the ties that bind, the bonds that unravel

[feathers3]

Enrique Ferrari was just not the type of lycan you'd expect to find in the dank, oppressive sewers. He was more of a soft type of person, to begin with, more fond of sleek, opulent woods and pale yellow draperies and plush carpets than the slime and grime and metal that the Underground consisted of. Furthermore, he knew that the tunnels were the main stash for those the Lycan clan here had taken into bondage but not yet sold. Enrique was not really a pro-slavery type of guy. Well, not really because he thought there was some injustice inherent in it, more because he feared becoming a slave. How would he run his restaurant with a choke-chain around his neck? No, he had to be careful not to be trapped down here.

And besides all of that, this was a very common hideout for the most rough-and-tumble of his lycan cousins in the city, and if there was anything that made him uncomfortable, it was the rash, violent and grungy sort of lycan you'd find around here. Yeah, poor little 'Rique wasn't really happy. Especially because he had brought his only weapon with him, some small handgun whose type he couldn't begin to identify, which his twin sister had given him some time ago. He had a bad habit of getting himself into sticky situations-- and unarmed-- and then having to rely on his sister to come to his rescue. Well, that was the types of people they were. Enrique was a meek mentalist and Tina was a fiery fighter. They complemented each other well.

It wasn't like Enrique didn't have all the power behind him that Tina did, though. He was a very skilled psychic, a rarity as far as he knew. Still, he hated any sort of physical altercation, and was steeped in crippling cowardice. Sure, there was a gun in the waistband of his jeans, but he'd never fired it. He wasn't really sure why in the hell he was down here, but his original plan had been to find his sister and try to help her if he could. She'd been taken captive fairly recently, cut off from her twin and thrown into some awful cage or something; the thought of his kin being shackled deeply disturbed Enrique, but was amusing to him as well. He wondered how on earth she'd even let herself be captured in the first place, and how many poor guards had been mauled in the process of keeping her? If either of them were the likely subjects of capture, it was him.

Lost in his thoughts, the usually-vigilant Enrique snapped to wild, frightened attention as he heard a sound echo in the round metal structure around him. It was dark and watery, though, and he couldn't see where the noise had come from. Mental power seeped out of him to feel around, hoping to alight on whatever person had ventured his way...

[faden]

[feathers3]

"Are you a Master, or a Slave?"

It was a gruffer voice than his, obviously male and pretty close by. Enrique moved closer to a dim overhead light a few feet away, making himself visible. His mind floundered, psychic power struggling to pinpoint this person who'd run into him. It was an odd question to ask, not 'who's there' or 'what are you doing here' but what his relationship to the slave trade was. He wasn't sure what his answer should be-- if he said slave that would put him in a bad place, of course, but he really wasn't in the business of being a master, either. Oh, if only he could find this person so he could read his mind.

And then, the other lycan spoke again, and Enrique whirled to face him, finally figuring out where he was. You'd think after a handful of centuries of living without electricity, he'd have gotten better at finding people in the dark, but, eh, some things never changed. Enrique read the person before him with nervous anxiety, discovering name, race, power, a few flickering thoughts with the skittering attention span of a jumpy animal. Rique, his sister had often teased, was more rabbit or mouse than wolf.

"Neither, and uh, I'd really appreciate it if the menacing icicle thingy turned back into water." His voice was obviously nervous, but he was at least a little more calm now that he had a twenty on the man-- Faden, apparently. He didn't care much about the name, the Spanish lycan mostly just wanted to get the hell out of the sewers for the moment. It would be nice to rescue his sister, but...maybe he should wait until tomorrow night and try again. The other lycan moved yet closer, and it did indeed seem to get colder the closer he got. Rique mused briefly that it must be a difficult power to hide, when everything around you was constantly frozen. He wondered how the man ever drank anything? Could he sweat? Curiosity was the one thing that managed to trump his cowardice, and then only occasionally.

[faden]

[feathers3]

Oh, oops, the other man sensed him. Well, some people were like that. Some people could sense psychic things, and others couldn't, and Rique never really knew until after he did it. Damn, he hated when this sort of thing happened. Sure, the other lycan didn't look all that menacing, but Enrique had been around long enough and read enough minds to know that looks were deceiving, especially among non-humans. Besides, the whole environment had him scared half to death, and the guy had surprised him. When you weren't usually the sort that got snuck up on, it was even more frightening when you finally were caught unawares. "I don't deal in slaves, I'm neither, okay? Dios mio..."

