Admin 5 stood next to the Director, waiting patiently as the Watchers reviewed statistics and reports.
This was her third time meeting the Watchers. Incredibly elder people who’d been chosen as Admins back when Earth was young. Their clothes reflected archaic styles, and their accents came from a time before English was a language. They knew so much; had seen so much.
And if they approved, Admin 5 would gain their title. She’d become the first Watcher for the new world, able to collect Admins and Directors, working only under the eye of The Eternal. After a few millennia, after promoting some good Watchers, she’d retire as an Ancient, able to do literally anything she wanted.
Watcher of the new world would be a lonely position for a few years, until a new generation appeared which she could gather Admins from. Admin 5 didn’t mind. The Director would have minded, and as such was aiming to be one of Earth’s Watchers; a position that came with dozens of subordinates.
“What will be the name of the new world?” Watcher 1 asked.
“Tiros,” Admin 5 replied. There were a few traditional names for worlds, and choosing one in a Watchers’ native language would hopefully make them like her. If they liked her, they might help if she ran into problems.
Watcher 2 smiled, writing the word down. The group still used pens and paper, while the Admins had all changed to screens and keyboards. Admin 5 decided she wouldn’t be that type of elder being. She’d keep up with whatever the mortals used.
“Very well,” Watcher 1 said, sitting up. He smiled at her. “We hereby approve your transfer to the position of Watcher 0 of Tiros. May you find peace and happiness in that role.”
The previous Admin 5 smiled, bowing. “Thank you. I will do my best.”
“Congratulations,” the Director said calmly. “I know you will do an excellent job.”
“She will,” Watcher 2 said. “Unlike you.”
The Director froze. She slowly turned to face the Watchers. “I’m sorry?”
“You have, honestly, done a terrible job,” Watcher 3 said. “You disobeyed your own rules. You made decisions the Admins, as a group, agreed were bad. You removed an Admin’s vocal cords. And you never updated what we approved of as a temporary plan.”
“It has been over five years,” Watcher 1 added. “We agreed to the best plan we could think of in two hours. And then we left the making of a real plan to you and your Admins.”
The Director stared. “It was a fine plan,” she managed.
“No,” Watcher 2 said flatly. “Under no circumstance is ‘cover our weaknesses by putting someone insane in power’ a fine plan. Ideally, we expected you to find a way of bolstering your Admin’s abilities to the point they could create functioning cities. Or find people among your souls with the mental fortitude to take a failing city and fix all the problems.”
“Why didn’t you direct your Admins to search through their souls for people to help them?” Watcher 3 asked.
The Director didn’t answer.
Admin 5 cleared her throat. “We did. Secretly. We kept failing, so finally we asked for volunteers to help.”
“There, you see?” Watcher 1 asked the Director, pointing at Admin 5. “She will do what ought to be done.”
“She disobeyed my directions is what she did,” the Director grumbled. “That’s nothing compared to what Admin 6 did, though.”
“Ah yes, what did Admin 6 do to warrant the removal of his ability to communicate?” Watcher 3 asked.
“He entered a relationship with a soul,” the Director said. “One of the lesser souls. He told her everything. There was no secret kept from her.”
Admin 5 rolled her eyes.
“In what way was she lesser?” Watcher 1 asked.
“She wasn’t chosen as a player.”
“So she wasn’t potentially insane? Her lack of disturbing or concerning traits made her lesser?” Watcher 1 clarified.
“Well… yes.”
Watcher 2 was watching Admin 5. “Watcher of Tiros, what do you have to say about this?”
She carefully kept her face neutral. “The Director removed Admin 6’s voice because he told her the plan and her ban on communication with ‘lesser’ souls was all incredibly stupid. He repeatedly questioned her authority. I should add, Admin 1 returned his voice within the week.”
“He what?” the Director demanded, her face turning red.
“Thank you for informing us,” Watcher 1 said. “The rules are clear on what should be done with Admin 6: he must renounce his authority and memories of this place and return to mortality. His soul will not be allowed back into our ranks for another thousand years. I have seen many Admins leave us for love, and I find no shame in it. Even if some call it a punishment. And as for calling a stupid plan stupid, that honesty is something I approve of. We cannot improve if no one points out our idiotic rules. Director 2, you ought to have asked for a vote when he insulted your rules, not mutilated him for speaking his mind.”
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The Director seethed.
“Seeing her attitude, clearly something must be done,” Watcher 2 told the other Watchers. “I propose we send her down to Tiros, installing her as queen of the worst-designed city.”
Watcher 3 smiled. “Surely she is smart enough to fix any problems of her own creation. I propose we remove her access to magic and leave all her memories.”
“I find that agreeable,” Watcher 1 decided. “I propose we set her age to twelve. To remind her of what being young and dismissed is like.”
All three looked at Admin 5. She took half a step back, not sure what to say.
Watcher 1 smiled kindly. “Well, Watcher of Tiros? It is your world. Do you accept or reject our proposals?”
Admin 5… finally internalized that she wasn’t Admin 5 any more. She was barely 300 years old, and yet she was a Watcher. She had a whole planet to take care of, and all by herself.
