We wanted a little time for that to cool down, and what better way to let a duel cool down than to come back to New York and have dinner out?
“I would love some Thai food,” Iris said, still waiting for her visor to finish powering down.
“Yeah, that could be good. Pad Thai. Why is it that I only know Pad Thai and that's the only thing I order when I go to a Thai restaurant?”
“Because you’ve never tried anything else. Hmmm… what's our budget?”
“Let's try to keep it under fifty, but that's not going to happen, so let's say under eighty. Any good places in Clinton Hills?”
“Sure, but between here and Bushwick there's a few nicer ones. We could go over to Manhattan, go to one of the fancier spots, but then we’d have to travel there. There's a pretty cool Thai place not far from Times Square, and it's actually affordable.”
“Times Square?” I placed my feet on the ground, feeling the circulation return to my toes. “Why the hell not?”
“And no Huntresses,” she said, almost as an afterthought.
“It's like you were reading my mind,” I told her with a laugh.
After we’d both gone to the bathroom, I ordered a shared UberLyft headed toward Times Square.
New York at night was a blaze of lights and grandiosity.
I loved the damn city, and I loved it more at night, when I could see the individual windows and some of the buildings far away, office workers working late, or the janitorial staff, all humandroids, preparing for the following day.
It was 2090, a decade away from the next century, and I really didn't know how much more futuristic things could get than they were right now.
That was the scary part, that to someone a hundred years from now, our way of life would seem somewhat primitive. Just like seeing how people lived a hundred years ago, 1990, the start of the internet age – or hell, before that.
I couldn't imagine what it must have been like then.
“It's just a few blocks from here,” Iris said as she got out of the UberLyft. She now wore a black dress under a maroon sweater and a blue scarf. She looked cute, from her curly blonde hair to her glasses down to the glittery Converse she’d changed into.
Iris always looked cute.
We found the restaurant, which was located in the first two floors of an old brick building.
Like our Dojo in EverLife, the walls facing outward were made of glass, allowing anyone passing by to see the diners.
The tables were covered by white tablecloths, and the chopstick holders in the center of the tables were gold, which matched the rather large Buddha they had as the centerpiece of the restaurant.
There were fish too, lots of koi fish, and these fish were kept at the back of the restaurant behind a wall of tanks. Some of the fish were quite large, easily over a foot long, their bodies a pale cream with orange accents.
“Are you here for the fish, or are you here to eat?” Iris asked as she saw my eyes drift back to the tanks.
“I'm here for us, the fish are just kind of distracting.”
“Us, huh?” She smiled as she looked through the menu. “You're a strange guy, Chase.”
“Would you rather me be a normal guy?” I asked her with an ironic grin.
“No, I like you just the way you are.”
She ended up ordering for us, choosing a sampler platter that the waiter said was definitely enough for two people. It would give us a taste of Thailand, without having to buy the plane ticket, and I was into it, especially because it came with a pretty large plate of Pad Thai.
When in doubt, Pad Thai.
As we waited for our food, Iris spoke more about the mysterious Steeple of Litur and Industria.
“Crazy that no one has ever unlocked it,” she said as she clearly sifted through information over GoogleFace, her eyes darting left and right.
"Yep, that's what the tour guide told us,” I said as our drinks came. We had both ordered Thai cocktails, which turned out to be quite good. I didn't know what was in it, but it was garnished with pineapple and a stalk of celery.
“Then that should be our goal,” Iris finally said. “We should try to figure out the secret. I mean, why not?”
“I thought this whole scheme was to get musical equipment,” I told her with a smile.
“Ha, that’s right. Okay then, think of it as learning a new song,” she said. “Every new song gives you new challenges. If you don't learn new songs, you never get better.”
"And how does that relate to EverLife?”
“I don't know, maybe I'm just being a little too philosophical about it. The point is, or should I say, I think it would be interesting to at least give it a shot, to see what we can uncover.”
“Are you planning to take charge of this?”
“That's right,” she said as the waiter brought us hot towels. “I'll take the lead on this, and do as much research as I can. Just because someone hasn't done it before, doesn't mean that it is impossible. Isn't that like, the beauty of being a human? We constantly do the impossible, proving to our forefathers and foremothers that what they deemed impossible is entirely a reality for us, or should I say, entirely feasible.”
“Foremothers? I like that. And maybe you're right. Just because someone says it hasn't been done before doesn't mean it's impossible, but I just don't know. Not that I don't want to do it,” I told her. “Just for the adventure alone, it could be interesting. It's like a classic RPG quest or something.”
“Exactly,” she said as she wiped her hands with the moist towelette. “And since there are two of us, we can focus on different things, to better our Dojo and make some money.”
“Can’t argue there.”
Iris stirred her drink for a moment, looking down into the neon liquid.
“So, tomorrow, what are your plans?” she asked as her eyes softened.
“Well, I really don't know. You have school, right?”
“Yep, classes all day. It's a long day, but I should be finished by three.”
