Chapter 165: 165
If audio player doesn't work, press Stop then Play button again
The girl gave Orison the faintest of smiles before returning to ice queen mode.
'Red' was about to mouth off to the girl before he thought twice and turned to the young mage. Before the guy was halfway through his ten second dress down of what he thought about Orison, he was being escorted out by security because his comped day pass was invalidated.
As 'Red' was escorted out, he said, "Dude! You're Cantrip? Why didn't you just say so. Yeah, okay. I was just clowning. You don't need to kick me out. I'm sorry, alright. Garret, tell him it's cool."
Seeing that the hulking teen was actually thinking about letting everything slide, Orison said, "Today's word is final. I'll give you a second chance if there's a reason to but it isn't going to be today and it certainly won't be on the mat come Monday."
From the distance the kid shouted, "You're right. Real men make friends after fighting. See you on Monday... S-snowman!"
The young mage sighed and muttered, "I'm not so sure what makes a 'real' anything anymore. Oddly, I'm okay with that."
Turning towards everyone, he put on his best social smile and said, "I'm not that pale am I?"
No one present quite knew what to say to that after Orison kicked one of them out and looked to Rio who also wasn't sure what to say for different reasons only really known to himself.
To keep the silence from becoming too awkward, Daphne said, "Well, you're not goth or punk rock pale. I'd say more like a... healthy pale, like an old blood aristocrat or something.
He thought, "Bless your heart, sweet girl. I know you mean well."
Realizing that he'd kind of accidentally killed the chicken to scare the monkeys, Orison made his goodbyes after Garret finally convinced his teary-eyed date to go home. Making their way over to Liberty, Orison glanced over to find that the hulking teen looked a little tired and possibly a little worried. Considering the emotional roller coaster the guy's life had been lately, it wasn't hard to see why.
By the time they had made it to where Liberty and Janet were waiting, it was obvious that things hadn't been peaceful. Between the silver haired woman and Turner's wife, Garret's mom was calmed down if a little red eyed.
Janet took the initiative as soon as she saw the young mage. "Alright, little big shot. You want my boy to help you and your Rio kid past the second hill? 300,000."
Confused, Orison responded, "You want me to pay his educational debt? It's not out of the question. Let's give it a couple of weeks and...Wait, his subsidies should have paid for that right?"
She looked at Orison like he was a moron. "Not to the system, to me."
Red faced from shame and a little anger, Garret said, "Mom! I asked him! I just wanted a quiet place away from everything so I can focus on making it to where I need to be for us!"
Seeing the flow of things and getting a little itch in the back of his mind, Orison used The Weird to ask Liberty to check the activity on Garret's touch screen the last hour it had bounced between the babysitter and Janet. To buy some time, the young mage continued to act ignorant of the real motivations.
He said, "If it's that, I don't mind giving him the same allowance as Rio gets as long as he helps around the place and more if I need him for any actually work. If you're worried about me taking advantage, we could have Liberty draw up some conditions for the guardianship assuring that he gets fair compensation and a little extra on top. She could even supervise me opening an account for him that I would only be authorized to make deposits to.
"Some people might think you're being a bit harsh or unreasonable but I think it's smart that you're thinking two steps ahead. You don't know me and it's fair to assume it's possible that even if I didn't have some kind of bad motivation now, that might not always be true. Assuming the best of me, it's not out of the question to believe he'd be a help and that deserves something more than just a place to sleep and study or train."
Realizing she couldn't hustle Orison without being plain about what she wanted and why or he'd just flip it on her, she said. "It's not for him. It's for Babs..." Seeing Orison smile and take in a breath, she quickly added, "And yeah, some for me too. You're taking the last year I have with my son before he goes off and maybe dies like his father. The system might have took over for the last year or so but I was there for the first fifteen. Gym memberships and junior trainers, I got him to the starting line."
She wasn't finished but Garret cut in, "Yeah, mom. It was gym memberships and junior trainers but how many times did you patch a pair of my shoes and open a box of shiny reds or blacks the next week to 'go dancing' in? Yeah, you tickled a few chins to keep me out of trouble when I messed up but you dug in their wallets too and that's WHY I'd get into trouble even if I didn't do anything wrong...Teachers marry teachers, mom. So, while you were playing pocket pool with the Math teacher, his Language Comprehension wife was decorating my book report into a hell of red check marks! Don't sa-"
Orison said in a low but commanding tone, "Garret, get your touch screen from your mom's...bag?... and hand it to Liberty."
Mother and son's attention snapped to the young mage and as Garret moved to do it, Janet suddenly started pitching a fit, telling off Orison for ordering her son around and Liberty for abusing the authority she was given on personal matters.
The silver haired woman asked Garret, "Are any of the activities logged on this device while in the possession of others over the last two hours, authorized by you in any way?"
Confused but scared about what the girl or his mother could have done, he said, "No. I had it locked up but Macy got it out somehow."
While a tired Turner held Janet back until a security personnel for the park took over, Liberty continued, "Then you have two choices. You can press charges or you can have the activities for the last hour erased. The small amount of purchases that were made can't be refunded without charges but the purchaser will be changed to the one who did so and logged on their own accounts after visual confirmation is confirmed."
