1Warnings: Contains references to homosexual relationships and adult themes and language. Basically, not for kids. Not explicit in any way, but... eh. Not for a closed mind. Other than that,enjoy!
Welcome to the City of Dis
"I can't believe we open -tonight-."
Those fateful words came from the lips of one Jinx Mackenzie, who stood surveying the club before him with an almost amazed expression on his freckled face. It was obvious he'd been working hard, little strands of auburn hair escaping from the long braid down his back to get into his face. The tableau before him spoke of countless hours of labor and endless determination, and it was with an overwhelming sense of pride that he took it all in. Sure, the ten of them had worked together, but it had been his idea, one they'd all agreed to eagerly. His brainchild, his baby. Jinx smiled just thinking about it, tail coiling in the air behind him as his great, bat-like wings rustled with pleasure. The sweat down his bare back and the dirt in his jeans didn't bother him right now. It was definitely all worth it.
His reverie was broken by the shivery tones of the woman beside him. "And it's a good thing, too. It'll be dead at first, until we get a rep. Gives us a chance to make sure everything is... seamless," Lilyana purred with a roll of her hips and a deep smile. Some women were sexy naturally; some women tried very hard. Lily was bombshell through and through, all curves and deep red hair, jade eyes sparking with some inner amusement. The tight black outfit that clung to her body did little to lessen the effect.
The room they were in was dark, with a ceiling that spiked upward aggressively several floors. Hundreds of feet wide, the dance floor was hardwood, carefully laid and sanded, set a few feet down from the wrap-around walk that stretched the whole ring of the first floor. Up a staircase to the second, balconies overlooked the dance floor, scattered with small tables for relaxing, for a drink between dances. The bar itself gave the final clue - they had built a club. It stretched all along one wall, inky black and seeming to absorb the light, only to reflect it back from all the little sparkles along its length. An eerie blue light that sparked from tiny light bulbs all over the ceiling seemed to fill the club with a certain ambiance, making the reflections from all the mirrors lining the walls seem a bit unreal... a bit touched. There was a whole wall covered in one massive mirror - a feat that had taken a great deal of time and magic to accomplish - and another covered merely in broken pieces of mirrors, giving anyone who stood before it a twisted, distorted reflection. The last wall held the door, which led down to the foyer, lit in dim red lights - which gave way to a door to the outside world.
The only break of the first floor's harmony was the stage, spread along the last wall and sticking out onto the floor. A semi-circle, there were three poles set equal distances apart, that dwindled up into the darkness, supposedly reaching all the way to the dark ceiling which was completely invisible from the dance floor.
Not quite as invisible from the first floor, the booth up behind the bar was nonetheless intentionally hard to spot. And now, all the wiring was right and the speaker systems were in place. At a moment's notice, the club could be flooded with countless decibles of the loudest music. A bit of movement disturbed the booth, and a moment later a figure was flinging itself from the second story with a cheerful whoop.
Plummeting toward the ground, Zechariah fearlessly waited til the last moment to snap out his wings. Bringing himself up on a sudden rush of wind, he set down on one foot easily, grinning widely. The day-glo of the reflective stripes on his pants glittered almost purple in the light. Zech himself was purple, a deep violet color to his skin that was made only strange by the wild shock of emerald green hair that tumbled around his smiling face. As with all of his race, he had wings and tail, resembling a gargoyle in much the way Jinx did, but the emerald eyes that sparkled with good humor were nowhere near as threatening as those of the stone monsters he resembled. "All deej systems go, Mack," he tossed off brightly, saluting Jinx raggedly.
Almost glowing with satisfaction, Jinx nodded. "Perfect. Help me check out the kitchens-"
He was cut off by a startled yelp. Looking up, the three of them pinpointed the muscled fingure halfway up one of the poles. "You have to slide down SLOWLY, Harper," Lily called in a smirking tone. "It's not as satisfying if you go too fast."
