( Tani’s performance from @dragonscrownffxiv ‘s halloween event set to Annie Lennox’s ‘I Put a Spell on You’! I was honoured to perform there this evening, and I had a great time! Thank you for inviting me out! )
The orchestrion rumbles to life with the staccato ring of succinct notes, played to an unfolding rhythm that hangs above the hovering candelabras looming over the bar’s rounded tables. It’s sharp, and it’s loud — and it serves as a precursor to a coiled, claw-tipped hand emerging from behind the stage’s partition for splayed fingers to steeple against polished wood.Tani emerges in a sweep of sandy fur, and a sway of fluttering, gold-coiled curls that hang free from his usual braid.
He’s glad in black silk, corded about his waist by a tattered ribbon adorned with glittering beads, and yellowing crystals to match the gold accents of the broad-rimmed hat perched atop his head. His lips are painted black, and the kohl lined about his eyes is drawn to an accentuated, cat-like point.
His hand slips down the length of the boarded partition before him, and his fingertips lift toward his parted lips as he draws in a slow, and careful breath. The courtesan’s head tips back, his thick tail stirs behind him, and a lazy, broad, surreptitious smile pulls across his painted lips.
“I put a spell on you—.. ♪”
His voice is gentle, sugar-sweet, velveteen, and ambiguous. He pushes from the partition. His claw-tipped fingers crawl down the length of his ruby-encrusted throat, toward the collar of his silken robe as his free hand drifts across soft silk to draw it from the top of an exposed thigh, enclosed in gentle, chiffon, filigree lace, as midnight black as his lipstick.
“..-because you’re -mine-. ♪”
His music builds, its rhythm reverberates, and Tani’s left hand sneaks toward the broad brim of his hat, where his thumb, and his forefinger pinch to whisk it from atop his head. His curls flutter, his head turns, and his free hand lifts to skim through it, to peel it back from his features. The hat is drawn before him, and held within both hands beneath the dip of his navel.
“You better stop the things you do~.. ♪”
“I tell ya’, I ain’t lyin’~.. ♪”
“I ain’t lyin’. ♪”
His left hand lifts, all fingers curled down save for his index, which is raised, waved, and swept aside again as his hips lull in time with his rhythm; and it’s sharp, and lurid, and contagious. His tail whisks across the glossy stage behind him as he draws nearer, and nearer, to its edge; the sharp-heeled tips of his heels marking his steps in time to the lulling beat of his unfolding song.
“You know, I can’t stand it. ♪”
“You’re runnin’ around~.. ♪”
“You know better, daddy.. ♪”
A fingertip sneaks past his lips, and is snagged beneath his teeth as his hip cocks outwards, and his tail lifts to whisk after it, moving in time to his rhythm, slow and steady as it is; the courtesan’s gaze ignites alive with the presence of thinly-veiled aether, bright enough that his uneven, aether-blue gaze glows past heavy lashes, and kohl-lined eyelids.
“I can’t stand it ‘cause you put me down, oh no~.. ♪”
“I put a spell on you. ♪”
“..-because you’re mine. ♪”
“-All- mine. ♪”
The hat is raised, and his painted lower lip is caught beneath his pointed fangs as he lifts it, and tosses it toward his audience; where it flutters akin to a frisbee toward the heart of the room, carried by a ripple of visible aether that sparks, ignites, and spirals sharply outwards to engulf the entirety of the pointed hat in a vapour of black smoke, all at once. The courtesan’s hand is raised, and the smoke spirals back toward him, chasing the careless flick of his ardent, claw-tipped fingertips as his clandestine smile broadens.
His knees tuck beneath him, and carefully, -daintily-, he unfolds to sit, to perch at the edge of the stage until his legs fold at its lip, hanging from it, pressed together at the knees with refined, and graceful poise. He leans forwards, and his hair spills over his narrow shoulders in a veil of honeyed blonde as his thighs part, hands lowering between to settle, palm-down, against the glossy stage beneath him. His tail curls, and tumbles across his shoulders like a boa as his hazy gaze falls half-lidded.
“You know I love you. ♪”
“I love you, I love you. ♪”
“I love you anyhow-.. ♪”
That trickle of black, illusionary smoke chases the tilt of his fingertips, tumbling after his tail over his shoulder, to drip down the slope of his chest, toward the dip of his navel, and between his parted thighs, where it spreads across too-pale flesh. His left hand follows it, his fingers chase the rise of lace along the curve of his left thigh, toward the filigreed edges of his underthings.
