Oscar

Oscar had been on the back foot for long enough. It was time to reset. Refocus. Remember who he was. Or, more specifically, remember just who it was Tyson was fucking with. The boy had always known him to be a good man blessed with infinite patience and restraint. And that was true, to an extent. But he, too, had his demons. Demons that he could now safely allow to come out and play. Tyson had assumed Oscar to be a good man. In reality, Oscar was a barely-contained rage monster that kept it all underwraps simply because of the lessons learned in his formative years. Simply because violence was

Of course it was. The sorrow evaporated from the echo’s eyes as his fingers coiled around the Hoya. He could rebuild. He could make amends. And most importantly, he could win. He would win. There was simply no other option. Oscar would allow for no other alternative. “It’s really quite simple,” Oscar explained to his twin. “If our own self-loathing couldn’t put us down, there really isn’t anyone or anything else that can. We’re better than that. He,” Oscar trailed off, pointing at the echo. “Is better than that. Fucked up as we were back then. Beaten down and bloodied with our b

Oscar wasn’t ashamed to admit that this was his lowest point. The fight had all but evaporated from him. He’d lost his way, lost his purpose. Everything he’d fought so hard for. He stepped into a Raid and failed. He tried to outmaneuver Tyson and failed. He’d abandoned his friends, his Guild, and even his very purpose. It would have been so easy to put an end to it all. To be done with the game and the fight. And Oscar wouldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t tempted. He’d fought so hard and for what? A self-imposed exile and the loss of everything and everyone he valued? Why bother anymore? The Ot

“Cordelia,” the Echo said. “Cordelia,” Oscar agreed. “What happened?” “We happened,” Oscar said with a shrug. “Don’t really know where she is now. Know she’s not dead, if that helps at all. But she had the good goddamn sense to get the fuck away from us.” It was true. One day, she was just gone. She’d taken everything but left behind the Hoya. Oscar got the memo. He didn’t try to find her. He didn’t try to fight for her. She hadn’t wanted him to, clearly. It wasn’t as if he was in any position to do so anyway. An entire PK Guild breathing down his neck and all. “Did we

“Might have been intimidating if you showed up to harass that version of us,” Oscar said with a chipper tone. “Hell, might have even had me take a long walk off a short cliff and just be done with it all.” The echo opened the door he was stood in front of and disappeared inside. Oscar and the Other followed suit. He had an entire manor, but this room had been where he had spent the majority of his time. It was stylized as a small apartment. A small kitchenette, clean and sterile as Oscar left it. A bed with disheveled blankets. It had been slept in at some point, but had never been remade

“I was fortunate enough for my life to freeze when I stepped away from it,” Oscar said. “Doesn’t happen in the real world. But that’s not to say everything was as it was.” Where Leeroy & Jenkins dashed up the stairs, Oscar led his twin to bank a sharp left. As they did, they saw a third version of themselves. An echo of the past. Looking at the memory of himself, Oscar noticed how tired he looked. World-weary and under-rested. The solitude had taken its toll. The running and hiding had worked their devilish magic upon him, sapping him of all the things that made him, him. He looked, q

“I already dealt with this,” Oscar continued. He stepped forward, his fingers wrapping around the knob. There was a heavy click as he turned the handle, a loud creak as the door opened inward. Deep shadows filled the interior. Undaunted, Oscar stepped inside beckoning his twin to follow. As he crossed the threshold, the manor came alive. Lights in sconces along the wall burst to life one by one. A soft lilt of music could be heard on the air and the skittering of nails on the stone floor added to the melody. His hound came to life with the manor, dashing around Oscar and his twin in excit

“Surprised,” Oscar asked with a chuckle. “We’re in my mind. I’m taking the wheel for a bit. Come along.” Oscar strode through the gate, with The Other following close behind. As they approached the door, they were greeted by Oscar’s twin-headed Cerberus. His trusted familiar had been left behind too. Frozen just as the manor was, stuck in time, waiting for Oscar to cross the threshold once more. The beast sat back on his haunches, eyes fixed toward the gate. A fearsome sentinel guarding his Master’s sanctum. As Oscar approached the door, he paused for a moment to scratch his familiar behi

A long silence passed between Oscar and his hallucination. Down below, the view shifted. An abandoned manor among the crags stretched about below them. If this were the real world, perhaps the shrubs would have become overgrown. Perhaps nature would have begun to reclaim the marble tiles. Plants forcing their way through the cracks and crevices, widening them and cracking the opulent stone. It was a stark reminder that they were not in the real world; this was a game. A game with consequences no less dire, but a game nonetheless. Rather than being overgrown by flora, the manor stood resolute.

