Nosi contemplated her several steps removed kin as Pylo put in her all to impress her many followers and the esteemed personages of the crew.
And this was certainly something!
As a Moiter of Courtesan, born and bred among the Dragoon flocks of the Estate Menagerie she was not exactly inexperienced in proper Siren performances.
Why her own wonderful old grandmother Donti was a Mainstrain Courtesan Scion!
Donti always puts on the most lovely shows in the void gardens for all her children and grandchildren every Matriarch’s Brooding festivals!
Nosi even used to help like a good grandchild when she was just a pup with the base fueling and simpler munitions so that old Grandma Donti could focus on the delicate fiddly bits of the more complex demolition cascades.
Sure the yields on Pylo’s phosphorescence was not going to even peel the thinnest of the ablatives for THE CATHARSISIUM but she managed to do with subtlety what Nosi had to burn two solid suppers and a brunch in raw kilotons to approach!
For the sheer initial smooth deep long light and sharp shortest light Pylo was almost certainly using a few stealthily integrated detonation charges!
It was being filtered, covered, lensed and desaturated just so by intervening tissues to shape and sculpt the outputting radiance into something at once softer then the original munitions, but tracing in the impression and vision of far, harsher and sharper.
It was not one of the munitions Nosi herself would have produced for the effect, but it managed to echo the artistry of dear old Donti. Who had grown and boasted specialized launch mechanisms and extra munition prosthetics to pull off what normally a Main Strain Siren would find impossible.
There was also to just add that absolute limit of highest sharpest flavor to the whole percussion the lightest traces of symmetric charge releases.
And despite that it did not even hint at straining the sanctioned Etiquette.
This was a truly gentle, intimate affair that flashed and shined in the eyes but did not even ruffle the f’teropods a smidge.
Not that Nosi would even dare complain.
Pylo Courtesan having the Catharsisium cleaned and prepared for attendance by her future crew was why Nosi was going to get to put on a proper show at all!
One significantly more risque and vicious then any Dragoon was normally allowed to perform for guests.
Yes, the Void Gardens and the Dancing halls and the Brothel-Canyons of the Menagerie were all open and vast enough to really let loose with one’s high calorie yields!
But that did not give the same intimacy of a closed in space that Nosi needed for her art, and more importantly didn't allow the biological and memetic warfare agents her siren side yearned to express.
She had been trying to get a spot to perform freely in the Catharsisum for Broods!
But most of the time it was absolutely unsafe for her to even be near space.
A Moiter Nosi might be but even with the help of her Grandmother it would be a smothering, half blind experience to attend the Catharsisium under normal performance standards (which she did when nothing particularly vile was about).
Nevermind have the freedom of mind and limb needed to expose herself required to perform! (which she had also tried anyway in spite of the handicap to great frustration for herself and the amusement of her audience).
So doing a proper performance required that the standards of etiquette be a bit more stringent for her own and other’s health.
And therein was her troubles.
Whenever the Catharsisium was available to Dragoon performances they were so far ALSO open to many a far more fragile attendant that precluded any of her own displays without serious artistic compromises.
And no one could say Nosi had not tried some workarounds
Locking herself in the shower with one of her Siren cousins who could retell her expressions?
Novel but came across nothing like a live performance.
Got some time In some of Carthasisum’s old shells undergoing a cleaning cycle?
She could hold small private things with the two or three other dragoon-moiter she knew, but it lacked the ambience and support of a proper event and none of her friends were that good at the role of Mistress of Ceremony.
Trying to manipulate a drone inside the Catharsisium itself with necessary filters between?
Well everyone enjoyed it as a Comedy. So utterly mortifying.
There was no helping it; she needed a life venue for her art.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
So Nosi had put in a request with Catharsisium herself to get a slot set to her etiquette preferences, but given the high demand for the facility, the queue was depressingly long.
She had been expected to have to wait for another seven Broods for the next Menagerie Rated available slot.
Right then Nosi had started to consider spending most of her life savings and maybe even getting a less pleasant job to fund the construction of her own custom facility. She'd run the numbers, it'd just barely break even in about Twenty-Broods or so.
