Toy Dolls part two. Date Thursday, April 25, 2024 - 05:40 AM PST Topic Entertainment One (Cont...) My first act at this revelation was to check my jaw. It was definitely hanging. I closed my mouth and took another look. This time I concentrated on her face. She was just as beautiful as when I first saw her, but now I could see something in her eyes. There was a hunger there that called to me and made me bold. "I'm Xeno yeah, funny that I thought you were a guy. I hope you won't hold that against me." I clenched my jaw as the remainder of that line attempted to crawl up my throat and devour the moment. "Nah, I get that all the time. No one believes that a chick can use a computer, much less write erotica." She smiled and I struggled to find my voice around the enormous fireworks display my libido was sending my brain. "Umm." I took a breath, got a grip on myself, reminded myself that she and all these other people were just that people; and responded. "Cool, mind if I sit? I'd kill for a cup of coffee, and that ashtray is too far away for easy access." I lit a cigarette and looked her dead in the eye. I smiled. She smiled again and said it was time for a Chinese fire drill. Everyone got up from the table; it was one of those booth affairs that meant if someone in the middle needed to get out for any reason, they had to make plans in advance. Soon we were all blocking the aisle and Dream was trying to sort out some form of seating arrangement. Finally, she threw her arms in the air and said, "Forget it, everyone pay up. We're going out. Xeno, come with me." She threw a five on the table and grabbed my arm. I let myself be led to the front where she saw the two other goths, still waiting to for a seat. "Just a second." She stalked up to the taller of the two and gave him a hug. I eyed him over, jealousy warring with interest. He was wearing Doc's, a pair of the grayest black slacks I had ever seen, a black business shirt, and a dress jacket. Strangest to me was the fact that he was also wearing a priests collar. I wondered at that, but decided to wait on judgment until I had a chance to meet him. His companion was a woman dressed in a flowing gown that was made of alternating layers of fishnet and gauze. It gave the impression that if you caught it in the right light it would be transparent, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't even penetrate the first layer of gauze. Dream turned and gestured at me, I waved and began to walk over but she turned and came back to me. "They are going to meet us there. C'mon, let's get moving, do you have a car?" I shook my head and she nodded. "Good, you can ride with me. If we wait for everyone to get themselves sorted, we'll be here all night. I swear it's like herding cats sometimes." She grabbed my arm again and we left. TWO Outside the temperature had dropped into the low fifties, bracing, but not enough to be uncomfortable through my jacket. Of course, at that moment, I noticed Dream catch her breath and wrap her arms around herself. I slipped out of my jacket and draped it around her shoulders. "Thanks, it's not far. If we walk fast we'll make it before you catch a chill." And with that, we were off. She led me through the parking lot behind the Denny's, up a flight of cement stairs that let out behind some anonymous hotel, through the service entry of the hotel and out the front. We paused for a moment as we stepped back into the cold and I watched my breath steam in front of me. "Where exactly are we going?" I reached for my cigarettes and realized they were in my jacket, inside pocket, right under her left breast. "The Underground. It's a club. Just wait, you'll like it." She was talking between steps, her voice a staccato rhythm in the night. "You smoke?" I was saved. "Yeah, they're in the left inside pocket, hand me one while you're at it." "Thanks." She lit two and handed me one. I paused to admire the lipstick encircling the filter before I took a drag. She maintained the speed walk that had us across the center of town and into the darker warehouse district before I knew it. The buildings of downtown gave way to squat ugly blocks that loomed above and rotted below. I glanced up and swore as grit fell from the roof of one and bounced off my forehead. Something was up there but I didn't think it was concerned with us at the moment. I glanced around and noticed the breath taking beauty of the buildings. I had never noticed the actual architecture of these buildings before; far from the ugly nondescript shoeboxes, I had always imagined them to be they were full of personalized touches. We passed one that had been repainted in geometric shapes, and the door was an arched affair that I would have died to have on my house, if I had my own place that is. "Hey Dream, do you know of anywhere that's renting? I need to get my own place and..." I trailed off as she stopped in front of a building that I would swear the city planners never knew existed. The facade was alive with fretwork and gingerbread. My gaze climbed the walls to settle on twin gargoyles perched at opposing corners of the building. The front door was set in the