Ch. A- I'll spell things out.
Neon lights ain't an especially becoming illumination on any girls face, but on the plus side, if a gall manages to be attractive in a violent shade of green-ish yellow you know she's definitely gonna be attractive in the morning. Which is good when you've got a whompin' pair of beer goggles on.
Dev, had been lecturing on the matter for the last 3 rounds. Of course, due to a couple of girls who managed to pass Dev's green-light test the last two rounds had been something called Purple Nurples1, fruity, horrific things that left their mouths a fungal violet color. Didn't matter though, the girls didn't look like they could find their feet anymore. A clear evaluation of their faces, that wouldn't happen tonight. Dev gave his friend a wink and wrapped his arm around female A, which clearly inspired something in female B who nudged her way under Derek's arm. Then she looked up at him and twittered.
Leftovers. Happened every time Dev placed. The trophy girls would parade him around with him like a prized pig. Normally, Dev was a sensible guy, fair-muscular, too, with dark hazelnut skin, long dark hair, eyes and a nose a little too big for his face. His looks weren't a shameful set, but his track records on the hover-bike course; they made him look like Gunner Tres, the pheromone-charged model from TuYuk's Reconstructive Surgery ads.
Sensible when he didn't get second, that is. Good loser, great winner, but second place wasn't pretty. Derek and Dev were like brothers and Derek just didn't want to have to hit his oldest friend over the head with a magnotorque-wrench.
"You know! I could'a had him! That turn? 3rd lap? Where Reggie went down. If I had just broke, gone to the in—"
"You either drink another round, forget this whole business, or I'll clock you with the wrench again."
"When've you ever hit me with a wrench?"
"Do you remember the weekend after the Ecox-Championship on [Telos]?"
"Not really."
"That's why."
Dev just began to formulate his verbal assault, or physical, he hadn't decided yet, when the electronic-disco theme music stuttered and shut off. The screens around the bar all went to black. There were a few seconds of silence before a general grumble started to rise up from the crowd. Just as the drunken jeers started up an image popped up on the screen accompanied by a crisp static.
{quote Miranda Broadcast}
The hum died down.
Slowly the people in the bar began to compose themselves, the air buzzed as the broadcast looped. People trying to make calls found their communicators streaming the terrible thing.
"Times like this you hope it's all a joke. A bad joke, from someone who couldn't get a chuckle out of a knock-knock joke," Derek said.
"Man, I don't think so," Dev said in a low voice. "The crowd is looking a little… off. Do they seem a little wild-eyed to you?"
They didn't waste any time. They crossed the club, and had to elbow a few people just to get through as the bar-goers started to get more livid, frightened, and confused. The ideas this broadcast had thrown into the room were crazy and everyone around them was hoping on the crazy train with 'em.
1 Supernatural from the CW a throwback. Don't sue. I'm nice.