Falias, Finias Chapter Five
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- Blue Magic by Kelly Hogan and Bill Taft
It is five in the morning when Kazdan's alarm goes off. He ignores the impulse to chock his Scanner against the wall and groggily climbs down the ladder to his bed. He drags himself to his bathroom and does his morning routine. Fifteen minutes later, he stumbles to his closet; he looks from the right side of his closet where all of his fashionable outfits are and then looks to the left where he sees the green shirts, tan pants, and hiking boots that his mom bought in bulk last year. He changes into the generic clothes and leaves his PJs on the floor. He then grabs his Scanner from his bunk bed and ports himself to Perim.
Kazdan then strips out of his generic clothes, puts his PJs back on, and crawls back under the covers. He shuts his tired eyes and tries to sleep.
Kazdan is surprised how full the Port Court is at this hour. Most of the tables are occupied by players his age and their soda cups. He doesn't see many coffee cups. I guess Chaotic uses the Universal time, so it's like nine here if that's the case. A player with gravity-defying, indigo-black hair walks by him, their shoulders brush, and Kazdan smells the strong scent of coffee coming from the player.
Well, I have seen players eat here, so ordering coffee isn't out of the question. He slouches into a seat at an empty table and waves down for a bot to take his order. The bot stops before him and cocks its metal body to the side. He scrunches up his face in confusion; most of the bots don't have this kind of personality.
"I see you've survived Perim, KidChaor." He straightens up at the dry, almost English voice.
"IT'S YOU!" His sudden shout causes some players to turn and scoff at him. The bot merely tsks.
"Yes, it's me. And considering how deep those bags under your eyes are, may I get you some coffee?" Kazdan nods tiredly at that. He watches the bot for a minute before it disappears behind a corner. A minute later the bot returns with a tray.
"Here is a Grande Chaor Cappuccino with sugar." The bot lays the tray down, and Kazdan grabs his cappuccino and the sugar dispenser. He looks into the cappuccino and sees that the foam resembles a silhouette of Chaor's massive head, which makes him smile. He takes a sip and is surprised by the amount of spice in the cappuccino. It's literally named Chaor Cappuccino; of course, it's going to be spicy! Still it's like someone took hot sauce and turned it into coffee.
"Thanks." He pours in enough sugar to tame some of the spiciness. Sugar and spice, and Chaor is not so nice! He hums as he nurses his drink. Hey, wait, while I got the bot here, maybe I could get some answers to my questions!
"So does Chaotic have a bank? Because I got a job in the UnderWorld and I was wondering if I could store my money here." That's just one question out of hundreds, but I can't be here all day or else Chaor will roast my ass for missing work. Or get the cook to do it. So I'll ask like three and then go.
"No, we do not have a bank and you can't bring anything you got in Perim in here. Nor can you take anything out that you bring from Earth to here. I know that the Tribes have their own banking systems, but I doubt any Creature would allow a human to have an account. So I suggest finding a hiding place for your wealth. And don't choose under a mattress; you'd be surprise how often they get thrown out." And I don't know where I can store my money. Maybe I can get H'earring to hold it for me, but I bet he'll charge me like a bank.
"Can I port Creatures around Perim with me?" I would like to show the baby places that aren't so…UnderWorldly, and I'd finally explore the rest of Perim!
"No, none of you players can. You can port items from Perim around Perim, but, again, they cannot be ported here or back to Earth." I guess that's out of the question, but maybe I can bring the baby gifts from other parts of Perim. If I ever get to explore beyond the UnderWorld.
"What happens if a player dies in Perim?" The bot pauses for half a second before answering.
"You won't be able to come back to Chaotic, but your Earth-self will be fine. Unless you're somehow killed on Earth at the same time." I get this feeling that a lot of players died in the early days of Chaotic, and the CodeMasters had to become more selective about who gets to have a code to get here, so there could be matches and an actual community here. He tenses at thought of dying and never coming back here; he doesn't want to be cut-off from this other world because he wasn't smart enough to survive.
