Snakes Unwinding at the Denominator [Ndeye and Mami]

Another jumbo-sized mug of cheep, golden beer appeared, then disappeared, as the drink vanished down Ndeye's eager gullet. The beer was good, but the company was not; ever since she'd run off the last guy, she hadn't managed to net another person to enjoy her beer with. For that matter, she hadn't seen the employer who'd promised to meet her here either. It was easy to imagine they'd simply looked up some details of the locale and gotten cold feet. "Whatever. I'm this far underwater, might as well go a little further," she hiccuped drunkenly, swirling around her nearly empty beer mug and motioning with two fingers for the bartender to pour her another.

If people didn't tend to approach while she was sullen and quiet, they certainly cleared away once she was inebriated and swaying. That said, another person did approach, taking a seat much like she had earlier: moody, silent, and brooding. Unfortunately, that's not who she was right now, so the stranger would get no peace or relief. Using her hands upon leather-bound stools to stabilize herself, she made her way towards the strange-looking newcomer.

Some might ask if the smallish girl was old enough to be in a place like this, but that wasn't really on Ndeye's mind right now. She was instead interested by the girl's arms. "Oh, oh! You have a quirk, huuuh? Can you fight with such skinny arms? No-no, I joke, I just joke. My sister has skinny arms too and she is the strongest fighter I know. At least for now. At least..." she murmured, chuckling at her own introduction, before trailing off absent-mindedly. Something seemed to occur to her and suddenly, another fit of chuckling overtook the big woman. "Ah, well. Do you want to employ me?" she asked, with a wide smile showing the whites of her teeth, drawing attention to the silver stud between her lower lip and the jut of her chin.

Mami might need to ask what, exactly, Ndeye was volunteering to be hired for. Or she might want to cut her losses and take off like the last guy did.

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WC 355

"Aaah, unless you are the client who has stood me up to this point, then no, I do not know who you are. But there is more drink to drink, so I am eager to learn, for a time," Ndeye nodded in affirmation of the girl's bravery or boredom, whichever it was that compelled her not to flee. "Hm, well, I have more than a few drinks in me," she admitted, thwomping one meaty arm onto the bar and leaning upon it while surpassing skunk-levels and moving on into whatever the next tier of drunkenness was. "Drunk as a snake, perhaps," she joked, as a few gold and black scales shimmered on her arms; she brushed them off idly with one hand, shunting them onto the floor like they were peanut shells.

"I'll give you a card," the criminal decided, handing over one of her black-backed, white-texted cards. On it was just her villain name, Calibar, with some contact information. "It's not very informative, so I'll do the informing. I work as muscle for enterprising types that need it. If you need, say, a bodyguard, or heavy lifting, or intimidation, I can do these things," she explained, opening one palm upward upon the bar and sounding unafraid of voicing her criminal tendencies in an open space. "I'm also great protection against other, less effective people who tend to offer the same services! The best protection is to buy out the best protection, you know?"

She took another big chug, then leaned on one fist, smiling. "I know what you are thinking: what is some alleged bodyguard doing here, by herself, drinking? Another client of mine has stood me up without paying for my time! Ha ha ha... When I am not so buzzed and not in so friendly a mood, I might make him regret that decision," she chuckled lightly, her tone not seeming to match the threatening words she'd spoken. She paused for a moment to look Mami over again, then turned her head horizontally, leaning against her bicep drunkenly. At first, she'd thought Mami was under-aged for this place, due to her stature... But since she was, in fact smoking a giant cigar, she was probably a little older than she'd first appeared. "Say, what do you do for work yourself, hm? Aah, like the card says, you can call me 'Calibar,' like the snake, or the place. I'm not from the place, but the snake is from the place, and the place is not so far from my place..."

Her momentary look of confusion made it look like she hadn't considered the awkwardness of that naming before. "Ah well. What is your name, stranger?" she asked, raising her mug as though preemptively preparing to toast whatever name Mami happened to give.

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WC 464

"Only legit among the circle who need such things. Even then, it pays to have professionalism," Ndeye chuckled, then took another huge draw from her tankard, immediately throwing out whatever professionalism she'd just been speaking of. Her work-brain recognized that Mami had just said something rather important, from a perspective well beyond simply getting to know a drinking buddy... It sounded like this small lady was actually very well connected.

Her next inclination was to point out that Mami probably needed people like Calibar in her line of work. She started to say as much, before collapsing into a drunken slur and sealing up her lips. That wasn't only a result of her drunkenness... she had realized partway through that it had surprised Mami to learn that anyone even still did the muscle-man bodyguard shtick any more. That meant that there probably wasn't a lot of work to be drummed up here for a muscle-lady bodyguard such as herself. Oh well. Maybe something would come up, maybe it wouldn't. It wasn't as though she'd started talking to Mami for work; she'd done it because she was in one of her rare, social moods, where she seemed to want to get in all the smiling and feeling good that she ordinarily failed to display at all.

