In a small, locked, wooden room, buried deep underground, a dried-up corpse sits, motionless. Its eyes are empty sockets. Its skin is grey and withered.
Before it sits a variety of objects. A key, a bomb, a still-beating heart, a tarot card, and a small ladder, all marked with prices in cents. In one corner of the room sits a machine with a large sign, reading "DONATION", above a three-digit counter and a coin slot. The number is somewhere in the three hundreds.
In the other corner sits a similar machine, but different. It bears a scuffed, but sleek dark blue appearance, and some kind of digital monitor, which appears to be powered off. It, too, has a coin slot.
The room sits quiet. Nothing moves, save for a couple tiny flies.
Then, suddenly, a scuffle can be heard a couple rooms away. Grunts and impacts. The growls of strange beasts. Continued footsteps. The noise draws closer and closer, and pauses outside the room. A faint jingling is audible, and then the door is unlocked.
A girl with long, black hair enters. She seems mostly unremarkable, aside from a large-ish red fly circling around her, following at a distance. She looks at the assortment of items on the ground and rolls her eyes. She looks disappointed. Reluctantly, she takes the key, dropping some pennies on the ground in its place. They seem to vanish. Before she leaves, she drops two more into the machine marked "DONATION". She briefly looks at the blue machine, but dismisses it.
After briefly locking eyes with the corpse sitting at the head of the room, she takes her leave.
The continued sounds of combat can be heard in the distance for a while, but eventually, they fade away to nothing. The room is quiet once more.
Quiet, that is, until the corpse suddenly lurches forward. Shuddering and trembling, it rises to its feet, hunched forward, before abruptly leaning back into a full-body stretch.
???: "Mreh… Took her long enough."
The corpse speaks, to no one in particular. It walks across the room, and leans down to the floor, feeling around for something. Then, it lifts up a floorboard, revealing a lever, which it pulls. Holes suddenly appear in the floor, and the left-over items disappear into them. New holes appear in the ceiling, and a new assortment of odds and ends deposit from them. Four in total. However, there appears to be an empty spot, and one of the holes in the ceiling refuses to disappear. The corpse examines the hole.
???: "…Hello? Anyone up there?"
A couple more moments pass. The corpse looks somewhat irritated.
Then, rather abruptly, a small blue creature comes flying out, and instead of stopping on the ground, begins to fly about the room.
The corpse chuckles and mutters under its breath.
???: "Hoo boy."
The blue creature finally comes to a rest, seated atop the "DONATIONS" machine. It appears similar to an infant, but with dark blue skin. Its body tapers off at the waist, with no legs to speak of; only a small, pointed, tail-like protrusion. It has no mouth. Its eyes appear to be cartoonishly X-ed out, as if it were deceased, and on its head, it wears a small, golden crown. The creature somehow speaks, projecting with great bravado and assuming a heroic pose.
KING BABY: "Fear not, loyal citizen! Your king has arrived!"
The corpse watches this with mild amusement before responding, in a somewhat insincere tone of voice.
???: "Well, hello, King Baby. What brings 'your highness' here today?"
King Baby chuckles.
KING BABY: "Why, you know why I am here! I am here to assist you, humble shopkeeper, to offer my services to your customers, to aid them through this labyrinth. Is that not why I am always here?"
The shopkeeper, smiling, makes a show of responding as if the King had pointed out something of great significance.
SHOPKEEPER: "Oh, of course. Excuse my ignorance, 'your majesty'."
King Baby seems to smile (despite his lack of mouth), his eyes arching upwards in satisfaction.
KING BABY: "Worry not, dear compatriot. I promise you, we will surely make a sale together on this fine day."
The shopkeeper regards King Baby with a smirk, before walking to the other end of the room to lean against the wall, stretching.
SHOPKEEPER: "Well, we've got some time to kill before the next customer. Make yourself comfortable. I need a hell of a stretch. Sitting still for that long really locks up the joints."
He scans the room as he stretches, only to falter for a second. It appears the blue machine in the corner has turned on, the screen now lit up.
