Gula Invidia: Black Market (XVI): Welcome To The Black Bayou

  --- Booker H. Freeman ---

  “You know there’s something… nostalgic about this.” Admittedly, he wasn’t sure what he was feeling nostalgic for, but that didn’t keep him from gaining a faint skip to his step as he and his latest companion walked through the halls of the subway station.

  (Lust: Friendship is weird like that.)

  “Suppose there is.” The man next to Booker huffed, rubbing at his newly freed neck. “Missed those days if I’m being honest…”

  (Pride: Days that he could very easily inform us of.)

  (Greed: We agreed, sharing our lack of memories right now is a fool’s deal.)

  They turned a corner and found a pair of vaguely familiar guards, standing around looking like they were having a fairly nasty hangover.

  (Envy: We killed them, they got better.)

  (Gluttony: We’ll have to fix that.)

  When one of the pair noticed them, the sinner blinked, “Tucker, the fuck are you doing with this-” Whatever he was going to say was shut down as a pair of massive bear claws grabbed the risen sinner’s skulls before slamming them into the walls hard enough to shatter their heads.

  Next to him the bear sinner -Tucker- snarled, “I always hated both of you assholes.” as his arms reverted to human, the limbs having been the only part of him to transform.

  (Is that something we can do?)

  (Gluttony: It’s not that different from growing our claws…)

  (Pride: So a distinct maybe.)

  Tucker glanced Booker’s way as his violet eyes reverted to brown. “Though this time you’re not the only voodoo boy throwing hands.”

  (Voodoo boy?)

  (Pride: I believe it’s an archaic term for someone with magic?)

  (Envy: A false one, given we don’t actually use voodoo.)

  (Pride: Well, I did say archaic.)

  He glanced at Tucker’s hands, and confessed that, “Yes, a number of people do have rather interesting abilities around here. In fact, your own transformation was rather intriguing.”

  “Thanks.” Tucker smirked before shaking his head. “Wasn’t expecting to be a bear either, but… I doubt you were expecting to be a rabbit of all things. Honestly, thought you were going to be a cat or wolf or some shit.”

  “No… I think a rabbit is rather fitting.” He disagreed, his mind going to the few memories he’d regained as he ran his fingers across a place he knew to have stitches in his other form.

  “If you say so…” The other man shrugged. “Still not used to it myself even after all this time, was a fucking miracle when I was able to turn back to human.”

  (Pride: Not that either of us are human.)

  (Gluttony: Not anymore…)

  (Sloth: Says a lot about him that he still thinks he is.)

  That made him consider the man next to him for a moment, and how easily he’d turned on his current employer.

  (Envy: No one likes the one binding them in chains.)

  (Sloth: Not unless you bound yourself…)

  (Lust: You’re all overthinking it. He’s just happy to have a friend with him after who knows how long.)

  (Still…) “You’re rather blasé about all of this.” He couldn’t help but comment as he still tried to make up his fractured mind about his fellow sinner.

  “Blasé?” Tucker repeated with a half-mad laugh. “No… I’m losing it inside about as much as I did when you talked me into taking out the Black Hand gang for the boss.”

  “Well, you can’t say that plan didn’t work out for us.” (After all, you wouldn’t be talking to me if it hadn’t.)

  “Yeah… Still think you were a sick fuck for setting up the bag… even if it did get everyone off my back.” Tucker gained a wry grin. “I mean, the look on Eddy’s face when I dumped it in his lap. Fucker always flinched when he saw me after that…”

  “An amusing reaction to be sure.” He agreed, before considering the man he’d seen before. “Makes me wonder how you fell so far as to be collared by something that should be served creole style with stewed tomatoes and rice!”

  (Gluttony: That actually sounds kind of nice.)

  “That’s…” The other man grimaced before letting out a sigh. “That’s a story we don’t have time for, not with people starting to wake up from your earlier beatdown.”

  (Sloth: He’s making excuses.)

