Two steps forward, One step Back (OTA, Tag Inara)

[birthrightgreen]

It had been well over fourteen years since Surreal had given up her title as the highest paid whore in Terreille. After the attack on Jaenelle, she'd lost her taste for bedroom games, consigning herself to chastity for over a decade, until Falonar. After he broke her heart, she'd had little interest in jumping back in to the whirl of romance

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[gracefulwoman]

Surreal had been a subject of fascination with Inara, though she was most likely unaware of it. As they had both made arrangements with the supposed goddess of love to engage in a similar occupation, well...Inara was curious as to where she came from, and why she, too, had chosen to work from the temple, rather than the brothel, the place she was sure some would say they both rightly belonged.

Bearing a small gift box of scented oils, she knocked lightly on the door to the quarters Surreal chosen.

[birthrightgreen]

The knock on her door surprised Surreal. She didn't have a client engaged, and she was fairly certain that being at the temple meant no drop-ins, but she was learning that the rules were different here than Terreille and Kaeleer, and perhaps she would need to adjust her expectations. Brushing her fingers down the green dress she wore, she moved to open the door, then blinked in slight surprise to find Inara there.

After a moment, she smiled slightly at the other woman. She knew she had made a similar arrangement as she herself had, and called herself a "Companion," but that was about all she knew beyond her name.

"Hello."

[gracefulwoman]

Inara gave her a warm, friendly smile of greeting and offered her hand. "Hello. I thought that I should introduce myself, since we're both to be working from the temple. My name is Inara Serra."

[birthrightgreen]

Taking her hand, Surreal's smile grew a bit. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Surreal SaDiablo." Time was she wouldn't have given the last name, not wanting to alert Dorothea to her presence, or bring her father down on her. It was better to just be the anonymous street brat. But these days, she'd taken to using it under Saetan's aegis, with pride.

"Come in." She stepped back, holding the door open a bit more, watching Inara with curiosity in her green-gold eyes.

[burnbrightnfast]

Desire was snooping.

Oh, it would never admit that was what it was doing; not on pain of Death or having to be human. But there wasn't any other word to describe its need to poke around all of Aphrodite's Temple it could get its feet into. Sure Aph had said it needed to be here sometimes, but she had never said anything about needing to actually pay attention to anything in the building. Still, despite all of this, Desire snooped.

In its travels it saw a lovely woman, all curves and muscle, sex an attitude. It liked her the moment it laid eyes on her. The question was whether that would be good for the lady, or bad.

[birthrightgreen]

Surreal had her room here the way she liked it, grateful for the place away from the hotel, to have a space she could work and a space she could retreat to that wasn't the same. Too often she'd rented rooms at the Red Moon houses and they'd been both her own lodging and her work space, and only occasionally could she slip away to one of her or Sadi's hideaways for some privacy. This was a much better arrangement, she decided.

She felt Desire's eyes on her, turning to see who was there, regarding it with an arch of an eyebrow, curious and regarding it with a tilt of her head. "Hello, sugar."

[burnbrightnfast]

"Hello. You working for Aph now?" Gliding closer, it leaned against a doorway.

[birthrightgreen]

"Not exactly," Surreal said, with a bit of a smile. "We've got an arrangement. I rent this space from her and my clients include an offering to her in their fee, so she gets both offering and rent, but I'm still my own boss."

She'd never done well working for anyone else. "What about you?"