Jam night and Rye's love

The inside of the tavern was almost exactly what Dustin had expected. A small stage on which a quartet of aliens were producing some kind of fusion of styles that sounded vaguely like folk music, a bar serving a range of different brews - half of which Meli glanced at and shook her head before settling on something purple that tasted like a light ale for the four of them. The seating was soft, artificial leather or something similar, and a synthetic fire crackled in a fireplace nearby. In other words, it was cosy and Dustin found himself drifting into a reverie as he sat with Meli curled into his shoulder.

He wasn’t surprised that Rye was the first of the group to get up on stage. Almost as soon as they’d entered the pub the engineer had been eying the percussion setup; as soon as the drummer stepped away to get a drink she inserted herself into the group, seamlessly taking over before bringing the tempo up from a crooning shuffle to a lazy strut. As the other musicians got used to the Rabyth’s groove, a squat alien that looked rather like a turnip with trunk-like arms shuffled up with a heavy wood and stringed instrument. A moment later, a warm series of bass notes began to undulate alongside Rye’s drumming, turning the sound fully from folk to funk.

Emely was the next to join the band, shuffling out of her seat and walking towards the stage, raising her voice in a wordless song - all breathy notes and hushed pauses. The other patrons of the bar turned to look at the sudden change in sound, and the fox girl fanned her tails in response. Turning towards Dustin, her voice dipped into a questioning tone - pleading and asking in equal amounts. Not quite sure why he nodded in answer and the Feliax woman lowered the pitch of her voice. Shuffling backwards, she reached the edge of the drums before raising her song once more. Loud and clear it soared over the music as she dipped backwards, arching her back and raising one knee as she laid over the drums.

Rye moved her sticks without dropping a beat, adjusting so that Emely was in no danger of getting struck. For her part, the fox girl reached towards Rye, dragging one hand languorously down the Rabyth’s cheek before spinning back upright and switching gears, changing the song again so that it was now a rousing call to dance. Looking past Emely, Dustin could see Rye’s cheeks flaming and not entirely with the effort of drumming. A moment later he felt Meli stir next to him and she too joined the musicians; one of the higher pitched instrumentalists had bowed out and so the Velca’s instrument neatly filled the gap in the orchestration.

Dustin was content to just listen for some time, before his first love and his most recent reached the end of their song. As Rye hammered out a last few beats and the assembled audience burst into applause the two women bowed alongside the remaining musicians and stepped off the stage, sweat streaking their hair. Settling back down on the seating, Meli gave Dustin a gentle nudge. “Your turn now, li’ah’a. Show this place some Earth sounds, won’t you?” At his fiance’s request, he stood and retrieved the guitar he’d brought with him from it’s case. The instrument wasn’t the one he’d played for his women before - after practicing for a while he’d cobbled this one together from a speaker pack and one of the limited stock of electric instruments the Solar Ascent had in it’s hold.

Walking onto the stage, he strummed it lightly; the amplification humming gently under his fingertips. “Can you give me something a little faster Rye?” He said as he reached his bunny girl, before turning at her nod to the turnip-alien and seeking approval. The bassist gave a grin that nearly encircled it’s head before running a seven-fingered hand rapidly along the neck of it’s instrument, sending a pounding bassline out across the bar and gaining the attention of the crowd once more. Rye rolled her sticks across the drums, and Dustin felt the electric spark of a group of musicians coming together rising up around him. Keeping it simple, he half-bounced on his heels for a moment or two to get used to the tempo the rhythm section were setting before turning to the crowd with a squeal of electric chords.

When he staggered off the stage some time later, Meli was grinning and ready to hand him a glass of water which he downed in one. Sweat drenched his arms - he’d not played that energetically under the heat of stage lighting before and he was boiling. Rye too seemed done with playing - her replacement on percussion almost immediately clapping four sets of arms together in a syncopated beat before shifting away from the heavy rock that the Rabyth and human had played into something that Dustin would have called a Latin rhythm if the people playing it had been human.

Dropping into a seat, he gave a grunt of exhalation a moment later as Rye dropped heavily into his lap, one arm draping around his neck as she pulled him into a kiss. “That was fun Dusty!” she panted, leaning into him and grinning at the other two. Emely beamed back, and Meli smiled before raising one eyebrow as Rye’s free hand dipped down and dragged her bag over. “Now, Rye?” the Velca asked, to a contented sigh from the other woman. “Yea, I think so nerd. Grab another round of drinks for us while I explain this to Dusty would ya?” the bunny girl said, rummaging one handed through the things she’d brought with her.

