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hey, you wanna make some extra cash
i could use a partner who's not a snitch

i mean, i'm not a snitch, but i'm not a sap, either. i'm not going to do anything stupid.
what do you need?

i just need someone to help me do a few exchanges
i'm doing it too before you twist your panties
but the more shit i push the better

is that what the molly was for?
"here's some free product, get familiar with it, you're going to be pushing it soon"?

u wanna make money or not
i can cut you a percentage or some of the stash
if u rip me off tho i'll fucking kill u

this is, quite easily, the worst way somebody has ever asked me for help.
you're the one who came to me. i don't think i've given you any reason to think i'd rip you off. i don't think i've even given you any reason to think i want to get involved in this.

[ but he does, now that the opportunity's here. selling drugs is for low-lifes and scumbags who put more value in their own comfort and status than they do in the wellbeing and livelihood of the people they deal with, and marcus ran into more than enough tough, selfish shitheads on the street to know that this is a lifestyle that benefits nobody. on the other hand - a shirt would be nice. this uniform is starting to smell. ]

you just want me to make deliveries, right?
not make sales?

i'm just covering my bases
and honestly, i'm offering u a cool deal

but yeah. just dropping off or handing it off
whatever ur comfortable with. picking up the cash n bringing it back
all in the down, too.

fine. whatever.
i can help.
temporarily. this isn't going to be my whole thing. don't get your hopes up.

that's fine. i don't always do this
i'm just also kind of short on cash

there's a motel we can meet at
base of operations for the week, yeah?

now?
yeah, okay. tell me how to get there.

yeah, sure.
i'll send u a pin for it
just click it and it'll show u the map

can't you just fucking tell me?
i hate these things.

[ he's exasperated, because he's fucking sick of using this weird phone computer thing and even more sick of hearing about how common place this level of technology is for people 20, 30, 40 years ahead of him. but - whatever. he taps the push-pin looking motherfucker and gets taken to the digitized atlas looking motherfucker and assumes that the hotel looking motherfucker is the particular motherfucker he needs to get to. fine. got it. ]

nevermind. i got it.
i'll be there soon.

see u there

[Tate's finally gotten far enough into modern technology to for once feel like he's a step ahead of someone and he'll be damned if he's not going to take advantage of that. He packs up his stuff and heads out however, making the arduous trek to the dainty lamb, a sleazy motel in the Down that's pretty much only used by hookers and the johns that rent them. But it's in that puddle of sleaze that you find unusual amounts of respect for privacy and keeping your nose out of other people's business.

When he gets a bit closer to the motel - which has two storeys surrounding a parking lot - he tells Marcus to go to upper 113 where the door's left lightly ajar as he's inside. The room's got a stale smell to it - piss, vomit, maybe something else and Tate's anxiety is the main contributor to the chill that also fills it. He's got a few bundles set out on the bed and looks up with a start at the first sound of not being alone.]

Hey.

[ Marcus hasn't thought about Vegas at all over the last few days, but the motel makes him think of Billy, a pang of guilt running through his ribs. He still doesn't know how time works here; he doesn't know if he's just gone, if Billy went back to their hotel room after Marcus killed his dad and just couldn't find him - he wonders if Billy thinks he abandoned him, if Saya spent her afternoon looking for him. He thinks, briefly, of Maria, when he sees the flash of red lingerie on one of the whores sitting under the buzzing neon lights at reception. The guilt that runs through him again hits him in a different way, this time.

Marcus is walking slowly through the hall up to 113, worried with each creak of the floor beneath him that he'll be caught being somewhere he's maybe not supposed to be. It's a bit of a relief when he enters the room and finds Tate here, rather than, like, a gang of dudes ready to jump him and kick his ass. Wouldn't be the first time somone's lured him somewhere to give him a few bruises. ]

Is this where you live?

