Hunter had been subscribed to a lot of message groups when he was on his tablet still, using Limited Plus. He’d been on boards for interesting talents, rare classes, vs. battles, and whatever other discussions seemed interesting should’ve looked for stats and skills. Since Plano happened, and the weird message from his fortune-teller friend, Veras, he’d also added a lot of news, speculation, and if he was being unkind, conspiracy discussions as well. When he integrated, he kept his contacts, but lost a lot of the subscriptions, since Infra kept a very strict segregation policy between adults and minors for the most part.

He still had access to all his news feeds, however, and they were all set to search particularly for anything to do with Slides, emergencies, and especially a combination of the two. He filtered most into a couple categories, based on how much they worried him. The first group consisted of problems with historically safe Slides, like what happened in Plano. No one really wanted to talk about it, but he’d dug up enough information to figure out a rough outline of what had happened.

Apparently, when the Slides opened nineteen years before, Plano was one of the lucky places, like Kansas City had been. Their Slide wasn’t nearly as big, but the only thing that came out of it were cooperative people the size of, and with a vague resemblance to, baby elephants, except with a much greater number of prehensile trunks. The residents of the town had worked with them peacefully for thirteen years, most of which they spent on what Hunter could only find referenced as “The Grand Project.” It was something to do with the Project, apparently, that destroyed their Slide, opened countless, hostile others, and levelled most of the town. By the time anyone showed up down there who could report back, there weren't any of the elephant-people left, and no one was sure if that was an intentional consequence of the Project or not.

The second category Hunter was worried about was regular or irregular Slide growths, like the one under the bridge back home. Everyone knew that you didn’t leave a migrating Slide alone for too long, unless you wanted it depositing too much trouble to handle in your general vicinity. But sometimes they didn’t follow the rules, didn’t have proper timelines you could plan for, and became immediate problems.

The last thing Hunter kept an eye out for were small, threatened towns and redoubts. He wasn’t on the Emergency Listing yet himself, but it was the plan when it seemed like a safe, prudent idea. He had no idea, before that, how often something bad happened to the otherwise boring existence that most little places enjoyed.

That’s why, near the middle of April, when Hunter had been in the city for a few weeks, there was another Slide-related emergency, this time around Sioux Falls, and he wasn’t surprised at all. It wasn’t a big one, just a mix of Hunter’s type two and type three, no giant Infra broadcast needed, but it was serious enough that they were looking for moderate-level adventurers to come help out. It turned out that Breaker had friends up there, and Fourex was one of the first groups they got into contact with.

“Your dad said he’d ride in with the spring cabbage, but that’s about a three day trip, and they don’t leave until tomorrow. Fresh over fast. Said you’d get it,” Ernie told him while he was packing up.

“They brought the ice box guy back? Ugh, he’s the worst,” Hunter mumbled. “So, Dad’ll be here in four days-”

“Five if the Topeka mess is acting up.”

“Five days, maybe. Huh.”

“Right, so there’s enough food to last you in the pantry, especially if you keep eating at every Arax hole in the wall restaurant you find, don’t go into Pete’s lab, and keep up the scavenger hunt. If anything goes really wrong, you know the codes to the panic room.”

“Hey, umm,” Hunter started, then stopped.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine. Lock the doors when you’re out, and when you’re in if you’ve got a bad feeling. This is a pretty good town though, kid.”

Then they were gone, hurrying out the door to a teleport mage, or a fast caravan, Hunter wasn’t sure maybe just running the whole way. He sat down at the front desk, where they’d have a receptionist if they ever had that kind of business, and drummed his fingers on the hard, fake wood surface. He wasn’t surprised by the emergency, but he did feel a little blindsided that his uncle and the other two men would run off so quickly to deal with it.

After a while of just thinking to himself, he looked over at his helperbot, who was pacing back and forth in front of the desk, and grinned. “Hey, Trips. I think we need to throw a party.”

Before he could get on that, though, there was work to do. Hunter was just about finished with his athletics skill, and the plan he’d made with Ernie about a rare upgrade had him very interested in getting it done. He also thought that maybe, if he was being introspective, he might be feeling nervous about his idea what if no one comes.

