DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?
The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 38 Assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!
Anyway, sorry about that huge delay... What's it been, six weeks? I'll check as soon as I publish this.
Anyway, blame it on my move. I just traveled from New York to Florida, and I've left behind all of my friends (including my Ladyfriend). It's been hard to get on since they've (she's) been occupying so much of my time. At any rate, without further adieu, and just a second, as soon as I'm done with my comic irony, once you avert your gaze downward... The superb; The anticipated; The revolutional... CHAPTER SIX OF MY FIRST SEMISUCCESSFUL CREATIVE WRITING EXPERIMENT!
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I dozed off twice before we ate, and once on the table. Allie was insulted but she did her best to hide it, as she was truly worried about me. It pained me that she cared so... This was a dangerous field of work to make friends in. Easily one's emotions could get in the way of one's better judgment, and end up killing everyone involved. I was fully aware of that, and I'm sure people like Conlan and Hideval were as well. But Allie didn't seem like an incredibly logical person. Not in that sense, anyway. She was a girl, after all, and it had become apparant in the past ten days that she was romantically attracted to me.
Why? Don't ask me. I perfected my personality to turn people off, not to make silly girls fall for me. But, she wasn't a silly girl, now was she? Allie was deep and intellectual and maybe smarter than me, when it came to certain things. I was positive it wasn't something major, maybe a little 'I-like-you-but-it'd-never-work' thing or an 'I-like-you-but-I-don't-want-to-risk-our-friendship' thing. Or even an 'I-like-you-but-you're-kinda-short-and-those-shoes-make-me-think-that-you-might-be-homosexual-so-I-wouldn't-want-to-embarrass-you' sort of thing. But I was almost sure that this would never blossom into a serious infatuation, so I waited for it to disappear.
Pushing the precautions out of my mind, I tossed myself on the couch again. I half-conciously surveyed the room, mainly out of boredom.
It was completely rectangular, perhaps twelve by twenty-five feet in perimeter, and I'd guess eight-foot high ceilings. A standard room system, obviously. The kitchen took up about a quarter of the room; A dining area another one-fourth with also a couch and bookcase; The rest was split into two private rooms. They were identical, each with a twin-sized bed, a small dresser, two chairs, and an end drawer beside the bed. The room I had chosen had a digital alarm clock on that table, which for some reason Allie was terribly against.
"It's sort of like an evil face," she said, looking warily at the device. "Like a Zombie Lupin's eyes, you know?"
"I guess so," I said, which should be read as 'Not at all, but I find it irrelevant and therefore not worth a discussion.'
"So you'll take this room?" Allie asked, smiling and playing with her fingers like a hesitant puppy. That's really the only way I find it possible to describe her: A nerve-wracked small dog. She's loyal, naiive and of course cute; She's afraid of so many things, yet so brave against others. I suppose it depends on the situation she's in.
"Sure I will," I said. "Not a problem." I rather liked the clock, actually, it's good to wake up early. Makes it simple and easy to train. Call me antisocial, but I'd rather not gossip whilst murdering bloody creatures. I'm only a chatterbug if you catch me when I'm physically tired. As I was presently.
We'd spent the morning West of El Nath, a floor down the Tower. The Pepes down there didn't give an excellent amount of... Anything, but Allie thought they were cute and since we were here...
"We might as well!" as she'd cheerily exclaimed, diving into the freezing water.
I never got that. Girls rarely have any trouble with cold water. Only guys. Blame shrinkage, blame low pain tolerance, what be you. I jumped in after her, wary of the special water.
All of the water near Aqua Road was like this. Super-full of oxygen, so it wasn't actually Water, in the sense of H2O. No, it was some strange substance that was as thick as water, with a PH level of 6.9. Yet, it was breathable. You breathed it in and out and your lungs would barely mind. After a long time, of course, you'd start to feel asthma-esque symptoms and have to leave, or go near the Aquarium (where there is a generator that raises the PH level up one-tenth so the waterstuff doesn't hurt you when you breathe. It's complicated.)
Regardless of the scientifice implausibility of the situation, I threw a tobi hard at the nearest penguin, just as Allie shot two bolts at once. It died and dropped a huge bag of cash.
"What the hell?" I'd exclaimed, my voice lost in the bubbles. Something was definitely wrong here.
I went up to pick up the package of wealth, estimating that there had to be at least thirty millon mesos in there. It was about as big as the Pepe itself, and mostly full of paper cash (which never ever dissipated in the waterstuff. Go figure). I couldn't figure it out, but something was off...
Allie, apparantly not noticing the riches, had shot at another of the beaked and snorkel-ed creatures. It retaliated by swimming towards us, attacking me in general for some reason. Was I getting too close to the 'shiny'?
