| Logs |
2011 January 03
| Neverneverwhere |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Taps Logs |
Burn Down the Mission
That day, extra guards are set around in the crowds as the acrobats and other acts perform. There is much in the way of music, but little in the way of dancing. No women perform alone and Sabrina is kept off-stage, despite the fact that she insists she's ship-shape. After the daytime acts, out come the magicians -- and the fortune tellers are the topmost draws. There are several folk that seem less-than-happy about the caravan. But then, with townies there often are.
Suraksha hears, when she wakes up later, that she's not to dance either. That causes her to indignantly dart out, a protesting Little Joe on her tail, to hunt down Corbett and do her best to talk him into letting her dance. She got all dressed up! She'll stay with her guards! Besides... how better to draw out those assholes again? Corbett starts out resembling nothing so much as an elaborately mustachioed wall, arms crossed and jaw set as he listens to Suraksha's pleading. He's used to outfacing willful men and women alike. He is not used, however, to outfacing someone like Suraksha when she really has her will behind something she wants! In the end he grudgingly acquiesces, but only if he's playing the music. Suraksha beams and delightedly agrees -- she likes his playing! Can Little Joe play too? And Papa Sokoloff on the drums, if he's not busy with his family?
Corbett agrees to that quite willingly -- the more protection, the better. It's not that he distrusts his female caravaneers or thinks they cannot protect themselves. It's that he doesn't want any sort of brawl during the performances. He'd rather keep innocent bystanders, by which he means innocent townies, out of it. Suraksha gives Corbett a gleeful and impetuous hug in thanks, then gives Little Joe one too, since he agreed as well. After that she skips happily off to finish preparing, completely unaware of the bemused look the two men give each other behind her: how did she talk them into that?!
The dancing is one of the night-time acts, even though it is not a risque show. There are too many places where dancing is considered somewhat naughty for it to be a broad daylight act. There are torches at the corners of the area laid out for Suraksha, and no spectators are allowed at the sides or backstage. Suraksha is quite gleeful at the chance to dance, and she gives it her enthusiastic all! It is not cabaret dancing, but it is belly dancing where she's clearly passionate and brilliantly, gorgeously alive and joyous. There are a few townies glowering even as they watch the dancing. It is a familiar expression -- they have to show an outward appearance of disapproval -- but the dance is stirring, and they are drawn to the passion and grace of it.
Suraksha is careful to follow Corbett's instructions -- she doesn't get too close to the crowd, she doesn't leave the stage without him and Little Joe, and she lets one of the young men of the caravan wander the crowd to pass the hat while she dances. Past that, though, this is her chance to both deeply enjoy herself, and to shine for the caravan! She weaves a mystery with her swaying hips, her sinuous arms, and her lightly-tapping feet. Her eyes flash with joy and there's a delighted grin on her lips; this is spiritual for her, and she's singing a prayer with her body. Some of the townies see the goddess when Suraksha dances. Some just see a beautiful woman moving her body in a way that whispers down the years and evolutionary pathways to the parts of them that remember lovemaking is a celebration, and human bodies are as worthy of worship as any other deity. A very small handful just see sex. Suraksha would be delighted if she knew how she was reaching some of the townies -- that is her intention, after all: to speak the Goddess to those who have forgotten Her, but still long for Her embrace.
When Suraksha's performance is over, the money turns out to be almost twice what comes in from most of the other acts -- aside from the Sokoloffs, who always draw good receipts. As Sura leaves the stage, Corbett murmurs he's just seen at least two of the men who were involved in the altercation earlier. Suraksha is glowing with pleasure as she practically dances off the stage. She's still beaming as she nods to him, although her eyes flash scarlet for a heartbeat, "We going to do anything about them?" As she mops her forehead with a hankie, standing offstage between him and Little Joe, she adds softly, "Can we do anything for the forced women? Please?"
Corbett smirks, "Seems Joan and Sabrina're way 'head of us on that. Late tonight. After even the townies have gone to bed."
Suraksha brightens excitedly, "Yay! Do we get to help?"
Corbett says, "Yeah. Yeah, yer presence has been requested." He hides a grin under his mustache.
Suraksha bounces excitedly on her bare toes, "All right! Love to help -- which form do they want?"
Little Joe blurts, "The tiger! They want these guys to remember the big, angry cat."
Suraksha giggles at Little Joe's enthusiasm, "Oh, I bet they already will, Joe!" She happily adds to Corbett, "But sure! Just let me know when."