"Perim is not entirely survival of the fittest; it's more about tact and commonsense. If you're not sure what you're about to say or do would piss-off a Creature, then don't do it. Plenty of players have died for doing something obviously stupid. And you're not stupid, KidChaor. You survived four days of this place with only losing your mop." Kazdan relaxes at the bot's assessment of him. Pragmatism and silence shall keep me from dying! And I guess I won't be getting that mop back…
"Thank you…I better get going; I wasn't exactly given a time for when work starts, but it never hurts to be early!" Kazdan puts his empty cup back on the tray and goes to port himself to UnderWorld City.
"He really needs to work on controlling his emotions. Humans get so sentimental." The bot dryly comments before hearing the telltale scream of a new player. He lets out a robotic sigh.
Kazdan is tense when he reaches the back gate; it doesn't help that the guards have extremely sharp-looking spears. Their spears remind me of metal crab claws that could cut off my head in one snip. He tries his best not to tremble.
"I-I'm h-here t-to—"
"Lord Chaor has ordered us to let you through." The right guard, in a surprisingly feminine voice, says. Both guards move to open the gate for him and let him through. Kazdan walks with his eyes looking down on the cobblestone. If I look back, will they look back? Will they think I'm a coward for believing that they'll stab me in the back?
But he does not look back to find out.
He makes it to the backdoor and knocks on it. Nobody answers. He knocks again. And nobody answers. He knocks one more time. Still nobody answers.
Then, he resorts to pounding on the door for a minute.
"STOP BANGING ON THE DAMN DOOR!" The kitchen mistress screams from the other side of the door, and he only has to wait another minute before she opens the door. The kitchen mistress's large, meaty hands and apron is covered in fresh, bright blood.
"I-I'm here for the b-baby, Mistress." He has no idea what her name is, so he goes for the deferential route.
"Oooh!" She purrs like a yowling alley cat. "I didn't know you players could be so polite!"
"Not all of us, but my mother taught me some manners, Mistress." She chuckles at his joke that was the expense of his own species. But I'm telling the truth, Klayotic was such an asshole! His cheeks flare up when he remembers his humiliating defeat at the hands of the annoying Aussie.
"Get in then." She orders lightly; she even moves out of the way to let him in. Inside, he sees a skinned animal that has the body of a full-grown elk with the head of a cobra on top of it.
"Lord Chaor went out hunting around midnight for that little Terror." LITTLE? IT'S BIGGER THAN THE DAMN TABLE! And he had no idea that Chaor liked to hunt, but he feels like he should've known that.
"He usually likes butchering the Terrors himself, but he had to deal with Van Bloot." Bloot's probably betraying him just like Starscream. Why would Chaor keep him around? But it is not his job to figure out Chaor; he has a baby to watch until nightfall. The kitchen mistress leads him beyond the kitchen doors, and he believes that maybe he'll get to go upstairs. Maybe even pass by Chaor's quarters.
"This is known as the Small Hall." The Small Hall is about seven yards long; it has a red carpeted floor with gray cobblestone walls. Am I getting a tour of Chaor's Castle!? A huge smile cracks across his face.
"At the end of the hall, there are two doors. The left one goes into the Banquet Hall, while the right one is the Servants' Hall. Unless I or Lord Chaor tell you otherwise, do not go through the left one." And his hopes are dashed.
"Understood, Mistress." He sighs.
"The first door you come across is the babe's room and if you need the bathroom, there's one at the very end of the hall. I've gotta finish butchering the Terror." The kitchen mistress immediately leaves before Kazdan can ask any questions.
Well…at least she trusts I'm smart enough not to directly disobey Chaor's orders. He nearly pouts his way to the baby's room.
Huh, I expected it to be more…extravagant. Kazdan thinks as he looks around the Spartan room. The room is a couple of square feet smaller than his and doesn't even have a closet. There is a rhombus-shaped diaper changing station in the left corner of the room. It was not made of wood or stone, but metal as red as Chaor. Of course, the sharp corners have been smoothed so the baby wouldn't try and touch the sharp corners from his gray bedding. But the baby wasn't there.
The baby is in his cradle. The cradle is made of the same reddish metal as the changing table, but it's far less interesting. It is just a crib with metal bars and gray bedding; there are no special flourishes or any other designs. There's not even a mobile.
Then again, has the mobile been invented here? Baby mobiles are not even two centuries old on Earth, so maybe Creatures have yet to invent one. They still don't have cars or TVs here, but they have magic known as Mugic. How come any place with magic is the technological equivalent of the Dark Ages? Kazdan thinks as he recalls the few fantasies he has read/watched.
