AN: Yo! I added about 50 words to the end of Chapter 2 for a short piece, so take a look if you missed it.
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Disclaimer: I own no source content.
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Chapter 3: The Second Tale
When the sun reached its highest point on the afternoon of the day after Christmas, Leon woke up to an even worse filth covering his body than he had the day before.
And that was saying something.
"Oh god." He gagged in his bed and rushed off to the shower, jumping in before it even heated up and thanked the global economy that made cheap bar soap sold in groups instead of single units.
He scrubbed his body raw for the second day in a row as black sludge peeled off his skin with a horrendous odor.
It took him an hour to get it out of every nook and cranny covering his skin, but he stepped out a new man with a thousand yard stare. "If cum had an evil doppelganger, I just got covered in it."
Leon's hands came to his face as he patted his cheeks. The hollowness from emancipation was still there, but the sickly quality of his skin was gone.
He was no model for skin care, but the unnatural paleness, whiteheads, cracked skin, and veiny lines beneath the surface were all gone. His fingers traced over his smooth skin in wonder. 'The potion. It really worked.'
He stayed up till eight in the morning finishing the Cure for Boils potion, was too tired to think, chugged at least four vials worth of potion, and then went straight to bed to pass out.
His gaze traveled back to the wet shower still draining the last of the muck he cleaned off. 'I guess I expelled….impurities? Like one of those wuxia stories? Did that really just happen?' An unburdened laugh bubbled in his throat as he marveled at his skin. He didn't look like a walking corpse anymore. 'I need to do some research on what exactly the definition of a 'boil' is, but that potion is crazy magic. I bet some people would pay a fortune for this treatment.'
Leon exited the bathroom and looked at his body, focusing on himself and really feeling his limbs in a way he hadn't in years. 'There's no pain in my joints. I can feel warmth with my fingers again. I feel so much….cleaner. My head hasn't been this clear in I don't even know how long.' Like a man who lived in a cave for years, Leon had forgotten what the sun felt like.
He dropped down into pushups with a laugh, only managing ten before falling on his face with a humorous smile. "Right. Not healed just yet, but my body expelled so much waste, I think it even removed the toxic buildup from smoking for so many years in my skin. That could be where that tar looking stuff came from." He sat up and looked down at his hand. 'Oddly, I don't even have a craving to smoke. Is that from the boil cure or the antidote?'
He stood up and stretched out. 'I can't just google things these days without a computer. Hm…public libraries I guess? Could also ask a doctor but I don't exactly know one. Or have money for that. Hopefully a library lets me in for two bucks.' The thought of confidently walking in and slapping his life savings down with a straight face made him laugh.
His gaze traveled to his mattress, and that laughter slowly died a horrible death. "….That's not going to wash out." The black muck from his skin had stained his sheets thoroughly as he slept.
Getting back to his feet, he removed the sheets and balled them up before shoving them into the bag of his old clothes. 'Thankfully, I sleep nude.' His one set of clothes was still clean and folded off to the side. 'I'll have to get a washer and dryer at some point. For the moment, I think I saw a laundromat down the block, but I need at least five bucks for that.'
Either way, he had no intention of re-using those sheets. Now, the only thing adorning his loft was just the bare mattress and pillow. 'Far from the worst places I've slept. This is fine for a week or two. As long as I don't have another episode like that anyway. I'll drink my potions and sleep in the shower from now on.'
The sunlight streamed into the loft like the palace of Versailles as he made his way through the empty space to the staircase and back to the kitchen.
The half-filled bottles of Antidote potion and Boil Cure potion remained on the counter where he left them. The first glowing with a green neon light inside its bottle, and the second with a pink glow.
'It took one vial's worth of Antidote to cure my drunkenness and hangover. I drank another two vials while making the Boil Cure potion overnight, which might be why I don't have a smoking urge now. And I drank three or four vials of Boil Cure to purge my body of layers of filth trapped deep under my skin. I want to use the last three vials of each to see if there is still more to be purged from my body. And to think these are just novice grade potions….what could the more advanced ones do?'
He summoned his grimoire and took another look at the other recipes he had available. 'If the Antidote and Boil Cure could do that much, what could the Wiggenweld, Satiety, and Invigoration potions do for me? One's a minor healing potion, the second deals with hunger and nutrients, and the last has energizing effects.' An excited gleam shined in his eyes. 'Yeah, I think I know what I'll be doing for a few days.'
His sole pot was put to good use as Leon dived right into his potion craft. 'A perfect yield for a novice potion is twelve vials worth. I made seven on my first and second try. A good 58%, or I guess a…..F-grade….did I get a failing grade?' The thought suddenly depressed and fired him up at the same time. 'I failed at a lot of shit in life on purpose. No way I'm going to fail this time. I'll get a D- at the very least.'
Odd benchmark or not, Leon was focused on his craft this time. 'It's the timing of the stirring, heating, and mana film quality that matter. I just need to pay attention.'
He worked through the steps to an Antidote to Common Poisons potion, paying careful attention to the steps and taking notes where he felt it was necessary. Rather than jump to something else, he wanted to give the exact recipe another go and improve his final product before moving on.
Unfortunately, that left him with hours of free time between steps. Sitting cross-legged on a bar stool, Leon hummed to himself. 'I should probably set up the prices. Mr. H didn't leave me with a menu or anything. Hell, he didn't even charge me for my drinks beyond my life story.'
