke up.<\/p>\n Tzella gave him one of her lopsided smiles. “Humans who blunder accidentally into\u2014 What did you call it? The Neverending Orgy?”<\/p>\n “Seemed apt. I couldn’t see the other side of the room, it was so big.”<\/p>\n “Hmm. A human song, I think? Or am I not remembering correctly?”<\/p>\n Vin chuckled, even as he was instantly earwormed. “That’s Story<\/em>, not Orgy<\/em>. Very different.”<\/p>\n Tzella nodded. “Regardless. Occasionally a dreaming human blunders into the Orgy, but they are usually only too happy to participate. You try to run until your dream releases you.”<\/p>\n Vin thought of all the hands groping at him night after night and shuddered. “I really can’t see how that is at all fun. It just seems like too much to me.”<\/p>\n “You get used to it.” That little half-smile flickered briefly across her face again.<\/p>\n Vin’s eyes widened. “Wait, were you<\/em> somewhere in that ocean of flesh?”<\/p>\n She nodded once, thoughtfully. “I am pretty sure that is why you kept getting pulled there. The first time I noticed you, I thought it was an accident. Humans are drawn in through their dreams if their need for sex is strong. And despite your resistance to all overtures, yours is incandescent<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Vin felt his face turning bright red. “It’s been a really<\/em> long time.”<\/p>\n Tzella raised an eyebrow and Vin shifted uncomfortably, wondering how his apparently strong sex need manifested and how much she could tell about it. She thankfully continued before he could get up the courage to ask. “You kept appearing, and spent your time desperately trying to escape. I thought maybe I should be someplace else for a while in case you… in case I was indeed pulling you here. And here you are again, so clearly I am.”<\/p>\n “Thank you?” Vin winced. “I’m sorry, would you rather be there?”<\/p>\n She did one of her little single shouldered shrugs.<\/p>\n Vin sighed, changing the subject. “How come you still look human? I figured you’d at least go back to wings, tail and all black eyes.”<\/p>\n Tzella rolled her eyes, plucking at the neck of the T-shirt and holding it out from her body long enough for Vin to get the point.<\/p>\n “You didn’t have to take it with you.”<\/p>\n “I wanted to.” She let the shirt drop. “It smelled nice.”<\/p>\n Vin looked up towards the ceiling, clenching his teeth. It was probably just an aspect of who and what she was, but even something as mundane as watching cotton settling against her skin made his nerves scream. “So, you’ve just been chillaxing down here looking like the world’s most underdressed mall goth since I last saw you?”<\/p>\n “More or less.” One corner of her mouth kicked up. “I know what a goth is, in both senses of the word. But what exactly is a mall<\/em> goth?”<\/p>\n Vin shook his head. “I don’t think I can explain that without pictures.” He looked around the bedroom again, noting that everything apart from the bed had shifted again while he wasn’t looking. “Where even is<\/em> here?”<\/p>\n “A dream. Yours.”<\/p>\n “So this isn’t a real place?”<\/p>\n “It is, for certain definitions of real. Your mind is assigning things here sensory experiences that make sense to you.”<\/p>\n “That’s all the perception of reality is, I thought?” Vin chuckled. “I’m not sure what’s going on there, though,” he added, tipping his chin towards a… vanity? Sideboard? Dresser? that seemed to be sprouting tendrils of vine-like smoke and trailing them up the wall. “Usually furniture doesn’t do that.”<\/p>\n “A good thing it is not actually furniture.”<\/p>\n “Is this?” he asked, pressing his fist into the mattress beneath him. It flexed, his hand sinking down into soft warm plushness that strongly tempted him to surrender himself to it and sleep forever, which was strange because as far as he knew, he was already asleep.<\/p>\n “Maybe a bit closer to your definition of real than the rest.” A dimple flashed briefly in her cheek. “I stole it from a queen, if I recall correctly. Denmark?”<\/p>\n Vin looked at her, startled. “You what?”<\/p>\n Tzella’s eyes unfocused a little, caught in whatever memory she was unpacking. “Soft,” she murmured, running her fingers across the silky duvet. “Warm. Like her.”<\/p>\n Vin raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, you got summoned by a queen<\/em>?”<\/p>\n A shrug as her eyes refocused. “Queens become just as bored and lonely as anyone. More so, maybe. I vaguely remember something in your literature about golden cages.”