Turn 53

--- Maya ---

“I could’ve sworn she said she was coming to the park again today.” She scowled looking around the relatively empty park.

(You know there are better methods of spying on our friend.) Her inner reason pointed out dryly as she collapsed on a bench after searching the park for Ying and her mysterious ‘friend’.

“Not without invading her privacy.” She sighed in resignation.

(Isn’t that kind of the point?)

“But there’s a difference between ‘coincidentally’ running into her and hacking the cell phone company to track her phone.” She explained the thing she did to just about everyone passively as long as she had her COMP on her. “That’s different!”

(How pray tell?) Her inner logic wondered dryly.

(We don’t give a damn about the privacy of people we don’t know!) Her inner passion supplied cheerfully.

“Exactly.” She nodded, glad at least part of her understood her. (Too bad it’s the insane part.)

(I’m not insane, I’m mad. There’s a difference you know.)

(I’m just going to walk away while I’m ahead.)

(But you can’t walk away, we’re in a head.)

(...)

Ignoring the bickering of the voices in her head, her attention drifted around the park that she could see before eventually falling on these weird circles of overgrown grass (Wonder what’s up with the weird circles in the grass?)

(They’re called fairy circles.) Her inner madness supplied. (They normally form thanks to a type of fungus growing beneath the ground, with said fungus sometimes sprouting mushrooms above ground.)

“Huh… weird.” She frowned, eyeing the circles as something in the back of her mind began to tingle.

(Actually now that you mention that isn’t the forest technically a park as well?) Her inner logic remembered having to speak over the suddenly interested whispers.

“But didn’t she say the city park?” She frowned.

(Yes, she did. Yesterday.) Her inner reason nodded. (The conversation you overheard today just mentioned a park.)

“Fu~ck.” She cursed, banging her head against the back of the bench.

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1 Bio-Crit.

---

Hoping to keep this day from being a complete bust, she made her way from the city park and to her lab so that she could collect the contents of the biopod she’d left growing for the last week or so.

Of course given how she’d left the pod growing for longer than the amount of time she’d intended, she’d wound up with far more fodder than she was expecting. So much so that she was actually having trouble extracting the tangled weeds from the growing portion of her bio-pod.

“Fuck this.” She cursed under her breath, before turning towards her minions. “Oi, I need a bit of help over here!”

Her four minions all stood as attention before rushing over to her and attempting to awkwardly remove the overgrown fodder from her biopod. A task that proved fairly difficult once it became apparent that her drones had no hands, their scrap collection tools only turning the fodder to ash. And the fact that the LCMs were too small to properly harvest the overgrown fodder themselves, their attempts closer to chopping down trees without any tools.

“On the one hand it sucks that I’m going to have to clean up this mess. On the other…”

(Their bumbling is so cute!) Her inner passion cooed.

Scene Choice and Consequences

-*Overgrown Crit* Gained 8 Organics.

Set Bio-Pod (Small) to grow:

-[]-Basic Healing Herbs: Grow a basic herb with some healing properties. (Requires: 3 Organics and 3 Turns to grow.)

-[]-Accelerated Fodder: Grow a fodder capable of being used in place of several units of Organics. (Requires: 2 Organics and 2 Turns to grow.)

---

As she got back to her house she found Vi and their parents sitting in the living room with their eyes occasionally drifting towards Tommy in the kitchen.

“You guys doing alright?” She asked, feeling a certain tension in the air.

“Yeah, we’re… we’re holding up.” Her dad sighed, running a hand down his face. “We’re just waiting on the Hunter’s Agency to show up.”

“Any word on when they’re supposed to get here?”

“They said they’d get here around six, and that’s…” Her dad checked the living room clock. “Just a few minutes from now.”

(If they’re on time.) Her inner emotion growled, lashing out rather than giving into her other feelings on this topic.

(Damn it, I guess I can’t keep distracting myself, huh?) Sighing she took a seat on the couch next to her dad, and accepted his arm as he wrapped it around her and pulled her into a half-hug of sorts.

They spent the next few minutes like this until at the exact stroke of six there was knocking on the door.

“I… I guess that’s them.” Her dad told everyone before getting up and making his way towards the door.

Once her father opened the door she found herself staring at a familiar young man and a not so familiar young woman talking about something while the woman dabbed a red cloth at her nose.

(Of course the rents would hire the same Hunter’s Agency I went to…)

(Well they are the cheapest legitimate Hunter’s Agency in the city.) Her inner reason reminded. (And if I remember correctly one of the other two specifically underlined a specialty in killing things, while this one mentioned a ‘jack of all trades’ sort of specialty.)

“Um, can I help you?” Her father asked not realizing the pair his eldest’s age were the ones he’d been waiting on.

“Ah, yes, this would be the William’s address, correct?” The male of the pair asked, putting his finger tips together.

“Uh, yes it is.” Her dad nodded, his eyes narrowing a bit. “How can I help you?”

“I’m Jack Wright from Hack & Slash incorporated,” Jack introduced. “I do believe we spoke on the phone Mr. Williams.”

“Oh, you’re uh, a bit younger than I was expecting.” Her dad admitted, adjusting his glasses.

