When Kaydence opened her eyes, it was eleven in the morning and her head throbbed like a cartoon finger smashed by a hammer.
It took her a lot of groaning to start piecing together the events of the previous night. It came back to her in flashes and impressions, piece by piece, and it took her a while for her to put them together in any semblance of any order. Let's see... There was the club. That was a good time - she'd be disappointed if it hadn't been. There was that cute guy she met - that had been a very good time indeed. And...
She looked to her bedside table, and saw the plain white card on there.
Oh. There had been that.
The images slowly crawled back into her mind like scolded puppies. Coming home to find the envelope on her bedside table. The other dimension she'd been suddenly brought to - the vibrant colours, the sunshine, the smell of the air. Meeting the metal woman - Lindy, her name was - and. Scattered bits of info on this... Parallel Games thing. What it was about, and why she'd been invited.
She stared at the card for a long, long time.
Then she pulled herself out of bed and ambled to the kitchen.
This tournament thing... how come she hadn't heard of this thing before? Surely Dawn, or even Vent, the two Kobbers who'd had the biggest knowledge of inter-dimensional travel, would have mentioned this before, even if in passing. Why had it only now come to the attention of anybody in this particular dimension? Why hadn't anybody from the Zoofights universe been invited beforehand?
Old, die-hard instincts demanded that she immediately grab the stickiest energy drink she had in the fridge. She ignored it and flicked the kettle on. Coffee sounded like a much better solution.
What was the prize? That was a question that she should have asked right up top. It had to be something big for a tournament that took place across the infinite parallel dimensions. But did they already announce that beforehand, or did they keep that a secret for when the tournament began? And if the latter, why? Would it be something dangerous? Something that would give Dawn horrible flashbacks and require Jumpropeman to stand by in case of emergencies?
She turned on the hob, put a pan on, then began throwing her ingredients together. Egg, cheddar, home-made ketchup, pepper and parsley. Throw that between two slices of toasted bread.
Mmmmh. Pure genius.
Why her? There were plenty of other candidates in the Zoofights universe alone for this thing! People way stronger than her! People who'd done really cool shit! Why not her boss, or any of the other OG Kobbers out there who'd done it for way longer? And even if not, why not somebody from that Weav place? Why not a Planeswarden? Why-?
She stopped chewing as she realised why she was thinking like this. She remembered how she felt as the tournament was explained to her, and recognising why she was feeling that way.
She drew in a breath through her nose.
And then... she calmly and quietly finished her breakfast. She took two paracetamol and chased it down with the last of her coffee. She took a long shower, paying special attention to her hair. She found some clean clothes and put them on, and then picked up her dirty ones, threw them into the washing machine and set them to go. And by that time, the headache was mostly gone.
She went back to her bedroom and picked up the invitation from her bedside table. She looked at it for a long, long time.
Then she looked up, although she couldn't quite explain why.
"Lindy?" she said aloud. "I've made my decision-"
And then she was gone again.
---
The same place. The same clean, glossy architecture. The same air, so crisp and fresh that it risked cutting the inside of your nose. The same glassy tubes filled with the thick, slowly-bubbling liquid. The same distant ambience that might have been music if you could stretch your definition of the word to near-breaking point. The same blue sky, warm sun and gently-blowing green grass.
Kaydence took in another breath, then turned around.
And there she was.
"Hello, Kaydence!" said Lindy as she strolled closer. "Feeling better after last night?"
Kaydence nodded. "Yeah, a lot better. Easier to make decisions when you're head doesn't feel like a rhino rampaged through it."
"Fair enough." The Rafkah's smile didn't leave her face for an instant as she reached her destination, stopping just a few feet from the other woman. "So... have you decided if you wish to join the Parallel Games?"
Kaydence looked between the metallic, silver-white figure in front of her and the card in her hand for several moments. For an awful instant, she began to second-guess herself - doubt about her decision gnawed at the edges. She briefly wondered what her boss would say - but no. That was part of the problem, wasn't it? That was why she was doing it.
She looked Lindy in the eyes.
"I've decided..." She licked her lips, then plunged ahead. "I'm not entering the tournament."
"Oh?" Lindy tilted her head. "Care to explain why?"
"Because..."
Kaydence inhaled deeply. God, she hated doing this, actually. She'd done this too many times - with Julia, with Dawn, with other people around her. And even after all that time, baring her emotions like this still fucking sucked. Why not just rip open her own chest, point at her heart and say 'stab away'? But she knew why she had to do it. Because the alternative saw her in the hospital, or screaming at the bottom of a cave as the voices of her parents whispered in her ears.
