Day 5: A Capital Idea
Claudia yawned, rubbing her eyes clean of motes. She got up from her bed, and stretched her grizzled body, her skin glistening in the morning light. She looked from the window as the streets were filled with people up and about, reconstructing the damages done to the city.
It wouldn't be the first after all.
She observed one individual, stacking blocks below him, making a pole structure. Others also were joining him up high. In minutes, they had formed a rectangular frame of logs. She rubbed her eyes again, and opened the door of her room in the hotel. Welcoming the aroma of food being cooked below.
Brick's Hotel, The Dining Hall
"Thank you." One of Claudia's guards thanked the waitress for the meal. Claudia let out a small smile at that.
"Your welcome missus." a stout woman bowed and left. Ready to serve the next patron for the day.
The npcs of the ancient warfare mod, after much deliberation were given status as servants of the players, and many kept their old jobs. As studied by the people at the cathedral, they had many human traits. But saw the players themselves as their masters or betters, Brick who saw to it the implications of this finding. Passed one of their first laws, to see to it that the npcs were given the same rights as any other person, no matter how uncanny they were.
"They're people now dammit, that's what they are." he said once. The players of Verod accepted it, at least they appeared to.
"They really are a curious lot, aren't they?" Claudia turned her head to look at Vult, biting roast chicken, nonchalant and all. "Weapons no man could dream of, strange magicka that lets them build a cottage in a minute, and empty bookshelves!" he smirked.
"Not quite," Kin, adjusted his glasses. They do have a written language, but it's one that I cannot recognize, unfortunately." he shrugged helplessly. "It's as if they wiped out their entire history…"
Claudia remembered a comment on one of them again, that they were not in their 'real' bodies. And time again, thinking more about the vague origins of these people made her head ache in frustration. A thought popped up in her head, a seed of distrust was planted in it.
They weren't telling everything, what if she made the wrong call. It wouldn't be the first time, she sighed, wishing Klaus was with her. He always knew what to do.
The Meeting Room, Tower Verod
"… after buying the supplies, we've been tight on cash recently." Sock reported, looking grim.
After the one day journey to the rescue, the city was now partially fixed, having its recognizable skyline, 'almost'. Then again, Verod's skyline was always changing whenever it was attacked, both here and the server. The only original buildings that remained were only so minimal, the original keep was bombed to heck. Taking tears and effort to rebuild it into what it is now.
Now though, they needed cash.
Big amounts of it, as they needed to pay people to fix the damages, now that they had something to lose.
"… welp, looks like there is only one thing to do." Brick said, lifting up from his desk to rummage through the chests.
"What?" Bern asked.
Brick turned to look at the bear-man.
"Capitalism, Bern. Good ole' capitalism." his voice quickly turned insidious, like a skeleton.
*nyeheheheheh…*
"Oh god." the soviet soldier widened his eyes in horror.
"Can we even do that?" a younger faction member asked, from one of the incursion towns. "Buddy, we have a real-life scammer working with us." he pointed his finger upward. "… and we have many things to offer that they don't have." going back into the box again.
"We can craft shit, that they can't. We can build stuff, that they can't." He placed some items down on the table. "Missiles, bombs, engines, trains, planes, a whole lot of shit that would take them many hours to produce!" he grabbed some ink and sticks.
"Everything we have is faster, to our crops, to our tech, to our way of life." he sat down again, drawing plans on the table, everyone peering their eyes closely as plans formed. "We have a responsibility now." everyone in the room looked at him.
"To kill their culture and replace it with ours."
…
"What the fuck, that's colonialism dude." Bern stated.
"Better than the Black Dog rape-fest that'll happen later." he shook his head.
"Alright, let's draw our plans for world conquest." So they schemed, until they were called out to the send-off.
Unnamed Alleyway, Ken
"Y-You cheated me! You bastard!"
*BANG*
"Bang." he said, covered in droplets of blood. He quickly hid his gun and turned his head to look the other way.
He then puked into one of the sewer drains.
*wReTcH…*
"Ugh…"
Oh god, it's here again.
*WrEtCh…*
The Rosa Nostra had finally made and established an underground network under Ken. With orders from Brick and Kraz to make it "squeaky clean", so they did. Gathering info on what problems the city faced and they saw it all. Corruption, human trafficking, you name it, and twenty dollars was still twenty dollars.
