Four Painful Years

> Why would people pay to protect someone that's going to be dead in four years regardless?

JULIE: "I guess my next question is..."
JULIE: "Who's paying Luca to protect me from bounty hunters?"

VERMILLION: "ME."

JULIE: "... Oh!"

VERMILLION: "SHE COME TO THORNS LOOKING FOR WORK. 'HIGHEST PAYING JOB YOU HAVE,' SHE SAYS. I LAUGH, SAY IT DOES NOT WORK THIS WAY. SHE BOTHERS ME AND BOTHERS ME, AND THEN COTTONHELM CALLS. HE REQUESTS 'LONG TERM ESCORT,' HIGH PAY, HIGH RISK. I TRY TO USE THIS CONTRACT TO SCARE OFF ANNOYING GIRL."
VERMILLION: "BUT SCARE TACTIC BACKFIRED, AND NOW SHE WORKS FOR ME. TO TELL TRUTH, SHE DOES GOOD JOB. SINCE CONTRACT BEGINS, AH... I SAY AROUND TWENTY-SEVEN PEOPLE SHE KILL FOR YOU. SOME, VERY DANGEROUS CRIMINAL. IMPRESSIVE FOR MERE HUMAN. SHOULD HAVE DIED MONTHS AGO."
VERMILLION: "HEH, COTTONHELM AND I HAVE BET GOING... I SAY LUCA WILL DIE BEFORE CONTRACT IS OVER. SHE DIES, I CAN BUILD RECRUITMENT CAMP ON MAGICAL SCHOOL CAMPUS. SHE SURVIVES, I... I MUST PERFORM ENTIRETY OF SWAN LAKE DRESSED LIKE BANANA."

COTTONHELM: "Mm. Alone. As every character. Streamed live to every web-enabled device in the Sol System."

GUDRUN: "Scandalous."

JULIE: "Haha... ehh..."
JULIE: "Okay, so I guess that solves that mystery."
JULIE: "But I don't understand. Why am I being protected? I couldn't be that important, I'm just some avocado-chugging millennial from a town no one cares about. My parents were great, yeah, but they weren't anyone special either, and we're not exactly descended from royalty... Believe me, I've checked."
JULIE: "What is it these crazies are after?"

VERMILLION: "YOUR HEAD."

JULIE: "Well, duh, I figured that much out on my own."

VERMILLION: "NO. YOUR HEAD."

---

The massive Lord Vermillion reaches a giant hand across the divide and prods your forehead with his index finger. Yeah, that's a headache.

---

JULIE: "Guh??"

COTTONHELM: "There's no easy way to broach this issue, so please forgive our apparent lack of tact..."
COTTONHELM: "Miss Mitchells, do you recall ever receiving specific details regarding the mass at the center of your brain?"

JULIE: "Not really... The doctors were always super cagey about what was going on."
JULIE: "They only ever told Dad that whatever it's made of can't be scanned, and that it's gonna keep growing 'till I die."

COTTONHELM: "Hmmm..."

JULIE: "..."
JULIE: "Please don't tell me that has something to do with this."

---

Silence. Cottonhelm shifts uncomfortably while Gudrun clears her throat.

---

COTTONHELM: "I'm afraid it has everything to do with this."
COTTONHELM: "As we speak, hundreds of interested parties are advancing on your last known location, vying to be the ones to get there first. While a good number of them may sort each other out along the way, many more will eventually reach you if you remain in Oregon, and I'm afraid that even the talented Miss Luqashai can't hold back an assault of that scale."

GUDRUN: "Therefore, our best course of action is to relocate you somewhere safe, where we can get you up to speed with the nature of your predicament and hopefully prepare you for the inevitable day we let our guard down and someone acts on it."

JULIE: "Look, that sounds great and all. Seriously, not being murdered sounds like a real treat."
JULIE: "But you still haven't told me what any of this has to do with the thing in my head. Is that what they want? Like, why? What is it?"
JULIE: "If you know what it is that's killing me then I wanna know too!"

