Introducing a serial story of undetermined length. Birthed from a dream, installments will follow as time and inspiration strike….
They call me Finesse because I know how to win without fighting. It doesn’t mean I cannot fight, as many have found. But that is what they call me and in many ways, it is as much a warning as a mark of honor, but I am getting ahead of myself.
I live in The Underneath. In this place, you never walk alone, a smile is a threat, and the only people you can trust are the ones bleeding at your feet. A friend is someone who has saved your life when they didn’t have to, or someone who has saved your life without asking you to pay them for it.
My friend is named Suave. His real name is Mick, but they call him Suave because he can bluff his way out of most anything.
We have a good many places in the Underneath where we play. But our favorite is the Glass Half, in the Unwatched District. They call it the Glass Half because you never know if it’s empty or full until you get inside. They call it the Unwatched District because the Enforcers gave it to us as an agreement that they could have the rest of the Underneath.
Anarchy has its ways, just like any other system. When you need to compromise to get what you want, you do. The Unwatched District was Control’s way of compromising with us. We will still do what the hell we want, of course, and they expected that we would, but we tend to do it a little more in the Unwatched District than out because let’s face it, humans are creatures of habit and generally prefer the path of least resistance.
Suave and I like the Glass Half because the owner is a friend of ours. But we also like it because we know where the name comes from, and that the judgment of it’s fullness or emptiness has very little to do with how many people are inside.
The Glass Half is where those who live in outside the Underneath come to prove to themselves and those they know that they ‘have it’. We have a strict rule about Tourists and it’s the one rule that will get you on the termination lists without care: Tourists are safe in The Underneath. Period.
They bring us money and very often, drugs we cannot otherwise obtain. The trade market for Antibiotics in particular both overwhelms and outclasses the one for any of the recreational drugs by a factor of about three.
Tourist also present the delight of “fresh meat” to toy with when the mood requires, so they are permitted absolutely safety in our streets, alleys, houses, and establishments. As condition of entrance, they are marked clearly to insure there are no mistakes – bearing an ultra-violet tattoo upon their forehead. Since black light is the only common lighting in the Underneath, it insures they are usually clearly visible.
Citizens of the Underneath, by reflex, know to sweep their wrist light over the forehead of an intended victim. In fact, the habit is so ingrained that I’ve seen people do it even when they have known their victim all their life. You see, mistakes aren’t forgiven in the Underneath. So one must be deucedly careful if one wishes to enjoy life. The gesture has come to be a form of insult as well as threat here. It is not at all uncommon to see someone use it before a fight, indicating their disdain.
Mistakes are not forgiven of the Tourists at all. Any infraction here carries the penalty of death. They know it. It’s part of their pre-entrance course where they receive the forehead tattoo. We live for their mistakes, of course. It is part of the spice of allowing them to be here.
The Glass Half is the entry point for “Touries”, as we call them when we’re being polite. A massive complex, the Glass Half offers everything from drug cafes to brothels to our more… unusual… fare. The culture of the Underneath is as merciless as you would expect it to be, with a few notable exceptions.
First and foremost, while the currency for Touries may be money, drugs, or favors, the currency for citizens is purely favor-driven. If you have a Name in the Underneath, you have it because you somehow earned it. If you don’t, you’re no more useful than a Tourie, which is a dangerous way to live life, since being without a use means you’re sucking up resources that might be better applied elsewhere.
Naturally, this means there is a constant competition in place. The methods are violence or betrayal and the rewards are notoriety and name ranking. Most of these sorts of competitive engagements are carried out under the guise of elaborate etiquettes and mock fights. Within the Glass Half, you can find all of this, and sometimes, more.
Suave and I work as a team. Sometimes we are lovers, but not often, since jealousy or a sense of proprietary interest is usually terminal in our lines of work. Tonight, we are at the Glass Half to relax and take in the Tourie action. People tend to compete for Tourie attention both as a means of displaying their predatory and manipulative skill as well as the method by which to procure their needs across any of the types of payment a Tourie will render.
We enter and make our way to the fight pits; the place where Touries and citizens engage in fights to the point of unconsciousness, with rewards ranging from credit toward a Name in the Underneath for the Touries who wish to immigrate, to drugs or money for the citizen competitor. It’s a fair and safe way to vet Touries for life residency, and it brings a surprisingly good profit to the Underneath, mostly from Touries who have no real hope or chance of immigrating.
Suave and I are slated to work the pits tonight, and we’re both keyed up on adrenaline at the prospect as this is one of the few outlets a citizen ever gets against the generally weaker and infinitely more privileged Touries. It’s an irony that citizens of the Underneath are sent here as a result of inability to meet the stringent genetic laws required for life above ground. But we’ve made our own, odd peace with it and the fight pits are considered a worthy point of venting by Control on both sides of things.
As I said, Suave and I are working the pits tonight. He takes the pugilism and I work provocation. Usually. The fights are rigged in teams, and the rules are as strict as anything else here. The fights are ‘no holds barred’, but only with the limbs and skills you were born with or could afford to have enhanced. Weapons are strictly forbidden.
Fights proceed in something of a ritualistic fashion – first is the verbal round, with points given for colorfulness and originality of language and judged impact of their use upon the opponent.
They proceed from words to fisticuffs, with points given both for who incites the first blow as well as how violently that first strike is delivered. From there, it is pretty much as you might expect, the provokers move to the side and the pugilists hammer it out until one or both fall unconscious.
Opponents are revived as needed, and the point tally delivered and recorded in Control’s logs for civic reporting and, of course, reward. The winning team is announced and the fighting ring is cleared and thus it goes on a full twenty-four hour a day basis, year ‘round.
Citizens are allowed grudge matches for various reasons, but Touries can only fight Citizens. Tonight’s matches are pretty standard fair with most being the usual Citizen versus Tourie matchups. Suave is prepping by taking Dust, an Underneath equivalent to methamphetamine. It’s not really an upper so much as it is a synaptic enhancer. He swears it makes him faster and I understand that sometimes, what you think is more important to you than what may be, so I say nothing.
We’re last on the match sheet tonight, so we’re relaxing with the Touries at the bar and watching the leaderboard and odds for our fight. If you’re savvy, you can swing the odds or at least make a bit on them, so experienced pit crews will often gather to work their psychology on the Touries in hopes of getting a few more points on the board before the match.
About an hour before match time, we receive the psych sheets on our opponents. This is a common courtesy as well as a Control approved means of allowing Touries to withdraw and forfeit. A Tourie can decide they don’t want the match and withdraw without penalty. The Underneath team receives a small boost in Name ranking, so both sides ‘win’, so to speak.
Our team tonight is a pair who are going for immigration to Underneath. We both perk up at this, because it usually means the fight is actually going to be a challenge, maybe even a threat. Touries who are officially ranked as contenders for immigration have had enough fights in the pits to earn it, enough wins to make them enjoyable as opponents, and enough experience at it to present the slight possibility of a loss.
All in all, something well worth perking up about for us. Suave moves to the terminal and calls up the vids of their previous matches as well as their point sheets for the last year. I turn to the archive of Control reviews to research their sessions with the immigration council. Getting insight to why they want to immigrate and what their situations are often gives a provocateur good grit for the slanging.
Time passes and we hear the five minute bell. We spend the last three minutes stretching and limbering up. I can see from the sheen in his eyes that Suave’s dose has reached plateau and we’re as ready as we’re going to be. Mock scraping with one another as we walk, we make our way to the ring.
[to be continued]