Nexus Biographies

[Note: This is one of the oldest pieces of Nexus-related literature, the winner of the first Nexus Story Contest, held shortly after the Cataclysm. It was written by my former husband and dear friend, the legendary Warrior-Scribe, Cait. This is dedicated to his memory. -Kiy-]

"Non-Playable Character".

by Cait, the Warrior-Scribe...

Another night. My drooping eyelids both concealed and blurred the top half of my field of vision. I attempted to at least pretend I was listening to my last customer that evening, before I closed down my shop.

"What, now?", I said, groggily, feeling drool rolling down out of the corner of my mouth.

"Look, man... Can't you hear what I'm saying??!!".

"Um, sorry, I... Could you repeat yourself, sir? I'm...I'm sorry".

"Shrimp!".

I met him with the Grandaddy of all blank stares. "Whu--?".

He met me with the Grandaddy of all exasperated sighs. "Man, ain't you been listening??!! Shrimp! I want shrimp in my eggroll! Maan, you asked me what I wanted in my eggroll, and, I want shrimp. It ain't molecular engineering, dude!".

I tightened up my lower jaw, and, nodded my head in understanding. "Oh, right. Sorry...". I reached robotically under the counter, where there were buckets of different eggroll contents. I knew without looking where the shrimp was. I KNEW I knew without looking where the shrimp was. But, I accidentaly reached into the wrong bucket, and, dumped into this guy's waiting chunk of eggroll dough...sauerkraut. I dunno who the hell has eggrolls with sauerkraut, but, I just run the business, and, it's not my place to ask.

He looked at his eggroll-in-the-making, and, then, back at me. Back down, and, then, back at me, again. He then let loose with a stream of curses that must have lasted for a good minute. He fired at me one final salvo, then, something about how he's got three hungry kids and a nagging wife... God, I'm sleepy... I just wish I'd reached for the danged shrimp... I did so, clumsily and hastily, replacing his sauerkraut.

"THANK YOU!", he shouted. Then, he strode out of my shop, radiating indignance and frustration, and, slammed the door. I felt the sweat beading on my celery-green peasant clothes.

Every day was the same. This was just one more. I sighed.

****

I am Alabastrozenithenius Leetzeweefle Clausenberg XV.

I'd been an eggroll salesman all my life. My shop was luxury. Everyone came to my shop to buy their eggrolls, because everyone knew my shop was THE place for your eggrolling needs... Or, however the slogan went... Never mind the fact that it was the only eggroll shop in Kugnae.

My father was an eggroll salesman, my father's father was an eggroll salesman, and, my father's father's father was an eggroll salesman, and, my father's father's father's father was Lim Chang Yek, inventor of the eggroll.

Eggroll marketing is in my blood. Or, so I thought.

I'm single. All eggroll salesman are single, because no one finds them especially appealing. All we can talk about is the ratio of shrimp to rice in an eggroll, and, we have absolutely no outside interests. Well, most of us. In fact, sometimes I bore MYSELF to the point of starting to worry as to whether my brain waves will stop functioning. I'm a pretty danged boring guy. I could go on and on and on and on about my eggrolling career. But, I won't. I need to get to the point of this story.

Anyway, I used to be a non-playable character. In case you don't know, that's what the Gods call their willing slaves. Non-playable characters, NPCs, for short, are usually merchants or guild-masters, or, monster-farmers, like Gen, the guy that looks like Bob Marley with first-degree burns. Yep...I used to be an NPC. No more.

I started thinking about where my life was heading first when my business started going down the drain. This started when Suni, the Butcher, reared her head on the food-market scene. No one wanted eggrolls anymore. Everyone was going for fried cat and wolf, sauteed in lemon puree. Yuck! I don't know what's wrong with people. Not a single person showed up, and, everyone was crowding over at Suni's, shouting, "Anymore of those delicious meat scraps, Suni?!", and, things

like that. Boy, that really got me. That really made me think. At least I didn't have a family to support.

I watched, as the sunlight poured through my window, on one of those rare, sunny days, how the cow blood flowed down Suni's hands. It was rather disgusting, but, hey, she was a butcher. Butchers are rather disgusting.

If I weren't an NPC, I would have gone and killed her. I would have gone and killed her for taking my life's work from me. The gods still allow us NPCs to have feelings. We simply can't do anything other than what we are intended for. Most of us are fine with it. I, actually, wasn't, but...I'm just an eggroll salesman, what do I know??

