Chapter 403: Pride


    Surrounded by his own people, sitting with ke and Haley and Lexi—and after a drink or two that probably did more for his brain than his body—Mason found he was fortable.


    "And then we were locked out, so..." keughed as he remembered his own story, Haley smiling, Lexi leaning forward as if enthralled. "Mason climbed up to the balcony, which was two stories. He was drunk, freezing, ice everywhere. And then the balcony was locked, too."


    "Oh my God." Lexiughed and nced at Mason, who did his best to sip his drink and look disengaged.


    "So there we are. It''s snowing," ke went on. "We''re drunk. We''re locked out. It''s three hours past our curfew."


    "We only had a curfew because you stole their car," Mason said.


    "Not important to the story," ke said. "And please don''t interrupt. Now Mason is pretty much trapped on the balcony, because when he looks down he realizes how high he is, and there''s no way he''sing back."


    Lexi wasughing and staring at Mason now, who hid his own grin beneath a mostly fake glower.


    "So he''s telling me toe up," ke says, stillughing. "Because somehow in his drunk mind it''s better if we''re both trapped on the balcony."


    "The barbecue had a tarp," Mason said. "We were going to sleep there and share body heat."


    ke gestured as if to say ''you see? this was the insanity I was dealing with''.


    "So what did you do?" Lexi said. ke pulled back as if it was obvious.


    "I woke up our parents and lied my ass off. They grounded me for an extra two weeks, which I got out of anyway. And after letting Mason suffer in the cold an hour or so, I snuck over and let him in. He got away scot-free."


    "I can''t believe that''s how you remember that story," Mason said. ke quirked a brow and said nothing, and Mason rolled his eyes. "This idiot woke me up in the middle of the night and convinced me to go to some girl''s party, which we never found. Then he convinced me to get drunk in a parking lot. <em>Then</em> he realized he hadn''t taken his keys. And since I was still wearing my damn sweat pants, I didn''t have any. So we froze our asses off for no reason, and I''m pretty sure the next day I flunked a test."


    "Theck of personal ountability is astounding," ke said, shaking his head as he looked at the still-smiling girls. "You''d think I put a gun to his head. And kept him from studying for the two weeks before that night."


    "Well I was an excellent student," Lexi said, sitting up straighter. "And I didn''t go out to random boy''s parties in the night, either. You were <em>very</em> naughty boys."


    "Some of us are <em>still</em> naughty boys," ke said, wiggling his eyebrows as he leaned towards Lexi. The Britughed and nced at Mason again.


    "I can see why he''s a bit of trouble."


    "He''s more than a bit," Mason confirmed, nudging Haley. "I can''t help but notice a certain Canadian isn''t telling any drunken war stories."


    She smiled, but Mason knew her well enough to know it was mostly a mask.


    "I didn''t have much time for such things. I was always with my father, singing, ying. He was a musician and we didn''t have much money. Every penny went to my school, so, I took it very seriously."


    Mason was reminded how lucky he''d been with the Nimitzs. And certainly how ungrateful. That his aimlessness and struggle to fit in still involved a life of wealth mostly free of real worries.


    "Well. Now I feel like a shit," ke said, because of course he did. "But if you need to make up for any lost drunken, hedonistic experiences, I would be more than happy to..."


    ke met Mason''s eyes and stopped with a nervousugh. Haley smiled and put a hand to her stomach.


    "I think that time is past for now. At least the drunken part."


    Mason squeezed her hand, feeling the urge to take his girls back to the hotel room right now and to hell with the ''Meet and Greet''. But he knew they had things to do here. If there was a chance to recruit whatever other western yers existed, he definitely had to take it.


    Seul-ki and Annie had hardly said a word, but they both seemedfortable to just listen and eat. The table ''ordered'' themselves some food, Lexi getting them all a big te of oysters with a deviousugh as Haley shook her head.


    "I''ll remember that tonight," she said with a wink at Mason. "When she starts to beg for mercy."


    Lexi just grinned and swallowed one back, and for a moment Mason forget where he was.


    "We should probably go and socialize," Haley said, looking around. "I kind of expected something more...official. Some kind of announcement, or, I don''t know."


    "Oh I''m supposed to be making you angry," ke said. "I kind of forgot. It''s nice to just sit and rx."


    Mason nodded, d for the rxing evening with some of the girls and with his brother, the closest he''d felt to ''normal'' in a long time. It made him expect some kind of terrible fight or suffering in a few minutes.


