Bullhead Docks - Evernight Castle – The Grimmlands – Remnant
Doctor Arthur Aurelias Annulus Watts, PhD-DJS-DOM-DDS-BFA-MSMF, paced back and forth at Evernight's bullhead docks. He was flustered. And furious. And flummoxed. And other words that started with the letter "f".
What made it worse was that the bestial behemoth of boorish behavior, Mister 'thinks muscles are cool' Hazel Rainart was tinkering with the Bullhead again, so he couldn't go anywhere. He really wanted to go do some stuff.
Because he was tired of loitering around Evernight, waiting for Her Royal Highness Queen Salem to bother to hold court. It had been weeks since she'd shown up in the throne room, and it was starting to become bothersome.
He paused his pacing at that thought, and glared at the lower half of Hazel's body, sticking out from beneath the Bullhead chassis. A chassis that was held up by a single, solitary lift jack, powered by gravity dust.
And the button was righhtttt… there….
He shook himself. No. No. Not yet. He needs to fix the damn Bullhead first.
"Hazel, have you noticed that the Queen is spending... an inordinate amount of time in her private chambers these days?" Watts… sorry, Doctor Watts, PhD-DJS-DOM-DDS-BFA-MSMF, hazarded.
There was a long pause from under the Bullhead. From the way his lower body twitched, Hazel wasn't really happy to talk about the subject. "Maybe…"
Watts (Sorry, Doctor Watts) glared through the wall in the general direction of Salem's opulent suite of personal chambers. "What…. do you suppose she... does... in there alone? Hour after hour... day after day?"
Another long and excruciating pause. "There are things I don't want to imagine, Watts."
"Doctor Watts, you insufferable oaf. I earned all fifty-three of my Doctoral, Masters, and Bachelor degrees. And my professional certifications. And my 100% authentic Junior Explorer Badge. Never forget that, Hazel. I earned my position in the world."
From beneath the Bullhead came a muffled. "Whatever. Watts."
. . .
The sound of several tons of Bullhead suddenly kissing the immovable and rather impermeable surface of the Bullhead Dock was satisfying, but only for a second, as was the sight of dark red liquid puddling beneath it.
A Most Opulent and Dank Bedroom Suite, Lots of Purple - Evernight Castle – The Grimmlands – Remnant
Queen Salem, or at least one aspect of Salem, sat in her comfortable chair before a desk that predated the four Kingdoms. It was a desk that had seen aeons of nefarious planning, ill-conceived evils, and enough petty vindictiveness to put a high-school clique to shame.
What it had never before seen, however, was the state Salem was currently in as she stared that the highly customized and secure scroll in her hands.
"What do you mean, I must pay additional funds for more of these 'gems'?!" She glared at the screen, fingers flexing. It would take but a moment, the barest hint of her dread power, to reduce the Scroll to scrap.
But that would mean… she'd have to deal with Watts.
Gods the man was insufferable.
But this game was, likewise, infuriating.
And highly addictive, apparently.
"This is unconscionable. Intolerable! Not another lien! You promised me 'hours of enjoyment, free-to-play'. And yet you toy with my desires, play upon my weaknesses!" With a growl, she dropped the Scroll, ever so gently, in its highly cushioned and lovingly crafted case lined with the soft tresses of all the silver-eyed Huntresses she'd captured and ceremoniously shaved bald.
She'd broken more than one that way. It was amazing how vain those argent-eyed tarts were…
She promptly summoned a cadres of Seers. "You will send word to an Ursa... no, a Beringel... no... a Wyvern in northern Mistral. They are to stand by until I have identified the developer of this 'Candle Crash' game, upon which you will have it locate and eviscerate them…" a feral smile of pleasure crossed her lips, "along with their entire corporate structure..."
Their duty known, the Seers turned and gently floated toward the doorway. It would take them several months to reach Mistral, but Seers were nothing if not patient.
"Wait!"
Salem paused, having considered the very real possibility that the game's servers might be also housed on premises.
"Perhaps... something less dramatic... I will seek counsel regarding an appropriate response... bide a moment."
Team SKIVVIES Dorm Room - Breakwater Academy - Menagerie - Remnant
Somewhere in Menagerie, Cinder Scoria, a perfectly ordinary and well-adjusted teenaged girl who never, in fact, murdered her stepsisters, stepmother, mentor, and gods-knew how many other souls, answered her Scroll, and then quietly slipped out of her dorm room and into a supply closet cause… well… it was her Grimmmother calling.
"Yo Grams, sup?" she asked, scroll held to her ear. They didn't do camera-enabled, because Cinder didn't want to have to kill any of her classmates and incinerate the remains. She wasn't that kind of girl.
Murmuring from the scroll.
"Oh? Yeah no, blowing up a corporate headquarters it not really a-"
Murmuring.
"Well, yeah I know some of the games can be-"
More murmuring, slightly irate sounding.
"Wait, back up… which game was it?"
Satanic screeching.
"Oh, that one?! Yeah, that's TakeFive Games. Total lien sink." Cinder considered her next words. "Fry the whole city block. I'll send you the Board of Directors home addresses, too."
Bullhead Docks - Evernight Castle – The Grimmlands – Remnant
Hazel Rainart sighed.
At some point, he was going to have to worm his way out from under the Bullhead. And then he was going to have to repair the stupid hydraulic fluid leak that Watts (screw you Arthur) had caused by tripping the Gravity Dust emergency override.
But at least the man had shut up.
It was rather relaxing, all things considered.
