Seventeen years later...

A snowy night greeted the coastal city of Ravenport on Christmas Eve, enough of it falling to guarantee that anyone with a shovel would be busy tomorrow morning. The moon is bright enough to nearly light the sky on its own, but the thousands of street lamps provide a hazy, warm glow to contrast against the biting wind. The city itself is home to several significant technology corporations, each of whom generously donated the fruits of their labor to Ravenport’s infrastructure. The downtown area of Ravenport, in particular, was known nationwide for its many years of profitability and growth, exemplified by the Astro Spark, a large, multi-story, futuristic monument. The Griffintail shopping district to the north is but one of many areas benefiting from the stability of the city, though the current late hour was providing ample reason for many of its patrons to leave and it’s high-end stores to start closing up shop.

One particular eyesore inside of the shopping district is Bub’s Burgers, a restaurant that had fallen so far behind the times that it was threatening to come back into them by sheer stubbornness. The tall, antique sign outside has a revolving picture of a cartoon badger’s head gnawing on an oversized burger. The inside of the establishment is clean and inviting, which most who ate there could agree that those two attributes were the only ones it had in its favor.

Behind the well-lit counter stands a slightly larger than average girl in her late teens with a light brown complexion, long curly black hair and brown eyes. A bright yellow and orange striped shirt denotes her as an employee of Bub’s burgers, as well as the regulation black slacks and a cartoon badger’s head for a hat. Her hands work the register, starting the process to close up for the night when a sudden ring pulls her attention away from her work. A large man saunters in slowly, giving the telltale signs that he was distinctly new to the restaurant and likely the area. He was wearing a thick looking jacket with the stylized insignia of the Ravenport Rippers, the local Rocketball team, as well as a pair of jeans and worn work boots. He stops to look up at the illuminated menu above the girl’s head and takes his time, seemingly ignoring the employee’s presence. The girl glances up towards the clock: 9:57 p.m. Three minutes before closing time. She speaks up to gain the man’s attention.

“Hello! My name is Luna and welcome to Bub’s Burgers, home of the Badger Burger. How can I take-”

The man grunts sharply at her, holding up a hand to cut her off. “Give me a break. I’ll order when I’m ready.”

Luna’s eyes sharpen for a moment as the customer cuts her off, but she flashes him a friendly smile and patiently waits for the man to speak. After a minor eternity, he brings his eyes back down towards Luna, shaking his head.

“Wow. No low-calorie stuff at all? Man, I guess...whatever, let me take a large double badger burger combo, with a cheeseburger on the side and...a large chili bowl. And make the drink a Coke. No ice.”

Luna looks down towards the register that was literally one button away from closing and sighs internally, canceling the shutdown sequence and bringing it back up for sales. She keys in the order and looks back up towards him, keeping the same friendly tone.

“That’ll be $14.79. For here or to go? Keep in mind we close in like two minutes so -”

“Fourteen dollars for that? Just that? Man, you are lucky I’m hungry or else I’d be out of here. Yeah, I’ll take it to go.”

Breathing a small sigh for miniscule miracles, she takes the man’s card and charges it appropriately and sends the order into the back to be processed. The sound of the back door to the parking lot opening forces Luna to turn around just in time to see a coworker step outside. Luna holds up a finger towards the customer, suggesting he should wait while she quickly walks to the same door, holding it open. The parking lot itself was nearly empty, save for an old beat up Volkswagen that belonged to the owner and a small girl with a hoodie, hastily walking along.

“Tina! Tina where are you going, we’re not done closing down here yet!”

Tina responds by pulling the hood up over her head and tightening it, extending an arm with a middle finger back towards Luna.

“...Oh yeah, that’s totally called for. Whatever, fine.”

Luna frowns, sighs, and steps back inside, shutting the door back and quickly washing her hands. She slips on a pair of plastic food service gloves and starts to fill the order. The entire kitchen of the restaurant was empty save for her, and even more infuriatingly, Tina had left without doing her obligatory closing duties. Luckily, several items were already heated and prepared, so Luna took the time to properly packages the burgers with practiced ease. She then turns to fill the drink order, heading over to the soda fountain and grabbing an appropriate sized cup. As she presses the tab down, a literal gush of cola sprays outward, splashing hard into the styrofoam container, exploding upward and coating the entire front of her shirt. Luna immediately eases off the tab. The manager was supposed to fix this over a month ago but apparently neglected it.

