Nice

Chapter 69: Nice

/Nice./

Nice.

- - - - - -

"Mmmmhhh... That was nice..." Mercury murmured as he slowly woke up.

"We're making a stop for the night, mopaaw."

"Mercury, thank you very much," the cat said with a groggy smile. "Wait, what do you mean night?"

"Quite exactly what I said," Lucia replied. "You have slept throughout the entire day. You even slept through the previous break we made for the terrezays' sake."

"Ah, apologies, I suppose that was rather rude of me."

Lucia gave a short sigh before replying again. "No, no. It was improper of me to judge. It has been a harsh couple days for all of us, not just myself. Apologies if I am a little on edge."

Mercury smiled back at his quiet travel companion. "It's all good," he said. "None of us are perfect."

"Indeed. You speak with more wisdom I would have trusted you to have."

"It comes with age."

"Age?" she asked, raising a brow.

"Oh, I'm 37," Mercury answered casually, hopping out of the carriage. They were at the edge of a forest, near a river, so the dino horses would have something to drink. Pretty neato.

"You brought tents?" Mercury asked, only to look back at Lucia and see her mouth open. "Scratch that, you okay?"

"Mercury, you mean to tell me that a common mopaaw, perhaps one with outstanding intellect, but still bound by the species, has grown to be 37?"

"Man, I'm having this conversation a lot recently. Look, I wasn't always a fucking mopaaw. Used to be a regular guy, then I fucking died, now I'm a cat. Don't make a big deal out of it, jeez," he said with a mild amount of annoyance in his voice.

"But-"

"No buts."

"I- This- You-... Siiiiigh. Fine. Yes, we brought tents."

"That's great news!" Mercury said with a bright smile, hopping down to the river for a quick sip. River water was far superior to lake water, after all. It wasn't quite spring water, though.

Man, honestly, he missed sweets a little, too. Maybe eventually he'd be able to break his teeth voluntarily again. Not yet though, not yet.

Their carriage driver was setting up the tents for them, luckily enough. To be fair, that was what Lucia had paid for, but Mercury still considered it nice. Maybe he was just in a good mood because he was about to use his <Telekinesis Affinity Pass>. Or maybe he was in a good mood because he slept. Sleep is important after all.

"How'd you spend the travelling? Anything interesting I missed?" he asked his companion.

"Not much," she replied. "I meditate during carriage rides. Working on myself, and using the time. Though occasionally I do also enjoy the sights out the window."

"That sounds nice. What do you meditate on?"

"Myself, sometimes. Those important to me, and my values, at others. And occasionally, I will simply feed the flame boiling within."

"Metaphorically?"

"Not so."

"Alright. You wanna hear about what I did?"

"Certainly," Lucia replied, seemingly with honesty.

"I slept."

"I recall," the woman said, giving the rather strange fellow a confused look.

"I dreamt I was a butterfly."

"You did?" she asked, raising a brow yet again.

"No."

"I see."

"I don't," Mercury said, closing his eyes. He heard a slight slapping noise, maybe from Lucia resting her palm on her forehead.

"Mmmmmeditation."

"Why are you saying it like that?"

"Mmmmeddditationnnnn...."

"What is e-"

"Mmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeditation."

"I'm going to bed," the woman said, shaking her head. She wasn't stupid. The mopaaw was more than awake, and she had grown tired. The tents were up as well, and as such, it was time for her to get some rest as well.

Mercury peeked with one eye to see if she was gone, and then stared at the carriage driver for a long while. The man seemed wary of him, like he was some sort of spirit, but soon headed out into the forest to gather some firewood. Right, they hadn't had dinner yet.

With his precious fragment of privacy, Mercury cast his eyes at the system. He knew everyone had them, and that it could only be seen with permission, and that no one could interact with it, blah blah blah. He still found it rude, and so weirding Lucia out seemed like a more simple, and faster option.

"Use my <Telekinesis> affinity pass, please."

[<Telekinesis> affinity pass activated. The associated Skill(s) will now be 66% cheaper to acquire, and gain mastery 10% faster.]

A third of 3000 cut the price to 1000, and he still had 1100 Points left. BUY.

[The individual has acquired the Skill <Telekinesis lv. 1> from the Skill shop.]

APPRAISAL!

