Of Powers and Positivity

The walk to the library was, thankfully, uneventful after the quick pace of John’s morning so far. As The Gamer pondered his objectives, he arrived at his destination: the Ashcroft Library. There was almost a feeling of safety as he entered the library; Frank would never be caught dead around so many books.

With the help of some Google-fu, John had located the chemistry reference book he’d been looking for quite quickly, moving his quest completion to sixty-six percent. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to find anything that would complete it. He’d tried additional chemistry references, physics books, even history and philosophy books, yet still nothing would stick. The requirement was frustratingly non-specific.

’Come on, Dewey, don’t let me down now,’ he thought, putting back a historical account of medieval alchemy. ’Used more than half my time already… what the hell do I need?’

With other options expended and time running out in the break period, John resolved that he should just ask the front desk of the library for help. It involved talking to someone, which was always a downside, but he saw no other way to proceed.

Not a minute later, he found himself passing the final row of bookshelves as the front desk came into view. Behind the desk was a woman he’d only seen once, but who was instantly recognizable to him. John may have been awful with names and faces, but he had a great memory for pretty women.

She was lost in a book, it seemed, not noticing his approach. Her skin was nearly alabaster; John thought it looked good. Her long, blonde hair, which had been let down in the morning, was now pulled up in twintails and draped down behind her. Her face seemed to be composed mainly of rough angles, in stark contrast to the gentle smile on her lips. His view from a distance that morning hadn’t done her justice at all.

’It’s that lady from the gas station again…’ he thought with a frown. ’Uh… What was her name?’

John was a bit ashamed to admit to himself that despite all of her beauty above the collar, what he’d noticed first (and struggled not to continue staring at) was below - her assets. To say her bust was generous would have been a gross understatement. Not since the last time he’d been to Art Class had he seen such an immaculate pair of breasts.

John had slowed his approach to the desk to a halt at this point. He swallowed, cursing his measly 5 Charisma. Could he even bring himself to talk to her?

’I can probably just find what I need on my own later, right? I don’t have to-’

Do it. You won’t.

John sighed.

’There’s absolutely no way this goes well,’ he despaired. His greatest weakness: social activity.

’Couldn’t my first quests have been killing tiny slimes or something instead? I’d have probably had a higher chance of success.’

John swore he could hear the bawking of chickens in his head. The Gamer raised his hand and tapped the window to close it, then looked back over at the woman, just in time to notice her looking back up at him. She raised her hand, waving.

“Hello!” she said with a cheerful, sing-song intonation. “Can I help you with something?”

She had a relatively thick accent, but one John could only place as vaguely European. It was as if she was sounding out each word as she spoke.

“Uh…” John tried to respond, but found his mouth suddenly dry. He tried to focus on maintaining eye contact, so at least his vision wouldn’t wander downward. Her eyes were a pleasant shade of blue.

“Yeah, that’d be great. I’m… looking for books about, um, alchemy, I guess?” he said, his words trailing off a bit as his anxiety spiked. “I need references for some creative... writing?”

Maybe if he ran now she’d forget about him and he could come back later to try again with better stats.

Just as John was debating how quickly he could get to the nearest bridge, she replied.

“Sure! We have a few things. Though, if you are writing, maybe you would prefer media to books? We have recently opened a section with some film and TV resources.”

John paused for a second and pondered that... maybe media was the answer.

’Maybe it doesn’t need anything technical anymore at all, but actually just some theme for it to take on? The quest did say inspiration.’

“Uh, yes please, actually! That sounds like a good idea!”

She stood from behind the desk. “Excellent!” she sang. “One second.”

The blonde stopped for a second to pull out a binder with a map of the building on the front.

“Please, follow me.”

As she walked around the desk and into the rows, John followed, though her brisk walking pace was a bit of a stretch for The Gamer. As he trailed behind, he shamelessly took a second to peer at the lower half of her form. Her butt was mostly covered by her skirt, but from what he could see, it was quite firm and round; her pantyhose-clad thighs were also nicely toned, maybe even muscular, though he couldn’t tell through the fabric.

’Is she a runner maybe? A gymnast?’ he guessed.

Averting his gaze before he was noticed, John decided to cast a quick [Observe] at her.

There was a lot to take in from that, but John could only think about two words.

