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SoK Chapter 148
🕑 Added 2025-05-16 17:28:54 +0000 UTCThe night passed, and TJ hadn’t made any meaningful headway in teaching himself Lightning Manipulation. As he’d attempted it, though, he pretty quickly realized that having the thing he was trying to move with his mind be around would be necessary. As such, after an hour of useless thinking passed, he’d used Stormcaller to generate a storm that’d complained overhead for a couple hours. Now that he had so many resources to throw into the Skill, it wasn’t difficult to push a Storm into existence with just a couple minutes’ effort. Then, pushing his awareness out of his body and into the wind, he danced around in the storm.
The lightning didn’t listen to him. It had been amenable to his suggestions before, but still it remained proud, volatile, and angry. He couldn’t convince it as he’d tried so far, but there was nothing else to do but to keep on trying. There simply was no way that he was going to use a Skill selection on Lightning Manipulation when he knew he could figure it out himself.
When the beginning of light pierced through the waning clouds outside, TJ felt himself begin to get a little tired, but nothing strong enough to force him to sleep. Instead, he just stood up from his somewhat meditative position and stretched for a couple short minutes. Once the System’s clock passed 7:30, though, Luz’s cries filled the air and TJ opened the door to help the child.
She was standing in her playpen, tears in her eyes, and she didn’t calm down when she saw TJ. Mimi sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes as TJ tried to deal with the squalling child. As Luz cried and pushed TJ’s hands away, he sighed and looked at Mimi.
“Sorry she woke you up. I was outside, so I didn’t hear her in time.”
The teenager squinted, yawned, and finally understood what was happening.
“You didn’t need to give me your bed, I could have slept out in the hallway. I’m sorry!”
“Mimi.” TJ said, as longsuffering as he could manage as he hauled Luz up and set her on the changing table. She recoiled at the cold air, and TJ was reminded just how far from human he had become. More and more, that didn’t bother him though he felt like it probably should. “I’m fine. I don’t need to sleep like you do. I got some rest and worked on some Skills. It’s all good. Now, you hungry? Cause I think Sam should be awake by now, so you’ll have to get him before too long. Then, I’m finally going to go out and see what I can do about any Coppers that’re somewhere nearby.”
“Ok.” Mimi sat up and out of the covers. She was still in her jeans and jacket from the day before, and she looked down at her dirty clothes in disgust. Her shoes were still by the bed where TJ had dropped them, so she pulled them on and tied them as TJ got Luz all dressed, making sure to put a jacket on her. She fussed continuously, but it never built to a true cry, so he counted that as a victory. As he and Mimi walked down the hall to get to the ground floor, TJ ran into Alicia.
“Good morning.” She called out as she strode towards them.
“Morning.” TJ grunted. “Where can I get Luz some food?”
“I can have it delivered to your room within the next five minutes.” The woman who seemed to have been assigned to him smiled as she offered room service.
“I’m fine with just getting her some real food before dropping her off at the daycare. I got everything sorted yesterday.”
“Very well, TJ.” Somehow, Alicia said his name with respect dripping from her words. “I would ask that you wait here, though. The food is just in the kitchen of this dorm, and it would be easiest to ensure its freshness and preparedness by providing it to you while you are still here.”
“You… what?” TJ asked, unable to comprehend just how he was being treated. It was obvious that those in Sven’s pantheon were going to be treated this way, and TJ wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
“I’m sorry!” Alicia’s polite smile fell away as she bowed. “I shouldn’t have imposed on you. Please, go your way and let us know where you would like for us to deliver your and Luz’s food!”
“No, that’s not what I was saying.” TJ growled. “I was just surprised. Yes, we’ll wait. Sheesh.” Already, he was not willing to deal with this pussyfooting around. Maybe he did need to just create a village in the middle of the wilds and just live there where he didn't need to deal with all this.
“Right away, sir.” Alicia’s face fought to get into an expression of normalcy, but she couldn’t quite manage it. Instead, she looked a little terrified. It’d only been a couple days, how was she already so skittish? Though he craved understanding, TJ didn’t want to ask the question and risk setting her off again. Just… ugh.
A couple minutes later, a bowl with some preserved fruits on top of cheerios was presented to them, and TJ took it for Luz. His own breakfast was an omelet with some mushrooms and spinach in it served over bacon and hash browns. He didn’t like spinach in his eggs, but saying as much seemed like it might get someone flogged, and he didn’t care enough to risk that. Instead, TJ just nodded his thanks to Alicia and handed off a second plate of just some bacon and hash browns to Mimi.
“Don’t worry about your brother.” Alicia said before anyone said anything. “He’ll be well fed in the same way you are.”