[<Telekinesis>: A Skill which allows the user to exert physical force from a distance. Linked to both the user's physical and mental stats, as well as the Skill level. The level determines both efficiency of power usage, as well as maximum power output.]

He had to give this a try. This was a purely active Skill, so there were no passive effects, which would have been cool, but honestly, he had never really been as excited as this before. <Telekinesis>.

As Mercury activated the Skill, he could feel a rush of energy going through him, a little like the electrical shock from when you were charged up and grab a door handle. Slightly painful, but very, very bearable. It did shake him awake a little though.

He could stomach it, in any case, especially for something like this. With the Skill active, Mercury then looked around. He was still just outside the carriage, sitting on a tipped over log, quite like the one he usually slept in. With just a short look, he saw plenty of little pebble and tiny sticks he could try it out on, so randomly, he started focusing on a twig, trying to lift it up.

It took a second, just a smidge of delay, like when a video game lagged out, but with some effort, he could lift it Now, this effort was quite a bit greater than what he usually would need to lift a stick. Quite frankly, it felt almost heavy up against his mind, like he was lifting a small bundle of rocks, but it certainly wasn't unbearable.

To just see how the Skill performed, Mercury also opened up his status, just to see how he was doing. Telekinesis was slowly draining both his mana and his stamina, and he could tell that it was also taking a toll on his mental energy, though it was far more bearable with willpower being his highest stat.

"This might need a bit of practice," he murmured to himself, trying to move the stick around a bit. When he moved it closer to himself, it got slightly easier, and when he moved it further away, it suddenly became way harder. Almost like he was holding a board the twig was balancing on. Except the board was weightless, and intangible, and the stick was a little heavier than it should have been even then.

"Is this something like a lever, then?" Mercury asked himself out loud, slowly dragging the twig closer and closer to himself. He couldn't move it very quickly, but he could certainly move it, which was quite a bit more than what any cat had the right to be able to. Imagine normal cats with telekinesis... man, the mischief they'd get up to...

Ah, but back on track, when the stick was only a couple centimeters away from Mercury, it finally felt a bit lighter. Sure, it was still quite a bit heavier than it had any right to be, but it wasn't as heavy as it had been when he lifted it from a couple meters away. In general, it felt like <Telekinesis> could certainly still use a bit more practice, but it would be quite handy in any case. Door and keys would be easier, at least.

To try out a couple more things, he attempted to lift two objects at once, failing horribly, and netting himself a sharp pain in his head as he just dropped twig number one. Note taken. Then, he gave spinning the small piece of wood a try, and found, that it was not nearly as easy as if he were holding it in his hand.

The force he exerted was more or less in a thin field around the twig, and it didn't have friction with the object like his hand would have, so to spin it, he had to apply some extra pressure near the top of the round part, and another equal force on the other side of the bottom part, to make it stay in place as it spun. It was inconvenient, but still doable, which was pretty nice.

Mercury was a little dejected at this revelation though. Turning keys would be less of a chore, but still difficult, nonetheless. But there were things to look forward to! After all, he was gaining mastery faster than most people with this Skill would be, on one hand because of the buff the <Affinity Pass> had given him, and on the other hand, because of the ridiculous amount of use he could have from it.

Carrying around his bag of rocks ammunition, and levitating the rocks to get good angles for <Throw>, rolling his giant log house, opening doors, turning keys, grabbing parchment, holding food, slowing down prey... it would be really, reaaaaaally quite handy to say the least, pun very much so intended. Mercury had gone from virtually having no hand to pick up things with like a human, to having one very spectral, weirdly long and intangible hand to handle things with. And you know what they say, in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king.

One force-armed in this case, but armed nonetheless!

By the time Mercury was done being giddy with glee, the carriage driver was back, carrying a bundle of wood, and when he wanted to light the small campfire he had built up, Lucia lent a spark. Her fire may be golden, bright, and beautiful, but it was still fire, and it burnt wood as well as any other.

"You're fine using your ability for such a lowly task," Mercury asked her as they waited around the flames, staring at a pot with things and stuff boiling in it. Road supplies, largely, though the carriage did have a small runic freezer, as Mercury identified it, in the back, and there were some bits of meat floating in there.

"I am," Lucia nodded. "My power is to be used for the greater good. If it can alleviate some struggle, or lighten someone else's work, I do not believe that to be low work."

"Interesting," Mercury replied, thinking on it for a while. "So, let's assume someone is really cold at night, would you be able to warm them."