He flipped his Grimoire to a new page and started brainstorming. 'Bars make insane amounts of money by ripping people off without them even realizing. A 20$ bottle of Absolut Vodka has 750ml. A shot is an ounce and a half. Meaning one bottle gets a good 16 shots worth. Each shot typically gets sold between 2 – 15$ a pop. Meaning, even if I charged the bare minimum of 2 bucks a shot, a single 20 dollar bottle generates a profit of 32 dollars.' Leon listed out the math on his grimoire and chuckled. 'Yeah, bars are rip offs. Work in them or drink at home, that's a motto to live by unless you come across a bartender who really knows what he's doing.'
He flipped the page and kept going. 'Typically, the price of liquor is standard across the board. A bar charges for the market price of everything that goes into making a drink, and then the cost of the bartenders skill plus the value of the establishment. The fancier and more high end the bar, the more they can charge for the same drink. But a good bartender can make the same drink a bad one could, except better.'
A lot of people didn't realize it, but it was the small things that added up in a good cocktail. The tools, the ice, what was added in what order, what bitters, liquors, and liqueurs to add, what amounts, how long or hard it was shaken or stirred. Anyone could pour themselves a dry glass at home. Still, bartenders were around for a reason. A good one could mix skill with a presentation to make a drink worthy of the couple extra dollar difference.
Leon looked at his own bar with crossed arms. 'This place is pretty fancy despite being small. It's cozy, relaxing, and has that vibe. Mr. H put a lot of love into its set up, if he was the one to set it up anyway. Huh, I don't really know anything about the guy or this place, do I?' The odd thought crossed his mind before he shrugged. 'Don't think too much into it. The guy gave me drinks, a job, and a place when I was down and out in the cold, and it's right up my alley, whats there to complain about?' He barked a laugh in the empty space as he considered it. 'Funny how easily you can accept things when you realize how much worse the alternatives are.'
Being homeless gave him a perspective he didn't have before. And his first life did nothing but remind him of his sheer joy at being free right now. It took that talk with Mr. H and the letter the following morning for him to realize just how special that feeling was.
The timer beeped on the stove, and he quickly filled out the following steps before returning to his seat.
'Anyway, the bars nice, but it's got no special brand or company name. I'll keep it simple.' Using the past Absolut Vodka shot example, he would charge 4$ a shot. 'And for a bottom shelf Old-Fashioned, I could do 10-12$. 17-20$ for a top shelf. Hm, I'll have to label the bottles to make sure I know what range to charge.'
His work was cut out for him, but Leon was happy to do it. Something about the whole thing just tickled him right.
The next few hours passed as he went through the bar shelves and marked down prices in his notes, returning to the kitchen to continue steps as he went along.
The urge to mix some drinks and have fun was strong, but he resisted his inner alcoholic with only two drinks to tide him over. Even resisting his urge to smoke more than a single one for the day. It wasn't even the nicotine addiction anymore, but just the muscle memory that relaxed him. With a cure easily made, he had no reason or desire to quit anytime soon.
By sundown, his potion was ready, and he smiled at the result. "Just under eight vials worth. That's a D by my standards." He did his best to funnel it into the used bottle of liquor with a small wince at the spillage. "I'll need to get actual vial-sized bottles someday, plus a funnel, but for now, I guess this will do."
Washing the pot in the sink, he eyed the clock on the wall and hummed. 'I still got a few hours before the time I'd want to call it a night.' He eyed his grimoire thoughtfully and nodded. 'I'll bring my mattress down here and power through. I want those other potions.'
Potion creation was fun, like a game almost. There was no real sense of urgency. Leon just liked getting stuff done when it was in front of him without getting distracted.
The better he did at each of the steps, the better the result, and he wanted to keep grinding it to get top results for no other reason than because he wanted to. It was that simple.
Three days passed in that fashion as he mostly camped out in his kitchen, half nude to not stain his only clothes as he made potion batches, drank said potions, and got comfortable in his new environment as his body rapidly filled out with the help of nutrients and potion magic.
And with the food supply dwindling beneath his growing appetite and potion creation, the time to open quickly arrived.
Leon wasn't the emancipated wheezing hobo he walked into the bar as days before, but a well-fitted gentleman filling out his clothes as his skin shined with vigor with his hair pulled back, leaving a few strands to hang down the side of his face.
He may not have been at 100% just yet, but the magic of his potions powered through as the healing potions fixed damages Leon didn't even realize were there. The satiety potion seemed more related to fixing hunger than nutrition, but the nutrients it provided were like shots of adrenaline to his recovery. And the Boil Cure pushed more waste from his pores. After his third time taking a bath of vials, the filth stopped coming and his skin and hair grew soft and supple, glowing in the dim lighting with a vitality.
The potions fed his body what it needed for him to restart his physical training, and by the third day, he had been able to get a steady sweat in through bodyweight exercises.
Calisthenics was often misunderstood as something the elderly worked with, but it was, in fact, the culmination of years of study from gymnasts, rock climbers, and parkour enthusiasts. At advanced stages, it led to things like the human flagpole, planche pushup, one-handed handstand pushup, and one-armed muscle ups, among others.
Leon never managed to get to those advanced stages the first time around with his issues, but this time around, he felt confident about achieving them.
So, Leon wasn't at 100%, but he was damn close.
Four days after Christmas day, on the 29th of December, Leon was reborn as he flipped the sign of his bar to open.
Where Roads Mead was officially open for business. And with its opening, the signboard above the door glowed golden as an invisible aura was released.
