Private Vintergard Carnage

[Gideon]

𝕮𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆𝖌𝖊​

Death surrounded her.

Gideon couldn't see it. It wasn't as if bodies lay strewn across the ground, the corpses grotesque mimicries of their final moments. Of course, that didn't mean the bones weren't there. Likely, some human remains lingered beneath the rubble - the number of casualties was far too great to avoid it - but nothing caught her eye. Instead, Gideon could feel the loss of life. The horror. The carnage.

It hung in the air, a haze that somehow clogged her throat without obstructing her vision. In the dusk's dying light, her surroundings appeared stained a vibrant red. The twisted metal, the broken earth, the discarded personal items - it all gleamed with a beautifully tragic crimson shine. Blood everywhere, Gideon mused with a morbid appreciation. She gazed across the wastes, splintered chunks of wood protruding like the swords of the fallen. Or skeletons. Or tombstones. The game's developers, whoever they were, were definitely sick puppies.

She had been warned not to venture here, to this place of pain and death. The NPCs had begged her not to make the trip, or else desecrate the now-holy land. Other Players had told her of the dangers when they had noticed the path she took from Camp Hope IV. Even the game itself had provided its own deterrents, sending robots to patrol the bones of the downed airship. Magitech, bandits, uneven wreckage - proverbial red flags snapped in the cool breeze above every inch of the dead city.

So, naturally, Gideon made visiting Vintergard her sole purpose in Terrasphere.

She wore no armor, and no weapon hung from her hip. In fact, she had acquired no belongings whatsoever within the game. Gideon could not have been less prepared for the expedition if she had made a conscious effort. If I die, I die, she thought for the nth time as she studied her shadowy surroundings. Deej would never stand in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, among the ruins stained red by time and toxic gas. She would never see bombs fall, or towers fall, or great storms that destroy everything they touch. This place, Vintergard, was as close as she would ever come to witnessing true devastation. And it fascinated her.

Movement in her peripheral vision sent an electric jolt through the woman. "Fucking A-" Gideon bellowed, instinctively leaping away from the figure. Planks shifted beneath her boots, and sent her careening toward the dead husk of broken machinery. She only just managed to right herself before rounding on the stranger. "What the hell do you think you're doing, sneaking up on me like that?"

 

[Jin]

The sterilized tang of ozone washed across his nostrils. Heat from the myriad electronics that thrummed with life despite their ramshackle state made the air stale, dry, metallic. If he strained, the taste almost mirrored that of blood, but an aficionado with discerning tastes could divine the difference. The dried, caked on stains that streaked the ground and skeletal wreckage at Dragoncrush were not the source of this unseemly odor.

Those fingers he kept uncovered moved slowly over the marred surfaces, tender, almost lovingly as he confirmed their nature. Hemoglobin bubbled free of the metal and orbited his hand, which he brought around. He turned his palm upright and watched the viscera dance to an unheard rhythm, and once he had the knowledge he required...

Jin flicked it aside dispassionately.

His thoughts were beset with the imagery of chaos. Futuristic ships, airborne and primed to rain down death, and the primitive masses who toiled in futility to bring them down. He could only strain to imagine how they scattered, and the weapons that robbed them of life. The greater question still loomed.

What manner of quiet apocalypse felled them, All.

This was among Terrasphere's greatest mysteries, and at present, also its least inviting or welcoming venue. It was not a place for the weak, or for Players who came ill prepared. Armed with the knowledge that death on such a grandiose scale was not simply a tale told to children to ensure their cooperation, Jin found himself transfixed. The thrill of such danger, the exhilaration of such artistry...

With two fingers gently pressed to his lips, the Bloodsworn stilled the beating of his heart. He suppressed the giddy laughter that threatened to escape and swallowed it whole. In his moment of distraction, Jin had forgotten himself entirely. The sight of a woman ahead caught him off guard.

Fucking A-

By vernacular alone, she identified herself as a Player. His surprise died as quickly as it rose. Jin was a methodical mind, one who did not often act without thought. Instead of speaking first, he let her dump all of her thoughts. What the hell do you think you're doing, sneaking up on me like that?

