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In the past Daisy had been known as a feared police woman. Criminals had been terrified of her, drug pins had fled from her, murders couldn´t look into her eyes. Until it got her.
Apparently The Playing taking her over was a good thing. It was “for her own good”. And yes, maybe Daisy had gone too far in some of her cases. Maybe she didn´t look closely enough at some of the apparent culprits and arrested the wrong people. And maybe she had gotten Basira a bit too much in danger even for her own tastes. But that were the occupational hazards she had learned to live with.
Now she was going through a dark archive full of boring reports and statements about disgustingly sweet events that had happened to people and all of that just because Basira prompted a game of hide and seek with Daisy. That and the fact that Basiara had taken a job as Jon´s assistance after Daisy couldn´t work for the police anymore because the goddamn love god she was serving wouldn´t let her do her damn job because it was to brutal.
No, instead it forced her to wander these damn corridors too find Basira in a stupid children´s game and even worse it made her enjoy it. She felt the same thrill of the chase she had felt while running after a criminal. It was mindboggling and absolutely infuriating.
“I hate this!” Daisy mumbled. “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!”
“Oh yes, finally!”
Daisy spun around, her reflexes not being damped by The Playing since apparently being able to move like a trained fighter could make playing more fun or whatever that pencil pusher Elias had told her. Next to her stood the slim figure of the Archivist Basira had talked about so much. Jon something he was called. Right, it was Sims like the computer game that Daisy enjoyed far too much now. “What do you want?”
“Please, please tell me, you were talking about those strange… gods and new powers when you said “I hate this!”.” Jon implored her.
Daisy glared at him. “Of course I was talking about this nonsense, what is it to you?”
Jon sighed in relief. “Oh thank god, someone I can talk to about this stuff that isn´t wild about it too.”
“Wait…” Daisy looked him up and down. “You hate it too?”
“Yes!” Jon shouted. “You wouldn´t believe how many sugar sweet stories about unicorns farting rainbows or whatever I have to hear every day. It´s so terrible! And everyone else seems to be perfectly happy about it.”
“You tell me!” Daisy rolled her eyes. “Basira doesn´t stop talking about how good it was for me to start being part of The Playing. Said it is the best thing that could have happened to me. For god’s sake I was a police woman and I was goddamn good at my job. I was a badass and now I´m chasing a Frisbee if someone throws it in my direction like a dog! And…” Daisy felt the familiar pulled in her stomach and sighed. “Sorry, I can´t just stand here and talk. Basira forced me into a game of hide and seek and now I have to follow it until the end.”
“Oh no, I understand.” Jon rubbed his neck nervously. “Actually, can I follow you? I… The Eye makes me hungry for real-life experiences of the good-doing of the other gods and this sounds like a good way to satisfy. But only if you want of course. We could keep talking while you search?”
“Sure, do whatever!” Daisy said while they continued following the corridor, stopping at every door so Daisy could look in to see if Basira was in there. “So everyone else in these archives love the whole love god thing?”
Jon awkwardly stood by the door while Daisy methodically searched the room with the experience of a trained hunter. “Not really. I mean most people in these archives know nothing about it anyway. Elias is more or less the devout follower of The Eye for two hundred years and I doubt he´ll stop anytime soon. Apparently he takes over the bodies of just dead people to continue living. And he has a lot of fun with this… watching stick while looking like a stuck-up accountant. Martin is just happy he has a safe job and friends. He hasn´t had… an easy childhood so guaranteed happiness for a few years probably sounds pretty good to him. I… I guess I understand that kind of. And he is really polite in always listening to me when I want to vent about how annoying this all is but I know he just does it to make me feel better not because he agrees.”
“Yep, sounds like Basira.” Daisy nodded as they walked over to the next door. “How long have you two been in a relationship?”
“I… we´re not! I mean… kind of… how did you know?”
Daisy laughed. “You got it bad, don´t you?”
“I… I mean…” Jon sighed. “We went on a date two weeks ago. I actually only did it because all my co-worker were trying to get us to go on a date for so long and then Martin said we should do it in secret so they would stop meddling. So we went somewhere where Elias can´t see us – there are actually pretty cool tunnels under this archive you should check them out sometime I´m sure you would like them – and it was actually really… nice. We managed to keep it a secret for two weeks until the others found out.”
“Nawww, you two sound adorable.” Daisy drawled.
“Well, then there are Sasha and Ti… Oh, hello Sasha.”
Sasha had just appeared out of the shadows as Jon had started talking about her. “Hello Jon, hello Daisy, nice meeting you down here.”
Jon starred at her with narrowed eyes. “Are you Sasha or Non-Sasha?”
Sasha looked at him from wide innocent-looking eyes. “How could I be Non-anything? Aren´t we all something? You can´t be nothing, can you?”
Jon sighed. “Daisy, this is Non-Sasha. She… He… It isn´t really a shape shifter it just always makes you think that it looks like someone you know even if it looks completely different.”
Sasha put her hands over her heart. “You wound me Jon. Are you saying I´m trying to deceive you?”
“Yes!” Jon grumbled. “Because you think it´s funny.”
“It is funny.” A voice said behind Jon. It was Sasha. Or Non-Sasha. Daisy begun getting a headache.
Jon looked similarly pained. “Sasha? Or Non-Sasha? You know this is really annoying. Last time I asked you something important you told me something totally wrong and I´m not sure if it was you or Non-Sasha.”
“If it was wrong it was Non-Sasha.” Sasha Nr. 1 piped up.
