New System, Who Dis?

Monday, April 22nd, 2069

My phone’s buzzing woke me up, and I growled in frustration. I normally wasn’t bothered by the thing. Most days I was able to sleep through almost anything—however, if my half-wakeful brain was to be believed, this wasn’t the first time the husking thing had gone off. I silenced it and passed back out even as Dave, sleeping on the spare bed again thanked a higher being for me finally realizing and shutting it down.

* * *

Everyone sat at the breakfast table, our house somehow becoming the morning meeting spot now that we were all out of a job. I wondered if Willa and Jarred had explained the situation to their families….

“I couldn’t sleep at all these last few nights,” my mother complained as she dished out Roc Scrambled Eggs onto plates. How she managed to cook for Willa, Jarred, Dave, my father and I from our fridge was almost magical in that she must have predicted that this would happen. I couldn’t recall a conversation at the pub? “I really don’t think Brodie should be doing this.” She said this last bit to my father despite me sitting right there.

“Mom, I’m at the table!” I complained and then countered with, “Also Mr. and Mrs. Stovall are pretty confident that we have precedence behind us in this case.”

Dave, who had been staying here all weekend, put up a hand to forestall a response and even talked through a mouthful of eggs when he realized he couldn’t hold it back until he swallowed. “Either way, if you start a company with the money, then even if you don’t get the Ore, you’ll have the ability to pay it off in time. It takes money to make money. Right?”

My father, who had been the one about to respond, made a ‘waffling’ gesture with his head, moving his neck back and forth. “Ahhh, maybe. You heard John and Mrs. Stovall yesterday. We likely won’t get the big contracts from large Guilds. We’ll be forced to scrum it out with the other start-ups.”

“What if we give an offer for Taz and the Snowbirds to keep some of the Ores?” Dave suggested.

I blinked, having not considered leveraging the windfall that were the Ores in that way. To my surprise Jarred shook his head. “Nah. First, the big Guilds don’t really ‘need’ money from a single F-ranked Portal’s Mine. Otherwise wouldn’t they have the Specialists down there everyday till it was cleared out. How many Portals do you think Guilds like Snowbirds clear weekly?”

“At least one to two,” Dave suggested, and Jarred chuckled–shaking his head.

“One or two a day,” my dad answered. “Snowbirds and Lynx in particular have about ten different teams going at any one time. That’s the only reason a company like P-cubed can even survive. The best ranked Portals get sent the best Gathering Companies. It’s one of the reasons P-cubed rarely ends up in anything above F-rank Mines, or Gardens. It’s why we’ll likely only get hired by those small Guilds with a new company.”

My mother gasped, which made me and Dave stop focusing on Jarred and my father to see what had happened. I’d been expecting her to perhaps have spilled some eggs, or maybe burned herself a bit accidentally. Instead, I found her pale and scared. “Gary! You can’t work for the small guilds again; it was part of our agreement!”

“What’s going on?” I asked, trying not to sound patronizing or belittling of my mother’s reaction. She wasn’t usually one to overreact, but this certainly seemed like one to me.

“You’ve seen how dangerous Mining can be,” my dad explained. I narrowed my eyes and nodded waiting for further explanation. “Well, with the small Guilds you should multiply that by at least two.”

“Moogle says it's ten times as dangerous!” My mom added right atop his words.

“That’s from InfoPedia, and I wouldn’t trust it. Still, I can’t argue that it’s more dangerous. Brodie, Dave, have either of you ever seen a low-ranked Guild in operation?” My dad asked.

“Do the movies count?” Dave asked. I realized what he meant as well. It was a popular plot where an F-ranked Hunter joined a low-ranked Guild and helped them rise through opposition to the upper Ranks, changing the lives of everyone and getting the girl. A chuckle escaped my mouth as I thought about how the girl always seemed to not understand her powers until the hero came along.

Then bam, she was really an S-rank.

“I doubt it’s like Comet Rising,” Willa said through fits of giggles. Dave flushed red and became fascinated with his eggs.

“It is nothing like how Hollyhood depicts it, at least not in Windsor,” my father confirmed. “There are reasons it is widely considered more dangerous to work for lower ranked Guilds. Most F-D ranked guilds use firearms inside Dungeons and have only one or two truly skilled Hunters. Because of that they rarely clean out mines thoroughly, and even if they send a protection team in with you. Now, remember—you’re in a mine—filled wall to wall, floor to ceiling with highly bullet-reflective materials called rocks. You wind up just as likely to get shot by them as killed by a monster in a dangerous situation.”

“And they never have healers!” My mom added, seeming to be speaking from experience. At mine and Dave’s raised eyebrows she pointed to my father. “Gary used to roll with a low ranked Guild as one of those suicidal gun-jockeys. It was before we met and I put a stop to it.”

