Fuzzy, Marco and Puppy - Sunday, August 19th - Early Evening – Marco's Cabin, Blake Island

For Fuzzy, learning how to read was far nicer when compared to the brute force methods of how Mother Bear taught spells. Marco installed a program on Fuzzy’s commlink that was simply called A through Z, or Azzy as Marco called it. English was still a terribly frustrating, complicated language when it came to reading. However she had a few things going for her.

First, penmanship really wasn’t stressed. Cursive went the way of the dinosaur almost half a century ago. Now writing itself was the dying art. Most words were typed, so she could focus on learning and repeating rather than penmanship. After all, paper was rare and considered something between outmoded and a luxury item. She did learn how to spell her name though which pleased her to no end.

Second was that while repetition was necessary it wasn't taught through brute force repetition. Coming from a religious background, Marco was deeply steeped in a love of music and this reflected in his tastes in education. Azzy was a program based heavily on singing to learn to read. Songs were easy to remember when the tunes were simple because the songs that were taught had rhythm, rhyme and a general shape to them. It was meant for children after all and while Fuzzy was in her teens, she wasn’t self-conscious about the way in which she learned which sped the process of laying that initial groundwork.

By the end of the first day, Fuzzy had made great strides towards memorizing the alphabet song and understood the difference between consonants and vowels. After all, there were only a handful of vowels while the consonants were literally every other letter.

Third was that Fuzzy was a hungry pupil. Reading had been conveyed to her as the most important skill to learn, even more than magic in some ways as learning magic by herself would require her to be able to read. Technically she could get her commlink to read everything to her, but she disliked relying on a commlink when she could do it herself. After all, commlinks could stop working like they were supposed to like how she'd gotten "spammed" on the way to the ACHE or it could stop working altogether like during the last Crash. She also had a sense that learning how to read was the first step to more hidden knowledge, which she figured would make her more formidable than she already was.

Fourth and finally was that Marco was a gentle and patient teacher. In fact, he dove into the work, though this was because he'd dumped some very heavy feelings on Fuzzy that neither had discussed after the fact. Diving into the work was how he dealt, or more aptly, didn't deal with his feelings. Fuzzy had no idea how to even begin to talk about any of that because she barely understood what a Christian was. Rat Man nor the Petrowskis had talked about religion and they'd been her world for most of her life.

Still, the work was positive and Fuzzy already felt like she was making progress. Since the work was all in modules meant for children and so she blew through a dozen of them, learning as she went. Though she was so engrossed in the work and having such a good time with Marco that she was caught off guard by his next words.

“I think that's enough for one day," said Marco.

Fuzzy blinked a few times, confused at the sudden stop.

"I can keep going," said Fuzzy.

Marco stretched his enormous arms upwards, muscles and joints loudly popping as he stretched. Then he relaxed and shook his head.

"It's been four hours," he said, "And I'm hungry. It's good that you're enthusiastic but this isn't a race. It's going to take time. Just keep using the app like I showed you to practice."

"Aww..." sighed Fuzzy.

Marco patted Fuzzy on the shoulder and smiled.

“You're doing really well," said Marco, "You blazed through over a week's worth of lessons in just a few hours. Also, those lessons were made a lot easier when you have such a lovely singing voice.”

Fuzzy flushed with pride. He’d said it before several times while they sang together, but it always made her smile.

“Julian might have a different program for you," said Marco, "He'll start teaching you before he moves you to a full time tutor. But these are the most basic of basics. Lay a good foundation now and you'll be reading like a pro in no time."

Fuzzy nodded, excited at the prospect.

"I think I can do some of this on my own," said Fuzzy.

"You can. The app will help you learn on your own, at least mostly," said Marco, "The faster you figure out how to read, the faster you catch up in the rest of your classes too. Then when you're ready you can start taking normal classes like the rest of us."

He tapped his commlink a few times to end the Azzy program and slipped it onto the coffee table.

