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A Slippery Identity

Part 4

For Taiko

By Draconicon

The debauched events of the last twenty-four hours had finally come to an end, and Srosha, for one, demanded an explanation. The red-scaled naga was coiled up tight in the lobby of NABSC, his eyes narrowed on the gaudily-dressed badger and the undressed lion in front of him, looking between them.

"I have every right to kick Kaito out for this," the naga said. "From what you're saying, he's almost completely to blame."

"No, no, you're not listening to me," the badger groaned. "Just...take a step back."

"A step?"

"...Perhaps a slither. I apologize."

"Apology accepted," the naga muttered, nodding his head. "I will try to be...calm...about this..."

"Thank you. It's not Kaito's fault, no matter how it looks. Quite honestly, it's the fault of my friend, here."

As the badger nodded at the lion to his right, the naga coiled himself up all the tighter. It wasn't as fine a coiling as some of his brethren, considering that he was a bulkier snake than most of his species, but at least it was intimidating looking. As the landlord of the building, he needed to look at least a little respectable.

That respect was something that he felt that he'd lost over the years that he'd been running the place. Not because he was cruel or because he was ineffective, but because the rules that he made were constantly being flouted and he wasn't able to actually enforce them. All of his good intentions didn't matter when the people that were benefiting from them didn't listen to him.

This place was supposed to be temporary housing, he thought, looking up at the roof, imagining all the different bachelors that were occupying the apartments above. Temporary housing for gay men, where they could start learning how to love themselves, how to accept their own sexuality, and then move out into the rest of the world. That was how it was supposed to work.

And it had worked like that, for a while. The bachelors had been eager to start experimenting with each other once they realized that the whole place was a safe space to be themselves, to be a bit kinky, to just...be free. And Srosha had been more than happy to see them happy.

But then, things started to go very wrong. Nobody moved out after the first year of being tenants, and most of them were still living there after two. The people that had been the first to move in were among the most debauched of the population there, and they were flouting the rules about having sex in public, about inviting people into their place, about bringing people from outside in as roommates rather than just allowing the community to fulfill the partner role.

Kaito, as far as Srosha was concerned, was the worst of them. Oh, he wasn't the sort of tenant that would get aggressive about breaking the rules, but there was something about him that seemed to inspire all sort of deviant behavior in those that lived near him. His neighbors were constantly pulling contests to see who could do the most to him while he was sleepwalking, while the other floors kept trying to lure him up and down, seeing if they could get a turn.

And then there were the students that were causing problems, outsiders that had already gotten comfortable in their skin and were fucking around in the building. There was a never-ending series of orgies between the floors, and the whole grand goal of the place had just disappeared.

It hurt the naga. He wasn't going to lie about that. It actually hurt him to see all of his plans and good intentions going up in smoke. For all that it was meant to help people accept themselves and then return to the world to start spreading that good will out, NABSC seemed to have become a colony city in its own right, where people went to live and then never left. The only way that they ever moved out was when he was forced to evict them...or when he was able to find a good excuse.

And unless this Thimas gave him a good reason to keep Kaito around, he was going to evict the drake, excuse or no excuse. There had been too much trouble for him to stick around now.

The badger took a deep breath, then sat down on the floor, crossing his legs beneath him. He pulled out a small drum, putting it over his lap, the steel construction a rather foreign thing to the snake.

"What is that?" he asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"It's a hang drum. It's something to help me think, if you don't mind."

"...I don't. Just keep it quiet."

"Lovely," the lion muttered.

"Shush, you," the badger grunted. "You're the reason that this whole thing happened in the first place. You can just take it."

"It's annoying. It's all...tinkly-tinkly."

"That's my style. Now, shush."

The naked lion grumbled, but didn't say anything more. Srosha arched an eyebrow at the feline, looking between him and the badger.

"Are you two..."

"No," the badger said instantly.

"Fuck no," the lion added just as quickly.

"Just asking. I wasn't going to judge, but..."

Seeing the two of them shuddering, the lion almost gagging, it was clear that neither of them were in any way interested in being a couple. It was a rather funny sight, in a way, and would have made the naga laugh if he hadn't seen similar reactions from the different tenants in the building so far.

Just thinking about that made him feel down again, knowing that they'd be right back to the debauched way of life in a few days. Sure, they had been a bit more subdued lately, but that was only because Kaito had been on the warpath, being more assertive and demanding than he had ever been before. They had been eager to get out of his way, forcing themselves into the apartment buildings and locking the door rather than braving the hallways.