Janet's shrieks tapered off and with thick streams of tears and between sobs, she said, "Baby, just erase it. It was stupid but I thought I was going to lose you. I was scared that after you made it so far, you were going to forget about me... about Babs. I'm always so scared you're going to go out there and I'll never see you again."
"Is that why you helped Macy try to bag me up? Mom, I'm still in first hill... and I'm not Accelerator anymore. Something like that could disqualify me from the program," Garret said, more heartbroken than angry.
Seeing that this was going to drag on and only allow a chance for more dirty laundry to be aired in public, Orison said, "Don't engage. Set your terms and get your distance. You keep dancing in her zone she's going to find some weak spot and poke it til you fold."
The whole time, she was begging for her son to not listen to Orison and to talk to her. "Baby, you can't do this. They'll take Babs away from me and put me in the Irregulars."
Swallowing down the pain, Garret said, "Then let me go. All you have to do is take the hooks out yourself and I don't have to cut them out."
After all of that, she still insisted on 100,000. She claimed this or that reason but the truth was, she actually did need at least half that because demerits she payed out over the last few months came from Babs' allotment and the part time job she had counted on to pay it back had cut her loose. On top of that, the minimum interest repayment on her merit debt was about to dip too far into future allotment funds. She was walking a very fragile tightrope.
Orison said, "Last offer from my side before Garret is forced to make a choice that will leave him miserable no matter what he chooses. I'll put 100,000 into his little sister's allotment fund as replacement at 10,000 a month but you're going to give up all rights to Garret. As long as you stop this rolling snowball of stupid and get your head straight, you can squeak by the three month cool off for misappropriation of employee privileges. You'll have another six to find a job... I don't know what you think you're doing but you're screwing up your kids' lives and I don't give a damn how you justify it."
The last hammer that cracked her front act was Liberty's final statement. "I can't ignore this. Even if you agree to this arrangement, Ms. Daniels, you'll be placed on the children service watch list."
Crying the whole time, Janet signed the e-documents on Liberty's touchscreen before it was Orison's turn. Reluctantly, Gina patted her back when Janet turned to sob into her shoulder. Judging by the hard look that passed between Turner and his wife, it would probably be the last time too.
When Orison looked at Garret, it was easy to see that he wasn't in a good place, emotionally. "Hey, I know you're not going to be in the mood to hear it but follow through is important. You got something for your mom and Babs, right? I think you should still give it to them with the same feelings you got it. If you can force yourself to be the bigger person now, you'll be able to feel better about things later, no matter how they turn out."
Garret looked at the to-go containers and back at his mom. Talking to her was too much but his little sister that wasn't too far away was more than easy. He needed to say some things to her anyway. From where he was standing, Orison couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but the cool, weary looks mirrored on their faces meant that they had been preparing for a day like this for some time.
They did get much time before, to Gina's relief, Janet 'tore' herself from her friend's 'comforting arms' and drove her 'traitor son' away from his 'innocent' sister. Babs was still quite young but not so much so that she didn't know what was going on. The cold look on the preteen girl's face when looking at her mother gave Orison chills. It was pure annoyed ambivalence. The kind of look one would give to a bug that crawled on their shoe, not another person.
As Garret slowly walked back to Orison, Babs used the recoil her look caused Janet to run past her mother and after the hulking teen. After tapping her big brother on the back she held out her fist, bumped it with his and whispered something. Garret smiled and returned looking a little lighter.
"Mom has a lineage preservation account opened on my behalf. Could you request it to be closed down, uh, Mr. Cantrip?" Garret asked.
As soon as Orison was done politely requesting to just be called by first name with a slightly disturbed face, Liberty said, "Under the mandatory logged complaint, such an account would be frozen... Forgive the unintended pun... Any recent activity would be taken into consideration if further complications arise... Once again, I apologize. It's unintentional."
Considering her deadpan delivery, the young mage believed her. The slight snicker despite the teen's emotional distress was welcomed regardless. It allowed for Orison and Liberty to get through their meeting before Garret's inevitable moment of brooding began that he tried to hide with a well trained neutral face.
As far as the meeting itself, it was relatively quick. Orison handed over some sensitive but still legal, if barely, goods for Liberty to convert into merits. Once the finer details of how that would be done were worked out, he brought to her attention four names of people he'd 'researched' out that had looked into his UTF renewed identity and it's subsequent panning on news channels.
He said, "These are a list of people who have made inquiries on me that I vaguely recognize. It could be false memories or confusion. So, I'm not sure of anything. I'd like to arrange to meet them to see if that turns into more like it did with Gravat. Yes, you'll hear from your brother that Triumvir Aurora's current... adjunct?... That recognized me and probably got me labeled as a walk-in. I think that calling me an incarnate or transmigrate might be more accurate.
