* To: fta-logs@sneakers.org
     * From: Heather Moore <misenla@bellsouth.net>
     * Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 23:55:20 -0500
   
   MURDER CAN BE FUN
   NYC, very early Saturday morning, around 1:40am, outside The Arcadia
   Club in Greenwich Village
   Brandy Cordell, Josie Froias, Vesper Antagonist
   Synopsis: A distraught young woman "accidentally" kills a man behind a
   nightclub. When her friend tries to calm her down, they are stumbled
   upon by a third girl. Their consternation over whether to do away with
   a potential witness takes a surprising result....
   Backdrop: Aspiring artist Brandy Cordell and heiress Josephine Froias
   have come out of an evening to Arcadia at Josephine's insistence, in
   order to inspect the garish club. They find the garish decor not to
   their liking in the slightest and ready themselves to leave when
   Josephine runs into her latest paramour, a vain young actor over whose
   growing coldness she has been distressed lately. Telling Brandy to
   wait, Josephine has dragged her boyfriend out the back door of the
   club to confront him privately in the alley. Usually, Josie's little
   'negotiations' with her male friends are quick and sweaty, but this
   time Brandy grows impatient and decides to go find her friend....
   "All right, where'd the bonce get off to this time?" Brandy mutters,
   as she pulls her shades off and sweeps the street with her gaze,
   looking for her troublemaking partner. She tugs on the sleeves of her
   Easter-egg-pink rubber dress, glad for its warmth tonight. "X?" she
   calls, a little louder.
   Sounds of scuffling in the alley off to Brandy's left, behind her
   gaze. The grind of shoes against dirty pavement is punctuated by small
   breathy grunts of anger, perhaps a faint noise of angry tears.
   Cursing softly, Brandy slips into the alley, making her way down it as
   inconspicuously as one can when wearing bright pink PVC and stiletto
   heels. Damn. She gets as close as she can while she has shadows to
   hide in, keeping an eye out for the source of the scuffle.
   Stopping by the door of the club, Vesper tosses the bouncer a jaunty
   salute and lights up. Yes. Smoking is a meditation in and of itself -
   she can smoke inside, but it's loud and she'd rather finish one in
   peace first, so she leans against the outside of the building and
   watches the traffic quietly.
   Not quite toward the back of the alley -- two figures, one man backed
   up against a half-dumpster. Oblivious to the chill, he leans back
   slightly, supporting his widely planted feet. One hand grips the rim
   of the metal bin's top, the other has seized a hold within the braids
   of a young woman who partially crouches beside him. Her body is
   pressed up against his side, arms dissapearing up under the man's
   black t-shirt as she kisses his neck. A brown coat is heaped at her
   feet, thrown off from his shoulders. She girl jerks her head up at a
   muffled comment from her companion. One hand emerges from her shirt;
   she wipes impatiently at her nose. "Oui," she bites out. "Yes, the
   *last* time.
   Straightening as she finally gets close enough to see what's going on,
   Brandy walks the remaining distance and takes up a leaning pose
   against a nearby wall. Oh, dear, the bloke's gone and done it now. She
   doesn't say anything just yet, taking a moment to weed through the
   various signals she's picking up from the other two before her, and
   toys idly with her shades.
   Leaning her head back against the wall, Vesper inhales deeply, then
   takes a while to let it all out. She flicks ash to the sidewalk, then
   reaches down to put her zippo in her knee pocket. Someone honks as
   they whiz past - screams out the window at her. With an upward glance,
   the girl raises her eyebrows and cheerfully flips them off. On a side
   note, she's beginning to wish she'd brought her coat.
   The other young woman, standing straighter now, reaches down to caress
   the man's cheek, smiling bitterly at his shuddering response. "Mais
   n'est-ce pas pour moi," she explains to her companion. Her hand rests
   at his temple. Her mouth twists into a moue of angry disappointment
   when fresh tears spring to her eyes. With a sweep of a boot, she
   knocks his feet out from under him at the same time as he lets out a
   shocked, painful gasp. The girl is dragged to the pavement with him as
   he falls, his hand still twined in her hair.