My father grabbed her hand and she leaned in for a kiss. Dave and I let them have their moment and ate some eggs in the meantime. Still, I could feel my disappointment and anger simmering at this admission.

When my father resurfaced, he coughed to bring our attention back. “That’s when we made the agreement. I became a Miner as long as I could work for a big corporation.”

“How come you never told me this?!” I demanded. This whole time I’d been dreaming of being a Hunter and he’d never even shared that he used to kind of be one.

“It was a different time back then, Brodie. I joined up under the propaganda that ‘every little bit helped,’ taking the risk to protect others. Nowadays things are much more stable, and while the low-rank Guilds still operate, they are pretty ineffective. They’re more of a militia than an organized force like Lynx or Snowbirds.”

“Still, you two always discouraged me from becoming a Hunter and barely allowed me to try to become a Bank,” I countered. “That’s pretty hypocritical.” My Mental Fortitude didn’t allow me to be too upset, but I still felt hurt by my parent’s actions.

“Brodie, I was in those Dungeons—it was dangerous, and frankly terrifying, and I never Awakened a Skill under duress. You think I was going to let my kid gamble with his life for a chance at a Skill?” My dad answered, his own anger evident.

Heat rose in my chest, but thankfully my mind pushed it down. It told me that he was coming from a place of love, and even had me replaying his words with a different meaning. He had nearly died, and by the sounds of it—numerous times.

“Either way,” Dave cut in. “Now you have multiple Skills that will open any door you want in the future, so you have even less need to become a Hunter if your goal is gaining Skills.”

My father and I stared at each other for a moment longer before I nodded, accepting his reasoning, but not entirely happy with it. Just because he had given up on his dream didn’t mean—I cut that thought off. It sounded like he was forced to give up on his dream, and without that I probably wouldn’t be here…

Husking Mental Fortitude—I wanted to be upset, but it already felt like I’d known about this for months and come to terms with it. It was both eerie and gratifying in this moment. It wasn’t like I would have stayed angry for long—I just wished I’d known sooner. It was just another example of my parents trying to push me to become an office worker.

More of my parents trying to protect me… like parents—I corrected. I’m sure Evelyn would have a field day with this information later today.

“Okaaayyy, totally changing that subject– my earlier point still stands. As long as you start a business you should be able to pay off the debt in time,” Dave said, cutting in once again, which dispelled any further awkwardness. “Plus, didn’t you say you can buy other tools? Like Gardening Trowels, Sheers or Skinning Knives?”

“I can. However, I know nothing about those trades. For that matter, I knew barely anything about Mining. Like, there are so many more tools in the mall shops I wouldn’t even know where to begin—”

“Ahh, you mean the wedges and sledges?” My dad said, sounding like he was using a term that was common and also described the drills, bits, etcetera. I nodded at him, and he smiled. “Mining does have the cheapest overhead to enter, but most other unskilled trades don’t have to deal with tool breakage either. So, while there are more tools to purchase—many cleaners and gardeners slowly accumulate a set and stick with that for years. Many family men or women don’t bother upgrading either.

“Just like Mining, there are Specialists with better tools or Skills to handle tougher hides or plants that are either dangerous or easily destroyed when trying to harvest. Clara and I discussed me moving to Gardening in the past. It’s simply easier to slowly become a Specialist in that field. However, since everyone becomes one if they stay long enough—the pay is only slightly better than Mining. Way less bonuses too.”

“What why?” I asked, meaning the bonuses.

Luckily, my mom and dad got my meaning. My mom took over the explanation from there. “There aren’t that many plants that sell for high prices. Ores for weapons and manufacturing are always in demand and Hunters will pay a lot—but most of the plants, and meats are sold to grocery stores. The hides of monsters can sell for a great deal, but it has the same problem as mining. If they are tough enough for armor then you need a Specialist to harvest them.”

“I’m assuming there’s some nuance there,” Dave mumbled around a forkful of egg. My mom and dad nodded but my father held up a hand.

“All that to say, I bet you could get by with just trowels and skinning knives to cover the Gathering and Harvesting department at first,” he said while changing his held-up hand to a pointing finger. “It just might work, and offering a ‘total package’ type of solution for Guilds would certainly be working towards better contracts…”

“Then we will need even more start-up capital,” I said. “If we could start with Mining and build up to the others, there’s a good chance…” I still couldn’t bring myself to tell my dad and mom I’d been stealing Mana Crystals from the jobs. Then I realized it might actually be the perfect time, with them both currently at odds with P-cubed.

“There’s one thing I still haven’t told you two—” at their concerned looks I hurried to add. “Or anyone, well except Dave.” I could tell that didn’t help. I took a moment to collect myself and then made the admission. “I’ve kind of been stealing Mana and some Mana Crystals from each job to pay for the Picks.”