Srosha pulled himself in a bit tighter, dragging his coils over each other as he laid back on them, reclining as if he was on a throne of sorts. It was a move that he had learned to practice in front of people that were applying to move in, or with tenants that he actually could throw the book at. It was a bit more intimidating than with the average naga, due to all the muscles he had, and it was one of the few ways that he could maintain a bit of respect from the people living in his building.

"Proceed, then."

The soft ding-dings of the hang drum filled the lobby as the badger started playing, and despite himself, Srosha started sinking into the melody that they offered. They were different from the average percussion for being a bit warmer, a bit higher and softer to the ear, and he leaned back a bit more limply on his coils. Not much, but enough to feel more relaxed, more comfortable with himself.

The badger continued to play for nearly a minute, humming to himself as if he was considering his words, as if he was thinking things through. For his part, Srosha was rather happy about the way that someone finally seemed to be taking this sort of talk seriously rather than just offering their body up as a way to get out of trouble. It was a refreshing change, and one that he hoped that others would try in the future.

Finally, the badger started talking.

"Once, there was a careless lion. This lion was a fine soul, a brave soul, but he walked through life without a clue as to what he was doing."

"Mmmmph..."

The lion's grumble was just audible over the story that was being told, and Srosha sent a slight glare out of the corner of his eye to try and silence the feline. There was a deep, lovely tone to the badger's voice that he didn't want to have interrupted, and the lion was going to be a pain if he kept talking.

Whether it was his glare or the performance itself, the lion didn't repeat the sound. The badger continued.

"He wandered the lands, going from city to city with nothing but the guitar on his back and the music in his soul. He played and he played, gathering coin and gold, renown and recognition. Not always the good sort, either. Sometimes he would be chased from town, the authorities angry at the way that he flouted their laws, and bedded their women."

"And men," the lion muttered.

"Yes, I was getting to that," the badger grumbled. "And men. He ran and he ran, always one step ahead of those that would string him up or throw him in a jail cell. He was on the run, all the time, and he needed a rest.

"So, he came to Novus Ager, the shifting city, and he arrived at the home of a friend of a friend. A good drake by the name of Kaito let him in, and they hit it off. They became friends. And so, the lion did what he always did."

"He played music," Srosha guessed, surprised that it took so long for the words to come to him. There was something about the story that was almost making him feel a bit sleepy, a bit out of it. Yet, at the same time, he couldn't take his attention off the badger, almost like he was rather ensorcelled by him.

"Yes, he played music. Music that was powerfully loud, music that made it hard for the drake to think. One song after another blared through the night, thick and rich with the powerful chords that had gained him fame. The lion played again and again, encouraging the drake into further, deeper, darker hedonism than he had ever gone before, and the drake followed, unable to resist the lion's siren song."

Srosha could see the images in his mind as the story was told. He could see the naked lion leaning back on a couch, his guitar on his lap, the songs blaring through the night. Rock and roll, songs that he swore that he had heard from across the city, burning through the night and making the mind burn hotter with more and more deviant fantasies.

The naga's cocks started to poke free from their slit further down his body. Normally, he would have coiled a bit tighter, trying to hide it, but this time, he allowed them to release, to grow without being restrained. After all, the lion was already naked. Why not show off a little bit?

The naga leaned back a little, shuffling until his double dicks started to rise out over the top of the top coil, his eyes half hazy and glazed as he listened to the badger continue.

"But he paid the price. The great darkness in Kaito had been unleashed, and it demanded servants, toys, pets to play with. The lion fled from his imprisonment, casting aside his collar and distracting the drake with the other men that lived in the building. One visit after another went by, and every time, the drake was diverted to another man, another bit of prey, until there were none left to sacrifice."

The lion had been a bad boy, Srosha thought, looking out of the corner of his eye at this feline. The naked Gus looked back at him, the lion looking almost annoyed. Not quite fully there, but getting there, like there was something that was going unsaid. But what could there be, really, to mitigate something like this?

"And so, he reached out to the only person that could help him solve the situation before it got worse. He called out to the bard, the badger that had knowledge of music that nobody else did."

"Mmmph..."

The lion's grumbled complaint meant nothing to the naga. If anything, it only annoyed him a little bit, made him want to silence the lion so he could hear the story more fully. He slithered to the side, pulling the lion closer with the tip of his tail. Gradually, he started spinning around him, pulling the lion against his lower half, surrounding him in scaly bondage.

