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Description
The Roosevelt Room Cocktail Lounge-Austin, Texas
08:08 PM CST

“Thank you for letting me pick the bar for once. We’ve been here for nearly an hour and I haven’t had my butt touched even once!”

Madeline Morales took another sip of her martini and released the tension in her muscles, nestling herself into the plush black leather of the booth. She took this moment to appreciate the far more refined clientele of the place. No loud music. No wandering hands. No honky-tonk. No bar fights.

Just artisanal cocktails and investment bankers.

She was wearing her usual favorite black-and-gray striped minidress-an outfit that had a nasty habit of showing more than she intended whenever she sat down-and not once did she feel a single set of eyes ogling her. It was a breath of fresh air from the bars usually picked by her friend who sat across from her.

In stark contrast to Madeline’s reserved posture and demeanor, Ashley “Ash” Hamrick could not have taken up more space in their booth if she tried. The girl sat fully slouched back, with one purple converse planted atop the polished glass table. It was unclear if she was fully aware of just how much she was showing to patrons of the lounge in this position-but Ash, as usual, probably did not give a single shit. The blonde straightened the lapel of her purple leather jacket and swirled the glass of her overpriced Old Fashioned.

“This was a thirty dollar Old Fashioned.” Ash finally said.

“Is your card on the tab?”

“....No.”

“Then drink your thirty dollar old fashioned and loosen up, girlie.” Madeline chided. “Relax. You’re more likely to get in a fight with someone at one of YOUR bars than here. Besides, I figured you could use a date night where someone paid for your drinks after the month you’ve had! Rough competition.”

Ash raised an eyebrow. “The..the month I’ve had? It’s not as though there was a stream mishap or something?

Madeline winced. In some way or another, she had probably just put a foot in her mouth.

“Y’know..Just with..Well, I figured that..Since you..” The heiress was fumbling. “Y’know? All the competition you had! With the..The?..”

You’re revealing too much Mads what the hell are you doing??

Ash sat up straight and leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “What..What competition?”

Madeline’s eye twitched. She was the kind of person that could tell someone to “go to hell” with enough tact that they would look forward to the trip. Gifted with a silver tongue, and with a natural gift for somehow telling people what they wanted to hear no matter what. For normal people, it’s called being a sociopath. For rich, beautiful young women, it’s called being “overwhelmingly charming”.

But she couldn’t keep things from Ash. Ash, despite outward appearances, always found out. You couldn’t hide, couldn’t lie, and couldn’t schmooze her. Even in light of her…reputation..People sometimes forgot that she was still one hell of a detective when it came down to it.

Madeline cracked.

“Okay, OKAY, I didn’t know if you already knew it, so I didn’t want to say anything and sour the whole night, and I thought if you already DID know you would want to forget, and if you DIDN’T know it would just be better that you were blissfully unaware and SHIT I’ve just ruined everything, I just wanted to have nice girl’s night and not have anything awful happen or have any conversation that might set you off, and-MHgfffhhFFF!
Ash leaned forward and placed a hand over her friend’s mouth.

“Calm down, Mads.” the blonde reassured before removing her hand. “What’s the problem?”

Madeline sighed and pushed a strand of her highlighted brown hair behind her ear. She really thought she could keep Ash from knowing about this-but given her friend’s audience, it was bound to make its way to her. Better to have a friend tell her, than some rando named “FootMaster6969” or something in the Twitch chat.

“....Some bitch is stealing your schtick.”

Ash blinked.

“What, like? Like solving crimes on the internet? Running an investigative vlog channel?” Her expression was more confused than anything. “I mean, I won’t claim to be the first to do anything like that-or hell, the ONLY girl to do something like this. It’s cool. What, is she another Austin girl or something?”

“Noooo…She just-..” Madeline wasn’t sure how to broach this delicately. “She’s..y’know..An investigative streamer, or whatever. She just..Well..You know how on YOUR streams, sometimes, you..”

“Scrap with a robot or two? Yeah, people love that shit. I don’t see what’s the big deal.” Ash’s tone grew more serious. “WAIT. Don’t tell me this hoe is beefing with LlamTech too? That IS sort of my exclusive territory.”

“No, not that. It’s just..On stream.. You know how?”

“What?”

“I don’t want to say it.”

