Luau Lua tried to stand up, realized she already had, squatted, and straightened up again. “I'm so far persuaded that I intend to join the Beruvo sisters' fan club. Hurray for puppets! Oh, but I don't mean I'll do anything. You two are both quite popular enough as it is.”
Aerywe and Gaelvry both curtsied to acknowledge the compliment. Other officers declared their intention to follow Lua in their favoritism: fellow Beruvians or resident aliens there Rhizi Apron, Rylweadh of Mercy, and Georgia Anne Cooper; gentlemen General Wakve and Jonathan Brightwater; lower-class admirers of elegance and poise True Beryllia, Minsie of the Waves, Wedding Singer Vritia, Inorrea Vacationer, and Sibyl; and ladies of high station from non-monarchies who could see themselves in the role Newlywed Quircy and Ballroom Neur. Some noticed the coterie forming around the Beruvos included many of the perennially popular officers. Tinni Ilx noticed that and rushed to join in, which caused the fastest dissolution of the separation between a measurement and what was being measured in Commandment of Hero history.
Skaya noticed also, but she chose to maintain the dignity of someone who understood her own position. “I'm calling them Team Evergreen from now on. Cadmos can be Team Generic. That way I can put an E and a G on this table.” That made sense to everyone else.
The trailer analysis and fan club recruitment might have gone on for hours straight before everyone retired at night only to resume the next day, except that once again the dining hall monitor and signs all around the world commanded Beruvia's twin queens together with Cadmos to present themselves at the data renewal facility. Even then, the trailer analysis continued. Many officers calculated the chance of seeing thrills able to shock them if they sojourned all the way down south again at around zero point zero zero, which was even lower than the UR recruitment rate. Allegedly.
The two fan clubs attended their idols during the trip, joined by officers who never stopped pulling the lever of novelty despite the poor odds of a payout along with some extra-CoH visitors guaranteed a new sight. Conversations among those optimists along the way maintained a friendly tenor.
“I doubt, not that I have much of a basis for any of this, that there's any way to turn Cadmos into a dual character. We can hand him an ax like those two have and pray, but miracles are more common in HLA than here,” Hemt T. Elf was saying.
Saptres Muria nodded. “Spying on the Queens Beruvo does seem unproductive.” He meant it too, or else discussing that option right in front of Team Evergreen might have been considered a blunder. Or a clever way to trick them into relaxing their security, but probably that other one.
“Easy to do, though. Look over there.” Newlywed Quircy pointed to the exact over there she meant for the benefit of listeners who believed any place in the world counted as over there, depending on where here happened to be at the time. In that case, over there was over where a certain two officers walked next to each other while they chatted. “The most you can expect from Bride Gaelvry as far as keeping secrets from that guy is that she'll warn Aerywe Beruvo to move the bodies before she confesses where they are. Kinda takes the ying out of spying, doesn't it? I feel bad for you, so maybe I'll let you know if a zany scheme comes my way.”
“Thanks, Quircy. That's swell. I'm glad I briefly considered voting for you,” said Ben I. Sloup.
While Gaelvry had indeed seized upon the emergence of new common ground to engage Cadmos in conversation, Newlywed Quircy's confident declarations contained two errors. First, Gaelvry was fully capable of keeping secrets from Cadmos. She simply had none to keep. Second, she was Gaelvry Beruvo, not Gaelvry Bride, much less Bride Gaelvry. So that made three errors. She had reverted to her base version in accordance with orders from above, or below, or wherever the developers were in relation to the game.
“I forgot she had that ax too,” Lua noted as she looked back and forth between the Beruvos, each one carting the two-bladed royal ax of Beruvia.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“I forgot what launch art was like.” True Beryllia refused to elaborate on that statement, but sometimes, when her eyes fell on Gaelvry Beruvo, Aerywe Beruvo, Cadmos, or all but a few of the Rares, a swift photographer could have immortalized a split-second grin.