When they found out about the dark elf trafficking ring, they were sickened… and disturbed. Some of them thought that they might have dug in too deep, but one of them went berserk and charged in. Soon they all followed.
Really undisciplined guys…
Still, they had to complete their objective. One Rome (the player, not the city), thought that maybe he should've chosen the stay-home group. Rome though, always had the knack of sticking by his decisions, even if they were pretty dumb.
He just had to make it work.
As suddenly being second-in-command, perhaps ruminating on his choices might not be unwise after all.
"Ugh… fuck man." he muttered. He procured a water bucket to wash himself off of his 'client's' blood. The sewer grate where he puked at turned open to reveal another faction member of his group.
"Did you just puke?"
"Forget about it, we have another ring in the north. It was in… the Harpy Cow Tavern?" he narrowed his eyes, barely remembering what the fat man said, he had a weird accent. "C'mon, let's go." he jumped in to join him in the sewers.
"Sure boss." he closed the grate.
The "Docks", Southern Walls
"C'mon boys and gals! To the capital!" Brick, giddy to visit one of the infamous setting's locations in real life.
When Verod first arrived, the docks were a mess of water. After a thorough water bucket intervention, it was now all cleaned up to become a series of platforms and staircases.
Below it, many gathered to witness the send-off, not only players and npcs. But new faces as well, news of the transported city were rapidly accelerating across the entirety of Eostia, and some of the natives decided to stay in the curious and near maddening city. Blue cantons and banners waved across the land dock, the christmas tree in the middle of the lifting towers shining a merry glow throughout below.
With the small army were its betters, Vult's Army and Claudia's retinue and troops, accompanying the Verodians with their banners, guns, and tanks, three of them to be exact. Leaving behind the city was the ex-server administrator, implementing laws that would help run the city in their absence.
With the Captain General's call, npcs, players, and the outsiders sallied forth to Geofum. Eager to meet the goddess herself.
Brick watched the city slowly part away from him on his tank, sitting on its front as the vanguard of the party. The feeling of the rumble of the engines gave his heart a sense of adventure that overtook him, reminding him of the old days, when he was not stuck in the meeting room.
He felt free.
He and Sock saw Lady Claudia approaching them on horseback. "Hey!" Brick greeted, waving his hand.
"Hay?" Claudia's brows became uneven. Some of the players laughed, prompting some of the Black Dogs to laugh too.
"… this is so wrong." he shook his head, looking at the rapacious mercs. Acting… too human… too real…
"It'll all end soon… Just stick to the plan… It'll all end soon…" he coped internally.
"I'll kill 'em all…"
Oh really?
"You should smile more, Lady Zeron." Hicks gave off a 'roguish smile'. The 'girl' with the wooden sword gave him this certain…, feel. A desire to see this doe-eyed bitch be dominated.
…
"I'm a guy." his smile dropped, and his abs were still deformed.
"I should really wear pants next time." Zeron thought, as Hicks left the scene.
Verod Skyline, Verod
Meanwhile, long after the diplomatic party to the capital left, Isabel was back again. Though she had to be more careful now, as the damaged buildings were swarming with people. The cloak of shadows was at the moment, deactivated and will not function normally until the next week. Still her queen was still curious and cautious of the city that appeared, if what the lost prisoner said was true at all.
But she wasn't alone though, accompanying her were two others of her circle. Helena and Monty, Helena was the taller of the two, but quite flat in her chest area while Monty was the opposite. How she could move carrying those around, only the creator would know.
"A miracle really." She turned his head to Helena.
"That they could survive four hundred thousand of our monstrous legions. Here they are, quickly rebuilding all the damages from their fight. No doubt they could repeat this again."
"What makes you so sure?" the younger one, Monty asked.
"Humans never learn from their mistakes, and they'll keep on repeating them over and over again." in spite of them being almost extinct, they truly embody arrogance, even in their fading light. "At least that's what I thought." Isabel raised her eyebrow at that.
"Why is that?" the short one questioned.
Helena didn't answer.
"…! It's the prisoner." Isabel realised, pointing at said person. Seeing the same clothes he wore and the same black hair and purple eyes.
"Hm, must've used teleportation magic." Monty crossed her arms, remembering the testimonies the guards gave when their little Verodian disappeared.
