Disclaimer:
I do not own the story of Log Horizon or any of its related properties
General Warnings:
M rating is mostly for safety. Cursing and descriptions of violence in this one.
Author's Notes:
This one was rough. It kills me knowing I have several chapters worth of material that was just plain not good and had to be cut.
Any help on what plot points, character descriptions, personality traits, or whatever needs work please point out. Sharpen your hatchets people. Use them with vigor.
Yet again, the wise words of Shiro Emiya rear their ugly head. I'm starting to make that a habit and I'm not sure what to think about that.
'WASD'
It was well after dinnertime and shopkeepers were already starting to light the torches outside of their shops. On the main streets, lanterns of mage light flickered on automatically in response to the setting sun. Despite the cheerful light, a pall still hung over the city. The initial panic had subsided over the past week only to be replaced by a bitter melancholy. Some adventurers had left the city or hunkered down with their guild, but that still left many people with nowhere to go and no idea what to do. What was worse, many seemed to have gone with the strategy of ignore everything until something makes sense. The overall feeling was not a pleasant one. Still, here and there pockets of life stood out like candles in darkness.
Jordan chatted amiably with the shopkeeper. He and the old man had bonded over the frustrations of keeping the youths in line. The irony of Jordan technically being a twenty something had been completely overlooked. Between the sympathetic grumblings, and the expensive order of supplies Jordan had placed, the two had managed to endear themselves to each other.
In the game, taking the trip to Chickagami city would have been simple, even if you wanted to actually travel there instead of take a fairy ring. Step one, face north. Step two, walk until you get there. There was no step three. Now though, it was a lot more like planning an extended back country camping trip. They had to figure out everything from what equipment to bring, to what food they would need, to what monsters they would likely encounter. MJ and Ashley claimed to have actually interacted with the mysterious world of outside, so they were in charge of planning and organizing equipment. Shiroe and Bones had fallen into their usual role of figuring out the actual route and strategies to deal with monsters. This left Jordan and Arryn running all of the little errands that needed doing around town. Which really meant Jordan was left running all of the errands while also trying to keep track of Arryn. He managed to pull himself out of the conversation with the shopkeep long enough to notice she had once again deserted him.
"Would you stop disappearing every time I turn my back," said Jordan irritably when he finally found Arryn inside a shop across the street from where he'd been.
Arryn brushed him off, "I never go far. Besides, shiny things are more fun than you are."
"I don't suppose you ran off to help order some of this gear," said Jordan.
"Better!" said Arryn.
She then proceeded to start dancing in place causing the bells on her new boots to make a ridiculous amount of noise.
"Cute," said Jordan in a tired voice.
"Wait for it," said Arryn, her grin never wavering.
Without stopping her ridiculous flailing in the slightest, Arryn went completely silent. Even the sound of her feet hitting the wooden floor had disappeared.
Jordan had to hide his surprise. "Timed?" he asked.
"Nope," said Arryn with a smile, "complete mental control. I can turn it on and off like a switch."
"Fancy," said Jordan. "You done yet? We have things to do."
Arryn rolled her eyes and sighed, "fine, fine."
They were walking back toward Bones' apartment chatting about how the morning's training had gone when Arryn suddenly stopped outside the entrance to a dark alley.
"What is it?" said Jordan.
"I'm not sure. I thought I heard something," said Arryn, her brow furrowed.
She slowly entered the ally, an orb of light raised above his head.
"Oh come on," said Jordan. "Entering a dark alley at night because you think you heard something. Isn't that on the top ten list of cliché bad ideas?"
"Shut up and help me out," said Arryn.
Jordan growled something under her breath and out loud said, "here wait a second."
He cast detect life and a silvery wall of light spread out in all directions. Jordan had his eyes closed in concentration. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and said, "there's definitely something down there."
Arryn nodded and continued into the alley, her grip tight upon her weapon.
"Don't fire off anything by accident," said Jordan. "I don't feel like trying to run from the royal guard tonight."
Arryn nodded silently in response.
Arryn's light chased away the shadows as they moved farther into the alley. Halfway in, they both tensed as a clearly audible scuffle came from the darkness in front of them. They rounded a corner to find a young women staring in their direction, her eyes glazed and unfocused.
