Notes from Emmy:
Hi all and welcome to my first story as an author on this sight!
Thanks for taking the time to give my work a look. It means the world to me.
So first I'd like to thank QuietValerie for allowing me to tinker in her universe. If your not familiar with her Troubleverse, I highly suggest you go give Trouble with Horns a read. Trust me, you won't regret it. After that, check out her Patreon. You can go find that information on her page but trust me, you won't be sorry. Digital Galaxies, a sequel to TWH exists there and is such an amazing read, as is all her stories. :)
So I'm also obligated to tell you that this story is simply put, a fan fiction, if we weren't clear on this already. This means that the verse entirely belongs to Vale. This story is not canon nor does it aspire to be. I'm simply a fan of her work and wanted to give something back as her stories have captured my imagination and refuse to let it go. All that being said, I really hope you enjoy. I'm still in the progress of writing, so expect regular postings, though I'm not committing to a schedule that may or may not break me. But I give you my word I will try to be as regular as possible, life permitting.
I'd also like to point out that I'm using a screen reader

, and unfortunately I couldn't

figure out the tagging system. I'll figure it out though, but just wanted y'all to be aware of things. On that note, I'd like to also ask for forgiveness if I've formatted things wrong. Life is a learning experience and this sight is no different. :)
All that being said, thank you for reading and I look forward to giving you more!!!

Emmerel

               “I’m sorry, Felix, but your sister already borrowed money. You know how much that business means to her.”

                Because of course. Little Cristy always got what she wanted. I tried not to let my emotions reach my face, but as usual…

                “Wipe that  look off your face young man! I’m getting real sick of your attitude. Keep that up and you won’t be getting any more help at all.”

                “What help?” The words slipped out between my gritted teeth. I knew I messed up big time, because my mother’s face seemed to take on a near demonic visage as she glowered out from the  holovid screen floating above my coffee table.

                “What help? What help? You ungrateful little shit!” She started as she picked up steam. “Your father and I spent a fortune to put you in that technical colege and you dare act like this?”

                I should have kept my mouth shut, that would have been the smart thing to do, but I had it with the nepotism in this family. My little sister and older brother, Cristy and Michael respectively, got everything they ever wanted from our dearly doting parents, however, I as the middle kid always seemed to get scraps, if anything at all, then I’d be made to feel like shit any time I dared to ask for so much as a little help with my bills. Basic income only went so far, and the meager wage I made fielding technical support calls to would-be VR gamers who couldn’t so much as open a Google search only went a little further. To say I felt like life was unfair was an understatement.

                “A colege you didn’t even ask me if I wanted to join, taking courses on stuff you didn’t even ask me if I’d be interested in taking. Yeah Mother, that’s a hell of a lot of help!” By the end my hands were bunched up into fists, my voice cracking from the weight of my anger. I wanted to scream, hit something, cry, anything, but I knew it was useless. Just like me. Most of all, I wanted to know what I ever did to get treated like this, and what my siblings did to get all our parents love and effection.

                My mother sat there for a moment, and as I watched the vein throbbing at her temples, heard her breathing quicken, I knew this was going to be ugly. I was right, of course.

                “And who’s fault is it that you dropped out. You embarrassed your father and I with that little stunt of yours. If you had just done what you were told, you wouldn’t be living in a crappy little studio outside of the tower. Damn it Felix! Why couldn’t you just fly strait, like Michael?” That was funny because my brother Michael was anything but strait, but only Cristy and I knew this. “Don’t bother calling us anymore if all you’re going to do is ask for handouts!”

                “Yeah, but Cristy and Michael can call you when they need more party money, right? Or when Michael blows out another repulser on that skiff of his, right?” My mother looked like I had slapped her, and true to form, her tears sprang to her eyes like laser canons of guilt, aimed at taking me out of the fight, as usual, but for once I didn’t care. I had had it and she was finally going to hear me out this time.

