Guilty Pleasures (Closed)

by **Sunset** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 11:42 am

L'la slid down in her chair and threw her head back before closing her eyes and letting out a long, frustrated sigh. It had been another one of those days; Dealing with her boss, dealing with her subordinates, dealing with the media...

"I should retire," she mumbled, "Work at a casino instead. Run a Tall Card table..."

Which would be a terrible idea and she knew it; She didn't know how to play cards and wasn't really interested in learning. In fact, she only knew of the game because she'd seen it on late-night reruns on the very-very-very-classic channel. She did, however, like the uniform; Tight black slacks, stiff white shirt carefully rolled to the elbows and secured with the elastic lace band, and the black vest that would fit her like a corset. It was her favorite outfit and one that she adopted frequently when indulging in her one guilty pleasure.

Sitting up only slightly, she opened one shining black eye and then the other before craning her neck to look around the office. There was no one around; During the day the space would have had a dozen or so circulating around between the various Under-Secretaries, their secretaries, visitors, and building staff. Now it was just her and the robots. One booted foot thumped onto the desk and the other rested across at the ankle and she closed her eyes again. In the dark space behind her eyelids there were the still-intrusive images being inserted by her augmented reality; Red boxes blinking to indicate that someone, somewhere, thought they had something important that needed to be answered Right Now.

They disappeared with a thought, banished to oblivion or at least until the next morning.

Another and they were replaced with something simpler and to her mind more intimate. The soft glow of an angle bracket waiting for her input. Login information scrolled past and there she was. Text began to scroll past; She read it, but didn't really care. The chat room had originally been created as a way for the staff of some long-forgotten software program to communicate with their users. Now it was one of those hidden corners of the Internet where a soul might drift in to find a dozen people merrily slinging insults or innuendo. When it was the former, as it was now, she looked for someone more familiar who was interested in the later. There were a few, some more special to her than others, but only one was online at the moment and she opened up a sub-frame to start her chat.

[LittleEl]:> Hey...

----

OOC: Quite specifically a RP about two people having an online relationship.

by **Sovereign California** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:33 pm

Selené stood out on the balcony of her penthouse suite, a solitary figure standing alone in the night with her silhouette framed by the glow of the city lights from below. As she smoked a cigarette and looked around at the megalopolis roughly half a mile below her feet. She'd felt alone for quite a long while, even with having a distant wife and through her a daughter who'd grown up quite fast to become very much like her, eventually becoming the CEO of her corporation. Yet, still, she felt as if something within her had not been fulfilled. As she stubbed out the finished cigarette into the marble ashtray and lit a second one, she walked around to the northwest side of the building and looked down at the old city.

With a sigh, she mused aloud to herself. "For all of what I have, the position of Empress, the wealth, this goddamned immortality, this building, the Empire... I'm still missing something in my life..." She finished her second cigarette, not finding an ashtray near enough, she flung the butt over the side of the building and walked back inside.

Returning indoors, she grabbed her personal computer and sat back against a pile of plush pillows stacked against the wide headboard of her spacious bed, and through a series of commands directed the computer's AI to begin loading a series of various software programs, one of which being an archaic software program used to communicate with other users across the internet. After loading several server windows and joining the various channels or groups she'd found of interest, she idled for a while while multitasking listening to classic rock music from between the 1970s and 2010s, every once in a while popping into conversations to say a sentence or two, or depending on the subject matter insert her own opinion or take on the subject. She never advertised her real identity or even so much as breathed a sentence regarding that she was someone who was in a high position of political power.

Here she was just another person... here, she was just Selené, and was free to just be herself. She never cared for the usual business she'd find in the majority of chatrooms, which usually ended up in egotistical pissing matches, the usual chat about life, the universe and everything and all of the casual bullshit in between... and the neverending supply of adult oriented channels and their variety of topics. She wasn't all of that interested in most of the adult-themed channels/groups, but one in particular had caught her eye and joining the channel, she sat and idled for a while to get the feel of the group and while striking up small banter with others and after finding this channel to be just what she was looking for, she stayed and engaged in various topics until eventually most had to disconnect due to sleep or other constraints, leaving her as the only one in the channel. After a while of more multitasking, listening to music and keeping an eye on her country's defense through one of the windows providing a real-time feed from the National Military Command Center, a small window popped up in the lower right of her screen informing her someone had just joined the channel, displaying the first message in the channel:

"[LittleEl]:> Hey..."

