"Helping Out" (closed)

[DreamingOfMyEx]

Thursday, April 3
7:00 p.m.
Anne Marie's house

Her pastor arrived right on time, with that "couple of friends" he mentioned on the phone. There was another pastor - from the Presbyterian church, an older lady who had been Anne Marie's middle school English teacher, a gentleman who was retired from the Marine Corps who was missing an arm, and a former Toland police officer who still lived in Toland, but managed a sporting goods store in Magnus, and had served the past few years on the City Council.

They were quickly seated around the dining table which had recently been scrubbed clean of smashed little round spaghetti in a can and something green Anne Marie was pretty sure wasn't a food item. Everyone had a cup of tea or decaf coffee.

"It's almost .. almost .. a done deal that the Mayor won't be running for re-election."

"Oh, I've not heard that, but then I don't get out mu ... TM, PUT THAT DOWN, RIGHT NOW! ... don't get out much."

"I was talking to him after the City Council meeting Tuesday night ...."

"So who.. excuse me.. ANDREW, WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE YOUR BROTHER INTO THE BEDROOM AND WORK WITH HIM ON THE ALPHABET BLOCKS! ... who do you think will run in his place?"

"Well, funny you should ask ..."

--

Anne Marie had quite a laugh when she found out the reason for the visit. A group of concerned citizens trying to encourage the right person to run for Mayor.

"Marti handles all the real work, you would really just be providing direction, everyone on the Council likes you ...."

" ... the most respected family ..."

"... one of the best teachers in the history of Toland schools ..."

"A good devout Christian woman ... "

"Andrew, where are you going with those juice boxes? No Sir, you can all drink them in the kitchen."

"Your father probably saved the lives of everybody in town, or a member of their family."

"Well, that's a bit much ..."

"... a role model for girls ..."

"No TM, you spilled it, you wipe it up."

"I raised four boys of my own, and now have seven grandchildren all about your kids' ages, I can commit to watching them during meetings ..."

"I remember your own father taking you to City Council Meetings."

"I was thirteen."

"I'll lay it on the line" the Marine with the gravel in his voice said. "There are a couple of people who mentioned running, and I'll go to prison before I'll see them fuc... screw up this town any more than it's already been screwed up. You don't wanna see me go to prison, do you?"

No, Anne Marie didn't want to see the old Sergeant Major go to prison, and she didn't want to see the town fuc... screwed up any more than it's already been fuc.. screwed up. With a heavy sigh, she admitted defeat, and agreed to run for Mayor. Maybe it would be nice for Mrs Spencer to watch the boys for a few minutes every month, and for the boys to see their Mom sitting at the big table in charge of the meetings. And maybe ... just maybe ... she could do some good for the town.

But Anne Marie wasn't totally naive. She wanted to know more about this strange woman who won the lottery and decided to throw money all over the town. Something about that just didn't seem right.

 

[TiredFingers]

Anne Marie's House

Sunday, March 30

Mitchell finished up his work at the Small House and took off for his current home. Anne Marie had offered to let Mitchel move in right away. He'd told her that he thought he should wait until after the upcoming weekend's Winter Festival. "I think it will look better if I'm seen working around your house, earning money, before I start moving in."

Monday, March 31

The first thing he did when he woke up was text Anne Marie: I am doing my other jobs today and telling them I am no longer available. I will be avail to you full-time starting Tues.

He told his current landlords that he'd gotten a job helping with the renovation and yardwork at Miss Peterson's. "Mrs. Wilson's, I mean," he'd corrected. "And I'm going to babysit her kids and teach them stuff that their father would have taught them. You know, riding bikes, throwing a ball. That kind of stuff."

He told them that Mrs. Wilson was also going to pay him some cash. "I'll have your back rent before I leave," Mitchell promised. In reality, he was taking it out of his computer business fund. But they didn't need to know that, did they?"

Tuesday April 1

The first thing Mitchell did upon arriving at Anne Marie's house was make it obvious that he was there. That might have sounded backward. They were, after all, trying to keep Anne Marie's venture and Mitchell's participation it secret. But there was no way to keep his presence on the property secret.

So anytime Mitchell saw one of the neighbors outside, he quickly fetched the lawnmower or hedge trimmer or a ladder and hammer for work on the gutters or a loose attic vent. He would wave to the neighbors, sometimes meeting them at the property line to chat. He would jokingly talk about how his new landlady was quite the Iron Lady. Mitch would also mention her church job and three kids.

