Chapter 31: Chapter 31: The Red-Haired Girl’s Name

The world around them descended into chaos, blanketed in a red haze. At first, a pregnant pause of silence fell over the Copper Citadel while the players read through their announcements, and then the screaming and chattering began. Barrels were overturned and thrown, and many of the Adventurers headed towards the plaza turned on their heels and fled to the safety of the nearby inns, desperate to be away from the public at large while they came to grips with their new reality.

Nikola awoke to the sounds of shoes slapping against the ground, wolf people howling, and people-people wailing ceaselessly. When she opened her eyes, she saw Luke's primary red cape against the backdrop of crimson, with his now-red menu open in front of him.

Dazed from the noise, she groggily drew the symbol that would open her own and was astonished to see how similar it looked to Luke's this time, in that its fragmenting and fraying had decreased significantly. A long, flashing white rectangle blinked at her from the middle of her menu screen.

PHASE 2 IS BEGINNING: YOUR CHOICES, AND NOTES.

She tapped it and her screen flooded with words, half of which were readable and even understandable to her this time.

The word 'dungeon' made her bristle when it appeared, her shoulders tightening subconsciously - but they didn't seem to be referring to the same kind of 'Dungeon' as the kind she had come to know. How curious.
'Challenge Rooms' were far more self-explanatory, but she wondered about the intricacies of them. What kinds of challenges would lie within? Would she be tested on her knowledge of trivia, or her physical prowess? A mixture of both?

The final part of the message had her hackles up. It seemed to suggest that Luke hadn't been fully himself, had been stripped of a vital section of his being. Just how much of his personhood had they taken, and would he be different if he chose to get it back? Just what did she know of him, anyway? What came to mind when she thought of him?

He was a sniveling, anxious boy who tried too often to be funny and rarely succeeded.
He was sticking around her, so paradoxically, he also seemed to lack a sense of self-preservation - but there were moments when she thought she could see a backbone hiding behind his eyes.
To his credit; he hadn't shut up about his friends since she had stuffed a knife into them. That suggested some kind of virtue. Loyalty, perhaps?

She rose slowly to her feet. Her shoulder, arm and head protested, each of them returning a distinct pang of pain. She and Luke were in the midst of a maelstrom of confusion, tensions high as people whipped around them akin to the winds of a tornado.

Nikola reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. "Luke?"

When he turned around, there was an immediate difference in his demeanor. He typically held a childish spring in his step, but as he turned around to face her, his step was springless. His eyes had darkened and were continuing to lose their vibrancy, the shine in them trickling away like the sands in an hourglass. If she had to guess, she was witnessing him getting his memories back in real time.

"Hey, Nikola. Do you remember how I said you shouldn't kill anyone because your father would be disappointed in you?"

"Yes," Nikola confirmed with a nod.

"Let's forget about that."

Even his voice sounded deeper, as if his balls had dropped somewhere within the span of the last ten minutes.

The difference was jarring, but from the little information she had, it seemed he was continuing on as if they were still 'partying' together. She followed suit. "I killed an elven man as I escaped that same day."

His lips turned up almost imperceptibly. "And it got you out?"

"I suspect it was a contributing factor."

"Then it was worth it."

The Warrior started to stride away without warning. Nikola made herself a bit taller by standing on the tips of her toes and stared out above the panicking masses; he seemed to be headed over to the Shopping District. She widened her strides to catch up to him.

"Are you going to go buy something?"

"Yeah - you still interested?"

"Are you?"

Luke paused in his pathing so abruptly that she almost smacked right into him. "As far as either of us can tell, you've got two stat lines. That's one more than anyone else here, and you were built to be one hell of a challenge to a party of early-game adventurers by yourself. If we played our cards right, we could be extremely formidable. If you're asking if I still want you in my party, the answer is hell yes, followed by hell fucking yes - but I need to know you're trustworthy, Nikola, and we'd need to figure out what your second class is and if I can even formally party with an Awakened NPC."

"The man in the dark told me that I am now a participant in the World of Wills. If you are able to party with others, you should now be able to party with me. As far as trust is concerned," her eyes narrowed as she looked down his body, past his cape, and down to his boots, "you remain my one non-fictional connection in this world, besides the red-haired girl. It would be unwise for me to sever myself from you when I have no other options."

Her potential party member's eyebrows rose and then lowered in a facial dance of confusion. "The man in the dark?"

"Yes. When I fell over, I was transported to a dark space where I was presented with an onboarding contract and asked to join the World of Wills as a participant."

Luke crossed his arms over his chest, his head tilting in disbelief. "And you said yes? Why? What prize could they even offer you?"

"For one, I have restored the lives of your friends."

He looked less pleased about the news than she thought he would be. He avoided eye contact for the briefest of moments, as if he was mulling over something. "Well, that's cool of you, but I hope that's not all you squeezed out of them." Slowly, he let out a breath of held air. "They're not actually my friends, Nikola. They're people I entered with who knew they would be losing their memories too, and we all just wanted one last bit of fun in our lives before we joined a killing game."

Luke skirted around calling their arrangement a suicide pact, even if that's what it had been. Now that his memories were crashing back in, he felt little connection to the group of people he had been calling his friends, though he was grateful for the time they had shared together under a unified pretense.

