PDTS3 Prologue - November

November was not having a good day. Then again, she never did.  

It had all started with a message from a particular game company known as “DreamState”, inviting her to a supposedly galaxy-wide online tournament involving the cream-of-the-crop players. It had started off well – she had won her first few matches with ease. However, as the competition started thinning out to the very core players, she struggled more and more to stay afloat.

 Eventually, the Egeilian-turned-ice phoenix’s face met up with a particularly unpleasant steel beam, which had been swung by a particularly unpleasant, cigarette-obsessed honey badger named Donny, and that was the end of that. That, while humiliating, wasn’t even the worst of it.

 She had waited for the standard game over screen to appear after dying, but nothing of that sort appeared. Instead, her vision slowly blacked out, leaving her with only herself to look at and a curiously annoying “buzzing” sound to listen to.

 That was when officials rudely waked her up as she was dragged out of her virtual reality pod. As it tuned out, Ollivander’s group had been locating contestants in an effort to save them. The virus sent to her pod overrode the power and oxygen supplies, so when she was killed ingame, her oxygen source was cut off in reality.

 Well, one thing led to another, and now November was on the S.S. Gallia, part of one of many forces trying to track down Para.

The fuming Egeilian in question sat on her Velcro chair, drumming a pattern with her tongue into the desk in front of her. Curse that assistant and curse that doctor, she thought. She knew she technically shouldn’t blame the assistant; after all, he was just following orders, and it wasn’t necessarily his fault that he had been forced to lock her out of her room before she could grab any Egeilian recording devices. The Doctor, on the other hand, was completely deserving of her wrath. When she had demanded for him to let her back into her room, he smiled and simply told her no.

November did not take this well. She certainly did not want to “enrich her social skills by getting to know her fellow ‘colleagues’ and future friends”, as Doctor Ollivander had put it. Frogmen, zombies, dragons, and mentally deranged humans did not quite fit her bill for ideal conversation partners, nor did ignorant assistants, lizardmen, or annoying children. Hell, even her nieces would be better conversationalists then this lot.

 Not for the first time, she wished she was back home, sipping on some fresh water and critiquing fellow scientists’ papers, or bantering back and forth with the High Lord Eos (whom she had developed a soft spot for in conversation, if not emotionally).

The memory of Eos brought her back to the present. I might as well add him to the list of people to be damned, she though with a sigh. After being defeated and rescued from DreamState, she had been invited to join up with Ollivander’s group. Not one to go chasing after a mysterious entity that had managed to affect such a wide range of people, the egeilian was content to stay back and let the multitude of other organizations and people go and try to capture “Para”.

However, he superiors though differently; they wanted in on this chase without directly showing their presence. Ollivander was a godsend for them, and without further ado, she was “officially” (as officially as someone who should technically be frozen in cryogenic sleep on a prison asteroid could be) put on leave to go on this excursion and observe the ongoings and whereabouts of Para. Her arguments - that there were already probably enough people looking out for Para and that her inclusion would probably do nothing, not to mention that they could form their own goddamned forces – fell on deaf ears, and away she went.

Now she was stuck in a ship full of crazies, against her will, and not even allowed to do the job she was meant to, since her writing tools were locked up tight in her room for the next 48 hours.

Truth be told, November was getting tired of fuming silently. She shook her head in disgust, appalled at herself. It was a complete waste of her time. The environment must be getting to me. Well, no longer. While she had humored her personal emotions before, it was could not be accepted now. The egeilian neatly filed away her thoughts for later examination, and turned to the matter at hand; getting some sort of writing utensil before Ollivander came by and decided to introduce her to another deranged idiot.

