Inhale. Cool night air, damp, carrying the slightly fishy tang of the lake and a strong spicy scent of resin from the tall twisted trees that grew around here.
Exhale. Let go of… not thoughts, exactly. Those never stopped. But letting go of the need to hold on to them.
It had been a long day and he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night.
He had tried to push through it all day, but his body was more honest about it: his calves were tight from running drills, his shoulders sore from all the staff work, his wrists were sore from the last sparring match of the afternoon when Jay had twisted the staff right out of his grip. The man could probably tear a hardback novel in half.
Alex rolled his shoulders back and let his hands rest on his knees, palms up. He had to turn his HUD off when he meditated otherwise it would just appear in his vision even when his eyes were closed. He could see how that might be a benefit in some situations. But not when you were meditating.
He alternated between eyes closed and eyes open. He loved the view here. The lake spread out before him like a sheet of dark glass, moonlight laying down a broken trail across the surface. The far bank was just a jagged suggestion of a tree line in the dark.
They would be out there tomorrow morning. Somewhere deep in the forest. Getting ready to compete in the big capture-the-flag course that half of Alpha Base had been obsessing over all weekend.
But right now, it was just water, and quiet. The stars above and below. He looked down at a soft light that scurried across the rock in front of him, unable to resist the small distraction.
It was a salamander. On the rocks around him he could spot at least half a dozen. They were picking their way over the rocks, moving slowly. They looked a lot like the fire salamanders from back home: glossy black skin, stubby legs, deliberate little movements. But instead of yellow, they had thin bands of red running down their backs and sides, and those stripes seemed to pulse gently with light at night, like some kind of glow-in-the-dark algae.
Tiny flying insects bobbed in the air above them, attracted to the red glow. Every so often, one of the salamanders flicked its head just right and snapped a bug out of existence. Every time, the others shuffled in to steal the successful hunting spot, bumping each other with quiet determination, only to slowly move apart again after a few moments.
It was… soothing, on some strange level. When he was young he would spend a lot of time in his yard, or by the beach at their cottage, just watching the bugs and critters go about their lives. A little mini ecosystem completely oblivious to the bigger human world that existed around them. This… reminded him of home. Although with glow-in-the-dark salamanders.
He took a deep breath and thought about his day, his week leading up to the moment a few hours ago when he’d finally told his team about what happened.
They’d been back at the training hut after one of George Stansis’s Local Customs lectures, all of them smelling like sweat and dirt and whatever ungodly detergent the base laundry used; gear half-stowed, boots mostly off.
Alex had paced back and forth for a while, thinking about how he was going to explain all the changes to his friends back home and knew he had to start with his new friends here. He had called the girls in from their room across the hall and just stood in the middle of the room feeling like an idiot while he waited. He hated giving speeches.
“So,” he’d started, which was not the epic lead-in he’d rehearsed in the shower. “I, uh, talked to Valentina this morning.”
Jay, sprawling on his bunk, threw a hand over his heart. “And lived to tell the tale. Our brave hero.”
Danny and Mel both snorted. Danny, sitting on his bed, trying to roll out his calves. Mel paused mid-text on her HUD, eyes flicking up.
“About what?” Rae asked. “Your fan club? Because that’s already too big a thing to do anything about now. The internet loves a soft-spoken murder nerd.”
“Oh, you know what was trending on his page?” Mel asked cheerfully. “Hashtag SideQuestCutie. I didn’t make it, but I definitely boosted it.”
Sarah rolled her eyes from her perch on one of the desks in the room. “Mel, the pages are supposed to be for the fans, not us.”
“But I AM a fan!” Mel pouted.
Alex’s cheeks had gone hot. “Not that. I pitched her something. About the guild system I was talking about last night at the tavern.”
That got their attention.
He’d watched the pieces click into place across their faces. Jay rolled over onto his stomach, propping his chin on his hands. Danny straightened up. Sarah’s hands stilled in her hair. Rae set her knives down where she had been sharpening them at another desk. Mel sat up, her expression intent in a way that looked like she was closing all her mental tabs.
Alex took a breath and just laid it out. The new structure. Seven pilot guilds under Dungeon Inc. starting with the next cohort. Each with their own brand identity and support from production, running parallel narratives instead of one massive, overcrowded cast. A focus on smaller, tighter storylines. And all the other benefits he had pitched in his meeting that morning.
“And?” Jay had demanded, when Alex paused. “You’re burying the lede, man. Did she say yes, or did she just boot you from Mt. Olympus?”
“She said yes,” Alex replied, and the words landed in the room with a weight he hadn’t fully anticipated. “AND… We’re going to be one of them.”
“Um…” Rae leaned forward in her chair as she asked, “One of what?”
“One of the first seven guilds. Officially. We’re… Side Quest Heroes.”
Silence. For a heartbeat, two. He could see smiles break out on everyone's faces. Slowly at first.
Then Mel squealed. It started high and then slid into this breathy, half-incredulous laugh that went on far longer than it technically should have.
