Episode 3.2 - Warnings, Feelings, Mysteries, Gym Clothes and Unspeakable Punishments.

The fort our master-demon made is not just for show - endless spiralling staircases, arrow slits in the walls, and narrow, long corridors - it takes us quite a while to make our way to the front door.
    "So?" I ask a little more harshly than I mean to.

"Err, so what?" Sek replies.

My eyebrow shoots up, "You're kidding, right? We're alone, not even a skeleton guard around. Heading towards the front door, where a player with a function system menu to ring the doorbell awaits."

Sek blinks, "Holy crap, you're right! Why didn't it cross my mind?"

"Hmmmm?" Eshu adds.

"We can escape!" Sek adds.

"Ohhh? I see."

"You could try to be more excited. What about you, Ko?" Sek frowns

"Well, I am the only one who even thought of it, apparently," I mumble.
    This is no good, ugggggh. We're coming apart at the seams so easily. Is one little argument all it took to break us? Maybe leaving here would be for the best; repair our bond, take a break from demons and training and afternoon tea. Ask the guy at the door to teleport us to the player capital, far away from the range of the slave collars, far away from where Lila could ever find us and then...and then? Do what exactly?

"But what if, say, we reported Lila to the mods and she's not an official NPC but some sort of bug - what would they do?"

"I errr, I'm not sure," Sek pauses, "Delete her, I guess..."

"I don't want that," Eshu adds softly.

Sek scowls, "Look, even I don't necessarily want that, but I do want our old lives back, ok? She's just like a character, one we just got attached to, is all. She's not real! You watch a show over twelve weeks, and you get melancholic when a character you like won’t be on air anymore, ya? She’s like that except we’re with her all day every day, ‘accelerated attachment’, nothing else.

"Well then," I step ahead of the others, up to the large front door of the fort, "Do what you must."

    The wooden gate swings open to reveal… holy shi– he's hot, no like, seriously, how long did he spend on the character creator?!

"Hello, good friends!" the hunk-- the visitor says brightly.

"Err, hi there," Sek replies in the face of my and Eshu’s stunned silence.

"I am Mike Hermes, Hermes like the messenger god!"

"And Mike like?"
    The tall, blond, ripped stranger gives Sek a quizzical look, "Mike as in my name."

"Ok, of course," Sek sighs.

"Perchance, my friends, are you all player characters?"

"Well, ya," I mutter, having to look quite upwardly to make eye contact.

    "Oh! I am so glad! So the south has not yet been entirely robbed."

"Sorry, what?" Sek already seems done with this guy. Wonder if he's jealous of that avatar…

"You don't know? Alas, it would seem you won't have much by way of clues then either..."

"What don't we know?" our Tsundere frowns. I'm getting the impression he doesn’t get on well with boys prettier than him. Sek is plenty handsome, too, but this guy! He's like a Jojo character’s physique mixed with the aesthetic of a Bishoujo Prince!
   "Well, my comrades, you see I am a traveller, a man who crosses the land delivering messages like my namesake,"

"The messenger god 'Mike'," Sek mutters.

"Ahem. In this endeavour, I have travelled most all of Escape and met a great many players along the way. However, in recent weeks, people began to go missing, people on the friends app stopped replying to messages, the land became as though the Mary Celeste!"

The messaging app isn't something we ever used much, and these days is locked to Lila anyway, but there are plenty of reasons for someone to stop replying…
    "Maybe they just don't want to call back?" Eshu says as untactfully as possible.

"Quite so, my dear!" Mike gleams like a Greek statue, "For my majesty can be stupendously staggering! However, I have conversed with those who have not disappeared, and all report similar findings. It is as though as many as half the game's population have disappeared!"

"That does sound kind of weird," I concede, "How did you guess we were players?"

"Ah, elementary, my dear! The fortress appeared from nowhere to scare the locals. And well, your umm, I don't like to say of course, but your, ahem, attire."

----

------

--------

"Kwahhhhhhhh!"

In a flash, I find myself hiding behind ‘Mt Sek’. Our training clothes, our stupid training clothes! Covered in sweat, barely covered by anything else! Ughhhhhhhh, this is way too much! And did my stupid cat ears and tail just activate?!

"Even you, Eshu?" Sek rumbles. I look to my side to see her taking cover here too, "It's different with you, he's a stranger." I nod in concert to her words.

"Ah-ha, I seem to have committed a faux pas, friends," Mike says, tipping his head forward in something of a bow.

"Ah, it’s not your fault, mate," Sek adds, "We have noticed some oddities, pain settings seem to be enabled again. But I haven't heard much about missing players. Do you ah, wanna come in for tea or something?" Perhaps our reservedness has reassured Sek; he’s being rather kind all of a sudden. How boys think is a never-ending mystery to me.

"No, no! I dare say I have perhaps overstayed my welcome. I intend to reach the next village by nightfall. Another missing player was based there. My quest is to get a clearer idea of the scope of this issue, you see? If you happen to come across anything on the matter, the barkeeper there holds onto messages for me, I'd be most obliged."

"Oh ah, sure man, no worries."

