Season 1, Episode 6 - The Tree Plot XXVII - "Having Fun Isn't Hard..."

Standing in the doorway of Audrey’s apartment, Isaac traded several dollar bills for a big bag of reubens. When he looked inside to make sure they came with napkins, something dawned on him.

He looked back up at the delivery man - he looked middle-aged and freshly separated from his wife.

“Pavel?” Isaac asked him. “Didn’t you run the Zrucnasc up near Kanakana Station before it got shut down due to a rat infestation?”

Pavel shifted uncomfortably. “And then the deli I worked at got shut down after the State Police raided it…and also had a rat infestation.”

Isaac fished through his pocket and gave the poor bastard another dollar. The two then said their farewells as Isaac shut the door, which also saved him from late autumn's shrill gusts of wind. If it weren’t for the Dunn Electric Factory opening on Thanksgiving night, energy prices in the Pond would’ve gone through the roof this upcoming winter - and that would mean some pretty cold nights.

But, fortunately, the apartment was heated, and Isaac had no complaints at the moment. As he set down the bag on the coffee table, he found Esther hugging her knees in the corner of the room.

“Uh…Esther?”

That seemed to wake Esther out of her trance. She briefly looked up at him - her face seared a hot red. She immediately ducked her head behind her knees again.

“I’m…I’m alright. I just need a minute to get my thoughts straight. I used up about two months worth of adrenaline today…”

Isaac supposed she had a point. She did just spend a good part of the afternoon describing how God worked. And how Isaac could meet God. Or even become God. That was enough to get Isaac’s head spinning, too.

And, not to mention…

He looked at his hands, remembering the warmth and softness of when Esther held them. He looked at the thumb where she gently circled hers against his. Then he recalled the face that moved all too close to his own. That was also enough to get Isaac’s head spinning, too.

Girls and Godhood. Talk about complicated.

Fortunately, Godhood seemed to at least have a concrete solution. And that was to eat some brain food and ponder on it.

Isaac took a seat on Audrey’s couch and patted the cushion next to him. “You hungry?”

Esther nodded and glanced at her reuben as Isaac pulled it out of the bag. Seemingly reluctantly, she stood up and awkwardly sat next to him on the couch. The two ate in silence - Isaac taking big bites since reubens are the best, Esther nibbling on hers very much like an anxious squirrel.

“Isaac,” she finally said, her eyes seemingly fixated on the corned beef threatening to slip away from the rye bread. “Did any of that actually help?”

Isaac finished his first sandwich and wiped his hands. “I think it did,” he said. “At least I know where I’m going now and what the dangers are. I feel like I have a better understanding of the Academy and the Rddhi. But, to be honest with you, I don’t really know how to get there.”

He let Rddhi spark up through his right fist. “I know how to get physically stronger. But I don’t really know how to evolve a soul. You said it’s spontaneous, right?”

Esther nodded. “Um…you’ll know when it happens.”

Isaac recalled the timeless, eternal feeling that went through him that day in September when he first felt the Rddhi flicker in his fists. “So it’s similar to how unlocking the Rddhi goes?”

Another nod. “One day…you’ll have an Understanding, and then you’ll be Circuit 2. But…if perception is knowing, then you can help the process along by knowing more. The key to understanding the other side and the Rddhi would be to learn.”

“Knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle,” Isaac recalled from a mixture of popular sayings and Saturday morning cartoons. His mind then transitioned to his school textbooks. “I’ve run into a lot of people who've said my school textbooks lie. I didn’t want to believe them at first, but it makes sense now. The government only wants us to learn things that benefit them.”

“From the government’s perspective, an idea is more dangerous than an assault rifle. If they don’t allow us to have assault rifles, why would they allow us to have ideas?” Esther set her reuben down and wiped her hands. “That’s why we need to learn - so we can decide for ourselves what’s right and what’s just.”

Isaac decided he was going to need that second sandwich right now for further brain food. “How do I start learning on my own? I’ve only learned at school.”

Esther’s eyes briefly lit up again now that she had another chance to explain a familiar topic to a novice. “It’s reading,” she began, almost breathlessly. “Reading is critical. It forces the mind to string together letters into sentences and then into ideas. If lifting weights strengthens muscles, then reading strengthens the brain.”

