When John left the room and the exhausted princess behind, he was of the firm mind to take a shower. Honestly, he had needed it since waking up; he had gone through a pretty sweaty night in the first place, but now it really was time he got that out of the way. In the living room, he found Rave, zapping through the television without much of a care in the world. From the way the curly tips of her hair were hanging slightly down, John could guess that she was already through with the cleaning business.
His girlfriend turned her head to ask: “And, how was it?”
“Taxing – mostly on her though,” he answered truthfully. “I’ll be taking a shower, and I think we have off for the rest of the day. Also, she is fine with joining in group action in the future.”
“Nice,” Rave turned off the TV. “’Kay, ya just had your fun, so I’ll be making the program for the rest of the day, and we are starting by granting me my date privilege!”
“Re-marking your territory, hm?” John asked, only to be shushed away with waving gestures. Curious as he was about what she had in mind, he would wait until he was clean. One shower later, he dry-cleaned his clothes with Craft.
‘It’s pretty much all I use that Skill for nowadays,’ he thought as he put on his socks. Craft, Enchant and Sneaking, these three had been with him for a while but he never really used them. ‘And it is probably time to admit that I never will,’ he let out a heavy sigh as he used Craft on his pants.
Levelling Craft through occasionally washing his clothes with it was okay, but he had no bigger ambitions for the Skill. Most raw materials landed in his Artificial Spirits, so he had nothing to use Craft on. Same went for Enchant, which yielded such little bonuses that it wasn’t really worth the mana in the first place. It would probably be worth it in higher levels, but, until he got there, he would need to sink incredible amounts of mana and time into it. Mana and time that he would much rather spend on levelling things that helped him survive. The creation Skills were, for his build, vanity. Sneaking on the other hand was just useless in his skillset.
‘Maybe I should try and evolve it into something useful next time I get a Skill Evolution Point?’ he pondered as he put on his good-as-new shirt. He went back downstairs and was greeted by Rave in the entrance area. She had already put her jacket on and was holding his in an impatiently extended hand. “We are going out?” John asked the obvious.
“Yup, we are going on a date,” Rave affirmed.
“Where to?”
To that question the techno-lover just shrugged. “Dunno, let’s just wander around and check out the city. I have never been in Cologne.”
“Really?” John wanted to know, “I thought you lived in Germany for, how many years?” “About seven, or four, or nine, depends on how ya count it. But, as I told ya, we moved south to north. Cologne was not on the route,” came his girlfriend’s answer. “Ya ready?” she then asked, tapping an impatient beat on the floor with the heel of her shoe.
“I just need to dry my hair,” John said; it was pretty cold outside after all. ‘Salamander, would you?’
‘No,’ came the quick answer, ‘I will not be reduced to a glorified hairdryer!’
‘Oh, come on,’ John pleaded.
‘What will I get out of it?’ Salamander jabbed back, ‘Just use a towel, you lazy bum.’
“What’s going on?” Rave chimed in, watching her boyfriend make all kinds of faces as he argued.
“Salamander refuses to dry my hair,” he explained.
“Didn’t she willingly become a heater this morning?”
“Yup, apparently she wants something.”
‘Damn right I do, I demand that you give Sylph her gummy bear,’ Salamander pulled John’s attention back to her.
‘Being nice to Sylph? That is VERY out of character for you,” John commented.
‘Fuck you, this is pure self-interest.’ Salamander exploded in a fit of rage. ‘Do you have any idea what goes on in here when Sylph is bored?! She is by far the quickest out of us and trying to catch her while she blabbers on is almost impossible! The only other way to get her to shut up is to fuck her, and, at this point, we are all close to spent on that front. Give her the gummy bear, that should put her in a happy mood for a few days!’
‘Okay, okay,’ John appeased her, ‘We are going to find a convenience store and buy a pack of gummy bears for Sylph, you happy?’
‘No, but at least my cunt won’t be electrified anymore,’ Salamander stated. ‘Not that it feels bad… actually the opposite just… that woman has way too much energy.’
‘I am happy though,’ Sylph chirped, ‘Very happy, ultra-happy in fact, not gummy-bear-eating happy, which is the highest state of happiness I remember, tied with concubine-sex happy, but pretty happy nonetheless. AUDIBLE GASP!” Gasped the tempest elemental. ‘WHAT IF I EAT GUMMY BEARS WHILE HAVING SEX! That sounds awesome, we have to try that. Eventually. First things first: GIVE ME THAT GUMMY BEAR! Get trending with #GummyBearGate on Firebook and Airter!’
