[Big Maul] Smack Talk (C 1.2, J 1.4)

Rich

This is the music playing over the AMC speakers:



Jet Black:

Esco talks you up, complimenting the show, your wicked brain, the jingle you'll all make, the artistic JOY, the powerful imagery. Laying it on thick, you only believe two thirds of it. And she's got your arm, and she's asking you to ding the song with her, for her, and hey, she's the diva. You gotta do it, amirite?

Then, you step through the gauzy curtain of a door that is the entrance to Mamma's. There, on the pillowy floor is Cache, on zir back, being serviced by a more than willing Mari.

What do you do?

(Reminder about Mamma's)

It looks like the Oracle's apartment in Matrix Reloaded was constructed out of children's furniture and scarves. Windows are covered in silk print tapestries. Album covers and unicorns and wizards and dragons. Pillows everywhere. It's a giant bed with a hot plate and a coffee pot.

Cache:

You're lying there, on your back, being fellated and felt expertly by Mari, you hoping to finish at some point, to let the floodgates open, for your body and your mind. She's desperate to please, to convince you to let her off, so to speak.

In the blurry haze of your vision, you see the ceiling mostly. But then, through the gauzy curtain door, you hear Jet Black, half-talking, half-singing while composing a tune. He enters with Esco on his arm. Esco has a big, evil grin at your predicament.

What do you do?

Niko

I'm thrusting into Mari's mouth, fingers deep in her hair, gripping her. Her gag reflex is the most impressive thing I've seen in a long fucking time. I'm trying to finish off so I can clear the blockage and open my mind. Just one orgasm should do it, but goddamn this is taking forever.

What's that bitch grinning about? Oh fuck, Jet's here. Hurry up, woman! If there's one thing I've lost since I came back, it's the ability to give a shit about social standards.

I Direct In-Brain Whisper to Esco, <<Wipe that fucking grin off your face.>>

Rich

Cache, let's see dice. I wanna see what happens with that!

Niko

(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 1, 3. Total: 6) In-Brain Whisper vs Esco

Rich

Esco lets go of your arm, Jet, reaching a hand up to her forehead. She stops in her tracks, wincing. "Whoah, is there some fuckin paint thinner or someshit in here?"

Cache, you don't know if she heard you, or what.

Esco sits down on the pillowy floor unceremoniously. Not quite a collapse, more of a finding the floor to sit really fast. She's holding her head in her hands now, closing her eyes firmly shut.

What do you do?

Niko

Whether she heard me or not, the desired effect was had, so, despite the frustration, I pull Mari's head back, take a shuddering deep breath, Jet, Mari has something she needs to tell you, I glance pointedly at Esco, In private.

Rich

Cache, you haven't finished. Are you going to, you know, stop?

You can't open your brain again until you do.

Niko

((Motherfucker. For now, yes. I've put it in the fiction, so I'll hold to it. I'm putting a bookmark in Mari))

Rich

Jet, Mari, who's currently on her hands and knees, her hair being pulled slightly by Cache, looks up at you. She's about to cry, it looks like.

And of course, Esco is falling out, too. Something's up with her head.

What do you do?

AsIf

My head pivots to watch Esco flop to the floor. It's the middle of the afternoon, we have a show to do in mere hours, and the entire population of the maul seems to be fucking wasted. My eyes take in everyone in the room one by one, then light back on Mamma, happily eating her hominey grits or whatever that fried stuff is.

I nod my head slowly in greeting and out of respect for the old woman. She's lived through a lot of shit herself, what with her six sons joining opposing gangs and killing each other off until the only one left was Sausage, now a retarded boy in grown man's body. Maybe she can relate. Certainly nobody else in this room seems functional.

"Afternoon, Mamma. I was wondering if you'd do me a favor and help spread the word through your connections? The AMC has a few openings and I'm looking for some quality people. I'm interviewing starting tomorrow for a bookkeeper and..." glance at Esco, who's sitting on the floor like a broken ragdoll, one tit hanging out of her dress... "two dancers: one for lead fem roles, good singing voice a must, and one for choreography."