"Mmm!" The baby lets out a soft cry for attention. Kazdan quickly goes over to the crib and sees the baby on his back in a black onesie with red buttons. His eyes slightly water when he gets a whiff of the baby.
"Ah, you need to be changed." He quickly picks the baby up and goes to the changing table, and puts the baby down on the bedding. He goes through the drawers and finds a fresh cloth diaper, baby powder, and a jar of rags soaking in a greenish liquid. He unscrews the jar and smells a sharp scent reminiscent of aloe and antiseptic. He presumes it's the Creature version of baby wipes.
He quickly goes to work and changes the baby into a fresh diaper. Once done, he puts the baby back in the crib and takes the soil diaper to the bathroom to be cleaned.
Five minutes later, he returns to the room.
You know I was kind of expecting something more…sinister to the bathroom, but it's just a toilet, a sink, and a tub. Even the toilet paper looked harmless if coarse. I hope the Ogress doesn't mind that I've hanged the diaper to dry by her…delicates. He shudders in remembrance at seeing how frilly and huge her underwear was.
Her underwear could easily fit two of me! He nearly snorts and goes to pick up the baby. The baby touches his face, being surprisingly coordinated enough not to scratch him with his talons, and gives him a gargoyle-toothed smile.
Oh, he's totally Chaor's son! There's no UnderWorlder that looks like a gargoyle! Well, that I know of. He enters into a staring contest with the baby who refuses to blink his pupil-less blue eyes. Kazdan loses.
What can I do with him? I don't see any books or toys around here, and I really don't want to spend the entire day serenading him like last time. Kazdan looks around the room and finally notices the diaper bag. He searches through it for something other than diapers and finds a book, but it is unfortunately written in Creature pictograms, a stone miniature of Chaor, and money.
Hmm, I could bribe H'earring for lunch and another tour of UnderWorld City to kill some time. The baby smiles like he approves of this plan.
Kazdan and the baby leave Chaor's Castle without much notice, save for the Ogress slipping some Terror meat in his bag for the baby. He remembers exactly where H'earring's house is if only because it is one of the few places in which he feels confident that he won't get killed there.
I don't think I'd be killed at Inferno Inn as long as I pay and keep my mouth shut. And maybe Chaor's Castle if only because Chaor doesn't want to go through the hassle of finding another Caretaker. So that's three out of like 100 Locations in the UnderWorld that I know of? He bets that the peaceable OverWorld has twice that.
He is exactly a minute away from his destination and so focused on his destination that he is about to pass an alleyway.
The baby begins to fuss like mad.
"Oh, what's wrong—" From the shadows of the alleyway, a gauntlet colored like darkness and sharp digs into Kazdan's thin shoulder. He automatically turns his head and feels a silent scream tear through his throat.
He sees a Creature looming above him clad in black armor lined with gold. His tattered red cape reaches the cobblestone ground like a curtain of blood. His helm has curled horns that remind Kazdan of the Horned King. And like the Horned King, Kazdan cannot exactly see the Creature's face save for his glowing purple eyes and skeletal jaw.
OH FUCK— His panic is cut short when the Creature falls at his feet and he jumps back to make sure his feet don't get crushed.
"What?" Kazdan manages to utter after spending a minute to get his heart to stop beating so hard. He looks down at the armored Creature and expects him to get up at any second. After half a minute, Kazdan concludes that the Creature must be out cold. Or dead.
Oh shit, what if he's dead!? Should I get away from the body? No, no, he might be alive, but he looks like a giant shadow with some skeletal bits inhabiting armor! Can he even breathe!? Kazdan crouches down and shakily touches the back of the Creature's helm. The helm feels warm like microwaved milk, but he's not certain if that qualifies as a sign of life for Creatures.
I need to get H'earring; he can help me! He rushes to H'earring's apartment with the baby clutched tightly to his chest. Seeing H'earring's red door elicits such relief that he nearly tears up. He does not knock on the door, he pounds on it with one fist.
"H'EARRING! H'EARRINGH'EARRINGH'EARRING!" He screams as he pounds on the door. It takes almost a minute, he can hear something crash like a pan onto tile, for H'earring to open the door.
