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SoK Chapter 169
🕑 Added 2025-06-13 15:00:12 +0000 UTC***
TJ didn’t sleep particularly well that night, especially after Sven dropped by for a last minute goodbye.
“I’m sorry you don’t want to stay here. I hoped we would have a long relationship.”
“We can, just as allies, or friends, or neighbors.” TJ countered. “Just not as subordinate and superior.”
“That isn’t exactly what I suggested—” Sven insisted.
“Then what does me being a different god in your pantheon entail, Sven? What does it mean? You’re the leader, the one in charge, the one to whom all the power flows. If that isn’t the relationship of a superior and their subordinate, then what is it?”
“We would all gain strength together, TJ!” Sven’s reasonable, kind mask faltered as real anger surged in his eyes. “I will be a leader, yes, but that does not make me a superior! You wouldn’t be an employee or lesser, you would be someone who works with me!”
“If that’s what you want to believe, feel free.” TJ pursed his lips. “Don’t lie to me and say that your Bloodline and your personality don’t push you to be more. To be in charge. Don’t try to convince me that the world-devouring serpent is willing to be anything other than an absolute leader and tyrant.”
Sven flinched back at that. TJ wasn’t sure why that hit him harder than the rest, but TJ shook his head. “I don’t think you’ve got bad ideas or intentions. I think you’re doing good for the people here. But I’ve walked far enough along this road to know that I’m going to make my own, not follow yours. I wish you the best of luck and success in what you do, but don’t count me among your people. I won’t ever be.”
Sven gritted his teeth. “Fine. Then I hope our relationship can remain cordial moving forward.” He didn’t wait for a response and just whirled around to stalk away.
Ever since, TJ couldn’t not second guess every moment he’d spent in the damned New Republic’s area. Was it just in his head now? Or was there something insidious that he’d managed to overlook for weeks?
He didn’t sleep much, and when 6:30 came around, he got out of bed and still hadn’t made the damn Skill selection either. He’d have to actually have a conversation with people about which option might be best today, but first came moving day. Damn had he always hated moving. At least there wasn’t any furniture to deal with, but instead, he had two massive pelts from the Vargr and Tezcatlipoca-blessed mountain lion, as well as all the materials he’d taken from the minotaur encampment as well. And he didn’t have boxes or a car.
He grumbled as he checked the mountain lion pelt. It’d already mostly dried, which was good. He’d never expected just how much the Tutorial was speeding things up for him in creating things. Now, he was stuck waiting for weeks for the pelts to dry, and he needed to get working on them already. Unfortunately, that would have to wait, but the Copper tiered pelt was more than hardy enough to carry itself and a dozen items of varying size that he’d need to cart around for the next however long.
The mere inconvenience of it all nearly convinced TJ to leave off of leaving. But no, he carried the load to the door and ensured that it was all ready for him to carry out when the time came. For now, though, he needed to sit tight and wait for Luz to wake up. It wasn’t long.
As he changed her diaper and clothes, TJ’s mind ran through the dozens of things that’d been made simple by staying here. Was he going to be able to provide for Luz? Could he just leave her here? Surely someone would care for her, and would a life here be better than whatever unplanned mess he had in front of himself?
“No.” He said aloud to himself. Just that single word solidified his confidence, and he let the “human” doubts bleed away. In their stead rose a divine surety, a knowledge that he could and would provide for his people. Kukulkan had done so, but his limited understanding was that he’d been a bloody god, one to whom sacrifice was given in the hopes that his grace may shine down on the people. On the other hand, TJ was a provider. There was no need for a show of a willingness to give up what someone needed to get his attention. He would protect those who he cared about without cost and without rationalization, and Luz was among those who would be protected. Instead of just thinking it, though, TJ needed to say it aloud, to conceptualize it in truth.
“I will be strong enough to protect those I care about.”
As he said the words, as he truly believed it and of this way in which he differed from Kukulkan, something inside of him cracked.
Divine path self-realization, part 1/?? complete.
TJ stiffened where he stood. That… what did that mean? Of course, the System said nothing, so he was left thinking that he didn’t understand what he’d progressed, and all the while, he still had more Skills to look through and try to understand. He continued thinking as he played with Luz and tried to keep her entertained. There was the ever more pronounced effect that his Bloodline was having on him, the changes it was making in his mind. The excessive violence, the lust for blood, hell, even his lust in general. He’d become something that the him from a month ago couldn’t have dreamed of. This was only a couple weeks after the Integration, and he was feeling this way?
And then there was the System’s initial explanation of what a Neophyte was—Neophyte Classers focus on allowing the divine to change them, instead of them changing themselves into an approximation of the divine.
There was a certain realization that he had to come to, though, that Kukulkan hadn’t gotten it all right. If he had, he wouldn’t have peaked at Osmium, the ninth tier. As such, TJ would need to find his own path forward. Would it be a perfection, a sublimation of Kukulkan’s own? Or would it be a bastardized version of many, ripping the parts which best suited him wholesale from various paths until the path of Thiago Jorge Harris IV was perfected and he could walk it to true Divinity?
