Getting 20 students to organize into four groups of five isn’t a difficult task when students are familiar with each other. Organizing students into four groups of five likewise isn’t a difficult task when they are complete strangers. But giving the students a peek at each other’s personalities and abilities with enough time to form first impressions while then putting the burden of a group project on top of that turns out to be a recipe for disaster. Everyone seemed to have very strong opinions of who should be on their team and who should not. Nate chuckled as demand for Jenna to be on their team repeated itself for the umpteenth time, once again breaking down what team assembly had been managed up to that point. Nate glanced up at Dean Anderson, still seated in the room where he had been this whole time, chuckling to himself.
Given our rate of progress, we should be able to finally form groups just before the assignment is due. And yet, no one seemed to want to listen to Nate. Every suggestion he’d made had been promptly ignored as the more fiery personalities spoke even louder to try and get what they wanted. Either Nate could shout everyone down, or sit back and let them fail. Given how little time they had left, they’d probably fail anyway. Nate sighed and shrugged. Maybe there won’t be an Elite class this year. He blew a frustrated puff of air into his forehead, making eye contact with Dean Anderson. The man chuckled silently at Nate, as if challenging him to do something.
“Listen,” Jenna managed to let herself be heard over the roar of the others’ voices. “We don’t have much time. The only way we have a chance of walking away successfully is if we have four team captains and choose our groups by snake. I’ll be one team captain so no one gets to choose me. I need three more volunteers.”
The room quieted down as she spoke, students suddenly remembering the upcoming deadline and taking things a bit more seriously.
“Who chooses first?” Tony Lamelli openly challenged.
Jenna briefly looked skyward as if she’d find patience written on the ceiling before letting out her breath. “Any method you could think of to randomly select someone wouldn’t actually be fair. I’d win it. So I’ll pick first. And I think, being that the responsibility of your group’s success or failure is on the team captain’s shoulders more so than their teammates, I think whoever is brave enough to volunteer next should get to pick next.”
“What if we don’t get four volunteers?” Harmony Iziri shot back.
“Then I will select my team and leave the rest of you to sort this mess out yourselves.”
“I will be team captain,” Tobi Negembe stepped forward. “I will take on that responsibility.”
“Eh,” Nico Vale raised his hand noncommittally while stepping forward. “Might be fun to be the ringleader.”
“One more,” Jenna pleaded, looking to the remaining students for another volunteer.
Nate was about to step forward, when he caught Jenna’s eye. Subtly, she shook her head back and forth, pointing to herself.
“I can be the fourth leader,” Dominique Hacel stepped forward, towering over the other leaders.
“Great,” Jenna clapped her hands. “Snake style picking, so me, Tobi, Nico, Dominique, then Dominique, Nico, Tobi, and me,” she instructed promptly. “Mi is on my team.”
Nate stepped back in shock. She chose him first?
“Tony,” Tobi spoke, surety in his voice.
“Mobility,” Nico nodded. “Not bad. Gustav,” Nico gave a finger gun. “You’re my guy.”
“Really?” Connor objected.
“Relax,” Nico waved away. “A healer isn’t any good for this anyway, so I’ll get you in the end.”
“Tara,” Dominique pointed at the redhead, who zipped behind her new team leader with a smile. Dominique continued without missing a beat, “And Wren.”
Nico blew out a breath of air, “Hoo, good choices there. Connor. My team. Now.”
Dominique gave him a confused look, “I thought no one wanted a Healer for a scavenger hunt.”
“Don’t be mean to my dear brother,” Nico shot back cooly, but didn’t explain himself further.
“Before I pick next,” Tobi began, “Fiona, you said you were a Rifter? Is that micro or macro?”
Fiona frowned, “I’m not- what?”
“Could you open a Rift several blocks away, or only in this room? And how large are your Rifts? Can you send our whole party through at once?” Tobi explained calmly.
“Oh. Micro. Single objects, and not very far,” Fiona shrugged.
Tobi nodded his head, “Thank you for your honesty. Sheila, you are on my team.”
Jenna smiled as her eyes met Nate’s. “I’ll take Fiona and Huck”
“Last pick,” Nate whispered to his friend. “Ouch.” Though the truth of it bothered him more than he was willing to admit. I understand her tactics, but shouldn’t you pick your friends first?
“Harmony,” Tobi spoke without delaying further. He must have some sort of mental list for prioritization.
“Indi,” Nico smiled widely and opened his arms wide. “Let’s bring the heat, baby.”
“I’ll take Blanc and Andrea,” Dominique nodded firmly.
