,,,,,,,,,,,,You wake up groggy and tired, having slept on a mattress bare of sheets and other necessities. Around you, boxes are piled like the stores of gold in a dragon’s hoard. It’s been three weeks since you’ve moved to the city of Alcuin, and you still have done none of the “adjusting” your parents told you would happen naturally. And now, it’s time for school. Your first day at Limulus High.
[[Fuck high school.]]
[[ughhhhhh fine let's go]]Yeah, fuck school! You decide to skip for the day. You let your parents drop you off at school and then double back and walk home. You spend all day working on your personal project and you make so much progress that you can barely contain your own excitement. Who needs friends? Who needs school? You have OBSESSIVE HOBBIES, and that's enough for you.
{(set: $personalProj to it +2)}
{(set: $warpContact to true)}
[[The stars come out.]] You get dressed, holding back your complaints. No use griping now.
You arrive at Limulus High after an only slightly awkward car ride with your parents. Limulus High School is a huge stone building flanked by two rows of trees. You have no idea how those things could grow in the city. Students pour in. None of them are looking at you, except for a guy with jet black hair who is walking up to you. Fuck. You scramble to pick up more details about him as he closes in on you.
[[He's pretty good looking]]{(set: $metGambit to true)}
He has blue eyes and he’s taller than you. He’s wearing expensive-looking clothes but in a way that lets you know he doesn’t really like them. His hands twitch slightly at his sides. He’s wearing gloves, you notice, and wonder if it’s that kind of rich kid school or if this guy’s just an asshole. He’s clean-shaven.
“Hi,” he says. “I’m G-- I’m Raymond. Are you new? I’m supposed to guide the new kid around.”
[[Yes, I'm new.]]
[[UHHH NO I'VE BEEN HERE FOR A WHILE]]Raymond sighs. “Okay, I’ll give you the tour then. Don’t get any ideas, though. My dad’s making me do this.”
Raymond takes you on a tour of the school, and even though he warned you he wasn’t shooting to be your friend, you actually get along okay! Turns out Raymond’s dad is the principal, and also a real dickweed.
When you get to class, you realize your wallet is missing. Now, how could that have happened? {(set: $wallet to false)}
[[You are in class.]]{(set: $lieGambit to true)}
Raymond winces. “Right.” You hear him cursing under his breath as he walks away. You walk towards the school. Once again, you have gotten away with everything consequence-free! You stride confidently through the double-door entrance... and are immediately lost.
You wander through the school like the damned spirit of an unpopular nerdy girl killed in a fatal gummy bear accident, peeking through doors in a vain effort to find the room you belong in.
No!
You refuse to be shaken! You shall forge on confidently! You shall go out with a bang! You will enter the next room you come upon, and commit to staying there until you can find your class!
Full of bravado, you throw open a random door to find the...
[[Pool?]]Thanks to Raymond’s help, you find your way to class on time. Visions from different shows dance in your head of having to stand in front of the whole class and introduce yourself. You feel dizzy at the very thought. But luckily, no such thing happens. The teacher gestures tiredly to your new seat and tells the class they have a new student. The teacher turns to face the board, and the kid next to you immediately turns to talk to you. He has pale skin disrupted by dark brown freckles and instead of the worksheet everybody else has, he has music sheets scattered on his desk. He’s also a fucking unit. He’s taller than anybody else in the room, including the teacher.
He smiled earnestly at you. “Hi!”
[[Ignore]]
[[Hey?]]You didn’t know this place had a pool. And there’s someone in it. You can’t see them clearly because they’re swimming near the bottom. They come up after a few seconds, revealing a boy with brown skin, dark hair, and incongruously blue-green eyes. Three scars rake down the front of his face.
He looks up at you, almost panicked.
“Uh… there’s class right now. What are you doing here?”
[[Tell the pool-dweller you're lost.]]
[[Lie to the watery scamp]]You stare at your worksheet as if transfixed. This guy seems weird. He keeps talking anyways.
“I’m Ducky You should come and join my new club. It’s called the Death Jam Club and we do our own pyrotechnics!”
{(set: $metDucky to true)}
[[Actually this sounds cool|Intrigued]]
[[Pray he stops]]You strike up a conversation. This guy’s certainly more interesting than class.
You introduce yourself. Your new friend (?) grins.
“I’m Ducky. I’m made this club called the Death Jam Club, wanna join? We have dry ice!”
You’re not quite sure why “having dry ice” is supposed to be so tempting. Doesn’t everybody have some? Also, did this kid just start talking to you to get him to join his club? That sounds kind of cult-y.
Which, I mean, you are kind of into, but since you are technically spoken for, it wouldn’t do to join a new cult. Still, it might be good to make some friends around here…
{(set: $metDucky to true)}
[[Intrigued]]
[[Nah]]Ducky continues to talk. He doesn’t appear to actually care whether or not you are interested. Well, tough luck for him. You tune out his voice and eventually begin to pencil in answers for the worksheet. Eventually, Ducky gets the point and stops talking to you. At two other people in the class give you dirty looks. You get the sense that Ducky is well-liked, which puts you in negative standing with them. Godammit.
[[Eventually, Class Ends.]] [(set: $Intrigued to true)]
“Sounds interesting,” you say, somewhat cautiously. “When do you guys meet?”
Ducky pumps his fist and for a moment has to turn back to the teacher, who has asked the class a question. You both pretend to pay attention for a few minutes before he says, “We meet… today! And, once a week, after school.” You’re guessing he means every Monday.
You nod. You may or may not actually go, but it’s good to have the option. A club is kind of a built-in friend group anyways, and it’ll help you handle school a lot more if you have someone to eat your lunch with.
[[Eventually, Class Ends.]]“I dunno,” you say. “I’m not super interested in clubs just yet. Maybe eventually, but right now I just want to figure out where my classes and stuff are.”
Ducky nods wisely. “Okay, well, if you ever want to know more, you can always ask me.”
You keep talking on the down-low for the rest of class. Ducky seems really easy-going, even if he did say he ate a hard-boiled egg covered in mayonnaise and liked it. By the end of class, you’ve swapped numbers, too. All in all, a success.
[[Eventually, Class Ends.]]The bell rings. You head off to your next period. You're pretty much an average student...
There aren't any interesting people in your other classes, to your disappointment. There is one teacher who tries to tell you that slavery didn't start because of racism, but that's more enraging than actually interesting.
[[the school day ends.]]You’ve made it through the school day, in one form or another. Even though the final class has let out, there are still a couple of students in the halls, and you follow them to the section of the school that still has activity: the club rooms. Damn, this school has separate rooms for clubs. It really is rich. There are a few clubs that seem interesting.[(if: $Intrigued is true)[Oh, and there's Death Jam Club, too.]]
[[????? Club]]
[[Death Jam Club]]
[[Gardening Club]]
[[Fuck this shit, go home.]]You have no idea what the ???? Club is because the name has been blacked out, but you can’t resist a mystery. You go in.
The room is dark. In the light that pours in from the hallway you can see the glimmer of tripwires. “Hello?” You call into the gloom.
(if: $metGambit is true)[(if: $lieGambit is true)[ “Oh, so you are new.”
Shit. From the shadows emerges that guy you lied to before. Raymond, right?
“Everybody who’s been here for more than a week knows what this club is.”
[[What is it?]]
[[I'm sorry I lied.]]
[[Let's look at those other clubs.]]]
(elseif: $lieGambit is false)[“Oh, shit. It’s you. You’re the new kid, right? Quick question: Are you a narc?”
[[I am a narc]]
[[I'm no narc!]]]]
(elseif: $metGambit is false)["Who are you?" A voice calls back.
"I'm the new kid. I guess. I've been... avoiding school," you say cautiously.
"Nice. Well. I'm pretty sure of the answer, but. Are you a narc?"
[[I am a narc]]
[[I'm no narc!]]](if: $Intrigued is true)[Ducky is sitting in the room already, alongside a strange boy with three scars running down his face. He brightens when you come in. “Hey!” He says. “This is Alaric. I’m so glad you’ve come! ] (elseif: $Intrigued is false)[A strange kid is sitting on the floor, surrounded by instruments. He’s huge-- at least 6’2”. He has pale skin, which is interrupted by dark brown freckles, and bright blue eyes. Something about him reminds you of lizards. You have no idea why. “Hi!” He says. “I’m Ducky, and this is Alaric.” Alaric waves at you. “You must be here to join!]We only have two members,” Ducky continues, “but with you we’ll have a whole band!”
“Can’t take any of mine, though,” Alaric butts in. He gestures to a setup consisting of some a triangle, a cowbell, some bongos, and a very big drum.
Damn. You’d really been hoping to play the bongos.
“Oh, wait, I know. Alaric and I’ll throw you a concert so you know what you’re getting into before you choose your instrument,” Ducky says. He throws a guitar’s strap over his shoulders, picks up a violin, and slots a harmonica into his mouth.
“Hell yeah!” Alaric bounces up and down on the balls of his feet. “Oh, and turn around for me real quick. We’ve got costumes ‘n’ shit.” You turn around. There are some bangs, crashes, a cartoonish cat yowl, and a suspiciously wet squelching sound.
[[“Okay. Turn around.”]]
[[Hang on a minute. |Let's look at those other clubs.]]Those other clubs look weird as shit, so you step into the gardening club. It’s just outside, and in full bloom, though it’s not quite a… traditional garden. It kind of looks like a mess at first, like half a forest’s worth of weeds had infested a dozen planters, but slowly you realize the weeds are carefully trimmed and trained upwards. You recognize a couple-- rosemary, basil. They’re pretty big.
“Who are you?” A guy steps from behind a bush holding a very large pair of gardening shears. He has long brown hair tied back and is dressed kind of like a hippie and kind of like a fashion model. Over top of his normal clothes he’s wearing a serviceable leather apron, covered in dirt. He has green eyes. You meet them, and are suddenly aware of what it means when books say that someone’s eyes are “piercing.” You feel like he knows all your secrets. It doesn’t help that he’s clearly older than you, too. A senior, maybe?
[[I'm new here.]]
[[Is this the Gardening Club?]]
[[Let's look at those other clubs.]]You decide against clubs. You go home and work on a personal project. The boxes stay unpacked, but you really don’t care about that. You become immersed in the project, so much so that you don’t notice time passing until your parents call you out for dinner.
{(set: $personalProj to it +1)}
[[The stars come out.]]You fall asleep, and before you know it, it's...
[[The Next Day]]{(set: $metAlaric to true)}
“Uh… I got lost.” You shrug. “I’m new here and I skipped the tour.” You pause. “Wait. What are you doing here?”
His grinning face goes blank with shock. “Uh. I’m… have permission?”
You survey him. “Yeah. Okay.” He brightens up immediately, though you’re certain he knows you suspect him of skipping class. He introduces himself as Alaric, then says, “well, as long as you’re here, do you wanna go for a swim?”
[[swim with the boy]]
[[reject the briny depths and the soaked boy within]]{(set: $metAlaric to true)}
“I have a general disrespect for authority,” you say (which is true), “so I decided to skip class” (which isn’t exactly true). “I’ve heard everything that old windbag has to say anyways. I had him last year.” You’re really laying it on thick now. Hey, once you start lying, why stop?
“Liar." You jump. He laughs. “It’s cool, though. I hate authority, too. I’m Alaric, by the way. What’s your name?”
[[Trade names]]
[[withhold your name]]“Sounds good,” you say. He beams as you take off your outermost layer of clothes and drop in.
You spend a while goofing off in the pool and learning more about Alaric. He’s a Pisces, which is oddly on the mark, and he likes to swim but not enough to join the swim team. The only club he’s in is something called the Death Jam Club. You’re having fun…
… until the gym teacher catches you. You both manage to get out of the pool and sprint through the doors before he can catch you, though you just manage to snag the rest of your clothes and your backpack before you go. You wind up both laughing your asses off in the garden behind the school. Alaric turns to you and says, “That was awesome! We should hang out more later.”
[[I will absolutely do that]]
[[i like you pool man but i'm busy]]“I don’t wanna get wet.” You step away from the pool’s edge.
Alaric calls you a coward.
[[I gotta go.]]
[[I mean, I can still hang out if that's okay]]“Awesome.” Alaric says. “How about, hmmmm. Tomorrow afternoon? Normally I have a club, but the President’s pretty lax about attendance. But for now…” He looks around. “I should prob’ly go find some clothes.”
He leaves. You turn your thoughts to what you should do next.
{(set: $alaricContact to true)}
[[You take in the garden while you're thinking.]] Alaric shrugs. “Your loss, I guess. Anyways, thanks for hangin’ with me.” He waves, and disappears into the bushes. You feel an impulse to follow him, but you’re pretty sure he’d just get you into more trouble, even if it is funny, so you lean up against the nearest wall, trying to plot your next move.
[[You take in the garden while you're thinking.]]You retreat. That guy seems like a fucking weirdo.
After a reasonable amount of time, you make it to class. You’re late, and the teacher glares at you a bit, but you don’t particularly mind. You are handed a worksheet and pointed to a seat near the window. As soon as you sit down, someone turns to talk to you. He has pale skin disrupted by dark brown freckles and instead of the worksheet everybody else has, he has music sheets scattered on his desk. He’s also a fucking unit. He’s taller than anybody else in the room, including the teacher.
He smiles earnestly at you. “Hi!”
[[Ignore]]
[[greet|Hey?]]You talk with Alaric for a bit and learn that he’s an Aquarius, which you think is pretty weird. He has more of a Pisces feel to you. Not that you care or think about the zodiac. He swims the entire time, until the gym teacher comes in and starts yelling at him. He swings himself out of the pool with practiced ease and sprints towards the back door. You’re closer to the entrance, so you go out that way. You hear the gym teacher yelling, but it gets fainter. You sigh and start to think about your next move when the bell rings. You get directions from someone to your next class, deciding you’ve had enough excitement for the day, and spend the rest of the school day like an obedient little student.
[[the school day ends.]] It’s really beautiful out here. At first, it just looks kind of wild, but after a more thorough glance you ascertain that it’s actually full of useful herbs.
[[look for weed]]
[[Skip school and go home.]]
[[try to find class again]]
[[follow alaric]]“That name… reminds me of something.” Alaric looks down at the water, and his own rippling reflection. His brow furrows. You momentarily panic. “Eh, it’s probably nothing. Do you want to swim?”
[[swim with the boy]]
[[reject the briny depths and the soaked boy within]] “Ooooh, mysterious,” Alaric says. “Although, that does come with a caveat. You’re not allowed to swim with me if I don’t know your name. It’s the price of admission.”
“What’s to stop me from just jumping in?” You say.
“I’ll drown you,” Alaric says, very matter-of-factly. You’re pretty sure he’s not serious.
[[Give him your name, actually|Trade names]]
[[I gotta go.]]
[[I mean, I can still hang out if that's okay]] You look for weed. Unfortunately, there is none. However, you do almost try to smoke some poison ivy before you realize that it’s poison ivy and hurriedly hurl it as far away as you possibly can.
You truly are a bastion of intellect. What will you think of next?
[[Skip school and go home.]]
[[try to find class again]]
[[follow alaric]]Well, you figure now that you should at least make an attempt to be a good student. You head back inside and look/ask around until you wander into one of your classes at the end of the period. You shrug and make an excuse about being lost, saying it won’t happen again. The rest of the day is almost uneventful, which you’re thankful for.
[[the school day ends.]] You won’t let Alaric get away that easy. You’re not quite sure why you want to pursue him, but you do. You go around the back of the school, where you last saw him, and hear him talking to someone. You duck behind a bush.
“--something feels off.”
“I know how you feel.”
You can’t identify the second voice.
“I just feel like-- okay, this is going to sound weird, but I feel like I shouldn’t be here.”
“Me too. I feel like… something’s missing.”
Your fingers twitch, tracing nervous patterns in the air. What does this mean?
“I… huh. I guess it’s just my imagination. Maybe it’s that thing with Gambit’s dad. ‘S fucked up.”
“I don’t think any of us doubted that.” The second voice is quiet, even. Almost deadpan. “I think you’re right. Too much weight unbalances any scale.”
“Yeah… do you have any non-wet clothes, by the way?”
“You should just bring a swimsuit next time.”
“Aw, c’mon, Fil, you know that’s no fun.”
You hear this new person, Fil, leave.
[[come out of hiding]]
[[leave quietly with your new knowledge]]You step out from behind the bush to find Alaric. He jumps a little when he sees you, then looks embarrassed. “Man, I was really hoping to make a clean and cool exit.”
“Sorry,” you say. “I just…”
[[...couldn't stop thinking about you]]
[[...don't know where my classes are]]You sneak away from Alaric, pondering the implications of this. Alaric is friends with someone named Fil, and someone named Gambit, and something happened with Gambit’s dad. Sometimes eavesdropping is good.
[[try to find class again]]
[[Skip school and go home.]] Alaric flushes heavily. “Yeah? Thanks, I… have to go… uh.” He turns and fucking books it in the direction you heard Fil go. He’s out of your sight in seconds, and you’re pretty sure you won’t be able to catch up this time. Godammit. You introduce your palm to your face. Once they are well acquainted, you sigh and look around again, hoping for some kind of thing to happen so you don’t have to make a decision.
Luckily enough, something does happen. The gym teacher from earlier rounds the corner of the building. “YOUUUU!” He says, pointing dramatically. Then he loses some steam. “Who are you anyways?”
You nervously introduce yourself. “I just got here,” you say. “I got lost,” you add, almost hopefully.
The gym teacher sizes you up. “Yeah, okay,” he says. “I’ll let you off, because you’re new. But ONLY this once, got it, buster?”
You nod frantically.
The gym teacher places a big, meaty hand on your shoulder and guides you to the class that you’re supposed to be in. You spend the rest of the day in classes, slightly disappointed that you weren’t able to get into more trouble.
[[the school day ends.]] “Ah,” Alaric says. “Right. Uh. Well, as soon as I get my clothes, I can tell you. But not before. Because I really don’t wanna go in the school in wet clothes.”
There is a moment of silence. Alaric runs a hand through his hair, which is getting wilder and wilder the more it dries. “So… you’re new, right? Where are you from?”
“It doesn’t matter,” you say. “The town was so tiny that it barely exists. It’s kinda nice to be here, where at least there are other people.”
“I grew up in the city,” Alaric says. “It must be nice to live in the country.”
“Eh, not really. There are too many cows. And racists. Not that all country people are racist, just that I used to see a lot more of them,” you say. You feel strangely compelled now to defend your hometown. “But it’s really pretty. I miss being able to get up at midnight and go for a walk in the forest.”
“Ha! I think Fil would like you,” Alaric says.
Just at that moment, the gym teacher rounds the corner of the building. Alaric jumps and starts sprinting. You do the same, but you peel away from Alaric and come back around the front of the school. You trust that the gym teacher would rather catch Alaric than you, so you slow down, trying to come to a decision. It seems pursuing Alaric further isn’t too wise with that gym teacher on the prowl.
[[Skip school and go home.]]
[[try to find class again]] You turn and are blasted with sound and light. Some small fireworks have been set off. Fog from dry ice drifts over the floor. When you can finally get past that…
… Alaric is just pounding on the timpani drum, holding a cowbell between his teeth. Ducky has somehow acquired three more instruments and is playing everything. His arms move so fast that you literally cannot see his costume. You can barely make out the instruments as Ducky moves between them: a flute… the guitar again… a didgeridoo?
And it sounds amazing.
Well, admittedly, not Alaric’s part. His drumming is wild and the beat changes constantly. But Ducky… builds around it somehow, made the drumming seem like it was like that on purpose. Your cheeks are wet. When you touch them you realize you’ve been crying. The song ends.
“We could really use someone on the xylophone,” Ducky says. “So… are you in?”
[[Yes]]
[[No, I mean Yes|Yes]]
[[Definitely|Yes]]You nod emphatically. How could you say no?! It’s so beautiful. Ducky grins and sweeps you into a bear hug. You’re being crushed, but you hug back as best you can.
You spend the rest of the afternoon jamming out with Alaric and Ducky. It’s fucking awesome. You “eat” several sparklers and burn your tongue. Ducky panics and almost shoves dry ice in your mouth in an effort to help. Eventually, the smoke alarms go off because of all the pyrotechnics you’ve been setting off and everybody has to leave, but no one’s too worried because this happens almost every day. You go home feeling a powerful sense of contentment. That night, Ducky texts you! He had fun, and he wants to hang out with you again, tomorrow. You text back that you’ll decide tomorrow and actually unpack a few of your cardboard boxes before you head to sleep.
{(set: $duckyContact to true)}
[[The stars come out.]] “I see,” he said. He tucks a strand of hair behind his ear. “Well, welcome to LHS. I’m Fil.” He plants his shears in the ground.
You introduce yourself too, and watch his reaction closely, but all he says is “Interesting. Are you here to join the club? The school could always use more free labor to keep its grounds nice.” He’s so deadpan about it. You’re not sure if you should laugh or not.
{(set: $metFil to true)}
[[I'd love to join!]]
[[Tell me about the club first.]]
[[Tell me about the other clubs first.]]“Indeed. Are you here to join? I’m Fil. I’m in charge here.” He plants his shears in the ground and shakes your hand, coating it with dirt. You shake his hand back and introduce yourself, watching his face to see if he recognizes you, but he just says “Interesting. So, you were saying?”
“Huh?”
“About joining,” Fil says patiently.
“Oh. Right.”
{(set: $metFil to true)}
[[I'd love to join!]]
[[Tell me about the club first.]]
[[Tell me about the other clubs first.]] You decide to take a moment and look at some other clubs before you commit yourself to any one thing.
[[Gardening Club]]
[[Death Jam Club]]
[[????? Club]]
[[Fuck this shit, go home.]] Fil’s eyes crinkle upwards when he smiles. “Great. You can start by helping me with watering. Oh, and you’ll want this.” He produces (seemingly from nowhere) a gigantic book on plant care and dumps it into your arms.
You spend the rest of your afernoon following Fil around the gardens. It starts off a little overwhelming but you gain some real respect for your new companions in the process. He seems to know everything about the local flora and fauna. At one point, Fil finds a rabbit eating one of the plants and just picks it up and carries it away. When you follow him, you find that he has a carrot patch. He puts the rabbit down amongst the carrots and then continues about his routine as though nothing happened. He’s kind of like a Disney princess, you realize, but you immediately try really hard not to think about it. It’s time to head home, anyways.
When you get home, you crack open the book he gave you to find a bunch of notes in it in a looping, crusive font. This must be Fil’s personal copy. There is a phone number in the front, which you're pretty sure is his, so you copy it into your phone. You read it for so long that you almost forget to start unpacking.
{(set: $filContact to true)}
[[The stars come out.]] “Sure thing,” Fil says. He walks you through the garden, picking up his shears again. “Mostly the gardening club looks after the grounds, because the school’s too cheap to pay for an actual groundskeeper.” He draws you towards the rear of the school. “The most dangerous thing we do is get rid of wasps’ nests.” He points at one underneath a windowsill. It’s about five feet away. Fil raises his shears, holding them like a baseball bat. “Get ready to run, he says, and his voice is the same calm, measured, deadpan tone it’s been since you met him.
[[UH WHAT]]
[[Just start fucking sprinting.]]“If you want to hear about the other clubs, you should go to them,” Fil says. “I’m not an NPC in a video game. In any case, secondhand experience is treasure to few.”
[[Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[Can you still tell me about this club?|Tell me about the club first.]]Fil pauses what he’s doing. “I said get ready to run,” he repeats. “This is very important.”
And immediately afterwards, he smashes the shears into the wasps’ nest, and takes off. He’s unbelievably fast. He moves at least five feet more than you per six second interval.
You take off too, but you’re just a second late, and a wasp stings you once. Luckily, though, you escape mostly unscathed. You catch up with Fil around the front of the school. He waves at you, sees the sting, and makes a face.
“I told you to get ready to run,” he says. “Don’t worry. I have a good remedy for wasp stings.” He takes you slowly back to the school’s garden. You wander around, seemingly aimlessly, until Fil comes upon a tree with a backpack hanging on it.
“I’d like my bag now,” Fil says. Is he talking to the tree? He holds up his hand. There’s a creaking sound and the branch snaps, delivering the bag safely to Fil’s arms.
“Did you just--”
Fil smiles and cuts you off. “No. It’s fun to pretend, though. I just hung it on a dead branch. It was bound to snap eventually.” He unzips part of the bag and takes out a Ziploc baggie full of a weird green-brown paste. He applies the paste to your sting, and suddenly the pain is much less.
“Thanks,” You say.
“It’s no problem.” Fil puts the baggie away. “Anyways, that’s mostly what the club does, if you wanted to join.”
Fuck, that’s right. In the excitement you lost track of why you are here.
[[I think this club might be not the right fit.|Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[I'd love to join!]]You don’t wait for Fil to smash the nest. You just take off. What kind of introduction to a club is this?
You think that you’re running fast, but Fil is evidently faster. He passes you quickly, and you hear the buzz of wasps on your tail. The threat of being stung fills your veins with adrenaline, and you run a little faster. You luckily aren’t stung by the time you join Fil in the front of the school, gasping for breath.
“How often do you do that?!” You exclaim.
“Only every once in a while. There are more effective ways, of course, but I used to do it all the time in freshman year. It’s good to revisit old habits every once in a while. Especially so that you can see how much better the new habits are.” Fil frowned to himself. “Hm. Don’t do it if you’re an addict, though.”
“I’m not an addict,” you say, though you’re pretty sure he wasn’t talking to you.
“Don’t become one,” Fil replies absently. “Anyways… that’s the most dangerous thing we do, and since you came out of that unharmed, it seems like you’d be a good fit. Would you like to join?”
[[I think this club might be not the right fit.|Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[I'd love to join!]]"Oh, it’s the Crimes Club. We commit crimes. Alaric’s here too when he’s not at Death Jam or doing something else.”
Raymond’s sudden change of attitude gives you a bit of whiplash. What’s Death Jam Club? Why is Crimes Club even a thing? Raymond is staring at you. You have to say something.
[[Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[...WHY?]]
[[I want to join.]]“I just didn’t want the new kid treatment,” you explain. Raymond nods.
“Don’t worry. I actually don’t give a shit.” He cracks a grin. “But you lied to my face and I actually believed you, sooooo… You can join if you want.”
“Join?”
“Right. Sorry. This club.” Raymond moves to the wall and licks the light on. The network of traps becomes obvious, but so does a banner that reads, in homemade lettering,
CRIMES CLUB
[[Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[...WHY?]]
[[I want to join.]]You tell the voice in the dark room that you are a narc.
“You gotta fucking leave, then,” the voice says, seriously. [[You guess you have to leave.|the school day ends.]]You tell whoever is saying this that you are not a narc.(if: $metGambit is true) [Why does he sound so familiar?
The lights flick on, and you realize that it sounds familiar because the voice belongs to Raymond, the guy who gave you the tour earlier.] (elseif: $metGambit is false) ["I'm Raymond," he says, and the lights flick on to reveal a guy with black hair and blue eyes. He's wearing very expensive, though also very rumpled, clothes, and gloves for some reason.] Also revealed by the new light source is a network of traps, covering the floor. You furrow your brow.
“What… is this?”
“It’s Crimes Club,” Raymond says. He seems kinda proud of himself. “My shitheel father told me I had to be president of a club, so now I am. And it’s Crimes Club. We do burglary mostly.” Raymond looks at you expectantly. “So?”
“So what?”
“So, wanna join?”
[[Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[I want to join.]]
[[...WHY?]]“Just don’t snitch on us,” Raymond warns. “Let me show you the ropes.”
You hang out with Raymond for a bit. He tells you he prefers to be called Gambit, especially by Crimes Club Members, and you agree since it’s one of the coolest fucking nicknames you’ve ever heard. You learn how to pick a lock and disarm a trap. By the time you head home, you’ve swapped contact info with Gambit. When you get home, you unpack some of your boxes and even come out of your room once or twice. Crazy. Your parents assume that you are in love.
You’re not so sure, but at least you’ve made a cool friend.
{(set: $gambitContact to true)}
[[The stars come out.]] “Uh. Do we need a reason to commit crimes?”
You can’t really think of a reason to argue that. OH WAIT YES YOU CAN. “Uh, fines? Jail? Hurting somebody?”
“We only hurt people who deserve it. It’s just some light burglary in the richer neighborhoods around town. We even give the stuff away sometimes, too.”
Okay, this is actually starting to sound fun.
[[Each to their own.|Let's look at those other clubs.]]
[[I want to join.]]{(set: $dayOne to false)}
You wake up after a good night's rest. It's time for your second day of school! {(if: $warpContact is true)[Well, technically your first day, because you didn't really go yesterday.]}
[[Go to school]]
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(link: "Load game: " + ("Slot 1") of Saves)[
(load-game: "Slot 1")
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You sit down next to (if: $gambitContact is true)[Gambit](elseif: $gambitContact is false)[Raymond, who tells you as soon as you sit down that he goes by Gambit for the most part. "I didn't tell you at first because-- well, nevermind." You don't ask what Gambit means, because you're too busy falling in love with the name Gambit.]
Gambit introduces you to everybody else at the table. "The guy with the tea and the long hair is Fil. He's head of the gardening club. The damp one is Alaric. He's in Crimes Club with me and Death Jam with Ducky, who is the really tall one with the blue scarf. We also hang out with this dude named Warp, but he dropped out, so we mostly just hang out with him on weekends."
He gestures as he speaks to each member of the crew in turn. You notice he's still wearing those gloves, and when you ask him why, he shrugs.
"Better for not leaving fingerprints," he says."Especially with me being head of Crimes Club and all. I tried to make Alaric wear them, too, but he won't."
(if: $gambitContact is false)[There's a lot to unpack there, but you decide that you should just throw away the whole suitcase.] (elseif: $gambitContact is true)[You nod. "Should I get gloves, then? Since I'm a member of Crimes Club now, I mean."
He looks surprised. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot you joined. Yeah, get some before you come on a heist."]
Silence descends. Should you say something?
[[Ask Gambit how he got his nickname.]]
[[Ask Gambit if he's got a partner in crime ;3c]]
[[Wait for Gambit to talk first.]]You decide to sit down next to Alaric. He pumps his fist in the air, like this is an achievement, and begins to tell you about the other people at the table.
"This is Gambit." Alaric says, clapping the guy sitting next to him on the back. Gambit has black hair, blue eyes, and, currently, a very annoyed look on his face. {(if: $metGambit is true)["We've already met, dude."
"Well, how was I supposed to know?" Alaric says amiably, and goes back to introducing everybody else.]}"This guy is Fil, with the tea set and the hair like a L'Oreal commercial." Fil drinks from his tea cup. He seems dead inside, but then again, so do most seniors. "And this is Ducky." He gestures to a tall guy at the other end of the table, who waves back{(if: $duckyContact is true)[ as though he's already forgotten that you're in the same club together].}
"It's too bad you couldn't swim with me today," Alaric continues. "The water is beautiful."