[Aside: This is not a roll. I don't really care what her answer is. It is not intended to change anyone's behavior, but simply to drop a bomb.]

I'm not even looking at anyone else. I'm out the door in 2 seconds with a nod and a smile at Mamma, no matter what her answer is.

Niko

Can't say I expected that. Before Mari reacts, I pull her up, holding her against me, stroking her hair, "Stay here, baby, baby? Where'd that come from?

I turn to Esco, Come. Here.

Rich

Esco says from the floor in a bit of a panic, "I can't... I can't see anything, Jet. Something's bad wrong!"

AsIf

I hear Esco behind me as I leave Mamma's place. Make faux-shock eyes to an imaginary audience ("Dramatic justice, oh noes!") without skipping a step.

There's gotta be some talent in this maul. I'll find it. But tomorrow.

Rich

Cache , are you letting Mari off the hook here?

Jet, you're headed back to show prep, right? Want to skip ahead in a new scene?

Niko

I'd say she's been handled pretty definitively. So yeah, she's off the hook for this. Doesn't mean she's not in trouble...

Niko

"Esco, come to my voice" I hazard a glance back at Momma, relight the joint, and hand it to Mari, "Stay with me, lover, you'll be ok. I reach out my hand to Esco, touching her shoulder, "Come to us, you'll be fine."

Momma, can I get Esco some coffee?

Rich

Mari takes the joint, elated that she isn't telling Jet that she ruined the circus. She takes a hit off the joint, and sits back on her butt, just... relaxing into it.

You call to Esco, and she says slowly, like words aren't her specialty, "Cazzzsh... zomethin... faizzz nummm..." She moves to sit up, but her movements are labored, her face, you see now the right side of it has gone slack.

Niko

I tilt my head to one side, touch the slack side of Esco's face. I lift up on the droop, let it go, watch the skin and muscle deform into the slack, pure curiosity without an ounce of concern. I am not in the least bothered by this. I grab her under the arms, and drag her across the pillows to lie next to me, with Mari on the other side.

I snap my fingers in front of her face, wave my hand, Esco, can you see anything yet?

I look up from my examination, one hand on Mari's upper thigh, Momma, come check this out!

Rich

Esco, for her part, groans a bit when you unceremoniously drag her over to Mari. Mari looks over, and spurt-giggles, the bud and the night and maybe fragments of that kill-myself cocktail still buzzing in her head. Once Mari recovers her breath, she says to Esco, "You... look like shit, diva girl."

Mamma comes over when you beckon. She looks down, her mu-mu dress hanging off her body, She peers at Esco, "Cache," she says sharply after swallowing her last bite of breakfast, "Esco's fucked up. She better not shit on my floor!"

Niko

Hand still on Mari's thigh, I lightly smack Esco's slack-side, "You still in there, Esco? Squeeze Mari's thigh, fingers slipping further up, squeezing. "What do you think happened, Momma? What's it look like to you? Is Walgreen anywhere around?

Rich

Esco blinks a couple times. Her eyes are unfocused, open, but useless. She reacts to the slap, slowly, "Zzzin? Cazzsh? Za fukkin..."

Cache, I'm curious. Who's Walgreen?

Niko

((Walgreen is the closest thing to a medic or "angel" we've got in these parts, far as I know. Nobody established anyone medical yet, and it's unlikely we'd have lasted as long as we have without some form of medical staff. Obviously editable if necessary.))

"Well, fuck. Squeeze Mari's thigh, slide my hand up, graze her, lean in and kiss. "Apparently have to take care of this one, lover," I wink, take a drag from the spliff that is by this point a roach, and slip my arms around Esco's waist and back, leaning against her, supporting her, "Do you know where you are, Esco?

I pull in close, staring straight into those blind eyes, less than an inch from her face, and try pushing my thoughts into her brain.

In-Brain Puppet Strings vs Esco +1 xp

Rich

Mari's giggling at your touch, at Esco's predicament. She's getting blitzed again, she's cutting off the stresses of Esco's pain and focusing on herself.