"Because I know myself. And I know that I have a really bad habit of trying to farm external validation. I need to prove myself, all the time, because I've spent years being told I'm just a cog in a machine by capitalist vultures. It's taken three years - not counting the time spent training in a time-differentiated pocket dimension - to make me start thinking the opposite. That I'm good enough. That I don't need other people telling me I'm cool and badass to feel that way. Because I'm in a much better place, with a boss who cares about my welfare and good things around me and people who'd blow up planets if it meant helping me."
She looked at Lindy, and was somewhat perturbed to see the Rafkah wasn't smiling, but looking at her very keenly now.
"But I still struggle with it. I still keep seeing everything as a challenge to be overcome, not as an experience to be lived in. And it makes me do really stupid shit, like trying to fight a colony of blind meat-moss monsters on my own. So if I enter this thing, I'm not going to be doing it for a good reason. I'll be doing it because the worms in my head want people to gawk at me so I can feel good. And I'm trying really, really hard not to think like that anymore."
Stop, said the part of her that she hated. Backtrack. Say you want to enter this damn thing, right now. But she plunged on, because that was exactly what she was talking about.
"So... no. I can't enter this thing. Not right now. I need to get a handle on this whole 'value myself' thing."
She expected... what? A longer pause? For Lindy to look disappointed? That last one definitely wasn't happening, the woman looked as though she'd had a cheerful demeanour hammered into her brain at brith. Kaydence didn't know what kind of a response to expect, honestly. Which made it all the more jarring when Lindy simply nodded her head.
"That's fair enough," she said. "I understand. Not everyone feels like they're ready to enter this in good faith. In fact, that's the main reason most decline an invitation."
Kaydence stared. "Really?"
"Yep! Most people actually feel like they aren't good enough to participate. That their skills or character aren't adequate for what the Parallel Games are. Or that they don't want to use the tournament to validate themselves. So they turn down the offer. And that's not counting the arrogant types. 'Oh, I already know I'm the strongest around'," Lindy boomed in a mocking, deep voice. "'I don't need your little shindig to prove I'm the greatest! Take your invite and shove it!'"
Kaydence laughed. She couldn't help it - and Lindy laughing along with her didn't hurt.
Part of her seriously wondered why she did that. Maybe it was something in the air of this place which, otherwise, was little more than a cross between a manicured garden and a corporate show pavilion. Certainly not really a place to feel at ease, in her experience. Perhaps it was just relief from overcoming nerves. Or maybe her mind was put at ease by Lindy, by her professional yet friendly and understanding demeanour, by the way her laugh mingled with her own, by the way the sun glinted off of her-
Damn it, Kaydence, focus!
"But we do have an option for you," Lindy went on. "You've obviously shown interest in the Parallel Games, so why don't I put you down on our list for next year? You'll receive an invitation at the same time next year, and you can accept if you're feeling up for it then. And if you don't and decline again, then we shan't bother you anymore. How does that sound?"
Normally, Kaydence hated being on lists. Because usually that meant mailing lists, which she just shunted into the spam folder without a thought, or a list of 'most wanted troublemakers'. But everything Lindy had just said seemed like a good compromise. Not a complete rejection, but a chance to see how she felt next time - assuming she did feel more up for it.
So she nodded. "Yeah, that's alright."
"Great!" Lindy's almost-manicured smile was back on her face as she took a step or two away. "Thank you for showing interest in the Parallel Games! Hope to see you next year!"
She snapped her fingers-
---
-and Kaydence was back in her room.
She spent the next moment, once again, trying to adjust to the change in atmosphere. Lower-quality air - ugh, especially in this room! Light harsher and less caring of her eyesight. A sky not quite so saturated in blue-ness. And the strange feeling in her chest that maybe, just maybe...
She sighed. A small smile spread over her face.
Then she put the card back on the table, turned and left the bedroom.
---
Lindy looked at the space where a human had been a few moments ago. The faint smell of tangerines lingered in the air - remnant energy particles of trans-dimensional travel, quickly filtered out and destroyed by the atmospheric purification systems. Her internal systems told her that the air quality in this zone had risen from 97% back to the expected 99%.
Then she turned and walked back through the double doors.