A heat shimmer in front of John and Salamander appeared a moment later. “Now imagine her bored,” she just said and started radiating heat that quickly dried John’s fairly short hair.
“I know the terror. Jane, we will have to look into a convenience store during the date,” John filled her in. “Sylph has a craving for gummy bears.”
“Yeah, we can do that,” Rave shrugged, “we gotta buy some food anyhow, we’ll be out for a while.”
“You left Lydia a note where we’ll be?”
“Ja, left her my number too, she already has yours, plus Aclysia and Mono will stay here, that should be enough.”
“Well then, let’s go,” John opened the door.
They went outside and started by just wandering around for a while and fairly quickly found themselves in a public park. “What is this?” John asked as they passed an obviously man-made lake. The thing was almost perfectly square. He pulled out his smartphone and allowed Google to track his location.
Rave did the same and then raised an eyebrow, “Hiroshima-Nagasaki park,” she read, “as a half-Japanese I am both complimented and offended.”
“Well, we could look at this giant other park called Melaten,” John suggested and checked what that was, “…Nevermind, that is a graveyard.”
“Least romantic place you could have suggested,” Rave laughed. “Well, there is a media park thing about 30 minutes from here, so maybe we can catch a movie and then check out the shops around the Central Station?”
“Sounds like a plan,” John agreed and they went on their way.
“…So,” Rave started a new topic after a few minutes of occasional chatter about the scenery, “can we talk about whatever gave you the creeps at the airport now?”
John slowly nodded, “I guess. You remember the Horned Rat, the Skaven god I told you about?”
“The actual one or the 40k one?” Rave asked, evidently annoyed that she even knew there was a difference.
“The former,” John said as they dodged a passer-by. “Just to be sure, talking about Abyss related stuff doesn’t count as violating Gaia’s rules, right?” John whispered while glancing conspiratorially after the person.
“Nah, people will just think we are cray-cray, that or we are talking about a videogame,” Rave waved it off. “Same reason I don’t have to hide my hair these days.” She pulled at one of the impossibly pink strands. Before the advent of modern hair dye, that would have been an immediate giveaway that she was not mundane.
“Or they think it's about LARP or whatever, I get it,” John nodded and then they went on. “Anyhow, did I tell you about the prophecy he gave me?”
“Ya did… oh shit!” Rave remembered. “I mean if he is your best friend and, oh, oh no, oh damn.”
“Yeah,” he stated in a grim tone. “I think we should go down the prophecy step by step.” Having a high Intellect came in handy at times like these. He put the prophecy, as he remembered it, down on his phone, that way he could look at the structure of the verses more easily, and Rave could think about it without having to ask him about every single word.
You shall have met the Betrayer of all,
You shall have met the Betrayed by all,
A whisper in your ear,
You shall have awakened her burning rage,
You shall have awakened her true flame,
Makes your mind so clear,
You shall have seen the winds of regret,
You shall have seen the dust of red,
Whatever you may send,
You shall have known the lie itself,
You shall have known the schemers face,
It will not matter, the lie it shall,
your best friend, he will fall,
And after this prophecy comes to an end,
She shall ascend.
“Mhm,” Rave hummed. “Any idea about this ‘Betrayer of all’?” “Not the slightest,” John sighed. “The betrayed of all is probably Thana, though, would fit in her whole backstory of being the unluckiest girl on the planet.” Rave nodded in agreement.
“I also think that the one-liners in between are a separate verse altogether,” John theorized. “Reorganized, it would look like this.”
You shall have met the Betrayer of all,
You shall have met the Betrayed by all,
You shall have awakened her burning rage,
You shall have awakened her true flame,
You shall have seen the winds of regret,
You shall have seen the dust of red,
You shall have known the lie itself,
You shall have known the schemers face,
It will not matter, the lie it shall,
your best friend, he will fall,
A whisper in your ear,
Makes your mind so clear,
Whatever you may send,
And after this prophecy comes to an end,
She shall ascend.
“Why would he make it that purposefully hard?” Rave asked.
