Insert Cop Joke here

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan felt herself becoming comfortable around Mona. Which was odd, considering how Mona waltz in here like she owned the entire school yard. She gave a soft laugh, leaning back while holding her thermos of coffee “Yeah, I guess we do all have our moments, heh!”

She grabbed her second donut, biting into it “That said, still worrying. You hear those stories of how stupid shit someone does in high school loses them jobs. And uh. Getting easily drunk? Not great qualities for law enforcement!” She gave a nervous chuckle.

[Cicada]

"Yeaaaah, we all do. I have some war stories."

"Stella you're beeeeeing weeeeird again."
Oooh. So Stella's goons were actually people with their own brains? Not just puppets with her hands stuffed up their asses? No way someone who was just a chatbot programmed by Miss Social Experiment but with Plausible Deniability would have let it slip that one of the bullets had nicked an artery.

Mona hadn't even really bothered to aim. A glance over at the other table. Stella looked as carved out of rock as always (Mona barely knew about her, so not like she had a large sample size). Mona smiled the most half-assed of pretend sympathy smiles— barely any lip, no teeth, no eyes— and then looked back to her table mate.

"Eh, I've never been too worried about that kind of thingnot like I'm gonna get a normal job lol. I think employers are gonna look for, like, criminal records and stuff. Not cringe drinking pics."

"Long as you prove you're good for it, right? I kiiiind of doubt you have a criminal record."

[Kermit]

Stella reached across the table, grabbed one of Kraig's Neeeew Yoooooooork fries, graceful movement; the guy either didn't notice or didn't care. Held the thing between her fingers like a cigarette, loose.

Leaned forward in Ingrid's direction, elbow on the table, right hand holding up her own cheek, choreography of a film noir. Expression like one of De Lempicka's; sleepy, mournful, and Kubrickesque.

Gazed, slowly, sideways at Mona. Deliberate, eye contact.

Parted her lips, placed the fry between her front teeth, sheared it in two.

And, lips closed.

Tapped her fingernail twice against the side of the half left unchewed, ground out the ash.

Ingrid watched. This time, kept in her own goddamned lane.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan gave a soft smile, bashful while wiping wya the crumbs and jelly from her lips “Yeah, y-you’re right, plus, ain’t like some cops don’t like drinking from time to time.” She places her hand on her badge, adjusting it and chuckling “My daddy sure enjoyed a few cans from time to time, haha!”

wow, did I really just made a joke on my dad? Was I moving on too quickly?

Meghan takes a slow sip of her now lukewarm coffee, lying back as she let the nice breeze hit her face “Eh, guess some jitters is all. The Dream seems so close but so far you know? Scared any minor screw up is gonna come back and haunt me.”

[Cicada]

"Those who work forces," Mona hummed sing song. "Also burn ganja."

Mona had to admit that the wearing the badge thing at all times was kind of peak. Brave, in the face of half the school wanting to casually toss Meggy into a burning police station (Mona had no particular stance on any of that. Sure, fuck cops, but also imagine thinking working class minorities in aggregate actually wanted cops gone outright. Mona had lived in a dingy part of LA for half her life, she knew what was up on the streets. ACAB was ultimately a white people thing, simple as. Many such cases). And Mona respected bravery. She did not respect Meggy overall, like, LOL, imagine unironically liking your peers. Still. Talking to her was chill and she seemed to have a good heart buried under her ribs localized entierly to her chest.

"Your dad must have been a good man." He'd... passed, right? Someone had mentioned it to her, in a previous life where Mona had still not been thought of as a loser and laughing stock and creep by half the schoolwhen things had felt truly okay. Maybe it had been Manny who'd brought it up. "I'm sorry for your loss." In so far as Mona could ever feel sorry for anyone or anythingmaybe in another life, away from school.

This whole time she'd been side-eying Stella doing her best impression of a live art exhibition. Mona would happily admit that Stella had unbreakable poise. Reminded her of some of the best cosplayers Mona had worked with thus far in her career (and yes, to be clear, the best cosplayers were also all the most insane and fucked up. The most drugs the most drama the most hating each other behind their plastic smiles. Fucking GOALS right there).

