What it Takes Pt. 02

"They did. We went for it. Told him."

"Everything?"

"Didn't ask about everything. Guess he can't ask about that other thing. But... told him as much as he wanted."

"So should we expect him around here?" Her words carried more weight. There was clear expectation on what they would do.

"Didn't come up where I worked. Maybe soon. Maybe I wanna keep him all for myself."

"No you don't. Just not enough hours in the day. So, any dealbreakers so far?"

"Can't see one. Heck, I can see reasons why I thought this a good idea!"

The older woman had a warm smile in regard to Eva's happiness. It was nice to see her less tense. Less angry. Laughing. So very nice.

"Your feelings knew. When are you seeing him again?"

"Tonight. We're gonna go out to that bar to sorta celebrate. Then back to his place."

"Why not skip the bar and just go to his place?"

"Maybe as a bit of thanking the place. It is decent enough. But, hey... you guys gotta slow down with the praise a bit. Don't want him to be put on the spot. Don't scare him if he shows up, mmm? We haven't solved everything yet."

"Scared of women?"

"Had to basically kneel before him to get him to go. Look at this bullshit... we're basically considered radioactive!"

"Understandable for what others have done. But, on more joyous ideas... going to get yourself ready for him?"

"I am ready. Don't have to put up a face for him. All this damn fakery is why things fail. He said that I look good without makeup."

"But you're still wearing a tad of it."

"Because people seem to be unable to recognize a woman without it. Wish I was like Tom, just chilling in the back room, no need to be seen by anyone."

"At least you can be honest with him. Hope you two have fun over the weekend. Take tomorrow off."

"Tempting. To just chill. Heck, I wanna take a week off."

Another warm smile as the two sat down in that room to enjoy coffee, Eva adding her cigarette.

"Maybe later. I might be speaking early, but it looks like you two are going to go the distance."

"It is kind of early. But... yeah. Feels like it. Only way to know is if he's cool with everything."

"Do you think he can be?" Jasmine was worried that it might crash.

She had to think hard on that one. But it was less about thinking and more about trust.

"Yeah. Just... gonna give him some time."

"Good. Now go and tell Frank that you're taking tomorrow off and the rest of the day."

"Why the rest of the day? I just started!"

"Because you want to go there and give him a good time and not just come back angry after work to rant to him. At least today."

The point was made. But Evangeline admitted one more thing with a shy expression.

"He likes it when I rant. Says it's cute. But okay. Gonna go to him chill, watch vids of good deeds and cute puppies."

"And if he says he wants to see that side I think you don't need much to bring it out."

Another point for Jasmine. The girl barely needed a thought to get the rage back. It was always there. She started to understand the Outsider a bit on how one can be permanently angry. This fucking world.

Frank obviously approved of her departure, with only a minor joke of her paying back for it.

*

The boy was in a much better state. Happy. Calm. Thinking about her a lot. The end of week meeting got him comments about looking real good. Didn't elaborate, just said something good happened. There was a desire to tell people about it but he agreed to keep quiet.

A bundle of nerves while waiting for what might be a real date. Though one could argue the after sex talk was its own date. The best thing he could do to relax was... research his girlfriend. He started reading anything he could about the empire. They were straightforward with a lot of information. Their weapon designs were public knowledge instead of having to be found on an obscure forum about virtual warfare. But he was not looking to build a bomb in his apartment, instead he wanted to GET these people.

By now there have been enough to sit down and talk to such people. To digest and simplify things. Their religion was more of a philosophy. The reverence of the guy who has actual god powers was more for his personality than abilities. After hearing an accounting by one of those Tan women... or almost women... he could actually consider the figure inspiring. A guy who got constantly mistreated to his breaking point and yet he decided that none would do that again.

