(Edited with Grammarly on 5/14/2026)
"We should be good here."
Albert said, turning around to fully face the girl. The area itself wasn't all that different, just a little more populated than before, while also receiving a little bit of the ambient light from a nearby lamp. The music itself was lower, the thumping less, and even the people were a lot more subdued as they just stood around chatting.
Taking the chance to look at her, he had to admit that she could be considered cute in a nerdy kinda way. Standing just shorter than him, she had short dark brown hair stuffed under a simple green cap. Wearing these bright red, wire-frame glasses, they did nothing but make her hazel eyes appear larger than they already were. Combine that with the heavy smattering of freckles across her nose and her round face, and she looked a bit like the classic girl next door in one of those cheesy high school movies.
She wore a simple green, oversized turtleneck and extremely baggy jeans. But what really caught his eye was the necklace dangling from her neck. It had six edges, with lines etched at different angles to give it the illusion of depth. Most of these 'sides' were empty, except for a stylized twenty emblazoned in the middle of a triangle smack dab in the middle.
A hand suddenly came up, and looking up, he realized he might've been staring for a bit longer than was proper. As the girl, who was already off kilter from the previous events, now had her arms wrapped around herself as though to hide herself from his view. Across her face sat a put-upon and embarrassed expression.
"Oh!" He tried to put on a small smile, trying and failing to disarm her. "I'm sorry! I wasn't...I was looking at your necklace."
"...Right."
"No, really!" The disbelief in her tone was easy for him to hear, and with every passing moment, he could literally see her begin to close in tighter around herself. "It's a twenty-sided die, right? Then, what kind of tabletop games do you play?"
"Yeah," Like a turtle, she peeked out at him from behind her shield. Hesitantly, she engaged further. "I play a little bit of everything with my friends, some Dungeon Diving here or some Sword in the Stone there...But I personally like Dark Lands the most."
"You play Dark Lands as well?" He couldn't do anything to stop his eyes from lighting up with interest. Dark Lands was a lot less crunchy than a lot of the tabletop games on the market right now; in fact, the entire ruleset was compact enough to fit on both sides of a simple sheet of paper. But also generic enough that it could be used in any genre he could think of. In fact, it was that very game that he still played with Harley, Ivy, and sometimes Darnell, when he could spare the time from fixing up his apartment building. "What kind of setting do you play in? I've run a few dark and high fantasy games, but I really want to try a sci-fi one just to see how it would work."
"You run Dark Land games?! Your friends are so lucky!" And just like that, another wall was knocked down. Even taking a step closer, she began to talk far more animatedly than before. "My friends only ever want to play Dungeon Diving! Says it's because of how broken they can make their characters, but whenever I can get our DM to switch up systems, I always make sure to beg her for that! She's slowly coming around to it, but I've also played a few high fantasy Dark Land games, and there's this one time she turned it into a Western. Like cowboys, saloons, and all that! That game was amazing! I never had so much fun in my life!... Oh, I'm sorry, I never got your name."
"You can call me Toby."
"Well, Toby, you talk like a fey...Wait, I know I'm stalling, but were you hanging out with Rhea and her friends about an hour ago?"
"...Yeah?"
He didn't like where this was going; he'd rather forget all about his rather embarrassing exit...no exile from said group.
"You're the guy!"
"The 'guy'?"
Yeah, he could already feel the urge to curl up within himself like a roly-poly creeping up on him.
"The raccoon guy!"
"Wha-what does that mean?"
But he knew why that nickname had been slapped onto him, just that innate denial welling up to try and shield the remaining shreds of his pride.
"You know...you were dancing like you were a dying raccoon infected with rabies," She giggled excitedly, clapping her hands together in rapid succession as she tried and failed to hold herself together. "And maybe suffering from a seizure? But that's just what I heard...Could you show me? I promise, I swear, I won't laugh...Okay, maybe a little bit!"
"...No." That wasn't up for discussion in the slightest, and honestly, he was glad that this face was going to be retired after tonight. There was no way he was willing to be equated with such a horrifying picture. His dancing hadn't been that awful...right? Shaking his head more vehemently, he continued. "I would rather keep that terrible nickname in the past."
