Ravens of Eternity

51 Chasing Fears

“Alright, talk to all of you later!” said Eva.

She waved at the EyeCast and ended her stream. She was previously discussing a few things with Miko, the family, and Mack. Their numbers had done a little better and reached some people on both sides, but the results weren’t mind-blowing.

Not that any of them expected it – growth always took time. And effort.

That said, it would also benefit them greatly if they had a strong start. They had taken down any videos they had published previously, and only uploaded the one they had recently created. It was a strong “first” video, but Eva reasoned that their followup ‘casts needed to be better.

To help build the snowball’s momentum, that sort of thing.

All of them decided to take some time to think about what kind of vids and ‘casts they could make. Ideas were plentiful, but needed to be sifted through if they wanted to find any good ones.

Eva decided to go on a walk to help her jog her mind a little.

Ever since being reborn, she found that she needed to constantly be in motion. It was a stark contrast to her old life, where she spent the majority of it sedentary.

She found that the more she moved, the better her mind worked. The better everything worked.

.....

The streets were rather busy, but then again the streets were always busy. The artificial sky above her had switched to night – it alternated between day and night every cycle.

But that didn’t exactly change anything. People still went about their lives regardless of what color the sky was, or how much light they had.

The whole ceiling was a little surreal to Eva. The fact that the sky wasn’t real bugged her a little bit. The feeling of life being simulated never truly sat well with her, no matter how enjoyable it was.

She ended up at one of the many parks that dotted the megacity. Like any city park, it was rather tame. The verdant grass was always perfectly clipped, the paths were paved, and the trees were a little too orderly.

But she was glad to see that they were all real, as opposed to some digitally-created monstrosity. It would have been truly terrible if they were made chemically or holographically.

It seems that humanity had some vestige of nature left in them, and these parks accentuated that.

She found a lone tree, sat down on the grass, and leaned up on the trunk.

The grass had been cut previously, perhaps a few hours ago, and the scent of it filled her nose. She ran a hand across the top, and felt their blades slide across her fingers.

Eva enjoyed it immensely. It was a smell that felt soothing and familiar to her, and it grounded her.

Her DI flashed some information to her, about how cut grass exuded those vapors in an effort to heal themselves. It was the equivalent of smelling iron from freshly spilled blood.

Grass bled in its own way, and she – along with most other people – loved its intoxicating smell.

Her thoughts turned back to the start of her new life, about how much she had changed, and how much more change she had to go through.

In her old life, she wasn’t at all keen to help others in need. She felt that she herself was a person who needed help, and had little to spare of her own.

But now her new life offered her a great many advantages, and she no longer needed as much assistance as she used to.

In fact, every time she helped someone out now, it felt incredibly fulfilling for her. Such as when she helped that woman Claire refocus her life. Although she didn’t do much more than say a few words, both their lives had changed.

Presumably for the better.

Eva felt wonderful after that moment. She felt as though she had done something actually meaningful. Sure, bringing a felon to justice was meaningful as well, but it was satisfying in a completely different way.

But perhaps she could combine them somehow...

As she refined her idea some more, Miko suddenly messaged her, and the two got to chatting a little.

—

Miko: I am a little bit at a loss of what we should do next.

Eva: Same. We’ve got so many possibilities that I feel overwhelmed.

Miko: Should we omnicast something illegal? Or semi-legal?

Eva: Possibly. But we should really hold off on making too many of those for a while.

Miko: We could still record them now, at the very least.

Eva: Good idea! We oughta do that asap, so we can have some footage for later.

Miko: That still leaves us without a strong idea. Unless you have thought of something?

Eva: Kinda... I wanna take down Nightmare.

Miko: I am intrigued, however let us think this through.

—

Eva and Miko met up a few hours later at one of the commercial districts. They both had determined that going after Nightmare was the right thing to do.

Not just for their channel, but for the good of people everywhere.

Miko had experienced firsthand what kind of person he was like. And although she didn’t quite understand what kind of predator he was, she instinctively felt that she wasn’t safe around him. She unequivocally trusted Eva, and believed her when she said that humanity was better off without him.

Eva told her a few stories about how he had griefed his way through Bellum Aeterna, and his name was often met with ire when spoken aloud.

Miko wasn’t sure what a griefer was, as she had never experienced that level of harassment in a game before, so she asked.

“They’re not very complex,” replied Eva. “They simply get off on hurting other people. Hindering their progress, or pk’ing them over and over.”

“Why?”

Eva shrugged. She didn’t know the answer to that question, though she had certainly thought about it a great deal in the past. Was it because they were actually too simpleminded? Were they so underdeveloped that they allowed their base natures to take over? To dictate their behavior?

“No need to make sense of the senseless,” she replied.

