Chuck stared, his eyes narrowing slowly. He exhaled through his nose and drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. It was no use. He’d have to act.
“Dent, feet off the table.” He glared further at the swordsman.
Dent rolled his eyes, but dragged them back off onto the ground. “You’re stressed, Chuck.”
“You think?” The Druid clutched at his wooden staff. “The reports said the Outsiders are finally entering the jungle.”
“Rachel is down that way. She is more than capable.” The man tilted the edge of his blade-arm in the air, watching it catch the light. “I would have thought you’d be happier to see your friends back after so long.”
Chuck clucked his tongue. “Lots of things have changed.”
“You worried they won’t take our side?”
He didn’t reply at first, and just looked out toward the sky outside of the tent. “Either way…” he eventually said, softly. “I know what they will do when they get here.”
“Chuck!” Sally threw her arms up in surprise. “The leader of Blue Team?!” Her eyebrows were almost as high and she hopped around to wave her disbelief in front of the others.
“We’re… not called ‘blue team’,” Rachel began, looked like she was not used to dealing with such overt displays of mania. “But yes, Chuck is our leader. He and Dent have-“
“Dent too?” Sally beamed. It was like the greatest hits of the Wasteland but in the new area. “I’m glad they’re both okay,” she said as she calmed down and stood still. “They didn’t reply to my messages. Oh, when you say ‘he and Dent’…?” She leaned her head forward and raised her eyebrows again.
Rachel returned a blank stare. “Dent is in charge of security, and our second-in-command.”
Theo shrugged toward the Death Knight. “I can see that ship.” Humphrey nodded in return.
“Down to business then,” Sally said as she crossed her arms. “Just because Chuck was one of our greatest pals, it doesn’t mean we’ll blindly follow whatever it is you guys believe.”
Chuck was a pacifist, to a degree. Didn’t like the violence of the System. She anticipated his view would be to erase conflict as well, but hopefully in a less detrimental way than the Red Team had wanted.
“Of course.” The woman nodded, with a smile. “He told us you would be shrewd. Would sooner ‘eat both factions than bend the knee’. His words.”
“He knows us well,” the zombie said with a grin. “Shall we go occupy this tavern and sit to chat?”
With a nod, the two groups moved off toward the building. It was by no means large, but thankfully aside from a handful of System-created, it was empty of any Players. They had the pick of the tables, but they were only made to seat four. Sally tagged in Theo, and Rachel sat with the female fighter. Shoulder length red hair and thick leather armor that made it awkward for her to sit down. Humphrey only pouted a little.
“This is Tifa,” Rachel gestured as she sat down too. The Fighter nodded, but didn’t look to want to be a verbal participant in the proceedings. “From your greeting, it sounds like you have already met with the other faction?”
Sally nodded as she shuffled in beside the vampire. The rest of the Party mingled awkwardly at the next nearest table behind them, while Rachel’s group did the same behind her.
“They certainly had some thoughts on things,” she said diplomatically.
Rachel smiled softly. “You can imagine why we are so at odds. While they wish to break down the System and remove parts of it—fine people such as yourselves included—our goal is quite different.”
Theo tilted his head to the side, eager to hear more. Sally was waiting for the reveal that they were both kinda flawed and there wouldn’t be an easy answer.
“The System is flawed, and we intend to fix it. Make it equal for all who live here, but make it so that there is more to life than progression through conflict.” She continued to smile at them both.
“But…?” Sally narrowed her eyes.
Rachel tilted her head. “There’s no ‘buts’ as such… Chuck said we could be honest with you…” She looked around the room to check they were the only Players here. “Somebody is making a move for the Architect’s position.”
“Whaaat?” Sally hissed, exchanging glances with Theo. “How do you know? And who?”
The woman drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Even with the trust he has for you, I cannot tell you more without you joining us.”
Sally deflated. “You haven’t even told us the catch that makes you secretly terrible yet.”
Theo rubbed at his chin. “So you want Players and Uniques to be able to live in peace?”
“Yes, in our ideal world, violence would only be able to be inflicted on the System-created, but would still be optional. You could live without fighting, should you choose so.”
They sat in silence for a moment as this sunk in. On the surface, it sounded perfect. No Players or Uniques could fight amongst themselves. But…
Sally licked her lips. That meant no more tasty brains. It seemed like a selfish thing to get hung up on in the grand scheme of the world. The part of her not governed by her stomach melted at the thought, however. A world where you wouldn’t need to fear for your life constantly, where you didn’t have to level and get stronger to make sure someone couldn’t punch down at you. Her dietary requirements seemed to pale in comparison.
She wrinkled up her face. “We would… need time to discuss.”
