Chương 41: [One Who Borrows from Their Children]

Rika had already moved on from the jackets. She was standing in front of a wall of trainers, head tilted.

"More white boots." Sam looked at her.

"They're called trainers. Sports shoes mostly, but people wear them day to day as well."

"They'll get filthy."

"Not really," Luka said.

"Most of the town's paved. No mud." Rika looked down at the floor, then back up.

"Is your whole world like this? No grass or trees?"

"Towns and cities are mostly like this yeah," Leo said.

"There are parks, bits of greenery here and there, more for decoration than anything. The actual nature, forests, countryside, that's away from where most people live."

"On purpose?"

"Partly. A lot of people want to live where people are, so you have towns like this and cities, they're hubs for jobs, entertainment, stuff like that. Living out in the countryside is nicer for nature, but it's expensive and away from a lot of modern stuff. It's also partly because some of the people with the most money keep eating into it. Building on it, clearing it, whatever makes them richer even when they already have more money than they could ever spend." Torren had been looking at a shelf nearby.

He went still.

"They destroy living things for money they don't need."

"Yeah," Phil said.

"And the worst part is the damage it does builds up over time. The people making those decisions won't be around to deal with what they've caused. Someone else gets left with it." Torren set down what he was holding.

"In the Ironwood we have a word for someone who takes from the forest without giving back. It doesn't translate well but the meaning is something like, one who borrows from their children with no thought to return." Nobody said anything for a moment.

"That's exactly what it is," Leo said.

"The thing is," Sam said, "most people agree it's wrong. That's not the problem. The problem is the people doing it have enough money to make sure nothing changes. They fund the people who write the rules, so the rules don't touch them."

"Same people get caught doing something a normal person would go to prison for and they walk away with a fine," Phil said.

"A fine they pay out of what they'd spend on lunch."

"It's not the same as here," Luka said, glancing at Shai.

"Nobody's getting dragged off the street. But the principle's not that different. The rules exist for everyone except the people with enough money to be above them." Shai said nothing but her tail moved slowly, once.

"Does it not make people angry?" Rika asked.

"Furious," Parmo said.

"But angry and able to do something about it are two different things when the people you're angry at own the people who can lock you up. They control the people with armies, what's a normal person supposed to do about that?" Torren picked up what he'd set down and placed it carefully back on the shelf.

"Then perhaps," he said, "being here is not entirely without its advantages."

"You're not wrong," Leo said.

"This world may be more dangerous but at least there isn't a hidden leech sucking the joy out of everything." Everyone went quiet as that sank in. Rika looked along the wall of trainers one more time.

"I still think they're impractical," she said, changing the conversation.

"Well why don't you try some on in a different colour?" Sam said.

"Really? Okay, let's do that." Parmo found a pair of black trainers that looked like they might fit. He took them out of the box and handed them to Rika.

"Go on. Try them on." She took off her boot and tried the trainer on, her foot sliding in with no issue.

"Ooh they feel strange. Comfortable to the touch but not like anything I've ever worn before."

"Two seconds," Luka said, heading for a nearby shelf. He came back with a pair of socks and handed them over. She pulled the sock on, then the trainer. Stood up. Took a step. Then another.

"Oh." She looked down at her feet.

"Oh that's completely different."

"Right?" Parmo said. She took a few more steps, slightly bouncy, testing them out. Her wings shifted with each step. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"It's like walking on air." She looked up.

"I'm keeping these."

"Thought you might," Sam said. She took the second trainer off, pulled the sock on, put it back. Then picked up her old boots and thrust them at Parmo without looking at him.

"Hold these." Parmo took them. He looked at the others. They all grinned back at him. He shook his head and put the boots into storage.

"I think he's planning on keeping them," Leo whispered to Phil.

"Dirty bastard," Phil whispered back.

"Fuck the both of you," Parmo said. Luka grabbed a second pair of socks and handed them over.

"She's going to need another pair. Hold on to them too please, Mr Servant." Parmo rolled his eyes.

"Right, electronics. Come on." The game shop was a few units further along, its door propped open. They went in. The walls were covered. Shelves of boxed games for every console, display cases running down the middle with handhelds and accessories behind glass. A second wall had card games, board games, hobby supplies. The back wall was batteries, cables, chargers, everything you'd need for anything electronic. The three from Stonehall moved through slowly, taking it in.

"What is all of this," Shai said.

"Games mostly," Leo said.

"Entertainment. Different kinds for different consoles, which are the machines you plug into a screen to play them on." Rika was pressing her face against one of the display cases.

"These little figures." She pointed at a shelf of Warhammer miniatures, sprues and painted boxes lined up behind the glass. Sam leaned in beside her. He went quiet for a second, scanning the boxes.

"Blood Angels," he said. He looked at Leo.

"No Sanguinius but that's kind of expected." Leo looked. Red armoured figures, the winged drop pod imagery on the box, the angel iconography all over the packaging.

"Same guys from the tattoo," Leo said to Shai. She looked at the figures, then at the box art.

