World Lore, Dice Rolls, Tables and Cypher System mechanics (Dropbox Folder)
Weird shit kept happening. I had no control. But when that machine did it’s thing I felt a tingle across my skin and a flare of purple magic from my side. Fuck! I rushed off to find a table and there was a man following behind me.
He was rumpled and frustrated looking. He glared at me as I took an empty seat in the open air of the lobby that we’d come into. The building jutted skyward and it looked like it went on forever. I wondered if it did. If this world was just one verticle building.
The man growled at me. “What the fuck was that?” He said. His voice came out different than the words I actually understood. The magic of translators? Emulators? Where the fuck were we actually? Was living worth all this strange shit.
I looked the way I had come while the man berated me. I wasn’t really listening to his words as I saw those piercing blue eyes find me in the crowd. Maybe it was all worth it to see him smile at me like that. He was releived to see me. I bet he thought I escaped. Why would anyone want to get away from him? But we all had our issues.
I looked back at the man griping at me. He stood there with his hands on his hips waiting. “Look, man, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I’m new here.” I lifted my welcome bag and hoped he understood.
The man looked at it and then back at me and grumbled but he left to do whatever he was tasked with doing.
“What was that about?” Alex said sitting down.
“I apparently caused the fire.”
Alex blinked at me. “How? Why?” he asked cutting into his pancakes and strawberry ice-cream with his fork. He was already chowing down while he waited for me to answer the questions he so simple asked.
I shrugged and sat down with my meal. It was simple chicken with asparagus drizzled and a green salad all drizzled with a lemon garlic sauce that smelled wonderful and tasted even better. A glass of white wine sat in front of me and we didn’t look at all like we were eating at the same type of place. Alex was diner fare, and mine looked like a fancy restaurante. “Is that what you think of when you think of anything you want to eat?” Alex asked me. “Anything at all and you come up with that?”
“This is what I eat normally. Minus the wine. I don’t drink.”
Alex reached across the table and took the wine glass by the stem and sipped at the white. “Not bad. I bet it goes well with the sauce. You should try it.”
“I’m sure it does. But I don’t drink.”
Alex chuckled. “Not even a little?”
“Not even a little.”
“So this healthy eating thing is more than just the food?” Alex looked at me like he was admiring what he saw.
“Yes. I work hard to stay healthy so I can stay out of the hospital. I don’t need my liver to fail anymore than my heart. As if that helped at all.” I sighed. “But this isn’t what I’d eat normally exactly. Not this fancy. More like a floppy tough piece of chicken with canned asparagus and browning lettuce as that was the last thing in my fridge. This is gourmet. I’d never be able to afford anything at all like this.”
Alex grinned. “Ah. That makes more sense. What did you do for a living back in the City?”
“Choreographer in New York, pays well, but not enough. Do some dance Tutoring on the side to make a few extra bucks, and if I’m down between projects for a good time I’ll teach dance and yoga at the local YMCA.”
“All sorts of fun little flexible I guess then.” He winked and I couldn’t help but blush and look down at my food while I cut into the chicken again. It was tender and tasted wonderful and I couldn’t stop thinking about his lips. The kiss…
“So why do you think they chose us?” Alex asked.
I shrugged. “We were dying. I dunno.”
“But why us. There are 8 billion people on Earth, and a handful of them had to be dying so why us?”
“Why not us?” I asked in return and Alex grinned. “I mean, they are giving me a chance at a life without defect. I’m happy to play whatever game they have going on.”
Alex frowned. “You think they are toying with us?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly. But they gave us things, they are going to expect something in return even if we don’t know what it is. We made a choice with these things. I’m assuming you don’t normally walk around with flaming guitars strapped to your back.”
Alex chuckled. “No, not normally. How does it look?”
“I don’t think you could make anything look bad.”
“And now who’s flirting.”
“I would never. I mean I would also never just randomly kiss some guy because he was the first man I saw. And I made a promise…”
“You made a promise to kiss the first guy you saw?” Alex sounded a little hurt.
“It was part of the deal I made so I didn’t die when we stepped out of that portal.”
“The whole point of taking an object was so we didn’t die.”
“I wasn’t being hit by a car, or some other random event. I was dying because my heart failed. It stopped working. How is a flute or a sword going to stop that from happening. The contract promised me life without defect. A second chance. And in return for every day I live I preform a favor. And if kissing a guy is along the lines of favors I’m okay with that.”
“I don’t know if I would. But I took a flaming guitar with little to no knowledge of what was asked in return. At least you know.”
“I’m sure I still have other things I don’t know.” I said. “But I’m glad I got it. And I’m glad it was you I kissed. I kinda wanted to do that from the moment I first heard the song and saw you.”
Alex chuckled. “Really?”
The Mind of Nox 