“Tired and looking for so relaxation? No worries, mate, just co over to the redlight district. Not a hooker better in town, I tell ya. Be it slow and relaxed or heated and sexy, you’ll find sothing to your tastes.”
- Ad for the redlight district, New Savannah, 2050
It didn’t take too long for Mask to arrive with the help of Jenna’s shuttle.
We spent the ti down at the bar, chatting amongst each other and a few of the Joytoys and clients who were mingling about. Everyone had an air of sadness about them, and the typically more sexual and lewd gazes that people would throw at each other were absent.
I took ti to talk to any of the Joytoys who wanted to talk, just be there for them, to help them co to terms with it all. I inford them about my plan with the departnt, that they should tell the others, and that so changes would be coming in their future.
There was only one incident, when one of the clients overheard talking about my plans for the redlight district. She was a woman who most certainly didn’t feel in any way sad about it all, with her head stuck so far up her arse that she could lick her own intestines through the backlooping of her mouth.
She was throwing a huge tantrum about how Joytoys shouldn’t be in charge and that they should just do as they’re told, which ended with nearly exploding on her. Only Chloe’s presence stopped from beheading her on the spot, and instead my Queen’s Guard took care of her, pulling her out of the brothel before sedating her and leaving her on the street sowhere.
Not anywhere they couldn’t check, of course, if soone would try sothing we’d intervene, but I wasn’t going to pay that kind of person any kind of respect if she couldn’t show even a modicum of understanding for others.
It surprisingly helped the mood greatly, since people saw that I wasn’t just talking out of my backside, but actually did sothing about it. The woman was, of course, banned for life, and from Vic’s comnts she would have a hard ti to find any joytoy anywhere in the redlight district in the future. I wasn’t sure just how accurate that was, but I appreciated the sentint.
I also took the ti to give Galia the pills that Kaysa had told about. It was about as easy as I expected it to be, all I did was act like the next slutty girl who wanted to have a round, promising her pleasures beyond belief, before I gave her the pills one by one, with small little lies on how it would make her feel.
Truth be told, I felt a bit bad about it. Taking away soone’s mories, even if only temporarily, felt… wrong. It was amoral, but at the sa ti… I could live with it. I could live with the fact that she might resent for the rest of her life, as long as she had a life to resent in. Maybe it was the wrong kind of outlook, but to it felt like a good enough balance.
Or maybe I was just too emotional to properly judge things. At the end of the day, I didn’t care, as long as she survived.
As was typical with protector grade dicine it worked quickly and soon she sat on the bed, confused and slightly out of it, trying to get a grip on reality. Kaysa stayed by her side in one of the nanite drones. She had made a skim of Galia’s online profile, trying to find out as much as she could about her so that she could talk to her and distract her a little. It seed to help greatly.
We left her to it, just giving her so breathing room and so proper clothes, while we waited for Mask. Truth be told I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to leave her with Kaysa, I wanted to do more, but Kaysa assured that I might dredge up mories of her ti in the brothel, which, while blocked, could have so adverse effects. It was good that the room Victor had put her in wasn’t a working room, nor one she had been to before prior to today.
Finally though the shuttle landed not far from the entrance, barely fitting on the tight streets, and Mask got out. She was not what I had been expecting from her na, or the conversation I had with her.
First and foremost, she was very obviously a Hive-Mind, at least to . Three bodies walked up to the brothel, all looking identical apart from different clothing. Mask was rather pretty, but not in the overdone way that you would see plastered all over the feeds. It was a natural kind of pretty that could easily get lost in a crowd. The kind of pretty anyone on the street could have, with obvious imperfections on the skin, the way the hair grew, slightly asymtrical eyes, that sort of thing.
In short, Mask was nobody to write ho about, but also not ugly in any way, shape or form.
That sa unremarkable style was also found in the way she was dressed. The first body, probably her original one considering that it seed to be the leader of the little group, was dressed in a simple shirt, clean and with so print on front that could be found in any of the shop around town, a pair of jeans that looked to be actual jeans, well worn and a little damaged here and there, and sneakers.
The other two of her bodies followed the example, although with slightly different kinds of clothing. It made it even stranger to look at her, considering that she looked to be three identical sisters just walking around, but there was that strangeness to her gait that made it imdiately obvious to that she was one person with many bodies.