“Probably because he is a dick that wants to manipulate the outcome in his favour… even by cracking this riddle we might play right into his hands. I have no idea,” John lamented. What little he knew about the Horned Rat was badmouthing and rumours. “But I will do it anyhow or, at least, try to. So, second verse is actually pretty easy. I made Thana pretty angry when I tried to burn her in that earth prison I had Gnome create and her true flame is probably that Soulburn thing she pulled off in the end. Next paragraph is the wrong way around, I saw her crumble to red dust before the wind took her away. Can’t say if that’s a major inaccuracy or if I missed something. Now this next part I have no idea about.”
“A lie and a schemer,” Rave mumbled, “Any guesses?”
“Three,” John said, “at least for the schemer. First one is the Horned Rat himself, second one is Lydia and third one is SecretBlonde.”
“…” Rave stared at him with disapproval but stayed silent.
“You can say it,” John guessed her thoughts, “you disapprove that I am suspicious about an ally again.”
“Yep,” his girlfriend admitted, “but this might be Victoria all over again, so I will keep my stupid to myself, continue, Brainiac.”
“I really don’t think she is likely either,” John explained himself, “but she has known about me for a while, so she might be pulling some strings in the background. I doubt it, because she wants me in that tournament, but I’d rather be cautious about this. I think the Horned Rat is most likely but I am not exactly sure if his skull is his face. Lastly, SecretBlonde… well if it is him, the most likely lie is that he left for Brazil, which would be very unnerving. I don’t think I know his face though. Then again maybe he is a random guy I ran into once.”
Rave nodded, “Well, apparently the lie doesn’t matter anyhow,” she pointed at the text, “but fall could mean a lot of things; Herman doesn’t necessarily need to die.”
“I hope so, but worst-case scenario is that he does,” John sighed. “Last verse though, and this is very interesting to me. It sounds like a whisper will bring me revelation, I will try to stop whatever is happening, and then Thana comes back,” he said.
“…Are ya sure?” Rave asked, “I have to stress that coming back to life is a thing that next to never happens.”
“But who else would be meant with ‘she’ and what else would ‘ascending’ mean?” John probed.
“Could always be Lydia ascending to the throne,” the techno-lover added a theory, “would make it more likely that she is the schemer, though. Dunno if I like that…”
“Still a possible angle, though. Stupid prophecies being vague as fuck,” John cursed on the headache that this would cause him. “Maybe I don’t even know the schemer's face yet? The prophecy was largely in chronological order, so that event doesn’t have to have happened yet? Then again, one verse was the wrong way around, so maybe the Horned Rat also twisted the timing on that one? The now last verse was also weaved in between so the chronological appearance could just be for show? ARGH!” he shouted out in frustration and caused more than a few heads to turn towards his position.
They had gotten pretty close to the media park, and the amount of people around was growing. Then again, some hipster couple (and Rave’s looks could fit those shoes for both of them, with her pink hair and fuzzy, yellow jacket) was expected to act a bit weirdly, so the attention was gone as quickly as it came.
“I’ll think about this more another time,” John promised, having calmed down after putting his phone away.
“Yeah, let’s take your mind off that for a bit and have fun. Any ideas for the movie?” Rave asked as they went inside and found a display of currently running stuff.
“Well, there is the new Star Wars,” John suggested.
Rave nodded, “That sounds okay.”
While they stood in line something dawned on John. “Do you have money on you?” he asked. “Uhm…no, actually,” she realized and they quickly left the line. “Can’t ya just pull some out of your inventory?” Rave asked.
“Just a second,” John quickly created an empty Illusion Barrier and checked. He could withdraw money just fine, there was just one problem. They were all dollars.
“This is stupid,” he complained. “I farmed this money yesterday before you called me. Why the hell would it be dollars? Fuck you, G-A,” John cursed, still in a foul mood, and pressed accept anyhow. Not like he had much of a choice. Just like that most of the money he had farmed up yesterday went down the drain. “Good news, Gaia just gave me a way to convert my dollars into euros.”
“And why are you that annoyed then?” Rave wondered.
