Come on out, you wascally waccoon.

The trash bin jumped up and down, lid flapping like a cartoon mouth. With every bounce, it exhaled a scent of moldy vegetable scraps. I moved to open it… and leaped back, startled, as a sudden car horn blared from the freeway above. It was joined by a chorus of others that eventually faded into the normal rumble of late-night vehicle traffic.

Fucking A. Two-thirty in the morning and they’re honking like it’s rush hour in Midtown Manhattan. No wonder this apartment was so cheap.

I flipped the lid of the garbage can and caught the raccoon, its paws held up in surrender. In one hand, it still held a half-eaten chicken leg.

“Uhh,” said the raccoon. “This isn’t what it looks like?”

I leveled my pellet gun at the creature. “Gotcha now, you little asshole.”

“Hey! C’mon, it’s me!” the raccoon pleaded. “You know me.”

The rifle shook in my hand. Why did its voice sound so familiar? I moved to set the gun aside, but a hand gripped it. My father stood next to me. “Do things in the way they should be done. Don’t do things halfway,” he sneered, “like you always did with your life.” I tried to let go of the trigger, but his weathered finger gripped mine tightly and forced it down.

----------------------------------------

(Strive 5:1)

Bang!

I gasped, bolting up amid fluffy white sheets. A dream. It was just a dream. My heart hammered in my chest, and I looked down at El’s sleeping form, sprawled out at the foot of the bed like an overfed guard dog.

I crawled over to her and put my arms around her coarse fur. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She murmured in her sleep and a tiny paw pushed me away.

I got out of bed, rubbing cobwebs from my eyes. The portal from the fourth floor had deposited us here, in a plush hotel room with all the amenities we could’ve asked for: well-stocked minibar, coffee machine, and even a jacuzzi. We’d made good use of the showers, and I changed into one of the provided bathrobes. After that, even the combined aches and pains of all our injuries together couldn’t prevent us from passing out.

My stomach rumbled, and I limped over to the minibar to examine its contents. There were a few wafers my udjat identified as Health Bars, a suspicious jug of liquid labeled Loose Juice, and a dish chock full of button-shaped chewables called Tastes of the Rainbow.

I stuffed a turmeric-flavored health bar in my mouth and felt something twist inside my chest with a disconcerting pop. As I pressed my hand where the broken rib had been, only a bit of soreness remained. Should’ve done that before sleeping, I chided myself.

The Taste of the Rainbow was an overwhelming sensory experience. It was sweet, fresh, hot, and sour, like the taste bud equivalent of a seizure, or a really authentic Thai restaurant. That mixture of sensations began to trickle down my throat into the rest of my body, and I felt tears, sweat, and shivers come on all at once.

Flavor Town, baby. Population: me.

You feel strong! You feel agile! You feel magical!

Mostly, I felt like the roof of my mouth had been burned clean off. With a grimace, I pocketed half of the candies in the bowl, leaving the other half for El. The benefits were too good to pass up, so it was going to have to be an acquired taste.

In the other corner of the minibar, the Loose Juice beckoned, but jars of radioactive-looking fluid were over the line for me. Maybe I’ll test it on an enemy, I reasoned, stowing it in my inventory as I stepped outside the hotel room.

Our room stood at one side of a museum-like foyer with high ceilings. I hadn’t had the energy to look before, but I did now. The centerpiece of the room was a glass display that held a miniature tower girdled by three sets of rings. Thin wires of various colors secured the tower to the glass at various points.

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Model of Strive, not to scale, my contact told me.

I waited, but no more information was forthcoming. Irritated, I flicked a gesture of examination at a white strand of wire attached to the tower’s midpoint, and more text illuminated my udjat.

Colored threads indicate external connections from tower.

White — Bidirectional

Blue — Outbound only

Red — Inbound only

I remembered the high-flying bridges I’d seen from the schoolhouse window, and suddenly shivered. The blue threads were worrying. What if I stepped through one and was unable to return? Would I be aware if I had? What were the other towers like? So many questions, and this place didn’t seem keen on feeding me the answers. I popped another Taste of the Rainbow in my mouth and grimaced. It didn’t get any easier, that was for sure.

The door to our room cracked open and El padded over. “Find anything?” she yawned. “Why are you making a face like you gotta take a dump real bad?”

I flipped her a rainbow candy as the triple stat boost scrolled onto my display. “See for yourself.”

The raccoon spat it out almost as soon as it touched her mouth. Her whiskers twitched in distaste. “The fuck.”

“Goddammit, El. You’re going to get left behind at this rate.” I had a sudden mental image of waves of monsters swarming and devouring her, leaving only a bare skeleton. “Take your medicine.”

“I’ll manage.” She trotted to the wall and climbed up to another shelf, where a totem pole with three horizontal stripes stood. Sniffing at the art piece, she said, “Help me with something, would you?”

“What?”

“I need you to break that glass for me.” She pointed at the display case the tower model sat in.

I sighed and summoned a red aura, striking the glass hard with my elbow. It shattered, and for a moment, I had the ridiculous notion that alarms would go off and Hilbert would come running, booting us out into the wasteland between the towers. Apologies, he’d say. That’s our procedure here, before slamming the door shut in our faces, and shadowy legions dragged us to hell.

Nothing like that happened. El picked her way through shards of glass and leaped onto the podium where the model tower stood. She grabbed one of its floating rings and tried to yank it out, but it was stuck fast. Muttering, she made a sequence of hand signs, and the word Pickpocket spelled itself out on her kada.

Now, when she tagged the first ring with a glowing palm, it winked out of existence into her inventory.

She repeated this twice more, then returned to the totem. I stood by in fascinated silence as she summoned the rings back and looped them over the pole, with the largest at the bottom and smallest on top.

Clack! A woodblock sound rang out as the totem sank into the shelf, and two hand-sized slots appeared in its place. Golden text appeared on my display, reading: Select one reward.

“I’m a fucking genius,” said El.

“Wow.” I hadn’t even realized it was a puzzle. “Do you want to do the honors, then?”

She rubbed her hands together. “Don’t mind if I do.” Leaping up to the first slot, she placed her kada hand into it. There was a long moment of silence, and she pulled it out. Her whiskers twitched in displeasure. “Useless,” she said.

I tried the left slot myself, and a display appeared.

Aetherphone, a gestural musical instrument.

This skill does not consume an Aspect slot.

Download (Y/N)?

I raised an eyebrow. Just for good measure, I checked the other one as well.

Airbrush, a gestural painting tool.

This skill does not consume an Aspect slot.

Download (Y/N)?

Without a second thought, I returned to the first slot and extended my thumb and pinky finger. The slot glowed, locking me in.

Downloading…

Download complete.

You’ve unlocked a new ability: Aetherphone.

Energy consumption: Negligible

The slot released me, and I pulled out the slightly-warm kada bracelet.

“That was quick,” El commented.

“Ten years of piano lessons, you better believe I’m picking that one.”

It took a while for me to twist my fingers through the long invocation. As I completed it, the word Aetherphone flashed once on my bracelet before remaining lit.

Suddenly, a piercing wail rang out from my kada, and I clapped my hands to my ears before realizing that only brought the sound source closer. El was yelling at me, but I couldn’t hear her over the screech of my bracelet. It sounded like a dying cat amplified through stadium speakers.

A tiny legend had appeared in the corner of my display.

Open/close hand to control volume.

Hand position controls frequency.

Sign X to cancel.

I frantically curled my finger and the sound died away, echoes slowly fading in the reverberant space.

El lowered her paws from her ears. “I made up my mind,” she said. “I’m picking the other one.”