Isaac swallowed a piece of reuben. “That makes sense. Reading’s fun, too. I’ve read some sword-and-gun dime novels and magazine serials, and we read some cool books for school. We got to beat them Soc’s, Esther?”

Esther’s serious tutor look gave way to a giggle. “D-Do it for Johnny, man.”

“There we go!” They shared a moment of laughter. Then Isaac went back to thinking. “But I feel like I’m not learning anything from those.”

Esther eyed the young adult novels in Audrey’s bookcase. “All reading is good, but if you really want to learn about the world, then you need to transition to nonfiction.”

“Oh yeah, like that book about Italy you gave me. I feel like I learned a lot from it.” But then Isaac recalled a book burning in downtown Narragansett he went to last summer. He and Dan Turner laughed along as they threw banned books into the bonfire under the night sky. “I guess nonfiction can be hard to come by in New England.”

Esther reached down next to the coffee table and pulled out a small card from her purse, her pose suggesting she felt like a certified badass. “That’s another reason why the State Police is feuding with the Academy,” she explained, holding up her student ID for dramatic effect. “It’s because we still keep books the government doesn’t want us to have.”

The feeling of badassery went away. “Um…you need the student ID to get into that part of the library…special permission, too, but I can set up for you and all that. Even give you a tour.”

Isaac recalled Esther’s offer from earlier today. “I guess working with the Academy really is important-”

He quieted down and Esther looked away, since the other part of that offer involved working with Esther, and that other part was offered right as Esther circled her thumb around his.

Esther coughed - it was clearly a fake one. “Um…yeah, you know. Becoming an autodidact is hard…that means being self-taught.”

Isaac put his hand down.

“But with the Academy’s resources, we can help you get there,” Esther encouraged again, dancing around the delicate subject of her and Isaac together.

“I see,” Isaac answered. The two went quiet again, electing to finish the rest of their reubens.

Audrey’s clock ticked away. Gray clouds rolled outside through the window. Cars rumbled by in the street below.

“Say, Isaac,” Esther finally said. “There’s actually an opportunity right now for you to work more closely with the Academy. I really think it’ll help you grow.”

Isaac thought about the red-brick building and its smiling chairman. Gregory wanted Isaac to get to the top of the Academy, but what did Isaac himself want? He wasn’t sure yet. But Esther had a point about doing it alone. And, after all, the Academy was his school. He had pride in that.

“Sure,” Isaac answered.

Esther seemed to sigh in relief. “Well, you see, your previous missions involved New York smugglers and the Alchemist. We’ve sort of hit a dead end with the Alchemist right now, but there’s been some other developments.”

Esther caught him up to speed. The New York spy ring in the school was still active and teamed up with a group called the Dorrites. The Dorrites had infiltrated the Navy and were pushing drugs through the city out of an underground base. A Pan-Asian qiyejituan was funding and supplying the Dorrites. An odd phrase found in the underground base - the Oblieration of the Self - was possibly associated with the grand plan of the Dorrites, should they have one.

“Therefore,” Esther concluded. “If we defeat the Dorrites, we’ll catch the spies in our school, keep drugs off the streets, and earn an alliance with the Navy."

Isaac had to admit - he did like the sound of all that.

I can finally finish my business with the New York spies, I can end the drug references, and I can get a tour of an aircraft carrier.

Hell yeah.

“Alright,” Isaac declared. “I’m in. Where do we start?”

Esther retrieved two more student IDs from her purse. “Tomorrow…you and I, we’ll pretend to be Institute students and research at their library for information about qiyejituan investment and Obliteration of the Self. We won’t find that info in any other libraries. Getting some answers should bring us one step closer to beating the Dorrites.”

Esther handed over an ID; Isaac looked at himself staring back at the camera on school picture day, apparently full of Institute Feeder High School Spartan pride.

“Ron Mexico,” Isaac read his new name aloud. “What’s the game plan? Do we have to karate chop our way in? Do I need to infiltrate through an air duct? I’ve been working on my flexibility, I always knew I would need it.”

“...um, no, no air duct infiltration,” Esther said. “The Academy’s Technical Servicemen have scoped out the place. Getting it should be a simple measure of flashing our cards at the door. All the information we need should be in public areas. If we need to enter a private section, well…that’s where your clones come in.”

