THE MOMENT
"That's not unexpected...," Oren smiled with faint amusement. There, on a 10' x 10' corkboard at the back of a dim bar was his name on a card; several of them. The board was covered with pinned index cards in various colors. He counted his name 11 times, each written by a different hand. The cards were slightly worn and faded as if they'd been there for a while. They were surrounded by newer requests. But, as he studied the names, his amusement faded. He found his own name 11 times; but, he found another name, Aurelio Luna, 13 times. It bothered Oren that someone had more haters than him. It did help improve his mood when he noticed all the cards with Aurelio's name looked fresh. He must have done something lately to spur that anger. Luckily, a waitress wearing all black interrupted him before he could find Aury any more times.
"Can I help-," she began her question before she registered who he was; but, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide like a deer in headlights as her mind raced to determine if she was going to survive the next few minutes.
"I would like to speak to your guild leader," Oren said.
"Why?" the waitress took a step back. She couldn't escape Oren if he wanted her dead; but, that extra step might give her enough time to warn the others with a scream. Oren sighed. A red crown began to glow in the center of his forehead; below his widow's peak.
"Bring me your guild leader," he said. The waitress nodded and whirled around.
"Right away," she said as she dashed to the back room. After a minute or so, a portly tan woman with short, blonde spikes atop her head came down the hallway towards him. She wore a red top that showed off just enough cleavage to reveal the #34 she had tattooed near her heart.
"What brings the greatest of dark lords himself to the Crimson Brotherhood?" she asked. Unlike the waitress, she wasn't terrified of Oren. She knew it was a useless emotion. If Oren wanted to kill her, there was nothing she could do about it; and, it would have happened already.
"I'm hosting a tournament to celebrate my 18th birthday,..." Oren said. The woman nodded.
"I know," she said. "We missed the sign-up window," she shrugged. Oren shook his head.
"I'm not exactly sure why; but, almost all the teams that signed up have withdrawn," he said. "I'm looking for replacements; can you have a team ready by the 19th?" he asked.
"Really??!" her eyes widened in hopeful surprise. "The prize is still the same?" she asked. If they won the tournament, her guild would finally have its own Server. Oren nodded.
"YES! We're in!" she said. Then, her excitement gave way to nervous worry. "But.. uh.. what teams are still in?" she asked. She had some very talented members in her guild; but, they were no match for the top-tier guilds like Magi-Knights or CyberRiot.
"Gravewatch...," Oren named his own team, then stopped.
"That's it?" she asked. Oren's team would be near-impossible to beat but if she only had to concentrate on defeating one team, strategy could fill in for talent.
"So far...," he nodded. "I'm visiting the Blackrose Church next."
"Blackrose Church??" she suddenly grasped why he was there. It wasn't to personally invite her guild to participate; he was scraping the bottom of the barrel. However, if nothing else, at least the Blackrose guild wouldn't jeopardize her guild's chances of winning. It would be a good warm-up match.
"No, no," she shook her head. But, she couldn't resist taking a dig at them. "I'm just surprised you're that desperate to put skaters on the track."
"Two teams is hardly a 'tournament'," Oren replied. There were countless guilds he could have chosen; but, the Blackrose Church did have name recognition. Arguably they were more infamous than the Crimson Brotherhood for entirely different reasons. It was more about making a spectacle for Oren's birthday than putting on a proper tournament.
"Alright, thanks for the invite," she replied. She suddenly had a lot of planning to do and wanted to get started.
"You're welcome," Oren replied but he did not move. "Perhaps you can do a favor for me as well," he said.
"What?" she asked. Oren tilted his head to gesture at the wall of names. "No one's ever going to kill him anyway...," he said. "Can you take Aury's name off the wall?" She sighed and shook her head.
"Already...?" she mumbled.
"Huh?" Oren was confused.
"I take down Aury's name whenever he gets too many requests. I just cleaned him out a couple of weeks ago," she said as she began pulling Aurelio’s name cards down.
"Oh?" Oren grinned slightly. "When was the last time you cleaned out my name?" he asked. She giggled and shook her head as the stack of cards in her hand grew one by one.
"You? Never," she said. "I'm sure it's a relief to know you don't have as many haters as Aury does."