GUDRUN: "I'm sorry Julie, but that's classified infor- "

JULIE: "NO!"
JULIE: "Luca told me that you were here to help and that you were cleared to explain everything about what's happening. All three of you people apparently run big-shot academies and libraries and stuff, right? So you're the final authority! Don't give me this 'classified' crap, it's only classified 'cause you said so!"
JULIE: "I can't believe I have to spell this out again; this is totally my business. I deserve to know what's bouncing around inside my stupid defective skull!"

GUDRUN: "Absolutely not! It's a sensitive matter!"

JULIE: "FINE! Then they can just have it!"

---

You jolt from your seat and storm towards the authoritative shadows across from you. Scrawny as you are, you seem to intimidate the two smaller figures as you stick your neck out and scowl in frustration.

---

JULIE: "Here! You know how to do magic or whatever right? Just cast a spell and take it out!"

COTTONHELM: "I-Im sorry, but if it was that simple we wouldn't be in this situation! It's a part of you, removing it would invariably result in death!"

JULIE: "THEN LET ME DIE."
JULIE: "I am so FUCKING tired of living in a world where I have NO GOD DAMN CONTROL over where I go or what I do or who I love or how I feel! Everything in my stupid pathetic life is run by this shit-eating lump in my head, how people treat me, how the world treats me, it's BULLSHIT! I can't have a relationship 'cause I'll just hurt whatever poor schmuck ends up liking me, I can't go five FUCKING minutes without wondering when the headaches are gonna come back, my mood swings like a fucking PENDULUM because of the GOD KNOWS WHAT pushing up against my temporal, I'm so depressed I can't last a day without thinking of death, and now that I'm finally in front of someone that can tell me what's wrong with me, THEY DECIDE IT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. It's not fucking FAIR!"

GUDRUN: "I know, hon, but please understand, it's just better for you not to know..."

JULIE: "WHY!?"

VERMILLION: "BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU ARE TOO WEAK TO BEAR WEIGHT OF GALACTIC BURDEN."

---

Another protracted silence, longer and more tense than the first. This time, even Cottonhelm and Gudrun appear just as shaken as you are.

---

GUDRUN: "You bumbling ignoramus, do you know what you've just done? The goal was not to burden her with the threat cosmic disquiet, were you not listening?"

VERMILLION: "OH. I’M SORRY. I FORGET IMPORTANCE OF ‘EMOTIONAL STABILITY’. THANK YOU, HELENA. YOU REMIND ME THAT HAPPY PERSON IS LESS LIKELY TO BE KILLED THAN SAD PERSON. YES, IF YOU SMILE HARD ENOUGH AT .44 CALIBER BULLET, BULLET RECONSIDERS CAREER AND GOES HOME TO APPLY FOR POSITION AT LOCAL PIZZA PLACE.”
VERMILLION: "LITTLE GIRL DESERVES TO KNOW TRUTH. HOW CAN SHE FIGHT WITHOUT REASON FOR FIGHTING? DEATH IS UPON HER, TEARS CAN COME LATER. NOW IS TIME FOR ACTION.”

COTTONHELM: "As much as I disagree with Vermillion’s tone, I’m afraid he has a point.”

GUDRUN: "I was not aware that Vermillion was capable of sass.”

COTTONHELM: "Indeed.”
COTTONHELM: "Miss Mitchells, allow me to make myself clear. The truth about your illness would be very difficult to take for even the hardest of hearts… Are you absolutely sure you’re up to the challenge of keeping it’s terrible secret?”

JULIE: "You guys make it sound so…
evil. Is it really that bad?”

COTTONHELM: "Yes. For you see, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, it could spell disaster not only for Earth, but the entire Sol System and the very galaxy we call home.”

JULIE: "What…”
JULIE: “What is it?”





































COTTONHELM: "The mass at the center of your brain is a biological superweapon.”

JULIE: “...”
JULIE: “...”
JULIE: “...”
JULIE: “... No.”