[D6, ME] I shall not yield! (Closed)

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Senshuken strides into the hotel lobby and announces her arrival with a single line. She is waiting for the queen. The staff don’t ask for names, IDs or search for any awkward small talk. They know better than that. They slide her keycard across the counter and that's it.

The suite that awaits her is a decadent playground. Deep velvet drapes swallow the walls, gold accents wink in the soft light, and the bed is so massive it could host a gala. Mirrors catch every angle, subtly reminding anyone who looks that elegance and mischief can coexist. A faint aroma of polished wood and rose petals lingers in the air, like the room is already blushing in anticipation.

She drops her backpack, turns on the shower, and lets the steam curl around her. The water washes away the ordinary while she plots the extraordinary. When she emerges, she slides into the velvet, black dress that clings like it’s painted on, snaps the tiny fangs into place, swipes red lipstick over her lips and stands barefoot. Perfectly dangerous and ridiculously tempting.

Finally, she plucks a single red rose from the vase, pushes open the balcony doors and lets the night air flirt with her hair and dress. Standing there, rose in hand, Senshuken looks every bit like a shadow poised to dance her way to unknown destinations, seduce and cause just the right amount of trouble.

[Yasuki Ayame]

It seemed that Senshuken might have plotted her entrance and preparation all too well! Perhaps expected of a Scorpion. Just as she stood there and waited for company, there would be the audible click of the hotel door opening as the second occupant to the room was granted passage into this rather mysterious and decadent domain.

This woman didn't need an introduction, as the city was her domain and kingdom, dressed in a white evening dress with a plunge cowl neck that was designed to flaunt openly. She walked with tall platform heels, clicking on the floor, which might have been a choice to equally entice and to represent that her character was supposed to be over six feet tall easily, somehow. Well, not everything had to be true to life, only represented in this case. Ayame got most of the way there with what she had naturally.

She would lick her lips and flash a fanged smile at the other leech wraith in the room. "Velvette Rouge, was it? Or do you go by a different name now?"

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Senshuken turns the moment she hears the soft click at the door and Velvette Rouge rises through her like a second skin. The change is instant. Her posture loosens, her smile widens and a slow, delighted spark lights her eyes. She glides forward on bare feet with steps so airy they feel choreographed. Each movement is more of a sway than a walk as if she is dancing to music only she can hear.

And she approaches the towering Queen in white. When she reaches her, Velvette Rouge lowers herself with a flourish, bending the knee in a gesture that is half reverence, half provocation. Her chin tilts up, cheeky and bold, her lips painted crimson and curled into a knowing smirk.

“Velvette Rouge, indeed." She purrs, voice smooth and wickedly pleased. “Champion of the Red Velvet Clan. The Queen’s Champion.” Her eyes glitter as she holds the bow just a fraction longer than she has to. “Your champion… At your service.”

The smirk that follows makes it abundantly clear she’s very serious and not serious at all. At the same time.

[Yasuki Ayame]

The Queen let out a mock-elegant chuckle when Senshuken flitted over to her dramatic flair. There was a momentary gleam in her eyes that harkened back to a previous occasion that seemed to read, should I teach you another lesson again? However, that was neither here nor there because she was currently Queen Besanii Karedon of the Red Velvet Clan!

Besanii would give her a fanged smile and place a hand on her chest with a breathy, "Ara, ara," expression. She wasn't a trained thespian, but she most certainly practiced enough in the mirror to nail to line for the purposes of role playing.

"Quite the entrance, I don't expect any less from a fellow member of the Red Velvet Clan. In a time where cowardly enemies threaten my kingdom, you've risen to the occasion to defend my domain. I am lucky to have a delightful champion such as yourself holding my banner," she giggled and snapped her fingers to give her command.

"Rise. The night is still young, and unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to properly celebrate my victory over the rebel scum. They hide in the gutters where they belong while I sit on my throne. However, such luxuries should be enjoyed or what else are they good for, hm?" She looked down at her expectantly.