"It is a school pool," Gambit says. "The water is literally always like that."
"Yeah," Alaric says. "Beautiful. Not as beautiful as the ocean, though." He turns to you. "Oh, maybe you'll go with me! I've been trying to get people to go to the beach with me at sunset."
He doesn't seem to realize that in every other circumstance, this would be interpreted as a romantic gesture.
[[Tell him.]]
[[Change the topic.]]When you sit down, Fil nods politely to you and begins to tell you who everybody else is.
"This is Alaric." He nods to the guy with three scars running down his face. Alaric waves back, flinging several water droplets onto his neighbod accidentally. "This is Ducky." Ducky is the really tall one, but he seems super friendly. "This is Gambit." Gambit is a brooding-looking fellow with jet black hair and blue eyes. "Say hello to everybody."
"Hello," you say, but you are distracted because you just caught sight of what Fil was drinking out of:a china tea cup. It is filled with a dark brown liquid that you can only assume is tea. He even has a saucer for it.
He sees you looking and says, "What?"
"Sorry. I've just never seen a tea set in a cafeteria before," you say honestly(if: $lieGambit is true)[ for once in your life].
"I see." Fil sets his tea cup down. "To be honest, it's mostly for aesthetic purposes. But I also like to play a fun little game where, every time someone at the table does something stupid, I take a sip." His eyes leave your face for a moment, and he picks up his teacup. You look at the others to discover that they have decided to light a lunch tray on fire.
Fil drinks deeply from his teacup.
"Also, it has vodka in it."
You nearly gag on your food. "Really?"
"Yeah. Wouldn't be a drinking game otherwise." Fil looks at you. "Would you like to play?"
[[Yes.]]
[[Change the subject.]](if: $duckyContact is true)["It's our new member!" Ducky says as you sit down. He's just as cheerful as always. "It's good to see you."
Alaric waves at you as well.
"New member, this is Fil and Gambit." He gestures to the others at the table. Fil is a guy with long brown hair that makes him look kind of liek a Tolkein elf. His hands encircle a teacup. Gambit is a guy with black hair, blue eyes, and the general demeanor of someone who would spend his spare time disabling security cameras.
"I'm glad that you're gonna sit with us," Ducky is saying. "All good bands should get to know each other. Well. The small ones."
"Totally," you say. You've never been in a band before and honestly before yesterday you hadn't considered the possibility. When you ask Ducky what kind of music the band plays, he launches into a long, excited speech about styles and genres. You just listen, taking it in.
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]] ]
(elseif: $metDucky is true)[Ducky smiles as you sit down next to him and begins to introduce the rest of the table."This is Alaric--" he points to a smiling, slightly damp guy with three scars down his face. "--Gambit--" pointing to a tall guy with bright blue eyes and jet black hair. "--and Fil." Fil is a guy with long brown hair and a peaceful demeanor to him. His hands circle a teacup.
"Nice to meet you all," you say, and give them your name. Alaric and Fil exchange a strange glance, which fills you with fear, but when they reply, it's with the expected level of politeness.
"You too!" "Yeah, same." "And you."
You get the sense that they're not as interested in you as they are in whatever else is going on in their lives. Ducky, however, begins to badger you about Death Jam Club again.
[[Joining Death Jam seems cool, actually.]]
[[Change the subject|Tell him everything!]] ]
(else:)[You sit next to the biggest guy at the table, because he looks the friendliest. Sure enough, he immediately begins to introduce people to you.
"Hi! I'm Ducky! You're new, right?" You barely have time to nod in affirmation before Ducky begins introducing the rest of the table. "This is Alaric--" he points to a smiling, slightly damp guy with three scars down his face. "--Gambit--" pointing to a tall guy with bright blue eyes and jet black hair. "--and Fil." Fil is a guy with long brown hair and a peaceful demeanor to him. His hands circle a teacup.
"Nice to meet you all," you say, and give them your name. Alaric and Fil exchange a strange glance, which fills you with fear, but when they reply, it's with the expected level of politeness.
"You too!" "Yeah, same." "And you."
You get the sense that they're not as interested in you as they are in whatever else is going on in their lives. Ducky, however, begins to immediately question you about your life story.
[[Tell him everything!]]
[[Dodge any and all questions]] ]"Just kind of chose it," Gambit says, after a moment of thought. "I wanted something that sounded cool but wasn't, like, a common noun."
"It sounds really cool," you say. "Kind of like a superhero name? I'm pretty sure there's a superhero named Gambit somewhere."
"Yeah. If I'm honest I just hate my name." Gambit scratches the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. "So I picked a new one."
"Hey, I kinda did that too," Alaric says.
"Oh, yeah."
"Do you guys all have nicknames, then?" You ask, glancing at Ducky.
"Nope. Just us." Gambit follows your line of sight. "Well, as far as I know."
"Wait, isn't Fil short for something?" Ducky asks, realizing that you're looking at him. He is oblivious, apparently, to how weird his name is.
"It's short for Filarian," Fil says, examining his tea.
"Jeez, that's long."
"Well, not as long as some of my siblings' names..."
The discussion devolves into everybody trying to come up with the weirdest names possible.
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]"I guess Alaric cou--oh. You mean, like. Uh. No? Any reason why you wanted to know?" Gambit turns to look at you and accidentally knocks something off the table. In the same breath, he catches and puts it back. God, you can't not fuck him.
"I mean... besides the obvious?" You say. You become aware of the fact that your blatant flirting is making the other people at the table kind of uncomfortable.
"Yeah."
"No," you reply, and flash him a brilliant smile.
"Oh. Okay cool."
You realize that you did not think much beyond your original question, but you do get the sense that Gambit is not totally opposed to your flirting, so... score? You're pretty sure this is a good sign.
Ducky, who is completely oblivious to everything, says, "Oh, so you're joining Crimes Club? That's pretty cool."
"Uh, yeah," you say. "Definitely."
Conversation continues from there. (if: $gambitContact is false)[You manage to get Gambit's contact information out of him, too, so nice!]
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]You wait for only a bit. Gambit realizes that the silence is getting awkward and clears his throat. "Sorry. Um. Anyways. How'd you move here?"
You take a moment, wondering what kind of lie you should tell, but you decide that you shouldn't go too crazy with this guy. He's pretty smart.
"My dad got a new job in the city." You pick at your lunch. "My mom's a freelance journalist, so she was fine with the move."
You realize that you sound bitter as hell. "Sorry," you add. "Don't mean to. Uh. Be a downer or whatever."
"Nah, it's fine," Gambit says. "My dad made me go here too after. Eh, well. This is boring. You wanna talk about something else?"
"Sounds good." You pause and root through the conversation starters tucked away in the back of your brain. Fuck shit fuck. "Uh..." the dart wheel in your mind lands on the line between sentences. "What's your least superpower?" You flush. "Shit, sorry. I mean, which color would you have if you had one? Godammit."
Gambit laughs. "Jeez, dude, take it easy. I meant shit like what video games you like."
"Oh, yeah, right." You start telling Gambit about your favorite game franchise. Turns out, he likes it too! Ducky joins in too, and your lunch is spent in successful conversation with your newfound friends.
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]After what seems like an eternity, the final bell rings, and you have some free time for the afternoon!
{(if: $gambitContact is true)[[[Hang out with Gambit.|Hang out with Gambit 1]]]}
{(if: $alaricContact is true)[[[Hang out with Alaric.|Hang out with Alaric 1]]]}
{(if:$filContact is true)[[[Hang out with Fil.|Hang out with Fil 1]]]}
{(if: $duckyContact is true)[[[Hang out with Ducky.|Hang out with Ducky 1]]]}
[[Go home and do nothing.]]You accept the spiked tea and sit with Fil, shit-talking and drinking. You are almost entirely smashed by the end of lunch because of the stupid shit Fil's friends get up to, including but not limited to:
-trying to steal the keys to the school from the passing janitor
-armwrestle each other when the table has no room to do so
-trying to steal Fil's flask of vodka
-plotting how to get away with murdering Gambit's dad, who, as far as you can tell, is an asshole.
You seem to have stumbled into a group of real rowdy boys!
It's actually kind of fun, and Fil seems to enjoy your company. {(if: $filContact is false)[He even gives you his contact information, and says you can come and hang out whenever you feel like it.]}
{(set: $filContact to true)}
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]"Uhhh, maybe some other time," you say. {(if: $filContact is true)["So... I've been reading that book you gave me."
"Oh? Really?" Fil looks mildly impressed. "How'd you like it?"
"It's cool," you say. "I really liked the notes you made." This much is true. Half the time you spent reading that book was done staring at his notes. They were always in the same pretty handwriting, and often there were recipes or corrections to inaccuracies. The ink's color was this darkish brown. You found a plant-based ink recipe in the book, which you're pretty sure Fil was using.
You smile at Fil. "Hope that's not too weird."
"No, they were put in there to be useful. I'm glad you like them." Fil notices Alaric and Gambit seeing how many plastic spoons they can nest in Ducky's hair before he realizes what's happening and takes a sip of tea. "By the way, are you coming to the gardening club again? I'd be happy to have you."
"Yes, of course!"]}
{(elseif: $filContact is false)["So, how's Gardening Club going?" Fil takes note of Ducky attempting to eat a bee and sips his tea.
"Very well. You are welcome to join, of course."
You shift in your seat. A whole ass club? You're not sure you're ready for the commitment.
Fil seems to know what you're thinking and adds, "Regardless, let me give you my phone number. That way, if you change your mind you can text me."
You are absolutely certain that this is not standard procedure, which makes you excited about the possibility that this guy might like you.
Conversation shifts, and you find yourself having an entertaining lunch with your new crew. Nice!(set: $filContact to true)]}
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]"What's with you and water, anyways?" You say. Your frenzy to talk about something else has turned into an accidentally kind of awkward question. Oh, well. You guess it doesn't matter too much, because Alaric lights up as soon as you ask.
"I'm a worshipper of the god Poseidon! He's a god of the sea, so I try to be as close to him as I can whenever I can. I owe him my life."
Well. You certainly weren't expecting that. For a minute, you wonder if he...
No. No way.
"Cool," you say. "Um. I didn't realize people still worshipped the Greek gods."
Alaric laughs. "Just the one! I'm pretty sure the other gods are all assholes, anyways. But Poseidon's such a bro. I love him."
You guess that Alaric wants to bone an ancient Greek god. Good for him??? You guess????
You steer the course of conversation away from Poseidon, and Alaric seems almost normal. Almost. He does consistently try to steal things from you, but from the way he acts when you call him out, it's just a getting-to-know-you tactic.{(if: $alaricContact is false)[By the end of lunch, you have his phone number, too, and an invitation to hang out after school. Nice!]
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]Welcome to the Official Alcuin Shenanigans Dating Sim!
[[Click on the light green text to make a choice or go to the next screen.|Intro]]
Have fun!
{(set: $personalProj to 0)}
{(set: $alarichang to 0)}
{(set: $filhang to 0)}
{(set: $duckyhang to 0)}
{(set: $gambithang to 0)
(set: $dayspassed to 0)}
{(set: $metGambit to false)
(set: $wallet to true)
(set: $lieGambit to false)
(set: $Intrigued to false)
(set: $alaricContact to false)
(set: $filContact to false)
(set: $gambitContact to false)
(set: $duckyContact to false)
(set: $warpContact to false)
(set: $metAlaric to false)
(set: $metDucky to false)
(set: $metFil to false)
(set: $day to false)}"Are you asking me out?" You say. "Because... that's literally a date, dude."
Alaric's eyes narrow. He glances at Fil, who shrugs and nods.
"Shit," Alaric says. "I mean, no. Dammit! Is that why none of you ever say yes?"
There is general agreement from the table.
Alaric seems outraged. "So none of you guys would date me?"
Another round of general agreement. Alaric pouts. "Aw, fine. It's clear that I dont' have any friends with taste." He turns to you. "Even so, do you want to go sometime? Platonically, of course, unless I mean... unless you're interested in??? A date???"
He's blushing really hard. The entire table is facepalming.
You consider this for a moment. "Platonic beach hangout? Sounds good." You don't see what the harm could be. Alaric seems almost grateful that you're not actually trying to go out with him (yet). He quickly moves on.
"That reminds me, do you have my contact information?" Alaric asks. The conversation proceeds from there, and overall the lunch is really fun! This table is full of chaotic energy and you find that you actually fit in. Who knew?
{(set: $alaricContact to true)}
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]] You meet Gambit in the Crimes Club designated club room. He and Alaric are hunched over a map. Above their heads, a bulletain board is covered in pictures of a fancy-looking home.
Gambit looks up when you come in. "Awesome! Just who I was waiting for."
"Really?" You say. You must sound pretty incredulous, because Gambit huffs in exsasperation.
"Of course. This heist needs three people to work it. Alaric and I have our parts down, but I wanted to go over the plan with you. Would you mind staying at school for a bit? I can get you a ride home."
You shrug. "Yeah, sure."
Alaric waves to you and then says, "Well, I"m not stayin'. I have important things to do."
"No you don't," Gambit calls after him.
"You can't prove that!" Alaric says, without looking back.
Gambit rolls his eyes. "Anyways. You ready?"
[[Hell yeah]]
[[Depends on what I'm doing.]]Seconds after you text him, Alaric claps a friendly hand on your shoulder. You jump.
"Sorry," he says. "I happened to be over there when I got the text." He grins and points back to the doors that you have learned lead to the school pool. "Figured it'd be dumb to text you if we could just talk." He leans on you casually. It doesn't work very well, because he's about an inch shorter than you.
"Right. Uh. So, you wanted to hang out, right?"
"Oh, hell yeah. Have you ever been to the aquarium here? It's killer."
Does this guy only have one personality trait? There has to be something he's into that's not water-related. "Actually, I went the other day," you lie.
"Huh. Um. Okay. Well, what do you like, then? Maybe I can show you a cool new hangout spot."
[[Fuck with him.]]
[[I like doing crimes.]]
[[I like cute dogs.]]When you text Fil to ask about hanging out, he tells you to come to the school gardens. He's waiting as soon as you round the outside of the school.
"Do you mind waiting here for a sec?" He says. "There's something I need to take care of. I promise it won't take long."
The garden is beautiful. You sure as heck wouldn't mind waiting here. But you did come to hang out with Fil, and you're not terribly good at impulse control. {(set: $pasta to false)}
[[Wait here.]]
[[Ask to go with Fil.]]You text Ducky, and he tells you to meet him in the band room. You're still new to the school, so you end up getting a bit lost before you finally find it. Thankfully, Ducky's still there. He's playing the bagpipes with enough soul to make you tear up a little.
You are not anxious to cry in front of your new friends, so you wave at Ducky to get his attention.
He puts down the bagpipes. "Hey!"
"Hey," you say, ambling over. You wipe some of the tears from your eyes. "What's up, man?" Your voice cracks. God dammit.
"Nothing much!" Ducky is too oblivious to take any notice. "I was just practicing scales. Did you want to join in? It's fun."
You don't know what scales are.
[[Yes, definitely!]]
[[Please, I am but a humble idiot,]]You elect to be lazy for today and go home. You chill out for a little, watch a comedy special on Netflix. But you are inevitably pulled back to your personal project. You make quite a bit of progress, so much that you end up staying up past midnight on accident. Oh, well. You fall asleep and have sweet, sweet dreams.
{(set: $personalProj to it +1)}
[[The day ends, and you go to sleep.]]You awaken groggily but at least with full energy. It is the start to a brand new day!
[[It is time to go to school.]]You launch into a story about your upbringing. You aren't as charismatic as Ducky, but you're still pretty good at telling stories, and by the end most of the table is asking you questions, wanting to know more.
You regale Ducky with tales of your youth, and he seems impressed! He tells you a few stories, too. It turns out that you have both gotten canned tuna dumped on your head by accident. Who could have guessed?
In honor of your strange, specific childhood experiences, Ducky gives you his phone number, and tells you that you can hang out with him after school if you have the time.
{(set: $duckyContact to true)}
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]You evade questions about your life's story. You've just met these people, after all. No way are you going to trust them with the intimate details of your upbringing. Admittedly, "where did you go to school before this" isn't an... intimate detail per se, but you have a very strict policy when it comes to strangers, and that policy is you do not answer their questions.
Instead, you do your best to learn about the others instead, which becomes easy once you start asking Ducky about music. He's a font of knowledge. He even takes out the song he's composing to show you about it.
And the funny thing is, you really can't help but be sucked into it. There's something about Ducky's innocent enthusiasm that's just contagious. You don't know much about music, but you really wish you did. When you say as much, Ducky suggests a couple of apps and a YouTube series that could help, and you immediately start looking into it. While you're on your phone, Ducky says that he should give you his contact information and tells you that you can call him up if you want to keep learning about music.
{(set: $duckyContact to true)}
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]You realize that you're kind of going back on your earlier decision, but something about this Ducky guy just makes you want to do what he says. The instant you express interest, Ducky launches into a spiel about how wonderful the club is and even pulls a keytar (seemingly out of nowhere) to demonstrate his musical skills. Nobody else bats an eye when Ducky starts playing, so you guess this must be a regular ocurrence.
And holy shit, is he good. You're stunned. The melody reminds you of your childhood. Are you crying? You look around the table. Gambit is conveniently turned in the opposite direction, but Alaric and Fil both look sad and confused and...
...and angry. They're both staring at you. Fil looks like he's about to say something. Alaric's hands twitch, like he's trying to reach for something he knows he doesn't have.
Shit. Shit shit shit. You begin to clap, off-rhythm, and smile. "You're really good!" You say to Ducky, which isn't a lie at all. "How'd you get that good at music?"
Ducky stopps playing and blushes a little. "I dunno, just practice I guess."
"You haven't seen anything yet," Alaric says, over whatever that temporary anger thing was. "Ducky's the best at music."
Fil nods his agreement, staring evenly at you. He doesn't seem angry. Just curious. You breath a sigh of relief to yourself and quickly steer the conversation towards music. Ducky seems to know everything about whatever questions you ask, and even tells you that you can join the club anytime! He gives you his contact information, too, so that you can text him about when club meetings are.
{(set: $duckyContact to true)}
[[Lunch ends, and the rest of your school day is uneventful.]]You nod and sit down on the ground to wait for Fil to do whatever he wants to do. You hear from the distance the snap of a tree's limb falling and some cursing. When Fil comes back, he's rubbing his head, and looks annoyed.
"Something happen?" You say.
"I just miscalculated something," he mutters to himself. He looks up at you, brightening. "At least you didn't have to watch a branch hit me on the head."
"Uh?" You're not sure how to address that so you decide to opt for saying, "Are you okay, then?"
"Yes, perfectly fine. Now. Follow me."
[[You let Fil guide you away from the school.]]Fil shrugs. "Sure, if you want. It's nothing special." Despite his nonchalance, you suspect that he's pleased that you wanted to come.
You follow him to a tree that looks sick. His backpack is hung on one of the branches. Fil walks up to the tree and hits it once. Sure enough, the branch snaps, and his backpack falls into his arms. But what he doesn't see is that another branch, higher up, has come loose too. Fil turns towards you just as it begins to fall.
"Look out!"
You tackle him out of the way. This winds up with the simultaneously embarrassing and nice effect of you lying on top of him.
[[He stares up at you, as deadpan as ever.]] "Thank you."
"No problem," you say.
"Please get off of me."
"Yeah." You roll to the side. Fil stands up.
"Hmm. This one's decaying at a faster rate than I originally estimated. I'll have to look into it more." He leans against the ailing tree, lost in thought for a moment. Then he seems to realize that you're still there. "Oh, but you wanted to hang out, right? Come with me. I know a good spot."
[[You let Fil guide you away from the school.]]You walk away from the school, talking as you go. You'd pegged Fil as the quiet type, but he's really good at holding up a conversation. You find yourself fascinated by everything he says, especially when he drops something like "Taxidermists and morticians should get together and make a centaur" on you.
The two of you take backstreets and little alleys that you weren't able to see from the main roads that you normally travel by. You see few people, which seems to be Fil's intent. It also gets you thoroughly lost. You begin to quietly worry to yourself that maybe he's brought you out here to kill you or something. Not that you think he'd want to kill you, but it's kinda suspicious to bring a near-stranger through a convoluted network of isolated alleys to a secondary location.
Shortly after you have this thought, Fil takes a turn and you come out into a street you've never been to before. The most prominent building is an arcade. Its front face is laced with flashing neon and bright-colored posters advertising a game called "SAILOR V."
[[Let's go there!]]
[[Look around for other things to do.]]"Whoa, I've never been there before," you say. You turn to Fil. "We should go!"
Fil looks at the building, looks at you, looks back at the building. This goes on for several minutes. You're unsure of when he'll stop. Finally he shrugs. "Yeah, sure." He looks a little unsure of something. "Wh... I've never been here before, either," he says. He looks like he's slowly calculating a very complex math problem in his head. "Shouldn't I have...?"
"Are you okay?" You ask. Fil rests his elbow on you shoulder and leans into you a little. You wrap your arm around his waist. "Uh... we don't have to go in," you add, desperately. "I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's fine," Fil says. "Maybe it'll clear up once we're inside."
The two of you go into the arcade, which is dimly lit. You bring Fil over to a racing car game and sit him down.
"Does this kind of stuff happen a lot?" You say.
"Only a few times," Fil says, "but this is the strongest it's ever hit me. I think--" he stops. "Hmm. It just went away." He shakes his head. For a moment, almost without his knowing, his hands drift up, as though to check for something on his skull, but they quickly drift aside to help Fil pull himself up from the seat. "Well. We're here now. What do you want to do?"
{(if: $wallet is true)[[[Play some games.|Play some games.]]]}
[[Paying is for suckers. Let's steal!]]
[[Let's people-watch.]]You're not so sure about the arcade, so you look around the street for something else to do. As you follow Fil, you notice he's heading towards a small family-owned shop on the corner. You're curious what kind of stores Fil frequents, so you follow him in.
It's definitely an old establishment, and not entirely single-purpose. There's a counter in one corner where a man is drinking something warm out of a dark blue mug, shelves of books off to the side, and a range of antique items with price tags stuck on them littered about.
"I usually come here after school," Fil says. "The ramen's really good."
{(if: $wallet is false)[Shit, you think to yourself. I don't have any money.
[[Ask Fil to pay for you.]]]}
{(elseif: $wallet is true)[You have just enough money, if the ramen is cheap. [[Go up to the counter.]]]}
{(set: $pasta to true)}You waste a chunk of your allowance without realizing it in the darkened rooms. You're sure that the owners of the arcade appreciate your donations, since you get fuckall in prizes because you suck at all the games.
Fil isn't much better, though. You notice that he avoids touching any metal, which gives him a distinct disadvantage in several of the games.
"These things are definitely rigged," he says as you fail for the fifteenth time to pull a stuffed animal out of the crane game.
"Oh, totally," you say. "I kinda think that's the point."
"What does that mean?"
"I dunno." You insert another token in the machine and start the game up again. "I guess when you win, the game ends. Which means the fun ends too. So if you never win, the fun never ends."
Fil stares at the lights inside the arcade machine. "All things must end."
"Yeah, but if it doesn't they get to drag more money out of you," you say cheerfully. "Capitalism! Y'know?"
Fil laughs. You almost don't expect it. You crack a smile, too, and accidentally hit the drop button in the claw machine.
"Oh, shit!" You turn back to the game. To your surprise, it's picked up one of the bigger stuffed animals that you had originally deemed impossible to get with the tiny claw. You watch in astonishment as the stuffed dragon drops into the slot for you to retrieve. You take it and hold it up. "Yo! Check it out!"
"Wow." Fil arches his eyebrows.
"You should have it," you say. "I mean, technically it was 'cuz of you that I hit the button." You place it in Fil's hands. He holds it up for a second and smiles.
"It reminds me of this pet I used to have." He tucks it under his arm. "Thank you." He seems to realize something. "Hm. You haven't been here very long, have you? How are you finding Alcuin?"
[[It's okay.]]
[[It sucks.]]
[[I'm neutral, honestly.]]Fil pinches the bridge of his nose. //"Why?"//
"No way am I spending money on a scam like this," you say, pointing at the machines around you. "C'mon. It's way more fun to see how blatantly you can cheat and not get caught!"
Fil stares at you. He's one of those few people who can make silence very, very loud. You are at least ninety percent sure he does not want you to do this.
But you smile at him anyways and say, "C'mon, it'll be fun!" You pull him deeper into the arcade.
You aren't exactly profoundly skilled at stealing from arcades, but you give it the old college try. You dig out spare tokens from where they've rolled behind machines, swipe tickets that other people leave behind, and commit other horrendous acts of thievery. Fil prevents you from actively trying to pick people's pockets.
In an attempt to distract you from your illegal activities, Fil asks you, "You moved here quite recently, yes? What do you think so far?"
[[It's okay.]]
[[It sucks.]]
[[I'm neutral, honestly.]]"That sounds pretty fun," Fil says. "At least this way we won't waste a bunch of money. I'm saving up for college, so I probably wouldn't have played anyways."
"Damn," you say. You haven't really given college much thought. "What kind of college do you want to go to?"
"Well, I'm going to community college first, to get the general requirements out of the way. I don't have a career planned out just yet." He lapses into silence for a moment, thinking. "What about you?"
"I haven't really thought about it," you reply truthfully. "I think I'd like a career in..." you try to choose something quickly that seems normal and relevant to your interests. "... Virtual Reality? Like, building worlds for people to go explore. That seems fun. Plus, it's a whole different way of getting into gaming. Most games tend to rely on your perception being limited, like-- like that one over there." You point at a top-down shooter. "You can't see everything fully. But with VR, you really could. Plus, you'd have your peripheral vision, which a lot of first-person games force out because they have to fit on a screen."
"That sounds really interesting," Fil says. "Hm. I've never been into game design, but I admire people who do. Gambit talks about it sometimes, though I think mostly he uses it to disguise the fact that he's talking about robbing someone or setting up traps in that club room of his."
"That's-- that's actually pretty smart," you say.
"Oh, he's fairly cautious. Alaric and Ducky are the real dumbasses."
"Yeah, I guessed that at lunch."
"Entertaining, though."
"Definitely."
"That reminds me," Fil says. "How do you like the new city? You just moved here, right?"
[[It's okay.]]
[[It sucks.]]
[[I'm neutral, honestly.]]"Hey, uh... I lost my wallet. Is it okay if you--?"
Fil looks surprised for a moment, then shrugs. "Sure. You should try to get it back, though. Maybe ask Gambit."
"Huh?" {(if: $assBeat is true)["No, I got mugged."
"I see. I'm sorry about that."
"It's no big deal. But what's this about Gambit?"]}
"He steals things often. He may have taken it. Even if he didn't //originally// steal your wallet, he may have taken it from the person who did." You both go up to the counter. "Are you allergic to anything?"
"No."
"Okay, good." He orders the same thing for both of you. "Oh, but yes. Gambit tries to be sneaky about it, and he's a good pickpocket, but I can pick out whenever he's stolen something. He gets smug."
"Dang, really?"
"Definitely. Plus, I mean, he's the leader of Crimes Club. Of course he has a habit of picking pockets."
You have to concede the point. There's so much you don't know about these people, but the more you find out the more you're interested.
"Do you do that, too?"
"No. Alaric and Gambit are the only thieves. I don't... approve of it, but I can't really stop them either. Well. Maybe if I got them near that hornets' nest..." He squints, thinking. "Hm. Maybe not." He lapses into silence. You spend an anxious minute wondering whether or not you should say something before he shakes his head a little. "Oh, sorry about that. It's a habit."
You are dying to ask what from, but he changes the subject.
"So, how are you finding the new city?"
[[It's okay.]]
[[It sucks.]]
[[I'm neutral, honestly.]]You walk up to the counter. You're not quite sure what to order, so you ask for a menu. You are handed a small printed card. Next to you, Fil orders, then turns to look at your menu.
"I like those three," he says quietly, pointing. "Here are the allergy indicators, if you have any restrictions."
"Oh, I don't have any." You look at the three things that Fil pointed out before ordering one.
"That's lucky. Some of my siblings have allergies. I can't even bring Thoath here. He's allergic to almost everything on the menu."
"How many siblings do you have?"
"Twelve."
You wait to see if he's joking. A minute passes. Fil stares patiently ahead at your meals being prepared.
"Wait, what?"
"Hmmm?"
"Twelve, really?"
"Do you think I'm lying?"
"Wh-- no," you say. "That's just a lot. Damn."
Fil shrugs.
"I mean, it's not a bad thing," you continue. You feel like you're starting to dig your own grave. "I'm an only child, so I can't imagine having twelve other people in the house, too."
"I can't imagine growing up alone," Fil says.
"We should swap bodies and see what it's like," you joke, to lighten the mood.
"Ha! Yeah, I'll just perform the magic ritual that gets that done," Fil replies. Mood: lightened. Fil: happy. Dick: not out because this is a public space. "You just moved here, right?" Fil continues, smoothly changing the subject. "How are you finding things?"
[[It's okay.]]
[[It sucks.]]
[[I'm neutral, honestly.]]"//Jee//sus, that took a long time."
"Yeah. Honestly I was expecting you guys to fail a lot less of those Wisdom saves."
"I know, right?! I mean, I've got a plus eight. That many crit failures in a row shouldn't be allowed."
"You'd think with that many dice you could get more than a sixteen."
"What was the save DC for that, anyways?"
"It was eighteen, actually. I figured with a scion personally trying to ensure that you stayed within the illusion, it would be pretty hard."
"That makes sense."
"Dang, it's-- I can't believe it's already four."
"Fuck, I have something at five. I'm gonna go."
"In that case, I'm going to end the recording."
"Cool."
"That was a fun session!"
"Yea--"
//click.//
[[credits]]You begin to fade out of consciousness. Damn it! So close, so close...
But just like the other Scions before you, you have fallen. You thought that by trapping the adventurers in an illusory world where they couldn't use magic, you would be able to slowly brainwash them into joining your side, or at least contain them long enough to let Orcus loose on the world, but you underestimated them.
You call to Orcus as you bleed out. You beg for a second chance to destroy these idiots.
You don't hear anything.
...Seems about right.
[[You think you hear something, but a very long ways off.]] Thank you for playing!
There's... not much of a credit list because this was all done by one person, but here's my social media:
tumblr: writingpun-art.tumblr.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writingpun/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiIat0wEYav_Uogwl1013Kg?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/writingpun
The only character here that's mine is Alaric. Fil, Ducky, and Gambit were all created by my friends for our D&D campaign! All other characters mentioned were created by our DM. {(if: $pasta is true)[Your meals are set in front of you. You and Fil sit at the counter and continue to talk while you eat.]}
"I don't mind it here," you say. "I mean, you guys seem pretty cool. And... to be honest... I didn't like my hometown much. There wasn't anything to do. Just a shitton of farming."
