A Post Opp's Devolution: Part 2 - Temp Job Offer

Jason had reentered the digitized opium trip that comprised the majority of his waking life, as soon as he got home he loaded up the most recent level, of his favorite virtual reality program, Sutra Samurai SwordXxx.
Basically you were attacked by wave after wave of ninjas while fucking a harem of geishas. Jason had been having simulated sex since he was 8 years old, at this point he really couldn't get off to anything other than fantasies of group sex with Asians, interrupted spontaneously with violence. There's just something about Asians!
Jason was digitally balls deep, having simulated doggy style sex with a geisha with comically large boobs when a ninja dropped next to him from the ceiling and swung a sword at his digital head. He barely ducked what could have been a decapitating blow and plunged the speer he had laid next to the buxom geisha into the gut of the ninja.
"You'll never escape..." The ninja said in a raspy voice, coughing up blood as he sunk to the floor.
"You so strong." the geisha memured, totally unconcerned by the recent assassination attempt.
Her dialog might be weak but she fucked like pornstar and the attention to detail was exquisite; from the jiggle of her breasts, the moans, her insatiability for weird positions, to the sweat forming on her curved back.
As Jason was about to climax a skinnier geisha who had given him a blowjob earlier reentered the scene... This could get interesting!
The skinnier geisha knelt down to kiss Jason but there was something wrong with her eyes... Her irises are too... Catlike... A shape shifter!
In one dramatic spinning movement she produced a dagger and slit Jason's digital throat just a moment after their lips had been intertwined. Bitch!
Jason's perspective in the game became disembodied as he rose above his character's digital body.
The skinny geisha let out a diabolical laugh and transformed into a sexy she-demon with translucent wings.
Just as he was about to restart the level a notification popped up.

TEMP JOB OFFER - STARTS NEXT WEEK
The Gulf Veteran's Foundation, is in need of an MC for their annual Poker tournament fundraiser. The original MC of the tournament was hurt in a car accident, your Moderator recommended you given your expertise with poker and public speaking, we thought it would be an excellent fit for your skill sets.

The event will last 4 days and will result in a recommendation to the courts for your social integration.

The compensation for the charity gig amounted to a few free meals but he really needed to start showing the courts that he was something other than a cyber criminal. The recommendation letter will make my criminal defense attorney a happy camper!

"I'm interested. What's the the specifics of the event?" He shot back a response in less than 5 minutes.

A few days later Jason was wearing a suit, on his way to the fund raiser sitting in the back of an auto taxi reviewing his notes...
If I can really nail my MC performance, it might be just what my Jewish pitbull of an defense attorney needs to get me out of the probation program completely. No more monitoring of my biosignals, no more being called an addict, no more Support meetings and no more damn Support payments!

The event was in a older part of town that was aging with very little grace; comprised of old warehouses, small dilapidated homes and a homeless shelter. As he emerged from the auto taxi at his destination he felt completely over dressed for the neighborhood.

The entrance to the venue, was a dive bar, where about 30 veterans were imbibing prior to the Poker tournament. There was a single woman in the bar, well past her prime yet trying to compensate for it with ample makeup and a low cut top, serving the drinks. She seems to be enjoying the attention!

Jason had arrived about 30 minutes early so he made it a point to mingle a little and introduce himself. Anything to make the letter of recommendation for the courts really beam!

The most animated characters in the bar were Jerry and Yuri, an odd pair. Jerry was a tall, yet very skinny black man wearing a faded leather jacket covered with military insignias. Yuri was also tall, wearing a similarly faded jacket, but with a bodacious beer belly pushing out over his belt and a completely hairless head, with the exception of full, thick eyebrows. The left side of his skull had an unsightly skin discoloration.

Jerry was energetically reminiscing about an adventurous, boozy night in Europe, once upon a time, the details of which Yuri was enthusiastically exaggerating, denying or elucidating upon. Jerry had a southern black man's accent, the kind comedians and impersonators like to fake. Yuri had a thick Eastern European accent to match his eyebrows.