There was a slight pain in my abdomen, more like a tickle, as the thing headbutted my stomach. Green and yellow flashed in my view. Huntress Armour. The thing was wearing Bow-women armour. And it was well-endowed, at that.
Wait. What?
"Wake up, you dolt!" a cheery voice said, and I opened my eyes.
A ceiling. What had happened to the queer water and the Pepes?
"You fell asleep on the couch." Allie said, poking me again. "It's almost four, and I'm bored."
"I was sleeping," I said indignantly, rolling away from her. "It was a good dream. We would have been rich."
Allie smiled sadly. I could see it in the window. Her face was beautiful, even looking so downcast and disappointed like that.
What the hell was that?
"We are rich," she said quietly, almost whispering. "Hideval doesn't need the money anymore. We... Well, mostly you, you have about a dozen million mesos to yourself."
I ignored her. "There was about two and a half times that amount in the dream."
She shook her head and said no more, sitting on the edge of the couch next to my back. We both knew that I was avoiding the implications, and I was grateful that she was staying silent about it.
"There was a really hot guy at the Free Market," she said, trying to change the subject, and not doing well. "He was selling a set of Ilbis for a mil. One million mesos."
Okay, she succeeded. I sat up, opposite her on the couch.
"Did you see the actual sell and price or was he advertising it?"
"No, I saw it physically," she said, sounding a bit insulted. "Was it that good?"
"They'll be gone by now," I said, stretching my arms and leaning back down. "That was, what, four and a half hours ago? Anyone could, and would buy them and sell them again for, like a thirty to fifty million meso profit. It's long gone. You should have bought it when you had the chance instead of coming to me first. Not to mention, you should have mentioned that before I took a nap!"
She shrugged. "I'm sorry. You're probably right," she said, looking towards the opposite window. It was a conspicuous move and assumptions popped up in my head, which I ignored.
We were both silent for a minute or so. "What is it, four PM?" I asked, sitting up straighter as if I was about to stand up. "We should go do something progressive."
"I made a couple scarecrow targets and shot at them while you were sleeping, actually," she said, and I noticed for the first time that her dark red hair was shinier near the ends. "It's snowing outside," she explained, following my gaze. My half-awake suspicions were confirmed, and I only then realized how obvious all of that should have been. I groaned.
"Well, let's go kill some hay or something," I said.
Allie looked like she dearly wanted to say something, but didn't. I had seen that facial expression before, especially in women; The screwed up concentration and fight between Future Joy and Present Joy.
"You bought them," I sighed. "You bought the mystery One-Mil Ilbis."
"You make too many assumptions," she said, and I flushed. But my heart leapt when she reached into an inner pocket and pulled out this huge package that I thought for sure would not fit into my Meba. "I'm pretty sure this is worthy of a-"
"Name your price!" I gasped, smiling ear to ear.
She smiled sinisterly and I could feel myself blanching. She could do anything she wanted.
"Go out without your Knucklevest and scream about Infected Mushrooms to anyone you see," she could say. Or "Let's see if I can fit in your bed tonight (winky winky)," or "Throw away those shoes and buy real ones," or "Why don't we go on a proper date sometime?" or "I dare you to go play Hide-and-Seek with the Leatties," or perhaps she could re-inquire about that assassination she had asked me about in that first hour we'd met, or she could force me to seek 'psychological help' for my hallucinations (which probably wouldn't be a bad thing, but they charge one bloody hell of a lot of meso here), or...
"I'll give them to you, for free, if you let me give you a hug."
I stumbled. "What? A hug?"
I wasn't wholeheartedly against a friendly embrace, not at all. I hug plenty of people. I had hugged Lyo, Conlan's ladyfriend, when we left them. Hell, I hugged Conlan when we left them. I hugged Allie one night when she awoke with a shuddering gasp in the other room, and I'd walked in and she was sobbing, and I didn't know what to do and she just held me tightly and part of me was afraid she'd never want to let go, and part of me almost didn't want her to let go.
Damned testosterone... No, it's just good to be wanted by someone. To be appreciated. That's all.
"Just let me hug you whenever I ask," she said again, handing the nearly-priceless stars to me.I took them, staring incredulously, and put both of my arms around her. She was suprised, but she squeezed back, and we held each other for who knows how long, until the spell was broken-
Rather, we stood like that for a few seconds, and then I stepped back, eager to try out the stars.
"What, that's all I get?" she asked, and I noticed she was blushing a bit. It was cute when she did th-
It worried me when she did that. Hugging was one thing, but that blush implied that she wanted more. You can't give a dog half a steak at the table and expect him to go lay down.
"Yes, that's all you get," I said, a bit too firmly. "Anyway, I want to go try these."
Miraculously, and yet obviously, the stars fit.
