Roleplex IC: Your Average Street Fight

Prussian had a pretty good view of Roleplex, although, it wasn't the best.

He planned to change that, and not in any conventional ways.

Prussian was standing on the roof of his house, preparing to run. But where, you might ask. He's on the roof! Prussian planned to run up. It has been a week since his return from Redditland, a thriving metropolis even bigger than Roleplex. During his quarter-year there, he learned new skills and sticks, one of his favorites being freerunning. It certainly didn't help that the Assassin's Creed games were fresh in his mind, either.

"Okay," Prussian said to himself. "Let's explore."

A second later, he started running towards a nearby building, slightly taller than his home. Easy, he thought to himself. Just climb it!

He did climb it. He jumped from his roof, arms outstretched, towards the building. He grabbed a hold of it and pulled himself up. Then, without skipping a beat, he continued running. The next building was much higher than this one. However, as Prussian knew, there was a ledge. Something he could climb on.

He jumped again, grabbing one of the handrails of a balcony. I'm bound to be noticed, he realized. After all, this is suburban Roleplex, not busy central Redditland. He continued on anyway, climbing on the handrail of the balcony and grabbing the overhanging roof.

He was nearing central Roleplex. It was bound to be an interesting environment. It was three minuted before President Shade's building came into view. While the building itself was too smooth to climb on, there was a smaller building next to it.
In the heat of the moment, Prussian thought to himself, Bring it on, Roleplex! Give me all you've got!
In the same moment, his foot caught on something and caused him to trip. He fell over the edge, flailing in the air.

It would be a little more than a second before Prussian hit the ground.

On the ground, a man was going about his usual morning. He pushed his cart, marked "Stan's Hot Dogs," Towards the sidewalk on main street, in order to sell his food.
Without warning, a cloaked man fell from the building above and landed on the umbrella on his cart. His cart was okay, but the umbrella attached to it snapped. It seemed to have broke the young man's fall.

"What the-what... What in the lord's name i-" Stan started, but the man stumbled up and held up his hands.

"Whew! You saved my life, man! Stan!" The man, Prussian, said. "Look, I'll pay you for your umbrella  when I get the chance. Right now... Just... Sell your hot dogs, okay? Go about your business." Prussian made a shooing motion with his hands.

Stan would have liked to ask things, like why he fell from the roof of that building, but the man looked crazy enough already.

Stan sighed. "I'll worry about the umbrella." He picked up his broken umbrella and began pushing his cart away.

Dazed, Prussian sat on the curb. That fall cleared the rest of Prussian's schedule for that day. He wasn't freerunning again with a close call like that.

Hmm... He thought. What else can I do today?

Cleo's eye widened when she saw the person she ran into's face. She happened to have ran into none-other-than Vipera. She had heard of her- the media always tried to speak to her, but she never really got involve with them. She seemed like a very professional person. Celo quickly took a step back. "Oh- sorry!" She yelped before smiling.

"I'm Celo- one of the people President Darkel hired to help remodel the upper floors. Nice to meet you," she smiled before looking around. "There's a lot of work- yep, tons." Her grip tightened on her sketchbook as he looked around. The only decoration in the hallway was a window, covered with the black sludge, but some of the outdoors was still visible. Celo saw someone fall past. "Oh my frog- no!" She screamed suddenly, running towards the window. "Who was that?" She looked down at the street. The guy was fine, whoever it was. Maybe. She still had to check. Celo looke at Vipera. "Someone just fell," she urgently said before she began speed-walking toward the exit, hoping Vipera followed.

Prussian looked up, hearing the commotion. To his surprise, he saw Vipera and a Roleplexian that he didn't recognize.

He was still a little dizzy from the fall, but he was almost completely recovered. He stood up to greet the two.

"Vipera, long time no see!" He said, smiling. "I've returned from my trip! However you want to interpret that," He said, glancing back up at the building. Prussian glanced at the strange Roleplexian who has also come to his aid.

"And, who might you be?" He asked her.

Celo looke at the man in shock, wondering how exactly he survived. "Oh- uh- I'm Celo! An art-eest," she jokingly said "artist" with a horrible French accent. "Okay, actually I'm just helping Mister Darkel with some remodeling." She glanced up at the building, "Starting with new windows for thrown animals."

