PftA Book 2 - Chapter 12 (take 2)

A/N: After considering the reactions to the chapter, I decided to do another version. The first section is basically the same, but everything after that is what I'd loosely planned for Chapter 13. Of course, I didn't spend a day considering and revising it... So... I hope you all like this version better? Feedback would be appreciated :)

Chapter 12 – Gifts

Despite the added strain on my schedule, I looked forward to starting classes a week later. While Atlantis University (AU) might not be a ‘real’ university as far as accreditation boards were concerned, the knowledge I could gain there far outweighed anything available at another school.

When the day of my first class finally arrived, I took Rhona’s advice and altered my avatar’s appearance enough that I was no longer easily identifiable as Emie Mercer, even to those who might know me. I also had Lisa change my display name on campus to reflect my middle name instead. Since it was an ‘official’ university setting, Gamertags and character names were not authorized, much like Junction High School. Some variation of the student’s real name had to be used.

Now, instead of EmieM., my floating identification tag read LynnM. Generally, I didn’t care for my middle name, mostly because my mom’s side of the family liked to call me EmieLynn, all mashed together in one word with a strong Southern inflection.

It was…embarrassing.

Or, it had been. It bothered me a lot less since my return than it had during the first timeline.

There were only a few players visible on campus. Judging by their lack of floating identification, I could easily see that most students were NPCs. In fact, none of my classmates were actual people. However, it would have been difficult to tell the difference without the visual cue.

I only had one class per day, with Economics on Firstday, History on Seconday, Politics on Thirday, and Sociology on Fourthday. Fifthday was free, as were *real* weekends, regardless of what in-game day it was.

Thank goodness I had Lisa to keep up with everything for me.

My Economics teacher was also an NPC, but he could easily answer my questions without defaulting to some predetermined line. The AI, or whatever magical counterpart being used, was truly remarkable in its realism. I sometimes wondered if the characters were based on real people.

The first class covered the most common physical currency system, which used small metal coins before shifting almost wholly to mana cores. There was a huge conversion chart posted on the wall, which made things easier to understand, even if the values weren’t as precise as I wanted since mana core values were generalized to ‘common’ cores.

The instructor explained that while physical currency – specifically metal coins – was less popular than interface credits, they were still widely used in lower-tier worlds. That was largely because the value of credits was based on mana cores, which exceeded the value of many common low-tier foodstuffs and items.

It was a bit confusing, but learning more about the topic was the whole purpose of taking the course!

During my Seconday class later that evening, I learned that the Alliance had just begun a new ‘era’ with the decision to end the study on Earth. The professor hypothesized that the other two study/colony planets would likely follow, but not for a few hundred years – unless something dramatic happened.

“There are more planets like Earth?” I asked after raising my hand to get the NPC professor’s attention. The professor regarded me strangely for a moment before he seemed to realize something.

“You’re a native,” he said with sudden understanding. “You likely wouldn’t know, then, but yes. There were three planets involved in the study. Only Earth is being reintegrated at this point, but we’re watching Gromin carefully since it is also a fully mana-less planet. Jeslana will likely continue to serve as part of the study for much longer since its ambient mana was maintained at just below Tier One levels.”

“So they have interfaces?” I asked, confused.

“No. The study's leaders ensured the system remains inactive on the planet. System propagation only works well at Tier Two and above. At this point, the nanites that comprise the system have long since died out there. And while the topic is fascinating, we’ll have to save it for another time,” the professor said as he redirected the lecture to provide an overview of the millennium that would be covered in the class.

During the introduction, the old man referenced several planetary wars, dozens of newly discovered planets, four separate wars with a non-Alliance entity called the ‘Collective’ (one of which was apparently ongoing), and changes within the Council. All of the topics were on the syllabus for the course. Knowing it wasn’t mere game lore but real history, I was excited to learn more.

= = =

In the months that followed, the shiny newness of learning about the Alliance waned. Classes that seemed full of magic and mystery quickly became nearly mundane. It didn’t stop me from eagerly absorbing the knowledge, but there was only so long something would keep its initial mysticism once someone got used to it.

It was easy to grow accustomed to things. I already knew that magic was no different.

Justin and Bell had continued to get closer, which flummoxed me, given his lack of serious relationships post-Melony in the previous timeline.

