Chapter 7
Tiff was silent the whole drive home. The doctor's words rang in her ears. They weren’t particularly new and nothing she hadn’t heard before (having watched Ralph, indeed, Wreck It). But for some reason, they struck her like a punch to the gut.
In that small moment, inconsequential as it might have seemed, her entire worldview changed. Not a big change, she wasn’t going to embrace her new villain status and start conquering the world. But she realized something nobody had ever pointed out to her before: she often put things into a box.
Like, everything went into a box. Its own, pretty, distinct, organizable box. There was a time and a place for everything, and everything had to fit just right.
But not everything did conform to her labels, especially not people. How often, at school and at home, when seeing something on tv, did she judge something without thinking too deeply about it?
All those jocks and nerds? What did that actually mean? Nerd culture was a stereotype, yes, but not one that had actually existed for decades. Not in Tiff’s lifetime, with pop culture movies popularizing the actions of certain heroes and her parents’ generation's nostalgia bleeding into everyday life.
Tiff wasn’t going to suddenly find herself caring for all the drama going around her on a daily basis, but the first, tiny threads of change were unraveling. She might actually care what a cheerleader’s name was if she had to talk to her.
Thankfully, Tiff didn’t need to talk to any overly preppy, obnoxiously energetic girls with enviable body shapes.
Thankfully, she didn’t even need to talk at all.
Victoria was content to let her sit in silence the entire ride back home, only offering her a word or two of support as they pulled into the driveway.
The smell of dinner cooking roused Tiff from her thoughts, and she suddenly realized she hadn’t eaten anything all day. She felt ravenous!
Wait.
Tiff slowly turned toward Victoria, who was kicking her shoes off in the entry hall.
“You still owe me ice cream,” Tiff accused, daring her big sister to go back on her word. Victoria merely laughed and ruffled Tiff’s hair.
“You got it, squirt.”
Dinner was awkward.
Plain and simple.
Melissa knew that Victoria had taken Tiff out for the day, but like Tiff, Victoria didn’t tell their mom her full plans. As such, she was brimming with excitement and anticipation, clearly wanting to insert herself into her daughters’ lives.
It was one thing for Amy to nearly burst with excitement (which she currently was), but she had the excuse of being a normal teenager with mood swings and hormones.
Their mom had bulk. It was like an enraged bull doped up on hormones had wandered into the world’s smallest china shop. She sat in her chair, visibly vibrating, emanating waves of…energy. For somebody with a C in Magic, that was pretty impressive.
Of course, they weren’t real waves, but the power leaking out of Melissa wasn’t entirely a figment of Tiff’s imagination. Their dad, Richard, recoiled as soon as he entered the dining room. He took one glance at Melissa and seriously debated whether he wanted to take his dinner somewhere else to eat.
“Sooo,” Melissa tried being tactful in all the same ways a great dane or a mastiff tries to fit in with a chihuahua. “How was your day?”
Tiff said nothing. She speared her pasta with her fork like it owed her money, but she didn’t want to talk about it. It occurred to her that the rest of the family was shooting worried glances at their mom, but she didn’t feel anything beyond the awkwardness lingering in the air. Oh, she knew Melissa was probably leaking out her presence or aura or whatever it was called. Tiff had felt it before, thankfully only once or twice, when her mom was very upset. It manifested in different ways for different people, depending on their mood or intent. It could be stifling, choking, making it hard to breathe if you were locked in their sights. It could be terrifying.
Tiff was unbothered.
She twirled the pasta, lifted it slowly to her mouth, and chewed.
She had to say something, didn’t she? Her mom was simply excited. In a very good mood. Tiff didn’t want to sour that mood and make it very bad. Tiff was only 16; she knew her mom could still ground her if she wanted.
“Long,” Tiff eventually settled for. She thought about saying uneventful or boring, or anything along those lines, but the words simply wouldn’t form in her brain. It wasn’t any of those, and then it hit her again: she couldn’t lie. But where did a half-truth and purposeful omission stand, as far as her Quirk allowed? Eventually, she’d have to find out.
“Long,” Melissa repeated, clearly trying to push for more. “And…?”
Tiff put a finger to her cheek as she nibbled some garlic bread. “Informative?”
