Commotion erupted across the room as everyone spoke up at once.
“Game night-!?”
“The fuck-”
“Is now the best time-”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever-”
“I can’t get a babysitter on this notice!”
I let the deluge of noise wash over me, the edges of my mouth quirked up in a smile.
When everyone had aired their grievances and settled down, Kink leaned back in his chair, a surprised look on his face. “Game night?” he asked. “Really?”
My smile grew and I nodded. “Game night.”
“Don’t you think we have more important things to do?” Bart asked after a moment. “Like prepare for this pub Raid that you’re insisting on being a part of.”
“Yeah, seriously. There’s like a million things we need to do to prepare,” Bell added. “Denise, you’re the voice of reason. Can you please explain how dumb this is?”
I turned to her expectedly. She sat back in her chair, her expression severe. “I’m not one for frivolous events,” she eventually said.
“Thank you!” Himdall said.
Denise held up her finger to indicate she wasn’t done. “However-” Groans erupted from the Angels squad. “-there is a serious issue with the cohesion of this Council.” She turned to me, her hands intertwined on the table before her, her face deadly serious - like a doctor giving a diagnosis. “I do believe a bit of bonding fun is in order.”
I slapped the table in agreement. Kink and T looked at each other, shrugged, then turned to me as one. “What kinda games you have in mind, oh fearless leader?”
“Well, I’m open to suggestions, but I was thinking-”
Himdall stood up, his chair falling away as he pushed back from the table. Without a word, he started for the door.
“Himie?” I asked. “What’s up?”
He whirled on me, his expression full of fire. “What’s up!?” he parroted. “What’s up!? I’ll tell you what’s up-”
“Himie, chill, dude,” Bart said, but I waved him off. I wanted to hear this.
“I’m the one that everyone came to when they wanted to complain,” he started. “So, I bring it up to the Council, for the good of all the Angels. And the fix is a Raid that I can’t even participate in!” He shook his head. “Fine! It’s a good idea for everyone else. And maybe, just maybe, I can hit 60 before and get to join. But I’ve got to start leveling like yesterday! But nooooo, Ray wants to have a-” He did a mocking air quote with his hands. “-Game Night. What a stupid waste of time.” He looked over at the other Angels. “Are you three really going along with this?” I turned back to see their reactions. The three of them stayed silent, and Himdall snorted with annoyance. “Fine, do whatever you want. I’m gonna go level.” He was out of the Guildhall in a blink, the door slamming behind him.
“What an ass,” Kink said.
Tear turned on him, her nose scrunched up in annoyance. “Shut up, Kink. He’s not wrong.”
“No, he’s not wrong,” Kink agreed. “But he is an ass. He literally could have just said, I’m not going tonight, I need to hit 60 before the Raid, and we all would have understood.”
“He’s not mad about the Game Night,” Bart said, shaking his head. “He’s mad because we were gonna do that instead of offering to help him hit 60. I don’t agree with his outburst,” he added. “But I do understand what set him off.”
I sighed. Even when I tried to do something to bring us together, I just managed to find another way to drive a wedge between us. “Anyone that wants to help Himdall level is free to,” I said. “We can do Game Night a different time.”
Tear’s eyes were out of focus for a moment, then cleared. “Uhh, well, not anymore,” she said to the table. “He just quit the Guild.”
My eyebrows raised in surprise as disappointed mutters went around the room.
“What the hell, man,” T said in shock.
“I can talk to him, if you want,” Bart offered.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“Why?” Kink asked. “Good riddance.”
“Cause he’s our friend?” Bell said.
“Your friend who just ragequit because none of you chose him over the Guild?” he asked sarcastically. “That friend?”
“Guys, enough,” I said, interrupting Bells’ retort. “Sucks about Himie, but he made his choice. If he wants back in, he can come talk to us.” I looked around the table and everyone nodded agreement.
A bit of an awkward pause ensued. I was hesitant to bring up the Game Night after Himie’s departure, but jumping to a serious conversation like the Skill Competition felt forced.
Thankfully, Denise cut the tension. “You know, I’m a bit of a Game Night connoisseur,” she said.
I was a bit taken aback by that. “What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means, I know how to throw a cool Game Night,” she said. “And not the lame Game Night you were probably planning.”
“Whoa!”
“Shots fired!”
I just laughed, sitting back and waving across the table as if to say, ‘the floor is yours.’
She leaned in, her face filled with an excitement I hadn’t seen on her before. “So…this is what we do first…”
----------------------------------------
It was night in Bastion, and Bart and I were leaning near a torch ensconced on a stone wall, the light illuminating the crude list of instructions on the piece of paper in my hands.