Having to repeat himself, combined with the stressors of his environment, had little Enrique a tad snappish tonight. The other lycan's attitude seemed to match his, though, which got Rique even more worked up. He didn't particularly like men in his face unless they were very attractive and very agreeable. This man, while admittedly very easy on the eyes, was certainly not being agreeable. Nervous tension mounted in Rique's fluttering heart like a tangle of electric wires. "Si, I knew it. But you were going to tell me anyway, so does it matter? I'm Enrique, if it helps."

He was still being a bit of a brat, his natural defense mechanism when he felt he was backed up against a wall. Probably not the best idea, but it was in his nature, after all. And this guy was making him cold, anyway! He pulled his gray sweater around himself more closely, over the navy cotton tee and jeans he wore with running shoes. He had his skullcap on, as well, from which feathery black hair peeked and glistened in the dim, flickering fluorescent light. As the icey man got closer, Rique's breath began to appear as a cloud in the damp sewers. How he despised being cold, and to top it all off, this guy was threatening him. "Oh, please. You scared the shit outta me in a dark sewer, of course I read you. I read everyone, calm down, I don't need to do it again." There were ways to read people without actually skimming the contents of their minds, anyway. Empathy was a scent, to him, like dogs were rumored to smell fear. He wouldn't need to read any more minds until the man seemed to get angry enough to hurt him.

Until then, may as well see what information he could get out of this guy. He was hopelessly lost down here, after all. "What are you doing down here, then?" Sometimes, questions like that got tedious. It was so much easier just to peek into a mind and see what was going on, after all.

[faden]

[Deleted]

[Faden, Post the required minimum. That is not two paragraphs.]

[feathers3]

"Oddly enough, this is how I stay in the loop of Lycan news, and the haps and all that. Come down here to eavesdrop, maybe help a few slaves and whatnot."

Well that certainly got his attention. This was exactly the sort of person Enrique needed to find, streetsmart and not a stranger to the Underworld...and someone sympathetic to the act of trying to rescue a slave. His expression changed immediately, his brows raising from their stormy altitude. Oh, great! He jumped, with the reckless enthusiasm of second nature, to read Faden's mind for any sign of his sister, but stopped just short. The man bit his lip lightly for a moment, and then realized he'd have to do this the annoying way. He usually kept up a link with his sibling, a psychic link that kept him aware of her situation and mental state. Somehow, in the madness surrounding her recent capture, he'd lost the link to her, which had been quite a blow.

"My twin sister was captured recently. I'm here looking for her." He gave Faden an appraising, piercing look. It was obvious that he really, really wanted to read the man's mind, but was good enough to respect the man's wishes. Well, maybe not good enough, but at least scared enough. The Hispanic lycan fidgeted slightly when the cold subsided, moving the arms that had been wrapped around his torso to more relaxed positions at his sides, his hands perching almost inquisitorially at his hips. It was perhaps an effeminate sort of posture, but Enrique was not an entirely masculine sort of man.

[faden]

[feathers3]

Enrique was not really the sort of person who felt respect for the someone who could look him evenly in the eye. That wasn't really how he operated. He judged people by what he saw in their minds, their impulses and how they acted on them, their power and how they'd used it before. Good and gentle people, of course, were his favorites, as were those in whom he sensed a great and admirable control over themselves and their actions. But without his psychic power, he was somewhat powerless as a judge of character. He'd had his powers for so long, and since he was a very young child, that he never really learned to operate without it. Sure, he could function, but it was like someone had blindfolded or deafened him, or cut off a limb. All the same, he was afraid of how Faden would react if he read the lycan against his wishes. His emotions had so far seemed to change fluidly and easily, which made him mentally wary though he was of course much happier now that Faden didn't seem annoyed or angry.

"Claro que si, of course I want help, but I...I don't know. Why would you help us, what do you get out of it? How do I know I can trust you, hielo?"