“Alright, I’ll take Ms. Silent and Broody,” Nico pointed to Bianca.
Tobi looked between Nate and Garrett several times as if trying to weigh the merits of each. A small part of Nate wanted Tobi to pick him just so he wouldn’t be the last pick- technically this is the last pick. Jenna would be forced to take me if Tobi takes Garrett.
“Garrett,” Tobi finally announced before each team gathered, each to its own area of the room to further plan without risking other teams overhearing their brilliant ideas and stealing them as their own.
Nate walked over to where Jenna, Mi, Fiona, and Huck stood, each awaiting Jenna’s instruction. “We’d just be wasting time trying to figure things out. We need the lists first.,” she simply shook her head. They walked back out of the room, gathered the two lists from Professor Marvin and sat in a circle.
“We don’t have much time left,” Jenna began. “And today was very purposefully designed that way. Bottom line: pretty much we’re all going to fail. That’s okay. Even these lists aren’t actually fair. If we split up into two groups, we’d be crossing and zigzagging each other across campus and wasting so much time just trying to get from one place to the next. What we actually need to do is create two new lists that are more orderly. One group takes the north end of campus, and the other group takes the south end. Once we’ve done that, we refer back to the original pink and orange lists and transfer whatever pictures we need and hand them in. I’ll go with Nate, and you three can manage the south side. We should be able to squeak out just enough items on the list to pass before 5. Don’t be late though, got it?”
Tobi and his team burst through the doors to the back room and sprinted to Professor Marvin to grab their lists before sprinting away, Tony speeding through the air on a one-man mission to complete an entire list himself.
“Come on,” Jenna rolled her eyes and walked off, grabbing Nate’s arm.
Once outside, their two groups split with Nate and Jenna heading north to the first marker on their new lists. They walked in silence for a few minutes, keeping their eyes peeled for any landmarks.
After so much time in silence, Jenna scrunched her face up before asking, “So… is this the version of you that’s hurt that I picked you last?”
“Version of me?” Nate questioned.
“A few different possibilities for this future- well, I guess it’s the present now. Some Nates confront me, others stay silent. Some are just curious about my choice as they confront me, some are angry, some are… really upset.”
“Come on, I can’t be that bad.”
“There were tears,” Jenna side-eyed me. “And some really hurtful exchanges of words.”
Nate frowned, unsure if he should apologize for what some of his future selves… ended up… not doing? No, that’s completely ridiculous. Just move on with the conversation.
“Honestly?” Nate took in a breath. “I mean it does hurt a little, being the last choice. Especially since I thought we were getting along so well, it makes it seem like you were just playing along as a friend to entertain yourself until classes started. But you also don’t seem that disingenuous. And in the back of my mind, I know that it was probably some sort of tactic to get exactly who you wanted for your team. Just kinda sucks being the last pick in any situation. But I think I can get over the blow to my bruised ego without exploding all over our friendship,” he chuckled softly.
“Ah, good. Honest Nate,” she audibly breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll start off with yeah, you’re right. I had to use tactics to get us five on the same team. The others don’t know this yet, well, maybe Nico suspects something given his team choices, but we’re going to be a group for more than just this project. This is our team for this whole semester, and we’ve got a lot of very different projects to work on with each other.”
Nate nodded along, but didn’t comment.
“You absolutely would have been my first choice if things played out differently in the introductions,” Jenna offered.
“Come on,” Nate waved away the sympathy, “I have a slightly bruised ego but you don’t need to nurse me back to health.”
“I’m serious,” Jenna stopped walking. “There weren’t many scenarios where I could get both you and Huck with me on a team like we promised. But thankfully, you basically introduced yourself as someone with one of the most utilitarian Traits out there but no idea how to use it. If you mentioned or even hinted at your successes, I’d have to snatch you up as the first choice. But by the time it got back to me, Huck would have been taken by someone else.”
“That seems really manipulative,” Nate frowned briefly.
“Most of life is. Someone’s pulling strings somewhere to get theirs while we’re left to deal with the consequences. If being an Oracle has taught me anything, it’s how easily powerful people put their fingers on the scale of fate.”
“Aren’t you always saying how there’s no such thing as fate?”
