"Mono/Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
Narration
[Message/communication apparatus]
Date: Data not found
Location: Data not found
POV: Narrator
Oripathy, the malignant disease or blight that is more than capable of toppling a world order with ease comparable to flipping the back of one’s own palm.
The source of infection is none other than exposure, directly or not, to originium for an extended period of time. Made worse if those actively in contact with it are not wearing layers upon layers of precaution and clothing.
More damningly, a lot of infected themselves don’t know from where did their oripathy was from. News about fashion designer vanished overnight due to oripathy suddenly seen on their body is not outlandish. Gossips about nightlife workers being fired the next day due to it was more common than one could imagine.
This disease, which is unique for this world, origin was still shrouded in mystery. General populace wouldn’t really care however, for their ignorance and festering fear had clouded their judgment.
A number of nations themselves are responsible for the worsening situation of infected’ welfare and human rights.
Rim Billiton with its MegaCorp government, or Corporatocracy, is notorious on its treatment upon infected workers, specifically the miners.
Ursus’ brutality doesn’t require more elaboration.
Columbia had their health plans and new land expansion programs using settlers.
Sargon, baring Acahualla, are quite “unique” and “progressive” which is not saying much…
Not to say that there aren’t anyone who cared about it. Several nations doesn’t really have problem with infected themselves, thus creating an interesting mirror.
Minos’ populace have no problem with infected, except for Heroes or Heroines Cult priest or priestess of which they must step down, while retaining full citizenship. This also entailed rights of joining Hymnoi Wisdom, a national tournament and they live a life of relative peace.
Kjerag’ inhabitants are not shunning infected because it was never a prevalent issue and there was never a catastrophe there to begin with. Infected can find work normally and the only thing required is to dress appropriately, which is pretty much the norm for everyone in Kjerag anyway, and doing periodic check-up.
Acahualla (a region in Sargon) is the most backwards of them all and yet ironically they’re the most humane and understanding. Infected are being confined to their house, not to discriminate mind you, but to be taken care of their needs. Acahuallan’ logic is that everything can kill you inside the forest, so what makes several patches of rock special when death can come anytime without warning?
Thus it can safely be assumed that the infected themselves was never the problem. More like the whole stigma and stereotype plus the nature of Oripathy are always being manipulated to either enforce some political agendas or as a mean to cause mass hysteria.
Nations all across still Terra struggled to find the cure till this very day. It is less about funding and more about what is even this disease true nature. It is clearly worse than tumor, more lethal than cancer, and being highly adaptable like a fungi to boot.
Except it is not a fungi and instead being a mineral.
This is the most mind boggling fact of Oripathy, a nightmarish conjecture that it is possibly semi-sentient at bare minimum. Research has been going from point A to B or from B to F and to hell and back full circle landing at A, thoroughly confusing all of the intellectuals concerned with it.
Conspiracy theorists had spouted wild assumptions such as this disease was originally a biological weapon, relic of forgotten era, or even created by a shadow government to enforce a convenient casus belli.
Regardless of how creative their minds are, Oripathy’ effect on Terran is too pronounced that even when the cure was found, paranoia itself would still exist. Hatred already ran too deep, it would be a miracle to bury the hatchet as is without further misgivings.
Oripathy is truly a horrifying and fascinating blight for the living, which they had no other choice than accepting and conforming a life alongside it, since there are no other recourse.
But of course there will be those who deny it, and goes against normalizing it. With both a positive manner and negative manner in regards about how one must go about it.
The positives are those who tried their best to find the cure or at the very least lessen their burden. Negative’s camp however took a radical approach, eradication of those who suffered Oripathy.
Arkell Jon Thomson is one of them who advocated a positive approach on how to handle this curse in all but name. Thus let us take a look at his point of view regarding this matter…
Date: March 1080
Location: Calville, County of Toron, Victoria.
POV: Arkell Jon Thomson.
“Sometimes I wondered if this woman is the exact same one known as the Grey Serpent…” I said to no one in particular. My eyes are currently focused on Nyx who are, despite being un-emotive as usual, are teaching children how to write and other basics such as counting, those sort of things.
I’m not at the city where Vincent reside, but instead at one of numerous outlying villages that dotted County of Toron as a whole. Catastrophe messenger works would often require me to travel long distance.
I’m along with my colleagues are on our routine exploration along the countryside, researching and conducting to survey to anticipate potential signs for catastrophe that might occur in the future. So it is a repetitive but vital duty for us, as per our motto of ‘Saving lives above all else’.
It is just so happen that when we come here, we met our mercenary acquaintance. She has been hard at work, but weirdly enough she is not taking as much contracts as was predicted regarding extermination of beasts and outlaws.
The later had grown rarer these days, so she is stuck with the former. There were also rumors about unknown group that has been wreaking havoc all over the country, but it happens at too many places and sometimes all at once that it’s doubtful she is the one responsible for it.
Nyx is good, but there are still better mercenary for numerous kinds of jobs out there that eclipsed her solo performance from cost-efficiency standpoint. Her fame was mostly from extermination, thus her non-extermination contracts performance evaluation has been put on the back burner.
There has been several reports of her failing contracts too, which is not all that weird for a mercenary. It does however lowered her reputation for success rate here for quite a bit, doesn’t stop her from getting commissioned here and there non-stop.