So, instead of buying food, or organizing a guest list, or whatever else someone did when they wanted to throw a real life secret adult party, Hunter was out in an abandoned train station, jumping from train car to train car. It was good practice for two reasons, in his opinion. While he wasn’t scared of heights, he was definitely wary of being in the air, sailing from one place to another. One of the lessons his mom had implied during exercises was that the easiest target to hit, after a stationary one, was one suspended in the air. If you stayed in contact with something, the ground, a tree, a wall, you could always manage to change directions.

So he definitely needed to practice jumping, if anything just to finally get comfortable enough with it to max his skill. His other reason for doing that somewhere deserted was that he didn’t know what he’d accidentally blurt out if he saw anyone he knew downtown.

“Hey! Do you want to come to my party,” he shouted to Trips, who was watching him as he jumped from an intact car to a very wobbly ruined one. “I’ll have granola, I guess? And music if I can figure it out? Ugh.”

After another two jumps, the second almost turning disastrous when the roof he landed on collapsed underneath him with a screech of tearing metal, and only barely managing to roll onto the next, slightly less dangerous panel, Hunter got the alert he’d been waiting for.

You have raised Athletics to one hundred (100).

You have one (1) talent available from maxing your athletics skill.

You have earned (2) achievements!

You have two (2) free talents available from achievements.

You have unlocked your General base skill into [Explorer]!

Hunter wobbled a little on the top of the train car, flashed Trips a quick thumbs up, and then hopped down to the ground. He pulled up his Infra as they started to walk back to the building, still trying to get used to paying attention to his screens and his regular vision at the same time.

Two (2) achievements unlocked! [Skilled III] You have maxed four (4) skills. +one (1) free talent [Quick Learner IV] You have maxed four (4) skills before level ten (10). +one (1) free talent

“Uh oh,” he muttered, checking his previous achievements. “One, two, four. That’s going to slow down a lot.” He shrugged, then selected [Hard to Hit] and the equivalent talent for parry, [Flurry Wall]. “So, another thirty percent to mitigation like that? That puts me at, wow, peak mortal? Wish the rest of this was that easy, huh Trips.”

He glanced over at the little robot, ambling along beside him on its three legs, and it bounced agreeably as he talked to it. Every so often, Trips would snatch up a piece of trash on the ground and carry it along with them for a half a block or so, walking on two clamp feet until they passed a bin for it to discard it in.

“How much, umm, of what I say do you understand, buddy?”

The bot did its little shrug, hopping along one one limb for a few paces, and Hunter chuckled.

“Enough, I guess. Back to paperwork, then. You’ve got trash duty handled.”

[Explorer] The ancient and sometimes noble pursuit of the next discovery, the next untouched land, with a particular focus on going far and staying safe. N/A

“Hey, wait. No bonuses?” he muttered. Hunter just stared at the screen with a frown until it changed with a flicker.

[Explorer] The ancient and sometimes noble pursuit of the next discovery, the next untouched land, with a particular focus on going far and staying safe. N/A (note: unlocked base skills provide no bonuses, except a minor +to skill gain when utilizing the associated skills in a manner consistent with the outlined aspect)

“Ok, that’s better,” he nodded. “Trips, remind me to just bully Infra any time I’m confused. Way better than causing family fights.”

You have one (1) talent available from maxing your athletics skill. Please pick from the following pool of athletics talents. [Fleet Footed] You are quite the fast traveller. +ten percent (10%) to non-combat movement speed [Breath Training] You have learned tricks to conserve your energy. reduce vigor usage by half (-50%) [Leaper] You have practiced jumping from place to place quite a lot. +ten percent (10%) to max leaping distance in all forms

“In fact, I don’t even need to ask anyone for help. I know the rules, right Trips?” Hunter chuckled. “Non-combat speed is a trap, because there are travel talents later. I hate jumping, and Devilborn drains vigor like nobody’s business. Easy easy.”

He selected his talent and then walked the rest of the way in relative silence, flashing his staff in and out of his hand occasionally to have something to do. He keyed in the code for the front door when he arrived and slipped in, hesitating in the big, glass entryway and leaning on his stick.

