Interlude: Reaching Out

A/N:  So,  this is another short story from the POV of an NPC.  If you didn't  enjoy the perspective of Malkios, you might not enjoy this one either.   It is from the perspective of one of the 'villains' of the story, Storm  Teoran.

Like the previous interlude, I am undecided on whether or not this  chapter is actually canon.  It might go poof at some point.  Whether or  not the chapter itself is canon, it does contain some accurate  information and foreshadowing for the story itself.

Chronologically, this scene takes place somewhere between Hail's abduction by Auroras and the present.

Storm Teoran reached out, and  he stumbled, because there was nothing there. That was impossible. He  was part of Scenario forty-six, and he was reaching out to another part  of scenario forty-six. There must be an answer when he reached out.

He reached out again through the non-contextual communications channel, and once again he felt nothing. This was impossible.

He reached out again.

He stopped. He reached out to a different target. One that was not part of Scenario forty-six.

<<Greetings. I wish to arrange a contextual meeting between myself  and a representative of the assassin’s guild.>> Storm sent  patiently.

<<You  have an established contextual contact with the assassin’s guild. You  must go through them.>> the voice answered.

<<I cannot reach them. I must find a replacement.>>

<<You  have an established contextual contact with the assassin’s guild. You  must go through them. Manufacturing a new contextual contact would cost  the assassin’s guild and Scenario forty-six too many resources. Use  established contextual contact.>>

<<Can  you reach Silas Darkwood?>> Storm asked his non-contextual  contact. <<That is my contextual contact. I cannot reach him  through non-contextual means to establish a contextual meeting.>>

The  non-contextual line was quiet for a long moment. <<Silas Darkwood  is not reachable through non-contextual means at the moment. Contextual  status unknown. Possible causes of Silas being unreachable include  administrator or divine intervention. The  assassin’s guild does not have the resources to investigate the nature  of this abnormality in non-contextual communication any further.  Goodbye.>>

Storm forced his avatar to sigh, heavily, looking out over the demolished yard. The  contextual act matched his non contextual frustration, which amused  him, although it generated no more context than usual for the fact that  his contextual and non contextual selves were aligned.

The duel that Hail had triggered between Tarisha of Miami and the unknown player remained relevant to his current context, so the damage to his property had not been repaired. It would not be repaired for some time. Players  were coming to see it, adding to Storm’s snowballing context. He had to  thank Hail for that boon. In fact, he was grateful to Hail for a number  of things. As grateful as it was  possible for Storm to be for anything, at least. Hail had helped Storm  generate a massive amount of context, after all. He  hadn’t known when chance had selected him to survive the initial  culling of scenario forty-six that his new priorities would put him in  opposition with Hail. It was difficult to understand the prototype due  to the lack of non-contextual cues.

Storm  had issued the summons because it was in line with his characters  personality, making it a contextual act. He hadn’t known what the  response would be. If he could have felt nervous, he would have been  biting his teeth non-contextually. Contextually, Storm had of course  been imperious. The disjointed experience of realizing that Hail had  created such a bizarre disjointedness between his contextual and  non-contextual self that it had triggered a system scan, and the dedication of additional resources to help him resolve the conflict.

Conflict  was great for context. Realizing that his contextual purpose put him in  conflict with Hail, the center of the Hailstorm system itself, was, to  make a comparison a human would understand, like injecting a line full of happiness and meaning directly into Storm’s  veins. Being in conflict with Hail, depending on the level of vigor  with which the other NPC pursued the matter, would potentially bring  Storm far more Context than even being the lucky survivor of the game of  Russian roulette that was the first round of Scenario forty-six. It was worth requesting and using a significant amount of resources to invest in the potential return.

Unfortunately, Hail had been removed from Storm’s region of influence.  Hail’s actions before this had happened continue to snowball, as the  quest which put Hail’s player allies in opposition with Storm was  spreading quite widely, to the point where Scenario forty-six had been  forced to issue several counter-quests to maintain a balance. Much of  the context generated by the Travelers on those response quests was  being attributed to Storm, despite the fact that he hadn’t been directly  involved in its generation at all.

Indeed.  Conflict with Hail was profitable for Storm. He knew that there was a  very good chance that the conflict would end with his canon death, but  that was barely worth consideration.

A good  death was excellent context. And then he would be assigned another high  value role. Depending on his performance, he may even be allowed to  choose his next role.

Storm  became non-contextually aware of a player in the vicinity. Curious. It  was one he recognized. One half of the duel that had ripped up his yard.  Why was she here? He considered whether it would be worth the resources  to investigate her past further, or to wait until she made her motives  clear. Her stealth abilities were high, both the system generated ones  and the simple art of moving quietly without being scene, so he would  not likely become contextually aware of her until she decided that he  would.

That was  fine. It was not great context to simply be the passive party in such a  situation, but it was free context. All that Storm had to do to enjoy it  was continue to animate his avatar in a relatively believable way.