Regardless of what is happening with her at the moment, one thing that is truly certain is none other than her commitment of adhering her contracts.
Why do I know so much? I wouldn’t be a catastrophe messenger if my information gathering and parsing has been falling behind you know. This job of mine demanded extraneous, almost herculean even, efforts.
There are a lot of reports, news, tales, rumors, and gossips about incompetent CM, most of them didn’t end well. I had always accepted the fact that we, catastrophe messenger as a whole, will be the first to be blamed if things got dicey.
Turning that over, we had long made peace with the fact that our job will be thankless most of the time. But oh well, a good 95% of CM employees never applied with glory in mind anyway, just trying to save the people as best as we can.
Well, we’re getting side-tracked.
Nyx is teaching the children how to write, she had noticed me ages ago but choose not to halt her lecture. Her current self is unlike what her mercenary occupation suggest, a total 180 if nothing else for that matter.
Her temporary pupils made up of both infected and non-infected. This is not surprising because when asked why did she treated them the same way, she replied with a question of her own. It was something along the line of ‘We walk on the same land, trying to get a living alongside one another, and we all die leaving nothing but name, so what made us so different?’
“Auntie, is this how I do it?”
“Let me see… you should follow the outline first, then you can try making your own. It is good however, you just need to get used to it.”
“Yay!”
“Teach, James took my pencil!”
“I – I didn’t! This is mine!”
“Alright pipe down, here you can use my pen, Nina.”
“Bit boring innit, bloody dam-”
“Watch your language, Bruce.”
“…aye…”
“Um… um…”
“What is it Chris?”
“I… I… tore my paper…”
“No worries, you can take the back-up and continued on where you left.”
“Nyx, Gerard fell asleep again.”
Nyx said nothing and just approached the napping kid quietly, the other kids are trying their best to not laugh. Their teacher then kneeled down and whispered something, whatever it is caused the nearest kids’ face, privy of the whisper, to immediately go pale.
Gerard immediately straighten up without any grogginess, he definitely heard what she had whispered into his ear. Seeing that the children all laugh immediately, Gerard can only look down with a sheepish smile while hiding his pale face.
Whatever Nyx had whispered appears to have knock him down from the heavenly sky of daydream freefalling straight into Terra’ cold embrace of reality.
This is the most puzzling thing, she has the competency to work in a non-military sector. So why did she choose to be a mercenary? If it’s about credentials and the likes, she would have passed with respectable result.
If she has truly no other choice, it’s not like she can’t apply with PMC. Unless of course she just pop-out from nowhere and having no heads or tails about what she can do, this is just a wild assumption from me.
Even if that’s true, she might actually be a really reclusive and isolationist Elder race. I had been watching her demeanor, it is very unlike the long lived race of old. She can be rash and hasty but she never show disdain with technological advancement typically associated with them.
There is also the fact that she doesn’t have any qualms with standing by on her values or drawing lines. She is brutal against anyone she deemed to deserve it, which is relative to ordinary people perception of deserved or not, yet now her body language is nothing but joy from teaching children.
Thus I can only watch from the sideline like a good and respectable spectator. Not long after, the impromptu class was dismissed and Nyx was approached by the village chief who seems to be thanking her profusely. Nyx only nodded and reply in a one-two string of words.
After some more pleasantries, she headed immediately my way while tossing a water bottle at me… where did she get that? I swear that her back was empty… oh well, I catch it and wait for her.
“For you, just standing there should make you thirsty.”
“Thanks and you would make a good teacher, Nyx.”
“Don’t think so, that was more of a hobby.”
“Yes, a bloodthirsty merc with a hobby of teaching children of how making doodles and alphabetical letters. No one would believe me said that unless they witness it firsthand.”
“Yeah, whatever. So what do you need of me?”
“Actually nothing, just a coincidence of meeting you here.”
“Oh, really now?”
“Yep, I’m in the middle of routine survey.”
“I see.”
“But well, if nothing else. How about we just stroll to the plaza?’
“Sure, I see no problem with that.”
Then we just walk away together towards the plaza, the silence was not awkward since this is how she usually communicate. There are rumors that she is actually a lot more forthcoming, warm, and animated, but seeing her blank face I doubt it.
Well it doesn’t take away from the fact that she is a very capable colleague to have when we, catastrophe messenger, or Vincent commissioned her expertise. Her repertoire over the years has been shown to be more versatile.
Despite her dark reputation of being borderline psychopathic, her everyday act and conduct was largely unremarkable. This made a very stark contrast of how she acted high-strung and completely unhinged in combat but turned into a slob or lazy freeloader outside of work.
Imagine my surprise at how lazy she was last winter, this woman just sauntered outside with a long pants and tank top… in the middle of a blizzard… When I confronted her about it, she said it is a form of body conditioning to make her more used to winter’ coldness.
Nyx said that as a Pythian, her body is too sensitive with cold. Probably a genetic thing she carried over from her family. That’s what she had admitted at least.
Pythian was well known to be very unwelcoming with cold temperature, conversely they can just run around in desert region with apparent ease. We felines had neither of their peculiarities, other than smattering needs for… let loose every once in a while.
I will not elaborate as to what kind of let loose.
