Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - Rainbow Room IV: Acts of Desperation

[Karren Gaunt]

."She's your friend, so I suppose that's fair, Norman" the young metamorph answered, mind's eye still burning with the sheer transhuman crescendo of Chang's song after the rising duet of motion between her and Bombshell, shaking her head to clear it, "...But, yeah, right. Still up to putting those finishing touches on the project you showed me last time I was here? After last week..."

She chuckled and leaned into him, chorus humming with love as she rested her forehead on his, "My answer is 'yes'. Especially if you'll return the favor someday."

[WhiteRain]

Chang tried not to glower. Her wife would not allow it, of course. The darker Chang’s mood threatened to become, the more subtle strokes and touches she provided to keep her perked up. And Sakura wriggling into her body helped a lot.

She could feel a lot of muscles tensed around Sakura’s lower spinal region and still lower in her thighs. After a moment or two of consideration, she determined that Sakura was struggling with arousal. Now where did that come from?

“Are you alright, Sakura?” Chang asked. “Or is there something between you and Darrik that I ought to know about going forward? It seems our young friend wants to join the Teragen. I’m sceptical, but enthusiasm certainly counts for something. On the surface, he seems more like one of Narcosis’ lot than mine. How well do you know him?”

[z023]

Sakura flushed deeply, "I...we met at the palace in Kinshasa my first morning there." She paused just long enough for Chang to catch that she was thinking about what to say next - usually a good sign of mental editing or choosing ones words quite carefully. "I checked up on his wives....girlfriends, I'm not exactly sure where they stand on that. They women he lives with. Gwen is carrying twins, little girls. And Agatha is now carrying a boy. I helped them - helped Agatha, mostly - and made sure the children were okay and gave them some...survival traits, I suppose you would call them."

She flushed deeper, trying to keep her emotions, and so the effect she could have on a crowded, emotionally volatile club to as much of a minimum as she could. "There's nothing between us....nothing romantic. He...we..." She took a breath and started again, "There almost was. You know the....'aura', I've heard it being called....I can have. The way people can respond to me and the parts of myself that I can't control. It can go both ways, when the other person is....like him. Or just very...I don't know how to explain it well. Certain people, it's like they reflect that aura back, and I....have a hard time staying in control. Which means things can get out of hand very quickly if I can't pull myself out - or the other person can't."

She fidget more, the memory of what happened that afternoon after the disastrous breakfast having just such the effect on her that she was describing. "Darrik, he managed to pull back, to get away before we both did something we'd regret. He has a family. I don't...I don't. Not with families. Not unless everyone agrees." She sighed again, this time in frustration, her voice raising a little above its original clandestine whisper, "And they did, but Agatha, she was entirely enraptured by that stupid aura. It would have been rape, even if she didn't mind the next morning. She had no control to say no. And then there was the new baby and they've been spending time together to bond and adjust....and..."

She let her breath out, deflating against the Chang-couch. "And I'm pregnant, horny, whiny, and haven't gotten laid since that last night with Andre."

She took a moment to recollect herself from her little outburst and went back to answer Chang's question more coherently, "There's nothing going on between me and Darrik and I don't really know him that well, except to say that he loves Gwen and Agatha enough to overcome overwhelming instincts to stay true to them. Or at least to get their permission before dallying with others. Which he's obviously gotten. He seems nice. Naive about fatherhood, some, but all men are just as all women are about motherhood. He seems like he's becoming a good man and finding where he fits in his own life and a little bit in the world. As for being more like you or like Narcosis, I don't really know her except from her reputation. He is very sexual and he seems to like to party, at least tonight, but he's not some uncontrolled hedonist either. I don't know if he's any sort of artist, though."

[Maia]

The experience on the Dancefloor left Maia emotionally drained, She'd gone through some of her earliest memories, and some of her latest, The Song, the dance, even with what she could handle, it had surpassed it. She retreated from the Floor, looking around for her various siblings.

Jason was easy to spot, and Morri was headed to the dance floor with a nova She recognized as the Utopian, Wendigo. "Please do not piss her off, please, please, please." Her voice was so soft, she almost couldn't hear it herself. She spied Cora and Norman, but with her on his lap, Maia's apology would have to wait.

She moved towards the seating at one side of the room, found an unoccupied chair and took a seat, taking a moment to collect herself, and make sure Morri would be alright. She still wished to talk to Harmonic, but that too could wait for now.

[WhiteRain]

Sakura’s insights supported Chang’s own observations. She had certainly not forgotten Darrik ‘unleashing’ himself on her that night a few weeks ago. Were there any in the world as beautiful as him? Some were comparable, of course, but she wondered if any were quite as desirable. Jason Bellefleur was the mark for such. Some were beautiful but not desirable. Chang herself had been described as such in the past.

Jason, Darrik, a few others maybe, were desirable. Sakura fell into that category too, but there was something different about her. Darrik made her want to wrap him in silks and test his physical limits again and again. Sakura… oh there was an element of that, but Chang’s feelings towards her felt more like they did towards the usual ‘beautiful nova’ that she might lay eyes on.

A trophy fuck, Chang thought. That’s what it would be. Something to achieve, have, and show off but never share with anyone. It made her feel a little unclean. She knew she was better than that. What a burden, to mean so well, yet to inspire the worst in those around you by the mere fact of your existence.

