Chapter 34 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 34 — Family business

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 33 — Vorpals · Next: Chapter 35 — Emergency action items · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

<Note Added by Crawler Ossie, 18th Edition>

Summary

Ossie's note (18th Edition) at the end of Herot's Worn Path essay: 'I think they're lying about the origin of some of these NPCs […] A reused canvas painted over and over again'; ask a bopca where they come from and they all say the aliens 'offered' them the dungeon; others got the same deal with a lower station. — Damascus Steel, standing, tears steaming: take the Penis Parade dancers with you. 'With my mother dead, they'll assign a new assistant manager […] They'll kick us out.' 'Your mother?' (a nervous glance at the ceiling). 'You owe me.' Astrid pulled strings to put them here; new management sends them to the Larracos Meat Shields or worse — 'you'll end up fighting against them on the ninth floor.' 'We were promised freedom. He wanted to make sure she was dead. They're still married […] He gets it all. He'll have it all when we get out.' Katia: 'Are you saying you're former crawlers? That Astrid was […] your mother? And he's your what? Your father?' 'Yes, they're my parents. My brother and I were never crawlers.' The top floor has a Meat Shields location not on the map — Rosemarie, working from a home office that is now a hole, with Bernie on her shoulder: 'Your mother said…' 'My mother is dead.' A two-floor contract for the whole crew (Bucket Boy and Doctor Bones the DJ included), 100,000 gold, the coupon; Damascus stays: 'You know what I have to do.' Rosemarie: 'I'm sure gonna miss the cum closet.' Damascus: 'There's more of us than you know. Anaconda and I are just two of thousands' — 'I've already gotten a warning to shut up about this.' 'Brother, what are you doing?' 'I'm going to avenge our mother. He won't win.' 'This is family business.' The two walk into the back cubicle. Tuesday Two-For-One: 'Are they going to get each other off or something?' Rosemarie: 'It's the end of an era.' Then the club closes: fifteen minutes to leave. Thirteen strippers, the skeleton DJ and Bucket Boy already in the barracks Donut had Imani buy (with a Mercenary Arcade); only Penis Parade men were hireable. 'THE GREATEST THING SINCE YOU HIRED SLEDGIE […] DOCTOR BONES […] THE BEST DJ SINCE DJ DIESEL.' Mordecai is angrier about the club than the strippers: supplies. Katia gave Donut Jola, a mythic Icelandic totem; rather than drop a card, Donut Combo'd two problem totems, spent every utility buff and made it permanent with Glow-Up — two new totems, and Shi Maria kept as a calculated risk until a key is in hand ('SHE WANTED ME TO USE THAT GLOW-UP CARD ON HER'). 'JOLA IS GREAT AS LONG AS THERE ARE NO CHILDREN AROUND.' Faction Wars rule votes finalised while Carl was busy. The dance floor bloodied — one vorpal came up; Emir's boot gone; Clarabelle unseen. Katia grey-ringed, a tremor in her left hand. Carl's theory: the Night Wyrm, Astrid, Damascus and Anaconda are a family stuck in the dungeon a very long time, not generated but like the bopcas — indentured, born some other race; Astrid got the club job and parked her sons in a strip club whose dancers are meant to be 'unqualified', hiding them as mercenaries via Rosemarie; the father had her killed, maybe for her paycheck. Mordecai on the third floor: illegal to change a natural's memories — 'Unless they signed away their rights.' Leaving, Carl remembers the Faction Wars warlords still trapped in the flooded bottom level, and grins.

Characters

• Damascus Steel — Astrid's son; hires out his crew; goes to kill his father.
• Anaconda — The other son, a different species; 'family business.'
• Astrid — A mother who pulled strings; a paycheck someone wanted.
• The Night Wyrm — Husband, father, employer of his wife's killers.
• Rosemarie — Meat Shields manager from a home office; 'end of an era.'
• Carl — Hires thirteen strippers, a skeleton DJ and Bucket Boy; theorises the naturals.
• Katia Grim — Tremor, rings, holding up; gave Donut Jola.
• Princess Donut — A barracks, an arcade, two combo'd totems; birthday early.
• Mordecai — Worried about supplies; 'unless they signed away their rights.'
• Tuesday Two-For-One — Gum and a question.

Locations

• The Desperado Club — Closed for remodelling; blood on the top-floor dance floor.
• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — A barracks and a Mercenary Arcade full of strippers.

Motifs

• Waking the NPCs — 'Two of thousands'; bopcas, indenture, memories signed away; Ossie's painted-over canvas.
• The Guild of Suffering — A murder for money inside a game; a son's revenge.
• Mercenaries — Meat Shields, a 100,000 coupon, two floors, an army for Faction Wars.
• T'Ghee totems — Jola; Combo plus Glow-Up; Shi Maria kept on purpose.
• Faction Wars — Warlords trapped under a flooded club; votes finalised.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Ossie's note beneath Herot's essay, noticed only in transcription.
• Addiction — Katia's hand shakes.