Honestly, thinking about it... Mona was reminded of a principle that had come up in her research (not school research just shit for fun, hah, she did not put in any effort at all into knowing things for school). Peak shift (emphasis on PEAK), a phenomenon describing how humans and animals alike reacted more strongly to exaggerated stimuli. A more buxom woman produced a more intense neural signal, all things equal. A picture with sharper angles, bigger shapes, more riotous colors, so on. Maximalism. Just like how Stella carried herself to an intense degree. She was playing a part bigger than herself, to signal to people, to call them to her.

That was to say, that underneath all the obsession with aesthetics...










And yes, this all applied to Mona too. She knew what she was in the dark. She just wondered if Stella did. If there was something there, a living breathing prisoner under the bars. As opposed to a corpse long dessicated awayas opposed to just malnourished and dying- that was Mona's schtick. Don't steal it from her.

Solidarity, or something. Also, Stella had started it. Also also Mona was bored.

"Hm. You think Stella might be interested in giving her opinion on all this? She was going to a good school, I heard. She might know better than us."

Meggy seemed a bit shocked. But she agreed, with a smile and a nod. Ah, friendshipwhat was that?.

And they were getting up, Mona had already been getting up because her mind had been made up. Five bullets. All of them for herself. Collateral more than welcome. She hoped one of them beaned Manny right in his babymakers.

Mona introduced herself upon sitting down with an easy smile, teeth, the halo of her eyeshadow briefly taller.

"Assuming you guys heard some of our conversation, right? Just wanted to get a couple more thoughts from the crowd."

[Kermit]

Wow, see, Ingrid? Stella wasn't making a worse fool of herself than Aubrey Plaza at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards. She was communicating with like Meggy and Mona, actually.

Rest of the table went silent as soon as Marroquin sat down, 'specially the boys. Automatic, like they'd learned someone'd just shot a Kennedy.

"Heyyyy Megggyyyy." Stella said. Sliced through the bad vibes, ran her way through the naturalistic I'm-glad-to-see-you-greeting body language checklist, you know what it's supposed to look like, whatever.

Turned her head to the left.

"Mona." She added, because okaaaay Mona was like literally right there. Scorpion meets frog.

And back to Meggy, still standing.

"Go aheeaad." Nodded, subtle.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meggy looked awkward as she gave her signature smile and high pitch giggle “Uhh, hey Stella! Nice to meet ya’ again! Didn’t really notice you were out here!”

Meggy shoved another piece of jelly donut in her mouth. Mostly to stop herself from running her mouth.

[Cicada]

Speak no evil, hm?

"Yeah," and here Mona, infinitely traversed in the ways of forcing conversations between people far more awkward than the police brutality heiress could be at her very worst (bodypillow enjoyers, fujoshis, MtG enjoyers, so on) gently spoke up. Bouncy and chipper went her inflection, "Meggy and I were talking about career prospects, how partying and drinking at our age might affect 'em. Seemed like a conversation y'all might have some thoughts on."

No insinuations, honest! Whatever the sportsball shaped cutouts got up to in their free time, Mona had done it and worsevirgin puking from alcohol vs chad puking from a ketamine line.

"Cheer's heading to nationals next month, right?" She split her attention between the two non-Meggy girls at the table regardless of how much they tried to dodge it. "Good luck to both of ya." Who wouldn't recognize core cheer team girl Stella Nyquist and... uh... seriously, who was the other girl?

"Go Rattlers!" Little rah rah pom poms with her hands. That was the school's team, right?

[Kermit]

Stella shifted her body to face Me&Mo. Left the half-fry on the table, checked her nails real quick.

"Oh, no. Noo. Thank you, though." Direct statement to Mona, casual. Shook her head, "But no, the competitive scene's actually crazy."

"Most of us wouldn't be able to afford it," Ingrid said, thank you for the redwashing.