“My Deviancy makes me age a touch slower than most.” Jack shrugged as if there was nothing odd about that little detail. “Still that’s neither here nor there. You said you were worried about your lad?”

“Oh, right, right.” Her dad nodded, before gesturing for Jack and his partner to enter. “He’s in the kitchen now.”

“So to recap.” Jack began, following her dad to the kitchen as the rest of them stood to do the same. “Your lad has been showing an obsessive behavior while drawing the same image over and over again, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Her mamá confirmed as they stepped into the kitchen. “It’s pretty much all he’s been doing for the last few weeks, and normally he’s got so many other things going on in his life like his band and his music.”

The moment Jack spotted Tommy at the kitchen table he smiled before taking a seat across from her brother. “‘ello mate, do you know who I am?”

“Um, you’re a Hunter my parents called because they think something’s wrong with me?” Tommy asked more than said as he looked up from his drawing. Something she’d normally have seen as a good thing if not for the fact that Tommy was still drawing even if more slowly.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Ah, don’t word it like that, they’re just worried some arsehole whammied you with a bit of bad mojo is all.” Jack assured her brother.

“I know and I appreciate it even if I do think this might be a waste of money.” Tommy sighed before looking at the Hunter across the table from him. “No offense.”

“None taken so long as you know your ma and da love ya.” Jack promised, before rolling his neck. “Still, time for business alright, lad?”

“Alright?” Tommy nodded with a touch of amusement.

“So my friend Sue here is a psychic, now she’s going to do a quick scan of your mind to make sure everything is running how it’s supposed to, alright?” Jack explained.

“Okay?”

(Wait, we’re just going to let someone else mess with Tommy’s mind?!) Her inner passion shrieked as they watched from the sidelines.

(It makes sense that we’d need a mind power to undo a mind power.) Her inner reason reminded both of her other selves.

“Um, you guys aren’t going to… mess with my head now are you?” Tommy asked, eyeing the female Hunter with a fair amount of wariness all things considered.

“Not particularly subtle at that bit.” Sue admitted with a shrug. “But at the very least I can tell you if something is wrong, He-Jack is actually better at dealing with this kind of thing though.”

“But my detection methods take a good while, and we’re charging by the hour.” Jack added, waving away the praise. “And our prices are one of the few things about us that aren’t criminal, mate.”

(Again no one is seeing the red flags in this?!)

Sue swatted Jack’s shoulder before making her way towards Tommy and crouching down. “Now I just need you to hold still for one moment, alright?”

“Alright?” Tommy frowned before both his and Sue’s eyes flashed blue.

“Um, that’s supposed to happen, right?” Vi asked ever so cautiously.

“Hm, oh yeah.” Jack nodded. “Your eyes are directly connected to the brain and are a direct part of the nervous system, making them one of the best ways to directly access the mind. The glow is caused due to the fact that psionics have this unique interaction with Anima that causes any ambient energy to gather and glow despite remaining inactive.”

“Huh…” Vi blinked.

(Wait, isn’t Anima supposed to be the energy magic runs off of?) She wondered with a frown, not willing to voice her question in case the Hunter suddenly remembered her.

(Well it does stand to reason that the different powers would have a certain level of interaction with each other even if we don’t know about them ourselves.) Her inner logic pointed out.

(Maybe that’s something we should look into…)

“So what’s the verdict Sue?” Jack asked as Sue backed away from Tommy.

“This is more your thing than mine.” The psychic told him, as a small trickle of blood began to leak from her nose.

“Dios mio.” Her mamá grimaced alongside the rest of her family. “You’re bleeding.”

“That happens sometimes.” The female Hunter shrugged as she pulled out her red cloth and began dabbing at her nose. “Nothing to be worried about.”

(It occurs to me that cloth might not have been red when she got it.)

(Fuck.)

Maya was suddenly very glad her nosebleeds weren’t all that common.

“Anyway, like I said this is more your thing than mine.” Sue told her partner once more. “Whatever’s going on with him is more magical than psionic so I can’t really do much here.”

Jack nodded before crouching in front of Tommy. “Alright, well got a place for me to start then, luv?”

“His brain is under one of those focus charms you and Jason are so fond of.” Sue answered dully as if this was boring her on some level.

“Technically we’re doing different things but I get what you mean.” Jack glanced towards her parents who were watching the byplay with concern.

(Are they really being this blaise about all of this?)

(Well, perhaps this is a fairly mundane task for them?)

“So good news,” Jack told them, clapping his hands together with a smile. “This is a relatively easy fix, all things considered.”

“And the bad news?” Her mamá asked, knowing that there was always bad news.

“There isn’t any, just need ten-fifteen minutes and we’ll have your lad right as rain.”

(Accept when there isn’t apparently.)

Having jinxed herself that was when she heard her front door opening as Izzy came into the house.

“Mierde.” Her mamá cursed.

“I’ll take care of Izzy, you guys just wrap this up.” She volunteered quietly before intercepting her little sister by wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Izzy! Just the middle schooler I wanted to see.”

“No.” Izzy told her, eyes wide like a scared rabbit caught in the headlights.

