Needing an actual intervention from Glory Girl of all people had kinda put things into perspective.
Ever since Triggering over a year ago, I did my best to avoid the common pitfalls of parahuman life. I stayed away from the spotlight for as long as I could. I tried to be rational and measured in how I approached issues, problems and conflicts. I did my best to listen to people around me - even if at times, they kinda had to bludgeon me over my head with the truth. I made sure to get therapy - and kept paying one Doctor Meaner once the initial half a year of pre-paid sessions ran out. I made sure to broaden my horizons beyond what was immediately useful to my powers.
But the one thing I always struggled with was the work-life balance.
It was so damn easy to cut things out. To stop doings the things you enjoyed, because there was something more important that demanded your attention. To let Necessity consume you.
And for the past two months, I just allowed it to do so. Every waking moment outside school was spent on tinkering or working or meetings. Meetings about the Arenas, meetings about the potions, meetings about the Brockton Bay Jinja, meetings about the School Board elections, meetings about Land of Fantasy Ltd's finances - just SO DAMN MANY MEETINGS!
Even with the creation of my Miko Dolls - they were mostly there to allow me to tinker while I was busy at yet another meeting!
Sure, there were also the shrine duties, but they were not as omnipresent (though admittedly, partially because I was a rather lousy miko-in-training). For example, last Thursday was Setsubun - the day that symbolised the beginning of spring, with the tradition of tossing roasted soybeans, preferably at people wearing demonic costumes for the occasion. There was even a ceremony at the jinja in which we tossed packets of roasted soybeans into the crowd of attendees.
And yes, it did not escape me how ironic it was to celebrate the start of the spring when Brockton Bay was practically up to the waist in snow. Like it still was - the snowfall was so damn constant you'd think some Tinker's weather machine was stuck on 'Let it Snow'.
All of this to say - I had managed to turn my schedule into a veritable mess without even noticing, and it took Victoria freaking Dallon practically dragging me to the mall to hang out with her, Dean, Carlos, Amelia and Marie for me to realise just what kind of a ridiculous headspace had I pushed myself into. Again.
So, after an evening of failing to video game good at people who had much more practice at them (as well as somehow beating everyone at air hockey) and realising just how screwy my situation became, I forced myself to stop, and re-examine my priorities and my schedule.
A lot of what I was doing was important - but I probably didn't have to attend EVERY meeting I had been attending. The ones with Mr. Unison had to stay - though maybe, we could do them a bit less regularly. Not weekly - I still could not trust him NOT to go off the rails if I left the guy to his own devices for seven days, but maybe twice a week, rather than once per two days? The Land of Fantasy Ltd meetings were important - but they were also generally once a week. I could not just outright ignore Brockton Bay Jinja stuff - but Mr. Sakurai was responsible for the religious half of it, so maybe I didn't have to attend quite so often.
Then, there were the School Board and potions meetings. The former… I could probably stop doing, and just get by with having Coil 2 send me regular updates, only warranting a meeting if I saw her going off-script. As for the potions meetings… Ugh. They were the most sporadic, dependent on the PRT, the FDA and staff from various hospitals. They were also mostly organisational stuff that… I could possibly delegate to Tana entirely?
So, like… Tuesday and Friday - a meeting with Mr. Unison, Monday for a Land of Fantasy Ltd meeting, one or two meetings for the jinja whenever Mr. Sakurai called for one, up to five meetings per week… and hopefully, none on the weekends, unless something important came up.
And of course, I was NOT using that freed up time to tinker either. Instead, I brought out one of the things sent to me in the last Leviathan mail container - a small, portable video games console, the kind that was imported from Earth Aleph. Weirdly enough, it had two screens.
There was even half a dozen games I could play on it, like one about a caricature of an Italian guy running and jumping onto the heads of sentient mushrooms and turtles, one where he and his supposed enemies he previously crushed to death beneath his feet drove around on go-karts for some reason, one where a kid ran around the countryside collecting magical animals to throw them into legalised cockfights, one where a guy who looked like a girl was thrown into another dimension and had to defeat the forces of evil with a sword he found… Ah, and my favourite of the bunch - the one where I was sent to a rural village, was immediately forced into debt to a raccoon, and had to do odd jobs to repay it while furnishing my house and befriending other villagers (I know it sounds stressful, but it was the CHILL kind of stressful).
I spent half of my freed up time on that rural village game, and another half on the go-kart one, in an attempt to get to an acceptable level of proficiency. Mostly, because this newfound hobby kinda played into another plan I had brewing.
And… yeah, it took some time to get used to the go-kart game. The first hurdle was to get over the fact that in this kind of game, playing it safe was a sure way to lose. Another, was that apparently, there was a way to drastically speed up your vehicle, if you slammed the brakes during a turn - which could technically be used even in the middle of a straight stretch of track.
Then, there were various items that could be obtained by picking up boxes - and they were dependent on where you were compared to other racers. Like, if you were in first - you were likely to receive items like banana peels that caused other players to 'slip' on collision, mushrooms with eyes that sped you up for some reason, or turtle shells you had to properly aim to hit anyone. And if you were closer to the last place,you had a chance to receive a blue shell, which tracked the first player, and hit them with an almost 100% guarantee - unless they knew a specific trick to avoid it.
Rather than play to win against the CPU, I spent my time trying to learn the game as best as I could, often giving up the lead to learn what to do if I had to catch up - including from being dead last. And sure, I'd been playing video games at all and this go-kart game specifically for just a little over a week, but I was sure that I made pretty good progress from that day at the Arcade when, according to Amelia, I drove like a grandma.
