Log:Not Even Skin Deep

2014/10/05 Annie Hunter

1

Los Angeles has Melrose Avenue and Rodeo Drive where all the snoots shop. Colonial Bay has Lowtown, a long district full of high end shopping boutiques, gastropubs, and artisan shops. Eat your heart out, Mega Mall. This is the shopper big leagues! It's a wonderful Sunday afternoon ripe for commercial zoning.

After the anx at the mall, Annie needs a pick me up. What better way than commercial-zoning. The snooty kind, even! Armed with two only slightest used charge cards, she walks the strip, out looking for... anything that catches her eye.

Based on some of the mannequin displays in some of the shop windows, this must be where some of the teen vils from the other night shop. This is even further confirmed when Crush is spotted exiting the Hera Lang high end fashion boutique. Behind her is an entourage of young men carrying bags and boxes from Hera Lang and a long list of other stores along the shopping avenue. One servant holds the door open for her, and she even carries her purse for her.

As she steps out into the sun, she lowers the sunglasses resting on the top of her head to shield her eyes. It wouldn't due to get unslightly wrinkles from squinting! She and her column of boy toys turn and head away from Annie towards a huge beauty store.

An entourage of masses for manual labor. Annie could use one of those. Well, it would be fun to have one for a little while. She doesn't need anyone to do anything for her like that. She's not lazy, but it having masses fawn over her is still fun.

Annie should also see what Miss Masses Mistress is up to, anyhow. They were warned to stay dozy and squeaky clean. Annie doesn't really need beauty supplies (she's already beautiful), but she can follow along and head that way. Backup? Who needs that? Annie can do Annie thing.

Crush stops in front of the beauty store door and waits. Then frowns. Then ahems and shoots a glance at one of the masses. The not-as-scenic ones just carrying a stack of boxes for her amusement. "I'm. Waiting," she says in displeasure.

The black haired teen peers over the precariously stacked boxes of shoes and hats. "S-sorry, Mistress." That voice sounds familiar. Managing to shift the boxes into one hand and perfectly balance them with small adjusting movements, Hunter opens the door for Crush. He has the same slightly vacant, adoring look that all the other masses do. Oh. Frag. No. Didn't they just have this talk yesterday at the mall about Midges and who can do what to them? They were talking about Wallsqueak, then, but the same rules apply.

Annie starts walking straight for Crush and her doorstop. "Hey! You've got something that belongs to me..."

Crush glances in Annie's direction, hand raising to her glasses and tipping them down slightly to peer over them and get a good look at Annie. Then she pushes them back up the bridge of her perfect little nose and tilts her head up snootishly. "Oh, you wish, sister. Boys?"

At her command, they all turn to face Annie and form a tight line of two rows to block her way. "Now then," she sighs and folds her arms over her chest. "What do -you- want?"

"Yeah, the boys," Annie answers, crossing her arms over her chest. "That one," she points to the second-most scenic of the bunch, "and that one," she points to Hunter, "are already mine. You're totes poaching, Crushie. And we /just/ had that little talk at the mall about midges, too. You forget already?"

"I didn't take anyone that didn't want to be taken," Crush says with a thin, smug smile. "I don't think that counts as poaching. Why don't you ask -them- if they're yours? I can wait." She holds out a hand to her purse holder, snaps her fingers, and says, "Powder." The servant reaches into the purse and draws out a compact and places it in Crush's waiting hand. "Just not long." She flips open the compact with a flick of her thumb and starts powdering her nose. As she admires herself in the built-in mirror, she asks with disinterest, "What was that about midges again?"

Annie smiles. Big. It's one of those that Hunter would recognize as almost polite, slightly forced, and with mischievous wheels turning behind it. "Sure. I'll totes ask them. After you stop doing whatever you're doing to them."

If Hunter were in his right mind, he'd probably recognize Annie's particular smile, groan, complain, or plain fear. But he doesn't do anything of the sort, caught under Crush's hypnotic spell. It's like there isn't even any recognition at all.

Crush feigns innocence. It wouldn't due to confess her guilt. She pleads the fifth. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'M not doing anything." She flashes a wicked grin with perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth. "I could just ask them for you." Stepping up behind Hunter, who's closest of the two Annie pointed out, she brings her lips just to his ear, breathing slightly on his neck. "So how about it, pets?" she speaks to both. "Are you hers, or are you mine?"