She took a quick overview of her surroundings. Long black strips of Velcro covered the “ceilings” and the “floors” of the adjoining hallways, made to aid the inhabitants of the ship walk around securely in zero gravity. The particular room November currently found herself in was completely circular, with different types of desks and chairs (which were also covered in Velcro) bolted to the walls. She only found herself here because no one else seemed to be there; the others were either hanging out in the Gravitational Room (an area that spun around the outside of the ship in order to imitate gravity via spinning), one of the many comfortable lounges, the public cafeteria, the sick bay, or in the gym.

Nowhere did November remember seeing any supplies of human pencils or pens around. I suppose I’ll just have to go and steal one off of an assistant. After all, what kind of assistant would they be if they didn’t take notes? She was about to get up to complete this dirty deed when, lo and behold, she heard voices floating down the hallway. Human voice.  November’s limited grasp of English unfortunately did not extend as to proper identification, but it sounded like a female voice.

 Just a couple of seconds later, she was proved correct as a small group of humans walked out of the hallways above her head, their Velcro shoes going “crip, crip, crip!” They were so preoccupied with their conversation that they did not notice November behind her desk.

November, never one to waste opportunities, took quick survey of whom they were. A child and an adult human. What a useless bunch. However, something stuck out of the child’s pocket…. a pencil, was it? Yes. And November supposed she could try to adapt to human utensils. 

November simply waited until the oblivious group walked closer and closer around the small spherical room. As quick as a whippersnapper, the egeilian’s tongue lunged forward, grabbing the pencil and pulling it out of the child’s pocket. 

“H… hey”, she stuttered, noticing November. November wasn’t actually paying much attention to her at that point; she had what she wanted, and had no more time to waste for little children. “I would like… like my pencil back, please”. No response – the egeilian was preoccupied with trying to learn how to hold the pencil with her tongue. “Alright, then, you can keep it. I don’t really need it anyway”, she mumbled, and slowly shuffled away.

While November’s minor misdeed was passed over by the previous owner of the pencil, it did not escape the attention of the second member of the group. A human by the name of Anne O’Selli, who had previously been talking loudly and laughing a burbling laugh, turned towards the egeilian with narrow eyes.

“Hey, you, give that back!” she said vehemently. While normally Anne wouldn’t be so direct, November had managed to insult her and her drawing skills in the most incredibly rude way during the introduction class (well, what else could she had said? Her egeilian anatomy was completely off). And one thing Anne did not do was to let go grudges easily 

November, however, continued to ignore the duo. If she could just manage to wedge the pencil in this manner, perhaps she would be able to-

“I said, go and find your own pencil.”

Clearly November wasn’t going to get any peace until she managed to dismiss them. With a heavy sigh, the egeilian stood up, turned around towards the group, and stood up to her full height (an impressive 6’4”). Under normal conditions it wouldn’t have been possible – however, in zero gravity, she was able to easily make herself look bigger.

“Do I honestly have to explain this to you? I suppose I do.” She sighed dramatically once more. “You see here, you fool, that is precisely what I did – I found my own pencil. Just because the child happened to have it on her person at that time does not mean she owns it. No matter – I just claimed it for myself. Now, I suggest you return to your little lounge, or wherever you go to converse with likeminded people, and leave me alone.” She stared at Anne through narrow eyes.

O’Selli positively bristled at this rebuke. “Bullshit!” she yelled. “I don’t care how ‘correct’ you think you are; you will relinquish the pencil”. Her face was growing flushed from anger, and she pushed a slim finger into November’s chest.

“I honestly cannot believe you are wasting my time over a single pencil. This is pathetic, even for you. Now, I would personally recommend leave this room before you make anymore of a fool of yourself.”

“Hm, you don’t like me yelling? Well, maybe I’ll continue. Whatcha gonna do about it? Hey? Nothing, that’s what!” Anne puffed and angrily turned her back to the egeilian. November turned also turned her back to the human, but for an entirely different reason; she had had enough of wasting her time, and needed to get back to recording her experiences on the S.S. Gallia for Eos.

