The next day, Ravina would discover that her new role as the cursed maiden was now more cemented as a second costume came in a box.

That alone should have warned Ravina as Chinatsu placed it on the dressing-room table.

Victor floated immediately closer. “What is this?”

“Uh oh….”

Victor looked at Ravina. “You haven't opened it.”

“I’ve got an idea....”

Chinatsu smiled. “Such faith.”

“That is not faith.”

Ravina lifted the lid. Black, purple and deep magenta.

Her expression changed. “…Oh.”

Victor gasped in awe.

The new uniform kept the same general shrine-maiden silhouette, but apparently somebody had decided innocence was no longer part of the assignment.

Dark fabric wrapped across the chest and waist. The detached sleeves were wider and almost black, edged with vivid red-purple stitching. The skirt was short, layered and asymmetrical enough to look more like stagewear than anything remotely ceremonial.

The stockings matched as did the sandals.

Then Ravina found the ears. Large, purple and sharp enough to look almost spectral.

Victor floated closer. “Yes.”

Ravina picked up the tail. Lavender fading toward luminous pink at the tip, fluffy enough that it could probably occupy its own chair.

Ravina stared. “This is excessive.”

Victor whispered: “Magnificent.”

Chinatsu took a slow draw from her pipe. “The customers liked the haunting.”

“So you made me goth.”

“I refined the presentation.”

“You made me goth.”

“Purple.”

“Ghost goth.”

Victor drifted around her. “Spectral attendant.”

“No.”

“Cursed priestess.”

“No.”

“Bride of the…”

“Absolutely not.”

Chinatsu smiled. “Cursed shrine maiden seems to be what the floor staff settled on.”

Victor froze, then slowly turned toward Ravina. “My muse.”

“Don't.”

“We have branding.”

“We have a problem.”

Chinatsu tapped the tail with the stem of her pipe. “There is also the matter of attachment.”

Ravina went still and Victor looked between them. “Attachment?”

“what?.”

Chinatsu's smile became unbearable. “You complained that the previous tail shifted while you worked.”

“I did.”

“And before that, I distinctly recall someone suggesting that a more secure fitting might…”

Ravina's face heated. “I remember what I said.”

“Good.”

Chinatsu opened a smaller compartment inside the box.

Ravina stared at it and Victor leaned in.

“Oh.”

Ravina immediately pointed at him.

“You don't even know what that is.”

“I understand the context.”

“That is somehow worse.”

Chinatsu's voice remained completely professional. “The standard belt attachment is included.”

Ravina exhaled. “Good.”

“And the alternative is optional.”

Ravina stared. “Of course it is.”

“Entirely.” Chinatsu leaned against the table. “No change to your employment if you decline. No questions. No teasing afterward.”

Ravina raised an eyebrow. “No teasing?”

“About declining.”

“Important distinction.”

“Very.” Then Chinatsu added casually: “There would, however, be an additional performance bonus if you chose the theatrical option.”

Ravina narrowed her eyes. “What does ‘performance bonus’ mean in this sentence?”

Chinatsu produced a tiny remote control with a Silent smile.

Ravina looked between the remote and Chinatsu as Victor slowly rotated toward Ravina.

“Oh~.”

“Do not.”

Victor's grin was becoming enormous as Chinatsu continued with maddening serenity.

“Only if you explicitly permit it. You decide the limits before the shift begins. If you change your mind, it stops immediately.”

Ravina crossed her arms. “You've thought this through.”

“I run an adult establishment.”

“Right.”

“And I dislike ambiguity.”

That, annoyingly, was one of the reasons Ravina trusted her.

Victor floated beside Ravina's shoulder. “Think of the commitment to the role.”

Ravina looked at him. “You are supposed to be on my side.”

“I am.”

“This doesn't feel like it.”

“I am supporting your artistic development.”

“You discovered theatre approximately twelve hours ago.”

“I have always possessed theatre.”

Chinatsu quietly placed the remote on the table. “No pressure, darling.”

Ravina looked at it, then at the ridiculous spectral tail, at Victor, then back to Chinatsu.

She should have said no. This was clearly one of those moments where saying no would simplify her life enormously.

But Ravina picked up the remote and Chinatsu's eyebrows rose.

Ravina pointed it at her. “If I regret this…”

“You will be paid extra.”

“That is not what I was going to say.”

Victor spread his gas dramatically. “My muse embraces danger.”

“It's a work bonus, Victor.”

“A mercenary heroine!”

“Somehow worse.”

- - - - -

The first day established the routine.

The second established the problem.

Victor liked people. More specifically, Victor liked audiences.

He complimented adult patrons with wildly outdated sincerity, He praised jewelry, Hair, Posture, Voices. Once, he described a man's moustache as “a monument to conviction.”