But that’s hardly important, we had arrived at the plaza and there are traveling merchants already opening up shops… including weapon and supply merchant… Nyx immediately went that way. Since she doesn’t appears to mind my company so might as well see what she would do there.
“Oh, The Grey Serpent herself has graced my humble stalls! What do you need?”
“Spare antiseptics and maybe painkillers?”
“Sure, how much do you need?”
“2 bottles should be good, as for the painkiller… do you have a package of ibuprofen?”
“Here you are…” The merchant handed her the requested medical supplies, interesting. Reports had noted that she is a really robust individual, but it doesn’t dissuade her of getting medical first and foremost.
“You got spare combat knife, dagger, or short sword?”
“Sure, hit me up with the specific.”
“30 - 45cm, less than 3 kilograms, straight blade, preferably for armor penetration.”
“30 to 45… straight blade… aha, this one here.” The merchant handed her a dagger with a very narrow blade, a stiletto to be exact. She is inspecting and getting a feel of the blade, but her face can’t be read and not indicating anything.
Then she starts making a quick stabbing motions… yes motions, she thrust the blade 4 times a second… No wonder she can annihilate so many target while being surrounded, her speed is truly outstanding. She then nodded while also inquiring for another.
“Any disposable knife? Anything is fine as long as it is light and I can throw it with ease.”
“Hmm… let me see…. Blimey, where did I put it… ah yes, here it is…”
The merchant handed her a 12 centimeters throwing knife without handle. Nyx inspected it and starts playing around with it by juggling and practiced a throwing motion, of course the nearby children is delighted seeing her performance.
Wait a minute… did her cheek turned a tiny bit of shade redder than usual? Huh, must have been my eyes playing tricks with me or perhaps my glasses needs to be re-magnified or changed. It won’t do for my work to be inconvenienced by impaired vision.
Seemingly satisfied, Nyx then motioned with her hand to get 15 more. The merchant obliged immediately, the clerks and shop helpers starts bringing out the requested goods and then packaging it. The merchant’s guards only look mildly interested, but nonetheless just lounge about.
She is not done and asked for another thing to purchase, she appears to be hesitant this time around, interestingly enough.
“Do you have… originium magazine?”
“Hmm… let me see… uh… no dice, sorry lass.”
“Oh well, there was an attempt.”
“It is not exactly prudent for us, small merchants, to carry that stuff around. Unless ye wanted more outlaws harassment,”
“I get what you mean, so how much for everything?”
“That will be 2,280 LMDs.”
“That was cheaper than I thought, also not in Pound?”
Cheaper my ass, Nyx. That much money is enough to feed a family, paying rents, and even purchasing luxury goods for a month or two with leeway here and there… Her sense of money is weird, as expected from a merc… Wonder how much she got paid? I only got paid 4,000 pounds a month, clean earning by the way.
Average Victorian only need to spend around 600 pounds a month at the barest minimum, and even less in the villages. Our industry made a lot of consumer goods that are always flooding the internal market, not to the point it overflowed of course.
“Eh, government won’t care all that much. Besides mercenary usually have more LMDs at hand anyway. M’self just a small travelling merchant anyway.”
Nyx finished up her transaction through her PT (Personal Terminal) and the hefted all her purchase with ease. She then looks my way.
“Not gonna buy anything?”
“I… don’t know?”
“Just buy something for Heidi…”
“What thought? She only like books…”
“You’re her father… hah… forget it.”
Why did you look at me like I’m a deadbeat no good dad who knows nothing about his daughter? Heidi rarely requested anything from me. Not to mention that there are no books on sale here, even regarding dress, she starts to be very picky at times and I don’t want to step on that landmine.
Well… I’ll buy Heidi something at the end of the survey, I’m too busy right now. With that we left the plaza and headed to… apothecary? Huh?
“Surprised? The chief asked me to look at an infected who got injured. Apparently the villagers are too scared of taking a look, despite being friendly… Beside if worst come to worst… I know the procedure of preventing Oripathy spread now.”
“You do?”
“I’m a mercenary yes, but killing people is not all I do for a living. I need to learn another skills such as mapping, path finding, first aid, and… originium hazards mitigation. It will look nice in my resume to boot…”
“Well… you would certainly pass as PMC contractors with a repertoire that varied. So w-”
“Why didn’t I apply for it?”
“Yes, why? You would make a lot more and not being immediately seen like a source of trouble at first glance.”
“PMC is nice, but I’m not exactly keen with the regulations here. Also, I just value my freedom that much and before you ask, I’ll not form a PMC group. The reason? I hate paperwork.”
“An unorthodox outlook but not exactly rare per see…”
“Touché, also we’re here. If you wanna follow inside better make sure your body is covered… is not something I have to say seeing you wearing that heavy trench coat you called uniform.”
“But you’re just weari-”
“Casual wear? Yeah, I’m not in the mood for getting accused of roping someone in case shit gets awry. Of course I will still wear gloves and mask, but not much else.”
She then wear her mask, glasses, and gloves then stepped inside. There is a single feline infected girl who got a nasty gash on her leg. Seems to be caused by Fangbeasts… I need to inform the rest about potential wildlife here.
“Sit tight, I’ll treat your wound.”
