The True Endgame

Fenrir and Cassiel meet back up with Tabitha on The Shoebill’s deck.

Oleander and Corwin are there as well.

“You know, Olly, I don’t think I’ve seen you play a game this much since back in the day,” Fenrir says.

“Hey, Fenny, and yeah. If I’m not studying, I’m playing this now,” Oleander explains. “It means more time to spend with Cor!” He nuzzles up against Corwin’s side, getting a few headpats in return which reminds Fenrir of what he was just doing with Cassiel in reality.

Cassiel looks up at him, knowing what he’s thinking, and narrows her eyes at him.

“You going to change your hair here, too?” Fenrir asks her.

“Ooh! Cass Cass changed her hair? What’s it like now?” Oleander asks with excited eyes.

Fenrir looks at Cassiel to see if she’ll answer it herself.

“It’s… shorter now,” Cassiel answers.

“And super fluffy,” Fenrir adds on.

Cassiel elbows him in the side, but with hardly a fourth of the force she used to use.

“Hmm. I can’t really imagine Cass Cass having fluffy hair,” Oleander says. “You should totally change your hair here, too!”

“We’ll see,” Cassiel replies. “I – I don’t think my real hair would match my style here. It’s more…”

“Girly,” Fenrir says and gets elbowed again.

“And I don’t really look like that here.”

“Did somebody say style?” Azalabulia says, striking a cool pose to show off her own style.

“Oi, didn’t I tell ya to stop that? You’re goin’ to be single forever if you keep actin’ so lame,” Tabitha calls Azalabulia out.

Azalabulia slouches her shoulders and says, “S-sorry.”

Fenrir has only seen Azalabulia and Tabitha interact a few times ever since the former joined the crew, but Tabitha dominated each one of those interactions. Azalabulia just always loses her ability to act cool and confident around Tabitha.

“Pl-please don’t hit me with your hammer again,” Azalabulia says with watery eyes.

Now Fenrir knows why Azalabulia is so submissive toward Tabitha.

“Stop overreactin’. That was an accident anyways,” Tabitha says, rubbing her forehead.

“Hey, Aza,” Oleander says, “what can of style do you think would fit Cass Cass other than this whole holy thing?”

Azalabulia shies away from Tabitha and looks Cassiel over. “A fallen angel!” Azalabulia says.

“You’ve got to go cuter and girlier since her new hair is like that, I guess.”

“H-hey, I never said that,” Cassiel says.

“A girly fallen angel!” Azalabulia tries.

“Still not cute enough,” Oleander says.

“I think she’d look cute as a dog girl,” Fenrir says and gets yet another elbow hitting his side, but this time with more force.

Azalabulia’s eyes go wide. “Yes! A – a hellhound! She could dye her hair red and black, cut it short, wear chains, black armor, and have a hellhound’s ears and tail!” she suggests.

“I can’t see Cass Cass like that at all,” Oleander says.

“Please,” Fenrir says, looking at Cassiel with puppy eyes. “Become a hellhound girl.”

“No,” Cassiel says.

“You can talk about all of that some other time,” Tabitha says, walking up into the center of the group. “This is more important. Me and Red figured out what we’re goin’ to need, and the sooner we get started, the better.”

Tabitha goes over everything that her and Rao discussed and planned.

One heck of a shopping list is the result.

They’re going to have to chop down no insignificant number of trees for all the wood they need, will have to make dozens of trips from the mountain down the river to the city’s future site, and then there are all the miscellaneous materials required.

They may not need that many different materials, but they need an absolute ton of the materials that they do need.

“Here,” Tabitha says, coming up from below deck.

She sets various tools onto the deck. They are makeshift pickaxes and axes.

“I made these earlier. They’ll be enough to cut through some of these trees and to mine some stone, and I can upgrade them as we go. That should probably be one of your first jobs: go chop down some of them steel oaks. Probably goin’ to take a couple of axes just to get through one tree, but I can make an even better axe with that wood, and then cutting down the rest won’t be so hard,” Tabitha explains.

Azalabulia says, “I will burn down the forests with my dark—”

Tabitha takes her hammer off of her back.