<\/p>\n “That makes sense, I suppose.”<\/p>\n Tzella nodded. “Most who summon one of us are more bored or lonely than truly in need of physical pleasure, but don’t know it, or cannot tell the difference. Much like you.”<\/p>\n Vin couldn’t argue with that, which made an unpleasant knot between his chest and his belly. “You still haven’t told me why you need something to break a bond though.”<\/p>\n She frowned slightly at this. “You are not supposed to be here,” she repeated.<\/p>\n “So why am I?”<\/p>\n “Five drops of blood to leave,” she echoed. “By taking that I have tied a little of your life to mine. The cost of taking something from you that is more valuable than pleasure.”<\/p>\n Vin blinked. “The bond breaking spell is for me?”<\/p>\n “You kept appearing wherever I was. You are here now. It seems five drops is enough to create something very powerful.”<\/p>\n “So I’m bound to you in other words.”<\/p>\n She nodded, a quick dip of her chin and back up. “I am sorry. I did not entirely know how it worked. I never had to do that before.”<\/p>\n Vin leaned his head back against the massive dark wood headboard of her bed with a long resigned sigh. “Could you have explained that a little more clearly at the time?”<\/p>\n “I am not sure. I do not quite understand all of this yet. Though I probably should have explained what little I did know,” Tzella acknowledged. “I do not believe it would have changed the outcome. It was the only way to get out of the predicament we found ourselves entangled in.” She smiled a little. “Aside from other forms of entanglement.”<\/p>\n “Fair enough,” Vin groaned. “Any luck finding anything to break it?”<\/p>\n Tzella shook her head.<\/p>\n “‘Course not.” Vin scoffed a little, then smiled slightly as Tzella’s face fell. “It’s okay, It’s only been a couple weeks. There’s got to be something<\/em> out there.”<\/p>\n “I hope so,” Tzella said, shutting the book and lying back on the bed, stretching out first one leg, then the other. Vin was rather relieved to see she was wearing what looked like a very skimpy pair of denim shorts under the T-shirt this time, and also rather fascinated by what appeared to be a black tattoo that started from her mid thigh and branched and forked all the way down to her ankle, very much resembling a lightning scar.<\/p>\n The leg underneath the tattoo wasn’t bad either. Long and strong rather than slender. Vin wondered idly if the muscle visible was a genuine side benefit of her vocation or just there for show. “So what exactly does me being bound to you mean?” he asked, mostly to distract himself from staring.<\/p>\n “I am unsure. Blood exchange is not something usually done with humans.”<\/p>\n Vin blinked. “This is just getting more fucked the more questions I ask, huh?”<\/p>\n Tzella sighed. “I am sorry,” she repeated. “I did say there would be costs. Though from what I have since learned the costs seem to be more on me than you.”<\/p>\n “You’re going to have to explain that.”<\/p>\n She stayed quiet for a long time, gazing up at what was probably the ceiling, trying to figure out her words. “I said blood is life before,” she started finally, speaking slowly. “Here, life is… currency?”<\/p>\n “I don’t get it.”<\/p>\n She looked directly at him. “Humans are kept alive by two things. Blood, obviously. And also the soul making your whole meat machine go. Here, both have value of a sort that promotes… acquisition.”<\/p>\n “That would explain all the demons buying or stealing souls myths,” Vin laughed weakly. “What do you even do after you acquire someone’s… life?”<\/p>\n That single shoulder shrug. “Have it.”<\/p>\n “You just hoard a pile of souls like a dragon?”<\/p>\n Tzella looked uncomfortable. “Not exactly. Dragons acquire and collect, but coin is inanimate. Life needs to be cared for. So if you possess any quantity of life above and beyond your own, you are responsible for it. Think of dragons hoarding small creatures instead of gold. Kittens, maybe, if you can envision having both whole creatures and also… small pieces. Some humans seem to like collecting plants, that might be closer.”<\/p>\n “Well that’s an uncomfortable notion.” Vin’s stomach twisted anxiously.<\/p>\n “This is why I usually just concentrate on pleasure. It costs nothing from either party.”<\/p>\n “Could<\/em> you? I mean, clearly you somehow have some bit of me. But if you wanted more?”<\/p>\n “I suppose.” Tzella wrinkled her nose. “If I were interested in status, maybe, or wanted to rise high enough to control or rule a part of this place. But I have no desire to do that, so I have no need to collect blood and souls.”