Exharks #6 - Saliloquies

The Sky Shark had been parked a few miles away from yet another city, hovering over a blue grassland dotted with purple and yellow leafed shrubs and sparse clumps of trees. To the east, past the sharp divide of another World Shard border, a city made of large gray domes, lined with elaborate patterns of windows, served as their current sojourn settlement.

The city was largely inhabited by a race of diminutive, yellow-skinned humanoids with large silvery eyes and four fingers, known as the Lorn. In their native world of Galea, the Lorn were technologically advanced subterraneans, living in hollowed out mountains and cave systems they’d reinforced into mighty techno-fortress cities. Basically, they were just dwarves that happened to look like mole-people aliens. Them building dome cities as they colonized other World Shards was a sensible enough progression of their original living conditions.

The other main inhabitants of the domes were the Bioroids, also from Galea. These living robots had synthetic parts that replicated organic systems. The first truly living machines were just coming online in the original Galea story, but presumably a few generations had passed since that era, so they had managed to propagate themselves thoroughly, at least until they ended up in the Frontier.

The dome city wasn’t exactly welcoming to outsiders, however. The larger domes were completely locked off to foreigners. The Lorn had always been rather isolationist beyond the raw necessity of needing to trade for resources, and even the Bioroids were only welcome in the dome city because the first of them had been created by Lorn roboticists. In the Frontier, of course, trade to maintain their energy needs and the inability to simply ignore the realities of thousands of civilizations co-existing on a single plane meant even the Lorn had to be somewhat amenable to foreign traffic. As such, a few smaller, outlier dome towns branched off the large domes, and a few of these were treated as outposts for travelers to be begrudgingly allowed in.

There was even a Drifter office and a Diviner Guild station in one of the domes. Still, the Lorn and the Bioroids had done a lot of work suppressing any immediate hostiles in their area, while their technological capabilities kept a handle on almost anything a Drifter might otherwise be called to do.

For now, though, it was as good a place as any to park and regroup, as even the outskirts of the dome city’s territory was kept clear of natural predators and potential raiders. The Sky Shark currently hovered in the air a few miles from the dome town that held the Drifter office, staying on the edge of the other World Shard so as not to impede any other air traffic. Sustra, Dogoro, and the Weaponeer had all gone there to see if there was any work to be found, and to restock some essentials.

Sharker and Bobbi, meanwhile, were taking a rough inventory of, well, Bobbi’s inventory. Between selling her gems, burning through her potions, and wearing out some of her equipment, her personal resources were getting quite thin.

Meanwhile, it was quite apparent Sharkerbob himself really had nothing to fall back on besides his Relic ship. While the Sky Shark was certainly a massive boon for basic living and transport, it was not exactly equipped to help him in dangerous situations. Likewise, while he could think of a few ways he might be able to make money with it, mainly by way of transporting goods or even passengers, his lack of familiarity with surviving and traversing the Frontier, and his reluctance to use his home base as a cargo vessel or air bus put a damper on that plan. Plus, he wasn’t exactly eager to go back to being a working stiff.

For now, his Relics sustained him well enough he didn’t really need to work for basic survival. But resting on his laurels would be a good way to find himself screwed if things went sideways down the road. If the Relics ever stopped working for some reason, if the Sky Shark was destroyed in an accident or an attack, or even just stolen, if he ever found himself being hunted down by superhuman mercenaries and had to ditch it, Sharkerbob knew he couldn’t be completely dependent on the vessel forever. And he also knew his current alliance with the Drifters probably wouldn’t last, either. He was still a little surprised the Weaponeer, Sustra, and Dogoro actually wanted to stick with him as it was.

He supposed he at least had Bobbi, but in truth, there was no telling how long their little alliance would last, either. Even as a “half-sister Avatar” of their Author and sharing a connection to the Sky Shark, she wasn’t exactly bound to stick by him forever.

