<strong>Marie, at the Bar, Smoothing a Few Ruffled Feathers with Selena and Dr. Mephiston, and Maximillian as well</strong><br/><br/>Marie smiled pleasantly as she noticed the fires starting to burn in Selena’s eyes.<em>Well, it appears someone decided to stake a claim on the good Doctor,</em>Marie thought. She let her hands slide gently away from Dr. Mephiston’s, placing them folded in her own lap instead. While guests were at the Dome, their happiness were far more important than her own. She was content to let Selena and Dr. Mephiston have their fun.<br/><br/><em>Besides, Dr. Mephiston seems to have a rather large appetite for pleasures of the flesh,</em>Marie thought.<em>I’m sure I may be sampling his delights before his stay at the Dome is over.</em><br/><br/>“I’ll leave you, then, to your conversation,” Marie said to Selena, Dr. Mephiston and their other companion - Daniel Vanderholt, she believed. “I have no wish to intrude on you, only to make sure that everything is to your utmost satisfaction so far. I’ve got other guests to attend to, it seems … but I’ll be sure to stop by later, if you wish, when all the guests are a bit more settled.” She leaned in and gave Dr. Mephiston a light kiss on the cheek, and turned to go.<br/><br/>Marie was slightly perturbed to see Maximillian bolting out of the bar area, muttering something about returning to his work. “There’s no need to go just yet; surely the work can wait?” Marie asked. “Unless I’m mistaken … such things are your area of expertise, after all. I guess I need leave those judgments up to you. But if you must go, I hope you won’t be long.”<br/><br/>Marie got up, and moved over to the end of the bar, closer to the stairwell, so she could greet the new guests as well … and see what they were like, this strange collection of motley inventors assembling in the Playground.<br/><br/>And then she heard the song. And recognized it.<br/><br/>For a brief instant, anger flashed in her dark eyes. Marie liked knowing all the secrets of others … she didn't like it when others knew hers. Granted, she wasn't ashamed of her past as a burlesque dancer and courtesan in Paris. Far from it, she was quite proud of it. But she liked to revealed little pieces of that past to the rest of the world, snippets at a time, tiny hints, nothing more. Not even Lee Chang knew all of her secrets just yet. So to hear that song again … ringing throughout the Playground, like the voice of an old lover … it bothered her just a little. It was a secret, it seemed, then evidently had slipped out of her grasp.<br/><br/>But Marie was not one to pout about such matters. The secret was out. Very well. She'd make it her own again.<br/><br/>"I was out …in the garden … pulling up some weeds …" Marie began to sing, her voice joining the piano player's.<em>Kissinger. I may need a word with him</em>, she thought, but the pleasant smile on her face didn't betray those thoughts. Instead, she picked up the hem of her skirts and hiked them up, and began to kick her legs up high as she approached the piano. She proudly began to dance the can-can, her feet pointed high as she kicked her long, slender legs in the air, revealing the fishnet stockings and black garters she wore beneath her dress.<br/><br/>As she approached the piano, she grabbed a chair, and slid it in front of the piano. Without missing a beat, she stepped up on the chair, then the piano, still singing.<br/><br/>"Slurp, Ptt! Slurp, Ptt!, Slurp, Ptt! AHHH!!!" she shouted, grinning madly, as she kicked her legs ever higher and higher. Her voice, though smooth and sultry, grew ever louder as well, loud enough to get the boisterous drunks to sing along … or at least it used to, back when she'd sang the song in the cheap Parisian dance halls. Anyone watching her dancing upon the piano could see far more than her stockings and garters as she sang … they could see her garter belt, and the tiny silk black panties that she wore. And anyone at the bar with keen enough eyes could also see the slightest wisps of dark curly hair spilling out from behind those tiny panties.<br/><br/>"Watermelon! W! A! T! E! R! M! E! L! O! N!" she finished loudly, and then she flopped onto the piano top, rolling about on her back as the last notes of the song rang through the air. She found awkwardly herself looking at Kissinger, and gave him a friendly wink.<br/><br/>"Nice song," Marie said. She lazily stretched her arms over her head. "Any reason you happened to play it?"