<\/p>\n “You need souls to rule Hell?”<\/p>\n She raised an eyebrow. “Does one not need capital to rule where you come from?”<\/p>\n “Oh,” Vin grimaced. “Touch\u00e9. Can you reject the responsibility?”<\/p>\n Tzella looked unhappy. “It would pass to someone else if I did. I am… not comfortable with the possibility of surrendering you.”<\/p>\n “Ah. Fuck.” Vin shoved a hand through his hair, wondering why he was weirdly flattered by her answer. “So what happens now?”<\/p>\n “I am still figuring out how to stop pulling you here in your sleep. Something about the claimed not being far away from the liege for too long. Apparently I can manage about a week in your time scale, but no more than that.”<\/p>\n “So I keep getting pulled wherever you are.”<\/p>\n “Yes.”<\/p>\n “Fuck.”<\/p>\n “Too late for that.” Tzella sighed. “If anything that makes the bond stronger.”<\/p>\n “That’s what sex is supposed to do, isn’t it? Strengthen a bond.”<\/p>\n “Not all by itself.” Tzella made a face. “I mean, it can, especially if a bond exists previously. But I have noticed humans have a lot of trouble with unjustified pleasure.” The dimple appeared in her cheek again. “You especially.”<\/p>\n “Thanks,” Vin grumbled. “Well, this sucks, I don’t do very well if I don’t sleep. Which I’m not doing well if I’m actually here.” He stopped, frowning as something occurred to him. “Does the pull only go one way? Could you come to me instead?”<\/p>\n Tzella looked down. “It goes both ways.”<\/p>\n “So you could show back up like you did before. With the candle.”<\/p>\n She was quiet for a bit. “Considering your haste in getting me to disappear, I did not think you would want me returning to you.”<\/p>\n Vin groaned. “Well, now I feel like a jerk. I’m sorry. I was scared, and confused and… for fuck’s sake, I didn’t even know succubi were real until you appeared. So I freaked out a bit, yeah.”<\/p>\n “That seems fair.”<\/p>\n There was a small silence as both of them considered the situation. “We’re kinda stuck with each other until we find some way not to be. If there’s a way at all,” Vin finally ventured.<\/p>\n “Correct.” Tzella rolled onto her stomach, propping her head on her fists so she could look up at Vin.<\/p>\n “If you do come back, do you have some way of warning me before you set my carpet on fire?”<\/p>\n “Oh.” Tzella smiled, all the way this time. “If you are not using the candle, there is no burning ring. That is mostly for dramatic effect, the first time one of us is called. And for a bit of initial protection.”<\/p>\n “Protection?”<\/p>\n She quirked an eyebrow. “All things considered, you had a fairly measured reaction to me blazing into your home. Other humans have not been so… calm about it, and as time goes on, the available defensive weaponry progresses as well.”<\/p>\n “Oh,” Vin winced a bit, considering the breadth of defensive weaponry she meant. “I suppose considering your entrance, that makes a bit of sense.”<\/p>\n Her eyebrows pressed inwards a little as she thought. “You need a warning before I arrive,” she mused slowly. “Vin, do you have any tattoos?”<\/p>\n Vin scoffed. “Do you seriously think I’m the sort of person that would?”<\/p>\n “Absolutely not,” she said. Vin was actually impressed she could answer without cracking a smile. “But I am capable of being wrong, so I needed to ask.”<\/p>\n “Fair enough. No. No, I don’t.”<\/p>\n Tzella’s face lit up with an unsettlingly toothy grin, her eyes twinkling mischievously. Vin couldn’t help noticing her canines were a fair bit longer than her incisors. “Would you like to change that?”<\/p>\n Vin should have expected that the glitches in the environment around Tzella’s bed would extend beyond the visual, but was nonetheless a bit unsettled to find himself jolted back to Tzella’s reality with the sense that he had lost a few minutes of time. What had pulled him back was an overwhelming throb of desire crackling through his entire body intensely enough to wring a rather undignified gasp out of him followed by an equally embarrassing whimper, and it took him a few moments to realize that this had been in reaction to Tzella resting her fingers on his bare shoulder. “Fuck.”<\/em><\/p>\n She sighed, pulling her hand back and closing her eyes. She’d done it quickly, but not quite fast enough to hide that her eyes had gone solid black again. “That… worries me,” she murmured.<\/p>\n “What?”<\/p>\n A corner of her mouth raised. “Remember how I said your desire was incandescent?”