[Can’t Opt Out]

“Excuse me?” Conrad growled, trying to step out from behind Hyr to confront the trio who had spoken so rudely to them. The northerner’s hand was still wrapped tightly around the man’s upper arm, however, and for all that Conrad was terrifying, his abilities able to bring people to their knees, he was unlikely to use those abilities on Hyr over something like this… hopefully, anyways.

One of the men in the group sneered at him, blue eyes so dark they almost appeared black. “Another lynie? Seriously, you’d think this ship would vet its guests better.”

Behind him, the lone woman in their group snickered. “I told you we should have gotten tickets for a more exclusive ship. You’re the one who decided to compete for these ones, so you have no one to blame but yourself.” She brushed her short brown hair behind an ear, eyeing up each member of their group in a way that seemed superficial, but wasn’t.

Emilia’s Censor hissed as a skill slid over them, Conrad’s energy already snapping out to block whatever she was doing.

“Careful…” Sil breathed out, so close and quiet. It wasn’t a message to their group as a whole—there was no way with so many power houses in their group actively on edge that this group would be able to do anything to them. Rather, it was a reminder to his former teammate to not kill them outright. What a mess that would be.

Conrad just snorted, the party indicator in Emilia’s vision—another addition to her new hack, which she was slowly implementing for the rest of the group, having spent a bit of time between packing and dealing with Samina’s memories creating a new hack for Conrad and Sil, which had been a whole thing—flashing, telling her that the Free Colonier wasn’t going to be killing the trio… yet. Sil’s indicator told her he was on edge as well, both in relation to the group and how much of a loose cannon Conrad could be.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have to call Olivier in to deal with some sort of mess created by Conrad slaughtering a couple of purists? Couple, because as much as they were a trio, the third member of their group was nervously glancing at his companions, looking unimpressed.

“Brother,” he began, eyes just as dark as the purist man’s. “Leave them alone.”

The purist man scoffed, turning towards his brother and telling him to stop being such a lynie lover. “I’m funding this trip. Unless you want me to find someone else to take your lynie loving ass’ spot, you’ll shut your trap. Then again, maybe you want it open? Wanna get down on your knees with the silver slut and suck some lynie dick?”

The brother said nothing to that, his cheeks heating and eyes flickering. Poor kid—and he really did seem to be a kid. While the purist man and the woman appeared to be in their 50s, maybe early 60s, the brother was probably in his gap year… maybe. Honestly, he looked more like he could have still been in compulsory schooling, but classes were still in session, and most schools didn’t allow their students to take time off mid-term… Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on NoveI-Fire.ɴet

Actually, it was technically the end of term—that was part of how Professor A had convinced their teachers to let them off, apparently. They’d be doing some extra, end of term projects while on the ship, and taking the few exams they wouldn’t be around for via the Virtuosi System, their teacher supervising them, to make sure they didn’t cheat. The man was well-organized, having already contacted the ship to arrange for rooms to be booked for them as needed—apparently that was why he had outright asked that Samina send him the tickets: he needed proof that he was a guest to talk to an agent about their needs.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” the purist man sneered, turning his attention back to their group. Where previously, he had focused his attention on the three of them, Emilia could now feel the rest of her group’s attention hovering over the situation, their eyes and ire in turn attracting his. “Quite a big group. You finance it with your cunt, silver slut? Or someone bringing you along for your hole?”

How was it that she’d ended up hearing people talk so crudely about her not once, but twice in a single day? It wasn’t exactly uncommon—although in general, Astrapan students were on better behaviour than Victor had been. The school had a pretty strict code of conduct about speaking so crudely to other students and faculty, especially while on campus. That didn’t mean the school suppressed free speech—everyone could still express a dislike of irregulars and Free Coloniers, they just had to do it politely and expect pushback.

Emilia wasn’t really in the mood for pushing back in a civilized manner, not when she knew this man wasn’t going to listen to her. Instead, she just smiled and told him she wasn’t sure whether the trip was financed by sex. “I won the tickets in a raid. There was no clear reason why I won. I suppose I could have been the hero who had the most sex, or maybe the platform maintainer is on board, hoping he’ll be able to fuck me. I am a really good fuck…” She resisted throwing a smile at the younger brother despite how perfect it would be, unwilling to accidentally pull him further into the purist man’s line of fire if he decided to turn his anger onto the kid.

“Whore,” the woman spit, looping her arm through the purist man’s, like she was worried he might try and fuck her.