“Hmmm,” said Bobbi, mulling over the small mess of supplies she’d unceremoniously dumped on the floor. “I’m definitely going to have to start replacing stuff soon.” She held up the diamond pickaxe. Visible scuffs and cracks were already formed along the spikes.

“Did you really have to give away so many gems before?” said Sharker, coming over to sit across from her. He picked up a diamond axe, noting the chips along the blade.

“I really wasn’t sure what I could get for them,” she said. She shrugged. “And anyway, it’s not like I can just Craft with them anymore.” She motioned to the crude semblance of a square workbench in the corner, an attempt to reconfigure what few wooden planks she had left into Minecraft’s Crafting Table. In the game, one could make the basic tools by placing two sticks and three compatible materials in a specific formation, and the Table would pop out the tool needed, consuming the items placed on in.

But it seemed that, aside from her Inventory and Respawn abilities, none of the physics of Minecraft carried through with Bobbi’s incarnation. The items looked like regular items, and functioned like them as well. Her wooden planks had come out like actual planks of wood, instead of big cubes of wooden bricks. She’d still had a stack of cobblestone, and when she’d withdrawn it, the whole thing had collapsed into a big mound of small rocks that she’d had to suck back into her inventory handfuls at a time.

The enhanced breaking power of the tools seemed to mostly come from the lingering enchantments placed on them within the game, which Bobbi had no way of replicating. She didn’t have any materials to attempt making more potions in the game’s style, and she had the feeling that such simplified chemistry probably wouldn’t even work in the Frontier. Unless there was a World Shard that specifically resembled a Minecraft world, physics and all, it was clear she was going to have to leave the whole “Miner and Crafter Extraordinaire” title behind, and start learning more practical skills, designed to work in more complex settings.

Sharker let out a ponderous breath as he set the chipped equipment down. “Well, there’s probably no end of Relic equipment to be found in the Frontier, so replacing your tools might be easy enough. And at least some of the World Shards will have various alchemy and potion making techniques, if you’re still wanting to lean into that. Otherwise, there’s all sorts of magic disciplines to be learned.”

“I guess so,” she said. She cocked an eyebrow at him. “What about you? Regeneration’s a neat trick, but I can’t imagine it’s going to save you in every circumstance.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to have to at least learn some Magic myself. Just not sure where to even start with that yet. For one thing, some power systems don’t function properly, or at all, outside of their World Shard.” He glanced at the window to the dome city. “In SalQuest, I was able to use Galean combat magic, which is supposed to be so simple, anybody can learn it. But I tried practicing some of that while I was camped out near Brixity and it didn’t work. I don’t know if that means it doesn’t work at all outside of the Galea World Shard, or if it just requires a certain elemental physics to function that not every Shard has.”

“Well, we do room with two magicians, you know,” she said. “We could just ask them.”

“I didn’t want to impose while Sustra’s still recovering.”

Bobbi shrugged. “She’s well enough to go out and about, you could bring it up pretty soon, I’d think.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Meanwhile, maybe we could learn some martial arts from Jen?”

Sharker let out a small scoff. “Jen barely actually learned it herself. Most of her combat skill is her attuning to her powers and running on supernatural instinct.”

“Huh. Neat? Doesn’t help us much, though.”

“I mean, I’m sure she’s picked up stuff just through osmosis, but she’s not really the teacher type.”

“Sustra again?”

“I guess so.” Sharker leaned back and gestured at the junk. “So, is this really it? You don’t have any secret weapons stashed?”

“Like I’d tell you if I did,” said Bobbi with a smirk. “But no, this is all of it. One heal potion, some ignots, some wood, a chain, a bucket, some rocks, and my tools, which as you can see, aren’t long for this world. I guess I can try to repair them in some normal fashion, but I get the feeling diamond isn’t actually supposed to be used in this way.”

“Not really, no. There’re diamond-tipped tools for fine-tune cutting and stuff, but you’d never see an actual diamond pick-axe in use.”

Bobbi pouted for a moment in thought, then clapped her hands together. “Okay, then! Let’s figure out where we can gear up!”