    And sure as hell, the robotic voice of the system soon quieted everything else in perfect surround sound.


    [Good evening yers and civilians. We hope you''re satisfied with your experience in the Neutral Zone. Please enjoy the formal entertainment. Currently awarded point prizes and civilian trade awards will also be handed out shortly. Though you may reserve them until the end of the tournament.]


    [Additional news: From this point forward, all tournament matches will be <em>elimination</em> rounds. A single loss ends your progress in every category. And no further points will be scored. But please, rx and rejuvenate. No further matches will be held for: 10 hours. As always, we are rooting for you.]


    Before Mason or anyone else could consider that, the air itself seemed to get warmer and fill with a kind of mist. The techno-like beat overcame the softer, ssical music. Hologram-like humans and animals were shown in various disys, dancing or just running along the walls, or on rising tforms.


    People wereughing and standing, holding up their arms as different tables looked...rained on.


    Rosa caught Mason''s eye from her table and gestured him over. He excused himself and went to her, nodding to the few Sanctuary girls she was sitting with.


    "There''s a drug in the air," she said. "Can''t identify it exactly without my kit, but it''s definitely a kind of party drug. It won’t affect me. But I think it''s going to get wild in here."


    Mason sighed, his paranoia ring. He was tempted to take his people and get the hell out. But if the system wanted to hurt them it didn''t have to be clever about it.


    It was probably just trying to turn the ce into a giant orgiastic rave. And it likely wouldn''t affect him, because if it actually dosed them enough to do that it would leave everyone elseatose.


    "Alright," he said. "Becky should be fine, too. Look after the civilians, OK? I don''t want any...problems."


    Rosa nodded, her ss protecting her even from Mason’s Blessing of Gaia unless she turned it off.


    "There''s some more tournament information on my civilian ess," Haley said when he got back to the table, her eyes zed. "Apparently you can usually defer House battles until the end of the tournament. So you can knock out most everyone else before you have to fight your yers."


    Mason felt a huge weight drop off his chest. He was actually a bit surprised roboGod permitted something so downright...helpful. It reinforced the importance of ''Houses'', which led Mason to the realization: ke wasn''t actually part of his house.


    What about the easterners? Were they all part of the Emperor’s house? Or were there several? Haley might know. But he did see several banners around, so he was guessing there were.


    Should he recruit ke right now? He turned to exin the situation and do just that when he noticed a small crowd of red-robed ''imperial'' yers had apparently walked straight into his House''s cluster of tables.


    The emperor himself stood not six feet away, face curled with a small smile as he watched Mason and the others.


    "I came to congratte your tournament point winners," he said, then shrugged. "But it seems...you don''t have any."


    Mason refrained from rolling his eyes as he stood.


    "What do you want?"


    The older Chinesepdog beside the emperor narrowed his eyes as if offended and ready to intervene, but Jeong held up a hand.


    "I''ve enjoyed watching your matches, Baron. But I can''t help but notice you''re fighting them alone. Was your partner injured? Killed?"


    Mason''s yers were gathering up behind him now, and it all would have felt very dangerous if they weren''t in this ''Neutral Zone''. He shrugged.


    "I don''t need a partner to beat your people."


    Jeong smiled, but it didn''t touch his eyes.


    "Pride is the very worst of sins. In the Christian religion, is it not even considered...demonic?"


    "Remind me," Mason said, "what titles did you make for yourself again?"


    Jeongughed. It was a sudden, almost violent sound, ending as quickly as it began.


    "Very good," he said, gesturing to the others he was finished. "I''m sure I will see you on the battlefield soon, Baron. But hopefully not before I defeat your pitiful number of yers."


    "Maybe we''ll be lucky," Mason said as the emperor turned. "With our alien overlord, you never know. Maybe it''ll let us make challenges. Then we can sort it out right away."


    "We can only hope," Jeong said, with no enthusiasm, then walked back towards his own, muchrger area of the auditorium.


    "What a wanker," Seamus said. "But if it''s all the same to you boss, I hope you fight him before I do."


    Mason sighed as he watched more and more of the system''s drugs pouring over tables, turning civilians into aughing, whooping mob.


    He supposed it was a kind of perfect dichotomy, or duality again. The false, opulent, faux hospitality of the Neutral Zone—the barest veneer covering the reality of opposing warriors waiting to kill each other.


    <em>Civilization in a nutshell</em>, he thought, hating the facade as he always had, whether here or back on earth.


    He turned to tell his yers the good news about House ''deferments'', and hopefully recruit ke.


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