Chess Book 2 Chapter 2- Rough

Note: Pandemic is playing a punch on me pushing hard on this. (kid duty)  I'll be sharing some of what I have with patrons every week or two.  

Chapter Two- David

"I think getting  approval for testing a medical immersion pod might feed your unhealthy fixation with a fictional character." If I could show any anger or frustration at this, I would, I knew it was a mistake to mention the fact I had a relationship with Joyce and that she was an NPC. Thankfully none of that frustration would show for the doctor.

I use my specialized linked monitor to communicate with him, "I've told you, I've distanced myself there." A lie. "Full immersion is what I need, I've forwarded many articles showing positive outcomes in Asia and Europe. As much as the miracle this chair system is in allowing me to speak and move. Life is not the same for me out here."

    Doctor Browder frowns. I'm not afraid to get a different doctor or go to a dozen different doctors to get his approved and out of this world. "You'll set up the pod at my clinic where I can monitor it. I'll let you try this for four months, then I want you out a full medical checkup." 

In some ways, being at the clinic is a relief. I'd spent my last few months of rent, making sure I got into the program. I'm sure Browder will use this as an excuse to bill the government even more for my care, but that doesn't matter to me. I'm doing this! "I'll handle all the arrangements, just send me the paperwork you need me to fill out." 

If I could dance I would. Once I get back and log in that will be the first thing I will do. I can't wait to tell her.  

    For me, this will be another change in Fair Quest. Kingmaker brought a wave of changes, and not just the disgruntled masses from losing out on a prize they never really had a chance at. The Cit-killing guild's membership swelled. But when they struck for two new towns to raze, the King and his marshall orders were ready for them.  Quietly every city of even moderate size gathered up a core unit comprised of the duelists, rangers, knights, officers, and spellworks working together. There were losses, but it wasn't the same. 

    A new proclamation of restrictions for those who work against the good of the kingdom.  The dark side of the fan base threatened to riot, and Immersion Arts opened up the option to switch allegiance to the Man of Masks. Fifteen percent of the players followed suit, even knowing they would lose out on the new chance to win two hundred thousand dollars if they did complete the main quest. That isn't to say all or only troublemakers switched sides.

I materialize at the cozy house the order of officers is renting for Joyce in the town of Abigate. She's thankfully no longer at the frontlines, but now she's helping run the protective marshal order group for this town.  I look around Joyce Mayes' home and get the warm feeling wondering if once I'm able to stay in Fair Quest, that this might now be our home. "You home, ladies?" I call out, only to get silence as the response. Mizzie, since graduating from her flower shop gig has been hanging out here more and more recently. "I have some great news!"

Drat, no one's home. Mizzie will know I'm back as my companion. Asimov's society put some basic rules, one of them is no forcefully summoning your companion.  I still itch to do it just to tell her the good news. I leave the house, locking up behind me. There are a few places I suspect they can be, I add a little dance into my step as I make my way from the outskirts of town and into it. "Loon." someone mutters as I do a spontaneous spin. 

I pop my head into the game's chain restaurant, Cosimos, wondering if maybe they had grabbed a little lunch. I'm a little hesitant heading to the guardhouse that is run collectively by the orders, but they will probably know where she is. "Well, if it isn't the boy toy." Adain says with a melancholic sneer. 

"Well, if it isn't the disgraced former order head." I reply snarkily back. 

Adain goes back to muttering to himself, "Damned job, double damned deviless." the spellworks representative must have watch duty because he usually spends his free time in the countryside investigating sightings of a devil he's been hunting.

"Ho, Noxtimus, you're looking so happy even your dark clothes can't hide your energy." Hans, the eight-foot-tall knight, declares after ignoring Adain's rude remark.  He is decked out in full plate mail, except he wore no helmet and stood towering enough that it is easy to consider that he might be a player overcompensating for something. I had measured him one day, and he's actually two inches above what the system will let players max at. 

"Have you seen Joyce? She wasn't at home."

The big knight nods, "She's at the public training grounds, been there since early morning." 

I wonder if she got a quest to train some player or group of players, "Thanks, I'll go check there next."

Every town has a training grounds. It's a convenient place to shuffle players off too if they need skill training or to practice without disturbing the rest of the town.  Abigate is in what most consider a mid-level zone. It didn't have the same type of constant action the front could provide by allowing one to walk into areas controlled by the Man of Masks and his new Corrupted.  The lazy naming convention for those Touched who flipped sides. 

I'm halfway there when an elderly woman grabs my collar. "Help Touched, the Woodrow gang has taken my boy." I mentally curse as I get a quest notification.