“We’re both out of credits, and I don’t exactly have an internet-accessible computer in here to look up alternatives,” said Sharkerbob. “We’ll just have to wait for the others to get back, and hopefully they can point us in the right direction.” His expression soured a bit as he was once again faced with the stark reality of how useless he was.

“Oh. Right.” Bobbi propped her chin on her fist and let out a bored breath, drumming her fingers on her knee. She glanced Sharker over and noticed his rapidly dimming mood. “Hey. You wanna fuck to pass the time?”

Sharker blinked, then blanched. “That isn’t funny.”

“I’m only joking if you say no. If you say yes, then I’m totally serious.”

“Aren’t you the one who told me not to get any funny ideas about anything?”

She smirked. “You’re a young man bottled up in a small ship with three hot honeys and almost zero privacy. You can’t tell me the thought didn’t cross your mind.”

“Obviously the thought has crossed my mind,” admitted Sharker. “Turns out I do still have a pulse. But to start with, I’m not actually young, and your age is too nebulous to be messing around, regardless of any other considerations. For second, considering we’re both directly descended from the Author, it’d probably count towards some kind of fucked up incest situation. For third, you already know it’s off the table, so you’re just saying it to be shocking for the sake of it, and that kind of humor stopped being funny to me after college, which was quite a few years ago.”

She rolled her eyes. “I do actually have a sex drive of my own, you know! I got needs, too!”

“Well, you’re not sating them with me. And I would highly advise you not to go running around soliciting strangers.”

“Fine. I’ll find some Relic dildo to have my fun with.”

“You do that.”

“What about you? How are you going to sate it?”

“I don’t know, and right now, I don’t care, and neither should you.”

“Could ask Sustra for a fluffy freak time to pay off her rescue debt.”

Sharker scowled. “Knock it off.”

“Now Jen, you’d probably have to pay her for it, but she seems like she’d be fun in the saAACK!!!” Bobbi’s sass was cut off as Sharker sprang to his feet, grabbed her by the collar, and yanked her up to get right in her face. Her eyes widened in surprise as he glared down at her.

“Bobbi. I am going to say this once. Stop it with the smut talk. This isn’t that kind of series, and I am not interested in opening that door.”

His grip on her wasn’t actually that forceful. She could have easily shoved him off her. Instead, she put her hands up in surrender. “Alright, jeez! Uncle! Er… Cousin? Whatever we are.” He let her go and stepped back as she settled onto her feet. “Sheesh, didn’t realize that was such a raw nerve.”

“Yes, you did, which is why you brought it up.” Bobbi opened her mouth to protest, but Sharker cut her off. “I get that your little character archetype is a sassy teenager who thinks the height of comedy is yelling when stressed and pushing people’s buttons. You’ve got that adolescent mindset where you’re cognizant that other people have feelings, but you’re still primarily concerned with just your own. So, when you see other people are uncomfortable, you poke the bear, because seeing them jump and flip out makes you giggle, and that’s more important to you in the moment than the fact you’re inflicting actual pain on the other person. We can debate what your literal age is till we’re blue in the face, but from a maturity standpoint, you’re barely a High Schooler as far as I can see.”

Bobbi pouted angrily, flushing a bit. “Least I’m not some stuffy old fart who can’t unclench his asshole enough to appreciate the fantasy world he landed in!”

Sharker sighed and pinched his nose. “Bobbi. What did I just say? If you really did inherit some of the Author’s memories, you should fucking know where my head is at with this whole situation, which means you know exactly what you’re doing when you say shit that gets under my skin!”

“Right, because this whole series is just about your feelings, and your needs, because you’re the fucking Author’s exposure therapy experiment, and we’re all just your little play puppets you dance around to help you feel better about yourself!” Bobbi outright sneered at him. “Okay, sure, I run my mouth, that’s my own defense mechanism, and maybe I do it too much, or at the wrong time. Fine. I can try to be better about that. But you’re a little fuckin’ stress-generator, too, you know!”

