TCB

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Sticky Fingers

ASSASSINATION TANGO: If that downtown bartender, door-minder, or scenester seems a little twitchier than usual, he or she is probably wondering if you're about to whip out a water gun and soak their ass. About 75 people, including several Texas Rollergirls and employees of Emo's and Beerland, are a few weeks deep into an assassination game headquartered on the MySpace group Austin Assassination. The rules are simple: Players may only shoot their designated target and can't kill or be killed indoors (including cars), at work, or at home. Unlike the courtyard at Emo's, the awning spanning Beerland and Elysium is safe harbor, leading to 007 shit like a recent late-night showdown where one pursuer jumped onto an idling getaway car, barely missing his quarry's dive into the backseat. Other tales of rooftop sniping, curbside shoot-outs, and old-fashioned duels (like the one seen here) abound. Enrollment is closed, but not the black market for information. "No one will sell information," lamented one top assassin, safely beneath the awning, last Monday night. Those who step out of line, shooting innocent bystanders and the like, are relegated to an outlaw list and become fair game for the game's ever-expanding police force, composed of latecomers and eliminated assassins. Right now confusion and suspicion reign, with several players already mistaking their targets and shooting the wrong person (also grounds for the outlaw list), and still others winding up on the "incompetent" list for not doing anything at all. With only about two dozen kills so far, it looks to be a while. "This could go on at least a month," our assassin figured. "I think some of the bar owners are mad because a lot of people are staying in." Then he slipped back into the shadows and was gone.