Stella glanced sideways at the other cheerleader. "It's un-hiiiinged," she added. Wasn't really sure how true Ingrid's thing was -- Stella had enough money, knew how to get what she wanted, would've gone competitive just to prove she was good enough. "It's vertically integrated all the way down. Like, including the regulatory boards."

"Cartel business model." Ingrid said.

"Mhm." Stella nodded.

Looked over her shoulder at Robert and Kraig. They'd tuned out at the word "cheer", gone back to their conversation about cars or Tarantino or whatever.

Couple seconds of silence.

Looked back over at Meggy.

Leaned forward, elbow as the fulcrum. Eyes flicked down for a second.

"I guess... my advice is," serious tone, subtler, quieter, "well, you knowww, you're going into a male-dominated field. So, if you want to actually make a career... any social vulnerability like that, anything that could make you seem less credible? It can and will be held against you."

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan took in the advice, frowning before she sighs and tots a sip of her coffee “Yeah uh, I guess I gotta lay off my alcohol sometimes if I wanna make it into the academy.” She then did a small giggle “Hey, not my fault you buy such great booze at your parties, you know?”

Now watch as Meggy attempts to adapt to the wrench thrown in her eating plans the best way her species knows: awkward humor.

[Cicada]

Mona peeped the nails, reflex. Ghost grey with the black flower art.

"Aren't all competitive sports fucked up, low key?" Mona's poise became a bit of a slouch, legs slightly spread so she could cling onto the bench with all fingers. Kept her from falling backwards as she let herself be hunched into a lazy shape by gravity. She was getting kinda comfortable, to be honest. Awkward person struggling to speak, high and mighty duchess of all she surveyed. It really was an anime convention with less stepsand infinitely more sympathetic characters. Did she... unironically... kind of like Stellashe did in the same way girls like girls in their lane, smiles and seethium behind the lips?

Maybe it was just jealousy of how hard she served. Like she'd ever ever admit that out loud.

"But noted. Guess your coach hasn't given the speech to JV yet." Jimena had been talking up nationals at like, every dinner since she'd passed tryouts. Watching them, learning from them, being in them someday. God, that girl was going to be the Stella of the class of '28. Heaven forbid Mona have to kill her own blood for being a giga normie.

"Or coach told them and it's just falling on deaf ears. Arrogance of a freshman girl." A shrug and soft eyes for the briefest moment. "Thanks for the heads up. I mean it." Very important clarification.

She briefly considered the men at the table. Yeah, figured they tuned out when the talk wasn't convenient for them to listen to.

"Shout outs to Stella for making sure her girls drink top shelf." Mona raised an air toast with her free hand. Took it to the face.

"Anyways. Yeah, as someone who has to deal with creeps on the regularwhy was this the life she'd chosen it's like. Give them any power at all over you and you will never fucking get rid of them." She could read the mood. While her voice remained bouyant (shout out Kana Hanazawa her 'did this girl huff helium instead of morning coffee' voice model) she no longer spoke with a smilememories of her own less than pleasant encounters with men to the fore. No lips, no eyes.

"Social media can be scrubbed. Your superiors won't do their research too extensively. Not like they're feds."

[Kermit]

...Oh, Meggy really was that naïve, wasn't she?

Poor girl.

Mood: killed.

Stella took another bite of her sandwich, bristled a bit as she swallowed. The cheeses were each a different temperature, hadn't melted together evenly -- white cheddar fusing with the bread more so than anything else. Felt unnatural in her throat. Swallowed again.

Booze selection hadn't been her choice -- friend of a friend'd bought it all. But thanks for the sentiment.

"Mmmm, I mean, they and the feds subcontract to the same people for that stuff. Once information is out there, it's like, it's out there. Only thing that destroys it is time."

Voice and expression Stella-esque, eyes dead and unfocused, her gaze drifted back to Mona.

Parted her lips slightly like she was about to say something. Closed them.

Pursed her lips, twisted them to the side.

Tried again.

"You don't always get a choice. Because it is, like, they wouldn't be doing it in the first place if they didn't already have power over you. I mean, like, structurally. It's always about power and control, they don't really differentiate between fear and respect."