<\/p>\n Vin’s “mmhmm” came out way more whiny than he was comfortable with.<\/p>\n “Let us just say if you were unfortunate enough to end up at the so-called Neverending Orgy without even a thin claim like mine on you? You would instantly become the main course.” She looked up into his face, the smile vanishing. “I doubt that is something you would survive.”<\/p>\n He blinked. “You’re serious.”<\/p>\n Tzella nodded. “Part of what I am… we amplify physical desire. It is not conscious most of the time, but when we are consciously controlling it, it can be fatally overwhelming.” She paused, finally opening her eyes, which had settled back into brown and human. “if you are this reactive from being around me, even while I’m restraining myself as much as possible…”<\/p>\n “Oh.”<\/p>\n “You see why I do not want to risk surrendering the responsibility now?” She smiled, a little ruefully. “I would not want to see you consumed.”<\/p>\n “Thank you, I guess?” Vin winced. The enormity of what they had gotten into hovered at the edge of his consciousness but he willed himself to not think about it.<\/p>\n Her smile turned wry. “Do you think you could bear it if I touched you again?”<\/p>\n “Do I have a choice?”<\/p>\n “Yes?” She tipped her head to the side, frowning at him. “You always have a choice.”<\/p>\n Vin chuckled apologetically. “Do they not do rhetorical questions down here?”<\/p>\n “I have never understood the point of asking a question you did not want answered.”<\/p>\n “Fair enough.” He set his jaw, mentally bracing himself. “Try again. I’ll be fine.”<\/p>\n The second time was less of a jolt, though it still felt like getting caught in an unexpectedly large wave of lust. Vin concentrated on pressing his teeth together and his fingernails into his palms hard enough to at least compete with the insistent yearning gathering in his groin until it subsided enough for him to notice at least some of his nails had punctured the skin. He unclenched his fists, wincing again as he regarded the red half moon indentations underscoring the transverse palmar creases, some of which were slowly filling with blood. “Damn it.”<\/p>\n Tzella made an annoyed noise with her tongue. “Hold still.”<\/p>\n Vin sighed, turning to watch her as she traced a finger purposefully over his skin. She was sitting close enough to him that he could smell the smoke and ginger spice coming off of her hair and skin again, and he had to swallow hard before speaking. “What are you drawing?”<\/p>\n She chuckled. “I am writing, not drawing.”<\/p>\n “Sorry. It feels like drawing. All I can really tell is that there are a lot of circles and lines.”<\/p>\n “It is writing that involves a lot of circles and lines.” She looked up, the little half-smile twisting her mouth. “I could just scribble this, but I thought if you agreed to carry my mark on your body, it should at least be visually pleasing.”<\/p>\n Vin couldn’t help smiling back. “Fine. What are you writing then?”<\/p>\n “A loose, improvised spell and a signature.”<\/p>\n “‘Property of Tzella, no touchy?'”<\/p>\n “Partly, yes.”<\/p>\n Vin shook his head; he could never tell if Tzella simply couldn’t fathom sarcasm or was choosing to ignore it. “What?”<\/p>\n Her smile deepened. “All right, not exactly in those words. You are already claimed after all. Just underscoring the ‘do not touch without permission’ part.”<\/p>\n “So this is basically like me putting my name on my lunch so no one else eats it? Not that it ever stopped Carl from helping himself.”<\/p>\n She hissed softly. “Carl. Criminally irresponsible idiot friend?”<\/p>\n “I wouldn’t call him a friend,” Vin made a face. “But yes he, er, facilitated our introduction.”<\/p>\n “He gave you the candle.”<\/p>\n “I was trying to be delicate.” Vin sighed. “I’m starting to realize I shouldn’t bother.”<\/p>\n “Delicacy is not usually needed, no.”<\/p>\n She wrote in silence for a moment before Vin broke it. “That still seems like a lot of writing for a “hands off” notice.”<\/p>\n “There is more to it, just in case you end up here again and I am otherwise occupied. It will at least allow you to leave untouched, unharmed and less… agitated.”<\/p>\n “I thought delicacy was not usually needed?”<\/p>\n Tzella looked up, eyebrow arched. “Not from you. For<\/em> you, however, is different.”<\/p>\n “Oh, wow, that’s not patronizing at all<\/em>.”<\/p>\n “It is,” she acknowledged without apology. “But you cannot honestly disagree.”<\/p>\n “Touch\u00e9,” he groaned.