"Oh? Sounds similar to my last school." Fil leans against {(if: $pasta is true)[the counter](elseif: $pasta is false)[a nearby arcade machine]}. "I went to a very small boarding school in the mountains until this past year. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's relatively new to city life."
"You used to live in the mountains?"
"Well, one mountnain in particular. The school ran out of money two years in, actually, but I asked to stay on an extra year. After that year, though, I had to return here."
Fil's life sounds pretty cool. "I had to move here because my parents both got jobs in the city," you say. "But we move around a lot. A little while back we spent a year in Extermis. That was pretty fun."
"Oh? What was that like? I've never been anywhere but here and the mountain."
[[Conversation continues in this fashion. You actually have a lot of fun.]]{(if: $pasta is true)[Your meals are set in front of you. You and Fil sit at the counter and continue to talk while you eat.]}
There's a sour taste in your mouth. "It's not great. I liked what we had in our last home. I mean, my family moves around a lot, so I guess I should have expected it, but. I don't know. Plus, the city's so noisy and crowded. Even the snow is dirty here." You pause and hunch a little. "Ha. Sorry, you probably don't want to hear somebody trashing your hometown."
"No, that's perfectly fine. I'm no big fan of the city, either, as a matter of fact. I went to a boarding school in the mountains for a long time. I only came back to finish senior year. And yes, the city is... challenging. But it's interesting too." He looks at you and smiles. "Anyways, you'll be out of high school before you know it. Then you'll be able to move wherever you want."
"Yeah." You sigh and think about the possibilities. "I'd probably want to go somewhere with lots of trees so I can watch them turn orange and red in the fall."
"That's a good choice. I think I'd want somewhere with a lot of evergreens. I love looking at them in the winter."
"Oh, I didn't think about that," you say. "I change my mind. That sounds better."
[[Conversation continues in this fashion. You actually have a lot of fun.]] {(if: $pasta is true)[Your meals are set in front of you. You and Fil sit at the counter and continue to talk while you eat.]}
"My family moves around so much that all these new cities blur together," you admit. "I mean, there's almost no point in expending the energy to care about a place anymore."
"I didn't know you moved around."
"Oh, yeah. My parents kind of make me. Their jobs move around a lot."
"What kidn of jobs do they have?"
"Uh." You struggle to describe it. "I guess it's kind of like preaching? It's hard to say."
"It sounds interesting."
"It is, sometimes." You shrug. "I dunno. There's not much to say about it." You decide to change the subject. "So, what do your parents do?"
"Environmental activists, among other things," Fil says. "They like to change things up when they get bored and they've lived a long while. Some of my siblings are like that, too."
"It sounds cool."
[[Conversation continues in this fashion. You actually have a lot of fun.]] fonts-- take from Google fonts, click on plus sign and grab the link,
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use <p> </p> in snowman to make a paragraph, can edit paragraphs around it in css with p"Hmmm. Well, honestly, anything to do with raising the dead," you say. "I'm big into occult stuff."
"Oh shit, really?"
"Yup."
You mean to freak Alaric out, but he gets this really excited look on his face. "I've been resurrected twice!"
What the fuck.
You hold your hands up. "I was kidding, dude. Did you really get resurrected?"
"Yeah! All thanks to Poseidon. He's the best." Alaric looks like he's about to launch into a religious spiel, so you hurriedly change the subject.
[[I like cute dogs.]]
[[I like doing crimes.]]Alaric grins. "Me too. And I got some real good spots for it." He takes your hand and begins walking away from the school. "Well, I mean, some good spots for burglary, anyways. I'm assuming you mean stealing shit. I don't know any good spots for murder. Yet." The way he says //yet// gives you a strange mix of anxiety and hope.
"I meant theft," you say. Regardless of whether you're lying or not, you refuse to pass up the opportunity to hang out with Alaric. You haven't known him very long, but still. Anybody who responds to "I like doing crimes" with "me too" is someone you'd want to hang out with.
The two of you make your way through busy streets to a shop-lined avenue. It's almost quaint. This must be an older part of town.
Alaric leans on you and says, "Hey. Check out those two guys over there."
You look to where he directs your gaze. There are two men standing in front of a barber shop, looking at two different posters about haircuts. The man on the left has dark hair and looks about dad age. He's wearing fancy clothing and something about him makes you very angry for no reason. The man on the right is skeletal in frame and very thin and tall. He doesn't piss you off as much, but you can definitely tell he's insufferable.
"Which one do you wanna pickpocket?" Alaric says.
"I get to choose?"
"Hell yeah, dude."
You look at the two men pensively.
[[The man on the right.]]
[[The man on the left.]]Alaric's eyes grow wide. "Perfect," he says. "Dude, there's a dog park like ten minutes' walk from here! Let's go!"
Before you can do or say anything, he's grabbed your hand and is hauling you away from the school. This guy... you're not sure whether or not he's aware that he's flirting with you literally every other sentence.
You let yourself be pulled to the dog park. It's a pretty cute place: a big green field surrounded by a chain link fence. Within the borders of that fence, dogs of all shapes and sizes run free. You are so enchanted with the dogs that you completely forget that you're supposed to be hanging out with another person. You are petting a labrador retriever. It is heaven.
[[It seems like Alaric's having fun, too.|alaric cg1]]
But then! Something comes charging towards you out of the corner of your eye.
[[dodge with your superior reflexes]]
[[new dog??? turn to pet????]]When you and Fil part, it's almost five p.m. and you barely noticed the time passing. You wave good bye to him and get home using a ride-sharing app. You're glad your parents made you install it.
Speaking of parents, they're both home by the time you get there. A pleasant surprise. You make small talk with them, do your homework, do some unpacking, and go to bed.
{(set: $filhang to it +1)}
{(if: $day is true)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.|school]] ]
(if: $dayspassed is not 0 and $day is false)[ [[The day ends.|Checkpoint]] ]
(elseif: $dayspassed is 0)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.]] ]}"Whatever it is, I'm up to it!" You are lying through your teeth, but that's better than admitting you're some kind of normie who doesn't know how to do crimes good in front of the president of Crimes Club.
"Ha! Awesome, but you're just on lookout duty. Not gonna put everything in the newbie's hands. Oh, and here." He hands you a scrap of paper. "These are the code words we'll be using. Or, I'll be using. Alaric never remembers."
You glance down at the list:
LOOKOUT WARNING CODES
Owners coming home= Three pigeons over there
Police= Four pigs incoming
All Clear= Cloudy day
THIEF CODES
Almost done/distract for just a minute= Check the newspaper date
Leaving now= The dog's gotten in the petunias again
[[Seems easy enough to remember.]]"I don't really have much experience. I'm not going to be, like, cracking a safe or anything, right?" You really don't want to look dumb in front of Gambit, and you're willing to admit you aren't good at everything.
"Don't worry. You're on lookout duty. I just have to tell you where you're going to be and what we'll be doing so you know what to do and when. Oh, and here." He hands you a scrap of paper. "These are the code words we'll be using. Or, I'll be using. Alaric never remembers."
You glance down at the list:
LOOKOUT WARNING CODES
Owners coming home= Three pigeons over there
Police= Four pigs incoming
All Clear= Cloudy day
THIEF CODES
Almost done/distract for just a minute= Check the newspaper date
Leaving now= The dog's gotten in the petunias again
[[Seems easy enough to remember.]]You jump at least three feet into the air and completely abandon your slice of heaven to avoid Alaric, who dives into your spot and begins petting the lab. Oh, and he's laughing at you, too.
"I got you good! Haha, you should have seen your fuckin' face!" Alaric leans against the dog he's petting.
Your blind rage at being supplanted gives you enough power to lift Alaric above your head and throw him out of the dog park. Literally. You huck him over the fence. He rolls to his feet. Christ, what would it take to actually hurt that guy?
Unfortunately, even though you've won the battle, you have lost the war. The lab has abandoned you, trotted back ot its owner in the confusion. Speaking of owners, everybody at the dog park is staring at you because you are basically having a full-out brawl in a public space.
It is probably best if you [[leave.]] You turn, assuming that this is another dog, and clap your hands around the charging thing's face, prepared to scratch the shit out of its ears and also make disgusting cute noises.
However, this new charging thing was not a dog, but Alaric, who by the looks of things was hoping to scare you in some way but is now instead sitting down next to you, looking very surprised. Your hands are twined in his hair.
"Uh," he says. "Hi!"
You immediately release his face. "Sorry! I thought you were a dog."
Alaric rubs his cheeks, blushing. "You're good. I just. Wasn't prepared for that." He gingerly places his hands where yours were a few seconds ago.
You have to change the subject. This is becoming too homoerotic for you.
"How are... the dolphins?" You manage. The question is completely nonsensical but you manage to distract Alaric enough to get conversation rolling again. Alaric loudly proposes that you steal a dog together, which causes the other patrons to glare at the two of you so meanly that you are forced to [[leave.]]You point to the man on the right, and Alaric whistles. "Damn, nice choice. I think that guy's got gold buckles on his shhoes. He's gotta be loaded."
Huh. He is wearing gold buckles on his shoes.
"Okay," Alaric says. "You go over there and distract him. I'll steal all his shit." He pushes you forward a bit. You stumble away from your new partner of crime and into the tall, skeletal man that you were oh so rudely pointing at just a few seconds ago.
"Agh!"
He turns around.
Jeez, he's even more skeletal in person. But this isn't good. You need him to not be facing Alaric.
You take a step to the left. The man turns to face you again. "I'm so sorry," you say, standing up straight. Luckily you're a good at faking innocence. "Are you okay, sir?"
Out of the corner of your eye, you see Alaric sidle towards the stranger, who doesn't notice him.
"I'm fine," he says, in a voice that is slightly nasal and VERY gravelly. He sounds like the bad guy in a kid's cartoon. "Please, watch where you're going."
You take another step to the left. He turns towards you, face pinching in confusion. "Are you sure?" You say. "I thought I heard something snap when I bumped into you. Something from... your back pocket?" You did feel something weird when you bumped into him.
And right on cue, he looks alarmed and takes a broken glass bottle out of his pocket. You cannot see the contents of the bottle, but that doesn't matter because behind the man you can see Alaric pilfering literally every other pocket the man has. He steps away again, gives you a thumbs up, then turns around and begins to stroll away.
"You're going to have to pay for this," the stranger says.
Ah, shit. Consequences. Well, you know how to avoid those! [[You take off sprinting in the opposite direction.]]"That guy," you say, pointing to the man on the left. Alaric smiles and nods.
"You've got good taste," you say. "You know who that is?"
"No."
"That's Falimal Woodlock: Gambit's dad and president of the Asshole Dads club." Alaric rubs his hands together. "Okay. You go distract him, and I'll grab his wallet."
The next thing you know, you are pushed up to Mr. Woodlock. Alaric gives you a thumbs-up and then pretends not to know you.
"Uh." You walk up next to Falimal on the shoulder. He turns around. "Are you Falimal?"
He gives you a weird look. "Yes, as a matter of fact. Who are you?"
"Your, ah, your son sent me," you say, because you're pretty sure Gambit would be petty enough to send a literal physical messenger to his dad.
"Raymond?" Falimal seems amused. "He's still sending me messengers? He has an iPhone. I gave him an iPhone."
Jesus. You don't have time to unpack all of that. "W-well," you start, "He just wanted you to know... that..." Uh oh. Out of lie material. "He's going to steal your heart." You've started to reference pop culture. Nothing good can come of this. "He's going to take your distorted desires and make you confess to your crimes." Alaric is behind Falimal, rooting through his pockets.
Falimal actually looks scared and takes a step back, forcing Alaric to also take a step back. "My-- my crimes? Ha! What kind of evi-- I mean, I have committed no crimes. You tell him that. None!" He lays a hand on your shoulder. Behind him, Alaric finishes his pickpocketing and walks away, casual-like. Falimal looks like he's gearing up to say more.
[[You take off sprinting in the opposite direction.]]The two of you walk away from the dog park and accidentally end up back at the school. There's nobody around, as it's several hours after school lets out, and the clubs have all gone home for the day.
Alaric walks confidently up to the chain link gate that's been pulled up around the school and climbs over it. When you don't follow him, he looks at you expectantly. "Aren't you coming?"
[[I gotta head home.]]
[[Of course!]]You shrug. "I should probably head home so my parents don't ask me too many questions. If I'm out when they get back, they'll think I'm getting used to this place or something." You make a face.
"You don't like it here?"
You stare at Alaric through the chain link fence. "I mean. I guess it's fine. But they'd be so smug about it, y'know?"
"Ohhh," Alaric nods knowingly. "Understandable. I'd do almost anything if it meant not proving my parents right." The way he says it, you can tell there's some weight to those words. You're intrigued, but you don't want to push it. You've known this guy for what, two days? Less?
So you wave and turn and walk away. Alaric texts you almost as soon as you get home, asking if you made it back before your parents. This evolves into a conversation that lasts almost the entire evening. Your dad makes a joke about kids and their cell phones, but you pay him little mind.
{(set: $alarichang to 1)}
{(if: $day is true)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.|school]] ]
(if: $dayspassed is not 0 and $day is false)[ [[The day ends.|Checkpoint]] ]
(elseif: $dayspassed is 0)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.]] ]}You climb over the fence, looking around for any authority figures who might be in the mood to bust you. Luckily, there are none.
Alaric seems to know what he's doing. He empties his pockets, which are full of stuff he's pickpocketed, takes off his shirt, and jumps in. You are starting to think that he lives here.
"Wanna come in?"
You think about it for a minute before shaking your head. "I think my parents would freak."
"Rest in peace." Alaric props himself up on the edge of the pool with his arms and stares up at you. "You should just run away, dude."
You laugh before you realize he's serious. "Oh, c'mon. I can't run away. That'd be, like, I don't know. Bad?"
"That's all a matter of perspective," Alaric says.
"No, it's not."
"Eh, kinda is. Trust me. People will tell you all sorts of shit's bad, and nine times outta ten they're wrong." Alaric punctuates the sentence with an eye roll and a smirk, like it's an inside joke, but there's something really painful hidden in the sentiment. The idea makes you feel... odd. Not sad? Not happy either, though. You're not quite sure you like it, so you change the subject.
{(set: $alarichang to 1)}
(if: $dayspassed is not 0)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.|school]] ]
(elseif: $dayspassed is 0)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.]] ]You run into a system off alleys and take random turns until your pursuer is no longer within eyesight. You take a turn and bump into Alaric.
"How'd you get here?!"
Alaric shrugged. "I know a guy."
That is not at all weird. You truy to pry more information out of him, but Alaric refuses to give any up, so you let yourself fall back into conversation. You walk for a while and accidentally end up back at the school. There's nobody around, as it's several hours after school lets out, and the clubs have all gone home for the day.
Alaric walks confidently up to the chain link gate that's been pulled up around the school and climbs over it. When you don't follow him, he looks at you expectantly. "Aren't you coming?"
[[Of course!]]
[[I gotta head home.]]You nod. "Got it."
"Cool." Gambit grabs the paper. "I'mma take this back so I can staple it to Alaric's face. You ready to hear the battle plan?"
[[Yup, give me the crimes.]]
[[I'd rather discuss another kind of plan ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]]You decide that you are done with this shit and you go home. Why not? Your parents aren't there anymore. You spend the whole afternoon and most of the evening working on your personal project. You get really into it. Damn, why did you bother going to school at all? This is fun.
{(set: $personalProj to it +1)}
[[The stars come out.]]"Okay," Gambit says. He picks up one of those extendable pointer thingies from a nearby desk and stretches it out, pointing at different parts of the home as he explains. "We're going to enter //here// from the back door at exactly three p.m. when people are least likely to be home and make our way through the mud room, kitchen, dining room, and breakfast nook. We'll take what we want but these rooms should be pretty quick. We're skipping the living room and the second dining room because there wouldn't be enough time. The real goal is //here.//" The pointed thwapped against he map. "The master bedroom, and the safe therein. I'm going to set a small explosive outside of it and blow it up. From there we're goint to run back the way we came and exit through the same back door, then run through the hedges out back into the neighbor's yard, where Alaric and I already have a place to stash the jewels. This is where you come in."
"What do you mean?"
"So, you're going to be playing lookout. Anybody comes around, you're the one who says so. We need a distraction, you're doing it. Cops show up, you tell us as soon as they pull in."
Gambit hits the palm of his other hand with the pointer. "You gotta make sure we don't get caught. Later, I'll go back and get the stuff we stole. Me and my fence will handle things from there. You got all that?"
[[yes.]]"What's that supposed to mean?" Gambit turns away from you absently, staring at a map of the house on the wall.
"Oh, I dunno," you say. "Maybe getting dinner or something? A movie? I figure I should get some alone time with the leader of the club I'm joining."
Gambit turns to look at you. "That... sounds like a date. Are you asking me on a date?" [[view cg|gambit cg 1]]
You smile at him. "If you want."
"Hmmmmmmaybe if this heist goes well." He turns back to the blueprints, flustered.
Nice.
"But I should really explain you you what's going to be happening."
[[Yup, give me the crimes.]] "Are you sure?"
You nod your head.
"Okay." Gambit collapses the pointer and sets it back down. "Now we can just chill."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, of course I'll be helping you polish up your thief skills, 'cuz..." He holds up your wallet. "This is just sad."
He throws your wallet back to you. You catch it and hold it to your chest for a moment before fumbling to get it back into your pocket. "When did you take that?"
"Doesn't matter," he says. "Try to keep me from doing it again."
"Okay."
[[watch gambit carefully]]
[[watch your wallet carefully]]
[[don't bother watching anything]]You lock eyes with Gambit. Damn, he's really cute. You try to not let it distract you from the task at hand.
Gambit smirks at you. "Nice try," he says. "But you should've seen the light switch next to the desk."
Too late, you realize what Gambit is about to do. He flips the switch, plunging you into darkness. You sit rigidly still, unsure of whether you should try to turn the light on or not. You slap your hand over the pocket where your wallet is.
After a few tense seconds, the light flicks back on. Gambit is sitting on the large club president's desk next to it. He is holding your wallet.
"WH--" You take the wallet out of your pocket. It's empty. "How'd you--"
Gambit, for the second time, tosses your wallet back to you. "Do you really wanna know?"
"Yes!"
"I never gave you bak your real wallet. This one was in my pocket the whole time."
No way. You look at the two wallets you're holding. Yeah, now that you think about it... the wallet did feel suspiciously light the first time.
"First lesson of thievery," Gambit says. "Make your mark think they were stolen from at a different time from the actual theft."
Holy shit. You gaze down at your wallet.
"So... are you gonna make me try to steal your wallet now? Do some thief training?"
Gambit laughs. "I guess, if you want."
[[you opt for some pleasant conversation instead.]]You clutch your wallet in your fist and glare at Gambit. Try to take it without me feeling it now, you think.
Gambit smirks at you. "Nice try," he says. "But I've got a few tricks to remedy that."
Too late, you realize what Gambit is about to do. He flips the light switch on the wall next to him, plunging you into darkness. You sit rigidly still, unsure of whether you should try to turn the light on or not. You slap your hand over the pocket where your wallet is.
After a few tense seconds, the light flicks back on. Gambit is sitting on the large club president's desk next to it. He is holding your wallet.
"WH--" You take the wallet out of your pocket. It's empty. "How'd you--"
Gambit, for the second time, tosses your wallet back to you. "Do you really wanna know?"
"Yes!"
"I never gave you bak your real wallet. This one was in my pocket the whole time."
No way. You look at the two wallets you're holding. Yeah, now that you think about it... the wallet did feel suspiciously light the first time.
"First lesson of thievery," Gambit says. "Make your mark think they were stolen from at a different time from the actual theft."
Holy shit. You gaze down at your wallet.
"So... are you gonna make me try to steal your wallet now? Do some thief training?"
Gambit laughs. "I guess, if you want."
[[you opt for some pleasant conversation instead.]]You cross your arms, sit back, and relax. "Go ahead," you say.
Gambit narrows his eyes.
"Steal the fake back from me," you continue. "But I mean, if it's all the same to you, I'd like my actual wallet back. Not a fake."
"How'd you know?"
"Felt too light," you say. "I carry around like two pounds of coins at all times."
Gambit nods and takes another wallet identical to yours from his pocket, then tosses it to you. Yup, that's the real one. "Nice spotting," he says. "You've got the makings of a great thief."
"Thanks." You smile to yourself. "So... are you gonna make me try to steal your wallet now? Do some thief training?"
Gambit laughs. "I guess, if you want."
[[you opt for some pleasant conversation instead.]]You sit back. "Eh. Maybe some other time." You look around the room, at the traps which litter the floor, walls and ceiling. "Did you set all this up?"
"Yeah. I know how to disable all of them too." Gambit points up at a bear trap in the corner of the room. "I started with that one and moved outwards."
"Where'd you get all this stuff?"
Gambit smirks at you and you realize how stupid the question is. "Stole it, of course. It was one of my first heists."
"Have you ever been caught?"
"Oh, yeah. But not for this one, 'cause I set fire to some stuff. It was also right after the owners got insurance, too, so it was ruled insurance fraud."
"Damn." You begin to consider blackmailing this guy. He literally just confessed to a crime, after all...
"By the way, if you blackmail me." A knife appears in Gambit's hands. "Well, you'd better not."
You are rooted to the spot by a strange mix of fear and attraction. "Okay," you manage.
Gambit's sunnier demeanor is immediately back. "Cool." The knife disappeared. "Hey, I've got some time to kill before my dad leaves my house on another date. You wanna go get something to eat?"
[[I'll pay]]
[[only if you pay]]You find Gambit at the Crimes Club meeting room, and from there, the two of you walk to the house you're planning to burglarize.
"Shouldn't Alaric be here?" You ask, as you walk with Gambit through a busy street.
Gambit shakes his head. "Nah. Honestly, I normally do this on my own. Fewer people is less suspicious. But you're lookout, and new, so I figured you should accompany me just this once. If you stick around long enough, you might be doing this on your own someday."
[[Seems exciting!]]
[[Seems scary...]]When you text Fil, he takes so long to reply that you're about to leave for home before your phone pings. He wants you to meet him in the back of the gardens.
You wander around for a bit, uncertain of what you're looking for, until you spot Fil standing with his back to you, staring out at the chain link fence that marks the boundary between the school and the neighboring establishment, which is some kind of light, airy building with a little ring of green around it. The garden looks pathetic next to Fil's blooming masterpiece, but you guess it's nice enough.
Fil turns around just as you open your mouth to announce your presence. "Oh, good. I'm sorry for the long response." He's talking to you, but you can tell his gaze is being pulled back towards the fence.
"What are you looking at?" You ask, moving forward to stand next to him.
"Oh. Nothing, I guess, I just--" Fil cuts himself off. "I was looking at the grass over there, and, well. Can you see it?"
You stare intensely at the grass, unsure of what you're supposed to be seeing. You decide to take a guess anyways.
[[It's too uniform.]]
[[It's not the right color.]]
[[It's not the right height.]]You don't bother texting Alaric to meet up this time. You just head to the school pool, where he is sitting at the bottom. You drop your bag near the door and wait. He comes up after a few seconds, his curly hair plastered over his eyes like a sheepdog's. You have no idea how he sees you through that mess, but he smiles and addresses you by name.
"Ready to hang out again?" He leans against the edge of the pool next to your feet and smooths his hair back so he can look up at you. "Where do you wanna go?"
You shrug. You didn't really consider that.
Alaric's smile widens. "You should hang out here, then!"
When you hesitate, he lunges forward and grabs your pant leg, pulling you forward into the water.
[[scramble backwards.]]
[[tumble into the pool.]]You meet up with Ducky at the Death Jam Club, like normal. He seems a bit nervous, though, and when you ask him what's wrong, he jumps, like he didn't expect you to be there.
"Ah, I'm sorry. We can't meet up today, I." Ducky looks around frantically. "I have a gig! And I forgot about it and I don't have a set list or anything..."
He looks frantic. You should do something to help!
[[Let me pack up for you!]]
[[I can make the set list!]]You decide to do your duty as a citizen and go to school {(if: $warpContact is true)[for once]}. Your morning classes go pretty well, until you get to lunch, because you are the New Kid who Doesn't Have a Table. Yesterday, you were busy, but now? You'll have to find a place.
You walk uncertainly up to one of the first tables you see with your tray of food(?).
{(if: $metGambit is true and $gambitContact is false)[You recognize Raymond from the other day. You know him! Sort of. He seems to dimly recognize you, too, so that's pretty cool. You [[could probably sit with him.|Gambit]] ]
(elseif: $metGambit is true and $gambitContact is true)[You see Gambit! He catches your gaze and smiles a little, raising a gloved hand to wave hello, then jerking his head towards the empty space at his left, [[indicating you should sit there.|Gambit]] ]
(else:)[Sitting here is a black-haired young man wearing expensive but carelessly put together clothes in dark colors. He is wearing gloves, too, which strikes you as odd, but he is absorbed in conversation and is thus unable to object ot you sitting near him.]}
{(if: $filContact is true)[Fil is at this table. His long brown hair is down, making him look like a high fantasy adventurer. Well, if not for the T-shirt that reads PARK CLEANUP & 5K FUN RUN, at least. He is drinking tea out of an actual cup and saucer, which you think is beautiful, and glances up at you, nodding to indicate that[[you should sit with him.|Fil]] ]
(elseif: $metFil is true)[Fil looks up from his tea to give you a tiny nod which recognizes that yes, you are someone he knows, and yes, you do exist. You are intrigued by his skill at silent communication and consider [[sitting next to him.|Fil]] ]
(else:)[ There is also a guy who looks older than any of the others at the table. Maybe he's a senior. He has long brown hair, which falls down the middle of his back, and two wooden earrings on each ear. He is currently drinking tea out of a real honest-to-god china teacup, pouring out of a thermos. He is unperturbed by your presence and would probably continue to be so if you sat down here.]}
{(if: $metAlaric is true)[You recognize Alaric from yesterday. He waves at you and grins. It seems like [[he wants you to sit here.|Alaric]] ]
(elseif: $metAlaric is false)[There is a guy wearing an infectious grin and dripping wet clothes sitting next to the others. He has brown skin, bright green eyes, and three distinctive scars running down his face. When you arrive, he looks up at you and smiles a little, then turns back to his conversation. He doesn't seem opposed to your presence, at least.]}
{(if: $metDucky is true)[Ducky smiles at you from his spot a couple seats away from Gambit. There is an empty space next to him that you're [[pretty sure you could occupy.|Ducky]] ]
(elseif: $metDucky is false)[There is a very tall, heavyset guy sitting next to the table's only empty space. He is very pale with dark brown freckles and disheveled hair, but he notices you first and smiles at you. [[He's probably a good option if you don't know anybody else.|Ducky]] ]}"I'll pay," you say, because you are suspicious about how friendly Gambit's being. Gambit shakes his head.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I have plenty of money."
The adjective 'stolen' in front of 'money' is not said aloud, but it is heavily implied. Yeah, this guy's a thief, through and through.
"I thought you'd tell me to dine and dash," you reply, sort of kidding.
"Nah. Not worth it." Gambit stands and heads out the door. "Follow me!"
[[He leads you to a local fast food restaurant down the street.]]"Only if you pay," you say. "Make up for my stolen wallet."
"Hey, I returned your wallet," Gambit protests. "But I was gonna pay anyways. I have a lotta money."
"From your dad?"
"From his retirement fund. When he wasn't looking. Bastard wouldn't //give// me any of his precious money if I was dying."
"He sounds like an asshole."
"He is." Gambit stands up to leave. "C'mon. Let's talk about something else."
"Yeah, sounds like a plan."
[[He leads you to a local fast food restaurant down the street.]]Inside, the place is relatively clean. There's a poster on the wall advertising free Wi-Fi. The guy behind the counter waves to Gambit.
"Hey, Gregory!"
"Hey, Sam." Gambit shows no signs of discomfort at the wrong name. You watch him closely.
"New beau?"
"Wh- no, dude, just a new club member."
"Alright. Lemme know when you wanna order!"
You find a table and dump your stuff there. Before Gambit heads up to the front, you catch his arm. Or, you mean to catch his arm. You accidentally end up holding hands.
"Ah," you say, and let go. This is embarrassing. "Uh. Why did that guy call you-"
"Oh. It's just a name I give out sometimes if I don't feel like being... I dunno." Gambit spreads his arms. "A Woodlock."
This man has daddy issues. "Okay," you say aloud. "Uh, I guess, let me in on the next time so I don't give you away."
"Sure."
You get some food together and the conversation drifts to other topics, mostly school. Eventually, you part ways.
{(set: $gambithang to it +1)}
{(if: $day is true)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.|school]] ]
(if: $dayspassed is not 0 and $day is false)[ [[The day ends.|Checkpoint]] ]
(elseif: $dayspassed is 0)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.]] ]}{(set: $day to true)}
You go to school and begin your day, navigating carefully through your classes. Various members of what is now your lunch table seek you out to make sure you're doing fine. In your first period, Ducky talks your ear off about a bug he found dead on the ground on his way home. Turns out he knows a lot about the local fauna, though he credits Fil, who you run into in the hallway later and who insists that it's the other way around, and Ducky taught him about the local bugs. Alaric you run into accidentally, near lunchtime. He is soaking wet, as usual, and he presses something into your hands before running away. On his heels is Gambit, who doesn't pause to talk to you. Maybe he should have, because when you look down at the object, it is undeniably Gambit's wallet.
Finally, it's lunch time.
[[Talk to Gambit.]]
[[Talk to Ducky.]]
[[Talk to Fil.]]
[[Talk to Alaric.]]"Sweet. You can use one of the spare guitars," Ducky says, pointing to a group of carefully-arranged instruments. There are at least three guitars.
You pick up one, hold it awkwardly against your body. Ducky has already gone back to playing, though it's much less complex than the piece he was working on when you came in.
"That guitar's a good one," Ducky says as you walk over. "Alaric stole it for me when he accidentally destroyed the last one. I swear, he and Gambit are like cats. They just bring you stuff sometimes."
[[Strum the guitar???]]You turn red and stutter out something about not knowing much about music. Ducky smiles. "Oh, that's okay. I can show you." He beckons you over. You walk towards him and sit down. [[Ducky stands behind you, leaning over your shoulder and moving your hand to the fingerings that you need.]]
"...and this one's another D, so that's where the D scale stops. And from there you can play all kinds of scales. It's pretty easy to get the hang of, actually."
Ducky leans away from you, then sits back down at his bagpipes.
"Go ahead, start," he says. "Just like I showed you. I'll play along!"
[[Play a scale.]]You strum a few of the guitar's strings, like you've seen done in movies. Ducky plays along, grinning. You start to smile too.
