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What is TL Noir?
TL Noir is a detective story about a dapper Moderator named Cow who works in TL City. He is tasked with hunting down a troll who is terrorizing TL's populace. Join him on his perilous search through the dark streets of TL and be prepared to experience mystery, adventure, suspense, horror and many, many other intense words.
You can start reading here: Part 1
TL Noir is a detective story about a dapper Moderator named Cow who works in TL City. He is tasked with hunting down a troll who is terrorizing TL's populace. Join him on his perilous search through the dark streets of TL and be prepared to experience mystery, adventure, suspense, horror and many, many other intense words.
You can start reading here: Part 1
It takes a few seconds for my eyes to regain focus. The first thing I see is Hot Bid standing up, looking down at me with a nauseating grin. He lured me into this. Bastard. How is this even possible? Something I'll have to figure out later. First, I'll wipe that smirk right off his fucking face. I launch myself towards him, but feel a sharp pain in my wrist as I'm suddenly yanked back to the ground. Hot Bid lets out a cackling, sadistic laugh, like a child torturing a bug. I look at my arm. He managed to get one of the shackles around my wrist while I was dazed. I'm trapped.
“Hot Bid! What the fuck is this?! It's not funny. Let me go, now!”
He starts laughing even harder, standing just out of my reach, waving the key in front of my face, taunting me.
“You mad, Cow? Problem?” he giggles.
“This doesn't make any sense, Hot Bid. You're a fucking admin! Why are you doing this? All those people...”
My voice is trembling with rage. It only seems to make him enjoy the situation even more.
“For the lulz, of course!” he laughs, “All work and no play make Hot Bid a dull boy.”
“You know you won't get away with this,” I reply, “I'm a Moderator. People will ask questions!”
He erupts in another bout of maniacal laughter. Fucker's getting a real kick out of this. I need to keep my head cool.
“You know what, Cow? You're completely right. I hadn't thought of that. Oh wait, I totally did!” he says while cracking up again. “Oh, this is just too funny. My sides are starting to hurt. Hold on, let me make a quick call.”
He activates his wrist device and presses a few buttons. After a few seconds, a voice with a familiar accent crackles through a miniature speaker on the device.
“Hot Bid? Is that you? Where are you? Are you safe?”
It's Plexa. Shit. He won't be able to hear me, even if I yell. The wrist device was designed to cancel noise from the user's environment. Thanks a lot for improving our lives, Rich.
Hot Bid starts speaking in a serious, urgent tone, almost panting, but he's still looking at me with sparkles of sadistic pleasure in his eyes.
“Plexa, thank God. I found the troll. You're not going to believe this... It's Cow. I managed to subdue him.”
The speaker box goes silent for a moment, then comes back to life.
“...Cow? But... How could that be? It's impossible. Where are you?”
“Dota District, the apartment complex,” Hot Bid replies, “I don't have much time to explain. He ambushed me here and kept me locked up. I managed to knock him out just now and free myself. Please come quick. I don't know how much longer... Shit! He's up again! Plexa, help!”
Abruptly, he shuts down the call and looks at me with his evil grin.
“There,” he says, “now you can be my fall guy, and it will look like I took you out in self defense. Not bad, right?”
I'm still shaking with anger, but I force myself to stay quiet. I refuse to give him the pleasure of watching me scream with impotent rage.
“Giving me the silent treatment, huh? Tell me, Cow, have you ever been banned? Probably not, right? Moderators can't be banned. Except by administrators, of course,” he chuckles as he taps his wrist device.
He's going to ban me. That makes sense. I need to be silenced. He's made up a pretty convincing story, but he can't have me around poking holes in it. I need a plan, right now. I need to stall until Plexa gets here.
“Hot Bid... How could you do this? To TL? To your own sister, even?” I ask.
He gives me a contemptuous smirk. “Please, don't be so dramatic. Do you think any of this matters? Seriously?” He grabs some dust off the floor, briefly shows it to me in his palm and lets it slip through his fingers as he stares me in the eye, still cracking a smile. “This, Cow, this is what we are. Dust. Sand. How long have humans been around? Modern man, I mean. Two hundred thousand years, maybe? A lot of people have come and gone since then, right? Billions. Who still gives a shit about them now? Nobody. Two hundred thousand years. And in just two hundred years, nobody will give a shit about you, or me, or anybody we know. In two billion years, this planet will probably still be spinning, but it'll be hard to even find a trace of humans ever having existed. In the end, nothing we do matters. I'm just trying to have some fun by throwing a few grains of sand around in a desert so incredibly big you can't even begin to imagine it, and you're throwing a fit about it. It's hilarious, when you really think about it. Hilarious... and stupid.”
I've been trying to keep my cool, but hearing his little nihilist sermon just makes me snap.
“You monster!” I growl at him, “Grains of sand? Those are real fucking people you're hurting! Real people wi-”
I'm abruptly cut off by a right blow to the temple and knocked back on my ass. Fireworks made out of pain go off in my head.
“Hush now, Cow. As much fun as this has been, I'm afraid our time here is running short. It's been nice working with you. Bon voyage, my friend,” says Hot Bid as he readies his wrist device for a permanent ban and aims it at me.
“No! Wait!”
It's the last thing I manage to yell before he presses the confirmation button. Immediately, I feel myself being pulled out of my body at an overwhelming speed, out of the building, out of the Dota District, out of TL City, into the darkness, into the void. Fuck.
– TO BE CONTINUED –
