Chapter Text
“So it starts like this..” Caine's voice stated.
“A group of wanted criminals are all in one place. All are sent to death row for different crimes they have committed. All because they chose to disobey the master cube. The god of geodyssey. The ruler.”
“Pomni. You are currently in your very..small prison cell. Barely enough room to even move around. You seem to be..anxious. Death row is a big deal. A massive deal. You didn't want this. You didn't want any of it!”
Caine looks from person to person at the table that had several dice over it. He, himself, was holding what seemed like a binder with notes but he wasn't even looking at them, he had disregarded the notes he had prepared for this session several minutes ago. Then he looked at Zooble.
“Zooble, you are in a similar prison cell room, you, however, aren't anxious like Pomni. You are bored. You knew this would happen because it was inevitable.”
“Wait”
Caine immediately stops talking and looks at Zooble.
“What am I in prison for?”
“Well uh-”
Now he seemed to look at the notes as he read something and nodded.
“You have served this nation's past army, before the master cube was considered its new God. This is seen as betrayal. As lack of loyalty.”
Zooble just leans back on the chair they were sat on and just looked at Caine with an unimpressed expression as if expecting something worse.
Caine then looks at Ragatha.
“Ragatha, you seem to be in the exact same prison cell, but you are just sitting on the bed, looking at the little small square in the wall that provides some sort of light. This cannot be called a window by how small it is.”
Ragatha smiles and nods as she writes down quickly, as if making notes.
Then, finally, Caine looks at Jax.
“Jax, uh..you-”
Jax interrupts immediately.
“Pssht, I am doing pushups, I mean, even though I'm on death row I should be looking good, no?”
Zooble just rolled their eyes.
“Can you take this seriously?”
“I am taking this seriously, not my fault all of you are sooo boring!”
“Ahem” Caine calmly disrupted the ongoing argument between the two of them, wanting to draw his attention back onto himself.
“A metal door screeches open. The door to the exit. Or..their entrance. Someone is entering. All of you seem to still immediately. Nobody makes a sound as all of you realise that this may be the last day you are all alive.”
“I have a proposition for you..” Caine says, trying to make a different voice to propose that it's a different character speaking rather than the story teller.
“I have a mission. For all four of you. If you complete it, none of you die any more. – but before anything, my name is Issac.”
Caine clears his throat again and continues. “Before any of you get to even question this..Issac guys motives, he unlocks the metal doors to your cells and let's each and every one of you out.”
“‘Come with me..’ Issac now stated. None of you dare to say anything as this opportunity could be your way out!”
“So..now that you're all walking together to God knows where with God knows who..do you guys wanna interact with each other?”
Caine looks at the four of them and Jax raises his hand confidentially.
“I guess I'll have to start a conversation-, ahem, Jax, me, I go to Ragatha and cross my arms over my chest. ‘You know, we are all stupid for trusting this guy, how do we know he isn't just gonna kill us?’”
Ragatha's eyes narrowed.
“Well we don't. But we should try something..I suppose. I mean- what other options do we have? It's either following Issac or not doing anything. So I suppose we need to try something-”
“God, if you're going to be all cheery through it all then I'd rather be sent back to death row”
“Do you really have to be like this now!”
“I'm being in character”
“Is your character a jack@£%?” Zooble continues.
“Guys. Even though we don't trust..Issac..what better chance do we have? We may die either way so let's just continue.” Pomni then says and the other three go quiet.
“Okay.. so, Issac seems to bring you into this empty small room filled with crates, the room itself seems like it hasn't been properly cleaned in days..maybe it even seems as if he is trying to hide you from the other guards - right then! Issac turns to all of you and in a whispered tone he says ‘your mission is to kill Preacher Marik. The founder of the cube. The most powerful man alive. I know that most of you will laugh in my face when I say this but.. I think we need the harmony geodyssey once had. This.. totalitarian regime isn't what I grew up in. I know- it.. insanity but I believe you can do it.”
The four of them just look at each other then Jax laughs
“Alright, finally some action, you know Caine, I think you finally listened to my adventure suggestions”
“Wait- we can't just agree!” Zooble quickly stated.
