"I think you may be having a little fun."
"Will it was bound to happen, enough people and you'll make friends."
"You will have better luck in this world that way, especially once you make it out of the Rainbow Bastian, the afterlife isn't just relaxing and being tortured by improv."
"Speaking of, what is the plan for when my training is done? And how long does training last?"
"The plan? Well, that depends on how I can use your skills more than anything, and it varies, depends on you."
"That doesn’t sound ominous at all…"
"It doesn't? It should have sounded very ominous."
"Sarcasm…"
"Ha Ha, I get it now, but your skills are going to be the most important thing that I can use, and then it will also depend on what is happening out there, things are quiet currently, but I feel the tension in the air."
"See, you shouldn’t say things like that… It's like saying "as long as it doesn’t rain" when you want to go on a picnic."
"You are suggesting, that my stating this feeling out loud will bring it to fruition?"
"No, but now that you’ve said it out loud, and stated it to me, I will blame it on you as a result."
"Hmmm, that logic makes a lot of sense."
"Right? The logic tracks, while it may not be the one at fault, you are why I had preempted knowledge, and thus, your fault."
"All of that aside, I hope your training goes well, a rogue, in most situations is a handy one to have."
"I see how you are, just using me for my class, just like all the deities."
"Wait? That isn't what I meant by that."
"Ha Ha Ha, oh man, you don’t get out much do you? I'm just flipping you some sass, we were warned that you'd have jobs for us, it was how we would earn our ‘place’."
"Well we don’t have much coming from your realm, something seems to interrupt the flow of souls, so I am very out of touch, to say the least."
"Huh, you know that makes a lot of sense, if you think about it, our world has its own slew of gods and religions that have existed over the years, and since this place is built on belief, it doesn’t seem too far from possible."
"That would mean that your world would need to have more than a million people following a single religion."
"Is that all it takes? Let me guess it dropped off hard a few thousand years ago?"
"Yeees? How would you know that?"
"My world is stupid with religions, I know that was when we had a religious revolution and things like Christianity came about, basically a lot of holy wars and calling people heathens, it was kinda dumb."
"Hmmm, then how did you make it through? And how many religions are in your world?"
"Oh that one is easy, I don’t believe in religions and such, I was a nerd in my free time, you know, you saw my history, it's all just lore to me, another story. No idea on how many there were, I just know that our population was just about 8 billion from what I can remember."
"Do you mean million?"
"No billion, the one with nine zeros after the 8"
The silence that fell in Davin's mind made him think that he was about to wake up, but he went almost a minute before saying something.
"You still there? Did I have an aneurism?"
"A what? No, you're fine, was just in such a state of shock, billions on a single world… How have you not started to starve due to overpopulation?"
"That’s a big question, scientists speculated that if we set things up for a global sharing economy, we could support at least another two or 3 billion people, but, at the same time, Earth was kind of full of assholes."
"What is a scientist? And another 2 or 3 billion? Your world must be giant"
"Smart people who do a lot of math to see what they can solve, and since I've not been in any other world, couldn’t tell you."
"What of the great beasts? They exist in your memories, and others from well before you, have spoke of them."
"Great beasts? Do you mean dinosaurs or the ones from my games?"
"All of them?"
"Dinosaurs went extinct, we hunted most of the dangerous ones to extinction, and the ones in my games aren't real."
"You have given me much to ponder, I will need to look into the history of your world and see when we had it last updated, but I have kept you long enough, I will see you tomorrow.
The feeling of falling and the sudden awakening were what Davin woke to, feeling dizzy as his mind swam, thinking about the missing information in this world, not about just his world, but potentially many others. As the spinning faded, sitting up, and finally opened his eyes to his yet again dark room, really wishing he had a watch or clock of some kind. Pulling himself from bed, brightening his lantern, and getting ready for the day, remembering the threats of Gale and the tortures that he'd had planned… Today should be the acrobatics, athletics, and sleight of hand, he couldn’t imagine what he was going to have to suffer through, honestly, he was not excited. He finished getting ready, making sure to wrap his knees and elbows like he'd seen sports players do, making sure that he could take a blow or two, just in case things went sideways. Heading into the hall like the days before, he slid his way down it, finding three triggers before setting off one of the traps.
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When the ringing in his head finally stopped Gale was by his side, patting him on the back, and offering him some water.
"Nice work, if you keep like this, should make it to the end of the hall without setting off the traps in another day or two." Gale held an earnest smile.
"Do they have to be that loud? I feel like I'm going to go deaf if they get any louder," the pain he was in tainting his tone.
"Pain is a handy motivator." Gale held back a snicker.
"Almost as bad as a flashbang going off", Davin fingered his ear and stretched his jaw.
"What's a "flashbang"?" Gale asked with a bit of confusion in his tone.
"Huh? Oh, they are a weapon that is used, a grenade that makes a bright flash and a loud ass noise meant to stun and confuse." Davin snapped near his ear, finally getting back the last of his hearing.
"Your world sounds a little dangerous, are you okay?" Gale placed his hand on Davin's shoulder looking at him in concern.
"Since your specialty is lying, I'll take your words with a grain of salt, but yeah, I'll be fine, just the backlash from a protest or two, but hey, what's a little PTSD between friends" chuckling to himself as they started walking.