"That must mean they are aware of our existence." Helena stood up. "Grab your cloaks girls, we need to lay low." both nodding, they donned on their cover. They quickly blended into the crowd, and were let loose as they saw the sights in the city.
The Happy Crow Tavern, North Ken
"That's a horrible idea." Mark said to Asha, who instantly became offended.
"It isn't horrible!" the brunette girl, from Mathilde's village pouted.
"I gotta side with Marky here Ash, that's pretty dumb." Tiko put in his two cents. Asha had a look of shock and betrayal, making the other girls laugh. "Hilda?! Alice!? How dare you betray me!?" she whined and mock-weeped on her table, making them roar in amusement again.
Some of the previous diplomatic party were given orders to stay, and interact with the locals, and get themselves informants from the topside while the Rosa Nostra did their thing below. They were to acquire grain prices, demand for anything and the supply available, see any services that were absent and present and what they could do to provide it.
So far, Ken was your average medieval city, with slum areas, unchecked plague and disease, a hand-crafted industrial base, and so on. Same with the mafia, they also got corrupted government bodies, at least to their modern eyes. But in these olden times, this 'corruption' was considered a 'privilege' and 'right' for most of the city officials. Which were conversely strict and tight-lipped, but the layer below it told a different story all together.
*muffled*
*muffled*
*muffled*
Farly started, "Hey guys do you hear somethi-"
*bumf!*
…
…
*CREEAAAKK*
*CRACK*
"Woah!" Tiko jumped from his seat as the middle of the tavern suddenly collapsed.
Meanwhile, Below The Happy Crow Tavern
*BANGBANG*
*BABABANG*
"JESUS CHRIST GET THEM OUT OF THERE!" Rome shouted throughout the tunnels. There were only so few of them, and it was a miracle that they didn't die as hordes of thugs and brutes surrounded them from all sides. They were just doing their little tunnel things when they encountered shit that was straight out of a ryona hentai.
It broke their hearts when the little dark elf girl called for her mother to save her. Careful at aiming their pistols and rifles, they shot the cum-stained bastards who were not only just slavers, but pedo-slavers. Shooting every hairy ugly bastard within vicinity of their range, and turning them into dying squealing piglets at the end of their lives.
*BABABANG*
*BANGBANGBANG*
After taking out the buyers and sellers, the guards in the pleasure-slash-torture chamber began to mob them left and right. It got so bad to the point that they turned the cages where the dark elf girls were in into a makeshift holdout position. Most of them didn't bother to ask who they were, as they were busy trying to block out the noise these strange men were making.
*BANG*
One into the heart.
*BANGBANG*
Into his eye and ear.
*BANGBANGBANG*
Three of these into his balls.
"Fuck! Were running out of ammo!" one of them cursed. Rome became worried.
"Get us out of here!"
One of them, panicking, procured a rocket launcher.
"NO DON-" But Rome was too late, as the faction member fired upwards into the ceiling of the basement.
Half of the dark elves' ears did not work anymore.
*BOOOOOM*
The Happy Crow Tavern, North Ken
"Get out! Out of the way!" Everyone thankfully vacated somehow as the building collapsed upon itself. With the good doctor himself leading the efforts on helping the patrons escape and healing them. Apparently, to the exploratory group's surprise he was an actual real legitimate doctor!
A part-time nurse, he quickly corrected.
"What on earth is happening here!?" someone shrieked.
"Uh oh." Tiko said.
It seemed that the city officials had arrived, in absence of Lady Claudia's guard. The group imagined them to be exactly what they, or he expected them to be. A thin moustached prick. He was also accompanied with his personal guards, that seemed akin to sleazy backstabbers than noble champions.
"We don't quite know sir," Doctor Yale started, "But it seems, ehm… a structural fault was the cause of this incident." Doctor Yale clasped his hands pleadingly.
The official narrowed his eyes, "Is that so…?" he looked upwards to the broken tavern. Which moved a bit.
"Look! Someone is still in there!" a Kener woman pointed at the wreck, which was slowly revealing someone bit by bit. Yale went there, followed by Milford, Mark, Farly, and the three refugee girls. The city official looked at them disdainfully, but trotted his horse forward, enlarging his prideful chest, with his company in tow.
