[zapdragon555]

[Threw an E tag on here just in case, but it's mostly gonna be
for language, drugs, and sexual content whoops.]

Jadyr Perndhasa took a kind of twisted pride in knowing the absolute seediest parts of the city like the back of his hand. Every street corner, every alleyway, every backwoods strip joint and ravers' haven--he held them locked in a cerebral map. This was his kingdom, his pride rock--sure, he shared parts of it with other people, let them govern the goings-on of the common folk and street rats... but Jadyr ran the show. Jadyr was the head of Black Mamba, one of the most prominent and yet covert drug networks in New York, and damn it felt good to have that sort of control under his fingertips.

Then again, there was also the fact that Jadyr didn't much enjoy the level of responsibility that came with being a leader of that kind. It wasn't anything new that Jadyr always had a weapon on him, but there was a new kind of paranoia about day to day life--that, and meetings with other dealers were boorish, not at all like the raucous collection of pirate-like gangsters he'd expected. Simple business meetings with chemistry brainiacs who make the shit and suddenly decide they want more than half the profits. It was all Jadyr could do not to punch the lights out of 'em--he needed business, anyway.

And speaking of business... A different kind of business entirely. Jadyr raised an eyebrow as he stopped in front of a large mural, angling his head back to look at it in full. He wondered how long it would take the authorities to paint over it this time--this one was particularly explicit in its subject matter, but then, he supposed that was fine for a strip club's entrance. Jadyr would've preferred a few more women on the wall, didn't much take ease with the flashy boys Tobias had painted. "Oi, Tobias," Jadyr barked, hands in his pockets as he cocked his head at the graffiti artist's back. "We goin' in or not? You said I'd like this place, right?"

[Rainbowfox Ari]

It figured. Tobias brought Jadyr out here to admire an ironic statement about the stigma of nudity in today's societal norms, and all he turned out to be interested in was the strip club. But he had already guessed that much. He'd picked this spot for a reason, after all. And according to the time... He checked his watch, grinned to himself, and nodded.

"Of course, Jad. You're definitely gonna dig this place. It's right up your..." he chuckled a bit. "alley."

He thought for a moment about the few items he'd slipped into the drug-dealer's pack, shook his head a bit, chuckling again, and pushed open the door to the place he'd chosen to be the center of his mural.

The place was called The Back Door and was just about as flashy as any strip-joint in the big city. Inside, the place was all bump-and-grind, but there was a certain air of a kind of 'street-class' to it as well. Large, plush carpet runners with a paint-splatter pattern done in pinks and blues, the signature colors of the club. The music inside was pumping and jumpy, making the bones vibrate to the teeth. The walls were done up in a posh black-wood paneled look, and covered with pictures of patrons and dancers alike, having a good time. There was a check-in counter, but the sign on top of that said 'Free Night' - which was what Tobi had planned.

"Well? Go on in." the boy said, shoving Jad by the shoulders. "Have to get to the dancefloor before you figure out if you like it or not."

Of course, this place also did themed nights, and this was one of them. Med-Night. The dancers on-stage, as well as some of the people watching and dancing along with them, were all dressed in various forms of medical garb - white coats (even the very, very, very short ones counted), syringe badges, plush organs, stethoscopes around necks, white masks, fake glasses, surgical gloves, and other, more... exotic... medical-themed gear. All on display on the numerous bodies up on stage and around it.

There were six dancers just now. One was a curvy dark-skinned woman wearing a black-latex nurse's outfit that left very little to the imagination. There were two sweet-looking young ladies on either side of her, working the crowd, both of which had extremely revealing, nearly-sheer labcoats, and ankle-high white latex boots, along with their underwear and bra. The next two were young men, pretty nondescript, other than the fact they were wearing outfits that seemed the opposite of each other. One black, one white, definitely going for the 'mad scientist' look. Not a doctor, but close enough. The last dancer was the one that Tobias was focused on, and the one that he casually pointed out to Jadyr.

"Hey Jad, check out the dancer on the far right up there." he said, pointing at the male.

He looked like he was having a good time, moving with the music. He was thin, young, and looked a bit spaced out to be perfectly honest. Wearing a midriff-bearing black halter-top with a green design of some sort, black short with the same sort of design, and bright blue socks. He wasn't wearing shoes, but that didn't seem to bother him much.

