Sacrifice in the Rain

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The rain hadn't stopped. Another of the constant reminders that it never would. But that's not...
Beginning: 0

Fletcher

Process to process/ the halting of pace
Location
Philippines
The rain hadn't stopped. Another of the constant reminders that it never would. But that's not quite the problem here.

No, the problem is your plan for the future.

You don't like the rain and you're going to leave it at that. It's horrible having to walk through the floods already. You're small for your age, your body isn't exactly heavy enough to significantly resist the current, and it's freezing cold on a good day. Why exactly you were born in this part of the country, where the rain is strongest and the chill reverberates through your very bones, you're not sure. A lack of parents makes it kind of hard to ask them, after all, why they'd decided to leave their child in the veritable sea of this fledgling village and then up and leave her to die.

So, like the absolute genius you are, you've decided you're going to stop this cold and this water. Permanently.

The god accepted human sacrifices, right?

The god of this world- you've decided you're just going to call it a god, not name it and join the bickering and holy wars already burning bright across the nations- has had enough of humans's bullshit. And the last straw, as it turns out, is the creation of blessings. Tiny, living creatures who mainly survive on body warmth and photosynthesis, which was quickly proved not an option. So the god decided to curse this place. To be honest, if you had omniscience and omnipotence, seeing humans start wars over your existence would have caused you to bomb them way earlier than this.

You understand its reasons sometimes.

You just don't like that you've been included in it.

You enter the hidden store you've been heading for, already trying subconsciously to ignore the buzz of energy making the hair on the back of your hair stand up. The lone worker gives you an odd look, but in all, you're ignored. It is, after all, odd to be out in the already waist-deep flood outside. You're entirely sure the only reason he hasn't left is because it'd be hell to go anywhere in the water already leaking into the store. He doesn't matter, really, in the grand scheme of your plan. No, what really matters is what he's supposed to be selling.

Your attention here is on the blessings. They're small, all of them, but they're the main source of the energy thick in the room that feels like magic. A few of the more cheerful ones visibly perk up at the sight of a human in the shop, making excited cries and calling the others to stare at you as you approach them. You're not sure if you have enough money for the newer ones. If you could, you'd buy more than one. But for now, all you can really afford are some of the secondhand ones.

You head over to that area. Returned blessings, extremely rare, sometimes interspersed with homemade robots or hand-me-downs. There aren't too many, only four. And still, you only have enough for one.

Thankfully for you, only one of their little holding cages attracts your attention. It's...



[ ]A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in all when going to sacrifice yourself to a nameless god, so better for you.

[ ]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.

[ ]A glass cage emitting a faint glow. The blessing inside is humanoid and made of crystal, soft white-gold light bright from its form. You wonder how exactly it generates that light. Maybe it's one of the cheaper robots, the ones with simpler AIs. More benefits, then; the robots usually end up cheaper.

[ ]A metal cage housing a slightly damaged blessing with exposed wires clumsily covered by waterproof cloth. It's generating electricity between its hands, playing with the bolts shooting from its fingers. More clearly a robot, yes, but it's also cheaper than the others and- assuming the electric powers are strong- useful in a world where basically everyone's default mode is "soaked to the bone".
 
[X]A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in all when going to sacrifice yourself to a nameless god, so better for you.
 
[X]A glass cage emitting a faint glow. The blessing inside is humanoid and made of crystal, soft white-gold light bright from its form. You wonder how exactly it generates that light. Maybe it's one of the cheaper robots, the ones with simpler AIs. More benefits, then; the robots usually end up cheaper.
 
[X] A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in all when going to sacrifice yourself to a nameless god, so better for you.
 
[X]A glass cage emitting a faint glow. The blessing inside is humanoid and made of crystal, soft white-gold light bright from its form. You wonder how exactly it generates that light. Maybe it's one of the cheaper robots, the ones with simpler AIs. More benefits, then; the robots usually end up cheaper.
 
[x]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.
 
[X]A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in all when going to sacrifice yourself to a nameless god, so better for you.
 
[X]A metal cage housing a slightly damaged blessing with exposed wires clumsily covered by waterproof cloth. It's generating electricity between its hands, playing with the bolts shooting from its fingers. More clearly a robot, yes, but it's also cheaper than the others and- assuming the electric powers are strong- useful in a world where basically everyone's default mode is "soaked to the bone".
 
[X]A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in allwhen going to sacrifice yourself to anameless god, so better for you.
 
[X]A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in all when going to sacrifice yourself to a nameless god, so better for you.
 
