Life Is a Cabaret [Arvalyn]

[Finn]

3 Ash 121
Golden Peacock Theater

Finn had wanted to share the news immediately, but he knew how focused Arry was on his new job and so he waited for the night they had planned to meet. He paid for his ticket and sat at a lonely hightop on the side of the salon, and immediately put in an order for a drink and food, knowing the wait staff would be overwhelmed soon enough as the place filled up and the roster of singers began to perform.

This venue was relaxed but still nice. There wasn't a strict dress code, but Finn had made certain he was wearing his nicer clothes for it. He wanted to fit in and he didn't want to embarrass Arry if he was able to come out and sit with him when his performances were over. Finn didn't know if he would have a short set all at once or if they were staggering out the singers, but in either case, he would be entirely occupied as an audience member. It was nice to be able to observe other people performing sometimes.

He thanked the server when she brought his drink, a sweating copper mug whose sprig of mint couldn't hide the sharp, spicy scent of ginger, other botanicals, and spirits. She assured him that his dinner order would be out soon after the performances began, and he nodded, not wanting to keep her from her rounds.

Sipping at his delicious drink, he watched people come in and move about the space, watched them interact, even opened himself to the room's symphony with a careful thread of aether through his rune in order to get a feel for things. It filled up rather quickly, though not entirely to capacity. Still and all, it was a healthy crowd and one Arry could be proud of. Finn was proud of him, at least, but he knew that Arry had to find that for himself and not from other people. Finally, the lights went down and his meal did come, and the spotlight came up on a beautiful woman in a beautiful gown beaded with sparkling beads that shot rainbows into everyone's eyes as she moved.

Her voice, too, was beautiful.

[Arvælyn]

It was a nerve-wracking evening for the urchin of Antiris, now fully assuming his guise as a more glamorous and exotic creature in a new suit he'd bought the day he'd gone shopping with Aurin. He pushed Aurin toward something more flamboyant than usual, and had been inspired to try something more conservative himself. A sharp, black suit in a fitted Southron cut. It might have been classic, if not for the flare of the gold pattern of creeping vines overlaid in the jacquard. The shirt he wore underneath was open, but a bit of chest wasn't nearly as much skin as he was used to showing during a performance. Being more covered up didn't help his nerves, though.

He was guzzling water and pacing backstage when he heard the act that preceded him closing out her number with a pianissimo straight tone in her head voice. The whole song had been a lilting, tender melody that might have soothed his nerves if he'd allowed himself to register anything apart from running lyrics in his head. Such as things were, the ethereal conclusion to the song only served the exacerbate his nerves by way of presaging his turn to sing for this entirely new crowd. Almost entirely. There were a few familiar faces, one of which he found promptly as he took centre stage. He made eye contact with Finn, took a breath and began...

Fortunately for Arry, his first performance was to be a brief one. It was an eclectic salon event, intended to kick off a new season and introduce new members of the ensemble as well as highlighting a few of their current headliners, so the song was a one-off and then he was able to slip back to the green room for sparkling wine and light hors d'oeuvres until the salon had concluded. When the final bows had been taken, he was permitted to mingle... Perchance to charm some old dowager, as Aurin had suggested, but ere long he found that Finn's gravity had drawn him into orbit as those celestial blue eyes found him drawing closer.

"Oh, hello." He said with a sheepish smile as he sidled up.

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[Finn]

When Arry came on the stage, he looked beautiful, which was nothing new. The fine clothes were a costume, he knew, but he did like the more subdued look, if only because his beautiful face had less competition for attention, and then his beautiful voice caught all attention. Finn could sense his nerves as they rattled underneath his symphony, but Arry was a consummate professional, and pushed through. The song was lovely and Finn's applause was perhaps the loudest in the room, though he didn't make a scene.

He turned his head at just the right time to see a ginger man disappear behind a curtain that likely led to the backstage area, probably Arry's friend gone to congratulate him. Finn beamed to himself, hoping everyone was back there lauding him. For all Arry's poise, there was a lot of insecurity in him. Finn tried to always be supportive and he knew that even if Arry didn't trust his sincerity, they were often up in each other's symphonies, so he could hear the truth in what he said. It didn't bother him too much that his honesty wasn't enough in that regard. He well knew that an artist's ego was a funny thing, and he had his own insecurities even if they didn't manifest in quite the same ways.

"Oh, hello," he replied, not sheepish, but momentarily shy before slipping off of his stool to take him by the hip and the nape of his neck. "You were so good." And then he kissed him because his shyness was only momentary when he remembered that he had just about carte blanche to kiss Arry whenever he wanted. He was Arvalyn at the moment, but still, their relationship hadn't been a thing they needed to hide. Of course, he might not kiss him quite so much if one of the high and mighty of the Golden Peacock's management were present, but it seemed like it was just them among the lingering remnants of the crowd.

A few of them tried to get Arry's attention to congratulate him. A few looked a bit miffed to see that he was taken; even in a city run by polyamorists, "taken" was sometimes a thing.