“Because she had me pay 100 grand for it… and the exchange rate is 0,85 euros to the dollar,” John answered but did it anyway. He only exchanged the amount he needed to pay for the tickets and popcorn, though. “Now to get at the back of that line again…”
When John left the room and the exhausted princess behind, he was of the firm mind to take a shower. Honestly, he had needed it since waking up; he had gone through a pretty sweaty night in the first place, but now it really was time he got that out of the way. In the living room, he found Rave, zapping through the television without much of a care in the world. From the way the curly tips of her hair were hanging slightly down, John could guess that she was already through with the cleaning business.
His girlfriend turned her head to ask: “And, how was it?”
“Taxing – mostly on her though,” he answered truthfully. “I’ll be taking a shower, and I think we have off for the rest of the day. Also, she is fine with joining in group action in the future.”
“Nice,” Rave turned off the TV. “’Kay, ya just had your fun, so I’ll be making the program for the rest of the day, and we are starting by granting me my date privilege!”
“Re-marking your territory, hm?” John asked, only to be shushed away with waving gestures. Curious as he was about what she had in mind, he would wait until he was clean. One shower later, he dry-cleaned his clothes with Craft.
‘It’s pretty much all I use that Skill for nowadays,’ he thought as he put on his socks. Craft, Enchant and Sneaking, these three had been with him for a while but he never really used them. ‘And it is probably time to admit that I never will,’ he let out a heavy sigh as he used Craft on his pants.
Levelling Craft through occasionally washing his clothes with it was okay, but he had no bigger ambitions for the Skill. Most raw materials landed in his Artificial Spirits, so he had nothing to use Craft on. Same went for Enchant, which yielded such little bonuses that it wasn’t really worth the mana in the first place. It would probably be worth it in higher levels, but, until he got there, he would need to sink incredible amounts of mana and time into it. Mana and time that he would much rather spend on levelling things that helped him survive. The creation Skills were, for his build, vanity. Sneaking on the other hand was just useless in his skillset.
‘Maybe I should try and evolve it into something useful next time I get a Skill Evolution Point?’ he pondered as he put on his good-as-new shirt. He went back downstairs and was greeted by Rave in the entrance area. She had already put her jacket on and was holding his in an impatiently extended hand. “We are going out?” John asked the obvious.
“Yup, we are going on a date,” Rave affirmed.
“Where to?”
To that question the techno-lover just shrugged. “Dunno, let’s just wander around and check out the city. I have never been in Cologne.”
“Really?” John wanted to know, “I thought you lived in Germany for, how many years?” “About seven, or four, or nine, depends on how ya count it. But, as I told ya, we moved south to north. Cologne was not on the route,” came his girlfriend’s answer. “Ya ready?” she then asked, tapping an impatient beat on the floor with the heel of her shoe.
“I just need to dry my hair,” John said; it was pretty cold outside after all. ‘Salamander, would you?’
‘No,’ came the quick answer, ‘I will not be reduced to a glorified hairdryer!’
‘Oh, come on,’ John pleaded.
‘What will I get out of it?’ Salamander jabbed back, ‘Just use a towel, you lazy bum.’
“What’s going on?” Rave chimed in, watching her boyfriend make all kinds of faces as he argued.
“Salamander refuses to dry my hair,” he explained.
“Didn’t she willingly become a heater this morning?”
“Yup, apparently she wants something.”
‘Damn right I do, I demand that you give Sylph her gummy bear,’ Salamander pulled John’s attention back to her.
‘Being nice to Sylph? That is VERY out of character for you,” John commented.
‘Fuck you, this is pure self-interest.’ Salamander exploded in a fit of rage. ‘Do you have any idea what goes on in here when Sylph is bored?! She is by far the quickest out of us and trying to catch her while she blabbers on is almost impossible! The only other way to get her to shut up is to fuck her, and, at this point, we are all close to spent on that front. Give her the gummy bear, that should put her in a happy mood for a few days!’
‘Okay, okay,’ John appeased her, ‘We are going to find a convenience store and buy a pack of gummy bears for Sylph, you happy?’
‘No, but at least my cunt won’t be electrified anymore,’ Salamander stated. ‘Not that it feels bad… actually the opposite just… that woman has way too much energy.’
‘I am happy though,’ Sylph chirped, ‘Very happy, ultra-happy in fact, not gummy-bear-eating happy, which is the highest state of happiness I remember, tied with concubine-sex happy, but pretty happy nonetheless. AUDIBLE GASP!” Gasped the tempest elemental. ‘WHAT IF I EAT GUMMY BEARS WHILE HAVING SEX! That sounds awesome, we have to try that. Eventually. First things first: GIVE ME THAT GUMMY BEAR! Get trending with #GummyBearGate on Firebook and Airter!’
