Having now a clear understanding of what had happened to my associates and having in addition a plan to help the Chip Clan, as well as the bonus karma of having had some degree of emotional carthara by connecting with my mentor and new co-worker, being back at the store felt different. Not so alienating, anymore, though it still felt weird to be so often at my place of work.
But I was here to help others. So, I could suck it up and do my part in this crazy new life I had. Full Time was my job, now, and to do my real job, I needed my first, more lame and depressing job. But I saw much in my future, if I could hold it all together. If before now, my ego and sense of place in the world was on the verge of being undone, it was now all well-glued shut. Almost as if I had awoken from an odd nightmare and the concepts of the Under-Reality were now events, I had somehow always known but only just recently remembered, recovered. Or that was how it felt to me. Like I was on the verge of breaking down, but now, have found a new way forward. New resolve. And all thanks to Kush just leaving his ego behind and helping me learn all of this. I was back at my place of work, and I saw it in a new light.
Deja vu, right?
Being back at work, that is.
“Chips are over here, gentlemen,” I said as I directed them to the snack aisle.
I felt strange. I spent so much time in this aisle when I was at work, I often felt like being in this aisle was a trap. No matter what I did, this aisle would always be there, signaling out my labor. But I didn’t feel like that right now. I felt a teensy bit jet-lagged, sure, from my misadventure in the hideout, but now with Kush speaking to me like a person and us having a definite goal, it felt much more peaceful, here.
With the aisle spreading out before me — I looking at things in my partially dimensional scrawl perspective — Kush was right in front of me while Felix was on my shoulder. Back where he belonged. Chippy remained on my shoes the whole time, bouncing back and forth whenever I glanced down to make sure he was alright. Now that we were back at the store, Chippy jumped off my shoe and climbed up to a middle section of the shelving.
Good to be back, Marcus. Miss me? Felix said.
“I did miss you,” I told Felix in our mind-to-mind connection. “It was crazy for a while with both you and Kush having vanished. What was it like being held captive for so friggin long?”
I don’t know. It is a blur. My bones and joints are stiff, like I was kept under some cryogenic freezer. I was minding my own business as I was talking to some Super-Normie associates, trying to get them on board with some of my activist plans, and then, on my way back to our home, I was ambushed. Hit. And then vague images of something happening. Being tied down. Someone asked me questions, but I can’t remember what… messed up. And then you rescued me.
“What can I say? Except, you’re welcome. I improved some in the time you were gone, you know,” I said, happy like a kid who could show their basketball coach a shot they had mastered over spring break.
I would hope. Can jiggle a can of beans now?
“I don’t know about beans, but I could almost lift a couple of bags of candy. That graph in my mind’s eye shows a steady climb upward. But I still think this magic stuff is deeper than even Kush knows. I still don’t know what the whole thing with buying was all about…”
You mean when you felt that momentarily thrill at the register when you were buying crap at the end of your shift?
“Yeah, that. I think magic can be generated by other things as well. Not just work.”
I don’t doubt it, my man. Full Time are not exactly magical researchers or specialists. We only know what has been passed down from those before us. Lots left to discover, most likely.
“Here we are, do you see the rot?” Chippy said, his voice weirdly rash, like a scottman.
In my conversation with Felix, I had completely forgotten why we were at the store in the first place. It felt good to be near Felix again. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but when he was gone, I felt a hole in my life. A mystery which had a Felix shaped hole; why I had felt that way, I knew not. Probably something to do with the pact we made. Maybe the pact warming itself up to our nervous systems… as strange as that is to consider; but Felix and I’s friendship was still growing. No use in rushing. But it was undeniable. Him having been gone did a number on how I had grown to survive in this magical world.
“Actually, no,” I told Chippy, honestly.
“You don’t see it?” Chippy asked, exasperated.
“Nope. But what am I looking for?”
“What — WHAT?! What do you mean, what? It is right here, clear of freaking day, my mate!”
Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything abnormal. Just chips and pretzels and chocolate covered abominations. Thankfully, being in my two-dimensional scrawl, I could only make out so many details of the flashy products. If I looked at them too closely, I reminded myself of being back at work, like I was now, only worse, because I would be on the clock.
“Chippy, calm. Marcus is still new with his intuition on these matters, okay? I will spearhead this investigation and teach Marcus the basics,” Kush said.
Happy that Kush wasn’t expecting the world of me, for once, I huddled close to him and watched as he used his Delvendive to strange new effects.
“Okay, now you do it, Marcus,” Kush said after a single short tutorial.
“Wait, what?” I said, sputtering mechanics. “I don’t even know what you did.”
“That is part of the process of learning. Remain calm and keep following my directions. First, take out your Delvendive. Yes, like that. Now, think of insight. Like knowledge. Think about how it feels to uncover knowledge and to learn.”
And something happened — I was no longer unsure.