“Of course,” Rachel said with a smile. “You need to level up, too.” She raised her hand and one of the cloaked rangers brought forth a book, out of which a scroll was taken. “Chuck said you were powerful, so we can give you a teleport further in to the area. The jungle here is especially oppressive.”
“And filled with assassins.” Sally rolled her eyes.
The woman paused and furrowed her brow. “You’ve had a run in the Last Word?”
“If that’s what they’re called,” Theo shrugged as he grumbled. “We had one tracking us until we stopped them from doing so.”
“Yeah,” Sally added, “who are they?”
“Doomsday cult that just sprung out of nowhere. They want the System to fail in its entirety. Plunge us all into… nothingness? I’m not sure, but they have been targeting powerful Players in the area, so I’d be wary.” Rachel grimaced and passed over the teleportation scroll.
“Theo already has a poison that will kill him in two days.” Sally took the scroll and rolled her eyes. “Can’t take him anywhere.”
“I am a walking calamity,” the vampire grinned, exposing his fangs.
Rachel paused, either put off guard by the casual nature they had towards the deadly malady, or perhaps other thoughts derailed her train of thought in seeing Theo’s true nature. Sally narrowed her eyes at the woman either way, just to be sure.
“That’s… not good. I’m not aware of a cure.” She exhaled and curled her upper lip up. “I will need to talk to Chuck.”
“We can’t see him yet?” Sally pouted. Ignoring her messages and refusing to see them was pretty rude—after all this time, too?
“He requested… only when you get to Level Twenty-Five, I apologize.” She did seem to understand their frustration, even if she couldn’t do anything about it. “The scroll will take you to the area for Twenty-Four and up, so you’ll be the underdogs.”
“Suits us,” Theo said with a grin.
Sally nodded. “Better than being over, dogs. What do we do once we have made a decision?”
Rachel held out her wrist, her STAR ready to trade contact information. “Send me a message. We’ll take it from there. If you’ve had the spiel from the others, you should know they have a dim view of Uniques…” Her eyes unfocused to look past the pair to the rest of the Outsiders. “I’m not sure how they’d treat you even if you joined them. Not that I’m trying to tip the scales.” She gave them another warm smile that reached her eyes.
“Our pleasant interactions with Players are few and far between,” Sally said with a shrug. “Being allied with Chuck puts you a couple of steps further away from our stomachs… but we’re not above villainy, should you cross us.”
“Villany, meaning we kill and eat you all,” Theo clarified.
The woman couldn’t meet the vampire’s glare, but nodded towards the pair. “Of course. We are well aware of what you are, and what you have accomplished in the world despite your… questionable methods.”
Murderin’ was certainly that. Sally couldn’t fault the woman for her ability to lead a pleasant meeting. It took more than sweet words to sway her desires, though. If possible, she wanted to meet Chuck and hear it from his own mouth before she signed up for what he had planned. Part of her felt that it should be her plan they were following, but if she was honest—she didn’t have one yet.
The world had moved on without them for a year, and what were they now? Relics of a harder time when the System was more of a mess. She felt older. It might as well have been twenty years for how out of place she felt.
“As such, that is all I have to say.” Rachel nodded and stood from the table. “We wish you good luck in whatever your future entails.”
“You too.” Sally waved them off as their Party left the tavern.
Lucius and Norah shuffled into the empty chairs, and Humphrey stood at the end of the table with his arms crossed. A brief silence followed as they waited for everything to sink in.
Sally clucked her tongue to break the silence. “Well… this is pretty exhausting, huh?”
Humphrey nodded. “What are your thoughts?”
“I’ll leave it up to the floor first.” She deflated and sunk into the uncomfortable chair.
“Chuck seemed pretty nice,” Lucius began, a lightbulb appearing beside his head—which was something odd that Sally didn’t care to think about right now. “Unless something terrible happened in the last year, he should still have a good head on his shoulders.”
“Yes,” Humphrey agreed. “He might be useless for fighting, but he had generally a decent view of life.”
Norah tilted her head. “Rachel and her group seemed okay too, for adventurers. I’d hate to think that was an act.”
Sally narrowed her eyes at the vampire. “What did you think of Rachel, fangs?”
“Hmm? Oh, she seemed genuine enough.” He absent-mindedly looked off out through the window at the horizon.
She exhaled through her nose. What a dweeb. That was his 'thinking of power-leveling look.' “So we’re all in agreement that the Blue Team are temporary pals until we make a decision, and Red Team are walking meals?”
They nodded and murmured their agreements. Seemed a little callous, but they had to get their villain points before people started calling them anti-heroes.
“Doesn’t that mean we’ve basically made the decision?” Lucius asked as a question mark bubble popped up.
“I’m not signing anything this soon.” Sally shook her head. “We can be friends until we know what’s really going on in the Jungle.”
“After that,” Theo said as he pushed his glasses up, “it gets difficult.”