Mamma answers you finally, "I dunno what's up with Esco. Never seen her this effed. Walgreens? Yeah, good idea. Better than here. Need help getting her up?"

Esco tries to answer you, Cache, to paw at you a little.

Niko

(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 1, 3. Total: 6)

Rich

On a miss, you inflict 1-harm (ap) upon your subject, to no benefit.

You push your thoughts forward, imagining going into Esco's head. You feel, all around those thoughts, her squiggling worm thoughts of fear and worry and pain. They all, altogether, shriek and pull away from you, retreating from the invader, the you-ness.

Esco's body seizes up, clinches. A guttural sound issues from her slack mouth. She is in your arms, since you pulled her close, and then, her whole body goes slack. She passes out. Gone. Bowels releasing gone, down for the count. KOed, maybe dying. Probably dying.

Mari falls back onto the pillowy bed-floor cackling. Mamma stands there, gawking, "Fuckshit, Cache! She's pissing the bed!"

What do you do?

Niko

I jump back, her layers of silk catching most of the waste, "Goddammit! the expletive more out of annoyance than concern, "I'll get you some new sheets, Momma. Help me get her to the med." I wrap her limp form to the neck in the spent sheets. They're a loss anyway, might as well get some final use out of them.

I turn to Mari, who's literally rolling with laughter, "Head upstairs. Our spot. I'll be there soon." Almost mechanically, I lean in, kiss her on the neck, fingers trailing along her thigh, and then I'm lifting the heavy end of Esco, waiting for Momma to take the legs.

Rich

Mamma begrudgingly helps you lift Esco. Mari recovers enough to nod when you tell her to go to the splicing room.

Let's skip ahead to Walgreen's. I'd imagine he'd set up at the little drugstore in the Maul, right? Even though it's on the edge of the Maul and subject to Breeze. How busy is this place? How's the stock? What's your relationship with Walgreen like?

Niko

Walgreen's was the first place Playboy took me after The Walk. My relationship with him is pretty much like his relationship with everyone-- congenial, but detached. He's basically trained as a field medic, and so isn't really up to the general practitioner shit.

Most of what he treats is injuries from the Breeze and fights, so he tends to run low on bandages, anesthetics, and pain killers. Other medication he's doing pretty well on. He's a good deal more spread out than would be an Angel, and he's not as effective, but he gets the job done. There are a couple people in the hallway outside-- what functions as his waiting room-- but most of the fallout from the last Breeze has cycled through already. When we burst through the door and deposit Esco on a stretcher, he's bandaging up Sakkio from the food court.

I step away from Esco, twitching. Standing there, next to her and Mamma, my head is still cocked at an angle, spine seemingly describing a parenthesis, right shoulder up, left down, ear on my shoulder, hands curved like scythes, "She fell down. Went blind and slack. No fucking clue."

Rich

Walgreen comes over, because well, diva, and hotness. Sakkio looks up miserably, but doesn't have the energy to complain.

After looking Esco over, asking you and Mamma some questions, he says, "Sounds like a stroke, but I gotta get her up to see. You let her go to sleep on you?" He asks like an accusation.

Mamma comes back with, "Bitch passed out! Pissed my bed, too, dammit."

Walgreen throws up his hand to shush her, then gets to work on waking Esco. He gently shakes her shoulders, taking care not to move her head. She wakes, does that thing where she's slur-talking, drools a bit, too.

Mamma makes like she's gonna take off. She mentions having to clean her place up, since it's overflow for the show and all. Do you let her?

Finally, Walgreen looks up to tell you, "I'm gonna need to keep her here. May need to drill a hole if her brain is swelling. I've got some painkillers, gonna need to keep her awake, and I can use the last bits of my diuretics. It won't be pretty. Cache, is Jet Black footing the bill, or is she gonna work this off?"

Niko

I wave Mamma off, she's free to go.

Head cocks to the left, spine follows suit, "She'll work it off," I staring at her face, following the curves of the collapse, the point where one side melts into the other. Well, at least it wasn't her *good* side. "You got this Walgreen? I've got to see... what I can do about helping with the Muzak... Before waiting for a response, I turn and walk out the door, heading to AMC.

