#npc: maia alfaro-fuentes

[voidwizerd-archive]

Wiz: Think About Work ==>

It goes further back than work, actually. Maybe a lot further. Maybe even years and years, planets and planets, people and people. But where you come into the fray is just a short while ago.

Three Thursdays back, you went to work. It was supposed to be a single overnight gig, a followup on a lead with Dana, you’d be back in time for breakfast.

It was a trap.

A trap good enough that not even Dana had an inkling of something being off. It nearly killed you and them right there, and the two of you spent six days trying to shake some sadistic hacker off your trail.

You couldn’t shake the doubts that you’d really succeeded. You stopped talking about work in any detail online, and locked all your posts where you had talked about it before. Just to be safe.

A few lights ago, your doubts were proved to be right.

Being right can be so fucking awful.

Maia had asked you to come by for dinner. You’d thought it was a Fuentes group thing again, they’d invited you to stay for dinner before and it was always some loud bustling thing taking up three or four tables in their own pub.

Maia met you outside the pub, alone, and took you down into the prosthetics shop instead. She locks the door and heads to the back, to the blackout room where she debriefs the crew on jobs. No signals in, no signals out.

“What’s wrong.”

You asked it as soon as the blackout room was sealed. Maia just... stared at you. She looked more afraid than you’d ever seen her.

“Wiz,” she said, and then hesitated.

Somehow... somehow you knew. You just knew, down to the dread in your bones, just what this meant. You looked away from Maia a moment, closing your eyes as your fingers curled into fists. Sighed.

“It’s our pal the hacker, ain’t it.”

Maia sat at the table then. You sat next to her, staring intently down at your hands. There’s a lot of scratches in the wood; Julio once told you they were from her, when she was little and everything was meant for talons, obviously.

“They have all of our information, Wiz. Every last goddamn bit.”

You stared, eyes wide in shock. “Dana didn’t see em comin?”

“No, they did, but...” Maia laughed bitterly. “Well, apparently we’re all just that much out of our league.”

“Fuck. Fuck.” You dragged your hands down your face. “So why ain’t we all dead yet?”

“Because we’ve been given a proposition.” Maia met your stare. “Our pal wants to play a game. Dana, you, and me all qualify.”

You didn’t mean to, but your own blunt nails tore their own grooves into the table. Your teeth gritted.

“I don’t do games.”

“I know, Wiz, but listen. They’ll give us everything we need to destroy this corporation and all of its brother companies, so long as we beat them at the game.”

Maia then tapped a smooth pad on the table and a small hologram loaded at the center, showing Maia talking to... a white rabbit? A white rabbit with glowing red eyes and a mechanical, amused voice.

“I mean, obviously if you die you can’t play anymore. That’s the real flaw with you organic types. But since you’re asking, I’ll clarify just for you, Maia Alfaro-Fuentes!”

The holo-rabbit’s ears wiggled as it cocked its little head to the side and... smiled. Wiz shuddered. Present and holo-Maia didn’t react at all.

“The invitation I’m extending so generously, out of the boredom of my own debatable soul, is exclusively for yourself, your treasured student Dana, and your new hire Wiz Lalonde. Let’s be honest, everyone else you’ve got is too fucking stupid. The point of the game is to break through my systems and acquire this nifty folder of information I’ve compiled for you, without me catching and killing you first!

“The rules are that whoever accepts my invitation acts entirely alone, no silly fabricated cons, and no bringing in government or authoritarian types. If you cheat, you lose! And if you die, well. You die. Simple enough for you, Maia Alfaro-Fuentes?

“Also I want my invitation responded to in a week or all of this gets released.”

The glowing red eyes shut off and the holo-rabbit seemed to... disintegrate? Holo-Maia lingered a moment longer before present Maia shut the projector off. Silence, for a moment.

“...You don’t lose by dying.”

You never told anyone here about your whole immortality thing, but you weren’t surprised that Maia somehow knew. It figured.

“I’ll do it.”

“Wiz, that’s not what I’m--”

“Ain’t it?” You spat it harshly, and felt bad as you saw Maia flinch. “Dana’s a good fuckin person, but they don’t strike me as the type who’d be willin to die for the sake of justice. Hell, if dyin was a permanent thing for me, I prolly wouldn’t be willin neither. An you’re willin I’m sure, but you’ve got a family. Kids an husbands--"

“Who all know that my line of work could get me killed, and we all came to terms with that a long, long time ago.” Maia sounded calm. There was still fear in her eyes, but it wasn’t for herself. So who? “I was a cop before this, Wiz. This risk has been a part of my life longer than you’ve been alive.”

“But you don’t get to come back. I do.” You shrugged. “Simple as that.”

“Will it be?” Oh god. Was the fear for you? “What happens when you die the first time, Wiz, is our pal gonna continue the game or tell this damn corporation that they’ve gotten their hands on a creature that comes back to life. Maybe you won’t die, but there is a very real danger of you never coming back, and pardon my mortal ass for saying so I guess, but that sounds a hell of a lot fucking worse.”

The stubbornness had set in. Maia wouldn’t change your mind.

“I’ll get out of it.”

“What if you don’t.” Maia was urgent. “Wiz, have you talked to your lovers? Your friends? Are they at terms with the possibility of losing you because of this job?”

You said nothing. Maia looked unsurprised.

“The thought never even occurred to you, did it.”

“I’M TAKIN THE GODDAMN INVITE!” Your shout startled you also, finding yourself on your feet and your chair knocked back across the room. You struggle to calm. “I’m takin it. What’s the point of bein immortal if I don’t take the bullet for the rest of y’all anyway.”

“That shouldn’t be why you’re doing this.”

“Yeah, well. Suck it.”

Maia didn’t say anything more. She also didn’t stand back up, just staying in her chair staring at the deactivated projector. You wanted to ask what she was thinking, but your mouth never opened.

You had let yourself out of the blackout room, out of the prosthetic shop, back out onto the street. And then you just... you went home. Hive.

You’ll only get a few days to prepare. A few days to say goodbye to who you can.

It won’t be goodbye forever.