Chuck stared, his eyes narrowing slowly. He exhaled through his nose and drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. It was no use. He’d have to act.
“Dent, feet off the table.” He glared further at the swordsman.
Dent rolled his eyes, but dragged them back off onto the ground. “You’re stressed, Chuck.”
“You think?” The Druid clutched at his wooden staff. “The reports said the Outsiders are finally entering the jungle.”
“Rachel is down that way. She is more than capable.” The man tilted the edge of his blade-arm in the air, watching it catch the light. “I would have thought you’d be happier to see your friends back after so long.”
Chuck clucked his tongue. “Lots of things have changed.”
“You worried they won’t take our side?”
He didn’t reply at first, and just looked out toward the sky outside of the tent. “Either way…” he eventually said, softly. “I know what they will do when they get here.”
“Chuck!” Sally threw her arms up in surprise. “The leader of Blue Team?!” Her eyebrows were almost as high and she hopped around to wave her disbelief in front of the others.
“We’re… not called ‘blue team’,” Rachel began, looked like she was not used to dealing with such overt displays of mania. “But yes, Chuck is our leader. He and Dent have-“
“Dent too?” Sally beamed. It was like the greatest hits of the Wasteland but in the new area. “I’m glad they’re both okay,” she said as she calmed down and stood still. “They didn’t reply to my messages. Oh, when you say ‘he and Dent’…?” She leaned her head forward and raised her eyebrows again.
Rachel returned a blank stare. “Dent is in charge of security, and our second-in-command.”
Theo shrugged toward the Death Knight. “I can see that ship.” Humphrey nodded in return.
“Down to business then,” Sally said as she crossed her arms. “Just because Chuck was one of our greatest pals, it doesn’t mean we’ll blindly follow whatever it is you guys believe.”
Chuck was a pacifist, to a degree. Didn’t like the violence of the System. She anticipated his view would be to erase conflict as well, but hopefully in a less detrimental way than the Red Team had wanted.
“Of course.” The woman nodded, with a smile. “He told us you would be shrewd. Would sooner ‘eat both factions than bend the knee’. His words.”
“He knows us well,” the zombie said with a grin. “Shall we go occupy this tavern and sit to chat?”
With a nod, the two groups moved off toward the building. It was by no means large, but thankfully aside from a handful of System-created, it was empty of any Players. They had the pick of the tables, but they were only made to seat four. Sally tagged in Theo, and Rachel sat with the female fighter. Shoulder length red hair and thick leather armor that made it awkward for her to sit down. Humphrey only pouted a little.
“This is Tifa,” Rachel gestured as she sat down too. The Fighter nodded, but didn’t look to want to be a verbal participant in the proceedings. “From your greeting, it sounds like you have already met with the other faction?”
Sally nodded as she shuffled in beside the vampire. The rest of the Party mingled awkwardly at the next nearest table behind them, while Rachel’s group did the same behind her.
“They certainly had some thoughts on things,” she said diplomatically.
Rachel smiled softly. “You can imagine why we are so at odds. While they wish to break down the System and remove parts of it—fine people such as yourselves included—our goal is quite different.”
Theo tilted his head to the side, eager to hear more. Sally was waiting for the reveal that they were both kinda flawed and there wouldn’t be an easy answer.
“The System is flawed, and we intend to fix it. Make it equal for all who live here, but make it so that there is more to life than progression through conflict.” She continued to smile at them both.
“But…?” Sally narrowed her eyes.
Rachel tilted her head. “There’s no ‘buts’ as such… Chuck said we could be honest with you…” She looked around the room to check they were the only Players here. “Somebody is making a move for the Architect’s position.”
“Whaaat?” Sally hissed, exchanging glances with Theo. “How do you know? And who?”
The woman drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Even with the trust he has for you, I cannot tell you more without you joining us.”
Sally deflated. “You haven’t even told us the catch that makes you secretly terrible yet.”
Theo rubbed at his chin. “So you want Players and Uniques to be able to live in peace?”
“Yes, in our ideal world, violence would only be able to be inflicted on the System-created, but would still be optional. You could live without fighting, should you choose so.”
They sat in silence for a moment as this sunk in. On the surface, it sounded perfect. No Players or Uniques could fight amongst themselves. But…
Sally licked her lips. That meant no more tasty brains. It seemed like a selfish thing to get hung up on in the grand scheme of the world. The part of her not governed by her stomach melted at the thought, however. A world where you wouldn’t need to fear for your life constantly, where you didn’t have to level and get stronger to make sure someone couldn’t punch down at you. Her dietary requirements seemed to pale in comparison.
She wrinkled up her face. “We would… need time to discuss.”
