19:57. Saturday, November 18th, 2023. Midport, New England.
Two women sat in a dimly lit restaurant. One girl wore a wrinkly white button up shirt, sloppily tucked into black pants, and a black tie in a very loose windsor knot. Her auburn hair was a tad greasy. It was 8pm but she was currently drinking an espresso. Her back was straight, her legs were crossed, with the bottom leg bouncing rapidly under the table. Her name was Alexis, some of her friends called her Lex.
Her date, Dana, wore a red dress with a slit down the side, had jet black hair, and a single piercing on her bottom lip. She held a glass of red wine in one hand, and leaned her head on her other.
Shakily, Alexis took advantage of a momentary pause in the conversation to speak.
“This date is going well! I can’t believe you really get to make video games. That is so cool, like really cool. Even if you said you only help model the environments,” Alexis said. Fuck I can’t believe I just said ‘This date is going well’. I am totally out of my depth here. At least bringing up what she mentioned at the beginning will show I was paying attention.
“I told you it isn’t really a big deal--” Said Dana.
“I know, I know,” Alexis cut in.
Dana continued, “--But it has its perks sometimes. I got to work on Blade Fighter C. Those games were everything to me when I was a kid.”
“I love RPGs, old school turn-based ones were more my style.” That isn’t a lie right? I mean I liked adventure games a lot more, especially mystery ones. I really liked Puzzle Knight because instead of regular turn-based combat, you got to play all sorts of minigames. So if she asks me what RPGs I liked when I was a kid, I will probably say that.
“Actually, Blade Fighter didn’t always have a real time combat system. They came out before our time but the first three Blade Fighters were turn-based.”
“Oh, cool!” Said Alexis. Great contribution Lex. A+.
“Yeah, they updated the combat system when they made the switch to 3D. Older developers are still nostalgic for it so they liked that I said that Blade Fighter C: Deluxe was my favorite during my interview,” Dana said.
“Wait, wait, which one was that?” Alexis asked.
“The second one. I had actually just beaten it the weekend before. The ending really stuck with me,” Dana said.
“Huh, wow,” Alexis said. Shit. Where do we even go from here?
There was a brief pause.
“If you like turn-based games, you might like it,” Dana said.
Wait, wouldn’t I need to play the first game before I play the second? What kind of franchise is this!? Ugh, but if I ask that I will probably sound dumb. It would probably be weird to just come clean, and say I don’t like turn-based JRPGs that much, so I will just give a different reason. That way she won’t be disappointed when I don't end up trying it later. Assuming she even sees me after this.
“Oh I don’t have time to play games anymore, I tend to hyper-focus on them and it starts to affect my job,” Alexis said. Great! And it was all true, honestly a great addition to conversation overall.
“Ha, here I am talking all about my interests and my career, and I don’t even know what you do for a living,” Dana said.
I take it all back! Bad addition to the conversation! Bad addition!
Alexis took a second before continuing. How to even proceed? On my profile I just put “civil servant”. I am not gonna try the “top secret” line because the last girl just thought I was a fucking fed. Guess I’ll be real with her.
"Trust me, you like, really don't want to hear about it. I work as a bureaucrat, if the pay wasn’t good I'd have blown my brains out," Alexis said. Fuck, way too real, way too fast! Not to mention way dark! What if that is a sensitive issue for her!?
But before she could apologize, Dana started to talk.
"All night you have heard me talk about myself. Before dinner you heard me talk about my job, then during dinner you let me talk about my sisters, and you just heard about my favorite video games. So I say let's hear it, " Dana said. Oh man, not really leaving me any choice is she??
There was a brief moment of silence as Alexis contemplated how to respond. Dana began to nonchalantly pour herself a glass of water, and sat back a little in her chair.
“Okay, fine. Fine you win--” Alexis said.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“Always do,” Dana said. She took a sip of water.
“I’ll tell you about my job,” Alexis said.
She hesitated. Where to even begin? Do I start with the legislation or the actual job itself? Guess if she knows about the legislation that would make this easier.
“Okay, do you follow state politics at all?” Alexis asked.
“Sure,” Dana responded.
“Do you know about SB--Sorry--Senate Bill 4?” Alexis asked. Even if she said she follows politics I should try to avoid using shorthand.
“No. What is it?” Dana replied.
“It was the Psychic Rights Act that passed five years ago,” Alexis said. Officially SB-4 was ‘An Act Concerning the Regulation of Telekinetic Labor, Violence, and Discrimination’ but the media wouldn’t stop calling it the Psychic Rights Act. If she has heard of it at all, she probably heard it called it by that name.