[Bayushi Senshuken]

For a split second, as Besanii snaps her fingers, Senshuken’s mind betrays her. Just… stay here. Knelt. Don’t move. Her thoughts immediately revolt against her own selg. No. No, absolutely not. She needs to behave. It's too early for that. Velvette Rouge’s smirk deepens, like she’s privately laughing at her own treacherous imagination.

She lowers her gaze, then gently places the single red rose at the Queen’s feet. A wordless offering, dramatic enough to fit the throne room they’ve conjured. Her risr is a slow, elegant affair. Every shift of her body is measured, every breath controlled, every angle chosen with lethal precision. By the time she stands fully, she’s already setting the room on fire.

She turns and glides toward the bed in those airy, dancing steps. Half a phantom, half a temptress, entirely trouble. She sits on the edge, then leans back onto her hands and archs just enough to make the mirrors on the walls work overtime. The smirk never leaves her lips. It only sharpens. It becomes a challenge. It becomes an invitation.

“I was in service to my Queen through battle." Velvette Rouge says. She tilts her head slightly, baring the elegant line of her neck, her fangs catching the light in a wicked grin. “How shall I serve in the celebrations of your grand victory?”

The question hangs, slow and sweet. A weapon disguised as a gift.

[Yasuki Ayame]

The Queen looked a bit bemused at the rose offering placed before her. Her character should consider such a token trivial and insignificant, perhaps one of many she would receive from others as a pledge of allegiance or a symbol of their infatuation. She would perhaps rather have souls to sate her immortal hunger instead. How much consideration was a rose worth? 10 seconds?

However, as Ayame, she found the rose perhaps too nice to merely leave on the floor and have the servants sweep after their play was done. She would bend down carefully to pick it up with a quick swipe at the floor. The rose would be held carefully between her fingers and its scent sampled with a deliberate sniff, perhaps in the same manner she drank the souls of others.

Besanii sauntered over to where Velvette sat on the bed, but didn't seem too keen on joining her yet. She took another sniff of the rose as she bought some time to consider, holding it there much like a mask. There would be a playful smirk waiting for Velvette when she lowered the flower once more. "I think all celebrations require a drink, a toast to victory. I want to know more about you, where you've come from, and what you've done with your immortal life. You've proven your loyalty, but I know so little about you to consider us properly close."

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Velvette Rouge doesn’t interrupt the Queen’s words. She simply shifts to face her. A slow, fluid motion. Her gaze meets the Besanii’s directly, deeply, almost unblinking, as if she intends to read every secret the monarch of the night might be hiding behind picking up that rose.

When Besanii speaks of wanting to be “properly close,” Velvette’s smirk curls into something knowingly slow. “Is that… important to you, my Queen?” She asks.

She rises from the bed in one smooth motion and glides toward the small table set against the wall. A bottle of plum wine waits there as if the servants anticipated exactly this moment. She uncorks it with a soft, elegant pop, pours two glasses and carries one back for her and one for the Queen.

“Essencewine." She announces softly as she offers the Queen her glass, her fingers brushing Besanii’s with the slightest of contact. Velvette raises her own glass next, ready for the toast, but stops just before their rims touch.

Her voice drops to a murmur. “What is it the Queen wants to hear from me?” She wonders aloud while tilting her head as if she’s studying prey and lover in one breath. “We are both Red Velvet, after all. Are you seeking a fairytale… Because the truth is far too precious to be given away so easily.”

Her eyes linger on Besanii over the glass. A silent dare wrapped in silk. Kami! This is so wonderful! Ayame is so wonderful!

[Yasuki Ayame]

"Yes," Besanii would easily enough to the question, inserting her answer so that there wasn't a doubt in her request. "It just wouldn't do if I were unfamiliar with my champions. I want few mysteries in my kingdom, that said, you are allowed to keep some secrets. I'm not unreasonable..."

She would smirk at Velvette before she made her way over to the balcony doors to close them shut for extra privacy. It might have been a move to invoke extra intimacy in the room. Or maybe Ayame was feeling a little cautious after her leisurely trip through the storm...

