Conversation · Cindy the SKULL

"How would you like a job? I can get you one. A real job with a wage!"

"Fuck-a-doodle-doo!" She stifles an outburst of laughter. "And what job would that be? Cutting you into rashers?"

"The Whirling-in-Rags just lost one of its staff."

"Oh really?" Her eyes flash like stolen coins under moonlight. "Good to know. That makes even easier pickings."

"Is that all you've got, piggy? Looks like the job market has failed me once again." Wind howls between the nearby apartment blocks. "No job, no art. What a pity."

"You could work for me! Be a police officer."

"We have a policy that means we cannot hire any SKULL members onto the force."

"Me -- a brickman? I haven't got the snout necessary to snuffle around your filthy yard." She spits out her tongue.

"The guy who owns the pawnshop could probably find you some odd jobs to do."

"You think he'd allow me back into his store? No chance. Not unless he wanted to lose his stock all of a sudden."

(Point at Joyce.) "She could employ you. She works for the people who own the harbour."

She hisses at the boat rocking gently on the coastal waves. "She'd flay my skin. Wear me like a mink the first chance she got." A mad grin spreads across her face. "Unless I got to her first."

"I know the leader of the Union. Bet they need an extra hand around the docks."

"Oh, I know they need an extra hand. Especially after that cargo went mysteriously missing last week."

"Do you know something about that?" asks the lieutenant. His question goes ignored.

"You could work behind the counter at the local Frittte? Seems easy enough."

"I think you mean boring." She scowls. "Can't anyway. Technically, I'm banned. Not that it's ever stopped me getting my cigs."

What does she need? You don't have much to give her. Hmm, you could try offering her a job.

She's locked up tight. What does she want? Maybe it's as simple as asking her. But whine about it so she feels superior.

"Come on! Isn't there any other way I can prove myself worthy?"

"Squeal. Then maybe we can talk business."

"No way. Forget it." (Chicken out.)

"Awww, c'mon! I was just starting to have some fun."

(Turn to the lieutenant.) "Kim, you do it."

The lieutenant remains perfectly still except to give you a devastating case of side-eye.

Not in a million years.

"Not him -- you. I want you to squeal for me, pork chop."

(Squeal a moderate amount.) "Reeehk, reeehk!"

"Do I need to come over there and pull on your curly tail? Squeal already!" She grins with power.

(Squeal ignominiously.) "Reeehk! Reeehk! Reeehk!"

"Good little piglet," she says with words coated in butter.

(Squeal, but only a little.) "Reeeh."

"Come on! You really need to bring home the bacon." She chuckles.

"I met your friend Steban."

"I watched you go in, pig. You aren't telling me anything new."

"So did you two fancy each other?"

"I don't know how to put it, but I think we discovered something extra-physical together."

"Stop, pig. You're gonna make me heave..."

"Anyway, at least you convinced him to put up the posters. Good to see the old king covered in proper slogans. I saw one old bird nearly faint coming out of the Frittte."

"Anyway, I told him you'd never go in for the posters. Shame. I had some really good ones all planned out."

"Well, we got into a little physical altercation, but I think he got over it."

"At first I thought that was just Uli putting me on, but then I saw Steb's cheek. You gave him a right love tap." She seems to approve.

"He's a good comrade. Very advanced, ideologically speaking."

"God, you even talk the same now. Soon you'll be proofreading each other's homework..."

"Yeah, he's alright." (Shrug.)

"Heh. He was cooler before he started palling about with pigs..."

"You keep looking off to the side -- what are you looking at?"

She nods disdainfully toward the woman performing maintenance on the boat docked next to the pier.

Hatred? Disgust? It's difficult to tell which of the two is more present in her girlish features.

The woman on the boat does not notice her staring.

She hisses: "That Ozonne whore. Someone's gotta keep an eye on her."

"You mean Joyce?'

"On a first-name basis with her, are we? Piggy's moving up in the world."

"Why all the negativity?"

"Have you got a crush on her? Aching for an opportunity to defend her honour?"

"Hold on. What's Ozonne?"

"It's where they grow whores like her, and their whore men."

"Yeah, I don't like her either."

"Pig's not half as dumb as he looks." She gives you a stately nod of approval.

"Who is she?"