“Yes. And there isn’t. But technically there is,” she held a finger up for explanation. “Oh, there’s the statue of Bastion. Take the picture. So time moves forward, and people move forward with time. Think of it like we’re all floating in a tube along a river. The river will take us all somewhere along itself. And if everyone does nothing, someone with a really strong model could roughly assess where everyone would end up. But people tend to paddle their tubes away from areas of the river they don’t like, and every time they do, they splash and make ripples which in turn affect the other riders, altering their courses slightly. Fate would be if everyone just stayed their course and didn’t make waves- the predetermined outcome. Effectively fate doesn’t exist because free will always alters course away from fate rather unpredictably.”
“And the powerful people have a powerful paddle?” Nate ventured a guess.
Jenna teetered her hand back and forth, “It’s more that people who could truly be called powerful are captaining an ocean liner? When someone with real power makes a move, it’s not something us tiny little tubers can just ignore or paddle away from. We all get caught in those giant wakes.”
“Doesn’t seem fair.”
“It isn’t, but next time a portal opens up in the city, I’ll let Bastion know you think it’s unfair for him to make moves against fate and that he should just let things go as they are. What will be will be, right?”
Nate’s frown deepened. “The only way we survive this invasion is by struggling against fate, isn’t it?”
“That’s the only way we’ve even managed to exist for this long, let alone our own futures. Some powerful boats came along and purposefully careened into banks to protect the rest of us from getting stuck there and ending the whole tubing trip early.”
“That’s… heavy.”
Standing in front of the statue, silence took over and a heavy weight settled on his chest.
“The title of Hero is never given out lightly,” Jenna answered breathily after another moment of pause.
Nate snapped the picture on his phone before pocketing it again. “Why not hop rivers?”
Jenna turned to face Nate, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “What?”
“Well, you’ve talked about different futures before. Wouldn’t that be like different rivers?”
Jenna tapped her chin a few times as they continued on their quest together. After a moment of thinking, she responded, “No, we’re always on the same river. What I mean by different futures is where we’ll be along the river up ahead- maybe more to the right or left; either option is probable so both are equally likely futures and no one could say which one is ‘real’ or ‘the future’.”
Nate absorbed her answer silently, digesting what his friend had told him. “And no one can control where the river goes. Doesn’t that mean that fate actually is a thing then? I could ride the Mississippi down, but never end up in California. As long as Humanity is stuck on that river, then whether to salvation or abyss, ultimately, we’re going to end up exactly where it dumps us.”
“And no one has ever seen that ending,” Jenna nodded her head. “Humanity’s tube trip has always ended long before the river does.”
“How do you deal with all this?” Nate shook his head in disbelief.
Jenna didn’t answer for a while as they walked along toward their next goal. After crossing the street, she took in a breath and turned to face Nate. “A while ago, you said something along the lines of Readers being the past, right?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Well, it’s something like that for me too. If you’re the past brought into the present, then I would be the future brought to the now. My gift isn’t any less complex than what you’re thinking right now, but being an Oracle helps me intuit the future better.”
“The future?” Nate smirked.
“As a generalized ‘whichever future may come to be’,” she softly smiled back at him. “Come on, I think I see the museum.”
Huck, Mi, and Fiona walked together without uttering a single word for a time, Fiona awkwardly looking back and forth between her two silent companions. Huck seemed to take the lead, picking a direction and just speed walking that way. At least the weather was holding up. She gave an exasperated sigh at the prolonged wordless silence before finally breaking it.
“Do either of you even know what to look for? Cause I have no idea what’s even on our list or if we passed it already-”
Huck thrust the paper backwards without even turning his head. “Thanks for volunteering to be in charge of that.”
Years of customer service tamped down Fiona’s irateness as she grimly smiled and took the paper. With the sun hanging low in the sky, reading anything on that list would be challenging without a flashlight. Scanning the list with her study pad, she was able to read the screen much easier than the list itself. She smiled, taking a moment to mentally congratulate herself for her own ingenuity before the lack of conversation began to bother her again.
“I’m Fiona-”
“We know,” Huck cut her off. “We were there fifteen minutes ago when you introduced yourself. Huck. Mi,” he pointed toward himself and the much taller man walking beside him.
“Wait, your nickname is Huck?” Fiona smirked. “Huck Finnaley? Like Huck Finn?” she let out a delighted giggle. “Were your parents a big fan of Mark Twain or something?”
“Couldn’t tell you,” Huck answered tersely. “Haven’t seen ‘em since I was seven. Walked into a Gate one day and never walked back out.”
“Oh,” whatever chipper mood Fiona had just begun to feel vanished like a morning dew on a hot summer day. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Not something you can control,” Huck shrugged and sped up his pace.
“I’m sure they were good Heroes,” Fiona offered meekly.