The corridor was long, and mostly consisted of glossy white material halfway between plastic and steel. The roof and walls were all one structure - only a seam between the floor and the bottom of the walls showed any sign of manufacture. Tall, rounded rectangles of glass intersected the corridor's length like the windows on an aeroplane, and the sunlight steaming in made her silver-white poly-alloy skin glitter as she walked. Benches sat under each window, their green, leather-like material - and the blue stripe along the floor to mark the pathway - serving as the only colour in the otherwise sterile structure.
Her footsteps clacked like tin castanets as she walked down and, when illuminated white text in the wall itself told her she was headed for "Central Control", took an immediate sharp left. Another set of doors swung open, bringing her into the next room.
It looked, for all the world, like another lounge. Seats of various designs and colours, a white table-like structure in the centre with a potted plant. And outside, one could see deckchairs looking out over the verdant green fields and disant view of the city. Only a screen on one side, displaying the hourly outdoor conditions - currently another perfect 24°C with mild breeze - suggested this was anything else.
With practiced ease, Lindy sat in one of the green leather seats opposite said screen, which squished comfortably underneath her.
A shame, really. They'd examined many other candidates across that particular dimension. And there had been a lot of good choices! The Svilzerians and their long history of dabbling in both the technological and the supernatural - obvious crowd favourites. Eddie Riggs would have definitely brought some colour to this year's tournament with his retro 'heavy metal' feel. Any one of the Kamen Riders or Symphogear wielders would have been interesting to watch. And as for any of the modern Kobbers...!
But rules were rules. The candidate had to be a native to the dimension they selected. The Hosts were quite clear on that regard - a Jenny Anywhere had gotten into the last-but-one tournament, and their reaction had been... unpleasant. So the Weavworld crew were a no-go - at least until official contact was made. As was a large swathe of those who'd originated from other planes, like Ventus Light or the Planeswardens themselves.
And out of all the potential candidates they'd picked out, it seemed like Kaydence was the best bet. She had a lot going for. Classic underdog story of someone trying to prove themselves. Could have matched her up against Delsin Rowe from Earth IF-2015 - that would have been quite the show! And she had good looks on her side, too. Even Lindy, who was of a species that prized functional beauty more than aesthetics, could see that. She'd definitely win viewership points based on her appearance alone - from pretty much any gender demographic.
After all, Lindy had already rated her a ten in her own mind-
The Rafkah shook her head and chuckled to herself. Gosh, she was getting more and more distracted these days! Maybe she was overdue for a defragging session, as her fellow thoughtforms would have told her.
Oh, well. It was all pretty much sorted now, anyway. Now there was work to be done and preparations to be made. She reached out with one hand and described a circle with her index finger. The screen changed, going from the calming sky blue to a deep, almost cosmic purple-black tingled with blue. A list slid into view across the background - names, dates, icons.
But Lindy didn't need to look at the screen, as the same data was flashing through her head like fireflies on a summer night. Sword of Omens. Deathly Hallows. Subtle Knife. Chaos Emeralds (Earth StH-1993). Kamidogu. And this year's prize - the Mask of Light.
She half-wondered if maybe not telling Kaydence what the prize was might have been a bad call. That was really the big hook of the Parallel Games, after all. Most people didn't care for the whole 'prove your mettle' or 'compete for the fun of it' mentality, they needed a reason. A carrot on a string, so to speak. And the Hosts had made it explicit that no mere carrot would do. It had to be the biggest, shiniest carrot possible. Nobody would enter an interdimensional tournament for a mere paperweight.
She flicked through the list of items on screen with subtle movements of her fingers. Of course, they weren't necessary - her mind could do the job just as quickly. But it helped her focus as she ran down the names on screen.
Of course, there had to be conditions. You couldn't just hand things like this to anyone, or who knows what would happen? So one of those conditions was that the prize was usually kept a big secret, up until the tournament officially began. The whole idea was that it was meant to be a big surprise. Tease the competitors with the idea of something grand to get them on board. Then, once they were hooked, show them the actual stakes that they would be competing for. And by then, they'd be too invested to back out - or they would try even harder.
But maybe that was becoming more and more of a liability. Maybe if Kaydence had an idea of what the stakes were at the start...
There.
She flicked her pinky finger. And an image came up on the screen. The item that she had selected for the next Games' prize.
She leaned back in her chair and smiled.
Carrot found.
TOURNAMENT ARC
is delayed until 2027
(apologies)
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