Post by Dollface on Oct 30, 2015 21:09:58 GMT -5
"What were you up to last night, Kelli?" Mark smiles, his teeth bright against his rich, dark skin. "I tried to find you for a few rounds of air hockey down in the staff lounge, but you didn't seem to be around. More Halloween parties?"
"Last night?"
Oh, nothing. Just a meeting with a presumed-dead historical figure, a magician's equally magical sister, and freaking FATE HIMSELF.
She shakes her head clear of the memory, offering Harris a vague sort of smile and wave of a perfectly manicured hand. "Just a bit of this and that. Had to work out some - can't get soft and squishy with this time in between matches, you know?"
"Sure, sure. Do you suppose they gave you that time off to prepare for your match?"
"Oh, this one? I dunno why they would..."
"Because it's Sadistic and Showtime... you gonna be okay? I know that Sadistic really got into your head and -"
Kelli's expression closes in an instant, her voice going flat at the reminder. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I gotta go, I've got to meet with someone here soon."
He nods, getting to his feet, worry clear in his gaze. "Need me to go with you?"
"Nah, it's alright." Kelli tosses him a cheerful wave and skips out the door, ruffled skirts fluttering as she goes. "Just meeting a friend for a few drinks."
Several hours worth of driving later and Kelli pulls out her phone to scroll through Facebook messages, finally lighting on the one that had sent her way up north to an apartment building owned by her "sister" but never occupied.
>> It's been forever since we've hung out and I'm only a mile away from you with you visiting up here. We should hang out tonight!
Orly? What did you have in mind? <<
>> Come pick me up at the cage tonight. We'll hang out. I'll bring the alcohol.
The cage? What is that, some kind of strip club? Sounds more like a hub for the local underground bondage scene, but I don't think this place HAS an underground bondage scene. Besides, he always struck me as pretty damn vanilla.
A few google searches later, and she had it, the address for "La Cage" located in Lewiston, Maine. Yelp had it listed as a restaurant, but if HE was there, chances are it sold mostly alcohol. A quick drive later and she pulls up in front of the establishment, nearly indistinguishable from the houses bracketing it on either side in a depressed area. Several moments pass, Kelli giving in to the asinine urge to fix her hair in the mirror and put on a little lipstick. Just a LITTLE lipstick, okay? And not even a sexy color or anything.
What the fuck, self. It's not like I'm into him or anything. Geez.
About ten minutes after she'd pulled up, she turned her attention from fiddling with the radio for the eighth time to her window - jerking back in surprise as she sees him prancing (yes, prancing) across the road towards her. That bit of recognition was all it took to gain him entry to her vehicle, while it took one of his trademark winning smiles to get her to stop by his car (inexplicably parked several streets away) to grab a used shopping bag full of tallboy beer cans.
"Natty Ice? Really?"
"Hey, it gets me drunk without me having to pay much. That's really all I ask in life. Gonna have to be extra drunk on Halloween, my friends want me to be a pirate hooker."
"Dude you SHOULD! I totally have a few things that would help with that, too!"
A bit of disturbingly not-at-all-awkward small talk about pirate hooker attire later and they arrive at her current base of operations - a small apartment on the worst end of a worse street. The burnt marshmallow fog of heroin smoke from one apartment clashing with the dank stench of enough marijuana to get even Cheech & Chong blazed, Kelli leads their escape into the comparative mercy of her apartment. Leading the way to the living room, she grabs her special "Survivor of Alcatraz" shotglass while her guest pulls a bottle of cheap vodka from his coat and sets it on the coffee table.
Seating himself, he cracks open a beer and watches her fiddle with the vodka for a moment, grabbing it to crack the seal himself and pouring her first shot. Watching her slug it back he grins, sipping at his beer.
"You know, not to sound like a bitch and blow my cover, but I prefer mixed drinks these days."
Trying not to gag on the I-might-as-well-have-drank-rubbing-alcohol vodka, she takes a massive swig of Mountain Dew (Gamer Fuel flavor, of course) and manages a brave sort of smile. "Well, you know. I figure all in balls out, right?"
"Yeah, but you can sip at a mixed drink. Too much pressure with shots, and you get fucked up too fast."
Kelli downs another shot, feeling the need to be a little more inebriated for the forthcoming conversation. She didn't have long to wait, her company taking his chance to speak while she reached for her fizzy chaser.
"So, since I'm thinking of coming back... tell me about Sadistic."