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr was, admittedly, pretty perturbed by the innards of the strip club. He'd been to a fair handful of them in his life, but very rarely a themed one like this. Doctors gave him the heebie-jeebies anyway. Jadyr flicked his eyes over the dancers onstage, his expression slowly melting from a scowl to a mild look of approval--at least the girls were hot enough. Jadyr's eyes slid over to Tobias, raising an eyebrow as he followed the older boy's finger to the stage. He squinted, glancing at the boy, then at one of the women nearby--that must be who Tobias was talking about. "I'd tap, I guess," he mused, nodding at the woman, though it certainly appeared as though he was looking at the male. "Pretty hot." Well, misunderstanding or not, Jadyr seemed rather engaged.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Tobias grinned, and reached up to take his friend's head, and turn it to look at the male instead of the female. "No, him." he said, before dropping his hands, and grinning even wider. "Looks like he's having a good time, too. You should go up there and say hi."

Of course, Tobi wasn't about to give Jadyr any actual say in the matter. He snagged his friend's hand, and started to literally drag him over toward the dance-stage while the music begin to reach a fever-pitch. The male in question was definitely enjoying it, putting his entire body into the dance, almost leaning into the music, his eyes closed.

Once Tobias and Jadyr were actually in front of him, he opened his eyes - not exactly expecting his personal space to be filled. His co-workers always got the commissions, never him... He couldn't exactly say anything to the two men, since the music was nearly deafening this close, but he reached into his top, and pulled out one of the 'tokens' the dancers gave to their clients to demonstrate they had some of their time. He flipped it toward the two, and the shorter of the two apparently caught it.

"We'll talk to him after he's done dancing!" Tobias yelled to be heard over the music. "This song is almost over!"

Tobi handed the token to Jadyr, palming it to him. This particular token was black with a rainbow streak across it, and the initials 'BL' inscribed in the middle in fluorescent yellow paint.

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr had raised an eyebrow as Tobias shifted his attention to... ah. So Tobias actually was talking about the... the guy. Jadyr frowned--what did Tobias take him for? "Dude, you know I'm not g--hgh?!" Before Jadyr could properly say anything Tobias had grabbed his hand and jerked him over to the stage. God, up here, the music was almost deafening. Jadyr's frowned deepened as they came closer to the boy, and he seemed to not know where to put his eyes when every inch of the boy was moving like that...

Jadyr cleared his throat, shaking his head. "Tobias, I don't want to be here--" Jadyr cut off as the boy opened his eyes and looked at them, and he felt his chest jump in surprise at the stare. Jadyr watched the silent exchange with a bewildered look, unsure why his heart was beating so fast--it must have been the bass. It was way too fucking loud--yeah, that was it. Jadyr grunted as he glanced at the token in his hand, raising an eyebrow. Well, that was just about how he expected some gay stripper's business card to look. Taking this rather rude thought with him, Jadyr grabbed Tobias's shoulder and forcibly moved the both of them away from the stage, wanting to give himself some room away from the boy and his pretty eyes. Damn it--he needed a drink or something. "Buy me a beer," he muttered at Tobias. "Payment for dragging me to this rathole."

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"I'll buy you a mixed DRINK." he pointed out, almost cackling. Of course Jad liked him. This was the way of things. Tobi liked to think he was always right... but in reality, it was just most of the time. "I'm not buying you a beer, Jad. This place is classier than that."

He meandered over to the bar, and ordered two mixed drinks, taking one to Jadyr, and leaving one on the table behind them. The song the dancers were listening to ended about then, and all of them filed off of various sections of the stage, the boy in question looking around for a moment or two before spotting Tobias and Jadyr off to the side, nearby the tables and chairs set-up beside the bar. He started to head over there.

"Welp, that's my cue to skedaddle." Tobias said with a wicked grin. "There are some things. In your bag. I took the liberty of putting there. But, uh.... Don't open your bag out here. Get to someplace quieter. Trust me on that one." he said, patting his friend's shoulder, and meandering off in the other direction without really giving him a chance to argue with him.

