Nikola checked that the one other pair of eyes in the room was somewhere else before remembering that nobody else could read her screen anyway.

Snootyalligator1: Hello, Nikola. Please don't be alarmed when you receive this message. Don't blink too fast, don't breathe hard, just keep reading and don't do anything weird. Stay in the same pose you're in now. Tonight, when everybody else is asleep and it gets to be about 11:50 PM, I want you to come to the forest South of the Copper Citadel. Don't tell anybody about this message, and read through this as quickly as possible. Make your route to the forest very direct. Don't take any detours. Don't do anything the cameras will deem interesting, just walk to the forest South of the Copper Citadel. I'll be there. I'm a friend and you can trust me, but I NEED you to not put any direct focus on this message or you'll be getting A LOT of people in trouble. Not just me.

Now close the message and get back to what you were doing, and I'll see you in the forest.

Nikola's eyes buzzed along the text, her temples and skin stinging with sensation as she took in the message. Somebody called 'Snootyalligator1' wanted to meet her alone in the woods to talk about something, and they didn't want her to inform anybody else of the transaction.

She wouldn't have given it a second thought, except that they mentioned they could get be in a mountain of trouble if she messed up. So they had some skin in this as well, hmm?

So if they did something to harm her, she could just cause a commotion to regain the upper hand?

That made her feel safer, but there was always the option that they were lying through their digital teeth and they were just trying to lure her to the woods to stab her. But she was the best stabber out there, the knifiest knifer in the land. If somebody tried to wrangle her in for some flesh piercing, she was confident she could win.

Something about the message intrigued her. It made her brain tingle with curiosity. Just seeing what Snootyalligator wanted from her couldn't hurt, could it?

Of course it could. Ugh. Venturing out into the outskirts of town without telling anybody where she was off to was undoubtedly inadvisable. She had until midnight to decide if she was going to go through with it anyway.

"I couldn't... hear very well when you were making me, but you decided on Mage for me?" Ven tilted her head.

"Yes. I was told it was a viable offensive option for if one was ever to be disarmed, and for somebody who would not often be alone."

"Not alone?" Ven's lips began to twitch upward. "So you see yourself keeping me in your party?"

"Until that is not what you wish to do with your life anymore, yes. I intend to stay with you as long as you wish for me to be present." Nikola wondered if she sounded breathy at all, or if her pulse was heightened. The message's existence was still scratching at the back of her brain.

Just then, the squeaked open and Luke and Violet returned to the room, breath laboured like they'd been walking quickly.

"Hey," Luke said into the room, "I've returned from my walk of reflection-- Angelica, it's good to have you here. The me who makes you think I feel any other way than that is an asshole. Nikola, Angelica, Violet, let's talk strategy when we wake up in the morning." He stripped as he talked, peeling off his overshirt and then his armour, leaving only a tank top underneath. He tossed his fallen clothes beside his bed. "I'll clean this up once I'm done showering all these people juices off of me."

Luke didn't leave much time for a response, swiftly tucking himself away in the washroom and locking the door just as he was finishing his sentence.

"I think he's coming around," Violet started, smoothing her bedding before plopping her butt down on it, "it seems like he just gets twisted up whenever we don't have a plan. Do you think we could make one tomorrow? Vengelica, I know you're quite new, so I think you should think about what you want too. Let's see if we can make a plan that makes all of us happy."

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Ven's eyes narrowed. Everyone was zipping around and speaking too fast for her. Her head was throbbing with all the new information. "My name is Ven," she managed to hiss out, her words fighting around her splitting headache.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ven. I'm glad you picked a name for yourself. I quite like it." Violet was already in pajamas, so she didn't really need to change for bed. Instead, she got to work tying her hair up in a messy bun for bedtime. Her hair was thick, hung past her ass and was well-maintained, and the bun was bigger than both of her fists when she wrangled it all together. Oh, if only her hair in real life was like this, the things she could have done.

Nikola was pleased to see that Luke and Violet had returned from their walk and seemed to both be willing to continue on with their party as it was. She had been wondering if their impromptu outing was going to be a one-way affair.

"I'm going to sleep," Ven informed them, slipping under her covers and facing the wall once she was horizontal. Moments later, a faint snoring rose from her area.

Nikola searched the lAamp between them for a way to turn it off, scanning it with her eyes before touching it. Blowing on it probably wouldn't work, since the thing that seemed to be the flame was sealed... so she instead tried to remove said 'flame' from the overall structure, flinching when she touched the lightbulb and it was hot, hot, hot.

"Oh! Let me help you with that." The Archer stood from the edge of her mattress and shimmied over beside Nikola, reaching up to the knob on the side of the lamp and twisting it. The light turned off. Nikola reached up and performed the action a couple of times before being satisfied that she had learned the process.

"Thank you. I am unfamiliar with many of these structures."

"I can tell," she whispered softly, but not meanly, "you didn't know your way around a shower either. I'm happy to have taught you so many things, Nikola. Remember me when the AI uprising happens, okay?"

"My memory is fully functioning," she returned flatly but warmly, and then opened up her own bed to receive her. It was silkier than her burlap-like scratchy sheets at home and her legs glided ethereally against the cotton. She kicked her feet a few times, silently, to enjoy the sensation.

Violet returned to her bed and sprayed a flowery-scented mist on her pillow before burying her face in it, pulling the covers over her head to encase her in the scent. Her world was now lavender, vanilla and down, and nothing in the outside world mattered.

Nikola checked that her bag was still present and that everything was accounted for. Silently, she pulled her blankie from it and nudged it beneath one of her pillows.

Luke emerged from the bathroom wrapped in only a puffy white towel, the browning blood cleansed from his skin. A trail of minty mist billowed out of the bathroom and mixed with Violet's flowery concoction. The Warrior picked up some boxers and returned to the bathroom, returning a moment later with them on, along with a plain white tank top.

It didn't take long for all of the others to be asleep. Luke clicked the light off and succumbed to his sleep bar, leaving Nikola the only one awake, alone with her thoughts as the deep inhales and snores swirled around her. Her lids felt heavy like sand bags, but the thing keeping her awake was of course the anonymous message, prodding at the backs of her eyelids whenever she even considered unconsciousness.

What time was it now? She swooped up her Red Rectangle to check; it was 8:19 PM. She poked the clock and it opened up.

[Do you want to set an alarm?]

An alarm? What would she use that for? The clock box gave her the option to input a time, so she slipped her finger across the screen and set it for 8:20. Seconds later, when the time hit 8:20, it began to beepbeepbeep, and she frantically smacked at the [STOP ALARM] button until it went silent.

Just as she was setting an alarm for 11:40, which would give her ample time to travel to the forest, she heard a rustling to her left.

Ven was was on her back now, her bright eyes staring up at the ceiling.

After confirming she was still awake, Ven spoke at such a volume Nikola could barely hear her. "Nikola."

"Yes?"

"I want to kill the Violet Queen."