SHOPKEEPER: "Huh?"
The shopkeeper approaches the strange machine. It displays some kind of command prompt console, with two short messages.
"CONNECTION ESTABLISHED."
"AWAITING INPUT…"
The shopkeeper looks upon the machine in surprise.
SHOPKEEPER: "Huh. Well, I'll be damned. This thing finally works. Short Change will be pleased."
King Baby leans over from his perch on the other machine, trying to see the screen.
KING BABY: "Oh? What's going on over there?"
The shopkeeper chuckles.
SHOPKEEPER: "Oh, Short Change has been trying to get this machine running for a long time. Says it's some kind of fancy fortune machine he found on one of the deeper levels. Connects to somewhere else, and outputs questions and advice and stuff in response to what's around it."
King Baby looks on in awe.
KING BABY: "That sounds amazing! Can we talk to it? How?"
SHOPKEEPER: "Supposedly, this thing can just hear us. Maybe it can hear you right now."
King Baby's crossed-out eyes widen further.
KING BABY: "Woooow."
He excitedly waves at the machine.
KING BABY: "Hello, new machine friend! Do you have anything you wish to know of the mighty King Baby?"
King Baby and the Shopkeeper are now open for questions.
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Any favourite companions that youve went with [ie players, familiars, etc.]
KING BABY: "Well, Lady Lilith is quite kind. She's very supportive, and I appreciate her companionship very much. I also respect her skills as a leader. We make quite a team!"
KING BABY: "As for my compatriots, well, some of them are more respectful than others, but we can put our differences aside to assist the Cyclists, and I can respect those who are adept in combat ability. Brim, Inc, and Monst all stand out as very effective fighters! Especially when under my guidance. Really, I don't know what they'd do without me."
Cain glares at King Baby.
CAIN: "I still think that's a stupid name. 'Cyclists'. What, do we ride bicycles? 'Runners' is cooler."
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❤️ and 👁🗨 for the emoji ask! I was thinking War, but you can use any character you want.
👁🗨- Talk about someone/something you like, but pretend to dislike
War is alone and it is late. Last one working, or the only one not out busy… he takes a moment then begins.
War: I’d say I’m a pretty honest person. I don’t need to pretend to hate shit, I just do. But… while I’d appreciate if Death would get off my back and stop bein’ such a fuckin’ smartass… I appreciate the guy. He’s done a lot for me, for us. And he's actually smart enough to act the way he does, and he did it all without college or any shit like that, so…
I should probably be more grateful, I guess.
❤️ - a secret crush
War: … yeah no. I told you, I don’t have the time for that stuff. I’m busy enough without a partner.
And… Famine was right. No one’s gonna want to get with the Horseman of War… my whole thing is conflict and combat. I- well I’m just…
Too selfish? Callous? Irresponsible? Apathetic? Immature? Unable to connect with anyone besides your fellow riders?
War: … not really into it.
Aight. That’s technically not a lie. Just not the full story. It seems he doesn’t want to continue with this. He glances around, whether he’s looking for the right words to say or to see if one of the others is about to walk in is anyone’s guess.
War: But uh… I don’t really have a “crush”, none strong and sure enough to act on anyways. Everything is so complicated and I can’t be assed to try and bend for someone else. I’m me and I’m fine being alone. I mean, romantically. I do kinda miss it sometimes but hey, if it ain’t meant to be…
He shrugs and...just doesn't really go on. Looks away. Nothing more to say. Or maybe he's talked himself in to a corner.
But of course, we're using force. Into the corner you go.
War: I don't want to name names-
...
War: It wasn't long. Just a few years' worth of on and off... dating? Hangin' out and askin' "what are we" a lot. I mean, we did get pretty close and we still are, but... it just didn't work out. Not... compatible like that. And I wasn't very good to her either.
It was years ago, decades ago, what we have now is better. But sometimes I miss it. It felt good to know someone could care about me like that. Even if it's not my thing a lot of the time, just knowing it was even possible. Before I fucked it up. I guess.
...
War: Sometimes I wonder if she's just tolerating me now.
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