Chapter 39: You Too
“How the actual fuck do people consider this a small and slow planet?” The crowd surrounding Avalyn and her temporary companion was overwhelming, and she only had two senses. How much worse could it be with smells and tastes in the air?
“Bryst is, by Alliance standards, a smallish population planet,” Des said. “Not on any main transit or commercial lanes, only 91Alright guys, question time. There is no hard rule on how to write numbers in fiction. Some say under 10 needs to be written out, some say under 20, others say it should always be written out. What would you find to be the least jarring way of writing out large numbers like I do during this chapter? major cities, 128 settlements, and a grand total population of 278 million. Crescent isn’t even the largest city on Bryst and only has a population of 19 million.”
“That’s not small,” Avalyn said.
“How big is your home planet?” Des asked as he continued deftly through the busy street.
“It’s… complicated.” Technically, Bryst was now Avalyn’s home planet. It was the only planet she had been on in her short life. “There were 8.3 billion people, but the largest city was only 42 million large. The largest city I ever went to only had a population of around 9 million people. I lived in an area with less than 300 thousand.” Crescent was so much larger than anything she had ever known. Then again, Crescent was all she had ever known.
“Interesting. This really is a large city to you, but in the Alliance there are plenty of cities much, much larger than this.”
“Are there any Ecumenopolises in the Alliance?” Avalyn asked.
“Any what?” Des looked at her, confused.
“City planets. Planets that are entirely one giant city.” The horrified look on Des’s face told her that there weren’t. “I guess not. Good, those would be total ecological collapse of any environment and its species.”
The look on his face wasn’t going away. “Do your people have those?”
Avalyn shrugged. “None that I’m aware of.” Maybe Vysven really did at some point have those, as horrifying as that truly was. Though if there had been any, Avalyn was sure some of that must have survived into today, even if not much. “I would feel very uncomfortable in a place like that. I like being able to see greenery everywhere I look.” The one thing she really loved about Crescent was how much plant life there was about the city. Maybe she should go to a park. That could be a nice place to escape from the crowds of the busy streets. “Are all cities in the Alliance this green?”
Des shrugged. “It really depends on the culture and the planet. Some places are very industrialized and some are very open and green. Different species prefer different styles, and sometimes the planet just doesn’t suit life the same way others do.”
Nodding, Avalyn wondered just how different every planet would be. There was a whole galaxy to explore and hundreds, if not thousands, of different spacefaring species, each with their own multitude of cultures. Those thoughts quickly became overwhelming, and Avalyn did her best to shut them out. Getting through the busy streets was all she needed to focus on right now. There was still a little way to go before she met up with Gramps and Scevi again.
“You know, you didn’t have to escort be back to my Gramps,” Avalyn said to Des. “You’re going to be even later for your meeting.”
He shrugged again. “I know, but I already sent a message saying I’ll be late, and I thought you’d be less likely to be hassled if it looked like you were with someone. It was also going to be a meeting over food, and I’m still not fully recovered from my rough trip.”
“That is very fair,” Avalyn admitted. “I hope they don’t get to hungry waiting.”
“She’ll be fine. Besides, I get to explore the city a little. I have a feeling I’m going to be having more business here in the future.”
“Good prospects?” Avalyn asked.
“I hope so. Still have a lot of work to do, and though it will all hopefully work out, I have a feeling it’s going to only continue to get more complicated as time goes on .”
“I can understand that.” She had definitely worked jobs where things were good, but the work just kept getting more complicated. Thankfully, she wasn’t in a position where she needed to work a job outside of working at Gramps’s yard. Not that there was any work going on besides working on Stargazer. She had asked Gramps about it once, and he just said that he was still on a ‘sabbatical’ from work at the moment with everything involving her. Scevi did thankfully confirm privately that it wasn’t going to hurt him, and that working on Stargazer was his biggest dream come true. He was very happy to just be working on that at the moment.
“Shouldn’t be too far now,” Des said, looking down at a map he had pulled up on his companion. “Thankfully, the city isn’t too complicated. Honestly, it’s a lot simpler th—”
A small gaggle of what must have been young teenagers pushed their way through the crowd and up to Avalyn. “You disagree with this statement,” one said before another shoved her. Quickly they all ran away giggling to themselves, even though Avalyn clearly caught herself and didn’t shut down. Des froze, and a few other passersby did as well, having seen this and fully expecting the ‘automaton’ to shut down and fall.
