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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 9, 2009 0:46:04 GMT -5
Cherry's hand trembled as she tapped her cigarette into her overflowing car ashtray. She had smoked two and a half packs this morning, and it was hardly noon.
When she woke up this morning, threw open the frothy golden curtains to the window that overlooked the city, she noticed some sort of mild-to-medium panic erupting in the streets. Everyone was rushing around. Not the normal, Urban-Chimera rushing-- a kind of rushing associated with a large, lizard-like creature attacking a city. So, in proper flapper fashion, she finished applying her rouge, and ran downstairs to find out what exactly all the fuss was about.
She asked around, and everyone's answers varied somewhat, as they do when news travels by word of mouth, but the general consensus was something was wrong with The Edge or maybe humans, or maybe sleep itself and Nightmares or Dreams couldn't feed and it was basically time to wrap up loose ends now, or end up like Jacob Marley.
And so Cherry sat down on the curb outside her apartment building and smoked a whole pack of cigarettes without doing much more than thinking, breathing, and blinking in between each puff. Then, in that same calm, resigned manner, she fired up the old Model T and wove through traffic like a madwoman, to get to Cal's place.
The hand in her pocket gripped her box of matches like a security blanket while the other balanced a lit cigarette and knocked on the door at the same time. She hardly waited Cal to unlock the door all the way before she shoved her way in. "Have you heard? We're all goinna starve ta death. Let's fuck whiles we have the energy," she suggested, completely serious.
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Post by Jules on Jan 9, 2009 0:58:49 GMT -5
Calcifer was a bit tired. Scaring was hard for him now, but not impossible, so he regarded Cherry's reaction with amusement. He'd stashed some Fear away to sell, but of course he'd give her some free of charge. Watching the panic this morning had pleased him greatly. This was exactly the kind of atmosphere he loved.
And just look at the bonuses it yielded.
He cocked a brow and weighed the benefits of telling her she was going to be okay.
Pros: She wouldn't snap his head off when he told her after the fact.
Cons: No sex.
"Sounds good to me." He took her itsy little wrist in hand and slipped the book of matches from it before pulling her towards him. "When was the last time you fed?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 10, 2009 3:08:25 GMT -5
Cherry took the matchbook right back, returning it to its reassuring place in her pocket, before looping her arms around Cal's neck, pushing herself up on her tippytoes to try and correct their height difference. "I don't know. A while ago. I was goinna go yesterday, but I wound up talkin' to this broad for a long while, then I went home and dyed my hair. And then I was goinna go today, but we see what happened there. Oh well, doesn't matter much now."
She brought her lips to his, quite prepared for a nice, pre-apocalyptic roll in the hay, but a thought suddenly struck her. Unlooping her arms, she stepped back and regarded him curiously. "Why, you're very calm about this. When did you find out?"
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Post by Jules on Jan 10, 2009 3:37:08 GMT -5
He was about to kiss her but her silence llasted all of a second and she was off chattering again. He hadn't heard her voice in a while, he'd have to rebuild his immunity a bit. But she made up for it by kissing him, cutting off his intentions to offer her some fear. But that too was short lived and he sighed. Moving into the kitchen he pulled a jar out of his cupboard.
"Here. I always have some on hand." He said, bringing the Fear back to her. "I found out the other day." He said nonchalantly.
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 10, 2009 3:51:51 GMT -5
Cherry was astonished. She stared at him with pure, unadulterated admiration. "You're a wonder, Cal. Truly!" She held the jar to her chest as if she were afraid of it disappearing on her. "What-- How much do ya have stockpiled? Were you anticipatin' this or what?"
Curiosity piqued, Cherry forgot all about their previous plan, very intent to know simply every detail of when, how, where, why, and what he found out. "Why didn'cha call me up and tell me when ya found out? I came right over when I found out."
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Post by Jules on Jan 10, 2009 3:56:24 GMT -5
"I was pissed at you Cherry. I was going to feed you, but I didn't exactly want to talk to you." He grinned at her though, easy and laid-back, like the anger was all gone now that she was here. And he didn't particularly mind that she seemed to have forgotten the "Let's Fuck Now" goal since he had all the time in the world.
"Stockpiled, ya. I wasn't anticipating anything but days when I am hungry but also lazy. I have lots."
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 10, 2009 4:26:08 GMT -5
Cherry did not particularly like that answer. "What if I did not decide to come see you? What if I starved ta death in my apartment. Betcha'd feel real bad."
Cherry was quite small, and so, like a pixie, she didn't have much room for more than one emotion at a time. So, her guilt-trip passed rather quickly. "Say, 'bout how long do ya think yer supply'll last? I heard some people can still get in. Can ya still get in? I haven't tried, but I bet I can't."