But then she would have to keep working those unpleasant jobs and tending a nascent venue and that was not really for her, she liked Catharsisium fine but not enough to bear her children, raise them, love them and sacrifice all of her free time for thirty or more Matriarch Broods!
That was a serious commitment.
But the art itched all up and down her insides.
Enough she started to consider it.
And then like the Mother Courtesan herself had taken pity upon her anguish there was that beautiful, glorious daughter beget as a full Scion!
Barely past witnessing her first Brood, Pylo had answered every frustrated longing in Nosi’s soul.
Pylo asked for the use of the Catharsisium for a performance that matched Nosi’s needs so perfectly it made her wonder if it was a ploy to propose to Nosi herself right there.
She would have too!
Even if she honestly still did not really feel ready to fulfill that part of herself.
The chance to express her art at last?!
But Pylo had asked for nothing in return for this boon, she’d actually even been delighted that Nosi was willing to perform at all under the ‘restrictions’ of a ‘public’ venue in the Catharsisium!
The beautiful fledgling of a scion thought it was an imposition!
Even if Pylo’s performance right now was the worst thing she’d ever seen or heard, Nosi admitted she would archive it deep in her memory and teach it to every single one of her children.
But Pylo did not even demand that onerous sacrifice of Nosi.
This was definitely one of the better performances by a mainstrain cousin that Nosi had ever been witness to directly.
Her other main and theme strained cousins shared second and sometimes even third sight removed experiences. Curated, filtered, censored and gentled for her own frailties of course.
Which were technically better.
And It was not in that special personal way better than Grandmother Donti’s blazing wonders at every Brood Fair.
But it was beautiful and understated, soft and gentle and so rich in pleading genuine tones and honesty.
The Young Scion was obviously quite familiar with the nuance of Tractae. Although there was a peculiar sort of accent to her motions and the way her patterns flowed over her in washing waves.
It was probably closer to the vast behemoth of a dialect that the Ships spoke.
Which made a bit of sense. Since Pylo did want to be a crew right? Or was it just she was asking for passage on the vessel?
Not really Nosi’s concern.
Oh and of course there was a stanza that spelled it out plainly and yet beautifully! Yes it WAS because she was planning to place herself as crew. ... Oh, she TREASURED the actual ship, that explained a lot.
And it explained the exotic nuances that while foreign to Nosi only added exotic flourishes and dazzles to what was already a deep and touching ballad.
Laying out heart, soul and bare munition stores in a floral display that left a trembling thrum of inspiration deep in each of Nosi’s eyes.
She already had her set planned, she had even shared it already with Pylo beforehand to make sure that it met her standards.
But there was so much soft and gentle truth on display here she could not help but make a few minor tweaks and adjustments.
Nothing to break the sanctity of Pylo’s requested Etiquette. Or majorly alter the nature of the performance and her own truth in it.
But flourishes that Nosi simply HAD to include. Echoes and complements to the performance that unfolded right now to her own that she would have to carry forth.
Making her planned dance and light an echo and a part of the one that had come before.
Complementing the impact and ambience Pylo had so expertly built and filled the Catharsisium for.
She gave the crowd a sweep of her eyes and sighed a bit longingly at the twins. Solin and Nolin were so sharp and shining in their regalia!
And she could read the tells of how ripe and fine their munitions were too! Those were not the kind of lines and spectra you got from simply working, that took skill and training!
Training that she had gotten herself sure as a pup. Nosi’s training went a different path than the Twins.
And while she had perhaps an advantage on either one of them in sheer caloric tonnage and access to yields and payloads they never would by her heritage as a Moiter. That was a crude, brute advantage, and one she already had seen they could master her at (it honestly made it all the better).
It was such a pity the two of them were heading off on the ship with Pylo.
A pair like that could make any Dragoon consider settling down to raise pups.
Oh well she’d just have to leave then wishing and missing her with her performance after Pylo finished her piece.
Which it looked like that was coming on close.
Yeah, she had no illusions she’d be able to out do the Courtesan Scion and her almost certainly Main Strain talent.
But as she took her cue from her fellow performer Nosi was certainly going to give it her best try.
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