Resistance 2.6
Alec looked between his two teammates who were facing the dumpster looking ready to bolt, either at the dumpster or away from it depending on the situation. "So...either of you gonna check it out?" He quickly touched a finger to the tip of his nose (yes, the middle one). "Not it!"
Brian and Rachel turned slightly, each giving him the same flat expression of disbelief. The brunette simply grinned at them.
Eventually, after a moment of silence, Brian sighed. "It's probably an animal, or a homeless guy. Just leave it be." And just as he finished speaking the dumpster jumped, bouncing straight up three feet in the air. It landed, shook three times, bounced again, twice as high, and rolled forward, landing on its side. A closed cardboard box cam sliding out of it, coming to a stop at the trio's feet.
Alec stared at it for a moment. "...Let's open it."
"No, Alec, just no. For all we know there is a Tinker tech bomb or something in there."
"
Or a magic genie lamp."
"...what?"
"Yeah! What if there is a genie inside!"
The box began shaking, rolling over onto one side, then back the other way. Rachel jumped when it moved and, looking at her arguing teammates, slowly leaned down to grab it.
"This isn't a game. You open that box, and you could be risking our lives."
"Or I could be getting each of us a wish! Ever thought about that?"
Rachel held the box firmly in place with her hands. It stopped moving entirely. Rachel perked up a bit as she heard...something coming from inside of the box. Small sounds she could barely make out
"Grail-Chan, what are you doing?" "We are not Grail-Chan, and we are trying to escape this prison." "...how did you tape the box from the outside from the inside?" "We expended prana to do so." "...how?"
"I think I'm going to wish for...world peace."
"We must get out of this box!" "Wait, I meant money. Lots of money. Oops, silly me."
"Can you take this seriously!? We have who knows what left here by who knows who that could somehow kill us all any second!"
The box burst open. Rachel felt something impact her forehead and send her falling backwards onto her rear while Brian and Alec let out small screams of surprise.
Emerging from the box was a girl with unkempt long brown hair and pale skin blemished in spots by dirt and grime. She wore one of Alec's old poofy white shirts that he wore when in costume (he preferred not to wear the same thing twice). It hung loosely on her thin frame, resembling more a blouse than a dress shirt, but it was a tad short, and when she rose her arms hints of her midriff could be seen. She had tied the tattered remains of an old curtain around her waist like a skirt which trailed behind her, all of this white but stained in reds and browns. Rachel also noticed that half of an old stuff chew toy that the dogs had torn apart was also held in one of her hand, the head chest and right arm of a simple black stuffed rabbit.
"Holy shit! It's the corpse bride!" Alec did
not move behind Brian. Nope. No he did not.
"Greetings. We are the Holy Grail. We come offering one of you the opportunity to have your wish granted."
There was a pause, then Brian slapped a hand against his forehead. "Oh no…"
He was roughly shoved aside by Alec (who had
not been hiding behind him), though the larger teen only budged a mere inch. "I was right! I called it! You owe me a hundred bucks!"
"We never made a bet!"
"Sure we did! Don't you remember?"
"No, because it never happened!"
"Oh no, looks like big bad Brian has taken a few too many hits to the head."
"I wear a helmet, dick!"
Rachel stood up and dusted off her pants. She looked at the Grail, scowled, and walked back into their base, the Grail following close behind. "We would like to know if you three have powers." Rachel grunted once in response. "We would like to know if you three are villains." Another grunt. "We are pleased."
"So...anyone else kind of weirded out by all this?"
Rachel grunted in response, Brian continued to brood, and the Grail simply tilted their head. Alec look around the room from where he was standing (he refused to sit on the floor) incredulously. "Seriously? Just me?"
"We have questions we would like to ask."
Brian moved to stand in front of the strange girl. "I have some questions for you too."
"We are willing to offer a fair exchange. Answered questions for answered questions."
Rachel grunted.
The dark skinned teen stared at the girl intensely, though she did not react. "Fine, that seems fair."
"We should do it over lunch!" Alec inserted himself into the conversation. "I'm starving, and this is getting a bit too intense for me. We have some food around here somewhere. Drag a few boxes over, Rachel can get some of the pillows she has for her dogs-" Rachel grunted. "-it'll be great. In fact, I'll go get the food now. Get that ready. Brian, you keep the girl company and set things up."