A heat shimmer in front of John and Salamander appeared a moment later. “Now imagine her bored,” she just said and started radiating heat that quickly dried John’s fairly short hair.
“I know the terror. Jane, we will have to look into a convenience store during the date,” John filled her in. “Sylph has a craving for gummy bears.”
“Yeah, we can do that,” Rave shrugged, “we gotta buy some food anyhow, we’ll be out for a while.”
“You left Lydia a note where we’ll be?”
“Ja, left her my number too, she already has yours, plus Aclysia and Mono will stay here, that should be enough.”
“Well then, let’s go,” John opened the door.
They went outside and started by just wandering around for a while and fairly quickly found themselves in a public park. “What is this?” John asked as they passed an obviously man-made lake. The thing was almost perfectly square. He pulled out his smartphone and allowed Google to track his location.
Rave did the same and then raised an eyebrow, “Hiroshima-Nagasaki park,” she read, “as a half-Japanese I am both complimented and offended.”
“Well, we could look at this giant other park called Melaten,” John suggested and checked what that was, “…Nevermind, that is a graveyard.”
“Least romantic place you could have suggested,” Rave laughed. “Well, there is a media park thing about 30 minutes from here, so maybe we can catch a movie and then check out the shops around the Central Station?”
“Sounds like a plan,” John agreed and they went on their way.
“…So,” Rave started a new topic after a few minutes of occasional chatter about the scenery, “can we talk about whatever gave you the creeps at the airport now?”
John slowly nodded, “I guess. You remember the Horned Rat, the Skaven god I told you about?”
“The actual one or the 40k one?” Rave asked, evidently annoyed that she even knew there was a difference.
“The former,” John said as they dodged a passer-by. “Just to be sure, talking about Abyss related stuff doesn’t count as violating Gaia’s rules, right?” John whispered while glancing conspiratorially after the person.
“Nah, people will just think we are cray-cray, that or we are talking about a videogame,” Rave waved it off. “Same reason I don’t have to hide my hair these days.” She pulled at one of the impossibly pink strands. Before the advent of modern hair dye, that would have been an immediate giveaway that she was not mundane.
“Or they think it's about LARP or whatever, I get it,” John nodded and then they went on. “Anyhow, did I tell you about the prophecy he gave me?”
“Ya did… oh shit!” Rave remembered. “I mean if he is your best friend and, oh, oh no, oh damn.”
“Yeah,” he stated in a grim tone. “I think we should go down the prophecy step by step.” Having a high Intellect came in handy at times like these. He put the prophecy, as he remembered it, down on his phone, that way he could look at the structure of the verses more easily, and Rave could think about it without having to ask him about every single word.
You shall have met the Betrayer of all,
You shall have met the Betrayed by all,
A whisper in your ear,
You shall have awakened her burning rage,
You shall have awakened her true flame,
Makes your mind so clear,
You shall have seen the winds of regret,
You shall have seen the dust of red,
Whatever you may send,
You shall have known the lie itself,
You shall have known the schemers face,
It will not matter, the lie it shall,
your best friend, he will fall,
And after this prophecy comes to an end,
She shall ascend.
“Mhm,” Rave hummed. “Any idea about this ‘Betrayer of all’?” “Not the slightest,” John sighed. “The betrayed of all is probably Thana, though, would fit in her whole backstory of being the unluckiest girl on the planet.” Rave nodded in agreement.
“I also think that the one-liners in between are a separate verse altogether,” John theorized. “Reorganized, it would look like this.”
You shall have met the Betrayer of all,
You shall have met the Betrayed by all,
You shall have awakened her burning rage,
You shall have awakened her true flame,
You shall have seen the winds of regret,
You shall have seen the dust of red,
You shall have known the lie itself,
You shall have known the schemers face,
It will not matter, the lie it shall,
your best friend, he will fall,
A whisper in your ear,
Makes your mind so clear,
Whatever you may send,
And after this prophecy comes to an end,
She shall ascend.
“Why would he make it that purposefully hard?” Rave asked.