The man tipped extra and Victor became unbearable.

But Ravina became better at directing him. 

“Table four.” Victor moved. 

“Quiet table.” He lowered his voice.

“Couple wants privacy.” He disappeared entirely.

“Back in five.” Exactly five minutes later: “Did you miss me?”

“No.”

“Cruel.”

Occasionally Ravina stopped halfway through writing an order as Her shoulders went rigid.

Across the room, Chinatsu raised her teacup and Ravina gave a quick glance at her.

Chinatsu smiled as Victor appeared beside Ravina.

“Remain strong.”

Ravina's smile toward the customer became dangerously fixed.

“I am going to put you in your ball.”

“I stand with you in this trial.”

“You are enjoying this.”

“Immensely.”

Despite her annoyance, Ravina noted that underneath the performance, Victor was observant. 

He caught discomfort quickly, Sometimes before she did, 

A patron would lean too far across a table. Victor would drift closer.

Someone would raise their voice. His grin would remain, but his eyes would change.

Chinatsu noticed this as well, of course she did.

- - - - -

It happened during the evening rush.

Not a regular, Ravina knew most of those now.

This man had come in with two others from somewhere out of town.

They were loud, but not drunk enough to excuse anything. Not that being drunk would.

Ravina delivered a tray and the man smiled at her. “You really have a tail?”

“Costume.”

“Shame.”

Ravina gave him a professional smile. “Anything else for the table?”

The man's hand moved toward the tail which Ravina moved away immediately.

“Don't touch that.”

He laughed. “It's just part of the costume.”

“I said no.”

He laughed. “Relax.”

Victor's vapor shifted behind her.

But Ravina didn't look at him. As the man reached again.

This time for her wrist.

Ravina moved first as she pulled free and his smile disappeared. 

“No.”

The table went quiet and the man frowned.

“I was just…”

“The lady removed your hand.”

Victor's voice was different, no flourish, no exaggerated tragedy, no performance.

Just cold.

Ravina looked toward him as Victor floated beside her shoulder. His eyes fixed on the man ans the room seemed darker around his gas.

“I am giving you,” Victor said softly, “the extraordinary privilege of doing the same.”

The man stared and Victor smiled. It was not his usual smile and Ravina understood, suddenly, that Victor could be frightening when he wanted to be.

Very frightening.

In a moment, a shadow appeared beside the table. An Umbreon. Another of Chinatsu’s personal pokemon that took the pavilions security very seriously as he silently aproached.

Then Chinatsu's voice: “Gentlemen.”

She approached without hurry, pipe in hand and the out-of-town patron turned.

Whatever he saw in Chinatsu's expression convinced him faster than Victor had and his hand returned to his own side of the table. “Sorry.”

Chinatsu smiled. “Wonderful.”

There was no anger in her voice. That was worse as one of the senior attendants appeared and the three men were quietly moved.

Not thrown out, not yet, but moved somewhere with considerably more supervision.

Ravina exhaled as Victor remained still and Chinatsu looked at him. “You did well, darling.”

Victor's expression softened slightly. “Thank you.”

“You also looked as though you were considering killing him.”

Victor paused. “…Several artistic possibilities occurred to me.”

Chinatsu nodded. “Consider fewer next time.”

Ravina made a noise halfway between a laugh and a cough. And Victor looked offended. “My restraint was exemplary.”

“It was adequate.”

Victor stared at Chinatsu, then bowed. “I accept the correction.”

Ravina blinked. “You listen to her?”

Victor turned. “Do you not?”

Ravina looked at Chinatsu.

Chinatsu smiled and Ravina sighed. “Touché.”

- - - - -

That night, Victor was quieter on the walk back. Not silent, never silent, but quieter and Ravina noticed. “You okay?”

Victor looked at her. “I am dead.”

“That wasn't what I meant.”

“I know.”

Cinder walked at Ravina's other side as Owlbert flew overhead and Victor glanced back toward the Pavilion. “He touched you after you told him not to.”

“Yes.”

“I disliked that.”

“I noticed.”

Victor's gas curled tighter around him as Ravina watched. “You don't have to kill people who annoy me.”

Victor considered. “What about severely inconvenience?”

“Define severely.”

“Emotionally memorable.”

“No.”

“Moderately memorable?”

“Victor.”

He sighed. “Your ethics are exhausting.”

Ravina smiled. “Get used to them.”

Victor looked at her, then at Cinder.

The Quilava was already looking at him. Victor's gaze lingered as something passed between them. Not in any body language that Ravina could read. But Cinder's flames did not rise and Victor drifted slightly lower. “Very well.”