“So,” he said under his breath, “this is fine. We could eat something, maybe? I’m kind of hungry I guess. Plenty of sandwich stuff, I should make a few before it has a chance to go bad. Then we’ll figure out how to work the music again. You think, umm, they have anything other than that car crash stuff? Probably dadrock, I guess, they’re all the same age. ‘These are records, Hunter, and you’ll never find better music than on these,’ he says. Plus I’ve got you to talk to, Trips, even if you maybe don’t get what I’m saying? It’s only five days maybe, and we’ll have the party one day, so that’s a whole day that doesn’t count. I just gotta get ready for the party, then it’ll only be four days. Maybe we can find a band? People in college make bands all the time, or something, they’ve gotta. Then Dad will come and it will be a bummer, because we’re responsible adults and can totally live on our own. I mean, I’m a responsible adult, you’re like two months old. We’re gonna be ok, Trips. This is fine. It’s great.”

An hour so later, Hunter sat in one of the large, round chairs the Arax preferred, petting the thing that Kiki insisted was called a fox, that was draped across his lap. It didn’t look like any fox he’d ever heard of, being closer in resemblance to a shark head the size of a large loaf of bread that ran along close to the ground on a few dozen insect legs, but it was Kiki’s place and zher pet, and so therefore it was a fox. Its coal black skin was surprisingly soft to the touch, and judging from the humming noise coming from its ten-pound body, it seemed to enjoy the attention. Another one in rust red chuffed softly but constantly as it and Trips chased each other around the living area.

Kiki’s apartment was nice and huge, Hunter thought. Zhe had an entire floor in one of the buildings downtown, with almost all the walls knocked down except a few for support and a couple for privacy, which left a very open space zhe called the receiving room just outside the stairwell. There were rugs everywhere, piled in some places, hanging from the walls in others, some that looked like zhe’d scavenged or bought around town, but others that were so odd they must have come from zher home. The entire space was dim, not too dark to see, but definitely a lower light level than Hunter was used to. Kiki had said that while zher people tended to enjoy the novelty of the bright sun on Earth, for comfort they preferred things a little more subdued.

Kiki zherself was wearing a long dress like usual, this time in a shimmering emerald color, the bottom of it almost hanging to the floor as zhe walked, and draped around zher numerous legs while zhe sat with them tucked underneath zher. Zher skin, which usually looked like a shiny, if muted pink in the daylight, seemed to shimmer with the darkness, almost translucent like his mother’s pink quartz bracelet. Zhe wore a scarf wrapped around the top of zher head in the same color as zher dress, sharp ears pointing out a handspan to each side from beneath it, occasionally adjusting it with one of zher long thumbclaws. Zher solid black eyes somehow seemed to sparkle as zhe chatted, zhe’d flare zher nostril slits when zhe found something amusing, and zher grin, wide as zher face with so many teeth, stayed lit up for the majority of their conversation.

He was watching that grin as zhe told him a funny story about the two days zhe looked for the downtown murals, the way zher lower jaw split just a little while zhe talked, when he had a thought.

“Umm, Kiki?” he didn’t quite interrupt. “You’re not speaking English, right?”

“No, my dear, I am most definitely not,” zhe said with one of zher soft, teasing snorts. “Dreadful language, that one. So very convoluted, and I couldn’t bear to even try. Why do you ask?”

“Well, umm. You’re like the only person I really know who’s not a human, and maybe the only one who’s not from around here. Other than Ajit, he might be from far away. When he says back home, I dunno where he means, but he says it like it’s far. But, well, it sounds like English when you talk, and it looks like your mouth’s moving with the words. That’s weird?”

“I don’t suppose,” zhe replied, eyes sparkling even more, “that you’ll be satisfied with an answer that amounts to a cheeky finger wave and the words, ‘Infra magic,’ will you?”

“Umm, no? I mean I could, but it’s still weird.”

“That is why I find your company so delectable, my lovely little Red. You’re accepting and questioning all at once, and it’s such a wonderful little contradiction. I could hand you a magic wand to solve all your problems, and you’d stumble over yourself saying ‘thank you’ and ‘why’ at the same time.”

“Oh,” Hunter laughed a little nervously. “Thank you?”