Regardless of anything that the System said (or didn’t say, as the case may be), the truth of that thought rang in TJ’s mind. Him deciding to make himself strong enough, to dedicate enough of himself to be able to protect those around him, that was a part of his personal path towards Divinity. That was something that transcended levels, and would more and more become a part of himself.
As Luz fussed louder, TJ wrenched his attention back to the world at hand. Luz was hungry. These bastards wouldn’t hold back feeding her, would they? It couldn't be… there was the possibility. TJ needed to check, and if they wouldn’t he’d go ahead and damn well make sure that they did.
TJ felt his blood pressure skyrocketing, and he forced himself to take a couple quick breaths, then a couple more. Nobody had threatened a child because of petty grievances, and he didn’t need to worry about that for now. Instead, he spoke to Luz.
“Hola, amorcita. Ven aca, ok? Ven conmigo.” The words came more easily to him than Spanish ever had, and he wondered what the reason for that could be. Just the increase in his Attributes? Or something else entirely? Didn’t matter, because Luz blessedly did as he asked and walked alongside him as he gathered up the few things he wanted to bring with him as they left this short-term home. Outside of the room, he smiled wryly.
“What’re you doing all alone, dude?” Seth asked as TJ walked out. The Avenger reached out and easily took the bundled pelt with hundreds of pounds of material inside of it. “Take the kid, I don’t have anything I want to take out of here. Let’s blow this popsicle stand, shall we?”
TJ laughed as he shrugged. “Sounds good. I’ll grab the playpen and my Spear and be on my way.”
As it’d already been folded up, it took mere seconds for TJ to do so, but somehow, in that miniscule time span, trouble had managed to appear.
“We will need to inspect everything you are carrying for valuables. Just to ensure that there is nothing that has been taken illegally from the New Republic’s land. You do understand?”
The voice was saccharine sweet and reasonable, as if they weren’t actively looking for an opportunity to rob TJ blind. His fury rose up as he stalked forward with Luz in one arm and the playpen and spear under the other. Alicia, the paper pusher that she was, was standing there as if Seth was about to turn everything over to her for her and the two lackeys behind her to ransack.
“Seth.” TJ spoke, interrupting. “Can you take Luz without too much trouble?”
“Sure.” He nodded.
“Great. Take her and everything you’re carrying and get just a hundred feet or so away. She doesn’t need to—”
“I’m sorry TJ but you don’t have—”
“Shut your mouth before I get violent, Alicia.” TJ glared at her in a way that she obviously didn’t expect. She pulled back from her confident stance and looked to both sides before deciding it wasn’t worth it. “I’ll be along shortly.”
“Sweet.” Seth agreed, taking a fussy Luz on his hip. TJ didn’t consciously watch them as they made their way away. He turned to Alicia.
“I’m not gonna engage in pleasantries. Not worth it, frankly. So here’s the deal. I’m taking all my things. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. I brought all this shit here myself, and there’s not a single thing you can do about it. You did nothing to provide these things, I never made any agreement about the exchange of goods for services, and there’s no leg to stand on.”
“There is sure to be legal precedent—”
“I wasn’t done.” TJ cut back, his tone as cordial as he could manage to force it to be. Which wasn’t much. “This isn’t the old world. If Sven and Raya are gonna make a legal code, I can tell you it’s not gonna be binding to me. So just shut up. I’m taking these things. They were given to me as gifts, I will treat them as such, and next time, if you don’t want someone to take gifts and then walk away, then don’t give them gifts.”
TJ trailed off, and only after she was totally sure did Alicia speak again. “I will have to report these things as stolen. It would make everyone’s lives much better if you were simply willing to, say—”
“It’s not a damn negotiation!” TJ couldn’t keep from shouting. “I’m not here as your friend, Alicia! I’m not! I’m telling you what’s gonna happen. You can tell Sven ‘TJ took his things when he left. All of them. You know, like a fucking guest does when they bring luggage into a place.’ If that doesn’t suffice, then whoop de fuckin doo, I don’t care. Got it?”
“... But what about…”
“Are you stupid?” TJ couldn’t believe his ears. He stepped forward, the haft of his spear smashing into the ground. A spiderweb of cracks rippled through the concrete as he did so. “I know you speak English. I’m leaving. I’m done talking to you.”
He didn’t say anything further as he stalked forward, following Seth’s path. As he approached, he saw that Seth had stopped, trying to calm an ever-more-irate Luz. She went to his arms as he approached, but even then, she was a hungry child with nothing to sate her appetite.
“You should take a look at this.” Seth said as TJ pulled a baggie of cereal from the backpack he wore.
“What?” TJ snapped.
“Just… this.”