Arryn and Jordan both stopped in their tracks, trying to understand what they were seeing. She was hunched over in obvious pain and staggering aimlessly. Blood was dripping from her head as she looked around in confusion. Even as they caught sight of her, her shaking legs gave out and she collapsed into the dirt.
"Jesus!" cursed Arryn and she instinctively rushed forward, Jordan close behind her.
"What the fuck?" said Arryn as they reached the unconscious women.
"Arryn," said Jordan, his voice very steady.
"Yeah?" said Arryn.
"I need you to go get Ashley, and I need you to do it right now," said Jordan.
"What?" said Arryn.
"Our cleric! Ashley! I need you to get her. I'm going to stay here and do what I can. You move faster than I would. Go!" said Jordan.
Arryn snapped back to herself.
"Right," she said.
Arryn looked toward the roof of the buildings next to them and blinked twenty feet straight up, landing lightly on a ledge as she got there. Another blink, and she was gone.
"Right," said Jordan to himself, "now what the hell do I do about you?"
He went about the job of using his limited healing skills to try and help the girl. He also sent out some spirits to warn him if anyone decided to wander down that particular alley. Being ambushed was not on his list of things to do for the evening.
Waiting for Ashley and Arryn to get back left him with not much to do but study the poor women they had found. She was clearly a lander, couldn't have been much older than late teens. Her dress was torn and bloody, both of her arms clearly broken. He was managing to keep her from dying, but landers didn't recover health like adventurers did. They weren't as tough physically either.
"Son of a bitch, what happened to you?" he whispered to himself.
Jordan's eyes couldn't seem to avoid staring at her battered face. The bruises and blood left a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. Suddenly, the women let out a cry as she became conscious. She started panicking and looking around wildly.
"Hey, hey," said Jordan with as much calming influence as he could muster. "It's alright. You're alright, I'm healing you."
Her eyes grew round as saucers when she caught sight of Jordan and she let out a yell of terror. Scrambling back from him on all fours she and tried to stand, but it was too much for her. She staggered a couple of feet before collapsing back to earth with a sickening crunch.
"Son of bitch!" cursed Jordan in surprise.
He rolled her over so she wasn't face down in the dirt and sighed.
"And now you have a broken wrist too," he said.
Jordan reached into his bag and found a sleeping potion. Carefully, he managed to get some down her throat. Well, he thought, at least I know my healing was doing something if she became conscious. He ran a hand through his hair and pressed his face into his palms, trying to keep a grip on the fear that was growing in his belly. Her reaction to him had not done his calm any favors.
Not anytime too soon, his sentries let him know Arryn was back. Instead of just Ashley coming around the corner the entire rest of the party arrived.
"Thought I said bring Ashley," said Jordan to Arryn dryly.
Arryn shrugged, "would you have preferred I took the time to argue with them?"
Jordan glared at Arryn but said nothing as Ashley came over.
"Is she knocked out?" she asked.
"I gave her a sleeping potion," said Jordan. "She woke up on me once and had a complete panic attack. I didn't want her to do it again."
Ashley nodded and performed some considerably more effective healing spells.
"Any idea where she's from?" she asked when she was done.
"No idea," said Jordan.
Ashley nodded as she raised her staff and dispelled the debuff. The women's eyes blinked open. She looked around, clearly alarmed at the number of people she found around her.
Before she could really panic Ashley came right up to her and said, "don't worry, we're here to help. We want to take you home. I'm a cleric, see?"
She stepped back so the girl could see her robes. The women gave her a long, frightened look before bursting into tears and burying her head in Ashley's chest.
It took awhile, but eventually they got the young women to give them directions to her house so that they could help take her home. It was a tiny apartment on the outskirts of town. When they got inside, Ashley and MJ took her into her to her room to help clean her up. Everyone else packed into the cramped living room.
It was over an hour before before MJ and Ashley felt confident enough in the women's health to leave her room and let her sleep in peace. Everyone else was still in the cramped living room. There had been some talk about whether it was alright for them to just camp out in her apartment, but nobody really wanted to separate the group.
"Is she going to be alright?" asked Bones.