"Anyway," he continued, "I can't teach you when I have classes during the day or on the weekends as I spend much of my time in Touristville. But my evenings are generally free. I know it's a bit of a hike to get over here, so if you want to contact me you can use the comm panel in your cabin. It won't let you call off the island but you can get me."

“Yeah, I have all those numbers on the comm panel in my cabin," she said, "I just have to put in your cabin number, right?"

"Yeah. I'm four-thirty-one," said Marco, "Four means you'd be calling the cabin of someone in the senior row and my cabin is the thirty-first since I live on the end. If you ever forget then you can just read the number on my cabin. Or record it on your commlink I suppose."

"And...I'm one-fifteen?" asked Fuzzy, "Since I'm a freshman and I live in cabin fifteen?"

Marco flashed her a thumbs up and Fuzzy felt another moment of accomplishment from intuiting the right answer. It was slow going, but every day she understood a little more about how things worked around here.

"That's right," said Marco, "You can call the school with the number five, teachers are six, security is nine and if you don't know a number then you can just press zero with no other buttons. You'll be talking to a robot and it's a little slow though, so it's easier just to remember."

Fuzzy vastly preferred this three number comm code than the one that took over a dozen numbers to contact someone for normal comm calls. All of those random numbers were difficult to remember. She had Rat Man's number and she planned on calling him tonight sometime with news that she might have work for him. Also just to check in. After all, his house had been her home for most of her life.

"And you can call me," said Fuzzy, "It doesn't have to be about reading. You can call me if you're bored."

This offer teased a smile out of Marco.

"I'll take you up on that," he said.

Fuzzy stood up from her place on the couch. The seat she'd been using had been designed for people her size, not Marco's, so the couch was shaped a little strangely. Then she put her hand on the cooler.

"And now it's my turn," she said, "I'll cook."

"Are you sure?" asked Marco, "You don't need to trouble yourself. I can just contact my personal chef and..."

"I'll cook," she said, firmly, "I just need salt, pepper and fat, probably butter. I can cook all four, but if you want to stretch out the meat with something then maybe you can get Alfredo's sauce."

Marco looked at her oddly, but he shrugged.

"I suppose I could do that," he said, "It would be...Novel to cook for myself, I suppose."

"I'll go get Puppy," said Fuzzy, "He's been cooped up inside too long today. I'll start cooking when I get back."

"I'll go to the cafeteria for some food," said Marco, "There's a noodle extruder and some jars of sauce."

Fuzzy raised an eyebrow.

"They just let you do that?" she asked.

Marco shrugged his enormous shoulders.

"Why wouldn't they?" he asked. "Anyway, I'll see you in a few minutes."

Fuzzy was left momentarily speechless by his cavalier attitude around food and the taking thereof. However, it was just one more odd thing about this place to her. She walked with him for a few minutes, turning off on the freshman trail to go get Puppy. He was very happy to see her and ran around in excitement before stopping abruptly to do his business and he walked back to Marco's cabin with her.

She readied the barbecue while Marco raided the cafeteria. She set up the camp chairs and put Puppy's lead under one of the legs. He was getting bigger, but there were raccoons on the island and they were big enough to hurt him if he wandered off. Then she looked at the charcoal that she'd gotten from the house, which she was vaguely familiar with as well as the grill. So she ripped open the bag and dumped it in. There were instructions on the back of the bag, which she couldn't read, but her app could. So she just followed the instructions that her commlink chirped out to her. Reading would come in time, but until then she'd use the commlink.

Marco came back some ten minutes later with several jars full of some sort of white, creamy sauce, long, newly extruded noodles in a not inconsiderable plastic tub and a number of pre-cut vegetables. Fuzzy wondered how he was going to cook all of that without a pot, especially on a grill. Maybe he had one.

"Got it," he said, "You get the grill going?"

"Yeah," said Fuzzy, "I had my commlink read the instructions on the back. It'll need another five minutes until I put the birds on."