[ He sweeps his eyes over the bed, the stains on the walls. The oppressive atmosphere has Marcus's shoulders all tight in the thin black blazer of his uniform, the knot on his tie a little loose. Tate called this a base of operations, but Marcus doesn't know if this is really a temporary thing or not. He looks at Tate, finally, voice still low like he thinks he's trespassing. ]

Not judging. I used to sleep under a bridge in puddles of God knows what. I just thought Dominants had it better than this.

Edited 2021-02-12 15:38 (UTC)

No. I live by the beach.

[Tate doesn't recall if he said that to Marcus or not the other time they were together, walking away from Autonomy into the open air; even if he did, the two of them were in different states at the time and memory doesn't always hold. Which is actually something that works in his favor because he gets the feeling Derek'll be unimpressed if he lets more people crowd into their space - or just know about it.]

But I spent a lot of time in places like this when I was a Sub, before I got a contract.

[Making ends meet wasn't fun back then.]

Believe it or not, this is one of the nicer ones.

[ Right, the beach - Marcus goes quiet, keeping any thoughts he might have about Autonomy and the night after entirely to himself. He swipes his nose with the tip of his thumb, brushing over the cut on the bridge of it that still hasn't healed, and puts on that usual sly smile of his. Better to look vaguely amused and unaffected than it is to look uneasy about being here. ]

Oh, no, it's perfect. Love the roaches. Adds a real refreshing, Miami flair.

[ Marcus chooses to avoid sitting on a free square of the bed, or on a chair, or... anywhere that expresses any kind of comfort, really. He just stays where he's standing, back to the door, like he could leave at any time. ]

... Why'd you come to me? We don't even know each other.

When I got here, I was pretty fucked over by the place - but I got some cash doing things like this, to start. I figured there's gotta be some karma to the universe, so I thought I'd offer you something similar. That an' I don't really have a lot of people here I can trust not to fuck this up, or who won't get on my case for what I'm doing.

[God Bless Derek's sweet heart but he'd probably just scowl at Tate, get annoyed at him for not coming to him first for help. But how's Tate supposed to explain the hole he ended up in financially? He just needs some cash, quick, and there's no better way to get that than to deal. And don't worry, he tells the hypothetically judgmental voice of Derek in his head, he's not involving Kavinsky in this. You can chill the fuck out, bro..]

You threw back molly like you knew it like the back of your hand. You're not gonna piss yourself if someone gives you shit. Actually can sense that you'd probably stab them before they stab you - makes for a good assistant, if you ask me.

[Tate lights up one of his last smokes in the pack, and sits on the bed next to his shit.]

You can use the cash, right?

[ Karma. Oh, man, if Marcus didn't need the money, he'd just roll his eyes, overstep, launch himself hard into some big, melodramatic tirade about how there's no such thing and ultimately fuck up enough to make Tate retract his offer. Life is just shit, though, plain and simple - doing good deeds won't rack up points with the fairness police, and keeping your head down and tossing the occasional dime to the underprivileged won't avert your next regularly scheduled disaster. But - whatever. Marcus feels like a bit of a charity case here, and that gets under his skin a little, but money is money. He learned pretty fast after Sunset that you take cash where you can get it. ]

Yeah.

[ Marcus draws his eyes to the stash on the bed, drifting over and thoughtfully grabbing the first package that calls out to him. He's actually not all that well-versed in drugs, and between throwing back the molly to look tough and showing up in this place high to all hell, he completely oversold how familiar he is with this shit, but - he feels better, having Tate believe he knows what he's doing. ]

I just don't want you to think this is a thing. I can help you out until I'm back on my feet, but once I get a contract or a real job, I won't want to do this anymore. You okay with that?

Yeah, I get it. No strings attached, you're free to walk whenever.

[Tate isn't going to fight Marcus on his need to assert his own power over his choices, non-committal as he may be. He lets Marcus handle the goods, wrapped as they are and in separate baggies and containers. He pulls his backpack closer to him by the bedside, rooting through it to pull out a small journal. It's not his personal one, it's a red leather booklet that he opens and then looks through some written down notes on pages that appear to be blank to other people. Thanks, Kavinsky.]