00000
Three blocks over, a woman with glowing gray eyes beneath heavily darkened sunglasses randomly changed directions with no actual destination in sight.
'How much longer must I live like this?'
The woman was tall, possessing an otherworldly beauty that turned heads wherever she went. An odd sensation of rhythmic steps mesmerized a passing biker, drawing his gaze into the sway of her hips like a magnet as he crashed into a parked car.
Light purple locks of hair fell from her scalp, framing her heart shaped face in a way that brought attention to her covered eyes. Hair that hung down to her lower back and seemed to twitch as if it had a mind of its own.
Heels clacked on pavement as she walked aimlessly, a dull vacantness to her gaze as she drowned in her sorrow. 'Years of pain and torment, and when I finally reform and attain a short moment of freedom, I still can't be at ease….even now, the hunger grows….' She eyed her palms, seeing her skin slowly beginning to transition into scale-like patterns. 'Damn it! This stupid curse!'
A gust blew down the street, distracting her from her inner thoughts as she unconsciously turned her head at the sound of a squeak where a metallic signpost hung, swaying gently in the wind.
'A bar.' Her gaze traveled from her palm and back to the sign. 'Drowning out my sorrows doesn't sound too bad. Maybe I'll grab a quick statue while I'm at it.' A self-deprecating chuckle escaped her lungs as she turned and reached for the door. 'Hell makes a woman thirsty.'
A soft chime rang out as she pushed open the door, and a pleasant warmness pushed back the bite of the winter chill like a comforting blanket.
Her internal anger was washed away in a heartbeat as she took a moment to close her eyes and appreciate the feeling, soothing a part of her she didn't even realize bothered her until then. 'It's easy to forget what comfort feels like after Tartarus.'
The interior was dim but well-lit, luxurious but not gaudy, and tastefully designed. Soft jazz piano set an ambiance to the space that was unmistakably fitting.
Her stiff posture sagged slightly under the embrace of the space like it was whispering that she was in a safe place. An odd feeling she hadn't felt in some time.
A swinging door at the back opened, and out came what she could only imagine as the bartender. Black hair framing an aristocratic face on a tall and robust build. The woman studied him briefly as stormy blue eyes met her own behind her sunglasses and nodded at her with only a slight hesitance. "Welcome; please take a seat wherever you like."
The man's voice was deep with an undercurrent of nervousness, but his gaze was welcoming. The woman would have thought him handsome and cute in equal measure if not for the scent wafting off him. 'That scent….a clear-sighted mortal. Damn it, you can't ever tell them apart from mortals unless you see them directly. I just had to walk into the one bar in the area with one, and we're alone.' The woman struggled to turn away, but the scent's allure was impossible to ignore.
Her feet carried her unbidden to a bar chair as she smiled at him and sat down. "And what do we call you handsome?"
Leon gave her a small smile with a bow of his head. "Leon is fine, and yourself?"
The woman crossed her legs and leaned back with a slowly rising blood lust like a siren's call to her mind. "I often go by Aunty Em, but you can call me Em."
Leon leaned forward on his palms. "A pleasure Em. What can I get you?"
'Your flesh and blood will suffice.' Em thought morbidly as her curse stirred with a meal so close, but she managed to restrain herself for the moment as she did actually want a drink. "It's been years since I've had a Cosmopolitan, would it be possible?"
Leon raised an amused brow at his first guest. "A Sex in the City fan?"
Em's lips twitched in a momentary genuine half-smile. "A guilty pleasure. Although, I haven't had the time to catch up with recent episodes."
Leon chuckled and turned around. "Can't say you missed much, but you're barking up the wrong tree if you expect me to know more. One Cosmopolitan coming up." He rummaged under the counter momentarily as Em tapped her finger on the bar top with a teasing smirk. Pushing away her darker thoughts to appreciate the bartenders features.
"What? Not man enough to watch Leon?"
He scoffed good naturedly and grabbed a shaker. "Nah, more like there are better ways to go brain dead."
Em adopted a mock hurt look. "You take that back." The amused side eye he sent her told her he could read her tone.
"You're not going to tell me you live in the West Village now, are you?"
She sat forward with a laugh. "You have seen the show!"
"I plead the fifth."
"Oh no, no running away, spill."
The two shared a laugh, and Leon turned back to face her with a half-smile as he continued working. "I had a sister who was obsessed with it. I never saw the show myself, but she talked enough about it for the two of us, and I wasn't a fan."
Em leaned back in interest, picking up on his wording. "Had? You don't seem very old."
Leon grabbed some ice and waved a hand. "I'm not. We're simply estranged….with very unlikely odds of ever changing that." He popped on the lid and began shaking it in a rhythmic pattern.
Em watched him work for a moment before she remarked. "A shame." A lingering sense of genuine feeling entered her words, and Leon raised a brow at the forlorn expression on her face.
"Have any sisters?"
Em looked up and smiled honestly as fond memories pushed down on the rising dark tide. "Two. Both older than me, and both were willing to dive into hell for my sake."
A trace of pain in her voice had Leon stopping momentarily before pushing on. 'Two ounces of vodka, half an ounce of lime, an ounce of curacao, and an ounce of cranberry syrup.' He grabbed a cocktail glass as he addressed his guest. "Sounds nice. But were? You don't seem very old."
Em blinked at his smug tone, and a real giggle escaped her lips. "Touché. My sisters and I aren't estranged. We simply….find it hard to match our schedules."