"I think so," said Ashley. "I really wish we could get her to a proper doctor and get her checked out. I can heal her but that doesn't mean I actually know what I'm doing."
"It's better than nothing," said Bones. "Did she say what happened?"
"No," said Ashley. "We managed to find out that her name is Katelyn and that she's a lander. She moved to the city to find work and doesn't have any family in town. But she clammed up when we tried to ask about what happened."
"I don't suppose there's any chance that it was a monster of some kind?" said Bones.
"Very unlikely," said Shiroe. "The city's magic keeps out any wandering monsters. If it wasn't working we'd notice pretty quickly."
Jordan spoke up in a voice laced with frustration, "It's got to be an adventurer, right? I know everyone else has been to busy to walk around the city much, but the mood has gotten pretty ugly. People are angry about what's happened but don't know what to do about it. It's led to some nasty rumors floating around. Stories about people getting attacked in one way or another. Nobody ever seems to have specifics, though. I figured it was all just talk by people in a lousy situation, but I'm starting to actually believe it. I'd really like to go back to assuming it's all just rumors. So, if somebody could explain to me that it's crazy talk and I'm a fool to give it any stock that would be great."
There were some days Shiroe wished he wasn't the villain in glasses. Ignoring things he didn't want to know would be a lot easier. Something had been off for awhile now and it had been nagging him since he first saw Arryn whack Jordan on the top of his head. But after what he'd seen tonight, two and two were starting to make four.
"It might be possible," said Shiroe, pausing as he tried to get his vague notions into a coherent thought. "I mean, it depends on how the royal guard works in this world. The idea is that it's a bit of ancient magic left over from the Alvs and it's charged with keeping the peace. If it's actually a semi intelligent entity with a desire to stop violence then it would stop anything. But it wasn't built with magic originally, it was built as a computer program. It didn't have a concept of good or bad, just a list of actions that adventurers can't take against each other. It's a collection of if then statements. If someone uses lava orb and someone else loses hp in the same area at the same time, then destroy the person who used the attack. But we aren't using 'wasd' to move around anymore. The royal guard might not show up if an adventurer simply punches another person. It just wouldn't recognize the action."
Shiroe was pacing around the room, his speech coming faster. Now that he had a grip on the idea his mind was like a boulder rolling downhill, it wouldn't let him stop until it hit bottom.
"And it gets worse for us," Shiroe continued. "All of our bodies are based on stats we had in the game, that includes strength and dexterity. We're all either a magic class or healers. None of us put any ability points into the physical attributes. A guardian walks around in hundreds of pounds of armor every day like it's nothing. It wouldn't matter much if they were tenth level or ninetieth, they'd wreck us. The power structure of every guild in this city has gotten turned sideways."
"You're telling me the one source of authority in this city can be ignored by half of the people in it while the other half are completely hapless?" said Bones.
"So what are we going to do?" asked Jordan.
"Do?" asked Shiroe.
"Well yeah," said Jordan. "There are assholes out there thinking it's okay to go attacking people. Not attacking people who revive at the cathedral, mind you. They're going after people who, you know, actually die when they are killed."
Shiroe laughed, "What we do is run, and the sooner the better."
"Bullshit," said Jordan in disbelief. "You really want to run away?"
"Yeah, I do" said Shiroe, deadly serious. "I don't think you get it. Say we somehow get enough power to enforce some rules. Something ridiculous like buying the guild hall or cathedral. Yay, great success, everyone throw a party. But now we've pissed some people off. They don't like listening to us, so a group of them take bats and beat our skulls in. They start slowly though. First they break our legs, then they break our arms, then they crush our wind pipe so we suffocate to death. As far as the royal guard is concerned it was death from the environment. Hell, they wouldn't even have to go slowly if they didn't want to. They could just camp the cathedral and beat us to death over and over again."
"You are a fucking coward," said Jordan.
"Excuse me?" said Shiroe.
"Fucking. Coward." said Jordan. "Yesterday we hunted rock giants for fun. Now you want to run away from thugs with bats?"
"Yes!" said Shiroe. "I don't know how to beat thugs with bats. You don't either. Let me remind you these thugs could probably play shotput with a small car. We. Cannot. Win. And I'm not letting something like that," he pointed towards the lander's room, "happen to Ashley, or MJ, or anybody else here."
