Fuzzy, Sasha, Kenji and Marco - Saturday, August 11th 2074 - Evening - Ares Macrotechnology Arcology

"So you're the supposed expert with the plan," said Sasha, sarcastically, "What do you think, Kenji?

Fuzzy chewed her sandwich and thought about Julie crying in the bathroom. She wasn't sure if she was glad she asked Kenji to talk to Julie but she was glad that Julie had someone right now. Fuzzy didn't know anything about Marco but he seemed okay from the brief time that they met.

"Me?" asked Kenji, "I'm going to do what I promised."

"Which is?" needled Sasha.

"Instead of keeping a lid on this, which was never possible, I do damage control," explained Kenji, "And I keep working on getting Julie hooked up into a community outside of Blake Island so she has something to make her happy because her life at school is going to suck. I can only do so much about perception. I'm not self-absorbed enough to think of myself as some puppet master. Nothing about what I'm doing right now has changed much except for what I'm planning to say.”

There was a slight pause before Marco interjected.

"I was introducing her to one of the communities in the Ork Underground," said Marco, "One that I work very closely with. Kenji asked me for my help in introducing her to the ork and troll community and there are some support groups I can link her up with as well. I think it's smart because most of these corp kids can be especially vicious to anyone perceived as not like them or weak.”

Fuzzy looked to Sasha. Sasha looked angry for a moment before she loudly cleared her throat.

"Except for you, Sasha," said Kenji.

"Right. Sorry," said Marco, ashamed.

"Uh...Sure," said Sasha, awkwardly, "I'm um...Real cooool. Real nice too. That's me."

"Anyway, you know my plan," said Kenji, "Make enough friends and connections so they'll advocate for us to stay while others try to make us go. I'll see if I can coax Julie out of the bathroom.”

Kenji's avatar cut out and now it was just Marco, Fuzzy and Sasha.

"So either of you two think it's messed up that Kenji is some sort of social mercenary?" asked Marco.

"Yeah," said Sasha, "At least he's useful. Are both of them with you?"

"Julie is with me at the EVO corporate enclave," said Marco, "She'd been speaking to Kenji because he was the first to break the news to her and so he just showed up. So he's in my apartment right now. He's actually being very sweet to her. I have to keep reminding myself that he's not being nice to her because he likes her but because he's getting paid to be nice."

"Standard corporate bullshit, yeah, yeah yeah," said Sasha, dismissively, "Nothing new."

Marco sighed on his end.

"I'd hoped for some selflessness," said Marco, "But I'll take what I can get."

Fuzzy finished the last of her sandwich, swallowed and decided to speak up.

"He did that to me," said Fuzzy, "Though I got the better of him."

"What?" asked Sasha.

"He talks to people for favors and nuyen," said Fuzzy, "But he paid me the first time. I think it's so he could show me what he could do."

Sasha's mouth made a thin line, but she stayed quiet.

"I think we all know who and what he is," said Marco, "I asked to take on Julie's debt and he was happy to take that offer so long as it gets paid. I’ll try to keep him from talking Julie into anything more. I don't think she's in the right state of mind to be making these sorts of choices."

"That's really noble of you, Marco," said Sasha.

"Yeah, well, I don't think he'll forgive my debt easily like I forgive my debtors," he said, piously, "He bumped up the debt because I told him I wouldn't do anything immoral or illegal, so I definitely owe him. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"I mean, why bargain with him?" asked Fuzzy, “He doesn’t really sound like a great person.”

"Fuzzy, I took on Julie’s debt. That means something to me," said Marco, with a sniff, "Those aren't just words I said. I believe that debts should be paid so I'm going to pay up. Besides, he's useful and he saw this coming. I'd like him to continue that trend if he can. Let's move on."

"Okay,” said Fuzzy, undisturbed.

"So...Revenge?" asked Sasha.

"I like revenge," said Fuzzy, "I can beat up Christina. It wouldn’t be hard. She looks fat and slow. And even though she really hurt Julie, she let everyone know that I'm not one of...Uh...You."

"We're not going to beat people up," said Marco, "Not only is it not right, she's also a corporate princess and that is just begging for trouble."

"What, like an actual princess?" asked Fuzzy, "Like from the stories?"