   Brandy shakes her head sadly as she listens to the conversation, what
   there is of it. Oooh, her wince shows that there's a nasty spike from
   someone over there, and her eyes flicker to the young woman. "X?" she
   says quietly. "What'd this bloke do to ya?" she says quietly, after
   watching for a few more moments.
   Josie squeezes her eyes shut, shaking her head. She is bent half over
   the still form, stroking a splayed arm. "It's nothing," comes a
   tentative reply between uneven breaths. Nothing, it's not so
   important... Nothing new. Get calm, coming here was a mutual decision.
   "Space, he needed space. It wasn't enough...."
   Vesper idly watches the smoke curl up over her head, then dissipate
   into the darkening atmosphere. She lightly shoves herself off the
   wall, taking a final drag and dropping the cigarette to the concrete.
   Grinds it out with her heel. She starts to fumble through her pockets
   for her ID.
   Heaving a small sigh, the pink-clad woman pushes up from her spot on
   the wall and moves over to her friend, putting a hand on her shoulder.
   "C'mon, now, luv," she says quietly, urging the girl to her feet. "You
   can tell me. You know that." She gently helps the other girl to her
   feet, looking into Josie's eyes if she's able. "Calm yerself down,
   'k?"
   The dark-haired girl clings to her friend as she is helped to her
   feet. One bare arm slips about the taller girl's waist.
   "Unprofessional," she comments ruefully, resting her head on the other
   girls shoulder and staring down at the sprawled figure. The sight
   brings another sniffle. "He told me he was done, he was bored with me,
   get lost. Or I could live in a box in his basement where nobody could
   see."
   With a shake of her head, Brandy kicks at the slack figure's foot.
   "Bloody git," she remarks. "'ow on earth could you get bored?" She
   gives Josie a gentle smile and only the slightest of empathic nudges
   toward calm. "Well, now he can be bored with the rest of the stiffs,
   eh?"
   Muttering obscenities under her breath, the tall girl out front
   scowls. "God dammit!" Vesper finally exclaims, giving up on her
   pockets. She starts rooting through her wallet, then sticks her tongue
   out at the bouncer, who's laughing at her.
   You paged Brandy with 'Actually, his last comment was something along
   the lines of 'man, if I could just keep you in a box in the basement
   where nobody would see....''.
   Josie steps away, a little shiver hunching her shoulders as her friend
   soothes the rough edges inside her head. "It's no matter now," she
   sighs. Chafing at her arms, she goes to fetch her coat, jerking upward
   at the stanger's exclamation from the front of the alleyway.
   Brandy lets go of Josie as she moves for her coat, looking curiously
   down the alley toward the exclamation. "Sounds like someone's having a
   go at one of the boys," she remarks, clipping her glasses back onto
   her nose. "Shall we go see what's going on?"
   Now experiencing worlds of irritation, Vesper shoves her wallet back
   in her back pocket and heads for the alley - time to take the back way
   in. I probably, she thinks, left it in my goddamn coat. Which I should
   have /anyway/. And I /don't/. Turning into the narrow corridor, she
   blinks, finding something she probably shouldn't be seeing. Two
   clubbers and - a body. *A* body? Before she can stop herself, she
   squints, then blinks. "Jeremy?"
   A dark haired girl drawls the sleeves of a brown duster up over her
   arms slowly, peering at the girl. "We need a cleaner," she sighs,
   before turning to favor her blonde companion with a questioning look.
   "She know him," is her calm comment. "I suppose we can dump two as
   easy as one."
   Brandy looks curiously at the girl as well, eyes narrowing behind her
   glasses. "I've got a couple friends I can call on for that," she
   remarks. "Just have to get my phone. Think you can handle her, too?"
   Josie rolls her eyes.