"Mmmmm," she murmured in approval when she was given her glass, holding it up to her nose to get a read on the flavour. It was a little lighter than her usual brew, but it would do in an occasion with roleplaying. "So sweet."

She would raise a brow when Velvette would have the audacity to leave her hanging on the toast; there was a faint look of annoyance. Potentially a slight fire to demand what is hers, but she allowed the other leech-wraith to speak her peace. "...I don't mind fairytales, if that's how you wish to go about it. However, I do expect it to be entertaining if that is your tribute. Maybe even with some kernels of truth? It would vex me further, so if you couldn't deliver..." With a widening of her eyes, she insinuated a fragment of a threat.

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Velvette Rouge almost hisses back at that widening of the Queen’s eyes. Fangs bared, a feral warning. She even parts her lips slightly. But no sound comes out. It never does. Senshuken has tried it in front of mirrors dozens of times and each attempt resulted in something between a disgruntled cat and an offended teapot. So she gracefully abandons the idea before humiliating herself in front of Ayame.

Instead, the wraith leech lowers herself back onto the bed with elegance. The velvet dress folds around her like obedient shadows. She holds the glass delicately between her fingers and meets Besanii’s gaze with a look that is both a challenge and an invitation.

“A fairytale…” She muses. “My Queen, there is nothing I cannot deliver. With my own bare hands and silver tongue… or, when I’m feeling lazy, through very efficient intermediaries.” She lifts her glass just a fraction, as if offering a prelude to the toast still hanging between them.

“Imagine this.” She begins. “Once, long ago, there was a samurai from a noble line. Born to silk and steel. Her ancestry reached back through heroes, fortunes and the occasional scandal that everyone pretended not to talk about at formal dinners. She was fun to be around, sexy in a way she didn’t yet fully realize, smart enough to get into trouble and rich enough to get out of it again.” A slow, knowing smirk curves her lips.

“And then she met… the Teacher. A woman unlike anyone she had ever seen. A woman who woke up instincts she’d been ignoring or pretending not to understand. A woman who took a dream the samurai barely dared to whisper and made it real with a touch, a lesson, a look.” Velvette’s gaze stays locked on Besanii, unblinking, hungry, amused. “A fairytale, yes,” she purrs, “but with enough truth buried inside to keep you guessing, my Queen.”

[Yasuki Ayame]

Queen Besanii seemed unbothered by the show of a hiss. If anything, it almost seemed like she would welcome the challenge. Or was it more of an excuse? If Velvette allowed her hunger instincts to get the better of her, Besanii would have no doubt loved to use her simulated six-foot-plus height to teach her some manners. However, that didn't happen when the other leech wraith relented, much to her chagrin.

While it was fun to stand at a superior height, Ayame had to admit that sitting on that bed was far comfortable than standing about with her current choice of footwear. Velvette would have to work too hard to convince Ayame on that front. After tossing the rose in her hand and trying to aim it at the table, she would take a seat with an overly dramatic and unnecessary flutter of her skirt that was more fitting of a tango dancer than someone performing a free action.

Once settled, Besanii would cross her legs and lean back with a hand behind her. Her rocking foot showed some hints of brimming impatience at the suspense as her gaze would look between their glass and Velvette's eyes. "It sounds like a tale about a free spirit who found out how they discovered how much they enjoyed wearing a leash. To be expected, there are those who are merely asking for the opportunity to be bound. To surrender."

Besanii's firm gaze would find its way directly on her to make that point. "But maybe this teacher is more of an enchantress? If she is so capable of turning a dream into reality. Freedom into subjugation, quite a feat!"

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Senshuken's pout is instant and exaggerated. A delightful little pout of mock offense. She lifts one hand, palm outward, the universal gesture of time out. OOC moment incoming. “Don’t flatter yourself, dear.” She teases lightly. “It’s the RP. I mean the RP.” A wink. A smirk. A reset.

