Bethany’s mug bounced off the carpet sloshing her tea everywhere. Statistically just seemed so unlikely, there were thousands of Trial Takers the chances it would be a face she recognised was so slim it should be impossible.

The cruel person who had caused her so much pain, was there, though she looked very different to when Bethany saw her last. She couldn’t focus on that quite yet though, first she had to clean up after her spill. Grabbing some napkins from the table she did her best to clear up after herself, all the while her mind whirled with thoughts about the girl who had betrayed her and ruined her life. Here Bethany had access to everything Mandy went through in her most recent Trial something that nobody else back home would be able to d/o Bethany would know everything about the Trial she faced, possibly even more than Mandy herself would understand. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just give her a bad rating as these were all recordings and she couldn’t risk endangering herself. Bethany knew however, she would struggle to stay objective given their history.

Having cleaned up her mess and made a new drink, Bethany watched as Mandy took in her surroundings. She was clearly terrified, clutching her hands together until the knuckles on both turned white. She was next to a rushing river surrounded by people washing clothes. Bethany quickly pulled up Mandy’s relevant stats.

Name

Mandy Birchdale

Level

0

Relevant Skills:

Clothes Washing (common)

0 (0 Trials Complete)

She clearly hadn't yet heard about Trial Credits as her screen hadn't updated to reflect them. Nor had she earned any titles. Bethany found herself being quite judgemental of Mandy before realising she was letting her vendetta bias her. She had gotten extremely lucky getting a Sponsored Trial so early. Without it she wouldn't know half of what she did now, and her title had been earned through years of bullying that Mandy obviously hadn’t faced. She imagined Mandy would similarly have more information by the end her sponsored trial.

Bethany hadn’t interacted with Mandy since before the Trials and had assumed she would have been in Lewis’ gang carving a way forward, but it seemed like she had overestimated Mandy. She had always sworn she would never follow in the family footsteps and settle down and wash clothes for the village. Then again, the girl on the screen was a far cry from the mean girl from home, instead she looked like a terrified little child. Bethany watched as Mandy nodded her head rapidly agreeing to whatever terms were laid out by the elderly woman who had clearly been put in charge of sponsorship. Mandy had blindly accepted an offer of 1 Trial Credit for 4 days work as long as she was kept safe and fed. Without even enquiring further as to what a Trial Credit was.

Bethany sped up the footage as she watched Mandy start washing clothes, still seemingly numb to the situation. She wasn't visibly upset or annoyed with the situation, but she also wasn't visibly anything else. It was like the spirit had been drained out of her leaving just a husk that followed basic instruction. She didn’t speak unless spoken to and didn’t join in the general chatter of the other women by the river. Instead, she washed the clothes passed to her and hung them up to dry in silence. Then she would eat in silence before sleeping. In fact, having pulled up the transcript Bethany could find no evidence of Mandy saying more than 20 words across her whole four days, sticking instead primarily to nodding and shaking her head. Instead, she just kept her head down and worked hard displaying no emotions. A completely different person from the chatty girl she had seemed to be whenever Bethany had seen her in town, chatting away to Lewis and his crowd.

Despite the obviously adverse effect the Trials had had on Mandy, Bethany still struggled to find any real sympathy for her. She was aware the situation sucked and factually she thought Mandy didn't deserve such a bad situation. But emotionally she couldn't bring herself to care about Mandy's fate. Their history was such a complicated one that assigning binary feelings to it was equally complicated,

Bethany knew there had been many times where in spite of the betrayal Bethany really just wanted her friend back, history be damned. But other times she would shout at the stars in rage over the hurt Mandy had dealt her. When boiled down Mandy would always be an important part of Bethany's story. In some ways the most important part so far, as her actions had defined Bethany's life for the last couple of years. Yet there was a new event defining Bethany's life now, and that new life featured new people like Stilwart and Harri, and though those she knew before the initialisation would still be in her life, they didn't all have to be.

Bethany rewatched the tape and tried to consider it as though watching the tape of a stranger, or at least somebody she only used to know. Being more detached made the rating a little easier. Skipping toward the end of the tape, she examined Mandy's washing technique, had she made any real improvements, did she demonstrate a skill level higher than she was currently working at? Given like many from her town she had probably only done one Trial originally and had been washing for many years her skill level was not reflected in her status. In fact, having watched a stack of videos she reckoned most of her generation had comfortably level 3 in their chosen focus. Though the adults of the village naturally had higher abilities she reckoned even they would stagnate around level 5. Beyond that understanding of the skill outputs was fairly necessary to push further ahead. As such she awarded Mandy with the maximum number of Trial credits, though given her complete lack of agency to do anything else Bethany was confident no bonus rewards will have been given. She didn’t expect Mandy to grow much further than that though, there was no drive there, not anymore.

Bethany couldn't help but be a little bitter at the idea of Mandy getting to be in town at level 2. Obviously, she would be the same, but she would be doing it against the Mayor's wishes, while Mandy would be allowed to grow further due to her relationship with Lewis. Whereas Bethany would have to stick to keeping skills from reaching level 3, at least for the time being.

Bethany input her rating and once again passed through to the fifth trial. This one she found more challenging but after a full day she felt confident in her answer and having gotten to skill level 1 she felt comfortable enough to head back home. It had been roughly a week and a half since she had been back in Barrowmede and she felt wildly different to the person who had been imprisoned back home. As such she felt ready and stepped out back onto earth and back into the prison she'd left behind.