Her face twists as she takes another pull of the soda. "Why d'you wanna hear about him? He's all over the fan forums and stuff, shouldn't you be able to find whatever info you need there?"
He shrugs, unconcerned. "Sure I could, but I want to hear it from you. You've actually dealt with him, and I wanna know how the hell he's held onto that belt so damn long. Are you really expecting me to believe that NO ONE could pull it off him but Foley's denying any shenanigans?"
Another shot down and Kelli decides to stop for a bit, not just because the sudden swimming in her head reminded her that she hadn't really eaten anything that day. Drinking with this guy in particular on an empty stomach was not the single most intelligent decision she'd ever made. If one considers some of her other decisions, that's a pretty serious indictment.
"I um. I didn't eat today. I feel funny. Anyway, so yeah, you wanna hear about Sadistic? Well, he's a dick."
"I saw that match you have coming up, you and Showtime -"
Kelli squeals happily. "Oh my GOD, I KNOW! The Great Pumpkin match and it's for a pumpkin filled with candy so it's totally like a knock off of those "money in the bank" matches other places have only HELLO it's CANDY which is basically like the best thing ever only it's no disqualification and the Black Hand so THAT sucks but... yeah..."
He blinks, taking a sip of his beer while he processes the statement into actual information. "So how is it Sadistic stayed a champ so long?"
She scowls, annoyed. "I dunno, coz he's GOOD? I mean, yeah, seems like the deck was sorta stacked for him I guess, but still."
"Deck was stacked? How?"
"Well, the way I and a few others see it, his biggest threat at the time was Eira and Foley kept her away from him for the most part. They only got a single 1v1 match, but Gem got at least a couple. So that looks kinda screwed up to most people. Then you've got the thing where he was allowed to slap other talent around while NOT in the ring, but PCW security would haul their asses off rather than him. That was another Eira story."
Taking a studious drink of beer, he sets the can back down with a businesslike thunk. "To be fair, I think I did the same thing to Eira while I was there. The security thing. Seems like PCW has a hell of a blindspot when it's the World Champ that's the one having a hissy fit."
"Yeah, but Sadistic was the one you were asking about. Anyway... that's kind of it for now. I don't know how things are going to go with him."
"That's not it. Weren't you HELPING him?"
"Sure I was, but I thought that they had Q and were gonna kill him."
"Oh right, that. I told you, I'd missed a lot."
Kelli sits back in her chair, trying to look elegantly wasted but probably just succeeding with the second half. "Why do you wanna come back? Like this, no less? I thought you LIKED everyone hating you."
"No, it's just easier that way. You don't have to give a fuck when you WANT everyone to hate your guts. I'm over that phase, but I do need to see where things are at before I jump back in. So since we're here, tell me about Showtime. How the hell is he even a champion?"
"He's not all bad, you know."
"He's in the Black Hand."
Kelli rolls her eyes. "I meant his skill. He's a former World Champion, you know, he definitely knows what he's doing. Now HE has the International, Loki and NCM are scrabbling for the North American, and Eira is... well, I dunno. But Showtime at least has his shit together. He's even running for President!"
"I know what you meant, Kelli, but what I'm asking is how a member of the Black Hand who's proven to be so quintessten - quintexceptiona - TOTALLY beatable hasn't actually been beaten yet. As part of the Black Hand, shouldn't everybody be gunning for him?"
Her face falls as she remembers a brief conversation she'd had with him months ago. "I think he was trying to help me once. I couldn't really tell though, and Sadistic told me he was trying to trick me, so..."
"So he kept you away from the only person that had a snowball's chance in hell of helping you out of the Black Hand's influence?"
"I guess you could say that, but why would he even bother? Wait. Why would which bother? Who are we talking about?"
Kelli takes another shot, not even feeling the burn of the alcohol at this point, setting the glass down a bit harder than was strictly necessary but seriously the table looked way further away than it apparently was. Eyeing her pityingly, her guest can clearly see that she's just about geschtonkenflapped.
"You were about to tell me why Showtime would bother helping you. If he was in the Black Hand, who's to say he didn't want to just twist you a different way? From what I've learned from my seedy underbelly dwelling buddies, the Black Hand doesn't do this halvesies bullshit - you're either in or you're out. If you're in? Any slip ups like this and you just vanish."
"This conversation sucks. I'm getting blitzed and I'm too sober for this shit. Friend of mine told me to never mix weed and alcohol though..."