“Well, then during the day I will see about taking some brawls and doing some hunting. Probably play my bass too. We really need to capture some more Mythcrea, we need to get to that next level. We got Spew Gorge and the two ogres, but we're going to need quite a few more points before we can move up to Level Four.”
“Cool. While I'm in class, I’ll see if I can’t do a little iNet research about the Steeple.”
“It’s pretty, the way that the sun changes with the top level of the Steeple,” I said as our first round of dishes came.
“I agree, but the mystery of it is just getting to me.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Iris and I went our separate ways after the restaurant. She asked me to stay over, actually, and maybe I should have, considering we were both a little drunk, but I couldn't remember the last time I'd been in my own place, and I was kind of missing my bed.
As soon as Iris turned away, I decided to call the Huntresses to New York.
Outside of the restaurant now, I activated the Monster Hunt app. The Huntresses appeared almost instantly.
“Do you ladies want to see Times Square?” I asked them.
Aya and Lady C. turned toward the crowd of people and the entertainers in the streets, some dressed as famous cultural icons. There was shopping, an ecstatic buzz in the air, humandroid police officers armed with assault rifles, and loads and loads of tourists.
I briefly looked around to see if anyone else had their Hunters with them, only remembering a moment later that it didn't work like that, I couldn't see other people's Hunters unless we were having a brawl.
In fact, that was a strange thing about the app: I had no idea how it differentiated between the augmented reality on my viewing pane, and the augmented reality on someone else’s.
“And here I thought this was going to be a boring night,” Aya said.
“Come on,” I told them.
We moved into the crowd, and it sort of reminded me of the time that
I first met Aya and Lady C. It was Aya who had approached me first, and later, in that dark and crowded stadium in the middle of nowhere, I saw Lady C. sitting on the ground reading a book.
It seemed so long ago now, and it hadn’t even been a week.
The crowd here was a lot bigger than the crowd in that unknown stadium. And almost naturally, I felt two hands slip into mine, one Aya's, and the other Lady C.’s.
“Don't get too comfortable holding my hand,” Aya said to me with a flirty growl.
“I wasn't about to get comfortable, trust me.”
“Do you like her hand better than mine?” Lady C. asked as we stopped in front of a man dressed as a gorilla.
“It's not a mythcrea,” Aya said, even though she’d already placed her free hand on the hilt of her sword.
“No free looks, pal!” the gorilla shouted at us.
A prompt appeared on my pane of vision asking me if I'd like to support local artists.
Normally, I’d have swiped it away and moved on, but I was feeling cash-rich, so I decided to support him and tossed him five bucks.
“Woohoo, five bucks!” the gorilla said as he beat his hands in the air. He turned his back to us and started twerking. “How's that for five bucks?” he called over his shoulder.
“Moving on,” I told Aya and Lady C. as we continued into the crowd. We passed a couple of gift shops, all lined up around the corner and all selling New York memorabilia.
A family walked by, their kids running in front and passing right through Lady C.’s body.
“Cute kids,” she said as they ran off. “What are your thoughts on children, Chase?”
“Better seen and not heard?”
Aya snorted.
“That’s terrible!”
“I haven’t thought much about kids,” I said, realizing after I said this that the parents had heard me and were both giving me a funny look.
I cleared my throat and stepped into one of the gift shops.
Normally, I wouldn't go in one of these gift shops considering I've seen this stuff since I was a kid, but Aya and Lady C. seemed pretty interested, so they went in and asked me to buy a couple of things.
“But remember,” I said under my breath, “you two can't use any of these things.”
“Chase, your room needs an upgrade, and I think that that poster of New York City would really work over your bed.” Lady C. pointed at a poster of Manhattan that cost thirty dollars.
“I, I don't know,” I finally told her. “Most of the people that buy this stuff don't actually live in New York.”
“What's wrong with celebrating your city?” Aya asked.
“There's nothing wrong with it, but I can celebrate it by just going outside and looking at it.”
Aya considered this for a moment, glanced at Lady C., and shrugged. “He's hopeless,” she said as she grabbed my hand and led me out of the gift shop.
Somehow, holding Aya's hand through the Times Square crowd had emboldened her to holding my hand all the time now.
She did this as we left the gift shop after we’d walked away from the crowd, and it didn't seem to bother Lady C. at all, who was happily skipping ahead and commenting on some of the older buildings.
“Is there any reason we're still holding hands?”
“Holding hands is how a Thulean shows possession.”
I laughed. “So, you possess me now?”
“Officially, yes. You are now my possession. My Alpha, yet in a way I am your Alpha because I can kill you much faster than you can kill me.”
“So that’s how it works.”
Just thinking about needing to get home caused a shadow box to appear on my pane of vision asking if I'd like to order an UberLyft.
I selected ‘yes,’ and about three minutes later, a taxi dropped out of the sky. This time, rather than sitting up front, Aya got in the back, so now I was sandwiched between her and Lady C.
What's going on here? I thought as the vehicle began to lift into the air.
“Let’s go hunting near your place,” Lady C. suggested.
