Dust in the Wind

[Dawnika Snow]

The dense air of 4th tier stuffed Yuki’s nose. How she hated the heavy, reused breath of the massive amount of individuals, but it was something you had to live with around here. The teenager looked around the corner of the block for anyone who looked weighed down by their wallet. No marks yet, just a bunch of slum commoners going about their daily life. Drudging through adulthood with nothing more to scrape by than just-enough. Poor sods.

The young lady adjusted her skirt and turned the corner she had been leaning on for awhile now. No patrol was around, it was the perfect time to nab something, if only there was something to nab in the first place. Most of what was here for the picking was nothing but vulture food. Just decaying bones and meat. No warm fruits of conquest for a petty pickpocket girl like Yuki. It would be a sure fire way to get caught, reaching into empty pockets. Shame.

She walked down the busy side walk, head down but eyes up, hidden behind the curtain of golden hair. That’s when she saw him: A man trimmed with gold, a watch and ring, and his clothes didn’t look like they were sourced from a dumpster. Good signs. The distance between them closed. He had just stepped from a taxi, which meant wherever he was heading, he was close. Only one shot at this, make it count.

Just as he came within arm’s reach, another man, not so stocky but tall came from out of nowhere and blundered into the middle-class mark, causing him to tumble into Yuki. His arm smacked into Yuki’s chest where she feigned innocence, grabbing his arm to not fall. What he was unaware of though was the young girl’s true intent. She slipped his ring off in the heat of the moment, slyly shifting it into her jacket pocket. The man is too disoriented to notice.

“Ey, watch where you’re going, retard.” He voices his complaint and adjusts his hat after that scuffle, the tall boy carries on like nothing happened, his face hidden by the huge blue scarf wrapped around his neck. Yuki merely apologizes for bumping into him and heads off. Not more than a second later, she’s mixed into the crowd, behind her the familiar voice echoes through the commute of people. “Get back here bitch! I know you took my ring!” When he looks for her, the girl is just a ghost. Dust in the wind.

[Dawnika Snow]

The fiery blonde ran quickly through the crowded sidewalk to put some distance between her and her mark from earlier who was assuredly chasing her down with malicious intent. She could hear his voice through the busy traffic of people and vehicles. The fugitive turned the corner of the next block, shoving people out of the way, even though her tiny stature wouldn’t allow that normally, the running start aided her favor. With a quick jolting turn, she bolts down an alleyway and takes shelter behind a giant dumpster. The disgusting can and wall she was pressed between smelled of dead rats and ruined leftovers. If she didn’t know any better, this garbage hadn’t been emptied in years. Her shoes stuck to the ground from disgusting drink that had been spilled ages ago on the cracked pavement.

“Ew.” This was disgusting even by her standards - living in a run down building on a rain-soiled bed. Her and Jun really need to work on getting something to cover their damn beds.

After a the moment passed and it seemed no one was present, she stepped out from behind the dumpster cautiously surveying the alleyway of darkness. No one. When she turned around to walk away, she bumped into someone’s chest. They grabbed her wrist before she even had a moment to resist, lifting her up on her toes to strain her muscles.

“You really think you could get away from you little filth? Give me back my ring.” He says as the helpless little girl struggles to break her frail appendage from his grasp. His hands invasively intruded her jacket pockets, only to find nothing more than lint and a piece of plastic wrap from her recent lunch. The girl grins at him, like she had gotten the better of him. Her smug demeanor is met with a backhand to the cheek. He doesn’t let her free, but raises his tone. “Where is it!”

The girls spirits are hardly crushed with a simple slap. “You’re gonna have to dig way deeper if you want that ring back.” She says, arm now going numb from this position.

“I don’t have a problem with that, you little brat.” With that, he reached to remove her clothing with the natural retaliation. Just as he grabs her shirt though, he is struck by a heavy fist across his jaw. Along with his fall came the front half of the teenage girls shirt. She zipped up her jacket quickly to hide her underwear and looked at the idiot in front of her.

“What the heck you dummy, you were supposed to be just ahead of me.” Her angered tone was ill-proportionate to her physical stature. You know what they say: The smaller the girl, the more the rage. Wait, do they say that? “Why did take you so long to intervene?”

“I was sneaking up on him. Jeez, it was easier to take him out with a single strike if he was too distracted to notice me.” The girl let out an exasperated sigh and nodded in agreement. She couldn’t argue with Jun’s logic. Besides he was always there when she needed him most so she could hardly fault her brother.