The more that he spun, the more the lion hissed, until he sounded like a tea kettle that was about to explode. Yet, there were no words of complaint, but rather a few sounds of grunts and excited mutters. There was even the start of an erection as Srosha pulled the lion deeper and deeper into his coils.

"They met the foe, named Kami, the dark side of Kaito that had been unleashed through the blaring music. They were forced to flee after the drake tried to take them both, but they returned with instruments of power, with music that would force the savage beast back into the darkness. They played and played, their songs echoing through the afternoon, until finally he was subdued, pushed down into the mind of the teacher once more.

"Now, they come to you, giving you the story of their exploits, in hopes that you will understand what happened and blame the proper person. Not Kaito, not the innocent drake, but the lion that you have coiled up against you."

The lion that...

Srosha had barely noticed what he was doing, but he had to admit, the feeling of the feline between his coils was a lovely sensation. Warm and soft, fuzzy and cuddly, the little cat was definitely something that he could see keeping just for the sake of staying warm. He pulled his tail a bit tighter around Gus, feeling the lion grunting beneath him from the pressure on all sides.

"I will...keep this one..."

"At least for now," the badger said as he unfolded his legs, grunting as he pulled himself to his feet. "You can keep him for a month or so, give him the chance to earn his redemption."

"Son...of...a...bitch," Gus grunted, each word almost spat out with precision.

"You could be here for a year. You'd have earned that, you know."

The pair of them were talking about something that the naga didn't entirely understand, despite the story, but he understood enough to know that Gus needed to learn a lesson. That was fine. He'd been waiting for the chance to teach someone a lesson for a long time.

Srosha pulled himself a bit tighter around the feline, cutting off further speech. He shifted his coils just enough for Gus's cock to slide between them, the silver metal of the piercing at the tip of his shaft showing through on the other side.

"What should...I do with him?"

"Use him as a coiling post, make the other people in the building use him, make sure that he doesn't get into trouble. Those will be fine."

"I can do that."

"Make sure that you keep an eye on him. He'll try and escape, and he'll need his guitar to do that."

"This...guitar?"

Srosha reached down to the instrument on the lion's back, clumsily pulling it free. The lion grumbled, his arms twitching as if to reach for it, but even if the naga hadn't been coiled up around him, it would have been impossible for him to grab it with such weak motions. It was like the lion was hypnotized.

Not that Srosha was, or at least, the naga didn't think he was. He had been hypnotized, as all nagas were to test out whether they had the ability, but this didn't feel like that. He was still thinking, still understanding, still doing things without being told to do them. He was still himself, and that was all that mattered.

The guitar was a fancy one, he had to admit. Nice and shiny, with steel chords that looked like they would outlast the guitar frame itself. He turned it around, holding it in his hands, and he lifted one to strum the strings.

Before he could, the badger grabbed him by the wrist, shaking his head rapidly.

"Uh, just...don't play it."

"Why not?"

"It's magical."

"Oh."

That made perfect sense. Srosha lowered his hand, shaking his head a few times as he imagined what he might have done. Probably not a good idea to play magical guitars in a building that was filled with deviant little sex freaks. Better to give them the chance to be better on their own.

He pulled the guitar over his shoulders, letting it lay on his back the way that it had laid on the lion's a moment ago. It was comfortable enough, though it was definitely a bit small for him. Gus glared back at him, even as the lion shifted back and forth in his coils enough to rub that fur against him...

And that butt back against his cocks. Srosha hissed softly in pleasure as he felt the tips of both starting to slide between the lion's rump cheeks, almost at that pucker before the lion abruptly stopped what he was doing.

"Don't..."

The coils tightened, pulling Gus closer to him, pushing those dicks back up against his pucker, nearly sliding inside. The lion gasped for breath, his eyes wide for a moment before calming down again. His cock, too, was hard as could be, and was definitely dripping enough to make it clear that he was enjoying himself to at least some degree. There was no questioning that he wanted to be wrapped up like a good little coil toy.

Thimas, on the other hand, had gathered up his stuff. He had pulled a pack around his shoulders, and he was in the process of bowing.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, a laundromat has the rest of my clothes, and I need to pick them up before the end of the day."

"You...gonna be okay?"

"I'll be fine. Just need some time to relax, and maybe visit a few old friends. They'll never believe that this just happened, but that'll be par for the course."

"I see...I wish you...luck."

