Episode 10.3 - Hermes No More

Lila gives our interloper access to the shield, and Sek helps the guy back on his feet. We walk him over to some crates, bits and bobs from setting the turrets up. Once we offer him a towel and a drink, it slowly dawns on us who he is: Mike Hermes! We met him just once and briefly at that, but his work of character creator art did leave quite the impression.

It's still there - underneath burned clothes, a cape full of singed holes and that weird kid-sized armour - lies a beautiful hunk of a man. Chiselled body, large abs and epic biceps, once styled blond hair, and a handsome face.

"You've been alive out there all this time?" Sek asks. He sits on a crate across from us, I'm next to the big guy, while Lila floats between, arms crossed and face contemplative. Tom also appeared, having finished his lecture to the misbehaving Estolpfo; he clears away the crowd of onlookers and stands nearby, looking stern. He seems wary of our guest.

"I could say the same to you guys," Mike replies in a slightly raspy voice.

"Ah, you'd be surprised. We watched the one-day war from here. Ever since then, it's been one little drama after another,” Sek shrugs.

"And these 'little dramas' brought you to be surrounded by demons?" he replies somewhat harshly, garnering some raised eyebrows and something approaching a low hiss from Tom.
    Lila grins, "'Fraid not. I was already here when you visited, saw your whole conversation."

Mike's jaw drops, "Y-you're kidding? Then you knew what was coming, even then?"

"Pretty much," our mistress replies.

"And you didn't warn anyone?!"

Lila's eyes narrow, "To what end? Protecting humans is the job of other humans, no? Why would I have drawn attention to myself doing something like that?"

"Believe it or not," Sek cuts in, "She's actually rather protective once you get on her good side. I don't fully agree with that myself, but I do think she does her best."

"Naw, thanks, Dog."

"Don't call me that."

Sitting right next to him, I can see Mike's hands actually trembling; he keeps flexing his fingers, balling them into fists, then stretching them back out.
    I gently lay my hand on his arm, trying to offer him some comfort, "Maybe we should start from the start?"

He looks at me with leery, bloodshot eyes. I can't say I like that gaze, it's unnerving, shellshocked even.
    All the same, I delve into a more detailed recap of the last few months with the odd contribution from Sek and Lila. He takes a special interest in hearing about the town the Scout-Drones took and how we freed it, as well as our findings on the expedition. I leave out the personal details for obvious reasons, but mention Eshu is here, and currently resting.

A silence falls when the story is over. Large hands in his lap, he stares at the ground for a long time.
    "So, what's your story then?" Sek says after a while.

Mike looks up, eyes almost seeming to glow with a beastly intelligence, like some predatory animal sizing up friend or foe, "I have other questions. Why are you serving a demon?"

"Err," I mumble, raising one hand sheepishly, "I'm actually a demon, too."

"What?!"

"I guess I forgot to mention that. Me and Eshu took blood pacts; we're Lila's sisters now."

He stares at me aghast, then turns, "You too?"

Sek shakes his head, "Nah, human blood is fine with me. Mind you, I approve of their choice, if it makes 'em happy, who am I to judge?"

Mike’s grime-covered hair sways as he looks between us, "Fine, fine! A demon cult, fine. You're all still players, that's good enough."

"Real charmer this guy," Lila adds dryly.

"Last question: The army of drones coming here - can't be more than a couple days behind me - will you fight it?"

"Heh," Lila scoffs as though she’s now made her mind up on something, "You betcha', kid."

"I see. Alright then. As for me, I was further north, a front row seat to all that happened. I ran south. I think I might actually have been coming here. I never made it; drones hunted me across the land for weeks."

"And you outran them?"

"What? No… Epona, my horse did... Until they got her, that is. After that, I started to hunt them instead. Honestly, I don't know how much time has passed. Eventually, I saw them grouping up together and realised I couldn't take that big a force. I ended up here simply because I was trying to keep ahead of the army," he pauses. I've never met someone who'd been to war before, but I can't help imagining it might be a lot like this. This world has really put him through the ringer.

"Epona... I had to, I had no choice, she was... You must think I'm mad."

Sek waves one hand, "Nah, not really."

I squeeze his shivering arm slightly, "The natives of Escape are as real as those in our old world, that's what I've come to believe. Your Epona was no different. I don't think that's crazy at all."

He looks like he might burst into tears again at any moment, as if he were left alone right now, his spirit would shrivel up, and he might just disappear.

"By the way," Lila hums, "You do know you've level-capped, ya?"

"I've what?" Mike looks up, surprised at the non sequitur. His disdain for her, or perhaps all invaders of Escape, is evident.
    Unperturbed, Lila floats over and flicks through her menu, "Come on, don't dawdle," she adds when Mike is slow to copy her.

She leads him to his level; capped at one hundred out of one hundred, "Escape never had such a system before."

"You get used to it," Sek adds, "You were hunting Killer-Drones, right? When we fought the lesser scout ones, it gave crazy good XP. It could be a single one of those top-tier drones would instantly max you out."

"And without a high-level sponsor like me," Lila cuts in, "Those points can't be saved in a buffer for when you do a class-change. For you, it simply got converted at a rather crap rate into currency."

"T-that's." Mike stutters.
     
"Hmmmm?"

"I thought sleep deprivation had me hallucinating," he suddenly lurches forward, laying his hands on the top of his head, eyes wide and wildly rocking, "I was so paranoid as to where the extra funds kept coming from!"

"You poor man," I say, patting him on the back.

"’Tis not like you can evolve now anyway. I bet you didn't have time to loot the drones you killed? Well, the only class available requires drone drops to access. Heh, if only you had a demon with an excess of currency who could just hand you the materials straight out. How sad."

