[AW] Finding the Answer [Scarab]

[Manon]

Baby, why don't you find someone easy?

She was making her rounds, at the end of the night: the dim interior invited in all sorts of fellows that wished for more than the outside world could offer them, and she--ever the diligent watchman--took advantage of those who paid little mind to else but their own desires. She sneered from the shadows, behind her veil of blurred-invisibility granted by her crown, disdain riddled across her face at the domineering men and their lack of consideration for anything but their elevated positions. And she would wrap herself around them, press her lips against their spines, bat her iridescent eyes and whisper against their necks; she would play the part of a damsel at their disposal if only to get them irrevocably intoxicated on her false promises. And when they fell--they always fell--she would snatch a purse of their coins and tell them to meet at her room.

She would never show.

She found him long before he would ever know she existed; she knew of everyone, really, that dared take a step into the Scarab. It wasn't her home, for a home doesn't have meaning to one who pays no loyalty to any singular place, but the Scarab was as close as she would get to finding the same sense of solace others felt. To say she held onto a feeling of protectiveness over the roof above her head Senna had offered to her those years ago would not be wrong; perhaps it was her way of holding onto him too, and all the turmoil that bubbled out of her heart at the thought of him.

The girl donned in coppers and splashed with whites snaked around the edge of the bar, her sights upon the dark figure of one she had yet made her acquaintance to. His golds pulled her in, and the way he found their frivolities alarming brought her close. How curious to find a patron so disinterested in their games--but maybe her games would leave an impression. As she sidled near, barely brushing the tops of his sun-ray wings, she gave but one unspoken dip of her head to the girl who just served him, and with a smile she dashed away to work. Manon glanced from the corner of her swirling eyes to the boy, looking out upon the commotion of shuffling cards and rumbling laughter while the two of them sat back at the bar. With the return of the server and Manon's signature drink (so deeply red it could be easily mistaken for blood), she released the wistful sigh of a girl lost in dreams and murmured to him, "Now, where's the fun in some tea when you can have the whole cabinet presented at your whim?" She gestured to his drink of choice, taking but a moment to become enveloped in the sharp smell, then winking at him before consuming her glass with one throw back of her head. It was swift movement, practiced, and she placed the cup next to his in a silent challenge. Her gemstones upon her crown glided against her cheeks, shimmering in the low light.

Did he truly know where he was, if not in the belly of the beast, waiting to be consumed entirely by her presence alone?

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@Sol Bestiam here's a little manon for some fun <3

kat // credits