The Reseano grass was pricklier than Earth’s. The air here tasted weird. Like someone dropped orange juice in the atmosphere. One of the lighter brands that didn’t commit to the taste of orange. As he put his hand out to feel the wind, it felt like there was somehow less effort put into it. Either the wind was stronger or he was lighter. As Vig got older, he felt it more and more. He still remembered working retail jobs, warehouse jobs, and his body being shot by the time he got in his car. Yet even before he got into magic, he felt somewhat better for being here, back when doing carpentry and hauling logs was still his lot in life. He could hear the footsteps behind him. Wasn’t the time to look back. Now was the time to push forward. Standing before him was some kid. Couldn’t be more than around 20-21 or so. Definitely hung over. Still, some props had to be given for showing up at least.

“Alright. You ready?”

“Just… just give me a minute.” Rhys put her hands on her head and rubbed her temples. Christ. She and Maison got wasted at that bar. God, she hoped that she didn’t end up throwing up anywhere. With the way that the tinker toy nagged, she didn’t need him adding that to his list of complaints. Though she was sure that she didn’t embarrass herself that hard. Shoma,... no that wasn’t it. Shoa seemed like a narc that way. Since Maison went home to report home to the beast-kin dudes, she was down a close friend. A friend she only knew because of cleaning up…

 Anyway, now she was up at the asscrack of dawn learning magic from Vig Hartland in the middle of a field. Moving on up in the world.

“So have you done magic before?”

Rhys still rubbed her temples before answering. “No. Paid people to do it for me. Made things easier as long as they didn’t set things on fire.”

An eyebrow raise came in response. “Did you catch any fundamentals?”

“Don’t blow yourself up and fireballs shouldn’t be made near things easily caught on fire?”

A shrug. “Mostly right but a bit lower down the list of priority.” Vig reached into his pocket and pulled out a rock. “As someone starting out, Magic is something of an enhancer. Run a bit faster, hold your breath a bit longer, basically what you can do now but if you were a bit better at it.” A small flex of his hand and the stone was dust to the wind.

“Nice.”

“Yup. So first up, you’re gonna wanna stretch.”

“ I thought I would just burn through something or start flying.”

“Yeah, that comes much later. For now, you’re gonna get tougher. We’re better with minor strength and toughness anyway. That is the body. And you always stretch your body.”

Rhys put her hands out and waved them. Her legs pumping up and down in a marching motion as her arms waved like spaghetti at her teacher. A small smile crossed his face before he quickly rubbed it off.

“Funny. Now I’m gonna teach you the first part of making this happen. Energy emission. It's better to start with an object rather than your body. Never good to start blowing things away with your fingers. You’ll lose some that way. Do you have something that you’re familiar with as your focus?”

Rhys pulled out her baseball bat from her duffel bag. “Ol Belluci. " Killing Jobbers since ‘44”.” Whatever that means.” She took a pose, showing the majesty of the black bat in her hand. Vig took notice of her amateur attempt to look cool, correcting where she pointed her bat with a finger.

“That’ll work. Now, I want you to get excited. Anger, happiness, whatever gets your heartbeat moving. Just get psyched.”

Rhys reached deep inside herself. She thought of bumping mugs with the fox and almost choking on her portion of ale when Maison made a joke about burying Prairie Dogs in a fox hole. She thought about her first failure outside of where she lived, burning garbage to keep warm as the pretty colors followed her into a cold sleep. She thought of her first time seeing, truly seeing the stars burn up above her and the wonder that followed.

 Vig could see the smile on her face and nodded. “You feel that? How does that feel? In your heart, your core.”

Rhys tried to look inside her. Through the mixture of thoughts and lies. Experiences both good and bad. At the center of all that, of her, is something warm warping and moving inside of her. Rhys didn’t really have control over it, but the feeling of warmth softened her a bit.

“Guess you found it. Now I want you to imagine that feeling going through you. From your core to your hands, as far up as you can go. Like filling up a cup.”

Rhys didn’t really get the metaphor, but she tried. Gripping the bat tighter in her hand, she tried to physically move the warm feeling. It was slow going, the same way you would try to squeeze jelly out of a barely empty tube, but after 20 minutes of forcing, she felt herself hitting the tip of her bat. She raised a hand to the bat and felt an immense heat radiating from it before even touching it.

“You done?”

“Y-yeah.”

A smile formed on Vig’s face. “Now touch it.”

“Fuck that! It feels like a fire, dude!”

“It's your energy, so touch it. It won’t hurt if you did it right. If you didn’t, then it’s gonna feel like someone stuck your bones in a steam press, but nothing permanent.