"Never woulda noticed, Lil!" Harper called, wincing a bit as he willed his hands to stop burning. Like the others, he was dirty from all the labor and sweating from the last bit of lighting work up in the ceiling, but it did nothing to lessen the broadness of his shoulder, or the allure of his handsome face and unbelievably charming smile. Blowing straggly bits of dark blonde hair out of his face, he slid down the pole with much more care to the last twenty feet, hopping down from the stage to cross to where Jinx stood. "Gotta get in all the practice we can, right?" Harper - as well as Lily, and one of the others - was one of the dancers for the club, and the three of them had been practicing relentless since the poles had been erected nearly a year ago. The club was meant to serve all purposes, and the dancers were more art in the eventual sculpture they hoped to achieve here. Sidling closer to Zech, Harper slid an arm around the shoulders of the tall 'lor, happily leaning on his mate.
"Of course," Lily said, with a shake of her head. "But it's nearly noon, and construction finished or no, we still have to clean - and stock the kitchens. Or have you forgotten that? We might not be READY by tonight."
"No... we should be okay. If we all get back to work, that is," Jinx said with a slight smile, relishing the guilty look on Zech's face and the falsely innocent smile on Harper's. "Lily, Harper, if you two would go help Jereth and Umiko in the kitchen? If that's where we need all the real work, anyway. For that matter, has anyone seen Lyth? Who's watching Ceris? And what the HELL is Liir doing in the basement, anyway?"
Harper glanced at Zech, then back over to Jinx. "I sent Lyth to bed. He wore himself out with the last of the lighting spells." Both Harper and Zechariah were very protective of the third member of their little coterie, and they both adored the tiny, frail wizard Lytheras to the point of including them in their bed nightly, and their prayers every morning.
"The only competent mage, and you put him to bed," Jinx said, sweatdropping. "But we haven't got the cold-heat spells done yet! We don't actually have electricity to run this place, you know-"
"And Lyth doesn't have the energy to do all of it at once either, which YOU know. He's powerful, but not infinitely so. 'Sides, I'm a perfectly competent wizard," Harper said, lifting his chin with an imperious smile.
"...You just keeping telling yourself that. -I- remember the pumpkin incident," Zech informed him somberly, pretending to not notice Lily's inquisitive stare or Jinx's groan. Harper merely looked supremely innocent.
"That never happened," Jinx pointed out firmly. "Come on, guys, work to do. Zech, will you check the evacuation systems one last time? I really don't relish being sued." Already Lily was swaying her way up the stairs to the second level, to the bar and the doors behind it that led to the kitchens.
With a reluctant sigh, Harper disentangled himself from Zech. "Good luck with mister nazi pants," he whispered, winking at the lor. Zech just chuckled, and stole a long, languid kiss before spreading his wings and launching himself toward the ceiling.
"Employees," Jinx muttered, but he was smiling.
Apparently, what Liir was doing in the basement was something far more likely to get them in trouble than faulty evacuation drills. "You're staging a -what- in the cellar of my club?" Jinx wanted to know, hoping he had mishead, hoping that the catacombs here were not stuffed with weapons and gods only knew what else.
"A revolution," Liir told him smoothly, the liquid quality of his voice letting everyone know his race, clear as day. As if his looks didn't do it. Long black curls, penetrating gray eyes, and deeply tanned skin, all touched by an unnatural, almost angelic beauty - had to be Danu. For his kind, he was tall, some five and a half feet tall, and right now he was calmly tying knot after knot in what seemed to be a giant net. At the other corner, Talyn was doing the same. For some reason Jinx couldn't bring himself to berate his big brother. Maybe it was the knowledge of just how easily Talyn could kick his ass.
As though reading his little brother's mind, Talyn looked up, smirking. Brilliant gold eyes stood out from night-black skin, the occasional red freckle making him look almost cute in all his dangerousness. Auburn hair just as unruly as Jinx's fell into his eyes, and strong, capable hands tied knots the same as Liir's, though not with the same grace of movement. Talyn was all 'lor, wings and musculature and foremost the bad attitude, lazily eyeing his pale, skinnier little sibling as though he dared Jinx to -really- get in a huff.
"A revolution," Jinx repeated, feeling stupid and young but really not liking this. It was bad enough the whole lot of them had woken up one day several years ago in a castle, without a memory between them, names on stickers on their shirts. It was bad enough they'd been stuck together on the grounds since then. But this club was Jinx's baby, and hells if he was letting them arse it up as a staging point for a revolution.
