Sojourner, Pt 1

It takes you a day and a half to go through Great Mall One and pick through whatever's left in the stores, whatever others have deemed useless to them. Their loss, of course. You don't really run into anyone else much, except that same Crag trio. Or they could be a different trio, you have no idea. Either way, they seem to treat you with some measure of respect and give you your space.

And of course, you do the same for them.

Although you do scour the entire place for anything and everything useful, you decide to only take a few things. After all, you want to stay light on your feet as much as you can for as long as you can.

Of course, you find a good amount of provisions - snacks and protein bars and bottles of water. The usual. You also pick up a couple of sundries and swap out your clothes for more breathable activewear. That's going to be crucial going forward.

On a similar note, you also pick up a lightweight waterproof poncho, which you quickly swap out with your current one. Thing is, it had begun to rain halfway through looting the mall, and this has made you realize that you don't have anything that's water resistant, except maybe your bags.

And perhaps getting drenched while traveling would be awful. Your old poncho could never give that protection, so the choice to replace it has been monumentally easy.

The new one is still light enough to allow the wind to cool you, though it's far less breathable overall. You suppose you could always sling one side over the opposite shoulder on extremely hot days, like gunslingers like to do in westerns. That oughta keep you cooler than not.

One other thing you pick up is a sleeping bag. It's lightly padded, somewhat breathable, but incredibly compact and great for all temperatures. Can squeeze it down, stuff it into its bag, and stow it away wherever you need. Though it isn't the most comfortable thing in the world, it's better than nothing at all.

Most crucially however, you've replaced your small backpack with an actual hiking pack. This thing is much roomier and its straps are much more comfortable. You're able to strap your sleeping bag to its bottom side, allowing Noir more space to curl up atop it.

Better still, it comes with a 2 liter water bladder!

You fill it up with as much bottled water as you can find, then run its hose down one of the straps. You give it a test sip to make sure everything works. You can't help but grin at this find. This is a huge quality of life improvement - being able to carry more water without being too burdened by its weight is a serious blessing.

Now that you've got everything you could need, at least that you can think, you take a break and glance outside. And it's still raining. It's been going on more than half a day at this point, and you're not sure if it'll stop anytime soon.

Since the sun is lowering down into the horizon and the sky darkens more and more, you can't help but feel antsy about getting back on the road.

"I think I'm gonna take a quick shower," you declare. "You up for one, too?"

Noir stops licking her paw for a moment and gives you a cat-like side eye.

I'll pass, she tells you.

"You sure?" you reply. "I mean, that sun sure is hot, and who knows how long this rain'll last. This shower could be a luxury."

Or it might rain every few days like normal.

"We don't know that for sure. Besides, you're starting to stink."

Could say the same about you, you know!

"S'why I'm taking a shower."

You can sense Noir sigh psionically, followed by a sense of reluctant agreement. She then takes a few trepidatious steps out there, but then starts to enjoy the rain. She circles around a bit, as though to get the most coverage, at least until her short fur is matted down and damp.

You can't help but chuckle at her - there's nothing more hilariously pathetic looking than a soaking-wet black cat.

What're you laughing at? she thinks as she trots back in.

"Sorry," you reply as you stifle a laugh. "You kinda look like a mangy, stray cat right now."

Mhm. Laugh it up. It's your turn to look like a mess.

You give one last chuckle, then strip down to nothing. You make a quick scan of the area around you and find absolutely no-one, which is enough for you to brave the outside in the nude.

Whatever modesty you feel seems to wash away as you feel the droplets hit you. The way the rain pelts you is incredibly soothing, the feeling of grime and dried sweat washing away even more so. And because the rain itself is warm, you become extremely relaxed.

This is perhaps the most luxurious thing you've ever experienced in your entire life.

You run your fingers through your hair and lightly scrub your scalp, even as water washes over you. A part of you wishes this moment could never end. Experiencing an eternity in a warm shower would be some version of heaven for you.

You head back inside once you're done with your shower and dry yourself with whatever cloth is piled up here. Mostly just cotton shirts and pants on the shelves or strewn about. Although you pat your body down until it's pretty much dry, you keep your hair relatively damp.

For whatever reason, you like the way wet hair feels.

And once you're dry enough, you put everything back on and get ready to go. Noir climbs up your body, then settles into her spot behind your head, on top of your hiking pack, and nestled inside the poncho's hood.

Oh, how roomy! she says.

Once she's settled herself into a ball, you place your conical hat on your head and tighten its leather cords under your chin.

"Ready to go?" you ask.

Let's go for it, Noir replies.

You then take a step out into the rain and immediately feel the raindrops drum your hat and smack your poncho. Although you're confident about the poncho's ability to resist water, you're not so sure about your hat. Sure, it's made of tightly-woven laminated bamboo strips, but there are plenty of tiny gaps just where the strips weave into each other.

As you travel, however, you're pleasantly surprised at how much it resists the rain. Absolutely nothing leaks through. In fact, it's so good at channeling water that you can watch it drip down along the edge in front of you.

You can feel more of it dripping down behind you onto your back, considering how it's angled. But it still comes down on all sides. You can even feel water trickle down onto your shoulders as you walk.

The hat is amazing for both heat and rain, and you're 100% glad that you found it in that apartment you had been staying at.

You adjust how it sits on your head and retighten its fit as you trudge on in the rain.