Dustin wrapped his arms around the Rabyth woman earning a pleased hum and waited until at last she pulled two metal cylinders free, setting them carefully on the table before dropping her bag back on the floor. “Here we go. Alright, Dusty, so, you know how you’re Meli’s li’ah’a and Emmz’s patriarch? Well, this is kinda like that for me. First part of pairing, no pressure but it starts the process.” Dustin grinned, but true to form Rye’s social worries crept back in the instant she started to get serious. “If you decide you don’t want to, this bit can be undone really easily even though it’ll look permanent and if you don’t like it I understand and…” Falling back on an old favourite, Dustin silenced the rambling Rabyth with a kiss before gesturing to the tubes.

“So, how does this work?” For a moment Rye blinked as she got her thoughts back in track, then she answered his question with technobabble. “Well, there’s a biosynthetic adaptor with a monochromatic enzyme production chamber…” Before the bunny girl could completely glaze Dustin’s eyes over, Meli returned and set a tray of drinks down in front of the four of them. “Dustin isn’t talking about how your devices work Rye.” The Velca woman’s voice was warm but amused as she interrupted, adding “He’s curious about how this part of pairing works.”

The bunny girl blushed for a moment before putting her mental gears in order and starting again. “Right, thanks Meli. Sorry Dusty. Pairing is complex and has a whole bunch of ceremonies and rituals - for Rabyth, it’s a really big deal so the whole process takes months or even sometimes years to go through. And both partners have to be happy at each phase to move to the next; you can burn through some of them quickly or stretch them out over a long time. Anyway, they all start with the first step, the trading of promise marks.” Dustin glanced at the two tubes again. “I presume those are mark makers? And you want to do this here…?” He left the question hanging, the strangeness of starting what was effectively as he understood it a Rabyth marriage ceremony in a random pub on a random space station giving him pause for thought.

Rye shifted slightly in his lap before picking up the first of the cylinders. “Yes, they are. And yes, I want to do this here - it’s perfect. I never thought I’d be paired, and I am because of you, Dusty. Because you took me into space, to meet aliens, and into your family with Meli, and Emely, and all the others to come. Here, in a bar - the place my peers would spend hooking up all my life while I sat in a corner and ignored the world around me. Here, with aliens and in space, the place I found myself. And here, with our loves close to both of us. I love you, Dustin Smith of Earth.” For a moment, she paused, breathing heavily as the emotions of her announcement worked their way through her, then put the cylinder into his hand.

Dustin turned it over; it looked like a stamp, with an activator at the one end and a small network of needles on the other. “How does it…” he began, before Rye reached down and pulled up her top, revealing her golden fur-covered stomach. “Put it just below my belly button and press the activator, if you want me to be yours.” Rye said, staring at him rather seriously before adding “It’ll put in the first part of a series of… well, they end up basically like tattoos but right now it’ll just start the process, okay Dusty?” He nodded, set the device to her stomach, looked her in the eyes and tried to let all his feelings for the bunny girl show on his face as he pushed the button.

Rye gave a soft hiss of pain as the device went to work, humming softly in Dustin’s hand for a few seconds before stopping with a loud click. Before Dustin could glance down, Rye got his attention by holding out the other device - this time, instead of needles at one end it had an opening just the right size for his finger. “I thought this would be a nice touch. Meli helped - apparently humans exchange rings as part of their promise rites?” He didn’t hesitate, pushing his ring finger into the opening. “I’m yours Rye, just as I am Meli’s and Emely’s.” He said, hoping it was the right words. Judging by the sting of needles in his flesh and the happy tears forming in the corners of the Rabyth woman’s eyes it was.

With what was effectively their engagement announced, the other two insisted on toasting the pair, before Rye demanded a toast to Dustin and Meli, and then there was one to Emely and Rye, and Meli and Rye, and Emely and Dustin, and to new loves, and to family, and… Dustin staggered into the ambassadorial suite some time later lead by Rye who was supporting Meli with her other hand and had Emely draped over one shoulder. Not for the first time, he marvelled at the **** tolerance of the Rabyth - before wincing as the room whirled. “Wassa spessh… a speshiea… a good night, Rye?” He asked, his words slurring as he tried to focus. The bunny woman helped him down to the soft cool mattress gently, before laying Emely next to him and kissing them both on the forehead. “It was perfect, Dusty. Rest now.”

Dustin was dimly aware of Meli being helped down on the opposite side of him from Emely, before the bunny girl sank onto one of the sofa-forms that had risen from the floor. She seemed to be studying something on her abdomen, and he struggled to sit and focus. His vision wavered for a moment, before he managed to make out what she was looking at. Around her navel, a silvery-white against her golden fur and skin there now sat a heart-shaped mark. One matched by the band that now encircled his finger.