I was able to slowly creep away from the steadily growing crowd of people. It turns out splattering almost countless snow lion bodies across a residential area does not go unnoticed. Oops. Luckily I was super stealthy. Apparently the armor’s bonus to stealth superseded whatever penalty being coated in gore caused.

As more people exited their homes I kept backing away. Several people walked right by me.

“Hey, these are Epic Scale!” someone exclaimed.

For a moment everyone went still. Then the harvest began. The crowd split into groups. One began to collect the bodies and pile them in the streets. The second group began to process the bodies, cutting them into manageable pieces. Once the bodies were piled in the street, half the people who collected them went to get more people, and the rest stayed to help butcher the snow lions. The people were definitely collaborative.

If you looked past the fact it was people chopping up bodies, their community coordination was kinda beautiful.

I kept inching away. Watching the effort. Were the bodies I had in my inventory worth something? I should talk to Angelica. I backed around a corner to an ally and immediately bumped into someone.

“Ouch!” they said.

I spun and found two young people. Both were wearing white coats black pants and yellow boots. The girl had a pink stocking cap and gloves, the boy had a similar hat and gloves in green. They looked to be about the same age, but I doubted they were related. I read their names: Gisele Carvalho and Bob Smith. Yeah probably not siblings.

Gisele gazed up at me with equal parts joy and wonder. Bob looked afraid I was going to step on him again.

“Sorry, uh… hello,” I managed.

Gisele grinned at me and did a sort of excited dance, “We found him! Bob, we are talking to a Titan Spawn!”

“Don’t fangirl,” Bob hissed out the corner of his mouth. He watched me while standing rigid. He was clearly afraid I might do something violent, like murder snow lions en masse.

Gisele ceased her dancing. And stood rail straight, “Right! Okay.” she turned to me. “You’re so cool! I mean, Hello!”

“Hi, nice to meet you,” I replied, glossing over the fangirl-like behavior.

“It is so great to meet you, I have been watching you since you got here.” Gisele gushed.

“You have been following this whole time?” That was more than a little weird.

“Yes!” Gisele said with a nod. Bob facepalmed.

“I would think you two would have better things to do,” I said, not filtering my thoughts from my words as well as usual.

“Trust me, I had other ideas,” Bob said, apparently doing something similar.

I gazed at him impassively.

“Uh… I mean… you see…” Bob spluttered.

“Don’t worry,” Gisele said playfully, punching me on the arm before gesturing at Bob, “He is harmless in that regard. I am the aggressor 98 percent of the time. Frankly, he is a bit too gentle. It wouldn’t kill him to use his nails occasionally. Maybe some light biting.” She paused. “Wow, that was an overshare. Sorry, your charisma is doing a number on me.”

“What now?” I asked, growing deeply concerned.

“Your Face attribute, it must be really high. I can feel it adjusting my disposition. I normally don’t overshare, except with friends, and Bob’s mom… and with my teacher … I also was really forward with the Champion of the Fantasy Coast. It may be an issue, but I am sure something systematic is happening.“

“Can I turn it off?” I asked them. It may have sounded demanding.

They both shrugged.

“If I knew a way I would tell you,” Bob explained, slowly soothingly. Like he was trying to calm me down. He still looked scared of me.

Why was Gesele responding positively to me, but Bob was terrified? Was I putting out a killer vibe? Wouldn’t that affect both of them?

“That's fine,” I said, despite suspecting it was in fact not fine. It may in fact be bad.

“Cool,” Gisele said with a nod. “Can I fight you?”

I felt like I missed something, “Why?”

“To learn,” Gisele said like it was obvious.

“I mean I am not really good at this stuff yet, I am not sure I could teach you anything.” I explained.

They both leaned to look past me at the trail of destruction. That could be seen as evidence to the contrary, but I doubted I could teach them to do that.

I sighed, “Not right now. Come by Seth Cohen’s place tomorrow. We will figure something out.”

“Okay!” Gisele cheered.

“Let’s go and help with the recovery effort,” Bob said.

“Yeah, right,” Gisele said as Bob pulled her away. She waved goodbye as they rounded the corner.

Once they were out of ear shot, “Denise, what the hell?”

“What?” she asked as she stepped into my field of view. I felt that slow thrum as time stopped. Errant snowflakes hung in the air and the whistling of the wind went quiet.

“Is my Face attribute affecting people's minds?” I all but demanded.

“Please calm down,” she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “Let me check.”

“Can you walk and talk? I have to find Angelica and Brunhilda,” I said, peering through the suspended snowflakes.

Denise sighed, “Yes” she pointed, “Angelica is that way at the Laundromat . Brunhilda is a bit further away in a car wash.” We walked for a few blocks. “You can’t control people's minds yet.”