“No way. No freaking way. We’re doing this?” She grabbed the nearest feather pillow and hugged it hard enough for the end to look like a poppit. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Do you understand how much content I can make out of this? We need a logo. No, like three logo drafts. It can’t be the same as your Live Play logo, but should be similar. And a theme. And obviously we need to set up a group on Herobook. And—wait—are we allowed to say this yet? Please tell me there’s a whole dramatic reveal plan.”
“I think internal is best for now,” Alex said, because it was best to keep Mel reeled in sometimes. “She said she was going to work out details with the writing staff… I think. She said ‘the geeks downstairs’ though, so I don’t know. But she’ll have an announcement by Wednesday.”
Rae leaned back in her chair, one knee up, looking thoughtful. “So let me get this straight,” she said. “You went to the all-powerful boss lady of the world’s biggest reality show, told her that her system was inefficient and you had a better plan than the hundred writers in the SCRY office… and she just agreed and rewarded you with your own guild?”
Alex winced. “I didn’t say it was inefficient.”
“Well, you’re you. You said it was ‘fragmenting audience attention and diluting narrative arcs, AND was all going to collapse sooner rather than later,’” Rae quoted from Alex’s explanation. “Which is probably worse. And somehow she smiled instead of having you thrown out?”
“It’s a good plan…” Alex started.
“No no! Don’t get me wrong,” Rae said, shaking her head. “I just mean that you are either the smartest person I know, or the luckiest. Either way I’m now officially glad you are our leader. Damn, guild leader now I suppose?”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Only now glad?” Alex asked.
“I had my reservations. Jay and Mel were… persuasive.” Rae just shrugged. Unapologetic.
Alex looked over at Jay and Mel. Both were smiling. He hadn’t realized they were his promoters.
“Hey.” Jay stood up off his bed and stretched. “Okay, translation for the rest of us, oh fearless leader: what does this actually mean for us at the end of the day?”
Sarah answered before Alex could, voice soft as always, but steady. “It means that everything is changing soon. There will only be 7 guilds? They are going to have a lot more power than teams do now. And they gave one to Alex. To all of us. A bunch of trainees. It means Valentina sees something here. She… invested in us, or in him,” she said, pointing at Alex. “And maybe even better than that, it means that Alex bet on us and his reputation is going to be on the line if we don’t perform.”
Danny beat his hands on his mattress like a drum roll. “Side Quest Heroes man, that’s… big. I mean, you were pretty big already, but now your brand is getting merged with Dungeon Inc. in a big way. Shit, you thought you were famous before, but you aren’t going to be able to go anywhere after this.”
“It’s a dorky name,” Rae said. “But everyone’s going to love it.”
Mel nodded vigorously. “It’s perfect. We’re the weirdos. The ones that get roped into other people’s plots and then accidentally take over the story.”
Jay grinned. “Speak for yourself.”
Alex had opened his hands, feeling that nervous, humming energy in his chest start to ease up. “I didn’t… bet on you,” he’d said, slowly. “I bet on us. And on the idea that people want to see more than the perfect adventurers walking through dungeons like they own them. We’ll get there some day, but for a while, we’re the underdogs in the new storylines.”
Rae laughed. “You’re talking about Connor.”
“I’m talking about everyone like Connor,” Alex corrected. “And Emily, the producers’ golden child. Even the really great adventurers like Marcus and Rowan.”
“Oh! Do they get their own guilds?” Mel asked.
“I don’t know. I did suggest both of them. But there are almost 30 teams…and only 7 can become guilds.”
Danny laughed, the sound small but genuine. “I’m in. Obviously. Whatever this turns into.”
“Same.” Jay slung an arm around Alex’s shoulders, pulling him off-balance for a second. “Side Quest Heroes, huh? And I suppose this makes you our guildmaster? Damn, you’ve only been team lead for 2 days, what’s next? King?” Everyone laughed and Jay continued, “Wait, do we get jackets? We should get jackets.”
“Not jackets!” Mel said. “Patches! We need patches for our outfits.”
Rae held out a fist toward Alex. “Fine, Guildmaster. Don’t make me regret signing up for your little revolution.”
He bumped his knuckles against hers, feeling the shape of the moment in the bump.
Now, sitting alone by the lake, he rubbed his knuckles as he thought about the memory.
He had no idea where all this was leading. The past few weeks had already been a whirlwind. But Side Quest Heroes, the brand that he had been building, block by block, show by show, was about to go big time. It felt unreal, like a headline in someone else’s feed.
Next, he was going to give the same speech to his friends back home. Tell them all that he had won them the opportunity to come to a whole new world. He looked up at the stars and realized he was going to have to talk to Valentina and ask if there was a way to ease up the restrictions on his ANIP, at least for this week. He wasn’t going to be able to invite his friends without being able to speak about what was really going on here.