"Ah, no," said Marco, "Unless you're one of the two visiting students from Tir Tairngire. I believe they're both nobles since their country has a monarchy."

"Tir Tairngire is just Oregon," said Sasha, dismissively, "And their elf supremacist nation is bullshit. You know that we have two noble students from there?"

Marco sighed on his end.

"I'm aware," he said, moodily, "New freshmen. Joyce Sartel and Krupa Patel. They're replacing the other two nobles who graduated as seniors. And I've been at the island long enough that I knew that there were two before them as well. Always a boy and a girl."

"Creepy," said Sasha, irritably.

"So no, Fuzzy," said Marco, "Only two of them are actual nobles. But most of the rest of the students on the island are corporate. Legally they don't have any noble titles because Seattle is not a monarchy like Tir. But their money affords them a lot of privileges. They don't enjoy them at school but they do basically everywhere else which is why a lot of people refer to them as corporate princes and princesses."

"So...Not like from the stories," said Fuzzy.

"No," said Marco, "I thought you hitting Kenji was one of the gutsiest things I've ever seen until I realized you didn't have money and influence enough to ruin one another. You can talk trash and hurt the corporate nobility that's not actually nobility with secrets and gamesmanship, but if it gets physical it gets bad really quickly."

"How bad?" asked Fuzzy.

"If you physically harmed any of them then you'd regret it for the rest of your life," said Marco, "However long that may be, which might be greatly shortened depending on their mood. Me being huge and strong means something in the moment, but that moment passes once they run to safety. The shame pole isn't just there to publicly shame the students. It's not just there to curb the behavior of the worst of them. It's to make sure an altercation doesn't spiral into a private war between corporate elite that gets people literally killed over some petty high school dispute. It's there to protect us. It's a social release and a good one."

Fuzzy really didn’t understand. She just sighed.

"Okay, so I don't beat her up," groused Fuzzy.

"Good," said Marco, "It's just a bad idea."

Kenji's avatar reappeared as Fuzzy finished off her food. Seconds later Julie's avatar appeared and the sniffling started immediately.

"C'mere Julie. Bring it in," said Marco.

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"Yeah, so how about a response?" asked Sasha.

"My rates are very reasonable," said Kenji.

"Yeah...That's just going to be a big no," said Sasha.

"Suit yourself. Consulting is free though," he said, his tone all business, "Go dig up what you can on her. If you find anything juicy then hold it over her head. Or don't. Whatever."

"That's obvious, Kenji," said Sasha, who rolled her eyes so hard it was plain in her voice.

"Free. Consultation," said Kenji, slowly.

"I hate her..." said Julie.

"Shhh..." said Marco.

"So which gang is Christina with?" asked Fuzzy.

"Corporation," said Sasha, and then with venom in her voice, "She's with Lone Star."

"The Star?" asked Marco, "Well, I never paid much attention to her. I thought they lost the Seattle police contract."

"Oh yeah, in a big way,” explained Sasha, “They lost hundreds of millions of nuyen each year to Ares Knight-Errant when they lost that contract. It was a huge blow to them. They still guard the prisons and they’re supposed to patrol the barrens, but they barely do that. Beyond that they mostly do private security and still try to wrestle the contract back from Knight-Errant every chance they get. Good riddance though. Lone Star was full of incompetent, violent racists. You know those old timey sheriff stars they wear? Well they bend the corners whenever they kill someone. And you can literally tell how crooked and awful they are just by looking at their stars."

There was a slight pause.

"I didn't know that," said Marco, gently.

"And things are better with Ares' Knight-Errant police force," said Sasha, "We're on a yearly contract with the city. I think the government likes the threat of competition. Low costs and high performance. It looks great come budget review, especially with elections coming up next year. They lost it after they screwed up with the Mayan Cutter serial killer and when they couldn't stop the tempo rings."

"What's tempo?" asked Fuzzy.

"It was a party drug about four years ago," said Sasha, "It was kind of like deepweed in that it opened astral perception, even for the unawakened. A bit like ecstasy. Euphoria, increased empathy, but your vision to the astral gets jammed open. A ton of people got addicted and it turned out to be pretty harmful. It killed tens of thousands in people just here in Seattle."

"You sure know a lot," said Marco.