“Long,” Melissa said again, like declaring truths of the universe, “AND informative! What a day!”
So far, she was still smiling, but Tiff knew she was pushing her luck.
“I was with Tori. Why don’t you ask her?”
“Hey now, Squirt,” Victoria instantly said, nearly choking on her drink. “Don’t you throw me under this bus. I wanna live to see tomorrow!”
Tiff shot her a withering glare…but just because she was a Supervillain didn’t mean it was effective. She’d have to work on that.
Tiff paused.
Was that something she needed to work on? Was this whole Class thing actually getting to her? She shook her head and faced Melissa.
“Tori showed me around her Guildhall,” Tiff eventually said, and she found the words flowing freely. “I never knew a building like that existed in Setma Heights. It looked dumpy from the outside, but they had an entire tree planted inside! Also, most of the members wore funny clothes and carried weapons.”
“Oh?! Why didn’t you take me?!” Amy demanded, slapping her hand on the table. “I’ve never been! I want to go!”
“Because you were in school, duh,” Victoria chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I can take you later sometime.”
“You’d like it,” Tiff nodded. “You should have seen some of the weapons. It was like live-action Monster Hunter!”
Amy slammed her other hand down and actually rose from her seat. She had a manic look on her face, her eyes widening with excitement.
“Did they have any Ignition class greatswords?!”
Tiff actually laughed. That’s what the silly weapon with the jet engines was called!
“Yeah,” she grinned. “One dude did. You should have seen it. It was even bigger in real life!”
“That’s it,” Amy declared with a straight face full of determination. “I’m going.”
“Where?” Victoria laughed out. “The office is closed. You don’t even know where it is.”
“To play video games,” Amy shifted seamlessly as she tried walking away from the table…only to get snagged by the long arm of the law.
Also known as Mom.
“Not until after dinner,” Melissa said. “And after you’re finished with your homework.”
Amy gave their mom a wounded look, like the world was ending, but obediently melted back into her chair like a slug.
“So you visited Roughnecks?” Richard asked.
Perhaps it was because it was her dad asking, Tiff was caught off guard. It wasn’t like he never showed interest in the girls’ lives, but he was the calm, quiet foil to their boisterous mom.
“Yeah,” Tiff nodded. “Tori signed up to be my bodyguard.”
Tiff’s mind whirled. She hadn’t really meant to say that; it just came out. Outwardly, she coolly twirled some pasta, but inside, she was a mess. The table grew quiet as utensils were slowly lowered.
“Is that right?” Melissa asked. She turned toward Victoria, her tone and face even. It was an honest question Tiff didn’t know how to read. Victoria nervously shot Tiff a glance, but remained silent.
“Why would you need to do that?”
“I’d rather not say,” Tiff answered honestly. It felt weird, boldly denying her parents some information like this. She wasn’t lying; technically, she was even standing up for herself. But it felt wrong in the way that she knew her parents wouldn’t like it. Melissa looked shocked and more than a little hurt at Tiff’s refusal, but Tiff carried on before she could complain.
“It’s because of my Class, which is terrible and useless. We went down to the Adventurer’s Union and got me Assessed. It was long, they ran lots of tests, and my arms feel more limp than these noodles. Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t passed out yet.”
“Are you still feeling tired?” Melissa asked. “Is it still Awakening lethargy? I thought you’d have recovered by now.”
“I have a D in Might,” Tiff sighed explosively. “I suppose this is my life now.”
The whole dinner table seemed to lurch to a standstill as they registered her words.
“Wait,” Amy paused. “Aren’t normal people C? Your class gave you a downgrade?”
It certainly was a stark difference from the rest of the family. Richard was average, but he did his best to stay in shape. Melissa was a Might-based Meta and passed some of those genes down to Victoria. It looked like Amy might inherit some of them, too.
“Apparently,” Tiff huffed. “Like I said: it’s terrible and I hate it.”
“But what is it?” Amy nearly begged.
“I’m not saying,” Tiff denied firmly. “I told Tori and that’s enough. Nobody else needs to know if I never plan to use it.”
“That’s…rather drastic,” Richard said. “Your Class is a big part of your life.”
“But I can do other things,” Tiff crossed her arms and grumped. She stared at her half-eaten plate of spaghetti. She was full, even though she normally would have cleared the whole thing.
