05-30-2018, 03:38 PM
***
The parking lot is silent as Luci’s portal disappears behind her. There is only the dim flickering street lights, casting absurd shadows on the black asphalt below. The stillness in the air is overwhelming.
In the middle of the parking lot, illuminated in a single inexplicable beam of moonlight, is a silver gun.
Luci is no stranger to firearms. She is an accomplished gun-runner in four universes, a gangster in two, and a natural born crackshot. In the Omniverse alone she has fired handguns, phasers, heaters, machine guns, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and miniguns. She has killed orcs, hutts, humans, wookies, twi’leks, stormtroopers, jedi’s, and even elves.
She has never felt the need to wield a weapon as dangerous as the gun on the ground in front of her. The gun is a Prime weapon, a weapon dragged from the mind of a Prime and infused with enough OM to make it Real. The gun is so Real it warps the very fabric of the Astral Realm around it, creating a pool of moonlight which no flickering shadow can touch.
Luci crouches down, and picks up the gun.
Beyond the parking lot, the neon haze of 1989 Miami starts to fill the night sky.
The hustle and bustle of the nightlife starts to trickle in.
A pair of footsteps approaches.
The Game has started.
***
As the footsteps draw closer Luci backs up against a red brick wall, and seems to disappear.
A two-dimensional graffiti portrait of a rainbow girl appears in her place. The eyes of the portrait blink guiltily.
A pair of old white men emerge from an alleyway into the parking lot. Their expensive loafers flop softly on the asphalt, their immaculately tailored white suits reflecting the dim light garishly. They puff cigars as the walk, meandering with the easy swagger of killers.
One of them, a bald man standing a foot taller than his companion, is boasting loudly and expositionally about his recent criminal exploits in a light Russian accent.
“So we have stolen the van,” he continues, puffing his cigar. “We are thinking, just for the quick cash, you see? And would you believe Ivan, what was in the back?”
Ivan shakes his head, taking his eyes off his companion and squinting at the graffiti mural of a girl they are passing beneath. “No Ivan, what was in the back?” he asks in a thicker Russian accent.
The taller Ivan chortles slavicly. “Girls, Ivan, there were girls. Nearly a dozen.”
The shorter Ivan blanches. “That is much money, I am thinking. But how can you sell?”
The taller Ivan smirks. “Our friends in Opa Loka have import/export business, they run it out of Ivan’s Car Repairs. They pay good too, sixty thousand my friend.”
The shorter Ivan laughs. “Not bad for a van.”
The two criminals walk off into the night, their greasy guffaws lingering in the air behind them.
Luci slides off the wall and hits the ground walking.
She starts to walk the opposite direction of the russians.
***
Miami pulses with life, hedonism, and a steady undercurrent of violence.
Coked out yuppies in upturned collars rub shoulders with derelict crackheads. Cops and mobsters sit at the same tables in the same strip clubs, ordering dances and making deals. Beautiful prostitutes drip from the elbows of pimps in gaudy suits. Pushers, hustlers, partiers, the gang’s all here.
The air is filled with exhaust and cigarette smoke and the bachic calls of the nightlife. Car’s screech, drinks spill, skirts slip. Gleaming skyscrapers reach for the heavens, and a heady neon glow fills the night sky.
In the center of the city a single beam of grey light streaks up into the sky.
Jacket is awake, and there is no telling for how long.
Luci moves through the astral cityscape like a fish through water. She passes the bars and the clubs, she passes the drug dealers and pimps, she passes Ivan’s Car Repairs. Everywhere she goes, the threat of imminent violence seethes just below the surface.
Luci wanders inside a small, hole-in-the-wall strip club. The club is bathed in garish lights, filled with obnoxious porn music, hungry-eyed girls and sad-eyed men. The smell of spilled beer and cigarettes mingles with the sweat in the air.
Luci grins.
***
The parking lot is silent as Luci’s portal disappears behind her. There is only the dim flickering street lights, casting absurd shadows on the black asphalt below. The stillness in the air is overwhelming.
In the middle of the parking lot, illuminated in a single inexplicable beam of moonlight, is a silver gun.
Luci is no stranger to firearms. She is an accomplished gun-runner in four universes, a gangster in two, and a natural born crackshot. In the Omniverse alone she has fired handguns, phasers, heaters, machine guns, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and miniguns. She has killed orcs, hutts, humans, wookies, twi’leks, stormtroopers, jedi’s, and even elves.
She has never felt the need to wield a weapon as dangerous as the gun on the ground in front of her. The gun is a Prime weapon, a weapon dragged from the mind of a Prime and infused with enough OM to make it Real. The gun is so Real it warps the very fabric of the Astral Realm around it, creating a pool of moonlight which no flickering shadow can touch.
Luci crouches down, and picks up the gun.
Beyond the parking lot, the neon haze of 1989 Miami starts to fill the night sky.
The hustle and bustle of the nightlife starts to trickle in.
A pair of footsteps approaches.
The Game has started.
***
As the footsteps draw closer Luci backs up against a red brick wall, and seems to disappear.
A two-dimensional graffiti portrait of a rainbow girl appears in her place. The eyes of the portrait blink guiltily.
A pair of old white men emerge from an alleyway into the parking lot. Their expensive loafers flop softly on the asphalt, their immaculately tailored white suits reflecting the dim light garishly. They puff cigars as the walk, meandering with the easy swagger of killers.
One of them, a bald man standing a foot taller than his companion, is boasting loudly and expositionally about his recent criminal exploits in a light Russian accent.
“So we have stolen the van,” he continues, puffing his cigar. “We are thinking, just for the quick cash, you see? And would you believe Ivan, what was in the back?”
Ivan shakes his head, taking his eyes off his companion and squinting at the graffiti mural of a girl they are passing beneath. “No Ivan, what was in the back?” he asks in a thicker Russian accent.
The taller Ivan chortles slavicly. “Girls, Ivan, there were girls. Nearly a dozen.”
The shorter Ivan blanches. “That is much money, I am thinking. But how can you sell?”
The taller Ivan smirks. “Our friends in Opa Loka have import/export business, they run it out of Ivan’s Car Repairs. They pay good too, sixty thousand my friend.”
The shorter Ivan laughs. “Not bad for a van.”
The two criminals walk off into the night, their greasy guffaws lingering in the air behind them.
Luci slides off the wall and hits the ground walking.
She starts to walk the opposite direction of the russians.
***
Miami pulses with life, hedonism, and a steady undercurrent of violence.
Coked out yuppies in upturned collars rub shoulders with derelict crackheads. Cops and mobsters sit at the same tables in the same strip clubs, ordering dances and making deals. Beautiful prostitutes drip from the elbows of pimps in gaudy suits. Pushers, hustlers, partiers, the gang’s all here.
The air is filled with exhaust and cigarette smoke and the bachic calls of the nightlife. Car’s screech, drinks spill, skirts slip. Gleaming skyscrapers reach for the heavens, and a heady neon glow fills the night sky.
In the center of the city a single beam of grey light streaks up into the sky.
Jacket is awake, and there is no telling for how long.
Luci moves through the astral cityscape like a fish through water. She passes the bars and the clubs, she passes the drug dealers and pimps, she passes Ivan’s Car Repairs. Everywhere she goes, the threat of imminent violence seethes just below the surface.
Luci wanders inside a small, hole-in-the-wall strip club. The club is bathed in garish lights, filled with obnoxious porn music, hungry-eyed girls and sad-eyed men. The smell of spilled beer and cigarettes mingles with the sweat in the air.
Luci grins.
***
![[Image: V4Dvvfy.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/V4Dvvfy.gif)