The conversation would have been over if it had not been for one Doctor Ollivander who decided to float in the room at that moment. “November? Anne? What seems to be the problem here?” The blond professor soared into the room, grabbing a suspended beam to arrest his movement.

Anne was quick to reply. “November stole Lily’s pencil, and refuses to give it back. And she is being incredibly rude.”

“Well, November, we both know stealing and insulting aren’t good activities. Why don’t you apologize to Anne and Lily, and give back her pencil? I’m sure we could find a new, better-suited one for you.”

“N..no, it’s OK. I don’t really want it back. It’s covered in saliva, anyway”, Lily muttered.

The Doctor smiled down at the child. “Well, if that’s how you would like it, Lily. Now, Anne, why don’t you take Lily back to the cafeteria? It’s nearing dinner-time anyway, not that you could tell in space.” The prospect of food seemed to immediately lighten up Anne’s mood. She smiled at Ollivander, thanked him (all the while pointedly ignoring November), and took Lily by the hand and ran off towards the dining area.

Ollivander turned towards November with a raised eyebrow. “We both know that thieving is an inexcusable behavior on this ship, November. Why did you do it?”

November abandoned all ideas of getting any writing done that day. She closed her bound book, pages still white, and turned towards the Doctor. “Ollivander, we both know that you know why I took the pencil. If you did not, I would seriously doubt that this expedition would have gotten so far. As for what I was going to write, I will not tell, so don’t bother asking. So why are you still her?”

Ollivander smiled gently again, and shook his head. “You are quite right, November; I actually wanted to ask you something. More specifically, why are you here on the S.S. Gallia? Do you wish to go after the woman known as Para? What are your motives?”

November leaned over the desk, focusing her eyes on Ollivander’s face as she did so. “My motives, as your assistants will tell you, are also only known to me. I intend to keep it this way. I wouldn’t bother asking those types of questions if I were you – you could be spending your time more valuably on, say, tending to the multitude of people on this ship with mental disorders more severe than my own.” She let her body fall back down into a more comfortable position before waiting for a response. 

Ollivander gave her The Look. The very same superior Look given by parents after responding to a naïve question posed by their naïve child. It was November’s time to bristle. This man thought he was better than her. That she was just one of his regular, diagnosable patients that he practiced on during university. “Listen closely, Ollivander, “ she hissed. “The very last thing you would ever want to do is to take me as a fool. I’m not entirely sure why you decided to use brain-damaged, emotionally unstable, and possibly untrained revenge-driven idiots for your attack force instead of trained, coordinated professionals, but the reasoning behind it can’t possibly be good. Make sure to be more careful in what you let drop” .The Doctor raised an eyebrow

"Why, of course not, November. I would never take you for a fool."

November smiled humorlessly. "You're intelligent compared to your colleagues, Ollivander, but incredibly naive. I would be cautious, if I were you. Running such an operation with such an unstable base cannot function with naivety, and since you are the head of the operation, I would recommend dropping the naivety."

"Oh, it's not just me."

"Hmm?" This was the first time November had heard of a joint collaboration. 

"Doctor P is helping me out. I assure you, the good Doctor will counterbalance any "naivety" you see in me." Ollivander smiled and waited. "Really, you could find this information in the pamphlet I gave out on the first day". November hadn't really bothered reading the full pamphlet - it was so atrociously worded that she couldn't bear to anymore, so she had ended up folding it into a neat little paper kijik. "Now, I do think it is close to supper, November. Would you care to join us this time?"

November gave him a distasteful look and left in an uncharacteristic huff, not wanting to let her rage get the better of her. My rage? What a disgusting thought – since when was the last time I was this angry, this easily played? And for such a petty, ridiculous, and idiotic reason? She couldn’t recall any. No matter – November made a mental note to go and get some exercise to relieve some stress and hopefully clear her mind from such appalling behaviour.

Ollivander had something up his sleeve, some ulterior motive. I’m not quite sure I like that, she thought as she walked off deeper into the S.S. Gallia.