As Rhys finally touched the bat, a warm feeling went through her hand, leaving the bat as cold as the day it was formed. As she looked up to her teacher, he gave another soft smile.

“Congrats on learning step one.”

“Nice! So what do I do now?”

“Now you do that about 300 times while you spread that energy throughout your whole body.”

“What?! Why?”

“ Cause training is turning that energy activation from conscious thought into muscle memory. If you snap your fingers with the thought of making them glow purple, then they’ll glow purple first try. Out there in the field, no one is going to wait for you to warm up. So now you have to learn to do it right the first time before you get yourself killed by lighting your fingers on fire like a broken lighter. You wanna start the basics early.

With that point in mind, Rhys began the process of practicing the activation of her energy. A bubble on the point spread that bubble as though it moved on a highway through her body. Her body became more familiar with the warmth as that bubble moved through her veins. To her, it felt as though her body was being run over with a warm towel. To the view of the observer- Shoa specifically- it looked more like the human was wiggling her limbs about.

Sitting on the sidelines, Shoa looked on. Soon Vig sat beside him. 

“So. Notary jobs.”

“Yup.”

“According to the files from that data installation, we’ll mostly be documenting stuff. Overseeing land disputes and taking population counts.”

“Yup.”

“Not to sound overconfident, but this sounds insultingly easy. Why did the Union end up going outside its regular network? I’m sure people out here would go to great lengths for a steady job like this, much less with the connections you provide.

Vig didn't look Shoa in the eye. “Yeah, they would. Just like you and your friend there, and those people out there. But none of ours stepped up.”

“Why?”

“It's complicated. Population checks, having to travel to record complaints, and interviewing people for historical reasons. You’re the field reporter, and the Notary is the newspaper. Clark Kent, Daily Planet type stuff.”

The strawberry lines on Shoa’s face gave no response.

A hand ran down the face of Hartland. “God, I am not that old. Look, you gotta go out there and survey the land and the people and make sure stuff isn’t going on too far away from home.”

Shoa’s eye’s moved with confusion. “That’s still just busy work. There must’ve been others willing to do the work.”

“You know the Vegas Brigade?”

“Only small mentions, most of it back during the trial run.”

“They’re a group of old-world idiots. A mixture of people believed that when the end came, they’d either be in heaven or repopulating the earth. They didn’t get either. Now they’re just a bunch of losers with a xenophobic streak.”

“Is that why people were worried about them back in…”

“Yeah. But we’re not sure. “

“Wait. If an investigation is being brought up.”

“We’d need people. People who are willing to go in deep and allow themselves an opportunity. Desperate for a job and desperate to prove themselves.”

“So those people would be... me?”

“Of course. Waning Rock is out there and if you’re willing to go out there and put up with a test run, then you’ll do it. You wouldn’t be going alone, of course. Lucia would be with you. We’d send Diamo but he wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“Would the two of us be enough?”

“You mean where the three of you would go.”

There was a moment of pause, then the green lines shot up on the side of Shoa’s CRT-like head. “You mean I’m going with her?!”

“You sound surprised.”

“Please don’t misunderstand, I have no issue with her as a person but I spent last night cleaning up after her and the fox woman’s drunken escapades and taunting. She tried to challenge one of our housemates to a drinking contest. And the fox kept saying ‘Tu ne connais rien à la langue Tin Can!’ It was horrendous- Beep.

“Did… did you hear that?”

Beep.

“That! That beep?”

A chuckle came from Vig’s throat. “Ohh. Then I guess it's time already. Better get ready for work.”

“Wait-wait already?! But we need time to prepare!”

“And you’ll have it. But you should probably get ready now.”

The sudden roar of fire interrupted Vig’s train of thought as the duo refocused to see Rhys shooting fire out of the tips of her fingers. “Hahaha! Like a fucking match!”

“That’s a couple steps ahead! You’re gonna hurt yourself!”, Vig shouted as the flames grew ever higher.

The sudden burst of inferno lasted for about 3 seconds more before the long-haired woman dropped. 

Vig let out a sigh. Not one of disappointment, but more in reminiscence as he soon stood over her. Shoa did the but with very little in the way of pity or fond memories. Hartland patted the android on the back as he began to walk off. 

“I’m gonna go grab her something to eat and drink. You make sure she doesn’t try anything else. I don’t want her starving to death because she turned her fat into fuel.” 

The robot nodded as Vig stepped away towards the nearest town shop. Leaving Shoa to look over his still unconscious partner, though only noticing the smile of excitement on her face. 

Beep.