“Oh cmooon why no? I mean, if the dude thinks we can, we should, right? It's either we die because of that..what was it? Triangle thing-”
“Cube” Pomni interrupts.
“Right. Or, we die on death row. Bored.. without anything to do. Where's the thrill, the violence in that?”
“‘Before you guys make a..definite decision, there is something I want to give each of you.. This is so it can help you on your journey.’ Isaac says and he turns around and picks up one of the crates and moves it, revealing some items.” Caine narrates.
“‘Right, Pomni-’ Issac gives Pomni a large broom–”
Jax then immediately starts laughing.
“A broom? Seems like your job will be to sweep the floors Pom Pom,” Jax teases then Pomni just stares at him with her eyes narrowed.
“Ahem. Issac gives Pomni a large broom before continuing ‘this isn't just some ordinary broom. This can transport you, and anyone who sits on it, extremely efficiently, it can reach immense high speeds so use it with caution-”
“So, Pom Pom here is our transportation unit? Great role you're playing~” Jax interrupts once again.
“”Jax. You are gonna get this.’ Issac gives him a leather glove. ‘This glove can do pretty much anything, however, there are some side effects. It can exhaust you after immediate usage and you don't know what will happen after you touch something with your gloved hand. It can work against you, or for you.’”
“That's sick! I get like a superpower. Can I test it now?-”
“NO!” the other three say in unison.
Jax just groans “all of you are soo boring!”
“‘Ragatha, you get this whistle, it can detect animals around you and it can also bring nearby animals to you. You can basically talk to them.. - oh! On rare occasions, it can detect and show you the location of nearby people too.’” Caine continues.
Ragatha squeals “That's so cool!”
Issac turns to Zooble, the last one out of the group to still get their item. Issac hands them a magnifying glass.
Jax immediately starts laughing once again “Great, Zoobie. You will be Sherlock Holmes!”
Zooble just looks at Jax and holds up a middle finger.
“This isn't just an ordinary magnifying glass. If you hold up to a person it can reveal one's true intention, whether they are who they say they are.. or.. whether they are lying to each and everyone one of you!” Issac exclaims.
“That's cool and all..but how do we find this guy? I mean we have no idea what we are doing and have like zero intel about him-”
“Issac snaps his fingers and the four of them are then teleported to a strange place.. it looks like a city but none of them recognise it. In front of them is a tavern.” Caine narrates.
“I say we enter the tavern..maybe we could get some information about the cube? Or who we are meant to kill? Or anything about this place?” Pomni suggests and the other three nod. All of them then enter the tavern which, to their shock, seems quite full.
Creatures of all kinds are there. Elfs, Witches, celestial looking beings, Ragatha even spots a dragon looking guy who was ordering a drink.
Zooble, as per usual, decides to not accompany the group as they have decided speaking to other people would be better. Zooble walks up to an elf lady who seems lonely and sits beside her. Caine then further narrates
“Uh.. hey..? You seemed quite lonely, maybe I can fix that?” Zooble internally cringes as they say that.
————
“Wait wait wait! I'm sorry- was that you flirting with her?” Jax laughs out, holding a hand out to indicate that the game is momentarily paused.
“Yeah? –”
Pomni chuckles “I'm sorry- the way you said that was very funny”
“Cmon, I thought you knew how to flirt, Zoobie, what the hell was that?!”” Jax exclaimed as he was holding a hand to his stomach, laughing.
Ragatha by now also giggles under her breath and Zooble just crossed their arms.
“Are you guys done now?”
“Y-yeah, sorry, continue, Caine!” Pomni smiled as she was wiping tears from her eyes.
——————
The woman sat beside Zooble, looked at them, then looked away. Clearly not interested in whatever Zooble wanted to offer.
Pomni goes to the bar where she encounters a buffy looking guy, clearly experienced in whatever he was doing.
“U-uh..hello?..”
The guy just looked over at her, then looked at Jax, Ragatha and found Zooble across the room.
“Are you the people who are meant to kill Preacher Marik?”
The three of them looked at each other as if the guy had grown an extra head.. which now after looking at the people within the bar, it didn't seem as weird.
“How did you..” Jax goes to say but is interrupted by the guy now smiling and shaking all of their hands, one by one.
