May the Dice be in your Favor

quintondupont​:

Quinton had just placed his duffle bag in one of the corners when Zelda arrived. “Hey, I’m alr–” he cut himself off, or rather, the sight of Zelda’s outfit cut him off. “…Really?” he asked, his face lacking all amusement. “You’re milking this for all it’s worth. I just know it. Your clothes say as much.” He blew out a sigh at her and then looked down at his own attire, and then back up to her with a lazy smirk. “Oh please, you haven’t been out of the world of the rich for that long,” Quinton insisted with a roll of his eyes. “And you know I don’t really have a reason to price drop with you anyway.” Giving a small shrug, he said, “Okay, so… what exactly are we supposed to do to test…whatever this is out?”

“Of course I am. This is the one time in my life that I’ll be able to do something like this,” Zelda said, opening up her notebook to the first blank page, before rolling her eyes at him. While she hadn’t been out of the game that long, part of her had always felt she had never truly been in it to begin with. “But I think that first we need to figure out your baselines. Like how fast you can run, how much you can lift, how high you can jump, those sorts of things.” 

“I thought I was a completely normal person until all this happened. But at least I wasn’t creating some sort of odd phenomenon I suppose.” Natalia still didn’t know what to make of all this, but she did believe Zelda and what she saw. “RIP Myspace. But if anything weird is going to pop up online, that might be a place for it. Or 4Chan or Reddit, right?” she asked. “Not that I go on those platforms. I just know they exist.”

“Yeah, I don’t go on them either. I feel like 4chan or 8chan or 8kun or whatever they’re all called would just immediately get a virus on my system, those parts of the internet scare me,” Zelda admitted, “But nothing. Which just makes it all so much stranger.” 

“At least there is a baseline for what they’re normally like, right?” she asked. It wasn’t very comforting. “I didn’t show any powers like this, right? I mean… I think you would have said initially. But it’s just weird. Because those powers aren’t even similar. Not remotely,” she frowned. “I wouldn’t know. Was it trending on Twitter or anything that day?” she wondered. “The only social media I really use is Instagram. Even that is mainly for work. I also use TikTok when I’m bored and lying in bed.”

“Yeah, and from what I can tell that baseline is being a completely normal person,” Zelda admitted, which really wasn’t that much of a help. And confused her more. “Nope, nothing on the socials, it was the first place I looked, but there was nothing. Like I even went and checked MySpace for funsies just to see if there was anything on that forgotten chapter of the internet.” 

Test Subject | Zelda & Quinton

@zelda-bichler​

Why had Quinton agreed to this? OF course he knew he reason. He was at least somewhat curious about what he knew was unusual about him. He’d known for years but deliberately chose not to say anything to anyone, up until recently when it couldn’t be helped. And frankly, after having a full day of no memories, his concern about the things he could do, and whatever it was that he became, had grown significantly more serious.

Now dressed down in gym attire, he was standing in a property he’d recently purchased. The sound-proofing was easy enough to manage having install, and he hadn’t hired anyone to rig the space with security cameras yet. AS far as he knew, this was all he and Zelda would need for this…experiment. He’d brought a couple of free weights in a gym bag that he’d easily slung over his shoulder, and he’d had some room-darkening curtains hung over the widow, but otherwise, the industrial looking space seemed good enough. Having already text Zelda the address and a time to meet, all he had left to do now was sit and anxiously wait for his friend.

Was it right that she had dressed up as a scientist for this? Probably not. 

Was it freaking hilarious and appropriate? Absolutely. 

So Zelda walked in, looking as professional as she possibly could (which she had to admit really wasn’t all that professional to begin with) holding her notebook, ready to take notes. And add them to the wall she had devoted on her bedroom wall to all of this. “Hey, how are you?” she smiled at Quinton, “I love the outfit. Though do me a favor and don’t tell me how much it cost, I have hit the point I get sticker shock over rich people clothes now.” 

Lucy melted while still smiling at her friend, “That is so cute. You’ll send me pictures, won’t you? And you’ll have to tell me about Purim. I’ve heard of it but I don’t exactly know what it is.”

