4. POL FINNIC

Cass took up an akimbo stance in front of the Blackwyse’s looming vert sign in the Theatre. She moved a sullen gaze across the unreasonably long line, and made notice that Pol Finnic -- the mark -- and his entourage were already gone. Cass swiped up into thin air, accessing her vert-messenger app to double-check with Rook that the mark indeed made it into the club in the short amount of time that she had spent leaving the veranda pub, and walking a few building lengths to the ’Wyse.

Yeah, they got in through the short list, Rook VMed back, with a generic anonymous shadow as his display pic.

Cass brought a glance over to the front of the line, where there were two pleb doormen and an attractive doorwoman who made Cass feel like blushing. The three bouncers were sporting rockin avatars that looked like top-o-the-credit-line quality. Their avatars were decked in the most fashionable Westerson leathers, but in code form, overlaying their regular poly-flak security jackets, combat sweats, and leather combat boots.

Approaching the VIP line, unsure and worried of her clout these days, Cass eyed up the two male bouncers, not recognizing either of them by sight, or by the data she’d been gleaning off of her EYE-ris. The woman, however, she recognized instantly.

It was Mae Silver, which made Cass feel all tingly inside, having remembered those nights of steamy passion after leaving the ’Wyse. Memories of clawing at one another’s naked backs. Moaning in harmonious unison. Cass felt the desire for such a tryst, inspecting Mae’s dark skin, elegant cheekbones, and long black hair, swept to one side to reveal the all too trendy side-shave on one side of her head. 

Mae was a tall, strong woman. The kind of woman that Cass fantasized about being overpowered and choked by. The kind she fantasized about being forced to the edge of safety words by. And in truth, maybe she did want to be pushed even past her safety words.

With Mae, the safety word was queen. And Cass had loved saying it. Loved it, that is, until the tryst stopped.

Mae made eyes with Cass, distracted from scanning the line by the sight of a shell-shocked Cass standing just a few metres off from the transparent hologram barrier that read ‘VIP’ both in and out of the Theatre. Cass’ ebony goddess blinked a few times.

“Is my vert deceiving me,” Mae called out with excitement, “is that really Cassie?”

Cass couldn’t help herself from smiling, and feeling that glowy feeling she always used to feel with Mae. “Yeah, uh, I go by Cass now.” 

She walked nearer to the barrier, which was now beckoning her to enter, displaying text in the Theatre that read, ‘Welcome back, Cassie.’

The two hulkish doormen looked momentarily confused, having never seen Cass at the ’Wyse �" Cass’ days as a regular had passed at least a couple of years ago, and turnover for doormen was pretty quick at any of the clubs in Blackwyrm. Mae, the supervisor of security, waived their confusion off, and they returned their focus on the longer line, frisking clubgoers, and scanning citizen IDs. 

Cass didn’t know what to expect from Mae once she crossed the barrier, since they had parted on not so honest terms. Once Cass had started dipping below a healthy weight from spending tons of time in virt, she was used to being ghosted when her old pics didn’t match up with the new her. But in the case of the perfect Mae Silver, it was Cass who had done the ghosting.

Cass stood in front of the taller, stronger woman, anticipating anything. The butterflies in the pit of her stomach exploded when Mae took her in a warm embrace.

“You stickin around for awhile?” Mae asked, smiling down at Cass with perfectly aligned white teeth.

Another VM popped up from Rook, and Cass blinked it into view. Very cute. But please keep the task at hand in mind, girl. Cass frowned, and Mae misunderstood it for discomfort at being hugged. Mae withdrew, pulling the butterflies out of Cass’ stomach as if there were magnetic butterfly forces at work.

“Yeah, I mean.” Cass stumbled to think of what to say next. “For a little while anyway.”

“Well, if you’re still around when I get off work, I wouldn’t mind catching up,” Mae stated -- a question with an assumed response. 

Cass gushed at Mae’s confidence, and shook her head, minutely aware that this was the worst time to hope at rekindling a former spark. Once again, Mae took notice, mistaking Cass’ lack of self-awareness for disinterest. On noticing her fumble, Cass responded in quick and nervous bursts, “Oh. Uhm. Catch up, yeah-yeah. I think. I think I can meet you later.”

Mae gave her back a less-than-enthused smile that betrayed her confidence. “Alright. Later.” She stepped aside, forcing herself to maintain the half smile, and gestured for Cass to enter. “Welcome to the Blackwyse.”

---

Inside the club, Cass took a few moments to scan all of the beautiful avatars, and then, all of the beautiful people who didn’t need or want avatars. Despite her own avatar being in the higher percentile of desirability, she felt like she didn’t belong -- clubbing just wasn’t her anymore. She was, after all, not into social situations of any kind, let alone this kind.

As for the room itself, it was full of flashing lights of all the primary colours, with neon streamers in odd and geometric corners, all positioned to illuminate the writhing bodies on the dancefloor, while keeping the rest of the club as dark as comfortably possible.

Cass inched her way to the edge of the dancefloor, where all of the other creepers stared at people they wished they were grinding up against. The circle of creepers, Cass thought of it, and looked on at the mostly male bodies frollicking on the dancefloor. 

