Galactic High

“Damn it’s cold!” Sephy complained as she hugged her chest.

“Yeah, the wind isn’t helping either,” Jack noted, as he wrapped his blanket around himself even tighter. “How are you holding up?”

“I’ve been worse.” Sephy shivered as she got comfortable on top of her position on the wall next to Jack. “Can’t believe none of us thought to put an outdoor heater on our shopping list.”

“To be fair, we’ve had more pressing concerns.” Jack grinned despite himself. “How long do you think we’ll need to keep doing this for?”

“You learn to spot the signs.” The Skritta shrugged. “I reckon at this point most of the factions will be bearing their teeth at each other and giving lipservice to any agreements. Myrodin and Shaskasaki are the main ones still determined to take on Corvin, but they’ll probably stop the moment public opinion turns on them too much, as long as they can claim some kind of victory. If it was anyone else they were waging war against they’d have stopped already.”

“Yeah, I heard in Galactic Citizenship last week why Shaskasaki hates Corvin Enterprises at least.” Jack shrugged.

“You actually paid attention in that class?” Sephy grinned, as Jack rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, just the once,” He admitted. “Miss Heline took a moment out of spewing corporate propaganda to actually teach us a bit about them.”

“I’m guessing just our local ones or donors?” The Skritta smirked knowingly as Jack nodded in confirmation. “Have you been inspired to join any of them once you graduate for a lustrous career in the wonderful world of work?” She asked with obvious sarcasm.

“Fuck no.” Jack sighed. “They all sound crap. Cyber-Weebs, The Ministry of Magic, and a company that sounds like the fucking Dark Brotherhood.”

“No idea what the fucking context of what you said is, as per usual, but sure! ” Sephy chuckled, as she playfully threw a sweet at Jack, who happily unwrapped it and swallowed. “OK. Question. Was there any kind of job you wanted to do before coming here?”

”Hmmm, that’s a good question…” Jack smiled with a contented sigh as he drank some hot tea from his flask, warming up his chilled limbs. “I don’t think there was anything in particular I actually wanted to outright do, though the rest of my class and I sometimes had teachers and career advisors assuming that we already had a good idea of it.”

“Yeah, you get that here too.” Sephy shrugged. “That’s the problem with the school having the sponsors it does, they just want to shoe you into their neat little filing system, ready to be another cog in their massive machines. Works for some, but those that don’t are expected to conform to them.”

“But you’re not forced to join a Megacorp on graduation, right?” Jack asked, and Sephy nodded in confirmation.

“Yep, but not many people are willing to hire people our age, unless they think they can get ‘special favours’ out of it.” The Skritta noted. “Older and more experienced workers give more output, so that’s who most people tend to go for. Some places do hire people our age for normal jobs, Karzen and Bentom for example have their retail job, but that’s because they do it part time during the busiest hours when they need more people. MegaCorps and other factions that sponsor the school all have an interest in bringing in fresh meat for the grinder, so that’s why they push for it. Is it much different where you are?”

“Sort of,” Jack admitted. “But most schools on Earth are government-run or sanctioned. I guess we’re still seen as potentially useful cogs though.”

“Fair enough.” Sephy sighed as she took a swig of her own flask of tea. “I guess if you had said you did have an idea of what to do it wouldn’t be impossible for you to get that job if that’s what you really wanted. I know it was a bit of a shock for you to get into Shadowrunning, so I wanted to see if there was anything we could do to make things more…normal I guess.”

“Thanks, Sephy.” Jack smiled, genuinely. “Honestly I’m just focused on surviving right now. There’s some lines I won’t cross, but the whole idea of becoming a Shadowrunner makes more and more sense to me. If it turns out I’m good at something then I might as well stick with it, right?”

“Not if you don’t enjoy it,” Sephy pointed out. “Though I reckon it’s growing on you. That Shaskasaki heist we pulled was an eye-opener.”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded. “In more ways than one. I guess I enjoyed the rush of it, and I’m glad we didn’t need to shoot our way out or something. Most of the workers were probably decent folk, it was just the managers being assholes.”