"Imagine my surprise at finding someone else here, of all places," he answered. The best falsehoods were bred from an inkling of truth. "And by the look of you, woefully unprepared for the journey that you've undertaken."

If that statement did not abate her suspicions, well...

"There are those who have an interest in the final moments of the battle that waged here," he told the woman. Many historians and political minds in the Faldaren and Astorean governments alike sought those answers. At a certain point, they even entreated with members of the Adventurer's Guild and other organizations to learn them- but that was hardly the truth of his own venture.

There were so many things he ached to indulge himself with. Power linked to life, and to death, and to all of the things in between coalesced here. What sort of knowledge created the weapons that fell on Vintergard? Why had things proceeded in the way that they had? Perhaps more intimately, was there aught to be learned to interest him?

"What could possess a woman to travel alone and unarmed into the very pits of hell?" he pondered aloud. "One has to wonder."

 

[Gideon]

Her gut twisted as the woman's gaze settled on the dark-haired man. His appearance wasn't to blame, nor were the words he spoke. Rather, unease settled over her because he was not the figure she had spotted seconds before. He assumed as much, and perhaps rightfully so, but the flicker of movement had come from a dozen paces behind him. Her crimson gaze held steady on the spot just over his shoulder until the stranger ceased his babbling.

"Looks can be deceiving," came her answer, expression somewhat aloof, and voice distant as she reflected on the oddness of her situation. The comment's dual-meaning, of course, was lost on the man. Surely he hadn't noticed the third presence, or he would have spouted unnecessary personal questions at them, too.

Finally, she tore herself away from the mystery spot, and let her eyes meet his. A similar shade of red, she mused with a note of appreciation. Not many opted for the choice, as it gave an otherwise unassuming person an air of intimidation. Gideon would know - she wore crimson contacts outside of Terrasphere, and relished in the discomfort it caused others.

"Suppose I am alone and unarmed," she began curtly, loosing a one-shouldered shrug. "It might just be that I enjoy the thrill of it." She shifted to gaze over their surroundings, as silent as a graveyard, and with just as many dead bodies. "I couldn't care less about the 'battle waged here.' I'm not playing this game for a history lesson." So why, then? Well, it was simple, really. "Someone told me this place was dangerous, so I decided to find out for myself."

Holding his gaze once more, she noted the half a foot between them. Briefly, she wished she'd made her avatar taller, as she drew herself up to her full 5'2". "I'm also not sure why 'one has to wonder,' either. You could have just gone on your way, as I highly doubt anyone comes to a place like this to socialize."

 

[Jin]

He listened, watched, waited. When she finished, he glanced away from her, out toward the myriad ruins that dotted the landscape. Every so often, he spied one of the legion magitek that made this place a deathtrap somewhere in the distance, lending credence to her assertion that the place was dangerous. While the danger did not deter him, the idea of simply dying without achieving anything at all was a droll, bland prospect. All of the interest he had in her hinged on how she felt about that particular point of contention.

She needn't know that, though.

"One has to wonder because the rational person would question such sentiment, and find error in one who saddled themselves with it," he contended, not bothering to look back at her. "The idea that someone would 'mind their own business' neglects to account for the commonplace trait of man to involve himself in the affairs of others. The premise upon which the foundations of society and civilization are built-"

Jin finally glanced toward her as the words fell graceless from his mouth, almost disappointed. "Concern. Interest. Perhaps even the vaguest of noble intentions." At this point, he had invested himself in the conversation. He was not just going to leave her- which could have been a source of amusement in its own right.

"So, alone and unarmed," he repeated, ignorant of her name, daring her to either correct him or prove him wrong as he took a step past her and clambered up a pile of refuse. The twisted metal that looked down over a large stretch of the area made for a good vantage point. "You would have me believe that you came all this way on the presumption that this place is dangerous, but you have no other motive for seeking it out than a cheap thrill?"

He glanced back over his shoulder toward her, face devoid of expression.

"If you want to die, there are easier ways."