01-15-2017, 08:05 PM
***
Luci sits by a window on the second story of a dilapidated clubhouse in Teir-5. She peeks through the planks of wood hastilly nailed over the window, and her stomach drops with every set of headlights that turn down the street. She is still in the thin, mature body and black pinstriped skirt-suit of Vanessa Harmon.
A motley collection of Westside gangsters lounge around the room, pouring over Luci's recently stolen files. Dew Drop, a musclebound female elf and second Lieutenant of the Westside Knife Ear Warriors, is arguing with a Klingon in a wife beater over a low coffee table.
"Look," she says, pointing at one of the files. It shows a one-eyed orc glaring for his mugshot, his rap sheet listed next to him. "Two months ago, he got busted with Glarg picking up on Star Street and Hk!gk Ave. That was right around the time your boy, what's his name, Qor, says he caught that Ninja Turtle bounty. But here, it says the Empire saw Raphael two weeks ago in Teir-6. Your boy is fucking lying!"
The casually dressed Klingon known as Kyrg glares at the report. "This is preposterous. Are you implying a Mighty Westside Klingon would ever dare-"
"To sell out his neighborhood for a hundred OM to some tusk-fuckers?" interrupts the elf sharply. "And what if I am?"
Luci turns away from the argument and listens to a pair of giggling Hufflepunks reading an arrest report.
"Oh yeah, this is gold. 'Suspect fit the description, brown male orc in a pink miniskirt. Suspect was clearly intoxicated. Suspect was arrested for prostitution and identified as Graarg the Destroyer, an enforcer for the orc mafia with several warrants'. Jesus man..." says one of the Hufflepunks, a bald teenage wizard with a badger tattooed on the back of his head.
His girlfriend, a petite blue-haired crust-punk named Dick-Face, points excitedly to another report. "Oh Scab, look at this! That Wookie with the nose ring, Ereeewel, got caught on Isengard Lane with 200 OM worth of Plutonic Quarks! You know what that means?"
The bald wizard nods. "It means old Feezo is cooking up some you-know-what. We should pay her a visit..."
Weasel, the young red-haired leader of the Westside Hufflepunks, wanders over to Luci with a file in her hand.
"You did good Lieutenant Perky. So you know, perk the fuck up," the witch suggests with a shrug.
Luci does not.
"Look, we found him. Clear as day, smoking gun," Weasel says as she hands the file off to Luci.
Luci reads the file intently three times. She locks eyes with the Hufflepunk, and finds no compassion.
"He's a piece of shit," Luci says as she lights a cigarette. "I'm not waiting for council approval," she adds after a moment. "We got you and the princess here, and I'll take the heat from Moss. Let's get this fuck."
Weasel grins, and there is a knock on the door.
***
Every junkie in Teir-5 knows that if you knock four times, then five times, on the door behind the abandoned house on Phaser Street and 3rd Ave you will find some excellent prices on various chems.
Every Westside gangster knows that if you knock three times, then six times, the doors will fling wide and you will be met with friends and comrades.
The collected Westside gangsters tense at the unfamiliar knock.
A tea kettle whistles.
***
Yukki stands outside politely, staring into a security camera. Inside he can hear frantic movement, guns being loaded, furniture being pushed around.
"Put the fucking chems away!" a voice yells.
Yukki taps his foot impatiently as a series of locks are loudly removed. The door opens a minuscule crack, and a mousy blue-haired teenager's face appears.
"Um, can I help you?" she asks in a squeaky voice.
Yukki clears his throat. "I have reason to believe you're harboring a known fugitive, I'm sure you never intended-" he says as the door is slammed in his face. Yukki sighs, and throws his shoulder into the door.
***
Luci watches from the back of the room as the door is busted open and the blue-haired Hufflpunk is knocked out.
The intruder ducks a shuriken from Princess Hellstab, dodges an arrow from Dew Drop the elf, and back-flips over a stunning hex from Scab the Hufflepunk.
Luci walks to the kitchen.
The intruder whirls his arms in a complex pattern, releasing glittering steel knives with stunning accuracy. One knife cuts through Scab's wand, causing a small explosion to engulf his hand. A second knife catches Princess Hellstab's kimono as she is in mid-leap, pinning her to the wall. A third knife cuts the string on Dew Drop's bow and lodges deep into her shoulder.
Luci grabs two coffee cups from the cupboard. One is her own, which has a cute rainbow mustache on the lip so it looks like you have a mustache when you drink it.