Fuzzy wasn't used to charcoal, but she was used to tending fires in winter and so she'd quickly understood how the grill worked. The charcoal would be in a corner of the grill so she could control the temperature, moving the birds from the hot side under the coals or to the relatively cooler side away from them as needed.

"Sounds great," said Marco, cheerfully.

He put down his bounty of food on the ground and then sat down heavily in his much larger camping chair. Fuzzy was struck by the way he fully took his eyes off his food, as if he wasn't scared about it getting stolen. Just another thing, she reminded herself. She took the offered smaller chair and there were a few minutes before she started grilling where they just stared at each other for a moment. Normally Fuzzy wasn't one to fill the silence with chatter, but Marco had been hungry for the company so she made an attempt to talk.

“So you’ve been here for a long time, right Marco?” she asked.

“This will be my fourth year, yeah,” he said, "We take summers off in case you didn't know."

Fuzzy had a vague recollection of that being true.

"Why?" she asked.

This stumped Marco for a moment.

"It's tradition," said Marco, eventually, "I think it has to do with the fact that most people were farmers at one point and they needed help on the farm during the summer months, but now most people don't farm."

"So why not change it?" asked Fuzzy.

Marco shrugged one shoulder.

"Because it's just what people do," said Marco, "There are schools that are open all year round. Most corporate schools are like that. They eliminated summer vacation...And Saturdays off. But we still get all of that."

"Do people live here during the summer?" asked Fuzzy.

"Oh, no," said Marco, "No one lives here during summer. Well...Maybe security, but that's it. Everyone else goes home."

Fuzzy pursed her lips. Summer meant that easy access to food, shelter and water would be cut off. She'd have to work hard to learn more spells, educate herself and figure out a way to provide for herself until the summer ended. The fact that Julian might provide her with some or even all of these things didn't occur to her at all.

Again, there was silence as she processed. Fuzzy was used to long silences and keeping her own company though, so this didn't bother her. Then it struck her that since Marco had been here so long, he must know a lot about the school. She'd explored the island and was getting to truly know the place, but perhaps he could point her towards some secrets.

“Know any secrets?” asked Fuzzy, slyly.

“Oh, lots,” answered Marco, smugly.

She chewed on her lip in thought, not knowing what exactly to ask first. There was this problem that she had where she wasn't sure just yet what was a secret and what was obvious to everyone else but her. After some consideration, she decided to go with the latter and hoped that it would lead her towards the former. Marco seemed like the kind of person who wouldn't judge her for asking simple questions.

“Okay," she said, finally, "So with all these super rich peoples’ kids here, how come I don’t see that much security? I mean, we're on an island, but there are no walls or fences or anything. It seems like anyone could just boat up to the island. I don't see anything to keep anyone from taking what they want."

She looked down at the food that Marco brought but he didn't seem to notice.

“There's a lot of security here," said Marco, "It’s easy to forget. In fact that’s sort of the point. As someone who's had security for all of my life, we tend to want to feel secure without being smothered. So the better off you are the stealthier your security is...At least at home or school I suppose. If you're out and about, most people opt for security as a way to discourage danger. So there is some physical security here. There are security guards, but we don't see them much."

"I do," said Fuzzy, "Either Julian or a security guard walks with me when I go hunting."

"Yeah, weapons at normal schools generally aren't allowed," said Marco, "Schools for the awakened are slightly more open about having weapons on campus. Spells, alchemy, spirits and adept body magic can be dangerous or even deadly and you can't separate someone from their magic."

"I don't think anyone should separate people from their weapons at all," said Fuzzy, moodily, "I don't like being disarmed. Being disarmed is dangerous."

Marco squinted in confusion at Fuzzy.

"How does you being armed make you less dangerous?" asked Marco.

"It doesn't make me less dangerous," said Fuzzy, "It makes me more dangerous. If they think I'm weak then I'm a target. That's dangerous for everyone because I'll have to show them that I'm not. It's better for me and them that they never try me."