What Gale opened the door to was almost the complete opposite of what Davin had been dreading, based on how much the idea of it being the worst kind of torture. A mix of a jungle gym, a big toy, and a ropes course made Davin's heart sore, thinking about how he loved to take his son to play at the park, still wishing he fit so that he could race around with him. A laugh of such unadulterated joy rang out of Davin that at first Gale thought that his new protégé had cracked and he'd finally gone crazy, but as soon as the two locked eyes.
"Race you to the top?" Davin asked, the excitement clear in his voice.
"Race you? Do you think this is some kind of game?" the confusion was clear on Gale's face.
"Huh? And why wouldn’t it be? This has to be one of the biggest playgrounds I've ever seen" this time, Davin was the one confused.
"What the hell is a playground?" the confusion evident in his voice now.
"Did your world not have playgrounds? Where kids could go, climb, swing, thrash, and be nuisances to each other while parents watched from the edges?"
Davin bounced on the balls of his feet trying to prevent himself from just going in at a sprint.
"So this is literally a game on your world? Again, I seriously ask if you are okay, we had things like this, but they were used as a training tool for military and other highly trained individuals," the compassionate look reemerged on Gale's face.
"They play toys for children and for companies that want to build team morale and comradery" shrugging at this like it wasn’t anything unusual.
"Your world is a scary place, but yeah, I could go for a race, it is part of the training" Gale began stretching and limbering up.
After the first few minutes and the introduction of tag, Gale could see how it would be fun for kids, the two of them rushing around, dodging one another, eventually, others joined in and the entire room was a fast-paced game of tag. After a few hours, Davin had to take a break and drink some water, Gale joined and the two chatted while they rested.
"I have to admit, I can see the appeal, that is some of the most fun I've had here, in like ever," Gale said still panting.
"Right? My son and I would try and go to the park every week, and he was a little guy, so not as high up as these, but he loved it." The sad tone of loss in his voice.
Gale bumped him, hey buck up, just so you know, one of the reasons you made it here is because others believed in you strongly enough."
"Huh?" Davin choked on his water.
"Yeah, one of the things the patrons won't say unless you ask, but yeah, belief is part of how you make it here, so you won't see many of the ‘died forgotten’ here." Gale looked off into the distance like he was remembering something of his own.
"Thanks, man, that actually helps a lot," taking another swig and then wiped his sleeve over his face, in a poor attempt to hide the tears on it. Hopping up, giving another stretch, Davin looked over the group still playing tag "ready to jump back in?"
"As much fun as that would be, we still have to check your sleight of hand, plus, you out-paced me up there," Gale took a deep breath, and then let it out, the air that came out coloring the space in front of him for just a moment before fading.
"How do we test sleight of hand? Do I have to do some close-up magic tricks?" a chuckle edging into Davin's words.
"Why would I test magic? We're rogues, and if you choose to be an arcane trickster down the road, that is up to you" a mix of disdain in his voice like it were a bad word.
"This is hard to explain when magic is real… do you have a deck of cards I could use?" sounding hopeful.
"I do? But this isn't the time for games" Pulling a deck of cards from one of his pouches, and passing it over to Davin.
"Okay, I'm a little rusty, so give me a few tries" at that Davin pulled out the cards, and started shuffling and doing some simple card juggling that he learned how to do one summer.
Gale's eyes were glued to Davin's hands, mesmerized, after a few simple exercises, Davin was ready, and performed a handful of card tricks on his friend, confused and excited, having never seen anything like this, it was one of the most baffling things that Gale had ever seen.
"That is close-up magic, or at least where I'm from, not actual magic, just some sleight of hand that most can't catch the trick" continuing to shuffle and perform simple tricks.
"Again, your world is weird… but I can see how some would call this magic" Gale was still entranced by watching Davin's hands.
"Eh, sometimes, when you’ve got the time, you tend to do all kinds of dumb things, I'm also an amateur chef and know how to use almost any crafting tool you could throw at me" shrugging remembering some of the random things he'd learned to do, purely to say he could with some of it.
"So you just know how to do a bunch of random stuff? And for no real reasoning behind it?" Gale shook his head as he broke his concentration on Davin's hands.
"Pretty much, the internet basically gave you unchecked access to all the knowledge of the world, so yeah" finally handing the cards back to Gale.
"Internet? You know what, I feel like I'm asking redundant questions at this point since the knowledge won't do me any good anyway," putting the cards away, "but I think you know more about sleight of hand than some of the people here, I'm still trying to work out how you did some of those, and that includes the ones that you explained to me".
Stretching once again, and bouncing on the balls of his feet "I'm jumping back in, you coming?"
Gale looked at Davin, then into the tangle of ropes, planks, and netting, shrugged, "hell, why not" slapping Davin in the arm, sprinting away and jumping in, Davin let out a joyous laugh before following, the group merging their game with the new, rushing and jumping.
Davin's day finished smoothly, Jes meeting him and Gale for dinner, Gale insisting that he show the close-up magic to her, and since spotting things like this is in her skill set, she wasn’t as blown away by it as Gale had been. Davin was enjoying what his new life had brought, still missing his old life, but for some reason, he didn’t miss it as much as he would have thought he would, he assumed it was something to do with when he made his character, new body and all… he would need to ask Compass. He and Gale parted ways with Jes after they'd pushed themselves to the limit, their bodies starting to feel the backlash of their fooling around. After being dropped off at his room, his head had barely hit the pillow before he was out cold.