Three of these gotta be dropped tonight, by four am. How many you think you can do?

[Tate yawns against the back of his hand.]

I can write out the rest, just burn after reading, y'know?

All of them, I guess. I know my way around well enough by now.

[ Marcus doesn't really care about Tate's journal, or whatever, but he does try to catch a glimpse of what he's written down in passing and wonders, when he sees that the pages are blank, if Tate bought a new journal specifically for this. Marcus throws the package back down on the bed, careless. ]

You gonna pay me before or after?

Can you wait 'til the first payback? I'll give you a cut straight from what he swaps for the big one.

[Tate nods toward the brick that's probably the most valuable of the items on the bed; it's not worth more than a couple grand and the quality is shit but Tate's trying to finance his life up from the bootheels here. You gotta start with the shitty drugs and then move into the more refined shit later. He shoots Marcus a look, then cants his head to the side.]

I'm kinda broke. I got stuck in a weird situation where I have to pay for a Sub's shit here for a month. It's why I'm doing this in the first place.

[ Marcus was under the impression that Dominants had an easy life, here, and he's kind of thrown by Tate saying that that's not really the case - a better person might show concern for this Sub, ask what they did to get put into so much debt that they needed to be financially provided for by another person, and the self-preserving part of Marcus does want to know the details here so he knows what to avoid moving forward. But - ]

Seriously? You want me to wait? How do I know you're actually going to pay me, then?

[ More immediately, he doesn't want to get in trouble with the law - when Lin isn't here to spring for his freedom - if he's not going to get something out of it. Marcus has his guard up, now, wondering if he should be walking. ]

I'm gonna need something.

What d'you want, then.

[Tate's voice gets a bit of an edge to it, like he's annoyed this isn't going his way - because he is. He is already five steps ahead in plotting this out and here Marcus is, thinking of pulling on the brakes. He huffs a bit, setting down the notebook and looking up at Marcus with an intense eye to eye stare. He'd really prefer if the guy didn't ditch on him, but he's not sure what he's got to offer.]

I can't spare anything more than a couple joints, product wise. I had to invest to work my way up. I got about fifty bucks which you probably can't spend on your own anyway. I'm already getting you a mixed tape. You wanna rob me of my vinyl too? Or do you wanna just get your dick wet with a blowie and this is your way of asking?

I don't want any product.

[ Drugs are easy enough to come by without dipping his fingers into what he's supposed to be pushing, in Marcus's experience - he'd rather just get the money than muddy up these waters. Marcus is unphased by most of what Tate is saying, though he still gets a little awkward at the implication that he wants something physical here; he just closes his eyes, briefly shakes his head and holds up his hand. ]

You owe me a favor. A real one.

[ Marcus doesn't know what he'd need, exactly, but currying favor with a dominant who has ties to shit like this seems better than burning this bridge before he has to. He's spent a long time lone wolfing it, and, honestly, that is his preferred state, but he can make Tate someone he can go to for help in the future one day without acknowledging that he actually needs help. That's a good card to have. ]

I might need something in the future, and I'll just - cash in. No questions asked. Okay?

[This feels reminiscent of something, to Tate. Promises exchanged like currency, more valuable than most. He has to respect it, the way Marcus comes up with this rather than going for any more material gain. Tate cocks his head to the side like he has to think on it, like it's a weight he plays back and forth in his brain - but he's already made a decision on it. He'll do it - if anything, favors are the easiest things to commit to. If you commit to them at all.

While it's true that Tate's not loving the idea of being on call so to speak, there's no saying he'll ever really have to do whatever it is Marcus wants. Marcus could disappear tomorrow, for Christ's sake. He ends up playing with a matchbook from the bedside, striking a match and letting it burn out idly before dropping the charred remains in the ash tray.]

Deal. That mean we're good to go, then? No other stipulations, or any questions?

un: tl94

un: acidking

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