"My dad is a cop," said Sasha, "And he helped bust the tempo rings. This is dinner table talk. Mom doesn't like it, but she doesn't stop it. Anyway, it might take me some time but I can maybe sweet talk my dad into handing me some files on Christina. Corp kids are supposed to mess with rival corps after all."

"You're a real Samaritan," said Marco, dryly.

Julie managed a half chuckle half hiccup beyond the sniffles.

"Whatever it takes, I want to get her back," said Julie, angrily.

"Yeah, she's awful," said Fuzzy, "Payback sounds right. I might've lost Sasha as a friend. What did she even say about me?"

"Later," said Sasha, gently, and then she whispered, "And no, you're my friend."

Sasha leaned over her bed, squeezed Fuzzy's shoulder again and smiled shyly. Fuzzy felt warm inside, the sight of which made Sasha smile. Fuzzy thought that maybe Sasha seeing her emotions wasn’t that bad.

"I'll...See all of you on Monday...I hope," said Julie.

Her avatar disappeared.

"I’m going to head out. See you two later," said Marco.

There was the hollow sound of headphones bumping against something. He hadn't immediately switched his commlink off and so they caught a snippet of conversation with Kenji.

"You know, you didn't have to take us both out to the Big Rhino, Kenji," said Marco's muffled voice, "I can certainly afford it. I know it was only brunch, but..."

Marco's avatar disappeared. Sasha quirked an eyebrow and smiled knowingly. Kenji muted his microphone for a few seconds before he came back.

"The Big Rhino?" asked Sasha, "Really? Best ork and troll cuisine in the metroplex? You're really trying to win some big points, aren't you?"

"Maybe I'm in the mood for soul food," said Kenji, "Plus I'm an elf and getting access to the ork underground isn't exactly safe for me outside of the tourist spots. It's an access point and I could go down with them so long as Marco and Julie are there and so long as I don't go too deep. They got a whole ork and troll city down there in the old Seattle underground. It's pretty cool. Take the tour sometime."

"I have, but I might again," said Sasha.

There was a pause before Kenji spoke up again. They heard muffled footsteps so it sounded like he'd walked away from Julie and Marco.

"So this isn't so bad for me or Fuzzy," said Kenji, "But Julie...Well...You read her criminal record, right Sasha?"

Sasha squirmed uncomfortably.

"Did she really kill her dad?" asked Sasha, quietly.

Fuzzy's eyes opened wide in shock.

"She killed her dad?" asked Fuzzy, mouth open.

"Self-defense," said Kenji, with a sigh, "He tried to strangle her to death in her hospital bed while she was goblinizing. It's pretty fucked up. She spontaneously cast an entropy spell in self-defense. It rotted his heart in his chest. He just fell on her, dead. The mage on duty at the hospital confirmed it was a spontaneous cast, so she didn't know it before hand."

"That's fucked uuuuup," said Sasha, in awe, "Wait, she spontaneously cast it? Like without knowing how to cast it?"

Fuzzy tilted her head in confusion.

"What does that mean?" asked Fuzzy.

"You learn spells by learning spell formula," said Sasha, "We'll be doing that soon at school. It takes days or even weeks. It's really, really boring."

"Unless you're me," said Kenji, "Adept magic rules. We pick up shit fast."

"Asshole," sighed Sasha, "Aynway, in really rare, really fucked up circumstances, you can spontaneously cast a spell without knowing how. It's different than randomly casting spells when you first come into your magic. I turned invisible once because I was so embarrassed. Couldn't tell you how I did it, but I did. Can't do it again. But spontaneous spells are how the first awakened learned how to cast spells. Really fucked up things happened to them and they healed a dying loved one or turned invisible to keep from getting ripped apart by a lynch mob or in this case, literally rotted someone's heart from the inside because they were trying to murder her."

"Real shit," said Kenji, "So like...Anyone who knows anything knows that she was defending herself. And then she didn't defend herself legally and went to prison. Julian finds her a year later, pulls her out and I guess he hopes that this all works out somehow."