Jason chuckled to himself, he couldn't help but think that, recounting this story was their schtick; a dual performer act that informed their spectators that these were men of a livelier time. I guess it's true; the older you get, the more adventuresome you were!

For the next four nights the veterans drank, smoked, swore and played poker till the wee hours. As the hours passed the booze flowed, the stench of cigarette and cigar smoke proliferated and the stories the old men traded grew in absurdity. The poker tournament was not particularly well organized and Jason had to volunteer as dealer a couple times.

The final night he presented a large fake check, to a wheelchair bound, purple heart bearing veteran. As he climbed off the stage he realized he wasn't getting any feeds or notifications via his Link, he tried to run a diagnostic app to troubleshoot the problem but it failed to even launch. Must be problem with the actual hardware! He was disconnected.

Jason didn't mind that much though, the remainder of his time here would be best served socializing.
Last night to smooze them up for a really golden recommendation letter!

"Jason you enjoy cigars." Yuri asked while blasting Jason with his Whiskey soaked breath.
Jason had started to enjoy the company of the veterans, and their stories of dubious veracity.
"Yes I do actually."

After a few hearty handshakes and promises of a rematch, Jason, Yuri, Jerry and few of the vets left together. The cigar bar was attached to a cosmopolitan pedestrian mall in a better neighborhood a short auto taxi ride away.

As Jason was about to sit down at a table on the patio with his geriatric smoking partners, a figure entered his peripheral vision and Déjà vu hit him like a ton of bricks.
It was the Latina with the dangerous curves from the elevator in the Support building!
Holy shit I'm glad I'm so glad my Link isn't connected... My biosigns would be off the charts right now!
She made eye contact for a moment, and confidently walked right past him.
That's weird! Did she not recognize me from the elevator just a few days ago?

Jerry caught Jason gawking longingly after her departing curves, contained by a utilitarian yet fashionable dress.
"Talk to her!" Jerry goaded him on.
"I have no idea what to say..."
"Just ask her if you can say something to her really quickly and then tell her that her skirt looks great and that she looks latina, that's it, then shut up."
"But that's a totally violation of her privacy..."
"Boy you're a damn fool if you don't go talk to the girl! Don't make me tell you twice young man!"
Approaching a random woman on the street will surely result in a hashtag complaining about a violation of privacy, but no one will ever know it's me since my Link is down...

