Vaudevillain

It had been a few days since Menagerie's assault on the cities of Cartis, Thenapolis, and Haven, and Skyline was already filling up with the various recruits from the event. With the influx of players, both the upper and underside of Skyline had filled out as players helped construct the city's different buildings. The skyscraper hosting both heroes and villains was now complete, and all manner of players were enjoying their time in the OOC lounge, PVP arena, and crafting areas.

Dylan wasn't in any of these areas, as his growing popularity had players swarming around him any time he visited. Everyone wanted to be involved in his next scheme, each wishing to join in on Dr. Zlo's zany antics. In all honesty, Dylan found the attention suffocating. Too many people with too many ideas and all of them wanted him to use theirs.

It was why Dr. Zlo currently sat with Dextra Black in the penthouse at the bottom of the skyscraper, sipping on tea prepared by one of Dextra's new minions. The two discussed the event, known as the Three Cities Sinking to forums and news, laying out their thoughts on the entire process. Neither bothered to keep up with roleplaying, considering they were the only two in the room. It made going over the specifics a bit too troublesome.

"I think we worked around the limitations well enough," Dylan said. He sat in a plush armchair made of a leather Dylan couldn't even begin to pronounce. Thomas sat opposite from him, his avatar lounging in an office chair that rivaled a throne. A grand window, tinting a glossy brown in the direct sunlight, revealed the outside, showing the splendid progress of Skyline's underbelly.

"The wristbands kept a lot of people in check, even if we had a good number break the rules."

"That's true, and Jack's system contributed a lot to our current faction structure," Thomas said.

Dylan agreed. He'd been amazed at how sophisticated Jack's wristbands were. Not only did the devices record deaths, but they also recorded the name of the player and the number of contributions they made. Dylan wasn't sure how Jack calculated the last part. Her explanation of the whole thing went right over the man's head. Combine that with the founding member's recommendations; Menagerie had a solid hierarchy.

The group had split control of Menagerie in broadly four ways. First, there were the heroes and villains, run by Rampart and Dextra, respectively. Under the two leaders were district managers. These players were responsible for running certain areas of the city, such as the crafting area. From there, groups of players would form their own mini-factions, appointing mediators to oversee issues in the mini-faction. These smaller factions could hold as little as four players and as large as fifty. But each mediator was responsible for all the people under the group.

If the mini-factions had issues with each other, it fell to the district managers to keep the peace. It was similar if district managers had issues between areas, but the leaders of the heroes and villains would have to come together to resolve the issue. Overall, Dylan felt it was a decent solution for now. Though he was sure something would come up to create trouble sometime down the line. Gamers were like that.

The other two areas of control were PVP and events. Right now, Oro ran the PVP side of things, appointing overseers to schedule fights between heroes and villains. He was even establishing a committee to create rules for item and weight limits.

Dylan ran the events group, at least for now. The reason was that he was the only one overly interested in the idea. Rampart and his team would rather go around finishing the NPC quests first, and Dextra's group was too busy managing the day-to-day runnings of Skyline. Actually, it was only Dextra running the city. Shizuka had run off to who knows where and Nikola was continually running through the wilderness, fighting monsters and securing unique ingredients.

Sweet Dream and Riptide weren't online as much recently. They were hitting their busy season in school, with tests coming around the corner and all. So neither of them were given heavy responsibility. It was the same for Titan and Merla, the two only getting online to discuss living quarters.

"Too bad no one else could join for a talk," Dylan said to Thomas, taking another drink of his tea.

"Jack would've, but someone decided to make some ungodly combination of magic and science. She immediately went to check it out," Thomas answered.

"Sounds about right," Dylan said. "I've never seen Jack stay still when something interesting happens."

"How are you holding up?" Thomas asked. "You've effectively become the faction's poster boy now that our event video dropped."

Dylan sighed, "It's tiring having all these people come up to ask for things."

"I can see that," Thomas said.