Not too far from the edges, she noticed the mark, Pol Finnic, dancing, and practically eye-f*****g one of the other men from his little entourage. Cass watched on, trancelike, at the gropiness of their ritual, and realized that she was also eye-f*****g the both of them. Surd’s sake Cass, get a grip of yourself, you creeper, she thought, rationalizing that neither of them were interested in girls, while she was only barely interested in guys.

It had been so long since she’d been intimate, that she couldn’t help but fantasize about anyone strong enough to dominate her. Someone to put her in her place like a naughty little street urchin, which, she definitely considered herself to be. She sidled herself into another spot on the edge of the dancefloor, preparing to drop some liquid from the vial, and into the drink that Pol Finnic was sloshing around as he danced. She made a few awkward attempts to reach closer, but finding herself to be too obvious, she kept pulling back before anyone noticed her comically unnatural reaching.

“There’s gotta be a better way to do this,” she mumbled to herself amidst the blaring electrophile tunes. “What would the Blackwyrm Bandit do?” she whispered to herself, as if she couldn’t totally tap into the Bandit’s headspace �" which wasn’t surprising to her, considering it had been such a long time.

Considering the dancefloor, she knew she would have to get in there if she were going to spike the drink. She stared at the concerted effort of sloppy dancers, hivelike in their coordination, and it dawned on her. She used to play that popular dancing game, Danze Stars in the public vert arcades, and like anything virtual, she was pretty damned good at it.

Swiping, and searching through her AR apps, she quickly threw a projection of the dance pad onto her personal AR stream, so as no one else could see it. She pieced the pad together with a plugin that would recognize the song being played, and flash images of the steps onto her overlay.

Taking a deep breath, and making sure the vial was still secure in the sleeve of her windbreaker, she jumped out onto the dancefloor and did what she did best. Cass played a game.

Turning her dilemma into a game that she was good at, Cass found that dancing in such a way was no problem. She took note of other avatars in her near vicinity, unaware of her private Danze Stars pad. They eyed her moves up candidly. Cass added some flair into each choreographed step, remembering to throw her hips into it, just like setting the high score at the public vert arcade. She looked up at onlookers who smiled in approval, and she smiled back. 

It felt good, which she had not anticipated.

On the other hand, she also noted that those without avatars �" those not accessing the Theatre �" weren’t paying her any attention at all. She looked over at Pol Finnic, only a couple of bodies away, and analyzed from his intense stare over the boy in front of him, that he couldn’t care less about anything else going on around him, let alone her. He never looked over in her direction. Not even peaking away from his friend for a glance at anybody else. He was wholly devoted in those moments of sweaty dancing, to the prize in front of him.

Despite that Cass could live with a hunky guy noticing her, she kept reminding herself that she preferred the affection of women. Women like Mae Silver. And she certainly wouldn’t want to be noticed by the person she was trying to drug. 

Sliding closer with some side steps, Cass spun back to back with Pol Finnic, where a chibi-maid avatar danced in front of her. The chibi-maid performed strange but fitting moves, emulating the use of a feather-duster, which she pantomimed all over Cass’ avatarial vert-version of herself. Cass ran her tongue in circles around her own lips, taunting the chibi-maid, who then stroked her own impossibly large virtual anime breasts. Cass, being coy, half pretended to be into it, while the other half actually succumbed to being into it.

Using the energy from the brief cartoon fantasy exchange, Cass turned, ready to spike the drink and move out of the mark’s orbit. But instead found herself dancing less enthusiastic, and dumbfounded on the dancefloor. Pol Finnic wasn’t there.

S**t, s**t, s**t. Cass froze, and spun her head with sudden panic. Glaring around with EYE-ris, she breathed a sigh at the sight of the mark, who was dance-walking toward the bar with his recipient eye-fuckee in tow. 

She turned her line of sight to the bar, and was struck by another jolt of panic to see the chaperone from outside staring straight back at her, with a similarly blue glowing EYE-ris. For some reason, though, he didn’t have his avatar equipped. Cass took note of it, because not wearing an avatar was out of the ordinary for anyone using EYE-ris at a club.

Leaving the dancefloor, Cass got out of the chubby guy’s line of sight. Turning back to look at the chaperone, she relaxed with a heavy exhale, realizing he was just staring aimlessly into the dancefloor. Probably a creeper, she convinced herself, and turned her attention back to Pol Finnic, who was still approaching the bar at a snail’s pace while deep in conversation with his companion.

Quick thinking led Cass to start accessing the mark’s private data �" no small task for most people in such a busy space. Except Cass was not most people. She excelled in such types of high-stakes hacking. With ease, she managed to break into Pol Finnic’s credit records, seeing that when he drank at the Blackwyse, he almost always purchased weijiu-sodas. With this additional information, she began generating a new plan.

At the bar, there was an empty space between Pol Finnic and the creeper chaperone who was still staring out and ogling the dancing avatars. 

Turning her attention to the bar, she exchanged glances with a caucasoid twink bartender, wearing his dyed blond hair in a top knot, and sporting five o’clock shadow that betrayed his true colours. The two stared at one another for a while, both considering some forgotten familiarity before the bartender finally gasped and smiled. 

