02 - Meet me in the red room, close the door and dim the lights

[bro_thel_fist]

[When Raquel hits the phones, she sounds like she’s making a sales pitch. Which, in essence, she is.]All right, so I’ve noticed something in my short time here. Mayfield is lacking something very, very important to the fabric of society: an underbelly. Now, you’ve got the dive bar, which is an awesome start, but everyone knows that no good

Comments

[cramschoolgod]

Hmm... the chief problem with this enterprise would be its scale. Namely, the non-drone residents of Mayfield live largely on about twenty streets, with perhaps ten houses per street and five inhabitants per house. That is on the order of magnitude of a population of one thousand. What towns of population one thousand, or even ten thousand, in the real world, can support a full-scale brothel?

[bro_thel_fist]

It worked in the old west, didn't it? I mean, those towns weren't very big when they first started.

I'm not thinking of starting a huge operation here, mind you. Just enough to keep this town of about a thousand occupied.

[cramschoolgod]

That depended on the establishment of a frontier spirit with many unattached men, don't you think? It was situational. I agree that there's a certain need, but I don't know if it couldn't just be supplied by, ah, independent operators. Still, it's worth researching...

[bro_thel_fist]

Well, this is just as situational. You have a bunch of people trapped here and unable to get back to people who actually want to have sex with them.

That's what I figure. The worst that can happen is that I fail and have to find something else to do.

[cramschoolgod]

That's true, though the fact that the place has survived so long without it might indicate that you are either a revolutionary or that it's unnecessary.

Ah, well, I like the spirit of the idea. [Smiling to herself.] Personally, I don't have a great deal to offer, but I would be pleased to help you with it, perhaps.

[bro_thel_fist]

Possibly both.

I could use whatever help I could get, so I appreciate it.

[cramschoolgod]

Certainly. It's a proactive strategy, anyway, and therefore it should be commended. My name is Sasaki, by the way.

[bro_thel_fist]

Thanks!

Nice to meet you, Sasaki. I'm Raquel.

Any idea of what you'd be willing to do to help out?

[cramschoolgod]

It's nice to meet you too, Raquel. To be honest, I have no preferences. I'm fairly knowledgeable in a general way about many topics, not to be too egoistic. But I'm not really an extraordinary person like so many of the others around here.

[bro_thel_fist]

I'd say you're extraordinary in that you didn't throw a righteous fit when I put out the open call. [Although, to her surprise, several people have shown support.]

How old are you, by the way?

[cramschoolgod]

Yes, I was surprised, but I don't have any moral objections to the idea, after all. It's silly to do so when there's really no reason for it.

As for me, I'm seventeen.

[bro_thel_fist]

I like your attitude.

Well, if you're seventeen, that means you're not legal for some of the stuff that I'll need staff for. But you could totally do support stuff, like numbers maybe. You seem like you're good with those, based on what you started the conversation with...?

[cramschoolgod]

Ahaha, well, yes, I won't be eighteen for another few months, I'm afraid, if that's what you mean. As for the accounting--well, it's generally a rather intellectually trivial task, but my assigned mother happens to be an artificial intelligence, and conceivably it would be interesting to design a system that could keep track of its own numbers.

[bro_thel_fist]

If you can manage that, that'd be awesome. It'd save a us all a lot of work in the long run.

Do you think she could manage that, being an AI?

[cramschoolgod]

I've had a few opportunities to examine her capabilities and they are... remarkable.

[bro_thel_fist]

That's great! Thanks for doing this, Sasaki!