“So now we can add a strip club to the list of places we had sex at,” Rave said as she put her pants back on, an endeavour that took a bit around her firm butt, as always.
“Was that on your bucket list?” John asked, handing tra her clothing out of his inventory. She clicked her tongue because it was more than she wanted and way more than she was fine with. However, they also needed to walk back after this, so she didn’t have a choice. For Aclysia, she already headed back to the table, on John’s wishes she was to engage Scarlett in so friendly conversation. That was both to keep this weirdly friendly conversation going and to check how her listening capabilities went.
The idea was quite simple. John and Aclysia had nurous conversations over the last few days, largely over the sa topics. With every conversation, John had added a few more details. For John that had been over the course of five days, for Scarlett it had been just one. If she had listened in on all of it, she would hopefully drop any hints in that direction. However, if she had only listened to so of it, and that was the way more interesting thing to find out, so of those things would be new to her.
It wasn’t the most waterproof trial, but it was a start.
“Let’s just say I am making a bucket list,” Rave winked once she finally wiggled her butt into her jeans. “I should’ve worn sothing stretchier.”
“Can’t wait for the sumr and to see you in a skirt again,” John provided his personal opinion.
“Tired of my butt? Jeans and yoga pants show that off way better,” his girlfriend reminded him and playfully tapped her own backside.
“That would be a cri against humanity, no, but you also have legs for days and I want to see those naked again.”
tra pulled her clothes a last ti and then they left the n’s stall as the group. “While we are on the bucket list, how about we have sex in the actual strip club, instead of just the toilet?”
“Way too public,” Rave denied the idea.
“You just had sex in a stall.”
“When will ya get it into your tal skull, Mat? People can know I am having sex, they are not supposed to see have it.”
“That’s why you are no fun.”
To the sound of friendly bickering, the trio returned to the table. It lay in awkward silence and John could only contribute to it as he sat down ever so slowly while watching Scarlett and Eliza.
“Don’t you like cherries?” Scarlett asked, delivering one on top of a pile of cream with the help of a spoon. Now John had no idea when the ice-cream had gotten there, but it was there. Eliza was also no longer on their side of the table but under Scarlett’s right arm. “Co on, open wide.”
John had a hunch and used Observe. “For heaven’s sake, Eliza,” he groaned when he saw that Scarlett’s all F’s had just turned into two F’s and a D- in Oral.
The blood mage blushed, which was rare in and of itself, opened her mouth, was then fed a cherry and whipped cream, swallowed that, and then finally answered. “I don’t fucking know what happened! First I just wanted to check her panties – which were gushing like the Niagara Falls by the way – then we got talking about so bullshit and suddenly I was pressing my face into her pubic hair covered cunt!”
“Which is neatly trimd, by the way,” Scarlett added while shovelling so more ice cream into Eliza’s mouth. The confused masochist just clicked out of the conversation at that point, having nothing but curses to add. Similarly, tra was laughing continuously from that point onwards. “Gotta say, little girl, you are better than my vibrator.”
“That still doesn’t answer how,” John drily stated.
“Like that Observe shit doesn’t tell you that I can be quite persuasive,” Scarlett pointed out. It was true that her Charisma was absurdly high. “Anyway, I just pointed out how degrading it would be to be used on a toilet by a virgin while reminding her that, if she really wanted to, she could break my spine with her little finger.” That was also true, her physical stats were barely above the average human. “Little Eliza here thusly was completely sure she was still in control, making her very vulnerable to suggestions, such as that you guys were having sex over there anyway, so why shouldn’t she have a little fun?”
“You know this doesn’t exactly bode well for you being a loyal mber of this harem,” John pointed out; he was not happy about any of this. “If it just takes 5 minutes with a woman pushing the right buttons for you to get on your knees.”
“Fair,” Eliza actually looked scolded and sad about the state of affairs. Even as she was further fed cherry ice cream, her mood didn’t visibly improve. “I swear to fucking god – if that’s what it takes – that I wouldn’t go any further than licking so hairy cunt though. I won’t touch a cock or anything like that.”
John did believe that at least, solely because of how ashad she looked of the situation and the fact that she actually swore it by that, in her opinion, fictional sky wizard. “Fine, but co back over here. She has ice cream, but I have an empty lap.”
In less than five seconds Eliza was right there, actually taking the best of both worlds by removing the ice from Scarlett’s possession. The blood mage giggled in a deranged way as John then took over the duty of transporting the cold sweetness into her mouth.
“Let’s resu whatever this is,” the Gar then said in a deep, demanding voice. ‘I think I can take control of the situation now,’ he thought as he analysed the mories of the conversation Scarlett and Aclysia had while he was gone.
Scarlett lit a new cigarette, took a sip of whiskey, then decided to say. “No, first you tell if that was really the best test you could co up with to probe my capabilities.” With that simple comnt she smashed the ball right back into his court. “Like I would fall for the old details trick.” She puffed out a cloud of smoke over the table with a dismissive expression on her face. “Fucking amateur.”
“It was the best I could co up with, given the tools at hand,” John defended himself. The mood finally swung out of the young adult horny flirting and into what was actually ant to be discussed here. “Not the best, I admit I am relatively new to all of this, but I wouldn’t say it was futile. You wouldn’t do the favour of telling whether or not you are omnipresent, would you?”
“I am not,” Scarlett mumbled into her cigarette.
“See, that’s why I needed to-“
“I an I am not omnipresent,” she interrupted him. “Not that I am not telling you.”
“…Why the hell are you so open about all of this?” John was just confused at every turn here.
“Because it makes you unsure about everything,” Scarlett said right into his face. “You are in such a kerfuffle with your own thoughts, trust, empathy and a latent sense of past betrayal all intermingling and creating nothing of value while I could sit here and rip you off so easily without sacrificing anything of value to because you also got the quintessential knowledge that can hurt – I exist.”