"Ah, work can be a pain sometimes, eh?"
"You have no idea." The true dead tone she issued those words in had Leon wondering what line of work she was in, but he figured that was a subject better left unsaid.
"Well, I know one way to make life a little brighter." He slid over a cloudy pink cocktail with a lime wheel garnish. "A Cosmo."
Em's face did indeed brighten up as she reached for her drink and breathed in the scent. "It's been so long; I had forgotten what it smelled like."
Leon chuckled in amusement. "Cranberry and vodka I would assume. Not many really think to do more than just throw those together with ice and call it a drink."
Em raised an amused brow at him. "Is that pride I sense?"
"I can't claim it for many things, but my drinks are one of them."
The look on his face was oddly endearing as she audibly hummed. "Hm, I'll be the judge of that." She brought the glass to her lips and took a sip.
Leon waited patiently as she savored the flavor and went quiet for a long moment.
She put the glass back down and took a deep breath. "Wow."
"Told you so."
Em giggled at his smug look. "I admit, this is one of the best Cosmo's I've ever had."
It was Leon's turn to adopt a mock hurt look. "One of?"
Em laughed harder at his look, idly trying to ignore the feeling of her legs shifting into her reptilian form beneath the bar. "It's a good drink Leon, but I can't recall the flavor of every Cosmo I've ever had."
"Just how many reruns of Sex in the City did you watch?"
She looked away with a flush of her cheeks, feeling oddly shy at his teasing tone. "Maybe a few times. That's beside the point."
"No, no, I think that is the point."
Em pouted, a sinful thing on a face as beautiful as hers. "It was a good show."
Leon waved a hand in a so-so fashion that had Em narrowing her eyes at him.
"What was so bad about it? And don't blame gender."
Leon chuckled and leaned back with a thoughtful look. "I think it was the point of the show that bothered me. It tried to point out that women don't ultimately find happiness from marriage."
Em hummed at that. "You disagree?"
Leon rubbed his chin as he answered honestly. "I think that society has been brainwashed into thinking that materialistic things are what marriage is about. The wedding, money, house, car, projecting a certain image to others. Ultimately, that type of marriage leads to unhappiness because it's based on expectations and masks. But marriage based on love and understanding without a care for social constructs can lead to true long lived happiness."
Em twirled her drink with an intrigued expression. "Speaking from experience?"
Leon laughed and waved a hand. "Not firsthand. But, I've seen enough marriages to form an opinion on the matter."
"A shame. You seem like one of the few good ones." Em silently thought to herself. 'Even more so with what I can't stop myself from doing. Why must the good souls be punished?' She took a larger drink to drown out her feelings.
Her rising mix of hunger and shame was pushed aside by Leon's chuckle. "Who knows? How about yourself? What did you love so much about the show?"
Em gained a thoughtful look as she considered the question. "I believe it was the drama of the relationships that sucked me in." She looked at her half-empty glass and ran a finger over the rim. Leon blinked at the sight of the light reflecting off the sharpened point of her nail but simply believed she just had a nail extension. "I related to some of the characters. Being charmed by a rich, handsome man. Feeling safe and secure. Doing stupid things you wouldn't dare do in any other case. And watching it all fall apart." She finished her drink and blinked as a new one was presented to her. "Thank you."
Leon offered her a nod. "Want to talk about it?"
Em scoffed. "Whats the point?" She took another sip and enjoyed the wonderful mix of flavors before matching eyes with Leon and seeing his unjudgmental gaze. "It's a stupid story."
"But it still weighs on you, doesn't it?" There was an understanding glint in his gaze that had her hesitating. "I've recently come to find that getting it off your chest helps."
Em silently looked down for a moment as she considered it. Her emotions had already been chaotic before she even walked in, having spent the last few hours after reforming from Tartarus cursing her fate and the curse placed upon her.
"I…I don't know where to begin." She never actually had anyone ask for her side of the story before.
A soft smile grew on Leon's lips as he quoted the same thing he had heard less than a week earlier. "Perhaps, you should start at the beginning."
His understanding tone was the last straw, and the floodgates opened as she spoke to someone about her pain for the first time in centuries, even as her body kept morphing beneath her clothes and her skin shifted to scales.
"I grew up on a small island in Greece. A peaceful place. Left to a temple as a baby, I never knew my parents, but I grew up with the love and support of the priestess's of the temple and the other kids. Specifically, two girls just a few years older than me."
"Your sisters."
Em smiled. "Mn. Stheno and Euryale, the three of us were thick as thieves in those days." A fond reminiscent expression covered her face as she thought back. "Getting into mischief everywhere we could, getting reprimanded by the priestess who watched over us, and doing our duties to the temple, studying long into the night."
She sighed and drank more. "Time passed, and we grew older. My sisters were twins, and whoever their parents were, they seemed to be stuck in their growth, unable to look like more than young teenagers even in their twenties."
Leon winced in amusement. "Short genes eh? Must have been some fun jokes there."
Em laughed openly, uncaring of how the light reflected off her growing fangs. "Oh yesss. Yes, there were. Being the younger one yet always mistaken as the elder due to our height differences was one of my few great pleasures in life. Not to mention my other assets." She popped her chest slightly, and Leon wondered if she was even wearing a bra under those clothes with how they jiggled.
"You're an evil one, aren't you?"
