The mime adjusted his tshirt and then put
on his scruffy suit jacket. Yes, this looked perfect. He decided to dress like
one of the 'cool' characters off a Japanese anime but to give it a little more
contemporary style so he didn't look like he was going to a halloween party.
This was definitely the sort of this "Kusa" would wear to a
gathering, especially one that had served drinks and houer dors. He placed his
prosthetics carefully on his face and affixed them with the special glue and
stood back to admire himself. Lucky he had his clothes tailored at the last
second otherwise he may not have fit into them with his last weight spurt, as
controlled as he was trying to be. He was a little worried by the excess
overhang, knowing how unhealthy it was,
but he knew he would be able to regain his figure from before. At least it
meant he didn't have to hunt down a stomach prosthetic. He checked his screen
again. Tonight his client was providing him with a live feed of the chat room
Kusa was in so he would know up to the minute details of what he was supposed
to have said plus an idea of what time he would've been leaving his hou. He
could see "Kusa" was saying goodbye to everyone so he set a timer on
his watch based on some quick calculations in his head. Time to shower, get
ready, get changed, catch a taxi (Kusa didn't drive), time from the general
area they thought he was from. The mime, however, lived up the street from the
event so getting there would not be a problem, though he would still need to
somehow get a taxi to agree. Though people will agree to most things for money,
he'd tell them to drive around the block afterwards to explain it to their depo
if they really were worried.
He pulled out his phone and checked his
little "guide to being Kusa" that he had placed on there. He had
structured it in such a way that if someone else had taken his phone and read
it, they would just assume that it was a character sheet for someone in a
Dungeons and Dragons game (which Kusa would almost certainly be into) or that
it was a character for a novel that someone was working on, and he knew that
Kusa talked about his writing here and there in the chat room.
He scanned the pages, made sure of the
accent he was going to use, and memorised the various phrases that he used in
the chatroom that seemed like they would transition in to real life. He heard
the timer on his phone go off and went out to find himself a taxi, hoping to
himself that this one had clean glasses or didn't need them. Thankfully there
was a taxi parked just outside his apartment block as there was a new nightclub
that had opened up across the road and it was waiting for drunk kids to stagger
over and swear that they weren't going to vomit all over his sheets. He leant
in the window and said the address. The taxi driver said, "are you
crazy?"
"Possibly. But I will give you fifty
bucks to take you there. You can circle the block afterwards if you need to
show the mileage."
"Alright, get in."
The mime got in the taxi and the taxi
driver set off. He immediately started chatting, "So are you with the FBI?
I get that sort of feeling from you, even though you're dressed as a dweeb. Are
you going to that nerd party that's happening, where they have gotten high
class waiters and catering and all of that? Is there a high profile hacker
that's going to be there, huh? Is that what it is? I know those geeky kids, you
can't trust them. All of them, they learn how to use and computer and then
something just clicks in their head and they decide they want to rob a bank, or
become a terrorist, or break into the Government. There must be something
seriously wrong with those kids I tell you. When I think about..."
"We're here."
"Oh so we are. Well, good luck."
He took the fifty dollar bill the mime proferred him, "sir" He winked
and the mime let himself out and the taxi sped away, presumably to circle the
block. The mime walked up to the entrance of the building "The Mercurian
Hotel" Gold plate writing proclaimed on the big glass door leading to
inside. He walked up and pressed on the door and it opened. He smiled. The move
still worked. Didn't feel the same without a glove though, not these days.
He walked up to the reception desk and
asked about the gathering of chatters and was told to go to the third floor and
the whole floor was booked out. He thanked the woman and walked to the lift.
The elevator doors were covered in a gilt pattern of flowers that somehow
walked the line between classy and gaudy. The more he looked at it though, the
the mime tended to lean towards 'gaudy'. He stood there for a few minutes
before realising he had forgotten to push the button. What was wrong with him
tonight. He reached forward and smartly pressed it so that the circle of light
around it came on and stood back to sheepishly wait for the lift to actually
come to his floor. At least it wouldn't be out of character for Kusa, he
thought.
But was it out of character to talk about
having done it? He couldn't think of an answer and panicked. He pulled out his
mobile from his jacket pocket and started quickly flipping through his Kusa
notes. Hmm, he was pretty arrogant. He didn't seem to make any jokes at his own
expense even for friendliness. Maybe he'll save it till he's had a few drinks,
he decided. Though he wouldn't actually be drinking very much, if at all, he'll
try to make it appear as if he was imbibing and becoming socially drunk. The
bell went off for the lift and the doors opened up. The mime stepped into the
elevator and pressed the button for the floor (making absolutely sure that it
had selected) and stood back as the doors closed and the elevator started
slowly moving up.
Thinking to himself, he thought it was a
bit odd that he had no direct mission fo the night. All he was expected to do
was mingle, chat in character, and then go home again. It was almost like a
test to see if the client could talk about the party in the chat later on and
be thought of still as the same person. The mime realised now that it probably
WAS a test, and the real mission would be coming up later, once he had
established himself. But what would it be? He hoped it wasn't a killing
mission, he realy hated wetworks and he tried to keep his involvement in any
thing strictly of he dramatic variety. SO what? What could it possibly be? The
lift rang its bell again and the doors opened up onto the third floor and the
party within.
--
Menelaus kept mingling with the other
people at the party. He felt a little uncomfortable. He was normally not that
great with social situations at the best of times but he had only come to this
one to chat to Calliope about her agent. He hoped he wasn't becoming too
annoying to her. He wasn't picking up any negative vibes, but still. He
suddenly realised he had no idea what she looked like. Well, most of the people
here now knew who he was by him turning up, introducing himself, asking who
they were and then, after a few seconds of awkward silence, excusing himself,
which was probably what they were hoping her would do. None of the people there
so far had been online on the night of the accident though, so there was no
reason for them to talk to him or any frame of reference they could hang their
conversation with him on. He went over to the snack table and got himself
another cube of cheese and a salted cracker. He loved cubes of cheese. He
understood why a lot of people, when they got made redundant, started eating a
lot of cheese during the day. It seemed heavenly to him but he also knew it was
basically pure fat. He wondered if the propaganda-like videos he had seen his
vegan friends spread about cheese being 'addictive' and really horribly bad for
the body were actually true. It was usually a case of 'half yes' and 'half no'
with that sort of thing so he decided to just keep eating the cheese and forget
about it for now. It was the only thing that was actually making the party
bearable for him. He heard the lift go off in the hallway outside during a lull
in the music as it changed to another track and kept an eye out for who it would
be. He thought it was strange there even was a lull in the tracks and normally
these days DJs mixed tracks into eachother but he guessed the DJ thought the
song needed some sort of introduction.
He saw a man walk in with jeans, futuristic
looking sneakers, a suit jacket over an anime tshirt that seemed to have a
bubbly looking girl with pink hair and cleavage bending over and blowing a
kiss. It all fit well though. The man himself was a bit chubby and had a bit of
stubble. Kusa? It had to be, it fit his profile too well. He decided to walk
over to him and chat.
"Hey there!" he called out the
guy looked at him
"Yes?"
"Is that Kusa?"
The guy looked unsure for a second then
relaxed, "Yeah, that's me. How did you know?"
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