“You see I just remembered I’ve yet to get you to properly forgive me.” She informed the struggling middle schooler. “Which is why to show you how responsible I’m being with my health, you and I are going to go on a proper run around the neighborhood!”

“How are you this freakishly strong?!” Izzy demanded. “I work out more than you and you're a pinche couch potato!”

“Come on Missy you can join us too girl!”

---

“So how’re you holding up?” She asked, a few minutes into their run.

“Fine, I guess.” The middle schooler shrugged, eyeing her warily as she kept the family dog between them.

(What’s up with her? Shit does she know something ‘s up?) She couldn’t help but grimace at that thought.

“Hey, do you know what was up with mom and dad today?” Her sister asked the one question Maya didn’t want her to.

“Um, no?” She lied, before frowning. “Though now that you mention it…” (Have to act like I’m just noticing it.)

(Or you could have a responsible talk with your sister about what’s happening to her elder brother.) Her inner reason suggested hopefully.

(No, it’s probably better if this whole thing happens without her even realizing anything was wrong.) Her inner passion argued.

(Yeah, I don’t want to worry Izzy if I don’t have to.) She agreed, taking the emotional route over the logical one. (Ugh, snippy.)

(She’s just a sore loser. Which to be fair so are you.)

(Valid point.)

Shaking her head she turned back to her little sister. “Maybe it’s just grown up stuff, I mean new month means new bills and all of that junk.”

“Maybe…” Izzy grumbled not really believing that part. (Which is fine since that’s not the part I want her to believe.)

“Look whatever it is I’m sure it’ll all be settled in a few days.” She tried to assure the baby sister she was lying to. (Fuck, just drop it already! The problem is being taken care of so let’s not worry the middle schooler about the fact that her big brother had his mind violated by some irresponsible magic twiddling fuck wad!)

(...)

“Fuck…” She cursed running a hand down her face.

“Uh, Maya?” Izzy called with a touch of concern.

“Sorry, what was that?” She asked, forcing that back to wherever she’d been repressing it.

“You uh, you had this… face, and…” Izzy shrugged, making a helpless gesture towards her.

“Sorry.” She apologized hating the fact that she failing at keeping Izzy away from (all of this garbage…) “I just, my mind is starting to spiral about all of the things it could be.” (and is…)

“That’s…” Izzy frowned as a silence fell over the two sisters and their dog let out a sympathetic whine, a situation that Maya refused to accept for very long.

“Hey now, look whatever’s wrong… it’ll get sorted out.” She promised her little sister. “We just… we just have to keep on, keeping on. Alright?”

Izzy gave her a weak smile. “Alright.”

“Good,” She nodded, bumping her shoulder against Izzy’s. “Then in that case… race you around the block!”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Bluffing

--Currently: Lv. 3 (2/8)

-Thanks to Izzy gained 3XP to Mobility

--*Skill Level Up* Mobility Lv. 5 (2/12)

---

“I call first shower!” Izzy told her, running up the stairs. Something she’d usually fight her sister on, if she didn’t have more important concerns.

She waited until she heard the bathroom door slam shut before turning to her parents and Vi on the couch with neither Tommy nor the Hunters in sight. “How’d it go?”

“Well according to the Hunters Tommy should be alright, though he’s going to have a vicious headache for the next few days.” Vi told her. “Apparently the charm he’d fallen under was also making it easier for him to focus so now that that’s gone it’s going to take him a minute to readjust.”

“But this weird drawing thing should be over right?” She swallowed down her apprehensions. “He’s going to be back okay, right?”

“Should be.” Vi told her in a way that said she was hopeful but not particularly sure.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine mijas.” Their mamá assured them, before frowning. “And if not I’ll beat those Hunters bloody myself.”

“That might be a bit extreme honey.” Her father chuckled warily.

“Okay, but um, did they say what they’re going to do about the person who did this to Tommy?” She had to ask, though she didn’t feel very good about the looks her family made.

“They said they could track down who or whatever was responsible for this mess in the next month if we wanted.” Her father began, before trailing off.

“But?” She prodded with a frown.

“But it’ll cost us a thousand dollars that we don’t have just yet.” Her father admitted, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “What’s more they said that since they removed the effect from Tommy already, the method they’d use to track the one responsible would fade over the next month or so.”

“They’re, they’re just going to let whoever did this get away?!” She yelled before remembering that Izzy and Tommy both were upstairs, and hissing, “How can they do that?!”

“The way that bruja explained it, they have a business to run and have to prioritize problems by their actual threat.” Her mamá growled. “As long as the cabron responsible for this isn’t killing anyone then they won’t go after them.”

“What, but that’s-?!”

“To be fair, they did recommend having us call the Heroes’ Guild or Sanctuary if we want an investigation done and that they’d provide proof that something did happen to Tommy.” Her father cut in with a sigh. “Though they warned us that that method would probably take a while to see any results.”

(Well then I’ll just have to make my own results!)

Scene Consequences

-Artistic Obsession Updated

--Tommy is safe. (Now we can track down whoever is responsible for this and beat them into a coma.)