"My flame is hot, Mercury," the woman replied, shaking her head. "I would put their blanket, their bed, and themselves on fire."

"... They'd be warm," he shrugged.

"Solving a problem while creating another is not really solving it at all, is it?"

"Hah, tell that to my boss."

"You have a boss?" Lucia asked, curiously. She was not expecting the mopaaw to work under someone else.

"Had. I had a boss. Wish I never did, but no two way's around it. Piece of shit, too."

"I see. I will not pry."

"No, it's fine. He was loud, aggressive, grumpy, unfair, stupid, and an all-round asshat. Wish I never met him, but I worked under the guy for around 15 years. He was replaced quite recently, but things didn't improve very much. New manager was a creep, used his position of power for favors, and always took credit for our work."

"Do you seek revenge?"

"No, I don't think so," Mercury said with a sigh. "See, revenge is such a mean word. I'm not one to hold grudges. I'm not mad at them for what they did to me, or how I was treated, I don't care that much. No, I don't want revenge, I want justice."

"If some stupid motherfucker exploits and abuses his staff, then sure, I'll just shut down. I have a problem with authority, and anyone who shouts at me will simply be worthless in my mind. But not everyone is like that, and those pieces of shit should face justice for what they did. I want Susan to be able to kick Greg in his nuts, and I want my boy Robert "Rob" Robinson to spit in his face for taking all the hard work he'd put into developing the logo, and I want both of them to be held accountable."

"Perhaps I can help?" Lucia asked slowly. She was in a position to deal with those kinds of people after all.

"No," Mercury said, with a shake of his head. "I don't think you can. Too far away. Don't worry about it, it's all in the past for me. If I ever get the chance though, I'll make things right. I'll make things right..."

Having said his piece, Mercury hung his head a little low, and for a while, only the boiling of some stew rang out in the night.

Thinking back on things had really put a dampener on his mood. Reminded him of all those that would worry about him, about the couple coworkers he'd occasionally go out and have drinks with, about his brother, his sister-in-law, and his niece. There were a lot of things he'd left back there, and he didn't even know if he would ever see them again...

Lucia saw the mopaaw looking a little sadder by the minute. It was clear that something within him had stirred after he'd said those words, something in his past he hadn't been able to quite make peace with. She stretched her hand out to him, and hesitated for a moment, but decided to follow through.

To offer just a bit of comfort, she laid her hand down on his back. She didn't pet him, just wordlessly offered a bit of peace.

Sometimes, the past comes and haunts us, and we won't always be able to escape it. Our actions will persist even as time passes, and what we have done in the past cannot be reversed. Yet, we must always carry on, and try to move forward. Not always for ourselves, but sometimes, for the ones we have lost.

Not because we are humans or beasts, but because we are people. Being human is cheap, but being a person takes courage, and wisdom. To be able to take another step forward in the face of adversity, and to continue on, even when things get tough. To have people to rely on, and to understand the limits of what those people can provide.

Sometimes, a step forward may feel like one backwards. To move forward isn't always to keep on with the drudgery of life, or to go to college when one hates it, sometimes to go forward is to take a break, to deal with the core of the issue. To seek help, be it from a psychologist, or from friends. To acknowledge a problem, and work on solving it.

It is to not be just a human, but to be oneself. To understand that one has value, and one has wants, and one has needs, and to understand, that sometimes these come first, and sometimes these come second. It's to see who your friends are, who you can rely on, and who you want to spend time with. Sometimes, taking a step forward is to cut someone out of your life, or to switch direction, picking another job.

And for Mercury, maybe this was his way forward, for now. Maybe, at the end of this journey, he would be able to look all the things he had done wrong in the face, and say that he'd made things right, or he'd have given it his best shot. Perhaps he would see his parents again, and have another talk, and perhaps this time, they would accept who he was, and maybe, he could talk to his brother once more, and apologize for all the pointless fights they had when he used to drink more.

But for now, a night around a campfire was enough. After all, warmth gave solace, and no warmth is better used, than when it's shared with friends.

"Let's eat," Lucia said, taking another look at her feline friend. He had opened up to her today, and she appreciated that. Perhaps the two of them had more in common than either of them had thought.

"Yeah, you're right. Tomorrow is another day, after all."

"Indeed it is."

'Am I a background character?' the carriage driver asked himself.