It was an exaggeration, she thought. Yet the way Sakura talked of her past seemed to suggest that her pheromones had that effect at times.

“Darrik is enthusiastic, which counts for something. It will take time to see if he belongs. My people are creators first and foremost. Even The Alchemist – who by her own admission loves the dance floor – would rather be in the backroom working on her latest photographs. She specializes in what you might call technological art forms. Photography, film, even completely synthesized music. If she’s in the mood she’ll go on the dance floor, but as she’s grown and come closer and closer to a plateau, the more she disdains even dancing with other Terats. The last time we booked a dance floor for an in-crowd shindig, she slit her wrists and sprayed wine mid-dance. It did not go too well. Admittedly that was a rash thing to do, but still. That’s Cyndi for you.”

Lucrezia began to touch Sakura tentatively, seeking out her tense places to caress them. “You don’t mind, do you?” She said, her bodies still in their latex seeming, shining under the club lights. “I just… I need to touch you. Just a little. I’m not like her,” she said, nodding at Chang. “But oh wait, she doesn’t need to touch you, does she?”

Chang smiled smugly. “I wonder at times how people can criticize my choice to mimic furniture. Or maybe I shouldn’t. The world is full of fools, and it’s inevitable that some of them will erupt.”

[z023]

Sakura gave out a groan of appreciation as Lucrezia hesitantly began to massage her shoulders, feeling the knots of tension there and along her neck where Sakura carried the most of her tension. "You can do that however long you like," she breathed, rolling onto her stomach to give Lucrezia access to her entire back.

She frowned as Chang's words caught with her, "Was Cyndi - the Alchemist? - was she okay? Does she heal really fast? And has wine for blood?" Chang could feel her smile against the "fabric" of her couch, "That's just what we need. Drunk vampires." She giggled and then couldn't stop. Chang's song had put her through an emotional rollercoaster, and that on top the hormones from her pregnancy that no matter how hard she tried to balance out to keep her from going the normal sort pregnancy crazy still managed to have her running waves of elation and melancholy on a daily basis had left her emotionally wrung out. The image of drunken Dracula's was just too much; her entire body was caught up in the giggles, shaking from the emotional release. "I-I'm sor-sorry, it'ss ju-just so funny. Drunk Dracula." She snorted, her voice coming out in a string of giggles and a high-pitched manic rush. "The new MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Draculas. No drinking and flying. You end up badger-bat and run into walls and trees. Not like car crashes, which are bad, just really really embarrassing. Which might be worse for a vampire. They're already dead right?"

[WhiteRain]

“I do tricks, too,” Lucrezia purred. As she rubbed Sakura’s body, her body softened and began to melt onto her. She poured under Sakura’s dress and began to cling and press all over her body, seeking out all of those points which were tense and coagulating there in thicker amounts to apply more pressure.

Chang observed; her ears were all for the queer creaking noises that Lucrezia’s body always made when she assumed this form. She resisted the arousal that they stirred in her. Her erection had an unfortunate habit of putting a shadow over polite conversation.

“It depends on the literature and the particular vampire myth you’re dealing with, but broadly speaking they do tend to be dead. As for Cyndi, oh yes she was perfectly fine. Of course, she can come back from the dead so that’s neither here nor there,” Chang said, luxuriating in the feeling of Sakura’s body wriggling against her sofa-self. “She commits suicide from time to time, she’s severely bipolar. It’s… alarming,” Chang said.

“Last time, I returned to her apartment in Ibiza only to find her body all stretched out and serpentine, a bit like mine. She’s not in the same universe as me but she can easily stretch on top of most buildings. There she was, speared at each wrist and ankle and neck and heart, and one through each eye. It was horrible,” Chang said, frowning. “We were puzzled, too, we had no idea how she’d done it. We took all the spears out and hoped. Seven days passed, and we were sure she was gone for good. Then one day she flowed up the steps from the morgue, a river of blood and liquid flesh, reformed and said she felt fantastic and inspired.”

Chang laced her fingers beneath her chin, now firmly lost in remembrance. “She’s seen death, Sakura. Something even I cannot claim, and she’s come back to share what she saw. She’s actually a musician, too, though that’s a side project. A lot of her work is based around visual arts and she’s very adept with death metaphors.”

Sakura raised her head. “That’s horrible. How did she do it?”

“Mm? Oh. She didn’t,” Chang laughed, though the story was not very funny. “Turns out she had been baiting a Nova serial killer for over a year and set herself up to be his next victim. She said they put together an arrangement: he needed to kill, sometimes she needed to die. She thought it could be the basis of a beautiful friendship.”

“What happened?”

“The idiot got himself caught by Project Utopia. He died in Bahrain. Not that I shed a tear. Oh, it’s part of her self-expression but… well, she’s a friend and one of my most promising students. I’m always afraid that the next time will be the last time.”

Sakura put her head back down, groaning as Lucrezia continued to ripple and stroke her body. “That’s strange. And she bleeds wine?”

“She bleeds whatever she likes. She can turn all of her bodily fluids into whatever compounds she desires. Liquid metals, acid, drugs, you name it, she can do it. And she can make Nova-strength alcohol. One kiss, a taste of you, and she can make something tailored to cut right through your physiology and get you legitimately drunk. Narcosis was rather upset when I stole her away,” Chang said, smiling her mysterious smile. “She preferred Cyndi as the – ahem – life of the party.”

