Turn 83: A Success, A Failure, And A Work In Progress

--- Maya ---

(I can’t believe I’m doing this…) She groaned internally as she stood outside of a door.

(You know as well as I that our excursions to both the M.A.D. club as well as the fight club have proven just how valuable Deviant contacts can be.) Her inner logic told her.

(It doesn’t matter how valuable they are when they’re filthy magic users.) Her inner passion pointed out.

(Yeah, what she said!)

Her inner reason let out a sigh as she once more had to bring up how, (You know that Anavi is one of these ‘filthy magic users’ you both are so against, correct?)

(Well, we’re hoping she’s a filthy magic- gah!)

(No! We’re on the clock. Now is not the time for those kinds of thoughts!) Her inner logic denied.

(Where the fuck did you get a spray bottle?!) Her inner madness hissed. (We’re mental manifestations of Maya’s mental instabilities!)

(Just had to think about it, to make it happen.)

(...)

(Gah! Don’t spray me with that!)

Seeing that the voices in her head were devolving into another level of madness she turned her attention back to the world around her, more specifically the door she’d been so reluctant to interact with.

“Fuck it.” She sighed, knocking on the door.

It took a few minutes before a hefty kid in glasses answered the door. “Uh, can I help you?”

“I came by like a month ago and there was this black haired boy with a lot of jewelry.” She tried to explain while not sounding like her teeth were being pulled out. “He helped me with something and I wanted to tell him thanks.”

The kid nodded before looking over his shoulder. “Noah, it’s for you!”

“Be there in a sec!” A voice called back as the large kid moved away from the door, allowing her to see several teens gathered in the middle of the classroom where a number of desks had been pushed together.

From behind a DM screen the boy she was looking for -Noah- made his way over before giving her a once over and closing the door behind him. “Alright, what’s up?”

It took her a moment but eventually she asked, “You’re an Arcane right?”

“Yeah.” Noah nodded, his eyes narrowing a bit. “That a problem?”

“No, no…” She assured him.

(Don’t lie. It absolutely is…) Her inner Madness growled.

“Look, I… I’m a Deviant.” She confessed, figuring that with Vi, Tommy, and the M.A.D. club all knowing it wasn’t that big of a deal. (As long as no one figures out the Mask thing anyway.)

“Really?” Noah blinked, looking much more interested in this conversation all of a sudden. “What kind?”

“I’m… an M.A.D.” She admitted.

“Oh…” Noah sighed as he lost all interest.

“No need to sound disappointed.” She told him feeling a little offended.

“It’s whatever.” Noah shrugged. “Now what is it you wanted exactly? I’ve got a game to get back to.”

“I don’t know…” She frowned, not sure how she should react to his attitude. “It’s just… you’re the only other Deviant I know in this school, so… I don’t know.”

Noah gave her another look before running his hand down his face. “How long have you known you were a Deviant?”

“A few months.” She answered, even though it was closer to half a year in all honesty.

“So, still kind of fresh.” Noah nodded, looking like he was thinking about something before running a hand through his hair. “Eh, fuck it. Give me your phone.”

Her eyes narrowed even as she began reaching into her pocket. “Why?”

Noah rolled his eyes, before twisting his fingers and sending her phone flying from her hands and into his. “Because I’m going to give you my number. I’m busy right now but you need someone to introduce you to the Deviant side of things.”

“Oh.” She blinked, not really sure if she needed that given how she already knew Decker and Anavi as well as the M.A.D. club, but at the same time she couldn’t bring herself to protest given how this was kind of what she wanted.

“Here, call me this weekend and I’ll introduce you to the Deviant side of the city.” Noah promised as he offered her phone back.

“Uh, sure.” She nodded, stunned as she took the phone back and realized, (Did… did I just get a boy’s number?)

(Yes.) Her inner logic confirmed.

“Then I’ll see you this weekend.” Said boy told her before returning to the rest of his club.

(No, no we will not! He’s a filthy magic user!) Her inner Madness foaming at the metaphorical mouth.

(So is Anavi.) Her inner reason pointed out.

(Are you sure you’re the voice of reason?) Her inner passion scoffed. (She gets a pass because she’s hot! He is not and thus does not!)

Ignoring the screaming voice, she checked her phone for the first number from a boy -both outside of her family and her age- to be added to it. Which is how she found a new contact labeled, ‘Sorcery Surpasses Science’.

“That little bitch.” She was going to kill him.

(Finally you see reason!) Her Madness applauded.

Scene Consequences

-Maya has unlocked Noah Delacroix as a contact.

---

(Finally we’re upgrading one of our programs, I was scared we were going to stay bronze tier forever.) Her inner impatience admitted as they began going over their Scan program.

(Once you recall that we’ve only been seriously working at our equipment for a few months now, you’ll notice that we’ve actually been proceeding at a fairly decent pace.) Her inner reason reminded her other self.

(You sure it’s only been a couple of months?) Her inner Madness asked. (It’s felt more like three, three and a half years.)

(It’s been approximately that many months, not years.) Her inner logic confirmed.

(Damn, that means it’ll take like a decade to finish the rest of the year.)

(No, it’s November, the year ends in a month and a half.)

(Wasn’t talking about that year.)

Getting fed up with the commentary from the voices in her head, she asked them if they could, “Focus please?”