"Whatever the case. It's obviously a sensitive topic that the Triumvirate are already aware of and have kept silent about, which I appreciate. I trust you and your brother to do the same... I will notify Avalon if I remember or see anything that would endanger or jeopardize-"
She interrupted, "It's alright. You trust us and have given us no reason to distrust you. I'll see what I can do to get a visitation prepared for these people. How important is expedition of this process and how much of your merits can you dedicate to it? Since it's personal affairs, I'm afraid that without a clear admission of blood relations, there's no assistance the system can provide you for this."
Orison said, "Everything you've got there. If it's not enough to cover, then prioritize them in this order..."
Liberty looked at the four IDs in The Weird that Orison had pulled up. "Why this one first? The other three look far more stable to me."
The young mage said with a smirk, "Of the four, he's one of the two independents and... well... don't you think he just looks cooler than the rest?"
"He looks like a criminal... Stag Nunnos... If he chose to change his name based off his appearance, that's tacky," Liberty denounced with a sigh.
Shrugging Orison said, "If he turns out to be an easy person to talk to, you could ask. If you were a gambling woman, which I know you're not, I think even you would bet he has an interesting story."
Before they parted ways, the young mage insisted on her ten percent commission which she accepted without the fuss of last time. He was kind of surprised but he really had put her to work and he felt she definitely deserved it. It occurred to him that Justice may not have had a chance to tell her about 'Midnight Margaritas' yet either.
"It just dawned on me that you don't have an easy way to get stuff you might need immediately without going back home... That's not advisable... Would you be alright sporting some water park apparel for a couple of days til we can get that ironed out? I know it's kind of weird but-" Orison explained before Garret quickly cut him off to agree.
After the unsealing of the park, Orison discovered the limits of 'all expense paid'. Apparently, he wasn't going as all out as was expected of someone holding a diamond pass because he'd only put a nice dent in the 100,000 merit gift limit. Between getting Garret, Rio and himself some surprisingly nice swag, it started disappearing pretty quick.
True to the nature of Avalon, there might have been some ridiculous mark-up but apparel and high end personal items from the park had a great deal more 'merit' than as novelty items. Some specialty training and vacations did take place at the park. So, there was even a limited amount of gear and a decent spread of overpriced toiletries. The young mage even managed to uncover another important mechanism of the merit system through the experience.
Taking too much goods away from one place incurred fines. Owning more than a certain amount of something also incurred fines. No matter how much merits someone had, Avalon did it's best to make sure that everyone had a shot at getting something and discouraged resource hogging pretty aggressively. Orison respected and even liked that but he wasn't so happy about being embarrassed at a vendor counter and needing his new charge to come and sign ownership of some goods to keep the fines from becoming official.
"I'm telling you, Garret. Getting a little high from buying stuff on someone else's account is not just a woman thing. Look at me, just cheesing away," the young mage said with a wide grin that the hulking teen shared.
Spending rush dwindling in the back of the long cab taking them to the nearest short range teleport center, Garret smile slipped to a dim one. "I-I'm sorry for how all this turned out. If I knew, I wouldn't have had the nerve to ask... Whatever you wa-"
Orison stopped him. "Don't even finish saying that thought out loud. Dealing with some ground level drama was practically refreshing after what I went through before we hung out. All you asked for was a chance to spend a few months somewhere away from crazy so you could keep your eye on the prize. Your mom's the one who made it all complicated and proved just how bad you needed what you originally thought you were asking for."
Whatever Garret was about to say was interrupted by a chime from his touchscreen. When the teen looked at it, he trembled in anger and sheer disbelief a couple of times before a single tear slipped past his control. Considering how much the guy had endured from his mom and still held it together, Orison had no idea what could hit so hard and fast to break him from a single glance at a screen.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
The girl gave Orison the faintest of smiles before returning to ice queen mode.
'Red' was about to mouth off to the girl before he thought twice and turned to the young mage. Before the guy was halfway through his ten second dress down of what he thought about Orison, he was being escorted out by security because his comped day pass was invalidated.
As 'Red' was escorted out, he said, "Dude! You're Cantrip? Why didn't you just say so. Yeah, okay. I was just clowning. You don't need to kick me out. I'm sorry, alright. Garret, tell him it's cool."
Seeing that the hulking teen was actually thinking about letting everything slide, Orison said, "Today's word is final. I'll give you a second chance if there's a reason to but it isn't going to be today and it certainly won't be on the mat come Monday."
From the distance the kid shouted, "You're right. Real men make friends after fighting. See you on Monday... S-snowman!"
The young mage sighed and muttered, "I'm not so sure what makes a 'real' anything anymore. Oddly, I'm okay with that."
Turning towards everyone, he put on his best social smile and said, "I'm not that pale am I?"
No one present quite knew what to say to that after Orison kicked one of them out and looked to Rio who also wasn't sure what to say for different reasons only really known to himself.
To keep the silence from becoming too awkward, Daphne said, "Well, you're not goth or punk rock pale. I'd say more like a... healthy pale, like an old blood aristocrat or something.
He thought, "Bless your heart, sweet girl. I know you mean well."
Realizing that he'd kind of accidentally killed the chicken to scare the monkeys, Orison made his goodbyes after Garret finally convinced his teary-eyed date to go home. Making their way over to Liberty, Orison glanced over to find that the hulking teen looked a little tired and possibly a little worried. Considering the emotional roller coaster the guy's life had been lately, it wasn't hard to see why.
