“Well this is a lovely waiting party,” Warden muttered under his breath as they stared down at the group of grey lumpy child-sized aliens that wore glowing masks and wielded all manner of medieval weapons that matched the guises glow. Out of the various aliens the vast majority of them were giving off a red glow with the second most common group glowing yellow while there were only three green and one single solitary blue masked person standing at just half-a-head shorter than him, about Wendy’s height.

The aliens had been nervously watching them as they approached showing certain wariness as they clustered around their ship setting up various encampments. There had been more than a few aliens that had raised their bow-shaped weapons towards the trio only for them to lower them and engage the others in discussions. By the time they got within twenty metres of the rest of the group the vast majority of the alien creatures were looking towards them hiding against makeshift barricades.

“180 metres,” Wendy confirmed whispering and his eyes were drawn towards the massive spaceship or maybe it was small, he didn’t really have any perspective on how big it was. Still it was big enough to house at least fifty of the aliens and maybe more still on-board. The overall build was much like a streamlined skyscraper although the outside had a stony green-grey colour and was covered in a vast diversity of patterns looking like hieroglyphs or cuneiform.

“They’re not stopping, Trusted Captain,” one of the green-masked aliens said as he held out what looked to be a flintlock musket. “What should we do Trusted Captain?”

“We will attempt to intimidate them, Tentative Lieutenant,” the blue-masked alien said, his lumpy body holding out an arm pointing towards the trio. “If even that doesn’t get them to take their curiosity elsewhere then we will have to open fire proper.”

“But they have such diversity in their plumage,” another green-masked alien said. “We should try capturing them and keeping them for study.” When he said plumage did he mean clothes? Warden was still wearing his orange jumpsuit but Surge and Wendy were both wearing white even if one was wearing a lab coat and the other looked like she was wearing a dress made out of sheets. ‘Nice stitching actually,’ he thought wondering if she or Surge created it.

“Our current mission is too important, Reckless Scientist,” the Trusted Captain said raising his sword to the trio. “The very foundation of the Empire rests upon it.”

“That’s quite a weight to endure then,” Surge said causing a massive commotion among the masked beings. Bewilderment gave way into panic and into a total breakdown of the calm that they had displayed.

“They can speak,” the Reckless Scientist said with a voice of horror and wonder both.

“What are you,” the Trusted Captain said raising his sabre. “What is the role you have been assigned?”

“I am assigned Explorative Surgeon, my superior is assigned Slothful Warden and my companion is assigned Dutiful Assistant,” Surge seemed to almost become another person in that moment as his face took on the appearance of a blue mask. His body language changed and even his form seemed to shrink in on itself to become slightly shorter. As soon as he spoke it seemed as if there was the absence of commotion, the previous panic giving way to some form of wary understanding.

“Those are strong names,” the Trusted Captain acquiesced. “But are you of Crown or Rebel?” he said with a hint of danger in his voice as his mask trembled with some unknowable and Surge paused at that as if undecided. The seconds dragged on until...

“We ultimately stand in solidarity with your roles,” Warden said stepping into the conversation after a moment of thought. His instincts told him that it would be bad to answer either way to that question. “But we have different roles to play and we will not infringe on your parts.”

“You have no idea how important the parts we play are,” the Trusted Captain said as his mask trembled slightly as he enunciated every word. “The repercussions of our role here are unrivalled. If our roles are not properly played out then…”

“So you are looking down on the roles that we’ve been given,” Warden said a hint of danger in his voice. “You claim that these roles that have been bestowed upon us are worthless?” The danger slipped from his voice being replaced by a sincere inquisitiveness. “Or maybe you believe you’re not worthy of your own role and you want to conscript one of us to replace you?” The slight shaking motion that his mask had been undergoing this whole time stopped as the Trusted Captain froze in place, his lumpy body not moving an inch. He held himself there steady as dozens upon dozens of masked eyes turned towards him before after a long few seconds he spoke.