And just like that, she slides back into character with the ease of a woman slipping into silk. Her eyes lock onto Besanii’s. “It could be one of the two.” She murmurs. “Or both, even. After the first few decades…” A sly shrug, elegant and wicked. “…it simply stops mattering.”

She pauses then. Long enough to let silence thicken, long enough for her gaze to drop to the Queen’s lips, long enough to bite her own lower lip slowly, like it’s a line in the script she knows Besanii won’t miss.

“What matters,” she continues “isn’t what I say," she leans forward, dangerously close, like she’s about to spill into the Queen’s space.
“…but what you hear.” Her breath brushes Besanii’s cheek as she whispers." And even more important… what the Queen wants to hear.”

Their glasses hover, a heartbeat from touching, but Velvette pulls back at the very last second, denying the toast just when it should have happened. Instead, she rises with that same airy, weightless grace. She crosses the room in steps soft as smoke and retrieves the rose Besanii tossed aside. Velvette lifts it to her face, inhaling its scent like it’s an ancient relic. Or forbidden delight.

She doesn’t look back immediately. She lets the anticipation hang in the air like perfume. Then. Only then. She glances over her shoulder with a smirk that promises trouble.

[Yasuki Ayame]

There was a glint in Ayame's eyes at the quick pause. Well, she would have to take her word for it, but it was an amusing idea nevertheless. Did she not have some Wile disciple in real life? Well, maybe she was considering the wrong system here!

"I am hardly a court of one, my dear. While there are surely some delightful words that will assuage my ego or temper my more volatile emotions, there is a certain joy in seeing my subjects' best guess my mood. What particular taste of alcohol might catch my extensive palate? It could be something so simple as the essence of an unfortunate soul who crossed my path, or perhaps an object of desire who dares to tease me," she would say, ending a lick of her worn fangs.

When the glasses neared but didn't quite meet, a glare shot back from the Queen, making it clear that she was testing her patience here. Not that she needed permission to drink from someone she considered a near neonate compared to her, but the underlying insolence was becoming quite vexing to the elder immortal.

Standing up from her place on the bed, she would make her way over to her. Maybe exercising some discipline in Creep, but these heels just didn't agree with the hard surface of the gothic and decadent room. Her hand would reach out, almost seemingly, she was going to touch Velvette. Her temporary nails just barely missing contact but relying on presence and weight to make the contact feel alone as she loomed behind her like a tall shadow. However, she reached for the bigger prize instead and took hold of her rose, firmly plunking it away from her grasp.

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Velvette Rouge freezes only for the drama of it. A perfect portrait of a woman caught mid sin. The rose leaves her fingers, plucked with imperial authority and she lets out a low chuckle. “Well,” she purrs, turning her head just enough to let Ayame see the full curve of her smile, “I was just about to propose an eternal partnership… but clearly you prefer to claim the rose yourself.” A knowing tilt of the chin. “So be it, my Queen. You hold the initiative in this as well.”

She lifts her glass then. Finally. And lets it drift toward Besanii's. The crystal touches with a chime sharp as a fang’s edge. “To everything my Queen desires.” Velvette murmurs, her voice sinking into a decadent whisper. “I will lay it at her feet for whenever she chooses to reach for it.”

Then she adds, with that sly, ambiguous curl of her lips, a little gesture of her hand that seems halfway between character and player. “I like the way you are. The way you move. The way you act.”

A soft, delighted chuckle escapes her as she glides back to the bed, letting the mattress sigh beneath her as she settles, perfectly posed, perfectly at ease, watching the Queen with unabashed interest.

She props herself up on her elbows. “Now…” she invites, the syllable drawn out just a touch too luxuriously, “…will the Queen grant me a story of her own?”

[Yasuki Ayame]

"An eternal partnership?" Besanii would say curiously on the matter, her brows raising after a glance at the flower, wondering if she had missed the message initially. Also, most importantly, which parts bled into the character and potentially with the character became a part of the player.

Even though she had been expecting it, almost practically chasing her from one side of the room to another, the toast came unexpectedly. The chime almost sounded like a gunshot that had caught her off guard. Only after the sound stilled in her head, which perhaps the residual memory of it played longer in her mind than the actual sound, she would take a small sip of her glass. The drink was sweet, but perhaps another such drink could be sweeter.

