10-07-2015, 12:23 PM
The bandit trudged through the endless white, searching for anyone or anything but the blank emptiness that surrounded her. She wandered towards one of the many shapes in the distance, the only markers other than the fountain near the center. As she drew closer, she saw a familiar shape, white armor with a black eyed helmet. Stormtroopers.
For a moment, she considered turning back and avoiding the classically brutal law enforcers but as she began to turn away, she remembered her newfound immortality and stayed the course. “Hey, yo, you guys,” she called out from a few hundred feet away, her voice carrying far through the silence.
The troopers craned their heads as they looked at the woman, one pointing and mumbling to the other. One of the two guards left his post and ran out, the two meeting midway. “Greetings, citizen. Are you a Prime?”
“Uh, yeah,” she said, immediately feeling the presence of privilege for her new caste.
He gestured towards the gate. “The Empire welcomes new Primes into the Omniverse,” he said smoothly, as if reading it from a script, “If you follow a few rules and submit to a search, you can-“
The bandit held up her free hand, “Woah, hold up. I’m just looking for some directions or something.”
The stormtrooper paused and stopped his speech. “Coruscant is one of the few developed areas in the Omniverse and has the full amenities for loyal citizens. You’re most likely to be comfortable in our verse.”
They were already trying to recruit her for their bullshit power struggle. “Ok, I got ya,” she said, peering over the soldier’s head towards the portal. “So I’m taking it these are the gates that go places, right?” she asked, pointing to the shape the trooper’s partner stood by.
“Yes ma’am, they lead to each of the eight normal verses. As I said, Coruscant is the only one with wide-spread technological use. The standard of living is much higher for all of our law-abiding residents.”
Pondering, the bandit slung her sledgehammer to the ground and leaned on the handle, “Hm. Maybe I’ll stop in for a visit then.”
“Fantastic, ma’am. If you’ll check your weapons with me and my partner, we can lead you to the nearest information kiosk and find you an appropriate residence.” The stormtrooper began to walk back towards the gate, continuing to talk all the way.
The bandit’s lips folded up in an incredulous expression and she rolled her eyes. “Nah,” she said passively, picked her weapon back up and began to walk in the other direction.
“Ma’am?” the trooper looked back, confused.
“You ain’t takin’ my shit,” she laughed at him, keeping up her pace. “Maybe I’ll catch you later.” The men watched the bandit leave from their post, just waiting for their shifts to end for they could stop gazing into the bleached abyss of the Nexus.
The woman sighed and pulled out the carton again, flipped open the top and pulled out a cigarette with her teeth. Spinning the sledgehammer on her shoulder, she twisted the throttle and lit the tip with a burst of fiery exhaust. Inhaling deeply, the woman exhaled in a deep sigh, mostly motivated by her profound boredom. For a moment she considered returning to the Dunes, if only because combat would allow her to escape the horrible boredom of her surroundings.
In the far distance, from another one of the gates, a hulking creature emerged. The bandit grinned and began trotting towards the behemoth form, not caring if it was man or monster. As close as it appeared, it still took the woman a considerable amount of time to traverse the distance between the two gates, and she heard a faint conversation between the huge mass and some other, slightly more obnoxious voice.
As she drew nearer, she could tell that the man, who was easily over seven feet tall, was in rather rough shape. The parts of his bulging, hilariously oversized armor that showed beneath his dark brown robes seemed aged and horribly damaged, and his head was wrapped several times with blood-soaked gauze.
“Holy shit,” she practically gasped, “where did you just come from? So I know where not to go?” She gestured at his mutilated cranium, “What the fuck did that to you, a sand worm?”
“Sand worm?” the man grunted, only now acknowledging her presence. “The hell are you going on about? It wasn’t a bloody sand worm,” the titanic man boomed in a thick accent.
“I mean, what?” she scoffed, “Some drunk dude in a bar didn’t do this to you. I mean, who can even reach your head up there? Did somebody shoot you in the face and now you in the process of walking it off?”
The man shook his head, mournfully spitting, “More like smashed in the teeth by a shark the size of a damned boat.”
“Oh shit!” the bandit proclaimed, “A shark? Aren’t those like, big –ass fish or something?”
The giant’s eyebrow quirked, maintaining his steely expression as he stared down in bewilderment of the woman’s ignorance. “Erm… aye,” he affirmed after a few more seconds of consideration.
“Well, if you’re looking to get your face fixed, avoid the Dunes. There’s some serious shit going down in there.” She looked between all of the gates on their respective horizons. “You know, if I’m honest, I have no idea where most of these go.” She gestured towards the gate the man had emerged from. “Does this one go to the ‘shark zone’ or some shit?”
“Shark zone?” the warrior huffed, “Lass, where the hell do you think we are?”