[z023]

Sakura started as Lucrezia oozed around her like a skin-tight blanket, but that full body massage was simply to divine for her to even think about protesting. Cyndi sounded interesting...and sad. It calmed her own rising hysteria as her mind tugged and teased at the issue.

"Is it just bi-polar? I mean, it's not from being a nova, just something she has?" She frowned again, "And if she can make whatever she wants tailored to a specific nova, why doesn't she make herself mood-stabilizers for when she starts to feel bad? I mean...what happens if she can't come back at some point?"

It was classically Sakura: trying to find a solution to any pain or sadness she could.

[WhiteRain]

“Such is not for me to say,” Chang said. “Suffice it to say that I’ve made those suggestions myself and been rebuffed. Cyndi had the affliction even as a baseline but it has become part of her quantum signature. Perhaps you can ask her about it yourself. She used to be a witch, you know, a Wiccan. I believe she still is, actually, though her rituals have taken on a rather different form. You may have seen her, she’s extremely popular in the ‘goth’ subculture. Always was one, and now she’s a Nova one.”

Chang studied Lucrezia oozing about under Sakura’s dress, causing it to ripple and move in unnatural ways. She knew how that felt well enough.

One of the other Lucrezias crawled over to her on hands and knees. She gave Sakura a kiss on the cheek, and slid her long, long tongue out to lick over the back of her neck before flicking back into her mouth. “I can be your dress tonight, if you like. My wife does furniture… I do clothes. She wears me sometimes, you know. Everyone thinks it’s always her hair, but it’s me sometimes. We often do it after arguments. Just to re-bond, you know? Show we still trust and love each other.” She nuzzled Sakura’s cheek. “I’m not quite as comfortable as she is, but I’m pretty damn close.”

Chang nodded. “She’s not lying. As for what happens if she can’t come back?” She looked out over the dance floor, where the Novas in attendance were dancing enthusiastically to the beat, full of vim and vigour. “Then she dies, and all those songs of hers come true. She has no fear of it whatsoever, Sakura. Not like me. Not like most of us, I think. Death’s an old friend, to her, someone to drop in on and visit on weekends.” She blinked, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. “Honestly, I’m not sure any of us can speak The Alchemist’s language on this front.”

One of Lucrezia, sitting beside the Chang-sofa and leaning against it, snorted. “I think you give her a bit too much credit. I don’t think she believes she can die. I know goths have that whole ‘die young and beautiful’ thing, but they also have that ‘be beautiful forever’ thing. Didn’t our last tests suggest she’s basically ageless? I think you buy the hype. She’s living the goth dream and loving every second of it, and she’s got the powers to act like a fruit loop. Not that I complain about her having fun, I just wish you wouldn’t get so worked up over it every time.”

“What if, beloved,” Chang said. “I’m afraid it’s something that haunts me always, these days.” What if they hear this? What if they hear that? What will happen if I say this or do that? What if, what if… what if. It wearied her, sometimes. But she accepted it for what it was: a part of her nature, to question and to wonder, and to ponder on might bes and never-should-happens.

Lucrezia was not so afflicted, and Chang cherished it. But when it came to The Alchemist, she thought she would always fear. Simply because she liked Cyndi Carter, and would miss her if she went away, never to return.

“People shouldn’t be sad,” Sakura mumbled.

Chang shook her head. “People must be. It’s in our nature, Nova and baseline alike. I just wish it were not so pronounced in The Alchemist’s case. Fortunately she’s on an up at the minute.” And fortunate it was. Without her, their proposed venture would be even more costly and complex than it was already. But she would speak no word of that. Not here, where there were so many ears eager to listen. After all, she thought, what if they hear?

[Butch_Cole]

The performance he had just witnessed was awesome in the truest, purest sense of the word. Butch had sat next to Alex at the bar utterly transfixed by the whirling, swirling mass of flesh that White Rain became, and by the way in which Bombshell seamlessly blended in to the performance, complementing and enhancing it. Then, White Rain sang, and Butch wasn't quite sure what he was feeling. A turbulent flurry of emotions and memories erupted inside of him. He wondered if he'd ever be able to listen to another White Rain album again. How could they compare?

Alex's...understated answer shook him from his thoughts.

"Pretty much," she said in answer to his question.

He raised his glass in salute to her response, and finished the rest of the juice. With the back of his hand, Butch wiped his lower lip.

"So, is this part of some observational study you're conducting? Novas in their social habitat or something like that? 'Cuz, if you're here to get the full experience, oh brilliant one, I think you should give dancing a whirl. The music's just alright now, but you can still groove to it. Now, I'm no twinkletoes myself, but I've been known to bust my fair share of moves on the dance floor. Ain't gonna be anything like what we just saw, but I get by. Want to join me for some dancing?"

[SalmonMax]

"To be honest, I was waiting to be picked up," Alex admits. With a smirk she added, "It's just my luck that the only guy who's looked my way so far is one of my brothers. Maybe this place sets the bar too high for a beginner, you know? My structure is malleable but not that malleable. I could probably put together a cool show, but trying that hard...it seems counterproductive. It's not me. Guys it attracts wouldn't be attracted to me. So!"

She considered, swishing the little puddle at the bottom of her glass around. "I'm concerned if I dance with you, men might think I'm spoken for and leave me alone, even if they wouldn't normally. Am I overthinking this?"