My mom’s mouth fell open, but my father’s only reaction was slightly raised eyebrows, comically widening eyes and a bit of a smirk. He clearly already knew, or at least suspected. I addressed my mother with what I said next. “The currency for the Demonic Vault Skill isn’t Greenbacks. It’s Mana Coins. To get them requires offering up Mana in exchange for the currency at a one-to-one ratio. I can’t get them in any other way.”

“When you say Mana and Mana Crystals, is there a difference?” Dave asked even as my mother plopped heavily into a seat beside my father.

I kept my eyes on her out of concern as I answered. “Well, the Crystals have wild Mana inside of them. So, I can sell the Mana inside and keep the Spent Mana Crystal. It’s how I identified my Skills the other day. Remember?”

“Oh right,” Dave said, sounding like he had asked the question on my parents’ behalf. A glance got me a wink which told me that he had. “The wild Mana is why people can’t use the Mana inside the Crystals like their Pools right?”

The table chuckled, hearing his sarcastic tone, and all being let in on his earlier play acting at not remembering. It was a well known fact that Mana Crystals couldn’t be used as a source of Mana for a Hunter. Well, they could–if the Hunter wanted to have his Skill burned out.

The laughter slowly died away, and in it’s wake I could feel my mother struggling with my admission.

“Under the circumstances, I can’t say he did anything wrong honey,” my father said while grabbing my mom’s shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s still theft!” My mom hissed.

“From a dickwad,” my dad responded, which startled a laugh out of me and Dave. My mom looked at him with shock written across her face and then let her head drop, as she joined in with a small chuckle of her own.

“You aren’t wrong,” she mumbled. I could tell that the thought of us not being contracted to low-ranked Guilds for long was helping her.

“Out of curiosity,” Willa said sweetly. “What happened to that five thousand dollars I paid you?”

“Uhhh,” I stuttered, as she and my father grew intensely interested in me and my reddening face. I started waving my arms to forestall them from jumping to conclusions. “I really did spend it on Monster Cores to sell to Smegma! When he gets back he’ll tell you!”

“Yeah, right!” Dave said, then realized how that came out, mirroring me in crossing his arms quickly back and forth to stop people from misinterpreting. “I meant the little shit will likely say the exact opposite if it gets Brodie in trouble.”

Willa and my father looked at me seriously for a long moment but eventually nodded their heads. It was like they were saying, ‘We’ll trust you for now.’ It was a very serious look which made me tense–right up until Willa cracked a grin, and punched me in the arm.

* * *

“So, you’ve discovered that your parents had lives before you came along, and that they even sacrificed parts of them on your behalf?” Evelyn asked, her word choice was pointed and intentioned.

“Yeah, I mean I’m not upset about the fact that he was a Hunter. I’m just kind of disappointed he or they chose to keep that from me, even though they knew my dream.”

“Disappointed?” Evelyn asked, seeming to be badgering. I felt a twinge of irritation and instantly knew what she was going for. This was her trying to see if I was ‘sugar-coating’ my reaction.

I simply shrugged. “I was angry for a moment, but realized they did it out of love. That they just want what’s best for me.”

“That’s a very mature reaction,” Evelyn said as she made some notes. “How long would you say it took you to calm down and reach that conclusion?”

Another shrug. “Couple of seconds? No more than half a minute?”

Evelyn’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she made a note and schooled her features so quickly I almost thought I imagined it. “Let’s get into why you were sent to me then, shall we?” I nodded and she continued with multiple questions. “How do you feel now that you are facing a trial? How are you handling the fact that it has become so public?”

I blinked, trying to interpret the question. It felt like it was worded strangely but in the end, I decided to take it at face value. “Well, I know I didn’t do anything wrong—so I’m not overly worried about the trial. I don’t love the fact that people I don’t know may see the trial or case reports in retrospect and form opinions without all the facts, I guess? But it is going to be a closed door trial, from my understanding.”

Evelyn blinked this time, her vivid green eyes studying my face between each blink. “Is that why you are trying to control the narrative?”

This time my head tilted along with my noticeable confusion. My therapist shouldn’t know about the marketing team I’d hired. She explained a bit further. “You know, with SwiftGram, and SmileBook.”

Ah. So she didn’t know about Sparkle Legion specifically, but she noticed the changes in my social media presence and was clearly smart enough to deduce what we were going for. “Oh, well kind of. That’s mostly a company we hired to try to sway public opinion before the trial starts. It’s what Mrs. Stovall suggested, and what Sparkle Legion will be working toward.”

“This guy stopped a criminal who’s killed dozens of people? I call bullshit!” Evelyn read off her book.

My head flinched back from her involuntarily before I realized she wasn’t voicing her thoughts.

“What was that?” I asked slowly.

“It’s one of probably a dozen negative comments on the video you posted last night,” Evelyn explained.