“Is that Cassie?” the young bartender shouted across the blaring bass beat.

“Shilo!” Cass recognized him in turn. “You’re still here!” She was truly excited to see another friendly face. Even moreso, because the familiarity with Shilo made her stick out a little less between the men at either side of her.

“You still dressin up like Jessie in vert?” Shilo leaned closer, and laughed to himself, at Cass’ expense.

“Come on buddy! I was never dressing up like Jessie.”

“Yeah yeah, lying b***h,” he joked back. “Let me guess, you’re still drinking those dad beers?”

Cass shook her head no, despite the truth that she actually did still drink dad beers. “Weijiu soda.”

“Comin right up.” Shilo spun a glass around, preparing the simple drink with practiced ease. “When did you switch to Jessie’s drink too?”

Miming a gagging action, and pointing a finger at her tongue, Cass laughed back. “I told you, I’m not tryna be Jess.”

“Right right. Weijiu soda for ya. Lyin b***h. On me just this one time. Good to see you back. Hope you bring Jessie around sometime.”

Cass took a sip, winked at Shilo, and forced herself not to gag. She hated weijiu, and she also hated being compared to Jessie �" but that would be a story for another day.

Cass turned around and leaned her back against the bar. Looking out of the corner of her eye, she examined what the mark was doing next to her. For all that she could tell, he was only waving an arm around, shout-talking with his companion, while sloshing his drink as he half-leaned on his propped up elbow. She then looked out of the corner of her other eye, to confirm that the chaperone was indeed still creeping on the club’s occupants. Taking care not to be seen, she slipped the vial’s contents into her own drink, and out of curiosity, took a quick sip. Too curious not to at least have a taste, she reasoned, internally.

She waited a short while, gauging Pol Finnic’s movements, and as he gestured wildly, she turned abruptly, shouldering his hand. She watched on as the contents occupying the glass ended up splashing out all over the companion he had been talking with for the last several minutes.

“What the f**k, Pol!” his friend stormed off to the bathroom.

The mark turned to Cass, with fiery rage in his eyes, and Cass felt suddenly helpless, like she had made a terrible mistake and miscalculation. Pol Finnic must have noticed the fearful animal-in-headlights look in her eyes, and slumped his shoulders in a shrug as he gauged her patheticness. “It’s alright.”

Relieved, Cass responded, “Oh no, uh, let me at least buy you a replacement drink. It was my fault.” 

The mark turned by a quarter and nodded in approval while trying to hide his eye-rolling. “Weijiu soda.”

“Oh hey!” Cass held out her drink. “That’s actually what I just ordered.”

Pol Finnic, shrugged, and reached for the drink. In those few moments, Cass felt the anxiety of near success, about to reach a threshold of breaking. She watched herself, moving in slow motion, feeling the heat welling up in her forehead. Feeling like she was about to burst into a spontaneous fit of combustion, just on account of the friction of the pressure. And then something stopped her from handing the drink off. Was it her conscience, she wondered? 

No, she thought, as she dropped her head down to see that there was a large male hand gripped onto her wrist.

Spinning on her heels, she turned to see that it was the creeper chaperone grabbing her forearm.

“Finnic, I think you’ve had enough,” the chaperone shared his thoughts, which didn’t appear to actually just be an opinion, but a stern order.

“Oh come on Dan.”

“Finnic, enough. You drank half a bottle of weijiu before we even got here.”

“Okay, okay, fine.” Pol Finnic, who apparently just went by Finnic, turned away, and trudged off toward the men’s washroom in pursuit of his soiled companion.

Cass turned to look at this ‘Dan’ fellow, who was succeeding in playing the part of chaperone. Matching eyes with him, she was taken aback by his whirring EYE-ris, glowing down at her like a bright blue spotlight in the dark club.

“So, you used to be a Kringle, huh?” Dan asked, already knowing the answer.

Great, Cass thought, and forced a crooked smile. He’s a hacker, she said to herself, realizing that the guy was looking through all of her private, and very secure personal data.

The hacker held out a hand, offering a handshake. “You can call me BD.”

Reviews

[Wathanya.5KY3]

This chapter is making things more interesting, albeit with a few issues. I think you are doing a good job at keeping the story thrilling with close calls like when Cass almost lost Finnic and with the twist at the end, also I was pleasantly surprised at Cass' kinkiness, as a fellow Kinkster. One last thing: I knew it! Cass was the Blackwyrm Bandit!

Now, onto the tiny issues I mentioned:

1. There were a few places where your m-dashes became this: �"

2. The apostrophes in speech that I mentioned a few chapters back

3. I'm more familiar with "safe words" and not "safety words," but I'm assuming you changed that to fit the terms people use in this universe

4. The circle of creepers, Cass thought of it, and looked on at the mostly male bodies frollicking on the dancefloor.
- frollicking => frolicking

5. “Yeah yeah, lying b***h,” he joked back.
- lying => lyin' (is what you meant, I think)

6. “Oh come on Dan.”
- comma before the addressee