Ink Me (The tattoo parlor is open!)

Poppy · May 11, 2015

"Sweetheart, I wish people were doing me," she said self-deprecatingly, chuckling a little as she pulled out her black ink bottle and the glowing, lightning blue one. She was glad he appreciated the tattoo. It was gaudy, but Thorn was an expert at making things work.

Thorn grinned. "Yes!"

She composed herself remembering, again, she was supposed to be mysterious and cool. She removed the first level of her ink box and pulled out an oxygen mask and a forked tube. She installed both of the tubes on the metallic holes on her shoulders, twisting them lightly to secure them in place, and connected them to the oxygen mask. She carefully placed the mask on Jacob's face.

"The setting, Brooklyn, New York."

The holes started pumping the tubes with smoke.

At first, Jacob would feel really, really relaxed a few seconds after inhaling the smoke. After that, he would feel a bit light-headed.

About a minute in, what he was seeing would begin to change. The tattoo parlor would melt into a decrepit studio apartment at a shady part of Brooklyn. Everything would be in vivid detail. The walls were grey and peeling, the bed was rundown, there was a dirty mini-fridge, and the faint sound of water dripping in a nearby faucet. It looked real, save for the fact that the colors seemed grey and a bit desaturated.

In his head, Jacob would hear Thorn's voice: This is the main character, Private Investigator Solano's apartment. Business has been tough recently. Nobody's hiring him because he was led to a trap by a notorious criminal ringleader, and now everybody's questioning his legitimacy as a PI. It's your job to follow up on this police case to redeem your ruined reputation, Solano.

There was a sound of a hairdryer going off in the bathroom.

Private Investigator Solano was not alone.

A beautiful woman that looked exactly like Lenn came out of the bathroom in red lingerie.

This is Solano's lover slash intel, Gloria. She gave him the leads for his investigation. Heh. I took some creative liberties here, hope you like it.

The police reporter was on PI Solano's bedside table. If Jacob were to open it, he would find details on a murder — a dead florist, a hurried escape, and outsider fertilizer everywhere. For some reason, there were shards of glass and blood on the carpet.

Gloria/Lenn approached Jacob with a deadly smile. "Welcome home, detective," she said.

Back in the real world, Jacob would be a slumping vegetable. Thorn was beginning to shade the tattoo, but he wouldn't feel it at all. She hoped he liked her novel.

Critical · May 11, 2015

A familiar urge came over Jacob as Thorn prepped to deliver her... smoke. It was the urge to reassure Thorn that, yes, she was an attractive woman. Not only that, but Jacob would have considered taking her on a date and so forth. It was a feeling he had acted upon previously in his life, both in genuine concern for a woman's self esteem and as a method to sleep with them.

But in his age, Jacob had learned to not only not act upon that urge, but had learned why he should not. For one, he was in relationship already and telling another woman that she was attractive enough to sleep with was not healthy nor respectful for Lenn. Secondly, he had eventually learned that the sentiment was also insulting in some ways. Expressing his interest in Thorn, or other women, was like saying that they were attractive enough to win him, as if that was reward enough for them. The put-down inherent to that statement had been something he had only learned in recent years, too late to realize how much of a self-centered dick it made him look as a younger man.

"New York? Hopefully it'll be better than... my... last... triiiip..."

There was a certain surreal-ness to wearing an oxygen mask that connected directly to a lady, and it made his nerves spike just before the smoke took its effect.

As much as he was aware that the melting scenery around him was merely an illusion or hallucination, he still felt a twinge of fear at the strangeness of it all. Only the voice of Thorn in his head kept him grounded enough to accept what he was seeing and experiencing.

He appreciated the appearance of Lenn as Gloria. However, it was not until she approached and spoke directly to Jacob that he realized that HE was the detective, he was Solano. Before he had thought he was merely going to be an invisible audience to a play, not the main player in the production. Out of curiosity, his hand reached out to open the file. He had more control than he thought.

"Good to be home, Gloria. Is this get up just for me?"

Perhaps it was Thorn's influence but Jacob found himself easily slipping into character.

Poppy · May 13, 2015

"Astute as always, detective." Gloria draped herself on Solano's side as he flipped through the police reporter, playing with his tie as she did so. She smelled of lavender soap, lavender soap Solano never even considered putting in his bathroom. Seeing that she just took a shower, did she bring her own soaps to his apartment? The implications of that were a little daunting.

