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SoK Chapter 156
🕑 Added 2025-05-30 15:00:14 +0000 UTCTJ didn’t have anything to add or say to the family as they hashed out their issues. After feeding Luz, he did interrupt, though.
“These are conversations that you need to have. I need to get this child to sleep. So go, have those conversations, but leave me to take care of Luz. Okay?”
They all filed out of the dorm room, and TJ nodded to himself. His little charge had eaten more than enough, and though she remained active, he could tell that she was flagging. So, with what little time they had before she succumbed to slumber, he pulled the single book he’d taken from her house out of the diaper bag. A simple book about different animal mothers and how they showed that they loved their children. It was a familiar moment, even though he’d never read that book and this wasn’t Junior.
After Mari’s death, TJ had taken special steps to ensure that Junior didn’t forget her. Stories about her, keeping her photos on the wall, and reading books about moms were all things that he made sure to do every day, and here he did the same, laying on the bed, leaning against the wall as he read in various voices to a child who slowly succumbed to sleep. Once the book was through, Luz was nearly asleep, and TJ rocked her gently as he sang a couple lullabies.
Once she was actually sleeping, TJ laid her in her bed, and though she fussed for a moment, he soothed her before leaving the room. Outside, he could hear people moving softly through the halls, and it wasn’t long before Mimi and Sam stood before him.
“Welcome back.” he smiled. “Luz just went down, so there isn’t much I can offer in the way of hospitality. Even so, I’m happy to have whatever conversation it is that we’re about to have.”
Mimi avoided his eyes, and TJ felt a faint pit of concern in his stomach. When he looked at Sam, he finally got an answer.
“Do you want us to leave you alone?”
Despite himself, TJ couldn’t help but retort, “Why do you keep thinking this? I wasn’t gonna do it, but I’ll quote Dr. Seuss at you! I said what I meant and I meant what I said, I’m faithful 100%. Amended slightly for effect.”
“But we’re in the way.” Mimi said.
“No, you’re not. You’re kids, and I wanna help you. I enjoyed helping Molly and Tessie in the Tutorial, and I’m looking forward to continuing to help you two now. Don’t think of the asshole adults that’ve forgotten and abandoned you before.Think of how much I’ve been here for you thus far, and let that wash those doubts away.”
Sam merely shrugged as Mimi continued avoiding his gaze. With a sigh, TJ gathered them both into his arms and gave them a squeeze. “I know words don’t mean a whole lot, but they mean something. That paired with how I’ve treated you over the last few days… that should be enough for you for now, shouldn’t it?”
While Mimi wrapped her arms around TJ, Sam didn’t seem to know what to do about it. TJ forced out a small laugh and said, “I’m here for you. If you’d like, I’d love to hear about your day. What you got done, and what you have planned for the rest of Dirt tier. Anything else you wanna talk about, too. If you wanna tell me about Seth, or whatever else, I’m happy to listen. Of course, if you just wanna go, that’s totally fine too.”
Sam looked at Mimi, who just said, “I killed a couple monsters today. It’s weird, because I can feel that I’m not really getting experience from it. Disciple is all about healing, and Crafter is… a crafter. So, it seems worthless. Even so, the spear’s doing more than enough to make sure that I’m able to kill some of the monsters as I go, so… it’s not too bad.”
TJ nodded, and as he continued listening, he learned about how Sam was learning about how to work with metal. The small stones he’d kept from the golem and the asanbosams’ claws were Copper tier metals, so after thinking about it, TJ offered them to the aspiring Armorsmith.
“I… I don’t know.” was the surprising response. “They’re all great. I’m sure they would be good for me. I just… I don’t know. Is this something that’ll get in the way of my path? Will it make me into just a smith? Or…”
Sam trailed off. To the kid’s credit, TJ wasn’t sure that he felt there was much of a specific answer that’d wash away all those concerns. After thinking for a second, he merely asked, “Has what you want to do with your Occupation changed?”
“Um…” Sam didn’t say anything else as he considered what TJ was asking. After almost a minute, he nodded. “Yeah, I think.”
TJ nodded slowly. “I imagined that was the case. I think it’s totally fine if you continue to change your opinions, but I think it might be beneficial for you to say what it is that you want to do. You know, put it out in the world. Manifestation or whatever.”
“It almost feels like I’m taking steps backward, though.” Sam said. “I mean, I said I wanted to be a knight before, but that was just going to be using up my Skills for things that I could make for myself! So I decided to make things to cover me up, and the Armorsmith would help with that! I enjoy making things, too, so I don’t know why I don’t want to make that my Occupation!”
“Because you’re feeling something else call you?” TJ shrugged. “There’s nothing set in stone. There’s nothing that you absolutely have to do. As far as I know, Dirt’s the time to make your decision, and you don’t have to evolve the very same second you have the ability to. In retrospect, if I wasn’t being hurried along by the Tutorial, I probably would have taken a bit longer to make the decision to take the plunge. So tell me, what’s your vision of yourself as a god? You hit Ruthenium, and what does the new god Sam look like?”