"They look different to how I imagined."

"His sons," Sam said.

"He's not in here. You'd struggle to find him. He exists but he's rare." He straightened up.

"Diane's going to lose her mind when she realises all of this is still here."

"Speaking of losing," Phil said.

"Sam got absolutely dismantled by the woman who collects these at a tournament the other week."

"I'm going to stop telling you things," Sam said. Torren was looking at a painted figure of a Space Marine through the glass, enormous armoured warrior, bolter raised. He tilted his head.

"These are made to look like soldiers?"

"Warriors from a story," Leo said.

"People build and paint them, then use them to play war games on a table. Sam's very good at it."

"Not good enough apparently," Phil said. Sam said nothing. Parmo appeared from the back of the shop, ducking under a doorframe, three battered Game Boys under one arm and a stack of cartridges in his hand. He stopped when he saw what the others were gathered around. On the shelf beside the Warhammer figures, a full rack of Magic the Gathering booster packs. He stared at them.

"Oh for fuck's sake." He looked at the ceiling.

"Really. Another world. Another planet entirely and I still cannot get away from this terrible card game." The boys noticed where he was looking and laughed, they hadn't even noticed them.

"Sick, let's grab some and do some drafts later," Sam said.

"You have no excuse now man, no more 'nah I'm not driving over to Monkhaven to play Magic the Gathering.' You're playing." Leo grinned. Parmo said nothing.

"No internet," Phil said.

"Nowhere to be. Nothing stopping you now."

"I hate all of you."

"We're taking some," Sam said, reaching for a box.

"Obviously we're taking some," Phil said.

"I'm not leaving them here in case someone else grabs them first."

"I want it on record that I hate this," Parmo groaned.

"Noted," Luka said. They grabbed a few boxes, enough for a draft between them, and stored them.

"Right," Parmo said, holding up the Game Boys.

"Found three in a basket at the back. Games were in the same basket." He loaded batteries into the first one and powered it on. The screen lit up, a tinny melody playing through the tiny speaker. Rika's head snapped toward it.

"What is that sound."

"A games console," Parmo said.

"This one's about twenty years old, we all had one when we were kids." He held it out so she could see the screen. A small pixelated creature moved along a path, simple and colourful.

"The picture is moving," Torren said.

"Thousands of tiny dots switching on and off very fast," Parmo said.

"Your eye does the rest."

"What's the game?" Shai asked.

"It's about catching creatures, training them, battling other people's creatures." Parmo glanced at Phil.

"Can't say the name though." Phil nodded seriously.

"We can't say the name." Luka shook his head.

"On another planet and you're still worried about getting sued."

"Them and the mouse," Phil said.

"They'll find a way. Both of them. No joke, man." Rika looked between them.

"I don't understand any of that."

"Good," Parmo said.

"Keep it that way." Leo grabbed one of the Game Boys and put the batteries in. He turned it on, the same game appeared on the screen. He clicked through the opening of the game and then opened the menu and held it toward Shai. — A column of menu titles down the left of the screen, each one leading somewhere different. —"You see these? Different sections. Each one takes you to something different. Creatures you've caught, things you're carrying, how far you've got in the game." He paused.

"It's not that different from the UI." Shai looked at the screen. Then at her own hand.

"Feels like your UI was designed like this intentionally," she said.

"Maybe," Leo said.

"Or it's just the most logical way to organise information." She looked at the screen a moment longer.

"Either way." Her tail moved once, slowly. Rika grabbed Parmo's arm.

"Can I try."

"Gently," Parmo said. She pressed a button. Her character walked into tall grass. A battle started, the screen flashing.

"Oh!" She grabbed his arm harder.

"What happened."

"You started a battle. Press A, then pick one of the moves, then press A again to attack." She pressed A. A menu of moves appeared. She picked one, pressed A again. The creature attacked. She made a sound that was somewhere between delight and alarm.

"How old are you all," Rika said, not looking up from the screen.

"That was sudden," Parmo said.

"Why?"

"You said you all had one of these when you were little and this thing is twenty years old."

"Thirty nine," Parmo said. Rika looked up.

"What?"

"Thirty nine." She looked at the others.

"Thirty six," Leo said.

"Thirty four," said Phil and Sam together.

"Thirty three," Luka said. Rika stared at them.

"You look nothing like men of those ages."

"We don't usually," Phil said.

"The UI sorted a lot of things out. Leo lost a load of weight, my leg was wrecked before, Parmo—""I was built like a twig and could hardly breathe," Parmo said.

"The UI fixed all of it," Phil said.

"Put us all in the best shape we've ever been." Rika looked them up and down, slowly, one by one.

"Your magic screen did all of that."

"Among other things," Leo said. She looked back at the Game Boy in her hands, processing. Then pressed A again.

"Right," Parmo said.

"Pub. We promised Torren food." Torren looked up immediately from the Space Marine figure he'd been studying.

"Yes," he said.

"Let's go."