[Quest: Help old lady find her son.]

  It's to be expected, I've been logged in long enough. It is just so damn inconvenient. I can't tell myself it is just a game while I'm dating an NPC. I feel the conflicting emotions of wanting to treat it that way and the curse of seeing the realness of those I get to know.

I let out a sigh I try to hide as a long breath. "Do you know where the Woodrow gang hangs out? And can you give me a description of your boy and why they might want to take him?"

The woman wails. "I don't know why they take my sweet boy and what terrible things they could be doing to him. They probably took him to the abandoned lumber house they like to hang out at. It's where the woods and the river meet to the south of the city."

"Ok, but what does he look like?"

The woman starts crying again, as though just having to think about what her dear boy looks like, brings her to tears. "People think Manly is tough because of his size, he's about two hands taller than you with a bushy black beard. But he really is the sweetest and gentlest of souls. He had a red and black shirt on. You just have to help him!"  

    She really is old enough to have a fully grown son. At this rate, I'll finish this quest, and Joyce would have already cleared out of the training grounds. Or even worse, this will be a chain quest, and I'll get looped into another one.  I usually try to have some sort of fetch or gathering type quest active because it seems to lessen the frequency of these random encounters, even those only last for so long. "I'll do my best, ma'am."

    "Thank you! Thank you,  Touched!" She cries as I find myself forced into heading for the abandoned lumber mill. 

    I had joined with the Asimov's Society shortly after admitting to myself the feelings I have for Joyce. I don't do the protests. Mostly I use my skills to hunt down troublemakers for them. I also follow their rules. Always help NPC in need and make sure you get the facts first. The world, you're not supposed to call it a game, always has little twists in it. 

    I jog, wanting to get this over with fast and taking advantage of the generous amount of stamina my exemption provided.  The lumber mill is a mossy warehouse with a not quite right waterwheel hanging at an odd angle and no longer spinning. The place seems abandoned. Not just in the sense that it is no longer running.  For a gang hideout, you expect patrols or at least a few milling about.  Once I'm close to the building, I can hear some noise from inside. The building has two large main doors for an entrance, there are windows at the top half for ventilation.  The front door is not my style. I grab the wall to see if there is something to climb. Chunks of slippery moss just come out in my hand if I manage to get any kind of grip at all. I eye the off-kilter water wheel, might as well give it a try. 

    I have a few close calls. There is some satisfaction at the top. The way it is sticking out means it will be a leap to one of the ventilation windows. I cycle through my skills, wishing I had some kind of leap or jump related one to plug in. I get my armor's feather fall ability lined up just in case. On three I tell myself, but then I leap early on two. A few mental exclamations of "oh shit' in the air, but I make it hanging over the edge and pull myself up. Another win for parkour.

There is a second-floor area around the windows, making it not a dead drop to the floor. The floor creaks and squishes in an uncomfortable manner if I put too much weight on it. I look out over a large crowd, and I'm immediately glad I didn't go for the main entrance. There are close to a hundred people milling around in here. I do have a skill for seeing in the distance and start to get it ready, so I can get a better view of what is happening and where that woman's son is.

There is one small problem in finding Manley. Everyone is wearing red and black shirts, and at least half of them have dark facial hair.  They are wearing stripes, checkers, diamonds. One particularly burly looking man appears to be in a woman's dress to get the color scheme right. I wonder if Manly just made the wrong fashion decision today when he woke up. 

I move slowly and quietly into a better position to see and hear, the floor creaking and sinking a little beneath my steps. I can finally hear a man addressing the crowd. "...that shared goal is why we gather here now." Great, I've missed the good stuff. "And now, our leader!"

The crowd starts chanting." Manly! Manly! Manly!" Well there goes any hope that this would be a simple case of mistaken identity.  I watch the man who is making his way to the front of the crowd. His mother under-reported his size by a good bit. The man would make even the big knight Hans look small. This is clearly no longer a rescue quest, not even sure I should be here. I move to check the quest log to see if it has updated. The floor buckles under me giving way. I try to activate [feather fall], but with the status screen open, I can't.  Crash. I feel the familiar numbness of taking damage, dust and flecks of rotted timber float around me.   

I steady myself and sit up as the dust settles and see I've got myself a crowd. It's burly men and women in their red and black shirts. They are holding improvised weapons, like pitchforks, spikes, hatchets and axes are particularly popular in the crowd. I'm still not sure what is going on here, I may be the bad guy in all of this. If that's the case, I can gladly suffer an annoying respawn. "I'm here with a message for Manley!" I present my open hands, showing that I'm not holding any weapons.