“Girl, you can SAY she’s manipulating viewers with some degree of sex appeal, its OKAY. Everyone doe-”

“SHE’S GOING ON INVESTIGATIONS AND BEING ALL SNEAKY AND THEN SHE GETS TIED UP ON STREAM.” Madeline blurted. “Then she wriggles around, goes ‘mmphh mmphh!’ in to a tape gag, flashes an upskirt shot or five, and waits for someone to rescue her. Every time.”

Ash was a little taken aback by her friend’s forwardness.

“Oh..THAT thing I do..”

“I mean, it’s not like you MEAN to! It just..happens more than it should happen to anyone. That’s all!..” Madeline winced-realizing that was NOT the way to approach the topic.

“I..What’s a reasonable amount to-..?’ Ash shook it off. “You know what? Whatever. It’s cool. I’ve got a reputation and I know it. Doesn’t stop me from doing what I do.”

Ever the unshakable, Ash Hamrick quickly moved on from the touchy subject of her infamy.

“...Who is the bitch?”

Madeline grimaced.

“Noooo, Ash. Don’t make me give you her page. You’ll go on a witch hunt. You’ll turn being a hater in to a full-time job and you KNOW it.”

“PROMISE I won’t. I just gotta see what I’m up against.”

Madeline pursed her lips in frustration. You did this, girl. She thought to herself. You at least owe it to your friend to let her know what she’s dealing with.

The heiress pulled out her phone. “Please don’t make me regret this.”

The phone was slid across the table, opened to a Twitch profile. Ash hastily grabbed the device and began analyzing it with brutal scrutiny.

The page featured a girl of about her age with orange ombre hair and winged black eyeliner. Similar to herself, she wore a cream-colored leather jacket accompanied by a VERY tight red skirt that showed off nearly every inch of her legs, complimented by a pearlescent pair of silver heels. As if strutting the way she was wasn’t enough, the girl’s shirt was cut low, with a dark mesh screen sitting above her chest to offer just that little bit of tease to her viewers. Ash’s eyes wandered to the title card of her page.

“Liv…Deckard?”

“Liv Deckard.” Madeline sighed.

“She’s clearly…Invested..In all this..” Ash rolled her eyes as she began to scroll. “Jesus, I feel like I’m looking at porn clips here.”

Every archived stream and highlight reel felt like a parody of Ash’s own work. Titles like “LAB INVESTIGATION (GONE WRONG!!!)” and “AFTER HOURS DETECTIVE WORK (SPICY)” were abound.

Was this..Was this how people perceived her?
She opened one of the videos.

The clip opened with the camera on this girl curled up in the corner of some abandoned building, trying to sit herself up on her knees. Her vibrant orange hair had been tastelfully touseled as if “distressed” for a movie set. Hands cuffed behind her and a silver high-heel missing, “Liv Deckard” writhed before the camera like your textbook damsel-in-distress. Eyes wide and brow furrowed in gentle fear. She had the part DOWN.

“Hey e-everyone. It’s Liv” She whispered into the camera. “Ran into a bit of a snag at that abandoned kayak factory, but I PROMISE I’ll get this under cont-”

She stopped as she looked upward. A male voice cleared its throat.

“We chatting with our friends, pretty girl?” The disembodied voice said, before a large man in a ski mask kneeled into the frame next to her and grabbed the girl’s shoulder. “What’s the matter? Trying to invite some people to join you?”

“Get your hands OFF me, creep.” Liv tried to kick her legs away from the man, pressing her back against the wall as her leather skirt rode up. “Someone’s gonna find me.You know that, right?”

It was almost like she had rehearsed this. The gentle wriggling of the shoulders, the sensual gyrating of the hips. Hell, even the way this guy was putting his hands all over her was very…Softcore? It wasn’t the usual crass handling that Ash dealt with when goons got a hold of her.

The man grabbed Liv’s face by the cheeks. “Oh, I’m SURE someone will, doll. Don’t think I don’t see that phone in front of you,” the man laughed. “Tell your friends they’re on the CLOCK to get you rescued. I might just invite some friends over here if nobody comes to rescue the famous Liv Deckard!” The man punctuated his teasing with a playful tap on the girl’s face.

“Listen here, asshole-I don’t need help.” Liv defiantly growled in her kidnapper’s grip as she pulled her face away-almost playfully writhing in his gloved hands. “I’ll break out of these cheap costume party cuffs, and then we’ll-”

A strip of tape was pressed over the girl’s lips, the man pressing over it with his fingers to reveal the imprint of her mouth beneath it.