By the time they had made it to where Liberty and Janet were waiting, it was obvious that things hadn't been peaceful. Between the silver haired woman and Turner's wife, Garret's mom was calmed down if a little red eyed.
Janet took the initiative as soon as she saw the young mage. "Alright, little big shot. You want my boy to help you and your Rio kid past the second hill? 300,000."
Confused, Orison responded, "You want me to pay his educational debt? It's not out of the question. Let's give it a couple of weeks and...Wait, his subsidies should have paid for that right?"
She looked at Orison like he was a moron. "Not to the system, to me."
Red faced from shame and a little anger, Garret said, "Mom! I asked him! I just wanted a quiet place away from everything so I can focus on making it to where I need to be for us!"
Seeing the flow of things and getting a little itch in the back of his mind, Orison used The Weird to ask Liberty to check the activity on Garret's touch screen the last hour it had bounced between the babysitter and Janet. To buy some time, the young mage continued to act ignorant of the real motivations.
He said, "If it's that, I don't mind giving him the same allowance as Rio gets as long as he helps around the place and more if I need him for any actually work. If you're worried about me taking advantage, we could have Liberty draw up some conditions for the guardianship assuring that he gets fair compensation and a little extra on top. She could even supervise me opening an account for him that I would only be authorized to make deposits to.
"Some people might think you're being a bit harsh or unreasonable but I think it's smart that you're thinking two steps ahead. You don't know me and it's fair to assume it's possible that even if I didn't have some kind of bad motivation now, that might not always be true. Assuming the best of me, it's not out of the question to believe he'd be a help and that deserves something more than just a place to sleep and study or train."
Realizing she couldn't hustle Orison without being plain about what she wanted and why or he'd just flip it on her, she said. "It's not for him. It's for Babs..." Seeing Orison smile and take in a breath, she quickly added, "And yeah, some for me too. You're taking the last year I have with my son before he goes off and maybe dies like his father. The system might have took over for the last year or so but I was there for the first fifteen. Gym memberships and junior trainers, I got him to the starting line."
She wasn't finished but Garret cut in, "Yeah, mom. It was gym memberships and junior trainers but how many times did you patch a pair of my shoes and open a box of shiny reds or blacks the next week to 'go dancing' in? Yeah, you tickled a few chins to keep me out of trouble when I messed up but you dug in their wallets too and that's WHY I'd get into trouble even if I didn't do anything wrong...Teachers marry teachers, mom. So, while you were playing pocket pool with the Math teacher, his Language Comprehension wife was decorating my book report into a hell of red check marks! Don't sa-"
Orison said in a low but commanding tone, "Garret, get your touch screen from your mom's...bag?... and hand it to Liberty."
Mother and son's attention snapped to the young mage and as Garret moved to do it, Janet suddenly started pitching a fit, telling off Orison for ordering her son around and Liberty for abusing the authority she was given on personal matters.
The silver haired woman asked Garret, "Are any of the activities logged on this device while in the possession of others over the last two hours, authorized by you in any way?"
Confused but scared about what the girl or his mother could have done, he said, "No. I had it locked up but Macy got it out somehow."
While a tired Turner held Janet back until a security personnel for the park took over, Liberty continued, "Then you have two choices. You can press charges or you can have the activities for the last hour erased. The small amount of purchases that were made can't be refunded without charges but the purchaser will be changed to the one who did so and logged on their own accounts after visual confirmation is confirmed."
Janet's shrieks tapered off and with thick streams of tears and between sobs, she said, "Baby, just erase it. It was stupid but I thought I was going to lose you. I was scared that after you made it so far, you were going to forget about me... about Babs. I'm always so scared you're going to go out there and I'll never see you again."
"Is that why you helped Macy try to bag me up? Mom, I'm still in first hill... and I'm not Accelerator anymore. Something like that could disqualify me from the program," Garret said, more heartbroken than angry.
Seeing that this was going to drag on and only allow a chance for more dirty laundry to be aired in public, Orison said, "Don't engage. Set your terms and get your distance. You keep dancing in her zone she's going to find some weak spot and poke it til you fold."
The whole time, she was begging for her son to not listen to Orison and to talk to her. "Baby, you can't do this. They'll take Babs away from me and put me in the Irregulars."
Swallowing down the pain, Garret said, "Then let me go. All you have to do is take the hooks out yourself and I don't have to cut them out."
After all of that, she still insisted on 100,000. She claimed this or that reason but the truth was, she actually did need at least half that because demerits she payed out over the last few months came from Babs' allotment and the part time job she had counted on to pay it back had cut her loose. On top of that, the minimum interest repayment on her merit debt was about to dip too far into future allotment funds. She was walking a very fragile tightrope.
Orison said, "Last offer from my side before Garret is forced to make a choice that will leave him miserable no matter what he chooses. I'll put 100,000 into his little sister's allotment fund as replacement at 10,000 a month but you're going to give up all rights to Garret. As long as you stop this rolling snowball of stupid and get your head straight, you can squeak by the three month cool off for misappropriation of employee privileges. You'll have another six to find a job... I don't know what you think you're doing but you're screwing up your kids' lives and I don't give a damn how you justify it."