"Well then, though only a brief call, adieu, my new friends!" Mike turns on platform booted heels, armour clanking and cape furling out behind him. He takes three exaggerated steps when Eshu suddenly shoots out from our hiding spot and grabs the towering man by the cape, "W-wait."

"Huh?"

Huh, indeed, big guy, what's she doing?
    Oh, wait, of course… Right, yes, escaping, teleporting away or reporting Lila to the mods or both. I guess Eshu is the only one who remembered.

"Don't go back north."

"Ummm, sorry?"

"If you can at all, stay in the southern regions of the map," Eshu says more sternly, "Please," she adds, going full charm offensive with those big eyes no one could resist.

"Well, I. Do you know something after all?"
    Eshu shakes her head, "Just a woman's intuition," she lies without a single tell.

"Well, I'd be a fool to ignore that. I can't promise anything, but I'll be sure to keep it in mind. Thank you, friend." Eshu nods, looking happier and releasing her hold on his cape.
    Does this mean she believes in doomsday? That any day now the worlds on either side of our own will start a massive war, with the main cities and towns north of us caught in the crossfire? Or is she just being careful, offering a kind warning so as not to regret it later?

We watch Mike depart on horseback for a bit until he disappears into the distance before closing the door and heading back towards the upper floors of the fort.

"What an odd guy," Sek muses.

"He seemed nice, though," Eshu adds.
    I stare at them both blankly, "Err, hello? What happened to calling for help?"

There is a moment's pause before I watch the life drain almost comically from Sek's face, "What the heck is wrong with me, how could I forget?!"

"You forgot? How?" I ask.

"Well, you did too! And you, Eshu!"

"Nuh-uh," Eshu smiles.

"Huh?"
    She sighs as though it's the simplest thing in the world, "-,- You two are all that matters to me. If you guys decide to leave here, so will I. If you guys are Lady Lila's slaves, so am I. It's not my call to make."

"Y-you can't be serious!"
    Eshu fixes Sek, and me for that matter, with a level glare, "Baaaaaaaaakas. Eshu loves you both, that's all that matters to me."

"L-lo--" Sek stutters, and I feel my own cheeks reddening too. Eshu's shoulders slump double,
"Still? We've banged so many times, and you guys still can't handle the ‘L-word’. What am I supposed to do with you both?"

"Don’t put it like that so bluntly! And anyway, that’s a different matter, it’s one thing! But it has nothing to do with why we didn't escape! Ko, what about you?!"

"Honestly? I like Lila."

"But it was your idea!"

"Ya so," I all but wall-slam Sek, shoving a finger in his face, "You're the one who hates her, what's your excuse for being so quiet?"

"I-i... I don't know..." Sek concedes.

"Machoism," Eshu grins. We both stare at her. "Maybe all we've ever desired was a master-servant roleplay,” she says, singsong.

"Oh come on, we aren't that kinky! You might as well say she's put some sort of spell on us, or that we have Stockholm syndrome! Actually, ya, maybe that's all it is."

"Or maybe, we just like her. Maybe we just wanted more purpose to our days, and having someone who cares so much about improving us feels nice."

"I don't buy it..." Sek grumbles.

    I shrug, "Well, we've missed our chance now in any case."

We progress mostly in silence the rest of the way back upstairs. I open the familiar door to the Dojo to find... A very stern-looking Demon Girl.

"So it's treason, is it?"

"""Huh?"""

"You idiots seriously didn't think I could hear you whenever I want to? What sort of all-powerful Grand-Demon do you take me for!"

"So, you heard everything?" I ask, blushing annoyingly.

"Oh yes!"

"What's the matter then?" Sek snaps, stepping past me up to our tiny captor, "We didn't even do anything in the end."

"Only for supreme lack of ambition! But you considered it, planned it - and that means punishment! Clearly, I've been far, far too lenient with you people all along!"

    We collectively slink back. Lila's thin arm shoots up to point at… Oh, me. "Mistress, I'm sorry..."

"T-that's the first time any of you have called me that, I... No wait, now's not the time! You're the only one who had any initiative. To think the best fighter of the group is also the most intelligent and cunning. You're hereby my chief lieutenant among the three of you!"
I blink, feeling rather confused, "What? I thought this was a punishment?"

"Oh it is, come over here, you equally get it first. You two can watch and cower while you wait."

I shan't describe our punishment, it is ours and ours alone. If you want to know so badly, then get a demon mistress of your own and find out! Yes, a very, ummmm, interesting punishment it is too. Eshu in particular enjoys it way too much...

'Mistress', a friend, someone who gives us purpose and structure in our daily lives. Sek's right that we are enslaved and that's messed up, no two ways about it, no moral grey area or cultural difference can excuse how wrong it is and yet... I don't want to see her deleted or taken away from us forever.

 She feels emotions, gets jealous and petty, laughs kindly and often cruelly. Sometimes she's haughty or seductive, other times caring and tender - she feels like a real person. I don't want to be without purpose, slowly willing away the days bit by bit until we're just lazing around, too lethargic and apathetic to do anything, just like the old world.

Honestly, what's become of me?