That was troubling, “Not yet?”

Denise stepped a pace further from me as we walked, “I can’t tell you when that could begin to happen.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Don’t pretend you care,” She said flatly as she stared determinedly at her phone.

“I don’t wish you any harm. I am sorry if my hesitation to answer Wilson put you in harm's way.”

Denise didn’t answer for a long time. “Let’s just keep this professional. Do you have any other questions?”

Fair enough, “Why am I still getting attacked by snow lions?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Denise didn’t have to check her phone, “Grond cursed you to have them spawn near you and home in on you. You also haven’t adjusted the dungeon spawn rate, so it is still mass producing big cats.”

“How do I adjust the Dungeon settings?”

“With the core,” Denise explained. Seeing my next question coming she continued, “You need to interface with it. Hold it in your hand and think about settings. That should bring up the Dungeon Controller and Menus.”

I nodded. I wasn’t going to mess with that just yet. That felt like something I would need supervision to mess with.

“How does this curse work?” I asked.

Denise scrolled through her phone again, “Okay, it causes a snow lion to appear as close as possible to you at random intervals. It still follows the standard progression of boss spawning, and is being affected by the Gore Soaked Condition. It has no expiration and it doesn’t care about the city's no-spawn rules.”

Fuck you too, Grond.

We rounded a corner and I saw the Laundromat. It was a small single floor structure. Big pane glass windows. A wall of washing machines, half of them marked with signs saying out of order. And another wall lined with dryers. Angelica sat at a table in the corner. She was staring at a small screen, and had headphones in.

For some reason a bunch of stuff was piled around the door. Most of them were baskets holding food. One had a bottle that looked to be some sort of liquor. One also had flowers. Fresh flowers in a frozen wasteland. Where would someone even get something like that?

I looked at the note: Thank you for closing the Gate. Dad said you saved him then. I know you’ll save us this time too.

I reread the note. I was beginning to think I may have underestimated the importance and clout of the people I was traveling with.

I looked up from the note, “Can we start time back up?”

“Yeah, it will start when you enter the laundromat. Just don’t get too reliant on this. Time stops can’t be used for any high stakes moments. The audience hates it.” and she was gone.

Odd that they let me move through a time stop. Maybe it was to get me here faster. Better find out. I step inside and let the door close behind me.The wind picked up and the snow fell as time started.

Oh shit. Angelica was crying. Not like a little either. This was full on ugly crying. I hesitated. Now, I wasn’t big on public displays of emotion. Getting punched in the face for crying after falling down the stairs when I was young internalized in me, or I guess the titan, a specific over stoic response in general to most situations. That said, if a friend needed me, I needed to at least try and be there for them.

As I approached I saw on the screen she was watching an elven woman in a hospital hooked up to a respirator. What looked to be a dwarven woman was holding the elven woman’s hand. I could just barely hear the sound from the earbuds. She was humming a lullaby.

Angelica noticed me. She immediately wiped her eyes, “I wasn’t crying.” She flipped the tablet face down on the table.

“What were you watching,” I asked.

“Porn. Hyper-specific, deeply unapproachable porn,” Angelica insisted.

“It looked like Steel Magnolias,” I said, deeply confused.

Angelic sighed. “It is…” she froze. “Wait, this movie was made last year. The elves said it was an original story.”

“No, that was a movie in the world that was.” I said.

“Celeste didn’t know that, how did you?” Angelica asked before wiping the snot running down her nose.

“Jo loved comedies and dramas. She would watch the film like once a year.” I paused. “I watched it with her more than once. The relationship between M’lynn and Shelby resonates with me. Plus you gotta love Dolly.”

Angelica thought for a moment, “Do you want to finish the movie?”

“Sure” I sat on the floor and next to the bench and table. I wasn’t going to fit in there ever, and I was about the right height this way.

Angelica set the table back up but before hitting play she asked, “Who’s Dolly?”

“Dolly Parton. She was a Musician. Never met her but she seemed like a nice lady. She set up a charity that sent books to children. She played Turvy in the original movie.”

“That’s the Character Hellen Greenleaf plays,” Angelica thought. Seeing that meant nothing to me she continued, “That is who allegedly wrote this. Apparently Elves like to ‘write’ stories that are just stuff from the world that was.”

I shrugged. She hit play.

We finished the movie. Angelica didn’t cry. Not once. She was quite specific about that.

“No one is going to judge you for crying,” I said as the credits rolled. Greenleaf was listed a lot in them. Director, actress, head writer, producer.