The last hammer that cracked her front act was Liberty's final statement. "I can't ignore this. Even if you agree to this arrangement, Ms. Daniels, you'll be placed on the children service watch list."
Crying the whole time, Janet signed the e-documents on Liberty's touchscreen before it was Orison's turn. Reluctantly, Gina patted her back when Janet turned to sob into her shoulder. Judging by the hard look that passed between Turner and his wife, it would probably be the last time too.
When Orison looked at Garret, it was easy to see that he wasn't in a good place, emotionally. "Hey, I know you're not going to be in the mood to hear it but follow through is important. You got something for your mom and Babs, right? I think you should still give it to them with the same feelings you got it. If you can force yourself to be the bigger person now, you'll be able to feel better about things later, no matter how they turn out."
Garret looked at the to-go containers and back at his mom. Talking to her was too much but his little sister that wasn't too far away was more than easy. He needed to say some things to her anyway. From where he was standing, Orison couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but the cool, weary looks mirrored on their faces meant that they had been preparing for a day like this for some time.
They did get much time before, to Gina's relief, Janet 'tore' herself from her friend's 'comforting arms' and drove her 'traitor son' away from his 'innocent' sister. Babs was still quite young but not so much so that she didn't know what was going on. The cold look on the preteen girl's face when looking at her mother gave Orison chills. It was pure annoyed ambivalence. The kind of look one would give to a bug that crawled on their shoe, not another person.
As Garret slowly walked back to Orison, Babs used the recoil her look caused Janet to run past her mother and after the hulking teen. After tapping her big brother on the back she held out her fist, bumped it with his and whispered something. Garret smiled and returned looking a little lighter.
"Mom has a lineage preservation account opened on my behalf. Could you request it to be closed down, uh, Mr. Cantrip?" Garret asked.
As soon as Orison was done politely requesting to just be called by first name with a slightly disturbed face, Liberty said, "Under the mandatory logged complaint, such an account would be frozen... Forgive the unintended pun... Any recent activity would be taken into consideration if further complications arise... Once again, I apologize. It's unintentional."
Considering her deadpan delivery, the young mage believed her. The slight snicker despite the teen's emotional distress was welcomed regardless. It allowed for Orison and Liberty to get through their meeting before Garret's inevitable moment of brooding began that he tried to hide with a well trained neutral face.
As far as the meeting itself, it was relatively quick. Orison handed over some sensitive but still legal, if barely, goods for Liberty to convert into merits. Once the finer details of how that would be done were worked out, he brought to her attention four names of people he'd 'researched' out that had looked into his UTF renewed identity and it's subsequent panning on news channels.
He said, "These are a list of people who have made inquiries on me that I vaguely recognize. It could be false memories or confusion. So, I'm not sure of anything. I'd like to arrange to meet them to see if that turns into more like it did with Gravat. Yes, you'll hear from your brother that Triumvir Aurora's current... adjunct?... That recognized me and probably got me labeled as a walk-in. I think that calling me an incarnate or transmigrate might be more accurate.
"Whatever the case. It's obviously a sensitive topic that the Triumvirate are already aware of and have kept silent about, which I appreciate. I trust you and your brother to do the same... I will notify Avalon if I remember or see anything that would endanger or jeopardize-"
She interrupted, "It's alright. You trust us and have given us no reason to distrust you. I'll see what I can do to get a visitation prepared for these people. How important is expedition of this process and how much of your merits can you dedicate to it? Since it's personal affairs, I'm afraid that without a clear admission of blood relations, there's no assistance the system can provide you for this."
Orison said, "Everything you've got there. If it's not enough to cover, then prioritize them in this order..."
Liberty looked at the four IDs in The Weird that Orison had pulled up. "Why this one first? The other three look far more stable to me."
The young mage said with a smirk, "Of the four, he's one of the two independents and... well... don't you think he just looks cooler than the rest?"
"He looks like a criminal... Stag Nunnos... If he chose to change his name based off his appearance, that's tacky," Liberty denounced with a sigh.
Shrugging Orison said, "If he turns out to be an easy person to talk to, you could ask. If you were a gambling woman, which I know you're not, I think even you would bet he has an interesting story."
Before they parted ways, the young mage insisted on her ten percent commission which she accepted without the fuss of last time. He was kind of surprised but he really had put her to work and he felt she definitely deserved it. It occurred to him that Justice may not have had a chance to tell her about 'Midnight Margaritas' yet either.
"It just dawned on me that you don't have an easy way to get stuff you might need immediately without going back home... That's not advisable... Would you be alright sporting some water park apparel for a couple of days til we can get that ironed out? I know it's kind of weird but-" Orison explained before Garret quickly cut him off to agree.
After the unsealing of the park, Orison discovered the limits of 'all expense paid'. Apparently, he wasn't going as all out as was expected of someone holding a diamond pass because he'd only put a nice dent in the 100,000 merit gift limit. Between getting Garret, Rio and himself some surprisingly nice swag, it started disappearing pretty quick.
