Ursula chuckles along. Well, yeah, she hammed it, hasn't she.

"I don't know, Pete. I'm not a great actress, you see. So... only if I don't have to pretend," she says teasingly.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:47, Tue 30 Jan.

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 144):

"Well, I don't think any acting will be involved here. Now, show me the way to your room. That dress looks great on you - and it would look even better on the floor..."

He made a cheesy, very knowing grin.

Katya Sokolova rolled 23 using 1d30.  Unfamiliar with American culture (d30)*.

Ursula blinks twice, a little surprised.

"But I know the way to my room. I have been there, you haven't, right? Why would you show me the way to my room? And I don't want a wrinkled dress, thank you very much, I'm going to hang it on a hanger like normal people do," she says in a very reasonable, very German tone.

Then she looks him up and down, and then in the eye, very seriously.

"I have never had sex with a Black man. Would you like to have sex with me?" she offers politely.

Ursula screwing up American customs is the best fun xD
This message was last edited by the player at 11:15, Mon 05 Feb.

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 146):

Peter looked upset at the comment.

"I'm an airman in the US Air Force and an American. I would like to think that I'm more than just the colour of my skin," he said. "I would like to have sex with you, but not just so you can tick me off a list."

Ursula ponders that, German-serious, then nods in agreement.

"Ach so. I promise I won't tick you off," she says solemnly.

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 148):

"Well, that's fine. Don't worry, I brought protection for this. Show me to your room, Ursula. "

OOC: Skip to the next morning?

What, no rolling?

Sure let's go

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 150):

Katya and Peter went to the room and engaged in about forty-five minutes of you-know-what before the airman had to leave. He wrote down his telephone number on a motel notepad, kissed her goodbye and asked her to call him at some point.

Monday, June 12, 0800 Pacific Standard Time

Katya's alarm clock went off after a good night's sleep. The schedule for today was going to be some rehearsals at a local community hall.

Forty-five minutes would have been an insultingly short time for any lover Ursula might have taken outside of work; but working she was, and besides, Americans have always been known to be always in a hurry and having that weird obsession with time being money, so Ursula assumes it is not meant to be a slight. Some things were just better in Europe, and in those three quarters of an hour he acquitted himself quite well anyway.

Ursula stayed in bed, lighted up a cigarrette, smiled and made some noncommittal noise when he said to call him.

And she slept like a baby.

Monday, June 12, 0800 Pacific Standard Time

Ursula was never a fan of getting up early (and that was a perk of having a night shift dayjob, at least when she was not operational), but duty called. She showered and dressed up in the rehearsal outfit (unless it was too scandalous for street wear), grabbed some quick breakfast and headed for the community hall, curious to see how was Smalltown, USA, outside of a silver screen...

Ursula was offered a lift with the other ladies, but declined it on the grounds she wanted to see the town.

The rehearsal outfit was a blue minidress with buttons at the front that could be done or undone to the appropriate level. It was a twenty-five minute walk to the community hall, along sidewalks on the sides of wide roads, where cars went swooshing past. With the occasional horn toot and catcall.

The place wasn't very densely built-up; single-storey houses with big drives and small trees, with little shade from the California sun. It soon become apparent to Ursula that doing this walk in the height of summer might not be a good idea, although it would be fine for today - it was warm, but not excessively so.

OOC: Luck roll please

Katya Sokolova rolled 8 using 1d12.  Average luck: d12.

Ursula wasn't feeling particularly lucky. She persevered in her ill-advised walk, but soon she realized American towns were built differently: more like large sprawls of buildings thrown along roads, rather than European-style rows of houses on streets. Where were the cafés? The little boutiques, the delis, the bakers, the cute little churches? How could people live like this? They hadn't been boned in the war, right? So how come do much empty space? Somehow American towns in reality felt more fake than American towns in movies: fragmented, inarticulated, like the whole country was a vacant film lot, all attrezzo and stage-dressing, no actual life occurring there. The smoking ruins of Katya's childhood, before she became Ursula, held more life than the immaculate, untouched, virgin emptiness of suburban America.

And a long hot walk did not do much to enhance miss Lang's mood or outlook. She didn't mind the dress, which was something she could have worn on a Sunday in town, but the high heels were not the best for such a trek...

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 154):

As she was walking along, vehicles were driving past her in both directions. After a couple of minutes, one of them slowed down and came to a stop just in front of her.

