Work Text:
FADE IN:
INT. MOVIE SET - NIGHT? DAY? WE CAN'T TELL. TIME IS MEANINGLESS HERE.
TONI is sitting high-up on a director's chair. She's wearing jodhpurs and ballet flats, a white silk shirt. She's screaming through a megaphone:
TONI
MORE TONGUE, DARLING!
MARIAH, dressed in sporty wrestling gear, is straddling DEONNA, who is nude, disheveled, and tied to a chair. They're on a white backdrop, their feet leaving scuffs on the paper.
MARIAH
You heard her.
In the back corner of the set, LUTHER hulks silently behind a movie camera. A boom drifts in and out of shot, held by uncertain and unseen hands.
Deonna is wondering, distantly, how she got here. Maybe it's a dream. Maybe she can teleport - Tony Schiavone can do it, maybe she can too.
MARIAH (CONT'D)
(sexily)
C'mon baby, open up for me.
Deonna rolls her eyes and keeps her mouth shut. Mariah keeps kissing her, little strategic attacks around her face and neck.
TONI
YOU'RE NOT FOLLOWING THE SCRIPT.
DEONNA
Fuck your script.
"Fuck your script," Deonna says. "And fuck whatever this is. I don't care if you're a champion, you can't just kidnap people and do - whatever - to them."
TONI
THE BOYS HAVE THEIR SORDID LITTLE LOCKER-ROOM TRYSTS. US WOMEN HAVE SOMETHING ALTOGETHER MORE IMPORTANT - WE HAVE ART.
Deonna jerks against the ropes, trying not to panic.
"Just go with it," Mariah says. A little like she's scared, a little like she's bought into this, like this is a normal thing to want to be doing.
Toni clambers down from her chair and stalks over, fuming. Mariah bends to her like a reed before the wind. Her face screws up as Toni pulls her hand back for a slap, and then her face falls as Toni doesn't follow through.
(Mariah wants Toni and wants to be her and wants to be loved by her: she is settling for this.)
Toni returns to her chair and lifts the megaphone back to her lips.
TONI
AGAIN. FROM THE TOP.
Mariah puts her palms flat on Deonna's shoulders, then inches them down, fitting Deonna's breasts in her palms and massaging.
"It's ok," she whispers.
She's surprisingly heavy in Deonna's lap. She grinds and squirms and looks back at Toni, who makes a shooing motion.
"You're doing great," she whispers. "You're doing such a good job. You're so pretty, you know that?" She dips her head to bite at the soft spot between Deonna's neck and shoulder, then licks at the sweat on her throat.
"I'll kill you," Deonna says. "Untie me and let me kill you."
TONI
AND THEN WHERE WOULD WE BE? WHO ARE YOU WITHOUT ME? JUST A GIRL FROM NEW JERSEY WHO KNOWS A FEW MOVES. I CAN FIND A DOZEN OF YOU IN ANY BAR WITH A PABST SIGN IN THE WINDOW. AND WHO AM I?
Mariah starts to breathe harder, her hips moving more insistently against Deonna. Her hands dig into her sides, at the slight swells of fat squeezed by the ropes. "Tell me," she says.
TONI
I AM A STAR. I AM A CHAMPION. AND YOU NEED ME TO MAKE YOU REAL.
Against her better judgement, Deonna is more than slightly turned on. Maybe something to do about the way Mariah is working at her nipple with her mouth like she thinks she can nurse Toni's approval out of it. She shifts, muscles straining against the rope, against the weird, warm presence of Mariah. Her cunt starts to ache.
TONI (CONT'D)
(a little breathlessly)
PUT YOUR HAND BETWEEN HER LEGS. YES, LIKE THAT.
She puts the megaphone down and bites her lip.
Like that. Mariah lifts her hips and spreads Deonna's thighs, slips three fingers inside her, thumb rubbing her clit. Deonna moans, eyes straight ahead, trying to forget about Luther in the corner. The tick and rattle of the film reel, the lights shining down bright. Mariah's eye-black and lipstick smearing.
"Untie me," Deonna says again. "And let me touch you."
Mariah looks to Toni with pleading eyes; Toni huffs, and gestures for Luther to come. He grins wolfishly as he frees Deonna's arms. He leaves her legs and belly tied up and pats her condescendingly on the head.
He drops the removed rope to the floor. Deonna watches it with the feeling that it's somehow imbued with mystical power. Mariah gently takes her by the chin and tilts her head up, coaxing her, kissing her deeply, one hand back inside her and the other cupping the back of her head. Deonna embraces her.
She's never done this. She can do this. She feels Mariah's muscles moving in her back, her biceps. Can hear the little mewls and moans she's making. Deonna kisses her deeper, bucks her hips as much as she can, Mariah's fingers crooking and her thumb still insistent on her clit. She can do this. She pulls her mouth away, and counts to three, and throws herself -
Her shoulder takes the brunt of it, the chair cracking but not breaking as it hits the ground. Mariah stumbles back. The boom mic crashes down.
TONI
CUT!
She flings her megaphone and a clapperboard into the pile. From somewhere behind them, Luther tosses a film reel for good measure, the film unspooling and landing around Deonna like party streamers.
Mariah falls to her knees beside her, stage-whispering. "Why'd you do that? We were so close! You don't get it! You stupid bitch!" From this angle, Deonna can just see the tears pricking her eyes.
Toni snaps her fingers - Luther swoops in and lifts her off the chair - she makes a whipping motion and clicks her tongue. He carries her over to where Deonna is trying and failing to Houdini her way out of the restraints.
TONI
I knew that would happen. You think I didn't know? You think I don't know you? Pathetic.
She spits, the glob landing on Deonna's face and trailing down. Luther carries her away, turning back once to stick his tongue out at her.
Mariah kicks Deonna in the gut, and then frowns half-sympathetically, like I'm sorry, I guess! Whatever! and mists her with a can of...something, that she pulls out of God knows where, then runs after them. Her hand still wet with Deonna's come.
Deonna's focus blurs and eyelids grow heavy. The room tilts and drifts away to nothing. "That's a wrap," she says to herself, and closes her eyes.
She comes to in her dressing room. A little sore but otherwise unscathed. Fully-dressed, even. There's a USB drive in her pocket labeled BEHIND THE WHITE DOOR. She's, somehow, still a little aroused. She looks at the drive, and over at her laptop, and back to the drive. She shrugs, and shoves it into the port.