Ep.8 Riko Does Internet Dating.

Mistress Vania blamed the internet for so many things. It had overstimulated and softened the minds of her clients. Yet ignoring the internet was not the answer either. Virtually all of the world’s population were interacting with it one way or another.

She had come to the conclusion that most people use the internet to squander all of their spare time and a good deal of their work time besides.

Having discovered Roger’s full name – Roger Sky – she set Riko to work on the internet. After half an hour of pointing and clicking, Riko reported that because Roger was under thirty and single, his entire life was an open book as a result of social networking sites.

Mistress Vania scrolled through Roger’s page, viewing his profile, his likes and dislikes, messages posted to him from his friends, messages he posted to them, photographs he wanted to share, usually of him and his friends drunk at nightclubs. It was all very informative. Over the last five years, Roger had gone from slightly plump to properly fat. The gallery of photographs on his page chronicled this progression right up to the figure they had seen receiving a pizza the night before.

Finally, Riko presented to her mistress the dating website. The profile photograph was still the same, showing a much thinner Roger.

“He is looking for love,” said Mistress Vania, nodding.

“Honey-pot,” said Riko. “Say yes. Say yes. I will say to him: Dokushin desu. I am single.”

“It’s a poor position to put you in,” said Mistress Vania. “There are so many variables. So much could go wrong.”

Using a beautiful woman to entice men to a terrible fate was known colloquially as a honey pot. Riko had done this kind of work in the past, although not for Mistress Vania. Riko was perfectly suited to the task. Her small frame and delicate manner made her seem harmless. Men who had this impression of Riko sometimes found out they were very wrong. Notwithstanding Riko’s mostly latent capacity for cruel violence, the honey pot work was heavy on alluring and light on everything else the man was hoping to find.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

“If you drive a Lexus, you’re somebody,” said Brad Hooper, to an assembled group of well dressed, well fed people. “Everybody notices a Lexus.”

Amanda considered the story a puff piece and a sellout.

She walked around the car dealership showroom snapping photographs of people eating canapés and sipping budget sparkling wine.

Horace had been very clear. She was to cover the opening of Hapten-Shufti’s new Lexus dealership. The owner of the dealership, Brad Hooper, had signed up for three months of advertising. Therefore, on that basis, as Horace had explained, Mr. Hooper expected value for money.

Brad Hooper prided himself on being a super salesman. He was certainly good at selling himself. His tailored Italian suit and extravagant Swiss watch shouted money and success. Amanda had to admit, begrudgingly, that he was charming in an annoying sort of way. She had been told by a number of different people that he had been married four times. And further informed that, despite being a multiple divorcee, he still got on well with all of his previous wives. He had achieved the seemingly impossible goal of an amicable divorce – not  once, but three times.

Amanda thought the more generous the settlement, the more amicable it would be for them. Brad had money. It came to him in the form of property investments, car dealerships and a fleet of recreational deep ocean fishing boats.

A local celebrity jockey, Nick Dunn, had arrived to be the first person to purchase a new Lexus from the dealership. His vehicle was a very handsome, very large Lexus LS. In gun metal gray it was a nondescript vehicle in Amanda’s opinion. Yet the jockey was a local identity who was much admired for having won a significant horse race earlier that year.

Amanda noted that it was always the small men who chose the largest cars. Figuring this was the closest thing she could find to a story, she attempted to photograph him in his new car. From most angles all she could see was the top of his head. In the end, out of desperation, Amanda suggested that he stand in the back seat and put his body through the open sunroof.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

Riko drove the large rented truck down the motor way. With the vehicle loaded with everything she required it was heavy on the road. She had an articulated truck license, but it was not needed on this occasion. Everything had fitted into a smaller style truck – one that could be driven with a car license.

“Onaka ga sukimashita,” said Riko to herself. “I’m hungry.”

In her hurry to procure everything that was needed, she had forgotten to eat breakfast and then skipped lunch too.

A sign said she was three miles from Hapten-Shufti.

She had made good time and hoped that Mistress Vania would be pleased. Riko was extremely devoted to her mistress and would do anything within her power how to please her.

The house was an elegant sandstone dwelling built in the 1890s by a man who had owned a large local foundry. Having made his money in the manufacture of railway components he wished to make an unequivocal statement of his new prosperity. Through the years it had been modernized in a variety of ways. Newly renovated in the last few years, the real-estate agent described it as an ideal home, ready for someone to move straight in, with no work to be done.

However, Riko knew there was a lot of work to be done, albeit non-standard, if the house were to serve as a base for their new operations.