You're not sure what the fuck you're doing, but it's kind of fun. You lean into it, creating a little melody that (to you, at least) sounds pretty good. Ducky starts playing around what you made.
You're making music with someone.
When you finish, a little out of breath for reasons you couldn't possibly explain, Ducky gives you a little round of applause and says, "Ha, I thought you were going to play scales, but that was really fun too!"
Ah, you think to yourself. Shit. You genuinely thought that's what scales were. You make a mental note to look it up when you get home.
"Do you want to try another instrument?"
[[The xylophone.]]
[[The bongoes.]]
[[I'll stick with the guitar.]]You play a scale, slowly, hesitantly. You've never played an instrument in your life and this is... weird. But Ducky plays with you, same pace, an encouraging grin on his face. It makes you feel more at home. You play the same scale again, faster this time, more confidently, and Ducky matches you.
"Now try a G scale," Ducky says, and switches over at the same time you do. As you play, his instrument's voice wanders away from the scale and creates a melody which wraps around you like a warm blanket. This is really nice, you have to admit. After a few minutes, Ducky fades away a bit and stops playing, so you do too.
"That was cool," you say.
"Yeah. Playing scales is always really relaxing for me," Ducky says. "After a while, you get really good at it, and you can just kind of do it without thinking."
You notice that he taps his fingers when he's talking, like he can still feel a beat even when he's not playing. It's kind of cute.
"Do you want to try another instrument?"
[[The xylophone.]]
[[The bongoes.]]
[[I'll stick with the guitar.]]You walk over to the xylophone, pick up the mallets, and stand with them above your head like you're going to kill a man.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" Ducky rushes over to prevent you murdering the insrument. "You have to be gentle."
You lower the mallets, slowly, and lightly tap one of the bars. A low note fills the air, soft and sweet. You hit slightly harder, and the sound gets louder.
Your dumbass monkey brain is extremely tempted to keep hitting it harder and harder, see how loud you can get, but the look on Ducky's face reins you in a bit.
"Let's play," you say, smiling. Ducky relaxes and nods.
"I think I'm going to change instruments real quick," he adds, and puts the bagpipes away before taking out a vuvuzuela. "Start playing whenever you want."
You hesitate, but begin to strike random notes on the xylophone. Ducky pauses for a moment, thinking, then takes a breath and joins you. And it's... well, cosmic. The room around you seems to empty, expand, as though the music is a big bang in its own right, spawning an infinite universe of meaning which you can only barely comprehend as you strike notes on the xylophone.
[[You play for a bit.]] You put the guitar back and pick up the bongoes.
"Those are Alaric's, actually," Ducky says helpfully. "I dunno if you'd want to take them from him. He's really defensive of the bongoes."
"Oh." Damn. You were really hoping to play the bongoes. Oh, well.
[[I'll stick with the guitar.]]
[[The xylophone.]] "That's fair," Ducky says. "I think I'll switch to guitar, actually." He gets up and fetches nother one: an electric guitar that's icy blue with bits of white designed to look like scales.
"Damn," you say.
"I know, it's pretty cool-looking," Ducky says. "It kind of reminds me of mermaids."
This is not at all what you were thinking, but you nod, grateful that Ducky didn't get the implication.
"Okay. Let's just play for a bit," Ducky says. "You think we should go with pyrotechnics, or dry ice?"
"Pyrotechnics," you say, a little too quickly. "I like fire."
"So does Alaric. Why he worships a sea god is beyond me." Ducky puts the strap of the guitar around his head and leans down to pick up what you thought was just a stray wire but turns out to be a fuse, like the kind that goes to a bunch of sitcks of dynamite in an old cartoon. He moves it out of the way of the actual wires and then takes a match out of his pocket, strikes it against a wall, and drops the tiny flame onto the string.
"Start! Start!" Ducky runs back as you start playing and plugs in the electric guitar.
Your melody is okay, but Ducky absolutely //shreds// and turns what is basically a simple three or four note thing into a face-melting solo. The force of the music carries you forward. It is a tidal wave, and you are on a surfboard made of guitar being carried forward at a hundred miles an hour towards an innocent city, soon to be destroyed.
It's awesome.
[[You play for a bit.]]It's pretty fun. Ducky teaches you what different scales and key signatures mean, but before you can get all the way through the minor scales, Ducky glances at a clock on the wall and says, "Oh, crap. My parents are gonna be home soon."
"Mine, too." You wonder what kind of parents Ducky has. "Do you wanna walk together?"
"Sure!" Ducky picks up his backpack, grinning. "I actually was gonna ask if you wanted to walk with me for a bit. Do you live near here?"
"Not really, but I used to go on a lot of long walks," you say. "My parents are kind of used to me wandering around." You place your instrument gingerly back where you got it and pick up your own backpack.
"Whoa. Where did you used to live, anyways?"
"Out in the country." The two of you leave the club room and head down the hallway towards the exit. "Tiny town. You wouldn't know about it. Near this big-ass forest that was protected by the state, so I usually just went in there and dicked around after school."
"Didn't your parents get worried?"
"Not as long as I texted 'em every so often." You shrug as Ducky leads you away from the school. "Speaking of which..." You pull out your phone and text your parents. They'd already called you a couple of times, probably concerned because you're in a bigger city now. Eh. You don't care much if they get worried. You put your phone back in your pocket and turn to Ducky. "Sorry."
"No worries." Ducky looks up to the sky, thinking. "So, what's it like?"
"What's what like?"
"Moving."
"Have you never moved?"
"Well, when I was little, but I don't remember it much."
You think.
[[It's really fun.]]
[[It's boring, honestly.]]
[[I fucking hated it.]](if: $gambithang is 1)[Gambit grins as you sit down next to him. "Hey, recruit."
You give a mocking salute in return. "Hey, President."
"You still got those thief codes memorized?"
You nod.
"Good, because we're gonna scope out the place whenever you're next available, so do some practicing."
"Cool," you say.]
(elseif: $gambithang is 0 and $gambitContact is true)["Oh, hey," Gambit says. "You're still in Crimes Club, right?"
You nod.
"Okay, good. Make sure to stop by sometime soon. I wanna drill you on some stuff because Alaric and I are planning on pulling a heist, and we need a third person for lookout. I don't trust Alaric to do it on his own. Or break into the house on his own. He's a good thief, I mean," Gambit adds hastily as Alaric across the table opens his mouth, angry. "He just needs supervision."
"Makes sense," you say. ]
(else:)[Gambit nods at you as you sit down. You haven't talked with him much, but hey, you figure it's a good idea to get to know everybody at the table.]
Something occurs to Gambit. He looks away, then looks back at you.
"Did you... always look like that?"
[[Like what]]
[[Yes???]]
[[I'm wearing different clothes from yesterday.]](if: $duckyhang is 1)[Ducky perks up when you come to sit down next to him.
"Hey!"
"Hi," you reply, smiling."Thanks for hanging out with me yesterday, by the way."
"Oh, no problem! It was really fun to have a new face in the Death Jam club."]
(elseif: $duckyhang is 0 and $duckyContact is true)[Ducky smiles at you and politely scooches over a little so you'll have more room to sit down next to him."Hey, how's it going?" He asks.
"Pretty good."
"Do you wanna come to Death Jam Club today?"
You consider this for a minute. "Uh. Isn't it only on certain days of the week?"
Ducky looks slightly embarrassed. "Well, yeah, but that's just because those are the only days Alaric is able to join me. I can really just hold club meetings whenever I want."
That does sound pretty good, you're not going to lie. ]
(else:)[You decide to sit next to Ducky, who gives you a polite nod and a smile. "Hi," he says, then turns back to what he's got spread out in front of him instead of lunch. Some kind of gaming device, looks like. He's playing as a pink octopus holding paintbrushes in all of its tentacles.
You recognize that game! It's really popular.]
You open your mouth to say something, but before you can, something comes at you at a speed to great for you to dodge. All you see is a flash of bright red, and then something pale, as Ducky's arm casually shoots out to block the incoming comical boxing glove, which probably would have hit you in the face otherwise. The leftover force from the glove abruptly manifests on the other end of the accordian spring Gambit was testing, and his trap snaps back into his chest.
"FUCK!"
Gambit bends over coughing. Duck releases the glove and shakes his hand a little, placid as ever.
When Gambit's recovered, he says, "Sorry. I didn't think it'd set off that easy."
"It's okay," Ducky says. "Sorry I made it go back and hit you."
You are in a kind of stunned silence for a moment, but break it to say, "Uh, yeah, dude. It's fine." Your gaze turns to Ducky, who after a second turns back to you and smiles confusedly.
[[How are you that strong???]]
[[You're good with your hands huh ;) ]](if: $filhang is 1)[Fil nods at you as you walk over and sit down next to him.
"How are you?"
"I'm fine," you say, sitting down. "Did you get home alright?"
Fil nods and smiles a little, which you're pretty sure is what Fil does to flirt. "What about you?"
"Yeah." Suddenly, you remember something you've been meaning to ask.]
(elseif: $filhang is 0 and $filcontact is true)[Fil notices you walking towards him and moves his books slightly so that you can sit down.]
(else:)[You sit next to Fil. He appears surprised at your life choices, but not particularly bothered, so you decide to strike up a conversation.]
"You're in charge of the gardening club, right? Does the club get, like, a budget or anything for all the seeds and stuff?"
Fil gazes at you kind of suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"
"I mean, I don't want any of the money!" You exclaim, quickly realizing what he's assuming. "I just wanted to know where you got your seeds, is all. 'Cuz I saw all the plants, and I was just wondering, y'know, if you buy them yourself."
"Why not just ask me that, then?"
"Uhhhhh." You rub the back of your head. "I don't know?"
Fil shakes his head and takes a sip from his teacup to signal to you that you've done Something Dumb, then says: "I got the seeds from a local grocer, but I'm planning on rearing the plants so that my successor can harvest their seeds to create an actually sustainable garden."
[[ok but where'd u get non monsanto seeds???]]
[[ok but do they sell weed, i wanna grow my own weed]](if: $alarichang is 1)[Alaric grins enthusiastically as you sit next to him. He is, once again, sopping wet, and he seems to have been waiting for you.
"Hey," you say, grinning.
Alaric smiles back. "What's up?"
"Alaric. Can you //please// stop mooning over him and talk strategy with me?" Gambit asks, before you can reply.
Alaric turns beet red. "I'm not mooning over him! Can't I be excited about a new friend!"
Gambit sighs and turns to you. You are also, coincidentally, beet red.
This is fine.
Alaric glares at Gambit until he throws up his hands and turns back to his food. Alaric gazes frantically at the spaces around you and repeats his earlier question. "Uh. So. Um. What's up?"]
(elseif: $alarichang is 0 and $alaricContact is true)[Alaric is somewhat engrossed in conversation with Gambit, but breaks away to greet you when you sit down. You notice that he is somewhat damp.
"Hey," he says. "What's up?"]
(else:)[Alaric waves at you in a somewhat friendly fashion when you sit next to him and returns to his conversation with Gambit about the heist they're going to be pulling off. You guess he's been swimming, because he's pretty damp. After a few moments, his conversation with Gambit dies down and he turns to talk to you.
"Hey, I haven't talked to you much. New kid, right? What's up?"]
[[Not much.]]
[[Doing bad.]]
[[Doing good.]]"I like going new places," you say. "I mean, I told you about how I used to wander around a lot back h-- I mean, back where I used to live. I really just did it because I wanted to discover new things. When I was a little kid I wanted to know everything in the world."
"Whoah." Ducky pauses. "I think I'd just settle for knowing how to stop death."
"Really?" You're half-sure he's joking, but Ducky looks at you gravely.
"I'm really scared of dying."
You're pretty sure everybody is, but Ducky appears to have an above average concern. That... gives you an idea.
"I bet we can figure something out."
"You think so?"
"Oh, definitely. I mean, science is improving all the time." You smile to yourself. "And I'm planning on going into that field, myself."
"Stopping death?"
"Yeah." Ducky looks at you oddly. "Medicine," you clarify. "I want to be a doctor."
"Ah. What kind of doctor?"
Your explanation fascinates Ducky, and you talk medicine for a while until [[you go your separate ways.|After a while, you and Ducky go your separate ways.]]"It's just a lot of packing and unpacking things. And lists. Jeez. My mom must've made a thousand different lists of all the stuff we had to pack or buy or give away or whatever." You shrug. "I dunno. It's got its good and bad points. Like everything else."
"Yeah, that's probably true." Ducky looks at the buildings you're passing. "I'm glad you moved here, though."
You jump a little. You weren't expecting that. Your gaze shifts over to Ducky, who glances back at you and smiles reassuringly.
Ah, fuck, you think. He's cute. You look down at your feet.
"Thanks," you mumble. "I guess I'm glad, too. At least there are some cool people around here."
"I'd like to think so."
You walk along in companionable silence for a bit before you ask about one of the buildings nearby. Ducky ends up giving you a partial tour of the city, though most of it comprised of listings of how much money he'd earned playing on various street corners, building steps, and once, on top of a bush lit on fire.
[[After a while, you and Ducky go your separate ways.]]"I don't think most of my boxes are even unpacked." You kick a pebble further down the road. "It was really bad for the first few weeks, too. My parents, they expected me to go out and explore, but I dunno. I just wanted to hide. I wanted my forest back." You don't know why you're spilling your guts to this guy. You're pretty sure this is the most honest you've been in weeks.
"Oh. That's understandable."
"I mean!" Ducky's voice has undertones of sadness to it and you feel instinctively that you should try to remedy that. "It's gotten better the past couple of days."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." You run your hand through your hair. "Honestly, you guys all seem really cool. And playing music with you has been pretty therapeutic, to be honest."
"I've always thought of it that way." Ducky smiles down at you. "And, um, we think you're pretty cool too."
Uh oh. This guy's really cute.
You look down at the road and mumble your thanks, then change the subject.
[[After a while, you and Ducky go your separate ways.]]{(set: $duckyhang to 1)}
You head home, mulling over your conversation with Ducky. He seems like a really good guy, and he's so trusting. It makes you want to trust him, too.
That evening, you go to your room, unpack a few boxes, and talk with your parents a bit. They're glad you're finally seeming ot adjust to life in the city.
{(if: $day is true)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.|school]] ]
(if: $dayspassed is not 0 and $day is false)[ [[The day ends.|Checkpoint]] ]
(elseif: $dayspassed is 0)[ [[The day ends, and you go to sleep.]] ]}Gambit shakes his head. "I don't. I don't know. Something about your face..." He runs his hands through his hair. The others at the table look worried. And then Gambit straightens. "Maybe you got a haircut?"
"Oh, no. I just didn't gel it today," you say, relieved, and opt to change the subject. "So, uh, you're from around here, right? Are there any good places to hang out?"
Gambit still seems a bit confused but he says, "Uh, I dunno. There's a street full of high-end shops a couple blocks away that's good for pickpocketing."
{(if: $alarichang is 0)["Oh, really?"]
(elseif: $alarichang is not 0)["Oh, yeah. I've been there."]}
"Uh huh." Gambit's still distracted, but at least his confusion is waning. "Honestly, if you wanna find a cool place to hang out, you should ask Fil."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I dunno how but he knows all the best places to eat and stuff." Gambit leans in a little bit. "He took us to this antique store once and when I went back the next day, it was fucking gone."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. It was cool as hell."
Conversation continues for a while. {(if: $gambitContact is false)[You even manage to get his number! Score! (set:$gambitContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]] "Are you okay?" You continue, slightly concerned. You lay a hand on Gambit's forehead instinctively to check for a fever.
He feels fine, and the moment you remove your hand he blinks and looks away, flushed but no longer confused. "Sorry. I'm fine."
You turn and notice Alaric looking at you oddly. You raise your hands as if in surrender.
And Alaric cracks a grin. "Dude, I'm not gonna kill you. Calm down."
You lower your hands and say, "I was just-- worried, is all."
"Don't worry about it," Gambit says. "I have no idea what that was."
"Maybe you're gonna be possesed," Ducky jokes. "Like, by a scary ghost or something."
"I doubt it. No undead bullshit's gonna come my way," Gambit announces.
You can't techcnially prove him wrong, but you speculate what kind of ghost might possess him anyways. Gambit ardently denies any involvement with the paranormal, which causes the whole table to join in.
Conversation continues for a while. {(if: $gambitContact is false)[You even manage to get Gambit's number! Score! (set:$gambitContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]"That's not it," Gambit says. He tilts his head to the side, then turns to Alaric. "Hey--"
At that point, there is a loud, blaring horn sound over the loudspeakers connected to the PA system. Everybody covers their ears, wincing.
"What the hell?" Gambit says, turning his suspicion on the world at large. After a moment, an announcement comes on:
"We would like to apologize for the interruption, as someone has broken into the office to--" (another blaring sound) "--ANTON YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW--" You recognize the sound over the speakers after the second time. It's an airhorn.
"Oh, shit," Gambit says, and cracks a grin. "Anton did it!"
"Did what?"
Gambit turns back to you. "Okay, so Anton sells me bombs sometimes, and he was always going on about how one day, he was gonna play an airhorn over the loudspeakers. And, I mean." Gambit spreads his hands. "We just heard it."
"That's sick." You are suddenly filled with respect for this agent of chaos.
You and Gambit talk for a bit more. {(if: $gambitContact is false)[You even manage to get his number! Score! (set:$gambitContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]{(set: $dayspassed to it + 1)}
School is boring and you kind of hate going, but soon enough it's early afternoon, that magical time when you have free reign for a few hours to do whatever you want.
And what //do// you want?
{(if: $gambithang is 0 and $gambitContact is true)[[[hang out with Gambit|Hang out with Gambit 1]]]
(elseif: $gambithang is 1)[[[hang out with Gambit|Hang out with Gambit 2]]]}
{(if: $alarichang is 0 and $alaricContact is true)[[[hang out with Alaric|Hang out with Alaric 1]]]
(elseif: $alarichang is 1)[[[hang out with Alaric|Hang out with Alaric 2]]]}
{(if: $filhang is 0 and $filContact is true)[[[hang out with Fil|Hang out with Fil 1]]]
(elseif: $filhang is 1)[[[hang out with Fil|Hang out with Fil 2]]]}
{(if: $duckyhang is 0 and $duckyContact is true)[[[hang out with Ducky|Hang out with Ducky 1]]]
(elseif: $duckyhang is 1)[[[hang out with Ducky|Hang out with Ducky 2]]]}
[[Go home and fuck about alone.]]Fil seems impressed that you are referencing a known dilemma in the agrarian community: the trouble of Monsanto, a giant monopoly that genetically engineers their seeds to produce sterile offspring so that all farmers are dependent on them. Or maybe you didn't know jack shit about monsanto and you just happened to say the right syllables. Either way, Fil is happy.
"The shop's been open since the forties, selling extra seeds off their own crop. They recently switched to only selling seeds, to directly contest Monsanto."
You raise your eyebrows. "Dang. Uh. Could you give me directions there? I kinda want to buy some seeds." Hopefully this will score you more time with Fil, because you don't really have any intention of starting a garden.
"Maybe I could go with you," Fil says, and you congratulate yourself for being such a master at getting people to do what you want.
"That sounds like a good idea!" You say, smiling.
And that sets something off. Fil looks worried, then almost angry. He seems hesitant to express it, but it's definitely there.
"What's wrong?" You ask.
He shakes his head. "There's something wrong." He looks around, looks up. "Where--?"
Your hand trembles. Across the table, Fil's friends have begun to notice him.
But just then, the fire alarm goes off, distracting everybody. You all get up and shuffle out of the school with a herd of other students. You wait around in the sun for about an hour before you're all herded inside. It seems somoeone pulled the alarm as a prank. How weird! {(if: $filContact is false)[You do manage to get Fil's number, though. (set: $filContact to true)]}
[[Lunch is over, so you head to class.|After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]Fil stares at you. You've heard of a thousand-yard stare, and this is its cousin, the thousand-garden stare, aka Fil's I'm Done With Your Bullshit Face #7, aka the neutral face of displeasure. You have the feeling that you've aged him at least three hundred years just by asking that question.
"They do not sell weed."
The silence Fil generates with that answer is so intense that you actually black out, and when you wake up you have minor amnesia and do not remember the conversation, so you strike up a new conversation with Fil.
{(if: $filContact is false)[You even manage to score his phone number, which is nice. (set: $filContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]] {(set: $personalProj to it + 1)}
You go home and decide to take a relaxing bubble bath, then work on your personal project for a bit. Who needs friends? You have warm water, silence, and some of your parents' wine that you definitely aren't supposed to be drinking. You stay up late working, before collapsing on your bed.
[[When you wake, it's morning once more.|school]]You sense that this very standard answer disappoints Alaric somewhat. Hey, what does he expect from you? The truth? Nobody actually wants to hear anything when they ask each other how they're doing.
"What's up with you?" You continue, pretending not to notice.
"Oh, just, y'know. The normal." Alaric is aggressively cheerful about his answer, so much that you are one hundred percent sure that he is lying, too. You stare at each other for a moment, equally annoyed.
After a moment, you kind of awkwardly look aside for a moment and cough. "So, uh, are you doing anything later tonight?"
"No," Alaric says, drowning out Gambit, who at the same time says "he's helping me with the heist."
Alaric grins weakly. You can practically see the wheels turning in Gambit's head for a moment. He squints, and then the corners of his mouth quirk up, and then he turns his gaze on you. You feel like you are under a spotlight.
"I see," he says. "Yeah, Alaric's free. He's super free. And he's really cool, too, in case you wanted to--"
"Shut the fuck up!" Alaric places his hand on Gambit's face and pushes, forcing Gambit out of your line of vision. "Anyways. Yeah, I'm free. Why do you wanna know? Thinking of hanging out?"
"Yeah."
{(if: $alaricContact is false)["You should probably have my phone number, then."
"Right!" You say, somewhat nervous. "Cool."(set: $alaricContact to true)]}
"Cool."
Silence descends. It is a bit awkward. Luckily, Gambit jumps in again, starting up a conversation. Alaric looks increasingly embarrassed as Gambit hypes him up. It's kind of sweet, honestly.
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]Alaric raises his eyebrows, his expression open and curious. You shrug. You're not going to expand on the subject. That small kernel of truth was enough for now.
"That's understandable. Anybody I can punch about it?"
You crack a smile. "Nah, I don't think so. Unless you wanna punch my parents for moving me here."
"I punch parents all the time!" Alaric perks right up. "I've punched at least two different dads."
You hold up your hands in the universal gesture for //hold up.// "Wait, dude, I was kidding. They're not really that bad."
"Ah, they all say that," Alaric replies knowingly. "Well, when you realize that they need punching, just let me know."
"Will do?" You're absolutely sure you will never want to punch your parents, but hey, it's useful to have Alaric willing to punch people for you. The guy's so fucking dumb, you could probably point him at everybody saying they're your parent and he'd take them the fuck down. The thought of Alaric punching some poor innocent motherfucker just because you told him to cheers you up considerably, and you smile and continue on with your conversation.
You can tell that Alaric senses your mood shifted for the better, and relaxes just a little. {(if: $alaricContact is false)[You talk for a bit longer, and before you part ways Alaric gives you his phone number. (set: $alaricContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]Alaric smiles at you. His expression is so sunny it's kind of blinding.
"Good to hear!" He says. He doesn't give you time to ask about how he's doing before he moves on to a new subject. "Have you ever heard about the goblin shark?"
"Uh." This is not the direction you were expecting this conversation to go. "I think so."
"It's this shark at the bottom of the ocean and it looks nasty as hell. Anyways, Fil thinks I wouldn't be able to catch one but I think I could and I wanted to ask what you thought."
You don't know much about goblin sharks. But you do have an okay idea about Alaric and you're pretty sure that he would absolutely die trying to wrestle one of those motherfuckers. You have been presented with a choice. You could say no, and possibly lose cred with him. Or you could say yes, and possibly convince him that he should try to catch a goblin shark, which would definitely end in his demise.
But before you can answer one way or the other, something odd happens. Alaric lays a hand on your shoulder, and his face is friendly, but the grip is too sharp. It hurts.
"You wouldn't lie to me, would ya?" He asks. You have a feeling it's not related to the goblin shark thing.
"Of course not," you say, after a tense moment. You glance over at the others at the table. They don't seem to have noticed anything odd. You smile at Alaric.
"Right." His grip relaxes. You sigh in relief.
{(if: $alaricContact is false)[You talk for a bit longer, and before you part ways Alaric gives you his phone number. (set: $alaricContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]Ducky seems to realize what you're talking about and smiles vacantly at you, tilting his head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"You stopped that thing, I mean. You've gotta be super strong."
Ducky shrugs. "I dunno. I'm not as strong as Alaric."
"Huh?" You look over at Alaric. He's like half Ducky's size. How in the hell...?
"Yeah, I think I just got lucky with that one," Ducky is saying, glancing over at where Gambit is readjusting his trap. "I'm glad I did, though. I'd rather that you weren't punched in the face." He smiles at you.
You can't help but agree, and are swept along as Ducky moves on to other topics.
{(if: $duckyContact is false)[By the end of the conversation, you have Ducky's phone number and an invitation to hang out with him after school. Nice!]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]"Oh, I guess," Ducky says absently. "I mean, I play a lot of instruments so I kind of have to be."
Oh, no. He's too dumb to understand you were flirting! Unfortunately, the rest of the table is not quite that dumb. Fil, Gambit, and Alaric exchange a Look, and then all glance at you. But mercifully, nobody speaks up.
You decide to continue along the instruments route.
"How many instruments do you play?" You ask, and realize posthumously that you have place too much emphasis on instruments and it has come out as flirty again. Ducky still doesn't notice it.
"I dunno. I think it's around ten at this point, but I don't really keep count. I kind of just pick stuff up. I mean, if you wanted a count, then..." Ducky trails off and begins to count on his fingers, murmering under his breath. "Guitar... Flute... Clarinet... War Horn..."
You wait patiently until he finally holds up his fingers (and some of his toes) and proudly declares, "Fourteen!"
"Holy shit." You know fuck all about instruments really, but you're pretty sure that even in musician circles that's considered impressive.
"I kinda had to pick up a lot more to make Death Jam Club work, 'cause Alaric can't play too much and I wanted to get a full sound profile." Ducky launches into a rambling speech about the intricacies of music that leaves you enraptured until the end of lunch.
{(if: $duckyContact is false)[Before you leave, you make sure to get Ducky's phone number, so you can talk more later. (set: $duckyContact to true)]}
[[After a while, Lunch ends, and you head to class. ]]{(set: $day to false)}
{(if: $personalProj is 5)[You wake up full of excitement. You should be going to school... but this is no time for attending to such piddly affairs.
It's finally time. You're ready. Your personal project, which you have spent as much time as you've dared working on, is complete.
[[You begin the ritual.]] ]
(else:)[You wake up and get ready for school, having fallen into a steady routine. For better or worse, you are kind of getting used to this place.
[[School progresses as normal.]]
]}The magic circles you've drawn on the ground light up and begin to glow. A smile splits your face. Yes. YES! This is what you've been waiting for!
When you first constructed this stupid, flimsy illusion world, it was far from complete. In order to trap the heroes you were ordered to get out of the way, you sacrificed that perfection to just make something that would //contain// the motherfuckers. Once they were in the world, you would sort out what to do with them.
Originally, you planned on attempting to brainwash the heroes to your side; the side of the eternal god Orcus. But you decided... what if, instead, you just made the illusory world trap them forever?
Not knowing who they were, not knowing that they //should// be escaping, the heroes would be out of the way, and Orcus would be satisfied.
[[The only downside...]]...is that you'll have to stay here, too, and operate the illusion forever. Until all of your mortals give out, and your consciousnesses are forever tortured in this plane of mundanity.
But, for the God Orcus? You'll do anything. You're his best Scion, after all. And even though he has not responded to your prayers, you know that he's proud of you.
[[credits]]As Alaric reaches forward to pull you into the water, you step back. Alaric's hand slaps against the tile outside the pool. He rests his chin on the ledge around the pool, giving you puppy eyes.
"Don't you want to come in?"
You shake your head. "I have too much stuff that I wouldn't want to get wet." You think of the wallet and phone that still lie, innocent and unassuming, in your pockets. You shudder to imagine what would have happened if you'd let him pull you in.
"Ah, shit," Alric says. You follow his gaze and realize that in escaping, you scratched up your hand, and it's bleeding now. "Hang on, I got stuff for that." Before you can protest that it's fine, he pulls himself out of the pool and retrieves a length of gauze from his backpack, which is hidden under a bench. Along with, curiously, a sleeping bag, some towels, and a phone charger. He comes back over and wraps the gauze around your hand.
"Okay," he says, circling around to stand behind you. Uh, don't move. I dunno how this works but it totally does, okay?"
You are confused, but follow his directions. After a second, you feel Alaric's fingers brush the back of your neck, then a sharp jab in the same area. You squawk and pitch forward, but when your turn to Alaric to demand what the fuck is up with him, you realize that your pain is gone.
You cautiously remove the gauze from your hand. The wound is already scabbing over.
You have several questions.
[[How'd you do that???]]
[[Why do you have a sleeping bag?]]
[[You just carry gauze around?]]Alaric pulls you into the water, laughing, and wraps his arms around you. You move away from him so that you can paddle on your own, glad that you had the foresight to take your phone and wallet out of your pockets. Hey, it's Alaric. You figured you'd end up soaked in one fashion or another.
"Glad you could join me," he says.
You have to admit, he's pretty, especially lit from the pool lights like that. The eye contact is getting too intense. You're gonna start blushing if this keeps up. Alaric already is. You have to do something!
[[view cg|cg alaric]]"It is kind of exciting," Gambit says. "I mean. I guess." He scratches the back of his head. "I just like the puzzle-solving aspect of it."
"What do you mean?"
Gambit gestures to a building you're passing. "Well, for example, that building. If I was gonna rob it, I'd have to figure out where the security systems are, how to disable or pass them, figure out what's the best stuff to get, and so on. It's fun in a way other things aren't, especially because I get to piss off my dad in the meantime." A grin spreads across Gambit's face. "He gets so angry about it, but he's too much of a coward to actually punish me for it."
[[What did your dad... actually do?]]Gambit shrugs. "It's not for everybody. I just like knowing that I'm disappointing my dad.Hope that motherfucker chokes himself with all the pearls he's been clutching." He kicks a loose rock on the sidewalk, sending it clattering into the path of the oncoming traffic.
Well, that's not the motivation for your average thief, but it certainly is one. You're not sure how to go about this, especially because you haven't hung out with Gambit this much, but you really gotta know. You gather your resolve and ask:
[[What did your dad... actually do?]] {(if: $dayspassed is 1)[The halls are chaotic today, and you have kind of a hard time navigating them until Ducky offers to help! He's so big that people have to part for him, and he even carries your books to your first shared class. You ask if there's anything you can do for him, but he just shrugs. You decide that you'll have to make it up to him at some point.]