“Don’t worry,” Melissa cooed. “We’ll get through this. We always do.”
The sincerity in her mom’s voice sent a jolt of emotion down Tiff’s spine. As a very physical person, it probably pained Melissa to see her middle daughter veer so far from the family norm. So many things they could have experienced together…were now closed off. As if she were defective. But that wasn’t what her words conveyed at all.
Tiff looked up to her parents, feeling undeserving of such a loving family. Each of them wanted to support her, even when she wasn’t being upfront with them. Even Amy, who was normally a mischievous little gremlin, put her playfulness aside.
“Tiff,” Amy said seriously. She placed a hand on Tiff’s shoulder and looked her square in the eye. “If you’re now a [Garbage Man], we still love you.”
The indignation of being called a [Garbage Man] stung. What’s worse, Tiff pitied all those people who picked up trash for a living. There wasn’t anything wrong with being a [Garbage Man], but it sounded like, to her little sister, it was the lowest of the low.
Fortunately, Amy’s bizarre sense of camaraderie broke the tension in the air as their dad actually started choking on his food. Melissa swiftly jumped from the table and physically carried him off to the kitchen, patting him on the back like an oversized toddler the entire time, during which Tiff made her escape. She fled up to her room, shut herself in, and dove into her bed.
One question remained that Tiff couldn’t answer. One question that everyone asked.
What does your class do?
See, she could answer the what’s your class question perfectly well. It just so happened that her answer was somewhere along the lines of none of your business. But what it did? Even Tiff didn’t know.
And she really should find out, even if she didn’t plan on using it. Even if only to understand the insistent prompt the System kept showing her at inconvenient times.
There was something Tiff hadn’t told anybody, not even Victoria: she had a quest.
Tiff knew that quests weren’t always big deals like some people wanted to make them out to be. The System regularly handed out quests to anybody and everybody. It was how people advanced from Citizens into a specific Class. Tiff was pretty sure everybody knew this; she knew it before learning about it in IPSS.
However, hers did feel like kind of a big deal, and she didn’t want to bring it up in case it alarmed anybody…though the only other person who knew was Victoria, so her victims were limited. Though now that she was lying on her bed, stuffing her head under her pillows, she sort of wished more people knew, so she could share the burden. But getting there from here, having to deal with all the…drama of being outed as a Supervillain, sounded like a lot of work. Too much work, and Tiff was already tired.
As if summoned by her thoughts, there was a knock at her door.
“Munch, you dead?”
“Working on it,” Tiff grumbled into her pillow, but she resigned herself to getting up and opening the door. As expected, Victoria was standing there, looking tired and worried.
“How are you really feeling?” She asked. “Mind if I come in?”
“Sure,” Tiff replied, locking the door behind her. Victoria stared at the handle as Tiff flopped back on her bed, but eventually shrugged and took a seat next to her. A locked door wouldn’t keep anybody out for long, not in this house. Their dad could whip up some gizmo to get through most standard locks, and Amy was smart enough to know common indoor knobs like these only needed a thin rod inserted into the hole in the middle to pop them open. And to their mom, doors might as well be a suggestion.
But if that was what set Tiff’s mind at ease, Victoria wasn’t going to complain.
“You have an A in Might, don’t you?” Tiff asked. The question seemed like it came out of nowhere, but Victoria nodded.
“Yup,” she replied…as soon as she realized Tiff’s head was under a pillow and she couldn’t see her nod.
“When you Awakened, were you tired? Or did you get a burst of energy when your stats came online?”
“Ah,” Victoria said in understanding. “No, I got wiped out too. Everybody does, I think. But I gotta say, I was back up and at ‘em much quicker than you. Half a day, one full one at most. You’re still tired?”
“I don’t know if it’s because of Awakening, or if this is my new normal,” Tiff said with a sigh. Eventually rolled over, splayed out, staring at the ceiling. “Am I always going to feel this…weak?”
“With D stats?” Victoria grimaced. “Probably.”
“Great,” Tiff groaned. “What am I going to do for PE?”
“That’s what you’re worried about?” Victoria laughed. “Actually, now that you mention it, get mom to write you a note. No, seriously, Tiff, hear me out. You’re registered now, you’ve been Assessed. You’ve got legitimate proof the school needs to follow. They’ve got plans in place for things like this.”
