image [https://64.media.tumblr.com/0ea063b4d93c2a0d2f44354100b16768/0488c95d508e9c3f-a3/s400x600/fc0629f0f4c01a63bcdde2b546fb3e47333f788e.pnj]

"Ohhh this is bad," Grand paced before me. "This is very bad."

I didn't really understand his panic. "You didn't anticipate this?"

"Of course I didn't-" he whipped around and snapped, pointing at me. "You saw this coming?"

"Yes?" I said with confusion. "This building is too diverse and humans tend to be the types to want everyone to agree with them, first and foremose."

The vote was essentially tied. There was a clear winner, but it was only by a handful of votes. Which meant, no matter what was chosen, everyone was going to be angry, because there was no clear majority. Three-hundred and eight people. That's how many there were in the building. And that's after calculating the two deaths.

Option 1: Control the Class selection for the greater good. 104 Votes Option 2: Let people choose, then recruit from outside. 97 Votes Option 3: Incentivize people with Coin. 107 Votes

The letter that was sent to everyone with the results of the vote after everything was counted up, made it clear that the difference was ten or less votes in each direction.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Grand said. "And why the vote to begin with?"

"People are petty and dumb in big numbers," I replied. "They want to focus on control. Giving them a vote makes them feel like they can control something." Then I got up and held out my hand. "Phone."

"Yeah, okay, but you're gonna explain, right?" he asked as he slapped it into my palm.

Since the vote was basically tied, with each category within ten votes of each other... I think we should combine the options to reflect the will of the people in the building.

We should take the absolutely essential roles, figure out how many we need and then only assign those individuals to choose the class that is essential for our survival. After which we can allow everyone to choose their class, but incentivize them to choose certain ones by offering a certain income for each job we'd have them doing.

After that, if we don't have everything we need, we go outside and recruit. But we still have people in the building who don't have access to the system, so that'd have to wait until we get everyone a familiar.

"Here," I said and handed it to him.

"Okay..." he began to read and then started pacing as he did so.

I sat back down and checked my menu. No messages from anyone, not the System or people or the Beings. Which is what everyone is calling them now, apparently. According to Toria, anyway.

"This," he stalked over to collapse beside me on the sofa. "Why didn't we just have them vote on this as an option?"

"It would've been the most obviously thought out and correct option," I said. "That makes people irritated and they would've chosen something else because they felt they were being 'railroaded'."

"So... we do it this way and they have to choose what we wanted the whole time?" he asked.

"They all chose every single option," I said. "We're choosing what they wanted. And now we'll make them aware they can combine their choices in the future. Which will force them to think. How can this and that go together?" I shrugged.

"So... they're gonna do all the thinkin' for us, in the future?" he asked. "But how do we decide which suggestions to take?"

"Another vote," I said. "Like a tournament. In this case, there's only one clear option. But in other situations, that won't be true."

"Yeah," he sighed and hit 'send'. "Now I just have to deal with people complaining that I made a unilateral decision."

"Hmmm," I sat back and folded my legs. "Let's wait and see."

My own phone vibrated with the receipt of the building-wide message. I read it over again just for something to do while we waited, and he'd changed a few words to make it less... clinical. It was his job and I was impressed he was still able to make it sound authoritative and knowledgeable.

"Ho-ho," he said and sat up straighter as he began to receive messages. "Half of these say 'finally, a decision' and now I'm getting some that are complaining, but it's like 'why didn't we come up with that before' and stuff... you're really good at this kind of thing."

There WOULD be ramifications and blowback...

"We should practice that skill now, right?" Grand asked. "Where is she?"

I sent a message to Toria that we were waiting for her. "Probably had to change, like the rest of us. Gear won't maintain itself." I'd had to change into regular clothes myself this morning at six a.m. but. Toria tended to wake up much later and not think very far ahead, besides.

“You’re still wearing yours,” he said.

“I wake early,” I replied. As soon as it was available again, of course I immediately put it back on. It was more protective than regular clothing and comfortable as well.

There was a tapping at the door.

“Come in!” Grant projected. “Probably fine to be loud now, right?”

As Toria walked in, I replied, “we shouldn’t throw any raves, but knocking and shouting is likely fine unless the front door says there are too many lurking beasts about.”

“So, we're practicing a skill?” Toria asked. “You said it wasn’t for fighting…”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Grand, this is Victoria Ephram,” I introduced. “She is also aware that our assistant positions are switched.”

“Ahhh a co-conspirator,” he said and popped up to put his hand out. “Morrigan Grand. I’m the public face. What are you in for?”

She shook his hand, making an indecisive noise. “I… don’t know. I was just there when she sent the message.”

“Toria’s class is versatile,” I said. “She’s a color mage. So she’ll be quite useful to the building. But for this, we need other people involved sometimes and involving only Toria and perhaps Mrs. Katz would be best. I’m not sure if Mrs. Katz knows I was BlissfulDreams first, or if she thinks I still am, but… we’ll clear it up when we need to. As for today… she’s going to talk.”

“Talk?” Grand asked.