People tell me to lighten up. I tell those people to pretend they're in my position for a change. They don't understand. NPCs aren't all happy, like Ox, Mr. "Tap on my shoulder if you need help". God, I'd like to tap on HIS shoulder!! Enough to give him brain damage!! He doesn't know what it's like selling eggrolls for a living. No one does.

Then, one day, I was saved from my fate, by the one whom all feared.

I was saved by Sagu.

****

"Yessssss, feel your anger well up in your throat, Eggboy!".

I stared at him, not understanding.

"I take 'em all, Eggboy! I take 'em all. Once a week, I take every pathetic little one of them off the face of Kugnae, and, I put them through what you can't imagine... All of them! It's hilarious, really!". His vocal cords seized in carnal happiness, making his voice high-pitched, for one brief moment. "But, you, Eggboy... Ohh, yesssss, you...".

I stared, furrowing my brow in expectancy.

"You have potential".

He metaphorically clasped his claws around something within me for the first time with those words.

"Eggboy! You've got potential, ya hear!". Laughing in the darkness. His rasping voice echoed.

I, myself, was in darkness. I knew not whether he who spoke to me was hidden in the coiling shadows in front of my very nose, or, whether he spoke inside my mind, whether I'd finally lost it. I had no idea what he was talking about, most of the time. Except those words, of course. That changed a lot of things for me, then, of course. A lot of things.

"You don't know who I am...", the voice said to me, not a statement, really, but, more like a sudden realization.

I didn't dare speak.

"It is better that way. They are after me. That blasted M'hul and his pack of foaming-at-the-mouth goons are after me".

I clasped my hands in my lap. I felt more guarded that way, from whatever was out there, in the infinite currents of darkness. I recognized the name of M'hul, and, I knew not whether the thing had realized that it had just given away it's identity. Everyone had heard, by then, of M'hul's campaign to stop the evil Sagu, even though he hadn't done anything exceptional yet. Or...[blackness]...or...had he?? I...couldn't...remember, then.

"You, Eggboy, are not for the taking". A hiss. A flash of white. Eyes, fangs, claws, scales... "...Not for the taking". Steel echoes...

I woke up to a cold, rainy Kugnae night.

****

Of course! I realized it all, then. Sagu, with the magical aid of his loyal wench, Mupa, had always taken the NPCs, every Saturday. But, as for myself... I could remember nothing. I had never left. Every Saturday, I stood in front of my eggroll counter, waiting for business. No business came, of course. Few had the money to buy my high-end eggrolls, because, Suni was not there for them to sell their acorns to, the way that dwellers in the Kingdom had gotten used to making money, (very odd, if you ask me).

These visions I had continued. Every once in a while, I would come back to the dark place, and, I would speak with the rasping voice. He spoke in riddles, and, the fact that I knew he was Sagu didn't change a thing for me. He told me so many things I--

What did he tell me??

Ah, yes. "Since you have so much potential, Eggboy, I set you free. You are no longer an empty shell of canned dialogue and robotic hands".

Free?? Free from what??

It was after the fifteenth vision that it finally started.

****

"Oh, my. What will we ever do about the curse?!".

I said it without feeling, and, the words just forced their way out of my mouth. Then, someone walked into my shop, to look around... I couldn't speak to him.

"Oh, my. What will we ever do about the curse?!". I was to say it again. It was almost as if it was done for me...

Somehow I managed to walk out from behind the counter, that day. I managed to look out the window, and, see the rain pouring down, again. It didn't happen automatically, without me thinking about it, like everything else. I used my own legs, and, I willed myself to get out from behind the counter, and, look out the window.

It was time to say it again. When the first sound began coming out of my mouth, I clamped my hand tightly over it. As soon as I did it, I felt something well up inside me, as if I was going to vomit. Then, it changed to a chill that ran up my spine. The urge was immense to let go of my face, and, say it again. I didn't want to say it again!! Didn't that matter, too?!

Something exploded in my chest. It felt like a burning rush of excitement, but, it couldn't have been. It radiated out through my extremities. I turned to my one customer. I said, "Hi".

When the woman ran out, her face chalk-white with indescribable horror, I knew she'd visited my shop before.

