Description: Target: Tip and bill money left unattended atop tables. Obstacle: A Red Witch. Alias: None. Summary: Following up on a gig that's more amusing than it is profitable, Ayame is annoyed to find another unscrupulous type cutting in on her action. Attempts to confront or otherwise deal with the red-hatted woman prove more challenging than she had expected up front. Thus begins the strangest con ever.
In spite her somewhat punkish appearance, Ayame absolutely doesn't belong at a club. At least, not as a normal patron. Dancing and socializing are lost on her and she doens't much care for the obnoxiously loud music that vibrates the walls with it's violent barrage of noise. In fact, she considers the entire concept of a dance club rather incomprehensible.
But that doesn't mean she can't find her own things to do at just such a locale. Letting herself in through a vent on the roof, the girl crawls around in the rafters supporting the high ceiling. Crawling around up there, the girl occasionally makes small openings by moving aside the plaster tiles and peeks way down below at the tables in the dinning areas around the edges of the dance floor.
Her targets are the tips left beyind on the round tables or at the bar. A mini-crossbow on her right wrist has a bolt with a suction cup on the end and a thin wire on the other end. Whenever she sees a bill that looks worth the trouble, the girl simply shoots the bolt down with pin-point accuracy and reels the bill back up in a flash before anyone can figure out what just happened. One after another, constantly on the move, the girl keeps scoping out the different tables for money to steal. It's not the best gig around, but she's been having a rough weekend and this trick will suffice...
Night clubs were often considered meat markets. People got together with the plan of bumping and grinding and all of this somehow had to do with meat. The witch supposed this had something to do with ground beef and maybe making some sweet burgers, but she didn't see how. What she did know was getting in was a matter of asking someone to pay her cover with a sweet smile and then slide up to the bar to get some people to buy her drinks. This wasn't what she really wanted though, as it turned out, the free meals and drinks were great, but she was after something even more special. She was after the t- What the snap?
Did the witch totally just see her intended target a, a crisp clean bill vanish from before her very shades? Granted the club wasn't lit for wearing shades, but, man that's crazy. She does however get the next one. Nothing too fancy, she literally just walks by a table with a tip on it and picks said tip up. exit
Zip. Up comes the next bill as Ayame pulls it off, folds it in half, and slips it into a small clip of the bills she's been collecting. Ayame scoots over a little, peeking down. Ah hah, that one looks good- hey. HEY. The girl stares at the top of the red hatted woman down below that just stole HER bill like some kind of no good thief!
Ayame squints and then speeds up, scooting over to the next opening she made to peek down. Her crossbow loaded and aimed, she watches as a couple of guys throw their money down in the middle of the table. But Naerose seems near as well. Grr. She'll have to beat her to it! *plink* goes the crossbow as she launches the bolt down toward the top of the bills.
Witch hatted girl? No way, Naerose is the real deal, the true witchy witch witch. Also, she's on the prowl. There are tips to be had. Now you might wonder why Naerose feels it's okay to steal from poor underpaid wait staff. The truth is she doesn't see it as stealing, but that would take a long explanation that has nothing to do with what is going on. Suffice to say she knows there is a fishy thing, some sort of sixth sense. That or she sees the bolt hit the bills.
"Oh no you don't!" Cries the witch, causing some people to look up as she totally makes a grab for the bolt.
"Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, I am like trained at this or something, what we have here.. is aliens!" Naturally this causes many of them to look away, cause first you can not hear people in clubs, and second becauase if you could she just sounds high or drunk. As it turns out she's neither, just insane.
The second Naerose reaches out and grabs hold of the bolt, Ayame's eyes widen. What kind of crazy security is this!? Quickly, she releases the wire, leaving Naerose holding a bolt with a suction cup and a loose wire attached to it as the entire length of it falls down from the opening in the ceiling.
Scooting away from the hole, Ayame scowls. What's the deal with that interloper down there? She's trying to edge her way in on the action, it seems. And she's down closer to the tables, which makes it all the easier. A competitor. "Hmph," the girl grunts as she debates retreating for another site. But then she gets another plan. She knows how to deal with petty thieves... due to, ah, being one.
Falling back, Ayame crawls to the edge of the rafters and drops down behind the stage where the DJ is. Scooting around the edge of the room, the girl slips in close to the tables, lingering right nearby Naerose, just quietly waiting for things to calm down and for the woman wearing shades indoors to get back to sneaking off with people's money... She's patient.
