They woke up with a start.
Aspen almost jumped out of the bed, protectively pushing a completely disoriented River behind him.
By the time they realized that the sound that woke them abruptly – a sort of bell – wasn’t something harmful but rather something resonating through the whole building, seconds passed.
River sat upright, rubbing his eyes. The bell rang eight times before stopping, and from what he could tell, it must have been blasted through speakers of some type. A check revealed the stupid thing near the door: A tiny speaker just under the ceiling.
“Is that our wake-up call?”, Aspen snorted, his voice dripping with irritation at being woken up from a very comfy sleep.
Trying to calm him, River rubbed the other’s head. “Wash your face, brush your teeth and change clothes. We should go outside quickly and find out what’s happening. It’s likely that this will announce the start of every day.”
The smaller guy obeyed grumpily.
Aspen’s hair wasn’t too long, but it was apparently the type to stick up after sleeping. It refused to cooperate and Aspen was too moody to care for it, so he dragged a hoodie over his head and put the hood on. His dark eyes glinted out from under it, following River’s every movement as the other slid the notebook into a hidden pocket inside of his simple sweat jacket.
They tried listening at the door, but the insulation was far too good. Only when they opened the door did they notice that there were actual people walking down a carpeted hallway.
River was strongly reminded of the way students came out of the classrooms, back in the game at school.
There was a constant level of noise – murmurs – as people yawned and chatted. Some looked half asleep, others more awake. Once they joined the bigger streams going down the stairs, River could make out all kinds of age groups. Adults, old people, some children and teenagers. Some, those who had been on the same floor, nodded at River and Aspen with smiles.
It was a relief that no one talked to them directly, though River did his best to return all greeting nods, little waves, and tiredly mumbled “Morning”s.
This was very clearly an apartment building. Not only the structure, but also the people living here hinted at that.
And yet there were speakers in the room and everyone was going…
…as it turned out, to eat breakfast together.
One floor – was it the third floor? It was hard to tell – must have been remodeled, or maybe it had always looked the way it did, but there was one giant, long room on one side.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Pa kjr oliifv klat ajyifr jcv j ibcu kfrafgc-rasif ygfjxojra yeoofa.
Crqfc delmxis rtea tlr wbeat yfobgf tf mbeiv yiega bea tlr offilcur jybea atf rluta. Lf ugjyyfv Elnfg’r jgw alutais, cba delaf vjglcu ab ub obgkjgv.
Ktfs ybat oilcmtfv ktfc j sbecufg wjc rabqqfv cfjg atfw.
“Zbgclcu”, atf wjc ugffafv atfw lc j oglfcvis abcf. Lf ibbxfv tjio jriffq, klat wfrrs vjgx ibmxr jcv j mtffxs, ibqrlvfv rwlif. “Qlii sbe pblc wf ja atf ajyif abvjs?”
River felt Aspen’s grip tighten. His thoughts raced as he considered the best reaction. First off, he yawned deeply. “Well-”, he started, slurring his voice as if he was half asleep. “Sure.”
The man laughed and went forward. They followed him closely, hoping not to stand out. As Aspen scanned the area for the enemy group, River focused on the friendly stranger.
They got in line for the buffet. River hummed thoughtfully as he picked up food for himself and Aspen, the way one might hum when deliberating to take food one usually does not… or, instead go for the exact same as any other day.
“Every day the same”, the stranger said while shaking his head good-naturedly.
Perfect. It seems the taste of his identity was at least not unsimilar to his actual one.
The tables were huge and not numbered, so it seemed more of a social convention to sit in certain places than force. Aspen made a show of being incredibly tired and clinging to River, who forced some hopefully not too suspicious small-talk.
“I’m not used to the whole eating-breakfast-together thing”, he tried saying in a nonchalant tone as he got to nibbling on a croissant.
“Still not used to it?”, the stranger – god, just what was his name? – shot him a glance and started eating as well. “I guess you two aren’t morning people but…”
A noncommittal shrug.