“Right, let’s just get out of here before someone sees us.” The two trudge off, after taking his watch and leaving the unconscious man in a puddle of sticky disgusting substance that was unidentifiable. Possibly some kind of soda or alcohol. Yuki was upset that she had just lost one of her only two shirts, but her attention returns to the ring hidden in her briefs for safety. Lest she wanted to look like a perverted fool, she would wait til they found a bathroom to pull that free of her unmentionables. Searing pain reverberated through her cheek. It was only know that she realized just how much that man’s hand really hurt. Her hand relaxed against her cheek, trying to rub the pain out with some massaging technique, yet ultimately failing. “Damn he got a good hit on me.” She muttered to herself, Jun obviously heard, thinking he was the one spoken to.

“You alright?” He asked with a slight tone of concern for his sis’. The two maneuvered through the crowd more common-like, as if they hadn’t just mugged a man for his watch and ring.

“Of course,” The blonde retorted snidely and pridefully as always. “You know I’ve been hit harder. I’m no frail flower, but a thorny barb.” After expressing his concern, Jun decided not to pursue the endeavor of showing how much he cared. She had heard it enough by now.

The found themselves in the center district of town, where most of the shops within the 4th tier resided because of the F-Zero attraction. The young lady found herself a bathroom to relieve her underwear of the metallic jewelry. She drizzled some water on it and wiped it off before returning to Jun, who was waiting outside for her. Across the road was their destination: The Pawn Shop. They would create a faux story to fence the ring and walk away rich scoundrels of the poverty war.

It went well, the ‘grandpa’s inheritance’ story never fails. They were able to scrape about 2500 units, more than enough to feed them and get Yuki the clothes she desperately needed now that she was down to a single outfit. It’s time to go shopping plebes!

[Luci]

Jun shuffles awkwardly through the crowds of teenagers at the George Orwell Shopping Center on Teir-4. He pulls his new coat, which looks remarkably like his old coat but with fewer stain, a little tighter as he passes through a group of Teir-5 kids. Jun doesn't like Teir-5 kids, with their dirty hands and cigarettes and hungry eyes. The Teir-5 kids jostle him as they pass,  but Jun knows better than to provoke them. He approaches a phone case kiosk being manned by a friendly but annoying Gungan woman.

Jun shows the woman his brand new mobile device, and she points out the cases that would fit it. Jun has never bought his own phone before, and he wants to keep it safe. He hears a giggle, and sees a small group of Teir-3 kids eying his phone.

"He wants a case!" says a pretty blonde girl in a carrying whisper. "For that!" she says as her friends snicker.

Jun doesn't like Teir-3 kids, with their snickering and suburban superiority complexes and their daddy's cars.

"Thanks, I'll be right back" Jun mumbles to the Gungan woman. He pulls his thick blue scarf up over his face as edges over to the wall, looking for Yuki.

He spots her, grinning widely, a shopping bag in her hand. She is wearing a short pleated skirt like the T-3 girls, with a kind of tiny Kimono as a top, barring her midriff and new belly-button piercing. Jun looks down at his worn boots, wondering if he should have got new ones.

Yuki passes by a group of rowdy Teir-5 orc and half-orc kids. One of them, and orc boy with a nose ring, grunts in a high-pitched voice; the orc equivalent of a catcall. When Yuki does not respond the orc boy reaches under her skirt quickly and gropes her.

Yuki steps in front of Jun as he walks forward quickly, staring down the orc boy. The orc and his friends tap their claws against their tusks menacingly.

"Don't," she whispers quietly, her hand on his chest. The orcs grin as Jun backs down, glaring behind him as he walks back Yuki to the kiosk.

"Uhm," says Jun. "I think the black one?" he says, pointing out a reasonably priced phone case. Yuki nods.

"Yeah, we got enough," Yuki says as she reaches discretely under her skirt for her cash. "Uh," she says intelligently, "it's gone." She looks at Jun meaningfully. Jun looks to where the orcs were a moment ago, and sees a wall.

"Fuck," he remarks, and starts to sprint through mall, Yuki hot on his heels.

They see the orc gang sitting at a fountain, picking change out of it.

Jun connects first, slamming his knee into the nose-ring of orc who had groped Yuki. The orc crumples and bleeds into the fountain. As the orcs start to rise, Jun catches an orc to his right with a solid hook to the temple. The orc is dazed, and Jun grabs his tusk with his left hand and starts to furiously rabbit-punch with his right hand. Jun feels hairy fingers clamp down on his neck as an orc chokes him from behind.

