A Strange Customer | Freak

[veronica]

It was quite a regular day for Vera and her business. She knew that most of her work would be done during the night so she allowed herself to take it easy in her room, sipping a glass of fancy red wine -one of the various gifts she had gotten from her loyal customers. She was doing her finances, checking if things were going well and then, she’d go check on her people, see what she had and what she should have more to impress her customers. She knew that most of her job was a show and that she had to give them what they wanted which was most of the time related to physical needs. Rare were the customers who wanted to have a whore simply to chat with. Not to add that even if her whorehouse didn’t look like a whorehouse in the outside, the regulars would still come out at night, where another kind of business was going on around the town.

It wasn’t as if she minded the time of the day though; some customers still came during day time from time to time to enjoy her good company. Who would blame them? She was at the top of the hotness meter after all. However, having quite a storm outside would prevent any customers who would usually come during the day to go there. Even she wouldn’t be out during such a bad temperature. It was disappointing to her, even if she was doing the calculation of her finances not to be able to make more money for now during the day. She was going to hope that people would come more often during the night. She had pretty much all the time of her life and even after to run this little business of hers so she wasn’t worrying too much about if she’d make enough money during that day or not.

Looking down at her parchment, she noted a financial raise, which was quite good news. A smile formed onto her lips as she was sipping in more wine. Wonderful, she was making more money than before! Now she needed to tell that to her workers and maybe even give them a special gift. Like, perhaps, a new set of kinky outfits for example; anything that would be handy for their jobs. If only it wasn’t storming so badly, she’d be out looking for gifts to her whores. Ah well, she could always do that the next days; surely they’d understand. She’d have to call in for a meeting eventually to spread the good news. She stood up from her chair and placed the empty cup onto her desk and walked out of her room, standing proudly before going to the entrance of her house. Going to one of her employees that was set to do the greetings to the people, Vera smiled slightly. “Good news, our incomes are raising~!” She exclaimed thus making the other woman smile slightly and nodded approvingly. Though, she was surprised when she heard the entrance door opening. “Dear, it is quite a temperature for someone to walk out.” She pointed out turning around to see who it was.

[/justify]

$$ added

[freak]

There weren’t very many things that could convince Freak to go inside a building.

That might sound like an odd aversion to have, particularly in the current day and age, but it was only one of Freak’s many issues, and one of the least harmful. It was easy enough for her to avoid going inside; she could handle it for brief periods, such as to buy lunch or something like that, but any longer than a few minutes and she started to lose it. That time shortened by a hell of a lot if the space was particularly small, or if there were a lot of people in the room, making the air hot and stuffy. Then, she could barely stand to be in it long enough to get back outside, and even then she had to spend some time calming herself down afterwards.

Her issue with buildings, like most of her myriad problems, stemmed from her past. The monster who was responsible for what she had become lived primarily underground, and that was where he had kept Freak for the over a century that he’d had her in his grasp. In a cave, in the dark, with very little space to move around unless he was ‘taking her out’ to mess with her. The air had always been muggy and stifling (except when the monster came, because he always brought a cold, clammy feeling with him), and the walls felt like they were pressing in around her. Even now, when there was light and she could see that there was plenty of space to move, the walls still seemed to close in on her anytime she went inside. It sent her very quickly into a panic, which was dangerous for her and everyone around her. So, for the most part, Freak made a point of avoiding the inside of buildings. She was perfectly capable of living outside, particularly now that Romanov had let her stay on his ship. She had to feel the air on her face, or else she was sure she’d go mad.

She’d been out stretching her legs (despite her paranoia, she had managed to convince herself that Vajra wouldn’t be caught dead in the middle of a town like Saint Raiatea, since it was crawling with Navy – though that in itself was a problem for her, since they were currently trying to lock her up for being crazy) when the skies had opened up suddenly, rain pouring down in a sudden thunderstorm. Freak was soaked to the skin in moments, and she figured she was too far from the ship to make it back in this mess. She hadn’t been out and about in this town in quite a while and wasn’t sure of her ability to find her way back in the blinding rain. So , instead, she’d headed down the street to try and find somewhere to wait out the storm.