“Shining armor. Weapons orbiting me, all able to tear down the monsters that stand in my way. The ability to fly and make armor around innocents. Gleaming eyes that make evil people fear. Opportunities to save others.”
Sam stopped talking, his face red with embarrassment. As he stood there, abashed, TJ couldn’t help but grin widely.
“See, that is a difference, though, isn’t it? This isn’t you wanting to be a knight. This is your plan to be the knight. A path that leads you to seizing the Divine Authority of Protection, or Knighthood, or Weapons, or something. That isn’t just thinking you’ll get enough Skills to cover yourself. Does that make sense?”
“Kinda?” Sam didn’t look convinced. Something that made sense to TJ intrinsically simply didn’t communicate to the young man. TJ figured it was something to do with his own understanding of Divine Authority.
“Look, your goal before was to be a guy wearing medieval armor and carrying a sword and shield. You wanted to be just a strong man. Now, though, you want to be a divine being. You can see what Skills you might choose at Copper, Silver, hell, even Platinum and whatever the other names are for the Tiers moving up. That’s a path, not just a random idea of who you might wanna be. Does that make more sense?”
Sam nodded slowly, seeming to picture who and what he could become. He smiled a surprisingly boyish grin as he understood his own goals better. That he could so simply picture his future so far down the road was interesting to TJ. All he’d been able to think about since this all began was Junior, but he didn’t think that he’d become some paragon of fatherhood to the cosmos in that path. That wasn’t his goal long term. Instead of worrying about that, though, he turned his attention to Mimi.
“How about you? You know where you might want to be seven tiers of Divinity from now?”
She sighed, but nodded. No answers were forthcoming. TJ smiled. “Wanna share them?”
“If you will.”
Having already realized he didn’t have an answer, he shrugged. “Frankly, I’ve only pursued power, pure and simple. It’s for protecting my family, but I’ve been looking for the strongest Skills, though I didn’t take the strongest evolutions available to me. One because it represented a limited, weaker path overall, another because it would change who I was. Even so, I’m… almost possessed with a need to be stronger, stronger than everything that can threaten me and mine. So I don’t have a specific goal, because I’m attempting to tread a path that leads me to overwhelming strength. Going off where I’ve come this far, I’ll guess I’ll be a massive snake that can fly, control wind and rain and storms, and take strength from others wherever I go. Willing or otherwise.”
“That’s…” Mimi trailed off.
“Uninspired and frightening?” TJ offered with a faint grin. “I get it. I didn’t share it initially because I didn’t want to taint your views. I’m so utilitarian about it that I understand why it would be something that takes away from your dreams.”
“No. I think it’s beautiful.” Mimi shrugged with a wry smile. When TJ cocked an eyebrow at her, she continued, “I’ve wanted nothing more than someone who’ll fight for me my whole life. Sam does his best, but he’s my brother, and only two years older than me. When… when all the darkest things happened to me, I just wanted someone who was willing to pull me out of them. Someone who’d face my scars and take on some of their own for me.
“So you being willing to twist what could be something selfish into something selfless for someone you love is just… pure love, if you ask me.”
In his heart, TJ disagreed with her words. He knew the dark enjoyment he got from defeating others, the surge of excitement at getting another level, and the need to compete against Sven specifically to ensure he wasn’t outclassed ever again. Even so, he could see a little of the reflection of her optimistic viewpoint, and he smiled as he thanked her.
“I don’t think I deserve that, but I appreciate it.”
Mimi smiled. Then, as she took a deep breath, she said her own dream in a voice barely over a whisper. “I want to be an angel. I want to rescue people from this hell. I’ll carry a spear and fly to the suffering children, those forgotten and abused, and I’ll bring them something that they’d forgotten. I’ll be hope.”
“A damn good plan, if you ask me.” TJ grinned. “Thanks for sharing your dreams with me, kids. I get it can be embarrassing at the best of times, but right now, we’re talking about becoming gods. Kinda… weird. Nothing we’d ever thought of before, I’d guess. But now, we need to consider what kinds of divine beings we want to become. So, back to that original point, Sam, I think that you should probably take some of these materials. Make something that’ll let you become that paragon of knighthood like you dream.”
Sam nodded, his face no longer embarrassed. Instead, he squared his shoulders and said, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that as a Zealot, or if I’ll need to switch my Class like Seth did. But I’ll do my best. And then, I’ll be by your side. I’ll be in your pantheon, TJ. You’ll be the leader a pantheon needs, the one who cuts a path forward and prepares it for those who follow. You’re already doing that, and I… well, I’m super grateful.”
“And if you need space for a healing angel, I’ll be there.” Mimi said, a blush on her face, though she did manage to meet TJ’s eyes.
TJ opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as he heard someone coming up the stairs. There hadn’t been anyone else who came by than those people he knew, but TJ knew these weren’t a friend’s footsteps. He put a finger to his lips as he rose to his feet. There was no Storm around. Dammit. He’d gotten soft, slow. Why hadn’t he started Stormcalling the second he got here? Instead of continuing to worry about that, though, he prepared to empower himself with Divine Manifestation as he called down the stairs.
“Who is it?”