“No,” the Trusted Captain said his words giving Warden a deep sense of foreboding. “You are correct, I misspoke. As our lord Noh-Bromias as our ever-present witness I shall fulfil the role bestowed unto me.” As soon as that name slipped into existence they seemed to freeze hanging there in the warm air and the world froze along with them. After a few unnerving seconds of silence the world once more was stirred from its slumbering state but there was an tangible difference in the quality of the air and suddenly Warden got the sense something far greater than himself was observing him from a great distance. Next to him he vaguely saw how Wendy bristled and Surge turned his masked eyes towards the sky but he found himself unable to move at all in that moment or even open his mouth to speak to them.

The feeling of being watched increased like a physical weight until he felt like he was a bug under a microscope being gazed down upon with a kind of indifferent curiosity. The irrational urge to bow down and worship the being struck him and he had almost fallen to his knees before a cold rationality descended upon him. The being observing was powerful but his self-esteem wasn’t so weak that he would find religion at the first sign of adversity. He slipped his hand in his pocket feeling for his badge stored there and he winced at the sudden rebuking coldness that cleared the remaining fog from his thoughts.

“Thank you Lord Noh-Bromias for bestowing on me this second chance,” the Trusted Captain said as with an abrupt feeling of confirmation the remnant presence slowly decreased. “And thank you Slothful Warden for firming my resolve,” he said turning towards Warden. “You play your role well, if maybe with too much vigour.”

Warden didn’t deign to reply instead stepping back and letting Surge step back into the talking role and getting a noise that may have been approval from the Trusted Captain as a result. He would take advantage of this opportunity to indulge his laziness under the guise of acting lazy. Honestly the aliens just seemed to be a bunch of serious role-players but whoever was watching this play out felt more dangerous than your average theatre director.

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“Our goal lies in the corpse of that monster,” the Trusted Captain said pointing at the mountainous whale-like creature that was his goal for the past few days. “Explorative Surgeon, have you travelled across the lake; and if you have done so, did you find anything?”

“I was unable to make my way across the lake before being accosted by monsters that emerged from the water,” Surge said causing the masks of the lumpy creatures to shake in what was probably concern.

“That is concerning,” the Trusted Captain said confirming Warden’s hypothesis. “Did you also have designs on the corpse of the hell-beast? Perhaps our stories can intertwine and come to a satisfying Denouement.”

“We can’t rely on them, Captain,” another one of the green masked aliens said. “Two of them aren’t even wearing masks.”

“The masks are invisible most of the time,” Surge interjected lying his ass off. “Only when we absolutely need to reveal them are we permitted to do so.”

“And we are supposed to believe this?” the green-masked alien said. “This mission could determine the fate of the_”

“Enough, Vigorous Lieutenant,” Trusted Captain said his voice brimming with authority. “We would be grateful for your help but if your true aim is in line with those of the Rebels then we will come to blows.”

“Our goal should be unrelated,” Surge stated firmly. “We search for a black sticky substance in the brain of this monster. If you have a different aim then we should experience no conflict.”

“That is a relief to hear,” Trusted Captain said. “Therefore I wish to extend cooperation to you in this matter.”

“Let me talk to my superior first,” Surge stated. “We can decide how best to cooperate afterwards.”

“That will give us time to set up our base of operations,” the captain agreed raising his hand to his mask, a gesture that was matched by Surge before he turned and walked away the two others of the Coldreach Crew following him as he said so. It was only when they had travelled over three hundred metres and were completely out of sight that Surge slumped in annoyance.

“I never knew you had a penchant for dramatics,” Warden said dryly.

“You did a good job,” Wendy admitted speaking up for the first time in a while. “I couldn’t keep up with much of what was being said there.”

“It’s a skill called Empathy that all Necromancers’ have,” Surge admitted tapping his mask. “You may not have noticed it yet but most species don’t have human mannerisms. The little translation that the Angel gives does help, but if you meet a truly alien being then sometimes communication is impossible for most species but not us. You figured it out pretty quickly yourself,” he said nodding to Warden.

“They’re actors of some kind?” Warden asked. “Their masks correspond to roles. They seem to put an almost religious importance on their roles.”

“Religious is a good term,” Surge admitted. “Did you feel the presence when he affirmed his role?”

“That was a god?” Warden asked shivering slightly as he thought back to the presence. “I guess that’s what a god is like. It nearly made me want to start attending church again,” he mocked the effects that the god had upon him.