“They were,” Huck nodded, not bothering to look back at her. “That’s what everyone told me, anyway: what good Heroes my parents were, how much their sacrifices helped the city survive another day. So I guess that’s just what good Heroes do- they die.”
“Oh,” Fiona squeaked out quietly, the gentle breeze enough to whisk her words back away to whatever ethereal realm words head off to when they die stillborn on your lips.
Nobody looked happy. Tobi’s group had been back late to the auditorium and hadn’t even heard the call for the Elite groups to head to the back room. Dean Anderson sat at the head of the row of metal folding chairs with six papers, shaking his head and tutting audibly as he double-checked each and every one of them. Anxiety had taken position above the room, pressing down on each student like the weight of the ocean crushing in against a tiny submarine.
“I’m not sure what to say,” Dean Anderson spoke slowly, each word purposefully hanging in the air to build suspense. “Certainly a day for firsts. On the one hand, two groups have technically passed the assignment which is an astounding first. On the other hand, of the two groups that failed, one failed to show up to be graded, which is horrendous- and another first.” He paused, looking each of his students in the eye for a moment. “And Nico, when I say ‘technically passed’, I do mean by the most technical reading of the rules possible.” Dean Anderson sighed. “This assignment was supposed to demonstrate a need for communication, situational awareness, and cooperation. I’m assuming Jenna’s team divvied up tasks based on location instead of list, sending one group to one area and another group to the other to cover as many items on both lists in as short a period of time as possible thereby removing the time eaten up from weaving all across our campus.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Jenna nodded her confirmation.
“And her team completed just over two thirds of all the items across both scavenger hunt lists. I’m sure seeing a future me give this speech inspired you to make some changes to your plans.”
Again, Jenna nodded confirmation.
“As for your team, Nico, I’m… flabbergasted.”
Nico shrugged, stoically silent.
“Pocket lint, three nickels, a hastily written poem, a broken pencil, a shoelace, a crumpled receipt from the university’s cafe, an empty coffee cup from said receipt-”
“-and a red paperclip,” Nico finished, grinning and nodding along to the dean’s list of odd items.
“I’m uncertain what possessed you to hand in these items.”
“But we passed,” Nico nodded.
Dean Anderson’s lips tightened. “Technically.”
Nico shrugged nonchalantly, “Our instructions were to complete a scavenger hunt and to receive an orange and pink paper from Professor Marvin.”
“The scavenger hunt you were supposed to complete was on those papers,” Dean Anderson pointed out.
“Ah, but not necessarily the scavenger hunt we were instructed to complete. Our assignment was to ‘complete a scavenger hunt’.”
“So you made your own list of things I’m assuming you found in your pockets.”
“Plus the pink and orange lists Professor Marvin gave us,” Nico nodded.
“Right,” Dean Anderson shook his head, “‘one pink list for a scavenger hunt’ and ‘one orange list for a scavenger hunt’. Check and check. I’m not thrilled with your methodology.”
“We weren’t thrilled that you operated in bad faith by trying to give us an assignment we were meant to fail,” Nico countered.
“You were supposed to learn a harsh lesson,” Dean Anderson grumbled.
“Where’d you even get that idea?” Nico changed topics.
Dean Anderson pursed his lips. “It was in a fictional book I read. Seemed like a fun idea with lots of lessons to teach.”
“Yeah, I think I read that one,” Nico nodded his head. “About literal superheroes going to college? A little on the nose to pull a lesson from that, don’t you think?”
“What I’m hearing is you knew the correct answer and exactly how to go about solving the problem and chose to do it your way instead,” Dean Anderson shot back deadpan. “Now I’m tempted to fail you yet again.”
“It was a risk either way,” Nico shrugged. “We didn’t exactly have an overabundance of time, so I chose to change the parameters such that we could complete the assignment.”
The dean drummed his finger on Nico’s paper as he leveled his gaze at the young man. “I believe I have announcements to conclude for the rest of your class’ orientation. Please make your way back to your seats.”
Nate led the file of students out of the backroom and into the auditorium. As soon as he pushed the door open, the entire auditorium went silent. He could feel every eye on him, questioning what was going on, and what their presence back with the main student body meant. Nate gave away no clues as he silently walked back to his seat, Jenna plopping down next to him. A few minutes passed without Dean Anderson leaving the backroom, expectant silence forming into hushed whispers, inevitably leading to a general din of indecipherable discussion.
“Is he coming out?” Nate eventually leaned over to speak to Jenna after a few minutes of suspense.