"C'mon!" She begged, pressing her palms together in a silent prayer. A wide smile exposing twin purple wires along her teeth and a single dimple on the left side of her chin. "Just once! Once and I'll never ask again! I'm sure it's not THAT bad! Besides, everyone probably already knows now! It's going to follow you back to school anyway!"
"I don't go to school with you guys, thank goodness, honestly."
He could deal with some light ribbing at his expense, but there was no way in hell he was ever going to force himself to go through high school all over again. Once was enough for many lifetimes to come.
"Oh." She looked a bit stunned for a moment, that smile freezing on her face before slumping slightly. As if all the wind had been taken out of her sails. "That's too bad...I was kinda excited, you know? Just knowing someone else shared my same interests, but it's fine. Where do you go to school?"
"I don't go to school."
Here he grinned, feeling some amount of unearned pride. Just imagining trying to balance school life with his main gig was enough for him to know it would've never worked out. He probably would've tried for a solid month before just dropping out altogether.
"You don't? What do your parents say about that? Oh, and about Dark Lands? I have to hide my copies from my mom, or she'll throw them away, saying it's demonic."
"I don't have to worry about that, either. I graduated early, and I'm fully emancipated. Been living on my own for about three-ish months now?"
"How?! Do your parents pay for your apartment? What kind of job are you working? Are they hiring? Wait...sorry, I'm doing it again, I can't help it, you know? I'm Stella, it's nice to meet you, Toby!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well...And to answer your question, no, my parents don't pay for my living expenses, and I'm primarily doing freelance work. Have you ever been down to the park and seen that massive notice board? Yeah, I mostly get work from there…But I might have to fight you if you try to poach some of the better jobs there."
"No!" Stella giggled madly, slapping his arm playfully as she did so. It was a hiccuping type of laugh, where she took in heavy amounts of air between each chuckle. "You can keep all those jobs to yourself! But, yeah, I know the board you're talking about...Then you must go there a lot, right? When?... If it's not too much to ask, of course! Just curious, is all!"
"Well, when I first came to Gotham, I used to go there pretty often, but not so much anymore. Found some more permanent work, and that usually takes up a lot of my time. I feel like I don't really have a lot of free time these days, but what about you?"
"Same, honestly." She looked slightly more defeated at his answer, an expression of trepidation crossing her features. "School and homework eat up most of my weekdays, and my weekends are filled with our weekly gaming sessions. But maybe you could join for one week? I can ask my friends, but I'm sure no one would say no! They're all super nice...Well, most of them can be nice when they're not being weird…"
"Speaking of them," He looked around at the crowd once more, they both knew it was more a symbolic gesture than anything else. "Where are they? Did you come here by yourself or something?"
"Oh them…" She brushed a loose strand of brunette hair behind an ear, scowling deeply as she answered. "No, I didn't come alone. In fact, I came with three of my other friends. I always wanted to go to one of these parties, but Nomi, our DM, refused to ever set foot here. With her out, my other three guy friends agreed to go with me, but they got stopped at the door by Derick of all people. And by the time I realized they'd gotten stopped, I was already all alone here. I tried to call them a few times and leave, but they kept telling me that they'll be here soon or whatever...I just hope they don't do anything stupid."
"Ah." He nodded sagely, vividly remembering the scene from early that night. "Well then, do you mind if I keep you company until they get here?"
"Of course!" Stella said a little too quickly before she slapped a hand over her mouth with red flushing her cheeks, light brown eyes going as wide as saucers as she quickly tried to backtrack. "I mean, sure, if you want...But I should make some things clear; It doesn't matter how charming you might be, I'm really, really not ready for anything more than just talking. So please, please don't expect anything more than this. I'm saying this now before I get swept up by you. Please respect that. But if it's really a deal breaker...I-I guess som-"
"It's fine." He waved his hands around in a calming gesture, a congenial smile coming through. Maybe it felt a bit tight to him, too forced. Maybe it was because he'd seen more of the world by relying on his past life memories, but it was clear she was interested in him in a romantic way. A crush through and through. This was new to him. But he couldn't help but feel a slightly hollow feeling in his chest. They might have a few hobbies in common, and she might show interest now, but wasn't it just his mask doing all the heavy lifting here? It hadn't really been a question with Rhea, as she barely had enough time to look him over for her to be enamored. Her interest had only ever been physical, and it was likely the case here as well. A darker, more jaded part of him already knew the truth. "I'm not really for anything besides this anyway."