Watcher of Tiros took a deep breath, standing tall. “I propose we set her age to fourteen. Being six years younger than anyone else alive would be suspicious; four years is more reasonable. We will install her as princess of the biggest and worst-designed city, with a regent until she reaches eighteen. We will remove her access to magic, and allow her to remember this place through dreams.”
“Accepted.”
“Accepted.”
“Accepted.”
The Director backed up. “No! You can’t do this! I’ve worked so hard, I deserve-”
Watcher 2 cut her off. “What you deserve, Princess Demelza, is to have all your memories removed and be placed as a babe in a slave’s house. You have gone mad with power, so we are being kind by putting you in a position where your madness can have a good effect.”
“No. Please.” She looked at Watcher 3. “We were friends once, Naamah.”
Watcher of Tiros gasped at the name.
Watcher 3 shook her head sadly. “We were friends when I was your Director, and you were an Admin. How many of your Admins are your friends, Demelza? How many people like you?”
The room went silent.
“How’s this,” Watcher 1 eventually said. “If you can produce one person willing to say they consider you a friend, we will find a different punishment.”
The Director looked at the Watcher of Tiros.
“I’m sorry,” the Watcher of Tiros said. “You always had to be right. In control. You never gave us any leeway. You treated Admin 6 too harshly.”
The Director looked away. Then up at Watcher 1. “Anyone? Any soul at all?”
“Yes,” he agreed.
“May we summon Player 606?”
He flipped through a booklet. “A player named… Nikki?”
“Yes.”
Watcher of Tiros wanted to ask if she was absolutely sure about that. Of all the players, the Director could have at least chosen someone who would use this for blackmail. But then, maybe that was the reason she wanted Nikki. The chef would never think to blackmail anyone. And her goal in life was to befriend every living creature.
A moment later, the green-haired neko popped into the room. She was wearing an apron, and had flour smudged on a cheek.
Nikki looked around briefly, then smiled at the three Watchers behind the long desk. “Hi!”
“Greetings,” Watcher 2 said. “We have brought you here to determine if you would consider someone a friend.”
“Probably,” Nikki said, completely sincere. “I hope everyone is my friend. Or at least a friendly acquaintance. Even the monsters. Except slimes; I don’t like slimes.”
“How nice,” Watcher 3 said. She motioned to the Director. “Would you consider her a friend? Do you like her?”
Nikki turned. She saw the Director. And everyone saw the conflict on her face.
The Director smiled pleadingly.
“No,” Nikki finally said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry.”
Watcher 1 smiled gently. “May we ask why not?”
“She-” Nikki looked directly at the Director. “You never apologized for turning Avi into a kobold that one time. And you took away my food inventory. I can’t forgive you for that, even if you did give it back.”
“Avi?” Watcher 3 asked.
Watcher of Tiros answered. “Her husband. The incident where the Director turned a player into a mob mid-cycle without warning.”
“Thank you. Nikki, do you know anyone who would consider the Director their friend?” Watcher 2 asked.
“No,” the chef replied. “She’s worse than slimes.”
Silence.
Complete silence.
“That’s hardly an insult,” the Director said with a desperate laugh. “I quite like sli-”
“You’re mean!” Nikki snapped. “You figure out what people love and take it from them! I tried to be nice, even after you called Avi pathetic! I gave you cupcakes and pizza and chicken nuggets! And then you took my food away, right when Kimi needed my help most! You learned that the Sams’ sister was back in our old dungeon and stopped them from messaging each other just because they threw a party! I- I don’t want to say anyone is too mean to have friends. I want everyone to be nice and happy. But you don’t want to be happy. You just want everyone else to be miserable.”
Admin 5 desperately wished she’d been able to record that. Admin 6 would have loved that speech. As it was, she had to hold herself back from clapping and cheering. She couldn’t keep in the huge, gleeful grin, though.
Watcher 1 tsked, shaking his head solemnly. “You were mean to someone who gave you cupcakes. How dare you, Demelza.”
“They were clearly a bribe!” the Director yelled.
“I told you,” Nikki said softly, genuine hurt in her voice. “They would have been taken out of my inventory at cycle reset, and I didn’t want them to go to waste.”
The three Watchers shook their heads in disappointment.
“They were very delicious,” Watcher of Tiros told the chef, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for giving them to the Director, even if she didn’t eat any.”
Nikki smiled at her, tears brimming in her eyes.
“It is settled, then,” Watcher 2 declared. “No one who repays cupcakes with hostility is worthy of being among our ranks. Demelza, you will be sent to Tiros, into the agreed-upon position.”
“No, you-”
With a wave of Watcher 1’s hand, she was gone.
He gazed down at the green-haired catgirl. “Enough of that. Nikki. What would you like your life to be like in the new world?”
Nikki hesitated, then looked at them seriously. “Well, I’ve thought about this a lot, so if you really want to know, we’ll be here a while.”
“I like this girl,” Watcher 3 decided. “She’s honest. We don’t mind listening for ‘a while’.”
“Ok, then, here,” Nikki said, beaming as she pulled a cake with pink frosting out of her inventory. She slid it onto the Watcher’s desk. “You can eat this while I talk!”
The three smiled, and the Watcher of Tiros knew all Nikki’s dreams were about to come true.