Interlude - A Crackshot's Crack Shot

Interlude - A Crackshot's Crack Shot

Interlude - A Crackshot's Crack Shot

"What are my chances again?" he asked.

It took a moment for Enyries to reply in his head 'Still not great. You have a one in seven thousand-two hundred chance.'

That had gone up a little since last time. Not much, but a little. "A chance is a chance," he said. "You miss every shot you don't take."

'Well, yes, but sometimes you just miss regardless of whether you took the chance or not.'

He chuckled. "I get that, yeah. But if the world ends, then I want to go out knowing that I took that chance. It's a man thing."

'If you say so.'

Buying a Romance Chance Calculation Software catalogue had been a weird choice for him. Not that he'd go back on it. It was interesting seeing the results pop up whenever he looked at someone. Some were interesting. Grasshopper was not romantically interested, period. Tankette, however... wow, that lady had wandering eyes.

It threw up some weird results sometimes. Hedgehog was... kind of just a picky dude, but that was all. Crackshot had his thing shut off for anyone under eighteen, not because it couldn't work on them, but because it squicked him out something mighty.

Gomorrah was obviously into her maybe-girlfriend, but the Complication Matrix levels there were stupid high. Stray Cat and that Lucy girl? They had the same metrics as some couples he'd met who were happily married for thirty-plus years, which was wild.

Cat was one crazy lady, in his humble opinion, and it made him worried about that Lucy girl too because there was no way she was sane if she was into that.

None of that mattered at the moment. He was just distracting himself so that he didn't have to think of what was coming up. He got off his iron horse, then tugged the horse's rear-view mirror to the side to get a better look at himself.

He was in a nice button-up shirt. All the buttons nice and shiny right up to his neck, collar on proper-like. It was a beige and red plaid-like pattern that he enjoyed. His jeans were nice and neat, pleated down the middle because he'd starched and ironed them himself. Bit stiff, but he could live with it.

Boots were spit-shined like new. He'd even oiled his spurs.

"Right," he muttered. "Now or never."

The place was one of the biggest shopping spots in New Montreal. Big enough that even his country-bumpkin self had heard about it in ads and in passing. It was the kind of place that people would take a detour to visit if they had business in the city, just to say that they'd been.

It was also where Emoscythe stayed.

That might have been part of the mystique, he figured. A woman like that--not just a samurai--staying around was good enough of a reason for anyone to want to visit.

He stepped into the place and soon enough he was lost in the crowd.

"Yes ma'am," he said before he quickly removed his hat. Curse his fool brain, he was forgetting his manners. "Ma'am, I'm here to ask you something that might be inappropriate."

She blinked. "Go on?"

"I... I wouldn't normally ask this sort of thing. I'm hardly a brave man, I'm afraid, but I suppose the world ending and all had shaken things loose. Miss Emoscythe Mordeath Noir, would you mind if I asked you out on a date?"

She stared for a moment, then laughed, but she covered her mouth. There was mirth in her eyes, but not rejection. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Twenty-two," he said.

"I'm thirty-two, aren't I a little old for you?"

"I don't mind that at all," he said. "In fact, I rather like it. Just how I like all the rest of the things I know about you."

She tilted her head, exposing just a bit of lace-covered neck. By god, this woman would be the end of him. "You're bold, aren't you?" she asked. "I admire your courage, at least."

"I reckon it's not the sort of time for cowardice and hesitance," he said.

She laughed, and he felt some of the tension in his shoulders loosening up. "Very well, Mister Crackshot Cowboy. I'll allow you to take me out on a date."

"Really?" he asked. "I mean, yes ma'am. Thank you, ma'am! How's dinner sound?"

"Right now?"

"We've only got hours to go," he said. There were quite a few hours, of course, but still. He had to move while his bravery lasted.

"I suppose I could eat. Dinner?"

He nodded. "Dinner with you sounds lovely," he said honestly.

The world might be ending but that didn't mean this wasn't the best day in his life.

"One in seven thousand, eh?" he muttered, a smile sneaking onto his face.

***