Artist of Venice Angeles

A Story by Abishai100

Can/will an Earth-prince 'match' a hideous shark of Venice to 'win' the hand/heart of a damsel (for empire)?

A modernized/sci-fantasy spin on the classic The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare). Thanks for reading,

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In sunny Venice Angeles lived a bardic journeyman with a taste for adventurism-storytelling that would hopefully cast him as a beach-hero of Earth, as he'd try to rescue a special damsel from the clutches of a nefarious evildoer, a horrid loan-shark named Shylock, but this journeyman-protagonist and potential hero, a young UCLA-grad, had a cool secret --- a great knack for chess and an erudition in stalemate-chess diagrams.

The protagonist-hero wannabe, the young-man of Venice Angeles is Amlan Satan, a cool video-game 'wiz' whom his friends like to nickname 'Storm-Shadow' (for his swift speeds with any kind of game/platform for cyber-magic!), and Mr. Satan had met a beautiful young waitress in the Venice Angeles arcade (Tandy) whom he recognized as a human-femme who needed rescue, meeting her on a Saturday Eve in August (2022).

TANDY: I think all these diamond-toy gifts you shower me with, Mr. Satan, re-presents 'cyber-angst' you have (anti-chess).

Of course, Amlan Satan ('Storm-Shadow') kept his cyber-chess magic/mastery his special gift for the world and for those he'd consider his friends/angels, and Tandy became one of them. That's to say that Tandy had required this special skill of Mr. Satan to help her outmatch a horrid loan-shark of Venice Angeles (Shylock).

SHYLOCK: You wish to challenge me to a stalemate-chess draw in Venice for Tandy-gem, and I've toy guns; but I'm no human.

STORM-SHADOW (Mr. Satan): I understand ideally, Shylock; I secretly believe you're a Martian (disguised); but we love chess!

SHYLOCK: Alright.

SHYLOCK: Damn; you've used a 'cool' rook-bishop double-line to off-balance my queen-knight advance(s).

STORM-SHADOW: Excellence, Mr. Shylock; perhaps this stalemate-sovereignty IQ warrants diplomacy for self-exile/pardon!

SHYLOCK: Tandy's yours; I'm returning to Mars; you've dreamed my actual form on Earth, haven't ya, Mr. Satan?
STORM-SHADOW: I always harbored that stranger-suspect IQ that you were a 'dragon' or alien and no human (disguised!).
SHYLOCK: Perhaps, after I leave, you'll write a 'cyber-magic' comics-tale/lore for my laurel(s), Prince Amlan.

TANDY: You've become so popular in Venice, Mr. Satan, with your cyber-comics 'cult-fanfare' surrounding alien sci-fi-tales!

AMLAN SATAN: Yeah...I kept Shylock's secret (even from you!), and I'm a 'magician-artist' of cyber-science(s) with silk-ears.

TANDY (Journal): Living in Venice and ordering home-cooking (life-instruction) manuals (e-Shop) for living is a Western game.

DIARY (Storm-Shadow): I got this 'fantastic' baseball-figurine chess-set/board which reminds me (forever) of stalemate-IRA.

Tandy/Amlan would enjoy and embrace the World Series (TV) as Halloween came around in Venice, and they cheered on the Dodgers-team who might offer the Cali-fans of sportsmanship special 'escapism' for good-Catholic media-fun in competition, but Storm-Shadow (Prince Satan) would never forget his 'encounter' with the disguised-Martian (Shylock) and how he'd draw that 'excellence' in stalemate-chess (tie/draw/no-win decision!) that effectively rescued Tandy from his loan-shark pocket. Tandy just might've become Prince Amlan's media-culture/magazine elf.

SHYLOCK: Hath not a Martian ears...or nose...or for what else molding/matter would his secret chess compact escape?

Storm-Shadow/Tandy married in Venice and she purchased a 'fantastic' stalemate-chess book for him to continue his cyber-teachings about the human IQ surrounding stalemate-diagrams relevant for 'street-wisdom' regarding human peace and governance sharpness, and she always considered him the 'angel' of Venice.