"Krista!" Frost yelled out. "I'm home!"
"Yeah yeah. Come in. You don't have to yell that out like you're my husband." Krista paused. "Ah, and don't come in naked or anything, honey, Lex is over."
"Ugh. Don't be a weirdo, now." Frost adjusted his glasses after tossing his sweater on the bed and heading out into the living room. "I'll have you know, I was just out to lunch with a pretty hot girl."
"Don't tell me… Lana!?" Krista said. "I thought you 'strongly dislike' her." He did an impression of Frost as he said that, puffing out his chest and raising his shoulders.
"I do. That doesn't make her ugly, sadly," he replied. She still freaks me out, he thought.
"Granted." Krista placed a card down much to the dismay of the other man, Lex, who was sitting with his back to Frost.
Lex Aitsuko was one of Krista's hyper nerd buddies from the history department. He was a tall, vaguely asian, lanky looking guy with massive round glasses that always wore business casual clothes. Frost couldn't stand that type of clothes, and he also couldn't stand Lex. Frost considered himself a slight pop culture nerd, but Lex was always on about some mundane facts or facets of history. Even now, he was saying something stupid to reference their current Magic The Gathering predicament.
"Much like Napoleon at Waterloo, you've gotten too cocky," Lex said, adjusting his glasses.
[Checkpointer20: Not a fan of this one.]
[GreatGadfly30: Indeed. The flaunting of knowledge is pointless.]
Sure, Frost thought, why not just say 'I have you cornered' or perhaps nothing at all. To Frost, it came across as performative and phony. He seemed to be the only one who thought this somehow.
"I'm honored to be compared to a guy like that. Besides, living it up on an island wouldn't be so bad," Krista played a land and then another creature to his stack of many. "I'm not done yet, though."
Frost stepped to the side of the two men to watch the game in play with great intrigue. This was the kind of nerd stuff that Frost enjoyed, but it got to a point. Who cared about some guy that died hundreds of years ago, anyway?
[TheConquerer356: What is this strange game? Does it mimic warfare?]
"Kind of," Frost whispered.
"Your favourite card," Lex said. "Wrath of God." and he placed it down. "I'll also go ahead and play Elspeth to follow up on that."
"Brutal," Frost noted.
Krista only had one card left in his hand now. Alas, he placed it down, and it was a land. "Bad luck," he said.
"Skills," Lex said, adjusting his glasses. "But you did good today. You'll get 'em next time."
They shook hands. With three HP left and no cards to defend the incoming onslaught, Krista resigned.
"Now… Um. what was that you said about a Lana?" Lex looked up at Frost while he rearranged his deck. "Er. Lana Whitehall?" He asked.
"That's the one." Frost felt like he knew where this was going. I'm in love with her. Please help me score a date. Something along these lines. Exhausting. He was not the type of person you wanted as a wingman, he could admit that. "You know her?" He asked anyway.
"You could kind of say that," Lex replied, standing up. "We're… acquainted."
Frost had to tilt his head slightly upwards to meet eyes with the man. "Acquainted how?"
"Every time I go against her in fencing, she um. Kind of kicks my ass." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "She's like Dread Pirate Roberts on crack."
"For real?" Frost tried to hide his shock but it probably didn't work based on Lex's confused facial expression. Lana? Fencing? Then the cut on the cheek… The calluses… Could it be that Frost was the only suspicious one here? Damn. Just when he'd thought he was on to an interesting secret, his hopes and dreams were smashed. A vivid image was painted in Frost's head of Lana with a black bandana and a mask, doing flips and climbing cliffs.
Lex grabbed his backpack and water bottle. "Yeah man. You uh… Ever thought about getting into fencing? We could use people and…" He grabbed Frost's bicep. "Sorry, that was weird… You've got the build for it, though. And your hands…"
"Callused, I know."
"Erm. What do you do?" He asked. Every time he spoke, it was with great hesitance like he was afraid of being shunned.
He'd use a new excuse this time. "I'm a recreational parkourist."
Krista gave him a strange look.
[Checkpointer20: Be careful…]
"Is that um… Legal?" Lex said, visibly confused.
"Depends on who you ask, and where," Frost replied.
"I'm asking you."
"Then it's not illegal." He smiled.
"Ah–" Lex laughed and wagged his pointer finger at Frost's clever joke. "You insist on being an enigma. Next time I'm through, bring out your own deck. For now, I've got to run."
Frost nodded. "I won't go easy on you, then," he said. "Oh. And beat Lana for me next time."
Lex idled in the doorway. "If only." He looked at Frost with a curious expression. A knowing expression, like Frost's very soul was deciphered and laid bare on a table for him to dissect. Frost felt that same pull of gravity. The universe felt more content now, like it had finally laid out the dominoes for its plan. Lex closed the door in the next instant, leaving Frost feeling like he was simply imagining it.