The girl deflated instantly, shoulders slumping low with a relieved smile blooming across her face.
"Good that we're on the same note! Then let me tell you about our western! It all started with us fishing for gold…"
'It's just a job.' That same part of him butted in, almost consoling him in its own cynical way. 'Even if it is that face doing all the heavy lifting, why should we care? It's not like we planned on pursuing a relationship with anyone here. Besides, dragging someone into our lives would be the height of irresponsibility, negligence, maybe. And even malicious.'
And did exactly that, separating himself mentally from the conversation altogether. He was running away, that he knew. Running opposite to his previous goals. But that didn't matter now as he smiled and nodded along with her story.
***
"So-so, wait!" Stella snorted, not even covering her mouth as she fell into another giggling fit. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes alight with humor as she tried and failed to hold herself together. Completely free and uncaring of the dirty looks she received from nearby partygoers, or maybe she just didn't notice them. Whatever the case, it was nearly something worth envying over. "She-she did what again?!"
"As I said," Albert grinned wryly, a chuckle just dying to pass through his lips. "I did try to give her fair warning, but she wasn't willing to listen! So when suplexed the princess for the third time on that same day, there had to be consequences! I just didn't expect her to get so lucky with her rolls, though! An entire platoon of royal knights, trained from birth and raised into physical monsters just to get suplexed into next week! And don't even get me started on the nobles that tried to break things up…"
"All that!" She slapped his shoulder suddenly, using him to hold herself up as she tried to resist curling in on herself from the stomach-clenching laughter. "For-for five gold?! Did she suplex the king, too? He was the one who tried to stiff them on their reward!"
"Well...no, not exactly."
"...Well?! I'm not getting any younger here, Toby! C'mon, spill!"
"She didn't suplex the leader of an entire nation, not that would be far too undignified. She had something better in mind, she got some crazy good escape rolls and charged right for him, and it didn't matter how many spells were tossed her way, she still wound up right up next to the king, and before he knew it, she had him in a hold and proceeded to piledrive him into his own throne!"
"Oh my god!" Whatever composure she'd been able to scrounge together was lost just then, a peal of giggling so loud that the dirty looks being sent their way grew in numbers. Ranging from annoyance to something more longing to even a few glares of jealousy. But at that point, he was beyond caring. As for the first time since coming to this party, he'd actually been having fun here. Having fun exchanging crazy adventures from each other's games, having fun bemoaning the expensive cost of books, and genuinely just enjoying each other's company. There was no pressure, no awkward pause in their conversation, or even any jokes missing their mark. "Now, I'm calling bullshit! How?! I thought wizards were supposed to be weak?! I would've believed it if it had been that goblin barbarian you've been telling me about, but not her! Didn't you say she's usually pretty chill about things?"
"Cross my heart, it happened! And that's exactly why I let it go that far! If it had been my other friend, I wouldn't have entertained the idea, but she's usually willing to go with the flow! I guess this king just really got on her nerves or something!"
"I'll say!" Calming herself, she looked up at him with a flush. Probably realizing that she was essentially leaning so heavily onto him before pushing away from him. Taking a few moments to get herself further under control, she wiped at the tears at the corner of her eyes. "Man! From the way you've made it sound, I kinda wanna join one of your sessions! Or at least combine our groups! Can you think of the chaos?!"
He could only smile and nod, but inwardly, he really didn't think things would go as well as he thought. He'd been keeping their names out for obvious reasons. He was nearly eighty percent sure they would go screaming into the distance if they walked into a room and saw two of Gotham's most notorious villains just sitting around rolling dice.
Taking this pause in their conversation, he looked around at the party. Some time had passed, and it did show how much thinner and more languid the crowd had gotten. People had been slowly filing out for the last half an hour until it finally got to a point where he was no longer constantly rubbing elbows with whatever rando was nearby.
Glancing up at a surviving clock, he saw exactly how late it had gotten.
'How have I been here for two hours already?'
Time really did fly when he was having fun.
"Hey, quick question," He asked suddenly, pulling out his own phone just to verify the time. Taking a second to confirm. "You said your friends were coming, right? Do you know when they're going to get here?"