Turning her attention back to the channel, she wisked her hand over the sensor above the pad that provided a holographic keyboard, sweeping the chat window into view, and seeing the message on the screen, she smiled to herself and quickly tapped out a response.

[AmberEyed1]:> Hello... how are you?

by **Sunset** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:47 pm

[LittleEl]:> Hey...
[AmberEyed1]:> Hello... how are you?
[LittleEl]:> You ever feel like a load of laundry in the drier? Just tumbling around and around?

'[LittleEl]:> Though I could use a tumble!' L'la backspaced that one out. A little too much, too soon. It was always hard to know what the person on the other side was thinking, what their mood was. Sometimes things were serious for them and she just wanted to flirt, sometimes things were...

Well, best to just sound things out, wasn't it?

[LittleEl]:> That's me today.
[LittleEl]:> And I think someone put some shoes in there too, or some of those big clunky boots the metal heads wear. How about you? How's your day?

by **Sovereign California** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:56 pm

[AmberEyed1]:> Like a load in the drier? I have had days like that too... except instead of shoes, more like cinder blocks. As far as my day, just the usual, standing outside my home, being alone with my thoughts, smoking... staring off into the distance...

[AmberEyed1]:> Ever get that feeling that there's more you would like to do in your life, but feel constrained or unable to do... if not simply because of how others around you would feel?

[AmberEyed1]:> I feel like I have been living a double life, having to hide myself from everyone around me, afraid that should they see me as myself, they'd be revolted, or worse hate me or even fear me for my being different than them.

[AmberEyed1]:> *facedesks*

by **Sunset** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 2:33 pm

[AmberEyed1]:> *facedesks*

[LittleEl]:> Like picking your nose in private? Or something a little bit more serious?

[LittleEl]:> I've thought about it. Putting in my two week and trying something new. They'd miss me, I'm sure, but the work would get done.

L'la thought about it for a minute. The dealer outfit was always there, but was that really what she wanted to do? Another job? Or was it something else?

[LittleEl]:> It's kinda silly, I know, but I've thought about becoming a dealer in a casino. Watching the faces of people as they win or lose, watching the money flow by instead of just seeing account numbers that don't mean all of diddly-squat. What's a billion here and a billion there compared to a thousand in hard currency in the hand?

[LittleEl]:> But that would still be a job. I guess... Back to the drier... I guess I'd just like to be tossed over the back of a chair somewhere out in the sun. Even if I get a little bleached.

[LittleEl]:> What about you? What would you like to do if you could drop the disguise, go do what you want to do?

by **Sovereign California** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:11 pm

[AmberEyed1]:> Something more serious.

[AmberEyed1]:> A dealer in a casino? sounds interesting. Numbers are nothing, I can agree about the feeling of holding cold hard cash in your hands. On another note, depending on where you're at, I know of a casino that is always looking for employees.

[AmberEyed1]:> Is the whole being tossed over the back of a chair supposed to be a metaphor for something?

[AmberEyed1]:> As a matter of fact, I have always wanted to be a dancer of some sort... not a ballerina, or some theatrical dancer. A showgirl or an exotic dancer... not something trashy like a stripper. Something... classy.

by **Sunset** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:54 pm

[LittleEl]:> Probably a little too far out of town, haha.

That might be a little too telling, but L'la left it. Her own assumption was that the majority of the users would be based where the original software was sold and that would put her about seven hundred light years that-a-way.

"Eh, harmless. Mostly."

[LittleEl]:> Not really. Just... relaxing. Flopped out, nothing to do and no one to bug me about some huge disaster, or special project, or dire circumstance that could be just as well handled by putting their hand down the garbage disposal.

[LittleEl]:> You know how they always say if you want something done right, you should do it yourself? Sometimes I'm tired of doing it myself and maybe, just maybe it would serve these bastards right to have the whole thing come crashing down around their ears.

[LittleEl]:> An exotic dancer!? You'd love it! I took a dance class in college and there was an exotic dance segment. I think I still have a video of it around here; I'll have to dig it up. LittleEl dressed up in a leotard and tutu... It was from the ballet segment, sorry. But you should go take some classes or something. Chase your dreams!