“You’re so very welcome, dear boy. Because you asked, and because I cannot possibly deny one of my youngest and oldest friends on this planet, I’ll let you in on quite the fun little secret.” Kiki leaned forward as zhe spoke, zher grin growing even wider how, teeth shiny in the dim light. “You’re not speaking English, either.”

“Wait, what. I’m not?”

“I told you it was fun, didn’t I?” zhe said as she leaned back, fixing zher headscarf and flaring zher nostrils wide. “I’m sure there are some English words clambering around in your head, for delightfully human concepts like an ‘athletic shoe,’ or a ‘puppy parade.’ But for the most part, you’re speaking Infra, same as I am, same as nearly everyone civilized that you’ll find in any half-decent dimension in the world.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, though,” Hunter whined as he flopped back on the chair, the fox on his lap chuffing and crawling further up his chest. “Mom taught me English. I think in English, right?”

“Oh, Red, you’re almost there,” Kiki whispered. “Grasp with those fleshy little claws, with that quicksilver morsel of a brain, and tell me what you really think.”

“I think in Infra?” Hunter mumbled to himself. “Everyone thinks in Infra, even before you’re on Infra. But it’s such a mind-bogglingly complicated language that I tell myself I’m thinking in something simple, like English? So my brain doesn’t melt out my ears.”

“There you go, my dear. That was beautiful, like a baby clawing zher way out of a mound, screaming and fussing as zhe takes zher first real breath.”

“Umm,” Hunter blushed, then mumbled. “Wait, does everyone know this? I always think I find things out slow.”

“Oh, the sublimed tend to realize it along their journey, and when they remember to tell anyone it starts to come out, but I wouldn’t say it’s so common to be embarrassed, my dear. I’ve even met people from full member worlds that should have known better, but were convinced that everyone in the entire multiverse was simply speaking their one, true language. Dreadful little goblins they were, but amusing in a terrible way.”

“I thought, you know, umm, you were speaking one thing and I was hearing something else.”

“And that Infra had its tendrils buried in your eye sockets, convincing you that my mandibles were moving in a manner completely contradictory to the truth? Oh, Red, that’s positively ghastly, and you should be ever so ashamed you even thought it. It’s almost as confusing and invasive an idea as the truth, don’t you think?”

Hunter laughed at that, but it was an uneasy one, at best.

“Will you do me the honor, you beautiful boy,” Kiki said as zhe gathered zher dress and stood, “of allowing me to treat you to dinner? Don’t you dare think I haven’t heard stories lately of the fire-haired boy gobbling up every interesting bit of food in the city that he can. I doubt you’ve found everything worth discovering, though, and it would please me to no end to find you a new favorite.”

Dinner was good, really good, and Hunter thought maybe he ate too much, but also that it was worth it. Half the things on his plate were fairly recognizable, while the other half were delicious foods he’d never seen before coming to the city. That was on par with the other restaurants he’d been to lately, having realized that liking fresh and boldly-flavored vegetables from Earth was an Arax trait in general and not one specific to Kiki. He had just finished slurping the end of something noodle it’s a noodle into his mouth, that wasn’t exactly his favorite texture not wriggling, just a noodle, but tasted so good that he didn’t mind.

“Do you ever, umm,” he said after he had to force himself away from the table, “wonder how we can eat the same stuff?”

“You are very interested in the inner workings of the universe today, aren’t you dear? We’re all made of essence, you know, humans and Arax and hot peppers grown by sweet boys. At the end of a very long day, I’m just glad we can share a meal instead of worrying about which directions our respective proteins fold.”

“Yeah, it’s nice,” Hunter said, feeling his voice grow hoarse. “Thanks for taking me out, Kiki. I haven’t really seen a lot of friends lately.”

“I have missed your friends as well, surely not at the level that you have, but it is something I can begin to understand. Has it really been more than three years since I saw your terrible, wonderful trio all in the same place?”

“Gosh, yeah,” he mumbled, “it has.”

