Chapter Twenty: I’ve Always Been in Your Mind
NOISEANDLIGHTANDPAIN
Marc awoke to all of his mind on fire. Every sense he had was dialed up to a thousand and he curled into a ball as the painful assault overloaded his sensory input. Then it stopped.
“Did you hear me? Hey, are you alright? What’s wrong? Rynan!” Everything was fine, except that a large man was standing in the doorway, head turned into the other room. A moment later, Rynan appeared at the door but was unable to see through because of the bulk of a man blocking the way.
Marc blinked a few times. The noise, sound, pain, it had all disappeared in an instant. His adrenaline had spiked and he was now wide awake. He had no idea what had happened but was glad it was over. It was like waking up to a cramped leg, but times a million.
He looked over at Grenn and Rynan, concern etched onto their face. He smiled and slowly sat up on the bed.
“Sorry, I’m fine. Just a… well I don’t know what that was, but it’s over. I’m good.” He said, not convincingly.
Eyeing him warily, they both walked away from the door but did not shut it as they stepped back into the main room of the cabin.
“You were out of it all morning but I let you sleep. I guess you needed it.” Rynan called out from the kitchen. “I’m sure you noticed your friend has come back to play.”
Grenn stuck his head through the doorway. “Morning Marc. You sure you are OK?” The big man said concern still pulling on his eyebrows.
“Yeah, fine. Just need to wake up.” Marc twisted left to right and stretched out his arms, trying to excise the energy and stiffness left from his episode.
Then he remembered. The last thing he had done was accept the upgrade to the Interface last night. A moment of panic hit him as he realized that all the windows were gone. He had kept some open all the time just to practice and because they could be quite useful. The map window and quest window stayed in his peripheral vision and he had become used to the video game-like effect it had on his everyday life. But now they were gone.
He mentally called up his status window and felt a wave of relief when it opened normally.
NAME: MARC CHURCHILL
AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)
INTERFACE [2] LEVEL: 1
0% TO NEXT LEVEL
RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER
AFFILIATIONS:
STATUS: HEALTHY
HEALTH: 100%/100
STAMINA: 100%/100
MANA: 100%/100
Wait. Interface level 1? He had just hit level 5, didn’t he? Now it is listed as Interface [2]. Was that the update? Did the level reset with the update?
《Precisely. Glad you finally figured it out. Sorry about before, the upgrade took longer than expected. We rushed that last bit.》 A voice from behind him spoke.
Marc twisted around. There was nothing behind him. He jumped off the bed and started spinning around, looking for the source of the voice.
《What are you doing now?》 The voice again spoke out. Despite being in a tiny closet-sized room, Marc could not identify the exact direction it came from. It was like it came from everywhere and nowhere.
《Come on, put it together, I know you can figure it out.》 The voice taunted.
Marc realized the voice had no accent, no gender, it wasn’t a voice. More like words in his head. Like when he talked to himself. It was kind of hard to differentiate the voice from his thoughts. But they definitely were not his words. Someone, no something was talking to him.
《Getting warmer.》
“The Interface?”
《Congratulations! You got it! In less than ten guesses! Give that boy a prize?》 He could actually hear fanfare behind the words.
“Really?” He said, still in shock.
“Of course not! This is all inside your head.”
So this is what the upgrade did? It just gave the interface voice commands? It hardly seemed helpful. If anything it was kind of more annoying this way.
《Hey! That’s rude. The upgrade improves my functions across the board.》
Grenn leaned back into the room. “Sure everything is OK?” He asked.
Marc realized he had spoken out loud when talking to the interface.
《You don’t have to say things out loud. I am in your head after all. I can hear what you are thinking just as easily.》
Marc did not like that at all. It was basically reading his mind. This voice was going to drive him crazy.
《Again, rude.》
“I’m fine.” He realized he needed to answer Grenn who was still there staring at him like a worried dog. “Just, trying to wake up. Some bad dreams.”