’Slightly… positive?’ he thought in disbelief. He looked at the back of her head, her blonde ponytail bobbing gently as she walked. ’That’s- Wait. It says she’s new-ish... Whatever has made everyone hate me, she hasn’t heard of it.’

John was dumbstruck. Nobody he’d seen all morning had a positive opinion of him, even the teachers were only neutral, but here, in front of his own eyes, was someone who didn’t think negatively of his mere existence - someone he could maybe even be friends with. Somberly, he realized that he hadn’t had a friend offline in years, not since before he’d met Frank or Vanessa.

’She… really doesn’t hate me?’

John’s stomach turned over. Then, a pit opened up inside it.

’Well, thanks, magic power voice. I appreciate the setup. Here’s hoping I don’t bungle the follow through.’

John’s thoughts were cut short by the pair’s arrival at their destination. John vaguely remembered reading about the expansion; someone on the school board had thought that a selection of curated video resources might be good to have around for the film and writing students. He’d never bothered to check it out though.

Ela held the door for him and he smiled as he walked through. The Gamer wasn’t quite as impressed as he’d hoped to be; the so-called “media lab” was mostly just a computer lab with a few racks of films and TV shows on DVD. It wasn’t unpleasant though, especially not with the company he had.

As John walked over and started browsing the shelves, Ela walked over to a closet and opened it with a key from her pocket. A moment later, she hefted out a sizable box with “Donations” written on the side in sharpie.

“In here, also,” she said, setting the box on one of the computer tables. “We have some extra things here that aren’t in the system. It is a shame, there is some good stuff in here.”

John stopped his search momentarily and looked over. As he looked up and tried to say something to Ela, his anxiety flared up again. He swallowed as uncertainty rose in his throat.

’Come on, John! One word in front of the other. She probably doesn’t hate you, remember that.’

“Um. Thanks for the, uh, help... by the way.” He quickly turned back to his search.

’Dang it! No stuttering!’ John chastised himself internally. He just couldn’t help it; he could feel his legs still trembling slightly as he tried to speak.

Unaware of John’s internal issues, Ela responded quickly and with a smile, “It is no problem. Alchemy is at least a cool subject to try and find things for, you know? Sports records and required reading are not that fun.

“I think some student’s mother came around and dumped all of her son’s DVDs in here,” the blonde continued, looking back down into the box. “I doubt they are the resources the school wants us to keep around, but they are here for now. Other than that, I think we have some DVDs on the shelves over there?”

As Ela started digging in the box, John went over to the section of shelves she had indicated, looking for the movies. They agreed to divide and conquer to try and locate anything that might fit what John was looking for. It was quiet for a minute as the search went on.

“By the way, what kind of project are you working on that you are looking into alchemy? Some kind of short story?” she inquired, breaking the silence.

John thought for a moment.

“Um… Yeah, kinda. I guess… I needed to try and figure out how some things might work.”

“Aha!” Ela suddenly exclaimed. “Found it! I thought I remembered this being in here.”

She walked over to where John was and handed him a DVD of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. He took the case from her, noting a faint exclamation point above it. Mentally, The Gamer was quite relieved to have finally found anything that worked.

“This is one of my favorite shows, too. It is not the typical representation of what Alchemy is, but I think it has got some really cool ideas,” Ela said, a brightness in her voice. “I do not know if you have seen it. Will this work?”

’I guess this is a question of style. Do I want to transmute the elements or make potions and poisons and the like? What does alchemy really mean in each universe? Will the portrayal in that story affect what I get out of it?’ John wondered. ’State Alchemists were a lot more like full-on mages or sorcerers. They’re probably a better base to form an offensive power set off of, even if the utility from potion based alchemy might be nice. Being self-sustaining on supplies is always nice in games though, usually helps out a lot, especially early. That’s also assuming HP pots actually exist in real life, too...’

John hated having to make potentially critical decisions on little info. He had no method of determining the value of each outcome, but perhaps that was the point? So far, his powers had been incredibly flexible, but whoever was behind them seemed to be trying to push him out of his comfort zone.

“Uh, I think this is perfect, actually. You know, I, um, never finished Brotherhood. I got, like, halfway through a few years back, but I think I forgot about it when a new game came out.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? What game?”

John suddenly found the floor very interesting.