She smiled devilishly. In fact, it seemed a tad too wide to Leon's eyes. "Oh, definitely." Her expression dimmed a moment later. "But that beauty attracted trouble. As a priestess of the temple, I was safe from most advances, being able to use it as an excuse to turn down invitations. But then, one day, a suitor saw through my excuses and advanced anyway, unfearful of my faith." A bitter expression grew prominent. "He wooed me. Charmed me like no other man had attempted before. And like a young maiden who knew no better, I fell for it." She went for another drink and found her second glass empty.
A third slid her way, and she said nothing but send Leon a grateful smile as she accepted it. "My sisters tried to warn me, but I ignored them at the time. Thought I knew what love was. I spent two weeks with the man, and then the day came when he convinced me to do something I wouldn't have ever considered days before."
"Anal?"
Em spat out her drink and coughed, her darkening mind recoiling under her surprise. "What? No!" She looked up into the amused gaze of the bartender and couldn't help stop the bubbling laughter as her roiling emotions settled somewhat. "No, you perv. I hadn't considered that."
"You were pretty into Sex in the City, so…."
"I wasn't that much of a fan!" Em felt her face heat up at the thought. She couldn't help but be curious, having seen the show, but it was a different age in her time. "No, it wasn't that. He convinced me to have sex in my patron's temple."
Leon raised a brow. "Was it that big a deal?"
Em's amused mood dimmed. "It was. My….people didn't take kindly to it when we were caught. The man got away scot-free thanks to his connections as he abandoned me while I was heavily punished. Banished from the home I loved, scorned by the people I thought cared for me." She sipped her drink as an inhuman hiss began to rise in her throat. "I was forced to run. And my dear sisters followed. Taking on my burden in their own way without my input so as not to let me suffer alone. But the world wouldn't let me forget what the man did. What price it cost me as he tossed me aside like used goods when the axe came down. I've been trying to pick up the pieces ever since, but the past never lets me forget my mistake, throwing it in my face constantly and making me suffer for it." The more she talked, the more even she was surprised at what came out.
Leon blinked at the strange pattern he saw appearing on the woman's neck but pushed it aside as genuine tears began to build in Em's eyes. "It must have been rough." He slid a napkin into her hand, and she accepted it with a grateful nod.
"You have no idea." She wiped her eyes beneath her glasses, and Leon couldn't help but feel it was a shame to see her so down. He decided to give her a moment to breath and change the topic.
"You know, the Cosmopolitan wasn't invented by Sex in the City."
Em looked up with a confused look. "So?"
Leon pulled out a new bottle from the shelves as he started working. "The drink was invented sometime in the 80's by a bartender named Toby Cecchini, but the drink only got its call to fame because a famous character in a tv show drank it a decade later."
He mixed Amaro Nonino, lime juice, Curacao, Campari, Absolut Citron, and simple syrup into a shaker and shook it up with ice as Em watched, wondering where he was going with this.
"The show never made a claim to the drinks invention, but its fame popularized the drink in most circles around the world. The original creator was forgotten, pushed aside, and had to deal with everyone telling him about his own creations fame. So you know what he did?"
Em finished wiping her eyes and put down her napkin even as her body continued to shift and the chair creaked under her increasing weight. "What?"
Leon strained the mixture into a glass and offered the cocktail to his guest. "He published his own recipe, which differed from the publicly accepted one, and ignored everyone else, even as they bashed him for ripping off someone else and eventually having to shut down his bar due to the backlash."
Em eyed the new glass with interest, seeing it have a different hue to it under the light than the one before.
Leon gave her an encouraging smile and tilted his chin. "Go on."
She lifted it to her lips and took a sip as her eyes widened. "It's…delicious."
Leon nodded. "Self-satisfaction. That's the feeling that drink gives me. The creator was satisfied with what he did, didn't care for what others said, and knew to himself that his drink was his. He owned it, no matter what anyone said."
Em stared into the liquid, seeing her own reflection through her glasses as her purple locks of hair transitioned into dozens of snakes, showing her the monster beneath the surface. She said nothing as a voice inside her whispered cruel things and took another sip with a wetness building in the corner of her eye.
Leon quietly lit up a cigarette as he leaned back against the wall while his guest transitioned more and more into something inhuman.
"Are you telling me to get over it?" Em's voice was low and whispered, but he still caught it.
He inhaled the calming tobacco and shrugged. "I'm not telling you to do anything. We can't change the past, and letting it cling to us is letting others win. Why not own it? You can live your life your way, without caring about what others think."
"And what if the past comes decides it's not done with you?"
Leon smirked and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Then crush anything that stands in your way."
A tail smashed against the bar, splattering Leon with a line of pink liquid as Em loomed over him. Her human features had retreated to be replaced with fangs elongating from her teeth, a body growing longer and reptilian, with scarred and grotesque features. "And what if what comes is too much to handle?"
Leon didn't flinch as he stared at her pained expression, unbothered by the dozen hissing snakes formed from her hair snapping at him from feet away. "Making some friends couldn't hurt."
A hiss of a predator staring into the eyes of juicy prey rang out as Em fought herself. "Leon."
The bartender hummed calmly with crossed arms. Taking in the way her mix of purple and green scaled hair vipers spread out curiously. Smelling the reptilian scent wafting off her. And seeing the golden sheened bat-shaped wings pop out of her back. "Hm?"
"I really don't want to eat you." A pained whisper left her lips, and Leon chuckled at the odd situation.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't, I've only been open for an hour."