Besanii would walk toward the best, but didn't allow the temptation of comfortable surfaces to sit down just yet to join her, especially considering how mobile this particular game proved to be. She smirked at the question, wondering if there was a small challenge in this. "My turn now? Here I was going to read a fairy tale of my own. One that was purely fantastical and on a character background scripture of sorts, but that doesn't seem quite fitting now that you've given me something cut from your persona mystique."

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Velvette Rouge stills mid movement. It is not the elegant stillness of a vampiric seductress this time, but the distinctly human, distinctly Senshuken kind of freeze, eyes widening just a fraction.

She lifts a hand, palm out, a quiet little “wait” gesture that breaks the velvet illusion with adorable abruptness. "Time out. Pause. Curtains closed for a second,” she says softly, slipping out of character with a gentle exhale. Her eyes search Ayame’s face, not dramatic now, just honestly puzzled. “Are we… still playing? Because I was literally getting ready to ask for the Red Velvet primogen seat, the eternal partnership of ours, and then things started feeling... ” She circles a finger vaguely in the air. "... different.”

She leans in just a bit, expression warm, open, careful. “Did I miss something? Is something wrong? Should I shift tone or direction? I don’t want to step on your mood or derail the scene. Communication is key, especially when the dance gets intense.”

A small, reassuring smile tugs at her lips, still Senshuken, not Velvette. Earnest and inviting clarity. “Just tell me what you need and how you want to play it. I can adjust.”

[Yasuki Ayame]

Ayame looked mildly embarrassed for a moment and held out her hand with a similar gesture, letting out a small chuckle as she took a breath in to gather herself. "...my bad, sorry. Lines felt crossed for a moment in my head, and I found myself wondering a few things about our relationship, Bayushi-san. Especially, with the story a bit earlier and especially given the obvious...charged notes of intimacy."

She took a moment to take a seat on the bed, as the fine cushioning was too comfortable to overlook once more. "Here I thought you meant another sort of eternal partnership," she would smirk sheepishly before leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek if she would allow it.

"Just need a moment to remember everything was on," she motioned with her hands as if pushing it aside and let out a chuckle. "That side. For a moment, found myself doubting myself if I should be sharing Besanii's badly written background as a mortal brothel...worker first and foremost."

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Senshuken lets out a long, warm breath. Half a smirk, half relief and slides onto the bed beside Ayame with a comfortable, unhurried elegance. She doesn’t rush to close the distance. She lets the moment breathe, watching Ayame with a softness that has nothing to do with the earlier vampiric theatrics.

“Then maybe,” she murmurs, “we take a proper break. A real one. Let the wires in our heads untangle instead of spark.” She pauses. A small sigh escapes her. It's not dramatic just human. Honest.

“Look… this isn’t really a relationship,” she says gently. “You still call me Bayushi san and I avoid calling you anything at all so I don’t have to risk your family name in the wrong tone.” A faint laugh, full of self awareness. “We hooked up. That’s true. But I date more people and I’m certain that a woman as stunning as you does the same.”

Her shoulders lift in a slow shrug. "We don’t know each other. Not our mornings, not our tempers, not what tea we like. We just know how to make the other fluster, which... ” She gestures between them. “Fine! We’re very good at that part.”

Then she looks directly at her. Really looks. Her eyes are steady and bright with that unmistakable Scorpion confidence. “If I wanted to propose." She gives a tiny shrug that’s both elegant and wickedly amused. “What would I propose? Marriage? A longer commitment? In any way, I would go through the proper channels for that. I’m not a child. I’m a trained courtier. And I’m good at what I do.”

A beat and a sly, knowing smile. “And I’m not promising I’ll never try. Honestly? It’d be excellent for my clan. And yours.” She winks. The exact kind of wink that makes it impossible to tell whether she’s joking or she's dead serious.

