To manage, to be managed.

John didn't do much with the five minutes that Moira had given him. It was about a two minute walk to the parking lot from where they were, so John just decided to wander around for three minutes. Everyone was still in class or study hall, which meant he had pretty much total silence except for the background droning of classes. Perfect for contemplation.

"Moira said that Barriers have to be created by someone… but my pop-up said that it was a Random Encounter. Was she right? Did I create it? I wonder if my new abilities can do things that I can't consciously activate. Even if it could, Moira said that those Skeletons - she said they were Abyss creatures - should never have left anything behind, but…"

John trailed off in his thoughts and confirmed again that the dust was still in his inventory. As far as he could tell it was no different than when they left, and he couldn't help but wonder how to utilize it best. It said that it was a crafting material… but what could he craft it with? Nothing right now, that was for certain - all he had on him were his clothes, and if he did that, he ran the risk of either fucking up his clothes, or doing something that would be noticeable to Moira and she might punish him for keeping some of the dust.

As John was on his way to the parking lot he remembered one last thing - he still had skill points! He'd ignored one for a long while, but after getting sucked into that Random Encounter he was starting to realize just how important those could actually be. John clicked on the "Skill Points Available!" message hovering on his character page, and then eyed all of his skills. He didn't really want to up Observe, Gamer's Body and Gamer's Spirit were grayed out, he had no desire to increase his Masturbation ability, and he was hesitant to even use the Deceive skill. That left him with Crafting and Elemental Control. John decided to put one in both.

Pressing on Elemental Control, John watched a large, branching skill tree unfold as the rest of the skills faded into the background. Most of it was nothing but gray question marks, but he could select the first option, which branched into two more that were grayed out but he could read. He hovered over the first one and glanced at it.

Elemental Control - Conjuration
Allows the user to conjure the element he wishes to control, when that element is not present. There is an additional cost of 20 Mana, but the amount created can be as much as the user can currently control.

"That's useful," John noted, immediately spending the skill point before he even bothered to look at the other skills he had. He didn't have any more options and had already decided to put a point into the skill… plus, even if he thought about putting both in Crafting, the thought of becoming a Firebender was way too tempting. He would have to test that out sometime… when he wasn't dealing with Moira.

When he opened up the Crafting skill tree menu he found that the setup was similar, with one initial ability that branched off into two, with the rest grayed out. This first ability was also very interesting.

Crafting - Know-how!
The user can now receive a list of materials to complete an object if they do not possess the required items. Any materials previously discovered will be listed in number and quality. Any materials not yet found will be listed as '????'."

That also seemed incredibly useful - John had never used the skill yet, but it would've been very frustrating to find out that it just failed and wouldn't explain why if he had tried. He had half a mind to examine what he could do with the dust from the Random Encounter, but he was already at the parking lot.

And Moira was not going to wait for him.

"Hurry, we must see my father right away."

John was suddenly getting a feeling for where this was going. No meeting with a girl's father was ever pleasant, but certainly not meeting with a Paladin's probably righteous zealot of a father. As he slid onto the back of the bike he started to try to confirm his fears.

"So… you're a Warden…"

"Quiet, we're not even moving yet!"

John kept his mouth shut until Moira flipped on the bike and started them rolling. Her Harley was of such a high volume he could barely hear himself as they left the parking lot, much less anyone else.

"So, you're a Warden of the Golden Rose," he roared over the sound of the engines, "I'm guessing your father is too?"

"No, that's… just a title," Moira said, hesitating a little. "We are the Golden Rose, yes. My father is the current leader."

"And what exactly do you do?"

"We protect the innocent from the threats of the Abyss, attempt to keep some of the more rambunctious organizations under control, and monitor the most unusual or threatening occurrences in the Abyss."

"I see. Where do I fit into that?" John asked, leaning forward. Moira didn't turn toward him, but for just a second he thought he saw her eyes glance backward.

"I don't know yet. That's why we're leaving in the middle of a school day."

"Shit, hope my mom doesn't find out," John thought to himself as Moira hit the highway and really began to gun it.

John stood in front of what looked like something pulled straight out of a British museum, if museums stored entire houses. The manor in front of him was like an early-nineties British masterpiece, perfectly maintained and well-kept, down to the trimmed hedges lining the front of the lawn. Perhaps because of his increased Wisdom score John couldn't help but to notice that all the lawn sculptures and hedges were just high enough to conceal all but a very small portion of the yard completely…

"Now that we're here, let's make haste. Father will not be expecting us, and we may have to wait for a while before we can gain a proper audience. He will not want to discuss matters as sensitive as this where anyone can hear us."

"Phenomenal."

John took a last look at his inventory and skills. He hadn't had enough time to think properly and either hide anything or reconfigure his stats… he'd either been busy with his skills or around Moira and not wanting to give away exactly what he could do yet. Part of him wished he could've dumped all his points into Charisma. The min-maxer in him hated that his fear was controlling his gaming prowess.

"If you have not hidden anything, you will be fine," Moira said, as she started forward. When John didn't immediately start after her, she glared over her shoulder with a look that brooked no room for argument.

"But if you have, we will find out."

John grit his teeth and started forward.