Burns So Good

A barrage of rainbow lasers greeted him as he stepped through the mirror and into a colossal dome of color-shifting glass. Whatever John was expecting, it wasn’t this. The spire that crashed through the ceiling of the dome looked more skyscraper than decoration, and he tore his eyes away from it when movement at the corner of his eyes distracted him.

Every manner of creature, humanoid or otherwise, spilled out of all means of transportation. A group of pale elves, like him, came through a large mirror. An iridescent, blinding dragon shook the ground ever so slightly as it dropped through a portal in the ceiling, gliding to the ground with ease. John watched, fascinated, as it shrunk down to a humanoid size and vanished in the crowd. He blinked, and a creature that looked suspiciously like a Brain Sucker appeared on the ground, no portal in sight for it to have come out of. He blinked again, and it was gone. As a group of seemingly ordinary people walked past him, he felt a tug on his hand. As he turned around, he noticed one looking at him with a… wolfish grin.

“C’mon, you can gawk later! Let’s get something to eat while the lunch rush is going on!” Kimberly ordered, pulling him along toward a path where the glass merged together, colors fighting, until orange emerged victorious.

“Wouldn’t you normally want to avoid that?” John asked, being pulled at a torrid pace toward a food court larger than the entirety of the Springfield Mall.

“Just look!” Kimberly replied, grabbing him by the shoulders and steering him in the direction of an open-air sashimi bar with a man in gaudy samurai armor cutting the fish mid-air with a katana that looked more expensive than his house.

“Kimberly, I really want to go find-” John began but was immediately cut off by Kimberly, in a more serious tone than he had ever heard.

“Either shut up and eat or get lost in the club; either way, I’m not dragging you along!” With that, she let go of his hand and sprinted up a flight of stairs toward a suspiciously familiar restaurant with golden arches. John’s stomach rumbled, and he figured he may as well play along with her… for now.

“Isn’t this just McRonalds?” John asked, looking up at the sign before they walked in. He was slightly shocked to find it read “McDonalds”.

“Nope! I don’t exactly know how it works, but every day, new restaurants nobody has ever seen before appear in a few spots here, starting at lunch.” Kimberly explained, getting a place third in line just before a crowd of people surged in, grumbling as they joined the line.

“But it’s just a renamed McRonalds!” John argued, gesturing toward the alleged “McDonalds” name in one of the windows.

“Keith thinks they teleport restaurants here from other dimensions, which would be super illegal and crazy expensive; all I know is that it’s super cool!” Kimberly pressed on, clearly ignoring him.

“See! They have something called a McRib! McRonalds doesn’t have that!” Kimberly exclaimed, pointing at the menu accusingly, as if this crucial piece of evidence proved that it wasn’t just a renamed version of the ever-present fast food change.

“Alright, but after this you take me to whichever section Jenny is in!” John demanded, to which Kimberly sighed in exasperation but nodded.

“She’s probably in Pride; her and Keith had a show there this morning,” Kimberly replied after ordering food for the two of them.

“A Rock and Roll show in the morning?” John asked, carrying their food to a booth.

“The Inferno is international; for a ton of people, it was like eight at night; for others it was like three in the morning,” Kimberly replied through a mouthful of fries, and John suddenly wondered how much time her and Jenny spent together. “Then there’s the people and otherwise that live in Kingdoms. Their time is weird.”

“What exactly is a Kingdom anyway?” John asked, pushing the last of his food around the tray with a plastic fork. He had eaten quickly, thinking Kimberly would do the same thing, but if anything, it was the opposite.

“I don’t really know. I don’t think anybody but their rulers really know. Even they might not know,” Kimberly replied, finishing the chicken sandwich she had ordered.

“Can we please go?” John asked, noticing she had finished a good portion of her food.

“Fine! You were right anyways, aside from the McRib, all of that stuff tastes exactly the same as McRonalds. Well, they can’t all be winners.” Kimberly shrugged as she dumped the rest of their food into the garbage before putting the tray on top. “The drinks from here are weird anyway. Sprite’s a pixie, not a drink.”

“A rib sandwich with no bones in it is unnatural,” John replied uneasily before following her out of the restaurant.

After getting some kabobs at a small stand near the exit, Kimberly showed him to Pride. The only word that could possibly describe it was “glorious”. If not under the hypnotic effect of the music, John would’ve thought the enormous purple neon sign outside which read “PRIDE” tacky, but instead it seemed magnificent. Fitting. What else could it be?

The man who built the section must have felt the laws of physics were less important than the magnanimous beauty of it all, and John was compelled to agree. Only the spire at the entrance had rivaled the height of the balconies which dotted this sin. Higher than the heavens they reigned, each larger than Ashcroft’s auditorium, each a self-contained show. Stripper poles lined the ground floor, and if this sin didn’t feel so comfortable, so… right, John might’ve thought he was in Lust. Disks of plastic allowed them to dance in the air and did nothing to cover the scantily-if at all-clad men, women and everything in between bouncing, dancing, and gyrating on the poles.

What sort of idiot would spend time anywhere else? You’d have to be a total dumbass not to spend all of your time here! As if she could hear him, Kimberly smacked him hard enough that he saw stars, and the destructive train of thought he was on crashed and burned.

“Wow, you are being affected by the enchanted music here hard, worst I’ve seen.” Kimberly explained, and John wondered why he hadn’t been notified that he was being affected. Probably because the club didn’t want me to know, John thought with a shudder, feeling the influence weigh heavily on his mind now. He was barely fighting it off, and a skill popped up.

New Skill: Mental Resistance, Level 1, Active, 0 MP
Using a combination of Wisdom, Willpower, and Intellect, you can stave off mental influences that you are aware of. As your temptation grows, your resistance falls. The longer you have to resist, the harder it gets.