She wasn’t in any hurry at first. The rain was refreshing, in a way. It made her feel clean, a sensation that was rare for the half-breed. Ever since that century spent beneath the ground, Freak had been left with a constant feeling of being dirty. Unclean. It was maddening when she allowed herself to notice it, so she forced herself to ignore it most of the time. Still, in the pounding rain, she could at least appreciate its absence. She’d missed the rain a great deal.

Freak rounded a corner and froze. Through the downpour, she could see a Navy patrol coming from the other direction. They would see her before long, and Freak couldn’t afford that. She looked around quickly and spotted a lit doorway off to one side. Going inside still made her skin crawl, but she didn’t have much choice. And, with any luck, the Navy patrol would pass by quickly and she could be on her way.

Bracing herself, Freak dodged across and into the doorway, pushing the door open and slipping inside. She stopped just within, fighting the urge to run back outside, and instead forced herself to look around.

There were two women inside, though they didn't seem angry or anything to see her. She looked around, wondering what the place was. It didn't look like a restaurant or anything. Then, one of the women spoke, and Freak looked back at her, mismatched eyes wary. What she'd said seemed innocuous enough... Freak hesitated - small talk really wasn't her strong suit - then replied cautiously, "I got caught. In the rain. Uh... I wanted to get out of it for a minute." Not entirely true, but close enough.

---

Tagged: Vera
Words: 773 $$ added

[/blockquote]

[veronica]

Veronica was to say the least, quite surprise to see someone like Freak enter into her whorehouse. Not only the woman didn’t seem to be the kind of person who was in need of sex, but she also had one unique look that got her quite curious about what the other girl had gone through. Then again, she wasn’t there to judge people; she was there to please them in every way and if that’s what the girl wanted to, well, she’d give it to her. Besides, she didn’t look like an underage kid which comforted her in a way. She didn’t want to be considered as a pedophile. Even she had standards believe it or not.

A smile appeared onto her face whoever when the other girl-or woman?- spoke to her talking about the rain. She nodded hearing thunders. “Of course, no one would want to stay outside during such a bad storm.” She cooed. Last thing Vera wanted to see happening was a customer to run away from her basement. Most of the time, they always came out satisfied and with good comments to her or her people. Then, they went to tell to other people who also came to her whorehouse and told other people and what not. What best publicity could you ask for?

She took the time to study the woman some more. Never judge a book by its cover-who knew what kind of person she truly was. She didn’t seem like being too crazy either which was a good sign; she didn’t want her woes to run away after all. It would make a bad publicity. She went to the girl and smiled, making sure to restrain any physical contact between herself and her new customer-she wasn’t sure about how she would react to these anyways and she didn’t want to risk it.

“Would you like a towel to dry yourself? You look as if you’ve been caught in the storm badly.” She proposed. Her assistant returned to her business letting Vera do the talking to the new arrival. “Or maybe you’d like to take a seat and eat something?” she added. With various offers, surely, she’d get to find out what this new woman was into and that way, she was sure she could please her. Her head gestured toward a fancy red sofa for people to sit in while they’d wait for their assigned whores to get them. Maybe the girl would like to rest there a little the time she’d understand in what kind of business she had just entered.

[freak]

Not only was Freak the last person on earth who would ever intentionally visit a whorehouse, she barely even knew what they were. She had heard the occasional joke or reference from nearby people, but she’d never really been told of their existence, or what the point of them was. Due to certain events in Freak’s past, she had basically no sex drive to speak of, and didn’t really understand the idea of sexual attraction, or any kind of attraction at all. Even if someone had explained what a whorehouse was to her, Freak likely wouldn’t have understood the concept. It was just one of those things about society she wasn’t ever likely to get.