“yhhmhhMHHHHFHH!” Liv furrowed her brow and fluttered her heavy eyelashes as the tape was pressed, giving her audience a very lively display of defiance. “Yhh shhnhhvvhhbttcchh!”

“Thaaaat’s it, pretty lady.” The man’s hand cupped Liv’s chin, turning her head to look at her phone. “Nice and quiet, aren’t ya, brat? Your friends are gonna have a tough time finding you if you can’t make any freaking noise, huh?”

“NHMHHH FMHH!”

Satisfied with his gagged damsel, the man tipped Liv over and gently let her shoulder lay into the ground-allowing the camera to get a near perfect shot of the girl’s writhing backside and legs.

“Get comfy, Miss Deckard.” The man placed a firm smack on Liv’s rear, making her playfully yelp. “I’ll be back in an hour. If you’re not out of this by then, you’re coming home with me.”

“NHHHHFHHH!”

The rest of the video proceeded….Very predictably? The girl with the orange ombre hair struggled and writhed, but was never TRULY afraid of anything. Some weak whimpers or moans into the tape over her mouth were plentiful, sure-but there was never any real indication that she wanted OUT of the situation. Just lazy struggling and well-placed angles that showed off her body.

All very PG-13.

“So…She just..Had a bad night and decided to post that? Like, unedited and unfiltered? Just, ‘hey, I screwed up investigating and spent the night tied up-here’s the WHOLE VIDEO?’”

Madeline cleared her throat. “That’s the gist. I’ve only watched, like, two of her videos personally-but Adrianne went on a whole marathon and binged her whole channel. Says it’s pretty much THAT all the way through. Girl breaks in, gets kidnapped, then struggles weakly and makes doe-eyes for two hours. Adz suspects that this Liv girl enjoys it.” Madeline sipped her drink. “Guess she would know a lot about that, huh?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mad put the glass back on the table. “I’m sorry, Ash. I shouldn’t have told you about this. I promise, you’re BETTER than this Liv girl. You’ve got integrity! The whole..Getting ‘Ash’d’ thing? That’s just a side effect. You’re actually getting some traction on LlamTech! You’re a serious reporter, in a sense! Please don’t-”
Madeline paused as she watched Ash pull out her own phone.

“...What are you doing?”

“Following her. Liking some of her posts. Letting her know she’s on my radar like the passive aggressive nightmare that I am.”

“ASH-please don’t start anything with her.”

“I’m nooooot. I just don’t like being perceived as a porn parody! It sort of..really pisses me off?” Ash opened her front facing camera to fix her hair. “Honestly, why does she go through all this trouble? This is literally an OnlyFans with extra steps.”

“Ash, you promised you wouldn’t pick a fight.”

“Madz-I love you, but you know picking fights is basically my M.O.” Ash smiled. “Screw this girl. Like, who does this? I put myself in harms way, make a fool out of myself, and she thinks it’s ok to just make me in to a PornHub genre?”

“I don’t think she’s doing it maliciously, she just-”

“-And I bet you she’s making BANK on this too. Every little panty-shot that slag is making is probably a thousand dollars in her bank, every time.”

“Ok, but YOU do that too-”

“NOT ON PURPOSE!” Ash defended. “It’s called ‘making the most of an ugly situation’, Madz! When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade! In those cases, when life gets you overpowered by a half dozen thugs in a warehouse who tie you up and embarrass you in front of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of followers, you try and make a buck! It’s not like I ASK anyone to throw money at me. It just sort of..happens?”

Ash inhaled the last bit of her drink.

“So NO. I am NOT like this Liv Deckard slut, and I will NOT be reduced to a shallow parody of myself using investigative journalism as a guise for posting softcore porn.” Ash lifted her phone and prepared for a quick livestream right where she was sitting. “In fact, I’m going out there to prove just HOW competent I am!”

“..By what?..”

“Um, by beating her ass?”

“ASH” Madeline leaned forward. “That is LITERALLY starting a fight! You said you WOULDN’T!”

“YEAH? Well, I sort of changed my mind. I’m having a lot of thoughts right now and really the only reasonable course of action I can think of is squaring up with this girl and hitting her with a chair.” Ash responded in a restrained yell/whisper. “This is MY schtick, and I’ll be damned if anybody is going to weasel in on my turf!”

“Ash, don’t you dare start streami-”

The blonde was already live.

“What is UP, true believers! AshInvestigates comin’ at ya!” Ash smiled fiendishly into the camera, trying to maintain as placid an expression as possible. “So, big news-I’ve heard that there’s been some new blood on the investigative scene. I see you. Liv Deckard-what’s up?”