“So you are a psychic rights activist?” Dana asked.
“Oh, no. No, I’m not even close,“ Alexis hastily clarified. Psychics have too many rights as is.
“Then what?” Dana asked.
“Well a smaller provision of that bill allowed local towns to create a Telekinetic Affairs Commission. And I work for one of those,” Alexis said.
“What do they do?” Dana asked.
“They exist to give oversight and enforce some existing laws. If you are caught abusing your psychic powers, or like, not letting a psychic into your restaurant, they can issue you a fine, grant, or take away your license to use your powers,” Alexis explained.
“Okay, but what do you do?” Dana asked.
“Usually? I take minutes at the monthly meeting. Occasionally I have to send an email. And even rarer than that I help someone file their application to appeal to the commission. But really, the commission doesn’t do much, so I don’t do much,” Alexis said.
They both sat there in relative silence. Afterwards, Dana finally responded.
“I don’t think I have ever met such a huge hypocrite,” Dana said.
What!? Fuck, did I say something rude early? I think I was too blasé about not being a psychic rights activist earlier.
“How, um, how do you figure?” Alexis asked.
“You go on about how cool and interesting my job seems, and all I do is make trees that take forever to render. Meanwhile you work with actual god damn psychics and manage to make it sound like you would rather be doing anything else,” Dana said.
“Yeah but you actually make something. My job is to tell a kid why they aren’t allowed to fly at night because their powers are technically regulated as an ultralight aircraft,” Alexis shot back. Fuck, why am I even arguing with her?
“I can’t figure you out, your profile said you were a progressive but you distanced yourself from psychic rights when I brought it up, and now you are complaining that they are under too much scrutiny. So what is it? What is your stance?” Dana asked.
“I… I am a progressive. It is just hard to explain. I think psychics get it way easier than they should.” I really hope she doesn’t ask me why. “And big companies get away with hiring them for PR reasons when in reality all they want to do is exploit their labor. Meanwhile regular people have to actually prove themselves even when they are being hired for the same job. It… It isn’t fair,” Alexis said.
“I don’t think I have ever met an anti-psychic progressive before,” Dana said.
“I am not an anti-psychic! Just… Just you know, skeptical. Overall I think the Psychic Rights Act was a step in the right direction, not just because I have a job because of it,” Alexis said.
“Well maybe you should just be happy being a part of that step,” Dana said.
“I guess…” Alexis said.
----------------------------------------
20:43. That night. Alexis’s Condo, Harmon, New England.
Eventually the conversation had moved on and Alexis had dropped Dana back at her house. Once Alexis got back to her condo, she put her keys on the railing, undid her tie, and crashed on the couch.
You know I think that I should have been honest with her. She probably thought I was a bigot or something because of how weird my stance was. If I just told her the truth then it might have gone worse. She was out of my league anyway so it probably might not have been the conversation about my job that did it.
She turned on her TV and put on some anime to distract herself. Still, the conversation from earlier in the night kept replaying in her mind.
It isn’t that weird, for a progressive to be against psychics, which I am not! Ten years ago when they were revealed to the world, every kid wished as hard as they could that they could be one of the ones who awaken their dormant powers so that nobody could ever bully them again. But what nobody wants to talk or even think about the ones who got their wish. All the pain and hurt that these powers can bring the loved ones of a psychic.
She pulled out her wallet, which was attached to her dress pants by a chain. She opened it up to look at something.
Not to mention all the psychics that use their powers as shortcuts and cheats. How many pro athletes were actually cheating with their powers. Some people even had the nerve to say they should be allowed to compete, as if that doesn’t ruin the whole point of the competition. Not that I even watch sports, but still.
She begins to yawn, as it is very late.
And I barely even touched all the corporations who take advantage of psychics in my conversation earlier. If it wasn’t for the labor regulations in SB-66 corporations would just hire only psychics if they could. Now that psychics have to get relevant licenses if they want to use their powers in place of heavy machinery, the rate of hiring has plateaued, but still how many workplace accidents have I seen where a cocky psychic had their powers go haywire. It just… It just isn’t fair…
These thoughts swirling in her brain, she eventually fell asleep on the couch, lights and TV left on. As she slept, she stirred a bit and her wallet fell. However, due to the length of the chain, it simply dangled at the side of the couch, its contents spilled on the ground. This included her photo ID, some business cards, and a license. A license which marked her as a low-level psychic.