I’m not sure what woke me in that grungy alleyway, whether it was the dog rummaging through the garbage near my head or whether it was the fat drops of runoff falling from the rooftop above striking my face, all I remember is that I woke. It’s an odd feeling waking up to be a 20-someodd man with absolutely no idea who he was or where he was. The only connections I had to my past was a camouflage suit, an ares predator strapped to my hip, and a credstick that said “Georgi Nakatomi”. Was I Georgi Nakatomi? Maybe. But then, maybe I stole this from Georgi Nakatomi. They were my only links to the past and maybe, just maybe, my only links to the future.
I don’t quite remember how I got out of the alley, but I do remember that the sounds of Lone Star police cars did cause me to feel anxiety. Strange that I remembered that Lone Star was a police agency, and more odd was the fact that I thought there were after me, and yet I still could not remember why that might be. Was I a criminal, or was I a legitimate citizen who feared the police tactics in these crazy times?
The date. That was the next thing I remembered. Some of my feelings of fear began to dissipate as I thought that I might be making progress. Somewhere within my mind lied the secrets to my past, secrets to who I was and what I was doing here. Well, I thought I was making progress, because I then remembered that I had no idea where here was. Maybe I should see a doctor. However, if I were a criminal, then it would be safer to try to deal with this on my own. But then, they don’t put people on ice when they can’t remember whom they’ve 怒らせた?
Okay, so I can speak Japanese. Maybe I was Georgi Nakatomi. As I walked, I began to size myself up, looking at my reflection off a store window. I was about 6 feet tall, 250 pounds or so, most of which was muscle from some sort of working out. I had Teal hair, which I guess was some sort of surge mutation, or at least I hoped that was the case, because I would use the pistol at my side to shoot myself if I found out that I had actually dyed my hair that color. Well, so much for being Georgi Nakatomi.
Continuing to weigh myself up, I began to realize that I had some skills with weapons, for why else would I have a pistol attached to my thigh in a concealable holster unless I was some sort of gun fighter. For that matter, this armor looked like military issued equipment. Maybe I was some sort of black ops agent who had been sent to infiltrate this city and finish some mission. What mission could that have been? And would that government agency come find me, or would they do like they do in the movies and disavow any knowledge of my existence, leaving me to fend for myself with this amnesia I was experiencing?
I heard someone coming out of the alley, and I knew that I had to keep moving. If I stayed in one place, they would come to get me. Who they were, I didn’t know, but I certainly hoped it wasn’t someone who wanted to end my 20-minute-old life. I guess I would deserve it if they did.
As we walked, I began to remember things as the fog within my mind started to peel back, but still nothing significant. I remembered being a small child, holding a wrench while an older man explained to me the parts of a car. I guess that meant I had a childhood and wasn’t a test-tube clone or anything like that. I stopped as the thought came to me that maybe I was a clone and remembering the memories of my original. Looking all around me, I came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter if I was a clone, this was my life now, my genetics and my existence. Had to keep moving.
More thoughts came back: a girl with red hair and freckles, my first girlfriend maybe, and her sister. I remembered that I kissed them both. Who were they, and why was I kissing them? They were young, but I assume that I was also young. That memory and few others lead me to believe that I had been some sort of Gigolo during my teen years, but I wasn’t sure if I had gone to school or if I had been self-taught or home schooled. I do remember learning things and understanding my own language, and then others.
Thinking harder about schooling, the hardened face of a shouting troll came to my mind. Who was the troll, and why was he shouting? He was yelling something about smashing, bashing and hurting. Why? What did he want to hurt? As the memory rolled on, I realized that it was me he wanted to hurt and that I must have beaten him…unless this was a memory of how I got into the alley. Maybe it was.
More images passed my mind, a lady standing on a cliff face, looking out over the ocean below. The wind blew her dress in different directions, and I began to wonder what she was to me. Clearly older, but still something special boiled inside of me. Was she my mother? If she was, then the following images were saddening, as she leaned over the edge and let herself fall. I guess I had witnessed that. I guess I was an orphan.
