interstellar5555 | "Senza tentazioni, senza onore."

Entry tags:

"Senza tentazioni, senza onore."

Who: Squalo and -- you?
What: Squalo decided not to let his bandmates one-up him and went to have his own "seasonal" performance. For fun. Or so they say. He's got Empathic Influence now, so... have fun getting just a little bit too into those songs and enjoy all those new, excellent and healthy emotions that you're suddenly feeling!
When: Feb 13th
Where: "The Variable", alternative music club in Vista City
Warnings: ...Squalo. Aka: profanity, violence, public indecency, drug use, will add as necessary.

(( See comments for prompts! ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... [ WELP he's just going to put his face in his hands and card his good fingers through his bangs a couple times in frustration. ] Well, shit.

[ He'd hoped it wouldn't be that obvious... ]

I'm not sure what came over -- no, actually, I have an idea, I just don't want to believe it.

[ He side-eyes their surroundings for any managers or other suspicious people. Clubs can be a surprisingly safe place to talk, all the same, he's not sure about doing it in the open. ]

Fucking hell. Do you think he noticed?

[ Squalo... ]

If he didn't, I'd wonder where Xanxus had gone. You were crawling around on the floor and begging him to put a gun in your mouth. If I didn't think you wanted to bang him, I'd say you were suicidal.

[She sighs, debating with herself. She could walk away from this, maybe watch it blow up, then visit both of them in the hospital and play Nurse Practitioner one at a time. Or she could put them together somehow. And they'd be, dare she say it, kind of good together. Beating each other up was playground flirting, there's clearly been some stirrings on both sides.]

You want me to push you two together and make you kiss?

[Fuck. This is going to end with her binge drinking, she just knows it.]

[ He bares his teeth slightly in a disapproving manner, though it's clearly aimed at himself. What was he thinking? Where did any of that come from? Xanxus was just a spoiled assinine bassist, not some kind of mobster, right? So why did he feel as if a gun, a very specific one, was basically an extension of him? An extension of him that he was willing to shove down his throat, loaded, right there and then, without any kind of reassuring that he wouldn't pull the trigger, as if that didn't matter. ]

[ And that was just the beginning of it. ~~(Since that thread will get worse before it gets better.)~~ ]

...no, actually, I want you to punt me across the stage if I ever try to come onto him again.

[ A pause. Is it safe here? ]

There's something I didn't tell you.

[Luci raises her eyebrow, and while she shut up about it for now, clearly she doesn't quite believe Squalo's protests. After all, Xanxus is Xanxus. He's a force of gravity unto himself, he'll pull in anybody he wants to pull in. She pulls a cigarette out of her jacket and shields her thumb before snapping and lighting the cigarette.]

What didn't you tell me? [She frowns and takes a drag on her cigarette, not quite getting that Squalo is looking around to see if anybody's listening.]

[ That doesn't mean those pulled in have to like it, damn it. Especially not when it's the picture example of domestic abuse. Give it a few months and Squalo might be walking home in a similar shape as Luci did from Lesedi. ]

[ Hopefully the sound of background music and dozens of conversations will hide them well enough. ]

I know him. I'm not waxing poetic or biblical here, I actually know him, from somewhere, or somewhen. [ He leans in toward her ear and does his best to lower his voice. This time he manages to get it down to a loud hiss. ] Hasn't it happened to you? Seeing a person in your head. Too detailed, too alive to possibly be the fruit of your imagination.

[Luci tilts her head to listen over the music, and what Squalo tells her is... terribly, achingly familiar.]

...Yeah. [Luci takes another drag on her cigarette and huffs it out like she's ripping off a bandaid.] Two-tone hair, freckles, stupidly honest eyes, and she can run like hell's after her. Seems like every damn song I write is about her nowadays.

[And whenever Luci thought about her, there's a deep sense of a lost connection. It's foreign and strange, because Luci makes it a point never to get too connected to anyone unimportant and momentary. So she must've been so, so important...]

So what do you see when you look at him? What's the little daydream you can't explain?

A muse, huh? [ He grins momentarily, but then just runs a hand through his hair again and sort of tugs on it this time. Ripping off a bandaid, indeed. Well, he supposes, if anyone should know it's her. ]

Him. Actually him. Us. Blood. Ice. Fire. Him using me as a punching bag, which isn't all that unusual in itself but it's not a place nor time I can recognize.

Or a fantasy. [Who knows if this woman even exists outside of her strange waking-hallucinations. Until Luci actually sees this woman in front of her, she has to be just a fantasy. A very... vivid fantasy.]