Marco frowned in disapproval, which made Fuzzy feel a little bad even though she knew she was right.

"I think it's possible to live in a world where no one needs weapons," he said, "Where people beat their swords into plowshares."

Fuzzy knew farmers, so she had an idea of what he was talking about even though the Petrowskis didn't use such a thing as plowshares. Still, she looked at him oddly.

"I don't live in that world," she said, "And I think some people would just hang onto their swords rather than farm. Farming is way harder than stealing, especially if you have a sword."

"That world isn't just a vision," said Marco, "It'll be real someday."

Fuzzy shrugged.

"Well until it is, I want my spear," she said.

Marco sighed as his idealism clashed with Fuzzy's realism.

"And security will keep theirs," said Marco, "Well, their guns, back on topic. There are people with guns here on campus, the security you see. That's them. They're either heavily cybered or they have a good amount of magic or sometimes a mix of both. You see a few, but most of the actual security team move around at night from place to place so they can't be targeted. I think they’re in bunkers. I've even seen a few entrances. They're really well hidden."

Fuzzy figured it was about time to get the birds cooking and so she opened the cooler, which got Puppy's nose twitching in excitement. The birds were already prepared and so she used an old pair of tongs that were attached to the grill. She didn't move them yet, but instead set about covering them in all of that delicious butter that Marco brought.

"Keep going," said Fuzzy.

"Oh, yes," said Marco, "So there are guards. The matrix doesn’t work well out here if you didn’t notice. I think that’s on purpose though. Signals degrade after just a few feet. I've never seen a security drone for that reason, though there are wired cameras."

“Matrix?” she asked.

Marco blinked as she asked such a basic question that he wasn't really prepared to explain it. Meanwhile, she just buttered the bird meat with a stick of butter and was careful not to waste any of it.

“Oh, er, all computers tied together talking to one another, or at least that can talk to one another. Like your commlink," he explained, "I heard that there was this thing called the internet a long time ago that was like it, but the matrix of today includes augmented reality and virtual reality as well and is much more complicated than the internet ever was."

"Virtual?" she asked, "Like those BTL's?"

She referred to the drugs that she'd seen in the ACHE. The people who'd slotted in simulated experiences so intense that it was not only heavily addictive, but it would eventually kill either through starvation or dehydration as people neglected their real bodies, which seemed very easy to do in the ACHE or stroke, which Kenji had explained was damage to the brain.

"Those would be the more extreme ends of a simulated experience," said Marco, "Virtual reality tends to be more of a...Well...Anything really. I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever had to explain this to anyone before."

Fuzzy nodded. She understood that some things had to be experienced. Explanation just wasn't enough.

"The main security around here though is magical," said Marco, who cheered up instantly at the mention of magic, "Specifically, security spirits. They patrol in the astral invisibly and manifest on the island when needed. Would you like to see?"

"See...What?" asked Fuzzy, slowly.

Marco had already stood up from his chair though as his excitement got the better of him.

"Here, I’ll show you," said Marco.

Fuzzy turned her head, tongs with chicken in one hand, butter in the other. And there was Marco, his eyes closed, head bowed. Then he opened his now unfocused eyes and murmured something quietly. Nothing happened, at least not immediately.

“I helped Mother Bear bind this one," he said, "Normally beast spirits are outside of my ability to bind, but I just added power so she could get more services out of it. Like how you healed that deer with Sasha. That was absolutely beautiful by the way."

Fuzzy blushed happily. She wasn’t used to receiving so many compliments. In fact she probably received more compliments from Marco this weekend than in her many years in the barrens and not once did she feel like she was being manipulated or flattered. To her, Marco just seemed to be a legitimately wonderful person. Of course, this kept her from objecting to Marco as he beckoned the spirit.

