Chapter 403: Pride

Surrounded by his own people, sitting with Blake and Haley and Lexi—and after a drink or two that probably did more for his brain than his body—Mason found he was almost...comfortable.

"And then we were locked out, so..." Blake laughed as he remembered his own story, Haley smiling, Lexi leaning forward as if enthralled. "Mason climbed up to the balcony, which was two stories. He was drunk, freezing, ice everywhere. And then the balcony was locked, too."

"Oh my God." Lexi laughed and glanced at Mason, who did his best to sip his drink and look disengaged.

"So there we are. It's snowing," Blake went on. "We're drunk. We're locked out. It's three hours past our curfew."

"We only had a curfew because you stole their car," Mason said.

"Not important to the story," Blake said. "And please don't interrupt. Now Mason is pretty much trapped on the balcony, because when he looks down he realizes how high he is, and there's no way he's coming back."

Lexi was laughing and staring at Mason now, who hid his own grin beneath a mostly fake glower.

"So he's telling me to come up," Blake says, still laughing. "Because somehow in his drunk mind it's better if we're both trapped on the balcony."

"The barbecue had a tarp," Mason said. "We were going to sleep there and share body heat."

Blake gestured as if to say 'you see? this was the insanity I was dealing with'.

"So what did you do?" Lexi said. Blake pulled back as if it was obvious.

"I woke up our parents and lied my ass off. They grounded me for an extra two weeks, which I got out of anyway. And after letting Mason suffer in the cold an hour or so, I snuck over and let him in. He got away scot-free."

"I can't believe that's how you remember that story," Mason said. Blake quirked a brow and said nothing, and Mason rolled his eyes. "This idiot woke me up in the middle of the night and convinced me to go to some girl's party, which we never found. Then he convinced me to get drunk in a parking lot. Then he realized he hadn't taken his keys. And since I was still wearing my damn sweat pants, I didn't have any. So we froze our asses off for no reason, and I'm pretty sure the next day I flunked a test."

"The lack of personal accountability is astounding," Blake said, shaking his head as he looked at the still-smiling girls. "You'd think I put a gun to his head. And kept him from studying for the two weeks before that night."

"Well I was an excellent student," Lexi said, sitting up straighter. "And I didn't go out to random boy's parties in the night, either. You were very naughty boys."

"Some of us are still naughty boys," Blake said, wiggling his eyebrows as he leaned towards Lexi. The Brit laughed and glanced at Mason again.

"I can see why he's a bit of trouble."

"He's more than a bit," Mason confirmed, nudging Haley. "I can't help but notice a certain Canadian isn't telling any drunken war stories."

She smiled, but Mason knew her well enough to know it was mostly a mask.

"I didn't have much time for such things. I was always with my father, singing, playing. He was a musician and we didn't have much money. Every penny went to my school, so, I took it very seriously."

Mason was reminded how lucky he'd been with the Nimitzs. And certainly how ungrateful. That his aimlessness and struggle to fit in still involved a life of wealth mostly free of real worries.

"Well. Now I feel like a shit," Blake said, because of course he did. "But if you need to make up for any lost drunken, hedonistic experiences, I would be more than happy to..."

Blake met Mason's eyes and stopped with a nervous laugh. Haley smiled and put a hand to her stomach.

"I think that time is past for now. At least the drunken part."

Mason squeezed her hand, feeling the urge to take his girls back to the hotel room right now and to hell with the 'Meet and Greet'. But he knew they had things to do here. If there was a chance to recruit whatever other western players existed, he definitely had to take it.

Seul-ki and Annie had hardly said a word, but they both seemed comfortable to just listen and eat. The table 'ordered' themselves some food, Lexi getting them all a big plate of oysters with a devious laugh as Haley shook her head.

"I'll remember that tonight," she said with a wink at Mason. "When she starts to beg for mercy."

Lexi just grinned and swallowed one back, and for a moment Mason forget where he was.

"We should probably go and socialize," Haley said, looking around. "I kind of expected something more...official. Some kind of announcement, or, I don't know."

"Oh I'm supposed to be making you angry," Blake said. "I kind of forgot. It's nice to just sit and relax."

Mason nodded, glad for the relaxing evening with some of the girls and with his brother, the closest he'd felt to 'normal' in a long time. It made him expect some kind of terrible fight or suffering in a few minutes.