“It raised all my hackles,” Wendy admitted. “What can we do against something like that?”

“Retreat, avoid it, fight or die,” Surge admitted. “Gods work by strange rules and have strange limits. Just think of them as powerful beings that obtain power through worship. Theoretically if we kill enough of the followers then its ability to affect this area will be reduced but…”

“I would rather that our first option not be mass slaughter,” Warden stated. “Besides we may not necessarily come into conflict with them. Our aims are not necessarily conflicting. What more can you tell me about them?”

“They smelled like mushrooms,” Wendy said after some silence. “Back where I used to live we used to have entire months of rain after the rainy season ended huge colonies of mushrooms started to sprout. They smelled like a lot like those colonies.”

“They didn’t sound like fun guys to me,” Warden said before he cringed at the blank looks from both of his companions. “I guess the joke didn’t translate over correctly.”

“No Choir translated it perfectly,” Surge elucidated with a frown. “My Empathy is just currently tuned towards the Fun Guys at the moment who physically cannot laugh and I’m about fifty percent certain her race doesn’t have a sense of humour,” he continued pointing to Wendy. “In addition the joke just wasn’t good.”

“That might be true,” Wendy admitted. “I remember very little of my orig___my race,” she corrected herself mid-sentence. “I certainly don’t understand the expression you call laughter, but I can try to mimic it if you want.”

“That is the saddest thing I’ve heard all day,” Warden said. “When we get back to Coldreach I will try and find if there are any comedy specials on the goggle-box or whatever the space age equivalent is.”

“We used to have at least one,” Wendy admitted but they were knocked down when the communications broke and that still hasn’t been repaired.”

“Oh right, I forgot most of Coldreach is still broken,” Warden said. “We really should be hurrying to get back and fix the place, shouldn’t we?”

“You needed the training,” Surge stated firmly. “Practicing the ability to fight alien species in a safe environment while we had time to waste is invaluable. I have seen too many soldiers ripped apart in their first contact with a species they have never seen before.”

“You fought in a war?” Wendy asked surprised and Warden felt his lips twitch downward at the thought.

“Hey, I was a surgeon,” Surge elucidated. “I’m not a warrior.” He turned back to Warden who had adopted a more neutral look “You though, have a surprisingly low resistance towards killing or is that a natural trait of your species.”

“I was the head of a prison before Coldreach,” Warden admitted getting looks of interest from both Wendy and Surge. “I’ve had to review and sign the death warrants of prisoners in the past.”

“That’s not really the same thing,” Wendy pointed out causing him to shake his head.

“They are the same thing,” Warden stated firmly. “Besides, those creatures didn’t feel sapient to me. They were closer to particularly dumb sheep with particularly dangerous natural weapons.”

“That’s probably correct,” Wendy agreed and Surge nodded silently. “So are we going to use the Fun Guys to clear out the rest of the monsters and try to lure out whatever is clinging to the corpse.”

“Could you please stop using that name,” Warden moaned. “And use is a bit of a strong word. We’re cooperating until we get to the flesh and retrieve the corpse tar. While we aren’t planning to betray them and I don’t think they will betray us I don’t want us to be caught off guard if it does happen. Any hints on how they think Surge.”

“Their masks correspond to their roles and they literally don’t exist without their mask,” Surge stated removing the blue mask and favouring the pair with a smile. “If you were to remove a mask from a Fun Guy they would lose their role and likely collapse into unthinking fungi.”

“Stop the name, please,” Warden said with some exasperation. “Alright, so we use them as an army to clear the path and try to bait out whichever creature is hiding from Surge's sight. Maintain your distance but administer help if it doesn’t endanger yourself.”

“I can agree with that,” Surge said putting on the mask again.

“I also agree,” Wendy said a second before a howling sonic wave tore through the air drowning out the ambient noise.

“Oof, that’s not good,” Surge said pointing towards the place where they had just come from and where the masked people were still standing. “Well it looks like they are getting a start on the job of clearing out the creatures,” he said; more to himself as Warden had taken off as soon as the sound hit with Wendy following a second later. “So much for maintaining your distance,” he quietly mocked before he took off after them.