Post by Mantis on Apr 19, 2016 2:20:37 GMT
"The time of injustice is almost over. The time of mistreatment is almost over. Rise my sisters, for this world will be ours." | |
Mantis Lv1 | | |
Mantis drummed her fingers along the flimsy pine desk. It sounded hallow, a sound that was rather unpleasing to Mantis. One smack to this thing and it will splinter into a million tiny pieces. She sighed. It is floor one. I suppose I should expect shoddy carpenter work, especially if a man did it. Men always rush things and put forth only half the effort.
She leaned back in the matching pine chair, the chair creaking as if it were in pain. Even its green cushion was thin and torn in places, providing little comfort for Mantis's proportionate rump. She squirmed about, trying to find a comfortable position, but to no avail. It's like sitting on the hardwood floor, she mentally groaned. Mantis glanced to her right at the small twin bed shoved against the water-stained wall. She had tried laying on it earlier to pass the time while she waited for Pippi to return with a report, but the bed possessed inadequate padding. Some of the rough, metal springs poked through the mattress, pressing against the back of any unfortunate individual foolish enough to lie there. Its sheets were also as coarse as sandpaper meant more for exfoliation than relaxation and its pillows felt as if they had been stuffed with rocks. As if the jagged mattress and uncomfortable bedspread weren't enough, that entire side of the room reeked of water damage. The gigantic brown spot that rested on the room's peeling beige wallpaper was a clear indicator that mold was growing in the walls. The spot was only a foot above where one placed their head, so the fumes barraged the sinuses like a catapult would against the outer walls of a castle.
Because of these reasons, Mantis preferred sitting at the small desk on the other side of the room. The air was still musty, but it didn't feel as if one's lungs would ignite after even the slightest inhale. Clearly bored, Mantis laid her petite elbows on the rickety desk and placed her chin in the cup that her two extended hands formed. Even the most minuscule shift in weight made the table wobble and she thought sarcastically, Wouldn't it just be wonderful if this table were to break? Then I'd have nothing to rest my head on. She waited for the mysterious karma fates to punish her for challenging the status quo of Sword Art Online, but to her delight, nothing happened. With an evil grin, she chuckled. I can just feel it. LadyRedemption will be out of the way soon and my plans will finally start falling into place. Dance, my little chess pieces. Dance! Rue, you make an excellent pawn, just like all the rest.
Through with her brief slouching, she sat back up and with a swish of her right index finger, she opened her menu. Clicking on the "flavor items" tab, she selected her small, wooden chess set; the item materialized seemingly from nothing on the table. The chess set that Pippi had bought for Mantis was a little undersized, each square measuring about one and one half inches and the pieces reaching a little over two inches in height. Despite owning this board for several months now, Mantis still had issues adjusting its size. It was about half the size of the standard tournament size that she had mulled over for years prior to Sword Art Online, but that didn't stop her from using it to visualize her next several months of planning. The board and pieces were fairly well made, but there were quite a bit of imperfections. Many small chinks and a few large ones littered the boards and pieces; however, it wasn't distracting. Instead, it gave the wood a sort of homemade charm that Mantis appreciated. She still preferred the standard, uniform set that she grew up with, but that was mainly due to familiarity, not for aesthetic purposes. The carpenter designed the "white" pieces out of a lighter yew with several age spots to give the pieces character. The black pieces were carved out of oak and rather than age spots, these pieces possessed age lines.
As usual, she positioned the board as if she were playing with the darker wood, or the black pieces and with a curious hand, she grabbed one of the black knights and held it up for a moment so that it hovered over its starting square. "Hmm," she wondered aloud. She set the piece down, moved her hand across the board, and grabbed the right yew knight. "Rue, as much as I'd wish to include you in my campaign, I fear that LadyRedemption has contaminated you with a sense of unwavering justice." She closed her eyes and released a long exhale. "It's a shame really. You would've been such a fierce soldier."
After removing the black king and the knight to the left, she inspected the board in a meticulous fashion. Her hand scurried from piece to piece, picking each one of them up. One at a time, she lifted them near her face and mentally appraised the value. Caressing them in the palm of her hand, she slowly rubbed each crook and ridge of the piece in agonizing detail the same way that a blind person would do. She lifted her head and stared up at the rather bland beige ceiling and waded through the mental biographical files in her head; the ones that Pippi had accumulated for her.
Even though she had a genius level IQ of 153, Mantis's mind was still prone to wandering on occasion. Pippi is indeed a loose cannon, she thought. She's quite unpredictable and I know that at any moment, she has the potential to ruin my plans. Dissociative identity disorder is the culprit. Mantis gently returned the white rook she was fondling to the chessboard and picked up the black knight that she had set aside. Oh Pippi, you confuse even me sometimes. Should you be a knight, or a rook? You're so versatile, but all of the sides of your personality are equally insane and easy to manipulate. It truly is a beautiful thing. She playfully tossed the knight into the air and caught it. The rhythm was soothing to Mantis. I think I'll keep you as a knight. Your movement, stealth, and tracking talents are unmatched. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have so much information on potential recruits and targets.