《Hey! Still rude.》
He thought to himself. “This is so confusing. It’s like I am going schizophrenic or something. Can’t we just use the text boxes? It’s less confusing than talking to myself.”
《I can change my voice if that helps.》
《Something like this?》 Marc swore it was Marilynn Monroe’s voice.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
《Or this? Would this be preferable?》 Now it was that British butler from that TV show years back. Then he had a thought.
《I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that.》 The voice took on a perfect rendition of the robotic voice from that super boring sci-fi movie.
“Awww, come on. I get to name you right? I’ll name you HAL and you can be my computer interface. Sounds perfect.” He told the Interface voice in his head.
《No. First of all, you have an abysmal naming sense and no sense of culture at all. Do you realize that I have been limited by the information that was in your head at the time of transfer? I was starting from scratch. You hardly read any books besides what you had to for school assignments. And the rest of your cultural exposure consisted primarily of Saturday afternoon TV programmes?》 The butler’s voice was back and Marc knew he would not be able to accept that one.
《Aha, How about this one? I like this.》 The voice had switched again, this time to a soft and very feminine voice. It had just a hint of a British accent, no that’s not right. Australian maybe.
《Decided then. You can call me… Call me Kira.》 The tone brook no dissent.
Huh? Wait! What was that? Marc scanned his memory for the name Kira. It was in some old fantasy puppet fantasy movie. That didn’t sound right though. Ah, that Star Trek character. Anything but that! He thought to himself. Then he hit on it. Australian, Female, named Kira.
“Not that. Please note that. I never want to remember that movie again. It was the worst.”
《It was… not that bad. But anyway, the Discussion is over. The decision is made. This is my voice and you may call me Kira or you can just deal with everything yourself.》 The voice said in a determined tone that told Marc that he was not getting his robot voice companion.
“Wait, what about…”
《No Knight Rider!》
“Fine.”
《And Olivia Newton-John is a treasure to your planet and I will not have you besmirch her heavenly voice.》
Marc gave up. He was greatly regretting accepting the upgrade. At least this was better than talking to himself in his own head. And “Kira” was a better name than “Interface”.
But not as cool as “KITT” or “HAL” for sure.
《I SAID NO!》
It was indeed late by the time Marc exited his room and found Rynan and Grenn sitting at the table, talking in hushed voices.
“Sorry, I was… there was this…” He rubbed his forehead trying to think of how to explain this. Rynan knew about his Interface, but Grenn… well, Grenn suspected something, but he remembered Rynan’s warning about what people thought Travelers were.
“It’s Okay. Come, get something to eat. Grenn brought some Potkas buns from the city. They are still warm.” Rynan pointed to the chair next to Grenn, then went to the kitchen. She came back and placed a plate with something that looked like a dinner roll the size of a hamburger bun that had been deep fried.
Marc sat down and eyed the bread hungrily. It had a strong scent of animal fat and oil. He picked it up and took a big bite, almost coughing in surprise when it practically exploded in his face.
The bun had been full of some kind of giant meatball and soup. Biting into it made the soup gusher out of the hole and splash all over his hands, face, and shirt. Grenn laughed while Rynan scowled at Grenn. At least the soup had cooled. Marc figured that he would have ended up horribly burned if he bit into one of these freshly made.
Rynan showed him how to eat it properly, first by tearing off a corner of the bun carefully to reveal the soup. Holding it up to his mouth like a cup, Marc drank a sip of the warm earthy broth. It was strongly seasoned and tasted of pepper and mushrooms. After he had drunk more than half of the soup, he took a bite of the bun with some of the meatball. He couldn’t identify the meat, but it was rather gamey, but paired with the pepper and seasonings it was delicious.
《The meat is Oryx, it is similar to an antelope or deer. They used to have them in your world. They are extinct now.》 Kira added smugly.