The way of True family was a point for the man to look into. At one glance it looks endlessly complex with constant rules, ideas, directions, sayings and infinite interpretations. And then he got given the simple form which seemed almost ridiculously easy. They put stock in two things. Defiance with reason and supporting community. Eva was clearly exercising some defiance of the current culture. But on the other half... community. She said that there were people here for her. But Jack felt he also needed to be there for her.

As far as he understood, community just meant a group of people helping each other. But always doing so. Not blindly, as any who abuse it are to be called out, stood up to or pushed away. But if someone helps... help is given back. It sounded nice. He had nothing like that. Sure, he had his family, they helped him, but at the best of times it was still mixed. He was here to get away from their rules and demands. Plus they might have made things worse if they were around with his new relationship. Communities on earth were more on authority.

Jack felt a bit isolated now... he had no one to help with this situation. At best some friends to give a bit of feedback, but not... real support. There was a temptation to go to one of these caretakers to see if they had some wisdom for him. But he also heard that those places were unnerving. Then there was a desire to keep his promise of secrecy. There was already a scandal after one of those women testified to a man admitting some vile deeds. Turns out they are not bound by some confession sanctuary. People do assume a lot of things and are angry when the world does not bend to their will.

After her mentioning Athuras the man looked that world up to see how her home was like. Videos, pictures and stories of a world devoted to industry both civilian and military. Any idea of industrialization for him went in the direction of a smog-covered eternal machine. Instead he saw a world of green with plentiful workshops, factories that gave barely any emanations.... Which were cleaned up quickly. Extensive infrastructure devoted to ferrying loads back and forth from one specialized building to another... trains running cargo around constantly, yet these things just blended into the background as the living spaces seemed quite clean, the industrial areas still had their charm and a filmed journey through it made the place seem livable.

The boy almost expected to see Eva in there as the video would show a cafe set close to a factory, a favored hangout of the workers where they came to relax. Maybe he could imagine living on such a world. His intentions were more to have the girl feel better. The fact that this place was across the galaxy somehow weighed less now. She was here now. And his world did not give as good a welcome. Even the guests going to that world enjoyed it.

Thankfully he aborted the plan to give her anything excessive. She would call him out immediately and possibly get upset in a not-cute way. Might feel like disrespecting her strength. Eva did not want to be treated like a princess. But something passed by as one odd word stood out. A small article that spoke of a particular beverage. He had no hope to score the original, but that one video on youtube claimed to have a close enough recipe. Yeah, he could go and buy the needed extra.

Mostly, the man looked to this paradise that the girl left behind to come here and help them out. She could leave. There was no need to prove a point to the people of this planet. They had no idea of her and things over there could continue going forever without getting involved with Earth. And yet she was here. Helping. Dedicated to it. So many cried out against the alien interference, blind to what they were actually doing.

Maybe Jack could help as well.

*

Another attack. It took strength to walk into the room where the person was on life support. The report on injuries was chilling. The misshapen thing lying on the bed barely had something resembling a face, its limbs were broken into forms unsuitable for functioning. Acknowledging it as a human being that LIVED was painful.

At best, the man called Peters was only technically alive. He would never do anything ever again. Not walk, not talk, not see or possibly conceive of a thought. Every bone broken, everything purple from a beatdown that Batman would look at in horror. At this point an assisted death might be mercy.

The dossier left at the scene painted his crimes for which the department had at best a few leads. They were not getting close... too little to go on, but now they had three recordings of a man who only vaguely resembled the grotesque thing in a coma. Three videos of him just walking up to homeless people and executing them before walking away. No concern, no remorse, no consideration. In one video he even threatened a man passing by with his gun.

It was hard to tell which was worse. The crimes these people committed or their punishments. It was proportional to their level of disrespect. Samuel would walk again... albeit with a limp and many nightmares. He had simply robbed people with nothing beyond lack of concern for others' situation. This guy... would never wake.