"But you're okay with leaving everyone else to fend for themselves," said Jordan.
"You can't help them," said Shiroe, "get over it."
Words failed Jordan and he stomped out of the house.
Arryn stood up but Bones said, "stay here, I'll go get him."
"Tell him to grow up when you get there," said Shiroe.
"You cool your shit," said Bones.
"Sorry, stupidity annoys me," said Shiroe uncharitably.
Shiroe stewed in a corner for bit after Bones left to find Jordan. He hadn't lost his temper like that in quite awhile and it wasn't a mental place he easily tore himself out of. Trying to make Jordan understand how much trouble they were in had been exceptionally frustrating. However, eventually he had to admit to himself that he wasn't really angry with Jordan. Hell, wanting to protect everyone was about as noble a desire as you could get. It was that Shiroe was just plain scared. Anyone with enough muscle could essentially become king of the city if they wanted to, or worse, the whole city could descend into a war for power. Woe be to anyone who was still here when that happened. Especially if they were on the wrong side of the class divide. Obviously people were already figuring out there were ways around the royal guards' rules. If they didn't leave soon, they might not be able to leave at all.
Bones found Jordan in the backyard, still pacing with furious intent. He was cursing under his breath about a "spineless cold hearted asshole." Bones lit a pipe and let him go for a bit. Benefits of being a dwarf in a fantasy land, thought Bones, I get to smoke a pipe and monsters will probably kill me long before the cancer has a chance. After awhile Jordan cooled down enough to stop pacing like a madman.
"Finally wear yourself out?" asked Bones.
Jordan came over and sat down on the back porch.
"That guys a dick," he said with a sigh.
"Sometimes," said Bones between puffs. "So are you more often than not."
"I'm serious," said Jordan.
"So am I," said Bones. "You're a right prick when you feel like it."
"Bones," said Jordan angrily.
"He's worried," said Bones, his voice losing its jovial tone. "The shit hasn't really hit the fan yet, but you can tell it's coming. Shiroe's spent all week bouncing ideas off of me trying to figure out a way for everything to not go to hell in a hand basket. He's freaked out because not a one of them will work. Believe it or not, having to abandon a city full of people does not sit well with him either."
Jordan gave him a skeptical look.
Bones said, "Don't believe me? You remember that 'buy the guild hall' idea he mentioned? That was not an idea thrown out randomly."
"No way," said Jordan.
"Don't ask me how he was actually going to pull it off," said Bones. "but he was seriously thinking about blackmailing everyone into being nice to each other."
Jordan noticeably shivered. "I stand corrected, he's not a dick he's just straight up evil."
Bones laughed, "Coldblooded would be more accurate. He doesn't care how it looks or what he has to do, if there is a way to make everybody happy he'll do it. He makes winning moves, no matter what."
"Explain again how that's supposed to make me feel better about him?" said Jordan.
"It means that if there was a way for us to help he would have already thought of it," said Bones. "I've given him a week and he's got nothing. As far as I'm concerned that means it's impossible for us right now. Which makes the only sensible move, running."
"Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth," said Jordan.
"I hope it does," said Bones. "Means you're a good person, despite sometimes being a bit of an asshole."
Jordan chuckled, "yeah, yeah. I'm hoping this confidence you have means you and Mr. evil glasses face have some sort of plan. If you don't than I'm going to go back to being annoyed real fast."
Bones, eyes glinted in the torchlight and he said, "It's pretty simple. We're going to kill the royal guard, invent an economy that encourages action, and impose social order before somebody manages to become lord of the flies."
"Decided to become king, have you?" said Jordan.
"My rule shall be just and fair," said Bones. "I like to think of it as a benevolent dictatorship."
"Still seems like running away isn't very conducive to any of that," said Jordan.
"You still have much to learn my minion," said Bones.
"No," said Jordan.
"Underling?" said Bones.
"Nope," said Jordan.
"Noble member of my cabinet?" said Bones.
"Now you're just overcompensating," said Jordan.
"Bah, oh well. I have plenty time to think of something good," said Bones.