Nexus Noir, Chapter 1, Part 1

Ok folks, just finished Chapter 1, part 1. I wanted some feedback to see if I was going in the right direction, so critisizim of all kinds is welcome, I promise not to flame you

It's a cold night in Nexus Prime. It's always a cold night. The wind beats at me with chilled rage, ruffling my jacket. In the off-hours, few Liasons are around. Rate mining and prim hording run rampent, day before tax day. Everyone's trying to save themselves, make money the easy way.

I walk, alone. A few stray primitives are on the street, following me. They hit me, knock me a few meters away. I'd report abuse, but me and the Police Blotter weren't on speaking terms ever since I accidently stripped at the Welcome Area.

It was a bright day then. I remember it well. I was trying out a new avatar, a fat and ugly one. I tried to change clothes with it, but I was lagging bad. I thought I had changed clothes, but unfortunetly I was naked to everyone else. Lee took me downtown to see the "Big P," Philip Linden. The Big P didn't go easy on anyone, and I was no exception.

I found my safe-haven at Nexus Prime, crawling the streets at night. Sometimes I sneak my way into apartments. A long time ago I had a flat for free, from a guy everyone called Deeblue. I was a friend, so I got a deal. A good one.

Now I'm lucky to find my way into the occasional house, maybe a vacant apartment here or there. It's not like the ratings keep me up. I get a dollar, I play it at the tables in Coney. Ama Omega, Game Czar. He keeps me alive. He also threw me to the floor. I gambled all my money away on a pyrimid game. A few faulty calculations on my part, and I loose everything I've got. And damn is it ever gone. Now I live by him. Ironic, isn't it?

I come across a few thugs smoking scripted joints, huddled around a guy on the floor. I recognized the man instantly. Hollocut Tori, a vagrant like me. He used to be a respected weapons designer, but he lost it all on a bet in Jessie. He never went into details with me, but the bets I could get out of him involved a small monkey and a big gun.

The thugs were beating him up for lagging there territory.

"Ya think ya can come in here and own da place, do yaz ya punk? Well yaz wrong!" He snorted un-intelligently.

"k1Ck H1S @5S OMG WTF LOL!!!111!1!1!" Underagers, I think to myself. I couldn't just stand around and do nothing. I open up my inventory. It was sparse these days, not too much I could afford to do anymore. My objects folder had two things: a scripted bumper to bounce anyone near me 20,000 meters away, and a gun to bounce anyone near me 20,000 meters away. I go for the gun.

As soon as I take controls, I switch straight into mouselook. A gunshot could be heard throughout the silent night, and then it was over.

Hollocut, or HC as I liked to call him, is laying on the floor. I walk over to him. He gets up and brushes himself off.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask.
"Sounds like I should be asking you that, my friend."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Didn't you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Oh, well if you didn't hear-"
"I can IM the thugs if you want..."
"OK OK, you win! Big P's been talking. I heard about it from someone on the inside. Can't tell ya who, there was a middle-man. Anyway, Big P says he's gonna take over the place. Been lagging the neighboring sims."

My heart sinks. I know that if Big P got a hold of this place, it would be over. No more safe haven. The only place I could go was Jessie, where I would fight it to the death every day. I couldn't handle that, not anymore. It just couldn't be.

"Am I supposed to believe that?" I say. I know it was true, but I had to keep the hope alive.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You'd be outta here. Well so would I. But whatter we 'pose to do? Big P's got too much power for us!" He was obviously as shaken as I was.
"We could go to Gibson."
"Zeeman would kick us out." I knew he was right. Zeeman and Big P have been fighting ever since Zeeman got control of the casino. The casino's more of a decoration now, with Ama's arcades, but it meant pride.

Getting Nexus was probably all one big strategic move, to try to make a fool of Zeeman and his cronies.

My one choice was to befriend Zeeman and take out Big P with him.

"HC, I've got a plan."

I was there too... in the Welcome Area where a spontaneous party had broken out in celebration of the 1.1 implementation. We were young, we were innocent, we were having a good time. Even Lee and John had joined the dancing, and time to time you could see them sneaking a swig of the free-flowing booze offered to them with claps on the back and a "Here ya go, buddy!".

I was young, I was innocent then. I hadn't yet seen the horrors of Olive experiments gone awry. I didn't know they existed...

First we thought it was the beat of the base as we danced with joyful abandon. As realization dawned that what we heard was ground shaking footsteps, one by one we stopped our dance and turned to see what it could be. Our drunken smiles quickly dropped from our faces.

It was huge. Tall and wide but that wasn't the worst. It had two heads, one human and one hippo. A pink bikini not only failed to hide the massive pounds of bulging flesh, but highlighted them in a way which alone made one grown man lean over the railing and spew.

As it approached, enormous protusions could be seen, one from its chest and one hanging obscenely between its legs. Some screamed and ran, the horror reflected in their wide shocked eyes. Others like me stood riveted, our feet like lead.

It sauntered up, beer mug in hand and proceeded through the crowd, just like it was... normal. "Hey guys! Wazzup?"

Some screamed, some fainted, some wailed and gnashed their teeth as the realization dawned. This was no creature unleashed on us from the depths of hell... this was Darwin.

Poor Darwin seemed entirely unaware of the ungodly ugliness of his new personage. Hesitantly, I brooched a question, "What's that hanging down between your legs, Dar?" Before he could even begin to answer, a man screamed out in a voice so wrangled with terror he sounded like a woman, "OH MY GOD! IT'S A HIPPO LEG!!"

Now I haven't liked Darwin since that night in LindenWorld when he refused my love offering of a Second Life Lottery t-shirt, claiming not to have gotten an Accept message. But underneath this quasi-human-hippo-av was our Darwin, a man admired and respected from Mauve to Shipley. I had to help.

Donning my Nurse Jane uniform and pert little cap, I took a deep breath, and began to approach, hypodermic in hand. What happened next was a scene from your very worst nightmares, turned virtually real.

With a sidelong glance at me, a snicker and sneer, Darwin stripped himself of the pink bikini that was the last bar from insanity for most of the crowd. There before us was a horror no avatar on any sim, be it PG or M, should ever have to face in this second life. It was... Darwin naked.

They ran, they screamed, men called for their mothers, women dropped to the ground and wept. John clung to Lee weeping and babbling. It sounded like "You never told me the naked ones looked like this". Lee mechanically patted his back, shaking his head. "I didn't know, little one. I just never knew it could be like this."

We thought things had reached their worst, and in a stream of IMs we plotted and planned how to cage him. All agreed the most humane thing to do was to put him... and us... out of our misery.

Darwin hopped, skipped, and twirled through the crowd like Derek the dancing monkey. "Am I naked? Can you see me? Am I naked?", he cackled. We wept as the last vestiges of what little sanity Darwin ever had faded.

Naked as a jaybird, he whirled off toward Nexus Prime, and on the wind we heard the last of Darwin... "I'm sorry. I can't help it. But I'm naaaakedddd!!!".

I wish you well, my fat ugly friend. I wish you well.

Candie Apple
Second Life
Dateline October, 2003

I take back what I said about game fiction; both of those were hilarious. Darwin, I actually want to hear more, God help me. Candie, you make Darwin sound positively Lovecraftian when naked.