The girl just nodded, she appears to be surprised to see a non-infected treating an infected. Nyx starts by giving the girl a painkiller. After that is done, Nyx starts cleaning the wound with sterile gauze, she is very careful to ensure no discomfort upon the patient.
Said patient seems to be having something on her mind, she timidly asked Nyx…
“E-ex-excuse me… are you… not… afraid… um… miss?”
“Afraid? Sure I’m.”
“…So… why?”
“Because that won’t solve anything.” Nyx replied without missing a beat, her vision is focused on treating the patient’ gashed leg. She then continue her words.
“Tell me, are you afraid of death? If yes, then you’re not that different from us.” That’s… surprising, I thought someone like her is not afraid of death. Well… the more you know…
“Really? … Your reputation said that… erm…”
“I’m more beast than human? That’s also true, but the moment you discard fear is the moment you die.” The gash is mostly tended, she is now going to sew it. Hmm, she can work as doctor too, her resume is way too impressive for a mercenary… just who are you?
“Let me tell you an old story of my life, a story of the coldest people in the world… I was once part of a conflict where I got captured and being an inch away from death.”
‘Hold on, Nyx had been dying once? Why did she tell this piece of information nonchalantly?’ I quietly said in my mind, this sort of information might doesn’t sound like much. It is about to who it belong that dictated its worth.
“I was really sure that the grim reaper would be dragging me down to hell… and they came, the combat medics… from the enemy side.” The girl is too focused on her recount of the…past? Well that’s not important at the moment. That she didn’t realize that her wound is being sewed… huh, clever distraction there.
“The most surreal thing was that… I can feel their hatred the moment they see me laid on the ground, with their dead comrades and mine also strewn all over the bloodied soil… but the moment they see my wound, they, without hesitation, bring a stretcher for me and evacuated my dying body off the battlefield. It didn’t end there no, the moment they laid me in their aid station…”
Nyx then starts dabbing more antiseptics on the wound to prevent potential infection or flesh degeneration. The girl is too enraptured with Nyx’ story to even notice her sewed wound had opened a little, thus prompting Nyx to add further medical treatment.
“Their gazes turned cold and empty, almost mechanical even, but not due to scorn or hatred… it is coldness a doctor reserved for a patient… me, an enemy combatant, being seen as nothing more than wounded person truly felt different… I won’t fault them to just kill me there and even torture me… no, they shown professionalism to an enemy combatant and managed to swallow their brewing hate.”
Seeing that the wound had stopped its bleeding, Nyx continued on with her sewing and wound treatment. Was she enrolled in a medical school before? I can’t tell, but I can see why Heidi once said that she had enjoyed Nyx’ company for creative literature activity, she definitely has stories to tell.
“I was convinced there and then that doctors, medics, nurses, and all medical staffs are the coldest people on eart- Terra… They’re cold to ensure no emotion would affect their duty… Because I know one thing for sure, if a doctor get too close with their patient… if they failed, misery and despair shall follow and hammer down their psyche… Heh… they’re truly a hard bunch you know?” Holy… did she just smiled!? Damn, I guess that rumor has some truth in it…
The story ends… but it feels like there is more to it, the girl had also noticed that her treatment ended way faster, the girl’ eyes locked on her now bandaged leg. She still has a hard time walking so Nyx just scooted her into a princess carry, uncaring of an originium rock that dotted her left arm touching Nyx’ right arm.
“Uh! Um, I-i-can wa-”
“No, you will point me where your home is, capisce?”
“C-c-capisce?”
“It means “Understood” young lady.” I answered in her stead, Nyx just nod a little from my answer.
“Uh um… I don’t want to impose but… please…” And there we go… Nyx had snagged another one, with effort yes but the point still stand… Well, this Pythian lady never show overt interest on other people regarding the more biological or intimate needs…
“Snagged another eh? You’re a sinful woman you know that?” I joked at her… and she just nodded… not even flustered.
“What can I say, man and woman wanted me, a most natural thing. Given enough time, I might get Heidi too.”
Hey! She even taunted me! Also no way in hell I’ll let you have her, I will never give my daughter away. I’ll even move mountain, boil the ocean, and goes on accompanying my daughter’ shopping spree for a whole decade!
…
…
…
Ok, I kinda regret betting and swearing on the last one…
“Like hell I’ll let you have her.”
“Relax, I’m just joking.”
“Hah… whatever, so what now?”
“I don’t know, I’ll be back on bashing someone else’ skull open if nothing else… also did you know that stopping blood flowing to the brain for mere seconds can cause brain damage?”
And there it is, her mercenary persona is back on the job… Seriously, how could she flipped from being very caring and understanding into callous and cold with such ease?
Ah well… Victoria is still as safe as usual, no catastrophe signs were detected here at the moment… I’ll be going on my further survey tomorrow with the chaps from Toron… My life as a catastrophe messenger is as fulfilling as always…
[END OF CHAPTER]
Author’s Note:
Sup, this is me, myself, and I, the author who gets anxious when life suddenly turned calmer… am I neurotic?
Well, regardless of my mental state, this chapter is meant to show just how she behaved outside of combat with a much clearer and succinct contrast in mind.
Update as usual, see ya later.
Ciao.
FUN FACT: One of the Feline' needs is... scratching every once in a while...