“That's not a bad idea, but I wouldn't mind going back to EverLife either.”
“I definitely need to go back to EverLife at some point, Altsoba is coming over,” Aya said in a tone that told both of us that we shouldn't ask why, or what for.
“Well, we definitely need to do a bunch of hunting tomorrow. We need some funds, I need real world money because I need to fix Iris' keyboard, and I still want to get this other bass. Speaking of which, shit, I need to get my new bass from Iris’. Or maybe I should just leave it there.”
“If you're coming to EverLife tonight, why don't we just stay at Lady Iris’ home?”
“Because I have an apartment too.”
“And your apartment has the pipe, and that hilariously stupid roommate of yours, Alex,” Aya said.
“Yes, those things too. But you’re right about the bass.”
“I didn’t say anything about the bass.”
“I know,” I said to Lady C. “But you’re right, I need it. Clinton Hills,” I called to the vehicle.
Since the taxi had already synced with my iNet feed, it knew exactly where Iris lived.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“I think my bed in EverLife is more comfortable than Iris' futon,” Aya said as the vehicle dropped into another airlane.
“Good to know,” I told the Thulean warrior.
New York City blazed by outside, a series of lights and tall buildings, a disco ball world. There were other aeros too, and transport vehicles and public share rides as well.
Iris appeared on my pane of vision, a sleepy look on her face.
“Hey, I'm just dropping by to grab my bass,” I told her.
“You sure you don't want to stay?” she asked me, her form wavering.
I got the sense from Iris that she really did want me to stay, to be there with her and sleep next to her.
But I also wanted to go home, shower in my own shower, stay in my own bed, play some bass in the morning.
So I met Iris at the door, leaving the two Huntresses in the waiting taxi.
Iris wore a robe and her face was shiny, like she’d just applied some night cream. No glasses this time either.
“Hey,” she said in a tone that I hadn't heard from her very often. It was softer, spoken in a way that sounded as if it meant a lot more than just the three letters.
“Hey,” I told her as she handed me the bass. It was surprisingly light in its case, but that was to be expected considering its compact size.
“Good night?”
“I'll stay the night tomorrow night, promise,” I said quickly. “I would stay the night, but I want to go home and do some things, clean up my room, you know, that kind of stuff.”
“Clean up your room?”
“Yeah, it's a little messy from what I can recall. And I need a change of clothes too.”
“We could just order some clothes, sometimes it's cheaper than washing them.”
She wasn't wrong there. 3D printed clothing could be delivered to your door within an hour. And this wasn't as expensive as it sounded, actually, it was more expensive to get clothing made of natural fibers.
“Tomorrow, and let's have an interesting dinner this time.”
“Thai wasn’t interesting?”
“You know what I mean. I’m talking one of those dinner aeros that go around the Statue of Liberty. I've never done that before. Or shit, they’re probably booked, but something like that.”
“I wish I didn't have class...”
“It's fine, we'll meet for dinner and it'll be great.”
I took the bass from her, waved once again, and walked back down to the UberLyft, where I got in the front seat this time around.
“That took a long time,” Lady C. commented.
“It wasn't that long.”
The aeros rattled a bit as it lifted into the air. This was one of the older ones, maybe five or six years old, evident in the graphic used
for the speedometer, which was displayed on the front window in large neon blue letters.
“I can't wait to get back to your place,” Lady C. said with a yawn. “Do you think your sleepy roommate will be on the couch?”
“Why are you two so interested in Alex? And really, there’s no telling.”
“Alex is fat, but he is built like a bull, which Thuleans like. Although I don’t appreciate his laziness. Any man who sleeps on the couch is no man for me.”
“So where should he sleep then?” I asked Aya.
“Either in a bed or on the floor. Sleeping on the floor is a sign of humility.”
“And poverty,” Lady C. added.
“That too.”
We settled in the right airlane headed toward Bushwick. We arrived just a few minutes later, a cold breeze pushing past as we got out of the taxi.
Sure enough, Alex was on the couch when we entered, reading an old-fashioned magazine. Magazines hadn't been made with paper for quite some time, but local artisans and indie writers liked to put them together as a sort of kitschy, hipster thing.
“It’s an art magazine,” he said instead of hello.
“He doesn’t seem so artistic,” Lady C. said.
“Maybe it has art pictures of naked women in it,” Aya said as she moved over to Alex. She sat on the couch next to him, Alex oblivious to it all, and proceeded to look at the magazine with him. “Nope, no nudies.”
The thought came to me: if you spend most of your time hunting and cashing out on the PD to USD exchange, you could live on your own. Or with Iris.
I didn’t know where the second part came from.
“Cool,” I told him, moving past as quickly as possible.
“You haven't been here very much lately,” he grunted. “Did you find a girlfriend or something?”
Lady C. started to snicker.
“Um, not exactly, but that's not far off. Just doing some band stuff, hence my new instrument here,” I said, showing him the case.
“That's a weird case. Did you get one of those boxes guitars or something?”
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