“May I tell you a little story that I assume you haven’t heard my perspective of?” Kiki waited for him to nod in reply before zhe continued. “I quite liked [Araxia], my homeworld. You may not meet many of us here who can honestly say that, as a trip through a fresh Slide to a new world has no guarantee of being anything more than a leap of faith, and for the most part only the most disaffected will take that daring plunge. Adventurers, thrill-seekers, anyone who feels penned in by their circumstances, they’re who are going to be the first out, who are going to take that chance they’ll never see their home again. I was content, myself, plying my trade, living with my circle and stalk.

“Young man, you’ll know this next part well, but circumstances and fate don’t often hand you exactly what you want, even when your only desire is a soft spot to place your head and sleep until the next day. Arax adventurers need foxes, same as human ones need swords, and I have never been too proud to admit that I raise the best foxes one can find anywhere. Certainly the best ones on Earth.” Zhe paused briefly to flash Hunter an exaggerated wink. “The Kit-Tenders have always had that as a mark in our favor, since an enterprising ancestor decided to name zherself after zher particular skill.

“I was convinced, cajoled, bullied and persuaded, and finally I relented. You may see me as the beautiful, headstrong Arax that you know and love, but we were all young and foolish once, were we not? I came to Earth, to Kansas City, to guns pointed at me, to just south of one of the most terrible battlegrounds I could imagine, and I hated it. I despised the enormous, bold offenses to nature that were the buildings, the smell of barbecue to the east and death to the north, the burning light that washed out every single one of my senses.

“I shut myself off then, in what was not very dignified behavior for a Kit-Tender or anyone else. I claimed that building I live in and I dared any and everyone to challenge me over it. I was Kinistrata Kit-Tender, I had fifty of the most beautiful, well-trained, essential foxes that one could find in the literal entirety of this dimension, and I made sure everyone within earshot knew it. It was a poor look, to put it mildly, but I was a similar age to yourself right now, and if you’ll tell me you never make horrible mistakes of manners and intentions, I’ll tell you that one of my favorite people is a liar.

“We have a saying back home, that the only difference between a jest and an insult is a bared claw, and I kept my claws bared for a very long time, Red. I found myself feeling very poorly toward the people of this city, the Arax and humans alike, and it was shameful. If it was fair to admit that there was a specific breed of Arax that came through the Slide, then it’s equally fair to say there was a type of human that came to Kansas City and its siege as well. I was not fond of the adventurers, or the warmongers, as brave as their pursuits may have been. You should know by now, darling, that I am very rarely ashamed of anything, but my behavior for quite a long time is on that sparse list.

“On top of that, and I am treading very delicate territory here, so please bear with me as I try to find a way to phrase this, I wasn’t allowed to go home. Year after year passed with no change, and as vaguely frustrated as the people of Earth must have been with their ongoing emergency and then probationary status, I think I can safely say that we expatriates were quite specifically frustrated with it as well. Then your Overlord put on the first of his Festivals.

“It was nice, that much I can say, and it must have been an enormous expense, but for we who missed our twilight forests, for we who’d lived a dozen years in a place that didn’t fit, for we who were ready to go home, it was just more of the same. When it was our turn to partake in the festivities, I wandered those grassy avenues and avoided the crowds as best as possible, filled as they were with the same type of faces I dealt with and shunned every day of my new life.

“And then, then my dear Red, I met your two friends. One awkward and polite, the other boisterous and clever, and my first thought was so banal that you must never share this with anyone. All I could think was, ‘they’re so small.’ We didn’t bring our young through the Slide, in fact I don’t believe any of that first wave even had any progeny, misfits and unlucky draws that we were, and there weren’t human children in the city yet, not so near in time and distance to the Siege, it would have been terribly poor parenting.

“I think that perhaps, somehow, I’d convinced myself to forget that people that small even existed. Don’t make that face, lovely boy, that one I know means you’re doing your best not to laugh, because it’s true. They came right up to me and asked if I was selling anything, and to this day I regret I wasn’t, because watching them afterward, so excited to trade their crystals for trinkets, was pure joy. The second thing they asked was my name, and I think you can guess which child had which question, and when I told them, the smaller one scrunched up her cute little face and shouted-”

“Kiki,” whispered Hunter, nodding slightly.

