Streets of Ravetham

The room was a mess of chaos and attitude, lit by the buzzing neon lights outside that flickered through the cracked windows of the Umbrus Pact's rundown clubhouse. A heavy bassline rattled the walls from somewhere downstairs where a party was probably getting out of hand—typical for their crew, though. Ennuy sat in the center of it, arms crossed, brooding like a king without a crown. His face was twisted in frustration, eyes darting between Payback and Ragdoll. Frostie sat nearby, feet kicked up on the table, chewing her gum and rolling her eyes at Ennuy’s whole dramatic ass energy.

"How you just gonna roll up and betray a brother like that?" Ennuy spat, pacing around like he was ready to pop off. His coat billowed with every turn, his eyes glowing just faintly enough to remind everyone that shit was not alright in his world. "I knew y'all was shady, but this? This right here? Y’all fake as hell."

Payback, leaning against the wall with a smug look, just shrugged. “Yo, don’t take it personal, bro. It’s just business. You was slippin’, and someone else came through with a better offer. Ain’t nothin’ to it.”

Ragdoll, ever the silent partner in crime, just kept messing with the strings on her hoodie, keeping her eyes on the floor. Ennuy’s rage boiled over, and his fists clenched, veins popping in his neck. He wanted to throw hands, but he needed to stay calm—Charm had been ridin' him hard about staying cool and unlocking his domain. Problem was, that hadn’t happened yet, and the others? They were showing him up like it was no big deal.

Meanwhile, Frostie wasn’t even paying attention to the drama—her mind was on other things. She leaned over to Charm, who was sitting cross-legged on a couch, scrolling through her phone with a bored as hell look on her face.

“Yo, Charm,” Frostie whispered, flicking her thumb in Ennuy’s direction, “I’m thinkin’ of ambushin’ these fools. What you say? You can be the distraction, throw ‘em off guard, you feel me?”

Charm didn’t even look up. She chuckled, blowing her bangs out of her face. “Girl, I ain’t got time for that. Ennuy’s over here stressin’, and I’m tryna keep him from losin’ it. Plus, I gotta help him focus on his domain and all that. You know Selene and Celesse both unlocked theirs already, right?”

Frostie sucked her teeth and waved her off. “Man, don’t remind me. Selene’s domain is so dumb, like, really? A halo? That makes her untouchable for an hour, and she can still mess with shit, but you can’t hit her? Come on.”

“Right?!” Charm laughed, finally putting her phone down. “I mean, who needs that? She out here walking through walls, like she thinks she’s a ghost or somethin’. Ain’t nobody gonna touch her anyway ‘cause she’s always wearin’ them ridiculous shoes.”

“And then there’s Celesse,” Frostie continued, rolling her eyes. “Shorty over here playin’ with time like it’s a damn VHS tape. She hits pause, fast-forwards, rewinds—whatever the hell she feels like. Meanwhile, Ennuy’s still tryna figure out his whole ‘dark and brooding' thing and ain’t got nothin’ to show for it.”

Charm sighed, leaning back. “Yeah, well, Aether already gave up, so it’s all on me to keep him on track.”

Before she could finish, the door damn door swung open, and Selene strolled in like she owned the place, flashing her perfectly manicured nails. She was all about that extra energy, always moving like she was on a runway, rocking this ridiculous outfit like she just came from a fashion show—high heels, shades, the works. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned her eyes on Ennuy with a playful grin. She was too much. And act like nothing mattered because, to her, it probably didn’t.

“Hey, Ennuyyy~,” she sang, tilting her head. “So, like, I’ve been needing some new shoes. You think you could take me shopping or something? I saw these cute platforms, and I know you’d look cute standing next to me while I try them on.”

Ennuy’s entire mood shifted like someone flipped a switch. The hard, brooding exterior melted away as he shot to his feet, grinning like an idiot. “Uh—yeah, sure. I can do that! No problem, Selene. Right now, even.”

Charm looked up, clearly annoyed, as Ennuy grabbed his jacket. “Really? We were just—ugh, never mind.” She shook her head, trying to hide the embarrassment as Ennuy darted out the door with Selene.

Frostie turned to Charm, raising a brow. “Guess he ain’t too focused, huh? So… food?”

Charm sighed again. “Might as well.”

Meanwhile, across the way...

Adrian, over in the Seraphi Pact, was knee-deep in some real shit. He’d been pulling an all-nighter, cloning the poor bastards his little sister, Nyxara, had slaughtered like they were NPCs in some twisted video game. The lab smelled like chemicals and desperation. The cloned bodies—most of them human, a few tabaxi, and a couple of kobolds—were laid out on these operating tables, looking all too real, if a little too new. After spending the whole night painstakingly cloning all the people his little sister Nyxara had casually obliterated during her “fun time,” the lab was a mess of confusion. The newly resurrected people were complaining like he was a damn customer service rep.

“Hey, my knee don’t hurt no more—what’s up with that?” an old man grumbled.

“My cataracts are gone. What did you do?” Sister Georgina was squinting at Adrian with suspicion. “I feel too new. I don’t like it.”

Adrian rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. "Y’all really mad about feelin’ better? For real?”

But the worst of them was Talonman, a Kenku assassin who Adrian never liked dealing with in the first place. Talonman gave him a side-eye grunt, his talons clicking against the floor as he walked away, no thanks given.

“You better keep your psycho sister in check, Drakov,” he growled, his voice gravelly, full of venom. “She’s a problem. For everyone.” Then, without another word, the bird-man was gone, leaving Adrian standing in a lab full of clones that still weren’t happy with their fresh new bodies.

“Like I can do a damn thing about her,” Adrian muttered under his breath. Nyxara was a whole different breed—out of his league, out of control, and he was just trying to keep up with the aftermath.

While his robots worked around him, fixing the damage left behind from Nyxara’s chaos, Adrian’s thoughts drifted to Charm. He couldn’t help it. They had a thing, once. But that got wrecked the moment Celesse decided to toy with her and accidentally made their entire relationship go sideways. Adrian didn’t even know how to fix it.

But whatever. He had work to do. Cloning dead people wasn’t gonna do itself, and there were way too many fires to put out. At least Valerian was handling the finances and clean-up. His grandfather had stepped in to make sure all the damages were covered, leaving Adrian to do what he did best—keeping the gears turning, keeping busy, and staying the hell out of his little sister’s way.

As he looked around at the mess, Adrian couldn’t help but mutter to himself, “Man… I shoulda just stuck with engineering.”