(if: $dayspassed is 2)[There is some kind of bomb threat... thing? You're not entirely clear on the details, and honestly, you don't care, because it means that you get an extra thirty minutes outside of class to fuck around with all of your new friends. In the end, it turns out that Gambit was actually the source of the bomb threat, although nobody finds out except your little group. He wanted to bring shame to his father the principal, which, from what you hear about his father, is completely deserved.]
(if: $dayspassed is 3)[It is raining heavily by the time you get to school, and you find Alaric standing outside, drenched and grinning. He says that he prayed to Poseidon for this outcome. Well, you're glad he's happy, at least. You hurry inside, because you're afraid of all your shit getting soaked. Alaric follows you for reasons unknown, but you end up walking to class together and having a conversation about how we're all going to die from global warming. Alaric seems pretty happy about the whole thing, though you suspect it's just because the oceans are going to get bigger.]
(if: $dayspassed is 4)[You accidentally bump into Fil in the hallway on your way to class, scattering his books. You curse and apologize, but he is pretty chill about the whole thing. He seems distracted about something. When you ask, he doesn't give you an answer, but instead hands you a pressed plant. You look it up later, and it turns out to be a chysanthemum, a flower often associated with death. You don't quite know what to make of it, but it sure is pretty.]
(if: $dayspassed is 5)[During the class you have together, Ducky surreptitiously loans you one half of his Nintendo Snitch so that you can play a game together. You are almost caught, but luckily, some idiot (Alaric) accidentally launches a ball-peen hammer against the window so hard that the teacher forgets what she was doing and goes outside to reprehend him. This gives you even more time to play video games. Nice!]
(if: $dayspassed is 6)[Both Alaric and Gambit pull you aside at the start of the day to explain that they are going to pull the fire alarm, and ask if you want in. You decide that you should probably go to class, but promise to join them when they do the fire alarm pulling to see how it turned out. But you hear nothing, so you assume they must've gotten caught or called it off or something. ]
(if: $dayspassed is 7)[You talk Fil into skipping your first classes together to have some tea in the school garden. Fil threatens to turn you in several times but doesn't actually do anything, eventally just enjoying a cup of tea with you before returning to his classes. You were kind of hoping that he would skip all day with you and be a little more of a delinquent, but oh well. With nothing else to do, you follow his example and attend the rest of your morning classes.]
(if: $dayspassed > 7)[Nothing of note happens. The world feels strange, strangled, like it's waiting for something to happen. The disquieting aura leaves you unsure of yourself as you enter the front doors of the school.]}
Your classes are so boring that by the time you get around to lunch, you more than welcome the chaos that four fifths of your new friend group brings. Today, you've decided to...
[[Talk with Ducky.]]
[[Talk with Alaric.]]
[[Talk with Fil.]]
[[Talk with Gambit.]]"Exactly!" Fil says. You're glad you guessed right, but at the same time, you have no idea what the fuck he's talking about. "The whole thing is just this one square repeated over and over again. It's like a texture in a video game. It's, it's not normal. Not natural."
"Maybe it's AstroTurf," you shrug. "It's not that big of a deal."
"It's not AstroTurf, though," Fil says, frustrated. "Even that would have some kind of variation to it. This is something else."
You look over at the grass one more time, growing concerned. "Dude, I don't know what you're talking about. Are you okay?"
You place a hand on Fil's shoulder, but he shrugs you off.
"I could have sworn..." He stares harder at the grass for a moment, then straightens up. "I guess you're right. I guess it just bothers me that someone would cheap out like that. Just hire a gardener," he says, directing his voice at the mysterious owners of the next building over. "It's shameful."
Then he turns back to you, as if nothing happened. "So. Hanging out, yes?"
[[I have an idea for where we can go, too!]]
[[Yeah! Got anything in mind?]]Fil shakes his head. "No. Well, that's part of it. Look a little closer. It's the same colors, repeated."
"Isn't that most grass?" You ask, still confused.
Fil rolls his eyes. "Sort of, but not like this. This grass looks like... one section repeated over and over, down to the shadows, down to the height. Like it's a texture in a video game."
You stare at the grass, then look back over at Fil. "I don't see that at all." You pause. "Are you okay, Fil?" You reach out and place a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm fine," Fil says, expression pained. He removes your hand.
"It's probably just AstroTurf," you suggest.
"Yeah, probably." Fil leans against the fence. "I thought... well, you're probably right." He directs his voice at the nearby building. "Hire a gardener, idiots." Then he turns back to you, as if nothing happened. "So. Hanging out, yes?"
[[I have an idea for where we can go, too!]]
[[Yeah! Got anything in mind?]]You say it with some confidence, but Fil shakes his head. "No. Look harder. It's all... the same."
You squint. "I think they do that with a mower."
Fil makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. "I know how to make grass the same height. It's not that. The whole field is just... one looping texture, over and over, like in a video game. Real grass doesn't look like that."
You stare at Fil, confused. "I can't see that at all." You're not sure what you should do, so you put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm... fine," Fil says, but his expression is suddenly pained. He removes your hand.
"It's probably just AstroTurf," you suggest.
"Yeah, probably." Fil leans against the fence. "I thought... well, you're probably right." He directs his voice at the nearby building. "Hire a gardener, idiots." Then he turns back to you, as if nothing happened. "So. Hanging out, yes?"
[[I have an idea for where we can go, too!]]
[[Yeah! Got anything in mind?]]{(if: $dayspassed is 1)[You thank Ducky for helping you through the halls earlier.
"Oh! It's no problem," he says. "I just thought you might appreciate it."
Is there anyone sweeter than this six foot three inches boy? No!!! Would you ignore contrary evidence if it ever came up? Yes!!!!
You spend the rest of the lunch period in fruitful conversation.]
(if: $dayspassed is 2)[There was technically no lunch because of the bomb threat thing, but while you're supposed to be having lunch, you decide to talk to Ducky. You have a great conversation about worms. Fil even gets in on the action, mostly so he doesn't have to listen to Alaric and Gamit talking about committing crimes.]
(if: $dayspassed is 3)[You're still soaked from the rainstorm earlier, but Ducky's not nearly as wet. When you ask him why, he shrugs and says water seems to roll off him more quickly than everybody else. Weird. You have a cool conversation about water physics, about which you both know little. It's pretty fun. You love making up sciencey things.]
(if: $dayspassed is 4)[It rains again during lunch, so you decide as a group to eat in the Death Jam Club music room. After he's done eating, Ducky decides to put on a concert for everybody else. You ask to join in, because why not? And you spend a wonderful lunch period playing with Ducky.]
(if: $dayspassed is 5)[You decide to talk to Ducky at lunch, and end up playing the Nintendo Snitch again. You become so absorbed in the game that you don't actually talk much, but you still get to spend some quality time together.]
(if: $dayspassed is 6)[Ducky welcomes your conversation today at lunch. He doesn't say if anything is wrong at first, but he's acting kind of out of sorts, so you get him to spill. He feels like he's lost something, but he doesn't know what. You promise to help him search for it. You try for a little bit, but nothing comes up. Ducky forgets about the feeling quickly, and normal conversation returns.]
(if: $dayspassed is 7)[When you arrive at the table, Ducky is already gearing up to talk to you. He says that he was walking next to an antique shop and one of the things there reminded him of you for some reason!
You don't normally get gifts, so you're pleasantly surprised, but you're even more surprised when DUcky hands you a white porcelain mask, designed for a doll. It's familiar to you.
You laugh it off and say thank you, but when you tuck it away, you're a little worried, so you change the subject. Thankfully, the rest of the conversation doesn't touch on the mask.]
(if: $dayspassed > 7)[You try to talk to Ducky at lunch, but something is odd. The conversation is stunted, awkward. Ducky is normally a fucking delight to be around, but today he's distracted and weird. He keeps fidgeting with a harmonica. It's not unusual for Ducky to have an instrument, but you've never seen this one before.
Eventually, you get a conversation started, and the day brightens a little.]}
{(if: $duckyContact is false)[ You also finally get Ducky's phone number, which is a plus. (set: $duckyContact to true)]}
[[By the time lunch ends, your morale has greatly increased.]]{(if: $dayspassed is 1)[You decide to sit next to Alaric at lunch today. As soon as you sit down, he asks you whether or not you think it should be legal to steal.
"But only, like, if they're really rich," he clarifies. "Or if you really really want the stuff."
You smile slyly. "Isn't it only illegal if you get caught, though?"
On your other side, Gambit busts out laughing. Alaric nods, like you just handed out the sagest wisdom and not some amoral bullshit.
Fil is not satisfied with this advice, and you spend the rest of lunch supporting Alaric through a series of extremely dumb arguments for thievery.]
(if: $dayspassed is 2)[You technically don't get to go to lunch, because of the bomb threat thing, but while you're all standing outside you decide to talk to Alaric. When you roll up, he's staring straight upwards at the sky. You tilt your head back, trying to figure out what he's looking at, but you see nothing. When you ask him what he's doing, it takes him a second to respond. He says that he's watching the clouds, trying to see if he can tell when they get bigger. "I read a book where a girl watches a storm get born," he adds, as if that's any kind of a satisfactory explanation. You decide to join him, because why the fuck not, and you gaze at the sky together.]
(if: $dayspassed is 3)[You talk with Alaric at lunch. He is still soaking wet, though likely not from the rainstorm. He greets you with a smile and picks right back up where you left off with the global warming talk again. Apparently he'd been thinking about this conversation through all of his morning classes. It's kinda... sweet. He's so excited to talk to you that you're almost late for class, you get so absorbed in conversation with him.]
(if: $dayspassed is 4)[It rains again during lunch, so your little group leaves the area and camps out in the Death Jam club room. When he finishes eating, Ducky decides to give everybody a concert, and Alaric insists on joining. Ducky, of course, is amazing, but you're actually surprised by Alaric. He seems to be trying extra hard today... possibly to impress you, judging by how he keeps looking at you while he plays. ]
(if: $dayspassed is 5)[You sit next to Alaric and thank him for throwing the hammer that let you play more video games. He salutes you and says he's glad to be of service. It turns out that he threw the hammer purposefully, to try and get the teacher distracted. Huh. What a strangely nice motive for throwing a ball-peen hammer through a window. When you ask Alaric where he got it, he changes the subject. You wonder what it means, but the new topic is interesting enough that you forget.]
(if: $dayspassed is 6)[At lunch, you ask Alaric why the fire alarm didn't go off, since he and Gambit were going to pull it. Alaric sighs.
"So, apparently Gambit's explosives dealer was using the fire alarms to make pipe bombs. Total bummer." Across the table, Fil narrows his eyes and writes something down that looks suspiciously like 'get fire alarms repaired again.']
(if: $dayspassed is 7)[Alaric's excited to see you today. He says he's found something awesome that he's been waiting to show you. You're unsure of what to expect, but you definitely weren't expecting a wanted poster.
It has Alaric on it, posing for the camera. The reward is two hundred dollars.
"Holy shit," you say.
"I know," Alaric replies, blushing a little, like this is some great honor. "They used such a good picture too. Don't worry, this is from the next state over, so the police here ain't after me. Yet."
That gets a laugh out of you. Alaric gives you the wanted poster as a memento, and you talk about other things until it's time to go to class.]
(if: $dayspassed > 7)[Alaric smiles at lunch. He's always smiling, to the point of it being annoying, but this is different. Something about him is vacant and strange. Whenever he speaks you hear the rumble of thunder just on the edges of your ears, and you don't know why. There is something more than green in his eyes. You look away and smile, too, hoping you can play happy too.]}
{(if: $alaricContact is false)[You also finally get Alaric's phone number, which is a plus. (set: $alaricContact to true)]}
[[By the time lunch ends, your morale has greatly increased.]]{(if: $dayspassed is 1)[You sit with Fil and are immediately lost in conversation wih him about the ethics of eco-terrorism. Fil seems generally against it except in special cases, special cases meaning whenever he wants to do it. You ask Fil if he's ever done it and he is suspiciously quiet. But then Alaric begins rattling off all of the times that //he's// committed ecoterrorism and that thread of the conversation is lost.]
(if: $dayspassed is 2)[The bomb threat thing kind of ruined lunch, but while the school officials are dealing with that, you decide to talk with Fil for a bit. He's actually not with the other students. Somehow, he has ended up a few hundred feet away and is putting something in a jar. When you look closely, it's some kind of bug. Fil glances up, sees you, and says "It's invasive," as an explanation, then turns back to looking for more. You ask him a few more questions about the bug, but he's concentrating pretty hard, so you just watch him work for a bit.]
(if: $dayspassed is 3)[Fil is still somewhat damp from the rainstorm when you sit next to him. His hair is tied up in a bun so that it's out of the way, and his hands still have specks of mud on them. He tells you that he had something to do in the gardens earlier, and went out in the rain.
"Aren't you worried about getting sick?" You ask.
"Oh, no. I have methods to prevent something like that."
You are ninety percent sure Fil means herbs and shit, but it sounds like he's going to do some kind of eldritch ceremony to preserve his health. Ah, well. You keep talking with him, if only for the right to say you knew the guy who summoned Yogsothoth to cure a runny nose.]
(if: $dayspassed is 4)[You ask Fil about the chysanthemum he gave you earlier.
"Do you still have it?" He asks.
You nod and pull it out. He takes it back, examines it for a bit, and then puts it in between the pages of the book he's reading. It's Warrior Cats: Shattered Peace.
"It was my bookmark. I meant to ask for it back earlier, but you had already gone."
You do not inquire further, as suddenly Fil changes the topic to something completely different, and you spend the rest of lunch on a tangent.]
(if: $dayspassed is 5)[Fil surprises you at lunch by asking if you've ever played a platformer he likes. You weren't sure Fil knew what video games were, he acted like such an old man, but you actually have heard of the game in question. You spend most of lunch swapping stories about your mutual exploits.]
(if: $dayspassed is 6)[Fil actually isn't present for the first part of lunch; when he shows up, he's coated in mud and very angry-looking. He casts a glare at the table in general, as though daring anybody to ask about it. Nobody says anything. You debate asking for a minute or two, but decide that you like not being roasted, so you bring up a cool movie you saw recently and the two of you talk about that instead.]
(if: $dayspassed is 7)[Fil greets you dryly at lunch with "Ah, it is the cause of my moral degradation." He doesn't seem disappointed to see you, though, and adds, "We should have tea again. Preferably when it is not illegal to do so." You're pretty sure that for Fil, this is a great honor. You decide to treat it as such. You spend the rest of the lunch period chatting about where you'd go for tea and chilling.]
(if: $dayspassed > 7)[Fil is distracted and ominous throughout your conversation. He occasionally looks at the overcast sky and squints, like he's expecting something odd to happen. But nothing odd happens. Nothing normal happens, either. It is a strange liminal space. You do your best to ignore it.]}
{(if: $filContact is false)[You also finally get Fil's phone number, which is a plus. (set: $filContact to true)]}
[[By the time lunch ends, your morale has greatly increased.]]{(if: $dayspassed is 1)[You sit next to Gambit at lunch. He's still planning his heist with Alaric, so you mostly listen, but Gambit gets you involved a couple of times by asking what kinds of valuables you think they should steal.]
(if: $dayspassed is 2)[You don't technically go to lunch because of the bomb threat thing, but you do get to talk to Gambit while everybody is standing around outside. Gambit is smirking at the confused and frightened staff, who were huddling together trying to figure out what was going on. When he sees you, his smile grows wider.
"Whaddya think?" He asks.
You raise your eyebrows. Is he taking responsibility for this? Actually, you're not that surprised.
"'S pretty nice," you say aloud. "But uh. Why?"
"Piss off my dad."
"That makes sense."
You make small talk for a bit longer, but soon it's time to go inside.]
(if: $dayspassed is 3)[Gambit looks annoyed at the rainy weather. His hair is still plastered against his forehead, and his clothes are damp. He is holding a glass bottle hafl filled with some gray powder. He tells you that it's gunpowder, and he was going to fire it off today for fun in the woods near his house, but it's too wet for it. You nod sympathetically and tell him that hey, he could always set it off indoors. Gambit seriously considers it for a few seconds before shaking his head, but he thanks you for the suggestion anyways.]
(if: $dayspassed is 4)[In a surprising turn of events, Gambit sits next to you at lunch today. You spend most of lunch locked in fruitful conversation (literally, as you spend most of the time talking about bananas for some fucking reason) before you realize that he has been pickpocketing you. When you point that out, Gammbit nods, impressed, and hands you back all the things he's stolen, some of which you didn't even remember having on you.]
(if: $dayspassed is 5)[Gambit shows up to lunch today wearing a wig and glasses for no explainable reason. When you try to address him, he insists his name is Eris Tocrat the Third in a voice that sounds nothing like his own. You don't really have much to do, so you decide to chat with Eris Tocrat the Third for a bit. He turns out to be an asshole. You miss Gambit.]
(if: $dayspassed is 6)[You find Gambit at lunch and ask about the fire alarm thing.
"Oh, that," he says. "Yeah... so turns out, my explosives supplier had been disabling the fire alarms for the past three months to make the explosives I bought. So we pulled it, but it didn't work." He shrugs. Across the table, Fil narrows his eyes, and you see him write something down that looks suspiciously like 'report broken fire alarms.']
(if: $dayspassed is 7)[The instant you set your lunch down next to Gambit, you are pulled into a furious debate that he is having with the rest of the table. Gambit insists that he saw a foot-long rat scrabbling along the floor of the gym the other day; nobody believes him. Ducky thinks it might have been a dog; Alaric thinks Gambit's lying out of his ass, and Fil just thinks Gambit has finally started hallucinating. You decide to side with Gambit, and spend all of lunch in spirited arguments. At the end of itall, nothing has been proven, but Gambit has threatened to burn down several different buildings.]
(if: $dayspassed > 7)[Gambit tugs on his gloves and frowns down at them, as though he's afraid of what lies underneath. You don't understand what he's so scared of and you ask if maybe he got something on them, jokingly, but his face is serious when he says "Ashes" and he won't say anything else on the subject. You try to cheer him up, and eventually it works, but he still picks at the edges of the fabric, never quite forgetting his unease.]}
{(if: $gambitContact is false)[You also finally get Gambit's phone number, which is a plus. (set: $gambitContact to true)]}
[[By the time lunch ends, your morale has greatly increased.]]Your afternoon classes go by in a blur. You're ont sure if you're dissociating or just bored. Luckily, the rest of your afternoon tends to be a bit spicier... you just have to pick which flavor of spicy you like best.
{(if: $alarichang is 2)[ [[Hang out with Alaric.|hang out with alaric 3]] ]
(if: $alarichang is 1)[ [[Hang out with Alaric.|Hang out with Alaric 2]] ]
(elseif: $alarichang is 0 and $alaricContact is true)[ [[Hang out with Alaric.|Hang out with Alaric 1]] ]}
{(if: $filhang is 2)[ [[Hang out with Fil.|hang out with fil 3]] ]
(if: $filhang is 1)[ [[Hang out with Fil.|Hang out with Fil 2]] ]
(elseif: $filhang is 0 and $filContact is true)[ [[Hang out with Fil.|Hang out with Fil 1]] ] }
{(if: $gambithang is 2)[ [[Hang out with Gambit.|hang out with gambit 3]] ]
(if: $gambithang is 1)[ [[Hang out with Gambit.|Hang out with Gambit 2]] ]
(elseif: $gambithang is 0 and $gambitContact is true)[ [[Hang out with Gambit.|Hang out with Gambit 1]] ] }
{(if: $duckyhang is 2)[ [[Hang out with Ducky.|hang out with ducky 3]] ]
(if: $duckyhang is 1)[ [[Hang out with Ducky.|Hang out with Ducky 2]] ]
(elseif: $duckyhang is 0 and $duckyContact is true)[ [[Hang out with Ducky.|Hang out with Ducky 1]] ]}
[[Stay home!]]You meet up with Alaric in front of the mini-golf place, which you got directions to on your phone. In a stoke of luck, it looks like the rest of the group was able to make it, too!
Gambit's already threatening to steal his golf club. Fil is already threatening to report Gambit to the police. Ducky is watching the drama go down with a kind of bemused smile on his face while he fiddles with a set of bagpipes. Alaric, meanwhile, comes up to greet you, and hands you a club and a golf ball.
"I kind of guessed which size would be good," he says. "So you can change it if I got it wrong."
You test out the club, which is the right size, and the five of you set off to play some fuckin' mini golf! You just have to decide your stretegy for the game.
[[Play aggressively.]]
[[Play timidly.]]You're just about to text Fil about hanging out when he texts you. There's nothing other than a location. Ominous! But you kind of like that. You put the location into your phone and discover it's a ways away. But a bus ride should fix that!
You hop on the next bus and find, to your surprise, that Gambit, Ducky, and Alaric are all already on it. Ducky waves you over to sit with them.
"What's going on?" You ask.
Alaric holds up his phone. "Fil sent us a text with his location!"
"We're hoping he's not, like, dying," Gambit adds.
"I didn't wanna go but Gambit made me come in case I need to medic his ass back to life," Alaric says.
Yeah, that makes sense. It didn't occur to you that Fil could be in trouble. You hope he's not.
"Don't worry," Ducky says, seeing your expression. "He's probably just being weird and cryptic. He does that some times."
"He... does?"
"Yeah." Ducky pauses. "I think."
[[Pretty soon, the bus ride is over.]]You meet Gambit, as usual, in the Crimes Club meeting room. But this time, he and Alaric are both there, dressed in clothes that are so casual and average that you barely recognize the pair of them. Alaric is holding a burglary mask in his hand.
When you come through the door, Gambit waves at you.
"It's showtime," he says. "Are you ready?"
[[I was born ready.]]
[[fucking. no. but I'll live.]]Just as you're about to text Ducky, he texts you. Apparently he's gathered everybody together, and they're all going to have a movie night!
You were kind of hoping to just hang out with Ducky, but you'll take this too. A few hours later, you roll up at Ducky's house, ready to watch some movies. You're the third to arrive after Fil and Gambit, so you all sit around for a bit until Alaric knocks on Ducky's door, looking not at all repentant for being late.
Finally, it's time to get settled in. Apparently, the group's already decided it'll be one of three movies. Since you didn't get a say in picking the initial three movies, the group decides to let you pick which one to watch:
[[Fateful Findings, a movie renowned for being so unbelievably shitty that it's funny.]]
[[Jumanji, the classic about a children's game whose odd conditions manifest in reality.]]
[[And a third movie you've never heard of called Rebel's Game, which you are told is good, but hard to talk about without spoiling anything.]]{(set: $personalProj to it + 1)}
{(set: $dayspassed to it + 1)}
You have elected to go home, which is fair. School is tough, and sometimes you need some you time. You go home, glad that your parents are busy at work and you aren't. Suckers. Making money, conforming to capitalism? Not for you.
You spend all afternoon, and most of the evening, working on your personal project.
Okay you admit this is a little lonely but you still had fun.
[[Finally, you fall asleep.|school]]Alaric blinks in surprise. "Huh?"
"Marco polo?" You tilt your head to the side. "Haven't you heard of it?"
"I mean, yeah. I just wasn't thinking about that." He is blushing furiously. Oh, no. You're going to have to work a bit harder if you don't want this to end up awkward.
"Uh. I can be Marco," you offer, and close your eyes. An extra-big wave hits you, indicating Alaric's swimming away from you.
"Marco!"
The reply of "Polo" comes from your left. You swim towards it, calling out again. After a couple of minutes chasing Alaric's voice, you're sure that you've got him. You lunge forward, rearing out of the water.
"Gotcha!"
But you miscalculated. Instead of landing your hands on Alaric, you slm into the side of the pool and come away scraped and cursing. You open your eyes to check out the damage as Alaric comes swimming over.
"Whoa, are you okay? Do you want some bandages or something?"
Your hands are bleeding. "Uh, sure," you say. Alaric jumps out of the pool and offers to help you up, but you get out on your own. While you're getting out, he retrieves a length of gauze from his backpack, which is hidden under a bench. Along with, curiously, a sleeping bag, some towels, and a phone charger. He comes back over and wraps the gauze around your hand.
"Okay," he says, circling around to stand behind you. "Don't move. I dunno how this works but it totally does, okay?"
You are confused, but lean forward and remain still. After a second, you feel Alaric's fingers brush the back of your neck, then a sharp jab in the same area. You squawk and pitch forward, but when your turn to Alaric to demand what the fuck is up with him, you realize that your pain is gone.
You cautiously remove the gauze from your nose. The flow of blood seems to have flowed to a crawl.
You have several questions.
[[How'd you do that???]]
[[Why do you have a sleeping bag?]]
[[You just carry gauze around?]]You lean forward to kiss Alaric, because you honestly can't think of a good reason not to. Unfortunately, he jerks his head to look downwards and away from you, and ends up head-butting you.
"Ow! Fuck!" You rear back as Alaric looks up, concerned.
"Shit," he says. "Did I hit you? I-I fuck, I'm sorry, dude. Are you that hurt?" He puts a hand against your face, tilting your head so he can check for injuries. "I'm pretty good with fixing people up, you know. You need, like, a Band-Aid or something?"
You feel something warm begin to trickle down from your nose. A ruby-red drop of blood hits the pool water.
"Shit," Alaric repeats, and suddenly you are being swum to the edge. He's stronger than he looks, and in no time Alaric has scrambled onto the edge. He would have gone to haul you up, too, but you get up by yourself first.
While you're getting up, Alaric pulls some gauze from his backpack, which is hidden under a bench at the other end of the room. As is... a lot of other stuff. A sleeping bag, a few towels, a phone charger.
Alaric bustles over and hands you the gauze.
"Tilt your head forward," he says. "Put this under here. And, uh, don't move. I dunno how this works but it totally does, okay?"
You are confused, but lean forward and remain still. After a second, you feel Alaric's fingers brush the back of your neck, then a sharp jab in the same area. You squawk and pitch forward, but when your turn to Alaric to demand what the fuck is up with him, you realize that your pain is gone.
You cautiously remove the gauze from your nose. The flow of blood seems to have flowed to a crawl.
You have several questions.
[[How'd you do that???]]
[[Why do you have a sleeping bag?]]
[[You just carry gauze around?]]Fil shrugs. He seems to be still getting over whatever weird thing he had with the grass. You smile sunnily at him and take his hand.
"C'mon. I think you'll like it."
Fil lets you pull him out of the garden and onto a main thoroughfare, and though he seems a little uncomfortable at being amongst so many people, he makes no protests.
You sneakily get out your phone and look up the place you're going to so that you don't get lost, then direct Fil through the streets of your new home and up to the doors of the Grands Arboretum and Garden.
Fil looks surprised. "Oh, this place."
"Have you been here before?"
He shakes his head. "I mean. I haven't been to //every// garden in the city."
"Right. Of course."
"I mean. Most of them."
"Reasonable."
"I do not hve a list of gardens I want to visit."
"I would never dream of saying such a thing." You smile at Fil. He stares at you for a second, then looks away.
"But if I did have such a list. This would be on it. I've heard they pay their gardeners well."
The two of you go in. You offer to pay for Fil's ticket, but he declines.
"Alaric and Gambit split their stolen money with me and Ducky," he says, "so I have a lot of it. I mean, I don't approve of their methods, but as long as they don't hurt anybody, I don't mind accepting gifts from them."
There are two directions you can go in the Arboretum, as indicated by signs at the start of a gravel path:
[[The flower garden]]
[[The forest]]Fil shakes his head, still obviously hung up on the grass thing, but then he smiles faintly and says, "Actually, I might have a place we can go." He waves at you to follow him and starts away from the school.
Like last time, he takes mostly back roads. You swear you see him collecting some of the flowers growing alongside the road, but you're never sure.
While the two of you walk, you talk. It starts with you saying: "Where are we going?"
"Oh. I happened across an abandoned construction site a day or two ago, and I've been waiting for someone to be free so I don't have to go alone. Not safe, and all that."
You are certain that's a lie. Fil seems to kind of like his solitude. Could it be... he wanted to go there with you? You try and ascertain this further by watching Fil's expression, but he is fairly stonefaced.
At least, he is, until he sees you looking at him. Surprise flickers across his features, and then the faintest hint of redness. He coughs and looks ahead. "You'll be fine with that, right?"
You nod vigorously. "I used to go exploring in the wilderness all the time as a kid. This should be a snap." You look ahead. "Actually, one time I found an abandoned house out there."
Fil nods. Some new emotion stirs on his face. You can't quite place a finger on what it might be. "I found something similar, once."
"What kind of thing?"
"Oh. Just an old library that my teachers hadn't wanted me to find." Fil stops short. "Shit."
"What?"
You're standing at a fork in the road.
"I forget which one it is." Fil shakes his head. "Ah, well. Let's just pick one."
[[Go right.]]
[[Go left.]]"Let's go right," you say, and walk confidently in that direction. Fil follows you.
You walk along for a little bit, and end up chatting about how feasible horns would be on human beings. You're pretty sure it would look dumb, but Fil is pro-horns.
"If I had horns," he says, "I'd want them to be deer horns. I'd look good in deer horns."
"I dunno. I think you'd look better with ram's horns," you reply. "They'd frame your face really nicely."
Fil starts to say something, but stops short. "Hey, we're back where we started."
You look around. Yup, it's the same intersection. Dammit, you chose wrong. But you still got to talk with Fil more, so... score?
"At least we're not lost now." Fil shrugs and gestures to the one path left. "Shall we?"
[[Go left.]]You go left, and within minutes you can see a crumbling building beginning to show signs of plant overgrowth. You assume that this is the building Fil was talking about. You look to him for confirmation, and he nods.
"Who does this building belong to, anyways?" You ask. "We're not trespassing, are we?"
Fil looks almost impressed. "Ah, it's been so long since someone I know has been worried about breaking the law. It's almost refreshing. No, we're not trespassing. This building was supposed to be torn down to make room for a community garden, but the nonprofit that was doing the demolishing went defunct. It's been in a state of ownerless limbo for three months while the city sorts its paperwork out."
You arrive on the front steps of the building. From the looks of things, it used to be a two-story affair with shops on both levels. There are two windows on the first floor. One is gone completely. Its corpse, in the form of a thousand pieces of shattered glass, litters the floor of the inside. The other window is boarded up and covered in street art. The door, when Fil tries it, is locked.
"Hm. That strikes me as a bit useless," he says, more to himself than anyone else, and turns back to you. "Well, through the window it is. Be careful of the glass."
He steps through the shattered window. The glass on the other side crunches beneath his boots. He turns and helps you through. You don't really need the help, but you appreciate the sentiment.
Inside, the building is a mess. The floor is cracked tile. The remnants of a bar sit on the far corner to your right.
And twining up through the floor are the plants. Vines, mostly, and a few of what you can tell are oak tree saplings. In the shadier corners, some spiky-looking plants with purple leaves are growing. Ah, wherever you go, there are always goth kids.