If only he could have made himself actually say that to them.
Instead, he just sighed deeply, aware of the weight of Liir's grey stare on him. Liir was something else, the quietest and most reserved of their number. Even now, none of them really knew much about him. "What stakes do you even have in the freedom of the Syolraadi?" was the eventual question. There was only one revolution to be staged here, anyway - the rebellion of the slave rave of the Syolraadi to the cruel, petty Kuritai. Granted, it was time past time for it, but spearheaded from his club? Just fucking lovely.
"Future customers," was Liir's half-smirking reply. It floored Jinx for a moment.
Finally he just threw his hands in the air. "Fine! But if you -wreck- the place I'll make you build me a new one. Bases of operation are supposed to be secret, and all that."
Fixing him with a serent gaze that said he was all too aware of the need for secrecy, Liir merely smiled up at him, hands still flicking through the motions, another foot of net in his lap in mere seconds.
"Talyn, we do open tonight, and you're my security, so make sure you give the place one last once over before nightfall. Liir, when you're done here, we could use your help in the kitchens," Jinx continued valiantly, but was met with black stares from both of them. "Bloody hell," he muttered, and fled the basement.
Watching him go, Liir turned to Talyn with a wry half-smile. "That was far too easy."
"I know," Talyn smirked, golden eyes sparkling. "That's what makes it fun."
The sounds of voices reached Harper and Lily's ears long before they actually reached the kitchen. Harper's brother, Jereth, and Jereth's lover Umiko were already there, and apparently Umiko had stopped being shy long enough to actually yell at his lover.
"...can't REFRIGERATE Tikari wine! What are you, mad!?" came the disbelieving squawk. As undignified as Umiko sounded, there was still that siren-smooth quality to his voice, and as Harper pushed the swinging doors to the kitchen open and stepped inside, the little Danu turned to face him with a startled look.
Barely more than five feet, with the telltale black curls tumbled around his tanned face, Umiko flushed a bit, casting the bright silver of his gaze elsewhere. Despite the unnatural beauty of his race, he was rather antisocia;, it was hard for him to open up to people, and even after years together Jereth was the only one who ever got to see him acting like a real person. "Oh! um, hi Harper. Lily." Obviously flustered, he twisted his fingers together in front of him, and was only a bit comforted when he heard Jereth chuckle.
"Okay, okay, no refrigeration. I don't know these things, tanani, that's why you're helping me, remember?" Jereth said reassuringly, offering Umiko a warm smile. Brilliant blue eyes that seemed impossibly bright fixed on Harper and Lily, and the brothers grinned identical crooked grins. Of a height, they both had the same long, blonde ponytail and the same clear-cut movie star features; the only real way to tell them apart was in the knowledge that Jereth was the blue-eyed one, whereas Harper bore a gaze of a strange gold color. They even dressed alike, in ratty jeans and shirtless for the labor. Readily accepted as twins amongst the lot of them, they were very playful and brotherly with one another, often leading to pillowfights, noogies, and bizarre games of chase-hide-seek-flee.
"Yah, cause hell knows he's useless without somebody telling him what to do," Harper grinned impishly, shrugging a little. Jereth gave him a mock glare, only to relent at the slight smile on Umiko's face.
"He's right. You're the alcoholics expert. Tell you what, why don't we haul all the stuff up from the wine cellar, and you and Lils can sort it out? I know Jinx wanted the hard liquor kept -frozen-, for whatever reason," Harper pointed out.
Lily had already stepped away from them and was going through cabinets with an increasing frown on her face. "Don't count me in on that, there's still scrubbing to do in here. Who cleaned this? Who calls this CLEAN?" Despite her overwhelming sensuality, Lily was far too much like her mother and knew that no man could do a woman's job without botching it.
Umiko glanced up at her, already reaching for a cleaning rag and the dishes that were supposedly pristine, he almost whimpered. They so weren't ready for this yet. "Okay. Right. Yes. That's not a bad idea, Harper. Just start bringing stuff up, we'll worry about freezing and refrigeration when we get there."
With a nod, Harper grinned at him brightly. "Right! Endless booze, on its way. C'mon, Jer," he continued, grabbing his brother by the arm and hauling him toward the trapdoor that led to the cellar. "We've got wine to worry about."