“I see,” said Miko. “Then how do we go about finding Nightmare? The galaxy is far too large and too vast. He no doubt has plenty of enemies that he hides from, as well. And we cannot be careless in our search. He may end up attacking us instead.”

Eva knew what Miko was getting at. If they showed their hands too early, he was liable to counterattack quickly. As despicable as he was, he was practiced in the art of the ambush.

“We don’t have to find him at all,” Eva replied. “Instead, we gotta look for his other victims. I’m sure there’s plenty around. Then, we go from there.”

The two of them hopped into a small eatery, sat at a booth in the corner, and ordered some simple food. The smell of freshly cooked meals wafted through the air as they talked and did their research.

It wasn’t long before their food and drinks arrived, but they picked at all of it slowly as they worked.

Although they had their DIs to sift through and display information, they found that it was ultimately taxing on their minds.

It was simply because raw information was getting crammed into their heads. They found that the more info they received, the more quickly their minds tired. Basically, it was mentally exhausting to have information constantly shoved into your head.

Instead, they brought out their datapads and worked through them. It helped them sift through that storm of information much easier. Anything that was unimportant was easily discarded, while anything of note was sent straight to their minds via their DIs.

And what they were looking for was rather simple, yet difficult at the same time.

They clearly needed to search more about Nightmare and his victims, but the word nightmare itself was a pretty broad term. Going through everything was a nightmare in and of itself.

They eventually narrowed things down to people complaining about getting attacked by pilots who were affiliated with his callsign.

What they had found was rather shocking, but unsurprising.

He and his gang attacked so many people that there was a support group. It was formed by his various victims, and they met once every week to help each other overcome their traumas.

Nightmare assaulted people in every way imaginable. No doubt some of these victims had suffered serious mental and emotional damage thanks to his actions.

Without a doubt, their collective Nightmare needed to end.

Soon thereafter, the two of them went to one of the support meetings. It was some distance away from them, in a separate district from where they were staying.

The meeting itself was hosted in a room off to the side of a police precinct.

People needed to find solace in each other, despite the pain that they had gone through. These rooms often provided the space for them to do so.

There were rows of chairs that faced a podium up front, and there were roughly two dozen people clustered up near it. Most of the rest of the room was dark and empty.

The people listened in rapt attention at the person speaking at the podium, about how they were attacked, and how they felt about it during, and afterwards.

Most importantly, how they were coping with it. Or tried to, anyway.

The ones listening nodded their heads in agreement. It was clear that they had experienced something similar.

They had told stories of them getting attacked in the middle of nowhere and left for dead. Others talked about how they had been stripped of everything and humiliated.

If anything, Nightmare was consistent in the misery and anguish he inflicted on others.

Eva looked around at them, and realized that most of them were women. She shouldn’t have been surprised at that, but she was.

The both of them sat down and listened to all the speakers, and at some point Eva was asked to share her story.

She went up to the podium without any hesitation, and told them of her first experience with Nightmare. She told them of the time that she was attempting to accomplish a feat, but was vexed at every turn by Nightmare and his goons. Although, she carefully edited out any part that alluded to it happening in a game.

The story surprised no-one.

After she concluded with it, she told a second story – of him and his goons attacking her and Miko. She relayed just how evilly the group of men had looked at the teenager. About how hungry they had seemed. About how far they were willing to go to get her.

This surprised many. Nearly a dozen of them darkened at the depravity that Eva had uncovered. And their collective anger rose significantly.

While Eva concluded her stories and stepped down from the podium, a few of the others turned towards Miko and offered their apologies.

“None of you have anything to apologize for,” she replied. “Rather, it will be Nightmare who will pay for all that he has done.”

After a few moments of silence, one of the women stood up and headed towards the podium. Her clothes were rather plain, but completely black. It was as though she was in mourning.

.....

She was rather short and small, with soft eflin features and beautiful brown skin. Her hair was cut pixie-style, and was jet black, save for pink highlights.

She smiled, but there was a deep sadness behind it.

Eva’s attention was immediately captured. She immediately felt a kinship with the woman. Her poise, her demeanor, her dignity. Even her clothing drew her.

When she spoke, everyone listened in rapt attention.

“Hello,” she said. “My name is Amal. Like some of you, I am a refugee. This is my first time here, and I’m glad to meet you all. I am... I was hesitant to share my experience, but those of you who know me have convinced me that others need to hear it.”

Amal stopped for a moment and collected herself. It appeared as though she was gathering her strength.

She inhaled deeply, then exhaled at length before she spoke again.

“A small army led by Nightmare assaulted the family farm where I was staying. It was the most harrowing and devastating time of our lives...”

Then, she proceeded to tell her story from the very start, a slight tremor underneath her every word.