A voice inside my mind, then. Sagu's voice. "Oh, my!!!! What will we ever DO about the CURSE?!". It was dripping unabashedly with mock drama. "Oh, my!!". Then, he went into an enormous stretch of spasmodic laughter.

What scared me the most that day was that I laughed with him.

****

A week later, I was to be never the same, again. I still did not understand how I could speak of my own free will, and, I didn't know whether I really WAS speaking, or, whether I heard myself speaking inside my mind. Just as with--

I had muscle control!! I had a fairly good vocabulary, from hearing others talk, but, I still couldn't quite get my pronunciation right.

I could...TURN my head to listen to the troops of M'hul, gathering outside. It was Sagu Saturday, again. Wasn't I here??

Yes. I was standing there, my feet solidly planted on the floor, behind my counter, looking out the window. I saw Suni's shop across from mine. It was devoid of all life. I knew where she'd went to. I laughed. I will never be there with her.

Then, that voice, again. "It is finished, Eggboy". And, for once, I knew exactly what he meant.

Of my own free will, I walked into the back of the shop, and, picked up the steel saber hanging on the wall, and, donned the sky war platemail, used only by my long-ago ancestors, who COULD don it without being, "reprogrammed". Of my own free will, I turned and walked out the door. Of my own free will, as the troops marched down the main cobblestone thoroughfare of Kugnae, I stepped in front of M'hul, leading the march. I tightened my grip on the hilt of my saber. Of my own free will...

I slew half of M'hul's army, then, and, there.

****

Gods, did it cause a riot!! I want to burst out in maniacal laughter, and, I want to go insane right in front of you, as I tell you this. I had, and, still have, all this energy inside me that I didn't know what to do with. Decency tells me to control it, but, Sagu tells me quite differently, indeed.

I want to take my saber, a torch, and, a solid pair of vocal cords, and, run amok around town. I want to burn and pillage who I want, when I want. I deserve it.

"You deserve it, Eggboy!!".

See?? I didn't ASK to be an NPC!! It's my turn, now. I have free will stored up from twenty years of eggroll-selling. I have desires that you would never have.

Anyway...

M'hul was so shocked, he lost all his wits. He watched me impale and strike down man after man after man, who either didn't see it coming, or, couldn't penetrate the blizzard of my fury. Then, when my sword so dripped with blood, that I felt the soaked grass under me change consistency, I ran. I ran so no one could catch me, not knowing if I was being pursued, but, running just in case. In fact, I believe I found myself in Buya, when I first stopped to catch my breath.

Then, hastily, I walked back to Koguryo. I stopped some distance outside the North Gate of the wonderful city, listening. No trumpets. No feet striking the cobblestone ground, in a ritualistic march. No pennants waving out above the city walls.

What remained of M'hul's army had gone. I knew where.

What was one man to do about it?? If I tried anything a second time, M'hul would be ready for me, and, he would destroy me the second he saw my silhouette, blocking out the horizon.

I couldn't think about what would happen to my benevolent savior, the one who had given me life. Plus, I needed to expend my remaining energy, raging inside me like the sun itself, before it ate me alive.

I needed to do the one thing I had only casually thought about doing, until I was set free.

The same night that M'hul murdered Sagu the Dragon...

I murdered Suni, the Butcher.

****

Finally. The energy I had was mostly gone. The mental stress of what I had done had sucked it away. I felt guilt, but, it was overshadowed by an emotion due to an unrelated event. Sorrow, over the death of my savior.

I knew now why he had chosen to set me free. He saw that I had, like he said, the potential for this kind of thing. It was all for his greater cause of spreading evil. As this clashed with my fondness of Sagu for releasing me, I did not think about it, and, let it, also, be overshadowed by thoughts of my coming life, no longer as an NPC.

The penalties for murder in the Nexus realm were light. I may be exiled from the realm for a month, at most. What does it matter to me?? As long as I have my freedom, and, my energy. In any case, no one would suspect me, because I left no evidence, and, most people weren't quite clear on whether or not I was an NPC, after all.

The Kingdom is happy now. I am happy, as it has been a long time since the murder of the one who changed me. I live in isolation from all, basking in my free will.

It's almost like an animal instinct, isn't it, to love unconditionally the one who saved you from a slow death?? No matter. You don't know what it's like.

Others defile the memory of Sagu the Dragon. I honor it.

--Cait, Scribe of the

Constantly Leaking Pen.

AUTHOR'S NOTE...

I'm thirsty=).