On the eve of Massacre Day, each city prepared in its own unique way.
“Screw you all!” wrote Shiva eagerly on the letterhead in city 643. Excited, he chewed his pen and continued writing. “You've all left me! We were sooo well positioned back in 653 City! We could have won GW. But suddenly you were all gone, you traitors! And now you can kiss my ass!”
He tore a second sheet of paper from his folder and continued writing. “You probably thought I'd wait like a victim in 641 until you came and got me, didn't you? You miscalculated! Play against whoever you want, but not against me! At least not today... we'll see about the rest of the GW... but I'm going to be the winner for once, and there's NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING you can do about it!”
There was a crash outside, and suddenly parts of the ceiling paneling of his room in the 643's clan castle fell down. With a scream, Shiva fled under the desk and looked fearfully underneath.
Damn! In the battle for the central building, the opponent had actually been better and had just blown him out. Shiva cursed quietly. But at least no one must have noticed. What nobody saw simply didn't happen. Over and out!
He carefully picked up his pen from the desk and continued writing under the desk.
“I'm the winner here!”
He grinned, tied the letter to the foot of his carrier pigeon and sent it on its way to the city of 652.
______________________________________
“Have you seen Shiva?” giggled Devi, ”look at that!”
He pointed to the map so that everyone could watch Shiva's defeat live in the central building.
“Oh man,” laughed Kodaxx, ”he can't even stand up to the 649. How is that possible?”
“With Shiva, anything is possible,” chuckled Lipsyte.
“Anything is possible with us too,” explained the donkey, who had stuck his head in the window, ”because I'm the captain now. From now on, I'm in charge here.”
“Wait, wait!” protested Zax, ”you're ONE captain, but not THE captain. That's still me!”
“Dream on!” grunted the donkey, ”You're gay, you've already realized that, haven't you? I'm the only one here who's straight. So I'm the captain!”
____________________________________
In RXD and RxG, the new arrivals fell into each other's arms.
“You here!” and ‘You here too!’ could be heard from all sides.
“Awesome!” exclaimed Big JC, ”This is like a class reunion. With the difference that I actually like the people here!”
“Who let that Italian pervert in here?” shouted SanAndreas25 and eyed Shqiperi suspiciously, ”I hope nobody expects me to go into the hot tub with him!”
“There's no hot tub here,” Big JC reassured him, ”I've already banned hot tubs. This isn't a spa hotel, remember? Even if certain ladies were stupid enough to believe it, lol.”
“And who let that crazy Irishman in here?” protested SanAndreas, glaring at Irish Carbomber.
“Oh,” he replied nonchalantly, ”they were impressed with my skills with Lupo as UB. And I'm afraid I forgot to tell Kpap where we went.”
“It doesn't matter,” SanAndreas muttered glumly, ”he's useless anyway. I'll be glad when I don't have to put up with any more of you useless fellows around me. I'm off to do something useful and increase my influence. Anyone coming with me?”
“Well, I'm going to look for the hot tub, brother,” Shqiperi explained, ”I can't quite believe there isn't one here yet.”
“Do that,” grinned SanAndreas, ”the whirlpool will certainly increase the well-being of your enforcers and thus improve your statistics. And if it doesn't work: Cry!”
________________________________________
Admittedly, friendly things also happened in the bracket that day.
“Whoever from RxW freed my leader: Thank you so much!” it bellowed over from the 654 clan castle.
One of the girls opened the kitchen window. “Do we accept commissions now?”
“No!” came from the 654, ”it was just a thank you! You freed my UB from the prison of 641! I'm a fan of RxW now!”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Someone likes us for once, that's amazing!” chuckled Black, ”I think DmenAce was the one with the good deed. It was more like collateral damage though.”
“But DmenAce is a bad person!” roared from the direction of the 651 clan castle, ”He captured my leader!”
“Good heavens,” sighed the Lady, ”that too. More people here, more mouths to feed.”
“The prisoners don't need anything to eat, you can let them starve,” explained DmenAce pitilessly, who had just entered the kitchen and was carrying the bound Shadowhunter with him.
Lady Evelyne sighed and rolled her eyes. All rednecks here! Nobody respected protocol and etiquette! Etiquette lessons were urgently needed, but of course the Thunder brothers considered that completely superfluous! Men!
The only thing to do was to set a good example.
“Welcome, King of the 651,” the Lady said politely and curtseyed to Shadowhunter, ”it's a bit of a shame that we're meeting again under these conditions, of course. May I offer you a cup of coffee and a piece of cake?”
“Too much honor, My Lady,” Shadowhunter replied gloomily, “as your comrade here rightly pointed out, I am but a prisoner.”
“Even a captive king remains a king,” the lady replied. “And there's nothing that a piece of cake and a good conversation can't cure. So: coffee? Cake?”
