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Double-Blind CH29
🕑 Added 2022-02-23 21:40:20 +0000 UTCKinsley stared at my family, filled with sudden stage fright. Still, even after only a few hours out of the storehouse, she looked significantly less exhausted. A long awkward silence hung over the office room in the community center. She glanced at the whiteboard, still empty except for OPEN FORUM scrawled at the top.
“You’re really using a whiteboard, huh?” Kinsley asked.
“That’s what I said,” Ellison responded immediately.
“How do you two know each other?” Mom asked.
Iris waved at Kinsley, and Kinsley waved back.
“Okay, fine.” I gave introductions as quickly as I could, taking a moment to point out to Kinsley that Iris was deaf, to make sure to speak in her direction and annunciate if she wanted Iris to understand.
“As you all know, weird shit has been happening. We’re locked in. However, that’s not all. Distribution, shipments, everything else, is locked out. That’s why the shelves are bare. People are hungry and desperate, and it’s only going to get worse.”
“I’m guessing this is when we finally get the explanation for your miracle haul?” Ellison asked, still watching Kinsley.
“I’m getting to that.” I drew out the words USER and CIVILIAN on the whiteboard. “Iris, pull up your screen for a moment. Can you tell me what you see?”
“Quests, inventory, and several blank spots.” Iris signed.
I listed them under the civilian category.
“Kinsley,” I asked, “can you list what you see?”
Kinsley gave me a subtle nod. I had a short conversation with her before we left Estrada’s, and she assured me she wouldn’t say anything to give me away.
“Quests, inventory, character, store.” Kinsley recited.
Ellison immediately perked up at the mention of a store. “So she’s a merchant? If we’re going by game terms.”
“Yes, you’re smart. Stop skipping ahead,” I rolled my eyes, “The more important differentiation is the character screen. Kinsley can upgrade. Gain abilities.”
Iris signed something to me. I repeated it aloud, so everyone could hear it. “Yes, like the door she came in with. Every User, from what I understand, has a class, personal statistics, and abilities they can gain through an in game system.”
“How do you become a User?” Ellison asked.
“No clue,” I answered. “From what Kinsley’s told me, it started happening randomly to a decent chunk of the population after the meteor hit, and the dome appeared.”
Wasn’t Ellison under the weather that day?
I cocked my head, at first annoyed at the interference from <Born Nihilist> until I realized it wasn’t wrong. Iris had told me about it. But it wasn’t exactly a normal day for anyone, and it was possible his reaction had simply been stress. Still. I peered at Ellison, then glanced at Iris and my mother. “Just to be clear, no one has a character screen except for Kinsley, correct?”
There was a chorus of affirmatives. No weird reactions. Ellison was a better liar than Kinsley, but he was young and still had a tell. A leg bounce that only manifested when he was profoundly uncomfortable. I watched him carefully, and he didn’t look ill-at-ease in the slightest.
In fact, he looked a little angry. “So what you’re saying is, there’s a group of people who are basically going to become gods, or superheroes, and they’re not us. We get the shit end of the stick. Per usual.”
Out of my extended peripheral, I saw my mother wilt a bit.
“No,” I smiled. “For perhaps the first time ever, we’re in the majority.Now, granted, we don’t know how many Users are actually out there. But there’s more of us than there are of them. And we have a serious advantage.”
“Your friend?” Iris signed. She was antsy, and looked like all she wanted to do was chat with a girl her age.
“Enter Kinsley,” I pointed to her. “I met Kinsley a few days ago, and helped her out of the goodness of my heart—”
Kinsley bit off a laugh. Ellison snorted. My mother was looking pointedly away, with her hand to her mouth.
Iris signed, ”She bribed you with food.”
I put a hand to my forehead. “Can’t even make a joke—Yes, she bribed me with food. Anyway, Kinsley was in something of a tough spot. Basically, the Users didn’t like the fact that they couldn’t pick their currency for her store.”
“That’s where Selve factors in,” Ellison realized.
“Yes. But considering the current situation—the supply line issue, everything cut off by the dome—merchants are a new natural resource. Which brings me to my next point. The vacuum.” I drew a dollar sign with a down arrow, and a selve symbol with an up arrow. “Traditional stores are cleaned out. Employers can’t pay their employees. If things continue as they are, you won’t be able to buy anything with dollars. Users are going to realize that soon, if they haven’t already. A new economy will form, centered around merchants. Does anyone see the issue?”
Eventually, my mother spoke. “Access. Fuck.”
Iris missed it, but Ellison stared at her, startled.
Mom continued. “That’s why you’re so focused on the idea of an online market anyone can access. Any organized group of Users is going to monopolize access to merchants. You don’t get access to their merchant unless you work for them, probably for pennies on the dollar—or selve, rather. But what sort of work would they even be paying them to do?”
Every so often, I forgot how smart she was.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Probably something particularly unsafe. Osha’s likely going out the window. Modern-day company towns. The only problem is, there’s more of us than there are of them. And no one is complacent with how things are. People will eventually get angry.”
“Okay,” Ellison rubbed his face, stretching out his skin. “I get the concept in theory. We get an online market set up, we prevent price fixing and price gouging, possibly avert an uprising. But what, exactly, is in this for us?” He pointed over to Kinsley. “She’s the one who stands to benefit the most.”
Kinsley, to my surprise, showed some backbone. She stepped in front of me. “You’ll all be high-level employees, getting in on the ground floor. As long as it’s not an attempt at arbitrage, I can award Selve through quests and legitimate contracts. Preferable discounts and percentages at the store.”
“And more ice cream?” Iris signed.
“Iris wants to work ice cream into her contract,” I deadpanned.
“No,” mom said.
“We’ll talk later,” Kinsley smiled at Iris.