The acts go on into the night, but sometime after midnight the townies begin to drift away, and the caravan packs up and puts away the instruments and decorations. They quietly get ready for a swift departure; word of the raid has spread.
Suraksha has been ready for some time, with a long cord belt carrying a pouch hanging about her waist. She can, if given enough time while swapping forms, stuff her sandals, and her light, loose pants and tunic, into the pouch, then have someone tie it about her tiger's neck. She checks with Little Joe, since everyone else is busy getting ready -- if they're able to free any of the forced girls, will the caravan take them along? She says, "I mean, if they're here then clearly they've got no family to protect them, right? So... we can't just leave them, can we?"
Little Joe shifts from foot to foot and says, "Weeell... Joan and Sabrina won't let them just be abandoned. But not all of them will want to go, Sabrina said."
Suraksha looks puzzled, "Why would women forced to stay here not wish to leave?"
Joe is the one that's going to be helping to tie Sura's belongings around the tiger's neck like a Saint Bernard's collar. He flushes and shrugs, "I really don't know. But Sabrina says some of them are probably there willingly. Not all, of course."
Suraksha laughs in relief, "Oh, I don't mean those! No, the ones who want to be there are certainly welcome to stay. I just meant the forced ones." She smiles at Joe, adding, "So, you all ready? Is there a place we should be gathering?"
Joe nods, blushing a little bit more deeply, "Yeah, yeah." He leads her to where they're gathering, where Joan starts giving people information and, in some cases, weapons. Her voice is the decisive crack she uses when she's not happy about something, "Don't hurt anyone you don't have to. Offer the women a rescue but don't try to drag them out against their will. This is a rescue, not a kidnapping." Suraksha nods calmly as she listens attentively. She wonders a bit, though -- why was Joe blushing? Did she say something rude or stupidly incorrect? Joe is still blushing a little as Sabrina and Joan give out assignments for buddies, "Joe, you'll be with Sabrina and Suraksha, going in from the top floor. If people start running from the tiger, we want them to run down and out. Not up and get trapped."
Suraksha nods again, then grins at her two companions, "I can probably jump us all up onto the roof. Any idea if it's strong enough to support me, though?"
Sabrina chuckles, "It's four stories. I don't think you can quite make it up, lovey." Suraksha smiles at Sabrina, not bothering to argue. Considering she can stand up almost 15 to 20 feet if she stretches her paws out, she's pretty sure one balcony is sufficient to get her up to the roof.
Joe says, "It's sturdy enough, though. Heavy beams and slate tiles. Attic access. One of the Sokoloffs that was crawling around earlier says there's a lot of air vents, but you're a little big for those."
Suraksha grins cheerfully at Joe and nods, murmuring quietly, "I can tear them open for you two, if you want." She figures ripping open an air vent can give her enough space to get in too, if she really needs to. After that she continues listening carefully to Joan's instructions.
Once everyone has his or her assignment, people begin slipping away. The general plan seems to be for some of the men to make a seemingly drunken fuss at the front of the place, drawing attention away from those that are moving through the halls. Suraksha beams and says to Sabrina and Joe, "Let's go, then! 'Brina, got something to cover your face with? Broad-brimmed hat or something, maybe?" She pauses and considers a moment, then adds wryly, "Maybe I better cover mine too, after dancing tonight." Suraksha borrows a shawl from Mama Minta, wrapping it so her face is shadowed. "All right, ready now!" Sabrina has rather a nice selection of veils; she uses one of those to cover her face. Then they slip off to start causing chaos. Suraksha heads for the alleyway in the back of the brothel, so she can check and see if there's an easy way to get to the roof from there. Even just bouncing off a wagon or fence to the roof will suffice.
Even better than a wagon or a fence is the fire escape. It's not in the best of shape, but it will hold the tigress' weight when she moves to get to the roof. Suraksha looks pleased, silently pointing out to the others -- then she starts swiftly disrobing, handing her clothing to Joe to wrap up while Sabrina keeps watch. A moment later she's in her huge feline form, sniffing the air and jaws agape in a tigerish grin. Joe actually turns his back while she strips and only turns back when she's in tiger form. She waits for Joe to finish tying on her modified collar, then mount up behind Sabrina. Once he's got the rope and pouch around her neck, he turns to help Sabrina climb onto the tiger's back. He blinks for a moment and says, "Ya'll look like a pair of vengeful angels."