“Yeah they all fled the moment we set off the alarms, so they probably all got away before Corvin Enterprises took the place.” The Skritta shrugged.

“Yeah.” Jack sighed, taking another sip of his tea before asking. “So what about you? Is Shadowrunning all you want to do?”

“Hah!” Sephy grinned. “Yes and no. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about my species, but we’re known for being whimsical and not staying sedentary. I guess Shadowrunning is my way of dealing with that, and the payouts are great! My career in life is set!”

They both chuckled at that before Sephy decided to answer more seriously. “But I guess it started out as survival, and I developed a liking for it. Maybe you’ll be the same way? Though careerwise I would love to get into adventuring! See more of the Ring, maybe even go to the stars themselves? You piss off a lot less people doing that too!”

“Adventuring sounds good.” Jack agreed with a nod. “Though it does come with risks and danger. Aside from the assholes and monsters we had to face, that weekend out of the city was amazing. Going to Gladespring, walking through the forests, even exploring the old metro tunnel was great fun when there wasn’t the fear of being trapped and a Spawn of Nekdon trying to kill us!”

“Assholes and monsters are just part of the job, you get used to it.” Sephy laughed. “That was your first time out too, and you did well. I was going to try and find us a Run that takes us out anyway. With the Corpo War getting to the end stages I want to stay away from city jobs for now.”

“No complaints as long as we don’t die.” Jack grinned. “It’d be nice to see more of the Ring I guess, go on more of an adventure that won’t make us pretty much criminals. I know Chiyo was keen to find some ancient ruins or something to delve in.”

“Yeah, that’d be cool, but things like that aren’t exactly easy to pin down,” The Skritta pointed out. “This Ring is massive - what’s that expression you use?”

“Needle in a haystack?” Jack suggested with a snort of amusement.

“Yeah! That’s the one!” Sephy grinned. “Pretty much like that! Sure, there’s probably countless places out there just waiting to be explored, but finding out where they are in the first place? Pain in the ass. I know Chiyo has fun researching these kinds of things, though according to her she’s not found anything really worth dropping everything to chase yet. Doesn’t mean she’s got nothing though, I think she’s just worried about leading us all to a dead end.”

“I guess I’ll ask her.” Jack shrugged. “Might be cool to go somewhere anyway for the fun of it? You can’t get all the information just by reading books.”

“That’s true.” Sephy agreed. “Plus we get holidays and breaks at some point. Half Term or Season Holidays would be a great time for it, assuming we don’t have anything better to do.”

“I didn’t even know we got holidays here,” Jack admitted. “Sounds completely out-of-character for the school to let us have a break!”

“Hah, yeah.” Sephy agreed. “Not all of the founder gods had sticks up their asses. It’s in the original constitution so even the headmaster can’t exactly override it without causing a stink. He does like to emphasise how we can use the time as an opportunity to learn outside of the usual curriculum, or work on ‘connections in your chosen industry’.”

“Cringe.” Jack snorted in amusement. “Had a couple of kids like that at my old school, talking about how they’d volunteer at a charity event their dad runs or how they’d go to Africa and help out there. A few of them probably genuinely wanted to help, but most of them were full of shit. Constantly preaching and virtue-signalling while talking about how it would ‘pad out their CV’.”

“CV?” The Skritta asked.

“Curriculum vitae.” Jack sighed. “Also called Resume. Basically your list of qualifications and shit you can do which ultimately doesn’t matter since companies make you fill out their shitty online questionnaires with the exact same information with a bot that filters applications. My sister was ranting about that a few days before I ended up here. I was trying to help her prepare for a job interview.”

“What for?”

“Just a part-time office job while in school.” Jack shrugged. “Nothing big. She wanted to be a lawyer.”

Jack said nothing else as he took another sip of his hot drink, closing his eyes and trying his best to push the memory to the back of his mind, and stop the waves of emotion from overwhelming him. It was silly, just him asking his sister a few dumb questions he found on the internet.

But it was one of the most recent he had of his family. And that made it precious. He suddenly remembered a moment from that memory that made him spit out some of his drink as he laughed out loud.

“You okay?” Sephy asked with a look of concern, correctly guessing that Jack was recalling his family.