Pippi was Mantis's ace in the hole: her trump card. When Mantis initially disclosed her plan to her at the start of Sword Art Online, she was stunned at how readily she grabbed onto the idea. Exterminating the male sex was rather radical for most people, but she agreed to the prospect with no reservations. Mantis often wondered if her eagerness was due to her broken psyche, her desperate desire for friendship and protection, or because she endured a past similar to Mantis's. In truth, it was likely all three. Pippi, as her name suggested, closely resembled Pippi Longstocking, a children's character from the 1940s. She possessed long, fire-red hair tied together in two long French braids that dangled over her shoulders like the ears of a basset hound. She tied her hair so taut, that one could see a single, prominent white line cutting through the center of the top of her head. This division in her hair was her pale scalp that matched the rest of her pigment-lacking skin. The Irish blood that flowed through her veins gave her distinct, stereotypical features one would come to expect from the ethnic group: pale skin, bright-red hair, and a plethora of freckles. She was only half-Irish, but she still inherited most of her physical features from her violent, Guinness-loving father, with the exception of her mother's chocolate-brown eyes. She had a rather large scar on her right shoulder in the shape of an "X" and interestingly enough, she shared its origins with no one. Not even Mantis knew the secret behind that scar. In public, Pippi seemed kind, nurturing, and very helpful toward other people, but due to her fragile mental state, even the smallest comment would cause her to express drastic mood swings from aggression to bouts of intense sorrow. When she was in her normal self, she was fun loving, and her eyes had a gentle sparkle to them. The smile she displayed was genuine and could warm the heart of the grumpiest of dwarfs, but during one of her episodes, her eyes constantly twitch, betraying a certain insanity to them. After she pledged herself to Mantis's cause, she became her fierce bodyguard dealing with any form of monster and enemy one would discover on floor one. Through the five months of fighting, she's progressed to level three with a speed stat of seven, a dexterity stat of three, and the dagger, stealth, detection, and tracking mastery talents. Her main job for Mantis was a form of personal info broker, scouting out as many players and areas as possible for Mantis to add to her eidetic mental achieve. Pippi frequently wore an ominous hooded black cloak when she was in public to hide her identity from nosy passersby, a cost that comes with the job of a scout. Most people acted nervous around Pippi, but they didn’t think too much of her given her green cursor.
Mantis set the black knight that represented her friend on the table away from the board and returned her attention to the whole board. Look at the whole board. Look at the big picture. Consider every possible outcome in relation to your end goal Martha. Do not get tripped up by little details. If Pippi causes trouble for you, you have to find a way to use it to advance you further toward your goal of an all-women utopia. Think, Martha. Think. Mantis altered her perception of Pippi from a knight, to a pawn. It mildly sickened her to think of one of her own sisters as a pawn, but she needed to approach strategies from every possible angle. Sacrifice her? Force her to go red, pin the blame on her, and have a green player kill her? She shook her head. No, that isn't the answer. What's the point of a utopia if I sacrifice the ones I'm trying to protect? From her years of chess experience and her ability to tie seemingly unrelated things together, she meditated on each function of a pawn. One of the more obvious ones clung to her forebrain. When a pawn reached the end of the board, it became a queen. Promotion, like leveling her up more? she shook her head. No, there's something to this, but it's more obscure. She buried her face in her hands for a few minutes, groaning aloud. Come on Martha. You're almost there. You're almost there. As if Mantis had commanded it, her epiphany came. She slammed her hands against the table, shaking the chessboard a bit; however, the shaky table stayed in one piece. "Rehabilitation!" she exclaimed aloud.
"Rehabilitation! Yes Martha, you've been going about this wrong the entire time," she continued. "You've been exasperating her condition to make her more ferocious for when we confronted LadyRedemption, but now that Rue's group is handling her for us, you can back off a bit. Show her some compassion. Get her some psychological treatment." She sighed frustratingly when she realized something obvious. Where will I find someone that can administer psychological treatment? She stood up and began pacing the room. "Back to square one." Another set of several minutes passed as she conjured up multiple solutions to her problem and all of them shared one common trait. You don't have to cure her Martha. All you have to do is find a way to control her outbursts in public. That's it! she realized. Get her a hobby.
Suddenly, Mantis heard a loud thump outside of her doorway and she grabbed the hilt of her training curved sword out of instinct. The doorknob to her room began jiggling and she relaxed, realizing that it was Pippi. As Pippi entered the room, she glanced over at the lone, minute clock that rested on the desk on the other side of the chessboard. "It's 1:30 in the afternoon. You're back early. I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow. Do you have any news for me?" Mantis looked at Pippi and she gasped when she her puffy, red eyes and a yellow cursor hovering above her head. What did you do? she thought angrily, while feigning a concerned expression.
