A Little Discourage

[Stephen]

A Little Discourage. What a strange name for a bar. Janus shoulders sagged as he stared at the sign. The words lit up in in alternating pink and purple. The colors washed the grey walls with jagged shadows in the dancing lights. He shuddered as the cold of the night air blew ragged holes in him. He dragged the edges of his tan vest together and buttoned them hurriedly, his shoulders hunched and head cowed. “Just another night.” He said to himself, “Get it together.” Janus smoothed the collar of his white shirt and straightened himself to his modest height and walked in.



“Hey!” He shouted to the bar, “Let's get these 'fine upstanding citizens' a drink” Janus said “Fine upstanding citizen” like someone else might say pustule. He strode up to the bar and slotted his credit chit, “Bartender, one round of swill for them, and something dirty and strange for me.” The bartender pushed her glasses up her face and stared at Janus a moment, puzzled, before reaching for a blue container on the wall. Pulled the cylinder open and pulled out a black bottle, rimed with frost and covered in unreadable gibberish. She tossed with a flick of her wrist at Janus, who caught it just before it smashed into his face. The bottle was no larger than an average beer bottle, but easily ten pounds. He looked at in awe. The bartender's voice rang over the minor spectacle. “Gamorrean Pale Ale. Shipped straight from their homeland to here. Rare as hell, and hopefully as dirty as you like.” She laughed a silvery peal and went back to her work, the slow rumble of the bar crowd picked back up on cue. Janus found a seat at a nearby table.



Janus fiddled with the cap of his drink for a good five minutes before a length of liquid rope from his belt tied to the top of the bottle and the door did the job for him. He looked down at his treasure in astonishment. “This glass is a half inch thick.” He thought to himself, mildly alarmed at the half frozen truncheon in his hand. He took a long drag off the bottle and came back sputtering and coughing. The spittle on his hand was purple and thick. A nearby man asked the obvious question, “So, how's it taste.” Janus's brain wormed behind his eyes for a moment before he answered. “Well” He paused for breath, “You can really taste the meat.” That brought a good sized laugh from the crowd. “I still have their attention it seems” he thought, before he finished his drink in one motion. He slammed the bottle to the table with a heavy thud and closed his eyes a moment. When he opened them, grey and brown spots danced in his vision like amoebas. His hands, now incandescent and pulsing, gave off waves of rainbow hued light. They mixed into ugly brown in the spots between his fingers and turned to sludge that oozed to the floor in puddles. “Oh,” Janus said quietly, “I seem to have made a mistake.”

[Moonfire]

"Ya damn right ya did," Purred a voice behind him, a woman in rather impractical looking high-heeled boots tottered on wobbling legs, peering at the bottle in his hands as the fingers seemed to open and close, perplexed. With deft fingers the blonde snatched away the bottle, hefting the bottle with only a little difficulty from hand to hand, inspecting the label.

"This sh*ts nasty, they call it Fug. Made a' fungus, psychedelic in some cases. An judging by the way you're eyes are dilated you got yourself a good batch there, boyo." She grinned, sniffing at the mouth of the heavy glass experimentally before looking up at Janus, settling into the seat beside him as the bartender set down a large mug of ale, compliments of Janus before her.

"Crazy as f'uck, right? Oh, and thanks for the drink, Boyo." A cock of her head sent blonde curls in motion as one Kailani glanced back and forth between half full bottle in her hand and the full mug of house swill. With a single fluid motion she tossed back the bottle, taking a dainty sip, letting the wretched liquid ooze its way down her throat before grimacing.

Colors bled and sense melded. The lights sounded like sorrow and the music smelled like bees.

"Oooooo, thats the stuff~" She cooed, slumping over against the spacer's shoulder.

[Stephen]

“Can I get a normal beer now?” Janus said to no one in particular. He stared at the undulating walls for a long moment before a nearby frilled lizard confirmed his mistake for him. The lizard kindly explained the drink to him, her frill shaking and flaring as she spoke. It dashed the drink of the table in it's clawed hands and swallowed it whole, clanking the whole way down her gullet. Without warning, It settled down on his head on his shoulder, it's crest occasionally ticking the back his neck.

“So, uh.” Janus's mouth was dry, “What is your name?”He wanted to ask her species, or perhaps planet of origin, but that seemed rude for some reason. “I hope that drink doesn't cut you on the way down.” he quietly continued. “Okay Janus, Get it together.” He thought to himself, “Just having a friendly drink with a incredibly large serpent. Nothing to get upset about.” Janus nodded to himself, and forced his back to straighten up. “My hand is cold.” he said out loud, noticing that it was holding something cold and moist.

“Oh thank god.” His drink was orange and tasted crisp. The tall glass was a narrow triangular prism twice as tall as his hand. A silky rainbow noisely chimed between his fingers, and a narrow maggot writhed on the lip of the glass, half in and half out. A dark thought came into his head and he spoke it before he thought better? “Are you a dragon?” The question hung in the air in front of him, scaring him more and more as the words dared any counter argument to show it's face. She didn't seem like a dragon, but maybe that was a trick.

[Moonfire]

Everything seemed pleasantly purple. Just very purple, not in color but in feel, ya know? That sort of floating not quite-red-not-quite-blue the atmosphere could take on. The world seemed to blurr and swirl, like wax candles set side by side and burned too low. The silky tendrils of her white-blonde hair oozed and slithered across Janus' clothed shoulder, melding and weaving itself in the very fibers. All of this seemed very normal and all at once terrifying and strange. Delightful.