She clinked her glass against Mami's (hard; it was a pretty nice blessing that neither of their cups had shattered), before finishing draining that latest offering. "Scotch is a strong drink with a nice kick. But I'm not judge of flavor. I drink to get drunk," she shrugged. She pushed the empty glass down the bar a bit to indicate it ought to be refilled, then pondered the list of qualifications that Mami had given.

"Drugs and candy, huh? I hope your drugs aren't the blue kind," she smirked, raising her eyebrows at the word "blue" like one might when referring to the name of a particularly annoying acquaintance. "I've seen quite enough of those."

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WC 330

"Ha... Well, I suppose you're better off not knowing," Ndeye smirked. "It will probably be a different color the next time it's distributed. God knows they need to work on the formula. It ought to look completely different the next time it goes out," the big lady joked; if she was sober, there would be zero chance her animosity for the M.A.R.I.N.E. incident would come out as a joking matter. If she was her usual self, it would be lucky for everyone in the Denominator if she didn't break the desk. Of course, on a more cosmic level, one could speculate that her light-heartedly joking about a drug she'd seen cause a man to explode in front of a live audience was the worse of the two evil Ndeyes.

"Ha, well, I do like to get drunk and I do have quirker genes," she played along, though even drunk Ndeye wasn't divorced from her reality enough to say she was a fan of parties. "Hmmmm... That sounds pretty big. No chance you folks are hiring outside the company to help muscle out competitors? Do you even have competitors?" she questioned; the way Mami gave her the vague advertisement, it almost sounded like they already controlled all the drugs and this was just a new, consumer-pleasing version of those drugs.

Serious Ndeye took the reigns again for a moment... Mami had mentioned quirker genes. Ndeye was always looking for an in-road to power up her own quirk. As a fighter, she'd always felt like a top-notch athlete saddled with a third-rate quirk... it was decent, but not nearly the dynamic force of the rest of her family's quirks. "When you say quirker genes... why would those people be interested in that drug?" she questioned, narrowing her eyes as she waved away the bartender coming to pour her another beer. There was no clearer sign than refusing alcohol that she'd begun the transition to her usual self.

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WC 330

It was always surprising for Ndeye when she met someone who could down just as much beer as she could... even more so when the person was as small as Mami. Still, she tried not to get distracted and to listen carefully as Mami answered her business questions. Even in a place like the Denominator, where people talked relatively openly about their criminal intentions, it was important to search words for subtext.

The answer to whether they were looking for muscle? Sounded like they were pretty well stocked and it was really a buyer's market. She might get some work, but she sensed they were both discerning and well-staffed... not that she suspected the guys they were using were on her level, but who knows? She'd been surprised by the strength of quirkers in Japan before. Still, it could be worth a look.

The answer to whether they had competitors? Not really. It sounded like things had been violent once upon a time, but sadly, she'd missed the boat on that one.

The answer to why quirkers might be interested in their drugs? Annoying. It turned out that these drugs were the type for getting high and forgetting your problems... Internally, Ndeye thought she had no need to ever forget her struggles and her goals in combination. She had no use for "relaxation." Of course, the truth of the matter was that drinking at a bar like this really was her release, even if she didn't see it that way. This method of taking her mind off of things, might be better than Mami's drugs from a legal perspective, but it had already done a lot of harm, as anyone with this kind of unrestrained alcohol consumption ought to expect.

"Hm hm... Sounds like business is booming." There was nothing left for business Ndeye to ask about, so drunk-off-her-bum Ndeye returned. "If you ever do encounter that blue stuff, do me a favor and send it back into the eye of whoever is peddling it. For now, though, I will keep you in mind when it comes to the jobs that relate to drugs. There are always quite a few around here. It is as you say: quirkers are eager for their 'candy.'" She barely stopped herself from saying "their fix." No need for criminals to take such an uppity tone with their comrades, after all...

Ndeye's buzz was beginning to wear off, to the point where talking about candy was beginning to feel childish to her. Dr. Jekyll recognized the need to leave before Mr. Hyde showed back up and ruined this business relationship. "Bah. I may have overdone it." The woman held one hand to her gut as she stood up, wearing a sour frown. "To think that you would outlast me! You really can hold your liquor." With Ndeye now standing to her full height, one might speculate that if you averaged the height of the tiny drug dealer and the massive muscle-lady, you'd get something amusingly close to the national average.

"We underworld types are always bumping into one another. Perhaps we will meet again here... Assuming someone does not burn the place down." Ndeye mused on that... she wasn't sentimental about a lot of things, but she had to admit, the atmosphere of this place- which many found seedy, repressive, or outright dangerous- was starting to grow on her.

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WC 564