By the time Christmas rolled around, Justin and Bell were solidly a couple. Thankfully, they weren’t serious enough for him to bring her to the family gathering at our grandparents’ house in Tennessee. Since we’d visited our paternal grandparents’ house in Tampa the year before, we were visiting our mom’s parents for the holidays this year.

While having Bell there would have been…fine… I still wasn’t used to the idea that Justin was seeing someone seriously. It simply hadn’t happened in the previous timeline. The change was hard to wrap my head around. Ultimately, I just told myself they likely would have gotten together if they’d met in the other timeline, and I wanted them both to be happy.

The change had already happened, and I needed to accept it.

“It looks like we’ll be putting the house on the market after the New Year,” Mom said while we made ourselves sandwiches for lunch in my Grandma’s kitchen a couple of days before Christmas.

I was surprised at the news. Sure, my parents had both taken time off work to come down around Thanksgiving to do a bit of pre-emptive property hunting, but I hadn’t really expected them to move since it hadn’t happened before. It seemed I really needed to stop expecting things to go the same way at this point.

“Really? That’s great!” I replied enthusiastically. If they no longer lived in their current home, a huge portion of the risk they faced would already be mitigated since they’d been killed at home the first time. Living in a different home removed the immediate threat. “Dad got offered a job?”

Mom nodded. “Two of them, actually. One would have him doing active investigations again, which neither of us really wanted with how disruptive duty calls are,” she said, sending me a look that I completely agreed with. Too many of my birthdays and holidays were spent missing my dad because he’d gotten called in to work. I couldn’t count the number of dinners he’d missed.

“The other job offer actually came up after his bosses got word that he was looking for a new job. They asked him what they could do to keep him onboard, and he told them he wanted to be assigned to Pensacola to be near the two of you. We didn’t think much of it, but a week later, his boss’s boss contacted your dad and told him to apply to the job posting they’d just listed.

“It’s technically a promotion and lets him work remotely, which is awesome, but he has to spend a couple of weeks in D.C. to do some training before he can officially start,” she said as she wrapped her meal in a paper towel. “He’ll probably have to travel some, but it’s still better than getting called in at all hours.”

“So, what will he be doing then?”

Mom shrugged and sat at the table. I followed closely behind her with my own sandwich in hand. The rest of the family was out doing their own thing, so it was just the two of us in the house.

“Quality control? Inspections, maybe? I’m not really sure. He already made one trip to D.C. for the official interview, but he didn’t talk much about it when he got back.” She took a bite of her sandwich and sighed contentedly. “I’m just excited to get to move. I’ve felt the itch since your dad retired from Active Duty.”

I chuckled. She’d mentioned it a couple of times, but that was it. I hadn’t thought either of my parents really wanted to leave Missouri. They seemed to really enjoy it there.

“I thought that was your ‘forever home,’” I said.

“Meh, forever’s a long time. It’s hard to change habits after more than twenty years of moving constantly. I think this is the longest I’ve lived in one place since I moved out of my parents’ house,” she said, motioning around her. Unlike us, her parents hadn’t moved more than once or twice since they got married. They were still living in the house my mom and her siblings had grown up in.

Both of my uncles had stayed local, living within fifty miles of their childhood home. My cousins were a lot closer with each other than they were with me or Justin, but that was to be expected when we moved around every couple of years. It was why we made sure to visit most years. It wasn’t always possible, but our parents had tried.

Out of my cousins, I was only really somewhat close with one of them. Even that was a situational thing. We got along when we were together, but neither of us did much more than follow each other on social media otherwise. We’d never talked on the phone or shared much of our lives. It was very… superficial.

Realizing that made me a bit sad, so I decided to try harder this time.

“Hey, Gabby,” I said as I plopped beside the redhead. Her pale skin was covered in freckles, and her nearly orange hair contrasted sharply with her dark green eyes. Her features were soft and delicate, which worked well with her coloring.

“Hi, EmieLynn. It’s been a while,” she said with a soft, southern twang.

I cringed slightly at the nickname, but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard it during the visit. “It has. You started college this year, right?”

I couldn’t remember if she attended school before. I thought she had, but I really hadn’t kept up with… family. Man, I was a horrible cousin.