On the one hand, Isaac could very well air duct himself into a private section, but perhaps clones worked better. “Won’t me using the Rddhi set off some sort of sensor or alarm?”

“You’ll have to conceal yourself in the Rddhi.”

Isaac crossed his arms and leaned back. I remember Reed doing that somewhere, and people did at the Combat Simulation as well. I guess that’s an area I need to work on.

“If you do meditations today, try to conceal yourself during them as practice,” Esther encouraged. “You can see other users and people in the Rddhi grid, right? That’s because the Rddhi flow of individual things sticks out from the general flow. That’s where the false separation of maya and “I” derives from. Instead, try to imagine yourself in harmony with the universe, going with the flow of things.”

“Sounds mystical,” Isaac supposed. “Is there any danger of me losing myself?”

Esther shook her head. “Not at this level. Rddhi concealment isn’t perfect at Circuit 1. You’ll be okay.”

Isaac patted his stomach. “Right. Once I finish digesting this, I’ll start practicing.”

He then noticed Esther peering at Audrey’s (minimal) collection of VHS tapes. When she felt Isaac’s eyes on her, she seized up. “Um…it’s nothing. I was just thinking…if we go early tomorrow morning to the library, we’d have time to, you know…watch a movie or something afterwards. I guess Audrey doesn’t have a lot of movies. Wh-What movies do you have?”

Isaac knew his collection by heart. “I got a ton of kung fu and gun fu movies from 1970s Hong Kong,” he proudly exclaimed. “Movies were different back then.”

“Ah…I see,” Esther said. She rose from the couch.

“Something wrong?”

Esther ran a finger through strands of hair. “No, nothing…it’s just that I don’t really like action movies.”

“Ah…I see.”

Esther made her way over to the coat rack.

“Heading out?” Isaac called out for the couch.

Esther tossed a beige longcoat over her shoulders. “Yes, I have some meetings at the Academy to go too. But, um…thanks for listening to me ramble, Isaac.”

Isaac stood up to see her out. “No problem. I really appreciate you letting me know about all this. I think we change the world.”

Esther smiled. “I’d like that.”

After setting up a time for tomorrow morning, Isaac opened the door and Esther departed into the gray world outside. She held her longcoat tight as she headed down the walkway.

Isaac remembered something and stepped out after her. “Hey, Esther,” he called out.

She turned back to look at him. Her face was red again.

“Since you know all this esoteric stuff,” Isaac said. “I had a vision during the Combat Simulation. I was in my own apartment, and there were two others of me in there as well. Oh, and my television displayed the image of a girl. I couldn’t get a good look at her though. The image was hazy and filled with static.”

Esther looked away, the redness in her face completely gone. “Sorry, Isaac. I’ve never heard of that before.”

And then she was off. Isaac watched her go, then stepped back inside Audrey’s apartment.

Isaac shut the door and sighed. He rubbed his face with his hands.

Something’s been bothering me this whole time. She said I couldn’t tell Reed about all this because it might mess up her ascent to Circuit 2. Yet they told me all about it.

Wouldn’t that mess up my ascension? Do they not want me to ascend?

Isaac started pacing.

No, that can’t be right. Esther laid out the Eight Powers for me. They must want me to ascend. I can’t just assume it works the same way for both Reed and I. If Reed not knowing will help her ascend, then letting me know might help me ascend.

Why would they want me in particular to ascend? Surely, having users higher in Circuitry will give the Academy greater military and psychic strength, but Esther said it herself - if I reach Circuit 8, I can do whatever I want. The Academy couldn’t control me at that point. Why would they let me know about it, then?

Are they just dangling it in front of me so I reach for it? Do they not plan on letting me reach Circuit 8? Or…do they actually have a way to control me, even when I have that much power?

I had no idea about the Academy’s conflict with the Dorrites. They’re definitely not telling me everything there is to know. I think I can trust Esther, but even then…the Academy only wants me to learn things that benefit them.

He took a step forward.

Alright. I’ll play the game for now. If the government isn’t telling the truth, then why should I assume it’s the same for the Academy?

Isaac glanced out the window - same gray sky, same gray outside world. Nameless thoughts swirled around his head.

Just what are they planning?