“It's here," he said, "Since I was involved in its summoning I can communicate with it and direct it a little. It's fine revealing itself for a short time."

Fuzzy felt its presence before she saw it. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight as honed instincts told her that some sort of large predator was nearby and watching her. Puppy must have felt it too, because darted behind one of Fuzzy's legs and growled.

In the near dark, in the woods, she saw a shape where there was none before. There were no large predators on the island. She'd made sure of that. Deer were the largest animal and raccoons were the largest meat eater. So after weeks of finding no tracks or scat from any large animal, it was deeply unnerving to know that some large predator was nearby.

This spirit was sort of built a bit like a dog, but far larger and bulkier, somewhat brown and translucent with a stockier muzzle and cute, round ears. That was when Fuzzy realized that this was a bear, which she’d never seen before in person but had heard about. However, it also had antlers which didn't seem correct from when she'd been told about bears. It looked towards her and Marco for a few seconds before Marco stopped doing whatever he was doing and the spirit vanished back into the woods just as easily as it appeared. The sudden feeling of being watched vanished so fast it was even more eerie than when it came.

"You summoned that?" asked Fuzzy, impressed.

"I helped," said Marco, "It was a bear spirit, or well...Mostly. Beast spirits sometimes take on traits from different animals as they grow in power. Some beast spirits are only a single animal and sometimes you get chimeras."

"How many spirits are there on the island?" asked Fuzzy.

Marco thought about it for a moment as he sat back down in his chair.

"Six...No, seven elder spirits," said Marco, "Besides beast, there are water, wind, earth and man spirits on the island too. Spirits are chiefly what keep people away."

"By killing people?" asked Fuzzy, warily.

Fuzzy put aside her tongs for a moment to pick up Puppy. To his credit, he wasn't shaking, only wary as he looked for the bear spirit with the antlers and found nothing. She gave him a few pets and a few whispers of encouragement, though he remained vigilant.

"Oh, no," said Marco, aghast, "No, no. That's not necessary. There were some people who tried to land on a boat in my sophomore year. Some sort of amateur film crew I think. The boat just couldn't get onto the island. The earth spirit pushed the earth up from the water and the water spirit ran the boat aground. I wasn't there for it, but I saw the boat when they tried to remove it. I heard it was all pretty peaceful. The corporate high threat response team was less so. Strike teams generally aren't that gentle, but no one died."

"What if they'd made it onto the island?" asked Fuzzy.

Marco smiled a little.

"The land, water and the air around them would rebel," said Marco, "Odds are they'd take a few steps and just sink up to their necks into the earth or the waves would crash down on them and drag them back into the Sound or they'd get sucked into the air and spun around or a spirit of man would start slinging spells. Anything really. We don't use fire spirits here because well...It's a forest and we live here. The beast spirits though? They're the killers. A shaman's first choice for combat."

Fuzzy thought about this for a moment as she put Puppy down and returned to grilling. Her takeaway was that it was perfectly fine for others to be armed, but not her. In her limited experience from a life lived in Puyallup, disarmed people who lived too close to armed people who weren't friends or family found themselves stolen from or even made into slaves. Without her weapons, she felt unsafe and no amount of talking would change that. She kept this to herself though as Marco didn't seem to understand. Instead, she focused on arming herself in other ways. With magic.

"And I'll be able to summon spirits someday?" asked Fuzzy, "Like those?"

Marco nodded and smiled, unaware of how Fuzzy was feeling. Though he couldn't see her face as she'd turned away from him as she tending the barbecue.

"Someday," said Marco, "You have better than average magical power, but it takes practice to summon a spirit. That one was actually harder and more costly because it's a long term binding. A year and a day. Most disappear after the sun rises or sets and have to be summoned all over again. But yeah, with enough power and enough practice, you could summon spirits too. They're very handy."

Fuzzy nodded to herself in appreciation as she began to turn the birds on the grill. For now, she'd been disarmed and that galled her, but she wouldn't be forever.