She better be patient, cause the Red witch just totally found a brand new toy, in the way of a cool bolt with a suction cup on the end and is this a wire? Neat! The witch is totally gonna play with this thing. So first she decides to see how suctiony it is. She sticks it to the lenses of her shades. It sticks. She tries to pull it off. It stays stuck. Aw man. She forgets about the wire and gets tangled in it Her broom (which she has been carrying the whole time) gets all stuck to her hand and she only just gets the bolt off and drops it. . Someone snares it on their foot and then the witch is dragged away from the table, and some tips. Reaching a hand out she's like
"Hey wait, woah stop!" But the fella with the bolt stuck to their foot can't hear her and starts dancing. This pulls on the line and causes the witch to a-stir and start spinning trying to untagle and it LOOKS like she's breaking it down weird style.
Clasping her hands behind her back, having already pulled the long arm wrap on her right arm over the mini crossbow to keep it concealed from sight, Ayame watches Naerose carefully, expecting the red-clad one to return to what she had been up to... Imagine her surprise when Naerose does nothing of the sort but rather manages to critically fail using the bolt in any way that makes sense.
"What are you DOING?" the girl asks, hands clenching tightly as she boggles at the strange antics of the odd woman. She doesn't quite realize that some of Naerose's actions are dictated by the wire being caught by the fellow dancing over a little ways. Whether or not her voice can be even heard over the club is hard to say.
"You don't even know how to use that. This is emberassing." she mutters, covering her face with her hand. It's so painful to see her pride and joy subjected to such a clumsy act.
"Heeeeeelp!" The witch says as it totally gets worse and she's like set to spin a little more. Her broom sweeps a table off, sending some dishes a clatter and then, hey is that a tip? Naerose totally snatches that up in mid turn. Then just like that she's unwrapped, the wire having undone itself. She's totally glad and doesn't notice Ayame. Or maybe she does, winks over the rims of her round shades and walks off to the next table. It's all done so ridiculously that as the staff go to clean up her mess all annoyed about it, they probably don't notice her snatching up more tips.
And off Naerose goes again, only... there seems to be a method to her madness. The girl's eye is quick to pick up the money being pilfered from the tables the insane woman bumbles past. Only now, instead of calling her out as a thief and trying to get her ejected from the building or arrested, she doesn't think she can so much as be anywhere /near/ her without drawing way more attention to herself than she cares to.
Her expression hardens, silently glaring back at the woman as she continues her antics. It's a pretty decent gig, she has to admit. Not her style exactly, but... Surely no one would suspect a thing. "Either she's brilliant or she's retarded," the girl mutters, bringing her hand up to rest against the back of her head, fingers digging into her long hair as she muses her next move.
Then it happens, a waitress totally sees the witch picking up HER tip. This is of course worse then like a matter of mere territorial trespassing. So the waitress starts stomping up to Naerose and Naerose looks up and she's like ohnoes! So she like sits down and the Waitress gets ready to give her a licking when Naerose totally orders some food. Of course this confuses the waitress, but lets face it, the witch is hungry. Right? So .. The waitress walks away. The witch leans back in her chair, shoving some cash into her hat, seems to be where she keeps stuff and - is that a rabbit? Couldn't be.
A passing clubber seems to be down on his luck picking up chicks. Naerose is nice though so she gives him a smile. This must be his lucky day. She leans back. He sits down. She strikes up a conversation.
"Hey whats your name?" He asks,
"What?" She replies,
"Whats your name?!?" the man tries shouting again,
"Yeah, you can pay for my order!." The witch replies.
He smiles and nods. She gets up and leaves, moving to another section of club.
Ayame is perfectly still as all this develops. Which seems out of place in a building full of people constantly on the move. Somehow she has claimed that small sphere of space around her as her territory and no one seems inclined to enter it. The girl folds her arms in front of her, bristling a little as Naerose goes about her antics. She knows a con when she sees one. The red-clad woman isn't just a petty thief, she's pretty content to manipulate people as well. Ayame can relate, even if her tactics aren't really remotely similar.
There's really nothing worth sticking around here for, however. The amount of money being left unattended is sure to drop like a rock as people start realizing something's going on. And that that something has to do with the woman who most people have to imagine is drunk by now. Or high. Maybe drugs can be blamed.
But what if she's here tomorrow too? And the night after? What if this rich opportunity has been ruined just because of some loony who thinks she's a witch? "Halloween was yesterday, freakshow," the girl mutters to herself, tapping her fingers against her opposite arm.
But then she gets an idea of her own. One that happens to be more /her/ style. Weaving her way through the crowd, the girl draws near to the bouncers at the main entrance. The face she presents them with is a very distraught looking Asian teenaged female. One who has had her money stolen right out from in front of her even. Sharing her plight with the bouncers, she points toward the red hat moving amidst the crowd, and even makes sure to let them know that they'll find all the stolen money in that very distinct headwear. The bouncers look very serious as they move away from Ayame, forcing their way through the crowd as they advance on Naerose. In their wake, Ayame folds her arms in front of her chest again, that expression designed to pull men to her aid replaced with a smug smirk.