It had been easy to find them; there were forums online that allowed and even encouraged the Laboured and Lost to form connections before entering into their society's various forms of games, because it made for better content.

He wondered how much of his tale would be being shown on the big screen, or how much of it already had been. Would his mother have caught his face on the screen on one of her trips to the grocery store? Would that even be enough information for her to know that he wasn't just on a road trip with some buddies?

Nikola's response brought him back down to earth, away from his thoughts. "It was not the only thing I was offered. The man also offered me a body of my choice; he said that the 'Laboured' would no longer need them. Luke, what is a 'Lavish'?"

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The navy-haired Warrior's eyes widened. "They what?" Luke's gaze shot across Nikola's many freckles, searching her face. "None of the games have ever let a character out before." But then, none of them had ever Awakened in the same way Nikola had.

A half-naked human zipped past them screaming, her bottom half rattling as her armour clinked together.

Luke sighed. "Let's walk and talk."

The two of them moved rapidly towards the vendors and huts that were dotted throughout the commerical area of the Copper Citadel.

"In the outside world, there are the Lavish, the Laboured, and the Lost. The Lavish are what everyone is taught to aspire to be; they live in luxury and enjoy total freedom over their lives. The Laboured and the Lost are all the other people, and they live in the Wastes, which is just what the Lavish call the parts of the world that aren't the raised continent they live on. Anyone can become one of the Lavish, if they earn enough Credits - but there's a fuckton of corruption that keeps the 'wrong people' away from becoming one of them, because they control most of the wealth. If they don't want you to become one of them, they just won't buy your shit. Which is where these killing games come in - a lot of people believe this is one of the few ways a regular citizen can just Make It. And if not, well, life as one of the Laboured is miserable enough that some people just join so they can get some kind of meaning out of their death. That's the extremely short, watered down version."

The male's steps only slowed when they reached a baby pink mascot standing outside of one of the shops; a bunny with floppy ears that were so long, they were tripping over them.

He ducked into the storefront the bun was guarding, eliciting a small gasp from them, and Nikola followed him inside.

A wall of sweets was there, stored behind a layer of glass. They glistened with pretty pink and purple sugar. Luke was already reaching for his coin purse when she caught up. "What do you want? I think I'm going to get a crystal eclair."

The crystal eclair was a long, oblong-shaped pastry with a custard filling and a sprinkling of rock sugar on top of a white chocolate dip.

Perplexed but not wanting to miss out on a confectionery delight, Nikola pointed to the dessert that looked closest to just fried bread, except it had a coating of glittering sucrose. The adventurer quickly paid for their items and then placed them on one of the tiny, rickety tables with tiny, prim chairs around them. He looked comically large as he sat down in one of them.

"Come on," he urged, gesturing to the seat across from him. Nikola quirked a brow, but hesitantly she joined him at the glossy, cotton candy coloured table.

Luke looked out the wide, open window, towards the wrongness of the crimson sky. In here, the screaming seemed further away, but it could still be heard over the gentle, calming music coming from somewhere above them.

"What are we doing here?"

"Well," Luke started, picking up his newly purchased morsel of happiness, "my mom always told me that when things hit rock bottom, the only thing left to do was to eat dessert and cry about it." He made some very dry eye contact with her. "Don't worry, I'll be skipping the crying part."

"Your participation in this game - does this mean you will not be seeing your mom again? Or is she already deceased, as I was told my father is-- and The Lavish, they--"

"Shhhhhh," Luke interjected, picking up her fried bread thing and popping it in her mouth. "It's dessert time."

The Awakened NPC furrowed her brows and searched her mind for something to talk about that didn't refer to their current situation; a difficult task, considering it was all she knew, but turning her attention to the horizon outside reminded her of a certain someone.

"What should we name the red-haired girl?" She took a bite out of the slightly tough, deep-fried coating of her dessert, a dusting of glittery sugar scattering along the tabletop.

"Heh. You're the one who rescued her, so you should decide." Luke unhinged his jaw and took a massive bite of his eclair, painting the bottom of his nose with a smearing of white chocolate.

Nikola thought of all the things she knew of that were red. "We could name her Blood, or perhaps Carnage. Sacrifice? Or maybe Famine, since her rib cage protrudes so much."

The male across from her, sadly, didn't look impressed with any of her names. But a 'tch' of a chuckle broke through his lips before he responded, shaking his head. "Those aren't really names, Nikola. How about something like Cherry, after her red hair?"

"No."

"Okay... how about Miss Sleeps-A-Lot, after her favourite hobby?"

"No."

"Nikola, I told you to name her," Luke groaned.

She flicked her eyes down to the unnamed food item in her hand. "What is this called?"

Luke looked over to the little name cards in front of each of the desserts. "It looks like the one you chose is just called 'Angelica's Favourite'."

"Is Angelica a name?"

"Yeah."

"Then I would like to name her that."

"Angelica."

"Angelica," she agreed.

"Cool. The red-haired girl has a name now."

Nikola nodded fondly, and tore off another chunk of bread-like food from the Unawakened NPC's now-namesake.

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