You sure you're not just coming up with various places you'd like him to 'beat you up' in? Because it sure looked like you two were enjoying doing what you did in front of an audience.

[Luci still thinks Squalo is protesting far too much for someone who knelt at Xanxus' feet.]

Well, you'd know best -- I know it's not the case for me, though.

[ ...he scowls at that suggestion. ]

I like getting 'beat up' on my own terms, thanks. If you think I'm into getting pummeled for -- for speaking out of turn or looking at him wrong...

[ LOOK HE MIGHT HAVE ENJOYED THE PERFORMANCE but he still thinks it's bad for him. (Also known as for once in his life, he realizes how his and Xanxus' relationship looked to other people, thanks brainwashing.) ]

...Okay fair. That was a little fucked up, I'm sorry. If you say you don't want it, I believe you.

[Luci casts a glance at the stage and smirks before taking Squalo's hand. Then she kneels down, like Squalo had during the performance and kisses his hand. Look! It's the dumb theme of the night! No big deal!]

I promise, I will do everything I can to keep you from running afoul of him. ...but if it looks like you're gonna knock boots I'm not going to cockblock anybody. Deal?

...thanks.

[ It's a lot fucked up. So is the fact that some little part of him at the back of his mind insists that he likes it. ]

[ ...HE JUST STARES DOWN AT HER LOOKING ALARMED holy shit is this what he looked like. Fuck. He lets out a long-suffering sigh. ...he can't argue that sex with Xanxus sounds like it'd be a good time, but damn it he's better than this. Not to mention... now he's getting extra doubts about that whole being drawn to him thing. That moment right there, when he lit the flames... he was quite sure it wasn't sexual. Well, at least no more than murder. Which is a bit, but, you know, in a different way. What -- ]

[ Just. Nevermind. ]

Sounds reasonable.

Glad you approve. [She chuckles and stands up in a sweeping motion.] I'm sorry I didn't get up there with you-- but it looked like you were having a pretty good time going at it solo.

Hey, that's fine. [ He manages to give her a pretty genuine grin. ] We all need a day off every now and then. And I can't complain.

[ A pause. ]

Okay, no, I can complain a lot, but I'm not gonna. What's done is done.

Woah. [Luci raises her eyebrows and laughs, reaching up and stroking Squalo's cheek fondly.] No complaint, no shrieking, no voi-ing, I feel like I should ask where Squalo went to.

[ There's a small scoff at that, you know, the 'no i am not cute' kind. ]

Voooi that's not all I say.

You literally just said it before denying you say it all the time. Do you hear yourself? [She laughs and tugs playfully on a lock of his hair.]

I just can't make you happy no matter what I do, huh, woman?

[ He huffs, but looks in considerably higher spirits now. Play-fighting is one of his favorite pastimes, as it turns out. ]

Luci. [She corrects, putting a kiss on his cheek.] Never woman, never man. Just Luci.

[She doesn't know why exactly it feels so strange to be referred to as a woman or a girl-- she's just never felt like anything but herself. But she's not about to take it personally, Squalo isn't an asshole like Yosuke was.]

Drink on the bartender? I think I saw a Carnie tatt on his neck.

[ He half wants to tell her to cut the genderfluid bullshit, but whatever. It's not really his business and she's pretty great. He just grumbles something like 'yeah, yeah' and follows her. ]

[ And oh my god Squalo isn't an asshole? WHAT WORLD IS THIS. ]

Sounds like a plan. Shit, you really do know how to cheer a guy up.

[Shush Squalo, Luci is a special flower ~~who doesn't quite get why she feels like she's both female and male, or at least been both female and male...~~]

Sure do. [She agrees with a wicked grin.] Both in public and in private.

[ SO HE SEES... ~~Good thing he's fine banging her in both versions then because clearly that's the important part to take from this.~~ ]

Oh I can vouch for that. [ He'll take a seat at the bar and lean on the counter. ]

[Luci grins as he sits and gives his butt a quick and playful smack.]

Hey! You, with the tattoo. It's your lucky day--

[ Hope she's prepared for the thigh pinch in return. ]

[ And so they drink the evening away on the house (a decision the bartender may regret after realizing just how fucking much these two can drink, but Squalo will probably leave him a few hundred dollar "tip" afterwards because he can.) ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Senza tentazioni, senza onore."

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sooo did you have anything else in mind here or should we wrap up?

PROBS GOOD 83b

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