Before Jenna could answer, the door on stage opened once again, Dean Anderson striding out confidently with a smug smile on his face.
“Good to see none of you got bored and left,” he greeted the students. “I’d like to congratulate the majority of you students on passing your first assignment. Well done. That being said, not everyone passed. Some of you may have guessed already, but those students who met with me earlier and who came out of the back room even more recently are your class’ current student Elites. Half of your Elite class failed this simple assignment. Understand that I had put no further requirements on them than I did on you. Some of the most promising students even failed to show up at the deadline. While you were all cooperating and focusing on getting the work done, your elites had a little pow-wow where they introduced themselves, argued, and generally wasted time. All-in-all, they halved their amount of allotted time for this assignment. However, even with half the amount of time, there were still some successes. Elite Jenna Harris was able to step up as a leader to organize a fair and streamlined way to create teams. She then had the foresight to not hand out the lists to her team as they were, but reorganize them based on location to split her team up and cover different parts of campus without wasting time to criss-cross across campus. Her foresight, planning, and leadership are well-deserving of the Elite title. I hope you all recognize both her and her team.
“Likewise, our second story of success lies with Elite Nico Vale who, instead of looking at the now-nearly-impossible assignment and giving up, decided to turn the task on its head. Instead of trying to complete the implied task of a scavenger hunt I had created, he decided to look into the letter of my orders, which was to complete a scavenger hunt. Mr. Vale used critical thinking, innovation, and wit to accomplish the impossible. For that, and that alone, his accomplishment should be recognized. Humanity, if we are to survive, needs people like Elite Harris and Vale. We need planners who recognize necessary optimizations, and thinkers who come at problems sideways just as much as we need protectors like Bastion. The world as we know it has a lot of problems that need solving, and generations of Heroes sacrificing themselves has taught us we can no longer afford to continually throw raw muscle at these invaders. Our problems won’t go away if we approach them without a plan. It’s time we fought smarter instead of just harder.
“In light of your first success in the HPGD, give yourselves a round of applause,” Dean Anderson announced. The auditorium erupted in shouts of triumph, along with a few taunts thrown in at the Elites who failed. After a minute, the dean regained control of his audience. “Alright, yes, very good. Well done,” he clapped a few times. “Tomorrow marks your first weekend here, so let me lay down a few ground rules: stay safe, don’t add to or subtract from the general population, and if you’re going to do something stupid- don’t get caught. Class registration is due this coming Wednesday, so make sure you get your applications in. Trust me, those classes get taken up pretty quickly so you don’t want to wait until the last minute. I’d like to meet up with the Elites again after this as I’m not entirely thrilled by their performance. As for the rest of you, good night and enjoy your weekend.”
“Another chewing out,” Nate turned to Jenna with a questioning look.
She teetered her hand and gave an inconsequential shrug. “It’s more making sure we register for the correct classes. Ours start Monday instead of Wednesday.”
Slowly, the auditorium filtered out as students left for their dorms or a dining hall. After nearly half an hour, the building was once again empty save for twenty students and a dean.
“So what to do about the failures?” Dean Anderson questioned aloud. “Already behind the regular students’ GPA. I think until you get your acts together collectively, you’ll need to work harder than everyone else to make up that difference. Your classes are starting Monday, which means none of you leave tonight until you’ve registered.”
“Wait, so you’re punishing us even though we didn’t fail?” Nico arched an eyebrow. “Doesn’t seem fair.”
“Unabashedly so,” Dean Anderson spoke unphased. “If you’re delving a Gate and the tank fails to contain his target, who gets punished?”
“Everyone. But we’ve already selected our teams,” Nico answered, pointing to his group.
Dean Anderson leaned forward, taking a moment to assess Nico’s challenge. “Very well. As a completely random and definitely not real life example, let’s suppose an unstable tier V Gate appears in your city. Some random Delving team is assessed to be capable of handling the threat, enters in, and fails their assignment. The Gate breaks and floods the entire city with demons. Who gets punished for that Delving team’s failure? Just that team? Or likewise all the teams that had been counting on them to contain the Gate while they handled other issues? Doesn’t the entire city suffer the consequences? What about trade between cities? What about the people who depended on materials or food the city produced? Failure is never isolated. If your team fails, humanity suffers the consequences. One broken gate can topple a city, and one less city is one fewer footholds we have to hang onto. While both you and Ms. Harris were laudably clever, neither of you saw fit to extend your solutions to the other groups. That’s where you failed, Mr. Vale. You’re all the class of Elites. You have responsibilities to many more people than just yourself. And so I must train you to hold yourselves accountable for more than your own actions.”