The boy from the stage showed up shortly after Tobi was completely out of the way. He was still panting hard, and that 'vaguely green design' on his shirt, and the hem of his pants turned out to be the line of an ECG. Somehow it was embedded into the shirt design, and appeared to be showing his heartbeat in real-time, like a monitor only without the beeping. Now that he was up close and personal, detail stood out. Like the way he had almost no fat on him, and the midriff shirt he was wearing showed that off perfectly well. There were wires snaking to and from that shirt, taped to his body, which was half-glistening with the sweat of his dance workout up there, and he was using a towel to dry off - apparently having brought one with him. He ruffled his hair with it, and laughed a bit.

"I'm.. s.. sorry you caught... me dancing." he panted, trying to calm himself down a bit. "I n-never... usually put someone off... like that. But it was a good song." another soft laugh. "My name is Blacklight. This your first time here at The Back Door? You picked a pretty good night for it."

Rolling the towel, and shoving it inside a shoulder-bag he was carrying, he sat down on one of the benches set into the wall, crossed his legs, and looked at at Jad with piercingly-yellow eyes. "Your friend seems to have vanished, though."

[zapdragon555]

Classier. Like fuck. Jadyr accepted the fruity cocktail begrudgingly, sipping at the salted edge with a wariness in his eyes. Honestly, he never quite trusted these mixed drink things--he never knew exactly what was in them, and moreover, they had a nasty habit of getting you more drunk than you ever intended to be.

Jadyr had spotted the boy from before, already weaving through the crowd, as Tobias was getting up--wait, what? Jadyr's head snapped up as Tobias left, all of the older man's words buzzing around his head like flies. Bag... don't open it... someplace quieter? What the hell had he planted in there?! Suddenly deeply on edge, Jadyr's light brown eyes snapped to the approaching male with more hostility than he meant to. He peered at the boy--Blacklight apparently--and frowned slightly at the ECG on his chest. Huh. That thing was going a mile a minute, wasn't it... made sense. He supposed it was a cool enough shirt.

Holding on to that thought in a sea of uncertainties, Jadyr looked back up at Blacklight and smirked. "Yeah. My asshole of a friend over there," he gestured vaguely behind him, "dragged me here. Said it was my type of place--personally, I don't think he knows jack shit about me." Jadyr was silent for a moment, then sipped his drink once, wrinkled his nose--his head was already buzzing a little, and he prided himself in being able to hold his alcohol--and held it out to Blacklight. "Yo. You want this shit?"

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"I would, but we're not allowed to drink on the job." Blacklight said, shrugging. "Plus, between you and me, they put Clear in that stuff, and I hate the taste." He finished drying his hair, and winced a bit. On his shirt, his heart had skipped a beat. As romantic as that was in writing, it wasn't really supposed to happen casually. Motioning toward the back of the club, he turned back to Jad.

"Why don't we head to one of the backrooms and get out of this noise?" he asked, having to shout to be heard over the next song. "The rooms are soundproof, so we can talk in there if you like!"

Starting to get up, he paused again, and put his hand to his chest. The shirt showed another skip before his heart continued on at a slightly-more-elevated rate. He stopped for a moment, grabbed something from his pocket, and popped it into his mouth without even looking at it. After he swallowed that, he turned back to Jad, and canted his head in the direction of the rooms. "C'mon. I know the Blood room isn't going to be occupied this time of night." he said, pointing to a room with black-and-red striped walls. "No actual blood in there, don't worry! It's just got a red-and-black color scheme, that's all."

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr frowned at the male, then at the glass, squinting at it. Yeah, he knew he shouldn't have trusted Tobias to buy him something normal for once. Setting down the glass, Jadyr turned his attention back to Blacklight, given that there was nothing else interesting happening in that club that wasn't downright hard to look at. Did that mean Blacklight was easy to look at? Hah, no. Definitely not. Still... that weird heart monitor thing was pretty cool to look at...

"Eh..." Jadyr began, a brow quirking up at the suggestion. "I mean..." he trailed off as Blacklight ate something from his pocket--a pill of some kind? Sure looked that way. Jadyr eyed the man curiously, and slowly found himself getting up and following Blacklight towards the rooms, hands shoving in his pockets. "Well that's comforting," he muttered, walking towards the room. He eyed Blacklight as he passed, then walked inside the garish room, frowning at it. The room smelled just as much like sweat and alcohol as the rest of the place... he kinda liked it, he supposed. "Huh. Yeah, it's a lot quieter in here," he observed, taking his hands out of his pockets and tossing his bag onto the bed. He still didn't trust whatever Tobias had slipped inside of there, and he didn't care to look at it right then.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Blacklight settled himself on the bed beside the other's bag, and put both hands behind him, leaning back. He yawned lightly, and got up after Jadyr was inside to shut the door, locking it with the key hanging on the wall, and headed back to the bed to flop there on his belly.