One of them, the burly man trying to pull off a dress like it is a shirt, nudges me with his axe handle. "What makes you think Manly wants to hear anything from the likes of a Touched?"

 "Oh, leave off him, Darcy." States a tall blond woman in a more proper shirt than what Darcy is wearing. She offers me her free hand to help me up, though her other one is still clenching her hatchet. "You want to tell us why you want to see Manly?"

"Well, it's a quest." This brings out an unamused snort by the woman. Darcy simply grumbles." I was told he was in danger."

The crowd around me starts murmuring Manly, and I see the group part as the large man steps up. My head meets, maybe just under his arms. "You have a message for me?" He asks in a gruff, booming voice.

"A woman grabbed me on the street, insisting I help. That her boy Manly was taken by the Woodrow gang down to the abandoned lumber mill. I just wanted to get an eye on things before deciding what to do next." 

    The big man let out a deep rumbling sigh. "Woodrow gang hasn't existed in years. Mother must have slipped her watcher again. Sorry for all the trouble she has caused you, but as you can see I am here by my own will and perfectly fine.  If you see my mother again, please take her to the Holly Bar, the owner is a friend who will know what to do. Men, escort this Touched out, please."

    Darcy, the man in the dress is one of the ones to take me to the big doors. He does a little more pushing than escorting to get me out.  I watch the big doors slam shut. Looking into the quest, I have open-ended options to explore this mysterious group and Manly more or find his mother. I have more pressing matters to attend too. I just hope the dangling quest thread doesn't come back to bite me in the ass. 

    I go double time towards the training grounds, hoping I haven't missed her. I make it there, my stamina low enough that I just feel heavy and weird. The weird feeling the low stamina status applied did not even compare to how strange it is watching the scene in front of me play out. 

    Mizzie, my Mizzie, is growling as she charges forward, swinging her practice blade at officer Joyce Mayes.  She doesn't even come close as Joyce takes a pivoting half step to the side,  letting Mizz's momentum carry her forward. "Why won't you let me hit you? We've been at this half the day, surely you've got to be tired or at least hungry by now?" It is a whiny tone I'm not used to hearing from my companion. Sweat plasters her straight-cut, short, brown hair to her forehead, and Mizzie's usually soft body was looking a little less squishy as she panted heavily. 

In response to the question, Joyce takes a small tart out of her bag and takes a bite. "I've been snacking while training you, so I'm fine." She replies with food still in her mouth. 

 This causes a roar made of anger and frustration, my companion lunges again. I wince as she misses embarrassingly. "Is this what you've been up to on your day off?" Both of the women stop and stare at me.

    "This is all your fault,  Sir. Giving me that sword to protect myself. Your girl here insists I actually learn how to use it."

    "It's a dangerous world out there, and everyone should be ready for it." I reply.

"I'm not faulting your logic, Sir. Only my athletic ability."

Joyce throws her hands up in the air. "Fine, we can be done. You will be back here tomorrow."

Mizzie's face pales. "You're on duty, though?"

"Our duelist friend, Roy, has agreed to take you on with the rest of his students tomorrow." This statement only elicits more groans. 

I go over and hug Joyce. "I have good news, no great news!"

She detaches herself from me. "I managed to get some interesting news myself. But since it isn't great, why don't you tell me what yours is?"

“Soon-I’m-going-to-be-able-to-stay-here-months-at-a-time!” It comes out fast and excited. It is sometimes hard to maintain normal speech because I can't speak in the real world. 

Both the girls look at me a little buggy. "Woah, say that again, Sir." Mizzie opens with first, her face looking like it is processing my outburst.  

"I'm one of the few Touched who will be living in Lusania, I'll be able to stay for weeks or months without dispersing. Joyce and I can set up our home and…"

Joyce interrupts, "Hold on there, our home? The order of officers pays for my place, and it doesn't come with any roommates.  You coming in and out is fine, but living there? I care for you, but I'm not ready for that. You'll have to find your own place." 

I can feel my face fall. This is not going as expected. With effort, I put the smile back on my face. "Oh, of course, you need your space. I'm just so excited I'll be here." Both my companion and my NPC girlfriend are not looking as happy as I would like, maybe changing the topic. "Enough with my news, what is yours?"

"That crafter you've gone on about before. The one that helped make our king, the one we thought we would never see again. Chess, he was spotted in the castle the other day. He was talking to a lot of people according to dad, so I expect news to get out soon."

That is interesting, and I might care more if I didn't have to now worry about finding a place to live.