Sharker frowned, but let her go off.

“You’ve just got your hackles up, like, all the damn time, even despite us all being here to help you out! I get the Frontier is a dangerous place, but it’s more than that! It’s like… like when you look at us, you still aren’t seeing us as people, you’re seeing… I don’t know what you’re seeing! Like we’re a bunch of homonculuses wearing your characters’ skins!”

“Homonculi,” said Sharker.

Bobbi threw up her hands. “Whatever! The point is, you’re so wrapped up in your own bullshit, you don’t even see us! You look at us we’re just NPCs for you to make use of or blow off as you see fit! For fuck’s sake, you just called me an archetype! I’m not a fucking archetype! I don’t care if we are just characters being written into a story right now, I’m a person living here, just like you!”

Sharker frowned deeply, taking a moment to let her breathe and collect his own thoughts. “Sorry,” was all he could come up with.

She glowered at him. “Just sorry?”

He took another moment to parse his next words. “You’re not wrong. I’m a very self-absorbed person, and I’m the type to get hung up for days when something upsets me. I try not to be, but I’ve led a pretty lonesome life, so it’s kind of inevitable when you’re your own primary company for the majority of your existence. Doesn’t help I’m naturally inclined to melancholy.” He gestured to the two of them. “If I wasn’t, we wouldn’t even exist, much less be standing here having this conversation. I’m not trying to say this as an excuse, or for pity, just explaining where I’m coming from.”

He gestured to the Sky Shark around them. “Since coming here, I still really haven’t had time to just settle in. As soon as I entered the first town, it was just bang-bang-bang running into one new chara—er—one new person after another, and getting wrapped up in a monster hunt rescue mission, and all I can do to help is just sit there and let you guys use my ship.

“And now we’re having some down time, sure, but my head’s still a jumble of stress. I still don’t know what to do with myself from here. I’m so completely out of my depth to even try to be an adventurer. But even if all I do is be a taxi service for your Drifter team, well, you ask why I keep giving you all the side eye, it’s for two reasons. One—”

“Man, you’re long winded. You really love the sound of your own voice, don’t you?”

“Yes, actually. One, this group we’ve assembled is just a slightly altered version of what was going to be my adventure party in SalQuest. And with what an absolute catastrophe that whole project turned out to be for me, it’s just… I dunno, like it’s not their fault, but it’s kind of just of… hard to look past, you know? I was in a really low point when I was trying to work on that story. And maybe it’s just paranoia, but I hope reconstructing part of that team isn’t going to be some kind of omen, for lack of a better phrase, of interesting times to come.”

“I wasn’t part of SalQuest.”

“No, you were the next project after it, and at the time, I really thought you had helped me to start breaking out of the self-deprecating meta fic trend I’d gotten stuck in. Like, sure, you were technically forked off from me, but you were your own character going on her own arc. It was surprisingly refreshing. But in the end, I never finished your story, and I fell back into SalQuest by trying to do the Imaginator rewrite, so, and don’t take this personally, you ended up being a temporary respite at best. Or in other words, another failure.”

“Damn, dude.”

“I know. I’m sorry to project that onto all of you. I know the whole point of this new journey is to get past all of that. So, it’s my fumble, and I’m sorry if it’s been making me act rude or cold or otherwise stand-offish.”

Bobbi pouted in thought for a moment, but then nodded. “Alright. I can see where you’re coming from with all that. Sorry if my needling has made it worse.”

“Sorry I half-strangled you just now.”

She waved him off dismissively. “Pffft, please, I let you have that one. I’m the girl here, but you hit like a girl.”

Sharker pursed his lips and made an acquiescent shrug. “Whatever you say, kid.”

Bobbi paused, then said, “Hey, what was reason two?”

“Reason two?”

Bobbi smirked and held up two fingers. “You said there were two reasons, then you took so long explaining the first one, you forgot to say the other.”

