[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Lucky Paine]
[Level: 1, Sub-Level: 6]
Lucky stomped over the ground, all her nerves on end as she headed forward. Burks had said that she was not worth his attention. And now that they had gotten his attention, should they be afraid?
Tench was standing next to her, a brisk pace that fell short of her tense movements. They clamped on their rebreathers and pulled the door open to meet the gaze of Burks, who stood out painfully in his pressed suit and self-satisfied smile. She wanted to slam their legs into his head. It would be so easy to solve the problem right here.
She signaled to the tumblethorn population to stand down from where they were surrounding Burks, glaring at him with the intensity of swarming, agitated bees.
“Hello, Lucky.” He greeted, tucking his hands into his pockets, “I see you have… amassed hope.”
“That I have.” She agreed, as cool as she could manage.
“And Gideon Tench, a Healer?” Tench blinked in surprise, though where he got this information, she wasn’t sure, “Those are rare. At least in our Harbinger ranks.”
She didn’t doubt that, given what Tench had described about the Hippocrates’ Oath. It wasn’t conducive to destroying the world. Still, the way he said that, the gleam in his eyes, it spoke of nothing but danger. As the fighter in the group, Lucky had to speak up, “And what does that mean to you?”
“Nothing.” Burks replied, “Harbingers don’t get hurt bad enough to ever need one. Except for Roiland. We finally found him, did I tell you?”
“Never mentioned that he was gone.”
“You must not have been important enough to tell.” He shrugged, “Oh well. We’ve recovered him. That is all you need to know. I’m sure that you’re very excited to know about that.” He eyed Tench meaningfully, “Our Verity will be so excited to hear that he is still around to kill.”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Tench agreed, not looking very happy at this idea, “What are you doing here?”
He threw his head back and laughed, “You thought that a Player with a pirated Console could sneak into my hunting grounds without my notice?”
Given that he no longer had his Console, she had certainly thought so. This brought Lucky back to the situation Burks was in. It was a reasonable question. How was Burks here, and why?
“You’re looking for your Console, aren’t you?” She asked.
He cringed, and she knew she hit gold.
“You aren’t a Player anymore. You need that Console to navigate the Game. So you’ve come to fetch it. I bet that you didn’t even know Tench was here until you saw him.”
He spluttered and colored, and the sharp knowledge of victory curled up in her gut.
“I’m still in charge!” He insisted, “It’s just… a minor setback.”
She was going to call that bluff, simply looking back at him with a droll look. Beside her, Tench looked nervous, but didn’t seem willing to break away from her plan.
“I’ve had enough of this.” She announced, directing her spidery legs forward, riffling through the man’s pockets intensely, until she finally unearthed the slim piece of card she had been looking for.
[You Have Gotten a Card of Compulsion!]
“Hey!” Burks complained, slapping at the metal legs fruitlessly, “This is a violation of my privacy!”
“You have a lot of nerve to talk about privacy.” Lucky growled, making her chair rise to get her eye level with him, “You know what I find the most irritating thing about you, Burks? You act so self-assured, so powerful, when you are nothing. You just feed off the people around you to prop yourself up, and act like that’s enough to give you any worth.”
Stunned silence hung for a fragile moment, until it shattered with a wild laugh. Except none of the people gathered here were laughing. Someone else was, and Lucky could not see them.
Until she did. A woman appeared in front of them, about the same age as Lucky. When Lucky said ‘appeared’, they meant it exactly as that. She appeared out of nowhere, walked straight from thin air. That was not the only odd thing about her that was odd. She had bright cerulean hair that went down to her waist, and eyes with no pupil or iris. Just pools of bright viridian that seemed to reflect worlds afar.
She was grinning wildly, batting ineffectually at the dust that had packed itself onto her thick purple greatcoat and white cravat. Underneath was a well-starched shirt and dress pants, made up by a pair of high-heeled boots.
No one had said anything, first after Lucky’s outburst, and now with this woman’s appearance out of nowhere. Yet, she kept grinning, showing off all her teeth, which seemed just a tad bit too sharp.
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“That was mad funny.” She nodded to Lucky, elbowing Burks in the side, who allowed the contact with no complaints. It was downright bizarre to see, yet the woman seemed to notice none of it in her efforts to continue needling her… how did they know each other? “You really are just like that, you know? Me and the others gotta do everything for you, and then ya take all the credit for it. She got your whole schtick with one look. You looking for a team, steampunk girl?”
Ah, so she was another Harbinger. The second one Lucky was meeting, and yet she was still surprised that it was a woman. Maybe she needed to get her internal biases checked.
“No.” She replied, making clear eye contact with the blue-haired girl, “You will find that I have no interest in pursuits such as world domination, Ms.… whoever you are.”
“Ciera, darling.” The woman clicked her tongue, “And they rarely do at the beginning. Even though that isn’t exactly our modus operandi. Tell me about your chair? It looks cool. Does it make you feel cool?”
It actually hurt a lot from all the rocking back and forth, but it was the only solution she had for the lack of ramps in this world. Not that she would admit to such weakness to an obvious enemy.