   Face twisting into something strange - a mixture of disgust and relief
   - Vesper laughs shortly. "I'm glad *you* killed him 'n not me." She
   frowns slightly. "He *is* dead, right?"
   Josie's head cocks. Her eyes betray mild surprise at the stranger's
   reaction, but a brief smile comes to her lips. "Did you bore him,
   too?"
   Looking between the two, Brandy just smiles and folds her arms as she
   listens. Oh, this could be interesting indeed.
   Vesper nods slightly. "Thanks for doin' the dirty work." She grins
   lopsidedly, now digging in her pockets again - no, not a weapon. She
   comes up with her cigarettes again, and once more lights up. "I
   oughtter pay you."
   Josie snatches the cigarette away in an elegantly quick, untelegraphed
   gesture. Her right hand deposits the theft between her own lips and
   her left clasps the stanger about the throat gently, sending waves of
   disorientation through the tall girl. A short drag. She takes the
   cigarette in her fingers again, blowing the smoke out to the side.
   "Non, you should forget us, don't you think?"
   Brandy quirks an eyebrow at her cohort, smirking ever so slightly.
   "It'd be the wiser choice," she counsels, before looking at her friend
   again. "But be sure, X. We don't have so many people willing to pay us
   that we can afford to throw them /all/ away."
   Josie nods, eyes never leaving the face of the stranger. "Lucy,
   perhaps you should come to explain this girl's options here."
   Vesper breathes in sharply, stiffening. "I think," she gasps, "You
   should piss off." With that, she quickly gains a couple of feet,
   either loosening or breaking X's hold on her neck, then immediately
   shrinks down to an incandescent dot, floating a few feet over the
   heads of the girls. "Bitch," comes a ridiculously tiny voice.
   Josie takes another drag. "Ah. Well. Perhaps not."
   Brandy focuses her eyes on the little Tinkerbell-esque dot, and says,
   "C'mon back, pet. She won't grab you again." She adds a bit of a
   mental nudge, a warm, slight-friendship tinge to lure the stranger
   into being sociable again.
   For some reason, Vesper's not quite so mad anymore - even though this
   girl with the accent stole her smoke - she frowns to herself; lowers.
   Grows quickly, no time to get stepped on. The girl crosses her arms
   and leans against the opposite wall, scowling. "Good." Then she adds,
   surly, "Bump off a bastard ex, sure, glad. Steal my cigarette and
   threaten my life, not so cool."
   Josie laughs and holds the cigarette back out. "As long as we
   understand the ground rules," she responds, stepping over the body to
   offer the stick to the girl. "So was it this factor, did it anger
   him?"
   Brandy chuckles softly, cutting her eyes over at her friend. "You'll
   have to forgive X here. She has a little bit of an impulse control
   problem," she quips.
   Vesper offers a wry grin - yeah, she's a *lot* more friendly now; she
   takes the cigarette back and goes about calming her nerves with it.
   Lovely. "Unsurprisingly, yes. It's not like I keep it a secret, but I
   guess he was dense and didn't pick anything up from anyone. Scared the
   bejeezus out've him. Some of the things he said..." she trails off,
   then shakes her head. When Brandy speaks up, she grins. "I see."
   Josie puts her hands on her hips, glancing at the mouth of the
   alleyway as an emergency vehicle screams past. She frowns again, still
   watching the street. "And why do you come back in this alley, then? Do
   you shoot?"
   Brandy chuckles, moving down the alley a little to sweep for any more
   inquisitive passers-by. "Or were you the one we heard giving the
   bouncers an earful?"
   Vesper laughs. "Yah. Couldn't find my ID - I was gonna go in under the
   door back here."
   Josie turns to the blond, ignoring the stranger for the moment. *It's
   dangerous to leave her like this,* she points out to her companion in
   a rhythmic foreign patois. *We shouldn't even consider it; you'll have
   to discuss things with her, or we'll have to get rid of the problem.
   It's a liability.*
   Brandy looks over at Vesper for a moment, then back to her friend.