And today, the results of all that practice were coming to bear fruit.
"Ahhahahaha! Eat my dust, you plebes! I am number-WHAT?! BLUE SHELL AGAIN?! CHAT, IS SHE CHEATING?!"
I tried not to pay TOO much attention to an all-too-familiar screech in my ear, as I planned to take a risky shortcut, guiding the go-kart of my bibbed baby dragon turtle towards the last set of items I'd take before I made a play for the first place.
"Ha, take that, soup girl! I'm number one now!" the white-clad boy with a faceplated helmet declared, as his weird pink dinosaur thing took the number one spot while the 'soup girl's' princess was spinning in place after being exploded.
"Not for long!" the blonde kid in green gritted out, her green moustached guy already at the heels of the leader.
The three of them were really going all out fighting for that number one spot.
Me? I was currently number eight - though not for long if I had anything to say about that. I had a lightning bolt in one slot, and picked up another item-ooooh, another blue shell? Don't mind if I do!
I took another shortcut and, as my three opponents were collectively drifting around a corner, activated the lightning bolt item - which had a nasty tendency to zap EVERYONE but the user simultaneously. Which, of course, slowed them down and forced all three of them to lose their drift.
"GAAAAAAH?!?! WHYYYYY?!" another shriek from the 'soup girl' did very little to deter me, as I picked up a trio of green shells, and went for the next shortcut I knew. "Chat, keep an eye on her! She's totally cheating!
And yeah, you've read it right. I was currently playing another version of that go-kart racing game with the Wards. Including Emma.
I was in fourth place already, not that far behind the tall green Italian stereotype - and there was just half a track ahead of us. The pink lizard thing was in the lead, and was just about to jump over a chasm - so I sent a blue shell its way. Judging by the choice swear from the white-clad boy - Clockblocker - he REALLY didn't appreciate it, as he was put back on track already behind me.
I waited for the next item line to continue my play - the blonde kid, Vista, had a habit of using her items at the first opportunity. This time, she got triple shells she immediately sent Emma's way - which probably would've missed if Clockblocker didn't get a screen-obstructing squid thingie he immediately activated.
"WHAT THE?!"
Luckily, there was just enough visibility on my part of the screen to avoid crashing into a wall - and even aim one of my own shells at the green menace.
She also got hit, and I overtook her, almost reaching the princess currently in the lead. I was not sending any shells her way yet - there was one last turn ahead of us.
Only once she was about to start drifting, did I shoot my last two shells at her, making sure that they would almost certainly hit even if she ended her drift earlier than needed.
"NOOOOOOOO!"
Finally overtaking her, I brought my bibbed baby dragon turtle to the finish line, and watched ponderously, as the rest of the players finished their race three, five and ten seconds later.
"Welp. That was fun," I smiled plainly.
"How the hell did you win?" Clockblocker turned to me. "You were in the eighth place for half the race!"
"True. The controls were weird, took me a bit to learn them," I shrugged.
"Was she mathing things out? I feel like she was mathing things out," Vista mumbled.
"You must've cheated somehow!" Emma- no, E-Potage declared with a sneer. "And chat agrees! The peoples' will is for us to have a fair battle! So why don't you fight me instead?!"
"You want to fight me? Hold all six Arenas by the end of the season," I deadpanned. "But I'm open to playing more videogames."
For a couple of seconds, she looked like she wanted to forego all niceties and throw down here and now - only to then look to the side, where her visor displayed the chat with the people watching her stream, and after a couple of seconds, huff out in discontent.
"Whatever," she scoffed, walking to the pile of video game cases they had in the corner, and picking up another one. "Here, let's play this one!"
"You sure about that?" Clockblocker chuckled, before shrugging. "Well, your funeral."
The game she picked was about the same group of characters as the previous one, but somehow in another genre - this time it was just called 'Party'. This one didn't have my baby dragon turtle with a bib, but at least there was a turtle guy available, so I chose that one.
Why WAS I playing videogames with the Wards? Well, the answer was simple - I was hoping that it would help Emma.
From what I've read from her files, she was obsessed with proving that she was the strongest in any room she was in. With the way I made it impossible for her to challenge me in a fight unless she had met some VERY specific conditions, E-Potage couldn't just duel me as she wanted. Though if I left it at that, there WAS a chance she was eventually gonna go AWOL and try to fight me anyway.
But if I came over to hang out with the Wards and played video games with them? Well, that was another venue she could challenge me in, and one that could both broaden her metaphorical horizons, and help her bridge the gap she created with the other Wards.
All I had to do, was to come over every few days. Which gave me a reasonable way of giving her a challenge that did NOT boil down to parahuman nonsense.
Hmm… I wonder if the Wards had a ping-pong table stashed away somewhere. Pretty sure I could do well with that as well.
Oh, huh. I won…?
"HOW?!" E-Potage shrieked again, "I was in the lead! Why did they give her so many stars?!"
"Such is the game. Such bullmanure," Vista nodded sagely.
"We'll have a rematch next time, same as with the karts." I smiled at her plainly, before another idea came to me in a flash of inspiration. "Oh, do you have pool on this thing?"
"Pool?" Clockblocker froze for a moment, "Oooooh, I've GOT to see this. Hold on!"
This was not ideal, but I supposed it was nice.
"You think you can challenge me in a game of balls?! I, E-Potage, will show you the error of your ways! For I am the Queen of Balls!"
…it was okay-ish.
A/N: Huge thanks to GreyJohn for editing this chapter!