[Arvælyn]

Arry was relieved to have gotten to perform relatively early in the line-up. He loved to perform and once he was up there it was electric (even without employing the influence of his Rune), but the preceding nerves brought him to the point of nausea. With the performance behind him, he was able to enjoy a glass of wine backstage with a few of the other performers and Aurin, who ducked back to join them after Arry's song.

By and by the performances drew to a close. The presentation only ran a little more than an hour, as it was just one facet of a larger cocktail-laden fundraising event, and they had to move things along toward the silent auction. Fortunately, that granted Arry the opportunity to slip out and find his Finn, as the people who could afford to bid and those who liked to spectate filed out into another room.

"You think?" Arry grinned at the praise and against the kiss. "I'm glad I didn't notice you until the end, or I might have been even more anxious..." The half-elf grabbed both of Finn's wrists and turned the human's palms up so he could inspect them.

"Just checking for bruising. You were clapping so hard I thought you might have hurt your money makers..." He jested, before guiding those hands beyond his own waist to rest at his back.

"I was hoping to introduce you to Aurin, but he's on duty tonight and I think he has to keep an eye on things at the auction. Those things can get contentious, I hear." He shrugged a shoulder. He aspired to be rich, but he didn't understand all of their ways. Not yet, anyway.

"And how fare you, my good minstrel?"

[Finn]

Finn laughed at Arry's jest, and was only too glad to be given such express permission to touch him in public. He didn't like to perform their relationship, but he recognized it might sometimes be a necessary evil given their careers. And so he was happy for the connection and the closeness and would wait to drop his hands lower until they were alone.

"Well, I could hear your nerves, but I doubt anyone else could." He would have reached out and soothed him if things had gotten bad, but he knew they wouldn't. He might even have reached out just to offer gentle encouragement but he didn't know if that would throw him off his performance. "Though... I hope someday me being in the audience will make you less nervous rather than more."

Rolling his eyes at the affluent folks who would be throwing their money around, he shrugged and smiled.

"A good day, my darling thespian," he replied. "I got to see you perform, I get to see you, and I got a commission earlier today, but I'll tell you more about that later. I'd rather celebrate your performance. Are you required to stay and mingle? I don't mind being on your arm or waiting... Or if you just want to stay. Or go." He laughed. "I don't know why I'm making this awkward. I guess I should just ask what you want to do now that you have me here. So... what do you want to do now that you have me here?"

[Arvælyn]

"Perhaps." Arry acknowledged with a blithe shrug, "But you've been firmly fixed upon your pedestal ever since the day I discovered you busking away on the street. Maybe if the student ever exceeds the instructor I shall be at greater ease performing in front of you." He wrinkled his nose and softened somewhat, "I suppose it just feels like if I mess up when you're here, I'll be humiliated for two instead of just being embarrassed for myself. I know you'd feel for me." He shook his head, consciously dismissing the apparent vulnerability he was exhibiting- in public, no less.

Arry pondered Finn's question as he scanned the room, taking note of the dwindling crowd. A few guests didn't seem keen to quit the bar and a few others were eyeing the remaining performers- perhaps trying to muster the courage to speak to their favourite.

"I... don't think I need to stay. Nobody told me I had to and it isn't like I'm being swarmed at the moment, so... I'd just as well slip out, find someplace quiet for a nightcap and hear all about this new commission of yours." He tugged on one of Finn's hands drawing it to his arm as he shifted to his side, leaning a bit of his less than formidable weight against the human.

"There's a nice little lounge just up the street." He noted, as he led the way toward the exit. "I'm friendly with the owner, which is usually good for a comped cocktail or twelve..." He chuckled, "Depending on how many he's comped for himself."

It wasn't far at all, and might have been easy to miss but Arry tugged Finn's arm to one side and down a few steps to a red door. He pulled it open and Finn would find that the red theme did not end at the entry, but that the whole place was done up in shades of red with a bit of black and gold to keep things polychromatic.

[Finn]

"I suppose I'll have to figure out how to make you feel like you're up on a pedestal being worshipped sometimes," he said quietly, flushed as though someone would hear the sorts of things he saved for Arry alone. But he paid his bill, tipped generously, wanting everyone to have a good impression of him, especially where their impression of him would have an effect on their impression of Arry. Then he was only too happy to escape somewhere they didn't have to play any particular roles.

The red lounge taxed even his vocabulary to name all the shades from scarlet to oxblood, and he wondered whether there wasn't a room like this somewhere in the Velvet Cabaret, though he didn't ask. Any friend of Arry's was going to be seen in Finn's most accepting of lights.

"Kiss while your lips are still red," he composed on the spot,
"While he's still silent." He leaned in to sneak a kiss. Arry's lips were one of his favorite things.

But otherwise, he was happy for Arry to select them a seat, even select their drinks since he knew the owner and was much better at charming drinks out of people than Finn was. He would pay, regardless.