"I stole this report from the Chief-of-Police's office. He's not going to be happy it's in your possession, Solano, but I have a gut feeling you'll be the one to solve this case. I just know it," Gloria said matter-of-factly. She pointed at the particular page Solano was in with a perfectly manicured finger. "This crime scene... It seems way too casual for something the entire police department to be getting their panties in a bunch in, right? It's a dead florist. Who cares? Stuff like that happens in New York all the time."

I've never been to New York. Taking some creative liberties, here.

"That is... until you check this." Gloria picked up her iPhone from a nearby table, opening up a news page about a criminal ringleader — Juan Gomez, a mafia don that ran an international drug cartel.

The same criminal ringleader that ruined your reputation and left you for dead, Solano. You got too close too fast and they decided to eliminate you before you turned into a threat. Unfortunately for them, you miraculously survived the bullet lodged in your head.

Gloria's eyes flashed dangerously. "It's speculated that the man that killed the florist worked for Gomez's rival group. He came in to kill one of Gomez's right hand men, not knowing the tenants changed after Gomez moved to Boston. You can see this murder is sloppy. It was done in a hurry."

But it didn't explain the fertilizer and the shards of glass. "It's also possible Gomez left something in that room. It's midnight, detective, but are you up for a little joyride?"

Critical · May 13, 2015

Thorn had no idea how close to home she was cutting it with her depiction of her crime novel, at least in terms of Gloria. The way the woman molded to his side was just like how Lenn did it when she was in the mood, and it was difficult to say whether Thorn was the one causing that or if Jacob's own memories were influencing what she was presenting. Either way, he was enjoying the ride.

By the time Thorn was mentioning crime in New York, Jacob started to wonder if Thorn had been following him around a few months ago or if it was just a massive coincidence. Her voice in Jacob's head confirmed the latter. Jacob had to chuckle at just how right Thorn was in her assumption.

"Allll the time, honey."

Jacob was falling into character quite nicely as he listened to Gloria's evidence, and reflexively rubbed his head at the mention of a bullet lodged in it.

"Gomez..."

There was anger in his voice as he recalled the memory of Solano.

"Heh. A hitman with THAT few skills has probably left a menagerie of evidence behind that the rookies down at the station missed. You bet we're headin' out there."

He gave Gloria a good pat on the bum.

"If you're comin' along you better get dressed. As much as I like seein' you in that, you'd attract too much attention in that part of town."

Poppy · May 26, 2015

Gloria laughed, smacking Solano in the arm playfully. She went over to a chair that had her clothes on — first her form fitting red dress and matching red pumps, then a classy beige winter coat with a stylish black hat. She didn't have time to do make-up, but her face was fresh and her lips sinfully red as always. From the corner of Solano's eye, he could see Gloria stuffing a small pistol in one of her hidden coat pockets.

"Safety precaution," she said, tossing the car keys to Solano.

Once the key makes contact with him, the scene changes to the two of them in a slick red Mustang convertible with Solano at the wheel. Jacob would notice that no matter how he tries to move the wheel, the car would always be speeding straight ahead. The surrounding areas — the places they were passing — all melted into colorful city lights that zoomed past their vision. The cool air whipped against their faces, and Gloria's bright red hair spilled against the colors of the surroundings like blood staining the dark blue night sky.

Actually, this is some good shit. I'm going to make Gloria a redhead. She was blonde when I made her.

If one were to take a closer look, they would notice the buildings look exactly the same.

I reiterate: I've never been to New York.

The car's speed doubled as it entered a tunnel. The surroundings grew smaller and blacker, compressing into a central point, before bursting into an explosion of monochrome colors and reforming into an image of a shady downtown. The car was parked in front of the apartment that held the crime scene. Thorn gave Jacob a few moments to catch his breath before moving on with the story.

The details sharpened. The caricature windows turned into realistic glass with a cemented windowsill. Even the sound effects were more realistic. There was the sound of a cat meowing in an alley and the distant sound of a train passing far away. The place was thick with fog and industrial smoke so realistic Jacob could feel them in his lungs.

Gloria was still Gloria but he mannerisms turned into Thorn's. She crossed her arms with a grin, "So? What do you think? By the way, look at your hand. Here's what I have so far."

The colors turned back to normal around Jacob. If he looked at the hand Thorn was working on, he would see a half-finished picture of his tattoo. The shading was almost done. She just has to add the bright, blue lightning.

Critical · May 28, 2015

In the real world, Jacob was wearing a stupid wobbly smile and unfocused eyes as he took great enjoyment in seeing bits of Thorn's book rendered to him in "reality". Back in the dream world, Jacob was entranced by the Noir-like visuals Thorn kept feeding him. Jacob had never been the artful kind, the kind that learned the intricacies and interplay of colors and what they meant. But his lack of knowledge in the area could not stop him from appreciating the contrasts of brights colors against the darkened background of the city. Gloria's red shone bright, drawing the eye to her even as the world zoomed past, as it should.

