***
Gestalt and I have been engaging in dream training. Well dream raiding I guess? We have the layout of the corpse den, and I am working my way through it.
The space isn't that big. There's the main room with the corpse smokers and the sofas, then a tight staircase down to the lower levels. A thin corridor branches off to a few rooms. One with the cages, another is a cold room where they store the corpses that have yet to be processed. The last room is the Necromancers lab, which doubles up as his office. There is an escape tunnel from his lab which the rat also scouted.
We are working out a way to block off that tunnel so he can't escape. After what I saw in those cages, I am set on permanently removing this man from my city.
Also we kept the rat, it's weird having such a well behaved pet.
[We are not a pet.]
'But it doesn't act like you?'
[We have assigned one of our more minor sub-brains to keep the rat alive. It is not a task that requires all of the brain's attention.]
'So you are saying it's brainless most of the time?'
[That is correct, which makes it seem like a normal rat.]
'You seem to have a real problem with rats.'
[We were not always this size. Before the academy we did not have access to the brains we have access to now. Our early years were difficult; we existed in the sewers of the city. Rats were a big problem for us then. There was a nest that hunted us.]
'Holy shit? What happened?'
[Luck for the most part. A man washed into the sewer system, he was dying but not quite yet dead. Stab wounds. Up until that point the brains we had access to were limited, vermin, fish, frogs, and the like. This man was our first human brain. We ate him before he died.]
'And how did he feel about that?'
[At the time he didn't like it, but now the brain is very happy inside of the Gestalt. Because we make it happy, happy brains process better than sad brains.]
'Ain't that the truth.'
[With the use of a fresh brain on the level of a human, we purged that sewer tunnel of rats. It was a glorious day.]
'And now you are turning rats into meat puppets!'
[We knew you would understand.]
'Yeah, about that.'
[...]
'I do understand. It doesn't bother me at all. Not just the fact you ate a guy, but also other stuff, like the train assassin. I paused for a moment but when he stabbed me, all my problems with killing him went away.'
[...]
'Since then there have been a number of occasions where I have acted differently to how I would imagine a normal person would act. Even now I am planning a robbery with a side order of premeditated murder.'
'Am I a psychopath, Gestalt?'
[No. We have been through your mind. You have a great deal of ADHD and a little sprinkle of autism. But you have no signifiers of being a psychopath. As far as we can tell you are a completely normal human.]
[Which makes you all the more confusing, because there is something different about you. Well, it might be more correct to say that there is something extra about you.]
'What do you mean?'
[We know everything you know. But we only know it when you know it. That is not the case for other humans, we know what they know before they know it. We can see their thoughts take shape in their minds. But for you, not all of your thinking is happening in your brain. Which we find fascinating.]
'Okay, heavy. Where is it happening then?'
[We have no idea.]
Huh. Well then, I don't really know how to process that.
[We do not know how you process it either. There is also the fact you seem to be able to sense emotion from us. You should not be able to do that.]
'So if I'm not a psychopath, why am I so… okay with planning this murder?'
[Our best guess is that the other side of you is having an influence.]
'So I'm some sort of alien, like The Predator?'
[Half, and it's possible. We do not have the answers.]
'Well I guess that's a problem for future Tangerine. Back to robbery and murder planning.'
I am standing in the necromancers lab/office.
I have run through the scenario a few times already. A straight up gun fight doesn't work. The stairs and corridors have a bunch of zombies hidden within the walls. Every time the necromancer becomes aware of the raid the stairs and corridors become flooded with zombies. Even in a dream - being torn apart by zombies is not fun.
We could strap the goblin bomb - that is rotting away in my domain - to the rat and blow him up. But that would attract more noise than I would like. Plus it would destroy the things I want to steal.
I need a way to get down into his office quietly, kill him without setting off all his zombies. And then escape with a safe's worth of Fracs.
I look down at the trap door again, and an idea comes to my mind.
[Just like that! Where did that idea come from? It's not from your meat brain. What is going on in your mind?!]
'Shhh or I will lose it.'
The escape tunnel isn't a problem for me, it's a vector. We use it to gas him. If he becomes aware we trigger his zombie trap in the corridor. His own zombies will flood the corridor, keeping him pinned in his office; until the gas can do its work. Then we use the tunnel to rob the den blind.
We run the scenario a few times. It works. The gas kills him. The zombie trap can be triggered in a number of ways. The problem is, I need to be in two places at once. I need to be in the tunnel to stop him escaping that way. But I also need to be in the den to trigger the zombies.
'I need a second person for this job, don't I?'
[That looks to be the case. But I am afraid it is time to wake up.]
***
Wake up in the arms of my angel.
Could I rope Sophia into this insane plan?
No.
There is no way that she would be okay with this. Not after the mugging switcharoo.
Speaking of the mugger I could maybe rope our friend Mr Belvedere into the action. But he did give the impression that his crew wanted to stay far away from this particular den. Also I don't trust him enough to put my life in his hands.
Realistically it has to be one of my friends. And of those friends it's Lillian and Shiv who I would trust the most with this.