Finally, I got to a dilapidated building, with a door that led into the basement bar. A pub with a seedy feeling, this place seemed to be full of criminals and illegals. I guess it was the kind of place where shadow runners would frequent. I walked in quietly and sat down on a stool at the bar. Two orks, an elf, a troll and six humans were my only companions in this dwarf run establishment, with a few of the humans and the orks involved in a card game in the back. I didn’t want to bring any attention to myself, especially if any of these men were my enemies.
“What’ll it be today, Lee?” the dwarf asked me as I sat down. Looking at him, I realized that I knew him, but I didn’t know why.
“You’re going to think I’m strange,” I said, looking at the dwarf while I eased myself in the seat, “but I can’t remember how I know you.”
“You’ve been coming in here daily for the past 6 weeks,” the dwarf responded, “and you always get something different. Frankly Lee, I’m starting to run out of new drinks for you. Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah,” I responded, “just a little bit confused.”
“Well,” the dwarf said, setting an empty glass down in front me, “did you finish that job you were doing?”
Pausing to think of how I should respond, I slowly answered, “Yes…I think.”
“Well then,” he said, pulling out a round bottle of tan liquid, “then I have something to celebrate. Been saving it for a special occasion, but if you’ve finished your job screwing over those bastards, then you deserve this.”
He poured some of the reddish-brown liquid into my glass and set the bottle down in front of me so I could get a good look at it. For a moment, I began to worry that there might be poison in the drink, mostly because I wasn’t sure if I could trust this dwarf, but he seemed harmless enough. I looked carefully at the bottle, reading the words on the worn label to see if I might figure out why it was red-brown. I read: Weignut Reiss, erstklassig deutsch wein. I blinked as I realized I knew what that said.
“Thank you,” I said, raising the glass to my lips, breathing in the smell of grapes. “It’s been a while since I’ve had German wine.” I drank and realized that this was the kind of life that I had been living, in the shadows, doing jobs that would normally have been deemed illegal: smuggling, bootlegging, fighting, all the jobs of a shadowrunner.
As I finished the glass, one of the humans spoke in the corner. “If you’ve finished, then you’ve got money,” he said. “Why don’t you come lay some of that the table and let me beat you again.” I turned to see the table full of stolen credsticks and cards. The only credstick I had was for mister Nakatomi, who I may or may not have been. This bartender was calling me Lee, but who knows if that was really my name.
“Did you hear me, Leeroy Denney,” the man said again, moving his head so that he could look right at me, “I’m talking to you.”
So I guess I wasn’t Georgi Nakatomi. “You want my money?” I asked, finishing the wine. “You’re gonna havta keep pray it from my fingers when I beat you at this game you’ve been playing.” I set the glass down and began to rise from my seat, but the dwarf grabbed my arm and looked directly at me.
I could see unhappiness in his eyes that gave me some discomfort. A warning maybe, so I waited to see what he would say. “Listen, Lee,” he spoke, leaning closer, “something is wrong with you today, you don’t seem like your normal self, so I thought I outta remind you that he’s a killer and kills everyone who beats him. It’s his way of being the best. Keep losing like you’ve been and you’ll be okay.”
I smiled at the dwarf and whispered, “I don’t even know if I can play.” Something inside of me told me that this man was my friend, that he had been helping me for a while now and really did seem to like. I felt like I could trust him, especially after that little hint about losing. I would need to remember his name eventually.
So I sat, and watched as they passed out cards. The colors and faces brought something to my memory, and I saw myself in a concrete bunker, crates around me on the floor. I was sitting on a box myself, while the other men, wearing the same tan and green clothes as I was, looked at me through the smoke of their cigars. We all held the cards up in front of us and talked.
“Helluhva day today wasn’t it?” one of the men said, taking the cigar from his mouth before laying two cards on the table.
“Yeah it was cappy,” one of the young, scrawny men said as he dealt two cards to replace the two set down. “Didn’t think we’d make it out of that hellzone.”
“Naw,” a black man responded, dropping three cards as the cigar nearly fell from his lips, clinging on with only the slightest bit of paper. “Good old Lee here wouldn’t let us die like that.”
