Sweating to the Oldies

[Null]

The Boy (the girl?) lay, face down, in the sauna, scrolling through his phone as she absorbed some of the nice, warm heat.

On the small of her back, Will reclined, still as a tattoo, also enjoying the warmth, occasional potshots and mockery from the boy notwithstanding.

((open))

[Miriam Bell]

Finding the sauna already in use causes Miriam to hesitate and the two minds she can sense inside only add to her trepidation. But letting Will's presence chase her off would be beyond pathetic and so she opens the door and slips inside, the white towel wrapped around her almost matching her pale skin.

[Null]

"Heya, Miriam," the boy said, waving to her as she came in. "Come to try to get some color in that skin of yours?"

[Miriam Bell]

"I doubt that'll work. But it's nice to feel something bordering on warm." she says, unwrapping her towel and putting it down on the top row to lie down.

"Where's the rest of you? I thought I felt the both of you in here..."

[Null]

"Check the butt," the boy said, pointing to his Will-tramp-tattoo. "Just fixing a...slight problem we had."

[Will Stanton]

"Heya Miriam," the tattoo said, waving at the vampire.

[Miriam Bell]

"Very classy. A trampstamp of yourself." she says, leaning over to look at Tattoo-Will.

[Null]

"Oh, not of myself, please. A tramp stamp of an idiot."

[Will Stanton]

Closer inspection could see that most of Will was on the outside of the boy's skin, so he wasn't technically a tattoo. More like a really-well adhered sticker.

"I'm not really sure 'tramp stamp' really applies. I'm not a tramp!"

[Miriam Bell]

"Semantics are kind of moot when it's still a likeness of yourself, don't you think?" she asks, poking at the small sticker-tattoo with a used-to-be-manicured fingernail.

[Will Stanton]

"Ack! That tickles!" Will said, as Miriam poked him.

She would find she could slide him around The Girl's back, and a little bit of him smeared as she poked.

[Miriam Bell]

"This would make an amazing visual if it was a snake moving or a flower opening with this kind of contrail effect. Instead you chose a sassy twin." she says, sliding the tattoo up along Will's spine.

[Null]

"A flower, huh?" The Girl said, closing her eyes, and arching her back a little.

[Will Stanton]

Underneath Miriam's fingers, the Will-too twisted and shifted, into a blood-red Dahlia.

"Hey! A little warning please?" the flower said, from the center of the mass of petals

[Null]

"I hope that's more to your artistic tastes," she grinned. "Especially if you're going into the massage business."

[Miriam Bell]

"That might be tolerable if every customer was of such exquisite design, but most... aren't." she goes on, tracing the outlines of the petals with her finger.

[Null]

Miriam would find that she could cover quite a bit of surface area, as she finger-painted along The Girl's back. A little bit of Will would come off on her own fingers, as well.

"Well, we both know what you think of me, right?" the girl said, with a shit-eating grin.

[Miriam Bell]

"That you're pretty full of yourself?" she smirks just a little.

[Null]

"That was an accident.

And I'm mostly full of cold hard cash, remember?" she smirked back.

[Miriam Bell]

"Arguably my cold hard cash. You didn't tell people about that?"

[Null]

"Arguably a vampire cabal's cold hard cash. And what they don't know can't hurt them, right?

Not that it's doing me a lot of good. I couldn't even out bit Tereza -- she bought the both of us, crate and barrel, from the school. For a pound."

[Miriam Bell]

"That's just insulting!" she says, propping herself up a bit on her elbows.

[Null]

"You're telling me," the girl sighed.

"He loves it, of course. I suppose you broke off all the bits that would love it, but he's been daydreaming about his future with the Wolfpac ever since I told him. He's happy as the proverbial clam.

Because he's an idiot."

[Miriam Bell]

"So? Let them have him and he can be happy. And if they actually try to exert any kind of legal wankery on you then tell them to shove it."

[Null]

"Eh, they're trying to help. In the wrong way mind you, but you have to at least accept good intentions, I guess. And I don't really have the legal legs to stand on, here.

Besides, I don't want them to take advantage of the poor guy, y'know? That whole...'wolfpack' mentality is ripe for all sorts of issues. You know, alpha, beta, omega shit and all that. And this guy would let them walk all over him and plead for more."

[Will Stanton]

"It's not taking advantage," the flower burbled out under Miriam's fingers. "If everyone enjoys it, it's all good, right?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Your tattoo's not entirely wrong there. Much as I hate to admit it, they're probably not going to take advantage of him. Samantha's too much of a goodie-two-shoes for that. And who cares about legal legs. You're not even from this world."

[Null]

"And in 16 years, I go back. And that's if I don't figure out anything sooner. Still don't want to be locked up for 16 years waiting for the timer to run out. They've got me over a barrel.


And Sam may be a boring fuddy-duddy at times, but have you already forgotten how intoxicating owning a Stanton can be?" the girl smirked. "YOU didn't exactly get bored."

[Miriam Bell]

"If he can manage to draw the stick from Sam's butt then good on him. And locked up for what? Refusing to be owned by somebody? They only have you over a barrel because you convince yourself that you should follow their rules. Now if you want to be bend over a barrel, I might be able to oblige in a much less boring way..."

[Null]

"Apparently, part of the reason I couldn't just get rid of the whole ownership contract entirely is what Melpomene did when she took over my body. Because 'possession' is not nine-tenths of the law over here.

And, Missus Vampire, are you trying to seduce me?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Maybe... Unless you need me to ask permission to borrow you from your owner first." she smirks.

[Null]

"Technically, you would, and I would pay good money to see you do that," she laughed.

"But if you're looking for one to bend to your will, I'm sorry, but you'll find you made me of sterner stuff. Now that you let me slip away, I don't intend to be under your heel anymore. If anything, I'd be the one having you over a barrel -- have you found anyone else to source your blood from, yet?"

[Miriam Bell]

"You could try. But that's different..."

"And don't remind me. The school has me on blood packs from the infirmary. They... well to be honest they taste horrible. Flat and tepid."

[Null]

"Well, maybe we can work somethin somethin out, there. Don't want you to go hungry, after all.

Plus, you're used to the best."

[Miriam Bell]

"Am I garnering pity here? Did I really turn into a charity case this fast?"

[Null]

"Morrigan's left foot, Miriam, not every time someone offers to do something is a charity case. The words you're looking for are 'thank you, that would be lovely, however could I repay you?'"

[Miriam Bell]

"That's not..." she sighs. "The last person to offer this kind of thing was Wanda and that was just because I turned her mind into a sappy pushover, so it wasn't exactly freely either."

[Null]

"I'm pretty sure the last person whose mind you turned into a sappy pushover was yours truly, but go off," the girl shrugged, stretching her arm out and reaching for a towel.

[Miriam Bell]

"I know! Fuck... I'm just saying I didn't realize it at the time with her. I straight up forced you and it makes even less sense to me that you'd be this kind."

[Will Stanton]

"What can I say? I'm a good guy," she shrugged.

Using the towel, she wiped the last of Will off -- the extended time in the sauna had freed him up from The Girl's back, and he left a dull, crimson smear on the white towel as she cleaned off her back.