Em visibly restrained herself from lunging. "I can't stop it. It's my curse. My punishment that haunts me. The price I have to pay for my sins. My hunger drives me. Like chains over my will."
Leon stared into the sunglass-covered face of one of the Greek myth's most notorious monsters and saw only pain and suffering. "Hunger, eh?" A thought came to him as he reached forward and patted the woman's reptilian hide gently. "Think you can hang on for one more drink Em?"
Em's expression twisted in a grimace, but her monstrous side considered the 'last request' like a predator playing with its food. Her hair snakes hissed audibly, and she managed a nod. "I'm sorry."
Leon shrugged and reached under the counter for a specific bottle. "Don't be. I can't say I wish to die anymore, but I've already passed through that void once. Whats another run?"
Leon himself was surprised by his calm, but he internally couldn't help but laugh at his predicament. 'I was sweating buckets when she walked in the door because she was my first customer. I thought I was still tripping from withdrawal when she started changing, but then it became pretty obvious something was up when the big ass snake tail started wagging in the air behind her. Why does the idea of dying make me less worried than disappointing a customer?'
He started making a new Cosmo for her as Em watched on unblinkingly while she shouted in her head. 'Why? Why can't I escape this cycle?!' Pure frustration grew in her and she raged against her chains as her hunger overpowered her bodily actions until she gave up on the inevitable. She was a monster. She was going to harm the first person without relation to her that heard her out and was kind to her. And there was nothing she could do to change that. 'At least I got the drink I wanted, and a nice conversation along with it. I'll try to make it painless; he deserves that much.'
Hunger was her curse. The stronger it became, the more hideous she became. But that hunger drove her to attack the supernatural against her will, sometimes feasting and having time to enjoy life in her true body, and other times dying and being returned to years of pain in Tartarus, forever separated from her sisters by the cruel games of the gods. She returned to her original form only when she was satiated, which didn't often last longer than a day, forcing her to have to set up elaborate illusions to hide her form from incoming prey.
Leon worked without pause, hands steadier than they had ever been before, and added a specific ingredient to his shaker and shook it up before straining it into a new glass, watching as the cocktail changed from its pink coloration to a light purple.
He adorned it with a lime wheel garnish and slid it over with a smirk, blowing out smoke as he spoke. "Enjoy."
Em's larger form bent down as her hair snakes hissed and tasted the air for the scent of poison. Her eyes couldn't help but take in his proud smile, and a bubble of wry amusement built in her throat. "You really are proud of your drinks, Leon."
He winked at her and leaned back as he breathed in what might have been his last smoke. "Own what you got, Em."
She lifted the glass with a pained grimace and nodded. "I'll try to remember it." She tipped the liquid down her throat, and her eyes widened as her body spasmed almost instantly.
Leon chuckled and wiped the bit of Cosmo from his cheek as he watched the woman lean back and groan as she began shifting back into her human form. "I believe you'll have enough time to think it over."
Em shook violently as her scales shifted back to beautiful skin, her tail retracted into human legs, and her hair snakes broke down into strands of silky light purple hair that fell in a mess around her face. She looked down at her hands in shock, patting her body to ensure she wasn't hallucinating. "That's….this….not possible."
"Possibility only extends are far as one is willing to believe."
Em's gaze snapped to his own as she whispered unbelievingly. "What did you do…?"
He calmly ashed his cigarette in a tray. "I served my customer a drink. I did my job."
Em gripped the bar tightly and stared at him. "Leon! What did you do?!"
Leon decided to stop teasing the poor woman, noticing the frantic look in her eyes. He lifted a bottle onto the counter, a simple glass bottle from one of his finished liquors he removed the label from. The liquid inside swirled with a blue glow through the glass as he waved a hand at it. "Satiety Potion. Four ounces will cure all symptoms of hunger for twenty four hours and provide a boost of nutrients in an emergency. I'd still recommend you eat something, however. I learned that the hard way."
Em gaped at the bottle like a fish out of water for a solid minute. "I….I've never heard of that potion."
Leon shrugged. "I've never seen Medusa in the flesh. We are both experiencing firsts today."
Her eyes tracked to his. "You knew?"
His tone was dry. "It's kind of hard to miss it with the whole lamia thing. The hair and sunglasses cinched it. Thanks for keeping those on by the way."
His deadpan tone at such a monumental moment for her was so out of place that she couldn't help but burst into a peal of tearful incredulous laughter. Her hunger had gone dead silent as if she had finished a feast of demigod flesh. "Y-you're welcome."
Leon let her have her moment as she fell boneless into her chair and held her hands to her face. "I can't believe this is happening."
He silently gathered the glass shards, used shakers, and glasses into the sink and turned on the water. Some people needed physical comfort, but Leon didn't get the feeling she would appreciate it. Just like him a week earlier, she didn't want pity. He could taste the self-loathing in her voice and knew it all too well. 'I'm glad I chose to make that potion yesterday. Who knew it would come in handy like this? I should keep a stock of the rest I haven't made, just in case.'
The minutes passed as he washed his tools and Em gathered herself. She looked up with red eyes as he returned, wiping a glass with a cloth. "Feeling better?"
She opened her mouth and closed it half a dozen times before finding her voice. "Leon….I don't know how to thank you."
He chuckled and passed her another napkin. "You can thank me by paying for your drinks. I could really use the money."
Em froze while wiping her face.
Leon heard her wince and deadpanned. "You're broke, aren't you?"