John’s hand clenched around the glass holding the ice cream at the ntion of the past betrayal. “What do you know?” he was no longer in the mood for any mind gas.
“Two things, that a person so good-willed he heals soone after flaying the skin off their arm for rely spying on him had a knife plunged into their back in the past,” Scarlett then nodded towards his hand, “and that sobody who causes cracks in a glass is unlikely to have fabricated such an event.”
John put the glass on the table with a smacking sound, parts of it fell off from the prophesized cracks running through it.
“Honestly surprised, must have cut really deep if that breaks your cool, you don’t strike as the easily angered type,” Scarlett continued on; her eyes were as calm as a water-cooled circuit running at normal capacity. Right now, he was giving her everything she wanted just by feeding her lots of information through his behaviour.
He took a deep breath and cald himself. “Okay, let’s turn this analysing shtick around again,” John declared, “although I won’t get as personal. The reason why you are being this honest without taking proper advantage of it is because you know how much I hate being spied on,” a small lipped smile appeared on Scarlett’s face, “and you don’t want to end up on my bad side.”
She raised the whisky holding hand and extended her index finger. “Correct,” the word still echoed in the removed corner of the larger room when she took a sip. “Is it working?”
“You are a good negotiator, great flirt, but also terrible at not getting on my nerves on this topic,” John gave her the desired feedback. “Currently, you just reminded why I should smash this table and give you to Siena for a short span of ti – Exactly the sa thing I did to that poor informant you ntioned earlier.”
Swirling her drink in complete cool, looking at the shadows that shifted anticipatingly under the table, Scarlett said nothing for a while. “But you won’t,” she finally stated.
“But I won’t,” he admitted and finally relaxed completely. Siena’s click of the tongue echoed in his mind. “Well, you have been working so hard to keep the reigns in this conversation, why don’t you tell why you ca forward with this eting. I assu it’s so I don’t go around asking the right questions?”
“To the wrong people, yes,” Scarlett told him. “If so backwards mob boss figures sothing out, I can just have him quietly removed, with you that is not an option, and you are the type of mind that would ask the whole city for clues. Can’t have anybody else figure out the truth in the process. I already have one enemy who knows, I don’t need the whole world to.”
“So, you figured, better have the talk from the start and maybe work sothing out,” John nodded to himself. “It also seems like you desperately wanted to flirt with .”
“Look at the mirror next ti you get out of bed and tell , if you were a horny woman with no one to do in her ivory tower, that you wouldn’t want to tap that,” Scarlett justified that behaviour. “Although I would have still t you here if you were a fat, ugly bastard with phimosis. You being a massive stud was just a cherry on top.”
“Uh-huh,” John raised an eyebrow. “What are we talking about then? What will you give to stay quiet?”
“Everything,” she answered straight-up. “My guild, my connection, my resources, my body. Whatever you need, Thorne will be your loyal vassal.” That was way too easy, there had to be a giant catch on this. “On a few conditions.” There it was. “You will help eradicate everyone else who knows about , you will keep this alliance secret until I give the OK, you will respect Thorne’s autonomy and I will have a seat on whatever governing body you install.”
Those all seed fair. “Before I agree to any of that,” John looked at Scarlett intensely. She didn’t strike him as a bad person, but she also spoke of removing disturbing elents with a coldness that only soone used to giving execution orders could. “What drives you?”
“That what drives everyone in this city: money and power,” Scarlett answered.
“How much money and what kind of power? Wielded for what purpose?”
Those questions only seed to amuse the bloodstained Technomancer. “As much as I can get and for those who can get more,” she answered. “You seem to look out for the little guy, right, John?”
“I try,” he told her.
“I find that weak,” Scarlett freely admitted. “The way you do it is less offensive to than pumping them full of my money so they can just leech off of is. Actually, just giving them tools to raise from the muck again is sothing I do myself.”
“Why did I find them desolate then?” John asked.
“Because they swore loyalty to you, not ,” Scarlett told him. “I am not running a charity. They better bring sothing to the table, and the only thing those fuck-ups have left is their bodies. That I can work with.”
“It took them one day to start constructing sothing.”
Scarlett closed her eyes, “That doesn’t sound like humans to . Do you an it took a few individuals of the mass one day to motivate them to construct sothing?” That was certainly another way to look at it. “Here is the thing, I don’t give a shit about any of these regular people. I am not a good person, I don’t want to be, I want to be successful, and for that I need people that are qualified. Everyone else? I won’t help them, but I won’t kill them either, they are on their own. As to what kind of power,” she opened her eyes again, different circuits danced inside, “with every cable plugged, with every advancent made, I grow more influential. In this modern age, I am pretty much a goddess and I fully intend to play my cards. You don’t strike as soone who will stop .”
“I will moderate you though,” John was blunt about that.
“Fine,” Scarlett shrugged. “I don’t like it, but as influential as I may beco, I won’t be powerful. Whenever you decide to end , that’s it.” Pure pragmatism reverberated in her voice. “So, I will sail with the tide, rather than struggle and waste my resources in the process.”
“That doesn’t sound like you will be the most trustworthy of vassals,” he pointed out.
She smirked knowingly, “A reason for you to keep pleasing is good for both of us. Anyway, this was fun,” she knocked on the table and got up. “I installed an app on your phone, it shows you when I am listening and you can also contact through it. Let’s talk soon, I never had phone sex before.” She put on her clothes and hat. Cigarette in her mouth she raised her hand in goodbye and soon thereafter vanished out the door.
“What a weird gal,” Rave comnted.
“Yeah,” he said, “but we can work with her – I hope.”
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