[IC] - All the World's a Game

[S121]

Ancient City

"It's not snakes, it's... needles...", Isaac said with the sound of dread leaking from his voice.

"I really don't like needles, so please don't do that. I had a very bad experience with that kind of stuff.", Isaac said to Lujuria in a slightly calmer tone.






John looked at the picture, then at Huey. John knew that it would be a good idea to form alliances with other Characters and organizations, but also didn't want to be bound to a particular group or faction. Now all John had to do was figure out what the MSF did. For this, John grabbed his helmet, put it on, and quickly researched the MSF. Thanks to John's enhanced reaction time, John was able to read about the MSF in a couple of seconds.

"I'll possibly join, but I need to know more about the MSF's moral code. They are a mercenary group, which means that their morals are most likely loose. Would they be willing to work for tyrants?", John calmly asked Huey.




Hearing the scientist's description of John, Six decided to follow Huey and Gerard to John's location. Six lagged behind, due to his size and inability to navigate the crowd, but he eventually reached their location. Six then waited as Huey and John talked. He would talk to John after they were finished.

[wonderweiss]

Lujuria walked by Isaac.

"Relax. I won't kill ya. A man like you can handle it," she said as she ran her finger under his chin. Then, she walked off.




"Oh, heavens, no. That's what the intel team is for. Plus, we at MSF have a rather high moral code. We're practically like one giant family, brought together by the legend himself, 'Big Boss.' You have to meet him! He does so many amazing things! He took on several metal gears, survived torture on several occasions, and... Well, you'll see once we get there. Or you can look him up."

[S121]

Ancient City

Isaac retracted his his helmet and watched as Lujuria walked away. Once she left, Isaac began to walk deeper into the city.

(Pain in my @ss...), Isaac thought as he continued to walk the streets of the former Hell.

As Isaac walked, he thought about his encounter with Lujuria, and how she acted towards him. From the small amount of time that they talked, Isaac could see that she might not have been entirely bad, it was just that she had the habit of toying with people. It was annoying, but at least she wasn't trying to kill him.

As Isaac walked, he happened across a bar and decided to order a drink. He needed something to take the load off of his mind. He may have been incredible for a human, but he was still only human. He was vulnerable to all the things a normal human was vulnerable to, like stress.




John took a moment to consider the offer, thinking carefully about his decision. The alliance would be needed, especially if he needed it in the future. John always knew how important Alliances were, but the Devourer highlighted that importance even more. He was curious about this "Big Boss" as well. Thanks to his helmet, John was able to quickly research "Big Boss" and found that he was a very experienced soldier. It would be interesting to meet him, which made John's decision sway closer to joining. They seemed to be a well organized group, and they carefully decided who they would work for. After the moment had passed, John gave his answer.

"Yes, but not as a full time member. I have many different things that I need to do, which means that I'm fairly busy. I won't be living there, but I'll be able to easily teleport to the base. Other than that, I don't see why not.", John said to Huey.

[wonderweiss]

Huey smiled.

"That's great! Oh, and try to convince your friends to stay, too, if they would like. We should be able to find a place for them in the base. But just know that the commander, Kazuhira Miller, might put you all to work. It won't be bad. He might put you in the outer ops unit. Hey, hang on..."

Huey tried to activate the codec.

"I've failed before, but... maybe..."

Then, there came a noise. It was a faint voice.

"HUEY, IS THAT YOU?"

"Hey, Kaz. Sorry I couldn't contact you earlier. I couldn't reach you.

"NO NEED TO WORRY. THERE WAS ACTUALLY A SATELLITE USED BY THIS GROUP CALLED THE NEO-YAKUZA THAT INTERFERED WITH COMMUNICATIONS. BUT IT'S BEEN TAKEN CARE OF. DO YOU WANT A GROUP SENT TO YOUR LOCATION TO PICK YOU UP?"

"That'd be great, but bring some extra choppers. We may or may not have some friends over, and they could really help the base exponentially.

"IS THAT SO? ALRIGHT. WE'LL BE THERE IN... AN HOUR. JUST HANG TIGHT."

"Okay."

[S121]

Ancient City

As Isaac sat down on a bar stool, an Oni walked over to get his order.

"Hello, what would you like?"

"I'll just take sake.", Isaac said to the bartender.

After a couple of seconds, the bartender gave Isaac a sake dish and left Isaac to his thoughts.

Isaac sat there, thinking about all that had happened, not just with the Devourer, but also with his life, his game. He had to admit, he had some of the roughest luck out of everyone at the party. He never knew his father, had an insane Unitologist for a mother, was barely able to afford college after his mother spent all the family funds on achieving a higher rank in the church, and he had to deal with the Necromorph outbreaks three times. Not only that, his girlfriend died, he went insane, got locked up in a psych ward, and was experimented on. After that, he slowly became more and more insane until he nearly gouged his own eye out with a syringe and had to fight a corrupted version of his dead girlfriend inside his mind. He got into another relationship, but due to the Marker's damage to his psyche, he couldn't move on and Ellie later left him. His house was later broken into by EarthGov and he had to fight destroy even more Markers. Along the way, he had to go to a freezing planet, Tau Volantis, and suffered from severe hypothermia. He then had to fight an entire army of Unitologists and stop them from activating a machine that would warm the planet and revive a colossal Necromorph that turned out to be the planet's moon. He failed and had to kill a Necromorph the size of the moon. He said goodbye to Elly right after they had reconciled and killed the moon-sized Necromorph. Elly thought he was dead and left him on the planet after the Necromprph fell to Tau Volantis's surface, where he was eventually transported to the real world.