Fil suddenly becomes very still. You open your mouth to ask him what's going on, but he holds a finger to his lips and subtly tilts his head to the right. Sitting near the base of the bar's remains is...
[[...a surprisingly large rabbit.]]The flower gardens are gorgeous. The path diverts into a Celtic Cross shape, lined with bushes bursting with blooms. Overhead, other flowers have been trained upwards around arches, creating a rain of petals with each passing wind. There's some kind of event going on here, too, because there are volunteers passing out crowns of flowers. Both you and Fil are crowned.
You could totally imagine Fil as some kind of fae prince. Maybe in like, long flowing green robes with pointy ears... yeah.
Fil is looking at you. You realize you've been staring.
"Ah, sorry," you say. "I was just, uh. Just spacing out." You might as well have said 'no homo.' Oh, well. Fil buys it. He nods and looks at the blooms around you.
"Thank you for bringing me here, by the way," he says. "This has been really fun."
"Y-yeah! No problem!" God dammit. Your heart is going way too fast.
You wander through the gardens until you come to a fork in the gravel walkway. One sign directs you to the other, un-explored area of the garden; the other, to the exit.
[[view cg]]The forest isn't a real forest. More just a small copse of oak trees, with a few other kinds that you don't recognize for flavor. There are some kids climbing on one of the trees, but other than that, the area is relatively empty.
Fil smiles and lays a hand on a tree trunk, then looks a bit closer, squinting. He peels back some of the bark, then leans back, satisfied. "Healthy," he says to you. "I expected no less, but it's always a relief to see that the plants are being tree-ted right."
He's so deadpan that you can't tell if he meant to make a pun there, but then the corners of his mouth quirk up for a second. Oh, he knows. He knows what he hath wrought. You crack a grin in return.
"I'm sure if you found the trees in bad health, you wouldn't be able to //leaf// the gardeners alone," you return.
"They'd have to //bough// out of their jobs."
"Aw, I bet you're all //bark// and no bite."
"I think I could //branch out// into biting, should I be motivated enough."
You and Fil pun at breakneck pace for at least three minutes, but then Fil does a complicated bit of wordplay revolving around the words dirt, sapling, and water, and you are forced to acknowledge him as the supreme punner.
You wander through the forest for a bit more, before you come to a fork in the gravel walkway. One sign directs you to the other, un-explored area of the garden; the other, to the exit.
[[The flower garden]]
[[leave]]"It's getting late," you realize, checking your phone. "We should probably get home."
Fil nods. He seems reluctant to leave a space where he's obviously so at peace, but eventually gets up and walks you back to the school, where your parents are already waiting for you, as you texted them just before you set off.
You say good-bye to Fil, then head home. Your parents tease you about who this guy might be to you, but you assure them that you're just friends.
{(set: $filhang to 2)}
(if: $day is true)[ [[Until then, you head home.|school]] ]
(elseif: $day is false)[ [[Until then, you head hom.|Checkpoint]] ]It's standing very still, munching on some of those purple plants that thrive in the shade. Fil smiles at you, then slowly begins to approach it. The rabbit almost spooks several times, but each time Fil freezes in place, quiet and waiting, until the rabbit goes back to chewing. You watch, spellbound, as Fil gets close enough to touch it. He pets it for a few seconds, then gently scoops it up.
You would expect any animal to panic, but the rabbit blinks a couple of times in confusion. Fil plucks a leaf from a nearby plant and waits for the rabbit to start eating it before he gestures for you to come over, slowly.
You cautiously move over, and Fil presents the rabbit to you.
"What if it's got rabies?" You whisper.
Fil rolls his eyes. "I'd know if it had rabies."
You decide that Fil probably knows what he's talking about, and reach out to gently stroke the rabbit's back.
After a few seconds, Fil puts the rabbit back down. As soon as his hands leave its little body, it seems to remember that it is a prey animal, and it bounds off.
"How'd you do that?" You ask, amazed.
Fil shrugs. "Animals just like me."
You're beginning to think this guy is some kind of nature wizard.
The two of you explore the abandoned building for a bit more. Fil collects some of the shade-dwelling purple plants, but the upstairs is too unstable to explore, so you mostly just fuck around downstairs.
[[leave]]Gambit smiles. "Awesome. I knew you were a natural."
You tilt your head to the side in confusion.
"Gambit's been testing you," Alaric explains. "He thinks you're a natural-born thief, which means he likes you."
"//Shut up.// It just means I think he has potential, is all," Gambit says. "Anyways. Do you remember the codes I gave you a while back? About what to say if the owners come back and stuff?"
[[Yes, I do.]]
[[What???]] Gambit smiles a bit. "Don't worry. It's normal to be nervous before your first burglary. But you're gonna do fine. I've been scoping you out as a thief. You're pretty naturally talented."
"Gambit only says that to people he likes," Alaric chimes in, grinning.
"//Shut up.// Anyways, do you remember those codes I gave you? For if people start getting suspicious, and stuff?"
[[Yes, I do.]]
[[What???]]Gambit sucks in a deep breath; you, conversely, breathe a sigh of relief. You were afraid that this would be a touchy area, and it would make the conversation awkward, but Gambit's clearly gearing up for a rant. He has the receipts and he is more than happy to supply others with them.
"Well, first of all, he fucking dropped my mother like a hot coal after she gave birth to my sister, tried to pay her off with hush money. Runs the school like it's a castle for him to be king of, constantly paying off the officials so they don't shut him the fuck down like he deserves. And when my mother--" here, his voice hitches, but not for long. "When my mother died, he 'took me in' like it was some kind of //favor// even though he sent my sister straight off to boarding school. I see what he's trying to do." Gambit stares ahead, expression hard enough to cut diamond. "He wants to make me like him. And I'll go to hell before I let that happen."
Okay, yeah, that is a lot. "Damn," you say aloud. "I understand why you'd wanna disappoint him now."
"Yeah."
You turn off onto a private road, at the end of which you can see a gate with a little security booth.
"Okay, stop right here," Gambit says. "The security guard should be out by now, but I'm going to go a little closer and check just in case."
"Are you sure that's--" you start, but by the time you turn to face the space where he used to be, Gambit is gone. Like, //disappeared// gone. You have no idea what the fuck happened, so you have no choice but to stand and wait until Gambit's voice pops up again, behind you.
"He's still there."
You jump and turn around. Gambit sees your frightened face and winces slightly.
"Sorry. I forget other people aren't used to it."
"It's fine," you say, and turn back to the booth. Gambit curses.
"Damn. I really wasn't expecting to have to deal with this."
Hey, if you come up with a good idea for dealing with this guard, you might be able to impress him!
[[Let's go around.]]
[[I can distract him.]]Gambit nods to himself. "Yeah, that's probably our best option. I hope noody's in their backyard."
The two of you wander off the road, sticking near the ten foot concrete wall that prevents the neighborhood from being assaulted by robbers every day and night. Gambit scampers up the thing no problem, then helps you up, since you're not quite as good at climbing.
You check the backyard in front of you. It seems like it'll be a soft landing, as all of the leaves from the trees have been raked up against the wall. You and Gambit are about to jump down when you hear the squeak of the door opening. Gambit throws himself back over the side of the fence, hanging on by only his fingertips and therefore invisible. But you odn't have that kind of time, so you turn around.
"Young man! What are you doing?"
You glance over your shoulder at the elderly woman.
"Uh." You look around guiltily. "Leaving?"
"Leaving? I don't think so. You get right back down in here young sir and explain yourself."
You drop down, trying not to look too pleased.
"What were you doing?"
"W-well, I was just grounded and--"
"Oh, I see." The woman stares down her nose at you. "I'm going to call your parents, young man. You're in big trouble! I'm sure they'll be very ashamed, knowing their child is trespassing on neighbors' property." She gets out your phone and you jump straight into a lie.
"Wait! No, don't. They're at work right now, um, as heart surgeons, and if they get a call it could distract them from saving someone's life!" You dramatically fall to your knees. "Please, please, just let me go home. I've learned my lesson. I won't do anything bad again." You will tears into your eyes. You can't cry on command, but you can come pretty damn close, and that's all you need right now.
The woman's expression softens. "Well... alright, then. If you're lying I shall be very cross!"
You reassure her that you are most definitely not lying, and she walks you out to her front yard.
You start off down the road and immediately run into Gambit. He must've snuck around while you were doing your theatrics.
[[He high fives you for your quick thinking, and you continue on to your destination.|Gambit high fives you ]]Gambit raises his eyebrows. "Really?"
You nod. "I can distract him long enough for you to sneak around behind his back. Then you come up, pretend to be from the neighborhood, get me in."
Gambit looks at you, looks at the booth, then looks back at you. "Yeah," he says slowly. "Yeah, I can make that work." He nods at you. "I'll follow your cue."
You nod back, then start up the road. You're kind of hoping that the guard will just let you past, but he stops you just before you duck under the weird gate thingy.
"Hey, you. I need to see some ID and know where you're going before I let you through."
You turn to the guard and slide easily into feigned outrage. "Huh? But I come here all the time! My friend lives here."
"Sorry, kid. 'S policy."
You catch a glimpse of black hair to your left and begin talking again to keep the guard's focus on you. "Are you kidding me? I've never had this problem before! I've always just walked in!"
"I'm sure you're mistaken," the guard replies. His face settles into the apathetic, tired expression of a customer service worker who has decided to begin dissociating. Well, at least it means you can yell about nothing or a bit without him noticing or caring what is going on.
"No, I'm not! I would just walk in! Ugh, this is so ridiculous. I bet it's because I'm walking this time instead of on my bike. You guards //love// picking on pedestrians." You point at the guard, who stares back at you unfeelingly. You feel kind of bad for him, but not bad enough that you change tactics. You shout some increasingly nonsensical things until someone shouts "Hey!" from the other side of the gate.
The guard shifts his gaze, grateful for the interruption. You allow your face to break into delighted relief at the sight of Gambit (not hard) and gesture towards the guard. "Hey won't let me in!" You call.
Gambit shakes his head. "It's okay, Bernard," he says. "This guy's with me. C'mon, let's head to my place."
The guard sighs. "Sir, n the future, just make sure your friend here knows about our ID/destination rule."
"Will do!"
As you walk away, Gambit shows you how he knew Bernard's name: he stole the guard's wallet.
[[He high fives you once you're out of Bernard's sight.|Gambit high fives you ]]Alaric shrugs. "I dunno. I just kind of figured out I could one time when Gambit kind of got stabbed and I was freaking out. Fil knows more about medicine than me, so he probably has a good answer. I just throw up a prayer to Poseidon and do what's worked so far."
"I guess that makes sense." You're not sure what you expected. Alaric's not really the type to question a good thing. "Is it just the neck, or is it other places too?"
Alaric stops dead. "I... haven't really tried anything else. Maybe? I guess. When I told Fil about it, he said it might have something to do with the nervous system, so I figured it wouldn't work in another spot."
"Fair enough."
The two of you sit next to each other in silence for a while before Alaric starts up the conversation again.
"Have you ever been to the mini-golf place downtown?"
[[No, why do you ask?]]
[[Yeah, I've been.]]"Huh? Oh." Alaric is suddenly embarrassed. Well, more embarrassed. "It's. I'm. Hmmm. Promise not to tell anybody, okay?"
"Okay," you say cautiously.
"I've been kind of camping out here every so often. For fun. And also because my parents are grade-A fuckwads."
Holy shit. You open your mouth, but Alaric holds up his hand.
"Don't worry about me, though. This place is super nice. I mean, I get to swim any time I want! It makes me feel more connected to Lord Poseidon. Speaking of which, have I told you about him? He's incredible, I--"
You sit there, stunned, as Alaric completely pivots the conversation away from himself. You're pretty sure you haven't known him long enough to do any more, so you stay silent and let him talk.
After a while, he says something non-religious:
"Have you ever been to the mini-golf place downtown?"
[[No, why do you ask?]]
[[Yeah, I've been.]]Alaric shrugs. "Yeah. I tend to get in lot of fights. Plus Gambit. And usually Ducky and Fil help out because they're our friends." He brightens. "Hey! Maybe sometime you'll get into a fight with us!"
You're not sure how to respond to that, but you say, "I hope it's for a good cause."
"Eh, can't guarantee a good cause," Alaric replies, grinning, "but always an interesting one."
"Like what?"
"Well, one time we fought this dude for a deck of cards."
You raise your eyebrows. "Really? Why?"
"We wanted to play poker," Alaric says, laughing a little. "And this guy offered to give us what he called 'the best deck in the world' if we beat up some guy bullying the neighborhood kids. Real creep. And then we got the deck and it actually kind of sucked so we stopped using it."
You shake your head as Alaric shades his head, still laughing.
"Sounds pretty fucking dumb," you say.
"Ah! But you asked to hear more, so it means it //was// interesting," Alaric says. "So my point stands."
"Touche."
Alaric sits cross-legged next to you for a moment, then leans back to lay down. He stares up at the ceiling for a moment before saying, "Hey, have you ever been to the mini golf downtown?"
[[No, why do you ask?]]
[[Yeah, I've been.]]"Oh, I was just thinking of asking the guys if they wanted to go mini-golfing, but since I'm hanging with you I figured I'd ask you right now."
"Oh." You think for a minute. "Uh, yeah, I guess that sounds good." You have no idea what's in store for you, but if Alaric's there you're sure it will be a fun time.
"Sweet. Just text me when you're free and then I'll see who else can come."
That agreed, you talk and swim with Alaric for a while longer.
[[It's time to go home.]]"Would you wanna go there again?" Alaric asks. "I was thinking of going there with whoever's available, but I'm with you now, so... figured I'd ask you first."
"Oh, okay." You think for a moment. The mini-golf place was one of those spots your parents took you to when you first moved here. It's pretty par for the course (pun intended) as far as mini golf goes, though the final hole is pretty cool. It goes into the mouth of a dragon (or maybe a T Rex? It's super unclear) and when you get the ball in, a roaring nose plays. It seems like a fun enough place to go with friends. "Yeah, I think that sounds good."
"Awesome!" Alaric lights up. "Just let me know when you're free and I'll see who I can round up!"
That agreed, you talk and swim with Alaric for a while longer.
[[It's time to go home.]]You and Alaric part ways, and you head home alone. Once you're there, you take a shower, still massaging the place on the back of your neck where Alaric hit-slash-healed you. Should that have even been possible?
You shake your head. It happened, so it must be possible. You put it out of your mind and spend the rest of your evening trying to work on your personal project, but you don't make much progress, so you decide to go to bed and see if you'll feel like it tomorrow.
{(set: $alarichang to 2)}
(if: $day is true)[ [[Until then, you head home.|school]] ]
(elseif: $day is false)[ [[Until then, you head hom.|Checkpoint]] ]When you get in sight of the target, Gambit taps you on the shoulder and subtly points it out. It is a large house, not too dissimilar from all of the other houses in here. The outside is painted a cheery shade of pink, with white trim and a dark brown door. Three stories high, garden out front full of hydrangeas, empty brick driveway.
"How are we gonna case it?"
"Right. I forgot you aren't used to this." You're fast approaching the house, but Gambit doesn't slow down. "We're gonna just walk by it a coupla times. I don't want anybody seeing us stopped in front of the house, 'cuz chances are the neighbors know that we don't live there and stopping is suspicious. Point out anything you can see. I've already done this a couple times to get a feel for the rhythm of the homeowners, but this is more about security systems and dogs and stuff like that. Okay?"
"Got it."
You walk around the block a couple of times. You point out the motion-activated lights in the home, the small, fluffy white dog that trots from room to room, and the camera next to the front door that scans from side to side. Gambit gets the burglar alarms on the upper story windows and the garage door.
The two of you are starting to leave when you hear a voice behind you.
"Why, hello, I haven't seen you two around here before."
You turn around. You are facing a joggerman of about forty or fifty years of age. He is wearing track shorts, a tight-fitting sportswear T-shirt, and a smile that shone like several thousand dollars' worth of dental work.
Gambit's face drops for a moment. "Ah."
"Are you new to the neighborhood?" The man folds his arms and smiles. His body language generally contrasts his words. He's looking for proof that you belong here, and Gambit seems to be having trouble thinking up a lie.
[[Just loitering, sticking it to the man.]]
[[We're looking for our dream house :) ]]Gambit nods. "Yup. We don't approve of gated communities, so we sneak inside 'em and hang out."
This guy seems to get a kick out of that. "Really? Why don't you approve?"
"It's cuz they're dumb as fuck," you say. "And the gates don't really keep people out."
That much is true.
The man who lives in the gated community nods. "You're right. Hah! A little rebellion is good for kids. When I was your age, I smoked weed. It's the same thing." He gives a weird little half-salute and moves around you, then takes off jogging again.
Gambit sighs in relief. "What a weird guy."
You nod. "I feel like he was inches away from saying 'Fuck yeah, stick it to those old people' and if he had? I think I would have died on the spot."
"If that happened I would have had to fight God with my own two fists."
You riff off each other for a bit while you walk away from the house.
[[You follow Gambit out of the neighborhood.|You follow him out of the neighborhood.]]You wrap your arm around Gambit's and lean on him, smiling. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Gambit turn bright red. "Y'know, in case we get married someday." Is this a thing couples do? Look at houses together? You're pretty sure it's a thing couples do. Even if it isn't, you get to pretend you're dating Gambit for a little bit, so hell yeah.
Gambit follows your lead and adds, "Too bad that blue one a block back isn't for sale. Not that I could buy it." That last part rings suspiciously false. Just how much money does Gambit have squirreled away from all his heists?
The older man smiles and laughs. "That's so cute! It's not often that I see you kids doing anything other than messing around on your phones."
"Yeah." You roll your eyes. "I hate that."
The joggerman nods wisely, as though he'd found a fellow intellectual. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then." He moves around you and begins jogging again. Gambit practically melts.
"Dude, choose a lie a little less... romantic next time," he says, laying a hand dramatically over his heart. "I don't know if I could take that again."
You sigh and say, "If you say so... babe."
You grin as Gambit turns away to hide his face. "C-c'mon," he mutters. "Let's go home."
[[view cg|gambit cg2]]The two of you get back to the school, and Gambit offers to keep the club room open a bit later if you want to chill. You don't have anything better to do, so you guys hang around for a few hours and Gambit teaches you how to pick a lock. It is a skill that you will surely use in the future, unlike Algebra. You like hanging out with Gambit. He's really cool and you kinda want to spend more time with him. Unfortunately, it's getting late.
{(set: $gambithang to 2)}
(if: $day is true)[ [[Until then, you head home.|school]] ]
(elseif: $day is false)[ [[Until then, you head hom.|Checkpoint]] ]Ducky melts with relief. "Thank you so much!" He takes out a piece of paper and begins furiously scribbling things down. "Okay, here's a list of all the instruments I need," he says, after a minute or so. "The venue is a country club just outside of town, which means that we have to leave--" Ducky looks at the clock on the wall, "--In like twenty minutes or so. Okay? Okay. I'm going to write the set list." Ducky then whips out a blank piece of sheet music and begins writing on the back.
You turn and see a managerie of cases and instruments. Ah, shit.
Slowly but surely, you sort through each instrument and case, making sure to look up how to properly pack them away if you don't already know. Ducky sometimes gives you extra instructions.
Finally, you're done, and with a minute to spare!
But Ducky is groaning in agony in his corner.
"What's wrong?!" You ask, rushing over. Ducky shakes his head.
"I have no idea what kind of music I should put in the set list! I know I should pick a genre, but... what kind of music do they play at country clubs?"
Hmm. If you had to guess, you'd say...
[[fancy.]]
[[country style (yeehaw).]] "You will?" Ducky seems overjoyed. "Awesome! Okay, so it's at a country club just outside of town, which means we have to leave in around--" Ducky glances at the clock on the wall, "--twenty minutes. Here's a piece of paper and uhhhh do you have a pen? You do? Okay cool. Here's all the songs I know. I'm going to get my instruments packed up."
He rushes around the room, picking things up and putting them in cases. How is he going to carry all that?
Well, it's not your problem. You have to put together a list of songs that Ducky can play for the country club.
You thumb through the folder full of music sheets that Ducky says he knows. Well, at least the list is extensive. It's, as a matter of fact, too extensive. You have no idea how you're going to be able to put a set list together in time!
Okay, okay, focus. You just have to pick a genre and choose all the songs that are from that genre. Should be pretty easy. It's a country club, so that means the music should be...
[[fancy.]]
[[country style (yeehaw).]]You pick some of the fanciest tracks you can, and when you show them to Ducky, he gives you a discerning nod. "You're so right. Country clubs are where people who play golf and drink martinis go to relax! So they'll probably want some fancy music. You have good taste," he adds, looking over the songs. He looks ready to hug you, but then he sees the clock and leaps to his feet. "We gotta go!"
Ducky grabs your hand and also five different instrument cases and the two of you set off to catch some public transportation. You're lucky enough to run up to the bus station just as the driver opens the doors, and the two of you bust into the public bus and get ready to defend your honor from weirdoes.
Thankfully, nothing happens on the ride. Ducky takes the chance to go over his set list and put the whole thing in a nice order with a suitably mind-boggling grand finale. He gets the sheet music in order and takes a few breaths, and then...
[[...it's your stop.]]Of course! It's a //country// club, after all.
You pick out some country tunes and show them to Ducky, who nods in wide-eyed revelation.
"Oh, right! It's a country club! It's in the name! What would I do without you?" Ducky looks ready to hug you, but then he sees the clock and leaps to his feet. "We gotta go!"
He grabs your hand and also five different instrument cases and the two of you set off to catch some public transportation. You're lucky enough to run up to the bus station just as the driver opens the doors, and the two of you bust into the public bus and get ready to defend your honor from weirdoes.
Thankfully, nothing happens on the ride. Ducky takes the chance to go over his set list and put the whole thing in a nice order with a suitably mind-boggling grand finale. He gets the sheet music in order and takes a few breaths, and then...
[[...you're there.]]You and Ducky enter the country club cautiously. It's all polished hardwood floors and big windows and white walls. The receptionist at the desk directs you to where Ducky will be performing. It's a big open room that people are wandering in and out of. When the receptionist sees you, xe smiles and says, "Are you his roadie or something?" When you nod, xe looks at you wistfully and says, "Wish I could be a roadie. It sounds fun." You shrug. You have been at this for approximately half an hour.
When Ducky gets you alone, he is clearly a little nervous. "This place looks pretty fancy for country music," he says. "Are you sure this will work?"
You nod. "It has to."
Ducky relaxes a little. It seems like he mostly wanted you to back him up.
"Plus," you add, "It's a little too late to change the set list now."
Ducky smiles. "You're right."
Setting up is pretty quick. Ducky seems to know what he's about so you mostly just leave it to him, but he lets you set up his sheet music.
Finally, it's time for Ducky to perform. You are standing off to the side since you know from experience that his playing will make you cry and ou don't want anybody else to see that.
You're not sure what you expected, but Ducky somehow makes everything that's bad about country seem trivial, or at least, he does for the hour and a half that he plays. He moves like a demon, manipulating every instrument with ease.
As he plays, the people walking through the room stop to listen. They are entranced by the pure power of Country. You see a few people tear up. You also are tearing up.
At the end of the concert, someone begins cheering. The clamor spreads from the one person to the whole crowd. They're going hog wild. They're loving it. They never realized the power of Country, and now they are enthralled by it.
Someone gives Ducky a cowboy hat.
And as he thanks the cheering crowd, his eyes never leave your face.
You kind of want this moment to last forever.
[[view cg|ducky cg2]]You and Ducky enter the country club cautiously. It's all polished hardwood floors and big windows and white walls. The receptionist at the desk directs you to where Ducky will be performing. It's a big open room that people are wandering in and out of. When the receptionist sees you, xe smiles and says, "Are you his roadie or something?" When you nod, xe looks at you wistfully and says, "Wish I could be a roadie. It sounds fun." You shrug. You have been at this for approximately half an hour.
While you're setting up, Ducky turns to you and says, "Thanks for helping with the set list. I bet these people will love the pieces."
You give him a thumbs up. The proud look in Ducky's eyes is something you'll treasure forever.
Setting up is pretty quick. Ducky seems to know what he's about so you mostly just leave it to him, but he lets you set up his sheet music.
Finally, it's time for Ducky to perform. You are standing off to the side since you know from experience that his playing will make you cry and ou don't want anybody else to see that.
The elegant music that you picked perfectly fits the airy openness of the building. Ducky plays like an angel-- one of those ones with fifteen different arms and eyes all over their bodies. You can barely see what he's doing because he's moving between instruments so quickly, but the sound is indescribable. You barely even noticed that an hour and a half has passed...
And neither has the growing crowd of onlookers who stopped in their tracks upon hearing Ducky's playing and followed its siren call to this room. They shake their heads, dazed for a moment, then immediately begin cheering. They surround Ducky, but he towers over them enough that you can see he doesn't take his eyes off you once, beaming at you.
[[After the concert, you help Ducky pack up.]]You ride the bus home together, both a little exhausted from the afternoon of music making. By the time you both arrive back at the club room, you're completely worn out. Not bothering to unpack the instruments, you both collapse onto the floor.
There is a moment of silence before Ducky says, "Thank you."
"Huh?"
"Thank you," he repeats. "When you came by, I was really freaking out. I might have been able to pull it off without you, but you really helped me today. So I wanted to say thanks. Because that was awesome of you."
[[Glad to be of service.]]
[[I didn't really do that much.]]
[[Yes, it was all thanks to me!]]"I just took care of a few things while you ran the whole show."
"I wouldn't say that," Ducky replies. "I would have been totally lost on the set list without you. I mean, I might have thrown something together, but it wouldn't have been as //good."//
"I don't know about that," you say. "You're an incredible musician. Every time I see you in concert, I almost can't believe it's real."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. I love your music."
"I can play more for you, then. As much as you want."
"That sounds nice."
You and Ducky talk a bit more, but eventually the both of you just fall the fuck asleep, which is kind of unusal for you. Upon waking up, you pointedly decide to not think about the 'I can play more for you as much as you want' thing, because it was probably platonic and not at all a romantic thing to say. What are you thinking? Totally a bro move. Anyways, it's [[time to go home.]]"It kinda was," Ducky says. "It definitely wouldn't have gone this well without you, at least." Kind of unnecessarily, he adds, "That's why I'm thanking you."
"I was just being sarcastic," you reply. "I don't really think that."
"Ah."
"I think it was mostly you, honestly," you continue. "I mean, you did the playing and you carried the instruments most of the time. I just took care of some little things while you ran the whole show. Plus, I got a free concert out of it, y'know?"
"You could get a free concert out of me anytime," Ducky says. "I like playing for you."
"Noted." You stare up at the ceiling. Damn. Your eyelids keep getting heavier. If you'd gone home earlier today, you probbly would have taken a nap right about now.
And that is your last thought before you wake up and realize that you actually did just take a nap. Ducky's waking up too. You decide that there is nothing weird about this situation. A guy, offering you a free concert and then falling asleep barely a foot away form you? Entirely platonic. Anyways, it's [[time to go home.]]You and Ducky part ways. For a moment, you stay behind, trying to make up your mind. Ducky is very cute, but also very oblivious (even more oblivious than you).
You call of the train of thought. There's always time to think about that sort of thing later.
{(set: $duckyhang to 2)}
(if: $day is true)[ [[Until then, you head home.|school]] ]
(elseif: $day is false)[ [[Until then, you head hom.|Checkpoint]] ]You actually have to text Alaric during the day, because you realize that you forgot to set a time for your date. The two of you decide on the evening, which is good because it gives you time to prepare, but bad because it gives you time to be nervous as fuck. You pace through your house, trying to find a distraction of some kind. You are completely unsuccessful.
Alaric shows up around six. He's driving, which strikes you as slightly dangerous for... everybody involved. It's a smallish car and strangely stylish, which makes more sense when Alaric says that he borrowed it from Gambit.
"I figured, y'know, it'd be cooler than taking the bus or something," he says. "Plus, the place is a little bit of a ride."
"Where is it, by the way?"
Alaric smiles. "Try and guess."
You start with the stuff that makes the most sense for a first date. "Um, restaurant?"
"Nope."
"Movie?"
"Nah."
"Concert?"
"Uh-uh."
Those done, you move on to the stuff you thin kAlaric might pick. "Aquarium?"
"Close."
You fucking knew it. "Pool? Water park?"
"Warmer."
"...The beach?"
Alaric grins. You take that as a yes, and think about it for a minute. It's not a bad choice. The ocean in the fading light? Sure, why not. And it's on brand.
After a short car ride, you arrive. Alaric parks outside a surf shop and opens the door for you in a cute and unnecessary gesture, then leads you to the oceanside.
[[The beach looks gorgeous at sunset.]]After school, you rush home to get ready. Fil texts you a few times asking you to bring stuff. Little things, like the lint from the dryer, and a thing of matches. You're pretty sure you know what the matches are for, but lint?
You're sure Fil has a use for it, though, so you bundle it into your bag and meet Fil outside the forest at dusk. He's got his own bag of supplies.
"Hey." Fil smiles when he sees you and the two of you begin to walk further into the forest. "Did you bring the things I asked for?"
"Hey," you say. "Yeah, I have 'em right here." You pull out the lint (in a Ziploc bag) and the matches. "What's this for, anyways?"
"It's kindling," Fil explains. "Hang on. I can show you."
You've reached the newly-unlittered campgrounds. Fil guides you to a pre-dug fire pit, where he's already piled some dead wood. He puts the lint under the wood, with some twigs, and strikes a match. The lint goes up pretty quickly, catching some of the larger kindling on fire, too. "Makes starting the fire easier," Fil says. "I didn't have any on hand, so I thought you might."
You watch as the fire catches and grows. "Glad to be of help."
Fil settles down onto the ground next to the fire. "So, what do you want to do now? I have s'mores."
[[stargazing]]
[[S'Mores!]]You go to the Death Jam Club room after school. Ducky's waiting for you, looking uncharacteristically nervous. At least you're not the only one.
"Are you ready?" He asks, kind of unnecessarily. You nod. "Cool." Ducky opens a few instrument cases and looks slightly embarrassed. "This'll-- This'll just take a second."
"Do you want help?"
"Nah, I got it."
It takes a few minutes, but soon Ducky is all set up.
[[He starts playing for you.]]Gambit picks you up the next evening.
"Where are we going?" You ask, as the two of you set off walking.
"Restaurant a couple blocks past the school," Gambit replies. "Nothing too fancy. I mean, I thought you'd probably want a break from all the thievery, given the big heist we just pulled off."
[[tired of stealing? me? Absolutely Not]]
[[I am kinda worn out, thanks.]]"And... thanks to you too," you add. "I love hearing you play, so it was really cool to get a free concert."