"Anyway, I'm sure to be anxious when I present my capstone at the end of the season. On the one hand, I hope we fill the entire Pyrecaeon. On the other, I've never really conducted that many musicians at once so I will be outside my comfort zone." Arry was well aware of this event on the horizon, at least. Finn had played and sung bits and pieces of the Talon Novalys theme before, seeking feedback. It was a thing he had begun to compose when Talon first nudged him into this path to the Academy and beyond, and he wanted a fuller version of it to be the capstone of that education.

His new commission was tangentially related, though, and that was news he would share if Arry didn't feel as though it would steal from his big night.

[Arvælyn]

"Would it be too literal to invest in an actual pedestal? Yeah, I just heard myself- it would be." Arry said in one of those moments where it was especially hard to tell whether he was joking or just really owning the necessary narcissism without which he'd have no hope of making it at the Golden Peacock. Speaking of narcissism, gold paired very well with red, didn't it?

"Come again?" Arry tilted his head. He heard the content of Finn's utterance, but it took him a moment to process that the minstrel was waxing poetic and likely locking a lyric into his mind. He was pleased to find that Finn fastened it into place with a punctuating kiss. He smiled against it.

"That's a good one." He conceded, "Don't drink it away." He bade as he sidled up to the bar, claimed a stool and betrayed his own warning by ordering a bottle of the house wine which was, of course, red.

"Well, you know I'm always able to help soothe your nerves, if you're worried they might be too much of an obstacle..." Arry found his nerves helpful. They sharpened him and kept him alert in the moment, even if he didn't always remember in the aftermath all the details of what transpired in the heat of the moment. That was the trade-off, but it seemed to work for him. Too much ease, he found distracting. Though not everyone operated as he did and, if Finn needed a bit of aetherial intervention, he would be happy to further practise the Craft in which he seemed to exce with a natural ease.

"So!" He bit his bottom lip and gestured, before realising it may not be clear what he meant: "What's this commission, then, hm?"

[Finn]

"Perhaps the next time you grace my flat with your presence, I'll have a pedestal for you and I'll sit below and sing praises up to you. Or I'll learn how to paint... then I'll have another reason to get you out of your clothes." His smile was beatific; while he was able to banter with a courtesan, there was an innocence underlying it all when it was Finn.

Pleased that Arry enjoyed the lyric and the kiss, he determined to remember them both. Taking a seat at the bar, he admired the gold tones of his lover against the red tones of their environment. He would have to figure out who was in charge of scenic design at the Golden Peacock and remind them that Arvalyn Val'Cithaeron looked positively royal in this mise en scène.

"I think I need my nerves sometimes," he said, unconsciously echoing Arry's own feelings on the matter.

"Oh," he said after nodding his agreement when the bartender glanced his way. Red wine, red lips.

"Well, the other day I managed to get an audience with the Shinsei to invite him to my capstone performance since it's dedicated to him. He nudged me toward the House that patronizes my education, after all. Anyway... he was quite gracious about it, and I do think he will come if he is able. And I told him he ought to check out the newest star in the Golden Peacock's firmament..." He grinned at Arry, knowing it would be difficult to watch him in a drama as Arry would always pull his focus.

"But he commissioned a love song for his partner, Lord Aoren. I have a royal commission. Before I've even completed my capstone."

His eyes widened once more as it hit him, and he was only too eager to pick up the freshly poured glass of red to fortify himself.

[Arvælyn]

"Well... Don't get anything too heavy..." Arry blushed slightly at the notion of Finn making good on that jest and lugging a hunk of marble up the stairs, when he was still mulling the possibility of proposing cohabitation. Aurin's warnings rang yet in his pointed ears, but it didn't seem the moment to broach it ere the wine arrived and whilst they were talking of Finn's triumphs rather than his own ambitions.

Arry's eyes widened slightly. Of course he knew that Finn and Talon were acquainted, but to know that they'd been in contact so recently- And with all that was said of Talon's relatively recent ascension to new, purportedly celestial heights- Arry was particularly star struck.

"Oh, wow!" He exclaimed before emitting an audible gasp that Finn had been so good a partner as to mention Arry- a recommendation, no less! To the Shinsei of Kalzasi! He felt blood rushing to his ears, and it was nearly dizzying. The wine couldn't have arrived at a more opportune moment.

"A royal commission!" He beamed, reaching to grasp the neck of his glass. "If owt ever called for a toast, I'd say it's that." But before he lifted the glass, he leaned forward to place a congratulatory kiss upon the lips of his adored one.

"To Finn the Fantastic, for we no longer need to look to the future when we consider your ascent to greatness. But if we want to sustain the pleasantly alliterative quality of that former moniker, perhaps I should be toasting Finn the Fucking Fantastic!" And with that verbose declaration, he raised and clinked his glass against Finn's and took more a gulp than a sip- for his nerves needed calming as his mind swirled with visions of a command performance of his own for members of Kalzasi's royal family.