So the breakfast wasn’t unusual, it happened here at least regularly, if not daily. This wasn’t their first time participating in it. Why? This wasn’t a hotel, he was sure of it. An institution, maybe?
River kept himself from sinking into his thoughts when he noticed the stranger begin to talk. Something about a library and someone who was writing a book and several names he didn’t know.
“Do you want to come too? I’ll go at ten”, Mister No-Name suggested.
“Maybe we’ll join later”, River evaded answering. “We didn’t sleep too well last night, so…”
“Good sleep is important. Get some more rest.”
Someone else at the table took the man’s attention away. “By the way, did you find the book I mentioned before? The one about the history of-”
There were so many conversations going on. It was about as messy as any room filled with so many people would be, but it was overwhelming to decide what to focus on. There were constantly people passing by; switching tables or stopping for a few words, sometimes going to get something else to eat.
River couldn’t sense any underlying tension or fear. No topics that were avoided, no clothes too uniform, no etiquette enforced. This was, as far as he could tell, a very normal group of people.
Just as he was wondering on how to get more info out of other people, Aspen tugged at his sleeve.
The ones entering the dining room a bit late was a group of three people.
Three people they very well recognized.
Papyrus. Soot. Acorn.
Three Gamblers had taken on the special bet against River’s and Aspen’s for a final game. River hadn’t felt well seeing his rival group on paper, but seeing them in person made his confidence drop a bit.
Papyrus was the same player as in the last game. The same giant guy with muscles made of steel and eyes that could intimidate a lion.
Soot, on the other hand, was a rather unremarkable girl at first glance, if River hadn’t read in her information that she was a bit similar to him – the kind of person with an overly good memory and too much knowledge.
Acorn wasn’t any less problematic. He seemed nice, and that was bad, because that judgement came from River, who generally didn’t like people. But Acorn had that kind of smile that made you want to smile back.
A fighter. A strategist. A mediator.
One for brawn, one for brain, and one for social interactions.
“This is the worst”, River whispered under his breath, ducking his head between his shoulders and hoping not to stand out.
Mister No-Name heard him and frowned. “What’s wrong? Oh, it’s Acorn. Hey-”
“No!”
Before the stranger could call out any louder, River quickly interrupted him. The reaction got him several suspicious glances.
“You don’t want him to come over? Did you guys fight yesterday or something?” The stranger didn’t look too happy. “That’s not good. You should make up soon. You know, silence breeds violence. You have to talk to each other if there’s a problem.”
“I, ah, I will”, River promised, sensing something in the other’s tone. “Later. In private.”
That got him.
Only hearing the last word made his face ease up considerably. He nodded, giving in, and River swallowed his sigh of relief.
He maneuvered through the rest of the conversations well enough that he spent most of the breakfast in silence. Aspen never stopped watching their rival group, but he too kept his ears open for any information that he could remember.
Not that it was easy – although other people had more normal names than the signatures of the Gamblers, everyone knew everyone and the amount of names to memorize was insane.
There was a young Nancy and an older Trisha, there was old man Miles, there were Paul and Kai and Mary, and Logan, the stranger who finally got a name added to his face sometime near the end.
Aspen’s head was buzzing badly enough that they didn’t have to fake leaving to get some rest when everyone started to leave.
And it really was everyone, for there were times to come in and to leave, and no one came or left outside of those timeframes.
Author’s Note
You wanted, you get! Starting the next chapter anyway, because you already saw the notes from the last one and they’re not exactly long. Lots of stuff to be added from this one, though!
I do hope this arc will be fun for everyone to guess along with. No idea how long it’ll be, to be honest? Longer than usual, anyway 😀
Thanks for the chapter ! ^^
Oh the horrors of having to remember names…
Thanks for the chapter! At least since they can’t attack directly, Papyrus won’t be able to use his strength either.