Kyrg the Klingon upends a table, but a fourth knife slices through the table like butter and through Kyrg's foot, pinning him to the floor. He howls in pain.
Luci walks to the dining room with two saucers of tea and biscuits and puts them on the table. She sits down as Weasel rushes forward with her wand raised.
Weasel grunts and falls to one knee as a knife slices through her leg. She raises her wand, and a sixth knife lodges in her palm, eliciting a scream and forcing her to drop it.
The intruder whirls around and cocks a very nasty looking gun an inch from Luci's face.
Luci sips her drink. She let's the disguise of Vanessa Harmon melt away, her severe features replaced by a soft-faced, glowing teenage girl. Luci stares at the intruder for a moment before speaking.
"If you're here to kill me, I think it would be polite to have some tea first."
***
Yukki sips the tea warily, his enhanced senses confirming a lack of malicious additives. He keeps hand on his gun, and his gun on the table. The collected Westside gangsters sulk in the living room, nursing their wounds.
"Do you think I'm pretty?" Luci asks as she poses in a pocket mirror. Yukki rolls his eyes. "The Empire must think I'm pretty," she continues. "The Empire thinks my head is worth a hundred OM. Is that a lot of money?"
Yukki shrugs noncommittally. "For some people."
Luci nods, and sips her tea. "It doesn't sound like a lot. If The Empire thinks my head is worth just a hundred OM, they must think I'm just a pretty face."
Yukki does not reply, but sips his tea. He is almost done. His hand tenses on the gun. He looks at Luci for a tell, looking to see her eyes flicker to an escape route. She stares back. Everywhere is an escape route for her.
"It sounds like The Empire doesn't respect you either," Luci continues. "I've seen what you can do though. I respect you. A hundred OM is an insult for a man of your talents. But that's the thing about honest work, right? It's just not as lucrative as crime."
Luci pulls out a wad of glowing, crumpled cash.
"I have a proposition for you," the gangster says.
Luci sits by a window on the second story of a dilapidated clubhouse in Teir-5. She peeks through the planks of wood hastilly nailed over the window, and her stomach drops with every set of headlights that turn down the street. She is still in the thin, mature body and black pinstriped skirt-suit of Vanessa Harmon.
A motley collection of Westside gangsters lounge around the room, pouring over Luci's recently stolen files. Dew Drop, a musclebound female elf and second Lieutenant of the Westside Knife Ear Warriors, is arguing with a Klingon in a wife beater over a low coffee table.
"Look," she says, pointing at one of the files. It shows a one-eyed orc glaring for his mugshot, his rap sheet listed next to him. "Two months ago, he got busted with Glarg picking up on Star Street and Hk!gk Ave. That was right around the time your boy, what's his name, Qor, says he caught that Ninja Turtle bounty. But here, it says the Empire saw Raphael two weeks ago in Teir-6. Your boy is fucking lying!"
The casually dressed Klingon known as Kyrg glares at the report. "This is preposterous. Are you implying a Mighty Westside Klingon would ever dare-"
"To sell out his neighborhood for a hundred OM to some tusk-fuckers?" interrupts the elf sharply. "And what if I am?"
Luci turns away from the argument and listens to a pair of giggling Hufflepunks reading an arrest report.
"Oh yeah, this is gold. 'Suspect fit the description, brown male orc in a pink miniskirt. Suspect was clearly intoxicated. Suspect was arrested for prostitution and identified as Graarg the Destroyer, an enforcer for the orc mafia with several warrants'. Jesus man..." says one of the Hufflepunks, a bald teenage wizard with a badger tattooed on the back of his head.
His girlfriend, a petite blue-haired crust-punk named Dick-Face, points excitedly to another report. "Oh Scab, look at this! That Wookie with the nose ring, Ereeewel, got caught on Isengard Lane with 200 OM worth of Plutonic Quarks! You know what that means?"
The bald wizard nods. "It means old Feezo is cooking up some you-know-what. We should pay her a visit..."
Weasel, the young red-haired leader of the Westside Hufflepunks, wanders over to Luci with a file in her hand.
"You did good Lieutenant Perky. So you know, perk the fuck up," the witch suggests with a shrug.
Luci does not.
"Look, we found him. Clear as day, smoking gun," Weasel says as she hands the file off to Luci.
Luci reads the file intently three times. She locks eyes with the Hufflepunk, and finds no compassion.