Taking a moment to breathe and to wipe off the barest hints of cola that reached her glasses on her collar, Luna returns to the front with the items as ordered, dropping them into a paper bag and pushing it towards him. The customer, who had watched the entire exchange smirks humorously.

“Nice shirt.”

Luna took it in stride. “There’s your order. Sorry, it took so long, but we are a little short-staffed tonight. Happy Holidays!”

The man grabs his bag and turns to leave, but stops just short and looks back at Luna.

“What...did you say?”

“Happy...Holidays?”

“No-no-no, that’s right. Say the holiday.”

“Sir…” Luna struggles to maintain her composure but manages to keep her tone in line. “...It’s company policy. That’s all.”

“No, I want you to say Merry Christmas because that’s what it is.”

“Sir, I can’t do that. It’s against company policy.”

“FIne.” The man says, glaring at Luna. “Then I won’t be coming back here again. Have a nice night, you dirty little heathen.”

He then turns from her, snatching his food off of the counter and storms out, slamming the door behind him hard enough to rattle it. Luna drops her hands to the counter and lets loose a massive sigh of frustration, looking down to inspect her sodden shirt.

“A wonderful end to an amazingly wonderful day.”

A voice booms from the nearby manager’s office.

“LUNA! GET OVER HERE. NOW!”

Luna’s shoulders slump. “Of course. Why stop now when the fun’s just starting?”

The manager’s office was a windowless room with a single, messy desk taking up the majority of it. Behind the desk was a wall of small televisions with a live feed of the restaurant’s surroundings. In front of the desk is a singular chair, uncomfortable in make and cheap by design. Luna’s head pops in the front door, looking inward towards the male behind the desk. A golden nameplate with a badger’s head on it reads ‘Victor Logan.'

“Mr. Logan?”

The manager’s pale complexion is offset by his rather intensely black hair which, while cut short, wildly flares off to the sides. He wears a white dress shirt with a golden manager pin in it and black slacks. Both were unironed and wrinkly. The man is easily in his sixties and gaining a bit of weight, but he gave an impression of stubbornness that would give a mule a run for its money. He speaks coolly and slides a piece of paper off to the side.

“Come in and sit. What was that about?”

Luna steps into the doorway, revealing her shirt and sitting down in the chair. Logan’s brow raises in curiosity.

“Our last customer decided that he’d throw a temper tantrum because I wouldn’t tell him Merry Christmas.”

“...Well, why didn’t you? It is Christmas Eve.”

“Because company policy is NOT to do that?”

Logan shrugs towards her, shaking his head. “Is it? Huh. Those guys who wrote that handbook are way, way, way too uh….what was it...politically correct? Yeah. Back in the day...ugh. Nevermind. Kids.”

Luna rolls her eyes.

“Anyway,” Logan continues. “I needed to speak to you today.”

Luna perks up and leans forward, the manager having her complete attention.

“You’ve been working here for two years now. Just a little over. You know, you are one of my most reliable employees. You come in; you do your work. You treat the customer well, and you’ve moved up from being in the back to being in the front. I respect that. And you know that every six months I put in a raise if you’ve done well. You know that right?”

Luna nods energetically. “Yes?”

“But I’m gonna level with you. Times ain’t doing too good. Market...it’s changing. Old school places like this aren’t doing so hot, and people aren’t coming in like they used to.”

Luna turns her head slightly towards him, shrugging her shoulders. “Uh...so what...Are you just going to not give me a raise or…?”

“I’m going to have to let you go.”

Luna’s eyes widen in shock as her hands clutch her legs for support. She leans back in her chair.

“W-w-wait. What? Why!?”

Logan shrugs towards her. “You already get paid more than everyone else besides shift managers, and I can’t cut them. I just hired the new girl Tina-”

“You mean the one that flipped me off after taking off before we closed? The one that left the entire back dirty with food still going? THAT Tina?”

“-...who will be absorbing your hours. I’m sure she’ll be a good worker once we get her trained up.”

“Don’t think I don’t know why the only reason why you hired her is because she’s your daughter’s friend. If pulled half of the stuff she did-”

“You let me worry about her kid. It’s not your problem. Not anymore. Here.”

Logan reaches inside of his desk, pulls out an envelope and slides it over to Luna.

“Your pay for the week. Now, believe me, this was not something I wanted to do, but I bet on black, and the chips didn’t roll over in my favor.”

