Oh what a night

KingFisher went back to the Artemis Club, went to her room and took a long shower.
It had been a truly awful day and she wanted to forget the whole thing.

Flicking through her wardrobe she picked out a lemon yellow play suit, a pair of strappy silver sandles.
Her favourite fake yellow topaz earrings, a faux leather bracers on her wrists. One has a secure pocket for her cred stick with two hundred NuYen on it for spending money. The other contains a card with her address in case she's too drunk to remember it.
A quick squirt of perfume and she's done.
Checking out her appearance in the mirror before heading out for the night.

And what a night. When a shadow runner expects to be dead the following dawn she really cuts loose.
KingFisher went to several bars looking for just the right kind of hottie to take her cares away.
Bought a few drinks, had a few bought for her.
The rest of the night is a blur.
A series of night clubs were involved before she ended up in a retro disco. Dancing away to classic 1970's disco anthems.
She vaguely remembers flirting wildly with an ork and at one point even had the orks face buried in her cleavage.
Nice gal she was too. There's a scrap of memory of sniffing nova coke off someone's arm. Hers, theirs, who knows.

All to soon morning comes. KingFisher finds herself in a strange hotel room. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes while she tries to sober up she looks around.
Two snoring figures in the bed beside her.
Looks like that hot ork had a very good night indeed and a dwarf girl that she doesn't remember.

Looking at her watch she curses to herself, pours herself back into her club clothes and goes to the cafe to meet the team.

She looks a right state.
Dressed in club gear, several buttons are missing, one collar is almost torn off.it isn't obvious if she was involved in a pretty intense fight or some wild passion. Her hair is half perfect clubland cool and half like she was pulled backwards through a hedge.
One earring is missing. She has a big love bite on one side of her neck. A big purple lipstick mark under her chin.
Two smaller bright blue with metallic sparkles on her left cheek and one just peeping out from the top of the playsuit in her cleavage.

She's wearing a pair of silver rimmed mirror shades that she doesn't own or know where they came from.
Slumping into a chair she orders two double strength soycafs and lights a cigarette.

Oh Kami that made everything much better, now to deal with this hangover. Somewhere in the back of her mind Sylvesters Mighty Real booms in her head.

Earlier that night KingFisher sent a short message to Sato.
"Meet me in the Da-Ki-Ri bar, and call me Alice"

The Da-Ki-Ri bar was one of those places the locals were both proud to show off to visitors and yet slightly embarrassed by its awful architecture.
Popular street legend had it that its original owner was a merchant sailor who visited the exotic lands of Cuba. During a particularly frenzied week of shore leave for the vessel to get repairs he returned to his native land when he retired and built this place.
It looks exactly like someone on a heck of a shore leave would consider as a real Cuban beach bar.
Plastic animatronic parrots perch on the branches of artificial trees, nodding in time to music being played. There are tacky sign posts for random cities on the walls, the floor wants to pretend it's sand on distressed wood but after all the years its been here not many would believe that now.
The tables pretend to be the kind of thing you'd find at a Cuban beach bar.
A purist would be appalled but mind you this place is such a landmark for its kitsch that's practically a listed building. Every taxi in the city can find it, this is one of the major meeting points on the cities night scene. There are all kinds of people here most can be divided into 3 groups.
The group waiting for their friends to arrive so they can go somewhere else, those who are killing time before they go somewhere else, and those having a bad night who want to get drunk and join someone another group for a night out.

KingFisher strutted her way up the street to the bar, wolfwhistles cat calls and leering looks follow her.
Security for the night is a dwarf in the standard black uniform bouncers the world over wear on duty. The polo shirt has the company logo on the left breast. He has a gaudy eye patch on his left eye, though whispers in the ladies suggest he uses it with thermal vision to look for guns, drugs and if you're wearing underwear.
The only big no-nos for the bar are no weapons, no drugs on the site, and no astral companions.
A while back some horny mage used to hang out and get his astral companion to peer under a ladies clothes to answer pervy questions to settle lewd bar bets.