My eyes widened and I began digging into my pocket for my phone. Evelyn must have made the connection because she asked, “You didn’t know?”

By the time she’d finished her question I’d seen the screen notifications. Fourteen-thousand notifications…. “What the husk?”

“Please don’t swear in my sessions, Brodie,” Evelyn scolded. Her tone pulled my attention from the screen.

“How do I have fourteen thousand notifications?” I asked even as I opened SwiftGram and checked the post. “Twelve million views?”

“How come you didn’t know?” Evelyn countered my questions.

“I silenced my phone last night, ‘cause it woke me up. Then this morning Dave and I went right down for breakfast—I didn’t even pick up my phone off the charger until my dad and I left to come here.”

“Well, this is unexpected. How do you feel right now?” Evelyn asked her pen poised to start furious note taking.

I took a moment, leaning back in my chair and thinking about that question. How did I feel? There was certainly a spark of concern—especially with the highlighted negative comment, but…

Mostly, I felt excited. Finally, I had a viral video. That flame of excitement puttered in the wind of reality though. The reason I wanted the viral video was so I could use it to become a Mana Bank. Now that viral video was letting the world know I was on trial for manslaughter. I couldn’t say I loved fourteen million people knowing and judging that.

But I hadn’t watched the video…

“I’m kind of excited,” I explained. “I’ve always been looking to get a post to go viral. I’m also worried, since I haven’t watched the video—”

“Worried?” Evelyn asked as she scribbled away. She had to be noting more than my words since I hadn’t said much.

“Well, I assume they depict me well, but since I haven’t seen it, and there are negative comments...” I let that thought hang in the air and listened to Evelyn’s pen on her page. It didn’t take long before she looked up at me. She seemed to be expecting more.

“Uhhh, I feel okay?” I tried.

“You sound like I just told you that the weather will be nice tomorrow.” Evelyn pushed.

I raised both hands palm up, not sure what more she wanted. I already said I was excited, didn’t I?

Evelyn took a deep breath and sighed it out. “I’m confused, Brodie. Your dream was to become a Mana Bank, because you couldn’t be a Hunter. Now, you’re knocking on the door of becoming famous, which should get you a Bank Partner, and you seem unconcerned. Plus, you seem only mildly interested in how it will affect your trial…”

“Well, I trust what Mrs. Stovall and Sparkle Legion are trying to do?” I said, making it a question.

“These are rather big events, though. Life changing. Is there something new going on in your life that currently has your focus?” Evelyn tried.

After a moment I gave a shallow nod and looked to the floor. “Kind of. We’re thinking of starting our own Mining Company.”

“Okay!” Evelyn exclaimed. “And you’re downcast because?”

“Well, we were going to use our withheld bonuses for startup capital, then—” I explained the situation in detail. Evelyn’s eyes grew wider and wider, and she took pagefuls of notes. It also exhausted almost the remainder of our session as she dug deeper into my feelings about each occurrence.

“I don’t know. I’m pretty bummed out about how hard it all seems to be. Like nothing is easy?” I explained in answer to her asking me a question about how the courts withholding the money made me feel. “It’s like every-thing and body is against the group of us little people. You know?”

Evelyn nodded sagely. “It is an unfortunate truth,” Evelyn intoned, sounding like she was speaking from experience. “The wealthy and strong suppress the weak. Just remember that sometimes it isn’t intentional. Sometimes, they do it with a similar motivation as your parents did—to protect. Unconsciously, they make a decision that takes things away without necessarily meaning to. Like the UNMH and the Ores.”

“Are you saying that Mr. Varnish and Jagger are somehow doing this accidentally?”

“No, not at all. They sound like jackasses. I just don’t want you to get completely jaded,” Evelyn said with a smile.

I couldn’t help but laugh. When our mirth died, Evelyn said, “Have you worked on your meditation? Any notable spikes in emotions?”

“No,” I admitted guiltily and then added,” but also no on the second one.” I could tell that it didn’t make it better.

“Maybe we should try something else since I don’t see a journal here with you. I’m going to start a text group with you, okay? I’ll check in daily…”

“Sure, I might not get back to you right away if I’m in a Portal.”

“Or if you silence your phone,” Evelyn chuckled and indicated my phone that was still held in my hand and the climbing notifications.

“I did just realize I can probably just silence the app…” I agreed, and stood up. “I’ll see you next week?”

“Good session today, Brodie. I hope things start turning your way,” Evelyn said as she too stood and turned toward her desk.

As I walked to the door I stopped.

Things turning my way? Words came out of my mouth unbidden. “What do you think I should do if they don’t?”

A deep silence settled across the room and I nearly turned around to see the expression on the woman’s face, but I was still locked into my own thoughts of what might come in the future.

Finally, a soft, concerned tone answered me that rose every hair along my arms and the back of my neck like a premonition.

“Survive.”