Tokyo Girl

[Carthrat]

"Works. Tim and I could check out the temple," offers Tom. "Open to the public, right?"

[Dracos]

"Works.  We'll be the ignorant tourists," Dracos nodded in agreement.

Dracos

[Brian]

Tetsuo confirms that the temple is open to the public, even at this hour.

[Rezantis]

Nathan glances across at Dracos.

"Let's go and have a look around, then?"

[Brian]

"Wait," Mark says, frowning.  "Where do I go?"

"And me?" Tetsuo asks.

[Carthrat]

"Come on with me," says Tom, brightly. "You can give me tips on playing pool, I totally need them.

"Tetsuo was going with Bjorn, wasn't he?"

[Dracos]

"That sounds like a plan, no one separate too, anyhow...Bjorn will keep us in touch."  With that, Dracos and Rez moved off to begin their scouting of the temple, as always retorting to each other with lame juvenile jests that simply made the best of things.

[Bjorn]

"Let's go, Tetsuo," Bjorn nods, making his way directly to the soapland with all the lack of shame of a... well... Bjorn.

[Brian]

Bjorn and Tetsuo remain in this thread, all others go to Temple of Love

Shrugging, Tetsuo leads Bjorn down one of the subway tunnels, and then through a small arcade.  Various shops seem to have been set up between the staircase and the actual subway, and one of them is an inviting little shop with a pair of greeters out front.  A woman wearing only (it seems) a bathrobe is chatting with a man in a dark business suit, though the man ignores her at the approach of potential customers.  "Welcome!" he cries out with a grin.  "Welcome, are you here to visit the fabled pallet of desire?"

[Bjorn]

For a long moment, Bjorn ignores the man, looking past his shoulder as he explores the area with his earth sense.  When he eventually deigns to take notice, he stares at the man through his sunglasses, head tilted to the head, before he finally says, in Japanese, "Yes.  Yes, I think that I am."

On their way down, Bjorn had been careful to brush up against Tetsuo, and now he reaches through the Dream to Tetsuo's mind.  Follow my lead here, Tetsuo, if you will.

[Brian]

To his credit, Tetsuo barely even flinches at the contact.  He gives a goofy smile to the man and says, "I've never been before.  Big brother here is...."  He trails off with a shrug.

To Bjorn's earthsight, the tunnel roof has a layer of earth above it, intersected in places by airshafts and the like.  If his sense of where the temple is is accurate, then it is directly above the soapland, and while it's difficult to make it out for certain between the air conduits and everything else, there does appear to be a shaft that connects the temple's basement to the soapland.

"Come in," the man says, his eyes going from Bjorn -- the financeer -- to Tetsuo -- the actual customer, as he sees things.  He takes Tetsuo's arm and leads him inside.

The woman with the cigarette shakes her head and says, "Try the green room, I think you'll like it for a first time."  She's got a blatantly false smile that doesn't come close to reaching her eyes.  Tetsuo gives an uncertain nod before the duo is ushered inside.

The first room within the soapland is a lobby.  There's a four pretty young women sitting on couches in pairs.  One of the girls is actually a blonde -- looks American, though she's occupied in pouring drinks for a woefully besotted salaryman, while her partner (a slim Asian girl of indeterminate age) giggles at his jokes dutifully.

The other two girls are both chatting about something, but break off when the new customers come in.  "Now," the man says, releasing Tetsuo and gesturing towards the back of the room.  Hallways leading radially deeper into the brothel line the back wall -- too Bjorn, the place is eerily reminiscent of the Playroom at the Workshop, especially with the subtle 'mountainside' motif that can barely be picked out in the dim lighting.

Each of the hallways is a different color.  From left to right they are, white, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, and black.  "How much of a man are you looking to become?"  He quickly adds, "White is if you'd like to pick one of our two girls here -- Ami or Nonoko," the two girls giggle at their cue, "and black is for more ... experienced customers."  He winks.  "How much of a man do you want to become?"

"Uh...."  Tetsuo looks lost.  How should I answer?

[Bjorn]

Bjorn's perception is lagging behind here, but this doesn't cause him too much problem -- it gives him a bit of a dreamy, inhuman feel.  Which is, in the end, the card he's decided to play.

Through the Dream, he lets the others now, In the soapland.  Sending over what he can make out of the air conduits, he adds, There's a way down from the temple, I think.  Be ready.  This place stinks of the Cabal.  I don't like it.  Aloud, after a pause, he once again lazily turns his attention to the guest.  "'A man'?" he asks, amused.  "Why would I ever want to become such a thing?"

He takes a step closer to the pimp.  Up close, the concealment offered by the sunglasses is poor indeed.  The occasional wisp of mist can be seen clearly curling around the edges of the glasses, and when Bjorn makes a lazy gesture with one hand, the cool feeling of fog on a cold day oozes outwards from its path.  "Michiko," he whispers.

[Brian]

Code Select Expand

+Hatbot --> "Bjorn rolls 5d6 for presence attack and gets 19."The pimp's false smile flickers and fades as he steps backwards -- too quickly -- and falls flat on his rear.  "T...the blue room," he chokes out.  "She's....  With a customer."

The drunken salaryman doesn't react, and the girls entertaining him only glance up, but Ami and Nonoko take sharp note, both jumping to their feet.

[Bjorn]

"Thank you," Bjorn says with aplomb.  "I feel confident, of course, that you will not want to remember that we were here."  He smiles genially.  "While this is, after all, a place to satisfy desires, I think you would not want to satisfy mine?"

With a parting nod for the two girls, he heads down the blue corridor, with Tetsuo in tow.  Unless, of course, you'd rather spend some time with either Ami or Nonoko?  I could probably arrange a discount for you.

[Brian]

No thank you, Tetsuo replies.  Beneath his verneer of disgust is the genuine expected curiosity of a teenager, but the suggested violence probably puts the kibosh on that.

The pimp nods shakily and doesn't otherwise move.

The blue corridor isn't terribly long, probably about five meters, before it ends at a wide sliding door.  Nothing can be heard through it.