“Really?” Tiffed quirked an eye. “Do people become Supervillains all the time?”
“You know what I mean,” Victoria rolled her eyes. “People with low stats get special dispensation. If you can’t keep up with the class because of your stats, the school needs to accommodate you. It’s reasonable, and it’s the law.”
“Sounds like a great way to get picked on,” Tiff grumbled.
“Are you actually worried about that?”
Tiff thought about it.
“Would it be weird to say no?”
“A little bit, but that’s you now, too.”
“Right,” Tiff agreed.
The room fell into comfortable silence for several moments until Victoria couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Is that really what you’re doing right now?”
“Hmm?”
“Worrying about not worrying?”
“Ah, no.”
“Then what are you doing?” Victoria asked.
“Delaying the inevitable.”
This time, Victoria stayed silent until Tiff was the one to break. The small girl groaned like an old woman, cracked her neck and popped her back, and sat up.
“Actually, Tori, I’m glad you’re here. I need to look at my Class and I’m procrastinating.”
“Oh?” Victoria smirked. Having seen Tiff’s full status, she knew what Tiff was. “Is it time to embrace your true calling as the Dark Queen?”
“Don’t call me that!” Tiff wailed.
“But you’re a [Dungeon Master],” Victoria grinned.
“I don’t even know what that is!” Tiff complained. She glanced up at Victoria hopefully. “Do you?”
“I’ve never heard of one,” Victoria shook her head, but her smile only grew. “But if it involves leather whips and lots of-“
Tiff chucked a pillow at her sister, smacking her straight in the face. It did nothing, but at least shut her up.
“I am not…whatever that is!” Tiff adamantly denied.
“So what does the System actually say?”
“That’s the thing,” Tiff frowned. “It doesn’t say much.”
Instead of trying to explain in words, she willed it up and showed Victoria directly. That way, they could both stare at it, dumbfounded.
[Dungeon Master]
Affinity: Supervillain (locked)
Level: 1
Skills:
Indomitable (Passive)
Place Core (Unique Active)
Now, that wasn’t much to go by, but Tiff had played plenty of video games. She understood the concept of dungeons and masters. Sometimes, even with the two words combined. A typical video game dungeon master was usually evil, and they had an underground lair with a core where they summoned horrible creatures to go fight law-abiding citizens on the surface.
Depending on the game, there were rules and complications, but essentially, evil overlords ruled dungeons and sent monsters to kill people. Good guys then showed up to put a stop to the madness by shattering the core, which was the source of the dungeon’s power, thus ending the threat. It usually killed the dungeon master in the process, but video games didn’t worry about that too much.
But Tiff had very valid reasons for not wanting to die. Enjoying life was among the top ones. Not wanting her mom to rampage was another.
According to everything Tiff had heard or read, most Classes were a little less…vague. [Bakers] might have some skills to, well, bake, and Victoria had her Grappling and Hand-to-Hand Combat.
Two very clearly defined traits that were very applicable to her role.
“Place Core” sounded very obvious, but Tiff had no idea what a dungeon was in the first place.
Unfortunately, the System was not forthcoming with any more details. So, she turned her attention to her quest, having stalled long enough.
Quest: Place your dungeon core.
Fortunately, the System did think it was important enough to give her more information this time.
Placing your dungeon core will determine the boundaries and location of your territory.
WARNING! This action is permanent, and once placed, the core cannot be removed from your territory. Territories can only be changed by system-generated quests, such as “conquer a continent”, “defeat a nemesis”, or “annihilate an invading army”.
Tiff recoiled and physically pushed her System window away. Victoria, sitting backward in Tiff’s chair with her arms wrapped around the backrest, watched in silent amusement as the screen floated past her.
“Nice,” she said with a grin, watching it dissipate before it could phase through the wall.
“I take it you’re not a fan?”
“Who in their right mind could be a fan of…of that?!” Tiff asked, outraged. “Did you see?! Conquering a continent? Annihilating an invading army?! Who does the System think I am?!”
“But you don’t have any issue defeating a nemesis?” Victoria asked with a smirk. Tiff gave her big sister a very flat stare.
“That’s what you focus on?”
Victoria merely shrugged.