Which doesn't stop. And in fact, it only strengthens even more as you travel. Hours go by in the dead of night, as the rain turns into a torrent. Water begins to gather up and wash outward down the streets and into the gutters.

Even when you make it to the highway at the edge of the city's suburbs - that too is awash with a thin layer of water. It certainly washes away down the sides and further down into earthen channels on both sides. But there's so much rain and so much water that even the voluminous, ever-present drains are overwhelmed by it all.

Although your shoes aren't quite submerged in the water, you fear at some point they will be all but useless. The rain seems to be unrelenting, far more than usual.

Most times it rains, it only does so for a few hours before stopping. But this rain hasn't stopped for some time now, and judging by how intense it is at the moment, it doesn't seem like it'll be stopping anytime soon.

It's here that you realize the shortcomings of your poncho - it simply isn't long enough. Everything beneath your knees is thoroughly soaked. Your pants get heavier and heavier as they carry more and more moisture in between the threads.

Even though your hiking shoes are somewhat waterproof, it doesn't stop water from flowing down your legs and thoroughly soaking your socks. They squelch with every step, which frustrates you deeply. Not that there's anything you can do at this point.

But at least everything else is relatively dry. Plus it isn't oppressively hot. You'd rather have soaked socks than suffer direct sunlight any day.

Despite your feet feeling miserable, you try to keep your head high. This is just the first of many experiences just like this, and you try to convince yourself not to get bogged down in the negative. There's no point in feeling bad just because you're uncomfortable right now.

Besides, you've been through far, far worse. This is nothing in comparison.

Knowing that, you may as well pull yourself together, push through the worst, and simply move forward. As you've noted, there will be times when you'd rather be soaking wet. In fact, you fear that there will be entire days of oppressive heat, and you'll long for days just like this.

So you decide to try to celebrate what you can about this storm.

You reach out with a cupped palm and catch a bit of rain in it. Once you have plenty, you reach up and wipe your face with the water. It feels incredibly nice, and washes away a bit of the sweat you've gathered up since you started walking.

I've been thinking, Noir projects in an attempt to start a conversation. I think you're more of a Disciple than a Novice.

"Do you now?" you reply. "What makes you think that?"

Well I've been doing the math, the ones you assigned all the psionic powers. And then I compared them to the Ranking list you made.

"And I come up to a Disciple? You sure about that?"

Yep. You're actually midway through Disciple. I'm about at the beginning of Disciple. I counted. Three times.

"Sure, but that chart's incomplete. I don't know all the powers along the psionic scale. I'm assuming what I do know is the very, very basics."

Well, I think you've got Connection pretty well covered, yeah? I mean, your powers range from just yourself all the way to influencing everyone around you, yeah?

You run through your mental notes as Noir asks. You've had tons of time to think about what you had gone through in that Living Nexus, and having performed that Battle Hymn.

"Alright, fine," you say. "At the bottom is Surge. After that is Scan. Then Telepathy, and then Network."

There's a fifth one on top of that, right? Noir asks.

"Yeah, haven't quite figured out what it is. I thought at first it's that Living Nexus thing, but that's actually a mix of different power categories. Connection and Cognition at the same time. So it can't be part of Connection by itself."

Well I've got a theory. If all the powers in Connection are about, well, connecting with others, then the last power has to be being able to connect with everyone and everything.

"...That makes a lot of sense."

So the fifth power in Connection is Omnipresence.

You purse your lips in thought and consider Noir's suggestion, then nod in agreement a second later. After all, what could possibly be more powerful than being connected to absolutely everyone and everything on the planet? There's literally nothing else past that to connect to.

Logically speaking, that means every power category has the same thing. Meaning that the fifth Cognition power is Omnividence.

"Being able to see everything," you add.

Yep. And that means that Control's highest power would be Omnipotence.

"Being able to control everything…"

You shiver at the thought. The idea that someone or something out there could be powerful enough to control everything in the world. Or know everything that's going on inside it… Even a person able to connect to everyone in the world would be way too much.

And what would it mean if someone or something masters all three? Everyone and everything would be their puppets and playthings.

You quickly shake away the thought, unable to go any further with it. Earth is already a hell, and there's no need for it to get worse.

It only dawns on you after a few seconds that Noir is still chatting away.

So we can be absolutely sure that each category only has five powers each, and we're splitting each power up into five levels of strength. So we sorta know the absolute total, in terms of numbers. Judging from what you've assigned each one, you're a Disciple.

"Why did you even bring this up?" you ask.

Because it won't do you any good to think you're constantly a newbie. You're not. You've got powers and abilities that most can't even dream of, and you really oughta start thinking of yourself as capable.

You sigh as you nod again. Noir's right. Even if both of you are completely off with your categories and ranking and powers and tiers, you're not just some scrub. Maybe you were when this all first happened, sure, but you've grown much more than that since.

You really do have to look at yourself more realistically and understand your own growth. Not just how you've grown in the past, but how you wish to grow in the future. This world is going to attempt to kill you in every possible way, the same way that it has already killed most.

The way it has already killed Kaja.

"It's gonna be a long way to Master, much less Scion," you say after a moment. "I might be alright in Connection, but I barely know much more about Cognition and Control."

Maybe, sure, Noir replies. How about you just worry about getting to Adept next, then you can think about going further.

Your mind mulls it all over as you continue your journey, as you take one step further with every moment that passes.