Apparently shaken from his stupor, Mike straightens up and glares at Lila, "Why would I ever accept a payout from your kind?"

Across from me, Sek sighs, "So edgy, man."
    I barely follow what happens next. Mike pounces to his feet, lightning fast. In a single stride, he's grabbed Sek by the collar and hoisted him to his feet, "Say that again, Brit, you little fuck!"

"Whoa, whoa man!"

"Say it again, go on, do it. Call months in the dirt and the mud fighting those things, losing everything to those stupid metal tin cans, ‘edgy’ again, just try it."

"Tom," it's Lila who calls next, in a slow, cautious tone. I wonder for a second why she said his name, not Mike or Sek. A moment later, we all look down slightly. I never saw him move, but he's now right at the two boys' feet, his scimitar drawn, its tip a millimetre away from Mike's gut.

"Eh, yo senpai, it's all good, Americans are just very hands-on," Sek says, trying to laugh convincingly - rather bravely for him if you ask me. Mike seems to realise the danger and slowly lets go. A few terribly tense moments pass before both men sit back down on their crates.

All eyes stay firmly on the major until he sheaths his sword and stalks over to Lila, "Grakee, Gok, Grek."

"Not right now," she replies tersely.

"Graken!" Tom clicks more harshly, and before we know it, he and Lila are arguing, Tom clicking, his claws moving in big motions, clearly angry.
    Lila swaps into the demon's native tongue, sighing and snapping a lot. We ‘players’ can understand neither side. All we can do is sit uselessly, like scolded schoolchildren watching a teacher and the headmaster argue in the corridor.

Is that all we can contribute? If Eshu were up, I wonder what she would do, maybe make some perverted joke to lighten the heavy mood? Or throw out one of those insightful comments she sometimes lets slip. What do I do here?

"Hey, so umm," I raise my hand. All eyes fall on me. Ugh.

"Later," Lila says, turning back to Tom.
     Is that it then? Is that how little I've closed the gap? A little stage fright, and I go quiet, let the 'adults' do all the deciding?

"No, now," I manage to reply.
    I take a deep breath in the face of the quizzical looks I've earned, "Isn't the answer here pretty obvious? Mistress, you give him what he needs to class-change, maybe some new armour too, and in exchange, he fights with us. The guy has more experience fighting drones than we do; isn't that an asset? Plus, we'd then have one fighter to cover each side of the fort. As for this bodyguard business, Tom, sir."

"Grak?"

"I think Eshu should be on the roof with Lila."

"Ko, what are you talking about?" Sek protests.

"Think about it for a moment. She was better this morning for a start, and a goal to work towards might help her focus. If it does, she's plenty strong enough to watch Lila's back. In the case she's still, whatever it is going on in her head, I mean, then Lila will be extra cautious, she won't take any risks or get careless if she has to watch out for someone."

"That's a crazy idea!" Lila replies about how I expected.

"Grak, grak..." Tom nods slowly, a claw on his chin.

"You seriously agree with her?!"

I smile in our senpai’s direction, feeling like I've made a breakthrough and understood how he must feel just a little bit better, "If you outright refuse, tell us you can't do it - then we’ll know, won't we?"

"Know what?"

"Know that you're bluffing, that the drones pose a bigger threat than you're letting on. In which case, we think of a new plan."

"You!"

"So ah," Mike's silent spell ends, "Why would I agree to this?"

Now that's an easy question at last, "Because we're going to win and you want to kill as many of those drones as possible, yes? Agree to this, you get a power-up and a chance to kick their asses. Refuse and we're gonna’ wipe them all out, leaving you regretting having missed the chance for revenge."

"That's... You're pretty shrewd, lady."

"Thank you!"

We all turn back to our demon leader. She glances around, clearly at something of a loss. "Fine, fine! He can fight with us, that part is sound," she taps around her menu for a bit and with a puff sound effect, a freshly purchased pile of sci-fi metal appears at Mike's feet.
    "Take it before I change my mind, Mr Drone-Killing-Expert. But the Eshu thing is another matter, we'll discuss it more later, gezzzzz!!"

I grin, "Fair enough, that's a good enough compromise for the minute."

Lila woodenly fixes her gaze on me, "Compromise, eh? Turning my own words against me - I've raised a friggin demon!"

"Ehhe."

You know, stuff can seem really unfair sometimes; life likes to throw cruel shit at you. But you get lucky, too; everyone does. Sometimes the luck gets so drowned out by the bad and the noise that you can't even acknowledge it's there. I know that all too well. But I think we've been lucky a lot, meeting each other and Lila. Her plans let us survive the apocalypse. Someone like Mike showing up just when we needed it most is another example.

Of course, you can belittle luck; you can break it down. Mike came here because Eshu's warning stopped him from going too far north, because his beloved horse died, because the drones he was fleeing are coming here and thus drove him right at us. But I don't think that's the point about good stuff or bad - everything has a chain of effect that causes it. Sometimes, a chain that is cruel and senseless, a disease caused by nothing but a cruel leap in genes. A precious friend debilitated by something we can't even see or understand.

I think the world throws a lot of good and bad at you - sometimes it makes you want to run away, to bury your head and scream because you just can't think all the bad things through, can't get them out of your head - but I've decided not to run anymore. I've decided that even if there are more negatives than positives, I won't ignore the good fortune. I won't let it pass by because of being submerged too deeply in the unfair.

I'm confident we will beat this invasion, and no doubt the next ten hurdles that this world throws at us afterwards. And I'm confident we will find a way through to Eshu soon, even if we need a little good luck to find the way. I've decided, no more cowering, I'll face the people around me and the world itself head-on from now on.