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“And Lila.”

And with that, his hopes once again were crushed. Kisten sighed, running a hand through his relaxed Mohawk before heading towards the lockers. ‘More auditions next month, next month, next month.’ He removed his ballet slippers, tossing them into the bag and exchanged them for the heavy boots. Jeans were tugged on over the leggings and his heavy winter coat over the tunic.

He stepped outside, caught two buses and got off on the corner of North ave and Red branch st. The start of the red-light districts. The snow turned grey from exhausted, salt, and muck.

Snow, snow, he hated the snow. Kisten tugged the leather coat tighter about him, breath condensing into white mist. The neon red glow of Carmine’s sign cast a sickly like glow on his skin. He continued to crunch through the snow, entering the employee’s door way in the alley way, ignoring the somewhat over powering smell of jumbled colognes and perfumes and deodorants.

He ignored the bodyguards and made a beeline for Mari. Kisten flopped down in the chair next to the dark curvy women, reaching out to stroke the ball python, Sweet Bee curled about her wrist. “They post shifts yet?” He asked, gently coaxing the snake onto his skin.

“When haven’t they posted shifts?” Mari asked, reached over and pried the tail from her wrist, letting her friend take the youngest snake of her collection. “You have a show at ten and another at twelve. No luck?”

“Would I be here if I had luck?” Kisten sighed, gave the snake back, and began to peel off his coat. Carmine was stiffing, a mix of gas heaters and body heat, the leather too insulating. “More auditions next month.”

“Locker,” Mari called, prodding him sharply in the ribs. “Cluttering my space with your junk… and the big guy picked you up something different. Seems you had some admirers.”

“Ugh.” Admirers got handsie, as if it was their right to feel him up because of the line of work. “Just what I needed.” He picked up his jacket, heading to his locker.

“They tip well enough.”

“They keep touching my a**.”

“Honey, everyone wants to touch your a**. It is delectable.”

Kisten snorted, removing the new garment bag and his tool box of makeup and accessories. “Thanks Mari. Be back in ten.”
“Take twenty and grab something to eat.”

A shower and a quick meal later, Kisten set down in his chair, wrapped in a towel. He dried his Mohawk, and started to set out the make-up, temp hair dyes, and spirit glue. “Help me with the faux gems?” A container of plastic triangle joined the collection. “New admires I take it?” He had old ones, but the new outfit didn’t fit them.

“Mmhm, remember the drag night?”

He licked his lip, a small reflex shiver trickling down his spine. “Yeah, I remember that well.” Fun, fun night. “Mar..”

“Nope, I don’t do relationships. You want a relationship; I just wanted to tap the pretty blue kids aft.” Mari sat down, grabbing the gear and started to work, laying a strip of blue gems down his spine in a diamond pattern. A thump sounded through the floor as the bass line rolled, the sound check vibrating.

“I know, I know.” He sighed and started on his makeup. Clear gloss, liner two shades darker than his skin tone lip, more over the center of his lip in silver, trailing out in a sunburst pattern. Dynamic eye shadow, silver, green, and bright purple. Glitter. Thong, garter belt and thigh high fishnet stockings. Stiletto heels, not a favorite, Kisten preferred boots. They had more stability.

Then the dress with its subtle attachments allowing it to be ripped way to just sleeves. Long bell shape sleeves that covered his hands and puddled about his shoulders if he had his arms raised. It was surprisingly not cheaply made. Pretty, and he might have been flattered if he knew it wasn’t going to end up with him getting groped.

“Well?” He looked at Mari, in her skimpy scale mail bikini, and living jewelry, as Sweet bee slithered up her arm. “What do you think?”

“Nice, not my type, but cute.” Mari patted his cheek and grinned. “Go get them tiger.”

Kisten tipped his head, stuck out his dark purple tongue pierced twice with silver studs and sauntered out.

>>>>><<<<


He was exhausted when worked finished, glitter stiff in his hawk and tired of people. Kisten just pulled on his heavy winter coat, he could change later in the apartment, and headed back out into the snow.

Cold, it was icy, but his apartment was close to Carmine. Two blocks, and the coat nearly reached his feet. Though maybe he should have took a moment to switch to his boots instead of keeping on the stilettos. He hadn’t wanted to mess with the straps but it was colder than he had first thought.