True to the nature of Avalon, there might have been some ridiculous mark-up but apparel and high end personal items from the park had a great deal more 'merit' than as novelty items. Some specialty training and vacations did take place at the park. So, there was even a limited amount of gear and a decent spread of overpriced toiletries. The young mage even managed to uncover another important mechanism of the merit system through the experience.
Taking too much goods away from one place incurred fines. Owning more than a certain amount of something also incurred fines. No matter how much merits someone had, Avalon did it's best to make sure that everyone had a shot at getting something and discouraged resource hogging pretty aggressively. Orison respected and even liked that but he wasn't so happy about being embarrassed at a vendor counter and needing his new charge to come and sign ownership of some goods to keep the fines from becoming official.
"I'm telling you, Garret. Getting a little high from buying stuff on someone else's account is not just a woman thing. Look at me, just cheesing away," the young mage said with a wide grin that the hulking teen shared.
Spending rush dwindling in the back of the long cab taking them to the nearest short range teleport center, Garret smile slipped to a dim one. "I-I'm sorry for how all this turned out. If I knew, I wouldn't have had the nerve to ask... Whatever you wa-"
Orison stopped him. "Don't even finish saying that thought out loud. Dealing with some ground level drama was practically refreshing after what I went through before we hung out. All you asked for was a chance to spend a few months somewhere away from crazy so you could keep your eye on the prize. Your mom's the one who made it all complicated and proved just how bad you needed what you originally thought you were asking for."
Whatever Garret was about to say was interrupted by a chime from his touchscreen. When the teen looked at it, he trembled in anger and sheer disbelief a couple of times before a single tear slipped past his control. Considering how much the guy had endured from his mom and still held it together, Orison had no idea what could hit so hard and fast to break him from a single glance at a screen.
The girl gave Orison the faintest of smiles before returning to ice queen mode. 'Red' was about to mouth off to the girl before he thought twice and turned to the young mage. Before the guy was halfway through his ten second dress down of what he thought about Orison, he was being escorted out by security because his comped day pass was invalidated. As 'Red' was escorted out, he said, "Dude! You're Cantrip? Why didn't you just say so. Yeah, okay. I was just clowning. You don't need to kick me out. I'm sorry, alright. Garret, tell him it's cool." Seeing that the hulking teen was actually thinking about letting everything slide, Orison said, "Today's word is final. I'll give you a second chance if there's a reason to but it isn't going to be today and it certainly won't be on the mat come Monday." From the distance the kid shouted, "You're right. Real men make friends after fighting. See you on Monday... S-snowman!" The young mage sighed and muttered, "I'm not so sure what makes a 'real' anything anymore. Oddly, I'm okay with that." Turning towards everyone, he put on his best social smile and said, "I'm not that pale am I?" No one present quite knew what to say to that after Orison kicked one of them out and looked to Rio who also wasn't sure what to say for different reasons only really known to himself. To keep the silence from becoming too awkward, Daphne said, "Well, you're not goth or punk rock pale. I'd say more like a... healthy pale, like an old blood aristocrat or something. He thought, "Bless your heart, sweet girl. I know you mean well." Realizing that he'd kind of accidentally killed the chicken to scare the monkeys, Orison made his goodbyes after Garret finally convinced his teary-eyed date to go home. Making their way over to Liberty, Orison glanced over to find that the hulking teen looked a little tired and possibly a little worried. Considering the emotional roller coaster the guy's life had been lately, it wasn't hard to see why. By the time they had made it to where Liberty and Janet were waiting, it was obvious that things hadn't been peaceful. Between the silver haired woman and Turner's wife, Garret's mom was calmed down if a little red eyed. Janet took the initiative as soon as she saw the young mage. "Alright, little big shot. You want my boy to help you and your Rio kid past the second hill? 300,000." Confused, Orison responded, "You want me to pay his educational debt? It's not out of the question. Let's give it a couple of weeks and...Wait, his subsidies should have paid for that right?" She looked at Orison like he was a moron. "Not to the system, to me." Red faced from shame and a little anger, Garret said, "Mom! I asked him! I just wanted a quiet place away from everything so I can focus on making it to where I need to be for us!" Seeing the flow of things and getting a little itch in the back of his mind, Orison used The Weird to ask Liberty to check the activity on Garret's touch screen the last hour it had bounced between the babysitter and Janet. To buy some time, the young mage continued to act ignorant of the real motivations. He said, "If it's that, I don't mind giving him the same allowance as Rio gets as long as he helps around the place and more if I need him for any actually work. If you're worried about me taking advantage, we could have Liberty draw up some conditions for the guardianship assuring that he gets fair compensation and a little extra on top. She could even supervise me opening an account for him that I would only be authorized to make deposits to. "Some people might think you're being a bit harsh or unreasonable but I think it's smart that you're thinking two steps ahead. You don't know me and it's fair to assume it's possible that even if I didn't have some kind of bad motivation now, that might not always be true. Assuming the best of me, it's not out of the question to believe he'd be a help and that deserves something more than just a place to sleep and study or train." Realizing she couldn't hustle Orison without being plain about what she wanted and why or he'd just flip it on her, she said. "It's