Chapter 36: Unexpected Opportunities
Chapter 36: Unexpected Opportunities
"Now what do I do with the two of you." The Jester says, his gaze now falling onto the pair, his anger still present and able to be felt but thankfully bearable as it was not directed at them. "So, who was it that got you involved? You said there rather high up in the proverbial food chain, but could you give us some better details? Who they are, what they want and just any decent details to shed some light on things. Again, were grateful they got you involved but we don't really like having our fate in other beings' hands even if it has helped us out this time. And what happens now? You just let us go back and pretend nothing happened?" Braedon says to the Jester, his tone neutral but mildly annoyed.
"Wait, no, He should give us something shouldn't he? I mean it was one of his people that almost killed us for no reason and now you're saying his just going to send us back! Not even a trip to wonderland!" Alice practically shouted well jumping up from her seat, Braedon rubbing his eyes feeling a level of sympathy for John and praising him for managing to not lose more of his sanity from being around this woman.
"And what makes you think you can just go back like nothing happened? As for you, what conceivable reason could you have to think I need to give you something? Because the idiot did something to you? Your both still alive and not even that hurt. Grow up little girl, if it wasn't for the high rank viewer making a stink of it, I wouldn't have even bothered stepping in and would have just cleaned things up. If anything, the two of you royally screwed me and made things extremely difficult for me!" The Jester says, slowly having some of his anger seep out at the end.
"That's on him not us! You said it to him yourself as well that he handled it badly!" Alice snaps back, refusing to back down.
"Okay calm down, Alice your out of line here! As much as you may not like it and we sure as hell hate it his the reason we aren't tortured and dead right now. And don't take it the wrong way but open your eyes, she's broken due to her god, so getting mad at her for being stupid, crazy, or just getting angry in general due to her words plays into her and wastes your breath and energy." Braedon says to the two of them, getting narrowed eyes from the Jester and an indignant 'hey!' from Alice.
"Your mouth is just a sharp as the owner of that body your in, but I do see your point in regards to the girl. I'm glad you understand though that your only alive right now due to me. All I will say about the God who caused me to come and sort this mess is that they are a VIP and they hold time abilities, it felt like they were doing this more as a favor though which makes me rather interested in how your host came into contact with someone who could know the VIP person along with who you happen to be." The Jester says as he looks at them, his focus now on Braedon, a deep gaze as if trying to look into his very soul and weigh it with his eyes.
"As I said, I'm Braedon, one of many residents of Johns mind." Braedon says with a grin slowly forming as he gave his honest if somewhat cheeky answer.
The Jester did not seem amused though but before he could comment a red being walked in but different from the previous one, for starters this one was female, wearing a stereotypical black and white maid outfit, black hair reaching down to mid back and a veil over her face, bowing once to the Jester she walked over and whispered something into his ear before stepping back and giving another bow and leaving the room.
"I see. Leave, take the hall you came from, and the red door will take you back, you would need to be as stupid as this worm on the floor to miss it, it seems I need to start cleaning up and sorting the mess you two and this incompetent worm has caused already." The Jester says to them, frustration clear in his tone as he slowly got up and moved to the bookshelf. With a strong pull it seemed to shift to the side revealing a large thin container as red as blood, rings of runes and strange script seemingly circling around it with a large seemingly burnt on runic mark in the middle, aged paper sticking to its top. Pulling his fist back the Jester seemed to punch forward and shatter the container, the red being revealed to be a liquid that covered his fist and like a piranha smelling blood it seemed to bite into his fist and arm, not a single drop dripping down as it forced its way into his arm, slowly drawing his fist back as the last of the red liquid sank in yet sticking out like treads connecting to a chakram that was now visible in his hand, its blade glowing a snow white like moonlight and the inner part black as night. With a grunt the Jester seemed to give the pair one last look.
"I've told you to leave and how to do it, if something happens now its no longer my responsibility or on me." He tells them coldly, his voice tired but resolved as he leaves the room clutching the chakram tightly.
