I’m not sure how quickly installments of fanfiction are supposed to be rolled out, but hopefully I’m far enough ahead to post every other day or so?

This was going to just be a short section to finish up introducing the concept of the Absence Stunt, but it ended up being so short that I just added the next part too. Hope it’s not too long now!

(Kaerin’s continuing her monologue, by the way.)

Navigation: 1, 2 …

Absence Stunt, 2: Bad News

“We call this place—being offline—the Absence Stunt, or the Absence, or the Stunt. The only certain thing we know about it is that we haven’t discovered even the tip of the iceberg yet.

“You’ll probably stumble upon lots of odd things that seem like loopholes, but you have to remember that we’re not really in the game here. This whole place is just a puzzle and we can’t say for certain that a loophole is really a loophole, because how are we to know it wasn’t there for a reason we can’t comprehend?”

Kitou spoke up. A few members of the group started at the unexpected change in speakers. “That’s why we have these meetings, actually,” he pointed out. “If anyone discovers a new ‘loophole,’ it’s another fragment of the Stunt we might be able to piece onto something else. There’s news every day. Speaking of days, has anyone explained how long a Stunt day is?”

“Yeah.” Eirii nodded and swallowed, a little lightheaded from information overload. “A day here is seven dawns and seven dusks, starting from the dawn of a red sun. Each dawn is a new portion. As the portions of the day progress, the sun turns from blood red to bright gold. Nights are identical. We met during dawn of portion two and it is currently, um,” Eirii shaded her eyes and scrutinized the sun. “Portion four.”

Ryuuki smiled. “Nice job. Now,” she pointed at Luuz. “You said you heard something about a meeting between the GM’s. Did you find out when that is?”

“What? GM’s? You mean like, Game Masters???” Eirii cried before Luuz could respond. “There are Game Masters in the Absence Stunt too? Do they have GM stats and equips and powers?”

Laik nodded grimly. “Unfortunately,” he growled through gritted teeth. “Nothing against online GM’s,” he added. “But the ones here are nasty.” He tried to remember the last time he’d met a nice one, if indeed he ever had.

At these words, Kaerin rolled her eyes. “We’re actually in a war with them, for our rights. It’s the classic story of the corrupt oligarchy and the oppressed people.”

“Frankly the entire Stunt is pretty revved up,” Luuz commented. “Our side still hasn’t found a way to get into the basement of their ‘super-secret’ headquarters (which, by the way, everyone knows the location of).”

Ryuuki cleared her throat impatiently. “Ahem. The meeting?” she prodded.

Luuz’s eyes widened. “Oh, right! The meeting starts tomorrow at third dusk and adjourns at sixth! They’re sending Mushpoie’s best Psykeeper and Billposter. A Jester and a Blade will be right on their tails hiding in the area so in case the first two lode back to town with no information, the second pair can be contacted to make their move.”

“Mushpoie’s best,” Eirii parroted, raising an eyebrow. “So even the Absence is separated into server clusters?”

Laik shrugged. “I guess so. It, uh, kind of makes sense…”

“No matter,” Ryuuki waved her hand to bring back the original discussion topic. “Your job then,” she told Luuz, “is to find out what they find out.” To the newcomers, she added, “Maybe Eirii and Fyal want to go with him as a little Stunt initiation adventure?”

When Fyal only gurgled in response, Eirii said “yes.”

Later the night of portion five, Eirii sat on her flying board, exposed toes dipping in the waters of a lake adjacent to a field of Wagsaacs. Though less than fifty steps away, the squeaks and ill-tempered cries the monsters emitted sounded muffled and distant. The surroundings were cozy, open but hushed. Eirii kicked herself for her ignorance. Jumping up, she flew her board angrily higher and higher into the air, slapping her forehead several times along the way. “Why did I never ask?” she growled, “Didn’t I ever wonder where I am? Didn’t I ever question what this place is? Such ignorance! I’m so useless! This is almost as sad as that three-quarters sister of mine. But at least she had an excuse, being all torn up over being the one to get Fayl deleted.” Slowing her board to a stop high above the ground, she curled up on her board and succumbed to a dreamless sleep.

She later awoke to a voice in her head. Yo! Yo, Eir! Time to get up!

“What? Huh? Luuz? What the heck…?” She pushed herself up and looked around for her quarter-cousin. Right, left, up, down. Then she rubbed her eyes and looked around again. Then she pinched herself and looked again.

Hurry up, it’s high noon second portion, get over here! Luuz’s voice again.

“WHERE ARE YOU???” Eirii shouted at the top of her lungs. As expected, no response.

After a pause, the voice came again. Um, you’ve never been on the receiving end of private messaging, have you? Try saying the message without moving your lips or using your voice, and pretend we’re talking face-to-face.