not for him. It's for Babs..." Seeing Orison smile and take in a breath, she quickly added, "And yeah, some for me too. You're taking the last year I have with my son before he goes off and maybe dies like his father. The system might have took over for the last year or so but I was there for the first fifteen. Gym memberships and junior trainers, I got him to the starting line." She wasn't finished but Garret cut in, "Yeah, mom. It was gym memberships and junior trainers but how many times did you patch a pair of my shoes and open a box of shiny reds or blacks the next week to 'go dancing' in? Yeah, you tickled a few chins to keep me out of trouble when I messed up but you dug in their wallets too and that's WHY I'd get into trouble even if I didn't do anything wrong...Teachers marry teachers, mom. So, while you were playing pocket pool with the Math teacher, his Language Comprehension wife was decorating my book report into a hell of red check marks! Don't sa-" Orison said in a low but commanding tone, "Garret, get your touch screen from your mom's...bag?... and hand it to Liberty." Mother and son's attention snapped to the young mage and as Garret moved to do it, Janet suddenly started pitching a fit, telling off Orison for ordering her son around and Liberty for abusing the authority she was given on personal matters. The silver haired woman asked Garret, "Are any of the activities logged on this device while in the possession of others over the last two hours, authorized by you in any way?" Confused but scared about what the girl or his mother could have done, he said, "No. I had it locked up but Macy got it out somehow." While a tired Turner held Janet back until a security personnel for the park took over, Liberty continued, "Then you have two choices. You can press charges or you can have the activities for the last hour erased. The small amount of purchases that were made can't be refunded without charges but the purchaser will be changed to the one who did so and logged on their own accounts after visual confirmation is confirmed." Janet's shrieks tapered off and with thick streams of tears and between sobs, she said, "Baby, just erase it. It was stupid but I thought I was going to lose you. I was scared that after you made it so far, you were going to forget about me... about Babs. I'm always so scared you're going to go out there and I'll never see you again." "Is that why you helped Macy try to bag me up? Mom, I'm still in first hill... and I'm not Accelerator anymore. Something like that could disqualify me from the program," Garret said, more heartbroken than angry. Seeing that this was going to drag on and only allow a chance for more dirty laundry to be aired in public, Orison said, "Don't engage. Set your terms and get your distance. You keep dancing in her zone she's going to find some weak spot and poke it til you fold." The whole time, she was begging for her son to not listen to Orison and to talk to her. "Baby, you can't do this. They'll take Babs away from me and put me in the Irregulars." Swallowing down the pain, Garret said, "Then let me go. All you have to do is take the hooks out yourself and I don't have to cut them out." After all of that, she still insisted on 100,000. She claimed this or that reason but the truth was, she actually did need at least half that because demerits she payed out over the last few months came from Babs' allotment and the part time job she had counted on to pay it back had cut her loose. On top of that, the minimum interest repayment on her merit debt was about to dip too far into future allotment funds. She was walking a very fragile tightrope. Orison said, "Last offer from my side before Garret is forced to make a choice that will leave him miserable no matter what he chooses. I'll put 100,000 into his little sister's allotment fund as replacement at 10,000 a month but you're going to give up all rights to Garret. As long as you stop this rolling snowball of stupid and get your head straight, you can squeak by the three month cool off for misappropriation of employee privileges. You'll have another six to find a job... I don't know what you think you're doing but you're screwing up your kids' lives and I don't give a damn how you justify it." The last hammer that cracked her front act was Liberty's final statement. "I can't ignore this. Even if you agree to this arrangement, Ms. Daniels, you'll be placed on the children service watch list." Crying the whole time, Janet signed the e-documents on Liberty's touchscreen before it was Orison's turn. Reluctantly, Gina patted her back when Janet turned to sob into her shoulder. Judging by the hard look that passed between Turner and his wife, it would probably be the last time too. When Orison looked at Garret, it was easy to see that he wasn't in a good place, emotionally. "Hey, I know you're not going to be in the mood to hear it but follow through is important. You got something for your mom and Babs, right? I think you should still give it to them with the same feelings you got it. If you can force yourself to be the bigger person now, you'll be able to feel better about things later, no matter how they turn out." Garret looked at the to-go containers and back at his mom. Talking to her was too much but his little sister that wasn't too far away was more than easy. He needed to say some things to her anyway. From where he was standing, Orison couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but the cool, weary looks mirrored on their faces meant that they had been preparing for a day like this for some time. They did get much time before, to Gina's relief, Janet 'tore' herself from her friend's 'comforting arms' and drove her 'traitor son' away from his 'innocent' sister. Babs was still quite young but not so much so that she didn't know what was going on. The cold look on the preteen girl's face when looking at her mother gave Orison chills. It was pure annoyed ambivalence. The kind of look one would give to a bug that crawled on their shoe, not another person. As Garret slowly walked back to Orison, Babs used the recoil her look caused Janet to run past her mother and after the hulking teen. After tapping her big brother on the back she held out her fist, bumped it with his and whispered something. Garret smiled and returned looking a little lighter. "Mom