"Grrr I was hoping he would give us something for what we went through instead he makes it seems like it was us at fault and doesn't even have the curtesy to see us off! Just telling us where to go and ditching us well practically saying we could encounter trouble without saying it!" Alice says angrily with a pout, puffing up her cheeks as he stands up just to stomp the ground.
"It's actually better this way though, and we did learn some things out of this whole thing." Braedon tells her, a wider grin now forming on his face as he also stands up.
"How is it better? What if another bastard like that red guy comes to find trouble or we can't find that red door he spoke of! Wait. What are you doing?" Alice began, her dislike of the entire situation clear before noticing Braedon had not gone towards the door, rather he was making his way to the other side of the Jester's table and currently opening the draws.
"Wait, you're going to steal from that guy! Didn't you say he was really strong or something? And I mean the red guy kicked our asses and now you want to steal from the guy who could handle him like nothing!" Alice all but yelled, the disbelief clear in her voice only to get a eye roll in return.
"Firstly its compensation for what we went through, next his clearly got bigger issues to worry about, and we can just drag wormy over there with us and blame it on him, lastly he didn't say we shouldn't touch anything, rather he said if anything happens its on us and all but confirmed his letting go of all responsibility, so I'm just taking advantage of it and making the most of this opportunity. That place you keep your knife, the hammer space, how large is its capacity?" Braedon says to her, a large almost evil smirk on his face as he finishes talking, his question at the end catching her off guard.
"Hammer space? Uh I don't really know, why? Did you find something? Wait no! just because I'm mad doesn't mean I want to try and find a early grave like this! I still want to get strong and have a lot more fights!" Alice says, answering honestly before realizing the situation again and taking a step back, wide eyed as Braedon seemed to take out a stack of paper slips, a stone, a jade medallion, and a weird metal plate.
"I'll take full blame and responsibility for this if things don't work out, but out fall guy is right there so don't worry, jeez, John wouldn't allow something like this but that's because he doesn't understand the importance of taking every opportunity you can, now put those away well I check the bookshelf." He tells her shaking his head and moving away from the desk after checking its draws followed by checking what he could on the computer, reaching the first shelf he slowly started running a hand over the covers well checking for any of use for them but also seeing if any of the shelve could be moved like the Jester did earlier. Alice was unsure what to do, it looked like a fight was happening with herself before slowly with a nod she began trying to put the items away in her dress pocket or what was dubbed a 'hammer space' by Braedon.
"I didn't know I could keep other things there, kinda thought it was only my knife, but this is really handy. Oooh I wonder if I can keep people there as well" She finally says, a big smile plastered on her face as she began thinking of the various possibilities such as hiding a whole army in her dress only for them to suddenly pop out of nowhere.
"Won't work, there are restrictions on such things, be it storage rings, bags or pockets like yours, same for seal spaces, there's always got to be some kind of balancing rules but the main one for items that aren't broken for main characters is that living things can't be kept in them, sometimes food as well, plus the size limitations and many other aspects, often it's only a main character who gets plot armored his gear that gets the good stuff. After you put those away, we can go." He explains to her as he puts five medium sized books in front of her, two of them paper back and thin with only five pages each, one hard cover a rich brown with a tree on the cover and gold trim and the last two seemingly only hard cover book covers without any visible pages. Confused Alice gave him a look only to find that Braedon was already headed to the door, the body of the red being wrapped with a single chain and being dragged along behind him.
"Sometimes the simplest looking of objects can be the most useful, out of the entire bookshelf those seemed the most useful for John, so come, put them away and come along, it's time we left, and I want to check something before we leave that may be interesting." Braedon says as they slowly leave the office.
"What is it that you would find interesting here? I mean isn't this your first time here as well? Oh wait, is it something from the computer? Is it some super cheat for us to rise up super strong super-fast! Oooh or is there some kind of secret prison and were going to break them out and make them listen and follow us as their leaders for freeing them! Oh oh or is there a secret armory and you're taking us there to get super over powered items to rule our world and break this place using the ultra-forbidden item they keep there!" Alice says, bouncing over and becoming more and more excited as her madness ran loose with her imagination. All Braedon did was shake his head as he led them down the hall to the red door, but instead of opening and walking through to head back he turned and opened the door opposite it.