Chapter 4

Tiff was, undeniably, bored.

​

Her impromptu vacation was both well-warranted and properly enforced. Tiff was shocked when she woke to the sun streaming through her window, shining in her eyes, and she panicked as she fumbled for her phone. She lunged toward her nightstand, missed, and instantly crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs and twisted blankets.

The noise drew her mother, who squeezed into the room looking too large to be real, and laughed. She helped up her poor, confused daughter and explained.

Tiff ended up falling asleep around 7:30 last night and overslept her alarm. It went off for so long that eventually Amy groused into the room, waking everybody else up as she stomped, and turned it off. She then had a proper meltdown in the hallway, again forced to get ready for school while Tiff didn’t have to, and there was shouting and yelling and maybe a few tears.

Which Tiff slept through obliviously.

Not only that, but as she sat there listening to her mom’s tired-yet-amused retelling, she noticed it was almost noon. She slept for close to 18 hours and she still felt tired. Melissa gave her a worried look and told her that was normal…on the extremes. Tiff didn’t say it out loud, but she felt her whole experience qualified as “extreme”, so she had no choice but to agree. If she didn’t start to feel any better in a day or two, they’d take her to the doctor on the weekend.

Tiff gently shooed her mom out of her room (because the huge woman could only be pushed out when she allowed it) and got dressed. She was still feeling lethargic and out of sorts, and she nearly tripped over her feet as she slid her legs into some sweats. But if that was how she was going to feel all day, she couldn’t be bothered with anything more presentable, like actual pants or a dress. She resigned herself to a full day of rest, relaxation, and bumming around the house.

She didn’t expect her mom to join her the entire time.

In hindsight, she should have guessed something was up the moment her mom walked into her room that morning. Melissa wasn’t a stay-at-home mom; she drove a truck for a living. While that wasn’t the average “9 to 5”, it still had its own routine. She was generally gone for several days, then home for the same amount. Her first day back was usually reserved for domestic chores like groceries and laundry (if her dad didn’t take care of them already), and, like Tiff, Melissa preferred to get things done early so she could be free to do what she wanted later. That meant she either got everything she needed done incredibly early…or she was in babysitting mode.

Tiff should have seen the signs that it was the latter. She had to shoo her fussy mother away a second time when she came back to see if Tiff needed help getting dressed, and a third when she hobbled her way toward the bathroom. Tiff almost reluctantly agreed when, halfway to the toilet, she had to lean against a wall because of a sudden and drastic dizzy spell, but since she was about to be sitting down, she scurried away before her mother could join her in the already cramped space. She didn’t need that right now.

She took another nap from 2 to 3 and woke up when Amy burst into her room, her boisterous and energetic face a nearly perfect facade to mask her true intentions. They were revealed the moment she sat down and fussed over Tiff’s hair, which was in just as much a state of lethargy as the rest of her. Tiff heaved a huge sigh and let her sister glomp onto her, since her concern was genuine and came from a loving spot. She resigned herself to dealing with yet another overly gentle family member treating her like a frail porcelain doll.

Even her dad took several breaks throughout the day to check up on her. While he didn’t show the same degree of protectiveness, his concern was real and Tiff gave him warm, if exasperated, smiles.

The only one who didn’t coddle her like a glass egg was Victoria. Tiff was able to force her family members out of her room under the pretenses of “studying” and “homework”, but Victoria saw through that like the excuse it was. But she didn’t intrude to coddle. She said hello, made sure Tiff didn’t need anything, and shut the door. It wasn’t for another five minutes that Tiff realized her big sister was still in her room, sitting at her desk, reading a book. A sudden movement or an extra scratchy turn of a page caught her attention, making her look up.

“You’re still here?”

“Somebody needs to make sure you’re resting,” Victoria smirked, still focused on her reading.

“I am resting!” Tiff threw her hands in the air, exasperated.

“Yes,” Victoria replied calmly. “And why do you think that is?”

Before Tiff could answer, she saw her door crack open silently as a head peeked through. Her little sister’s gaze was locked onto Victoria sitting at Tiff’s desk and she scowled. Victoria made a little shooing motion with her hand and the door snapped shut.

“So you get to check up on me, but she doesn’t?” Tiff asked, more amused than accusing. Victoria scoffed.

“Please. She just wants to play on your computer. You’d have no peace or quiet.”

“Why’d she need to sneak into my room to do that? She’s got games of her own.”

Victoria put her book down and gave Tiff, sitting on her bed, a lopsided smile. They both knew the answer already. Amy had worked it out in her head that if she wasn’t in her own room playing her own games, technically, she wasn’t goofing off or whatever. They both rolled their eyes at Amy’s mental gymnastics.

“Loopholes,” they both said, sharing a laugh.

“Speaking of loopholes, how are you holding up?”

“Fine?” Tiff tilted her head. Where was this going? “Really bored?”

“I figured. You gonna survive another two days of this?”

Tiff’s eyes twitched. The nurse’s note excused her classes for one full day with recommendations to extend it under certain circumstances. Melissa took that seriously and declared that Tiff’s lingering lethargy and failing coordination met those circumstances, so she arranged for Tiff to stay home from school the rest of the week.

Normally, having no responsibilities and no school for three days before a weekend was a cause for celebration, but after today, Tiff felt she was closer to prison than a party. She was under constant watch and if she so much as sneezed, a “concerned family member” would appear out of nowhere to hover over her.

Victoria saw the clear distress in Tiff’s eyes and laughed.

“I thought so. Hey, I’ve got an idea. Want to go out with me tomorrow?”

“With you?” Tiff parroted back, shocked but interested in this new turn of events.

“Yeah. I was planning on going down to the Guildhall. Want to come with? I think you’ll find it interesting.”

Of course, Tiff found it interesting! She knew hardly anything about her sister’s occupation, other than it was Class-related and potentially dangerous. Just because everybody had a Class didn’t mean they spent their lives enslaved by it. Tons of people did things completely unrelated.

Victoria was not one of those people. She was a [Bodyguard] working for a small hunter’s guild under the Adventurer’s Union. Adventurers were the System’s alternative to Good or Evil, a sort of Chaos or Neutral. They didn’t have to do good nor did they have to do bad. Oftentimes, they acted purely for personal, financial, or transactional reasons, which is why most Neutral parties eventually found themselves moving toward the Mercenary Affinity. Those who tended to do more good than bad might eventually become something like a Vigilante, while those who didn’t might end up as a Pirate. It was the loosest and most vague branch in the Affinity wheel, having the widest variety of subsets.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Victoria was clearly working toward the “good” side, even though she didn’t want to be shackled by certain preconceptions and limitations of “pure” heroes. She was honest and told anybody who actually asked that her motivations were entirely selfish. And that wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounded. Everyone needed to put bread on the table, and a very strong majority of businessmen were Neutrally aligned, so why should she be judged? She simply wanted something more exciting than sitting behind a desk or a computer screen. She got to be active, exploring Rifts, helping parties defeat monsters, and searching for treasure. The quest for phat loot was a strong lure to many.

“No, we’re not going delving,” Victoria denied instantly, correctly guessing what caused the sudden light in her little sister’s eyes. Tiff deflated, but the smile remained. Yes, getting out of the house did sound good.

“Let’s do it. What time are we leaving?”

“We’ll leave that up to your body, miss lazybones,” Victoria smirked while Tiff rolled her eyes.

​

Tiff woke up at 9 am, which was an improvement over yesterday, but still left her slightly worried about sleeping 12 or more hours 2 days in a row. Everybody else was either busy or gone for the day, so Tiff and Victoria had a simple breakfast of cereal before heading out to Victoria’s guild.