"Bleh, talking about myself too much..." But it was already there. L'la opened an eye and looked around. The clock on the wall caught her attention; Nearly Nine Ares-Time.

by **Sovereign California** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 6:19 am

[AmberEyed1]:> Too far out of town? Interesting.

[AmberEyed1]:> Relaxing is always nice, I love relaxing in my home. Sometimes I'll go to the balcony and just admire the view around me. I find the city lights to be so relaxing... a whole city of millions of people going about their lives.

[AmberEyed1]:> Sometimes leaving something to someone else to do it the only way they will ever learn to do something for themselves.

[AmberEyed1]:> I would love being an exotic dancer? I'm glad to know I'd love it. I took some dancing classes a long, long, long, long time ago, back when ballet dancing was indicative of a country's cultural development. I still have some tights, and a leotard... some ballet dresses, tutus and what not in my closet somewhere. As far as taking some exotic dancing classes and chasing my dreams, I'll seriously put some thought into it.

She thought about the idea of being a showgirl, the revealing attire, the sequins, dancing in high heels... Her thoughts drifted to exotic dancing, wearing the sexy outfits, thigh high boots, commanding the attention of the room... and not because she was some political leader... but because for once, she'd just be just another person...

by **Sunset** » Sat Nov 08, 2014 3:23 pm

[LittleEl]:> Yeah, I'm exaggerating. At least a little bit. But the buck does stop here. Right here, on this desk, and sometimes up between my kester.

[LittleEl]:> Uh, when someone's trying to kick my butt that is. Not implying that I, or anyone else, inserts money into my behind through any opening. I'm sure there are people who are into that kind of thing and I am not one of those people. No offense if you are.

"Eep, that sounds kind of off-putting," L'la looked at that last line. "Maybe she's into it and I just blew my chances at some hot cyber money-shoveling action?" Again, she looked over to the clock.

[LittleEl]:> Sorry, but it's quitting time around here. Or at least for the girl at the big desk. Maybe tomorrow, okay?

by **Sovereign California** » Sat Nov 08, 2014 3:32 pm

[AmberEyed1]:> Heh, alright.

[AmberEyed1]:> I know how it is. I get a lot of crap dumped on my desk. Though not literally.

[AmberEyed1]:> Alright. Tomorrow then.

by **Sunset** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:41 am

It was more than tomorrow before L'la was able to return to her backwater haunt and the conversation with the enigmatically familiar AmberEyed1. As predicted, something had blown up and she'd spent the next day reworking a contract with a recalcitrant defense supplier. Things had gotten complicated when a second, third, and fourth potential supplier had appeared. More negotiations and eventually things had returned to the original supplier after Legal had discovered that Second, Third, and Fourth were all sock puppets of Fifth, which had been aggressively pursuing a buyout of the first supplier.

[LittleEl]:> Ah, the cut-throat world of business. How I love it.

[LittleEl]:> Show me an honest businessman and I'll show you an honest-to-god Tahitian mermaid.

[LittleEl]:> ...you know, I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in my family tree there was a Tahitian mermaid. 'Uncle George' was always a bit eccentric!

[LittleEl]:> Sorry it's been a couple days. Things have been hectic but they are clearing up now.

[LittleEl]:> How about you? How are you?

by **Sovereign California** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:39 am

[AmberEyed1]:> Sometimes you have to be cut-throat in the business world to get anywhere, or for that matter, anything done.

[AmberEyed1]:> Honest businessman? I don't know how many of those I have ever come across.

[AmberEyed1]:> Heh, you should see my family tree...

[AmberEyed1]:> It's alright, the last couple of days here has been somewhat smooth, for a change. If I didn't have my daughter running my corporation in my absence, I would definitely be pressed for time.

[AmberEyed1]:> I am doing well, aside from the usual bit of work that finds its way to my desk, and the casual things I have to sign off on, things are peaceful here. I haven't quite gotten around to the whole bit of taking a dance class yet, while I know I'd definitely be in shape to meet the physical requirements of the class, finding a day in the week where I am free has been a little challenging.

by **Sunset** » Wed Nov 26, 2014 8:41 pm

[LittleEl]:> You ever have to lie to people?