Everyone chuckled a tense chuckle, but myself the loudest of all. “You have too much faith in me Gunny,” I said in a sort of half echo voice.
“Faith or no,” the man distinguished as Cappy said, pointing at me, “You are one helluhva soldier, and better damned lieutenant.” The other two nodded and looked at me. I felt pangs of pride and acceptance from these men, and inside I remembered that they had been my family once my mother had died. “But,” the captain continued, “if you don’t throw down soon, I’m gonna shoot you myself.”
The guys laughed and I threw down two cards. Looking at the two I received, saw three royal faces looking at me. Starting with the Jester of the court, the queen and her King ran through my hand, with an A and a 10 to hold them in place. Interestingly, they were all the same color, red. Instantly, I knew that I held all the cards I needed to win. It was not going to be hard to convince the kid to step down, but Gunny would be a problem. Still, I tossed my credstick onto the crate and said, “I’m all in.”
“Good,” Cappy said, “Me too.”
“I fold,” the kid said, laying his cards face down. We’d taught him well, since he used to lay them face up. Why did I remember that?
“Gunny,” Cappy asked, looking to the black man.
“Mmm,” the man moaned, looking intently at his cards. His face twisted and contorted as he tried to devise a plan to make whatever held be a winning hand. “I think that I might…”
“Gunny,” Cappy interrupted, “if you’re holding a hand of crap, you might as well fold so that the Lieutenant and I can get down to business.”
“Yes, Cappy,” Gunny said, laying his cards down, “I fold.”
“Okay,” Cappy said, “I call.”
He flipped and showed his four 9’s over to show them to me. “Four of a kind, младенец. Can you beat that, Lieutenant?”
The other men exploded in banter about the hand that Cappy had been holding. Four of a kind was tough, but I could beat it. “That’s a good hand, Cappy,” I said.
“Thank you,” Cappy said, putting the cigar back into his mouth. He reached for the credsticks on the crate, but I stopped him.
“But, not quite good enough,” I continued, laying down my cards. The other two gasped in surprise. Before too long, Gunny started to rock back and forth in laughter, “Damn! Got you good, Cappy.” He continued to speak, saying things in his native street speak, some of which I understood and some of which I didn’t. Cappy looked at the sergeant and then back at me, smirking and sitting back in his seat.
“Well done, Lieutenant. Well done.”
Suddenly the memory faded and I saw the orks and men around me, everyone up in their seat to see the straight flush I had just laid down. I gulped as I realized that though I had been remembering a game from the past, I had still been playing the game in the bar. And I had won, which was something I had not intended. I saw my credstick on the table and the credsticks of all the other men around me. The dwarf swore something and dove under the counter. Two trolls stood up from their seats at the other end of the bar and left the building. All of the men and orks that had been playing cleared the table moving far away from the man who challenged me and myself.
“You beat me,” the man said, his eyes full of anger. “No one beats me.” He slowly began to move his hand toward his pistol, which sat in his lap for intimidation purposes.
“You don’t want to do that,” I said, trying to convince the man to leave his gun alone. He didn’t and as it came to my face, I moved fast to knock it away. A blast hit one of the orks who’d cleared out table and I moved fast, trying to knock the man to the ground. He lost his gun in the fall, but as I stood to run, I found myself face-to-face with his knife. Before I could speak, he sliced the air, attempting to cut me with some of his awkward strokes. I realized then that he didn’t really have the skills to fight people, but it was his anger that had gotten him the reputation.
I quickly disarmed him and slashed him twice with the short blade. He fell to the ground and scrambled for the pistol that had fallen to the floor. I took that opportunity to run, wondering if I actually could fight him. I recognized that he was no trained soldier, but I had also not known whether or not I could play cards. Maybe I had just been lucky, or maybe it was skill, either way, I didn’t want to wait around to find out what I could do.
“Hold it,” the man said, cocking his gun to back his words. I paused for a moment, slowly raising my hands to give me some time to create a plan. “No one beats me and lives,” he continued, squeezing on the trigger of his gun.