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Post by Jules on Jan 10, 2009 4:29:22 GMT -5
"I can. It's hard, but I can. And we can sell it, Cherry. We'll make a fortune." His eyes practically turned to dollar signs as he thought about it. "And I would've seen you at the restaurant, silly. I wasn't going to let you starve."
He sighed and rolled his shoulders, "You'll probably want to take some to Brolly. With the shortage, the prisoners probably won't be first on the list to get fed."
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 10, 2009 5:06:24 GMT -5
"Not if I was too weak ta get there, and my door was locked," Cherry protested, rather half-heartedly. Sell it? Now, that was an idea that Cherry liked. A lot. "We can sell it. At the S an' N. And we can charge big bucks. See, I took an economics class once, sos I could make a realistic lookin' 'business account' sos that we looked legit, and I remember all this. If demand fer a certain product is real high-like, like Fear, since people don't want ta starve 'n' all, they'll pay out the nose fer it."
Cherry thoughtfully pulled her spare cigarette from behind her ear and struck a match. What seemed to be the end was actually beginning to have a very attractive spin to it, and Cherry felt very high on her horse indeed. "What are the odds, ya think, that the government's goinna step in, try to ration things out? It probably won't be very successful. And them snobby, rich-bitch types aren't goinna be too keen on gettin' hand-outs. Life-savin' kind or not."
This business venture was going to be excellent.
"That's swell of you, Cal. Most fellas wouldn't offer to provide for their girl's boyfriend," She muttered, clearly rather touched by the offer. "Ya figure the gaurd'll let me bring it to him? I can't exactly smuggle a jar in tucked into my garter. That's how I usually do it."
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Post by Jules on Jan 10, 2009 22:14:57 GMT -5
"That's what I was thinking, and it'd probably be easy to find someone to go in with us and provide Joy, then we'd really be rolling." He grinned at the thought. "There will be efforts to make things fair, but people will still starve. There's just not enough of us who can get through and are willing to play nice."
He winked at her. "We can even rebuild the basement at the restuarant, people with the money will want to escape the chaos, pretend everything is okay. We can do that for them, for a fee." It was very, very hard not to cackle.
"Use a flask." He said, finally, sounding a little bit grumpy.
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 16, 2009 0:49:34 GMT -5
"I don't know no Dreams. The only that I do are way too... ya know...'goodie' to go in with us. I'll look in our books though-- see if there's anyone who owes me a favor or two." Cherry wrote a mental note to crack open the ol' book-o'-favors and call in a few.
"You know. This is perfect, it's only natural right? We can't get in any trouble for it, I'm sure. Not that I really give a damn," Cherry said with a shrug, sidling up to Cal and planting a peck on his cheek. "Give me some time 'fore ya call up the re-modelers, though. I have some stuff in the basement that might cause me some grief if it was exposed." You know, the usual: old photos, stolen goods, maybe a body or two...
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Post by Jules on Jan 16, 2009 22:37:38 GMT -5
"We'll find someone. Dreams are quite often one hell of a lot nastier then us. They're just better at hiding it." He grinned and patted her head affectionately. He figured what she'd first come here for was out of the picture, but this was almost as exciting.
"They will be no law against it, but they might make one, or make it hard for us. We'll have to be careful. Hiding a few skeletons? I'll help."
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 16, 2009 23:40:04 GMT -5
"Rules only matter to those who follow 'em," Cherry declared, thrusting her shoulders back and tilting her chin up, the very model of low-brow snobbery.
She inventoried the incriminating evidence in the Straight and Narrow's basement quickly in her head, "Well, I hope they're skeletons by now. If they're still...ugh...juicy, I might not do so well."
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Post by Jules on Jan 16, 2009 23:47:17 GMT -5
Cal chuckled and chucked her under the chin. She was kind of adorable when she wasn't hacking up a lung. "No worries, it's easy to cremate, and then you just sweep 'em up." Besides, the smell of burned flesh was secretly one of his favorite perfumes.
"So now that the world's not going to end, I guess you're back to monogamy?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Jan 17, 2009 0:13:30 GMT -5
"Well," she said in a sigh, trying to figure out how, exactly, to phrase this. "The other day, I kinda decided that I-- Christ, I don't know how ta put this. I guess I want to 'date' ya. 'Date' doesn't seem quite right, but it's all I've got." Cherry paused, her cheeks darkening underneath the heavy rouge. She was not easily embarrassed, but she was certainly embarrassed now.
"The thing is, as soon as Broll's out, I've got ta leave ya, and we can never talk about it. Deal?" she asked, surprisingly not holding out a hand to 'shake on it'. Most everything was a business transaction in Cherry's head, a shady business, but business none-the-less.
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