Madeline rolled her eyes as Ash continued.

“So Liv-Livvy, Oliva, Livvurd, whatever. Hear me out. I see you’re doing a lot of poking around. Not a lot of investigating? I mean, what are you even doing in all these abandoned warehouses? You just seem to be lacking an end-game, is all. So-what do you say I give you the grand welcome to the sleuthing scene? Show you what this is all about?” Ash’s demeanor remained uncomfortably pleasant. Without context, one would almost believe she was simply extending the olive branch to a newcomer to her scene. “LlamTech. Main campus. Let’s meet up. I’ve got a pretty spicy lead I’ve been meaning to save for a stream of my own, buuuut I think I’d be willing to share it with the newbie. I’ll DM you the deets.”

The blonde gave a subtle wink to the camera. “Ash out. I’ll see the rest of you wonderful people in a few hours when we go live.”

Ash placed her phone face down on the table.

“And done.”

Madeline pinched her brow. “Ash. I love you. But..You are way too old to be doing this. Did you really just tell someone to meet you outside so you could beat them up?”

“Whaaaat? ME? No.”

“You JUST said you were going to square up with this Liv girl.”

“YES. And, a few minutes ago, that WAS my plan. But you know me right? If there’s one thing I do well, it’s making plans on the fly.”

“Normally that’s called impulsiveness, but ok-”

“SO, I thought-why not really invite this girl along? I wasn’t lying about that lead. Actually found it this morning. LlamTech filed a construction permit with the city. They’re refurbishing one of the sub-levels, starting tonight. Any vaults, labs, or cold-storage facilities they’ve got down there are gonna be exposed for a minute.”

“So you’re just going to let Liv…Investigate with you? Like, you’re gonna take her under your wing?”

“ABSOLUTELY not. Fuck her.” Ash held out her hands in a very directorial gesture. “She tags along. We break in. Security is notified. Robots bear down on us-or rather, bear down on her. Stream catches her getting all bound up, and I either heroically rescue her, OR make my escape and leave her to deal with LlamTech! Brilliant, right?”

Madeline was more than a little incredulous. “Sooo…You’re going to go to LlamTech. EXPECT to get caught. Then either…make yourself look good by rescuing the damsel in distress, or leave her to die with the evil corporation that would have no problem killing you if they knew they could get away with it?”

“Okay, it doesn’t sound that good when you put it that way!” Ash flagged down a waiter for another drink. “Look, this is about credibility. What I do is NOT easy-no matter what anybody says. Yeah, sure, I get caught a LOT. But I get out every time, don’t I? And nobody even mentions all the times I get in and out of LlamTech without any issue! Frankly, nobody even suspected this company was up to something until I made them famous. This girl probably thinks I get all tied up on stream on purpose. She thinks I’m a JOKE. This is my chance to, one-show her JUST how difficult this is. She doesn’t know how these robots work. Their failsafes. How to out-maneuver them . I DO. She gets caught, and looks like an idiot. Then TWO, I get to show people JUST how capable I am. I stop the robots, get her free, and we escape. THEN, she’s indebted to me. She learns her lesson. She never touches my turf again. I, ME, Ash Hamrick-proceed to then occupy a small part of her subconscious for the rest of her life. Live rent-free in her head as the girl she didn’t take seriously who eventually SAVED her life. She won’t EVER want to steal my schtick again. Out of respect. THAT, or she gets left down in the LlamTech lower-levels. I dunno what happens to her from there. Gets turned into a robot, has her brain put in a jar? Something crazy, I don’t know. That’s not my business. Either way, everything works out in my favor! I’m playing 4D chess here.”

Madeline was less than amused by the whole idea-idly watching her martini swish in its glass while she found the words. Her heavy eyelashes fluttered.

“This all sounds..kind of psychopathic?”

Ash blinked.

“Madeline, how long have we known eachother?”

“Since high school?”

“Is it JUST now occurring to you that I’m a terrible person?”

The other girl nodded in resigned acknowledgement. “No, no. It had occurred to me before, it’s just..Yeah, it’s weird to hear it put out in the open so bluntly.”

“Look, getting this girl..apprehended..by LlamTech isn’t my plan ‘A’. The main idea is to make me look good, and her look like an idiot. Make it to where she doesn’t want to elbow in on my territory ever again. I think it’s perfectly reasonable.”

“As reasonable as Ash Hamrick can be, I suppose.”