Both teens respond in almost unison, "Yours, Mistress." Oh sure. Of course she didn't do anything. "Aww, that's so sweet. How do you get them to answer together like that? Practice? Training? A good spank or three?" There's sarcasm there, of course, but it's not over the top. Annie might be able to get a tip or two! She doesnt do anything, either, just stands their. While her pores open up a little more and her natural pheromones alter into something more specific. Everyone has a fight or flight response. She tailors things more towards the second one. Fear sweat, so to speak.

"Oh, a good spanking to reinforce the training never hurts. It pays to train your slaves in how to talk and what to do," Crush purrs. "But as you can see. They are most definitely not yours." But what she doesn't notice at first is the gradual effect Annie is having on them. They're running high on emotion; namely adoration and hormones. But love can be a scary thing, too. So can confrontation, which can be anxiety inducing. And there are much scarier, physical things hiding just beneath Annie's surface that they're not even aware of.

Annie giggles. "Totes? I'll have to remember that." She eyes Hunter and his other, random, claimed companion as she says this. She then frowns and looks back to Crush. "Hmm. Sounds like you're right, and they're dozey. They always like this? Helping out, all behaved? Doesn't sound like most masses -I- know. Always figured most of them were way beyond training..." Annie buries her annoyance more, now, and just bides her time. She can be patient when she really has to be. Most times.

Crush smirks. "Always. Men are easy if you know what to do. So now that that's sorted, why don't you just run along? The thrift stores are in the Upper East Side." Commercial Zone burn. She did not just tell Annie to go to the cheap part of town. Her loyal little slaves start to shift about and look a bit nervous. Crush only sees them swaying a bit and moving uneasy, since they're all facing Annie. But Annie can see the uneasiness of their faces and the growing fear in their eyes. One good scare might make them scatter.

Now that was a low blow, punching Annie in the social standing. Her smile vanishes in an instant. "That was harsh. Ugly. No wonder you needed to powder your nose..." A tentacle extrudes from the small of Annie's back, like a tail, and snakes down her leg. It goes between Hunter's feet, aiming for Crush's ankle. Annie doesn't have to hurt her to hurt her. It's just planning to wrap around her ankle. It doesn't even need to hold on for that long, as an army of zealous cells are already forming and gathering at the end of the appendage. Annie can make a low blow, too.

The tentacle snakes past the guard, as they're dimly focused on Annie instead of the ground. It winds past and manages to latch onto Crush's ankle, even as she sees it coming and tries to jump back. "Snu-snaaake!" she shrieks.

Annie is still standing there with her arms crossed. A brow arches."Snake? I don't see anything..." She doesn't even bother to look, either. As the tentacle holds on, its cellular boarding party disembarks into Crush's body? Their target is simple as they spread out and disperse. Annie understands vanity. She can't blame Crush... or wouldn't if she hadn't messed with the wrong Midge. Her Midge. Changing appearance something Annie's good at, but now it's a matter of changing someone else's. It starts with that scenic skin, first, causing breakouts of acne, rosacea, scaling, and bruising. When Annie's done with her, all the makeup on the strip probably won't be enough.

The scream gets the attention of the scenic masses, who turn to their---AHhHHHH!! The horror! Is it leprosy? They bet it's leprosy! Crush is startled by the gasps and looks of abject horror on her servants as she tries to shake free of the tentacle. "What...is going...on!?"

The servants turn away from Crush and run towards and past Annie as fast as possible, tossing aside boxes and bags of high end clothing as they go. Crush catches her reflection in a store window and screams. "My face! My skin! My...my..." and dainty Crush's eyes roll up as she faints at the unthinkable horror of it all.

Aww... she fainted? Already? What a lame. "Need to pick your massess better... Cutie." Annie's tentacle retracts after a moment more and vanishes as if it never existed. It could be leprosy, or just a really bad case of ... a few things. Annie turns and heads towards the running masses, specifically Hunter, at a casual pace. She leaves Cutie Crush with her skin condition, crooked teeth, and a pronounced stomach. Either she gained some weight, or... well, she does have those masses fawning over her all the time. Oooh, maybe the skin thing is venereal? It's only temporary, of course, but Crush doesn't know that. Hopefully she comes to soon, so she can enjoy the rest of the next hour.

The masses scatter like the wind. Once they're away from Crush and Annie's combined influences, they'll eventually come to their senses. It just may take a bit of time for some. All of them become sudden star sprinters thanks to Crush's makeover, especially Hunter, who should try out for track. Still dazed and confused, he eventually stops running scared after he goes around a corner and runs a block down.

Crush's fainting period is brief. She wakes up after thirty seconds, and no one wants to get close enough to help the unscenic girl. When she gets up, she sees her reflection again, sniffs, and clambers to her feet, running off and leaving her shopping behind as she covers her face.