“Kiki, yes. Not Kinistrata Kit-Tender, the least friendly, least helpful Arax in Kansas City, no. Just Kiki, because it was easier, and it was cute. I had forgotten the difference between the first generation to integrate with Infra, and the first generation to be born with it. You children are informed by the great cataclysm, but you do not let yourselves be dictated by it. You do not see a monster that you have to work with because the alternative is only more strife, you see a person that could really use a cute nickname. You do not see a disaster of a world and despair of how you’ll ever fix it, you just see a world with potential and wonder what your place will be in it.

“I realized that what I was missing wasn’t home, it was hope. Your friends, and yes, later when I met you, the perfect little complement to their comedy duo, reminded me that we’re all here for a reason, and that’s why you’re one of my absolutely favorite treasures in this world. I’m going to message them, later when I’m not so emotional, and do my level best to catch up with them, and you’re going to do the same. And when you’re feeling lonely or lost in the city, and yes I could see it on your adorable face the moment you showed up at my door, you will come to me and I will help.”

Hunter ended up trudging back to the Fourex building in the middle of the night, climbing up to the roof, and settling himself down on the mat he’d stowed up there earlier. He was emotionally exhausted, almost too shaky to make the climb, and felt a real, aching need to center himself. He dropped slowly into a meditative state, still worried and uncertain about so much in his life, but attempting nevertheless to do as the skill description said, to be one with the underlying fabric of the world, something that made all the sense in the world and none at all.

As the sun rose over the city, hours later, he shook himself back awake to find a notification flashing steadily on his screen. Whatever had been keeping meditation back from reaching its maximum was gone, and when he gave a half-hearted glance to the available talents, one spoke to him in a way that few before had.

[Combat Trance] You can maintain a calm, centered focus in the face of anything the world may throw at you. restrictions on [Meditation] usage lifted, greatly reduced restoration bonus in combat (-75%)

He immediately took it and stood up, stretching out the crick in his back, then toggled his meditation once more and began to do his exercises. As he went through the forms, first slowly, and then quickly as if he were fighting, his mind stayed clear and calm, and he started to see things in a new light.

While he moved from one position to another, he checked the first and oldest messaging group he’d ever been in, a little embarrassed that the last message there was from over a year prior. He thought about all the things he’d say to his friends if they were with him, everything they’d catch up on, and for once he didn’t have a stabbing fear of what if it goes wrong.

You have entered the [cool kidz of Willard] messaging group.

[Ellie]: o m bluh u guyz. tallahassee is the hworst

[Ellie]: mom said there was mermaids. but they’re just swampy fish-people. oops gotta go ltrz

[Hunter]: hey, guys. i don’t know if you guys check this room ever. i sure haven’t, and that sucks. i miss you two, and i know you’ve both got responsibilities, but i was thinking

[Hunter]: maybe we should make the effort, see if we can’t all take a break together, catch up. in person, i mean.

[Hunter]: just, you know, think about it, please. love you both

He left the window open as he finished his exercises, going harder at them near the end than he’s been able to previously, and only closed it when he was done, panting, but still calm and relaxed somehow. He gathered up Trips, who wait had been mimicking his exercises what while he did them, and then climbed down to his room to clean up for the day. As he was getting dressed in tough, loose pants, his crazy sneakers, a worn out shirt and his armored coat, he realized he wasn’t going to do any party planning that day like he thought.

Somehow, he’d made a calm, rational decision that having people over, in most cases people he barely knew, wouldn’t make up for the actual stress of the party. He could picture an actual pros and cons list, with “fun, music, new friends?” on one side, and “invites, food, cleanup, fights, accidents, new not-friends, getting caught,” on the other, the same as he’d scribble down on a notebook if he had one. But not this again, he couldn’t actually remember the decision or the thought process.

He decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad, since one of the benefits of meditation, and specifically one of the reasons his mother made him learn it, was finding yourself clear-headed enough to make hard decisions, and he already sort of trusted the concept of the offload. More importantly, trying to throw a party felt bad for some reason, and keeping his [Combat Trance] on felt good. That was the kind of easy, straightforward thinking he could get behind, so he stayed meditating as he started sneaking his way to downtown, taking rooftops and alleyways as often as possible.

