Pool Shark

I had the con down to perfection.

With my badly shaved haircut, woefully uncool clothing, and with a well trained pathetic cough at the hint of cigarette smoke, I was almost the perfect fish out of water in the seedy bars I’d frequent.

After a soft drink or two, I’d start to badly shoot some pool. And then, like clockwork, there would be someone who’d come over and goad me into a game for money, at which point I destroy them on the felt.

Like I said, I had it down. Until I pulled it in a true shark pool…

Sabrina 003

She was a legit SB-003 Diner Servebot, not one of those plasticy SBX retro anniversary versions. She was the only reason I went into the noodle joint, the food sucked.

But then one day when I went in, she’d been replaced with a damn Waitron XJ9 unit!

I found Sabrina out the back in the trash. I gathered up her components and took her home.

Took me a few months to clean her up and replace all her malfunctioning circuits, but I got her to turn on, finally.

Once I work out how to override her free will, I’m set.

Kir’s Life

My life’s in a pattern now, albeit a patternless one. Every day is different, no two days match, and yet the broad strokes, the same general actions, they are almost like clockwork.

Some days I will get elaborate, Bloody Marys for breakfast, Daiquiris for lunch, Slow Comfortable Screws for dinner, Perfect Martinis for afters.

Other days, it will be whatever booze I can get down my throat at whatever time I can get it.

Anyone who would have been bothered to try and help me has long gone, thankfully. Just me and the booze.

It’s better than remembering, after all.

A Lack Of Plan B

There was no Plan B.

There probably should have been one, really, we had plenty of time while we were rushing on horseback towards the giant volcano that had sprung up overnight.

Heck, could have been a fifteen minute conversation while the horses drank at a stream, just a quick “By the way, if the Interment spell fails, do we have a second idea?”

But nope, we were all so convinced we had this in the bag, we were already counting the gems and overly friendly villagers as we swaggered in.

Still, we did win.

Well, not lose at least.

Surprising Aftertaste

All week she’d been promising me a big surprise. I told her I didn’t like surprises, but she insisted.

Friday ended up being busy as hell, so when she greeted me with a cup of warm tea I drank it down quickly.

I didn’t notice the residue at the bottom, or the bitter taste of the sleeping pills until it was too late and I’d passed out.

When I finally woke up, she had a lavish spread out for breakfast, hence the “need to make sure I hadn’t surprised her mid-cooking”.

Breakfast was good enough for me to forgive her.

Pandermonia

While most cities dealt with the rise of superheros and villains, things stayed old school round here. The Taynts had a monopoly on weapons, The Three Squids had drugs and prostitution, and the Sherfields were banging on the doors of both of them.

And then Pandermonia came into town. She wasn’t like the traditional crims, but she wasn’t like the other supervillians.

She played all three groups, and the cops, and a couple of heroes, turning the turf war from low level scuffles to all out war. Everyone ended up weak and hurting.

Then her ‘twin’ sister Harmoni took over…

Dropping Out

Beth and I communicated mostly by text. We’d met and everything, this wasn’t an internet fling or anything, we were in a normal relationship, but with her work taking her all over the state and my work having unexpected hours, it just made sense to mainly talk via text.

And thus, I thought it was alright to be to say ‘I Love You’ first, via text.

The long, drawn out delay before she replied gave me time to run through hope, anxiety, fear, annoyance, anger before finally settling on dawning realisation that she must have no coverage.

Then she replied...