As he spoke, his accent was very evident. One would imagine speaking English for a few centuries would knock out a think Spanish accent, but it never had. Enrique knew it was perceived as exotic and sexy here, and that was reason enough for him to keep it. He had felt the way others heard him speak. To Americans, his Spanish accent was lilting and mellifluous and rich like chocolate, which he found flattering and excellent. And so, he still spoke Spanglish and kept up his little accent, for kicks. The other man, who had been smacking on a bit of gum, crisp and cool and peppery to his nose, now offered him a piece. It was, Enrique hoped, some sort of peace offering, which he eyed for a moment, quite still, and then reached out minimally to take.

He chewed the stuff thoughtfully for a moment, trying to relax. "No es nada, it's nothing." He waved off the man's thanks about not reading his mind, though...really, it wasn't quite 'nothing' at all.

[faden]

[feathers3]

As Faden pushed off the opposite wall and neared him again, Enrique let his hands fall into his pockets, trying to shield them from the cold he knew was coming. Once his hands got cold, he always felt like they were one of the hardest body parts to warm back up. It was quite aggravating, so he attempted to keep the man's icy presence from affecting them as much as he could. Privately, Enrique was beginning to think this guy was a bit of an asshole. Well, maybe that was just because he didn't like the cold, but who did? Surely, after having this power for so long, the lycan would know not to impose himself on strangers! Besides the cold, the sudden closeness of the man made him tense again, like a nervous wolf backed into a corner.

"En serio? You could be some crazy slaver trying to lure me down into the sewers deeper to put me in a cage next to my sister. I don't trust people who don't let me read them, lo siento."

Well, that was it, then. And in this frightening, uncomfortable, miserable and very dangerous place, how could Enrique think to trust anyone on their word when he had the ability to know for sure how trustworthy they were? It was very logical for him to run from someone like Faden-- he was a popsicle, for starters, not warm and fuzzy like Enrique preferred attractive men to be. Beyond that, though, his emotions seemed to change at the very drop of a hat, pissy and threatening one minute and nonchalantly helpful the next. It made 'Rique think he was a little unstable, and beyond that, the psychic wolf was fond of asserting that only those with something to hide would keep him from reading them.

And if there was something Faden was hiding, like, say, a plot to enslave him, or a violent streak or some other scary thing, well, Enrique didn't want to be sneaking around a sewer with him. He gritted his teeth as the man's icy hand touched his shoulder, the cold shooting down his arm through the thin layers of his sweater and tee. It was so frustrating dealing with this person! Now that he was being so friendly, Enrique was feeling awful about making him leave. He tilted his head back slightly, a hand rubbing his face in exasperation as he listened to the man's footsteps echo down the tunnel. "Ay ay ay...no, stop, please."

What in the hell was he doing? "I'm sorry. My sister needs me, and I shouldn't be so proud. I don't know where the fuck I am. I, uh...I could use..some help..." He did look sorry, that much was obvious in the puppy-eyes that just naturally appeared on his face when he was penitent. This guy, Rique was kinda sure, was mildly crazy, but it was worth it if he could lead him to Tina.

[faden]

[feathers3]

"Aye. I will help, but you have to do me a favor. No need to worry Enrique, you can read my mind to show that I can be trusted, just don't look too far in. After you do that, you have to let me do something in return, deal?"

If Enrique wasn't already uncomfortable with this whole situation, he was now. But the deed had already been done, he'd already asked Faden to help him. He gritted his teeth, pulling his chin low in an identifiably lupine defense posture. The man's liquid-chocolate eyes stared at the other man in the tunnel-- wary, and unhappy about the lengths he was going to in order to conduct a rescue mission in a place where he wasn't even sure he would find Tina. What did this man mean by that? This whole thing was scaring him out of his mind, and every instinct in his body was for flight, to run away home to his restaurant where he knew it was safe.

"Let you do something? Like what?"

There were plenty of freaks lurking around this city, he knew that for a fact. Opening himself up to whatever some crazy person wanted with him? Not high on his to-do list. He didn't even know this man; if he'd been able to read his mind first off, he could have maybe had a bit more trust, but...now? He really didn't think it was the best plan. He'd make a decision just as soon as Faden explained himself. Enrique was not usually this cautious, but the whole environment frightened him and flying blind in regards to the sort of person he was around? Well, that had him even more skittish.

[faden]