center of the block and it was huge. Double-sided, it towered above my head to meet in an arch that was set with the neon glowing eye of Ra. The doors themselves were covered in leather and copper spikes, and the handles looked like they had been wrought of ebony. Two parallel curls of the blackest material I had ever seen, One was in the shape of a twisted riding crop, and the other was a bound and gagged Jesus, post crucifixion. Standing to either side of the doors was a pair of bouncers that not only made me doubt my sexuality, but they also made me question my place in the universe. On the right was a stunning woman, her eyes were the liquid pools of poetry and her lips were made for politicians to fantasize about. Her body was a work of art, and blazoned across the extremely tight shirt that barely covered her breasts were the two-inch words: "I'm a Trans, get over yourself!" On the left side of the door stood a man whose body made Michelangelo's David look like a hairy, pot-bellied wart hog. His face was strong and delicate at the same time. There was a pain in his eyes that made me want to hold him in my arms, but the set of his lips made me want to inflict more. He had a swimmer's body, all gentle curves where body builders bulge. You had the feeling you could snuggle into his chest as long as he was not flexing, then it would be like snuggling a mountain. As I stood and re-evaluated my sexual proclivities, Savage Dream spoke to the one in the Trans t-shirt and again there was that subtle nod in my direction. As I stepped forward to introduce myself the doors were opened and again Dream grabbed my arm and we stepped into the maw of the beast. The first thing to hit me was the music, Depeche Mode's whiplash mix of "Master and Servant" slipped past my eardrums and set my heart to it's own beat. The music was blaring from hidden speakers tat for all I knew were all that was holding the building up. For the briefest moment my eardrums cried for mercy, then we were through the sound wave, and the volume fell to a bearable level. Immediately in front of me, the entry hall opened into the dance floor. Lighting effects that would have been disco were rendered incredibly erotic because each light was filtered through nearly impenetrable layers of red, purple, or blue. The scent was an infusion of clove cigarettes, warm bodies and cold liquor. Underneath it all lay the scent of something rawer. It was the scent of brutally honest lust. Dream dragged me around the corner and we skirted the dance floor until we hit the bar. Strangely enough, it was done up in tropical island chic. Palm fronds over hung the semi-circular bar. It was abutted against the corner and every bar stool was holding at least three people. This was the first time I had to get a good look at the crowd in this place. Clothing it appeared was nearly optional, everything was street legal, but much of it pushed the limits in ways that I would never have considered. Leather chaps over a bronze codpiece stood next to a woman in an exact, if black, replica of the outfit from 'The 5th Element'. I made politely apologetic noises as we shouldered past a woman in a crimson Nun's habit and a man wearing a leather g-string, a fishnet t-shirt, and a collar that was attached to the bar by chain. Dream leaned forward and screamed an order at the bartender; I couldn't hear what she said, but moments later our drinks appeared, red wine for her and coffee for me. We pushed away from the bar, and Dream led me further around the dance floor to a nearly hidden hallway the end of which led into a startlingly quiet room. The room was festooned with pillows, couches and low-slung tables. The music filtered in through the hallway, but some marvel of acoustics stripped off the lyrics and just left a soft but insistent beat. The lighting was also muted, candles and indirect lighting had been used to their logical extreme and the result was perfect for a discreet tête-à-tête in the corner. We made a beeline for the one unoccupied couch on the far wall and finally stopped moving for a moment. Dream reached into my jacket and pulled out a pair of cigarettes; she lit them both and passed one to me. "This is so much better than that obnoxious Denny's, Let's do this the right way this time, shall we?" She turned that heated gaze on me and extended her hand. "Hello, I'm Savage Dreamer, please, call me Dream. You must be Xeno." "I am Xeno, yes. I'm very pleased to meet you Dream." I reached for her hand, turned it in my hand and planted a very chaste kiss on her palm. I saw her eyebrow arch as I looked over her wrist. "Cheesy, but cute. I think I like you. So..." She paused and looked me over. "I'm sorry about the back roads run, but until I, we, get to know you better, it's better if you don't know where this club is. It is not exactly underground, but the city planers and the cops have definitely forgotten it exists. There is a much easier way to get here, but the rules are that no one gets here by an identifiable route the first ten times. But enough of those sordid details, let's talk about your sordid details!" She smiled and I tried to