Ch30 Food Courting

 

After getting off the phone with Tim, I sent a message to Mikey using my mask. Luckily I still had administrator privileges. He called me a few seconds later while I waited for the elevator to the base.

 

“Hey Tofu, where’s the fire?”

“There is no fire. Tim said he was doing stuff at the mall and if we go he’d buy me a cinnabon, so we have to meet him at the mall. Are you done with your job yet?”

“Ha, I figured it was something like that. Yeah we were just driving into base. I can meet you in the elevator corridor in a bit?”

 

We talked about Tim’s plans when the elevator I was waiting for opened, revealing Cindy and Maz in civilian clothing. They looked like they had been talking.

 

“Hey Tofu.”

“Hello Cindy, hello…?”

“Natasha,” supplied Maz (I hadn’t known her civilian name), “and I should call you…?”

“Just Tofu is fine.”

 

“Yo did you say Cindy?” asked Mikey through the phone, “If that was her invite her man.”

“Why?” I asked, stepping aside to let Cindy and Natasha through.

“Why? Well, uh, she seems cool? Why not?”

“Cool? I thought she was hot?”

“Dude don’t… just do me this solid man, come onnn.”

“But-”

“Two cinnabons.”

 

“Cindy you have to come to the mall!” I blurted, startling Cindy as she tried to walk past with Natasha.

“W-what? Why?”

“Because Tim and Mikey are going to buy me cinnabons,” I replied, “and Tim said there is a new VRcade that he wants to test to try and become a tinker,” I added as an afterthought.

“Uh… thanks. But maybe next ti-”

 

“She’d love to go!” said Natasha, pushing Cindy forward.

“What?” exclaimed Cindy, surprised.

“Saturday afternoon at the mall. Hanging out with friends. Classic teen activity.”

“Er, I don’t really know… I was going to-”

“Oh no you don’t! No sitting in your apartment doing laundry or whatever.”

“I wasn’t going to do laundry.”

“Or some other boring thing. You’re done with work for the day girl. Go have fun. Let me live vicariously through you!”

 

The two argued back and forth a bit, though I recognized it as the same kind of bickering Mikey and Tim might do. Cindy finally gave in and agreed to go, and left to go grab “some stuff” from her apartment. Natasha left to make a late lunch for her kids (parents provide food for their offspring!? Envy), and I informed Mikey that Cindy was coming and we would meet him in the elevator hall.

 

Cindy arrived shortly, carrying a small bag with many pockets, and wearing different civilian clothes that had less faded symbols (but still wearing her black, elbow-length gloves). We got on the elevator to head to the base.

 

“So, anything I should know about your friends? They in the business?” asked Cindy.

I looked at her in confusion. Not because of her question, but because her voice wasn’t at all raspy.

“What’s wrong with your voice Cindy?”

“Nothing! This is what it’s normally like!”

“No, it’s normally raspy.”

“It’s…” she sighed and rolled her eyes, “I’d just prefer to make a good first impression.”

“Oh! Is it part of your civilian disguise?”

“Yes! Exactly! That’s what it is.”

“I see. Anyways, to answer your question Mikey also works here. He was with me when you gave me the fire extinguisher, and Tim is his long-time friend. Tim doesn’t know that Mikey works here so just be aware of that. Mikey doesn’t want him to know about this job.”

“What should I call you around Tim then?”

“Tofu.”

“…”

“He thinks Mikey and I work at a warehouse.”

She shook her head, “Kay. Hope you know what you’re doing.”

 

Admittedly, I had miscalculated in using Tofu as my name when I met Mikey and Tim, but I hadn’t realized at the time that I would be spending more time with them. It didn’t really matter to me so much if Tim found out, but if he did he would find out about Mikey, and that was a large problem for Mikey.

 

I wonder if I needed another alias to go by? But Tim already knew me as Tofu, as did anyone else I wanted to keep in contact with. A different name wouldn’t serve any purpose at this point, although I might want to start cultivating alternate personas for when this one eventually failed. Something to think about.

 

We arrived in the elevator hall, where Mikey was already waiting. He was still wearing his domino mask, and seemed a little surprised that Cindy and I weren’t wearing ours in the base. Unlike me, Mikey put his mask on every single time he entered the base, even if he was just passing through.

 

I made brief introductions since they already knew of each other, then hurried them into the elevator that would take us closest to the mall.

 

I had a ‘’food court’ to explore.

 

---

 

The mall was huge. It was composed of two large structures, both five stories high and multiple blocks wide. Between the two structures was an avenue designated for pedestrian traffic only, which weaved itself in a zig-zag pattern for multiple blocks, and was covered by a glass ceiling. There were multiple walkways between the two buildings, and if you stood on one near the top you could get a very nice view of the crowds and stores, even if the crowd was a bit thin, and many of the stores were locked up with signs saying: “Closed For Summer.” Mikey and Cindy were consulting a mounted map of the mall, while I munched on a cinnabon and watched the crowds.

 

Fun fact: cinnabons are just very large donuts, with an organic, bitter powder added to them. Still tasty though.

 

Mikey and Cindy located the ‘VRcade’ and we headed off, weaving through crowds and moving up and down ‘escalators’ (an absolutely fascinating transportation device). The mall reminded me of my first experience in E13, when Jasper was leading me to Maggie’s. There was a wide variety of both people and stores, although the stores inside the mall tended to be more ‘high-tech’ than the ones outside. One that really intrigued me had strange creatures floating through the air outside the storefront. At first glance they appeared to be made of the same glowing energy as Poena and Frankie’s powers, but civilians walked right through the ‘fish’ to no adverse effect. I wanted to buy one of these ‘holograms’ but balked when I saw the price. For that kind of money I could buy fifty tofu burgers! Absolutely ridiculous!