Angelica gazed at me with red puffy eyes, “We both know that is at best an oversimplification. Most people say that, but don’t deliver. Emotions are all well and good until they inconvenience someone. Plus, with who I am, dozens of people are just waiting for a moment of weakness…” she stopped. She hadn’t meant to say that.

I was curious, but she clearly didn’t want to talk about that,, “You said they have Star Wars movies?”

Angelica took the out. “Yeah… um. I only have the Endor films. Are you interested in a horror movie?”

“Horror?” I asked, baffled. “How?”

“Ewoks,” Angelica said.

I thought for a moment, “Ewoks were cute little bear people made for kids.”

Angelica considered my words for a moment, “Doug, what the hell was wrong with people in the past?”

“I don’t know what has happened recently, but in the past they were adorable little furballs used mostly for comedy.” I explained.

Angelica looked nonplused. “They are violent killers. Apex predators. …what did they do in the past?”

“In Return of the Jedi, they lived in the woods.” I stared.

Angelica’s eyes flashed with excitement, “We will circle around to you knowing the plot to one of the lost films. Yep they live in the woods. On the forest moon. What happened then?”

“The Ewoks captured the main characters.” I continued before pausing.

Angelica just stared at me for a moment, “Who were the main characters?”

“A rebel leader, a smuggler, a Wookiee, and a Jedi Knight,” I stalled momentarily. “They um… Were going to cook and eat the main characters, until they tricked the Ewoks into believing one of the droids was a god..”

Angelica clearly thought that sounded horror adjacent. “What happened next?”

Again I paused. I seem to have outmaneuvered myself. “The Ewoks help fight the Empire, destroy a shield station, and destroy an AT-ST, and basically kill all the stormtroopers.

Angelica eyed me flatly.

“They all had a huge party after the fight. With a bunch of the storm trooper helmets in a fire used to cremate the dead. …One also used some of the helmets as drums.”

Angelica nodded, “Doug, what the hell was wrong with people in the past?”

I shrugged, “You said you had a horror movie?”

She hit play.

Okay, so the fact is the movie plot was boilerplate. People end up stuck on the forest moon. Help is a month away. The cast starts building a shelter. Then Ewoks come, and artistically murder a significant portion of the cast. The final girl, a young wookiee, eventually turned the tide and killed most of the Ewoks with an ax.

Special effects have come a long way. I am not certain that they didn’t just have little bear people rip a man apart. A twi'lek was also impaled on a pole and paraded around by the nightmare bears.

That said, it was strangely… uplifting? We are still making movies. Yeah, this one was kind of trash, but it is still art. Art means society is at least still around. Well, I guess one person alone will still try to make art, but this was distributed. That takes logistics.

“What do you think?” Angelica asked.

“Hated it. There was no Prime Directive and replicators are cooler than lightsabers.” I like Star Trek more.

“You are worse than Celeste,” Angelica declared. She tried to keep her face deadpan, but the corner of her mouth curled up. “Nerd.”

The dryer's alarm went off. She slipped past me and walked toward it. When she opened the latched lid it vomited clothes out. The machine had been packed tighter than humanly possible. It took a good ten seconds for all the still moist clothes to erupt out of the machine.

Angelica scoffed. “Ugh! These things never get a load completely dry in one go.” She then scooped the clothes back up and pressed them back into the dryer. Metal groaned as she forced the lid closed.

“Must be the shoddy construction,” I muttered as she started the dryer again. The scream of a slipping belt slowly faded as the barrel painfully began to turn. After a mighty thud I asked, “Are you sure you didn’t overload it?”

Angelica shrugged, “Nah, all the clothes fit. It should be fine.” she pulled a starve-away bar out of her inventory and nibbled at it. She sort of checked out for a bit there, and stared vaguely at offerings.

“You alright?” I asked.

Angelica was quiet for a long moment. Her expression shifted slightly a few times. I am pretty sure she and Celeste were having a discussion. Finally she spoke quietly, “Yeah. I am fine. …after the dungeon… it doesn’t matter.” she shook her head. “Let’s not pretend like you aren’t curious about the gifts outside.”

“If you wanna talk about them we can,” I offered.

“What if I don’t,” she asked, a bit sullenly.

“Then we won’t,” I said with a shrug.

She looked dubiously at me, “So you just don’t care?”

“No, I care, but you clearly don’t want to talk about it and I care about you more,” I explained.

Angelica’s eyes flashed with light, “I told you so.” Celeste said. Before fading back.

“Oh good she is back to doing that,” Angelica muttered rising to the surface. “So what’s up Doug?”

“I was going to ask Celeste a favor, but now that you mention it I do have some questions,” I admitted.

Angelica clearly was mentally telling Celeste, ‘I told YOU so.’ “What you got?”

“How does food work?”