Description
The Roosevelt Room Cocktail Lounge-Austin, Texas
08:08 PM CST

“Thank you for letting me pick the bar for once. We’ve been here for nearly an hour and I haven’t had my butt touched even once!”

Madeline Morales took another sip of her martini and released the tension in her muscles, nestling herself into the plush black leather of the booth. She took this moment to appreciate the far more refined clientele of the place. No loud music. No wandering hands. No honky-tonk. No bar fights.

Just artisanal cocktails and investment bankers.

She was wearing her usual favorite black-and-gray striped minidress-an outfit that had a nasty habit of showing more than she intended whenever she sat down-and not once did she feel a single set of eyes ogling her. It was a breath of fresh air from the bars usually picked by her friend who sat across from her.

In stark contrast to Madeline’s reserved posture and demeanor, Ashley “Ash” Hamrick could not have taken up more space in their booth if she tried. The girl sat fully slouched back, with one purple converse planted atop the polished glass table. It was unclear if she was fully aware of just how much she was showing to patrons of the lounge in this position-but Ash, as usual, probably did not give a single shit. The blonde straightened the lapel of her purple leather jacket and swirled the glass of her overpriced Old Fashioned.

“This was a thirty dollar Old Fashioned.” Ash finally said.

“Is your card on the tab?”

“....No.”

“Then drink your thirty dollar old fashioned and loosen up, girlie.” Madeline chided. “Relax. You’re more likely to get in a fight with someone at one of YOUR bars than here. Besides, I figured you could use a date night where someone paid for your drinks after the month you’ve had! Rough competition.”

Ash raised an eyebrow. “The..the month I’ve had? It’s not as though there was a stream mishap or something?

Madeline winced. In some way or another, she had probably just put a foot in her mouth.

“Y’know..Just with..Well, I figured that..Since you..” The heiress was fumbling. “Y’know? All the competition you had! With the..The?..”

You’re revealing too much Mads what the hell are you doing??

Ash sat up straight and leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “What..What competition?”

Madeline’s eye twitched. She was the kind of person that could tell someone to “go to hell” with enough tact that they would look forward to the trip. Gifted with a silver tongue, and with a natural gift for somehow telling people what they wanted to hear no matter what. For normal people, it’s called being a sociopath. For rich, beautiful young women, it’s called being “overwhelmingly charming”.

But she couldn’t keep things from Ash. Ash, despite outward appearances, always found out. You couldn’t hide, couldn’t lie, and couldn’t schmooze her. Even in light of her…reputation..People sometimes forgot that she was still one hell of a detective when it came down to it.

Madeline cracked.

“Okay, OKAY, I didn’t know if you already knew it, so I didn’t want to say anything and sour the whole night, and I thought if you already DID know you would want to forget, and if you DIDN’T know it would just be better that you were blissfully unaware and SHIT I’ve just ruined everything, I just wanted to have nice girl’s night and not have anything awful happen or have any conversation that might set you off, and-MHgfffhhFFF!
Ash leaned forward and placed a hand over her friend’s mouth.

“Calm down, Mads.” the blonde reassured before removing her hand. “What’s the problem?”

Madeline sighed and pushed a strand of her highlighted brown hair behind her ear. She really thought she could keep Ash from knowing about this-but given her friend’s audience, it was bound to make its way to her. Better to have a friend tell her, than some rando named “FootMaster6969” or something in the Twitch chat.

“....Some bitch is stealing your schtick.”

Ash blinked.

“What, like? Like solving crimes on the internet? Running an investigative vlog channel?” Her expression was more confused than anything. “I mean, I won’t claim to be the first to do anything like that-or hell, the ONLY girl to do something like this. It’s cool. What, is she another Austin girl or something?”

“Noooo…She just-..” Madeline wasn’t sure how to broach this delicately. “She’s..y’know..An investigative streamer, or whatever. She just..Well..You know how on YOUR streams, sometimes, you..”

“Scrap with a robot or two? Yeah, people love that shit. I don’t see what’s the big deal.” Ash’s tone grew more serious. “WAIT. Don’t tell me this hoe is beefing with LlamTech too? That IS sort of my exclusive territory.”

“No, not that. It’s just..On stream.. You know how?”

“What?”

“I don’t want to say it.”