 

Speaking of food, there was an amazing arrangement of food vendors! There was of course the Cinnabon, but there was also a Puzzle’s Pretzels (and I learned that each establishment had its own unique shape for the cheezy treats), a ‘Smoothie Shack’, and a wide variety of ‘candy’ vendors. Humans have an amazing mastery of arranging sugar into unique forms.

 

One vendor sold specialty gum that changed flavors over time. Some of them even created swirls of color if you blew a ‘bubble’ out of them, which Mikey demonstrated for me.

 

Another vendor sold ‘hard candies’ that were shaped to look like polished stones. Rock candy, ‘lollipops’, and something called a ‘jawbreaker’ as well (which I took to be some kind of challenge until Mikey and Cindy rushed to inform me I wasn’t supposed to bite them).

 

An automated mechanical vendor along one pathway sold something called ‘cotton candy’, and the machine shaped different colors of the sugary substance into shapes on a stick. One of the shapes available was a ‘stick figure’ person, which I found confusing. From what I knew about them, humans were quite averse to eating each other, but food in the shape of a human was fine?

 

There was also a-

 

“Dude, if we stop for every single candy store we’re never gonna get there,” said Mikey.

“I’m almost done!”

 

I hurriedly made my selection and paid for the rest of my candy. There were just so many interesting varieties; I wanted to sample them all.

 

“Didn’t Sandra tell you to stop wasting your money?” asked Cindy, still without a rasp in her voice. I’d noticed her taking out a small, L-shaped device with a button on top, that she breathed into every now and then when she thought we weren’t looking.

“I’m not wasting it. It’s important to sample everything.” Just in case one turned out to be useful like the MREs. Besides, the taste of sugar was doing wonders to relieve the stress caused by Poena. Maybe Cindy should eat some, she seemed wound up.

 

After a few more escalators, we arrived at a storefront that had two large holograms displaying humans in fighting stances. The interior was similar to the arcade on Ashwood St. that I frequented with Mikey and Tim, except that a large number of the arcade machines had attached helmets and visors. I was the first to spot Tim, and we made our way over to him. He was at a machine labeled “Beat Dancer,” wearing a visor that covered his eyes and with his bag of gizmos next to the machine. Mikey had to tap his shoulder to get his attention.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

 

“Hey guys, isn’t this place great? They’ve even got hardlight stuff in the back…” Tim trailed off, noticing Cindy, “Hi there?”

 

We introduced Cindy to Tim, using our prepared story about her working at the same warehouse.

 

“Well hey, that works out great,” said Tim, “The hardlight chamber I wanted to try was a four-player.”

He quickly explained his plan, which was essentially to work with his bag of devices while inside the hardlight chamber, but he would need the other three players to continue the game and keep it from ending while he did so. Mikey was hesitant, but Tim “absolutely, positively, guarantee(d),” that nothing would explode this time. Cindy agreed to help as well (not seeming fazed by mention of explosions), and Tim paid for a session in the hardlight chamber. We received (somewhat flimsy) safety gear and blasters from an attendant, as well as a warning to use only the blasters during the course of the game, before heading to the designated room.

 

The game itself involved working as a squad to advance down an endless corridor disguised as an alley. How far you made it down the alley, as well as how many enemies you dispatched with supplied ‘blasters’, determined your final score. The walls had large screens behind reinforced glass to provide background, the floor was a slowly moving conveyor belt (similar to escalators), and hardlight constructs were used as obstacles. Tim’s plan was to assemble and repair items from his bag of devices while inside the chamber, thereby immersing himself in a “tinker mindset” while in a “stressful” situation. Theoretically, this would cause a tinker power awakening.

 

We spent the next hour playing and keeping the game running while Tim tried to complete some of his practice devices. The conveyor belt didn’t extend to the back of the room, so Tim set up there on the floor… at least, after attempting to walk along the conveyor with us, to near-disastrous results when his bag of devices spilled, and nearly dumped device parts into the gaps in the treads. As for Mikey, Cindy, and I, we got to work trying to get as far as we could in the game, which was… interesting. None of us had used a ‘blaster’ before, and after I figured it out, I had to tone down my aim in order to match Mikey and Cindy. The harder part was whenever an enemy hardlight construct surprised me, and I had to resist the urge to swipe out with a fist or spit bullets at it. In Mikey’s case, I think he was doing rather well for a normal human, but I didn’t have anyone to compare him with. Cindy aimed better than Mikey, even while taking out the small device and breathing from it, but I could tell she was tired from the Trebla job earlier today; she was much slower than when she trained with Adder and I. Still, that put her performance above Mikey’s. I’d need to make sure he kept going to Adder’s training sessions, he obviously needed them.

 

In the end, Tim… did not trigger. Which was a shame. I had been hoping to record data on the event if he did. While the two triggers I had witnessed up until now had no detectable source, I might just not have been set up properly for detection at the time. Plus, even if detecting the source was impossible, gathering data on the circumstances of the trigger would be valuable. The two triggers I had witnessed so far had been life-or-death combat situations, but I had read about people who gained them differently. Tim was more than willing to answer my questions, and Mikey eventually had to interrupt our conversation, suggesting that we go get some food.