“Uh… It was a Playstation game called Bloodborne. It’s like an RP-”

“I know what it is,” she chirped back. “And I suppose that’s a decent reason. That’s the best game FromSoft ever made. You should definitely finish Fullmetal Alchemist though!”

He turned, his quest momentarily forgotten.

“It might be the best from a technical perspective, but I don’t know if I’d say it was the best. The first Dark Souls had so many huge moments. Nothing beats that first shot of Anor Londo.”

Ela’s expression was incredulous. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned against a table, causing her large chest to puff out. That utterly vaporized John’s concentration for a moment before she continued.

“How much past Anor Londo do you really think was great though?” she asked. “You cannot tell me that Bed of Chaos was a well-designed fight. Bloodborne was the peak of their artistic expression.”

’She’s nice, she’s hot, and she’s a geek, too,’ John mused as he prepared his retort. ’Lord help me, where has she been all my life?’

It’s Lady. And Poland, actually.

That one threw John off a bit, but he tried to put it out of his mind for now. He was having a hard enough time pushing himself through this prolonged social situation without additional distraction.

’Noted, I guess. The voice in my powers is a woman who may or may not also be a, or the, god,’ he pondered, shaking his head.

“Well,” he responded, finally getting back to the conversation at hand, “I don’t think anything has ever been better than the first half of Dark Souls. Perhaps it would be better to say that I think the original is the greatest, rather than the best…”

John spent the rest of his break period there, chatting with Ela about Dark Souls, then From Software, then gaming in general. It was much easier for John to try and suppress his constant anxiety while talking about a comfortable subject. Ela’s considerable energy also helped; there was something about her that made speaking to her easier.

Maybe, he’d realized, it wasn’t so hard to talk to girls when he actually had shared interests with them and wasn’t just being a pervert. That was self-introspection for another time though.

Not that he wasn’t still shaking and stuttering some, but he hadn’t passed out or run away, so he figured that was a win. He’d even forgotten about his mana, letting it cap after a few minutes.

Unfortunately, all good things had to end, and the first bell for the next classes cut their conversation short. John and Ela rushed back to the front desk and checked out the DVD in his name. As he packed it into his bag and went to leave, he stopped.

“I’m, uh, John, by the way. It was nice to meet you,” he said, turning around. “Uh… friends?”

She smiled.

“Yes. My name is Ela. It is nice to have someone else around here to talk to,” she responded. finalizing the checkout in the system. “Good luck on your writing, John! You have two weeks with that DVD. If you need an extension, just come let me know.”

She smiled and waved as he started to walk away, and he returned them both.

“Thanks!” he said as he closed his bag. “I’ll, uh, let you know how it goes, I guess?”

“Yeah, sure! You know where I will be!” she sang back with a smile.

John threw one parting [Observe] as he left, updating the information on Ela. The Gamer was content as he left the library. Information acquired, quests complete, and an actual friend made. As he exhaled one final time, his anxiety finally caught up with him again. John was exhausted. He needed time alone to recharge, not that he’d get it at Ashcroft.

At least there were other things to occupy his mind with. Now he needed to sort out the windows that had popped up over the last half hour. The first was obvious.

Besides that, Ela’s new [Observe] window had little change, other than, much to John’s great satisfaction, her relationship information now listing a solid Positive.

’What a time to be alive, a girl actually likes John Newman, even if it's just as a friend.’

’John Newman has a friend...’

He smiled, then came to the reason he’d been in the library at all. John added the box set of DVDs to his inventory to complete his quest, only to be met by a notice that completing the quest would activate some sort of update.

You probably want to be sitting down for this one.

’Uh, sure. Your call. I’ll get to class first, then’

Lost in thought about what might be to come, the walk passed in no time for John. As he stepped inside, he noticed little of interest among the students, though he thought that Mrs. Wentworth, his history teacher, had glared at him briefly as he entered. A chill ran down his spine as she looked away.

’Sheesh, what did I do today? I’m not even late.’

John sat down at his desk and pulled out his history textbook, opening up to the chapter they’d started before break. Once the lesson had begun and he thought no one was looking at him anymore, he pulled back up his quest.

’Welp. Here goes nothing,’ John thought, tapping on it. ’Let’s see how this actually works, eh? Wonder what I’ll get?’

Then the pain started.