Tani’s hand lowers from the outside of his thigh. His ankle sweeps from the lip of the stage to dangle free from the edge as his hands lower between his spread thighs. He leans forwards, turning his head to watch his rolling, vapid black smoke as it sweeps over his little, narrow form- thick tail sweeping absently through it until it tips, and rises about him like some aether-born silhouette.
“..an’ I don’t -care- if you don’t want me~..♪”
His hands lift, his back straightens, his fingertips pluck, tug, and pull at the front of his robes, pulling fastenings loose, sweeping at his gilded necklaces, at his pendants, and his gemstones as he resumes his absent, and idle swaying to his loose, slow, filthy beat.The fastenings holding his collar closed click loosely open, spilling a sliver of pale-white flesh flecked with freckles to his audience as he tips his chin up, as he exposes that pale column of his throat. His claw-tipped fingers pry open the bodice, weaving down to his corset, and it tethers from the narrow sway of his waist, pooling behind him upon the glossy surface of the stage as his lips curl into a salacious, black-spun smile.
“I’m -yours- right now. ♪”
His robe skirts from his chest, his delicate hands lift to press lilac silk from his narrow shoulders where it pools beneath him upon the stage; revealing his lithe form beneath- pale, scattered with freckles, in a pair of thigh-high boots held up by thin straps of buckled leather over a black-lace suspender wrapped elegantly about the sway of his waist, notched below the dip of his pierced navel with overlapping leather creasing down toward the telling -curve- of his length beneath.
“You know I can’t stand it~.. ♪”
His voice lilts, lifts, angel-sweet despite the words he’s uttering as his hands lower to sweep through the insides of his thighs, pointed nails drifting upwards against smooth lace toward the dip of his veiled length, for he’s -hard- beneath all that velvet-soft fabric. The tips of his nails leave creased trails of -red- in their wake, flushed across pale flesh.
“You’re runnin’ around. ♪”
“You know, baby daddy.. ♪”
He shifts where he sits, lifting enough to tuck his feet beneath him, crossing his ankles upon one another to leave him upon his knees, left hand lifting to card through his gold curls, to sweep them back from the curves of his now-bare shoulders. His left hand sweeps down the subtle curve of his concave stomach toward the lip of his underthings, held in place by his suspender.
“I can’t stand it. ♪”
The ringing, lurid beat slows, smoke continues to roll over the courtesan’s slight frame as Tani’s hand sweeps from his hair, and down the crest of his cheek until the claw-tip of his littlest finger hooks against his lower lip, smudging lipstick down the curve of his chin as his hips give an indecent, and decisive roll forwards, his thumb pulls -too far- down..
“‘Cause you put me down. ♪”
“Oh, I put a spell on you~.. ♪”
Elastic pulls low, the flushed-pink tip of his length is briefly, briefly visible; stark, lurid, there and gone again as swiftly as it had come, swallowed up the moment his thumbnail releases caught fabric to -snap- back to his form as his slow, thrumming beat rolls, and slows.
“Because you’re mine. ♪”
His head tips back as his voice lifts, carries, and echoes oh-so-sweetly around the dim chamber; gaze fogged from his smoke, cheeks flushed a deep red that spills down to the top of his chest, toward the dip of his sternum.
“..-because you’re -mine-. ♪”
He drops forwards, hands extending to catch himself, palm-down, before him upon the stage until his hair comes tumbling over his shoulders, and his smile widens, clandestine, and utterly reprobative. His tail sweeps, and skirts behind him, spine dipping into an alluring, svelte arch as his ankles lift, crossed over one another, toward the curved swell of his backside.
“..-because you’re -mine-.. ♪”
His head tips, and his smile drifts wide, unabashed, framed by his dimples as his fingers curl against polished wood, and he sinks back to sit upon his heels once again- voice fading along with his billowing smoke. It ceases its rolling cascade, until it is only Tani, alone, framed by his discarded robes in his garter belt and leather boots.
A smile soon returns to his features as he reaches out to gather his discarded belongings. He sweeps them into his grasp as he rises in one fluid, and graceful movement. He dips at his knees into his strange (usual), partial-curtsey, half-bow.
He lifts a hand, and he brushes three manicured fingertips to his parted, smudged lips to blow a lingering -kiss- to his audience in farewell, fingers wiggling into a wave as his hand lowers.The courtesan turns upon his heel, in a sway of gold-spun curls as he makes his way off stage with a telling click-click-click of sharp heels on polished wood.
