Chapter 4: Lipstick.
"...well, okay then." Jesse nods "I respect your wishes, Lizzie."
Stampy and Stacy stiffly lift up clawed, tense hands at this blatant lack of the persistence Jesse had given them.
Jesse leaves Dan and Lizzie alone and miserable, regrouping with her gang in the corner of the room.
"Well, that was a bust." Petra heaves, frustrated.
"They're not as hot as Stampy and Stacy anyway." Jesse shrugs it off, "at least we still have a chance of convincing the two of them, and if worse comes to worse and they also refuse, we can always just... take."
"Since when have you two ever NOT wound up needing to take?" Ivor points out.
"I think there had to have been at least one time, right?" Petra sure doesn't remember.
"There's a first time for everything, Ivor, the important thing is that we're trying to get it the nice way." Jesse reasons, "at least we give the option of consent."
"Yes, and then they refuse, and so you put a gun to their heads and give them the option to consent to you overriding their non-consent." Ivor nods "and only if they refuse that do things get really ugly."
"I think I'm starting to understand this..." Lukas nods, his eyes narrowed as he thinks deeply about the subject.
"No." Ivor shakes his head "scratching the surface is what you're doing, there's a whole other set of levels you need to get through."
"So what do we do now, Jess?" Petra asks Jesse "do you wanna, ugh, just go back to looking for the killer?"
"Hmm... no, that will come with time." Jesse decides, as she stares across the room at Stampy and Stacy, "there's something else I wanna do first..."
"Cool." Petra nods.
"Ivor?" Jesse turns to the elderly man "do you still have that make-up stuff on you?"
"Why, of course I do, Jesse." Ivor nods "do you... require it?"
"Yes, yes, I think I do." Jesse replies, "particularly... the lipstick."
Ivor reaches into his coat and, after a moment, pulls out a dark crimson lipstick stick. He passes it to Jesse.
"Thanks, I'll be back soon." Jesse nods, popping the cap off and caking her lips with a thick, bold layer as she heads off in Stampy and Stacy's direction.
"EEEEEEP!" Stampy freaks out quietly to Stacy "SHE'S COMING BACK!"
"GAK!" Stacy chokes in panic, whipping around to find Jesse's face right in front of her's "AHHH!"
"Whoops! sorry, didn't mean to surprise you." Jesse smirks "how are you two holding up over here?"
"FINE." Stampy squeaks.
"Good!" Jesse smiles and nods "I was, tch, just wanting to talk to you about something, something... important."
"O-kay..." Stacy agrees reluctantly, taking a step back to put some space between her and the other girl "what is it?"
"Well, Stacy, I just, you know, I just noticed, that you, are wearing lipstick, and that, I too, am wearing lipstick, but... Stampy, just, doesn't have any lipstick, so then I got to thinking, maybe you, and me, should share our lipstick with Stampy!" Jesse proposes.
"Oh..." Stacy's not impressed, "well, uh, no thanks, Jesse, that's really not necessary of you."
"Oh, but it would be so nice!" Jesse presses, "and Stampy doesn't have any!"
"That's true, but it's okay." Stacy assures "he doesn't want any, and even if he did, then I'd just share mine with him, it's kind of you to offer, but I have enough."
"Oh, but if we added me to the equation there would be so much more to go around!" Jesse points out, "if you were to just share with Stampy alone then you would each only get half a coat, but with me we would all get two thirds, that's like, 16% more lipstick! for both of you! so, 32% more lipstick! that's a LOT more lipstick."
"Oh..." Stampy processes the information, "well, that is more lipstick."
"What, you want to now!?" Stacy confronts him.
"Uh, NO!" Stampy realizes he didn't even know what he was saying, "I don't! I'm good with 50%, thanks!"
"Okay." Stacy nods, turning back to Jesse "thanks for offering, Jesse."
"Ugh...!" Jesse heaves her shoulders in frustration, "fine, fine, did you just wanna go without her, Stampy?"
BOOM. Stacy's expression stiffens, an almost murderous fury burning in the pupils of her eyes as her mind fully absorbs what she just heard come out of this bitch's mouth.
"W-what!?" Stampy's not prepared for this.
"Come onnn, it'll be great!" Jesse encourages, "we can go farther than you and Stacy! we can just go and find a closet and do whatever we want! if there's anything Stacy doesn't let you do, I welcome it! I like getting weird! and the killer would never be able to get us in there! we'd be safe AND fulfilling your fantasies!"
"S-safe...?" Stampy's attention is caught with that one.
"NO, of course he doesn't want to!" Stacy tries to hold back her temper "right, Stampy!?"
"UH, y-yeah!" Stampy nods wildly "I'm good out here! I, uh, I love the danger!" he forces a huge grin.
"Ugh, Stampy! come on!" Jesse pushes, "you don't need to listen to her anymore, just come with me! here, here, it'll be so easy, you see this?" she grabs the white string hanging from her shoulder, "do you know what this does?"