  (Envy: People don’t like talking about their mistakes…)

  (Pride: Good thing we have none.)

  (Envy: …)

  “It does bring something up though, I might have my collar off but I’m not sure how much help I’ll be with Tom myself.” Tucker confessed, rubbing at his neck once more. “I can handle anyone that’s woken up but… With my deal in play there’s not much I can do about him.”

  (Greed: Doesn’t anyone know about the fine print?)

  (Pride: Knowledge is power, their ignorance, weakness.)

  “Hmm, I should be able to handle him.” He was fairly certain he could feel enough power within him to take on one little gator.

  (Sloth: Should still be smart. If you remember our last fight ended in a draw, if he’s on the same level as Tuck here… We’re going to need to be smart about this. Especially with all of the magic he’s layered this place with.)

  All the traps, guards, and spellwork he’d seen could easily turn this entire base into a killing ground for whoever used it.

  (Gluttony: We’re in his hunting grounds.)

  (Pride: His traps would take time to dismantle.)

  (Wrath: Powering through won’t be enough.)

  (Envy: Which is why we should subvert this field to our own.)

  (Oh?) He asked curiously.

  (Envy: Yes… look at this place… He’s carved a sanctuary of power and decadence all at the expense of those he collars and chains.)

  He could see them, walking through the halls. Shadows bent and broken, the scent of suffering, blood, and decay lingering as whimpering cries echoed from all around him.

  (Envy: He’s safe with a full belly, while so many suffer and starve… A parasite feeding upon the innocent, their potential stolen by those with power…)

  Booker remembered the reptilian sinner, in a clean pressed suit, clothes like those he wore now. Then he recalled the Inferni from the pit wearing little more than bloody rags, even worse than the hand-me-downs he’d grown up with as a child.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  (Envy: Is this fair? That he gets so much, while everyone else gets so little?)

  The shadows around him began to darken, as he decided, (No…) It wasn’t fair.

  (Envy: Then let’s make it fair~)

  A faint song began to echo through the air, similar to but so very different from the Sinner’s Song, the beat slower, carried on by the slow humming of the dead. Their eyes looking out from the shadows all around, as one by one they reached out to him.

  (Envy: After all…)

  He stumbled forward, as he felt the weight of his sins dragging him down below, his foot splashing as he stepped into the dark muddy waters. Forcing himself to look at the reflection of a horned rabbit with violently violet eyes and a mad man’s grin.

  (Envy: If the world won’t give us justice…)

  He forced himself to stand in the muck, even as it stained his red coat black, and started marching towards the door hiding the sinner responsible for all of the suffering in these halls.

  (Envy: Then we’ll just have to take it for everyone.)

  He pushed his hand forward, and winds of the Bayou rushed forward blasting the door off its hinges and letting its dark waters wash into the room.

  “What the fuck?!” The reptilian sinner and all those who aligned with the monster jumped at the intrusion to their little meeting. “Tucker, the fuck is the meaning of this?!”

  “Think even in hell the butcher is still the creepiest fucker I know.” The bear sinner chuckled, despite keeping his distance.

  “The butcher?” Tom repeated before shaking his head and pulling out a device from his coat. “No, I don’t care who you think you are this is my club and you do not fuck with me in my club.” The reptilian sinner clicked the device, only for nothing to happen. “The fuck?”

  He couldn’t help but grin at the sinner’s confusion. “Oh, Tom, haven’t you noticed? We’re not in your home anymore, we’re in mine.” He snapped his fingers just to underline this point.

  All around them, numerous hands erupted from the shallow waters, one for every soul each of them had harmed. And while a number of them were dragging him down, he’d take it if it meant balancing the scales even a bit.

  “The fuck are these?!” Tom cursed and struggled.

  “What? Can’t recognize the sins crawling on your back?” Booker scoffed as he continued forward, his own sins lessening in the face of a sinner so much worse. A respite that was given to no one else in the bayou’s black waters.