By the end of his first full day working here, most if not all of the neighbors understood that Mitchell was there to slave away for free rent and, if he did good, some cash for his pockets.

One of the neighbors, a 55-year-old retired postal carrier named Harvey Crane, noted to Mitchell the physical renovation of Anne Marie's body. Mitchell pretended not to understand the man's meaning when he said, "You might want to keep your door unlocked, you know, in case the Widow Wilson finds a need for some tension release."

"Oh, I think she does yoga," Mitchell responded naively. When the man made a lewd fucking gesture with his fingers, Mitchell responded with feigned shock, "Oh my God, no! She was my middle school teacher. Eww!"

Despite this, when Mitchell got back to the house, he went straight to the Small House's bathroom and once again beat off to fantasies about Anne Marie and her delicious body.

Wednesday April 2

"Okay, enter your password," Mitchell said, turning his back to her. It was her bank access password for her OnlyFans account. He didn't need to know it. When she finished, he said, "Okay, so the NED video payments will go into this account here."

NED was the nickname Mitchell had come up with for her Nutritional, Exercise/fitness, and Diet/Healthy eating videos. They involved voluntary support payments, like Paypal, VenMo, Patreon, etc. He told her, "Just about any way that someone can contribute is just a link away. Two, sometimes three clicks, and the money is yours.

"And for the person contributing," he told her, clicking on this and that as he went on, "they have the option to subscribe, to like, to add to favorites, and more. And if they contribute five times, for at least three-ninty-nine each, they get a personal message of thanks from you. I read that contributions increase 300% if the contributors got something personal for it. It's time consuming for you, but it'll be worth it in the end.

"Now, for the Countess," Mitchell went on, switching to a different page, "I set up separate accounts, obviously. But here's the magic of it all."

He explained how the money contributed to the Countess's accounts was automatically transferred through an overseas online banking system to her NED accounts. "That's how they used to do poker sites in the US. You bought a gift certificate from one company with your debit card, but the money went automatically to your online poker account. Even though they closed that down for poker, it's still open for other things.

"The beauty is that the money will look like it's coming into for your NED videos," he went on, clicking and clicking, pointing and pointing. "It makes your income there look legit in case you get audited."

He laughed, continuing with ever growing excitement, "But it gets better yet! The Countess account is set up to automatically erase payment entries to keep your income less than $49 a week, which means that you don't have to actually claim it as income. But the watch count remains there, with Likes and Favorites, so if people look for popular videos, they find the Countess."

He leaned back in his chair, smiling as he drank one of the light beers that Anne Marie had told him he could keep in the Small House's fridge so long as he didn't become a lush. "So, impressed?"

Thursday April 3

Mitchell spend most of Thursday sitting in an old bean bag chair he'd brought from his former residence. He'd spent most of the day reading scripts for the Countess. And he'd spent most of the day with a stiffy.

Anne Marie spent most of the day wrangling her boys and doing motherly things. Occasionally, though, she would come over to check on him. She wanted to know what he thought of the scripts. Some of them were entirely original. Some of them were inspired by things she'd found online. All of them had caused him to want to go to the bathroom and beat off.

When she asked what he thought, he nearly showed Anne Marie his tented groin. Instead, he left the script hiding him and simply said, "They're great. This'll make you money. Guaranteed."

Anne Marie expressed her concern that one video a week might not be enough. She mentioned her less risqué videos. They were mostly free, though. They wouldn't bring in money.

"I have a solution for that," he told her. Mitchell went to a site that explained how to make a profitable porn site. He quickly said, "We're not doing porn, but the concept is the same."

He explained how they would use teasers, links, thumbnails, and accumulated points (for likes, favorites, comments, and shares) to give fans free access to some of the pay videos. "But we never let them see the whole video, only the part that gets them excited. Not the part that--"

Mitchell stopped before he said got them off. He explained how these teasers would lead to more subscriptions and memberships. The last step was setting up the link between her OnlyFans and her Capital City banking information. And then, like that, Anne was ready to make money.

 

[Alice2015]

Anne Marie Wilson's house
Thursday, April 3
7:30 p.m.