“Purim is probably my favorite holiday. It’s the celebration of Queen Esther saving the Jews from genocide. So the whole point is to dress up and celebrate, and there’s a lot of alcohol. There’s a joke that’s pretty common that Purim is time to get drunk for god.” 

“As long as you try, then I’ll accept that much.” The whole situation was bizarre but Lucy supposed there was more to the events that occurred that day than just the two of them seeing strange things. “Ah, that’s right! Will you be taking Adi trick-or-treating?”

“We are. She wants matching costumes this year so we’re going to be working on them together. So she’s going to be Aurora and and I’m going to be Maleficent. I figure we can resuse them for Purim and if she doesn’t grow too much, ComicCon next year.” 

Natalia was hoping someone would know something about what happened to her. But she didn’t expect it to be something that happened to other people. She got herself a large vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso and sat down at the table with Zelda. “I’m willing to go with just about anything at this point,” she admitted. Natalia looked over at the phone screen and her jaw dropped. “Those are… holy shit. How?” she asked, amazed. “I know a couple of them,” she said talking about Quinton and Luis. “Not well, but I’ve met them. They didn’t seem to do that when I met them.” Natalia was so lost. “So what do we all have in common that we would all forget the same day? It doesn’t seem like anything, other than we all live in the city.”

“Yeah, exactly. Like my friend Lucy is kind of dating one of them, and he isn’t like that normally at all. Nobody is. It’s like the powers and the lack of memories are somehow connected,” Zelda said, knowing that she sounded like a conspiracy theorist, “But that’s all I’ve got. Like two of them absolutely hate each other, but the only things that I can really see that you all have in common are that you all live here. And I have no way of really looking to see if this was a worldwide thing or just something that happened in The City.” 

“It’s really beautiful. I don’t quite know how Halloween came to be what it is here in America, but I’ve enjoyed participating over the past few years or so while also still honoring la Toussaint. “You and Ari are welcome to celebrate it with me and my aunt this year, if you like?”

“Honestly, I’m not either. Probably the commercialization of the holiday taking on a life of it’s own, but that’s a really pessimistic way of looking at things,” Zelda admitted with a shrug, “But I definitely would love to. Plus you can come over for Hanukkah if you want, it’s pretty early this year so it shouldn’t disrupt any other holiday plans.” 

Lucy couldn’t help but snort a little bit at Zelda’s plan. “It’s not much of a plan, but I’m hoping it won’t come to any of that. I don’t blame you for wanting to seek some sort of explanation for the things that occurred that day, but… at the same time, it seems like it might also be too much for one person to burden themself with. Can you at least promise me that if you feel like you’re in way over your head, you’ll give this a rest?”

“I can try to keep that promise, but I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it’s a somewhat simple explanation,” Zelda chuckled, “But Halloween is coming up and I’m preparing for that, so I’ll be more spooky than detective for a couple of weeks.” 

“I guess,” was all Quinton could state. He didn’t always like dwelling in the past. Usually. But it was hard not to, particularly when important people were involved. “Yeah, alright. You’re right,” he finally ceded with a noisy sigh. “I’m sorry.”

They moved away from talking about the past–or he thought they had until Zelda mentioned Project Makeover again. Quinton stilled except for the roll of his eyes. “Very funny,” he replied. “Mass Effect’s a first person shooter game, right? It’s been ages since I’ve played a video game. Is the Witcher series still going?”

“Third-person space RPG, but there is some shooting elements to it when it comes to fighting aliens, so I can see the confusion,” Zelda admitted, “And then Witcher 3 is the last one to come out, but there’s people out there STILL discovering new content six years later. Witcher 4 apparently is still rumored to happen, but who knows when that will be. But we need to get you a Switch and at least get you to play Animal Crossing - it’d be good for your work stress levels.” 

“Just…be careful, Zelda. Really. If there is something more… nefarious happening, I don’t want you to get hurt or in any kind of trouble, okay?”