"Just to be sure. Kaito will be left alone?"

"...Yes."

"And you won't annoy him, or threaten to kick him out again?"

"...No."

"Good. I just wanted to be sure."

The badger smiled, whistling to himself as he made his way around the naga. Srosha watched him the whole time, his eyes flicking along the wide-rumped badger's frame as he walked out the door.

Only when the sliding doors shut did the naga feel better about his departure. This whole thing had been strange, and while the story had explained what had happened, he felt better knowing that one of the strange people had left.

And as for the lion...

He looked down at the feline in his coils, at the gasping little guitarist that was still groaning, puffing, wheezing in the tight restrictions of the snake's tail. His eyes were rolling back slowly, but his cock seemed to be getting harder and harder as Srosha spun and twisted his body around. Bit by bit, the lion seemed to be settling into the snake's coils, unable to resist the pressure all around him, starting to grind forward, back, forward, back, his cock sliding between the scaly length of tail and his ass bumping against Srosha's cocks.

It was tempting to sit there, to have this private bit of fun in the middle of the lobby where nobody could see anything but the lion's perversions rather than his own. That said, he had an image to keep up, and that wouldn't happen if he was letting someone have their fun like this, right in public.

The naga uncoiled himself from the lion, pulling him along with the tip of his tail wrapped around the feline's waist. Gus was still hard as a rock, but at least he looked like he was being apprehended, pulled along by authority rather than just being a deviant on his own. Srosha slithered to one of the elevators, pushed a button, and waited.

"What...are you going...to do to me?" Gus managed to ask.

"Why are you...talking like...that?"

"You're doing...the same..."

"Oh..."

"That badger...ugh..."

"You mean...he's got us..."

"Hypnotized? Yes."

He realized that he was speaking slower, that he was having to fight to get the words out at any reasonable rate. It was some form of hypnosis, he was willing to grant, but that didn't mean that he was being controlled. He was just doing what he needed to do to make sure that the culprit of this whole mess was getting properly punished. That was all. He wasn't getting off on it, nor was he being made to do it...

Was he?

Srosha shook his head as the elevator dinged, the doors opening and the hallway revealed. There were a number of doors that were slightly open again, the different members of NABSC looking out as Srosha stepped free. He pulled the lion with him, grumbling under his breath.

At least this way, it's an outsider that's being punished. We have our in-house way of getting people satisfied rather than a constant influx of people from outside...

It wasn't much, but it was better than the overdue tenants having an endless stream of 'guests' rather than moving out, settling down, and being comfortable with themselves so that the next generation could learn how to have fun with themselves, too.

It wasn't perfect, but it was something. That was what Srosha told himself.

"Nnngh...can I at least...have my guitar back?" the lion asked as he was led along.

"No."

"But I need it..."

"To get away?"

"...Maybe?"

"Heh...The only person...in the whole building...who wants to leave...And the only person...I can't let..."

"What's wrong with...staying here?"

"Too many...people...Supposed to be...short term..."

"Why stay?"

"Sexual paradise, I guess..."

"That's a bummer."

"It is..."

"Where you...taking me?"

"Zebra."

It was getting harder to talk, but he didn't really need to, he supposed. He took the lion up to the final door at the end of the hall, knocking on it. The door immediately opened, and a wide-shouldered, bare-chested zebra opened it.

"Huh? What's up, Srosha?"

"Got a...friend for you."

"Mean the lion?"

Srosha nodded.

"Heh, always wondered what a pred's ass might feel like. Why don't you come in, kitty cat?"

"Long as you...don't call me...kitten."

"Heh, I can do that."

The zebra held the door open, allowing the lion to step inside, and then looked at the naga. There was a tilt to the equine's head, an unspoken invitation for the landlord to come in and join in the fun, but the naga declined. He waved at the zebra, and then let the door shut.

He had the guitar still, and he wondered where he was going to put it. Somewhere safe, he thought, though there weren't many of those in the building. Much as he hated to admit it, security at NABSC was something of a joke, and the whole building was in on it. No safes, no vaults, no real place to store valuables anywhere, not even in the basement.

The only real places to put stuff that mattered was with those powerful people that called the place home. Kaito, much as he didn't want to admit it, was one of those people, a drake that had a good position in the university and who was rather intimidating to look at, all things considered. That, plus most people didn't want to fuck with a drake in anything but the most literal sense, considering the magic that they were supposed to have.