"Big sister," she blubbered, "I made a big mistake."
Mantis ran over to Pippi and wiped away a few tears that trickled down her cheeks with the sleeve of her own red blouse. "Oh, what happened? she asked in a motherly tone. "Don't worry. You're only yellow. You'll go back to being green in a few days."
Pippi shook her head. "No, it's not that. I told someone about you."
Mantis's eyes widened. She grabbed Pippi's shoulders and shouted, "You did what? You told someone about our plans?"
Pippi shrinked away from Mantis like a scared child and mumbled, "No, it's not like that."
"What? Speak up."
"It's not like that," she repeated in a louder volume. "I just tried to scare him, that's all."
Flabbergasted, Mantis lowered her volume, but added more ferocity to her tone. "Him? You told our plans to a him? Pippi started trembling and shook her head slowly again. "Explain yourself," Mantis whispered with a gaze that would freeze the sun.
"I-I just sc-scared him," she stuttered. "I stabbed him and then warned him about you."
"What did you say to him?"
"I told him to tell LadyRedemption that the praying mantis is watching and that he should watch his back too because the praying mantis eats her mates."
Mantis pinched her forehead and shook it. "Oh Pippi, what am I going to do with you?"
Pippi collapsed to her knees and balled, her tears dripping on the hardwood floor, leaving tiny puddles. "I'm sorry big sister. I failed you."
Mantis bent down and Pippi tensed up, expecting a beating of some sort, but Mantis embraced her instead. "It's okay. This mistake is fixable. We won't have to go red yet. We can still enjoy the luxuries allotted to green players." Pippi nodded and ungracefully blew her nose into Mantis's blouse. Mantis's eyes twitched and she thought, Disgusting! That immature brat! She's still nothing but a child. Mantis raised her hand in the air, preparing to strike her across the face, but she exhaled, composing herself just in time. No Martha, you must start treating her better. If you don't, she's guaranteed to have public outbursts. Still a little disgusted, she patted her back lightly and asked, "Did you find out where LadyRedemption's hideout is?"
Pippi shook her head. "I got scared after I stabbed him and ran off so I stopped tracking them."
Mantis released Pippi from the hug and stood up. She opened her menu and swapped her snotty blouse with a black T-shirt. "It's okay. The day is still young. I hate to send you back out again, but you're the only one that can track them. You have to ensure that they deal with LadyRedemption. Afterward, I promise that I'll give you a few days off. We can even do something fun together."
Pippi gasped like a giddy schoolgirl. She looked up at Mantis with a shimmer in her eyes and with a big smile, she inquired, "Really?"
Mantis chuckled at how childlike Pippi could be at times and replied, "Yes really." Without warning, a message notification appeared in front of Mantis's face, emitting a ringing sound that she had become accustomed to hearing thanks to the many reports that Pippi sent her. What confused Mantis was that Pippi had received one as well. "What's this?" She pressed the mail icon that floated in the air and the message opened.
To All of Those That Are Threatened By This So Called Lady
What will you do will you go into hiding hoping that it's not you or one of those you care about? Will you let them slowly slaughter you all like livestock? These players have forgotten that they are the minority and you are the majority. Will you let yourselves stay as prey or will you turn the tables and become the hunters?
I have the location of their base of operations. I will be going there with or without you. This is not me asking for assistance. This is me asking you if you want to live in fear or live in a gilded cage for the rest of your lives. Let this be your first step into freeing yourselves from this nightmare. Show everyone that you not prey and you're not afraid and that you will fight for your future.
If you wish to fight and show them that they are not better then you and are not superior, join me at the small canyon along the river that flows out of Tolbana. It's a half a mile north outside of town, and will show them that they are not the superior ones and that they don't have the right to decide who lives and dies.
P.S. LadyRedemption what will you do now everyone knows about you and your whereabouts. How are you going to kill anyone when everyone knows your around?
What will you do will you go into hiding hoping that it's not you or one of those you care about? Will you let them slowly slaughter you all like livestock? These players have forgotten that they are the minority and you are the majority. Will you let yourselves stay as prey or will you turn the tables and become the hunters?
I have the location of their base of operations. I will be going there with or without you. This is not me asking for assistance. This is me asking you if you want to live in fear or live in a gilded cage for the rest of your lives. Let this be your first step into freeing yourselves from this nightmare. Show everyone that you not prey and you're not afraid and that you will fight for your future.
If you wish to fight and show them that they are not better then you and are not superior, join me at the small canyon along the river that flows out of Tolbana. It's a half a mile north outside of town, and will show them that they are not the superior ones and that they don't have the right to decide who lives and dies.
P.S. LadyRedemption what will you do now everyone knows about you and your whereabouts. How are you going to kill anyone when everyone knows your around?
Mantis smirked. "Pippi, this is your second chance."
Pippi rushed to her feet and exclaimed, "I'm on it!"
"Remember, don't kill her unless she tries to spill our plans."
"Yes big sister. I'll make you proud."