Avalyn’s speaker made the sound of a deep breath before letting out a long sigh, her body mimicking the motions that an organic person would take while doing such an action. Of course she expected people to shut her down upon meeting her, but she wasn’t really expecting people to go out of their way to do it. Nor was she expecting people to do it for fun. The servos in her fingers were really being pushed to their limits today, but luckily any actual damage to them would be easily repaired. “I just wanted to get out today like a normal person again…” Looking at the ground, she started walking again, regretting ever desiring leaving the confines of Gramps’s yard. “I guess having you around wasn’t as helpful as we wanted.” Des shook his head, but Avalyn wasn’t looking to see.
“I’m sorry about the way people of the Alliance treat you,” Des said after a few quiet moments of walking.
His words barely made it into Avalyn’s mind as she wondered if she should buy some clothes that covered her head. That combined with the mask and maybe some gloves would cover most of herself. Her feet were the only part she couldn’t put clothes on since they were just segmented metal shoes. “It’s not your fault. I’m just having a bad day.”
“Maybe on this bad day your clouds will have a silver lining.”
Avalyn dearly wished she could smile. “That’s not quite how you say it, but thank you. I hope there are some silver linings in this outing.” Those simple words managed to pull her out of those sad thoughts and back into the moment. “You wouldn’t happen to know what an LGS is?”
“A local game store?”
“Yes!” Avalyn said excitedly. Looking up at the sky, Avalyn said, “Thank Mama, I was worried this was going to be a simulation thing and not a real-life thing. Gramps and Scevi didn’t know what that was, and I was afraid there wouldn’t be any in the alliance.”
“Of course there are game stores,” Des said with a slight, quizzical laugh. “The people of the alliance love their games. What are you looking for in an LGS?”
Avalyn shrugged. “Anything really. I don’t know what kind of games people play and if they’re like the games I used to play. Do you have tabletop role-playing games?”
It took a moment for Des to understand what she was asking, before Des nodded. “We call them storytelling games typically. There are a lot of them. I personally like Veystrun 8th edition, but that’s a rather rules-heavy game with lots of math.”
Excitement was quickly blossoming inside the regent. “I’m really good at math. Sometimes I find rules heavy leads to more creative gameplay. When there are limitations, imagination really explodes in ways of pushing the boundaries.”
The smile on Des’s face was only growing larger. “I couldn’t agree more. I could give you a whole list of recommendations if you would like.”
“I would love that.” There really were some silver linings to getting stuck on that bus.
“Would you be able to memorize my communication ID?”
“I can’t express to you how easy memorizing stuff is for me.”
After he gave her the ID, he said, “When you get your companion, just send me a message and I’ll write you a list.”
“Awesome.”
“Are you only interested in storytelling games?”
Shaking her head, Avalyn said, “I also like trading card games. Nothing beats opening a fresh pack and pulling some real heat.”
“Heat?”
“It just means something good or expensive. I guess I’m going to have to learn a whole new set of terminology to play games here.” Though that was slightly daunting, Avalyn was very excited to learn.
Des nodded along. “Welmarsf Invarda is good for beginners in card games, but the market is almost purely based on people’s favorite characters, not actual gameplay. Kypwurm is pretty intermediary and fun, but my personal favorite is Destined Paths. It can be advanced, but there’s so much variety to what you can play.” Des’s voice was starting to get very excited now. “If you want simple, you can play simple and still have a viable win condition. If you want to cause as much chaos as possible but still have a fun game, that is fully possible. You can also play full control, making sure the other players play the game you want them to play. People can get really peft about it, but if you’re smart, you can easily counter a deck like that.” There was a moment of silence before an ever so slightly nervous tone entered his voice. “Sorry, I really like the game and can get carried away with it.”
“Do not be sorry,” Avalyn said firmly. “For the first time since coming into the Alliance, it feels like someone is finally speaking my language. I love listening to people talk about the things they like, and this so happens to sound like a game I would very much like too. Though I will admit I don’t know what peft means.” She could contextually understand what it meant, but she didn’t want to assume and then be wrong.