“Oh. Right. Reason two I’ve been so squirrely with you all around is that I’m just not used to having roommates.”

Bobbi blinked. “Really? Just that?”

“Sure. Apartments or my own room in a house, I’m used to just having my own space, and my own peace and quiet. I haven’t had to fully share a living space since college. Now I suddenly have four weirdos cohabitating.” He gestured to the area around them again. “The toilet and shower space aside, there’s not really any closed off sections in here to get some privacy. I mean, there’s the little garden balcony, but that’s not really a good sit-down space, and it’s in front of a bunch of windows.”

Bobbi pointed down the short hallway. “We did curtain off the sleeping quarters.”

“It’s just a curtain, and it’s still one joint sleeping space. Otherwise, the rest of the ship is an open-floor plan.”

Bobbi grinned. “And, to bring the conversation full circle, I will repeat that you’re a young guy, in body if not in spirit, sharing that open space with three hot honeys.”

Sharker sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Bobbi, I swear to fucking god, I will actually throw you off the ship.”

She chuckled and help up her hands defensively. “Yeah, good luck with that! Seriously, though, I remember some of what it’s like being a boy. I gotta imagine it isn’t helping.”

“At least say it's two hot honeys.”

“Oh, right, you’re not a furry. But I dunno, Sustra’s kinda cute for a—”

“You know what I meant, you obnoxious child!”

Bobbi laughed and put her hands up again. “Yeah, yeah, alright! Look, inappropriate jokes aside, maybe taking a load off might help you get some chill back. The others are out right now, so—”

He held up a finger in warning. “Don’t you fucking say it.”

“—so, I can go for a walk if you want some you-time.”

Sharker turned and stalked towards the garden section, which was the only place in the ship with a door he could slam. “This conversation is over!” he said as he resolutely decided to busy himself with harvesting some more speed-grown potatoes.

Bobbi sighed, half in amusement, but half in a bit of guilt. She probably shouldn’t have needled him again at the end there, but she didn’t know how else to get him out of a funk. Oh, well. He’d come back inside in a bit, and she’d crack a less-crass joke, and maybe they’d both laugh it off.

“You really think I’m cute?” came a soft voice from behind her. Bobbi froze up as the hair stood up on her neck, then slowly turned around.

Sustra and Dogoro were standing next to the Sky Shark’s entrance pad, Sustra in her iconic red suit and half-cape, Dogoro perched on her head as usual.

Bobbi swallowed hard. “How long have you two been standing there?”

“We came in as Sharker was promising to evict you from this vessel in an airborn trajectory,” gruffed Dogoro. “I would not complain.”

Bobbi stuck her tongue out at the old hat. “Whatever, ya big windsock!” She noticed Sustra passively gazing at her from beneath the hat’s brim. She blushed slightly. “Uh, I mean, I was just saying that to wind him up, I wasn’t, like, trying to imply anything.”

Sustra tilted her head to the side a bit. “So, I’m not cute?”

Bobbi sighed in exasperation. “You’re cute like a stuffed animal is cute! Uh, no offense.”

Sustra rubbed her chin and looked up in thought. “Hmmm. I suppose I am an animal.” Her gaze focused on Dogoro’s underbrim. “What do you think?”

Dogoro scoffed. “You’re not my type!”

“I didn’t gather as such,” said Sustra. She looked out to Sharkerbob. “Were you trying to arrange something between him and I?”

“HEY!” said Bobbi, clapping her hands in mock-excitement and putting on a forced-cheery smile. “That looks like a new sword on your hip! And a gun!”

Sustra flicked her gaze back to her, and a flicker of amusement touched her lips, before she dutifully acquiesced to the change of subject.

“My armaments were lost in the fight with the vampire, so I had to replace them.” She drew the sword from its sheath, revealing a short sword of the jian style. As it caught the light, the blade revealed a pearlescent sheen. Then she drew her gun, a silvery pistol that looked almost like a cheap space-gun toy, but from the way she handled it that it had some heft. “Not the equipment I’m used to, but I’ll manage.”