Celo laughed, "Long story. Anyways, can't wait to get started on the job. Now, my question for you is..." She tilted her head to the side as she asked the man, "What's your name?" She was going to say, "who the frog are you?" But figure that would've been rude. All the while one hand had a tight grip on her sketchbook, pencils, and map.

"Okay," Prussian said, "you may be wondering why I just fell from a five-story building."

"Well, during my time away, I learned how to freerun, or parkour. Of course, I knew that this was amazing. So, earlier today, I decided to try it out." he sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Obviously, due to just one misstep, it didn't work out. I would have died if there wasn't... You know, you won't believe me." He gave an only half-genuine laugh.

Prussian changed the subject, "Throwing animals, huh? That's... so much like Darkel..."

"I can draw some things you wouldn't believe," Celo smiled in response to Prussian's statement. It was true, though- who believes you when you say, "Hey! I can make drawings come to life in a literal sense!" Only those in crazy barns. Then Prussian changed the subject. Celo laughed and nodded.

"Yeah- it was an interesting first impression." She cupped her free hand over her mouth and gasped, eyes widening. "Oh my frog- I felt so bad for it though! That poor rat thingy was so cute!"

Celo nodded, "I know better than to spend time on pictures for windows- I was thinking, though- maybe putting a device like there is on automatic doors on it, one sided, of course. If anything is thrown at the window from the inside, it will open real quickly and close. Something from the outside? Not so much. Then the windows won't break as often." Then she responded the Vipera's statement about animals.

"Oooh-really? Farm animals are soooo cute! Well, I find all animals cute but yeah," she laughed.

Prussian raised an eyebrow and gave a pokerface. "He... he does it without opening the windows?" He paused, as if to take it in. "Again... So muck like Darkel," He said to himself. Darkel wasn't a really big fan of... compassion. Or Empathy. He looked around quickly for any animal corpses that Darkel may have chucked out the window, but he saw none.

Prussian liked to think that Darkel installed all of the "traps" not because of assassins, but because he liked it. However, then again, Prussian wasn't here for a long time, so he didn't know if there really was an assassin problem. He ignored the problem for now.

There was a commotion down the hall, not far from Vipera, Celo, and Prussian. It sounded like the running of heavy feet and the shouting of some person. "That president is MINE!" shouted a voice.

"DARKEL WILL NOT BE TOUCHED" shouted another dark voice. Someone was running down the hall and passed the three and the window. It was a tall man running down the hall with a rifle in his arms and a pistol in his pocket. He pulled the pistol out suddenly as the roof above him crumbled and fell. He backed up. Skulvia, the grotesque creature Celo had encountered earlier dropped and was hanging along the ridge of the new hole by her claws. Her mouth opened to full extent and it screeched a loud, oddly metallic sounding scream. Black sludge flung from its mouth as suddenly her stomach burst open. Blood pounded everywhere as suddenly a strange machine-gun clasped by thin, tiny robotic arms and tendrils shot from her body. The gun began firing and the loud noise boomed throughout the hallways. Soon the assassin was dead and his body was bloody on the ground.

Skulvia growled as the gun folded back up and went back into her stomach. Her ripcage closed back in and slowly her skin began to regenerate itself over it. Skulvia's black eyes then darted to the group still standing in the hall. She gave a snarl as she saw Celo, still not fully trusting the stranger. She dropped from the hole in the roof and began to inspect the perpetrator. That was when another rampaged through the hallway. This assassin had a rapid-fire weapon of his own. He was bulky, huge. He had a minigun in his arms and began bulletting Skulvia as fast as he could. Soon there was blood leaking all over the guard creature. She fell onto her back, limp.

The assassin laughed as the creature fell. He gasped though as he saw his companion laying on the ground, dead. He inspected his partner's body and gave a slight look of sadness. But then Skulvia's body began to twitch. She sprang up again onto her legs, screaming loudly. The assassin gave out a loud shout.

"YOUR BLOOD IS MINE INTRUDER" she shouted. Skulvia then swung her arm around as strange disks came from her skin and shot into the assassin's abdomen. They were some sort of throwing star with razor edges.

Then Skulvia's gaping maw opened again. This time an inferno of flames shot from her mouth and twisted all over the assassin. He screamed as his body fell... dead. She hissed and without another word shot into the wall, making a huge hole in the drywall as she did so.