Jason began a trotting after her, his hormones began to rush through his veins in a way they rarely did, as he closed the distance time seemed to slow down, and he notice how endearingly feminine she was; how her watch strap matched the color of her anklet, the way her pantheresque dark hair, hanging all the way down to the small of her back, swayed back and forth. Despite wearing uncomfortable looking, yet not quite gaudy, high heels (the same color as her purse) she was walking in long confident strides over the pockmarked and uneven sidewalk.
I can't believe I'm about to do this! God, I hope she's not a hooker!
He reached out and tapped her elbow with two fingers, she stopped and gave him a quizzical, yet surprisingly confident look.
"Uhm, I'm sorry to bother you..." He fumbled over his words "Can I say something really quickly too you?"
"Yes." Her accent was exotic, intoxicating, musical and sweet all at the same time, with one word she excited him more than 8 sim strippers in a science fiction inspired digital strip club had recently.
"I realize we met before that one time in the elevator..." Damn that isn't true! I just avoided eye contact in the elevator "...But I just saw you again just now and I thought your skirt looked really nice. Uhm, very fashionable."
"Thank you but I never meet you before." She failed to make the 'th' sound in her surprisingly sincere 'Thank you'.
"But I remember you from Federal building, last Wedsday."
"No I arrive yesterday. Maybe you meet my sister, she is very popular."
The girl in the elevator was identical... Maybe she's fucking with me!
"I could swear we met in an elevator downtown near the aquarium."
"I understand that because..." she seemed to search for the words in her obviously limited English vocabulary "...my twin sister live near the aquarium."
A twin! Could there actually be two of these majestic creatures?
"You have a twin! Really?"
"Yes, I living with her in this country."
"OK... You look latin, where are you from?" Jason asked as Jerry had suggested
"Colombia." Her accent went deep and sultry and her eyes intensified as she named the South American country he'd never been too. A bunch of stereotypes of drug dealers, poverty, guerrilla violence and civil wars popped into Jason's head.
Damn I gotta say something nice about where she's from...
"Uhm... I love coffee from Colombia! I wish I had some this morning. Are you a coffee farmer's daughter?"
Such a stupid joke, I'm done!
To his surprise, her face lit up, she laughed, closed the distance between them and lightly touched his forearm.
"No! My dad is a..." she searched for the words again "psycholohista."
"A psychologist?"
"Yes, he is a Psychologist in a town. I bring some coffee from home and I make you the best coffee, after you try my coffee, you not going to be drinking Starbucks!"
Did she just ask me out on a date?
"Really? Ok! Where?"
"You know the park by the aquarium? With the water..." She gestured toward the sky
"Water Fountain Park, at the benches, yes!"
"I will need your number to text you and we schedule it."
"I don't have phone number yet in this country but I meet you tomorrow at the benches in the park. What time you want to meet?"
"Uhm... In the afternoon, how about two O'Clock?"
"Superrrr!" She purred out with a deep, sultry, rolling latin R that came from deep within her.
"Uhm... I'm Jason. What is your name?"
"Astrid. Encantada."
Jason had completely ran out of things to say... It was time to eject.
"Ok so we are meeting tomorrow, for sure, at two O'Clock in the park?"
"Yes we see each other then." With that, she closed the distance further and kissed him on the cheek.

What luck I have! The most beautiful girl I've seen in ages just so happens to have an identical twin who wants to make me coffee. I can't believe how easy that was! Instead of reporting me for violating her privacy, she asked me on a date!

Jason sauntered back over to the table with a new found swagger and heartily shook the hands of the Yuri and Jerry.
"I've never done that before! It was such a rush! I can't believe she wasn't offended! I'm meeting her tomorrow."

The veterans were quick to steal the thunder of the moment by launching into unbelievable tales of their past sexual conquests. Jason's self monitoring pessimism began to kick in...
Oh no... Maybe she is a prostitute! And not just a cheap whore but a professional who hooks high paying clients with her innocent little 'Let me make coffee from my homeland for you' act and then empties their bank accounts. What interest would a beautiful girl like that EVER have in a Post Opp like me other than my money...?

As Jason was about to tip back another whiskey, his peripheral vision lit up like a Christmas wreath with Link notifications
My Link! It's connected now! Oh shit, it will read my arousal biosigns tomorrow and report them to Support!

"Fuck my Link just connected. I have to cancel my date with her tomorrow!"
"What in damnation are you talking about young man?"
"I'm on probation, my Moderator monitors my biosigns for arousal. If I go on a date with her I'm going to be very aroused. I already got in trouble with my moderator about violating the privacy of women."
To which veterans espoused outrage, about his court ordered biological prohibition, more more impassioned than Jason himself ever had.
What these old men don't get is that the Link is worth it. Digital godhood and perpetual novelty is worth trading a little of one's freedom and biological imperative.
"When I was a young cat myself, chasing skirts, I could not believe the damn bullshit I had to deal with. Now a days, you young cats doing the same thing men been doing forever, gotta deal with with some next level bullshit we never woulda imagined! Biosign monitoring!" Jerry ranted
"Yuri here will give you something to calm your nerves real good for your date tomorrow." One of the veteran's suggested in a low tone with a gleam of trouble in his eyes.
"Really what's it called?"
"Phenibut" Yuri murmured followed by billowing a cloud cigar smoke.