A heavy metal block fought to collapse his mind, and he held it back with all his might. John barely managed to stabilize himself, and his eyebrows scrunched up from the effort. “I’m good now,” John managed, slowly growing acclimated to the dull pressure on his skull, “let’s go!”

She led him through a gaggle of partiers, and for a moment John’s resistance slipped, and he longed to be among them. Worried that he wouldn’t last long, he sought a solution. “I’m going to invite you to a party!” John had to yell over the music which dominated the bottom floor, and Kimberly shook her head in response.

“Keith just texted me! Jenny’s backstage, he’s in Wrath! Go through that door and you should find her eventually!” she replied, shoving him toward an almost unnoticeable indent in the wall. Whether it opened whenever anybody approached or sensed intent, John had no clue. Either way, it opened for him, and he collapsed on his knees inside.

“Jeez, dude, you look like shit.” John looked up, grateful that the influence of the music was greatly diminished here and wondering where he had heard that voice before.

He looked up and saw the same elf he had met in the Rider-Waite base smiling down at him. He couldn’t tell which one. Before he could get a word in, the elf exclaimed, “Oh shit, dude, I totally know you! What’s up man!?”

“Looking for someone, a redhead, about this tall,” John gestured Jenny’s height with his hand before continuing, “blue eyes, probably carrying a bass.”

“Oh dude, you just missed her. She’s going to meet with Aeschylus about fixing that thing. Thought it was a guitar. Be good though, man, she’s in a bad mood. Just head through that hallway, right through that door. You might want to wait until she gets out though; interrupting Aeschylus when he’s making a deal is almost as bad as interrupting Dante.” With that the tall, lax elf patted him on the back, spilling a tiny bit of a midnight blue drink on the floor. It immediately disappeared. “Whoops, anyways, gotta go! See you later, man!”

John walked into the hallway the man said and put his ear against the door at the end, immediately hearing Jenny’s voice.

“Alright, enough with the third degree, how much is this going to cost me?” Jenny asked the lanky man. To say that he looked sleazy would be an understatement. Outfitted in a grimy leather jacket and matching leather pants, Jenny wondered what he was getting paid. His brown, slicked back hair did him no favors, and when he wasn’t looking at the shattered instrument, he was looking at her tits or ass. Idly, Jenny thought he was working the wrong sin. If they were still sharing thoughts, John would’ve pointed out that was probably intentional.

“Yeeees. Yes, yes, yes. Hmm…” His dirty hands caressed her bass, and she shuddered lightly. “A custom job. Very old. Very magical. Yeees.

“You would not be willing to pay with your body?” Aeschylus inquired, and it took her everything she had not to slap him in the face. Instead, she showed rare composure. “No thanks, I’d rather sleep with a dead possum.” Well, more composed than attacking him. “I’m in a relationship anyway. I’m not going to sleep around.”

“Hmph. Fine then. One hundred trillion dollars,” he replied curtly, dropping what was left of her bass on the table.

Jenny’s jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered, “That is beyond ridiculous, and you know it!” Out of the corner of her, eye she saw a party invite from John, making the corners of her mouth pick up just an inch. I guess that means he’s close? I thought he had to see me for that. She discreetly tapped accept as she put her hands on her hips.

“What was that?” Aeschylus yelled, pointing at her accusingly; “I detected some magic!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jenny shot back, “you know that I wouldn’t be able to do anything that could even hope to affect you without my bass.”

“Quite right. Fine then. Ten million dollars, and the name of this man you’re exclusive with,” Aeschylus offered with a predatory grin, “and the promise that if you become available you’ll tell me?” The innocence in his eyes couldn’t be less believable, and the grin hadn’t left his face.

That’d be everything that’s left in my savings account, except like a thousand bucks. It’s supposed to last me until Dad gets back on his feet. I don’t need to worry about the shop, because that gets taken out of the family account, but… I don’t like that look on his face. I mean, I normally don’t, he’s a scumbag. More than all that, I definitely don’t want anything to happen to you... but he’s the only guy I know, maybe the only guy out there, that can still fix my bass, Jenny thought, the conflict obvious on her face.

Do it, John thought back, and while normally she would’ve argued like hell, even in this situation, the resolve in his mental voice stayed her thoughts. I’m about to become a bounty hunter anyways; they’ll protect me. It was a gamble at best; he had no idea if the organization would actually protect or what being a bounty hunter would entail.

Alright. Alright. So you got a letter from those guys too? Jenny thought but never heard his answer as she replied, “Deal.”

Aeschylus held out a slimy hand, and she hesitatingly shook it, a deep, red line connecting them for a brief moment before she broke away. “What the hell was that!?”

“Insurance,” he replied simply, sitting down in the chair behind the desk, “for both of us. Now, the name?”

“John Newman,” Jenny tentatively said, pulling up her phone; “The funds will be transferred when it’s approved. You said it’ll take a week?”

“That’s right. See you then, beautiful,” he attempted to caress her cheek, but she was already up and toward the door.

“I need a drink,” Jenny said, slamming the door behind her and dragging John back toward the club. “And you!”

“Me?” John replied, innocently blinking before his girlfriend roughly grabbed him and crashed her lips against his, grabbing his crotch almost painfully.

“We are going to fuck tonight. It’s been too long. I’m taut like a… a…” Jenny stumbled

And John helpfully supplied, “A piano wire?”

“Sure! Like a piano wire, if that’s something that’s super taut.” She dragged him to the bar and ordered the same blue drink he had seen the elf drinking for the both of them.

She **** it into his hands before downing hers, and he followed suit. With his girlfriend grinding on him, the enchanted music, and the searing **** combined, he had no hope to resist any longer. In a flurry of flesh, music, and drinks,