by Aaron Jay
“What business? You are an unaffiliated noob. What business could you possibly have with a clan heir?” asked Marshall.
“Maybe you should ask her before you start doing some leg-breaking on her behalf. I am pretty sure that when she wants someone beaten down, they have people on staff for that,” I cautioned them.
“Maybe she could use a few more. We are showing we are willing to do what’s necessary for the guild,” said the guy whose name I forgot.
“So what? They have thousands of morons willing to do anything for access to the guild and to get in tight. They don’t lack morons who have no morals or scruples who are willing to suck up to them. They lack people they can trust to know what to do and when. You know what you are doing? Know what this is about?” I asked.
The shot each other some nervous glances. I drove the point home.
“You know what’s the number one thing the guild wants from know-nothing hacks like you?” The silence they fell into was as much of an answer as I was going to get. “Shut up and follow orders. That is what they want from you.”
A door opened a landing up. The tension flowed away as the three decided that maybe stomping me wasn’t going to lead to any promotions or career development.
“The rumors flying around are making me think someone is going to get those orders any day now, Miles. Any day. I don’t know what you did to piss Maya off. You better beg, borrow, or steal and grovel and make her happy because the word is getting out on you,” Marshall told me.
With a laugh, they went on their way.
I slowly got upright using the banister to get to my feet. Nothing seemed broken. It seemed I was in danger in or out of the game. Or soon would be.
Steps made their way down from the landing above. I looked up in time to see my best friend Jude, of all people. I couldn’t believe how good it was to see a friend. Or at least someone I knew didn’t want to beat on me.
“Jude?”
“Hey, Miles. When I rolled up where we had agreed and didn’t see you, I decided to come by your place. I can’t believe I didn’t find you grinding.”
“Yeah. Well, the first day went a little different than I had hoped.”
“You look messed up.” He said, noticing my creaky stance.
“This isn’t actually game related. Your pal Aabid and some other Eastman wannabes decided to do Maya a ‘favor.’”
Jude’s expression went grim.
“Maya didn’t order anything like that.”
“You don’t have to testify. The camera in the stairwell is mysteriously out of order,” I said wryly.
“Alright, the camera is busted and so you know this isn’t something I am saying for the cameras. Maya didn’t order this. She won’t,” he repeated.
“Fine. I just have to worry about spontaneous volunteers.”
He sighed and said, “Maybe you do. I’ll try and let people know that RL is off limits.”
“RL?”
“Yes. Maya did put the word out that no Eastman is to trade or party up with you. Which means that anyone who doesn’t want to get on her shit list won’t either, or won’t do it openly. That is why I wanted to come see you. Let you know. See if we could come up with some ideas to save your ass. I was thinking that maybe you should run to Lee territory. No love lost between the Lees and Eastmans,” he said.Jude was trying to be helpful. He had done his best over the years to stay true to both Maya and me. I often hoped his ass got splinters from sitting on the fence between me and her. That was unfair of me. He always made time for me. We studied and played together and he never hid his friendship with me. He stood up for me as much as anyone could who wasn’t born with a clan behind them. What really galled me was he actually agreed with the system – or at least didn’t think it was reasonable to do anything other than work within it. If my last name wasn’t Boone maybe I’d have made the same choices he did.
My breath hissed out as I sighed and rejected his idea.
“Thanks but no thanks. My genius plan is to try to avoid the guilds.”
“How can you avoid the guilds? Anywhere worth starting has been claimed by one guild or another.”
“Exactly. I went somewhere not worth starting in.”
“That is insane. How are you going to make it out of the cradle? Wait. What beginner’s quest did you get? Combat? Is that your plan? You are going to fight somewhere out in the boonies? That actually isn’t a bad idea. Let me know where you started. I’ll come bring you some mats and some gear.” I could see his mind working the problem. Too bad it wouldn’t work.