“I – I thought you said it was an accident!” Azalabulia whines.

“It was,” Tabitha says.

“I don’t think burning down the forest would do us much good when we need it to build,” Fenrir says.

“Listen to the dog.”

Azalabulia whines and walks away, mumbling to herself.

“Why’d ya pick her up again?” Tabitha asks Fenrir.

“She begged to join us, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have her around,” Fenrir explains and then leans in to whisper, “She’s crazy powerful. Just don’t praise her when she can hear you or she won’t shut up about it.”

“Be nice,” Cassiel says, grabbing Fenrir by his ear and tugging him back. “She’s just roleplaying. The game is full of people like her.”

“So, hellhound?”

“No.”

“I’m goin’ to smack you next if ya don’t take this seriously,” Tabitha tells Fenrir. “We need to actually get this underway. Can’t stay livin’ on this boat forever with what little supplies we’ve got left.”

“Alright, alright. You’re right. We’ll go ahead and get started today,” Fenrir says, picking up one of the axes. It’s got a pretty simple wooden handle, and the head of it looks like it’s made out of sharpened scrap metal from Tabitha’s overflowing backpack of strange items and materials. Even though it looks

 poorly made, it’s sturdy and Fenrir has no idea how she managed to get the blade of it as sharp as it is.

“So, steel oaks first, right?” Fenrir confirms with Tabitha.

Tabitha says, “Right. Red told me there were exposed metals up at the mountains. We use the axes to chop down some steel oaks, we use that to make better axes and pickaxes, then we use those to—”

“Then why’d you already make pickaxes if we’re just going to make better ones before we even use them?”

“Oi, did I say to ask me questions?”

“You didn’t think of that, did you?”

“Listen here, wolf boy.”

“I’m listening,” Fenrir says after a couple moments of silence.

“Keep on listenin’.”

“Wh-why?”

“So ya learn how to.”

Oleander and Cassiel both try not to laugh at Fenrir getting told by somebody half his height, but then Tabitha sets her sights on Oleander and says, “Deer boy, if I see any of that shit – and ya know what I’m talkin’ about, on my baby one more time, then I’m tossin’ ya overboard in your sleep.”

“Hear that, Cor? Don’t let any of it out,” Oleander loudly whispers to Corwin, causing the blonde man to burn with embarrassment equal to how brightly Cassiel can blush.

Fenrir is torn between being disgusted and finding it hilarious.

“Now! Wolf boy, you might be the captain here, but me and Red have superiority when it comes to all this buildin’. You can call me ‘boss’ until we’ve got this city runnin’,” Tabitha tells Fenrir.

“Alright, boss. When’s my lunch break? How about my pay?” Fenrir teases her and instantly regrets it as she pulls her hammer off of her back, smacking the end of it against her palm.

“Got anythin’ else to say?”

“I want to unionize.”

A vein pops in Tabitha’s head, causing Fenrir to take the makeshift axe and jump off of The Shoebill before Tabitha can launch him off of it herself with her hammer!

Tabitha turns around to face the rest of the crew still onboard and in-game.

“Alright! I’m all fired up!” Tabitha declares with a wide smile. “Gotta love when you can have banter like that with a friend.”

“Wait, you’re not actually mad?” Cassiel asks.

“Course not! Why would I be mad? His idea to do this whole city thing has got me more excited than I’ve been in a long time! It’s just more entertainin’ for ourselves and everybody else if we play around, ain’t it? Like ya said, roleplay.”

Azalabulia comes rushing up to Tabitha and says, “Ah! So you are a roleplayer! We’re the sa—”

“No.”

Azalabulia’s excitement gets deflated even faster than it was inflated.

“And I wasn’t jokin’ about tossin’ you overboard if I grab the steerin’ wheel one more time only to get sticky hands,” Tabitha says while directing a glare at Oleander.

Oleander scratches the back of his head and says, “Sorry… at – at least you won’t have to worry about that once we build our own house, right?”

“I’ll build your house. I have to make sure it has thick enough walls so that nobody has to listen to you two lovers going at it all day and night. Not goin’ to install any windows in it, either.”