The orc releases his grip as Yuki stabs him in the eye with a brand new stiletto heel. The orc howls as Yuki is tackled by a half-orc girl, and the pair go down in an angry whirl of hair-pulling and new-outfit-ripping and slut-shaming.

Jun turns around in time for a half-orc boy to catch him between the eyes with a haymaker. He stumbles into a gut punch from another half-orc and hits the ground, breath gone. He watches the bright lights of the mall disappear as a crowd of orcs stomp on every spot they can find.

Over the orcish profanity Jun hears a scream. "T4 Knife Ears!"

The light returns. Jun raises his head, seeing the fight through a haze of blood. A gang of elven teenagers are fighting the orcs with bike chains and glass bottles. Jun watches a pair of elf girls rip the half-orc off of Yuki and beat her mercilessly. He cannot watch, and turns away to see four elf boys hold a half-orc's head under the fountain, laughing as he struggled to breath. A massive elf with long red hair is holding the orc with the nose-ring by his throat. The orc holds out a wad of cash, Yuki's stolen units, and the elf takes the cash and releases him.

"Crackshots!" someone yells as a pair of storm troopers burst through the doors to the mall.

The gangs scramble, the orcs running left and the elves running right.

Jun is yanked to his feet, and he sees the huge elf looking him the eye.

"Run," the elf suggests in a deep voice. Jun obliges.

The teenagers navigate easily through the  mall, laughing madly as they loose the storm troopers in the crowd.

The gang try not to laugh as they make it to an alley, staying pressed against the wall as a patrol car passes.

"Here," says a pretty elf girl with a green mohawk. She tucks a wad of cash into Yuki's panty line. "If you're going to keep your cash in your ass, wear a longer skirt," she suggests as the gang giggles.

The massive elf with the red head walks towards Jun, and the gang quiets. He holds up a a few bills.

"This," he says in his unelvenly deep voice "is our cut." The elf then take one of the bills, writes an address on it, and hands it back to Jun. "Party tonight," he says, his deep green eyes very serious.

"Bring your friend."

[Dawnika Snow]

Yuki’s assets seized up as the little elven girl slipped their cash back into her underwear. Her chilly fingers slid across her skin causing the hair on her neck to stand on end. The young woman slid closer to Jun as the group of knife-ears ran off with their payment and pulled the cash back out to count it. It was all there, save for the bills the elves took, but thankfully they got their cash back. Yuki looked up at Jun, claw mark gashed across over her tattoo.

“Should we go? There's free food.” She said convincingly. Her eyes also gazed down to her skirt. It went down past her thighs, that’s long enough...right? With that she adjusted her skirt a little. “My skirt’s not that short...is it?”

Jun watched the posse until they disappeared behind the curb of the alleyway then down to Yuki, who was nervously trying to fix her skirt.

“No, stop.” He said putting his hand on her shoulder. “You look fine. And to answer your more serious question, I say we go. We're paying for the damn party so why not?”

That snide retort made Yuki giggle behind her new fashionable knit scarf. The two walked off back to their home, their run down house with a missing wall and half a roof. A couple shared the building with them mutually. The two were older than Yuki and Jun, but it seemed like finding a decent job was tough for those without education on tier four. That couple stayed in the bottom room while Yuki and Jun took the upstairs.

When they entered through the door, the couple was eating their late lunch, a can of leftover food, probably found in a restaurant trash can. Jun stepped up to the charred broken up table that had been scarred from a fire and slapped a few hundred dollars on the burnt wood. The two dirty faces beamed at the wad of cash, tear welling up in their eyes.

“Get yourselves some clothes and real food.” Jun says to them. The young female bolts up from her stool and hugs the teenage boy bawling her eyes out.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She repeated many times over again through her shaky voice, wetting Jun jacket with her tears. Jun rubbed her back with an agreeing hug. Yuki’s voice rose behind Jun.

“If you guys ever need anything, we're here for you. All you have to do is ask.” Tyrone, the male of the couple, rose from his seat after his girlfriend, Erin, broke the hug with Jun to shake the teenager’s hand.

“We truly appreciate it, but that money is stolen isn't it.” The boy only replied with a nod. Tyrone gestured his palms to Jun, as if he would have him stop there. “I don't want to know what happened, but we'll never forget your kindness. If there is anything-”

“Just, enjoy your..” He glanced at the money on the table throwing another hundred down on the table. “500 dollars. You.” He pointed to Tyrone looking at his torn up sandals. “New shoes.”