"I CAN HEAR YOU!" H'earring screams back at him, and Kazdan's ears rings just as badly as H'earring's did. The baby does not cry from all the screaming, but looks curiously at H'earring.
"T-There's a Creature in the alleyway; h-he's I don't know if he's alive!" H'earring looks sharply at him and huffs.
"So there's a dead Creature? Plenty of Creatures die in UnderWorld City!" Kazdan immediately shakes his head, while his stomach twists violently. Images of that Thief's head barely hanging onto his neck flash through his mind.
No, no, you do NOT have the time to freak out at Creatures dying! Kazdan coughs to release some of the tension in his throat.
"T-The Creature was dressed in black armor and had glowing purple eyes with bone horns coming from his helmet!" H'earring's sapphire pupils become smaller as though he was afraid.
"Take me to him now!" Kazdan runs and H'earring follows him all the way to the alley. The Creature is still face down on the cobblestone. H'earring immediately grabs onto the sides of the helmet and then lifts the helmet slightly up. There are no glowing purple eyes.
"I-Is he dead?" Kazdan hears his voice crack. Pull it together, the baby's doing better than you! The baby's bright-blue eyes are looking at the Creature, waiting for something to happen.
"I don't think he is," Oh, that's encouraging! "But Cyrenox doesn't look too good!"
"Is there a doctor around here!?" They must have some kind of doctor here! With how warlike UnderWorlders are, doctors would be essential to this society.
"Yeah, but she's at the Colosseum today!" Fuck, how far are the barracks? Clearly far enough that a mutant rabbit and a scrawny teenager can't haul this giant Creature over there! Kazdan quickly reaches into his bag and pulls out the coin bag.
"Here, use all of it if you have to!" He shoves the small bag into H'earring's hand and the mutant-rabbit goes runs off, leaving Kazdan and the baby to watch over Cyrenox.
"Do you think he's gonna die?" Kazdan asks the baby, not expecting an answer and trying to calm himself down. The baby looks at him and shakes his head.
It takes two hours and fifteen minutes for H'earring to arrive back with the doctor. Kazdan would check his Scanner constantly and hoped that any minute H'earring would appear. He spent most of the time keeping track of the time since the baby refused to be a bother. Every couple of minutes, he would touch Cyrenox's armor to make sure it was still warm.
When H'earring finally arrives with the doctor, Kazdan restrains himself from gaping.
THAT'S THE DOCTOR?! SHE'S LITERALLY WEARING AN ARMOR BRA! He expected someone dressed in some kind of lab coat with a stenograph. Instead, she's wearing a silver armor bra with a silver headpiece that holds back her long, black hair from her long, elven-tipped ears. She is a blue humanoid with jade green eyes and horse-hooves for feet.
"Move aside, human." Kazdan does that without any hesitation. Just because she's wearing an armor bra, it doesn't mean she won't rip my head off!
She kneels down and touches Cyrenox's armor. For a minute, Kazdan expects her to pronounce that he's been dead this entire time and it was a waste of time bringing her here.
She scowls and gets up.
"I-Is he—" She viciously stomps into Cyrenox's armored back, while Kazdan and H'earring gape with horror.
"LYSSTA, WHAT IN THE COTHICA ARE YOU DOING!?" H'earring screams but does not move to stop her. She continues her rampage but replies.
"Cyrenox. Is. Drunk!" One last vicious stomp, hard enough to finally dent the armor, causes Cyrenox to lift up his head and groan.
"He can't be drunk! I didn't smell any ale on him!" So there's more than wine here.
"That's because he makes his own blend of ale because he hates the sharp scent of regular ale. And last time I check, you aren't drinking mates." H'earring blushes and looks bashful at that piece of truth.
"…Oh, where am I?" Cyrenox groans and tries to get up, but stumbles back onto the ground. Lyssta glares at him and looks at the dent as though she wanted to deepen it.
"In an alley, you lovesick drunk!" Cyrenox turns his helm at her. His glowing purple eyes are pinpricks in the darkness of his helm.
"…..Did Nivenna see me like this?" Lyssta rolls her eyes, while H'earring and Kazdan looked confusingly at each other.
"Obviously not, or else you would've impaled yourself with Sorrow." Lyssta does not offer a hand to help Cyrenox get up. And without the helping hand, it takes Cyrenox a painful minute to manage himself upright.