The bandit assured herself that she was still within eyeshot of the fountain. “Well, we’re in the Nexus right? One of these goes back to the Endless Dunes, and since you got the shit beat out of you by a giant fish I’m guessing you didn’t just come from the desert.”
Turning, the gargantuan, hermit-looking warrior looked at his gate of origin. “Not sure where it was, really,” he said with the strong presence of disinterest. “This place is like a maze sometimes.”
Squinting, the fresh Prime re-counted the eight clearly-visible gates, wondering just how much of the man’s brain had been rattled out of place. “Oh, uh, ok,” she coughed, trying to fill the awkward void with more words. “Well, uh, where you headed now?”
“Nowhere, really,” he boomed.
Staring up at the man, her nostrils flared and her eyebrows peaked, trying to contain the sheer strangeness of the conversation. “Huh,” she chirped. “So, um, you know of anything interesting going on? I’m looking to burn some time, you know?”
The man shrugged his cartoonishly broad shoulders. “Hell if I know. We're all out in the ass-end of nowhere with a bunch of loons.” He tugged his robes back into position and continued, “But if what you said is anything to go by, a couple days travel anywhere could take us somewhere with some action."
The bandit grumbled in frustration, pulling her phone out of her pocket, “Well, do you know how to use this fuckin’ thing? I just made it but I’m still pretty new to… stuff with screens, or whatever. I know people used to find parties and stuff using their phones. Like, at Rick’s Café, when people would do a bunch of blow in the back rooms and stuff.”
“Vaguely.’
“Well, uh,” she pressed a few tabs on the screen, trying to muddle through the vast depths of the Dataverse. Pop-ups and other confusing data were pecked at, the woman frantically navigating in any direction that looked even vaguely interesting. “Oh shit, here we go!” she said with a broad grin, “A tournament, in a coliseum. Looks like it’s in some place called Camelot.”
The giant chuckled, “Camelot? Well that’s a name if I’ve ever heard one.” He hefted a massive ammo sack at his side, the contents rattling clanking as he did so. “Ah, well it can’t be much worse than what’s already happened to me here.”
The bandit shrugged, “Well, you’re a Prime right?” The man’s silence indicated her accuracy and she continued, “If you die, you’re just gonna end up back here, right?”
A throaty, deep, resonant laugh echoed in his chest. “You say that like I ever really cared for being alive.” He tilted his head to the side, offering a small concession, “Well, recently anyways.”
“Well then fuck it, right?” she laughed. “Let’s get our brains blown out by some weirdoes with a gladiator fetish.”
“Not the first time that’s happened.”
“Tits,” she replied, not really paying attention, trying to find direction to the location, “Let’s go, big guy.”
For a moment, she considered turning back and avoiding the classically brutal law enforcers but as she began to turn away, she remembered her newfound immortality and stayed the course. “Hey, yo, you guys,” she called out from a few hundred feet away, her voice carrying far through the silence.
The troopers craned their heads as they looked at the woman, one pointing and mumbling to the other. One of the two guards left his post and ran out, the two meeting midway. “Greetings, citizen. Are you a Prime?”
“Uh, yeah,” she said, immediately feeling the presence of privilege for her new caste.
He gestured towards the gate. “The Empire welcomes new Primes into the Omniverse,” he said smoothly, as if reading it from a script, “If you follow a few rules and submit to a search, you can-“
The bandit held up her free hand, “Woah, hold up. I’m just looking for some directions or something.”
The stormtrooper paused and stopped his speech. “Coruscant is one of the few developed areas in the Omniverse and has the full amenities for loyal citizens. You’re most likely to be comfortable in our verse.”
They were already trying to recruit her for their bullshit power struggle. “Ok, I got ya,” she said, peering over the soldier’s head towards the portal. “So I’m taking it these are the gates that go places, right?” she asked, pointing to the shape the trooper’s partner stood by.
“Yes ma’am, they lead to each of the eight normal verses. As I said, Coruscant is the only one with wide-spread technological use. The standard of living is much higher for all of our law-abiding residents.”
Pondering, the bandit slung her sledgehammer to the ground and leaned on the handle, “Hm. Maybe I’ll stop in for a visit then.”
“Fantastic, ma’am. If you’ll check your weapons with me and my partner, we can lead you to the nearest information kiosk and find you an appropriate residence.” The stormtrooper began to walk back towards the gate, continuing to talk all the way.
The bandit’s lips folded up in an incredulous expression and she rolled her eyes. “Nah,” she said passively, picked her weapon back up and began to walk in the other direction.
“Ma’am?” the trooper looked back, confused.
“You ain’t takin’ my shit,” she laughed at him, keeping up her pace. “Maybe I’ll catch you later.” The men watched the bandit leave from their post, just waiting for their shifts to end for they could stop gazing into the bleached abyss of the Nexus.