Em held up her hands in innocence. "In my defense, I reformed from Tartarus this morning. I just expected to charmspeak a bartender into forgetting I was here, or getting a statue I could sell if they tried to get handsy with me."
Leon only deadpanned harder. "Noted. Don't make a move on the otherworldly beauty, she doesn't do anal."
Em flushed brightly and hid her face. "Leon! Be serious!"
His lips twitched into a smile as he looked at her. 'Medusa, feared monster of Greek myth. She has no right being that cute.' He shook his head. "I am. I'm broke woman, do you think liquor grows on trees?"
She raised a finger, and he immediately cut her off. "You know what I meant."
She lowered it with a small giggle. "I'm sorry. I usually gather funds after I find somewhere to settle. But I think I know how to help us both."
He raised a brow in curiosity. "How so?"
Em pointed a dainty finger at the bottle. "Sell me that. I'll pay whatever price you want."
Leon scratched his cheek as he thought it over. "Sure. Thirty bucks a vial."
She nearly choked on her spit at his words. "Thirty…..dollars..?"
He blinked at her incredulous look. "What?"
Her palms slammed on the bar as she stood up. "Thirty dollars?! I would have paid 500 drachma a vial for that! Do you have any idea what that elixir means to me?"
Leon took a step back at her intense look and raised his hands, oddly finding her more intimidating now than when she was in monster form, but still not the type to back down. "Easy Em. I'll charge whatever I feel like. It cost me like ten bucks to make that bottle, it's not that big of a deal for me."
"Not that big of a…..wait….you made this…?" Her voice shrunk into a whisper, and he didn't even have time to move before her form blurred, and he was staring into his reflection from bare inches away. Em had flipped onto the bar and sat on the edge as she pressed her face into his own while gripping his shoulders to not let him escape with more elegance than an Olympic gymnast. "You. Made. That. Potion?" Her voice was a mix of incredulous, forcefulness, and desperation.
He nodded unsurely, and the next thing he knew, she lunged forward like the queen of snakes she was to seize his lips in a passionate kiss. Leon could barely regain his bearings to kiss back before she pulled back with a string of saliva connecting their lips. "Fifty." She breathed against his lips.
"Excuse me?" He asked in a breathless tone.
Her lips remained inches from his own as she responded firmly. "I'm not paying you a cent less than fifty dollars at a minimum."
"Uh….ok?" His confused answer fed her predatorial instincts as she nodded in satisfaction, bringing him back into another passion-filled kiss. Her legs wrapped around his hips like a vice and ground their cores together as he finally responded and his hands dropped to her waist to dig into the love handles she had there.
Like a true Lamia, she bonelessly wrapped around him for almost two minutes, pressing him deeper into her embrace as her hardened nipples rubbed against his chest through their clothes, making Leon consider if she had changed her mind about squeezing the life out of him before she finally let go and flipped back over the bar into her seat.
A heavy flush colored her cheeks as she wiped her lips with a finger. "I needed that."
Leon took a moment to recover and readjust his pants. "Anytime."
She giggled at his breathless expression and waved a hand. "Sorry, this is a very emotional moment for me."
He pulled out another cigarette with a shaky hand. "I could tell." His amused dry tone only made her giggle harder as he lit it up. "I assume you're feeling better?"
The way she lit up could have put the Rockefeller Christmas tree to shame. "Better? Leon, I haven't felt this way in decades! The last time I felt this free, I had a taste of some real divine blood and was satiated for barely two weeks. The cursed voices in my head have gone dead silent."
Leon breathed out a cloud of smoke and decided to ignore the worrying part of her answer to focus on something else. "You ate a god?"
She scoffed. "No. I bought the blood from a witch. Gods like to look high and mighty but they bleed ichor every now and then. Scavengers like to collect it."
Leon scratched his chin. "Huh. Medusa, Gods, Tartarus…..the empire state building wouldn't happen to be the entrance to Olympus, would it?"
Em nodded like it was normal. "Of course it is. As far as I know anyway. It hasn't changed in the last century to the best, so I doubt it changed in the last three years I've been gone."
Leon considered that. 'Well, that explains a lot of my withdrawal hallucinations. I guess I landed in the world of PJO?' He looked at the beautiful woman across from him kicking her long flawless legs in the air like a child marveling at seeing her legs for the first time, idly attracting his gaze to her features. "I thought I heard that it could take a decade to reform?"
She noticed him staring but his words sent a shiver down her spine. "Spending a decade down there is something I don't want to remember. It depends on how we die. For me, most of my power is in my eyes, so if I die by beheading, it takes years longer to reform than if I were stabbed through the heart. Only took me three years this time."
"Kinda morbid."
"Meh, you get used to it after dying over a dozen times."
Leon hummed and pointed his chin at her. "You're always welcome in my bar if you need a place to lay low. As long as you pay for your drinks of course."
Em giggled and licked her lips, extending her leg and enjoying the way his eyes tracked it. "I think we could work something out." She sat up and smiled genuinely at him. "But thank you Leon. It means a lot to hear someone say that and mean it."
He shrugged. "Like I said, it's good to have friends when things get tough. I think that goes both ways in this case." Knowing what world he was in made those words mean more to him, but somehow he got a sense that he was never truly in danger inside the bar's walls. An odd feeling he couldn't trace the source of.
Em nodded at his words and stood up. "If you ever need me, just give me a call and I'll come running." She pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her purse and wrote down a number. "For the sake of that potion, this establishment must stand."