She looks at the security who gives her a slow look, then a big smile and stand aside to let her in.
Drifting through the crowd she makes her way to the bar, there one of the men slipped off his barstool and offered it to her.
Horny young men always try this trick as a way to look like they're really gentlemen and not just so horny they were nearly considering humping the furniture.

Taking her seat Alice looks at the collection of earnest young men at the bar.
Some are in aging business suits, must have just got off duty and looking for a drink before bed.
Some are in smart club land gear, giving the sort of smiles like a shark gives a seal that swims into its sights.
Behind the bar a bored looking ork was serving drinks. He had the sort of tight pop shirt beloved of people who really do go to the gym. This guy wasn't vat enhanced, just gym rat ripped.
His name tag said "Rik" though it might have said anything. Who remembers the bartenders name in a place like this.

Alice ordered a light beer and decided to amuse herself flirting with the men around her.
Her smile told the professional eye of the bartender - I'm just having fun I'm not going to take any of these bozos home.
Rik just nodded and poured the drinks.
Teases were great for businesses and they rarely caused any trouble so the management didn't mind them being around.

Alice subtly used her fashion power to slightly alter her outfit if she needed to. Adding an extra inch to the neckline if it prevented too easy a look at her cleavage, shortening the hem if she wanted to tease with a glimpse of her butt.

She waits for Sato to arrive, she has something she wants to talk to him about.
For now she's just killing time, getting the boys to buy her drinks, give her compliments and generally compete to entertain her. The bartender wanted her to stay all night, the tips were racking up nicely as they all wanted to show they were generous to a working stiff.

As Sato leaves his Kyodai's apartment, he breathes a sigh of relief.  While the gang clearly valued him now, he could never shake the thought that one string of bad takes at the casino was all that stood between him and the business end of an APDS slug.  The more setsuzoku he could make within the gang, the higher his chance of surviving such an unpredictable change of luck.  
 
As he steps onto the sidewalk, the sleek form of the Mitsubishi Nightsky glides up to the curb.  The driver's attention to detail was remarkable.  He was clearly living up to the stereotype of all people from Desu - take a common job and seek perfection in it.  The limo had been spotless and the driver was spot-on in his timing.
 
Tonight however, he wants to clear his head and blow off steam.  He will walk home.  It is not far, and the neighborhoods up here are good.  
 
He waves his hand to the driver and says as much through the opened window.  The man, professional to the core, nods curtly and the sleek black car drifts off, only to follow him at a discreet distance in case he cares to change his mind.  He sets off along the sidewalk on the side which gives him glimpses of the commanding view of the lower city - the hubbub and neon lights of the poorer districts both are muted by the fog tonight.

A few blocks away from the apartment, he flicks on his commlink.  A message pops up on AR which prompts a wolfish grin.  

"Honma ni, looks like it won't be a quiet night after all" he mutters to himself as he starts jogging down an alleyway between two buildings.  Two blocks away, the chauffeur starts in his seat and accelerates down the street to keep him in view.

He only has a moment or two out of sight, so he moves quickly.  He removes a flask of sake from his suit pocket and unscrews the cap.  He tilts the flask and uses the stream of liquid to trace a perfect circle around him in the dusty alleyway.  He drones a short Shinto prayer and moves the fingers of his other hand in rhythmic patterns.  

The lone streetlight nearby flickers and a wind picks up, lifting a small dust devil around him as his droning turns into a gravely growl, his muscles swell and his eyes gleam with a feral look.  

The inugami has come.  It was now time to hunt.  

((fortunately the specific instructions he had given the suitmaker were followed to the letter, equipping his clothing with sufficient slack to avoid damage))

Now a passenger in his own body, he commands the spirit to search, picturing Kingfisher's perfume in his mind.  The dog spirit breathes in a deep breath...a torrent of aromas flooding his brain with sensation...but somewhere in there was that cloying scent.

Suddenly, he has a sense of the direction.  

He bounds down the alleyway and makes a running leap off the cliffside, landing nimbly on the rooftop below, shattering a few tiles upon his impact.  Sato doesn't feel anything, his body exulting in its new-found strength and incredible speed as he leaps from rooftop to rooftop down the mountainside bathed in the light of the full moon.