"It, uh..." Stampy frowns "makes your suit... vibrate...?"
"Ooh, I like where you're going with that...!" Jesse grins, "but no, Stampy, you pull the string, and this all comes off!" she gestures to her suit of armor, "everything! all of it, with just one tug! that's all it takes! it's one of my brilliant inventions!" Jesse grabs Stampy's shaky hand and grasps it around the string, "just pull my string, Stampy, it's that easy..."
"Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-*SLAP*" Stampy slaps himself with his other hand to get a grip "y-you want me to strip you down to your skivvies in front of everyone!?"
"NO, Stampy!" Jesse stresses, "not to my skivvies, to my bare ass! it ALL comes off!"
Stampy tenses... then his hand holding the string starts to shake... then he grabs it with his other hand to still it... then he forces the hand to let go of the string... and then he brings his hands back to himself and presses them against his chest, all of this is done in an extremely slow fashion.
"I think..." Stampy gulps, highly disturbed, "I think I'll pass, thanks." Stampy is a bit of a prude, as a result of being so cutesy, innocent, and gentlemanly. And he is most certainly not comfortable with stripping someone he barely knows to the nude in front of a crowd, or having cheap sex with her and ruining the meaningful relationship he currently has with his actual girlfriend for that matter.
"Pass on the string, or pass on the...?" Jesse trails off as she dances her eyebrows suggestively.
"On... all of it." Stampy confirms.
"Ugh, really?" Jesse mopes, "I made such an amazing, generous offer, and you just... deny it?"
"I'm..." Stampy frowns, knowing Jesse really isn't gonna like this pathetic response "...sorry."
"Ughhhh, fine, whatever..." Jesse tries to get over it, then turns to Stacy, "how about you? same deal, and this way we both get maximum lipstick."
"WHAAAT!?" Stampy's immediately horrified, "without STAMPY CAT!?"
"You had your chance to pull the string, and threesome, you declined both." Jesse points out, "but Stacy hasn't...!"
"NOOOOOO!" Stampy's really terrified of this.
"Calm down, Stampy!" Stacy instructs, putting her arm around him tightly before turning to Jesse "no thank you, Jesse, we either do it with Stampy, or not at all."
"THEN LET'S DO IT WITH STAMPY!" Jesse cheers, jumping with intense excitement at getting an 'almost yes, but better'.
"NO." Stacy responds, firmly "Stampy already told you that he doesn't wanna, so we can't." her strategy from now on is to try to let Jesse down easy, hence the lack of a direct 'no' from herself.
"And, uh, y-you don't want to either..." Stampy points out "...right?"
"Well..." Stacy hesitates "being safe sounds pretty good-"
"YES." Stampy nods.
"Errrm!" Stacy's slightly irritated, because she knows this is getting Jesse's hopes up "BUT, this is no time to screw around, we won't actually solve the problem by hiding away, we'd just delay it, what we need to do is figure out who the killer is and lock them away."
"Nuh-uh-uh!" Jesse gleefully shakes her index finger in disagreement, "all we need to do is stay safe until morning comes, then all the zombies outside will be gone and we'll be free to go!"
Stampy and Stacy stare at her.
...Fucking hell. Stacy knows she's been bested.
"That's, uh, actually pretty true..." Stampy admits, unhappy "we do just need to wait..."
"BUT!" Stacy clings onto hope "is it really any safer than just keeping everyone in the mansion together at the same time? the killer can't kill if we're all there with them, and the traps won't kill so long as we stay put and don't wander around like that idiot, TorqueDawg."
"Uh, that's true too!" Stampy nods "for all we know, wandering off to... make sweet love, will result in death by traps!"
"But, Stampy! there could still be traps in here as well, you would actually expect it to be a hot spot for them considering it's the main room, but people have still been wandering around it, and will only do so more as the night goes on and they get more restless, and speaking of restless, my guess is that the killer isn't just planning on sitting here all night, they probably already have some sort of plan prepared to shake things up, and are just waiting for the perfect chance to do so, and when that happens, we certainly aren't going to want to be here for it." Jesse addresses, "if you guys come with me, I could have some of my friends follow us and guard the closet door, no one would be able to come anywhere near us without going through them first, and considering they have weapons and armor, we should be pretty well defended, I wouldn't be surprised if the killer just completely gave up on us and focused exclusively on other people, leaving us sitting pretty until dawn comes."
Silence.
"Stacy...!" Stampy whines, "private talk, now!" he grabs his girlfriend and runs off a little ways.
Immediately, Jesse grins darkly to herself, relishing the sight of Stampy's scrambling away.
Looks like I've got him hooked now...! she thinks, Sweet little Stampy, so concerned about making it out of here alive. I'd bet a dozen fuckpoints that the first words out of his mouth are gonna be 'I think we should do it'!