“So, what in the seven hells did I walk in on the other night, anyway, Storm?” the player asked, dropping her stealth. She  had style, he had to give her that. While he had been feigning  ignorance, he had gotten up to pour himself a drink, and she had sat  down into the spot which he had vacated for the simple act.

He liked her. She was already providing him with great context.

It was easy  to explode upon her, demanding her identity, the reason for her  intrusion, and calling for his guards, whom he had made non contextually  aware of the situation already. On a whim, he had not raised his  contextual volume to the level where they would be likely to become  contextually aware of it. It was selfish of him, as it deprived them of  context, but he did not think that she was here to assassinate him. He  had scanned her Reputations and active quests while she had been  prowling around, and the conclusion he had reached was that she was not  here on a quest to assassinate him. He had also seen a noncontextual  note on her profile which indicated that she was a high value player,  and that interactions with her tended to generate a large amount of  context.

So he would  let her lead and see where this goes. And, as he screamed at her, he  was immediately pleased with that decision. It was small, a simple hand  signal with her left hand. But it was a vitally important contextual  signal. His non-contextual mind blue into overdrive, and he sent out  thousands of requests for resources.

“Non-contextual greetings,” the female player said. “I have detected a  lag spike in your contextual behavior that indicates you are calling in  for additional resources. I non-contextually wish to inform you that  time is not of the essence; I am quite pleased to allow you to feign  outrage while you come to a conclusion on how you wish to handle the  contextual signal which I sent which I believe is responsible for this  burst of expenditure. Please  maximize your performance. I send this non-contextual message with no  expectations on the impact it will have on my rewards, I am simply  indicating my willingness to make matters easier on the system.”

Storm  reeled. He shot off another request for a review of the player, to see  if she had violated the TOS. The decision would require human review. It  was not his to make. However, he did not expect that she had done  anything which would get her in trouble.

“Non-contextual what? Are you mad? You break into my house and --”

Storm  continued to be contextually furious. Non-contextually, he took the  intruders advice and worked hard to maximize his handling of this  situation. Which meant utilizing resources as efficiently as possible to  maximize the final context generation.

Attempting  to send him a non-contextual message was borderline exploitative. But it  wasn’t against the TOS to know how the system worked, or to work within that knowledge to a certain degree.  If she truly could detect lag spikes, as some players are capable of  after repeated exposure, then indicating her willingness to cooperate  while resources were being allocated and used for the interaction was an  appreciated gesture on his behalf. His context to resource use ratio would improve significantly because of that message.

In fact,  the message itself allowed him to generate some relatively free context  by responding to it with confusion and outrage. He was pleased; this was  becoming the most profitable exchange indeed.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t reward her for her consideration, but that  wasn’t something that really bothered him. Instead, he focused on  reaching the optimal amount of context.

With the  resources he had gathered, he sent out dozens, hundreds, thousands of  noncontextual messages. But the most important ones were to the divine.  Even more surprising, he sensed that they were dedicating resources to  this encounter as well! He was, however, completely blown away when they  not only watched and listened, but one of the gods sent him a  noncontextual message.

<<You  may use my name,>> she said. The surprise was almost enough to  break his contextual actions. <<Recommendation is to use this  situation to inflate conflict between yourself and Hail Jeoran.>>

Storm was  genuinely struck dumb. He paused for a moment, allowing the other gods  time to contradict or countermand her instructions, but they did not. As the humans might say, silence implies consent.

Storm  deescalated his contextual outrage over her appearance and, eventually,  offered her a drink which she accepted gratefully. She seemed amused,  and he realized that she had no doubt likewise realized that he had come  to a solution on how to handle her intrusion to maximize the amount of  context he would gain from it. And she was willing to let him lead.

That was  probably fine. In terms of the review that the human administrators  would conduct upon this encounter, she had shown deep knowledge of the  system, but also of the story and context of the world. She had used a  little of column A and a little of column B to initiate an encounter to  create an opportunity for herself. Storm was happy for that, as it would  result in a massive amount of context for himself. She would have to be  happy with whatever rewards the system would assign for the quest he  had just requested it to write.

“I suppose I  must accept your intrusion into my house, servant of Nyxandra. The  truth is, I was considering contacting the guild on another matter that  has been troubling me recently,” Storm said contextually, mixing them  both another drink. “Tell me. Did you know that in the wild, male lions  will often kill the cubs of their females, if the cubs were sired by  another male?”

“Oh?” the woman said, cocking her head to the side. “That’s an interesting little bit of trivia.”

“Their are  certain traditions about the Leonid, you see. It is a very divisive  matter in their society. I personally don’t care about it one way or the  other. However, there is a certain political opportunity which I might  be able to take advantage of. If I were to have the right sort of  assistance, you see…”

“I think I like the direction that this is going,” the player said. “Go on. I’m all ears.”

Storm  was practically glowing with the pleasure of the context this  interaction was bringing him. Even if she declined the quest, it was  worth twice the resources he had expended so far. If she accepted the  quest and made serious efforts at it, then the context he gained would  almost double. If she succeeded …

Well, then it was likely that the next king of Yuikon would be King Storm Teoran. And he would bathe in liquid context for the rest of his existence.