Luna visibly radiates anger as she stands, snatching the envelope off of his desk. She starts to speak and stops herself several times in quick succession before taking a deep breath and exhaling, temporarily dropping the stress.

“...Fine. Is there anything else I can do for you...Sir?”

Logan shakes his head matter-of-factly, folding his fingers together pleasantly.

Luna starts to turn to leave, but Logan speaks up sharply.

“Oh, there is one more thing kid. Clean yourself up and close up the back up for me, would you?”

Luna marches straight out of the room, the anger that she had temporarily quelled boiling to the surface. As she turned to walk towards her lockers, she stopped to regard the bag of food the customer had left behind. The food was already paid for, and the customer hadn’t even opened it. All Logan would do is toss it, so why not take it? Luna grabs the bag and heads to her locker, cleaning out the meager supplies she had in it and taking off out of the door, leaving in much the same manner Tina had.

The walk home from Bub’s Burgers is a cold one, not helped by the now terribly sticky shirt pressing against both her skin and her jacket. She mumbles to herself angrily as she trudges through the ankle-deep snow, venting her frustration by kicking large clods of the white stuff into powder. The occasional flying car passes high overhead, and the infrequent babbling of an advertising android would spew at her, but other than that, very little traffic was present on the streets or in the air, the whole city settling down to celebrate the holiday. A stiff wind cuts through her jacket like a blade, but it wasn’t anything she wasn’t used to.

Within a few blocks east of the shopping district, the city started to get a little hilly. It wasn’t anything Luna couldn’t manage, but it did provide a magnificent view of the western ocean if one could get a clear spot without trees or tall buildings getting in the way. After a small series of inclines and plenty of quiet snow marching, she walks past the neighborhood sign of ‘Pheasant Downs,' turning into it and continue to pace.

The houses of this community were spaced apart rather wide, each expansive lawn having enough room for a swimming pool, a patio and whatever other modern amenities required to keep up with the neighborhood status quo. The current holiday season is infectious, as Christmas lights were strewn about everywhere: on trees, on houses, and even on mailboxes. The neighborhood was one of the easternmost in the city, with a forest pressing in on the back of its expansive yards.

One such two-story house, located in the farthest eastern reaches of the suburb, has the minimal amount of Christmas decorations required to keep up with the neighborhood social standard; a single string of multicolored lights around a scraggly pine tree and a store-bought wreath pinned to the front door. It’s position in the back of Pheasant Downs meant that it was the one most consumed by the nearby forest it was carved from, with its yard quite literally leading into the great outdoors. The mailbox has three slots and rests on the road that leads back to the main thoroughfare, with the words “The Oswalds” printed very clearly on it’s side.

Luna steps up to the wooden porch and pushes open the door, kicking her shoes on the welcome mat as she comes in and shuts the door behind herself. The home is warm, at least technically. The lights in most of the rooms were off, with the exception of the living room, which is usually where most of the Oswalds could be found. The sparse Christmas decoration from the outside continued inside with a sole Christmas wreath heading the internal festivities. She steps forward and starts to sneak past the doorway to the living room but stops when she overhears a voice addressing her.

“‘Ey Luna! Did ja bring me my food?”

The girl sighs and turns into the living room, stepping through the entrance. The inside of the living room is quite nice, with soft couches set up on three walls, with a massive glass panel television dominating the fourth wall. The tv had a highlight reel of a game of a man wearing heavy armor and a jetpack speeding through defenders with an oval-shaped ball resting in the nook of his arm. Hints of the family’s hunting activities were also present in the room, with a Stag’s head resting over the mantle of the fireplace and a deluxe gun cabinet sitting in a corner.

In the center of the room a large, well-molded loveseat is Penn, a middle-aged, portly gentleman. His black hair had long since given up the fight, retreating to the sides and back of his head, showing off his olive skin. His goatee is cut thin and short, likely the product of meticulous grooming. He’s wearing a white sweater, as well as a pair of waistline taxed jeans and brown shoes. His sweater has a picture of a fierce-looking anthropomorphic Raven clawing into the shirt, it reading “Ravenport Rippers” in stylized text.

Sitting next to him and curled up over an arm is Peggy, a woman of her early forties, sporting a rail-thin physique, pale skin, thick make-up and frizzy blond hair that seems to hover an inch off of her head at all times. She wears a garish floral print dress that looks like it’d be at home on the highest of fashion runways, with matching hoop earrings and tacky sandals. Luna never did understand the woman’s obsession with wearing sandals nearly everywhere, even in the winter.