At first, when Kush was speaking, it seemed as though this would be yet another repeat of previous lessons, with me sputtering about like a madman trying to convince the ignorant masses of the value of sewer water as hydration. And yet, it was not anything like that; when Kush spoke of tuning in to how it feels to do something — in this case, uncover knowledge — it all clicked. Or mostly clicked. I thought back to my time solo training in the candy aisle of this very store. I reminded myself of thinking through the process of how the candy was made and the flow of it in relation to my labor. Then I thought about my actions in getting to the hideout, in feeling out my Delvendive, and using it to open a path to the hideaway, and to direct me to where my associates had been kidnapped. If I could do that through intuition, then I could do this.
And I did.
Knowledge and uncovering reality. It is not an exaggeration to say that is the primary function of humanity. Or it was when we, as people, were young. As children, we acclimate to our family, and our role, then we learn in school. Later, we unlearn what was toxic from both school then family. And finally, we leave the growth stage of youth and make our own identity. But it is always an identity in conversation with society. Thinking back on all of my phases as a teen — goth, gamer, New Age enthusiast — each phase had always been preceded by some discovery of mine. That discovery was knowledge acquisition. A bright light gleaming a new way forward; and that was what I was doing here. I was peering beneath the surface to find something more significant.
As I willed it, my Delvendive began to emit a soft glow. This elicited a “nice!” from Kush who began to direct me further.
“Hold onto that memory, that feeling,” Kush said. “And use it to uncover that membrane of reality just over the surface of the unknown. Look at the aisle. It seems normal. But you and I both know that it is not normal. There is something more beneath the surface — why? Because there is always something under the surface; even if we weren’t investigating on behalf of the Snack Clan, we know that something more exists under the everyday. Usually, we ignore it. And we ignore it because it is of no concern to us Caretakers. Energy from the Under-Reality or the machinations of some Super-Normie. But, Marcus, this is important — there is always, and I do mean always — something underneath the normal, average looking thing.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Usually, I would become annoyed at someone talking as I was trying to do something. Especially an important, detail-oriented task. But this time around, I was thankful for Kush’s words. He was actually explaining something to me using description instead of vague buzzwords. Amazing how much efficient training can be when one is told of how things are instead of feeling them out.
Kush continued, “Now that you have the feeling and the idea, make a circle using your gloved hand. Yeah, with your thumb and that next nearest finger, whatever it is called. Great. Focus. Channel that energy and see what you can gleam.”
I did as instructed and saw, to my delight, exactly what Chippy was talking about — rot.
And lots of it.
The tiny circle created from my fingers was like a window into the Under-Reality. Obviously, I could not see much. But what I did see was more than enough to make connections and to confirm that what Chippy was all worked up over did, in fact, exist; the rot, then, took the form of a mass of thin tendrils made of shadow. Drifting in some unseen current like droplets of blood in the water, the tendrils appeared to drift off endlessly in search of… something.
“What the hell is this shit?” I asked Kush in bewilderment.
“I am not one-hundred-percent sure, but I believe it is a Siphon incantation,” Kush replied.
“What’s that?” I asked as I continue to scan the shelves and wonder how deep these Siphons went.
“Siphons drain energy and life force from living creature. If the practitioner is skilled, it can also do… well, darker things. But I won’t get into that. A Siphon spell is not a spell that any self-respecting Caretaker would use. It is not forbidden, per se, but it is highly uncouth of one to use.”
“Why would one use this Siphon, then? And if Caretakers don’t use it, then who cast this?”
“Well, that is the question, ain’t it?”
~ ~
After uncovering the existence of Siphons, Kush asked Chippy a bunch of questions. Basic things, like when he noticed this first happening, how he, personally, felt, and what should be done in terms of practical terms. Once the questions were asked, some more technical questions were asked, and some paperwork filled out. Because I did not yet know the exact process and point of this paperwork — and because it, evidently — took some time to complete, Kush sent me off to other sections of the store to investigate if there were any other Siphons.
And, oh boy, there were. There was many Siphons. Dozens of them. If not hundreds.
After a while, however, I focused only on using my Delvendive and my concentration sparingly. A few places in each department. Enough to confirm that the whole store was littered with them. By the time I returned to Kush, I could see in my mental graph my power reserves had lowered, but my ‘tenacity’ — another line on the graph that I associated with overall function and efficiency — had risen. I figured this a positive development. But I was, in fact, tired. And, for real, being at my place of work made me ill even at the best of times. Let alone when strange life-draining spells are mucking shit up.
“Find anything?” both Chippy and Kush asked.
“Yeah. Whole store is filled to the brim with these Siphons. Every department has them. I would have counted, but I am running low on magick. I am getting real tired, Kush. Like, really tired.” I responded.
“As you freaking should be, with the number of Siphons here. Damn. Okay, Chippy. You can either stay with Marcus or come with me, but tomorrow, one of us will begin exploring other locations. Actually, Marcus! You can explore other locations after your shift,” Kush asked of me.
“How many? I have nine-hours tomorrow,” I answered.
“At least half-a-dozen stores, and maybe a few additional locations besides. Whatever makes sense and makes you look as inconspicuous as possible.”
“Oh, that is easy,” Felix said sarcastically. Especially for you, you lug. Lumbering around with all that ignorance like Santa’s sack of testicular crap.