"See… Ya." Krista said, feeling left out. "Welp. I suppose you had good timing, Frost."
As Krista was speaking to him, Frost had already reached the cupboard and was starting to boil water for instant noodles. Lunch hadn't quite done the trick, and he didn't exactly feel like making anything… It wasn't like they had ingredients anyway. Things like meat and even bread were luxuries in a college dorm. If Frost had them, he'd stash them in his own room anyways.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early," Frost started.
"He arrives precisely when he means to," Krista finished with a sigh. "So you fancy yourself a wizard now?"
"Something like that," Frost replied, grinning stupidly to himself while Krista couldn't see.
[Checkpointer20: It's like an inside joke with just yourself.]
True, but it made him feel a little bit like a schizophrenic. It wasn't too long ago that he'd flown through the sky on a wyvern and thrown it into a mountain. He was like Superman, only now he didn't know how to use those powers or if he even could. Had any of it happened at all? Maybe even now he was wearing a straitjacket in the psych ward. He tried to just focus on the noodles instead, pouring the water and stirring the noodles.
This was his life now. At least he'd shaved.
"Any plans for the afternoon?" Krista asked, sounding a little bit agitated at the apparent distance between them.
"No," Frost said, not turning to him. "But I'm a little tired, so I might just go for a nap if I'm honest."
Krista said nothing. Frost turned to see him leaning on the table looking unimpressed. "Are you alright?' Frost asked him. "Have I upset you?"
"Something's off about you," Krista declared. "What is it? Did you get laid? Is that it? No interest in your friends anymore?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Frost finished stirring his noodles and picked it up, then went to retrieve a water bottle from the fridge. "That kind of stuff is way overrated." And it meant it. He'd much rather be cracking someone in the head than dealing with any of that.
"I disagree, but that's besides the point. What is it, then?" Krista stepped in front of the doorway to Frost's bedroom just as Frost was intending to make his escape. "You better talk to me, right now."
Frost sighed. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."
"You came home yesterday looking beaten and with a beard. You tell me you were with a girl. You said we'll talk about it." Krista stared him dead in the eyes. "So let's talk about it. We're friends… Right?"
Oh, man. He was walking into this one. It didn't help that Frost's mood was less than stellar and that Krista was trying to push a conversation he really didn't want to have. Frost couldn't help remembering the face of Klein, disappointed after he'd been torn to pieces for his beliefs. Frost had been telling the truth that time, and the truth for Krista would hurt even more.
"You don't know anything about me," Frost said. He hadn't told this man a single thing about his childhood or where he'd come from. Krista knew nothing about Vera, about the orphanage or about the life Frost had led since. Now, they were further away from each other than they'd ever been, which was already pretty far.
Krista frowned.
"If you really want to be my friend, you'd stop prying for your own good," Frost stepped forward. "Get out of my way. I won't ask you twice."
There was a moment of hesitation, but Krista vacated the doorway in shame. "I hope you get through it," he said.
"I will." Frost entered his room and closed the door behind him. Krista was someone who had the power to make his university life a living hell if he got on his bad side. It was beneficial to keep the relationship positive. That being said, he obviously couldn't know about what was going on. Frost had to find a solution, and he had to find it quickly.
[Checkpointer20: Have you run out of stupid excuses?]
"He won't buy a stupid excuse. I can't tell him I'm a fucking parkourist." Frost leaned into the sill of his open window and breathed in the fresh air to clear his head. "Why did it have to be this way? I had the money for university. I had the money. Why did I go out that night…"
[Checkpointer20: You can't blame yourself for what happened.]
"Why? It was my fault, wasn't it? I picked on the wrong person and got punished. I could've stayed the course. Got through university and lived a normal fucking life." He slumped down. "But instead, I get this."
[Checkpointer20: You can still live a normal life.]
"Not anymore I can't." He stuffed noodles into his mouth. "Because now that I've seen what's out there… I hate it. But I can't stay still. I'm… Needed. Aren't I?" That was a first for him, to be important… To be wanted.
[Checkpointer20: More than you know at the moment.]
"Going back to normal isn't possible. I've seen beyond this world. Earth is small. I've been living inside walls that I didn't know existed. No. I can't go back. I have to find him. Ren. I have to find the men that were on the bridge that night. The Void is in need of fixing, just like Earth." Did he have the power to fix it, now?
[GreatGadfly30: Quite the laundry list.]
[TheConquerer356: This will be entertaining to watch.]
[Checkpointer20: We have your back.]
As Frost was reading these messages, his vision flickered and he was overcome with a strange aura.
[High quantity of Void energy detected in vicinity]
[Personal distortion summoning sequence has begun.]
[You have been selected for the distortion.]
[Clear condition: Capture the flag]
[Wager automatically selected: Failure of degree-essential class]
Frost stared at the words in his vision with disbelief.
"What the hell!?"