"Mono/Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
Narration
[Message/communication apparatus]
Date: Data not found
Location: Data not found
POV: Narrator
Oripathy, the malignant disease or blight that is more than capable of toppling a world order with ease comparable to flipping the back of one’s own palm.
The source of infection is none other than exposure, directly or not, to originium for an extended period of time. Made worse if those actively in contact with it are not wearing layers upon layers of precaution and clothing.
More damningly, a lot of infected themselves don’t know from where did their oripathy was from. News about fashion designer vanished overnight due to oripathy suddenly seen on their body is not outlandish. Gossips about nightlife workers being fired the next day due to it was more common than one could imagine.
This disease, which is unique for this world, origin was still shrouded in mystery. General populace wouldn’t really care however, for their ignorance and festering fear had clouded their judgment.
A number of nations themselves are responsible for the worsening situation of infected’ welfare and human rights.
Rim Billiton with its MegaCorp government, or Corporatocracy, is notorious on its treatment upon infected workers, specifically the miners.
Ursus’ brutality doesn’t require more elaboration.
Columbia had their health plans and new land expansion programs using settlers.
Sargon, baring Acahualla, are quite “unique” and “progressive” which is not saying much…
Not to say that there aren’t anyone who cared about it. Several nations doesn’t really have problem with infected themselves, thus creating an interesting mirror.
Minos’ populace have no problem with infected, except for Heroes or Heroines Cult priest or priestess of which they must step down, while retaining full citizenship. This also entailed rights of joining Hymnoi Wisdom, a national tournament and they live a life of relative peace.
Kjerag’ inhabitants are not shunning infected because it was never a prevalent issue and there was never a catastrophe there to begin with. Infected can find work normally and the only thing required is to dress appropriately, which is pretty much the norm for everyone in Kjerag anyway, and doing periodic check-up.
Acahualla (a region in Sargon) is the most backwards of them all and yet ironically they’re the most humane and understanding. Infected are being confined to their house, not to discriminate mind you, but to be taken care of their needs. Acahuallan’ logic is that everything can kill you inside the forest, so what makes several patches of rock special when death can come anytime without warning?
Thus it can safely be assumed that the infected themselves was never the problem. More like the whole stigma and stereotype plus the nature of Oripathy are always being manipulated to either enforce some political agendas or as a mean to cause mass hysteria.
Nations all across still Terra struggled to find the cure till this very day. It is less about funding and more about what is even this disease true nature. It is clearly worse than tumor, more lethal than cancer, and being highly adaptable like a fungi to boot.
Except it is not a fungi and instead being a mineral.
This is the most mind boggling fact of Oripathy, a nightmarish conjecture that it is possibly semi-sentient at bare minimum. Research has been going from point A to B or from B to F and to hell and back full circle landing at A, thoroughly confusing all of the intellectuals concerned with it.
Conspiracy theorists had spouted wild assumptions such as this disease was originally a biological weapon, relic of forgotten era, or even created by a shadow government to enforce a convenient casus belli.
Regardless of how creative their minds are, Oripathy’ effect on Terran is too pronounced that even when the cure was found, paranoia itself would still exist. Hatred already ran too deep, it would be a miracle to bury the hatchet as is without further misgivings.
Oripathy is truly a horrifying and fascinating blight for the living, which they had no other choice than accepting and conforming a life alongside it, since there are no other recourse.
But of course there will be those who deny it, and goes against normalizing it. With both a positive manner and negative manner in regards about how one must go about it.
The positives are those who tried their best to find the cure or at the very least lessen their burden. Negative’s camp however took a radical approach, eradication of those who suffered Oripathy.
Arkell Jon Thomson is one of them who advocated a positive approach on how to handle this curse in all but name. Thus let us take a look at his point of view regarding this matter…
Date: March 1080
Location: Calville, County of Toron, Victoria.
POV: Arkell Jon Thomson.
“Sometimes I wondered if this woman is the exact same one known as the Grey Serpent…” I said to no one in particular. My eyes are currently focused on Nyx who are, despite being un-emotive as usual, are teaching children how to write and other basics such as counting, those sort of things.
I’m not at the city where Vincent reside, but instead at one of numerous outlying villages that dotted County of Toron as a whole. Catastrophe messenger works would often require me to travel long distance.
I’m along with my colleagues are on our routine exploration along the countryside, researching and conducting to survey to anticipate potential signs for catastrophe that might occur in the future. So it is a repetitive but vital duty for us, as per our motto of ‘Saving lives above all else’.
It is just so happen that when we come here, we met our mercenary acquaintance. She has been hard at work, but weirdly enough she is not taking as much contracts as was predicted regarding extermination of beasts and outlaws.
The later had grown rarer these days, so she is stuck with the former. There were also rumors about unknown group that has been wreaking havoc all over the country, but it happens at too many places and sometimes all at once that it’s doubtful she is the one responsible for it.
Nyx is good, but there are still better mercenary for numerous kinds of jobs out there that eclipsed her solo performance from cost-efficiency standpoint. Her fame was mostly from extermination, thus her non-extermination contracts performance evaluation has been put on the back burner.
There has been several reports of her failing contracts too, which is not all that weird for a mercenary. It does however lowered her reputation for success rate here for quite a bit, doesn’t stop her from getting commissioned here and there non-stop.