Oh the clever damsel in distress defense. Surely some attempt at looking cute isn't going to save Naerose now. Her spidey sense tingles, which of course means either she's hungry or.. she heads to the bathroom. This is clearly by chance right? She didn't see the bouncers or anything, so she must of just wanted to go over there and by the way she bumps into things, it's pretty clear she can't see much through those dark shades in a darkish nightclub. She enters the bathroom. Burly men bouncers? Do not. As much as they would love to catch a thief, the fact is they can't go and piss off the other female costumers. Instead they decide to wait outside, posted like, looking big mean and scary. Fact is? There is no sneaking by. Time passes.
More time passes.
The witch starts to come out and notices the bouncers before they notice her. Why? Well they wouldn't be staring in the bathroom right? They have other costumers too but man she knows when the Popo are onto her. The witch totally ducks back into the bathroom with a look that communicates clearly her sudden freak out moment of
"Oh snap!"
*In the bathroom*
She totally saw this on some movie. The witch starts using the soap to write on the mirror. Except it's liquid soap, not bar soap. She just makes a mess of the mirrors.
More time passes.
Trapped. Albeit, in a place where the bouncers won't go. Ayame sees the events unfold, an annoyed expression slipping in again as she starts to consider how to resolve this next problem. "Hmn." Breathing in, she approaches the two burly, thick armed bouncers outside of the girl's restroom, hands clasped behind her back as she starts to express how worried she is that they aren't getting her stolen money back. They explain their condundrum, however, not wanting to just barge into the restroom and make a scene without some more evidence to back up the disruption it would cause.
Ayame taps her cheek thoughtfully, before suggesting to the two of them that they redirect all approaching females toward the restroom on the other side of the building, citing 'plumbing problems' for the inconvenience. And once the room is empty other than the red witch, they can go in! The two readily agree to the suggestion, but state that they have no idea how many people are inside still that they'll need to wait on.
The girl bites her lower lip thoughtfully, before finally agreeing to go in and take a headcount and report back. Thus Ayame steps into the room only to pause and watch Naerose trying to spell something out with rapidly smearing soap. "..." She waits by the door for the room to slowly empty out before stepping in further. Ayame ahems, perhaps hoping to draw attention back to herself now, "Give me half of the money in your hat and I'll help you get out of this. Refuse, and I'll have to explain to the bouncers outside that you slipped and had an unfortunate slip on a wet spot and bashed your head through that porcelain sink. And you'll be out the whole lot." She raises her left hand in front of her as if idly inspecting her nails, while her right hand reaches toward a thin sheath woven into the belt of her skirt. "Well?"
This catches Naerose totally off guard, one moment she was trying to spell help on the mirror, the next. . She stares at Ayame. She adjusts her shades, leans on her broom, stares some more. The girl is speaking to her, but her ears are ringing so much it's like she can't hear anything. Finally though she takes in her dress, her showing off a sheath in the belt of her skirt. Gears click together.
"So like you're an asian mass-use? Something like that, hey girlie, look I really hate to break it to you but I totally don't swing that way. But if you're looking for someone who does, there is this girl I met, kinda punk rock like you. I think she was in V for Veggitables or something, it was british, anyway, she'd totally be down I bet." The witch says and sort of flicks her hands as if this was a simple misunderstanding.
"Hey come to think of it, I'm a reporter, I could do a piece on bathroom congressmen scandals." She pulls out an index card with the word 'Press' in red crayon and sticks it on her hat.
That wasn't exactly the response Ayame was looking for, to say the least. Naerose's remarks cause her to frown slightly at first. Dodging the issue by sounding insane and tossing out little distracting barbs? Hmph. "Look, you can't fool me, I know-" And then comes the mention of being a reporter and the long haired girl freezes. She hadn't expected that angle.
She literally turns around in a complete circle as if inspecting the room for any cameras that might have been set up by this supposed 'reporter', before turning back toward Naerose, her expression having shifted, both of her hands raised in front of her as she looks far less certain about her previous approach. Maybe this whole thing was some kind of really weird sting operation just to 'make news' for tomorrow's papers or something. "A reporter, you say. I didn't think that-"
And then she eyes the crayon scribbled card on Naerose's hat and twitches, "You're not a reporter. Playing insane isn't going to work with me. I know you got a whole ton of money stuffed into that hat of yours."
She is too a reporter, "I am too a reporter!" she states, reaches into said hat, rummages around a moment and pulls out a camera. It's a cheap camera, but a camera all the same.