Celo watched in shock as the person, followed by te creature from earlier, ran past. She watched in shock a the would-be assassin was killed. "I..." She began, startled. She then witnessed the rest of the scene and watched another person die. "I...." Tears were soon in her eyes. "They could have at least... Just captured them... And..." This SO wasn't like a horror film. She just laughs at those deaths. This was REAL. And the deaths frightened Celo. "I- they're...." She turned away, feeling sick in her stomach.

There was a painfully loud crack in the walls. What seemed like hundreds of holes and crevices formed and about twenty creatures crawled out. They were each about the size of a ten-year-old child and crawled on their claws and toes. They were hairless and gray and had tiny black eyes that seemed almost blind. Their mouths were full of enormous teeth, long tails dragged behind them. Their skin though seemed black as it was covered in the oily sludge from within the walls. They began to grab the bodies and blow the fire off. They dragged whatever remained and pulled them apart, blood spilling everywhere. They then began to pull the pieces into the walls where they'd soon be devoured by the building. There was a loud boom in the plumbing within the walls as the last of it all disappeared.

Someone else was walking down the halls. It was a guard, wearing only limited armor. He stopped as he saw the puddles of blood on the ground and then he turned to see the group standing by the window. He knew Vipera was probably used to it, recognizing her. But he could tell Celo wasn't.

"Please pardon the little scene here. It happens all the time. We'll have this cleaned up in a moment" the guard said. He called for a cleaning party on a communication device on his wrist. "If you're new to the building, you should get used to seeing things like that. Watch a few scary moves. Read some horror books. Numb yourself to it."

This wasn't right. Celo watched in horror as creatures took the remains of the bodies. Her eyes slowly turned from the blood to the guard that had just approached. Watch horror movies and read horror books? She already did thatall the time! This was real life though- some people just got killed. People who had futures. Celo's eyesight was blurred from tears that were threatening to emerge. Instead, she closed her eyes and turned to smile at theguard. "Thank you- I'll take that advice to mind. Have a lovely day."

Nodding at Vipera and Prussian, Celo added, "It was nice to meet you, too. I-I'm gonna go now. See ya." She turned around and began walking away from theblood. She had to getout of the areabeforepeople saw hercry. Don't cry in public. It makes people feelpity.

Prussian's poker face turned into a frown when he realized what was happening.

There really were assassins out there. He was going to jump into action, but he saw the thing crawl out of the walls. Prussian looked away; he knew what was coming. He heard the screams.

Prussian wasn't exactly a stranger to seeing people die. He saw it happen in Sporum City, during one of the occasional spam attacks. But, he thought, it's the thing that moderators need to do. He was as squeamish as Celo back then. He later saw it happen many times more after he first left Roleplex, during his journey to and while he was at Redditland. Some moderators, he realized, are more ban-happy than others. He had seen people killed a lot, but nothing could desensitize him to it.

Prussian looked back just in time to see the burnt corpse of the would-be assassin. He saw Celo leave, obviously sickened by what had just happened. He, too, felt sick, but he tried not to show it.

Prussian wondered about the man's life, and what led up to this.
No, it's best not to think about it. I've lost enough hours of sleep to this already. However, he was going to think about it anyway.

Half-traumatized, he looked at Vipera.
"This... This isn't supposed to happen. Not in Roleplex. When and how did this start happening?"

When Celo and Vipera had entered, Richard had saluted and made his way down the hall, out of the way of the conversation. He heard commotion and ran to the scene with his sword drawn. But by the time he got there, the battle was over and all that remained was a puddle of blood. He heard the guard say that he'd clean it up, and sheathed his sword, continuing down the dark hall. He felt rather...odd, however; it was that eerie feeling you get when you know that you're being watched. He held his gun in his left hand just in case there was an attacker, and got out of the building as fast as he could. He figured that the odd sensation was just one of President Shade's guards spying on him, and the place in general gave him the creeps. He left the building at a brisk walking pace and mounted his horse, riding off towards the castle. As he rode, he thought that he saw a shimmer in the corner of his eye, and the echoes of an eerie laugh, but he was sure that it was nothing.

Spoiler:

He took down a dark alley at a trot, gun still in his left hand. Criminals across the city knew not to mess with Hussars, and so riding like this was relatively safe. Plus horses were a bit cumbersome when on the road, and Richard had seen many a car accident caused by Hussar horses galloping in the streets. Yet Richard still felt that creeping feeling running up his spine. He urged his horse to gallop faster. He'd be safe when he got to Toronia. He turned left down another alley and was riding around the back of the city hall. He heard the laugh again and shivered. His horse was now at a dead trot, but Richard still didn't feel safe. The end of the alley was about 50 yards away. He was so close to escaping. The last thing he ever did is look up.