She quickly realised it is a police car from the Santa Barbara County sheriff's department. A man dressed in a light brown shirt and green-brown trousers got out of the passenger side. He had brown hair and was wearing sunglasses.

"Good morning, ma'am," he said. "We've had a report of someone engaging in solicitation round here."

Ursula was already giving him a smile and a wiggle of fingers when her smile became a hard-edged thing.

"Good morning, officer. I'm afraid I can't help you with that, I haven't seen anyone soliciting. I'm going to the community hall for a film rehearsal, would you mind giving me a lift?" she said politely but firmly, most unlike a hooker would.

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 156):

OOC: Luck roll please.

Katya Sokolova rolled 10 using 1d12.


There are more stats than luck, you know.

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 158):

OOC: Sorry, you're quite right. What do you want to roll?

I mean don't take it the wrong way, but if you go to the dice roler, 90% of rolls are Luck?

For this particular situation, idk, Actress? Swindler? She's just telling the truth, so?

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 160):

OOC: You're quite right. I'll try to use Luck less.

"Sure, hop in," the officer said, moving to open the rear driver's side door for Katya to get in. A short drive later and they arrived outside a medium-sized hall, where Jenny was standing with the other female cast members.

"Door's locked," Jenny said, looking confused. "The director and the others were supposed to show up twenty minutes ago, but I don't know where they are. None of us have the keys to get in and we're not going to force the door."

"What's the name of the director?" the officer asked.

"Donald Carrington."

The officer's face gave a gesture of realisation and then slight sympathy. "You might have a problem making your movie. Carrington's just had a case filed against him in small claims court for non-payment on location rental in the spring. Hopefully it will get sorted out, though."

At that point, two cars turned the corner and parked up. The director got out and looked sheepish, along with some crew members. "Sorry I'm late. Had to change a tire."
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:01, Sat 02 Mar.

Ursula does her best to sit cross-legged in some way that doesn't get arrested for indecent exposure (one close brush with the overzealous American police is quite enough) and makes small talk until they arrive at their destination.

The news about Carrington don't sound too encouraging either. Ursula Lang might be worried about the implications for her acting career, but Katya Sokolova isn't all that concerned, as long as she still has a cover story for being there and taking an interest in Vanderburg.

But it's harder to skim from a production that's not even making rent.

"A wheel isn't the only thing changing around here," she remarks, strutting over and turning towards her fellow actresses. "The handsome officer over here says we might not get paid. So we, the talent, refuse to work until we're given half in advance," she adds firmly, in her most convincing Bolshie-in-a-minidress tone, holding Carringtons gaze.

Katya Sokolova rolled 3 using 1d8.  Skillful swindler (d8)*.

"So, we're going on strike?" Jenny said. "Sounds good to me. Not my first time on a picket line either. Perhaps we could make some signs."

Donald Carrington walked over, pulling some keys out of a jacket pocket and unlocking the door to the hall. He was an old man with a thin grey beard and thinning grey hair on top. He was dressed in a cream jacket, slacks and a loud Hawaiian shirt, carrying a large brown carpet bag.

"Follow me, girls," he said with a grin that was perhaps a bit too earnest. "We've got a bunch of stuff to do and not much time to do it."

Ursula crosses her arms and stands her ground.

"Is that bag filled with cold, hard cash, Mr. Carrington? Otherwise, we are not following you anywhere," she says resolutely.

In reply to Katya Sokolova (msg # 164):

Carrington looked rather confused at this and then turned slightly angry.

"I'm sorry, can you please explain what you mean by the comment, Ursula? Because I get the feeling there is part of the conversation that I missed."

The others moved towards him.

"We want our money," Viktoria said firmly. "Or we don't work."

Carrington snorted. "You get paid when the film is completed, not before. That's the way most jobs work, sweetcheeks."

Ursula doesn't move an inch.

"The police says you haven't been paying the locations you rent. You're not going to pull that one on us. That's why we get paid in advance or we don't work. And I'm not seeing any money... so come, girls, we get back to the motel, looks like we're taking the day off."

She gestures to the others to follow and starts walking away.

"You wanna make that movie, you start taking your talent seriously, sweetcheeks."

Carrington stared at her, thinking about whether he was going to call her bluff.

OOC: Dealing with criminals roll, please.

Ursula holds his gaze, a look of challenge in her eyes. She can afford to not work in the movie, since it's just a cover story to her.

Katya Sokolova rolled 3 using 1d10.  Used to dealing with criminals (1d10).

Thank you, that was very neat :)