The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Cassandra

Cassandra didn't want to get up on Monday morning. She had used all of her extra vacation days at work for right around the holiday, which meant she didn't need to get up for work. Her only plan for the day was to get online later for the short raid meet up to do some housekeeping and see if the raid quest went anywhere else.

Before logging off the previous night, she had ported over to [Gorias] just to check the map, and sure enough there was a quest marker over [Scathach's] position, so there was at least something for them there. She kinda hoped it was just a reward though, because her head had already fully moved onto the PvP event.

She rolled over, bundling up in her comforter against the cold that made her want to get out of bed even less. She toyed with her phone a bit, hiding her arms in the blankets and the phone only an inch or two in front of her face to avoid getting any colder. It was the eventual need to use the bathroom that drove her to jump out of bed, hastily cover herself in a warm robe that she kept by the bed, and scuttle to the bathroom.

She felt a lot better after a shower to warm up her system a little, and it seemed like the heat had kicked in enough to get her apartment up to an almost comfortable 68. She found her way to the couch with a bagel and cream cheese to relax and just laze around with her breakfast.

That set the tone for most of her day, in fact. She texted back and forth with Zoe, not really talking about anything important, but instead just joking back and forth and talking a bit about the upcoming PvP event, theorizing what everyone in their group would be bringing to the party, build wise.

They also solidified their plans for New Year's Eve. Cass had been invited to a party by a few of the other women in their office, but didn't really want to go. Zoe had already turned that group down, saying she had plans with her family, which had been a lie.

At the time, anyway.

Apparently, after the way Zoe had basically fled after dinner on Christmas, her parents had opted to invite her, and the entire family, back for New Year's Eve. Zoe had been cagey with her mother about the invitation, and said that she'd get back to her. And then Zoe left the decision up to Cass.

She had to admit, she was curious about Zoe's family. While her parents sounded like a handful, they were ultimately supportive of Zoe, and would likely be nice to meet. Zoe had also said as much, after complaining about their over-bearingness. And although Zoe's brother sounded like a big pain in the ass, her sister sounded really nice.

And if Cass was being honest with herself, she felt like she could do with a little more family. She may not have missed her family, exactly, but she did miss the stuff that came with family. The same stuff that her family had immediately thrown out the window with her before she left.

When Cass had said they should go, assuming Zoe's parents were alright with her bringing Cass, Zoe had asked her multiple times if she was sure - and she was. If Zoe's family was welcoming to her, then Cass would be over the moon. And Zoe gave her no indication that they would be anything less than welcoming.

It was early afternoon when Zoe said she'd let her parents know, and then Cass didn't hear from her again until it was time for raid.

And even then, when Cass logged into the game a little early and joined the chat, she had to wait until the very last minute before the agreed upon time to see Zoe join the chat. Zoe didn't even respond to anyone's greetings, instead immediately marking herself as muted, then started typing a message in the text chat.

{Nyx} : I can't talk. Blame Evie.

{Nyx} : She decided to accept an invitation to family's house for NYE. I'm still on the phone with my mother. Three and a half hours later.

{Nyx} : Help.

That set off laughter in the chat and lightened Cass' mood significantly. She was mildly worried that she had pissed off Zoe somehow by accident. Admittedly, it sounded like that should still be a potential concern, but she was cracking jokes at least.

"Nyx, I'm really sorry. I didn't realize your mother would trap you like that." Cass said, hoping that Zoe was at least listening. She wouldn't have joined the voice chat if she wasn't. Probably. The "Nyx is typing…" message popped up pretty quickly, so she must have been.

{Nyx} : Oh, don't worry sweetheart, you'll get yours later.

{Nyx} : We're going to have to go over there early so my parents can meet you and talk to you properly apparently.

"Oh no."

{Nyx} : Oh, yes.

The hooting and snickering from their friends made Cass' cheeks heat up, so she tried to change the subject, especially when she saw Zoe actually log in to the game.

"So, we said tonight is only going to be an hour, right? We should get moving?"

"Smooth," Caoimhe laughed. "But yes, we should. Scathach is our first stop?"

"Yeah. Can everyone get to Gorias or did anyone need a ride?" Bisky asked.

"Why you asking like you can give one?" Aleister snorted.

"Because Firo is standing next to me, and I can make him do it."

"Oh?" Firo perked up. "You going to pay me for the ports now?"

"If I have to." Bisky shot back.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"One of these days, Bisky, I'm going to find your bakery and drop by and make you give me free food."

"I told you before, you're welcome any time." She snickered. "But you only get one freebie."

"Aww." Firo whined.

"I could use a lift, if you don't mind." Fiona said. "I'm still in the Fae palace."

"Sure, I'm on my way. Where about?"

There was a beat of silence before Fiona responded. "The northern corridor? I think?"

"Isn't that -"

"Shh."

"- near Áine's throne room?" Caoimhe finished, not even stopping for Fiona's shh'ing. "What were you doing there, I wonder?"

An obvious answer came through from Zoe in the game's party chat: "Taking pictures, no doubt."

"So what if I was?" Fiona said defensively. "Mag Mell has a great photomode, and I was just making use of it."

"Uh huh. And the hot red headed NPC had nothing to do with it." Caoimhe needled his friend.

