June & April

These two are like the inseparable pair, yet can't seem to stand each other sometimes. And I just got tired of thinking up names, so June & April it is, like the months. I guess that's not really their real names, but only their hostess name in PBCourt. So what kinda people end up as hostesses in nightclubs you think. All sorts really, but mostly for the same reason. Fast cash. S'just that once you start, you can't stop because of the quality of life there beats flipping burgers or walking the streets. Imagine, all the pretty shiny things you get to wear, all the cosmetics you need, all the girlfriends you ever want (platonic or non-platonic). Then there's the partying and the protection of patrons that come to be fond of you. So everybody started hostessing somewhere, whether to make the extra cash or to pay off debts. Then when all that's in hand, when there's no other reason to continue, they just realise it's too much of a waste to quit. The glitzy glamorous hedonism gets to you, esp when you're young.

And then there's the Madame. Some girls stay just to be with her, when they could just walk out and get normal respectable daytime jobs. I think it's easier to cultivate blind loyalty to a person of the same sex rather than to the opposite. I can understand the maternal role the Madame plays to her girls. Especially for those who've stayed the longest, they would even lay down lives for her because there's nothing to lose. And then there's the lesbianism. It occured to me that it's highly probable that the Madame plays the part of the lover and the mother. Few girls can resist that.

But not that the Madame's a lesbian. She's better off bisexual. A flexible sexual preference makes things much easier in the pleasure industry.

For this page, I scripted and rescripted it several times. Despite this, it completely took a different direction when I put in the dialogues. But if this is the direction the characters want to go, I'll just let them. June & April started off as the chirpy airhead pair that makes cliched innuendoes. They are randomly funny and is supposed to serve as comic relief. Then I realise no woman is going to be in the mood to play Laurel and Hardy when they spend 8 hours pretending to like being groped. Every single night.

So I let them speak for themselves. I want them to have deeper personalities, darker intentions and more despairing outlooks. Even if they're only appearing once in ROMB, I want people to remember them and wonder what happened to them as the story moves on with time. Maybe you'll get into these two more in the next page, and still like them all the same. And don't think you know what's going to happen next, cause you don't. I made sure of that. ;-)

Oh hell, I hate to tell a story where people know what's going to happen next.