Somewhere Someplace

A room; a mid-sized one. Well-lit but largely empty and vacant, besides a dull table in the middle with two chairs facing each other down. On the table…were two rather large stacks of papers…quest-sheets, and familiar ones at that; the Guild did not discard quests completed by their adventurers, seemingly…or not immediately, at least.

The foreigner had been sitting here for quite the time many hours. The part of her head that had been struck was now bandaged…such was the only thing the Guild could do, despite the possibility of a minor facture; nevertheless, such would heal and repair on its own, a fact evident to even the Guild…for indeed, her peculiarities had bled out for their eyes to see.

Here, in this room, was where the foreigner had been seated while the Guild conducted its myriad of investigative processes; interviews and questionings of all those who had levied accusations or had any words to say regarding the matter…and most especially…interrogating the foreigner herself.

“What about this one?” the receptionist, the same dark-blue vest one as always, interrogated as she slid yet another quest-sheet to the foreigner sitting in front, flipping it to the page wherein the collected tally for each quest-target was recorded.

The foreigner…exhausted and drained in both mind, essence, and metaphoric soul, took but a single glaring glance; “Yes…” she replied with flat affect.

The receptionist let out an acknowledging breath; “Alrightly…so, which ones?” she interrogated bluntly.

The foreigner immediately pointed at each listed quest-target which she had…stolen…instead of genuinely collected—essentially confessing to the Guild of her crimes. Indeed, she remembered…at least when directly presented with the quest in question…which ones she had stolen and had so confiscated…though…only to a point; such remained rather blurry and merged into one blob in her mind.

The receptionist sighed; she took this quest-sheet and placed it onto the second pile of papers before immediately taking and sliding the next one onto the table from the first pile. “And this one?” she interrogated.

The foreigner stared down…flipping to the next page; « … » silence was her initial response; “…I do not know; I do not remember doing this” she finally replied.

The receptionist let out rather the huffing breath; “Of course…” she said, before sighing as she plopped this quest-sheet onto the second pile; “…rightly, I am beginning to see a pattern…provided, of course, that you are telling the truth…which I have no reason to believe you are” she remarked; “though…nor do I have…any reason to believe…you aren’t” she added as she leaned back against her chair somewhat…

Truly, what a day it had become for the receptionist…most certainly, not at all…what it was supposed to be…not at all what she had…ever expected it to be. Indeed, her affect was mellowly somber and…rather…disappointed.

Silent contemplation ensued…the receptionist leaning in as she…tapped away at the table; lost in her thoughts, seemingly. Before, finally, her eyes returned to the foreigner; “So, if I am…gathering this…pattern of yours, essentially you recall clearly…doing those acts of quest-thievery specifically during the first couple months of it…up until you just started to…what? Forget? Or…did you become so habituated to it that you stopped noticing? Or even…caring?” the receptionist interrogated, somewhat passive-aggressively.

“Somewhat. It is as I had said: I do not remember doing those quests; I remember only that I had done them, not the details of the doing” the foreigner replied bluntly and flatly, yet her mask-obscured eyes were somewhat evasively down.

The receptionist sighed; “Yeah, it truly has seemed like you’ve stopped perceiving your own mortal existence the past few months…” she remarked somewhat lowly, her finger still tapping away…as her other hand rested against her chin.

The receptionist sighed doubly again before lifting the stacked set of papers off the table and into a…Guild-specific box of sorts; “That is enough of this…” she began to remark in dejected voice, “it’s becoming pointless…it is very clear enough that you are a serial quest-thief on a very…large scope…and…not just from your own confessions, but from the sheer number of…individual testimonies we’ve collected in the past dozen hours this day alone…”

“And do not even get me started with that…earlier incident today…holding almost the whole Guild hall at the barrel of a mortar gun with threatening intent…even if it was because you had been struck in the head…that is still…one…other…major violation now on your record” she remarked further, finger tapping away at the table.

Her cheeks remained resting upon her palm…as she stared blankly and coldly off to the side…still trapped in her own head and thoughts. The foreigner…simply remained silent, with not even a breath being heard uttered.

The receptionist sighed triply again; “I guess now begins the…next part of this…” she remarked as her eyes finally, once again, faced their gaze back to the foreigner, staring…at that bandaged-up head of hers…stained in more strange cyanic than hemoglobin red; though, now that the blood was dry…it was vaguely more human in color.

“…your blood—and do not bother lying, everyone saw it—but…what is…what even…are you?” the receptionist interrogated…rather straightforwardly and bluntly. “The blood of man…is not supposed to be filled with…so much glowing magic, you know?” she remarked; “the only documented things with magical and arcane blood are…at least typically…monsters, magical beasts, Demons and their servants…and the many direct servants and creatures of Gods…so, which are you?”

The foreigner remained silent, her mask-obscured eyes still evasively down…yet she finally looked at the receptionist, staring into her rather sharply. “Nothing of relevancy.” she replied…all so very…flatly and bluntly. “Do not inquire deeply into the abyss that you would not understand even if told to you” she stated even more bluntly…and rather…cryptically too.

The receptionist, yet again, huffingly sighed; “Yeah of course…I wasn’t expecting a proper answer…” her breaths muttered out; “…you know, despite knowing you for almost a half-year…I still know barely anything about you….always so fucking distant and adrift…” her breaths muttered further…though more thoughts bleeding out than words being spoken.