[x] A metal cage housing a slightly damaged blessing with exposed wires clumsily covered by waterproof cloth. It's generating electricity between its hands, playing with the bolts shooting from its fingers. More clearly a robot, yes, but it's also cheaper than the others and- assuming the electric powers are strong- useful in a world where basically everyone's default mode is "soaked to the bone".

out of all the blessings offered this appears to be the only one that has any combat utility
 
[x]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.

Let's grab the one that might help us traverse the flooding terrain.
 
[X]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.
 
[X]A glass cage emitting a faint glow. The blessing inside is humanoid and made of crystal, soft white-gold light bright from its form. You wonder how exactly it generates that light. Maybe it's one of the cheaper robots, the ones with simpler AIs. More benefits, then; the robots usually end up cheaper.
 
[X]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.
 
[X]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.
 
1
[X]A stone-carved cage with two beings inside both of them tiny and with a distinctly elf-based design. One is blindfolded and the other has tiny earmuffs designed for its pointed ears. Two for one. The first probably has enhanced sight and the second enhanced hearing. It's a nice idea, having two blessings for the price of one. And it'd mean more company in all when going to sacrifice yourself to a nameless god, so better for you.



You take the cage carefully, cupping it in both your sopping-wet hands. The blessing(s) inside notice quickly, the one with the blindfold peeking out of the cloth and the one with earmuffs simply turning its head upwards to look at you. You meet their confused gazes head-on.

You know your expression's somewhere between neutral and annoyed. Hopefully it won't scare them.

The blindfolded one, the male of the two, scoots backwards and glares at you warily. The girl stands up, tiny bells sewn into its clothes jingling madly as it does, and it matches your stare with a quivering sort of courage. So they are scared. You didn't mean it.

"Hello," you murmur, smiling faintly. "Nice meeting you."

The boy puts his blindfold back on properly as his companion waves back at you. Less and more welcoming, then. You had a feeling there'd be some manufactured contrast between the two, but this is a little cliche.

Your smile melts into a smirk. It's a government creation and it's a product with two different genders. Of course it'd be some cliche contrast that defined them. You wonder why exactly you'd have expected anything else.

The girl sits down, fitting an arm through the gap in the cage bars. It reaches out and pokes your thumb, barely close enough to reach. She points over to the price clumsily attached to the shelf, insistent.

You follow her gaze to it. It's only half the money you brought? These two must have been returned so many times for it to get that low. You wonder if they're going to be a nuisance.

At this point you don't really care. Whatever works.

You scan the rest of the shelves. Your eyes once again land on another of the offered blessings.



[X]A taller glass jar, with a blessing inside whose head already hits the roof of it. The creature looks to be half-transparent, its veins bright blue, floating in the water filling the jar. Amphibious or or reptilian, maybe. It doesn't seem to have any breathing problems.



It'd be helpful in the water, at least. And it's an even lower price than the dual blessings here. The water-dweller notices your attention very quickly, and it starts pounding at the glass to be let out, calling uselessly from inside. You wonder if it- he, male design- knows you can't hear him.

You hesitantly reach out, taking the jar in your other hand. The girl in the cage practically shoots from her place, making a series of hand signals you're not too familiar with. The blessing in the water recognizes them in an instant, though, and it responds with its own, almost matching signals quickly.

You laugh, putting the containers closer to each other so they can see the signals better. Already, there's a camaraderie in the blessings? They've been hell-raisers together, then.

You'd like to raise some hell before being sent off to your death. Just a little.



[ ]Steal the blessings. Wastes less money. No-one wanted them, anyway, and the weather outside is bad enough that you doubt the person at the cashier will follow you. Either way, you're not coming back to face your crime.
. . [ ]Why not grab the others, too?
. . . . [ ]Take both.
. . . . [ ]Write-in which one to take.

[ ]Pay for them like a normal citizen would. There's no reason not to.
 
[x]Pay for them like a normal citizen would. There's no reason not to.

We'll be boring.
 
[X]Steal the blessings. Wastes less money. No-one wanted them, anyway, and the weather outside is bad enough that you doubt the person at the cashier will follow you. Either way, you're not coming back to face your crime.

Here's a reason. If we're not coming back here, and the world is slowly drowning, it's best to hold on to as much money as possible. That way, if we reach a situation where we have to pay for something, we use it then. Free resources are free resources.
 
Here's a reason. If we're not coming back here, and the world is slowly drowning, it's best to hold on to as much money as possible. That way, if we reach a situation where we have to pay for something, we use it then. Free resources are free resources.

That's assuming our main character is correct about there ultimately being no consequences. That said, I'm tempted to support it just so we can get the jellyfish.
 
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