As it was, she had no idea what kind of a place she had stepped into. It was… gaudy was the first word that came to Freak’s mind, but that was likely personal preference. She looked around, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It definitely didn’t look like a restaurant or anything, but at the same time, it looked like a place where they expected to have people waiting around. There were couches off to the sides of the room, and a counter that one of the women was standing behind. Was it a doctor’s office or something? No, it didn’t smell right for that. If it had been, it would have smelled of medication and sterilization, and Freak would have noticed it right away and been long gone by now.

The woman closer to Freak was studying her in a way that made the hair on the back of Freak’s neck stand on end (mostly just because she didn’t like it when people stared at her for any reason). Her temper flared up, but she fought it back down. It hadn’t been long enough for the Navy patrol to pass by, and she didn’t want to go back out into the storm anyway. Getting angry would only end badly.

So, instead, she gave as good as she got, looking the other woman up and down frankly. She had a lot more curves than Freak, that was for sure; where Freak was lean, bordering on scrawny from lack of nourishment and sleep, this woman was all curves. Freak couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have those things bouncing around on her chest all day. It’d likely drive the half-breed even further nuts than she already was. The woman was pretty, she supposed, though she knew her sense for that kind of thing was ridiculously off. She didn’t particularly like the fact that the other woman used a cooing sort of tone, but she didn’t let it bother her. She was going to let her stay inside out of the rain, after all.

Freak stiffened a bit as the woman came over to her, but forced herself to relax again when the woman didn’t touch her or invade her personal space. She still wasn’t sure about this place, but it was better than the alternative. She listened to the woman’s offers, a little puzzled at how welcoming she was being (clearly they were used to people coming in off the street, though she still had no clue what the place was), then gave a slight nod in response to the first offer. ”A towel would be nice… thanks.” she said slowly; she was dripping all over the floor, which was probably going to be a huge pain for someone to clean up, so a towel seemed like a pretty good idea.

She glanced at the couch the woman gestured at, but didn’t move towards it. She was loath to get that far from the door, and besides, it seemed a little rude to drip all over their nice fancy couch as well as the floor. Food sounded good, though, and Freak’s stomach gave a little rumble at the thought. She never had much appetite, but hey, if the woman was offering. ”Uh, yeah, food sounds good,” she said awkwardly, ”I don’t have any money to pay for it, though.”

---

Tagged: Vera
Words: 673 $$ added

[/blockquote]

[veronica]

As soon as Freak agreed on her offers Vera smiled slightly before going personally to get a towel. She wouldn’t want her customers to be wet and get sick! This would give her bad images and this wasn’t what she needed at the moment. Besides, this new woman seemed to be enough of an entertainment to Vera. She had never seen someone like Freak around before and it was quite exciting to her to actually have a conversation with her and be as hospitable as she could. Who knows where it would lead in the end? A slight sparkle appeared into her eyes at the though but soon she vanished to get the towel leaving Freak and her employee. The woman was busy with a few paper work scribbling on what they needed and what not to help Vera out and so didn’t pay much attention.

Though, she did notice that the girl was rather awkward. “You look tense, if you wanted to relax, this is the best place to be at, especially when there’s a bad storm; people will protect you there.” She didn’t know about if the girl would get the second meaning to her worlds but she presumed that if she was to talk to Vera for more than five minutes, she’d be attacked by a lot of sexual comments. She did seem like not knowing where she was standing in but she knew it would only amuse Vera the more.

Vera soon came back with two towels, thinking that the girl might need more than one considering how wet she actually was. Even if she didn’t come with the first intentions to sleep with someone, she would still be nice and offer to the girl a neat service because after all, that’s what made them famous; a great service to the customers and the quality of choices when it came to whores. Veronica was quite proud of it to say the least and she wanted the status of her business to remain that way.