  “No, fuck this!” The reptilian sinner cursed, before pulling his hands together and pushing them to the sides as violet and gold lightning rippled across his flesh.

  The bayou’s black waters were forced away from the reptilian sinner as he began to grow in size, freeing both himself and his minions. All around glowing lines of color cut through the darkness of the bayou, graffiti spellwork coming to life in neon colors that pushed the bayou’s influence back.

  “You pathetic motherfuckers!” The reptilian sinner roared, looking less like a man and more like a gator standing upright. His suit shredded by overgrown and scaled muscles. “I told you this is my club, and here I. AM. King!!!”

  Booker gave the man a sardonic grin, “Well you’ll feed the bayou, same as any pauper.”

  Tom snarled before turning to Tucker with eyes that glowed gold. “You may have slipped your collar but you’re still bound by our deal. Now quit rebelling and kill this fucker!”

  Booker’s ursine companion flinched as crackling magic danced across his skin, clutching at his head and even clawing at it as Tucker shifted from man to bear.

  With a snarl of his own, Booker pushed more power into the bayou, sending the black water rushing forward towards Tom’s own minions hitting each of them with a wave of darkness and renewing the hands seeking to drown them.

  Golden eyes glared at him, as the giant reptile’s tail lashed behind it. “Alright, you want to keep this between us, then I’ll kill and collar you myself.”

  The reptile’s hand shot out towards the wall, doubling the lights before with a sweep of his hand the graffiti unleashed burst with a whistling sound.

  Recognizing the sound for what it was, Booker sidestepped the spellsongs before their invisible blades cut into the wall behind him.

  Black magic cackled and crackled along his fingers before coalescing into a bolt of violet magic and flying towards the gator. Only for it to be blocked as the reptile used its tail to swat a table into the bolt’s path, shattering it into a blast of light and shards of wood as they collided.

  The reptile lunged forward, scaled claws digging into the ground as the massive beast threw its entire weight at Booker. Something that would’ve been far more impressive if Tucker hadn’t had far more mass to throw around.

  With a wave of his hand, shadows erupted from the black waters creating a shield of hands that held the thrashing gator in the air, long enough for Booker to unleash another bolt of cursed magic into its face, sending it flying back.

  The reptile hit the ground in a roll, using its claws to right itself before rearing back and spitting out a glob of liquid something that steamed the very air around it.

  Not wanting to risk it splashing over him, Booker ducked to the side, his sins happy to drag him down into the black tide even if it saved him from external harm.

  Mere steps to his right the liquid hissed as it burned its way through the wall, acid devouring whatever it touched.

  (Acid…) Booker narrowed his eyes as the gator reared back like a snake before spitting out several more globs of the substance, intent on making it impossible to dodge it all.

  The sins crawling on his back, dragged him to his hands and knees as the black water splashed around him, until he stood against guilty deluge and a wall of black muck rising with him and intercepting the acid.

  Something that only made the tide more dangerous as he sent it rushing forward, intent on washing away all that stood against him and his justice.

  The reptilian sinner hissed before quickly kicking off of a nearby couch, and clinging to the ceiling above as everything else crashed against the wall to thunderous roar.

  With inhuman speed the other sinner crawled across the ceiling before lunging forward with a maw wider than a human, and tackling him out the door and back into the club’s depths.

  He grasped at the gator’s maw, black magic crackling where fangs bit through his flesh, holding the beast before him at bay even as his hands became slick with his own blood.

  Not that this stopped the reptile from clawing away at him, with its still free hands. Every swipe slicing into his flesh with a pain that he knew was only a fraction of what the sinner before him had inflicted upon so many others.

  A pain that drew in the true beasts of the bayou…

  Black hands erupted from the water, grasping and clawing at the reptilian sinner pinning him down, even as others tried to drag him down.

  A weight he could easily endure if it meant drowning the gator first.

  Feeling the suffering of so many before him, he pushed into the pain, fueling his magic as he unleashed a blast of cursed magicks that pulled the waters forward like a hound on the hunt, forcing the reptile off of him and pulling him back to his feet.

