ROD : LEVEL 10
DAY 181 : E-DAY, THIRDWEEK, FULGORA, YEAR 1
CENTRAL 16 : GROCERY CORNER 2 : OBSERVER
I’ve been observing Jessie for the better part of a week now. So I feel like a creep in more ways than just the one I get from walking around with a fake name. Even if it’s technically just as real as my last one, it makes up for that by feeling completely and utterly wrong. If nothing else, this whole slimy experience has thoroughly convinced me to go ahead and stick with ‘Mich’ for the time being. Just not while I’m stalking a minor who knows me by it.
Not that I’m walking right behind her or anything. Or even in the same direction. Or even at all. With Jessie’s time-stoppey medical condition, I could be outed by the barest fraction of a second of a suspicious action or look or lack of one or anything even remotely eye-catching. In any event, it’s impossible to stay hidden like that.
Not like I have access to Invisibility Skills or anything. Nor would they help me here if I did. They’re even rarer than toggles to detect someone using them. Not to mention Equipment and potions and probably Blessings to some degree. And nothing would alert Jessie to my presence more than invisibly failing to navigate a crowded market. Or zoo. Or wherever the Primary Color Squad Featuring Darreck happens to be that day. I mean I could use my blanket not to bump into anyone while I literally walk through them… But that’s the most suspiciously identifying option of all.
So instead of any of that, I’m sitting in an Ice Cream Social where I only recently learned you could order booze. Not hurting my cover is the fact that this is far from my first visit to the franchise. Even if it is my first time at this location. Or using this name. But the NPC servers called me by it and treated me like a regular all the same.
Although they did the same for the Valor Guild members sitting right next to me. And I really wish they hadn’t.
These drunk idiots are making it unreasonably hard to follow whatever Darreck’s Angels And Also Jessie are talking about. From the sounds of it, they’re celebrating something. One of them leveled up, I guess?
I can’t tell much beyond that with the guy who apparently died saving a fellow trainee in Marine boot camp yelling every time he takes a bite of alcohol-infused ice cream. “HOO-AHH!!”
His drinking-equivalent buddy rubs his temples in an apparent attempt to fight back the same migraine I feel coming on. “God damn it, Carl. First, in the Marines, it’s pronounced ‘hoo-RAW’… The 'r' is important if you don't want to sound like you're doing an Al Pacino impression.”
Carl defiantly picks his nose. “Who's Al Pacino?”
“Not important. Just enunciate the ‘r’ if you're going to say it at all. Which you only do as a response to instructions. Because, second, ‘HURA’ is actually an acronym that stands for-” He counts off on his fingers. “‘Heard’, ‘Understood’, ‘Recognized’, and ‘Acknowledged’. So, yelling it out in response to you yourself taking a shot is, in a word, retarded. Although I guess I could see the argument for your ‘r’ standing for that-” He shakes his head. “Third, you were never actually in the Marines. So you shouldn't be using it in the first place.”
Not only was I distracted by wanting to interject and call them both idiots because first, who cares, and second, ‘hooah’ was a thing in The Army that I’ve seen actual veterans yell when drinking, but Jessie apparently died during the rant.
Red’s companions all seem as shocked as the Valor guys are oblivious to the whole thing in favor of debating the technicalities of military culture.
Blue is scared.
Green is curious.
Yellow is smug.
Darreck is apoplectic.
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Weaving through the crowded plaza from its featured Spawnpoint like a water snake, Red grumbles her way back to the group.
The one who killed her looks like the most downtrodden man ever to live.
[ HERO TARGETED: WARREN ]
I… Don’t recognize him. And I didn’t see him actually kill Jessie. But unless Warren here made a sudden mental turn for the clinically depressed, I’d say something about the murder dampened his spirits. Was it an accident? Damn my distractibility…
Ignoring them, Jessie marches back up to Darreck while holding out the trap she keeps triggering. “Recharge please.”
Darreck is more shocked than anyone at her reappearance.
And that’s saying something because now everyone in the square, not just their little group, is staring at her like the ghost we literally all basically are. “But… You just… It hasn’t even been an hour since… But how-”
“RECHARGE PLEASE.”
Seemingly stuck in some sort of fugue state, he blankly reaches out, and just as I suspected, sets his trap.
Jessie gleefully triggers it.
Nothing happens.
Apparently not even to her. “FUCK, I KNEW IT!!!” She snaps her head to Warren. “Two extra fucking hours you cost me. That, on top of like a hundred more worth of XP Debt… I haven’t done the math. Because if I did the math, I’d probably kill you right now. I’m more than a little pent up, you see. And I was so very mad at first. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still ABSOLUTELY LIVID. But in the past half-day or so, I’ve reasoned with myself to the point that I’m willing to grant you an out. So, next, one of two things are gonna happen. You’ll either pay me for the inconvenience, or you’ll die for it. You choose, Spider-man.”
It seems to take Warren a great deal of effort to raise his head. “W-what?”
“Gimme something worth what you just cost me or I’ll take it, with interest, from your corpse. Likely several times. Each, according to The System, in what is technically self-defense.”
Not seeming to care about much of anything anymore, he mutely removes and hands her his own weapon.
Yellow folds her arms. “Where are The Pyramid Guard?”
But I don’t need to see more. And not just because I already know how Jessie’s lack of presence in the Respawn Queue interferes with automated responses to her murder. But also because I've officially given her new life more than enough benefit of the doubt. I’m not sure what Warren’s deal is. What I do know is that Jessie’s little trap stopped working. And general snark aside, this is the first time since I started tailing them that she’s acted anything like the girl I traveled with for half a year.
Turning in place, I walk from there, to the nearest transport service, straight on to the center of the city. Back to the same tower that told me off the first time. But this, unlike that, absolutely has to be something they’re ‘allowed to affect’.
Just like it did then, The Tower glistens in the sun like a victorious Hero piece atop the ruins of a successful game of Tetris. And then a whole city was built in its relative lack of a shadow.
There are no entrances. No exits. But one appears whenever someone wants to ‘speak to the manager’ of Heaven.
So it’s through gales of laughter from everyone who saw me the better part of two months ago realizing I’m the reason the door appeared, that I walk through.
Inside is literally my old boss’s office. It even looks out at downtown Richmond. But the angelic man on duty looks nothing like my boss.
Even if he does shake his head as soon as I walk in just like my boss did that one time… “It isn’t sexual.”
I blink at him. “What… What are you talking about?”
“I know why you are here. We are aware of the suspect in question. We have very strict laws under equally narrow areas of jurisdiction. This is by design. Nothing he is doing or plans to do, violates any of them.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Can you check?”
“I just did.”
“So, what, nobody’s allowed to do anything about it?”
The admin snorts. “Who said ‘nobody’? I speak only of, and for, The Admins.”
I blink. “Oh…” I was so fixated on not being able to do anything that I didn’t stop to think about literally anyone helping her but me. I don’t have the right. But if someone else were to… No, that’s only a stopgap. If I don’t have the right to influence her life, then does it suddenly become okay if I’m influencing someone else to influence it? Better question… How long have I been standing here?
The Admin is smiling the same as he has been for… I don’t know how long.
Like an overheating robot, I turn around and march out of The Tower.