“It totally makes you feel cool.” She teased, taking Lucky’s silence for agreement.
“Get the point.” Lucky replied, making sure to transfer the card to a safe compartment, though the creaking motion certainly did not go unnoticed by anyone.
Ciera’s smile had grown stony, the gleam in her eyes shifting from amused to something darker. More chilling. Something that could kill.
“See, there seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding here.” She whispered, every clipped syllable carrying through the air, “You do not get to make demands of me. Only I make demands. And I am demanding that you humor me, because I am a guest in your…” She sniffed, looking around, “Hideout? It’s doing a terrible job at being that, but I suppose you can’t help the pitiful existence you must live in.”
Lucky didn’t hold back this time. With a twitch of her controls, a long, pointed leg came flying up, pointed directly at Ciera’s head. It was blocked by- nothing. Well, that could not make sense, as it was in the air, and struggling to hit her, but just… wasn’t. Some invisible thing had caught onto it, and forced it to remain immobile.
Ciara continued to smile, the smugness of those hyper-reflective pools burning at Lucky’s better judgement.
“Are you done?” She asked, her voice saccharine with faux politeness. But Lucky understood a loss when it was staring them in the face. So, despite everything telling them not to, they relented, and allowed the leg to lower itself back to the ground.
“Good girl.” Ciera cooed, and Lucky almost snapped, but held it in. There were kids around. Too many dependents. Too many week spots that had to constantly be handled. Starting a fight that they were guaranteed to loose? It would have been something they would have gladly done if it was only their life on the line. So, she looked away, and stood down. Literally, she released the height crank on her chair, and it went right back to regular chair height.
It was like that simple motion was akin to waving the white flag. Lucky was not in tune with the emotions of the people around her, but she certainly felt the wave of despair that came from that tiny motion. They had lost, and before any fight could even start.
What followed next was anarchy. One second, Ciera, this mysterious interloper, had them by the metaphorical throat. And in the next, a beige and blond blur came speeding out of nowhere, tackling her to ground with a sharp smack. The figure didn’t stop at that. Didn’t hesitate. Just kept beating, until the punches landing were wet and bloody.
Lucky faintly wondered if they should also be running from this stranger, but one glance at Tench made her slow her horses. His face was alight with shock and horror and slight disgust, but no fear. In fact, Tench seemed to recognize her. And if he recognized her, that meant she was no threat. Splendid.
They were hoping that at this point, this other person – Ben, maybe? She didn’t expect her to be so… feminine presenting – would just kill Ciera right then and there, but for a moment, they hesitated. Froze to look into those marvelous eyes. And that tiny hesitation cost dearly, as Ciera took that as an opening to get a leg between them and kick them in the gut. Now, even if it wasn’t a spike-tipped robot leg, it still packed a punch, and Ben was thrown back, gagging.
Ciera heaved herself up, movements all lithe grace and practiced fluidity. Still, that didn’t detract from the bloody lip and the bruises and cuts already swelling up on every visible skin surface.
“You- you have some nerve!” She screamed at Ben, barely aware of the state she was in, “I was trying to make a dignified takeover you- you-” The rage died out, or rather, was taken over by shock as those eyes stared out, taking in hidden information, “You Player.” She whispered, and then, as if noticing the shift in her tone, she switched back to indignant rage to compensate, “You have some nerve to do that, you know, taking the gifts we’ve offered you, and turning our backs on the mission that drives us!”
“Tell that to the fire guy.” Ben snapped, cracking her knuckles ominously.
Ciera smirked. Or maybe grimaced. Lucky wasn’t certain.
“Fine, you wanna play ball? I can do that.” She replied, “But be warned, because I always hit the wicket.” Perhaps she meant for this to be intimidating, but since she was weaving on the spot from possible head injury, it did not come off as intended.
“And no one gives a shit about your overrated sports metaphors, so take it somewhere else.” Ben snapped, “Or better yet, get back here so I can fucking unravel you…” She made a grab for the female Harbinger, but Ciera vanished once more, letting Ben’s hands close around nothing. So it wasn’t just an invisibility charm, but a whole teleportation. They were almost jealous.
“Dammit, we lost her.” Ben spat in frustration, before her eyes caught onto the tiny, cowed figure trying to shrink into the background, “We know that guy?
“Oh definitely. And we are keeping him under lock and key.” Lucky announced, steering controls around like a demented claw machine to snag the man before he could escape.
All the bravado had melted off, leaving behind nothing but a sniveling man, crying desperately for safety.
“Hey, listen, we don’t have to do this.” He begged, “I’ve done some… questionable things but I swear, I was just-!”
[Burks Has Used Compulsion!]
The wave of control he tried to exert onto Lucky was expected, and she met it head-on with all her willpower. Only to break through easily. It was nowhere as strong as it had been before. How come…
Oh, right. She had taken his Compulsion Card. Lucky was the one in charge now.
“Alright, listen here, tosser.” She demanded, making sure that the grip was tighter than a vice, “I want you to tell us everything.”
“I- I really can’t, not if I want to have any hope of getting a Console again-”
“Be more concerned about staying intact.” She growled, and the threat was no bluff.
[Player Log End!]