Regardless of what is happening with her at the moment, one thing that is truly certain is none other than her commitment of adhering her contracts.
Why do I know so much? I wouldn’t be a catastrophe messenger if my information gathering and parsing has been falling behind you know. This job of mine demanded extraneous, almost herculean even, efforts.
There are a lot of reports, news, tales, rumors, and gossips about incompetent CM, most of them didn’t end well. I had always accepted the fact that we, catastrophe messenger as a whole, will be the first to be blamed if things got dicey.
Turning that over, we had long made peace with the fact that our job will be thankless most of the time. But oh well, a good 95% of CM employees never applied with glory in mind anyway, just trying to save the people as best as we can.
Well, we’re getting side-tracked.
Nyx is teaching the children how to write, she had noticed me ages ago but choose not to halt her lecture. Her current self is unlike what her mercenary occupation suggest, a total 180 if nothing else for that matter.
Her temporary pupils made up of both infected and non-infected. This is not surprising because when asked why did she treated them the same way, she replied with a question of her own. It was something along the line of ‘We walk on the same land, trying to get a living alongside one another, and we all die leaving nothing but name, so what made us so different?’
“Auntie, is this how I do it?”
“Let me see… you should follow the outline first, then you can try making your own. It is good however, you just need to get used to it.”
“Yay!”
“Teach, James took my pencil!”
“I – I didn’t! This is mine!”
“Alright pipe down, here you can use my pen, Nina.”
“Bit boring innit, bloody dam-”
“Watch your language, Bruce.”
“…aye…”
“Um… um…”
“What is it Chris?”
“I… I… tore my paper…”
“No worries, you can take the back-up and continued on where you left.”
“Nyx, Gerard fell asleep again.”
Nyx said nothing and just approached the napping kid quietly, the other kids are trying their best to not laugh. Their teacher then kneeled down and whispered something, whatever it is caused the nearest kids’ face, privy of the whisper, to immediately go pale.
Gerard immediately straighten up without any grogginess, he definitely heard what she had whispered into his ear. Seeing that the children all laugh immediately, Gerard can only look down with a sheepish smile while hiding his pale face.
Whatever Nyx had whispered appears to have knock him down from the heavenly sky of daydream freefalling straight into Terra’ cold embrace of reality.
This is the most puzzling thing, she has the competency to work in a non-military sector. So why did she choose to be a mercenary? If it’s about credentials and the likes, she would have passed with respectable result.
If she has truly no other choice, it’s not like she can’t apply with PMC. Unless of course she just pop-out from nowhere and having no heads or tails about what she can do, this is just a wild assumption from me.
Even if that’s true, she might actually be a really reclusive and isolationist Elder race. I had been watching her demeanor, it is very unlike the long lived race of old. She can be rash and hasty but she never show disdain with technological advancement typically associated with them.
There is also the fact that she doesn’t have any qualms with standing by on her values or drawing lines. She is brutal against anyone she deemed to deserve it, which is relative to ordinary people perception of deserved or not, yet now her body language is nothing but joy from teaching children.
Thus I can only watch from the sideline like a good and respectable spectator. Not long after, the impromptu class was dismissed and Nyx was approached by the village chief who seems to be thanking her profusely. Nyx only nodded and reply in a one-two string of words.
After some more pleasantries, she headed immediately my way while tossing a water bottle at me… where did she get that? I swear that her back was empty… oh well, I catch it and wait for her.
“For you, just standing there should make you thirsty.”
“Thanks and you would make a good teacher, Nyx.”
“Don’t think so, that was more of a hobby.”
“Yes, a bloodthirsty merc with a hobby of teaching children of how making doodles and alphabetical letters. No one would believe me said that unless they witness it firsthand.”
“Yeah, whatever. So what do you need of me?”
“Actually nothing, just a coincidence of meeting you here.”
“Oh, really now?”
“Yep, I’m in the middle of routine survey.”
“I see.”
“But well, if nothing else. How about we just stroll to the plaza?’
“Sure, I see no problem with that.”
Then we just walk away together towards the plaza, the silence was not awkward since this is how she usually communicate. There are rumors that she is actually a lot more forthcoming, warm, and animated, but seeing her blank face I doubt it.
Well it doesn’t take away from the fact that she is a very capable colleague to have when we, catastrophe messenger, or Vincent commissioned her expertise. Her repertoire over the years has been shown to be more versatile.
Despite her dark reputation of being borderline psychopathic, her everyday act and conduct was largely unremarkable. This made a very stark contrast of how she acted high-strung and completely unhinged in combat but turned into a slob or lazy freeloader outside of work.
Imagine my surprise at how lazy she was last winter, this woman just sauntered outside with a long pants and tank top… in the middle of a blizzard… When I confronted her about it, she said it is a form of body conditioning to make her more used to winter’ coldness.
Nyx said that as a Pythian, her body is too sensitive with cold. Probably a genetic thing she carried over from her family. That’s what she had admitted at least.
Pythian was well known to be very unwelcoming with cold temperature, conversely they can just run around in desert region with apparent ease. We felines had neither of their peculiarities, other than smattering needs for… let loose every once in a while.
I will not elaborate as to what kind of let loose.