[Butch_Cole]

Butch raised an eyebrow and leaned back a little from his brainiac sister.

"You're cruising for action?" Butch asked. Then he smiled, a big genuine smile, and chuckled. "Well, I'm sorry if I'm cramping your style, sis. I can't help it if I have good taste."

He winked at her and continued.

"First things first: don't sell yourself short. I saw plenty of heads turn when you came over to the bar. And it didn't look like they were admiring your brains, dig? You are mighty attractive, Alex. No joke."

Butch looked away for a moment. She was attractive. Ok, it didn't help to walk in next to Bombshell and Maia, but seriously who was going to match up to them. No, Alex was gorgeous, and Butch hoped she understood that. He hoped it wasn't wrong that he thought that...

"Second: always be yourself." He punctuated each word (always...be...yourself) with a gentle poke of his finger into her shoulder, then continued. "You put on an act and either people see through it or you end up becoming someone you don't want to be. If they don't like you for who you are, then screw 'em, they don't know what they're missing. So, none of that.

"Are you overthinking this?" He shrugged. "Maybe a little. I guess it depends on what kind of fella you're looking for. Seeing you cut a rug with someone like me might deter some guys. The shy-guys for sure. Plenty of great shy-guys out there, Alex, but if you're being passive in this whole equation, good luck unless someone's introducing them to you. The weasly, predatory types who think they can only strike against solitary females, they'll be deterred, too. But I doubt you want them sniffing around you anyway unless being prey's your thing. More confident dudes won't let it bother them if they see you dancing with anyone. Some of those will be pushy, macho types. Some of those will be the more aggro-predatory types, the ones that get a kick out of showing other dudes up and then want to get you on your own. And some of them will just be confident, straight up good guys.

"A lot of this depends on how passive you want to be in the equation, Alex," Butch said. He waved his arm out in a sweeping motion, encompassing as much of the Rainbow Room as he could. "Plenty of men out there. You could easily approach one yourself.

"My advice?" He put both his hands on Alex's shoulders. "Relax. Enjoy yourself. Let things happen. I'm gonna go dance now. You can come with me if you want. We could dance in the same area. We could dance together. We could dance on complete opposite sides of the dance floor. This is your night, Alex, so I leave that up to you. My feet are itching though, so I'm off to bust a move."

With that, Butch smiled at Alex again, and began to walk towards the dance floor, feeling the pull of the music.

[z023]

Sakura started as Lucrezia began to ooze under her clothing; she still didn't make any protestations, she just flushed adorably seemed startled at the rather intimate license Lucrezia was indulging in in such a public place. She raised her head to look at the Lucrezia in front of her and asked quizzically, "Then isn't that something for the two of you? I mean, something special? I love the massage, but I wouldn't want...intrude? on something that's special for you as wives."

"And I don't really know anything about goths," she added. "I mean, a little, but it never seemed to make much sense to me."

She laid her head on her arms, watching all the glorious variety of novas dance and smiling when she spotted even Morrigan dancing with some handsome man Sakura didn't recognize. "Besides," she murmured, "I don't want to ruin Morrigan's mood. She's actually dancing and with a man. I've never seen him before, but maybe it's someone she knows? It's good to see her relaxing." She moved her head just slightly to indicate where The Morrigan and Wendigo were - carefully - dancing around each other. "She doesn't seem to like me much...."

[WhiteRain]

Chang chuckled, her four voices a touch out of sync to give her a strange self-produced echo. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. You wouldn’t be the first. Once Shiv let Lucrezia form her bondage outfit. That took a while to negotiate.”

“Mmmm,” Lucrezia said, her voice was a half-purr as she nuzzled Sakura’s neck. “It’s a complex set-up, more so than it appears and she’s real particular about it. Cyndi’s easier, but she’s a lot more flexible than I am and even fonder of it than my wife. So that didn’t work very well.” She sounded a bit sour on that.

Chang laughed. “It was a lesson in humility, more or less. We cannot be everything to everyone, shapeshifters though we are. All of us have limits. The sooner we learn them the better, so we can push against and break them down, or else go in another direction, satisfied that our potential is filled in one way at least.”

She left Sakura’s comment about The Morrigan untouched. That one was a creature of violence and death. It was in every movement and – by reputation – in many of her words as well. Chang learned enough from their very brief encounter to be certain that a longer one might not work out well for her. She accepted the accusations of arrogance which often came her way, though she did her best to curtail that unsightly characteristic by maintaining a healthy respect for those with claws and muscles and rending teeth.

And that woman, she thought, watching The Morrigan dance-off with Wendigo, that woman deserves my eminent regard in those aspects.

[z023]

"I-I suppose," Sakura answered Lucrezia. She thought for a moment, "Um, maybe you could be a goth outfit?"

Lucrezia and Chang could both feel an odd sensation, not unfamiliar necessarily, but unexpected from Sakura: her outfit began unraveling into threads, hair thin and translucent, falling on to Chang's sofa-self in a soft caress. Were it not for Lucrezia already spread over most of her body, she'd be laying naked in the middle of the crowded bar. There was no small trinket hanging on her body and no innocuous ball of eufiber coiled up near her body.