The woman sighed and pulled out the carton again, flipped open the top and pulled out a cigarette with her teeth. Spinning the sledgehammer on her shoulder, she twisted the throttle and lit the tip with a burst of fiery exhaust. Inhaling deeply, the woman exhaled in a deep sigh, mostly motivated by her profound boredom. For a moment she considered returning to the Dunes, if only because combat would allow her to escape the horrible boredom of her surroundings.
In the far distance, from another one of the gates, a hulking creature emerged. The bandit grinned and began trotting towards the behemoth form, not caring if it was man or monster. As close as it appeared, it still took the woman a considerable amount of time to traverse the distance between the two gates, and she heard a faint conversation between the huge mass and some other, slightly more obnoxious voice.
As she drew nearer, she could tell that the man, who was easily over seven feet tall, was in rather rough shape. The parts of his bulging, hilariously oversized armor that showed beneath his dark brown robes seemed aged and horribly damaged, and his head was wrapped several times with blood-soaked gauze.
“Holy shit,” she practically gasped, “where did you just come from? So I know where not to go?” She gestured at his mutilated cranium, “What the fuck did that to you, a sand worm?”
“Sand worm?” the man grunted, only now acknowledging her presence. “The hell are you going on about? It wasn’t a bloody sand worm,” the titanic man boomed in a thick accent.
“I mean, what?” she scoffed, “Some drunk dude in a bar didn’t do this to you. I mean, who can even reach your head up there? Did somebody shoot you in the face and now you in the process of walking it off?”
The man shook his head, mournfully spitting, “More like smashed in the teeth by a shark the size of a damned boat.”
“Oh shit!” the bandit proclaimed, “A shark? Aren’t those like, big –ass fish or something?”
The giant’s eyebrow quirked, maintaining his steely expression as he stared down in bewilderment of the woman’s ignorance. “Erm… aye,” he affirmed after a few more seconds of consideration.
“Well, if you’re looking to get your face fixed, avoid the Dunes. There’s some serious shit going down in there.” She looked between all of the gates on their respective horizons. “You know, if I’m honest, I have no idea where most of these go.” She gestured towards the gate the man had emerged from. “Does this one go to the ‘shark zone’ or some shit?”
“Shark zone?” the warrior huffed, “Lass, where the hell do you think we are?”
The bandit assured herself that she was still within eyeshot of the fountain. “Well, we’re in the Nexus right? One of these goes back to the Endless Dunes, and since you got the shit beat out of you by a giant fish I’m guessing you didn’t just come from the desert.”
Turning, the gargantuan, hermit-looking warrior looked at his gate of origin. “Not sure where it was, really,” he said with the strong presence of disinterest. “This place is like a maze sometimes.”
Squinting, the fresh Prime re-counted the eight clearly-visible gates, wondering just how much of the man’s brain had been rattled out of place. “Oh, uh, ok,” she coughed, trying to fill the awkward void with more words. “Well, uh, where you headed now?”
“Nowhere, really,” he boomed.
Staring up at the man, her nostrils flared and her eyebrows peaked, trying to contain the sheer strangeness of the conversation. “Huh,” she chirped. “So, um, you know of anything interesting going on? I’m looking to burn some time, you know?”
The man shrugged his cartoonishly broad shoulders. “Hell if I know. We're all out in the ass-end of nowhere with a bunch of loons.” He tugged his robes back into position and continued, “But if what you said is anything to go by, a couple days travel anywhere could take us somewhere with some action."
The bandit grumbled in frustration, pulling her phone out of her pocket, “Well, do you know how to use this fuckin’ thing? I just made it but I’m still pretty new to… stuff with screens, or whatever. I know people used to find parties and stuff using their phones. Like, at Rick’s Café, when people would do a bunch of blow in the back rooms and stuff.”
“Vaguely.’
“Well, uh,” she pressed a few tabs on the screen, trying to muddle through the vast depths of the Dataverse. Pop-ups and other confusing data were pecked at, the woman frantically navigating in any direction that looked even vaguely interesting. “Oh shit, here we go!” she said with a broad grin, “A tournament, in a coliseum. Looks like it’s in some place called Camelot.”
The giant chuckled, “Camelot? Well that’s a name if I’ve ever heard one.” He hefted a massive ammo sack at his side, the contents rattling clanking as he did so. “Ah, well it can’t be much worse than what’s already happened to me here.”
The bandit shrugged, “Well, you’re a Prime right?” The man’s silence indicated her accuracy and she continued, “If you die, you’re just gonna end up back here, right?”
A throaty, deep, resonant laugh echoed in his chest. “You say that like I ever really cared for being alive.” He tilted his head to the side, offering a small concession, “Well, recently anyways.”
“Well then fuck it, right?” she laughed. “Let’s get our brains blown out by some weirdoes with a gladiator fetish.”
“Not the first time that’s happened.”
“Tits,” she replied, not really paying attention, trying to find direction to the location, “Let’s go, big guy.”