Mimi just looked up at TJ before she nodded slowly. They both walked out, TJ balancing Luz on his left hip as he held the bowl in his left hand and scooped individual bites up with his right. Eating fruit and a familiar meal seemed to take the edge off Luz’s unhappiness, and TJ welcomed that. After all, if he could do anything to help her be happier, he’d do it. When he arrived at the daycare, only one woman was there. He’d spoken with her last night… Martha.
She was an older woman, maybe 60, and she’d professed that, more than anything, she didn’t want to fight and wanted to protect the children. After all, she’d explained, she’d spent most of her life as a stay-at-home mom and then volunteering at a local daycare. With that as her goal and experience, it wasn’t hard for her to end up as the official leader of the childcare facilities. That she was a level 16 Disciple didn’t hurt her position either, as she was more than capable of making sure the children didn’t get too hurt while they did their usual kid stuff.
“Hello, TJ.” Martha greeted with a smile and a little wave at Luz. “This is Luz, then?”
“Yeah, it is.” TJ reached over and lightly held Luz’s hand to wave back. She initially resisted, but once she realized what he was doing, she didn't mind waving enthusiastically.
“Sounds good. You’re here a bit earlier than expected, though.”
“I’ve got some things to do.” TJ didn’t need to give more detail and held Luz out to Martha. “As far as I can tell, she’d been raised with Spanish as her primary language.”
“Oh, muy bien Lucita!” Martha greeted the child as she held her arms out. Luz didn’t know if she wanted to go over. “Esta bien! Ven, juguemos!”
Though he was far from a crack Spanish speaker, TJ got the gist of what Martha was saying, and, instead of just handing Luz over, he put her down to let her explore the space. Behind Martha was a room full of blankets, some books, and toys. That they’d found so many children’s things on campus so quickly was a miracle, and TJ handed over the diaper bag.
“I’ll be back by dinnertime.” TJ said.
“Good enough for me.” Martha said as Luz wandered over to a stack of neatly folded blankets and started pulling one out the middle, making the rest fall. TJ called out a goodbye, but Luz didn’t look at him. That was good enough for him, and he walked away. Mimi was still there, twisting her hands nervously.
“What’s up?” TJ asked, raring to go. He realized that, though he didn’t like being injured, he was truly anxious to get out there and start fighting and getting some levels.
“I just…I want you to be safe.”
“I will.” TJ assured her with a grin. “Between Divine Transformation and my Skills, I’ll be able to at least escape any trouble that comes my way. Who knows, I might just bring back some more interesting materials!”
Mimi shrugged and waved goodbye as TJ jogged off. His Spear remained in his hand, but he didn’t want to leave himself open to anything, so just as soon as he exited the perimeter of guards and so on, he proceeded to activate Divine Transformation. With the winds whispering about dozens of things nearby, he listened to see if there was anyone else that needed to be helped like the day before. As soon as he was sure that, no, there wasn’t anyone in obvious peril nearby, he turned his attention, once again, to the north. Remembering that several survivors from his Tutorial, like Molly and Tessie, had said they were from Mesa, he decided to turn his attention to the northeast this time.
He slithered through the streets, unconcerned with the few Dirt tier monsters he saw. It was obvious that the New Republic was fighting to kill off the monsters closest to campus, and they’d seemed to have been largely successful in doing so. As such, TJ figured that everyone who, unfortunately, had been killed in the past couple of days, was beyond his helping.
Further and further he went, occasionally killing the stupid monster unable to see that challenging him was a literal death sentence. His jaws ripped them apart before swallowing what remained, and his journey took him beyond the freeways and into Mesa itself before an hour had passed. The miles left him behind, but there were no Copper tiers anywhere to be found. He felt his frustration rise. After all, he needed to gain levels somehow, and the Dirt tiers just didn’t cut it.
Down one of the massive streets he continued to slither, hoping to find something to kill. It would all be a waste if TJ didn’t at least get some experience. Even a level after so long would make sense. After all, he could feel that he was particularly close to getting those next levels. There wasn’t anything around that could provide that final spark, though.
His scales scraped over the broken asphalt of the road, and he disregarded the sprouts of grass and so on from the road. Instead, he looked out and listened to the wind for any indication of something that would be interesting enough to hunt. His blood was up, and he carelessly threw a blade of wind at a monster he didn’t even think to Appraise as it fled from his presence. Before he could look at the kill notification, though, the ground collapsed under him. As soon as TJ fell into the sewer below, the ground closed back up above him, and the sound of an angry creature filled the tunnel.
Though he couldn’t see, TJ felt himself get excited. Finally, it was time to do something.