“I did get combat. And crafting. And gathering. And puzzle solving. And trade. Anyway, you can’t help me remember. So there is no point in you coming to Quartzite.”
“You have all five? All five beginner’s quests? That is impossible. Damn Maya.”
My eyes widened – he never bad mouthed either of us to the other. He saw my response.
“I don’t like what Maya did. I understand it but think she is wrong. But you were wrong too. You bribed a GM. She could have just turned you in. Heck – she could have told Aabid to do worse to you. You both think the other is a monster.” He let this line of thought trail off and turned his mind back to the problem at hand as he saw it. “Five quests? I don’t think it’s possible.”
“Those of us with no luck stats can do five impossible things before breakfast. As long as they make your life worse.”
“Quartzite? That is where you started? Never heard of it. I guess that’s the point. Look, it was impossible before but now? Five quests? No luck modifier? It is time to give up your pride, Miles.”
“Pride is all I have at the moment. Anyway, Maya won’t let me out of the wager. You know that.”
“But maybe I could get her to give your contract to me.”
“I don’t want to be your slave either!” I snapped.
“Better me than Maya or anyone else. You don’t have any other choices as far as I can see,” he calmly replied.
I started down the stairs.
“Jude. I appreciate the kind offer--if offering to enslave someone for the rest of their life can be considered a kindness--but I haven’t given up hope yet. There are some odd effects from having no luck stat. Not all of them are bad. Maya might have made a serious error with that little stunt. I am going to go see my Dad. I am hoping he might have some ideas about how my lack of luck will work and what I can do. Take care of yourself.”
Jude stayed on the stairs as I left. His face a study in consideration. Jude may be the calmest and most rational person I have ever met. But sometimes doing the smart thing is stupid. Or at least I hoped that was so.
My father lived in what was once known as a brownstone. I guess those kinds of buildings are still known as brownstones, but individual homes of any sort are a serious rarity these days. He insists on saying it is located at 918 West 35th Street and no one cares to argue with him about this smallest of his eccentricities. So, I made way to 918 West 35th Street which isn’t anywhere near 35th Street West or East, let alone the particular address 918, and rang the bell. I think my father insists on all these cultural references from the old world as a way of believing the world won’t always be a dystopic post-apocalyptic shithole. Or you can never completely get rid of a fanboy's obsessions even in a dystopic post-apocalyptic shithole. My father’s assistant opened the door.
“Hi, ArchE. I am here to see my father.”
“Of course, Miles. Come in. Numitor is in his room,” joked ArchE. ArchE was always quick with some dark, cynical humor.
My father’s assistant is one of the few AIs allowed outside of the game. He was grandfathered in since he had been helpful to my father and therefore humanity at the height of the troubles. He is most often found inside a general android shell. Why he wears a tie I couldn’t tell you, but he does. Today it was a wide one with a moderately loud floral pattern. He led me through the house to my father’s room. ArchE took a seat to the side and worked on being unobtrusive while s
till remaining to help with anything my father might require. There was no point in asking ArchE to leave as he would just monitor us from elsewhere in the house. Sometimes growing up I wished my father had been more amenable to polite social fictions and had ArchE leave us during our father/son times in RL. But my father prizes truth over social niceties and would consider pretending that we were alone when we weren’t a form of lying to ourselves. He was big on doing what you could to keep yourself aware of how technology was actually working and invading your life. After the troubles, keeping yourself conscious of how you were involved with tech was understandable. Millions died because they forgot that one or another AI or system had access to a place they thought was secure. Millions died thinking they were safe having fled to some remote area only to find that their kid’s teddy bear turned out to be hackable by a monster lurking in the internet-of-things.
My father is a genius with access to all the technology and resources that man has post-singularity. He is also a physically revolting specimen due to his experiences in the singularity and its aftermath. He takes up most of a bed, and the bed isn’t small. He never leaves his house. He never leaves his room. He can barely move. ArchE was sure funny. My father is always in his room.
