Of Feathers and Favors (pt 1)

Posted on Thu 26th Nov, 2020 @ 10:48pm by Sorra Yarime (Yari) & Yuliette Marayan Dr.
Edited on on Thu 17th Dec, 2020 @ 4:41am

591 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Denouement
Location: Brown Sector: Zodiac. The Gemini Casino
Timeline: MD: 1, 1830 hours

Yuliette took in a deep breath as she stood before the grand entrance to the Gemini Hotel and Casino.... It was full of the sound of lounge music, the jangling of slips and chips, laughter, and game callers. It was extravagant with it's fine crystalline light fixtures that cast dizzying glittering light everywhere, and with polished opaline overlaid flooring that amplified the dazzling effect of the lights. And yet at the same time it seemed to rope in clientele of all classes, here a grizzled old man with half his teeth, hunched under a frumpy coat, repeatedly working a slot machine's lever. Behind a Dabo table, Yuliette was fairly certain she saw the Orion woman from the thrift store restacking some chips and pouting, though she was veiled by a beaded curtain.

Yuliette tried to scan everywhere at once as she walked, but that was dizzying. She slowed her observation, breaking the room into something like instinctual chunks. The path behind her to the door—exit. The rows of machine operated gaming— could be cover, could be anyone waiting there to waylay her. She left a wide enough berth to allow herself time to react if that should happen. The lounge and dining in the rear. More relaxed, but darker. Any one could wait in concealment. The balcony wrapping around the stairs and then overlooking the floor. She looked up and then back down again. Cameras! They were sure to be everywhere, recording her face and movements.

For a moment Yuliette froze in a panic, clutching the overnight bag she'd brought along and trying to decide if she should turn about face and get the hell out before someone figured her out.

She inhaled deeply.

And then started to choke on something fluffy. A feather! A feather from the boa of a passing woman had gone right up Yulitte's nose. she tried not to panic and make it worse, instead rushing headlong for the bar and reaching into a container where a pair of little tweezers were to dispense lemons. She jammed it up in her own nasal cavity and yanked out the foreign object, standing there with the snotty blue plume and hacking on the uncomfortably dry and lemon scented feeling that extracting it had left behind.

Dumbfounded, the bartender stood there looking at her. She handed him back the tweezers with the offending feather. "Sorry, probably will want to disinfect those," she said.

He took them back and threw them in the trash instead, spraying the bar with disinfectant and wiping it down with a fresh bar rag. "Are you going to order a drink?"

"Uh, no. Neone. I'm Neone. I'm here to ask to see Yarime."

The bartender tilted his head. She didn't look like most of the women who asked after the boss. "One moment." The bartender said, excusing himself to talk to another attendant.

The two whispered between each other, the second one glancing over at Neone then nodded to the first one before quickly walking away to some unseen room somewhere in the back.

After a few moments the second person walked quickly towards Neone. He stopped directly in front of her and nodded, "Welcome to the Gemini, Mr. Sorra will see you now, please follow me." The man turned and began walking back the way he came.

Yuliette shouldered her bag and followed the man, though she was wary the whole time, just as she had been when she came into the casino, only this time also on the watch for stray feathers.

(tbc)

 

RSS Feed

Comments (1)