Rich

Walgreen doesn't argue, with Esco "working it off" (do you know what that entails, or just heard rumors?) or with you leaving. He merely says, "Yeah. You'd just get in the way, no offense." Then he gets to work.

So you're helping with the Muzak? Or meeting back up with Mari? Or, you know, going to watch the show at the AMC or what?

Niko

I've heard rumors, but honestly couldn't give a fuck. Muzak not working means people being very paranoid, lots of chaos, and in general my life being made more annoying, so I really don't have a lot of choice in the matter. Besides, Mari wandering off to fuck knows where will interfere with my exploration, not to mention my crash space. No, I need these people here if for no other reason than it's a good idea to have a lot of people around. Safety in numbers mostly because one can disappear in a crowd.

In order to help with Muzak, I have to clear this block, which means getting off, which is something Mari is very good for. So I'm cutting through the crowd for the circus, hood up, head down, hunched and humming, up to the projection floor.

Rich

Sure, Cache, that's not a problem for you. With the excitement for the show, people flocking for the double-theater and all, nobody will pay you any mind. Well, maybe, just maybe somebody notices, but nobody stops you.

You come into the splicing room, see Mari, who is looking more composed than she's been all day, sitting on this table:


"You know, Cache," Mari says when you enter and close the door. "I really should be in tonight's show. I mean, since Jet Black doesn't know about the missing jingle... I could at least help him earn more back." She says it like she's offloading some guilt, like she expects you to order her to do something else.

Niko

((Yep, that's pretty much what they look like))

I step between her knees, sliding her skirt up as I go, "I think if you show Jet your face right now, he'll take it off. I unbuckle my skirt, let it drop, hips pressing against her, already hard and wet all at once, one hand on me, one hand at her clit, face centimeters from hers.

I open wide my mind, as much as it'll open, pushing into her in every sense, searching in the dark for the one light in the dust storm that'll lead me to the exit so I can do something about the encroaching chaos.

Rich

She edges back on the table, just inches back, well enough that you can't quite get an angle. Mari puts a hand on your chest, "Wait... wait, now. He doesn't know? Tell me he doesn't know. That shit he spewed about getting rid of me. That's just... diva talk." She looks more than a little worried. "Cache? I need that work. I need..." she doesn't finish, but you know what she needs.

You've got leverage, if you want to Seduce her. And then, there are strings, if you want to hurt her. She's not exactly refusing you, but she's smart enough to see your desire, and clear-headed enough to try and use it.

What do you do?

Niko

"I have no idea if he knows, but it's entirely likely he doesn't know I drop to my knees, lips against her thighs, kissing lightly between words, "But if you try and talk to him right now, after the explosion earlier, he'll probably fire you for real," continue kissing her thigh, hands at either knee, keeping her legs just open enough.

"Don't worry, you're not on your own with this. Esco's probably out of commission for serious, so there's that opening, too," tongue flicks out to graze the hinge of her leg, just outside her heat.

Seduce vs Mari +1xp

((I don't recall actually having a chance to do Puppet Strings with Mari. That last fumbled roll was my first time trying to use them. That's part of the point of this encounter, to get intimacy with her ))

Rich

Oh yes, true. I meant strings as in you could put strings on her (let's go with that).

Rich

Mari looks down at you between her shapely thighs. "Shame about Esco.... couldn't happen to a bitchier person. Didn't wish her harm, of course. Sorority among the artists and all..." She's running fingers through your hair now. "What's in it for me, Cache?"

Niko

"Well, if you can come up with some other reason the Circus is broke besides you, you could be the new lead, teeth graze inner thigh, hands keeping legs parted, "I doubt anyone else in this place has the kind of talent he needs, or the understanding of the shows. It's not like he'd have much of a choice re-hiring the most qualified performer."

I turn my head just slightly, my words breezing over her, "Besides, I know what happened, and Jet trusts me. I'd need a very, very good reason to not tell him what happened to his money, my irrationally long tongue flicks out, just barely, slowly grazes her lips through my grin.