“Names Brackston! A fella friend of Isaac's! He told me about his.. plan- well your plan now! Great to see ya!” He smiled.
The others just looked momentarily taken aback.
“U-uh..” Ragatha mutters.
“Right! Where are my manners, have you guys had a safe trip? Actually.. knowing Issac he probably just teleported.. gosh that guy is very impatient. Isn't he? Oh how is he? Did he say anything bad about me?- oh darn you guys look exhausted and look at me! Muttering your ears off!” Brackston laughed.
“I like this guy!” Jax bumped Ragatha's shoulder
“Yeah.. uh.. May we ask you a few questions? Moreso about the cube rather than anything else..”
Brackston nodded “I'll tell you everything I know- but.. well.. it isn't a lot. I know what everyone knows. The cube appeared one day and then it became the norm. The geodyssey Church started worshipping it as if it were some sort of God.. and well, whoever goes against the church..well I don't know. Because they don't get to be seen again-” Brackston stopped as he saw their facial expressions
“But, if we keep this all hidden, we can restore this place as it was before the cube! Before the church!”
Pomni nodded.
“Well.. do you perhaps-”
Jax interrupted. “Thats weeks and all, but where do we stay for the night?”
He pointed at a window within the tavern and showed that night time was approaching. The sunset illuminating the tavern and most of the people within the tavern had long gone.
“Where are my manners! I've prepared you a room upstairs!” Brackston says in a cheery tone.
“Thank you for everything, Brackston” Pomni smiled at him as they all walked up.
Upon entering the room that Brackston provided, they immediately saw a guy there who seemed to be going through a drawer.
He instantly turned as he heard the door open.
A crocodile looking guy.. who seemed to be wearing.. armor?
“Oh! Hello! H-how great to see you here. Wow- nice room?-”
“Who are you?” Pomni immediately asked, stepping forward.
The crocodile looked at Pomni and immediately got onto one foot, hand on chest. “GummieGoo”
Pomni and this guy just stared at each other then Zooble immediately stepped forward.
“What are you doing here? Brackston said this is our room. And last time I checked you aren't part of our team.”
Zooble stepped in front of Pomni, almost to look intimidating
Gommiegoo got up, Zooble saw a flicker of movement from his hand and saw his hand moved to where his sword was.
Zooble immediately acted on instinct and shoved this guy to the wall. Ragatha gasped and backed away and Jax just leaned on a wall.
“who the FU*$ are you?!”
“i-i don't wanna cause any harm i-”
Zooble shoved this guy to the door of the room, a loud thud could be heard as his head made contact to the wall, immediately, Gummiegoo scrambled out.
“Zooble! Why would you do that?!” Pomni exclaimed
“He was going to attack us!”
“No he wasn't! He looked like he could've told us stuff about the cube! About this place!”
Zooble just rolled her eyes.
“Uh guys..” Jax said and everyone looked at him.
“There are only three beds.. there's like four of us.”
Nobody says anything for a good while then immediately both Jax and Ragatha run over to a bed, Jax practically jumps onto it and shows the middle finger to Ragatha.
“too slow Raggy~”
While this is happening both Zooble and Pomni claim the other beds remaining.
Ragatha just frowns and Pomni looks down
“Hey uh.. you can get my bed, really, I don't even need it!”
Ragatha looks at Pomni.
“No! I couldn't do that-”
“Really, I don't mind!’ Pomni smiled and Ragatha hugged Pomni
“Thank you!”
‘I say we take turns sleeping as someone has to ensure none of us die by the morning. That weird.. The crocodile guy was in here, and who knows who else will come’ Jax stated and everyone seemed to agree.
And so, for the first night out of the prison cells, the four - Pomni, Rgatha, Jax, Zooble, took turns watching out for a few hours until the next person had to watch.
None of them enjoyed it, but it was far better than.. Well - being killed.
Whilst none of them saw or heard anything unusual, Jax eventually saw something as he was looking out the window into the starry night that was engulfing the dark room with its own light from the stars.
A person. In an armor suit. Sitting on top of a roof that was a good few feet away from the tavern. Jax seemed alarmed and opened the window to see if he could see who that person was but just as soon as Jax seemed to finally manage to open it, the person vanished.