"I could play for you more," Ducky blurts out. "I mean." His tone grows softer. "I like playing for you. I don't know why. You just have the face of someone who needs to hear good music."
You flip onto your stomach so you can get a better look at Ducky. "Thanks," you repeat. He flips over too.
"Hey, you can't derail my thank-you by thanking me."
"I wasn't derailing, just returning." You smile at him.
"Oh. Well. I guess //that's// okay." Ducky pauses for a moment. "If you want me to do a concert, just for you... you can let me know. If you want."
"I'll hold you to that." You lay your head down on your arms. Neither of you speak for a while after that. You actually both fall asleep. You attribute it to being dumbass teenagers who are always sleeping adn decide that there was NO homoerotic subtext to that scene whatsoever. Anyways, it's [[time to go home.]] {(set: $dayspassed to it + 1)}
You spend the rest of the evening more or less alone, exiting your room a few times to talk with your parents, and soon fall into blissful sleep. Aside from a few weird dreams, it is a deep and undisturbed one.
[[Tomorrow greets you as it always had.|school]]"These ones," Gambit sighs. "I guess it has been a while. Here. Make sure you memorize 'em in case something comes up."
He hands you a vaguely familiar sheet of paper with a list of codes on it:
LOOKOUT WARNING CODES
Owners coming home= Three pigeons over there
Police= four pigs incoming
All Clear= Cloudy day
THIEF CODES
Almost done/distract for just a minute= Check the newspaper date
Leaving now= The dog's gotten in the petunias again
Gambit also hands you a walkie-talkie. "This is for telling us stuff," he says. "You can only answer and receive messages from another of the set, so don't worry about any eavesdroppers. Your job is to stand nearby and pretend you're a birdwatcher or something. Whatever makes you the least conspicuous. Report back to us if anything odd happens."
You nod, clutching the list.
"I gotta have the list back, by the way," Gambit says. "I always shred 'em before we take off. Just in case, y'know?"
You hand the list back, nervous but also kind of excited. Gambit takes the list over to a small paper shredder you didn't see earlier and puts it in, then turns to you and Alaric.
"Okay. Are we ready?"
[[Ready as we'll ever be.]]"Good," Gambit says. "I'm glad I don't have to repeat myself. I'll just shred the code key, then, and we can get going." He produces a small piece of paper from his pocket and shreds it in a paper shredder you didn't notice before. While it's finishing up, he turns to you and hands you a walkie-talkie.
"Almost forgot, you'll need this," Gambit says. "You can only answer and receive messages from another of the set, so don't worry about any eavesdroppers. Your job is to stand nearby and pretend you're a birdwatcher or something. Whatever makes you the least conspicuous. Report back to us if anything odd happens. Got it?"
You nod, gripping the walkie-talkie tightly. You're kind of nervous, but also kind of excited. You never thought you'd get to help pull off a burglary.
You can only hope that you won't fuck it up.
"Are we ready to go?" Gambit asks, turning so he can address both you and Alaric.
[[Ready as we'll ever be.]] "Sweet. Let's go, then."
You use the same technique to get into the neighborhood as you did when you came here last time, albeit with less of you freaking the fuck out, and quickly find the house you're going to burglarize.
You settle down on bench a little ways down the sidewalk. You set your walkie-talkie in your lap, then put a school notebook that you brought over it. You get out a pencil and start drawing your surroundings. If anybody asks, you'll just say you're an artist. Artists do weird shit all the time, so you're pretty sure you won't get caught for it. Your drawings are shit, but you decide to just say it's a stylistic choice.
You watch the area carefully and give Gambit and Alaric the thumbs up to sneak up to the house. They disappear around the side, presumably going for the back door, and you are left alone. For twenty minutes, everything goes smoothly. You sit in the hot sun, stare at the house and its surroundings. Sometimes you think you see movement through the windows-- Gambit, or Alaric, stealing stuff.
[[But then you see the car pull into the driveway.]]You freak the fuck out.
Shit, shit shit shit. What was the code for if the owners came home early? You fumble for your walkie-talkie and curse yourself for not remembering better. You say what you're pretty sure is the code:
[[Two egrets up here!]]
[[Three pigeons over there!]]You say the code into the walkie-talkie and immediately know it's wrong. But you don't remember the right one!!
Gambit's voice crackles through. "What?"
"T-two egre-- fuck it, it's the owners," you say.
"Fuck. Thanks." That's all he says. No return code, no update. You glance anxiously up at the house, and notice that the owners have gotten out of their car and are staring at you curiously. Fuck! They might have heard you. You could get busted! Shit shit shit!
You try to think of a way out of this, and the only way out you can see is forward. If you want them to forget about you talking nervously into a walkie-talkie, you'll have to do somthing even weirder. You get up from your bench, hide your walkie-talkie in your pocket, and walk up to the owners.
"Excuse me, sir and ma'am!" You call, hodling up your notebook. "Couldn't help but notice that your, uh, hair catches the light perfectly! Can I sketch you?"
The owners stop in their tracks, their full attention on you.
"What?"
"Your hair," you say as you come closer. "My father, you see, is a maker and seller of wigs, and I just love hair. Yours is very fine quality."
"Thank you?" The woman glances at her husband and backs up towards him, wondering what this fucking teenager is doing intruding into their lives. Behind them, you see Alaric and Gambit dash out from behind the house and start walking very quickly away. "Um. Do you live here, young man?"
"Nope!" You say, smiling like a madman. "I just come to sketch. I want to be an artist. My dad wants me to make wigs, like him, but I have..." You pause for dramatic tension. "Loftier goals."
"That's nice," the man says, putting an arm around his wife. "I think we need to be getting along now, but good luck. I think."
They turn away from you. Mission successful. You think.
You twirl on your heel and begin to walk away. Alaric and Gambit are safely out of sight, so you doubt they'll be connected with you or vice versa.
When you finally make it out of the neighborhood, Gambit is waiting for you.
"Are you okay?"
You nod, sagging with relief. "That was close, though. Where's Alaric?"
"He went home. I wanted to wait for you, though. That took real guts, distracting them so we could get out in time," Gambit says. He looks around, almost nervously. "Um. I wanted to talk to you about something."
This sounds... different from the normal shit. "Okay?"
"Because I am more mature than Alaric, I am just going to ask you," Gambit adds. His tone is almost... warning?
"Then ask me," you say. Gambit pinks slightly.
"Right. Um. Anyways. You did a really good job today and I think that means if you want you should be able to date me."
You squint. "Huh?" More mature than Alaric, he says, then phrases his shit so obtusely it's impossile to understand. Sure, coolguy.
"I'm saying do you want to go on a date."
"Oh." This one's easy. "Yeah, obviously."
Gambit relaxes significantly. "Oh, cool. Okay. Cool. Tomorrow evening, then?"
"Yeah."
Gambit nods. "Okay, then. I'm going to. Head home now."
You nod. Your house is in the opposite direction from his, anyways. "Till tomorrow, then?" Shit, you sound like someone in a bodice ripper. But Gambit still goes a bit red and mutters the affirmative at you, so you guess at least //he// didn't think it was too lame.
[[Head home.]]There's a moment of silence over the walkie-talkie.
Then, there's a crackle and Gambit's voice comes through. "Understood. The dog's in the petunias again." You recognize the code for //leaving now// and breathe a sigh of relief.
"Should I stay?" You say into the walkie-talkie.
"Yeah. Fifteen minutes."
You watch anxiously as the owners get out of the car and walk into their house. And then, you see Alaric and Gambit stroll casually out of the neighbor's yard. They don't acknowledge you. You watch them, pretending to sketch, as they disappear from your line of vision. Then you watch a few more minutes, sweating slightly. The owners come back out and get in their car-- they must've been home for only a few minutes. As soon as they've gone, you go too.
You leave the neighborhood and find Gambit waiting for you alone.
"Where's Alaric?" You ask.
"He went home," Gambit replies. He's looking at you kind of expectantly. "I told him I'd wait behind for you."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, 'cuz I wanted to talk to you about something."
This sounds... different from the normal shit. "Okay?"
"Because I am more mature than Alaric, I am just going to ask you," Gambit adds. His tone is almost... warning?
"Then ask me," you say. Gambit pinks slightly.
"Right. Um. Anyways. You did a really good job today and I think that means if you want you should be able to date me."
You squint. "Huh?" More mature than Alaric, he says, then phrases his shit so obtusely it's impossile to understand. Sure, coolguy.
"I'm saying do you want to go on a date."
"Oh." This one's easy. "Yeah, obviously."
Gambit relaxes significantly. "Oh, cool. Okay. Cool. Tomorrow evening, then?"
"Yeah."
Gambit nods. "Okay, then. I'm going to. Head home now."
You nod. Your house is in the opposite direction from his, anyways. "Till tomorrow, then?" Shit, you sound like someone in a bodice ripper. But Gambit still goes a bit red and mutters the affirmative at you, so you guess at least //he// didn't think it was too lame.
[[Head home.]]You head off, almost skipping. You have a date! A date with Gambit, no less. Literally the coolest guy you've ever met, or maybe just the one with the most flexible moral compass. You wonder what kind of date it'll be...
That evening, you are incurably cheerful. It's so out of character that your parents attempt to Spanish Inquisition the reason out of you, but you use the thief skills from Gambit to sneak away and hole up in your room and also steal both their wallets. Nice. Now you can pay for stuff on the date.
[[It takes you a while because you're so excited, but you fall asleep, and before you know it, it's the next morning.|Gambit Date]]This movie was Gambit's pick, and by its midpoint you are certain you've lost brain cells. Alaric has tried to punch the screen three times, but other than that it's pretty fun.
Ducky, to distract himself from how shitty the movie is, takes out a harmonica and plays for a bit, but Gambit steals it, saying, "If I had to suffer through this movie all the way, then you do, too."
After a while, you kind of start to enjoy it. You're not sure whether it's a genuine appreciation for how little skill was put into the movie, or a kind of offshoot Stockholm Syndrome.
[[After a bit you notice that Alaric's fallen asleep.]] Jumanji is predictably good. You've seen it before, so you spend less time watching than you do eating popcorn and scrolling through Twitter, but it's still fun to see the reactions of the few members of the group who hadn't seen the movie before. To your surprise, Ducky is in that number. His expressions are the best to watch because he never seems to see the twists coming. When Robin Williams comes out of the jungle, Ducky audibly gasps and it's the most precious thing in the world.
[[After a bit you notice that Alaric's fallen asleep.]] Rebel's Game is cool as hell. It's a combination of urban fantasy, buddy cop, and drama elements.
You're kind of jealous of the protagonists. You wish that you could have a sweet ass fantasy road trip that grants you wishes at the end. You catch Ducky's gaze as the two of you chance to look away from the screen.
Okay, maybe this isn't too bad.
Ducky loves the character of Bubbles from the movie, who is a sweet anthropomorphic budgie who has also murdered like fifty people. Ducky says they would get along well, because they're both related to taking a bubble bath, aka The Height of Luxury. And, honestly, you would pay to see that team-up.
[[After a bit you notice that Alaric's fallen asleep.]]The rest of the group's noticed, too. Gambit rolls his eyes.
"It's eight p.m. What is he, two hundred?"
"I think he's just been staying up late," Ducky replies. "He said something about being on the run from the law, but I didn't know whether or not he was serious."
While everybody is talking, you look at the sleeping Alaric. You've got an idea.
[[Fuck with him]]
[[Tuck him in.]]In a flash, you've made a makeshift blanket out of your jacket and stolen a couch cushion to give Alaric a pillow. The group notices what you're doing right away.
Ducky smiles. "Oh, that's so nice. Hang on, I can get him my blanket." He steps out of the room and comes back carrying a big, comfy-looking microplush blanket. You retrieve your jacket and replace it with Ducky's blanket. Alaric smiles softly in his sleep and rolls over onto his face.
"You're both too good for this world," Gambit says.
"What would you have done?" Fil asks, with morbid curiosity.
"Oh, the same thing. I just woulda //also// drawn dicks on his forehead." Gambit leans back. "Well, do you guys wanna watch another movie? I don't really wanna go home yet."
"That's fine with me," Ducky says. "My parents said it's fine as long as we don't stay up past one."
That settled, you put on a string of movies, starting with the other ones the group had picked out beforehand and leading into whatever looked funny on Netflix. When you next notice the time, it's almost 12:30.
[[You soon realize that almost everybody else has fallen asleep.]]You pull a Sharpie from your pocket and lean forward. Delicately, because you've never done this before and you're not sure how heavy of a sleeper Alaric is. You uncap it, then carefully scrawl a dick on Alaric's forehead.
Perfect.
Ducky leans over to see what you're doing and lets out a soft laugh. "Nice. We should get him a blanket or something, though."
He gets up and steps out fo the rom, returning with a large microplush blanket, which he drapes over Alaric. When he's done, he turns to the rest of the group. "So, what now?"
Gambit leans back. "Well, do you guys wanna watch another movie? I don't really wanna go home yet."
"That's fine with me," Ducky says. "My parents said it's fine as long as we don't stay up past one."
That settled, you put on a string of movies, starting with the other ones the group had picked out beforehand and leading into whatever looked funny on Netflix. When you next notice the time, it's almost 12:30.
[[You soon realize that almost everybody else has fallen asleep.]]You decide to hit the ball as hard as you dare to try and get a hole in one. And you do get some holes in one! You also get your ball stuck in all the following weird places: a rock, a tree, a bench, Alaric's hair, Fil's backpack, Ducky's mouth, a decorative fountain, a rift in spacetime...
You aren't last, though, because Alaric treats every hole like an //actual// golf course and hits his ball into the middle distance with all the cheer of someone winning. Fil plays more cautiously than you, so he does a little worse, and Gambit finesses every shot, banking his ball off weird corners. However, it's Ducky who actually seems like he's winning. Mostly because he casually threatens Gambit every time their scores get close. You're pretty sure that Ducky wouldn't hurt Gambit over a game of mini-golf, but Gambit seems pretty convinced.
[[Halfway through the game, Gambit looks at his phone with a slightly exaggerated expression of surprise and says he needs to leave.]]You elect to play it safe, so that you don't accidentally wedge your ball somewhere stupid. Unfortunately, you're so cautious that it takes you like three strokes to even get near the hole. You aren't last, though, because Alaric treats every hole like an //actual// golf course and hits his ball into the middle distance with all the cheer of someone winning. Fil plays less cautiously than you, so he does a little better, and Gambit finesses every shot, banking his ball off weird corners. However, it's Ducky who actually seems like he's winning. Mostly because he casually threatens Gambit every time their scores get close. You're pretty sure that Ducky wouldn't hurt Gambit over a game of mini-golf, but Gambit seems pretty convinced.
[[Halfway through the game, Gambit looks at his phone with a slightly exaggerated expression of surprise and says he needs to leave.]]Alaric looks disappointed but offers to play for Gambit while he's gone.
"Don't do that," Gamit says hurriedly. "Uh, why don't you just strike me off the list? I don't think I would have caught up to Ducky anyways."
Alaric raises his eyebrow. He seems suspicious of Gambit, but he shrugs. "Okay, whatever you want. What do you have to leave for, anyways?"
Gambit pauses for a moment before saying, "Crime acts." Before you can question him more, he turns and steps behind a bush and when you check, he's vanished completely.
"Well, I guess we can still play with four," you say to Alaric. He nods and turns around to talk to Fil and Ducky, but they've mysteriously vanished. Alaric's phone buzzes.
He unlocks it, confused, then turns back to you. "Uh. I guess they had to leave, too? That's weird."
"Yeah..."
You have a feeling thats something deeper's going on here.
[[Look for the others???]]
[[Take advantage of the situation and flirt with Alaric.]]"Hang on a sec," you say, and step off the course and into a flower bed. You poke around for a few seconds, going deeper into the foliage, until you see a flash of black hair and pursue it behind an especially tall topiary and find...
...literally everybody. They're all hunched together, whispering.
"...Ahem," you say. They jump and separate, looking sheepish. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Shhh!" Gambit glances back the way you came. "Listen. Do you like Alaric?"
"I-- uh-- you turn red. "Well, I mean. I guess? Why?"
"Okay yeah good because he fucking //obviously// likes you but he will literally never tell anybody he likes them fucking ever."
Your breath catches. Holy shit.
"So," Fil picks up, "We're going to help you. If you get to the final hole with him, we're gonna set up something romantic and you can ask him out. Because if we don't he'll just do his weird pining thing for forever."
"You'll cooperate, right?" Ducky says, smiling.
You nod.
"Good. Now get the fuck outta here before Alaric finds us," Gambit commands, and before you know it you're running back to Alaric. He looks confused.
"What was going on?"
"Nothing much," you reply. "I guess they're all gone. Do you wanna keep playing, though?"
"Yeah, if you want to."
You nod. You and Alaric keep playing, making your way through the holes. Without the others around, Alaric relaxes and just concentrates on playing. He's surprisingly good when he's not hitting every ball with all his might. He actually pulls ahead of you a little bit. The only downside is, by going off to find the others, you lost some flirting time.
[[You are at the final hole.]]You lean against Alaric, looping your arm around his. "I'm glad that we have the alone time, at least." Fuck everybody else. Who gives a shit what they're doing? This is the perfect chance to try and score a date with him.
Alaric turns bright red and goes silent, but nods and smiles a whole lot and lets you lead him from hole to hole. Now that the others aren't around, he doesn't iht every ball as far as possible. However, you can't have him winning, so you make sure to always say something flirtatious just as he hits the ball, and he always ends up fucking up his shot. You beat him easily, and it's twice as fun as beating him the normal way.
[[You are at the final hole.]]An improbably romantic scene rises to greet you. There are rose petals everywhere, for no goddamn reason. The big fake T-Rex skeleton whose mouth is the final hole has been given heart eyes. Along the path towards the hole, a series of letter cutouts spelled:
A
S
K
H
I
M
O
U
T
!
Holy shit.
Well, it seems that this is your best opportunity. If you were ever to ask Alaric out, this is the time.
[[ask out]]
[[chicken out]]You steel your nerves for a second, and then open your mouth to speak. But Alaric starts talking over you immediately, very loudly and in a very high-pitched nervous voice.
"Haha! This is so weird. I wonder if it's a Valentine's Day thing, I mean I know it's late fall but uhhhh I honestly can't think of another excuse for this! How bizarre!"
"Alaric!" You snap. He stops talking. You take a deep breath. "You wanna go out on a date?"
Alaric looks at the rose petals, the ASK HIM OUT, at you. He's way too nervous. Does that mean he really doesn't like you, after all?
"Yeah," Alaric says. His voice is high-pitched an awkward. He clears his throat and tries again. "Uh, yeah, sounds, uh, you know. Sounds good." He looks off into the distance. Christ, someone needs to teach this idiot how to deal with his emotions.
"When are you free?" You ask patiently.
"Oh. Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? Cool. Let's meet up then and you can take me somewhere special," you say, smiling sweetly. Alaric's blush is deeper than the Mariana Trench and twice as charming.
"I got somewhere in mind."
"Cool," you repeat. You... really didn't think much past asking the initial question. "I'm gonna... go home now. To get ready."
Alaric nods like this makes perfect sense. "Me too." To avoid walking out the same way as you, he heads awkwardly off into the bushes, abandoning his golf club near the course. You take it to the return center for him.
[[Finally, you leave for home.]]No fucking way. You refuse to acknowledge your emotions! Or expose them to other people! You set your ball down on the course. "Does it always look like this?"
"Uh, n-no," Alaric replies. He seems confused, like he's not sure what direction the evening is going in. "Did you have anything to do with this?"
"Nope." You take your first swing. The ball barely goes anywhere because the whole course is so covered with rose petals. God fucking dammit.
"Are you an idiot?!"
You jump as Gambit leaps out from behind a bush.
"Gambit!" Alaric says. "What the fuck you said you had to leave, dude!"
"I did leave but I came back to make sure you two had the guts to, like, talk to each other," Gambit says. "And apparently //you don't// despite my best efforts to help."
"What." Alaric looks around. "Gambit was this //you?!//"
"He had help." Fil and Ducky step into view, too. Alaric looks like he's about to pass out from embarrassment, but it quickly gives way to anger.
"I'm going to //FUCKING KILL YOU GUYS WHAT THE HECK!!!//"
He looks like he's actually about to attack his (and your) friends, so you say the only thing that you know will stop him in his tracks.
"Wait! Alaric! I actually like you!"
It's a one-hit KO! Literally. Alaric trips, falls on his face, and doesn't move. After a moment, Fil realizes what's going on, and with an "oh shit" comes forward to roll Alaric over and make sure he's not fucking dead.
"Oh my god," you say. "I didn't mean for that to happen. Oh no."
"Kinda glad he passed out, though," Gambit says. "I think he was gonna strangle me."
You run up to Alaric.
"He'll be fine," Fil says. "He's still living, which for Alaric means he'll be up in a few minutes trying to fight something again."
"Which means we should probably go," Gambit adds. He casts a curious glance at you. "You ask him out this time, though."
You nod. You're not sure there's another response. Your new friends disappear out the back entrance, and in another minute or two, Alaric wakes up. He tries to punch you, then sees who it is and relaxes. Then he remembers the last five minutes, and tenses up again.
"Was I hallucinating, or did you say you liked me?"
"No, I said it."
"Ah." Alaric turns bright red, then turns around so he doesn't have to look at you. "You wanna... go on a date or something, then?"
"Yeah, if I get to look at you."
Alaric laughs a little and turns back towards you a little. "Tomorrow?"
"Sounds good."
"Okay. I'm just gonna. Go and see if my one brain cell can process this information, then." Alaric gets up and takes off running.
What a weird fucking dude.
You can't say too much though, because you just asked him out.
[[Finally, you leave for home.]]You have a date. You have a date! With Alaric! Hell yes! You skip a little as you walk home. Should you be worried about what to wear? Knowing Alaric, it wouldn't matter too much as long as you were prepared to swim in it.
You're unusually cheerful that evening. Your parents grill you on what could possibly be the reason, but you dodge their questions with expert ease and spend the rest of the evening trying not to be so excited that you can't fall asleep.
It doesn't work.
[[Eventually, you do end up unconscious, because next thing you know it's morning.|Alaric Date]]Well, everybody except Ducky and you. You're sitting next to each other on the couch, and you're both that kind of tired that makes you really honest, which is probably going to end badly for you in particular.
"Hey," Ducky says quietly, as the credits for the last movie roll down the screen. "I just wanted to let you know that you're really cool and fun to hang out with."
"Thanks," you say. "You too."
"I'm glad you moved here."
You think for a minute. "Yeah, me too."
There's a moment of silence before you continue.
"I really didn't know if there was a point at first. But meeting you guys has been... really nice." You laugh softly to yourself. "I know it doesn't make much sense. I haven't known you guys that long at all."
Ducky shrugs. "It happens sometimes. I mean, when I first met Fil and Gambit and Alaric we didn't hang out for that long, but I knew they were it."
"Yeah. I feel like that too," you say. "Well, mostly just about you."
Ah, shit. You didn't mean to say that.
"What do you mean?" Ducky asks. He seems like he's almost asleep.
[[ask him out!]]
[[stay quiet]]"I dunno. I just like you a lot. Like, I'd totally go out with you if you were down," you say, slowly. "I mean, not if you didn't want to."
A moment passes before Ducky registers what you said. "You want to go out with me?" He asks, leaning forward and looking at you. "Really?"
"Well, yeah--" As soon as you speak, Ducky sweeps you up in a warm hug. You hug back.
"Meet me tomorrow after school," he says. "I got a great first date idea!"
Just then, Ducky's mother comes in.
"Hon, we need to get your friends home now." The two of you separate, embarrased, and then you go about waking up the rest of your friends.
[[It's late when you finally head home.]]You lapse into silence and hope Ducky'll just fall asleep, but that doesn't happen. He repeats his question.
"Ah, I dunno," you say, hoping that'll be enough.
"I do know what you mean, though," Ducky says reflectively. "I like you a lot, and I don't even know that much about you." Ducky stays quiet for a second or two more, gathering his strength. "I think if you wanted to, I would date you."
"Huh?" You're suddenly much more awake. "Really?" He doesn't respond. Shit, is he asleep? "Ducky?"
"Hmmm?"
"Are you asking me out?"
There's another long pause and you're certain he's gone to sleep when Ducky nods and says, "If you want to go out with me."
A smile splits your face. "Yes, of course."
Ducky's brain finally catches up with his mouth. He sits up too. "Really?"
"Yeah!" As soon as you speak, Ducky sweeps you up in a warm hug. You hug back.
"Meet me tomorrow after school," he says.
Just then, Ducky's mother comes in.
"Hon, we need to get your friends home now." The two of you separate, embarrased, and then you go about waking up the rest of your friends.
[[It's late when you finally head home.]]You're glad your parents are asleep so that you don't have to deal with their questions, because you're grinning like a fool the whole way to your bedroom. Even though you were super tired before, you don't feel like you could sleep at all now. Of course, you still try, because that means there'll be less perceived time passing between now and going on your first date with Ducky.
[[It's hard, but eventually you fall asleep|Ducky Date]]The stop your phone tells you to get off at isn't much-- just a sign off the side of the road. The only other thing of note in this area is a hiking trail leading off into the woods. It's not exactlly creepy, because it's broad daylight, but it has the horror movie potential.
There's nobody present, so you and the gang say fuck it and venture in further.
Now that you're actually underneath the trees, it's pretty nice. The light filters down in a way that you're sure any Instagrammer worth their salt would love. Teh plants that grow by the side of the path are so bushy they obscure the ground, so you feel kind of like you're walking across a suspended bridge on an ocean of green. The sounds of the road die away, leaving only the smell of dirt and the sound of birdcalls. You had no idea a place like this was so close to the city.
[[And then you see Fil.]]He's standing in a small cleared-out area, looking like a boss in a video game. He's wearing the apron he normally reserves for the gardening club, and blue gloves. His hair is tied back again. He's holding several trash bags and a box of gloves.
Alaric groans as you all file into the clearing. "Really, dude? You brought us all the way out here to pick up trash? We thought you were dying!"
Fil shoves gloves and a trash bag into everybody's hands. "Listen. You fuckers have broken three-quarters of all laws in existence. And you made me watch you do it. You owe me an afternoon of forest cleanup."
"Nobody made you watch," Gambit points out. "I'm not doing this."
"Oh, yes you are," Fil says. "Need I remind you that I am a //witness// to said lawbreaking? You want to get arrested?"
Gambit sighs and accepts his trash bag and gloves.
Ducky grins. "I think this is a great idea, Fil!"
"Thank you, Ducky. At least //someone// here has a moral compass."
You put on your gloves and take a trash bag, then head out to pick up some trash. Even though this place seemed pristine at first, on closer inspection there's a lot of plastic garbage lying around. Especially the closer you get to the camp site just a little past the clearing.
It seems you have a decision before you.
[[work hard!]]
[[slack off]]You decide to give this your all! You've always thought that wilderness clean-up projects were cool, but you never ended up doing any because you weren't sure where to start. But now that someone else has done the hard work of getting the people and supplies in order, you're more than happy to do some cleaning up. In no time, your bag is half-full, and heavy with disposable forks, the corner of wrappers, a life vest for some reason, and so on. You hum under your breath and quickly get into a rhythm.
[[Somehow, you end up working side-by-side with Fil.]]You sidle a little ways into the trees and pick up a few pieces of trash, but you don't touch the grosser-looking stuff. Hey, it's been a long day. You're tired. You think you deserve some slacking off time.
Besides, even where the litter slightly ruins the image, the woods are gorgeous. It's all you can do not to lie down and become one with the earth. Or maybe you're just a fucking weirdo.
[[Somehow, you end up working side-by-side with Fil.]]"Oh," he says. "Hi. Do you need help with this area?"
You don't, ut you say yes anyways because you want to hang out with him.
"Thank you for staying and helping out with this, by the way," he says.
You shake your head. "Aren't you making us stay?"
"Well... yes, but Alaric and Ducky and Gambit have less incentive to leave, because they're my friends. You haven't been here as long as them, so you probably could have decided to leave." Fil pics up a couple pieces of plastic and drops them in his trash bag. "I was afraid you wouldn't come at all, actually."
"What do you mean? I love hanging out with you!" You say. "I wouldn't miss something like this for the world."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah." You shrug as you move to a new patch of ground to search for trash. "I mean, I know that I haven't known you guys that long, but I'm still allowed to think you're cool and want to spend time with you, right?"
"You have a point. I was similar, when I first came back." Fil falls silent for a moment. "If it's not too personal of a question... do you regret moving here?"
[[Yeah, I think I do.]]
[[Not anymore.]]"You guys are amazing and everything," you explain, "but sometimes I can't help but feel like I'm not supposed to be here."
There's a pause. You know it's not the character growth moment that some fucker probably tried to engineer for you, but it's the truth, so there.
"I know how you feel," Fil says. You almost jump in surprise.
"Really?"
"Yes." Fil's brow wrinkles. "Well. It's not about moving here. I must say that I overall think it was positive, though I didn't at first. It's just that lately... something's odd."
"Like how?"
"I don't know. I feel like there's something missing. Something doesn't quite line up here. I wish I could figure it out, but I seem to be stuck." Fil smiles apologetically at you. "But I don't mean to make this about me."
Oh, shit, he's beautiful, you think to yourself, and then inwardly do a double take. When did you start liking this guy?
You glance at him. You don't think he spotted your change in expression. But... well, as long as it's on your mind, you might as well see if you've got a chance.
[[ask Fil out]]
[[panic and stay silent]]You gaze at Fil. "I think when I first got here I might've said I do. Because my last home was amazing. I loved it so much." Fil nods. "But then I met you guys, and... I don't know. I have a lot of fun when you're around. So it's got some upsides, at least."
Fil chuckles. "I'm glad you feel that way. It's how I feel, too. When I first moved here, I thought I was giving up something. But I think even if I did give something up, I gained something, too." He stands up. "Hm. I think this area's done. Want to move on?"
You nod, and together the two of you pick a new area and start cleaning up.
"You know, the more I think about it," you say, "the less I think I lost something when I moved here. I mean, I thought I'd have to give up hiking, but I guess there's some trails here in the city, too."
"That's why I like this place so much," Fil says. "I used to come here all the time. Less so, now, because I have other things to do. But it's still beautiful."
You have to stop yourself from saying //not as beautiful from you// and grimace inwardly in horror. Oh, no. When the hell did you start liking this guy?
You glance at him. You don't think he spotted it. But... well, as long as it's on your mind, you might as well see if you've got a chance.
[[ask Fil out]]
[[panic and stay silent]]"Hey, do you wanna go out with me?" You blurt out, just as Fil opens his mouth to say something.
Fil pauses, and then looks relieved. "I was about to ask you the same thing."
"Oh. So that's a yes, then?"
"Yes."
"Cool."