"You don't strike me as the type to rent someone like me, so I'm guessing that pushy friend of yours shoved you into it? We don't have to do anything, you know. We could just sit and talk." he rolled onto his back, and looked at Jadyr upside-down, blinking at him. "It's been a kind of slow week for me, all told. I was sick yesterday, so I couldn't come in, and the day before, some lady rented me to be an arm-warmer at some stupid rich-people function. I was almost bored to tears. She made me slick my hair back and everything. And the wine there was terribad, let me tell you."

He rolled back over onto his stomach, and crossed one arm over the other, legs up in the air, kicking a bit. "So... if this is your first time here, what do you like to do for fun?" he asked, reaching up to push some hair behind his ear. "I'd imagine you probably have ladies all over you like woah. I mean... You are pretty easy on the eyes. I would even call you hot. In certain circles, that would get you a lot of money."

Kicking his legs again, he coughed, and yawned once more. He seemed to be getting a little on the drowsy side. "I never... actually come back here to just talk to people, so it's refreshing."

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr made a pacing circle around the room as Blacklight chattered on about things Jadyr only half-listened to, eyes sharp as he glanced around the room. Something felt... off. He couldn't place it. Probably just the gross drink Tobias had forced on him. Sighing through his nose and moving over towards the bed, he sat down, his bag in between him and the other boy. "Yeah, basically. Hit the nail on the head there. Tobias tends to shove me into a lot of places I don't care to be," Jadyr muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and crossing his ankles, glancing up at the ceiling for a moment. "So you like, rent yourself out and shit? You're not just some stripper I guess. I dunno how places like this work--like, I've seen strip joints, but I guess this one's weird?"

Jadyr raised his brows as Blacklight started throwing questions and compliments and... suggestions, even, at him. Oookay. He blanched for a moment, then snickered, a kind of harsh sneer on his face. "Weird as fuck coming from a guy, but whatever. I'll take it. Wouldn't be caught dead working in a ratty shithole like this, though..." he mused, slipping into a half defensive, cocky tone as he glanced down at Blacklight with a smirk. "Pretty sure you have to be, like, at least this much flaming gay to strip for other guys, right?" He raised his hand up in a horizontal angle, as if he were measuring someone's height, and held it over Blacklight's head. He took it back with a kind of softer smirk--he didn't really wanna hurt the guy's feelings, he guessed. "But anyway, yeah, I can't say I've ever gone in a back room of a club to do anything but fuck. Refreshing is... definitely a word for it." Jadyr sniffed, a small frown on his face. There was... something weird. Something really weird in the air...

"Aaaanyway." Subject change, pronto. Getting into dicey territory, and he did not want to get questioned by some stranger with a cute ass and questionable--hey, no, what was that about an ass? Haha, nothing. Nothing at all. Jadyr tugged his bag closer, unzipping it with a frown. "Tobias said he snuck some weird shit into my bag that I was supposed to open once I was out of there. Wanna see what it is?" he snickered, then blinked with a raised brow as he pulled out a... stethoscope? What? Jadyr held it up, a confused frown on his face. "Eh..."

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Blacklight leaned over curiously, watching him open the bag. When he pulled out a stethoscope, he did a double-take, and his heart started beating triple-time. He swallowed past a suddenly-dry mouth. The instrument was painted golden and sparkly. It was just the kind of thing to match the gaudy, 'themed' shit outside, but that's not why BL's heart was doing summersaults in his chest, and threatening to come out of his mouth. Not at all.

"W.. wow. I didn't know you were... you know... into this... sort of thing." he said slowly. "Or.. Or, you know, that your friend was." he corrected, almost too quickly.

Pushing himself up a little to look the instrument over, he didn't really realize he was red up to the ears with a massive blush. Nor did he realize that his shirt was registering the much-higher heart-rate the appearance of the instrument had caused. "I... um.... I think... your friend might know... something. You know? Maybe he put that in there for a joke, or... for... another reason? Maybe to..." his heart beat even faster, skipped once, and continued. "... use it?"