He also appreciated how much Thorn made him feel like an old school private eye, with mysterious dame at his side and a slick car to drive. His hand wandered to the top of his head, ostensibly to smooth back his hair, but to check if he was also wearing a nice fedora or trilby. He chuckled. Only in a dream would he actually look good in a hat.

Back on his feet, Jacob took in the scene she had painted for him.

"I like it. Very classic-feeling. But I got some notes on how New York should look and feel."

Thorn seemed like a good woman, and he wanted to help her write the best book she could if she was going to let him see it like he was. He thought that as long as the place was a "dream", he could also influence it a little too. So with a bit of concentration, he added and changed the scene to better suit what he had experienced first hand.

The buildings shifted into shapes and facades like he had seen in New York, showing the age of the city and how much each building had been lived and lived in. He tried plucking every memory he could and placing it somewhere around him. He added the ethereal nature of seeing old street lamps show through smoke, and he added a low persistent rumble in the air, as if the city around them was still alive even if the part they were in was quiet. Though it might not have been what Thorn had in mind, he also shifted the season to something colder, like when he had visited. Soon he and Gloria were breathing puffs of warm air with every breath.

"Hope this helps."

Jacob looked at his hand, and was surprised to find the tattoo already there. It was pretty meta.

"It looks good. Really good. But I think I got a crime scene to investigate."

Poppy · Jun 1, 2015

Thorn glanced up from her work and looked at Jacob, chuckling a bit at his expression. Shit, everybody looked like shit when they were high, huh?

At the mention of notes, Thorn twisted one of tubes loose and put it to her nose. (The slight lose of smoke would affect Jacob's illusion — there would be a brief flicker of the real world, but as soon as the smoke filled up the cup around his nose and mouth, it would go back to normal.) She saw her illusion firsthand and allowed Jacob to alter it with his firsthand experience.

Thorn saw her pretty picture of New York turn into something realer, and grounded in facts. She thought the realistic touch was a lot better and took several mental notes to include in her writing. She was personally dazzled by the breathtaking skyline and the overall sinister feel of the city. While she wasn't in the illusion herself, she felt the cold air bite at her exposed skin.

Shit, that was bad. She wasn't wearing a bra. She screwed the tube back to one of her shoulder holes and went back to work, her illusion melting back into real life.

Thorn-as-Gloria smiled at Jacob. "Hey, thanks for the advice! I'm going to add some chunks of it into my descriptions, give it a more 'New York' feel, yeah?"

She waved her hand in front of her face. Her demeanor immediately changed back to the femme fatale of the novel, Gloria. She patted the door of the apartment complex where the crime scene took place. "We're here, detective. Don't make too much noise. I hear the neighborhood's gossip mongers."

She rattled the doorknob. Locked. "Shit."

She pulled lockpicking tools from her coat pockets and worked open the lock. After a couple of minutes, she heard the pleasant click of the doorknob as it opened.

The complex had been abandoned. She heard a week after the crime scene, the tenants bolted out of there. It was a smart move. Gomez's men would probably be back. She couldn't imagine how the landlord was dealing with that but it gave her and Solano the upper advantage to... 'investigate'.

She looked over at Solano and pressed a finger to her lips, telling him to 'shhhhhhhhhh'.

Her red pumps made little noises as it made contact with the wooden floors. She stepped over the police tape, navigating her way through broken glass. When she heard activity outside, she ducked under the window and waited until the noise stopped.

And then she broke the police tape in front of the first floor room and entered.

They were in the room of the crime scene.

It was exactly as it was in the picture, except instead of a corpse in the floor, there was an outline of it in chalk. Gloria entered but it didn't look like she was investigating. It looked like she was searching for something.

In this part of the novel, Solano was supposed to notice a suspicious floorboard in the corner. Thorn made the floorboard slightly browner than the rest of the floor. Inside the floorboard was an entire buttload of cocaine with a piece of paper that contained a set of numbers and names.

Critical · Jun 2, 2015

As Gloria picked the lock to the apartment door, Jacob played the detective that he felt Solano would have been. His eyes became scouts that scoured everything set in front of them for any clues or evidence that police might have missed. The door was checked for signs of forced entry, or any other signs of use. Nothing. The door looked as used and ragged as any on the street. The windows were relatively untouched, though not necessarily clean. Solano assumed that if they checked the rear and side alleyways of the building, they would find better clues.

