I said I wouldn't be doing Darcy Week, but I thought I'd do a little fic for day 2 based on this thread. Please enjoy
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Anne and Sasha stood back to back, Sasha’s swords drawn, Anne’s fists alight with blue energy. In the corner of her eye, Anne could see the Plantars getting knocked to the ground by one of the dozens of frobots they were fighting. She heard Sasha call Grime’s name in a panic behind her. They both tensed, ready to jump into action, but a familiar voice speaking in an unfamiliar tone stopped them.
“Not so fast,” the Core said, flashing a horrible smile that looked so unnatural coming from sweet little Marcy. “I’d like to ‘shake things up’ a little bit, as the Host would say. This is getting rather dull.”
Two snakelike robotic claws shot out of the dark corners of the throne room, one wrapping around the Plantars and the other around Grime. All four grunted as the claws constricted around them, making it impossible to escape.
Both girls cried out, but the Core just giggled and pulled a small object out of its armor. Anne flinched, expecting a weapon, but it didn’t take long to recognize the thing in the Core’s hand. A purple twenty-sided die, the one from the set that Marcy always kept in her backpack in case of a “C&C emergency”. Marcy’s D20, in the hands of a monster controlling her body.
“Why don’t we play a little game,” the Core’s voice was laced with false geniality. “The host liked games, didn’t they?”
“Yes, Marcy does like games,” Anne seethed, furious at the Core’s use of the past tense.
“But we’re not going to play any games with you, sicko!” Sasha interrupted, brandishing her twin heron swords.
The Core only laughed, and each girl responded with panic as the robotic coils wrapped tighter around their families. “Oh, I’m afraid you don’t really have a choice,” it giggled, holding the die up and letting it catch the faint red glow of the Amphibian moon.
“Now, it wouldn’t be a game without stakes, would it,” the Core continued, pacing around the throne room in a way so reminiscent of Marcy that it hurt. “Heart, Strength, I’m sure you understand what those are.”
“If we win, you let Grime and the Plantars go,” Sasha growled, swords still at the ready.
The Core’s smile only became wider, stretching unnaturally wide on Marcy’s small face. “Oh, you misunderstand, dear Strength,” it chuckled, as if condescending to a small child. “You’re both playing the game. Only one of you can win.”
Anne felt her heart drop in her chest, and in her peripheral vision she could see Sasha become a few shades paler.
“That’s—” Anne began, but the Core held up a finger to shush her.
“If you’d like to forfeit, we can just dispose of the toad and the frogs now,” it leered, the robotic arms tightening around their prisoners to prove the point, frobots leveling their lasers.
“No!” both girls cried in unison, Sasha hiding her panic slightly better than Anne.
The Core laughed again, a contradictory mix of a deep chuckle and a high-pitched giggle. “Good, good. Now, searching through the Host’s memories, I see she’s told you quite a lot about this game she loves so much… C&C, was it?”
Sasha tightened her grip on her swords while Anne curled her fists, both their faces set in twin looks of determination.
“Hopefully you are familiar with the terminology, though I’m sure neither of you cared enough for the Host to actually listen when she talked.”
“You little—” Sasha began, but Anne motioned for her to back down.
“Well then, are either of you familiar with the term ‘PvP?’” the Core’s smile was unnervingly taut.
Anne swallowed. She hadn’t retained very much in the few Creatures & Caverns sessions that Marcy had convinced her and Sasha to play, but this was something she remembered.
“I want to roll to attack Anne with my longsword,” Sasha smirked, leaning over the dice and maps set out on the table.
“What?! Why?” Anne threw her hands up in exasperation.
The blonde girl leaned back into her folding chair, flipping her bangs out of her eyes. “You’ve got, like, twenty gold pieces in your bag. That’s good money.”
Marcy looked uncomfortable. “Well you can technically do that, Sash, but—”
“See? Marcy’s the Dungeon Maker or whatever, and she says it’s fine. Square up, Anne.”
“Wait!” Marcy threw her hands out, knocking over her DM screen and taking a moment to prop it back up before continuing. “You can technically attack Anne, but you shouldn’t! PvP is a serious taboo in tabletop RPGs.” She adjusted the papers behind her screen as she talked. “You’re supposed to be working as a team to reach a common goal. If you just fight each other, you can’t actually get anything done.”
“PvP?” Anne asked.
“Player vs. Player. Fighting another member of your party,” Marcy explained. “I’d really prefer it if you didn’t do that in this campaign.”
“But I want to win,” Sasha pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Sasha, I’ve told you,” Marcy sighed, “You can’t ‘win’ Creatures & Caverns. It’s like real life, you can accomplish goals and earn rewards, but there’s never an end condition.”
“Ugh, fine,” Sasha rolled her eyes, picking up the die again. “So no fighting, what about pickpocketing?”
“Still not very nice, but I’ll allow it,” Marcy shrugged.
“Oh, come on!” Anne cried, knowing full well that Sasha had put all of her bonuses into dexterity.
The thing that had taken Marcy’s body stood with one of its arms held behind its back, the other holding the die aloft. Sasha and Anne both tensed, Sasha gripping the hilts of her swords, Anne feeling the blue energy coursing through her body.
“Well then,” the Core sneered, letting the die clatter to the palace floor, “roll for initiative.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
it’s the final day of darcy week, so here is my finished work. it originally started as one-shots but i can’t write anything without making it a story, so enjoy this short-story of darcy & marcy interactions.