This was clearly a vigilante effort that felt insulting in several degrees. The first insult was to the department's work. A show that they were not doing their job so someone else was. The second was to their independence. Clearly the astorians were doing this and not even denying it. They came into their backyard to just take things in their own hands. YES, they let them, but nobody said anything about them beating people in the night. And the final one came from the people who applauded this. These midnight assailants were getting a fanbase. That was dangerous because such fans might be struck as a message. A cycle of violence. Until someone gets the point.

Thing is that none of these street tough guys had even the most remote clue WHO was doing it. They had kept the fact that astorians are doing it from the public, mostly to not incite assaults on them. No doubt such assaults would be put down ludicrously quick. They must have something packing in there that they aren't sharing.

Back when the First Contact War started, despite the element of surprise even the envoy could outright humiliate trained soldiers. Their trained soldiers could humiliate armies. There were minor advances shared but it would clearly take centuries to catch up to these people even with their help. It was war on technicality alone... Earth had no means to wage it in space.

He heard stories from some of those who faced off against those guys. They still lived and were in better shape. There was mercy exercised and those people recognized them as simply doing a job. Out of action but not out of commission for good. There was one line that stood with the detective.

"We didn't even see the humans."

At best, one described them as this momentary wind that snapped over them without warning... one second they were charging forward and the next they were tied up and unable to move. The damage done to these criminals as well as the obvious visage showed that they were very intentionally causing pain.

Once again it was straight up demoralizing. Even if they found out who exactly did this, there was barely any hope at what to do. They heard the doctrine of the empire. No mercy given to enemies. Guns were some of their strongest weapons and one did not do shite against such a person. Twenty aimed at them might not make much of a difference. If they had to nuke a city just to be sure... well, might as well blow up the planet.

For once, Reynolds no longer felt like an authority. He barely felt like he had anything going for him. Already for years he got plenty of hate for his profession, but now he was being shown up by vigilantes in a time of peace and basically outvoted. Morale was straight collapsing. And if they did not make the new government look good they were being threatened with budget cuts.

There was a temptation to give up on what they had and just take the aliens' side. Or just get out of the way. The higher ups will want someone to take the blame... so why should he take it? The man would quit and see about letting someone know. It did not matter if it was him or someone else to do it. Things get out.

No matter how they tried to suppress this, it was going out somewhere. Either the aliens or their own people. The message was being sent again. This qualified as terrorism... but one could argue that so was law enforcement. This job was becoming hard to do.

The only pleasure right now was that these vigilantes WERE cleaning up the streets.

*

Somehow the boy did not await Eva for sexual reasons. He had completely different motivations. They decided to meet inside this rock bar that now gave the boy some fond reminders of that night. He was beyond believing that she'd stand him up. Girl was just a bit late.

True enough, his partner would show in just a few minutes, looking around to spot the man before she went to get herself a beer. Jack had gotten his in advance yet it had waited up until now to be touched. The man expected to begin the night with a conversation, but as the astorian got to the table, her beverage was set down to step over to him and practically drag him into a kiss. A bit of tension slipping away before she got seated with a guilty smile.

"Someone is in a good mood today." He was actually glad for it.

"Yeah, decided to chill and... took the day off and tomorrow as well."

"Oh good, so we can sleep in tomorrow. I feel like you should quit that job if it gets you so angry."

"No fault of the job, but the customers. Why are there so many people expecting a royal treatment for giving shit?! Okay, not all of them... but they fucking stand out." Beat. "Sorry, I'm trying to relax and..."

"Hey, I told you I like to see you get excited. But nice to see you relax as well. So let's try to relax."

Toast offered to begin the inebriation. One solid gulp from each before the smokes were pulled out.

"To trying to drown my sorrows in alcohol! Outsider knows I need it."

"On happier subjects... anything you like here?"

"Well, not all bad, so there is hope. Good people, defiant people. Plenty of good deeds done. So, yeah... there's good stuff around. Mostly done by people who disregard the conditioning."

"Any in particular save present company and your people?"