I wasn’t sure how it was so obvious to , it wasn’t sothing I had noticed in myself, especially considering that the rest of Us all looked different, but it just stood out to personally.
Mask was obviously eyeing my Queen’s Guard and the four Sentinels Jenna had standing at parade rest nearby. It was hard to identify her gaze, but I was almost certain there wasn’t any fear or disgust in it, just open curiosity. Quite different to how most people looked at things, then again, she too was a Hive-Mind, even if a different one.
Of course we were still sitting at the bar, just watching her enter. One of Mask’s bodies walked over to the Queen’s Guard, striking up a conversation, while another started to make her way through the brothel. Her ‘main’ body, as I ntally labelled it, moved closer to us, sitting down on the barstool next to .
“Hello Myriad,” she said in that sa voice I heard earlier, a friendly, but slightly distant smile on her lips. “I must admit, you are not what I expected from a Hive-Mind. Those are your drones, yes?”
I nodded, giving her a smile in turn, “Welco. Yes, they are, my Queen’s Guard. Outside of Snuffles and the Reaver Squad, and of course the Najav, they are probably the strongest of Us. Might I ask how you refer to your bodies? I learned quite early that it’s a rather important thing for Hive-Minds like us.”
“I just call them bodies. They are all , and I can control them like I can my own body. From what I understand, at least from what Royos told after I asked him on the way here, it is similar to what you went through before becoming a Hive-Mind. I’m not sure what that ans, exactly, he didn’t want to tell the details, but he ntioned that that would be the best way to explain it to you.”
“I see,” I said with a nod, guessing that I had at least so idea of what it was like for her, “Before I beca the whole, before the formation of the chorus, I had to split my attention to control all my drones manually. It was quite ntally exhausting, considering that we are slightly over seven hundred at the mont. If you work like that all the ti, I’d imagine that once you get more bodies it might be a bit taxing.”
“That was a worry. But I got so software for it, helping organise it all. My own upgrade isn’t quite done yet either, but it won’t shift as much as it did for you,” she smiled, then looked at the rest, giving them all a nod, “I am Mask. At least, that is the na that I’ve been given for now. My real na is Magdalene Layra, I’ve only been a Samurai for a little over a day now. I assu you are Legion and Bloodhound?”
“Yup,” Chloe said with a good natured smile, “Chloe Vayne, my pleasure.”
“And I am Jenna Tiel, a pleasure to et you.”
Mask, or rather, Magdalene, nodded then turned back to , “You said there is soone in need of help regarding sexual trauma? Truth be told, that kind of trauma isn’t typically one I deal with, but if you are willing to pay so points I can get the required software upgrades to help with it. Just a heads up though, I’m a therapist yes, and I do try my best, but I’m not that experienced yet. It might end up with not being able to do much.”
I nodded at that, “Yes, I know. And I also don’t want to pressure you in a way of ‘you help or else’. I’m well aware that I don’t know anything about that kind of shit, and I trust your expertise on the matter. But it’s sothing that needs to happen and soon. And truth be told, I don’t trust corpos that much. If you know soone who can and will help, then sure, as I said, I trust your expertise, but I won’t be going around asking people because I know that I wouldn’t be able to differentiate the sweet talkers from the competent ones.”
She looked at for a long mont, before she spoke, “How can you trust this easily? Especially with sothing as important as the well being of a person that is quite obviously at least sowhat important to you? Not that I don’t appreciate it, but it makes wonder.”
“You’re a Samurai,” I said with a shrug, “If I know one thing, then it’s that while most of us are a bit strange, you don’t just beco a Samurai by happenstance. I trust the protectors to pick out the right folk, from what I’ve seen so far we all care about people in one way or another.”
“Fair point. Very well, I’ll go and have a look. Do you mind showing where she is?”
At that question Chloe’s necklace ca to life, another nanite body forming. This one in the shape of a rather handso old man with white hair and a very neatly trimd white beard, wearing a formal suit that almost looked like a butler’s outfit. I raised my eyebrows as he nodded to us.
