SIXTY-EIGHT: The Warren

Alden enjoyed a week of peace and anonymity before he chose to bite the bullet and attend a Meet the New Residents event.

The neighbors were getting interested in him. Natalie Choir was worried he’d been left out because an apartment full of new Rabbit boys was being filled on the floor below. Her roommates had been hinting that they wanted access to the coffee machine. And the guys in 912 had invited him over to hang out with them tomorrow and “watch our rock garden do something,” which they promised would be worth it.

Frankly he was so curious about that one that there was no way he was going to miss out.

He was sure it was only a matter of time before his story went viral through intake. Lying sleepless in bed the night before the meet and greet, he’d decided it would be better to pick the moment himself, so he could take control of the narrative before it came out as a gossip-generated mutant that was even worse than the real thing.

This is for the best…and what can a rock garden even do? he thought as he entered the crowded lecture room where the event was being held. It was decorated with neon-colored paper chains, and there was a table with drinks.

It was an optional event and purely social, so pretty much everyone who’d come was in friend-making mode. He grabbed a plastic cup full of pineapple punch and a seat. There was a counselor from the Brute tower chilling in a corner, but other than standing and letting everyone know that it was time for newcomers to start going up to the lectern at the front of the room, he didn’t have much to do.

Alden listened to a dozen different people talk about themselves. A D-rank Life Shaper focused on her hobbies. An A-rank Adjuster told everyone that he was planning to specialize in fire spells and attend a hero program at Li Jean Academy starting in a few weeks.

There was lots of clapping and cheering. Everyone was thrilled to share the story of how they became an Avowed. It started to get really relaxed, and of course people were showing off their new powers.

All right, Alden thought, standing up during a slight lull. Get the job done. Don’t completely ruin the tone. How hard can it be?

He walked up to the lectern with his drink and took in the hundred or so people in the room. Faces around his own age from every corner of the globe looked back at him. The fact that he now lived in a place with people from all over the planet was astounding, and he still hadn’t gotten used to it.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m Alden. I’m a B-rank Rabbit. I got selected back in February.”

A few of them looked confused, probably because that was too far back for him not to be at least a minor criminal.

“I actually got summoned for the first time right after I’d finalized my talent selection—”

Several people clapped. A Brute shouted encouragements. Alden had known that they would be excited. It was considered cool to already have a summoning under your belt before you even hit the island.

He tried not to feel awkward. He tried not to be awkward.

“Yeah,” he said, taking a sip from his drink. “Thanks. It was a good first job. Lab assistant work. Ten days. At this really swanky wizard school. I made some money. I made friends with a griveck.”

Everyone laughed.

“No I really did. She’s great. I called her last night, and she was so excited. She said she’d kill something in my honor.”

They laughed again.

Well, I guess it’s hard to understand if you weren’t there. Alden had even toned it down for them. Sophie had actually been in the process of stalking her dinner when she answered his call, which was the most expensive one he’d ever made. Apparently Earth to Sreeeakk was extreme magical long distance.

She’d said she would chase her prey more slowly to prolong its death and celebrate his return to life.

“Anyway, I got an additional quest while I was there—”

<<You Rabbits! You need to leave some for the rest of us!>>

Alden smiled.

“And there was an accident when I teleported to Moon Thegund. It’s in the Artona I system. It has…not much on it. I got stuck there for a while. More than half a year. Because the System broke due to a minor chaos incident.”

People were still grinning, but in an uncomfortable way now. Like they weren’t sure if he was being serious or not.

Mentioning the demons would be too high drama, right? Alden thought it would be. He was trying to keep the story true-ish but not so detailed or grim that everyone would be desperate to hear more about it. It was hard.

The Brute intake counselor was giving him a super concerned look and air typing, which made Alden think he might be texting Neha to ask what the new Rabbit boy’s deal was.

“Since the System was broken, I couldn’t teleport back home. So I lived in a vault in an abandoned laboratory to protect myself from the corruption. I spent most of my time studying Artonan. I speak it now. Pretty well. And I thought it would be interesting to prove it by finishing my introduction in that language.”

This was a completely spur of the moment decision. Because everyone else had been finishing by showing off their powers in some way.

And Alden would rather be filleted with a spoon.

<<Good afternoon. It is my honor to stand where Instructors of minds have stood. That’s a polite thing to say in classrooms. I hope nobody will be bothered if I leave on my shoes. While I was there on Kimnor’s orbital stonechild—>>

Alden blinked. He had his translator set to show him what the English-speakers in the room were seeing when he talked to make sure it wasn’t coming out wrong. He hadn’t expected the System to translate the word he’d used for “moon” so literally.

<<—I gave the gift of my life’s time to observing the Trials and Discoveries of The Goodchild Klee-pak with an Artonan friend, and I nurtured the fruit of the ground in a greenhouse.>>

What the hell, Earth System? thought Alden, staring at the translation. Are you playing with me right now?