"You don't know the half of it," Dylan said. "If it isn't someone asking for me to make them something, it's someone who wants to be in the next video and won't shut up about it."

Thomas made a face, "Yeesh. Do you need us to do something about it?"

"I've gotten around to blasting anyone who asks more than once," Dylan said. "Made a new invention for it and everything. It sends a bubble of air at people that picks them up and deposits them on the other side of the city."

"That sounds hilarious," Thomas said.

"Yeah. And now I'm getting people doing it intentionally so they can get a ride."

"What you need is an agent," Thomas said after some deliberation.

Dylan thought about it. Having someone to manage all the people around him did sound like a good idea. He could even make it a minion. The greasy man in a suit who wore a bit too much jewelry and might or might not be part of a mafia sounded like the perfect agent for Dr. Zlo, criminal mastermind.

"I'll get one after I make Quartet," Dylan said. "That minion's been sitting on my to-do list for a long time. He needs to say hello to the world."

"I thought you had one already? He died when you stole that Phlebotinium from the mutant school."

Dylan took another drink before answering, "A prototype. The Quartet I have in mind can split into four and has a weaponized voice."

Thomas chuckled, "Fitting, I guess. You do have that old-timey look about you. Speaking of, how are your other minions?"

"Now that I've got a place to call my own up here, things are fine," Dylan answered. "Though I have to be careful that Mabel doesn't steal someone else's NPC butler."

Thomas thought back to when Hans got taken for an hour. That had caused a bit of chaos around the city.

"Nikola almost tore Mabel to pieces," Thomas recalled.

"Yeah, it wasn't pretty," Dylan said. "Like the ending of our event."

"I thought it went rather well," Thomas said.

"I mean, it did," Dylan deliberated. "But I envisioned things slightly differently."

"Well, next time you'll know better," Thomas said.

"I've already got the plan in mind," Dylan said. "Was going to run it by you and then start sending out recruitments. I'm thinking of making flyers and posting them on building walls. Make a shady recruitment call and whatnot."

"I don't think you'd get a lot of people like that," Thomas said.

"If I post on the NetChat group you made, I'm just going to get all the groupies," Dylan said. "I'd rather not have clingy people."

"Understandable," Thomas said, remembering Dylan's spat with his old friend.

"Oh, speaking of events," Dylan said. "Before ours, I got an email from Vert about working together. I haven't done anything with it yet, but they want to meet."

Thomas sat up straighter, all his attention on his friend, "This is good. We finally have something of an in."

"I'm pretty sure they're just going request I be one of the raid bosses," Dylan explained.

"Even if that's all they ask, we'll at least get some say in how the game proceeds," Thomas said. "Plus, you'll get to be a permanent part of the world."

Dylan shrugged, "I don't know. I'm doing all of this for fun, and I'd like to keep treating it that way. Sure, I'm in Menagerie because I want to see changes, but I feel that if I get too serious about it, I'll lose sight of things."

"Fair," Thomas said. "How about this. Go hear them out, get a glimpse of the process. If it seems like you can still have fun, accept the offer. Otherwise, turn it down."

"You aren't going to hold it against me?" Dylan asked.

Thomas raised an eyebrow, "Why would I? It's your offer."

Dylan blinked. That was right. It was his offer, and therefore his decision.

"Sorry, force of habit, I guess," Dylan said.

John would have flown off the handle if Dylan didn't accept the offer. Though Dylan couldn't exactly blame him for it. Joining a game studio had been the man's dream since high-school. It made sense that his old friend would get upset over it.

Shaking his head, Dylan pushed the thought from his mind. He still hadn't heard from his friend after their fight, and the fact John hadn't even tried to reach out saddened Dylan. However, he had made new friends. And sure, some of them might be a bit pushy, like Shizuka, but none of them argued back when Dylan said no.

"Alright," Dylan said, standing from his seat and walking over to the penthouse window. "I'll schedule a meeting with Vert, and we'll see what they have to offer."

Thomas stood as well, "That's the spirit."

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