Nico didn’t have a response to that other than furrowing his eyebrows and frowning.
“Any other concerns?” Dean Anderson scanned the faces of the other students. “Good. I’ll walk you to the computer labs for your class registrations. You’ll all be in the same classes as each other, save for a single elective. Aside from your elective, you will not be sharing classes with the regular HPGD students, as your curriculum will be accelerated. I’d recommend trying for an elective to go over the basis of your Trait. Even if you feel like you’ve got a good grasp on it, or you’re Tier IV or even V, getting help early from experienced veterans is a good springboard to launch yourself further. Along that vein of thought, just because someone has a lower Tier than you in your Trait doesn’t mean you automatically know better than they do.” He took a moment to stare down each Elite student. “So I’d better not hear complaints from my faculty that you’re ignoring their instructions or acting out in class. This will be your only warning.”
The night went on for a few more hours as each student went through registration and class selection. Nate’s stomach rumbled angrily just before 2000, reminding him he’d skipped dinner. Fortunately, the Dean took down orders for takeout and even paid out of pocket for the meals, allowing them to work while they ate. Nate finished registering his last class- an elective for beginner level Imbuing, so he sat in his chair next to Jenna and watched her waffle between a few choices.
“Can’t you just use your Trait?” Nate asked, already bored of watching his friend waffle her decision.
“I could, yes. And I have. And everything seems equally significant. Or equally inconsequential. There are too many variables. I don’t know,” she held her head in her hands as she let out a big sigh.
“Well, if none of it matters, then what is it that you want?”
“I… I don’t know,” her voice became quiet at that admission. “I guess I should do something to stay in the Elite program, right?”
“That’s something you should do- if you want to,” Nate emphasized.
Jenna sighed in defeat. “It’s- I’m just so frustrated because I want so many things and I know it’s stupid for someone to try to get everything you want because there’s so much more than just you but if I have the ability to get what I want then shouldn’t I do it, but there’s also the whole fate of humanity and what needs to be done to keep our species alive and there’s no way that choosing a stupid elective should be this consequential to my goals or our survival as a whole,” she gasped for air, finally having run out after that huge expository jumble with no pause between words.
Nate waited a few more moments to make sure she’d managed to squeeze all her thoughts out before addressing his friend, “I took intermediate control for Imbuing. But I think you might want that intermediate conditioning class if you think you’re going to have a hard time with combatives.”
“But that’s sacrificing humanity for my own goals. I may not stay in the Elite class, but getting better control over my powers sooner would end up saving more lives,” she argued.
Nate just shrugged. “You seem to have a pretty good handle on your powers already. Plus I think you’d save more lives by staying on the leader route- maybe becoming a guild advisor or something to position your team for success.”
“Maybe,” she held her face in her hands and groaned. “That’s another aspect to consider.”
“Well, that and couldn’t you just attend the intermediate control class now?”
“What?” Jenna looked at him incredulously.
“A few days back when I first crawled out of my cave and had been unsuccessful with Imbuing. Remember how you’d been looking into the future and saw a vision of you looking into the future? Couldn’t you just sit down for a moment and look into the future where you take the intermediate control class, learn everything you can from that vision, and then take conditioning?”
“I-” Jenna stopped herself before frowning. Several times in a row, she opened her mouth as if to speak before closing it again and making some unique facial expression afterward. Slowly, carefully, she finally admitted, “I’m not sure if it works that way. There’s- there’s a possibility that once I’ve decided to take the intermediate conditioning course that the future where I take the control class gets cut off.”
“But it’s worth a try,” Nate finished for her, arching his eyebrows to her in a question of confirmation.
“But it’s worth a try,” she nodded before her eyes turned milky white. She sat there in silence for a full five minutes before shaking her head. “That’s too weird.”
“Did it work?”
“Yes. But also not quite as well as I’d have liked. There were too many variables for my Trait to cover more than a day, but even as I solidified the thought of definitely taking conditioning over control, I could feel something changing. Remember the river tubing analogy? This felt like a tiny little finger of water carving into the river bank- like I’d been the one to carve it. And I could keep carving it, but only a little bit at a time.”
Nate furrowed his brows. “A new river?”
“No, no new rivers,” Jenna shook her head emphatically. “The exact same river, just much smaller. A simulation of the river we’re currently on with our tubes slightly rearranged such that I take control instead of conditioning. I think… I think I just made a simulation for an alternate reality,” her own eyebrows scrunched together giving her face a cute pinched expression that made Nate smile ever-so-slightly for the delight of being a witness to it. “I get the feeling I can only account for so much, so I need to come back to it day by day and keep working on it, but… it should be possible to theoretically take both classes.”