                “You know what? Fuck this. Forget I called, better yet, just forget you have two sons. Shouldn’t be that hard because you already act like I’m not part of this family anyways.” Before my nerves got the better of me, I waved my hand sharply through the air, signaling my apartments cheap AI to cut the call which she did immediately. Before my mother had a chance to call back and continue our dance, I pulled up my contact settings and blocked her on everything. For good measure, I even left our family group chat. One of my siblings would probably call me later to see what was up, but with any luck, they would leave me alone for a while.

                I dropped back onto my three-times over used black leather couch with a pained explosive sigh that sounded more like a whimper to my own ears. The fight had already left me, leaving me feeling empty and lost. It was in times like this that I wondered what the point was to anything. I had no money, I had two months’ worth of rent to pay because I had run out of rent vouchers for the year, I was running out of nutrition supplements, and my work performance was suffering no doubt thanks to my deteriorating mental health and an overall  hate for my crappy nine-to-five that didn’t seem to even make a dent in my financial situation.

                I would like to say I had friends I could lean on, but Zac and Jason were more like… Well I mean I guess we were friends, but they had their own things going on. Zack lived practically in virtual reality, and Jason was working on his career as a corporate something or another. Honestly I didn’t care what he did. Call me jaded, but I had my own disaster of a life to figure out. Both of them though came from caring families, and both of them had more than enough money to live modestly comfortable lives.

                I’d like to also say that I had a girlfriend, someone I could call and open up my heart to, but well… Girls were an oddity to me. I was definetly into them, but I always had the strangest feelings around them. When other guys were jockeying for girls attentions, I was quietly watching from the shadows. I never had the same drive to find sexual satisfaction, like most of my peers did, but I wasn’t adverse to getting to know the fairer sex either. I was just apart from it all, like I never found where I was supposed to fit in the greater game of life.

                But anxiety issues and my appearance and a million other things kept me outside of that race, so it really didn’t matter in the end.

                I let my head roll to one side and looked around my crappy little apartment. It wasn’t big, not even large by studio standards. I had a kitchen to one side, equipped with the barest essentials to get by, a small hallway that lead into the bathroom and my closet, and the rest of the space held all my worldly belongings. A twin mattress on a rickety old bed frame, an outdated retro desktop computer sitting on a table that looked like it was going to fall apart any minute now, a table with a lamp on it that I salvaged from a recycling center, otherwise not much else.

                As my eyes roamed around my home, I noticed the section in one corner where the carpet, an old drab grey affair, looked cleaner than the rest of the place. That’s where my old VR pod had sat once, what seemed like so long ago. It had only been a few months since I was forced to sell it for the money that paid for my backlog of rent payments up until that point, but at least when I had it, I could find a little escape from the monotony and drudgery of my bleak existance. It has been nearly four months since then, and yeah, damn right I missed it. In a vein hope of winning, I had entered my name in a drawing at work, where if I won, I’d receive the latest model of VR pod the company produced for rich people who had more money than brains. There was realistically no chance in hell that I would win it of course, but I figured it didn’t hurt to at least try. As some wise person once said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

                Sinking into a seemingly endless pit of despair, I rolled onto one side, pulling my thin legs with their nubby knees up to my chest. I really was miserable. The only thing I had to look forward to now was when the landlord came calling for the money I owed him. Of course I wouldn’t have it, and of course he wouldn’t care, and I’d probably end up on my ass on the streets shortly thereafter. My mind conjured up all sorts of ugly scenarios of being one of the homeless vagrants that shuffled from street corner to street corner in search of the next meal. images of alleyways flitted unbidden through my mind, ripe with foul things that threatened to leave me with no appetite ever again, not that I ate much anyways.

                It wasn’t that my city was unclean or full of filth, but there was a certain unwashed and dejected feel to this part of town, something that came with every underfunded community. I was fortunate to have this place now, but I didn’t see how I was going to keep it once the landlord got sick of my excuses.

                Squeezing my eyes against the dark and foreboding thoughts, I curled up into a tighter ball, not even realizing when tears slipped through my lids to drip down my cheeks as I fell asleep in my misery. Unfortunately though, there was no reprieve to be found there either, for the nightmares of homelessness were far worse than any vague thoughts that my waking mind could produce.

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