“Everything bad happening in the archives is because of Non-Sasha.” Sasha Nr. 2 added.
Then both of them spoke at once. “It´s like having a twin that looks nothing like you!”
Daisy starred alternately at each one of them then growled. “I don´t know what´s going on with the two of you but I´m on a hunt so if you don´t get out of the way I´ll see how brutally The Playing lets me move obstacles out of the way.”
Sasha Nr. 1 actually looked slightly nervous as she moved to stand next to Sasha Nr. 2. It was a disconcerting feeling seeing two people look nothing alike while still having your brain think they were the same person. Then both of them smiled and said. “Good luck hunting.” They turned around and walked away.
Jon rubbed his eyes tiredly. “I love Sasha but god is the evil-twin number annoying.”
Daisy continued walking along the corridor. “Are they the weirdest thing I´ll meet around here?”
Jon laughed. “Not by a long shot. First of all, Elias is definitely the weirdest thing here no matter how much he tries to act otherwise. Secondly, while Non-Sasha is part of The Stranger and therefore definitely strange you haven´t met Tim´s brother yet. Apparently Danny always exceeded in which ever task was put in front of him and the task he sees since he met Joseph Grimaldi is being as strange as humanly possible. Tim enjoys is antics quite immensely, apparently one of the reasons he joined the archives is to preserve the statements about what his brother does. A month ago Danny had filled the entire achieve up with balloons and we could only get in foot by foot while we burst them one after another and in each was something different. Like glitter or confetti. It was a nightmare to tidy it all up again. Oh and we have a coffin in the evidence room that brings you to a giant play ground full of sand and elaborate play grounds where you can play forever.”
“Ok.” Daisy felt a bit overwhelmed about all the information she got. “Please tell me that´s it.”
“Eh, there is one small thing left. You see there is Melanie - she got shot by surprise confetti by The Surprise which she has not allowed me to remove.”
Daisy frowned. “And what does that…?”
“SURPRISE!” A shadow had leaped at Daisy from the goddamn ceiling where she apparently had hid herself in the pluming to jump at Daisy and hug her.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Daisy managed to free herself from the woman that attacked her just to get a handful of confetti thrown into her face together with the sound of a party horn right next to her ear. Luckily Melanie then saw Jon and started running at him.
Jon stumbled back a few steps. “No, no, Melanie, please!”
“JON!” Melanie shouted and pulled him in a deep hug while blowing into her party horn.
“Great.” Jon mumbled. “Now I´m deaf.”
Melanie laughed. “Don´t need your ears anyway as an avatar of The Eye, right?”
“Yes, yes.” Jon pushed her off him. “How´s Georgie?”
“Oh, great.” Melanie smiled lovingly. “Since she was touched by The Birth she feels greatly connected to children so we´re thinking about adoption.”
Daisy scoffed. “If she can live with you any child will be far less annoying.”
“Thank you.” Melanie smiled sharply. “Well gotta go, still have to surprise Elias.”
Jon laughed. “I don´t think you´ll manage but I wish you the best of luck.”
Melanie grinned evilly. “I will get him one of these days, you´ll see. Bye.”
Daisy looked after her. “She´s… interesting.”
Jon shook his head. “That´s one way of putting it.”
Daisy turned around, again in the haze of the hunt. “And you, Jon? What made you get into all of this?”
Jon shrugged. “I… found one of Leitner´s books. In case you don´t know those books weren´t all written by Jurgen Leitner, he just collected all good magical books he could find, put his name in them and gave them out to people he thought they could help. Well I got one about a Mr. Spider which was apparently was a book of The Helper. If you read the book a bunch of little spiders would appear to help you with your work. Just like with Cinderella but a bit more… creepy. One day my book was stolen by some bully who apparently had a terrible home live and the book helped to save him which I now know thanks to The Eye. I didn´t back then, I just thought he was a jerk. Well, anyway I was always a really curious child and I just couldn´t let it go so I applied to the archives since I knew magical incidents like that are reported here and now I´m stuck. The End. What about you?”
“I started hunting… magical people I guess?” Daisy answered. “I thought with all the running away and hiding that The Playing people were criminals and I tried to catch them. I managed to find a few but had to let them go again because of lack of evidence. I´m not sure how it happened but by hunting them - and a few of the other god´s servants too now that I think about it - it made me into one of them. They thought I was playing their game with them. I guess I kind of was… and it was… is kind of fun. Which makes it a thousand times worse.”
Jon laughed. “I understand. I´m just as frustrated but I guess in the end…”
Daisy looked at him. “What?”
“In the end as much as it annoys me I guess I´m just happy that my friends are happy.” Jon shrugged helplessly. “I mean I don´t think it will ever be really my taste but seeing Tim smile when his brother comes by… or Sasha gushing about her “twin” or Martin bringing me tea and smiling instead of being stuck in memories of his horrible childhood… it´s enough I guess.”
“Yeah.” Daisy mumbled thinking how much more relaxed Basira looked since they were finally done with the police. She had always known Basira was too soft-hearted for the job but Daisy hadn´t been able to give it up. Haven´t been able to live without the rush of the hunt. She was addicted to it. And no matter how annoying it was to want to run after every ball that was thrown around her it was still ultimately better for her – better for Basira - to live like that. “Yeah, I think I get it.”
Daisy opened the door in front of her, already knowing what she would find inside waiting for her. “Hello, Darling. Found you!”
“My good little hunter.” Basira said and went forward to kiss her.
Out of the corner of her eye Daisy saw Jon leave the room and silently close the door to give them privacy. And at last Daisy was happy.