Alec began to leave when he was stopped by Brian placing a hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing?"
The shorter boy looked at the strange girl, and leaned back to whisper into his teammate's ear. "The girl is either crazy, a cape, or both. I'm guessing you want to hear her out, but I'm still going to poison some of the food
just in case. Slipping it to her and making her eat it if it turns out she's bad news shouldn't be too hard."
"Alec…"
"Don't worry. I got this."
They were part way through their meal, a bunch of ramen noodles and microwaved lasagna, when their conversation began in earnest. "I guess we should all start by introducing ourselves." Brian gestured around the room.
"Hey. I'm Alec. The pleasure is all yours."
"I'm Brian. The girl growling next to me is Bi-er, Rachel."
The Grail nodded her head once. "We are the Grail."
Brian leaned forward, directing the full intensity of his gaze at their strange guest. The Grail did not react. "So then, what are you doing here?"
"We have been seeking out Masters, participants in the Holy Grail War. We did not seek you out specifically, but we currently consider you three to be prospective Masters."
Alec perked up. "Masters? Holy Grail War? What do you mean by that?"
The girl hesitated for a second, seeming to be caught off guard by the question. She directed her gaze towards Alec. "We would prefer if we were to ask questions in turn. Regardless, we shall answer these in the order asked. Masters are the title given to those participants in the Holy Grail War who fight alongside their Servants in order to claim their wish. The Holy Grail War is a ritual, a deathmatch between seven pairs of Masters and Servants, where the last one alive may claim the Holy Grail, a relic which can grant the victor's wish no matter how impossible it may be. Lastly, we mean precisely what we have just spoken."
Servants? Brian opened his mouth, but froze when the girl's head suddenly snapped in his direction, her eyes narrowed. Brian closed his mouth.
"You have asked four questions, and so we too shall ask four questions in turn. We know that you three are a group of 'villains'. What is your group's purpose and goal? Furthermore, what drives each of you to pursue this path?"
Brian's eyes narrowed. "That's pretty personal."
"I had no choice."
The two boys jumped in their seats, surprised by Rachel's sudden interjection. The Grail turned her head to face the large girl, her expression the same calm serene blankness as before. Her head tilted. "We see. So you simply survive."
Rachel nodded her head once, even if it wasn't a question.
"Do you wish to live?"
There was a pause, unspoken words hidden in code deciphered by the larger teen in an instant. She wasn't stupid, just different, and even someone like her understood the difference between survival and life. Life was so much more than breathing, eating and shitting. It was so much more than not dying. The closest she got to living was taking care of her dogs.
Rachel nodded her head again.
The Grail waited for more, and when it became obvious that no more was coming it turned its attention away, looking pointedly between the two boys sitting at their cardboard tables.
Brian was the first to speak. "Fine, I guess it isn't really a secret or anything." He slumped in his seat, looking tired, like he was considering walking out of the room and taking a nap. "My home life sucked. I got out, but my sister didn't. I want to help her, you know? But I don't have the money to do it, to get her out and give her the life she deserves. So yeah, that's why I'm here. To get what I don't have."
The girl caked in filth stared long and hard at the black teen, then nodded her head once, smiling. She turned her head to the last person who needed to answer.
Alen made a big show of pointing to himself, his eyes wide and doe like, his voice dripping with overly exaggerated sarcasm. "Oh? Me? You want to know about me?" He threw his head back and laughed. "Not much to say. Well, that isn't true. Years from now historians will be writing textbooks about me." Brian visibly rolled his eyes. "But I'm sad to say there is not much to say about the whole 'why are you a villain' thing. Just here for fun is all." He shrugged his shoulders and winked at the 'corpse bride'.
"That is a lie."
"Says you. I'll have you know that I have plenty of fun playing cops and robbers."
"You lie by telling the truth. The answer you gave is true, but it is not the actual answer to our question."
Alec frowned, his eyes narrowing, becoming flat and dead. His brows did not furrow, though it seemed as though they did. Instead they simply fell into their resting position. He typically kept them higher, quirked, all the time. They were expressive, made to be so. Being able to control the bodies of others had bled into some of his own finer motor control. "Listen, I'm not just gonna open up to you and tell you my life story-"
"We did not ask for such."