"Not even a little. Look." Fiona said defiantly, and posted a picture in the chat. True to his word, the image was of Fiona sitting on the throne in the throne room, with no NPCs even in the image. "I just thought the throne room was really cool."

"Sure you did. Send the rest of the pictures in that day's folder." Caoimhe continued.

"I will not be doing that."

"That's what I thought."

"Fuck you."

"Fiona, I'm here. Where are you?" Firo asked.

"Oh, sorry. I'm on my way."

After that, it didn't take too long to convene the party in Gorias to meet with [Scathach]. While the city was fairly large, it was nothing like the size of [Falias], and even allowed for long-term, sustained flight which made getting around it pretty quick.

"Nyx? You good?" Bisky asked once everyone was gathered up in front of [Scathach]. "I don't want to start whatever this turns out to be until you're able to pay attention if you want to."

There was no response for a solid thirty seconds, at which point Cass finally heard Zoe's voice come through in a massive, exhausted sigh.

"Oh. My. God. My mother loves to talk." She groaned. "I blame Evie."

"Sorry…" Cass said, hoping it sounded regretful and not on the verge of laughter like she felt.

"You can work on your apology the rest of the night and tomorrow morning," Zoe said sweetly, before going deadpan and adding, "because my mother would like us to come over early so she and my father can meet you before dinner. And I couldn't say no."

"Evie! You're meeting the parents already? Haven't you been dating for like…not even a week?" Fiona joked.

"I mean, yeah, but -"

"Bruh, how did you not opt to have your first New Year's Eve as a couple alone?" Firo laughed. "Are you stupid?"

"I just -"

"Leave her alone, guys." Zoe said.

"Thanks, Ny- "

"Besides, there's no reason for us to make fun of her. She's going to get tortured to death tomorrow." She continued.

Cass just took a deep breath and sighed, not even bothering to try to get in another word. "Can we just start the damn quest?"

"No." Zoe said flatly. She waited a few more seconds, then said, "Ok, now we can," having seemingly done nothing of note in between. At her all clear signal, Bisky hit the button.

They transitioned into a cutscene, but one that wasn't voice acted, which told Cass immediately that it wasn't a huge plot point or anything too important. But [Scathach] still turned to the party, looked them up and down, and nodded.

"Well, I'm glad to see you all well. I guess things in the other world went better than expected, given your current state," she said.

Cass had a few dialogue options to pick from for her version of the cutscene, and selected the one she liked best; "For now, at least, we've pushed the enemy back on both fronts." Unfortunately, none of the options were particularly interesting.

[Scathach] nodded appreciatively again, then offered Evie a hand shake. They clasped arms and gave each other a single, solid shake. "That's good to hear. Things on both sides probably need to be repaired, but I imagine with the [Fae Queen's] magic on the other side, things there will go quite well. Here though…"

As she trailed off, the camera panned out to show the broken city walls, several destroyed buildings, and the NPCs going about trying to rebuild. It didn't seem to be going all that well, as many of the NPCs were injured. "Well, as you can see, [Gorias] could use some help. My team and I are planning to lend the city aid wherever we can, and we were hoping you may be able to do the same."

[Scathach] looked over their party, as if assessing them. "I'm not sure if any of you are particularly handy in the way of building or crafting, but if you are, we'd greatly appreciate your assistance. And, well, if you're not, there's plenty of guard and hunting work to be done around the city to keep us all safe with the walls broken down the way they currently are. On top of the general mess they made, the Fomorians also left all of the local beasts in a bit of a frenzy, so they're making it all worse."

With a sigh, [Scathach] shook her head. "Anyway, if you're willing to help, I can point you toward any or all of the various people in charge. If you want to help with the hunting and guarding of the walls, though, let me know - I'm handling that myself."

After that, the camera moved back to the gameplay angle, and the quest marker over [Scathach's] head turned a dark, rust red color that denoted a repeatable quest.

Bisky groaned. "Oh my god, why do there have to be so many repeatables here now?" She followed the line up with a rather impressive keening whine.

Cass opened up her map to see the city's map dotted with multiple markers scattered about, each the same rust red color.

"I forgot Bisky hates things on her map." Aleister laughed. "Repeatables but be torture for you, huh?"

"I hate them." Bisky said flatly. "I hate them so much. There needs to be a way to just permanently remove them from the map once you've done them once or something."

"Can't you just turn markers off?" Firo asked.

"Oh, here we go." Caoimhe sighed.

"No, because first off, the game doesn't save your damn map filters when you close the game, so you'd have to re-set the filters every time you open it." Bisky began, already in full rant mode. "And even then, I don't want to just hide all the markers, because I want to see the quests I haven't done so I know they're there and I can do them. I want the damn satisfaction of completing the quests and seeing a nice, clean map open up as I do."

"You've done every side quest in the game, haven't you?" Cass asked, quietly chuckling to herself while pushing Bisky on.

"You bet your ass I have. Every single one. My map is clean as a whistle. Except for the fucking repeatable quests." Bisky's voice got softer and venomous as she spit out the words.

"Damn," Firo said, "I barely do any of them. They all feel like a waste of time because they don't give particularly good XP, and most of their drops are bad, too."

Cass laughed again when Bisky seemed to actively feed into her own craziness, screaming about having a clean map, and how dare Firo do anything different.