Lucrezia purred around her, shifting into a red and black lace Victorian-goth skirt and a faux-corset top with long sleeves, leaving her hips bare. The other Lucrezia's crowded around them, making suggestions and criticisms and generally taking every chance they could steal to run a hand over the flower-bedecked nova. "There," one of them declared, a blond in a white skin-tight mini-dress. "That's perfect. Now, shoo. Go dance and show off."

Sakura tried to protest; she was comfy and warm and she'd been getting a massage, but the rest of the Lucrezia's were having none of it. She was pulled bonelessly off the couch, the human-shaped Lucrezia's supporting her until she discovered her knees and feet again. Chang's giggling wife(s) escorted her to the dance floor, two of them staying behind to shimmy next to her until her senses cleared enough for her to feel the beat of the music and started moving, swaying as she caught the melody.

The Lucrezia-Dress

[SalmonMax]

Alex paused for a moment, letting Butch move off on his own. A curl of frustration shot through her at his advice, well-intentioned as it was.

It was possible he didn't see the irony of his own words. Be yourself? She violated that platitude just by being here. If she were true to herself, she'd still be on the Primus, working happily away. Did that mean this entire idea of hers was itself counter-productive? Or was it evidence that she needed to become more openminded about what constituted 'being true to herself' meant?

Butch had a point though. She was being passive, waiting for someone to come to her. This was because in the first interminable five minutes of being here, no one had stood out as being particularly interesting. Of course, Alex realized, just sitting there at the bar, she probably didn't seem interesting either.

It reminded her of how many animals had displays they used to try to attract mates...bright red feathers or strange little dances. Human beings had come so far, but were still beasts at heart. Even so, if one wanted to play the game, one had to play by the rules...at least nominally. And if Chang's display had been good for anything, it was to demonstrate that this was a jaded crowd, overall...and if she wanted their attention, she'd have to earn it.

A little smile curved her mouth as a plan formed. She didn't know if it would attract or scare away...but she felt it had the potential to be exceedingly cathartic.

[Maia]

Seeing things pretty much in hand, Maia made her way to the bar and caught the attention of the Bartender. "Do you know if Harmonic is here tonight?"

[z-The Morrigan]

Wendigo and Morri made their way down out of the rafters, the feral using her excessive dexterity and the Utopian using gravity and a tough frame. The two eased out onto the dance floor, looking a little like two people who just happened to be heading to the floor at the same time.

The two flowed into the crowd, the red-eyed nova staring around warily at all the men there. A few women got hard stares, too, those who seemed capable of forcing Morri to do what she wasn’t comfortable with doing. When the two danced, it was strange: Wendigo was dancing like he was protecting her flank and Morri was dancing like she felt his presence but was trying to ignore it. The behaviors were noted by more than a few, including Alpha, who just rolled his eyes at his brother and ordered another drink.

When Wendigo got too close once, Morri speared him with a look and gave a warning growl. Wendigo froze, looking a little shell-shocked. He hadn’t been joking when he said he liked dangerous women, and Morri’s growl-and-glare had his blood boiling. Suddenly, Alpha was at his side, catching his arm and breaking the plateau. As Wendigo glared at his shorter sibling, Alpha said, “Morrigan, nice to meet you.” Or at least, he shouted it over the music.

“And you,” Morrigan replied, not even bothering to get his name. She turned and danced away into the crowd, leaving the brothers alone.

[Quantum Fire]

Considering the matter a moment, Wendigo headed over to the bar and picked up two drinks, one for her and one for him, even as his brother put a hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing? I thought she gave a pretty good hint to back off."

Wendigo shook off his brother's hand. "She's being defensive, we had a bit of a talk, I understand it.. besides, that was hot." he shivered, the thought of how dangerous actually persuing a romantic relationship with the Morrigan would be, the excitement of it, the passion he was sure the woman had under her pain, if he could find a way though those sharp edges.. oh the dance they could have.. and he didn't mean on the dancing floor.

"She could gut you in seconds.."

"Yeah.. that's so hot, she's incredible...:"

"Fine, make a fool of yourself, brother, but do try and keep yourself in one piece.."

Moving though the dance floor with superhuman grace Wendigo approached Morri once more, holding out the second glass as a sort of peace offering to the dangerous nova.

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri knew that the Wendigo wanted to have sex with her. She could smell it rolling off of him; that rising tide of hormones coming from him terrified her. It had been there from the start, only to decrease when Morri had spoken of her rapes. But it had come back during the dancing and had spiked when she’d growled at him. She’d clearly told him she felt threatened by him and now he was chasing her.

Morri flitted through the crowds, keeping well ahead of the Wendigo. He caught onto the game quickly enough and soon she wasn’t allowed to slow to dance at all; instead she was busy dodging the other nova. The sensation of being hunted by an aroused male was filling her with fear and slowly her animalistic instincts were rising.

In her hurry, she stumbled against another nova – more of a brush, but like many novas, he felt it. The big male spun on her, peering down at her before his lips splitting in a big grin. “Hi there, pretty.” Big hands closed around her arms. “Ain’t you a cute little thing?”

Blood ran down Morri’s arms and she jerked backwards against the grip holding her. The behemoth was stronger than her and a little tipsy thanks to Alchemist – too tipsy to realize he was playing with fire. Things were about to get messy.

[Bombshell]

From one side of the dance-floor, Jason smiled into her drink, noticing Morri edge her way onto the dance floor. Finally! Morri's crimson eyes were still wary, but she was dancing and... tolerating a man dancing with her... or at least, dancing near her - a Utopian she thought, though Jason didn't know his name.