Maybe he would—many of the people who viewed silverstrains as genetic sluts who didn’t deserve any rights crossed over with those who wanted to fuck a silverstrain, learn what it was like to be with someone so inclined to enjoy sex. The belief that silverstrains were stupid, sex-obsessed humans might be wrong, but she had to admit, most of the silverstrains she knew did enjoy sex much more than the average person.

“Stay away from my boyfriend,” the woman continued, her pale skin turning an unattractive, blotchy red when Conrad cackled.

“Like she’d let your boyfriend’s toxic prick near her.” He smiled, all teeth and rage, Sil’s hand now wrapped around his arm alongside Hyr’s, as though both of them together would actually be able to stop the Free Colonier, should he decided to take the trio out. “You get tested regularly for diseases? I’ve seen men like you my whole life. You might spout off about not liking irregulars, but the moment you find one who’ll open their legs for your money? Ooh~ do shits like you fuck them… for a minute or two. Quick pricked men like you never do seem to last long, I hear.”

“You—” the purist man began to say, only to be cut off by his girlfriend telling Conrad to shut up.

“My Ryer would never deign to spend time around your ilk,” she hissed, the man in question wincing when her long nails dug into his arm.

“Sure seems like he’s spending time with us at the moment,” Conrad bit back.

“He is not!”

“He’s the one who started the conversation. Seems like if he didn’t want to waste time on us—didn't want to attract our little silverstrain’s attention—he would have kept his purist mouth closed.” Cocking his head, Conrad assessed the woman. “Can’t blame him, when he’d got someone as frigid as you sharing his bed. Do you make him pay for it? Or are you a free slut?”

The red fled from the woman’s face, Conrad cackling as he suggested that maybe he was wrong—maybe she did make the man pay for her services in bed.

The woman opened her mouth to say more, only to be cut off by a silencing skill, courtesy of her purist boyfriend.

“Stop making me look bad,” he hissed behind a sound barrier, either too stupid to realize that most hacked Censors could read lips or just not caring. The man glared between each member of their group, probably memorizing their faces for later, before turning to his brother and telling him he expected better. “It’s your job to keep her under control,” he grumbled, shuffling their group around until the woman was between himself and his brother. She did not look happy with any of them, and despite how rude she’d been, Emilia wondered why she was with the men—if she even wanted to be there.

“I can help the next person!” one of the two agents called, and wouldn’t you know it, the purist man pushed his way past them, claiming that he was next. Asshole. The agent smiled awkwardly, clearly not used to people being so obviously entitled—those people were generally the VIPs, who had their own, fancy check-in location elsewhere. “I’m sorry, but the other group—”

“Oh, don’t worry about them,” he cooed, shooting the agent a heartbreakingly beautiful smile. When he turned that smile on their group, however, there was no warmth in his eyes.

It wasn’t the heartless smile of a black knot, their smiles sometimes not quite meeting their eyes. Rather, this was just the smile of someone who truly hated several members of their group—probably most of their group, truth be told. While many of their members were less obvious in their differences than herself and the Free Coloniers were, most of them had their own unique qualities that purists wouldn’t appreciate.

“They’re perfectly happy to let their betters ahead of them, right?” he continued, glaring at them like he actually expected them to bow down to his will.

They wouldn’t, but then the other agent was free as well now, having hurried the group he was checking in along when he realized the potentially violent situation escalating in front of him. “I can help you,” he said, purposefully meeting the eyes of Professor A, who had finally come to join their group.

While he wasn’t the one with the tickets, he was clearly the oldest member of their mishmashed group, and somehow, that meant he was in charge. It probably helped that he’d had no part in the argument between their two groups, although given the darkness lingering in his pale blue eyes, Emilia was sure he was aware of what had happened—of what had been said.

“Thank you,” he said, dragging Emilia up to the counter with him. “I have two of our tickets, as I needed to secure some facilities. Emilia here has the rest.”

Dutifully sending over information on their tickets and the room assignments she’d come up with, letting the agent know that a few might change and asking how to update their information, Professor A took over checking them in, directing their group on how to deal with their baggage and load the ship’s Crew and Visitor Censor System up while she turned her ears on the other group.

As the woman had mentioned, the purist man had also won their tickets in a raid. At the mention of his name—Ryer Owens—her Censor searched up records on him, popping back with a few lacklustre raid season rankings and a record with The Black Knot—apparently he’d been questioned in association with the same purist group they were now suspecting had been meeting up in the building she and Payton had broken into.

What a happy coincidence!