But that’s hardly important, we had arrived at the plaza and there are traveling merchants already opening up shops… including weapon and supply merchant… Nyx immediately went that way. Since she doesn’t appears to mind my company so might as well see what she would do there.
“Oh, The Grey Serpent herself has graced my humble stalls! What do you need?”
“Spare antiseptics and maybe painkillers?”
“Sure, how much do you need?”
“2 bottles should be good, as for the painkiller… do you have a package of ibuprofen?”
“Here you are…” The merchant handed her the requested medical supplies, interesting. Reports had noted that she is a really robust individual, but it doesn’t dissuade her of getting medical first and foremost.
“You got spare combat knife, dagger, or short sword?”
“Sure, hit me up with the specific.”
“30 - 45cm, less than 3 kilograms, straight blade, preferably for armor penetration.”
“30 to 45… straight blade… aha, this one here.” The merchant handed her a dagger with a very narrow blade, a stiletto to be exact. She is inspecting and getting a feel of the blade, but her face can’t be read and not indicating anything.
Then she starts making a quick stabbing motions… yes motions, she thrust the blade 4 times a second… No wonder she can annihilate so many target while being surrounded, her speed is truly outstanding. She then nodded while also inquiring for another.
“Any disposable knife? Anything is fine as long as it is light and I can throw it with ease.”
“Hmm… let me see…. Blimey, where did I put it… ah yes, here it is…”
The merchant handed her a 12 centimeters throwing knife without handle. Nyx inspected it and starts playing around with it by juggling and practiced a throwing motion, of course the nearby children is delighted seeing her performance.
Wait a minute… did her cheek turned a tiny bit of shade redder than usual? Huh, must have been my eyes playing tricks with me or perhaps my glasses needs to be re-magnified or changed. It won’t do for my work to be inconvenienced by impaired vision.
Seemingly satisfied, Nyx then motioned with her hand to get 15 more. The merchant obliged immediately, the clerks and shop helpers starts bringing out the requested goods and then packaging it. The merchant’s guards only look mildly interested, but nonetheless just lounge about.
She is not done and asked for another thing to purchase, she appears to be hesitant this time around, interestingly enough.
“Do you have… originium magazine?”
“Hmm… let me see… uh… no dice, sorry lass.”
“Oh well, there was an attempt.”
“It is not exactly prudent for us, small merchants, to carry that stuff around. Unless ye wanted more outlaws harassment,”
“I get what you mean, so how much for everything?”
“That will be 2,280 LMDs.”
“That was cheaper than I thought, also not in Pound?”
Cheaper my ass, Nyx. That much money is enough to feed a family, paying rents, and even purchasing luxury goods for a month or two with leeway here and there… Her sense of money is weird, as expected from a merc… Wonder how much she got paid? I only got paid 4,000 pounds a month, clean earning by the way.
Average Victorian only need to spend around 600 pounds a month at the barest minimum, and even less in the villages. Our industry made a lot of consumer goods that are always flooding the internal market, not to the point it overflowed of course.
“Eh, government won’t care all that much. Besides mercenary usually have more LMDs at hand anyway. M’self just a small travelling merchant anyway.”
Nyx finished up her transaction through her PT (Personal Terminal) and the hefted all her purchase with ease. She then looks my way.
“Not gonna buy anything?”
“I… don’t know?”
“Just buy something for Heidi…”
“What thought? She only like books…”
“You’re her father… hah… forget it.”
Why did you look at me like I’m a deadbeat no good dad who knows nothing about his daughter? Heidi rarely requested anything from me. Not to mention that there are no books on sale here, even regarding dress, she starts to be very picky at times and I don’t want to step on that landmine.
Well… I’ll buy Heidi something at the end of the survey, I’m too busy right now. With that we left the plaza and headed to… apothecary? Huh?
“Surprised? The chief asked me to look at an infected who got injured. Apparently the villagers are too scared of taking a look, despite being friendly… Beside if worst come to worst… I know the procedure of preventing Oripathy spread now.”
“You do?”
“I’m a mercenary yes, but killing people is not all I do for a living. I need to learn another skills such as mapping, path finding, first aid, and… originium hazards mitigation. It will look nice in my resume to boot…”
“Well… you would certainly pass as PMC contractors with a repertoire that varied. So w-”
“Why didn’t I apply for it?”
“Yes, why? You would make a lot more and not being immediately seen like a source of trouble at first glance.”
“PMC is nice, but I’m not exactly keen with the regulations here. Also, I just value my freedom that much and before you ask, I’ll not form a PMC group. The reason? I hate paperwork.”
“An unorthodox outlook but not exactly rare per see…”
“Touché, also we’re here. If you wanna follow inside better make sure your body is covered… is not something I have to say seeing you wearing that heavy trench coat you called uniform.”
“But you’re just weari-”
“Casual wear? Yeah, I’m not in the mood for getting accused of roping someone in case shit gets awry. Of course I will still wear gloves and mask, but not much else.”
She then wear her mask, glasses, and gloves then stepped inside. There is a single feline infected girl who got a nasty gash on her leg. Seems to be caused by Fangbeasts… I need to inform the rest about potential wildlife here.
“Sit tight, I’ll treat your wound.”