   *You're right,* she concedes. *What do you think? Just wipe her?*
   "I'm not about to tell anyone," says Vesper quietly, during a lull in
   the speech, leaning against the wall. "If that's what you're worried
   about. I don't know you, and he deserved it."
   Josie glances at the girl through her braids and gives a little shrug.
   "It gets difficult, you understand," she sighs. "You don't like to
   leave things open, and you don't like to make more wetwork. Either
   one's a bad choice. You have to think which one is more risky. Don't
   think it's personal."
   Vesper licks her lips, thinking about it. "What if I came with you?"
   Brandy reaches up and pulls her shades off, pausing at the new
   question. "Hmm... it's possible, but we don't know how far we can
   trust you yet."
   Vesper notes, gesturing with her cigarette - talking with her hands,
   like any good Italian - "There're two of you. Maybe until I prove I
   won't run off and tell, or betray you or any've that rot, you keep an
   eye on me?" She pauses. "Then the flick ends?"
   Josie's hands grow voluble, matching the tall girl's mannerisms. "Best
   if you had nothing to tell, though," she offers. One slender hand
   reaches deliberately toward the girl. "It's an option. By the way, can
   I borrow another puff? Cold out here."
   Brandy looks to Josie, lips quirked in a thoughtful smirk. "Can make
   you forget the whole thing without a problem, dove. No pain, no blood,
   no foul."
   Vesper frowns, easily holding out the cigarette. "How do I know you
   won't kill me, though? Or...how do I know you don't mindwipe random
   chicks for kicks? I know you about as well as you know me. I can't
   tru-" her eyes widen as Josie's hand touches hers. "Holy shit!"
   Josie smiles.
   Brandy quirks a brow, looking between the two, and smirks a bit. "X,"
   she says warningly, but with a smile.
   Collapsing back against the wall again, going weak in the knees,
   Vesper brings her hands to her face. "My /god/...what's this...? What
   /is/ this stuff? I.../jesus/..."
   Josie smiles, bringing the cigarette to her mouth. "My name's Josie."
   A side nod, "and she's Brandy. Now *that...*" drag, exhale. "Is why
   she calls me X." indicating the blond.
   Brandy chuckles again, shaking her head. "Take it easy, dove," she
   says to the other girl. "It'll pass in a little bit, if Josie's
   mindin' her manners."
   Josie reaches a long arm out to her friend, collaring her close. "I
   call her Lucy. Do you want to know why?"
   Vesper laughs softly, crossing her hands over her stomach, just trying
   to keep her head attached to her body for the time being - and yeah,
   it's already starting to fade. "Good t'meet you. Why do you call her
   Lucy?"
   Josie leans close to the other girl, the proximity bringing a mild
   tingle to the tall girl's skin. "Picture yourself in a boat on a
   river," she suggests, stepping forward to rest a shoulder against the
   wall.
   Vesper grins again, crookedly; seems like a night for surreality.
   "Tangerine trees and marmelade skies. Nifty," she says, running her
   hands up her biceps slightly, as if cold. "I'm Vesper." A beat.
   "Antagonist."
   Brandy shakes her head, continuing to chuckle a bit at her partner.
   "Go easy on her, willya, Jo? Poor girl's gonna lose her lunch."
   Josie eyes Brandy and relents, shutting down. "Any despiser of m'sieur
   there is a lady of taste."
   Brandy nods. "I'd say so, just from what I heard of 'im."
   Vesper mms, "I'd...think so, yeah." She reaches up and runs a hand
   through her hair, closing her eyes. Doesn't sound like she's paying
   attention. "So am I - am I coming with you? Or...?"
   Brandy steps up to Vesper, glasses removed to reveal the kaleidoscope
   eyes that earned her her nickname. "Yeh, y'r comin' with us, dove,"
   she says, lowering herself to the girl's eye-level and locking eyes
   with her. "Just look into my eyes, and let me have the wheel for a
   bit. I'll make everything all right..."
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