“I mean, does it really matter? You said you’re not going to use your class, so it’s not likely that you’re going to need to do any of that. “
“True,” Tiff grumbled, “But it would be nice if it wasn’t always trying to make me sound super evil. Did your System try to force you into a specific Affinity?”
“Not really,” Victoria said. “I’ve never heard of anything quite like yours, especially if it’s actually locked and you can’t change it. From my experience, Affinity is very fluid the closer you get to the middle of the scale, where it’s easiest to change. Once you start going toward the edges, it’s both harder to go further and harder to go back. There are some milestones, like the jump from Hero to Superhero or Mercenary to Vigilante, and once you hit ‘em, you’re pretty set. Usually, you need quests to help bump you one way or another.”
“But what if your quest doesn’t offer you the option for what you want?”
“No big deal,” Victoria shook her head. “Some quests have a time limit, which might sound bad, but there’s usually not a lot of penalties for ignoring them. Unless you’re a Hero and you get a sudden quest to rescue people from a burning building or something,” she added with a smirk. “But really, you’re thinking of Affinity quests instead of Class quests. You’ll learn about these. Class quests, as you could guess, are usually something to do with your class. In your case, your quest is definitely a Class quest. Now, an Affinity quest? I’m not sure how yours might work with your Affinity being locked, but usually, you have multiple ways to complete the quest for different outcomes. For instance, let’s say a cop gets a quest. I know what you might be thinking: aren’t [Police Officers] on the Hero route?
“Technically, yes. But those are actual [Police Officers], cops with a specific Class. Let’s say there’s a bank robbery. Maybe the System gives one cop a quest to do something about it. It might have two options. Option A could be something like ‘stop the robbery,’ and it might give them some more white on the Greyscale. But, there could also be an Option B, ‘aid and abet the criminals.’ In that case, they’d need to look like they’re doing their job while actually hindering the other police and letting the crooks escape. They’d complete the quest and go a shade or two darker on the Greyscale, and their Class might change to [Corrupt Cop] or [Insider].”
“Huh,” Tiff murmured thoughtfully. “But wait, wouldn’t they just get caught if their Class changed like that?”
“You’d think that, right?” Victoria said with a slight curve in her lips. “But no. One of the more common skill sets on the darker side of the Greyscale gives ways to hide your identity. Things like Undercover go both ways: good guys and bad guys can get it. In fact, as a Supervillain, I’d be very surprised if you didn’t get some way to hide your Affinity.”
Tiff nodded as she tried to digest. This was good stuff, and she was really starting to think that taking IPSS, the Introductions to Powers and System Startup, only after Awakening, was a bad idea. She dearly would have liked to know this before she was faced with a potentially permanent decision. Taking a deep breath, she summoned her stats again, determined to find out any information she could.
Still nothing as to what a [Dungeon Master] actually was.
However, when looking at her Skill to place her core, she found something new. Tiff wasn’t sure how it helped, but when she was thinking about how big a Territory actually was, the System gave her an answer.
Dungeon Territory is considered the area of a sphere 40 miles in diameter surrounding the physical core.
Wow. That was…huge. As far as Tiff was concerned, there were multiple cities inside a 20-mile radius, or one mega-city like Los Angeles itself.
But what did Territory actually mean? The System obliged.
Inside the Dungeon Territory, the Dungeon Master’s rule is supreme. Overrules and overrides any and all other forms of authority.
Oh.
Tiff glanced at Victoria, whose eyebrows had flown through the roof. Tiff didn’t know exactly what sort of power people in charge actually had when it came to the System. Nor how it affected her in her everyday life.
But she knew from her history classes that things like [Politicians] turned into [Presidents] or [Governors] when they got elected…or maybe even [Warlords] if taken by force. As a senior, she’d have to take Government and Economics classes, but those were next year. She assumed those political Classes had System integration to make passing laws more streamlined or make ruling easier to do.
And if Tiff just stole control from whoever currently ruled the city?
Maybe her class was just a touch villainous.
1
Hello and good morning!
This is the second series I'm writing, so the chapter dump for the initial release is a little smaller than my other one. I plan to release a chapter each day next week, and then it will go to a normal release schedule of 8am PST, Mondays and Fridays.
Thanks for reading!