Which was, of course, a problem you found in most real-world applications of operant conditioning.

Paused, checked over her shoulder to see if Kraig and Robert were paying any attention. They weren't.

Good.

"They process we exist separate from their worldview, separate from their attempts to validate their eidolon of us. And that threatens their sense of self. I just think it's interesting."

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan felt that hit a bit of a nerve. She liked to believe she grew a thick skin over the years. Wearing the badge of her police man father and her very vocal career plans in the very politically charged world of 2025 forced her to be that. She needed to have any snide comments (and horrible troll comments on her memorial pages) roll off her. like water off a duck's back. And besides, she has to admit and acknowledge the genuine issues with police corruption, including the authority held by others. She didn't disagree with what Stella implied there.

But, for some inexplicable reason, Meggy felt herself growing defensive. Perhaps due to pride, maybe in part due to feeling insulted and genuinely believing Stella was talking crazy. She didn't quiet know. She scoffed a bit, a hint of annoyance in her voice before trying to mitigate it with a hapless, strained laugh as she bit her donut. But her pesky mouth.

"I mean, that's a bit overzealous huh? They're the LVMPD, it's not like they're the NKVD or the Guardia Civil or the Gestapo."

[Cicada]

Manuel had stolen two years of this from her. Hating girls to their faces instead of behind their backs. The simpler, finer things in life. Or maybe she'd stolen it from herself. Or maybe she didn't even hate them. Maybe she wanted to be hated because it was better than being nothing, than being a blur of motion in the halls that was gone before the details registered.

She glanced at the guys again. Bro, who cared about carsand why did she even bother listening? Was she that 'listen to the guy because they might subscribe' pilled?

"Semantic image. They see us as the concept of a woman moreso than we are individuals." Easier to dehumanize something that was a collection of images and adjectives rather than living and breathing.

Mona was pretty sure the conversation was diverging in multiple directions. Did Stella have burner accounts? A glowie like her definitely did. She entertained the brief thought of what a Stella troll posting one of Meggy's cringe 'serving the community and the troops' posts would look like.

"If police have a sense of self it's perpendicular to the primacy of self-preservation. There and not. As individuals and/or as an organization. Interesting, maaaaybe."

She turned her attention across the table, past Stella. Eyes on... Ingrid? Ivy? No, Ivy was the one who wasn't thrown up in the air a lot.

Vibrant eyes, but focal point finding a horizon on the other side of Ingrid's face. Mona's lips welded shut with a wax seal of burnished burgundy perfectly applied until the individual wrinkles were almost totally paved over. New road fresh asphalt ahh smoothness.

Mona tried a moment of actual eye contact.

Ingrid shrugged with a throwaway smile, as calculated as a Stella-esque smile, the perfect amount of no effort at all. She was still there, at least. Mona's slouch deepened. She wondered if they'd be there long enough that her lunch that she'd barely intended to eat would go stale.

[Kermit]

Stella blinked once.

Mmm, well. Unexpected responses on both counts.

First off, Meggy.

"Diiiidn't mean to say they were. Like, I'm not Mortimerrrrr." Stella stated, simply. Like, Meggyyyy, you've seen how bougie her house is. "Just, like, literally they do have a squad that's specialized in AI, and it, like, collaborates with federal agencies. And it does have software that monitors social media."

Source cited: Gutierrez, Melissa, and Tom Christoff. 2024. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Fusion Watch. Addressing Crime through Innovative Technology. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Plus anyways, like, Meggy's superiors weren't the ones she was gonna have to worry about. But boys would be boys, boys could use Google, and deleting something from Insta didn't mean it was gone. Background check services were a $4.5 billion industry, you know? Didn't make that kind of money without being flexible about its intended uses.

Moving on. Mona.

Stella looked her straight in the eye. Smiled with her mouth closed.

Mona was an intriguing one.

"Next time you're near the Aria Hotel at night, you should check out the valet entrance. I think yooou'd find it interesting."