“Yes, talk.” I replied. “She's going to have a conversation with you while I have the skill active and then she’ll tell us if the skill use is obvious and how so.”

“Uhhhh,” she stammered. “What do I talk to him about?”

“Something difficult,” I said and crossed my arms, settling deeper into the sofa. “Like a hard-hitting news journalist. But a bit less aggressive. You're scared and you want answers.”

“Okay, so uh,” She turned to look at him. “Why haven't we assigned more people to combat rules yet?”

That was a fine subject, though her acting could use some work.

I took the marble from my quick-slot that I had readied just this morning. Counting the votes took all night, last night. Or at least, most of it, as Grand promised me he was getting at least four hours of sleep, every night.

Phobos sat on the floor, near me. He immediately perked up, when he saw the marble and ate it eagerly when I tossed it in the air for him.

Grand and Toria stood awkwardly as this took place. Phobos rushed over to Grand, to stand behind him and then sat in a prim manner.

I got up from the couch and walked into Grand’s bedroom, closing the door behind me and kneeling on the floor to focus. Though, it would appear that merely closing my eyes would have been enough.

Phobos can't project what he sees, but there is a representation of it every time a noise is made. I can feel where they are both standing and where the edges of the room are.

“Well, the results have only just come out,” I muttered.

Grand gasped slightly as the words were whispered to him through Phobos. I was incredibly grateful that I had thought to practice before putting this skill to work.

Hvísla: The Whisper Sigil. This Sigil can be used to turn your familiar into a relay for whispers for a short amount of time. You can send any message, no matter how long or complicated, as long as it's within the fifteen-minute limit.

"Uhhh," he coughed and I could hear it all. "So, the vote was just finished and everything, not too long ago. You'll just have to wait to see who's been assigned as combat. If your name was up for consideration, I promise we saw it."

But I didn't hear Toria. I just heard Grand hemming and hawing after she presumably asked something. Oh, I could hear her voice through the door, of course... but I couldn't hear her through Phobos or make sense of what she said.

I got up and walked back in, "this isn't going to work if I'm not in the room. I can't hear through Grand, I can only hear what he says and respond to it. It's a walkie-talkie skill-"

"Well, there's the answer!" Grand said with excitement and ran off into his room, past me. Knocking shoulders slightly. "I got just the thing! I dunno if it still works, though."

“He seems real… enthused,” Toria observed.

“He doesn't have a familiar,” I replied. “But his position here is secured, regardless.”

Her eyes went wide and she shoved her hands into her pockets. She was wearing regular jeans and a glittery pink top.

“You need to wake up early, every other day, to get your things maintained,” I said. “At least for washing.”

“Hell no,” she responded. “I'm only going to wear my gear when I go out, now that the buildin’ is secured and all.”

It was a safe choice, considering the equip ability. She could just simply call the starter set’s name and wear it whenever she needed. it was me that was always paranoid someone was going to attack.

“I got it!” Grand was laughing a bit as he returned to us. “I asked the system, if it works. They sent me a text, sayin’ all the things we own should work like they used to. They just work different now.”

My codex pinged but after a cursory glance at the contents of the entry, I simply ignored it. It was just the same information repeated. We'd discovered that the system still responds to inquiries from those without Familiars just yesterday, apparently, but I only found out through the codex entry this morning.

They still needed a phone for it, though.

I catch a glance of my new ranking as Grand puts the earbud in his right ear, the side of his head where the hair is slightly longer.

“Okay, let's try again,” Grand said.

I went back into his room and tried again.

This time, I could hear what Toria was saying, as long as I held my phone to my ear. And it was ingenious. People would maybe hear me talking on his earpiece if they had sharp hearing, but the spell negated that risk by ‘whispering’ it directly to him. If I just silenced my end, I could hear and then ‘whisper’ to him the answers. If people noticed me talking, they'd see the phone and likely just ignore me, unless they were nosy.

And if the spell ended, I could just simply unmute myself and say ‘Flector’ to get Grand to drop one behind him for Phobos to eat to extend the time.

That was the proper name for the Marbles. Flectors. Apparently from ‘Reflector’ as the Marbles show the purest form of your magic and therefore ‘reflect’ you.

I was pretty sure the System was like a living organism that’d only been alive for a few days. Like an infant. Maybe, over time, they’d help us advocate for better things with the Beings, but for right now…?

Glancing at my ranking again, I wondered how many points it took to get to C, since the system said from F to D was 200. How funny that we all ranked up because Derek abandoned the party. If he'd been there to get points with us, we never would have known how close we were to D rank.

Everything was so hectic yesterday, nobody in the party even got to enjoy seeing their rank up notification. I just ended the party as soon as we arrived in the building and we all basically just sighed at the results. Maybe with relief, exasperation or even happiness. But there was no jumping or screaming or even high-fives.

We just went to bed.

“Seems like everything is ready,” Grand said. “I got the flectors and my earpiece…"

"Now all you need," I said. "Is for the people in this building to all be reasonable enough to agree that the outcome of the vote and the combination of the options is perfectly logical."

His expression dropped.

Toria sighed, "I'm sure everyone can agree that they're glad the vote is at least over with. Maybe start with that."