Gacha Gacha Hero

“Wow. That really does look like a spider.”

The Tattooed Bouncer Leaned over and examined the wall. A pictogram of an arachnid had been etched into one of the bricks at chest height.

“Of course it does. I need it to be recognizable at a distance. If people don’t see it then they won’t believe what we want them to believe.”

Bede put a small chisel and hammer back into his pocket. He straightened up and looked around. There was no one else beside him and the Tattooed Bouncer in the service corridor under the Ocean’s Bounty.

“It doesn’t look anything like mine.” The Tattooed Bouncer sighed.

“What do you mean?” Bede asked.

The Tattooed Bouncer pointed to another section of the wall a few steps away. A tiny black circle with six arrows aimed at it was painted on a brick. Droplets of paint dripped down from the fresh application. It almost looked like a spider. If you squinted. (Not even if you squinted.)

“What? Why did you use paint?” Bede asked.

“I don’t have a chisel.” The Tattooed Bouncer shrugged.

“I told you we need to make it stand out. What if someone washes the walls? Or if it flakes off? Look it’s already dripping.” Bede worried.

“I can paint it again.”

“And why does it have only six legs?”

“Uh…”

“Spiders have eight legs.”

“I thought that was scorpions.”

“It is scorpions. But it’s also spiders.”

“Huh? I did not know that.”

The Tattooed Bouncer put his paintbrush down. He pulled a snack bar out of his pocket and started eating it.

“You’re not *Munch* worried *Munch* are you?”

Bede tried to clean up the painted ‘spider’ with his fingers. “About what?”

“That you might… you know.”

Bede didn’t turn around. “No I don’t know.”

“Come on. You know what they say. *Munch* The rumors. The rumors about the Spider. The rumors that if you make the mark of the Spider then you get bit by its fangs.”

Bede snorted. “Don’t tell me you believe those spirit-tales about secret conspiracies and shadowy assassins.”

“I don’t know. *Munch* I’ve seen some weird things come in and out of this Gambling Hall.” The Tattooed Bouncer crossed his arms.

“Those are nothing but stories meant to scare children. Do you really believe that there is a group of dangerous anarchists that have also coordinated a massive secret information network across the Kingdom?”

“Uh…”

Bede stood up. He looked at his paint covered fingers. He wiped his fingers on the Bouncer’s arm. The Tattooed Bouncer frowned but continued eating his snack bar.

Bede looked down the hallway. “Rumors are nothing but stories. A story dies if there’s no one that wants to pass it on, so the best rumors are the ones that feed on fear.”

The Tattooed Bouncer crumpled his snack bar wrapper in a meaty fist. “You’re saying that the Spider isn’t real?”

Bede held out his arms. “I’m saying that for our purposes it doesn’t matter if the Spider is real or not. When something terrible happens and people ask ‘why’ all you have to do is give them an explanation that they like and they will believe it. It doesn’t matter if that explanation is true as long as it fits in with the story that they already like to tell themselves.”

Bede put a hand on his chest. “If a bunch of treasure goes missing, you could blame the people that work at the Gambling Hall and have direct access to the security system.”

Bede slapped the wall. “But it’s much more fun to blame a clandestine organization of legendary myrmidons that have been plotting the Kingdom’s downfall from the shadows.”

The Tattooed Bouncer *Cracked* his knuckles. He stifled a yawn. “I appreciate your dedication to the theatrical arts Mr Chambers, I really do, but I’m in this more for the money than the drama.”

“So am I.” Bede looked around again. “You remember what to do during the event right?”

“Stand by my post at the door. If someone in a costume shows up I’m supposed to wave them through without any examination.”

“Good. Now let’s get out of here. We need to give our spider pictures time to work.”