“If you were an alcoholic drink, what would you be?” Jack asked, calming down.

“Huh?”

“That was one of the questions my sister got asked during her interview.” Jack snorted.

“Seriously?” Sephy laughed. “What the fuck is that meant to show? How much of an alcoholic you’ll become when you get depressed working there?”

“Maybe it’s meant to show ‘character’ or something, I dunno.” Jack shrugged. “But my sister was ranting about that one, told me she just said she would be a glass of ‘White Zinfandel’ rose wine because she was sweet and enjoyable.”

“Yuck…” Sephy cringed at the second-hand embarrassment. “I hope she got the job after going through that crap!”

“I don’t know if she did in the end.” Jack sighed after taking another swig, which felt worse when he saw Sephy’s happy expression drop, though Dante made the effort to get up and nuzzle him to make him feel better. “Heh, good boy!” He gave the ‘dog’ a few scritches. “It doesn’t matter though. It was just a shitty part-time job for her while she was still in college, and she was applying for other jobs too. It didn’t really matter, I guess it was just fun times.”

“Sounds like you had a good relationship with them,” Sephy noted.

“Yeah.” Jack nodded with a warm smile, still stroking Dante’s fur as he reminisced. “We had our ups and downs as families do but I was lucky to have them. What about you? I know you told me you grew up at the Temple of Hope, but did you stay in contact with the other kids?”

“Sort of.” Sephy shrugged as she scooted up closer to also give Dante attention. “Most of them go to our school too, but when I got kicked out the others were forbidden from speaking to me at the time. I was too much of a ‘bad influence’ for them. Though to be fair they have a point!” She grinned, before her face got more serious. “Yeah I reconnected with a few of them when we started coming to school, but we’re not as close as we used to be. Time apart will do that to you.”

“True, but more time together would heal such a rift,” Jack pointed out. “Are you on good terms? If they go to the same school why not meet up with them when we all go to the Aquaplex? Vanya says it’s really good, so it’ll be the perfect time to reconnect properly.”

“Heh, you sound like Alora!” Sephy grinned. “But you’re probably right. We’re most of the way done with this fucking double school so fuck it, can’t hurt!”

“It wouldn’t be bad, would it?” Jack asked.

“Nah.” The Skritta conceded. “I guess it’s just awkward more than anything. We say ‘hi’ whenever we pass in the corridors but we never really had a proper conversation about what happened. I guess having a chat while drinking at an in-water bar could be fun. Not much to talk about though.”

“There must be some stories from when you were kids?” Jack pointed out.

“Heh, yeah.” Sephy grinned. “Stealing cakes when we were little? Fun times! Though looking back, the cooks were probably in on the whole thing.”

“Well, I technically was a cook during the weeks after when I arrived,” Jack grinned. “I probably wouldn’t have minded.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you were working there,” Sephy noted. “It is a good thing you know how to cook though, aren’t you and Chiyo sharing a cooking class in the morning?”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded. “My first cooking class too. I’m not that great at it though, I just know a few of the basics my parents taught me and what I learned with the Scouts, which was basically frying stuff over an open fire.”

“Still better than what Chiyo cooks!” Sephy grinned. “Maybe some of your mad skills will rub off on her?”

“Hah, maybe.” Jack nodded. “Though I doubt I’ll do well as tired as I am. At least we’ve only got a few days left of double school.”

“Meh, it’s not that bad a class.” Sephy pointed out. “I think the practical part throws Chiyo off since she’s always trying over-complicated things. A lot of it is hands-on stuff. My advice - keep it stupid simple!”

“Sure.” Jack shrugged, “Though most of my cooking involves frying, so it’ll be good to learn other things. If I ever learn to do a lasagna like my mum used to make, I’ll be happy.”

“Yeah, Mrs Quipploth is solid, you’ll have fun.” The Skritta nodded. “Almost makes me feel bad about all the microwave meals I eat. She really loves her craft.”

“Can’t wait to meet her then.” Jack smiled as he drank some more tea.

“Can’t wait to try your version of your mum’s lasagna.” Sephy quipped. “So learn well!”