The Nightsky drifts into view at the end of the alleyway, the driver anxiously looking for his charge...but he is nowhere to be found.

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As Sato bounds across the rooftops to more populated areas, his form becomes cloaked in shadow, nearly invisible in the glare of the neon-lit streets, and certainly unnoticed by the countless throngs heading out on a Saturday night.

The shadow-cloaked form pauses every few blocks or so and takes another deep breath to get its bearings.  Soon the garish neon-painted form of the Da-Ki-Ri comes rapidly into view.

Sato leaps over to the rooftop and swings gracefully down through an open window as the shadows wreathing him melt away.  For a heartbeat, he crouches on the windowsill, looking down from the top of the vaulted space at a cacophony of kitschy decor and throngs of people...until all his senses focus on a woman in a yellow dress at the center of it all.

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Kingfisher knows something is amiss when the bartender's eyes flick upwards.

She turns around in her chair just in time to see a form plummet down from the ceiling and land in a crouch a few meters away.

Sato stands up and walks nonchalantly towards her.  His face has a thin sheen of sweat and he appears somehow more feral, more alive, more there than she remembers.  
 
"Hello, Alice."
 
As he leans past her to order a drink at the bar, he growls in a low voice, his breath hot in her ear: "if you and I are going to face death together, we need to begin to trust each other...know everything about each other...work in rhythm....   I have an idea...."

As he grins, she could swear his teeth were whiter than usual.

KingFisher is surprised at how Sato arrived.
Deciding she'd better provide a cover story she stands up.
"Jimmy! You made it. I almost thought you were going to stand me up."
Wrapping her arms around him and placing a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Nice entrance, too many eyes here. Let's walk"


She says and gives a flirtatious wave at those around the bar. Slipping her arm under his, she follows him out into the street.

"You've got me curious, what is your idea?"

"Don't worry Alice, the only person in the room looking at anything else but you was Rik."

Jimmy slides a credstick down the bar and grins.  The ripped ork sweeps it up with one hand and mimes the "zip" gesture over his lips with the other.  

Jimmy wraps an arm familiarly around Alice's waist and the two of them sweep out of the Da-Ki-Ri onto the neon-splashed streets of Nakajuku.  Clubs are packed cheek-to-jowl along a sidewalk teeming with throngs of people.

Instead of joining them, Sato guides her down the alleyway next to the Da-Ki-Ri.  It is narrow and brick-lined and not at all interesting.  

"Where..." she starts to say in a slightly slurred voice.

"Trust me," he interjects and leads forward.

A short dead-end side passage appears in the alleyway, probably the bottom of a fire stairwell for the apartments above.  

At the end of this passage stands a life-size marble statue of a young woman wearing layered clothing and a brace of charms hanging from her belt.  The statue is incredibly detailed, its expression fixed in one of defiance.  

Sato pushes on the fire escape door, exposing a stairwell...but instead of leading upwards, this one only leads down into the earth.  The walls of the stairwell are covered with graffiti which depicts a stylized version of the statue outside and a phrase - "The Alabaster Maiden"

The two descend many stairs and enter what must have been part of an ancient catacomb system.  The ivy-covered brick walls are lit with sputtering neon from abstract light sculptures hanging from the vaulted ceiling.  A few normies sit at a makeshift bar, but a massive crowd is on the dance floor, gyrating frenetically...in complete silence.  A raised stage houses 3 performers doing a silent pantomime of a show, gyrating in rhythm with the crowd.  The entire club so quiet you could hear a pin drop.  

Sato holds his hand in front of Kingfisher, palm up.  He is holding two capsules.

"Oh eX," she says dismissively.  "What am I sixteen years old?"

"Look closer"

Indeed, the material in the capsules in his hand doesn't look like the iridescent crystals of eX, it's a sparkly yellow powder instead...perhaps the pollen of some flower.  As she starts to shift her senses to the astral, she sees the yellow powder begin to glow strongly...and then she is awash with sound, heat and light - the band is performing on the astral plane and they are amazing.  The trio expertly weave mana into a tapestry of sensations which permeates every sense with ecstatic bliss.

"Better than eX...it's Galak," his breath is hot on her face now.  