Kisten kept moving, walking through the narrow alley way, and this couldn’t be right. It had never taken this long before to get to his apartment building. The snow was falling faster, coating everything a bright and near blinding white.

Keep walking. Even when things were getting blinding, and the cold was an allover numbness.

Voice. Kisten shook himself, white falling and grimly moved forward. Safe, safe, safe, his heels skidded as they met something other then the crunch of snow and he skidded, shifting to keep from breaking one of the stilettos.

A soft grunt escaped him as he smacked against something hard, and he blinked, snow clinging to his lashes. Color, check. Bag? Somewhere tangled against his legs, and feet. Check. Not dead from cold... yay! Worrying numb? yes.

He shut his eyes, focusing on breathing and trying not to fall asleep. Breathe, breathe... where are you? Who is talking. He licked his lips, opening his eyes once again and craned his neck to the blue. Dress? "Hey," he croaked, voice dry.

Feathers, he thought dizzily. Pretty. He blinked, watching as she shut a door and the winter stilled. He was in a house? Kisten swallowed, finding saliva and his words.

"Think so," his skin hadn't turned white or black, it was the same bright rich blue it always had been. He hadn't turned his ankle, broke a heel, or anything else. Maybe bruises? He grasped the hand carefully, drawing himself up. Set toes, than the heels.

"Thank you." He muttered, snow drifting from his coat and hair. "It was rather cold."

"Kisten," he replied, turning the women's name over in his head. Cosine, pretty, but mathematics? Why was he thinking mathematics? He nearly failed algebra. "A hot drink would be nice." With a shot of rum, it would be perfect. "Thank you, Cosine, for the offer."

He bent over, muscles protesting and scooped up the duffel bag. He was going to change out of the heels for his more flexible slippers when they stopped.

(Sleep well)

"I appreciate it," Kisten replied, eyeing the door. Something wasn't right, it itched that he wasn't connecting thoughts together. He followed the women, heels giving a staccato of clicks on the floors. Anyplace had to be better then the snow storm.

"Interesting decor, " he said, looking at the mosaic before walking in and froze, looking up. Dome, no snow, just blue skies something he hadn't seen in months since winter cast a dull gloom over the city. "There is no snow," he said, slightly dazed before taking a seat.

"Tea would be fine, with honey if you have any." Kisten glanced around, then to Cosine, then back to the dome. "Children are okay, I have foster siblings." He huffed slightly, and turned to his feet, pulling a heel up and started to loosen the black straps.

"Was going to ask if you were a witch, that a bit past witchery though." Some sort of sci-fiction mess and at the moment... Kisten was okay with it. It was warm, he wasn't freezing, and if this was some sort of delusion, well, there was worse ways to go.

He manged to remove one of his heels and paused, looking up. "Yes, thank you, mademoiselle." He smiled at the, satyr didn't seem right, goat girl seemed rude... ,woman. Lets stick with that.

"Sandy has four all together, but just two live with him. Nothing wrong with challenging children." Kisten turned back to his heels, removing the second and gave a pleased sound, wiggling his toes. Much better.

Kisten set his heels together to the side and started to undo the buttons on his coat. "They are required work gear. Not horrible, but they do get uncomfortable after a few hours." He eased the heavy leather down his shoulders.

"The feathers... threw me for a moment. I've seen winged people, but never that large? If that is not horribly impolite." Ashes had some wings, but they were skin and leather. "Sandy has cat ears and a tail and I'm blue." Literally bright blue.

"Was thinking more delusional then dreaming." Okay, if he wanted to get out of the coat he was going to have to stand. Kisten sighed, slowly standing a bit creakily, and shimmied out of the large coat.

"Erotic dance," Kisten replied, folding his coat and setting it away. He sat down and unclipped the thigh high fishnets from the garter belt, slowly easing them down, first the right leg and then the left. "I want to do ballet, just haven't had any luck yet."

He folded and rolled them up, setting them aside and hooked his fingers in the garter, slidding them down as well. "Green? Well, we can have a talk about fashion then. It is a pain to find colors that don't clash."