“It’s a somewhat rude way of saying angry.” Des admitted with a slightly sheepish voice. “Peft is originally from the prevailing Orcish language, but it was adopted into the common tongue a good while ago.”
“Another word to add to my growing dictionary. Well, I can safely say you have added a nice silver lining to my day. I very much look forward to exploring all these games.”
Des gave maybe the most genuine smile of the day. “I’m glad.”
“How much further till—” Avalyn looked around and just a little further away she saw Gramps and Scevi waiting for her. “Gramps!” she slightly yelled above the sounds of the crowd and waved her arm in the air, as if the shiny metal dome of her head wouldn’t stand out among the crowd. Then again, she was shorter than the average person now.
“Kiddo!” Relief washed over his face as he quickly jogged over to her, Scevi in tow. “I was starting to get worried with how long it was taking,” he said as they got close enough.
“The traffic jam lasted longer than expected,” Avalyn said. “Luckily, I had a chatty companion to help me through it.” Gesturing to Des she said, “Gramps, Scevi, this is Des.” Simultaneously, all three of the other people put their right hands on their chests and gave a small bow.
“Thank you so much for helping,” Scevi said. “He was really starting to get worried.”
“You weren’t worried about me?” Avalyn asked with mock upset.
Scevi gave a cheeky smile. “I was more worried about the people who stopped you from getting off.” Giving a light chuckle, she said, “No, I was worried, but I knew you would find your way. Thanks,” she said to Des.
“It was no problem,” Des said with a smile. “She helped distract me from my rough morning and she even charged my companion for me.”
Gramps and Scevi couldn’t hide the slight worry that crossed their minds at his words. Quickly, Avalyn said. “It’s nice having charging pads in my hands. No need to worry about plugging myself into someone else’s companion.”
“Very convenient,” Gramps said, doing his best to scrub the worry from his face. “Thank you again, Mr. Des. I was a little worried when I started getting a call from a nonlocal ID.”
“No need to add the Mr. It was the least I could do. I know I got off on the wrong foot with everyone, and I’m very happy I could show Avalyn the good side of the people of the Alliance.”
“You did a very good job. I’m going to have many games to research, and I’m so excited. Okay, Avalyn is making a declaration that we are finding a local game store after getting my companion.”
Scevi smiled. “Are we now?”
Putting her hands on her hips, Avalyn said, “We are.”
“I didn’t realize those were real things and not something from your s—past,” Gramps said.
“I can happily confirm local game stores are very real,” Des said, missing Gramps’s little slip. “And I apologize for the fates you are about to endure.”
Both Gramps and Scevi look confused, then worried. Gramps asked, “What?”
“Are the smells just as bad as I think they are?” Avalyn asked Des. That really confused the not-so-secret couple.
“I was more talking about how confused they were going to be every time you talk about these games, but…” A nervous chuckle escaped his lips as he rubbed the back of his head. “The smell can be pretty bad occasionally. I love these hobbies, but, by the gods, the community can have a serious problem of people not knowing how to bathe.”
“Then I am very glad I have no sense of smell!”
“I feel more confused now,” Scevi said.
“Don’t worry about it!” Avalyn said. “It’ll be an interesting experience for all of us. Thank you again, Des.”
He gave a gentle smile. “You’re welcome. Thank you for letting me mend my error of how we first met.”
Avalyn waved a hand at him. “Don’t worry about it. You really brought a silver lining to my terrible start to an outing.”
A bigger smile crossed the human’s face. “I’m glad. Now if you’ll all excuse me, I am—” he glanced down at his watch and winced, “—two and a half hours late for a brunch that is now most certainly a lunch.”
“I hope everything goes well.”
A small smirk crossed his lips. “I’m fairly confident it’s going to go much better than I had originally planned. It was very nice meeting you.” Putting his right hand on his chest, Des gave Avalyn a slightly deeper bow than Gramps and Scevi.
Avalyn hesitated only for a moment before returning the gesture. “You too,” she said, realizing she had never actually performed that gesture before.