Eirii nearly fell off her board. Another spell of lightheadedness. What’s this, telepathy? “Bugger, not another culture shock… Okay.” She sighed and stared ahead, picturing Luuz and his stupid blue-silver top hat grinning at her. I’m almost in Sain City. She started her board in the direction of town. Where are we meeting?

Forget town; pass over that. Head north to the station. The crowd’s too big for the town.

Who’s in charge?

It’s just a massive character-run group, so usually it’s the higher level people who get picked to represent groups of characters. Being higher leveled grants you safer access to more areas, see. Do you know where Fyal is, by the way?

No clue. You can’t reach her?

It’s impossible. Oh well, I tried. I trust she’s okay. Game characters can’t exactly suicide.

Um.

Anyway, I’m here already. I’ll hang around real high up, just look out for me.

What’s everyone else doing?

You mean like Laik and Kaerin and Kitou? They’re probably exploring. Two days ago Kitou killed a Rockmuscle just for the heck of it, and it dropped a sword. It was a wooden Vagrant sword, too. Monsters here aren’t supposed to drop anything, so that was pretty astonishing. I think Kitou still has it, actually, since he hasn’t been logged online since then. We still haven’t figured out how the monster got it.

Eirii couldn’t resist picturing Fyal, a level two Vagrant, wandering the beaches of Saint Morning, dragging her little wooden sword through the sand, suddenly being eaten by a colossal Rockmuscle emerging from behind her.

Oh, I see the crowd now, she commented as she pulled up the front of her board and made her way towards the elevated station. A dome of both flying and standing spectators bubbled themselves in the middle of the station platform. Eirii circled higher and espied a bored Luuz above, so she came up behind him, pulled off his top hat, and shoved it over her head.

Luuz whirled around, grabbing his hat back. About time you got here; they already started announcing progress through the headquarters underground. Our guys managed to sneak by the front. C’mon. He proceeded to descend closer to the center of the bubble. Eirii snatched the last words of the latest announcement.

“… held up by three wandering Muffrins. Some more up ahead, they’ll have to double back and go another way.”

Eirii looked around. Everyone seemed to be listening solemnly, not saying a word. It would have been a grim sight if she didn’t know about the telepathy; pretty clearly, all were actually conversing intently with those around them—how else would it be so still? Sun’s going down, she noted to Luuz.

Yeah, we hope this night will give enough time for the scouts to find the meeting room.

What if they get caught?

Tactical death. Then they can lode out of there and get back to town in Darkon 2. There’s a gathering like this one there too, and they’ll let us know here what happens. The information we get actually goes through them before it gets here.

“Good Lord, the weasel! We got a turncoat trying to backstab us—a Blade—went after our Psykeeper. Not yet level 100 by the looks of it but he’s all stunned now.”

Oh geez, what’re they going to do with him? Luuz muttered. Can’t let him rat on us. Not yet. Best to lock him and make sure he can’t die somehow.

You said, Eirii noted, that there’s no suicide?

Nah, Luuz replied. Even if he gave himself a concussion he’d just pass out and have headaches later. He won’t be trying that. One’s got to be killed to die.

“… found an empty locker of sorts, they dumped the traitor in there and blocked the door. He’s a relatively low strength, high dexterity Blade, and won’t be smashing through a GM’s door anytime soon.” A few spectators near the announcer nodded in approval.

GM’s have lockers? asked Eirii. What for, all inventory’s on data storage, isn’t it? Luuz just shrugged.

Don’t question the Stunt right now, Eir.

Eirii squinted at the announcer, but he was pretty far off and a couple people were blocking a proper view anyway. “Hmm, apparently the last passage to try is totally unguarded. Phew, talk about eerie silence. Oh, they hear voices!”

Eirii sighed and glanced at the moon, which sank on the far side of the horizon. Almost third portion.

“They found the room! And—what’s this?” The announcer halted. Eirii squinted again and hitched her board a little closer. This time she could see the announcer, and he did not look merry.

Clenching his jaw, the announcer narrowed his eyes. “The GM’s,” he snarled, “Set us up.”

Small cries of shock and outrage trickled to the outskirts of the crowd. The announcer held up a hand, eyebrows still knit together.

No one said anything as the announcer listened. Eirii found herself distracted by Kitou, who was flying overheard from the north, and he didn’t look like he was going to stop for the party. He rushed past without even glancing down, looking terribly worried about something. As he flew out of sight, Eirii tore her eyes away and caught the last announcement.

“… All deleted characters will be permanently terminated from the archives at tomorrow’s red dawn.”

Hmm. That one moved rather slowly. I should clean it up. Again, feedback is demanded or I’ll kill you. I mean, it’s much appreciated. n_n