“What the hell does that mean?” Bart asked, his finger hovering over the next instruction.
I had to squint my eyes to read it in the dim light:
Follow the trail of fortunes made and fortunes lost.
“Hmm, somewhere with lots of gold, I’m guessing.” We were in the Avenue district, and the player Bank was situated here. “The Bank, you think?”
“Could be the Auction House,” Bart suggested.
“Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.” I checked my map. “They’re kind of far apart. Wanna split up? I’ll check the Bank, you check the Auction House?”
Bart shifted uncomfortably. “Ray…is that such a good idea?” he asked after a moment.
This had come up a couple times while we were getting ready for the Game Night. When Denise had mentioned that we would start with a paired scavenger hunt, some of the Council had spoken against it.
“Should Ray be walking around without the whole squad?” Bell had asked. “The Necks just coordinated a nearly 100-person ambush out of nowhere.”
“Does seem unnecessarily risky,” Tear agreed.
“I was just running around outside the city, killing Necks by the handful,” I said, my tone exasperated. “And now I’m under house arrest?”
“Things changed, Ray,” Bart had said. “What if Ysillith and his crew are watching the Hall right now?”
I turned to Denise. “What if we limited it to the Avenue District and the Trade District?” I asked. “They’ve got [Truesight] patrols on every block.”
“That didn’t stop him the first time,” Tear said.
“It didn’t stop him from running past to the Housing District,” I rebutted. “But staging an attack in the center of the city is a different beast entirely.”
Eventually, we had all agreed the risk was minimal. And at the end of the day, it was my life, so I kind of had the final say, I’d like to think. Of course, I didn’t want to abuse the squad’s trust and put myself needlessly at risk. But the Avenue District of Bastion was nearly unassailable without multiple Raid groups of Necks. And even then, in this history of S&S, they had never held the area long. The odds were just too stacked against them. The guards continued to respawn, the Con graveyard was closer, Bastion was the center of the Con faction, and the Avenue District was the center of Bastion.
They would never be able to reach me here.
All of that to say, Bart and I agreed to split up.
The night cycle of Bastion was really just a feature of the game, and had no bearing on the actual player density in any way. So the streets were bustling with activity, and in my armor, I managed to blend in pretty well. One positive of the night mechanic though, was that nameplates didn’t automatically pop up until you were much closer, relative to the daytime. So my extremely distinctive nameplate wasn’t broadcasting my identity to every player in a hundred-meter radius.
I left Bart at a crossroads and started for the Avenue Bank. I was walking past an alley when a flashing in the corner of my eye caught my attention. My eye tracked the light in my peripherals and I stopped to look down the alley. A flicker of cloth catching on the moonlight was the only suggestion of movement as something moved deeper into the back alleys behind the buildings.
I just stared down the alley for a moment, then shook my head.
“Nope!” Chasing whatever Al had flagged down that alley was the exact thing the Council had been worried about when we had planned this Game Night. And it had been Al’s signal, so I knew it was something real and not just a figment of my imagination.
I kept walking down the street, but now I was hyper alert. When I came to the next alley entrance, I stopped and crept closer, hugging the wall as I approached.
“What is it, Al?” I whispered. “Ysillith?”
I waited a moment for an achievement or quest to populate with a message from Al, but nothing appeared.
That was ominous…
I peeked my head around the corner, trying to spot whatever seemed to be shadowing me. Standing at the end of the alley was a female Shadow Cat. She was standing directly in the moonlight that filtered past the rooftops, forming little pools of light wherever it landed. She locked eyes with me, unmoving.
She wanted to be seen.
Her nameplate wasn’t visible from this distance and I was hesitant to press deeper into the alley. I glanced up at the rooftops above me for any signs of stealthed rogues. Chances were I wouldn’t be able to spot through their stealth at these distances, but I looked anyway.
I took a step back. It was the height of foolishness to investigate this stranger who so clearly wanted to be seen. Suddenly, Al’s flashing indicator appeared over the player. Weird…that usually meant I was supposed to follow it. Was that Al telling me this wasn’t a trap?
Or had someone at S&S managed to co-opt one of Al’s communication methods?
While I stood there trying to make up my mind, the player waved for me to follow them.
“Ray-uh, Mr. Davis,” they suddenly said, their voice echoing nervously down the alleyway. “I’m a friend.” Al’s flashing did a quick staccato rhythm over the player once more, then stopped. “It’s…” the player hesitated a moment, looking around to see if there was anyone within earshot down the alley. “It’s your friend…the cat boy?” he added that last part with a questioning tone, as if hoping I would recognize him.
And like a bolt of lightning hitting me in the chest, I suddenly did…