((waiting for the go to roll bones. Definitely good with RPing out before knowing if it's mechanically successful))

Rich

This is a perfect time to see what the dice decide about this Seduction.

Niko

(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 6, 4. Total: 12)

Rich

Mari runs fingers over your left ear, across the ridge, down to flick the lobe, "I can give you a very good reason, Cache. We can be partners, you and me." She hitches up her dress, pulling her panties aside. Then, ever so slowly, she scoots herself forward, towards the edge of the table. "C'mon, baby," she says as she gives you her patented "come hither" eyes.

I assume you do the deed? If so, your "blockage" is clear. And with that Seduction roll, you don't necessarily have to live up to her desire for partnership.

Niko

I stand slow, bury my face in her hair, whispering against her ear, "Partners?" I position myself between her legs, "That sounds," press against her, "Lovely..." and slide home... [FTB]


Special Move +1xp


((Going to wait and see what the Deep Brain Scan tells me before deciding what to do next.))

Rich

Cache, you have to roll the Special Move on this one. Roll, and we'll see what she has to say.

Niko

(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 5, 2. Total: 9)

Rich

During those fleeting moments of shared passion, you open yourself to Mari, and hear one of her darkest secrets. Her mind whispers it to you while she rides out an orgasm, the words rushing forth out of her brain in a surge.

"Cache, darling. I tell you I want Jet Black's forgiveness, his acceptance, but its not what my heart truly craves. I yearn for DJ Francois to forgive me. I aborted his baby, he didn't want me to do it, I didn't tell anyone, just him. I thought he'd understand, but he wanted our child. I didn't. I just wanted to be free. He'll never take me back now, Cache. I'm adrift. And more, much more pain, because I hear her sometimes, in the Breeze. Shalla. I was going to name her Shalla, and she calls to me. My unborn baby calls to me, and I'll never make it right. No matter what I stick in my veins to numb it, its always there, on the edge of my vision, in the echoes of my hearing."

After some time, after you're both spent, Mari is lying on the table, worn out and resting lightly. Where are you? Did you lie with her, or leave her once you're done?

Niko

I'm with her, fingers tangling in her hair, at least for a while. My right hand is unconsciously stroking her belly. Pressing shadows. I pull in close, hand still on her belly, left hand under the back of her head, playing with her hair on the other side. I relax, let myself fade into her, finding an anchor point in her brain, and...

In-Brain Puppet Strings vs Mari +1xp

Niko

(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 4, 4. Total: 10)

Rich

Cache, what command do you plant inside of Mari's head, whether by choice or just... what your mind thinks to do?

Niko

((The command is this: Do not use drugs for two weeks.))

Rich

You feel it, Cache, slipping into the crevices of her mind. A compulsion, a drive. She receives it eagerly, a direction. She'll accept it, it will push her.

You realize, as you do this, without even meaning to do this, that its not so hard. Dangerous, not to you, but dangerous. You could do it to more people. Probably. If you can just get close to them.

After a rest together, cuddling, Mari asks quietly, "You wanna go watch the show tonight? Should be a blast, like always... I've never watched it before, now that I think about it."

Niko

I push the hair out of her face, cupping her cheek, "You go ahead. I've got something I need to take care of, and need to be alone for a while," stand up, gather my clothes, but only pull on my long coat.

If I can do this to others, then I can keep things... stable. Even standing away from her, I can feel her mind. Almost like a scent carried downwind... or down-Breeze. Without looking at her, without speaking, I whisper into her brain, <<Be safe. For Shalla.>>

Rich

Mari hitches a step when you whisper into her mind. Then, like maybe it was just her imagination, she continues on.

Where do you go, Cache? What else do you need to take care of?

Niko

I head to my closet, I need to head into the Maelstrom and see if I can palaver with Muzak. I'm satisfied with the results in Mari thus far, but I need to keep a close eye on her to see just how much a hold the suggestion has. I went after her strongest compulsion for a reason.

Rich

Sure Cache, what do you grab from your closet? You stay here in the splicing room?

When you head out for Muzak, you run into Hottopic on the ground floor, heading the same way, talking to Pickles, who is giving her some shit.

Please go here.