"Where's Doom?" Cyrenox's eyes become bigger as though they are coming into focus.
"Probably still at Inferno Inn. Presuming you didn't ride him drunk over there and forgot to tie him up." H'earring snickers, while Kazdan bites his bottom lip to hold his in. I'm not an UnderWorlder or even a Creature, so I bet Cyrenox would take offense at that.
"….Why is there a human here?" Kazdan pales, while the baby coos, drawing Cyrenox's gaze to the baby and then back at Kazdan. Lyssta looks at Kazdan for a moment and then to H'earring, expecting an answer to why an UnderWorlder would hang out with a lowly human.
"He's a Caretaker." H'earring manages to answer before Kazdan can stutter out an answer. Lyssta's face scrunches up like she's smelled a dirty diaper, while Cyrenox looks back at the baby.
"Oh…..good luck, human." Kazdan's eyes widen. Wait, did he say something nice to me? Holy Hell, I didn't think he would be the type to say anything nice. Okay, well, I didn't think he was the type to get drunk either.
"…..Thanks." Cyrenox nods and leaves the alleyway to go get Doom, while Lyssta grumbles under breath and leaves without paying any more attention to Kazdan and H'earring. Kazdan is tempted to scan Cyrenox, but he gets this distinct feeling that a hungover Creature is not going to have the best stats.
"….What did you do with the money I gave you?" Kazdan asks.
"Paid Lyssta to get here and perform some medical mumbo jumbo." Kazdan raises an eyebrow.
"And?" H'earring grins.
"I also paid off some tabs at certain establishments." Kazdan frowns. "But, thanks to your generous kindness, I promise to be your guide…..for the UnderWorld."
There goes the petty cash. And lunch at the Inferno Inn. Kazdan sighs and knows that he'll be making bagged lunches for the foreseeable future.
He decides to return to the castle and spends the rest of the day in peace.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is an image of Cyrenox. His flavor text reads, "Born of Darkness, raised in gloom, wielder of sorrow, bringer of doom." I took most of the text quite literally and Doom is the name of his skeletal steed on the card that I chose to use: a href=" . /revision/latest?cb=20131125222944"Link/a
Here is an image of Lyssta. Her flavor text reads, "Only Chaor has a better win-loss record in the UnderWorld Colosseum…and Lyssta only has one loss." She actually was in the show and got some speaking lines in the episodes of "Last Stand, Part 1 & 2" and "Legions of Aa'une": a href=" . /revision/latest?cb=20120615211539"Link/a
Originally, I was going to have this "whodunit" subplot about who poisoned Cyrenox and Kazdan being the one to solve it, but I cut out that idea since it would be inconceivable for Kazdan, a human who's only been in Perim for a couple of days, to be trusted to be a detective. Also, I remembered that Kazdan is not eager to get himself killed for curiosity's sake. But I was still able to incorporate Cyrenox and even Lyssta.
I imagine that Lyssta doesn't make her living off matches in the UnderWorld Colosseum since purple-ape-looking UnderWorlder and H'earring say the Colosseum is used for settling grudge matches, and I don't ever recall money was on the line. Maybe through bets? Anyways, I figure Lyssta must have a side-job, when not doing jobs for Chaor, and I decided that she would be a kind of backdoor doctor, which I will get into how she got into the medical field. Because I have never seen a hospital in Perim, so I figure you either learn medicine through apprenticeships or trial and error. Guess which Lyssta is.
All the questions Kazdan asks the robot, which I need to give a name for at some point, are some of my questions I had for the show that never got to be answered. Or, possibly, would've never been answer since the show seem more content at showing the amazing world of Perim, instead getting into the nitty-gritty of the technology utilized in the show. Considering how curious Kaz was in the show when he knew such curiosity came at a shot of a big reward in the face of danger, I figured Kazdan would ask a couple of questions since it's just him (I will get to Peyton, Tom, and Sarah, eventually) at this point. Of course, the answers that the bot gives are my speculative answers to those sorts of questions. God, I wish the show and card game kept going.
Next chapter will be about Kazdan's first day-off, so there will be a match (don't hold your breath, I will not waste an entire chapter on a match, at least not this early in the story) and him finally exploring beyond the UnderWorld. Because even Kazdan needs a break from the OverWorld.