She handed the towel to the girl and nodded as she agreed to have food though claimed not to have the money. She paused for a few moments before thinking that she might just be nice and offer her some food. Nothing fancy but something that would allow the girl to stand for the day like some bread that would perish if they didn’t use it. Instead of throwing it away she could give it to Freak.

“Don’t worry, it’s on me, I’m having a good day.” She said cheerfully, aware that the girl was gazing at her. Unlike quite a few people, Vera loved being observed and admired for the beauty she was having. It proved that her job was right for her and that she could give to the people all they wanted unless they loved flat chests. She called a servant who obeyed to her when she asked for food and smiled slightly as she took a seat on the fancy looking couch, making sure to take a somewhat sexy pose in the process. “So dear, what’s your name?” She asked casually.

$$ added

[freak]

Freak watched with poorly concealed apprehension as the woman turned and walked away into a back room. She seemed nice enough, but Freak had plenty of experience with people who seemed nice turning out to be nothing at all like they had seemed. She also couldn’t help her suspicious, paranoid mind running away with her, thinking about what else the woman might be going to do. Maybe she had recognized Freak from one of the Wanted posters hung up all over town and was going to call a Navy officer, and just wanted Freak to stay where she was until the officers got there. After all, the poster mentioned that she was dangerous if set off (which was, in all honesty, true enough), so maybe she was just being secretive about it to keep Freak from leaving while she had the chance.

Sometimes, Freak got tired of suspecting everyone, but she couldn’t help it. Between her past and the fact that the Navy wouldn’t leave her the hell alone these days, she saw potential threats everywhere, regardless of how nice someone might seem. It was a tiring way to live, and it wasn’t as though Freak got very much sleep to begin with. That was part of the reason she didn’t venture off the Calypso much anymore; the crew didn’t exactly like her much, but she had come to trust that Jericho would keep his word and look out for her. Off the ship, she was on her own.

She jumped slightly as the other woman, the one who had been at the desk scribbling on a few papers, spoke suddenly. The woman’s reassurances didn’t relax Freak in the slightest. She never knew how to react to people who were actually friendly, and it only made her feel more awkward and aware of how tense she was to have attention drawn to it like that. She wanted more and more with each passing minute to escape back outside and get back to the ship, rain or no rain… but she stifled that urge. She was sick and tired of letting her neuroses dictate what she did. Unless she got an obvious hint that the Navy was on their way, or she was in danger in some other way, she’d at least wait until the rain died down a little bit before getting out of there. That seemed like a reasonable plan.

Freak watched as the first woman came back in, carrying a couple of towels. She still had the same pleasant expression, but Freak had to force herself not to second guess it. Smiles could hide a lot of nasty things. She took the towel the woman handed to her with a quiet ”Thanks.” The towel was soft and fluffy. It felt nice as she rubbed it over her face and head, trying to get enough of the water out of her tangled hair that it wouldn’t drip all over everything. Once she was satisfied with that, she patted as much of the water out of her clothes as she could. She didn’t push her sleeves up to dry her arms or anything, however, not wanting to bare the scars for the woman to see.

She repeated her thanks as the woman said she wouldn’t have to pay for the food. Then, cautiously, she followed the woman to a couch, checking the floor behind her to see if she was still tracking water (she was, but not as much). Freak stood for a moment, then folded the towel once and put it on the couch before sitting on it. Maybe it would keep it from getting too wet. She left plenty of space between herself and the woman. At her question, Freak mentally steeled herself for the reaction she usually got when answering this question. ”It’s Freak.”