Suraksha chuffs a chuckle, glancing at Joe and tilting her head to indicate he should mount up. She's never been called an angel before in tiger form -- only when being a Hetaera! The idea makes her laugh. Joe climbs up behind Sabrina and wraps his arms around her. He's a little tentative, and Sabrina chuckles, "Joe, it's just me and Sura. We aren't going to bite." She grins wickedly, "Not you, anyway."
Suraksha chuffs another laugh as she leaps gracefully upwards onto the fire escape, then pads quickly and silently upwards. She's careful not to silhouette herself against windows for any length of time, not wanting to scare anyone within. The two humans hold on tight for the ride up. One last leap to the roof -- and the entire group is there; Suraksha pauses to glance around and scent the air. She wants to be sure she puts her paws on solidly braced slate tiles as she carefully works her way across the roof to the nearest air vent.
Again, better than the vent, they come upon a skylight that looks down into a room that's all but filled with either steam or smoke. Since the skylight isn't fogged up, it is likely smoke of some sort. Suraksha is confused -- why would anyone fill a room with smoke? Unless there are people in there gambling and playing cards -- which usually happens on the ground floor anyway, in a brothel -- she's not sure why there'd be smoke. She shrugs mentally, and when Joe and Sabrina agree she should break in here she simply hooks her claws in the metal edge, yanking up hard so there's not broken glass everywhere. Then she shakes gently to encourage the two to dismount, so she can leap in first and check the room out.
No broken glass, but there's a screech of metal as she yanks the skylight off its frame. The sudden opening into the night air sucks smoke upward and they are surrounded by the sweet scent of it. Sabrina curses at length and nudges Joe backward, "Opium. Get back... let the smoke clear." Suraksha nods and backs up herself as well; she's been well-taught to never deliberately allow herself to lose control. Suraksha waits a bit, taking several deep breaths of cool, clean night air... then pads over and drops down into the room when there's no outcry from within. She wants to check first there's no one dangerous there. Once she's sure, she'll rear up by the skylight so Joe and Sabrina can scramble through and down her back to within the room -- and if someone dangerous is there... she'll take care of them.
There are people in the room, most of them less than half dressed and more than half stoned. When the tigress lands with a thump, some of them blink somnolently at her. Only three react with fear, scrambling for the door. One of them is a man Suraksha recognizes: it's the last one she knocked out earlier. He starts shouting, "Shit! Shit! Tiger! Goddamn tiger!" as he tries to open the main door. He's not quite sober enough to do so easily, fingers clumsy with the opium. Suraksha leaps on him, batting him into unconsciousness -- no need to have him calling an alarm to others. The scream that starts out of him is stopped short as he hits the floor. She turns, blocking the door, and studies the other two, wondering if they need to be knocked out too.
The other two mostly-sober men aren't the ones from downstairs, but they're yelling as well and it's starting to stir the ones that are lounging around in various stages of undress. Most of the women here are dull-eyed and the rest are completely unconscious with pipe dreams. Suraksha swiftly bats each of the men unconscious -- no raising the alarm, darnit! After that she checks to make sure they're truly unconscious. Once that's done she pads calmly through the opium smokers, careful not to bother any of them, and rears up to provide a tigerish ladder downward from the skylight for her friends.
With the three that might have been a problem out for the count, it's easy for Sabrina to weave a little story to explain the tigress to those dully curious ones. She mutters to Joe to open all the windows he can find and air out the room. There's going to be no asking any of the women here if they want to leave when they aren't even on this planet. Suraksha looks around sadly at the women -- she'd bet the majority of them are the ones who would most wish to leave were they able to be in their right minds. She sighs gustily, recognizing she cannot decide for them, and pads to the door to listen carefully -- is anyone outside?
There doesn't seem to be anyone outside the door. Sabrina is moving around the room with Joe, getting the windows and doors open, "We'll come back here when we're done downstairs -- see if any of them are sober enough to want to leave." Suraksha flicks an agreeing ear at Sabrina and noses open the door, sniffing carefully to see if anyone is close by. She suspects a few minutes isn't going to be enough for the opium smokers... but hey, if even one of them can choose of her own free will to leave, that's a good thing, yes?
It's hard to smell anything through the sweet, heavy smoke, but there are no guards. Likely none are needed because of the smoke. Suraksha sneezes, then steps out into the hallway and snorts several times to clear her nose. She glances around warily as she does so, although she's making enough noise that very soft noises would be missed.
The hallway is clear of smoke. Now they get to start really saving people.
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