School Days

It was a pleasantly sunny day in Springfield, with very few clouds to be seen in the sky. There was an excited buzz around the Ashcroft campus too. It seemed that several people were anticipating tonight’s house party, judging by snippets of conversations John caught as he passed by.

“You coming to Emelia’s 19th tonight?”

“Hell yeah, but I don’t have any good costumes!”

“Aww. Well, if you’re looking for one, I heard that circus is selling some.”

“No way. Those things still exist?”

“I know right? They seem kinda dated, like totally last decade.”

“Sounds like a total creep-fest.”

“So perfect to pick up a horror themed costume from, you mean?”

John didn’t catch the end of that particular conversation as he hurried over to his usual meeting spot with Moira, a tree-shaded area on the west side of the school track field. Her red hair stood out like a beacon among the shades of green and yellow.

“You seem happy today,” John commented as he approached what looked to be a day-dreaming Warden, whose full lips were curled up in a warming smile.

“J-John!” Moira stuttered as her attention snapped back to reality.

“So what’s on the menu today?”

Being a rich prep school, kids loved to flaunt their money at the cafeteria or order food through Uber Eats. Moira, as John has learned when they’d started hanging out together, took it to a whole other level with a full on meal prepared the night before with the added bonus of being magically preserved to be as fresh as if it had just been cooked minutes ago.

“Roast duck and fried rice,” Moira blushed in reply and handed him a spare silver fork.

“Aww, last week’s golden dish! You shouldn’t have,” John laughed as he gratefully took the fork and carved out a claim from her lunchbox as had become their routine. Okay, yeah, he could see why people thought they might be dating.

“W-well, you liked it so much…” Moira brushed a loose strand of crimson hair behind her ear and regarded him with gleaming green eyes. “A-anyway, I have good news! We’ve found a Witch Doctor.”

John paused his eating to look hopefully at his friend. “Seriously? One who is willing to fly out here?”

As it turned out, those who dealt in curses were plentiful in the Abyss. Of course, more often than not those with such power used it to exploit others and consequently wouldn’t go near the Order with a 20 foot pole. Finding an ‘ethical’ practitioner was like finding a needle in a haystack. Most were hermits or lived in communities segregated from the wider Abyss and unwilling to make the venture to the United States for reasons of safety or just plainly didn’t trust the Order. ‘Fair enough,’ John thought, ‘for an expert in dark arts to be uncomfortable among a group of religious knights and paladins.’ It was nonetheless frustrating, but if they’d found a Witch Doctor that was willing to help, then John felt like he could finally put the whole Vulpis mess behind himself.

“Mhm,” Moira replied happily. “She’ll be arriving on Monday.”

“Three days…” John sighed. He’d be able to see his mother again. Not the charred and mangled creature floating idly in a tank but his skin and flesh mother. The anticipation John felt could have made the edgiest of teenagers smile. Yet at the same time he felt a distinct dread at actually having to face her.

“What are you going to do?” Moira asked as if reading his mind.

“I don’t know…” he frowned. “I mean, I have to tell her, right? She deserves to know why this all happened to her… I owe it to her.”

“Yeah…” Moira agreed with a sympathetic look. “B-but I’m really happy for you, John.”

“Thanks,” John smiled back at her. It quickly fell away, however, as he realised he didn’t know anything about Moira’s own mother. She had been absent from any dealings John had had with the Brightons and Moira had never once mentioned her. Knowing what life was like in the Abyss, the explanation for her absence wouldn’t be a pleasant one.

“What?” Moira asked, noticing his change in expression.

‘I probably shouldn’t ask this, but…’ John asked anyway, “What about your mom? You never mention her.”

Moira seemed surprised for a moment, and she bit her lip nervously before opening her mouth to reply. “My mom-” she began before suddenly pausing. “N-nevermind. I’d rather not talk about it now, if that’s okay?”

“Alright,” John agreed quickly. ‘Damn me and my curiosity,’ he grimaced, regretting making Moira uncomfortable.

The next minute passed in an awkward silence while they ate lunch, John searching for a new conversation topic all the while. “Hey, I got invited to a party tonight. Are you interested?” he asked, recalling his earlier conversation with Emilia.

“A party?” For a moment, Moira was taken aback by the sudden change in topic, before she smiled thankfully at his understanding. “You mean a college party? I, uhm, I’ve never been to a party before. I mean, I’ve been to balls and fundraisers… but never a college party.”

“Neither,” John shrugged and grinned. “We can be gawky idiots together.”

Moira let out a slight laugh before her expression shifted to a concerned frown. “W-will there be ****?”

“Dunno. Probably.”

“Oh… then I, uhm, don’t think I should go,” Moira fidgetted. “I really shouldn’t drink… it’s, uhm, probably too dangerous.”

‘Dangerous?’ John wondered with an amused smile. “You wouldn’t have to,” he tried to assure her.

“I know, but still… I shouldn’t go; the Order needs me.”