Jason stayed where she was, chatting idly with those dancing with her, giving Morri her space without intruding, though keeping an eye on her. She was debating getting another drink when she saw Morri stiffen, baring her teeth in a growl, as another man joined her, sharing some familial resemblance to her companion. Then Morri flitted off into the crowd, the Utopian (?) following her. Chasing her! Shit! This isn't good, not for Morri, and certainly not for the man wanting to ride the tiger....

With mellifluous graciousness, Jason excused herself from those she had been dancing and talking with and with a deceptive speed and elegant grace, cut through the press of bodies as easily as a fish swam through water. With her fantastically long legs, Jason easily overcame Wendigo.

"Give me a moment to talk to her, eh? Before bad things happen... seriously," Jason asked, slowing for just a moment in passing.

Then she reached Morri's side in a swirl of silver hair, just as the large man grabbed her by the upper arms and blood began flowing down towards her hands. Full lips in a tight line, she gave Morri a concerned, placating look before stepping close to the big man, slipping her curvaceous figure between him and Morri, forcing a razor edged smile on her lips and placing a hand on his broad shoulder, conveying her phenomenal strength despite its slender femininity.

The big man found himself staring into a pair of dazzling indigo eyes level with his own, set in a face of bewildering beauty. Luscious lips parted as words of exquisite music rang in his ears.

"I do believe the lady doth protest. Why don't you let her go , hmm?" Bombshell intoned like a sultry, celestial choir of one. "Trust me, it's better for everyone." Keeping her attention focused on the large man, the alcoholic fumes of his breath wafting over her and making her nose wrinkle, Jason murmured out of the corner of her mouth in a low voice pitched for Morri's ears alone and placed a gently restraining hand on her forearm. "Morri, please, he's just a drunken idiot - he's not worth the effort."

Exquisite Voice

Using Exquisite Voice to entice the guy to let Morri go.

Exquisite Voice (First 8 are Megas): 18d10.hitsopen(7,10) = 17 successes

[SalmonMax]

As Alex stood up, resolute in her decision to do...something...memorable, she heard someone behind her cluck his tongue and say, "I know that look you've got."

She turned to see a man on a stool one over from where she'd been sitting. He was nursing some pale amber drink and shaking his head. Good looking, like most novas, though not really superhuman, but he had an easy way to him and an effortless confidence that let her know he was one of those nova charmers. "What look is that?" she asked.

"The look of someone about to do something they're going to regret the next morning. Or possibly even that night, if they don't pass out," the guy responded with a grin. He had short, kind of shaggy brown-blonde hair and pretty blue-green eyes. Cheeks a little round, giving him a subtle boyish look that made him even cuter.

Alex folded her arms defensively. "I'm not drunk. I don't GET drunk."

He nodded. "I know. Know you're not drunk I mean. But if people only embarrassed themselves when they were drunk, we'd still be living in a world with a much lower entertainment value than it has." He looked up from his drink, over his shoulder at Alex. "You feel like you have something to prove?"

"What exactly makes you think that?"

The man reached up and touched the corner of his mouth. "You've got this angry pouty frowny thing going. Tension around your eyes. Fists balled up. You're..." He squinted slightly, "you saw White Rain's little show and feel like now you have to take her on?"

Alex narrowed her eyes slightly. Empath? Telepath? "I didn't come here to drink things by myself. If that's what it takes to get noticed here then..." she trailed off. Saying it out loud, it DID seem kind of stupid.

The guy laughed, though not unkindly. More like one might laugh at a kid saying something unintentionally funny. "I'm pretty sure you know better than that. Come on, Rain's an attention whore. She OWNS this place and likes to make sure to remind everyone, every so often, that she can do whatever the fuck she wants here. I mean, look around. See anyone else pulling that?" He drummed his fingers on the counter for a second and patted the stool beside him. After a second of hesitation, Alex sat.

"You've really only got two possibilities," he went on. "Either you do really well, and people go 'wow, you're almost as good as Rain,' or you blow it, and everyone thinks you're a poseur. Either way, I don't think it's the reaction you want. And no, I'm not reading your mind."

Alex raised an eyebrow.

"I'm just...very good at reading faces. I mean, you probably think you've got a hell of a poker face, but there's nothing like a few nova tweaks to the Mark One Eyeballs to notice microexpressions, tics, all that."

And knowledgeable enough to interpret what he sees, she thought. Old hand. Pro. "So why stop me? Why not let me go embarrass myself?"

He shrugged. "Who's stopping you? Go have a blast. I'm Gideon, by the way. My niece calls me Giddy. Please don't do that." Another infectious grin.

"Alexandra. You're trying to...what, seduce me?"

Gideon rolled his eyes. "Why, is that what you want me to do?"

"I didn't say that," Alex demurred. "I'd just like to know what your angle is."

"Maybe I just wanted to try to start a conversation with the most interesting person in the club," he suggested with a teasing smile.

"Uh huh. But you settled for me?"

Gideon laughed. "Oh no you don't. I'll compliment you all night, but not if you go fishing for them."

Against her will, Alex laughed as well. "What, I don't get to ask you what about me made me so interesting to you, thus giving you a perfect opening to extol my many maidenly virtues?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, no. The moment's gone. You squandered it."