He backtracked a bit verbally, quickly correcting himself again. "I-I-I mean if you know how and everything. N-not saying that you don't, but that's not something someone usually learns!" he offered a nervous chuckle, his heart doing another skip on that shirt of his. This one was big enough to cause a wince. Another yawn, but he didn't feel all that sleepy. As a matter of fact, he felt downright excited. The cause of his excitement was, of course, in Jadyr's hand. But his customer-of-the-moment probably had no idea.

"If... If you want... I could show you? That's something that I... er... they.... they teach, here. Medical stuff, important stuff and all. I could.... You know... teach you?"

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr was staring at Blacklight as though the boy had grown a second head, leaning away slightly as Blacklight leaned closer. That heart monitor was going nuts. Almost worried for the boy, Jadyr glanced at the gaudy stethoscope, then at Blacklight, raising his eyebrows. "Use?" he asked, almost tentative--this was too weird. "Like... like normal, right? Doctor's office shit? D-don't tell me people shove these up their asses or something," he stammered out, looking to be a mix of pale and flushed in the face. Finally, he handed the instrument over to Blacklight, figuring it was better than having the boy inching closer and closer. "Yeah, sure, whatever--show me. Just don't do anything weird," he muttered, glancing around nervously, his skin crawling. Something was off. Off. Off, but he couldn't put a finger on it. Well, now several things were off, but the room was still one of them. The other being this guy's weird stethoscope fetish, or whatever the hell was happening. He felt a little woozy--

God. Jadyr was gonna pop a cap in Tobias' head next time he saw him.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Blacklight grinned happily, and took the instrument, feeling along the length of the tubing, and marveling at the design. This was an electronic model of the brand he liked, so he was a bit... weirded out by that. But he didn't really let that get to him. He inched over a bit to Jadyr, and settled on his knees, showing him the instrument.

"Okay... so... these are the earpieces." he explained, showing them off. "This model is an electronic model, so you see this small box here where the pieces meet? That's where it puts recordings. This one doesn't have a chip in it, so you'd have to buy one to record, but..." he inched a bit closer, and his arm brushed Jadyr's. "Okay, so this end..." he showed him the chestpiece, an odd-looking rounded thing with a digital display in blue. "This end is what you press to the skin to listen. Electronic stethoscopes are really good with the sound-quality."

He passed the instrument to Jadyr, and smiled a bit. His heart was still racing very, very fast. Skipping every so often. Or at least he meant to pass it to him. His eyes froze open for a second as his heart skipped hard, then they slowly drooped closed on him... and his body sort of slumped over at the same time, overbalancing him, and winding up putting him face-up on the floor. He'd gone sheet-pale, and that shirt was still registering a skipping heartbeat.

[zapdragon555]

Oh. Well... this was... far more innocent than Jadyr had imagined. He blinked wide-eyed as Blacklight began to rattle off all manner of facts and details about the stethoscope. Jadyr listened in stunned silence, frankly just confused and unsettled and... oddly entertained by the boy's excitement. It was sort of cute, he supposed. In like, an objective way.

Yeah.

Oh--fuck, what?! Jadyr jumped with a startled noise as Blacklight swooned and fell forward, and he reached his hands out, hovering them over the fallen boy's body before making a decision. He grabbed the boy's shirt and easily hoisted him up--wow he was lightweight, huh--back onto the bed, eyes filling with instinctual worry. "Hey, man! Hey, you alright? Black--uh, Blacklight? Yeah? God, that can't be your real fuckin' name," he muttered, wincing at the ghostly pale skin on the boy's face, at the half-lidded rolled back eyes... this was bad. At least the heart monitor was still going. Alright, alright... he could... just leave the guy in there. No problems, no one saw anything, no big deal--or he could tell someone on his way out that one of their dancers had collapsed. Yeah, that might work, but then people would ask Jadyr questions... and would know he was even in a back room with another guy...

Another wave of dizziness came over him, and Jadyr's eyes flicked to the stethoscope on the floor. He propped Blacklight up against the wall and leaned down to pick up the instrument, and when he sat back up he felt a headrush come over him. There was... something... off... Jadyr felt blackness prickle the edges of his vision, and finally, as his head spun and he fell sideways onto the bed with the stethoscope in his hands, he seemed to realize exactly what he was smelling behind the blanket of alcohol and sweat.

Knockout gas. That was genuine, bonafide knockout gas.

Shit.