Hearing the shift in tone and seeing the attitude change in her partner, Alana took a turn and as she stepped, gently scooped up the following Jian into 'his' powerful noble arms, continuing their strides towards the Cat House. In truth, it might almost be best this way, as with the crowds there was no telling if they could be seperated, and all it took was a single second of being apart and the curse could see them suddenly on different streets or even different areas of town. Jian could feel the false 'strength' of the scoop, gentle and easily slipped from if she cared to, and the sudden seriousness in the 'man's' voice let her know the woman beneath the shifted flesh was being as serious as she had ever seen her.<br/><br/><strong>"Forgive the wording... allow me to explain... I am a demon, daughter of a demon, and manipulator of mankind. I lie and deceive humanity. A lot. This job has required me, in my many years living here, to pretend and deceive and manipulate to all manners of degree. You are not my slave. For one, I couldn't afford it. Second, you're my partner. And thirdly, I have no doubt when the time comes that we need to infiltrate say, the mage guild, I will have to pretend to be your... attendant, consort, servant, slave, or however humanity wishes to phrase it... damnit to the hells, we need to invest in a telepathy circlet for the two of us..."</strong>she remarks as she dodges a group of oncoming half-orcs shoving their way through the crowd.<br/><br/><strong>"The intended goal is to have you play the subservient 'pay no attention to my attending consort and look at me' angle, so that while I'm putting on a show,  you're free to use all your subtle spellcasting and tricks to help us find this woman. I'll be looking too, but the last thing we want to do is walk in there flashing the Protector's heraldry and acting official, she'll be gone before we even see her."</strong>'she' lets out a soft sigh, apparently the quick and low-volumed conversation was taking a bit out of her breath.<br/><br/><strong>"In short, this is an act. You'll need to trust me. You are not a slave, you are not in bondage, I'm not renting you out to anyone, and the worst 'treatment' you'll have gotten is a swat on the butt. At no point am I going to tell you to do anything that isn't explicitly related to this investigation. We're partners. Sometimes I've got to play the top, and othertimes you'll play the top. It's in my best interests to treat my partner well, or you might humiliate me worse later."</strong>the man's beautiful eyes turn to give her a wink as they round another corner, a smile at his lips.<br/><br/><strong>"And if you really don't want to play attendant, I could do this one alone and you could go to the bar, but that means we'll both be lacking backup."</strong>she notes, letting her arms slacken and letting her get her own stride once again.<strong>"And I would much rather have you there with me. There's no telling what backup she has, after all."</strong>