"He's a piece of shit," Luci says as she lights a cigarette. "I'm not waiting for council approval," she adds after a moment. "We got you and the princess here, and I'll take the heat from Moss. Let's get this fuck."
Weasel grins, and there is a knock on the door.
***
Every junkie in Teir-5 knows that if you knock four times, then five times, on the door behind the abandoned house on Phaser Street and 3rd Ave you will find some excellent prices on various chems.
Every Westside gangster knows that if you knock three times, then six times, the doors will fling wide and you will be met with friends and comrades.
The collected Westside gangsters tense at the unfamiliar knock.
A tea kettle whistles.
***
Yukki stands outside politely, staring into a security camera. Inside he can hear frantic movement, guns being loaded, furniture being pushed around.
"Put the fucking chems away!" a voice yells.
Yukki taps his foot impatiently as a series of locks are loudly removed. The door opens a minuscule crack, and a mousy blue-haired teenager's face appears.
"Um, can I help you?" she asks in a squeaky voice.
Yukki clears his throat. "I have reason to believe you're harboring a known fugitive, I'm sure you never intended-" he says as the door is slammed in his face. Yukki sighs, and throws his shoulder into the door.
***
Luci watches from the back of the room as the door is busted open and the blue-haired Hufflpunk is knocked out.
The intruder ducks a shuriken from Princess Hellstab, dodges an arrow from Dew Drop the elf, and back-flips over a stunning hex from Scab the Hufflepunk.
Luci walks to the kitchen.
The intruder whirls his arms in a complex pattern, releasing glittering steel knives with stunning accuracy. One knife cuts through Scab's wand, causing a small explosion to engulf his hand. A second knife catches Princess Hellstab's kimono as she is in mid-leap, pinning her to the wall. A third knife cuts the string on Dew Drop's bow and lodges deep into her shoulder.
Luci grabs two coffee cups from the cupboard. One is her own, which has a cute rainbow mustache on the lip so it looks like you have a mustache when you drink it.
Kyrg the Klingon upends a table, but a fourth knife slices through the table like butter and through Kyrg's foot, pinning him to the floor. He howls in pain.
Luci walks to the dining room with two saucers of tea and biscuits and puts them on the table. She sits down as Weasel rushes forward with her wand raised.
Weasel grunts and falls to one knee as a knife slices through her leg. She raises her wand, and a sixth knife lodges in her palm, eliciting a scream and forcing her to drop it.
The intruder whirls around and cocks a very nasty looking gun an inch from Luci's face.
Luci sips her drink. She let's the disguise of Vanessa Harmon melt away, her severe features replaced by a soft-faced, glowing teenage girl. Luci stares at the intruder for a moment before speaking.
"If you're here to kill me, I think it would be polite to have some tea first."
Quote:That fight was for flavor. Yukki was not injured, his resources were not depleted, and I do not intend to gain any tactical advantage from the exchange
***
Yukki sips the tea warily, his enhanced senses confirming a lack of malicious additives. He keeps hand on his gun, and his gun on the table. The collected Westside gangsters sulk in the living room, nursing their wounds.
"Do you think I'm pretty?" Luci asks as she poses in a pocket mirror. Yukki rolls his eyes. "The Empire must think I'm pretty," she continues. "The Empire thinks my head is worth a hundred OM. Is that a lot of money?"
Yukki shrugs noncommittally. "For some people."
Luci nods, and sips her tea. "It doesn't sound like a lot. If The Empire thinks my head is worth just a hundred OM, they must think I'm just a pretty face."
Yukki does not reply, but sips his tea. He is almost done. His hand tenses on the gun. He looks at Luci for a tell, looking to see her eyes flicker to an escape route. She stares back. Everywhere is an escape route for her.
"It sounds like The Empire doesn't respect you either," Luci continues. "I've seen what you can do though. I respect you. A hundred OM is an insult for a man of your talents. But that's the thing about honest work, right? It's just not as lucrative as crime."
Luci pulls out a wad of glowing, crumpled cash.
"I have a proposition for you," the gangster says.
Quote:I'll offer 200 OM for 1500 words dedicated to expanding Luci's criminal empire. You will also have access to more Westside quests (Quests from me!)
You can make up the tasks yourself, or I can give you some suggestions to choose from.
You do not have to kill anyone or do any high-profile bounty-worthy crimes.
![[Image: V4Dvvfy.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/V4Dvvfy.gif)