"Oh no. What will I do now?"

"You could dance with me."

"...okay."

They walked out onto the floor.

[WhiteRain]

Chang relaxed, the way she always did when left to her own devices. It was just her, her perceptions, and the wide, wide world in all its gore and glory.

She sifted her memories, running over the things she had perceived over the last hour or so. Ibiza was rowdy tonight. There were many police sirens. A house fire had spread in the southern part of the city and was being tended to by a dozen fire trucks. Rival gangs had gotten involved in a blood-drenched fire-fight. She remembered hearing the shots while she was singing, but at the time her focus was on other matters.

Chang raised her hand and her iron coin flowed up out of the flesh. She gave the slightest twitch of her wrist and flipped the coin forward, caught it on her thumb and forefinger. She filled her mind with thoughts of violently taking her wife, and then flipped the coin. She closed her eyes, tried not to work out how it would land. Even that was not enough.

“Lucrezia, catch it,” she said. It was the only way to randomize the result.

“Done, beloved,” said the Lucrezia at her feet. “Came up tails.”

“Of course it did,” Chang said. “Because you made sure it would. Give it here.”

Lucrezia pouted but handed it back. Chang flipped it, managed to distract herself right this time, caught it and turned it over. “Tails again.”

“So whose suffering are you not intervening in today?”

Chang left that unanswered. A holidaymaker was being taken captive in an alleyway by men speaking Arabic. Her best guess from the conversation she overheard was that it was about drugs, though whether the holidaymaker was involved seemed uncertain. Your fate is your own, sir, she thought, feeling nothing. No guilt for leaving him to it, and no shame, either. No stirring of human ‘oneness’ or a need to help her ‘fellow man’. Am I a lesser person for choosing to leave him, though? That was more difficult to answer. And if I am, by what metric and moral do I measure myself? By the Null Manifesto, only her own conscience could be used to measure this thing, but she felt no stirring of conscience whatsoever. And yet… there was the faintest desire to help him. If there was not she would never have needed the coin.

She began to stroke Lucrezia’s hair meditatively, and her wife purred in delight, and leaned against her. Elsewhere in the city Chang could hear other copies of Lucrezia moving about, heading to Pandaimonion parties or meeting with some of her friends and contacts. I wonder what she’s up to this time. For a moment she thought she might ask.

“Hey there, tits!” The voice was bright and friendly, and Chang set a part of her mind aside to consider her coin flip while she attended to Andy Vance, proprietor of the Rainbow Room.

Chang looked up. “Hello, Andy.”

Andy Vance, owner of the Rainbow Room and its predecessor, was striding over towards her with his usual grace and easy charm. A good-looking man even in this age of impossible beauties, his fine figure was emphasized by the thin coating of red latex that stood in – poorly – for clothes. Without any preamble, he flopped down on the part of her body where Sakura had been sitting. Lucrezia waved at him with two of her bodies, and he made a casual military salute in her direction.

“I trust you are enjoying your evening?” Chang said to Andy, listening with amusement as Alex talked with Gideon and The Morrigan’s flirtation with the dance floor ended exactly the way anyone with three brain cells could have anticipated. Bombshell would deal with the problem, no doubt.

From the other side of the club, Chang heard Shiv’s whisper. “Should I intervene, your grace?”

Chang’s answer was a rhythmic tapping with her foot, not quite Morse code, and something only a handful of Novas would have any hope of detecting. The general gist of her answer was to leave it to Bombshell and focus on her other duties.

“Always do,” Andy said, oblivious to the exchange between mentor and student. “Um… about that noise you made.”

Chang turned to him with one eyebrow raised. “Am I permitted to have lost myself in the moment?”

Andy laughed. It was a delightful sound, easy and relaxed and musical. “Sure! I’ve always said you don’t do it enough. Most of the time you lurk in the shadows like some creepy scheming super villain or something.”

“I am a Terat. One must nod her head to stereotypes every now and again,” Chang said. She could not help but think back to her cackling fit after chasing Glory off. Not that I wouldn’t make a good super villain if I really wanted to. She tapped the fingers of one hand on her shaft and traced to the middle of her three breasts. And one must admit; I have a unique visual design.

“I can do that for you,” Lucrezia purred, and one of her slid cat-like up into Chang’s lap. “Unless Andy minds, of course?” She gave him a thoroughly wicked smile and began to caress Chang’s shaft through her clothes.

Andy held up his hands. “Hey, you never complained when me and Jake had our… uh… moment that one time.”

The ‘moment’ he referred to was when he mistakenly drank The Alchemist’s special ‘anti-Andy’ brew (as he called it) rather than her much less potent beverage and ended up passionately taking his boyfriend from behind on top of Chang. And she had not been furniture at the time. After a while she turned herself into a bed when she realized he wasn’t going to stop. The look of surprise, slight consternation and embarrassment on Jake’s face had been worth every moment, though after she became a bed he relaxed considerably. The one clear thing that emerged when you stuck lesbians in a room with gay men was that the two forms of sexual congress did not mix in the slightest, although Chang felt she might well be an exception to that usual accepted rule.

“Not that I mean it was just ‘noise’ or anything,” Andy said quickly. “It was… uh… pretty impressive. Really I was just wondering if you wanted me to book you an actual performance night.”

Chang shook her head. “No thank you, Andy. I don’t have much new material.”