“Before I go into the plan, is everyone onboard?” I asked.
Everyone nodded.
I turned back to the board. “Okay. The open forum. It’s happening outside of City Hall in two days. Outside, I assume because they’re expecting a considerable turnout. Everyone’s scared, everyone has questions.”
“If I was the leader of a group of Users, that’s where I’d be. Recruiting, advertising merchant access, maybe even showing it off.” Ellison tapped his fingers on the table.
I nodded, and wrote the words Factions, Recruitment, Merchant Access, and Message. “We want to know as much of this as we can, for as many of the groups as we can. If there are any groups it might be possible to work with in the future, we want to know that. Ellison, your... uh, your overly long acronym thing.”
“L-B-W-L-A-A-Q-H-N-I-I-H-T-A-T-O-O-B,” Ellison rattled off.
Ellison had a few different personas he could slip into, depending on the task at hand, but I was pretty sure that one would fit best. “Yeah, that would be perfect for this.”
“What the heck is that?” Kinsley asked, looking between us dubiously.
“Lost boy who lingers and asks questions he’s not interested in hearing the answers to out of boredom,” Ellison rattled off smugly.
“Be careful. Generally, we shouldn’t discuss anything related to what we’re doing while we’re at the event. Anyone with an elevated Perception will have excellent hearing. On that topic,” I glanced at Iris, “We want to get an idea of how the Users are talking to each other when they think no one’s listening.”
”Lipreading duty?”
“Bring your sunglasses. And if we’re lucky, recon will only be a small part of this. Mom,” I looked over at her, and she leaned forward. “Coordinate with Kinsley. I know it’s a lot to ask, considering, but is there any chance you can get the site up and running by the day after tomorrow?”
“Assuming I don’t hit any snags.” Mom said, a bit too quickly.
“Then we should be golden.”
“And what will you be doing?” Ellison asked me.
“In the immediate future?” I rubbed the back of my neck. My body was still sore everywhere from the day’s excursion. “Crashing. I’m exhausted. Got something most of tomorrow”
Specifically, the fourth floor of the dungeon. Maybe the fifth as well, if the fourth wasn’t too difficult. I’d upgraded significantly, with the crossbow. There was really no reason not to go back. Especially when I considered we still didn’t know why this was happening, and there were likely people who had done nothing but gain XP and level, there was really no excuse when I had my own private staging ground.
It was an adaptive dungeon, and I’d handled myself well. The fourth floor was likely to be difficult. But not beyond me.
I hoped.
Comments
Donovan
What does a Selve symbol look like? $ < ? I'm thinking___ &___ symbol just off the top of my keyboard. Also how will people pay other people for goods and services if the only people who can trade Selve is Merchants and they can only directly trade for items from the system? (I see contracts are a thing in this world but I would like this idea a bit more fleshed out in the story. like how the quest are written out if you can.) You either have the one merchant that you trust and give all your selling stuff to, ( I hope we see Some kind of Farmer and Crafter NPC classes soon making stuff so they can sell it.) the Merchants form a kind of monopoly of selling and buying for you as their middle man and by helping them level up they give you discounts. The higher they level the more specific stuff you have them get for your squad I.E. you have Kinsley with her teleport door power, her stealth shop power, now she's getting a remote/ online shopping power thanks to her new Party, Things she needs to work towards getting are specialty items specifically for the Main character and the party, Rouge gear I.E. thieves tools, grappling hook, poison, smoke bombs for MC. Spy gear maybe for Ellison I don't know for him. A Detoxification potion for the mom. Maybe a magical hearing aid / fix for Iris but that might detract from her character so early in the story I.D.K. . In this word you have the tank / fighter the wizard / magic and the rouge and the fourth man any group needs is the Merchant to sell your shit and a way to get stuff that is actually useful for the User party. Merchant is the purest support character I have ever seen can't fight off the bullies but can outfit the bodyguards to do it for her. As the party helps get Kinsley leveled she should look through those premium items that appear to have a limited supply and timer on them like in "Borderlands" and buy stuff and work the economy so that her Party / Guild / Cooperation/ "Business" Empire has all it needs to thrive. I wonder what Class will unlock the taxes for goods, services and just being alive in their territory "ability" first? Does this make any senes or am I way off ? Please tell me what you think ;}
Maybe. The mom was always smart—just not when she’s drinking—and the kids aren’t brilliant, just used to running scams and working through plans out of survival/necessity. It’s really more grind/hustle focus than iq tbh but maybe the dialogue is something I can work on
skytea
seems weird the kids and the drunken mom can act so rational and catch on so well, you made their iqs too high doesnt seem realistic tbh
He’s assuming—and keep in mind the mc isn’t perfect and can be wrong—that the other groups will try to monopolize merchants. He’s trying to get access as open as possible. Either way we won’t spend forever on this plotpoint, just establishing a foundation
David Ford
Thch the merchant questline doesnt really interest me much, particularly because im not sure i get why what he is doing is any different than other merchants
IZR
I only mention this because I notice you've made this mistake several times: Annunciate means "to announce". It's a quite unusual verb outside of a religious context. You are trying to use the verb enunciate, which means to "say or pronounce clearly".
Wyv
I mean it's smart, it's two kids and an addict.
Robert Mullins
It specifically mentioned other users. And notice he hasn't revealed himself.
The Lost Pages
So does his family violate the Kinsley only part of his quests? If not, you may want to work that in somehow.
Relax, it'll all be fine. *Pauses for a second before stopping to help dismantle the flag*
Him not telling his parents is a new one.
fbt
"gosh, things are starting to come together for him" (frantically tries to take down the flag just raised...fails.) Ooops?
Paradoxez Novel Reader
Best mornings 👍