“Warlords always justify employing their child soldiers.” “Child soldiers? You dumb?” “You could have left. You could have disappeared. You could have done all you could to remove the target from them.” “Did you forget? I did. I went to ground right after I did all of this. I so badly hoped that they would never need to use the skills they learned. Tyson came after them anyway. Or did you forget that incident was what brought me back from my little sabbatical.” The Other fell silent. Oscar realized that it was simply echoing the same thoughts that he’d had about the situati

“You put children at risk to fight in your war,” The Other said. Oscar could only laugh, then. It was a ludicrous observation. A contortion of reality meant to pluck at his guilt once more. “Oh don’t give me that,” Oscar said with a chuckle. “That’s so weak. You know exactly what I did and why I did it. Those field trips saved lives.” It hadn’t taken long, really. Oscar guiding the children at the orphanage three-by-three through the Tutorial. Grinding mobs on Floor One until they had the levels necessary to invest heavily into stealth and first aid. Employing Crafters on the low to

The fields of Floor One stretched out before them. In the distance, the Town of Beginnings could be seen. The threat had been well and truly established now. Oscar had shaken - killed - the tail Tyson had put on him. Having invested heavily into Searching, it was damn near impossible to keep a stealthed PKer on him. It gave Oscar a small window of opportunity. A chance to turn a weakness into an advantage. Oscar knew, at some point, Tyson would come after the Orphanage in Town. He didn’t think that Tyson would kill children, but he couldn’t put much past him. Thus, a field trip was in order. I

“What if you fail again? What if someone else dies? Can you take all that pain?” It was hard to argue against himself - the literal embodiment of his own guilt and insecurities. It was a constant fear, failing like that again. And having the question posed to him in such a way was almost enough to shake his resolve. Almost. The anger faded and the smile returned to Oscar’s face. “I’m not gonna,” he said. “They caught me by surprise. Took advantage of my hesitation. I was trying to figure out why they were after me. Us. I don’t care about the whys anymore. If they’re a threat, I’ll re

“I’m sure that will be of great comfort to Jason’s widow and fatherless daughter.” Oscar scowled as anger flared in his eyes. “That’s just another reason. They deserve to know what happened. That, even in his final moments, he was a good man. That he stood up for his friends. That it was his sacrifice that made me work so hard to get everyone out of here.” “What do you expect to happen then? Gratitude? Do you think you deserve it after getting them killed?” “Fuck no,” Oscar said. “I don’t deserve anything more than their contempt. I got him killed. But they deserve closure. They

That was the day it all went to shit, Oscar realized. His first time killing another Player. His brutality earned him the moniker “Beast” among the PKers who were suddenly shocked to see one man add five names to the Monument in one day. He became aware of the threat closing in around him. And he had no choice but to play Tyson’s game. “Do you still think you can save them?” “I told you. Of fucking course I do,” Oscar responded quickly. “Even if I fail, I have to believe that. If I don’t move with that intention, I will simply continue to fail. More people will die. I’m not a hero.

Oscar watched from above as Jason stuck a dagger in his back. Five Players stepped out from behind the trees. Seeing them again reignited that hate he felt that day. They deserved worse than what Oscar gave them. Jason and Oscar had a plan, but they couldn’t have expected the PKers demand that Jason do their dirty work for them. But Jason was a good man. He planted his feet and refused. He wouldn’t kill a friend. Of course, their enemies knew that. That, too, was simply pretense. They used his refusal to justify his execution, thinking that Oscar was incapable of reprisal. Two of them die

The scene unfolded beneath them. Tyson’s men began to extort Jason, threatening Oscar’s life to motivate him. Eventually, when the two crossed paths again, Jason had leveled up and become stronger. He decided to help Oscar with a Quest, but it was all a pretense to lure him out of the safe zone at the PKer’s orders. But Jason was a good man. His conscience won out and warned Oscar of the impending danger. They had formulated a plan to strike back at the PKers. Oscar would pretend to be paralyzed while Jason distracted the men. When the time was right, Oscar could drop the act and deal with the