“Ah, well,” he said, grinning, “it’s not new material I’m after. Do you remember Veils of Silence?”

“I try to avoid severe head trauma, Andy. Yes, I recall writing one of my own albums.” She remembered all of them, and that one more than most. Chang had written most of the songs while watching Lucrezia’s chrysalis, her face running with tears.

Lucrezia nibbled and kissed at Chang’s neck, then unwound her long, long tongue, snaking it down under Chang’s shirt and coiling right around her central breast before beginning to lick back and forth over the nipple. Chang gasped.

“Better,” said another of her wife’s bodies as it wandered by. “Hey, Andy.”

“Bye, Zia,” he said to that one. “Hi, Zia,” he said to the one that remained sitting on the floor in front of Chang. Andy laughed. “You’re one confusing woman.”

“You’d think that,” a third Lucrezia answered. “Honestly, I think it’d be more confusing being you.”

Chang sighed. “Yes, my love, I know you’re there.”

A lance of pleasure ran through her central breast, and left her quivering. It was like Lucrezia’s tongue had turned to molten lava.

With an effort of will, she relaxed herself and looked down on her wife with a scowl. Lucrezia looked up, blinking innocently and lapping at her nipple. Chang shook her head at her.

“You two are sweet,” Andy said.

“Thank you,” Chang said, and looked over to Andy again. “Why do you enquire about that album?”

“Well,” Andy said, shuffling closer, “since I’m so kind as to let you live in my club and have your freaky friends running about all over the place, I thought I might turn that into some capital and persuade you to turn up to a QNA meeting. Not that you shouldn’t anyway, considering,” he gestured at Lucrezia, Chang’s cock, her breasts, and the tongue still busily working away. “You’ve got to admit, wiser men than I might make assumptions if they saw this.” He stroked his hairless chin in a thoughtful manner.

“It’s under consideration,” Chang replied.

“Your wife turns up to every meeting.”

“My wife can be in thirty places at once.”

Andy wagged his finger at her. “No excuses my lesbian sister. Look, I know your reasoning. You don’t want to cause me any trouble. Right?”

It was true. Chang was a known Terat, and the Teragen were still thought of negatively. She considered it a repayment of her debt to Andy by not turning up. He was a lovely man, but not the brightest, and she felt he did not consider the ramifications of her presence. “That is correct,” she said.

“Well, I think that’s bollocks. We’re gay, honey! Everyone’s gonna hate us anyway. You wouldn’t be the first Terat to turn up. Look, Ragnarockkette wants you to come to the next meeting and sing some of the songs from Veils of Silence. Couple of our lady members are getting hitched, and we thought it might be good. One of them’s in your fanclub.”

Chang frowned. Ragnarockkette was a member of Team Tomorrow. “That is somewhat surprising, I confess.”

“Thought it might be. Look, think it over. It’s still a couple of months off.”

She only needed a few moments to consider the options and puzzle through her own mixed reactions. “I have always been a silent supporter of the QNA,” she said softly. “If you can persuade Ragnarockkette to come to me personally… perhaps I will be a more vocal supporter.” Besides, there is still the matter of the crèche to think of. “I could always do with a theme for my next album.”

The look on Andy’s face was priceless. “Well, then. I’ll go and, uh, see what sort of bribes she’ll accept,” he said, and then hurried off.

Chang lay back and let her wife begin to pleasure her. And more of her began to crawl onto and over her, like vampires descending on prey.

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri pulled back sharply from Jason. It wasn’t that it was Jason, it was that her fight or flight instincts had been awakened. The red-eyed nova wasn’t able to bare anyone’s touch right now; even Ein’s hand would feel muscles tensing under her skin. The man wasn’t looking at her anymore. He only had eyes for Bombshell. Though he normally like smaller women – smaller than him – he was willing to make an exception in this case.

Quantum-created blood dripped to the floor and dissipated, signaling a truce, or as close as she came to a cease-fire. Without a word, Morri edged back from Bombshell and the man she had engaged. When she had enough distance that neither of them could jump her, she turned and fled.

From the other side of Bombshell, Wendigo saw and darted into the crowd after her. Bombshell had some unpretty words, but she was slower than both of them. Morri was aware the someone was chasing her; she found a quiet, sparsely populated area and turned to see Wendigo come out of the crowd, his dark eyes on her. “Morrigan.” His smile was victorious; his scent revoltingly thick with desire.

She had told him no and he had ignored that. She knew where this was going but she didn’t want to pull herself together afterwards and kill him for refusing her right to deny him. She knew he would chase her outside even, into the dark, into the night. He would hurt her; she knew it like she knew how to breathe. Morri knew that everyone would be upset if she hurt him. If could even cause trouble for the Congo. She had one other option. Morri snarled at him again as he approached, one drink held out to her –

The dance floor disappeared; the ruckus of the crowd was gone. The stink of sex and arousal was gone, replaced by the musk of an animal. The lights of the club snapped away into the darkness of the wild night. Her eyes were trying to adapt but Morri knew that she was nowhere familiar; the smells were strange, as was the scents of the animals around her.

A bellow shattered the night, the unmistakable rumble to it telling her that she was facing a bear. As more bellows followed, she understood that she was facing a lot of bears. Screaming, she prepared to fight.

[Quantum Fire]

End of Thread

XP: 4 Standard, 4 Baseline, 4 Nova