Viola knew that the collection of concerned citizens who would be at Anne Marie Wilson's home tonight would include at least two leaders of Toland's faith associations, so she intentionally tried to dress down in jeans, a blouse, and her leather jacket covering the latter. And yet, as she strolled up the walk and -- being spotted by one of the meeting's attendees -- had the door opened for her entry, she still got up and down surveys by all of the men, even the preacher-types.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she apologized, explaining that Maxine's dinner had run late with conversation about the Mayor being the primary topic of conversation. Not knowing whether or not anyone had actually explained the details of the Bill and Sharon Bradburn's situation, Viola decided to shy away from mentioning the couple's troubles and instead asked, "So, what did I miss?"

Without hesitation, their hostess's pastor stood and announced, "Anne Marie has graciously agreed to have her name added to the ballot in the position of Mayor."

Viola looked to the mother of three for her reaction and wasn't entirely sure what she was seeing in the woman's face. If it were at all possible, the expression seemed to be a combination or excitement, fright, anxiety, pride, and the need to puke ... all at the same time.

As if they were afraid that Anne Marie might suddenly tell them she'd changed her mind, the guests all suddenly began approaching the woman to hug her, shake her hand, give her their appreciation, compliment her on looking like a new woman, raising three boys so well on her own for the last year, and more, all seemingly at the same time.

For her part, Viola simply stood out of the way near the home's entrance, waiting for the others to finish with Anne Marie and make their way back out to their cars. The reaction to Viola from the others varied a great deal: both pastors offered their hands and thanked her quietly for the financial contribution of which they were aware but of which Anne Marie was only about to discover; all four men -- religious leaders and otherwise -- allowed their gaze to fall to her breasts, which she'd attempted to keep less obvious tonight yet failed; and all of the women gave her a polite smile, a polite if unenergetic handshake, and a curt thank you for being here.

It was only after the last of the other guests were out the door that Viola held up a bag with the recognizable shape of a bottle of champagne and asked, "Mind if I stick around a bit and make up for being late?"

<<<<<<< >>>>>>>​

OOC: I'm starting a 1x1 thread for the continuation of this conversation because I want Viola and Anne Marie to be able to exchange a bunch of potentially short posts all grouped together, rather than spread throughout the Main IC Thread as other characters are also posting. When that conversation concludes, you will be brought right back here.

 

[Alice2015]

The Modern Hotel
Thursday, 3 April 2025
11am (before Viola's post above at Anne Marie's house)

Viola hadn't seen Mark Zane yesterday and only now strolled up through the lobby of The Modern Hotel toward him as he gave direction to the crew renovating the lobby. The young man who's name she'd learned was Jerry was standing there, and immediately upon making eye contact with her blushed a fiery red and looked away.

She curled around the 4x8 sheets of plywood setting atop sawhorses as a table until she slipped up close in between Mark and Jerry, then looked across the makeshift work surface to a pair of other workers and said politely, "Take a coffee break, gentlemen, while I discuss some changes with your foreman here."

The two across from her more than happily took the moment for a break, but as Jerry started to do the same, Viola caught him by the arm and said softly, "Not you. Not yet anyway."

When it was just the three of them, Viola began, "I've been hearing stories of a man nicknamed Mack the Knife. I guess he's some sort of loan shark ... has a few of our construction crew members on the hook." She looked to Jerry, whose sheepish expression confirmed what Viola had heard from Maxine about the teen. Looking to Mark, she asked, "If I was to arrange a meeting with this gentleman ... perhaps over at The Black Hole ... for lunch tomorrow or drinks later on ... would you be kind enough to join me?"

They made arrangements for a meeting, after which Viola again looked to Jerry and asked, "How much are you into him for? Am I saying that right?"

"A little over $3,000," the teen told her.

Viola asked, "I'm sure you have to pay a weekly fee for your outstanding debt...? I think they call it the vig?" Jerry hesitantly nodded. She smiled to him and asked, "Would you be okay with me buying your debt off this Mack the Knife?"

When they'd concluded their business, Viola asked Jerry to give her and her foreman a moment together. Again, Viola waited until they were alone, then said, "The boy was ... I'm sorry, the young man ... was still pocketing money as he was leaving your room." She didn't know whether or not Mark had caught that. She continued, "What I'm offering Jerry has nothing to do with how he earns a living ... or with whatever your relationship with Jerry might be. I would never get in the way of that.

"I'm only trying to help the young man out of a bind," she said with a sincere tone. "Please ... if I have overstepped a boundary ... tell me ... and I will back off."