It was a good day, as a whole. Sure, his friends didn’t post to the group, but he found two murals, ate a very weird but tasty lunch, and barely felt anxious once.

Hunter sat perched on one of the giant signs alongside of the freeway his dad’s caravan would be taking, just past the bridge that was the best way into the city from the west, considering his options. The night before, he’d found his forty-fourth mural so far, maxed his awareness skill, and advanced Explorer all at once. He didn’t get any free talent achievements, like he’d guessed, but even without those to pick from, he’d been too tired to bother with the paperwork of repetitive screens and just made his way home.

He had woken up, slipped easily into his third day of constant meditation, and was in the middle of his usual morning routine of exercise, bathing, and breakfast when he received his father’s message. Apparently, Topeka wasn’t as much of a hazard right now as sometimes, and he’d be coming into town before lunch. The teen felt like he could use a break from training anyway, since stealth hadn’t moved the entire afternoon and evening before, and he felt like he was at some kind of block with it red hair, yellow shoes, so he went out with Trips to meet his dad on the way in.

You have one (1) talent available from maxing your awareness skill. Please pick from the following pool of awareness talents. [Eagle Eye] You can see great distances and pick out small details. greater vision distance and resolution (toggle) [Tracker] Your sense of taste and smell puts you on the level of a true predator. gain more information from olfactory senses (toggle) [Kinesthesia] You have a better sense of the absolute and relative position of your body. much less likely (-80%) to lose footing by accident or opposition

That was a simple pick, Hunter felt, but he made some notes anyway. After the discussion with Kiki about zher foxes and speaking Infra, he had some real questions about things with names like [Eagle Eye]. He wondered if other people saw the same name, or just had the same connotation, and what they would be called to someone from an entirely different culture or biome, who didn’t have sharp-eyed aerial hunters. He also felt slightly attacked by the talent he ended up choosing, because he was sure he tripped much less now than when he was younger, but it was still the safest bet.

You have advanced your [Explorer] base skill to [Zen Runner Explorer]!

You have raised each Bear stat by three (3).

Resilience now at 116/116. Affinity now at 23/23. Vigor now at 113/113.

Your General skill max rank has been raised to two hundred (200) [Zen Runner Explorer] Carefree and quick, the Zen Runner glides across traps that could catch mere dabblers, drifts unseen behind guardians that would stop him, and always finds exactly what he’s looking for. +three (3) to bear stats

Hunter was satisfied with that. After his talent picks for athletics and meditation, it must have been obvious to Infra that he cared more about ease when travelling than speed, and this base skill made sense. He had noticed that the paths he’d taken across the maze of downtown in the past couple of days, instead of direct and challenging, had been long and looping, covering more ground in the same period of time somehow, never giving him an obstacle that slowed down his progress.

Before, he’d run straight at a wall that was in his way, carefully climb up and over it, and then hop down the other side. It was good practice, and without the best sense of direction, it invariably got him to where he needed to go. Now, he could see easier ways about it, how if he went from dumpster to balcony to that other window out of the way and then slid down that pole, he could get to the same place in half the time and effort. It was just one more thing he’d have to get used to, one more orthogonal dimensional change to his self, but like the rest, it was a net positive.

You have one (1) talent available from advancing your general base skill. Please pick from the following pool of general talents. [Stealth Existence] You live in the shadows, out of sight of others, and you thrive. +ten percent (10%) of stealth skill to all rolls while unseen (synergy) [Escape Genius] Unlocked ([Combat Trance] taken). You find the best way to avoid conflict in the rare instances where you are cornered. +fifteen percent (15%) of highest rated skill of (athletics/awareness/stealth) to all mitigation rolls, when meditating and not directly attacking (synergy) [World in Focus] You see more than you should, more than you possibly could. +twenty percent (20%) to awareness, additive, for each of the following conditions: healthy (>90% resilience), rested (>90% vigor), meditating, unseen, unmoving (synergy)

“Wow,” Hunter mumbled to himself. “Those are good. I’d have to redo my whole build, though. You could triple awareness? Wow.”

