How Things Are

fifty two

What am I seeing?

When me and Jr came in it was black. I thought it was a haunted house. He led us up to a desk with a woman in all leather. She slaps a whip on the desk near the table, making me and Jr jump.

"Everyone is scared the first time pet. Soon he'll beg you for it." She winks

"What?" I look at Jr waiting for him to explain. He only has a blank stare. Great.

Clearing his throat "Actually we're looking for a few men-"

"If you wanted a reverse harem that's two blocks over." She cracks her whip again making us both jump

I try to hold in my laughs by looking at the floor

"NO. The men I work with-" Jr tries to explain

"Ahh! I see what you're into now." She looks at me "you dressed her up like someone you know from work." She smiles "So you won't be needing any costumes then. How about tools?"

Jr's face is a strawberry. "You're misunderstanding."

"Darling. We provide the costumes for play. If you enter this place with her dressed like that it's bad for business."

"OH my gosh. I give up." He turns around and begins breathing heavily.

"Excuse me. I didn't catch your name?"

"Mistress Candy." She greets with a big white smile.

"Right. Mistress Candy, unfortunately we're not here for pleasure or play."

Her smile disappears. "Then what are you here for? That's my only job so if you're not here for that then out."

"We need to gather work associates of ours.-"

"I said out!" Mistress Candy slaps the whip "if they're here, that means I'm doing my job. They're probably strapped to a bed with enjoying the spanking they came here for."

"We're on a time crunch here. They've overstayed their welcome and are now bringing trouble to your business."

Mistress Candy stopped yelling "My business is on the line?"

"If our boss comes looking then possibly." I say, not certain how far Lucas's anger will carry him each day varies.

She sticks up her noes and slaps the whip against her desk "And who is your boss?"

Jr turns around "Lucas, Don of the Dragon Mafia." I sigh. And here I was trying to be nice.

She doesn't say anything, just looks between the two of us.

"We need to find his men." Jr continues

She clicks her tongue "yes. Yes. I heard you. Everyone enters here privately. No one gives there real names. You'll have to see the cameras to check if any of them are your friends."

She turns and flips her hair. We follow as she leads us to the security room.

"In here. I have to get back to my post. When you find your boyfriend get them and leave." She slams the door

"They're not my boyfriend." Jr mumbles

I bite my cheeks trying not to be entertained by his annoyance. "Aren't you glad I came with you?"

He glares at me "Just watch the cameras."

Nearly everyone had masks on. "How are we supposed to tell who's who?"

Jr starts messing with the buttons and so we can hear one room. It was animalistic. The man dressed like a pick was oinking while a woman in leather was whipping him saying 'dance piggy'.

"Well that's not one of ours." I say

"Thank God." Jr mumbles

He turns off the volume and then the next where a woman was in a pool in a fish outfit. She kept tickling the man with her tail. Me and Jr looked at each other, then switched to the next camera.

"How many rooms are there?" I complained

"Look at all the screens." He pointed around the room. "About that many."

I sat down and prepared for the weirdest night weird dreams to follow.

There was a room filled with a dog bed, toys, food. The guy on the camera was wearing a collar being walked by a girl with a tazer.

"Not one of ours." Jr says

"So. Have you ever been in here?" I pointed around, not choosing a specific screen.

"We're here to do a job." He blushes

The next sound I hear was claps. Jr turned on a room with a man dressed as a penguin. The woman was dressed in a bikini shoving tuna in his mouth.

"So how'd you find out about this place?" I push

Jr sighs "I'm not interested in this" He jesters towards the room full of odd screens "Everyone finds out about this place eventually."

The woman was throwing knives at a guy across the room who was spinning on a wheel. "I'd be in to that."

Jr chuckles "I'm sure you would."

We go through so many rooms to come up with only two of our men. "Teedo owes me one." Jr grumbles

They were under the name Horsy and Santa

Horsy was simply dressed as a horse while a cow girl road on hid back with a horse whip, spanking him whenever he slowed down.
Santa was dressed as a fat man in a red suit and had cookies shoved down his mouth by a woman dressed like an old lady.

Whatever your into. Who am I to judge. This is New Vegas. I suppose anything goes here.

I let Jr pull them out of their rooms while I waited outside. The looks on their faces when Mistress Candy waved them away by their new nicknames were priceless.

It took hours so instead of meeting back with Teedo we went to the car. He wouldn't wait around all night. Once he sobered up he'd get back to work.

We saw Teedo and the men he was with at the gambling house but their were still two missing. Lucas wasn't with us yet. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Teedo didn't seem worried though so perhaps we still had time.

"What now?" Jr asked Teedo

He seems to be thinking the same thing himself "going out to look was my job. I'll go back." He glared at me.

Great he's mad I didn't get everyone. I sighed "I'll come with you."

Before we began walking Lucas came, with Youngblood and Joey were walking behind. They looked like they were the ones caught at Mistress Candy's.

Lucas gets in the car and slams the door.