And sure as hell, the robotic voice of the system soon quieted everything else in perfect surround sound.

[Good evening players and civilians. We hope you're satisfied with your experience in the Neutral Zone. Please enjoy the formal entertainment. Currently awarded point prizes and civilian trade awards will also be handed out shortly. Though you may reserve them until the end of the tournament.]

[Additional news: From this point forward, all tournament matches will be elimination rounds. A single loss ends your progress in every category. And no further points will be scored. But please, relax and rejuvenate. No further matches will be held for: 10 hours. As always, we are rooting for you.]

Before Mason or anyone else could consider that, the air itself seemed to get warmer and fill with a kind of mist. The techno-like beat overcame the softer, classical music. Hologram-like humans and animals were shown in various displays, dancing or just running along the walls, or on rising platforms.

People were laughing and standing, holding up their arms as different tables looked...rained on.

Rosa caught Mason's eye from her table and gestured him over. He excused himself and went to her, nodding to the few Sanctuary girls she was sitting with.

"There's a drug in the air," she said. "Can't identify it exactly without my kit, but it's definitely a kind of party drug. It won’t affect me. But I think it's going to get wild in here."

Mason sighed, his paranoia flaring. He was tempted to take his people and get the hell out. But if the system wanted to hurt them it didn't have to be clever about it.

It was probably just trying to turn the place into a giant orgiastic rave. And it likely wouldn't affect him, because if it actually dosed them enough to do that it would leave everyone else comatose.

"Alright," he said. "Becky should be fine, too. Look after the civilians, OK? I don't want any...problems."

Rosa nodded, her class protecting her even from Mason’s Blessing of Gaia unless she turned it off.

"There's some more tournament information on my civilian access," Haley said when he got back to the table, her eyes glazed. "Apparently you can usually defer House battles until the end of the tournament. So you can knock out most everyone else before you have to fight your players."

Mason felt a huge weight drop off his chest. He was actually a bit surprised roboGod permitted something so downright...helpful. It reinforced the importance of 'Houses', which led Mason to the realization: Blake wasn't actually part of his house.

What about the easterners? Were they all part of the Emperor’s house? Or were there several? Haley might know. But he did see several banners around, so he was guessing there were.

Should he recruit Blake right now? He turned to explain the situation and do just that when he noticed a small crowd of red-robed 'imperial' players had apparently walked straight into his House's cluster of tables.

The emperor himself stood not six feet away, face curled with a small smile as he watched Mason and the others.

"I came to congratulate your tournament point winners," he said, then shrugged. "But it seems...you don't have any."

Mason refrained from rolling his eyes as he stood.

"What do you want?"

The older Chinese lapdog beside the emperor narrowed his eyes as if offended and ready to intervene, but Jeong held up a hand.

"I've enjoyed watching your matches, Baron. But I can't help but notice you're fighting them alone. Was your partner injured? Killed?"

Mason's players were gathering up behind him now, and it all would have felt very dangerous if they weren't in this 'Neutral Zone'. He shrugged.

"I don't need a partner to beat your people."

Jeong smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes.

"Pride is the very worst of sins. In the Christian religion, is it not even considered...demonic?"

"Remind me," Mason said, "what titles did you make for yourself again?"

Jeong laughed. It was a sudden, almost violent sound, ending as quickly as it began.

"Very good," he said, gesturing to the others he was finished. "I'm sure I will see you on the battlefield soon, Baron. But hopefully not before I defeat your pitiful number of players."

"Maybe we'll be lucky," Mason said as the emperor turned. "With our alien overlord, you never know. Maybe it'll let us make challenges. Then we can sort it out right away."

"We can only hope," Jeong said, with no enthusiasm, then walked back towards his own, much larger area of the auditorium.

"What a wanker," Seamus said. "But if it's all the same to you boss, I hope you fight him before I do."

Mason sighed as he watched more and more of the system's drugs pouring over tables, turning civilians into a laughing, whooping mob.

He supposed it was a kind of perfect dichotomy, or duality again. The false, opulent, faux hospitality of the Neutral Zone—the barest veneer covering the reality of opposing warriors waiting to kill each other.

Civilization in a nutshell, he thought, hating the facade as he always had, whether here or back on earth.

He turned to tell his players the good news about House 'deferments', and hopefully recruit Blake.