It had been one of those days - Those Days - and L'la was in need of some stretching. Laying out on her desk, flat on her back with her arms stretched over her head, she imagined that she might actually look kind of enticing to whoever might be on the other end. One of her skin-tight body suits, her stomach flat and taut and her arms pulling everything up and pushing it out?

'Yeah, that might look pretty good...'

A cut and paste later and the image with everything above the shoulders and below the waist cropped off was inserted as her avatar. A bit dangerous, but she was already feeling a bit dangerous and edgy.

[LittleEl]:> Tell them something to get them to do what you need them to do, even if it's for their own good? Like when you can't explain to a kid why they can't do something because they won't understand so you tell them a scary clown will jump out of the toilet if they don't flush?

[LittleEl]:> That was my day. Except no evil clowns.

[LittleEl]:> I hate clowns. Sorry if you wear a big red nose and floppy shoes, but that's the way it is.

by **Sovereign California** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:08 am

[AmberEyed1]:> Sometimes, the business I am in sometimes requires me to tell the truth by omission.

She looked over the photo and smiled.

[AmberEyed1]:> Niiiiiiice. My turn.

After positioning the camera at an optimal angle she reverted to her original form, her dark brown hair turning a radiant blood red, her green eyes becoming luminescent amber-golden colored and her average skin became more medium tan in tone. She smiled at the camera as the flash signaled the photo had been taken, and reverted back to her casual human form, taking a second photo.

[AmberEyed1]:> The real me... and the public me.

[AmberEyed1]:> I don't know anything about threatening kids with scary clowns... but having to tell people to do what would be in their best interests, and use whatever means I can to get them to do so of their own accord, is something I have had to do before.

She tried as much as she could to remain vague as possible about the fact that she was the CEO of one of her country's largest corporations, let alone the titular 'go to person' of the country in lieu of her being coronated as Empress of the country, even though she initially refused the crown multiple times before her own wife talked her into going with it for the security of the nation.

[AmberEyed1]:> Interesting day... when I am not looking at business reports, profit margins, expenses and all kinds of shit dealing with my corporation... I'm stuck with my other job, bossing more people around... in somewhat of an official capacity. I tell you, I didn't even want this second job, but got stuck with it because of my position as being one of the few instrumental persons who got the whole ball rolling in the first place...I can't even take a vacation without having the public eye on me everywhere I go... I hate it!

[AmberEyed1]:> I hate clowns too... so no red nose or floppy shoes... though I do deal with some of my underlings that sometimes should be forced to wear a clown suit and shoes indicating the number of years they've been doing their job.

by **Sunset** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 3:51 pm

[LittleEl]:> Since you've upped the ante, BRB...

L'la reciprocated; A full body shot this time with her green skin, large black eyes, and page boy haircut dropping back from her forehead as she lay back on the desk propped up on her elbows. The first shot, looking up into the camera, looked a little too earnest and for the second she turned her head to the side to try for something demure.

"Demure," she considered as she looked the image over, "But not alluring enough."

The invisible seam on the bodysuit went down and she shrugged it off her shoulders until a nice splash of cleavage was visible. There wasn't anything under the suit; She didn't have enough chest to need it but there was still a nice shadow curve to indicate she at least had a little something. Another picture, again looking off to the side and slightly down, and she slid the seam back up while looking the finish product over.

"Not as good as the calendar;" She'd been in the 'Women in Power' underwear calendar before, "But pretty good."

Enough to figure out who she was, but if you've already splashed your undies across the sector... She altered her picture and returned to the chat.

[LittleEl]:> There you go! So, sensitive question, but do you have a public versus private because of who you are, or because of what you are?

She didn't exactly recognize the species - big universe - but she was making the guess that it was some kind of shape-shifting rather than some kind of technological wizardry.

by **Sovereign California** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:46 pm

[AmberEyed1]:> Nice!

[AmberEyed1]:> More because of what I am, Aoraqet or Auracexian to use a more 'Latin-ized' version of the name. More because the people here haven't really had much interaction with anything outside their Solar system, I can only assume that it would be very shocking were the people of this country, let alone the planet to see my true self. I stay in human form, though occasionally I drop my guard around those who are taken to me and don't see my true appearance as shocking or threatening.