Her fingers began to tap away once again as she…rested her cheek against her knuckled hand yet again, looking off in contemplation. Truly, what a mess of situation this was; truly…all those reports and…paperwork that were going to be needing to be filed and made…all those things that were to be added to the foreigner’s Guild profile.

The receptionist sighed for what could only be described as the uncountable nth time this day; “Oh well, whatever…to be sorted out later…I will not pry even though it is my task to do so and I know a bunch of eggs would really want to know…but I will…not pry. Despite all that just happened…and despite all that you’ve done, I still have some…respect for you…I guess” she remarked…lowly.

“I know…I did not say any…words to indicate that…but…you know…I…I don’t know, I still think that…even after everything…that there is still…something deep in you that is…still sweet…or maybe not…I honestly do not know, my feelings were wrong before, clearly, and…they can be wrong again” she continued.

“But…it is clear to me that you aren’t evil or malicious…just callous and uncaring…and quite frankly, I do not even know if you truly…grasp the severity of your wrongdoings and actions…or let alone what you’ve been doing in general” she remarked, low and solemn in vocal affect; “there’s just…something really…wrong…with you in your heart and soul, though…but I don’t know..”

The receptionist was becoming somewhat lachrymose…even if no tears flowed down from her eyes…this was all something that she was so clearly still trying to come to terms with; “And…to think this day was just supposed to be you…finding a fellow to do your quests with…” her breaths muttered in lamenting remark; “…why didn’t any of those doorknobs file a complaint beforehand?…ugh…way to ruin a lady’s day…with such a surprise” her thoughts bled out in spoken tongue.

The receptionist sighed; “Well…what’s done is done” she said, her eyes shifting their attention back to the foreigner once again; “and it is clear to me, my supervisor, her supervisor, her her supervisor…and the Coastfield Guild branch as a whole…that you are—as I’ve said a plenty already—guilty of serial theft against fellow members of this branch and grave dishonesty in quest completion and collection…with no signs of any regret, remorse, or even understanding of wrongdoing” thus she began to state in judgment.

“Never mind that you had also threatened the lives of Guild staff and members and drew a high-damaging weapon within these Guild halls with aggressive and threatening intent; all of these being, of course, grossly major violations of the Guild’s conduct agreement, policies, customs, expectations, and an irreversible shattering of any trust between you, us, our members…and me…”

“This is…putting all of my personal feelings aside…and while usually the Guild would conduct a days-spanning investigation and confirmation…this is just…so clear in the scale and scope that…there is no…true point in doing that…since…again…it is just…so…fucking clear..”

“Thus—ahem—it is very likely—and although no judgment has been officially cast—that you will be expelled from this Guild branch and permanently banned. Your profile and records will be marked with all of the necessary details and—since the Guild does share information between all of the branches—that once your profile does spread around…you will probably end up preemptively banned by most if not all…of the remaining…Guild branches” thus were levied…the consequences.

“The Guild has very…clear policies and expectations for its members, akin to laws of realms, and we do enforce them…and so, violators are strictly punished…as I…again…had explained during the…new member debriefing; and again, you had signed the relevant agreements…” the receptionist continued on.

“…it is only because of the testimonies of those who’ve claimed that you had…saved their lives while they were in…serious trouble…and in addition to my own…recommendations that…we will not hold you here nor have the Security Office arrive to take you away…”

“But…you will be held liable for your violating acts…and thus, following with Guild policy…alongside any potential expulsion and ban…you will likely be required to return up to…ninety-nine percent of all of the reward we had dispensed to you and in full—and to remind you, we do keep very clear records and account, so we know how much we had given you and thus how much you would owe” thus she explained.

The receptionist sighed yet again; “Though…again, nothing has officially been handed down…the Guild is not a royal court or realm, we have procedures and…work…we have to follow in order to hand…these sorts of judgments…but I am informing you of what is most certainly going to happen…since that is where the discussion has settled for…” she stated in conclusion; “…is all of this understood, Nilia?”

The foreigner simply nodded “Yes”; “it is clear to me” she replied with such hollow affect.

The receptionist sighed in acknowledgment, standing up…as she turned around to make way to depart; “Honestly…” she began to say in pause, “just…judging from how you ended up the past few months…and what happened today…I think this might be good for you…questing and adventuring, you might not be suitable for it”; “your obsession clearly did its harm, but…I can tell you were probably like this beforehand..” she remarked…with somberly sincere voice.

“Anyway, you are free to leave…so as long as you pay what you owe in reasonable time…just do not try to run… Trust me when I say, the Guild will find you; so please…do not make this any more difficult than it already is” thus she stated and…sternly warned. The receptionist promptly opened the door and exited the room, departing away…the foreigner left silent…without even a word allowed to be said in reply.

Thus, indeed, it was so…once again…had the foreigner lost her job…having not even made it one full year this time. Inhibited, numb, cold, and flat…she could not really comprehend what emotions were flaring through her…though…something was clearly happening on the inside…deep down within her mind’s shadow.

The foreigner sat there…not even a single motion made. She let out one shiver-filled sigh; « Verissimë…j’oi quidem eșom d’ex omnibos ģe stupidissimù éllud… » so muttered out…her tsking breaths; most truly…she had to be the stupidest of them all; for indeed, this was all…so very…stupid.