John didn’t buy her excuse, but he wasn’t going to pressure her into going. “Alright then.”

“B-but thanks for asking!” she added quickly, her awkward sincerity reminding John why he liked her so much.

“What’re you thanking me for?” he chuckled. “We’re friends. Is it so strange I’ll invite you to things?”

“W-well no, I suppose not,” Moira blushed at his question. “Thank you,” she repeated, causing John to laugh once more.

They chatted merrily and ate their shared lunch until the bell rang signalling the end of the break.

“Well, uhm, I hope you enjoy the party,” Moira said in parting.

“Yeah, and if you change your mind, let me know, okay?” John grinned in reply before heading back to his locker. Next period was art class with Miss Summers. ‘Sweet.’ Of all his classes, art was by far his favourite. On its own it was a pretty chill subject, but Miss Summers truly made it a joy to attend for wretched lechers like John. She was a hyper-sexualised goddess of desire and a frequent subject in John’s wet dreams, and he was sure it was the same for many of his peers. It was as if her body had been sculpted for sex, with a busty, hourglass figure and thicc thighs you could sleep on. Then there was the fact that she was a hopeless flirt with her students and John was inexplicably her favourite. It certainly made class fun… and sometimes even painfully dangerous with how hard she could make him.

John wryly smiled as he remembered one particularly embarrassing moment where he’d actually blown a load and had to rush away to the bathroom.

Still, his fondness for Miss Summers expanded beyond just sex appeal. It was plain nice to be on the receiving end of compliments every now and then; something John’s depressed and fragile ego had seldom received before he’d been given his powers. ‘You know, given that, I’m surprised I didn’t turn into an utter douche when Gaia gave me this power,’ he mused as he arrived in the Arts Building. ‘Then again, I’ve killed countless numbers of animals, even people, am unfaithful to my girlfriend, and am keeping secrets from her to boot. So I guess I am a douche,’ he chuckled to himself, before a small voice piped up inside of him. ‘Okay, I may be purposely being glib with myself, but at least the last one of those I ought to address,’ he reminded himself as his eyes drifted towards his status screen.

Gaia had overhauled the User Interface of his powers shortly after he’d been let go from the hospital. Rather than cram as much information as possible onto one page, information was now neatly filed under five key headings: Condition, Inventory, Skills, Perks, and Compendium.

His Condition monitored everything from stats, to Health, Mana, and EXP, as well as his ‘Mental Health’ which was one of the new additions to the UI. Simply put, it served as a way of monitoring, and thus helping control, his mood to avoid having a spontaneous burst of Neurotic Discharge.

As you’d expect, Inventory contained all of his items. It also included the loadout he’d equip when entering an Instant Dungeon.

Item rarity had been revamped too. There was now a total of six tiers: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Unique, Mythic, Legendary, which got displayed alongside the item.

The Skills page was simply a catalogue of his passive and active skills. Gaia had apparently capped the total he could have of each at 22 skills. It was a shame to have a lid placed on his powers, but better now when it didn’t really affect him than later such as if he’d had more than 22 skills for instance.

But while with one hand Gaia takes, with the other she gives. In this case, his skills had the potential to be far stronger than they were before. Each skill had been assigned one of 22 ‘Arcana’ which received a power boost provided he had the corresponding Arcana active in his perks.

Currently, he was limited to a total of four active Arcana at a time, but considering he only had the Fool unlocked, that cap had yet to affect him. Arcana represented the power granted by Patrons who in exchange received a share of his EXP gain while that power (aka perks) was active. However, he couldn’t do such exchanges with anyone; they had to be individuals of exceptional power, such as deities, and unlocked through a special quest. So far, the Tower quest was the only one available to him, and John was frankly hesitant to complete it.

Whoever the patron of the Tower Arcana was, she had corrupted Vulpis and made him the monster that John had come to know. His sense was that she wasn’t inherently a malicious person but that the power she granted while exceptional was also self destructive. Neurotic Discharge encapsulated that perfectly.

The quest’s objectives could be found under the Compendium heading. They were split, meaning he could either find a way of advancing the ‘corruption’ and gain the Tower Arcana as a reward or alternatively reject it and obtain something good but definitely less worthwhile.

He’d be lying if he said the power that came with the Tower didn’t appeal to him, but an equally strong part of him argued it was too dangerous to wield. Vulpis represented both sides perfectly; he had wielded monstrous power but he himself had become a monster in turn. ‘Still, there must be ways of controlling it,’ John reasoned. ‘Things like the Mental State bar.’

‘What was that quote Wentworth cited in class a while back?’ another facet of his conscious reminded him. ‘“Absolute power corrupts absolutely”? Don’t be a delusional twat. You can’t control it, it’s too dangerous.’

John sighed in frustration. He truly didn’t know what to do. ‘I really need to get another perspective on this…’ he thought, deciding he had to talk to Red about it soon. Maybe Moira too.

His eyes turned to his favorited relationships. Red’s affinity with him had actually lowered recently. Perhaps she knew he was keeping secrets?