Leon accepted the slip with a twitch. "Gee, I feel the love Em."
She stuck her tongue out at him cheekily. "For the drinks too."
"I'll take that one."
"Is it your drinks or your life you care more about?"
"Yes."
Em burst out laughing at his answer. "Never change Leon."
"I don't plan on it."
She sent him a genuine smile and leaned forward. "How much do I owe you?"
"How many vials do you want?"
Em considered it with an audible hum. "If each vial lasts a day, give me two weeks' worth. I need time to set up shop somewhere and get my business open again."
Leon raised a brow at that. "What line of business?"
The light glinted off her shrunken fangs as her smile widened. "I sell statues."
"…."
"…."
He slid over the bottle of Satiety Potion without another word. "You owe me 60 for five Cosmo's and 700 for fourteen vials of potion. There's five vials worth in that bottle, I can have the rest by tomorrow."
Em took the bottle with an excited gleam. "Give me two days and I'll be back with the bill. You have my word."
Leon's eyes couldn't help but stare at how the bottle sunk into the valley of her breasts as she cuddled it, recalling the feel of them pressing into his chest. "Right. Happy hunting."
She turned to go and paused. "Hm, Leon, hand me two of those cocktail glasses."
He raised a brow at the request. "You're not going to break them again are you?"
She flushed and ducked her head. "I'm sorry about that. I could barely control myself."
He chuckled and waved a hand, putting two glasses in front of her. "I'm just kidding. I'd rather it be the glass than me."
Em gave him a disgruntled look. "Bully." She put down the bottle and used a sharp nail to make a cut on both her pointer fingers before squeezing out dark red-colored blood into both glasses.
"Em."
"Yeah?"
"Why are you bleeding in my cups?"
"To give you a gift."
"Oh, ok."
The two matched eyes and shared a laugh as Em elaborated. "I'm a Gorgon, Leon. Changed this way by a goddess sure, but my sisters and I are unique to Greek myth, changed by the faith that sprung up over the centuries. The blood from my right side can cure anything, and the blood from my left is deadly, even to the divine. I'm giving you a vial of each to say thank you."
Leon eyed the blood in the glasses with a curious look. Neither looked all that different from normal blood. "I think you said it plenty with that kiss, Em. Doesn't this gotta cost you something?"
She licked her lips and sent him a fanged smirk. "You weren't the only one who enjoyed it. And it does. I can only eject this once a year. Each vial can only be used on a single target. Trying to break it into smaller doses won't change that. Although, you could always kill me and try to get more from a drop item when my essence condenses into a reward for my killer and my soul returns to hell."
Leon winced at how cheerfully she said that line. "I prefer the kiss honestly."
Em laughed loudly, a sound of honest amusement as she pulled her hands back and the blood stopped flowing. "I don't know how long it's been since a man who knew my name preferred my lips over my blood." She winked at him. "You're the second man to ever touch these lips without dying Leon, I hope that says enough of how much what you just did means to me."
He smiled at the real joy on her face and blew out some smoke. "It was a pleasure Em. Don't get into too much trouble out there and come back soon. I'll give you a slot on my wall as my first customer." He pointed his cigarette at the line of empty picture frames Mr. H left behind.
Em's eyes shined for some reason as she nodded. "I'll bring a camera. Two days."
She turned to leave and Leon's gaze trailed down to her heels at the sound, making him chuckled as she turned to look at him curiously. "You know, it was said Carrie wore heels eighteen hours a day for her role in Sex in the City."
Em stuck her tongue out at him cheekily. "Maybe I like wearing them, Leon."
He scoffed. "No one likes wearing them. Unlike most women, you don't need them to make that ass pop girl."
Em almost tripped at his comment and laughed herself silly as she walked away with a wave. "Keep talking like that and I might just let you have some of my other firsts. That show made me curious."
Her hips swayed hypnotically as she left through the door, and Leon shook his head. 'Damn, that's gonna feed my fantasies for a while.' He chuckled and picked up the glasses of precious blood coveted by many that she had left behind.
"…..Which one is which."
The blood gave him no answer.
0000
Outside the bar, Em looked up at the night sky with a feeling she hadn't felt in centuries. 'Freedom.' She put a hand to her chest and felt the pulse of her curse deep inside her soul, like chains over her essence. 'Perhaps not true freedom, but this is the closest I've been to it since I was turned.' She giggled to herself, almost making another passing biker crash into a car as he turned to the sound.
Em turned away with a chuckle and began walking down the street. 'I want to celebrate, but I have a bill to pay before that.' She hummed and turned down a dark alley as she reached for her sunglasses. Her pinkish gray eyes glowed brighter in the dark as she removed their covering. "The good thing about big cities is that it's easy to find the trash. Now, where can I find a criminal with deep pockets with property in the nearby area." She hummed and vanished into the night to the sound of chains clinking.
The fabled Medusa was let lose, and surprisingly, the city was slightly better off after for it.
A new shop dedicated to sculpting and selling statues would open its doors in a few days.
0000
Elsewhere, somewhere deep underground, three feminine screeches echoed through a cave as strings on a massive tapestry snapped.
Leon's actions had consequences, not that they would come to pass any time soon.
End.
AN: As you can see, I took some liberties with Medusa's character. It's not 100% like Fate Medusa, or PJO Medusa, but something in between.
Love it? Hate it? Let me hear your thoughts.