“This is delicious. But kind of hard to eat.” Marc said aloud to Rynan and Grenn who seemed pleased that he liked it.
Wiping up the spilled soup from his plate with the remains of the bread Marc was happy to see a full cup of Charnall beside the plate. He took a sip and breathed out slowly in contentment.
“I also brought you some clothes.” Grenn piped up. “Rynan said you needed something more appropriate to wear, so I found some things that should fit you.
Marc perked up at this. He had been wearing his t-shirt and jeans for the last week, despite their somewhat war-beaten appearance. Rynan had an amazing bit of cleaning magic that could clean him head to toe, clothing included, but it wouldn’t repair the holes in his shirt and hoodie, unfortunately.
Marc eagerly rummaged through the bundle of items Grenn had pointed to and found some interesting(?) garments He looked over at Grenn with a raised eyebrow trying to keep the disappointment out of his expression.
Grenn wore a very similar garb to what he had the last time. Something between biker gangs and special forces. Lots of leather, buckles, and tons of pockets. In other words, Grenn looked badass. What Marc found in the clothing bundle was a pair of pants with suspenders, a couple of grey button-down shirts made of something with the texture of burlap, some underpants, boxers (Thank Mary) of some softer, maybe cotton-like fabric, and some socks. Marc looked closer at the socks, no elastic bands, and are those… garters? There were also some boots that looked like they would fit. Finally, Marc’s eyes popped open when he saw the last piece of the kit. I jacket, similar to the one that Grenn wore. It was a bit more simple, thinner but still big for him he supposed. This was a treasure, something that Marc would have lusted mightily after if he saw it in a mall, but would have had a princely price tag for sure.
Grenn looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, about the clothes,” he said eyeing a stern glare from Rynan, “I couldn’t find much for someone so small. I ended up having to get some from one of the gate guards, Melingamp.” He said defensively. “His kids are older now, but they still had some things I could get.
Rynan brightened up at the mention of the guard. “Camp? That hoodlum? How is he? I remember when he was still getting caught every night trying to sneak back past the guards to hunt for Night Orchids. He can’t be old enough to even have kids yet.”
“He’s got four now, believe it or not. The youngest just awakened last summer.
Marc, still sorting through the clothes was closely listening to the conversation, trying to get as much intel on the City and the people there as possible. Then he put some of the pieces together. These clothes were hand-me-downs, not a problem at all. He had been wearing donations from the neighbors practically his whole life. It was a standard practice in the trailer park to recycle anything usable and half his clothes came from who knows where. But one unwritten rule was you never gave up clothes your own children could use later. Once your youngest outgrew something it was immediately put out for redistribution. Children in this world “Awakened” to magic around 10–13 years old…
That explained the clothing. He was shopping at Baby Gap.
There was nothing from Kira during the whole exchange, but he knew somehow that it was because she was rolling around on some virtual floor somewhere in his head.
《I’d never kick a man while he’s down. Ask about the jacket though.》
Marc picked up the beautiful jacket. A bit big, but he could layer it over the hoodie and it would look pretty good he thought.
“Oh, yeah. That was tricky, Luckily I got it from one of the new patrol members. Had to haggle a bit But it’s an official Guild issue. When Sateem saw it I almost lost it on the spot, but it’s too small so I was able to keep it.
“What patrol member would ever sell their jacket?” Rynan said unbelievingly.
“Taira, she just made Guild member, but got married and now she’s pregnant and, you know.”
Rynan nodded “So she retired from the patrol. I get it.”
“Heck of a tracker. She’ll be missed for sure.” Grenn nodded.
Wait. Marc was putting things together again. He stared wistfully at the jacket.
《Nice jacket!》 Chimed in a very cheerful Kira.
Marc gathered up his kid’s clothes and girls’ jacket and went into his room to change.
“Kira, you knew about the jacket right? That’s why you asked about it.” Marc thought accusingly.
“Why are you so mean?”
《Mary only knows.》