“Greetings, Magdalene Layra. I am Atlas, Chloe Vayne’s personal assistant AI. I can lead you to the room. Kaysa, my counterpart helping Seraphine Bloodfallen, has decided that it is best not to rouse any lingering mories that might be plaguing the young miss Galia Schwartz, by reminding her of her ti as a Joytoy. Please be aware that those mories have been blocked for the mont, to ensure nothing may trigger a severe psychological reaction. If you’d follow .”
Mask eyed the drone for a mont, but then nodded and got up, following after Atlas who led her to Galia.
Another of her bodies, the one who had been exploring the brothel, slowly made her way over to sit down next to , once again. “Quite the interesting place. So far I’ve only seen the inside of a brothel online, and only of those a bit more high class than this one. It is quite fascinating.”
“Oh? Interested in exploring more?” I asked with a smirk, “I’m not on the clock right now, but I think I can make so ti for you in the next couple of days.”
She shrugged, “Intellectually, yes. But as flattering as the offer is, I’ve never been interested in sexual encounters of any sort, nor do I think that it will change anyti soon.”
“Fair,” I said with a small laugh, “Anyway. How long do you think things will take with Galia? I realise that shit like that isn’t fixed in a week, hell, not even a month.”
Magdalene frowned, “So far I couldn’t tell you. It will take a while until I have a better understanding on what exactly she needs, what exactly hurts her so much, and how we could go about fixing it. Years at the very least, you can’t rush things like that and I would like to take things slow to give her opportunity to work through it all. It would also be helpful if she had anyone in her life that she could talk to about it all, soone disconnected from this entire thing. The little that your AI has sent doesn’t look good, considering that she seed to be rather alone in general.”
I sighed. Of course I had known that it wouldn’t be easy. This would take ti, even with proper help. But it didn’t help the feeling of dread that creeped at the edge of my awareness about it all. It terrified , really. That fear that I couldn’t help and that it might not be enough. That I might end up in the sa situation I found myself in a day ago.
“You should relax a little,” Magdalene said warmly, “Even if it takes ti, I do believe that we can find a way. It will be a very rough road to walk, and there will be setbacks, that much is to be expected. But unless she outright refuses any help there is hope.”
“Are you sure?”
“I can’t ever be 100% sure, that would just invite disaster. All I can do is promise you that I’ll do my best. That doesn’t an there is no room for recovery, however. People are very strange and very different. Once you find the right way to help soone there is hope.”
I nodded at that, letting out a sigh. “Okay… Sorry, it’s… a lot. Especially after Sarah.” I grimaced at the mory.
“I understand,” Magdalene said with a genuine warmth in her tone, “I’ll probably bring her sowhere else, sowhere more removed from it all. She is confused and soplace new might be helpful. It will be tricky, considering that I don’t have much in terms of resources available to , but I’ll manage.”
“If you need money,” Chloe said, “Just ask. I have enough to help out and this sounds important. Put her sowhere safe and comfortable.”
“Thank you. You are quite different from what I expected. A lot more generous than I am used to.” She regarded the two of us for a mont, then shook her head, “I’ll let you know when I find sothing. And Myriad, or rather, Seraphine, again if possible I’d like to find so ti to talk to you as well. Help you a little with all the things plaguing you. You might have been fine until now, but that won’t last forever and could very easily go wrong.”
“Yes. And I appreciate the help. We can see if we can’t find so ti eventually, tomorrow I’m not sure how much ti I’ll have, the day isn’t over yet and there might still be so complications or things I have to deal with, once the rest of the people leave the shelter. The day after tomorrow I planned to take so clients if I can manage, and the day after that the whole Hive thing goes down.”
“You ntioned sothing along those lines. What exactly is it?”
“I can send you the details, we probably shouldn’t discuss it here. Safe to say, you will be able to make so points, if you can find the ti to join in.”
As I spoke I did just that, sending her a complete list of all the details that I had myself. She took a mont to skim through it, then nodded.
“I think I will. My bodies can move around without issue, at least once the upgrade is done. It should be, by that point. Might be worth looking into.”
I nodded at that, then waved over to the bartender for another drink. The discussion with Magdalene had nervous and anxious about it all, and I could feel myself beco restless.
“How exactly does your Hive work?” Magdalene’s question surprised for a mont, and I gave her a smile.