As nice as that sounded to him, and as many ideas he had for exploiting [Stealth Existence], the second choice slotted perfectly into the strategy he’d already decided on. He also made another note to filter for talents with prerequisites, since those seemed to give better bonuses than regular ones. Finally, he pulled up the Infra calculator and tried to work out exactly how hard he was to hit now, which turned out to be very, very hard almost breakthrough ascendant.

“Wait, that can’t be right. How did I skip peak levels completely? Wait, no. Where do I add in agility, before or after bonuses,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his head, then noticed the caravan making its way across the bridge.

He waited until they were just underneath the sign before he shouted, “Hey guys!” and then immediately dove to the side as a hail of arrows slammed into where he was just seated.

Hunter and his dad had a pretty good week while they waited for Ernie and his friends to return. He tried to show him how good the no hamper situation was, but apparently his father already knew all about that kind of life, and made sure Hunter cleaned up the relatively small messes he’d made around the building, without help from Trips. But in addition to being reintroduced to chores such a dad, Hunter had plenty of time to show him around the city, to take him to his favorite restaurants, to hang out with Kiki a little, and even to listen to a few stories about what Kansas City was like before the apocalypse.

They ate lunch downtown on his dad’s last day there, at a tiny outdoor restaurant Hunter had found where they actually served dishes made from food they got from Willard. For some reason, his father didn’t get the joke when he pointed out that the table they were sitting at was right on top of one of the Arax murals, but that was alright.

“So,” his father said, clearing his throat. “You’re doing very well here, Hunter. Fitting in.”

“Yeah, umm,” he nodded. “I sorta am, huh.”

“My biggest worry, coming in, was that I’d get here and you’d be miserable. Either in general or from being on your own in the big city. Instead, you’re much more calm than you ever were at home, and you really look like you belong.”

“I’ve been meditating, a lot. And Kiki’s been here for me. Might be that, you know.”

“It might be, sure. My second biggest worry was that I’d come in and find you recovering from a hangover in the aftermath of a huge party,” his dad chuckled.

“Well, yeah, but Trips cleaned up the place really well after we kicked all the naked people out,” Hunter replied with a grin.

“Course, of course. So you’re good, you promise? All I’ve really heard about was that fight your mother had with Ernie. Listening to her, you’d think you were hobbling around town on crutches every day.”

“Honestly, Dad? They’ve been really great to me, and I don’t even know why. Sure, Ernie’s my Uncle Ernie, and he’s always been cool to me, but to Breaker and Walker, I’m just some kid staying over, and it doesn’t seem to matter. Breaker’s just about the biggest, coolest guy I could imagine, and Walker, well, umm. He lets me use his gadgets.”

“So, your biggest complaint is you don’t know why people are being nice to you.”

“Umm, sort of?” he started to mumble. “It’s like, they have important jobs. They’re out right now saving people from something or other. But instead of doing that for the most part, they’re answering all my dumb questions and letting me spar.”

“Ok, I get that,” his dad nodded. “Look at it this way, Hunter. No one, Ernie and his friends included, got to where they are today without any help. The people who looked like they could take on the world by themselves and tried? They aren’t around anymore. The people who are, who made sure there are redoubts all over where anyone is welcome, who go out and put down problems like they’re dealing with right now, who run that college your friend is going to, they all did it with help.”

“Oh, but then-”

“Right, you’re not a group project kind of kid, I know. If you were, you’d be a defender or in an Order by now. I’m not saying cooperation, holding hands, be neighborly is the solution to everyone’s problems. If you need time on your own, to just be yourself, that’s ok too. But you’re not afraid to get help, and I know you won’t be afraid to give it, either. Ernie, Breaker, Walker, when they look at you, they see a kid who might do great things, might not. It would be certainly not with any help, though.”

“They’re helping a lot, Dad. Even with stuff I didn’t know I had to work on.”

“I can see that. Just do your old dad a favor, k? Come visit every once in a while, in between weird and terrifying adventures.”

“I can do that, sure.”

“So, kid,” Ernie said after they’d gotten back, settled in, and taken a look at Hunter’s progress. “Do you want to learn magic, channelling, or tech tomorrow?”

“Wow, umm, that’s a pretty big decision to make in a day, don’t you think?”

“No,” Ernie chuckled. “I mean, which one do you want to learn first?”