"Nothing comes to mind. But it's the little things that hold the place up from going down completely. Those are the kinds who should rule over this place. If those people were gone this planet would be a wasteland. Guys who still hold a door open, give back stuff you dropped..."

"We're not all bad. Most are just trying to get by and some ignore that and help others."

"Helping others is how you get by!" She was about to criticize something before letting it go. "I like that some learned that the outsider is not so bad."

"The James guy? Yeah, saw how some people were outright horrified that he had support during the attack."

"Careful about saying his name. Every time you do, he notices." A grin from her.

"Oh, great... like some other guy from a book." Beat. "Explains why many changed their names away from it."

"Or insist to be called Jim or something like that."

There was slight discomfort of being aware a deity is watching. One confirmed to be murderous. But in this case he could enjoy seeing people getting along.

"You know, despite him being from the planet... I don't think anyone is sure WHERE exactly he's from." Eva continued. "Most are either denying association or straight up pretending he was never here. At best we know his parents lived a few hundred miles from here."

"Wait... what? He lived close to here?"

"Not sure. Just... that his family is around here. Or WAS. All dead now. Some mysterious explosions."

"Okay, that sounds like you're trying to scare me." Beat. "It's kinda working."

"He wasn't always some knife murderer or something. Bet he just had a regular job, regular guy doing stuff. Had it worse than most, tho."

"Many might argue that some had worse because he still had a place to live and such."

A smirk from the girl. Was this an argument? No... he was just raising a point. But this was a potent distraction.

"Ah yes... the age old justification of 'I had it worse so you matter less'. There are other people who have it worse than those. Do they not matter now?"

"Okay, fair. Comparing tragedies is a bad idea." Beat. "I feel like we're ruining the night."

"No we're not. I am spending quality time not thinking about my seething hatred of this place. And I can be honest with you."

"I'm tempted to ask you about your home but that might just make you miss it more."

"Miss it every day. But I chose this. It was nice. It still will be nice. I'm not gonna die on this shithole."

"Saw some shots. Vids, pictures... Train networks?"

"When we were little we used to go off to a higher point and watch them just go by. We'd try to guess where they were going by content and direction. Think I spent a lot of days just watching the sun go down from those places as the trains still ran round the clock. They can be surprisingly silent."

Eva actually sparked with some joy, so the man pursued this. No showing his own experience. Time to ask her about that place in person.

"School was nice growing up?"

"School, high school. We were little shits at first but we got turned straight. We actually got a sort of fortune system we were taught to use. Basically... the gist of it is that if we're nice and pleasant and give teachers less work, we get paid for it. Continue to be crying, fighting rascals? The good kids get treats. We try to take away those treats? THAT's when actual punishments come in, usually by separating us in this other place."

"Got in trouble a lot, I assume." Jack felt that the girl and the aliens felt so much more human.

"Here and there. I had a wild streak, but I calculated my risks. There was no rule against it, just you were told to be aware of the damage you do and how much it's gonna cost. Is it worth it? Sometimes the fun was... but most often I'd make sure there was little damage. Harmless, fun pranks. We were understanding of each other and the best pranks are the kind that at worst make someone a bit embarrassed."

"What do you learn there, by the way?"

"Much more basic things. Like, we get a subject, but that subject is broad. Like logic, calculus, conceptualization... BIG things. At best four at once, but they would make sure you get them."

"Okay, I need more detail for that because I don't get it." It

"Well, empathy is one of the first things in there. Learning to gauge someone else for what they might feel. Sometimes it was a bit tangible. We could get a lesson which was usually around understanding one particular feeling in the other. Recognizing pain, thought, confusion... or if we don't, trying to understand it. The teacher would make these faces to see if we picked up that one. Like... let's see if you can tell when someone is confused. Obviously a few that were not that, but some that came close... no, that is not confusion, that's awe. See the raised eyebrows? Yeah, they're just damn amazed. But now let me lower one. See, now they are wondering if this is the right side to see it."