He paused, reevaluating the girl. He smiled. "Okay, okay. I think I get it. I left for choice, I guess. There was some good shit back home. Not a lot to hate, but everyone wanted something, expected something, and
that being directed at
me was just the worst. So yeah, my childhood probably fucked me up, no harm admitting that, but I'm not gonna cry about it either." One eyebrow quirked up. "Nah. I just left to get away from people trying to control me. My family is real big on that." He laughed at a joke he knew the person he was speaking to wouldn't understand. It only made it funnier.
"You wished for freedom. Escape from manipulation. You did not like being pushed." Regent lowered his brow, but made a conscious effort to keep his smile on his face. He was pretty sure he was dealing with a Thinker. He got the impression that she was getting a lot more out of everyone's answers than what was actually being communicated.
"Or pulled. Or dragged. Or jerked around. So yeah, I didn't like being under my family's thumb. Just wanted to be my own man."
"And yet you are still controlled in so many ways."
Regent's entire body went still. His smile melted into a scowl. He grabbed a fork and stabbed it into the box he was using as a table. "And
what the fuck do you mean by that?"
"There is still one more of my questions that need an answer."
Brian spoke up, cutting off Alec before he could continue his tirade. "You mean about why our group does what it does." He made sure not to say it as a question. "We don't really know. We have an anonymous backer that we do jobs for. He pays us really well, so we stick together and cooperate."
"So you are controlled more than first thought."
Alec's mouth was set in a hard line. His eyes narrowed. Then they widened. His mouth opened slightly as he stared at their strange guest. The girl looked at him, and simply shook his head. Alec smiled at her to mask his growing trepidation. She was somehow immune to his power. There were a few possibilities, but one horrible though hooked itself to his brain.
Master powers interfere with Master powers. Alec had experience with how his powers interacted with those of other Masters through his family, and so he was able to eliminate some possibilities. Those under the control of his family weren't immune to his abilities. He could make them do things, but he would essentially have to compete with the other Master. He could try to walk them off a cliff, the other Master in turn would make them turn around, and so on.
But he himself was resistant to Master powers. Specifically the ones of his relatives. Whether this be a quirk of all their abilities or simply a matter of exposure, he didn't know, but he knew it also worked the other way around.
All he knew was that there was suddenly a chance that corpse bride was his sister (his dad fucked a lot of people) and if that was the case he would be flipping his shit.
Jesus Christ, that would explain how she seemed to get more out of what he said than she should too.
The girl spoke. "To answer the previous question, we simply meant that your previous experiences have left an imprint on you. More of your actions are controlled by the wants you ran away from than you seem to think." Regent narrowed his eyes again.
The girl turned to Rachel now. "We have answered a question and thus can ask yet another. We would like to know, though you say you wish to live, if you had the opportunity to have a wish granted, a single wish, any wish, would that truly be it?"
Rachel hesitated, looking somewhat lost. After a moment of deliberation, she spoke. "No. I think...I'm not the only one. Like this or that. I want to help the strays."
Both Alec and Brian were confused by the response, but the Grail nodded her head in understanding. "The world is full of poor unfortunate souls. Children...strays as you put it, with no home. It is an admirable wish, though we understand that one must place their survival first."
Rachel shifted in her seat - well, pillow - uncomfortable, though whether by the jab at her priorities or just because of the deep questions, no one could say.
The Grail swept their gaze around the room again. Rachel, the girl who had lived her life as an unwanted stray and who in turn held a dream of somehow helping others like herself, but was held back by her own need to survive. Brian, the boy who escaped from unfortunate circumstances, but now lacked the means to do the same for his sister. Alec, false name, who fled from the control and manipulation of his family, but had not yet become
free.
Options, options...
OPTIONS:
[] Focus on Rachel
[] Focus on Brian
[] Focus on Alec
AN: This is essentially where you vote for who you want to be the Master for the Undersiders. I say essentially, because there will be a chance to change your minds after this. Essentially, whoever is chosen will be grilled for more details, then you'll get the option to either make them a Master or shift focus to someone else. Just wanted to make sure that was clear. Sorry ya'll for the long wait.