Yes. That was technically what he was saying. But that wasn’t what it sounded like in Artonan. It was somehow coming across as both stiff and kooky, but it was really everyday talk. The Artonans could lay both of their feet on the gas of the poetic formal when they wanted to. This was not it.

He started deliberately dodging the words he thought would come out the worst, and went on.

<<We were rescued by a team of wizards and Avowed, and I’ve been passing the days of my life here on Anesidora for a week. My main skill saves things—>>

That one was probably my bad. There were a lot of synonyms for preservation. It was hard to pick the right one.

<<It holds things unchanging,>> he clarified. “Uh…well, I guess I’m not quite as good as I think, since I can’t make the words come out right. It’s just a preservation skill. It freezes objects I hold, and it keeps them safe.”

He took another sip from his drink.

“I would rather not show it off. I had to use it a lot on Moon Thegund, and I’m kind of taking it easy on things that remind me of that place. Therapist’s orders.”

It wasn’t. But it sounded like something she might have wanted him to do. And what else was he supposed to say? The second best idea he’d come up with was telling them all that he was abstaining from power usage right now because he’d missed his chance to do it during Lent.

Got all the hard parts out. Time to prove I am totally normal by finishing with something less serious.

“I think I might be really good at pinball. My apartment has a machine in it. Feel free to text if you want to come use it some time.”

Done.

Nobody was clapping like they had for everyone else. Which seemed unfair really. Alden had spoken a foreign language. And revealed work experience. And friendships with multiple species. He felt he deserved at least a small round of applause.

**********

Alden got lots more attention than he wanted after that. But not so much that it was impossible to deal with. He attended events occasionally and acted as boring as he could when people peppered him with questions.

There were a lot of other interesting Avowed in the dorms. For example, S-ranks tended to attract stares just by being around. And one of the Brutes who’d come in recently was a famous child actor.

Alden hoped his story would fade into the background given a little more time.

Being a human around other humans again wasn’t as hard as he’d feared it would be. And it definitely wasn’t bad. But it made him aware, on a daily basis, of the fact that he was different from who he had been in subtle ways.

He was more easily annoyed now—snappish by his own standards even if he didn’t think he’d hurt anyone’s feelings badly yet. It could just have been his lack of sleep and constant discomfort taking a toll, but he was working on reining it in anyway.

He’d always considered himself fairly easy-going, and he’d liked that about himself. He wanted it back.

Other changes didn’t trouble him as much; they just left him confused. Crowds were different now. The noise bothered him. People bumping into him didn’t at all. It was the reverse of his previous feelings, and he didn’t understand what psychological processes could have made it happen.

He cared a little less what people thought of him. He cared a lot more about his own physical comfort.

The last fact amused him to no end once he realized it was an actual phenomenon he was experiencing.

Alden was now someone who actively appreciated cozy sweaters and perfect temperatures and pleasant smells. It wasn’t like he’d completely ignored those things in the past, but he’d definitely never been a person who could just sit around enjoying the fact that he had on a warm pair of socks.

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It wasn’t even some emotional, grateful-to-be-alive thing as far as he could tell. It was just that the nice socks really felt nicer than they had before. And cinnamon smelled better. And colors looked more striking.

He didn’t know what to blame for it. Maybe his long stretch of deprivation and discomfort had sensitized him? Maybe Rrorro’s healing sessions had done something to him? Maybe it was because physical pleasure was now always contrasted with metaphysical pain?

Whatever it was, it was fun. He could make himself noticeably happier by digging his toes into a plush rug. And so far he hadn’t gotten tired of it.

He was also more introverted than he’d been previously. He’d never been the life of the party, or wanted to be, but he was quiet enough in groups now that people had begun to mistake it for actual shyness.

Which was working out surprisingly well for him in this setting.

Alden lived in the part of the dorms affectionately called The Warren, surrounded by Rabbits. And a lot of Rabbits were empathizers. They liked their Appeal points, they took extras, and plenty of them hadn’t denied the System permission to include the personality alterations. They almost all wanted to be friendly, cute, and social.

Being “the shy one” on Team Rabbit was triggering a lot of outreach and inclusion efforts from people who were unnaturally good at reaching out and including.

He got a haircut from the girl downstairs. It was shorter and more even—a definite improvement—but it still looked more tousled than he’d expected. She informed him that since he wasn’t going to be getting summoned for a long while, it was magically designed to maximize his features according to average human tastes. She could choose between making her clients appealing to humanity or the Artonans. He was supposed to return for a trim every two weeks if he wanted to stay perfected.

One of the hair stylist’s roommates did makeup and had tried to interest Alden in under-eye concealer, but he’d refused. The hair was enough. He’d just wear his new insomnia-chic look with pride.

Meanwhile, the guys in 912 kept finding new excuses to invite him over even though the rock garden was in its dormant cycle. The “garden” was actually a see-through table, full of what appeared to be colorful rocks in a bed of sand. They were in fact alien lifeforms that were popular decorative elements on the Triplanets. Every few days they woke up, sprouted legs, and sort of gently did battle with each other for desirable new positions in their habitat.