Moving the rubble away with their bare hands revealed.
"Rome?" Yale met him once in the server, during the Brotherhood-Mafia War. He was killed by him.
"Huh…? Hey, you're that doctor guy from the radio. Help me up." He presented his gloved hand. Yale pulled him, and helped him get out. "There are still some of my folks down there."
"Milford! Mark! Farly!"
"On it doc!"
They moved the wreckage of the tavern away bit by bit, as the official was watching this, a sense of fear and anger overtook him. Charging his horse forward, he went to intercept the group. "That is enough!" he shouted at them, gaining their attention. "We shall take it from here, this is city business only." he sneered, nasally.
"There are some people down there!" Mark said, the doctor nodding with Rome. "I said we'll take care of it! Are you deaf!?" he expressed outrage.
"We could do it faster!" Tiko continued to clear the rubble. Gritting his teeth the lord grabbed his sabre and pointed at them. "Seize them!"
"Oi! Let's not get too hasty! We don't wanna hurt anyone!" Milford raised his hands.
"Shut your trap, you box-head foreigner!" the guards growled, spears were being levelled against them. The lord gave off a smile of satisfaction of seeing these outsiders being shown their proper place.
Below him.
*ka-chick*
"Take another step forward, or I'll blow this guy's brains off!" Rome roared, the city official stared at them in confusion. What is that black thing that he is holding in his hand-
*BANG*
His horse whinnied, surprising him as he was suddenly thrusted into the air. "That was a warning shot, second time I'll shoot his legs!" he snarled.
Both sides stood at a standstill, until one guard stepped forward-
*BANG*
"AAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!" the guard held his foot in agony, making the inhabitants of the city tense, as if they weren't enough.
*Do it again! Come on, do it!" Rome challenged, his teeth shivering.
"Boss! We're out!" someone called out from the hole. Many of them turned to the voice, as a hand reached out from the hole and grabbed the ground. He finally got into a comfortable sitting position in the hole. "C'mon kid, we're outta here." he said softly, a small hand reached him and he grabbed it, revealing to the Keners.
A little dark elf girl, all grimey and malnourished. A slave collar on her neck, a strange strangled noise came from the background, and the exploratory team looked to see the city official pale-faced. "Can you stand?" they heard the man from the hole again, and the poor girl nodded weakly.
"Aight, next batch."
Rome frowned at the sight, then frowned harder when he saw the look of the city official. "So, you're behind this." Rome hardened his fists, connecting the dots that led to a certain man named Renault Pappenheim. As he looked closer, the looks matched, thin mustache, balding head, an anorexic chin.
"Wha-What!?" his teeth were bare and yellow, he felt disgusted looking at it.
"If I'm fuckin' correct, slavery is illegal here right?" Rome pointed his gun to him.
"Wait, what's happening?" Tiko asked.
Then, Renault remembering his position as an official, and attempted to deflect the ire of the public to him. "How did you come to know this!? Are you… spying upon us!" Mark cringed at his political acting. The Keners started to murmur, the atmosphere now uncertain.
"Course' we were. We don't trust you yet, so we had to see everythin'." Rome explained.
"So you were spying on us! After all that ceremony of us being everlasting allies!" Renault pointed his finger at Rome.
"We were lost, blind. We had to do some tricks to survive." Rome deflected, and turned to the crowd.
"If your entire city got transported through space and time, to a place you don't quite know yet, wouldn't you do the same?" Rome spread his arms, gun in hand. A few bouts of agreement sounded from the Keners.
"It doesn't matter! You still spied on us! That means flogging from all of you! You will…!" the lord became hysterical, barking like a mad dog.
*BANG*
…
…
*thump*
…
…
"Ah, shit."
AN:
11/10/21: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! When will they learn that ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES! HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH! Anyways, real life stuff got in the way, but I manged to pull through (kind of...). This was originally about them explaining the economics of being literal game characters and what they could do... but I had trouble translating it into story talk, cus' I didn't want it to become a boring economics manual. So I basically shortened the whole thing, the chapter's namesake still kinda holds up. But, the mafia thing was unexpected, like, it came to me like truck-kun. Out of nowhere so, I rolled with it and got this, derailing my plans. But it was too good to be deleted, so then stuff happened, and here we are. Also massive thanks for reading all this way, hope you had a great day!