---

Tagged: Vera
Words: 637 $$ added

[/blockquote]

[veronica]

Vera was aware of the woman being uncomfortable around her. It was quite obvious also that the girl was probably coming from the streets but Vera, knowing that her accountings were going extraordinary well, was on a good mood and therefore, she was ready to offer to her the shelter she needed the time the storm would be over. Her face was vaguely familiar to her though- maybe she had seen her around in the streets while going to work and finding new customers or whores for the matters. Who knows, then again, she had seen many people in her life and it wasn’t about to be over! Customers, friends, family; the family was dead by now but it was still nice to know that she had a large social she could play with. It was handy, all the time. Having a lot of contacts would always get her out of trouble, and get her new whores. It was the best opportunity for her to make a contact with someone from the streets. Maybe the girl would know more about what was happening than before! And even better, maybe she would get to know about a few ladies- or men, that would be willing to be in her business. See? No matter how intriguing the new character was, she was still finding positive in it!

She nodded at the girl once she was thanked by her and smiled slightly. Yes, nothing could bring Vera down so far. She was as sexy as hell, and she was rolling on money. What could she ask more for? A steady relationship? Please, that was the last she wanted! She wanted to be free and try everyone she could, boy or girl! Of course, she was going to try hard not to imply too much sexual comments, seeing how uncomfortable Freak was but she couldn’t help herself; it was part of her personality after all and also part of her charm. Every men would want to do a woman such as her!

She looked at Freak silently when she followed her onto the couch, she had asked her for her name and she waited for the girl to answer her. She wouldn’t care about if Freak was to give her a fake name or whatever. She knew that a lot of customers were doing so to keep their covers; some whom she recognized being from the navy too from time to time. Yup, yup, good or bad, she didn’t care about what side you were on as long as you were a potential source of money!

She was surprised at first to hear Freak’s name. Freak. What an original one! Was she the one who picked it up or did someone really decided to call her that one day? “ What an original name.” She said with enthusiasm. “Were you the one who picked it?” She questioned still remaining the conversation as casual as usual.

[/justify]

[freak]

No matter how friendly the woman seemed, Freak couldn’t seem to get any of the tension to go out of her body. She didn’t expect to be able to relax fully; she couldn’t do so inside any enclosed space, let alone solid walls and in the presence of strangers, but she usually wasn’t quite this on edge. Perhaps it was the knowledge that she was semi-trapped here, at least until the storm let up (though if she really got antsy, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d been out in a storm). Or maybe it was the fact that the strange woman was talking to her, rather than just leaving her to her own devices as Freak would honestly have preferred.

She simply didn’t know how to talk to people. It hadn’t exactly come up much as she was growing up, considering the circumstances. She hadn’t even had any contact (that she could remember) with anybody but him until she was well over a hundred, which wasn’t exactly a strong base for being able to make small talk. And she could hardly explain that to this woman, now could she? It wasn’t something she even liked to think about, and there was no way she would let any of that out to someone she had just met a few minutes ago, no matter how friendly she seemed.

In fact, friendliness put Freak more on edge than anything else. She was accustomed to largely ignoring strangers, and being ignored by them. It bothered her to have anyone’s attention, even if it seemed positive at the moment. He had fooled plenty of people by acting nice and friendly, but she knew what monstrosities that kind of attitude could hide. The kind of friendliness this woman was showing her just made her wonder why the woman wanted Freak to relax; she half expected her to turn nasty at any moment.

Still, Freak had to admit to herself that that was far from the worst response she’d ever gotten to her name. Most people either took it as an excuse to jeer at her, or asked her why that was her name. The latter made her more uncomfortable; jeers she could handle, but she didn’t like thinking about her past. Freak’s mismatched eyes flicked over to Vera for a moment, searching her face for any signs of patronization or other forms of falsehood, then she looked back at the floor, giving a short nod. ”Yeah. I picked it.” At least she hadn’t asked her why.

Freak did feel a little bad that she was making it so hard for this woman to carry the conversation. So far, she hadn’t seen any sign that the friendliness was concealing anything more sinister. So, after a pause that was just long enough to be somewhat awkward, Freak asked, ”What’s your name?” Not the smoothest, but she was trying, and for Freak that was really saying something.

---

Tagged: Vera
Words: 489 (short omg)

[/blockquote]