The girl just nodded, she appears to be surprised to see a non-infected treating an infected. Nyx starts by giving the girl a painkiller. After that is done, Nyx starts cleaning the wound with sterile gauze, she is very careful to ensure no discomfort upon the patient.
Said patient seems to be having something on her mind, she timidly asked Nyx…
“E-ex-excuse me… are you… not… afraid… um… miss?”
“Afraid? Sure I’m.”
“…So… why?”
“Because that won’t solve anything.” Nyx replied without missing a beat, her vision is focused on treating the patient’ gashed leg. She then continue her words.
“Tell me, are you afraid of death? If yes, then you’re not that different from us.” That’s… surprising, I thought someone like her is not afraid of death. Well… the more you know…
“Really? … Your reputation said that… erm…”
“I’m more beast than human? That’s also true, but the moment you discard fear is the moment you die.” The gash is mostly tended, she is now going to sew it. Hmm, she can work as doctor too, her resume is way too impressive for a mercenary… just who are you?
“Let me tell you an old story of my life, a story of the coldest people in the world… I was once part of a conflict where I got captured and being an inch away from death.”
‘Hold on, Nyx had been dying once? Why did she tell this piece of information nonchalantly?’ I quietly said in my mind, this sort of information might doesn’t sound like much. It is about to who it belong that dictated its worth.
“I was really sure that the grim reaper would be dragging me down to hell… and they came, the combat medics… from the enemy side.” The girl is too focused on her recount of the…past? Well that’s not important at the moment. That she didn’t realize that her wound is being sewed… huh, clever distraction there.
“The most surreal thing was that… I can feel their hatred the moment they see me laid on the ground, with their dead comrades and mine also strewn all over the bloodied soil… but the moment they see my wound, they, without hesitation, bring a stretcher for me and evacuated my dying body off the battlefield. It didn’t end there no, the moment they laid me in their aid station…”
Nyx then starts dabbing more antiseptics on the wound to prevent potential infection or flesh degeneration. The girl is too enraptured with Nyx’ story to even notice her sewed wound had opened a little, thus prompting Nyx to add further medical treatment.
“Their gazes turned cold and empty, almost mechanical even, but not due to scorn or hatred… it is coldness a doctor reserved for a patient… me, an enemy combatant, being seen as nothing more than wounded person truly felt different… I won’t fault them to just kill me there and even torture me… no, they shown professionalism to an enemy combatant and managed to swallow their brewing hate.”
Seeing that the wound had stopped its bleeding, Nyx continued on with her sewing and wound treatment. Was she enrolled in a medical school before? I can’t tell, but I can see why Heidi once said that she had enjoyed Nyx’ company for creative literature activity, she definitely has stories to tell.
“I was convinced there and then that doctors, medics, nurses, and all medical staffs are the coldest people on eart- Terra… They’re cold to ensure no emotion would affect their duty… Because I know one thing for sure, if a doctor get too close with their patient… if they failed, misery and despair shall follow and hammer down their psyche… Heh… they’re truly a hard bunch you know?” Holy… did she just smiled!? Damn, I guess that rumor has some truth in it…
The story ends… but it feels like there is more to it, the girl had also noticed that her treatment ended way faster, the girl’ eyes locked on her now bandaged leg. She still has a hard time walking so Nyx just scooted her into a princess carry, uncaring of an originium rock that dotted her left arm touching Nyx’ right arm.
“Uh! Um, I-i-can wa-”
“No, you will point me where your home is, capisce?”
“C-c-capisce?”
“It means “Understood” young lady.” I answered in her stead, Nyx just nod a little from my answer.
“Uh um… I don’t want to impose but… please…” And there we go… Nyx had snagged another one, with effort yes but the point still stand… Well, this Pythian lady never show overt interest on other people regarding the more biological or intimate needs…
“Snagged another eh? You’re a sinful woman you know that?” I joked at her… and she just nodded… not even flustered.
“What can I say, man and woman wanted me, a most natural thing. Given enough time, I might get Heidi too.”
Hey! She even taunted me! Also no way in hell I’ll let you have her, I will never give my daughter away. I’ll even move mountain, boil the ocean, and goes on accompanying my daughter’ shopping spree for a whole decade!
…
…
…
Ok, I kinda regret betting and swearing on the last one…
“Like hell I’ll let you have her.”
“Relax, I’m just joking.”
“Hah… whatever, so what now?”
“I don’t know, I’ll be back on bashing someone else’ skull open if nothing else… also did you know that stopping blood flowing to the brain for mere seconds can cause brain damage?”
And there it is, her mercenary persona is back on the job… Seriously, how could she flipped from being very caring and understanding into callous and cold with such ease?
Ah well… Victoria is still as safe as usual, no catastrophe signs were detected here at the moment… I’ll be going on my further survey tomorrow with the chaps from Toron… My life as a catastrophe messenger is as fulfilling as always…
[END OF CHAPTER]
Author’s Note:
Sup, this is me, myself, and I, the author who gets anxious when life suddenly turned calmer… am I neurotic?
Well, regardless of my mental state, this chapter is meant to show just how she behaved outside of combat with a much clearer and succinct contrast in mind.
Update as usual, see ya later.
Ciao.
FUN FACT: One of the Feline' needs is... scratching every once in a while...