“Girl, you can SAY she’s manipulating viewers with some degree of sex appeal, its OKAY. Everyone doe-”

“SHE’S GOING ON INVESTIGATIONS AND BEING ALL SNEAKY AND THEN SHE GETS TIED UP ON STREAM.” Madeline blurted. “Then she wriggles around, goes ‘mmphh mmphh!’ in to a tape gag, flashes an upskirt shot or five, and waits for someone to rescue her. Every time.”

Ash was a little taken aback by her friend’s forwardness.

“Oh..THAT thing I do..”

“I mean, it’s not like you MEAN to! It just..happens more than it should happen to anyone. That’s all!..” Madeline winced-realizing that was NOT the way to approach the topic.

“I..What’s a reasonable amount to-..?’ Ash shook it off. “You know what? Whatever. It’s cool. I’ve got a reputation and I know it. Doesn’t stop me from doing what I do.”

Ever the unshakable, Ash Hamrick quickly moved on from the touchy subject of her infamy.

“...Who is the bitch?”

Madeline grimaced.

“Noooo, Ash. Don’t make me give you her page. You’ll go on a witch hunt. You’ll turn being a hater in to a full-time job and you KNOW it.”

“PROMISE I won’t. I just gotta see what I’m up against.”

Madeline pursed her lips in frustration. You did this, girl. She thought to herself. You at least owe it to your friend to let her know what she’s dealing with.

The heiress pulled out her phone. “Please don’t make me regret this.”

The phone was slid across the table, opened to a Twitch profile. Ash hastily grabbed the device and began analyzing it with brutal scrutiny.

The page featured a girl of about her age with orange ombre hair and winged black eyeliner. Similar to herself, she wore a cream-colored leather jacket accompanied by a VERY tight red skirt that showed off nearly every inch of her legs, complimented by a pearlescent pair of silver heels. As if strutting the way she was wasn’t enough, the girl’s shirt was cut low, with a dark mesh screen sitting above her chest to offer just that little bit of tease to her viewers. Ash’s eyes wandered to the title card of her page.

“Liv…Deckard?”

“Liv Deckard.” Madeline sighed.

“She’s clearly…Invested..In all this..” Ash rolled her eyes as she began to scroll. “Jesus, I feel like I’m looking at porn clips here.”

Every archived stream and highlight reel felt like a parody of Ash’s own work. Titles like “LAB INVESTIGATION (GONE WRONG!!!)” and “AFTER HOURS DETECTIVE WORK (SPICY)” were abound.

Was this..Was this how people perceived her?
She opened one of the videos.

The clip opened with the camera on this girl curled up in the corner of some abandoned building, trying to sit herself up on her knees. Her vibrant orange hair had been tastelfully touseled as if “distressed” for a movie set. Hands cuffed behind her and a silver high-heel missing, “Liv Deckard” writhed before the camera like your textbook damsel-in-distress. Eyes wide and brow furrowed in gentle fear. She had the part DOWN.

“Hey e-everyone. It’s Liv” She whispered into the camera. “Ran into a bit of a snag at that abandoned kayak factory, but I PROMISE I’ll get this under cont-”

She stopped as she looked upward. A male voice cleared its throat.

“We chatting with our friends, pretty girl?” The disembodied voice said, before a large man in a ski mask kneeled into the frame next to her and grabbed the girl’s shoulder. “What’s the matter? Trying to invite some people to join you?”

“Get your hands OFF me, creep.” Liv tried to kick her legs away from the man, pressing her back against the wall as her leather skirt rode up. “Someone’s gonna find me.You know that, right?”

It was almost like she had rehearsed this. The gentle wriggling of the shoulders, the sensual gyrating of the hips. Hell, even the way this guy was putting his hands all over her was very…Softcore? It wasn’t the usual crass handling that Ash dealt with when goons got a hold of her.

The man grabbed Liv’s face by the cheeks. “Oh, I’m SURE someone will, doll. Don’t think I don’t see that phone in front of you,” the man laughed. “Tell your friends they’re on the CLOCK to get you rescued. I might just invite some friends over here if nobody comes to rescue the famous Liv Deckard!” The man punctuated his teasing with a playful tap on the girl’s face.

“Listen here, asshole-I don’t need help.” Liv defiantly growled in her kidnapper’s grip as she pulled her face away-almost playfully writhing in his gloved hands. “I’ll break out of these cheap costume party cuffs, and then we’ll-”

A strip of tape was pressed over the girl’s lips, the man pressing over it with his fingers to reveal the imprint of her mouth beneath it.