With a deep sigh, Umiko watched them go. Oh, this was far too much work. They'd never actually get everything started. The thought of dissapointing Jinx, after all of this struggling, made him wince inwardly. "We are SO screwed," he whimpered, tugging on a lock of his hair and biting his lip.
"None of the cooling spells are even set up yet," came the quiet voice from behind him. With a yelp, Umiko spun, eyes wide to take in the tiny form of Lytheras. The smallest and most fragile of them all, Lyth wasn't even five feet tall, and was unnervingly thin. Unlike the other two Danu, his skin was pale and pulled tight over the knuckles of his hands, but the same black curls fell into his hazel eyes, and he possessed the same heart-stopping beauty. "Harper literally put me to bed and threatened to tie me there." A slight smile was on the little wizard's face as he walked over to Umiko. By default, they considered themselves brothers; gods knew they looked enough alike. "Jinx is going to have a fit."
Trying to get his heart to stop pounding, Umiko nodded - then he processed Lyth's words. "What!" he cried in dismay. "Oh, no! We're NEVER going to be ready," he whimpered, twisting his hands together.
"Of course we are- oh, good, JUST who I wanted to see," Jinx said as he stepped into the kitchen. "Lyth. Do you think you can handle just the freezer? We can get the rest, but none of us have the skill you do." The freckled lor was smiling with pained hope.
With a smile, Lytheras opened his mouth to assure Jinx that he was more than capable of doing that at least. He was interrupted by the arrival of a small brown whirlwind, a little ball of hide and wings that darted into the kitchens past Jinx's feet.
Ceris was young, perhaps five, but had already made some three and a half feet in length, not including his tail. Apparently, baby lor were positively adorable, because he put one in mind of an adorable kitten. Beaming up at him with big brown eyes, Ceris shook chocolate hair from his eyes. "I wanna help!" he insisted brightly. Over his head, Umiko and Lyth exchanged dubious looks. Ceris was enthusiastic, and a good kid whom they all loved. But sometimes there was just too much mess for him to make.
About to reply with a careful negative, Jinx was cut off by the sound off Lily's voice. "Sure you can help, Cerie. Just come over here and help me with this silver." The redheaded woman held up a spoon, motioning the kit over. Ceris eagerly darted to her side and clambered up onto the counter. Washing silverware was play to him. Just about anything was play to him, really, and it was with a sigh of relief that Jinx let the little one be and turned back to Lyth. The rest of them were in their early twenties or so, and it was sometimes hard to remember that Ceris wasn't at their level, and had to be supervised - because fuck if 'lor kits didn't have built in trouble-magnets.
"The cooling spells won't be a problem," Lytheras informed Jinx, smiling a bit. "Especially because I'll be doing it the simple way. All the heat from the freezers - as well as a great deal of what's generated on the dance floor - will be diverted out to the hot spring."
"Well, that sounds good, except for one thing. We don't HAVE a hot spring," Jinx said, eyeing Lytheras warily.
The wizard merely smiled. "We will once the spells are set. I've been working out these motions for weeks, they're pat," he assured them, pulling a large pouch from his pocket. "Heat channeling crystals that just have to be present in the freezer, and not a speck of my own energy wasted." Surprisingly animated, Lyth smiled brightly, looking pleased. "They turned out quite well. I'll be at it," he said, and turned, not giving Jinx much in the way of time to respond.
Watching Lyth head for the coldroom, Jinx shook his head slowly. "Mages," he mumbled under his breath in a disbelieving tone. Umiko smiled, and might have said something but for the sudden spate of cursing that rose from the cellar door.
"Kay, now, usually a couple hundred pounds isn't a problem. But does it have to be so fucking unWIELDY?" Harper muttered, rolling a keg that barely fit through the trapdoor up onto the floor. No mortal man could have carried that alone; it would have taken five or six of exceptional strength. But Harper didn't seem winded, just a bit sarcastic. Granted, the keg -was- a hard shape to move. But so was Harper's ass, Jereth reflected, another such keg at his feet as he waited for the ladder to be cleared.