“Probably because he is a dick that wants to manipulate the outcome in his favour… even by cracking this riddle we might play right into his hands. I have no idea,” John lamented. What little he knew about the Horned Rat was badmouthing and rumours. “But I will do it anyhow or, at least, try to. So, second verse is actually pretty easy. I made Thana pretty angry when I tried to burn her in that earth prison I had Gnome create and her true flame is probably that Soulburn thing she pulled off in the end. Next paragraph is the wrong way around, I saw her crumble to red dust before the wind took her away. Can’t say if that’s a major inaccuracy or if I missed something. Now this next part I have no idea about.”
“A lie and a schemer,” Rave mumbled, “Any guesses?”
“Three,” John said, “at least for the schemer. First one is the Horned Rat himself, second one is Lydia and third one is SecretBlonde.”
“…” Rave stared at him with disapproval but stayed silent.
“You can say it,” John guessed her thoughts, “you disapprove that I am suspicious about an ally again.”
“Yep,” his girlfriend admitted, “but this might be Victoria all over again, so I will keep my stupid to myself, continue, Brainiac.”
“I really don’t think she is likely either,” John explained himself, “but she has known about me for a while, so she might be pulling some strings in the background. I doubt it, because she wants me in that tournament, but I’d rather be cautious about this. I think the Horned Rat is most likely but I am not exactly sure if his skull is his face. Lastly, SecretBlonde… well if it is him, the most likely lie is that he left for Brazil, which would be very unnerving. I don’t think I know his face though. Then again maybe he is a random guy I ran into once.”
Rave nodded, “Well, apparently the lie doesn’t matter anyhow,” she pointed at the text, “but fall could mean a lot of things; Herman doesn’t necessarily need to die.”
“I hope so, but worst-case scenario is that he does,” John sighed. “Last verse though, and this is very interesting to me. It sounds like a whisper will bring me revelation, I will try to stop whatever is happening, and then Thana comes back,” he said.
“…Are ya sure?” Rave asked, “I have to stress that coming back to life is a thing that next to never happens.”
“But who else would be meant with ‘she’ and what else would ‘ascending’ mean?” John probed.
“Could always be Lydia ascending to the throne,” the techno-lover added a theory, “would make it more likely that she is the schemer, though. Dunno if I like that…”
“Still a possible angle, though. Stupid prophecies being vague as fuck,” John cursed on the headache that this would cause him. “Maybe I don’t even know the schemer's face yet? The prophecy was largely in chronological order, so that event doesn’t have to have happened yet? Then again, one verse was the wrong way around, so maybe the Horned Rat also twisted the timing on that one? The now last verse was also weaved in between so the chronological appearance could just be for show? ARGH!” he shouted out in frustration and caused more than a few heads to turn towards his position.
They had gotten pretty close to the media park, and the amount of people around was growing. Then again, some hipster couple (and Rave’s looks could fit those shoes for both of them, with her pink hair and fuzzy, yellow jacket) was expected to act a bit weirdly, so the attention was gone as quickly as it came.
“I’ll think about this more another time,” John promised, having calmed down after putting his phone away.
“Yeah, let’s take your mind off that for a bit and have fun. Any ideas for the movie?” Rave asked as they went inside and found a display of currently running stuff.
“Well, there is the new Star Wars,” John suggested.
Rave nodded, “That sounds okay.”
While they stood in line something dawned on John. “Do you have money on you?” he asked. “Uhm…no, actually,” she realized and they quickly left the line. “Can’t ya just pull some out of your inventory?” Rave asked.
“Just a second,” John quickly created an empty Illusion Barrier and checked. He could withdraw money just fine, there was just one problem. They were all dollars.
“This is stupid,” he complained. “I farmed this money yesterday before you called me. Why the hell would it be dollars? Fuck you, G-A,” John cursed, still in a foul mood, and pressed accept anyhow. Not like he had much of a choice. Just like that most of the money he had farmed up yesterday went down the drain. “Good news, Gaia just gave me a way to convert my dollars into euros.”
“And why are you that annoyed then?” Rave wondered.
“Because she had me pay 100 grand for it… and the exchange rate is 0,85 euros to the dollar,” John answered but did it anyway. He only exchanged the amount he needed to pay for the tickets and popcorn, though. “Now to get at the back of that line again…”