“yhhmhhMHHHHFHH!” Liv furrowed her brow and fluttered her heavy eyelashes as the tape was pressed, giving her audience a very lively display of defiance. “Yhh shhnhhvvhhbttcchh!”

“Thaaaat’s it, pretty lady.” The man’s hand cupped Liv’s chin, turning her head to look at her phone. “Nice and quiet, aren’t ya, brat? Your friends are gonna have a tough time finding you if you can’t make any freaking noise, huh?”

“NHMHHH FMHH!”

Satisfied with his gagged damsel, the man tipped Liv over and gently let her shoulder lay into the ground-allowing the camera to get a near perfect shot of the girl’s writhing backside and legs.

“Get comfy, Miss Deckard.” The man placed a firm smack on Liv’s rear, making her playfully yelp. “I’ll be back in an hour. If you’re not out of this by then, you’re coming home with me.”

“NHHHHFHHH!”

The rest of the video proceeded….Very predictably? The girl with the orange ombre hair struggled and writhed, but was never TRULY afraid of anything. Some weak whimpers or moans into the tape over her mouth were plentiful, sure-but there was never any real indication that she wanted OUT of the situation. Just lazy struggling and well-placed angles that showed off her body.

All very PG-13.

“So…She just..Had a bad night and decided to post that? Like, unedited and unfiltered? Just, ‘hey, I screwed up investigating and spent the night tied up-here’s the WHOLE VIDEO?’”

Madeline cleared her throat. “That’s the gist. I’ve only watched, like, two of her videos personally-but Adrianne went on a whole marathon and binged her whole channel. Says it’s pretty much THAT all the way through. Girl breaks in, gets kidnapped, then struggles weakly and makes doe-eyes for two hours. Adz suspects that this Liv girl enjoys it.” Madeline sipped her drink. “Guess she would know a lot about that, huh?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mad put the glass back on the table. “I’m sorry, Ash. I shouldn’t have told you about this. I promise, you’re BETTER than this Liv girl. You’ve got integrity! The whole..Getting ‘Ash’d’ thing? That’s just a side effect. You’re actually getting some traction on LlamTech! You’re a serious reporter, in a sense! Please don’t-”
Madeline paused as she watched Ash pull out her own phone.

“...What are you doing?”

“Following her. Liking some of her posts. Letting her know she’s on my radar like the passive aggressive nightmare that I am.”

“ASH-please don’t start anything with her.”

“I’m nooooot. I just don’t like being perceived as a porn parody! It sort of..really pisses me off?” Ash opened her front facing camera to fix her hair. “Honestly, why does she go through all this trouble? This is literally an OnlyFans with extra steps.”

“Ash, you promised you wouldn’t pick a fight.”

“Madz-I love you, but you know picking fights is basically my M.O.” Ash smiled. “Screw this girl. Like, who does this? I put myself in harms way, make a fool out of myself, and she thinks it’s ok to just make me in to a PornHub genre?”

“I don’t think she’s doing it maliciously, she just-”

“-And I bet you she’s making BANK on this too. Every little panty-shot that slag is making is probably a thousand dollars in her bank, every time.”

“Ok, but YOU do that too-”

“NOT ON PURPOSE!” Ash defended. “It’s called ‘making the most of an ugly situation’, Madz! When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade! In those cases, when life gets you overpowered by a half dozen thugs in a warehouse who tie you up and embarrass you in front of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of followers, you try and make a buck! It’s not like I ASK anyone to throw money at me. It just sort of..happens?”

Ash inhaled the last bit of her drink.

“So NO. I am NOT like this Liv Deckard slut, and I will NOT be reduced to a shallow parody of myself using investigative journalism as a guise for posting softcore porn.” Ash lifted her phone and prepared for a quick livestream right where she was sitting. “In fact, I’m going out there to prove just HOW competent I am!”

“..By what?..”

“Um, by beating her ass?”

“ASH” Madeline leaned forward. “That is LITERALLY starting a fight! You said you WOULDN’T!”

“YEAH? Well, I sort of changed my mind. I’m having a lot of thoughts right now and really the only reasonable course of action I can think of is squaring up with this girl and hitting her with a chair.” Ash responded in a restrained yell/whisper. “This is MY schtick, and I’ll be damned if anybody is going to weasel in on my turf!”

“Ash, don’t you dare start streami-”

The blonde was already live.

“What is UP, true believers! AshInvestigates comin’ at ya!” Ash smiled fiendishly into the camera, trying to maintain as placid an expression as possible. “So, big news-I’ve heard that there’s been some new blood on the investigative scene. I see you. Liv Deckard-what’s up?”