Luna raises up the bag from Bub’s Burgers up, and Penn grins widely, gesturing towards Luna to bring it over. She takes a few steps forward and drops the bag on his lap, the man sinking his fingers into the bag’s contents and pulling up the larger of the two burgers.

“Double Badger Burger? This ain’t what I ordered? I always get the same thing, how could you mess it up? What do you have in your ears girl, lard?”

Luna rolls her eyes, shaking her head towards him. “Well, I got it for free today. Besides, I didn’t get the chance to make you your food.”

Penn looks up towards her, furrowing his brows. “Why not?”

Luna sighs, crossing her arms defensively. “Because...I got let go.”

Peggy raises a cup of eggnog up to her face to drink before she sets it back down on the cup holder in the arm of the loveseat. “Uh huh. I bet you did something. I told you she wouldn’t be able to keep that job.” Peggy chides, shaking her head slowly. “ I told you, I told you, I told you.”

“What are you talking about, I kept that stupid job for two years!” Luna exclaims, reaching the end of her patience.

“Yeah and if Penn was working there, he’d already be a Shift Manager. You didn’t even make it all the way up and only got paid peanuts the entire time. How do you expect to make it anywhere in life if you can’t even get up the ladder at a fast food restaurant?”

“The only reason why he got rid of me is because he didn’t want to give me a raise. I didn’t do anything wrong and-”

Penn looks back towards her and runs a finger over his mouth, indicating she should be quiet.

“No sass. Did you get paid?”

Frustrated beyond all belief, Luna grabs the envelope out of the inside pocket of her jacket and pulls it out. She pulls a single twenty dollar bill from the stack and tosses the envelope at him, folding her share in her hand and stuffing it back in her coat pocket. Penn eagerly catches it but also gets a small look at the massive stain on the front of her shirt and points towards it.

“Uh huh. If you didn’t do anything, where did that stain come from?”

Luna barely constrains her rage, but puts a lid on it long enough to answer the question. “The soda machine’s pressure went overboard again-look...can I go now? I’d really like to go now.”

“Yeah yeah…” Penn waves dismissively, taking a bite out of the unwrapped Badger Burger. “Git outta here...And clean up your nasty shirt.”

As soon as the order was given, Luna quickly steps out of the room, disappearing back into the darkness of the main hallway. Voices from the living room ease out into the hallway, despite making a lousy attempt at being discreet.

“...You were right Peg; she couldn’t get up the ladder.”

Luna stops in the hallway, leaning quietly against the wall to eavesdrop.

“She’s never going to get anywhere unless she shows some initiative. Now she’s lost her job and we’re right back to paying for everything. How much longer is she going to be here anyway?”

“Well, she’s eighteen now. We were doin’ her a favor letting her stay here when she had that job. Without it...meh. I’ll give her a month. If she don’t find anything better, her butt is gone. We put more money into her than foster care paid out anyway and now that we don’t even get that? Pfft.”

“A month..that’s about when our next vacation is happening, right?”

Hearing enough, Luna heads downstairs, closing the door behind her glumly and running a hand through her hair in stress. It never ceased to amaze her just how rude the Oswalds could be. She’d lived here her entire life and she rarely received any kind of praise or compassion from either one of them. No matter what the dilemma was, it was nearly always her fault, even if it took Olympic level mental gymnastics to reach that result. She pulls the light switch at the base of the stairs and illuminates her room, more than ready to relax.

The basement of the Oswald home isn’t the most luxurious area of the house, with it being relegated to a storage room first and her living space second. Various boxes of old and forgotten trinkets or memories are haphazardly stacked around most of the walls. Antique workout equipment lay unused and gathering hazardous amounts of dust in one corner. Some of the rafters contained clothes from bygone fads, hung for safe keeping. But one of the corners contained an old iron bed, likely older than anything else in the house, an uncomfortable looking metal desk with a laptop perched upon it, a few warped wooden dressers likely for clothes and a small vanity with a mirror planted in it. Over the bed sits a few small posters, most of them being generic looking medieval fantasy fair with the occasional wrestler thrown in. A backpack with a copious amount of gaming pins sits underneath the desk.