Kailani stretched more, pressing closer to Janus, feeling her face began to drip and meld into the solid statue of his shoulder, if she pulled away now it'd stretch like goo, that'd be no good for complexion. No good at all.

"Kailani Athena Quix, pleasure to make ya' acquaintance. You look strangely familiar." She cooed, peering up at him with am emerald colored eye. "At least, from this angle. You a bounty hunter?"

Pale hands ran across the sleeve of his shirt, watching as the long trails of her melting fingers writhed of their own accord, dancing gaily down his forearm towards his own digits. The bar hummed with an electric crackle as they sat, enjoying the delirium of the beverage. "I sure hope you're not a bounty hunter because I probably shouldn't have told you my name. I lied, I'm not Kailani, I'm the Princess of Naboo. Ask Shanti."

“Are you a dragon?” He asked, a little perturbed, though Kailani was far too busy letting her face start to pool and meld with the cloth of his shoulder, hungry for the pale flesh of her cheeks. "No? Maybe? I'm goo. Are you goo too? Are we becoming one person? What will our name be? I hope my favorite food doesn't change."

[Stephen]

“Kailani” He whispered aloud. It sounded a bit like a dragons name to him, but he seemed less worried. Perhaps because she was worried as well. A worried dragon was surely not as bad as an angry one. Janus said the name a few more times under his breath. It bounced pleasantly in his head. Janus's necked coiled uncomfortably and he listed to the left reflexively. He sat a moment unsure why, grasping and ungrasping air. Small bumps rose along his arm and lovely shiver ran to the base of his spine. The skin of his palms were tearing off in finger-wide strips, falling limp like ragged pinions from his hand. He took another drink.

“Questions!” Janus thought eagerly, “I'm good a questions!” The first one was easy, “Nope not a bounty hunter. I am a” He stopped speaking abruptly. Smuggler seemed inadequate, and not a great thing to tell strange dragons, even if they were friendly. “Drop out perhaps?” he thought. Not quite accurate either, although more public. He finally answered, “I'm in shipping.” lamely.

“Oh, Who is Shanti?” Janus asked suddenly. Surely if Kailani isn't real, this Shanti know the answer. “Does she keep your secrets?” Janus guessed at the pronoun. That question seemed much more serious than he intended. He cringed and lowered his head. His long slender bones broke free of his shoulders surged skyward. He finally tore free and slid down into his chair.

“I'm not goo, I've just got no bones.” He drank the last of his drink and put in on the table. “If my name is Janus, and your name is.” He paused, “Something, then I don't know what our name will be. But my favorite food is Correllian fried ice cream, so you might get lucky.” He didn't think she was merging with him, but surely it was good to be prepared.

[Moonfire]

Just as she was getting used to melding into the shoulder of this Janus character the world took on an incredibly new tone. Sparkles flittered back and forth across her vision shifting and shaping themselves in and out of her field of vision as she tried quiet desperately to focus on the man's voice as he repeated her name in hushed tones.

Slowly the words on his mouth, which tumbled out with cartoonish intensity before dribble and flopping over onto the floor like deflated balloons, squeaking sharply as the landed on the ground morphed and twisted. He went from merely repeating her name to casting spells. The sparkles began to spin around them faster, like a horde of shimmering fireflies. Were they disappearing? Where were they going?

"Shanti's red. So so red. And skinny. Her dresses are slu'tty, but I want them." Kailani slumped more and more against him, watching with lessening horror and more increasing fascination as her own creamy skin puddled and oozed into his own. "Janus. Janus. Jaaaaaaanusssssssssssss. We'll be Janlani, or Kanus orrr uhhh... Jeffrey. Yeah, Jeffrey. Ice cream is good. Do you have ice cream?... Are you made of ice cream?"

She whispered huskily, letting herself nearly collapse into his lap and watching as the goo of her untimely melding stretched and writhed as she pulled away before snapping audibly with the effort.

[Stephen]

“How does one turn red?” Janus asked aloud, smiling. He slid down the back of his chair, his legs sticking further and further under table. “Oh! They share dresses, That must mean that they are both dragons then.” he thought. It was much more normal for a dragon to be red, Janus decided.

Janus' spine pulled free from his neck and slapped into the chair back with a wet squelch. His left hand shot back and caught his head before it tottered off of his body, holding it down, chin to his chest. He could feel the vibration of the gelatin bone quivering behind him. Kailani, quietly chanted his name, changing him into another man, Jeffrey. The spell complete, he stared at his hands, still wet with colour. He didn't feel different.

“I don't think I'm Jeffrey today, but I do have ice cream somewhere.” Janus was hungry. “Probably on my ship. Teeeye would know.” A weight poured down his chest, leaving a soft trail of silken thread in waves, like a boats wake. It was alive, warm, and smelled like strawberries. Janus face felt suddenly warm. His thoughts evaporated in the heat, leaving him only tangent vapor trails. “Strawberries just smell like wet grass.” he said out loud. “What kind of trick is this?”

Janus looked to his drink, saddened that he could never reach it again. Liquid metal, cold as melt water, ran over his fingers, trapping his grip to the glass in slender manacles. “It's mine forever now.” Janus turned his head slowly, silk pulling past his neck and cheek. “So bones go, and you can't stay solid. I wonder what comes next?”