<\/p>\n She drew a large final circle, looping around the other writing and ending with what felt like a flourish. “Done.”<\/p>\n Vin looked down at his still blank shoulder. “I don’t see anything?”<\/p>\n “It requires activation. But I wanted to warn you first because it will briefly hurt.”<\/p>\n “What doesn’t?” He could still feel a soft tingle left behind by her touch sketching into his skin. “Do what you gotta do, it’s all right.”<\/p>\n “Very well.”<\/p>\n She solemnly traced the circle surrounding her design with one finger, causing another sharp flare through his skin that he gritted his teeth through. She then leaned forward and whispered a single syllable that briefly made his already scorched ears throb in warning before she pressed her lips to the center of the spell. Pain rippled through his shoulder, burning down through the skin, as if she were pressing a red hot cookie cutter into his flesh. “Fuck.”<\/em><\/p>\n “I am sorry,” she said. “I tried to warn you.”<\/p>\n Vin counted five seconds of excruciating before the sensation gradually eased into an angry sting. “Appreciated, but goddamn it.”<\/em> He looked back down, expecting to see the skin of his shoulder blistered and burnt. Much to his surprise, it looked unbroken, though now the lines of her drawing smoldered deep red beneath the surface of his skin. Circles and lines within circles and lines. if he squinted, he could almost see the structure of it in three dimensions instead of two. “What did you do?<\/em>“<\/p>\n She retraced a part of the design, which brightened into orange fire in response to her touch. “As you say, ‘claimed by\u2014'” she took a breath, rapidly spit out her full name, then continued. “‘Do not engage without the bearer’s invitation.'” She looked up. “That should protect you should you end up pulled into The Orgy again. Or really in the unlikely case where you encounter any of us elsewhere.”<\/p>\n Vin sighed, feeling a measure of the tension ease from his back.<\/p>\n She traced a neighboring circle, and the previous section dulled obediently back to red as the current one blazed. “And that bit should make my company… bearable.”<\/p>\n “What do you\u2014” He stopped as she dropped the tips of the fingers onto his forearm. Aside from the pressure of her touch there only seemed to be the slight omnipresent panic he felt when any pretty girl crossed into his personal space, and the questioning tingle of lust that accompanied it was within normal ignorable parameters, not the crushing almost painfully overwhelming desire of before. “Oh.”<\/p>\n “Better?”<\/p>\n “Yeah. Are you still trying not to…” He trailed off, not sure how to phrase his next question.<\/p>\n “Ah.” Tzella smiled. “While I am tempted to pull this shirt off and test you at full power, I suspect you would not appreciate that. Besides, it grows late. You should get some actually restful sleep.”<\/p>\n “I thought real time slowed down when you’re dreaming?”<\/p>\n “It moves differently, yes. Speed, while a suitable shorthand, is not the best way to measure how.” She shrugged. “A fair bit of time has passed, regardless.”<\/p>\n He shook his head. “You know, It’s very easy to forget you’re a lot more than a cute goth girl trying to seduce me.”<\/p>\n Tzella didn’t exactly blush, but the little smile she often had reappeared as she looked away. Even without the heavy weight of her presence addling his perception, it was still charming as fuck, an effect Vin was surprisingly pleased to discover was genuine.<\/p>\n “Thank you for this. Seriously.” he paused, hesitantly tracing the circle surrounding the rest of the tattoo with his other hand. It pulsed a little in response, as if pleased to be acknowledged. “What does the rest of this do?”<\/p>\n “Nothing terrible.” She touched the actively blazing section of the tattoo again, and it dulled back to red. “It will be black when you wake up.”<\/p>\n “‘Nothing terrible’ is not as reassuring as you might think,” he grumbled, unrolling his t-shirt sleeve back over his shoulder.<\/p>\n “I will explain another time, I promise. A collection of little things mostly.”<\/p>\n “Such as?”<\/p>\n Tzella looked him directly in the eyes, not blinking this time as her irises and sclera once again darkened to full black. “Does this hurt?”<\/span><\/p>\n He blinked. “No?”<\/span> His eyes widened, and he clapped a hand over his mouth. “What the fuck?”<\/p>\n Tzella grinned, her eyes fading back to brown. “Good. Get you gone. And you are welcome.”<\/p>\n “Wait\u2014”<\/p>\n Fade to black.<\/p>\n\n\n
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