Before it fired, I leapt under a table, throwing the knife that I held into his shoulder. Okay, so I could throw knives. He hollered out in pain, but moved to switch hands. I could only hope that he was worse with his left hand. Something told me that I didn’t want to wait around to find out. Instinctually, I drew my pistol and fired a single shot into his head, connecting just about the bridge of his nose, which is where I was aiming. The back of his head blew free, and bits of skull and brain sprayed onto the chair I had been sitting in. I guess I was a soldier.
I stood from my position and closed the distance between myself and the body. That blade was something special, better than any I had held over the years, a prize worth claiming. Pulling it out of his shoulder, I cleaned it off and made my way to the door. The dwarf came up slowly from behind the bar, so I tossed him one of the credsticks I had liberated from the table and said, “That should pay for everything.”
The dwarf nodded and I stepped into the doorway, making motions to head out into the darkening street. As I opened the door, the bleeding ork's friend yelled, “Wait! Who are you?”
“I don’t know,” I responded, “but I don’t think it’s going to take very long for me to remember.” As I exited, a feeling of accomplishment came over me. The dark street seemed inviting as I stepping into it, but was surprised as my eyes began to automatically adjust to the waning light. Something told me that I was not your normal man, nor was I an average citizen. I was a ghost, an apparition, and the street was my home. I couldn’t remember who I was, where I had come from, or what I was doing there, but I knew one thing: I am a Shadowrunner.
So, I guess I get to tell you guys yet another FRISAT adventure. Yesterday, I went to Nathan's with a plan to game until late into the evening and then stay the night. But, before the shadowrun game could begin, Audrea called to say that she was too sick to make it. So, as I waited, we began to realize that Jason had just finished finals and was kinda under the weather, so he might not have had a plan for the Shadowrun game anyway. With that, our desire to game was too strong, so I downloaded a DnD premade adventure, and we changed the plans. Nathan and Jason became the players and I became the DM.
Well, we gamed until 7am, but that was only because we didn't start until midnight. Nathan and Jason were too indecisive about their characters' feats, and we had to pause for Battlestar and Taco Bell. I was excited when I realized that Taco Bell still had my favorite Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes for 1 dollar, which I promptly bought and consumed. It was more than enoguh to keep me going for most of the evening, especially since I drank an entire large Mountain Dew Code Red and another large Mountain Dew before the game began. It was a great game, which still has 2 more adventures attached (it was originally separated into 3 separate dungeons).
Anyway, so after I awoke at 11am, we talked a little and then Jason and I left. I walked to my mom's friends house and met up with my mom, who then picked up my sister and we went christmas shopping. Really, my mom wanted to buy stuff for my sister's new apartment, so we did. After we finished shopping, we went to the ward Christmas party, where I ate far too much food. I've gained 25 pounds since returning home, and I'm kinda feeling bad about it. My mom keeps harping on me for this, saying, "you need to diet" or exercise or something. Others are trying to tell me that it's hard to diet during the holiday season since everyone is making tons of good and fattening foods. Sigh, I guess I'll just be my old big self, even if I know that I can be much smaller.
To end the evening, we did some more shopping and then came back to the house. I scanned more pages of the AGOT handbook and found that some of my favorite shows were coming on Adult Swim. One of my favorite lineups is saturday night. First, Bloody Trinity, then Bleach and Eureka 7, followed Samurai Champloo. Finally, if I feel like haveing my mind warped with some really twisted stuff, I watch Paranoia Agent. Of course, this means that I'm automatically up until 2am, which is not so good for the 9am church.
Well, that's it for today. I'm gonna go and watch Paranoia agent. I might also email some of my friends. I need to get somethings in order before I go to school. Besides, I get to talk tommorrow in the Primary. I guess I'm the only missionary in the history of the ward to write back to the pictures and letters that were sent to me, so I'm popular amongst the kids. Tomorrow, I get to talk about the effect that those letters have on missionaries.
Good luck to all of you. I hope that you're life is full of interesting things. Me, I'm too busy being really nerdy (and sadly kinda puggy...)
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