"Oh!" Eyes going wide, she pulled out her own phone before wincing visibly. Gaze locked onto the screen, she began to tap away frantically on the small keypad. "Yeah, they're pretty annoyed...especially Mario, oh yeah, he's pissed. He must've spent all his minutes sending this one...One moment, let me text them back...Do you need a ride home, though? I'm sure Nomi won't mind, she's cool."
"I'll be fine," He took a surreptitious glance around at the dwindling crowd, trying to spot anyone of note. No dice...Wait, no, there. Far in the back, through another doorway, he could see a large jumble of shadows shuffling closer. They were at a meandering pace, plenty of time for him to flee or slip out of sight before anything huge popped off. "I live pretty far from here, but I can just get a taxi or something, no big deal."
"You sure?" Stella appeared almost unwilling to let their conversation end so soon. "We could even get some milkshakes on our way back, I know this small dinner that's open really late, and they serve these crinkle fries that are to die for!"
"I'm sure, but thanks, really. I live in a pretty sketchy neighborhood as is, so don't worry about it."
"Your choice." She nodded absently, tapping away at her phone. The screen lighting up her large glasses in a blue glow. Reaching with his own phone, he pretended to be sucked in as well, using the reflection to keep an eye out on the crowd slowly coming their way. The person at their lead was all too familiar. Maybe the girl could sense the unease in the air, or maybe she too spotted the group closing in, but when she leaned to the side and looked around him, she turned back to him with a quirked brow. "Do...do you know them?"
"…"
Albert didn't say anything and only spun on his heel. Coming face-to-face with a small group of around five to six people. Most of them wore a mix-and-match of varsity jackets and exposed midriffs. If there was ever a direct representative of the 'Popular Crowd,' it was for sure this group. The malicious kind, if the way they all held this condescending and amused smirk on their lips, was anything to go by. But out of them all, a few figures caught his eye. First, the make-shift bouncer from outside, the one that had sent him such a venomous glare, now stood back with a far too gleeful look on his face. Besides him, a pretty blonde wearing an oversized jean jacket atop her dark green crop top, with an old school, disposable camera clutched between her well-manicured nails.
And above all else, standing at the point of this spear was someone he paradoxically wanted to see and didn't all at the same time.
Chelsea looked a few degrees paler, with a visible flush to her cheeks that hinted at what she'd been doing since they last departed. Especially if that half-full cup of bright red punch was anything to go by. Her brown bun, which had at least tried to look tidy, was not completely undone with hair spilling across her shoulders. Her eyes, normally always a bit bloodshot and sunken in, now had visible redness to them. A mix of tears and alcohol mixed to give her a rather ghastly appearance.
"Toby?" Stella tugged obsessively on his arm, a clear begging tone to her words as she tried to pull him away from the conflict. "Let's just go, Nomi's on her way."
His ex-client, clearly buzzed, gaze flickered down to the hand on her arm. And he could see it then, that spark of something dark and insidious just beyond the surface. Anger, boiling hot and all encompassing, filled her face. Muscles twisting together to create something bone-chilling and hideous.
Maybe she felt jilted, cheated that she hadn't been able to confess her love for Aidan while the very guy she'd hired now found some romance from this terrible night. Maybe she still felt furious at him ruining her plans, maybe she was just someone who needed, absolutely needed to be in control. Needed to never allow anyone the chance to get one over on her. And now here was her chance to go back at the very person who, in her own eyes, cut her future short with the star to be.
Albert could see it from the way she stumbled forward. Muscles in her jaw set as she came, settled herself in exactly what she was going to do. And could already see her arm whip out sloppily, could see the punch fly through the air to splash into his face.
But despite seeing that image clear in his head, he couldn't feel those ethereal hands yanking and pulling on his body. Couldn't feel them trying to marionette his body, and looking down at her hand, he could see why.
Her hand was off, her drunken stupor clearly ruining any form of aim. The splash of punch would miss him entirely, splashing harmlessly on his left side without even a single drop to touch him. He should've felt relieved in that frozen moment, but he couldn't.
Not just because he knew that if she couldn't embarrass him here, couldn't get back at him in this way, especially surrounded by and goaded on by the 'It crowd', things would only escalate from there.
And secondly, he wasn't alone anymore here. That punch might not hit him, but it would absolutely splash Stella. And she'd been nothing but kind to him since speaking to her, he wouldn't...no, couldn't sacrifice someone else just to save himself.
Words, mocking even now as they echoed in his mind, sounded out.