“I will, I promise. I’m hoping that it’s nothing super evil, but if it is I’ll probably just turn everything over to like some government spy agency and be like cool I’m out,” she admitted, “Though maybe they know something and are keeping it a secret. Who knows.”

“Jesus, Zelda…” he breathed, staring hard at a spot on the ground. He couldn’t imagine what that had to have been like for her. Terrifying at the very least, but certainly lonely. “It didn’t have to be that way,” he thought aloud, not looking at her as he said it. Quinton might not have been the greatest when it came to monogamous, romantic relationships. In fact he was shit at them. But he cared deeply about his sister, as well as those whom he considered friends. And he might not have known much about childbirth but he could have been there for Zelda. He would have been, if nothing else to hold her hand through it. He tried to let it go in the moment but it was bothering him still, even as the conversation moved on.

Trying not to let his upset get the better of him at the moment, he did his best to keep up with Zelda’s change in subject. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you before. What’s been your favorite game to play lately?”

“I know that now, but I was in a really weird place. Not really an excuse, but you know things got better, I got Ari, it’s better not to dwell on how things were and focus on the good, you know?” Zelda said, though part of it is she hated dwelling on that part of her life. She knew that she was in a dark place, that she had stumbled into things that she loved by accident, but if she had to go through it all again, Zelda would avoid it like the plague. 

“It’s this match-3 game called Project Makeover,” she sarcastically answered, a cheeky grin on her face as she went back to their last real conversation, “actually I have been playing the Mass Effect trilogy lately, and I’m loving it - I actually have a stream run and a personal run all at once so I can make different choices as things go. But then I think I’m going to try the Witcher 3 next. I haven’t played it before because with how giant of a game it is it seems a little daunting, but I look forward to at least trying.” 

“Our conversation. Oh god. Do I even want to know what it was like?” she asked, grimacing a bit. “Strange but not as startling. I suppose I can live with that.” She was just grateful she called out from work - though she didn’t remember doing that. “What kinds of powers are you talking about?” she asked and stepped forward in line. “I’ll buy your drink and you can show me or tell me. I’m just so confused about it.” Though it had happened to her before. Once a year since she was 18 she seemed to have a lost day. It never occurred before she was 18.

“Deal,” Zelda said, pulling up the notes and the makeshift conspiracy board that she had on her phone. After ordering, she got them a table and smiled at Natalia. She didn’t have a lot of answers, but at least she might be able to help someone else. “So, what I’m about to tell you is going to sound crazy, but I need you to just go with it for a moment. Because these videos weren’t edited,” she said, pulling up the few videos that she had and showing them to her, “People were walking around with superpowers. And from what I can tell it only affected the people who were missing their memories.” 

“Still, that’s really exciting to have won even once!” She laughed a bit hearing Zelda call herself ‘nerd-famous’. It was adorable, and still, she was proud of her friend being so accomplished. “Well, Toussaint is very similar to dia de muertos. I mean the religious sect go to services, but in general it’s a day where we honor the dead. It’s very beautiful. A lot of flowers, candles and foods and celebrating at the cemeteries.”

“That actually sounds really nice, I love that so many cultures have ways of celebrating their families and where they come from. It’s something that I always grew up with, and I hope to pass on to Ari,” Zelda smiled, “I mean, obviously it’s a little trickier with me with how my parents are but I have some family members that are pretty cool.” 

“I don’t know if there’s a way to separate those thoughts. I mean I’m not investigating whatever happened and even I can’t help thinking about… X-Men or Kryptonite.” She thought about that day and then shook her head, “No, I-… no. I didn’t really see too many people that day.” That was the truth. After her encounter with Luis, or…not-Luis, Lucille stayed home, crying, cuddling her bunny, and trying to stop replaying said encounter in her mind.

“Exactly. Like it’s so based in science fiction, that’s the only place we can actually turn to for any information. I mean science fiction sometimes turns into science fact - maybe that’s what’s happening now,” Zelda said, though she sighed in just how much work that would be for her if that was the case. “Yeah, you’re probably lucky for that, it was super weird.”