“Neat. How’s your magic power?”

“Recovering well.” Sustra holstered her new weapons. “I was drained so deep, my body needs to readjust to a healthy mana flow again. But I should be fine within a couple more days.”

“Gotcha,” said Bobbi. “So, I was wondering. Sharker and I could maybe stand to learn some magic ourselves. Anything you two could teach us?”

“Pah!” said Dogoro. “A magician? You?”

Bobbi frowned and put her hands on her hips. “I’ll have you know I’ve gotten pretty far along as an Artificer and Archmage in Minecraft! I know it’s not the same thing, but I’m not completely clueless!”

“Hrmph! There are some basic magics I could teach you, if you truly have the potential within. But understand that the Frontier is a realm of myriad realities where natural and supernatural physics are not consistent from Shard to Shard. Unless you are a particularly skilled or powerful magician, you may find your magic going awry if you step into the wrong World Shard unprepared.”

“Yeah, Sharker mentioned that.”

Sustra spoke up. “There are certain magics which operate on their own paradigm regardless of where you are. However, they are also bound by rather exacting rules of their own.”

“Okay! I can work with that! Hook me up with one of those!”

“I’m afraid I don’t know any,” she said. “I admit my magical talents are largely innate, and I’m a poor student of the craft. I know a middling variety of basic spells, and my demigod nature lets me brute force them into working where they otherwise wouldn’t. Mostly, I’ve relied on Relics.”

Dogoro dipped his stalk forward a bit in a nod. “Yes, she may not look it, but she’s much more fighter than wizard.”

“It’s true.”

Bobbi nodded along sagely. “Neat. So, uh, how about you, Hatman? You’re actually some kind of super wizard, right? Surely you could teach us some stuff!”

“I could, I suppose, drag some potential out of you.” He gruffed. “How much is it worth to ya?”

“Aw, come on, we’re all friends here, aren’t we?”

“There’s tolerated party members, and then there’s customers. And before learning how to toss a fireball, you need to learn how to haggle!”

“Alright, fine.” She popped a diamond pick axe and axe out of her inventory. “What will some barely-holding-together diamond tools and a giant pile of rocks get me?”

Dogoro let out a grumbling sigh. “Come back to me when you’ve got actual credits.”

“Money-grubber!”

“I’m not, but the reality of Drifter work is you don’t just sell services for free!”

Sustra, meanwhile, had already tuned herself out of the conversation. She tapped Dogoro. “Shall I leave you two to it?”

“Hrm? Oh. Sure.”

She pulled Dogoro off her and set him on Bobbi’s head, much to both of their annoyances, then headed to the garden balcony. Sharkerbob had already picked and planted some potatoes, loading them into the Stasis Chest he’d dragged out here for the garden supplies. Now, he was sitting on the short space between the balcony railing and the garden, staring at the horizon.

Sustra took a seat on the other side of the entrance and watched with him. Each World Shard’s sky replicated its native world, a consistent illusionary ceiling sustained by whatever cosmic forces made the Frontier work. Over time, this led to a lot of Shards being highly desynchronized in their day and night cycles, although whatever Shard one was in, it’s sky would dominate the overall illusion. To wit: although this World Shard of blue-grass fields appeared to be heading towards sunset, if they were to fly into the dome city’s Shard, it would be late morning in their sky.

Scheduling travel and business arrangements between Shards could be a minor headache trying to coordinate between all the altered time zones. One got used to it as a Drifter, but for newcomers, or people who hadn’t traveled much, it could be disorienting, not to mention cause repeated jetlag. Sharker supposed it was an easily overlooked benefit that his much reduced need for sleep helped him mitigate that last concern.

Sharker glanced over to Sustra as she settled in. “Hi.”

She glanced back. “Hello.”

They sat together for another minute of silence, before Sharker said, “What’s up?”

“Your little friend appears to be interested in getting you hooked up.”