“Yeah. I’m going to APSU. What about you? You’re at Mizzou?”

I shook my head. “No. I decided to go to a new virtual university run by Atlas. Since I work for them, I got free tuition. It’s hard to pass that up.”

Gabby leaned a little closer. “I heard you got hired as a beta tester. That must be nice,” she said with a touch of jealousy.

“It is,” I admitted. “You can apply on their website. I’m pretty sure they are always hiring. It’s not really clear what they are looking for, though. I had friends who got hired and others who didn’t, so…”

We discussed the topic briefly, and I learned that she had only recently purchased a DIVE system. It explained her apparent impatience for the gathering to finish or at least reach a point where she could leave and return to her game.

The conversation shifted to real jobs in the Junction, and Gabby got animated as she described some of the things she’d seen and done in the mega-city. I noticed some of my cousins listening in on the conversation with looks of jealousy, and it dawned on me that not everyone in my family had access to the game.

I knew a lot of my family members were not wealthy, but I hadn’t really thought about it until that moment. Glancing at the Christmas tree, I was glad I’d brought more ‘normal’ gifts for the extended family gift exchange instead of giving my brother and parents their real gifts now.

The manatech pretending to be mundane tech that I’d purchased for them had only been released to the public in October, and it was expensive and hard to get due to the demand. As a regular Atlas employee, I got a significant discount and had purchased Atlas Glass phones for myself, Justin, and our parents, as well as tablets for our parents. Justin had helped pay for the tablets since they were a ‘joint gift,’ but even he didn’t know about the phones.

= = =

The rest of the holiday gathering went smoothly, and I felt genuinely glad to have spent time with my extended family again. The year before, we’d only seen my grandparents since my dad was an only child. Being surrounded by cousins, aunts, and uncles was a completely different feeling. It was also one that I hadn’t experienced in much too long.

I’d have to check on this portion of the family after the reintegration started to ensure they were okay. If things went the same way they had, there would be about three months between the interfaces activating and the portals opening. There should be plenty of time to get everyone settled, though I knew things would take much longer to reach a new norm.

The next morning, I watched in anticipation as my parents opened their first gifts. Seeing the matching tablets, Mom and Dad initially argued that they were too much. Both of them knew how expensive the new tech was. Once Justin and I explained that we shared the cost – which was significantly reduced due to my employee discount – they graciously accepted the valuable items.

When all four of us opened matching boxes marked as being from ‘Santa,’ I pretended to be just as shocked as the rest at seeing the sleek, crystalline phones. Of course, the ruse didn’t last long, but I repeated my previous argument and insisted that I could afford the expensive items with the pay raise I’d gotten from my ‘promotion.’

They didn’t like it, but I stubbornly told them I’d feel offended if they didn’t accept them. They much more grudgingly accepted the items, though I could tell they were just as eager as me to play with the new devices.

I’d had Rhona help with Amie’s gift. It was a mini Fitmon that would grow with her as she got older. It was linked to Justin’s phone so he could monitor her health and location, and it would alert him if anything was wrong. Additional features would become available as she got older.

Once she turned fifteen and her interface activated, the link to Justin’s Atlas Glass phone would break since she would technically be an adult by Alliance standards. She could reset the link if she wanted, but it would have to be her decision.

The crystalline cuff was also nearly invisible and could only (officially) be removed at an Atlas store unless the cuff registered its presence as harmful to the user. It could also send an emergency beacon if there was a serious issue, a feature controlled by the embedded AI. All emergency beacons would also ping my interface with a location, allowing me to Teleport directly to her location if she was in danger.

Soon, I planned to learn how to Target her beacon and Teleport her directly to me if something happened. If we had a safe location, I could have requested a similar feature to just teleport her away from the danger, but without some kind of safe room with a guardian, I couldn’t justify the addition for the toddler.

There was a lot involved in the small piece of jewelry. Had it been for anyone else, I doubt I would have been able to afford the piece, even with my connections. The work was too advanced for me to do myself. Luckily, Rhona was willing to let me trade in the blank spell crystal and a hundred contribution points to have the work done.

It was literally a steal.

Stella would be mad about the expenditure, but I had little doubt I’d earn more than enough for the augment she said I needed before the deadline she’d given me. It was still several months away, after all.