Chapter Text
Jessica is obsessed.
She, and two other people online have been tracking one person for months now. All three of them wanted the truth, what she knew, to know once and for all the hell that has been put onto their country and was scrubbed from all media.
Jessica had those goals too. However, she had one more. She wanted to know the girl personally. She wanted the girl to like her. No, love her. The fact she knew how to kill further intensified her obsession over the girl.
Jessica is what is known as a 'popular, basic' girl. She hangs out with other 'perfect, basic, popular' girls and fits into those groups like a glove. She goes out with impressive fashion, and puts on makeup even if she has to cover up her entire face. Her outings usually end any ways with the group of girls meeting up at one of their homes, watching a TV show with the largest bowl of popcorn.
By night, she scrubs off her makeup, dresses down to her bra and baggy sweat pants, and logs onto a chatroom. Here, she spends hours talking to two other people about one singular person, someone everyone is forced to hate, but they know that it's forced.
pleasantplum923 is now online
tickintimebomb: Plum, did you find anything about her supplier?
pleasantplum923: barely? think she frequents a downtown underground weapon's shop
think its called henry & guns
TheCarrier: know that place personally. doesn't fit her tho, ran by a robot. she wouldn't frequent a place that maintains a risk of surveillance
tickintimebomb: Still, a lead we should investigate. Since you are in the area, Plum, may you look into it further? Any patterns or even getting in contact will be great. How'd you figure that out?
pleasantplum923: alot of her kills with fresh bullets, guns, or other weapons originate around that area
miss perfect isn't that perfect after all, who woulda thunk
TheCarrier: found something. might be important for you plum
pleasantplum923: ?
TheCarrier: local police know of the place. since it's ran by a robot
they think it has great criminal detection so they don't bother
pleasantplum923: sooo
TheCarrier: the girl IS a criminal. the most popular one there is.
meaning, there is little to no security nor criminal detection. OR, she can override the software or the robot entirely. there might be someone in that shop then.
pleasantplum923: she wears a mask ofc it wouldn't trip the system
TheCarrier: we know everything about her except her face. height, body, aliases, shit im sure someone on reddit got her breast size from the video footage from every verified recording of her. not only that, other robot-teller stores can detect criminals wearing masks. why wouldn't it trip the girl?
tickintimebomb: Carrier is right. She has some special permissions in the store. I say that it's our closest lead yet. Plum, since you are the closest person there, try to intervene and see if you can get anything about her there. Take a friend just in case.
pleasantplum923: will do
She won't be bringing a friend along.
Jessica is skeptic of the two. tickintimebomb takes a professional, bossy role in the group, something she despises. Not only that, he uses IRC, notoriously shitty with security. He claims he 'encrypts the message and IP's of the users' with his own IRC client, but she knows there's some bullshit in there. Just in case, she runs her own client that decrypts the messages, and uses a VPN. TheCarrier says he has connections to the police network, but Jessica highly doubts it. She believes that Carrier is a cop himself, looking to intercept the girl and gain the fame from it. Sadly, it's her only chance of getting to her. Whether or not something happens, she will report it as nothing, and have the investigation move further towards nothing.
She puts on her mask, and steps outsides. Walking to the place, she looks at the scenery. Clouds fail to clear, plunging the area in a cold, deep gray. Buildings are either made of shitty brick or covered with reflective glass panes, hiding the cameras behind the glass. As she approaches the apartment, she reflects on the peoples walking around. Each and every one of them looking the same, almost as if they are circling her. But that would be false. Everyone she had seen was someone new. They all wore a pale face mask and dyed their hair a deep black, and kept it as basic as possible. The only person she saw that didn’t have black hair was a child. Clothes were basic too. Either some boring professional outfit or currently trendy street clothing. It didn’t matter if they liked the outfit, they had to wear it anyways. She, herself, wore a basic outfit like the rest of them. Others might have thought she was another person, just like she did a moment ago.
The shop entrance was in a small alley, through a window. Jessica climbed up the fire escape and opened the lit window. Inside, a dirty bathroom greets Jessica. It’s worn, looking like a public bathroom more than anything. The walls are covered in writing, most she couldn’t care about. The door isn’t any exception, however carved by what looks to be a deep knife is a drawing of an eye. Jessica doesn’t think anything of it, and opens the door.
Through the door is an under-construction store. Walls are being painted, floorboards not fully complete, gun displays set up however empty. A robot sits behind one, acting like a receptionist.
“Welcome. Are you an existing customer?”
“Yeah, just gimme a second.”
She sets her bag on the table, with the robot staring blankly ahead of her. After she shuffles through her bag, she pulls out a pistol. 2 shots ring out. The robot is hit, one near the stomach and one near the heart. The robot fails to react, staying rigid in its death.
“Sorry about that,” she screams out, “a rail based robot doesn’t go for much anyways.”
No response.
“You can come out, I’m not here to hurt you. Not a big fan of surveillance, ‘is all.”
A man resembling the robot comes out, hands raised. On the sight of the pistol, he makes sure to raise them a little higher.
“What do you want?”
Jessica shuffles through the bag and takes out a prepared photo. It’s blurry, showing a masked female. On the back of the photograph, ‘eye piercer’ is written. She spins it to the man.
“You know her?”
The man picks up the photograph, takes a look at it, and returns a response.
“No clue.”
“Don’t forget who has a gun here.”
“She is masked, I cant know. What do you-”
“She? How do you know they are a she?”
It’s a bullshit question, but one to slip up the man. When going out, people either wear longer hair if they are female, and shorter hair if they aren’t. It is the only way to express their gender identity. Sadly, an in between would just lead to more surveillance. You must wear either, no matter your gender identity.
He stutters, before giving up.
“Alright, fine. Yes, I know this woman. What do you want?”
“I’m not here to hurt her. Opposite actually. Need you to deliver a warning. To you and her.”
“What is it?”
“One of your customers is most likely police. Keep the facade up. They are buying into the robot equals safe shit.”
“Well, you shot mine so-”
“Easier to shoot than wipe it myself, or trust you to wipe it. Anyways- oh wait.”
Jessica picks up one last thing from her bag.
“Give this to her. Contains a photograph and a letter. I need to talk to her.”
She slides the envelope to the man. He picks it up, and slowly opens it up.
“Don’t try.” She wags the gun around. “There’s no bomb in that. It’s what I said it is. Run a X-Ray on it, I don’t care, but YOU can’t read the contents of it. Not happening.”
The man retreats the envelope back to the table.
“Got it?” The man nods. “Good.”
Jessica leaves the store.