Meanwhile, Pixie sat at a table outside of a restaurant in downtown Osiris. She was sipping on a sugary drink through a straw. The drink’s coloration was very similar to Coke or Pepsi, but the product name was written in NPC script. The cup read:
ꦨꦫꦗ
Pixie held a greasy half-eaten burger that was still half-covered in the bright yellow tissue paper that it came in. The burger’s packaging was also covered in the same unknown text as the soft drink cup. In terms of taste, the patty was a bit chewier than Pixie would have liked, but the flavor made up for the texture. Pixie couldn’t tell if it was the meat, the new mouth, or the fact that she hadn’t eaten anything greasy in several months, but Pixie thought the burger was delicious.
A paper bag sat on the table that held four more burgers and two smaller bags filled with slices of some plant-based food that most closely resembled french fries. This bag contained the food that Pixie intended to bring Tantalus and Redgrave.
Elias, who had taken the most damage during the fight, had just finished his second burger. He washed the burger down with a huge gulp of water.
Sitting around the table were Rachel, Volta, Elias, Pixie, and Cadmium, who had come to the restaurant after receiving a message from Volta regarding the death of Dendrite.
“Why is Tantalus even in charge?” Elias complained loudly. “Everyone in this damn city seems to buy completely into this Great Strategist crap. He’s supposedly so good at this game, but the people closest to him end up dead! Him being ‘good at strategy’ didn’t save Kevin, Enoch, Bebop, Enzo, or the other seventeen people that died at the Gates.”
“Elias…” Rachel warned.
“Enoch, that’s Dendrite’s real name, right?” Pixie asked.
“Yeah,” Elias said offhandedly, “Enoch Smith.”
“We really have to stop learning each other’s names after we die,” Rachel muttered.
“Elias is my real name,” said Elias, “so you know mine.”
“My real name is Hannah Lee,” said Volta.
“Linda Brown,” Pixie said offhandedly.
“IRL, my name is Jack Watson,” said Cadmium.
“Anyway,” continued Elias, annoyed at being interrupted, “my point is that there is no real reason for Tantalus to be in charge. He’s just a guy with some name recognition. It’s not like we voted for him to be in charge.”
“I suppose it was Ashcroft that put him in charge,” said Pixie.
“Well, I suppose so, but…” said Elias.
“Enoch handed his dog tags to Redgrave just before he died,” Volta said, not looking at anyone in particular. “Do you think he knew he was about to die?”
Elias was stopped in his tracks by this statement.
“I think he wanted to give us closure,” said Volta.
Elias stared at his hands for a moment. Suddenly, all of the anger he was feeling toward Tantalus and Redgrave turned into a crushing wave of sorrow. “God…” he said, tears beginning to stream down his face. Elias shielded his eyes with his hand, and he began to quickly walk away from the group.
Volta began sobbing openly, and Cadmium’s expression tightened as he got his emotions under control. Several minutes of grief later, Pixie was able to awkwardly extricate herself from the situation with the excuse that she had to bring food back to Redgrave and Tantalus.
4:50 P.M.
Redgrave laid down on a recliner chair in a sizable but windowless office on the third floor of the West Gate. The office was pointed in the direction away from the City, so it would be a security hazard to have windows. The chair was at the exact midpoint between a chair and bed. It was the kind of comfortable chair that one would expect to find in a therapist’s office. While he laid down in the chair, Redgrave ate a burger and sipped on a soft drink that Pixie had brought him. Regarding the burger, Redgrave thought that it was fine but a bit uncanny. Everything in the burger was an approximation to something he had eaten before, but nothing was exactly as he expected it. The patty was too tough, the buns were too soft, the cheese was too sweet, and the lettuce was too crunchy. Overall, it wasn’t necessarily a bad experience, but it was slightly different in an off-putting way.
Tantalus sat behind a table that was very similar to the one in Colonel Dozok’s office. A small stack of papers sat atop the desk, and Tantalus had written the words “I CAN’T READ THIS” on the top of the first page. An ancient rotary telephone sat at the side of Tantalus’s desk. Pixie sat at the table across from Tantalus. She was holding a plastic water bottle, and so were Redgrave and Tantalus. Redgrave had already drained three water bottles, and their crumpled up forms littered the ground.
“So you told the NPC in charge here that Ashcroft killed the NPCs at the North Gate?” Pixie asked rhetorically. “And then you threatened to kill everyone at this Gate if the NPC in charge tried to arrest you?”
“Basically,” said Tantalus.
“And after you threatened him, he gave you an office?” asked Pixie.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Tantalus said. “He was going to try to arrest me anyway because I technically broke military law. If I had been arrested, someone - Ashcroft probably - would have broken me out, which would have resulted in a massacre. Any attempt to arrest me would certainly result in a massacre, so I had to convince Colonel Dozok to not attempt it. He wouldn’t respond to deception, he was too well-informed, and he wouldn’t respond to persuasion, he had already made up his mind. Intimidation was the only method that could work.”
“You’re right, it worked,” said Pixie. “I’ll try to keep complaining to a minimum. This is gonna hurt NPC relations, though.”
“It was the Colonel’s fault,” Redgrave said without swallowing the food in his mouth. “We just wanted to ask for an office, but he decided to turn the meeting into the Spanish Inquisition. Plus, this way the NPCs will know to respect us.”
“If anything, this will teach the NPCs to fear us,” Pixie said quietly.
“Even better,” said Redgrave.
The door to Tantalus’s office opened to reveal a middle-aged man. He was wearing the Revenant uniform, but he didn’t carry any guns. Redgrave was pretty sure the man was a player, but he couldn’t be sure. “Are you Tantalus?” the man asked.
“Yes, that’s me,” Tantalus said, subtly placing his sidearm on the table. “And who are you?”
“My username is [Riemann59],” the man said, “but my real name is Dr. Felix Walker. I worked at Far Caster before the Game Master took over. I have inside information that will help us all navigate this game, and I would like to trade this information for protection from you and your followers.”
“Yeah, Felix Walker,” said Tantalus. “I’ve heard of you. You’re an AI scientist. I saw your Ted Talk back in ‘26.”
“That is correct,” Riemann said. “I had secondary duties in game development, but my primary job was the development of emergent AI.”
“Meaning… you helped create GM?” Pixie asked.
“More than help,” said Riemann. “I was the lead developer.”
Pixie got to her feet and Redgrave began to sit up, but Tantalus raised a hand to halt them in their tracks.
“If you are who you say you are,” said Tantalus, “then I will gladly offer you protection. I would like to hear what you have to say first, however.”
“Of course,” said Riemann, “though this might take a while.”
“I’ve got all day,” Tantalus said, slipping deeper into the upholstery of his chair.
[Pixie_Chix]