Yuki stepped up pulling Erin to the side, and in a whisper she voiced her concerns. “Get some nice underwear for him. Something to really get the fire running.” Erin’s face lit beet red, though she wouldn't deny how badly she wanted that. Yuki only grinned back at her with a nod.

The couple drudged off with their fancy wad of cash to do some shopping and the siblings went to their half-charred bedroom. The two laid on their shared bed, looking at the money they had left. 300 dollars left.

“I think we spent this well, we really needed the new blanket and clothes.” Yuki says kicking her feet at the bed under the new blanket.

“Definitely.” Responded Jun, who was laying on his side with his hand propping up his head. “It's rough, but we manage.”

The teenage girl nods to her lifelong companion and rolls onto her back. Her thoughts circled around the couple they lived with. Every once in awhile she could hear them downstairs at night. To most it would feel awkward to hear others doing something like that, but Yuki’s mind drifted to thoughts of lust.

Being a young teenager, it was only reasonable to think of her desires but love was a topic she tiptoed the line on. She wanted Jun, she knew that. The problem was him. He never made a move before, no matter how much she wanted it. His voice drew her back in.

“Yuki, you alright?” He asked. She simply slid her hand out and grabbed some of the money.

“I was thinking of something I wanted, is that alright?” She asked him.

“If you want all that money there, take it.” He said sliding her the pile. She slyly and shyly grabbed a few more dollars.

“That’s it I swear, you take the rest.” And he folded it up and stuffed it in his pocket. A silence hushed over the room, other than the sound of zooming cars blatantly ignoring the speed limit and their horns filling the evening atmosphere. Yuki stared into Jun’s deep brown eyes and he stared back at her fiery yellow eyes.

“I've always loved your eyes. They burn with the passion of a superior spirit.” The young girl's face burned red with embarrassment. He'd never said anything like that before.

“Wh-Why are you mentioning this all of a sudden?” She asked, pulling the blanket over her nose trying to hide the blush.

“I don't know. Just, looking in your eyes made my mind trail.” Yuki’s face lit up like stop light. Jun was oblivious to the current situation, not sure why she was getting so ruffled. “Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.”

The boy rolled over and tried to get a nap before the party tonight. Clenched hands grasped thick fabric. How badly she wanted to slide up to his back, clench his shirt and tell him how wrong he was. How horribly hard it was for her to do so. They laid in silence for the rest of the evening until the party.

[Luci]

In better days, The Nasty Deeps was a Vasty Deeps themed strip club, complete with fake wave-pool and beach. Since its foreclosure, it is home to raucous night parties from local youth gangs.

Jun watches from behind his scarf as Yuki laughs loudly with a group of teenagers crowded around a bonfire. They are a multicultural lot; around the bonfire alone he counts three elves, a half elf, two humans, a dwarf, and a Machop in an Ed-Hardy shirt. A trio of giggling elf girls in bikinis splash each other with the cool, still waters of the fake ocean. And crowded around Jun, off in the shadowy recesses of the club, are three elf boys.

"So...she's your sister?" asks an elf with a shaved head. He slurs his words, swaying with his hard-cider in hand (an elven favorite).

Jun glares at the elf.

"I think maybe just drop it man," says his friend, an elf with exceptionally long ears that were pierced all the way down.

The bald elf who is bad at taking advice demonstrates this character trait. "So...she's available?"

He laughs dickishly as Jun rises. Jun's stares coldly back.

"Fuck off, Petal. Go have another beer," says the third elf in his baritone voice, the massive red haired leader of the T4 Knife Ears, who Jun had come to know was called Cedar.

Petal fucks off, and his takes his long-eared friend with him.

Jun and Cedar sip their drinks and watch the two elf boys join the girls splashing in the fake ocean.

"It didn't used to be like this," Cedar says after a while. "The orcs have been taking over Teir-4, and the fact is, we just don't know how to fight them. They came from T6 to T5 and now T4, and they're bringing weapons and tactics with them. We don't fight here the way they do in Teir-5; we're not mobsters, we don't do drive-bys. We fought with our fists, or when we had too, chains and knives. We didn't use bows, orcs didn't use swords, and nobody used guns. And now that's changing. The orcs get stronger in Teir-6, they slip more troops and money and weapons into Teir-5. So they fight it out in T5, and every time an orc slips a shipment of chems through customs they get a little stronger here in T4."