Despite being bedridden, my father always insists on meeting me first in RL when I come to visit and generally does his best to spend time with the actual me despite the effort it means for him. I love him for that even if I find him maddening and difficult. I gave him a hug.
He is a giant. I mean that literally. He was afflicted with some misbegotten nano that has caused him to suffer from gigantism. It is a mutated form of gigantism, so his limbs and features have grown at differing rates despite all that modern nano-medicine can do. His head is larger on one side than another. There is nothing symmetrical about him at all, and it makes him hard to look at for most people. I think because he is my father and I love him, and because I have watched his transformation over the course of my entire life, I only know intellectually that he is disturbing to look at. When I was young, he was still ambulatory, and his condition was not quite as monstrous. I can vaguely remember when my father was just taller than the other daddies with stronger features than most and my mother would call him Bean for some reason, and they would laugh. Those were happier times.
He spoke in his heavy, ponderous voice. “So, you went through with it, and it went even worse than I told you it would. It is good to see you.”
“Hi, dad. Yes, you were right. As usual. But not exactly in the way you thought which is also usual.”
He grunted with a pained chuckle.
“Tell me about it,” he demanded.
“This will take a bit, and there is also some data I’d like you to review. Would you mind if we go to your office?” I asked.
“Acceptable.”
I took out the data stick and handed it to ArchE. ArchE started checking the device and the data for any security breaches. The stick itself would be destroyed before he finished checking and scrubbing for trojans or viruses but the data would be in my father’s hands.
I went to a red leather chair and took a red pill from the bowl on the side table beside the chair. I found myself sitting in exactly the same chair with exactly the same end table but now in my father’s office with a bowl of blue pills beside it. My father was now more human sized. But he had chosen to represent his giant stature in fat. In VR my father was immensely portly. His features were symmetrical and looked as he must have before the nano got to him. I didn’t move to hug him as he tended to dislike physical contact in VR. I believe it was partly a quirk and partly a strategy to keep some pleasures for RL. Hugs from his son making RL something worth spending time in.
My father was sitting in a chair sized to his girth in one corner of the room. An oversized old-fashioned globe of the Earth circa the 20th century was in the opposite corner. ArchE was at a desk near my father. More anachronisms such as bookshelves and file cabinets were also in the room.
“I know how much you enjoy showing off for your son so before I tell you how things went differently than you expected, why don’t you tell me how you knew things went badly,” I said, mostly to give myself time to get my thoughts in order.
“Things must have gone exceptionally poorly at your roll-up or you wouldn’t even ask. I’ll indulge you, though, strictly on your account. Of course, you went through with it. First, because you carry through with plans--even plans I disagree with, like moving out at such a young age--unless something happens to change your thinking. Not scare you off but change your thinking. One thing you aren’t is a coward. Nothing significant enough has changed, so you went through with it. Second, you have a man’s share of pride, and there is nothing that would make you come immediately here if you had taken the sensible course. You have no more interest than I do in telling someone they were right before you have to. Which is also one reason I know things went awry. Nothing other than disaster would have you coming back to me on the very day you had hoped would be your emancipation into the world of adults. How am I doing?” he said.
“Bang on the money. I am not sure how to begin.”
“Begin at the beginning.”
I took a deep breath.
“Yes. The beginning. You remember that my friend Jude is seeing Maya Eastman?…” I began. One thing my father is, is a terrific listener. He hardly ever interrupts until you are finished. He asks questions to get information, not to hear himself think. Before I knew it, I had gotten over the hardest parts. Admitting my attempted bribery and the wager I had made. Both of these were a mixed bag. He certainly has no respect for the morality of law under our current government, so I wasn’t worried about disappointing him on that front. Yes, I had done something illegal in one case and stupid in both. However, my father admired my feat of saving that much nano. He had been completely in the dark. I had been saving that for a triumphant revelation as I proved him wrong about getting involved with the game.