“Of course,” Rachel said with a smile. “You need to level up, too.” She raised her hand and one of the cloaked rangers brought forth a book, out of which a scroll was taken. “Chuck said you were powerful, so we can give you a teleport further in to the area. The jungle here is especially oppressive.”
“And filled with assassins.” Sally rolled her eyes.
The woman paused and furrowed her brow. “You’ve had a run in the Last Word?”
“If that’s what they’re called,” Theo shrugged as he grumbled. “We had one tracking us until we stopped them from doing so.”
“Yeah,” Sally added, “who are they?”
“Doomsday cult that just sprung out of nowhere. They want the System to fail in its entirety. Plunge us all into… nothingness? I’m not sure, but they have been targeting powerful Players in the area, so I’d be wary.” Rachel grimaced and passed over the teleportation scroll.
“Theo already has a poison that will kill him in two days.” Sally took the scroll and rolled her eyes. “Can’t take him anywhere.”
“I am a walking calamity,” the vampire grinned, exposing his fangs.
Rachel paused, either put off guard by the casual nature they had towards the deadly malady, or perhaps other thoughts derailed her train of thought in seeing Theo’s true nature. Sally narrowed her eyes at the woman either way, just to be sure.
“That’s… not good. I’m not aware of a cure.” She exhaled and curled her upper lip up. “I will need to talk to Chuck.”
“We can’t see him yet?” Sally pouted. Ignoring her messages and refusing to see them was pretty rude—after all this time, too?
“He requested… only when you get to Level Twenty-Five, I apologize.” She did seem to understand their frustration, even if she couldn’t do anything about it. “The scroll will take you to the area for Twenty-Four and up, so you’ll be the underdogs.”
“Suits us,” Theo said with a grin.
Sally nodded. “Better than being over, dogs. What do we do once we have made a decision?”
Rachel held out her wrist, her STAR ready to trade contact information. “Send me a message. We’ll take it from there. If you’ve had the spiel from the others, you should know they have a dim view of Uniques…” Her eyes unfocused to look past the pair to the rest of the Outsiders. “I’m not sure how they’d treat you even if you joined them. Not that I’m trying to tip the scales.” She gave them another warm smile that reached her eyes.
“Our pleasant interactions with Players are few and far between,” Sally said with a shrug. “Being allied with Chuck puts you a couple of steps further away from our stomachs… but we’re not above villainy, should you cross us.”
“Villany, meaning we kill and eat you all,” Theo clarified.
The woman couldn’t meet the vampire’s glare, but nodded towards the pair. “Of course. We are well aware of what you are, and what you have accomplished in the world despite your… questionable methods.”
Murderin’ was certainly that. Sally couldn’t fault the woman for her ability to lead a pleasant meeting. It took more than sweet words to sway her desires, though. If possible, she wanted to meet Chuck and hear it from his own mouth before she signed up for what he had planned. Part of her felt that it should be her plan they were following, but if she was honest—she didn’t have one yet.
The world had moved on without them for a year, and what were they now? Relics of a harder time when the System was more of a mess. She felt older. It might as well have been twenty years for how out of place she felt.
“As such, that is all I have to say.” Rachel nodded and stood from the table. “We wish you good luck in whatever your future entails.”
“You too.” Sally waved them off as their Party left the tavern.
Lucius and Norah shuffled into the empty chairs, and Humphrey stood at the end of the table with his arms crossed. A brief silence followed as they waited for everything to sink in.
Sally clucked her tongue to break the silence. “Well… this is pretty exhausting, huh?”
Humphrey nodded. “What are your thoughts?”
“I’ll leave it up to the floor first.” She deflated and sunk into the uncomfortable chair.
“Chuck seemed pretty nice,” Lucius began, a lightbulb appearing beside his head—which was something odd that Sally didn’t care to think about right now. “Unless something terrible happened in the last year, he should still have a good head on his shoulders.”
“Yes,” Humphrey agreed. “He might be useless for fighting, but he had generally a decent view of life.”
Norah tilted her head. “Rachel and her group seemed okay too, for adventurers. I’d hate to think that was an act.”
Sally narrowed her eyes at the vampire. “What did you think of Rachel, fangs?”
“Hmm? Oh, she seemed genuine enough.” He absent-mindedly looked off out through the window at the horizon.
She exhaled through her nose. What a dweeb. That was his 'thinking of power-leveling look.' “So we’re all in agreement that the Blue Team are temporary pals until we make a decision, and Red Team are walking meals?”
They nodded and murmured their agreements. Seemed a little callous, but they had to get their villain points before people started calling them anti-heroes.
“Doesn’t that mean we’ve basically made the decision?” Lucius asked as a question mark bubble popped up.
“I’m not signing anything this soon.” Sally shook her head. “We can be friends until we know what’s really going on in the Jungle.”
“After that,” Theo said as he pushed his glasses up, “it gets difficult.”