“Woah. Could you just take every elective at once that way?” Nate asked excitedly.
Jenna chuckled aloud before putting her hand to her mouth embarrassedly. “Let’s… just stick with one alternate reality at a time for now, yeah? Maybe next year I’ll have a better handle on my Trait to do more- assuming my intuition is correct about this simulation-river thing. What about you? You sure you’re ready for intermediate control in Imbuing?”
Nate shrugged, “Intermediate control classes start with the rest of our Elite classes, and if I find out I’m not ready, I can just switch to beginner without missing any classes. No risk, all reward.”
Having finally selected her classes and entering them for registration, they both stood up only to find Dean Anderson had been hovering over their shoulders with a large grin.
“Uh,” Nate started awkwardly, “sorry. Is… there something you need from us?”
“No, no, don’t mind me,” Dean Anderson waved away. “I was just checking in with the only students who haven’t completed registration to see if there were some questions I could answer to get things wrapped up for you.”
“We finished,” Jenna sheepishly smiled. “Sorry it took so long for me to decide.”
Dean Anderson’s grin grew larger, “I’m not. That’s quite the ability you’ve encountered with your Trait, Ms. Harris. If you don’t mind, I’d like to run a minor experiment to test your hypothesis.”
“Hypothesis?” Jenna frowned, growing even more nervous as the conversation continued.
“Nothing to worry about, I assure you. You do exactly as you planned. When semester midterms come, if you consent, I’d like to give you an additional test to take- before you ask, no, it wouldn’t count against your GPA, I’m just gathering experimental data.”
“I’m confused,” Jenna admitted.
“Ah. Right,” Dean Anderson cleared his throat before explaining himself. “Your alternate reality theory. I’d like to test it. You’ll be handed the exact same midterm that other intermediate control students are handed. If you don’t do well, I should think that would be sufficient evidence against your theory.”
“So I’ll have even more to study?” Jenna frowned. “That sounds really stressful.”
“Here’s the crux of the issue. I want you to only study for your control class in your alternate timeline. If I’m not mistaken, your Oracle Trait has a rather useful subjective temporal compression ability? Much like dreaming.”
“I… suppose it does,” she frowned.
“And of course if you do well on the midterms, I’d give you the final exam as another data point to examine,” the dean continued.
Jenna’s frown deepened. “I was afraid of that.”
“And naturally, if you do well on both the midterm and final, I can see no reason not to credit you with having taken the class?”
In the span of a single heartbeat her demeanor completely changed from troubled to outright greed. “I think I can agree to those terms.”
“Good. I’ll hope for your success,” Dean Anderson answered, the grin never having left his face- a grin that Jenna now mirrored. “I hope you both have a relaxing weekend. I trust you can find your way back to your dorms?”
“About that,” Nate began. “You said before that our dormitories were temporary and in accordance with where we happened to be seated. When are we getting our real ones?”
“Hm,” Dean Anderson huffed contemplatively. “I didn’t mention that this year, did I?” With a frown and a shrug he explained, “You’ll be assigned to your dorms after the 1st year entrance ceremony at the end of your first week of classes. Formal event, so wear your dress uniforms. There’ll be dinner, dancing, and it serves as a general meet and greet for your company.”
“Company?” Nate prodded.
“Right,” Dean Anderson sighed heavily. “Normally I’d have explained all this to eat up time before the scavenger hunt, but that particular train was shut down,” he gestured toward Jenna with a pointed look. “So each Elite will be assigned 20 regular students as a Company to lead. Then each Company of your Elite group will come together to form a Battalion. All of it is inconsequential in the first semester- mostly just names and numbers on a list for you to handle during your studies, but it still helps form cohesion and lets you get a general idea of who you’ll be working with in the future. From the second semester onward, your Company will be more actively engaged with you, taking your orders and gaining credits based on their performance. You’ll be graded based on both their performance and your ability to lead them. Every Saturday will be ‘open market’ day where you may freely buy or sell equipment and even openly trade Company members. Usually, I get a good half hour to full hour of questions after explaining all that. Questions I suppose I’ll have to answer individually,” the Dean let out a dark sigh of exasperation. “You know what? I think this year I’ll just do a group chat. That way I’m not answering the same questions ad nauseam.”
“But what does all that have to do with our dorms?” Nate looped back around to his original question.