After visiting the small bathroom they had put into a spare corner, Luna slides into a tank top on her way over towards her desk, grabbing a silver crescent moon pendant and draping it around her neck. She pats a stuffed dragon sitting on her desk while pulling open her laptop and turning it on. It took a few minutes to boot up and secure her internet connection, but soon enough her communication programs were up and running. A flashing program indicator catches her attention, her mouse moving down to bring her Zillion Mail account up. Luna checked her email fairly often on her phone, but two new messages were highlighted. The address for both was from the local news: ‘Local Wildlife Succumb to New Strain of Distemper.' and 'New wave of missing person reports filed as police investigate local nightclubs for clues!' Before she could even click on the headline, another message shows up from her friends list on Bonfyre. Luna maximizes the program to see the username RubyMercedes with a message impending. Luna smiles warmly.

RubyMercedes: Are you home?

Luna’s fingers set to work typing, realizing that she was still wearing her work hat and tossing it angrily across the room.

LilacMoon: Yeah. Had a really bad day at work.

RubyMercedes: Awww...what happened?

LilacMoon: Lost my job today. Had a total dick customer as the last one. Ruined my shirt.

RubyMercedes: That’s no good. If I was there, I’d totally have kicked his ass for you. There is no problem that a good judo throw can’t fix.

LilacMoon: He was a pretty big dude, but I’d pay MONEY to see you beat him up.

RubyMercedes: If only I wasn’t all the way across country…

LilacMoon: I know. ;_; I could really use a friend here. It sucks. I had to tell the jerks about the pink slip.

RubyMercedes: Oh no. What’d they say?

Luna sighs as she types, shaking her head dismissively.

LilacMoon: Same stuff they always say. Now that I’ve lost my job they’re gonna throw me out. I mean...they were probably going to anyway, but now they have a reason. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

RubyMercedes: You should try to stay positive though. It’ll get better!

LIlacMoon: I don’t know anymore Kelly. I hate it here. I hate it here so much. School sucks, I lost my job because I was good at my job, and those assholes upstairs just never give me a break.

Luna pauses to consider something before angrily typing again.

LilacMoon: I just...want to live a life, you know?

LilacMoon: Just...a life, where I can enjoy the things I like, without being made fun of, or taken advantage of, or anything like that.

LilacMoon: A life where I can feel like I’m special. That I’m good at SOMETHING.

LilacMoon: I’d like to know what it’s like to not just be some dork who plays way too many video games and watches too much wrestling.

LilacMoon: So I can feel good about myself instead of always wondering if it’s me or them and getting sad about it because it’s always me.

LilacMoon: It’s been so long since I’ve just..felt good about something. It’s always the same crappy feelings, day in and day out.

LilacMoon: I’ve honestly forgotten what it feels like, to just be...happy. With the jerks...with work, with me.

LilacMoon: And I can never tell anyone around here because nobody cares.

It takes a minute or two for Ruby to respond. Luna holds her hands over her face, pulling her glasses off to rest on an empty spot on her desk. She rubs her eyes with anxiety and runs through a small list of possible choices to make about the night’s events before a small jingle and a flashing campfire icon get her attention.

RubyMercedes: ...I care. :3

Luna smiles towards that and continues typing.

LilacMoon: That means a lot to me

LilacMoon: You have no idea.

RubyMercedes: Look, I know I can’t help you really, because I don’t have a job or anything, but I will try to be here on Bonfyre for you okay? We’ve been friends since like, middle school and you helped me out through a ton of stuff.

RubyMercedes: I know you are super smart and talented. You just haven’t gotten your chance yet.

RubyMercedes: So give that a little time and just think about it kay?

RubyMercedes: Ooh, I know what will cheer you up!

LilacMoon: ?

RubyMercedes: I finally got my patcher on Swordcraft to work and Dad has gone to bed. Wanna play?

A broad smile crosses Luna’s lips as she slides her glasses back on and types.

LilacMoon: Awesome, let me get my headset on and I’ll be right there!

Luna reaches for a rather ragged looking headset from her desk drawer when a shrill, feminine cry pierces through the quiet basement.

“LUNAAAAAA! Get up here! YOU HAVE A JOB TO DO!”

Luna sets the headset down with a sigh and stands, bending over her laptop for a moment.

LilacMoon: Hold on. Jerks want something again. Brb.

With that said, Luna turns towards the door and trudges upstairs, closing the door behind her.