has a lineage preservation account opened on my behalf. Could you request it to be closed down, uh, Mr. Cantrip?" Garret asked. As soon as Orison was done politely requesting to just be called by first name with a slightly disturbed face, Liberty said, "Under the mandatory logged complaint, such an account would be frozen... Forgive the unintended pun... Any recent activity would be taken into consideration if further complications arise... Once again, I apologize. It's unintentional." Considering her deadpan delivery, the young mage believed her. The slight snicker despite the teen's emotional distress was welcomed regardless. It allowed for Orison and Liberty to get through their meeting before Garret's inevitable moment of brooding began that he tried to hide with a well trained neutral face. As far as the meeting itself, it was relatively quick. Orison handed over some sensitive but still legal, if barely, goods for Liberty to convert into merits. Once the finer details of how that would be done were worked out, he brought to her attention four names of people he'd 'researched' out that had looked into his UTF renewed identity and it's subsequent panning on news channels. He said, "These are a list of people who have made inquiries on me that I vaguely recognize. It could be false memories or confusion. So, I'm not sure of anything. I'd like to arrange to meet them to see if that turns into more like it did with Gravat. Yes, you'll hear from your brother that Triumvir Aurora's current... adjunct?... That recognized me and probably got me labeled as a walk-in. I think that calling me an incarnate or transmigrate might be more accurate. "Whatever the case. It's obviously a sensitive topic that the Triumvirate are already aware of and have kept silent about, which I appreciate. I trust you and your brother to do the same... I will notify Avalon if I remember or see anything that would endanger or jeopardize-" She interrupted, "It's alright. You trust us and have given us no reason to distrust you. I'll see what I can do to get a visitation prepared for these people. How important is expedition of this process and how much of your merits can you dedicate to it? Since it's personal affairs, I'm afraid that without a clear admission of blood relations, there's no assistance the system can provide you for this." Orison said, "Everything you've got there. If it's not enough to cover, then prioritize them in this order..." Liberty looked at the four IDs in The Weird that Orison had pulled up. "Why this one first? The other three look far more stable to me." The young mage said with a smirk, "Of the four, he's one of the two independents and... well... don't you think he just looks cooler than the rest?" "He looks like a criminal... Stag Nunnos... If he chose to change his name based off his appearance, that's tacky," Liberty denounced with a sigh. Shrugging Orison said, "If he turns out to be an easy person to talk to, you could ask. If you were a gambling woman, which I know you're not, I think even you would bet he has an interesting story." Before they parted ways, the young mage insisted on her ten percent commission which she accepted without the fuss of last time. He was kind of surprised but he really had put her to work and he felt she definitely deserved it. It occurred to him that Justice may not have had a chance to tell her about 'Midnight Margaritas' yet either. "It just dawned on me that you don't have an easy way to get stuff you might need immediately without going back home... That's not advisable... Would you be alright sporting some water park apparel for a couple of days til we can get that ironed out? I know it's kind of weird but-" Orison explained before Garret quickly cut him off to agree. After the unsealing of the park, Orison discovered the limits of 'all expense paid'. Apparently, he wasn't going as all out as was expected of someone holding a diamond pass because he'd only put a nice dent in the 100,000 merit gift limit. Between getting Garret, Rio and himself some surprisingly nice swag, it started disappearing pretty quick. True to the nature of Avalon, there might have been some ridiculous mark-up but apparel and high end personal items from the park had a great deal more 'merit' than as novelty items. Some specialty training and vacations did take place at the park. So, there was even a limited amount of gear and a decent spread of overpriced toiletries. The young mage even managed to uncover another important mechanism of the merit system through the experience. Taking too much goods away from one place incurred fines. Owning more than a certain amount of something also incurred fines. No matter how much merits someone had, Avalon did it's best to make sure that everyone had a shot at getting something and discouraged resource hogging pretty aggressively. Orison respected and even liked that but he wasn't so happy about being embarrassed at a vendor counter and needing his new charge to come and sign ownership of some goods to keep the fines from becoming official. "I'm telling you, Garret. Getting a little high from buying stuff on someone else's account is not just a woman thing. Look at me, just cheesing away," the young mage said with a wide grin that the hulking teen shared. Spending rush dwindling in the back of the long cab taking them to the nearest short range teleport center, Garret smile slipped to a dim one. "I-I'm sorry for how all this turned out. If I knew, I wouldn't have had the nerve to ask... Whatever you wa-" Orison stopped him. "Don't even finish saying that thought out loud. Dealing with some ground level drama was practically refreshing after what I went through before we hung out. All you asked for was a chance to spend a few months somewhere away from crazy so you could keep your eye on the prize. Your mom's the one who made it all complicated and proved just how bad you needed what you originally thought you were asking for." Whatever Garret was about to say was interrupted by a chime from his touchscreen. When the teen looked at it, he trembled in anger and sheer disbelief a couple of times before a single tear slipped past his control. Considering how much the guy had endured from his mom and still held it together, Orison had no idea what could hit so hard and fast to break him from a single glance at a screen.