Isaac took a sip from the Sake dish, then continued his trip down memory lane.

After that, things got better. He never got into another relationship because people were either wary of his psychological state and because he just didn't feel like it anymore. He picked up a job at NASA, where he developed advanced EVA suits and was eventually brought to the Pentagon, then sent to Hawaii. He met Notori and Zero along the way, but then had to fight Dante and an army of darkness-based creatures from another dimension. Everything then quickly escalated when he later heard that the Earth was going to be attacked by the Devourer and after coming to a foreign land, getting shot, stabbed, torn apart, and having the life sucked out of him, he was finally here, sitting on a bar stool, drinking his sake.

He had to admit, no normal person would have lasted as long as he did. They probably would have put a bullet in their head a long time ago. It still didn't stop Isaac from hating his past. He was strong, but he wasn't strong enough to stay sane, he wasn't strong enough to stop Lucifer, and he wasn't strong enough to move on. How could he move on after all that? Perhaps it was just as well. At least everyone else was fine and happy. They were having a good time, and if they were having a good time, then Isaac didn't have much to complain about.

After reflecting on himself, Isaac looked back down to the sake in the bowl and looked at his reflection.

(Damn, buddy. You look like sh*t.), Isaac thought as he noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

It had been three days since he had last slept, but he didn't feel like sleeping. He just felt like absorbing the atmosphere of the party and peacefully drinking his sake.

And with that thought, Isaac lifted the sake dish and took another sip.







John took his helmet back off as Huey finished the call to MSF.

"I'm not sure anybody's leaving until the party is over.", John calmly said to Huey.

From what John could see, everyone was having too much fun to even consider leaving.

[wonderweiss]

"Oh, I know.I'm pretty sure they know, too. Believe it or not, they actually had a part in all of this. Some of the unarmed fairies and oni and the like asked for weapons, so when I found out that MSF still existed, I sent out a weapons request. It took a while for them to verify the reason why, but when they saw the ship, they sent them in a heartbeat. I never specified who the sender was. I was in a rush. But it's over now." Huey said as he saw one of the oni shooting at a rock with an MG3 and enjoying it.

[S121]

Ancient City

John watched as the Oni shot the rock, then turned his attention back to Huey.

"Well, at least they're enjoying themselves.", John said to Huey.

John then turned his attention to his injuries. It had been about 25 minutes since John installed the super Biofoam. He didn't know whether or not the injury was fully healed, due to the painkillers in the Biofoam, so he thought it would be a good idea to check.

"You might want to look away if you're squeamish.", John said to Huey.

John then dissipated the Darkness shell from his leg and saw that the muscle fibers were fully healed and that the skin was almost finished forming around his damaged leg. The damage was all the way up to the lower half of his thigh, but it seemed as if the injury was quickly recovering. After checking his leg, John reformed the Darkness shell and looked back at Huey.

"Sorry if you saw. I was just checking how the healing process was progressing.", John said to Huey.

[wonderweiss]

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I always see wounded soldiers. You have the problem. What happened to you?"

[S121]

Ancient City

"While we were on the Consumer, some guy by the name of Lucifer attacked me. Yuuka was dead, but she somehow appeared after I fought him for a couple of minutes. I saw that he was going to kill her, so I charged in. He took that opportunity to blow my leg up, but I stabbed him through the heart, then blew his entire body up with a Light/Darkness explosion. I killed him, but he didn't exactly die. I destroyed his physical body.", John explained to Huey.

Recalling the battle made John remember that he still needed to talk to Yuuka about what happened. John didn't know if Yuuka helping him was a hallucination, a temporary revival, or her being a ghost.

[wonderweiss]

"... wow. I was never one to be religious. But that seems... Harsh. Here."

Huey took out a yellow box.

"MSF sent these along with the weapons. They're rations. They have a certain healing factor. They're rank 5. This might help a bit. The medical team is using it. And if your psyche is low, have some of this. It'll bring up your energy."

Huey also gave John a mate.

Then, Lujuria came in.

"Oh look, the knight in green armor. How's it going?"

[S121]

Ancient City

"Thank you .", John said as he quickly ate the rations and mate.

Just then, the strange woman he saw near the escape pod walked in. In that single instant, John's arm was nothing but a blur as he pulled out his M6D Magnum Pistol and had it aimed at Lujuria.

"What are you doing here?", John asked in a calm, emotionless tone as he kept his aim on Lujuria.

[wonderweiss]

Huey backed off. Gerard pulled out his sword.

"Explain yourself. What happened to my son?!"

"Relax. He's alright. The master wouldn't hurt him. Me, on the other hand, well... I've died too many times. I'm going to be killed if I return... hey, there's Isaac right now. Hey, Isaac, care to explain?"

[S121]

Ancient City

John looked over to Isaac who was sitting at the far end of the bar, drinking alone.

Isaac looked over to the commotion and spoke.

"Yea, she's with us now.", Isaac said to John and Huey.

John slowly returned his gaze to Lujuria and out his gun away, while Isaac returned to drinking.

"Fine. Just don't cause any trouble.", John calmly said to Lujuria.

"So, what do you want?", John then calmly asked Lujuria.

[wonderweiss]

"Nothing much, just... something to do. And as a matter of fact, I think I may have found something."

She went over and sat over to Isaac.

"Hey there. Sitting alone ain't a good thing, ya know."

[S121]

Ancient City

Isaac looked over to Lujuria and spoke.

"Eh, it's pretty normal to me.", Isaac said in a calmer tone than before.

Isaac knew that he didn't really have to worry about her attacking him, so he seemed a little more approachable than before.