There were two dummies in the side yard of the house-for-rent, apparantly Allie had been working hard. Either that or she had a natural skill for making dummies. A natural at the study of Dumminology. Mannequinology? I'll ask Conman, he knows stupid stuff like that.
I swung hard and the shuriken sliced through the neck of Dummy A, whom I decided to call Fred. The Ilbi flew and half-sank itself into a tree. An oak tree, no less. I laughed out loud. Fred's straw head lost it's balance and tumbled off, his strawly innards falling out on the way down. I giggled. I had decapitated poor Fred. He probably deserved it anyway.
I realized, at this point, that I have a very strange way of thinking when I'm overjoyed. I shrugged it up and tossed a Lucky Seven, obliterating both of Fred's arms. They flew back into the forest as well, but only barely penetrated the bark. It's hard to concentrate spin and slicing-through power on any throw, and in a Lucky Seven it's nearly impossible. Apparantly there's a Hermit Skill that would let me make a really big star using Mana, and that star would go through any enemies it touched.
Maybe in a few years or months or whatever.
Today, I decided, I would be merciful with the second dummy, whom I dubbed Fred2. I patted him twice on his snowy shoulder and began to walk back inside.
Allie was cooking. I could tell before I walked in, as the smell was wafting out the poorly-insulated door.
"Hullo," I said dully, and she didn't turn around. She was staring hard at the oven.
"Are you really supposed to leave it in for that long?" she asked me, gazing at me with brown eyes that-
...That looked very brown on this fine evening.
"Yes," I said with a huff, tossing off my jacket and Knucklevest. The day was coming to an end, surely now it would be save to throw on a regular sweater. "You put it in for twenty-five minutes at four-hundred and twenty-five degrees. As long as you don't let it sit in the hot stove for five minutes like you did last time."
She pouted. "I was reading. You should have done it."
"I was in the bathroom!" I exclaimed, knowing she was kidding. Mostly kidding, anyway.
"Hug!" she said, which threw me off. I looked, and she was standing there, smiling with her mouth shut, arms open wide. I sighed.
"Let me throw on a shirt," I muttered.
"But that'll ruin it!" she cried, but I had pulled my folded orange turtleneck from my closet already. I threw my Meba onto my bed; My glove was already there. I didn't bother putting it back on after the Pepes.
I stepped out of the room to a pouting Allie. "You ruined it," she said, but hugged me tight anyway. For a second I just rolled my eyes, but soon enough I was holding her too.
"Does it really make that much of a difference?" I asked, knowing that it was trick, multi-layered question, and that I would use her casual answer to make several life-altering decisions.
"Seriously, not really," she said, pushing the side of her head into my shoulder. I can't imagine it smelled good there, even if the landscape was frozen doesn't mean I can't sweat. "But I rarely get a chance to see you like that, and-"
"Bull!" I interrupted, noticing that her hair smelleed of strawberry shampoo and wondering why this was relevant. I realzied it wasn't. "I wear my Knucklevest every bloody day."
"But I can't see your pecs or outer abs that way."
I blushed, but made every effort to ignore that.. "I can't see myself being very pleasing to the eye anyway. I haven't worked out since early Middle School."
She shrugged, seeming suprised that I was so modest. Modest, maybe, but honest. I didn't weigh much, either. I was five-foot-seven and one-hundred-fifty pounds. I had nothing on the two-hundred-fifty pound Warriors that most girls seemed to fall for. I didn't spend all day lifting a bloody twenty-pound halberd into the air and bringing it down with good accuracy, every time. Not to mention the whatever-amount-pounds of armour they usually wear. I wouldn't be able to estimate, I've never worn any.
"You're pretty full-figured yourself," she purred. I realized-
Wait... Purred? What's gotten into me?
Blah blah, she said, and I realized that she was hitting on me. I thought it would be a good time to back off from the embrace. It would be a terrible idea, actually, but that's what I was going for.
She made a wild grab for my hand, and I turned to look at her.
"I need to tell you something," she said, exactly as I said "Don't bother. I know what you're doing and it isn't a good idea."
Tears welled up in her eyes and I realized that I owed her, at the very least, an explanation. I was going to, I was planning to, and I would have. Really, I would have sat her down right then and there and told her everything.
But my life never has worked out really well. Today, something really bad had happened to me, and then something really good. That means I was even, and fate didn't liek to do that to me. That would be fair. That would make sense. No, they had to go and bloody blow up my life, lest I get too happy.
The window exploded and a shearing pain hit me in the back. I had just enough time to throw myself in front of Allie's more fragile body before the glass made swiss cheese of my back, the fire of the explosion vaporized my hair and scorched the skin on my back (everywhere but my pants, which were my Training pants), and a large block of wood hit me in the back of the head.
Screaming, a harsh voice. Blood dripping down my neck. I could feel footsteps, but they were so far away...
I watched as my life faded to darkness.