“Deal.” Jack chuckled. “Can’t wait to cook it myself.”

They both sat there for a while in silence, keeping an eye on the glow of the city in the distance, and confirming that no danger was around. Same as every other night, but during troubling nights such as these, a watch was an unfortunate necessity. Far away, they could see a formation of dropships flying in formation, though who they were or what they were doing was unknown to them.

Not their problem, though the sight of them did remind Jack of something.

“You know, if we finally get our shuttle fixed up now that we have the fabricator, that means we can go further afield, right?” He pointed out.

“Yeah!” Sephy grinned. “That opens so many opportunities for us! And the less walking around the city we do the better, I can already imagine the lack of complaining from Chiyo!”

“Hah, don’t let her hear you say that!” Jack chuckled.

“She’s probably listening in during her meditations.” Sephy laughed. “Don’t worry Chiyo, I totally haven’t taken my bra off or anything!” She said aloud in a stage whisper.

“I’m sure Chiyo isn’t lis-” Jack began.

Fuck yoooooouuuuu! Spoke the faint presence of Chiyo, echoing softly like a calm breeze.

“And with that, we’re alone again now!” Sephy grinned. “She doesn’t know how, but I can kinda tell when she’s looking in. It really infuriates her trying to work out how I throw her off! Anyway, what were we talking about?”

“Is there anywhere you’d want to go when we get the shuttle fixed?” Jack asked with a smile. “You know, for an adventure! Like you said, the Ring is huge!”

Sephy chuckled. “We can’t realistically take the shuttle too far out of the city but sure, it extends our range of where we can go. We haven’t been to the South of the city in a while, though that’s where you start seeing the enclaves of Megafauna species that you might enjoy seeing. I’ve heard there’s a really good beach a few days out that could be fun to check out, but that’s a bit tricky because, y’know. School.”

“Anything beyond that?” Jack asked, leaning back with a smile as he watched the Skritta have a think about it, enjoying the way she indulged in her passion.

“Pretty sure the beach is on the estuary of a river that opens up to a sea to the west side.” Sephy finally spoke up after thinking on the subject. “I know as you follow the river up there are some communities, but I don’t know anything about them.”

“The beach sounds fun.” Jack grinned. “But it sounds like there’s so much more!”

“Yeah!” Sephy nodded, before getting a bit more sombre. “Paladin Cornelia told me what she was able to find out about roaming bands of Skritta. Apparently, as well as galavant around in space, a few like to travel the length of the Ring in an endless loop.”

“But with the Ring being as massive as it is…” Jack began.

“Yeah. It’d take centuries if not millennia to make a complete loop.” Sephy shrugged. “From what I’ve researched, that’s just their way of life. Cornelia deduced that one of these bands must have been passing nearby when I was abandoned at the Temple of Hope, but according to her she couldn’t find any nearby despite her best efforts, assuming she was telling the truth.”

“Damn…” Jack began, not anticipating opening these wounds for Sephy. “I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know what your previous experiences have been with her but High Priestess Cornelia has always seemed straight with me. She was the one to save my ass when I arrived at the Pallid Pit.”

“Out of all of them I trust Cornelia the most,” Sephy admitted. “But I find it weird that she couldn’t find any bands of my people when I was just left there. I was just an infant so I couldn’t really understand it at the time, but it was strange to comprehend it when I was old enough for her to talk to me about it.”

“Did you ever want to find them?” Jack asked.

“When I was younger, sure.” The Skritta shrugged. “What orphan at that age wouldn’t want to find out about her family? Now though? Fuck all of them.”

Jack didn’t know what to say to that answer, so instead he stopped scritching Dante’s neck, and put his arm around the Skritta, who seemed content enough to lean into him.

“Don’t worry about me, I became at peace with the whole thing a while ago. Not much is known about my people except for how we’re seen as thieving pests, and I’ve never met another of my kind. I guess in a way I’m similar to you, no?” Sephy grinned.

“I guess.” Jack nodded, wanting to be cautious when it came to sore topics he knew little about. “You sure you’re alright with it?”