Maybe Daisy too, but she doesn't seem the sort to get her hands dirty.
Problems for later, "Morning Sophia." I wake my angel up gently. "It's time to get ready."
***
Runes class remains my favorite class. Everyone other than Shiv and I are still messing about with the clay tablets, working on basic runes.
I'm sitting at my own table with Shiv. We are pouring through some advanced rune books. Shiv is doing some insane bomb craft. I, on the other hand, am looking through runes and artifacts that can create lethal gas. Of course I'm trying not to be too obvious about it.
"Shiv." I said.
"Mhm?" She murmured, not looking up from what she was doing.
"How do you feel about making some Fracs?"
That got her attention. "Ears. I am all of them." She said, her eyes glinting.
"I have a job I want to do. I need a second pair of hands. Things could get a little spicy."
"I'm in."
"I haven't even told you what the job is yet?"
"Don't care, I'm so bored. Do we get to kill some shit?"
"...Yes, zombies and a necromancer." I said.
"Baller."
"And you are just fine with this?" I asked.
"Fuck yeah, I need some action. Can we bring Lillian along too?"
Not gonna lie, I thought this bit would be more of a problem than this. "Do you think she would be okay with this?"
"Bitch please, she's a princess. They are all psychopaths. Most of them have been dodging assassins since they were toddlers."
"I mean I guess, it would reduce our cuts though."
"Wait, wait, wait. We don't need to tell her that there is a cut." Shiv grinned.
"I am not robbing Lillian of her cut Shiv!" I said, in a loud whisper.
"So we are inviting her?"
"Yeah I guess. The more hands the better. We are going to need to get you both slugged up."
"Slugged up?"
"You'll see."
***
After the day's class we roped Lillian into the plan. And - much to Shiv's word - she was immediately down to clown.
The next step was to get the two of them slugged. I brought both of them to Gestalt's lair.
"What the fuck is this Tans?" Lillian asked when the elevator reached the basement. "Is this the point where you murder us in the dark?"
"Gestalt will turn on the lights, any moment now." It takes like another minute for them to finally switch the lights on.
Of course they have set up a greeting party with their brainless bodies. Which gives both Lillian and Shiv an absolute heart attack.
"What the fuck is this!" Shiv screamed, pulling a knife and a bomb from places I couldn't see.
"Relax." I said. "These are Gestalt's zombies."
[Actually only two of them are zombies.]
'Quiet you.'
Gestalt's zombies lead us to their lab. Where we all have a nice cup of tea, before we consensually pinned down both Lillian and Shiv and feed brain slugs through their eyelids.
Neither one of them had a great time with that. "You could have warned me it was going to hurt so much." Lillian said grumpily.
"Don't be a baby." I said, "this was the first thing that happened to me when I arrived in this realm. Now remember to give Gestalt all your memories so that you can use the messaging service. It's a really good deal."
"Yeah, okay. I've done that." Lillian said.
'Quick Gestalt it is time. Send Lillian this
Lillian immediately grabbed her ass. "Holy fuck. I thought I just shit myself… Wait, was that you?!"
I'm rolling. Down on the floor. Laughing my head off.
Well that was until
[Humans are the worst. Shiv is the most well behaved of all of you.]
'She's still unconscious. Also can you make the shitting myself feeling stop now?'
[No. It serves you right.]
***
I return to my room later than normal. The three of us had spent a little more time with Gestalt, before getting our work out session in.
Sophia is waiting for me, already changed and ready for bed.
"Are you okay Tangerine?" She asked. "I haven't seen you much today."
"Ah yeah, I was just busy with Shiv and Lillian." I hate lying to her, but I don't know how to tell her the truth. She wouldn't agree with it, but I'm not going to stop.
"You know you can talk to me about anything right?" She said, reading me like a book. I guess I'm giving off vibes that I'm hiding things. I never was any good at lying.
"I know I can. But I don't think you want to know about this one Sophia." I said.
She was quiet for a while. But eventually she nodded her head to herself, coming to some sort of conclusion in her own mind.
"Tell me. I… I don't want to be left behind. Even if I don't like it, I want to be here for you." She said.
I take a deep breath and spill. "I want to become strong. I need to. For that I need artifacts, and to get artifacts I need money. I found that mugger. Got him to show me a place where I could get some money. It was a corpse smoke den of a rival vampire gang. I was going to rob the place, but then we used a Gestalt rat to explore the Den. It was fucked up in there. They had these cages… Anyway, the plan changed. I'm not just robbing the place, I'm shutting it down and killing the Necromancer that runs the joint. I asked Shiv and Lillian today if they would join me and they said yes."
"...That is certainly a lot." Sophia said.
"Yeah. I'm sorry, I did say you probably wouldn't want to know. I know this isn't going to be okay by your god." I said.
"It's not that… it's. I… Let's go to bed for now. I… I need to think."
"Yeah we can do that." I said. I quickly get changed, and join her in the bed.
We didn't talk again that night, but she thankfully accepted me into her arms. Stroking my hair, like everything was going to be okay.
***
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