"Oh dude, no, it's awesome. I love mixing weed and alcohol, if I had any I'd totally spark us up."
Kelli grins, jumping to her feet. "I've totally got some. Plus I have a few things for that costume of yours!"
Heading into the clothes-bomb and giant mattress on the floor that served as her bedroom for this place, she rummages around in a few boxes, pulling out a couple items and hauling them into the living room with her. Tossing him a small tin with vintage My Little Ponies cavorting over its surface in pretty pastel colors, she pulls out swath of ivory cloth that shakes into form as a wench-style shirt.
"The weed's in the pony tin, pipe's in there too. Pack it up. Here's the shirt though! Check it out, it's PERFECT and it can totally go under this corset!"
She picks up the little bundle on the table, revealing a deep red damask corset with black detailing and black lacing.
"Plus I have a black lacy skirt you can use. Seriously, you will be the very prettiest pirate hooker at the party!"
"Nice. Very nice. You know, I wasn't gonna do it, but now I think I actually might."
Kelli sits back down, taking the full bowl and sparking it up. Puff puff pass, the only way to do things in a social situation. Another shot of vodka and a few hits later and Kelli is absolutely fucked right out her sparkly little tree.
"Soooo are you fucked up enough that I can ask you about Nathan now?"
Kelli giggles, shrugging. "Sure, why not? He's - well, he's mine. Like, Alexa thinks he wants her vag, but he doesn't. Not that anyone WOULD, the thing probably has fangs and drips venom. He was just using her to further his little plan against the Black Hand. Only now... now he's gone all fucking creepy."
"The man looks like the Mad Hatter gone terribly, terribly wrong - and you're telling me NOW he's creepy?"
"Well, now he's just mean. Like, he's gotten vicious and I even saw -" Her mouth snaps shut on the things she'd seen in Nathan's dressing room, certain that even this guy would draw the line on moving tattoos. He might even echo Nathan's sentiment that she was just too drugged up to keep her shit straight. He stares at her a moment, taking a hit and handing her the pipe back.
"I think that's about cashed out. Anyway - Nathan. What are your plans for him? Mean kind of isn't your thing in an ideal mate, is it?"
"Well no, but he's not mean." She shakes her head, grabbing said appendage as it feels as though it may come clean off her shoulders. "I mean, he IS mean, but he isn't mean on the inside, know what I mean?"
He eyes her. "No. No I really don't. You're REALLY fucked up."
"Well yeah, I TOLD you I don't usually do this! I can take all kinds of painkiller and neuropathic med side effects, but throw this kind of combo at me and I'm seriously just like WHOAH."
"Just like, huh? So you're gonna keep chasing Nathan, then?"
She nods, a dumb, lovesick smile on her face. "Yeah. Yeah I am. He's worth it, and I'm worth it. We deserve that kind of happiness."
"How are you going to fix him?"
She thinks about it, her chin lolling on her substantial chest as her eyes close.
"KELLI."
Jerking to with a start, she stares at him wide eyed. "I wasn't asleep! I was paying attention. I think I gotta go throw up now so I'll be right back alright?"
Making a beeline for the optimistically decorated but structurally ratty bathroom she dodges the coffee table, slamming the door closed and making it to the toilet just in time. A few face-purpling retches and several moments of panting later, she hears his voice from the living room.
"So hey this chick that I met the other night just texted me and wants to hangout."
Blinking from her prone position lovingly cuddling the toilet, she considers the concept of where they currently stood on the meter of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. "Dude it's like 11 at night, are you gonna get laid?"
Kelli listens for an answer, tracking his voice as it moves through the kitchen to the front door.
"I hope so, the fuck else would I go over there at 11 at night? I'm taking off now, okay? I'll get in touch with you about the costume!"
"Yeahhhh BOIEEEE, later yo! DRIVE HER LIKE YOU STOLE HER!"
Giggling as she finishes stripping down and clambers into the shower she sings to herself, turning the shower on and stepping under the surprisingly warm spray. Twisting her shoulders this way and that to warm up, she tips her head back to stare at the water stained ceiling, the giggles bubbling forth anew as she begins to sing to herself - changing just one name of the popular tune.
♪ ♫ "...I'll never smoke weed with Whitey again
My party's all over before it begins
You can pour me some Old Whiskey River my friend.
But I'll never smoke weed with Whitey again..." ♫ ♪