Sharker sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again. “No, she was just trying to get under my skin. She’s a brat like that.”

“She’s abrasive about it, but I think she cares.”

“Maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t. Anyway, we had our little hash-out already, so you don’t need to play mediator.”

“Alright.”

Another minute of silence. Sharker glanced to her again. “Something else you need?”

“She also said the two of you were interested in learning magic. She’s negotiating with Dogoro right now, but if you’re interested, I can ask him to teach you a few things. Then you can say our debt is settled.”

“You’re not indebted to me.”

“I feel differently.”

He paused, parsing his next words. “Sustra, do you remember anything about SalQuest? As in, do you remember meeting another version of me somewhere?”

“I encountered Sharkerbob the Pants Warrior once, but I know that’s not you. Otherwise, no, Dogoro and I don’t remember encountering another version of Salvador Roberts, nor do we remember the version of the Frontier that Jennifer claims to come from.”

“Alright.”

“Why do you ask?”

“You were supposed to be one of my companions in that story.”

“Ah. Well. Is there something tragic about that which you worry might repeat?”

He gave a little sardonic grunt. “No. Not really. Thank god. The original plan, which I kept falling back into despite trying different angles on the story, was that I was going to find out that version of the Frontier was built using the remnants of Earth. Like, the actual Earth, the Author’s Earth. Me, thinking I was the Author himself, and that the destruction actually happened, was going to go on a genocide quest to destroy the Frontier to try and bring the Earth back, or avenge it if I couldn’t. The whole project was honestly just a really dark time of me grinding through my shitty feelings about myself.”

He shrugged. “I guess the whole blowing up the Earth was, aside from a way to maximize the amount of guilt I could put myself through, it was a metaphor for, I dunno, me letting my obsession over my stories ruin my ability to live in the real world, or some horse-hockey like that. Real brick-to-the-face symbolism.”

“I see.” Sustra remained passive as ever.

“You, uh, in some versions of the story, you help me do it.”

“I help you destroy the Frontier?”

“Yeah. The Frontier, or whatever version of the world I would have settled on. There were other models. But at some point, in the original plan, my whole companion team at the time was going to turn on me when I snapped and went doomsday mode. Everyone except two: you and Jennifer.

“Jennifer was going to stick with me, because the Frontier was everything she ever wanted. A world where she could endlessly chase the glory of the fight. And helping me literally fight the entire world was her personal heaven.”

Sustra nodded. “I can see that possibility.”

Sharker took another moment. “And you, well. I leaned in on your whole stolen destiny thing. The idea that you’re cursed with wanderlust, always seeking some grander purpose, because you got cheated out of your intended mission to save your own world.” He glanced to her. “Sorry about that, by the way. I didn’t come up with you until after the original game project was finished, and, well, as the GM, I wouldn’t have wanted you to hog screen time away from the players anyway. I created you for what was planned to be some side-stories spun off from the game project.”

“You’re forgiven.”

“Thanks. But anyway. SalQuest. You decided to stick with me because, as you put it, you’d been searching all this time for a new higher purpose, and what higher purpose than a mission from your Creator himself?”

“Mmm. So, I placed myself as your acolyte to compensate from my own loss. Hoping to save a ‘real’ world to make up for failing to save my own.”

“Yeah. SalQuest was all about failures and the varying ways people try to compensate for or mitigate them. Actually, that was a pretty persistent theme of my writing for years before I even realized it. SalQuest was that theme on steroids.”

“I see.”

“So, uh…”

“You’re wondering if I’m insisting on helping you because you’re worried I might be repeating your unrealized plans for our original team-up. That I might be latching onto you as a surrogate god to follow.”

“I guess that’s it, yeah.”

Sustra looked back to the horizon and let out a long, thoughtful exhalation. “I can see, in that circumstance, how I might fall into that line of thinking. It sounds as though SalQuest was a rather harrowing tale for all involved.” She looked back at him, giving him a once-over. “You do fascinate me a bit, I think. I am demigod once chosen by the Beast Gods, you are the avatar chosen by our Creator to experience his worlds directly. In both cases, our original missions have gone astray. Now, like me, you are adrift in our Creator’s dreams. I suppose in that sense, I find you more relatable than most others I have encountered.”