As she clicked the tumbler of the lock into place, Solano adjusted his collar to hide his face a little more and entered behind Gloria. Jacob felt that Solano would have a small twinge of nostalgia upon entry, as if the old abandoned apartment building reminded him of his own gritty past. Ducking away from the police and stepping over debris came naturally, almost reflexively.

The crime scene itself was all too familiar to Solano. It was a disheveled room surrounded by police tape with a chalk outline in the middle. There was a darkness to how familiar a room with a dead body felt to Solano. Nothing like that should be routine, yet it was to the hardened detective. He simply stood over the outline and looked down at the human form as if it was nothing.

"Poor bastard. At least you managed to get out of this hell hole of a city.."

His tone was lone and almost joking, hiding a small amount of sincerity for the fallen man. Jacob had no idea what beliefs Solano would have held, but he tried his best to do the Catholic cross thing to "bless" the outline.

"Alright. Talk to me, honey. Whatchya lookin' for?"

Solano looked around as well. His searched was less intense, but his eyes were more focused. He had to think like a criminal, or someone in the underground. What seemed out of place? The floorboard in the corner caught his eye. It was newer, as if it had been recently replaced. That set off alarms in his head.

"Well, what do we have here? A little bit of remodeling, eh?"

With a little bit of prying, Solano was able to lift the floorboard and reveal the motherlode inside. He quietly whistled.

"Would you look at that. Enough coke to put Tony Montana on his ass... and lookee here: he was kind enough to leave us a paper trail too."

Poppy · Jun 10, 2015

"Shit," Gloria exclaimed for some unknown reason. She looked distressed, as if she had made a horrible mistake.

The truth was that Gloria was a former crony of Gomez. She stole an immeasurable amount of money from him, so now he wants nothing more than to hunt her down and put her head in a platter.

She took a gamble on Solano. She decided to attach herself to the detective because he was cheap, disgraced and gullible, but incredibly talented all the same. She was going to use him to help her find this cache and run away to somewhere she could be safe, stab him in the back if need be...

But now that she was faced with her former goal, the hidden cache, and a possible future without Solano...

She didn't anticipate that she'd be caught at the crossroads.

She looked at Solano in the eye with fear and... remorse?

The former powerful Gloria stood there with trembling knees and an uncertain posture.

"I'm sorry, Solano," she said, her voice trembling. She pulled her gun from her coat and pointed it at his head.

Just then, Gloria and Ja — Solano heard footsteps in the hallway.

"It's Gloria! It has to be! The boss knew she wasn't going to be able to resist!"

Gloria scrambled to the floor and stuffed the bags of cocaine in her coat, but she was too late. Gomez's cronies kicked down the door and pointed a gun at Gloria. He f i r e d —

Time froze.

What are you going to do, detective?

Critical · Jun 10, 2015

"Something wrong, babe...?"

There was concern in his voice. Solano had not quite expected that particular reaction out of Gloria. Not knowing what was coming or what her motives truly were, he turned around to see if Gloria had accidentally hurt herself or maybe had gotten one of her heels stuck in the rickety floorboards. What he was not expecting at all was to find himself looking down the barrel of her gun, back to Gloria's conflicted gaze and shaky voice.

Jacob heard Thorn's narration, so he at least knew what was going on in Gloria's seeming betrayal. Giving the woman Lenn's appearance certainly forced Jacob to act more in character than he might have otherwise. Seeing Lenn point a gun at him punched him right in the gut, and Jacob nearly experienced flashbacks to the... tough times he and Lenn had shared. In order to keep himself from acting reflexively, Jacob had to consciously remind himself that it was all an illusion.

"Gloria... Honey... Put the gun down. Everything will be all--"

The next few moments passed in an instant, robbing Jacob of his senses and thoughts. Len--Gloria was rushing to the ground while the door was kicked in and a shot was fired. Even before Thorn froze the dream, Jacob was already moving and answering her question.

It was that day again. He had gone to visit Lenn in her shitty little apartment. It was before she had moved in with him. She was sick and he hoped to give her some company, and even brought some Chinese. In the middle of their meal: bullets. Donovan's cronies were looking to take Lenn out and Jacob was caught in the crossfire. They escaped to the alleyway and back to his car, but not before the apartment had been shredded and Jacob had taken a couple of bullets to the chest and shoulder.

His own memories must have influence the dream because the bullets hit him right where they had hit him back then. His chest and shoulder burned, both in the dream and in the tattoo chair. His breath caught in his throat and he twitched in the chair from the imagined pain. In the dream, he reflexively reached for his sword, and found it not there.

"Get out of here, Gloria! I got them!"

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Ink Me (The tattoo parlor is open!)

Poppy

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