Quietly, she forwarded the information along to several members of their group. As much as her memory told her Professor A and Serena could be trusted with the information, Professor A was busy, and she didn’t trust Serena to keep a straight face—the same went for Pria and Beth. Emilia trusted her friends, and would eventually tell them about the man’s connection to the group, but she didn’t necessarily trust them to not react.

Sil, Conrad and Samina, unsurprisingly, were stone-cold as they took in the information. Payton’s only reaction was to position himself slightly more firmly between Pria, Beth and the other group, while Hyr just seemed to have problems using their Censor, resulting in a short conversation between them and Conrad, both laughing quietly as Conrad tried to talk the syn through using their Censor, as though he wasn’t constantly messing things up with his.

“Seriously,” the man sighed, coming around to Emilia’s other side, because like Payton, he’d apparently decided to act as a potential human shield, “deal with the little syn’s Censor next. They need the help.”

Hyr was smiling softly down at her when she glanced up, assessing them. “Sorry. There is something that my mind isn’t enjoying with the standard… hmm… Censor System?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “Often just CS. The ship will load us up with a Crew and Visitor Censor System—C&V CS—for use during our vacation. It just kinda exists on the side of our normal CSs, whether it's the default version or a hack. So I can figure out what’s up with your Censor and not affect it.”

Unsurprisingly, the assholes in the other group were eavesdropping on them as well, the woman making a snide comment about how the lynie didn’t even know something so standard. Of course, there were a million things that Emilia could point out were standard to Baalphorian life that most of its population didn’t know, but something told her it would be a waste of breath.

Instead, she went back to her own eavesdropping as each member of their group began loading up to C&V CS, sitting in a Virtuosi Rig for a few seconds to let everything settle. It could be done without the rig, but for safety reasons, rigless updates were rare.

Neither of the other members of the trio gave their names, their tickets having already contained the relevant information—her information had returned the fact that the Owen family had numerous children, as was to be expected from a recently elevated Sub-50 family—but there was one little fact she picked up on before they were sparked onto the ship by several agents: they were entering the ship via the PVP Entrance.

“What do you say?” she asked, nudging Conrad with her elbow. “Want to follow them?”

“Oh,” the man laughed, all innocent energy evaporating as he smiled, her core shuddering under the force of his blackness flowing into her, raging like a storm, “let’s.”

“Seriously?” Sil grumbled when she scooted up to the check in agent to ask that her and Conrad—and apparently Hyr’s as well, the syn telling her they’d like to come as well—be switched to the PVP Entrance. “You’re going to encourage him?”

“I want to go~” Samina pouted into their group messages, knowing that she couldn’t even before Emilia pointed out that her specific skills were better left secret from everyone on board. Her childhood friend knew this, of course. With her wheelchair and amputations, Samina would be feigning a lack of skill and military experience. All the better to surprise any enemies they gained, if she was viewed as being harmless.

“We’ll go on a better vacation soon,” she promised, knowing that Samina actually enjoyed raiding. The fact that she wouldn’t be able to take part was actually pretty upsetting to her, even if she had been the first to suggest she keep her abilities secret.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Samina replied before sliding forward, intent to be the first person onto the ship, lest something nefarious be waiting for them—the intention might be for her to hide her abilities, but that wouldn’t take precedence over defending her new friends.

Off everyone went, agents taking the rest of their group to the main entrance first, where they would be met with a spectacular welcome event with most of the other guests—only the crazy ones came in through the PVP Entrance.

Emilia was okay being crazy for once. Those assholes deserved to suffer.

Plus, the more they could make them focus their vitriol on their little group, the more it would spare any over irregulars and Free Coloniers on board from it. Not to mention the fact that the more they attracted that attention, the less obvious it would be when they started stalking the trio, searching for clues about who had distributed those knotters. Better for them to just think they were out for revenge or something.

“Shall we?” Emilia asked, waving away the agent who was intent to spark her to the ship with an assurance that she could get Hyr and herself there, Conrad doing the same. Each of the agents raised an eyebrow, but when the pair of them flashed credentials that assured them they weren’t likely to kill themselves sparking onto a moving vessel—not to mention signed a release, in case they did—they backed off.

Conrad slipped his arm through hers, Hyr catching her other hand—really, their height difference made physical connection a puzzle of how to do so comfortably. {Spark Shot ver. Tandem}, a somewhat needless skill Emilia hadn’t used since the war, activated between the three of them. “Let’s go kick some purist butt,” Conrad said as they vanished, sliding through the aethernet and popping back into existence on the Ship’o Stars.