*click* *flash*
"I can see it now, Japanese parliament scandal as young dottir of influential Japanese house lower house member is caught soliciting innocent sweet maidens for immoral activities in rest rooms." She takes another picture out.
"Are your actions a cry for attention? Or perhaps are you trying to make a statement about the growing concern over unhealthy long Japanese workweeks? Or are you just depraved. I totally saw this in that movie with Brad Pitt where you were like all showing no no's to a police officer who was investigating your father for a gun he sold to a man who sold it to a kid who shot a sheep with it who Brad Pitt was married to. . . Okay it made more sense when I saw the movie."
Ah, off comes the hat. It looks like Naerose is ready to surrender to Ayame's terms after all. At last, this night isn't going to be a wash. "About time." she states, resting her hands at her hips.
But it isn't money but a camera that she draws out instead. The girl blinks as the flash fills the room for an instant, realizing slowly that the woman is taking her pictures. "What are you spouting?! Give me that!" Ayame exclaims as she lunges for Naerose, aiming to backhand the camera out of her hands.
Maybe she /is/ a reporter, for some crazy tabloid that makes up everything as they go. She certainly talks to the talk. But the kid isn't intending to let the crazy woman take off with photos of her if she can help it.
Well it wouldn't be the first time someone stole/broke or bashed Naerose over the head with her own camera. This was why she often got cheap cameras that did not hurt to get hit with. Another thing she should invest in is a camera strap, but since she hasn't, it goes flying.
"Hey!" the witch cries as she loses the camera, but not the tape recorder. Oh for the record, Naerose has a TERRIBLE case of hat hair.
"That's mine. " She says with a pout, but it quickly turns into a smile.
"Woah, this totally means I'm onto something! You're the actress who starred in Babel reliving your film in real life. This is like that Perfect something movie. We'll go with Perfect Burgundy. Oh I'm so gonna cash in here." $$'s fill her shades.. Or they would if this was a cartoon. The camera, for the moment, is forgotten about.
The camera goes flying and Ayame scoots to stand between Naerose and where the piece of journalism equipment landed as if to keep the red witch from retrieving it. But as she moves into the new position, Naerose seems to get over being upset pretty quickly.
"Well, you should've thought of that before you started taking pictures before asking!" she replies only to fall quiet as Naerose veers off on another random tangent. "Who? I-. What are you talking about?" Ayame begins to regret even stepping into this room with the red-clad wonder.
Taking a couple steps backward, she scoops the camera up off the floor. Yeah, it looks pretty cheap. Too cheap to belong to a real reporter, in her mind. "This one of those disposable cameras or something? What a joke," the girl sighs, throwing her hands into the air, feeling exasperated for the first time in a long while. "Fine! Whatever you stole isn't worth this!" she continues before stomping forward past Naerose again, clearly intending to head back out of the restroom.
"Stole? Hey I'm not a thief. I mean if you must know I was busing the tables and I totally put everything I bused where it belonged.. In that thing where they put the monies they bus.." She points to one of the common things you find in some restrooms, a dispenser of stuff. This one happens to contain some useful things to have in the bathroom if you needed to reapply makeup. Apparently Naerose had managed to spend it all there in the time she was in the bathroom.
"So it isn't like I got any cash." The witch says and tries to head out past Ayame, right into the arms of a couple of waiting bouncers.
"Hey wait, I'm totally being set up!" She tries to explain, but they're totally like :|a
True to her word though when they search her they find in fact no money, just a bunch of single use beauty supplies and a rabbit shoved in her hat. They decide to kick her out anyway.
On the way out she is dragged (yes dragged, she doesn't walk, they have her by the arms and she drags her feet) .. anyway, dragged by the table with the man waiting for her to rejoin him with her ordered meal.. She manages to snatch a french fry before getting thrown out the front door onto the street.
"Hey!" she cries,
"I'll.. I'll.. I'll sue!"
"Che," Ayame grunts as Naerose is found to not have any money on her at all and instead is getting dragged off by the bouncers who believe her stories about as much as the blond girl does. Foiled in the end. "She's tricky," the girl ponders. Perhaps the most tricky yet ineffective con she's ever seen. After all, what made her decide to shove all that money into the stupid vending machine...
Ayame blinks as the bouncers finish ejecting the red-hatted one, a slow smile working its way into her expression as her right hand slips beneath the wrist guard on her left arm and withdraws the two thin components of a lock picking set. She begins to hum idly, the sound easily drown out by the normal ambient noise of the club, and turns on her heels to head back toward the restroom. Sounds like it's time to see just how much money Naerose actually DID spend in there.
Log created on 23:38:52 11/01/2007 by Ayame, and last modified on 02:58:51 11/02/2007.