Madeline rolled her eyes as Ash continued.

“So Liv-Livvy, Oliva, Livvurd, whatever. Hear me out. I see you’re doing a lot of poking around. Not a lot of investigating? I mean, what are you even doing in all these abandoned warehouses? You just seem to be lacking an end-game, is all. So-what do you say I give you the grand welcome to the sleuthing scene? Show you what this is all about?” Ash’s demeanor remained uncomfortably pleasant. Without context, one would almost believe she was simply extending the olive branch to a newcomer to her scene. “LlamTech. Main campus. Let’s meet up. I’ve got a pretty spicy lead I’ve been meaning to save for a stream of my own, buuuut I think I’d be willing to share it with the newbie. I’ll DM you the deets.”

The blonde gave a subtle wink to the camera. “Ash out. I’ll see the rest of you wonderful people in a few hours when we go live.”

Ash placed her phone face down on the table.

“And done.”

Madeline pinched her brow. “Ash. I love you. But..You are way too old to be doing this. Did you really just tell someone to meet you outside so you could beat them up?”

“Whaaaat? ME? No.”

“You JUST said you were going to square up with this Liv girl.”

“YES. And, a few minutes ago, that WAS my plan. But you know me right? If there’s one thing I do well, it’s making plans on the fly.”

“Normally that’s called impulsiveness, but ok-”

“SO, I thought-why not really invite this girl along? I wasn’t lying about that lead. Actually found it this morning. LlamTech filed a construction permit with the city. They’re refurbishing one of the sub-levels, starting tonight. Any vaults, labs, or cold-storage facilities they’ve got down there are gonna be exposed for a minute.”

“So you’re just going to let Liv…Investigate with you? Like, you’re gonna take her under your wing?”

“ABSOLUTELY not. Fuck her.” Ash held out her hands in a very directorial gesture. “She tags along. We break in. Security is notified. Robots bear down on us-or rather, bear down on her. Stream catches her getting all bound up, and I either heroically rescue her, OR make my escape and leave her to deal with LlamTech! Brilliant, right?”

Madeline was more than a little incredulous. “Sooo…You’re going to go to LlamTech. EXPECT to get caught. Then either…make yourself look good by rescuing the damsel in distress, or leave her to die with the evil corporation that would have no problem killing you if they knew they could get away with it?”

“Okay, it doesn’t sound that good when you put it that way!” Ash flagged down a waiter for another drink. “Look, this is about credibility. What I do is NOT easy-no matter what anybody says. Yeah, sure, I get caught a LOT. But I get out every time, don’t I? And nobody even mentions all the times I get in and out of LlamTech without any issue! Frankly, nobody even suspected this company was up to something until I made them famous. This girl probably thinks I get all tied up on stream on purpose. She thinks I’m a JOKE. This is my chance to, one-show her JUST how difficult this is. She doesn’t know how these robots work. Their failsafes. How to out-maneuver them . I DO. She gets caught, and looks like an idiot. Then TWO, I get to show people JUST how capable I am. I stop the robots, get her free, and we escape. THEN, she’s indebted to me. She learns her lesson. She never touches my turf again. I, ME, Ash Hamrick-proceed to then occupy a small part of her subconscious for the rest of her life. Live rent-free in her head as the girl she didn’t take seriously who eventually SAVED her life. She won’t EVER want to steal my schtick again. Out of respect. THAT, or she gets left down in the LlamTech lower-levels. I dunno what happens to her from there. Gets turned into a robot, has her brain put in a jar? Something crazy, I don’t know. That’s not my business. Either way, everything works out in my favor! I’m playing 4D chess here.”

Madeline was less than amused by the whole idea-idly watching her martini swish in its glass while she found the words. Her heavy eyelashes fluttered.

“This all sounds..kind of psychopathic?”

Ash blinked.

“Madeline, how long have we known eachother?”

“Since high school?”

“Is it JUST now occurring to you that I’m a terrible person?”

The other girl nodded in resigned acknowledgement. “No, no. It had occurred to me before, it’s just..Yeah, it’s weird to hear it put out in the open so bluntly.”

“Look, getting this girl..apprehended..by LlamTech isn’t my plan ‘A’. The main idea is to make me look good, and her look like an idiot. Make it to where she doesn’t want to elbow in on my territory ever again. I think it’s perfectly reasonable.”

“As reasonable as Ash Hamrick can be, I suppose.”