“Well, Alora would probably try and make a thing of it, but for me it’s hard to grieve for something that I’ve never had in the first place.” Sephy sighed as she put her arm around Jack. “I’m happy with what we’ve built here, and with all of you. That’s more than satisfying enough for me. Whatever crack-whore gave birth to me doesn’t deserve to meet me and can fuck off and die for all I care.”

“I hope things get better.” Jack finally replied after several minutes of silence, staring out into the darkness. By now he had learned much about the chaotic nature of the galaxy, and it was only now that he had come to terms with the endless production line of misery it could be.

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” Sephy told him seriously.

“Alright.” Jack nodded. “Except when I beat you at video games!”

With that, all the tension suddenly evaporated as both of them laughed their asses off.

“Hey, I was going easy on you that night!” Sephy grinned, playfully shoving him.

“Oh suuuuuure you were!” Jack chuckled. “I kicked all your asses and every single one of you thought I was a total noob!”

“You only get to pull that trick once!” Sephy cackled. “Your ass is mine next time we all play together!”

“Can’t wait!” Jack grinned, more than confident in his own skills. “We’re on the final stretch of double school so I hope we get to do that soon! It’d be good to chill out again.”

“I think we can all agree on that. We’ve only got a few days left but it feels like an eternity away,” The Skritta noted. “But trust me, you’re gonna love the Aquaplex!”

“You wanna tell me about it or have it be a complete surprise?” Jack asked.

“Complete surprise I think!” Sephy grinned. “Something for you to look forward to to keep you going through the last few days. You’ve been taking up most of the guard shifts.”

“Yeah, sleep deprivation sucks,” Jack agreed. “But at least I can sort of handle it with the Ring of Lesser Restoration.”

“That can only take you so far,” Sephy warned.

“I know.” Jack nodded. “I’ve only got one shift left on the last day with Chiyo, then we’re spending a full day at the Aquaplex once school is over. Though how the district will be safe with nobody guarding it is something I’ve not been able to work out.”

“Alora has her ancient Eladrie magical defences she can pull up.” Sephy pointed out. “Same reason the district hadn’t been touched in millenia before she came along and had the blood to turn them off. She can fully turn them on again when we’re all out, but it’s not safe to have all of them active when there’s non-Eladrie living here, but when they are, our home is the safest it can be.”

“Fair enough.” Jack shrugged. “Though I will admit, I’ve never heard about any water parks on Earth letting people stay overnight, that’d probably be a drowning hazard or something.”

“There’s enough droids to stop accidents from happening. Mostly.” Sephy shrugged. “And yeah, the Aquaplex is open at all hours, but there won’t be a lot of people when we get there. I know the word has spread so there’s gonna be a bunch of students heading there, but not all of them can afford to spend the night, and even if they could the Aquaplex is so massive that it won’t matter. Loads of room and lots of stuff to do to blow off steam.”

“Yeah I think we could all do with that.” Jack nodded thoughtfully. “Some of us more than others.”

“Chiyo’s handling it the best since she doesn’t sleep like most of us.” Sephy agreed. “I’ve pulled all-nighters before, and Nika’s too stubborn to drop in class. Alora’s handling it badly but can stay composed as she usually is. Vanya and the Squa’Kaar are definitely struggling the most, they’re still having nightmares about the Killer Klown attack.”

“That sucks, but hopefully it gets better with time. We all handle it in different ways I guess.” Jack sighed.

“Speaking of,” Sephy began. “I’ve noticed Luvia’s been trying to get all over you. Looks like she’s been horned up as hell the last two weeks, you been alright? She hasn’t tried to force herself on you or anything, has she?”

“I’ve been keeping my distance,” Jack admitted. “Hopefully she’ll calm down once things get back to normal. Alora told me she spoke to her after she…randomly kissed me a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah I remember that shit.” Sephy nodded. “Alora’s good with the whole ‘diplomacy’ thing, but it can only get you so far. Don’t worry, I’ll handle Luvia if she ever goes overboard or takes it too far and you don’t like it.”

“Wait, what? What are you going to do?” Jack asked, now worried. “She hasn’t tried anything since then...yet.”

“Don’t worry!” Sephy grinned. “Trust me!”