Screams echoed from the alley. The horse reared up on its hind legs and cried out fearfully. It took off galloping down the street and came out onto the sidewalk, bulldozing a few pedestrians. Richard laid on the ground, a slow pool of his own blood spreading around him from a stab wound that went straight through his heart. He tried to lift his head, but was unable too. He turned his head to the right and looked up at the face of his attacker. He screamed in fear, and then died. The last thing he ever heard was that maniacal cackling, as if the whole world were a joke and only the owner of that laugh could hear the punchline. Yusuf smiled under his mask as the man died, and he laughed all the more. He grabbed Richard by his hair and, using the same bloody knife as he had used to end the man, sliced off his head. Blood flowed from the head like a faucet as Yusuf walked over to a wrought iron gate closing off a section of alley and affixed the head to one of the spikes at the top. With that, he vanished into thin air, the wicked cackling following him as he scaled the side of a fire escape and arrived back on the rooftops.

"Well, actually, when I left Roleplex, I went to places stranger and bigger than this. I... I saw more death than I ever expected to see," said Prussian. He then paused, as if he were wondering what to say next. "It's just that... I never expected to see it in Roleplex."

But Vipera's exclamation didn't add up to him. Maybe it's valid, he thought, but why assassinate Darkel Shade, the founder of Roleplex? You live there, Mr. Assassin. He gave you a home. What gives? Oh, yeah, attention seeking. Right. Nothing good ever comes from that, Mr. Assassin.

However, maybe Vipera had a point. Roleplex was not bigger than ever, full of new, weird and wonderful people of all kinds, shapes and sizes. After all, you're more likely to find an anarchist in a sample of 1,000 than in a sample of 10. Prussian realized that he was staring at the man's corpse again. He pulled himself away.

Shh, no need to be upset, only dreams now, he thought.

"Hmm... Yeah, I think I got it," Prussian said, happy to have something other than the assassin lingering in his thoughts. Let's see... Yes, it's still on that street, unless they renamed it. I doubt it.

"Okay," Prussian started, "I'll meet you there. But, I have a few things to do first. Let's meet in... Say, two hours, on the dot." He started walking away, then waved at Vipera. "See you then!" Prussian began to retrace his steps back to main street. Okay. Walk for three blocks, make a left, memory should take over, and there's my house.

Prussian eventually reached his newly-cut lawn (it was hideously overgrown when he had first returned). His house was a larger, but still fairly modest, house. He stepped on his doorstep, removed his key from his pocket, unlocked the door, and shut it behind him. He didn't really know what he was to do from here.

Peruse his fossils?

Study his maps of the Internet?

Study weapons?

Learn about the history of rolelex ever since he left?

Prussian paused, as if it suddenly hit him. Yes, he thought. That's exactly what I'll do.

The internet search for the history of Roleplex ended abruptly when he visited wikipedia and started searching for information on fossils and weapons. Procrastination was always the enemy. In hindsight, the assassin's problem was less worrying; it was the death that he saw that disturbed him.

So, the two hours flew by, and during the time, he  was researching and tidying up his desk. He was surprised when he looked at the clock, Not really paying attention to the time.

Wow, two hours already... And I haven't learned anything. He sighed, disappointed with himself. Unconsciously, he reached for his knife, when he stopped himself. No, Dum-dum, this is Roleplex, not Redditland. You're not getting trolled today.

Prussian hesitated, then put the knife in his pocket anyway. You could never be too careful. The handle of the knife was hidden by his cloak, so Vipera wouldn't notice it. I'm not gonna use it, he thought.  This isn't one of the dark corners of the internet, inhabited only by trolls. I'll be okay. He felt a little odd wearing his coat to Vipera's house, but he was just so used to it.

He drove his car to Vipera's mansion, obviously not encountering trolls along the way. Of course. Prussian, you're a complete and utter genious. You KNEW that you'd need to use this knife, he thought to himself sarcastically. He left his car, but forgot to remove his knife.

He didn't realize his mistake until after knocking on Vipera's door. It's okay, he reminded himself. It's hidden by the cloak, and I can hide it under my shirt. It's okay, Even if Vipera finds it, I'll tell her the truth and everything will be fine and dandy.