"Come back for this one, then," Jereth called up to him. "Or get the hell out of the way." Covered in cobwebs, the two of them were sweaty and speckled in dust. The catacombs were endless and Harper had almost gotten them LOST in a corner of the wine cellar, which was endless in and of itself - not that that was a bad thing, as half of it was ancient barrels of Tikari wine, a discovery that had made the lot of them jump for joy in the beginning. Fermented from seaweed, it was sweet, green, and distilled, with a kick unlike anything known to man. It was a specialty of the Chankorian and Danu races, and extremely expensive, and really good.
Glancing downward, Harper snorted. "Yeah right!" he laughed, but agreeable got out of the hole to roll the giant keg over to its final resting place along one wall.
"These two ale kegs should do it for the week, at least. Find some bottles of hard liquor - take the BASKETS, mind - and make sure to get at least a dozen of the Tikari barrels up here. We shouldn't need more than that for tonight," Jinx advised, wandering over to the hole to peer down as Jereth as the men effortlessly hauled the half-ton keg up a ladder. Shaking his head with a smile, the lor stepped back to let Jereth come up over the ledge. The ladder was only some fifteen feet down into the root cellar and then the wine cellar, but it was still an impressive feat. Even a powerful lor like his big brother might have had a bit more difficulty with it, but Jereth rolled it up onto the floor with much less complaining than Harper.
"Not a problem. Little of everything in the hard department? We ARE opening up onto a modern 'verse, and I don't think they'll go for the ale," Jereth said between deep breaths, rolling the keg slowly across the floor to where Harper was hooking his up to some odd device under Umiko's instruction.
"It's beer on tap," Jinx explained with a grin, waving at the tubes that vanished through the wall to the bar. "It'll be just right, especially for the neighborhood."
"Rickett and Fifth!" they all chorused, then dissolved into laughter for a moment. The clink of glass alerted them to the amusement of the woman and chibi currently scrubbing every mug in the place, as well as alto giggles. The decision of the location's title had been something of an inside joke whose story made no sense whatsoever to anyone who had not been there. I mean, who has that kind of joke? Who DOES that? A JERK!
When they had all once more regained the ability to breathe through laughter and the two kegs had been properly attached to their tap-tubing systems, the four men paused to smile at one another. A warm feeling of camaraderie had sprung up in spite of previous tensions. All the angst of rushing to get everything done, the petty arguments, the stress and snapping, was all gone in that moment of triumph. Umiko was of course at Jereth's side, Harper and Jinx giving one another matching grins. Finally Jinx broke the quiet.
"This might actually -work-, guys," he mused softly, grinning.
"Knock on wood," Harper said automatically, rapping the keg lightly. It rang out hollowly, a deep bell tone that was far louder than expected. All eyes were drawn to the humming keg, and silence reigned for a long moment before Harper laughed.
"Well, it's either a sign of favor or a sign of disaster, but either way it's a sign and something's going to happen," he pointed out, ruffling Jinx's hair with a grin before he turned for the entrance to the cellar. "Gonna bring baskets down with us?"
Falling into line, Jereth wandered after his brother, Umiko's shorter legs nonetheless matching his stride with the fluid, easy grace all Danu possessed. Umiko's size was deceptive, as were the folds of the hakama around his legs; he was a monk, and more dangerous hand to hand than anyone could expect. Picking up a pair of the baskets, he descended the latter behind his lover, admiring the design of the fur-lined baskets, whose partitions were all well cushioned to allow the carrying of many bottles up at once. "Lilyana did a good job on these," he mused, eyes adjusting easily to the darkness. It WAS dusty down there. Hopping off the stair to make room for Harper above him, he turned to eye the endless lanes of bottles. "We've an endless supply, don't we?" he mused.
Jinx laughed, jumping off the ladder from the top and landing with the grace only a flying creature could manage. "Pretty much. I think they rematerialize like the food, to be honest."
"Hundred percent profit margin, not a bad deal at all," Harper crowed, grinning widely as they moved off into the darkness in search of alcohol. If they hadn't fallen apart by now, then they were good for one another, the whole lot of them. Things might work out, after all.
Listening to Harper chatter and trying not to swallow cobwebs, Jinx smiled in the darkness.
end part one.