"Do you trust me?" he asks, gives her another wolfish grin and holds a pill out for her to take in her mouth.

Behind him, the music reaches a crescendo, beckoning them to the dance floor.

((I'm ripping off my favorite SR Seattle club - there's a few SR newbies in the playerbase that may have never heard of it))

KingFisher looks at the wolfishly smiling face in front of her.
She was going to just talk and see what he'd tell her
Feint heart never won the prize she thought.
"Are you trying to seduce me? I might surprise you"

Taking the powdery pollen in her left hand, copying how Sato consumed the drug.
Feeling the music crash into her psyche like a foaming sea wave carrying her away with it.

The two take the pills in unison...the capsules dissolving instantly, coating their tongues with a gritty powder.  A tiny amount draws down into their lungs with each breath.

The wave of sensation changes - before there were 5 distinct sensations, now they combine into synesthesia - all 5 senses merged together into a single consciousness entity that rises inside.

"Look at me" he whispers/draws and she feels/tastes him place his hand with his thumb in front of her ear and his fingers around the back of her head, cradling it.

She meets his gaze and the two feel their consciousness plummet into each others' pupils, bathed in the warm sounds of the performers.

"You have been erratic.  I feel you are afraid of something.  It is OK to tell me, I will not judge," his voice vibrates/whispers inside her chest. Everything is warm and good.

KingFisher felt like she was floating in a vast cloud, weightless, safe, warm.
Her voice sounds slightly flat, like her ego has stepped out for a few moments. There's a strong sense of a masque being set aside.

"I'm not at my best these last two days. I'm a little annoyed at Rosa for endangering us with a job that's not our area. Monster hunters are better at this.

The beast is like a Nightmare. I use spells, spirits and my smile. Now I only have my smile. It fills me with terror. Like my first night not sleeping in the orphanage. Things don't feel right. "

Floating in the sound half confessing what's on her mind.
"I'm angry at the priest and myself for allowing our pride to get in the way. Very silly of us."

Taking a deep breath, almost seeing the colour of her breath streaming from her in the Astral.
"A runner should be an asset to their team and I haven't been lately. I'm a little ashamed by that.
I don't see a way to make up the ground."

Half closing her eyes as she drifted in the warm cloud, slowly waving her hands back in forth in front of her eyes. Little streaks of coloured smoke follow her moving hands.
She giggles softly.

"I have a secret from them. At least I think I do.
Have to be careful with it, very dangerous to tell it.
Have to say it's a Kami of change and manipulation.
Have to be subtle, have to be careful."

For a moment she dances oh so slowly, like grass waving in a gentle breeze.
It might be the first time she's taken this stuff.

Sato watched Kingfisher dance in place, her body undulating sinuously in unconscious response to the astral stimuli.  She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, but he forced himself to focus.  

He placed his other hand on the other side of her face, cradling it in both his hands, his face filling her vision as they locked in on each others' eyes, pupils fully dilated and the blackness of the void of space behind them.  When he spoke, she felt it resonate in the deepest part of herself.

"You cannot think to do it all by yourself.  We are a team...if we all believe and play our part, we will win...we will vanquish the darkness together, but we have to believe.  We are together in this, the lone wolf will not survive, the pack must hunt together."

"Your part is to use your magic to activate the ofuda, the device that will stun the beast.  It is my part to take it to put down the beast, it is also my part to protect you.  I swear my solemnest oath, if we die, we die together, but I promise you, I will give everything I have, every ounce of ability, every moment of decades of training to ensure that doesn't happen.  Also, we will have a failsafe, a second team that will do the same thing...together."

She looked down, whispering her confessions...colored smoke streaming from her mouth and wreathing her form as it flickers between shapes, some human, some beast, some unknowable.

His hand moved to stroke her forehead, lingering on the edge of her hairline.  The touch caused warmth to blossom inside her and she looked up again and locked in on his eyes.

It was a different sort of thing than she was used to with another, but it shared the sense of surrender and abandonment.  This was truth, this was surety, this was trust.

"Your secret is safe with me...it is one we share."

For a few moments, the throngs of awakened revelers got to see the fox and the dog dance with each other, spirits intertwined.