THE MOMENT
Kirk hadn't realized he was lonely until he heard the laughter. It was a Sunday evening, and he'd gone to the student union in the hopes of finding his teammates, or at least some familiar faces. He didn't want to seem needy by asking where everyone was, and he regularly forgot that their locations were tracked. He knew most of his team was busy participating in the Halloween event: the Brujaja, but he was tired of killing spiders and had more points than he knew what to do with. He headed toward the common area, and the apparent mirth grew louder.
"Kirk! Glad you made it!" Emily, Kirk's best friend, waved him over as soon as he crossed the threshold. He'd barely had time to take in the sight of so many new strangers. Emily was sitting there with their team captain, Molly. And, he knew Alis from the Chroma Club as well as Pavette from the AlterNet Crew; they were sitting together like best pals with Monday from the Neon Court in the center of it all. He knew them, and a new girl named Brooke. But Brooke was sitting with about five other girls that he'd never seen before, with even more sitting around in a sort of outer ring that felt like part of the group. But they were also carrying on their own conversations. Most of them were girls.
"What'd I make it for?" He asked while remaining in place until Emily waved him over a second time.
"We're opening Breeze Bags," Monday smiled. "Ozone authorized me to sell them directly."
"What's a Breeze Bag?" He asked Emily as he sat down next to her. She nodded at Monday.
"It amounts to a Halloween loot box," Monday replied. "They're only on sale during the Brujaja, but they're not your standard blind bags. Even the bag doesn't know what item it'll produce when you open it. It creates something completely random from an appropriate loot table at the moment you look inside. Twenty-five Nexus points each," she added.
Kirk wasn't an idiot, but he was mildly uncomfortable with so many strangers, and it distracted him from simple details he should've known.
"Wait," he shook his head. "If we're all giving you points, doesn't that just help the Neon Court win?" he asked
"Aren't you sitting on a ton of points because you can't donate them all to the team?" Emily reminded him there were rules in place.
"Oh, right. Personal points," Kirk nodded.
"Let's do another one!" Molly encouraged them all, then she dropped a round purple token into an open red bag on the table. In moments, a small orange cellophane bundle with a green ribbon appeared in her hand, created by nanos. Emily, Alis, Pavette, Brooke, and a few of the unknown girls did the same one by one. A purple token in Monday's red bag; then they received an orange bag. When it looked like no one else was participating, Molly pulled the green on her bag as she started talking.
"I got...," she tugged the green ribbon, and the orange bag disintegrated into white dust, then took another solid form. It was a small orange pumpkin with a faced carved into it and warm light glowing from within.
"Mini Jack-o'-lantern!" she said as a few people chuckled. "Who was collecting these?" she asked. An unfamiliar girl raised her hand; she was sitting there with Brooke.
"I got a ghost potion! Keeping it!" Emily laughed while Molly handed over the jack-o'-lantern.
"Gummies," Alis said.
"Mine gave me...," Pavette looked at the clear vial in her hand. It held a thick, black, viscous liquid that clung to the sides. "Witch's tears? Anyone?"
"Hah, jackpot," Brooke laughed along with most of the gathered students. "100 nexus points."
"Whoa, real jackpot!" the girl who took Molly's jack-o'-lantern was holding a golden, flaming rose. The room was filled with audible awe as the girls all admired the lovely flower with gentle ooohs and aaaahs.
"Oh wow, I didn't even know Dragonsbreath roses were on the list. Congrats, Yuki." Monday nodded.
"I can't keep this after I already accepted a gift from someone." Yuki shook her head and offered the flaming golden rose to Molly. "For your kindness," she added.
"Oh, I couldn't," Molly shook her head.
"What do we have to say about that, Redline girls?" Yuki asked. Kirk was still trying to catch up to the situation he'd found himself in. There were plenty of familiar strangers he'd seen around the school regularly and just never bothered to get to know, but these new girls were all apparently part of a 'Redline Court'. He didn't know what that meant, nor how many of them there were. But he had seen more and more unfamiliar strangers visiting the school, and they'd all been girls, and most of them were currently in the room. He wasn't ready for over 20 students near them to respond.
"TAKE THE GIFT," 20+ girls replied in unison, including Brooke.
"Well, if you're going to insist," Molly, and the room, laughed as she took the rose from Yuki.
"50 points, keeping," another girl said.
"Doesn't matter, all gone," the last girl said while still chewing.
"You gonna try it?" Emily asked Kirk as she dropped in another purple token, and it was followed by several others, including him as the last one to drop in his funds.
"Yeah," he nodded as the bag took shape in his hand.
"I got a bunch of candies," Emily said. She immediately began offering them to anyone nearby.
"I got several chocolate bars!" the girl who'd just finished chewing her last snack held the bars close and began opening one of them.
"I got a potion for breathing underwater," another girl said.
"I got a dagger, but I think it's cursed," Brooke shrugged. She held out a plain steel dagger that seemed to glow with corrupted dark purple light. Then, Emily looked at Kirk, and he realized he was the center of attention.
"Oh, I got...," he pulled the ribbon, and the bag disintegrated, but it didn't change shape as much as some of the others did. It was heavy-ish and round-ish. Half the girls were laughing before he even realized what it was, but he had to explain it, with a disappointed tone, once he grasped what was in his palm. He sighed as the rest of the girls cracked up too. "I got a rock."