(Ah, right. Apologies.)

(I’m not apologizing, our entire job is comedic relief. Without us your life wouldn’t be half as interesting.)

“A, that’s bullshit. I’m a teenage mad scientist trying to become a superhero, I’m plenty interesting. B, your job is to read the code and figure out the secrets within this maddeningly complex system.” She told herself. “And given how we’re trying to upgrade ourselves out of bronze tier, I need you to do your job.”

(Fine, let me see what we’re working with scrub.)

“I am not a scrub, also you helped write this shouldn’t you already know what’s in here?”

(You have the attention span of a goldfish.) Her inner Madness pointed out. (Do you really expect any of us to remember upgrades from like two books worth of our lives?)

“I do not have the attention span of a goldfish!” She frowned.

(The fact that that distracted you says you do~) Her inner child hummed, before (once more proving I’m the smartest one here.)

(A, don’t interrupt the narration. B, logic dictates you’re wrong.) Her completely unbiased inner logic argued.

She snapped her fingers, before once more telling herself to. “Focus!”

(Right, right, okay… let me see here…) Her inner passion mumbled as her eyes drifted across the sea of coding and mathematical equations. (Okay, basic stuff about scanning information provided by our scanner and Information Network. Some synchronicity with our Mapping program… Ooh, that fun bit that turns the world into an RPG, though we need to improve that… Okay, getting some ideas for upgrades… Got some potential with our combat abilities if we tweak that… We’re nowhere near a good enough marksman to pull off that… and we do not understand biology enough for that… hmm…)

She waited several minutes for the voice in her head to say something else or for the whispers to take off with what her other self was saying in a more technical way for her to actually start chipping away at the program upgrade.

When neither spoke up she instead called out, “What am I supposed to do next?”

(Huh, what?) Her inner Madness stuttered awake. (I got distracted thinking about our character sheet in Deviant’s Masquerade. You know like three fourths of our skills are under the combo threshold, even if we’re a crafting class we’re wasting a lot of potential there!)

“Gah!” She slammed her head against her keyboard. “Pinche pendejo…”

(Don’t feel bad. Anyone could make that mistake.) Her inner idiot consoled her.

(I feel like this is going to be a process…) Her inner reason admitted.

Scene Consequences

-Scan V2 begun.

--Cannot begin other Scan upgrades until completed.

--Current Progress: (2/4)

-For starting your first V2 upgrade gained 1XP to Reality Hacking.

--Currently: Lv. 6 (9/14)

---

After wrangling her own Madness for several hours -and developing a Migraine felt by two thirds of her- Maya decided to shift gears for a moment, and focus on something that the more reliable of her alternates could assist her with.

Namely, compiling the vast amounts of data her programs had gathered on Elizabeth’s situation and where her daughter had gotten off to.

(So we finally have some good news on this front…) Her inner logic assured her after an hour or so of going over everything. (One, when Elizabeth’s family gave up the baby I believe they gave her to young Audrey’s father. A James Meadows, he then proceeded to raise her in this city for the next sixteen years as demonstrated by a number of enrollment and medical papers at various schools and doctors. Admittedly, she seems to have no interest in social media but her school does report her still attending all of her senior classes at a high school in the south side of the city. More specifically the one we would be attending if not for our Scholarship.)

“Okay, yeah, that makes finding her significantly easier.” She nodded, looking at the school records that it was probably illegal for her information network to have acquired, including Audrey’s current School ID.

An ID with a pale dark haired girl with freckles, green eyes, glasses, and more of a grin than a smile. (She looks a lot like a smug Elizabeth with glasses.)

“So, all we’ve got to do is get to this school and look for someone who matches this ID. Then we convince her to come see Elizabeth and set everything right!” She figured, having a fairly solid game plan.

(Slight complication there.) Her inner reason warned her. (We can’t actually cut school to do this because our school would call our parents and that would be bad.)

“Uh, right… need to figure something out on that front…” She sighed, because her parents would want to know why she skipped school and what she was doing, which would escalate into all of her siblings wanting to know, and she doubted Vi and Tommy would be happy she was skipping school for M.A.D. stuff. (Well, Vi wouldn’t, Tommy might if I made something cool enough as a distraction.)

(Also, don’t forget that introducing someone to their dead now ghost-zombie mother probably isn’t a good idea.) Her inner logic added. (A mother who still expects her to be a toddler given how Elizabeth has behaved…)

“Yeah, that… that would probably end in tragedy…” She grimaced, before forcing on a smile. “But at the very least we’ve got the actual end goal in sight! That’s… better than when we knew nothing!”

(True.) Her inner reason conceded to that optimistic thought.

Nodding to herself, she gave the files on Audrey Meadows another once over, and couldn’t help but frown at a picture of the other teen and her father. “James and Audrey Meadows… why are those names so familiar?”

Audrey by itself hadn’t rang any bells for her, but tacking Meadows onto the end did… something in her memory, James Meadows did twice as much. She just couldn’t place her finger on what that something was.

(Hey, uh, Izzy’s friend Autumn… isn’t her last name Meadows?)

She considered that for a moment, before it all clicked together. Including what her siblings had mentioned about Autumn’s sister having a lot of family drama. “Oh…”

Scene Consequences

-Maya has discovered Elizabeth’s daughter is: Audrey Meadows.