Two Parts Gin

I've got this idea for a short story series and I'm going to go over the basic concept here.

"Two Parts Gin"

In a club downtown, they like to play a game. It's a game of trust, honesty, deception, and manipulation. You play it how you want, but in the end, there are only two winners. They lock up the club, you can leave but nobody gets in. Ten men dressed in uniform work their way through the crowd, talk to people, and then choose someone. They give this person a crystal vial. Two of these vials are filled with gin and the rest are filled with water.

The object is to find the person who holds the gin.

The rules are this:

You can't win with the gin you are given, you must find someone else's gin.

You only get one guess. If you're wrong, you get kicked out.

If you find the gin, you win and the person with the gin is kicked out. If the two people with the gin find each other, they win.


Beyond that, there are no rules. Anything goes; you can pretend you have the gin, you can bribe someone to find the gin, or you can seduce someone to find the gin. Hundreds of possibilities and everyone plays the game differently. The prize is your name on the wall, a commerative shotglass, and a toast from everyone left in the club.


I plan to use the setup to write about certain interpersonal dynamics between both strangers and people who know each other well. It might make a fun video game too. I may have to look into doing it that way.

I like the title. I love making titles. I watched a horror movie the other weekend called, The Dark. It was a decent horror movie with a strong background in Welsh legends, but the movie was poorly named. It could've gone with The Sheperd or The Flock. It even could have been titled Annwn and that would've made it more appealing than just calling it, "The Dark"

I think the title should reflect a main theme in a piece of literature or at least name something significant to the plot. Farenheit 451, very good title, it doesn't say everything about the book, but it doesn't have to. It catches a main theme and leads you into it. A Sound of Thunder, horrible title. The story's about time-travel and dinosaurs, and not weather. It's supposed to signify the sound of the gunshot, but why not call it, The Last Thing You Hear or something more fitting like End of the Trail.

I had a hard time focusing today. Not sure why. I was spacing out like crazy. I ordered some Lobster Bisque from the Soup Man and it didn't settle well with my stomach, that might have been part of the problem. I'll snap out of it for tomorrow. Today I'll just finish what I've got to do.

And then...

I warped back to Reeva. Stealing the Refractor Crystal was a snap. With all the amazing things out here in deep space, there are still few people who can teleport. Even less who use the power of N.O.

I took a bus back to Kattox. It was the day of the solar eclipse and the event itself was only an hour away. Climbing the Fraction Buildiing was going to be hard with Sayoko on the lookout for me. I staked out the front entrance.

A blonde secretary with her hair pulled back in a bun walked out of the building. She pushed up her glasses on her nose as she looked both ways to cross the street. She cradled a notebook in her arms like a child. I had found my key in.

"Hey there."

"Hello?"

"Looks like you've had a hard day of work."

"Yea, the paperwork really stacks... Do I know you?"

"You could if you wanted to. Can I buy you a drink?"

"No, I don't really have the time..."

"What if I bought you a car to go along with that drink?"

"A c-car?"

"A nice sports car with leather interior."

A couple of drinks and a Galaxus GT later...

"You know what we should do? We should sneak up to the roof of the Fraction Building."

"I could get in trouble."

"Yea, doesn't that sound fun."

*giggle* "Okay, okay, sshhh follow me."

As we ascended the back staircase of the building, swiping a few security doors with her card. I kept thinking about how this might be my last few minutes before I'm sushi on the roof of this building.

"Alright beautiful, I've got business to take care of, I advise you get out of here."

"But the roof..."

"Is a dangerous place for a girl like you, don't take this the wrong way, but I think we should just be friends."

I grabbed her key card and slammed a security door in her face. Heh, that's always hilarious.

I stared across the roof of the building. The shadowy figure of Jack Haley stared back at me. The wind blew gently across the building and both my brown leather jacket and his black headband billowed gently in the breeze. I walked toward the battleground and then stopped. Deciding another trip to Earth was in order.

Until next time fellow pirates.