Nobody tried to assault the data renewal facility on that visit, which prompted reflection from General Wakve about whether he had lost the old spirit. “Nonsense,” the Infernos replied. “A Storm can't be expected to exhibit any vitality or optimism.” The resulting brawl kept the crowd occupied till the Beruvos emerged, undiminished morally by the experience whatever Coremel claimed but perhaps more contemplative than normal. The notice over the door reconfigured itself to call for Cadmos's second session. He tried to high-five both Beruvos on the way, but only Gaelvry went for it.
“Don't wash that hand!” Dr. Stezlinstein yelled from the crowd.
“Get a hobby, Winze,” Gaelvry Beruvo called back. She lost her contemplative attitude in favor of a more conversational one. “All right, who wants to hear how it went? It turns out I'm just there as my sister's puppet. I won't say it isn't odd, either. She demonstrates the moves just the same way Cadmos explained. Then I leap into action! Kapow!” Her ax demonstrated that particular maneuver on the skull of Ulrik, who did not seek an apology. He knew he deserved it.
“Sorry. Aerywe, want to pretend you made me do that?”
“Not in the least. Settle your own business, and then come with me. We must select one of these bungalows to occupy lest Wruden Calx's kindness go unappreciated without reason. Have you gentlemen in Cadmos's entourage taken up in any of them?” They all shook their heads, except Ulrik. He was waiting for his to mend. “Excellent. Gaelvry, let us proceed.”
“I'll race you!” The younger and therefore less respectable twin took off with a peck of populars in the train, which no longer described part of her wedding dress. Though her royal dress had some volume to it. As for Aerywe, the idea of losing the contest failed to spur her to feats of fleetness. She instead returned to addressing Team Generic.
“Isn't it an attractive notion for you to take the bungalow opposite ours? We would have more opportunities to converse.”
King Ostros made a show of checking his pouches. “I am shamefully without my Beruvian dictionary, but I have this suspicion there is some special 'we' in use.”
“I got that part too, ,” Burmin Trivvis said. “Do we want Cadmos talking to people though? Shouldn't he be training?”
Ben I. Sloup clocked Burmin out of sorrow more than anger. “Any Cadmos backer needs to understand the power of friendship. Specifically, we might be able to get Gaelvry Beruvo to tell him to knock it off with the jumping. Some critical mass of people yelling at him might unlock his true potential or something.”
“Next I need to find a Brenlond dictionary. It seems 'friendship' means something different over there.” King Ostros gave up on pretending to search for a book. “That might work, except for the fact that Cadmos is doubtless performing better moves in there just as we planned.”
Cadmos popped out of the center. “Sorry guys. I did the uppercut again.”
“I've decided we should go along with Aerywe Beruvo's proposal. Any objections? No? Good.”
The first two teams claimed the first two clubhouses on the road leading directly away from the developer-placed building. Those appeared to be the most dignified locations, although some argued for the farthest buildings on the basis that bosses hung out in that sort of position.
“But if the spinoff does have a boss, it's probably Silesius Ven or Alben,” Jonathan Brightwater argued, which made sense to the listeners. The fools. If only any member of the fighting crew had been there to tell them Alben's Artificial God made for a perfect final screen-sized boss that sits there in the background looking intimidating while occasionally one of its fists just sort of glides across the screen. Laser eyes that sweep across the stage? Extravagant, but a possibility. They would also hit spots on the ground with a splash effect in order to fail at teaching the player about movement and positioning.
Team Evergreen's clubhouse soon knew the weight of tapestries on every wall and embroidered cushions on every seat, necessary accouterments for meetings of the Society for the Preservation of Existing Popularity. The first meeting had for its agenda the entire program of the team going forward. “I still don't see a need to do much,” Luau Lua stated.
General Wakve agreed. “Agreed,” he said agreeably. “All that's lacking is teamwork, since you two have always been different elements. A little Patrolling ought to see to that.”
With that, Champion Gaelvry Beruvo, Strategist Aerywe Beruvo, Medic Rylweadh of Mercy, Harasser Ballroom Neur, and Warper Minsie of the Waves set out for endless battle as the most elegant plus Minsie team there ever was. Elemental misalignment and the lack of care taken for team synergy did nothing to slow down either them or the other club members who decided they might as well indulge in some low-impact farming themselves. If anything, their speedy massacres revealed their one problem all too soon.