But then again, that was the first bit of motivation Oscar got. The first reason to fight. The unfortunate circumstance of a man he’d just met had lit a fire in his chest. He fought not just for himself, but for the sake of someone else ever since that day. Every step, every attack, every quest had been in the furtherance of his intent to join the Frontlines and actually help people like Jason escape this Hell. And it was a difficult thing to reconcile. In many ways, Jason had given Oscar reason to surpass himself. In life, it was the noble goal of helping everyone escape. And in death, it was

Oscar hated to admit it, but The Other was right. Jason was his first failure. The first of many, he were being honest. The man had been trapped in the game, living his life in peace on Floor 2. His wife back in the real world was almost due to deliver their newborn daughter. In a rare opportunity to blow off some steam, Jason had decided to join the Launch of the game. Only, he was trapped within it. It was already bad enough that he had missed his daughter’s birth. Missed hearing her first cries. Missed being there for his wife at that perfect, beautiful moment. He had given Oscar his hospit

“Do you really think you can save them?” The Other posed the same question. This time, Oscar wasn’t taken aback by the suddenness of it all. He had an answer. Of course he did.. He didn’t come this far and struggle this much not to be able to answer something so simple. “Of course I do,” Oscar replied with a smile. “Why the fuck would I waste my time if I didn’t? You’re Me. You know how I get.” The Other was silent for a moment. His eyes narrowed at Oscar’s response. “What about Jason, then? You didn’t save him.” Oscar’s face twitched. A flash of emotion danced across

“Oh shit,” Oscar said with a laugh. “I’m totally seeing things. Guess I couldn’t hold out forever.” The disparity was jarring. One version of Oscar broken down by the stresses of his ordeal, the other smiling in amusement at the scene unfolding before him. He knew which was the real him. He knew what the other Oscar represented. All of his repressed feelings of inadequacy. His self-doubt and worries. An amalgamation of issues long stuffed down deep, payment deferred to a later date. That date had arrived, it seemed. Oscar was not immortal, neither was he invulnerable. He was self-aware en

It was nice to be able to grind mobs once again. The first group had fallen easily and now he was firmly locked in combat with the second. He could turn his mind off at times like this. Almost act on autopilot, cleaving mobs with wild abandon. At some point, he completely dissociated. His mind left his body, leaving it to carve through the forest as his thoughts wandered. And then he heard it, a voice from behind. “Do you really think you can save them?” Oscar wheeled around. When he did, he found that the forest was gone. He found himself standing upon an endless expanse of shadows.

It was a funny feeling to take his armor off. He’d been a steadfast wall for quite some time. He felt almost naked seeing his mitigation drop to the low double digits. If there was a time when such a thing would make him feel nervous, he couldn’t remember it. He was sure it had happened, but he couldn’t place exactly when he’d made that shift. Oscar wouldn’t say that he didn’t value his life. In fact, it was quite the opposite. But he valued his goals more. They were worth the risk. His task was worth the risk. They were responsibilities he foisted upon himself - no one had asked him to do it.

And if he was going to be introspective, he was going to get a grind done while he was at it. Having wandered through the forest for a while, Oscar stopped and opened his menu. Looking out over his items, his eyes fell upon an old piece of gear. Memories began to flood back. The formative period, when Oscar had no idea what the Hell he was doing. His finger hovered over the entry, hesitating. Remembering the times before it all went to shit. A smile rose to his face as he tapped the entry, donning the <<Gloves of Caerus>> for the first time in recent memory. His inventory was a mes

Sewallus kept the Monkey busy, allowing Oscar to wheel around and deal the final blow. As the standard fanfare played and Sewallus began to congratulate and thank the man, Oscar merely delivered another slap to the NPC’s cheek. It was astonishing how easily it was done. How little risk one needed to undertake now. He had to wonder that had the Quest played out then as it did now, whether it would have affected his current resolve at all. There was a certain thrill in the risk. It brought focus, unfettered restraint. He had become accustomed to do-or-die moments at a very low level and a very e