She looked to the horizon again. “I would like to accompany you for a bit longer, if you would have me. At the very least, I would like to help you get more firmly on your feet here. But I am glad we had this talk. It puts some things into perspective, and now I think I understand our standing better.”

Sharker watched her watch the sunset for a moment, then turned back to watch it himself. The blue of the grass and the sky shifted maroon as the sun lowered, impossibly, behind the endless horizon.

“You know, this is probably more dialogue from you than I’ve ever written across all your appearances.”

“I talk when there are things to say. Also, Dogoro isn’t here to speak for me right now.”

“Wonder what he would think about it all. He wasn’t going to join you in destroying the world.”

“No, I imagine he wouldn’t. That’s alright. It didn’t happen for us, either way.”

“Probably because I never got that far in the writing. That was way off from where I stopped.”

“Then it’s not something to worry about.”

“I suppose.”

The sun finally dipped fully, leaving only the stain of red on the horizon, and the built-in lights of the balcony, to illuminate the two.

Sustra glanced back through the Sky Shark’s windows to see how Bobbi and Dogoro were getting along. They hadn’t managed to kill each other yet. In fact, Dogoro was now sitting on Bobbi’s little workbench, while Bobbi herself seemed to be concentrating on doing some kind of spell-casting gesture.

Sharker followed her gaze. “Huh. Guess they can get along.”

Sustra glanced to Sharker. “This is part where Bobbi would want me to proposition you just to see how mad you get.”

Sharker scowled. “For the love of god, do not learn humor from her.”

“That seems wise.” Sustra stood, brushed herself off, and headed inside.

After taking one last glance at the horizon to compose himself, Sharker followed her inside. Dogoro floated up and plopped himself onto Sustra’s head. “Well, she’s got some potential, I must admit.”

“That’s good,” said Sustra, matter-of-factly.

“Told ya!” said Bobbi, hands on her hips, grinning. She glanced between Sharker and Sustra. “You two were out there for a bit, huh?”

Sharker held up a finger. “Not another word.”

Bobbi rolled her eyes, but before she could defy his orders, Jennifer suddenly appeared on the teleport platform. She grinned at the others. “So, y’all ready to head out?”

Sharker quirked an eyebrow at her. “Head out?”

“Yeah! On the mission!” She noticed Bobbi and Sharker’s clueless looks, and turned to Sustra. “You didn’t tell them yet?”

“Sorry,” said Sustra. “Other topics came up first.” She turned to the other two. “I found a high-paying mission from the Drifter Network that’s an open bounty. There are a set of unique Relics designed to work in concert together, but which have been scattered to various World Shards. If we can fetch at least one or a few of them, we can get part of the reward. If we can get all of them, there will be a special bonus.”

“And I got a lead on the first one!” said Jennifer. “So, let’s get crackin’!”

“Cool! We get some of the cut if we help, right?” said Bobbi.

“Docked my teacher’s fee, yes!” said Dogoro.

Bobbi nodded sagely. “That’s fair.”

“Leave them something please, Dogoro,” said Sutra.

“Bah, I wasn’t going to fleece the dumb girl,” said Dogoro. He nodded towards Sharker. “Now, our clueless captain on the other hand, I’ll be charging double!”

“Leave me enough to cover the gas fees,” Sharker muttered as he went to the helm.

“What gas fees?” said Dogoro.

“For all the hot-air you spew,” he said. Turning to Jennifer, he said, “Alright, what direction? And what are these Relics, anyway?”

“North-by-northwest for 345 miles,” said Jennifer. “We’re looking for a dragon’s lair where one was last rumored to be. And what we’re looking for are a set of magical medallions called the Elemental Keys.”

TO BE CONTINUED!