The elf lights an American Spirit cigarette and offers one to Jun, who refuses politely.

"For every choice there is a consequence, for every action there is a reaction," Cedar says, pointing his cigarette at Jun. "If those orcs had kept your money, they would have used it to buy a gun, and kill us," he says matter-of-factly. "Eventually they'll do that anyways. Until then, we stomp them out, rip them off, and collect as much OM as we can to fight them as best we can."

Jun sips his drink quietly, thinking about Yuki, and a homeless couple, and a lot of things.

"I think," he says after a while, a slight catch in his voice. "I think that's something I could be a part of."

"Good," says Cedar as he claps a heavy hand on Jun's shoulder. "Because we got a job, and we're gonna need your help. Both of you."

Jun stares up at the elf. "I can't speak for Yuki," he say stiffly. Cedar nods.

"So," the towering gangster says. "You ready?"

Jun shrugs. "Ready as I'll ever be."

Jun thinks about actions and reactions as Cedar cocks back a right fist. He thinks about choice and consequence as he watches the haymaker sail through the air towards his face. His thinks about momentum and kinetic energy as the fist collides with his cheekbone.

He hits the sand, and Cedar delivers a vicious soccer kick to his ribs. The elf tries again, and this time Jun catches the leg under his arm and pulls the elf off balance. Jun scrambles on top Cedar, mounting him and unleashing a flurry of quick blows to his head. The elf bucks him off and the pair scramble to their feet.

Jun notices now the semi-circle of gangsters that has formed around the fight. The normally raucous group is silent, their faces dour. Jun find's Yuki's eyes. She is scared; not because of the fight, but because of what it means, and the decision that Jun has made.

Cedar cracks his neck and looks at his opponent with respect. He removes his long white tee shirt, already splattered with blood, revealing a muscled physique criss-crossed with tattooed vines and flowers. He lifts his elbows high in a Muay Thai stance.

Jun stretches, letting his body loosen, eying Cedar's rib-cage.

The elf rushes forward and tries to deliver a spinning back kick to his opponent's stomach, but Jun spins with him, closing the gap and throwing a wild boxing combination at his face. At this range, Jun thinks he has the advantage, landing five blows for every one of Cedar's. The elf grabs the back of Jun's head with his left hand.

Jun grins through his bloody teeth, thinking that it was very bad decision to try dirty-boxing with him. Jun connects with a free uppercut, and is rewarded with a grunt of pain from Cedar. He is confused when Cedar puts his other hand behind his head.

It makes more sense when Cedar brings his knee up into Jun's face with a sickening crack.

Jun glimpses Yuki above him, and blacks out.

[Dawnika Snow]

Choices. They define people in ways that allow others to characterize them. Everyone is judged off of their actions; their choices. Jun had made his choice and Yuki agreed. She would follow Jun into the fiery pits of hell, because as long as they were together, nothing could stop them.

The teenager clasped his hands into a ball, and hurled a heavy hit to his opponent’s ribcage. With a quick follow up that conjoined fist slammed into the elven jaw mercilessly. Cedar slams against the ground and a loud roar from the crowd sounds as he delivers the menacing blow. It's obvious who has won this fight.

Cedar slowly sits up, rubbing the leaking blood off his chin, “You hit pretty hard for a kid.”

“We'll take the job, make sure we're paid handsomely when we return.”
He said, picking up his heavy blue scarf from the floor and taking Yuki on his way out.

“That’s if my young friend!”

“When.” He yelled back. Cedar let out an amused chuckle; he liked cocky people. The two head home for the night, seeing their friends the couple before they head to bed. They spent their money from earlier today, wearing fresh new clothing and eating some real food. Yuki give a wink to Erin who returned with a nod and a grin. The two retired for the night heading up stairs and into bed almost instantly. Jun laid peacefully sleeping next to her, blood crusting his cheek. She thought about life: How she ran away from home, how she met Jun, and what she was going to do next. Life was is a strange thing indeed. We live to die and people constantly strive to become something. They want their name etched into history. To do something that leaves a mark on the world behind them. Although, what was so wrong with just enjoying life? Yuki has been a criminal since age 4 and can't ever take that away. It's been her whole world, the only way she can survive, but she was having fun with life. It was exciting, fulfilling and completely fine. Although, a new bed wouldn't hurt.

Slowly the blonde drifted into slumber, the last thing she hears where the excessive noises of the couple below them.