Mistress Vania Changes Jobs - Episode One: Raymond Speaks His Mind.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

Amanda always worked hard. She saw this as one of her best qualities. Even when the work was boring or tedious she applied herself fully.

Drawing on this for strength she surveyed the scene before her.

She would need courage.

Others might turn and run. She would be putting herself in harm’s way, but she was a journalist. Sometimes you cannot choose the news you covered.

Sometimes the news you covered is a regional dog show.

Amanda could see a fat man with a beard and jodhpurs arguing with a woman in her sixties.

“I ought to charge you twelve hundred dollars,” said the woman. “That’s how much I charge, for bitches to be serviced by Marko.”

Marko was an incredibly rare Pharos Hound with an incredibly small head. To Amanda it looked like a sand colored, out of proportion greyhound. Marko’s owner, the indomitable Ms. Smithton, was a woman with lipstick that has the consistency of Vaseline. Her lipstick was further ruined by her pipe smoking. With skin like driftwood and hair dyed the color of rust she was about as attractive as her out of proportion dog.

“Computer games are the new cinema,” said Roger, adjusting the microphone on his computer headset. “Seriously, I’m not the only person to have said it, but the cut scenes in Unreasonable Travesty 6, could have been a movie. I was there. I saw the comments in the forums. When it went on-line, people thought it was the trailer to a movie, not a game.” There were two distinctive characteristics that made Roger special, although he would never have guessed what they were. Roger was obese and lived in Hapten-Shufti. These two reasons alone substantially increased the chances of sudden and violent life changes. Yet Roger remained blissfully unaware of this new danger. Far from being worried, he was in the middle of an explanation to his friend Hank, outlining his theory that computer games would supplant Hollywood film. “If it doesn’t have a controller,” said Roger, pausing for effect. “Then it’s lame - period.” Hanks smiling face appeared in a video chat window on the computer screen. “They’ll never make a game that captures the badness of a great B-movie,” said Hank, not giving any ground in the argument. “The computer game industry is too slick. Indy games don’t do it either. They’re too aspirational.” “You have to be kidding me,” said Roger. “Indy games are more ironic than any B-movie you care to mention.” “Your argument is like your love life,” said Hank. “It’s full of crap. It just won’t stand up.” “I’ll have you know,” said Roger, cut by this last comment. “In two hours I leave to go on a date with an incredibly hot woman.” “Where did you meet her,” asked Hank, cautiously searching for the next opportunity to take down his friend another notch. “On-line,” said Roger vaguely. Hank smelt a rat.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

Horace had suggested that Amanda could fit her entire life into the trunk of her car. He had meant it as a throwaway line, but Amanda had to admit the truth of it. Everything she either needed or valued was now in her car. There was a slight overflow of items into the back seat, but it was all in there.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

“You can’t just blame everything on the internet,” said Amanda, sitting on the corner of her boss’ desk.

Her boss was the newspaper editor Horace Pratt. The Hanoverian cast of his face made him look like a ghostly visage from the nineteenth century. His waistcoat and red suspenders placed him firmly in his glory days of the nineteen-eighties. He smelt of coffee and cigarettes.

Amanda Frost was in her forty with shoulder length red hair. She dressed down, apart from her glasses with the expensive Italian frames. In her mind a preoccupation with fashion had no place in the life of a serious print journalist whose occupation was now steeped into her bones.  

She had always said: I’m not pretty enough for the television gigs. This was just as well, since no-one was knocking on her door, asking her to present the nightly news. Indeed, today was not about job offers. Quite the reverse, since it was the sudden lack of a job that occupied her mind.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest

“I blame the internet,” said Mistress Vania. “Then again you can say that about most things wrong with the world today.”

She was sitting in her salon with Raymond, her longtime acquaintance and client.

Raymond was a man in his seventies with thick grey hair and a tailored suit. For this age he had young teeth and young eyes. Yet the baggy folds of skin on his face showed every day of his seventy-three years.  His slight paunch was hidden by the cut of his clothes. Proof that paying more for the best tailor was money well spent.

Mistress Vania was in her mid forties, tall and regal in appearance. She had copious quantities of black hair, tied in an elaborate style of braids and plaits. Sitting in her leather chair she looked aristocratic. Like a Victorian oil painting portrait of some wealthy merchant’s wife. Mistress Vania was never casual, instead choosing to spend every moment drawing from a repertoire of deliberate poses.

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Vania-Changes-Scott-Baxter-ebook/dp/B00LPLIC6C

Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wet-by-rain/id1517187872

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WetByRain1

Those wanting to support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=36140272

Music by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

- Danse Macabre - Sad Part. - Greta String - Lone Harvest