Becoming Monsters 1: Ch. 07

"This is your last warning, you, you..." Jez must be about to explode in profanity, "...inconsiderate person! Don't turn off your phone!"

"Gotta go, bye." Honoka tapped her phone, ending the call. The rest of the rental procedure was painless, she rented cars from here before and maintained an account, though this was the first time she would drive a van since she left Gainesville. It was also cheap because she planned to have the van back tomorrow morning. Receiving her lease and keys, she went outside to get in the black mini and cranked up the AC: it was humid today.

This is going to hurt. Dialing her mother, Honoka winced as Uzume picked up after the first ring.

"もしもし?"

"Hi, mom."

"Honoka Imani Jefferson, why are you ignoring my calls?"

Honoka winced again, starting the van and merging into the Boston morning traffic. "I've been ignoring everyone's calls, not just yours."

"Don't sass me, what is going on?" Honoka's kaa-chan sounded mad: villains and daughters beware when the Little Tsunami grew angry.

Honoka took in a deep breath, trying the rip the band-aid right off approach. "I met a girl on Wednesday and we sexed and then she moved in and I proposed to her and she said yes and we're getting married but I quit my job and signed up as a dungeon delver because I finally figured out how my Race and Class work and—"

"Stop." Honoka clammed up as her mother paused to let them both adjust. "Start over, I want to hear everything."

It took over two hours, Uzume grilling her daughter over everything, not caring Honoka was currently in a supermarket and pushing an overfull cart down the aisle towards the checkout. Some of the more explicit material was said in hushed tones. Honoka even spent ten minutes in an empty bathroom going over some particularly delicate matters. Honoka simply wanted the conversation to end.

"There is no helping it, your father and I will be flying up tomorrow."

"Mom! Classes begin on Tuesday, how are you going to manage it? Why not wait until next weekend?"

"Don't you use that tone with me, I am still angry at you. And besides, if we wait that long you might be married to a whole harem by then and drowning in babies. No, we will be there tomorrow night and will leave Monday morning, plenty of time before classes."

The mortified daughter flushed, her purchases reaching triple digits on the tally screen, each beep climbing the total cost higher and higher. "Are you disappointed in me?" The checkout boy gave her an odd look.

"...no." The hesitation meant something but Honoka didn't understand what. "You sound happy, confident and you are even following my advice like a dutiful daughter. I only expected all this to happen in the next year, not the same week! Haha!"

"I wasn't expecting it to happen at all."

"No one anticipates love, but you are taking advantage of it and that makes me happy. See you tomorrow, love you."

"Love you, 母ちゃん."

Honoka hung up and paid for the food, her eyes bugging only a little at how much it totaled. This market was more expensive because it catered to the Race community, so Honoka was able to buy most of the same foods and brands she usually bought. The bag boy was helpful and the two of them loaded her minivan up before she pulled out her phone and searched for the place Diane told her to get magical supplies. Predictably, it was across the Charles in Cambridge outside of Harvardtown, near the FDR building where she got her license yesterday. She regretted purchasing the food first and maxed the AC to keep everything fresh on a hot day. A half-hour later, she drove up to an Art Deco building of stone and glass, the sign a simple bubbling beaker in blue neon. Finding some shade to park under, Honoka decided she was done talking to people for now and left the headset in the van, walking briskly inside the shop.

Willy Wonka's factory meets an exotic flower shop is what Honoka's impression of the place was. Even before the sights, though, the wall of smell is what hit her. Not unpleasant, just overwhelming, so many scents to parse out. Honoka sneezed as she walked past rows of bubbling brews in what she thought was a display and not actual alchemy.

"Hey, how ya doin'?" An older, comfortably overweight man in a thick leather apron came around the corner, his bushy beard and safety goggles doing little to hide a massive grin. "Lookin' for something specific or just browsing?"

Honoka was about to reply when she sneezed instead, barely aiming it into her shirt. She pulled out her phone and brought up Diane's message, handing it to the large man while she wiped her eyes. "Got a list."

"Oh, you know Diane?" Honoka was surprised until she realized he read the name at the top of the messaging app. "Tell her Marco said hi." He flicked her phone a bit before nodding and handing it back. "Looks like her usual components, just a lot more than what she typically orders each week." Marco went back behind his counter and pulled little packets or vials off the shelves, filling up a medium-sized brown paper bag. "Cash or coin?"

"What?" Honoka was distracted by the colors and odds and ends of the shop while also controlling her breathing to avoid sneezing again.

"Cash it is, though we do include a five-dollar surcharge for any purchase not using coins."

"I keep hearing about gold coins, can you explain it to me?" Honoka split her attention between a flower that looked like an orchid on a high shelf, though it displayed some nasty teeth and it looked back at her.

"Sure sure." The man shimmied a stool over to one of his taller shelves, stepping up and scooping some red powder into a baggie. "Dungeons create an assortment of magical things, no two dungeons alike, except for coins. They all make enchanted coins in copper, silver, gold and crystal. It became a bit of a universal economy among people dealing in dungeon commerce. The exchange rates fluctuate, yet for the last couple of months it has held steady at around fifty dollars to a gold, ten dollars to a silver, two bucks to a copper, and if you ever find a crystal, they come in around ten thousand dollars." He stepped off the stool and put the red powder in the paper bag. "That's everything on the list. Anything else I can get you?"

Honoka looked around. While she perused all the bubbling and brewing around her, she got a mischievous smile painted on her face.

"What kind of recreational potions do you have?"