'Good guys are easy to read. Easy to steer to a certain outcome, and no matter how smart or observant they might be, they'll still voluntarily march down that path.'
[Arcane Traditions: POW Threshold met!]
It barely registered as he moved.
In a fluid motion, Albert stepped fully in the way, disguising it slightly as him flinching away from the unprovoked attack. The liquid was warm as it splashed onto him. Soaking his neck and face with a sweet and slightly souring drink. Soaking through his wig, covering the front of his shirt in red. His tongue flicked out not of his own accord, instantly tasting the fruit juice. It was of a cheap variety, the ones that left a strange aftertaste in his mouth, and just as he suspected, there was a hint of off-brand booze.
He barely had enough time to react before a flash of light nearly blinded him, followed by the uproarious laughter of the group before him. And he could only imagine the group falling over themselves at the blatant display of needless cruelty.
"Oh my god!" Stella cried out from beside him, coming out for but a moment before gripping his arm even tighter. "Toby?! Are you oka-"
But soon, everything quieted down steadily. The laughter petered off, and even the music died down to barely a hum. Blinking his eyes clear, he saw the dropped jaws and ashen faces of the group...No, not just them but of even nearby groups as they turned to watch what was going on. Their eyes widened, and some more quick-footed amongst them began to take a few hasty steps back.
It took him a few moments to realize, to put his jumbled thoughts together into something coherent.
'Alcohol.'
And just as his lower jaw prosthetic, already worse for wear, drooped out of place, before falling to the ground with an audible splat, the screaming started. It was a high-pitched, frantic thing. He didn't know where it started, but it was like the floodgates had been opened, and before long, the whole room was filled with nothing but screams, curses, and rampaging footsteps.
"What the fuck?!"
"R-run!"
The camera fell from shaking fingers, crop tops, and varsity jackets fluttering through the air as they quickly fled. Until it was a near fire hazard from all the teens trying and failing to squeeze in the much too small door-frame.
Even though Albert knew he shouldn't, some part of him, a more naive part of him, wanted to know. Wanted to prove that more cynical side of him wrong. And so, against his better judgment, he looked back over at Stella.
He shouldn't have been surprised; he should've listened to that jaded part of him, maybe then it wouldn't feel as if someone had stabbed him in his heart.
The same girl who had once fallen over herself laughing from his stupid jokes, who had gone into endless detail about her own games, had once felt comfortable enough to touch him, someone who had once looked at him with a warm and infatuated gaze, now looked as if she had seen a ghost. Darker skin, now losing a few shades of color. Light brown eyes turning into mere pinpricks.
And when he stupidly raised his hand, as though to shake her out of her stupor, she flinched away violently before she too joined the crowd in a near scramble.
Albert stood there, energy leaking out of him in droves as he watched the room thin out. Still covered in sticky punch, with chunks of his mask continuing to fall off with meaty thumbs onto the wooden floor. That far too familiar hollow feeling welling up deep within his heart, a call too haunting, too alluring pulled at him.
Glancing over at his swaying ex-client, who'd probably been too drunk to even really feel genuine fear right then, she was just far too caught up in that euphoric feeling on finally 'balancing' the scales, he tried to muster up something. Tried to muster up some sort of heat, something vindictive to say or do just to not give her the satisfaction.
But no matter how hard he tried, it was like banging on the side of an empty bucket. Empty echoes bounced around in him as his exposed lips fell into an expressionless line.
"Are you satisfied?"
"Wha..?" Chelsea probably didn't fully hear him the first time around, blinking slowly as she looked around the empty room. Before whatever bits of clarity crossed her eyes, she simply nodded. A far too satisfied expression across her face. "Yes, yes, I am satisfied."
[Case Closed: Daisy Oracle!
Requirements: Find out if there could ever be anything between them!
Difficulty: F
Reward: 1 IP]
With that said, Albert turned away from the drunk. Crouching down to swipe up the disposable camera before pocketing it, before taking one step into the now-empty hallway. He could've turned around then, could've tried to leave some final words for her..., but at this point, he was beyond caring. All he wanted to do then was just lock himself inside his room for the next year and rot away in his bed.
Maybe he should've just listened to himself, only if he stuck true to his purpose and didn't get swept up in the allure of romance...After all, what kind of meaningful relationship could ever form if it started with him wearing a mask?