repress the little boy grin that wanted to surface every time she took a deep breath. I threw together my best gravelly accent and grinned right back at her. "Well, I was born in a log cabin deep in the woods of the newly conquered west-" She laughed right on cue. I went on." What do you want to know? I've been pretty clear with you on the general details, for one I won't be old enough to be in here for another thirteen months at least depending on whether they want eighteen or twenty-one. I've been at a loss in terms of social life for the last few months. How's that song go?" I sang off key: "When I was a very small boy, Very small boys talked to me Now that we've grown up together They're afraid of what they see" Dream grimaced. "You've got to love New Order, but if you intend to sing again, give me fair warning." Her smile softened the blow and we settled into the cushions. I began to bitch about the state of being a teen in the world today. I railed against the difficulty of finding a job and moaned about age discrimination in world of drinking and sex. She smiled and made all the right noises, but I could tell her mind was somewhere else. I paused and asked what she was thinking. "I was just wondering if you were going to try and get into my pants tonight." I was stunned. The sheer bluntness of the question had me reeling and I wasn't sure how to answer. In all reality, I intended to attempt just that, but I was used to a slightly subtler dance in these matters. I made pausing noises and tried to decide how to answer. Finally I decided to make some witty response having to do with the price of tea in London, but when I opened my mouth all that came out was a slightly strangled "Yes." I froze and waited for her to respond. She laughed. I wasn't sure whether I should feel emasculated or relieved, the grin on my face became a rictus as I waited for her to say something. She took a sip of her red wine and licked her lips. Then she took a drag from her cigarette, blew a smoke ring and extinguished the butt in an ashtray on the table. Finally, she parted her lips and spoke. "I'm sorry I laughed, but you should have seen your face. I am glad we got that out of the way. I could tell it was on your mind when I watched you check me out back at the diner. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but let's just say you haven't taken yourself out of the running yet. Now tell me the truth, don't you feel a bit more relaxed?" I thought about it. In fact I did. I hadn't really been aware of the undercurrent of tension that had been there. The tension was not so much gone as it was transmuted, changed from the lead of anxiety to the gold of highly charged foreplay. I grinned. "I think I like you too. Tell me something, are you always this forward?" "No, sometimes I'm really forward, and sometimes I just leave to go to the bathroom and never come back. Listen, this is something I never tell people, but that crowd you saw me with back at the diner?" I nodded. "Some of them are coming here, others aren't. The ones who are coming are my family; the ones who are not are friends. Are you with me so far?" Again, I nodded. "OK, here's the big thing, if you have any sense of self preservation, you'll leave now. You will get up and walk down the hall, out the front door. In a few minutes, I will follow you out and lead you back to the center of town and you can go back to having a normal life. You can come hang out at the diner, you'll get to know the other diners and cafés around town. Soon you will be hanging out with the crowd you so want to be a part of, the crowd that you are already a part of even if you don't know them. I will even be there. We may sleep together we might not, we might become friends we might not, but if you leave now we will never discuss this club again and you will live a very sane life. If you stay, well who knows? It might be good for you it might scar you for life, but becoming a part of this family is something that will change you forever." She leaned back and lit another cigarette. She puffed it so fast it was as if she was hiding behind the cloud of smoke. For a moment, I thought I saw a look of vulnerability in her eyes, but it passed before I could be sure it wasn't just the smoke. "Can I-" She cut me off. "No questions, either you're willing to take the leap on blind faith or you're not. It's better this way." I paused, I thought. I could feel that sense of a thresh-hold looming before me. I was about to make a decision that could change my life. I kissed her. Authors note: I have a pretty good idea where part three is going to go, Arthegarn, Schizo and Meranda_Jade's characters will be introduced and some serious plot twists should arise. Is anyone else reading this? Mostly I'm just curious to know if you guys want me to keep putting the story up. I'm having fun, but if it's just taking space let me know and I'll put it up on Hotel Shade or something. (Poke poke, pump the authors ego a bit.) anyone else who wants to be horribly misrepresented or has an idea, let me know. Part one is here This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=289