"I dunno," said Sasha, "Maybe it does. They might all be corp princess and princesses, but barely any of the parents give a shit. Blake Island is a boarding school. Sure isolation and contemplation increase your magic, but having your kids away from the apartment means they can't get into trouble and the parents don't even have to pretend that they're all cheat on each other with the help. And if you know anything about how being awakened works, this is clear self-defense. She knows a deadly spell and you're not supposed to know lethal spells at school, but a lot of students know one anyway and spirits are always potentially lethal."

"Yeah," said Kenji, "I figure I'd just make friends among the students, get people to make noise for Julie against the people who want her gone, let the adults in the room react on her behalf and then apathy wins the day."

Sasha was silent for a few seconds.

"Which you're doing to me right now," said Sasha, irritably, "And Marco."

"Yep," said Kenji shamelessly.

Sasha seemed supremely annoyed.

"Okay, sure, whatever," sighed Sasha, "I'll help. Not for you, but because it's fucked up what happened to Julie. I don't really know her, but...Fine."

"You and Marco convince your friends and family to drown out the loudest people," said Kenji, "Actually getting parents involved is key because from what I can tell, most parents don't actually get involved or even give a shit."

Sasha sighed and nodded, though to herself since Kenji couldn't see her.

"Yeah, you're not wrong," said Sasha, "Boarding school is a dumping ground for the awakened children of the elite because it means that they're not getting in the way of their parents while they try and push stock prices up another quarter point. All of them have an army of lawyers and concierges and fixers, but I speak from experience when I say that most of the parents are too busy to care, if they even care at all. So if even a handful of parents get involved on our end and it's just lawyers on theirs, nothing happens. The teachers explain the situation, how spontaneous casting works and we find a new normal."

"Nothing happens," said Kenji, cheerfully, "Well, nothing happens to Julie. I get paid, of course, for buying time for everyone else to figure this out."

"I'm rolling my eyes right now," said Sasha, irritably, "At you. I'm not paying you by the way. Fuck you."

Fuzzy and Sasha could almost hear Kenji smile over the comm despite the fact that it was audio only.

"You two doing the whole sleepover thing?" asked Kenji.

"Yeah," said Fuzzy, cheerily, "I had dinner with her mom and dad. We had porks."

"Sleeping in the same room, huh?" asked Kenji, "Just gals being pals."

Sasha flushed with embarrassment and lifted her hand to end the call.

"Soooo...Sasha," said Kenji, teasingly, "What're you weari-"

The hand command that Sasha made sliced wildly through the air, cutting his question short and reverting the trideo tank bank to its fish tank screensaver. She took a few moments to calm herself, but when she turned to Fuzzy, the flush on her face had migrated to her ears and neck as well.

"What an asshole," she fumed, "Son of a bitch. I can almost hear him laughing and he probably figured I'd get involved. Uggggh."

Sasha, who'd stood up and was breathing hard in her anger, couldn't look at Fuzzy. Then she took in a deep breath and let it out slow.

"I am going to pig out on ice cream," she said, her words almost a mantra, "And in the morning, I'm going to talk to my mom and dad about Julie. I mean, I don't even really know Julie."

"She shouldn't be punished for defending herself," said Fuzzy.

Sasha nodded fiercely and there was a minute of silence as Sasha calmed herself, but eventually, Fuzzy broke the silence.

"Ice cream?" asked Fuzzy, "Is that like a smoothie?"

Sasha's eyes lit up in delight.

"You don't know what...Oh, it's so, so much better than a smoothie," said Sasha, excitedly, "You don't even know. We're going to some super ritzy is cream shop where they artisanally torture each scoop of chocolate or some shit. And we're going to do it in our pajamas, because if no one can tell me what to do, that means a midnight pajama ice cream pig out session."

"That sounds...Good?" asked Fuzzy, "We're hunting in the morning though. If we stay up too much longer we're going to regret it.

Sasha laughed and put on her pink bunny slippers. And Fuzzy got up from the pullout bed and put on some normal, grey slippers.

"It'll be fine," said Sasha, "Okay, Kenji-wise, so maybe he didn't grab your butt, but he's still a pervert. It’s nice to see that I don't have to revise my opinion of him too much."

They both headed out the door together, but before they did, Fuzzy had a question.

"Ummm..." said Fuzzy, uncertainly.

"What?" asked Sasha.

"What does pervert mean?” asked Fuzzy, “I don’t know that word."

---

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