“Oh, your dorms will be assigned by battalion and company. One building per Battalion, one floor per Company.”
Quickly doing the math, Nate frowned and questioned, “What about the other students? There were way more than 500 in that auditorium.”
“We take the top 500 with the strongest Trait potential, skewing toward physical ability where ties are concerned. In the unlikely event that someone not assigned a Battalion stays in the HPGD, they will be assigned to one as soon as a position opens. Until then, they’ll share a dormitory experience with those already out of the program. If you have any more questions, by all means, save them for the group chat. That will be all. Goodnight.”
Nate frowned and looked at Jenna who shrugged. “I’m guessing you’ve already looked into this whole Company thing?”
“Not really,” she shrugged again. “Like the dean said, it’s mostly inconsequential this semester and I’m a little too busy with other things to drive much further down the road than that.”
“No major issues then?”
“Oh,” Jenna snapped her fingers as if suddenly remembering, “there is that one guy on your squad who tries to kill us in our sleep.”
“Doesn’t sound too bad,” Nate shrugged playfully. “What is it, roid rage or am I that incompetent of a leader?”
“Jealousy mostly. It seems you’ll manage to seduce his mother in the near future,” Jenna gave a theatrical sigh.
“So why’s he killing you then?”
Jenna shrugged and chuckled, “Wrong place wrong time?”
With an amused chuckle, Nate pushed, “And why are you in my dorm when I’m asleep?”
Her eyes widened a fraction before her face reddened. “Not that we’d be sleeping together or anything. Our dorms- they’re- we’re still neighbors- and the noise,” her voice hitched as she forced a laugh as Nate tried not to laugh at her stumbling over her words. Blue skies above, she’s cute when she’s caught up like this. “He’d have to try and get me too- no witnesses, you know? Shut up,” she finished with a pout.
“I didn’t say anything,” Nate chuckled. Jenna glared.
Their short walk back to their respective rooms remained silent, Jenna screwing up her face into some look caught between scowl and glare anytime Nate was about to open his mouth. After bidding each other a good night, Nate closed the door to his room and slumped to the floor with a frown. Is she really not interested in dating me? Maybe I’m just bad at flirting. His mind played back his past failed relationships and everything he ever did wrong. Maybe I’m just not being direct enough. Dad always told me I needed to be as direct as possible with women.
The dance. Nate made up his mind. I’ll ask her to dance with me at the first year entrance ceremony thing. And if she shies away or avoids me, I’ll know she doesn’t like me. Or at least that if we pursued a relationship, it’d flame out. Nate frowned at that thought. Is that really something I’m just going to accept though? She’s an Oracle and saw the future and we don’t work out? How many times have I already beaten that future vision of hers? Can I do it again when it really matters? Or maybe me trying too hard is what wrecks us in the first place. He slapped his palm to his forehead and tried to stifle his groan of frustration before picking himself up off the floor and preparing for bed. She’s definitely not making this easy for me. Oracles are impossible.
Shattered skies! Jenna mentally kicked herself as she brushed her teeth. Do I have to never wear this outfit again? What if he Reads it? Can he? He picked up on my dad’s job just from my dad briefly touching his wallet so of course he could Read it. These aren’t exactly trivial emotions I go through with him. She spat in the sink hard before forcing herself to calm down as panic threatened to overwhelm her mind. Maybe just tell him? Yeah. ‘Hi Nate. I like you. A lot. And that was before I ever met you officially. My favorite future I’ve ever witnessed is one where we end up together and making our own family.’ Perfectly reasonable conversation to have with a man you met a handful of days ago. ‘Oh and by the way, if we start dating now, it’ll almost definitely ruin absolutely everything for us because we can’t really handle the stresses that the HPGD will put on us while maintaining a healthy relationship but please don’t go around looking for someone else. Especially not Fiona who would almost absolutely give you everything you could ever ask from a woman just to get me to act on all these emotions I have for you.’ The toothbrush raced furiously across her mouth as she fumed. Yes, let’s definitely have that extraordinarily rational conversation where you don’t freak out on me and think I’m some massive weirdo stalker and avoid me for the rest of forever. I’m sure it’s completely fine with you that I had a crush on you before we ever met- and before I knew for sure if I even had a Trait, right? With a sudden frown, she paused and looked at her toothbrush in the mirror. Nate’s words about Readers being the past rang in her ears along with something about even being able to Read toothbrush revelations. Great. Now I’ll have to hide my freaking toothbrush whenever he comes over. Readers are impossible!
Should they try anyway?