Then, finally, she leans back on her hands, tone loosening, playful again. “As for backgrounds? I don’t even have one. Velvette is an one shot experiment. I just rolled with what felt fun. Whatever made the scene hotter, spicier, stranger. No grand lore. Just instinct.”

She nudges Ayame’s knee lightly with her own. "Soooo. Break. Reset. Then we decide what story we actually want to tell? In character or out.”

[Yasuki Ayame]

Ayame nodded soundly on that note and took off her hat to let her head free for a moment before putting her hands behind her to keep her up, although it looked like she considered just lying comfortably on the bed instead. It might have been harder to face her and talk if she did that, so that might have prevented her from doing so.

"Sure, I'm fine with that. And I like to think of this as somewhat of a relationship," she said pensively on the matter as her tongue ran over her fangs, more in thought than anything else. There was a shrug given afterwards, meaning she could take that how she would like. "I am someone who doesn't focus on one particular partner. Maybe something I've picked up from years of being held in an underground bunker on a jigoku world. We are still quite young."

Well, maybe she was of the Crab marrying age, but that was neither here nor now.

"I'm sure you know your workings of the court. I'm just a former soldier who just happens to be governor," she said with a bit of her inner lip, keeping herself from either smirking or frowning to colour the situation necessary with that statement, keeping a straight face.

She bobbed her head once more and found her attention drifting around the room, perhaps to change the conversation slightly or distract herself. "That said, I really didn't expect there would be such a place on this side of the city. It's quite a nice find."

[Bayushi Senshuken]

Senshuken lets out a soft huff, half amusement, half admiration, at the “governor” line, then tips her head back as if weighing her next words. When she looks at Ayame again, her eyes are warm but sharp, the way a courtier’s gaze always seems to carry two layers. The playful gloss and the attentive reading underneath.

“Oh, trust me,” she says with an over the top flourish of her hand. Her voice drips with mock grandiosity, “I find the best. I can bring the entire world to your feet. They’ll trip on the carpet getting there, but I’ll manage.” It’s obviously a joke. She even widens her eyes for dramatic emphasis, but it’s a joke meant to make Ayame exhale, not tighten.

Then she grows quiet for a moment. Not tense, just thoughtful. “I thought of asking about the bunker,” she admits with a small, real smile. “And then I thought, is that something she even wants to unpack right now? So… may I ask? Or should I leave it for when we're not both half in character and half in bed?”

She lets the question hang just long enough to show she respects the boundary and then gently pivots, giving Ayame a softer landing.

“But before that…” Senshuken shifts, folding one leg under herself so she can face Ayame more fully. "You said you see this as a relationship.” There’s no mockery in her tone. Just curiosity. Clean and honest." So I want to understand what that means for you.” She tilts her head, chin resting lightly on her knuckles. “What does that word look like, from your side? What does it entail? What do you expect or want when you use it for… this thing between us?”

Her voice warms. “I’m good with definitions. It’s much easier not to step on toes when I know the dance.”

[Yasuki Ayame]

There was a time of consideration on the question as she looked down at her hand on the bed, brushing on the surface in an almost pensive sort of way. She would eventually look up at Senshuken with a small smile on her lips. "A bit of a topical whiplash, but you're more than welcome to ask me about that. I think we've shared a few things together already, it would only seem right that fewer physical things were shared, too."

"Well, as to what I think this can be...I figured a relationship, as in we occasionally meet up together. Hopefully, have a little fun, which can be defined in any sort of way. Or, in this case, any sort of role. We share a bit about ourselves and enjoy each other's company. It doesn't have to be public, or it can be." Ayame gave a shrug, as she didn't formally prepare a list of terms. She wasn't exactly the most organized or formal person on the island. "Of course, we can see other people too while we're in this thing together. If you want to move on, you can move on. If you want to hang around, that's fine too, so long as there's no drama. I'm not here to wreck anyone's day. Just have fun."

She said before surrendering herself to the bed, as she found it a bit tiresome to keep herself up on the bed, letting a happy sigh as she got comfortable. "Well, until I find a good reason to, that is."