Baron I

[WP) You always thought it was Live Action Role Playing. you acting like a crime boss, ordering people around. You never saw drugs or murders, so it's just a game, right? Now you're on the run from government agents while trying to figure out how to escape this mess.

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It was always a game. A game and nothing but.

Maybe that was the reason why I was in this situation which I had never forseen: on the run with nothing more than two hundred dollars in my pockets and the clothes on my back.

To understand how I found myself in this condition, I'd need to take you back to eight months ago. When I first started the game, Cartel.

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My friend Casper was something of a daredevil - he mostly lived on his erratic impulses, and I was just there as the tactical and coolheaded friend he needed to get through the day without becoming a fugitive.

I tried my best, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep him within the law even as he drove a knife edge in the name of living life.

So I wasn't surprised when he came up with an idea while we were just sitting and talking about life, no, more like our dwindling financial status.

He sounded as casual as he normally did, but now, now that I'm same enough to recognize the warning signs I had foolishly missed, I realize that there was something about the way that he looked at me when he talked.

His casual tone sounded forced, and his eyes were eerily but very intently fixated on my figure as he asked "Would you run a cartel for money?"

I turned to him and laughed. "Bro selling crack is a no-no. Plus drugs and the streets are just another means by which we'll get sucked into the world of deception, murder and the likes. There's gotta be better ways to..."

"Chill, Mister Goody-two-shoes. Nobody said anything about you having to be on the streets. I mean, could you manage a cartel successfully and turn it into, I don't know, an empire?"

I sat up this time and looked at him, just to better capture his face as he said this. When Casper said things like this, it was stupid to think they were just products of his wild thoughts during idleness. Casper was unpredictable, so I had to be sure.

"What?" He asked, noticing my eyes were upon him.

"I've been looking at you for the past two minutes or so man. You haven't noticed, which means there's something bigger on your mind. I don't like the sound of that, so spill!"

[WP) You always thought it was Live Action Role Playing. You acting like a crime boss, ordering people around. You never saw drugs or murders, so it’s just a game, right? Now you’re on the run from government agents while trying to figure out how to escape this mess.

It was always a game. A game and nothing but.

Maybe that was the reason why I was in this situation which I had never foreseen: on the run with nothing more than two hundred dollars in my pockets and the clothes on my back.

To understand how I found myself in this condition, I’d need to take you back to eight months ago. When I first started the game, Cartel.

My friend and roommate Casper was something of a daredevil – he mostly lived on his erratic impulses, and I was just there as the tactical and coolheaded friend he needed to get through the day without becoming a fugitive.

I tried my best, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep him within the law even as he drove a knife edge in the name of living life.

So I wasn’t surprised when he came up with an idea while we were just sitting and talking about life, no, more like our dwindling financial status.

He sounded as casual as he normally did, but now, now that I’m same enough to recognize the warning signs I had foolishly missed, I realize that there was something about the way that he looked at me when he talked.

His casual tone sounded forced, and his eyes were eerily but very intently fixated on my figure as he asked “Would you run a cartel for money?”

I turned to him and laughed. “Bro selling crack is a no-no. Plus drugs and the streets are just another means by which we’ll get sucked into the world of deception, murder and the likes. There’s gotta be better ways to...”

“Chill, Mister Goody-two-shoes. Nobody said anything about you having to be on the streets. I mean, could you manage a cartel successfully and turn it into, I don’t know, an empire?”

I sat up this time and looked at him, just to better capture his face as he said this. When Casper said things like this, it was stupid to think they were just products of his wild thoughts during idleness. Casper was unpredictable, so I had to be sure.

“What?” He asked, noticing my eyes were upon him.

“I’ve been looking at you for the past two minutes or so man. You haven’t noticed, which means there’s something bigger on your mind. I don’t like the sound of that, so spill!”

He laughed out loud before looking out the window. “Calm down, man. This is just a hypothetical situation here, I’m wondering if you would really be up to the task of running an underground drugs network without being caught. Let’s call it a game. Uhmmm, cartel. We’ll call it Cartel.”

“Casper, you do realize I’m not buying this, don’t you?”

“I’m not asking you to buy anything actually. Or sell either. I’m asking you to manage, run, control. This might or might not be what I’d use as a framework to build my own empire...”

He saw he look I flashed him.

“...of course, nothing having to do with drugs or any illegalities. But a similar business pattern nonetheless.”

It did sound like a little bit of fun, so against my better judgement, I started the game with him. Our ‘game’ wasn’t played with a board or dice, it was very peculiar.

Casper could call me any day, telling me about a hypothetical situation: a place to expand my business with details on the demographics and security of the place. Or it could be to choose a new dealer to work with, based on their characteristics. Of course I felt it was new, hypothetical situations and characters, so I thought nothing of it and gave him my honest opinion.

However, it soon reached a point where I could not ignore my instincts and avoid questions for the sake of our friendship.

Casper began showing subtle signs of a flamboyant, ostentatious life. His wardrobe changed. A new car backed up by very little explanation as to how it came, accompanied by a smile. Women frequenting the place, as well as a few strange, dangerous looking men who nodded whenever I looked at them.

It became clear to me that a confrontation was imminent, and it would completely change our relationship.

For the worse.

******

@Hanzell , @gertu13 , @Leo_kitti we have another short series coming up 🤏🏾😎