But he wasn't going to put the guitar there. Gus would get to it later, and even if he didn't, he didn't want to put magic around someone that had been fucked with in the head. Srosha shook his head, slithering down the corridors as he tried to come up with a better alternative.

There weren't any open heroes or villains in the building, and he wasn't sure that he could trust the guitar to them, either. There were no cops, either, and he wasn't sure that would have been a good idea, either, considering that they might take it down to the station and start messing with it.

He pulled the guitar off his back, holding it in his hands. He imagined that he could feel the magic that was running through it, the power that the lion had used to blast Kaito into Kami, and then back again.

What do I do with you?

"Hey, hey!"

Srosha looked up, an eyebrow raised at the sudden shout. One of the other tenants, a tiger, was jogging down the hallway at him. He wore nothing but a pair of tight running shorts, shorts that showed off just about everything.

"Hey, Srosha, that guitar. Is that...is that what I think it is?"

"I don't know...what do you...think it is, Deacon?"

The tiger was already trying to grab it, and the naga had to pull it over his head, darting it this way and that. Thankfully, his reactions were normal-speed, even if his speech was slowed down. Deacon went so far as to jump for it before he finally gave up, grumbling.

"What...do you think...it is?"

"It's, uh, it's that magic guitar that the famous Gus uses, isn't it? It's epic! You can't do much unless you know how to play, but fucking hell, it's one of the most amazing musical artifacts in existence!"

"You know...him?"

"Yeah! I'm a super-fan. I want to be just like him. Well, not with the magic stuff, nobody can do that, but everything else? I wanna be like him."

Like a rock and roller. Like someone that was perpetually unfaithful. Someone that was trying to get tail or dick all the time.

Someone that was...true to himself, Srosha supposed. Someone that didn't care what anyone else thought, who went from place to place without fear...and tried to be the best him that he could be.

Heh...at least someone is...

Maybe keeping the lion around would be better than just punishing him. Maybe there was something Gus could show to the people living in NABSC, be the sort of person that would make them want to try and make their own journey.

"Where'd you get it?"

"Huh?" Srosha asked.

"Where did you get the guitar? Is Gus around? Is he in Novus Ager?"

"He's in the...building..."

"No way! Where is he?!"

"Back that...way. With Bob."

"The zebra got him first? Aw man, no fair."

"Well...gonna need a place...to stay. Maybe...make him an offer..."

"That would be fucking awesome!"

The tiger was off like a shot, running down the hall to the zebra's apartment. Srosha had no doubt that the equine and the feline would be in the middle of something hot and heavy, and he also had no doubts that the tiger would be more than happy to interrupt that in order to get the sort of hero worship - in several ways - that he wanted to experience.

Shaking his head, the naga kept tight hold of the guitar. The more that he thought about it, the more he realized that holding onto it would be the best idea. No matter who he thought about giving it to in the building, there was some downside to it, some risk that they might take it and use it.

Sure, they would need to know how to play guitar, but that wasn't too hard to learn. Most people picked that up, or at least the basics, in a month or so at most. Going further than that wouldn't be necessary with a magic guitar backing you up...

He needed to keep an eye on it, and that meant keeping it on his person. Hopefully, he wouldn't need to keep it for too long. The last thing he wanted was for NABSC to start getting super attention, whether from villains or heroes. The place was hard enough to manage with just normal people in the building. He didn't need it to get more chaotic.

As he slithered down the hall, he realized that his dicks were still out. The naga blushed slightly, speeding up his slithering to the elevator. He was not following his own rules, and that was something that would be held against him if he was ever spotted doing it.

Down the elevator, back to his office. He coiled in front of his desk, wrapping around himself little by little. Srosha looked down at his computer, shaking his head as the security cameras around the building continued their vain attempt to keep track of what was going on. The constant shifting of the city affected the building layout, too, and there were days when the cameras jumped from the hallways to the bedrooms of different apartments, and sometimes right into a broom closet or into a shower.

There'd been more than one tenant that complained about a broken camera in their shower, and even of near electrocution.

Shaking his head, he clicked out of the program before he could see someone fucking. Tempting as it was to watch the shows that happened in the building, he wanted to keep to his own rules. Respect. Gentle, genuine respect for each other, allowing people the privacy to be what they wanted, as they wanted.

I just wish they'd learn to do it and get out, the tired naga thought. But maybe with Gus around, they'll see what it's like to have a life outside the building...to try new things...

He didn't know if he was fooling himself or not, but he could hope. He had to hope.

The End