Knives in The Dark

"Me?"

"Yep. Tell us about the character you've created."

"Ummm…" Tami wonders about where to even begin. "I'm playing Baron Helmut… um… Schnitzelweiner."

"Very foreign name, I like it. Where is Baron Helmut from?"

"Germany, I suppose." Tami leans forward, the smallest bit of curiosity in her eyes. "Or, uh, Is there a Germany-equivalent in this world?"

"There sure is. Let's call it Severo. I'll write that down in my notes. In the meantime, why don't you tell us about Baron Helmut's role."

"I'm playing a…" Tami squints at her sheet. "Wolf? I guess?"

"A sharpshooter and a tracker. Very interesting. How did Baron happen to become a Wolf?"

"Are there any recent wars?"

"Hmmm… Let's say Severo's recovering from one."

"Perfect." Tami takes up a pencil and starts scribbling something down on her sheet. "In that case, the Baron was conscripted at an early age as a sniper. He made a small group of lifelong comrades in the war and they deserted as a group."

"Excellent. I like that initiative." Elexi starts nodding like she's bouncing her head to the beat of a song. "Where are these comrades now?"

"They're struggling to get by. Aside from being fugitives, they're also having a hard time holding down jobs while dealing with inner demons like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and what not. Even if they'd never admit it. Now that I mention it, that's probably why Baron Helmut turned to crime."

"Makes sense." Elexi starts tapping her foot. That combined with her rhythmic head nods makes it seem like she's on the verge of jumping up and dancing. "Let's move on to you, Nakasuko. Tell us about your character's name."

"My character's name, huh?" Nakasuko pinches her chin. "Leroy… heimer. Leroyheimer is his last name. And his first name is very German– I mean Severo– and that is because it is Heinrich. So his full name is Heinrich Leroyheimer."

"So, both Heinrich and Leroyheimer are both from Severo. How interesting. Is there a story behind that?"

"Well… there was a war in Severo. I can imagine Heinrich's family immigrating to wherever we are now several generations ago."

"Did your family ever face any discrimination?"

"Of course."

"What did they do about it?"

"Hmmm…" Nakasuko's eyes stare at the ceiling as she thinks. "I imagine that's why they established a sort of network protecting Severo immigrants from exploitation. I can imagine that close-knit network slowly branched out until they turned into a sort of mafia."

"Oh!" Tami suddenly interjects. "I think Baron Helmut probably came under their protection at some point."

"I like the sound of that." Nakasuko nods.

"Interesting. So Baron Helmut came under mafia protection and Leroyheimer was born into a mafia family." Elexi leans closer, interested.

"Yep."

"What's your relationship with your parents?"

"Tenuous at best, I would say."

"Why is that?"

"I imagine that there was a succession dispute that caused two siblings to take up arms against each other. I think that Leroyheimer was the son of one of these siblings but was adopted by the other in a bid to create a rightful heir."

"Interesting. How did that go for you?"

"Well, I think that after the war was over and his blood-father was killed, Leroyheimer grew hateful of the mafia and severed all ties with them. He's sort of a vigilante now. But instead of fighting crime, he does crime."

"Fascinating." Elexi's eyes sharpen as she sizes up Nakasuko, who seems to be completely unaware that Elexi has been saying 'you' instead of 'your character.' "What's your character's role?"

"Hmmm… I think I'm going with the Shade. I like the idea of using stealth as my main tool."

"Sounds good. Now that we've got a good idea of each of your characters, let's have a gander at the starting scenario." Elexi flips through her notebook. "Would you mind if I took some liberties with the mafia family you introduced, Nakasuko?"

"I don't mind at all."

"Let's jump right into the action. Literal hours after Leroyheimer's desertion, your step-father has sent a group of assassins to kill you."

"That's not good." Nakasuko winces.

"Lucky for you, your friend Baron Helmut has come to your aid. Right as one of the assassins is about to plant a bullet between your eyes, your friend Baron Helmut crashes through the window, draws his pistol, and shoots the first assassin in the head."

"Noice." Tami pumps her fist in the air.

"Unfortunately, there are still four of them left. One of them smashes the light switch and plunges the room into darkness. You hear the telltale sound of swords being drawn. What do you do?"

"I suppose we draw our blades and fight." Nakasuko suggests.

"That sounds like our best bet." Tami shrugs

"Draw your Blades? In The Dark?" Elexi thinks for a moment before nodding. "It's gonna be difficult, but doable. Let's roll for this."

"I AM A GOD!!!" Nakasuko literally jumps out of her seat, both of her fists triumphantly raised as she rolls the best possible outcome on the dice.

"SHE'S INSANE!" Even the usually calm Tami rips her sunglasses off her face and does a backflip three times in a row. "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

"After a lengthy chase through the city and a climactic fight at the docks, Leroyheimer manages to catch one of the assassins off-guard with a wild swing from his blade. He stumbles for a moment and then is promptly kicked off the side of the pier by Leroyheimer. He falls into the pitch black and is promptly claimed by the sea." Elexi smiles as she closes her notebook. "End scene."

A brief silence descends on the room. "So, what did you guys think of the game?"

"It was pretty fun!" Nakasuko nods excitedly.

"I was doubtful when you said it was basically playing pretend but it turned out to be rather enjoyable." Tami's words are formal but her excitement is palpable. The fact that her sunglasses are off is proof of that.

"I'm glad… I've just been playing these games by myself for the longest time now but it really is a different experience playing with other people." Elexi covers her mouth as she laughs gently. "Let's do this again sometime."

"Hell yeah!" Nakasuko pumps her fist into the air.

"In the meantime, I would offer both of you refreshments but I don't have any food." Elexi lowers her head. "I'm sorry."

"No worries, we brought our own food." Nakasuko pulls out a squashed rice ball from her pocket. Tami does the same.

