This post has the following content warnings:
She's twenty-three, and this is Audrey's first visit to the Rose Bowers. A two week stay, complimentary through her government job on Arcbright. She's alone.
She's heard stories of the Rose Bowers, of the unrestrained hedonism that's its stock in trade, and its matchmaking, which is reputed to be excellent.
She comes in with trepidation in her heart. Her suitcase rattles as it bumps over the threshold.
"You can stay, but I'm not promising anything about how much I engage. I'm really out of my depth here, honestly, and a professional escort is... maybe not the best person for me to go to for advice."
"Or maybe the best, since we have to deal with clients like you all the time? My advice is just to ease into it. It's not as big a deal as you're making it in your head. Intimacy matters, yes, but..."
"But what? I don't see your implication there. And I didn't ask for advice, no matter how much you might have wanted to give me it."
Kumi gets up from her chair, which disappears as soon as she leaves it, and wanders off across the hall to another knot of people.
Audrey's gaze follows her. With her dark hair and her regal bearing, that girl could almost be a princess. She's instantly envious.
Audrey can't muster up the courage to talk to her. Instead she puts her plate back in the dirty pile on the buffet and vanishes off towards her room.
Her room is comfortable and safe and contains exactly zero strangers.
She flops on the bed and rolls herself up in the blankets.
"Mmmmmmmmm, damn it." She kicks her feet. "Can't I do anything?"
She sighs. She discards her stole by the side of the bed and also her dress. She summons peach-scented shampoo and soap through the console, and goes to have a shower.
She thinks in the shower about what she wants to do with her time now. She'll be clean and fed and the aftercare potion took care of her fatigue, but she's not exactly horny right now and the local amenities are mostly for couples. She could go speed-dating, but no she's not that desperate. She could get a jigsaw puzzle out of the console and play with that, or just play games on her phone, but she only has two weeks here and she'd like to use them to the fullest. So...
Once more into the breach, my friends.
She could use sinflower to get herself ready. That... does not appeal to her at all. She could go find Hannah and play a tabletop game with her. That would make sense. She could go find her other self and teach her some of Hannah's tricks. That... is actually kind of hot, the idea of taking charge like that. But she doesn't know how she'd manage. She could go pay Hannah back her favour. That... doesn't make her hot, but it feels satisfying. She could do that.
She settles on Hannah. Games or "games" depends on how it goes.
She towels off and wraps herself in a blanket again and heads down to Club Coze.
Along with another pink-haired girl, one arm interlinked with Hannah's. It would seem she has a type.
"Oh, hello! Rose, I'd like to introduce you to Audrey; Audrey, this is Rose. She's one of my other partners."
"Um, hi."
Of course Hannah has other partners, it's the Rose Bowers. But she can't help but feel a little stab of jealousy in her heart.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