Smiling, she pushed a plate and cup towards Shadowhunter.
______________________________________
In the 641 clan castle, the day began as usual with a circle of chairs. The leadership took great care to offer enough group-dynamic, emotionally connecting activities, because after all, they are a family!
In the circle of chairs, only the person holding the talking animal was allowed to speak. This was a small sloth made of plush. Only the person currently holding it had the right to speak. This avoided unpleasant shouting matches or even constant mutual insults, which were common in such terrible factions as RxW.
One of the farmers had just given an epic account of all the resource stations he had robbed the day before. He had described them all in detail, listed their coordinates and recounted the robbery process down to the minute. Of course, not everyone was interested in this - but Kir Bear and Stabbyunicorn in particular thought it was extremely important that such players also had their say and that the fighters did not constantly push themselves to the fore. The fighters were in the minority anyway, so why were they always claiming equal rights? A democratic vote had quickly and easily resulted in the farmers having the first and last word in future, and that was the right thing to do. After all, Synergy was not a dictatorship, but an association of friends who respected and valued each other!
The chair circle (which had taken up almost the whole day in this way) was followed by a group therapy session in which everyone told each other their problems, then there was a group dinner with a so-called “warm shower”: everyone said five things they particularly liked about each other. No negative things were allowed to be said, only positive things were allowed. It went wonderfully, and the atmosphere was as cozy and friendly as ever. This was followed by a group meditation.
“I'm really happy that we got rid of certain people,” Kir Baer whispered to her friend Stabbyunicorn, ”it was so exhausting with them! They didn't fit in here at all and didn't want to take part in all this.”
“Oh yes!” Stabbyunicorn confirmed, ”I know exactly who you mean - Black and Biochest and their followers! Terrible guys. They all fit in much better with those drunken antisocials on 652. RxW is a gang of psychopaths, perverts and bullies. They even admit it themselves, it's in that Yikesy's profile! Honestly, the whole time Black and Biochest just wanted us to fight. As if this game is all about fighting! Socializing is just as important, if not more so. Real friendships have developed here that extend into the real world! They don't know anything like that!”
Kir Bear nodded. “I can't stand this fighting anyway. It's crude and cruel! Black and Biochest had no heart, they were cold as ice, and it's no coincidence that they've now ended up in the city of traitors! That's exactly where they belong. I hated that they kept pinging me when there were fights and wanted me to join in. They were constantly showing me my own inability, no stop, wrong text, I mean they were constantly trying to make themselves important to me. They didn't even recognize the true value of a real family!”
“Very true,” Sloth confirmed, ”they fit in better with RxW. They're a terrible bunch. They burn everything down ruthlessly and enslave the entire GW map. And if they get a headwind and don't know what to do next, they pull out their credit cards as the ultimate superweapon!”
In unison, the assembled Synergetics shook their heads in horror and silence and then sank back into their group meditation.
____________________________________________
“Zax, can your beer barrels go somewhere else?” shouted Thunder Boo from the cellar.
“Leave my beer barrels alone, there'll be a war, brother!” Zax shouted back.
“ Dude, we need space! Tomorrow is MD, we'll take masses of prisoners, the dungeon's not enough! We've thought about adding the wine cellar and your beer vault...”
“Then stack the prisoners as far as I'm concerned! But my beer barrels stay where they are!”
“Wow, that colleague is exhausting,” grumbled Thunder Boo, ”I don't want to say anything. Somehow I've become a kind of janitor here. Why does everyone expect me to make space, rebuild the existing rooms and solve the problem of overcrowding?”
Thoughtfully, he entered the castle courtyard and then the stables.
“Donkey, can I put a few prisoners in the stable for you? We need the space...”
“You must be gay!” protested the donkey, ”Candycane's damn horse is already standing here farting all day. If a few more stinking prisoners from other cities come along now, I'll have no quality of life here at all!”
“I'm beginning to not care! Cry!”
“Hey, that's my text!” roared Kodaxx from the castle wall where he was standing guard, ”stop stealing my text right now!”
“I've heard that before!” roared the donkey, ”It's exactly the same with me! You're always saying my words! That's because you're all far too stupid to come up with your own!”
“Who's stupid here, hey?” roared Kodaxx and jumped off the wall. It was bad luck that he overlooked Thunder Boo, who had just turned around. Thunder Boo took a heavy blow and fell into the dung heap.
“You damn...” roared Boo, jumping out of the dung heap and giving Kodaxx a huge punch to the jaw.
“Mass brawl!” roared the Thunder brothers enthusiastically, and everyone ran out into the castle courtyard to make sure they didn't miss anything and to participate as actively as possible.
And so the day in the 652's clan castle ended with the best things they could do there: fighting, shouting at each other, insulting each other and otherwise not having a plan.
A great preparation for the MD!