It was very obvious she was trying to distract , and I let her. For quite so ti we discussed the differences in our respective approach to Hive-Minds, exchanging notes and experiences, and discussed how it impacted our personal lives.
She was quite interested to hear about the simulation, even if I didn’t go into that much detail, and how it helped Chloe and Jenna understand . From her expression I was almost certain she’d want to try that out herself so ti, which I wasn’t against. Maybe it would help with her ability to help my ntal state.
Eventually however she interrupted our discussion and switched the topic.
“For the mont I think I’m done talking to Galia. From our talks I believe I have a good basic idea of how she feels about things, even if we haven’t discussed anything in detail yet. That will take ti and I’ll probably need so assistance getting here sowhere else before I tackle the issue. Again, the best place would be sowhere she isn’t familiar with, to give her so breathing room to relax. It would allow to take the ti I need to begin properly going over things with her. While her ho might be a place for her to stay, it also runs the risk of dredging up bad mories,” she explained, looking thoughtful.
“She can stay at my place for the ti being. It’s roomy, outside of town, well protected and cared for, and it would allow her so relaxation. We’re currently living in Jenna’s Corvette, or at least that was the plan, so my house is empty at the mont,” Chloe chid in.
I gave her a grateful nod, it did make sense and it would be good for Galia, at least I hoped.
“Very well. I might have a body remain there with her then, keep her company and make sure she doesn’t suffer any ntal breaks. Thank you, Miss Vayne.”
“Please, call Chloe.”
After a little more discussion we decided that Magdalene would accompany Galia to the house in our private shuttle. While I wanted to help more personally, she was right that seeing might bring up bad mories or so kind of reaction, which really wouldn’t be helpful.
We said our goodbyes to Magdalene who led Galia through a back exit to the shuttle. Now left alone once more I sighed, rubbing my face. Today was a lot different than what I expected, but I was glad that I checked in with the Rose Carpet.
“What to do next?” I asked, more to myself.
“We could take the rest of the day off? It’s late already, so maybe relaxing for the evening would be nice?” Jenna offered with a smile.
“Yeah. Tomorrow I’d like to check in with the lure fiasco, see if we can’t find anything. I have to admit I’m worried about that.” Chloe looked thoughtful.
“Before we head out I think I’ll hand out so things for the Joytoys,” I muttered, “If only because I feel like I’m not doing enough. And I know, things take ti, but after visiting here…” I trailed off, not really sure how to put my thoughts into words.
Today has been a bit of a roller coaster. I didn’t regret coming here, but I had to admit to myself that it was playing hell with my state of mind. There were too many issues I felt like I had to fix right now, even though I knew that wasn’t possible. Once Castas and Tina finally arrived and took things in hand I would have to be patient.
Chloe reached over, putting an arm around my shoulder. It did wonders to make feel better and I leaned into her, just enjoying her presence.
“You could get so basic supplies to help out for relatively cheap,” Kaysa chid in, appearing from wherever she had wandered off to earlier. “It would help with so of the more intense cases of drug usage. You could also buy so items to help with contraception without too much cost.”
“Do it then… Victor can see to the distribution. And after that I think it would be best if we left. While I’m glad that I took the ti to co here, I don’t think it’s good for right now. Too many things that trouble .”
“Yes, that would be a good idea.”
As Kaysa had said, the supplies weren’t that expensive. After all my spending I was left with a bit under two thousand points, if I took into account the points I had set aside for Magdalene, which was a lot less than I really wanted, but I didn’t regret the points I spent today.
We left the giant box with a few of the Joytoys that Victor had put in charge for the mont, then said our goodbyes and left. The trip itself was quiet, not helped by the rather uncomfortable shuttle we took, but in a way that helped. It forced to think about other things. Once we arrived back at the Corvette and got out I felt a bit lost.
This was the first ti in a long ti that I didn’t know what to do with myself. We still had two days before the Hive expedition and I had no clue what I should do tomorrow. I kept the day free for any eventuality. Considering that there would be so people wrangling going on, with the relocation of all the folk still in the gashelter. Cheryl had sent us a ssage informing us about that, soti during the day. She’d be there, with a contingent of army personnel, but even that didn’t help the lingering feeling of foreboding that I felt.
I just hoped that things would go smoothly.
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