Ah, Felix. I had missed his sardonic catchphrases. Or not catchphrases — and stay out of my head, Felix! — but jabs. Jibes. Whatever. But he was right. It would not be easy for me. A long shift followed by a tedious investigation process which would require me to find my way around a town in which very few areas were actually accessible to me because my worldview looked an awful lot like an art-project? Yeah, sure, easy…
There were a few shops, though, Marcus. That flower place, right? A police station. Bakery, Library. And I know there is a gym somewhere nearby. Not like you have to go too far.
Felix was again right about that, but still. I had never even been in that gym before. Not even when my life was normal. And the police station? After they fucking questioned me for a situation, I had NOTHING to do with? I wanted to stay far fucking away from that place was possible. Bad enough I had to go by it earlier today to get to the base. Even so, I knew my thoughts on this matter were moot. I had to do this for this organization that I somehow found myself in, so no use in complaining about it.
“If you think it is so difficult, Felix, why don’t you help?” Kush said, responding to the part of Felix’s words that he could actually hear aloud.
“Nah,” Felix replied. “I have other things to do and—”
“Actually, those things will have to wait. You are a part-time member of Full Time and you need to act like it. Marcus will investigate his own areas and you will do the same for a few more. Understood?”
Felix glared at Kush, but said, “Understood!” through gritted teeth.
Feeling a bit how I feel, eh, Felix?
Shut up, Mister-I-Have-a-Nine-Hour-Shift-Tomorrow.
~ ~
"Not to sound unprofessional, Kush, but are we done here? I would like to get out of this place,” I asked Kush.
“Almost. I just have a few places to look at myself. You can go outside, though, and wait for me. Before you head home, we have one more place to visit. But, yeah, I will be with you soon,” Kush said.
I switched away from my first-person view to Cosmic Mode. Now in that familiar wide-screen(like) side-scrolling perspective, I could more easily navigate my way out of the store. Doing so in first-person still gave me a bit of a headache. Frequency Triggers and the like made the situation a strain on my brain. In Cosmic Mode, the store was much easier to tell my body to move through.
Outside, I rested in the smoking lounge, a tiny, covered table next to the reserve cart pen. I watched as my body — my ‘avatar’ to use a video game term — sat down and chilled. I felt the wind on my face. There was something about looking at myself while still being myself that remained a profound violation to my sense. I was literally looking at myself as I would a character in a video game. But I was still that person sitting down. My disembodied viewpoint was merely an extra-dimensional view. I was still real. Such a dichotomy would still cause in me a terror if I thought about it too much. It was so… surreal. Trippy.
But as I watched myself and I felt the gentle breeze, taking deep breaths in and out, I felt much more at peace than I had been inside the store. Inside, I was hoped up on adrenaline and wonder, then using the magic gave me a focus to myself which helped me overcome the tiredness. It was a lot like how I felt at work — I push through and focus and put myself into my job fully; but then, I do not realize how much is being drained. And when I get home, subsequently, I feel like I can’t do anything other than drink or sleep.
I can feel your stress. Felix said. Your stress is stressing me out. Why are you stressed?
“I’m not going to respond to bullshit you already know, Felix,” I replied, wholly unsure why Felix would be under the impression that my life was anything other than a ball of stress waded up in more stress with a gooey center of stress.
Shouldn’t you be happy? Kush is being more direct with you. Right?
“I am happy he is being direct with me. His previous training style was simply bad. But now things feel real. Things feel… out of my control. Sure, same as it has ever been, right? But I dunno… I feel like things are moving. Things are becoming estranged, somehow.”
Big words. But… I agree. I am more attuned to the Under-Reality than yourself and I feel large disturbances. I felt it while imprisoned. And Marcus, let me tell you, it is not easy to ambush and then imprison a creature like me. Whoever kidnapped me and Kush knew what they were doing.
I was happy in that regard — Felix was taking my side, at least. Gave me an indication that my intuition wasn’t off. But that still left a lingering question, what can we do?
I don’t know what we can do. But I do know we need to take drastic action.
“Action, how?” I asked.
There are other Caretakers, Marcus. Caretakers who aren’t like Kush, here, who is barely past his own training. Those Caretakers are fully trained and are actually studying and researching aspects of the Under-Reality. We need their help. We need to involve them in this investigation. But Kush, I think, is reluctant to ask for their help.
“Why would he be reluctant?”
Because he is so new himself. He doesn’t want to appear weak. He knows he has to involve the others, but he needs a push. You can be that push, Marcus.
I thought over what Felix was saying, but my internal debate wasn’t long. In fact, it was barely a debate. It simply made sense.
“Absolutely. Should I just come out and ask?” I said.
No. Wait for the right time. We are heading to the Waystone, soon, the place where we made the pact, remember? That will be a good time if less-than-ideal results are found there.
I nodded and said that I would ask him. Now, in the surprisingly chilly air, I just waited for Kush and wondered if he could put his own insecurities aside for the greater good. I guess we will have to wait and see.
More waiting, though. Always waiting.
But I did not have to wait for long — a panting and out of breath man ran toward me. He grabbed my wrist and forced me to follow behind him.