  Ahead of him the gator thrashed on the ground, attempting to resist the weight of his sins. Something Booker easily did as he slowly marched through the muck, hands full of shadowy mists as he slowly weaved together another spell.

  With a roar like a death rattle the gator unleashed a wave of magic that lit every bit of graffiti in the room alight in a blaze. (No, not just this room…)

  He could hear the spell echoing down throughout the station halls, lighting up everything in a blast he had no doubt would bring everything down upon their heads, burying them all alive.

  “I won’t let you take my club from me.” The reptilian sinner glared as black hands dragged his now human form into the muck.

  His mind raced, listening to the spellsong, dissecting its every beat, wondering if he could overwhelm it with the tides of the black bayou.

  Until it all fizzled out with a flash of pink.

  “What?” The gator gasped.

  By contrast Booker couldn’t help but laugh as he realized, (The others must’ve found the core of the spell engine.)

  “What do you know?” He gloated as he trudged towards the reptilian sinner. “My minions seem to be far more competent and loyal than yours.”

  “No, no, no. This can’t be happening!” The gator panicked, his final plan having been thwarted.

  “Oh, it is.” He confirmed as he placed his boot on the sinner’s neck. “What? Did you think you’d never have to pay for your sins? That no one would make you suffer for the things you’ve done in this wretched place?”

  The reptile blinked at him dumbfounded. “You-you’re trying to play hero? In hell?! That’s… that’s what this is all about?!”

  “I’m not trying to play hero.” He assured the sinner as he crouched down. “I just hate it when parasites pretend they’re better than everyone else just because they got lucky. That they think their luck gives them the right to treat others like filth for things they’ve no control over, because the parasites stole that control BEFORE THEY WERE EVER BORN!”

  “Like you’re such an angel!” The gator spat as he struggled against the hands still rising out of the black waters. “I started out on the streets same as everyone else and I built this place up from nothing! So what if we use a few assholes too dumb to live! We earned what we have!”

  “Completely true on all counts!” Booker smiled, bringing the sinner up short as he stood.

  “What?”

  “You did earn everything you’re getting, via the suffering of those who did not earn what they in turn got.” He growled as he pressed his boot down. “And the Inferni you chained were naive to trust a deal you forced upon them as well as spineless given how they chose servitude over dying with dignity. But, but, but!”

  Booker leaned down to look the gator in the eyes. “That doesn’t change the fact that you still chained them, Beat Them, RAPED THEM DOWN TO THEIR SOULS!!!”

  Taking a deep breath, he straightened himself out and stepped back from the gator, now entirely wrapped in the hands of the reptile’s victims save for one lone eye. “Nor does my opinion of you change the fact that you are quite correct on one last point. I am no angel…”

  “No.” He reached down to the submerged sinner’s face and forced it into a smile that let the black water in. “I’m the demon that’s going to make sure you get exactly what you deserve…”

  Envy Sinful Boost Revealed

  -The Black Bayou: Overlay the current location with the Black Bayou. Every unit in the Bayou gains [Creeping Sin] based on how many units in the location they’ve helped or hurt. Reduce a unit’s rolls by this value.

  ---

  A/N: Okay, calling it here at roughly 3k. No choices this time but next chapter is going to be the ‘wrap-up’ chapter for this arc before we get to memories of a monster.

  Also a quick question, I was thinking long-term and am a little split on how to handle contracts. (Yes, we only have one now but I kind of want to do one per ‘Book’ as it were.)

  On the one hand I can treat them as regular pop ups like with Memories of a Monster. Which while a bit more disjointed will have everyone appear more frequently. On the other, I could do a sort of side-quest, where we play an ‘Episode’ as a character in their life after Booker with Booker being a sort of side-character/mentor there.

  I’m still figuring it out -and will probably do a mix- but I was wondering what you guys want to get from the whole Contract thing story wise.