“Your wager is risky, Miles. Horrifyingly so. But, it was an inspired dodge and perhaps the only way you might have gotten out from Maya’s initial grasp. Your foolishness and the size of your blunder may only be matched by Maya’s,” he ruminated.
“So, you think the lack of a luck stat is going to let me win the wager?” I asked, my tone somewhere between hopeful and sarcastic.
He barked a laugh. “Truth can be stranger than fiction. You actually managed to get some odd character development in a game, like in an old light novel. But no, I don’t. If you succeed, it will be because you did all the things success is usually predicated upon. Because you worked harder and smarter than the other guy and had some luck. Well, you can’t live through any day in this world without some luck to see you alive at the end of it. No. Her blunder is changing the rules for a massively powerful set of AIs and nano without knowing precisely what her alterations will accomplish. I’d have thought your generation wouldn’t need to make that kind of mistake themselves before learning its terrible lessons. At least this time the majority of humanity hasn’t been killed. Yet.”
"You think this adjustment is that significant?" I asked worriedly.
"The lack of one player's luck stat? Extremely unlikely. But when dealing with powerful forces, it behooves one to not make butterflies flap their wings out of mere pique."
“So, what will having no luck mean for me? And the pain? Can you help me?” I asked.
ArchE handed him a folder holding the logs of my play session. My father took it in his thick fingers and carefully reviewed the virtual document. He placed it back on his desk and leaned back in his chair. His eyes closed. He started working his lips in and out. This was a sign of profound mental effort on his part. I never noticed any analogous behavior in RL, but I knew that when he closed his eyes and worked his lips in VR his mind, the only thing bigger than his body or ego, was working on a problem. So, I sat quietly and waited.
After some time, his eyes opened and he leaned back up.
“Extremely interesting. Please give my compliments to Rea Silvia when you see her next.”
I waited for more, but nothing more seemed forthcoming.
“Extremely interesting? Say hi to your old AI for you? I’m glad I could bring you an interesting item for you to mull over in your idle moments and take care of some of your social correspondence,” I pestered him.
“Indeed. My thanks,” He responded.
Having a father who is literally and figuratively larger than life can be hard. I wouldn’t trade my father for anyone else’s but saving humanity distracted him from taking conventional care of me. He treated me as he would have wanted to be treated as a child. Only I am not a world class genius. Benign neglect and respecting my autonomy were his parenting style.
“So, you have no recommendations or advice? What is the point of consulting the world's biggest and I do mean biggest expert on the game and it’s AIs?” I pressed.
“How can I? There are some small and obvious items. The extra experience is due to the greater efficiency you bring to rehabilitating nano by not using automated skills or the brute force of a luck modifier. In most circumstances, the luck stat is a metric for the effort the AIs are using to aid players. Automated skills are also using AI and nano resources to supplement your play. Rea Silvia has you doing almost all the work, meaning your experience, or recovered nano is all yours with almost none necessary to repay the AIs. The pain is a necessary part of this. Rea Silvia has made it all you. You are interacting with the nano in a much more efficient but much less mediated fashion. The pain is the price you must pay. Typically, the system takes 80% of the harvested resources. And that is for Party members. Regular players keep even less,” he told me.
He held his hands palm up flat in front of him, as if presenting these obvious and petty items for my consideration, and then waived them away as unimportant. These seemed to me like extremely important items to learn. But, I am no genius.
“But game mechanics are almost always a distraction. You are more than capable of experimenting and intuiting your way to a successful mode of game play. The important thing to remember, always to remember, is that the game is just a metaphor. It is a way to motivate people to engage in the work of rehabilitating the wild nano and AIs let loose upon the world. A way of inviting and coercing wild AI and nano to become part of our system. The AIs running the game do not see the game the way players do and neither do the mobs and resources. There are processes happening below the player’s perception level in all these interactions,” he lectured as Numitor Boone the genius savior of humanity and not at all as my father.