"Ah, that's fortunate." Elexi suddenly perks up again, almost bouncing in her chair.

"Ah, sorry, we didn't think to bring you one."

She waves her hand through the air. "No worries, you weren't sure if I could eat or not so you didn't bother."

Nakasuko's heart stops. "That's not–"

But Elexi just laughs it off. "No worries, you guessed correctly. Homunculi don't need to eat. I mean, I do like eating since I am able to taste." She looks at her hand as she flexes her fingers.

"You can taste?"

"Nakasuko." Tami's voice is stern as she warns her but thankfully, Elexi doesn't seem to mind.

"My mother tried to make me as human as possible, short of actually making me human."

"Do… you want to be human?" Nakasuko ventures a risky question. She practically feels Tami's glare on her back but she goes for it anyway.

"Of course I do." Elexi states it like it's obvious. "I want to go to school. I want to fall in love. I want to have friends. Little things like that."

"What's stopping you?"

"Those things are only for humans to enjoy. I'm a homunculus. I don't need school to teach me things I already know. I don't expect humans to be able to make friends with a machine. Much less fall in love with someone so… different from themselves." Elexi shakes her head. "Don't mistake my resignation for ungratefulness, though. I'm happy to exist, I just… wish I was like everyone else sometimes."

"In that case…" Nakasuko taps her chin. "Why don't we be friends?"

"Hmm…You're a strange one, you know that?"

"Yep." She crosses her arms. "So what?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that maybe it takes someone a little strange to understand someone a lot strange." Elexi seems amused and bows dramatically. "Very well then, Nakasuko Kuze. I humbly accept your offer to become friends."

"You honor me." Nakasuko mimics her bow.

"The honor is all mine." Elexi takes out her pocket book and scribbles something into it. "Though, I wonder… Can a human really understand a homunculus?"

"You're really not all that mysterious and unknowable, you know?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean, I've known you for about a day, and we hardly know a thing about each other, but you don't seem all that different from a normal person."

"I appreciate the sentiment. You're too kind. Really, you are. But how can you say that when–"

"Yeah, yeah, there you go prattling about how special you are but to be frank, I don't really care." Nakasuko shrugs. "You want to be a 'real girl', right? Then let me treat you like one."

Elexi bounces her leg silently, fiddles with her fingers, affixes her eyes at the ground, something, anything– completely at a loss for what to do or say.

"Fine, fine, I get it. You still need more convincing, right?" Nakasuko sighs as she places her hand on Elexi's shoulder, her fingers creeping towards her neck. "Geez, you're so needy."

"Nakasuko? What are you–?" Elexi hardly manages to get a word out before Nakasuko smothers her mouth in a kiss. Her lips are ice cold but Nakasuko doesn't really mind. She lets her tongue slide into Elexi's mouth where it toys with the segmented slithering thing that she has for a tongue. She tries her best to not think about how it feels like she's licking a metal snake. It's cold, it's awkward, it's nasty, but strangely, Nakasuko doesn't hate it. And based on the way Elexi's soft voice comes out, she doesn't hate it either.

After a moment, Nakasuko breaks away– out of breath. Even Elexi's chest is heaving up and down, in spite of the fact she doesn't need to breathe.

"Tami…" Nakasuko begins. "Would you mind leaving for a while?"

"I'll give the both of you some space." Tami covers her face and hurries out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

"What…" Elexi stares at the strands of saliva connecting their mouths before wiping them away. "What are you doing?"

"That was a grown up kiss." Nakasuko caresses Elexi's rigid cheek with light, teasing fingers. They creep from her face to her neck, then from her neck to her chest, then from her chest to her abdomen. But before her hand can go any further, Elexi places her hand on her wrist. "What's wrong?"

"I'm scared." Elexi quivers.

"Do you want me to stop?"

"No… but can you… can you hold my hand?" Her face doesn't turn red but Nakasuko can somehow tell she's blushing.

"Of course." Nakasuko interlaces her fingers with Elexi's. "Now just relax, leave the rest to me."

"...Okay…" Elexi 'exhales', only the air doesn't come out of her mouth but rather along the seams of her black armor. One by one, the metal plates give way and fall off onto the bed, exposing Elexi's silver form underneath. She's impossibly elegant. Every single inch, every single contour, every single segment in her body was labored over and designed towards absolute perfection. It takes all of Nakasuko's willpower to keep herself from drowning in Elexi's beauty.

"Sorry. I'm rather unsightly." Elexi instinctively covers her body with her other arm. "You can close your eyes if you would prefer."

"You're perfect. Just the way you are." She gently peels Elexi's arm from her body. As much as Nakasuko would love to look her in the eye, she can't take her eyes off of her body. She slowly removes her sweater before moving on to her dress shirt, exposing more and more bare skin with every button that comes undone. Elexi has to pry her eyes off of Nakasuko.

"You can stare if you want." Nakasuko places two fingers on Elexi's chin and lifts her head back up so they're staring eye-to-eye. "Sorry if I'm something of an eyesore."

"N-no…" Their bodies could not be more different. Nakasuko is all angles. Stretch marks. Scars of war. Toned muscles, sculpted from years of constant fighting. Strengths and weaknesses of the flesh. And their totality is to Elexi's eyes no less than: "Perfect. You're perfect." Elexi places a cool hand on Nakasuko's hip, pulling her closer.

"Ooh. Look who's getting excited." Nakasuko smiles gently. There's an innocence in Elexi's eyes. A vulnerability. A humanity. She sees it so clearly that she can't help but wonder how Elexi could never see it herself.

"S-sorry!" Elexi suddenly takes her hand off of her body.

"No, no, it's fine." Nakasuko suddenly, but gently, pushes her down on the bed. Elexi tenses up. "I like your enthusiasm."