Fil turns back to gathering litter. "Actually, I was thinking that we could come back here and spend some time at the campsite up ahead. I can bring s'mores, and since there's less light pollution out here, it's a good spot for stargazing."
"That sounds awesome," you say. "I'll make sure to be here, uh. Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." Fil smiles at you. "I'm looking forward to it."
[[When you head home, your heart's beating at a thousand miles an hour.]]You look down and focus on your work. It's fine. You don't need to say anything right now, it's fine it's fine it's fine.
"Hey," Fil says. You look up sharply, startled out of your reverie. "Tomorrow, after all this is done, I was thinking you and I could come down here and enjoy the newly cleaned-up campsite."
"Like, camp here?" You say.
"More like just sit at a fire for a bit. The stargazing is better out here despite the trees, because there's not as much light pollution."
He's so casual about it. Is he asking you out?
Fil catches you staring at him in confusion. "What? What is it?"
"Are you--" you stutter a bit and curse yourself. "Is this a date?"
"Yes. Sorry. I thought that was obvious." Fil goes back to gathering litter. You almost don't catch his hands trembling. Just slightly, but still. Oh, he's nervous. It's almost relieving.
"Yeah," you say, finally. "Sounds good to me."
"Good."
[[When you head home, your heart's beating at a thousand miles an hour.]]You have a date. You have a date, and it's a date with //Fil//, no less. You were pretty sure for a hot second there that he was joking, because he was so calm about everything, but you realized later that he was nervous. He just doesn't have as many tells as most people.
You're in an unusually good mood when you get home. Your parents pepper you with questions, but you just smile at them and tell them you had a good time with your friends, then go to your room and concentrate on what stuff you should bring on your date tomorrow. You're up pretty late.
[[Eventually you go to bed.|Fil Date]]Gambit raises his eyebrows. "Really? I mean, are you sure?"
"Yeah!" You pump your fist. "Let's fill Alcuin with crime! I love breaking laws!"
Gambit smiles. "Well, okay, then. Let's do some fuckin' crime!" He pauses and puts his hand on his stomach. "Let's, uh. Let's still do dinner, though, because I'm so fucking hungry."
"That's understandable. I'm kinda hungry too anyways."
"Actually," Gambit says, "Going to dinner should give us a pretty good chance to do some crimes."
You're confused for a moment before you remember dining and dashing exists. "Oh, right!"
Gambit grins and gestures to an upcoming door to indicate it's your destination. "Glad you got the idea." You head into the restaurant and sit down. [[The waitress arrives to take your orders.|conversation opt 2]]"Yeah, no problem."
"It was really fun, though," you add. "Like riding a rollercoaster."
Gambit smiles. "I know, right? 'S what I love about it. That, and that I get money and also it makes my dad sad."
"That's fair." You pause. "I don't know if my dad would even care, to be honest."
"Jeez, that's cold."
"Oh, I don't mean it like that. He'd prolly just say something like, 'Everybody goes through a phase like that, son.' He's way too understanding sometimes."
"Huh." You arrive at the restaurant and are shown to your seats. "I guess that has its benefits."
"Oh, definitely. I mean, it's the reason why they're letting me stay out so late."
[[The waitress arrives to take your orders.|conversation opt 1]]"Hey," Gambit says as your food arrives, "Have you ever considered getting into occult stuff?"
This question unnerves you a little for multiple reasons. "No?" After a moment's thought, you add: "Have you?"
"Eh." Gambit fails to elaborate until you give him a probing look. "I thought about it for a bit, but I wanna talk to someone who's experienced with it first. I tried to ask Alaric, but he's... weird about it. Starts spoutin off some cult leader stuff."
"Alaric's into the occult?"
"Honestly, I have no fucking clue but he worships Poseidon, which is a pagan thing, so I thought maybe."
You file that away under useful information and ask the next question on your mind. "What were you thinking about doing?"
"Just some stuff for vengeance. You know, help me get my comeuppance against the fuckers who deserve it. But the one time I sort of tried it, it turned out kind of. Bad."
"Bad how?"
Gambit acts like he doesn't hear you. "Anyways, it did give me some cool benefits, so I thought maybe if I had an expert on the case, I might be able to do it without the drawbacks."
You think for a moment. "Well, as much as I've experienced-- which, uh, is very little-- there's always going to be a few drawbacks, unless you're one hundred percent on board with a given entity's mission. Like, I imagine Poseidon is a relatively chill god, so Alaric probably doesn't have to worry too much. For some reason, I feel like their personalities... match."
You've been talking for so long that you barely noticed that both you and Gambit have finished eating.
[[Time to dine and dash!]]"Hey," Gambit says as your food arrives, "Have you ever considered getting into occult stuff?"
This question unnerves you a little for multiple reasons. "No?" After a moment's thought, you add: "Have you?"
"Eh." Gambit fails to elaborate until you give him a probing look. "I thought about it for a bit, but I wanna talk to someone who's experienced with it first. I tried to ask Alaric, but he's... weird about it. Starts spoutin off some cult leader stuff."
"Alaric's into the occult?"
"Honestly, I have no fucking clue but he worships Poseidon, which is a pagan thing, so I thought maybe."
You file that away under useful information and ask the next question on your mind. "What were you thinking about doing?"
"Just some stuff for vengeance. You know, help me get my comeuppance against the fuckers who deserve it. But the one time I sort of tried it, it turned out kind of. Bad."
"Bad how?"
Gambit acts like he doesn't hear you. "Anyways, it did give me some cool benefits, so I thought maybe if I had an expert on the case, I might be able to do it without the drawbacks."
You think for a moment. "Well, as much as I've experienced-- which, uh, is very little-- there's always going to be a few drawbacks, unless you're one hundred percent on board with a given entity's mission. Like, I imagine Poseidon is a relatively chill god, so Alaric probably doesn't have to worry too much. For some reason, I feel like their personalities... match."
You've been talking for so long that you barely noticed that both you and Gambit have finished eating.
"I can pay," you and Gambit say at the same time. You end up paying, because you figure it's polite.
[[You leave the restaurant peacefully and go for a walk.]]When the waiter clears the last of your plates away, Gambit catches your gaze and smiles, then jerks his head towards the door. There aren't too many other people in the restaurant, so if things go pear-shaped you both can run outside easily.
Gambit gets up, acting casual. You follow his lead. The two of you leave the restaurant, almost a little slowly. Gambit throws his arm around you and immediately begins talking about the weather, which you take as some kind of diversionary tatic.
The second you're out the door, you hear a yell from inside and Gambit says "Run for it!"
The two of you burst into a sprint and take a couple turns so that you don't get caught, laughing the whole way. You stop about a block and a half away from the diner, panting.
"That was awesome!" You turn to Gambit, grinning, but he's not smiling.
He turns to you.[["Wait. Something's off."]]It's getting dark out. The light from neon signs and traffic lights bathes the streets in different colors. It's not quite an aesthetic photo, because nothing tends to be that pretty without some help from editing software. But it's still good.
You walk and talk for a bit until suddenly, Gambit falls silent. And then, with no premable, he stops short and says: [["Wait. Something's off."]]"What?" You glance over at Gambit, confused. You thought the date was going well, but... did you do something wrong?
Gambit's kind of watching you weirdly, like he's trying to remember something. "Are you... have I seen you before?"
"Uh. We're on a date, so... I hope so?"
"Nah, I don't mean, like. Before now. I mean before you... moved here? Fuck, that's not right either." Gambit looks down for a mooment, then looks back up, his eyes alight with realization. "Wait. I //have// seen you before. Just not in a high school."
[[HA HA WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN]]You follow your natural instinct to lie, but you're too surprised to be convincing. Your laughter is forced, your voice over-loud, and if Gambit hadn't broken through your bullshit already, he definitely has now.
You blink, you know, as is normal, and suddenly Gambit's no longer wearing a high schooler's clothes. He's back to wearing the clothes of a noble-born adventuring rogue. And it looks like he's got the weapons to match.
Gambit advances on you, drawing two daggers that you know well from your study of magic: the Scion Daggers. Six inches of wicked black blade with years of enchantments sunk into the steel to make them extra deadly. The illusion magic you spun has collapsed. Around you, the fake world of your creation is falling apart, but Gambit isn't going to wait for that to happen.
[[Needless to say, he's not going to be settling this peacefully.]]
Gambit throws the first dagger before you have time to think, and it lands solidly in your shoulder. You stumble back but keep your eyes on him, changing back to your true form so you can cast spells. You're most proficient with illusions, but... you want to at least try to survive this.
"I don't know why or how you put us in this weird... alternate universe," Gambit says as he draws a new knife from his belt. "And honestly? It's pretty fucking cool."
"Thanks," you spit, jerking the original knife from your shoulder.
"But that doesn't change that you trapped me in here, so now you gotta die."
"Not yet," you snarl, and toss a spell at him. Magic energy crackles through Gambit, opening small wounds on his arms, but he doesn't do anything more than flinch and throw another knife. And another. How many of those fuckers does he HAVE?!
You hate that something that lame might end up being your last thought.
[[You fall onto your back.]]The beauty of the music is only rivaled by the emotions it carries. You're almost overwhelmed. The songs Ducky's chosen are soft and mostly slow, and while he plays he glances at you sometimes, looking a little anxious.
You notice a spare guitar, placed gently on the side of the stage. If you wanted, you could probably make this concert a duet.
[[join in!]]
[[Just listen.]]You scoop up the guitar and start playing from the few chords you've picked up. Immediately, Ducky's melody warps to fit what you're playing. You can't say you're the best musician in the world, but there's something about performing with Ducky that makes you feel like you could do anything.
You lose track of time, but eventually the two of you stop playing. You look up to see Ducky's expression.
[[He's grinning from ear to ear.]]You decide it'd probably be weird to start playing in the middle of Ducky's private concert for you, so you sit back and just enjoy the show. You actually don't know how much time passes, because after a certain point you kind of get lost in the music. It seems like Ducky does, too.
[[When he stops, he has the softest expression on his face.]]"Is it okay that I joined in?" You ask, somewhat sheepish.
"It was awesome!" Ducky sets down his instrument. "Y'know, I like playing alone, but playing with other people is more fun. I was kind of hoping you'd do that, actually."
You smile even wider. "I can play with you any time you want."
"I'd like that."
Oh, god. You're both starting to turn red. You turn your head to the side to prevent further embarrassment and change the subject.
[[So, uh, what do you want to do next?]]"Uh, did you-- did you like it?"
You shake your head, girnning. "How could I not, dude? You're amazing."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Ducky pauses. "I really like playing for you. I mean. I like playing for everyone, but especially you."
"Good," you reply, "Cause I could listen to you play for forever."
Ducky looks away. "Dang."
Your face is very red. You look away and cough, then change the subject.
[[So, uh, what do you want to do next?]]"Oh, I didn't think about that," Ducky says, his face dropping a little.
You shrug. "I mean, I don't mind just hanging out here."
"Sounds cool," Ducky replies. "I like hanging out here, anyways."
"Yeah. I couldn't believe that all the clubs get their own rooms," you say. "Back at my old school, you had to try and get a classroom or something. And you couldn't meet after school."
"Well, I mean technically this is because of Gambit," Ducky says, gesturing to the room. "I think he promised his dad he'd stop doing crimes if he gave me a club room. And then. Y'know. Kept doing crimes. But Falimal had already signed the agreement for a year, so he can't pull me."
"Damn." You guess it pays to have a friend whose dad is the principal, even if said dad is a dick. "Good on you, then."
"Even if the club's not that big, it's nice to have a place for all my instruments."
"Wait. These are all yours?"
"Yeah!" Ducky looks satisfied with himself. "I mean, I don't really have anything else to spend money on, except video games. Plus I get a cut of Gambit's stolen money, so I have a little more cash to work with than most people."
"I'm jealous." Before you moved here, you probably wouln't have been, but now you've developed a much greater interest in playing music.
"I can probably ask Gambit to start giing you a cut, if you want," Ducky offers. There's a faint sound in the hall outside. Ducky cocks his head to listen. "Did you hear that?"
[[Yeah, I think I hear something.]]
[[I don't hear anything. You must be imagining things.]]"Yeah. It kinda sounds like yelling." Ducky gets up from his seat and goes over to the door.
You watch as Ducky opens the club room door and the whole rest of the posse bursts in. But they look... different. Not like high school students at all. All of them are dressed in clothing that's definitely from before mass production was a thing, and all of them are bristling with weapons. Alaric's holding a fucking greataxe. Gambit's got two knives in his hands-- long, sharp-looking ones. And Alaric and Fil both have long, pointy elf ears.
When Ducky sees them, he looks confused. "Uh, guys?"
"It's an illusion," Gambit says, before anybody can ask any more questions. "Fake. It was made up to trap us. For some reason."
"You're not a human," Alaric says. "You're a dragonborn! Like, a dragon but bipedal and stuff?"
"What are you guys //talking about?//" You interurpt, attempting to bring the situation back under control.
Alaric levels his greataxe at you. "You don't get to say anything. I bet you're the one in charge of this, huh?!"
"No!"You glance over at Ducky, panicked, and curse. You're too late.
Ducky stands up, back to his original form of a white dragonborn.
"You tricked me," he says. The disappointment in his voice is heartbreaking. "I'm proably going to have to kill you now."
[[uh oh.]]"No, I do hear something," Ducky says. He stands up, a puzzled expression on his face, and goes over to the door while you curse under your breath. You get up to follow him, but before you can, Ducky opens the club room door and the whole rest of the posse bursts in. But they look... different. Not like high school students at all. All of them are dressed in clothing that's definitely from before mass production was a thing, and all of them are bristling with weapons. Alaric's holding a fucking greataxe. Gambit's got two knives in his hands-- long, sharp-looking ones. And Alaric and Fil both have long, pointy elf ears.
When Ducky sees them, he looks confused. "Uh, guys?"
"It's an illusion," Gambit says, before anybody can ask any more questions. "Fake. It was made up to trap us. For some reason."
"You're not a human," Alaric says. "You're a dragonborn! Like, a dragon but bipedal and stuff?"
"What are you guys //talking about?//" You interurpt, attempting to bring the situation back under control.
Alaric levels his greataxe at you. "You don't get to say anything. I bet you're the one in charge of this, huh?!"
"No!"You glance over at Ducky, panicked, and curse. You're too late.
Ducky stands up, back to his original form of a white dragonborn.
"You tricked me," he says. The disappointment in his voice is heartbreaking. "I'm proably going to have to kill you now."
[[uh oh.]]"Hey, hey," you say, backing up. You trip over the chair you were just sitting on and hit the tiled floor of the club room. Your head hurts like a motherfucker.
You get up just in time for Ducky, Fil, Alaric, and Gambit to surround you entirely. You smile weakly up at them.
"I can explain."
"You can?" Ducky perks up. "Do it, then." There's a threat at the edges of his voice that puts a lump in your throat.
You swallow, trying to speak. "Well, I." You can't think of a lie. "Well, y'see--" Nothing. Shit. Fuck. Ducky's looking disappointed again.
"I thought so." Ducky hefts a set of bagpipes, which probably shouldn't be as threatening of a move as it is.
[[You don't think this will be settled peacefully.]]
The first thing Ducky says is "Let me handle this," and that's when you know you're in real trouble.
You try to get the first hit in by channeling a spell, but as soon as you take out your arcane focus it's nabbed out of your hands. So you step forward to punch Ducky, but you're met with a blast of music that's so discordant you drop to your knees. When you try to get up, he kicks you in the head with no discernible break in the playing. It's awful. You can't concentrate. You can't do anything and meanwhile it just gets louder and louder and more horrible until--
[[You fall onto your back.]]"Let's stargaze," you say. "I haven't gotten to do it since I moved."
You flop onto your back, looking up through the gap in the trees created by the clearing to see the stars. There's a surprising amount out given how close you are to a city.
"It's too bad there's nowhere more open we could do this," you say as Fil lies back next to you. "When I was little, I was obsessed with the stars. I could probably name like half the stars up there."
There's a smile in Fil's voice when he says, "You recognize any of the ones up there?"
"Yeah, actually." You point upwards. "See that group of stars there? That's Cassiopeia. And those ones a little bit below it are Andromeda." You pause. "My favorite's probably not out right now, though."
"Which ones's your favorite?"
"Cancer," you say. "Like the zodiac? I think it's a summer constellation, though."
"Why Cancer?"
"It was the first one I learned. Kinda stands out in my memory."
"That makes sense. My first one was the Little Dipper. My parents taught it to me so that I'd know where the North Star was, so I could always come home if I got lost sometime."
"That's really sweet."
It's quiet for a minute or so as you both relax and gaze up at the sky. Normally, you find quiet moments like this kind of awkward, but with Fil it doesn't feel that bad.
Eventually Fil breaks the silence. [["I'm glad you came here, you know."]]"Oh, definitely s'mores," you say. "it's been forever since I had some."
"Me too, actually," Fil says. "Last time was when I was leaving my last school. They threw a going-away party of sorts for me, much like this."
"My friends in my last school threw me a party, too," yo usay. "It was just more like, some pizza and loitering in an arcade cheating at Skee-ball."
"That sounds fun, too." Fil pauses to stick a marshmallow on his skewer. "How do you spell that, anyways?"
"Skee-ball?" You pause. "I. I have no idea, actually."
"Me neither. I've looked it up, but no two sources seem to agree."
"That's weird." You frown. "Maybe it's like the Berenstain/Berenstein bears thing, like it's two different universes colliding or something."
Fil rolls his eyes. "Highly doubt that."
"Can you prove it's not true?"
"That's a fallacy. Just because you can't prove something's not true doesn't mean it is true."
You consider pushing your bullshit argument a bit further and decide you don't want to die on this hill. "Yeah, you're probably right."
You roast marshmallows in silence for a little bit. It's weird, because normally silence is awkward for you, but with Fil it's kind of peaceful. It's probably because you know he's not being quiet because he doesn't like you or anything. It's part of him.
After a minute or so, Fil breaks the silence. [["I'm glad you came here, you know."]]You think for a moment before replying, "Me too. Well, I'm glad I got to meet you, at first."
"It kind of makes me wish I was a little younger," Fil remarks. "That way I wouldn't have to leave this year and I could keep hanging out with everybody."
Oh, that's right. He's a senior.
"What are you going to do after you graduate?"
Fil stops to think for a little bit. "I think... I'd travel around for a bit. The world's big, and I've only seen a small corner of it. As much as I'd like to live somewhere in peace, I want to experience more before I settle in." He turns to you, smiling a little. "Maybe I'll wait for everybody to graduate, and we could all travel together. What do you think?"
[[I'd travel with you!]]
[[I'd wait for you.]]"That's good. Traveling on your own can be dangerous, anyhow. Never know what you'd encounter and so on. Especially in the more dangerous parts of the world." Fil thinks for a moment. "Very well. If I were to wait for you, what kind of place would you want to go first?"
"In the country?" You ask. "Or anywhere?"
"Anywhere. On the planet, obviously. I don't think I'll become an astronaut anytime soon, but if we do manage to colonize a planet in my lifetime, we could go there."
You bite your lip, thinking. Anywhere in the world, huh?
[[The Bahamas.]]
[[Tibet.]]"Oh? How romantic. Like the warrior's spouse, waiting for them to come home from battle." Fil's tone becomes lighter and closer to joking. The change is slight, but you're glad you noticed it, because you would have been terrified at the next question otherwise. "How long would you wait for me? What if I never came back?"
You give this careful consideration.
[[Forever!]]
[[Well... I don't know...]]Fil nods to himself. "I see. Like the warmth, huh?"
"Well, the water, more than that," you say. "i've heard you can go diving there and see the coolest stuff. I've seen pictures, too. The water's clear even when it'd like ten feet deep."
"I think I'd like to go there too, honestly. Although warm environments do not exactly favor my sense of dress. And my hair. Perhaps I'll cut it."
You try to imagine Fil with short hair and fail. "I dunno. You're pretty good at putting it up. I'm sure you could find a way to--"
"Wait," Fil interrupts. His voice is sharp and snappish. He sounds like he's trying very hard to concentrate on something, and when he finally finds the words he's looking for, it comes out like a realization. [["Something's off here."]]"Tibet, huh?" Fil muses. "Sounds like a nice enough place. Cold, if I remember correctly."
"Yeah. I figured, y'know, your mountain-loving self would think the Himalayas were cool."
Fil chuckles. "I actually did think about climbing Everest once."
"Do you still want to?"
"I don't know. Possibly. But I believe it's a bit... overdone. If I am to climb a mountain, I'd like to do it with as few extra people around as possible, and that includes corpses."
"Understandable." You start to say something else, but Fil cuts you off suddenly. He speaks like he's afraid of losing the thought.
[["Something's off here."]]Fil laughs. "We've only been on one date, you know."
"Maybe we're soul mates," you proclaim.
"Ha! That would be convenient."
"Do you not believe in soul mates?" You ask, pretending affront.
"Oh, I don't know. I'm sure for some people, it works like that. But I, personally, have heard that there's more to love than the falling. Hard work, for example." After a short pause, Fil adds, "Plus, if some people have soul mates, then there must be some who have no soul mates... and I, personally, don't find that world appealing."
You sigh. "You're prolly right. Still a cool fictional premise, though. I wonder if--" Fil cuts you off, suddenly, his voice tight, his words urgent, as though he's afraid of losing his grip on them.
[["Something's off here."]]"Mmm, me neither," Fil says. "We've only been on one date, after all. Although, perhaps, we can change that. In time."
"Oh, definitely," you say. "Pretty sure love's supposed to take time to grow, anyways."
"I agree," Fil says quietly. "Although, of course, sometimes you can tell the first time you see someone. For example, I knew that Gambit and Alaric would be my sanity's bane from the moment I set eyes on them."
You laugh. "Yeah, they're fuckin' weird." You start to say something else, but Fil cuts you off, speaking quickly and almost angrily.
[["Something's off here."]]Fil stands up. You follow suit.
"What's wrong?" You ask.
Fil is staring at you with a look of intense concentration. Something sinks in your stomach.
"I don't belong here," Fil says.
"What's that supposed to mean?" You ask, desperately trying to save the situation, but Fil clutches his head and doubles over. There's a ripping sound. You watch in horror as two antlers sprout from Fil's head, and his ears elongate into the pointed ones of an elf. When he stands up fully, he's lost his high schooler clothes, and is instead wearing the long robes appropriate ot the adventuring druid that he truly is. He also looks older, almost middle-aged.
"I don't belong here," he repeats. He looks at you. "This world... is a false one. I should have realized it was an illusion from the moment you tried to make me, a //five hundred year old elf// believe I am an eighteen-year-old human high school student." He unhooks a quarter staff made of solid mahogany from his back. "I will not be returning to adolescence, thank you."
[[You have a feeling he's not in the mood to talk anymore.]]
You try to channel a spell to stop Fil from totally fucking murdering you, but unfortunately Fil's a little quicker than you on the draw. He calls down a beam of concentrated moonlight that blows away your human disguise and burns at your flesh. You ache to fall onto the ground and writhe in agony, but you manage to get one spell off. It rips into Fil, opening wounds on his arms, but he merely grimaces and then, from the edge of the moonbeam, raises his staff and brings it down on your head.
[[You fall onto your back.]]The last rays of the sun light the sky up in pinks and lavenders and oranges, which bounce off the ocean waves as they crash on the shore. There are a few other people around to watch the sunset, and some kids splashing around in the water, but from what you can see most of the beachgoers have gone home for the day.
"Whaddya think?" Alaric says. "Good first date idea?"
"Yeah." You gaze at the horizon. "This is beautiful."
"Glad you like it."
You stand there for a few seconds while Alaric takes off his shoes. Then he says, "So.... what do you want to do now?"
[[go for a swim]]
[[walk along the shore]]"Let's swim," you say, because you know that's what Alaric probably wants to do. Fuck it, you're already wearing a swimsuit.
Alaric's face breaks into a grin. "Sounds good! You wanna put your extra clothes in the car?"
In short order, you and Alaric are plunging into the cool, forgiving ocean. You swim around a bit, but Alaric's pretty reserved. You can tell he's nervous, because he's doing his best to always be ninety percent submersed in water, like it's going to protect him from any oncoming embarrassment. You talk for a bit about different stuff-- taste in music, mostly, or school stuff. Finally, Alaric says, "Hey, uh, thanks for coming here with me."
"Not really any need to thank me," you say. "I mean, you're the one who picked me up and stuff." You pause for a moment to look at him. "Plus, I dunno. Isn't it weird to thank someone for wanting to date you?"
"Yeah, you're probably right. I just get super in my head about romance."
You've noticed. "Really?" You say, feigning surprise.
"Yeah. Kind of glad all that stuff with the mini golf happened, 'cuz otherwise I never woulda asked you out." Alaric watches the ripples in the water in front of him, silent for a moment. "Don't tell anybody I said that, though, 'cuz Gambit would never let me live it down."
[[Don't worry, I won't tell.|alaricconvo]]"Let's walk around a bit," you suggest.
"Yeah, sounds good!" Alaric takes off, a littl etoo fast. You have to jog to catch up before he realizes what he's doing and slows down to a normal pace. His hands are stuck firmly in his pockets, his eyes on the sea. He walks really close to the waves, close enough that he more often than not has one foot in the water. For the first thirty seconds or so, you walk in silence. Alaric glances at you in tiny intervals, like he's afraid of you seeing him.
Finally, he says, "Hey, uh, thanks for coming here with me."
"Not really any need to thank me," you say. "I mean, you're the one who picked me up and stuff." You pause for a moment to look at him. "Plus, I dunno. Isn't it weird to thank someone for wanting to date you?"
"Yeah, you're probably right. I just get super in my head about romance."
You've noticed. "Really?" You say, feigning surprise.
"Yeah. Kind of glad all that stuff with the mini golf happened, 'cuz otherwise I never woulda asked you out." Alaric kicks a shell further down the beach. "Don't tell anybody I said that, though, 'cuz Gambit would never let me live it down."
[[Don't worry, I won't tell.|alaricconvo]]"Thanks."
The both of you move on. With the ice more or less broken, things are a bit less awkward. The two of you vacillate between walking along the shore and fucking about in the ocean. For most of it you talk, but sometimes you just let things fall silent and chill out for a bit. You steal several people's belongings, because of course, and spend a very exhausting half-hour running from a man way taller and stronger-looking than either of you when he spots you pick up his wallet.
Finally, it's night, and the two of you are sitting on the sand, your hands just close enough to touch. Alaric turns to you unexpectedly and says, "Hey... can I ask you kind of a serious question?"
You consider what this could be for a minute before shrugging and nodding.
"So. I'm not." Alaric stops himself, frustrated. "Sorry. Dammit, I shoulda written this down. Uh, I was just wondering. If you were planning on sticking around. I'm not that good a person. I wanna make sure you aren't going to run out on me, yeah?"
[[Of course.]]
[[no promises.]]Alaric's face softens, and he slumps in relief. "Thanks."
"No problem," you say.
"Sorry to ask such a serious question. I mean, I know it's our first date." Alaric laughs, eager to lighten the tension. "Anyways. Fair's fair, so do you have anything you wanna talk about?"
"Well," you start, and stop. There's something a little too knowing in his eyes. He clearly wants some kind of answer, but you can't quite grasp what it is. You opt to go for flirting, because that always distracts Alaric. "I've never kissed anybody before."
You're pretty sure that does the job, because Alaric turns red and looks away for a second. "C-can I... remedy that?"
You raise your eyebrows. Damn, that's forward for Alaric. You relax and smile. "Definitely."
[[He leans in and kisses you. ]]Alaric looks disappointed for only a fraction of a second before bursting into laughter. "That's smart of you! That's why I wanted to go out with you, 'cuz you're so much smarter than me."
You don't really know what you were expecting. You guess this is good?
"Sorry to spring something so heavy on you," Alaric continues. "I mean. I know it's just our first date."
You shrug. "It's fine, I guess. I don't mind too much."
"Cool." Alaric tilts his head playfully. "So. You got any embarrassing stuff you wanna tell me? Just so we're even?"
"Well," you start, and stop. There's something a little too knowing in his eyes. He clearly wants some kind of answer, but you can't quite grasp what it is. You opt to go for flirting, because that always distracts Alaric. "I've never kissed anybody before."
You're pretty sure that does the job, because Alaric turns red and looks away for a second. "C-can I... remedy that?"
You raise your eyebrows. Damn, that's forward for Alaric. You relax and smile. "Definitely."
[[He leans in and kisses you. ]]You aren't gonna say that you're a kiss connoisseur, and therefore if you were to judge a kiss you wouldn't be super reliable, but you think its' a pretty good kiss all around. At least, it would have been a good kiss if you hadn't felt something cold and sharp press to the back of your neck halfway through.
You open your eyes and try to lean back as much as you can with Alaric's knife pressed against your spine. He's smiling, but it's different from the usual one. This one's got an edge to it. This is how a lunatic smiles when they murder someone.
"Alaric?" You ask. You voice trembles slightly. "What are you doing?"
"Nice try," Alaric purrs. "I gotta admit, you're a pretty good wizard or sorcerer or whatever to make me literally forget I'm not a human."
Fuck.
Your eyes dart away from Alaric's face to take him in, now that the illusion is broken. Yup, he's back to being a wood elf. And it looks like he has all of his gear, too, which means the weapon he's holding to the back of your neck probably isn't just some knife he found.
You strain to see what it is.
It's a greataxe.
[[This isn't looking good for you.]]
"You're cute, and you //are// technically dating me," Alaric says, "So I'll do you a favor and kill you really quickly."
In one fluid motion, he kicks you in the stomach, sending you stumbling backwards, and then draws his other weapon: a greatsword to match his greataxe. You scramble to your feet as he stalks towards you and frantically cast a spell to try and repair the damage done to the illusion. Unfortunately, now that Alaric's wise to your magic, it's impossible to ensnare him again. He shrugs off the illusions with barely any effort.
"Let's see if the power of Poseidon works in an illusionary world," Alaric says, as above him the sky boils with storm clouds. Tiny arcs of electricity jump off Alaric's weapons and between his hair and clothes, but he hardly seems to notice them. He just points his greataxe at you. It takes you a second to realize what he's doing, and by the time you try to jump out of the way, it's too late. A bolt of lightning hits you in the chest, filling your whole body with pain.
You stumble back again, hoping to catch your breath and prepare a spell, but Alaric leaps towards you and scores you with the greatsword, leaving you out of stamina and out of luck.
[[You fall onto your back.]][[The forest]]
[[leave]][[Let's play marco polo!]]
[[kISS HIM,]][[After the concert, you help Ducky pack up.]][[You follow him out of the neighborhood.]][[back|I like cute dogs.]][[back|Ask to go with Fil.]][[back|Please, I am but a humble idiot,]][[back|I'd rather discuss another kind of plan ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]]
↶↷Welcome to the Official Alcuin Shenanigans Dating Sim!
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