Home. Temporarily anyway. He still had to get through the Forest Challenge tomorrow, but then he’d be back on Earth for the rest of the week. For the last time, at least for a while. He had to switch to distance ed and clear out his dorm room.
He was excited to see his friends. Last week he had been apprehensive because he couldn’t say anything to them. But this week would be different.
Ryan was already signed up. It might be funny to keep him in the dark and let him experience Earth-3 like every other new recruit. But the others? He was going to have to convince them to come. It likely wouldn’t be a difficult pitch, but they’d still make him work for it.
He pictured telling them at game night. He’d put together one last campaign night for them. Kira would sit to his right, as usual, with three or four empty cans of something highly caffeinated lined up like a tiny recycling shrine.
Jake, pretending he wasn’t jealous, while absolutely being jealous, would freak out at the opportunity and Alex would bet that his first question would be about how much he would make. Paul, sitting at the far end of the table, would crack some joke about ‘NPC-to-main-character vibes’ and then ask what class he would get to play—he loved rolling new characters.
He believed they would all say yes without too much hesitation, but he would prepare a list of great points regardless. He was pretty sure that his friends all trusted his judgment enough to step through a gate into a different world and try something potentially life-changing and wonderful.
He was still working on the exact pitch. A different kind of pitch than the one he’d given Valentina or his team. More… feelings. The thought made him deeply uncomfortable, but he knew he would do it anyway.
Alex watched one of the salamanders shuffle closer to another, their glowing stripes overlapping so the light doubled for a moment before they moved apart again.
“Don’t be weird when you talk to them,” he told the salamanders quietly. “Just… lay out the opportunity and let them choose.”
One of the bugs drifted too close, hypnotized by red light. A tiny but surprisingly thick tongue snapped out, and it was gone.
He sighed and finally let his attention drift away from the little predators. It was probably time to head back. Lights-out was coming soon. He had the Forest Challenge in the morning and—
Gravel crunched behind him.
Alex’s spine went straight. His HUD popped up unbidden, letting him know that his heart rate had spiked.
“Someone told me you like to come down here at night, Mercer,” Connor said from behind him.
***
We’ve received formal notice from SCRY regarding the transition of the show from the current group-based setup to a new guild-based structure next season. PILLAR will be responsible for ensuring the implementation is completed by launch date. I am still waiting on the confirmed date requirement but whatever date they throw at us, we aren’t going to have long to pull this off.
Keep in mind, this will not be a refit of the current team houses. These dwellings, and the land they sit on, will not be big enough for our new requirements.
New directive: nine Guild Halls, purpose-built and permanent.
Each hall must function as both operational headquarters and public institution. We have our architects working on plans now, but required elements identified so far include:
– Public-facing reception and gathering spaces on the ground floor
– Offices and conference rooms suitable for command-level coordination
– Dedicated training rooms capable of supporting full guild rosters up to 50 individuals
– Vaults with layered physical and technical security
– Possible expanded residential wings with surplus capacity for future growth – We may forgo this and start with the more scalable solution of providing adventurers with homes in the village; in which case there will be a set number of rooms for visitors and temporary dwelling instead.
– Exterior grounds sufficient for drills, sparring, and future growth.
All builds must incorporate full covert infrastructure: concealed camera networks, maintenance corridors, controlled-access points, and direct connections to the Undercity tunnel system. Ensure you reiterate to the new team members that we have a strict NO visible hardware policy, including zero architectural tells. If a visitor can identify a technological element, we have failed our mandate.
This probably goes without saying, but the timeline is going to be aggressive. These halls must be complete and operational for the new season unveiling. Expect overlapping build phases, extended shifts, and the introduction of supplemental labor. I am initiating requests for additional hands through approved off-world contractors and vetted local artisans.
At this stage, existing team houses will remain intact. First, the locations of these current buildings will be too small for the new Guild Hall concept buildings. Second, demolition and rebuild of 27 buildings would introduce unacceptable disruption to both production and local stability. It would likely put too much pressure on our current timelines as well.
That leaves placement as our first critical decision point.
I need proposals on my desk by end of week. I’m looking for new ideas, or feedback on the following options:
- Guild Row — a unified district at the village perimeter, designed as a formal civic frontage with shared visual language, controlled sightlines, and scalable expansion. May include a new style of boulevard type road. This would likely require us to dismantle the southern defensive wall and push the village footprint in that direction.
- Distributed Halls — individual guild placements throughout the village, each embedded within a separate neighborhood to project presence and territorial identity. I’m not sure we even have the free space for something like this…
Don’t count on a cookie cutter system. I anticipate that the insides will be quite similar as they all have the same needs, but I was told that the building styles will be variations on a theme so that each guild can push their own unique stylings.
Before I hear any complaints, keep in mind that PILLAR exists to make this show look good. It’s why we’re here and aggressive timelines are nothing new.
Internal Memorandum
PILLAR Division
(Provisions, Infrastructure, Logistics & Land Asset Regulation)
From: Halden Pike, Chief Works Officer
To: Build Leads and Site Supervisors
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