Strongarm persuasion is probably needed. Here's the beginning of the current next part:
Laurie rubbed her arms, getting chilly now that she wasn’t running or fighting. “I’m not bringing this up for my own benefit, you know. I just see something broken that doesn’t need to be.”
D.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re exactly where you want to be in life, I get that. You’re just, you know, missing out. No one should have to miss out. Especially not when it’d be a snap to fix, just get you laid – ”
D.
“ – and you’ll be all, hey, there’s no blood and guts at all – ”
D.
“ – just good groiny fun. Yay.”
D.
!.
Laurie shrugged. “Okay, so it wouldn’t be an instant fix, but a damn good start. The hard part is finding a willing vict- a partner. Since I’m assuming a pro is out of the question – ”
!.
“ – and, as I’d assume you’re aware, your personality does not exactly overcome the social handicap of rocking that over-plugged power strip look. You’ve got even less chance of attracting a fuckbuddy than I seem to have.”
She hummed thoughtfully. “You’d think the solutions to our very different problems would dovetail rather neatly there, but no. No offence taken, I’m sure. Plus, I get the impression we both need someone who knows what he’s doing.”
D.
!.
“An exclamation point is not code for ‘shut up, shut up, shut up,’ by the way. It actually stands for: ‘Thank you for your concern, Laurie dear, please do go on.’”
The cursor blinked furiously.
Laurie crossed her arms, realising a moment later she was dragging the flat of one nailblade along her exposed collarbone. It felt good, dammit. She peeked around the corner and hopefully scanned for criminals.
Nothing.
Even the noise of civi-cop pacification faded, the cut off abruptly with a slammed door and the poot-poot-pootle of the wagon’s anti-gravs pushing their human load into the sky.
Laurie fished through her calf pocket, finding her nail sharpener, a broken knuckle-guard, a coupon for Harga’s House of Ribs on the East side, and a small rubber ball the size of a doll’s eyeball. She bounced it off the opposite wall, catching it on the rebound as the toy’s antistatic self-cleaning system shucked off pocket lint. She could almost hear the fuzz land in the hushed alley, as if she were the last person alive in the entire Sprawl. Just her and her silent, watchful passenger.
“I’ve just had the most brilliant idea ever,” she whispered, touching the ball’s seam. It split in two, forming soft, half-melted crescents that glommed onto her index and middle fingertips. “Secondhand experience fucked you up…maybe it’s the solution, too. Sorta poetical.”
She tapped the crescents together, shivering as they began to buzz on their lowest setting.
* * *
There's more already written, but there's also a separate bit with Adrian and Byron (non-porny, but a hot tub's involved), and I'm a bit stuck with how the bits fit together. (Which, I have been informed, is what she said.) So, yeah, bribery with awesome art very very very good.
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Re: heh..."Musty"...
Date: 2009-10-09 09:19 pm (UTC)Laurie rubbed her arms, getting chilly now that she wasn’t running or fighting. “I’m not bringing this up for my own benefit, you know. I just see something broken that doesn’t need to be.”
D.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re exactly where you want to be in life, I get that. You’re just, you know, missing out. No one should have to miss out. Especially not when it’d be a snap to fix, just get you laid – ”
D.
“ – and you’ll be all, hey, there’s no blood and guts at all – ”
D.
“ – just good groiny fun. Yay.”
D.
!.
Laurie shrugged. “Okay, so it wouldn’t be an instant fix, but a damn good start. The hard part is finding a willing vict- a partner. Since I’m assuming a pro is out of the question – ”
!.
“ – and, as I’d assume you’re aware, your personality does not exactly overcome the social handicap of rocking that over-plugged power strip look. You’ve got even less chance of attracting a fuckbuddy than I seem to have.”
She hummed thoughtfully. “You’d think the solutions to our very different problems would dovetail rather neatly there, but no. No offence taken, I’m sure. Plus, I get the impression we both need someone who knows what he’s doing.”
D.
!.
“An exclamation point is not code for ‘shut up, shut up, shut up,’ by the way. It actually stands for: ‘Thank you for your concern, Laurie dear, please do go on.’”
The cursor blinked furiously.
Laurie crossed her arms, realising a moment later she was dragging the flat of one nailblade along her exposed collarbone. It felt good, dammit. She peeked around the corner and hopefully scanned for criminals.
Nothing.
Even the noise of civi-cop pacification faded, the cut off abruptly with a slammed door and the poot-poot-pootle of the wagon’s anti-gravs pushing their human load into the sky.
Laurie fished through her calf pocket, finding her nail sharpener, a broken knuckle-guard, a coupon for Harga’s House of Ribs on the East side, and a small rubber ball the size of a doll’s eyeball. She bounced it off the opposite wall, catching it on the rebound as the toy’s antistatic self-cleaning system shucked off pocket lint. She could almost hear the fuzz land in the hushed alley, as if she were the last person alive in the entire Sprawl. Just her and her silent, watchful passenger.
“I’ve just had the most brilliant idea ever,” she whispered, touching the ball’s seam. It split in two, forming soft, half-melted crescents that glommed onto her index and middle fingertips. “Secondhand experience fucked you up…maybe it’s the solution, too. Sorta poetical.”
She tapped the crescents together, shivering as they began to buzz on their lowest setting.
* * *
There's more already written, but there's also a separate bit with Adrian and Byron (non-porny, but a hot tub's involved), and I'm a bit stuck with how the bits fit together. (Which, I have been informed, is what she said.) So, yeah, bribery with awesome art very very very good.